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Fidelity National Financial (NYSE:FNF)
Q3 2012 Earnings Call
November 06, 2012 11:00 am ET
Daniel Kennedy Murphy - Senior Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations of Fidelity National Financial
William P. Foley - Executive Chairman, Chairman of Executive Committee and Chairman of FNF Holding
George P. Scanlon - Chief Executive Officer
Anthony J. Park - Chief Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer and Executive Vice President
Raymond R. Quirk - President
Mark C. DeVries - Barclays Capital, Research Division
Jordon Neil Hymowitz - Philadelphia Financial Management of San Francisco, LLC
Geoffrey M. Dunn - Dowling & Partners Securities, LLC
Bose George - Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods, Inc., Research Division
Brett Huff - Stephens Inc., Research Division
DeForest R. Hinman - Walthausen & Co., LLC
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the FNF 2012 Third Quarter Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] And as a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Dan Murphy. Please go ahead.
Daniel Kennedy Murphy
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us for our third quarter 2012 earnings conference call. Joining me today are Bill Foley, our Chairman; George Scanlon, CEO; Randy Quirk, President; and Tony Park, our CFO. We'll begin with a brief strategic overview from Bill Foley. George Scanlon will provide an update on the Title business and our other operating companies. And Tony Park will finish with a review of the financial highlights. We'll then open the call for your questions and finish with some concluding remarks from Bill Foley.
This conference call may contain forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about our expectations, hopes, intentions or strategies regarding the future, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to management. Because such statements are based on expectations as to future financial and operating results and are not statements of fact, actual results may differ materially from those projected. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The risks and uncertainties, which forward-looking statements are subject to include, but are not limited to, the risks and other factors detailed in our press release dated yesterday and in the statement regarding forward-looking information, risk factors and other sections of the company's Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC.
This conference call will be available for replay via webcast at our website at fnf.com. It will also be available through phone replay beginning at 1:00 P.M. Eastern Time today through November 13. The replay number is (800) 475-6701 and the access code is 266992.
Let me now turn the call over to our Chairman, Bill Foley.
William P. Foley
Thanks, Dan. The third quarter is another solid performance from our Title Insurance business as we generated a 14.4% pretax margin for the second consecutive quarter. The last 2 quarters are evidence of significant earnings potential we have in a stronger real estate market.
We acquired control of J. Alexander's on September 25, and closed the acquisition on October 29. We believe that J. Alexander's and its relative position upscale casual will be a great addition to our casual dining line up and look forward to its revenue and earnings contribution to our restaurant group.
In August, we purchased an additional 1.5 million shares of Remy, giving us a 51% majority ownership stake in the company. Remy is also moving forward with its plan to have its stock, stock-listed on NASDAQ, undertaking certain initiatives to increase a number of round lot shareholders to meet the minimum NASDAQ listing requirements. We believe a move to NASDAQ will significantly increase liquidity of the stock and provide future financial flexibility for both Remy and its shareholders.
Last quarter, we announced that Cascade has signed a definitive agreement to sell its landholdings. This particular transaction will not happen. We continue to look at other transactions, but are comfortable holding this investment for the longer-term if attractive alternatives are not presented.
During August, we issued $400 million of tenure senior notes utilizing majority of the proceeds to redeem the $236 million of senior notes coming due in March 2013, and to repay $50 million borrowed under our credit facility. We now have no debt maturities until May 2017, and an unused $800 million credit facility providing significant financial flexibility over the next several years.
In late July, we repurchased 1,015,000 shares of stock for a total purchase price of $19 million, including a $1 million share block at a price of $18.80. With the expiration of our current share authorization on July 31, our Board authorized a new 3-year $15 million share plan that currently has full authority available.
Finally, last week, our Board approved a 14% increase on our quarterly cash dividend, moving it to $0.16 per share. We believe this dividend is a welcome return of capital for our shareholders, as a strong dividend is one of our main priorities in continually seeking to create value for our shareholders.
Let me now turn the call over to our CEO, George Scanlon.
George P. Scanlon
Thank you, Bill. This quarter, again, highlights the strength of our Title business in an environment of steady, consistent order volumes. Opening closed orders were primarily refinance-driven and generally similar to the second quarter of this year and we generated another strong 14.4% pretax title margin.
Additionally, we also saw a 7% increase in open resale orders versus the third quarter of 2011, continuing the improvement in purchase volume we have seen throughout 2012.
Finally, we have also seen a continuing year-over-year decline in claim payments as our claims management initiatives drive lower costs and we work our way through the high claim years contributing to a significant improvement in company cash flow. Our company is well-positioned to take advantage of the emerging recovery in real estate.
Title pretax earnings of $211 million grew by $73 million or 53% over the third quarter of 2011, and our title pretax margin of 14.4% improved by 220 basis points over the prior-year period.
For the second consecutive quarter, we produced a 14.4% pretax title margin in a market that remains weighted toward refinance orders. Our commercial Title business continued to perform well despite a 7% decline in third quarter revenue versus the prior year. Open orders of 18,200 increased 2%, and closed orders of 12,000 improved by 3%.
The revenue decline was driven by a 10% decline in commercial fee per file, which is solely a function of the size, type and mix of closed orders during the quarter.
Overall, the Commercial business continues to perform very well for us and we expect another strong fourth quarter performance.
Open order accounts were very strong during the quarter, growing 18% over the prior year and gaining momentum as the quarter ended and we entered the fourth quarter. Overall, open orders averaged more than 11,200 per day for the third quarter, with July averaging 11,400; August, 10,800; and September, 11,400.
The month of October actually showed an increase to nearly 11,700 open orders per day, our strongest monthly open order performance of the year. Not surprisingly, the mix of third quarter business was weighted toward refinance orders as 67% of open orders and 63% of closed orders were refinance-related. As I mentioned earlier, we continue to see strength in the purchase market as we experienced a 7% increase in purchase order volumes opened in the third quarter versus the prior year, continuing the trend we have seen throughout this year.
At ServiceLink, open orders increased 34% sequentially from the second quarter while closed orders declined by 3%.
Harp orders constituted approximately 50% of total open orders at ServiceLink in the third quarter. A significant volume of Harp business has caused a backlog of major centralized lenders and we expect to see a significant increase in closed orders at ServiceLink in the fourth quarter as the backlog is worked through.
We now have 2 consolidated operations in addition to the Title business. American Blue Ribbon produced operating revenue of $298 million, and adjusted EBITDA of more than $10 million. All 3 restaurants segments, Casual, Upscale Casual and Family Dining posted positive comparative sales figures for the third quarter.
