Synovus stock tumbles

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Synovus stock takes hit after projecting sharply higher loan losses
By Tony Adams
Synovus Financial Corp. stock tumbled Monday after the regional bankholding company said over the weekend that it expects to write off $350 million in real estate loan losses in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Columbus-based Synovus, which operates 31 banks in five Southeastern states, reported Friday that it expects loan losses to reach $250 million in the fourth quarter. It corrected that release Saturday, however, adding an additional $100 million to the total.

Write-offs were around $70 million in the same three-month period a year ago.

The banking firm cited “current economic conditions” in making its loan-loss projection. “The largest component of these elevated charges relates to Atlanta market residential real estate credits,” the company said in its release.

Synovus shares fell out of the gate Monday, dropping $1.41 to under $7 before recovering slightly by mid-afternoon. The stock closed down $1.03 per share, or 12.5 percent, at $7.17.

Several stock market analysts downgraded their financial estimates for the firm based on the loan-loss projections.

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Full story:
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/102/story/567452.html

And a related story:
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/breaking_news/story/567664.html

Posted on Mon, Jan. 05, 2009
Heard mansion set for auction; some land sold
By CHUCK WILLIAMS
Bill Heard Jr.’s $18 million mansion is slated for sale outside the Columbus Government Center Tuesday, while some acreage formerly owned by Heard was sold last week.
The five-year-old Lake Oliver home — more than an acre under its roof — has been foreclosed on by Columbus Bank & Trust Co. The bank, which is owed about $10 million on the property, has been advertising a bankruptcy sale for the past month. Bankruptcy sales normally occur between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. in the outside plaza level of the Government Center.

Heard’s house and other assets got tangled in the bankruptcy of Bill Heard Enterprises, a national Chevrolet dealer based in Columbus. The company, which started as a single dealership in Columbus nearly 90 years ago, closed 14 stores and filed for U.S. Bankruptcy Court Chapter 11 protection in September. The company’s assets are being liquidated.

CB&T and its parent company Synovus were owed about $53 million as a result of the Heard Enterprises bankruptcy. The Columbus dealership’s Manchester Expressway property and automobile parts the bank controlled sold last month to McDonough, Ga., automobile dealer Emanuel Jones for about $15 million.

A Synovus spokesman did not respond to requests Monday for information on the bankruptcy sale. The company is being represented by Atlanta law firm Troutman Sanders LLP, which also did not comment on the pending sale.

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[Demeter]

1. and Another Domino Falls

I didn't think there were any "financial" companies left.

[KoKo]

2. Laid-Off Workers Sue Bill Heard Enterprises, Inc., Alleging WARN Act Violations

Laid-Off Workers Sue Bill Heard Enterprises, Inc., Alleging WARN Act Violations,...
Tue Oct 7, 2008 7:00am EDT


Laid-Off Workers Sue Bill Heard Enterprises, Inc., Alleging WARN Act
Violations, According to Outten & Golden LLP

NEW YORK, Oct. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Auto dealer giant Bill Heard Enterprises,
Inc. allegedly violated federal labor law when thousands of employees
throughout the nation were terminated just before the company sought
bankruptcy protection on Sept. 28, according to lawyers for a former company
worker who sued Friday in Alabama federal bankruptcy court.

According to the Complaint, Bill Heard Enterprises, Inc., and about two
dozen affiliated companies, were required by the federal Worker Adjustment and
Retraining Notification (WARN) Act to give at least 60 days advance written
notice of the employee terminations and continue paying certain wages, salary,
and benefits during the notice period in accordance with federal law.
Former Bill Heard employee Edward Kratzel, who worked at a Bill Heard
facility in Las Vegas until Sept. 24, filed suit in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court
District in Decatur, Alabama.

Mr. Kratzel is represented by Adam T. Klein, Jack A. Raisner, and Rene S.
Roupinian, of Outten & Golden LLP, of New York; and Mark P. Williams, of
Norman, Wood, Kendrick & Turner, of Birmingham, Alabama.
The suit seeks WARN Act-required wages, salary, commissions, bonuses,
accrued holiday pay, accrued vacation pay, pension and 401(k) contributions,
and other benefits that would have been paid or covered during the notice
period, and attorneys' fees and litigation-related costs.

