Business news in brief

In an unusual deal, Triumph Group Inc., of Berwyn, will receive $160 million in cash from Spirit AeroSystems Inc. to take over the production of wings for two lines of twin-engine Gulfstream business jets. Spirit, based in Wichita, Kan., was losing money on the wings and was embroiled in a legal fight with Gulfstream over whether it was meeting specifications. Triumph, a major supplier to the aerospace industry, said it didn't expect the operation at a factory in Tulsa, Okla., to turn cash-flow positive for three years. Triumph produces wings for other Gulfstream jets, giving it confidence that it will be able to turn around operations at the Spirit plant. Spirit employees at the Tulsa plant will transfer to Triumph. - Harold Brubaker

Florence-based Burlington Stores Inc., which sells off-price clothes under the name Burlington Coat Factory, said Tuesday same-store sales increased 5.2 percent in the quarter ended Nov. 1, compared with the same period in 2013. The company said it had total revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter and a net loss of $34.2 million. - Inquirer staff

One day after saying it would spend $9.5 billion to acquire Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Merck & Co. said an adverse court decision about key patents for Cubist would not deter it from acquiring the smaller antibiotic drugmaker. Cubist gets about 80 percent of its revenue from Cubicin. The U.S. District Court in Delaware ruled in favor of Hospira in a patent dispute, saying that four of five patents related to Cubicin were invalid. The court said the patent that expires on June 15, 2016, is valid. The decision is subject to appeal. If it stands, Hospira would be able to sell a generic version, if approved by the FDA, once the remaining patent expires. "The company continues to believe the acquisition of Cubist will create strong fundamental value for Merck's shareholders," Merck said. - David Sell

Citigroup Inc.'s fourth-quarter legal expenses and costs for shrinking the business will bring the total for those items under chief executive officer Michael Corbat to $13.3 billion, more than half of the bank's earnings in his 26-month tenure. Corbat, 54, said Tuesday the New York-based bank will report $2.7 billion in quarterly legal expenses, the most since he became CEO in October 2012, data from company reports show. An estimated $800 million in costs to dismiss workers and close branches and offices will be the most since the quarter when Corbat succeeded Vikram Pandit in the CEO role. Corbat said the bank's legal costs are tied to investigations into alleged manipulation of currency and interest-rate benchmarks as well as the bank's controls against money laundering. - Bloomberg News

Cho Hyun-ah, also known as Heather Cho, was a vice president at Korean Air. She holds a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and an MBA from the University of Southern California, and is the eldest daughter of Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho, which made her an important figure in the family business that runs South Korea's national carrier. But she resigned Tuesday after her "nut rage" incident on Friday. She ordered a Korean Air flight from New York to Seoul to return to the gate because a flight attendant in first class did not follow procedures for distributing macadamia nuts. - Washington Post

Nissan is recalling about 470,000 cars and SUVs worldwide to fix a problem that can cause fuel leaks. In the United States, the recall covers about 134,000 vehicles with direct fuel injection engines. That includes Nissan's Juke SUV from the 2012 through 2014 model years, and the Infiniti M56 and QX56 from 2012 and 2013. Also affected are Infiniti QX70 and QX80 SUVs from 2014 and 2015. Documents posted by U.S. safety regulators say a fuel pressure sensor may not have been tightened properly in production. That can cause a gas leak and fire, but Nissan says no fires or injuries have been reported to the company. - Associated Press

Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr is expected to tender his resignation Wednesday, signaling the end of the city's financial emergency, with the Motor City poised to officially exit bankruptcy as early as Wednesday. Orr's letter is expected to say he believes his work in Detroit is done, and his role would end on the effective date of the city's official exit from bankruptcy, which could be from Wednesday through Monday, pending a judge's decision. - Detroit Free Press

In a series of executive actions Tuesday, President Obama launched a leadership program for future government career executives with a goal of giving potential managers multiagency experiences and breaking out of a tradition of promoting senior bureaucrats from within their own agencies. The Senior Executive Service fills top career positions below senior presidential appointees and runs virtually all government activities in about 75 agencies. The White House projects that by 2017, about one in four senior managers will retire. - AP