Of the 6 concepts, only 1, O'Charley's, trailed its competitive benchmarks. We are still in the early stages of the integration of the O'Charley's acquisition, and we have many specific plans in place to improve the performance of the O'Charley's concept. These include a revamped menu with a focus on everyday value and embarking on a test remodeling program in mid-November.
We expect to make significant progress in improving the financial performance of the O'Charley's concept during 2013. We also reported a $48 million pretax gain related to tax attributes acquired in the O'Charley's acquisition. On an after-tax basis, this added $34 million or $0.15 per diluted share to FNF's third quarter earnings. Overall, ABRH produced pretax earnings of $43 million for the third quarter.
Upon achieving majority ownership on August 15, we began consolidating Remy's financial results, so we are reporting about 6 weeks of operations this quarter and we'll report our first full quarter of financial results in the fourth quarter.
For the partial quarter, Remy generated operating revenue of $143 million and adjusted EBITDA of nearly $20 million for an EBITDA margin of 13.6%.
Remy continues to perform well against a challenging global macroeconomic backdrop and remains focused on cost savings initiatives during the difficult economic environment. We also reported a $79 million pretax gain on the consolidation of Remy, as accounting rules require that we mark our formally minority-owned investment to market. On an after-tax basis, this added $55 million or $0.24 per diluted share to FNF's third quarter earnings. Overall, Remy produced pretax earnings of $80 million for the third quarter.
Additionally, we recognized $5.5 million in earnings from equity investments from Remy through the first half of the third quarter when we still owned a minority stake.
Finally, our minority owned investment, Ceridian, generated third quarter revenue of $356 million, a 3% decline from the prior year quarter, but despite that revenue decline, EBITDA of $88 million actually increased 17%. The EBITDA margin was 25% for the quarter and our 33% share of Ceridian's quarterly loss was $2 million.
Let me now turn the call over to Tony Park to review the financial highlights. Tony?
Anthony J. Park
Thank you, George. FNF generated more than $2 billion in revenue in the third quarter compared to $1.2 billion in the third quarter of 2011, as title revenue grew by $270 million or 23%. The consolidations of the restaurant group and Remy added $441 million in revenue and the realized gains from Remy and ABRH added $127 million in revenue this quarter. Net earnings were $233 million or $1.03 per diluted share and net earnings were $144 million or $0.64 per diluted share, excluding the Remy and American Blue Ribbon gains. Book value per share grew to $20.50.
The Title segment generated more than $1.4 billion in operating revenue for the third quarter, a 23% increase from the third quarter of 2011. Direct title premiums grew by nearly 17%, driven by a 27% increase in closed orders, offset somewhat by a 5% decline in the fee per file due to a higher mix of refinance transactions.
Agency premiums grew by 34% over the prior year, as our aggressive stance in reducing agency relationships and adjusting splits in New York have now taken place more than 12 months ago. Agency profitability grew as the third quarter agent split improved by nearly 60 basis points to 76%.
Title segment personnel costs increased by $53 million or 14% versus the third quarter of 2011, and other operating expenses grew by $25 million or 9.5%.
As we would expect, variable-based personnel cost increased more than the higher fixed-based other operating expenses, reflecting the operating leverage to improve order counts and the future mix shift toward more purchase transactions. The net effect was a 14.4% pretax title margin, an improvement of 220 basis points versus the third quarter of 2011.
As Bill mentioned, we issued $400 million of senior notes during the quarter, and we used the majority of those proceeds to redeem $236 million of senior notes that were maturing in March 2013, and repay $50 million borrowed under our credit facility.
FNF, excluding ABRH and Remy, has a total of $979 million in debt on the balance sheet at September 30, with no maturities until May 2017.
Additionally, there were no borrowings under our credit facility as of September 30.
The consolidation of Remy and ABRH added debt of $371 million, with $272 million from Remy, and $99 million from ABRH.
FNF does not provide any corporate guarantee on the debt of either Remy or ABRH.
Our debt-to-capital ratio was 23% at September 30, including the Remy and ABRH debt.
Total title claims paid were $97.5 million during the third quarter and our reserve position remains within a reasonable range of our actuarial estimates.
We will continue to provide for future claims at a 7% provision level for the remainder of 2012 and into 2013.
We also continue to see encouraging results from the 2009 through 2012 policy years.
Finally, our investment portfolio totaled $5.1 billion at September 30, an increase of approximately $90 million from June 30.
From a regulated standpoint, we have more than $1.8 billion in statutory reserves, $1.7 billion in regulated cash and investments, and $530 million in secured trust deposits for a total of nearly $4.1 billion in regulated cash and investments.
From an unregulated perspective, we have $370 million in a minority equity investments in Ceridian, and approximately $440 million in unregulated cash and investments, for a total of $810 million in unregulated cash and investments.
There's also $112 million in consolidated cash at Remy and American Blue Ribbon that is necessary for their operations.
Let me now turn the call back to our operator, Cynthia, to allow for any questions.
Question-and-Answer Session
[Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from the line of Mark DeVries from Barclays.
Mark C. DeVries - Barclays Capital, Research Division
Can you tell me any benefit we might expect to see for the Title margin in the fourth quarter as you work through that backlog of -- in ServiceLink that presumably had processing expenses upfront, but not necessarily revenues?
George P. Scanlon
Yes, Mark, this is George. The ServiceLink performance in the fourth quarter will be better than the third quarter based on that order buildup in the third quarter closing in the fourth quarter and you noted correctly that we have to maintain a certain level of personnel to handle the order volumes and we saw that buildup during the quarter. It varies by bank and they can be sporadic, but when they come in, they come in heavy. So I would expect that there's some margin upside in our ServiceLink operations in the fourth quarter.
Mark C. DeVries - Barclays Capital, Research Division
Okay. And then just more broadly, how much headcount did you add in the quarter?
Raymond R. Quirk
This is Randy. We added 348 employees in the third quarter.
Mark C. DeVries - Barclays Capital, Research Division
Okay. And I assume that you believe that puts you in a good position for the volume you would expect given the latest movement rates to handle anything in the fourth quarter and beyond?
Raymond R. Quirk
Yes. It certainly, does. As George mentioned, a little bit of a backlog on the closing so even as the orders would flatten off, potentially with the seasonal effect as you go through the fourth quarter, we're going to have some real good closing volumes so we're watching it closely. We staff our company to productivity standards and metrics and we use it on the way up and we use it on the way down. So we think we're in actually a pretty good shape, but we need to open and close these deals and take care of our customers.
