My finance view

A judge has appointed a receiver for the Ridge Point Crossing apartments in St. Louis County, a two-property complex that’s owned by an affiliate of Gannon International.

The appointment is the latest of a string of apartment properties owned by Creve-Coeur based Gannon that have been put in receivership following loan defaults in the past year.

Ridge Point Crossing includes 292 units at 11251 Graben Drive in St. Ann and 96 apartments at 11302 Bonanza Drive in Maryland Heights.

Wells Fargo sought a receiver for Ridge Point Crossing last month after an affiliate of Gannon defaulted on a $9.9 million loan secured by the property, according to court filings.

The Gannon affiliate “has failed to make debt service payments, make critical vendor payments and keep up with payroll obligations,”  St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge Robert Cohen wrote in his order appointing Nolan Real Estate Services receiver of Ridge Point Crossing on Dec. 13.

As receiver, Nolan Real Estate will collect rent at the property, make repairs and pay utilities.

Bill Schierholz, president of Gannon’s real estate group, could not be reached for comment payday loan. Daniel Spirn, an attorney representing Wells Fargo, declined to comment.

The appointment of a receiver at Ridge Point Crossing follows similar appointments at Gannon-owned apartment complexes in the past year.

In April, a receiver was appointed for the 272-unit Springwood Apartments in Bel-Ridge after PNC Bank alleged Gannon defaulted on a $5.7 million loan secured by Springwood and failed to properly maintain the apartments. Springwood has since been sold.

In June, a receiver was appointed for the 336-unit Suson Pines Apartments at 5625 Suson Hills Drive in south St. Louis County after PNC alleged Gannon defaulted on a promissory note and owes the bank more than $13 million.

The real estate arm of Gannon International, which is owned by Chief Executive William Franke, owns nine apartment properties in the St. Louis area.

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Retails sales in the 17-nation eurozone dropped in November, official statistics showed Friday, as consumers felt the bite of austerity measures and feared the currency union could slip deeper into crisis.

Retail sales in the eurozone fell 0.8 percent compared with October and were down 2.5 percent from November 2010, according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency.

The steepest declines were seen in Portugal, which had to be bailed out in April and where sales fell 2.6 percent during the month and were down a massive 9.2 percent from a year earlier.

But even in richer states like Germany and the Netherlands, consumers were more reluctant to part with their money, with retail sales slipping 0.9 percent in both countries during November. That shows how the eurozone’s worsening debt crisis is taking its toll even on countries with strong economies.

For the whole European Union, which includes non-euro members like the U.K. and Sweden, November retail sales dropped 0.6 percent from October and 1.3 percent compared with a year earlier.

Consumers appear worried by high unemployment, which remained stuck at 10.3 percent in November _ unchanged from October but above the 10 percent seen a year earlier _ and a darkening outlook on the economy easy pay day loans.

The weak data also underlines how many people found themselves in a worse position at the end of 2011 than at the end of 2010 _ when there were hopes that the continent was turning a corner after two difficult years brought on by the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008.

Spain’s unemployment rate was highest at 22.9 percent, up from 20.4 percent a year earlier. That’s more than four times as high as in Austria, where only 4 percent of people were looking for work. For the whole EU, the unemployment rate remained at 9.8 percent.

The dark mood is set to continue in the eurozone, with a Eurostat economic sentiment indicator falling 0.5 of a point to 93.3 in December, far below the long-term average of 100.

Italy and Spain, the eurozone’s third and forth largest economies which have been pulled into the eye of the crisis in recent months, grew especially pessimistic about the economy. Economic sentiment fell 4.6 points in Italy and 1.3 points in Spain.

In the 27 EU countries, economic sentiment was down 0.8 point at 92.

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Shares in UniCredit, Italy’s largest bank, slid Wednesday after the company priced its euro7.5 billion ($9.8 billion) cash call from shareholders at the bottom end of market expectations.

UniCredit shares dropped 14.5 percent lower at euro5.42, as investors were spooked by the scale of the discount in the company’s rights issue. Other European banks, many of which are looking to raise money to plug financial holes, also saw their share prices take a hit amid concerns that they too would be forced to price their cash calls at low levels too.