The workers' legal team has sought to have the lawsuit certified as a
class action that includes all persons who were terminated without cause at
Bill Heard-owned facilities in Georgia, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Nevada,
Tennessee, and Texas on or about Sept. 24. The companies, which sold the
Chevrolet, Cadillac and Saab brands, are headquartered in Columbus, Georgia
and included the largest Chevrolet dealership in the nation.

Attorney Jack A. Raisner, of Outten & Golden LLP, stated, "We allege that
the Bill Heard employees are entitled to the protections of the WARN Act.
Employers bound by the WARN Act and other labor laws cannot be allowed to
compound the difficulties of abruptly laid-off employees. It's time for 'Mr.
Big Volume,' as Mr. Heard called himself, to ensure that his employees survive
this transition in accordance with the law."
Mr. Kratzel stated, "Employees of the Bill Heard companies around the
nation should have been given more time to prepare for the closing of company
facilities. Because of the WARN Act, we hope that this lawsuit will prevent
employers like Bill Heard from avoiding their obligations to the workers who
helped him generate billions of dollars of revenue through the years."
The case is "Edward Kratzel on behalf of himself and all others similarly
situated, v. Bill Heard Enterprises, Inc, et al.," Case No. 08-80154-JAC, in
the U.S. Bankruptcy Court District for the Northern District of Alabama,
Northern Division.

The defendants are Bill Heard Enterprises, Inc., Bill Heard Chevrolet
Company, Tom Jumper Chevrolet, Inc., Bill Heard Chevrolet, Inc. - Huntsville,
Landmark Chevrolet, Ltd., Bill Heard Chevrolet, Ltd., Bill Heard Chevrolet
Corporation Nashville, Bill Heard Chevrolet Corporation - Orlando, Bill Heard
Chevrolet Inc. - Union City, Bill Heard Chevrolet at Town Center, LLC, Bill
Heard Chevrolet, Inc. - Collierville, Bill Heard Chevrolet, Inc. - Scottsdale,
Bill Heard Chevrolet, Inc. - Plant City, Bill Heard Chevrolet Corporation -
Las Vegas, Bill Heard Chevrolet Corporation - N.W. Las Vegas, Twentieth
Century Land Corp., Enterprise Aviation, Inc., Century Land Corporation,
Century Land Company - Tennessee, Bill Heard Management, LLC, Landmark Vehicle
Mgt., LLC, Georgia Service Group, LLC, and Columbus Transportation, LLC.


© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

[susu369]

3. Follow-up story

Heard mansion sells for $7.65 million to CB&T
By CHUCK WILLIAMS
Bill Heard Jr.’s multi-million dollar Green Island mansion sold at public auction Tuesday morning for a little more than $7.65 million.
Columbus Bank & Trust Co., the lien holder that foreclosed on the home after Heard’s automobile empire collapsed, purchased the property.

About 10:45 a.m. Daniel M. Ludlam, an Atlanta attorney from the firm Troutman Sanders LLP representing CB&T, began reading a description of the property on the south side of the Columbus Government Center in front of the eternal flame veterans memorial monument.

It took Ludlam about 10 minutes to read the legal description, then the auction began. The home, which was listed for $18 million, and four tracts of land were sold first.

Ludlam, representing CB&T’s interest, opened the bidding at $7.65 million. There were about 30 people gathered around Ludlam.

No one else offered a bid.

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Bill Heard Enterprises filed for federal Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in September after closing 14 stores located in five states.

When Heard Enterprises went under, CB&T was holding about $53 million in loans. The company has recovered more than $21 million with the sale of the property on Manchester Expressway where the Columbus dealership was located and more than 700 acres in Midland.

CB&T still holds the Green Island mansion, the Heard dealership building in Union City, Ga., and about about 400 acres in Midland.

There were three CB&T employees at the auction. They declined to comment or give their names.

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/292/story/568389.html

Would someone with knowledge, explain why the bank would buy a property they were already holding in foreclosure?