LOCAL BUSINESS
Canton chamber elects leader
Karen Brenneman, managing partner at Hall, Kistler & Co., is the newly elected chair of the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Philip Fracassa, senior vice president of planning and development at the Timken Co., was elected senior vice chairman; John Murphy Jr., attorney at Day Ketterer Ltd., is vice chairman; Brian Belden, manager of marketing and thin brick sales of Belden Brick Co., and William Shivers, president of the Greater Akron/Canton region for Huntington Bank, were reappointed as vice chairmen. D. William Allen, vice president and chief finance officer of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was reappointed treasurer. Rick Haines is the immediate past chairman.
Newly elected board members are Katrina Barton, general manager of Westfield Belden Village; Bruce Blaise, president of Kenan Advantage Group; Keith Fuller, senior director of corporate development at Chesapeake Energy Corp.; and Para Jones, president of Stark State College.
Goodyear adds to debt total
A day after saying it planned to sell $750 million in new debt, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. apparently decided that wasn’t enough. So the Akron tire maker on Thursday upped its offering to $900 million.
The proceeds from the sale of the new, unsecured, eight-year $1,000 senior notes will be to fund Goodyear’s frozen U.S. pension plans. The notes will pay 6.5 percent interest. The offering is expected to close on Feb. 25, the company said. Net proceeds not used for pension funding will go for general corporate purposes, the company said.
Goodyear’s prospectus said it expects to get $886.5 million from the sale proceeds. Underwriters would get $13.5 million. The notes mature March 1, 2021.
30-year mortgage rate rises
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average interest rate on the 30-year loan increased to 3.56 percent from 3.53 percent last week. That’s still near the 3.31 percent reached in November, which was the lowest on record dating to 1971. The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage stayed at 2.77 percent for a third straight week. The record low is 2.63 percent.
KeyCorp to divest subsidiary
KeyCorp plans to sell its investment management subsidiary, Victory Capital Management, to the private equity firm Crestview Partners for $201 million in cash.
The Cleveland-based regional banking company said the deal also includes a seller note in the initial amount of $45 million, which brings the total price to $246 million.
A seller note is a form of debt financing that lets a company pay for an acquisition with installment payments. KeyCorp said the note’s final value will be determined at the end of the year, and it expects an after-tax gain ranging between $145 million to $155 million depending on that. It plans to use proceeds to buy back shares. Buybacks help the value of a company by leaving fewer shares on the market.
Victory Capital Management has about $22 billion in assets under management and serves both institutional and broker clients.
WALL STREET
Dow Jones falls 47 points
U.S. stocks continued a two-day slide Thursday on weak economic data and concern about the Federal Reserve’s resolve to keep juicing the economy. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is headed for its first weekly loss of the year.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 46.92 points, or 0.3 percent, at 13,880.62.
The S&P 500 index dropped 9.53, or 0.6 percent, to 1,502.42.
The Nasdaq composite index lost 32.92, or 1 percent, to 3,131.49.
In economic news, the Conference Board said its index of leading indicators rose 0.2 percent in January to 94.1, the second straight increase after a gain of 0.5 percent in December.
In November, the index was unchanged.
Compiled from staff and wire reports