GE adds to energy unit
General Electric Co. is offering $1.3 billion to acquire British-based Wellstream Holdings PLC, a maker of flexible underwater pipelines whose board is recommending the deal to shareholders.
Earlier this year, Fairfield-based GE spent $3 billion to acquire Dresser Inc., a maker of energy infrastructure equipment that at one time owned Wellstream before spinning it off as an independent company.
Wellstream sales totaled $602 million in 2009, and it produced an operating profit of $79 million. The company was founded in 1983 in Panama City, Fla., and today has manufacturing facilities in the United Kingdom and Brazil.
Praxair settles with Spain
Praxair Inc. is paying $500 million to settle tax disputes with the government of Spain.
Separately, the Danbury-based industrial gases company is selling the U.S. home-care portion of its North American health-care business.
Dannehy joins AG”™s office
Attorney General-elect George Jepsen has named Nora Dannehy as the state”™s deputy attorney general. Dannehy is an experienced white-collar crime prosecutor who served two years as acting U.S. attorney for the state of Connecticut.
As second-in command, Dannehy will serve as Jepsen”™s chief administrator. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard Law School and lives in Glastonbury.
Wine flows at Fairway
The Fairway Wines and Spirits in Stamford is now open.
The Manhattan-based grocer, which opened its doors last month, has opened its adjoining 6,500-square-foot wine and liquor store on Canal Street. The Stamford store is the second of the seven Fairway locations to have a wine and liquor purveyor; the first was in Pelham Manor, N.Y., which opened in April.
The shop features about 2,500 wines, more than 600 varieties of spirits, and more than 500 different beers.
North Castle Partners selling Atkins
Three years after swallowing up Atkins Nutritional Holdings Inc., Greenwich-based North Castle Partners is selling the weight-loss products company to Roark Capital Group for an undisclosed amount.
Denver-based Atkins sells nutrition bars, shakes and other snacks in about 30,000 retail outlets. Roark Capital is based in Atlanta. In November the company acquired Auntie Anne”™s, the ubiquitous mall pretzel maker.
Crane grabs Money Controls
Stamford-based Crane Co. completed its purchase of Money Controls Ltd. from CA-MC Acquisition Co. Located near Manchester, England, and employing 350 people globally, Money Controls makes coin and bill payment systems for the gaming, amusement, transportation, and retail markets.
Crane did not immediately specify what it paid for Money Controls, whose sales totaled an estimated $62 million in 2010.
It”™s Santa”™s 70th
Santa Energy Corp. in Bridgeport is celebrating its 70th year in business.
Santa Energy was started by Stephen and Madelyn Santa in the winter of 1940 in Bridgeport. The couple bought the kerosene route of Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, which would later become Mobil Oil, when the oil giant decided to leave the business. The Santas eventually extended their reach to other fuel types.
In 1962, the company designed and built the state”™s first unattended, card-operated fuel terminal in Monroe and launched a new wholesale fuel operation, Inland Fuel Terminals. In 1999 Santa opened the first unattended gasoline and diesel fueling station in Connecticut designed for commercial fleets.
Santa Energy now has 170 employees, operates a 120-unit fleet, and provides residential, commercial and industrial services in multiple fuels. The company is now run by Thomas Santa, president and CEO.
Santa”™s diverse customer base includes churches and fuel dealers in downtown Boston, Fairfield County homeowners, Vermont hospitals and commercial fleets across Connecticut.
Townsquare adds to West Coast holdings
Townsquare Media LLC is acquiring a dozen radio stations in Washington state, where it already has 11 stations.
Greenwich-based Townsquare Media did not disclose how much it is paying Bellevue, Wash.-based New Northwest Broadcasters LLC, which has been operating under receivership.
Petro parent improves attrition rate
Customer attrition slowed for Star Gas Partners, which earned $28.3 million for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, as sales rose slightly to just over $1.2 billion.
Via its Petro subsidiary, Star Gas Partners bills itself as the largest distributor of home heating oil in the country with just over 400,000 customers. The company added 75 employees in the past year, giving it a work force of more than 2,700 people.
In fiscal 2010, Star Gas lost nearly 20,000 customers on a net basis for an attrition rate of 5 percent, an improvement on its 7.6 percent attrition rate in fiscal 2009.
Silgan caps Europe deal
Silgan Holdings Inc. is acquiring the food can business of Austria-based Vogel & Noot Holding AG, which has a dozen plants in Europe.
Stamford-based Silgan sells a range of containers to consumer product companies.
Silgan is paying $335 million for Vogel & Noot sales, equal to the company”™s sales for 2010 and 6.5 times Vogel & Noot”™s earnings before accounting for interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
Conn. cracks down on jobless claimants
Connecticut plans to recoup $2.5 million from 800 people suspected of fraudulently receiving unemployment benefits, with the state using a software program to cross-match those receiving benefits against quarterly wages and employer lists of new hires.
The Connecticut Department of Labor said the state will give individuals 60 days to pay back what they owe; after that, the debts will be referred to the U.S. Department of Treasury for potential garnishment of IRS returns. Any money recovered will be put back into the state”™s Unemployment Trust Fund and will benefit employers by reducing the amount of federal borrowing needed to keep the fund solvent.
GE on pace with renewable goals
The GE ”˜ecomagination”™ initiative started by the company”™s Stamford-based Energy Financial Services has reached its multi-year target of building a $6 billion portfolio of renewable energy investments.
The fiscal goal set in 1987 by GE has made renewable energy 30 percent of its overall portfolio to date, up from about 6 percent in 2006. In 2009 and 2010 the business unit invested or committed to invest more than $1.5 billion in wind farms, closed transactions in geothermal and hydroelectric power generation, and made venture capital investments in smart grid and renewable energy companies.
Alex Urquhart, president and CEO of GE Energy Financial Services, said to keep the initiative on track it is calling on Congress to enact long-term, predictable renewable energy policies.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the GE initiatives have helped to avoid more than 23 million tons a year in global greenhouse gas emissions. The investments have spanned 14 countries, 95 wind farms, 40 solar installations, six hydroelectric projects, 12 landfill gas facilities and 15 projects involving other technologies, across a wide spectrum of capital including project equity, debt and venture capital. GE Energy Financial Services has made approximately 75 percent of its renewable energy investments in states.
Alexander Soule and Ryan Doran
