🍺Ben E. Keith No. 1; AA valuation 'bonkers'; GM & Andretti & F1?

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📣NEWS OF THE DAY:

Three Tarrant-area companies made the Dallas Business Journal 2023 list of twenty-five top North Texas private companies, ranked according to 2022 companywide revenues:

• Ben E. Keith Co. (#1), Fort Worth, $6.7 billion

• Gilchrest Automotive (#12), Weatherford, $987 million

• Higginbotham (#24), Fort Worth, $478 million

Profits for the four major airlines have been hit hard since early summer, but none more than American Airlines. One analyst calls its valuation "bonkers."

American Airlines has selected D-FW International, Miami and Charlotte to serve new routes to Tulum, Mexico beginning in 2024. 

General Motors only will partner with Andretti Global to enter Formula One and is not interested in considering other teams to gain entry to the global motorsports series.

Ross Perot Jr.’s Circle T Ranch in Westlake opened its gates to an elite group of more than 200 investors, innovators, and business leaders. Check out who was there and topics covered.

The Leonard’s Department Store Museum collection of historical treasures will call the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History home starting next year. The Leonard’s collection will be supported for many years because of an endowment established at the North Texas Community Foundation by Marty Leonard.

Mansions Monday: A sampling of luxury estates listed for sale around Tarrant County.

• A 5-bedroom home with cathedral ceilings on a cul-de-sac near Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth for $1,790,000.

• This 7,220-square-foot single story, gated property on 3.5 acres in Southlake for $4,995,000.

• Set sail from this waterfront home on Lake Arlington with boat dock and grassy peninsula for $1.9 million.

Bah humbug reminder: Tarrant County taxpayers have an option of paying their current year property taxes in two equal installments. To qualify, taxpayers must pay one half of the taxes owed by November 30; the second payment is due by July 1, 2024. No penalty or interest will accrue on the second half until after July 1. If taxpayers do not choose the half payment option, the deadline is January 31, 2024, to pay the full amount.

Don’t expect the same raise you got last year. U.S. employers surveyed by Aon, which compiles compensation data on more than 5,500 employers, said merit raises will average about 3.7% across all industries, down from 3.9% this year. Here’s how compensation budgets are changing. 

Credit card company losses are rising at a rate not seen since the Great Recession, according to Goldman Sachs. Current losses of 3.63% have jumped 1.5 percentage points from a bottom in September 2021, according to the bank. What is unusual is that the losses are accelerating outside of an economic downturn. Goldman expects losses to climb to nearly 5%.

Daily digit: 77% - The portion of Americans who currently feel "anxious" about their financial situation.

Nothing to do with business: 96 luxury gifts that delight all six senses from Bloomberg’s Holiday Gift Guide. (read)

JPS Health Network CEO and president Dr. Karen Duncan's contract has been renewed for three years with two one-year options. Her base pay will increase to $950k in year one. Duncan oversees Tarrant County's public hospital wide-ranging network, which cares for a majority of the county’s residents without health insurance.

Former New Orleans prosecutor Bonycle Sokunbi is the second director of Fort Worth's Office of the Police Oversight. She has made changes in her short time here and hopes to grow alliances and staff. 

👟PEOPLE ON THE MOVE:

• TCU: Formal investiture of President Daniel W. Pullin.

• Kubota: Names Nobuyuki Ishii CEO of Grapevine-based Kubota North America and senior managing executive officer of Kubota Corporation

• Kubota: Names Todd Stucke President of Kubota Tractor Corp. and executive officer of Kubota Corporation

✂️SNIPPETS FROM AROUND THE WEB:

• A bottle of the world’s most valuable whiskey, The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926, is up for auction at Sotheby’s November 18 with a pre-sale estimate between $900,000 and $1.5 million.  

• Time flies when you’re having fun: If you think this year’s World Series sped by, it did. 9-inning games averaged the shortest time in 11 years.

• A greater percentage of workers in Texas’ major metro areas are back in the office compared to other U.S. markets.

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