Daily Record Financial News &
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 154 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Good first year for Black Knight
Stock trading more than 40 percent over IPO price A year after its initial public offering, Black Knight Financial Services Inc. CEO Thomas Sanzone is quite happy with the Jacksonville-based company’s progress. “I think the first year went as well as we could have hoped,” Sanzone said Wednesday after Black Knight’s first shareholders meeting since the IPO. Black Knight, which provides processing services for mortgage
lenders, is trading more than 40 percent higher than its May 2015 IPO price of $24.50. “By our standards, I think that’s a pretty good return,” Sanzone said. Black Knight, which was spun off from Fidelity National Financial Inc., is the successor to a company founded more than 50 years ago in Jacksonville as Computer Power Inc. For most of its history, it has been the dominant company in its field. Black Knight’s annual report states the company’s sys-
tem processes 59 percent of all first mortgage loans in the U.S. Company officials said Wednesday that percentage continues to grow with recent contract wins. The market share has now reached 62 percent and will go even higher after a new agreement with Bank of America to use the Black Knight system to process first and second mortgage loans. “That will add a nice percentage to that number,” Sanzone said.
He said implementation of new contracts like that take six to 18 months and the company has several in process. “So we have a lot of work to do,” Sanzone said. Black Knight’s shareholder meeting followed Fidelity’s annual meeting in the auditorium of the office complex on Riverside Avenue where both companies are headquartered. Fidelity retained a 55 percent interest in Black Knight after the IPO. Black Knight continued on Page A-3
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By Mark Basch Contributing Writer
I think the first year went as well as we could have hoped. Thomas Sanzone CEO of Black Knight Financial Services Inc.
Builders endorse sales tax extension
Clearing the way for Black Sheep in Hemming
NEFBA gives first major backing to pension effort
Photo by Max Marbut
By Kevin Hogencamp Contributing Writer
The café at Hemming Park is fenced off and the food truck area has been moved into the walkway to make way for the next phase of the Black Sheep kiosk project. A water line with a meter and a sewer line will be installed by JEA to connect service to the fastcasual takeout restaurant and bar that will be operated in the park by the owners of Black Sheep 5 Points.
By Marilyn Young Editor
Like many around the world, Marty McCall’s Sunday morning began with the harrowing news of the mass shooting in Orlando. Dozens dead. Dozens more wounded. Millions heartbroken. McCall had worked as a florist wholesaler in Orlando for three years. He knew about Pulse, a popular gay nightclub in the heart of the city. It had always been a safe environment, McCall said. Sunday changed that. The news was a little more per-
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sonal to McCall. The nephew of a rose grower with whom McCall has done business for 15 years was killed that morning. McCall, who owns Kuhn Flowers in Jacksonville, wondered what he could do to help. The answer came from the daughter of the owner of Katherine’s Florist, Kuhn’s sister store in Clermont. McCall is sending seven employees to Orlando today to help make wreaths for each victim to be placed at a memorial wall being created Friday. The three-foot wreaths will Kuhn continued on Page A-4
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Kuhn Flowers is donating wreaths for a memorial wall and flowers for funeral services of the Orlando nightclub shooting victims in partnership with its sister store, Katherine’s Florist in Clermont. Above is Michelle Morgan, vice president of Kuhn.
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Kuhn donating flowers for Orlando victims
The Yes for Jacksonville campaign to build support to pay down Jacksonville’s pension debt with an extended half-cent sales tax got a shot in the arm Wednesday from area homebuilders. Following a request for support from Mayor Lenny Curry, the 1,287-member Northeast Florida Builders Association endorsed the sales tax extension and donated $10,000 to the campaign. Jacksonville voters will decide Aug. 30 whether to extend the Better Jacksonville Plan half-cent sales tax beyond 2030 to tackle the city’s $2.8 billion in unfunded liabilities. The tax would be extended for 30 years or until the city’s retirement plans for police and firefighters, general employees, and corrections officers are fully funded, whichever occurs first. “Thank you. This is big,” Curry told NEFBA members following their vote. “This is how we’re going to get our message out.” The City Council in May unanimously approved putting the pension tax on the ballot. The newly formed bipartisan Yes for Jacksonville has raised more than $500,000 to convince voters to approved the tax. Curry said Wednesday Yes for Jacksonville will spend much of its campaign funds on television advertising and mailers. “Money is important and get-out-to-vote is important,” the mayor said. Curry told the builders he is approaching his job with a sense of urgency — and fixing the city’s pension problems is the most critical challenge. As he’s done before, Curry said Wednesday the consequence of not directly paying down the city’s pension debt is to file bankruptcy as Detroit did in 2013. Detroit’s bankruptcy plan, by far the largest in U.S. history, resolved a pension crisis at a cost
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