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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: reaper who wrote (155518)	3/12/2002 5:30:09 PM
From: patron_anejo_por_favor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Hmmm, CREE warned as well...guess all isn't copasetic in wireless after all... cbs.marketwatch.com;

To: reaper who wrote (155518)	3/12/2002 5:34:55 PM
From: yard_man	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

had too many flyers lately -- as in ... WRONG way. I want a sure thing. <vbg>

To: reaper who wrote (155518)	3/12/2002 6:46:14 PM
From: patron_anejo_por_favor	Respond to of 436258

Who says you can't find quality bond offerings nowadays?<G> quote.bloomberg.com 03/12 16:27 Web Firm Plans $330 Mln Muni Sale: Rates of Return (Update1) By Darrell Preston Davie, Florida, March 12 (Bloomberg) -- FuelNation Inc., a money-losing Internet company whose stock is trading at a nickel a share, plans to sell $330 million of municipal bonds to build a 45- acre truck stop and headquarters and to pay for acquisitions. The sale would be the first in the municipal junk bond market since a $27.9 million transaction sold in January 2001 for a theme park devoted to trees in Gilroy, California. High-yield municipal bonds ``have been where you go when you can't go anywhere else, especially if you can't go to the corporate bond market,'' said Ken Woods, who manages $500 million in munis at Asset Preservation Advisors in Atlanta. Woods said he was skeptical a transaction the size FuelNation is contemplating can be sold. ``I have no clue who would want to buy this -- you might as well buy a high-grade corporate'' bond instead, he said. The Boca Raton, Florida-based company, a unit of Triad Petroleum LLC, said the municipal market offers lower interest rates than it could find in the equity or corporate market. Davie, Florida, said it may sell the bonds on behalf of FuelNation, and offered tax breaks to lure the headquarters and truck stop to the town, three miles southwest of Fort Lauderdale. ``The money is available for this type of project in the municipal market,'' said Richard Frueh, chief executive officer of GunnAllen Financial Inc. of Tampa, FuelNation's banker. Default Rates The company developed an Internet system to manage gasoline, cigarette and food inventory at gas stations and convenience stores. FuelNation plans to buy some independent gas station operators and use the technology in the new stores. U.S. municipalities sell about $7 billion of so-called economic development bonds every year, some for speculative projects designed to boost local economies. The bonds are sold by the towns and cities and repaid by the companies borrowing the money. Such debt offers investors higher yields than typical municipal bonds, and default at a rate of about 15 percent. That compares with the 10 percent failure rate on corporate junk bonds, and less than 1 percent rate on muni bonds backed by state or local taxes. Aquariums, theme parks and housing developments are among the most common economic development projects, although the list has also extended to racetracks and chicken rendering plants. Interest rates are lower on junk munis because municipal investors are traditionally not ``as diligent as you move down the credit scale'' as they are in the corporate markets, said Chris Dillon, a municipal market strategist at J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. Heartland's Lesson Demand for such bonds waned in October 2000, after Heartland Advisors Inc. slashed the net asset value of a fund it ran specializing in high-yield municipal bonds by 70 percent in a single day. Milwaukee-based Heartland said the bonds in the fund were hard to evaluate and almost impossible to sell. The FuelNation project would be built in a blighted area of Davie, and include the company's headquarters, a 200-room hotel, parking for more than 850 tractor-trailer rigs and a 24-pump fueling dock. ``It's easier to sell a municipal bond,'' said Chris Salmonson, president and chief executive officer of FuelNation. ``When you go out as a muni, it's a whole different ballgame.'' In part, this is because corporate muni issuers are not required to register their bonds with the Securities and Exchange Commission if they sell them through a private placement with a limited number of investors, or if they secure their financings with a letter of credit, according to W. Jackson Williams at Williams & Sanderson in Little Rock. `Halo Effect' Muni bonds also are attractive to speculative developers because they have a ``halo effect,'' said David Halliburton of Halliburton & Associates of Clearwater, Florida. ``The fact that muni bonds have for years been classified as a safe, sound investment has made investors think there is less risk in a muni bond than a corporate bond issued by the same company,'' Halliburton said. FuelNation hopes to sell the debt in May. The company intends to obtain a credit rating for the transaction, and is negotiating with banks for a letter of credit. FuelNation's Salmonson declined to identify the banks involved, and said a pledge to deposit proceeds of the bond issue in the bank providing the letter of credit had helped the negotiations.