Helm Bank USA tripled its profits in the second quarter as it encountered fewer charges from bad loans.
The Miami-based bank earned $1.66 million in the second quarter, up from net income of $544,000 in the first quarter, according to its filing with the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. The biggest improvement came because the bank only took an expense of $1.6 million to reserve for future loan losses. In the previous quarter, it took $2.1 million.
However, Helm Bank’s net interest income declined to $5.4 million in the second quarter from $5.6 million in the first quarter.
The quality of the bank’s loan portfolio registered a modest improvement. As of June 30, Helm Bank had $20.2 million in late or unpaid loans, representing 7.68 percent of its total loans, plus $5.5 million in repossessed property. As of March 31, it had $21.9 million in noncurrent loans, representing 8.26 percent, plus $5.8 million in repossessed property.
Helm Bank’s assets consist of more investment securities than loans, so its amount of bad loans was a relatively small slice of the bank’s total size.
The bank’s $7.3 million reserve for future loan losses covered 36 percent of its noncurrent loans as of June 30.
Helm Bank was the 16th-largest bank chartered in South Florida as of March 31, with $728 million in assets. It was down to $712 million in assets at mid-ear. The bank’s deposits declined to $658 million from $677 million between March and June. Its total loans were virtually unchanged, at $257 million.
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A father and son from the Sacramento region have been charged with stealing more than $1.6 million from clients of their company, according to Attorney General Jerry Brown.
Thomas Rodine, 56, of Carmichael, and Dustin Rodine, 28, of Citrus Heights, are each charged with three counts of embezzlement and one count of submitting fraudulent claims to the state controller.
The Rodines, through their Carmichael-based asset and heir location business, Rodco & Associates, allegedly targeted individuals with assets in the state Controller’s unclaimed property fund, offering to help them claim the money. Once the individuals agreed to work with Rodco & Associates, Brown alleges, the Rodines forged documents in order to reroute the recovered assets to post office boxes they controlled. The Rodines also allegedly forged documents to claim funds that were never disclosed to clients.
In all, the Rodines withheld unauthorized fees and claims totaling $1.675 million, according to Brown. More than $700,000 has been repaid and authorities expect full restitution for victims.
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Charlotte City Council accepted a $25 million federal grant to start construction of a 10-mile streetcar line in a 6-5 vote Monday night after more than two hours of debate.
With that approval, council committed $12 million in matching funds as required under Federal Transit Administration rules. The agency awarded the grant to Charlotte earlier this month.
The vote means the city will move ahead with a $4.7 million contract with the North Carolina division of URS Corp. for the design and construction administration of the grant and for the design of a stormwater system along Trade Street.
Among the 16 people who stepped up to the podium during the public hearing on the streetcar, nine were in support and seven were in opposition.
However, most in the audience waived large signs that decried the potential debt from moving forward on the project, while others held up pieces of paper that simply stated “Streetcar YES!!!”
The funds will be used to finish an initial 1.5-mile segment that connects the uptown transit center to Presbyterian Hospital. Streetcars could be running on the route by early 2014. The city has already spent $15 million on construction and engineering easy payday loans.
Under terms of the grant, the city must start construction within 18 months of receipt of the federal funds and can use the money only for vehicles, real estate and construction costs.
Three cars that had been used on the trolley line in South End have been identified for use along the uptown route. By using the trolley cars, the city says it will save $8 million.
City Manager Curt Walton says the city has four fiscal years to figure out how to fund an estimated $1.5 million in annual operating costs for the streetcar.
Ultimately, city officials want to build a 10-mile route linking Charlotte’s east and west sides, from the Beatties Ford Road corridor to Eastland Mall. Its full cost is estimated at $450 million.
Council members Pat Cannon, James Mitchell, Jason Burgess, David Howard, Nancy Carter and Patsy Kinsey voted in favor of the streetcar grant. Voting in opposition were council members Andy Dulin, Michael Barnes, Warren Turner, Edwin Peacock and Warren Cooksey.
Burlington-based MidCarolina Financial Corp., parent company of MidCarolina Bank, on Friday reported net income of $721,000, or 13 cents per share, during the second quarter. That’s up a little more than 1 percent from earnings of $713,000, or 12 cents per share, during the same period a year ago.
Total assets rose to $561 million from $549 million last year. Nonperforming assets rose to 2.65 percent of total assets, up from 1.27 percent during the second quarter a year ago.
