Business digest

TECO COMPLETES OFFERING: TECO Energy Co. said it completed its previously announced secondary offering of 15.525-million common shares of company stock. The offering included an initial offering of 13.5-million shares, which was completed June 10, and 2.025-million of over-allotment shares, which the offering's underwriters exercised their option to purchase. All of the shares, including the over-allotment, were sold at $23 each. The offering "completes TECO's anticipated equity raising needs for this business cycle," chairman and chief executive Bob Fagan said in a statement. The $346-million in net proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes and to repay short-term debt, TECO spokeswoman Laura Plumb said. TECO's shares closed at $24.48, up 45 cents.

BROKER BARRED: Former stockbroker Timothy D. Lucas was barred from the securities industry and fined $20,000 for filing late and inaccurate financial reports while serving as a principal for Palm State Equities in Sun City Center. The National Association of Securities Dealers said Lucas' failures allowed Palm State to continue operating when it failed to meet minimum capital requirements in 1999. In addition, the association said Lucas failed to respond to requests for information regarding an investigation of sales practices used to sell callable certificates of deposit to investors. After leaving Palm State in 1999, Lucas worked for Sun State Equity Trading in Tampa until last year. He could not be reached for comment.

GRENELEFE RESORT SOLD: Central Florida Investments Inc. submitted the winning -- and only -- bid to purchase Grenelefe Golf & Tennis Resort near Haines City. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge C. Timothy Corcoran III approved the sale of the 1,000-acre property to the Orlando company for $12.75-million. The money will go to pay creditors of resort owner Sports Shinko Florida Co. Ltd.

VISIT FLORIDA PICKING AD AGENCY: Fahlgren, a Tampa advertising agency, is close to losing its nine-year grip on the state's tourist advertising account. Yesawich, Pepperdine and Brown of Orlando, which lost the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention and Visitors Bureau account last year, got the highest score among three finalists for the Visit Florida Inc. account. Meeting in St. Pete Beach, the Visit Florida board will decide the winner today.

TENET TO SETTLE OVERBILLING CASES: Tenet Healthcare Corp. said it will pay the government $55.8-million to settle three cases of alleged overbilling for Medicare and Medicaid patients dating from before 1998. The Santa Barbara, Calif.. hospital chain is paying $17-million to settle allegations that it overcharged for outpatient lab tests. Tenet is paying $29-million to resolve charges of fraudulent home health care claims at Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah. And $9.75-million is being paid to settle allegations that a Culver City, Calif., hospital overstated its size and number of beds. Tenet, which owns 115 hospitals, sold Palms of Pasadena Hospital in Pinellas County and Memorial and Town and Country Hospitals in Hillsborough County in 1999 to IASIS Healthcare.

HAM RETAILERS COMBINE: The HoneyBaked Ham Co. said it purchased competitor Heavenly Ham for an undisclosed price. HoneyBaked operates 300 stores, while Heavenly Ham has more than 200 franchises. The chains will continue to operate separately. HoneyBaked Ham said the addition will strengthen its franchising program.

UNITED ANNOUNCES PAY CUTS: Managers and administrative employees of United Airlines have accepted pay cuts of 5 percent that will save the carrier $430-million as it prepares to seek a government loan guarantee. United said 7,900 management employees and 3,200 salaried administrative workers, about 13 percent of its total work force of 84,000, are affected. The cuts will last one year, with employees receiving a 7 percent raise after a year and an 8 percent bump after two years. Affected employees will receive grants of options in UAL stock.

BOFA TO OPEN MORE BRANCHES: Bank of America Corp. plans to open about 200 branches a year as it tries to boost profit in Florida, California and Texas. The bank plans to close about 50 existing branches in 2003, resulting in a net gain of 150 branches next year. It's part of a strategy to sell more services such as credit cards, mutual funds and home loans. Chief executive Kenneth Lewis has cited Florida, where the bank has the largest share of deposits, plus California and Texas as markets where fast-growing populations provide opportunities for "cross-selling" profitable services.

