Global Partners subsidiary to build Bangor CNG station

Global Partners LP said today its subsidiary, Global CNG LLC, has received approval from the Bangor Planning Board to develop and operate a compressed natural gas loading station in Bangor, Maine.

When construction of the station at Maine Avenue and Godfrey Boulevard is complete, Global CNG, through an alliance with Bangor Gas Co., will provide large commercial, industrial and municipal customers with natural gas on a year-round basis, officials said.

The CNG station is scheduled to be open by the end of August, officials said. The station will also use proprietary compression technology developed by OsComp Systems Inc. designed to reduce the energy required to compress and transport natural gas.

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Mass. gas prices fall 9 cents per gallon

BOSTON — The price of a gallon of gas in Massachusetts has plummeted 9 cents in the past week.

AAA Southern New England reports Monday that self-serve, regular is now down to an average of $3.47 per gallon, a nickel below the national average.

The price in Massachusetts is 18 cents lower than a month ago and 42 cents lower than at the same time last year.

AAA found a gallon of self-serve, regular selling as low as $3.29 per gallon and as high as $3.73.

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AP sees slight revenue decline in 2012

NEW YORK — The Associated Press said Monday that its revenue declined slightly in 2012 because U.S. elections and the Olympics drew less interest than expected, but it was largely successful in replacing lost revenue with increased sales of video and photos.

Revenue dropped 0.8 percent to $622.2 million last year from $627.6 million in 2011, the not-for-profit news cooperative said at its annual meeting on Monday.

The AP had a net loss of $25.6 million for 2012, down from a loss of $193.3 million the year before. The 2011 loss was mostly due to a non-cash charge of $168 million that was taken as a reserve against future tax benefits.

The AP is owned by 1,400 U.S. newspapers and is largely a wholesaler of news. It sells the content it gathers and produces to newspapers, commercial websites and radio and TV stations.

The AP expected revenue to rise as much as 2 percent in 2012 with help from the elections and the Summer Olympics in London, but Chief Financial Officer Ken Dale said the demand for news from these events was lower than in 2008. Barack Obama's second presidential campaign was not as dramatic as his first, and the London Olympics were easier for news outlets to cover than the 2008 games in Beijing, which meant many AP customers relied less on its services.

It was the fourth straight year of declining revenue for the AP, but the rate of decline has slowed sharply the last two years. The U.S. newspaper industry, which accounts for about 20 percent of AP revenue, has suffered from a loss of advertising dollars to online media. AP has cut the fees it charges newspapers for its content, but it hasn't been enough for some. A number of newspapers have ended their contracts with the AP, including the Chicago Tribune and six other newspapers owned by Tribune Co.

The big news events of 2012 saddled AP with extra costs at the same time it was upgrading its video equipment to high definition, forcing it to borrow. Paying off $19 million in debt is AP's highest priority, Dale said.

Still, cost controls helped keep the operating loss to $25.7 million in 2012, compared with $34.2 million in 2011.

Most of the expense decline was due to payroll savings through attrition and a freeze of defined benefit pension plans. The AP ended the year with 3,259 employees, down 6 percent from 3,473 a year earlier.

Dale said he expects revenue to decline again in 2013 because of the absence of elections and Olympics. He also said he expects costs to keep declining, leading to a big reduction in the 2013 operating loss.

The AP is offsetting the drop-off in newspaper revenue with new online customers and strong demand for images and video.

"We're pretty much backfilling any erosion we're seeing in newspapers," Dale said.

Also at the meeting on Tuesday, the AP board added three members, re-elected five and saw two leave. It now has 19 board members.

The new board members are Robert Brown, president of Swift Communications Inc.; Gracia C. Martore, president and CEO of Gannett Co.; and Terry J. Kroeger, president and CEO of BH Media Group, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Last year also saw a change in AP's executive leadership. Tom Curley left the post of CEO in July after nine years and was replaced by Gary Pruitt, who had been CEO of The McClatchy Co.

