Business life: My finance news blog

Zen 32 sushi restaurant closing in Phoenix

Tuesday, 24. August 2010 von Mercedes

Valley sushi restaurant Zen 32 is closing its doors. Operators cite a number of reasons for the closing, including the costs associated with a desired remodel.

The trendy asian-fusion grille was a long-time standard in Phoenix, offering up sushi, a grill menu and a popular outdoor patio at the corner of 32nd Street and Camelback Road in the Camelback Corridor.

The sushi-n-sake spot, which had received four stars from online reviewers such as Trip Advisor and others, is expected to close its doors by the end of the month, but will continue to offer its weekday sushi Happy Hour from 4:30 to 6:30 p payday loan lenders.m. Monday through Friday and a reverse happy hour starting at 10 p.m. nightly.

For more: www.zen32.com

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Phoenix International Raceway to keep two races

Wednesday, 11. August 2010 von Mercedes

Two is the magic number for NASCAR in Phoenix.

Phoenix International Raceway in the Avondale will continue to host two Sprint Cup Series races next year.

NASCAR tweaked its 2011 schedule some, moving venue dates that added some races in some markets but took away races in others.

Phoenix hosts two races now and will host two next season.

PIR will continue to host the second to last race in the fall Sprint Cup. The Kobalt Tools 500 will occur Nov. 13, 2011. The Phoenix track also will host the second race of the 2011 season the Subway Fresh Fit 500 on Feb. 27. PIR now hosts a Saturday night race in April. That date is being switched to a Sunday afternoon time the week after the first race of the season the Daytona 500 guaranteed payday loan.

PIR officials are happy they are keeping two races.

February is a buys month sports wise in the Phoenix and nationally. The Waste Management Open golf tournament runs Jan. 31 to Feb. 6. Cactus League Spring Training starts the beginning of March and the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Coyotes are in the midst of their seasons.

The Super Bowl is being held at the new Cowboys Stadium in Dallas on February 6.

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Polymer Group launches $65M expansion

Thursday, 15. July 2010 von Mercedes

Polymer Group Inc. has started a major expansion of its Waynesboro, Va., plant, with the project representing a $65 million investment.

The Charlotte-based nonwovens manufacturer is installing production equipment at the site through a lease agreement provided by a joint venture between GE Capital and ING Capital.

“This expansion continues to build upon PGI’s ability to employ industry-leading technologies, combined with recent proprietary technological development,” says Daniel Guerrero, Polymer Group vice president and general manager of the U.S. region. “The installation of this advanced equipment enables PGI to deliver differentiated products to customers that will achieve enhanced and improved barrier, softness and opacity compared to the current marketplace capabilities for use in such products as diapers, and surgical gowns and drapes.”

The project will add 41 jobs to the Waynesboro operation paydayloans. The expansion is slated for completion in the second half of 2011.

Polymer Group chose the Virginia site for the project earlier this year, selecting it over the company’s Mooresville plant. Incentives may have been the key to the deal. Virginia promised $1.5 million in two grants, as well as job-training assistance for the new employees. The two operations competed for the project for at least six months.

The addition would have nearly doubled the size of the company’s 210,000-square-foot plant in Mooresville Business Park. The facility employs 115 workers.

The company (OTCBB:POLGA) is based in Harris Corners Business Park in north Charlotte. Polymer Group has 14 manufacturing and converting facilities in nine countries.

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Notebaert leaving Temple health system

Sunday, 04. July 2010 von Mercedes

The Temple University Health System said Friday that its president and CEO, Edmond F. Notebaert, will step down.

In a press release, the North Philadelphia-based health system said Notebaert will continue at Temple during a transition period and help select future leaders for the system. The release did not say exactly when Notebaert will leave Temple, where he arrived in 2008 after working as president and CEO at the University of Maryland Medical System. Before that he was president and CEO at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

"When I accepted this position in September 2008, I came with clear objectives and priorities to stabilize the health system and position it for success moving forward,” Notebaert said cash advance today. “We have made tremendous progress and the time is right to now look towards long-term executive leadership.”

During his tenure, Temple addressed operating deficits and declining reimbursements, and converted struggling Northeastern Hospital from an inpatient facility to an ambulatory care center, among other efforts.

Dr. Ann Weaver Hart, president of Temple University, said, “Ed has many accomplishments during his tenure and raised the expectations of Temple’s health enterprise. I appreciate his commitment to Temple Health, our employees and patients.”

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Anna Bannana’s gets new owner, name, upgrade

Sunday, 27. June 2010 von Mercedes

The new owner of Anna Bannana’s in Moiliili has received his liquor license and plans to rename the bar Anna O’Neil’s after renovating and remodeling the pub.

