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Packaging manufacturer Ball Corp. said its third quarter earnings were $101.9 million, or $1.05 per share, on sales of $2 billion, up 67 percent from $60.9 million, or 59 cents per share, on sales of $1.9 billion in the third quarter 2007.

Ball (NYSE: BLL) is based in Broomfield, Colo. Ball has 220 employees at its Saratoga Springs plant.

Third-quarter 2008 results included a $9.1 million charge — $7.2 million after taxes — or 8 cents per share, for closing costs related to three previously announced plant closures in California, Ontario and Washington state.

The third-quarter 2007 results included an $85.6 million charge — $51.8 million after taxes — or 50 cents per share, for a customer settlement.

Analysts were expecting results of 66 cents per share.

“Our overall performance in the quarter was very good, and in a difficult economic environment all but one of our business segments reported improved profitability compared to the third quarter of 2007,” Chairman, President and CEO R freecreditreport. David Hoover, said in a statement.

Hoover also said the company is confident that Ball’s packaging products are recession-resistant, and the company will generate cash flow by growing its worldwide metal beverage packaging business, improving other packaging business lines and by using its aerospace specialties.

Ball also announced it will close two plants, in Kansas City, Mo., and Guayama, Puerto Rico, and expects a $32 million charge related to the closings to be recorded in the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009.

Cost savings from the closings are expected to be more than $30 million in 2009.

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Belmont University broke ground Tuesday on a permanent home for the Belmont School of Pharmacy.

The $30 million building will provide a consolidation of all the university’s health science studies: pharmacy, nursing, social work, occupational therapy and physical therapy.

“Establishing a permanent, state-of-the-art facility for our school of pharmacy represents another significant step for Belmont University in addressing a serious health care provider shortage in this country, especially as it relates to pharmacists and nurses,” Belmont President Bob Fisher says in a statement one hour cash loan.

The 90,000-square-foot building will contain laboratories for student and faculty research and a licensed, state-of-the-art pharmacy. The building will also include a four-level underground parking garage to provide additional spaces for Belmont’s growing student body.

The architect for the project is Nashville-based Earl Swensson Associates. R.C. Mathews, another Nashville-based firm, is the contractor.

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The International Monetary Fund reached agreement with Ukraine on a $16.5 billion loan to help support the nation's financial system as turmoil in global credit markets and recession concerns sweep eastern Europe.

The 24-month loan is conditional on parliamentary approval of legislation to support the country's banks, the Washington- based lender said today in a statement. Ukraine also will need to balance its budget by reining in social spending and narrow the current-account deficit, the Kiev-based central bank said in a separate statement.

Eastern Europe is being buffeted by the global credit crunch as investors stung by losses in developed nations sell riskier emerging-markets stocks, bonds and currencies. Ukraine is the first nation in the region to receive IMF help during the crisis. Belarus this past week joined Iceland, Pakistan, Hungary and Ukraine in requesting at least $20 billion of emergency loans from the IMF to help repay debt.

“The money is only half of the issue, conditionality is key,'' Timothy Ash, head of emerging-market research at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London, said in a telephone interview. “We hope the Fund is maintaining its push for a more flexible exchange rate, far-reaching reforms in the banking sector and more privatization.''

Banks

President Viktor Yushchenko faces an economic meltdown as prices for the nation's main exports, including steel, drop and a weakening currency makes goods purchased abroad more costly. He has urged the cabinet to raise custom duties to curb imports and help domestic producers boost exports to counter the widening trade gap.

Ukraine agreed to set up a fund that will buy stakes in the nation's banks and pass legislation that forces lenders to halt dividend payments to retain capital, central bank official Serhiy Kruhlik said in a telephone interview in Kiev today.

The central bank took control of closely held Prominvestbank on Oct. 7 and promised an injection of 5 billion hryvnia ($830 million) to bail out Ukraine's sixth-biggest bank by assets after a run by depositors.

The government also plans to raise the state guarantee on bank deposits to 100,000 hryvnia from 50,000 now and will use proceeds from privatizations and bond sales for the bank bailout fund, according to Kruhlik. The parliament is scheduled to vote on the amended legislation on Oct no teletrack payday loans. 28.

