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Thursday, August 7, 2008

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Metropolitan areas where residents were reeling in hurricane settlements — New Orleans and Gulfport and Pascagoula, Miss. — led the nation again in personal income growth in 2007, a federal agency reported today.

Baton Rouge-based H&E Equipment Services Inc.’s second-quarter profit of $16.1 million, or 45 cents per share, beat stock analysts expectations of 41 cents per share.

Biofuels groundbreaker Verenium Corp. today reported a net loss of $16.4 million, or 26 cents per share, for the second quarter. A year earlier, the firm reported a net loss of $55.2 million, or $1.13 per share

Energy giant BP has formed a partnership with biofuel pioneer Verenium Corp. to speed the development and commercialization of cellulosic ethanol made from agricultural waste such as sugar-cane bagasse.

Shares of Lamar Advertising Co. were battered Wednesday after the Baton Rouge billboard and sign company said second-quarter earnings fell 22 percent and forecast a weak second-half performance in 2008 as the U.S. economy continues faltering.

Pinnacle Entertainment Inc., of Las Vegas, which is developing a south Baton Rouge casino, saw its profits plunge in the second quarter to an $18.1 million loss, but its L’Auberge du Lac property in Lake Charles continued to outperform other casinos in Louisiana with a record quarter.

Las Vegas-based Pinnacle Entertainment Inc., which is developing a south Baton Rouge casino, saw its profits plunge in the second quarter to an $18.1 million loss, but its L’Auberge du Lac property in Lake Charles continued to outperform other casinos in Louisiana with a record quarter.

Lane Regional Medical Center has opened its freestanding, 9,250-square-foot Cardiovascular Center in Zachary.

Lafayette-based petroleum producers Stone Energy and Petroquest Energy posted larger quarterly earnings, as did Pineville-based utility company Cleco.

The Baton Rouge Black Chamber of Commerce will be conducting its Second Annual Community Empowerment Summit at 9 a.m. Thursday at the McKinley Alumni Center at 1520 Thomas H. Delpit Drive.

Times change and Fraenkel Co. must change with them, says Brian Akchin, head of the Baton Rouge-based mattress maker and furniture wholesaler.

The owners of the Essen Lane sushi restaurant Ichiban have begun clearing land nearby on Perkins Road and plan to open a larger two-story location there in early 2010.

Baton Rouge businessman Sam Eakin, owner of the BeairdCo steel mill in Shreveport, said he has agreed to sell the company’s wind-tower operations to a South Korean company.

Tying the decision to lingering economic fallout from Hurricane Katrina, Fraenkel Co., the Baton Rouge-based mattress maker and furniture wholesaler, said Tuesday it will shutter its South Choctaw Drive location by the end of the year.

The Einstein Bros. bagel chain will open between one and three locally owned bagel shops here.

VantaCore Partners LP has acquired Southern Aggregates LLC, which owns four sand and gravel operations near Baton Rouge.

The United States isn’t in a recession by the classic textbook definition or by cutting-edge research, a leading Louisiana economist said Monday.

Jim Clinton, who led the North Carolina-based economic growth partnership between 13 Southern governors and their constituents for the past decade, is coming home to Louisiana.

The Juban family said Monday it bought the Silver Spoon restaurant in the Bocage Village shopping center from Kathy and Mike Mangham. Carol Juban said the sale closed Friday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

NEW YORK — Timber and wood products producer Weyerhaeuser Co. said Monday it completed the sale of its containerboard packaging and recycling business to International Paper Co. for $6 billion in cash.

The Juban family bought the Silver Spoon restaurant in the Bocage Village shopping center late last week from Kathy and Mike Mangham for undisclosed terms.

IEM, the Baton Rouge-based provider of homeland security and emergency management services, has been awarded a $2.2 million, multi-year contract to help New Jersey to improve the level of preparedness in the state.

The state economic developer recruiting steelmaker Nucor Corp. said the company’s potential Louisiana project now represents as many as 1,250 direct jobs — several hundred more than previously thought.

An 80-room extended-stay hotel, Candlewood Suites, will open in mid-2009 near Shoney’s and the Cracker Barrel restaurant at the Airline Highway-Interstate 12 intersection.

CAP Elite Training Center, the south Baton Rouge fitness club with a staff that included some of the city’s biggest sports-training names, closed its doors to most members Thursday night.

