Business news in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“While Quarter One was weak, many measures of sentiment and output improved in March and April, suggesting that the quarter ended better than it began.”

Dan Greenhaus, chief investment strategist at BTIG, about the U.S. first quarter gross domestic product report.

Article, 1D

Spa City financial adviser suspended

The Arkansas Securities Department has suspended investment adviser Michael Hazen Martin of Hot Springs for one year and fined him $50,000 for what the department described as deceptive business practices.

Martin entered into a consent order with the department Tuesday, without admitting or denying the allegations, the Securities Department said in a release.

Martin was a representative of Brookstone Capital Management and worked through Mike Martin Financial Services Inc.

Martin conducted free seminars targeting senior citizens in which he promoted equity-indexed annuities, the department said. He advised investors to sell their securities and buy the highly complex annuities. Several attendees liquidated their securities and bought the annuities, the department said.

The department said Martin engaged in fraudulent, deceptive, dishonest or unethical practices in violation of the Arkansas Securities Act.

Martin did not return a call seeking comment.

LR ad agency hires 2 execs for NW area

Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods is adding a pair of advertising and public relations veterans with shopper marketing and consumer packaged-goods experience to its Northwest Arkansas office.

Brian Rudisill will be president of the company’s Northwest Arkansas division, and Denise Davis will be director of operations. Both Rudisill and Davis will begin work Monday.

Rudisill was previously at Inward Strategic Consulting as managing director and account director for its Wal-Mart office in Bentonville. He also has experience with shopper marketing plans for Nestle and Johnson & Johnson and oversaw Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods’ Tyson accounts from 1996-2004.

Davis most recently was director of operations and print production for Inward Strategic Consulting. Before that she worked with Mars Advertising’s Bentonville office, and she was with Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods from 1986-2005.

Earlier this week, three vice presidents in the company’s Little Rock headquarters resigned. Senior Vice President of Public Affairs Denver Peacock, Vice President of Tourism Services Ross Cranford, and Senior Vice President and Creative Officer Jay Cranford all resigned Monday. Jay and Ross Cranford are sons of company founder Wayne Cranford.

First Federal loses $277,000 in quarter

First Federal Bancshares of Arkansas lost $277,000 in the first quarter, down from a profit of $303,000 in the same period last year, the Harrison-based banking firm said in its most recent quarterly federal filing.

The bank lost 1 cent per share in the first three months of this year, compared with 2 cents profit per share in the same period of 2013.

The bank attributed the decrease in income primarily to salaries, employee benefits and distressed real estate.

First Federal, with 12 offices in north-central and Northwest Arkansas and in Pulaski County, has $569 million in assets, up from $547 million in the first quarter last year.

First Federal expects its approximately $130 million purchase of First National Security Co. of Hot Springs to close in June.

  • David Smith

Unemployment rates down across state

All of Arkansas’ metropolitan areas saw a decline in their March unemployment rates compared with a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The lowest unemployment rate in March was 5.4 percent in Northwest Arkansas, down from 5.7 percent in March 2013. The Little Rock area’s unemployment rate was 6.3 percent in March, down from 6.8 percent in March last year.

Other March unemployment rates in Arkansas’ metropolitan areas, compared with March 2013, were:

Texarkana, 6.5 percent, down from 7 percent.

Jonesboro, 6.6 percent, down from 7.1 percent.

Fort Smith, 6.9 percent, down from 8.1 percent.

Hot Springs, 7.1 percent, down from 7.8 percent.

Pine Bluff, 9.4 percent, down from 9.8 percent.

Arkansas’ statewide unemployment rate was 6.9 percent in March. The national rate was 6.7 percent.

  • David Smith

Export Council meeting set for May 15

Export 301, a controls and compliance course and working lunch sponsored by the Arkansas District Export Council, will be May 15 at the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The course will cover the “full spectrum of trade compliance,” according to a news release from the council.

Presentations on export controls, economic sanctions and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act will be given by Alan Enslen of Maynard, Cooper & Gale, a Birmingham, Ala., law firm. Presentations on due diligence, contracts and legal considerations will be given by Graham Catlett of the Little Rock-based Catlett Law Firm.

Those interested in registering can go to emenuapps.ita.doc.gov/ePublic/event/editWebReg.do?SmartCode=4Q5D.

Questions may be submitted in advance by email to James Bledsoe at James.Bledsoe@trade.gov. The cost is $20, and the session will be 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Onsite registration will start at 8:45 a.m.

Business, Pages 26 on 05/01/2014

Upcoming Events