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Royal Dutch Shell Plc posted a 70 percent fall in net profit in the second quarter, as oil prices and refining margins tumbled, but foreign exchange gains helped the oil major beat forecasts.

The world’s second-largest non government-controlled oil company by market value said on Thursday second-quarter current cost of supply (CCS) net income, which strips out unrealized gains or losses related to changes in the value of fuel inventories, was $2.34 billion.

Excluding one-off items, the result was $3.15 billion, compared with an average forecast of $2.55 billion in a Reuters poll of eight analysts.

“Blow-out numbers considering the environment. This is a big positive,” said Jason Kenney, oil analyst at ING.

Chief Executive Peter Voser, who took office earlier this month, gave a somber outlook for energy demand and prices, and promised to adapt to the tough environment by slashing costs.

“We are not banking on a quick recovery,” Voser said in a statement business

Richmond Heights-based Panera Bread Co. reported a 28 percent increase in second-quarter net income compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
The company recorded net income of $20 million, or 65 cents a share, compared with $16 million, or 52 cents a share, a year ago. Quarterly income was impacted by a 2 cent per share charge for new china and a 2 cent per share charge for reserves associated with a sales tax audit cheap payday loan.

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The federal government does not plan to intervene in Nortel Network’s sale of its key wireless unit to Sweden-based Ericsson until the deal has been reviewed by U.S. and Canadian courts next week, a spokesperson for Industry Minister Tony Clement says.

"It would be inappropriate to speculate on this issue while it is still being reviewed by the courts," Laryssa Waler told the Star by email yesterday. "Because it’s before the courts, I can’t comment further."

But New Democrat MP Paul Dewar, whose Ottawa Centre riding is home to many Nortel employees, called this attitude irresponsible and said the Conservatives are "sitting on the sidelines."

"This do-nothing approach by the Conservatives when it comes to jobs needs to be put to an end," he said by telephone yesterday. "They’re waiting for what the courts say, but they should have been at the table (during bankruptcy proceedings). It’s astonishing they didn’t take the option of having representation at the table."

A U.S. bankruptcy court judge is to decide Tuesday whether to approve the $1.13 billion (U payday loans no credit check.S.) winning auction bid, while an Ontario court judge is expected to rule Thursday.

Marc Garneau, Liberal MP and Industry, Science and Technology critic, said there does not appear to be grounds for Ottawa to step in at this point.

"If we want to play in the big leagues, we have to play by international rules … . (And) it appears everything did go according to the rules established," he said.

Garneau said everything in Nortel’s bankruptcy protection proceedings seemed to follow regulations despite Research in Motion Ltd.’s claim it had been blocked from bidding in the auction.

The government would review the deal if national security were at stake, Garneau said, but he has yet to see any evidence the sale involves sensitive intellectual property being handed over to Ericsson.

But Dewar said a review should be based on the overall effect on the country – not just national security.

With files from Chris Sorensen

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St. Louis — A week from tomorrow, hundreds of mortgage counselors will come to the Chaifetz Arena in midtown for the region’s biggest-ever foreclosure counseling fair.

It’s a four-day event, held by the Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, designed to help troubled borrowers re-work their mortgages and stay out of foreclosure. And it will help thousands of people, said NACA Chief Executive Bruce Marks.

"We offer unprecedented solutions for homeowners caught up in the current mortgage and economic crisis," he said.

A Boston-based housing advocacy group with 38 offices nationwide, NACA has been an aggressive, sometimes contro versial, voice for borrowers in the current mortgage crisis.

It has also negotiated deals with 12 major banks — including Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Fannie Mae — letting it modify mortgages to whatever level a borrower can afford, Marks said life insurance companies. He said those deals, coupled with technology and busloads of trained counselors, would enable NACA to do in a few hours what often takes mortgage counselors weeks of phone calls and paperwork.

St. Louis is the third stop on a ten-city tour NACA is running this summer. Last weekend, about 20,000 borrowers came to a basketball arena in Cleveland seeking help. By Monday night, Marks said, 5,000 had new mortgages, with interest rates, and sometimes principal, permanently reduced.

The event runs from July 31 through Aug. 3

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The home building business in St. Louis is still searching for a bottom. But it seems to be getting closer to finding one.

Permits for new single-family homes in June in seven local counties were down just 11 percent from the same month last year, according to new data from the Home Builders Association of St. Louis and Eastern Missouri.

Yes, "just" 11 percent. It was the shallowest year-over-year decline since October 2007, and the third straight month of relatively mild drops.

