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BUSINESS BRIEFS

By Staff Reports
Published: December 30, 2008

VIRGINIA

Two to lead Richmond Fed board of governors

The board of governors of the Federal Reserve System appointed two Virginians as chairman and deputy chairman of the board of directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Their terms begin Jan. 1.

Lemuel E. Lewis, president of LocalWeather.com in Suffolk, will be chairman next year. He has served as a Class C director since 2005.

Margaret E. McDermid, senior vice president and chief information officer of Dominion Resources Inc. in Richmond, will be deputy chairman. She has served as a Class C director since 2007.

Class C directors, representing the public, are appointed to three-year terms by the board of governors. Only Class C directors can become chairman or deputy chairman.

Chesterfield company complies with Nasdaq

Commonwealth Biotechnologies Inc. said yesterday that it has been notified by Nasdaq stock market that the company complies with stock exchange conditions, after it filed quarterly earnings for the three months that ended Sept. 30 with government regulators. Earnings were delayed because of complex accounting issues, the company said.

According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, the stock market alerted Commonwealth Biotechnologies on Nov. 20 that it no longer met a requirement for periodic filings.

The Chesterfield County-based company said Nasdaq considers the matter closed.

THE NATION

NBA owner buys stake in Carmike Cinemas

Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team and co-owner of the Landmark Theaters cinema chain, has acquired a 9.4 percent stake in Carmike Cinemas Inc., according to a regularly filing yesterday.

In the Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Cuban reported buying 1.2 million Carmike shares on the open market for about $2.8 million of his own funds. According to the filing, Cuban has been acquiring the shares through his personal investment account since mid-October.

Georgia-based Carmike has eight theaters in Virginia, according to the company Web site, including one in Chesterfield County.

Cuban, who has been controversial within the National Basketball Association -- racking up more than $1 million in fines for his behavior on the court -- recently has become the target of civil lawsuit alleging insider trading. Cuban has denied any wrongdoing.

Dow may rethink cost of deal for Rohm & Haas

NEW YORK -- The collapse of a joint venture with a state-owned Kuwaiti company may make Dow Chemical less willing to pay the $15.3 billion price tag for Rohm & Haas it agreed to last summer as energy prices peaked.

Kuwait's government backed out of the deal with Dow late Sunday, calling the K-Dow Petrochemicals joint venture risky because of the global financial crisis and crude prices that have tumbled more than 70 percent since July.

Midland, Mich.-based Dow had expected more than $7 billion in pretax proceeds from the K-Dow deal.

Dow would not comment yesterday, on the failure of the joint venture or negotiations with Rohm & Haas.

Shares of both U.S. companies dropped at least 16 percent.

Elsewhere

The Securities and Exchange Commission approved updated rules for energy companies that will require them to provide more detailed information to investors when reporting oil and gas reserves. Reserves are an oil company's most valuable asset and a critical indicator of its long-term prospects.

Crude oil prices rose settled up $2.31 at $40.02 a barrel as Israel and Palestinian militants exchanged rocket fire and the death toll mounted in the oil-rich region.

U.S. car parts maker Delphi Corp. has suspended work at a factory in China because of shrinking demand amid the global economic slump, a media report and a staff member said.

The U.S. Treasury said it will buy a $5 billion stake in GMAC LLC, the financing arm of General Motors Corp. The agency also will lend an additional $1 billion to GM so the automaker can participate in a rights offering at GMAC to support the lender's reorganization as a bank holding company, the Treasury announced. The loan is in addition to $13.4 billion the Treasury agreed earlier this month to lend to GM and Chrysler LLC.

BlackRock Inc., the largest publicly traded U.S. asset manager, said shareholder Merrill Lynch & Co. will exchange its common shares for nonvoting stock, bringing its stake from 44 percent to 4.9 percent. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. exchanged shares to increase its stake to 47 percent of BlackRock, the New York-based asset manager said in a regulatory filing.

THE WORLD

Russia lets currency slide to historic low

MOSCOW -- Russia's Central Bank yesterday allowed its plummeting currency to drop further on the last day of trading before the long New Year's holiday.

The ruble slid 1.5 percent on the MICEX foreign currency exchange, to close at 34.9 rubles against the Central Bank's euro-dollar basket.

It hit 29.2 against the dollar -- a level that hasn't been seen since 2005 -- and 41.7 against the euro -- an all-time low.

The Kremlin is anxious to avoid a repeat of the 1998 financial crisis, when Russians rushed to withdraw their savings as the ruble plummeted suddenly, and has been letting the ruble fall bit by bit in a managed float, intervening when necessary by using foreign currency reserves to buy rubles.

-- From Staff and Wire Reports