The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • B3

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2007 BUSINESS THE RECORD B-3 NEW JERSEY Investments nearly triple Prudential earnings Variable annuities sales up 34; operating profit beats estimates through Allstate's 13,700 agents. "Prudential is definitely very well positioned by the new relationships," Andrew Kligerman, an analyst at UBS AG in New York, said before the earnings were released. Variable annuity sales rose to $2.64 billion, beating his estimate of 20 percent growth to $2.36 billion. The shares of Prudential gained 64 cents to $90.37 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock increased 21 percent in the past 12 months, outperforming the 14 percent advance of the 24-member KBW Insurance Index.

By JOSH P. HAMILTON BLOOMBERG NEWS NEWARK Prudential Financial the second-largest U.S. life insurer, said fourth-quarter earnings almost tripled on investment gains and lower legal costs. Sales of variable annuities rose 34 percent, beating analysts' expectations. Net income climbed to $1.04 billion from $364 million a year earlier, when Prudential put $267 million toward a settlement of probes into improper mutual-fund trading, the Newark-based compa- $600 million after U.S.

prosecutors alleged brokers made excessive trades at the expense of long-term fund investors. Chief Executive Officer Arthur Ryan sold the business in 2003 to focus more on retirement savings products such as variable annuities. In June, the company bought Allstate annuity division and began marketing its products ny said in a statement Wednesday. Operating profit, which doesn't account for the investment gains or policies sold before the company went public, was $1.67 a share. That beat the $1.52 average estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Prudential resolved a three-year investigation into its former securities unit in August, paying a total of ASSOCIATED PRESS Net income at Newark-based Prudential Financial jumped to $1.04 billion in the fourth quarter from $364 million a year before. N.J. Campbell giving Camden a boost $72M expansion, office park slated I I HP Tor poorest city BY HEATHER BURKE and TERRENCE DOPP BLOOMBERG NEWS CAMDEN Campbell Soup Co, the world's largest soup maker, will spend as much as $72 million to expand in Camden, I adding to develop- wf 3k ment plans in the $-y-Sfc poorest U.S. city. FT 'Jfr-' -MJt The company will auu an building to its headquarters, Campbell said Wednesday.

As part CORZINE ASSOCIATED PRESS Campbell Soup Co. CEO Douglas Conant announcing an expansion plan designed to help revitalize Camden. of the plan, Campbell will work with New Jersey to develop a 110-acre office park that includes the company's 40-acre campus. The development is part of state and local officials' efforts to revitalize Camden, a city of 80,000 on the Delaware River across from Philadelphia that has been Campbell's home since 1869. Forty-four percent of Camden residents live in poverty, the most of any U.S.

city with more than 65,000 people. "It's a recommitment by a major corporation saying they believe in the city," said Caren Franzini, chief executive officer of the New Jersey Economic Authority. "It will also set the stage for other companies." New Jersey, Camden County and the city plan to spend about $26 million to improve roads, water and sewers in the area to help lure tenants to the proposed office park. Campbell CEO Douglas Conant appeared Wednesday at a press conference Campbell's taxes by about $700,000 a year, Sanzio said. Campbell will have 750,000 square feet of office and research space in the city after the completion of the new building, scheduled for 2008.

The company's tasting kitchen is in Camden; a plant there was demolished in 1991. The new structure will include a cafe, fitness center and company store, as well as conference rooms and a training center. About 1,200 of the company's 24,000 employees work in the city. The expansion won't add any new jobs, Sanzio said. Camden was named the fifth-most about the plan with Governor Corzine and other officials.

The office park development is contingent upon rezoning the area around Campbell from "lightindustrial office" use to an office campus, the company said Wednesday. Campbell is currently the only tenant in the proposed park, spokesman Anthony Sanzio said. Campbell is Camden's largest corporate taxpayer, said Sanzio, paying the city about $1.3 million a year in property taxes. That's equal to about 4.7 percent of the city's total property-tax receipts last year. The new building will increase dangerous U.S.

city in 2006 and the most dangerous in 2005 and 2004 by Morgan Quitno Press, a Lawrence, Kan. -based publishing and research company. The city has the highest poverty rate for places with 65,000 or more people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Shares of Campbell, which also makes Godiva chocolates and Goldfish crackers, rose 1 cent on Wednesday to close at $38.97 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

