Finance topics

August 12, 2010

Promotions and Hirings: August 10

Filed under: management — Tags: , — Gogo @ 3:24 am

Editor’s note: Each day, we will share several items from the People on the Move section we publish each Friday in our print edition. The full list is available only to Triangle Business Journal subscribers. If you are not a subscriber but would like earlier access to the People on the Move section, you can subscribe here.

Architecture, Engineering & Design

BBH Design hired Katherine Truncellito as a designer.

Banking/Finance

Fifth Third Bank named John Schiappa, Russ Fallis, Rob Weaver and Jason Douglas commercial relationship managers on the bank’s middle market banking team in Raleigh guaranteed payday loan.

First Citizens Bank named Denton Lee business segment manager. He is responsible for overseeing business and treasury services, leasing, working capital finance, First Citizens Insurance Services and the bank’s international division.

AXA Advisors LLC hired Will Humphrey and Dan Paradise as financial professionals in its Raleigh office.

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July 26, 2010

Crestwood community leaders speak against Trinity relocation plans

Filed under: technology — Tags: , , — Gogo @ 2:12 pm

Reps. Patricia Todd and Earl Hilliard stood alongside Crestwood community leaders Friday to speak out against Trinity Medical Center’s proposed move to U.S. 280.

Todd called the planned move to HealthSouth’s empty Digital Hospital “despicable,” while Al Rutledge, president of the Killough Springs Neighborhood Association, said Trinity is moving to get closer to a wealthier population of Birmingham, leaving the Crestwood area underserved.

“It’s the money, let’s just face it,” he said. “They want to say they are following their constituents or whatever but that’s not the case.

Trinity Medical, which has been looking to replace its 40-year-old facility for several years, first made plans to build a $316 million hospital on Grants Mill Road off Interstate 459 in Irondale. It later scrapped that plan to relocate in HealthSouth’s hospital that was left unfinished after a massive accounting fraud scandal.

Several area hospitals are opposing Trinity’s move to the HealthSouth facility and a hearing with an administrative law judge is expected in the next 30 days to determine whether Trinity can go forward with receiving state approval installment payday loans.

Keith Granger, CEO of Trinity, said greater opportunities for health care service resides in the new facility.

“When you look at the overall activities of Trinity Medical Center…we serve many communities, and we serve a much larger neighborhood,” he said. “Patients from all over the state – they are looking for accessibility and technology.”

Trinity Medical currently occupies a facility dating back 40 years, which Granger said would be much more difficult to update technologically. He said the present concerns of neighbors have been heard.

“We certainly want to be sensitive to the community, but it’s compelling to look to the future,” he said. “We’ll do everything in our power to be a good neighbor and hopefully help in any way for future options here.”

Source

July 17, 2010

Schwab’s Q2 profit flat, but above estimates

Filed under: technology — Tags: , , — Gogo @ 2:24 pm

Charles Schwab's second-quarter profit was flat year over year, but beat analysts' estimates.

The San Francisco brokerage said Friday that it had net income of $205 million, or 17 cents per diluted share, in the second quarter compared with $205 million, or 18 cents per diluted share, a year ago.

Schwab’s (NASDAQ: SCHW) second-quarter revenue was $1.08 billion, compared with $1 payday loan online.085 billion a year earlier.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected earnings of 15 cents per share on $1.06 billion in revenue.

The company's shares closed up 4.05 percent at $15.14 in trading Friday.

Source

July 14, 2010

Warren Moon forms sports marketing firm

Filed under: legal — Tags: , , — Gogo @ 8:51 pm

Former Houston Oilers quarterback Warren Moon has dropped back and thrown a deep pass into the world of sports and entertainment marketing.

Moon has opened a new company, Sports 1 Marketing, in Irvine, Calif., and has hired Dave Meltzer, formerly with high profile sports agent Leigh Steinberg to serve as chief executive officer. Moon is president of the firm.

Sports 1 Marketing will offer services for corporate or event clients with athletes and coaches to formulate advertising and sponsorship campaigns.

“Starting this business is something that I’ve been thinking about doing for quite some time, and I am confident that both the timing and the sports business environment are properly aligned,” said Moon.

Moon chose the name Sports 1 to mirror the uniform number he wore as a college football player with the University of Washington and as a professional. He played six seasons with the Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Eskimos before joining the National Football League’s Houston Oilers, where he played from 1984-1993 online payday loans. He retired in 2000 and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005.

