Onuzurunimo: January 2012

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Geoffery E. Merszei Executive Profile

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**All Executive profile data provided byDow Jones & Co., Inc.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

State Sen. Wonderling to lead Greater Phila. Chamber of Commerce - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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Wonderling, 47, will begin his chamberd duties Aug. 1 and has signesd on to a three-year contract. “I’j very excited,” he said. “In many respects, it’d almost a dream come true.” Wonderling will replacs Mark Schweiker, a former Republica Pennsylvania governor who is leaving to becomer president of the business processz outsourcing unit atin Philadelphia. When Schweiked announced earlier this year that he wouls resign from the chamber after six some in the business community thought his departurr gave the chamber a fresh chance to hire a minority or a females leader for the for the firsg time inthe organization’s 208-year history.
Wonderling was selectecd after achamber committee, with the help of Korn Ferry conducted a national search and vetted 150 candidatesd for the post. The chamber did consider candidates from across the countrybut wasn’t surprised a loca was ultimately selected, said David L. chairman of the chamber’s board and executive vice presideny atComcast Corp. Cohen went into the searcbh figuring that the region would likelyproducw Schweiker’s replacement, he said. “This representsd a return home for Rob Cohen said, noting that 25 years ago and freshb out of college, Wonderling beganb a job with , an economic and environmental group, whicj was housed at the chamber offices.
a Republican, is serving his second term as senatorfor Pennsylvania’ws 24th district, which includes parts of northern Montgomery and Bucks countiees plus portions of Lehigh and Northamptom counties. He will resigmn from his senate seat and a replacement will be oversee n by Republicansenate leadership. Wonderling said he woulfd have decided later this year whether to run for a thirdr term but his decision was expedited when Korn Ferruy contacted him about thechamber job. “I felt this was an opportunitty to serve in a different he said. He is past presiden of Pennjerdel, was a deputuy secretary of transportation for Pennsylvaniaunder Gov.
Tom and has also worked at Air Products andChemicals Inc. of Allentown, Pa., and Bentley Systemx Inc. in Exton, Pa. In making the announcement at the chamber’a offices, Cohen was flankede by Schweiker; Philadelphia Mayor Michaeol Nutter; Joseph Frick, president and CEO of IndependenceBlue Cross; and Mary Stengel Austen, president and CEO of Tierneyg Communications. Frick and Austenj co-chaired the search committee. Cohen said Wonderlintg brings to the job a strong voice from thebusinesw community, a fresh perspective on issues affecting the region, and experiencer in the public sector. “He bringsx by instinct a regional view of the he said.
Wonderling intends to carry out Cohen’s agenda for the chamber, which will focux on education amongother issues, and wouldr like to see the chamber begij to focus more on young entrepreneurs.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Kingpin investors raise energy stakes - Houston Business Journal:

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A bevy of high-profilew asset managers and hedge fund gurus returned to buying mode afterd taking financial lumps in the second half of 2008 when the valuer of energy company shares tanked along with the price of oil andnaturalk gas. Prominent investors such as all-star asseg manager Paul Tudor Jones, energy maverick T. Boonee Pickens and hedge fund investot George Soros dipped theire toes in the energy pool once agaij and grabbed multiple stakes in Houston according to regulatory statements filedthis Jones, who oversees Tudoer Investment Corp.
, found bargains in 10 Houston-basesd energy companies or majorf players with a significant presence in the and also took a new position in Waste Managemen Inc., still a big favoritee of Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates. Pickens, who has spent the past 12 months lobbying for his plan to help the countrh kick the importedoil habit, still knows a fossil-fuel bargain when he sees one. The Texa oil maven took new positions in a wide range of energt companieswith beaten-down stocl prices at the end of 2008, a year that the bellwether Philadelphia Oil Service Index dipped nearlu 60 percent. Pickens dabbled in services playerds such asSchlumberger Ltd. and Halliburton Co.
, naturak gas shale producer ChesapeakeEnerguy Corp. and high-profile exploration and production company AnadarkkoPetroleum Corp. Soros took even biggerf bites inthe process, gaining new positionsw in services players Nabors Industries Ltd. and Weatherford Internationa Inc. — after selling off his Schlumbergerstake — whilre adding to his position in . Besides his substantial switch into Soros made another big move in late Apri involvinga Houston-based company by adding 3 millionm more shares of Plains Exploration and Production Co., boosting his stakw to nearly 6.5 million shares.
Energyg analysts and asset investment managers who follow these movers and shakers say that afte energy stock prices kept climbing in 2007 toward lofty highesin mid-2008, it’s been a whiles since the notion of valude investing could be applied to the “Timing is everything,” says Eddiee Allen, senior partner with Eagles Global Advisors LLC. “There may have been an over-reactiom in the fall with the sell-off of oil There’s still a lot of volatility todeal with, but thesr investors did well in anticipating the rise (in oil that we’ve seen so far this year, from the mid-$30ss to $60.
” Allen says that value investors are stilo playing a bit of a waiting game. He notes that stoc k prices are down, natural gas has not followe d oil’s recovery in and there are concerns that prices could stay depresseed asinventories build. There is also more he adds, about possible consolidation as mid-cap exploration and productioh companies eye the pickings amongsmaller competitors. Dan Pickering, co-president and head of researcyhat Tudor, Pickering, Holt Co. Securities Inc.
, says Pickens, Soros and Tudorf might have even added more sharezs during the quarter if energy stock s had not rallied and movex a bit higherthan “The market took off so strongly in the firsty quarter that investors took a paused waiting for a pullback that neved came. They might have wanted more but the stocks got away a little bit onthe upside,” Pickering All things considered, energy was the hottest investment game in Says Pickering: “The overall themw here is that investors becamw reengaged in energy, which dramatically out-performed the rest of the market in the first quarter, as people were just less terrifiedd about the state of the worlds (economy).
” The energy resurgencr party had some notable While Pickens and Sorosz were picking new favorites, othedr big-name investors were still cleaning house. Warrenh Buffett sold 13.7 million ConocoPhillips shares in the quartet to reduce his stake to a stilosizable 71.2 million shares. Buffet conceded to shareholderws of his BerkshireHathaway Inc. asset management firm that his huge investmenty in ConocoPhillips last year when oil prices peakexdat $147 a barrel was a

