Actual finance blog

Lawrence Maxwell, the largest individual shareholder of CenterState Banks Inc., resigned from the board of directors of the company and from the board of its lead subsidiary bank, CenterState Bank of Florida N.A.

Maxwell’s decision to resign was based on other business issues and personal time constraints, and there were no disagreements with Maxwell, the board and management, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

Maxwell said he intends to continue as a customer and supportive shareholder of CenterState, the filing said.

Maxwell, the chairman of Century Realty Funds Inc., a residential and commercial real estate company, had been a director of CenterState since 2002.

As of March 3, he controlled 1.6 million shares of CenterState (NASDAQ: CSFL) stock, or 6.21 percent of the total common stock, according to the company’s proxy filing in March.

CenterState, headquartered in Davenport, is a multi-bank holding company that operates through four wholly owned subsidiary banks with 43 locations in 12 central Florida counties.

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The Wichita City Council on Tuesday will vote on a contract extension with the company managing the new terminal project at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport.

The $574,000 extension would add six months to the city’s contract with Los-Angeles-based AECOM.

AECOM was originally hired in 2005 to provide program management services on the new terminal as part of a $4.55 million contract.

The city staff is recommending the council, acting as the governing body of the Wichita Airport Authority, approve the contract.

Progress has slowed on the estimated $150 million terminal job and the city currently is performing a full financial review of the project no fax pay day loan.

City Manager Robert Layton has said city staff are working to determine if the original design is still realistic in today’s economic climate.

He said the city’s evaluation of the project should be done within about 30 days.

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University and public officials are beginning a study of transportation needs for the University of New Mexico and Central New Mexico Community College.

The Travel Demand Management Study is jointly funded by the two universities, the City of Albuquerque, Bernalillo County and the Mid-Region Council of Governments. It aims to identify ways to increase transportation efficiency, reducing problems such as traffic congestion, parking issues, travel costs and related environmental impacts.

The MRCOG will hold the first public meeting on July 14 to inform people about the study and hear public comment on the issues, said Rio Metro Board Chair Isaac Benton in a news release.

“We must start by identifying the main transportation issues affecting these two institutions,” Benton said. “This meeting will be the first opportunity the public has to discuss what we need to start looking at. At the end of the study we will have recommendations on specific ways we can make travel to and from UNM and CNM more convenient, affordable, and compatible with nearby neighborhoods low rates payday advance.”

The study’s first phase will focus on a detailed evaluation of existing travel markets and projections for year 2015. That information will be used to identify potential solutions, which will then be analyzed in more detail in the study’s second phase, said MRCOG Interim Executive Director Dewey Cave.

“This initial public meeting focuses on the types of information and analysis that will be conducted as part of the first phase,” Cave said. “It also looks at how this effort will provide all stakeholders with a better understanding of the major factors influencing travel to and from this area.”

The meeting runs from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., and again from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., at the UNM Student Union Building in Lobo Room A.

For more information, call the MRCOG at (505) 247-1750, or visit www.mrcog-nm.gov.

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Tesla Motors Inc. said late on Monday that its shares priced at $17, raising $226.1 million for the electric car maker.

The closely watched Palo Alto company's company's shares get their first test on the open market on Tuesday when they trade on NASDAQ with the TSLA symbol.

Tesla sold 13.3 million shares instead of the 11.1 million originally planned and exceeded its previous estimated range of between $14 and $16 a share.

The company plans to use the money to help it bridge its offerings from the flashy two-door $109,000 Roadster that was its first car to a $50,000 Model S sedan that it plans to make at the former New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant in Fremont.

The company has yet to make a profit and doesn't expect to until after it begins selling the sedan in volume. It has lost $290.2 million since it was founded in 2003 no teletrack payday loan.

The IPO is expected to trigger a $50 million investment by Toyota Motor Corp., which previously ran the NUMMI plant in a 25-year partnership with General Motors Co. GM pulled out of the plant last summer and Toyota made its last Corolla there on April 1.

Tesla also has the backing of the U.S. government, with a $465 million loan.

In addition to the Toyota plan to buy shares, Tesla gave its underwriters the option to buy 1.995 million more shares under certain conditions. Goldman, Sachs & Co. is underwriting the IPO along with Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank Securities.

