Greg Andrews – Indianapolis Business Journal

BEHIND THE NEWS: Duke at a crossroads after impressive run

June 13, 2005

Duke Realty Corp. has quietly made bundles for investors the past five years. But you wouldn’t know it from the tone of recent analyst reports on the Indianapolis-based company, one of the nation’s largest industrial and office developers. “We [compare] Duke’s investment case to that of a large ship, since we believe that it would take the company time to gradually turn its performance around on a course to improved results,” wrote Prudential Equity Group’s James Sullivan. “There is virtually…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Chicago Express bidder in several court tangles

June 6, 2005

I n d i a n a p o l i s real estate executive Edward Okun had a low profile in business circles here before he splashed into the news two months ago as the winning bidder for ATA Holdings Corp.’s Chicago Express Airlines. Two weeks later, however, he yanked his offer, valued at $3 million to $4 million. The reversal added to the air of mystery surrounding Okun, a 54-year-old Carmel resident. A closer look at Okun, president…

Heirs spar for exec’s riches: Grandson of Lilly officer who died in ’77 fights widow’s trust

June 6, 2005

Robert E. Koffenberger joined Eli Lilly and Co. as a salesman in 1939. By the time he retired in 1974, he was one of the company’s highest-level executives, a member of the board of directors-and an immensely wealthy man. Now, 28 years after the Indianapolis executive’s death, a fight over that fortune has split his grandchildren. One of the eight has launched a court fight here charging that his brother and sister-in-law took advantage of the cloudy mind of Koffenberger’s…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Guidant defibrillator flap spawns disclosure debate

May 30, 2005

Early this year, when Minnesotabased Medtronic Inc. was deciding how to respond to a battery defect in its defibrillators, it contacted prominent Indianapolis cardiologist Douglas Zipes. “You absolutely go public with this,” Zipes, a longtime consultant for the Minnesota company, recalled saying. “You take your hit, you let the physicians know what is happening, and let them decide what to do with their individual patients.” Remaining silent, he said, carried worse risks, even though reported failures were rare. “The last…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Big investors turn up heat on tiny Century Realty

May 23, 2005

Big money from the coasts has been pouring into one of the nation’s most obscure publicly traded real estate companies-India n a p o l i s – b a s e d apartment owner Century Realty Trust-helping to propel the sleepy stock more than 50 percent higher over the past year. Here’s a sure bet: The investors didn’t become interested because they’re suddenly enamored with 74-year-old Chairman Jack Bradshaw’s slow-and-steady management approach. Quite the opposite, says one of the…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Mall of America ruling cites Simon ‘subterfuge’

May 9, 2005

A federal appeals court last month issued a ruling that gave affiliates of the Simon family some of what they wanted-a larger ownership stake in Mall of America. But the three-judge panel also gave them a lashing over dealings with their partner in the Minnesota mega mall, the Ghermezian brothers of Canada. “This case presents the worst kind of self-dealing and subterfuge” by Simon affiliates, the court wrote. Ouch. At issue was a deal Simon Property Group Inc., the family’s…

Hilbert defeated on life policies: Conseco had purchased $87.5M in coverage in ’98

May 2, 2005

Seven years ago, Conseco Inc. purchased $87.5 million in life insurance coverage for company founder Stephen Hilbert and his wife, a move that seemed to assure vast wealth would pass on to the Hilbert family after their deaths. But in a new ruling, Chicago bankruptcy Judge Carol Doyle said Conseco’s obligation to provide coverage terminated when the company filed for Chapter 11 protection in December 2002. As a result, she ruled, Hilbert family trusts, which had filed millions of dollars…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Brothers who built ticket broker now battling

May 2, 2005

The Kinnett brothers formed Front Row Tickets Inc. 16 years ago, and together they built it into one of the city’s largest ticket brokerages. That success, how- fueled acrimony. Kyle ever, now has Kinnett, 35, has sued his 50-50 partner Scott, 36, and is asking a judge to appoint a receiver to oversee the business until it’s sold. “Serious differences have arisen between Kyle and Scott concerning the conduct and management of the business,” leaving them deadlocked, according to the…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Even after Zyprexa victory, Lilly faces many obstacles

April 25, 2005

On the surface, the news about Eli Lilly and Co. in recent days has been almost all good. The company averted catastrophe by prevailing in an Indianapolis lawsuit challenging U.S. patent protection for the blockbuster Zyprexa. Then it announced first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ consensus by two pennies a share. Pessimists who take a closer look, however, may want to pop a Prozac. Analysts note that the stable of new drugs that are supposed to pick up the slack as…

Criminal inquiry targets ex-exec: Brightpoint’s risk manager part of AIG grand jury probe

April 18, 2005

Brightpoint Inc.’s former director of risk management is a target of a federal grand jury criminal investigation into a 1999 deal regulators say allowed the Plainfield company to conceal more than $11 million in losses. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Indianapolis filed papers in a Manhattan federal court April 12 identifying Timothy Harcharik, Brightpoint’s director of risk management from 1997 until his dismissal in 2002, as one of the targets of the nearly complete securities-fraud probe. On the other side…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Great Lakes board battled for sweet price from suitor Bulriss not talking Legal costs singe ITT