PEREGRINE HALVING ITS WORK FORCE: Peregrine Systems Inc. is cutting 1,400 jobs, or nearly half its U.S. work force, and closing some of its offices to cut costs amid an investigation by federal securities regulators. The business software company said it will reduce the number of employees from 2,900 to 1,500, or about 48 percent. It was not immediately known how many locations would be closed. Peregrine, which admitted it may have overstated as much as $100-million in revenue, is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and said it will restate three years of earnings.

SEC WANTS ACCOUNTING OVERSIGHT BOARD: The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to propose Thursday an accounting oversight board, with at least six of its nine members to come from outside the accounting industry. The board will have a range of disciplinary sanctions available. The agency has been instituting a number of rule changes proposed by President Bush in March, as the Enron controversy threatened to inflict political damage on the White House. Last week, for example, the SEC moved closer to requiring faster and broader disclosure of company changes and making chief executive officers personally vouch for the accuracy of their companies' financial reports.

INSURANCE COSTS FROM ATTACKS REVISED UPWARD: The attacks on the World Trade Center destroyed $20.3-billion in insured property, $3.7-billion more than initial estimates, according to Insurance Services Office Inc., a New Jersey actuarial firm. The attack on the Pentagon resulted in $6.5-million in insured property losses. The Sept. 11 attack was the costliest U.S. catastrophe, surpassing Hurricane Andrew.

UNIVERSAL OPENS THIRD HOTEL: Universal Orlando Resort has opened its third hotel in a vote of confidence for the recovery of central Florida's tourism industry. The South Pacific-theme, 1,000-room Royal Pacific Resort sits on 53 acres next to Universal Orlando's two theme parks, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. The hotel features bamboo trees on its grounds, a floatplane docked at the hotel's lagoon, stone lanterns carved by artisans from Bali lining the pathways of the hotel's grounds and an orchid collection in its courtyard. It also has 80,000 square feet of meeting room space.

TYCO SUES TWO FORMER OFFICIALS: Tyco International Ltd. sued two top former officials, claiming they received $55-million in hidden compensation. Tyco accused former legal counsel Mark Belnick, who was fired last week, of failing to disclose $35-million in compensation and loans, including a $10-million interest-free loan used to buy a resort home in Park City, Utah. His attorney denied he did anything wrong. In a separate suit, Tyco said former director Frank Walsh improperly received a $20-million finder's fee after the company bought its CIT lending unit last year. Walsh said half the money was donated to charity. Tyco said the deals were made without the knowledge or consent of the board.

PRESSURE MOUNTS FOR ADELPHIA BANKRUPTCY FILING: Adelphia Communications Corp. said it missed making bond interest payments totaling $55.5-million as analysts cited growing pressure for the struggling cable television company to file for bankruptcy. The troubled cable company said it missed a $51.3-million bond interest payment and a subsidiary, Arahova Communications Inc., missed a $4.2-million bond interest payment. A grace period for the interest payments ended Saturday. "Adelphia will likely need to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by the end of this week," UBS Warburg analyst Aryeh Bourkoff predicted.

COKE, GROUPE DANONE IN WATER DEAL: Coca-Cola Co. and French food giant Groupe Danone have formed a partnership to sell several of Danone's bottled water brands in the United States. Coke will pay Groupe Danone $128-million cash for a 51 percent stake of the venture, which includes five production plants, a license for Danone's Dannon and Sparkletts brands and ownership of several other brands sold regionally. The agreement, which does not include Coke's Dasani or Danone's Evian water brands, gives Coke another product in the U.S. water market. In April, Coke agreed to market and distribute Evian in the United States and Canada. Danone is bottled at several locations, including High Springs near Gainesville.

TREASURY AUCTION: The interest rate on the U.S. Treasury's four-week bills was lower at the government's weekly auction of the securities. The Treasury sold $18-billion of the bills at a discount rate of 1.695 percent, down from 1.71 percent last week. The government received bids for the bills equal to 2.45 times the amount sold, up from 1.92 at the last auction. Treasury bills, which represent short-term government borrowing, are sold at a discount from maturity value.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright