Finance and Economic

Accounting firm Watkins Meegan LLC has hired the managing partner of Sturn Wagner Lombardo & Co. LLC, a dissolving Annapolis accounting and consulting firm.

Kurt Sturn, founder of Sturn Wagner Lobardo, will join Bethesda-based Watkins Meegan Jan. 1 and will bring his entire book of business and five to 10 other professional employees with him, said Sean Roddy, chief operating officer of Watkins Meegan, which already has an Annapolis office with about 15 employees.

The deal is part of a new acquisition strategy for Watkins Meegan, the second-largest locally-based accounting firm in the Washington area with about 240 employees and four offices.

“We’re hoping to double over the next five years,” Roddy said.

Over the last five years, the firm has grown its staff 33 percent, according to the Washington Business Journal list of accounting firms — all of it organic.

The firm also is talking to a few potential acquisition targets, Roddy said.

With the current deal, Sturn approached Watkins Meegan, saying he and his partners were going in different directions and were thinking about dissolving, Roddy said.

The firm signed a deal with Sturn last week and is still in negotiations to bring on some of the other accountants that worked under him.

“I am both proud and confident that this merger brings together the best and brightest to serve the Annapolis business community and provide it with the resources of exceptionally trained professionals,” Sturn said in a statement.

Sturn Wagner Lobardo was founded in 1990 and began dissolving several weeks ago. As of a couple of years ago, it had about 33 accountants, though that has been reduced to about 20, Roddy said.

It has offices in Annapolis, Baltimore and Washington, according to its Web site.

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More doctors are dropping their private practices, choosing to go to work behind bars treating murderers, rapists and other hardened criminals.

Better pay, better hours, retirement benefits and free malpractice insurance are just a few of the reasons why physicians are picking prisoners over civilian patients.

In 2009, private contractor Prison Health Services (PHS) saw a 77% increase over 2008 in the number of respondents applying for job opportunities.

At the University of Massachusetts Medical School, this year 22 of 150 new students chose the correctional health care clerkship as their first choice, more than double the typical response.

"Students are looking for an employer who offers flexible work hours and a steady paycheck. Correctional health care offers both," said Dr. Michelle Staples-Horne, medical director for the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice, adding that doctors who have stayed with a government agency long enough also benefit from pension plans.

Typically a salaried job with steady work hours, correctional physicians can earn starting salaries of around $140,000, according to Staples-Horne, roughly the same as the average school loan for graduating med students.

A dangerous job?

Dr. Kurt Johnson dumped his practice and became a jailhouse doctor in November. Johnson operated a solo practice in Laramie, Wyo., for six years. Two years ago he started working part time for Brentwood, Tenn.-based PHS, a division of America Service Group (ASGR), which provides doctors, nurses and other health care professionals to detention centers around the country.

"I never thought of correctional health care as a career. It wasn’t even on my radar in [medical school] training," said Johnson, now a regional medical director for PHS.

At his private practice he had to cram in dozens of patients daily, sometimes for only five minutes, just to earn enough to cover his overhead expenses.

He was constantly filing insurance paperwork, and malpractice insurance was eating into his income.

With correctional health care, Johnson has a steady paycheck of about $175,000 — roughly 20% more than he made in private practice.

"Since I was a PHS employee, my malpractice insurance was covered through them. I felt like they had my back," he said.

But he’s still getting used to the sound of the prison doors slamming shut. "It’s an impressive sound. It gives me goose bumps at times wired payday loan."

He has treated death row inmates. "It’s intimidating," he admits, but says he’s never felt physically threatened by his patients.

Staples-Horne agrees that doctors typically didn’t consider prison to be an ideal or safe setting to practice medicine. She admits that there is risk, but points out that most doctors don’t have the benefit of high security that prisons provide.

"Doctors are often safer in this setting than in an emergency room when you don’t know any thing about the person coming in," she said. "You don’t know if they have a weapon, if they are violent or aggressive."

Doctors say the medical problems affecting inmates can range from simple ailments to serious, chronic problems such as drug and alcohol addiction, heart disease, cancer and AIDS.

Health care on the inside

Dr. Ryan Herrington is a regional medical director with Correctional Medical Services, a St. Louis-based contracted health care provider.

Herrington, a general physician, closed his private practice in Ohio and started working full time in the prison system in April. Anecdotally, Herrington said there is growing interest among doctors seeking opportunity in the corrections environment.

He feels he now has "the financial stability that was harder to attain in private practice."

But Herrington said his own interest in public health also influenced his decision. "These patients have problems that are complex," Herrington said. "They have gone through a tremendous period of time with no health care prior to incarceration."

PHS’s Dr. Johnson is mostly happy with his decision. His prison work allows him to spend more time with his wife and three children. In fact, he credits his patients for making him a better doctor.

"I’m trying to make this a career," said Johnson. "So I’ve also honed my BS detector quite a bit. Now I know when they’re trying to get one over me."

Are you stuck in a lousy 401(k) plan at work but want help maximizing your retirement savings? Send us an email at makeover@moneymail.com. For the CNNMoney.com Comment Policy, click here.
 

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A Toronto group could be closing in on a purchase of the Phoenix Coyotes hockey team.

The National Hockey League could finalize a deal for Ice Edge Holdings to buy the Coyotes in the coming days, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Officials familiar with the negotiations between the NHL and various ownership groups said that other groups are still talking to the NHL but Ice Edge was the farthest along in the talks. They also said Ice Edge was talking to the NHL regarding some unconventional financing to help get the deal done.

Details of what the entails were not disclosed. Ice Edge has been meeting with NHL officials as well as the city of Glendale. The Phoenix suburb owns Jobing.com Arena where the Coyotes play.

The team is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is owned by the NHL. The league bought the team for $140 million in October after a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge turned down a $243 million offer by Research in Motion CEO Jim Balsillie to buy the team from the then owner Jerry Moyes and move them to Hamilton, Ontario.

Ice Edge had put in a $148 million bid for the Coyotes this summer during bankruptcy proceedings but pulled back that offer. The investment group restarted talks with the NHL after the league acquired the financially struggling team no fax payday loans.

Ice Edge had talked about keeping the team in Arizona but playing some Coyotes home games outside of the Phoenix market in Canadian cities without NHL teams. The ownership group won’t start formal arena lease negotiations with Glendale until after a deal with the NHL is struck.

The Coyotes have done well on the ice this year but struggle with attendance and finances. The team is averaging 9,774 announced fans per game, according to ESPN. That’s the lowest average in the NHL and among the major pro sports leagues in the U.S.

In November, Forbes magazine pegged the Coyotes as being worth $138 million, the lowest value in the NHL.

Neither Ice Edge or the NHL responded to requests for comment. Coyotes spokesman Rob Crean referred questions to the NHL. Glendale spokeswoman Jennifer Stein declined comment.

The Coyotes have lost $300 million since moving to the Phoenix market from Winnipeg in 2002. They’ve not made the NHL playoffs since 2002 and lost many of its ticket buyers after Moyes put the team into Chapter 11 in May.

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One in six companies on the Standard & Poor’s 500 index may raise its next dividend payment as a rebound in the global economy boosts cash earnings.

AT&T Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Raleigh, N.C.-based Progress Energy Inc. are among 79 companies in the index that may boost dividends, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. An 80th company, Ecolab Inc., the world’s largest maker of cleaning chemicals for hotels and restaurants, increased its payout Thursday. About 2 percent of the members may reduce their next payment.

“The economic recovery is in place,” said John Crawford, chief investment officer of Crawford Investment Counsel Inc. in Atlanta. “With that you will see some improvement in dividends in an overall sense, but they, too, will be coming along at a slower pace.”

Companies that have large market share, strong finances and pay above-average dividends are attractive for investors looking for safe returns as 10-year U.S. Treasuries yield less than 3.5 percent, said Crawford, who manages $2.5 billion in securities.

AT&T, based in Dallas, has a projected 12-month dividend yield of 6.1 percent, and Progress, the owner of utilities in three Southeast states, is expected to pay 6.2 percent.

Dividends tend to reflect the prior year’s profits and so won’t rebound for many U.S. companies until 2011, said Kevin Shacknofsky, who manages about $2 billion for Alpine Mutual Funds in Purchase, N.Y.

Some of the increases in dividends next year will be from companies that had cut payments or eliminated them this year or in 2008 because of “near-death experiences,” Shacknofsky said.

