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February 12, 2010

Hawaiian Electric Industries profit falls

Filed under: marketing — Tags: , , — Gogo @ 8:14 pm

The parent company of Hawaiian Electric Co. and American Savings Bank posted lower earnings for fiscal 2009 compared to 2008.

Hawaiian Electric Industries (NYSE: HEI) reported a profit of $102.3 million for fiscal 2009, an 18.7 percent decrease from the $125.9 million it earned in fiscal 2008.

That figure, however, includes $19.3 million in after-tax charges related to a previous sale of the bank’s mortgage-related securities portfolio.

Total revenue was down for the year to $2.3 billion, compared to $3.2 billion the previous year.

HEI attributed the decrease to lower kilowatt-hour sales at its electric utilities, increases in utility operations and bank credit expenses.

“It was a challenging year and we made difficult decisions to curb spending and reduce risk, while continuing to progress forward with long-term strategic initiatives to move Hawaii toward a clean-energy future and improved performance and profitability at both our utility and bank,” said Constance Lau, HEI president and CEO, in a prepared statement payday advance.

Electric utility earnings were $79.4 million for the year, compared to $92 million the previous year. Kilowatt-hour sales were off 2.5 percent while operating expenses increased by $5.3 million.

Income from American Savings Bank was up 22 percent for the year to $21.8 million. But, the company said adjusted net income from the bank was $41.1 million and $53.4 million in 2009 and 2008, respectively, a 23 percent decrease for the year. The non-adjusted figures include the after-tax charge in 2009 and a balance sheet restructuring charge in 2008.

“Like many banks across the country, our bank was affected by the economic pressures in 2009,” Lau said. “However, as we have done throughout the economic crisis, we kept capital healthy and depositors’ money safe.”

Shares of Hawaiian Electric Industries stock were up 1.4 percent to $42.78 on Thursday.

Source

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February 6, 2010

Federal transit official announcing FasTracks funding

Filed under: online — Tags: , — Gogo @ 5:14 pm

The top transit official for President Barack Obama’s administration will be in Denver Friday announcing major funding for the FasTracks project.

Peter Rogoff, head of the Federal Transit Administration, is to join U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Phil Washington, the head of the Regional Transportation District, at Denver Union Station on Friday afternoon.

He may be here to talk about a $300 million federal loan to help cover the cost of redeveloping Denver Union Station, the hub of the FasTracks project. The Denver City Council last week gave its approval to using city money to repay a portion of the loan if tax revenues couldn’t.

This week, three lines that are part of FasTracks received word of federal money, through Obama’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2011, to help pay for construction. Obama’s proposal included:

• $40 million for the West corridor from downtown to Golden, part of an existing $308 million commitment by the federal government to help pay for the line.

• $40 million for the Gold line from downtown to Wheat Ridge, and $40 million for the East line from downtown to Denver International Airport — via a line item listed as “New Full Funding Grant Agreement Funding Recommendations,” which Rogoff said Tuesday, during a conference call with reporters, signaled the government’s intention to help pay for the line.

The Gold and the East line are on a list of “projects that we’re including in the budget, and we’re signaling our intention to sign a full funding grant agreement on these projects before Sept. 30, 2011,” Rogoff said Tuesday during the call.

Still outstanding is the status of the $300 million loan for Denver Union Station.

Paul Griffo, spokesman for the Federal Transit Administration, wouldn’t confirm or deny that Rogoff would discuss the loan in Denver on Friday.

Source

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January 22, 2010

No joint Saab bid: Spyker

Filed under: legal — Tags: , — Gogo @ 7:57 am

AMSTERDAM–Dutch sports car maker Spyker denied Sunday it had plans to jointly bid for General Motors’ Saab with Luxembourg investment firm Genii Capital.

German WirtschaftsWoche business weekly, in abstracts of a story to be published on Jan. 18, said the two companies, which have been trying individually to clinch a deal to buy the money-losing Swedish automaker, had now teamed up.

Spyker chief executive Victor Muller, in a reply to Reuters via text message, responded "No," when asked if Spyker was in contact with Genii about a joint bid for Saab or had changed its strategy.