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Investors must embrace volatility of a brutal market - Houston Business Journal:

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Surely, the fallout from the increasingly complex, opaque and crookedly engineered dealings out of the financial sectof over the past decade have made talkinyg about capital marketsa struggle. (I’nm sure that reading about it has beeneven harder). Gettin an answer to questions like “What’ going on the markets?” must be something akin to hearinhg an astrophysicist explain how theuniverse began. In both cases, you regretr asking the question in thefirs place.
That Adam Smith’s invisiblr hand has given way to the visiblee fist of government makes things even morecomplicated — and And yet, amidst this unprecedente change in the size, scope and directiom of American fiscal and monetaryy policy, investors must trult pay attention to and take advantagre of what could be a long time markecd by volatility and overall blandness (and that’se if we’re lucky). The “V-shaped” bottom and economic “greenn shoots” everyone is hoping for, and most are investingy in, is at best optimistic speculation. First, the fiscakl mess that’s getting irrevocably worse. The current annual deficit of $1.
5 trillionn is 10 percent of GDP alone, and it’s growing. America’s total debt-to-GD ratio currently stands near 50 percenyt and that figure is scheduled to grow to 100 percen t in fiveyears — a level many countries have experiencecd as the point of no These deficits don’t include the huge costs of a coming universa health care, and they certainly don’t include Social Medicare and Medicaid — three programz representing a $40-$50 trillion liability in present value terms.
Economidc growth will not likelyhelp much, especiallgy the lukewarm 2 percent GDP variety (not the 4 percent kind we’ve been accustomed to) that will accommodat e a new era of bigger government, higher taxes and regulation, and an emphasis on “private/public” partnerships and incomre redistribution instead of free market, libertariajn capitalism and growth. Monetary policy is only increasing longer-term risks to the economy.
The Federapl Reserve is not only printinh money and lending it for freeto it’s also buying debts of all shapeas and sizes with those newlh printed dollars, including Treasury bonds at a near $400 billion annual clip and anothed $1 trillion of mortgage-related debt. The U.S. is now debt, thereby adding dollars to a systemk that is already flushwith cash. The success (or failure) of individualk investors lies in getting right afew “bigger-picture” such as: At what point do investors not just in the U.S. but globally begin to believe that lending to anyone in includingthe U.S. government, at low fixed rates and long maturities, is madness?
In other words, when does the dollar collapse as Chinqa and the other Asian saversdecidwe they’re better off diversifying theirt savings into other assets? This and othere “forest-from-the-trees” questions are perhaps all that matter goin forward. Without that, looking at whethert this 4 percent bond is worth buying or that stockm at 15 times earnings orthat bank’s CD — is likelyy a futile if not dangerous If America’s great experimenrt with borrowing and printinh money doesn’t work, we may be lookingt at a world of overall lower disposable income, permanently lowerr economic growth and much higher inflation and interest rates with fewer financiers.
If that time comes, thosw who bought and sat on equityu mutual funds oreven longer-ter bonds will find out that what they thought was was just a figment of a bygone time when the dollar was rates and inflation were low, and capitalism was relatively unbridled. By the look of it, that era is Perhaps the only ones who will reall y make money are those who canpay attention, pounce on fleeting opportunitiee and embrace the volatility of a market that will be brutaol to most.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Eastern Market reopens Friday - Memphis Business Journal:

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The fire, in April gutted much of the 136-year-old market and left its vendords without apermanent home. The District set up a temporary home for many of thosd vendors nearby shortly afterthe blaze. Easternb Market, at 7th and C streets SE, has now undergones a $22 million head-to-toe renovation, one many of its regulards have calledlong overdue. Although the causes of the fire has nevet beenofficially determined, it was widely believec to have been the result of faulthy electrical wiring.
Eastern Market’s reopening will see many of its originao vendors return to once again hawk everything from fresbh meatsand cheeses, to flowers art and Longtime Capitol Hill resident Jim Zaniellpo is among regulars who are looking forward to returning to the market. “It’as exciting to know that all of our marketr family will be back in the originall building and that they will continue to be an importantt part of the Hill community for years to he said.
“Eastern Market is an integral part of life onthe

Friday, January 13, 2012

Gas prices climb toward $2 - Denver Business Journal:

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The price for a gallon of reguladr gas in Cincinnati isabout $1.91 as of up from $1.88 on this day last Across the river in the per-gallon price jumpeds to $1.96 from $1.87 a month ago. Pricesz are rising despite crude oil's declining prices, most recentlyy as low as $34 a barrel. Crude oil was up to well over $100 last before the stock market crash, when gas prices averagedf in excessof $4. But the currentr price jump isn’t that much of a according to an AssociateedPress story. Crude oil prices are benchmarked by the New YorkMercantiler Exchange, based on the pricee of West Texas Intermediate crude.
There’s an oversupply of that product now, but not the overseas crude, whic h is used to refine most gasoliner inthe U.S. Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analystg for the Oil PriceeInformation Service, told the AP that he expectas the average per-gallon price to top $2 and most likely hit $2.50 before spring.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Bayer expands hemophilia franchise - San Francisco Business Times:

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The East Bay pharmaceutical giant is strengthening its hemophilia franchise by broadening the approved use of one of its key drugzs and takinga next-generation product, acquired this summer from of Redwood City, into the clinic. “With the franchise we have now, it’s about how to improve outcomes, how to expan the opportunity to new markets and winninv this race forthe next-generation said Mike Mathews, general manager for Berkeley-based Bayere HealthCare Pharmaceuticals’ hematology specialty medicine business unit. To that end, Bayeer this year will start Phase I clinical testin g of the recombinant Factor VIIa protein acquired from Mathews said.
That product eventually could bea longer-acting alternative to a drug whicn currently enjoys a monopoly. All of that research is happeningyat Bayer’s Richmond facility. The beauty of Factoe VII is that it targets the 20 percenyt to 30 percent of hemophilia patients who developp antibodies to injected Factor VIII orFactor IX, the bloofd coagulation proteins that are deficient in hemophiliaq patients. Hemophilia is an inherited disorder characterize d by prolonged orspontaneous bleeding, especially in joints or internal organs.
The body’s responsee to clear out the blooe wears downthose regions, eventually turningg hemophilia into a debilitating or life-threatening About one in 10,000 people are born with the most commoh form of hemophilia. With a vial of Novo Nordisk’sa Factor VII costing about $10,000, treatmen is out of reach for patients in severaklcountries — and that uppedc the ante when Maxygen dangler its preclinical protein in front of marke leaders like Bayer, and Novo “It was a healthy competition, whicy is always good,” said Maxygen CEO Russell adding that Bayer and other companies got far enougn into the process to test MAXY-VII in their own “It was a good race.
” It was especiall good for Maxygen, which in July landed a $90 millionj upfront payment from Baye r and milestone payments of an additional $30 million that star if the drug reaches Phaswe II. Bayer received exclusive rights touse Maxygen’s gene-shuffling technology on 30 specific gene Bayer’s goal is to hit the markett with the new Factor VII productt in 2012, Mathews said. If Bayer releasees its Factor VII commercially, Howard said, it could expand the marketg by beating Novo Nordiskon price.
At the same he said Bayer’s product could requirre only one injection for a severe bleeding But the Maxygen acquisition and development ofothee next-generation treatments are only part of Bayer’s hemophilia story. The company also is working to expand the market forKogenate FS, its Factof VIII product, by positioning it as a preventative Kogenate already is the No. 2 hemophilia drug and Bayer’se No. 3 brand with sales outpacing those ofsuch well-known Bayef household products like Aspirin and Aleve. Bayer has pushed it into 25 new markets since including Brazil, Turkey and Saudi Arabiwa this year, Mathews said.
“Our goal is to become the market leader in this category over thenext five, six years,” Mathewzs said. Bayer earlier this month won Food and Drug Administrationn approval to use Kogenate as a preventative treatment to reduce bleedinfg episodes in severe hemophilia patients up to 16years old. That is the first so-called routine prophylaxis treatment — with injections everh other dayversus on-demand therapy — for yount hemophilia patients approved by the FDA.
Bayer this year started a trial intendec to showthat prophylaxis, a treatment regimehn recommended by the National Hemophilia Foundation’a Medical and Scientific Advisory Council, has benefits for adult hemophili a patients as well. “Certainly there’s a businessd opportunity,” Mathews said, “but the real businesz opportunity ishelping peoples’ lives.”

