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Williamsville was the busiest location for real estate transactions in July, according to a Business First analysis of newly released data from the Erie County Clerk’s Office.

Fifty-three deals worth $10,000 or more were recorded in Williamsville’s 14221 zip code territory last month, easily the highest number for any zip in Erie County.

The runners-up were 14086 (Lancaster) with 39 deals over the $10,000 threshold and 14226 (Amherst) with 37.

Six other zips had between 30 and 36 transactions each: 14075 (Hamburg), 14150 (Tonawanda), 14224 (West Seneca), 14225 (Cheektowaga), 14072 (Grand Island), and 14127 (Orchard Park).

Click here for a complete database of 1,262 real estate deals filed in July.

And click here for a list of the 1,811 mortgages registered in Erie County last month.

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Most Charlotte-area stocks gained ground Friday, with Lance Inc. rising $1.83 to close at $23.13. The Charlotte snack maker (NASDAQ:LNCE) announced a merger yesterday with Snyder’s of Hanover Inc. and will pay a one-time dividend of $3.75.

The Dow Jones Industrials gained 102 points Friday to close at 10,425.

Among key public companies in the Charlotte area:

•Mooresville-based Lowe’s Cos. Inc. (NYSE:LOW) closed at $21.11, up 28 cents.

•Piedmont Natural Gas Co. Inc. (NYSE:PNY) closed at $26.60, up 35 cents.

•Nucor Corp. (NYSE:NUE) closed at $39.84, up 17 cents.

•SPX Corp. (NYSE:SPW) closed at $58.28, up $1.16.

•Charlotte-based Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) closed at $13 installment payday loans.74, up 8 cents.

•Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC), San Francisco parent of Charlotte-based Wachovia Bank, closed at $27.42, up 3 cents.

•Concord-based Speedway Motorsports Inc. (NYSE:TRK) closed at $13.92, up 32 cents.

•Cato Corp. (NYSE:CATO) closed at $22.86, up 53 cents.

•Goodrich Corp. (NYSE:GR) closed at $70.92, up $1.15.

•Family Dollar Stores Inc. (NYSE:FDO) closed at $39.47, up 76 cents.

Among local stocks of note, only Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE:DUK) declined Friday. It closed at $16.94, down 16 cents.

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FedFirst Financial Corp., Pittsburgh, said its plan to convert from a mutual holding company structure to a stock-holding one has been approved by members of its holding company and its shareholders. Both groups met separately Monday.

FedFirst (Nasdaq:FFCO) also said that it has begun a syndicated community offering to complete the sale of shares. FedFirst hopes to raise $26 million from the stock sale online payday loans. Investment banking firm Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. is assisting with the stock offering.

FedFirst, based in Monessen, about 20 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, operates nine branches in Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties.

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Companies responsible for oil spills could be forced to give up a year’s worth of profits under a bill introduced in the Senate on Thursday.

The Oil Spill Response and Assistance Act was proposed in response to BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The bill would double the current $75 million cap on economic damages to $150 million or expose a company to damages equal to the last four quarters of its profits, whichever is greater. (See correction below.)

"Making a company at fault pay their last four quarters of profits is a much more effective way to ensure that energy companies actually pay for their mistakes without chasing many of them out of business," said Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who introduced the bill with Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

For BP, the new law would result in a $20 billion liability cap, equal to its last four quarters of profits, according to Vitter’s office. Costs to clean up an oil spill are not capped.

The proposal to raise the liability limit is the latest effort in Congress to crack down on companies found to be responsible for oil spills.

"As it stands, the cap on damages is too low, which leaves taxpayers exposed to the risk of paying the steep costs of cleaning up oil spills," said Vitter.

In addition, Vitter and Sessions proposed that oil companies be required to have more containment barriers, or booms, to be used in the event of a spill.

The deepwater oil well owned by BP (BP) is 40 miles off the coast of Louisiana. It is now leaking some 200,000 gallons of crude a day following an explosion April 20 that claimed 11 lives.

