| Business owner shares experience with others
ESCONDIDO ---- Arnold Jaffa has spent the past 25 years drawing from his experiences as a business owner to counsel others on how to make their own enterprises successful."My philosophy in life is if someone succeeds, then everyone benefits," he said. That's why the Escondido resident has volunteered as a counselor since 1982 for San Diego's Service Corps of Retired Executives, or SCORE, an organization sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration. .
Sears makes offer for Restoration Hardware
Sears Holdings Corp. is offering to buy out Restoration Hardware Inc., a home furnishings and catalog company with locations in Wauwatosa and Pleasant Prairie, at a price higher than a previously accepted offer from a private equity firm. In a regulatory filing Monday, the operator of Sears and Kmart stores said it is prepared to offer $6.75 per share for Restoration Hardware (NASDAQ: RSTO), a Corte Madera, Calif.-based chain with more than 100 retail and outlet store locations in the United States and Canada. The bid tops an accepted $6.70 per share offer from private equity firm Catterton Partners. However, as of Nov. 23, a special committee of Restoration Hardware's board has rejected the advances from Sears, declining to provide confidential information about Restoration to the Hoffman Estates, Ill., retailer for due diligence, according to a letter included in Monday's U.S.
This business card makes impression
When Alan Brightman hands out his business card, people sometimes do a double take. His name is on there. So is his phone number and title as senior policy director for special communities at Yahoo Inc. in California. But there also are bumps all over it. Or indentations, depending on the side. The card is far from flawed, though. It's embossed with Braille. ''It almost always generates a 30-second to a five-minute conversation about why accessibility matters,'' said Brightman, who is not blind. ''For me, it's designed to increase awareness.'' The number of people using business cards embossed with Braille is rising, fueled both by an increase in the number of blind people in the work force, and by sighted people giving the cards to other sighted people, according to advocates for the blind and companies that help produce them.
Panama Recognizes Taiwan For Helping Develop Aquatic Resources
A Panamanian official has offered his appreciation to Taiwan for helping his country develop aquatic resources and providing technical training and small loans. The Panamanian official made the remarks Wednesday at a ceremony held to celebrate the first anniversary of the Central American country's water resources agency. .
Hot stuff
What do a lawyer, CPA and international banker have in common? Apparently, the financial know-how and business acumen to operate a private-equity firm that wants to acquire and operate small, successful manufacturing companies. This is how Ray Lund, the banker, became president and CEO of Thermex-Thermatron Products Inc., a Louisville company that engineers, manufactures, sells and services industrial radio-frequency and microwave heating equipment. CPA Jack Hans and attorney David Lesser founded the private-equity firm Dyad Partners in the mid-1990s and asked Lund to join as a principal in 2004. All three previously worked for Riggs Bank in the Washington, D.C., area. Hans now lives in Roanoke, Va., Lesser in Bethesda, Md. The firm seeks to buy companies with solid management teams and owners who are retiring, Lund said.
Re-rating pushes up Adhunik Metaliks
Adhunik Metaliks is being re-rated on Dalal Street. According to market sources, the upward revision is linked to increasing value of its mining assets. It owns iron ore mines having estimated reserves of 40 million tonnes (mt) — 25 mt in its own account and 15 mt in its subsidiary Orissa Manganese and Mineral's name — and coalmines having estimated reserves of 42 mt. Moreover, OMM, which Adhunik acquired in September, has proven manganese reserves of 35 mt. Taking the Sesa Goa valuation as benchmark and the current price of iron ore (higher than when Vedanta bought Sesa Goa), more and more brokerages have started adding premium to — and expanded coverage of — the companies having mining assets. At present, iron ore prices are ruling between Rs 6,000 and 6,500 per tonne and manganese ore prices are varying within a range of Rs 7,000 to 7,500 per tonne.
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