HFD/Conn Economic development

[The Voice of Reason]

There is a recent article in the New England real estate journal about downtown Hartford.

you need a membership to read it.

http://nerej.com/CT

it really just recaps much of what has been going on, but touches on potential business developments and opportunities in commercial leasing.

something like this...

Aetna is moving forward with bringing a ton of workers downtown, and United health will be moving and has recommitted to downtown creating an opportunity for a large company to take their space sometime in mid 2010.

now, since the united health space is highly visable and has a great parking stituation, it should be easy to fill.

who knows if this is at all true, but it would be nice to see new jobs in the area.

[The Voice of Reason]

Hey, here is some "suprising" and positive news.

so there is this company called carecentrix that was up untill last year just a division of some long island company. Well that company from Long Island spun off CareCentrix about a year ago to a private equity firm from Chicago.

(article about the spin off http://investors.gentiva.com/releasedetail...eleaseID=336855 )

Good news for us is that this Chicago company moved the HQ to East Hartford as it took control. This didnt bring many jobs with it because East Hartford was allready a major office for this company. ok, so fast forward a year to today and this private equity firm has spiffed up operatons, and is now expanding in Kansas.

http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news10030.html

sure its not really a big deal, but its good to see this company is hiring in Kansas and locally. Also, with a nice sized private equity firm behind them they will continue to expand.

this is a HIGHLY fragmented industry, so if this firm were to evolve into a big player, the long term advantages could be great.

the company is going to do 500 million in revenues next year, so its no small potato. if growth continues at this pace we might have another fortune 1000 company in a couple years.

[The Voice of Reason]

I feel the need to add that FNFB has decided to move its HQ into downtown Buffalo.

in the article I read, the acquisition of the 57 PNC branches will result in 300 new jobs at the HQ.

The 83 branch acquisition of Hartleyville will likely add even more.

Just think what PBCT could have been doing for CT this whole time

man I hope this bank craps of gets off the pot.

in an article from last night Peoples said it could support 40 billion more in assets. jeepers creepers, we need to get this company to Hartford and we need them to think more like First Niagara.

just ranting, I know

OK, so I know this means NOTHING, but I am getting irritated with Peoples bank and their lack of action during the best growth opportunity in last century.

This company is talking the talk but not walking the walk. these guys have money and a stable stock price. they have watched ad the FDIC has handed banks over to lesser rivals and they have not bought anyone yet.

as a counter to PBCT, a company out of New York, that I once thought would be a perfect acquisition for Peoples has now grown to be at least as large as Peoples if not larger.

First Niagara used to be a bank that just had operations in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany. Its total assets were just 9.3Billion.

They jumped on the opportunity to buy 57 branches from PNC that brought them up to 13.6Billion

and now today they are paying 237Million is Stock(so they dont even need cash) for Harleysville national, and 83 Branch bank with assets of 5.6Billion bringing the total to 19.2 Billion.

funny thing is that afer this transaction the bank still has what would be concidered lots of cash and could even be in for more acquisitions.

they now Have a large market share across most of central NY, and borth Pittsburgh and Philly.

Peoples bank has in large part missed the boat.

why do I complain you ask?

because the 1800 employee First Niagara Bank will have close to 2800 employees after the PNC acquisition, and todays acquisition has 1100 employees.

sure there might be some jobs eliminated, but since there is no territorial overlap, I am fairly sure they layoffs would be minimal, and transfers would be more likely. transfers that will bring jobs to Lockport NY. having a $20 billion bank with almost 4,000 employees headquartered in your town is pretty sweet.

Peoples is in such a great position, but if they do nothing with this opportunity, they might as well have over lent and had to accept TARP funds.

ok i'm done

Wait, no I am not.

Webster just got an equity investment from Warburg Pincus today for 115Million.

and as part of the deal will gain a very experienced big time board member.

so apparently the talk is to now potentially look to "take advantage of business opportunities as the econemy begins to turn around"

thats merger talk.

also the stock jumped to $11.81 today.

people may have held steady at 15-18 a share, but peoples has brought itself back from 2.96 to 11.81 and even paid back TARP.

Just saying peoples seems to be sitting on their hands a bit too much.

[beerbeer]

The thing with banks is that once they reach a certain size, they are gobbled up by larger banks.

It's amazing that Chris Dodd is the head of the senate banking committee and that he has done so little to leverage that to help the state.

