News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 34

2D THE NEWS-PRESS, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2001 Business Auto sales slower, but still strong Bankrupt Enron trims 20 percent of work force were "weaker than our most recent expectations." General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. reported higher vehicle sales in November compared with November 2000, but the Chrysler arm of DaimlerChrysler AG reported a decline for the month. GM reported its US. vehicle sales were up 13.2 percent in November versus the year-ago period powered by a 36-percent jump in light truck sales.

GM's passenger car sales, however, were nearly 11 percent lower than those during November 2000. The automaker's top sales analyst said Monday that the company's no-interest finance promotion continued to prove effective. "The Keep America Rolling program is still boosting sales in November, but we're down from October," Paul Ballew, GM executive director for market and industry analysis, said during a conference call with reporters and financial analysts. Ford Motor Co. reported its US.

sales in November rose by 5 percent over November 2000, but year-to-date sales still were 6.6 percent below those for the first 11 months of last year. The world's No. 2 automaker said its F-Series pickup trucks. Escape sport utility vehicle and Windstar minivan all posted record November sales. Ford passenger car sales were up L8 percent last month over November 2000, while truck sales rose 6.6 percent The offer of zero-percent and low-interest financing on most models once again was credited with buoying sales, but to a lesser degree than during October, said George Pipas, Ford U.S.

sales analysis manager. The Associated Press DETROIT The torrid sales pace of October gave way to slower, but still strong US. vehicle sales in November as the lure of zero-percent financing began to weaken and dealers' inventories thinned Regardless, both industry analysts and those within the automakers say 2001 could be the second or third best sales year on record Industry wide, monthly sales reported Monday were up 7 percent from November 2000. U.S. automakers saw their sales rise 6 percent, Asian automakers reported a 13 percent increase, and sales for the European automakers were flat "Sales were a little better than expected" said David Healy, an analyst with Burnam Securities.

But analyst John Casesa of Merrill Lynch said the results The Associated Press HOUSTON Enron Corp. laid off 4,000 workers, or 20 percent of its work force, and sent the rest of the staff at its Houston headquarters home for the day Monday a day after the once-mighty trader filed for protection from creditors in one of the biggest corporate bankruptcies in U.S. history. Enroa which also filed a $10 billion lawsuit against one-time suitor Dynegy Inc. for breaking off the engagement, was hit from a coun-tersuit Monday from Dynegy as the two battle over a prized natural gas pipeline.

Enron, once the world's biggest buyer and seller of energy, imploded in recent weeks after acknowledging it engaged in questionable accounting practices and overstated its profits by more than half a billion dollars over the past four years. The practices are under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Most of Monday's 4,000 job cuts were at Enron's Houston headquarters, where the remaining 3300 or so employees in the 50-story mirrored glass tower were sent home to await further instructions, said spokeswoman Karen Denne. Enron had warned of substantial job cuts when the company and 13 of its subsidiaries filed Sunday reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of New York. Enron simultaneously sued Dynegy for at least $10 billion in damages, claiming that its smaller rival wrongly abandoned the $8.4 billion buyout, accelerating Enron's demise.

The suit claims Dynegy has no right to acquire Enron's large Northern Natural Gas pipeline in return for a $L5 billion investment Dynegy returned the punch Monday, suing several Enron subsidiaries not included in the bankruptcy case in Harris County District Court in Houston where both companies are based over the pipeline. "It is a demonstration of sheer desperation that Enron would attempt to keep both Dynegy's $L5 billion and the pipeline," Dynegy chairman and chief executive Chuck Watson said Monday. Dynegy's lawsuit says the company wants to ensure that Enron subsidiaries meet contractual obligations to the pipeline to ensure it remains financially healthy. "Until we take control of it, we are protected," Watson said. Denne said Enron had no response to Dynegy's lawsuit, except to say Enron's lawsuit speaks for itself Last week, Dynegy walked away from the merger after a series of surprise financial disclosures left Watson fearful that he needed to protect his own company and stop trying to save Enroa Enron claims Dynegy was aware of its precarious position all along and wrongly invoked an escape clause in the merger agreement In the bankruptcy filing, Enron listed just under $50 billion in assets and $3L1 billion in liabilities.

