HAWAII

Check-cashing giant moves into Hawaii

National check-cashing chain ACE Cash Express Inc. said today it will expand to Hawaii and open six franchised locations on Oahu.

The publicly traded Irving, Texas-based company said it will open one franchise in December, one in January and the other four within the next year. Nik Thomas, president of Blue Water Check Cashing and Direct Telephone Co. of Houston, will own the franchises and become ACE's 90th franchise owner.

ACE, which has 1,003 company-owned stores and 188 franchised stores nationwide, also maintains automatic check-cashing machines at 21 company-owned store locations and, during the tax season, at 100 H&R block offices. Additionally, ACE offers other consumer financial services such as MoneyGram wire transfer transactions, money orders, bill payment services, and prepaid local and long-distance telecommunication services.

MAINLAND

WorldCom workers to get severance pay

NEW YORK >> In a move aimed at shoring up the morale of its remaining workers, bankrupt telecom WorldCom Inc. won court permission today to hand $36 million in severance payments to laid-off employees.

The ruling, in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, also allows WorldCom to retract $1.4 million in severance payments promised to 19 laid-off company executives before the company filed for bankruptcy in July as a multibillion dollar accounting scandal unwound.

In lieu of the lucrative settlements, the 19 will receive the same package as the rank-and-file workers: up to 26 weeks of salary and benefits.

The decision allows each of some 4,000 laid-off workers to receive an average of $9,000 apiece to supplement the $4,650 WorldCom already paid.

In the four months before filing for bankruptcy on July 21, WorldCom laid off or said it would fire 12,800 people.

Wal-Mart expects lower September sales

BENTONVILLE, Ark. >> Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reduced its sales forecast for September, as the world's largest retailer struggles with disappointing results at both the discount chain and its Sam's Club warehouse division.

During a pre-recorded call, the company said yesterday it now expects sales at stores open at least a year, known as same-store sales, to be up by between 3 percent to 4 percent. Last week, it said that September sales would be up at the low end of an original forecast of a 4 percent to 6 percent gain.

Same-store sales are considered the best indicator of a retailer's health.

Most fund categories plummet in quarter

NEW YORK >> Investors' flagging confidence in stocks took a toll on mutual funds in the third quarter, leaving most fund categories with double-digit negative returns. The slump even extended to small-cap funds that had recently outperformed the market. Funds, like equities in general, suffered from investors' fears that the economy was falling back into recession and nervousness about a possible war with Iraq.

Ford, Canadian auto workers agree on pact

DETROIT >> Ford Motor Co. and the Canadian Auto Workers tentatively agreed yesterday on terms of a three-year contract, the union said, averting a strike that could have severely hampered Ford's North American production.

CAW President Buzz Hargrove said the new contract includes wage increases of as much as 13.5 percent and assurances that 900 of the 1,400 workers who will lose their jobs at an Oakville, Ontario, truck plant will be hired at another nearby facility.