Business news in brief

ING Bank, Wilmington, said it would assume an estimated $1.4 billion in deposits and 104,000 customers from NetBank, Alpharetta, Ga., which the federal Office of Thrift Supervision closed yesterday. Netbank, which was started in 1996, "sustained significant losses in 2006 primarily due to early payment defaults on loans sold, weak underwriting, poor documentation, a lack of proper controls," the regulator said. ING Bank will pay a 1 percent premium, or $14 million, to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to take over the deposits. ING Bank is purchasing an additional $724 million in cash and cash-equivalent assets, the FDIC said. ING Bank has operated online as ING Direct since 2000, and has $57 billion in deposits.

- Harold Brubaker

Pennsylvania state government employees who retired before July 1, 2004, will see health-care co-payments increase next year as Pennsylvania tries to rein in the spiraling cost to taxpayers of retirees' medical coverage, officials said yesterday. The co-payment increases for prescriptions and certain office visits, as well as other changes to the Retired Employees Health Program, are expected to save the state $94 million a year, Budget Secretary Michael Masch said. The changes will take effect Feb. 1. The prescription and medical coverage changes will provide employees who retired before July 1, 2004, with the same benefits as those who retired after that date. The new plan will impose three levels of co-pays: $10 for generic drugs, $18 for name-brand drugs on the state's preferred-drug list, and $36 for name-brand drugs not on that list.

- AP

A watchdog group accused the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of ignoring for nearly six months allegations that security guards at the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant routinely slept while on duty. On Sept. 20, the NRC announced a special investigation into security problems at the plant in south-central Pennsylvania after a video of guards napping in a "ready" room became public. Last Monday, Exelon Corp., owner of the plant, fired Wackenhut Corp., which provided security at the plant. But the NRC's resident inspector at the plant received a letter last March that outlined in detail concerns about guards sleeping while on duty, according the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington-based watchdog group.

- AP

CSL Biotherapies, King of Prussia, has received Food and Drug Administration approval to sell its influenza vaccine, Afluria, in the United States. CSL Biotherapies is a subsidiary of CSL Limited, Melbourne, Australia, which has manufactured influenza vaccine for more than 40 years and which sells flu vaccines in 16 countries. The vaccine, which will be shipped to the United States by the end of October, is approved for adults 18 and older in single-dose, thimerosal-free prefilled syringes and in multidose vials.

- Linda Loyd

Mothers Work Inc., the Philadelphia maternity-apparel retailer, said its partnership with Sears Holding Corp.'s Sears stores will end next June. Mothers Work, which runs the clothing department for pregnant women in 502 Sears locations, said in a statement that the agreement won't be renewed. The retailer said it wasn't able to agree on renewal terms for leasing the department with Sears.

- Bloomberg News

Construction consultant Hill International Inc., Marlton, said it won a $13.6 million contract to provide project-management services for a 984-foot-high office tower and related building complex in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The Tameer Towers development has an expected total cost of $1.6 billion. Hill has 1,500 employees in 70 offices around the world. Shares in the company closed up 48 cents yesterday at $9.00.

- Reid Kanaley

Philadelphia-based BioNanomatrix Inc. and a California company said they formed a joint venture to develop a system for sequencing the entire human genome in eight hours, and at a cost under $100. The project received an $8.8 million grant from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Technology Program. The California company is Complete Genomics Inc., Mountain View. The current cost of sequencing the roughly three billion base pairs in the human genome is more than $100,000, the companies said. The federal grant will be matched by the companies. The project funding covers five years. BioNanomatrix's technologies are licensed from Princeton University. The company was founded in 2003 as a spin-out from Princeton.

- Reid Kanaley

Beijing Med-Pharm Corp., Plymouth Meeting, said it would buy the 51 percent of Sunstone Pharmaceutical Co. that it had not already agreed to purchase. Beijing will pay for the new stake with 8 million shares of its stock, worth $92.7 million at Thursday's close of $11.59. After the deal is completed, probably in the first quarter of 2008, Beijing Med-Pharm will change its name to BMP Sunstone Corp. Beijing Med-Pharm said the acquisition would allow it to expand into over-the-counter medicines in China and to attract more Western partners and products. Its shares closed up 6 cents yesterday at $11.65.

- Paul Schweizer

WSFS Financial Corp. said its board approved the buyback of up to an additional 10 percent, or 630,000, outstanding shares of its common stock. The company had nearly 6.3 million outstanding shares as of Aug. 3. WSFS Financial, the parent company of Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB, has nearly completed the repurchase of the 650,000 shares authorized by its board in August 2005.

- AP

A.G. Edwards Inc. shareholders approved a $6.5 billion takeover by Wachovia Corp., a transaction that will create the third-largest U.S. brokerage. Wachovia has more than 200 bank branches in the Philadelphia area. The purchase, the biggest acquisition of a U.S. brokerage firm in almost seven years, will pay A.G. Edwards holders $89.50 a share.

- Bloomberg News

Aetna Inc., the Hartford, Conn., health insurance provider, said its board authorized the repurchase of as much as $1.25 billion in additional shares of common stock. As of June 30, the company has about 511 million shares outstanding, according to a statement.

- Bloomberg News

The International Monetary Fund chose France's Dominique Strauss-Kahn as its new leader. The fund's 24 executive directors said they selected Strauss-Kahn, a former Socialist finance minister, by consensus - that is, without a vote. Strauss-Kahn, 58, will replace Spain's Rodrigo de Rato on Nov. 1, and will serve a five-year term as managing director.

- AP