Was Caine Giving Walking Papers by Raytheon?

Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD) has claimed its first casualty.

Raytheon Co. chief financial officer Frank Caine resigned on Wednesday, several weeks after he was sanctioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission for improper earnings disclosure.

The SEC had settled charges against Raytheon and issued cease-and-desist orders against Caine. It was the commission's first Reg FD action.

The commission alleged Caine selectively disclosed earnings guidance for the first quarter of 2001 and for the full year to a select group of analysts after conducting an investor conference.

"During the calls that ensued, Caine knew that Raytheon had provided no public quarterly-earnings guidance for 2001," the SEC stated in its enforcement action.

Caine joined Raytheon in April 1999 as senior vice president and chief financial officer.

He is being replaced by Edward S. Pliner, who has been vice president and corporate controller since April 2000.

"Frank has made many contributions to Raytheon, and I would like to thank him for his hard work and willingness to take on a number of our most difficult financial management challenges," said Daniel Burnham, Raytheon chairman and chief executive officer, in a statement.

Prior to joining Raytheon, Pliner was a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in the technology practice. He joined PwC in 1990 and was promoted to partner in 1995. Previously, Pliner worked on several political campaigns in financial and campaign leadership roles.

In other CFO personnel moves:
United Airlines has brought back its former CFO to a new position.

The airline, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday, named Doug Hacker as executive vice president-strategy. He had been with the company from 1993 to 1999.

Hacker was most recently president of UAL Loyalty Services, the wholly-owned subsidiary of UAL Corp.

Before joining United, he held a number of senior-management positions at American Airlines in the areas of finance, development, and planning.

"I am pleased that Doug Hacker will be leading United's corporate strategy efforts at this important juncture in our company's history," said Glenn Tilton, United's CEO, in a press statement. "Moving forward, Doug and the other officers on our leadership team will be focused on four core areas that are key to United's emergence from Chapter 11, including continuous cost reduction, consistent operational excellence, innovative strategic planning and outstanding customer service."

In his new position, Hacker will be responsible for all corporate-strategy and revenue-producing functions, including corporate strategic development, network development (planning), project and cost management, and information systems. He will also temporarily lead United's marketing, sales, and branding efforts as the company conducts an external search for an executive vice president for customer relations.

Elsewhere, Home Depot Inc. named Kelly Barrett as controller.

He had been CFO of Cousins Properties Inc.

New Study: CFOs Upbeat
So who do you believe?

Two weeks ago, CFO.com reported on an American Express survey of 485 middle-market CFOs. In that survey, the finance executives predicted next year will be just about as bad as 2002. Indeed, more than two-thirds of the CFOs in the survey believe that in 2003 the economy either will stay flat, act erratically, or decline further.

Then last week, we reported that nearly 70 percent of middle-market CFOs are optimistic about the economy's expansion in 2003. That survey was conducted by Fleet Capital Corp.

Now another precinct has been heard from. According to the December "CFO Outlook Survey," conducted by Financial Executives International and Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, CFOs of U.S. companies are much more optimistic about the U.S. economy than they were last quarter.

The respondents are also more optimistic about their own companies' prospects, which figures to lead to increased hiring and capital spending as well as earnings.

For what it's worth, upbeat CFO surveys now outnumber downbeat CFO surveys 2 to 1.

Anyway, in this latest finance chief poll, 56 percent of CFOs are more upbeat about the economy, 29 percent are as optimistic as they were last quarter, and only 15 percent are less optimistic.

By comparison, in the September survey, less than one-third (31 percent) were more optimistic, and 37 percent were less optimistic.

Nearly all CFOs (96 percent) expect positive gross domestic product growth in 2003.

The CFOs in aggregate expect GDP growth to come in at 2.4 percent during the next year, up from a 2 percent growth rate predicted in last quarter's survey.

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Interestingly, 80 percent of banking, finance, and insurance company CFOs are more optimistic about their companies' prospects this quarter, according to the survey.

This improved optimism has led 75 percent of the respondents to predict earnings growth at their company in 2003. This growth is estimated to average 13.1 percent. In contrast, just 59 percent of the respondents were expecting growth in the fourth quarter.

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