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The decline in the housing market is past, the National Association of Realtors said today. The organization reported December sales of existing homes fell 0.8 percent from November to an annual rate of 6.22 million. Still, inventories of unsold homes dropped 7.9 percent—to a 6.8-month supply. The $222,000 median sale price was unchanged from a […]
Indianapolis ranked third among the 100 largest metro areas last year in rates of mortgage foreclosures—4.3 percent of households, according to RealtyTrac. Only Detroit and Atlanta fared worse. However, Indianapolis foreclosures slowed in the final three quarters, the California company said. Indiana was 6th, with Alabama ranking highest. Nationally, the rate shot up 42 percent […]
ITT Educational Services Inc. today reported fourth-quarter profit of $40.9 million, and $118.5 million for the year—up about 8 percent for both periods. During the year, the Carmel-based technical school operators opened 11 schools and said it plans to launch six to eight in 2007. Yesterday, ITT announced that Rene Champagne would resign as CEO […]
ConAgra Foods Inc.’s microwave popcorn plant in Rennselaer will take on production from another ConAgra plant in Edna, Minn., as part of a restructuring of the Omaha-based company. It isn’t clear if the expansion of the northwest Indiana plant will add jobs.
Higher raw material prices helped force Dow AgroSciences profit down by nearly half in the fourth quarter its parent, Dow Chemical Co. reported today. The Midland, Mich., chemical giant said the Indianapolis-based agriculture division turned out only $38 million in profit compared to the $74 million of a year earlier. Strong competition in Brazil and […]
International Truck and Engine Corp., a unit of Illinois-based Navistar International Corp., and Monaco Coach Corp. of Elkhart plan to form a joint venture to make rear-engine diesel chassis for recreational vehicles, the companies said today. The joint venture, of which International will control a 51- percent stake, will manufacture more than 5,000 chassis at […]
Merrillville-based NiSource Inc. is close to selling its Indiana utility for as much as $4 billion, Bloomberg reports, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. Duke Energy Corp. is the most likely buyer of Northern Indiana Public Service, the story said. Also named as possible bidders were AES Corp., American Electric Power Co. and Exelon […]
Buzz Telecom Corp. of Merrillville will lose its license to operate in Ohio if Ohio’s Public Utilities Commission goes along with a recommendation by the staff of the oversight body. Consumers have lodged 274 complaints that Buzz misled older adults into switching long-distance service, according to The Akron Beacon Journal. The recommendation follows an investigation […]
Profit fell 10.6 percent to $4.2 million in Steak n Shake Co.’s first fiscal quarter, the Indianapolis restaurant company reported today. Same-store sales dipped 1.7 percent. However, the same-store decline was an improvement from the 3.4 percent setback in the prior quarter—a sign, the company said, that turnaround efforts are moving in a positive direction.
Celadon Group Inc. said today profit in its second fiscal quarter increased 26.4 percent, to $6.1 million. The Indianapolis-based long-haul trucking company said the quarter was its most “challenging” in several years. A decline in freight traffic late in the quarter reduced miles its trucks were driven and increased the number of miles they were […]
Lilly Ventures, the venture capital arm of Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. has co-led a $44 million round of financing for Cylene Pharmaceuticals Inc., the San Diego drug discovery company said today. HBM BioVentures Ltd. of Switzerland lead the round. It is Lilly’s first investment in Cylene; it’s share of the financing was not […]
Lilly Ventures, the venture capital arm of Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. has co-led a $44 million round of financing for Cylene Pharmaceuticals Inc., the San Diego drug discovery company said today. HBM BioVentures Ltd. of Switzerland lead the round. It is Lilly’s first investment in Cylene; it’s share of the financing was not […]
Mattress Firm, a Houston-based mattress retailer with three Indianapolis stores, has been sold to management and the Boston private equity firm J.W. Childs Associates LP. The seller was Sun Capital Partners Inc., the Florida private equity firm that bought Marsh Supermarkets in September for $88 million.
Two high-level managers at the new Conrad Indianapolis hotel downtown have resigned effective at the end of the month, the hotel said today. The hotel said today General Manager Jan Chovanec will leave at the end of this month to move closer to his family. Director of Sales and Marketing David Catalon has taken a […]
A federal judge has ordered Medical Savings Insurance Co. to pay $260,000 to a Florida health care system that sued the Indianapolis insurer for allegedly refusing to pay its bills, The News-Press of Fort Myers, Fla., reports. Medical Savings Insurance was started by Golden Rule Insurance Co. founder J. Patrick Rooney. Fort Myers-based Lee Memorial […]
If Indianapolis wins its bid to host the Super Bowl in 2011, the region would attract 98,000 visitors and reap $131 million in direct spending, an analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers shows. Spending could be as high as $262 million when certain indirect spending, such as a concession company’s purchase of goods from local firms, is applied. […]
WellPoint Inc. reported a 23-percent increase in fourth-quarter profit, to $801.1 million, on revenue of $14.6 billion, a rise of 28.9 percent. For the year, the Indianapolis-based health insurer said profit rose 25.6 percent, to $3.1 billion. Revenue of $57 billion was up 28 percent. The upswing was driven mainly by new enrollments and the […]
Rene Champaigne is retiring as CEO of ITT Educational Services Inc. in April after pushing the value of stock in the Carmel company to $70 a share from virtually nothing a decade ago. Champagne, 65, has been chief executive since 1985. He will remain chairman and be paid an annual salary of $560,000, according […]
Mittler Supply Inc., a South Bend-based independent distributor of industrial, medical and specialty gases as well as welding equipment and supplies, has agreed to be bought by Praxair Distribution Inc. for an undisclosed price. Praxair is a subsidiary of Praxair Inc. of Danbury, Conn. Mittler generated $73 million in sales last year and has 210 […]
The Florida businessman whose financially troubled airline forced Integra Bank to write off $17.7 million in bad loans is being sued by music groups including Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync over royalties, according to the Evansville Courier. Louis J. “Lou” Pearlman, a first cousin of folk singer Art Garfunkel, is heavily involved in recording music […]
