Ernst & Young LLP wants a piece of the Wall Street rock.

The accounting and consulting firm announced Tuesday it has launched Ernst & Young Corporate Finance LLC, which will provide a number of corporate finance services.

Despite the announcement, management at the accounting firm has clearly decided not to take on investment banking heavyweights like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Rather, E&Y will focus on midsize transactions ($50 million to $1 billion), a slice of the business that offers more opportunity due to recent consolidation.

“We recognized an opportunity to meet the corporate finance demands in the midsize transaction arena in a manner that isn’t being fully realized by the marketplace,” said Peter Griffith, president and CEO, Ernst & Young Corporate Finance LLC, in a statement. “Our service model focuses on building long-term relationships and working with clients from the early stages of planning all the way through implementation.”

The company intends to offer a broad range of services, including all aspects of mergers and acquisitions; divestitures and corporate spin-offs; joint ventures and alliances; leveraged recapitalizations; debt and equity refinancing; management, employee, and leveraged buyout strategies; fairness opinions; and restructuring advisory services.

E&Y management said the company will focus on six broad industry groups: technology, communication, and entertainment; automotive and industrial products; consumer industries; health sciences; financial services; and energy, chemicals, and utilities.

Bond Flood Intensifies

Thank you, Alan Greenspan.

This is what Corporate America is saying, as it continues to issue bonds at a record pace.

On Tuesday alone, a number of companies announced multimillion-dollar offerings, including the captive finance arm for General Motors Corp., along with poultry producer Tyson Foods Inc.

General Motors Acceptance Corp. said it plans to sell $3 billion worth of paper.

Tyson plans to sell $2 billion to $2.5 billion of debt next week in a private placement to refinance debt it took on to buy IBP Inc. Moody’s rates Tyson’s senior unsecured debt Baa3, its lowest investment grade, while Standard & Poor’s rates it A- minus, three notches higher. S&P recently noted, however, that it expects to cut the rating to BBB if Tyson’s pending merger with meat-packer IBP goes through. J.P. Morgan and Merrill Lynch are the lead underwriters on that deal.

Other corporate issuers include ConAgra Foods Inc., which is offering $1.5 billion worth of 5- and 10-year notes. ConAgra issued $1.65 billion in notes a year ago. The offering is being led by Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan, and Salomon Smith Barney. Moody’s rates ConAgra’s senior debt Baa1, while Standard & Poor’s rates it BBB-plus, which is roughly equivalent.

The market for equity offerings, on the other hand, is like a photographic negative of the bond market. Dozens of companies are pulling their offerings rather than going through with the sale. Those that are going ahead with stock underwritings are being forced to come in with lower offering prices. On Friday, for example, aviation fuel reseller Mercfuel Inc. pared the price range for its initial public offering of 1.2 million common shares to $6 to $8 apiece, down from $9 to $11.

Accountant Shoots Cop in Bank Robbery

An accountant who was being arrested for a bank robbery allegedly shot a Chicago police officer and then held him hostage for more than two hours.

The robbery suspect, Daniel Salley, 41, was also shot when he exchanged gunfire with police. He surrendered several hours later.

Police had been searching for Salley after a bank inside a grocery store was robbed of more than $239,000. A local TV reporter who helped to negotiate the release of the wounded officer said Salley told him he had a tax business. According to published accounts of the incident, Salley indicated that he’d had recent trouble with the Internal Revenue Service and that he was having problems supporting his family.

Publishers Offer Same-Sex Benefits

Two prominent publishing companies, Gannett Co. and E.W. Scripps Co., have become the latest companies to offer full benefits to same-sex partners who live together.

On Tuesday, Gannett announced that the company will soon offer full medical benefits to same-sex partners who live together. The publishing company will also offer benefits to unmarried domestic partners of the opposite sex. The benefits for partners will become available in January 2002.

To be eligible for the benefits, partners must have had a 12-month relationship. They must also sign an affidavit that declares there is financial dependence between them.

There is one hitch to the coverage for the unhitched: Unlike married couples of the opposite sex, an employee claiming the benefits will still have to pay taxes on the amount used to insure his or her partner, under IRS guidelines.

Scripps also announced the benefits will extend to same-sex partners of its employees.

The National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, which has been lobbying media companies to offer domestic partner benefits, said that more than half of the 100 biggest U.S. newspapers now offer or are about to offer same-sex benefits, according to a published report.

Today’s Layoffs

• British Airways PLC will cut 1,800 jobs, or 3 percent of its workforce, by April.
• Bank of America Corp. is canning 50 to 60 equity research, sales, and trading jobs, or about 4 percent of staff in this area, according to Reuters.
• Chemical company Hercules Inc. said it will lay off 300 people and cut more jobs in Europe as part of a restructuring plan.
• Jeffrey Immelt, who will officially succeed John Welch Jr. as chairman and chief executive of General Electric Co. this Friday, is mulling possible job cuts, according to The Wall Street Journal. Immelt would not reveal how many people have been laid off by the conglomerate so far this year or how many it expects to cut in the future, according to the paper.

From the CFO.com “Brief” Case

• Verity CFO Todd K. Yamami earned nearly $1.7 million last year, most of it from exercising stock options. He enjoyed a $171,385 salary and a $34,277 bonus.
• Companies and individuals will finally be able to file their tax returns and pay taxes using the Internet, according to The Wall Street Journal. Taxpayers will be able to use the Web site of the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System, www.eftps.com, to check the status of their taxes and have quarterly estimated taxes deducted automatically from their bank accounts.
• The European Commission named a panel of seven corporate law experts to draft legislation governing corporate takeovers. The panel has been asked to draft proposals by year’s end that will then be folded into E.U. legislation, to be unveiled in early 2002.
• Communications chip maker Conexant said it will permit its employees to exchange worthless options for new options, according to the Web site of the Los Angeles Times. Under the plan, employees and board members can replace options that have an exercise price of $25 or higher with new options. The new exercise price will be the closing price of the stock on April 3, according to the Times, citing a Conexant spokeswoman.