Mass. to sell notes for convention centers

By Globe Staff and Wires, 9/16/2003

Massachusetts plans to sell $550 million of bond anticipation notes to pay for construction of the state's new convention center in Boston and two smaller convention centers in Springfield and Worcester. The state will take competitive bids from investment banks Thursday for the notes, which mature Jan. 15, 2004, and aren't callable. The debt is a general obligation of Massachusetts, which is the 13th most populous state and has the third-highest per capita income, and is to be repaid by proceeds from a revenue bond sale. "The $550 million represents what we've already spent on the project or will be spent in the next month or two," said Jeffrey Stearns, the state's deputy treasurer for debt management. He said that in late November or early December the state plans to sell about $694 million of long-term bonds to repay the notes, which is the amount the state was authorized to issue in 1997. The bonds are to be repaid by revenue the state began collecting in 1997 from a fee on hotel rooms near the new centers, including Boston and Cambridge, a surcharge on car rentals in Boston, a parking surcharge at the facilities, and all sales and hotel taxes at new hotels near the centers. (Bloomberg)

CTC Communications files payment plan

CTC Communications Group Inc., a Waltham phone company that filed for bankruptcy in October, submitted a plan to pay creditors and transfer ownership to Columbia Ventures Corp. and Columbia Ventures Broadband LLC for $32 million. The plan was filed in US Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., and the company will ask the court for permission to seek creditors' backing on Oct. 14. Under the reorganization plan, some unsecured creditors would receive as much as 4 percent of their claims in warrants to purchase CTC stock, court papers say. Shareholders would receive nothing. (Bloomberg)

Neon Communications buys fiber loop

Neon Communications Inc., a Westborough provider of fiber-optic telecommunications services to phone and Internet companies and big corporations, said it bought a 278-mile fiber loop from New York City to Washington, D.C., expanding Neon's network to about 3,600 route miles. Neon bought the Columbia Transcom fiber system from a unit of utility conglomerate NiSource Inc. for an undisclosed amount of cash and the assumption of liabilities. It will operate the fiber loop, which runs on utility rights-of-way on the west side of Interstate 95, as Neon Transcom Inc. (Peter J. Howe)

Curis shares up 8.5% after 2 studies

Curis Inc., a biotechnology company that focuses on developing therapies for repairing or restoring damaged cells, said two studies in the journal Nature show that drugs the company is developing with Genentech Inc. may help slow pancreatic cancers. Shares rose 38 cents, or 8.5 percent, to $4.84, a 20-month high. They were up as much as 16 percent earlier in the session. The reports from Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine show that halting certain genetic signals linked to cell growth can block the growth of cancers, including pancreatic tumors, in lab experiments, Curis said in a statement. Curis could receive up to $240 million in milestone payments in addition to royalties as Genentech develops its drugs that block such signals, said Christopher Missling, chief financial officer. (Bloomberg)

THE NATION

Pension-liability formula to be revised

Pension plan administrators and consumers spoke up against a White House proposal to rewrite the formula that companies use to measure future pension liabilities. Arguing the equation has not been tested, they told lawmakers on a House Governmental Affairs subcommittee that a drastic revision could push more employers to drop traditional pension benefits. The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Iowa Republican Charles Grassley, incorporated the proposal into a bill his committee will debate tomorrow. The House Ways and Means Committee already approved the formula. The equation for determining funding must be rewritten. The old formula relied on the 30-year Treasury bond for calculating benefit obligations. The government stopped issuing 30-year bonds in 2001, and a temporary measure that simulates the 30-year bond rate will expire at the end of this year. (AP)

Ex-Vivendi chairman's severance OK'd

Messier A judge in Manhattan ordered Vivendi Universal, the French media company, to pay a $23.5 million severance award that former chairman Jean-Marie Messier won in arbitration. New York State Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Shafer said she would not disturb the June 27 award by a three-member panel of the American Arbitration Association. Shafer said she found the New York arbitrators' decision "rational" and "within their authority." The panel found the termination agreement "valid and enforceable" and said Vivendi had violated its obligations by failing to pay. The panel awarded Messier 20.55 million euros -- about $23.5 million. Shafer rejected Vivendi's argument that the package was illegal because it violated French law requiring a company's full board of directors to approve an executive severance package. (AP)

Sprint outsourcing to eliminate jobs

Sprint Corp. said it will use outside contractors to handle some software operations, a move the telephone company said will result in hundreds of layoffs. Sprint said it had reached separate agreements with IBM Global Services and EDS Corp. to provide application development and maintenance support for selected software systems. Sprint expects to save $150 million in labor and other costs during the five years covered by the outsourcing contracts. The contracts will not result in immediate layoffs, but several hundred jobs would be affected within the next three to 12 months, Sprint said. (AP)

Microsoft to sell Xbox wireless adapters

Microsoft Corp. will begin selling an adapter Oct. 5 that allows its Xbox video game console to connect to wireless networks, the company said. The adapter will cost $129. Gamers playing each other online through the Xbox Live service now have to run Ethernet cables from their broadband modem to their Xbox, but the new device connects to Wi-Fi networks, including 802.11b and the faster 802.11g. (Chris Gaither)

NYMEX fines BP for questionable trades

The New York Mercantile Exchange said it fined British oil company BP PLC $2.5 million for questionable crude oil trades. The action came after allegations including wash trading, exemptions from position limits for hedging bona fide transactions, and conduct detrimental to the interests and welfare of the exchange. The trades in question occurred in January 2001 and August 2002, NYMEX, the world's largest energy trading house, said. BP, the world's third-largest listed oil company, settled with NYMEX for the full amount without admitting or denying the allegations, NYMEX said. BP did not immediately return phone calls about the settlement. BP is also being investigated by the federal Commodities Futures Trading Commission for oil trading. (Reuters)

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Etc.

The stock of Skyworks Solutions Inc., which makes chips for cellphones, fell 8.7 percent after SoundView Technology downgraded the stock, saying seasonal improvements in the cellphone market have been priced into the stock. Shares of the Woburn company closed down 96 cents at $10.13 . . . Emptoris Inc., of Burlington, a provider of procurement and sourcing software, said it acquired Zeborg Inc., a provider of spending analysis software. Both firms are privately held, and terms were not disclosed. (Wire services)