Wireless phone distributor Brightpoint Inc. eked out third-quarter earnings of $5.5 million – in line with analysts’ expectations but off 58 percent from a year earlier. On a per-share basis, profit was 6 cents a share – matching the average estimate of five analysts who track the company. Revenue in the quarter totaled $1.2 billion, […]
Simon Property Group Inc. this morning reported third-quarter results that beat analysts’ expectations. But in a late-morning conference call, CEO David Simon said the retail developer would curb its expansion in response to the weak economy. “Given the current economic conditions, we anticipate our capital spending will be down significantly in 2009,” he said. Investors […]
Retired businessman John Wynne, one of the founders of Duke Realty Corp., is the latest executive to get burned after using
company stock as collateral for a multimillion-dollar loan in his investment account.
You think the recent stock-market gyrations have been g u t – w r e n c h i n g ? Imagine if you’re responsible not just for your own money, but for millions of dollars others have entrusted to you. That’s the reality for Indiana’s professional money managers, who collectively oversee billions of dollars. In good times, top-performing managers of mutual funds and individual accounts are treated like heroes, heralded with features in Barron’s or appearances on CNBC….
Eli Lilly and Co. had been salivating over ImClone Systems Inc. for more than two years when, on July 25 of this year, its senior executives received a formal staff recommendation to contact the company and make an overture. So it must have come as quite a jolt to Lilly brass when, just six days later, Bristol-Myers Squibb announced that it was offering to buy the 83 percent of ImClone it didn’t already own for $60 a share, or $4.5…
Stocks in Indiana and across the globe shot higher this morning, wiping out some of the devastating losses of last week, one of the worst in the history of Wall Street. In late morning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 450 points, or 5.5 percent. The S&P 500, meanwhile, had advanced […]
“Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful.” This philosophy, which Warren Buffett espoused to a group of Columbia University students when he was just 21, has served the billionaire investor well. And it may serve you well as you navigate the ugliest stock market in three decades. To be sure, the thrashing that stocks in Indiana and across the globe have weathered in recent weeks has been nearly across the board-savaging the shares of…
Managing the balance sheet. The very phrase is s l e e p – i n d u c i n g . But in times like these, doing it well is what separates the winners from the losers. In the winners’ column is Simon Property Group Inc., which finds itself on the offensive as competitors, including Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc., lean back on their heels. In the losers’ column is Emmis Communications Corp., which is saddled with more…
Turmoil on Wall Street-including Merrill Lynch’s $50 billion sale to Bank of America Corp.- could throw into play some of Indianapolis’ biggest-producing stockbrokers. Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America recognizes the risk and is preparing to roll out retention bonuses for its arsenal of 17,000 brokers, 136 of whom work out of the Indianapolis area. “We have the capacity to do that, and would plan to do something because it’s the crown jewel of the company,” Ken Lewis, Bank of America’s…
Paul Shoopman could have sat on the sidelines savoring the fact that he sold his homebuilding firm in 2004, just months before the market began a calamitous slide. But that’s not Shoopman, who’d been building houses since 1971, the year he graduated from high school. His dad loaned him the money for his first lot, and co-signed for the construction loan. Shoopman built Dura Builders Inc. into Indianapolis’ fifth-largest homebuilder before selling it to Los Angeles-based KB Home. A little…
Duke Realty Corp. has stayed largely out of the headlines this year, which in an economy like this is a pretty good sign. Another Indianapolis developer, Lauth Property Group, has shed more than half its 450-person work force, and Premier Properties Inc.- perhaps the city’s most daring developer-lurched into bankruptcy court. Meanwhile, Duke, which specializes in suburban office and industrial development, keeps on chugging. To be sure, the company isn’t immune to broader economic slowdown. In April, it laid off…
Attorney pay at top-tier firms is like compensation for executives of public companies. Amid hand-wringing, the numbers keep going up and up. The reasons are understandable. Law firm managers feel pressure to raise compensation to attract and retain the best attorneys-and to keep up with what other firms are doling out. The people running those competing firms feel the same pressures, accelerating the upward spiral. Hence, top attorneys in Indianapolis in the most complex practice areas now have hourly rates…
Alvin “Kit” Stolen is back atop an Indianapolisbased bank, albeit one many locals have never heard of. But Salin Bank & Trust Co. has big plans to get noticed-and get customers-here. After establishing strong market positions in south-central and northern Indiana, it finally has its sights on the center of the state. For now, Salin has just one Indianapolis-area branch, its headquarters near Keystone at the Crossing. But plans are in motion for two Hamilton County locations. And while bank…
Brightpoint Inc. executives in recent days have scooped up tens of thousands of shares of company stock, a move that suggests they believe the battered shares have become a bargain. At the time of the purchases, the stock was off more than 50 percent for the year. Disclosures of the purchases this week gave Brightpoint […]
In the buttoned-down world of banking, it doesn't get much stranger than this: An Indianapolis loan officer with a strong reputation is suddenly dismissed after his employer charges he falsified lending documents. The bank says the fraud exposes it to potential losses approaching $20 million. And here's the kicker: The employer hasn't accused the banker of committing the wrongdoing for personal gain.
In the buttoneddown world of banking, it doesn’t get much stranger than this: An Indianapolis loan officer with a strong reputation is suddenly dismissed after his employer charges he falsified lending documents. The bank says the fraud exposes it to potential losses approaching $20 million. And here’s the kicker: The employer hasn’t accused the banker of committing the wrongdoing for personal gain. There are no allegations, for instance, of setting up fictitious borrowers to scoop up bank cash on his…
When it came to timing its initial public offering, ExactTarget Inc. didn’t exactly hit a bull’s-eye. The Indianapolis-based maker of e-mail marketing software filed to go public in mid-December, well into the market swoon that began before Halloween. Since then, the market’s only gotten spookier. The S&P 500 has shed another 13 percent, leaving the bellwether index 18 percent off its October high. Not surprisingly, ExactTarget is stuck at the starting gate. It hasn’t moved forward with launching its $86…
The past 12 months have been hard to take, with all the gloom-anddoom headlines about the weak housing market, subprime credit crisis and softening economy. We’re all ready for some good news. Unfortunately, I can’t provide it here. That’s because executives on the front lines of Indiana business-those most tuned in to the twists and turns of the state’s economy-aren’t ready to call a turnaround yet. In second-quarter conference calls with analysts, the executives are trumpeting their firms’ ability to…
Just a few years ago, Carmel businessman Edward Okun was living the high life. By last year, his personal holdings had grown to include four mansions, a helicopter, three airplanes, 20 automobiles, and a 130-foot yacht. Today, Okun is in a Virginia jail, is represented by a public defender, and faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars. And, angry investors say, rightfully so. They charge-and government investigators agree-that Okun financed his lavish lifestyle by misappropriating…
Richard Blum is a former mountain climber who once led an Everest expedition. In his day job as a professional investor, he’s almost as daring. Twice in the last four years, his San Francisco-based money-management firm, Blum Capital Partners, has bet big on locally based ITT Educational Services at times other investors were terrified of the stock. Blum, husband of Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, began scooping up shares in the for-profit education company in February 2004-one day after federal…
