Actual finance blog

Old Florida National Bank and Mercantile Capital Corp. have entered into a merger agreement expected to be finalized in the late fourth quarter or early first quarter of 2011.

Orlando-based Old Florida National Bank, formed in 1982, currently operates eight full-service retail banking locations throughout Central Florida and Inverness, Fla., with more than $375 million in assets.

Mercantile Capital Corp., a 7-year-old Altamonte Springs firm that specializes in U.S. Small Business Administration 504 loans, has provided commercial loans in 30 states and Puerto Rico for more than $513 million in total project costs since it opened as Mercantile Commercial Capital LLC in late 2002.

“The merger substantially extends Old Florida’s capacity to engage in commercial lending,” said Old Florida Chairman Randy Burden personal loan for poor credit.

Christopher G. Hurn, chief executive officer of Mercantile Capital Corp., said the merger also enables Mercantile to expand its services and help more small business owners nationally.

“Our merger substantially expands the capital resources we can bring to the small business sector of the U.S. economy,” said Hurn.

Under the terms of the merger, Mercantile Capital Corp. will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Old Florida National Bank.

The combined entities are estimated to have nearly $400 million in total assets upon completion of their merger, making Old Florida one of the largest Orlando-based community banks.

Source

100% Online payday loans. No Fax. Instant Approval. Bad Credit OK!

A Texas investment fund paid about $57 million for slightly more than 17,000 acres it recently bought from embattled Sea Island Co., one of Georgia's highest profile victims of the weakened economy and real estate crash.

Georgia Coast LP, a Texas partnership controlled by Joe Altemore and David Roan, and Stratford Land Group, a Dallas-based land fund, purchased 17,186 acres made up of four giant tracts known as Big Pasture, Little Pasture, Altama and Sinclair.

It paid $57.1 million for the tracts. The price was disclosed in public records early Friday.

Stratford Land will control the assets for a fund created to invest in land throughout Southeast and Southwest United States.

Atlanta Business Chronicle reported the Sea Island transaction July 19. At the time the sales price was undisclosed.

Another 2,341 acres are under contract to a separate buyer. That transaction could close by the end of July.

The fallout of the Great Recession ravaged the storied coastal five-star resort, which has laid off hundreds of employees over the past two years paperless payday loans. Home sales — which were to be the financial driver of the club’s enormous overhaul — plummeted, and even the ultra-wealthy clientele that Sea Island coveted as guests and members stayed at home.

Sea Island Co. went into default on at least $400 million in debt outstanding from a massive renovation of its Cloister and Lodge hotels and residential developments including Frederica, a 3,000-acre community limited to 400 to 500 single-family homes on the north end of St. Simons Island.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Atlanta-based land team of Ron Willingham, Matt Hawkins, and Pierce Owings, in partnership with Harvey Gilbert and Bill Lattimore of C&W’s Savannah affiliate Gilbert & Lattimore, brokered the deal.

Source

Stop the guess work, get your 100% free credit score and report today and know exactly what's on all three of your free credit reports

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.

Source

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.

Source

First-time homebuyers will have until Sept. 30 to close on their purchases and land an $8,000 tax credit under a bill passed by the Senate late Wednesday.

President Obama is expected to sign the bill, which was overwhelmingly approved by the House on Tuesday. The deadline had been June 30.

The bill doesn’t help anyone currently shopping for a home. Buyers must have signed a contract by April 30 to qualify for the tax break. At issue is when the deal must be finalized.

Qualified existing homeowners also have until Sept. 30 to close on new homes and receive a tax credit of up to $6,500.

Congress has been trying to pass the extension for the last month, but it got caught up in Washington politics. Only when it was separated from a larger jobs bill did deficit-wary lawmakers sign off on it. The extension will lower the deficit by $9 million over a decade since it is offset by certain other provisions cashadvance.

An estimated 200,000 people have missed out on the tax credit because they wouldn’t have been able to close by the end of business Wednesday. Many are trying to take advantage of short sales, which are complicated deals to complete.

The Senate approved the stand-alone homebuyers tax credit shortly after a failed attempt to advance a bill that combined the credit with an unemployment benefits extension.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the chamber will take up the benefits bill again once a replacement for the late Senator Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., is named. Byrd, the longest serving member of Congress in history, died Monday at age 92. 

Source

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.

Source

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.”

Source

IN THE RED

Dollar figures in millions

Source

Ameren Corp. will cut 75 jobs at its merchant generation business, which produces electricity for the commercial and wholesale power markets.

The jobs, both management and union-represented, are at several power plants and support service facilities in Illinois and Missouri. Affected employees will be notified in mid-May. No further details were given.

"While it is always difficult to reduce staffing, we believe these reductions are critical to meet the realities of today’s depressed power markets. Prices for the power we sell today are far below the levels of earlier years," said Chuck Naslund, president and chief executive of Ameren Energy Resources Co., which operates St. Louis-based Ameren’s merchant generation business.

These staffing reductions, coupled with other planned spending cuts, will reduce net expenses by about $20 million in 2010, Ameren said Monday in a news release. Ameren Energy Resources will also evaluate temporarily ceasing operations at its least-efficient plants and taking actions to reduce its benefits costs.

Monday’s announcement follows the elimination of about 135 Ameren Energy Resources positions in 2009.

The company said the layoffs are unrelated to the Illinois Commerce Commission’s decision to slash Ameren’s request to raise electricity and natural gas rates.

Last week, Illinois regulators permitted Ameren to collect only an additional $5 million a year in electricity delivery charges after it initially sought a $162 million increase to help meet rising costs and pay for infrastructure improvements. The ICC also ordered a reduction in the gas delivery charges for all Ameren customers in that state.

Source