Nuked but Alive: The Clouds Begin to Lift Over Niagara Mohawk
A series of mechanical and managerial lapses have kept Niagara Mohawk Power Corp.’s Number 1 unit of its Nine Mile Point nuclear facility idle for nearly 2 years. However, the utility has developed a recovery plan that should ultimately allow it to regain its financial strength and to rebuild earnings. Aided by the staff of the office of New York’s attorney general and other parties, Niagara Mohawk fashioned a pact that enables it to start collecting replacement power costs. The utility still faces some hurdles on its path to recovery, but once the uncertainties are resolved, the firm should begin to right itself. Earnings, which may decline to 90 cents a share in 1989, should rise to nearly $1.40 in 1990. Niagara Mohawk stands a reasonable chance of getting approval for a great deal of its proposed $369-million rate hike. Under the agreement, Niagara Mohawk will be able to defer some expenses, if necessary. The company will study the possible sale or spinoff of its gas operations.
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Wyatt, Edward A.
Full text: [Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly] Sep 18, 1989
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Louisiana-Pacific Corp.: Its Business Grows with Restraints
The controversy over cutting “old growth” timber in the Pacific Northwest and efforts to protect the spotted owl have worked to Louisiana-Pacific Corp.’s (Portland, Oregon) advantage. Shortages of timber, in part the result of environmental disputes, have sharply boosted prices of timber, and, accordingly, Louisiana-Pacific’s wood products. Moreover, Louisiana-Pacific depends less on “old growth” timber for its products than do many other forest product companies. It is in its 5th consecutive year of higher earnings since a slump in the early 1980s. Profits in the first half of 1989 were the company’s best ever. In 1988, its operating profits from pulp doubled to $88 million. Louisiana-Pacific has enjoyed a great deal of success in the production of lumber for use in construction forms for poured concrete. The firm’s strong cash position is supporting a continuing aggressive stock buyback program.
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Byrne, Harlan S.
Full text: [Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly] Sep 18, 1989
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Hail Columbia
In just over a year, the shares of Columbia Laboratories’ (Miami, Florida) have appreciated tenfold. Columbia’s remarkable stock market performance hinges on the fact that it has developed an unusual method of administering medications – a patented mucoadhesive delivery system. The process involves enmeshing a drug with a polymer that can be absorbed through mucous membranes. Columbia reports that this method allows drugs to be administered less frequently and absorbed more directly, avoiding the gastrointestinal system. Until its advanced product catches on, Columbia’s profits will depend on its existing line, which has not registered much in sales. In 1988, revenues totaled $1.9 million, down 32% from the $2.7 million posted in 1987. Columbia’s loss for 1988 amounted to $1.4 million, versus $1.3 million in 1987.
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Savitz, Eric J.
Full text: [Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly] Sep 18, 1989
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Arvin Industries Inc.: It Pushes an Overhaul of Its Auto-Parts Business
Arvin Industries Inc. (Columbus, Indiana), the world leader in automobile exhaust systems, has been conducting a major overhaul of its auto parts business. The overhaul combines expansion into Europe with a slimming and consolidation of the North American business. Recent European acquisitions will add about $225 million to Arvin’s sales, more than quadrupling the company’s business in Europe. The acquisitions put the firm in shape for the unified European market due in 1992. Arvin’s earnings are making a comeback from 1988, when net was depressed by a special restructuring charge and by losses incurred when General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. decided to make some of their own exhaust-system components. For 1990, the company is looking for a decisive upswing in earnings, propelled largely by the European expansion. Earnings in the next year or 2 could exceed $2 a share if the current management strategy succeeds.
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Byrne, Harlan S.
Full text: [Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly] Sep 18, 1989
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Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
Even if the 2 governments give the go-ahead, the earliest that a split in the Kuala Lumpur and Singapore stock exchanges could take place would be in late 1990. This assertion emerged from the coffee sessions of a conference on the securities industry, which was organized by the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) and a private consultancy company in September 1989. Until the KLSE establishes a central depository system (CDS) for share certificates, there is nothing to stop a massive grey market in Malaysian stocks developing in Singapore after a split, so a split would be pointless. Even if it could raise the M$20 million needed, the CDS would have to be the nominee owner of all shares, which would require that the Malaysian law be changed to allow for 2 levels of ownership. If finally implemented, the CDS will kill any grey market in Singapore very swiftly. The delays will come as a comfort to all those brokers in Singapore who have been making huge amounts of money from the grey market.
