LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“When one company doesn’t pay the taxes they owe, then other companies end up paying more. When some cowboys play the system, all businesses suffer.”
David Cameron, British Prime Minister Article, 1D
Rocket Twenty One loses its head chef
Donnie Ferneau Jr. is no longer the executive chef at Rocket Twenty One, formerly Ferneau, at 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd. in Little Rock’s Hillcrest neighborhood.
Ferneau says he is leaving by mutual agreement. “It’s official, ‘I’m a free agent’ ... Frank Fletcher and I decided to part . . .
ways with no hard feelings on either side,” he posted Wednesday on his Facebook page. “He was a great Mentor. Have been working on a venture, looking for investors. Stay tuned.”
Fletcher, a Little Rock businessman, bought the restaurant from Ferneau in November 2011 and renamed it in early 2012.
Terms of the purchase were not disclosed. Ferneau remained in charge of the kitchen.
Fletcher brought in new management staff, many of whom had been working for one of his two other area restaurants, Benihana Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar and Riverfront Steakhouse. Both are in the Wyndham Riverfront Little Rock hotel, which Fletcher also owns.
N.C. bank acquired by Bank of Ozarks
Bank of the Ozarks has agreed to pay $67.8 million to buy The First National Bank of Shelby, N.C., the Little Rock bank said Thursday.
First National is the second healthy bank that Bank of the Ozarks has acquired since 2010. The bank has also purchased seven failed banks from the federal government since 2010.
The purchase increases Bank of the Ozarks’ presence in North Carolina, where it has two offices in the Charlotte area.
First National, which opened in 1874, has 14 locations in a four-county area west of Charlotte. It has $857 million in assets, $474 million in loans and $652 million in deposits.
Bank of the Ozarks said it expects the purchase to be profitable immediately after the transaction closes, sometime in the spring or summer this year.
Nokia skips dividend, plans comeback
HELSINKI - Nokia will skip a dividend for the first time in at least 143 years as the struggling Finnish mobile-phone maker retains cash for its comeback attempt.
The company announced the decision as it reported a seventh straight drop in quarterly revenue and U.S. phone sales trailing estimates, sending its stock lower. Even the World Wars and the breakup of the Soviet Union, a major buyer of Nokia’s networking gear, didn’t stop the former maker of rubber boots and toilet paper from returning cash to investors.
Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop has cut more than 20,000 jobs and is conserving cash to challenge Apple and Google with devices running Microsoft software. Cost cuts helped Nokia post its first profit since early 2011 after racking up losses of almost $6.7 billion.
30-year mortgage rates rise to 3.42%
WASHINGTON - Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages rose this week but remained near record lows, keeping home buying more affordable.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac says the average rate on the 30-year fixed loan increased to 3.42 percent from 3.38 percent last week. That’s still near the 3.31 percent rate reached in November, the lowest in records dating to 1971.
The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage increased to 2.71 percent from 2.66 percent last week. The record low is 2.63 percent.
The rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage averaged 3.66 percent in 2012, the lowest annual average in 65 years.
Judge denies Barclays’ anonymity bid
LONDON - A British court has rejected an attempt by Barclays to shield the names of more than 100 present and former employees of the bank suspected of involvement in manipulating a key interest-rate index or who for other reasons came to the attention of investigators.
Justice Julian Flaux ruled Thursday that granting anonymity would be an affront to open justice. He noted that many names, including former Chief Executive Officer Bob Diamond, were already on the public record.
Barclays has admitted that employees, sometimes directed by senior executives, submitted false rates used for calculating the London interbank offered rate. Several global banks every day help compile the LIBOR, which is used to price trillions of dollars in global contracts.
The bank has already been fined about $450 million by U.S. and British agencies.
- The Associated Press
Netflix shuffles TV deck with new show
NEW YORK - Netflix’s bid for a flagship original drama of its own is presenting an adaptation of a British political thriller, with its entire first season immediately ready for viewing.
The show, House of Cards, is an attempt to change the television landscape with the kind of project cable channels such as HBO, AMC and Showtime have used to define themselves.
But House of Cards, produced by David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey, won’t be on cable television; it will be streamed online to laptops and beamed directly to flat-screens through set-top boxes and Internet-enabled devices.
“It’s sort of like we’re the new television series that isn’t on television,” Spacey said.
Next Friday, all 13 hours of House of Cards will premiere on Netflix.
The show is no low-budget Web series, but an HBO-style production for which Netflix reportedly paid in the neighborhood of $100 million for two seasons.
The British original aired in three seasons from 1990 to 1996 and was adapted from the books by Michael Dobbs, a politician and adviser to Margaret Thatcher.
- The Associated Press
Survey: China production at 2-year high
HONG KONG - China’s manufacturing crept higher in January to the fastest pace in two years, a survey showed Thursday.
A preliminary version of HSBC’s monthly purchasing managers’ index rose for the fifth month in a row to 51.9 in January from 51.5 in December. Readings above 50 on the 100-point scale indicate an expansion.
China’s economy is rebounding from its deepest slump since the 2008 global financial crisis, but many analysts predict the recovery will be anemic and wonder whether it will be sustained.
HSBC’s index is based on responses from 85 to 90 percent of purchasing executives surveyed at 420 manufacturers. The full version is due by next Friday.
- The Associated Press
Business, Pages 26 on 01/25/2013