[The Voice of Reason]

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-aetnamo...,0,130095.story

It looks like the big move is about to begin.

It is to take 6 months to complete.

Apparently they will be staggering the work hours as to not complicate the morning commute, but 3600 new commuters is bound to have an impact.

I am also eager to see what the office vacancy rate will be once this move is done.

[The Voice of Reason]

Looks like we have a new CEO at the Hartford.

He used to run the branch network at BOA.

On paper the guy seems like he could really help the company out, but its always a concern that he might move work away from The city.

no matter your opinion of Ayar, he did his best to consolidate in the capitol city, and he was a through and through Hartford guy.

The new guy is from California and has been in Charlotte for quite a while.

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-thehart...0,7493157.story

[The Voice of Reason]

HBJ article about the Aetna move

complete with a nice pic of the newest garage

http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news10453.html

In a total of 151 moves over the next six months, Aetna will empty most of its worker from its sprawling 200-acre hilltop campus near I-91 in Middletown to its renovated and expanded two-building complex on Farmington Avenue, between Sigourney and Flower streets

[The Voice of Reason]

ING is divesting its insurance unit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this is by far the biggest news in Hartfords financial news this year, and honestly recently.

one idea being floated is a stock issuance making it an independent company.

this would be awsome if you ask me. a 10 billion company HQ in Hartford.

more likely however is selling the unit to some insurance ginat, ultimately costing the city lots of jobs

7.5 billion Euro value by the way

[beerbeer]

ING is currently headquartered in the low tax, corporate friendly state of Delaware. I expect any spun off entity would look hard at keeping HQ in Wilmington.

[The Voice of Reason]

dude,

I worked at ING for 3 years up till 2 weeks ago, and the streight poop of it all is that the boss for ING Americas lives in Weathogue CT. he just got a promotion today and now oversees investments as well. keep reading if you want more info.

ING direct is HQ in Wilmington. Its actually a small company. Its incorporated in a tax haven because its a bank thats part of a European company that just needs a shell to operate. I do not know where the opffices are, but their offices are pretty small anyways.

ING Clarion(the real estate arm) is HQ in Boston, but is part of "ING investment Americas" (IM AMERICAS)

IM Americas (whom I worked for in downtown Hartford) has 3 divisions, North, Central and S. America. and of course Clarion. IM Americas is run out of Atlanta, while the ceo tends to spend a lot of time in NYC, and almost none in Hartford or Phoenix (our 4 major locations).

However the insurance business known as USFS is HQ in Windsor. ING North american insurance group is a part of this company based in Des Moines, "Direct", and Clarion as well as Investments all fall under the control of USFS.

If USFS decides to move the trading floor back to Hartford, it moves back to Hartford.

ING Americas is run out of Atlanta. all the other groups report there, and they report to the Hague.

but its much more loose than that since all the brass have offices in each location. The big boss man is based out of CT like I said, and he just built a new office building if you guys recall.

There were executive movements within the company today that might play out in an interesting way as well.

The "shocker" is that Jacques de Vaucleroy, the CEO of Global investments for only like 3 months resigned today.

Because of this action over in Holland, a Hartford guy who comes from the Aetna past is not only going to be head of Insurance Americas, he will now be COO of the Insurance side for the Group as well as the Investment side, effectively merging these units in N America and putting a guy from Weathogue running the show leading up to the divestment.

In his new role he will have responsibility for all day-to-day insurance and investment management activities globally.

This is kind of a big deal because ING is much bigger globally than it is here in the US. So a tip of the hat to Tom McInerney.

According to a buddy The new boss of global investments was running Americas before today. He is in my opinion a bit of a slime ball. He is a NYer and a Lawyer. He moved jobs out of Hartford and into ATL and NYC. I suspect that this is not a great thing for us as a city, but with only 150 Investment jobs left in Hartford he can not cause too much trouble. And Honestly he is likely more interested in the global business that domestic.

My favorite guy at Investments is now the CEO. He is a Hartford guy, and has been against the jobs we sent down to ATL. Now I severely doubt he would go and make major changes, especially now that they will be positioning themselves for sale or going public. But he might make some changes that will be good for the city even though Investments is tiny when compared to USFS. If we could just get rid of that Lawyer from NY it would be an all Hartford show.

If you want some details about the reorg, here is the only link I found

ING to revise Management Boards in line with strategic direction

[beerbeer]

Since you seem familar with the company, I have a question. Is one of the reason ING is getting out the insurance business because of Obamacare?

