Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Jones Lang LaSalle: A Real Estate Brokerage Firm


The merger of Jones Lang Wootton and LaSalle Partners in 1999 created the current Jones Lang LaSalle, Inc. This publicly traded venture is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol JLL. The business specializes in real estate and provides investment management and professional services.

Jones Lang LaSalle operates globally and provides a wide array of services in relation to real estate. Their offered services include consulting and investment management, corporate finance, property management, merchant banking, real estate investment banking, capital markets, agency leasing, tenant representation, project and development management, energy and sustainability services, value recovery and receivership services and hotel advisory. The main office in Chicago covers the operations of the business in the Americas; their Asia Pacific regional market is based on their main hub in Singapore and their London office is in charge of their market in the Middle East, Africa and in Europe.

The experts that are manning the business are mostly Six-Sigma certified and thus are able to make a difference on how companies manage their business, their operations and the productivity of their associates. The financial advices that they provide allow companies to save on their operating expenses while improving the service level of support. These experts are also capable of generating greater shareholder values by helping the management team make better decisions in using, generating and disposing of assets.

Categorized as a commercial real estate brokerage firm, Jones Lang LaSalle is considered to be the second largest publicly traded business of its kind in the world. It has over 53,000 employees that is a combination of support staff and industry experts. It continues to operate in 75 countries around the world and manages 200 offices that are supporting thousands of businesses. The company has a portfolio comprised of more than 3 billion square feet of properties under management. Annually, it generates more than $4 billion in revenue.

Friday, December 26, 2014

Hillenbrand, Inc.: A Global Diversified Industrial Venture


Premium business-to-business products and various services are the offerings of Hillenbrand, Inc. to a wide array of industries. The business is a globally recognized, diversified industrial company that got incorporated in 2007.

Although the incorporation of Hillenbrand didn’t happen that long ago, the company carries a history of family tradition that dates back more than a century ago. The services provided by the company is underscored by excellence and strong customer service. There are two primary segments of the company: Batesville and Process Equipment Group. The former is known for being North America’s leader in funeral products while the latter products various systems and equipment that they design for processing applications.

Headquartered in Batesville, Indiana, the company is headed by Joe Raver, who sits as the CEO and President of its operations. Hillenbrand, Inc. is a multi-million dollar venture that publicly trades on the New York Stock Exchange, using the symbol HI.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

IGI Labs, Inc.: A Trusted Name in Gemology Reports


The expertise, experience and quality of service provided by IGI Labs, Inc. is known on a global scale. The company is registered as one of the world’s largest independent laboratories that offer evaluation and grading of diamonds and other fine jewelry.

The company is based in Antwerp, Belgium and is the oldest institute of its kind in the city. It was in 1975 that the company started. Together with its partner laboratories, the business is considered as one of the leading and the largest laboratories that offer certification of diamonds and fine jewelry around the world. Today, the business releases more than 1 million reports per year. While this figure might not that be sensational, if you are to go back 10 years ago, you are to see that gemological reports were only used by diamond dealers. This report is now used by jewelry processors and manufacturers around the world.

To ensure the consistency of its reports around the world, the company is governed by one central body. This is one of the highlights of the company as they are the only international certification lab that practices this. With this approach, they are also able to provide their clients the peace of mind they need as IGI is compliant with the international standards of diamond grading. The products and services offered by IGI, include diamond attestation and authentication, inscription services, independent diamond grading reports, identification and appraisal reports, colored stone reports and the IGI School of Gemology.

While it is true that gems do not come with a name nor a history, the services offered by IGI serve as a passport for your gems and jewelry. The gemological report that they provide is the only document that gets to travel around the world together with the valuable piece. IGI has a staff of more than 650 combined appraisers, office personnel and gemologists.

Friday, December 19, 2014

Heartware International, Inc.: Transforming the Lives of Patients with Heart Disease


As more and more people suffer from heart failures because of unhealthy lifestyle, medical device companies continue to innovate to keep up with the deadly disease. Heartware International, Inc. is one of the businesses that have taken on this challenge.

The business is a global venture that provides safe, high performing and transformative therapies that are geared towards the betterment of the quality of life of those suffering from any heart ailment. The proprietary technology of the business enables the creation of devices that require less invasive surgical procedures. These intellectual properties are helping advance the miniaturization of Ventricular Assist Devices (VAD).

