Be careful: Stock market turmoil will likely persist
Here is something I know you don’t want to hear: This bear market isn’t over.
Banking & Finance
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DBSI, an Idaho company with Indiana properties, faces class-action suit
DBSI, an Idaho real estate firm with 250 properties worth $2 billion faces a class-action suit. Some of its properties and
investors are in Indianapolis.
Turbulent times spell opportunity for small businesses
Healthy banks have adopted stronger risk prevention measures for good reasons, but it’s important to know that well-performing
banks are still writing loans for small business and servicing their needs every day.
Bankers comfort customers worried about stability in wake of financial crisis
Banks launch campaigns to sooth jittery customers about the safety of their deposits, following an economic crisis that has brought down investment banks and sent stock values plummeting.
Lending, deposits increase at credit unions despite subpar economy
While many banks were getting drunk on loose lending in the last few years, most credit unions stuck to conservative lending
and other plain-vanilla banking practices.
Accounting firms preparing for new international standards
For corporations with a global presence, the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards should streamline
the world’s financial reporting system.
Bailout helping PNC take over NatCity
After a 17-year run in Indianapolis, National City’s trademark green signs are set to be replaced with the blue of Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial. The $5.6 billion deal raises questions about the government’s growing involvement in banking.
Market plunge makes investments in good firms a bargain
The stock market rout that began in September and picked up steam in October has taken some quality companies to prices that
are the cheapest they have been in decades.
Hospitals suffer from spiking bond interest rates, investment losses
Indianapolis-area hospitals have suffered a double whammy of spiking interest rates on their bonds and heavy losses in their
investment portfolios and are trying to save cash any way they can.
Plan trustees under increasing scrutiny
Times have changed and now plan trustees must ask themselves, "Am I wiling to take the chair" and defend
my actions,
or lack thereof, in a court of law?
VIEWPOINT: Throw crooks in jail, fire dummies
The $700 billion bailout of our country’s financial system may be necessary, but it ultimately will prove useless unless real change is enacted to prevent a repeat performance of this fiasco. What the American people should be demanding is for someone to give them a clear explanation of what really happened to create the financial mess. Remember, after the market crash of 2000, the Wall Street research scandal (where nearly every Wall Street firm admitted to lying to clients through…
For funding, developers may need to think outside box: Amid tight credit markets, getting a project built often takes alternative financing sources, creative approaches
Although the spigot of bank financing has slowed to a trickle, money to fund commercial development projects remains available from alternative sources. Just ask David Amick, executive director of Premier Capital Corp., a local lender that uses federal funds to help finance expansions. “We’ve got money to lend,” he said. “I’ve got that [message] hung on the door.” The fragile credit markets have nearly diminished the ability of companies to borrow. But lenders such as Amick insist the money is…
Ex-Lilly executives open ‘trials’ clinic: Centurion expects high demand from drug firms
A new clinic that is on the cusp of conducting human trials in Indianapolis could distinguish itself as a key player in drug development, not only within the state, but nationally as well. Centurion Clinical Research LLC serves pharmaceutical companies and medical-device makers that need to test their products before they can be approved for widespread use. That first phase, in which healthy people are paid to participate in the overnight studies, is critical in determining the safety and success…
BEHIND THE NEWS: Lechleiter went toe to toe with Icahn to cut megadeal
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…
EDITORIAL: Lilly looks forward with ImClone deal: CEO Lechleiter taking bold steps
Lilly looks forward with ImClone deal CEO Lechleiter taking bold steps It’s premature to pass judgment on Eli Lilly and Co.’s $6.5 billion plan to acquire biotech firm ImClone Systems Inc., but the giant deal is one more sign that relatively new CEO John Lechleiter isn’t afraid to make bold moves on Lilly’s behalf. The local drugmaker agreed Oct. 6 to pay $70 a share for New York-based ImClone, maker of blockbuster cancer drug Erbitux, outbidding an earlier offer of…
INVESTING: Stocks likely to go lower, but bull run may be near
When I was growing up, a bunch of other kids from the neighborhood and I would play touch football on the street in front of our homes. At least once a game, the ball would take a weird bounce, go out of bounds and someone would yell, “do over!” Then we would all line up again and do it over. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Congress just called for a “do over,” but you don’t get them in real life….
Nervous banks cut off some borrowers, tighten reins on others
Local companies that rely on credit have seen their borrowing power shrink and in some cases disappear as a deep freeze
in the nation’s credit markets drives fears of a broad economic slowdown. A handful of businesses, including
a Greenwood security firm and an Indianapolis contractor, already have shut down after credit dried up,
and others are on the ropes as troubled banks seek to limit their loan exposure.
Turmoil thrashes regional banks: As economy weakens, big local players fight to keep capital, customers’ confidence
A rush of government-aided acquisitions has bestowed a too-big-to-fail halo over the likes of JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup. But what about the formidable regional banks that operate more than half the bank branches in the Indianapolis area? How stable are banks like National City, Huntington, Fifth Third, Key, M&I and Regions? Their shares have endured a rough ride on Wall Street, but there’s little evidence the ups and downs reflect the true health of the institutions….
Arcadia banking on DailyMed: Company hopes product sales can help it escape debt, lift stock
When Arcadia Resources Inc. moved from Southfield, Mich., to Indianapolis last fall, the Indiana Economic Development Corp. crowed with pride. In exchange for incentives worth more than $6 million, the state had landed the headquarters of a publicly traded life sciences firm with more than 5,000 employees. Even better, the company was ready to launch an innovative new product that promises to improve home health care while simultaneously reducing its cost. A year has passed, but investors still aren’t as…
EYE ON THE PIE: Crisis pits fairness against urgency
As these words are written, we do not know what Congress will decide to do about the mortgage mess. But it is clear folks are angry about the inequity of rescuing borrowers, lenders or traders with funding from the pockets of the innocent. Among the “villains” are home buyers who took on mortgages they could not afford. Also marked for sanctions are over-eager lenders, highly paid executives, and those who dealt in “innovative” financial products linked to mortgages. Those who…