BRIEFCASE NESTLE BUYS HALF OF ICE CREAM FIRM.

Byline: - From staff and wire reports

GLENDALE - Nestle USA has acquired General Mills' 50 percent ownership stake in Ice Cream Partners USA, the companies announced Wednesday.

Under the terms of the agreement, Nestle will have a 99-year license for use of the Haagen-Dazs brand in the United States.

In addition, Nestle bought out the existing licensing arrangement with Pillsbury under which Nestle manufactures and distributes Haagen-Dazs products in Canada. Nestle paid $641 million to General Mills in the transaction.

Ice Cream Partners USA was formed in August 1999 and combined Pillsbury's Haagen-Dazs frozen desserts with Nestle's novelty ice cream business.

Pet supplier asks return to market

SAN DIEGO - Petco Animal Supplies Inc., one of the nation's largest pet supply retailers, is seeking to become a publicly traded company again, a year after withdrawing its shares from the market.

Petco has filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering but has not yet set a date for the sale of shares or selected an underwriter, the company's vice president for finance, Norman Dowling, said Wednesday.

Petco will seek to raise $287.5 million that it will use to buy back preferred stock issued when the board took the company private Oct. 2, 2000, Dowling said.

It posted a loss of $16 million on sales of $1.3 billion for the 12 months ending Nov. 3.

Previously, Petco traded on the Nasdaq stock market under the symbol PETC, and it has applied to retain that stock symbol. The board took the company private because it felt the shares were undervalued at a time when the market seemed to favor technology companies over retailers, Dowling said.

Democrats report donation of Enron

WASHINGTON - A week before filing for bankruptcy protection, energy giant Enron Corp. donated $100,000 to the Democratic Party committee that helps Senate candidates, campaign finance reports show.

The company, which had given 90 percent of its money to Republicans this year before the Democratic donations, also has hired high-profile Washington lawyer Robert Bennett, whose past clients include President Clinton.

Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Dec. 2.

Tovah Ravitz-Meehan, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Senate fund-raising committee, said the head of the organization, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., has asked that Enron's money be given to a charitable organization helping laid-off Enron workers. She said the charity hasn't been chosen.

Mitsubishi to cut job force in Japan

TOKYO - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Japan's largest heavy machinery maker, said Wednesday it will eliminate 4,000 jobs over the next four years in a bid to boost profits.

The cuts, which represent more than 10 percent of the company's 37,000 domestic employees, are to be completed by the fiscal year ending March 31, 2006, the company said.

The maker of nuclear power plants and ships is the latest Japanese corporate giant to slash workers as Japan struggles to recover from its third recession in a decade and demand for the nation's exports plummets amid a global slowdown.

NYSE award most against a broker

NEW YORK - A record $429 million arbitration award against a stockbroker for embezzlement and fraud will likely never be fully collected but the decision is still a victory, the lawyer who represented investors in the dispute said Wednesday.

An NYSE Exchange arbitration panel had ordered the $429 million award last month after finding that Enrique Ernesto Perusquia had committed ``fraud, forgery, breach of fiduciary duty, embezzlement, self-dealing, and other heinous acts'' with ``willful, wanton and gross disregard'' for his clients.

The award is the biggest ever against a broker, said Ralph Ryder, editor of the Securities Arbitration Commentator in Maplewood, N.J.