Ardagh going ahead with IPO

Ardagh, parent company of glass container plants in Dunkirk and Winchester, filed a registration statement Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a first step toward floating its stock on the New York Stock Exchange.
Both the Irish Times and the Irish Independent reported the filing on Friday.
The company has said that the number of shares to be offered and the price range have not yet been determined.
Ardagh operates in 22 countries and employs aboue 23,500. It has annual sales of more than 7.8 billion Euros.
Irish financier Paul Coulson owns about 36 percent of Ardagh Group. The initial public offering of Ardagh stock is expected in March or April.

To speak
Jay County Development Corporation executive director Bill Bradley will be the featured speaker at the Jay County Chamber of Commerce’s monthly networking luncheon, set for noon Nov. 29 in the conference rooms at Jay County Hospital.
Bradley will be discussing the state of the local economy.
Reservations are required and must be made by noon Wednesday. Cost of the luncheon is $8 per person.
To make a reservation, contact the chamber at (260) 726-4481 or via email at [email protected].

Under fire
Dollar General is under fire again from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
The company was cited this week for a “willful violation of safety rules” at its Pioneer, Ohio, store, and a fine of $117,579 has been proposed.
The Toledo Blade reports that the latest fine is part of a larger pattern.
“The U.S. Department of Labor says Dollar General has racked up more than $1 million in proposed penalties for its violation of workplace safety rules over the last six years,” The Blade reported.
The company has been cited more than 100 times since 2010, and many of those citations had to do with blocked exits.
“Dollar General’s continued pattern of ignoring its responsibility to protect its employees and its customers in all of its stores is cause for real concern. Obstructed exits are a real danger. Seconds matter in an emergency, and no one should have to struggle to get out of a store safely,” Kim Nelson, the administration’s Toledo area director, told The Blade.
In an official response, Dollar General said, “The company employs a number of measures designed to ensure store managers and their teams understand the necessary steps to create and maintain a safe store environment. Dollar General has taken immediate actions to address the situations referenced in the OSHA citation at the store in Pioneer, Ohio, and looks forward to constructive conversations with OSHA regarding these matters.”

Cash dividend
First Merchants Corporation, parent company of First Merchants Bank, declared a cash dividend Tuesday of $0.15 per share, a 7 percent increase over the prior quarter. The dividend is payable on Dec. 16 to shareholders of record as of Dec. 2.
First Merchants Corporation is a financial holding company headquartered in Muncie. It comprises First Merchants Bank, which also operates as Lafayette Bank & Trust, and First Merchants Private Wealth Advisors which operates as a division of First Merchants Bank.

Profits dip
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reported an 8-percent drop in its third quarter profit this week.
Revenues for the quarter totaled $118.18 billion, and earnings totaled $3.03 billion, down from $3.3 billion for the same period last year.

Not guilty?
A Mount Vernon, South Dakota, man pleaded not guilty this to two counts of grand theft in which he is charged with taking more than $400,000 worth of grain, selling the grain to POET Biorefining and keeping the money.
According to The Daily Republic of Columbus, South Dakota, the man was hired to transport grain for the farmers, but is believed to have illegally sold some of the loads under his own name and kept the proceeds, thought to be more than $400,000.

China trouble
Walmart’s move into China is running into some headwinds, with labor unrest reported in several parts of the country. The New York Times this week profiled Wang Shishu, a laid-off Walmart employee who has helped organize a national movement against the giant retailer.
“Across China, Walmart employees have raised their fists at protests, chanting, ‘Workers, stand up!’ They have appealed to local officials with patriotic fervor, invoking the struggles of Mao Zedong against foreign imperialists. They have posted screeds online against unkind bosses and ‘union puppets.’
“In doing so, the Chinese work force of the world’s largest retail chain has put the ruling Communist Party in an uncomfortable position, publicly testing its Marxist commitment to defend the working class and pitting that against its fear of independent labor activism,” The Times said.