^ given that we yell at KC folks for posting STL/KC comparisons in STL threads, i don't think this is really approptlriate for this thread. maybe post in the KC thread.
Thought about it, but the KC thread covers development projects. Not really appropriate for corporate take-over news.urban_dilettante wrote: ↑Dec 17, 2021^ given that we yell at KC folks for posting STL/KC comparisons in STL threads, i don't think this is really approptlriate for this thread. maybe post in the KC thread.
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I'd still suggest a new thread be created for KC Corporate News - or just retitle the Kansas City thread "Kansas City" like some of the other cities are. I.e., "Chicago"
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I thought the KC thread covered all KC news.
I went ahead and made a comment about the Cerner news over there.
I went ahead and made a comment about the Cerner news over there.
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KC news? In this thread? Eh, I'd humbly think that that was a reasonable announcement, but let's just not make a habit of it.
Our takeaway really should be STL has plenty of large corporations based here still. Even after all the major takeovers (AG Edwards, TWA, Monsanto, Anheuser-Busch, Scottrade, et.al.), we still have a considerable and impressive list of large corporations based in the STL area.
For comparison, STL has 8 Fortune 500 companies: Centene, Emerson, Reinsurance Group of America, Edward Jones, Graybar, Olin, Ameren, and Post.
Our takeaway really should be STL has plenty of large corporations based here still. Even after all the major takeovers (AG Edwards, TWA, Monsanto, Anheuser-Busch, Scottrade, et.al.), we still have a considerable and impressive list of large corporations based in the STL area.
For comparison, STL has 8 Fortune 500 companies: Centene, Emerson, Reinsurance Group of America, Edward Jones, Graybar, Olin, Ameren, and Post.
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Tough going as of late for STLs 2 newest publicly traded companies. benson hill and nerdy have gone from each being about a $2b companies to about $670-690m each.
Benson Hill (BHIL) and Nerdy both went public via SPAC. David Nicklaus of the Post-Dispatch wrote about BHIL's SPAC-related travails in an Oct 18th, 2021 column:
https://www.stltoday.com/business/colum ... 62abf.html
Excerpted from his above column:
"If a hedge fund buys when the SPAC is trading at a discount, as most do, the $10 looks like a guaranteed profit. Until recently, relatively few shareholders took advantage of the guarantee, but, according to financial services company Cowen & Co., redemptions since Labor Day have averaged 63%.
Redemptions were even higher — 76.5% — at Benson Hill’s merger partner, Star Peak Corp. II. They drained $308 million of cash that would otherwise have gone to Benson Hill.
Brian Matthews, general partner at local venture capital firm Cultivation Capital, said the cash outflow came as a “sucker punch” during the “crazy process” of merging with a SPAC."
Benson Hill could have used that $308 million when buying ZFS Creston. Instead they had to arrange for a debt facility:
https://markets.businessinsider.com/new ... 1031075891
"Food tech company Benson Hill, Inc. (BHIL) announced Tuesday the acquisition of ZFS Creston, LLC, an established food grade white flake and soy flour manufacturing operation in southwest Iowa, for approximately $102 million primarily financed through a new debt facility.
In connection with the transaction, Benson Hill secured a $100 million committed debt facility, with the potential to access an incremental $20 million."
I believe in what BHIL is trying to do. But the questions are: 1) how much capital will they need to build this vertically integrated company and 2) how much time will it take before they start generating enough cash to interest investors. They're creating a new model and that's never easy.
https://www.stltoday.com/business/colum ... 62abf.html
Excerpted from his above column:
"If a hedge fund buys when the SPAC is trading at a discount, as most do, the $10 looks like a guaranteed profit. Until recently, relatively few shareholders took advantage of the guarantee, but, according to financial services company Cowen & Co., redemptions since Labor Day have averaged 63%.
Redemptions were even higher — 76.5% — at Benson Hill’s merger partner, Star Peak Corp. II. They drained $308 million of cash that would otherwise have gone to Benson Hill.
Brian Matthews, general partner at local venture capital firm Cultivation Capital, said the cash outflow came as a “sucker punch” during the “crazy process” of merging with a SPAC."
Benson Hill could have used that $308 million when buying ZFS Creston. Instead they had to arrange for a debt facility:
https://markets.businessinsider.com/new ... 1031075891
"Food tech company Benson Hill, Inc. (BHIL) announced Tuesday the acquisition of ZFS Creston, LLC, an established food grade white flake and soy flour manufacturing operation in southwest Iowa, for approximately $102 million primarily financed through a new debt facility.
