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Tesoro to sell 30 gas stations
SAN ANTONIO >> Tesoro Petroleum Corp., a U.S. oil refiner that is selling assets to avoid loan defaults, agreed to sell 30 service stations in four Western states to its joint venture Skyline-Fri 7 TSO LP for about $41 million.
CORRECTION
Tuesday, January 7, 2003» A story on Page C1 Dec. 31 incorrectly stated that Tesoro Petroleum Corp. is selling 30 gas stations to joint venture Skyline-FRI 7 TSO LP, of which it is a partner. In fact, Tesoro does not have ownership interest in the venture.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at corrections@starbulletin.com.The company plans to continue using the stations, located in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho and Utah, under leases.
About half of the proceeds will be used to pay off debt, Tesoro said in a statement. Tesoro last week met a deadline to sell $167 million in assets by yearend under an agreement with lenders to buy more time and ease terms on $1.28 billion in debt.
The company's debt soared to $2.05 billion at the end of September after acquisitions that doubled refining capacity. Tesoro this month sold 70 service stations in Northern California to three buyers for $67 million and the Kaneb Pipe Line Operating Partnership LP for $100 million.
The company is trying to pay off $500 million in debt by the end of 2003.
The Skyline-FRI 7 TSO venture is owned by Tesoro and two closely held partners, San Francisco-based Skyline Pacific Properties and Dallas-based Franchise Realty Investments.
Confidence drops in December
NEW YORK >> Consumer confidence declined in December, largely because of the discouraging employment outlook, a private research group reported today.The New York-based Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index dropped to 80.3 from a revised 84.9 in November, when the index reversed a previous five-month-long downward trend.
Analysts had been expecting a reading of 88.0 in December.
Rising oil prices, the heightened threat of war in Iraq and recent tensions between the United States and North Korea over that country's nuclear weapons program also soured consumers' sentiment, said David Watt, a Toronto-based economist for BMO Nesbitt Burns.
Consumer confidence perked up in November because the stock market was rising, Watt said, but the optimism dissipated as those equity gains evaporated in December.
Last-minute sales fail to save day
NEW YORK >> Last-minute shoppers gave U.S. retailers something to be jolly about last week, but the sales gains were too little and arrived too late to save a glum holiday season, according to two reports today.Burdened by worries about job security and the prospect of a war with Iraq, American consumers seem to have kept their holiday purchases to a minimum this year, to the chagrin of chain stores.
A late shopping rush drove sales 2.1 percent higher in the week ended Dec. 28, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and UBS Warburg said in a joint report. That followed a 0.1 percent gain in the preceding week.
But even as retailers slashed prices in a last-ditch effort to meet monthly sales targets, Instinet Research's Redbook report showed a meager 0.7 percent gain for the month as a whole compared with November.
"It's going to be one of the weakest shopping seasons in 30 years," said Carey Leahey, senior U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank Securities.
