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A Look Back At The Week's Top Stories: Tulsa to gain Boeing 777 work
(Tulsa World (OK) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 3--American Airlines will move maintenance of its Boeing 777 airplanes from its Alliance Airport base in Fort Worth, Texas, to the Tulsa Maintenance & Engineering Center in the fall, company executives say.
The shift of work, the details of which are not complete, is intended to balance the loss of maintenance and repair work in Tulsa on Boeing MD-80s and Airbus A300s, two planes being phased out by American.
Company spokesman John Hotard said it is premature to estimate the effect of the aircraft maintenance shift on staffing levels at Alliance, Tulsa and Kansas City, Mo., its three principal maintenance bases.
Alliance employs 1,700 aircraft mechanics and related work groups, Tulsa has 5,800 mechanics, and Kansas City's work force totals 700.
National firm to lease Eastgate
Transwestern, one of the largest commercial real estate and development firms in the nation, has partnered with local commercial real estate broker Tooman Partners LLC to lease out the Eastgate Metroplex.
And Jared Andresen of Transwestern, who is working on the development with Ken Tooman of Tooman Partners, said they're already close to signing several
new agreements for the former Eastland Mall.
Leasing responsibilities include two outparcel sites -- one at the western corner of the property at 21st Street and 129th East Avenue, and the other at the eastern corner at 21st Street and 145th East Avenue, Andresen said.
Current Eastgate tenants include Coca-Cola Enterprises, Kaffe Bona, the University of Phoenix and Workforce Oklahoma. Andresen said the complex is 26 percent occupied.
Total costs of the ongoing renovation, which includes converting the former Dillard's site into a three-story office tower, could reach $45 million.
Pre-Paid earnings rise 14 percent
Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc. saw its net income jump 14 percent during the second quarter, the Ada company reported Monday.
The company's net income grew to $15.1 million, or $1.25 per diluted share, compared with $13.2 million, or 99 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier.
For the first half of the year, net income was $31.0 million, or $2.54 per share, up from $27.9 million, or $2.07 a year, for the same period a year ago.
During the first half of the year, Pre-Paid returned $27.8 million to shareholders through the repurchase of 622,985 shares of common stock at an average per share price of $44.56.
Revenue from membership fees grew 2 percent to $109.5 million.
Costs and expenses totaled $92.8 million, compared with $94.5 million a year earlier.
900 attendants take early leaves
More than 900 unionized flight attendants at American Airlines have chosen to accept an early retirement incentive plan or temporary leaves of absence, eliminating the need for involuntary layoffs, company and union executives said Tuesday.
American spokeswoman Tami McLallen said 306 American flight attendants opted for the early retirement incentive plan. Just under 600 flight attendants volunteered for leaves of absence ranging from three months to a year, McLallen said.
Flight attendants taking leaves of absence do not draw pay or benefits but maintain their seniority positions when they return to their jobs, McLallen said.
The early retirement incentive, or American's "voluntary bridge to retirement," is open to senior active flight attendants who are at least 50 years old and who will have at least 15 years company seniority as of Aug. 31. Among the provisions of the early-retirement incentive are a severance payment of $15,000, medical and flying benefits, union and company officials said.
Metro jobless rate at 4.2 percent
The Tulsa area's unemployment rate jumped in June to 4.2 percent, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.
June's rate rose from 3.5 percent in May but was lower than the same month last year, when the metro area posted a 4.3 percent jobless rate.
Even as the unemployment rate rose, the seven-county area saw minor growth of 200 jobs in June, giving it a nonfarm total of 428,800. The area had 900 more jobs than in June 2007.
S&P lowers BOK outlook
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services announced Wednesday that due to credit and derivative issues, it has lowered its outlook on BOK Financial Corp. from positive to stable.
"The stable outlook reflects deterioration in the company's credit performance like that of similarly rated peers. BOK has seen rapid degradation of one of its largest credit exposures, specifically through an unmargined (though collateralized) mark-to-market loss in its commodity derivative trading book," S&P credit analyst Dan Teclaw said in a written statement.
"However, collateral procedures within BOK's commodity derivatives trading practice do not indicate a general weakness in the company's risk management, and we anticipate this issue will be contained," he said.
BOK didn't specifically verify whether the information outlined in the S&P release was referring to its credit exposure to Tulsa-based SemGroup LP, although a couple of analysts indicated that it was.
According to a recent 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, BOK expects to recognize a total loss of $87 million of the $147 million credit exposure it had with SemGroup.
Recently in BOK's second-quarter earnings report, the Tulsa-based multistate financial services company said it expected a pretax charge, or loss, of $16 million because of its credit exposure to SemGroup.
After SemGroup's bankruptcy filing July 22, however, BOK projected an additional $71 million loss, which it will recognize as a pretax charge in the second quarter.
Area home sales continue to drop
Home sales in the Tulsa area continue to lose steam, with a soft market in June bringing year-to-date transactions to a level 15.6 percent lower than the first half of 2007.
Approximately 1,082 homes were sold in June, down 4.9 percent from May and 21.2 percent below the year before, according to figures from the Greater Tulsa Association of Realtors.
GTAR indicated there were 1,190 pending contracts in June, compared with 1,097 in May and 1,267 in June 2007.
Nationally, June home sales were down 2.6 percent to an annual rate of 4.86 million, the lowest point since the National Association of Realtors began gathering the information in 1999.
Home prices, however, continued to trend in the opposite direction, as June's $135,000 median was 0.7 percent above May and 2.3 percent above June 2007.
Upgrade expenses cut OGE profit
OGE Energy Corp.'s second-quarter net income dropped $5.5 million from the same period last year, according to the company's earnings report released Thursday.
OGE Energy is the parent of Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co., which serves more than 500,000 customers in Oklahoma and Arkansas.
OGE's net income tallied $57.1 million. Revenue after expenses and taxes was down from the $62.6 million reported in the second quarter of 2007.
The second-quarter earnings averaged 62 cents per diluted share, compared with 68 cents for the same time last year.
Last year's half-year total was $79.8 million.
OGE has generated $70.1 million in net income for the first six months of 2008. Last year's half-year total was $79.8 million.
The company, including OG&E, is incurring higher costs connected to system improvements.
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Copyright (c) 2008, Tulsa World, Okla.
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