Charlotte.

• Position: REGIONAL REPORT - Duke Energy Corp. to buy Cinergy Corp. - David Singer, CEO of Lance - America West Holdings Corp. to merge with US Airways Inc.

Cinergy finds higher power with Duke

Charlotte-based Duke Energy agreed to buy Cincinnati-based Cinergy for $9 billion in stock. The deal is expected to close in summer 2006. When it does, Duke will have 3.7 million retail electric customers and 1.7 million retail gas customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Ontario, Canada. Cinergy CEO Jim Rogers will become CEO of the merged company, which will be based in Charlotte and retain the Duke name. Duke CEO and Chairman Paul Anderson will stay on as chairman. Though Duke shareholders will own 76% of the merged entity, the company will name only 10 of the 15 board members. The deal is expected to increase earnings in the first full year of combined operations. Duke posted revenue of $22.5 billion in 2004. With Cinergy, it would have been $27.2 billion.

STATESVILLE -- Cabinet maker Canac Kitchens, part of Kohler, Wisc.-based Kohler, plans to begin production here in a 310,000-square-foot factory. The company will spend as much as $20 million and hire more than 400 people during the next three years for administrative, loading, warehouse and manufacturing jobs.

CHARLOTTE -- David Singer, 50, replaced Paul Stroup, 54, as CEO of snack maker Lance. Singer had been chief financial officer of Charlotte-based Coca-Cola Bottling Company Consolidated and a director on Lance's board. Stroup left abruptly after 31 years.

CHARLOTTE -- Pulte Mortgage, part of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based Pulte Homes, will spend $2 million to open a mortgage-origination and -processing operation here in November. Pulte expects to create 235 jobs, with an average annual salary of $60,000, over three years.

CHARLOTTE -- The Shaw Group, a Baton Rouge, La.-based engineering and construction company, planned to add 200 engineers here in June, bringing its local employment to more than 1,400. The company hopes to capitalize on increased demand for retrofitting of scrubbers for coal-fired power plants.

CHARLOTTE -- Kansas City, Mo.-based Interstate Bakeries will close its plant and let go 348 here by midsummer. Production will be consolidated in Rocky Mount and Knoxville, Tenn. Interstate filed last fall for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

NEWTON -- Leggett & Platt, a Carthage, Mo.-based manufacturing conglomerate, bought the assets of a felt factory here as part of a $38.5 million deal for the carpet-cushion businesses...