St. Louis Business Journal articles from March 1998

St. Louis Business Journal archives from March 1998

Helmkamp, Andes reap Union Planters stock. (six Magna Group Inc. insiders to receive Union Planters Corp. stocks)
March 2, 1998... Six Magna Group Inc. insiders are in line for more than $80 million in Union Planters Corp. stock, after Union Planters buys Magna in a $2.3 billion stock deal. John Helmkamp Jr., former chairman of River Bend Bancshares and Magna's largest...

Saying no to Mercantile. (Mercantile Bancorporation loses some customers of acquired Roosevelt Financial Group)
March 2, 1998... Mercantile Bancorporation has lost about 15 percent of the accounts and about 10 percent of the deposits it inherited from Roosevelt Financial Group, since it took over Roosevelt operations in mid-November. The customer attrition, released by...

Wetterau says McDonald's: brothers form joint venture to purchase fast-food supplier. (Mark and Conrad Wetterau)
March 2, 1998... Brothers form joint venture to purchase fast-food supplier Mark and Conrad Wetterau are getting back into the food distribution business. Instead of wholesaling groceries, the former executives of Wetterau Inc. will be selling hamburger...

State Farm returns $19 million to Missouri drivers.
March 2, 1998... A trend toward safer driving habits, better-built vehicles and improved safety features is lowering costs for automobile-insurance companies, and some are steering the savings toward customers. "Last year was an extraordinary year," said Steve...

Jack Nooney sues NationsBank for helping his brother.
March 2, 1998... Jack Nooney has sued NationsBank for $11 million, saying the bank helped his brother Gregory Nooney cheat him in the sale last year of Nooney Inc. to a California real estate company. NationsBank was added on Jan. 20 to a larger suit filed last...

After rocky start, HealthLink grows to 1.2 million members.
March 2, 1998... David Ott remembers getting mostly laughed at on sales calls he made in the early days of HealthLink Inc. The large companies he approached back in 1986, as a vice president at HealthLink, nearly all turned him away. HealthLink, then under the...

SSM returns Kast to old posts with new title. (SSM Health Care-St. Louis; Kevin Kast)
March 2, 1998... To oversee system's St. Charles operations SSM Health Care-St. Louis is restructuring its St. Charles operations, naming Kevin Kast to the newly created position of market executive. The position gives Kast oversight of SSM St. Joseph Health...

Goldman's 'House of Ideas' expands to $17 million with acquisition. (promotional products distributor Goldman Associates)
March 2, 1998... Business Activity: The recent acquisition of Creative Promotional Services in California has propelled Goldman Associates into the top 50 promotional products distributors in the country and increased its revenue by 70 percent. Goldman, which...

Data Research Associates Inc. (proxy report excerpts)(Company Profile)
March 2, 1998... Michael J. Mellinger Chairman, president and chief executive officer Data Research Associates Inc.'s primary business is automation systems integration for libraries and other information providers. The company offers its own proprietary...

Blue Cross: year of challenges. (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri)
March 9, 1998... It's been a bruising first year for John O'Rourke as head of one of the state's largest health insurers. O'Rourke took the top post at RightChoice Managed Care Inc. in February of last year after former chief executive Roy Heimburger was...

$145 million in real estate on the block: Mills Group selling retail, office properties to focus on apartments.
March 9, 1998... The Mills Group is selling about $45 million worth of office and retail properties to focus on its core business: apartment development and management. "We really are first and foremost apartment people," said Bruce Mills, principal of the...

Bakewell Corp. seeks REIT partner to invest in 35-building portfolio.($145 Million in Real Estate on the Block)
March 9, 1998... Bakewell Corp., a family-owned real estate development company, has put the bulk of its holdings on the block. The company wants to partner with a real estate investment trust that would allow its current management to stay in place while...

Unit trusts catch on like 'wildfire.' (unit investment trusts A.G. Edwards and Sons Inc.; Stifel, Nicolaus and Co.)
March 9, 1998... One of Wall Street's hottest investment vehicles, unit investment trusts, is lighting fires at St. Louis-based brokerage firms. A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. wrapped up a $575 million unit investment trust that went to market Feb. 18. It is planning...

Hawaii chain to reopen Union Station 10 cinemas. (Wallace Theater Corp.)
March 9, 1998... Lights, camera and action are returning-to downtown. The Wallace Theater Corp., a Honolulu-based chain with 150 theaters in the Hawaiian Islands, western United States and Pacific Rim, has signed a 10-year lease to operate the Union Station 10...

