Fall chill, rising prices will boost heat bills
Xcel Energy said a combination of lower temperatures next month and higher natural-gas prices will raise September heating bills an estimated 37 percent for average residential customers and by 30 percent for typical small-business customers.
Natural-gas commodity prices will rise 7 percent in September, the utility said, but the bigger reason for the hike will be a 50 percent increase in natural-gas use by residential customers.
The average residential gas bill will increase to $32.52 compared with $23.74 in August. Small-business bills will average $145.50 compared with $111.81 in August.
Loan secured for new Central City casino
Century Casinos Inc. said this week it has secured a $35 million letter of credit for a new hotel and casino in Central City.
The Colorado Springs company, which owns Womack’s Casino in Cripple Creek, expects to open the Central City casino next summer.
Anti-sweatshop group takes aim at Disney
The National Labor Committee, an anti-sweatshop advocacy group that once exposed labor abuses in apparel produced for Kathie Lee Gifford’s clothing line, made new charges Thursday against The Walt Disney Company, releasing a videotape alleging that two Chinese factories making books for Disney operate under unsafe conditions.
At a press conference, Charles Kernaghan, director of the NLC, released an 11-minute videotape in which workers – their faces hidden – in the Hung Hing and Nord Race factories say they have been injured by unsafe equipment and show their bandaged fingers and cut hands.
Tweeter spurns offer by Ultimate’s Wattles
Canton, Mass.-based Tweeter Home Entertainment Group Inc. has rebuffed an offer by Ultimate Electronics owner Mark Wattles to help finance the consumer electronics retailer.
Wattles, who raised his stake in Tweeter to 11.4 percent earlier this week, proposed that the company raise additional capital, which he offered to provide. In a statement issued Wednesday evening, the company said its board believed such a move would not be in the best interest of the company or its shareholders.
Trader sees oil prices above $60 for years
Goldman Sachs Group, one of the biggest financial traders in the commodities sector, expects U.S. benchmark oil prices to remain above $60 a barrel for the rest of the decade.
In a report issued Thursday, Goldman Sachs said prices are not high enough to stimulate oil companies to invest more of their swelling cash reserves in new energy infrastructure. The company lifted its oil forecast for next year to $68 a barrel. Prices reached a record $67.10 on Aug. 12.
$107 million raised in sale of gas-line stakes
Williams Cos., the largest U.S. natural-gas pipeline owner, said it raised $107.5 million from the sale to investors of a stake in a partnership that owns gas-gathering pipelines, processing plants and storage sites.
Five million units of Williams Partners LP, a 35 percent stake, were sold for $21.50 each, Tulsa, Okla.-based Williams said in a statement Thursday. The units soared in their first day of trading, rising $4, or 19 percent, to $25.50 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
Potato director eyes return to Northwest
Chris Voigt, executive director of the Colorado Potato Administrative Committee for the past three years, has been named executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission.
Voigt, a native of Newberg, Ore., also will become director of environmental and regulatory affairs, commission chairman Randy Mullen of Pasco said Tuesday.
Cheapo Discs to close store at 6th and Grant
CD and DVD retailer Cheapo Discs is closing its store at East Sixth Avenue and Grant Street in Denver. Owner Ron Lusk said the closing date has not been set.
The company is trying to sublease the space, which Lusk said had become too expensive for the amount of business the store does. The retailer will continue to operate its store on South Colorado Boulevard.
Icahn takes a meeting with Time Warner
Financier Carl Icahn said Thursday he had a “productive” discussion with Richard Parsons, chief executive of Time Warner Inc., concerning Icahn’s ideas for lifting the value of Time Warner’s stock.
Icahn, who is known for taking stakes in companies and then agitating for changes, met with Parsons on Wednesday to discuss the investor’s suggestions for Time Warner, including an immediate repurchase of $20 billion of the company’s shares as well as a spin-off of its cable-television subsidiary.
Tommy Hilfiger to go on the auction block
Casual clothing retailer Tommy Hilfiger Corp., based in Hong Kong but operated from New York, is planning an auction to sell the company that may lure buyers from the fashion industry and private-equity firms, a person familiar with the matter said.
Tommy Hilfiger shares surged 11 percent after the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the company may be up for sale.