“The second quarter of 2010 showed quarterly earnings improvement over the past several quarters. We are pleased with that trend, as well as our strong capital position and efficiency trends,” said Charles T no fax payday loan. Canaday Jr., president and CEO of MidCarolina. “We have focused on these areas given the ongoing financial and economic uncertainties, both in our local markets and beyond.”
Canaday noted that some housing and commercial real estate borrowers continue to have difficulty servicing their debt. The company increased its allowance for loan losses to $8.5 million in the second quarter, up 32 percent from $6.5 million during the year prior.
It’s the best of times and the worst of times for iPhone 4 case makers.
As a remedy for its so-called "death grip" problem on the new device, Apple announced on Friday that it would send a free case to every iPhone 4 purchaser who wants one, at least until Sept. 30. Sounds like a pretty good deal for a company like Forward Industries (FORD), which manufacturers the Apple-branded "bumper" case for the new iPhone. Forward’s stock shot up 22% right after Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ announcement.
The freebie deal presents an opportunity for other case manufacturers as well: Jobs said his company can’t make enough bumper cases to satisfy anticipated demand, so Apple will also allow customers to get a free third-party case instead. To do this, Apple will post a list of cases to choose from on its website beginning next week, and it will deliver them to customers free of charge.
"There’s a tremendous upside for case manufacturers," said Francis Sideco, principal wireless analyst with supply chain analysis firm iSuppli. "Whatever Apple pays them for the cases, it’s going to be what the manufacturers were going to get from Apple anyway. And the announcement gives them much higher penetration than they would have had before."
But Forward Industries’ shares finished the day essentially flat, at $3.75 a share. Another big iPhone case maker, Zagg Inc. (ZAGG), closed down 5% after rising 5% on the announcement. Why the sudden drop back?
That’s where the "worst of times" comes into play. Jobs mentioned Friday that just 20% of iPhone 4 users have picked up a bumper case so far, despite all of the hoopla about how the case solves the phone’s dropped-signal issue. That’s far fewer than the 80% of iPhone 3GS users who bought a case soon after the phone’s release last year.
Jobs’ said his theory about why fewer customers are buying cases is that people love the look and feel of the iPhone 4 so much they don’t want to ruin it with a rubbery bumper.
Illustrating the point: During a Q&A session at Friday event, veteran Apple chronicler John Gruber asked Jobs if he uses a case. Jobs and two other Apple executives simultaneously whipped out their bare, bumper-free iPhones.
So even if many users will want a case, it’s unlikely that every single iPhone customer would order one.
"The signal issue is a relatively sporadic problem," said Sideco, noting that Jobs said just 1.7% of customers have returned their iPhone 4s and 0.55% have registered complaints. "It wouldn’t be 100% of people who get a case."
Sideco said he still expects the number of customers ordering cases to rise well above 20% after Apple’s offer goes into effect next week. Many people who balked at the bumpers’ $29 price tag will be happy to take a free case, even if they’re on the fence about actually using it.
The offer could be an expensive proposition for Apple, though predicting how much the company will spend is like trying to hit a moving target.
ISuppli expects 8 million to 10 million iPhones will be sold between the iPhone 4’s June 24 launch day and September 30. The cases that Apple will offer on its website will likely retail at $30, though analysts assume that Apple pays far, far less for each case than the retail price.
Shares of Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) fell less than 1% to close the day after rising a bit more than 1% after its announcement.
With many of their rivals on the ropes, Canada’s major banks are nicely positioned to catapult into the top tier of U.S. financial institutions — for the first time ever.
The main reason is that the country’s banks famously skated through the subprime and derivatives meltdown of 2008 with no government bailouts and comparatively few writedowns. As a result they replaced their Swiss rivals as the international standard for banking excellence and readied themselves for cherry-picking the best assets in the distressed banking industry south of the border.
On the surface, it looks like they’re on a U.S. buying spree. Since mid-April, three major Canadian banks — TD Bank Financial Group, Bank of Montreal (BMO) and Bank of Nova Scotia — have collectively acquired six failed U.S. institutions. All the acquisitions were cautiously negotiated with the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), which is taking on a heavy share of the potential loan losses.
But critics say the Big Five are playing it too safe, content to remain third- and fourth-string players in the U.S. markets where they operate, when they should be aiming for the No. 1 spot. If ever there was a time to do it, it’s now, but Canadian banks don’t seem to have the nerve to bust out and become truly global players.