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Seaward, Nick
Full text: [Far Eastern Economic Review] Sep 21, 1989
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Steel Investors Count on More Than Pipe Dreams
Oregon Steel Mills Inc. stock has climbed significantly during the last month, reaching five new 52-week highs since Aug. 31. The surge followed the company’s announcement of an agreement in principle to buy an idle California steel mill. The acquisition of California Steel Industries’ plate mill in Fontana, Calif., would give the Portland-based Oregon Steel additional capacity to supply steel plate needed by its Napa, Calif., subsidiary that manufactures pipe. Company officials are hoping to cash in on predictions of an increased market for wide-diameter steel pipe to be used in natural gas pipelines. (excerpt)
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Leary, Linda
Full text: [The Business Journal] Sep 25, 1989
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Riedel Environmental Kicks Into Expansion Gear
Riedel Environmental Technologies Inc. is on a roll. In the last two months, the company has hired a new president, purchased a new subsidiary and signed multimillion-dollar contracts for two new waste handling facilities. Meanwhile, talks continue on a hoped-for nationwide network of waste storage and transfer plants that would include more acquisitions and the opening up of branch offices. The activity has pushed up the price of Riedel Environmental’s stock, though analysts are surprised by the degree of the surge. During the first and second quarters of 1989 and into August, the stock price hovered near $13 and $14 per share, but recently shot out of the static state. Last Thursday the stock reached a new 52-week high, $19.750. The stock is traded on the American Stock Exchange. (excerpt)
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Leary, Linda
Full text: [The Business Journal] Sep 25, 1989
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Local Banking Goes Interstate
If you had bought $10,000 worth of stock in Plaza Commerce Bancorp 10 years ago, you’d stand to make a profit of nearly $150,000 when it merges with Comerica Inc. in a little more than a year — the dawn of out-of-state ownership of California banks. The purchase price: $16.50 a share, or three shares of Comerica for each share of Plaza. The deal is valued at about $117 million — a hefty three times book value. Of Plaza’s directors, Bruce Edwards, president of March Development Co., has the most shares — about 409,000 shares worth about $6.7 million. Jack Carsten, a general partner in U.S. Venture Partners, is the director with the fewest shares — a mere 43,000. (excerpt)
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Aragon, Lawrence
Full text: [The Business Journal] Sep 25, 1989
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McVideo: Bad News Show Cost McDonnell $500,000
Mr. Mac would not have done it. In an unusual move for a company that was founded by a man who was legend for being tightfisted, McDonnell Douglas Corp. spent almost $500,000 to mail a 30-minute video tape explaining the firm’s poor results to more than 100,000 employees. John McDonnell, chairman and chief executive officer of the company founded by his father James McDonnell (Mr. Mac), decided to make the video presentation, called “90 Days,” in an attempt to address fears among employees following what he termed was the company’s worst performance in 22 years. (excerpt)
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Scott, Mac
Full text: [St. Louis Business Journal] Sep 25, 1989
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Western Saga Comes to Close as Regulators Force HMO Sale
The saga of cash-strapped Western Health Plans Inc. officially ended last week, as state and federal regulators ordered the sale of the company’s health maintenance organization to a group headed by Aetna Life Insurance Co. The deal was complicated by a week-long legal tangle pitting the state Department of Corporations, which wanted to dissolve the Greater San Diego Health Plan, against four local hospitals, which hoped to force it into bankruptcy. Judges from San Diego Superior Court and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court ordered the transfer of GSDHP enrollees to Aetna’s Choice Healthcare Plan, effective Sept. 15. (excerpt)
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Hardie, Mary
Full text: [San Diego Business Journal] Sep 25, 1989
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A Junk Heap Too High Hamstrings N.Y. Firms