Mark C. DeVries - Barclays Capital, Research Division
Okay. And then it looks like your agent premiums grew a lot faster year-over-year than direct this quarter. Can you just give us a little color on what you attribute that relative strength to?
George P. Scanlon
I would say a lot of it has to do with maybe some of the noise of getting through the changes we made in New York. We talked about split adjustments that we made during the, I think, early second quarter of last year in New York. We've also been through a process, as you're very familiar, with reducing agent relationships that didn't make sense to us. So really getting through that and having some distance between those decisions and where we are today, I think, we're improving relationships with those agents that are still a big part of what we do and we're getting more remittance from them and so we're seeing a nice improvement year-over-year in agency volume.
Mark C. DeVries - Barclays Capital, Research Division
Okay, great. And then finally, I think, George, you commented that the outlook for commercial volumes is good. Do you expect kind of the normal seasonality in fourth quarter volume with the pick up there?
George P. Scanlon
I would expect the fourth quarter to be stronger than the third. As you can appreciate, Mark, commercial deals are large on a relative basis and can slip quarter-to-quarter. So it's hard for us to project exactly what's closing, but traditionally, the fourth quarter is the strongest and our inventory coming into fourth quarter is very strong. So as best as we can tell, we'd expect an up quarter, but it's subject to all those factors that can cause deals to get delayed.
Our next question comes from the line of Jordon Hymowitz with Michigan Financial.
Jordon Neil Hymowitz - Philadelphia Financial Management of San Francisco, LLC
Can you talk about the Harp loans for a minute. Is there any different pricing differential that you guys garner on HARP loans than non-HARP loans?
George P. Scanlon
Jordon, this is George. No, it's really the same pricing. They're obviously managed by the banks on a centralized basis and they come into our operation and so there's some efficiencies we realize as the volumes pick up and we're able to leverage the headcount, but the rate is about the same that we get in other refi transactions.
Jordon Neil Hymowitz - Philadelphia Financial Management of San Francisco, LLC
Is the expenses any less or not really or?
George P. Scanlon
No, not really. I mean, it all flows, for the most part, through our ServiceLink operations and the margins there are comparable to our other field operations and I think the challenge that ServiceLink has to monitor is their headcount levels relative to the order volumes which can be spiky. But as we indicated, there was a build in the third quarter and good momentum coming into the fourth and so we expect the closings to accelerate based on that build of inventory.
Jordon Neil Hymowitz - Philadelphia Financial Management of San Francisco, LLC
And last question on the topic is what percent of originations in the quarter were Harp and what percentage in the fourth quarter, on the backlog, so to speak?
George P. Scanlon
Well, out of our total refi orders in the third quarter, 15% to 20%, Randy?
Raymond R. Quirk
Pretty close to 20%.
George P. Scanlon
20% were Harp-related. So we've talked about 67% of the orders in the quarter being refi-related. So the 20% of that is the Harp-related order volume.
Jordon Neil Hymowitz - Philadelphia Financial Management of San Francisco, LLC
And is it similar to the backlog?
George P. Scanlon
Yes, I think that's probably about -- that's a good assumption to use, Jordon, as you project into fourth quarter.
Our next question comes from the line of Geoffrey Dunn with Dowling & Partners.
Geoffrey M. Dunn - Dowling & Partners Securities, LLC
First, could you talk a little bit more about the commercial market. It's probably for Randy. Are we seeing any shift in the type of deals being done, meaning, are we shifting more back to traditional business versus some of the workout deals we've been seeing for the last few years? And is that affecting your fee per file on any kind of permanent basis?
Raymond R. Quirk
Well, you're seeing a lot of multifamily work -- multifamily transactions right now. You're still seeing the large commercial properties known as the trophy properties coming through. So I think, again, in terms of a fee per file, it's a little bit of a product of timing of what transaction close and which quarter, but traditional back in the sense that you do have refinances of properties and how you are seeing that multistate and also just local pure sales.
Geoffrey M. Dunn - Dowling & Partners Securities, LLC
Okay. And then kind of extending what we're talking about with ServiceLink. In general, I think, the sense in the market is that closing periods, particularly on refis, are extended across the board. So in modeling, we would normally think that openings in October would hit December or early January. What is your sense in the market these days? How low has that period been extended out?
Raymond R. Quirk
Well, as George mentioned, in ServiceLink, we have more of the spikes in volume. You've seen some of this logjam within the lenders. So what used to be a refinanced transaction that could close potentially in 3 weeks to 4 weeks, you're now looking at 6 weeks and 7 weeks and when you get out into the direct operations, it's pretty much the same thing that there is such high-volume right now. It's taking longer to get from open to close.
Geoffrey M. Dunn - Dowling & Partners Securities, LLC
Okay. And then last question is on the restaurant side. Obviously, a lot of integration going on right now with a couple of significant deals. Can you give us any insight into how we can judge your integration efforts over the next, let's say, through '13. I think you've talked about getting that EBITDA margin up to peer comps, I think, they're probably like 6%, 8%. Is that a fair hurdle to judge you on in the next 5 quarters?
William P. Foley
Yes, I think that's a fair judgment to use. We're with O'Charley's, which is the major integration effort, O'Charley's and Stoney River and a little bit of 99. That really kicked off in May and June of this year. And we went to the process of actually moving the ABRH headquarters from Nashville, down to our -- I'm sorry, from Denver to Nashville, and the key management staff that was involved with ABRH actually have relocated and moved and there's been significant adjustments in personnel already in the ABRH group. And we're ahead of schedule and our minimum synergy number was $20 million, but the guys are incented to do better than that and we are confident that we'll do significantly better than the $20 million synergy number. But to date, with the restaurant closings and there'll be a little noise probably in the fourth quarter with regard to a couple of J. Alexander's closings, and then the booking of negative goodwill in fact, in the income. So we've just had noise the first 5 or 6 months of this acquisition program. That should be really behind us beginning in January or the first quarter of next year. And then you're going to start seeing these numbers fall into line and we'll be meeting your expectations as we go forward through 2013.
Geoffrey M. Dunn - Dowling & Partners Securities, LLC
And Bill, is there -- now that you've had these various acquisitions, is there any particular type of restaurant area that there's a hole on the portfolio you've established or you just continue to be watching optimistically for deals that might complement?
