Briefcase
Potlatch out of Chicago Stock Exchange
Potlatch Corp. will stop trading its shares on the Chicago Stock Exchange, effective this month.
NASDAQ Global Select Market will continue to be the primary exchange for the Spokane-based company, which trades under the symbol PCH.
Potlatch dropped the Chicago Exchange listing to cut costs and workload required under the dual listing, according to company officials.
Potlatch is a real estate investment trust with 1.5 million acres of timberland in Idaho, Arkansas and Minnesota.
Becky Kramer
Auto sales up, especially for GM, Toyota
DETROIT – As more U.S. buyers head back into auto dealerships, automakers are jostling for their attention with sweetened deals.
The major automakers knocked a little extra off sticker prices in February, giving additional momentum to a recovery in sales that started last year.
Auto sales rose 27 percent in February as the economic recovery continued and consumers felt more comfortable taking on a car payment. The strongest showing came from General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp., with increases of more than 40 percent.
The monthly sales rate, when adjusted for seasonal differences and projected out for a full year, was 13.4 million vehicles. That would make it the highest rate since the government’s “cash for clunkers” rebates juiced sales in the summer of 2009.
Associated Press
Investment firms buy out J. Crew shares
NEW YORK – Shareholders of preppy clothing seller J. Crew Group Inc. have approved a $3 billion deal to be taken private by two investment firms.
The $43.50-per-share buyout by private-equity firms TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners is expected to close on or near next Monday. J. Crew CEO Millard (Mickey) Drexler, the former Gap Inc. chief credited with turning J. Crew around since coming aboard in 2003, will remain with the company.
TPG, took a majority stake in J. Crew in 1997 and remained majority shareholder until the company went public in 2006.
Shares rose 41 cents to close at $43.53.
Associated Press