Last week’s turmoil in the junk bond market is symptomatic of larger problems that are going to make it more and more difficult for many New York companies, especially small and mid-sized ones, to raise money. Bonds for local companies like R.H. Macy & Co. and Allied Corp. were hit in an increasingly volatile atmosphere. And although the issues of other New York companies escaped wide price swings, many did so simply because they are being ignored by investors in a marketplace that has been overwhelmed by new issues. (excerpt)
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Belsky, Gary
Full text: [Crain's New York Business] Sep 25, 1989
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Cable Company Sells Residential ‘Passings’ to Restore Net Worth
Telecast Inc., a Fraser-based private cable TV company, is selling off its remaining apartment and condominium holdings as a first step to reinstatement on the NASDAQ system. NASDAQ, the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations system, is a computerized stock exchange. It stopped trading Telecast’s stock in August because the company’s net worth fell below the $375,000 NASDAQ requirement. Net worth is assets minus liabilities. Diane Jeroue, Telecast’s director of shareholder relations, said the company had negative net worth of $5.3 million as of June 30. (excerpt)
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Raphael, Steve
Full text: [Crain's Detroit Business] Sep 25, 1989
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Banks Are Getting Those Third World Jitters Again
Shares in Manufacturers Hanover Corp. rose almost 3 points when it revealed it was close to selling part of its business-lending unit, CIT Group, to Japan’s largest bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo. Such a deal could give Manufacturers Hanover as much as $1.5 billion, which would help support the bank against troubled Third World loans. The stock soon stalled, however, as brokers realized that the deal could cause other large US banks to bolster reserves, temporarily depressing all bank stocks. Developing countries owe the 14 largest US banks $59 billion, but only about 30% of the total is covered by reserves. Three rating agencies have begun urging money-center banks to increase reserves to about the same levels as their UK peers, but that sort of increase would eliminate earnings and seriously deplete capital. The large banks will have to improve reserve ratios eventually, but analysts believe they will pursue a more conservative, gradual strategy to avoid the wrenching side effects that followed 1987′s round of reserve-building.
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Meehan, John
Glasgall, William
Full text: [Business Week] Sep 25, 1989
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Team Inc.: Prospering with ‘Privatization.’
Privatization is a buzzword among companies providing major repair and maintenance services, and it is mentioned frequently in the annual report of Team Inc. for fiscal year 1989. Team hopes to cash in on the emerging trend of the increased willingness of governments to use outside contractors for repairs and maintenance services. The firm is adding services aimed at meeting the needs of cities, states, and the federal government. For many years, Team relied heavily on the oil industry. When that industry experienced a downturn, so did Team. Today, Team still has a thriving business in industrial repairs and maintenance services, but it is deemphasizing the part of its business that is tied to oil drilling. Team’s aftertax net income of fiscal year 1989 was $3.5 million, up from $2.7 million in fiscal year 1988.
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Byrne, Harlan S.
Full text: [Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly] Sep 25, 1989
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Fulfilling Their Promise: Wondrous Products and Even Profits Are in Sight for Biotech Firms
The mission of the US government’s 15-year, $3-billion Human Genome Initiative is to identify and map all of the possible 100,000 genes in the human body. The project will have a great effect on the biotechnology industry, which will generate barely $1 billion in revenues in 1989. Investors in the industry have become disenchanted because of patent disputes, product delays, and failure to live up to Wall Street claims. Among the new drugs of particular note are the colony stimulating factors, a class of naturally occurring hormones that enhances the production and function of white blood cells. Interferon in combination with interleukin-2 has been reported as a promising treatment for melanoma and renal cell cancer. Several biotechnology companies, including Immunex, Xoma, and Chiron, have products under development.
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Savitz, Eric J.
Wyatt, Edward A.
