The sponsor of the Furyk & Friends golf tournament will supply nuclear power to Microsoft.
As the Constellation Furyk & Friends tournament teed off Oct. 4, its title sponsor’s stock reached a record high.
But it had nothing to do with golf.
Constellation Energy Corp. shares have been surging since late September after the Baltimore-based company announced a deal to restart operations at the nuclear power plant formerly known as Three Mile Island.
The company announced a 20-year agreement Sept. 20 with Microsoft Corp. to supply power from the Pennsylvania plant now called the Crane Clean Energy Center.
Constellation describes itself as the nation’s largest producer of clean, carbon-free energy.
The company has been the title sponsor of the Furyk tournament since the annual PGA Tour Champions event at Jacksonville’s Timuquana Country Club launched in 2021, and it announced a five-year extension of the sponsorship agreement as this year’s tournament began.
Constellation is a Fortune 200 company that produced revenue of $11.6 billion in the first half of 2024.
The company says about 90% of its energy output is carbon-free and it produces 10% of the nation’s clean energy.
Three Mile Island is famous for a partial meltdown in 1979 which is considered the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history.
That reactor is known as TMI Unit 2 and while it was shut down permanently in 1979, the adjacent TMI Unit 1 continued operating and was purchased by Constellation in 1999.
Constellation shut down Unit 1 in 1999 for economic reasons, not for any operational issue. The company said it was generating electricity that could power more than 800,000 homes before it was shut.
“Before it was prematurely shuttered due to poor economics, this plant was among the safest and most reliable nuclear plants on the grid, and we look forward to bringing it back with a new name and a renewed mission to serve as an economic engine for Pennsylvania,” CEO Joe Dominguez said in a news release.
The plant was renamed in honor of former CEO Chris Crane, who died in April.
Microsoft will buy power from the plant to offset energy from other sources used to power its data centers.
“This agreement is a major milestone in Microsoft’s efforts to help decarbonize the grid in support of our commitment to become carbon negative,” Microsoft Vice President of Energy Bobby Hollis said in the release.
Constellation expects the plant to come back online in 2028 and operate until at least 2054.
Constellation’s stock jumped from $208.50 at the close Sept. 19, before the announcement, to a record high $286 Oct. 4, a 37% gain.
Constellation did not announce the contract terms of the Microsoft deal but Morgan Stanley analyst David Arcaro said in a research note the technology company is paying a premium price for the power it receives.
“We think the deal proves out the value of nuclear power for hyperscalers, with higher prices possible for future deals,” Arcaro said.
Constellation did not announce the financial terms of its sponsorship of the golf tournament, but it said it worked with PGA golfer Jim Furyk and his wife, Tabitha, for 11 years on a charity event before it began sponsoring the Jacksonville event.
“We’ve enjoyed an incredible partnership with Jim and Tabitha Furyk for more than two decades, and we’re ecstatic to continue that relationship while furthering our collaboration with PGA TOUR Champions,” Constellation Chief Commercial Officer Jim McHugh said in a news release.
“We’ve witnessed the positive impact this tournament has on local charities and the incredible support it receives from fans.”
Third-quarter earnings reports will begin in the coming days, with CSX Corp. the first Jacksonville-based company scheduled to report Oct. 16.
In a preview of railroad quarterly earnings, Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Bascome Majors preached “just a little patience” before earnings pick up.
“We remain selectively Positive on lower expectation CSX as rails show cyclical stability but no real acceleration into 4Q24,” Majors said in an Oct. 2 research report.
“We look for better entry points or slight cyclical improvement before positioning broadly for rail recovery,” he said.
While Majors rates CSX at “positive,” he has “neutral” ratings on the four other Class I railroads he is covering.
“Rail fundamentals enter 4Q a mixed bag, with the near term sideways at best but emerging reasons for mid-term industrial optimism,” he said.
Freight transportation companies have dealt with several disruptions, he said, including the bridge collapse in Baltimore which affected CSX’s coal shipments in the spring, and the port workers strike which was not settled at the time of Majors’ report.
An ongoing disruption is the devastation of Hurricane Helene, which is severely impacting operations in North Carolina, he said.
