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AMC Entertainment Inc. has priced its coming sale of shares in Colorado in-theater marketing company National CineMedia Inc. (NCM), saying it expects net proceeds of $99.6 million.

In a securities filing Friday, the Kansas City-based theater operator said that subsidiary AMC ShowPlace Theatres Inc. will offer 6.5 million shares at a gross public price of $16 each. Shares in Centennial-based NCM (NASDAQ: NCMI) closed at $16.01 Friday.

Privately held AMC said underwriters will have the option to buy as many as 812,500 additional shares of NCM.

AMC said it plans to use its proceeds to pay down debt and for future acquisitions.

As of July 1, AMC had 382 theaters with 5,342 screens, mostly in the United States and Canada. Last month, AMC filed paperwork to take the company public and raise $450 million. It’s the third attempt to go public since a group of investors took the theater chain private in December 2004.

AMC and another theater chain, Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE: RGC), the latter controlled by Denver investor Philip Anschutz, said earlier this month that they plan a registered underwritten public offering of a combined 10.7 million shares of their NCM stock. The two chains are co-founders of NCM.

NCM owns just over a third and is the managing member of National CineMedia LLC, which provides in-theater advertising and promotional products, such as the "FirstLook" pre-feature programs, and services corporate meetings and training sessions in theaters.

"These shares of common stock will be issued to AMC and Regal upon redemption of a like number of NCM LLC common membership units that were issued to AMC and Regal," NCM Inc. said in a statement.

"Such redemption of NCM LLC common membership units will take place immediately prior to the closing of the underwritten public offering. The company will not receive any proceeds from the sale of common stock by AMC or Regal," the NCM statement said.

After the offering, NCM Inc.’s interest in NCM LLC will increase from the current 38.3 percent to a range of 48 percent and 49 percent, depending on overallotment sales.

Knoxville, Tenn.-based Regal will be selling 4.2 million of its shares.

A third theater chain — Plano, Texas-based Cinemark Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CNK) — owns 16.9 million membership units in NCM, or about 15.4 percent of the total, Cinemark said in its latest quarterly securities filing.

Aon Aug. 12, NCM announced that another theater chain — R/C Theatres, based in Reisterstown, Md. — will begin showing NCM’s "FirstLook" programming and the NCM Fathom entertainment and business events packages in September. R/C Theatres has 12 theaters with 90 screens in Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

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The British government is partnering with Facebook Inc. to solicit ideas from the public on ways to cut the budget deficit and make government spending more efficient.

“The Spending Challenge,” announced jointly by Facebook and British Prime Minster David Cameron, will give the 26 million British Facebook users access through the Democracy UK page to "microsites" specially tailored to focus on key issues, as well as to official government websites.

More than a million people used the Democracy UK Page during the 2010 General Election campaign no fax payday advance.

“There's enormous civic spirit in this country where people want to take control and do things in a different way. We are giving people an opportunity with Facebook and I am sure that they will take it," Cameron said in a statement.

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David Mishler has stepped down as chief executive of The Business Bank of St. Louis but will remain as vice chairman and a member of the board.

Tom O’Meara, the bank’s chairman and a partner at the Moneta Group, will serve as interim chief executive while the board searches for a permanent replacement.

“Dave is a marketing and sales oriented guy — great at developing relationships,” and he will continue to do that for the bank, O’Meara said. “With growth, different skills sets are sometimes needed.”

Mishler had served as chief executive and vice chairman of the bank, which operates from a single location in Clayton, since it opened in 2002. His previous experience included Enterprise Bank & Trust and Mark Twain Bank.

From the outside, the change may look sudden, O’Meara said, but the board and Mishler have been engaged in “an ongoing discussion” about a change in management.

The Business Bank is the 14th-largest commercial bank in the St. Louis area, with total assets of $572 million, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The bank reported a profit of $1.15 million in the most recent quarter, ended March 31, although its parent company, Business Bancshares Inc., reported a 5 percent slip in profit, to $516,000, from $541,000 a year earlier. The parent company has expenses, such as those associated with its acceptance of $15 million in TARP money, that the bank does not have.

