Corporate Report

Corporate Report

Health Management Acquires Controlling

Interest in the Orlando Regional St. Cloud Hospital

Naples-based Health Management Associates Inc. acquired an 80% controlling interest in the Orlando Regional St. Cloud Hospital, located in St. Cloud, Fla. Orlando Regional Healthcare has retained a 20% ownership interest. The transaction was effective Feb. 1. This is the first partnership between HMA and a not-for-profit hospital, and offers both organizations the opportunity to combine their respective strengths.

HMA will assume operational responsibility for the hospital, and a local advisory board will be established, composed of representatives from the medical staff, the local community, ORH and HMA. The hospital operates 84 licensed beds and generates approximately $45 million in annual net revenue. Initial expansion projects will focus on the emergency room, surgical suites, and additional patient rooms.

Walter Industries acquires

valve producer CCNE LLC

Tampa-based Walter Industries Inc. announced that its Mueller Water Products subsidiary purchased the operating assets of CCNE LLC for approximately $8.8 million.

Based in Vernon, Conn., CCNE is a privately held producer and distributor of check valves used in water and wastewater treatment and distribution systems. The CCNE operations and assets will be consolidated into Milliken Valve Company's Bethlehem, Penn., facility. Milliken is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mueller.

Stevens Construction

awarded Shamrock building

Shamrock Properties LLC awarded Fort Myers-based Stevens Construction Inc. a contract to build the Fort Myers Shamrock Properties office building. The project will consist of 13,128 square feet of office space, including 7,756 square feet available for lease.

The facility was designed by Tyson and Billy Architects of Cape Coral and will be located in Benchmark Corporate Park in Fort Myers. Chris Campbell, of Stevens Construction, will serve as senior project manager. Groundbreaking is scheduled for March 2006, and the project is scheduled for completion in September 2006.

IPC-The Hospitalist Co.

continues expansion

North Hollywood, Calif.-based IPC-The Hospitalist Co. continued its expansion into Florida with the acquisition of Coastal Hospitalists and South Florida Inpatient Medical Specialists. Combined, Coastal Hospitalists and South Florida Inpatient Medical Specialists consist of approximately 20 providers seeing about 175 patients a day at five area hospitals.

The hospitals they serve, and will continue to serve as part of IPC , are Fawcett Memorial Hospital in Port Charlotte, Southwest Regional Medical Center and Gulf Cost Hospital in Fort Myers and Naples Community Hospital and North Collier Hospital in Collier County.

IPC first entered Florida in 2005 with the development of practices in Jacksonville in January and in Tampa a month later. Over the past year, the company has gone from start-up in Florida to more than 130,000 annualized patient visits in the state.

GeoPharma Inc. teams

with the University of Florida

Largo-based GeoPharma Inc. has licensed technology from The University of Florida Office of Technology Licensing for development of a novel therapeutic for Primary or Idiopathic Pulmonary Hypertension (PPH). The compound is a synthetic peptide with efficacy established through in vitro data and studies in situ animal lung models. Further studies are in progress and a patent on the compound has been filed.

PPH is a disease predominantly affecting the small pulmonary arteries. A mean age of onset of PPH is 36 years and a mortality of greater than 30% over 4 years.

Progress Energy, IBEW reach

agreement on labor contract

St. Petersburg-based Progress Energy and its union employees have reached agreement on a new, three-year labor contract. The union membership voted to ratify the company's contract offer, which had been unanimously recommended for acceptance by the union negotiating committee. The agreement was reached after nearly three months of continuous negotiations by the company and union negotiating teams. The new contract includes a pay increase of $0.25/hour for journeymen in the line department, substation construction and substation maintenance, first-year increase of 3.25%, second-year increase of 3.2% and third-year increase of 3%.

MarineMax ranked

No. 1 in magazine's top 100

Clearwater-based MarineMax, the nation's largest boating and yachting retailer with dealerships in Sarasota, Venice & Palm Island, has been awarded top honors as it was named North America's No. 1 boating retailer in Boating Industry magazine's inaugural Top 100 ranking. MarineMax Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and president William McGill, Jr. accepted the first place award at the Top 100 awards ceremony and black tie dinner held November 10 in Las Vegas. MarineMax has 71 dealerships across the country with more than 1600 MarineMax team members.

Sun Hydraulic's president

gets Gold Leadership award

Junior Achievement of West Central Florida awarded Sun Hydraulic's president Allen Carlson, who was chosen from more than 2,000 volunteers throughout the West Central Florida region, to win the organization's Gold Leadership award for volunteerism.

Last year, under Carlson's leadership, Sun Hydraulics raised over $13,000 through a company bowl-a-thon, enlisted nearly half the golfers in the JA golf invitational, sponsored the annual breakfast and volunteer reception and volunteered in the classroom himself, something he's been doing for more than 30 years.

