Shares of big employers in the Boulevard Stock Portfolio, ranked by weekly performance at today’s closing price, with the S&P 500 index for comparison.
Photo, top: Humana’s signature tower on Main Street downtown.
Tag: Big Employers
A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 5:59 p.m.
HUMANA and Aetna remained in discussions with the Department of Justice today, trying to convince antitrust regulators their $37 billion merger will be good for seniors in the Medicare Advantage market, CNBC is now reporting.
But the two insurance giants are prepared to fight in court if their deal is blocked, a move DOJ antitrust regulators could take within just days, according to the business news cable channel, which is citing people familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations. “The insurers have offered up divestitures and secured buyers,” according to CNBC, “with contracts ready to be signed, for assets in local markets where their coverage overlaps, according to one source. But so far, the DOJ has not been convinced by the offer” (CNBC).
Reflecting renewed investor optimism, Humana shares climbed 3% today, closing at $158.41 a share, up $4.77; shares had fallen 10% yesterday on initial reports the DOJ was moving to block the deal. Aetna’s stock rose 1.2%, to $116.49 (Google Finance).
To secure shareholder approval of the deal, Humana’s proxy solicitor, D.F. King & Co., made more than 40,000 phone calls to individual investors last fall (Wall Street Journal).
PAPA JOHN’S: Panera Bread Co. has filed a lawsuit claiming a former technology executive who left to work for Papa John’s took trade secrets with him. The suit filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis against Papa John’s and the executive, Michael Nettles, says he worked four years as a vice president in Panera’s IT department, with access to highly sensitive trade secrets, and that his move to Papa John’s violates a confidentiality and non-compete agreement. Nettles joined Papa John’s on Monday. Panera is based in suburban St. Louis (Post-Dispatch).
A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 10:39 a.m.
PAPA JOHN’S stock jumped 3.7% to $71.69 a share in the first hour of trading, after Wall Street analysts upgraded the Louisville pizza chain on the surprising view that diners, concerned about political and civil unrest, are choosing to stay home for pizza delivery rather than go out for a meal. “After speaking with several large operators and industry contacts,” KeyBanc Capital Markets analysts said yesterday, “we believe the recent decline in casual dining restaurant segment fundamentals — traffic down 3% to 5% the past several weeks — may be the result of consumers eating more at home amid the current political/social backdrop, which we believe could last through the November election.” The company’s stock has jumped 22% in the last three months vs. a much smaller 3% gain in the broader S&P 500 index (MarketWatch and Google Finance). Louisville-based Papa John’s employs 750 workers at its headquarters, and another 21,000 across the globe. More about the company.
HUMANA‘s stock rose 74 cents to $154.12 a share a day after word surfaced the Justice Department was poised to block the Louisville insurer’s $37 billion acquisition by Aetna of Hartford. Aetna climbed 74 cents to $115.84. Yesterday, Humana tumbled 4%, and Aetna fell 2.7% (Google Finance). Humana employs 12,500 workers in its Louisville corporate hometown.
KFC: In New Zealand, franchisee Restaurant Brands hasn’t ruled out home delivery of KFC now that McDonald’s has started offering the service. But CEO Russel Creedy said KFC had tried home delivery before and found customers preferred drive-throughs rather than waiting for their chicken to be brought to their front door. Creedy’s franchise already has experience with delivery through its Pizza Hut restaurants (New Zealand Herald).
FORD‘s Flat Rock Assembly Plant south of Detroit — where the popular Mustang and Fusion are built –- caught fire around 7 last night and forced a partial evacuation of the sprawling 400-acre complex that employs 3,200 workers. No injuries were reported (Detroit Free Press). In Louisville, Ford employs nearly 10,000 workers at two vehicle and truck assembly factories.
AMAZON is signing up amateur drivers in the U.K. to deliver packages in their spare time from distribution centers to customers’ homes, expanding a system it started last year in its corporate hometown of Seattle. Starting this month in Birmingham, a smartphone app will allow the company’s part-time mules to choose when and where they want to work, as well as guiding them to customers’ homes and allowing customers to track their orders (Financial Times).
PIZZA HUT: With the Aug. 5 start of the Summer Olympics closing in, Pizza Hut has launched its patriot-themed Big Flavor Dipper in a red-white-and-blue box emblazoned with “Go USA!”
In other news, Louisville ranked No. 6 among 30 U.S. cities offering the biggest apartments renting for $1,500 a month, according to a new Rent Cafe report. The top 10:
- Memphis: 1,948 square feet
- Oklahoma City: 1,786
- Indianapolis: 1,724
- El Paso: 1,667
- Columbus, Ohio: 1,667
- Louisville: 1,648
- Jacksonville, Fla.: 1,579
- Las Vegas: 1,546
- Phoenix: 1,415
- Fort Worth: 1,389
In contrast, New York City had the smallest apartments, at 271 square feet (MarketWatch and Rent Cafe).
