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March 10, 2010
What $19.6 million in state tax credits for NorthSide Regeneration paid for:
Price of land: $9.5 million (50% of total cost)
Brokerage costs: $382,000 (50% of total cost)
Loan fees: $1.1 million
Interest payments: $8.7 million
Source: Missouri Department of Economic Development
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March 7, 2010
Four of the top executives at Albany International Corp. will receive a combined $1.4 million in cash bonuses, the company announced Monday.
A committee on the board of directors at Albany International (NYSE: AIN) approved an $860,400 bonus for president and CEO Joseph Morone, according to regulatory filings. The bonus is for the 2009 fiscal year.
Morone’s bonus is $51,000, or 6 percent, above his 2008 cash bonus. However, Morone’s bonus falls $36,000, or 4 percent, short of the target set by the board early last year.
Albany International, headquartered in Menands, primarily makes parts and fabrics for the paper and pulp industries. It is also developing a composites division serving the aerospace industry.
Albany International’s chief financial officer, Michael Burke, received a bonus of $101,500. Burke was hired last summer to replace Michael Nahl, the former CFO who retired last year.
Daniel Halftermeyer, head of Albany International’s European operations, received a $232,400 bonus, beating his target. Michael Joyce, head of the Americas operations, also beat his target, earning a $234,400 bonus freecreditscore.
Albany International reported $871 million of revenue in 2009. It was a $215 million, or 20 percent, drop from 2008 sales of $1.09 billion.
Net losses totaled $32.4 million in 2009, compared with a net loss of $78.4 million Albany International posted in 2008.
Albany International has 5,800 employees worldwide, and fewer than 200 people in the Albany area.
Morone has said Albany International appears to have weathered the worst of the slumping economy.
“With the recession seemingly behind us, and our three-year restructuring program at an end, we return to a focus on our cash and growth strategy,” Morone said last month. “Looking beyond the next eight to 10 quarters, we expect a continuation of rapid growth.”
Company stock closed at $20.39 a share on Monday, down 4 cents on the day.
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March 2, 2010
South Korea’s exports rose for a fourth month in February as a pickup in the world economy spurred demand for the nation’s semiconductors, cars and flat- panel displays.
Overseasshipments increased 31 percent from a year earlier to $33.3 billion, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in Gwacheon today. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 11 economists was for a 25 percent gain. Imports climbed 36.9 percent to $30.9 billion, for a trade surplus of $2.3 billion.
Rising exports signal the economy’s slowdown in the fourth quarter, when it expanded just 0.2 percent, may prove temporary. Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s second-largest mobile-phone maker, said its handset shipments may expand about a fifth this year, helped by demand for smartphones.
“South Korean exports are benefitting from rising demand from China and other countries,” said Kim Seung Hyun, head of research at Taurus Investment & Securities Co. in Seoul. “The base effect is also spurring a big increase in shipments.”
South Korea’s exports declined from November 2008 to October 2009 as the global financial crisis cut demand, providing a low base for comparison. Economic growth in China, the biggest buyer of South Korean products, rose 10.7 percent in the fourth quarter, the fastest pace since 2007.
Financial markets are closed for a public holiday in South Korea today quick payday loan. The benchmark Kospi stock index has declined 5.2 percent this year after advancing 50 percent in 2009.
Exports to China
Exports to China rose 38 percent in the first 20 days of February, today’s report showed. Shipments to the U.S. climbed 14 percent and those to Japan gained 20 percent over the same period. Imports increased mainly on rising crude-oil prices and more demand for fuel amid the economic recovery, the ministry said.
Shipments of semiconductors more than doubled last month, and display-panel exports increased 60 percent, the government said. Petrochemicals exports gained 51.6 percent.
President Lee Myung Bak said Dec. 30 the economy is likely to expand more than 5 percent in 2010, the fastest pace in three years. Hanjin Shipping Co., South Korea’s largest container-box carrier, expects to post a profit this year and boost sales 27 percent as world trade picks up.
