Company with Cape ties goes public

It's nice work if you can get it.

While he was flying away for a vacation last week, the successor entity to a company founded by Earl Norman of Cape Girardeau was going public with a stock offering. MedAssets, the Alpharetta, Ga.-based company that provides both collection and supply-purchase services to hospitals, sold 13.3 million shares of stock Wednesday at $16 a share.

When trading opened Thursday, the stock immediately began climbing, and closed Friday afternoon at $22.25, a 39 percent rise.

MedAssets is the successor to Norman's Health Services Corporation of America, or HSCA. MedAssets purchased HSCA in 2001. Norman became a director of the company, and retained, according to SEC filings, 809,997 shares.

While Norman, like most people, doesn't relish that the public knows his finances, he's enthusiastic about the company. None of the previous stockholders sold any stock in the offering and federal rules limit their ability to profit from the market run-up in the stock price.

"It is going to be an excellent company for the long-term," Norman said.

MedAssets employs about 100 people in Cape Girardeau and another 150 in St. Louis out of a total of 1,100 employees nationwide. It had net revenue of $146.2 million in 2006, and net earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $50.7 million.

HSCA, which operated under various names, was founded by Norman and his wife in 1969 on an initial investment of less than $100.

Norman credits the company's success -- there were about 60 HSCA employees in Cape Girardeau and approximately 40 in St. Louis at the time of the sale -- to the quality of the employees he found here. "I feel gratified I had an opportunity to start that in Cape Girardeau," he said. "There is a great work ethic in Cape Girardeau."

MedAssets' financial fundamentals show a growing revenue stream and bottom line.

For the first nine months of 2007, net revenue was $134.6 million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization totaled $44.8 million.

The stock sale generated about $213 million, with a net of $198 million after underwriting fees and commissions to a syndicate headed by Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated and Lehman Brothers Inc. The company intends to use $125 million from the sale to retire debt and the remainder for "general corporate purposes, including further development and expansion of its technology-enabled solutions and for possible acquisitions of complementary businesses, technologies and other assets," according to a news release.

"It is very successful," Robert Borchert, vice president for investor relations, said of the initial public offering. The sale represents about 30 percent of the total shares in the company, Borchert said.

n Room to grow: Van Matre Buick, the auto dealership owned by Mark Van Matre and partners at 511 S. Kingshighway, took over Cape GMC Pontiac earlier this year. Now the dealership is revamping its service department, constructing a new building to consolidate the body shop operation and expanding mechanical service to 10 bays, sales manager Mitch Mayberry said.

According to the building permit issued by Cape Girardeau, the 7,000 square-foot expansion being built by Boulder Construction Co. of Cape Girardeau is estimated to be worth $240,000.

The construction will add a new paint booth with up-to-date technology, shift four body shop bays and prepare the dealership for additional expansion opportunities, Mayberry said.

n For sale: Wehrenberg Theatres, operators of the Cape West 14 Cine and 14 other cinema multiplexes throughout the Midwest, is looking at the potential for finding a buyer for the 101-year-old chain, said Kelly Hoskins, marketing director for the chain.

The move to find a buyer, first reported in the St. Louis Business Journal, was announced to the privately held theater chain's 800 employees Nov. 28, Hoskins said Friday.

"We are at the very start of the process," Hoskins said.

The theater industry is consolidating, she said, and the cost of upgrading screens to digital projection from film projectors is a major investment. None of the 14 screens in Cape Girardeau use digital technology, which allows for the showing of sporting events and concerts, among other innovative uses for movie theaters.

Consolidation of the movie theater business has been going on for a long time, and Wehrenberg is one of the last family-owned chains. The current chief executive officer, Ron Krueger Sr., and president, Ron Krueger Jr., are the third and fourth generations of the family to operate the business.

Meanwhile, it will be business as usual in Cape Girardeau and for the chain as a whole, Hoskins said. The company opened a new theater complex in Rochester, Minn., on Nov. 1 and will open a new complex in Bloomington, Ill., on Feb. 1.

n Restaurant moving: The Lewis & Clark Cafe will close at its 31 Main St. location Sunday and reopen Feb. 1 in larger surroundings at 727 Broadway, owner Sam Alsmadi said.

The cafe, known for its Middle Eastern food and hookah pipes, will be able to offer a more varied menu once the move is complete, Alsmadi said Friday.

"I want to grow," Alsmadi said. "At this location on Main Street, I really don't have a kitchen. It is just a prep kitchen."

At the new location, the kitchen area is much larger, and Alsmadi said he will be installing a ventilation hood, grills, a griddle and a fryer early in the summer. There's no room to put in those full-service kitchen items at the Main Street location, he said.

There will be more room for customers as well, he said.

The current restaurant has room for up to 70 people, and the new location will be able to seat more than 100, he said.

"Now that a lot of people have experienced the food and enjoyed the food, it is time to take it to a different level," Alsmadi said.

n Restaurant closing: Citing poor sales, Ronn Unterreiner of AREYOU Enterprises LLC on Saturday closed the Dairy Queen at 1036 N. Sprigg St.

"It is just the wrong restaurant for the college atmosphere," he said. "It is the wrong product for the college market."

AREYOU Enterprises owns two other Dairy Queens, adjacent to Schnucks in Cape Girardeau and at 2806 E. Jackson Blvd. in Jackson. Those two restaurants are doing well, said Unterreiner, who purchased all three stores in 2006. The remaining Cape Girardeau location will be remodeled in the spring to match the DQ Grill and Chill Restaurant look.

• From the mailbox: I receive announcements and expansion notices all the time in my e-mail, on the fax machine and through the post office. I'm going to be giving a rundown of those items of interest, beginning today, as a continuing feature.

Plaza Tire Service has opened a store in Lake St. Louis, Mo., in St. Charles County, the sixth one in the county and the fifth new location to open this year. The Cape Girardeau-based company now has 49 stores and is the 28th largest independently owned tire retailer in the nation according to Tire Business magazine, the company said in a news release.

Big River Telephone Co. of Cape Girardeau is making continued inroads into other markets, partnering with US Cable to bring digital telephone service to Hannibal, Mo. The service allows the companies to offer simultaneous television, Internet and telephone access.

The KOA Campground in Perryville, Mo., is now owned by Kyle McDowell, owner of McDowell South in Jackson. He took over the operation Oct. 1 and plans to add trailer and RV sales to the business.

Rudi Keller is the business editor for the Southeast Missourian. Contact him at 335-6611, extension 126