Business news in brief

Murphy Oil closes Malaysia assets sale

Murphy Oil Corp. has completed the sale of a 30 percent stake it held in Malaysian oil and gas assets to an Indonesian state energy company.

El Dorado-based Murphy Oil said Thursday it closed on the second phase of the $2 billion deal with Pertamina Malaysia Eksplorasi Produksi.

The second phase covers the remaining 10 percent of the assets. Murphy Oil closed on the first phase, which covered about 20 percent of the assets, on Dec. 18.

The company completed the sale of its United Kingdom retail gasoline business last year.

-- Jessica Seaman

Development agency gets interim chief

Danny Games, who has served as a deputy director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission for the past month, is now interim executive director of the commission, spokesman Scott Hardin said Thursday.

Former Executive Director Grant Tennille is now a consultant for the agency and is subcontracted on a month-to-month basis at $5,000 a month.

The commission is seeking to hire a new director, a process that Gov. Asa Hutchinson hopes will be completed by the end of February.

When Hutchinson hired Games as deputy director, he told Games that he would have the duties of interim director until a new director is hired, Hardin said.

Games most recently was manager of corporate affairs at BHP Billiton and had been former senior director of corporate development and government affairs at Chesapeake Energy and a senior project manager at Entergy Arkansas.

-- David Smith

Texas firm buys PB's The Pines mall

Pine Bluff's mall, The Pines at Pine Bluff, sold last week for about $4.2 million to a Wichita Falls, Texas, company, Art Co., owned by James, Thuytien and John Vu.

The previous owner, Pine Bluff Income Properties, had purchased the mall in 2012 for nearly $1.3 million, according to information provided by the Jefferson County assessor's office. Pine Bluff Income Properties is a Texas holding company controlled by Andy Weiner.

The mall is anchored by retailers Sears, J.C. Penney Co. and Dillard's Inc., though the property occupied by J.C. Penney and Dillard's was not included in the deal. All told, the amount of real estate changing hands was almost 420,000 square feet.

The Pines mall manager Scott Green said Thursday that both the former and new owners sent letters to mall tenants assuring them that "nothing's changing." Green is keeping his job with the new owners.

-- Cyd King

Rates rise for 15-, 30-year mortgages

WASHINGTON -- Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose slightly this week after four straight weeks of declines, while remaining near historically low levels.

Mortgage company Freddie Mac said Thursday that the nationwide average for a 30-year mortgage edged up to 3.66 percent from 3.63 percent last week. The new average rate is still at its lowest level since May 2013.

The rate for the 15-year loan, a popular choice for people who are refinancing, increased to 2.98 percent from 2.93 percent last week.

A year ago, the average 30-year mortgage stood at 4.32 percent and the 15-year mortgage at 3.40 percent.

To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., surveys lenders across the country at the beginning of each week. The average doesn't include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.

The average fee for a 30-year mortgage was 0.6 point, down from 0.7 point last week. The fee for a 15-year mortgage fell to 0.5 point from 0.6 point.

-- The Associated Press

Judge: Gas bill not Sager Creek's to pay

Sager Creek Vegetable Co., the buyer of defunct vegetable canning company Allens Inc., doesn't have to pay a $68,499 natural gas bill from Southwestern Energy Services, a bankruptcy judge ruled Thursday.

Judge Ben Barry issued an oral ruling saying Houston-based Southwestern Energy failed to prove that when Sager Creek bought Allens it assumed the bill for gas used during the week after Allens filed for bankruptcy protection.

During a hearing in early January, Sager Creek argued that there were no provisions to pay the bill in the agreement to purchase Allens, and there was no intent for Sager Creek to continue to do business with Southwestern Energy. A representative for Southwestern Energy said the bill qualified as an administrative expense under bankruptcy law.

Barry said at its core, the case was a contract dispute, and Southwestern Energy failed to clearly show Sager Creek assumed the debt.

In late October 2013, Siloam Springs-based Allens Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection. The case has since been shifted to Chapter 7. In February, Allens was bought at auction and renamed Sager Creek Vegetable Co. in July.

-- John Magsam

Kate Spade to shut stores, look to China

Kate Spade & Co., the handbag maker working to become a global lifestyle brand, will close stores devoted to its lower-priced and men's lines while starting a new joint venture to speed its growth in China.

The 19 stores for the Kate Spade Saturday bargain line will shut in the first half of the year, as will the 12 Jack Spade men's locations, the New York-based company said Thursday in a statement. The changes will result in cash charges of as much as $30 million and noncash charges of as much as $9 million.

"The best path was to apply all the learnings from the Kate Spade Saturday brand and incorporate it into our Kate Spade New York brand," said Chief Executive Officer Craig Leavitt.

Leavitt has set a goal of almost quadrupling sales to $4 billion by expanding Kate Spade into fragrances, jewelry, watches and sunglasses in the mold of brands such as Ralph Lauren. Kate Spade said Thursday in a preliminary earnings statement that sales last year were about $1.13 billion to $1.14 billion, topping analysts' estimates.

Shares of Kate Spade rose $1.95 to close Thursday at $31.68.

-- Bloomberg News

Fuel sales propel Phillips 66 in quarter

Phillips 66, the largest U.S. refiner by market value, said profit from the sale of gasoline and other fuels tripled in the fourth quarter as prices fell to a five-year low.

Net income rose to $1.15 billion, or $2.05 a share, from $826 million, or $1.37, a year earlier, the Houston-based company said in a statement Thursday. Excluding one-time items, per-share profit exceeded the $1.41 average of 16 analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales fell to $35.6 billion from $43.8 billion a year ago.

Gasoline prices dropped alongside a precipitous decline in crude prices, which decreased 42 percent during the fourth quarter. The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. fell by a third to the lowest since 2009, according to AAA. Some stations posted prices below $2 a gallon.

Shares rose $2.11 to close Thursday at $70.48.

-- Bloomberg News

Tyson Foods investors meeting today

Tyson Foods is to hold its annual shareholders meeting and release its first-quarter earnings report today. Investors can call (888) 455-8283 and provide the pass code “Tyson Foods” to listen to the 8 a.m. earnings call. The shareholders meeting will be available at (888) 233-9142 using the same pass code. Both the earnings call and the shareholders meeting will be webcast at ir.tyson.com. A replay of both meetings will be available online.

-- Brian Fanney

Business on 01/30/2015

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