the bottomline

WICHITA, Kansas: Shareholders overwhelmingly approved a proposed merger of Kansas’ largest electric company with a Missouri firm Tuesday, a move that aims to create a new unified company with a combined equity value of about $14 billion in a revised deal that still requires regulatory approval.

Kansas City, Missouri-based Great Plains Energy Inc and Topeka-based Westar Energy Inc announced in a news release that more than 90 percent of the shares voted at each company approved the transaction at special shareholder meetings. Great Plains is the parent company of Kansas City Power and Light.

The proposed merger is expected to provide energy for the new utility company’s 1 million Kansas customers and nearly 600,000 customers in Missouri. The revised agreement involves no transaction debt, no exchange of cash and is a stock-for-stock merger, according to the companies. (AP)

NEW YORK: Meg Whitman, who oversaw the breakup of one of Silicon Valley’s pioneering companies, is stepping down as CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.

HPE said Tuesday that Whitman will hand over the reins of the company to its president, Antonio Neri, on Feb 1.

Whitman, 61, took over in 2011 at the former Hewlett-Packard Co, a company founded in 1939 and for years a tech bellwether. But it had struggled to keep up with industry trends toward mobile and cloud computing, shedding thousands of jobs in the process.

In 2015, Hewlett Packard was split in two: one company, HP Inc, sells PCs and printers. The other led by Whitman, HPE, is focused on selling data-center hardware and other commercial tech gear to other big organizations. (AP)

NEW YORK: Some smaller retailers will tug at shoppers’ heartstrings during the holidays, trying to create an emotional experience or connection that a big national chain might not provide.

Store owners are going well beyond the usual holiday decorations and music. Among their plans: Parties where the focus is fundraising rather than profits, events with other stores to encourage shoppers to visit them all, and personal services like merchandise deliveries. The retailers are betting that their efforts — which for some are a year-round strategy — will keep customers shopping long after the holiday season. (AP)

WASHINGTON: The head of an international authority that oversees the North American power grid has resigned following his arrest on a domestic violence charge in Georgia.

Gerry Cauley stepped down Monday as CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corp, an international regulatory authority that seeks to assure reliability and security of the electric grid in the United States, Canada and northern Mexico. Jail records show the 64-year-old was arrested Nov 10 at his home outside Atlanta. He was charged with battery-family violence and released on bond. (AP)

LONDON: Aston Martin is on course to post its first annual pre-tax profit since 2010 as strong demand for the luxury automaker’s DB11 sports car boosts its performance.

Pre-tax profit reached 22 million pounds ($29 million) in the first nine months of 2017, reversing a loss of 124 million pounds in the same period in 2016, it said on Wednesday.

“Our strong financial performance and continued profitability reflects the growing appeal of our high-performance sports cars, with the new DB11 Volante and a new Vantage expected to stimulate further demand in the coming year,” Chief Executive Andy Palmer said. (RTRS)

LONDON: Collapsed airline Monarch has won an appeal against a court decision that had stripped them of their rights over valuable airport slots, administrators KPMG said on Wednesday.

The ruling is a boost for the administrators, who hope to raise capital by transferring the slots at airports such as London’s Gatwick and Luton airports to other airlines. EasyJet, IAG, Wizz and Norwegian have all expressed interest in the slots, which reportedly could be worth around 60 million pounds. (RTRS)

PARIS: Tobam, a Paris-based asset management firm, said Wednesday it has launched Europe’s first mutual fund investing in bitcoin, as the virtual currency continues to rise in value.

Tobam, set up in 2005 and which says it currently manages $8.8 billion in equities and fixed income securities, said its unregulated Tobam Bitcoin Fund “will allow qualified and institutional investors wanting to gain an exposure to the cryptocurrency... to track the value of investing in the bitcoin.” It would provide a “more convenient and safer vehicle” for qualified investors, it said. (AFP)

FRANKFURT: Air Berlin bondholders are unlikely to recover more than 1 percent of outstanding debt following the German airline’s insolvency, Frank Kebekus, an Air Berlin administrator, said according to German weekly Wirtschafts-Woche.

Air Berlin’s bonds are worth a total of 2.1-2.2 billion euros ($2.5-2.6 billion), he said.

That compares with the airline’s scant funds, which include 25 million euros it is to receive from the sale of unit LGW and possible damages from part-owner Etihad, he told a creditors’ meeting on Wednesday, according to Wirtschafts-Woche. (RTRS)

MILAN: The CEOs of Italian-American carmaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles SpA and Italian energy giant ENI have agreed to jointly develop technologies to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles.

The companies signed the agreement Tuesday in Rome with Premier Paolo Gentiloni that broadly focus on technologies related to compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas - alternative fuels in which Italy has long been a market leader. (AP)

THE HAGUE:

Dutch chemical giant and leading global paint maker AkzoNobel said Tuesday it had ditched merger talks with US rival Axalta which would have blended the two multi-billion dollar companies.

Despite “constructive discussions... AkzoNobel and Axalta ended their discussions without agreement,” AkzoNobel said. (AFP)