Exports will increase 13.2 percent this year, compared with a 13.9 percent decline in 2009, the government forecast in December. The Knowledge Economy Ministry estimated last month that the nation is likely to post an annual trade surplus of $20 billion.
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February 26, 2010
Three companies with established operations in the region are exploring expansion projects that could bring 55 jobs to the area.
Raytheon Missile Systems, a division of Waltham, Mass.-based defense contractor Raytheon Co., Louisville-based Caldwell Tanks Inc. and Bekaert Corp.’s Shelbyville plant introduced their potential growth plans at a Feb. 25 meeting of the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority in Frankfort.
Raytheon currently employs nearly 400 people at its 327,000-square-foot facility at the Airport Industrial Center, a South Louisville complex that formerly was the Naval Ordnance Station.
The company is considering the lease of an additional 25,000 square feet at its Louisville plant to increase its production space. Few other details were provided about the potential new project.
The expansion would create 30 jobs with an annual payroll of $1.15 million and represent an investment of more than $3 million, according to plans on file with the state.
Raytheon officials could not be reached for comment before Business First’s press deadline.
The contractor received preliminary approval for $500,000 in state tax incentives from the KEDFA board for up to 10 years.
Raytheon repairs Phalanx weapons systems for the U.S. Navy and fleets from 25 allied countries at its South Louisville facility.
Another Raytheon affiliate, Raytheon Technical Services Co. LLC, operates its Warfighter Support Center in Fairdale. The center is a depot and parts-repair center for machines used in military training exercises around the world.
Caldwell Tanks, which has been building field-erected storage tanks since 1887, currently has 206 employees in Louisville and operates on a 20-acre campus at 4000 Tower Road, off Preston Highway, near Fern Valley Road flexcheck cash advance.
The company plans to add 15,000 square feet to its 14,000-square-foot offices and 24,000 square feet to its 180,000-square-foot production facility, according to CFO Barry Geswein.
The expansion project would create 15 jobs with more than $500,000 in annual payroll. Caldwell’s total investment would be $3.9 million, which includes costs to upgrade equipment and improve work-flow processes, according to its filing with the KEDFA board.
Caldwell designs, fabricates and builds tanks for the water, wastewater, grain, coal and energy industries, according to its Web site, www.caldwelltanks.com.
The company specializes in elevated water-storage towers but also makes carbon and stainless steel industrial-process tanks and vertical concrete storage structures.
Caldwell offers tank coating and recoating services and maintenance programs for its tanks and products made by competitors.
The company will be looking for welders, fabricators and supervisors, Geswein said. There also will be openings in accounting and sales.
The KEDFA board granted the company preliminary approval for $300,000 in state tax incentives for up to 10 years.
Geswein said the incentive package will make “a world of difference” to Caldwell’s expansion plans.
“In this market and this economy, you do everything you can to stay competitive,” he said. “It just makes the whole thing go a lot better.”
Bekaert, a Belgian company that makes drawn steel wire used in a variety of applications, such as staples, paper clips and automotive products, plans to add a hot-dip galvanizing line at its 260,000-square-foot plant in Shelbyville.
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February 25, 2010
If Apple cut the price of each TV episode in half — to 99 cents, from $1.99 — would sales on iTunes increase enough to offset the price drop?
Experiments are under way to find out, and the head of the nation’s No. 1 television network, CBS, indicated last week that some shows, at least, would be priced under a dollar in the future.
Apple wants to ignite TV show sales, especially as it prepares to introduce the iPad tablet computer next month. But its proposals to lower prices across the board are being met by skepticism from the major networks.
Television production is expensive, and the networks are wary of selling shows for less. They are equally wary of harming their far more lucrative deals with affiliates and cable distributors, who may feel threatened by online storefronts like Apple’s and those operated by Amazon, Microsoft and Sony.
But the networks do not want to ignore the 125 million customers with credit cards who have iTunes accounts, either. “We’re willing to try anything, but the key word is ‘try,’” said a TV network executive who requested anonymity because his company had declined to comment publicly on talks with Apple.