The bill would also force all agencies involved with the BP spill to submit "thorough" reports on the incident by Sept. 1.

Earlier, other lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced bills raising the liability cap from $75 million to $10 billion.

Some lawmakers have expressed doubt that Congress can make such changes retroactively. Others, however, point to the Superfund, a major environmental cleanup law passed in the 1980s that forced polluters to reimburse the government for past toxic cleanups.

A bill that would raise the cap to $10 billion, sponsored by Sens. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., was blocked Thursday after the three lawmakers pushed for Senate approval.

But given the public outrage over the spill, and the fact that it’s an election year, there’s a good chance the cap will eventually be raised.

At the same time, some experts warn that an increase in the liability cap could force all oil companies to pay more for insurance to drill offshore.

Correction: An original version of this article mischaracterized the liability cap under the Vitter-Sessions bill. 

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Howard Weaver, former vice president for news at The McClatchy Co., has been acting as an adviser for an online news startup by eBay Inc. founder Pierre Omidyar.

Omidyar and Randy Ching, both former eBay executives, established Peer News Inc. in 2008 with the goal of producing original, in-depth reporting and analysis of local issues in Hawaii. The Honolulu-based news service is set to make its debut early next year.

“We’ve been talking to a lot of people in the industry about journalism and how we might be able to have an impact, listening and learning as much as we can,” Omidyar wrote on his Peer News blog. “One of the people who has been a huge help in particular as we began to envision our local news service is longtime industry insider Howard Weaver …”

Peer News has announced it is searching for an editor, and Weaver has said on his blog that he’ll be part of the team looking at candidates. Weaver is not a candidate himself.

Weaver wrote about the startup last week:

“I’m interested for a lot of reasons, but I’d sum it up this way: the new venture intends to demonstrate that a digitally native, technologically fluent Web organization can profitably serve targeted readers who want sophisticated journalism focused on local civic affairs.”

Weaver, who twice led his hometown paper, the Anchorage Daily News, to Pulitzer Prize gold medals, retired from McClatchy (NYSE: MNI) about a year ago. Reached at his home in Sacramento, Weaver said he’s keeping busy in his “next phase” of life. When he’s not advising and blogging, he’s consulting, sitting on a company board of directors, having fun and “trying to write fiction.”

e.Republic takes on ‘Governing’

E.Republic Inc., a Folsom publishing and research company that focuses on government technology news and events for the government and education markets, just made its first acquisition, expanding beyond information technology to government policy.

E.Republic will buy “Governing” magazine from the Times Publishing Co guaranteed approval payday loans. The deal is expected to close Nov. 30. Details were not disclosed.

E.Republic has about 150 employees and continues to grow, unlike many news organizations that have laid off workers during the recession, said Paul Harney, chief operating officer for e.Republic. He said it’s been a tough year for the company’s print publications, except for “Emergency Management.” But e.Republic’s Web sites are “robust” and sponsorships for the company’s 160 events are strong, Harney said.

“People still want to meet face to face and talk business,” he said.

E.Republic also is home to the 10-year-old Center for Digital Government, which provides market research on technology and trends in local and state government.

Harney said e.Republic will be adding staff from “Governing” but it’s unclear yet how many. “Governing” will remain in its Washington, D.C., offices under the leadership of publisher Fred Kuhn.

Harney said the 80,000-circulation publication has been around for 20 years and has a loyal audience.

Extra! Extra! N&R moving

The Sacramento News & Review is finally making its move out of midtown from a rented space at 1015 20th St. to a once-vacant and dilapidated building at 1124/1132 Del Paso Blvd.

The free alternative weekly newspaper’s 60-member staff is set to move Dec. 10.

The newspaper received about $2 million in grants and loans from the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency to finance the purchase and renovation of the building, and another $2 million from a Small Business Administration loan. The project has been in the works for several years, said Sacramento News & Review president and chief executive officer Jeff vonKaenel.

“We’re very exciting about moving over,” he said.

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The stimulus cash that helped boost small business lending this year just ran out.