The stock rose 31 percent in 2006, its biggest annual increase in nine years. THE RECORD 70 John Wiley takes over Blackwell Publishing HOBOKEN John Wiley Sons publisher of the "For Dummies" series of books, has completed its acquisition of England's Blackwell Publishing (Holdings) Ltd. for $1.12 billion, its biggest purchase ever. Wiley named Senior Vice President Eric Swanson to head the new company and Blackwell Chief Executive Officer Rene Olivieri as its chief operating officer. Olivieri and Wiley Europe's chief operating officer, Stephen Smith, will lead the transition team merging Blackwell's global publishing with Wiley's medical, scientific and technical journals, academic books and encyclopedias.

The new company is the largest of Wiley's three businesses and will publish about 1,250 peer-reviewed journals, Wiley said in a press release. Carol Fletcher Foods cries ole with 8.4 sales hike PARSIPPANY Foods maker of Ortega Mexican foods, said Monday preliminary sales for the year rose 8.4 percent to $411.3 million, from $379.3 million for the previous year. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the 52-week period are expected to be $68.5 million to $69.5 million. Similar earnings for the previous 52-week period were $62 million. The company said it will report fourth-quarter earnings and 2006 financial results in a telephone press conference March 8.

Carol Fletcher TV Guide Web site will list Verizon shows BASKING RIDGE Verizon Wireless's mobile TV shows will now be listed on TV Guide's Web site. Under the agreement announced Wednesday between TV Guide Mobile Entertainment Inc. and Verizon Wireless, the Web site tvguide.com will feature the Verizon program listings. The shows are available to subscribers of Verizon Wireless's CAST service who have cellphones that are capable of displaying the video. Content available to CAST subscribers includes on-demand news, weather and sports updates, clips from popular TV programs, music videos, movie trailers and games.

In addition, Verizon Wireless customers with CAST-enabled phones will be able to view TV Guide programming, which includes weekly episodes focused on TV shows and celebrities, the company said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Martha McKay Trump's casino company narrows loss to ATLANTIC CITY Trump Entertainment Resorts the casino company founded by real estate investor Donald Trump, said its fourth-quarter loss narrowed as the company reduced payroll expenses and marketing costs. The loss shrank 56 percent to $9.68 million, or 31 cents a share, from $22.1 million, or 73 cents a share, a year earlier, the Atlantic City-based company said Wednesday. The results were worse than the 23-cent average loss estimated by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Revenue rose 4.1 percent to $244.2 million, below the average analyst estimate of $246 million. Trump shares fell 36 cents, or 2 percent, to $17.67 at 4:30 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. The stock has climbed 26 percent since the company emerged from bankruptcy. Bloomberg News Path mark in Weehawken to get medical clinic CARTERET Pathmark Stores Inc.

