BUSINESS BRIEFS
Gay-marriage foes boycotting McDonald's
Advertiser news services
A group that opposes same-sex marriage has called for a boycott of McDonald's, saying the fast-food giant has refused "to stay neutral in the cultural war over homosexuality."
The American Family Association launched the boycott this week because McDonald's joined the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce several months ago and placed an executive on the group's board of directors, in addition to donating to the chamber.
The association asked McDonald's to remove itself from the chamber, but the burger-maker declined, leading to the boycott.
"Hatred has no place in our culture," McDonald's USA spokesman Bill Whitman said. "That includes McDonald's, and we stand by and support our people to live and work in a society free of discrimination and harassment."
OUTLOOK BETTER FOR SWISS BANK
ZURICH, Switzerland — UBS AG, Switzerland's largest bank, said yesterday it expects its second-quarter results to be "at or slightly below break-even" because of a tax credit that will at least partly offset investment losses. It also said it won't need to ask for more capital when it reports the results next month.
Analysts had been expecting a second-quarter loss of as much as $4.9 billion from the bank, which has been hammered by big losses related to the U.S. subprime lending crisis.
Shares in the crisis-hit bank jumped 8.2 percent to 22.74 Swiss francs ($22.17) on the announcement but soon fell back as analysts noted that without the unexpected tax credit of 3 billion Swiss francs ($2.9 billion) that UBS would record a significant loss.
MERCEDES-BENZ SETS SALES RECORD
FRANKFURT, Germany — German carmaker Daimler AG said yesterday that sales for its Mercedes-Benz Cars unit were up 8 percent to a record in the first half of the year.
Deliveries of Mercedes-Benz, AMG, smart and Maybach brand vehicles set a sales record of 668,100 units, compared with 617,700 units in the first six months of 2007, the Stuttgart-based company said.
The Mercedes-Benz brand on its own also posted a record from January to June, with sales rising by 4 percent to 599,200 vehicles compared with 575,700 units last year.
CANADA TELECOM FIRM OKS SALE
TORONTO — BCE Inc, Canada's largest telecommunications company, said yesterday it has agreed on terms of a $35 billion sale to a group led by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan in the biggest leveraged buyout ever. The deal is expected to be completed by mid-December.
The announcement ends suspense that the banks funding the biggest buyout to date in Canada would try to back out of the deal or that the price would have to be lowered.
Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Toronto-Dominion Bank are slated to provide billions in financing to complete the deal. Including assumed debt, the transaction is worth $51 billion.