In connection with the transaction, Benson Hill secured a $100 million committed debt facility, with the potential to access an incremental $20 million."
I believe in what BHIL is trying to do. But the questions are: 1) how much capital will they need to build this vertically integrated company and 2) how much time will it take before they start generating enough cash to interest investors. They're creating a new model and that's never easy.
SPACs are a fraudulent enterprise so this shouldn't exactly be a surprise.
^ Wall Street is endlessly creative when it comes to finding ways to take advantage of retail investors.
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The broader markets are going through a major sector rotation right now, pivoting away from high growth and towards blue chip value. Much of this is from inflation's return, but it's also in part profit-taking at the start of the new year. I think some of this is over-selling. However you feel: if you like these companies - or others like them - with a long term time horizon, then this may be the time to buy in.Trololzilla wrote: ↑Jan 19, 2022Buy the dip.
Disclosure: I'm a large cap growth portfolio manager. Do your own research.
As a total amateur, I've always believed in dollar cost averaging. I invest a set amount each month, no matter what the market is doing at the time. I'm not smart (or brave) enough to pick individual stocks; I let the pros do that for me.
Looks like two articles on moves by downtown companies resulting in negative impact overall. Nestle scuttling IT jobs and Environmental Ops relocating from Downtown to Clayton CBD. Maybe someone has silver lining in the stories.
https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... 1#cxrecs_s
Nestle said a "reorganization" of its North American operations will result in cuts to its IT office in downtown St. Louis. The company in 2016 moved its IT operations to St. Louis as part of a relocation of its U.S. headquarters.
https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... ayton.html
Environmental Operations, the Stacy Hastie-owned environmental firm ranked as St. Louis' biggest by local revenue, has moved from the city of St. Louis, according to a notice it distributed.
https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... 1#cxrecs_s
Nestle said a "reorganization" of its North American operations will result in cuts to its IT office in downtown St. Louis. The company in 2016 moved its IT operations to St. Louis as part of a relocation of its U.S. headquarters.
https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... ayton.html
Environmental Operations, the Stacy Hastie-owned environmental firm ranked as St. Louis' biggest by local revenue, has moved from the city of St. Louis, according to a notice it distributed.
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It saddens me greatly how decentralized and scattered our office environment is.
Silver lining for the Environmental Operations move:dredger wrote: ↑Jan 26, 2022Looks like two articles on moves by downtown companies resulting in negative impact overall. Nestle scuttling IT jobs and Environmental Ops relocating from Downtown to Clayton CBD. Maybe someone has silver lining in the stories.
- Hopefully it means they're growing.
- While it's a move out of the City it's a move into the Central Corridor and much closer (walkable) to transit.
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Downtown was actually one of few if not only regional sub market that had a positive absorption rate in 2021. CW has a deeper report on the office space status in 2021 on LinkedIn
The fact that STL has two major CBDs for a city of our size really hurts. Downtown and Clayton compete against each other and companies shift back and forth between the CBDs.
I've often thought if Clayton and Downtown were combined our Downtown wouldn't be so desolate compared to rival cities. Our office towers are split between areas, and the residential that would come with them are as well.
I've often thought if Clayton and Downtown were combined our Downtown wouldn't be so desolate compared to rival cities. Our office towers are split between areas, and the residential that would come with them are as well.
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I don't think it's as bad as you think. Clayton is full of people who would never want to live downtown; if you magically moved Clayton downtown, a lot of those folks would disperse to the suburbs anyway.npav wrote: ↑Jan 27, 2022The fact that STL has two major CBDs for a city of our size really hurts. Downtown and Clayton compete against each other and companies shift back and forth between the CBDs.
I've often thought if Clayton and Downtown were combined our Downtown wouldn't be so desolate compared to rival cities. Our office towers are split between areas, and the residential that would come with them are as well.
I think it would still be worth doing, mind you, but I don't think it would be quite as good as you might think.
Stretch your imagination a little folks.
The issue isn’t Clayton, it’s the regions slow economy. If the region were growing 40,000 jobs annually there would be enough demand for Downtown, Clayton, and Midtown!
Instead we’re lucky to add 15k (2019). *excluding this year due to COVID recovery*
Therefore, I’m happy these corps were able to settle in a walkable, transit friendly, inner, suburb.
The issue isn’t Clayton, it’s the regions slow economy. If the region were growing 40,000 jobs annually there would be enough demand for Downtown, Clayton, and Midtown!
Instead we’re lucky to add 15k (2019). *excluding this year due to COVID recovery*
Therefore, I’m happy these corps were able to settle in a walkable, transit friendly, inner, suburb.