William P. Foley
No, I believe actually what we're focusing on -- well, I know what we're focusing on now is kind of upscale casual. If we brought a management team along in terms of the operations group with J. Alexander's that's very skilled and they're going to get involved with our Stoney River chain, which is upscale casual. And we're taking a look in the marketplace for upscale casual chains, could be integrated into that division. So we really have 3 divisions now of kind of a family dining segment, a casual group, which would be O'Charley's, 99, Max & Ermas and upscale casual, which is J. Alexander's, Stoney River. And there's a lot of capacity to add to that third leg. On the O'Charley's leg or O'Charley's restaurant chain, I was just out at Nashville a couple of weeks ago and we have an excellent outside image enhancement and inside image enhancement program that will be kicking off, with the first one being finished around November 15. And it's exciting, the way it's going to redesign the way O'Charley's looks and make it present itself in a different way to the consumer, plus it's a complete food, a complete menu modification and change and it's a change in terms of the training and the dress and the attitude of the employees. So I walked away from that experience in Nashville, a couple of O'Charley's having really a lot of confidence in the direction we're taking with O'Charley's. And I would encourage you, in the first or second quarter of next year, to take a trip to where some of the stores have been remodeled and just take a look and try the food because it's outstanding. And this is going to be not just a fun investment for FNF, but a very profitable one.
Our next question comes from the line of Bose George with KBW.
Bose George - Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods, Inc., Research Division
Just going back to the title margin, if we leave aside ServiceLink, do we need the purchase market to come back a little more to see the Title margin go up from here?
George P. Scanlon
Bose, it's George. I'd say that, that's always a function of volume, right? And our margins, as you've seen in the last couple of quarters, are in the mid-teens. And despite an overall market, that's still pretty lousy. I would say that as we begin the transition to a more normalized mix where we're maybe 70%-30% purchase to refi along with a continued strong commercial market, you'll see our ability to expand margins. And obviously, the market will be going through a transition next year, but in the meantime, we're enjoying the refi volumes and we're able to generate market-leading margins.
Bose George - Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods, Inc., Research Division
It makes sense. And just switching over to capital management, you guys obviously raised the dividend nicely, but just going forward, the shares remain a little bit above book. How do you just balance the difference, uses for your excess capital?
George P. Scanlon
Well, paying a strong dividend is a priority of ours and we've been raising it over the last couple of years, 17% coming into this year and now 14%. And it's a respectable yield on our book value. And as you indicated, we're trading marginally above book today. We've added, I think, about $4 per share to book value this year so far. And as we look at buybacks, we were active in the third quarter. There was an opportunistic situation that allowed us to take out a chunk of shares. We will periodically be back in the market doing buybacks as well. As Tony indicated, our balance sheet is in great shape. We've got an $800 million revolver that's not drawn on. Targets for growth will probably be to augment the restaurant business. We see opportunities as we've complete the integration of O'Charley's to further expand that. And we also look at small niche-type transactions in the Title business that can strengthen our offerings through our ServiceLink programs. So those are where we're going. We're still mindful of a market that's transitioning so we want to be on the conservative side, but as you saw from our cash flow, we're encouraged about the directions that claims are going. And hopefully, we could see a sustainable trend there and over time, that will obviously allow us to take down our provision rate and enhance our margins that way as well. So those are probably the order of priority I would place on it.
Our next question comes from the line of Brett Huff with Stephens, Inc.
Brett Huff - Stephens Inc., Research Division
A couple of quick questions. George, just to follow-up on your provision comment just a minute ago, it sounds like when Tony -- or maybe Tony can comment on this too. Tony, you said that 7% through '12 and then into '13, does that imply you guys are sort of thinking about a reduction in provision once we get in the back half of '13 or what visibility can you give us on that?
George P. Scanlon
Well, we've seen favorable trends, Brett, as we're starting to get on the other side of the mountain of those high claim years in '06, '07 and '08. And then we've seen favorable loss experience in '09, '10, '11 and year-to-date '12. So at some point, frankly, we're going to be over-provisioning. And if that trend continues, that we've seen over the last few years, then continuing a 7% rate will be inappropriate and too high. So as we look into next year, we're going to maintain that 7% rate. You're always subject to some volatility with major claims and so we want to maintain more of a conservative bias, but certainly, if we maintain this pace through '13, then as you look at '14, I'd say there's likely to be a reduction in that provision rate.
Brett Huff - Stephens Inc., Research Division
Okay. And then in the past, you guys have talked about sort of what the normalized market and what maybe the earnings power could be. Any revisions to that thought in terms of earnings power for the company looking forward now in a normalized market, whatever that might mean?
George P. Scanlon
Yes, it's hard to say what a normalized market is. The outlook for next year is changing and improving. I think as refi is expected to be stronger than it was originally thought and the resale market is improving and we're seeing that in our numbers. I think what we've done is we've adjusted our cost structure to where in a normalized 1.5 trillion market, we're going to do very well. But next year won't be normalized because, I think, we're still seeing the transition and I don't think we'll see, until '14, a shift where purchase is outweighing refi, but we've done the things on the cost side, both in our shared services group, as well as in our field operations, to improve our efficiency. We've done some things with technology that are enabling us to be more productive. And so our breakeven point is lower and we've consistently shown a discipline on the cost side so that as order volumes pick up, we closely monitor the variable expense. So getting to the high teens is eminently achievable without getting to a $2 trillion market, which at one point in time, would have been kind of average. So we're just taking as it comes. Again, if commercial can continue to maintain its pace, the residential side will take care of itself and you'll continue to see margin expansion down the road.
Brett Huff - Stephens Inc., Research Division
Great. And then 2 more questions here. One is just a quick numbers question. On the tax rate, that moved around a little bit, it seems like the new segments are affecting that. What's a good number to use going forward? And then similar to that, as we look on the 2 new segments, the restaurants are relatively new and then Remy, should we just kind of double Remy based on what we saw this quarter and is that a reasonable run rate and then adjust it for any cost savings or operational synergies going forward? And then restaurants, what can we expect sort of on a run rate either with or without the new Jacks business?
George P. Scanlon
Well, let me answer a couple question, I want Tony to handle the tax rate. I think using the Remy 6 weeks is a -- for modeling purposes, is probably a good way to start. They had some softness on the revenue line this quarter. That's probably going to continue for a little while, but I think directionally, that's a good start. Our restaurant business is running at about $1.5 billion of annualized revenue. The EBITDA measures are going to be still a little noisy as we get through the assimilation of O'Charley's, some additional restructuring expenses, the benefits of synergy coming through, and the timing of those, and then obviously, the J. Alexander's integration. So we don't give guidance, Brett, here, but I'd say you'll see expanding EBITDA margins into 2013, with a better second half run rate than a first half run rate as we further the integration and get some of the store closures and cost adjustments behind us.
