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http://www.thechai1ottepost.com die C()arlotte $odt THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2006 BUSINESS ExxonMobil posts record profits for quarter, year By Steve Quinn TTIE ASSOCIATED PRESS DALLAS, Ifecas — Elxxon Mobil Corp. posted record profits for any U.S. company on Monday - $10.71 billion for the fourth quarter and $36.13 bil lion for the year - as the world’s biggest publicly traded oil company benefited fix)m high oil and nat ural-gas prices and solid demand for refined prod ucts. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations and Exxon shares rose more than 3 percent in afternoon trading. The company’s earnings amounted to $1.71 per share for the October-December quarter, up 27 per cent fiom $8.42 billion, or $1.30 per share, in the year ago quarter. Ihe result topped the then-record quarterly profit of $9.92 billion Exxon posted in the third quarter of 2005. Exxon’s profit for the year was also the largest annual reported net income in U.S. history, accord ing to Howard Silverblatt, a senior index analyst for Standard & Poor’s. He said the previous hi^ was Exxon’s $25.3 billion profit in 2004. The company said its average sale price for crude oil in the U.S. during the quarter was $52.23 a bar rel, compared with $38.85 a year earlier. It sold nat ural gas in the U.S., on average, for $11.34 per 1,000 cubic feet, compared with $6.61 during the same period a year ago. Exxon’s vice president of investor relations Hairy Hubble said that while strong commodity prices clearly helped drive the record earnings, the com pany also deserved credit for its ability to complete projects on time while keeping ccsts in check. “We continue to identify world-class projects, post industry-leading returns, and are well-placed for continued growth,” Hubble told analysts in a con ference call. “Our record results show a disciplined approach and we continue to deliva* superior value to our shareholders.” Exxon’s results lifted the combined 2005 profits for the United States’ three laigest integrated oil companies to more than $63 billion. ConocoPhillips said last Wednesday that its fourth-quarter earnings rose 51 percent to $3.68 billion (euro3.05 billion;, while annual incx)me climbed 66 percent to $13.53 bUlion (euroll.2 bil lion). Two days later. Chevron Corp. said its fourth- quarter earnings rose 20 percent to $4.14 billion, while annual income jumped 6 percent to $14.1 bil- lion. The oil industry’s stellar results renewed talk among some politicians for a windfall profit tax that would push companies to invest more in new production and refining capacity Sen Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who See EXXON/BC E;ij(onMobil Steel City plans series of events around centennial 77/£ ASSOCIATED PRf:SS GARY, Ind. - Gary will mark its 100th birth day this year with a series of centennial cele brations including the installation of a statue commemorating its industrial heritage. The dty was ofi&dally founded July 14, 1906, by the U.S. Steel Corp., when miles of swampy marshland were molded into an eaq^eriment of industrial urban planning. The new metropolis was named after the first chairman of U.S. Steel, Elbert H. Gary MCDONALD'S CORP McDonald’s Corp. promises to add fare with more zing to compete with products from its fast- food rivals. McDonald’s promises ‘kick’ in newest menu item By Dave Carpenter THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CHICACX) - McDonald’s says it finally has a menu item with real "kick” for Americans who view its food as standard mainstream fare. The spicy chidten sandwich, available as of Tiesday in all 13,700 of its U.S. restaurants, is designed to put more zing in the fast-food chain’s already strong sales, too. Wade Thoma, vice president of U.S. menu management for Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald’s Corp., declares the new sandwich the spiciest item ever at McDonald’s in the United States. But that’s not as risky as it once would have been for the No. 1 purveyor of burgers and files, which has been testing the sandwich in select markets for months and is armed with data about changing U.S. tastes. As McDonald’s real ized, spicy has fast become mainstream itself “America has gone to spicier, bolder flavors, and this is our way to povide them the taste that they crave,” said Ralph Alvarez, president of McDonald’s North America. As with many of its menu items, McDcaiald’s will be the biggest restaurant compeiny to offer a spicy chicken sandwich but hardly the first. Rival Wendy’s, Church’s Chicken and other chains already sell it or have experimented with it. “Spicy chicken is not anything new,” said Bob Goldin, an analyst at Chicago-based food con sultancy Tfechnomic Inc. "But bolder flavors are a growing trend in the foodservice industry" Reshuffling the menu also has proven key to the resurgence of McDonald’s U.S. sales since 2003. The additions of entree-sized salads, McGriddles breakfast sandwiches, white-meat chicken nuggets and chicken strips have all been successful, and all those items have helped bump up the average amoimt spent by McDonald’s customers. Even if spicy chicken doesn’t latch on perma nently as a COTe menu item, as Momingstar ana lyst Cari Sibilski suspects, it will have served its purpose. “It’s always important to