`No Consensus'

“As of now, there is no consensus between Ukrainian political forces about a stabilization program,'' said Svitlana Maslova, an analyst at Barclays Capital in London. Investors “will closely look at the details of the policy package to assess the impact of the program.''

Industrial production contracted 4.5 percent from a year earlier in September and the trade gap widened to a record $12.5 billion in the eight months through August.

Ukraine's current-account deficit may widen to $15 billion this year, central bank governor Volodymyr Stelmakh said earlier this month. The current-account gap was $7.5 billion, or about 6 percent of gross domestic product, in the first eight months of the year.

The former Soviet republic's currency tumbled 13 percent last week and touched a record 6.0812 per dollar on Oct. 24. the lowest since the hryvnia was introduced in 1996. Ukraine's annual inflation rate almost tripled to a record 31.1 percent in May before easing back to 24.6 percent in September.

Elections

Ukraine is the least creditworthy of Europe's transition economies measured by the cost of credit-default swaps, conceived to protect bondholders against default. Its economic predicament is complicated by a political crisis that led to collapse of the government and calling of early elections.

Yushchenko dissolved the parliament on Oct. 8 and a new one will be chosen on Dec. 14, the second national elections in as many years. His party, which seeks closer ties with the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, quit the coalition on Sept. 3 after former ally, Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, joined with the pro-Russian opposition to strip the president of some powers.

Yushchenko and Timoshenko joined forces to win the 2004 election after the bloodless Orange Revolution on promises to move the country toward the West. After a split in 2005, the two reunited before last year's elections.

Since then, Yushchenko and Timoshenko have been locked in a battle over how to tackle Europe's fastest inflation rate, sell state assets and how to spend budget funds.

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Denver was removed Friday from the state’s election “watch list,” with Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman saying the city had fixed problems that arose during the 2006 election.

Coffman said he acted in response to a request for watch-list removal from Stephanie O’Malley, clerk and recorder for the City and County of Denver.

Coffman said he agreed with O’Malley that Denver had established procedures that would help it to keep voter wait times to a reasonable limit on election day, Nov. 4.

“Following Clerk O’Malley’s election in 2007, she has been tireless in her commitment to ensure that her voters won’t experience excessive wait times,” Coffman said in a statement. “The voters in Denver should have the upmost respect for Clerk O’Malley and confidence in the elections held in the county free credit report and score.”

In 2006, many Denver voters met with long waits at the polls as the city adopted a system of using centralized “vote centers.”

Coffman said Denver has since switched to a voting system that makes use of precinct-based voting and paper ballots. He also said the city had added to its election staff and beefed up pollworker training.

Denver was one of several counties that Coffman placed on the watch list after they experienced problems in the 2006 election. Some have since been removed.

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Jet fuel prices continue to plague AirTran Airways Inc., which reported a $107.1 million loss in the third quarter despite record revenues.

Orlando, Fla.-based AirTran (NYSE: AAI) said it earned a record $673 million in revenues, up 10.6 percent from the same quarter in 2007, but the price of jet fuel and losses associated with its fuel-hedging program, dragged the airline into the red.

The loss for the quarter amounted to $0.91 per diluted share. In the third quarter of 2007, AirTran earned $10.6 million in net income or $0.11 per diluted share.

"Although AirTran Airways posted record third quarter revenues, unprecedented fuel costs were a major challenge for our industry," said AirTran CEO Bob Fornaro, in a statement. "While we are extremely disappointed with our financial performance this quarter, we are taking dramatic steps to better position the airline competitively and to restore profitability.

AirTran, the second-largest carrier at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, said its fuel costs grew by $149 million over the same quarter in 2007, as its cost per gallon rose 63 percent from $2 americashadvance.25 to $3.67.

Jet fuel hedging, a bet placed on fuel prices to protect against dramatic swings, actually cost the airline $41.5 million, the carrier said.

Fornaro said in the release that the carrier would continue to cut capacity, sell aircraft and reducing costs.

AirTran cut capacity by almost 10 percent in September and said its capacity would be down by more than 6 percent in the fourth quarter. The carrier said it is looking to trim capacity by another 3 to 7 percent next year.

