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Friday, November 20, 2009
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BUSINESS
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Despite strides in U.S. steel production, Nucor Corp. isn’t yet ready to pull the trigger on a more than $2 billion pig iron mill that could come to St. James Parish, a state official said.
Three nominees to the Terra Industries Inc. board of directors — who were backed by fertilizer rival CF Industries — have been elected over Terra candidates, according to unofficial results at Terra’s annual meeting today. Imperial Sugar Co., the Sugar Growers & Refiners of Breaux Bridge, La., and Minneapolis-based Cargill have secured a $100 million tax-exempt bond offering to finance the new construction of the largest sugar refinery in the United States, creating about 500 construction jobs and 145 permanent jobs in the New Orleans-Baton Rouge area. Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. Monday to discuss the insurance coverage issues consumers have encountered when their homes have defective drywall imported from China. The LSU AgCenter has been awarded a $2.84 million federal research and extension grant for improving sweet potato production efficiency, quality and food safety. American Electric Power utility subsidiary AEP Southwestern Electric Power Co. plans to pay $94 million for the transmission and distribution assets of Valley Electric Membership Corp., which serves 30,000 member customers in eight parishes south of Shreveport. California-based Primoris Services Corp. announced today it has signed a $135 million deal to acquire Baton Rouge-based James Construction Group LLC, one of the largest privately owned construction companies in the Southeast. WASHINGTON — The foreclosure crisis likely will persist well into next year as high unemployment pushes more people out of homes, pulls down housing prices and raises concerns about the broader economic recovery. LOS ANGELES — Mall of Louisiana operator General Growth Properties Inc., which filed the largest U.S. real estate bankruptcy case in history earlier this year, said Thursday its lenders have agreed to restructure some $8.9 billion in shopping mall mortgage loans. The Research Park Corp., which operates the Louisiana Technology Park on Florida Boulevard and is a part-owner of the Bon Carré Business Center next door, adopted a 2010 budget Thursday that’s about 2 percent larger than in 2009. Primoris Services Corp. today announced that it has signed a $135 million deal to acquire Baton Rouge-based James Construction Group L.L.C., one of the largest privately owned construction companies in the Southeast. The Research Park Corp., which operates the Louisiana Technology Park on Florida Boulevard and is a part-owner of the next-door Bon Carré Business Center, adopted a 2010 budget today that’s about 4 percent bigger than projected 2009 year-end numbers. Dallas-based Regency Energy Partners LP plans a $40 million expansion of its Logansport Gathering system in North Louisiana. Travel organization AAA forecasts a 1.4 percent increase in Thanksgiving travel this year compared to 2008’s holiday weekend. NEW YORK -- You might call him the Mickey Mouse of video games. He’s reminiscent of a doughnut, round and sweet and comforting. He’s also a vessel, devoid of a real personality so you can live vicariously through him. Mario, the pot-bellied Italian plumber with a penchant for rescuing princesses, collecting golden coins and gobbling magic mushrooms, has been around for nearly three decades. Louisiana will get most of a $2.3 million federal labor grant, to be shared with Mississippi, as it studies green job growth in the states and training needed to meet that demand. MONROE — Telecommunications provider CenturyLink agreed Wednesday to add 350 jobs in Louisiana while maintaining its headquarters in the state for at least the next decade. SHAW NABS CHEMICAL CUSTOMER: Baton Rouge-based Shaw Group Inc. has won a new Chinese chemical customer, the company reported today. ATLANTA — Dear Kellogg: Leggo my Eggo! Kellogg Co. says there will be a nationwide shortage of its popular Eggo frozen waffles until next summer because of interruptions in production at two of the four plants that make them. October’s Baton Rouge-area home sales edged past year-ago levels, although 2008 sales were affected by Hurricane Gustav. Realtors sold 555 homes in October, a 4.3 percent increase from the 532 sold a year earlier. It was the second straight month 2009 numbers were higher than 2008. Realtors account for around 80 percent of home sales. Monroe-based telecommunications firm CenturyLink Inc. will add 350 jobs to its Monroe headquarters as the company expands following a merger with Embarq earlier this year. Gov. Bobby Jindal made a late-morning announcement today as he met with the company’s board and joined 1,400 CenturyLink employees for their annual Thanksgiving dinner. The Baton Rouge area saw 555 homes sold in October, up from 532 that month the year before, though the gain likely stemmed from depressed 2008 numbers related to Hurricane Gustav. For the year, for example, there have been 5,799 homes sold, down 10 percent from the 6,462 sold in the first 10 months of 2008. Baton Rouge-based Shaw Group Inc. has won a new Chinese chemical customer, the company reported today. Shaw will supply Yulin Energy and Chemical Co. Ltd. with design services and technology for a catalytic cracking unit producing 1,500 kilo tons per year of ethylene and propylene. Work will take place in the Shaanxi province in north China, Shaw said. Louisiana received nearly $30 million in federal mineral revenues for the fiscal year that ended in October, the U.S. Minerals Management Service reported today. Louisiana's Office of Occupational Information Services Research and Statistics Division received a $2.3 million grant from the federal Labor Department. The money will be used to support the collection and distribution of labor market information. The boarded-up windows behind a padlocked fence crowned with razor wire show the former Capital City South Apartments for what they have become: one of the worst eyesores in Baton Rouge’s Midcity district. Woman’s Hospital could secure permanent financing to complete its new $300 million facility as early as the first quarter of 2010, or Woman’s may wait another year to borrow, president and chief executive officer