The Small Business Administration said Monday that it has run through all of the $375 million Congress allocated to temporarily waive fees and boost guarantees on loans backed by the SBA’s lending programs. Businesses still hoping for a slice of the pie can get in line, cross their fingers and wait.

The SBA backs loans made by banks to qualifying small businesses. If the business defaults, the government pays the bank back for the guaranteed potion of the loan. Typically, the SBA charges banks for this guarantee, but since February the agency has been using a pool of Recovery Act funds to eliminate those fees. The agency also temporarily increased its cap on the portion of a loan it will guarantee, raising it to 90%.

The move was a popular one with banks — though not popular enough to halt the freefall in small business lending. The stimulus incentives were in place for more than half of the SBA’s 2009 fiscal year (which ended Sept. 30), but the number of bank loans backed by the SBA still fell 36% compared to the previous year.

Still, SBA officials say the decline would have been even sharper without the incentives. Last week, the SBA backed more than $1 billion in small business loans. By comparison, the agency fielded $684.5 million in loans in all of January, the month before the stimulus measures kicked in.

The money running out wasn’t a surprise. The SBA knew its funding was getting low, and SBA chief Karen Mills put out a statement two weeks ago cautioning banks that the well would soon run dry. At the time, she forecast that the money would last into December. But last week, the SBA notified banks that Nov. 23 would be the "transition date" on which it would revert to its old fee and guarantee structure low rates payday advance.

The SBA would like to see Congress allocate money to extend the measures at least through February. "We are going to continue to work with Congress to appropriate funds to maintain the reduce fees and increased guarantee," said agency spokeswoman Hayley Matz.

Loan applications surged last week as lenders tried to push through as many as possible before the deadline. To allocate the last dollars left, the SBA on Monday launched a Recovery Loan Queue. Those left hanging — both business owners and the banks processing their loans — can check online to see where their application stands. Any applications that don’t make it through before the cash is exhausted will need to be resubmitted for a non-Recovery Act loan.

The SBA currently has 148 loans in queue, totaling $80.3 million.

Small business lending has plunged since the recession set in. At a Washington forum SBA Administrator Mills and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner convened last week to discuss the problem, bankers emphasized the important of continuing the SBA’s enhanced loan guarantees.

David Rader, the head of SBA lending at Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500), pushed for an extension into 2011. Wells Fargo was the top SBA lender last year.

"We absolutely have increased our lending opportunities with the stimulus programs. The fee waivers for customers, the increased guarantee, is absolutely saving cash for our borrowers — and cash is king," said Rader at the forum. "I think it is imperative for this body to continue the fee waiver and the 90% guarantee stimulus." 

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Credit rating agencies would be more tightly regulated and more exposed to lawsuits under legislation approved on Wednesday by the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.

In another procedural step forward for the Obama administration’s and congressional Democrats’ push for financial reform, the committee voted 49-14 to send the bill to the full House for a vote, likely next month.

Credit rating agencies are widely blamed for failing to spot credit market problems, with securitized debt and other instruments, in the run-up to last year’s financial crisis.

President Barack Obama and Democrats have been working for months on a package of proposals to tighten bank and capital market regulation after the crisis, the worst in decades.

“The rating agencies really screwed up and now people are asking for us to put their heads in the guillotine … But what really needs to happen is to see what can be done to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” said Representative Paul Kanjorski, author of the committee’s bill.

The agencies are viewed by critics as compromised by their prevailing business model, in which issuers of debt pay the agencies for debt ratings. Kanjorski said lawmakers explored ways to change that model, but found it was impractical no fax payday advances.

Instead, the bill imposes regulations on the industry intended to “close many of the weaknesses and the loopholes,” said Kanjorski, a Democrat.

Firms affected by the bill include Moody’s Corp, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings.

The bill would for the first time set up an office in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to oversee the agencies and their ratings and how they are determined.

It would also open the door to more lawsuits by investors against agencies over flawed ratings, a provision opposed by the agencies and likely to attract controversy as the bill works its way to the House floor and the Senate.

