LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The most this measure can hope to achieve is a boost for Zurich and Singapore and
New York at the expense of a struggling EU.”
Boris Johnson, mayor of London, on the European Union plan to limit bankers’ bonuses Article, 1D
Wal-Mart exec to leave March 13
Tom Mars, executive vice president and chief administrative officer for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s U.S. stores division, is leaving the company March 13, David Tovar, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said Thursday.
Tovar declined to say why Mars is leaving, citing policy that the company does not comment on personnel matters.
Mars was hired by Wal-Mart in 2002 and was promoted to general counsel later that year. He was promoted to his current position in 2009, Tovar said.
In that role, Mars oversaw real estate, financial services, show and events team and labor relations.
Before his work at Wal-Mart, Mars practiced law in Northwest Arkansas. He also served as Arkansas State Police director under former Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Efforts to contact Mars on Thursday were unsuccessful.
Firm gets $150,000 for heart research
Fayetteville-based CardioWise, Inc. has received a $150,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Science Foundation to develop and commercialize a heart disease detection method.
CardioWise is a cardiac MRI analysis software that produces a 3-D model of the human heart.
Combined with cardiac MRI, CardioWise allows a single test that can analyze arteries and valves with a high level of detail, according to a company release. It could be used to help doctors determine whether a patient’s treatment regimen requires a drug, stent or surgery.
CardioWise is a VIC Technology Venture Development portfolio company. Fayetteville-based VIC has 12 portfolio companies in fields including nanotechnology, cancer diagnostics, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.
- John Magsam
Small Tyson plant shut in Springdale
Tyson Foods Inc. has suspended operation in a small Springdale processing plant, a company spokesman confirmed Thursday.
The plant, located at 1825 Ford Ave., employed 68 people. Most of those workers were offered jobs near Springdale in Northwest Arkansas, Krista Cupp, a Tyson Foods spokesman, wrote in an e-mail.
The plant had operated for more than 15 years and was Tyson Food’s research and development plant. However, in recent years, most of the product made there was moved to other plants or consolidated, according to the e-mail.
Tyson Foods employed 115,000 worldwide in 2012, according to the company’s Fact Book.
Mortgage rates fall across the board
WASHINGTON - Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages moved closer to historic lows this week, a trend that has helped drive a rebound in home sales.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage declined to 3.51 percent from 3.56 percent last week. That’s nearer the 3.31 percent rate reached in November, the lowest on records dating to 1971.
The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage slipped to 2.76 percent from 2.77 last week. The record low is 2.63 percent.
To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac, the Federal National Mortgage Association, surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday each week. The average doesn’t include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.
The average fee for 30-year mortgages was unchanged at 0.8 point. The fee for 15-year loans also remained at 0.8 point.
The average rate on a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage ticked down to 2.64 percent from 2.65 percent last week. The fee for one-year adjustable-rate loans was steady at 0.4 point.
The average rate on a five-year adjustable-rate mortgage fell to 2.61 percent from 2.64. The fee rose to 0.6 point from 0.5.
- The Associated Press
Caterpillar to lay off 1,400 in Belgium
BRUSSELS - Construction equipment maker Caterpillar said Thursday that it will cut more than one in three jobs at its Belgian plant because of high labor costs and sluggish growth in its European market.
Caterpillar Inc. plans to cut 1,400 of the 3,400 jobs at its Gosselies plant south of Brussels alongside other measures aimed at restoring the site’s competitiveness.
It says the facility is hampered by Europe’s low growth prospects and labor costs that are so high that “it currently costs less to import machines to Europe from some other Caterpillar locations than to produce them in Gosselies.”
The Belgian plant, one of Caterpillar’s largest globally, produces hydraulic excavators, loading vehicles, engine parts and components.
The Peoria, Ill.-based company is the world’s largest maker of construction and mining equipment. Caterpillar operates a plant in North Little Rock where it assembles road graders.
- The Associated Press
Spain’s Bankia posts historic loss
MADRID - Bailed-out Bankia on Thursday posted a full-year net loss of $25.2 billion, the biggest ever suffered by a Spanish company, after the lender cleaned up its balance sheets of bad property loans and other risky investments.
The bank transferred loans worth some $22.3 billion to the new Spanish “bad-bank,” which was set up to take on the banking sector’s toxic assets. BFA, Bankia’s parent company, set aside $35 billion in provisions. The group’s overall net losses were about $28 billion.
Spain’s partners in the 17-strong group of European Union countries that use the euro granted Bankia a $23.5 billion bailout last year to strengthen its shaky balance sheet. The loan was part of a $130 billion credit line earmarked for Spain’s banks so that the cost of rescuing them would not sink the Spanish government’s finances and force it to demand a sovereign bailout.
Bankia S.A. was formed in 2010 by merging seven savings banks.
Business, Pages 30 on 03/01/2013