The low-cost carrier recently restructured its credit card processing contracts and has sold five 737-700 aircraft through September, with agreements to sell five more.

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Nektar Therapeutics will sell some of its inhaled drug technology to Novartis AG for $115 million in cash.

San Carlos-based Nektar (NASDAQ: NKTR), led by CEO Howard Robin, will sell powder and liquid drug formulations, capital equipment and factory leases, along with 140 Nektar workers. Novartis (NYSE: NVS) also is buying some intellectual property in the deal.

Nektar will keep its Ciprofloxacin inhaled powder program, its Amikacin inhale program (NKTR-061) — set for Phase III testing later this year — and inhaled vancomycin, which is entering Phase II tests early next year payday advance low fees.

This deal requires regulatory approval and has other conditions. It should close by year end.

Robin said the assets being sold “had little future value for Nektar.”

Novartis is based in Basel, Switzerland and led by CEO and Chairman Daniel Vasella, M.D.

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Pakistan may be forced to seek a loan from the International Monetary Fund to prevent the nation defaulting on its debt, according to a government official.

South Asia's second-largest economy, which has seen its foreign reserves plunge more than 74 percent to about $4.3 billion in the past year, is also seeking financial support from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, said Shaukat Tarin, financial adviser to the prime minister. The country has $3 billion in debt-servicing costs in the coming year.

“They are going to have to bite the bullet and sign for the IMF,'' said David Fernandez, the Singapore-based head of emerging markets research at JPMorgan Chase & Co. “It has to come now.''

Pakistan's first civilian government since 1999 is facing economic turmoil after the rupee plunged to an all-time low, the current account deficit widened to a record, and inflation jumped to a 30-year high. The nation, which only came off its last IMF program in December 2004, may need as much as $4.5 billion in loans to tide over the crisis, Tarin said.

“If I don't feel the comfort level with the multilateral agencies and our bilateral friends in three to four weeks, then I'll have to write to the IMF,'' Tarin said in an interview in Islamabad yesterday. A default is “out of the question.''

Unpopular Decision

Pakistan faces the politically unpopular decision to seek an IMF bailout after China rebuffed its neighbor's request for cash, the New York Times reported Oct. 18. The U.S. and other nations are preoccupied with the financial crisis, and Saudi Arabia, a traditional ally, refused to offer oil concessions, the newspaper said.

The U.S. has helped Pakistan financially for its support in the global war against terrorism, providing $10 billion in funds and canceling more that $1 billion of loans. The Bush administration has urged the Pakistan government to do more to fight al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in its tribal areas, which the U.S. says the militants are using to regroup and attack the coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Standard & Poor's, doubting Pakistan's ability to repay debt, cut the long-term foreign-currency rating on Oct. 6 to seven levels below investment grade, and said it may lower it again. Moody's Investors Service lowered its credit outlook to negative on Sept. 23, citing a risk of “missed repayments.''

Removing Subsidies

Pakistan's $750 million in 6 7/8 bonds due in June 2017 were quoted at a price between 40 and 43 cents on the dollar, according to a Bloomberg survey of four dealers fast cash advance loan. None of them reported trades today. The notes are lower after their initial sale in May last year at par, or 100 cents on the dollar.

Five-year credit-default swaps on the country's debt were quoted around 2450 basis points in New York on Oct. 17, making Pakistan the riskiest government borrower after Argentina.

A delegation from Pakistan will meet IMF officials in Dubai today and tomorrow for a “routine economic review,'' Tarin said. Pakistan has already presented to the IMF a stabilization plan which includes removal of subsidies, tighter monetary policy and steps toward reducing the fiscal deficit, he said.

“If this plan is acceptable to them, only then will we have the IMF program,'' he said. The government is also seeking loans from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and U.K.'s Department for International Development, Tarin added.

Pakistan has said it has almost removed subsidies on fuel by raising domestic fuel prices six times between April and July in line with global crude costs. Subsidies on electricity are due to be removed by June 2009.

`Political Backing'

“The question is once the IMF program is put in place, will there be political backing to implement it,'' JPMorgan's Fernandez said. “That's what the market is going to focus on.''