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http://www.ap.org/company/annual-meeting/2013/annual-report/

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J.C. Penney draws $850M from revolving credit line

NEW YORK — J.C. Penney Co. said it has drawn $850 million from its $1.85 billion revolving credit line, a sign that the flailing department store chain is in a cash crunch after a disastrous turnaround plan launched early last year.

The Plano, Texas-based department store chain said Monday that proceeds will be used to fund working capital requirements and expenditures including replenishing inventory for a newly overhauled home area. The new home area, which includes merchandise from names like Jonathan Adler and Michael Graves, is being rolled out to 500 of its 1,100 stores by next month.

Chief Financial Officer Ken Hannah said in a statement that the drawing of the funds "provides more than its current funding needs to ensure our continued liquidity," but it is also looking to explore other ways to raise more money.

The latest development comes a week after Penney fired its CEO Ron Johnson 17 months on the job. Johnson, the mastermind behind Apple Inc.'s stores, spearheaded a costly turnaround plan that included getting rid of most discounts, bringing in hip brands and transforming the stores into collections of mini-boutiques. The changes turned off shoppers, resulting in a nearly billion-dollar loss and a 25 percent drop in revenue for the fiscal year ended Feb. 2.

Penney replaced Johnson with Mike Ullman, who had been its CEO for seven years until November 2011 when he was succeeded by Johnson, to stabilize the business. However, pressure is mounting on Ulllman, who has to quickly decide which parts of Johnson's legacy to keep and which to trash while looking for ways to get shoppers in the store.

Johnson's firing came as Penney was in the middle of rolling out 20 mini-shops devoted to various brands in the home area. When the home area is completed, 30 percent of the store will have been redone.

In early February, Penney amended its bank credit facility to increase its borrowing capacity to $1.85 billion, from $1.75 billion, but some analysts had expected that it wouldn't tap into the credit line until the middle of the year

"This shows that Penney is burning through cash quicker than anyone expected," said Brian Sozzi, CEO and chief equities strategist at Belus Capital Advisers.

Last November, Penney said it would end the latest fiscal year with $1 billion in cash. Penney wound up ending the year with $930 million in cash, which was better than analysts had feared but below the company's target. However, the figures looked better than they really were because Penney staggered some payments to vendors into the first quarter.

Shares of Penney rose 12 cents to $14.74 in late morning trading. The stock has lost more than 65 percent of its value since February 2012, when investors were bullish about Johnson's plan.

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Gold tanks to 2-year low as China weighs on stocks

LONDON — Weaker-than-expected Chinese economic growth figures weighed on markets Monday as the price of gold slid another $100 to hit a two-year low amid concerns that a 12-year bull run for the commodity has come to an end.

Though Chinese government figures showed that the world's second-largest economy expanded 7.7 percent in the first quarter of the year compared with a year earlier, the figure was down on the previous period's 7.9 percent rate and was worse than expectations for a modest increase to 8 percent.

The report stoked worries about the strength of China's economy at a time when a run of U.S. economic data has disappointed and Europe remains embroiled in its crisis over too much government debt.

"Weak economic growth in China has taken investors by surprise," said Mike McCudden, head of derivatives at stockbroker Interactive Investor. "With the recent run or weaker global economic data investors have reached an impasse and without a great deal in sight this week to inspire them, we should see markets drift lower."

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.8 percent at 6,332 while Germany's DAX fell 0.5 percent to 7,708. The CAC-40 in France was also 0.6 percent lower at 3,708.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.5 percent at 14,784 while the broader S&P 500 index fell 0.6 percent to 1,579. The falls came despite a 17 percent rise in the value of Sprint shares after it agreed to be acquired by Dish Network for $25.5 billion and Citigroup, which rose over 2 percent after solid earnings.

Much of the interest in financial markets though is centered on gold, which has taken a battering over recent sessions.

By late afternoon London time, an ounce of the yellow metal was trading around $90, or 6 percent, lower at $1,413. Earlier, it fell to $1,395, its first foray below $1,400 since March 2011.

