Also
* British energy group BP said it plans to pay $6.75 billion for a 50% stake in a major new Russian company, pinning its hopes for growth on that country’s oil and gas reserves.
* Northwest Airlines Corp. told its employees that the company needs to cut as much as $1.5 billion in annual expenses to avoid a bankruptcy filing.
* US Airways Group Inc. won government approval for a $900-million loan guarantee that is critical to the carrier’s bid to reorganize under bankruptcy protection.
* Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. will buy Burlington Industries Inc., a textile maker that sought bankruptcy protection in 2001, for $579 million in cash.
* Boeing Co. and Israel Aircraft Industries, a state-owned military equipment maker, plan to build a plant in Huntsville, Ala., to make missiles for Israel.
* Rand McNally & Co., the world’s biggest commercial mapmaker, filed for bankruptcy protection, with a plan approved by debt holders to reduce debt to $100 million from $400 million. Los Angeles-based buyout firm Leonard Green & Partners, which has invested $75 million in Rand McNally debt over the last year, will own a majority equity stake in the company once it emerges from bankruptcy protection. Leonard Green is the majority holder of the company’s senior debt.
* El Paso Corp.’s chairman and chief executive, William Wise, became the latest power company executive to announce his departure, saying he will leave the largest U.S. natural-gas pipeline company at the end of this year. A successor has not been named.
* Northrop Grumman Corp. received a $302.9-million Air Force contract to expand production of its Global Hawk unmanned spy plane used in Afghanistan.
* Trizec Properties Inc. promoted Michael Escalante to succeed Lee Wagman as supervisor of the New York real estate company’s two remaining retail properties, Hollywood & Highland in Los Angeles and Desert Passage in Las Vegas.
