The Daily Record News Summaries: July 1, 2008

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Jul 1, 2008

Legg to protect 3 funds

Legg Mason Inc. said it entered agreements to protect three money- market funds against potential losses that will cut earnings in the three months ended today by 64 cents a diluted share. The Baltimore- based money manager said it will provide as much as $240 million if the funds realize losses from the sale of asset-backed securities. The costs will reduce fiscal first-quarter earnings by $90 million, net of taxes, the company said. Legg Mason has taken unrealized mark- to-market losses of $154.5 million, or $1.09 per diluted share, during the quarter because of markdowns in the value of its portfolio.

Constellation unit buys Nufcor

Constellation Energy Group, of Baltimore, announced its subsidiary, Constellation Energy Commodities Group Limited, acquired 100 percent of the shares of Nufcor International Limited from AngloGold Ashanti Limited and FirstRand International Limited. Financial terms were not disclosed. Nufcor is a commercial nuclear fuel trading and finance company, headquartered in London. Constellation said Nufcor will be actively exploring new risk management offerings to financial uranium buyers in North America, Europe and Asia, markets where Constellation Energy already has a strong commodities presence.

Dormia gets liquidation nod

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Baltimore has authorized mattress retailer Dormia Inc., a subsidiary of Classic Sleep Products Inc., to hire a liquidator, Hudson Capital Partners LLC, as its agent to conduct going-out-of-business sales. Jessup-based Dormia also was given the right to terminate any lease where the landlord agrees to waive claims. Otherwise, Dormia may reject the lease, which is the bankruptcy equivalent of a breach. Dormia filed under Chapter 11 on June 18 in Baltimore along with four affiliates. It has 20 stores in nine states. The wholesale operations of Classic Sleep, also of Jessup, aren't in bankruptcy and its business continues.

Nonprofits' job rolls surge

Nonprofits in Maryland are growing their work force nearly three times faster than the state's for-profit sector, according to a recent Johns Hopkins University study. Nonprofit organizations now provide 9.6 percent of all jobs in Maryland, well above the national average of 7.2 percent. Employment in the state's nonprofit sector increased by 2.9 percent during 2006, the latest year for which such data are available, bringing to 244,086 the total number of nonprofit jobs. By comparison, employment in the state's business sector grew by only 1.1 percent. The report, Maryland Nonprofit Employment Update, is available at www.jhu.edu/ccss.

Broening Highway land sold

Duke Realty Corp., the Indianapolis-based developer of Chesapeake Commerce Center, a 185-acre industrial park in Southeast Baltimore, said it sold a 13-acre parcel to Baltimore's Merchants Terminal Corp, a refrigerated warehouse and distribution company, as the location of a new, perishable foods distribution center. To date, Duke said, two speculative office buildings have been built on the land, the site of the former General Motors assembly plant on Broening Highway, with Johns Hopkins Home Care Group occupying about half the space in one of them. Financial terms of the transaction with Merchants Terminal were not disclosed.

Awards nominations sought

The Greater Baltimore Committee said it is seeking nominations for its fifth annual Bridging the Gap Achievement Awards scheduled for Oct. 8 at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African- American History in Baltimore. Categories to be awarded are: minority/women-owned business; majority-owned business; partnership or strategic alliance; and the President's Award. The last is a new category limited to an individual who has worked tirelessly to advocate for the advancement of minority- and women-owned businesses in the Greater Baltimore region. For information and nomination forms, go to www.gbc.org.

UM prof awarded $715K grant

Edward Pecukonis, an associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, has been awarded a five-year, $715,000 leadership training grant by the Health Resources and Services Administration, a unit of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The grant will pay for the work of the Center for Maternal and Child Health Social Work at the School of Social Work, one of only three programs in the country receiving money to provide social work training in maternal and child health, according to an announcement from the university.

Bozzuto chairs St. Agnes board

St. Agnes Hospital announced that Barbara Bozzuto takes the post of chairwoman of the Southwest Baltimore hospital's board of directors, effective Tuesday. She succeeds Albert "Skip" Counselman. Among her responsibilities are overseeing the budget process; guiding the consensus of the board on stewardship; credentialing of medical staff, fundraising and mission; and evaluating CEO performance. Bozzuto has served on numerous boards, including that of Baltimore public radio station WYPR, where she was chairwoman. Counselman is leaving the St. Agnes board chair position, which he held for three years, to become chairman of the Maryland Hospital Association.