Gold has fallen sharply over recent trading sessions from over $1,600 10 days ago and there is talk in the markets that a number of institutions are cashing in following a reduction in gold price predictions from leading investment banks, including Goldman Sachs.

Many reasons have been put forward to explain the sudden change of course, including speculation that Cyprus may sell a chunk of its reserves to finance its part of its financial rescue. Though that may not materialize, it was enough to prompt some investors to think that a gold-selling strategy may be used elsewhere in the troubled eurozone.

Another reason put forward is that the Federal Reserve will outline a strategy to withdraw its monetary stimulus later this year despite recent mixed signals out of the U.S. economy, the world's largest.

One of the reasons why the price of gold has been so well-bid in recent years is a direct result of the Fed's policy — the new dollars created under so-called quantitative easing have found themselves recycled in financial markets and many of them have gone to the perceived haven of gold.

"Investors are clearly turning away from gold here, using the price action as justification for unwinding positions and taking capital away from what was once considered as almost a one-way bet," said David White, a trader at Spreadex. "Even those naturally contrarian are struggling to find reasons to own gold."

The sharp decline in the price of gold has had knock-on effects throughout commodity markets. The price of oil has been in retreat too and the benchmark New York rate was down another $1.87 at $89.42 a barrel.

Subdued investor appetite for risk, as seen by the performance of stocks, was evident in the currency markets too, where the euro was trading 0.4 percent lower at $1.3057.

Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 finished 1.6 percent lower at 13,275.66, falling for a second straight trading day after a series of gains. The Bank of Japan's aggressive monetary easing to lift borrowing and spending drove Japanese stocks to their highest close in nearly four years last week as well as weighing heavily on the yen. However, the yen has gained some ground over the last couple of sessions, and the dollar was 0.4 percent lower at $97.77 yen.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng sank 1.4 percent to 21,772.67 while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.9 percent to 4,967.90 and China's Shanghai Composite Index shed 1.1 percent to 2,181.94.

South Korea's benchmark index narrowed its losses amid expectations that policymakers in major economies may put pressure on Japan to halt the yen's slide, which has hurt South Korean exporters. The Kospi closed at 1,920.45, down 0.2 percent.

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Draghi urges leaders to solve euro's core problems

AMSTERDAM — European Central Bank head Mario Draghi said Monday that while the bank had averted financial "panic" in the euro union, it was still up to politicians to solve the region's core problems of strengthening the banking system and improving long-term growth.

The head of Europe's monetary authority said in a speech delivered in Amsterdam that the central bank had already warded off "fire sales" by investors through emergency measures. Those included launching €1 trillion ($1.3 trillion) in cheap, three-year loans to banks to steady their finances and helping lower the borrowing costs of indebted countries by offering to buy government bonds on the open market.

Nonetheless, the economy of the 17 European Union countries that use the euro is mired in recession and is suffering from record unemployment. Meanwhile, borrowing conditions across the eurozone are fragmented: Companies in the indebted countries are paying more to borrow due to troubled government and bank finances than their more financially stable neighbors.

Draghi hasn't ruled out further stimulus from the central bank — including interest rate cuts or new measures to get credit flowing to the small and midsize companies.

However, he said Monday, those steps only buy time. Governments must pass structural reforms to make their economies more competitive and business-friendly, such as easing rules on hiring and firing people. The aim would be to improve growth that would, in turn, improve tax revenues and help governments shrink debt long-term.

"To conclusively address the root causes of the crisis these efforts need to be maintained and, in some countries, stepped up," he said.

"Let me be clear: undertaking structural reforms, budget consolidation and restoring bank balance sheet health is neither the responsibility nor the mandate of monetary policy."

Draghi did not appear to rule out further emergency actions by the central bank but gave little hint what those could be. He did mention so-called quantitative easing efforts by other central banks such as the U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan to purchase of securities from banks. This adds new money to the economy and can drive down longer term interest rates.

However, he said, those policies were "tailor made" for those large single economies. Introducing such a scheme across the 17 countries of the eurozone would be complicated and Draghi warned there was "no uncontroversial way" to determine what the target interest rate would be. It's also unclear how the bank would decide which countries' bonds to buy.

