Westar sells bonds to refinance debt

Talk about a high-powered refinancing.

Westar Energy Inc. is selling $250 million in mortgage bonds to pay off higher-interest debt, the Topeka-based utility company announced Wednesday.

The debt — currently borrowed at a 9.75 percent interest rate — will be replaced with two new sets of bonds: $125 million, at 5.15 percent, maturing in 12 years, and another $125 million, at 5.95 percent, maturing in 30 years.

Bottom line: Westar will pay off the costs of the refinancing within three years, then reap the benefits of lower interest rates through the terms of the debt.

“It’s similar to refinancing your home mortgage,” said Greg Greenwood, Westar’s treasurer. “It’s a similar type of activity.”

The new bonds are being sold to institutional investors in deals set to close Tuesday.

Services

H&R Block foresees tough tax year

Despite adding 1,300 new locations across the country, H&R Block Inc. said Wednesday it expected another difficult tax season for the company in 2005.

Jeff Yabuki, chief operating officer, said that declining unemployment should help Kansas City, Mo.-based Block, but that competition remained fierce and the economy hadn’t rebounded enough to dramatically increase the number of people needing to file tax returns.

“We still see the environment to be negative on a relative basis as it has been in the past few years,” he said.

During the 2004 season, H&R Block reported a 3 percent decline in the number of clients coming into its brick-and-mortar offices as people either went online to file their taxes, did it themselves with software or went to a competitor.

Block opened a new office in Lawrence earlier this month.

Leadership

TiVo co-founder steps down as CEO

Mike Ramsay, the co-founder of digital video recording pioneer TiVo Inc., is stepping down as chief executive as the company reshapes itself and struggles to fend off stiffening competition.

Ramsay, 55, said Wednesday he would remain board chairman but would give up the helm he held for eight years once a successor was found.

The announcement came a week after TiVo unveiled details of how it plans to take its digital video recording services beyond the basic set-top-box onto other devices and to help deliver Internet-based video content.

Aviation

Boeing lands sale

Bavaria International Aircraft Leasing has ordered six narrow-body 737-700s from Chicago-based Boeing Co., the jet maker said Wednesday.

The order — valued at $33 million at list prices, although airlines typically negotiate hefty discounts — was accounted for in the company’s 2004 totals but was not publicly announced until Wednesday.

The Munich, Germany-based leasing company is a unit of privately held Schoerghuber Group.