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Ferrellgas Partners LP posted a drop in earnings but an increase in revenue for its fourth quarter and year.

The Overland Park-based propane retailer posted a loss of 58 cents a share in the fourth quarter, up 51 cents a share from the same quarter in 2009.

Losses are common in the propane industry during the summer months because of the seasonal nature of the product.

Revenue was up 13.2 percent for the fourth quarter, going from $312.7 million in 2009 to $353.8 million in the quarter that ended on July 31.

That was driven in part by the increase in the cost of propane, which jumped 19.4 percent from the same quarter a year ago.

Ferrellgas’ net earnings dropped, posting a loss of $40.8 million, compared with a $35.3 million loss in the same quarter a year ago.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was $15 million for the fourth quarter of this year, up 23 percent from the $12 payday loans guaranteed no fax.2 million it posted in last year’s fourth quarter.

Earnings per share for the year were down 40.5 percent in 2010 at 47 cents a share, compared with 79 cents a share in 2009.

Revenue for the year rose 1.4 percent to $2.1 billion.

Net earnings were down for the year, dropping 37.5 percent to $33.3 million, compared with $53.3 million the prior year. That was due in large part to an increase in interest expenses and also a $20.7 million loss on debt repayment premiums.

Still, adjusted EBITDA was $266.5 million, up 6 percent from the previous high of $251.1 million in 2009.

“The gain in adjusted EBITDA for the full year was driven by a 5.5 percent increase in propane gallon sales to 922.5 million from 874.8 million the year before,” CEO Steve Wambold said in a written statement.

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The total net cash flow value of Pittsburgh’s parking garages and metered spaces for the next 50 years could reach an estimated $3.2 billion. But the city’s potential up-front windfall from leasing those assets to a firm who would privately manage and profit from them still wouldn’t resolve Pittsburgh’s looming pension shortfall.

Those are a few of the basic conclusions that the Finance Scholars Group presented to Pittsburgh City Council Friday afternoon in a hearing over the firm’s study of the city’s parking assets and the options it faces in resolving the city’s looming pension obligations. The Finance Scholars Group was commissioned by city council to conduct the study.

“This will be the most important piece of legislation that this council votes on,” said Darlene Harris, president of city council, in announcing FSG’s presentation. “We want to get it right.”

FSG talked through six different options the city has: Shifting parking assets to the pension fund, selling the garages and surface lots owned by the Pittsburgh Parking Authority, raising parking revenue through a private management firm, issuing a bond backed by increased parking revenue, leasing the parking to an outside operator, and allowing the state to take over the pension plan and raise extra revenue through increased parking.

After quickly dismissing the first three options, FSG walked council through a gnarled collection of scenarios.

“I don’t envy your decision,” said Chester Spatt, a principal of FSG and the director of the Center for Financial Markets at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.

FSG’s report comes a few days after Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s administration received bids by investment groups interested in leasing the city’s parking assets for 50 years. The highest bid was $452 million by an investment team that combined J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Connecticut-based LAZ Parking.

Ravenstahl is working to generate at least $200 million to infuse into the city’s pension fund to avoid a state takeover of the fund. The Pittsburgh Parking Authority’s 13 parking garages, 32 metered parking lots and about 8,000 on-street metered spaces generated a number of bids more than $300 million.

To be sure, if the city follows through with leasing off its parking, higher parking rates will follow.

FSG’s study projects that a leaseholder, to generate profit from the arrangement, would increase parking rates in the garages from $3.75 to $7.00 for an hour or less in a Pittsburgh Parking Authority garage, an increase that becomes comparatively more modest the longer the parking term.

“In some ways, it’s like borrowing from the future,” Spatt said.

City controller Michael Lamb questioned whether the city could implement such increases itself without leasing the parking off, treating the added revenue as an asset that would help better leverage funding for its pension obligations.

Spatt agreed while unsure of the legal issues of the city in doing so. He emphasized that he believes the city’s pension underfunding is underestimated based on over-optimistic investment assumptions.

“This has generally been sold as a panacea,” said councilman Doug Shields, district five, of the mayor’s plan to lease city parking assets. “You don’t arrive at a simple answer for a complex problem.”

