Daily Record FINANCIAL NEWS &
MONDAY, MAY 16, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 131 • Two SecTioNS
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Saft agrees to $1.1B buyout deal Company expects no impact on Jacksonville plant Saft Groupe S.A., the Parisbased battery maker that operates a state-of-the-art plant on Jacksonville’s Westside, agreed to a $1.1 billion buyout last week. Total S.A., a French energy company, is buying Saft to expand its green energy operations. A Saft spokeswoman in Paris said by email the deal should have no impact on the company’s lithium-ion battery plant in the Cecil Commerce Center, which opened in 2011 and employs almost 300 people. Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne said in a news release the deal will “enable Saft, its management
Pouyanne
and employees to benefit from Total’s technical, industrial, commercial and financial support. In addition, this transaction will enable Saft to successfully accelerate its development.” Total is mainly an oil and gas company but expanded into solar power in 2011 by acquiring SunPower Corp. “The acquisition of Saft is part of Total’s ambition to accelerate
its development in the fields of renewable energy and electricity,” Pouyanne said. Saft’s Jacksonville plant made headlines in February when President Barack Obama visited to tout the facility as an example of the federal government’s successful investment in clean energy projects. In addition to city and state incentives, Saft received a $95.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to build the plant. However, the plant has struggled financially since opening. Saft reported its lithium-ion business, which includes a plant
in France in addition to the Jacksonville facility, produced a 2015 loss of 21.3 million euros (about $24 million) before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. According to a February New York Times story, during Saft’s conference call with analysts to discuss 2015 results, CEO Ghislain Lescuyer said he was “frustrated” with the financial performance but “not pessimistic about Jacksonville.” He said the Jacksonville plant is not expected to be profitable for several years. In last week’s news release, Lescuyer said he is “convinced BASCH CONTINUED ON PAGE A-6
Two years of learning from other judges
By Marilyn Young, Editor
Photo by Fran Ruchalski
Owning the day at The Players Championship
Virginia Norton hadn’t served a day as a Circuit Court judge yet, but was already looking for a way to be better. The day after being elected in 2008, Norton called the University of Virginia School of Law about a post-graduate program for judges. However, it had been defunded by state lawmakers. So, Norton went about learning to be a judge through on-the-job training and with help from her peers. Several years later, Circuit Judge Kevin Blazs told her about a Master of Laws of Judicial Studies (LL.M.) program at Duke University School of Law. (He is pursuing a legal Ph.D. there.) It would be an opportunity for Norton to learn from an excellent faculty and from classmates who are judges at different levels from around the world. NORTON CONTINUED ON PAGE A-11
With a lead firmly established, Jason Day hits one on the fairway toward the fourth hole Sunday during The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. Day won the tournament with a 15-under-par. See more photos on Page A-8.
JAG-bound attorney one of 250 Florida Coastal grads
By David Chapman Staff Writer People take different paths through law school. Some hole themselves up in a dorm room or apartment, cramming every piece of knowledge throughout all hours of the day. Others work, have a family or tend to other obligations that can pull them away from their studies. Yet the ones who make it, who march across the stage clad in caps and gowns, have stories to regale. Aaron Conti made it.
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The 29-year-old Florida Coastal School of Law grad knows about juggling obligations in the pursuit of his legal education. It’s a path that’s included a monthly weekend visit back to Massachusetts to train troops in the 181st Infantry Regiment and pulling after-hours study sessions at Dunkin’ Donuts and other places open all night with reliable Wi-Fi. Another one or two weekends each month was spent near Fort Gordon, just west of Augusta, Ga. It’s where his wife, Caitlin, has a periodontal residency with the Army. He’s made the more than fourhour car trip many a time. Law school, the military, a long-distance
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marriage. How’d he manage? “Red Bull,” said Conti with a laugh on Friday. The Michigan native actually started at Suffolk Law School in Boston in 2010. He joined the Massachusetts National Guard a year later and has worked his way up be a scout platoon leader. When Caitlin took the residency at Fort Gordon, Conti’s law school search matched him with Florida Coastal. He remembers looking for his first apartment while training in the woods near Cape Cod. While at Florida Coastal, he was heavily GRADUATION CONTINUED ON PAGE A-10
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Law school no ‘waltz in the park’ Fourth Circuit Judge Virginia Norton, right, and Judge Julia Prahl from Germany were roommates at the Duke University School of Law program.
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