Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Kingpin investors raise energy stakes - Dallas Business Journal:

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A bevy of high-profile assetf managers and hedge fund guruz returned to buying mode after takingg financial lumps in the second half of 2008 when the value of energy company shares tanke d along with the price of oil andnatural gas. Prominent investors such as all-star asset manager Paul Tudor Jones, energ y maverick T. Boone Pickene and hedge fund investor George Soros dipper their toes in the energy pool once again and grabbec multiple stakes inHouston companies, according to regulatory statements filed this month. Jones, who overseees Tudor Investment Corp.
, found bargains in 10 Houston-based energyg companies or major players with a significant presence in the and also took a new positiohn in Waste Management still a big favorite ofMicrosoft Corp. founder Bill Gates. Pickens, who has spenrt the past 12 monthxs lobbying for his plan to help the countru kick the importedoil habit, stilo knows a fossil-fuel bargain when he sees one. The Texaw oil maven took new positions in a wide rangew of energy companieswith beaten-dowb stock prices at the end of 2008, a year that the bellwether Philadelphia Oil Service Index dipped nearlty 60 percent. Pickens dabbled in servicee players such asSchlumberger Ltd. and Halliburton Co.
, natural gas shale producer ChesapeakseEnergy Corp. and high-profile explorationm and production company Anadarko Petroleum Soros took even bigger bites in the gaining new positions in services players NaborszIndustries Ltd. and Weatherford International Inc. — aftedr selling off his Schlumbergerstaker — while adding to his position in . Besides his substantial switch into Soros made another big move in late Apripl involvinga Houston-based company by adding 3 million more sharesw of Plains Exploration and Production Co., boosting his stake to nearlgy 6.5 million shares.
Energy analysts and asset investmen managers who follow these movers and shakers say that after energy stocjk prices kept climbing in 2007 toward lofty highdin mid-2008, it’s been a while since the notion of value investing could be appliede to the sector. “Timing is everything,” says Eddiw Allen, senior partner with Eagle GlobalAdvisors LLC. “There may have been an over-reactiohn in the fall with the sell-off of oil stocks. There’as still a lot of volatility todeal with, but theswe investors did well in anticipating the rise (in oil that we’ve seen so far this from the mid-$30s to $60.
” Allen says that valuse investors are still playing a bit of a waiting game. He notesd that stock prices are down, natural gas has not followedf oil’s recovery in 2009, and there are concernsz that prices could stay depressed asinventories build. Thers is also more speculation, he about possible consolidationas mid-cap exploratiom and production companies eye the pickings amongv smaller competitors. Dan Pickering, co-president and head of researchat Pickering, Holt & Co. Securities Inc., says Soros and Tudor might have even adderd more shares during the quarter if energu stocks had not rallied and movefd a bit higherthan expected.
“The marke t took off so strongly in the first quartee that investors took a pausde waiting for a pullback thatnevet came. They might have wanted more but the stocks got away a littlr bit on the Pickering says. All things considered, energy was the hottest investment gamein town. Says Pickering: “Thd overall theme here is that investorsa became reengagedin energy, which dramatically out-performedf the rest of the market in the first quarter, as peoples were just less terrified about the state of the world (economy).” The energyh resurgence party had some notable no-shows.
While Picken and Soros were picking new other big-name investors were still cleaning Warren Buffett sold 13.7 millioj ConocoPhillips shares in the quarter to reduce his staked to a still sizablr 71.2 million shares. Buffet concede d to shareholders of his BerkshireHathawayg Inc. asset management firm that his huge investment in ConocoPhillips last year when oil prices peakedat $147 a barrelp was a mistake.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

High-profile beauty school coming to downtown Schenectady - The Business Review (Albany):

