Business news in brief

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

— QUOTE OF THE DAY “Every coal plant is a little different, depending on the age and whether it has been

grandfathered in under the Clean Air Act.” Glen Hooks, a representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign Article, 1DGrant funds program to aid homeless

The Arkansas Construction Education Foundation will use a $200,000 federal grant for a new job-training program intended to help homeless adults learn skills needed to perform green construction jobs, including Superfund and brownfield site remediation, emergency response and other tasks, such as asbestos removal.

The foundation will partner with organizations that serve the homeless, including Our House Inc., Better Community Development Inc. and the Little Rock Workforce Investment Board, to recruit program participants.

Steve Schaeffer, the foundation’s executive director, said the program hopes to train and place 20 participants in each of five different program sessions to be held over the next two years.

Upon completing the four-week, 124-hour course, graduates will carry certifications qualifying them for jobs in environmental and green construction fields.

Snyder Environmental of Maumelle agreed to fund several scholarships for participants. Schaeffer said the program will be taught by instructors from Safety and Environmental Associates and Environmental Technologies Inc., both of Little Rock.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency provided the grant money. Applications are being distributed by agencies serving the homeless and are also available at the Little Rock Workforce Center, 5401 S. University Ave.

U.S. again fines Toyota over safety

DETROIT - The U.S. government has slapped Toyota Motor Corp. with a record $17.4 million fine for failing once again to quickly report problems to federal regulators and for delaying a safety recall.

The fine from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the agency that monitors vehicle safety, is the maximum allowed by law. It’s the fourth fine levied against Toyota in the past two years for similar infractions, and it’s the largest single fine ever assessed against a car company over safety defects. In 2010, Toyota paid a total of $48.8 million in fines for three violations.

The new fine stems from a June recall of sport utility vehicles from Toyota’s Lexus luxury brand. About 154,000 of the 2010 Lexus RX 350s and RX 450h models were recalled because the driver’s-side floor mats can trap the gas pedal and cause the vehicles to speed up without warning.

The latest infraction raises questions about whether the fines are big enough to deter automakers that withhold information from the safety agency and whether it can do enough to stop repeat offenses. The fine, announced Tuesday, is a tiny fraction of Toyota’s earnings.

The company, which this year regained its position as the world’s biggest automaker, posted a $3.2 billion profit in the third quarter.

Toyota said it agreed to pay the penalty without admitting any violation of the law.

American Railcar bids on Greenbrier

American Railcar Industries Inc. has offered $542 million for Greenbrier Cos., reviving a takeover bid four years ago to create the biggest U.S. maker of railroad freight cars.

The offer amounts to $20 per share, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The cash offer is 5.4 percent more than Monday’s close for Lake Oswego, Ore.-based Greenbrier.

St. Charles, Mo.-based American Railcar has railroad car production plants at Marmaduke and Paragould in northeast Arkansas.

Jack Isselmann, a spokesman for Greenbrier, didn’t immediately respond to telephone and e-mail messages seeking a comment about the offer.

Greenbrier shares Tuesday rose 7.4 percent to $20.37, after they had declined 22 percent this year through Monday. American Railcar shares gained 6.6 percent Tuesday to $34.36 and had climbed 35 percent this year.

Demand for railroad cars is increasing from energy companies, according to Little Rock investment bank Stephens Inc. A combination of Greenbrier and American Railcar would overtake Trinity Industries Inc. as the largest U.S. builder of railroad freight cars, with more than a third of the market.

Nielsen to buy radio ratings company

NEW YORK - Nielsen is buying Arbitron for about $1.26 billion.

Nielsen Holdings N.V. provides global data about what people watch and buy. The company said Tuesday that it will pay $48 per share, which is a 26 percent premium to Arbitron’s Monday closing price of $38.04.

Arbitron Inc., based in Columbia, Md., currently has about 26.2 million outstanding shares, according to research firm FactSet.

The acquisition is expected to add about 13 cents per share to Nielsen’s adjusted earnings a year after closing and about 19 cents per share to adjusted earnings two years after closing.

The boards of both companies have approved the deal.

AIG sells stake in Asian life insurer

HONG KONG - U.S. insurance company AIG sold its remaining stake in Asian life insurer AIA Group for $6.4 billion, the Hong Kong based-company said Tuesday.

American International Group Ltd. sold nearly 1.65 billion shares, which represented AIG’s remaining stake of approximately 14 percent, at $3.90 each, AIA Group Ltd. said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. The selling price was a 4.3 percent discount to Friday’s closing price.

New York-based AIG sold $6 billion in AIA Group stock in March and $2 billion more in another sale in September. After the September stock sale it was restricted from selling any of its remaining shares until Dec. 10.

American International Group nearly collapsed in 2008. It received $182 billion from the U.S. government, which was the biggest of the Wall Street bailouts, after suffering losses from investments in derivatives.

In 2010, the company spun off AIA in Hong Kong’s biggest ever initial public offering to raise $20 billion, which was used to pay bailout debt.

Last week the Treasury Department announced that it sold all of its remaining shares in AIG. The Treasury received $32.50 per share for its 234.2 million remaining shares, which represented a 16 percent stake in AIG. With this sale, the Treasury said that the government has received $22.7 billion more than the $182 billion bailout it made to AIG.

Business, Pages 29 on 12/19/2012