With the iTunes pricing debate, the television industry is facing the same question that music labels and publishers are: Just how much is our content worth in a digital world?
It is especially complicated for TV, given that most people already pay for TV through their cable or satellite service — and they can watch most network shows free on streaming sites like Hulu, albeit with advertisements.
The notion of selling individual TV episodes straight to the consumer is still a relatively new one. Apple added video to its music store in late 2005 and sold episodes of the ABC shows “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” without ads for $1.99, twice the price of a single song at the time.
The store soon expanded to include virtually all of the major TV providers, with Apple insisting on a uniform $1.99 price for episodes. NBC Universal bristled and removed its shows at the end of 2007 but returned nine months later, after Apple slightly relaxed its pricing structure.
For the most part, though, standard-definition episodes from NBC and other networks remain $1.99, and high-definition episodes are $2.99, whether it is a brand-new hourlong drama or a five-year-old half-hour sitcom. Movie sales and rentals are more flexible.
But iTunes remains, predominately, a music store. The company says customers have downloaded nearly 10 billion songs, but it does not release figures for video. Analysts say the TV revenue from iTunes has been marginal.
“It’s still a niche portion of the marketplace,” said Doug Mitchelson, a television analyst for Deutsche Bank Securities, who characterized iTunes and competing digital stores as an extension of DVD sales of TV shows.
Separately, Apple has proposed to some networks that the store sell a subscription package of popular TV shows. At a price some reports have set at $30 a month, the subscription service would be a direct threat to entrenched cable and satellite providers. Apple has encountered trepidation from some networks, but the proposal is not off the table, according to executives at two of the networks.
What would make the iTunes sales more significant? That is where pricing science comes in. In its conversations with TV networks, Apple representatives have cited 99 cents as the magic price point that brought digital music sales into the mainstream. The company says the same price could fuel TV sales, according to the network executives. But the networks have little data about what effect 99-cent sales would have, making them more apprehensive about a change.
“If you took five things at Wal-Mart and sold them for a nickel, they’d sell really well, because they’d stand out. But if you took everything in the store and made it a nickel, nothing stands out anymore. Essentially all you’ve done is lowered the value of your content,” said a senior executive at a TV network owner.
Most other media companies declined to comment on TV pricing at iTunes last week, as did a spokesman for Apple. A spokesman for ABC, which was Apple’s first TV partner for iTunes, did not respond to a request for comment. Apple’s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, sits on the board of ABC’s owner, the Walt Disney Co.
Pricing is coming up now in part because Apple is keen — some TV executives privately say desperate — to line up content for the iPad, the tablet computer to be available in March.
Mitchelson said prices under a dollar were “very appealing to the consumer,” and he said the key for Apple was, “Can you draw in this huge swath of folks who aren’t using iTunes at all to purchase TV shows?”
The networks appear willing to try lower prices in a limited way. The Financial Times reported this month that some networks had agreed to a test of lower prices, but it did not name any.
Asked about iTunes on an earnings call with analysts on Thursday, Leslie Moonves, the chief executive of CBS Corp., said that “certain shows” would be sold for 99 cents, but “I don’t know yet which will be.” People in the industry doubt the discounts would apply to the newest episodes of marquee shows like “NCIS” or “Two and a Half Men.” A CBS spokesman said Friday that no new deal with Apple was imminent.
Among the few 99-cent TV shows on iTunes last week were NBC recaps of Olympic events and episodes of the PBS Kids shows “Arthur,” “Martha Speaks” and “WordGirl.”
The PBS pricing is temporary. Andrew Russell, a senior vice president of the service, called it a three-week experiment to “generate buzz.”
“At this point we still feel the $1.99 price point is right for us, our audiences and our producers to help support creation of more outstanding kids’ content,” Russell said by e-mail. “But we’ll remain flexible in this fast-changing environment.”
