Business news in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“It’s going fast and furious here.As it is, there is not a big enough labor force around

here, and as it gets colder there is less of one.”

Curt Zimbelman,

mayor of Minot, N.D.

Article, 1D

Bank to pay 2 dividends this month

Home BancShares, parent company of Centennial Bank, will have an additional 13-cent cash dividend payable on Dec. 31, the Conway bank said Friday.

This is in addition to the previously declared cash dividend, also 13 cents, to be paid Dec. 5.

The new dividend is the result of the potential for increased tax rates on dividends in 2013.

Home BancShares is still evaluating whether the Dec.

31 dividend will be a special, one-time cash dividend or a cash dividend in lieu of the regular quarterly cash dividend for the first quarter of 2013.

In either case, it will be paid out of current earnings and profits.

“By taking this action before year end 2012, we can guarantee our shareholders benefit from the lowest possible dividend tax rates,” John Allison, chairman of the firm, said in a prepared statement.

  • David SmithOctober economy tepid for Fort Smith

FORT SMITH - Residential construction permits, home sales, employment and airport traffic counts were flat or down for October in the Fort Smith region compared with 2011, according to a report from the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.

“I was actually expecting a stronger performance for the regional economy this month,” Kermit Kuehn of the university’s Center for Business Research and Economic Development said Friday in a news release.

The report found construction permits were down 35 percent and home sales flat compared with October 2011.

Residential sales and construction permits were below year-to-date totals for 2011. October unemployment was 7.9 percent, the same as a year ago.

Bright spots included a 2.7 percent rise in manufacturing employment for the month, compared with October of last year. Trade, transportation and utilities and the leisure and hospitality sectors also improved, the report said.

  • Lisa Hammersly

ABF to expand ocean transportation

FORT SMITH - ABF Freight System Inc. of Fort Smith will expand its ocean transportation service to Europe and Turkey, it said in a news release.

ABF Global Supply Chain Services already arranges ocean transport for countries throughout Asia, including India.

“Since we launched ocean services in 2006, global customers have enthusiastically embraced” the service, Jim Keenan, ABF senior vice president of sales and marketing, said in the news release.

The company offers full-container-load and less-thancontainer-load services. ABF, the trucking and transportation segment of Arkansas Best Corp., doesn’t own or operate ships, but arranges for transport of containers.

With the expansion into Europe and Turkey and the company’s presence in China, India and Southeast Asian countries, ABF will compete in more than 80 percent of the ocean-import market, company officials said.

  • Lisa HammerslyEntergy closes on plant near Malvern

Entergy Arkansas has closed on the purchase of the Hot Spring Energy Facility near Malvern.

The 620-megawatt natural-gas power plant unit was purchased from KGen Power Corp. for approximately $253 million, a sizable discount to the cost to construct a comparable facility.

Entergy Arkansas provides electricity to about 700,000 customers in 63 counties.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice approved Entergy Arkansas’ purchase of the plant.

The department also approved the acquisition of KGen’s 450-megawatt natural-gas power plant near Jackson, Miss. Entergy Mississippi completed the $206 million purchase of that plant Friday.

Since 2010, the Department of Justice has been investigating Entergy Corp.’s competitive practices in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

  • David SmithForrest City to host soybean growers

Arkansas soybean farmers will gather in Forrest City on Tuesday to discuss ongoing crop research, as well as topics such as new crop varieties, maximum yields and dealing with herbicide-resistant weeds.

This year’s Arkansas Soybean Research Summit will be held at the East Arkansas Community College. There is no cost to attend the summit, which will run from 8:30 a.m. to noon and is sponsored by the Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board.

The summit’s keynote speaker will be Ken Morrison of MorrisonOnTheMarkets.com. Morrison was managing director of Doane Advisory Services, where he launched a Web-based daily subscriber service that discusses 12 commodities.

Jeremy Ross, an extension soybean agronomist for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, said the gathering will highlight UA research, including mitigating risks of herbicide-resistant weeds in soybeans, irrigation techniques, the detection of frog-eye leaf spot in Arkansas and edamame production.

More information is available by contacting Ross at (501) 671-2148 or by e-mailing him at [email protected].

  • Glen ChaseSt. Louis Fed chief to speak in LR

James Bullard, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis, will be the main speaker Monday at the 147th annual meeting of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The meeting at the Statehouse Convention Center begins at noon.

Bullard will speak on “The U.S. Economy and Monetary Policy.”

As president of the St. Louis Fed, Bullard directs the activities of the bank’s office in St. Louis and its branches in Little Rock, Memphis and Louisville, Ky.

Bullard last spoke in Little Rock in June.

  • David Smith

Business, Pages 30 on 12/01/2012

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