The Honolulu Liquor Commission recently transferred the liquor license from former owner Banyan Tree LLC to Anna O’Brien’s Inc., headed by Bill Comerford. He also owns Honolulu establishments O’Toole’s Irish Pub, Kelley O’Neil’s and Irish Rose Saloon.

Comerford said he plans to close the bar for about a month for renovations and hopes to reopen later this summer under the new name. He declined to say how much he’s investing in the renovation.

“We’re just trying to make everybody understand that by changing the name we are honoring the past by keeping ‘Anna’ in it and trying to give a little bit of our own influence by putting the ‘O’Brien’s’ on it so they know who’s operating it,” he said.

He said he will continue to offer a mixed bag of live music that is a popular draw at Anna Bannana’s.

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Spectrum shareholders approve Russell Hobbs deal

Sunday, 13. June 2010 von Mercedes

Spectrum Brands Inc., the Madison-based manufacturer of Rayovac batteries and Remington shavers, said Friday that shareholders have approved the company's proposal to buy Russell Hobbs Inc., marketer of the George Foreman and Toastmaster small appliance brands, for $661 million.

Spectrum (NYSE: SPB) said 96.38 percent of the company's outstanding shares have been voted to adopt the previously announced merger agreement. That includes shares held by its largest holder, Harbinger Capital Partners Master Fund I Ltd. and its affiliates.

The company now expects to close on the transaction June 16.

The merger of Miramar, Fla.-based Russell Hobbs and Spectrum Brands will create a new global consumer products company based in Madison with an estimated $3 billion in annual revenue.

As part of the transaction, when the deal closes the company expects to close on its refinancing of the Company's existing senior debt and a portion of Russell Hobbs' existing senior debt through a combination of a new $750 million term loan, new $750 million senior secured notes and a new $300 million asset-based lending revolving facility no teletrek payday advance. The refinancing is expected to provide an enhanced long term capital structure to support the combined company's strategic business objectives.

Russell Hobbs’ consumer brands include Black & Decker, George Foreman, LitterMaid and Toastmaster. Spectrum’s brands include Rayovac batteries and Remington shaving and grooming products, which have major production operations in Wisconsin.

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Live webcast: Congress debates and votes on health-care reform

Thursday, 25. March 2010 von Mercedes

The U.S. House of Representatives Sunday night is debating and voting on health-care reform.

Click here for a live web broadcast of the debate and vote from C-SPAN fast payday loan.

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Central Banks Avoiding Dollar to Kill 2010 Rally, Barclays Says

Sunday, 27. December 2009 von Mercedes

The U.S. dollar’s gains may end in the middle of 2010 as central banks shy away from adding greenbacks to their reserves and the Federal Reserve raises rates at a slower pace than investors expect, Barclays Plc said.

Long-term demand for dollars is set to weaken after the currency’s share of global reserves added in the third quarter slid to less than 30 percent, a decline “unprecedented in a period of U.S. dollar weakness,” Barclays said in a note to clients. The dollar stemmed 11 months of declines versus the 16 most-traded currencies in December, gaining against all but two, after investors increased bets the Fed will remove monetary stimulus next year as the economy recovers.

“We see the dollar strengthening in the first six to nine months of 2010 when the focus is on liquidity withdrawal and tightening of rates,” said Steven Englander, chief U.S. currency strategist at Barclays in New York, in a telephone interview. “Once the market gets past this initial fear of tightening, the reality will be that the Fed isn’t going to be tightening very fast and we’ll see dollar selling again.”

The Dollar Index — which measures the currency against the euro, yen, pound, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc and Swedish krona — has dropped 4.2 percent this year. It has climbed 4.1 percent in December and traded at 77.928 as of 9:28 a.m. in Tokyo. The U.S. dollar has registered its biggest declines against the Brazilian real, Australian dollar and South African rand dropping by more than 25 percent this year against each.

Global Reserves

Global reserves probably gained by about $180 billion in the third quarter with U.S. dollar-denominated reserves accounting for about $50 billion or less than 30 percent, Barclays estimated, using data from the International Monetary Fund and U.S. official reports.

The bank adjusted for changes in the value of currencies over that period to capture “actual buying and selling, rather than passive gains and losses” Englander wrote in the note.

The dollar declined against all but the yen among the 16 most-active currencies this year. That prompted China and Russia, holders of the world’s biggest and third-biggest currency reserves, to express concern about their U payday loans with no faxing.S.- denominated investments.