Full text: [Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly] Sep 25, 1989
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Divorce, Where’s Thy Sting? – Morton, Thiokol Go Their Separate Ways
In 1982, Morton-Norwich Products and Thiokol Chemical Corp. joined to become Morton-Thiokol. In July 1989, Morton-Thiokol separated into 2 entities, largely at the urging of large shareholders. Consumer-oriented Morton and defense-oriented Thiokol experienced substantial difficulty in adjusting to each other. Now that Morton-Thiokol has separated into Morton International and Thiokol, their separate futures seem bright. While other companies involved in the Challenger shuttle explosion suffered losses in their stocks, Morton-Thiokol was hit the hardest. Its shares dropped 5 1/4, to 31 1/4, that week. Other problems, including missile contract disputes with the Air Force and an explosion at an MX missile plant, prompted institutional stockholders to suggest that Morton split with Thiokol. Although the growth prospects of Morton International and Thiokol are different, both companies have exciting things to offer different people.
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Palmer, Jay
Full text: [Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly] Sep 25, 1989
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Briggs & Stratton: Small-Engine Maker Revving Up for Recovery.
Briggs & Stratton Corp., a manufacturer of engines for lawn mowers and garden equipment, had its first loss in more than 50 years for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1989. For years, the firm dominated the market for air-cooled engines for lawn and garden equipment. It still has more than 50% of the business, although its share has slipped. Along with a recession came the challenge of the Japanese, who made inroads by supplying US equipment makers with engines at a lower cost. Of the company’s net deficit, $6 million came from operations, while $14 million was nonrecurring, mainly from a writedown of assets. The past year’s problems reflected an inventory buildup that began in fall 1987. At that time, Tecumseh Products, a lower cost producer, began pursuing Briggs & Stratton’s major customers. Briggs & Stratton’s financial condition will be reinforced by a decrease in capital spending.
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Byrne, Harlan S.
Full text: [Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly] Sep 25, 1989
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J.B. Fuqua Leaves Klamon With a Tough Job
The last few years of J.B. Fuqua’s tenure as CEO of Fuqua Industries Inc. were successful ones for the Atlanta-based conglomerate. As fate would have it, business got tougher when Lawrence Klamon replaced the venerable dealmaker Fuqua at the helm. Lawnmowers made by Fuqua’s Snapper Power Equipment division are gathering dust in shops, the market still scorched by the 1988 drought. A joint venture between Fuqua and Eastman Kodak Co. to develop photographs for retail processors has turned out to be more time-consuming and costly than executives figured. The stock is languishing at well below last year’s levels, and the company is trying to recover from a big earnings drop in 1988. (excerpt)
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McKenna, Jon
Full text: [Atlanta Business Chronicle] Sep 25, 1989
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Hancock Fabrics: Once a Tupelo Storefront, It Sets Industry Standards
Shoppers walking by the new storefront facing Tupelo’s Gloster Street had no idea they were window shopping on history. The year was 1957. A Tupelo-originated industry, Elvis Presley, had just changed forever the way America listens to music. And in that storefront, another home-town industry was just beginning. Though lacking the glitz of the King of Rock & Roll, Hancock Textile Company started the task of changing the way America’s sewers bought fabrics — and what they would come to expect from their fabric stores. (excerpt)
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Prestridge, Sam
Full text: [The Mississippi Business Journal] Oct 1989
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A Holding Pattern
By the fall of 1989, the confusion over the course of the US economy that arose in the wake of the 1987 stock market crash was supposed to have ended. Enough data should have been available to indicate clearly whether the economy would experience a recession, slow growth and less inflation (soft landing), or faster growth and more inflation. By mid-summer 1989, the soft landing scenario appeared to be the best one. However, with an upward revision of nearly 50% in the growth rate of the 2nd quarter’s gross national product, fewer economists believe that the economy is heading toward a recession. The financial markets reflect this confusion. Stock prices have been volatile since peaking early in September 1989. Further, the goods-producing side of the economy continues to weaken and consumer spending is not ebullient, which has resulted in inflation being kept in check. A particular problem is the rising debt load of US nonfinancial businesses. Stock prices are not relatively cheap when these prices are compared with cash flow. At the moment, neither the economy nor the stock market has determined its future course.
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Kellner, Irwin L.
Full text: [The Manufacturers Hanover Economic Report] Oct 1989
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