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September 10,
2007
w:st='on'>
id='1' name='1'>San Diego
Settles Abuse Claims for $198 Million
The Roman Catholic
Diocese of San Diego said Friday it has agreed to pay $198.1 million to
settle 144 claims of sexual abuse by clergy, the second-largest payment
by a diocese, the Associated Press reported on Saturday. The agreement
caps more than four years of negotiations in state and federal courts.
Earlier this year, the diocese filed for bankruptcy protection just
hours before trial was scheduled to begin on 42 lawsuits alleging sexual
abuse. The
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>San Diego
diocese initially offered about $95 million to settle the
claims. The victims were seeking about $200 million. The Diocese of San
Diego, with nearly 1 million Catholics and holdings throughout
Diego
size='3'>County, is by far the
largest and wealthiest of the five
w:st='on'>
size='3'>U.S.
size='3'>dioceses to have filed for chapter 11 protection under the
shadow of civil claims over sexual abuse. Dioceses in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Spokane
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Wash.
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Portland
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Ore.
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Tucson
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Ariz.
already emerged from chapter 11 protection. The
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Davenport
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Iowa
which faces claims from more than 150 people, is still in
proceedings.
href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/07/AR2007090701624.html'>Read
more.
Mortgage
Lending
name='2'>Sen. Schumer to Seek Mortgage Funding
Boost
Sen. Charles Schumer
(D-N.Y.) plans to introduce a bill today that would temporarily loosen
growth constraints on the two government-sponsored investors and
increase the size of mortgages they can purchase in high-cost areas,
the Wall Street
Journal reported today. Schumer's bill would
raise the portfolio caps at each company by at least 10 percent for one
year, while requiring Fannie and Freddie to devote half of that increase
-- roughly $73 billion combined -- to helping borrowers with certain
high-risk adjustable-rate mortgages refinance into more-affordable
products. Prospects for Schumer's bill would have been slim several
months ago, but credit-market turmoil has led many Democrats and some
Republicans to call for the companies to step up their activities as
worries about defaults and a weak housing market keep other investors on
the sidelines. Fannie and Freddie buy mortgages and repackage them as
investment securities, but are bound by limits on size and types. The
Bush administration has opposed changes similar to those proposed by
Schumer, but White House and Treasury officials have been under growing
pressure to address the market turbulence.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118937049671321816.html?mod=us_business_whats_news'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='3'>Some
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Mortgage
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Originators
size='3'>Skip
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>State
Licensing
Though some states have
toughened their laws by requiring loan officers or originators to
undergo extensive background checks and show proof of professional
experience and training, many individuals are originating loans without
being properly licensed, the
size='3'>Washington Post reported yesterday.
In a relatively new arrangement, some skirt the law by paying to become
part of a 'net branch' operation. Net-branching is similar to
franchising as it allows individuals to operate their own mortgage loan
origination branch using the mortgage-lending or broker license of the
branching company. Individuals get assistance in running their
businesses and gain access to a network of lenders. Although state laws
vary, many jurisdictions require loan originators working in a net
branch operation to have their own license. The authorities have stepped
up their enforcement actions against operations that do business with
unlicensed mortgage brokers, loan officers or loan originators. Most
recently, 10 states took action against Apex Financial Group, also
called Apex Mortgage. Apex was doing business with multiple unlicensed
entities, leaving consumers unprotected, the states allege.
href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/08/AR2007090800159_pf.html'>Read
more.
name='4'>Commentary: Proposals to Help Housing Market Need Long-Term
Components
President Bush’s
plan to help beleaguered homeowners avoid foreclosure would allow an
additional 80,000 at-risk homeowners to refinance their loans through
the Federal Housing Administration, on top of 160,000 already eligible,
according to an editorial in today’s
size='3'>New York Times. Though not likely to
be aggressive enough — some two million homeowners are now headed
for default — the refinancing effort is a good first step.