Thank you! If I’ve said this once, I’ve said it a thousands times. Most cities have more than one business district, often times located in some suburban edge city. That’s not out of the ordinary, nor is it out of the ordinary for companies to move around within a metro area.addxb2 wrote: ↑Jan 27, 2022Stretch your imagination a little folks.
The issue isn’t Clayton, it’s the regions slow economy. If the region were growing 40,000 jobs annually there would be enough demand for Downtown, Clayton, and Midtown!
Instead we’re lucky to add 15k (2019). *excluding this year due to COVID recovery*
Therefore, I’m happy these corps were able to settle in a walkable, transit friendly, inner, suburb.
St. Louisans get so tied up in Clayton/County vs. City or whatever because there’s barely enough to go around. Fix the region’s growth issues and this isn’t a problem any longer. I’m just glad we have a place like Clayton, even if it’s a little sterile. Imagine if all those companies in downtown Clayton, a walkable, transit friendly suburb, were in a place like Chesterfield or Overland Park, KS.
Also worth mentioning that Clayton isn't the only offender here. There are thousands of jobs at Spectrum, Edward Jones, Centene, etc. at Manchester and 270. Thousands more in the I-64 Corridor west of 270 (Diebergs, RGA, Pfizer, Mercy HQ, BoA, Centene, Bunge, Delmar Gardens HQ, Morgan Stanley, TD, Accenture, Rawlings, and others). Thousands more in the Westport area where WWT and Edward Jones maintain their headquarters (among others). I wouldn't blame the relatively dense, urban, and compact city (that would probably be within the city limits in any normal city anyway) over the corporate sprawl further West. You could leave everything as it is in Clayton and just move WWT and Edward Jones downtown and that alone would completely change the face of the CBD.
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I don't think growth is the right mindset. The goal should be sustainability. You can't grow forever.
Sustainability in the US requires at least matching the National rate of growth. St. Louis would have 143,000 more jobs today if it had matched the US rate since 2000.MarkHaversham wrote:I don't think growth is the right mindset. The goal should be sustainability. You can't grow forever.
That’s the equivalent of two downtowns.
We’d be well over 3 million people. Somewhere between San Diego and Minneapolis.
Growth has definitely not been part of the mindset in this region for sometime, so you're in the right place, Mark 
. I think since the 70s the City and County population has collectively grown like 1% to 2% or something like that? Sustainability is great...but maintaining this stagnation seems like a really bad, unsustainable idea. We don't need to grow "forever" but we need to better than we're doing. I'm not looking to become Austin but Cincinnati, Baltimore and Philly were all in that 4% - 6% range in the last Census...seems doable for St. Louis (for reference we were at 1.17%, even got beat by Detroit, 2.33%).
If we don't grow eventually deaths will outpace births and then you enter that demographic winter stage...Missouri is basically there (though Covid has affected this somewhat). Still, as this article points out...population is power. Federal funding, congressional representation, etc. are tied to that. More people moving and living here translate to a larger labor pool and better talent which leads to more companies, jobs, better opportunities, etc.
. I think since the 70s the City and County population has collectively grown like 1% to 2% or something like that? Sustainability is great...but maintaining this stagnation seems like a really bad, unsustainable idea. We don't need to grow "forever" but we need to better than we're doing. I'm not looking to become Austin but Cincinnati, Baltimore and Philly were all in that 4% - 6% range in the last Census...seems doable for St. Louis (for reference we were at 1.17%, even got beat by Detroit, 2.33%).If we don't grow eventually deaths will outpace births and then you enter that demographic winter stage...Missouri is basically there (though Covid has affected this somewhat). Still, as this article points out...population is power. Federal funding, congressional representation, etc. are tied to that. More people moving and living here translate to a larger labor pool and better talent which leads to more companies, jobs, better opportunities, etc.
Since 1970
Stl City and County combine population is down 17%, -267,886
Stl City, Stl County, and St Charles County combined population is up 2.7%, 44,422. Not even 1,000 per year, yet we've spread out so much. Talk about unsustainable.
Stl Metro 11.2%, 284.528, 5,690 per year on average.
If Stl metro population had grown at 0.5% per year since 1970, we'd be at 3,253,907, 433,655 more than today.
Stl City and County combine population is down 17%, -267,886
Stl City, Stl County, and St Charles County combined population is up 2.7%, 44,422. Not even 1,000 per year, yet we've spread out so much. Talk about unsustainable.
Stl Metro 11.2%, 284.528, 5,690 per year on average.
If Stl metro population had grown at 0.5% per year since 1970, we'd be at 3,253,907, 433,655 more than today.