Corporate Report

Corporate Report

by Sean Roth | Real Estate Editor

Mangrove offers new health accounts

Tampa-based Mangrove Employer Services has entered into two new partnerships to offer more health plan options to its employer clients.

Mangrove Employer Services struck agreements with Evolution Benefits and The Bancorp Bank to let its client employers provide their employees with health savings or health reimbursement accounts. Evolution Benefits will provide the debit cards that employees will use to pay for services or drugs, and The Bancorp Bank will actually house the HSA accounts.

The new programs follow Mangrove's successful introduction of flexible spending accounts, which have grown 85% from 2007 to 2008.

Mangrove Employer Services sells human resources software or Internet-based products to employers designed to help employers handle tasks such as payroll or benefits.

Rim Semiconductor

buys UTEK subsidiary

Rim Semiconductor Co. has acquired Broadband Distance Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Tampa-based UTEK Corp., in an all-stock transaction.

Broadband Distance Systems owns the license to a technology that reduces errors in data transmission. The sub-company of UTEK was created to hold the license. The technology is based on a mathematical algorithm designed to enhance power allocation developed by researchers at the University of Illinois.

UTEK acquires and sells technology developed by universities and research laboratories.

UTEK reported net income from operations of $3.78 million for 2007, a decline of 81% or $16.17 million from the $19.94 million it reported in 2006.

TIB Financial

adds trust company

Naples-based bank holding company TIB Financial Corp. has formed TIB Trust Co. and created a proposed board of directors. The new trust company will be a subsidiary of TIB Financial Corp., joining its other bank affiliates, TIB Bank and The Bank of Venice and the recently acquired registered investment advisor Naples Capital Advisors Inc.

The proposed members of the TIB Trust Company board of directors include, Thomas E. Fahey, Robert W. Goldman, R. Walter Hale, III, Thomas J. Longe, Edward V. Lett and Michael H. Morris.

TIB officials expect that the addition of trust services will allow it to offer more integrated wealth management options to its clients.

"Trust services are an appropriate and essential complement to the private banking and investment management offerings launched previously by the company," Michael Morris, president and CEO of TIB Trust Co. said in a press release.

Trust powers are expected to be granted by the State of Florida Office of Financial Regulation by mid-summer.

TIB Bank has 17 full-service banking offices and The Bank of Venice has three full-service banking offices in Venice.

Brown & Brown

creates British brokerage

Daytona Beach- and Tampa-based insurance firm Brown & Brown Inc. has opened the London-based wholesale brokerage, Decus Insurance Broker Limited.

Decus Insurance Broker is Brown & Brown's first operation based outside of the United States. The goal for the new firm is to have it act as a U.K.-based insurance intermediary for the distribution of non-investment insurance contracts throughout North America. Its four divisions will be property brokerage, casualty brokerage, professional liability brokerage, and binding authority programs.

Anthony T. Strianese has been appointed CEO with Amy C. Ranieri as chief operating officer and Melanie Y. Alexander as managing director. Strianese and Ranieri are currently senior members of the North American team of Peachtree Special Risk Brokers LLC, and Alexander has nearly three decades of experience in the London marketplace specializing in binding authority contracts.

Strianese founded PSR together with Brown & Brown in 2000 and today the wholesale brokerage operation produces more than $20 million in annual net commission revenues. Ranieri, a CPA, began her tenure with Brown & Brown as a member of the internal audit team, and was soon promoted to director of internal audit. She transitioned into the wholesale brokerage division two years ago and has evolved into one of PSR's leading brokers.

WCI earnings preview

suggests heavy red ink

Bonita Springs-based WCI Communities Inc. gave the stock market a preview of its earnings, currently scheduled for release on March 17, foreshadowing a nearly half billion dollar loss in just the fourth quarter.

The company expects to record a pre-tax loss for the fourth quarter of 2007 in the range of $410 million to $460 million. The loss for the quarter includes a mark down of $335 million to $350 million for land and finished inventory of unsold homes, amenities and other assets, abandoned option deposits and related costs, and goodwill write-downs.

WCI will likely report $160 million to $170 million of cash flow from operations and investments in the fourth quarter and $220 million to $230 million for the full year.

"Our earnings for the quarter and full year will reflect the very poor operating conditions that persist in our markets and will also include significant write downs," Jerry Starkey, president and CEO of WCI Communities, said in a press release.