Pakistan has sought about $1.5 billion from the World Bank, $1.6 billion from ADB and about 500 million pounds ($864 million) from the U.K.'s DFID, apart from a request for $500 million from the Islamic Development Bank, Tarin said.

Pakistan's next interest payment on its dollar-denominated bonds is due in December and the government is scheduled to repay $500 million in February on a 6.75 percent note. Multilateral and bilateral aid may not be timely enough, S&P said on Oct. 6.

The global credit-market crisis triggered a capital outflow from emerging markets, with Pakistan's benchmark Karachi Stock Exchange KSE 100 Index losing more than a third of its value this year. The bourse kept trading restrictions in place and sought police protection to thwart a repeat of violence on July 16, when hundreds of protesters stoned the exchange and shouted anti-government slogans.

The South Asian country's balance of payments deficit widened in the quarter to Sept. 30 to $3.95 billion from $2.27 billion a year earlier, while the current-account deficit reached a record $14 billion in the year ended June 30, according to data provided by the government.

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Catholic Healthcare West, the San Francisco hospital system that is the eighth largest in the nation, said Monday that two senior executives will share executive vice president/COO positions within the 41-hospital organization.

Bill Hunt and Marvin O’Quinn, the two executives, will each have operational responsibility for about half of CHW’s facilities. They replace Michael Erne, who retired this month after being with CHW since 1997, officials said Oct. 13.

By making this move, CHW said, it has eliminated three “group president of operations” positions, resulting in a flattening of the operations structure for the organization.

Hunt was promoted from an internal position as president of group operations, responsible for overseeing the operations of 15 hospitals in Northern California and Reno, Nevada. He had held several leadership roles at CHW since 1996, officials said.

He also served as president/CEO of the CHW Medical Foundation, a 300-plus physician group practice in Northern California. In his new role Hunt will be responsible for operations in Northern California from the Oregon border south to Kern County, CHW said, along with “physician engagement efforts” throughout the 41-hospital system.

O’Quinn is currently president and CEO of Miami’s Jackson Health System, where he will remain until year-end. He will join CHW Jan. 1.

He will be responsible for facilities in Arizona, Nevada and California from San Luis Obispo south, along with integrated process management and ambulatory operations cheap payday advance.

“Bill and Marvin bring a breadth of health-care experience to CHW,” Lloyd Dean, CHW’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “They are ideally suited to this role, I have the utmost confidence in their leadership, and I look forward to working with them to further strengthen our ministry and ensure that all who need health-care are able to receive it.”

Dean added that the two-headed COO model’s benefit is “a much broader range of expertise and oversight for an organization of our size than would be possible under the conventional, single-executive approach.”

Late last week, CHW reported that its operating income for the fiscal year ended June 30 dropped 47 percent, revenue grew 12 percent, and investment income dropped 81 percent, due largely to accounting changes and one-time write-offs, according to a report in the Sacramento Business Journal, an affiliated publication. Operating income fell to $160 million in core businesses, down from nearly $300 million the previous year.

Net income, meanwhile, tumbled to $170 million from $891 million the prior year, the Sacramento paper reported, but would have been $485 million not including one-time events.

The three-state system has nearly 10,000 doctors and 53,000 employees.

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Nouriel Roubini, the professor who two years ago predicted the financial crisis, said world financial officials should orchestrate interest-rate cuts of at least 1.5 percentage points to help avert a depression.

A temporary guarantee of all bank deposits, unlimited liquidity for solvent financial institutions and fiscal-stimulus measures are also needed, the New York University professor of economics said in a commentary e-mailed today to Roubini Global Economics subscribers.

“It will take a significant change in leadership of economic policy and very radical, coordinated policy actions among all advanced and emerging-market economies to avoid this economic and financial disaster,'' said Roubini, 50. From late 2006, he highlighted the dangers flowing from a likely U.S. housing crisis.

The economist urged immediate action as officials from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Group of Seven nations meet in Washington this weekend. Stocks tumbled around the world today as the yearlong credit crisis deepened, sending Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average to its worst weekly drop in history. The MSCI World Index was set for its biggest weekly decline since records began in 1970.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below 9,000 for the first time since 2003 yesterday. More than $4 trillion has been erased from global equities this week.

