SSM Health dumps coal investments

Regional hospital giant SSM Health announced Wednesday it would unload its investments in coal companies as part of a push that also aims to reduce energy use and waste in its facilities.

A statement said the health system would “fully divest all of its investments in coal production companies” in exchange for investing in companies that “generate a measurable beneficial social or environmental impact.”

SSM became a member of the nationwide Healthier Hospitals Initiative and set the following goals: To cut total energy usage by 3 percent, to reach a total recycling rate of 25 percent and to reduce regulated medical waste to under 10 percent of all waste generated at its sites.

System officials did not say into which coal companies SSM had invested.

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The good news: The U.S. economy grew in the first quarter of 2016.

The bad news: It grew slowly.

The 0.5 percent increase in gross domestic product couldn’t meet the 0.7 percent mark analysts had hoped, especially after coming off of a 1.4 percent increase in gross domestic product in the fourth quarter last year.

Another bright side: Data showed increases in new hires and income growth could spur consumer spending, which could in turn counteract sluggish economic growth.

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DreamWorks Animation, the production company that created the films Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon, was acquired Thursday by NBCUniversal, a division of the Comcast Corporation.

Terms of the deal value DreamWorks at $3.8 billion. DreamWorks stockholders can expect to get $41 in cash per share under the deal, which will conclude at the end of the year.

It could be a cash cow for NBCUniversal, as the 32 films released by DreamWorks have netted $13 billion in global box office receipts. That doesn’t count revenue generated from merchandise related to films the company has produced.

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Pharmaceutical research and development firm AbbVie announced the purchase of Stemcentrx, a startup founded in 2008 by former Goldman Sachs Vice President Brian Slingerland and pharmaceutical scientist Scott Dylla.

AbbVie will shell out $5.8 billion in cash and stocks to complete the purchase, but that number could skyrocket if clinical trials of one of Stemcentrx’s drugs go well.

The drug — its short name is Rova-T— targets special proteins linked to cancer stem cells, attaching itself to the proteins before killing them. It’s showed promise in trials to treat lung cancer.

If the trials go well, AbbVie could hand over an additional $4 billion dollars to Stemcentrx investors. Add that to the $400 million Stemcentrx has in the bank, and the deal could suddenly be worth more than $10 billion.

This story was originally published April 28, 2016 at 9:25 AM with the headline "SSM Health dumps coal investments."