Tyco subsidiary pleads guilty to pollution charges

HARTFORD, Connecticut (AP) ? A subsidiary of Tyco International Ltd. agreed to pay criminal and civil penalties totalling $14.4 million for discharging untreated wastewater into the sewers of two Connecticut plants.

Tyco Electronics Printed Circuit Group pleaded guilty in April to 12 felony charges of violating the Clean Water Act at its Manchester and Stafford Springs operations. The company was fined $6 million and agreed to spend another $4 million on environmental programs.

The company also agreed to pay $2 million in civil penalties to Connecticut and spend $2.4 million for environmental improvements to reduce wastewater from its facilities in Manchester and Stafford Springs, install sampling ports for state environmental inspection and submit regular audits of its environmental practices by an independent auditor.

Tyco Electronics Printed Circuit Group had been the subject of a lengthy federal environmental probe. Three former employees have pleaded guilty to Clean Water Act violations for covering up the wastewater discharge near its now-closed plant in Manchester.

Tyco spokesman Gwen Fisher said the settlement closes the investigations.

XL Cap. to sell up to $300 million of notes

(Bloomberg) XL Capital Ltd., the Bermuda-based insurer, said it will sell as much as $300 million of ten-year senior notes today, said a person familiar with the offering who declined to be identified.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Morgan Stanley will manage the offering, XL said in a press release distributed by PR Newswire. XL spokesman Roger Scotton did not immediately return a call seeking further details.

The debt of XL is rated A2 by Moody?s Investors Service and A by Standard & Poor?s, the sixth-highest investment-grade credit ratings.

Bacardi would need reason to go public ? Chairman

(Bloomberg) Bacardi Ltd., the world?s biggest maker of rum, would need a good reason to sell shares to the public, Chairman Ruben Rodriguez said.

?Everything is pretty much set, but we need a reason and we need a good reason, and for that we need an opportunity,? Rodriguez said in a televised interview with Bloomberg News. ?To finance the acquisition of Grey Goose we didn?t need to tap the public market.

About 600 shareholders, most of whom are family members own closely held Bacardi, which was founded in Cuba in 1862 and is now based in Bermuda.

The company?s shareholders have given the board all necessary approvals to go ahead with an initial public offering if needed, Rodriguez said.

Bacardi may not need to sell shares to the public to finance future acquisitions because the company generates enough cash, Rodriguez said.

Accenture reiterates forecasts, UBS?s Frisch writes

(Bloomberg) Accenture Ltd., which sells computer and consulting services to the US Air Force and Deutsche Bank AG, reaffirmed its forecast for this quarter and fiscal year, UBS Warburg analyst Adam Frisch wrote in a note to clients.

Bermuda-based Accenture said July 7 it expects to earn $0.26 cents a share to $0.29 cents on sales of $3.4 billion to $3.5 billion in the fourth quarter. Accenture executives confirmed the forecast last night at a dinner UBS hosted in New York, wrote Frisch, who rates the stock ?buy?.

Demand is rising for Accenture?s higher-profit consulting and systems integration businesses, executives said, according to Frisch?s note.

William Green, who becomes Chief Executive September 1, said terrorist threats, rising oil prices and the upcoming US presidential election haven?t changed Accenture?s fiscal 2005 financial objectives, Frisch wrote.

ChipMOS up after reporting earnings, revenue growth

NEW YORK (AP) ? The stock of ChipMOS Technologies Ltd., a semiconductor packing and testing company, rose after it reported earnings and sales that exceeded its forecast.

Shares of ChipMOS, which is incorporated in Bermuda but has most of its operations in Taiwan, traded up on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The company had second-quarter net income of $19 million, or 32 cents a share, up from a profit of $3.1 million, or $0.5 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose to $128 million from $69 million last year, above the company?s June forecast of $125 million. ChipMOS provides testing services for chip manufacturers in Taiwan and China.

The company cited strong demand for testing services for computer memory chips, which offset softer demand for testing and assembly of semiconductors used in computer displays.

Persian Gulf tanker rates rise on September bookings

(Bloomberg) The cost of shipping oil from the Persian Gulf rose from a 12-week low as oil companies and traders booked seven very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, for loading in the first half of September.

Royal Dutch/Shell Group hired the VLCC Al Shegaya with an option to ship 280,000 metric tons of crude oil to the Far East at Worldscale 122.5, according to New Delhi-based shipbroker Interocean. That?s 15 points more than market rates yesterday, according to Bloomberg data.

?This rebound seems to be an adjustment of the recent excessively sold market,? Kats Nishikawa, a tanker broker at Tokyo?s Matsui & Co, said in an e-mail. VLCC activity is picking up as oil companies reveal schedules for September loading, he said. A VLCC can carry about 2 million barrels of crude.

Most oil exported from the Middle East is sold on annual contracts that customers renew each year. Suppliers confirm loading details of exports a month in advance so buyers can make shipping arrangements.