Business Briefing

ENVIRONMENT

3 companies quit climate coalition

Three large companies have left the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of more than two dozen companies and environmental groups lobbying Congress to pass a bill combating climate change.

Oil companies ConocoPhillips and BP America and machine giant Caterpillar Inc. said they were not renewing their memberships in the group.

The defections were widely seen as a blow to congressional efforts to cap U.S. emissions of pollution-causing gases blamed for global warming.

ConocoPhillips Chairman Jim Mulva said Congress had unfairly penalized domestic oil refineries and ignored natural gas companies.

The climate coalition includes some of the country’s biggest electric utilities and oil companies as well as five environmental groups.

EARNINGS

Kraft net income more than triples

Kraft Foods Inc. said its fourth-quarter net income more than tripled on strength in developing markets and continued benefits from its restructuring plan.

The Northfield, Ill., food maker, which is buying British candy maker Cadbury, said it expected long-term earnings growth at the high end of its previous guidance.

Kraft said profit surged to $710 million, or 48 cents a share, from $178 million, or 12 cents, a year earlier. Analysts expected a profit of 45 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters.

Sales rose 3% to $11 billion but missed Wall Street’s $11.07-billion estimate.

Whole Foods profit surges

Whole Foods Market said stronger sales helped send its fiscal first-quarter profit soaring. The strong quarter prompted the Austin, Texas, natural and organic grocer to raise its earnings and revenue outlook for the year.

Whole Foods reported net income of $49.7 million, or 32 cents a share, in the quarter ended Jan. 17, compared with $27.8 million, or 20 cents, a year earlier. Sales grew 7% to $2.64 billion.

The results beat Wall Street’s expectations of 26 cents a share on revenue of $2.6 billion.

BANKRUPTCIES

Tribune buyout review sought

Tribune Co.’s leveraged buyout should be reviewed by an independent, court-approved examiner, the U.S. Trustee said in papers filed in the publishing company’s bankruptcy case.

An attorney for the U.S. Trustee, which monitors corporate bankruptcies for the Justice Department, joined bondholders represented by Wilmington Trust Co. in asking the judge overseeing Tribune’s reorganization to name an examiner to investigate the 2007 buyout.

A committee of Chicago-based Tribune’s unsecured creditors is preparing to sue a group of unnamed parties involved in the buyout, according to court documents.

Tribune owns the Los Angeles Times.

-- times wire reports