The aim of UniCredit’s rights issue _ shareholders have been asked to buy two new shares for every one they hold _ is to help the bank shore up its capital reserves, in line with European regulatory demands. Last month, industry regulator, the European Banking Authority, said the bank needed to raise around euro8 billion.

Earlier in the day, UniCredit shares were briefly suspended after the cash call was priced at a 69 percent discount to Tuesday’s close, much lower than most predictions. So far, only 24 percent of the shares on offer have been taken.

The discount was bigger than those that have been offered by UniCredit’s peers recently and knocked sentiment in Europe’s banking sector as a whole, notably of Germany’s Commerzbank AG, which has been asked to raise euro5.3 billion ($6.9 billion) by the European Banking Authority. Its share price fell 4 percent.

Last month, the EBA said European banks have to raise about euro115 billion ($150 billion) to meet a new standard meant to inoculate the lenders against market turmoil, including bad government debt.

European banks have billions of euros of risky government bonds on their books, and, as the continent’s crisis has deepened, investors have become increasingly concerned the lenders won’t be able weather all of the expected losses on those loans.

That, in turn, has made banks wary of lending to one another _ since they worry that one of their number could go under at any moment. When banks stop lending to one another and businesses, the entire economy seizes up.

Much of the current focus in Europe’s debt crisis has centered on Italy, the third-largest economy in the eurozone.

International markets have punished Italy in recent months for failing to come up with a coherent strategy to deal with its euro1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion) debt mountain. That drove up the borrowing rates for the eurozone’s third-largest economy and effectively forced Silvio Berlusconi from office.

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U.K. house prices (UKNBAAMM) may decline in 2012 as economic turmoil emanating from the euro area

Workers in the U.S. earning the minimum wage are worse off now than they were four decades ago.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows that after adjusting for inflation, the federal minimum wage dropped 20 percent from 1967 to 2010, even as the nominal figure climbed to $7.25 an hour from $1.40, a 418 percent gain.

The decline would have been worse if not for increases that took place from 2008 through 2010 in how much employers were legally obligated to pay. Combined with more stable consumer prices, those adjustments helped trim the reduction in earnings from 41 percent at the end of 2007, following a decade of no change in minimum pay.

U.S. online sales this holiday shopping season are up 15 percent compared to last year, after what may have been the busiest week of the season, said research firm comScore on Sunday.

Shoppers have spent $30.9 billion online from Nov. 1 through Dec. 16, up from $26.9 billion at the same point last year, said the Reston, Va., company, which tracks Web use.

Online sales surpassed $1 billion on four days last week. Total sales for the week climbed 15 percent to $6.31 billion compared to last year.

The five days that ended on Friday “will almost certainly be the heaviest week of the online holiday shopping season,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. Online spending will begin to slow as Christmas draws closer, he said.

But “Cyber Monday,” the Monday after Thanksgiving, is still the largest online shopping day ever, according to comScore. Sales for that day rose 22 percent from last year to $1.25 billion. Cyber Monday sales topped $1 billion for the first time last year.

The holiday shopping season can make up to 40 percent of retailers’ annual revenue. The online sales data point to Americans’ growing comfort with using their personal computers, tablets and smartphones to shop for the holidays.

Discounting and promotions have also boosted shopping this year. ComScore said on Sunday that shoppers have received free shipping on at least half of all their purchases in each week of this year’s holiday shopping season.

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Stephen Wancha was promoted to food and beverage director at Four Seasons St. Louis Hotel.

Wancha is responsible for overseeing Cielo restaurant and bar at the hotel as well as the food/beverage service for banquets and catering. He manages a staff of about 110 people.

Wancha previously worked at the Four Seasons Hotel here before briefly taking a job in food service at Four Seasons San Francisco Hotel cash till payday. He visited 91 regional wineries during his 18 months in San Francisco and says the contacts he made there will help Cielo bring new wines to St. Louis that aren’t usually available in the area.

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Britain’s Treasury chief defended Prime Minister David Cameron’s decision to veto changes to the European Union treaty, saying Saturday the move protected U.K. economic interests.

Cameron rejected an invitation to join 26 European partners in a tighter financial alliance to save the euro which he said didn’t adequately protect Britain’s national interest and meant giving up too much control over regulation of Britain’s dominant financial sector.

