TORONTO — Alcoa Inc., seeking to keep pace with growing Russian rival Rusal, launched a hostile $27 billion bid for Canadian aluminum rival Alcan Inc. on Monday, after failing in almost two years of private talks to reach a negotiated deal.

Alcan's U.S. shares rose 34.5 percent, well above the offered price, suggesting investors think the bidding could go higher. Alcoa shares gained 8.3 percent.

Montreal-based Alcan said its board "will consider the proposal" and advised shareholders to await its recommendation.

Alcoa said the proposed cash-and-stock deal would create a premier diversified global aluminum company which could grow faster than the two companies could on their own.

Alcoa said in announcing the offer that the companies' talks had reached the board level last fall. The company plans to begin its offer on Tuesday.

CONSUMER CREDIT INCREASED AT BRISK RATE IN MARCH

WASHINGTON — Consumers boosted their borrowing in March at the fastest pace in four months, showing resilience in the face of rising energy prices and a painful housing slump.

The Federal Reserve's report, released Monday, showed consumer credit increased at a brisk annual rate of 6.7 percent in March. That marked a pickup from February's 2.8 percent growth rate and was the biggest increase since November.

Consumer spending is indispensable to a healthy economy. The economy grew at an anemic 1.3 percent pace in the January-to-March quarter, the weakest in four years, due to fallout from the housing slump and belt tightening by businesses. Consumers, however, managed to continue spending, an important factor in keeping the economy moving.

Use of revolving credit, primarily credit cards, rose at a sizzling pace of 9.2 percent in March. That was up from a 2.9 percent growth rate in February and was the biggest increase since November.

BILLIONAIRE AWAITS RESULTS OF MOTOROLA VOTE

CHICAGO — For months, Carl Icahn has been waging a not-so-quiet campaign to snag a seat on Motorola Inc.'s board.

Even after shareholders cast their ballots at Monday evening's shareholder meeting, it may be weeks before the billionaire financier finds out if his down-to-the-wire proxy battle full of letters, press releases and advertisements was enough to win support of investors.

Motorola spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson said an independent election inspector won't have a final vote count for "a couple of weeks."

Motorola, the world's second-largest handset manufacturer behind Nokia, gained significant backing Monday when the California Public Employees' Retirement System said it would support the company's incumbent slate of directors.

But uncertainty about the vote remained as the meeting neared.

Icahn, who through his affiliates has amassed a 2.9 percent stake in Motorola, has been endorsed by at least one of the Schaumburg-based company's largest shareholders.

DOW JONES TRADING PROBED

WASHINGTON — Federal and state authorities are investigating suspicious options trading in Dow Jones & Co. stock prior to an announcement last week of News Corp.'s $5 billion bid for the financial news publisher.

News last Tuesday of the $60-per-share bid by Rupert Murdoch's company sent Dow Jones shares soaring. A spokesman for Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, said Monday that it has received a subpoena from the New York attorney general's office and a request for information from the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding options trading.

Dow Jones will "cooperate fully" with the authorities, company spokesman Howard Hoffman said.

SEC spokesman John Nester declined to comment, as did Jeffrey Lerner, a spokesman for the New York attorney general, Andrew Cuomo.

ABN AMRO SHAREHOLDERS CHOOSE BUYER

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — ABN Amro NV said Monday it will let shareholders decide between a hostile 71.1 billion euros ($96.4 billion) mostly cash takeover offer from a group of banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland PLC and a friendly all-share bid by Barclays PLC worth around 64.2 billion euros ($87.1 billion). ##ABN said it had received the RBS bid on Saturday, but could not recommend it because RBS had also made a separate $24.5 billion offer for ABN's Chicago-based U.S. subsidiary, LaSalle Bank Corp.

Either deal for ABN Amro would be the largest in banking history.

ABN has already agreed to sell LaSalle to Bank of America Corp. for $21 billion ($15.5 billion), as part of its deal with Barclays, and BofA filed suit Friday in U.S. District Court in New York seeking unspecified damages from ABN if that deal falls through.

Facing a potentially multibillion dollar lawsuit from BofA, ABN said Monday it had rejected RBS's "acquisition proposal for LaSalle ... as a result of the uncertainty and execution risks."

THOMSON APPROACHES REUTERS BOARD

STAMFORD, Conn. — Financial data provider Thomson Corp. confirmed Monday it approached the board of Reuters Group PLC about a possible bid for the British news service.

Thomson said the move "may or may not lead to an offer" for Reuters. The company did not provide any further details in a short statement.

The purchase would allow Thomson to compete directly with Bloomberg LP in the lucrative market of delivering real-time financial data and news to customers such as investment banks.

Several news reports identified Thomson on Friday as the most likely bidder to purchase Reuters, a British news and financial company that announced it was approached by a a possible suitor.

CLEAR CHANNEL DELAYS BUYOUT VOTE

SAN ANTONIO — Clear Channel Communications Inc. on Monday delayed a vote on a proposed $19.35 billion buyout of the radio and billboard company and said it was talking to the bidders about a revised offer.

The company had already received enough proxies to defeat the proposed buyout, which would require a two-thirds vote for approval. The shareholder meeting scheduled for Tuesday was postponed until May 22.

Clear Channel said its board was talking with private equity firms Bain Capital Partners LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP about increasing the price to $39.20 per share from $39 and letting shareholders pick between getting paid in cash or stock of the new company, with current shareholders limited to a combined stake of 30 percent.

The Clear Channel board turned down a similar proposal last week, saying the changes would delay the vote by up to 90 days with no certainty it would be approved.

BAE BUYS ARMOR HOLDINGS FOR $4.1B

CHEVY CHASE, Md. — Defense contractor BAE Systems Inc. will buy military armored vehicle maker Armor Holdings Inc. for $4.1 billion, part of BAE's bid to tap into heavy demand from the American military for vehicles in Iraq and other war zones, the company said Monday.

BAE Systems Inc., an American subsidiary of the British defense conglomerate BAE Systems PLC, will pay $88 per share for the Jacksonville, Fla.-based Armor Holdings, a 7 percent premium over the closing price of company shares Friday. Including $388 million in debt, the deal is worth $4.5 billion.

Shares of Armor Holdings rose $4.45, more than 5 percent, to $86.60 in Monday trading after the takeover was announced.