Motherson Sumi wins AAA rating

Motherson Sumi Systems Limited, parent company of MSSL Wiring Systems of Portland, has received an AAA rating from India Ratings and Research, according to a press release this week.

The rating firm said the company’s outlook is stable and noted its strong track record of revenue growth and profits.

“We are proud and delighted with the ratings announcement. Customer satisfaction has been the cornerstone of what we do and the strategies we have followed have created value for all our stakeholders, internal and external,” chairman Vivek Chaand Sehgal said in a prepared statement.

Sells interest

IU Health, parent of IU Health Jay, has sold its minority interest in a joint venture with LaPorte and Starke Hospitals, it was announced this week.

“IU Health was pleased to continue its collaboration with La Porte and Starke Hospitals through the joint venture in March 2016,” Joy Kleinmaier, senior vice president, IU Health, and chair of the joint venture board of directors, told the LaPorte Herald-Argus. “We share a common mission to improve the health of Hoosiers and believe they will continue to serve the community well.”

Officials said the main change will be that signage and printed materials will no longer bear the IU Health logo or identify the LaPorte and Starke Hospitals as IU Health affiliates.

To retire

Allegheny Technologies Inc., parent company of Portland Forge, announced this week that Rich Harshman, who has worked for the company for 41 years, will be retiring as president and chief executive officer.

The Pittsburgh Business Journal reported that Harshman will stay on until Jan. 1, 2019, when he will be succeeded by Robert S. Wetherbee, who has been executive vice president of ATI's flat-rolled products group and worked for Alcoa for more than 20 years. Harshman will remain executive chairman until May 9, 2019, when he will officially retire. Harshman will be replaced as chairman by Diane C. Creel, who is the company's lead independent director.

Cash dividend

First Merchants Corporation declared a cash dividend Aug. 14 of 22 cents per share. The dividend is payable Sept. 21 to shareholders of record as of

Sept. 7.

First Merchants is a financial holding company headquartered in Muncie, with a branch in Portland.

Selling stake

Wendy’s Co. has agreed to sell its stake in Arby’s parent company Inspire Brands Inc., Bloomberg reported this week.

Wendy’s is selling its 12.3 percent ownership back to Inspire for $450 million. The sale price represents a 38 percent premium on Wendy’s previous valuation of the investment, the company said.

Chicken, egg

Retired Tyson Foods chief executive Donnie Smith is spearheading an effort to encourage farmers in a poverty-stricken region of Rwanda to raise chickens.

Smith, 58, is working with the University of Tennessee and USAID on a $2 million program called Feed the Future Tworore Inkoko, Twunguke, which means "Let's raise chickens and make a profit." "I have always had a place in my heart for Africa and for the poor and to see the hungry fed," Smith told National Public Radio.

Smith’s charitable foundation owns and operates a 10,000-hen layer farm in Rwanda that supplies OneEgg, a faith-based nonprofit that provides an egg a day to preschool students. Tyson Foods also supports OneEgg.

Sales grow

Walmart Inc. last week reported that sales in the most recent quarter rose at the fastest rate in more than a decade.

Sales at U.S. stores and the company’s websites rose 4.5 percent during the second quarter which ended July 31. 

The retailer said in a press released that it expects sales and profit to rise more than previously expected during the current fiscal year. Sales in existing U.S. stores will rise 3 percent, the retailer forecast.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Walmart’s quarterly U.S. e-commerce sales picked up compared with earlier this year, rising 40 percent versus the same quarter last year.

“Customers tell us that they feel better about the current health of the U.S. economy as well as their personal finances,” Walmart chief executive Doug McMillon in an earnings press release.