Anthony J. Park
And Brett, just to follow on. On the Remy piece, there was one adjustment that was solely related to our acquisition of a majority ownership stake, it was a purchase accounting number of $8.5 million that you can see in the reconciliation. So I would factor that in as being a one-time item. And then in terms of the tax rate, the fourth quarter, we would expect to see somewhere about the same as what we see year-to-date, which is a 30% effective income tax rate and that's been lowered due to a consolidations of ABRH, consolidation of Remy and losses from our equity investment in Ceridian. If you look toward next year though, I would expect to see that rate somewhere closer to what our historical rate's been, which is about 35%.
[Operator Instructions] Our next question will come from the line of Deforest Hinman with Walthausen & Company.
DeForest R. Hinman - Walthausen & Co., LLC
I had a couple of strategic questions. Can you talk about your performance targets you're using with the Blue Ribbon's business and how we should think about you achieving those benchmarks going forward?
William P. Foley
I think our first performance target relates to O'Charley's, and that's with this image enhancement and the menu change, uniform change and enhanced training. We really want -- we're really focused on moving the average unit volumes of O'Charley's up from that 2.3 per store average and getting more toward 2.5, 2.6 over the next several years. And as you know, as you get that additional revenue, it really starts falling through into EBITDA and into pre and after-tax profits because you've already got your fixed expenses and -- fixed expenses in place. I think the earlier question really highlighted where we're trying to get to in terms of this EBITDA margin target. And so we're targeting the 6.5% to 7% once our synergies are in place in terms of EBITDA on the restaurant group based upon the total revenue of the group. And we should get these synergies and it should be done and out of the way by the middle to the third quarter of next year. And then we'll really get back to work on just running the businesses very, very efficiently. Does that help or?
DeForest R. Hinman - Walthausen & Co., LLC
No, that's very helpful. And then on the Remy business, it's interesting that you increased your ownership in that business. I know, in the past, you had the S1 sitting out there trying to do the IPO and with this transaction, are you kind of saying that you're not looking to do this spin in the near-term? And if not, what is the strategy with this business being consolidated at this point in time?
William P. Foley
Well, we did a lot of work on Remy over the last 4 or 5 years. I mean, restructured the balance sheet, got rid of the preferred shares, got rid of some very expensive debt, and now, have now got the company structured with really modest debt. And on a net basis, we have about $100 million of cash, $105 million of cash and $290 million of debt. So the goal for Remy now is to start paying down that debt and move toward a lower debt-to-capital ratio. But on the overall thought process, we've investigated taking Remy public and it just was not -- the timing was just not right for that particular asset to undertake a public offering. We then took a stab at seeing that there were interested parties in acquiring our position in Remy, and that didn't work out. People really wanted the whole company or they weren't willing to pay enough money or they just didn't want our position. So for all the myriad of reasons you'd always experience in trying to sell a large minority position in the company. So then we decided, what we should really do is get this company more closely integrated within the Fidelity National Financial organizational structure, acquire a majority interest and then follow through on a NASDAQ listing by trying to create an employee stock purchase plan or other ways to try to increase the round lot number of shareholders to the 300 minimum required by NASDAQ. And so then at least we've gotten -- we've accomplished the mission of getting Remy traded on NASDAQ as a public company even though the float will be fairly modest but it will give some of our larger shareholders a chance to dispose of shares through NASDAQ as opposed to pink sheets. It will also raise the standard for Remy a bit because it will be Sarbanes-Oxley compliant within the next, I think, it's 2 years for them and 1 year for -- by the end of '13 for FNF. And then we'll see how the market goes for an asset like Remy. There may be some acquisitions. We have a lot of building on that balance sheet to borrow money to make acquisitions. We have a way to -- if we're on NASDAQ, we have a way to issue stock to a potential seller. So the flexibility for us goes way up. So that's kind of the Remy plan we ended up doing or taking the best alternative that we could come up with in terms of improving our relative position with our Remy investment and that's why we went over 50%.
DeForest R. Hinman - Walthausen & Co., LLC
Okay, that's helpful. And then my last question is just on can you help us understand how the economics of foreclosure transaction like let's say some type of auction or even a bank sale to a third party. Is there any difference between the fees on that title search relative to the business we're seeing now?
William P. Foley
Well, I think, Randy, you've got to handle that one because you'd be more attuned to it.
Raymond R. Quirk
Yes. Virtually the same. I mean, you've got the REO that goes from the bank over to the home buyer, the new buyer and potentially a lender. So generally speaking, the fees are the same. You'd have a closing fee and a title insurance policy. So pretty much the same as your typical resale transaction.
DeForest R. Hinman - Walthausen & Co., LLC
Okay. So there's no increased instances of like quick claim deeds. And the need to these type of transactions, it's really -- they have to go through a regimented process?
Raymond R. Quirk
Correct, yes.
And with that, I'd like to turn it back over to you, Mr. Foley, for any closing comment.
William P. Foley
Thank you. This is another great quarter for our Title business, primarily driven by refinance transactions. We were particularly excited about our future earnings potential as we begin to see more meaningful sustained improvement in the residential purchase market. We are also excited to be consolidating ABRH and Remy, and we are confident that holding a majority ownership positions in both of these companies will allow us to better create future significant value for our shareholders from both of these investments.
Thanks for joining us today. Look forward to talking to you next quarter.
Thank you. And ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude your conference call for today. Thank you for your participation and for using AT&T Executive TeleConference service. You may now disconnect.
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text:
The opening night patrons eschewed formal wear for flannel pajamas, Christian Louboutins in favor of slippers topped with bunny ears. The beverage of choice wasn't Champagne or Scotch rocks, but milk – two-percent fat, straight up. Canapes were absent. Cookies were abundant.
Welcome to the local premiere of "Goodnight Moon" at the Jefferson Performing Arts Society's Westwego Performing Arts Theatre. On this crisp Friday evening, a cup of hot chocolate wouldn't have been out of place, fully appropriate to the age 4 to 8 demographic poised for 90 minutes' worth of fluffy musical diversion.