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February 20, 2010
Solar energy is about to play a much bigger role in Georgia Power Co.’s Green Energy Program.
The state Public Service Commission amended the program Thursday to provide that 50 percent of the utility¹s renewable energy come from solar sources, up from the current 10 percent. The rest of the program¹s power comes from biomass.
Since its inception in 2006, the green energy program has been criticized for being overly reliant on landfill gas.
Putting more emphasis on solar power will help advance the development of photovoltaic projects in Georgia, said Commissioner Lauren "Bubba" McDonald, who made the motion to amend the program. The move also should encourage more participation by Georgia Power customers, he said.
The amendment will result in a slight increase in cost for green power.
Customers who wish to take part in the program will be able to buy green power for $5 per 100-kilowatt block, up from the current $4.50.
The commission also increased the amount of solar energy Georgia Power can buy from suppliers and set up a mechanism for allowing the utility to buy more solar power as sales of green energy increase.
On a motion by Commissioner Bobby Baker, the PSC also stipulated that all solar projects that contribute to the program must be located in Georgia.
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February 16, 2010
Premier Purchasing Partners has awarded supply agreements to Biotronik Inc. of Lake Oswego, Ore., Minneapolis-based Medtronic Inc. and St. Jude Medical Inc. of Austin, Texas.
The companies will provide cardiac rhythm-management devices to members of the Premier health-care alliance.
Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
Premier Purchasing Partners is a unit of Premier Inc., the largest health-care purchasing alliance in the United States business cards design. The parent company recently moved its headquarters to Charlotte from San Diego. Premier has 750 employees in Charlotte, and plans to add 300 during the next five years.
The company represents 2,200 nonprofit hospitals, including Carolinas Medical Center, Gaston Memorial Hospital and Stanly Regional Medical Center.
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February 14, 2010
W.L. Gore & Associates Inc. plans to build a $130 million manufacturing facility in Phoenix that initially will employ 500 people and potentially 1,000 at build-out. The project is part of an expansion of the Newark company’s medical products division in Flagstaff.
The construction project is expected to employ an additional 1,800 workers. During the first phase, two 113,000-square-foot facilities will be built on a 40-acre site. The first phase is being built with $130 million in Industrial Development Authority Bonds, to be expended over 18 to 24 month of construction.
Once that first phase is built, 500 people will be employed, including research and development, engineering, manufacturing, quality assurance, marketing, technical oversight and business leadership positions no fax payday loans.
The second phase of the project will be determined by the rate of growth of Gore’s Medical Products Division, but company officials expect to employ between 800 and 1,000 at build-out, with five plants on the Phoenix site.
The project is at 32212 N. North Valley Parkway in Phoenix, which is near Interstate 19 and Carefree Highway.
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February 9, 2010
Louisville Forum, a nonpartisan public issues group, will hold its annual dinner Thursday, Feb. 11, at the Jefferson Club, located on the 29th Floor of PNC Plaza in downtown Louisville.
The Forum’s annual Fleur-de-lis Award will be given to former Jefferson County Clerk, Judge-Executive and WHAS Crusade for Children CEO, Rebecca Jackson.
The award is presented for lifetime contributions to the Louisville community.
The evening also will feature the a panel discussion, “Tomorrow’s News … The Future of Journalism.”
It will feature The Courier-Journal president and publisher Arnold Garson, Indiana University School of Journalism dean Brad Hamm, and WHAS-TV 11 general manager Mark Pimentel. The moderator will be Ed Henson, president of Henson Media Group Inc.
The event will begin with a cocktail reception at 5:30 p.m. Tickets to the event are free for Louisville Forum full members and $45 for basic members. Guest tickets are $50.
Reservations can be made by calling (502) 329-0111.
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February 7, 2010
America’s smallest businesses shed another 12,000 workers last month, extending a two-year streak in which job losses have mounted every month, according to a report released Wednesday by payroll processor ADP.
