Shareholders of Quad/Graphics Inc. and World Color Press Inc. have approved Quad's proposed acquisition of World Color Press and put the deal on track for a July 2 closing.
Shareholders of privately held Quad/Graphics of Sussex approved the transaction Thursday, while shareholders of Montreal printer World Color Press gave the deal the go-ahead Friday morning. The deal still requires the approval of the Quebec Superior Court, Commercial Division, and a deal on a final order is scheduled for June 28.
Quad/Graphics has been cleared to apply to list its class A common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol QUAD. Quad/Graphics anticipates the shares will begin trading July 6 or July 7, at which time the company will usher in a new era as a publicly traded company. It is expected that Joel Quadracci, Quad/Graphics chairman, president and CEO, will ring the opening bell July 7.
World Color shareholders will receive consideration of 40 percent of Quad/Graphics stock and a cash payment of up to $93.3 million. Existing Quad/Graphics shareholders will hold 60 percent of the company.
The merger, valued in media reports at $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion, not including any assumed debt, will create the second largest commercial printing operation in North America, trailing only industry leader R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co.
The state has approved plans by Erie County Medical Center for a new hyperbaric wound-care center.
State Health Department officials approved a plan in late May for an $850,000 centralized hyperbaric and wound care center in a 3,500-square-foot space on the hospital’s ground floor.
ECMC plans to partner with a Diversified Clinical Services Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla., the largest wound care company in the nation. The firm operates at more than 300 sites nationwide through collaborations with hospitals.
The therapy will complement services already offered in the hospital’s burn unit and rehab center.
The project includes the installation of two monoplace hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers, which use pressurized oxygen to treat a variety of wounds, including burns, diabetes-related injuries and vascular wounds, where patients are slow to heal because of poor blood flow.
The new center is expected to start up this summer.
Matrix Packaging of Missouri Inc., a subsidiary of Sonoco Products Co., will receive $572,267 in state tax credits, the Missouri Department of Economic Development said Friday.
The Hazelwood business was approved for the credits under the Enhanced Enterprise Zone (EEZ) program to assist in the creation of new jobs and investment.
Matrix was approved for the tax credits, over a five-year period, for the creation of 90 jobs and investing $16.6 million for the expansion facility at 5801 N. Lindbergh Blvd. in Hazelwood.
The Hazelwood plant currently operates nine blow molding lines, producing plastic bottles for household, food, and health and beauty products.
The Enhanced Enterprise Zones are geographic areas designated by local governments and certified by the DED. Designation is based on certain demographic criteria, potential to create sustainable jobs in a targeted industry and demonstrated impact on local cluster development. The EEZ program began in 2004.
Hartsville, S.C.-based Sonoco Products Co. (NYSE: SON) is a $3.6 billion global manufacturer of consumer and industrial products, and provides packaging services. It has more than 300 operations in 35 countries.
ATHENS, Greece — Moody’s Investors Service slashed Greece’s credit rating to junk status Monday in a new blow to the debt-ridden country that is under international scrutiny after narrowly avoiding default last month.
A Moody’s statement said it was cutting Greece’s government bond ratings by four notches to Ba1 from A3, with a stable outlook for the next 12-18 months. It was the second of the three major agencies to accord Greek bonds junk status. Standard & Poor’s did the same in late April.
The downgrades reflect concern that the country could fail to meet its obligations to cut its deficit and pay down its debt — which the Greek government says is out of the question.
Finance Ministry officials in Athens had no immediate reaction to the rating cut, which came as a delegation from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union started an interim review of the country’s efforts to pull itself out of a major debt crisis.
After amassing a vast public debt and overspending that sent its budget deficit spiraling to 13.6 percent of gross domestic product last year, Greece was saved from defaulting on its loans in May by the first installment of a joint EU and IMF bailout no credit check payday loans. It is to receive the second in September, pending implementation of a major austerity program that has sparked strong union reaction and a series of damaging strikes.
"The Ba1 rating reflects our analysis of the balance of the strengths and risks associated with the Eurozone/IMF support package," said Sarah Carlson, Moody’s lead analyst for Greece.
"The package effectively eliminates any near-term risk of a liquidity-driven default and encourages the implementation of a credible, feasible and incentive-compatible set of structural reforms, which have a high likelihood of stabilizing debt service requirements at manageable levels.
"Nevertheless, the macroeconomic and implementation risks associated with the program are substantial and more consistent with a Ba1 rating."
All dollar figures, except for per-share figures, are in millions.
