SCANA keeps up with neighbors On Tuesday, May 11, SCANA announced it priced a public offering of 7,150,000 shares of common stock at $37.00 per share. At the end of the day on Monday, May 17, SCANA shares were trading at $37.68. SCANA’s latest sale of stock is to help pay for its portion (Santee Cooper picks up the rest) of the $9.8 billion expansion of the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville and other capital improvements. Summer is SCANA’s only nuclear plant. SCANA and its neighbors, adjacent utility monopolies Southern in Atlanta and Duke in Charlotte, are each adding two new nuclear power plants. Southern operates seven nuclear power plants, and Duke also operates seven. All three utilities and their total of six new nuclear power plants are using a regulatory process called Construction Work in Progress (CWIP), which adds nuclear assets to the rate base as the plants are built, reducing the compound effect of interest and easing rate increases. The three power companies paid respectable dividends last year: SCANA, 5.02%; Southern, 5.27%; Duke, 5.72%. Average dividend yield for the S&P 500 corporations: 1.74%. Revenues and income for the first quarter, 2010: SCANA, $1.43 billion and $127 million; Southern, $4.16 billion and $495 million; Duke, $3.59 billion and $445 million.
SCE&G rate increase halved and franchise fees hiked 67% SCE&G, SCANA’s largest subsidiary, and the S.C. Office of Regulatory Staff have entered into an agreement as of May 3 that allows for a return on common equity of 10.7% and for a one–time credit of $25 million to SCE&G’s electric power customers to apply over the next year. The SCE&G rate increase then becomes 4.88% over three years, half the earlier rate hike request. Meanwhile, the City of Columbia is aiming to increase the electric power bill’s franchise fee from 3 percent to 5 percent, a two–thirds increase. Annually, the city can collect an additional $3.6 million as SCE&G passes through the franchise fees from customers to the city. City council says it needs the money as part of its vehicle replacement program.
Raises gained and value ranked Six USC football assistant coaches recently received raises averaging 17.5 percent. Ellis Johnson, assistant head coach for defense is now paid $700,000 for the year, a 100 percent raise. Last year, Johnson was paid $350,000. Lorenzo Ward, defensive coordinator, is paid $275,000; Brad Lawing, defensive line, $210,000; Steve Spurrier Jr., receivers, $200,000; Shane Beamer, recruiting coordinator, $180,000; Shawn Elliott, offensive line, $150,000; G. A. Mangus, quarterbacks, $150,000; Jay Graham, running backs, $142,500; Jeep
Hunter, tight ends, $142,500. According to Forbes
magazine’s 2010 College Football Team Valuations published this past January, the USC Gamecocks football program with its $37 million profits from its $57 million revenues is ranked No. 12 in the country, which reflects its capitalized value at $80 million. Top in the country is the University of Texas Longhorns with revenues of $82 million and profits of $59 million, coming to a value of $119 million.
Praises lost and value paid USC has signed a settlement worth $890,000 with Kale Roscoe and Timothy Heath, the development team engaged to build private facilities in the Innovista. They were asked to leave last August, but the determination of what they were owed is only now final.
Barron’s best In a recent issue of Barron’s weekly financial newspaper, the No. 1 financial advisor from each state (and the District of Columbia) was identified. For example, Roger Coleman of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in NYC is ranked the No. 1 financial advisor in New York State with his total assets among his clients at $20 billion. In South Carolina, the No. 1 financial advisor identified by Barron’s is Columbia’s Daniel Roach, also with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, whose clients trust him with total assets of $800 million. Roach’s typical account is worth $5 million, and a client’s typical net worth comes to $10 million, according to
Ba rron’s.
S.C. budget faces huge shortfall According to FITSNews blog, the state budget is facing a $213 million shortfall from when the federal government failed to extend for another six months a Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) provision, part of last year’s stimulus. The FMAP extension across the country is worth about $25 billion and for S.C., $213 million. Both the state’s House and Senate had already appropriated the money as part of the annual budget. As of May 6, the FITSNews prediction was that the six month’s extension would not be approved by Congress.
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