Gustavo Franco, former president of Brazil's central bank, and 90 others should be indicted on charges of money laundering, a committee of lawmakers recommended after an 18-month probe. The panel also proposed granting amnesty to some holders of as much as $150 billion of unreported overseas assets. Franco, senior partner at Fiducia Asset Management in Rio de Janeiro, said in a statement the allegations against him were "ideologically" motivated and ignored his role in exposing the problems under investigation.
LOCAL BUSINESS
Comstock Homebuilding Companies held an initial public offering of 3.96 million shares of common stock priced at $16 per share with gross proceeds of about $63.4 million. The Reston firm's stock opened at $19 and closed at $16.75 in trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol CHCI.
A worker checks a batch of BlackBerry pagers prior to packaging at Research In Motion's plant in Waterloo, Ontario. Yesterday, a U.S. appeals court upheld a ruling that RIM infringed on another company's patent and sent the case back to a lower court for some claims to be reconsidered. RIM had appealed an earlier court decision that NTP, of Arlington, owns five patents related to key technology in the popular wireless device. That court awarded NTP $53.7 million in damages and an 8.6 percent royalty on revenue from U.S. BlackBerry sales.
(Norm Betts -- Bloomberg News)
|
|
Capital One is acquiring mortgage and loan originator eSmartloan from the National Bank of Kansas City in a $155 million cash deal. The transaction gives McLean-based Capital One an online home equity originator that expects to handle some 12,000 loans that will represent more than $1 billion in volume for 2004.
USEC, the Bethesda-based energy company, announced that president and chief executive William "Nick" H. Timbers is leaving the company. The company offered no reason for Timbers's departure in its announcement. James R. Mellor, USEC's chairman for the past six years and former chairman and chief executive of defense contractor General Dynamics, has assumed the duties of president and chief executive. The board will form a committee to search for a successor, the company said.
MCI can pay more than $165 million to 16 consultants, lawyers and others who guided its bankruptcy reorganization, a U.S. judge ruled. About 45 advisers seek a total of $657 million. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur J. Gonzalez will consider payments to the remaining advisers later this month and in January.
Post Properties said it will build a $95 million project of condominiums, apartments and shops across from the new headquarters of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office in Alexandria. The Atlanta-based developer's project will include 350 luxury apartments and condos, 20,000 square feet of retail and underground parking garages. Construction has already started and the first housing units will be done in 2006.
EARNINGS
Nortel Networks said it had a third-quarter loss of 6 cents per share, which amounts to about $256 million with the company's 4.27 billion outstanding shares. Nortel, which is restating results back to 1999, said sales for the quarter were $2.3 billion. Nortel did not provide corresponding data from last year. The Canadian company said it expects fourth-quarter revenue of $2.8 billion to $2.9 billion.
ADC Telecommunications, a supplier of telecom equipment, said fourth-quarter income rose on improved sales of broadband equipment and its acquisition of Krone Group. Profit for the quarter was $59.7 million, compared with $9.4 million during the same period a year ago. Sales at the Eden Prairie, Minn., company were $266.3 million, up from $154.5 million.
Pier 1 Imports posted a 40 percent drop in profit in its third quarter, to $19.5 million from $32.2 million in the same quarter a year earlier, as slow store traffic and deep merchandise discounting hurt the home-furnishings retailer's bottom line. Sales rose 1.1 percent, to $487.7 million, and sales at stores open at least a year fell 6.3 percent.
Gladstone Capital earned $750,740 (7 cents per share) in the fourth quarter, compared with $2.6 million (26 cents) in the same period last year. For the year ended Sept. 30, the McLean-based business lender said it earned $10.6 million ($1.02), a decrease from the $11.1. million ($1.09) it reported the previous year. Net investment income, a key measure of income generated by its loan portfolio, was $13.3 million for the year, up from $11.3 million, an increase of almost 18 percent.
Compiled from reports by the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, Dow Jones News Service and Washington Post staff writers.
