Aquila Fights Credit, Stock Flux
As of late August, Aquila Inc.’s stock had risen since hitting a low of $2.40 two weeks earlier, but the company is still fighting poor credit ratings. Kansas City-based Aquila filed the required 10-K report with the SEC and revised its cash flow from business operations to $112.9 million, half of what was stated in the 2001 annual report. The new figure represents a loss of more than 85% from the cash flow generated the year before.

The company planned to exit wholesale energy trading by September and looks to sell $1 billion in assets. Fitch Ratings downgraded Aquila’s credit outlook to negative the same day the company reported it would sell $265 million in natural gas pipelines and processing facilities in Oklahoma and Texas.

St. Luke's Heads to Lee’s Summit
St. Luke’s Hospital will spend $22 million to build a 70,000-square-foot healthcare campus. Near I-470 in Lee’s Summit, the grounds will include a 40,000-square-foot medical office building, urgent-care and diagnostics centers. The health care system plans to build an additional 52-bed hospital for $57 million, pending authorization from the Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee. Construction will start this fall.

Kansas No-Call List Blooms
More than 183,000 Kansans registered for the No-Call list during its first week of activation. GovConnect Inc., based in Denver, will manage the list, which blocks unsolicited
telemarketing calls. Consumers listed on previous or current no-call lists must also register with the Kansas version to enter their names. The first edition of the list will be available to telephone solicitors after Oct. 1.

Health Midwest Weighs Options
Following an article early in the year labeling Health Midwest as a possible acquisition target, the hospital fielded numerous calls from interested companies. Early in August the board of directors voted unanimously to explore its options of sale but has taken no action publicly further than listening to the offers.

Top MO Wealth Managers Listed
Companies that zoomed in on their clients’ financial-planning needs rather than market fluctuations filled Bloomberg’s Top 250 Wealth Managers list. Overland Park-based companies EBK Capital Group (formerly Eveans Bash Klein) ranked No. 34, Searcy Financial Services was 115 and Yukon Capital Management Group ranked 228. Other top dogs in Missouri were Plancorp, in Chesterfield at 12 and Montea Group in Clayton at 177.

B-to-B Publisher Receives $50 Million
Though business-to-business publications have a had a hard run recently, J.P. Morgan Partners is putting $50 million in new publishing company Ascend Media Inc. in Leawood, recently formed by Cameron Bishop and Dean Altman, formerly top executives of Intertec Publishing in Overland Park. The startup investment is the largest such deal in the last two years. Aquisition deals for B-to-B publications already are in discussion and the new company plans to build a revenue base of $100 million to $150 million in the next three years.

DST Buys Local Admin Business
KC-based DST Systems Inc. paid $190 million cash with agreements for more for the operations of lock\line of Prairie Village if its revenue exceeds target amounts in 2003 and 2004. Lock\line, an administration services provider that supports insurance programs for wireless communications devices, was purchased from Lockton Cos. Inc. DST retained all of lock\line’s 750 employees.

Burns & McDonnell Land Design
Burns & McDonnell in KC landed a $400 million project to provide design, procurement and construction management services for a power plant in Iowa. The gas-fired facility will be built near Mason City for the Interstate Power & Light Co. The 550-megawatt plant is under design, with construction to start in February.

Inergy Picks Up Ohio Propane
KC-based Inergy LP has agreed to buy Hancock Gas Service of Findlay, Ohio. Hancock delivers roughly 7.4 million gallons of propane a year to 8,500 customers.

CORRESPONDENT

Jefferson City
Social Services cut overturned
A decision to stop Medicaid funding for dental services was overruled by a St. Louis circuit judge. As of July 1, the start of the current fiscal year, the Social Services Department had cut off dental services funded by Medicaid. About 100,000 Missourian had received dental services in the past year. In January, the department had estimated the state would save $16 million by eliminating both dental and optical coverage under Medicaid.

Public Services Commission cuts rate
The Public Service Commission has made approvals that reduces electric rates by the largest amount in state history. The reduction will save consumers more than $110 million per year.

The commission also approved a tarriff filed by Sprint that will establish a $1.99 per-month charge for Sprint long-distance customers in Missouri. The approval was granted since Sprint is in a competitve service where consumers can switch to other providers.

Topeka
Kansas opens up health care plan
The Kansas State Health Care Commis-sion voted to allow county and city employees to join the state’s Employee Health Plan. A larger insurance pool could potentially lower and stabilize premiums for the government employees. The individual governments must decide whether to join the plan; past indicators have shown a majority of interest among the 105 Kansas counties.

Hard weather prompts emergency action
Drought conditions have brought lawmakers to the floor. Legislation was introduced to provide $2.9 billion in relief for farmers and ranchers in Kansas and across the nation. The legislation would provide disaster assistance for losses in 2001 and 2002 crop years for farmers who have purchased federal crop insurance. Farmers without the assistance would be eligible if they enter into three-year crop insurance contracts with the USDA.