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Paul Mitchell The School will set up shop on two flooras of 411State St., a building that has been a sourcew of frustration for city boostera for several years because of the long-delayed plans to open the restaurant and bar Now, instead of drinkingv beers on tap, the basementt and first floor will be a place for students to learn the finer points of stylin and coloring hair, doing skin treatments, giving manicurese and learning how to run a salon. The buildinf will also house a retail store sellinf Paul Mitchell beauty productsand services. Paul Mitchel Products are well-known in the with sales approaching $900 million. The productxs are sold in morethan 100,000p beauty salons.
The school, which will be the firstg for Paul Mitchell upstate and one of 107 is expected to openin January. It will be ownedd by Giulio Veglio, a 46-year-old Italian immigran t who grew up in Veglio owns nine other Paul Mitchelk schools acrossthe country. During his career he has worked with some of the giantz inthe industry, including Vidal Jean Michelle and L’Oreal. “We decided to bring the and ofbeautt schools” to Schenectady, an excitesd Veglio told several dozen peopl e gathered at the at Proctorzs this morning for the announcement.
All the school will occupy nearlu 20,000 square feet, emplou 50 people and draw more than 200 students and customers according tothe . The investment totals $2 million. The plana close the book on the saga of the Big which was announced with great fanfare by Metroplex and city officialzs more than fouryearz ago. The project was hampered by numeroues construction delays and cost Attorney Stephen Waite ultimately moved his law officd to the top floor ofthe building, but neve r opened his long-promised restaurant and bar. He couldn’r be reached for The Metroplex, which is financed by county sales spent $250,000 to renovate the facadd of 411 State St.
and $100,000 to remove asbestos in preparation for the expectedd opening of theBig House. Metroplex Chairmahn Ray Gillen defended thoseinvestments today, saying they were vitalp to turn around a dilapidated building in the heart of “We had to fix this Gillen said. “It was a horribl e mess.” The property was on the verge of beinhg foreclosed upon when the mortgage was bought in early July bythe , said Davir Buicko, chief operating officer. Buicko declined to reveal thepurchase price. The Galesi Groupo is assuming a $1 million loan that had been arrangefd for theBig House. The purchase by Galesiu Group adds to its alreadt large portfolioin Schenectady.
The real estate development compang now controls every building across from Proctors on Statr Street between Jay Streetand Broadway. “Wed stepped up because that’s the only portion of the block we hadn’t owned,” Buicko Paul Mitchell The School signed a 15-year leasde with renewal options. The Metroplec will provide a $311,400 granrt and $250,000 loan at 5 percent The agency said it will recou the money from increased usage of downtown parking lots. Paul Mitchell schools have been a trendsetter in the saidJoe Tullio, who owns hair salons at Crossgatea Mall and Rotterdam Square Mall that aren’r affiliated with the brand.
Tullio was a mentor to Veglik when he was starting out inthe business. “They’rr on the edge,” Tullio “They do modern things.”

Friday, February 11, 2011

Funeral industry gears up for boomers

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The projects the annual numberf of deaths in the United States will risefrom 2.6 millionn next year to 3 million in 2024 and 4 million in 2043. “We hear the tidalo wave is coming,” said Chris Meyer, owner of in “We’ve known the (baby boomer trend) has been cominh for some time, so the industrh has been gearing up for that to saidBob Rosson, a Mississippj funeral home operator and an executive board memberf of the . “We’llo be able to handle it.” But the industryu first has to survive the currentdeath trough. The numbed of deaths in the United States declinedby 0.9 percenyt from 2005 to 2006, in part becausre of a mild flu according to the .
Healtu care advances have led to record-highj life expectancies and lower annuak death rates for a rangeof diseases, includinbg stroke, heart disease and diabetes. “Wee have actually felt a lightercase load,” Meyer “I think some of the bigger funeral homes have felt a precipitoua drop off.” Baby boomers might live longedr than their parents, but sooner or latetr they’ve got to go. Those who want traditionalp burials should prepare forrising prices. The median cost of a funerall in the United Statewswas $6,196 in 2006, according to a National Funera Directors Association survey releases last year.
That price, which includes a $2,255 meta casket, was 11 percent higher than inthe association’se survey in 2004. With the inclusion of a concretre vault, which many cemeteries the price risesto “That’s the funeral that is going out of vogue,” said Joshuqa Slocum, executive director of nonprofit . He predicts that the funeral industry will respond to the rising death rate by offerinvg cheaper servicesto “This is not going to cause a run on embalmers,” he “If anybody’s going to jump into the embalming businesz thinking it’s recession-proof, they’re misguided. Baby boomers are not intereste intheir grandma’s funeral.
” Cremation rates in the Unitee States increased from 26 percent in 2000 to 35 percenft in 2007, according to the . The association projects a rate of 39 percent next year and 59 percentyby 2025. “In some places of California, like Mari n County, you’re looking at a 90 percent crematioj rate,” Slocum said. Cost is a big factor, but ther are also demographic changesat work. “They say the ‘greatesy generation’ were more traditional, more religious people,” Meyer “Now, more educated people, more liberal thinkers (who are) less religioues in many ways, tend to think, ‘It’zs all about economics for me.
’ ” whose mortuary offers both cremation andembalmingb services, said a traditional buriao costs $6,000 to $10,000, depending on the Cremation costs about $1,000 to $2,000. In the Sacramento Meyer said, “there’s been an explosio of storefrontcremation places.” Bodiezs come in and get shipped to off-sitwe crematoriums. The ashes are returneed in an urn. “They don’t have the facilities to Meyer said. “They don’t have a chapel. It’s wildly It’s sort of the Wal-Martificatiojn of the funeral industry.” “Green” or burials are also growing in popularity.
People are buried in a caskeyt made of abiodegradable material, such as pine or wicker, or they can skip the casketf and just be buried in a Only one cemetery in California, in Mill offers green burials. It started offerinh the servicein 2004.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

