Tuesday, November 18, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

In Brief

Earnings drop for time share outfit

Sunterra Corp., a North Las Vegas-based time-share company, on Monday said third-quarter net income fell compared with a year earlier, hurt by an impairment charge and write-downs.

In a statement Monday, the company said net income was $4.3 million, or 21 cents per share, for the three-month period ended Sept. 30, down from net income of $327.3 million, or 21 cents per share, a year earlier.

The most recent quarter's results include a $1.4 million impairment charge for the write-down of certain long-lived assets. The year-ago balance includes $239.2 million of gains on settlement and cancellation of debt and liabilities and $112.7 million of fresh start adjustments, in connection with the company's emergence from bankruptcy in July 2002.

Revenue rose 6.2 percent to $86.1 million from $81.1 million.

PDS Gaming reverses loss

PDS Gaming Corp., a Las Vegas financier, lessor and seller of gambling equipment, on Monday posted net income for its third quarter, reversing a year-earlier loss.

In a statement, the company said it had net income of $187,000, or 5 cents per diluted share, for the three-month period ended Sept. 30, reversing a net loss of $324,000, or 9 cents per diluted share, a year earlier.

Revenue nearly doubled, rising to $14.3 million from $7.3 million.

PDS Gaming shares rose 31 cents, or 17.13 percent, Monday to close at $2.12.

MINNEAPOLIS

Travelers will merge with St. Paul Cos.

Travelers Property Casualty Corp. is combining with The St. Paul Cos. in a $16 billion stock deal that will create one of the nation's biggest business insurers. The new company will be known as The St. Paul Travelers Companies and is expected to have total assets of $107 billion, the companies announced Monday.

Company officials said the deal would create the nation's second-largest business insurer behind American International Group, providing policies for commercial liability, commercial property and workers' compensation. It should also expand the companies' geographic reach.

Jay Fishman, chairman and chief executive, came to The St. Paul from Travelers in 2001, and will be chief executive of the combined company, which will be based in St. Paul. Travelers, based in Hartford, Conn., was spun off from New York financial services giant Citigroup last year.

WASHINGTON

Interest rates rise in T-note auction

Interest rates on short-term Treasury securities were mixed in Monday's auction.

The Treasury Department sold $16 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.935 percent, unchanged from the last week. An additional $16 billion was sold in six-month bills at a rate of 1.01 percent, down from 1.04 percent the previous week.

The six-month rate was the lowest since Oct. 14, when the rate was 0.985 percent.

The new discount rates understate the actual return to investors -- 0.951 percent for three-month bills with a $10,000 bill selling for $9,976.40 and 1.033 percent for a six-month bill selling for $9,948.90.

BOSTON

Money flowing out of Putnam mutuals

Investors continue to pull money out of embattled Putnam Investments, with assets under management declining by $7 billion in the past week and $21 billion overall since market timing allegations surfaced last month, the company said Monday.

Putnam reported $256 billion in assets under management as of Friday. A week earlier, it had $263 billion under management. At the end of October, the company had $277 billion under management. A Putnam spokeswoman didn't return a call seeking comment on the fund levels, which Marsh & McLennan Cos., Putnam's parent company, reported in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Putnam has been embroiled in controversy since state and federal regulators announced civil fraud charges against Putnam for failing to crack down on market timing trades by employees.

NEW YORK

Bond prices rally as stocks recede

Bonds prices rose on Monday as stocks fell, despite strong economic news.

The price of the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 0.19 points, or $1.88 per $1,000 in face value. Its yield, which moves in the opposite direction, fell to 4.20 percent compared with Friday's level of 4.22 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond added 0.06 point to yield 5.05 percent, the same as Friday, Moneyline Telerate reported.

Yields on one-month Treasury bills were 0.93 percent as the discount rate added 0.02 percentage points to 0.91 percent. Three-month yields were also unchanged at 0.95 percent with the discount at 0.93 percent.