Industries

P&G Chief Bob McDonald Pins Growth on Closer Shave Than a Mumbai Barber Procter & Gamble Co.’s Bob McDonald is going undercover in Latin America next week.

Retail LBOs are Back as Credit Freeze Abates, Buyout Firms Executives Say Private-equity firms looking to buy retail and consumer companies said they’re now able to finance deals and pay reasonable prices after the credit crisis and global recession triggered a buyout slump.

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Crude Oil Is Little Changed as U.S. Trade Deficit, Jobless Claims Decline Crude oil was little changed along with the dollar after U.S. government reports showed that the country’s trade deficit narrowed, indicating a slowing economic recovery, and jobless claims decreased.

BP to Pay $7 Billion for Devon's Assets in Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Caspian BP Plc will pay Devon Energy Corp. $7 billion for assets in Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico and Azerbaijan, adding fields that may extend its production lead over Exxon Mobil Corp.

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Dodd to Offer Financial-Rules Bill in Sign Talks With Republicans Failing Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said he will release his version of legislation to overhaul financial rules, signaling that talks on a compromise with Republican Bob Corker have collapsed.

Goldman Sachs Internal Hedge Fund Head Flamand Said to Leave to Start Firm Pierre-Henri Flamand, the head of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s largest internal hedge fund, is retiring from the world’s most profitable securities firm to start a hedge fund, according to three people with knowledge of his plans.

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Congressional Leaders Agree on Language for Obama's Health-Care Overhaul House and Senate leaders have agreed on most elements of legislation needed to push forward President Barack Obama’s proposed overhaul of the U.S. health- care system, top House Democrats said.

Personalized Genetic-Based Medicine Spurred by Medco's Cost-Saving Tests Medco Health Solutions Inc., the second-biggest U.S. manager of drug benefits, is encouraging doctors to use genetic tests to determine whether drugs will work for particular patients -- saving money and reducing harm caused when prescriptions are wrong.

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Fed Shoulders AIG Japan Mortgage Losses to Ease Sale of Alico to MetLife The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and American International Group Inc. agreed to shoulder as much as $450 million in losses tied to the insurer’s Japan real estate bets as part of the sale of a division to MetLife Inc.

Hannover Re Resumes Dividends After Fourth-Quarter Profit Beats Estimates Hannover Re, Germany’s second- biggest reinsurer, plans to resume dividend payments after it reported a surge in fourth-quarter profit, helped by a rebound in investment income.

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Home Equity Loans That Fueled U.S. Consumer Spending Make `Modest' Rebound John Hale’s four-bedroom house near Seattle is worth about $2 million and is 90 percent paid for. It still took him nine months to find a bank that would give him a $250,000 home equity line of credit.

Foreclosures in U.S. Rise at Slowest Pace in Four Years on Modifications U.S. foreclosure filings rose at the slowest pace in four years in February as the government sought to reduce record bank seizures, RealtyTrac Inc. said.

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Calpers May Challenge Apple, BlackRock on Directors Over Election Methods The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the biggest state-run U.S. public pension, may use its financial clout to force Apple Inc., BlackRock Inc. and other companies where it has large holdings to change the way they elect directors.

Elliott Said to Consider Sale of Unit If $2 Billion Novell Offer Succeeds Elliott Associates LP, the fund manager that made an unsolicited $2 billion offer for Novell Inc., may consider selling the NetWare networking-software unit if its bid succeeds, a person familiar with the matter said.

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United's Bonds Jump Most of 2009 Airline Issues as Travel Demand Rebounds Bonds issued last year by U.S. carriers including UAL Corp.’s United Airlines and Delta Air Lines Inc. are all trading at or above par for the first time amid improving demand as business travel returns, according to RBS Securities Inc.

Toyota Sees Recovery in 2010 for Most of U.S. Market Share Lost on Recalls Toyota Motor Corp. set a 2010 goal of regaining most of the U.S. market share lost in the past two months after global recalls of 8 million vehicles damped demand, the No. 2 U.S. sales executive said.

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