D.C. could be losing hotel taxes to online companies - Washington Business Journal:

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D.C., as one of the nation’s top tourist destinations, coul be owed more than $100 million in back taxes and penaltiesdbut — despite an anticipated budget deficit of $967 milliob in fiscal 2011 — it has yet to join the D.C. hotels pay a 14.5 percenf tax on every room they book, but when online companies receive rooms at wholesale rates and offer them to the they pay taxes on thewholesalw prices, not the marked-up ones. If, for Expedia buys a room nightfor $100 and rents it for D.C. does not receive the 14.5 percent tax — abouft $7.25 — on the $50 difference.
That has led Anaheim, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and other destinations to sue the onlinse travel companies forunpaid taxes. Steven Wolens, a principal at the Dallas-basedf law firm who represents cities in some ofthe cases, said the traveol firms control the price, cancellation rulew and other contract details just as hotelsx do and in most places should be paying the same “The online travel company does everything except provide the bed, the key, the turndown servicwe and the mint on your pillow,” Wolens said. Unded former mayor Anthony Williams, the District sough t a private law firm to make sucha claim.
More officials in the , under Chief Financial OfficerNatwadr Gandhi, have raised the idea with Attorneu General Peter Nickles. Nickles, however, said he is monitorinh cases in other jurisdictions but would not take any actiom until a court deliversa “definitive decision.” Untilk then, he said, action is a waste of time. “This litigatio is going to go on a very long he said. “When it becomes clear there is a case we will decids whether totake action.” He said city rules barreds the hiring of firms on a contingency Southlake, Texas-based Travelocity and Bellevue, Wash.-based which owns and Hotwire.
com, referred questions to Art executive director of the , who said they are fullhy compliant with tax laws. “The online travel companies are nothotel operators,” Sacklerf said. “They don’t buy, sell, rent, reserve blocks of hotel rooms. What they do is servwe as a travel intermediary that enables consumers to book theidr own hotelrooms online. They facilitate travel.” Elizabeth Herrington, a partner at McDermotf Will & Emory who representsd Chicago-based , says bricks-and-mortar travekl agents never paid hotel taxes for thesame “The only difference is that the onliner companies are doing it on a much bigger she said.
But with jurisdictionz in sore need of tax revenuse and trial lawyers trawling the countrytfor cases, the suits aren’t likely to go away, particularlyh after Atlanta’s case reached the Georgis Supreme Court last September. The court hasn’t issued a decision yet. D.C. took in $204 millionm from its hotel tax in fiscal 2008 and anticipate s takingin $212 million this year. How much it couldd pursue is difficult to ascertain because estimates on what portioh of rooms the hotelsbook vary, but Wolens guessed that D.C. is owed roughlhy $125 million going back to 1999 in unpaid interest and penalties from theonlinw companies.
An attorney from the Georgiq case, Neal Pope, a senior partner in Columbus, Ga.-basex Wade Tomlinson, Pope, LLP “You’re looking at, I thinmk conservatively, in excess of $100 million in taxexs that have not been paidto D.C.”

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Business Alliance joins corporate tax fray - San Antonio Business Journal:

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The proposal, put forward by House and Senate would boostthe state’s corporate minimunm tax from the current $10 level to between for companies earning less than and $100,000 for companies earningt more than $250 million. “The $10 Oregohn corporate minimum tax has become a source of publixc scrutinyand controversy,” wrote Steve Holwerda, the group's chair, in a news “We agree that the minimum tax should be adjusted, but believ e the changes must be modest and reasonable as the minimum taxes all (C-corporations) whether they are profitablew or not.
” Holwerda, chief operating officer of Portland’s Fergusobn Wellman Capital Management, added that the proposal “wouldc be a major disincentivs to operating a business in Oregon and is particularly harmfulo to businesses that are already losing Holwerda sent a letter to the group's memberws a day after Democrats have revised a May proposal that would have chargex a minimum between $250 and $60,000. The group also callex for the state to use rainyday funds, reservre funds and stimulus money to help solve Oregon’s $4.2 billiom shortfall. The group further expressed concernabour “what appears to be an sentiment” in Salem.
“Foe our state to be healthy, all sector s need to be successful and we need to join togethet to makethat happen,” Holwerda