announced Wednesday that it has reached a license agreement with MiniMedCare to set up a medical clinic in the supermarket chain's Weehawken store. The clinic, which will open in March, is one of 12 planned by Pathmark. MiniMedCare clinics, which are staffed by qualified nurse practitioners and physician assistants, are designed to treat patients for common ailments and do not require an appointment. Kevin G. DeMarrais Judge: Paramus Ford broke federal labor laws Dealership wouldn't bargain with union mechanics YTD YTD Name Last Chg Chg Name Last Chg Chg AEP Ind 45.71 1.23 IDT Corp 13.63 4.2 Inc 37.16 3.9 Infcrssing 17.71 .71 8.7 AlcatelLuc 13.09 .24 IngerRd 43.63 .18 11.5 Alpharma 27.81 .06 15.4 Innodata 2.57 19.0 AstaFdg 32.02 .03 5.2 JacksnHew 36.15 6.4 Audible 7.61 .03 Johnjn 65.80 AutoData 48.75 KeamyFn 15.38 Avaya 13.16 .32 LakeldB 14.77 AvisBudget 26.86 .22 23.8 MackCali 55.28 .20 11.2 BkofAm 53.36 .15 MedcoHlth 60.39 13.0 BarrPhm 53.55 .33 6.8 Merck 44 26 38 1 5 BectDck 77.95 .32 11.1 Movado 29.92 .11 3.2 BedBath 41.93 .01 10.1 Novartis 59.10 .02 2.g BioRef 23.79 .15 5.8 pD BrMySq 28.86 .11 10.8 pNC Xh I ParPhrmlf 26.78 .36 19.7 Cante Med 16.06 .02 Celgenes 54.97 .26 Pathmrk 1130 18 13 ChildPlcIf 57.88 Pflzer 2652 -02 24 Chubb 52.73 Prudentl 90.37 .64 5.3 CogTech 94.88 2.21 23.0 PSEG 6969 "13 50 CmcBNJ 34.44 .13 QstDiag 52.93 .23 CtlAirB 42.87 3.9 Realogy 30.05 .11 CovantaH 23.50 6.6 RussBerrie 14.93 .07 CurtisWrts 39.94 7.7 Sanofi 44.13 Cytec 59.68 .19 5.6 SchergPI 24.67 4.4 DRSTech 55.75 5.8 SealAir 64.87 .12 Datascpe 36.99 1.5 UtRetail 14.70 .51 4.9 Emdeon 14.37 .06 16.0 VlyNBcp 26.00 .28 GtAtPc 28.03 8.9 VerizonCm 38.09 .01 2.3 GrtrCoB 18.18 .01 1.5 VitalSgn 50.70 1.6 Honwlllntl 46.57 2.9 Vomado 135.75 8.75 11.7 HovnanE 36.29 .09 7.1 Wachovia 57.40 .11 .8 HudsCity 13.79 Wyeth 50.22 ID Sys 16.25 .53 Wyndham 33.04 .15 3.2 nize employees as union members and bargain with them," said Michael Lightner, regional director for the National Labor Relations Board's Newark office.

Paramus Ford owner Stephen Selman could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Members of United Service Workers Union Local 355 filed a complaint in June; the case was heard on Oct. 31 and decided on Jan. 31. Seven service technicians were employed by Paramus Ford at the time the case was heard, according to the judge's decision.

The judge's order calls for the dealership to post notices recognizing employees' bargaining rights. However, Selman can appeal the ruling to the NLRB office in Washington, D.C. E-mail: crousenorthjersey.com By DOUGLASS CROUSE STAFF WRITER PARAMUS Paramus Ford Inc. violated federal labor laws by refusing to bargain with union mechanics who had worked under the dealership's previous owner, a judge has ruled. The Route 17 dealership changed hands on Feb.

6, 2006, with several former workers from Pistilli Ford Inc. hired by the new owners. In his ruling, Administrative Law Judge Steven Davis found that the operation remained essentially unchanged and that a majority of the new service and parts staff had a bargaining agreement under Pistilli. "The law says you don't have to adopt any contract that is in effect, but you do have to recog MOVERS KORST BOYLAN GROH and associate publisher in 2000. He retains his responsibilities as editor with this latest promotion.

Dr. Robert J. Korst of Franklin Lakes has joined The Valley Hospital of Ridgewood as medical director of the Daniel and Gloria Blumenthal Cancer Center and director of thoracic surgery in Paramus. Korst was previously a member of the departments of cardiothoracic surgery and genetic medicine at New York-Presbyterian HospitalWeill Cornell Medical Center. In addition to his surgical practice, Korst is involved in geneticsimmunotherapy research and is a principal investigator in National Cancer Institute-funded clinical trials.

Fax information and photographs to 201 -457-2505. Richard Aregood, Pulitzer Prize-winning former editorial page editor of The Star-Ledger of Newark and the Philadelphia Daily News has joined The Marcus Group, Secaucus, as senior vice president of communications. Aregood has held numerous newsroom positions, including police reporter, music critic, deputy sports editor and assistant managing editor. He also has taught journalism at the University of South Florida and at Rutgers University. Aregood was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1985.

Northern State Bank, Closter, has named William J. Boylan of Montville a senior vice president and business development officer. Boylan had been a senior vice president for NVE Bank, a vice president for Summit Bank and an internal auditor for Valley National Bank. John Groh of Haworth has been named publisher of The Produce News, Oradell, a weekly newspaper that covers the fresh-produce industry. Groh joined the company in 1995 as an assistant editor.

He was named managing editor in 1997 and was promoted to editor.