Whitemark Homes

looks for other businesses

Sarasota-based Whitemark Homes Inc. signed a letter of intent to acquire Metiscan Holdings Inc. a holding company that operates subsidiary Metiscan Technologies Inc. headquartered in Dallas.

Metiscan Technologies provides products and services handle much of the management and operations of diagnostic imaging facilities, radiology groups, in-office imaging departments, small hospitals, and physician practices.

The agreement is so far non-binding and the companies are said to still be in active negotiations. Any culmination of the deal would likely occur towards the end of the month.

Whitemark Homes is best known for developed lots and building single-family homes, but its officers are now seeking other operating business to merge with or acquire. At completion, Metiscan Technologies would be the primary business for Whitemark.

Teco Peoples Gas

adds geo-based tool

GPS technology company Trimble has completed the work on its geographic information systems-based UtilityCentre uaFM information technology for Teco Peoples Gas.

Peoples Gas, a division of Tampa-based Teco Energy Inc., previously selected the UtilityCenter software suite to help streamline business processes and improve the use of GIS data in the company's Orlando and Lakeland divisions. The increased efficiency and higher return on investment in those two divisions led Peoples Gas to expand the implementation of Trimble's UtilityCenter software solution throughout its 15 divisions across Florida.

The new technology allows Peoples Gas to have a geographic-based snapshot of its gas network down to the individual customer level. The new suite of products is expected to impact the entire company from field workers to customer service representatives and is said to be particularly useful during emergencies.

"We began to reap the benefits of this modular workflow automation suite of tools in our Orlando and Lakeland divisions almost immediately, and the decision to expand the technology into each of our 15 divisions seemed like the logical next step," Mark Haney, general manager, engineering services at TECO Peoples Gas, said in a press release. "Put simply, the technology is making both our field workers and our back-office support teams more efficient, more productive and better able to use the data in our GIS."

Creative Recycling

processes voting systems

The state is parterning with Tampa-based electronics recycler Creative Recycling to remarket and recycle the state's touch screen voting systems. Roughly 29,000 voting systems will be collected from 18 counties.

"Creative is uniquely qualified for this endeavor, by virtue of our state-of-the-art processes for both reusable and end-of-life electronic equipment, as well as our statewide logistical capability," Jon Yob, CEO & founder of Creative Recycling, said in a press release. "Certain components of these machines are reusable, while others are not. Our purpose is to maximize the value of the parts that can be reused, and ensure that those that can not, are properly recycled using the best possible environmental solution."

Capable of processing 150 million pounds of end-of-life electronics a year, the unique processing system prevents hazardous heavy metals used in electronics, such as lead and mercury, from entering the landfill.

Inventor Kanzius

plans cancer trial

Lee Memorial Health System has been chosen as one of a small number of host sites for the human clinical trials of inventor John Kanzius' cancer research.

Kanzius is best known for using a radio frequency transmitter to burn salt water. Kanzius has proposed tagging cancer cells in a noninvasive way and then effetely cooking them with a radio frequency transmitter. Early research trials on laboratory animals have been extremely successful and have shown great promise for the cancer treatments, with no known side effects.

"It is an honor to be chosen and to be in such prestigious company with some of the finest medical leaders and cancer research centers in the nation," Lee Memorial Health System President Jim Nathan said in a press release. "John Kanzius' invention represents creative innovation that has the potential to change the world. We are excited to be a part of this journey."

Details of the human protocols are in development at Texas' prestigious M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and will be released to the public upon finalization. A date for the human clinical trails has not been determined as yet.

Fox Electronics debuts

quartz-packed crystal

Fox Electronics in Fort Myers has added another crystal to its line of technology products.

The company has introduced its FQ3225B, an ultra-low profile, all-quartz crystal that it is promoting for use in portable and battery-powered appliances such as MP3 and CD/ DVD players, cell phones, radios, modems and routers.

The new crystal uses quartz packaging instead of more expensive ceramic, which reduces costs by about 20%. The quartz packaging also is lighter and smaller, while providing a clean signal for electronic transmissions.

Crystals are electronic timing components that generate frequency signals in devices such as computers, wireless modems, electronic printers and music synthesizers. In computers, crystals are an important factor in determining the rate at which a computer can perform instructions or the "clock speed."

Fox Electronics is a supplier of standard and custom frequency control products, including crystals, oscillators and crystal filters.