Florida Trend | Florida's Business Authority

Tuesday's Afternoon Update

BankUnited explores sale

BB&T Corp. and Toronto-Dominion Bank are among companies in talks to buy BankUnited Inc., Florida's second-biggest lender, people with knowledge of the matter said. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. also has signaled it may bid, according to one of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are private. BankUnited has asked for offers by today and told potential buyers it's seeking to finish the sale effort within about two weeks, the people said. Read more from Bloomberg News and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

CEO Sounding Board
Florida CEOs answer: What's your outlook for 2012?

Floridian

PARC Group Chairman Roger O'Steen says:

"We expect a 75% increase in revenue. We're seeing improved market conditions for new homes. We develop land and lots, and we sell those lots to builders so we won't hire many new staff."

» Read more from O'Steen and other Florida CEOs

Carnival stock dives

Carnival Corp. plunged 14 percent at the stock market opening Tuesday, the most in the S&P 500, after a cruise ship owned by one of its brands capsized off the coast of Italy, killing 11 passengers. Italian prosecutors are charging the captain with manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship before all passengers were evacuated. [Source: Miami Herald]


Florida Power & Light wants rate hike

Florida Power & Light Co. wants to raise its base rate by $6.80 a month for the typical residential customer. The state's largest electric utility notified the state Public Service Commission of its intent to seek the $695 million per year rate increase Tuesday. [Source: AP]


Lights on Tampa returning for the GOP Convention, then for good

Lights on Tampa is coming back, just in time for the Republican National Convention, and this time for good. Mayor Bob Buckhorn and Gordon Gillette, president of Tampa Electric Company and Peoples Gas, are scheduled to announce a permanent installation of the popular public arts program Tuesday afternoon at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park. The new installation will begin in early summer. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]


Baptist Cardiac partners with German university

Baptist Cardiac & Vascular Institute of Miami has entered a partnership with the University of Heidelberg in Germany to gain "access to the latest medical innovations," the institute said. [Source: Miami Herald]


Out of the Box
tag Snake crackdown
Officials are announcing new rules banning the importation of four snakes that have been plaguing the Everglades. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday announced the ban on Burmese pythons, yellow anacondas and northern and southern African pythons. The snakes are also now banned from being transported across state lines. Pythons have become a growing problem in Florida's revered swampland. Read more from the Associated Press and the Miami Herald.

See also: Fla. Newsmakers of 2009