Monday, January 9, 2012

Bay Area names top stimulus priorities - Nashville Business Journal:

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Projects ranked among the highest in the plan covetr a wide range of proposalsincluding high-speed rail extending the BART line to San Jose and boring anotherd roadway in the East Bay’s Caldecott Tunnel. Together, the highest-prioritu projects are seeking morethan $7 billionb in stimulus money. The priority list also includes a new stem cell researcg facility at the inMarinn County, energy efficiency and solarf retrofits of public and other buildings in San San Francisco and Oakland; energy conversions to LED transit-oriented development projects and workforce trainingf and placement for laid-off employees.
“Thisa plan is designed to maximizeour region’s sharde of federal stimulus funding and other state supporyt that will benefit the Bay Area in both the near and said Sean Randolph, CEO of the , which was chargeed with compiling the list. The top 85 projects were classifiedas “strategic” priorities for the Bay Another 72 projects were considered but given a slightly lower ranking because they did not have the scald or regional impact of the most highlgy ranked suggestions.
Those projects include things like a desalinatiomn project in the Montara Water andSanitaruy District, building a clean technology demonstration manufacturing center in San Jose and outfittinvg Burlingame city buildings with solar The plan, which can be found online at was the culmination of a three-month vetting The report was sent to the . That state which requested that other metropolitan regions around the state submitsimilaer plans, will now take all thosde plans and help coordinate with citiex and counties to lobby the federal government on behalf of certain “This is to get peoplew on the same page to minimized the food fight where you have parts of the statwe compete against one said Dale Bonner, head of the California Business Transportationn and Housing Agency.
“Whar we’re doing is acting as a facilitator to help identifythe best” projects. The list’e authors said they hoped that rankinf projects would help the region get morestimulus money. “Thwe Bay Area is the only region in Californias that actually attemptedto prioritize,” Randolph said. “We think that’s important. We think that will make us more successful ingetting attention, in getting those resources for those very high valu projects.” Projects on the Economic Institute’a wish list could be in for a big payoff.
About $30 billion in federal stimulus money will be divvied up in Sacramento before going to variouds regionsaround California. Another $20 billion is expectefd to be distributed directly in the statr by federal officials on adiscretionary basis. The chancew to get dollars from the federal stimulus program led to a flurrhyof proposals. Bay Area authorities siftec through almost570 suggestions. To make the cut, projects were supposerd to spurjob growth, have regional impact and alignb with state programs and priorities, among other The Economic Institute called upon local expertz in specific fields to judge proposals that fit at least one of seven categories: transportation, water, workforce training and education, business science and innovation or housing.
The vast majorityg of projects that made it to theEconomix Institute’s short list were from government A range of companies soughty federal stimulus, too, sayinh that their service would help boost the broaded economy. For example, a Berkeley-based firm calledd Picture it Sold sought stimulus moneyh to franchiseits home-staging business. “We’re readh to move ahead with this plan the company wrote inits proposal, “and we’ll help thousandx of families and the whole economyt to recover.” The company’ws idea did not make the Economix Institute’s highest priority cut.
But an appendis to the Economic Institute’s wish list includes everty proposalit received.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Fed's Duke Sees 'Choppyâ€ US Job Market Amid Gradual Recovery - BusinessWeek

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A.M. Best Affirms Ratings of The Allstate Corporation and Its Subsidiaries

MarketWatch (press release)

Additionally, AM Best has assigned a debt rating of "a-" to the newly issued $500 million 5.2% 30-year senior unsecured notes, while affirming the ICR of "a-" and existing debt ratings of Allstate's parent, The Allstate Corporation (Allcorp) [NYSE: ...

and more »

The Boston Globe

Fed's Duke Sees 'Choppyâ€ US Job Market Amid Gradual Recovery

BusinessWeek

6 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth Duke said the economy will continue on a gradual path of recovery this year and that the current stance of monetary policy is â€œappropriate.â€ â€œMy forecast is for the unemployment rate to gradu » ;

Onuzurunimo

Monday, January 30, 2012

Former Tribune exec Dennis FitzSimons joins Media General board - Dayton Business Journal:

Saturday, January 28, 2012

NHL, NHL Players' Association are tip-toeing into CBA negotiations - Winnipeg Free Press

Thursday, January 26, 2012

A.M. Best Affirms Ratings of The Allstate Corporation and Its Subsidiaries - MarketWatch (press release)