The bill also calls for removing some references in federal law that mandate certified agencies’ credit ratings as a way to reduce the pervasiveness of their use.

The committee, chaired by Democratic Representative Barney Frank, was expected to vote later on a bill to beef up the SEC’s budget and legal protection standards for investors.

(Editing by Dan Grebler)

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As the top dogs of private equity gather in Dubai next week for one of the industry’s biggest events, the priority will be raising and retaining money from investors in the Middle East rather than spending it in the region.

Just three investments have been made in the Middle East by private equity firms from outside the region so far this year, according to data from Thomson Reuters, and the aggregate value of those is negligible.

That’s a stark contrast from the previous four years when there was a total $4.8 billion invested.

Still, the amount invested by Middle East sovereign wealth funds in private equity funds remains high, with 69 percent of SWFs in Middle East and North Africa invested in the asset class in October, according to a report from London-based research firm Preqin, up from a 63 percent estimate in April.

On Monday, private equity chiefs from the world’s biggest firms, such as Blackstone Group’s Stephen Schwarzman, Carlyle Group’s CYL.UL David Rubenstein and Providence Equity Partners’ Jonathan Nelson, convene in Dubai for one of the major industry conferences of the year, Super Return Middle East.

They’ll join leaders of funds and banks such as Cairo-based private equity firm Citadel Capital; Saudi-based private equity firm Swicorp and Dubai-based Abraaj Capital.

Looking for new investments in a region hard hit by the global economic downturn after a boom fueled by higher oil prices isn’t a priority. Much more time will likely be spent appealing for new funds and trying to keep existing investors happy.

“The primary focus of most of the U.S. groups in the Middle East has been on the region as a source of capital,” said Josh Lerner, a Harvard Business School professor specializing in private equity easy pay day loans. “It may change, but I don’t think it will change overnight.”

Still, promising high returns on new buyout funds has become a tougher sell for U.S. and European private equity shops, which have taken writedowns on their portfolios and seen some failures of companies they own. Attracting money for new funds may not be as easy as it once was.

“The last year has not been a pretty one for many of the sovereign funds,” said Lerner, who is speaking at the conference. “My guess is that we’ll probably see more focus on more emerging economies as opposed to necessarily investing in the U.S. or Western Europe — driven partially by anticipation of where the most attractive opportunities are likely to be.”

As well as having sovereign wealth funds as investors in their funds, some private equity firms have them as stakeholders. Abu Dhabi bought a $1.35 billion stake in Carlyle Group in September 2007, and Blackstone has China Investment Corp as an investor.

STILL CASH RICH

But despite continued strong interest caution reigns, and the types of investments are changing.

One U.S. investor, who declined to be named, said very few SWFs in the Gulf emirates are making commitments to private equity funds currently.

That investor, however, said the attitude is more positive for making direct private equity investments and co-investing alongside PE funds, which gives them the ability to conduct due diligence on assets. 

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Global oil demand through next year will be weaker than previously forecast while petroleum supplies will be higher, the U.S. government said in a revised outlook on Wednesday.

The latest forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration could put downward pressure on oil prices, which have more than doubled since February on hopes for an economic recovery.

The EIA cut its forecast for world oil demand growth in 2010 by 30,000 barrels per day to daily demand of 84.58 million bpd. But it boosted its forecast of global oil production growth by 150,000 bpd to average output of 84.65 million bpd.

The EIA’s new monthly short-term energy forecast would mean a daily world oil supply surplus of 70,000 barrels.

“This is the definition of an oil glut and should mean we will enter a bear market,” said Phil Flynn, an energy analyst at PFGBest Research in Chicago.

The EIA said while the current outlook assumes the world economy “begins to recover at the end of this year,” projected strong oil demand growth in developing countries will be partially offset by weaker oil use in industrialized nations, contributing to the supply surplus.