[HartfordTycoon]

Since you seem familar with the company, I have a question. Is one of the reason ING is getting out the insurance business because of Obamacare?

Huh? I'm pretty sure that ING is not a Health Insurer in the US. Health Care Reform is pretty irrelevant to their US Operations as far as I know, aside from their own health care obligations to their employees. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[The Voice of Reason]

You are correct HT.

there are a ton of different insurance types as I am sure you are aware. the type of company "most affected" by public healthcare would be the medical benefits providers.

So, in Hartford, thats Aetna, United Health, Cigna, magellan, Anthem and I some others that are not on my mind right now.

ING is doing this whole breakup because the European central bank is forcing it.

you see the company got the European equivelent of TARP money, and some of the deals made with the dutch Govt were deemed to generous, so ING had advantages over other EU companies...

I do not know all the details, but this is a regulatory thing. "Back to Basics" as they call is is really the company returning to Europe, and giving up on its global footprint.

Surely some major international markets will remain, the USA is no longer concidered a prime market for expansion. we are the largest market, but we are also saturated with financial companies, and gobs of money was lost in America, so basicly the dutch are licking their wounds and making a tactical retreat.

The selling of ING direct is the most intresting piece. again this is required by the EU, but its a highly coveted and visable part of the Group.

I seriously hope this thing spins off and we get a new fortune 500 in Hartford. and I gotta say I would be shocked if anyone wanted to buy it in one piece, so it will be stripped out and sold off and go public. I just hope the part that goes public is still fairly large and also in Hartford

[The Voice of Reason]

Peoples bank FINALLY made a move today.

http://www.hartfordb.../news11082.html

They bought a NY based equipment lender.

This was a 738 millin purchase, so the bank still has about 1.3 billion in excess capitol. they certainly can make additional moves, but it remains to be see if they will make any more moves since they have been kind of slow to act in my opinion.

This company has 206 Employees.

It remains to be seen if they would keep the NY offices, or just move them up metro North to Bridgeport.

Citi is still looking to divest its Boston and Philly area branches, so that remains an option for PBCT, but also for Webster I suppose.

EDIT:

So, I looked into this some more, and well the truth is I have much less access to info than I used to.

but it seems this will only cost the bank 300 million in cash, and the acquired company actually carries a good amount of capitol. so it seems this deal even with the premium will increase PBCT's capitol position and its ratios.

This move also allows the bank to put its capital to work. investors generally have taken issue with the bank hoarding cash. Now with this nationally reaching equipment financing unit, some of that money can go to work financing equipment and growing the balance sheet.

I am guessing there will be additional acquisitions but it might be a while since PBCT is obviously conservative.

[The Voice of Reason]

So, some info on PBCT, if you are interested like me.

They bought this big equipment finance company the other day, and have yet to buy any FDIC seized banking assets.

In a WSJ article about the state of banking mergers, PBCT was heavily mentioned, with comment by the CEO.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704498804574558341229897758.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

As it turns out, the bank has made a play for some assets, they just lost out to higher bidders.

"Last month, regulators notified People's United that its bid for FBOP Corp., the battered Illinois owner of nine banks, wasn't chosen by the government, according to people familiar with the matter.

U.S. Bancorp bought the banks and reopened the branches as part of the Minneapolis-based regional bank."

I remember than banks failure and reminded myself about it on the FDIC site last night.

There were 18.5 Billion in total assets available. This would have made PBCT a major bank in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, as well as major presence in Chicago.

After a move like that PBCT would likely to either try and add additional FDIC brokered deals to its new foot print, but might have also divested certain locations like the 3 small banks in texas.

It is all irrelevent except to note that they were definately looking big, and I like that.

Hopefully, they are still looking to make moves like this. I have no doubt that they will continue to add to their branch network, its just a matter of where and when. The bank now has 2.6 Billion in Cash after the currently planned merger, so there is definately room for additional acquisitions.

right now in the banking world, the market value of some pretty large banks has fallen down to within reach.

Webster is "worth" less than 1 Billion, New Alliance is "worth" 1.25Billion,

heck, ZIONs bank is only valued at 1.8 Billion. they have almost 600 branches and some 55+ Billion in assets.

