Briefs

The City of Los Angeles on May 4 sued Deutsche Bank (DB) for allegedly failing to maintain foreclosed properties and illegally evicting low-income tenants. The lawsuit came a day after the U.S. Justice Dept. sued the German bank for more than $1 billion, claiming its MortgageIT Holdings unit falsely certified that it was examining default risks when it qualified loans for Federal Housing Administration insurance. Renee Calabro, a spokeswoman for the Frankfurt-based bank, says that the L.A. City Attorney should have sued loan servicers, not Deutsche Bank. She also called the federal government's lawsuit "unreasonable and unfair" and said the bank will fight it.

Ralcorp Holdings, the biggest U.S. maker of store-brand foods, on May 4 spurned a $4.9 billion offer from ConAgra Foods and adopted a shareholder rights plan to bar its suitor from gaining control of its shares. ConAgra's offer, its second unsolicited bid in less than two months, is 32 percent more than Ralcorp's closing price before the initial overture. Buying Ralcorp, which generated about $3 billion last year from selling foods under retailers' own brands, would help ConAgra almost quadruple private-label sales.