rotate a few new items through the menu so that customers don’t become bored and simply walk away fiom your store just to try something else,” he said. The new product continues the one-time ham burger chain’s growing embrace of chicken - the result of a strategy Alvarez said was put into place three years ^o to reflect Americans’ eating more chickai than beef See MCDONALD’S/8C Charlotte consultants offer alternate retirement planning By Ellison Clary SPECIAL TO THE POST As financing retirement looms larger for baby boomers, Claude McDougal has geared up to help them, often with non-traditional alternatives. McDougal’s specialty and that of his nascent company, U.S. Financial Alliance Consultants is advising peo ple on investments for the future of their descendants as well as themselves. He asks them to consider mcx^ than money “I get my clients to focus on ‘true wealth,’ which places finances third, behindhuman and intellectual capital,” McDougal said “Human cap ital includes family relation ships and heritage. Intellectual capital means knowledge, skills and ideas.” Only after working with clients on family and knowl edge does McDougal shift emphasis to financial mat ters such as cash, stocks and real estate, he said This appaoach causes peo ple to look at what McDougal calls the “Four Ps:” preserv ing assets, protecting true wealth, perpetuating wealth to future generations and empowering family mem bers with stew ardship and accountability “My clients complete a detailed ques tionnaire to help establish McDougal their priori ties,” McDougal said “Then we approach retirement plan ning in stages. The stages are making contributions to a plan, managing that plan to '1* accumulate money deciding how to distribute assets dur ing retirement and outlining an orderiy transfa* of assets to future generations.” After starting USFAC in May, McDougal recently moved it to the second floor of Ivey’s, a block from The Square in uptown Charlotte. “T wanted to be accessible to successful pecple who woik within walking distance,” McDougal said The ideal client for McDougal, 46, is a baby boomo* like him. The oldest boomers - bom in 1946 - turn Tbday Gary boasts a population just more than 100,000 people, with roughly 85 percent' black residents living among the echoes of tens of thousands of melting pot inuuigrants who poured in a centmy ago. Although Gary witnessed massive white flight decades ago, the city is still the birtli- place of thousands of I'egion residents who altered the world at Methodist or Mercy hc^- pitals, and centennial organizers hope such a See STEEU8C N.C. decides lottery pacts By Gary D. Robertson niEASSOC'IAlED PRESS RALEIGH - The North Carolina Education Lottery Commission pmpai'ed Monday to detemiine who would land its two richest contracts for operating the games expected to begin tliis spring. The commission scheduled consideration of the sevai- year contracts for both the scratch-off tickets and the lotto-styie automated num bers games at its mid-after- noon meeting in Raleigh. Industry rivals Scientific Games Corp. and GTECH Holdings Corp., based in Rhode Island, each tad for both contracts less than three weeks ago. Evaluation teams exam ined tlie contracts on the lot tery’s behalf and were to offer recommendations to lottery executive director Tbm Sliaheen, who would then make his own recom mendations to the full com- 65 this year, but McDougal seeks those a little younger. “I’m looking for someone with reasonable resources,” he said, “who is about five or 10 years away fiom retiring, but doesn’t know how he or she is going to do it. It’s a homeowner, sin^e or mar ried, with a family - someone who needs to manage wealth” McDougal spent 20 years with Primerica, the insur ance and investment arm of Citigroup. He operates a bit more a^ressively than an See U.S.^ mission. Each of the contracts could generate millions of dollars in revenue fiom lottery sales expected to top $1 billion in the game’s first year. The winner of the instant- ticket contract will have to print tickets, distribute them to thousands of retailers and put other operations in place in about two months or less. Shaheen wants to sell the first tickets April 5. The first automated num bers games - probably the multistate Powerball - would follow around mid-Jime Details on the contract bids have been kept secret by the commission, which said it wanted to preserve the integrity of the process and protect against legal chal lenges by losing bidders. The public records law allows bids to be held imtil after a contract is awarded. Scientific Games, whose lottery division is based in Georgia, bid for both con tracts even thou^ it is being investigated for possibly treaking state lobbying laws while the Legislatiore debat ed creation of the lottery last year. Lottery leaders said Scientific Games should be allowed to bid because it has not been convicted of any wrongdoing. GTECH and Scientific Games already operate lot teries acrc«8 the country and have dbzens of overseas clients. In surroimding states, Scientific Games operates both the instant-ticket and nximbers contracts in South Carolina, but splits the con tracts with GTECH in Tbnnessee and Georgia. GTECH has an instant-tick et contract in Virginia. North Carolina’s lottery law approved last year SeeN.C^ Ol
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