Draghi in particular urged quick action to set up a single European authority that can wind down busted banks and protect euro member governments from heavy losses.

Troubled banks have contributed to the bloc's three-year debt crisis. Most recently, they helped pull down the public finances of Cyprus, which became the latest eurozone country to need a bailout.

Draghi said such an authority would wind up banks "without reinforcing the vicious link between banks" and government finances.

European leaders have said they intend to set up such a resolution authority but action on the proposal has lagged.

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McHugh contributed from Frankfurt, Germany.

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Paris' Crillon hotel to sell furniture, bathrobes

PARIS — One of Paris' most elegant hotels is selling off everything from its front desk to the bathrobes that snuggled the rich and famous.

The Hotel de Crillon on the French capital's Place de la Concorde has welcomed stars and heads of state for more than a century. Now, it is renovating and jettisoning furniture, fittings, paintings and even some of its wine collection. The auction catalog lists 3,500 lots, including sofas, tables, light fixtures, a Louis XV-style mantel and the pigeon-holes used by the concierge to keep messages for guests.

The auction will be held April 18-22 inside the stately 18th century building, which became a hotel in 1909. The hotel said the money from some sales will donated to charity.

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The lots: http://www.artcurial.com/fr/actualite/cp/2013/2013_04_18_2355_hotel-de-Crillon.asp

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Dish Network offering to buy Sprint in $25.5B deal

NEW YORK — Dish Network Corp. is trying to snag U.S. wireless carrier Sprint Nextel Corp. away from its Japanese suitor in recognition of the way satellite dishes are losing their relevance in the age of cellphones that play YouTube videos.

Dish offered $25.5 billion in cash and stock on Monday for Sprint, which Dish says beats the offer from Japan's Softbank Corp. Softbank is offering $20 billion in cash, and shareholders get to keep 30 percent of Sprint. Dish is offering $17.3 billion in cash, and Sprint shareholders get 32 percent of the combined Dish-Sprint.

Sprint Nextel Corp.'s stock jumped on the news, as investors started looking forward to a bidding war between Dish and Softbank. Sprint had accepted the Softbank offer and was expecting to close on it this summer. Sprint, the country's third-largest cellphone carrier, said it would evaluate Dish's offer.

Charlie Ergen, Dish's executive chairman, has been looking for a way into the wireless world for years. Dish has been buying space on the airwaves for cellphone service or wireless broadband. The Englewood, Colo., company has tried to partner with cellphone companies to put its spectrum rights to use, but has been repeatedly rebuffed.

"People have generally blown him off and not taken him seriously," technology consultant Tim Farrar said. "This is really saying 'We are serious.'"

The wireless world is in a ferment of deal-making. The largest two carriers, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., are trying to bolster their spectrum holdings, while the next largest, Sprint and T-Mobile USA, are trying to make alliances to better compete after years of seeing their subscribers move to the bigger players. T-Mobile USA has struck a deal to merge with No. 5 MetroPCS Communications Inc., and Sprint's deal with Softbank would give Sprint a much-needed cash infusion.

On a conference call Monday, Ergen said that Dish is a better fit for Sprint because it can combine its spectrum rights with Sprint's. Dish can also use its army of satellite dish technicians to install antennas for wireless broadband on customer's roofs, creating a competitor to cable and phone-line broadband. It could also save money by combining its call centers and back-end functions with those of Sprint.

"You want to be in your home with video, broadband, and data, and voice, and you want to be outside your home with those same things," Ergen said. "And while the cable industry does a really good job in your home, and the current wireless industry does a really good job outside your home, there's really no one company on a national scale that puts it all together. The new Dish-Sprint will do that."

Dish has 14.1 million TV subscribers, making it the No. 2 satellite-TV company after DirecTV. Comcast Corp. is larger than both and is the nation's largest subscription-TV provider. Sprint, which is based in Overland Park, Kan., has 55.6 million wireless devices on its network.

