PBT Transcript (5/09/2008)

MIKE ARMSTRONG: Coming up, Philadelphia’s brimming with new condos, restaurants, and an influx of residents. But I’ll tell you why city government continues to make this a tough town to do business in. The bruising proxy fight over the owner of Lane Bryant and Fashion Bug stories is finally over. And a Mount Laurel company is reporting a 100 percent rise in profits for its first quarter. We’ll tell you why there’s more to that story than meets the eye. Philadelphia Business Today starts now.

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MIKE ARMSTRONG: Center City may be thriving. But make no mistake, the city still loses jobs year after year, and Philadelphia is still seen as a hard place to do business by companies big and small. Two bills introduced into City Council on Thursday won’t do much to change that reputation. One bill would force large employers to give workers nine paid sick days, and small businesses five. Another would require all employers to provide from four to eight weeks of unpaid leave to employees dealing with other issues. Here’s the problem. Philadelphia already has a high tax burden. If it makes more demands on the benefits that employers should provide, it makes Philadelphia less competitive than cities that don’t. Bills like these, fair as they sound, make it easier for companies to do what they’ve done for years – move to the suburbs.

Don’t read too much into this, but a big mortgage firm in Mount Laurel reported a 100 percent increase in its net income for the first quarter. PHH is involved in the mortgage business, and it leases vehicles for corporate fleets. Nationally, mortgage companies have been hammered by the credit crisis. But PHH’s pre-tax profits were boosted by a $42 million from the Blackstone Private Equity firm. The payment was a termination fee owed because Blackstone dropped its plans to buy PHH last year. For the quarter, PHH lost money in its mortgage business, which was offset by profits from its fleet operations.

The board of Charming Shoppes and a group of activist investors have settled their feud. The dissident investors got two seats on the Bensalem retailer’s board, and the company agreed to add two new outside directors, both with lots of retail experience. Share holders get to vote on this arrangement next month, but the company still has a lot of work ahead to turn itself around.

That’s it for this week. At The Inquirer, I’m Mike Armstrong for Philadelphia Business Today.

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