Thirty-three companies on the S&P 500 had lower dividend payments this year compared with 2008, Bloomberg data show.

Banks including Bank of America and Citigroup slashed dividends amid the deepest recession since the 1930s. Citigroup, which paid 32 cents a share, discontinued its dividend this year. Bank of America reduced its quarterly payment to 1 cent a share from as much as 64 cents last year.

“The biggest payers out there were the financials,” Shacknofsky said. “So in dollar terms, dividends are still weak.”

Companies are also beginning to use cash from rebounding profits to buy back stock. Chubb Corp., the insurer of commercial property and high-end homes, approved a repurchase program this week of 25 million shares.

General Dynamics Corp., the producer of Abrams battle tanks and Gulfstream business jets, this week announced plans to buy back as many as 10 million shares. The company is forecast by Bloomberg to raise its dividend in March by 2 cents to 40 cents a share.

Shacknofsky said companies should be raising dividends instead of buying back shares. “They should leave playing the market to investors, and they should rather give cash back as dividends,” he said.

Select companies such as Coca-Cola Co. and Wal-Mart have held up well during the recession and maintained dividend increases, Crawford said. Those companies are a safe haven during this period of low interest rates and slow recovery.

“That’s why AT&T and Progress and some of these names are attractive,” Crawford said. “You are just as safe, and you’re better off because you have higher yield.”

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In an aggressive effort to highlight their growth and health at a time of challenge for all publishers, The Business Journal Serving Greater Milwaukee and the 39 other papers in the American City Business Journals group this week took a novel approach to tell their story: All 40 business journals printed a four-page “wrap” around their papers filled with statistics and testimonials from readers in their local markets, detailing the niche their papers fill in each of their communities.

To see the wrapper, click here.

The testimonials highlighted ways that their papers have connected them to new sales, new jobs, and new ways to grow their businesses, and most recently, ways to tap government stimulus dollars. The national campaign cites statistics that include recent numbers for paid circulation, time spent reading business journals, and event attendance.

Collectively, the papers gained in paid circulation by 3.85 percent between 2005 and 2009, while daily newspapers in those same markets lost 18.81 percent in the same years, according to Audit Bureau of Circulations publisher statements. From 2007 to 2009 alone, the ACBJ circulation growth totaled 2.7 percent, according to ABC figures.

Nationally, ACBJ readers spend an average of 50 minutes reading their local business journal each week, according to media audits.

And through 2009, about 175,000 business leaders have attended business journal events across the country.

The campaign has linked the papers together under a single message that asks, “Who Do You Want To Meet Today?” That message centers on the way each paper connects business leaders with each other, via print, in person, at events, or online through the bizjournals pay day loans.com network of local business journal sites.

ACBJ newspapers reach 4 million readers each week with in-depth coverage of their business communities. ACBJ cites recent research as evidence of the sweet spot it occupies in the media: 83% of all business news is local. Further, the company attributes it commitment to exclusive, top-quality journalism as vital to its success.

“No one in the local business community is more connected, more aware, more in touch than business journals are,” says ACBJ CEO Whitney Shaw, in a Q&A offered in each paper’s four-page wrap. “We're giving vital, up to the minute information to corporate executives, small business owners, community leaders, to virtually anybody who has a stake in the economy. And we're giving that information with a depth they can't get anywhere else.”

ACBJ is a unit of Advance Publications Inc., which also operates Conde Nast Magazines, Parade magazine, Fairchild Publications, the Golf Digest companies, Newhouse Newspapers and cable television interests.

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South Korea’s won, Asia’s second best-performing currency this year, may be “affected” as the nation’s current-account surplus narrows by about 50 percent in 2010 and capital inflows slow, a central bank official said.

The surplus, forecast to widen to more than $40 billion this year, will decrease by “half next year as domestic demand revives, imports increase and oil prices continue a modest rise,” Ahn Byung Chan, head of the international bureau at the Bank of Korea, said in an interview yesterday. Inflows of investment may be slowed by the global financial crisis, he said.

“The unrest in the international financial markets won’t evolve into a systemic risk but if the wobbles are prolonged, the Korean won rate will be affected,” Ahn said, declining to comment on any level or direction for the currency. “Capital inflows won’t be larger than this year.”

