UPI NewsTrack Business

Cookie maker says it needs more dough

SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Mrs. Fields Famous Brands LLC, which sells cookies and yogurt at more than 1,200 franchises across the United States, is filing for bankruptcy, records show.

In a Friday filing with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission, Mrs. Fields, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, revealed it would file a bankruptcy reorganization plan with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., the Wall Street Journal reported.

The company, which owns the Mrs. Fields fresh-baked cookies and TCBY yogurt brands, had warned shareholders in June that it could seek bankruptcy protection against creditors. It has instituted a restructuring plan calling for its noteholders to exchange $195.7 million in notes for $90 million in cash, $50 million in new senior debt and 87.5 percent of Mrs. Fields' new common stock, the Journal reported.

The company has been saddled with a heavy debt load after posting recent losses, including a net loss of about $10.7 million for the quarter ending June 28, the newspaper said.

Hershey raises candy prices 11 percent

HERSHEY, Pa., Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Hershey Co. is giving chocolate lovers some not-so-sweet news, saying it is raising its retail candy bar prices by 11 percent to cover surging costs.

The candymaker, based in Hershey, Pa., says rapidly rising prices for cocoa, corn sweeteners, sugar and peanuts is forcing the retail price hikes for its single Hershey chocolate bars, bags of Hershey Kisses and multi-bar packs, MarketWatch reported.

In addition to the price hikes, Hershey warned Friday that its 2008 profit would come in at the low end of expectations.

A company statement said prices for cocoa and the other commodities Hershey uses have jumped 20 percent to 45 percent since January, MarketWatch said.

Report: Lehman shops real estate assets

NEW YORK, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- New York investment banker Lehman Brothers is shopping its massive commercial real estate portfolio in an effort to raise capital, sources say.

The financially troubled firm hopes to raise $40 billion from the real estate sale to replenish its balance sheet in the wake of credit-related writedowns that have seen its share price plummet 63 percent since May, the Financial Times reported Saturday.

Lehman's commercial real estate portfolio late last year was valued at almost $52 billion, but that figure had fallen to $40 billion by the end of May. The Financial Times says Lehman is looking to shop the assets in whole or in pieces and is still facing a gap between what it believes the assets are worth and what potential buyers are offering.

Possible buyers for the real estate include BlackRock, Blackstone, Colony Capital and J.E. Robert Cos., the newspaper reported.

Report: BAA to sell two British airports

LONDON, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- The chairman of BAA Ltd., owner of Britain's Heathrow Airport, says it's likely the company will be forced by the government to sell two airports.

BAA owns a total of seven British airports, including two others in London, Gatwick and Stansted. BAA Chairman Sir Nigel Rudd told The Daily Telegraph Saturday that the government's Competition Commission is likely to demand the company sell off two airports -- either Gatwick or Stansted in London and either Glasgow or Edinburgh airports in Scotland.

"(From) all the things that I'm hearing, it looks like they will announce that," Rudd told the newspaper, adding that BAA has already fielded "huge expressions of interest" from parties interested in buying Gatwick and Stansted, even though neither are currently for sale.

The results of the Competition Commission's investigation of poor service by BAA and its dominance of Britain's airport industry are set to be published at the end of next week, the newspaper said, with increasing speculation it will say BAA's continued ownership of the seven airports is not in the public's best interests.