Business news in brief

Berkadia Commercial Mortgage L.L.C., a Horsham lender and servicer, said Friday it had agreed to buy Tavernier Capital Partners L.L.C., a Florida commercial mortgage firm, for an undisclosed amount. The deal, expected to close in 30 days, will add 20 employees and $2 billion in loan-servicing business to Berkadia's operation, which was bought in 2009 by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Leucadia National Corp. from the bankrupt Capmark Financial Group Inc. for $468 million. Tavernier was formed in 2007 when its founders left Capmark. Berkadia services $193 billion worth of commercial mortgages. - Harold Brubaker

A drop in construction, leisure/hospitality, and information-services employment led to an overall decrease of 1,700 jobs in Delaware in August, the state Department of Labor said. The education/health services and state/local government sectors added jobs for the month. Over the last year, Delaware has lost 3,100 nonfarm jobs. The state's jobless rate remained 8.1 percent in August. - Paul Schweizer

Air Products & Chemicals Inc., Allentown, announced a price increase of 5 to 10 percent on some products. The company cited inflationary pressure, as it did with five previous increases in the last year. The latest rise is for liquid oxygen, liquid nitrogen, liquid argon, and liquid and bulk hydrogen. - Paul Schweizer

Kweku Adoboli, 31, an alleged renegade trader accused of losing Swiss banking giant UBS about $2 billion in unauthorized trading, has been charged with fraud and false accounting. Adoboli, born in Ghana, has been employed by UBS on an equities desk working with exchange-traded funds - which track different types of stocks or commodities. In Switzerland, UBS faced pressure to explain how its managers failed to catch the loss. - AP

Americans' household net worth fell 0.3 percent to $58.5 trillion in the April-June quarter, the Federal Reserve said. That followed three straight quarterly increases. - AP

European Union finance ministers agreed on tougher budget rules that punish overspending governments, Poland's finance minister, Jacek Rostowski, said. The changes will make it easier to punish breaches of EU limits on debts and deficits. For years, European countries have broken the EU rule requiring deficits to be below 3 percent of gross domestic product. Experts say the lack of accountability helped cause the rise in government debt now afflicting the region. - AP