"Goodnight Moon," of course, originated as a 1947 bedtime story with text by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrations by Clement Hurd. Generations of parents facing off against restless kidlets have, in quiet desperation or knowing anticipation, opened up this slender volume and thus restored sanity to a grateful household.
Almost six decades and uncounted copies after its initial publication, "Goodnight Moon" evolved from page to stage. Chad Henry, who'd achieved modest success in similar ventures, wrote the book, music and lyrics in a full-length adaptation. The project was incubated at Seattle Children's Theatre – among the half-dozen most respected programs in the nation – and has since found a niche in the under-10 performance set.
Cynical adult-types might argue that in transforming a five-minute read into a nearly 90-minute musical, Henry committed felonious assault on a classic that ought to have remained unsullied. Those adults miss the point entirely. "Goodnight Moon" (the book) and "Goodnight Moon" (the musical) boast a symbiotic relationship: Each nurtures the other.
So what if Henry has expanded an essentially storyless story – in comparison, "The Cat in the Hat" is Tolstoyian in scope – with all manner of silly side journeys? His musical isn't for grownups. It's not for teens, or tweens, or even jaded 10-year-olds. Know thy constituency, and Henry does.
We love to talk about theatrical "entry points" for young people, a means to jump from the mundaneness and implacable logic of reality to the giddy wonder of possibility. "Goodnight Moon" is such a portal.
The original book is merely, and artfully, about a bunny who prepares for sleep by saying "goodnight" to his surrounding world. Characters, who move in subtle easy from page to page, include a Where's Waldo-type mouse, three bears, and an Old Lady whispering a rather futile, "Hush."
From that single, repeated word of admonition, Henry has constructed a tale of mischievous anarchy. Bears hop down from a picture frame and cavort. Bunny and Mouse sing and dance. A cow leaps, or at least tries to leap, over a decidedly rambunctious lunar object. And that Old Lady, may her support hose be blessed, pretty much leaves everyone else in the dust.
The JPAS production is an adroit, deferential affair. There's enough nimble stagecraft – a lamp that lights by itself, bedcovers that pull down or pull up seemingly on a whim – to beguile neophyte eyes. Each half is long enough to get the expanded narrative across, but not so much that momentum slackens.
Under Andrew Crusse's idiomatically attuned direction, the small cast responded Fridat with reasonable vigor. The only consistent frustration was a tendency by certain actors, particularly P.J. McKinnie as Bunny, to project their characters only half-way to the back of the house.
One could certainly appreciate the efforts of Anna Toujas Rosenberg's Granny and Adler Hyatt's Mouse, but they needed to ratchet up their energies. Songs that should have rung with core energy instead faded, quickly. They might have taken a cue from colleague Allee Peck, whose extended Tooth Fairy indulgence was an all-in, all-out splendiferous romp.
A late-second-act fantasy segment, set to Debussy's "Clair de Lune" with gentle choreography by Alica Grubb, proved a bit too dark for its performers to make optimal impact. Still, musical director Natalie True was in firm, responsive mettle all evening long, ensuring that this "Goodnight Moon" remained faithful to its origins, and to its tuneful addendums. Grumblers, hush up and have another cookie.

subset: commoncrawl


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1. Hacker heaven
The wonderful, terrifying week when hackers and security gurus descended upon Las Vegas to show off their skills and unleash presentation after presentation full of scary-sounding exploits. This year is no different. Over the previous week, we've heard tales of planes brought down by rogue code, snoops spying on your security cameras, and secretive, undetectable code that can turn any USB drive into an unstoppable malware vessel. If the past is any indication, most of these exploits are scarier in theory than in fact—but they still offer a startling glimpse into the dangers inherent in an increasingly connected world. Here are the creepiest security stories coming out of Black Hat and Def Con in 2014.


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Home > Terms > English (EN) > Southern Strategy
Southern Strategy
Once France formally entered the War for Independence in 1778 on the American side, the British had to concern themselves with protecting such vital holdings as their sugar islands in the Caribbean region. Needing to disperse their troop strength, the idea of the Southern strategy was to tap into a perceived reservoir of loyalist numbers in the southern colonies. Reduced British forces could employ these loyalists as troops in subduing the rebels and as civil officials in reestablishing royal governments. The plan failed for many reasons, including a shortfall of loyalist support and an inability to hold ground once conquered in places like South Carolina.
- Part of Speech: proper noun
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- Stratégie du Sud
- Southern-Strategie
- Estrategia meridional
- Strategia meridionale
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- الاستراتيجية الجنوبية
- Южна стратегия
- Stratégie du Sud
- L'estratègia del Sud
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You will Watch SpongeBob SquarePants Season 2 Episode 15 online for free episodes with HQ / high quality. Stream cartoons SpongeBob SquarePants Episode 35 Episode Description : The Secret Box ~ SpongeBob learns that Patrick is distracted by his "secret box". SpongeBob goes through great lengths to see what Patrick's box really holds in secret.&Band Geeks ~ Squidward recruits the citizens of Bikini Bottom to play in a marching band for the Bubble Bowl, in an attempt to impress his rival, Squilliam Fancyson.
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Bitcoin exchange Kraken (Payward, Inc.) has announced a new investment from leading Japanese venture capital firm SBI Investment.
The amount of the investment was not disclosed and was only named as "multi-million", and will form part of a Series B round Kraken is currently raising.
SBI Investments' parent company the SBI Holding has interests in over 200 companies operating in 20 countries in sectors including financial services, asset management and biotechnology, and generates over $2 billion in revenue annually.
Of note, SBI offers full service insurance and banking services, as well as a securities business, and even a financial media arm.
"We knew that we wanted to invest in Bitcoin and the Blockchain. We wanted a company that would be a wise strategic investment," SBI Holdings Chief Executive Officer Yoshitaka Kitao said in a statement. "Kraken has been a leading global Bitcoin exchange for years. They have grown tremendously during that time while building a strong reputation as one of the most innovative, secure, compliant, and reliable companies in this emerging financial services area. Kraken was the clear choice."
Busy time
The investment from SBI comes at a busy time for Kraken following the announcement that it had acquired New York-based Bitcoin exchange Coinsetter Inc. and Canadian exchange Cavirtex in mid-January, and the launch of the range of new products throughout 2015 including a dark pool exchange service and a maker-taker fee model.
Kraken now claims to be the world's largest Bitcoin exchange by Euro volume and transactions, and that in the last two years traders have made over $1.4 billion in transactions on the platform while trading Bitcoin and other digital assets in Euros, U.S. dollars, Japanese yen, British pounds, and Canadian dollars.
