LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Chinese consumers are notoriously disloyal.Volkswagen’s challenge is continuing to build customer relationship management, and be geographically in the high-growth regions.”
Bill Russo, president of market researcher Synergistics Article, 1D
Six-month T-bill rates at 3-week high
WASHINGTON - Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills rose in Monday’s auction with rates on six-month bills climbing to the highest level in three weeks.
The Treasury Department auctioned $32 billion in three month bills at a discount rate of 0.100 percent, up from 0.09 percent last week. Another $28 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.145 percent, up from 0.135 percent last week of the Arkansas institution.
The three-month rate was the highest in two weeks since three-month bills averaged 0.105 percent on Nov. 13. The six month rate was the highest since those bills averaged 0.150 percent on Nov. 5.
The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,997.47 while a six-month bill sold for $9,992.67. That would equal an annualized rate of 0.101 percent for the three-month bills and 0.147 percent for the six-month bills.
Separately, the Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable rate mortgages, was unchanged at 0.17 percent last week, the same as the previous week.
- The Associated Press
U.S. Treasury sold Corning S&L shares
The U.S. Treasury Department sold its shares in Corning Savings and Loan Association at about a 10 percent discount, the federal agency said last week.
Corning Savings and Loan had sold the government $638,000 in preferred shares under the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program almost three years ago. The Treasury Department sold the shares for $577,640.
Corning Savings and Loan bought a small percentage of the shares, but was outbid on the larger portion of the shares, Kyle Baltz, the bank’s chairman and president, said Monday.
Baltz declined to say how much stock the bank bought. He said he has not been told who bought the rest of the shares.
Twelve Arkansas banks borrowed money from the government under the TARP program. Corning Savings and Loan, which has about $41 million in assets, borrowed less than any other bank in the state. Its shares are the first the government has sold among Arkansas institutions.
- David Smith
BancorpSouth names Texan as CEO
BancorpSouth Inc., which has 53 branches and $1.7 billion in deposits in Arkansas, named a Texas banker as its chief executive officer, the Tupelo, Miss., institution said Monday.
BancorpSouth hired James D. Rollins III, 53, who had been president of Prosperity Bancshares Inc. in Houston, to replace Aubrey Patterson, who had been BancorpSouth’s chief executive for 22 years.
Rollins has been president at Prosperity Bancshares since 2006.
Earlier this year, BancorpSouth announced Patterson’s plan to retire as chief executive.
Patterson served as BancorpSouth’s chairman of the board and chief executive since 1991.
BancorpSouth, which has $13.2 billion in assets, has more than 290 offices in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas, including an insurance location in Illinois.
- David Smith
ConocoPhillips to sell Kashagan part
HOUSTON - ConocoPhillips, the largest U.S. independent oil producer, intends to sell its 8.4 percent interest in Kazakhstan’s Kashagan project for about $5 billion to Oil & Natural Gas, India’s biggest energy explorer.
ConocoPhillips and ONGC Videsh, the New Delhi-based company’s international arm, expect to close the deal for a stake in the North Caspian Sea Production Sharing Agreement during the first half of next year, according to a statement Monday. The project has lagged behind schedule and has cost nearly twice as much as initially projected.
The sale will bring to about $7 billion the proceeds raised by Houston-based ConocoPhillips, which has targeted $8 billion to $10 billion of sales from 2012 to 2013. The company has sought to remake itself during the past three years by selling assets and spinning off its refining business. ConocoPhillips expects a charge of about $400 million during the fourth quarter related to the transaction.
- Bloomberg News
Onex to buy Goldman’s USI Insurance
Onex Corp., Canada’s largest publicly traded buyout firm, has agreed to buy USI Insurance Services LLC from a fund run by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in a transaction valued at $2.3 billion.
The deal includes a $700 million equity investment by Onex Partners III fund, the Toronto-based company said Monday.
Employees of the Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.-based insurance broker will remain “significant” investors in USI, which has about 100 offices in the U.S.
Private equity firms are buying insurance-services companies for their steady cash flow and low capital needs. KKR & Co. agreed on Nov. 23 to purchase brokerage Alliant Insurance Services Inc. from Blackstone Group LP for an undisclosed amount. Last month, a group led by CVC Capital Partners Ltd.
said it would acquire insurance-claim adjuster Cunningham Lindsey Group Ltd. in a deal valuing the company at as much as $1 billion including debt.
The buyout unit of N.Y.-based Goldman Sachs acquired USI in 2007 in a deal valued at $1.4 billion.
- Bloomberg News
McGraw-Hill to shed education unit
NEW YORK - McGraw-Hill said Monday that it reached a deal to sell its education arm to private equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC for $2.5 billion in cash and debt, as part of its plan to focus on its financial information businesses.
As part of the deal, McGraw-Hill will receive $250 million in Apollo debt with an annual interest rate of 8.5 percent. The acquisition includes the company’s digital and traditional textbook business and other assets.
The sale is expected to close in late 2012 or early 2013.
At that time, the New York-based McGraw-Hill Cos. will be renamed McGraw Hill Financial. Harold McGraw III, McGraw-Hill’s current chairman, president and CEO, will head that company. McGraw Hill Financial expects 2012 revenue of about $4.4 billion.
Harold McGraw said the sale will boost value for the company’s shareholders, give the company added financial flexibility and allow it to focus on growing brands such as Standard & Poor’s, S&P Capital IQ , Platts and J.D. Power and Associates.
- The Associated Press
Business, Pages 22 on 11/27/2012