Genii is backed by Formula 1 mogul Bernie Ecclestone.

Lars Carlstrom, who is coordinating the bid for Saab by Genii Capital and Ecclestone, told Reuters there had been some talks with Spyker’s Muller last week but that he could not confirm nor deny anything related to a joint bid.

GM Europe spokesman Stephan Weinmann said GM was in talks about Saab but he declined to comment whether discussions were ongoing with one or several bidders.

GM said on Monday it would move ahead with closing Saab down. On Tuesday, it appointed two supervisors to oversee a wind-down, though it said it would continue to consider "several purchase proposals it has received for Saab."

The magazine’s abstract said: "According to WirtschaftsWoche information, Spyker Cars and Genii Capital have been in contact in order to make a last-second joint offer." It did not give other details.

On Tuesday, Muller said GM’s decision on Saab was a matter of "days not weeks."

Meanwhile, more than 2,000 Saab drivers gathered in their cars in the Swedish brand’s hometown Sunday to show support for the iconic mark.

"It’s hard to know exactly how many cars there were, but an estimate we’ve done puts the number at 2,500," Claes Robertsson, the head of Saab Turbo Club of Sweden, a group of Saab admirers, told AFP.

Robertsson said both Saab employees and brand enthusiasts had attended the rally, in which drivers from Germany, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Britain also took part.

Swedish news agency TT said the demonstration started at the Saab museum in its southwestern Swedish hometown of Trollhaettan and ended at the Saab factory.

According to police, the four-kilometre stretch was entirely filled by Saab cars, TT reported.

In the Netherlands, more than 500 Dutch Saab lovers rallied.

Saab, which employs 3,400 people in Sweden, is one of four major brands being sold by GM as part of a massive restructuring that began in 2005 and accelerated last year when the largest U.S. automaker went bankrupt.

Analysts have warned some 8,000 jobs could be lost with Saab’s closure.

Source

January 2, 2010

Citing success, St. Patrick-based jobless networking group looks to expand to 6 cities

Filed under: marketing — Tags: , , — Gogo @ 11:27 am

When officials at the St. Patrick Center hatched the idea of shifting some of the center’s resources from the homeless to a support group for the recently unemployed, they estimated an effort serving perhaps 600 people for maybe a few months.

That was a year ago.

Today, the result of the center’s brainstorm — the Go! Network — boasts a membership database of 2,400 names (and counting). It has an open-ended commitment to continue serving the unemployed until the so-called jobless recession runs its course. And its organizers hope to expand it to other cities.

"To me, it’s been life-changing," said Caren Libby of Wildwood, who started attending Go! Network meetings after leaving her part-time job more than a year ago.

"Go! Network has given me the opportunity to utilize social media and make contacts."

Libby had been doing promotions for UniGroup Inc. in Fenton when she started seeing hints that her job was about to be eliminated or its hours sharply cut. Now, she has almost enough freelance marketing work to qualify as a full-time businesswoman, she says. Her business grew substantially after she volunteered to do marketing work for Go! Network.

"That helped me tremendously to grow my skills," she said, and helped her meet business contacts she wouldn’t otherwise have encountered.

In fact, Go! Network’s concept has proven so successful that St. Patrick and the internal subsidiary overseeing it, Celtic Creative, are actively pursuing public and private funding that would expand the program to six other U.S. cities: Cincinnati, Louisville, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Columbus and Memphis.

Dan Buck, the executive director of the center, said the model — giving employees displaced from professional positions a place to meet and address the myriad problems associated with joblessness — will work elsewhere.

"Outside of professional organizations, there (are few) community-driven comprehensive networks for out-of-work professionals," he said.

Buck and Chuck Aranda, the head of Celtic Creative, acknowledge they were unsure what lay ahead as they set the groundwork for the Go! Network on a budget of $200,000 in late 2008.

What they did know is that the recession, then reaching full speed, demanded some sort of response.

"Personally, we all knew somebody who was hurting," Buck said.

