Business Briefing, June 24

Rocky staff and wire reports

Monday, June 23, 2008

Jill Anderson

Bill Myrick

NATIONAL

Charity contributions by Americans held steady last year

Americans gave to charities last year at about the same rate as they did in 2006, holding steady on their donations in the face of a housing-market meltdown and a crisis in credit, a study released Monday showed.

Donations to charities remained at 2.2 percent of gross domestic product in 2007, according to the yearly study from the philanthropy-tracking Giving USA Foundation.

BUNGE PURCHASE Agriculture heavyweight Bunge Ltd. is buying Corn Products International Inc. in a $4.4 billion stock deal combining two of the nation's oldest agricultural businesses.

Bunge will also assume $414 million of Corn Products' debt under the deal announced Monday by the two companies.

The buyout will combine Westchester, Ill.-based Corn Products' sweeteners, starches and other ingredients with White Plains, N.Y.-based Bunge's portfolio of agribusiness, fertilizer, edible oil and milling products.

GM PRICES TO RISE General Motors Corp. is telling dealers it plans to raise prices on 2009 models by an average of 3.5 percent.

But the automaker also will run a sale June 24-30 to help clear out high inventories of 2008 pickups, SUVs and larger cars.

DISPOSAL MEGADEAL Disposal company Republic Services said Monday it will buy Allied Waste Industries in a $6.07 billion stock deal that would combine the second- and third-largest players in the industry.

Republic Services Inc. will pay Allied Waste shareholders 0.45 worth of a Republic share for each share held, valued at $14.04 per share based on Republic's Friday closing stock price of $31.19.

HARDEE'S FOUNDER DIES Wilbur Hardee, who founded the Hardee's restaurant chain in 1960, died Friday at the age of 89 in Greenville, N.C. It's the same town where he opened his first Hardee's location, giving birth to a hamburger franchise that is now a division of St. Louis-based CKE Restaurants Inc.

Hardee's has grown to include 1,900 locations across the Midwest and Southeast and 200 international locations.

IRS HIKES MILEAGE RATE The Internal Revenue Service, citing the drain that high gas prices are having on people's finances, said Monday it is raising the automobile mileage rate that businesses and others can claim.

The tax agency said the optional standard rate to calculate deductible operating costs for business vehicles will rise from 50.5 cents a mile to 58.5 cents for the final six months of 2008.

LOCAL

Westcore debuts fund investing in stocks that are overlooked

Westcore Funds, based in Denver, has introduced the Westcore Micro-Cap Opportunity Fund. The new stock portfolio will invest in companies with market values between $50 million and $500 million, targeting overlooked stocks.

CROP SHIPPING ENHANCED Railroads are taking extra steps this year to provide transportation for eastern plains farmers' crops, a year after tons of grain spoiled in grain elevators and on the ground.

Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., said Union Pacific and the BNSF railroads have told him they are positioning rail cars to be ready for the wheat harvest. Part of the problem in 2007 was that the railroads and grain elevator operators didn't anticipate the large harvest and didn't have adequate transportation.

ECONOMY

Fed expected to keep interest rates steady

Straddling risky economic crosscurrents, the Federal Reserve is expected to stand still this week on interest rates.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues, who open a two-day meeting today, are in a tricky spot. They are faced with stuck-in-a-rut economic growth along with inflation threats from rising prices for energy, food and other commodities.

Fed officials have made clear that because of concern about inflation, they're not inclined to cut rates further.

At the same time, they have recognized that pushing rates up too soon could undermine an economy buffeted by housing, credit and financial woes.

"These are very challenging waters to have to navigate," said economist Richard Yamarone at Argus Research.

Against that backdrop, the Fed is almost certain to hold its key interest rate steady at 2 percent when it wraps up its session Wednesday. If that's the case, the prime lending rate for millions of consumers and businesses would stay at 5 percent.

The prime rate applies to certain credit cards, home equity lines of credit and other types of loans.

THIS JUST IN...

* Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, Farmers Union Service Association and Farmers Union Insurance donated $4,000 to the Red Cross Centennial Chapter in Fort Collins.

* Jill Anderson joined Vail Capital Partners Inc. as senior director of marketing.

* The Real Estate Law Section of the Colorado Bar Association named Diane B. Davies of Faegre & Benson LLP as chairwoman for the 2008Â?2009 term.

* The Colorado Hotel & Lodging Association named Christine O'Donnell as president.

* Colorado-based W.J. Bradley Co. appointed Roy Browning as chief financial officer.

* Tony San Miguel joined ADA Technologies Inc. as manufacturing technician in its Advanced Distributed Sensor Systems division.

* First Community Bank added Norah Honodel as vice president of mortgage operations for New Mexico, Colorado and Utah.

* Childhelp hired Susan Ackerman as director of the Childhelp River Bridge Children's Center in Glenwood Springs.

* ProBuild Holdings Inc. appointed Bill Myrick as chief operating officer.

* District 50 Education Foundation selected Christy Dodd as executive director.

* Destiny Lending added Mark Pickford, Brian Fredericks, Dawn Stewart and Ed Brown as loan officers and Diane McCaw as an underwriter.

* Lawdragon selected Bruce James of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck for its "100 Managing Partners You Need to Know" list.

* C. Richard Pennington of McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP was named a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

* Kristi Anderson Wells joined the Denver office of Sherman & Howard LLC's Tax & Probate Group as counsel.

* The Anti-Defamation League's Mountain States Regional Office named Karen Steinhauser as its board chair.

* Pinnacol Assurance promoted Mark Isakson to associate vice president, Gina Greckel to business team director for one of its large account teams and Jerica Jones to director of customer service.

* Tia Jenkins, president of Kieding Office Architects, received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design accreditation from the U.S. Green Building Council.

* The Business Marketing Association gave Leopard, a marketing communications agency, two B2B Ace Awards and five Gold Key awards.

* Timothy M. McEntee joined Wood Partners to manage the Colorado operations.

* Denver- based Trinity Petroleum Management LLC promoted Joe Craven to executive vice president and chief operating officer.