And it echoed national figures released last week that showed June was the best month for both permits and housing starts since last year — the latest signs that supply and demand are starting to fall back into place in the housing market fast cash.

But home building has fallen a long way.

Through the first six months of the year, permits were issued on 1,357 single-family homes in the seven Missouri counties the local Home Builders Association tracks. That’s down from 4,938 during the same period in 2005, a 73 percent drop.

At that point, there’s almost nowhere to go but up.

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The possible collapse of a key lender is sending panic through the retail industry, threatening to hang up deliveries of back-to-school clothing and other merchandise and throw holiday ordering into disarray.

A bankruptcy filing by CIT Group would hurl more trouble at an industry already hammered by the worst spending slump in decades.

The ripple effect could be as simple as a zipper maker that can’t rely on CIT to advance payment for orders. That would then hurt trucking companies that would ship the zippers and overseas factories that need the zippers to make dresses. The result could be mounds of zipperless dresses at factories, piles of goods sitting on docks — and products not making it to store shelves.

"CIT is like an octopus with its tentacles that reach out to so many industries and subindustries," said Jeffrey Knopman, a principal at Profit Solutions Group, which helps suppliers recover chargeback money from merchants.

A primary business of CIT is short-term financing, mostly to small- to medium-sized businesses that can’t afford to wait the 60 to 90 days it takes to get paid for shipments to retailers.

This business, known as "factoring," also guarantees that suppliers get paid by the merchants. Without that guarantee, suppliers would have to ship goods at their own risk.

As the prospect of a CIT bankruptcy filing loomed, industry trade groups increased their pitch to lawmakers to prevent the collapse of CIT, which they say would imperil their small-business members and derail the already fragile economy.

"This is a potential crisis for Main Street," said Kevin Burke, president and chief executive of the American Apparel and Footwear Association. "The industry is already battling less inventory and battling a recession. If you can’t get the product, how do you get consumers into the store?"

Bud Konheim, president of designer dress firm Nicole Miller, said any disruption in manufacturing caused by a lack of financing could shut down the pipeline for new goods. His company depends on CIT to finance its fabrics.

"Everybody is frantically thinking about what could happen," said Konheim.

"CIT reaches everybody in the business, from the fabric guy to the zipper guy. If we can’t get the zippers, we can’t make the item. One little thing can stop the whole process."

New York-based CIT serves as factor to about 2,000 vendors that supply merchandise to 300,000 stores, according to Craig Shearman, spokesman at the National Retail Federation.

Analysts say 60 percent of the apparel industry depends on CIT for financing, so other lenders taking up all the slack would pose a big financial strain cheap car insurance.

Any disruption in financing couldn’t happen at a worse time for retailers. Stores have slashed inventory to respond to lower demand, and this holiday, analysts expect inventories to be down as much as 20 to 30 percent.

Shearman said that if suppliers aren’t able to finance their orders, consumers will see even fewer choices in the stores.

Furthermore, he noted that if vendors can’t get their financing, some retailers may have to pre-pay for orders, which could put more financial pressure on them.

Federal official negotiating with CIT knew a collapse would affect the economy, a Treasury spokeswoman said Thursday. But because the company had scaled back lending in previous months, she said, the economic hit would not be as bad as some earlier predictions suggested.

Retail industry insiders argue that with other lenders already under financial strain, many CIT clients may lose their financing options. That could lead to another flurry of bankruptcies.

Harold Reichwald, an attorney in Los Angeles with the firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, said CIT has been refusing requests from manufacturers to withdraw credit balances — the equivalent of bank deposits, except that they are not federally insured.

Already many of CIT’s clients were scrambling to find other financing. But Andrew Jassin, co-founder of apparel consultant Jassin-O’Rourke Group LLC, noted that doing that takes time even for the financially healthy.

Melissa Savarino, owner of a Houston-based children’s wear maker that has CIT as a factor, said she is trying to find other financing from places like Wells Fargo, but it’s been difficult.

She noted that she panicked after not getting $11,000 from CIT on Wednesday, though the funding was restored the next day. Next week, she starts buying fabric for the holiday season but may have to be more conservative with her orders.

"If CIT stops funding our business, and there is no one else to replace it, then I can’t go on," she said.

Harry Kazazian, CEO of privately held Exxel Outdoors Inc., the top U.S. maker of sleeping bags, said that he withdrew as much of the company’s money as he could from CIT on Monday.

Kazazian is worried that the absence of federal help will have big consequences.

"How could they leave these sectors twisting in the wind?"

