Bank stockholder group wants to oust Lewis

March 25, 2009 at 2:03AM

Bank stockholder group wants to oust Lewis A group that owns Bank of America stock is waging a battle to get shareholders to vote against re-electing CEO Ken Lewis and directors O. Temple Sloan and Jackie Ward to the bank's board. Finger Interests Number One Ltd., which owns about one-fifth of 1 percent of Bank of America stock, said in a regulatory filing that the board disregarded protecting interests of shareholders in its purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co. The election is scheduled for April 29 at the shareholders meeting.

GM begins 3,400 salaried U.S. layoffs General Motors Corp. told 160 white-collar workers at its manufacturing engineering operations in Warren, Mich., that they would be laid off April 1, spokesman Tom Wilkinson said. It's the beginning of 3,400 salaried layoffs in the United States and part of the 47,000 job cuts that GM wants worldwide by the end of the year, Wilkinson said.

Ford CEO gets $17.7 million total pay Ford Motor Co. President and CEO Alan Mulally received compensation valued at $17.7 million in 2008, down more than 22 percent from 2007, according to a federal regulatory filing published Tuesday. The majority of his package came in stock options and awards valued at $14.6 million. Those options are "underwater," as the value of company stock has dropped. Mulally earned $2 million in salary but did not receive a bonus. The automaker lost $14.6 billion in 2008. U.S. says January home prices off 6.3% A government report said U.S. home prices fell 6.3 percent in January from the same month last year. The Federal Housing Finance Agency said prices, on a seasonally adjusted basis, rose 1.7 percent from December to January. Changes in the geographic mix of sales explained the unexpected monthly increase. Home sales included in January's data were weighted toward areas that haven't borne as much of the brunt of the housing recession, the agency said.

Group predicts airlines will lose $4.7 billion World airlines will lose $4.7 billion this year because of the economic crisis, while revenue will drop by more than it did after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a major industry association predicted Tuesday. The revised loss estimate, nearly double the forecast issued in December, reflects "the rapid deterioration of the global economic conditions," said the International Air Transport Association. Revenue is expected to fall by $62 billion, or 12 percent, to $467 billion, the association said.

Hospira to reduce workforce 10 percent Hospira Inc., which makes drug delivery systems and devices, said Tuesday it'll eliminate 10 percent of its workforce as part of a restructuring plan. The reduction of about 1,450 jobs over the next 24 months, plus other cost-cutting efforts, is expected to save the Lake Forest, Ill.-based company between $110 million and $140 million annually starting in 2011.

Credit Suisse says 2009 off to strong start Credit Suisse Group said Tuesday it has made a "strong start to 2009" after falling in 2008 to the biggest loss in its history. The bank gave no figures for its first-quarter performance, but said it had entered the year with one of the strongest capital ratios in the industry -- 13.3 percent at the end of 2008. The capital ratio is the percentage of a firm's capital relative to the risk of its assets. The company had said previously that its full-year net loss for 2008 was 8.2 billion Swiss francs, the worst in the bank's 153-year history.

Korea to spend $20.9 billion for recovery South Korea said Tuesday it would spend $20.9 billion this year to create new jobs and shore up the economy as the country endures its worst slump in a decade. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said that the supplementary budget "is to help ride out the economic crisis" and is more than twice the extra spending of during the 1997-98 Asian economic meltdown.

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