QUOTE OF THE DAY
“This report is consistent with the economy continuing to recover, but just at a moderate pace.We’re not getting much demand from the rest of the world, but we are getting growth domestically.”
Scott Brown, Raymond James & Associates Inc. chief economist, on Friday’s durable-goods report Article, 1D
New inspector assigned to Nuclear One
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission assigned Brian Tindell as the new senior resident inspector at Arkansas Nuclear One in Russellville on Friday.
Tindell is replacing Fred Sanchez, who is transferring to a Texas facility following a standard tour of duty, said Victor Dricks, a spokesman for the commission. Resident inspectors are assigned to a site for no more than seven years.
The assignment follows the March 31 death of a contracting employee. Wade Walters was killed when a crane collapsed, causing a 525-ton generator component to fall. The accident also injured eight other workers.
Tindell joins resident inspector Abin Fairbanks at the plant.
Inspectors monitor work projects and interact with plant workers to ensure safety. Each commercial nuclear plant has at least two inspectors.
Active U.S. rig count dips by 7 to 1,762
HOUSTON - Oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. said the number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. dropped by seven this week to 1,762.
The Houston-based company said Friday in its weekly report that 1,402 rigs were exploring for oil and another 354 for gas. Six were listed as miscellaneous. A year ago there were 1,983 active rigs.
Of the major oil- and gas-producing states, Texas gained three rigs and Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Wyoming were each up one.
Colorado and North Dakota each declined by five, Alaska fell by three and Oklahoma one.
Arkansas, California, New Mexico and West Virginia were unchanged.
The overall U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999.
Report has Bausch & Lomb sale in works
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., Canada’s largest drug maker, is close to acquiring Bausch & Lomb, the eye-care company owned by Warburg Pincus LLC, for about $9 billion, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.
Warburg Pincus, which bought Bausch & Lomb in a 2007 leveraged buyout, as recently as March was considering an initial public offering that would have raised as much as $1.5 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Instead, the private-equity company is near a deal to sell the eye-care company to Valeant, said a person who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private.
Bausch & Lomb had pursued an initial public offering after an earlier effort to sell itself stalled. Warburg had hoped it would fetch at least $10 billion, people familiar with the matter said at the time.
Adam Grossberg, a spokesman for Bausch & Lomb, and Laurie Little, a spokesman for Montreal-based Valeant, didn’t immediately return telephone calls seeking comment. Jeffrey Smith, a Warburg Pincus spokesman, declined to comment.
Valeant shares gained $9.80, or 13 percent, to close Friday at $84.47, after earlier reaching $87.50, its highest price since 1994.
The deal was reported earlier by Dow Jones newswires.
National Bank of Greece posts profit
National Bank of Greece SA, the country’s biggest lender, posted a first-quarter profit on reduced provisions for bad debt and its Turkish unit buoyed earnings.
National reported a net income of $34.9 million compared with a loss of $945 million in the same period a year earlier, the Athens-based lender said in a statement Friday. Provisions for bad loans dropped 24 percent compared with a year earlier, the first decline since the beginning of the euro area debt crisis in late 2009.
“Discernible improvement in the economic climate reflects the belief that Greece has made significant progress in its efforts to become more competitive,” Chief Executive Officer Alexandros Tourkolias said in the statement. “The core profitability of banks is now showing clear signs of improvement.”
- Bloomberg News
China, Switzerland to sign trade deal
GENEVA - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is in Switzerland to seal a free trade pact with the Alpine nation - the first comprehensive agreement his country has reached with a major western economy.
Li met with Swiss officials in Zurich on Friday to conclude three years of negotiations.
In an op-ed published Thursday by Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung, Li said the deal showed China was committed to free trade.
Trade between the two nations topped $26 billion last year.
Switzerland is the first European stop on Li’s inaugural trip abroad since taking office in March. He travels to Germany today for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Concerns have grown recently about a possible trade war between China and the European Union over solar energy products.
Switzerland is not a European Union member.
- The Associated Press
Bank of America to seek branch buyers
Bank of America Corp., the second- largest U.S. lender by assets, is seeking buyers for about 40 branches in New York and Pennsylvania, four people with knowledge of the matter said.
The offices hold about $1 billion in deposits and could sell for $20 million to $30 million, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks aren’t public. The branches are in rural locations in southeastern New York and northeastern Pennsylvania.
Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan has been closing or selling outlets since 2011 to lower costs and focus on more populous markets. The CEO has said the Charlotte, N.C.-based firm needs fewer branches as people do more banking online.
“They’re pulling out of markets they don’t have much growth in, places that aren’t meaningful to the big banks,” said Bert Ely, an independent banking consultant in Alexandria, Va. “There aren’t a lot of buyers for them right now, and so you’re not seeing them sell for huge premiums.”
Banks that expressed interest in the latest sale included FNB Corp. of Hermitage, Pa., Community Bank System Inc. of Dewitt, N.Y., and National Penn Bancshares Inc. of Boyertown, Pa., according to one of the people. Other potential bidders probably would be banks with less than $25 billion in assets that already operate in those markets, the people said.
- Bloomberg News
Business, Pages 30 on 05/25/2013