Richmond: Kentucky Bank and Madison bank are merging. Their parent corporations announced this week they have entered into an agreement on the deal. Kentucky Bancshares will acquire Madison Financial Corp. in an exchange of shares valued at about $7.2 million, with a per share value of $32.50 for each share of Madison common stock, the companies reported.
The transaction is subject to Madison shareholder approval and customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close late in the second quarter or in the third quarter of 2015.
Once completed, Madison Bank's three offices in Richmond will become branches of Kentucky Bank. The merged bank will have an estimated $914 million in assets, $693 million in deposits and 18 branches serving Central and Eastern Kentucky.
Kentucky Power told to refund about $13M to ratepayers
Frankfort: The Kentucky Public Service Commission has ordered Kentucky Power to refund about $13 million in overcharges to customers.
The PSC also barred the electric provider from collecting $41 million in additional fuel costs that were to be taken in through May.
The refund will be in the form of credits on future bills. A statement from Attorney General Jack Conway's office says the average residential customer would save about $155 over a 17-month period.
The PSC also criticized Kentucky Power for failing to disclose additional fuel costs for ratepayers after the 50-percent interest purchase of the Mitchell power plant in West Virginia.
Kentucky Power officials said Friday that they are "disappointed by the suggestion that we purposefully did not disclose all cost information associated with that purchase."
NATIONAL
In-flight retailer SkyMall files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
Phoenix: SkyMall, the company that produces in-flight catalogs located on nearly every domestic flight, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday.
SkyMall LLC, in papers filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Phoenix, stated that it had evaluated the company's alternatives and determined that the filing was in the best interests of the company and its creditors.
Delta Airlines, American Airlines and U.S. Airways are included in the company's list of creditors holding the 20 largest unsecured claims.
In the petition, SkyMall estimated its assets range from $1 million to $10 million and that its liabilities range from $10 million to $50 million.
The in-flight catalog reaches an estimated 650 million travelers each year. In 2013, SkyMall lost $3.2 million from May to September, as reported by its parent company, Xhibit Corp., an Arizona marketing firm.
Union membership dips slightly
Washington: Union membership in the United States is down slightly, accounting for just over 11 percent of the workforce last year, the Labor Department reported Friday.
That's just a fractional drop from the year before.
The department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said public-sector workers have the highest union membership rate at nearly 36 percent. That's more than five times higher than membership of private-sector workers at less than 7 percent.
Workers in education, training and library jobs and in protective service jobs have the highest unionization rate, at 35 percent.
Earnings were higher for union members last year, at $970 a week versus $763 a week for non-union members. The percent of workers who were members of unions in 2014 was 11.1 percent, down from 11.3 percent each in the two preceding years.
Among states, New York continued to have the highest union membership rate, at 24.6 percent, while North Carolina once again had the lowest rate at 1.9 percent.
Staff, wire reports
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