And he figured St. Patrick Center, with its track record of creating employment opportunities for the homeless, was in a good position to do something about it.

"We were finding a lot of people in this position who didn’t know where to go or what to do," Aranda said.

"They needed a professional environment."

Buck and Aranda figured on 100 or so showing up at the group’s first meeting, in early February 2009 — barely a month after the idea for the support group was first broached.

The 200-plus who spilled into the St. Patrick auditorium were the first clue of what lay ahead.

Aranda and Buck are quick to deflect credit for the Go! Network’s popularity and successes.

Much of the funding, they note, has come from corporate sources (including Anheuser-Busch) with a big boost from the United Way.

In the same manner, it is the members themselves who determine the focus of each Tuesday’s meetings and the topics addressed — many dealing with the financial and emotional toll of unemployment — in small group settings.

"St. Patrick Center didn’t drive the train," Buck said. "We just created the track."

Since last February, that line has brought 118 human resources executives from 46 area companies to Go! Network functions. Academics, mental health professionals and others have also paid visits.

So far, what Buck calls a "connector system for multi-skilled professionals" has played a part in helping 26 percent of the group’s members land jobs.

"What’s unique about this is the community response," Aranda said. "It shows what can happen when a combination of stakeholders in a community come together to help this population."

It’s time, he and Buck say, that other communities hard-hit by the economy have the same opportunity.

Buck flew last month to Washington where he met with Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, and U.S. Department of Labor officials about establishing Go! Networks — or variations there-of — in Kansas City and the five other cities.

Aranda and Buck said the St. Patrick Center would provide the wherewithal, the infrastructure and the existing Go! Network website (GoNetworkSTL.com) as a template.

The government would provide funding, perhaps from the Federal Recovery Act. The United Way, Buck said, has already expressed a willingness to join forces with St. Patrick in setting up programs in the six other urban areas.

Aranda stressed the networks in all cities will follow the lead of St. Louis by emphasizing the creation of new jobs by promoting start-up entrepreneurial efforts.

Whether the Go! Network lands one other city or all six on the wish list, Aranda said the objective will remain as clear as it is simple: "It’s responding to the needs and helping the people themselves respond to those needs in a difficult time."

Source

December 14, 2009

New Zealand House Prices Increase at Slower Pace

Filed under: management — Tags: , — Gogo @ 9:21 pm

New Zealand house prices increased at a slower pace in November and property sales fell for a second month as home-loan interest rates increase.

Prices rose 0.2 percent from October when they gained 1.3 percent, the Auckland-based Real Estate Institute of New Zealand Inc. said today in an e-mailed statement, citing an index. Property sales fell to 6,056.

Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard last week said house- price inflation would moderate in 2010, reducing the need for him to raise the benchmark interest rate before the middle of the year. Lenders have increased home-loan interest rates for fixed terms of one year or longer as global funding costs have increased, curbing demand for property.

“No longer do borrowers get the benefit of certainty and low rates that had been a feature of previous cycles,” said Khoon Goh, senior economist at ANZ National Bank Ltd. in Wellington. “The prospect of higher interest rates and a still weak labor market will continue to be major headwinds facing the housing market.”

The interest rate on a two-year home loan was 7.15 percent in October from 6.31 percent in June, according to central bank figures Online payday loans. Bollard on Dec. 10 said he may increase the official cash rate around the middle of 2010.

The jobless rate rose to a nine-year high of 6.5 percent in the third quarter and may reach 6.7 percent next year, the central bank forecast last week.

House Sales

House sales slumped last year amid a deepening recession, and only began rising on an annual basis in March. Sales in November surged 41.5 percent from a year earlier to 6,056, the institute said today.

Still, sales fell for a second month in November from 6,091 in October and 6,464 in September.

The level of sales is consistent with troughs in previous housing downturns, Goh said.

The dip “could hint at the start of an easing in housing market activity at a time when we are getting a supply response with a rise in the number of houses for sale,” he said.

The median time to sell a house rose to 33 days from 31 in October, and fell from 44 days in November last year, the institute said today.

