Business Briefcase

GuideOne sells company to Kansas City Life

The GuideOne Financial Group has sold its life insurance company to Kansas City Life Insurance Co. for $78 million in a deal that will allow GuideOne agents to sell both GuideOne and Kansas City Life policies.

Under the deal, Des Moines-based GuideOne will gain $44 million in cash to expand its focus property/casualty business, Jim Wallace, president and chief executive officer, said Friday.

GuideOne, with more than 900 employees nationwide, is the nation’s leading insurer of churches.

Kansas City Life, based in Missouri, focuses on life insurance and annuities. Its acquisition of GuideOne’s life insurance line will mean a 10 percent boost in assets and policyholders.

Pending regulatory approval, the sale is expected to close in the second quarter of 2003.

Earnings: Alcoa beats expectations

Alcoa Inc. surprised Wall Street on Friday, reporting higher-than-expected first-quarter earnings amid a tight energy market.

The world’s largest aluminum producer reported a net income of $151 million, or 17 cents per share, for the quarter ending March 31, compared with $218 million, or 26 cents per share in the same period a year ago.

Excluding special items and the effect of accounting changes, Alcoa had earnings of 23 cents per share, besting Wall Street expectations. A Thomson First Call survey of 17 analysts predicted that the company would earn 19 cents a share.

Revenues were $5.11 billion, up 4 percent from $4.9 billion in the first quarter of 2002.

Oil: Mobil under investigation in Kazakstan bribe case

Federal prosecutors said Friday they were looking at Mobil Oil Corp. as part of the investigation into bribes paid by Americans to secure lucrative oil contracts in Kazakstan.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Peter Neiman made the disclosure as New York businessman James Giffen pleaded innocent to conspiracy, money laundering and tax charges. He is accused of extending more than $78 million in bribes in the 1990s to two senior Kazak officials.

Mobil Oil and Exxon merged in 1999. Outside court, the prosecutor declined to elaborate.

Tom Cirigliano, a spokesman for Exxon Mobil of Irving, Texas, said the company has no knowledge of any illegal payments made to Kazak officials by any current or former Mobil employees.

Aviation: UAL chief’s salary takes another hit

UAL Corp. chief executive Glenn F. Tilton will be taking another salary cut due to bankrupt United Airlines’ continued financial woes, the company announced Friday.

In December, Tilton reduced his annual salary and those of 36 other executives by 11 percent. The action came when the airline announced the layoff of about 350 pilots and other cost-cutting measures.

The airline said Tilton’s salary would be reduced by an additional 14 percent, effective April 1. The net effect is a 25 percent reduction in his annual salary, or a reduction of $237,500, to $712,500.