Also . . .

An investor group agreed to buy TNP Enterprises Inc., owner of Texas-New Mexico Power Co., an electric utility serving those two states, for about $1 billion in cash and assumed debt in the first leveraged buyout of a U.S. electric utility. The investor group, led by former Long Island Lighting Co. Chairman William Catacosinos and CIBC World Markets Inc., will assume $475 million in debt and take TNP private. TNP shareholders will get $44 in cash for each share, a 26% premium to Monday’s close. Fort Worth-based TNP has resisted a merger, but it’s facing competition from larger rivals as U.S. power markets deregulate, analysts said.

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Waterford Wedgwood, an Irish-based crystal and china maker, said it plans to enter the kitchenware market by paying $110 million for All-Clad Inc., the No. 2 U.S. designer cooking-equipment maker, from Wasserstein Perella’s U.S. Equity Partners. U.S.-led sales of Waterford’s luxury crystal last year offset sluggish sales of fine china and porcelain products in Japan and Germany.

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Mining and papermaking equipment company Harnischfeger Industries Inc., facing weak markets, liquidity problems and pressure from major investor Trinity I Fund to make changes, replaced its chairman and chief executive. Milwaukee-based Harnischfeger said it named Vice Chairman John Hanson as chief executive, and Robert Hoffman, an outside director, as chairman, replacing Jeffery Grade in those positions.

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