A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 7:42 p.m.
KINDRED: The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office says Kindred Greenwood hospital CFO William Brenner was found dead inside his home near Indianapolis yesterday, 10 days after authorities accused him of molesting a 6-year-old boy he was fostering in 2014 and 2015.
Police say there was no evidence of a struggle and no weapons were found near the body. Investigators believe he may have had a medical episode and had died several days earlier. His body was found in a hallway and was badly decomposed (WIBC).
Brenner, 49, faced four counts of felony child molesting and one count of felony dissemination of matter harmful to minors, according to the Indianapolis Star. The Greenwood facility is one of Louisville-based Kindred’s 95 transitional care and rehabilitation hospitals. Greenwood is 12 miles south of Indianapolis.
Also today, Kindred said it would release its second-quarter financial results on Aug. 4 after stock markets close. The following day, it will host a teleconference with Wall Street analysts to discuss the report (press release).
In downtown Louisville, construction is picking up at Kindred’s new headquarters expansion at Broadway and Fourth streets after a relatively slow start. The $36 million project financed with substantial public incentives will add 142,000 square feet and around 500 new jobs. Plans also include around 7,000 square feet of restaurant space (Broken Sidewalk).
PIZZA HUT: Advertising agency Deutsch went through a round of layoffs at its Los Angeles office last week directly related to the loss of the Pizza Hut account last spring. A Deutsch spokesperson would say only that less than 2% of the L.A.-based team had been affected. Deutsch won the struggling Yum unit’s account two years ago and went on to create the agency’s debut campaign (which essentially said, “We’re Italian”); video, top. Last December, the pizza chain started shopping the account, eventually choosing the independent Droga5 agency in May — its fifth agency of record in six years. Multiple sources have told Adweek that Pizza Hut is not the world’s most agreeable client. It’s not yet clear when Droga5’s first work for the chain will appear (Adweek).
GE: A cold-brew coffeemaker developed by GE Appliances’ Firstbuild laboratory in Louisville is scheduled to reach the market next summer, after first passing through a crowdfunding round on IndieGoGo. The lab is using unconventional funding for the coffee maker, called Prisma, not so much as a financial requirement as it is an awareness-raising launchpad. “We believe crowdfunding is a great way to validate products with the early adopter community,” Firstbuild Senior Design Engineer Justin Brown told Daily Coffee News. The Prisma can make anywhere from five to 25 ounces of ready-to-drink cold coffee (Daily Coffee News).
AMAZON has reportedly fired one of its delivery men Continue reading “Ind. Kindred exec accused of child molestation found dead; layoffs hit Deutsch ad agency that lost Pizza Hut account; GE Firstbuild’s cold-brew coffee maker set for 2017 release”
A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 9:01 p.m.
TACO BELL fired an unidentified cashier at a restaurant in Phenix City, Ala., who refused to serve two uniformed deputies Saturday after another customer complained about the officers being there. A company spokesperson said the fast food chain had also apologized to the Lee County Sheriff’s Department. The firing came after a woman whose husband worked with the two men complained on Facebook about how the two officers were treated. Since Tammy Bush Mayo first wrote about the incident, her Facebook post has been shared more than 1,200 times (KTVI).
KFC: Dozens of people gathered in front of a KFC in northern China over the weekend, turning the restaurant into the latest victim of a wave of nationalism after an international tribunal ruling on the South China Sea. They carried long red banners with slogans that read: “Boycott US, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, love the Chinese nation,” and, “You are eating KFC from the US, and losing the face of our ancestors” (South China Morning Post).
BROWN-FORMAN: Jack Daniel’s supplanted scotch as the U.K.’s favorite whiskey because of a post-recession shift in drinking habits.“There has been an upsurge in the number of people drinking at home, and Jack Daniel’s is a party drink,” says Alwynne Gwilt, who runs the Miss Whisky Blog. scotch, a traditional favorite, “just doesn’t have the same excitement.” The excitement associated with Jack Daniel’s also comes down to its relentless advertising campaigns (Guardian).
AMAZON has received a patent for dr0ne docking stations on street light posts, cellphone towers and buildings so the flying delivery robots can recharge and download information about an impending thunderstorm or other weather activity. The retailer imagines some stations providing perches for two or more drones, and the stations may be equipped with solar panels, according to the patent granted earlier this month (Silicon Beat).
