QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It’s a very good start to the year for us.”
Bob Shanks, Ford Motor Co. chief financial officer Article, 1D
Jones Group to ax 170 stores, 800 jobs
NEW YORK - The Jones Group Inc., a maker of clothing, shoes and accessories that owns chains including Nine West and Easy Spirit, on Wednesday said it’s closing 170 U.S. stores and eliminating jobs as part of a plan to improve profitability.
A Jones Group spokesman says that 8 percent of the company’s 10,000 jobs will be cut, or about 800 U.S. positions.
The New York company, which also sells its products through department stores, had had stagnant sales, and it posted a loss last year. Its sportswear lines and its own stores run lots of discounts. In the first quarter, it expects adjusted earnings per share to fall by about half because of more markdowns. Moreover, sales were hurt by unusually cold weather.
For the current period, it expects revenue to be between $820 million and $850 million and between $3.8 billion and $3.95 billion for the year. That’s worse than expected. Analysts had predicted revenue of $901.8 million for the second quarter and $3.97 billion for the year, according to FactSet.
Shares of Jones Group Inc. rose 37 cents, or 2.7 percent, to close at $13.97.
- The Associated Press
MetroPCS shareholders OK T-Mobile bid
NEW YORK - Shareholders of MetroPCS Communications Inc., the country’s fifth-largest cell-phone carrier, have approved the company’s takeover by No. 4 T-Mobile USA, a spokesman said Wednesday.
Approval was expected after T-Mobile sweetened its bid and major shareholders withdrew their objections. TMobile’s initial offer was approved by MetroPCS’ board, but shareholders and shareholder advisory firms called it inadequate.
Nick Lamplough, a spokesman for MetroPCS, said shareholders voted for the deal at their special meeting in Richardson, Texas, on Wednesday morning. He did not have a full vote count.
The deal is intended to produce a stronger combined company worth about $16 billion and with 43 million devices on its wireless network. By combining the space allocated to each company on the airwaves, the new company should be able to deliver faster wireless data downloads, a crucial competitive factor.
The deal gives MetroPCS shareholders 26 percent of the combined company. T-Mobile’s German parent, Deutsche Telekom AG, will own the rest. Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile lacks a stock listing in the U.S., but the new company will keep MetroPCS’ stock listing.
The deal has all requisite regulatory approvals. MetroPCS shares rose 8 cents to close at $11.77.
FracFocus ill-serves states, study says
FracFocus, the website used by Exxon Mobil Corp. and other energy companies to disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, fails as a compliance tool for the 11 states that rely on it, a Harvard Law School study found.
Using the voluntary registry for compliance with state disclosure requirements is “misplaced or premature” because of spotty reporting, lack of a searchable database and an “overly broad” allowance for trade secrets, according to the study published Wednesday by the Environmental Law Program at Harvard.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management should establish basic requirements for disclosure, and penalties should apply for failure to report, according to the study. The online registry was created in April 2011 to keep track of chemicals used in fracking, in which producers shoot a mixture of water, sand and chemicals underground to access oil and natural gas in dense rock formations.
“Any state’s ability to make demands on FracFocus is limited,” Kate Konschnik, Margaret Holden and Alexa Shasteen wrote in the report. “The federal government should step into this void and require minimum standards for the disclosure registry.”
Of the 18 states that require companies to disclose chemicals used in fracking, 11 require or allow the reporting to be on FracFocus. The study cited reporting by Bloomberg News and The New York Times. Arkansas is not one of the 11 states. Information about fracking fluids used in wells in Arkansas is available on the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission’s website: aogc.state.ar.us
FracFocus is operated by two groups: the Ground Water Protection Council, a group of state water officials;
and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, an association of states that produce the fuels.
- Bloomberg News
Heathrow’s first-quarter traffic a record
LONDON - Heathrow Airport said the number of passengers flying through Europe’s busiest aviation hub rose to a first-quarter record as airlines added larger aircraft.
Passenger traffic gained 1.8 percent to 16 million people in the three months ending March 31, the London-based company said in a statement Wednesday. Load factor, a measure of occupancy, grew by 2.4 percentage points to 71.9 percent, while the average number of seats per plane jumped to 199.9 from 195.5.
“What we are seeing over recent months are bigger and fuller aircraft,” Jose Leo, Heathrow’s chief financial officer, said in an interview. “Fuller aircraft means the airlines are managing their operations more efficiently and load factors are growing very significantly,” he said. “The average number of seats per aircraft is going up.”
Heathrow is seeking regulatory approval for a $4.58 billion spending plan that would go into effect April 2014 and fund new taxiways and baggage systems. The investment will bring the total amount spent on the hub since 2003 to about $21 billion and drive a 41 percent increase in the average charge per passenger by 2019. Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority is “days away” from releasing its price cap proposals, Leo said.
Georgia-Pacific to buy Memphis firm
ATLANTA - Georgia-Pacific said Wednesday that it reached a deal to buy Buckeye Technologies Inc. for about $1.46 billion.
The privately held Atlanta-based paper, packaging and building-products company said it will buy all of Buckeye’s common stock for $37.50 per share.
The price represents a 25 percent premium over Buckeye’s Tuesday closing stock price. Its shares jumped $7.93, or 26.5 percent, to close at $37.86.
The companies valued the deal at about $1.5 billion, including debt.
The deal remains subject to regulatory approvals and Georgia-Pacific LLC’s acquisition of at least 75 percent of Buckeye’s shares through a tender offer.
- The Associated Press
Business, Pages 26 on 04/25/2013