Properly executed, it would help families and communities that could
otherwise be ruined, with devastating effects on consumer spending, tax
revenues and state and local governments. For any of the current bailout
proposals put forward by the Bush Administration, Congress or federal
regulatory agencies, they must be vetted and corrected via stronger
laws, regulation and oversight.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/opinion/10mon1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin'>Read
more.
name='5'>Countrywide to Cut Up to 12,000 Jobs
Struggling mortgage lender
Countrywide Financial Corp. said that it will cut as many as 12,000 jobs
in a bid to slash costs and cope with soaring foreclosures and defaults,
the Associated Press reported on Friday. Countrywide said that the cuts,
amounting to as much as 20 percent of its work force, are needed because
the company expects new mortgages to fall about 25 percent in 2008 from
this year's levels. The job cuts planned during the next three months
are expected to center primarily on the company's production divisions
and its general and administrative support areas. The Calabasas,
Calif.-based company employed more than 61,000 people as of July 31,
with about 34,000 working in loan production. The latest cuts followed
the elimination of about 900 positions earlier this week and 500 others
last month.
href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/07/AR2007090702092_pf.html'>Read
more.
name='6'>People's Choice Creditors Seek Approval to Pursue
Executives
Creditors of People's
Choice Home Loan Inc. asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central
District of California for approval to pursue claims against executives
of the defunct mortgage lender on behalf of the estate,
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360
size='3'>reported on Friday. The unsecured creditors’ committee
told Judge Robert Kwan that it would have to take the lead in pursuing
action on behalf of the lender because the debtors' counsel, who take
direction from the very targets of the claims, had opted not to
investigate the matter. The committee told the court its consultants had
calculated over $100 million in failed loans claims against People's
Choice and that company executives were insured under a $90 million
policy that indemnified them for losses incurred by any wrongdoing on
their part. A
hearing on the committee's motion is scheduled for Sept. 13.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/secure/ViewArticle.aspx?Id=34228'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='7'>Citigroup May Oppose Hedge Fund's Chapter 15
Petition
A Citigroup unit said
Wednesday that it may object to the chapter 15 petition of hedge fund
Basis Yield Alpha Fund, which sought bankruptcy protection last month
due to volatility in the subprime lending market,
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360
size='3'>reported on Friday. Citigroup pointed out that Basis Yield
never disclosed whether it staffed any employees or managers in
the
size='3'>Cayman Islands
of its assets were located there or whether any of its creditors were
located there. Nonetheless, Citigroup did not object to a temporary
restraining order, which Judge
size='3'>Robert E. Gerber granted on Thursday.
In its Aug. 29 bankruptcy petition, Basis Yield listed assets and
liabilities of over $100 million, and the number of creditors at between
one and 49. It added that it began to suffer a significant devaluation
of its asset portfolio by June. A hearing on the matter has been set for
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=34244'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='8'>Senate Passes Student Loan Bill; House Approval
Likely
Congress moved toward
final approval today of a $20 billion higher education package
increasing Pell grant awards and providing a series of student-loan
relief measures, including a halving of interest rates,
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>CongressDaily
size='3'>reported on Friday. The package calls for eliminating $20.9
billion in lender subsidies and using the bulk of the savings to
increase the maximum Pell grants from $4,300 to $5,400 and cut interest
rates from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent over four years. The bill would
cap repayments at 15 percent of disposable income and provide loan
forgiveness after 10 years to students who join the military or enter
other public service jobs. The bill would also create several
entitlement programs, including a $510 million program for colleges
serving minority students, $132 million in aid to nonprofit groups
helping low-income students get loans and a grant program for students
who agree to teach in poverty areas. President Bush is expected to sign
the bill, despite earlier veto threats.
Rep.
Rangel Unmoved on ‘Carried Interest’ Tax
Issue
House Ways and Means
Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) said Friday that he remained unswayed
by arguments from private equity and hedge fund managers that raising
taxes on their profits would hurt the economy or dampen investments that
benefit minorities and women,
size='3'>CongressDaily reported on Friday. His
comments came one day after a
w:st='on'>House
Ways
Committee hearing on proposals to tax much of those proceeds at ordinary
income rates up to 35 percent, rather than the 15 percent capital gains
rate now applied to fund managers' carried interest. Most hedge funds
and private equity firms are organized as partnerships, allowing
managers to claim much of their pay as individual capital gains. But
some large investment banks, such as Goldman Sachs, offer similar
investment vehicles but do not benefit from the carried interest tax
break because they are structured as corporations. Rangel said that he
and Ways and Means ranking member Jim McCrery (R-La.) agreed this week
to convene a bipartisan committee retreat to hear government and
private-sector experts on health care.