Prior to its Series B round, Kraken has raised $6.5 million over two rounds from investors including Hummingbird Ventures, Blockchain Capital, Trammel Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Roger Ver, and a number of individual investors.
The company says that the new funds part will assist them in scaling the business worldwide while continues to meet the fast-increasing demands of an emerging ecosystem of Blockchain-enabled assets."
Image credit: aumeran/Flickr/CC by 2.0
Duncan Riley
Duncan is a co-founder of VC funded media company B5Media and founder of news site The Inquisitr, and was a senior writer at TechCrunch in its earlier days.
Tips? Press releases? Intersting startup? email: firstname.lastname@example.com or contact Duncan on Twitter @duncanriley
Latest posts by Duncan Riley (see all)
- Tesla to launch ride hailing in 2017, bans owners from Uber, Lyft - October 20, 2016
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- Russian man involved in LinkedIn hack arrested in Czech Republic - October 20, 2016


text:
Man Sentenced to 30 Days for Catching Rain Water on Own Property Enters Jail
Who owns the rainwater that falls from the sky onto your roof and runs down your property? If you said that the landowner owns the water until it leaves their property, you are wrong. Gary Harrington will be serving in jail until September 2014 for collecting rainwater.
(CNSNews.com) — Gary Harrington, the Oregon man convicted of collecting rainwater and snow runoff on his rural property surrendered Wednesday morning to begin serving his 30-day, jail sentence in Medford, Ore.
"I'm sacrificing my liberty so we can stand up as a country and stand for our liberty," Harrington told a small crowd of people gathered outside of the Jackson County (Ore.) Jail.
Several people held signs that showed support for Harrington as he was taken inside the jail. Harrington was found guilty two weeks ago of breaking a 1925 law for having, what state water managers called "three illegal reservoirs" on his property. He was convicted of nine misdemeanors, sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined over $1500 for collecting rainwater and snow runoff on his property.
The Oregon Water Resources Department, claims that Harrington has been violating the state's water use law by diverting water from streams running into the Big Butte River. But Harrington says he is not diverting the state's water — merely collecting rainwater and snow melt that falls or flows on his own property. Harrington has vowed to continue to fight the penalty, stating that the government has become "big bullies" and that "from here on in, I'm going to fight it."
"They've just gotten to be big bullies and if you just lay over and die and give up, that just makes them bigger bullies, Harrington said in an interview two weeks ago with CNSNews.com.
"We as Americans, we need to stand on our constitutional rights, on our rights as citizens and hang tough. This is a good country, we'll prevail," he said.
Government monopoly on water works like this: Water that falls from the sky belongs to the municipalities not because they are low on water but because if the consumer collects the water they will use less water from the municipalities and that's just no good for the $$water meter$$. Do you think your local city should have a monopoly on water?
Also see,
7 Horrible Crimes Committed In America by Illegal Aliens
5 Ways Obama Has Destroyed The Rule Of Law In America
7 Things Liberals REALLY MEAN When They Cry "Racism"
Also see...
Even though my father, brother, uncles and grandfather were in the military, I seldom handled guns growing up. That's because unlike many of the other people in my family, I've...Read More
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text:
Godzilla took his (her? its?) sweet time marauding from San Francisco to Portland.
Critic's Grade: B
Godzilla has risen from a 16-year slumber, and he's super pissed. You would be too if your more recent Hollywood incarnation had robbed you of your atomic breath, made you listen to Puff Daddy say "uh" incessantly over your favorite Led Zeppelin song, thrown most of your decades-spanning backstory out the window and appeared on every fast-food bag imaginable.
Everybody hated 1998's Godzilla. Hell, Roland Emmerich probably hated it, and this is the dude who went on to direct 2012. It was completely tone-deaf and utterly dismissive of the decades of mythology surrounding the most iconic movie monster ever put to screen. It was the cinematic equivalent of making a Spider-man movie about a little girl who grew extra legs. It was a travesty.
Happily, Gareth Edwards' new big-budget take on the beast contains no Diddy ditties or Matthew Brodericks. In fact, it pretty much ignores the very existence of Emmerich's disaster, as well as the old-school cartoons, Godzilla's kin Godzooky, Mechagodzilla and many of the other additions that seemed ridiculous, even compared to a gigantic, marauding atomic lizard who pukes nuclear hellfire.
But make no mistake: This Godzilla is not a reboot. That's the first of many surprises Edwards wedges into two hours of monster mayhem. Godzilla, as we learn in the opening, is actually a very well-known force of nature, making the film a direct sequel to the 1954 classic. He's so well-known, in fact, that when another "alpha predator"—gigantic insectoid thingies with spindly legs called Mutos—awaken, scientists kind of bank on Godzilla rising from the depths of the ocean to go beat their asses. Hell, when we first see Big Green, he's being escorted to a melee by a fleet of battleships. He is friend, not foe. And he's a pretty great friend to have when a gigantic cockroach starts messing with the Golden Gate Bridge.
But those seeking a non-stop slugfest akin to Pacific Rim should temper their expectations. The film builds steadily to its all-out mayhem, with Godzilla spending much of the first 90 minutes racing to meet the Mutos as humans scramble to figure out what the hell they're supposed to do about impending doom.
The characters are stock disaster-movie tropes, but they're played by some of our best actors. Bryan Cranston shines as Ignored Until It's Too Late Scientist, racing around and screaming about nature taking her vengeance on man. Foreboding Japanese Scientist, as played by Ken Watanabe, grumbles Godzilla exposition while urging the army to just let the monsters fight. Generic Military Man David Strathairn barks orders, and Frightened Mother With Attachments to Other Characters Elizabeth Olson runs around a lot with her frightened kid, looking frightened. That's a lot of prestige for stock characters, but the cast hams it up in roles that some might consider slumming.
The film's surprising focus on the human element—particularly in its first two acts—is perhaps its only misstep, and a bit of a distraction. Luckily, for much of the time our audience avatar is Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Thick-Necked Military Dweeb, a character so bland and useless that he offers zero distraction from the film, allowing you to focus on the gorgeous visuals. He simply guides us from set piece to set piece, and serves mainly as a measuring stick against which we can gauge the creatures' size.