2.6 Billion in cash is crazy

[The Voice of Reason]

http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news11277.html

UTC continues to look more and more like GE

So after buying the security unit from GE, UTC is now investing in a California Wind Turbine company again entering into competition with its chief industrial rival.

GE is I think the biggest name in wind turbines, so its not like this is a direct challange, but UTC Power is clearly looking to expand into other technologies besides just fuel cells.

I think this is great stuff, because the state clearly has a presence in green energy, and this will only help to cement that position. I hope there are additional investments in the future.

UTC bought 49% of the company for some 275 million

[The Voice of Reason]

Dang!!<BR><BR>GMAC mortgage is closing in West hartford, 84 layoffs happening<BR>there is a link somewhere... in the courant <BR><BR><BR>here is more PBCT info though, because positive news&nbsp;is more palatable<BR><A href="http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091209-713011.html">http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091209-713011.html</A><BR><BR>At the Goldman conference Peoples Bank said they are still looking for acquisitions<BR><BR>

<P><EM>"The Bridgeport, Conn., bank's primary focus is to acquire a bank in the Northeast. A target will "have to have at least a few billion in assets under management otherwise it will not be meaningful," said Sherringham"</EM><BR><BR>they will also continue to look for fdic assisted transactions primarily in Texas California and Florida.<BR><BR>There are not too many (a few billion+)Billion+ institutions in the North East that are not either HUGE.<BR>I will add a list later, simply because I enjoy this stuff. <BR><BR>EDIT<BR>I am a doof. &nbsp;I just ran the reports and dropped them into Excel.&nbsp; I seriously underestimated the potential targets in NY, NJ and PA.&nbsp; There are actually&nbsp;36 banks with assets over&nbsp;2 Billion and less than 17Billion (the size of&nbsp;Peoples United Bank)&nbsp; <BR><BR>I guess a few billion implies closer to 3 billion+ of which there are just 25 institutions and it seems unlikely they would buy Webster or New Alliance due to the massive overlap in branch coverage.&nbsp; <BR><BR>I am sure there are several others I could eliminate due to smaller overlap area, or mutual designation or both.&nbsp; Liberty bank for example has simular market coverage and is mutual, so very hard to buy.&nbsp; <BR>Eastern Bank in Mass is an ideal target, but are mutually owned, so I am sure it would be a harder deal to secure.<BR><BR>Companies like Valley National of NJ, Susquehanna Bank of PA, Astoria Federal of NY(maybe too big) and even possibly First Niagara bank from Buffalo would all be decent fits.<BR><BR>we will see.<BR><BR>I know at least I am intersted <BR><BR><BR></P>

[LOV]

UTCPower just did the exact opposite exactly 1 year ago. i don't think corporate would even allow them to return to that business model again... it's live or die on fuel cells alone. everything else that was not a "fuel cell" got stripped away and moved over to other divisions.

CT will still probably benefit from this deal because i can see this going over to pratt. pratt already had stationary power plus whatever stationary got taken over from ut power plus now the wind turbine. although at a minority stake, i'm not sure how much actual work will carry over to connecticut, this seems like a pure investment plus probably some share of the IP for utc right now.

but UTC Power is clearly looking to expand into other technologies besides just fuel cells.

[The Voice of Reason]

COOL!!!!

I was hoping this might happen when I read about this appointment.

The New CEO of CIGNA, who has been living and working here for a while, is staying here even though he is now the CEO.

So, the shot caller, big money man, and CEO of Cigna is now Bloomfield based.

he is young as hell too. I wonder if he will be moving the HQ from Philly at any point?

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-cigna1212.artdec12,0,2762824.story

[The Voice of Reason]

UTCPower just did the exact opposite exactly 1 year ago. i don't think corporate would even allow them to return to that business model again... it's live or die on fuel cells alone. everything else that was not a "fuel cell" got stripped away and moved over to other divisions.

CT will still probably benefit from this deal because i can see this going over to pratt. pratt already had stationary power plus whatever stationary got taken over from ut power plus now the wind turbine. although at a minority stake, i'm not sure how much actual work will carry over to connecticut, this seems like a pure investment plus probably some share of the IP for utc right now.

LOV, I just read an article about this recent move, and the future prospects of Pratt and Whitney growing this field.

