S&P boosts its outlook on Dole's debt rating
A day after Dole Food Co. posted a 62 percent increase in first-quarter earnings, Standard & Poor's has revised its outlook on the company to stable from negative.The change is based on improved operating results from fiscal 2001, as well as the first-quarter of this year, and on anticipated continued improvements in performance, according to S&P.
The rating service reaffirmed its BBB- debt position on the California-based corporation. The company's total debt was about $830 million as of last month, according to S&P.
The global fresh fruit, vegetable and flower producer grows pineapple on Oahu.
"Standard & Poor's expects that Dole will maintain its leading market position and that its financial profile will continue to improve," S&P credit analyst Nicole Delz Lynch said in a press release.
Polaroid target of state fraud probe, official says
BOSTON >> A day after bankrupt Polaroid Corp. announced a buyer for most of its assets, a Massachusetts official today launched an investigation to determine whether the instant photography firm forced employees to buy company stock to avoid a takeover several years ago.William Galvin, Secretary of Massachusetts and the state's chief securities regulator, said his office is investigating whether there was an element of fraud in the transactions.
Yesterday Polaroid agreed to sell most of its assets to Bank One Corp. for $265 million as it seeks to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Carnival to pay $18 million for illegal dumping
MIAMI >> Carnival Corp., the world's biggest cruise line, pleaded guilty to dumping oily waste from five of its ships and will pay $18 million in fines.In a plea agreement signed Tuesday, the cruise ship operator admitted the Sensation, Ecstasy, Fantasy, Imagination and Paradise cruise ships discharged the waste from bilge tanks from 1998 to 2001. The company also admitted employees made false entries about the discharges in records.
Carnival agreed to five years of court supervision and also pledged to hire new managers and others as part of an environmental compliance program.