PAPA JOHN’S has settled a lawsuit seeking class-action status over claims it wrongly charged sales tax on delivery fees in Madison County, Ill. The settlement calls for $165,000 in attorney fees; a $2,000 “case contribution award” to the lead plaintiff, and purchase discounts of between $1 and $3 for qualified customers. According to the agreement, Papa John’s stopped charging sales tax on delivery fees on Oct. 1 (Madison-St. Clair Record).
Separately, the Louisville-based pizza giant opened a store in Amsterdam today, its first in Holland, continuing its expansion in Europe. Papa John’s has more than 320 restaurants in the U.K., four in Spain, and recently opened its first in Northern France. The company is currently looking for potential franchisees in other areas of France, as well as Poland, Czech Republic and Belgium (press release).
The Amsterdam location may well become one of Papa John’s most profitable in the world, given the liberal laws around marijuana use in the city. There are more than 250 “coffee shops” selling marijuana there, leading to millions of annual visitors getting the munchies.
A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 2:12 p.m.
FORD today shifted senior leadership in Europe and South America, and promoted an executive to the nascent Ford Smart Mobility LLC subsidiary. The changes come as the European market has been further challenged by Britain’s decision this month to leave the E.U., at a time when the economy is already threatened by a possible recession.
Neil Schloss, 57, was named CFO at the mobility unit, in addition to his current position as Ford vice president and treasurer.
The leadership changes started with the retirement of one of the automaker’s more senior female executives, Barb Samardzich, 57, vice president and COO of Ford of Europe, effective Oct. 1. The company said her retirement is voluntary.
Her retirement spurred a cascade of other changes:
- Steven Armstrong, 52, succeeds Samardzich, and
- Lyle Watters, 51, succeeds Armstrong, and was elected a corporate officer
Samardzich, during her 26-year Ford career, was responsible for the design, engineering and development of several key Ford and Lincoln vehicles, including the 2005 model Mustang.
Ford announced the mobility subsidiary in March amid growing competition with other automakers and Silicon Valley in development of driverless cars and other technology innovations that are challenging Detroit’s primacy in the auto world. Underscoring its importance, Ford said Jim Hackett, former Steelcase vice chairman and CEO, was leaving the company’s board of directors to chair the new subsidiary.
Separately today, Ford also highlighted the towing capacity of its 2017 F-Series Super Duty trucks, starting with high-strength, military-grade, aluminum alloy and high-strength steel that helps cut weight by up to 350 pounds.
The F-450 Super Duty SuperCrew 4×4 now features a maximum gooseneck tow rating of 32,500 lbs., 1,290 lbs. more than its nearest competitor, a regular cab two-door pickup. Maximum fifth-wheel towing has been boosted to 27,500 lbs., 2,500 lbs. better than the nearest competitor (press release). In Louisville, the Kentucky Truck Plant employs about 5,100 workers, producing F-250 and F-550 Super Duty pickups, plus Expeditions, and Lincoln Navigators.
HUMANA and proposed acquirer Aetna have reportedly offered to divest regional plans covering roughly 350,000 members, and have received bids from smaller Medicare rivals WellCare Health and Centene, as the two insurance giants scramble to win Department of Justice approval for their $37 billion tie-up.
Analysts say the DOJ’s antitrust unit may not see the sales alone as enough to maintain competition. “The question is not can you find a buyer for the plans,” said FBR Capital Markets analyst Steven Harper, “but will the government approve the buyer?” (CNBC).
The 350,000 members Humana and Aetna are reportedly willing to shed are a tiny fraction of the 60 million members the two would have if their deal went through. But its prospects grew more uncertain when word leaked July 7 that the DOJ had called in executives at both companies to explain why it wouldn’t be anticompetitive.
Humana, started in Louisville in 1961, has more than 21.3 million members and does business in all 50 states. It has approximately 50,000 employees, including about 12,500 in Louisville. Last year’s revenues were $54 billion.
UPS said it announce second-quarter results July 29 at about 7:45 a.m. ET, followed by a conference call at 8:30 with CEO David Abney, CFO Richard Peretz and Wall Street analysts. The call will be open to the public on a listen-only basis, via a live webcast (press release).
In other news, a Fresh Thyme Farmers Market — the city’s second — will be an anchor tenant in the planned Bardstown Pavilion commercial center in Fern Creek, a $35 million-$40 million project under review by metro planners (Courier-Journal). Fresh Thyme opened its first store in April on Shelbyville Road in St. Matthews in a former Liquor Barn store. The Fern Creek outlet would be one of 60 stores the Chicago-based chain plans by 2019.
In NuLu, construction on the proposed $37 million AC Hotel at the corner of Shelby and Market streets could start in October or November of this year (Insider Louisville).
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