name='10'>Beazer Bondholders Raise Pressure on Firm
Beazer, an Atlanta-based
home builder, said Friday that it had received 'purported default
notices' from the trustee of holders of $1.3 billion of senior notes,
the Wall Street
Journal reported on Saturday. The trustee,
U.S. Bank National Association, said that the
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Atlanta
has 60 days to file its financial report for the fiscal third quarter,
which ended June 30, with the Securities and Exchange Commission and
deliver that report to the trustee, or Beazer will be in default. In
anticipation of the notice, Beazer filed suit a few weeks ago to
prevent the trustee from declaring the company in default. In its
federal complaint, Beazer accused the bondholders, which it says
includes 'hedge funds and other opportunistic investors,' of buying the
company's bonds on the cheap and trying to accelerate the repayment of
the senior notes to reap a 'windfall.' The dispute between Beazer and
its bondholders emerged after the company delayed the filing of its
third-quarter report with the SEC. The delay was prompted by the
discovery of accounting irregularities during a months-long internal
investigation.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118918545898820749.html'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='11'>Boy-band Mogul Loses Florida Home in
Bankruptcy
Lou Pearlman, creator of
the boy bands Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, is losing homes in Florida
and New Jersey in bankruptcy proceedings as he faces separate charges of
defrauding a bank out of $20 million, the Associated Press reported on
Friday. Pearlman remains jailed after being indicted on three counts of
bank fraud and single counts of mail and wire fraud.
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Florida
size='3'>investigators allege that Pearlman defrauded more than 1,000
individual investors out of more than US$315 million. Several banks say
he collectively owes them more than $120 million, according to
bankruptcy court documents.
href='http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest+News/Showbiz/STIStory_155969.html'>Read
more.
name='12'>Drops in Housing, Autos Pinch Midwestern
Jobs
The Midwest labor market
is feeling a double-barrel blast from the national housing slump and the
continuing woes of
face='Times New Roman'
size='3'>Detroit's auto
makers, the Wall Street
Journal reported today. Across the region,
factories that churn out the bricks, tiles and wallboard used to build
new homes are feeling the effect of the steep decline in new-home
construction in once-hot markets such as
w:st='on'>
size='3'>California
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Arizona,
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Nevada
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Florida
Chicago-based USG Corp., which makes gypsum wallboard and other building
materials, has cut 1,100 jobs in the past 12 months and plans to shut
down more capacity in the third quarter. Kohler Co., a maker of home
plumbing products, laid off 160 people at its
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Wisconsin
losses are exacerbated by lackluster employment growth in the region,
and the fallout in the auto and housing markets is showing up in
unemployment numbers. The unemployment rate for the five-state region
that includes
size='3'>Wisconsin
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Michigan
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Illinois
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Indiana
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Ohio
percent in July, the highest of any region in the country, according to
the latest government data.
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Michigan
percent unemployment rate leads the nation.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118938223151222041.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='13'>Banks Look to Entice Buyers for Commercial
Paper
About $120 billion of
commercial paper outside the
w:st='on'>
size='3'>U.S.
due for renewal in the next week, including $56.5 billion of
asset-backed paper, which has met the stiffest resistance from
investors, the Wall
Street Journal reported today. Issuers need to
find buyers in order to roll over these short-term funding mechanisms or
pay off the loans. So banks and other issuers are using short-term moves
to raise cash to keep them going. In
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Australia
size='3'>, the central bank has broadened the definition of assets it
would accept as collateral for short-term funding it supplies to
domestic banks. In the United States, money-market funds haven't
suffered big redemptions and thus still have money to put to work.
Investors in these funds also are willing to hold commercial paper for
slightly longer time frames, suggesting that some stability may be
returning, though the funds may find their investors want a limited diet
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118938229857522044.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='14'>TROUBLED COMPANIES IN THE NEWS
The business news
articles below are taken from the U.S. Business Journal’s Daily
Summary of Troubled & Fast Growing U.S. Companies which is published
by Bastien Financial Publications.
size='3'>ABI
size='3'>Members receive a 50% discount off of our regular subscription
rate of $500 when subscribing to the complete Daily Summary.
/>
To subscribe email steve@creditnews.com
title='mailto:steve@creditnews.com'
href='mailto:steve@creditnews.com'>
color='#0000ff'
size='3'><mailto:steve@creditnews.com>
size='3'>or call 800-407-9044—use
w:st='on'>
size='3'>ABI
37
size='3'>Beazer Homes USA Inc., the
size='3'>Atlanta
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Ga.
size='3'>homebuilder, has received default notices from U.S. National
Bank Association as a result of the company not having filed its 10-Q
financial report. The company has 60 days to remedy the situation.
