NATIONAL

Community Health agrees to buy Triad Hospital system

Community Health Systems Inc. said Monday it has agreed to buy Triad Hospitals Inc. for about $5.1 billion, topping a previous bid by private-equity buyers.

CHS said the deal would make it the nation's largest publicly traded hospital company. It would own or operate about 130 hospitals in 28 states and control more than 18,700 beds. There are no operations in Colorado.

Franklin, Tenn.-based CHS agreed to pay $54 for each Triad share, a 7.5 percent premium over an earlier deal that Triad had accepted from the private buyout group, CHS and Triad said.

CHS also would assume $1.7 billion in Triad debt in the deal.

SERVICEMASTER ACQUIRED ServiceMaster Co., which provides housecleaning, landscaping, and termite and pest control services, said Monday it is being bought by an investment group for about $4.48 billion in cash.

The buyout group, led by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Inc., also will assume about $1.02 billion in debt.

ServiceMaster stockholders will receive $15.625 in cash for each outstanding share, which is a premium of about 16 percent over ServiceMaster's closing price Friday of $13.47 on the New York Stock Exchange.

INDIANA HONDA PLANT Honda Motor Co. will build Civics at its new $550 million vehicle assembly plant in southeastern Indiana, a company official said at a groundbreaking ceremony Monday.

The Japanese automaker has said the Greensburg plant will employ about 2,000 people when it opens in fall 2008.

NEW CENTURY LIST GROWS New Century Financial Corp., the beleaguered home lender to people with weak credit, said Monday it has received cease-and-desist orders from more states, restraining the company from taking new applications for mortgage loans.

The Irvine, Calif., company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Connecticut, Maryland, Rhode Island and Tennessee issued the orders Wednesday and Thursday, alleging that New Century units had violated state laws, including failure to fund mortgage loans after closing. The company earlier disclosed that Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York issued similar orders March 13.

EXECUTIVE PAY Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive E. Stanley O'Neal received total compensation for 2006 that the company valued at $46.4 million, including a salary of $700,000 and a bonus of $18.5 million, according to a regulatory filing.

ALLSTATE TO REINSTATE Allstate has backed off the cancellation of 4,000 homeowner policies in Hurricane Katrina-damaged Louisiana parishes, agreeing to reinstate them if policyholders can prove they are rebuilding or living in the properties.

The company said Monday that it would consider reinstating those policies as part of an agreement with state Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon, who had threatened fines if Allstate refused.

TAKE-TWO WEIGHS SALE Take- Two Interactive Software Inc., the troubled video game publisher behind the Grand Theft Auto series, said Monday it is looking into options that could include a sale of the company.

Take-Two, which is facing an attempt by a shareholder group to replace its board and possibly oust its chief executive, also postponed its annual shareholder meeting, scheduled for Friday, until March 29.

CLASS ACTION RULED OUT A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Enron Corp. shareholders cannot proceed with a class-action lawsuit against investment banks for their alleged role in the accounting fraud that led to Enron's collapse.

Shareholders' attorneys argue that Merrill Lynch & Co., Credit Suisse Group and other investment banks that did business with Enron should be held liable for billions of dollars in damages.

WORLD

Swatch reports 35% profit increase

Swatch Group AG on Monday reported a 35 percent jump in full-year profit on soaring demand and said it expects further strong growth in 2007.

The world's largest watchmaker said net income rose to $685.5 million from $507 million in 2005, beating analysts' forecasts.

Swatch, which owns luxury brands such as Omega and Breguet in addition to its lower- price offerings, said it expects continued growth this year and higher profitability after strong sales in January and February.

LOCAL

Biofuels research venture launched

The Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels was introduced Monday as a new research venture involving universities, industry and the government. Called C2B2, the center combines the biofuels and biorefining work being done at companies such as Chevron, Dow Chemicals and Conoco Phillips, with expertise at the recently formed Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory.

The project, known as a collaboratory, is a collaboration among the University of Colorado, the Colorado School of Mines, Colorado State University and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. C2B2 will research and develop new biofuels and biorefining technologies and transfer those advances to the private sector.

Dan Arvizu, NREL's director, said the collaboratory already is active and two weeks ago applied for a $21 million grant - to be boosted by $3 million in state funds - to research advanced solar photovoltaic cells over three years.

FRONTIER ADDS SERVICE Frontier Airlines will become the only carrier to offer nonstop flights between Denver and Jacksonville, Fla.

The Denver-based airline said Monday it will offer one daily flight to and from the city starting June 15. Jacksonville is the largest U.S. city without nonstop service to Denver.

Frontier will offer the new flights on its Airbus A319 planes, which offer live satellite TV.

Introductory fares start at $99 each way, not including taxes and fees.

ECONOMY

Home builders less confident in March

U.S. home builders lost confidence this month amid concern that tighter credit standards would discourage would-be buyers.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index of sentiment fell to 36 this month from February's revised 39, a seven-month high, the Washington-based association said. A reading below 50 means most respondents view conditions as poor.

Home builders, struggling to recover after more than a year of slumping sales, now face the possibility that a surge in defaults on subprime mortgages will make other types of home loans harder to get. That may provide a greater drag on construction as builders hold off starting work on more houses until completed ones are sold.

"Builders are a little shaky about whether they really think demand is going to improve going forward," Ellen Zentner, a senior economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York, said before the report.

"We still expect housing to turn the corner in 2007. But it's going to be a big drag on the economy for most of the year," she said.

• Manufacturing activity in five Midwestern states fell 2.3 percent in January from a month earlier, dropping to its lowest level since October 2005, according to data released Monday by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

The Chicago Fed Midwest Manufacturing Index - a measure of manufacturing output in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin - fell to a seasonally adjusted level of 102.1 in January, from 104.6 in December.

The Chicago Fed said the December figure was revised from a previously reported 104.5.

THIS JUST IN...

• HRC Colorado, a chapter of the Human Rights Campaign - a national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocacy organization - will honor award recipients at its Mile High Gala on April 28. Jeffrey Basinger will recieve the Paul Hunter Award; The Gender Identity Center of Colorado the Partners in Equality Award; and Lucienne Bercow the HRC Colorado Outstanding Youth Award.

• The Bighorn Leadership Development Program, part of the former Bighorn Center for Public Policy, is joining Colorado State University's Colorado Institute of Public Policy.

• Scott F. Llewellyn was made partner in the Denver office of Morrison & Foerster LLP.

• The Denver Metro Chamber Foundation's 18th annual leadership exchange trip will be led by Gene Commander, vice chairman of Shughart Thomson & Kilroy's construction practice group, and Carrie Besnette, vice president for institutional advancement and foundation executive director at Metropolitan State College.

• Denver-based Mad Greens opened its sixth salad eatery at 150 S. Union St. in Lakewood.

• The March issue of The Scientist magazine lists National Jewish Medical and Research Center as the sixth-best place in the United States for postdocs to work.

• Slifer Smith & Frampton, a Vail Valley real estate firm, has added Bill Perry as a broker.

• Linhart McClain Finlon Public Relations was selected by the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association for a communications research and strategic planning assignment.

• Granite Properties has signed a lease transaction with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. for office space at Granite Tower, 1099 18th St.

• The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has named Barbara Mowry, president and chief executive officer of Silver Creek Systems in Westminster, as one of four members to its 10th District Economic Advisory Council.

• Ben & Jerry's co-founder Jerry Greenfield will present "Social Responsibility, Radical Business Philosophy and Free Ice Cream" at 7:30 p.m. March 28 at Shove Memorial Chapel on the Colorado College campus in Colorado Springs. The free event is open to the public.

Rocky staff and wire reports

Back to Top