LR bank announces $1.59 million profit
Metropolitan National Bank earned $1.59 million in the third quarter, the Little Rock-based bank said Wednesday.
For the first nine months of the year, Metropolitan had net income of $3.53 million, up from a loss of $2.7 million through September last year.
Metropolitan improved two capital ratios in comparison with levels in the third quarter last year.
In September, Simmons First National Corp. of Pine Bluff made the winning bid of $53.6 million in a bankruptcy auction to purchase Metropolitan, which has assets of about $1 billion.
“The merger of Metropolitan National Bank and Simmons First is going exceptionally well,” Lunsford Bridges, Metropolitan’s chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement.
“Our two companies share similar values, culture and principles of community banking. We are working closely with the leadership team at Simmons First National Bank to make the transition as smooth as possible.”
- David Smith
OSHA fines trucker $113,400 in fatality
Sherman Brothers Trucking of Crossett faces more than $100,000 in fines after being cited for 11 health and safety violations by the U.S. Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Operating as Team Transport Inc., Sherman Bros. is being penalized after OSHA investigated the death of a temporary worker. A lack of oxygen inside a tanker-trailer killed the employee, who did not receive proper training, OSHA determined.
OSHA cited Sherman Bros. for a willful violation stemming from failure to maintain air-monitoring equipment and evaluating confined space conditions before the worker began cleaning. Sherman Bros., which faces $113,400 in fines, was also cited for seven serious violations and three violations categorized as “other than serious.”
Team Transport is part of Harrisburg, Ore.-based S.B. Inc.
- Chris Bahn
Index falls by 1.66 as 14 stocks retreat
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, dropped 1.66 to 313.32 Wednesday.
Fourteen stocks declined and three advanced.
Arkansas Best rose 3 percent and reached a 52-week high in heavy trading.
Tyson Foods fell 2.7 percent in above-average trading.
Other stocks reaching 52-week highs Wednesday included Acxiom, Home BancShares and USA Truck.
Volume for the index was 18.1 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 25 on 10/31/2013