Banking & Finance
Spanish financial Web site gets new home, capital
Washington Business Journal - by Marlon Millner
Montgomery County managed to retain the Fortune 500 firm Marriott International, but it lost Zona Financiera.
The upstart company, which runs a Spanish-language financial services Web site, recently moved its headquarters from Potomac to Falls Church.
The Web site -- http://www.lazona.com -- remains the same.
"I have a feeling that is the outcome Maryland would prefer, if they had the two choices," said Zona Financiera CEO Greg Keough.
Keough, 32, started the Web site in 1997 with his two younger brothers. He formerly ran a product distribution business in Central America.
He said the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority paid attention to the emerging company's needs.
"We found we were constantly bumping into the guys from Fairfax County," Keough said. "At technology events, the venture fairs, all the time. We got to know them."
The county offered Zona Financiera promotional incentives to relocate, including a county program that offsets certain expenses to train workers based on how many are hired.
The company, which provides real-time financial news on Latin America countries, is nascent, but a recent venture capital infusion of $650,000 should jump-start growth.
Keough plans to use the financing to fund the opening of five offices in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia.
First-round investors included Trusted Information Systems' founder Steve Walker, Michael Faber's District-based Plaza Street Capital and angel network Capital Investors, managed by Jeff Tonkel.
Keough estimates the company will have revenue of $1.3 million in 1999.
National Capital finds cash for stock buyback
The National Capital Bank of Washington earns so much money it does not know what to do with it all.
So the District-based community bank plans to repurchase up to $2 million of the bank's common stock at $450 a share. The board of directors approved the stock buyback March 17. It also is subject to approval stockholder approval at the bank's April 21 annual meeting.
The bank said the stock repurchase plan is designed to bring the bank's "exceedingly high capital ratios more in line with peer banks while improving return on equity."
"The bank has been very profitable and has been retaining those earnings," CEO George Didden said. "Some of that capital has built up over time."
Didden said the bank has capital equal to about 20 percent of the bank's assets -- much higher than the 7 to 8 percent at similar banks. Capital equals about 23 percent of deposits.
National Capital, which has paid a dividend for 267 consecutive quarters, is buying stock back for the second time in two years. Last summer, the bank repurchased about $800,000 worth of stock.
National Capital Bank has one office, with assets of $132 million and deposits of $107 million.
The shares trade over-the-counter. A recent bid for the thinly traded stock was $350.
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