QUOTE OF THE DAY “I don’t want ‘Hydrogen Motors’ to come along five years from now or some other
Mickey Mouse thing to come along and then just jack up the industry.” Rhett Ricart, Ricart Automotive president Article, 1DRussian mining firm to ship via zeppelin
LONDON - Amur Minerals, a copper and nickel explorer in Russia’s Far East, plans to fly equipment to its Siberian operation by zeppelin to bypass snow-clogged roads.
Amur will use two airships from Worldwide Aeros to carry loads of as much as 275 tons, the company said Monday after signing a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. manufacturer. The aircraft will also be used to transport production from the mine.
Zeppelin manufacturers need mining contracts to revive their business, 77 years after the U.S. Hindenburg airship crash ended most buyer interest for decades. With better designs and a buoyant gas that can’t ignite, makers such as Aeros and Hybrid Air Vehicles are hammering out their first sales deals with the mining industry to complement truck and rail transport.
The airships can be used on rough terrain because they take off and land vertically. For Amur, their use will reduce the estimated $140 million expense of building a 200-mile road to the nearest rail station, as well as “substantially” cutting freight costs, it said.
Amur is seeking a mining license from Russian authorities to start construction at its Kun-Manie project, which holds resources of 650,600 tons of nickel and 178,400 tons of copper.
Mattress Firm deals to add 93 stores
HOUSTON - Mattress Firm Holding Corp. announced three deals Monday, valued around $80.5 million, that will eventually add 93 stores to the number of locations the mattress retailer owns and operates.
The Houston company said it has agreed to buy Sleep Experts Partners, a retailer that runs Sleep Experts stores in Texas. That deal is expected to close by May.
Separately, the company said it completed the acquisition of a franchisee that operated Mattress Firm stores in Colorado and Kansas and stores of another franchisee in Virginia. Those deals were completed March 3.
Mattress Firm, which has more than 1,300 company-owned and franchised stores, said the Sleep Experts deal will add between 3 cents per share and 5 cents per share to its full-year earnings, which runs through Feb. 3.
Shares of Mattress firm fell $1.08, or 2.4 percent, to $43.90 in midday trading Monday. Its shares have risen more than 50 percent over the past year.
- The Associated Press
Airline’s landing rights net $425 million
DALLAS - American Airlines is getting more than $425 million from selling takeoff and landing slots at New York’s LaGuardia Airport and Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Va.
That price was disclosed Monday in comments filed in federal court in Washington by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The department said the value of those slots shows that it drove a hard bargain last year when it settled its antitrust lawsuit against the merger of American and US Airways.
The airlines agreed to give up slots at LaGuardia and Reagan and gates at five other big airports.
The Justice Department filed its response to public comments on the settlement. Consumer groups, lawmakers, the Detroit airport and Delta Air Lines lodged complaints about the settlement.
- The Associated Press
Cablevision directors sued over pay
Cablevision Systems Corp. directors were sued by an investor for approving “grossly excessive” compensation for Chairman Charles Dolan and members of his family who serve as executives of the fifth-largest U.S. cable company.
The board of Bethpage, N.Y.-based Cablevision, which includes Dolan’s three daughters, approved more than $80 million in compensation for the firm’s founder and his son over a three-year period starting in 2010 while the company racked up losses, according to a Delaware Chancery Court lawsuit.
The complaints about Cablevision executives’ pay come as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission weighs a proposal to require corporations to disclose how much more their chief executives earn than rank-and-file employees. The pay-ratio disclosures are mandated by a provision in the Dodd-Frank Act.
Sbarro refiles for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
NEW YORK - Sbarro said Monday that it is filing for Chapter 11 reorganization, the struggling pizza chain’s second trip through bankruptcy court in less than three years.
The filing comes after the company closed 155 of its U.S. locations last month. Sbarro had cited declining traffic in the mall food courts where it does much of its business. The company did not immediately provide details on whether any marketing or in-store changes were planned to help update its image and increase sales.
It says it still has more than 800 locations worldwide.
Sbarro also filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2011 and emerged a few months later, saying it had significantly cut its debt and received a capital infusion. A new chief executive officer then led a push to revitalize the chain’s image by touting new recipes and ovens. But the efforts apparently didn’t take hold.
Sbarro, based in Melville, N.Y., said its strategy of store closings and balance sheet restructuring will improve its profitability and reduce outstanding debt by more than 80 percent.
- The Associated Press
Storms cost American 14,000 flights
FORT WORTH - American Airlines and US Airways canceled more than 14,000 flights last month - more than double the rate from a year earlier - as winter storms disrupted air travel.
American Airlines Group Inc. said Monday that the cancellations hurt its first-quarter profit, but it didn’t give a figure. The company said it expects to give more details in early April.
Despite the storms, the company said, a key figure of revenue for every seat flown 1 mile rose between 2 percent and 4 percent in the first quarter. That statistic rises when an airline fills more seats or raises average fares.
American and US Airways canceled about 28,000 flights in the first two months of the year, up 164 percent from the same period in 2013 as storms hit hubs in Chicago, Dallas and elsewhere.
- The Associated Press
Business, Pages 24 on 03/11/2014