Xcel names regional CEOs to handle operating units
Xcel Energy has named Patricia Vincent president and chief executive of its Denver-based operating company, Public Service Co. of Colorado.
The newly created position is part of Xcel’s plan to have senior- level management in each of its large operating units in four states, including Northern States Power in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and Southwestern Public Service in Texas.
The state managers will handle duties such as regional planning, resource and financial needs, and state regulations, among other issues.
Vincent and the other newly appointed managers will report to Paul Bonavia, who has been named president of Xcel’s utilities group. Bonavia was president of Xcel’s commercial-enterprises and energy-markets units.
Vincent has been the Denver-based president of customer and field operations for Xcel, with responsibility for the utility’s energy- delivery and retail-services units.
NEW YORK
Shareholder urges Knight Ridder to sell
Knight Ridder Inc.’s largest shareholder, Florida money-management firm Private Capital Management, is urging the newspaper publisher to put itself on the block, citing the poor performance of its stock.
In a letter to Knight Ridder’s board dated Tuesday, PCM chief executive Bruce Sherman said a sale should be pursued aggressively, “in light of limited revenue growth across the newspaper industry and the difficulties the company has faced in realizing the fair value” for its shareholders.
PCM, an investor in Knight Ridder since April 2000, has a nearly 19 percent stake.
Shares of Knight Ridder, the nation’s second-largest newspaper publisher based on circulation, surged on the news, closing up $4.62, or 9 percent, at $58. Volume was 3.9 million, compared with a daily average of 671,600.
DENVER
Vail hotel subsidiary unveils 4 call centers
RockResorts, the hotel subsidiary of Vail Resorts Inc., announced Tuesday it has set up four new international call centers to handle increased direct bookings from international visitors. The call centers are in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Mexico. RockResorts owns 10 properties in seven states, including the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera in Edwards and the Keystone Lodge in Keystone.
DENVER
DU wins grant to teach lodging experts
The School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management at the University of Denver announced Tuesday it has been awarded a $3 million grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.
The grant will be used to create the Barron Hilton Chair of Lodging Management at the school, which is a division of the Daniels College of Business.
DENVER
Work-related deaths up 15 percent in 2004
Work-related deaths in Colorado increased about 15 percent last year, state officials said in a report released Tuesday.
As previously reported in The Denver Post, the 2004 Colorado Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries pegged the number of work-related deaths at 117 in 2004, up from 102 in 2003. The data identifies transportation fatalities, primarily highway accidents, as the major cause.
DENVER
Search site secures funds for acquisition
Local Matters Inc. said Tuesday it has secured equity financing of $20 million from Sandler Capital Management. The financing will be used to close the acquisition of two companies, MyAreaGuides.com Inc. and Online Web Marketing Inc., which owns local search sites.
Michael Marocco, senior managing director of Sandler Capital, joins the Local Matters board of directors. Local Matters chief executive Perry Evans is the founder of popular mapping website MapQuest.
SOMERSET
Arch suspends mining to watch gas readings
Arch Coal Inc. disclosed Tuesday that it suspended operations last week at its West Elk coal mine in Somerset after elevated readings of combustible gases were found in the underground mine. Arch evacuated the mine and began pumping nitrogen, foam and water into the area.
St. Louis-based Arch said in a statement that “a protracted mine outage is not anticipated.”
DENVER
State benefits system wins grant for update
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment on Tuesday said it has received $2 million from the U.S. Department of Labor for the state’s Unemployment Insurance program. Grants totaling $63 million were awarded to five states in the Rocky Mountain region.
The money will be used to automate the states’ benefits systems and detect and prevent fraud.
NEW ORLEANS
Dynegy exec will get new fraud sentence
A federal appeals court ordered a new sentence for Jamie Olis, a former Dynegy Inc. tax executive, because his 24-year prison term for accounting fraud was miscalculated by the trial judge.
Olis, 39, who oversaw tax matters for Dynegy, was convicted on conspiracy, securities and mail-fraud charges in 2003.
Prosecutors said he helped disguise loans to the Houston-based company as energy trades through the use of an off-the-books partnership in 2001.
BROOMFIELD
Acquisition puts dip in rating for Level 3
Moody’s Investor Service on Tuesday downgraded its outlook on Broomfield-based Level 3 Communications from stable to developing, following the Internet hardware company’s recent announcement that it would buy WilTel Communications Group in Tulsa, Okla.
Since WilTel generates free cash flow, the purchase is likely to reduce Level 3’s leverage, Moody’s said. Level 3 in the 1990s built thousands of miles of fiber-optic line along railroad rights-of-way to carry Internet traffic.
ATLANTA
Delta asks court to decide pilot givebacks
Delta Air Lines Inc. will ask a bankruptcy court to impose $325 million in concessions it has been seeking from its pilots as part of its recovery efforts, the pilots union said Tuesday.
Union spokesman John Culp said in a recorded telephone message for pilots that Delta’s decision came after negotiations between the two sides Monday failed to reach an interim out- of-court agreement.