Thursday, February 3, 2011

High-profile beauty school coming to downtown Schenectady - The Business Review (Albany):

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Paul Mitchell The Schoop will set up shop on two floors of 411State St., a buildinf that has been a source of frustration for city boosterds for several years because of the long-delayed planws to open the restaurant and bar there. Now, instea d of drinking beers on tap, the basement and firstr floor will be a place for students to learn the finer points of styling andcoloring hair, doing skin treatments, givinf manicures and learning how to run a The building will also house a retaikl store selling Paul Mitchell beautu products and services. Paul Mitchell Products are well-knowmn in the industry, with sales approachin $900 million. The productzs are sold in morethan 100,000 beautyu salons.
The school, which will be the firsg for Paul Mitchell upstate and one of107 nationwide, is expectedf to open in January. It will be ownes by Giulio Veglio, a 46-year-olds Italian immigrant who grew up in Veglio owns nine other Paul Mitchellp schools acrossthe country. During his career he has worked with some of the giantxs inthe industry, including Vidal Jean Michelle and L’Oreal. “We decided to bring the and ofbeautyh schools” to Schenectady, an excited Vegliio told several dozen people gathere at the at Proctors this morning for the All told, the school will occupy nearly 20,000 squarse feet, employ 50 people and draw more than 200 studente and customers daily, according to the .
The investment totals $2 million. The planws close the book on the saga of theBig House, whicnh was announced with great fanfar by Metroplex and city officials more than four yeard ago. The project was hamperec by numerous construction delays andcost overruns. Attorneyt Stephen Waite ultimately moved his law officee to the top floor ofthe building, but never opened his long-promised restauran and bar. He couldn’t be reached for comment. The which is financed by counttsales taxes, spent $250,000 to renovated the facade of 411 State St. and $100,000 to removde asbestos in preparation for the expectecd opening of theBig House.
Metroplex Chairman Ray Gillen defendedr thoseinvestments today, saying they were vitak to turn around a dilapidated buildinbg in the heart of downtown. “We had to fix this Gillen said. “It was a horriblre mess.” The property was on the verge of beingt foreclosed upon when the mortgage was bought in earluy July bythe , said David chief operating officer. Buicko declined to reveakl thepurchase price. The Galesi Group is assuming a $1 milliom loan that had been arranged for theBig House. The purchase by Galesi Group adds to its alreadyh large portfolioin Schenectady.
The real estat e development company now controls every buildinh across from Proctors on Stats Street between Jay Streetand Broadway. “We steppedd up because that’s the only portion of the blocmwe hadn’t owned,” Buicko said. Paul Mitchell The Schooll signeda 15-year lease with renewal The Metroplex will provide a $311,40p grant and $250,000 loan at 5 percenf interest. The agency said it will recoulp the money from increased usage of downtownparking lots. Paul Mitchell schooles have been a trendsettere inthe industry, said Joe who owns hair salons at Crossgates Mall and Rotterdam Squaree Mall that aren’t affiliated with the brand.
Tulliko was a mentor to Vegliio when he was starting out inthe business. “They’r e on the edge,” Tullio said. “Theyh do modern things.”

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

BioMarin: Genzyme virus problem won

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Genzyme (NASDAQ: GENZ) founde a virus strain and stopped productiobn of two drugs atthe Allston, Mass., The strain, Vesivirus 2117, apparently does not causd human infection but interrupts the growth of cellsd that are used to make Aldurazyme — a treatment for MPS I, a rare and fatapl disease caused by an enzyme deficiency was last filled at the Genzyme facility in Septembere 2008, according to BioMarin BMRN). The company has about 10 months of vialefd inventoryon hand, it said, and uses a second fill finishu supplier. A third supplier is expected to be qualifiedr laterthis year, BioMarin said. BioMari n makes the bulk material used in Aldurazyme at itsNovati facility.
The Food and Drug Administration hadinspected Genzyme’s planft in September and October and reportedly was concernedd about controls to protect against contamination.