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ST. LOUIS — The public’s embrace of the Citygarden sculpture park is helping push more work on the Gateway Mall, the 16-block strip between the Old Courthouse and Union Station.

Citygarden has been open for a little more than two weeks and remains a hit with visitors drawn to the nearly three-acre park of sculptures, tree-lined paths and fountains.

Tricia Roland-Hamilton, director of the Gateway Mall Project, said Citygarden was prompting skeptics to re-evaluate their opinion of the Gateway Mall as an endeavor whose time would never come.

"There’s so much excitement around Citygarden," Roland-Hamilton said. "It has given us some momentum."
For the moment, mall developers are thinking small. They plan to build by late summer a beach volleyball court and Frisbee golf area across Market Street from the downtown post office.

Also scheduled for this year is $200,000 in new lighting at Aloe Plaza, where the bronze nudes of the Milles Fountain reside across Market from Union Station.

DOG RUN, PLAYGROUNDS

The mall’s master plan, primarily by Urban Strategies Inc. of Toronto, calls for a dog run, playgrounds and a small sports field. Nelson Byrd Woltz landscape architects of Charlottesville, Va., designed Citygarden.

Bruce Lindsey, dean of architecture at Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design, said Citygarden’s Market Street side was a model of accessibility for the entire mall. Newly planted mature trees are impressive, and the spray fountain is "fantastic," he said. But the limestone wall near Citygarden’s Chestnut Street side is a barrier, he said.

"Visual accessibility into the park is extremely important," Lindsey said. "It’s what makes a city a city."

He added that Citygarden was too crowded with sculptures.

"I would just take all the art that is here and string it all the way to the Arch," he said.

Lindsey praised Citygarden as a civic asset and said street-level activity should be encouraged all along the mall.

The Gateway Foundation, formed in St. Louis in 1986 by Aaron and Teresa Fischer, spent $25 million to $30 million for the design and construction of Citygarden, plus an undisclosed sum for the sculptures. The foundation will pay Citygarden’s continuing costs except water and electricity but will not develop any more spaces along the mall, said Paul Wagman, the foundation’s spokesman.

EIGHT-YEAR PROJECT

Completing the mall may take eight years and cost $116 million, Roland-Hamilton said. Aldermen have authorized a 24-member advisory board to administer the master plan. Roland-Hamilton said a conservancy group similar to Forest Park Forever would be established soon to raise money for further development.

For now, development efforts will be focused on the mall area west of Tucker Boulevard. Roland-Hamilton said her group wanted to beautify the area to better stimulate work on the numerous projects planned or under way along the mall online payday loans. They include restoration of Kiel Opera House, redevelopment of the former municipal courts building, renovation of the Central Library and conversion of the former Missouri Pacific Railroad headquarters into offices and apartments.

David Ohlemeyer, a principal at the Lawrence Group, said the mall’s presence was a factor in his company’s decision to convert the 1920s railroad headquarters. Interior demolition is done, but the project, called Park Pacific, at 1226 Olive Street, is stalled while the company awaits approval of a HUD-backed loan to resume work.

Across the mall from Park Pacific, work is under way on P.D. George Downtown, formerly the Ford Apartments. The first of the building’s 36 apartments should be ready in December, said Peter George, whose Blue Shutters Development is doing the project.

PERMANENT PAVILION

"Things are looking very positive, compared to December ‘08, when there was no mention of any of this going on," George said. "Anything that brings more people downtown bodes well for landlords."

A large permanent pavilion at Tucker and Pine Street is to be that part of the mall’s main feature. Roland-Hamilton said the public’s new interest in the mall was boosting fundraising for the pavilion, which could be open within a year to accommodate events that already draw a million visitors annually.

Another permanent feature will be a tree-lined sidewalk and bikeway to run along the entire mall’s southern edge. The portion within Citygarden is completed. Roland-Hamilton said she hoped to get $17 million in federal stimulus money to build the rest of the feature.

The far western end of the mall is within developer Paul McKee’s proposed NorthSide project of offices, businesses and homes. Roland-Hamilton said the mall plan would remain vague there with the anticipation that McKee would begin work on his plan, which calls for a 40-story office tower as a bookend of sorts for the Gateway Arch more than a mile to the east.

As Citygarden provides a glimpse into the mall’s potential, Kiener Plaza demonstrates its current shortcomings. Lindsey, the architecture dean, said Kiener’s sunken amphitheater disconnected the plaza from the surrounding streets. Mall developers plan to build a street-level performance area there, but the money, as much as $35 million, is not in sight.

