Business news in brief

Cargill to buy out animal-feed business

Cargill Inc. is prepared to buy Southern States Cooperative Inc.'s animal-feed business, which would expand the Minnesota food giant's footprint throughout the eastern half of the U.S.

The transaction is estimated to close within 90 days. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Southern States Cooperative announced late Thursday that Cargill would acquire seven feed mills and a portfolio of products, brands and customer and supplier relationships, once the deal was final. The retail, farm supply, energy and agronomy segments of the Richmond, Va.-based company are not part of this transaction.

This acquisition will strengthen Cargill's distribution and market capabilities in the mid-Atlantic, northeast and southeast regions of the U.S., according to a company statement.

"Customers are at the heart of everything we do, and this agreement will allow us to better meet their needs in this key geography," said Adriana Marcon, vice president and group director of Cargill Animal Nutrition, in a release.

This comes after a similar agreement between Southern States and Land O'Lakes fell through. They reached an agreement in November, but Land O'Lakes announced in March it would build an animal feed facility in Roanoke, Va., instead.

While Southern States won't be making feed anymore, the company said it is still committed to providing feed to co-op members and customers. Southern States is one of the nation's largest agriculture cooperatives and owned by more than 200,000 farmer-members. There are 1,200 retail outlets in 23 states.

-- Nathan Owens

U.S. exports rise, narrow trade deficit

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in June as exports hit the highest level in 2½ years.

The Commerce Department said Friday that the trade gap slid 5.9 percent in June to $43.6 billion.

Exports of goods and services rose 1.2 percent to $194.4 billion, the highest amount since December 2014, on higher foreign demand for American soybeans, computer accessories and other products. Services exports reached a record $65.4 billion.

U.S. exports may be getting a lift from a pickup in global economic growth and a drop in the value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies. A weaker dollar makes American products a better bargain in foreign markets.

Overall imports slipped 0.2 percent to $238 billion on a drop in demand for cellphones and other household goods.

So far this year, the trade deficit is up 10.7 percent to $276.6 billion.

The deficit means the United States is buying more goods and services from other countries than it is selling them. A shrinking trade gap boosts U.S. economic growth.

-- The Associated Press

Drillers reduce active U.S. oil rigs by 1

HOUSTON -- Oil explorers reduced rigs drilling in U.S. oilfields by one this week.

Working rigs targeting crude totaled 765, according to Baker Hughes data reported Friday. Producers ended 23 straight weeks of additions with a pullback at the end of June, breaking the longest stretch of continuous growth in three decades. Even so, more than twice as many rigs are drilling for oil now than in May 2016, when the count hit a low point of 316.

"It echoes what we've been expecting and what explorers and producers have been saying," Andrew Cosgrove, senior analyst for energy and mining equity at Bloomberg Intelligence, said by telephone. "They're dialing back some of their expectations for output in the second half of the year."

The Eagle Ford basin in Texas bucked the trend by adding three rigs for a total of 70 working there. The Permian basin was unchanged, putting an end to three weeks of expansion.

-- Bloomberg News

Meal-kit maker moving jobs to new site

JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- Blue Apron Holdings Inc. is closing a New Jersey facility and moving 1,270 jobs to a bigger site opening in the state later this year.

More than half of the employees at the Jersey City facility have decided to move to Linden, N.J., a company spokesman said. According to a public notice, the original Jersey City fulfillment center will close by October. Workers notified Friday of the changes will still have the opportunity to relocate to the new warehouse, the spokesman said. The move affects 24 percent of Blue Apron's workforce, most of whom sort, clean and assemble food into boxes that correspond with recipes for making dinner at home.

The announcement comes about one month after Blue Apron went public. Last week, the company restructured its executive team. Chief Operating Officer Matt Wadiak -- who was also a co-founder -- stepped down from his role. The shares are down more than 35 percent since the initial public offering.

-- Bloomberg News

Report hurts U.K. homebuilders' shares

LONDON -- Shares of Britain's biggest homebuilders fell in London trading after the website Property Week reported that a government home-loan program is at risk of cancellation.

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said by email that it's incorrect to infer from a review of Help to Buy that the government is considering early cancellation for the program that provides five-year interest-free home loans. The department is considering all options for the Help to Buy program when it runs out in 2021, as it said in a policy document in February, but it didn't tell Property Week that the program could be wound down or replaced before then, he said.

The Financial Times Stock Exchange 350 Household Goods & Home Construction Index fell as much as 2 percent after Property Week reported that a government review could lead to Help to Buy ending before the expiration date. Purchases through Help to Buy account for 38 percent of all new private home sales, and its closure could reduce homebuilder profits by about 10 percent, Liberum Capital Ltd. analysts including Charlie Campbell wrote in a note to clients Friday.

-- Bloomberg News

Business on 08/05/2017

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