Source

December 3, 2009

Dollar falls as Dubai debt fears ease

Filed under: economics — Tags: , — Gogo @ 10:50 pm

The yen fell broadly on Tuesday after the Bank of Japan announced more measures to ease monetary policy to help the ailing economy following an emergency meeting, while holding interest rates at 0.1%.

Despite its gains against the yen, the dollar fell against other major currencies as risk appetite improved after more clarity about the debt situation in Dubai eased some concerns about the region’s stability.

The yen struggled, but pared losses as the BOJ’s move to provide three-month funds at rock-bottom rates surprised some in the market who had been expecting bolder policy steps, such as expanding purchases of government bonds to push yields down.

Addressing strength in the yen, which shot to a 14-year high against the dollar last week, BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said the central bank’s commitment to keeping rates low would have an effect on currencies in the long run.

"The message is that the BOJ isn’t completely indifferent to currency rates, and this should at least be marginally yen-negative," said Adam Cole, global head of currency strategy at RBC in London, while acknowledging the yen’s initial reaction to the comments had been limited.

Shirakawa spoke to reporters after the BOJ introduced a new operation to provide 10 trillion yen in three-month funds at a fixed rate of 0.1% in a bid to enhance monetary easing by trying to bring down longer-term rates.

The dollar traded 0.5% higher on the day at ¥86.80, having hit ¥87.54 earlier in the day.

The dollar has suffered against the yen, hitting ¥84.82 late last week for the first time since mid-1995, as dollar interbank borrowing costs have fallen below yen ones this year.

The euro rose 1% to ¥130.90, while higher-yielding currencies including the Australian and New Zealand dollar rallied as much as 2% versus the yen.

The euro rose 0.4% to $1.5065 as risk demand rose after restructuring plans by Dubai World, which has been the center of concerns about the region’s debt position, eased some woes about the area’s financial health.

The dollar index fell 0.5% to 74.550, while European share prices rallied roughly 2%.

"The market is keeping an eye on Dubai, but it realizes that it’s likely this won’t lead to a systematic decline in Dubai’s financial sector, so traders are willing to take on risk," said Jane Foley, research director at Forex.com in London.

More dollar/yen weakness?

The Australian dollar rose nearly 1% on the day to $0.9230, boosted after the Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates by 25 basis points to 3.75 as expected on Tuesday in its third consecutive hike.

Many in the market expect the dollar to stay weak against the yen, which may seriously hamper Japan’s ability to recovery from recession.

Analysts said there was little standing in the way of more yen strength against the dollar so long as U.S. interest rates also remain essentially at zero, and that the prospects of yen-weakening intervention by Japan will remain low given the dollar’s overall weakness.

"(The new BOJ operation) is unlikely to either have a material impact on economic recovery or alter the downward momentum in USD/JPY," analysts at BTM said in a note.

"In fact it may even exacerbate USD weakness by further encouraging the establishment of liquidity fueled USD-funded risk trades."

Political pressure on the BOJ to avert recession has grown, but Tuesday’s decision is seen as a way to avoid a return to a narrow form of quantitative easing, under which the BOJ slashed rates to zero and flooded markets with cash in 2001-2006. 

Source

December 2, 2009

Colorado ranked 8th friendliest to small business

Filed under: legal — Tags: , , — Gogo @ 7:33 pm

Colorado once again ranks high among the states in a report on business climate — this one from the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, a lobbying and policy group.

The SBE Council's "Small Business Survival Index 2009" rates the states on their public policy climates for small business and entrepreneurship, particularly on their tax structures. It ranks Colorado No. 8, up from 10th last year and 11th the year before.

Besides taxes, factors in the ranking — released Tuesday — include regulatory costs, government spending, property rights policies, crime rate and health care and energy costs.

"Most politicians talk a good game when it comes to small business, but their actions don’t often match their rhetoric," SBE Council chief economist Raymond Keating said in a statement. " … Small businesses, of course, drive innovation, economic growth and job creation. If we want to get our economy back on a solid, robust growth track, then we need pro-entrepreneur policies at the federal, state and local levels.”

