Conway bank buys $289M loan portfolio
Home BancShares, which owns Centennial Bank branches in Arkansas, Florida and Alabama, has acquired $289 million in national commercial real estate loans, the Conway bank said Wednesday.
With the purchase, Home BancShares plans to open a lending office in New York City, which it hopes to open around April 23.
Home BancShares will need approval from state bank departments in Arkansas and New York to open the office. Home BancShares said it will use the New York office to build a national lending platform.
The loans originated with Doral Bank of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Doral Bank failed in February. At the time, Home BancShares bought all of Doral's operations in the Florida Panhandle, where Centennial has several branches.
The average loan is for $12 million, which means there are about 24 loans in the portfolio. Home BancShares also has hired two former Doral executives to help develop the business.
-- David Smith
Early sign-up to end for Startup Weekend
Early registration closes Friday for the NWA Startup Weekend that begins April 17.
The weekend-long event gives aspiring entrepreneurs a hands-on experience where they can test their startup concepts and get a feel for what is required to be an entrepreneur.
'Startup Weekend is an event aimed at rapidly creating new ventures that solve real problems for business and society," Brett Amerine, director of operations for event sponsor Startup Junkie, wrote in an email. "In our Startup Weekend, the main focus is on launching startups that are creating innovations around and within retail, supply chain/logistics/transportation, and food processing."
The event will be held at the Centerspace-ARK Accelerator Space in Fayetteville.
For more information on the event or to purchase tickets visit: up.co/communities/usa/nwarkansas/startup-weekend/5065.
-- John Magsam
Feral hog trapping is workshop's focus
Farmers and landowners who are finding their property damaged by feral hogs will be able to learn about ways to deal with the problem at a May 9 workshop in Harrison.
Representatives from the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture; U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services; and Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will talk about trapping to remove feral hogs. The workshop will include a trapping demonstration.
"Feral hogs generally kept to the southern bottomlands, but today, feral hogs are found in every county of the state," Becky McPeake, professor and extension wildlife specialist for the agriculture division, said in a news release.
The workshop will be held at the Durand Center in Harrison. Participants will be charged $5 each to cover the cost of lunch. Seating is limited, so attendees are being asked to register early. More information is available by calling the Boone County Extension Office at (870) 741-6168.
-- Glen Chase
Chinese fuel use predicted to peak early
China's biggest oil refiner is signaling that the nation is headed to its peak in diesel and gasoline consumption far sooner than most Western energy companies and analysts are forecasting.
If correct, the projections by China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, a state-controlled enterprise with public shareholders in Hong Kong, pose a big challenge to the world's largest oil companies. They're counting on demand from China and other developing countries to keep their businesses growing as energy consumption falls in more advanced economies.
"Plenty of people are talking about the peak in Chinese coal, but not many are talking about the peak in Chinese diesel demand, or Chinese oil generally," said Mark Lewis, an analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux in Paris. "It is shocking."
For diesel, the fuel that most closely tracks economic growth, the peak in China's demand is just two years away, according to Sinopec Chairman Fu Chengyu, who gave his outlook during a March 23 conference call. The high point in gasoline sales is likely to come in about a decade, he said, and the company is already preparing for the day when selling fuel is what he called a "non-core" activity.
-- Bloomberg News
Oil stockpiles up for 12th-straight week
America's oil in storage has reached another record, rising for the 12th consecutive week.
Stockpiles rose 4.77 million barrels, or 1 percent, to 471.4 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Agency reported Wednesday. Analysts had expected an increase of 4.18 million barrels. The amount of oil the U.S. is cranking out edged down slightly -- the first decline in almost two months -- to a rate of 9.39 million barrels a day.
Oil in storage has been rising steadily since a price crash started last year. Stockpiles are more than 25 percent above their five-year average. Inventories aren't likely to max out, but even the possibility of coming close is adding pressure to an oversupplied oil market.
This week, CME Group Inc. started offering the first futures contracts in oil storage space. Space in Louisiana sold for 10 cents a barrel a month at an auction Tuesday, putting a price on storage as domestic crude supplies remain at record highs.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 04/02/2015