News in brief

U.S. Steel completes

Big River purchase

Big River Steel of Osceola is now officially owned by U.S. Steel Corp.

U.S. Steel announced Friday that it has closed on its acquisition of the remaining equity of Big River for about $774 million in cash.

In announcing the deal last month, U.S. Steel officials said they would retain Big River’s management team and workforce.

Friday’s announcement completes U.S. Steel’s previously announced plans to acquire Big River’s Mississippi County operations. U.S. Steel bought 49.9{de3fc13d4eb210e6ea91a63b91641ad51ecf4a1f1306988bf846a537e7024eeb} of Big River for $700 million in October and said it would complete the acquisition in four years. Total cost for the purchase of Big River is nearly $1.5 billion.

“Taking a page from the Big River Steel playbook, we are closing on this world competitive green steel asset purchase under budget and ahead of schedule,” David Burritt, U.S. Steel’s president and chief executive, said in a statement Friday. “Our customers now have access to a truly sustainable source of the most advanced high-strength steels.”

Shares of U.S Steel fell $1.26, or 5.7{de3fc13d4eb210e6ea91a63b91641ad51ecf4a1f1306988bf846a537e7024eeb}, to close Friday at $20.88.

— Andrew Moreau

5 CPA firms in state make merger official

Five Arkansas certified public accounting firms have merged to form one of the 10 largest firms in the state.

Garland & Greenwood CPAs and Advisors PLLC became official on Jan. 1, the new firm said in a news release.

The firm is the result of the merger of FDV/CPA and Consulting Services PLLC of Bentonville; Gasaway & Co. CPAs of Little Rock and Mcllroy, Keen, Goodman LLP, both of Little Rock; Prince & Tuohey, CPA, of Hot Springs; and Robert G. Schichtl II CPA of Conway.

Jake Froemsdorf of Bentonville and Rocky Goodman of Little Rock are the firm’s managing partners.

The new firm will offer a greater variety of services, Goodman said in the release.

“We have several services that overlap, but each of us have various specialties that can benefit one another’s clients,” he said in the release. “We will also leverage our strength in numbers to scale our business in order to provide better service to our clients.”

Once the merger is complete, Garland & Greenwood said it will have 30 employees, 17 of them CPAs.

The new firm’s Little Rock office is 501 N. University Ave.

— Noel Oman

USA Truck up 0.9{de3fc13d4eb210e6ea91a63b91641ad51ecf4a1f1306988bf846a537e7024eeb} but index loses 6.79

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Friday at 514.64, down 6.79.

Shares of USA Truck rose 0.9{de3fc13d4eb210e6ea91a63b91641ad51ecf4a1f1306988bf846a537e7024eeb} Friday to lead the index. Murphy USA Inc. shares rose 0.5{de3fc13d4eb210e6ea91a63b91641ad51ecf4a1f1306988bf846a537e7024eeb}.

Murphy Oil Corp. shares fell 5.7{de3fc13d4eb210e6ea91a63b91641ad51ecf4a1f1306988bf846a537e7024eeb}. Dillard’s Inc. shares fell 3.7{de3fc13d4eb210e6ea91a63b91641ad51ecf4a1f1306988bf846a537e7024eeb}.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.