Financial Mines

News and notes from the business reporters for the Connecticut Media Group.
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Heidmar hires new CEO

Wednesday, April 18, 2012 by:Rob Varnon
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Less than three months after its chief executive resigned, the Board of Directors of Norwalk-based  Heidmar Holdings LLC, the holding company for tanker pool management company Heidmar Inc., has hired a new CEO from within.

The board selected Marc La Monte to serve as president and CEO of Heidmar Inc. Per Heilmann has been appointed executive vice president and and chief risk officer. The executives are assuming their new roles immediately, the company, said.

“I am very excited to lead Heidmar during the demanding time ahead,” La Monte said in a press release, saying he will provide transparent leadership for the pool partners.

Heidmar manages more than 120 vessels in five fleets for its partners in the pool.

Tim Brennan, the former CEO resigned from the company in January, but agreed to serve in an advisory role. Some reports of Brennan’s resignation indicated it was a surprise that he was leaving after serving 19 years with the company. No reason was ever stated for Brennan’s resignation and the company said he was leaving Heidmar in a good position.

Heidmar is owned primarily by two entities, Shipping Pool Investors, with a 49 percent stake and Morgan Stanley, also with a 49 percent stake. Both acquired their stakes in Heidmar after 2006.

“We are pleased to be able to promote these individuals from within Heidmar, which has always developed and attracted superior talent<” the company said in a press release. “We have utmost confidence in their ability to lead the company. Today’s challenging shipping markets are an enormous opportunity for the Heidmar Pool business. The Company provides commercial management expertise with independent governance and total transparency. We are confident that with the new leadership structure in place, Heidmar will prosper and grow, delivering maximum benefit to its Pool partners, employees and its shareholders.”

From October 2010, Marc La Monte had been the Managing Director of Heidmar’s VLCC tanker pool, Seawolf Tankers Inc. Prior to joining Heidmar, he led the Gas Strategic Business Unit at Overseas Shipholding Group. During Marc’s tenure at OSG, he also served as Vice President and Deputy Head of the Crude Strategic Business Unit where he played a critical role in the commercial management of the international crude oil tanker fleet. Marc also held the dual role of head of the worldwide Sale and Purchase group across all OSG’s business units. He joined OSG in 1994 as a chartering broker.

Per F. Heilmann had been Vice President at Heidmar Inc., with the Company for 10 years and is currently responsible for all derivative trading and risk management for Heidmar. From 2008 to 2010 he held the industry position of Chairman of the Baltic Exchange Freight Market Information Users Group (Tankers). Prior to working with Heidmar, Per held the position of Senior Corporate Finance Analyst at Fox-Pitt, Kelton, Inc. an investment banking subsidiary of Swiss Re. Per received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Cornell University in 1997 and a BA/MA Degree in Economics and Management Studies from Cambridge University in 1999.

Categories: General, Main Street

NewAlliance’s Patterson hired at BNC Financial

Tuesday, April 17, 2012 by:Rob Varnon
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Contibuted photo of incoming BNC Financial CEO Peyton R. Patterson

BNC Financial Group, the holding company for The Bank of New Canaan, The Bank of Fairfield and Stamford First Bank has hired the former chief executive of NewAlliance to take over in September.

Peyton R. Patterson, who led NewAlliance for nearly a decade building it through acquisitions, taking it public and then oversaw the sale to First Niagara, has accepted a new job with BNC, where she will replace M. Jay Forgotson, one of the founders of the Connecticut institution.

She brings more than 25 years experience, but did take some lumps in the sale to First Niagara as some shareholders and politicians felt the bank should have remained headquartered in New Haven rather than being sold to New York bank.

Analysts, however, were impressed with her run at the helm of NewAlliance and one told The Mines it’s an interesting development.

Categories: Banking, General

Webster beats street on thinning interest margin

Tuesday, April 17, 2012 by:Rob Varnon
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Webster Financial Corp., the parent company of Webster Bank reported net income climbed 14 percent from a year ago.

The bank said net income climbed to $38.3 million, or 42 cents per share, for the quarter ended March 31. FactSet Research said analysts were expecting 40 cents.

A year ago, Webster posted net income of $33.7 million, or 36 cents per share.

While the bank’s year-over-year results remain strong, it’s earnigns as compared to the fourth quarter slipped along with its interest rate margin, which was lower for the third straight earnings session. Webster earned $39.6 million, or 43 cents a share, in the fourth quarter of 2011.

The bank reported net interest margin for the first quarter was 3.36 percent, down from 3.39 percent in the fourth quarter and lower than 3.49 percent reported for the third quarter of 2011.

Sterne Agee, was predicting average interest margins to run about 3.30 percent.

Shares of Webster were up 32 cents to $21.74 in Tuesday trading.