Mishler was one of the bank’s founders, and O’Meara credited him with its growth and, more recently, with working out its problem loans.

The Business Bank’s bad loans totaled $8.9 million for the first quarter, compared with $14.9 million a year earlier, and its Tier 1 risk based capital ratio — a key measure of a bank’s financial strength and its ability to sustain future losses — improved to 12.78 percent from 9.71 percent a year ago.

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Peabody Energy Corp. is taking its bid for Macarthur Coal Ltd. to the company’s major shareholders after the Australian coal producer’s board rejected a $3 billion cash takeover bid.

"Peabody’s proposal is highly conditional and does not fully value Macarthur and its significant growth prospects," Macarthur Chairman Keith DeLacy said Wednesday in a statement.

Peabody, the world’s largest private-sector coal company, has rapidly expanded operations in Australia since buying its first mine there six years ago. Last year, the company said it plans to double coal exports from the country by 2014.

The company on Wednesday said it is "disappointed" with the initial rejection and believes Macarthur’s assets and growth prospects are a good fit with its existing Australian operations.

Brisbane-based Macarthur produced about 4.6 million tons of so-called metallurgical coal last year from two Queensland mines and is in the midst of an expansion. The company, which owns 145 million tons of reserves, supplies coal to steel mills in Asia, Europe and Brazil.

Peabody’s offer values Macarthur at about $680 per ton of production and $21 per ton of reserves, according to Jefferies & Co. analyst Michael Dudas.

"We believe the initial bid is the first step in a long, complex negotiating process involving numerous players in the coal and steel industry," Dudas said in a research note.

Peabody said it is currently in discussions with Macarthur’s three largest shareholders, who collectively own 47 percent of the company.

Peabody said its offer is conditional on Macarthur calling off an earlier agreement to purchase rival Gloucester Coal Ltd., which is 88-percent owned by Asian commodities firm Noble Group Ltd.

Macarthur is holding a meeting on April 12 for shareholders to vote on whether to issue shares to complete the Gloucester deal.

Peabody said its bid is 34 percent higher than the price of Macarthur shares to be issued to Noble as part of the Gloucester agreement. It is also higher than a February valuation by an independent expert hired by Macarthur, Peabody said.

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Thailand’s consumer confidence fell for the first time in four months on concern political tensions may derail the nation’s economic recovery.

An index measuring sentiment fell to 70.9 last month from 71.9 in January, the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce said in Bangkok today. The gauge tracks a nationwide survey of 2,232 respondents.

The Bank of Thailand kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a five-year low of 1.25 percent yesterday ahead of a mass rally by anti-government protesters this weekend. The government invoked an internal security law from today until March 23 to control the situation and maintain order.

“Politics is the key concern weighing on confidence,” said Sauwanee Thairungroj, an economist at the university. “We are watching the protest this weekend closely as it will be the key for economic conditions in the next period.”

The government predicted last month the economy may grow as much as 4.5 percent this year after contracting 2.3 percent in 2009. The forecast didn’t take into account any further street protests or violence, and Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said Feb. 22 any political unrest that hurts investor confidence may disrupt the recovery.

The United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, whose members wear red shirts and support ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra, has pledged to rally peacefully. Similar demonstrations by the group last year led to riots that were quashed by the military.

Grenade Attacks

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who canceled a trip to Australia because of the planned rally, said yesterday the government is ready to handle the situation and won’t agree to the protesters’ demand for a fresh election totally free credit score.

All commercial banks have tightened their security after grenade attacks at four branches of Bangkok Bank Pcl, the nation’s largest, on Feb. 27, a day after a court seized $1.4 billion of Thaksin’s fortune. A small bomb exploded near Abhisit’s office on Feb. 13.

Thailand’s economy exited a yearlong recession last quarter and may grow 5 percent in the three months through March, driven by rising exports and stronger local consumption, Korn said last month.

Exports, which are equivalent to about 60 percent of the economy, surged 31.4 percent in January, the biggest gain in 18 months. Industrial production rose for a fifth straight month, the central bank said Feb. 26.

This weekend’s protests may cause economic damage of 3 billion baht ($92 million) to 5 billion baht, according to estimates from the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce. That may rise to more than 10 billion baht if the demonstrations last a week.

