Brookfield-based Fiserv Inc. today announced a partnership to help Brazilian banking giant Banco do Brasil create a new Federal Savings Bank in the United States to serve Brazilian immigrants who speak Portuguese.
Subject to regulatory approval, the new financial institution will deploy the Premier core banking system from Information Technology Inc. (ITI), a business unit of Fiserv, and pursue an ambitious plan to open five branches in the coming months.
Federal Savings Bank will offer mortgages and deposit accounts, and will utilize a range of other Fiserv solutions to enhance its services, including Fiserv Credit Processing, IPS-Sendero for enterprise risk management, Fiserv EFT for ATM and debit cards and Fiserv Lending Solutions.
"We found large pockets of Brazilian immigrants throughout the U.S. who are not adequately served by existing banking institutions, mostly because they are primarily Portuguese-speaking," explained Leonard Whyte, deputy general manager for Banco do Brasil. "This market is an obvious niche for the bank, and we chose Fiserv and ITI because they have a strong reputation for supporting clients serving niche markets. They will be an important partner to us, as we work to serve the Brazilian community in the U.S., and give immigrants a financial institution they can call their own."
"Banco do Brasil demands high levels of scalability and integration to accomplish their ambitious growth plan," according to Mike Young, president of the Fiserv Bank & Thrift Division. "Not only is Premier the most widely used core banking suite in the nation, serving financial institutions of all sizes, technology and business models, but Fiserv delivers a large and comprehensive set of solutions, all built around a dynamic core and outsourced services."

Rockwell Automation Inc. today announced that its fiscal third quarter net income dropped to $152.6 million, or $1.03 per share, from $164.2 million, or $1.05 per share, in the same period a year ago.
The Milwaukee-based manufacturer's total quarterly sales grew to $1.5 billion from $1.3 billion a year earlier.
Foreign currency translation contributed five percentage points and acquisitions contributed four percentage points to Rockwell's revenue growth rate.
"We delivered solid top line results despite slower than expected growth in Europe and the U.S. Revenue growth was particularly strong in Asia-Pacific, Latin America and our solutions businesses, demonstrating strength in the on-going diversification of our revenue base. Operating margins and EPS grew sequentially but came in lower than 2007, largely driven by continued slower growth in our higher margin product businesses. Given the current environment, we are proactively implementing the appropriate actions to control costs," said Keith Nosbusch, chairman and chief executive officer of Rockwell.
Commenting on the outlook, Nosbusch added, "For the remainder of the fiscal year we expect to see continued strength in Asia-Pacific and Latin America as well as in resource-based industries. However, macro-economic conditions in Europe and the U.S. are weakening. We have begun to see a change in buying behavior by some of our customers in consumer related industries, including project delays and curtailed capital spending. In the current environment, we expect fiscal 2008 EPS to be $4.00 - $4.10. We continue to monitor market conditions with a view toward rebalancing spending, as well as positioning ourselves to address a potential contraction, should it materialize. We remain committed to executing our growth and performance strategy, including continued investment in core technologies and the globalization of our business."

Journal Communications Inc. today reported that is second quarter net earnings fell 36.4 percent to $9.0 million, or 16 cents per share, from $14.2 million, or 21 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.
The Milwaukee-based parent company of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said its quarterly revenue declined 5 percent to $140.1 million from $147.5 million a year earlier.
"The economy continued to impact advertising revenues at Journal Communications during the second quarter," said Steven Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of Journal Communications. "While television revenue grew in markets like Palm Springs, Omaha, Boise and Lansing and radio revenue grew in Omaha, our larger growth markets continued to experience subdued advertiser spending. Publishing revenue remained soft overall, although our hyper-local community newspapers surrounding Milwaukee grew revenue in the quarter. We were also pleased to see continued increases in online advertising revenues at both the publishing and broadcast sites. Total online revenue was up 15.9 percent in the second quarter to approximately $4.7 million."
Looking forward, Smith said the company anticipates positive revenue trends driven by political and issue and Olympics advertising spending for its television stations.
"We believe our company is strong financially because we have maintained a solid balance sheet while prudently using capital to repurchase shares. We remain focused on diligent cost control. Broadcast headcount is down about 6 percent in 2008 from year end 2007. On July 2, Journal Sentinel announced a plan to reduce its workforce by an additional 10 percent. We estimate the charge for this to be between $3.8 million and $4.0 million, most of which will be recorded in the third quarter. We expect cost savings for the remainder of the year to be between $1.4 million and $1.6 million. Full year net savings are expected to be between $5.6 million and $6.0 million," Smith said.

