Business news in brief

A woman passes by a panel with the writing 'cancelled' on it Wednesday, March 18, 2015 at the airport in Munich, southern Germany. Hundreds of flights have been canceled in a strike by Lufthansa pilots at the German airline's short- and medium-haul operations  the latest in a string of walkouts.
A woman passes by a panel with the writing 'cancelled' on it Wednesday, March 18, 2015 at the airport in Munich, southern Germany. Hundreds of flights have been canceled in a strike by Lufthansa pilots at the German airline's short- and medium-haul operations the latest in a string of walkouts.

Bank of Ozarks exec sells more stock

Ross Whipple, a director for Bank of the Ozarks and former chairman of Summit Bank in Arkadelphia, has sold another $3.1 million of his stock in the Little Rock firm, according to a federal filing this week.

Whipple sold 83,200 shares of his Bank of the Ozarks stock at about $37 a share.

Last week, he also sold more than $3 million of his stock in the bank.

Since September, Whipple has sold more than $26 million of his Bank of the Ozarks stock.

Whipple sold Summit Bank to Bank of the Ozarks last year for about $216 million, most of which was in Bank of the Ozarks stock.

After his most recent sale, Whipple now owns almost 1.4 million shares of Bank of the Ozarks, valued at more than $50.6 million.

-- David Smith

Times Square rent displacing Toys R Us

Toys R Us Inc., the world's largest toy chain, plans to abandon its flagship store in New York's Times Square early next year as it faces an expected rent increase.

The 110,000-square-foot store at 1514 Broadway, famed for its indoor Ferris wheel and mechanical Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur, is too large for any single tenant, said C. Bradley Mendelson, vice chairman at Cushman & Wakefield Inc., who is handling leasing for building owner Bow Tie Partners. The landlord plans to break up the space, Mendelson said.

"The configuration of space is just too expensive for any one tenant," Mendelson said. "Market rates have changed substantially. It has nothing to do with Toys' ability. Toys has been a very good tenant for the last 15, 16 years."

The move reflects rapid rent growth near Times Square. Retailers clamoring for access to the square's tourist traffic have been driving rents higher.

Rates for ground-floor retail space in the area averaged $2,317 a square foot in late 2014, higher than anywhere in Manhattan except for Fifth Avenue between 49th and 59th streets, according to a report by the Real Estate Board of New York.

-- Bloomberg News

VW looking to sell light pickups, vans

Volkswagen AG, which became part of U.S. pop culture with its bug-eyed Microbus, is looking at getting back into the U.S. van market.

The German company could also sell a pickup as it examines opportunities to broaden its range in North America, Eckhard Scholz, head of the light commercial vehicle unit, said at a news conference in Hanover on Wednesday.

"Pickup trucks are a dominating segment," while there's also a trend in the U.S. toward compact European vans, Scholz said. "We're looking at both options intensively."

Entering the U.S. light commercial vehicle market would complement Wolfsburg-based Volkswagen's plan to become more than a niche manufacturer in the region and catch up with General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. Light trucks are helping drive U.S. sales at both companies, as cheaper gasoline has turned consumer tastes back toward big vehicles.

-- Bloomberg News

Lufthansa pilots strike cancels flights

BERLIN -- Hundreds of flights were canceled Wednesday in a strike by Lufthansa pilots at the German airline's short- and medium-haul operations -- the latest in a string of walkouts.

Around 80,000 passengers were affected by the strike Wednesday that grounded some 750 flights, most of them domestic or within Europe.

The Vereinigung Cockpit union announced that it would extend its strikes to long-distance flights today.

The union has hit various Lufthansa units with around a dozen short-term walkouts over recent months. The dispute centers on the airline's plans to cut transition payments for pilots wanting to retire early, which the union wants to see maintained.

Traditional national carriers such as Germany's biggest airline are being squeezed by European budget carriers and major Gulf airlines.

-- The Associated Press

IMF finding Greece recalcitrant, 2 say

International Monetary Fund officials told their euro-area colleagues that Greece is the most unhelpful country the organization has dealt with in its 70-year history, according to two people familiar with the talks.

In a short and bad-tempered conference call Tuesday, officials from the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission complained that Greek officials aren't adhering to a bailout extension deal reached in February or cooperating with creditors, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the call was private. The IMF's press office had no immediate comment on the discussions.

German finance officials said trying to persuade the Greek government to draw up a rigorous economic policy program is like riding a dead horse, the people said, while the IMF team said Greece's attitude to its official creditors was unacceptable.

Concern is growing among officials that the recalcitrance of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' government may end up forcing Greece out of the euro, as the cash-strapped country refuses to take the action needed to trigger more financial support.

-- Bloomberg News

Giant cargo ship stops at Georgia port

SAVANNAH, Ga. -- The Port of Savannah is hosting its largest visitor ever, the giant cargo ship ZIM Tianjin.

The Georgia Ports Authority said the ship, measuring 1,145 feet long and 150 feet wide, arrived Wednesday. The Tianjin sailed to the U.S. East Coast from China through the Suez Canal.

The ship can carry up to 10,000 cargo containers. However, ships of its size can now only reach the Savannah port with lighter loads and at high tides because the Savannah River is too shallow. Work will begin soon on a $706 million deepening of the river channel from 42 feet to 47 feet.

Ships nearly as large as the Tianjin have called on Savannah before. In 2012, the port welcomed the MSC Roma, which measured 1,100 feet long and could carry 9,200 containers.

-- The Associated Press

Business on 03/19/2015

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