Apparently they said that they could see that joint venture migrate over to Pratt eventually.

more importantly however, Pratt is clearly looking to grow this kind of business. they mentioned acquisitions, and said that Pratt could concievably use the rest of the UTC merger budget for 2010. (1.2 Billion)

so you are right they just went through this last year, and re-org'd the whole thing, but it looks like they are now building on that, and power might be getting some of the technologies.

my wife works at UTC, and in an executive office and I have no clue how they organize their stuff. its so splintered it seems amazing that they turn such a profit with all the inefficiencies in management and the organization. there are so many redundancies. but I guess, if it works... use it.

or if it aint broke...

whatever, you know what I mean.

[LOV]

or if it aint broke...

whatever, you know what I mean.

i can see pratt getting stuff out of it, although they'll get even more stuff out of it if/when they decide to become a major investor, not a minority holder. they make stationary power in east hartford, so if they actually owned the company and controlled it they could move manufacturing/design to east hartford and that would create more jobs.

power will never get this technology. a lot of people got laid off at power including the ceo that had this vision of mixing "green technologies". they moved everyone out, i mean everyone, even down to the legal, those that were responsible for something other than fuel cells.

power has also facility issues, that place is grossly undersized for manufacturing. engineering is probably very close to 90% of occupied space. 2 years ago they were saying that if business picked up they would need larger facilities and they can't be

made on south windsor grounds, since they lease the building and land and there is no where else to build.

pratt on the other hand has plenty of shop space after moving production over to middletown and elsewhere... football fields of enclosed shop space. although moving production here might be very costly, unless you're shipping to europe so that way you'll cut down on transport fees.

with regards to what you say to redundancy etc... when you get that big that's what happens. there are pockets of self serving interests that will never relinguish power. it'll be that way for a long time.

[beerbeer]

If you use a large definition, Pratt is a turbine company, so windmills make sense. It's their core expertise.

It's interesting this is under the power unit because it is far outside the core competency of the fuel cell group.

[The Voice of Reason]

If you use a large definition, Pratt is a turbine company, so windmills make sense. It's their core expertise.

It's interesting this is under the power unit because it is far outside the core competency of the fuel cell group.

I am guessing that it has more to do with relationships in the alternative energy field that power might have. and in regards to technology its likely little to do with the "low Tech" turbine than the high tech energy regulators and rontrolls that make fuel cells so flexable.

Just a hunch, again, but maybe the technology that allows fuel cells to power an individual building will be used to make wind turbines for buildings rather than large scale instalations. I know these kinds of urban turbines are starting to pop up around the world, so who knows.

[Theophrastus Bombastus]

Sounds like good news:

Showcase Cinemas In Manchester Sold To Missouri Firm

December 31, 2009

MANCHESTER — - The parent company of Showcase Cinemas has sold its 16-screen theater complex on Red Stone Road for about $15 million. Town records show that a subsidiary of National Amusements Inc. of Dedham, Mass., sold the Buckland Hills cineplex to Missouri-based Entertainment Properties Trust [EPT]. The property was among 15 theaters that the Kansas City real estate investment firm bought recently for about $121 million, according to a press release on the company's website — www.eprkc.com. The former Showcase Cinemas Buckland Hills will be leased to Rave Cinemas LLC for 20 years, according to the EPT release. Rave Cinemas, part of Dallas-based Rave Motion Pictures [ www.ravemotionpictures.com], also has taken over management of four other Connecticut cineplexes, company spokeswoman Gemma Hart said Wednesday. Asked what changes Rave might make at the theaters, Hart said she had not heard any details, but the company does have a focus on 3-D technology and on showing opera, live college football and other alternative content in its theaters.

http://www.courant.com/community/manchester/hc-manchester-moviessold-1231.artdec31,0,6796368.story

[The Voice of Reason]

http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news12075.html

So, there will be a bank merger here in CT. this one will take one of our mutuals, and help push it into being more of a community bank, and a healthy growing public banking institution at that.

Naugatuck Valley Savings & Loan is buying Southern CT bank corp.

at the same time, Naugatuck will be converting fully to a stock company.

NVSL has been trading at something like 39 million, and SCBT has been trading at something like 9 million.

the sale is valued at 19.5 Million.

the resulting holding company will be called NEWCO.

it will have 14 branches and 680 million in assets. and move NVSL into the new haven market.

the stock sale should end up raising something like 25 million in addition for future growth, and apparently thats exactly what they are looking for.

there are lots of little banks like SCBT out there to be gobbled up right now, so do not be suprised to see another merger in the not so distant future.