Categories: Banking, General, Wall Street

Conn stores not on Best Buy closure list

Saturday, April 14, 2012 by:Rob Varnon
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Beleaguered electronics retailer Best Buy listed the 50 stores it intends to close this year.
No Connecticut stores were on the list. California and Illinois were hit hardest. But stores in Rhode Island, New York, and Massachusetts made the list.

Categories: General

Economy still sizzling in March

Friday, April 13, 2012 by:Rob Varnon
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Despite a two-egg, sausage, homefries and rye toast meal with coffee running from $7 to $10.10 in Connecticut these days, people are still out spending at their local diners here and nationally, a new report says.

According to a Monday, April 16 Commerce Department report, retail and restaurant sales for March, were $411.1 billion, an increase of 0.8 percent from February and up 6.5 percent from a year ago. Commerce does not adjust sales for inflation, which in another report, indicates about 0.3 percent of the increase in spending was coming from price hikes last month, but the figure for this month is not available.

In the restaurant trade, there was a 0.3 percent gain in sales, so if the inflation rate holds, it’s a sign inflation is not the full cause of the increases.

The biggest gains in sales came at gasoline stations, which were up 1.1 percent from a month ago, furniture, also up 1.1 percent and building materials, which increased by 3 percent.

Categories: Economy, General, Main Street

Transamerica seeks 25 percent hike on long-term care policies

Thursday, April 12, 2012 by:Rob Varnon
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Transamerica Life is looking to hike the premium on 7,124 long-term care policies in Connecticut by 25 percent in the coming year.

The insurer filed an application to raise its rates with the Connecticut Insurance Department last month and said past denials of rate increases by the department has put it in the position to require this size of a move to prevent seeking an even bigger one later. The company no longer markets long-term care plans in Connecticut and now only services those policies it previously sold.

The premiums currently range from approximately $1,800 to $2,700 a year. If approved as submitted, policyholders could see increases of $37 to $56 a month. The company has assured the Department that it would give customers a 60-day notice of any rate change and offer options to mitigate the impact of any rate change.

Transamerica is owned by Aegon, a European corporation that earned about 1.3 billion euros from its American division last year and reported net income for its worldwide operations of 872 million euros.

For more information, visit:www.ct.gov/cid

Categories: General

AG Jepsen joins Holder to announce anti-trust bite into Apple!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 by:Rob Varnon
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Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen joined U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in going after Apple and e-book publishers for alleged anti-trust activity.

The state and federal governments are charging that Apple and publishers agreed to fix prices for e-books.

Here’s what Jepsen’s office had to say about the matter at noon;

Attorney General George Jepsen announced today that 16 states, led by Texas and Connecticut, have filed an antitrust lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Texas alleging Apple Inc. (Apple), and publishing companies Macmillan Publishers Ltd. (Macmillan), Penguin Group (USA), Inc. (Penguin) and Simon & Schuster engaged in an anticompetitive price-fixing scheme for marketing electronic books.

At the same time, Jepsen said he and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott have reached agreements with two other publishers: Hachette Book Group, Inc. (Hachette) and HarperCollins Publishers, LLC, (HarperCollins).  Although the details will be worked out over the next several weeks, the publishers have agreed to provide more than $52 million in consumer restitution using a formula based on the number of states participating and the number of eBooks sold in each state.

“Publishers deserve to make money, but consumers deserve the price benefits of competition in an open and unrestricted marketplace,” said Attorney General Jepsen. “Those interests clearly collided in this case and we are going to work to ensure the eBook market is open once again to fair competition.”

The lawsuit and agreements by the states stem from a two-year antitrust investigation coordinated among the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (DOJ) and the offices of the Connecticut and Texas Attorneys General.

Jepsen made the announcement at a news conference in Washington with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who announced that Department of Justice had filed a civil antitrust lawsuit on similar charges in the Southern District of New York against Apple, Penguin, Macmillan, Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster. The Department of Justice also filed proposed settlements with Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster that, if approved by the court, would resolve those lawsuits.

Categories: Banking, Regulatory, Wall Street

BOLT breaks free of market’s thunderous fall

Tuesday, April 10, 2012 by:Rob Varnon
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The carnage on Tuesday was severe, with many local companies’ shares falling more than 5 percent, but  in Norwalk,  Bolt Technology was able to eek out a 5 cent gain to $14.64 on the Nasdaq.

Bolt, the maker of seismic exploration equipment, used in the search of deep sea oil, hung onto the gain despite a drop in oil prices. However, oil remains above $100 a barrel, probably enough to continue to encourage more exploration.

But the story on Tuesday was the massive tumble taken by the Down, Nasdaq and S&P, with all three off more than 1.6 percent.

Companies in Connecticut fared worse than the general markets. GE and UTX were both down more than 2 percent. Tangoe Inc., in Orange was off 8 percent, United Rentals down 6.9 percent, Sturm Ruger fell more than 6 percent and FuelCell Energy was down 7.5 percent.

Categories: General, Wall Street
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