And it's in that scale that Edwards truly excels. The director—who cut his teeth on the excellent microbudget creature feature Monsters—knows that the true joy of watching Godzilla and his foes destroy cities is seeing it from our own tiny perspective. So when Godzilla and a Muto go at it in Vegas, we're offered only street-level views of the destruction—flashes of giant claws and flying debris—and briefly glimpse the full-blown action from a TV screen. A sequence where the Muto attacks a train is marvelous in its tension, and milks as much suspense from what we see (mostly the creature's water tower-sized legs and gnashing jaws) as what we don't.
Only when Godzilla's road trip finally ends in San Francisco does the film offer a full-on view of the monsters trading blows…for 40 straight minutes of city-leveling bliss.
Edwards' reboot excels on so many levels, it's easy to forget that Godzilla originally served as a cautionary tale about nuclear testing and man's hubris in the golden age of science. The allegory is there in the subtext, but it's not what makes Godzilla so enjoyable. It's an expertly made blockbuster designed to make us realize how small we really are compared to forces of nature, with the added bonus of seeing a gigantic atomic lizard barf fire without feeling the need to throw Diddy into the mix. It's good to have the monster back where he belongs: in our good graces.


text:
AIGADFW Design Week 2012
AIGA Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter
Monday, April 9, 2012 at 12:00 PM - Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 10:00 PM (CDT)
A full week of education and inspiration for DFW graphic/advertising/interactive designers and directors, creative directors, studio/agency owners/heads, illustrators, photographers, print/paper partners, and students throughout the North Texas and surrounding areas.
Design Week will be North Texas's premier design conference for professionals and students with the aims of further promoting thinking about and demonstrating the value of our craft, and empowering the success of DFW's design, advertising and interactive businesses and individuals. AIGA's mission is to advance designing as a professional craft, strategic tool and vital cultural force.
The purpose of AIGA is to further excellence in communication design as a broadly defined discipline, strategic tool for business and cultural force. AIGA is the place design professionals turn to first to exchange ideas and information, participate in critical analysis and research and advance education and ethical practice.
In order to purchase these tickets in installments, you'll need an Eventbrite account. Log in or sign up for a free account to continue.


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The image most people have of slavery involves a cotton plantation with a big white house, a black village where 300 people live in cabins and a cruel overseer in the wings. This was not the model followed by the ancestors of President George W. Bush when, 175 years ago, they enslaved about 30 people on the shores of the upper Chesapeake.
It is an apt time to contemplate the link between slavery and the White House. This week President Bush is in the midst of a six-day trip to Africa, his second tour of the continent. He will visit several countries – including Benin, Ghana, and Liberia – from which the United States once drew slaves. That the trip falls on either side of President's Day, which honors statesmanship in the White House, makes the occasion all the more fitting. The moment is mature for the president to speak about slavery, especially given his personal connection to slavery's legacy.
A new book by Jacob Weisberg, The Bush Tragedy, mentions in passing that at one time some of the president's family owned slaves. Weisberg doesn't dwell on the links between the White House and the antebellum past except to say the Bush clan's story is a long-held "family secret." The Bush Tragedy, a revealing book about family dynamics in the Bush political dynasty, treats the slavery matter only briefly, focusing instead on the "spectacular, avoidable flame-out" of the receding administration. But the story that joins the 43rd president to predecessors who held title to dozens of people bears retelling in detail.
The skeletal facts surfaced in April 2007, when an amateur historian named Robert Hughes published his research in the IllinoisTimes, a small paper out of Springfield. Hughes found census records showing that during the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, in Cecil County, Maryland, five households of the Walker family, the president's ancestors via his father's mother, Dorothy Walker Bush, had been slaveholding farmers. The evidence is simple but persuasive: genealogies of the Bush family match up with census data that counted farmers who used enslaved workers. With this, the president joins perhaps fifteen million living white Americans who trace their roots to the long-gone master class.
It's not as though the president is the only politician whose family owned slaves. Of the first eighteen presidents, from George Washington to Ulysses Grant, twelve owned people, eight of them while in office. At one time, Andrew Jackson was even a slave trader. Since Emancipation in 1865, a number of presidents have come from families that once contained slave masters. Even the current presidential hopefuls are likely to have slave owners among their ancestors. The descendants of slaveholders do not wear special tattoos or announce themselves in secret handshakes, but most know who they are.
The tragic story of America's slave days inspires disabling levels of fear among whites and anger among blacks. Probably neither the 43rd president nor his father, the 41st, possesses the introspection needed to grasp the relationship between the Bush family's slaveholding past and its present circumstances without escaping into defensiveness. Still, President Bush has talked about slavery from several microphones, most memorably in a 2003 speech on Gorée Island, one of the "slave castles" in West Africa from which captive youth and children were dispatched to the Americas. Speechwriters likely supplied the words on that occasion when the president said, "slavery was one of the greatest crimes of history." But the words fell short of an accounting by the White House for America's role in the Middle Passage, and they came before the revelation of the Bush family's own link to the slave past.
As for the African Americans in this tale, the Walker family slaves, neither names nor biographical details about them have survived. According to the genealogist who uncovered the records, Robert Hughes, the census accounts show that they lived at four different farms in Cecil County, Maryland, on a string of land called Sassafras Neck, which separates two slender rivers that empty into upper Chesapeake Bay. There, in 1790, William and Sarah Davis, direct ancestors of the president, owned seven people, while another branch of the family owned five. Twenty years later, in 1810, a third couple in the president's ancestral clan were counted as masters to eighteen people. The last appearance of the family as slaveholders of record comes in 1830, when George E. and Harriet Walker, great-great-great grandparents of President George W. Bush, owned 321 acres and two slaves, a female between 10 and 24 and a male between 24 and 36. The namelessness of the slaves is the fault of the so-called slave schedules used in the census, which called for nothing more than approximate ages.
With their small farms, the Walkers and their cousins did not belong to the class of oligarchs, whose vast plantations held scores or hundreds of workers. I've looked, and there were dynasties in Cecil County, places like Cherry Grove, former residence of a Maryland governor, and Mt. Harmon, a vast tobacco estate with a Georgian mansion. The president's forebears probably saw themselves as little people in competition with these fat-cat neighbors.
Still, all slaveholders were also slave traders. The president's family had to avail themselves of a slave auction on at least two occasions: initially, to buy people, and later, when a Walker farm failed, to sell some of the same people, much the way a stockholder liquidates an investment. No story has surfaced about how it happened, but in the mid-1830s, it appears that George E. Walker, the president's third great-grandfather, lost his land. After that, in 1838, he packed his family into a wagon and went west, settling in southern Illinois on a homestead near the town of Bloomington. It is from this branch of migrants that the current Bush clan descends.