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Coffee Talk (Tampa)
Credit unions doing well
Banks and thrifts are the only financial institutions growing along the Gulf Coast.
Credit unions in the Gulf Coast Business Review's five-county circulation area grew by about $5.3 billion in assets between 1999 and 2004.
Three of the 34 Gulf Coast credit unions more than doubled their assets during the five years, according to a Review analysis of National Credit Union Administration data.
The Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union led the pack with an asset increase of $2.3 billion, a 109% jump.
The Tampa credit union, chartered in 1934 by Hillsborough County public school teachers, has grown to be the nation's seventh largest credit union by assets, with $4.7 billion as of April 30. It now serves a variety of government employees and their families from Bushnell to Naples.
Another that picked up more than $1 billion in assets over the five-year period was GTE Federal Credit Union. The 70-year-old Tampa credit union had assets of almost $2 billion as of March 31.
Community bankers have criticized credit unions as unfair competitors because the credit unions are exempt from federal taxation.
The advantage is noteworthy when examining the income statement for the first quarter of this year at GTE Federal, which recently opened a new headquarters in Tampa Heights. The GTE credit union earned about $5 million through March 31, or 20.5% of total income.
A third Tampa institution, MacDill Federal Credit Union, grew by $929 million in the five years, a 141% hike. That credit union, which opened in 1955 to serve U.S. Air Force personnel, now has $1.6 billion in assets.
The area's biggest credit unions based outside of Tampa started out serving public school teachers. Achieva Credit Union in Largo has $467 million in assets. Sarasota Coastal Credit Union has $182 million in assets.
Out of retirement?
Last November, Tampa attorney Jonathan Alpert told Gulf Coast Business Review that for all practical purposes he had retired or at least was winding down his law practice.
This once successful trial lawyer talked about how the debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis had severely undercut his ability to make a living off of the law. It's also was the primary reason he cited in his defense against his ex-wife's demand in the Hillsborough County courts for more than $100,000 in accrued attorneys' fees.
Coffee Talk was surprised to learn last week that Alpert, as the Alpert Law Firm, has been named a liaison class counsel in a federal securities claim against Sarasota's Uniroyal Technology Corp. (see related story Page 7). That doesn't sound like retirement. We're pretty certain, too, that Sandy Solomon, attorney for ex-wife Jo Elizabeth Alpert, won't think so, either.
Nicer things to say
Banking analyst Richard X. Bove is toning down his recent criticism of SunTrust Banks Inc.
Bove, who works at Punk Ziegel & Co., was quite critical of SunTrust last year because he says the Atlanta bank had botched its acquisition of Huntington Bank's former Florida branches, among other miscues.
Relations between bank executives and Bove had gotten so bad last fall that the analyst told Coffee Talk that SunTrust wasn't taking his calls anymore.
After a recent SunTrust presentation to Wall Street types, however, Bove is being kinder.
Bove notes approvingly in a recent research report that SunTrust's efforts to attract new checking accounts and to make more business loans are generating double-digit percentage growth.
"It is producing impressive results," writes Bove.
The Pinellas Park-based analyst has forecast 2005 earnings for SunTrust in the range of $5.39 to $5.55 a share. SunTrust reported earnings of $5.20 a share last year.
But Bove still rates SunTrust stock as merely a market performer for the time being. He says he won't put a buy signal on SunTrust just yet.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating SunTrust's booking of loan-loss reserves. The securities regulators are looking at whether the bank socked away extra cash last year to smooth out earnings in subsequent quarters, if the economy took a dive.
"We are awaiting the SEC decision before committing to the stock," Bove says.
Prestigious company
It must be an honor to receive an award named for Carlton Field's distinguished chairman emeritus, William Reece Smith. This is a lawyer who blazed a lot of trails and helped put Tampa on the map as a former president of the International Bar Association, American Bar Association and Florida Bar.
Each year, the Stetson University College of Law bestows the Wm. Reece Smith Public Service Award to individuals who demonstrate exemplary achievement. Award winners join an exclusive class. Past winners include Sarasota elder law attorney Mary Alice Jackson, Stetson Law Professor Rebecca Morgan and St. Petersburg attorney Karen Lopez, the first female president of the St. Petersburg Bar Association.
This year the award selection committee chose Sylvia Walbolt, chair of the Carlton Fields board of directors, and Tampa criminal law attorney Rochelle "Shelley" Reback.
While Walbolt's accomplishments are legendary and numerous, the award committee picked Reback for her relentless efforts to educate the community about the U.S.A. Patriot Act and its impact on civil liberties. Reback also serves as the 2005-06 chair of the Hillsborough County Bar Association's Trial Lawyers Section.
Congratulations: Coffee Talk salutes both of you.
Good timing
Bob Paver, the Jabil Circuit Inc. general counsel, just missed the bull's-eye during a recent stock market trade.
On May 19, he cashed in 9,998 shares of the St. Petersburg company's common stock at $29.50 each for a payout of $294,941, sans capital gains tax. What's remarkable, he cashed in at just 23 cents below the issue's 52-week high of $29.73.
After the sale, Paver still holds 13,002 shares of Jabil stock. Earlier this year, Paver also converted 3,000 shares under an employee stock option plan at a price of about $11.76 each.
At mid-day May 25, shares of Jabil traded down at about $28.84 each.
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