J.B. Hunt will pay
$134M to railway
J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. plans to pay $134 million, or 93 cents per diluted share, to intermodal partner BNSF Railway Co. during the Lowell-based freight carrier's fourth quarter as a result of ongoing arbitration talks.
The trucking firm on Thursday announced it will record for the quarter pretax charges of $89.4 million claimed by BNSF for the period of May 1, 2016, through Dec. 31, 2017, and $44.6 million for this calendar year.
Texas-based BNSF and Hunt formed a partnership in 1989 for intermodal deliveries. As a result, the division of revenue from the partnership is negotiated quarterly.
In 2017, the companies entered arbitration so the "fairness" of the deal could be reviewed.
Investors were updated Oct. 10 of a pretax charge of $18.3 million claimed by BNSF for services between April 2014 and May 2018, which came out of J.B. Hunt's third-quarter earnings.
J.B. Hunt shares sagged on the New York Stock Exchange after Thursday's news. Shares fell $3.18, or 3.3 percent, to close Friday at $92.69.
-- Nathan Owens
Meeting promotes business in Mexico
The World Trade Center Arkansas will host a trade mission with its partners, the Mexican Consulate in Little Rock and Mexico's World Trade Center Queretaro, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce at 1709 E. Nettleton Ave.
World Trade Center Queretaro leaders are seeking Arkansas business partners. They are holding meetings in Northwest Arkansas, Little Rock and Jonesboro in an effort to recruit Arkansas companies to sell products or services to Queretaro.
The Mexican city houses a branch of Arkansas State University and has numerous industrial parks and research and development centers.
There is no cost to attend the meeting, said Melvin Torres, director of Western Hemisphere trade for the World Trade Center Arkansas. Diplomats and company representatives will explain and discuss how to start the export partner-matching process.
-- David Smith
State index off 5.77, nears 52-week low
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, sank 5.77 to 372.98 Friday.
The index traded at its 52-week low of 372.05 during the day.
Windstream shares rose 1.9 percent in average trading.
Three stocks fell more than 3 percent -- Murphy Oil, Uniti Group and J.B. Hunt Transport.
Total volume for the index was 23.8 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 12/15/2018