European regulators have approved Emerson's planned $1.5 billion acquisition of British power supply company Chloride Group.
The European Commission said it concluded that the acquisition would not significantly impede effective competition.
"The merged entity would continue to face strong competition from a number of credible competitors in all national markets affected by the concentration," the panel said in a statement Tuesday. "Therefore, the commission concluded that the proposed transaction does not raise competition concerns."
Emerson and Chloride both provide uninterruptible power supply systems for computers and hospitals.
Emerson Chairman, President and Chief Executive David Farr said he wants to invest in faster-growth areas, such as network power, and divest of businesses that aren't growing as rapidly low interest personal loan.
Last week, Emerson announced a deal to sell its motors and appliance controls businesses to Kyoto, Japan-based Nidec Corp. for $700 million.
On Monday, Emerson said it planned to sell LANDesk Software, a Salt Lake City IT systems manager, to private equity investment firm Thoma Bravo.
Emerson (NYSE:EMR) is the second-largest public company in St. Louis with $20.9 billion in revenue in 2009. It has 129,000 employees companywide, including 1,400 in St. Louis after the motors business sale closes next month.
Union Bank has tapped veteran banker Ronald Heller as its market president for Washington state.
Union Bank N.A., a subsidiary of UnionBanCal Corp. of San Francisco, Calif., gained a stronger foothold in Washington on April 30, 2010, when it acquired Frontier Bank of Everett in a purchase and assumption agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. While Union Bank has has a presence in the Pacific Northwest for nearly a century, it now has branches in 38 Washington cities.
Heller comes to Union Bank with 32 years in the banking industry under his belt, most recently as senior vice president and community banking president for the Northwest division of Wells Fargo and previously with First Interstate Bank payday loans no teletrack.
Heller will start his new role with Union Bank from its Everett office on Aug. 30. He will report to Senior Vice President and head of Pacific Northwest Branch Banking Brian W. Hawley. Heller will work closely with Patrick Fahey, former chairman and CEO of Frontier Bank who has assumed the role of regional chairman of the Pacific Northwest for Union Bank.
Mortgage rates continued to decline this week, plunging to the lowest level in decades, according to surveys from Freddie Mac and Bankrate.
Freddie Mac’s weekly report said the 30-year fixed rate slipped to 4.44% for the week ended Thursday, the lowest since the government-backed lender began tracking the rate in 1971. Last week’s rates stood at 4.49%, and a year ago it was at 5.29%.
The 15-year fixed rate fell to 3.92% this week, the lowest since Freddie Mac began tracking it 1991, down from 3.95% last week and from 4.68% a year ago.
Adjustable-rate mortgages also declined, with the 5-year rate falling to 3.56% this week, the lowest since 2005 when the lender began tracking it.
Mortgage tracker Bankrate.com, which surveys large lenders across the country, said the average 30-year fixed loan sank to a record low for the fourth consecutive week, falling to 4.57% from 4.66% the previous week.
The 15-year fixed rate, which is a popular option for refinancing, also fell to the lowest level in the history of Bankrate’s 25-year old survey, dipping to 4.06%, from 4.11% the week before.
While the 1-year adjustable-rate mortgage held steady at 4.8% for a fourth week, the 5-year adjustable rate mortgage dropped to a record low of 3.92% from 3.95% the previous week.
"Low rates are helping to heal many battered local housing markets by increasing home-purchase activity, said Frank Nothaft, chief economist at Freddie Mac.
Mortgage rate applications inched up a modest 0.6% during the week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Applications for purchase rose 0.3% while refinance applications increased 0.6%.
Consumers are more willing to spend money online again, after a year of lackluster results.
Reston-based Internet tracking firm comScore says retail e-commerce sales reached $32.9 billion in the second quarter, up 9 percent from a year ago.
The total does not include online travel, auctions, autos or large corporate purchases.
It marks the third straight quarterly gain in year-over-year online sales, after a year of flat or falling quarterly e-commerce totals. Retail sales fell for the first time ever in the fourth quarter of 2008, and declined in both the second and third quarters of 2009.
