American Seafoods' managers, partner add to their stake

Seattle-based American Seafoods Group, a leading national seafood producer, said its managers and an Alaskan partner acquired a New York investor's 23 percent stake for almost $82 million.

The deal puts about 45 percent of the company's voting stock in the hands of Coastal Villages Region Fund, a nonprofit Alaskan community-development enterprise. American Seafoods Chairman and CEO Bernt Bodal increased his stake to 40 percent from 24 percent.

The New York firm, Centre Partners, acquired American Seafoods with Bodal and others in 2000 and has reduced its ownership in subsequent years.

American Seafoods reported sales of $377 million and profit of $46 million for the first nine months of 2005. It reports financial results because much of its $605 million in total debt is in the form of publicly traded securities.

Tully's Coffee

5 stores to open in Boeing facilities

The Seattle-based specialty-coffee retailer struck a deal with Boeing to open five stores this year at the company's facilities — three inside its Everett manufacturing site, one at its Everett Delivery Center and a fifth at its new Shared Services Group in Renton.

Tully's plans to open three stores by spring, and the remainder by year's end, it said in a release Monday. The stores will feature its specialty drinks, pastries, soups, salads and sandwiches.

The deal is part of Tully's effort to kick-start its U.S. retail-store expansion after a multiyear lull.

Amazon.com

High-end retailer Shopbop acquired

Amazon.com said Monday it has acquired privately held fashion retailer Shopbop.com and plans to continue to run the site separately. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

In a statement, Amazon said Shopbop, which specializes in high-end fashion, would maintain its base in Madison, Wis.

Amazon also sells clothing through its main Web site. The company said Shopbop.com is meant to complement that business.

LOUD Technologies

Stock to trade on the Nasdaq

Woodinville-based LOUD Technologies said Monday that its common stock will begin trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol LTEC starting Wednesday.

Previously the company's stock had been traded on the over-the-counter bulletin board, which is not regulated as a stock exchange, under the symbol LTLG.

Eldec

Airbus A330/340 contract awarded

The Lynnwood-based Eldec business unit of Crane Aerospace has won a contract to supply the door-control system for all models of the Airbus A330/340.

The system monitors the position of passenger and cargo doors to ensure they are safely closed, locked and latched. First deliveries are anticipated in 2007.

Rick Jones, vice president of product development, said he hopes the contract will mean the system also is used on the A350, Airbus' new jet-development program. The A350, based on the A330 airframe, will compete against Boeing's 787.

Eldec designs, makes and services electronic and electromechanical products for the aerospace industry, and employs more than 600 people.

Labor market

Unemployment drops in Oregon

The Oregon jobless rate fell to 5.4 percent in January, its lowest point since January 2001, as the state economy showed broad improvement that outpaced job growth nationally.

Just under 114,000 Oregonians were without jobs in January — a decrease of nearly 13 percent from the 130,499 unemployed in January 2005.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for January 2006 was a slight decrease from a revised figure of 5.7 percent in December. It marked the fourth straight month the rate has stayed below 6 percent.

The Oregon rate moved closer to the national unemployment rate, which edged down to 4.7 percent in January from 4.9 percent in December. Washington state, which had a jobless rate of 4.7 percent in December, reports its January rate today.

Charter Bank

3 executives get promotions

Bellevue-based Charter Bank named Terry Peterson as its president and chief operating officer. The COO position is new, and the president's title had belonged to Keith Jackson, who remains chairman and chief executive.

Two other executives also received promotions: Rick Darrow, the bank's chief financial officer, added the title of executive vice president, and Alan Fulp was promoted from senior vice president to executive vice president.

Charter Bank serves family-owned businesses and professionals through offices in Bellevue, Redmond, Kent and Seattle.

NYSE

SEC approves $9 billion merger

Federal regulators on Monday approved the merger of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with electronic rival Archipelago Holdings, a market-shaping deal that will transform the 213-year-old Big Board into a for-profit company.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced its approval of the $9 billion transaction, which will give the NYSE — already the world's biggest stock exchange — new, high-tech trading capabilities and an estimated 49 percent of the market in stock trading.

It was the final hurdle for the deal, which won approval late last year from the Justice Department, NYSE seat owners and Archipelago shareholders.

Enron

Accountant testifies he raided reserves

The former top accountant for Enron's profitable trading division said Monday that he improperly raided reserves to increase earnings in mid-2000 when he got word that former Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling and other superiors wanted results that would wow Wall Street.

Wesley Colwell kicked off the fifth week of the fraud and conspiracy trial of Skilling and founder Kenneth Lay, telling jurors he helped Enron fraudulently manipulate earnings to meet or beat analyst expectations by dipping into reserves when Enron needed an income boost that business operations didn't provide.

Colwell didn't say Skilling ordered him to plunder reserves to boost earnings. He said, however, that he e-mailed his boss — then-Enron North America Chief Executive David Delainey — days before Enron released second-quarter 2000 earnings to say he understood from then top Enron accountant Rick Causey that it was Skilling's "preference" to surpass expectations.

4th-quarter profit surges 37 percent

Lowe's, the No. 2 U.S. home-improvement retailer, reported Monday that its profit for the fourth quarter rose 37 percent, fueled by growth in special orders and commercial business sales. Its shares rose more than 5 percent.

Lowe's said its quarterly net income rose to $695 million, or 87 cents a share, for the quarter ended Feb. 3 from $508 million, or 64 cents a share, in the same period last year.

Sales rose 26.4 percent to $10.8 billion in the quarter from $8.55 billion a year earlier. And sales at stores open more than a year — a key component for retailers — gained 7.8 percent.

Analysts, on average, expected Lowe's to earn 80 cents a share on revenue of $10.44 billion, according to Thomson Financial.

Lowe's shares rose $3.78, or 5.8 percent, to close at $69.30 Monday.

Last week, The Home Depot, the nation's largest home-improvement chain, reported a 23 percent gain in its fourth-quarter profit and forecast continued growth in 2006.

National Grid

British company buys KeySpan

British utility National Grid has agreed to buy New York-based electricity and natural-gas distributor KeySpan for $7.3 billion in a deal that would create the third-largest energy delivery utility in the United States.

National Grid said Monday it was paying the $7.3 billion in cash and would also assume debt estimated at $4.5 billion. KeySpan shareholders will receive $42 in cash per share.

Upon completion of the deal, National Grid will serve nearly 8 million customers in New York state and New England, the companies said.

Gaz de France / Suez

Utility companies form alliance

The French utilities Gaz de France and Suez announced details Monday of their hastily arranged merger, designed to create a new leading player in energy and environmental services — and fend off a bid for Suez by Italian power company Enel.

The government-backed deal, which entails the privatization of state-controlled GDF, also answers growing French concerns about security of energy supplies, both companies said.

With a combined market capitalization of about $86 billion, the combined company would be one of the world's largest utility companies.

Under terms hammered out in a heavy working weekend for the bankers, Suez will pay a special dividend of $1.19 to existing shareholders, before offering to swap one new Suez share for each GDF share. The dividend is worth $1.49 billion in total.

Teachers union seeks extra clout

The AFL-CIO and the nation's largest teachers union, the National Education Association, announced a partnership Monday that could help the labor federation regain some of the clout it lost when several unions defected last year.

The 2.8-million-member NEA agreed to allow its local affiliates to join the AFL-CIO. The hope is that the AFL-CIO will give teachers more muscle when they campaign for political candidates and push legislation.

Compiled from The Associated Press, Seattle Times staff and Bloomberg News