Enron lawsuits delayed

The federal judge overseeing a massive cluster of shareholder lawsuits against Enron Corp. originally wanted to demonstrate how fast a major civil case could move by setting a trial date for later this year.

But U.S. District Court Judge Melinda Harmon heard a proposal Thursday to set an October 2005 trial date for the claims against the company, former executives and various banks and brokerages. That would be nearly four years after Enron’s implosion in December 2001.

The judge said she would rule later on the proposal, which is designed to get the cases moving.

Earnings

Pepsi posts profit growth

Fortified by growth in both its snacks and beverage businesses, PepsiCo Inc. posted a 15 percent rise Thursday in its second quarter earnings, matching Wall Street expectations.

The Purchase, N.Y.-based company also said its latest results benefited from comparison to results a year ago that included higher costs related to its acquisition of Quaker Oats.

The company earned $1 billion, or 58 cents a share, in the three months ended June 14, compared with $875 million, or 48 cents a share, a year ago.

Biotech

Serologicals to exit major business division

Serologicals Corp. plans to leave the therapeutic plasma business, which accounted for about 32 percent of its 2002 revenue and about a quarter of its staff, to focus entirely on its cell culture supplement, research reagent and diagnostic antibody businesses.

Bud Ingalls, vice president-finance and chief financial officer, said the division’s plasma testing facility and its 10 plasma collection centers currently employ about 200 to 250 of the company’s approximately 900 employees.

The closing won’t affect the company’s plans to open a new manufacturing facility in Lawrence’s East Hills Business Park. That project is under way and is scheduled to open in early 2004.

Investigation

Former Rite Aid leader pleads guilty to fraud

Another former Rite Aid Corp. executive pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, a charge related to the government’s investigation of an accounting-fraud scandal at the drugstore chain.

Philip Markovitz, 62, Rite Aid’s former senior vice president of store development, admitted lying to FBI agents and a grand jury about when he received a lucrative severance letter from Martin L. Grass, Rite Aid’s former chairman and chief executive.

Grass has admitted creating illegal, backdated letters authorizing generous severance benefits for several former executives.

Energy

Mirant stocks plunge

A Merrill Lynch downgrade sent shares of Mirant Corp. tumbling nearly 16 percent Thursday on fears that the energy supplier will not meet its debt restructuring deadline and be forced into bankruptcy.

Merrill Lynch reduced its rating of Mirant from neutral to sell.