“The second quarter’s continuation of the first quarter’s strong retail e-commerce growth rates is encouraging,” said comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR) chairman Gian Fulgoni one hour payday loan. “We remain optimistic heading into the second half of the year, but we will be keeping a close eye on unemployment rates, which along with potential uncertainty in the stock market could limit growth in e-commerce spending in the near term.”
Upper income households, or those with annual incomes of $100,000 or more, spent 17 percent more shopping online than they did a year ago, nearly twice overall e-commerce growth last quarter.
Electronics, computers and software, books and magazines were among the biggest sellers online last quarter.
The back-to-school shopping season got off to a sluggish start in July, as retailers reported mixed sales for the month Thursday.
Consumers are continuing to keep tight control of their spending as the economic recovery tugs along at a slower pace than most analysts predicted earlier this year.
Thomson Reuters, which tracks monthly same-store sales for 28 chains including Macy’s (M, Fortune 500), Costco (COST, Fortune 500), Target (TGT, Fortune 500) and J.C. Penney (JCP, Fortune 500), said sales were up 2.9%, just below the 3.1% growth expected by analysts.
July’s numbers were a slight letdown for retailers after June brought a 3.1% increase in same-store sales — a gauge of a retailer’s performance that measures sales at stores open at least a year.
Although discounters and large department stores seemed to fare just "OK," teen stores presented "extremely weak" results, said Eric Beder, managing director of equity research at Brean Murray, Carret & Co.
"We have no real clear signal that the American consumer is becoming more aggressive in spending," he said. "These numbers should not provide a lot of confidence that we’re going to see any sort of turnaround in the second half of the year."
Overall, 17 of the 28 stores reporting results missed analysts’ expectations, 9 beat them and 2 met them.
The weaker-than-expected results came as the high unemployment rate drove shoppers to continue to procrastinate in search of the deepest discounts, said Jharonne Martis, Thomson Reuters’ director of consumer research, who compiles the report.
"No matter how the economy is doing, back to school happens every year," Martis said. "Families are budgeting and they’re going to buy the school supplies they need, but they’re waiting until last minute to find the best deals."
Wholesale discounter Costco reported a 6% increase in sales, slightly higher than the 5.5% that had been expected. But rival discounters Target and BJ’s Wholesale (BJ, Fortune 500) both fell short of estimates.
Teen stores The Buckle (BKE) and Hot Topic (HOTT) were two of the worst performers, reporting deep declines in sales for the month around 9%, and Wet Seal (WTSLA) said its sales dropped off 4%.
Thomson Reuters had expected declines from the teen stores during the month, but not to the extent actually reported.
Meanwhile, two other teen apparel chains - Zumiez (ZUMZ) and Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) - surprised analysts with much stronger-than-expected sales.
Macy’s, JW Nordstrom (JWN, Fortune 500) and Limited Brands (LTD, Fortune 500) were also among the top performers.
Helm Bank USA tripled its profits in the second quarter as it encountered fewer charges from bad loans.
The Miami-based bank earned $1.66 million in the second quarter, up from net income of $544,000 in the first quarter, according to its filing with the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. The biggest improvement came because the bank only took an expense of $1.6 million to reserve for future loan losses. In the previous quarter, it took $2.1 million.
However, Helm Bank’s net interest income declined to $5.4 million in the second quarter from $5.6 million in the first quarter.
The quality of the bank’s loan portfolio registered a modest improvement. As of June 30, Helm Bank had $20.2 million in late or unpaid loans, representing 7.68 percent of its total loans, plus $5.5 million in repossessed property. As of March 31, it had $21.9 million in noncurrent loans, representing 8.26 percent, plus $5.8 million in repossessed property.
Helm Bank’s assets consist of more investment securities than loans, so its amount of bad loans was a relatively small slice of the bank’s total size.
The bank’s $7.3 million reserve for future loan losses covered 36 percent of its noncurrent loans as of June 30.
Helm Bank was the 16th-largest bank chartered in South Florida as of March 31, with $728 million in assets. It was down to $712 million in assets at mid-ear. The bank’s deposits declined to $658 million from $677 million between March and June. Its total loans were virtually unchanged, at $257 million.
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