Dish said that its proposed transaction includes $17.3 billion in cash and $8.2 billion in stock. It put the total worth at $7 per share, which is a 13 percent premium to its Friday closing price of $6.22. This includes $4.76 per share in cash and 0.05953 Dish shares per Sprint share.

Shares of Sprint rose 83 cents, or 13 percent, to $7.05 in midday trading. Because that's above Dish's offer, it indicates that investors are expecting a sweetened bid from Softbank or Dish.

Dish shares fell $2.46, or 6.5 percent, to $35.17, as the market figured that buying Sprint shares would be a cheaper way to buy into a combined company.

Ergen said during the conference call that Dish believed that Softbank undervalued Sprint. Although he would not say whether Dish would raise its bid for Sprint if Softbank came back with a higher offer, he said that Dish would be more than will to pay the $600 million breakup fee for Sprint and Softbank to terminate their proposed transaction.

Another component of the Sprint purchase is wireless network operator Clearwire. In December, Sprint agreed to buy the portion of Clearwire it didn't own for $2.2 billion.

The deal would give Sprint control of an affiliate it depends upon to provide high-speed "Sprint 4G" data services on some of its phones. The Clearwire deal is contingent on the Softbank deal going through, as Sprint lacks the money to complete it on its own.

Dish made its own bid of about $5.15 billion for Clearwire in January. Ergen said that Dish has not formally withdrawn its Clearwire offer and that its Sprint buyout bid is not contingent on Clearwire going through with the Sprint offer.

Further complicating the picture, Clearwire revealed Friday that it has received an offer of $1 billion to $1.5 billion for some of its spectrum rights from an unnamed company. The Wall Street Journal on Monday identified the prospective buyer as Verizon Wireless. Verizon declined to comment.

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AP Business Writer Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.

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Citigroup execs sound a cautious note

NEW YORK — Citigroup isn't convinced the economy is back.

The bank's executives were more cautious than celebratory Monday, even after announcing strong first-quarter results.

Citigroup's investment bank advised more companies on mergers and acquisitions; its retail bank wrote out more mortgages; it set aside less money for bad loans. The bank's earnings beat expectations and its stock price rose. Even so, executives stopped short of declaring victory.

"The environment remains challenging and we are sure to be tested as we go through the year," said CEO Mike Corbat.

Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach says the bank doesn't think consumers are confident enough to drive the economy, whose growth he described as uneven. "We're still going to be moving somewhat sideways."

Citigroup's view was more pessimistic than those of rivals JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, whose CEOs last week described the economy as improving and consumer sentiment as healthy. Both banks reported record earnings but their revenue slipped, lowering their stock prices.

The split in the banks' outlooks appeared in the past two quarters as well. Citigroup, for example, wasn't as confident as its competitors about a comeback in the housing market.

Monday's results marked Citi's first full quarter under Corbat, who took over last fall from Vikram Pandit. Pandit stepped down under pressure from a board that was unhappy with his efforts to turn around the bank. Corbat is now under the same pressure.

So far he's been cutting jobs and trimming businesses in slow-growth areas, continuing Pandit's plan to slim down the bank and make it more manageable and less susceptible to special scrutiny from regulators. In a call with reporters, CFO Gerspach said he didn't anticipate any "large scale repositioning charges," but rather a steady move toward more efficiency.

"To use a baseball analogy, a series of singles," Gerspach said.

More on Citi's results:

—Investment banking vs. retail banking: Investment banking revenue there jumped 31 percent while revenue from consumer banking was flat. Citi's investment banking unit advised more companies on mergers and acquisitions and underwrote more stock and bond offerings. In the consumer bank, credit card revenue inched down.

—Mortgages: Citigroup funded $18 billion in mortgages in North America, up 26 percent from a year earlier. For the first time, the bank released some of the reserves it had set aside to cover bad mortgage loans in Citi Holdings, the unit where it has quarantined troubled assets from the financial crisis. Investors, Gerspach noted, are also willing to pay more for investments made of mortgages.

Does this mean, a reporter asked, that "even John Gerspach (is) positive about the housing market?"