“This is a frustrating situation,” said Natalia Rudiak, councilwoman who represents the city’s southern communities of district 4. On the broad issue of the city’s historically underfunded pensions, she added: “It’s fundamentally unfair for us to keep kicking the can down the road.”

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Accounting firm Froehling Anderson has new top executives, following the St. Louis Park-based firm’s practise of having a leadership transition every seven years.

Existing partner David Benusa will become Froehling Anderson’s CEO and managing partner; another partner Gary Dosdall will fill the newly created chief operating officer position at the firm, which includes the duties of what was the firm’s chief financial officer position. The change takes place Jan. 1.

Present CEO Doug Galka and chief financial officer Mark Kammer will no longer hold leadership titles at Froehling Anderson, but will remain as partners.

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The University of Louisville Friday released its 2010-11 men’s basketball schedule, which includes 23 dates at the new KFC Yum! Center in downtown Louisville.

The Cardinals’ first action in the new 22,000-seat arena will be an exhibition scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 31, against the University of Northern Kentucky.

U of L will play 12 exhibition and regular-season home games at the KFC Yum! Center before hitting the road for the first time, Wednesday, Dec. 22, against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers payday loan lenders.

The game against Western Kentucky will be the only time, outside Big East Conference play, that U of L will play on the road.

U of L will face the University of Kentucky at the new arena on Friday, Dec. 31. They will open Big East play Wednesday, Jan. 5, at home against Seton Hall.

Click here to view the complete schedule.

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FairPoint Communications has named John Hogshire vice president and controller.

He succeeds Lisa Hood, who has been named senior vice president of financial initiatives.

Hogshire has spent nearly 27 years in finance, mostly at telecommunications companies. He most recently was director of accounting for Aviat Networks Inc., a California-based broadband-technology company (NASDAQ:AVNW).

“John’s extensive finance and telecommunications expertise will be instrumental in helping FairPoint to closely manage financial reporting and meet the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, regulatory and tax compliance,” says Ajay Sabherwal, executive vice president and chief financial officer at FairPoint us fast cash.

Charlotte-based FairPoint (OTCBB:FRCMQ) owns and operates local exchange companies in 18 states offering local and long distance voice, data, Internet, television and broadband services. The company is operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

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The federal government has missed its goal for contracting with small businesses in 2009, awarding slightly less than 22 percent of its procurement dollars to that sector.

The U.S. Congress has directed the government to award 23 percent of its contracts to small businesses.

Federal agencies awarded $96.8 billion in prime contracts to small businesses last year, according to the Small Business Administration. That’s up by more than $3 billion from 2008, when agencies awarded 21.5 percent of their procurement dollars to small companies.

“There was an increase in both dollars and contracting share for every small-business category,” says SBA Administrator Karen Mills. “This represents real progress, but not enough. We must reaffirm our commitment to ensuring the 23 percent goal is met and exceeded.”

More than 7.5 percent of contracts went to minority-owned businesses, exceeding the 5 percent goal. The government fell short of its goals, however, for women-owned businesses, companies in low-income hub zones, and those owned by service-disabled veterans.

More than 30 percent of contracts funded by the economic stimulus bill went to small businesses, the SBA notes.

In other developments, The SBA’s Office of Advocacy finally has a chief counsel.

While Congress was out on its August recess, President Barack Obama appointed Winslow Sargeant to head the office. He nominated Sargeant for the post in May 2009, but concerns about his lack of legal training blocked his confirmation in the Senate.

The Office of Advocacy, an independent agency within the SBA, represents the interests of small businesses in the regulatory process and conducts research on small-business issues guaranteed online personal loans. It is typically headed by an attorney.

Sargeant, by contrast, is a venture capitalist and high-tech entrepreneur. Since 2006, he has been managing director of the technology practice at Venture Investors in Madison, Wis. Before that, he managed the National Science Foundation’s Small Business Innovation Research program in electronics. He also was a co-founder of AAnetcom, a semiconductor company in Allentown, Pa.

