Business news in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I’m giving the union as well as the debtors and their lenders a last chance to try and work those issues out in private.”

Judge Robert Drain, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, on his request that Hostess Brands Inc. and its baker’s union enter mediation today Article, 1DCar-Mart’s net income, revenue dips

America’s Car-Mart Inc. of Bentonville on Monday evening reported net income for its second quarter of $7.3 million, or 76 cents per share, down from 77 cents per share for the same period a year ago.

Revenue fell 4.8 percent to $110 million, from $111 million.

Retail-unit sales also fell, by 1.1 percent, to 9,814 units from 9,919,

The average retail price for a vehicle sale decreased $42, or 0.4 percent. During the period, Car-Mart opened its 119th dealership, in Oxford, Miss.

The company said it repurchased 119,308 shares of common stock, or 1.3 percent of the company’s shares, during the quarter for $5.25 million.

Company management will hold a conference call at 10 a.m. today to discuss the latest results. The call can be accessed at (877) 776-4031.

  • Steve Painter

Judge rejects Hawker jet-sale plan

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stuart Bernstein rejected Monday a request by Hawker Beechcraft to sell off its inventory of discontinued Hawker 4000 jet aircraft for as little as one third of its retail value as part of the company’s bankruptcy proceedings.

Hawker Beechcraft wants to sell the remaining inventory without bankruptcy court approval of each sale, because it believes the value of the discontinued line of planes will continue to decline as competitors introduce new aircraft and further dilute the company’s share in the business jet industry.

Hawker Beechcraft plans to emerge from bankruptcy protection as a slimmed down company in the first quarter of 2013, without its jets division.

Last week the company sought court permission to renege on warranty and support obligations related to the Hawker 4000 and Premier I and IA jets and authorization to sell its remaining Hawker 4000 inventory without warranty or support commitments.

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

  • Jack Weatherly and The Associated Press

Wal-Mart moves up dividend payoff

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s board of directors has approved a change in the payment date of the company’s regular quarterly shareholder dividend of 39.75 cents per share. The new date is Dec. 27.

This fourth-quarter installment of the Bentonville-based company’s current annual dividend rate of $1.59 was previously scheduled to be paid Jan. 2. The record date associated with this dividend payment remains unchanged at Dec. 7.

The board approved on March 1 an annual dividend of $1.59 per share, which was approximately a 9 percent increase from the $1.46 per share paid during the previous fiscal year.

  • Steve Painter

2 guilty of hiding Stanford scheme

Two former accounting executives were convicted Monday of helping Texas financier R. Allen Stanford hide a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors of $7 billion.

A jury of seven men and five women in federal court in Houston deliberated for three days before convicting Stanford’s ex-Chief Accounting Officer Gilbert Lopez, 70, and former Global Controller Mark Kuhrt, 40, of conspiring to hide a fraud scheme built on bogus certificates of deposit at Antigua-based Stanford International Bank Ltd.

The men were each found guilty of nine of 10 wire fraud counts and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

“They knew the bank was doing one thing and promising investors another, and they helped hide it,” prosecutor Jason Varnado told jurors during closing arguments Wednesday.

The men face prison terms of more than 20 years when they are sentenced Feb. 14 by U.S. District Judge David Hittner, who presided over their trial.

Certificates of deposit supposedly paying 8 percent in interest were sold by Stanford nationally, including in Little Rock. Stanford was found guilty in March and sentenced in June to 110 years in prison. Investors who bought the CDs from the Little Rock office lost more than $50 million in the scheme.

  • Bloomberg News

U.S. credit-card debt rises 4.9%

LOS ANGELES - Americans cranked up their use of credit cards in the third quarter, racking up more debt than a year ago, while also being less diligent about making payments on time, an analysis of consumer-credit data shows.

The average credit-card debt per borrower in the U.S.

grew 4.9 percent in the July-to-September period from a year earlier to $4,996, credit reporting agency TransUnion said Monday.

At the same time, the rate of credit-card payments at least 90 days overdue hit 0.75 percent, up from 0.71 percent in the third quarter of last year, the firm said.

While higher, the late payment rate is rising from historically low levels. The lowest late payment rate on Trans-Union records going back to the mid-1990s was 0.56 percent, set in the third quarter of 1994. More recently, it was at 0.60 percent in the second quarter of last year.

During the last recession, many Americans reined in spending in favor of paying off debt, particularly credit-card balances.

  • The Associated Press

AIG-rescue suit dismissed

NEW YORK - A federal judge has dismissed a $25 billion lawsuit arising from the government rescue of the insurance company American International Group during the 2008 financial crisis.

Starr International, a company run by former AIG Chief Executive Officer Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, accused the Federal Reserve Bank of New York of taking valuable assets from AIG shareholders without their consent or fair compensation.

The lawsuit, filed in November 2011, was dismissed Monday by Judge Paul Engelmayer of Manhattan federal court.

The government poured $182 billion into AIG to keep it afloat and has been selling the ownership stake it got in return. The company said in September that the government owned 16 percent of AIG stock. Until then, the government had been majority owner.

  • The Associated Press

Business, Pages 24 on 11/20/2012

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