NationsBank capital markets go forward under Whitley. (NationsBank's Midwest Corporate Finance Group senior VP and regional executive Laura Whitley)
March 9, 1998... When Mallinckrodt Inc. needed a bank credit to pay for its $1.9 billion purchase of medical equipment maker Nellcor Puritan Bennett last summer, chief financial officer Michael Rocca knew no single institution could cover a deal of that size....

22,000 TWA employees getting $15 million in stock. (Trans World Airlines)
March 9, 1998... Union officials say payout is small potatoes; more interested in getting pay hikes in contract talks Trans World Airlines will be passing out over $15 million in stock to its employees this summer. The windfall was promised to unions when...

Thermadyne stock delisting, analyst remains optimistic. (Thermadyne Holdings)
March 9, 1998... Thermadyne Holdings' stock is expected to maintain its value after being delisted from the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, though experts warn that individual shareholders will face significant risks. St. Louis-based Thermadyne, which designs and...

LaserSight moving headquarters to Florida.
March 9, 1998... LaserSight Inc. is moving its corporate headquarters from St. Louis to Orlando, Fla. The move comes less than three years after LaserSight set up headquarters operations here. it originally had been based in Orlando. The company will keep...

PSI's vision: $2 million in sales. (PSI/EYE-KO Inc.)
March 9, 1998... Aging baby boomers fuel growth in market for cataract instruments Business Activity: The owners of PSI/EYE-KO don't mind seeing baby boomers age. PSI/EYE-KO makes surgical instruments used by ophthalmologists primarily for cataract surgery....

Jacobsen's bonus jumps 56 percent. (Mercantile Bancorporation chairman, president and CEO Thomas Jacobsen)
March 16, 1998... To reward its top officer for the bank's dramatic growth, Mercantile Bancorporation Inc. gave Thomas Jacobsen a 34 percent pay hike last year. Jacobsen received $728,000 in base pay in 1997, up 15 percent from the $633,000 salary he received...

Shapiro sells stock: unloads 152,000 shares worth $7.6 million. (Monsanto chairman and CEO Robert Shapiro)
March 16, 1998... Unloads 152,000 shares worth $7.6 million Monsanto Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Shapiro and a group of senior executives at the biotech company last month sold off shares to help cover taxes on previous stock options. In a series...

TWA could fill skies vacated by Pan American Airways. (Trans World Airlines; Pan American World Airways)
March 16, 1998... Trans World Airlines is looking at expanding into the routes left vacant by recently failed Pan American World Airways, according to TWA pilots. In what may.be a fresh sign that TWA is gearing up to grow again, pilots said talk of expanding...

Mercantile, Edward Jones team on small-business loans. (Mercantile Bank)
March 16, 1998... The thin line separating banks and brokerages has been blurred a bit more with an alliance between Mercantile Bank and Edward Jones. Mercantile Bank is offering small-business loans to customers of Edward Jones' 750 brokerage offices in...

Allied Industrial purchases Midco; fifth buy since '92. (Allied Industrial Group; Midco Products Co.)
March 16, 1998... Allied Industrial Group has added another arrow to its quiver with the acquisition of Midco Products Co. Midco, a Chesterfield Valley-based maker and packager of industrial chemicals, is Allied's fifth acquisition since its founding in 1992....

HealthSouth brings one-stop therapy to area. (St. Louis, Missouri)
March 16, 1998... Integrated Service Plaza to open in Hazelwood this fall HealthSouth Corp. is bringing its "integrated service plaza" concept to St. Louis. The company will open a 40,000-square-foot facility in Hazelwood in early October that combines all of...

HealthLink seeks top doc after Walker steps down. (J.L. Walker, medical director)
March 16, 1998... HealthLink Inc. is in the market for a new medical director. Dr. J. L. Walker, who left his practice as an obstetrician/gynecologist four years ago to take HealthLink's top medical director post, retired March 6. The managed care plan...

Maverick Tube Corp. (Proxy report excerpts)(Company Profile)
March 16, 1998... Gregg M. Eisenberg Chairman, president and chief executive officer The Maverick Tube Corp. manufactures welded steel tubular products primarily for the completion of new oil and natural gas wells. The company also produces line pipe for...

Business loans jump 22%. (St. Louis, Missouri)
March 23, 1998... Mergers, economy drive increase One year after NationsBank took over operations at Boatmen's Bancshares, banks throughout the St. Louis area are seeing significant upticks in their commercial and industrial loan portfolios. Commercial loans...

A Backrub Co. muscles in on malls.(Company Profile)
March 23, 1998... Retail massages backbone of booming business Back care is becoming big business. A Backrub Co., which provides massage therapy and retail back care products, already has two stores in the St. Louis area and is negotiating for space for a...