Flynn said despite the fact that the market is “swimming in crude,” prices for oil may continue to be supported by outside forces, such as the weak dollar and a global economic stimulus.

For the fourth quarter of 2009, the agency lowered its forecast for OPEC crude oil production to 29.26 million bpd from its prior estimate of 29.31 million bpd free credit score.

“The combination of higher prices and OPEC’s historical tendency for weaker compliance with production targets over time … suggests that OPEC crude oil production could (still) rise over the remainder of the year, unless prices fall sharply from current levels,” the EIA said.

The EIA raised its forecast of OPEC oil output during 2010 to an average 28.89 million bpd from 28.82 million bpd.

EIA’s forecast came as OPEC ministers were meeting in Vienna, where they were expected to not change their oil output targets. “As long as oil prices remain in their current range, EIA expects the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to maintain its existing production targets,” the agency said.

Separately, the EIA lowered its projection for oil output from non-OPEC countries next year to 50.19 million bpd from its previous projection of 50.22 million bpd.

“Over the forecast period, higher output from Brazil, the United States, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Canada offsets falling production in Mexico and the North Sea,” EIA said.

U.S. oil output is forecast to average 5.24 million bpd this year and then rise to 5.30 million bpd in 2010.

“Crude oil production from the new Thunder Horse, Tahiti, Shenzi and Atlantis federal offshore fields accounts for about 14 percent of Lower-48 crude oil production in the fourth quarter of 2010,” the agency said. 

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Barnes-Jewish Hospital is getting a new leader next month at a time when health care facilities are feeling the pinch of the troubled economy and facing the uncertainties of health care reform.

But Richard Liekweg, who will become president of Barnes-Jewish and Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital on Sept. 14, believes BJC HealthCare is on solid footing and doesn’t anticipate major cutbacks.

However, Liekweg, who is leaving his position as chief executive and associate vice chancellor of the University of California, San Diego Medical Center, is concerned that health care reform may result in lower reimbursements, including those for research and medical education.

Barnes-Jewish Hospital is St. Louis’ largest employer with more than 9,300 employees and a 1,832-member medical staff. It is also the largest hospital in Missouri.

Liekweg will report to Steven Lipstein, president and chief executive of BJC HealthCare, the parent company of Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Liekweg spoke to the Post-Dispatch from San Diego.

The economy has forced many U.S. hospitals to reduce capital expenditures and their work force. Do you foresee any major cutbacks at Barnes?

I’ve been very impressed that BJC is on very sound financial footing. There is significant discipline in the way it’s allocated limited resources. I don’t anticipate a cutback. I think it will be steady as we go as we look toward the future.

What’s occurred in other markets and in other hospitals around the country, in good times they expanded more than they have taken in. That’s not what BJC has done, and that is serving them very well.

Are you expecting growth in certain areas?

The success Barnes-Jewish has had in cancer care will continue to be an opportunity for future growth and development.

Likewise there will probably be opportunities to grow our cardiovascular program as well.

What concerns do you have about health care reform?

We want to make sure that whatever reform looks like in the end that there is access to affordable coverage for all citizens of the country. At the same time, coverage needs to reimburse hospitals fairly for the investments we make in providing access and delivery of first-class care.

I’m confident in the end … that we will find a way to a system that does ensure that access at a reasonable cost and fair reimbursement.

Are there other provisions you would like in a reform package?

Within health care reform, there needs to be funding to support our academic mission. As an academic medical center, we incur extra costs to train the health care providers of tomorrow.

In addition, from a research point of view, we also have responsibility to make sure we provide our faculty with an environment that is innovative and supports clinical trials. … It would be unfortunate if those two pools of dollars were reduced to fund whatever health care reform model takes hold.

Why would you want to leave San Diego for the humidity of St. Louis?

We’re not moving because of the weather, I’ll put that right out on the table. We really are moving because of the opportunity to join a world-class organization, that’s Barnes, BJC and the partnership with Washington University and its School of Medicine.

I really do believe Barnes-Jewish Hospital has the ability to become the top academic medical center in the country.

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