That kind of reticence from the boardroom could be fatal for the future of Canada’s major banks, who run the risk of growing stagnant behind cushy domestic regulations that make it impossible for foreign rivals to compete on an equal footing. Consider that the six recent acquisitions add up to a mere US$22 billion in new assets for the buyers. That’s about 1% of total assets for these pillars of Toronto’s Bay Street — little more than a token gesture to make it seem Canada’s banks are not entirely asleep at the wheel.
Analyst Michael Goldberg with Toronto-based Desjardins Securities agrees the U.S. market offers a rich opportunity for Canada’s super-capitalized banks. "TD in recent years has been most aggressive in building its U.S. franchise," he says. "But reaction has been mixed payday advance. Some investors are very skeptical anytime Canadian companies buy anything in U.S."
Earlier this month, TD Bank (TD) acquired South Financial Group for US$61 million, adding more than 100 branches to its 1,000-plus locations in the Maine-to-Florida corridor. This follows on the heels of buying three small Florida-based institutions closed by regulators.
BMO (BMO), which bought assets of failed Illinois lender Amcore Bank, adds 52 branches in Illinois and Wisconsin, building on an existing network of 288 branches at its Harris subsidiary. Toronto-based BMO made its big U.S. push with its C$718 million (US$682.1 million) acquisition of Harris in 1984. It has since spent about C$2.5 billion (US$2.4 billion) buying U.S. banks, but only reached the No. 3 spot in Illinois by deposits.
Scotiabank (BNS) is the third Canadian lender to take advantage of U.S. government-assisted acquisitions, snapping up R-G Premier Bank of Puerto Rico, building on the 17 branches it already has on the Caribbean island. However rival Banco Popular de Puerto Rico acquired the deposits of Westernbank at the same time, securing its position as the largest insured bank on the island, despite the fact that Scotiabank has been doing business in tiny Puerto Rico for 100 years.
Canada’s big banks can afford to casually dabble in foreign markets because their domestic operations are reliable money-making machines that deliver billions of dollars in profit quarter after quarter.
But those profits come at the expense of Canadian consumers and small businesses, poorly served by a clubby group of banks whose domestic operations are perhaps the least competitive in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an international group of 31 developed countries, including the U.S., Australia and South Korea, with free-market economies.
If Canada’s major banks are not prepared to go big in the U.S., they should just pull stakes and go home
One of Central Ohio’s largest technology companies has a new owner.
Columbus-based Sterling Commerce Inc. has been acquired by IBM Corp. in a $1.4 billion deal disclosed Monday.
Columbus Business First reported earlier this month that Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM was a likely suitor to buy Sterling from Dallas-based AT&T Inc. Sterling Commerce is a software and business-to-business technology company employing about 700 workers in Central Ohio.
IBM spokeswoman Nancy Kaplan said there will be no job cuts tied to the acquisition.
“The idea is not only to get the intellectual property, but also to get the smart people that know the products,” she said.
The deal lets IBM expand its ability to help clients create more intelligent and dynamic business networks by simplifying and automating communications, according to a release from the company.
“The broad global reach and additional capabilities IBM offers make this acquisition great news for our customers and partners,” Sterling Commerce CEO Bob Irwin said in the release. “The combination of IBM’s products, services and skills with the Sterling Commerce (business-to-business) integration and cross-channel capabilities resulting from this acquisition is unparalleled payday loans no faxing.”
IBM becomes the third corporation to take over the 35-year-old Columbus business. AT&T had inherited Sterling Commerce as part of its 2005 merger with San Antonio-based SBC Communications Inc., which had purchased Sterling five years earlier.
Sterling Commerce specializes in selling and hosting technology that helps companies manage customer orders and logistics. The company employs nearly 700 workers at its headquarters on Lakehurst Court, making it one of the 100 largest employers in Central Ohio, according to Business First research. The company employs nearly 2,500 workers at operations in 32 offices, many of them overseas.
The Sterling Commerce client list is a who’s who of blue-chip companies, including Borders Group Inc., Coca-Cola Bottling Co., Kimberly-Clark Corp., Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. and Target Corp.
Secrets of Louisville Chefs, a locally produced television program that features the work of some of Louisville’s most prominent chefs, will have a new home on WBNA-TV beginning June 1.