Enron also said it was talking with several financial institutions to secure credit to keep on operating, But Fitch Inc, the credit ratings agency, said in a statement Monday that Enron's physical assets the pipelines and power operations are largely encumbered, and the trading business is heavily damaged as cash, credit and traders evaporated over the last several weeks. The large physical assets, such as pipelines and power operations, aren't part of the bankruptcy case. -Ml--; Portfolio and Estate Financial Strategies WOEIiSHOP 2C02 If you have substantial assets in your IRA or are interested in Financial Strategies for the current Economic and Tax Environment ATTEND THIS SEMINAR AIR TRAVEL: Direct service big draw From PagelD Strategies to Protect IRA's Portfolios for Surviving Spouse How to Eliminate Capital Gains Tax and Create diZero Taxable Estate Current Strategies to Improve Income for Retirement Strategies to Control Taxes on IRA Inheritance All about The Retirement Asset Will (NEW!) Thursday, December 6, 2001 11:30 to 1:30 pm Complimentary lunch will be served The Children's HospitalHealth Park Medical Center, Meeting Room HP1 A Comer of Suminerlin and Bass-Road, So. Fori Myers Seating is limited, for reservations or more information, please call by December 5th, (941)415-577 '5 fii Ball said that given more flight options into Southwest Florida, many Germans would fly here instead of arriving via Miami and Orlando. Sixty percent of the 325,000 German visitors to Florida in 2000 visited Southwest Florida.

However, 47 percent arrive via Miami, 18 percent via Orlando, 13 percent through Tampa and 10 percent by way of Fort Myers. Ball was in Germany recently meeting with LTU and Condor officials as well as with tour operators. He was talking up the Southwest Florida market and explaining that even though tourism is the region's biggest asset, this area is home to untold numbers of Germans who along with friends and family frequently travel back and forth and would jump at the chance of convenient airline service. Ball believes if he can show a strong German resident market here in Southwest Florida one that's not subject to tourism ups and downs he can convince some airlines that adding new service here is not much of a risk. He'll have a handle on those numbers when results of a survey of German airline passengers and German property owners in Southwest Florida are known in January.

Surveys were sent to 12,000 Lee County property owners with German addresses as well as distributed to LTU passengers and readers of the German-speaking Florida Journal, said Susan Sanders, the airport's marketing director. This will be the port authority's first good measure of German visitors who don't show up in the tourism statistics but who form the backbone of the market here. Tourist numbers are collected by the Lee County Visitor Convention Bureau, but there's no easy way of gauging property owners and the family and friends who visit them. Some Florida airports, Ball said, are guaranteeing seat sales or buying tickets to bring in new service. He said he's not considering that particular approach.

"Melbourne is giving free landing fees and ticket counter space for a year," he said. "West Palm Beach is giving so much per seat to any airline" that brings new service. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is encouraging nonstop service on specific routes, including Tallahassee, San Francisco, Denver, Western Europe and Mexico. "Businesses look for incentives when coming into an area They look to minimize up-front costs Sanders said. "This is the same thing." UJU A WJ air service but as yet had had no takers, according to spokesman Jim Naimea Sarasota-Bradenton is struggling because it lies "in the shadow" of Tampa International Airport, said Naimea and siphons off much of its market because it offers much more air service and because of that more competitive fares.

Naimen said all Sarasota-Bradenton's carriers were told of the incentive, which expires May 31, 2002. "But they have not grasped what he called "a golden carrot" Lee County Tourism Director D.T. Minich said incentives seem to be the way to go these days to attract more flights. "Some Caribbean islands are guaranteeing seats so if seats don't get sold, the charter company still gets paid for those seats," he said. Like Ball, Minich would like to see U.K.

service and more flights to Germany or Switzerland, at least enough to replace those lost when Condor German Airlines eliminated its twice-weekly Frankfurt-Fort Myers service this winter. Minich said his bureau does its part to pursue new air service. It splits advertising costs with airlines using a co-op fund and is currently doing a co-op with Delta Vacations. Ball knows that direct service of any kind gives a swift boost to any market, and he points to Germany as evidence of that In 1993, before LTU International Airways began nonstop service between Dusseldorf and Fort Myers, Dusseldorf was the airporf sixth largest market among German cities. In 1999, the LTU flights pushed Dusseldorf to first place.

MERGER: FCC look at duopoly case by case From PagelD ownership of stations in a single market area. The practice is called duopoly, Pontius said, adding that similar petitions already have been approved in Miami and Jacksonville. "Duopoly is something that the FCC has been looking at on a case-by- case basis," he said. "It's not like we operate in a vacuum any longer. The FCC, in terms of dcregulatioa have determined that it docs not impacf the community's public interest for certain stations to combine for economies of scale." Kunkler, who will remain president of Montclair.said there is no date by which the FCC must make its decisioa She said there will be no changes in programming or in the station's policy to support local organizations, such as the Salvation Army and March of Dimes.

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