Bill Barrett Corp. founder to retire sometime in 2006
Bill Barrett Corp. on Monday announced that its namesake founder will leave the company sometime next year.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company revealed Bill Barrett’s intention to retire as chief executive of the Denver-based natural-gas exploration and production company in 2006.
Barrett, the 76-year-old godfather of Colorado’s energy industry, has been in the field for 47 years.
His Barrett Resources was acquired by Tulsa, Okla.-based Wil liams Cos. for $2.8 billion in 2001. After only a couple of months off, Barrett was back in the game with the launch of Bill Barrett Corp. The company quickly raised $283 million in startup capital from investors that included Warburg Pincus, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Partners.
A nominating and corporate-governance committee has started an executive search to replace Barrett.
DENVER
Last flurry of filings under old Chapter 7
The federal bankruptcy court in Denver accepted 1,255 Chapter 7 filings electronically on Sunday, the last day that filings could be made under old law. The new law on Chapter 7 filings, which went into effect Monday, forces some higher-income people to file Chapter 13, where they must pay off some or all of their debt.
The new law also increases the cost and complexity of filing for Chapter 7 protection. In a rush to file Chapter 7, 3,500 cases were filed on Friday and 1,500 on Saturday, Court Clerk Brad Bolton said. About a dozen court employees worked until midnight Sunday to process filings.
AURORA
Wal-Mart test store set to open Nov. 9
Retailer Wal-Mart on Monday said its environmental test store, located in Aurora, will open to the public Nov. 9. The store is the second to be built by the company to test certain conservation technologies.
The first store opened earlier this year in McKinney, Texas. Features at the Aurora store at 3301 North Tower Road will include solar and wind energy experiments, waterless urinals, waste-oil boilers that burn used motor oil and vegetable oil from frying chicken, a fabric duct system, porous pavement and new storm-water runoff controls.
DENVER
Fired workers suing DIA shuttle company
Four fired employees of the company that operates Denver International Airport’s parking-shuttle service have sued the company, claiming it underpays its workers.
Kemal Woods, Quinton Smith, Assefa Molla and Gizachew Gosaye sued San Francisco-based Ampco System Transportation Inc. in federal court in Denver on Monday. They are seeking class status for the suit to cover Ampco’s 200 employees at DIA.
The plaintiffs claim that Ampco paid its workers 25 to 51 cents less per hour than it reported to the city. Each was fired by Ampco in 2004 or early 2005. Woods was later rehired.
Several of the plaintiffs are among a group of fired Ampco workers who sued the company, a manager and a subcontractor for racial discrimination in their terminations.
WASHINGTON
HUD: Fannie Mae offices mainly lobbied
Mortgage giant Fannie Mae has used its regional partnership offices over the years primarily to lobby Congress instead of to promote affordable housing, the Department of Housing and Urban Development concluded after a yearlong review.
HUD opened a formal inquiry into the political activities of Fannie Mae’s regional offices in July 2004 following a Wall Street Journal story that said the company used its partnership offices to funnel money into key congressional districts.
HUD, which refused to release its report to the public, said in a statement Monday that Fannie’s congressional charter allows it to set up regional offices to promote affordable housing.
BROOMFIELD
Sports arena appoints general manager
The developers of the Broomfield Event Center announced Monday that they have named Rob Johnson general manager of the sports arena, which will be home to a minor-league hockey team and a minor-league basketball team.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the arena is scheduled for today. The facility is expected to open in December 2006. Johnson previously served as president of Pikes Peak International Raceway.
DENVER
Regis announces grant from Hitachi
Regis University said Monday that it was awarded a grant for $250,000 from Hitachi Data Systems to train students on how to use and manage Hitachi storage hardware and software. The Virtual Computing Laboratory grant is the first of its kind in the nation, according to a statement from Regis, which offers a certificate in storage area network technologies.
NEW YORK
10 more indicted in KPMG tax-ruse case
A federal grand jury indicted 10 more people associated with accounting firm KPMG on Monday in a case alleging that the company sold bogus tax shelters that helped rich clients avoid billions of dollars in taxes.
KPMG LLP’s former chief financial officer, Richard Rosenthal, was among the latest group under indictment on charges of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and tax evasion.
BEIJING
China mum on U.S. trade-reform proposal
Two days of U.S.-Chinese trade talks ended Monday with no response by China to an ambitious American proposal to reform its financial sector and open its markets wider to foreign products, while also moving faster on currency reforms.
The two sides issued a joint statement highlighting their agreement to cooperate in reforming and regulating financial markets and on the need for currency stability. As is typical in such documents, the emphasis was on consensus.
PANAMA
Ex-chief’s firm lays claim to AIG stock
A company run by Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, the ousted chief executive of American International Group Inc., laid claim to more than $18 billion in AIG shares, refuting a lawsuit that contended the stock is meant for the insurer’s employees.
Greenberg’s Starr International Co., responding to a suit AIG filed last month, said in court papers Monday that it never agreed to use its 290 million shares as incentive pay for AIG executives. AIG spokesman Chris Winans declined to comment. Starr and AIG are fighting over the stock following Greenberg’s departure in March.
