In brief: TARP repayments exceed balance due

WASHINGTON – The Treasury Department on Friday hailed what it called a milestone in the history of the controversial $700 billion bailout fund – for the first time the amount repaid by banks and other recipients has surpassed the outstanding balance.

In the latest monthly report to Congress on the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, Treasury officials said repayments had reached $194 billion. That figure tops the $190 billion in bailout money still outstanding. The fund received a big boost in May when the Treasury Department completed its sale of 1.5 billion shares of Citigroup stock it acquired in that bank’s bailout, providing $6.18 billion.

Wendy’s/Arby’s

weighs takeover bid

CHICAGO – Wendy’s/Arby’s Group Inc. Chairman Nelson Peltz said he’s reviewing an overture from an unnamed group interested in acquiring the fast-food company.

His disclosure, made late Thursday in a regulatory filing, sent shares up 19 cents, or 4.4 percent, to $4.53 in midday trading Friday.

Peltz, whose investment firm owns 23.5 percent of the company’s shares, gave few details about the inquiry, which he disclosed in a regulatory filing late Thursday.

But he said the possible deal could include his participation and that he would work with financial advisers to discuss the transaction. Among the possibilities he listed in his filing, Peltz said he would likely meet with debt and equity financing sources regarding a possible deal.

Disney hotel workers

stage walkout

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Dozens of Disneyland hotel workers walked off their jobs Friday, the same day the resort premiered its multimillion-dollar World of Color attraction.

Members of the union Unite Here walked out of the Disneyland, Grand Californian and Paradise Pier hotels to picket and block traffic along the street that leads into the amusement park.

Disney and the hotel workers have been involved in a contract dispute for two years. Hotel employees have staged periodic protests.

Disney spokeswoman Suzi Brown called it another publicity stunt.

The World of Color, a water spectacle at the California Adventure theme park, was expected to draw extra crowds to the park Friday.

Briefcase

•Federal regulators have filed civil fraud charges against a money manager they accuse of bilking people by promoting investments he claimed were linked to the Chimay royal family of Belgium. The Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday it won a court order freezing the assets of Guy Albert de Chimay and his firm, Chimay Capital Management.

•Volkswagen AG is recalling nearly 16,000 Routan minivans to address fire concerns involving latches on the sliding doors. The German automaker says the recall affects 2009 minivans, which are jointly developed with Chrysler LLC and built at Chrysler’s Windsor, Ontario, plant.

•A 32-year-old Emmett, Idaho, man has been sentenced to five years in prison for committing worker’s compensation insurance fraud. Jason G. Waters admitted filing a worker’s compensation claim for a foot injury he said he sustained while working as a plumber, but investigators learned he was injured riding his motorcycle, Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said. Waters must pay the state $49,200 in restitution.