Albemarle Corp. has completed its previously announced $22.5 million deal to buy Ohio-based Sorbent Technologies.

As soon as Eli Jones took over LSU’s E.J. Ourso College of Business on July 1 the clock started ticking — one year to raise nearly $17 million in private donations. The end goal is the construction of a planned $63 million Business Education Complex, which would be a massive village of buildings highlighted by a large rotunda.

Southeastern Louisiana University is conducting research on the effect of Lean production and safety.

Cajun Constructors Inc. has named William Clouatre as vice president of business development and Mike Lonero as business development manager.

Dr. Peter F. Haynes, dean of the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, has been named recipient of the 2008 AVMA Award by the American Veterinary Medical Association.

BUSINESS NETWORK OF BATON ROUGE

An 80-room extended-stay hotel, Candlewood Suites, will open in mid-2009 near Shoney’s and the Cracker Barrel restaurant at the Airline Highway-Interstate 12 intersection.

The East Baton Rouge Mortgage Finance Authority said Friday that its current round of funding for middle- and low-income mortgage financing — $11.5 million — has been entirely committed.

Chef Scott Varnedoe, who spent the past three years running his own restaurant at The Myrtles in St. Francisville, has been lured to The Bluffs country club.

Home health provider LHC Group Inc.’s stock soared to a 52-week high Thursday and closed at $28.02 per share, as investors responded to better-than-expected second-quarter net income of $6.3 million, or 35 cents per share.

Gov. Bobby Jindal is not breaking new ground with his work-force training plan, an administration official acknowledged Thursday. Jindal’s one-time boss, former Gov. Mike Foster, promoted a similar plan.

Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center on Thursday finalized an agreement to buy part of Surgical Specialty Centre for an undisclosed sum.

Lafayette-based home health provider LHC Group Inc.’s stock soared today to more than $28 per share, a 52-week high, after reporting net income of $6.3 million, or 35 cents per share, for the second quarter late Wednesday.

Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center is expanding to the Houma area through a deal with Terrebonne General Medical Center and Houma-based physicians group Cancer Care Specialists, the firms announced.

HOUSTON (AP) — Exxon Mobil Corp., which has substantial refinery and chemical operations in Baton Rouge, reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion Thursday, the biggest profit from operations ever by any U.S. corporation.
•Baton Rouge Area Gas Prices

Two years after proposing a pair of alternative fuel refineries on Port of Greater Baton Rouge property, The Shaw Group Inc. has pulled the plug on both projects while considering a new development for a port site in Port Allen.

Louisiana’s bid to bring a multibillion-dollar steel mill to St. James Parish remains a strong and competitive one, Gov. Bobby Jindal said Wednesday night after a daylong South Carolina trip to court Nucor Corp., the nation’s biggest steelmaker.

It’s cutting it close with next week’s start of the new school year, but the state is once again offering a “tax holiday” to help out on the cost of school supplies. From 12:01 Friday morning until midnight Saturday, Louisiana consumers won’t have to pay the 4 percent state sales tax on most things they buy.

NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana has lost nearly 16,000 jobs since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001. That’s according to a study released by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, which blames the loss on the U.S. trade deficit with China.

In a high-stakes gambit to land Louisiana’s next big employer, Gov. Bobby Jindal and economic development Secretary Stephen Moret are flying to Charleston, S.C., today for meetings with Nucor Corp., the nation’s biggest steelmaker.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana has lost nearly 16,000 jobs since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001.

Teche Holding Co., parent company of Teche Federal Bank, reported a net loss for the quarter ended June 30 of $500,000, or 22 cents per diluted share, compared to a year-ago profit of $1.6 million or $0.71 per diluted share for the same quarter in fiscal 2007.

Rick Pastorek says customers of Louisiana’s Bennigan’s restaurants won’t see any changes, despite Metromedia Restaurant Group’s announcement Tuesday that corporate-owned locations will be shuttered.

Home health behemoth Amedisys Inc. racked up another record earnings report, with net income of $20.4 million, or 76 cents per share, for the second quarter.

LHC Group Inc., already one of the largest home nursing companies in the country, may be looking to accelerate its growth. The Lafayette firm announced Tuesday that it has appointed Peter C. November as senior vice president, general counsel and director of mergers and acquisitions, effective Friday.

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