Bank of Ozarks most profitable in state
Little Rock-based Bank of the Ozarks was the most profitable bank in the state through the first six months of the year, according to information supplied by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
The bank earned $106 million for the period.
Centennial Bank of Conway, a subsidiary of Home BancShares, was second, earning almost $85 million through June.
First Security Bank of Searcy had net income of about $50 million through the second quarter.
Simmons Bank of Pine Bluff earned about $46 million through the first half of the year.
Arvest Bank of Fayetteville, which had the most assets at $16.6 billion, made about $39 million in net income through the second quarter.
-- David Smith
Auditor settles suit over missed fraud
MIAMI -- Lawyers for accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers and a defunct mortgage company's creditors and investors have reached a settlement in a lawsuit involving audits at a failed Alabama bank.
Attorneys from both sides confirmed via email Friday that the case involving the $5 billion lawsuit was settled "to the mutual satisfaction of the parties."
The case went to trial in Miami earlier this month and was expected to last six weeks.
The lawsuit claimed PricewaterhouseCoopers should have detected fraud at Colonial Bank of Montgomery, Ala. It claimed the estimated $21 billion fraud was orchestrated by top executives at the shuttered mortgage firm Taylor, Bean and Whitaker of Ocala, Fla.
Six Taylor Bean senior executives and two Colonial employees were convicted of federal fraud charges and sent to prison. Colonial was shut down in 2009.
-- The Associated Press
AB Inbev to cut 3% of jobs in takeover
BRUSSELS -- The world's largest brewer, AB Inbev, expects to cut about 3 percent of its total workforce -- equivalent to thousands of jobs -- once it completes its takeover of its closest rival, SABMiller.
The company based in Leuven, Belgium, has about 150,000 workers while the London-based SABMiller claims to have around 70,000.
That would put the estimated job losses at around 6,600 over a three-year period. However, AB Inbev said in documents published Friday that the estimate doesn't include its sales and front-office supply departments, for which integration plans are not completed. The statement means it was not clear if there would be even more job cuts than the announced 3 percent.
It expects losses at SABMiller's current headquarters, as the new company will be based in Leuven and New York.
Analysts say that AB Inbev is known for being aggressive in cutting costs from takeovers and mergers. The company expects to make annual cost savings of about $1.4 billion after about four years.
-- The Associated Press
Prada's sales slump on weak demand
Prada SpA reported its first drop in opening-half sales since its 2011 listing as weak demand in China and terrorist attacks in Europe continued to weigh on the Italian luxury-goods maker.
Revenue fell 15 percent to $1.8 billion, the Hong Kong-listed company said in a statement Friday, missing the $1.85 billion average analyst estimate compiled by Bloomberg. Earnings also declined, though by slightly less than analysts predicted.
As the wider luxury industry struggles for growth, Prada has been hit harder than most. That's partly because its handbags are too expensive and it has been slow to invest online, according to Sanford C. Bernstein analysts. The company is seeking to address those issues amid two years of stagnant sales and its lowest profit in five years.
"Retail sales are very weak and the Prada brand is underperforming across multiple regions," said John Guy, an analyst at MainFirst Bank AG. "Some of the poor performance is sector-related, but Prada's design and creativity needs to be revised with responsibility being spread across more personnel."
-- Bloomberg News
Buzz about Icahn weighs on Herbalife
NEW YORK -- Shares of Herbalife were under heavy trading pressure Friday on a news report that Carl Icahn, the company's biggest shareholder and defender, has been trying to unload his stake.
Major players on Wall Street have used the company's shares in a proxy war for years now after one of them, Bill Ackman, first called it a pyramid scheme in 2012.
The potential sale of Icahn's stake, which was reported by The Wall Street Journal on Friday, comes a month after the Federal Trade Commission closed its investigation of Herbalife and said it needs to rework the way in which it pays its salesmen. The FTC ruled that salesmen have to be paid for selling Herbalife products. Typically, Herbalife salesmen bought products and tried to get others to do the same.
The FTC did not label Herbalife as a pyramid scheme, a victory for the company, but its description of its business model was essentially how a pyramid scheme operates.
It ordered the company, which has headquarters in Los Angeles, to put into place changes in its business model by May.
Shares of Herbalife fell $1.43, or 2.3 percent, to close Friday at $60.50.
-- The Associated Press
Consumer sentiment index edges down
Consumer confidence eased in August to a four-month low as Americans become less optimistic about their finances for the year ahead.
The University of Michigan said Friday that its final index of sentiment stood at 89.8 this month compared with 90 in July. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey called for 90.8 after a preliminary reading of 90.4.
The share of households that expected their finances to improve fell to 29 percent, the smallest since late 2014, as views dimmed among those younger than 45. While long-term inflation expectations dropped to the lowest level on record, consumers anticipated smaller income gains.
"Confidence eased back in late August to register a trivial decline from the July reading," Richard Curtin, director of the Michigan survey, said in a statement. "Less favorable personal financial prospects were largely offset by a slight improvement in the outlook for the overall economy."
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 08/27/2016