Venture gets extension on leases until Aug. 21. (Venture Stores)
March 23, 1998... Bankrupt Venture Stores won't say if it is shopping for a merger partner, though it cited the possibility in filings with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, according to an industry newsletter. Venture told the court earlier this month it needs more...

Technology Applications enters the slow lane. (Technology Applications Inc.)
March 23, 1998... Technology Applications Inc., once the fastest-growing company in St. Louis, is shifting into a lower gear. The Internet service software company, with 1996 sales of $11.7 million, sold its Enterprise Consulting Group last month. The buyer is a...

Falcon refocuses, sinks its claws into Europe. (Falcon Products Inc.)
March 23, 1998... Despite losing around $4 million in sales last year when McDonald's Restaurants cut its orders, furniture maker Falcon Products says it's beefing up the company with a stock buyback and acquisition of another furniture maker. Falcon, which had...

Disney, Warner Brothers may join new store lineup. (West County Center, St. Louis, Missouri)
March 23, 1998... Most stores will be booted from West County Center for a year or more while the mall is redeveloped, but its owner is confident they will be eager to return, when it will feature a new Nordstrom store, the city's second Lord & Taylor and a mix of...

Intranets keep employees up-to-date on benefits info.
March 23, 1998... Long buried with the employee handbook after orientation, information about employee benefits has been revived by the increasing use of corporate intranets. Web pages with benefits information are often the most popular within corporate...

AmeriNet signs 3-year deal to buy $30 million in goods.
March 23, 1998... AmeriNet expects to buy more than $30 million in supplies over the next three years for its health-care clients from W.W. Grainger Inc. under an agreement signed this month. Grainger is a Chicago-based distributor of maintenance, repair and...

Agri-Nutrition Group Ltd. (proxy report excerpts)(Company Profile)
March 23, 1998... Bruce G. Baker President and chief executive officer Agri-Nutrition Group produces, acquires and operates businesses in the domestic and international pet, animal health and chemical specialties industries. The company reported a profit of...

Clark tops private firms list. (Clark USA Inc)
March 30, 1998... 13 companies top billion-dollar mark Clark USA TrizecHahn's sale of its interest in Clark USA Inc. put the oil refiner and marketer at the top of the St. Louis Business Journal's list of the largest 100 privately held companies. With 1997...

IBM adds 120 here. (hires new employees)
March 30, 1998... Big Blue force up 47% since 1995 An explosion in the demand for information technology services has IBM rapidly adding staff in St. Louis. Already 120 new workers have joined the company since the first of the year. Big Blue also hired 161...

Hospitals find pediatrics prescription for growth.
March 30, 1998... St. Louis' three largest health systems are engaged in a battle for the youngest patients. SSM Health Care-St. Louis and BJC Health System have expanded their pediatric programs from their bases at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital and...

County making late charge for MasterCard. (St. Louis County; MasterCard Global Technology and Operations)
March 30, 1998... St. Louis County is making an 11th-hour pitch - including the possibility of roughly $9 million in tax increment financing - to convince MasterCard Global Technology and Operations to keep its new headquarters site in St. Louis County rather than...

Offers $60 million in limited partnerships to work force. (Edward Jones brokerage firm)
March 30, 1998... The expanding Edward Jones brokerage is brokering a new deal for some of its employees. The company hopes to raise as much as $60 million by selling limited partnership interests to select members of its work force. The offering is designed to...

Enterprise Rent-A-Car. (automobile rent and lease firm)
March 30, 1998... Enterprise Rent-A-Car, the second-largest private company in St. Louis with $3.7 billion in revenue in 1997, is used to being in the driver's seat. Enterprise has a larger fleet size - 372,000 cars - and more locations -- 3,400 offices - than...

Harbour Group Ltd. (holding company and pumping machinery and machine tool production firm)
March 30, 1998... Harbour Group and its chairman and chief executive officer, Sam Fox, have followed a time-tested formula for success that has propelled the firm up to the 11th-largest privately held company in the St. Louis area. Harbour Group buys...

BJC said to be losing millions on GHP contract. (BJC Health System; Group Health Plan)
March 30, 1998... BJC Health System's one-year-old arrangement with Group Health Plan has been a big money loser, according to several people familiar with the arrangement. Estimates of the loss ranged from several hundred thousand dollars a month to $17...

Pressing business. (Kwik Kopy franchises)
March 30, 1998... Fallons' Kwik Kopy franchises grow to No. 1 in world Business Activity: A former physical education teacher who made a career change 16 years ago, has whipped his company into shape - making it No. 1 in the world. Dennis Fallon owns two Kwik...