“Emerging market central banks are selling their local currencies and buying U.S. dollars to prevent appreciation of their currencies,” Englander said. “They’re avoiding having a bigger concentration of U.S. dollars in their portfolio by turning around and selling dollars against the euro and other currencies.”

Canadian Dollars

Canada’s Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said this week that China, may be poised to buy Canadian dollars as it seeks to shield its $2.3 trillion worth of reserves against the U.S. dollar’s decline. Russia’s central bank said last month it will add Canadian dollars to its reserves and may include more currencies to reduce its dependence on the U.S. dollar.

Declines in the greenback mostly stalled this month as traders bet on a 48 percent chance that Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will increase the target rate for overnight lending between banks by June. Policy makers will end most emergency lending programs and debt purchases by March because of “improvements in the functioning of financial markets” and stabilizing labor markets, the Federal Open Market Committee said on Dec. 16.

Unemployment, Retail

Reports this month showed the U.S.’s jobless rate unexpectedly fell, retail sales beat forecasts and purchases of existing homes rose to the highest level in almost three years in November. Benchmark rates are as low as zero percent in the U.S. compared with 8.75 percent in Brazil and 3.75 percent in Australia. They are 0.1 percent in Japan and 1 percent in the Euro region.

Barclays forecasts that the Federal Reserve will begin raising rates at the end of the third quarter of next year, while the European Central Bank’s tightening cycle will begin at the start of 2011. The Fed’s target rate will reach 2 percent by the end of 2011, Englander said.

Barclays on Dec. 10 forecast the euro will fall to $1.40 in six months before rallying to $1.45 by the end of 2010. The euro traded at $1.4333 today.

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Olive: PM’s Asia tour masks harsh reality

Wednesday, 18. November 2009 von Mercedes

There have been moments in his three-day Indian photo-op tour de force when Stephen Harper has pushed his line about commonalities between Canada and the emerging south Asian economic superpower a bit too far.

And the PM’s Indian audiences have reacted with jubilance.

"The south Asian tiger has awoken and the world is standing in awe," Harper told a business gathering at the posh Trident Hotel in Mumbai on Monday – and the audience rose to give the visiting statesman a standing ovation.

Yet for all its headline-grabbing dynamic growth this decade, India still has the world’s biggest poor population. At 400 million people, India’s destitute would, on their own, be the world’s third-most-populous country.

India ranks 45th in the latest Legatum Prosperity Index, which measures quality of life and economic progress in 104 nations accounting for 90 per cent of the world’s population.

It is held back by malnutrition affecting one in five Indians, an average life expectancy of just 53 years and a severely inadequate health care system. With a GDP of about $1 trillion (U.S.), this nation of 1.2 billion people still trails in size the $1.2 trillion (Canadian) economy of Canada.

It’s the nature of such friendly exchanges – and this one is long overdue – that pleasantries dominate the conversation.

And in that context it was admirable of Harper to complain that while "between us, our combined GDP is well on the way to $4 trillion … at the moment we are only doing $5 billion worth of business per year."

That’s equal to five days’ trade between Canada and the U.S. "Where we are today is not where we ought to be," Harper said.

In fact, both nations are in catch-up mode in what has long been a relationship of mutual disdain. Canada recently boosted from five to eight its permanent trade missions in India. The Harper government has sponsored 11 ministerial visits to India, whose GDP growth will far outstrip that of the West over the next few years.

India’s largest firms at last are taking on multinational status. The century-old Tata family empire has acquired the former British Steel and the Jaguar and Land Rover brands. Names such as Reliance, another old-line conglomerate; ICICI Bank, which operates in Canada; and IT giant Infosys, which now has a branch in Mississauga, are becoming familiar to North American business clients low cost payday loans.

A handful of Canadian firms have established toeholds in India, including Sun Life, Bombardier, SNC-Lavalin, Cameco and Bank of Nova Scotia.

Yet, the larger picture is one of stalled initiatives.

Talk of a free-trade pact has been just that. A deal to protect foreign investors from bureaucratic meddling in each country is stalled, apparently over Indian fears of tainted Canadian meat products. A civilian-nuclear materials export program announced in January remains in limbo, long after the U.S., Britain and other nations signed such agreements.

There is no annual ritual of Team Canada political-business missions to south Asia, as there were under Jean Chretien in China, the other emerging economic superpower, and the one that has always claimed much more of Canada’s attention in matters of diplomacy and business.

Annual Canadian corporate investment in India trails that of Sweden, Belgium and even Bermuda. Despite the presence in Canada of about a million people claiming Indian descent, Canadian universities have enrolled just 4,000 Indian students. Australian universities have 80,000 Indian students.

