WGA Board Race Loses Three Candidates

Three WGA West board candidates – Rob Forman, Ed Herro and Chris Roessner – have dropped out of the race, leaving 18 candidates vying for eight open board seats.

“The rumors are true,” tweeted Forman, who said he’s endorsing the current leadership’s ongoing standoff with the Association of Talent Agents. “I’ve withdrawn my name from the WGA board of directors race. This election has been turned into a referendum on the ATA conflict, and I don’t want to play third-party spoiler. The guild deserves a clean, up-down vote so we can all move forward as a union. My staying in the race would have potentially siphoned votes away from a group of candidates whose core strategic beliefs I agree with, and I simply wasn’t willing to risk that.”

He said he’s supporting David A. Goodman for president, Marjorie David for vice president and Michele Mulroney for secretary-treasurer. For the board, he’s thrown his support to Liz Alper, Robb Chavis, Dante Harper, and Zoe Marshall, and incumbents Angelina Burnett, Luvh Rakhe, Meredith Stiehm and Nicole Yorkin.

Herro reportedly made a similar statement and now is endorsing those same candidates. Ballots will be counted on September 16.

Roesner dropped out of the race on July 31 – the same day that Craig Mazin quit the vice presidential race as the running mate to Phyllis Nagy, the opposition faction’s presidential candidate.

Variety first reported the exits.

Yuan Weakens After Central Bank Sets Fixing Closer to 7 a Dollar

In this article

China’s yuan fell after the central bank set its daily fixing near 7 per dollar, slightly weaker than expected.

The currency lost 0.1% to 7.0320, remaining weaker than the key level it breached Monday for the first time since 2008. The offshore rate briefly dropped as much as 0.4% as the People’s Bank of China set the reference rate at 6.9996 per dollar. The fixing had been projected at 6.9977, according to the average estimate of 22 traders and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The offshore yuan pared losses, trading 0.3% lower at 9:40 a.m. Hong Kong time.

“Investors may be concerned that the fixing may break 7 in the future, which will be seen as a sign that the room for depreciation remains to be large,” said Tommy Xie, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., adding he sees Wednesday’s rate as neutral. “The fixing in the coming days will send very important signals on the central bank’s stance.”

Traders are watching the daily fixing closely for signals after the PBOC allowed the yuan on Monday to weaken past a previously defended level of 7 for the first time in more than a decade, roiling global markets. The currency rebounded on Tuesday after the central bank took steps to curb losses and reassured foreign companies that it won’t continue to weaken significantly.

Sears and Kmart store closings list: 21 Sears and 5 Kmarts to close in October

More Sears and Kmart stores are on the chopping block.

After closing thousands of stores over the years, and nearly six months after exiting bankruptcy, the two retailers’ parent company announced Tuesday that 21 Sears and five Kmart stores would close in late October.

“Over the past several months, we have worked hard to strengthen our vendor relationships, return our inventory levels to normal, and improve customer satisfaction and operations; however, we have faced a number of challenges returning our stores to sustainable levels of productivity, including differences with Sears Holdings over our purchase agreement and a generally weak retail environment,” Transform Holdco said in a statement.

In February, former Sears CEO Eddie Lampert struck a last-minute deal to buy Sears assets out of bankruptcy and keep about 400 stores open under a new entity called Transform Holdco.

Lampert, who relinquished the CEO role when the company filed for bankruptcy, was the company’s largest shareholder and creditor at the time of the bankruptcy.

More store closings coming: An estimated 12,000 shops could close by the end of 2019

Walgreens store closings: Drugstore chain plans to close 200 U.S. stores, according to new SEC filing 

American Financial Q2 Profit Flat

American Financial Group Inc. (AFG) reported 2019 second quarter net earnings attributable to shareholders of $210 million or $2.31 per share, unchanged from the 2018 second quarter.

Core net operating earnings were $192 million or $2.12 per share for the 2019 second quarter, compared to $185 million or $2.04 per share in the 2018 second quarter. Higher reported core operating earnings in Annuity Segment were offset by lower operating earnings in Specialty Property and Casualty Insurance operations.

P&C insurance net earned premiums were $1.20 billion compared to $1.16 billion in the previous year. Total revenues for the quarter grew to $1.96 billion from $1.83 billion last year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $2.06 per share and revenues of $1.2 billion. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.

The company now expects 2019 core net operating earnings to be in the range of $8.40 to $8.80 per share, compared to the prior range of $8.35 to $8.85 per share. Analysts expect annual earnings of $8.60 per share.

Transurban FY Profit Drops; Buys Remaining Stake In M5 West

Transurban (TCL.AX TRAUF), a developer and operator of toll roads networks, reported that its profit from continuing operations for fiscal year 2019 dropped to A$170 million from A$468 million in the prior year. The company also announced acquisition of remaining 34.62% minority interests in M5 West for A$468 million, taking its ownership to 100%.

Transurban’s total revenue for the year rose to A$4.17 billion from A$3.30 billion las year.

Transurban said it will raise A$500 million through a fully underwritten ‘prorata’ institutional placement at an offer price of A$14.70, representing a 3.48% discount to Transurban’s closing price of A$15.23 on 6 August 2019.

In addition, a non-underwritten Security Purchase Plan will also be in place for eligible security holders10 to raise up to A$200 million.

The company noted that it will use proceeds from the placement and Security Purchase Plan to fund the acquisition of the remaining interests in M5 West and for general corporate purposes.