Business in brief: Clearwater sells millions in notes

Spokane-based Clearwater Paper Corp. has sold $150 million in notes with a 10.526 percent interest rate, spokesman Matt Van Vleet said Tuesday.

He said the notes, due in 2016, were the first issued by Clearwater since it was spun off by Potlatch Corp. in December.

About $107 million of the funds will be used to retire $100 million in debentures due Dec. 1. The rest will be reserved for general corporate purposes, including potential acquisitions.

The debentures, currently paying interest of 12.5 percent, were issued by an affiliate of Potlatch, Van Vleet said.

He said Clearwater is pleased with the pricing of the notes, which will help set the company’s long-term capital structure.

Only qualified U.S. institutional investors and non-U.S. residents were eligible to purchase the securities.

Bert Caldwell

Whitacre to be GM chairman

Detroit – A former CEO and chairman of telecommunications giant AT&T Inc. will lead General Motors Corp.’s board after the automaker emerges from bankruptcy protection, GM said Tuesday.

Edward Whitacre Jr., 67, eventually will replace Kent Kresa, who will remain GM’s interim chairman until the reorganized automaker emerges as a new company that’s majority-owned by the U.S. government.

Whitacre was chairman and chief executive of AT&T and its predecessor companies from 1990 to 2007. During his tenure, he led the company through several acquisitions and sales.

Associated Press

More companies planning to hire

Washington – Signs of stabilization in the job market are emerging, according to several private surveys, as restaurants, mortgage servicers and health centers step up hiring.

About a quarter of manufacturing companies and more than 40 percent of service-sector employers plan to hire workers in June, the highest totals in six months, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management.

Last week the Conference Board said online job ads rose by 250,000 in May to 3.37 million, the first increase since October and the largest jump since October 2006.

Still, economists caution that jobs overall will remain scarce for months because most employers are likely to wait until the economy grows at a healthy pace before they feel confident enough to add workers. That might not happen until well into 2010, many economists say.

The nation’s jobless rate jumped to a 25-year high of 9.4 percent in May. The Federal Reserve expects unemployment to remain elevated until 2011.

Associated Press