BUSINESS BRIEFS
Hormel profit dips though Spam flies off shelves
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Consumers looking to slice their food budgets bought more canned Spam and Dinty Moore stews and shied away from more costly microwave meals, Hormel Foods Corp. said yesterday.
But double-digit sales increases for the company's canned foods weren't enough to offset significantly higher costs for commodities and a hefty investment loss, leading to a big drop in profit during the period.
Overall in the quarter, Hormel's fiscal fourth-quarter profit fell 33 percent to $67.8 million, or 50 cents per share, from $101.2 million, or 73 cents per share, a year ago.
FDIC SICK-BANK COUNT HAS DOUBLED
NEW YORK — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said yesterday the list of banks it considers to be in trouble shot up nearly 50 percent to 171 during the third quarter — yet another sign of escalating problems among the institutions controlling Americans' deposits.
The 171 banks on the FDIC's "problem list" encompass only about 2 percent of the nearly 8,500 FDIC-insured institutions.
Still, the increase from 117 in the second quarter is sharp, and the current tally is the highest since late 1995.
AIG CEO'S NEW YEARLY PAY IS $1
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — American International Group Inc. said yesterday it is limiting how much it pays its top executives, including granting a $1 salary for this year and the same for 2009 to its Chief Executive Edward Liddy.
The decision is one of many broader moves made by the troubled New York-based insurer, which has been under pressure to restrict executive pay since accepting billions in government assistance to save it from collapse.
AIG, once the world's largest insurer, has received about $150 billion so far, more than any other company.