“If the situation turns violent and badly hurts confidence, it may shave GDP growth this year,” Sauwanee said. “The economy may grow only 2 to 3 percent from 3 to 4 percent forecast earlier.”

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Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. of Canada has launched a company in Scottsdale in what officials say “is the next phase of the company’s long-term growth strategy in the U.S.”

IA American Life Insurance Co. will be headquartered with the Quebec City company’s Industrial Alliance Pacific Life Insurance Co. U.S. division. The two will offer a range of life and annuity products.

Among IA’s first efforts was a tentative agreement to take on policies of Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Co., seized in September by California regulators. It’s also offering a new product called SecureLife Plus universal life insurance, which offers coverage to individuals up to age 120 and features such as increased maximums on term riders, a new waiver of surrender charge and an accelerated death benefit.

“We’ve laid a solid U.S. foundation and now we’re focusing on growth in underserved, middle-income markets,” said Michael Stickney, president of IA American.

“The debut of IA American marks the beginning of a new phase in our expansion in North America,” said Yvon Charest, president and CEO of Industrial Alliance guaranteed online payday loans. “Over the last few years, we’ve focused on creating a solid local management team in the U.S. Our next objective is to create a strong and vibrant organization capable of serving the insurance and financial needs of middle-income American families.”

State officials took over Golden State Mutual, the largest minority-owned life insurance company in California, after the insurer’s surplus dropped below the state’s required minimum. Golden State Mutual had posted six consecutive years of net operating losses and was operating in a hazardous financial condition, according to an announcement from Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. IA was the only bidder that met state requirements after a national search.

Founded in 1892, Industrial Alliance is a life and health insurance company with operations across North America. It has more than 3,400 employees and manages and over $58 billion in assets. Officials could not be reached over the weekend for further details on the Scottsdale operation.

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Brown Shoe Co. saw strong sales in most of its operations during the holiday season, the Clayton-based shoe retailer reported Monday.

Same-stores sales at its Famous Footwear division increased 7 percent in the nine weeks ended January 2.

Comparable sales rose 7.3 percent in the third quarter ended Oct. 31. Same-store sales for its speciality retail division also increased 4.9 percent in that same time period, versus 1.4 percent growth in the third quarter.

Both figures exceeded expectations, the company said. However, Brown didn’t release figures for wholesale operations.

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Moviegoers have shown a willingness to be entangled by Spider-Man’s web over and over again. Now, as Disney prepares to buy the comic book powerhouse Marvel, it faces the question of whether fans will also get attached to characters as obscure as Ant-Man and Iron Fist.

The Walt Disney Co. is making a $4.2 billion bet that they will as it nears completion of its acquisition of Marvel Entertainment Inc. this week. The cash-and-stock deal brings those characters and thousands of others to an entertainment empire that already includes Mickey Mouse, Kermit the Frog and Hannah Montana.

Disney’s biggest challenge will be to get enough people enthused about second-string superheroes to justify the price — about $1.2 billion, or 40 percent more than what Marvel’s stock was worth when the deal was announced Aug. 31.

The high price means Disney will have to find new ways to earn revenue from Marvel — perhaps by bringing Marvel-licensed toys to more store shelves around the world, and by digging deep into its comic vault for potential new blockbusters.

Although Disney is constrained by the fact that big-name Marvel superheroes such as Spider-Man are already locked up in long-term deals with rival movie studios, Disney has had a history of successfully turning unknown talent such as Miley Cyrus, the actress behind "Hannah Montana," into multibillion-dollar enterprises.

"With Marvel, it’s not just about ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Hulk,’" Caris & Co. analyst David Miller said. "It’s all about the other 5,000 characters that you and I don’t even know about yet."

Disney shares are already being helped, having risen more than 20 percent since the deal was announced, partly on the hope for new character development and better use of Marvel heroes in movies, stores and theme parks.

Marvel shareholders are expected to give final approval to the offer on Thursday.

The deal has already spawned a bout of speculation in the comic book world about who will be the Next Big Thing.