TECO Energy improves

4th-quarter, full-year earnings

Tampa-based TECO Energy Inc. reported fourth quarter net income of $52 million or $0.25 per share, compared to a loss of $487.6 million or $2.44 per share in the fourth quarter of 2004.

The number of common shares outstanding was 4% higher in the fourth quarter of 2005 than for the same period in 2004, primarily due to the shares issued in conjunction with the final settlement of the 9.5% adjustable conversion-rate equity security units completed in January 2005.

The full-year 2005 net income and earnings per share were $274.5 million and $1.33, respectively, compared to a loss of $552 million and a per share loss of $2.87 in 2004.

Shares outstanding for 2005 were 7% higher than in 2004.

Morgan Beaumont reports

fiscal 2006 first-quarter loss

Bradenton-based Morgan Beaumont Inc., a technology solution provider to the Stored Value and Debit Card market and owner of the SIRE Network, announced fiscal first quarter results for the period ending in 2005. Net revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2006 was $1.49 million compared to $41,000 in the first quarter of fiscal 2005.

The year-over-year revenue increase is primarily due to stored value products, including prepaid phone cards, and telecommunications services.

The company reported a net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2006 of $2.0 million, or $0.03 loss per share, compared to a net loss of $1.5 million or $0.04 loss per share, in the first quarter of fiscal 2005.

Kerkering, Barberio

adds shareholder

Kerkering, Barberio & Co. PA, Certified Public Accountants, admitted Sharelle Turner, CPA/CFE, as a shareholder effective January 2006. Turner concentrates her practice in the area of litigation support providing expert testimony and discovery assistance.  Areas of specialization include dissolutions of marriage, embezzlements and fraud prevention.

TIB Financial Corp. reports

55% increase in net income

TIB Financial Corp., a community bank serving the greater Naples-Fort Myers area, South Miami-Dade County and the Florida Keys, reported record fourth quarter and full year net income and increases in earnings per share.

Having made the previously announced strategic decision to sell the bank's merchant processing segment in the fourth quarter of 2005, TIB Financial reported net income and fully diluted earnings per share. Net income was $6.04 million and EPS of $1.02 compared to $1.33 million and $0.23 for the prior year.

American Land Lease

sees increase from 2004

Clearwater-based American Land Lease Inc. released results for fourth quarter and full year 2005 and expectations for full year 2006.

Diluted earnings per share were $0.40 for the three-month period ending in 2005 as compared to $0.34 from the same period one year ago, an increase of 17.6% on a per share basis. Funds from operations were $3.9 million, or $0.45 per diluted common share, for the quarter compared to $3.2 million, or $0.38 per diluted common share from the same period one year ago, an increase of 18.4% on a per share basis.

BBJ Environmental Solutions

appoints president and COO

Tampa-based BBJ Environmental Solutions Inc. appointed James Peyton Atkins as its new president and chief operating officer. Atkins joined BBJ from Spectrum Signal Processing (USA) of Columbia, Md., where he also served as its president.

Chico's reports record January sales

Ft. Myers-based Chico's FAS Inc. reported January sales results for the four-week period, increased 34.2% to $91.7 million from $68.3 million reported for the prior year's four-week period. Comparable store sales for the Company-owned stores increased 14.6% for the four-week period ended January 28, 2006, compared to the same four-week period last year.

Orion BANK hires

CIO, senior vP

Orion Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of Orion Bancorp Inc., appointed David J. Sweeney as executive vice president and chief investment officer. In this position, Sweeney will be directly responsible for all corporate and bank investment activities and market strategy. Prior to joining Orion, Sweeney was chief investment officer for Fifth Third, formerly First National Bank of Florida.

Also, Dimitrios Vafeas joined as senior vice president, Commercial Lending. In this position, he will be responsible for commercial lending and business development in Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte counties. Prior to joining Orion, Vafeas was senior vice president, Commercial Banker/Team Leader for SunTrust Bank in Sarasota and Charlotte counties.

ETC...

• Tradition Tarragon LLC's condominium homes at Tradition at Palm Aire are now available to the public for purchase. Tarragon Corp. is the sole member and manager of Tradition Tarragon LLC.

• TradingEducation.com LLC located in Tampa launched an online portal dedicated to helping individual traders navigate and master the markets and improve their trading skills through fundamental and technical analysis.

• SMR Farms, a division of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch Inc., hired Sarasota Web Design firm, GravityFree, to build a new three-in-one Web site, due to launch in March.

• Venice-based Jessup's Brand Source Appliance has chosen CCS Cabinetry to create kitchen vignettes to showcase the latest appliances in a variety of cabinet displays at Jessup's new showroom in Sarasota.