Added Meltzer, “I am delighted to be joining forces with one of the greatest players, community activists and businessmen in recent NFL annals,” said Meltzer.

Moon, who had worked as a broadcaster for Seattle Seahawks games last season, signed a deal in April to promote a California energy drink, FITT Energy with Reservatrol, which is featured on the new Sports 1 Marketing Web site.

FITT Energy is made by Who’s Your Daddy Inc. (OTCBB: WYDI), of Mission Viejo, Calif.

Moon can be seen here promoting the product, wearing his Oilers football team uniform.

Source

July 2, 2010

NIH issues study grant to UNF professor

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

A professor at the University of North Florida has been awarded a National Institute of Health grant for $145,000 to study knee pain.

Michelle Boling, an assistant professor in the Department of Clinical and Applied Movement Sciences at the UNF, will study the structural and biomechanical as well as demographic and psychosocial risk factors associated with patellofemoral pain syndrome. The syndrome is one of the most common causes of knee pain.

She is collaborating with researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, College of Charleston, Uniformed Services University and the United States Military Academy.

“We hope that the findings from this investigation may be used to develop injury prevention programs to decrease the risk of developing PFP,” said Boling cash advance in one hour.

She hopes to learn if risk factors for the condition are gender-specific. It affects approximately 25 percent of the physically-active population, with females being 2 to 3 times more likely to develop it than their male counterparts.

Boling has been a faculty member at UNF since 2008 and has previously received a Transformational Learning Opportunity Grant from UNF, a University of North Carolina Future Faculty Fellowship and an Outstanding Alumni award by the University of Kentucky College of Health Sciences.

Source

June 25, 2010

KBR wins Argentina ammonia plant contract

Filed under: news — Tags: , , — Gogo @ 7:45 am

KBR Inc. has been awarded a contract by Tierra Del Fuego Power & Chemical Co. Ltd.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The Houston engineering construction and services company will provide licensing and process design for a grassroots ammonia plant in Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina.

The plant will use natural gas to produce high-yield fertilizer. KBR (NYSE: KBR) plans to begin work on the project in July.

Tierra Del Fuego Power & Chemical is the largest Chinese investment in Argentina, made up of a joint venture between Shaanxi Coal and Chemical Industry Group Co. Ltd., Shaanxi Xinyida Investment Ltd. and Jinduicheng Molybdenum Group Co. Ltd.

Source

June 21, 2010

Toyota, GM on sales, production upswing

Filed under: term — Tags: , , — Gogo @ 3:26 pm

DETROIT — Toyota said on Thursday that it would resume construction of a Mississippi plant that had been suspended 18 months ago because of the recession.

And in another sign that auto sales have improved considerably, General Motors said it would skip the annual summer shutdown at all but two of its United States plants to keep up with demand.

Toyota said its $1.3 billion plant in Blue Spring, Miss., was scheduled to begin building Corolla compact cars, not sport utility vehicles or hybrid cars as previously planned, in the fall of 2011.

Toyota said it would hire 2,000 people, the same number of jobs it originally planned to create at the plant, which is 90 miles southeast of Memphis.

Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi was scheduled to meet company executives on Thursday at the plant, which was 90 percent finished in December 2008 when Toyota halted the project amid plunging sales nationwide.

"Toyota appreciates the patience of Governor Barbour and all Mississippians, but we first needed to fully utilize our existing facilities as the economy slowed," Yoshimi Inaba, the president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor North America, said in a statement.

"Now it’s time to fulfill Toyota’s promise in Mississippi," the statement said. "Toyota remains committed to making vehicles where we sell them and to maintaining a substantial manufacturing presence in North America."

GM said that operating nine of its 11 United States assembly plants for two extra weeks would allow it to build 56,000 additional vehicles. Some temporary workers might be hired.

The only plants that GM does not plan to keep running are in Lordstown, Ohio, which will soon start building the new Chevrolet Cruze compact car, and in Shreveport, La., which builds midsize pickup trucks and is scheduled to close by 2012.

The Detroit automakers have traditionally shut their plants in early July to prepare for building the next year’s models.

"This move will help buyers waiting for high-demand products such as the Buick LaCrosse, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia," Mark Reuss, the president of GM North America, said in a statement. "Our manufacturing teams are taking creative approaches to increase production and reduce the wait times for our dealers and customers."