Allied Healthcare Products Inc. Amdocs Ltd. Ameren Corp. American Railcar Industries Inc. Arch Coal Inc. Bakers Footwear Group Inc. Belden Inc. Brown Shoe Co Inc. Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc. Cass Information Systems Inc. Centene Corp. Centrue Financial Corp. Commerce Bancshares Inc. CPI Corp. Emerson Electric Co. Energizer Holdings Inc. Enterprise Financial Services Corp. Esco Technologies Inc. Express Scripts Inc. First Clover Leaf Financial Corp. Furniture Brands International Inc. Insituform Technologies Inc. Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. KV Pharmaceutical Co.* LaBarge Inc. Laclede Group Inc . LMI Aerospace Inc. MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. Monsanto Co. Olin Corp. Panera Bread Co. Patriot Coal Corp. Peabody Energy Corp. Perficient Inc. Pulaski Financial Corp. Ralcorp Holdings Inc. RehabCare Group Inc. Reinsurance Group of America Inc. Reliv International Inc. Savvis Inc. Sigma-Aldrich Corp. Solutia Inc. Spartech Corp. Stereotaxis Inc. Stifel Financial Corp. Synergetics USA Inc. Thermadyne Holdings Corp. Viasystems Group Inc. ** Young Innovations Inc. Zoltek Cos Inc.
Just over 3,000 homeowners in the Albany, N.Y., region have received a bank notice since mid-February telling them they are at risk of foreclosure, according to a report.
The data is based on notices mailed under a new law requiring lenders to give homeowners 90-day notice of a possible foreclosure.
The information was compiled by the New York State Banking Department and a group of housing assistance agencies based in Albany called the HomeSave Coalition.
HomeSave is sponsoring a free legal clinic June 9 to help homeowners avoid being scammed by companies promising to help those facing foreclosure.
The clinic will be held at 5:30 p.m. at Stuyvesant Plaza on Western Avenue. To attend or for more information, contact the HomeSave Coalition at 518-434-1730.
A total of 3,009 home owners in Albany, Columbia, Fulton, Greene, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie and Washington counties received the notices since Feb. 13.
That represents just under 1 percent of all owner-occupied homes in the 10 counties.
The highest per-capita ratio was in rural Montgomery County, where 1.27 percent of owner-occupied homes received a pre-foreclosure notice. The lowest ratio was in Saratoga County, 0.79 percent.
The per-capita figures for the Albany region are in line with data compiled by RealtyTrac, an online seller of distressed properties that reports on the number of foreclosure notices filed in county clerk’s offices nationwide.
Unlike RealtyTrac, however, the new report tracks the number of homeowners at risk of a foreclosure action, not those that have already received a foreclosure filing. The foreclosure process takes months to complete and involves several procedural steps in court.
Under the new state law, which took effect in February, lenders must sent notices to homeowners at least 90 days before starting a foreclosure action.
Lenders must also file certain information with the state Banking Department about the pre-foreclosure notices. The Banking Department, in turn, shares that with nonprofit groups that help people in danger of losing their home.
The HomeSave Coalition is responsible for outreach in the 10-county region surrounding Albany.
The top three mortgage service companies that sent the notices were Wells Fargo, HSBC and Citi Mortgage/ABN Amro Mortgage.
MidSouth Bank has raised about $5 million in a stock offering begun in March, a level that’s well beneath the $15 million maximum the Murfreesboro lender set, but in line with what its chief executive said his expectations were.
Lee Moss, chairman and CEO, said today is the last day the bank will receive payments for the public offering, which began with current shareholders then opened to the general public. He said the total will likely ring in at slightly more than $5 million, and that the bank had expected to raise between $5 million and $6 million.
“It will keep us well in excess of all the regulatory capital ratios for a well-capitalized bank,” Moss said.
Treasury prices fell for a second day on Thursday as stocks soared and the euro firmed.
What prices are doing: The benchmark 10-year note fell 2/32 to 101-4/32, pushing the yield up to 3.37%, from 3.19% on Wednesday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The 30-year bond lost 4/32 to 102-29/32 and yielding 4.3%. The 5-year note edged lower by 1/32 to 99-21/32, yielding 2.21%, while the 2-year note fell less than 1/32 to 99-24/32, yielding 0.89%.
What’s moving the market: Treasury prices were pressured Thursday as demand for riskier investments increased and stocks recovered losses from the previous session.
Treasurys are viewed as low-risk investments since they are backed by the U.S. government; therefore, they are particularly attractive during times of economic uncertainty.
Confidence in the euro zone was also boosted on Thursday and the euro strengthened versus the dollar after China’s government called Wednesday’s reports that it may reduce its holdings of euros "groundless."
"There’s been some significant pickup in risk appetite today," said Kim Rupert, a fixed-income analyst at Action Economics. "Some of the fears that dogged the market late yesterday have been assuaged a bit, and that has revived confidence in the market payday advance lenders."
In the last of the week’s auctions, the Treasury Department auctioned $31 billion in 7-year notes on Thursday, receiving bids totaling $89 billion.
Economy: Economic reports from the government sent mixed signals Thursday.
The Commerce Department said the economy didn’t grow as much as originally reported, with the gross domestic product rising at an annual rate of 3% in the first quarter, compared with the 3.2% rate the government had previously announced.
Meanwhile, the Department of Labor said initial jobless claims fell to 460,000 last week from 474,000 in the previous week, beating the drop to 455,000 expected by economists.
Outlook: While Treasurys may pare losses as investors prepare for a long holiday weekend, trading is likely to remain volatile, she said.
"I think we’re going to stay choppy," Rupert said. "Markets have been very vulnerable to news headlines, and I think we’ll remain susceptible to this kind of trading pattern for some time."
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