Investor Panic

“At this stage the risk of an imminent stock-market crash — like the one-day collapse of 20 percent plus in U.S. stock prices in 1987 cannot be ruled out,'' said Roubini. “The financial system is breaking down, panic and lack of confidence in any counterparty is sharply rising and investors have totally lost faith in the ability of policy authorities to control the meltdown.''

In a coordinated emergency move on Oct. 8, the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England, Bank of Canada and Sweden's Riksbank cut their benchmark rates by half a percentage point. Switzerland also took part and China announced a cut at the same time.

Roubini proposed “another rapid round of policy rate cuts of the order of at least 150 basis points on average globally.''

Officials are trying a range of approaches. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson plans to buy stakes in banks, U.K. Chancellor Alistair Darling wants guarantees for their lending and German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck is pushing for greater regulation.

Bursting Bubbles

One of Roubini's proposals is an agreement between countries with current-account deficits and those with surpluses to maintain orderly financing of deficits and “avoid a disorderly adjustment of such imbalances.''

The world is experiencing the simultaneous bursting of housing, equity, bond, credit, commodity, hedge-fund and private-equity bubbles, the economist said, and even better- performing economies such as Brazil, Russia, India and China are at risk of “a hard landing.''

The threat of a global financial meltdown means a decade- long “L-shaped'' recession — like Japan's after its real estate and equity bubbles burst — cannot be ruled out, Roubini said.

As demand falls, the next challenge may be deflation as the world faces a glut of excess capacity and goods, he said.

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The allegations of overstated revenue and financial fraud at Entellium are sparking a debate in the Seattle technology community about board oversight and the role of audits at venture-backed companies.

Seattle accounting firm Moss Adams today acknowledged that it never completed a full audit of Entellium, whose top two executives were charged with wire fraud in Seattle U.S. District Court Wednesday for allegedly “cooking the books” at the software startup.

Moss Adams’ chief practice officer Neal West said his firm was engaged to perform audits on Entellium in “multiple years,” but did not complete any of the audits and therefore never issued any reports or opinions. West did not know which years the audits were started and why they were never completed, but said his office is looking into it.

“We did not complete any audits and therefore never issued any opinions on their financial statements,” West said.

“We’re still in the midst of looking at our records on this, and beyond that I’m not able to comment,” West said.

Asked if Entellium was using any other accounting firms, West said “not to my knowledge.”

It was unclear whether Entellium or its board requested audits. Ignition Partners, one of the largest venture backers of Entellium, did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the audit question.

There is some disagreement among investors, lawyers and accountants as to whether an audit actually would have uncovered fraudulent activities at Entellium.

“It surprised me there wasn’t an audit, but I don’t know what went into that decision,” said Alan Smith, a partner at the Fenwick & West law firm in Seattle. Smith said startups often get an audit after the first major funding rolls in.

Smith added: “Even the best-intended directors that are active and engaged are going to have a difficult time uncovering something like this if management is determined to hide it (online instant cash advance).”

Bill Bryant, a venture capitalist at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, agreed.

“Entellium should have at least had a review, but that may not have caught the fraud,” he said. “Enron and Worldcom had full audits, and people still didn’t catch on to what was going on for a number of years.”

Roger Clark, an accountant with the Seattle office of Grant Thornton, said an audit of Entellium’s business most likely would have uncovered discrepancies in revenue.

“It was likely that an audit was never done on this company,” said Clark. “You test the numbers the company gives you, and then you see if those numbers match the auditing work.”

In this case, an auditor would have investigated key customer contracts, revenue recognition, receipts and other factors, he said.

While Clark said it is common for venture capital firms to request audits before making an investment, he added that they are sometimes waived in tough times due to the added expense.

In the Entellium case, Clark said it appears that executives allegedly adjusted revenue with the hope of making up the shortfall in future quarters. In the end, Clark said, “they got trapped.”

“It is really a disaster for everyone involved,” Clark said. “It is a personal disaster for the two officers. It is a disaster for the venture funds that lost their money. And it is a disaster for employees who were trusting their leaders.”

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