“On the positive side, rail volumes looked solid overall in 3Q despite mix pressures from intermodal,” Major said.
The Federal Reserve’s recent interest rate cuts should help manufacturing activity, he said, and lower inflation rates should help cut railroad expenses.
Majors increased his price target slightly for CSX by $1 to $41, with the stock trading at $34.52 at the time of his report.
When the parent company of the Salt Life retail apparel chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it had an agreement with a potential buyer who intended to continue operating the stores.
However, that original buyer was outbid by two companies that decided to liquidate the stores and operate Salt Life as a wholesale and e-commerce business.
Delta Apparel Inc., which filed for Chapter 11 reorganization June 30 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, filed a motion Oct. 4 for an extension of time to file its reorganization plan.
However, that filing said the company intends to go out of business after liquidating its assets.
The Duluth, Georgia-based company sold apparel under three brand names: Delta, Salt Life and Soffe.
Iconix International Inc. and Hilco Merchant Resources Inc. acquired Salt Life Sept. 19 after the two firms combined to bid $38.74 million for the business in an August court auction.
Hilco announced Sept. 24 it was closing all 28 Salt Life stores, including its flagship store in Jacksonville Beach and another in St. Augustine.
The chain was founded in Jacksonville Beach in 2003 and acquired by Delta in 2013.
The Salt Life Food Shack restaurants were not owned by Delta and are not impacted by the court proceedings.
Hilco and Iconix outbid an affiliate of Birmingham, Alabama-based Forager Capital Management to acquire Salt Life.
Before Delta filed for bankruptcy, FCM agreed to be a stalking horse bidder to buy Salt Life, subject to the court auction.
According to the Oct. 4 filing, FCM “intended to purchase the Salt Life Assets and continue that segment of the Debtor’s operations as a going concern.”
However, the agreements with Iconix and Hilco “contemplate ‘going out of business’ and ‘store closing’ or similar inventory liquidation sales conducted by Hilco in the Salt Life stores.”
Renfro Brands closed on the acquisition of MJ Soffe on Sept. 20 after bidding $15.3 million at the court auction.
There were no bids for the Delta business at the auction. So, Delta Apparel engaged SB360 Capital Partners as a consultant to help it liquidate the remaining inventory of the Delta brand, the filing said.
That liquidation is expected to be completed by Dec. 31.
Delta Apparel is publicly traded but the company said in Securities and Exchange Commission filings it “expects that holders of shares of the Company’s common stock will experience a complete or significant loss on their investment, depending on the outcome of the Chapter 11 Cases.
Fidelity National Financial Inc. announced Oct. 2 it acquired the commercial operations of First Nationwide Title Agency.
The Jacksonville-based title insurance company said the addition of New York-based First Nationwide will help it provide better service to commercial real estate clients.
First Nationwide, founded in 2012, was owned by a subsidiary of AmTrust Financial Services Inc.
Terms of the deal were not announced.
Fidelity Chairman Bill Foley made Forbes magazine’s list of all 2,781 billionaires in the world in the spring, but his estimated wealth of $1.8 billion wasn’t enough to make the Forbes 400 list of richest American.
In fact, Forbes said for the first time there are more billionaires who didn’t make that list – 415 – than the 400 on the list published Oct. 1.
The 400th ranked person on the richest Americans list had a net worth of $3.3 billion.
Of course, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan made the list, ranked 64th with a net worth of $13.3 billion.
One other billionaire with close ties to Jacksonville, Fanatics Inc. CEO Michael Rubin, also made the list, ranked 91st with a net worth of $10.6 billion.
Fanatics is headquartered in New York but the sports merchandise company maintains its commerce headquarters in Jacksonville. Rubin’s company bought Fanatics, then headquartered in Jacksonville, in 2011.
One other Jacksonville billionaire besides Foley didn’t qualify for the Forbes 400.
Wayne Weaver, who sold the Jaguars to Khan in 2012, is worth $1.2 billion, Forbes said.
Although Khan is best known for owning the Jaguars, he built his fortune with auto parts supplier Flex-N-Gate, which he still owns.
Forbes said 54 members of this year’s list live in Florida, up from 46 in 2023, with a total net worth of $314 billion.