AEROSONIC TO AMEND STATEMENTS: Aerosonic Corp. of Clearwater will amend its financial statements for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31 and its quarterly report for the quarter ended April 30 after learning that the Internal Revenue Service has disallowed its refund claims for 1998 and 1999. Aerosonic, which makes aircraft instruments, had recorded income taxes receivable of about $873,000 resulting from the restatement of its financial statements in 2003. The IRS's decision means the company's balance sheet for 2004 and the first quarter of 2005 will be reduced by $873,000 both in income taxes receivable and stockholders' equity.
TAMPA PORT BUDGET: Tampa port commissioners on Wednesday approved a $126.2-million budget with a property tax rate decrease for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. Hillsborough County property owners will pay 26 cents tax for each $1,000 of taxable property value, a decrease of 3 cents from the current year. The budget also includes an increase in charges to port tenants and users that port commissioners are scheduled to vote on Tuesday.
CANJET FLIGHTS: Low-fare carrier CanJet will begin weekly Saturday flights between St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport and Hamilton, Ontario, on Nov. 6. The airline will add weekly Tuesday flights Feb. 8. Web fares will start as low as $77 one way, the airline said.
INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY UP A BIT: Industrial activity edged up by 0.1 percent in August as declines in utility and mining output tempered a gain in factory production. The small rise in industrial activity reported Wednesday by the Federal Reserve followed a 0.6 percent gain in July. Although economists were forecasting a 0.5 percent gain for August, some analysts said the report was not as weak as the overall number seemed to suggest. Those analysts took comfort in the fact that manufacturing output grew. The Fed's report showed that mining production dropped by 1.1 percent in August, compared with a 1.3 percent gain in July. Output at utilities declined by 2.4 percent in August, following a 2 percent decline. At the nation's factories, however, output rose by 0.5 percent in August.
SCOTTY'S SEEKS PROTECTION: Scotty's Inc. of Winter Haven, the hardware store chain, filed for protection from its creditors, citing damage from Hurricane Charley as a factor. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday. "The company was surviving against the bigbox competitors, Home Depot and Lowe's, until Hurricane Charley destroyed the company's largest store in Punta Gorda and seriously damaged several other stores," a statement from the company said. The statement added that Scotty's expects to emerge from Chapter 11 "and return to profitability within a reasonable period of time."
US AIRWAYS STOCK . . . : Stock in US Airways Group Inc. will be formally removed from the Nasdaq Stock Market on Wednesday, the company said. Until then, the stock will remain on the exchange with the ticker symbol UAIRQ. US Airways shares dropped 26 percent, or 28 cents, to 80 cents a share in trading Wednesday. The nation's seventh-largest airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday, its second filing in the last two years.
. . . AND PENSION PLAN: US Airways Group Inc. skipped $110-million in payments due Wednesday to its mechanics' and flight attendants' pension plans. The company argued in a motion to U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Stephen Mitchell in Alexandria, Va., that the company had the right to skip the pension payments unless the court said it had to make them. By late Wednesday, Mitchell had issued no rulings on the company's request.
OUTSOURCING DEAL DROPPED: J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. says it will rehire 4,000 workers whose jobs it had outsourced to IBM, bucking a corporate trend in information technology. The move, announced Wednesday, brings to an early end an outsourcing agreement hailed as "the largest of its kind" less than two years ago. J.P. Morgan Chase called the deal "groundbreaking" at the time, saying the $5-billion deal would last seven years. Instead, the arrangement will last less than two years. J.P. Morgan said it will return the outsourced workers to its payroll in January. The deal was scuttled because the company's January merger with Bank One "created a new firm with significantly greater capacity to manage its own technology and infrastructure," J.P. Morgan Chase said in a statement.
HOTEL CEO TO LEAVE: InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, the world's largest hotel company, said Wednesday that chief executive Richard North will quit at the end of September. The British company said North isn't the right person to lead it as it switches its strategic focus to developing its brands from selling off assets. Nonexecutive chairman David Webster will stand in while a replacement is found, InterContinental said.
CHIPMAKER PLEADS GUILTY: German computer chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG has agreed to plead guilty to price fixing and will pay a $160-million fine, the Justice Department announced Wednesday. In a plea agreement filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Infineon acknowledged conspiring with other companies to fix prices of widely used computer memory products between July 1999 and June 2002. The victims included some of the world's largest computer companies: Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Gateway. The fine is the third-largest imposed in a criminal case by the Justice Department's antitrust division. The 1999 breakup of a vitamin cartel led to a $500-million payment by Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. and $225-million by BASF AG.
GAP PLANS NEW CHAIN: Gap Inc., the biggest U.S. clothing retailer, plans to add a new chain of stores catering to women over age 35 in an effort to accelerate sales amid sluggish growth at its Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy brands. Gap will open as many as 10 of the new stores in the second half of next year, the San Francisco-based company said in a statement. Gary Muto, president of the Gap brand, will lead the effort. The as-yet unnamed chain will be based in New York.
EARNINGS
Best Buy Co.: Cost-cutting and strong sales of all things digital drove quarterly earnings up almost 8 percent, the nation's largest electronics retailer, based in Richfield, Minn., said Wednesday.