Possibilities include classics such as Ant-Man, the alter-ego of mad scientist Dr. Henry Pym, and Dr. Strange, the mystical go-to guy whenever there’s an extradimensional threat. Both are connected to The Avengers line of characters that Marvel had started developing for the big screen long before Disney made the deal; Iron Man and the Hulk are among the Avengers that Marvel already has tapped.

There are about 5,000 more characters, including obscure ones such as martial arts master Iron Fist from the 1970s and up-and-coming ones such as the Runaways, a street-savvy pack of teenagers who have become a recent Marvel comic-book hit.

Whoever is the next star, Marvel has a track record of success: Its "Iron Man" movie took in $572 million at box offices worldwide despite the character once being a B-lister in the pantheon of superheroes.

"They picked the right one and they did it the right way," said Gareb Shamus, whose company Wizard Entertainment Group runs several of the Comic-Con fan conventions around the nation. "When you do that, you’ve got a franchise that could last forever."

Through the deal, Marvel gains the ability to quickly reach more markets worldwide. Disney is by far the world’s top licenser of its character brands, with $30 billion in retail sales in fiscal 2008, compared with fourth-place Marvel at $5.7 billion, according to License! Global magazine.

"It gives Marvel the opportunity to expand internationally and leverage the Disney retail relationships as well as their licensee relationships," said Tony Lisanti, the magazine’s global editorial director.

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Target Corp. and U.S. retailers may lose almost $9 billion in holiday sales as banks rein in lending to cash-strapped consumers before a new credit-card law takes effect.

Sales in November and December may fall 1.2 percent to $436.7 billion from the same period in 2008, said Britt Beemer, chairman of consumer polling firm America’s Research Group. If lenders weren’t cutting customer spending limits and rejecting more credit-card applicants, sales would gain about 0.8 percent to $445.5 billion, he said in a Dec. 21 interview.

Target Chief Financial Officer Douglas Scovanner says the credit-card legislation is exacerbating a spending slump just as consumers begin to consider more discretionary purchases they would usually buy with credit. Items such as clothing, jewelry and home goods suffered steeper declines during the recession and are among the most profitable sales for retailers.

“It will mute the impact of the rebound that would have otherwise occurred,” Scovanner said. “Diminished availability of credit equals diminished spending.”

Reduced lending may shave at least half a percentage point off sales at stores open at least a year once more of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act goes into effect in February, Scovanner said in a Nov. 17 interview in Minneapolis, where the chain is based. In November, Target’s comparable-store sales declined 1.5 percent.

‘Tighten Up’

The act bans so-called universal default, the practice of raising interest rates based on a missed payment with another lender. The rules are already causing lenders to “tighten up,” said Brad Jolson, senior director for risk management solutions at Fair Isaac Corp. FICO, as the company is known, is the Minneapolis-based provider of the credit-scoring formula most widely used by lenders.

Available credit to U.S. consumers through cards fell to $3.6 trillion this year from a peak of $4.7 trillion last year, according to a study released in July by TowerGroup, a Needham, Massachusetts-based financial research and advising firm.

“We’re scared to death of what this law is going to do,” said Edward Record, CFO at Stage Stores Inc., the Houston-based operator of 759 stores including the Bealls and Peebles chains. “It’s definitely going to hurt consumer spending.”

Store-Brand Cards

About a third of Stage Stores’ sales comes from store-brand credit cards, and as much as a quarter from other issuers, Record said in a Dec. 17 telephone interview. He said he expects the general-purpose cards will be more affected because Stage Stores was “pretty conservative” with its own cards.

Stage Stores added 8 cents to $12.42 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday and has advanced 51 percent this year. Target fell 54 cents to $48.79 in trading yesterday. The shares have gained 41 percent this year.

Target also offers its own branded credit cards through a portfolio it funds mainly with JPMorgan Chase & Co. Writeoffs for loans deemed uncollectible rose to 14.99 percent in November on an annualized basis, up from 13.49 percent in October and 11 percent a year earlier, Target said in filings.

Proponents of the credit-card law say the rules protect consumers and put more cash at their disposal, benefiting shoppers and retailers. Some issuers may have hurt sales between the law’s passage and enactment by raising rates in anticipation of the coming restrictions, said U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat and a sponsor of the law.

