Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Thursday, August 20, 1998
Sandy Brodie's Honda files for reorganization
Sandy Brodie's Honda, a motorcycle and power equipment dealer in Kaneohe, said it has filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, to give it time to work out a plan that will keep it from dissolving.Sandy Brodie, son of former tire dealer Lex Brodie, started the business in 1972 as a motorcycle accessory shop. He said the business has been struggling for several years because of Hawaii's poor economy.
Chapter 11 status, which holds off creditors during reorganization, is the only way to keep the company's 12 employees on the payroll, he said.
Thirty-year mortgages up slightly to 6.92%
WASHINGTON -- The average interest rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages rose slightly this week, to 6.92 percent, according to Freddie Mac, the mortgage company. The average increased from last week's 6.91 percent, which had matched a six-month low of five weeks before.Fifteen-year mortgages averaged 6.61 percent, up from 6.60 percent last week. On one-year adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 5.58 percent, down from 5.60 percent last week and the lowest in six months.
Barnes & Noble plans to take Web unit public
NEW YORK -- Barnes & Noble Inc., the top U.S. book chain, will sell shares of its online unit to the public, becoming the first traditional retailer to separate its Internet business to tap into the voracious appetite for such stocks.Barnes & Noble will sell as much as 20 percent of barnesandnoble.com, the company told analysts. The unit is the No. 2 online bookseller behind Amazon.com Inc. Barnes & Noble shares jumped $2.81 to close today at $40.06 on the New York Stock Exchange.
The retailer is hoping the offering will prompt investors to place a higher value on its stock, as they've done with Amazon. Shares of Amazon are valued at $6.36 billion, more than the combined $4.87 billion for Barnes & Noble and No. 2 bookseller Borders Group Inc. -- even though the online book vendor hasn't made money and its sales are just a 12th of its rivals.
Venezuela leaders deny devaluation imminent
CARACAS -- Venezuela reiterated that it doesn't plan to devalue its currency to help fund a gaping budget deficit, even as its international bonds plunged.Planning Minister Teodoro Petkoff said that tumbling debt prices -- Venezuelan bonds fell as much as 25 percent early today -- reflects a mistaken perception among foreign investors about the government's intentions.
"The fall in bond prices is due to persistent rumors of a devaluation," said Petkoff in a hastily assembled press conference today. "There will be no change in policies. There will be no exchange controls nor a devaluation."
Bond investors are betting the government will be forced to devalue its currency to cover a mounting budget deficit, giving it more bolivars for the dollar-denominated oil it sells. Inflation would immediately surge.
The currency slipped 0.25 against the dollar to 573.25 even as the central bank bought bolivars, helping keep overnight interbank rates hovering near triple digits to defend the currency. In today's trading, the Caracas stock market index sank 364 points, or 9.5 percent, to close at 3,460.64.
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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