The show currently airs on WBKI-TV.
The program features hosts Kevin Harned, Kelly K, Cheryl Case and Tim Laird. They give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at Louisville-area restaurants and their chefs.
WBNA will air Secrets of Louisville Chefs Monday through Friday at 6 p.m., and Sundays at 4:30 p.m.
Secrets of Louisville Chefs is produced by Louisville-based BMB Productions LLC.
More information about the show can be found here.
WBNA-TV, Louisville’s Ion TV affiliate, operates seven full-powered television stations in the Louisville market. It is seen on Insight cable, DirecTV, Dish, ATT Uverse, and over the air on channel 21. It also operates digital channels 21.2 Qubo, 21.3 Ion Life, 21.4 Retro TV, 21.5 God TV and 21.6 The Light.
Additional information about WBNA can be found at www.wbna-21.com.
It is not the kind of view you expect these days in downtrodden Michigan. From this rooftop plaza on the 17th floor of Bridgewater Place, evidence of urban renewal spreads in every direction. Directly to the south is the modern campus of Grand Valley State University, home to 11,000 students. Across the Grand River lies the sprawl of the redeveloped entertainment district, with its new arena and convention center, steps away from downtown business and government office buildings. Atop a hill to the east is the city’s crown jewel: a $1 billion (and growing) medical complex that includes a cancer research center, specialized treatment facilities, and a medical school.
This is Grand Rapids, a small city (pop. 200,000) in western Michigan with a redevelopment plan that has lessons for other cities looking to engineer new growth after the decline of old-economy industries. That this plan has taken hold in, of all places, the Rustbelt of Michigan makes it all the more remarkable. Two decades ago the city could have been headed the way of Flint, Pontiac, and, yes, Detroit. But instead its fortunes have steadily improved, thanks to a remarkable combination of business leadership, public-private cooperation, and the deep pockets of local philanthropists.
Grand Rapids is much smaller than that city on Michigan’s eastern coast, Detroit (pop. 800,000). Its populace is a bit more diverse, its suburban leaders were willing to work with city government, and its issues were much less complex. But at a moment when corporate, philanthropic, and political leaders in Detroit are just beginning the process of working together to help revive the city (see "Downsizing Detroit" on time.com), the Grand Rapids reinvention is worth examining. For years Detroiters were promised that one master project after another would solve their woes. None did. But in Grand Rapids, business leaders painstakingly set goals, aligned with government officials, generated support, and empowered key players. "Every community has a culture, and you have to pick out what works in your own town," says Birgit Klohs, the energetic head of Right Place, a local economic development group. "You have to figure out who the leaders are, get them onto a team, create the vision, and get everybody headed in the same direction."
During the dismal recession of the early 1990s, things were not going well in a town some still call "Bland Rapids." Sure, the city had the Gerald R. Ford Museum, honoring its most famous citizen. But its signature furniture-making industry had long since given way to more anonymous auto parts and steel office furniture, businesses that were both hit hard by the economy. And while Grand Rapids was suffering from statewide and national economic trends, the pain was local: high unemployment, a lifeless downtown, and little to build upon for the future, given its dependence on cyclical industries with scant growth potential.
But Grand Rapids had an unusual set of assets. "The wealth in this city in proportion to its size is extraordinary," says John Canepa, who retired as chairman and CEO of Old Kent Bank. Much of that wealth is in companies, many closely held, like Amway, the direct seller of health and beauty products; Meijer’s, a supermarket chain; and Steelcase (SCS), the office furniture giant. The founders of those companies or their descendants still reside in the Grand Rapids area, and match their deep roots with deep pockets of philanthropic dollars. Says David Van Andel, son of Amway co-founder Jay Van Andel: "If you want to be a player in this community, it is give first and get later."
Back in 1991, the community needed lots of giving. So Dick DeVos, son of Amway’s other founder, Rich DeVos, convened a group of more than 50 community and civic leaders to begin the process of revitalizing downtown. The group, which at first called itself Grand Vision, began making plans for an entertainment and sports arena and the expansion of local convention facilities. Rather than tackle the project on its own, the group conducted a feasibility and economic-impact analysis and studied the project for two years. Then DeVos got together with Canepa and David Frey, another local banker, to make the plan a reality. "We decided," says Frey, "that we were not going to let the economic vagaries of the state define our city." They built community support and went to work.