Boise Cascade Holdings
LLC, the
Boise, Id. firm which is trying to reduce its debtload and which is
owned by private-equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners, is selling its
paper, packaging and newsprint assets to Aldabra 2 Acquisition Corp. of
Rockville, Md. in a transaction valued at $1.6 billion
Countrywide Financial
Corp., the
Calabasas, Ca. lender, will reduce its payroll by up to 12,000 jobs, or
a fifth of its workforce, over the next several months, as it adapts to
the sagging home-mortgage lending market and focuses more on less-risky
mortgages. The job cuts will include 1,400 that the company earlier
announced. The U.S.’s biggest home lender, Countrywide, facing
falling home prices and rising defaults, expects its home mortgage
business to drop 25% next year from this year’s levels.
Georgia-Pacific
Corp., the
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Atlanta
size='3'>,
size='3'>Ga.
unit of Koch Industries Inc. of
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Wichita
size='3'>, Ks., is closing its facility in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Bellingham
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Wa
size='3'>. by 12/31–a move that could affect as many as 220
employees. The closing had been anticipated as Georgia Pacific has
been complaining about the plant’s substantial electricity costs
for some time.
Hovnanian Enterprises
Inc., a
Red Bank, N.J. designer and manufacturer of condos, single-family homes
and townhomes, reported a third quarter net loss of $78 million, on a
27% revenue decline–to more than $1.1 billion. The company took
more than $108 million in land-impairment and writeoff charges resulting
in the company’s fourth consecutive quarterly loss. The
company, which builds homes in eighteen states, saw contracts for new
homes decline 24% during the most recent period.
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts
Inc., the
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Winston-Salem
size='3'>N.C.
size='3'>doughnut-store chain, reported a second quarter net loss of $27
million, on an 8% revenue decline–to $104 million. The
results include charges of $22 million related to settlement of
litigation, extinguishment of debt and impairment.
Lasco Bathware
Inc., the
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Anaheim
size='3'>, Ca. firm which has nine production facilities nationwide, is
citing declining demand in its decision to temporarily cease
manufacturing at its
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Cordele
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Ga.
size='3'>plant–affecting nearly 100 employees.
La-Z-Boy
Inc., the big Monroe, Mi. retailer of
recliners and other furniture which earlier this year announced a
restructuring that would include either closing or combining several of
its operations, is selling its 120-year-old Pennsylvania House furniture
brand. Pennsylvania House, headquartered in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Hickory
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Pa.
by Universal Furniture, the
w:st='on'>High
Point
w:st='on'>
size='3'>N.C.
size='3'>importer of Chinese-made products, for an undisclosed
amount.
MidAmerica
Bank announced it will trim its workforce by
nearly 400 employees starting in early 2008 in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Downers Grove
size='3'>Il
size='3'>Clarendon Hills
size='3'>Il
The move follows the purchase of its parent company, MAF
Bancorp Inc., by National City Corp. of
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Cleveland
size='3'>, Oh.
Nobility Homes
Inc., an
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Ocala
size='3'>, Fl. maker of manufactured homes, reported its third quarter
net income declined 31%–to nearly $1.2 million, on a 28% revenue
decline–to nearly $11 million.
Sharper Image
Corp., the
w:st='on'>
Francisco
size='3'>, Ca. firm which sells electronics and gift items by catalog,
online, and at more than 180 stores, reported its August same-store
sales declined more than 16% from year-earlier figures. The
firm’s stock price declined 11% to $4.84 on the news. In addition,
the firm reported its August sales declined 34%–to $22 million as
both catalog and direct marketing sales declined 67%–to $3.1
million while Internet sales dropped 40%–to $2.9 million. In
addition, the retailer reported it could be forced to file for
bankruptcy protection if it has to pay as much as $900 million to settle
a class action lawsuit being sought against it by twenty-seven different
state attorneys general. The suit relates to the company’s
ionic breeze purifiers and claims they were ineffective in removing
pollution from the air.
Wellman
Inc., a
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Shrewsbury
w:st='on'>
size='3'>N.J.
size='3'>maker of polyester fibers for the furniture, injection molding
and textile industries, reported a second quarter net loss of $11.4
million, on a 2% revenue decline–to $337 million.
Windstream
Corp., the Arkansas-based provider of
broadband services in sixteen states and which, more recently, purchased
CT Communications Inc. of Concord, N.C., now expects to reduce its
Concord workforce by as much as 150 employees starting in November.
In addition, the company announced it may reduce its workforce
even further next year as part of its systems conversion.