QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Canada right now is facing potential limitations on market access, ongoing controversy around oil-sands production and we’re also seeing opposition to pipelines.”
Bob Walker, NEI Investments vice president Article, 1D
‘Lt. Dan’ to help Wal-Mart honor veterans
Actor Gary Sinise, who played Lt. Dan Taylor in the Oscar Award-winning movie Forrest Gump, will help Wal-Mart Stores Inc. honor veterans during a Veterans Day celebration Monday at the retailer’s home office in Bentonville.
Attendees will also include several veterans hired as part of the Welcome Home Commitment - the company’s promise to hire any veteran who has been honorably discharged in the last 12 months. Wal-Mart has said it intends to hire 100,000 veterans by 2018.
The celebration Monday will also feature Wal-Mart President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Duke and senior director of military programs Gary Profit.
In Forrest Gump, Sinise portrayed the lead character’s superior officer in the military during the Vietnam War.
“Wherever I go for the military, they always call me Lt. Dan,” Sinise has said. “They just can’t help it.”
Producers Rice Mill production up 14%
Producers Rice Mill Inc.’s mills processed 64.3 million bushels of rice in its 2012-2013 year, up 14 percent from the previous year, Keith Glover, president of the firm, said at the 70th annual membership meeting this week in Stuttgart.
Producers’ sales for the year were a record $568.5 million, up $90 million from the previous year.
Producers had net taxable income of $1.9 million for the year and had members’ equity of $108.6 million.
The rice crop in 2012 was one of the earliest ever planted, but the 2013 crop was one of the latest planted because of rain and the second coldest March and April since 1895, Producers said.
The 2013 rice acreage planted in Arkansas declined by 285,000 acres, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture figures. Producers attributed that to unfavorable planting weather and attractive prices for corn and soybeans.
The company is optimistic about U.S. rice prices for 2013-2014, Glover said. With 126.5 million hundredweight harvested, this year’s national long-grain rice crop will be the second smallest in 17 years. That will make U.S. long grain rice supplies the tightest in 10 years.
Coca-Cola to invest $4 billion in China
Coca-Cola says it plans to invest more than $4 billion in China over three years.
David Brooks, president of Coca-Cola’s Greater China and Korea business unit, told Bloomberg News earlier this week that the company plans to invest the money between 2015 and 2017 to build factories and add new products to its portfolio. The company is also investing $4 billion in China between 2012 and 2014.
The Atlanta-based company confirmed the plan Friday.
Coca-Cola has been expanding in emerging markets such as Russia and China. It aims to reach $200 billion in revenue by 2020, in part by catering to the growing middle class in emerging markets.
Shares fell a penny to $39.82 in midday trading. The stock has risen 10 percent since the beginning of the year.
New menu items boost McDonald’s sales
McDonald’s Corp., the world’s largest restaurant chain, said sales at stores open at least 13 months rose 0.5 percent in October as new items spurred sales in Europe and the U.S.
Analysts estimated a 0.2 percent increase, the average of 10 estimates according to Consensus Metrix. Growth in Europe was 0.8 percent, Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald’s said in a statement Friday, exceeding analysts’ projected 0.2 percent gain.
Chief Executive Officer Don Thompson has been overhauling McDonald’s menu worldwide. In Europe, where the company gets about 40 percent of its revenue, McDonald’s has advertised new and value items, such as different smoothie and McCafe coffee drink flavors in the U.K. At its domestic locations, McDonald’s also is promoting new fare, including chicken wings and pumpkin-spice lattes.
“They’ve added some more premium-type products,” said Darren Tristano, executive vice president at restaurant researcher Technomic Inc. in Chicago. “And when you compare them to other fast-food restaurants, that I think is going to help them lift their brand.”
McDonald’s shares fell 0.3 percent to $96.89 at 9:42 a.m. in New York.
Same-store sales rose 0.2 percent last month in the U.S.
Analysts projected a 0.4 percent gain, on average.
Men’s Wearhouse urged to consider bid
The Men’s Wearhouse Inc. was urged by Eminence Capital LLC, which disclosed that it had become the retailer’s largest investor, to engage in takeover talks with Jos. A.
Bank Clothiers Inc., whose bid it spurned last month.
Eminence, a New York-based hedge fund, said in a letter to the Men’s Wearhouse board Thursday that while it agreed that Jos. A. Bank’s offer price was too low, the company’s other reasons for rejecting the bid were “disingenuous at best and reckless and misinformed at worst.” The fund said in a filing that it had taken a 9.8 percent stake in Men’s Wearhouse.
Eminence’s involvement in the takeover dispute, which was reported earlier by CNBC, increased speculation that a deal between the two menswear retailers may happen.
Houston-based Men’s Wearhouse rejected Jos. A. Bank’s $2.3 billion offer the day it was made public and said its prospects are better as a standalone company.
Shares of Men’s Wearhouse rose 28 cents to close at $45.71. Hampstead, Md.-based Jos. A. Bank shares rose 49 cents, or 1 percent, to $48.80.
Ken Dennard, a spokesman for Men’s Wearhouse who works for Dennard-Lascar Associates LLC, didn’t respond to a voice mail seeking comment on the filing. Tom Davies, a spokesman for Jos. A. Bank who works for Kekst & Co., declined to comment on the filing.
Eminence said there should be a price Jos. A. Bank would be willing to pay that would fairly compensate Men’s Wearhouse’s shareholders. The fund also said it would exercise its right as a shareholder to hold Men’s Wearhouse’s board accountable if it fails to engage in talks with Jos. A. Bank and instruct financial advisers to evaluate other options by Monday.
- Bloomberg News
Business, Pages 34 on 11/09/2013