On a pleasant summer afternoon last week, dozens of children climbed on Citygarden’s sculptures and splashed in its fountains as adults strolled among the trees. Dee Pollaci, 67, and her husband, John, 73, of Pasadena Hills, sat on a low wall to watch their granddaughter, Claire, 4, play in the spray fountain nearby.

"We’ve been here for 45 minutes and we aren’t bored yet," she said.

At the same time a block away, Kiener Plaza had a total of 22 visitors.

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Belgian financial investor RHJ International has offered 275 million euros ($387.6 million) for a 50.1 percent stake in General Motors’ Opel business, according to RHJ’s takeover offer for the German carmaker obtained by Reuters.

The offer, which envisions production cutbacks and pay cuts for staff, sees Opel posting a positive cash flow before funding of 1 faxless payday loans.0 billion euro by 2011.

Apart from RHJ, Canadian auto parts maker Magna is in talks about taking a stake in Opel, as is Chinese carmaker Beijing Automotive (BAIC).

(Reporting by Gernot Heller, Writing by Nicola Leske)

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California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers failed on Wednesday night to agree to balance the state’s budget by closing a $26.3 billion deficit, but officials said talks would continue.

The budget talks, which have lasted weeks, have stalled over a part of the governor’s plan to suspend a law on school funding, Karen Bass, the speaker of the state assembly, and California Senate President Darrell Steinberg told reporters.

The legislature’s two top Democrats said budget talks would resume on Thursday.

Schwarzenegger, a Republican, had said earlier on Wednesday he was hopeful a deal to resolve the lengthy budget crisis was near and might be reached by the end of the day.

“There’s no nastiness in the discussions, no blowups,” he said at a press conference. “There’s none of that, so I think we have a good shot of getting the budget done today.”

The state government began its fiscal year on July 1 facing a historic budget gap and a severe cash crisis.

California, which would be the world’s eighth largest economy if it were an independent nation, has issued IOUs to vendors as well as taxpayers owed refunds to save cash for servicing of state bonds and other priorities payments.

Among sticking points in negotiations are Schwarzenegger’s demands for a budget deal including changes to rules he says will prevent fraud in welfare programs.

He has also proposed paring education spending by suspending a voter-approved measure that locks in funding levels for public schools healthinsurance. Democrats oppose both ideas and are especially concerned about education spending cuts.

The size of a budget reserve also is being discussed. A cash cushion may help the state sell short-term debt after a budget agreement is reached. “It’s all about being able to go out to the market after this is done,” Steinberg said.

State Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth said the state could use a reserve of up to $2 billion.

California’s IOU effort is also intended to calm Wall Street. Credit rating agencies have grown increasingly anxious about sagging state revenues propelled by the recession and double-digit unemployment.

Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday cut its rating on about $72 billion of the state’s general obligation debt by two notches to Baa1, or three notches above speculative “junk” status. Moody’s said there may be further downgrades because the risk to priority payments — and eventually debt servicing payments to bondholders — is rising without a budget deal.

On July 6, Fitch Ratings cut its credit rating on California to BBB, just two notches above junk level.

Democrats have conceded there will be no tax increases in a budget deal as Schwarzenegger and anti-tax Republicans in the legislature’s minority have demanded and have accepted dramatic spending cuts to fill the state budget gap. “We have made very, very deep cuts,” Bass said.

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Residents of Lake Saint Louis were given a reason Monday to be a little more proud of their homes. The town cracked the top 10 of Money magazine’s list of best places to live in America.
Lake Saint Louis came in ninth in the magazine’s annual listing of the 100 best towns. The list ranks places with a population between 8,500 and 50,000 based on crime statistics, school ratings, home prices and employment levels for its August issue, a spokeswoman for the magazine said.

Other Missouri cities that made the list are Ellisville at 25, Liberty at 29 and Jackson at 59. Glen Carbon, at 91, was the nearest Illinois town on the list.

In a brief description, the magazine called Lake Saint Louis a "friendly town" and named its lakes, parks and golf courses among its better amenities fast cash loans.

The magazine’s list was more heavily weighted than normal on each area’s employment opportunities, as a poll conducted on CNNMoney.com indicated job availability was more important now than in past years, the spokeswoman said. To that point, the magazine noted that recent layoffs at the General Motors assembly plant in nearby Wentzville could make the employment market tougher in the near future.

Last year, St. Peters, O’Fallon, Mo., and St. Charles also made Money’s list, though none ranked higher than 60 and none made this year’s list.

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