The move isolated Cameron from the European Union and raised doubts about whether Britain realistically can remain a member of the 27-nation bloc _ prompting cheers from the prime minister’s typically anti-EU party and jeers from the opposition.

Britain’s typically brash media reflected the divide Saturday, with The Guardian headline “Cameron Cuts UK Adrift” batting against the Daily Mail’s “The Day He Put Britain First.”

Treasury chief George Osborne defended Cameron on BBC radio, saying he thinks Britons are pleased the prime minister “stood up for the British national interest.

“We have protected Britain’s financial services and manufacturing companies that need to be able to trade their products into Europe from the development of eurozone integration spilling over and affecting non-euro members of the EU,” he said.

Osborne added that if the prime minister had “caved in” to signing the treaty, the “full force” of the EU could have undermined British interests.

“We were not prepared to let that happen,” he said.

Osborne’s vote of confidence echoed support from other Conservative lawmakers over the prime minister’s move to set Britain apart.

But Cameron also is facing a chorus of criticism from the opposition Labour Party and growing tensions with his Conservative Party’s junior coalition partner, the Liberal Democrats.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has rejected talk of a rift between his Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives and backed Cameron’s move, but dissent bubbled up from elsewhere in the party.

One Liberal Democrat lawmaker accused Cameron of “betraying Britain,” while another called the fallout “a black day for Britain and Europe.”

Emboldened by Cameron’s move, Conservatives stepped up calls for a full re-negotiation of Britain’s position in the EU, but Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes shot down that idea in an interview with Sky News, insisting the issue was “not on the table” and telling the Tories to “calm down.”

In Italy, Premier Mario Monti has summoned union leaders to discuss his new austerity plan as lawmakers tinker with his tough proposals to try to rescue the country from its debt load and get the economy growing again.

Unions have bitterly contested Monti’s proposal to reform Italy’s generous pension system and have called a strike for Monday. Monti’s office said Saturday the premier, fresh from the EU summit in Brussels, would meet with union leaders on Sunday to discuss the proposals.

Monti has also proposed restoring a property tax suspended during Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s government. The proposal has renewed criticism of the tax-exempt status of the Catholic Church in Italy, even though the church merely enjoys the same tax-exempt status as any non-profit.

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Toll Brothers Inc. says its fiscal fourth-quarter net income slid 70 percent, partly because last year’s quarter was helped by a large tax benefit.

Still, the performance topped analysts’ expectations, and the luxury homebuilder’s revenue climbed as home deliveries and net signed contracts increased.

Toll Brothers reported Tuesday that it earned $15 million, or 9 cents per share, for the three months ended Oct. 31. That compares with net income of $50.5 million, or 30 cents per share, a year earlier.

Last year’s results included a $59 payday loans with no fax.9 million tax benefit.

Analysts expected earnings of 5 cents per share.

Revenue rose 6 percent to $427.8 million. That beat Wall Street’s $424.3 million estimate.

Home deliveries climbed 8 percent. Signed contracts increased 15 percent.

Toll Brothers is based in Horsham, Pa.

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Lee Enterprises, the owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and one of the largest newspaper publishers in the country, announced Friday that it will file for bankruptcy after efforts to work out a debt exchange deal with its lenders failed.

In a press release, Lee Enterprises, based in Davenport, Iowa, didn’t say when it would file for “pre-packaged” Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

However, the publisher said the bankruptcy will cause no changes to its business. Vendors, subscriptions, employees and the company’s operations will not be affected.

The publicly-held company said earlier this year it would seek a ‘prepackaged’ bankruptcy if it failed to refinance $904.5 million in debt that matures in April 2012.

In an debt exchange proposal, Lee had tried to convince at least 95 percent of its lenders to swap existing debt for new debt with a later maturity date and a higher interest rate. At one point, it had 90 percent acceptance for the swap.

Those efforts ultimately failed, however, in reaching that level, prompting Lee to proceed with the bankruptcy filing.

However, the level of support for debt restructuring by the vast bulk of creditors will allow the company to file a prepackaged bankruptcy, the company said.

“We have achieved agreements with an overwhelming majority of our creditors to extend our existing loan agreements on reasonable terms that preserve stockholders’ ownership interests in the company with only 13% dilution,” Lee Chief Executive Mary Junck said in a press release.

With a prepackaged deal, Lee expects to exit bankruptcy in sixty days or less.

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