Teri Fontenot said Tuesday. IberiaBank shares rocketed to a yearly high of $54.18 Monday before closing up 18 percent — at $52.43 — after it acquired the assets of two failed Florida financial institutions. Lafayette-based IberiaBank Corp.'s stock rocketed to $53.55 in early trading Monday, up $9.15 per share or 20.6 percent, after the firm acquired the assets of two failed Florida financial institutions late Friday. CF Industries and Terra Industries Inc. continue to battle over CF’s attempts to merge through a hostile takeover after Terra has repeatedly rebuffed its agribusiness rival’s offers. Both companies are based in the Midwest and operate ammonia production facilities near Donaldsonville for the fertilizer industry. The Shaw Group Inc. received a five-year construction contract for work at Naval Facilities Engineering Command installations in Western states, the company reported today. No dollar value was released for the indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract. Blackwater New Orleans LLC has signed a deal with an undisclosed customer for the lease of four additional base oil storage tanks, totaling 20,000 barrels, at Blackwater’s system in Westwego. Not every job at Celtic Media Centre exudes glamour. Take the pump truck supplied by Baton Rouge-based Hollywood Trucks LLC, which collects sewage from trailers and multi-stall honeywagons on regular rounds through the studio lot. The gray walls rise 29 feet. As four visitors walk the huge concrete room, nothing stirs. St. James Place Continuing Care Retirement Community has named Gwen Moore as marketing director; Leigh Loe as retirement counselor; and Sharon Salmon as director of assisted services. New bank branch First Financial Bank and Trust will expand into the Baton Rouge market before the end of the year at 7809 Jefferson Highway. The Baton Rouge Area Chamber has been recognized for its business retention and expansion program by Blane Canada Ltd., a firm that specializes in business retention and management. Business meetings for November 15, 2009 An appellate panel ruled late Friday that a freeze must be lifted from $894 million owned by more than 600 residents of Louisiana and other states. All had invested in the now-collapsed empire of billionaire Texas promoter Robert Allen Stanford. NEW YORK — Regulators shut down two banks in Florida and one in California on Friday, boosting to 123 the number of U.S. bank failures this year as loan defaults rise in the worst financial climate in decades. The following is a roundup of area news from Friday. Uncertainty about the economy and health care stopped small businesses from growing during the first three quarters of 2009, but there are signs these companies may be ready to emerge, the chief executive officer of Administaff Inc. said Friday. An innovative deal between East Baton Rouge Parish government and Baton Rouge Renewable Energy LLC will turn landfill gas into power for two local industrial plants, while generating $33 million in revenue for the city-parish over 20 years. The gas will be sold to Novolyte Technologies, which makes electrolytes used in lithium ion batteries, and ExxonMobil’s Baton Rouge Polyolefins Plant. A nine-mile spur prevents a key West Feliciana Parish industrial site from linking to the remaining 2,900 railroad miles in Louisiana — and to business beyond the state, industry leaders claim. The spur runs west from Slaughter in lower East Feliciana Parish, crosses U.S. 61 at Delombre and enters West Feliciana Parish shortly before reaching the Renew Paper mill on the Mississippi River. The Dow Chemical Co. said Thursday it would sell more pieces of its business — about $3.5 billion worth — but the sale of its powder coatings and Styron resin divisions shouldn’t diminish jobs or production in Louisiana, company officials said. CHICAGO — The new gold rush is on. The price of the precious metal is soaring, hitting a record $1,119 an ounce on Wednesday — confounding market analysts who thought there was no way gold would remain so expensive when it first cracked the unheard-of $1,000 mark last year. Baton Rouge ranked No. 18 among the 200 largest U.S. metro areas in the 2009 Milken Institute best-performing cities list, which measures a city’s ability to create and sustain jobs. California-based NutraCea says its rice bran stabilization facility in Mermentau is among assets that would secure new financing the company is seeking as part of a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy it has filed in Arizona. The facility is at the Louisiana Rice Mill in Mermentau. Mayor Pro Tem Mike Walker blocked an attempt by a fellow councilman at Tuesday’s Metro Council meeting to consider reversing the Planning Commission’s approval of plans for two components of the controversial Rouzan development on Perkins Road. The Downtown Development District has identified several initiatives from the newly created planning document Plan Baton Rouge Phase II that the DDD believes it can accomplish in the next 12 to 18 months. Criterion Catalysts, which forecasts hiring 90 people at its Port Allen facility, will shift production from a California facility when the Louisiana site begins full production next year on La. 1. The sudden resignation of Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. chief executive Daniel Lee won’t affect the company’s planned $250 million Baton Rouge casino or the proposed $407 million Sugarcane Bay casino-resort in Lake Charles, a company spokeswoman said Monday. Pinnacle Entertainment Inc., which has a casino planned for south Baton Rouge, announced that chief executive Daniel R. Lee has resigned. The move came days after reports that investigators are looking into Lee’s behavior during a St. Louis County Council rezoning vote on a casino complex being developed by a competitor. In days past, learning involved a classroom in which students sat at desks and listened to a teacher in the front of the room, usually standing in front of a blackboard. With the emergence of computers and new learning techniques, this kind of teaching seems positively quaint. A small Baton Rouge company has gained national attention, and national customers, by refining the learning process for companies who want to instruct their employees quickly and efficiently. A California-based digital effects company with a résumé that includes the movies “300,” “The Last Samurai,” and “Spiderman” is opening shop in Lafayette. |
