Oct. 7--The credit crunch has put pressure on the stock prices of large companies with local operations and is now disrupting pending deals with local impact.

Philip Morris parent company Altria said its acquisition of chewing tobacco competitor UST has been delayed as bank lending for big deals has dried up. Altria must work out the terms of a deal by the end of 2008 and complete the transaction by the end of January 2009.

The problems with liquidity forced debt-plagued Smithfield Foods a week ago to reaffirm that it has enough money to meet its scheduled payments.

As meat producers have come under strong pressure from high commodity prices, Smithfield's stock had plummeted to $14.92 a share at Monday's market closing, a low last seen six years ago.

Since being separated from Phillip Morris' profitable, growing international cigarette business, Altria has been moving into smokeless tobacco as a growth area.

It has renovated a facility in York County, where it is producing a new type of smokeless tobacco called snus and possibly its new Marlboro-branded chew.

The UST deal will make Altria the largest player in the smokeless business, and likely impact future operations in York in some way. Altria said on Friday it has financing lined up, but its lenders say they want to delay the closing of the deal until 2009.

After chicken processor Pilgrim's Pride announced major problems, Smithfield issued a statement to address what it called unfounded rumors.

Smithfield, which is waiting for the sale of its beef operations to close so it can pay off some of its debt, said it has access to a $500 million line of credit and has no major debt payments due until late 2009.

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