Business news in brief

Wal-Mart plans to test delivery service

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will conduct a limited-market test of a subscription delivery service this summer, the retailer said Wednesday.

Spokesman Ravi Jariwali said the test is by invitation only and will include delivery of orders in three days or less. The service will cost customers $50 a year.

"We're constantly trialing things," Jariwali said. "We're constantly learning and listening to customers. That's true of Wal-Mart as a whole. We're doing a lot of tests to serve customers in new ways."

Grocery delivery is among the concepts being tested by the retailer, and the service has expanded into five markets.

Wal-Mart has been investing heavily in its e-commerce capabilities and has up to $1.5 billion earmarked for related initiatives this year. Included in the expenses is the expansion of its distribution network.

Amazon, among Wal-Mart's chief rivals in retail, offers a $99-per-year subscription service. Amazon Prime subscribers have access to free, two-day shipping.

-- Chris Bahn

Canadian envoy criticizes pipeline delay

Delayed approval of TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone XL pipeline in the United States is "frustrating" and puts off any economic benefit from the project, according to Canada's finance minister.

Speaking Wednesday in New York, Joe Oliver praised the trading relationship between the two countries and said "candor is not out of place when we believe matters could be handled a trifle better."

The finance minister spoke after the U.S. ambassador to Canada, who said the relationship between the two countries is about more than pipelines.

"To take full advantage of our energy wealth, we need to access markets, which implies the construction of pipelines," Oliver said. "And that is why Canada finds it frustrating that it is still awaiting presidential approval on the Keystone project. It is easily one of the most studied energy projects in the world and has been vetted repeatedly by the U.S. State Department, which said it would not pose environmental risk."

Keystone "means greater energy security for America" and reducing U.S. dependence on Venezuelan oil, Oliver told a securities conference. It also would offer an alternative to transporting crude by rail, a method that has surged in recent years.

-- Bloomberg News

Hedge-fund bid wins RadioShack name

Standard General LP, which bought 1,700 RadioShack Corp. store leases in March, said it prevailed this week in an auction for the bankrupt electronics retailer's brand name.

The winning bid was $26.2 million, a spokesman for the hedge fund said Wednesday. That price also covers a trove of customer data.

RadioShack entered bankruptcy in February with a plan to have a Standard General affiliate take over as many as half its approximately 4,000 stores in a co-branding arrangement with Sprint Corp. Standard General was declared the winner of the store auction with a bid worth about $145.5 million.

The latest auction, which began Monday, also included Fort Worth-based RadioShack's intellectual property.

The proposed sale of customer information that the chain collected over the years drew objections from 37 state attorneys general, who expressed concern about how a potential buyer might use the data and exactly what information was being sold.

Any sale is subject to approval by the bankruptcy judge in Wilmington, Del.

-- Bloomberg News

10,000 Chinese plant workers protest

BEIJING -- More than 10,000 workers at a state-owned machinery manufacturer in southern China are protesting low wages and company plans to lay off thousands of staff members after posting losses for three years, employees said Wednesday.

Large protests at China's state-owned enterprises have been rare in recent years because their workers are often better protected by labor laws compared with private businesses. But some experts say working conditions have eroded as many state industries suffer overcapacity and struggle to make money.

Three employees of China National Erzhong Group Co. in the southwestern city of Deyang said workers started taking to the streets Monday with banners protesting against corrupt and incompetent managers. They blamed management for Erzhong's losses and poor treatment of employees.

The employees said they were demanding fair compensation for workers scheduled to be laid off and that the company trim administrative costs.

A worker who gave only his family name of Liu said Erzhong planned to lay off 5,000 workers and that workers were upset that the company offered to pay retirees $60 a month.

-- The Associated Press

Delta sets buyback, boosts dividend

Delta Air Lines Inc. approved a $5 billion stock-repurchase plan, more than double last year's program, and increased its dividend by 50 percent as a windfall of savings on fuel enables the carrier to steer more cash to investors.

The buyback and increase in the quarterly payout together will be about $6 billion, Delta said Wednesday.

Delta's moves keep the airline at the forefront of U.S. carriers in returning money to shareholders after the industry's $58 billion run of losses last decade. The major airlines posted record 2014 profits as jet-kerosene prices tumbled amid the rout in global crude markets, and Delta projects saving $2.2 billion on fuel this year.

"We're not just handing it back to shareholders," Delta President Ed Bastian said on Bloomberg TV on Wednesday. "This year we expect to generate almost $8 billion of operating cash flow. We continue to pay down debt and reduce the leverage on the balance sheet, and we're also investing actively in our product and our services and our employees."

-- Bloomberg News

Toyota, Mazda to expand technology tie

Toyota Motor Corp. and Mazda Motor Corp. agreed to broaden their partnership to share car technologies, potentially including new projects on fuel efficiency and safety.

The two Japanese automakers will set up a joint committee that will evaluate ways to utilize each other's strengths, according to a joint news release issued Wednesday by Toyota and Mazda. The partnership will result in "more appealing cars," they said, without elaborating.

The latest agreement will build on previous cooperation between the two companies, under which Mazda licensed Toyota's hybrid technology and some Toyota compact cars were produced at a Mazda factory in Mexico. Toyota President Akio Toyoda said the two companies shared the same vision and have earned trust through individual projects, and the time was ripe for them to collaborate to make better cars.

Toyota in January said it will make about 5,680 patents related to fuel-cell technology available royalty-free through 2020, to help speed the adoption of hydrogen-powered cars. Mazda has focused on refining engine performance and has supplied its Skyactiv fuel-efficient technology to Nissan Motor Co.

-- Bloomberg News

Business on 05/14/2015

Upcoming Events