James Kwon, a container terminal operator at the Port of Long Beach, has been appointed director of maritime at the Port of Oakland, the port has said.

He succeeds Wilson Lacy, who had been maritime director for 21/2 years. He resigned to become director of maritime commerce at the Port of Humboldt Bay, effective Aug. 1.

Kwon, 53, has been president and chief executive officer of Total Terminals International LLC at Long Beach. The company also has container terminals at the ports of Oakland and Seattle. During his tenure, Kwon helped Total Terminals increase revenue by as much as 250 percent and container volume by 30 percent, according to the Port of Oakland.

“James Kwon has extensive international trade experience which will be of great benefit to the Port of Oakland,” port board President Anthony Batarse said.

His responsibilities include the operations, management and marketing of the maritime division, with the goal of increasing the business, port spokeswoman Marilyn Sandifur said. He will head a capital program and help manage air-quality efforts “that address reducing air pollution and minimizing maritime operational impacts on our community,” Sandifur said.

Prior to heading Total Terminals International, Kwon was a sales manager for Hanjin Shipping Co., marketing director for Palmco Corp. and district sales manager for United States Shipping Lines.

He has a master certification in kendo, the martial art of Japanese fencing, and speaks Korean and Chinese.

While he was maritime director, Lacy concentrated on planning for a rail facility for the Port of Oakland. He also formed a partnership with the Port of Sacramento that would allow cargo to be moved by barge down the 43-mile man-made channel from West Sacramento to Suisun Bay and on to the Port of Oakland. That would take trucks off freeways, reducing emissions.

E-mail George Raine at graine@sfchronicle.com.

Lowe’s Companies («www.businessweek.com»; $28.62)

S&P reiterates buy recommendation

Analyst: Michael Souers

July-quarter EPS of $0.67 vs. $0.60 is $0.05 higher than our estimate. A same-store sales decline of 2.6% was in line with our projection of a 3.0% decline. Despite the better EPS than we expected, we see Lowe’s impacted by continued weakness in the housing market throughout the rest of 2007 and well into 2008. We are maintaining our fiscal year 2008 (January) estimate of $2.01, but lower fiscal year 2009’s to $2.28 from $2.32. We are also reducing our 12-month DCF-based target price by $2 to $38. However, we find Lowe’s attractive, trading at about 12.5 times our fiscal year 2009 EPS estimate, a modest discount to the S&P 500.

Nasdaq Stock Market («www.businessweek.com»; $32.40)

Maintains hold

Analyst: J. Willey

NDAQ has begun exploring strategic alternatives for its 31% stake in the London Stock Exchange, and we expect interest from multiple bidders. NDAQ plans to use the proceeds from any sale to pay down its $1 billion senior term debt and to repurchase shares. The company indicated the planned sale would increase its standalone EPS by $0.30-$0.35 in 2008. While we think the sale of LSE stake would remove a large overhang and improve the balance sheet, we remain cautious on the shares given the likely need for higher bid for OMX AB and limited diversification in NDAQ’s business model.

Thornburg Mortgage («www.businessweek.com»; $13.70)

Reiterates sell recommendation

Analyst: J. Willey

TMA announces the sale of $20.5 billion of its mortgage-backed securities, 36% of its total loan portfolio at the end of the second quarter. The company will recognize a loss of about $930 million on the sale, and GAAP book value has fallen to $12.40 at Aug. 17 from $19.38 at June 30. While we see the sale and reduction in short-term borrowing obligations providing near-term stability, we expect a negative impact on future earnings, and we believe TMA’s dividend will need to be reduced. We believe the credit and mortgage markets remain highly volatile, and we see risk of further book value impairment.

Countrywide Financial («www.businessweek.com»; $22.10)

Maintains sell opinion

Analyst: Stuart Plesser

In an effort to offset the likelihood of lower mortgage originations in the months ahead, CFC has begun laying off employees, mostly in its reduced document loan business. Although the move is prudent, in our opinion, it is coming a bit late. Separately, CFC is facing heavy withdrawals at its thrift operation. At the very least, this should hurt its net interest margin, since it will likely be forced to offer higher deposit rates to offset perceived risk. More significantly, this may impact CFC’s ability to finance new loans. Our 12-month target price remains $20.