Yet India also is home to the world’s largest middle class, at about 300 million people. There’s no question that with expected heady economic growth of 5.75 per cent next year, India and China are leading the world out of the global recession. There are euphoric local predictions of an Indian economy surpassing that of the U.S. in size by mid-century.

But real progress in Canada’s potentially crucial relationship won’t come from PM photo-ops with Indo-Canadian heartthrob Akshay Kumar, which the PMO spent weeks lining up.

It will require a sustained, low-key effort by notoriously unadventurous Canadian firms to understand the Indian market.

That won’t happen until Canadian entrepreneurs grasp that India’s economic growth is destined to be far more dynamic than North America’s for decades, and that the easier trip south will gradually yield less rewarding returns on investment.

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Bank watchdogs crack the whip

Thursday, 15. October 2009 von Mercedes

Here’s another sign of a sickly banking sector: a flurry of letters urging banks to raise money — and fast.

Federal bank watchdogs issued 29 so-called prompt corrective action letters for the year through August. That’s up from just seven over the same period a year ago, according to data tracker SNL Financial.

A prompt corrective action letter comes when regulators determine a bank has become undercapitalized, meaning it doesn’t have a big enough cushion against future losses. The directives typically give banks as long as a month to bulk up, usually through issuing more shares.

In addition, officials have filed broader actions against hundreds of banks, covering issues ranging from capital and management deficiencies to risk management. All told, actions against institutions more than doubled in the first eight months of 2009, to 347, according to SNL.

Regulators have been pressing banks to straighten out their problems at a time when they are struggling under the weight of home-lending losses and bracing for a commercial real estate downturn. This year has brought 98 bank failures, with many more expected.

"There is an awful lot of softness on bank balance sheets," said Hal Reichwald, a banking lawyer at Manatt Phelps & Phillips in Los Angeles. "There’s real concern about problems coming down the road and how much it will take to deal with them."

The number of banks deemed troubled by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. hit 416 in the quarter ended June 30, a 15-year high and nearly four times the number a year ago. The FDIC doesn’t name the banks on its list or comment on open institutions, because doing so could spark damaging deposit runs.

Meanwhile, the federal deposit insurance fund has been dwindling. Member banks pay into the fund to protect account holders with balances up to $250,000. The FDIC said recently the fund has a negative balance and could run out of cash by the end of the first quarter next year. Over the past year, the deposit insurance fund balance has dropped to $10 billion from $45 billion.

The FDIC said recently that it expects expenses tied to failed banks to surge to $100 billion over five years — up 43% from the agency’s last estimate in May.

Trouble raising capital

Among the institutions that has come under regulatory scrutiny is FBOP Corp., an Oak Park, Ill., holding company that owns nine banks in Illinois, California, Arizona and Texas.

Owner Michael Kelly has built the firm over nearly three decades. Starting in 1981 with one bank — First Bank of Oak Park, from which the firm takes its name — Kelly built the company through acquisitions into the 46th biggest bank holding company in the U.S., according to Federal Reserve data, with more than $18 billion in assets.

But FBOP was hit hard in September 2008 when Treasury took over Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500), the government-sponsored mortgage investors. Treasury’s decision to wipe out those firms’ preferred stock left numerous banks and insurers nursing losses. FBOP has also been hurt by its longtime focus on commercial real estate. FBOP posted a loss of $708 million for 2008.

By the end of June, FBOP’s resources had dwindled so low that the firm ranked below 98% of similar bank holding companies in terms of tier 1 leverage ratio, a measure of bank capital.

In August, FBOP signed a so-called written agreement with the Fed that gave it a schedule to raise capital, improve risk management and reduce its concentration of commercial real estate loans. The bank was to submit a capital plan within 30 days.

But raising capital isn’t easy when banks have taken big losses and are looking at more of the same ahead, and FBOP hasn’t made any announcement on the status of its planned capital raise. The company didn’t return a call seeking comment.

Most banks that go on the FDIC problem list or are subject of enforcement actions survive — though two-thirds of the banks that have received prompt corrective actions this year have already failed.

But in numerous instances over the past year, regulators — facing deteriorating fundamentals at banks in a weak economy — have stepped in earlier than they might have planned.

Take, for instance, Irwin Financial, a holding company that owned two banks in Ohio and Kentucky.

It agreed Sept. 11 to a so-called cease-and-desist order from the Federal Reserve, which called for it to boost its capital by the end of the month.

A week later, regulators closed Irwin’s banks — at a cost of $850 million to the deposit insurance fund.  

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