Business news in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The low river definitely is affecting the way mariners are transiting the river.

It is a concern right now.”

Lt. Ryan Gomez,

U.S. Coast Guard, on Mississippi River navigation Article, 1D

Plane-maker’s bankruptcy exit nearer

WICHITA, Kan. - Plane-maker Hawker Beechcraft Corp. is a step closer to exiting bankruptcy after a court ruling approving the company’s disclosure statement.

The ruling by the bankruptcy court on Wednesday means Hawker Beechcraft can begin soliciting approval of its plan of reorganization from its creditors. The voting is expected to be completed by Jan. 22.

The company said it will seek court approval to exit bankruptcy at a confirmation hearing Jan. 31.

Hawker Beechcraft said its reorganization plan is supported by a committee of unsecured creditors and the majority of its creditors.

It plans to rename itself Beechcraft Corp. The new company will focus on its more profitable turboprop, piston, special mission and military aircraft, as well as its parts, maintenance, repairs and refurbishment business.

Hawker has cut about 270 jobs in recent months at its Little Rock facilities. One facility completes jets to customer specifications and the other - which is being closed - services all Hawker Beechcraft planes.

  • The Associated Press

Southwestern looks at joint ventures

Southwestern Energy Co., which pioneered natural-gas development from Arkansas’ Fayetteville Shale, is considering joint ventures next year for its New Brunswick acreage in Canada and its Brown Dense holdings.

Southwestern had leases on more than 500,000 net acres in the Brown Dense shale formation in south Arkansas and northern Louisiana, it said during a company presentation in November.

Joint ventures in the oil and gas business can be used to fund projects or share risk, Southwestern Chief Executive Officer Steve Mueller said in an interview at a Capital One Southcoast energy conference in New Orleans this week.

“We’ve got projects that fall into both of those categories, whether it’s a really high wildcat project in New Brunswick where we have 2.5 million acres, or if it’s just trying to figure out if the Brown Dense works,” Mueller said. The company has said it hopes to extract large amounts of oil from the Brown Dense shale.

The Houston-based company may seek transactions on New Brunswick and Brown Dense properties that include selling a piece of the holdings or creating a structure that involves a percentage of wells or acreage, Mueller said.

  • Bloomberg NewsEquityNet offers 2nd tool for startups

EquityNet, a Fayetteville-based firm that connects potential startup companies with investors, said Wednesday that it has developed its second free tool for entrepreneurs.

The company’s Startup Valuation Calculator is a complement to the firm’s Startup Risk Calculator. By using the startup calculator, the company said, entrepreneurs answer questions that deal with their industry sectors, their current cash and other assets, current liabilities, estimated annual revenue now and in the next five years, and estimated operating profit now and in five years.

Both tools are aimed at crowd-funding startup funds as authorized in the federal JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) act signed into law in April.

  • Steve Painter

Starbucks plans 20,000 cafes by ’14

NEW YORK - Another Starbucks may soon pop up around the corner, with the world’s biggest coffee company planning to add at least 1,500 cafes in the U.S. over the next five years.

The plan, which would boost the number of Starbucks cafes in the country by about 13 percent, was announced at the company’s investor day in New York on Wednesday.

Taking into account Canada and South America, the company plans to add a total of 3,000 new cafes in its broader Americas region.

Worldwide, the company says it will have more than 20,000 cafes by 2014, up from its current count of about 18,000. Much of that growth will come from China, which the company says will surpass Canada as its second-biggest market.

Although Starbucks has been intensifying its growth overseas and building its packaged-goods business back at home, the majority of its revenue still comes from its more than 11,100 cafes in the United States.

  • The Associated PressTesco reviews slow-growing U.S. arm

LONDON - Tesco, Britain’s biggest retailer, said Wednesday that it is reviewing options for its slow-growing U.S. venture Fresh & Easy.

Tesco launched the venture in 2007, and now has 200 stores in California, Arizona and Nevada. But the business has not done as well as hoped. The company said it had recently received several approaches from potential buyers or partners in Fresh & Easy, whose chief executive, Tim Mason, will be leaving.

Same store sales at Fresh & Easy, which exclude new stores and space, grew less than 2 percent in the third quarter.

Tesco Chief Executive Philip Clarke has been concentrating on the company’s U.K. base, where its dominant market share has recently slipped. Like-for-like sales in the home market, excluding petrol, were down 0.7 percent in the quarter.

  • The Associated PressGermany leads eurozone retail slump

LONDON - Retail sales across the 17 European Union countries that use the euro slumped far more than anticipated in October, largely because of a huge drop in Germany, in a development that will put more pressure on the European Central Bank to cut borrowing rates soon.

Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, said Wednesday that eurozone retail sales fell 1.2 percent in October from the previous month, double September’s decline and substantially more than the 0.2 percent drop expected in the markets

The figures provide further evidence that households across the eurozone remain gloomy over the economy and are reluctant to spend more than they have to - nonfood sales were particularly weak during October. The eurozone is back in recession, officially defined as two straight quarters of falling output, and unemployment is at a record high of 11.7 percent with 18.7 million people out of work.

  • The Associated Press

Business, Pages 26 on 12/06/2012

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