The group, renamed Grand Action, was able to do so courtesy of $21 million from a group of private donors led by Jay Van Andel, who was awarded the privilege of having the arena named after him. (As you’ll see, the city is awash in buildings named for its wealthy patrons.) The arena had reasonable goals and was an immediate success.
The arena was the start of a 20-year effort that hasn’t stopped. In cooperation with city officials, business leaders revamped downtown. One strand of the plan was designed to woo and satisfy visitors. A gift from Amway’s Rich DeVos led a $33 million fundraising effort toward construction of a $212 million convention center that bears his name. To comfortably house all those conventioneers, DeVos and Van Andel sponsored the building of a new J.W. Marriott Hotel downtown. And to entertain them, other givers added even more. After watching a play from the balcony of the aging Civic Theatre, supermarket magnate Fred Meijer decided to help finance a $10 million renovation — which was then rechristened the Meijer Majestic Theater. Steelcase heir Peter Wege gave $20 million to help fund the creation of an art museum (which for some reason does not bear his name). And the 132-acre Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park … well, you can figure out who helped fund that beauty.
But the plan was more far-reaching than simply a play for tourists. Grand Action knew it had to lead the city into growing businesses, and plunged into two areas that have grown quite nicely in the past couple of decades: education and health care. With the help of local businessmen — Rich DeVos, Ford adviser William Seidman, banker Dick Gillett, and Steelcase executive Bob Pew — Grand Valley State University built a satellite campus on the Grand’s west bank, with Steelcase donating much of the land. And Frederik Meijer donated more land for yet another campus to the west of Grand Rapids, in a suburb called Holland, a name that reflects the region’s deep Dutch roots.
In health care, the catalyst was once again a private donor — this one with a very personal reason for the investment. In 1996, Jay Van Andel decided to fund a new institute for biomedical research, with an emphasis on cancer and Parkinson’s — the disease that contributed to his death in 2004 at the age of 80. Outsiders urged him to erect it on a greenfield site outside the city or, more sensibly yet, to connect it to the University of Michigan medical school across the state in Ann Arbor. Van Andel decided his institute belonged in Grand Rapids. "They told us we were nuts," recalls his son David, who heads the institute. "We had no affiliation with any medical school, no history of medical research. But our family had a big stake in the community."
The result of all this hard work? Exactly what Grand Action had hoped for: a more stable economy, one that can better withstand the ups and downs of economic trends. Now, manufacturing ranks as the region’s second leading employer, replaced at No. 1 by those sectors poised for the demographics of the early 21st century: education and health services.
Despite its intensive redevelopment, Grand Rapids has not solved all its problems. Unemployment is still high. Michigan’s manufacturing decline, which has emptied thousands of square feet of factory space in the city, has disproportionately hit minorities. But 20 years of reinvention have seeped into the city’s blood. Grand Rapids is now trying to redefine itself as the greenest city in the U.S. It claims more LEED-certified buildings per capita, a measurement of environmentally friendly design, than any city in the U.S.
It’s this kind of planning, a continual reinvention with clear goals, that has been lacking in Detroit. For years city leaders failed to deliver a long-term vision of an economic future that could alleviate the impact of a declining auto industry. Now, with a businessman mayor, Dave Bing, who imagines a reinvention driven by private and public capital, the city is trying to embark on such a plan. In Grand Rapids they’re rooting for their bigger neighbor to the east. "We cannot afford to see Detroit fail," says Mayor George Heartwell. But if Grand Rapids’ recovery took two decades, how long will it take Detroit?
The Federal Trade Commission is expected to vote Wednesday on approval of Google Inc.'s proposed $750 million acquisition of AdMob Inc.
TechCrunch cited an unnamed source it said has been briefed on the matter that the vote is coming on Wednesday and that Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is prepared to fight in court if the deal is blocked by the FTC.
The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg have reported that the FTC was seen leaning towards such action. On Tuesday night the Journal reported that the agency is concerned that the deal will reduce the mobile in-application advertising market from three to just two key players: Google and rival Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).
The FTC last month said it was seeking sworn declarations from Google’s competitors and advertisers, a sign taken to mean that it was lining up opposition to the sale.
The Journal said some of its unnamed sources complain that analysis of the mobile ad network is too narrow, not including players such as Millennial Media Inc., Greystripe Inc., Jumptap Inc., or on a broader level Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT).
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