Critics said Sargeant would be a good fit for a top post elsewhere in the SBA, but not at the Office of Advocacy. In a July 30 letter, 18 business groups asked the president to name someone else to head the office — “a strong candidate with extensive knowledge of regulatory affairs, and both the independence and courage to weigh in and advocate on small businesses, regardless of the political environment.”

On Aug. 19, however, Obama used his power to make recess appointments to install Sargeant and officials at three other agencies. The president accused the Senate of “playing politics with our highly qualified nominees.”

Tom Sullivan, who headed the SBA’s Office of Advocacy during the George W. Bush administration, supported Sargeant’s nomination. But he said the new chief counsel “will need strong shoulders to carry the weight of responsibility conveyed with representing small businesses in a rule-making system that is stacked against entrepreneurs.”

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The capital city Pennsylvania is broke and will be skipping this month’s multi-million dollar bond payment.

On Sept. 15, Harrisburg, Pa., was scheduled to make a $3.29 million payment on the bonds it issued to build a trash plant. But, the cash-strapped city doesn’t have the dough.

"The city’s budget is in deficit," said Chuck Ardo, spokesman for Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson. "We’re looking for ways to trim the budget just to keep services going."

"Now the chickens have come home to roost," the mayor said in a statement released Wednesday.

In May, Moody’s knocked the rating on its general-obligation bonds three notches to B2 — five steps below investment grade. To put that into perspective: Moody’s rating on Greece’s government debt sits at A3 — still investment grade.

"It’s a warning to holders of bonds issued by financially stressed state and local governments," said John Lonski, chief economist for Moody’s Investors Services. "Credit crisis is still with us."

And in, fact, many on city council have been floating the idea of bankruptcy.

However, Mayor Thompson chastised them for that and for shooting down her proposed increases to the real estate tax and water rate. She said that this "created a bigger hole" in the general fund and pushed the city closer to potential bankruptcy.

"There are some in this community who see bankruptcy as a silver bullet," said Thompson. "But, it’s actually just a can of worms. The pro-bankruptcy cabal has blocked every attempt we’ve made to find a way back from the fiscal abyss."

She said the city "is developing a comprehensive plan to meet its debt obligations in the future."

Ardo said the mayor considers bankruptcy to be an "option of last resort," though it’s not clear how the city will pull itself out of the red.

"Given the city’s financial challenges, it’s difficult to predict what will happen next," he said.

The city of Harrisburg is scouring its financial accounts as part of its drive for fiscal austerity. On Thursday, the mayor announced that the city was auditing a sanitation company for not paying $20,000 worth of waste disposal fees. 

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Bakers Footwear Group said Thursday that its fiscal 2010 second-quarter sales fell just under 1 percent to $43.3 million from $43.7 million in last year’s period.

The company said its same-store sales for the quarter ended July 31 grew 0.2 percent, compared with an increase of 0.7 percent for the second quarter of fiscal 2009.

Same-store sales measure stores open at least one year or more.

For the four-week period ended July 31, net sales grew 5 percent to $11.9 million, compared with $11.3 million in the same period last year.

Same-store sales for the July 2010 period grew 7.8 percent compared to a decrease of 5.5 percent in the comparable period last year.

For the four-week period ended Aug. 21, net sales fell slightly to $11.1 million from $11.2 million in the same period last year.

Same-store sales for the four-week August 2010 period grew 0.9 percent compared to a decrease of 10.3 percent in the comparable period last year.

“Our second quarter sales results included a sequential improvement in our comparable store sales trend as the quarter progressed with comps turning positive in July, driven by increased promotional activity in sandals,” Chairman and CEO Peter Edison said in a statement. “Our comp trend continued positively in August, with a good early response to our fall assortments particularly boots, dress shoes and casual footwear.”

Edison said the company expects to deliver “comparable store sales growth for the fall season fueled by the strength of our trend-right fashion assortments and the introduction of new brands, as well as easier comparisons to the prior year.”

Last Friday, Bakers was delisted from the Nasdaq stock market after failing to meet the minimum level of shareholders’ equity required for continued listing. The company’s stock (OTCBB: BKRS) closed at $1.03 per share on Wednesday.