For more coverage of the Tesla-Toyota partnership, click here.

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Negotiations between the pilots of United and Continental Airlines and the airlines’ leadership have stalled as the pilots accuse management of being inflexible.

The pilots, who are represented by the Air Line Pilots Association International, say they have hit a wall in negotiating a transition agreement with the management of Chicago-based United and Houston-based Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL).

The two carriers announced plans to merge on May 3. The deal is slated to close in the fourth quarter.

“It is unbelievable that contract talks have stalled so early in the process and for such a basic item as a transition agreement,” said Capt. Jay Pierce, chairman of the Continental pilots unit of ALPA. “We are stalled because of management’s unwillingness to compromise on matters that have little financial impact.”

“We have heard the recent statements by Jeff Smisek, proclaiming the virtues of the upcoming merger, touting the benefits coming to labor because of the expected synergies and promising to work with labor in good faith to complete our contracts,” Pierce continued, in a written statement. “However, if this is an indication of management’s approach, I have serious doubts about how long it will be before any of the touted synergies can be achieved.”

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Outcast Communications co-founder Margit Wennmachers has reportedly joined Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz as a partner.

The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital blog reported that Wennmacher will join Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz in September as the firm's third partner, specifically advising it on marketing.

Wennmachers co-founded San Francisco-based OutCast in 1997. The firm was acquired in 2005 by London-based Next Fifteen Communications payday advance. Co-founder Caryn Marooney and the other five members on the management team will remain at the firm.

“For me, it’s a chance to build a top-notch VC firm and work with talented entrepreneurs, so what’s not to like?,” All Things Digital said that Wennmachers wrote in an email.

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IN THE RED

Dollar figures in millions

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if people had listened then, the idea would have saved taxpayers untold billions today — the government’s bailout of the two mortgage agencies is unlimited, with the Congressional Budget Office estimating it could cost $373 billion by 2020.

The "trigger" for conversion from debt to equity would be a decline in the company’s regulatory capital ratios, as disclosed in its quarterly earnings reports. If these ratios dropped below "well-capitalized" levels (typically defined as equity equal to about 8% of assets), then each dollar of the contingent capital debt would be changed into common stock, based on a fixed conversion ratio.

Everyone loses — except taxpayers

The debt holders would lose, but at least they wouldn’t have to wait for bankruptcy to determine their recoveries. Shareholders would lose too — but without the conversion, they would need to raise emergency capital at a depressed share price, leading to much worse dilution, assuming the company could raise any capital at all. (Remember when Citigroup traded for $1 per share?).

Not only would conversion be speedy, but it would protect the taxpayer. Government-guaranteed deposits (and other debt that might need to be guaranteed) would be protected from losses by the new equity.

Given the severity of the recent crisis, systemically important financial firms ought to hold contingent capital equal to their normal equity requirement, effectively doubling taxpayers’ protection.

In normal times, issuing this special kind of debt should not be expensive. Firms that look systemically dangerous might face higher costs. To avoid these costs, risky firms could shrink their balance sheets or rethink their business models. In this way, the contingent capital requirement would brake the growth of large, risky financial firms, another goal of regulatory reform. And if we’re not truly preventing systemic failures with our reform plans, it’s worth asking whether they’re worth pursuing at all.

Kenneth A. Posner is the author of Stalking the Black Swan: Research & Decision-making in a World of Extreme Volatility 

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Booyah Inc. said on Monday that it has raised a $20 million round of funding led by Accel Partners.

The Palo Alto-based company has a popular app for Apple Inc.'s iPhone called MyTown, a game in which users "check in" at physical locations to move ahead. It has an estimated 2 million users and is reportedly growing at a rate of 100,000 users a week.

Cofounder and CEO Keith Lee said the company plans to use the money to expand its work force and invest in to-be-announced new projects.

In addition to Palo Alto-based Accel, existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers of Menlo Park and DAG Ventures of Palo Alto also participated in the round.

Accel partner Jim Breyer is joining Booyah's board. "Booyah is at the epicenter of the fastest growing markets today— mobile, social, and interactive gaming," he said.

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