Finance Minister Yoon Jeung Hyun said in October it is “premature” to unwind expansionary policies as the nation still faces risks from a possible delay in the global economic recovery and asset price instability. Exporters helped drive acceleration in economic growth to 2.9 percent last quarter from the previous three months, the fastest pace in seven years.

“This is probably mostly an attempt to talk down the won,” said Dariusz Kowalczyk, chief investment strategist at SJS Markets Ltd. in Hong Kong. “A lot of the economic pickup this year has been due to the earlier won weakness. They wouldn’t want to lose the edge the currency has provided.”

Bullish Forecasts

The won was little changed at 1,155 per at 9:16 a.m. in Seoul, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It touched 1,149.4 on Nov. 17, the strongest level since September 2008. The currency strengthened 9 percent this year, second in Asia only to the 16 percent gain in the Indonesian rupiah.

The won will rise to 1,070 per dollar by the end of June, Kowalczyk predicted. That is more bullish than the 1,110 median forecast of 22 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey.

The current account swung to a $37 billion surplus in the first 10 months of the year after a deficit of $6.41 billion in 2008, the first shortfall since 1997, central bank data showed. The current account is the broadest measure of trade, tracking the flow of goods, services and investment income.

Foreign-exchange reserves climbed to a record $270.9 billion last month from $264.2 billion at the end of October, the Bank of Korea said yesterday. Reserves slumped to their lowest level in almost four years in November 2008 after the won declined and the global financial crisis made it difficult for companies to refinance overseas debt.

The central bank probably bought dollars to slow gains in the won, Mitul Kotecha, Hong Kong-based head of global foreign- exchange strategy at Calyon, said yesterday.

‘No Complaints’

November’s reserves were boosted by investment inflows and a weaker U.S. dollar which increased the value of holdings in euros and yen. Ahn said the greenback will weaken until the Federal Reserve increases interest rates. He said a stronger greenback won’t necessarily translate to won appreciation.

The competitiveness of Korean companies contributed more to the recovery in exports than a weaker currency, Ahn said. Hyundai Motor Co., the nation’s largest automaker, more than tripled third-quarter profit from a year earlier on a weaker won and surging sales in the U.S. and China.

South Korea’s exports rose 18.8 percent in November from a year earlier, the first increase in more than a year, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said Dec. 1. Imports rose 4.7 percent, driven by higher consumer spending and fuel costs. Crude oil gained 74 percent this year.

“The Korean won appreciated a lot since March, but still our exports are growing,” he said. “These days there are no complaints among exporters and importers. We decide our exchange rate policy. Their opinion is not important.”

Capital Movements

Foreign investors bought $22.9 billion more local shares than they sold this year through yesterday, helping drive the Kospi stock index 42 percent higher. Stocks fell 4.7 percent on Nov. 27 after Dubai World sought to delay payments on its debt.

“Any similar case to the Dubai shock will slow the inflows,” Ahn said. “A rise in stock prices towards 1,600 reduces incentives for foreigners to jump in.”

South Korea may discuss measures to address inflows of speculative capital that are causing the currency to strengthen, Kim Jong Chang, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, said on Nov. 19.

“We will watch the global discussions about imposing taxes on capital movements,” said Ahn. “So far, we think capital inflows haven’t had any side effects on the Korean financial market. We are monitoring it carefully.”

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General Motors Co’s chief executive, Fritz Henderson, abruptly resigned on Tuesday, after the company’s board decided it wanted to chart a new course for the restructuring automaker.

Henderson was asked by the board to step down at a meeting in Detroit after being on the job for just eight months, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

GM Chairman Ed Whitacre, 68, will become interim chief executive as the automaker begins an immediate search for a replacement, the company said.

The announcement of Henderson’s sudden departure underscored the tough oversight being exerted by a slate of new GM directors led by Whitacre and selected by the automaker’s majority shareholder, the U.S. Treasury.

Henderson, 51, became CEO in March after his predecessor, Rick Wagoner, was forced out by the Obama administration as part of the U.S. government-funded restructuring of GM.

“The board decided — and Fritz agreed — that given where we are, it was time to make some changes,” GM spokesman Chris Preuss said at a hastily arranged news conference.

Whitacre, a former AT&T chief executive, became chairman of GM in July as part of a new board vetted by the U.S. Treasury and intended to safeguard the government’s $50 billion investment in the automaker.