But the tide could be turning: The pace of losses has slowed, and one segment of the market — companies with 50 to 499 workers — added a net 9,000 positions in January.
And some business owners say President Obama’s recent proposal for a $5,000 per-worker tax credit for new hires this year could help goose the recovery.
"I am personally extremely excited about the tax credit," said Ryan Millman, president of Nations Photo Lab in Owings Mills, Md.
Millman’s two photo labs employ about 70 full-time workers. His companies grew fast last year, and Millman expects to see growth of at least 50% in 2010. He anticipates hiring 20 to 25 new employees this year. That could net him tax credits of more than $100,000, if Obama’s proposal is enacted by Congress.
"We are going to take that money, that tax credit, and plow that right back into our business," Millman said. "Any money we get is going to help us to continue to expand and grow." He says he would like to invest the cash in product development and buying new equipment.
Steven Cox, the owner of music instruction provider TakeLessons.com, is also looking to hire.
"We needed more people, but we simply put it off. We all worked longer hours to hit our revenue goals and profit goals, and we just can’t keep doing that," said Cox, who launched his San Diego, Calif., company in 2006 and now has 12 workers. "To us, every single $5,000 really, really matters."
Cash for jobs: America’s smallest companies, those with fewer than 50 employees, have cut 2.7 million positions over the past two years — almost a third of the total jobs lost in the U.S., according to ADP’s estimates. Reversing that trend has become a top priority for President Obama and his administration.
Job creation "must be our No. 1 focus in 2010," Obama announced during last week’s State of the Union address. Days later, he traveled to Baltimore to visit a local machine company and unveil his tax-cuts-for-jobs strategy.
"Now is the perfect time for this kind of incentive because the economy is growing, but businesses are still hesitant to start hiring again," Obama said in Baltimore. "The economy is growing, but job growth is lagging."
Among business owners, reactions were mixed. Sales for many companies have dried up throughout the recession, and for those businesses owners, tax credits to hire workers they don’t need or can’t afford won’t do much good.
But then there are the entrepreneurs like Shane Schuster, who says just a little bit of government money could be enough of an incentive to influence his hiring plans.
Shane Schuster is the CEO of Alternative Commercial Solutions (ACS), which handles credit collections for businesses. The Hillsboro, Ore., company launched in October 2004 and now has a staff of eight. Schuster would like to add a half-dozen more workers.
A tax credit would allow ACS to hire "someone who is requiring a higher salary, as opposed to training somebody from the ground up," Schuster said. It would also offset the rising cost of benefits like health care.
Strengthening Main Street: Washington policymakers have let loose with a flood or proposals this past week aimed at helping small businesses, which were particularly hard-hit by the recession.
On Tuesday, Obama called for a new $30 billion Treasury fund to make cheap capital available to community banks that boost their small business lending.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appeared before Congress on Wednesday to discuss government programs aimed at freeing up credit for small companies, especially those in economically disadvantaged areas.
"We need to work together to intensify our focus together on job creation, on investment and on innovation," Geithner told the House Ways and Means Committee. "When you talk to small businesses across the country, as I know you do, they tell a similar story. They’re worried about whether they’re going to see demand for their products. And their ability to expand and to hire depends on access to credit."
Later in the day, Geithner announced a program to make Troubled Asset Relief Program capital available to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) at a 2% dividend rate, well below the standard 5% rate the Treasury usually charges for TARP funds. CDFIs are financial institutions that lend in the most underserved communities.
To enact any of Obama’s new proposals, including the hiring tax credits and the $30 billion lending fund for community banks, the president needs backing from Congress. But opponents are already questioning the plans’ price tags.
"More government spending isn’t what small businesses need," House Minority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said in a statement. Even among Democrats, Obama could have trouble mustering enough support to push through programs that will increase the country’s debt load.
But business owners like Ryan Millman will be crossing their fingers that the proposals move forward.
"Anytime you give something to small business and give them some kind of incentive, it can only be positive," Millman said. "Hopefully it is something that we can get passed."
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