Toyota said the Mississippi plant’s opening would mean "nearly all" Corollas sold in North America would be built in the United States and Canada. Some production of the Corolla, one of Toyota’s top-selling models, was moved to Japan in April, when Toyota closed a plant in Fremont, Calif., where it was assembled.

The California plant had been a joint venture of Toyota and General Motors, but GM withdrew after its bankruptcy filing last year, and Toyota said it could not operate the plant without a partner. Toyota now plans to build electric cars there in partnership with another automaker, Tesla.

Toyota initially planned to build sport utility vehicles at the Mississippi plant, then in mid-2008 said it would build Prius hybrid cars there after a surge in gas prices and demand for fuel-efficient vehicles. Toyota on Thursday did not address whether it would eventually build the Prius, which is imported from Japan, in North America.

Toyota said the building was "essentially complete" and that most of the remaining work involves equipment installation. About 60 people already work at the plant’s administration office.

Source

May 19, 2010

Wall Street faces N.Y. probe on ratings data

Filed under: technology, term — Tags: , , — Gogo @ 12:24 pm

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is launching an investigation into some of Wall Street’s top firms to determine whether they provided misleading information to credit rating agencies.

A total of eight firms are part of the probe, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse (CS), Citigroup, UBS, Credit Agricole and Merrill Lynch, which has since been acquired by Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500).

Cuomo’s office confirmed that it is launching the investigation, which was initially reported by The New York Times, but would not comment further.

Bank of America spokesman Bill Halldin said the bank is "cooperating with the attorney general’s office on this matter," and Credit Agricole released a statement confirming it too is part of the investigation and will cooperate with authorities. Credit rating agency Fitch said it also plans to cooperate in the investigation.

Goldman Sachs, UBS and Citigroup declined to comment. Spokespeople for the other institutions named were not immediately available.

Critics have repeatedly suggested that the relationship between Wall Street firms and the credit rating agencies was a key factor contributing to the economic meltdown.

Hungry for business, rating agencies assigned top marks to securities issued by banks that would eventually turn toxic. Financial firms, on the other hand, would employ a wide variety of techniques to get higher ratings on their investment products, according to the critics.

Critics have long grumbled that the rating agencies were also slow to lower the debt ratings for troubled financial firms and warn of the risks of bonds and other securities tied to subprime mortgages.

A separate report published Thursday revealed that federal prosecutors are expanding a criminal probe into whether big banks misled investors about their participation in mortgage-bond deals, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper, citing a person familiar with the matter, said JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), Deutsche Bank (DB) and UBS (UBS) have received civil subpoenas from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

They join fellow Wall Street firms Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) and Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500), which are believed to be under the scrutiny by U.S. prosecutors and regulators.

The paper said the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York and the SEC are working together to see whether these firms made proper disclosures when they created and sold complex investments tied to home loans, better known as collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in New York declined to comment on the Journal report, as did Citigroup and UBS. Spokespeople for the other institutions named in the story were not immediately available.

The reports of the widening criminal probes of Wall Street banks weighed on bank shares Thursday. Most of the companies were trading lower.

Goldman shares are down about 22% since the SEC filed fraud charges against it last month.

Morgan Stanley shares tumbled Wednesday when reports that it was being investigated first surfaced, but the stock pared losses and ended the day just 2% lower. Shares were slightly higher Thursday.

– CNNMoney.com’s David Ellis and Grace Wong contributed to this story. 

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May 16, 2010

Mortgage rates at lowest level of the year

Filed under: technology — Tags: , , — Gogo @ 9:09 am

Long-term mortgage rates fell to the lowest level of the year this week, after falling for five consecutive weeks.

Freddie Mac's (NYSE: FRE) weekly rate report puts the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 4.93 percent in the week ending May 13, down from 5 percent last week.

A one-year adjustable rate mortgage was 4.02 percent, down from 4.07 percent.

With the homebuyer tax credit now expired, low borrowing rates remain the most attractive incentive for buyers.

The National Association of Realtors this week reported year-over-year housing prices rose in 91 of the nation's 151 largest metropolitan areas. In the Washington area, median prices last quarter were up 4.7 percent from a year ago.

Source

April 4, 2010

Australian coal producer rejects $3 billion Peabody offer

Filed under: economics — Tags: , , — Gogo @ 1:24 pm

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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