April 18, 2005

Great Lakes Chemical Corp. shareholders have had a lot to feel disappointed about in recent years. But there’s no way they can feel let down over the board’s handling of the company’s $1.5 billion sale to Connecticut-based Crompton Corp. A new regulatory filing shows directors of Indianapolis-based Great Lakes went to extraordinary lengths to extract every penny possible from Crompton before sealing the sale March 8. A blow-by-blow account contained in the filing shows the Great Lakes board first began…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Emmis stock is out of favor, but is future really so bleak? Outsourcing firm plans IPO

April 11, 2005

The radio industry receives abysmal press these days. Bears note that advertising revenue has grown sluggishly in recent years, despite the economic rebound. And they quiver over new competition from satellite radio and the iPod. So is this the time for investors to flee the sector? Or to pick up a few bargains? Contrarians may want to take a closer look at hometown broadcaster Emmis Communications Corp., which will announce fiscal fourth-quarter financial results April 14. Certainly, these are not…

Probe paved way for broker to bolt: Knall’s exit from McDonald a boon for Stifel

April 11, 2005

The Indiana University graduate who runs St. Louis-based Stifel Nicolaus & Co. has known David Knall for years. So his mind began to whir late last year after an insider-trading probe sidelined Knall, one of the nation’s top-producing stockbrokers, from his post at McDonald Investments. By late January, Knall’s leave of absence from McDonald had run nearly two months, and it wasn’t expected to end until r eg u l a t o r s wrapped up their probe, a…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Conseco cloud follows Cuneo to Duke Realty J&J dangles big dollars

April 4, 2005

Conseco Inc. is suing former executive Ngaire Cuneo to try to collect $65 million it says she owes under the company’s disastrous loan program. Worse, a federal judge last summer said the explanation she gave in court for buying a $10 million home in the debtor’s haven of Florida was “not at all credible.” “It appears to the court that the transactions were carried out primarily for the purpose of defeating a creditor,” federal Judge David Hamilton said last June,…

Locals seek $10M to lift Lampoon: Laikin seeks to ‘re-energize’ money-losing L.A. company

March 28, 2005

National Lampoon Inc.’s in the comedy business. Yet in recent years, anyone who perused the L.A.-based company’s financial statements would be more apt to grimace than crack a smile. A group of Indianapolis businessmen who own most of the stock think they can stem the company’s heavy losses and in the process breathe new life into a comedy brand best known for the 1978 classic “Animal House” and the 1980s “Vacation” films. Here’s the catch: They need more money to…

BEHIND THE NEWS: In scandals’ wake, firms endure financial wringer Process mapping Too high a cost

March 28, 2005

Last year was excruciating for executives at many of Indiana’s public companies, but not for the usual reasons, like a slumping economy or sliding stock market. Instead, it was because they had to devote thousands of employee hours and millions of dollars to comply with a controversial new rule, Section 404 of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley corporate-accountability law. The rule requires companies to assess the internal accounting controls they have in place to ensure their financial reporting is accurate and reliable-and…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Internal Foot Locker e-mail adds spark to Finish Line suit No. 1 vs. No. 2 Discovery difficulties

March 21, 2005

New York-based Foot Locker Inc. is five times the size of hometown retailer Finish Line Inc. But an internal Foot Locker e-mail suggests that company’s CEO has become nearly obsessed with knocking the Indianapolis company off stride. The e-mail summarizes a three-day trip Foot Locker CEO Matt Serra and other top executives took to Florida last June to visit 36 of the company’s stores in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale markets. “Matt discussed the importance of hurting/putting Finish Line out…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Settlement struck in case pitting Marsh vs. Marsh Guidant’s big option grants

March 14, 2005

Don Marsh is fighting enough battles in the bloody grocery business without also slugging it out with his own brother. Perhaps that’s why the Marsh Supermarkets Inc. CEO has decided to settle a lawsuit filed in August by C. Alan Marsh, a former vice chairman of the company who charged he was owed some $2 million in benefits stemming from his 1998 resignation. Attorneys for both the Indianapolisbased grocery chain and C. Alan Marsh confirm they’ve reached an agreement in…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Accounting rule tempers allure of granting options Taking the plunge Adjusting to new reality

March 7, 2005

In the go-go 1990s, companies dispensed stock options to employees like candy. And why not? Under accounting rules, they didn’t have to count them as an expense. It almost seemed like free money. “You really were hard-pressed, if you were a public company, not to use options,” observed Betsy Field, a Fishers-based consultant for the benefits firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide. No more. A new accounting rule will require companies to begin recording options as an expense on their financial statements…

Library project set to resume: Firms play blame game over bungled work

March 7, 2005

Steel erection for the troubled Central Library expansion is finally expected to begin next month, library officials say. But they acknowledge the start of construction on the six-story addition won’t signal they’ve finished fixing defects on the underground garage or resolved who’s to blame for them. While officials say they’re confident it’s safe to build atop the garage that will serve as the foundation for the addition, they say it will continue to undergo repairs for another year or so….

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