The U.S. government has a majority stake in GM, but the Obama administration has repeatedly said that it is leaving oversight of the company to Whitacre and the board.

“This decision was made by the board of directors alone. The administration was not involved in the decision,” a White House spokeswoman said.

WHO’S NEXT?

Whitacre, who became the public face of GM in its first ad campaign after bankruptcy, appeared briefly before reporters at GM’s headquarters in Detroit but did not take questions on why the board had chosen to part ways with Henderson.

Whitacre said Henderson, who helped GM through its July bankruptcy, had “done a remarkable job in leading the company through an unprecedented period of challenge and change.”

“While momentum has been building over the past several months, all involved agree that changes needed to be made,” Whitacre said.

Whitacre, a plain-spoken Texan who said he knew nothing about the auto industry when he became GM chairman, has surprised GM insiders by making unannounced plant visits and putting blunt questions to workers at all levels.

With his move to become GM’s interim CEO, all three U.S. automakers are now headed by outsiders to Detroit. 

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The Treasury Department is expected to meet with lenders on Monday to press them to do more to rework troubled home mortgage loans, a source familiar with the Treasury’s thinking said.

Herbert Allison, the Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for financial stability, is expected to meet with the mortgage servicers, said the source who requested anonymity because the meeting has not been publicly announced.

The New York Times in its Sunday edition quoted Michael Barr, the Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for financial institutions, as expressing dissatisfaction with lenders over the slow pace at which they are amending loan agreements to help borrowers make their monthly payments.

A Treasury spokeswoman said on Saturday the department was taking additional steps to enhance mortgage servicer transparency and accountability as part of a broader focus on maximizing conversion rates to permanent modifications.

The Treasury spokeswoman said that that could include new resources for borrowers and said the department will announce new measures on Monday.

(Reporting by Rachelle Younglai, editing by Matthew Lewis)

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Local builder Clayco Inc. was recognized by the Design-Build Institute of America for its work on the Chevron NorthPark Office Building Project near New Orleans. The project received this year’s national Design-Build Award for exceptional construction of the 300,000-square-foot, fast-tracked Chevron headquarters building.

Chevron moved most of its business operations and a staff of 750 from downtown New Orleans to the new building on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain at Covington, La., outside the most hurricane-prone area.

Clayco is a real estate development, design and construction firm. It has branch offices in the Chicago and Detroit areas.

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As the economy continues to wobble, Canadian retailers are offering deeper discounts and keeping their stores open longer in hopes of capturing whatever holiday shoppers might be in the market for this year.

Wal-Mart Canada says it’s dropping a "record number" of prices between now and Christmas to help Canadians stay on budget this holiday season.

Sears Canada is offering what it calls "Boxing Day" pricing on a wide range of items this weekend.

The price-cutting comes as a new survey suggests this will be the worst season for holiday shopping since 2005.

Just under six in 10 Canadians say they plan to spend the same amount as they did last year, about one-third plan to spend less and eight per cent plan to spend more, according to TNS Canadian Facts.

"We often hear talk of so-called cautious optimism. But these results suggest now is a time for cautious negativism. Clearly, the floor hasn’t collapsed but it might be time to start looking for cracks," TNS vice-president and research director Michael Antecol said in a statement.

The Toronto-based research firm’s Consumer Confidence Index now stands at 95.5 points. That’s down 2.5 points since last month and down 3.7 points since August cash advance in one hour.

The numbers have slipped in all categories, TNS also said. Consumers are less confident about the present and the future and also say they’re less likely to make a big purchase at this time.

Retailers are responding.

Wal-Mart Canada said it expects to cut prices on more than 18,000 items this month, 20 per cent more price cuts than the year earlier period.

"We know this has been a tough year for Canadians, so we have made every effort to drop our prices and help Canadians make their dollars go farther this holiday season," Walmart Canada president and chief executive officer David Cheesewright said in a statement.

"In every department in our stores, from electronics to toys to housewares to food, we offer everyday low prices as well as special holiday pricing."

Meanwhile, Sears Canada says this weekend’s Boxing Day prices will be available on everything from clothing to electronics.

The department store retailer said it’s also keeping selected stores open later to give customers more time to shop.

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