VeraSun Energy («www.businessweek.com»; $12.88)

Upgrade to hold from sell, on valuation

Analyst: S. Ham-CFA

The company is going through a period of high growth, driven by expansion of ethanol production. VSE recently acquired 330 million gallons of production capacity to help it expand to 1 billion gallons of ethanol by 2009 from 230 million gallons at the end of 2006. We expect EPS to rise from $0.44 in 2007 to $1.14 in 2008. After blending our DCF and relative p-e valuations, we are keeping our 12-month target price at $14, a premium to peers p-e of 16.5 times our 12-month forward EPS estimate. With the shares down 11% in the past two months and below our target price, hold.

Many companies doing business in Europe have long considered it essential to have a prestigious and pricey address in London, Paris, or another major capital. But with big-city real estate and labor prices soaring, some companies are now taking a closer look at smaller regional centers.

Geneva, Switzerland; Manchester, England; and Lyon, France, were the biggest gainers in this year’s annual ranking of Europe’s “top cities to locate a business,” by the «investing.businessweek.com» real estate firm. London, Paris, and Frankfurt still hold the top spots in the survey, based on interviews with representatives from 500 of Europe’s largest companies. But one-third of those interviewed said they might relocate operations to another city to offset rising costs. Small Cities Selling Themselves

“Regional cities are increasingly becoming more business-oriented, and are proving that you don’t have to be a capital to attract business,” says Elaine Rossall, the head of Cushman & Wakefield’s Business Space Research & Consultancy, who oversaw the survey.

Smaller cities also are getting savvier about marketing themselves. They’re networking tirelessly and spiffing up their Web sites to highlight their strong points—not only lower costs, but also the availability of highly skilled workers, upgraded infrastructure, and state-of-the-art telecommunications.

Manchester, which jumped from 21st to 18th place in the rankings, has opened a business center called Spinningfields that boasts 30% to 40% lower property and labor costs than larger agglomerations such as London’s Canary Wharf and Paris’s La Dйfense. The northern English city is now encircled by fiber optic cables for a “broadband capacity that’s unthinkable in most other places,” says Colin Sinclair, who heads Manchester’s economic development agency. Companies Moving East

The Bank of New York («www.businessweek.com»), Credit Suisse («www.businessweek.com»), Yahoo! («www.businessweek.com»), and Google («www.businessweek.com») all have opened new operations in Manchester. And the «investing.businessweek.com» plans to move more than a quarter of its staff there in 2011 when a new riverfront media center is scheduled to open.

Cities on Europe’s eastern rim are attracting interest from budget-conscious companies, too. Prague, Warsaw, and Budapest rank ahead of Vienna, Copenhagen, and Rome on the Cushman & Wakefield survey, largely because of lower property and labor costs. Indeed, some 22% of the companies surveyed said they already had relocated or outsourced some activities within the past 12 months, with 51% choosing a location in Central or Eastern Europe and only 35% choosing Western Europe.

But corporate decisions aren’t based on price alone. Despite having relatively high costs, Geneva jumped from 20th to 12th place in the rankings, largely because it got high marks for quality of life and for its convenient location in the center of Europe. London Still on Top

Moscow, another pricey metropolis, attracts business because it’s the hub of a fast-growing market. Of the 500 companies surveyed, 63 had plans to open offices, manufacturing sites, or retail outlets in the Russian capital within the next five years—more than in any other European city.

And London still ranks No. 1, even though it has some of the highest real estate and labor costs in the world. “London benefits from its location because of its time zone, the availability of labor, and international accessibility,” says Cushman & Wakefield’s Rossall. “The cost of staff becomes less of an issue.”

For a look at Europe’s 20 best places to locate a business, see BusinessWeek’s «images.businessweek.com».