LOCAL

LOCAL
Insurance agency garnersplatinum status
POLAND -- First Place Insurance Agency, LTD. has achieved platinum-level status from Westfield Insurance for its top performance among the company's more than 1,200 insurance agencies throughout the country. The platinum status is the highest level in Westfield's FOCUS program, which is performance-based and designed to measure the levels of profit, growth, size and persistency of an agency's business with the company.
NATION
Flooring company grab
CALHOUN, Ga. -- Carpet and flooring company Mohawk Industries Inc. said Monday it would pay $2.6 billion for Unilin Holding NV, a leading maker of laminate flooring based in Belgium. Following the 2002 purchase of Dal-Tile, which made Mohawk the top U.S. company in ceramic flooring, the acquisition of Unilin represents "the second major step in diversifying into a total flooring company," Mohawk Chairman and CEO Jeffrey S. Lorberbaum said in a statement Monday.
WORLD
Oil company owner plans sellout of stake
MOSCOW -- Billionaire Roman Abramovich, the owner of Britain's Chelsea soccer club, is in the final stage of talks to sell a majority stake in oil company Sibneft to the state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday. The newspaper quoted an unidentified source close to Gazprom as saying a deal could be signed this week. Abramovich's Millhouse Capital owns a 57.5 percent stake in Sibneft. Sibneft announced Monday that it was paying out record 2004 dividends of nearly $2.3 billion, prompting market speculation of an imminent sale by the oil company's owner.
From Vindicator staff and wire reports