“Much of the damage was and is self-inflicted,” she said in a Dec. 16 telephone interview. “Virtually all of the consumers I’ve talked to like my card reforms.”

Managing Risk

The law will reduce lenders’ flexibility to manage risk, said Peter Garuccio, a spokesman for the American Bankers Association, a Washington trade group representing about 95 percent of U.S. banking assets. That leaves them the options of “not making cards available or doing so at higher prices,” he said in a telephone interview on Dec. 21.

JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America Corp., the two largest issuers, referred questions on the law to the American Bankers Association. Bank of America decided not to raise card interest rates before the law goes into effect except in instances where customers miss at least two payments within 12 months, Betty Riess, a spokeswoman, said yesterday by telephone.

Less credit hurts larger sales disproportionately, according to Beemer, the consumer researcher.

“Credit drives purchases over $50,” he said. He estimates that half those transactions were made with credit cards before access diminished this year.

Applications Rejected

This year, 22 percent of the consumers that Beemer’s Charleston, South Carolina-based firm surveyed said they had credit-card applications rejected, compared with 12 percent last year. More than 37 percent said their credit limits had been reduced in the past year. That means fewer sales of items such as appliances, Beemer said.

The National Retail Federation, which hasn’t taken a stance on the credit-card law as a whole, has said proposed rules under the law threaten stores’ ability to grant so-called instant credit at checkout.

The Federal Reserve’s proposed guidelines would require retailers to ask customers for information on income and other assets, according to the industry group. That may all but eliminate merchants’ ability to issue store cards or raise borrowing limits at the register, Mallory Duncan, general counsel of the Washington-based federation, said in a telephone interview. The current practice is to use credit scores, purchasing history and other credit-bureau information, he said.

“It’s going to have quite a chilling effect on our ability to initiate new accounts,” Duncan said.

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The Bundesbank raised its growth forecasts for Germany, Europe’s largest economy, saying the outlook for the next two years has “brightened perceptibly.”

Gross domestic product will rise 1.6 percent next year and 1.2 percent in 2011 after dropping 4.9 percent this year, the Frankfurt-based Bundesbank said in its bi-annual economic outlook today. In June, it predicted the economy would stagnate in 2010 after contracting 6.2 percent in 2009.

“The outlook for the German economy has brightened perceptibly in recent months,” the Bundesbank said. The recovery is being driven by “extensive” monetary and fiscal stimulus,” it said, adding that exports, business investment and private consumption will gain in importance as those measures wane.

The economic revival in Germany is helping the 16-nation euro region shake off its worst recession since World War II, giving the European Central Bank room to scale back its emergency stimulus measures. The ECB yesterday said it will reduce its long-term lending to banks next year in an exit strategy that some economists say paves the way for eventual interest-rate increases in the second half of 2010.

“Germany fell further in the recession, so it can expect a bit more of a bounce,” said Colin Ellis, an economist at Daiwa Securities SMBC Ltd. in London. “The ECB will have to be very cautious about removing stimulus too early no faxing 1 hour payday loans. Pricing pressures are likely to remain subdued.”

Benign Inflation

The Bundesbank said German inflation will remain benign, averaging 0.9 percent next year and 1 percent in 2011 after just 0.3 percent this year. It predicted unemployment will rise to 10.1 percent in 2011 from 8.1 percent today.

It’s a “balancing act” for central banks to withdraw stimulus measures without threatening the economy, Bundesbank President Axel Weber, who also is a member of the ECB’s Governing Council, said yesterday in an interview with ARD television. “There’s no need to send a signal on interest rates at the moment” as inflation is contained, he said.

Germany’s economy emerged from recession in the second quarter and growth accelerated to 0.7 percent in the third. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is spending 85 billion euros ($128 billion) to stimulate activity, while demand for the country’s goods is growing as the global recovery gathers pace.

Exports will gain 4.5 percent next year and 4.3 percent in 2011, according to the Bundesbank. It predicts consumer spending will increase 0.2 percent in 2010 and 1 percent the following year.

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