"I wouldn't say that I'm positive about the housing market," he replied.

—What else helped results: The bank's own borrowing costs fell as it retired debt. The drag from Citi Holdings shrank: The unit's loss narrowed to $789 million from more than $1 billion a year earlier.

The bank continued to free up money it had set aside for bad loans. Total allowance for loan losses is $23.7 billion, or 3.7 percent of total loans, down from $29 billion, or 4.5 percent of total loans, a year earlier.

Citi also benefited from a deferred tax credit. When companies have big losses, they get a break on taxes. Citigroup, which suffered big losses in 2008, was allowed to hold onto tax credits to use in the future, in years when it was profitable.

—Around the world: Revenue climbed 20 percent in North America, but rose only 4 percent in Latin America and 1 percent in Asia. It fell 3 percent in the unit covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Gerspach said Asia was "not seeing what I'd consider to be vibrant growth." Europe, he said, is still recovering, and the bank probably wouldn't look to expand there except to support existing clients with specific services.

—Legal expenses: Gerspach said the bank recorded about $700 million in legal expenses in the first quarter. That's on pace with last year, when it recorded about $2.8 billion. The bank's higher legal expenses were related to Citi Holdings, but Gerspach declined to give details.

—By the numbers: Citigroup earned $4 billion, up 17 percent from a year earlier, after stripping out the effects of an accounting charge. That amounted to $1.29 per share, beating the $1.17 expected by Wall Street analysts.

Revenue totaled $20.8 billion, up 3 percent from a year earlier. That also beat the $20.2 billion that analysts had expected.

The stock rose more than 2 percent, or $1.13, to $45.91, in midday trading.

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Stocks sink in midday trading; gold plunges

NEW YORK — A steep fall in commodity prices pulled down energy and mining stocks for a second day on Monday.

Gold plunged below $1,400 an ounce for the first time in two years as a sell-off in metals continued from last week. Oil prices hit their lowest level since mid-December.

"I think you're getting some panic selling right now," said Frank Fantozzi, CEO of Planned Financial Services, a wealth management firm. "People who have been holding on to gold expecting a rebound are now thinking, 'I better get out.'"

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 89 points at 14,776 at noon, a drop of 0.6 percent. Caterpillar led the Dow lower, losing 3 percent to $82.72.

A report that China's economy unexpectedly slowed pummeled copper and other commodities. The world's second-largest economy expanded by 7.7 percent in the first three months of the year, well below forecasts of 8 percent or better.

The plunge in commodity prices hit mining and energy stocks. Freeport-McMorRan Copper & Gold fell 7 percent to $29.65. Analysts at Citigroup placed a "sell" rating on the mining giant on the expectation that copper prices will continue sliding.

Of the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500, materials and energy stocks fared the worst, sliding 3 percent. Cliffs Natural Resources lost 8 percent to $17.73, the biggest drop in the S&P 500.

Citigroup rose 3 percent to $46.05, one of the best gains in the S&P 500. The country's third-largest bank reported earnings that beat analysts' estimates thanks to stronger revenue from trading and investment banking.

Sprint Nextel jumped after Dish Network offered $25 billion to buy the company. Dish's bid is aimed at beating an offer from the Japanese phone company SoftBank. Sprint surged 16 percent to $7.20. Dish fell 6 percent to $35.28.

Thermo Fisher Scientific offered to pay $13.6 billion to buy genetic testing equipment maker Life Technologies. Thermo Fisher agreed to pay $76 in cash for each share of Life Technologies. Both stocks jumped. Thermo Fisher rose 3 percent $82.21, and Life Technologies rose 8 percent $73.23.

In other trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 13 points to 1,576, a loss of 0.8 percent. The Nasdaq composite fell 29 points, or 0.9 percent, to 3,266.

In the market for U.S. government bonds, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note dipped to 1.71 percent from 1.72 late Friday. The yield remains near its low point of the year, 1.69 percent, reached April 5 following news that U.S. employers hired far fewer workers than expected last month.

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