The council assigned index numbers ranging from 25.693 for South Dakota — deemed the friendliest state for small business — to 84.795 to the District of Columbia — deemed the least friendly.

Colorado's index is 48.250.

Among the Centennial State's individual rankings in the report are:

• 8th for lowest top corporate income tax rates.

• 10th for lowest top corporate capital gains tax rates.

• 15th for lowest state and local sales and excise taxes.

• 18th for lowest electric utility costs.

• 20th for fewest state and local government employees.

• 20th for lowest state and local property taxes.

• 22nd for lowest crime rate.

• 28th for lowest state and local government spend, 2006-07.

• 36th for fewest "health insurance mandates."

Rated ahead of Colorado as most friendly to small business are South Dakota, Nevada, Texas, Wyoming, Washington, Florida and South Carolina.

New the bottom along with D.C. are New Jersey, California and New York.

The Oakton, Va.-based SBE Council is a business advocacy group that says it "works to educate elected officials, policy makers, business leaders and the public to advance initiatives that enhance the environment for entrepreneurship, business start-up and growth."

The group has been visible recently in its opposition to the health-care reform measure that has passed the U.S. House and another that is before the U.S. Senate, calling them overly burdensome to business.

Click here to download the SBEC's summary of its report in PDF format.

And click here for the full report.

In September, Colorado was ranked in fourth place by Forbes.com as among the best states for business in a report assessing business costs, labor supply, regulatory environment, economic climate, growth prospects and quality of life. State officials have been crowing about that ranking ever since. (DBJ report.)

Also in September, the Washington-based Tax Foundation said Colorado has the 13th most business-friendly tax system in the country. (DBJ report.)

Source

November 26, 2009

Crib recall: 2.1 million deemed unsafe

Filed under: management — Tags: , , — Gogo @ 1:33 pm

The federal agency in charge of product safety announced the recall of 2.1 million cribs Monday, citing defective hardware that can cause toddlers and infants to suffocate.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said parents should immediately stop using Stork Craft drop-side cribs, which are made by Stork Craft Manufacturing Inc., of British Columbia, Canada.

About 1.2 million of the cribs have been distributed in the United States and 968,000 units distributed in Canada.

The recall includes about 147,000 Stork Craft drop-side cribs with the Fisher-Price logo, the CPSC said.

The cribs were sold at major retailers including Sears and Wal-Mart and online at Amazon.com and Target.com between January 1993 and October 2009.

The CPSC said the cribs’ drop-side, which is attached with plastic hardware, can detach unexpectedly and create a space between the crib wall and the adjacent mattress. Infants and toddlers can become trapped in the space and suffocate or fall to the floor, the agency said.

There have been 110 documented incidents of drop-side detachment, including 67 in the United States and 43 in Canada. Among those, four resulted in suffocation and 20 resulted in falls that caused injuries ranging from concussion to bumps and bruises.

It was the second time Stork Craft cribs were recalled this year. In January, about 535,000 were recalled amid safety concerns.

Safety advocates have urged federal regulators to impose tougher standards on companies that make drop-side cribs and some have called for an outright ban. "CPSC is working on new federal rules to make all cribs safer," said agency spokesperson Scott Wolfson.

Before Monday’s announcement, more than 5 million cribs, bassinets and play yards had been recalled since the beginning of 2007, according to CPSC.

This includes the recall of 400,000 drop-side cribs by manufacturer Simplicity in July, as the result of some fatalities, according to the CPSC. The agency also said that 600,000 drop-side cribs were recalled by Delta Enterprise in October electronic check payday advance. The recalls were prompted by concerns that infants and toddlers could get trapped by the mechanism of the crib and suffocate.

"This has certainly been a hazard that we’ve been aware of for some time," said Nancy Cowles, director of Kids In Danger, a Chicago-based advocacy group. Drop-side cribs have been associated with "dozens of deaths" over the years, she added.

Toys "R" Us, one of the largest retailers of nursery furniture, said it has decided to stop placing orders for drop-side cribs and expects to stop carrying them by the end of 2009.