The ongoing work of the City of Milwaukee's Brownfields Team to assess and remediate
contaminated properties has received a new $1.3 million boost by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett announced today that the EPA awarded five grants to the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee:

• $200,000 for environmental assessment at sites contaminated with petroleum.
• $200,000 for assessment at sites contaminated with hazardous substances.
• $200,000 for cleanup of 2227 N. 31st St.
• $200,000 for cleanup of 522 W. North Ave.
• $500,000 in supplemental funding for the Brownfield Revolving Loan Program.

Assessment funding will cover costs associated with environmental investigation of the
nature and extent of contamination of vacant or abandoned sites. Such investigations are often the first necessary step of redevelopment.
Once the amount of contamination is determined through environmental testing, the
City's Brownfields Team then competes for clean-up funds.
The $400,000 awarded by the EPA to Milwaukee for clean-up will be used to
remediate key parcels in the 30th Street Industrial Corridor and the Bronzeville Cultural & Entertainment District, Barrett said.
"We’ve been successful in securing $1 million a year from the EPA for the past six years
for this revolving loan fund and are using it to leverage development that creates jobs,
increases tax base and acts as a catalyst for future development," Barrett said. "I
want to thank our Congressional partners in supporting our requests for these funds.
Milwaukee has a stellar reputation for putting these dollars to use."

The State of Wisconsin may be entitled to recoup up to $8 million in grants it gave to General Motors Corp., which now plans to close its plant in Janesville. The state grants were given to GM to help the company retain and retrain its employees in Janesville. For more on this story, visit WisBusiness.com, a media partner of Small Business Times.

Jefferson Wells, a Milwaukee-based provider of internal audit and controls, technology risk management, tax, and finance and accounting-related services, announced that Jeff Docalavich has joined the firm as chief financial officer.
Docalavich will be responsible for overseeing finance, information technology, administration and acquisitions for Jefferson Wells.
Docalavich brings more than 15 years of senior leadership experience to his new position. Prior to joining Jefferson Wells, Docalavich was vice president of finance and business operations for a division of Rockwell Automation Inc. in Milwaukee, where he was responsible for leading all finance functions, Six Sigma implementation and sales operations functions in Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additionally, Docalavich has held numerous leadership positions for Allied Signal (now Honeywell International Inc.) headquartered in Morristown, N.J., including director of global business services for Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and chief financial officer of Allied Signal Aerospace in Greenville, S.C.
"Jeff brings a diverse background, an exceptional track record of success and depth of experience to our firm," said Michael Touhey, president and chief operating officer of Jefferson Wells. "We are excited to add Jeff’s energy to Jefferson Wells and are very confident that Jeff will significantly contribute to our firm’s finance operations as well as our overall business strategy."
Jefferson Wells is an independently operating, wholly owned subsidiary of Milwaukee-based Manpower Inc.

A developer plans to build a 128-room Hilton Garden Inn hotel in Madison at 610 John Nolen Drive, just north of the 237-room Sheraton Hotel. The Hilton would be the fourth hotel located on the east side of John Nolen Drive between Olin Drive and the Beltline. Read more in SBT's daily roundup of headlines from newspapers across the state at www.biztimes.com/#news.

The Jewish Foundation for Economic Opportunity (JFEO) recently gave $100,000 to create a new loan fund within the Wisconsin Women's Business Initiative Corp. (WWBIC). The new fund, to be administered by the WWBIC, will help nurture and grow minority-owned businesses in the Milwaukee area. Read more in the latest edition of the BizTimes Money bulletin.

Local stocks bounced around in a volatile session of trading this morning. The largest local advancers this morning were Fiserv Inc. (up $1.25 to $47.89) and Rockwell Automation Inc. (up $1.02 to $44.65). The largest local decliners this morning were the twin mining equipment manufacturers Bucyrus International Inc. (down $3.27 to $60.42) and Joy Global Inc. (down $2.58 to $69.63). The BizTimes Stock Index was created by Small Business Times and is monitored by North Shore Bank. The index, which measures the stock values of publicly held companies based in southeastern Wisconsin, is updated daily and can be viewed at www.biztimes.com.

Independence from our reliance on expensive foreign oil is essential to reducing gasoline prices at the pump, grocery prices at the store and overall costs throughout our economy, according to Josh Morby, author of today's Milwaukee Biz Blog.