With more than 20 million individuals around the world, who are suffering from terminal heart diseases, the need for highly advanced heart devices is skyrocketing. Heartware collaborates with other institutions to further advance their offerings of implantable systems. It continues to innovate its products with the welfare of its patients in mind.

The company is headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Gulfport Energy Corp: An Independent Oil and Gas Company


Gulfport Energy Corp is listed as an independent oil and gas exploration and production company. The business is publicly held on the NASDAQ and trades under the symbol GPOR. The company is a component of the Russell 3000 Index and is one the companies listed as part of the NASDAQ Global Select Market. It is headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The business is engaged in the exploration, exploitation, production and acquisition of natural gas, natural gas liquids and crude oil and resources-rich locations across the United States. The company has several properties that are capable of producing these resources. As of December 2013, the business is reported to be sitting in reserves that amount to 38.4 million barrels of oil equivalent. The properties of the company include acres and acres of oil field land in the Niobrara Formation in northwestern Colorado, the Bakken Formation in Western North Dakota and the Eastern portion of Montana; the Utica Shale in Eastern Ohio and in the Louisiana Gulf Coast.

The aggressive approach of the company in drilling in its proven fields led to the business exploiting more resources and providing value to their stockholders. Their stance in seeking potential resources has led them to exploration in conventional and unconventional oil and natural gas prospects that are now considered as some of the worlds largest promising fields. Through its subsidiaries, the company has stakes in the Alberta Oil Sands in Canada and the Phu Horm gas field in Thailand. Gulfport continues to identify potential fields and evaluates the promises these properties offer through exploratory drilling and geophysical data. The company is always poised to do acquisition over these prospect fields.

With the use of state of the art technology, Gulfport is able to further exploit their properties, especially in the Ultica Shale and the Southern Louisiana region. Part of their business strategy is also to uphold the company financial discipline and flexibility.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Forest Oil Corporation: An Independent Oil and Gas Company


For almost a century now, Forest Oil Corporation has been engaged in the development, exploration, production and acquisition of oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. The company is listed as an independent oil and gas company that is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

It was in 1916 that the operations of the company started in northwestern Pennsylvania. It is in the regions f the Ark-La-Tex and the Eagle Ford Shale that the operations of the business are concentrated. In the East Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana areas, the company has over 162,000 acres of interest. Their properties in the Eagle Ford Shale cover more than 24,500 acres and they also have additional interest in the Permian Basin which spans over 63,500 acres. The proven reserves of the business is estimated to be around 625 billion cubic feet equivalent of oil and gas.

Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, the company has come into a merger agreement with Sabine Oil & Gas in May 2014, which further expanded the interest of the business.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

GenCorp: America’s Technology Manufacturer


Established in 1915 and previously known as the General Tire and Rubber Company, GenCorp, Inc. is an American technology manufacturer that is headquartered in Rancho Cordova, California. The company was once engaged in the production of rubber products and even entered on the business of broadcasting and aeronautics. Due to mismanagement and some issues it has encountered with the federal commission, the business eventually spun off some of its businesses.

Its flagship product, General Tire was sold to German tire maker Continental AG. This allowed the business to focus on its remaining venture. The broadcasting division of the company was also discontinued and sold in 1987 after it had a hard time renewing its license due to issues of lying to its regulators and advertisers. With the end of the two businesses, the company now focused on its Aerojet and real estate ventures.

Today, the company provides innovative solutions to the aerospace and defense industry, energy and the real estate markets. They have operations across the United States and in Europe and is powered by their more than 6,000 employees. The real estate division of the company was once engaged in providing rocket manufacturing and testing facilities in the free world. These properties were also used to provide safe buffer zones for their Aerojet’s manufacturing and testing operations. Eventually, as the need for these safe zones decreased, the company created these properties into communities, which they now refer to as Easton.

Their Aerojet segment provides propulsion and energetics to the missile defense, space, tactical missile, armaments and strategic markets. The services provided by this business arm has bolstered humanity’s capacity to explore space. It is worth noting that this division has also helped launch the first few space exploration of humanity. They are also given credit for fortifying America’s technological advancements when it comes to space exploration.