Also on Aug. 27, Bakers sold 20 percent of the company to Steven Madden Ltd. for $5 million in debt and equity financing. Madden bought more than 1.8 million shares of Bakers’ stock.

Bakers agreed to pay the money back at 11 percent interest and Edison said at the time that the investment has no financial covenants or governance conditions.

Bakers said it plans to use the net proceeds from the Madden investment of $4.6 million after closing costs for working capital purposes.

Bakers Footwear Group Inc. is a national, mall-based, specialty retailer of footwear and accessories for young women. It currently operates 237 stores nationwide.

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This is a weekly roundup of promotions, appointments and employee accomplishments in the Birmingham metro area. For more People on the Move, check out the Birmingham Business Journal’s print edition each week. Send announcements to ccrawford@bizjournals.com.

ACCOUNTING

Ralph Summerford, founder and President of Forensic/ Strategic Solutions, was recognized recently by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners with the 2010 Cressey Award. This award is the ACFE’s highest honor which recognizes a lifetime of achievement in the detection and deterrence of fraud.

Ross Mendheim, CPA and shareholder at Barfield Murphy Shank & Smith accounting firm, recently presented at the ACEC Tri-State Convention in a session entitled “Health Care Reform for the Business Owner.”

INSURANCE

Allstate exclusive agency owner Willie Robinson in Hueytown and owner Nicky Reed have been designated a Premier Service Agency for 2010.

LEGAL

Attorney David Donaldson of Donaldson Guin LLC was quoted in a front-page story in the New York Times about HUD Chief Andrew Cuomo. Donaldson handled a high-profile case involving deceptive mortgage-premium practices.

Jay V. Shah, an attorney with Haskell Slaughter Young & Rediker LLC, was a featured speaker at the American Bar Association annual meeting in San Francisco. Shah was a part of the panel presentation “Anatomy of Business Law: ABC’s of an IPO,” presented by the ABA Young Lawyers Division on Aug. 6. Shah is a member of Haskell Slaughter’s Transactional Practice Group, representing clients in a variety of business and finance matters with a particular focus on securities offerings and periodic reporting. He also practices as part of the firm’s International Law and Immigration practice team and has a working knowledge of Gujarti and Spanish.

NONPROFITS

The Muscular Dystrophy Association has named Jerry Farris Jr. of Pinson the recipient of its 2010 Robert Ross Personal Achievement Award for Alabama. He also is a finalist for the 2011 national award. Farris will accept the Alabama award during the local broadcast of the 2010 MDA Telethon on Sept business card templates. 6 on WVTM, NBC, Channel 13 HD, in Birmingham.

REAL ESTATE

Shelly Terry, a sales associate with RealtySouth Acton Road office, earned the Certified Residential Specialist designation from the Council of Residential Specialists, an affiliate of the National Association of Realtors. She also recently earned the Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource certification from the NAR.

SENIORS

Jody Linton launched Caring Transitions of Birmingham to provide seniors and families transition, including senior moving, downsizing and estate sales. Linton was involved with health care management for years and then worked in hospice.

UNIVERSITIES

Karen Sparks, University of Alabama professor and founder of Urban Business Incubator, met with teens from the Birmingham area recently and encouraged them to graduate from high school and get their diploma in a motivational speech at the Taco Bell “Graduate to Go” Business Camp at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel.

Professor of Chemistry Charles Watkins is the 2010 recipient of the Ellen Gregg Ingalls/UAB National Alumni Society Award for Lifetime Achievement in Teaching. In his 40-year UAB career, Watkins served for 10 years as the associate dean for the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, which became a part of the new UAB College of Arts and Sciences in 2009. He also spent 10 years serving the University Honors Council, the advisory body that interviews and selects students for the University Honors Program.

Assistant professor Ho-Wook Jun from the UAB Department of Biomedical Engineering has received a National Science Foundation Career Award. The $407,000 award benefits Jun’s research into a bioactive hybrid nanomatrix for intervertebral disk regeneration.

Donna Arnett, professor and chair of epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health, has been elected leading scientific officer for the American Heart Association’s Greater Southeast Affiliate.

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