| United Rentals Announces Extension of Expiration Date for Current Tender Offers and Consent Solicitations
United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE: URI) (the "Company�) announced today that the expiration time and date for the previously announced debt tender offers and consent solicitations (the "Offers�) being made by United Rentals (North America), Inc., the Company�s wholly owned subsidiary ("URNA�), have been extended to 12:00 midnight, New York City time, on November 21, 2007. The Offers, which are being conducted pursuant to URNA�s Offer to Purchase and Consent Solicitation Statement and related Consent and Letter of Transmittal, dated October 16, 2007 (the "Statements�), relate to URNA�s outstanding: 6�1/2% Senior Notes due 2012 (the "6�1/2% Notes�); 7�3/4% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2013 (the "7�3/4% Notes�); and 7% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2014 (the "7% Notes,� and together with the 6�1/2% Notes and the 7�3/4% Notes, the "Notes�).
Chase to expand in Monroe
Chase Home Lending will create 215 new jobs at its Monroe mortgage servicing center by next summer, a company spokesman confirmed this morning.
The new jobs will come following a consolidation that includes closing the company�s 430-employee mortgage service center in Lexington, Ky. The Lexington site will close next summer.
Chase Home Lending, a division of Chase Bank, already employs about 1,200 workers at its Monroe center, which doesn�t include a number of other temporary workers.
The new jobs will be created to service Chase�s home equity loan business. .
Wells Fargo CEO says housing worst since Great Depression
Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf said Thursday that housing is in the worst shape since the economic devastation of the 1930s. "We have not seen a nationwide decline in housing like this since the Great Depression," Stumpf told those attending a Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER) investment conference. He anticipates hard times ahead for home owners in financial straits -- and their bankers. "I don't think we're in the ninth inning of winding this," Stumpf said. "If we are, it's an extra-inning game. "The losses have turned out to be greater than expected because home prices have declined faster and deeper than expected," said Stumpf, who took the reins at the nation's fifth-largest bank earlier in June. California's Central Valley and the Midwest's auto-manufacturing states (namely, Michigan and Ohio) are creating significant mortgage losses for Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and other lenders.
(AFX UK Focus) 2007-11-16 18:59 GMT: Moody's downgrades ratings on Vulcan Materials; outlook negative
SAN FRANCISCO (Thomson Financial) - Moody's Investors Service on Friday downgraded certain ratings on Vulcan Materials Co., including lowering its senior unsecured ratings to A3 from A1, and short-term ratings to Prime-2 from Prime-1. The outlook on the Birmingham, Ala.-based producer of construction aggregates is negative, Moody's said. The agency said the actions were prompted by Vulcan's acquisition of Jacksonville, Fla.-based Florida Rock Industries Inc. in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $4.2 billion. The downgrade reflects the level of debt being incurred to finance the acquisition of Florida Rock and the related contraction in coverage ratios, as well as the integration risk associated with combining Florida Rock into the larger organization, the agency noted. The outlook considers Moody's concerns that moderation in volumes and prices due to softening in economic conditions could reduce operating cash flow and contribute to a slower-than-anticipated debt repayment profile and improvement in metrics, the agency said.
Scots facing a Christmas debt crisis as bankruptcies reach 14,000
THE number of Scots being declared bankrupt has soared by 12 per cent over the past year - and experts warn that the current credit crunch means things will become much worse. New government figures show there were almost 14,000 applications for sequestration - the term for bankruptcy north of the Border - over the last year. .
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