Jennifer Albano, a Toys "R" Us spokesperson, said the company supports proposed standards that would, among other things, require that cribs no longer be manufactured with a drop-side.

Albano said a consortium of crib manufacturers, consumer safety advocates and a products standards organization met with the CPSC in March to discuss the possibility of changing voluntary production standards for cribs as part of ongoing efforts to improve safety.

However, no official decision has been made and Toys "R" Us does still have some drop-side cribs in stock, Albano said.

Major retailers in the United States and Canada sold the recalled cribs including BJ’s Wholesale Club, J.C. Penney, Kmart, Meijer, Sears (SHLD, Fortune 500), USA Baby, and Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) stores and online at Amazon.com (AMZN, Fortune 500), Babiesrus.com, Costco.com, Target.com (TGT, Fortune 500), and Walmart.com from January 1993 through October 2009 for between $100 and $400.

The cribs were manufactured in Canada, China and Indonesia.

Meanwhile, the legislature in Suffolk County, N.Y., at the eastern end of Long Island, banned sales of the drop-side crib in October.  

Source

November 22, 2009

JPMorgan takes control of Cazenove

Filed under: online — Tags: , — Gogo @ 7:28 am

JPMorgan Chase & Co is beefing up in Europe by buying the half of Cazenove it does not already own in a deal valuing the 190-year old UK brokerage at $3.4 billion.

J.P. Morgan Cazenove will become a wholly owned part of JPMorgan and its UK investment banking operations will continue to operate as J.P. Morgan Cazenove, the U.S. investment bank said on Thursday.

The deal, which will land windfalls for dozens of top London dealmakers, involves David Mayhew remaining chairman of J.P. Morgan Cazenove, while Chief Executive Naguib Kheraj will oversee the integration, the company said.

JPMorgan (JPM, Fortune 500), the second largest U.S. bank by assets, bought half of Cazenove five years ago to create a UK investment banking joint venture, and as expected took up the option to complete the deal.

JPMorgan has weathered the financial crisis better than most rivals and is now taking advantage of their problems and grabbing opportunities. It said it will pay 535 pence per Cazenove share, valuing the 50% stake at £1 billion ($1.67 billion).  

Source

November 6, 2009

Pay czar says jury still out on reforms

Filed under: technology — Tags: , , — Gogo @ 10:32 pm

The U.S. official who slashed pay for 25 top financial executives on Thursday said regulatory proposals to rein in excessive compensation are like plain “vanilla prescriptions” that might work or might not.

U.S. pay czar Kenneth Feinberg told a panel at New York University law school that his rulings drew so much public interest because they concerned pay for specific individuals, while other regulators have offered only general proposals. He said those proposals sound good, but have not been tested.

“As far as I know, we are the only one who have actually calculated pay,” Feinberg, the Obama administration’s point man on pay, said during the panel discussion about the future of regulation and the capital markets.

Last month, Feinberg slashed compensation for the top 25 earners at the seven companies for the final two months of the year — when bonuses are typically paid.

The seven companies are American International Group Inc, Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, General Motors Co GM.UL, Chrysler, GMAC and Chrysler Financial.

Feinberg has said financial firms should be prepared to face tough scrutiny from regulators on pay plans.

The Federal Reserve last month issued bank pay guidelines aimed at curbing the type of reckless risk-taking officials say contributed to the crisis that nearly brought down the financial system last year payday loan in advance.

Top bank executives met with Fed officials on Monday to discuss the process for the incentive compensation arrangement reviews that are part of the new guidelines.

Feinberg said his office has met regularly with Fed officials and has also met with officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission and with Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Feinberg was appointed as the pay czar in June amid public outrage that companies bailed out by the government were still paying huge bonuses.

Before his first wave of rulings, Feinberg joked he might need to move to Pluto because of the reaction he expected. But on Thursday he said he felt the reaction was “satisfactory.”

The panel also included Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the U.S. Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, which was used to bailout banks amid the financial crisis.

Feinberg is now in the process of ruling on the compensation structures that will apply to the 26th to 100th highest-paid workers at the seven firms. (Reporting by Steve Eder; Editing by David Gregorio)

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