Olympia York

Sears may take Visa, MasterCardSears, Roebuck and Co. is close to accepting Visa and MasterCard at its stores, just days after spinning off the Discover credit-card business it created.Sears said it has reached a tentative agreement with First Financial Management Corp. in Atlanta to handle purchases made with Visa and MasterCard.Judge to OK plans for O&Y boardA bankruptcy judge said he intends to approve plans for a new board for Olympia & York (U.S.A.), an important step toward reviving the developer's much-delayed debt restructuring talks.

GM, Daewoo partnership endingGeneral Motors Corp. will sever its partnership with South Korea's Daewoo Group later this month after a yearlong dispute over management and sales, Daewoo officials said yesterday. Daewoo, the third-largest automaker in South Korea, has criticized GM's management conditions, while GM has been uneasy with frequent labor disputes.Daewoo Motor Corp. builds the Pontiac LeMans subcompact, the only car it sells in the United States. Daewoo Motor also builds the Prince four-door sedan and commercial vehicles for sale in South Korea.

Saudi banker indicted in BCCI caseThe chief operating officer of Saudi Arabia's biggest bank has been indicted on charges of defrauding $300 million from depositors and customers in the BCCI banking scandal, the Manhattan District Attorney said today.Sheikh Khalid Bin Mahfouz of National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia and an associate were charged with scheming to defraud depositors, regulators and auditors of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International from 1985 to 1991, District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said.

NEW YORK -- Available: 1,100 acres on a lake, turn-of-the-century hotel, three golf courses, stables, ski mountain and a skeet-shooting range. Completed plans for luxurious redevelopment. Olympic facilities nearby.OK, it doesn't rank with Canary Wharf and the vast real estate empire that Olympia & York Ltd. might have to liquidate, but it's not a little condo either. And, for $12.3 million, it could be yours, courtesy of USF&G Corp., the Baltimore-based insurance company that has spent the past 18 months excavating a decade's worth of exotic, often unsuccessful, investments.

It's annual meeting season, and yesterday's affair by MNC Financial Inc. had it all: a rosy assessment of the company's future; easy passage of the corporate compensation plan; praise from shareholders who were pleased with the stock price; and an almost constant harangue from a well-known corporate gadfly.But MNC Chairman Alfred Lerner and Chief Executive Frank P. Bramble Sr., who led the meeting at the Omni Inner Harbor Hotel, didn't let shareholder rights advocate Evelyn Y. Davis get in the way of a well-orchestrated meeting: They didn't let her have a microphone.

The 200th anniversary of the New York Stock Exchange featured a carnival, the release of a 29-cent stamp commemorating the event and the exchange's first television commercials ever. Even former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev dropped by to pay his respects.The anniversary gives time for the market to reflect in a record-setting year."The bicentennial is a bullish factor, and the public relations surrounding it will draw the attention of more individuals to the market," said Joseph McAlinden, managing director of Dillon Reed.

The Rouse Co. of Columbia unveiled a $114 million deal yesterday to buy out most of the stake of its biggest stockholder, Canadian real estate giant Trizec Corporation Ltd., which is trying to raise capital and slash its nearly $10 billion in long-term debt.The transaction has been in the works for months, and Rouse's announcement yesterday said it would be completed this week. Rouse would pay $12 million to buy back 1 million of the 11 million common shares owned by Trizec, while seven institutional investors would buy 8.5 million, also for $12 a share.

Did Joe Camel flap boost sales?The onslaught against Joe Camel, the debonair cartoon dromedary who stars in Camel cigarette ads, began in December. Studies that concluded the pool-playing, motorcycle-driving Joe appealed too much to the nation's youth unleashed a torrent of negative publicity against him.Did all the bad press hurt sales of the 75-year-old brand? Hardly.R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. says sales of its third most popular brand rose 6 percent in the first quarter, compared with a drop of nearly 16 percent in the same three months of 1991.

In a surprise announcement, Bethlehem Steel Corp. said yesterday that it hired a turnaround expert as its new chairman and chief executive officer in hopes of bolstering the company's shaky finances after a string of losses. The Pennsylvania steel maker, which employs about 4,000 at its Sparrows Point plant in Baltimore County, named Robert S. "Steve" Miller Jr. to head the company. He replaced Duane R. Dunham, who was named president and chief operating officer. Miller is the chairman of automotive-parts supplier Federal Mogul Corp.