Briefcase

Ecova finishes buyout of Georgia-based Prenova

Spokane-based Ecova has completed the purchase of a Georgia-based competitor with a similar-sounding name: Prenova Inc.

Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

Earlier this year Ecova renamed itself, abandoning its original name of Advantage IQ.

Both companies offer corporate energy management and efficiency services.

Prenova has roughly 80 corporate customers that are now part of Ecova’s portfolio. Most of those are in the southeast United States, according to Wendy Carhart, Ecova’s company spokeswoman.

The transaction is expected to be neutral to Ecova’s earnings in 2012. Prenova reported revenue of $12.4 million for the first three quarters of 2011.

With the addition of the new clients, Ecova’s customer list now exceeds 600 and expands the company’s reach into the education and government sectors.

Advantage IQ was launched in 1997 as a subsidiary of Avista Corp. It now has more than 900 employees with offices in Cincinnati, Portland, Denver, Minneapolis, Seattle and San Francisco.

Tom Sowa

Luxury bus company expanding into East Side

Seattle-based luxury bus company MTR Western has moved a number of buses into Eastern Washington, the company announced.

Launched in 2004 by controversial Meridian Group founder Frederick Darren Berg, MTR was purchased this year by hospitality entrepreneur H. S. Wright III, whose family built the Space Needle.

The company expects to base about five or more buses in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene and is hiring local drivers, according to a press release. Its service territory includes Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho and Canada.

MTR Western has existing service deals with a number of area colleges to provide transportation for sports teams. They include Gonzaga University, Washington State University and many conference rivals that send teams to Eastern Washington, Wright said in a press release.

The company also provides bus tours and charters for groups and organizations.

Wright’s company, GTO, acquired MTR Western for $5 million following a bankruptcy filing by Berg, 49.

That bankruptcy followed federal prosecutors charging Berg with fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. Earlier this year he pleaded guilty to defrauding investors of more than $100 million.

Tom Sowa

Philip Morris USA loses appeal to high court over smoker’s suit

PORTLAND – Tobacco company Philip Morris USA Inc. must pay Oregon 60 percent of a $79.5 million award in a long-running lawsuit filed by the family of a Portland smoker, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday.

The cigarette maker’s parent company, Altria Group Inc., said it will lower its full-year earnings expectations based on the costs tied to the payments for this and a separate case by a former smoker.

Under Oregon law, 60 percent of punitive damage awards must go to a state fund to compensate crime victims. Philip Morris paid the family its share of the judgment but contested the requirement to pay the state.

The company argued that the state released its right to collect that money with the company’s master settlement agreement in 1998 with 46 states, five U.S. territories and the District of Columbia over claims about smoking.

The Supreme Court’s ruling Friday reversed a lower court decision and said the state’s share of punitive damages is due no matter what sort of lawsuit led to the award.

The money at stake is from a 1999 jury award in a lawsuit filed by the family of Jesse Williams, a janitor who had died two years earlier of lung cancer.

Associated Press