Cash-Starved Companies Scrap Dividends, Tap Credit [View All]

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Source: Bloomberg

Carmike Cinemas Inc., the third- largest U.S. theater chain by screens, suspended its dividend, while Duke Energy Corp., owner of utilities in five U.S. states, tapped $1 billion from a credit agreement and RC2 Corp., the maker of infant and preschool products, canceled an acquisition.

The paralysis in credit markets is changing how U.S. companies do business as banks pull back on loans or make them prohibitively expensive. Some companies are closing plants and stores, postponing takeovers and grabbing any available credit in a fight for survival.

``If businesses don't have access to capital, smaller companies in particular, they might get wiped out,'' said Alec Young, a New York-based equity strategist at Standard & Poor's. ``It's impossible to quantify how expensive this crisis is going to be for Corporate America; there's unlimited downside.''

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``It's almost inconceivable that there won't be an enormous slowdown in the U.S. markets and with that, increased joblessness, lower employment and higher bankruptcy rates, both personal and corporate,'' Michael Vogelzang, who oversees $2 billion as chief investment officer at Boston Advisors LLC, said in an interview yesterday. ``Businesses are going to have to adapt.''

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