LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We’ve chewed through a lot of the problems and I would say my investing self tells me that the worst is over.”
Lloyd C. Blankfein, Goldman Sachs CEO, on the global financial crisis Article, 1D
Rates mixed at U.S. Treasury auction
WASHINGTON - Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Monday’s auction, with rates on three-month bills unchanged and rates on six-month bills rising to the highest level in four weeks.
The Treasury Department auctioned $32 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.075 percent, unchanged from last week. Another $28 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.110 percent, up from 0.095 percent last week.
The six-month rate was the highest since those bills averaged 0.120 percent on Jan. 2.
The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,998.10, while a six-month bill sold for $9,994.44.
That would equal an annualized rate of 0.076 percent for the three-month bills and 0.085 percent for the six-month bills.
- The Associated Press
Little Debbie lead bidder for Drake’s
NEW YORK - Hostess has picked the maker of Little Debbie as the lead bidder for its Drake’s cakes.
According to a filing in U.S. bankruptcy court, McKee Foods has offered $27.5 million in cash for the cake brands, which include Devil Dogs, Funny Bones and Yodels. The fate of Twinkies and other Hostess cakes are still being negotiated with other bidders.
Hostess also said United States Bakery agreed to pay $28.9 million for its remaining bread brands, which include Sweetheart, Eddy’s, Standish Farms and Grandma Emilie’s. That offer includes four bakeries, 14 depots and equipment. Earlier this month, Hostess picked Flowers Foods, which makes Tastykake and Nature’s Own and Bunny bread, as the lead bidder for six of its major bread brands, including Wonder.
The “stalking horse” bid by McKee Foods would set the floor for an auction process that lets competitors make better offers. A judge would have to approve the final sale.
Japan to ease U.S. beef restrictions
TOKYO - Japan is set to ease a decade-old restriction on U.S. beef this week, allowing U.S. ranchers and meat packers full access to what was once their most lucrative market.
A Japanese government council that oversees food and drug safety cleared a change in import regulations Monday that would permit imports of meat from U.S. cattle aged 30 months or younger, rather than the current 20 months, according to materials distributed at the council’s meeting in Tokyo.
The change is set to take effect Feb. 1 for U.S. beef processed after that date, and shipments could start arriving in Japan in mid-February, according to the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture. Bans remain on parts of cattle considered to carry a higher risk of transmitting mad cow disease.
Japan, the world’s largest net importer of food, banned U.S. beef in 2003 after bovine spongiform encephalopathy, an illness more commonly known as mad cow disease, was found in a single cow in Washington state.
Four Arkansans form investment fund
Four Arkansas businessmen have formed private Cap-Rocq Core Real Estate Fund, LP which will focus on assets in the Southeast and Midwest.
The founders are seeking others who want to invest in the fund. “Although the principals have final discretion over who is included in the fund, our minimum investment guidelines are generally $500,000 for individuals and $2.5 million for institutions,” Franklin McLarty, a principal, said in an e-mail Monday.
“We are excited to launch one of the largest ever private real estate funds in Arkansas,” co-founder and chief operating officer Kevin Huchingson, said in a news release.
“Our focus will be on building a high-quality, diversified real estate portfolio with properties throughout America’s heartland. We believe we will be able to deliver exceptional value to our investors while providing an attractive yield.”
The other founders are Dewitt Smith and Ted Dickey.
CapRocq Core has completed two acquisitions - five office buildings in Lowell totaling 162,500 square feet and two buildings totaling 157,000 square feet in Columbia, S.C., according to the release.
Deadline for crop insurance Feb. 28
Arkansas row crop farmers have until Feb. 28 to decide what crop insurance they intend to purchase for the 2013 growing season.
Henry English, director of the Small Farm Project at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, said in a release that farmers must decide whether to purchase multi-peril crop insurance, what level of coverage they desire and which crops to insure.
While farmers may want to change their existing policies, they may also do nothing and their policy will automatically roll over, English said. However, to cancel crop insurance, growers must notify their crop insurance agent by Feb. 28.
The February deadline applies to corn, cotton, soybeans, rice, grain sorghum and peanuts. Although tomatoes are not a row crop, Arkansas growers may also purchase crop insurance for tomatoes but have until March 15 to decide, English said.
Growers with questions about crop insurance can contact their local insurance agent. Contact information about agents is available on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency’s website at http://www3.rma.usda.gov/tools/agents.
U.S. OK’d raises for bailed-out firms
WASHINGTON - The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program said Monday that the U.S. Treasury Department disregarded its own guidelines and allowed large pay increases for executives at three firms that had received taxpayer-funded bailouts during the financial crisis.
The inspector general said the Treasury Department approved 18 raises for executives at American International Group Inc., General Motors Corp. and Ally Financial Inc. Of those requests, 14 were for $100,000 or more. One raise, for the chief executive officer of a division at AIG, was for $1 million.
- The Associated Press
Business, Pages 22 on 01/29/2013