(News Briefs)

Logistics company plant to build in DeSoto County

Meritex Logistics, a third-party logistics company, plans to build a new facility in Southaven. The company, which has purchased 86 acres of land will begin its expansion in to DeSoto County with a building totaling 500,000 square feet. As more space is needed, Meritex will be able to expand this initial phase to as many as 1.5 million square feet.

According to senior vice president of the company, Gregg Johnson, Meritex has no plans to close current operations in Memphis, but will continue growing in both Memphis and Desoto county. The initial expansion will bring an estimated 90 jobs and a capital investment of $15 million to DeSoto County.

Meritex began in 1916 in St. Paul, Minnesota. At that time, the company consisted of one public warehouse. Meritex facilities are located in key national locations and provide a diver

se offering logistic services, including storage and retrieval capabilities, bar-code labeling, repackaging, assembly, pool consolidation, sales order processing, returned goods, and cooler space, transportation services and many other value-added services.

Plans for the new facility in Southaven are sill in the formative stages. The initial facility is scheduled to be completed in approximately one year.

Indianola mayor receives award from Entergy Corporation

Entergy has announced that the honorable James Hutcherson, mayor of Indianola, has been selected to receive a 1999 Teamwork Mississippi Community Leadership Award.

The award is presented to outstanding volunteers in economic development, downtown revitalization, leadership programs, education and other areas of community development within the Entergy service territory. The main selection criteria is the impact of the volunteers’ efforts on their community and the state.

During his term as mayor, Hutcherson successfully negotiated with Dollar General Stores for location of their new distribution facility in his town. he is a former president of the Indianola Chamber of Commerce and was instrumental in developing new facilities for the Chamber. he has served on the board of the Sunflower County Economic Development District since its inception in the early 1980s and was chairperson for several year.

Entergy will honor three other outstanding Mississippians in other parts of the state with Community Leadership Award in 1999.

High Tech delivery system comes to Glendora

SST Development Group, Inc. and Mid-South Ag Data, LLC have announced the recent establishment of an SST Information Lab in Glendora to service the Southeastern U.S. Mid-South Ag Data is operated by Agricultural Information Management, LLC (A.I.M.) which currently provides precision ag products and services to producers and input suppliers.

The SST Information Lab program is a new delivery mechanism for providing production agriculture with high-level data analysis at an economical cost.

"Mid-South Ag data will be able to offer clients all the data handling, presentations, and analysis products common to the precision ag industry as well as advanced information products only available form SST," said David Waits, SST president.

"We want to help growers make sense out of the huge amounts of data collected through information agriculture," said Robert Mehrle of Mid-South Ag Data. "SST offers an open system with the ability to interpret data form many sources and provides the support our company needs to remain on the leading edge in the management of agricultural data."

SST Information Labs are currently operation in Minnesota, Indiana, Kansas, and Michigan with other labs to be opened this spring in Illinois and Iowa. SST Development Group, Inc. is a site-specific solutions provider for agriculture and related industries. The company develops and market GIS and data collection software and services for producers, consultants, agronomists, crop input suppliers and researchers.

Insurance Commissioner, George Dale, announces placement of three life insurers into financial rehabilitation

Insurance Commissioner George Dale has announced that three life insurance companies operating in Mississippi have been placed in financial rehabilitation because of fiscal irregularities.

The three companies, which are linked by a common ownership arrangement, were placed into rehabilitation by Hinds County Chancery Judge, William H. Singletary. The companies placed in rehabilitation are: Franklin protective Life Insurance Company, Family Guaranty Life Insurance Company, and First National Life Insurance Company of America.

Under the rehabilitation order issued, the Mississippi Insurance Department will install its own management team to run the companies until their financial affairs can be put back in order or it is determined that they should be liquidated.

"The companies are not in liquidation at this time," said Dale. "Every effort will be made to salvage the companies’ existing structure and find a potential buyer for them."

The three companies are represented in Mississippi by 156 licensed agents.

SBA offers new "Y2K-Action" loans

The U.S. Small Business Administration has announced that "Y2K-Action loans" are now available for small businesses that need financial assistance to address Y2K.

This special lending program was authorized by the Small Business Year 2000 Readiness Act and signed into law in April. The Y2K- Action Loan Program is part of SBA’s highly successful guaranteed business loan program known as the 7(a) program.

The loans are available through December 31, 2000 to enable small businesses to become Y2K compliant. In addition, after January 1, 2000, SBA will also be able to guarantee loans to small businesses that suffer economic injury as a result of Y2K-related problems.

SBA can guarantee as much as $750,000 of a loan made for Y2K purposes and if a borrower already has an SBA loan, the total amount of SBA’s combined guaranties may go as high as $1 million.

For more information call 1-800-U-ASK-SBA or visit their web site at www.sba.gov.

Union Planters acquires seven new mortgage offices in northern California

Union Planters Bank N.A. (NYSE:UPC) recently acquired the assets and personnel of seven retail mortgage loan offices in Northern California form First City financial Corporation.

The acquisition compliments Union Planters Mortgage’s previous entry into California in December of 1998, through a wholesale operation site in Irvine. Union Planters Mortgage has also recently acquired wholesale offices in Atlanta, Houston, San Antonio, Tampa, and Denver. Wholesale production represents approximately one-third of the mortgage company’s total production.

"We’re anticipating that this acquisition will serve as the foundation for growing retail production in California," said Joel Katz, President and CEO of Union Planters Mortgage Company. "It’s the first retail mortgage presence for Union Planters in an area in which union Planters does not have a commercial banking presence. We’re optimistic about this opportunity and anticipate production levels in California to achieve $1 billion in the future."

In 1999 Union Planters Mortgage Company’s overall production should approximate $3 billion, which would mark a 76 percent increase over 1998 volume levels and a 300 percent increase over 1997 levels. Additionally, Union Planters Mortgage Company services approximately $13.8 billion in residential mortgage loans o the mortgage-servicing platform in Memphis.

With headquarter in Memphis, Union Planters is one of the country’s 30 largest banking companies with total assets of approximately $33 billion.