FERC: Dispute settled with ISO-New England

New England’s grid operator and attorneys general, regulators and consumer advocates in four states have settled a dispute over the regional agency’s proposed budget.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said Tuesday that ISO-New England, based in Holyoke, Mass., and state officials in Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island agreed to a settlement in principle. Details are not available as a formal settlement is being worked out.

Officials last November criticized ISO’s $165 million budget request for 2013. They said spending grew too much in the weak economy.

ISO said its operating budget minus depreciation and other expenses is about $136 million. It said it added positions related to gas as a growing energy source and cited higher interest expense for debt. And it allocated $1 million for planning and other areas.

Generic drug company will pay record penalty

A subsidiary of India’s largest pharmaceutical company has agreed to pay a record $500 million in fines and penalties for selling adulterated drugs and lying to federal regulators in a case that is part of an ongoing crackdown on the quality of generic drugs flowing into the U.S.

Federal prosecutors said Monday the guilty plea by Ranbaxy USA Inc. represents the largest financial penalty against a generic drug company for violations of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which prohibits the sale of impure drugs.

It concludes a years-long federal investigation into Ranbaxy’s manufacturing deficiencies. The Food and Drug Administration had earlier barred from Ranbaxy from importing more than 30 different drugs made at factories in India and, in 2011, struck a deal that required the company to ensure that data on its products is accurate, undergo extra oversight from a third-party and improve its drug making procedures.

The subsidiary of Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited has agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges and to resolve civil claims with all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Dell’s board wants details from Icahn about his offer

Dell board members say they need more details from investor Carl Icahn if he wants them to seriously consider his latest challenge to Michael Dell’s $24.4 billion plan to take the computer maker private.

Icahn and prominent Dell shareholder Southeastern Asset Management said last week they want to keep Dell Inc. publicly traded and give shareholders $12 in cash or more shares.

But a Dell board special committee said in a Monday letter that the proposal comes with many questions. They want to know whether Icahn and Southeastern want the board to treat their offer as an acquisition proposal it might endorse or if it is an alternative in case shareholders reject Michael Dell’s offer to pay $13.65 per share to take the Round Rock, Texas, company private.

Janus Capital Group losing three high-level managers

Janus Capital Group Inc. said Monday that three fund managers, including the pair that run two of the firm’s top stock funds, are leaving the company.

Brian Schaub and Chad Meade, managers of the $4.9 billion Janus Triton Fund and the $2.3 billion Venture Fund, and Ron Sachs, who runs the $8.6 billion Twenty Fund and the $3.6 billion Forty Fund, will leave the firm, the Denver-based company said in a statement.

The firm hired Doug Rao, a former partner at Marsico Capital Management, to replace Sachs on the Forty Fund and will fill the other vacant positions internally.

The departures are the highest-level exits at Janus since Richard Weil took over as chief executive officer in February 2010. Schaub and Meade made Triton Janus’s best stock fund in the past five years, returning an annual average of 12 percent and beating 98 percent of competitors.

The pair also led Venture, which focuses on small companies, to 9.8 percent annual returns over five years, beating 87 percent of rivals.

– From news services