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Lindsey Vonn Wins Record 18th World Cup Super-G to Extend Overall Lead | By James Cone | 2012-02-26T14:28:24Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/lindsey-vonn-wins-record-18th-world-cup-super-g-to-extend-overall-lead.html | 2 | 26 | 77c17d088f31a53764e266b2151f42d259fa9960 | Lindsey Vonn won a record 18th
super-G race in skiing’s World Cup to close on the discipline
title and increase her lead atop the overall standings. Vonn, who has already secured the downhill and super-
combined titles, beat Liechtenstein’s Tina Weirather by 0.05
seconds in Bansko, Bulgaria, today with Daniela Merighetti of
Italy in third. The 27-year-old American holds a 94-point lead over
Austria’s Anna Fenninger in the super-G competition with one
race remaining as she aims to top the competition for a fourth
straight year. Vonn has a 528-point advantage over Tina Maze of Slovenia
in the overall standings, with Germany’s Maria Hoefl-Riesch 28
points further back. Massimiliano Blardone won a men’s giant slalom in Crans-
Montana, Switzerland, for his seventh World Cup success. The
Italian finished ahead of Austria’s Marcel Hirscher, who leads
the giant slalom and overall standings . To contact the reporter on this story:
James Cone in London at
jcone@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Christopher Elser at
celser@bloomberg.net | 2012 | indsey-vonn-wins-record-18th-world-cup-super-g-to-extend-overall-lead |
Telefonica to Bid for Airwaves in Brazil, Chile This Year | By Manuel Baigorri | 2012-02-27T14:21:21Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/telefonica-plans-to-bid-for-airwaves-in-chile-brazil-this-year.html | 2 | 26 | 020de68928834534a382489e62ed9337 | Telefonica SA (TEF) , Spain ’s largest
telephone company, plans to bid for airwaves in Brazil and Chile
this year for building faster networks as it prepares for a boom
in demand for mobile data in Latin America . The company, which gets about half of its revenue from the
region, needs the wireless frequencies for networks based on the
long-term evolution standard already used in the U.S. and in
parts of Europe , Chief Technology Officer Enrique Blanco said in
an interview yesterday. The Madrid-based operator will invest
“all the money it needs,” he said. “We plan to bid for LTE radio frequencies in Chile and
Brazil toward the second half this year,” Blanco said in
Barcelona before the start of the Mobile World Congress. In
Spain, Telefonica is gearing up for a potential LTE deployment
in 2014, he added. Phone companies including Telefonica need to bolster
strained networks as more customers use increasingly high-
quality video, music and games. Spain’s former monopoly is
struggling to stop a loss in market share as Spaniards switch to
cheaper rivals amid a weak economy and high unemployment. Instant Messaging Telefonica and a group of operators including Vodafone
Group Plc (VOD) and France Telecom SA (FTE) ’s Orange are working on a
project for the so-called Rich Communications Suite that will
include instant messaging, Blanco said. The JOYN instant messaging application, which can transfer
voice and data, will be part of the suite, Inaki Cabrera,
innovation director for Vodafone Spain, said today at a press
conference in Barcelona. It is now in beta testing and will be
available to customers in Spain in the summer, he said. The
software will come with new tariffs to help customers improve
control over spending, he added. “Ten years ago SMS wasn’t very popular because you could
only send a message to other people within your own operator,”
Ian Miller, Telefonica’s director for radio access networks,
said in a separate interview. “We need to partner with other
vendors because this will be the only way that this new
generation of messages will be become popular and take off. This
needs to be inter-operable between all operators.” After Chile and Brazil, Telefonica predicts it will bid for
LTE frequencies in other Latin American markets such as
Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico or Peru within 18 months, said
Miller. “These markets are catching up, but the real challenge is
the devices, whether they become cost effective enough to be
massively available,” Miller said. “How much we’re willing to
invest and whether we team up or not with other operators will
vary market to market.” Alcatel-Lucent Chief Executive Officer Cesar Alierta is also counting on
Latin America’s economic growth to win back investors.
Telefonica said last week sales in the region climbed 13.5
percent to 29.2 billion euros ($39.3 billion) last year.
Telefonica operates in 14 countries in the region. Telefonica shares fell 0.1 percent to 12.85 euros as of
3:19 p.m. in Madrid. Telefonica is working with Firefox browser maker Mozilla on
mobile applications using HTML5 language, Carlos Domingo,
director of product development and innovation at Telefonica,
said today in Barcelona. Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE) and other phone
operators are also involved in the Mozilla accord, he said. “The performance of devices can be much higher thanks to
this, while it can also lower prices for smartphones and bring
them to the mass market in emerging markets in Latin America,”
Domingo said. 4G Trial Telefonica yesterday unveiled a 4G trial in Barcelona based
on Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) ’s light radio technology and Samsung
Electronics Co. (005930) ’s Galaxy S II LTE smartphone and Tab. 8.9
tablet. This trial will be extended to other cities across Spain
depending on demand and radio frequencies and devices, which are
the two biggest challenges, according to Blanco. Besides Spain, this technology is set to expand in other
European cities, Miller added. “We are planning to do other trials like this one in
Barcelona in other European cities in Germany , Czech Republic,
U.K., and so on,” Miller said. “We are now also considering
network sharing with other operators for LTE where we can’t get
all the frequencies need.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Manuel Baigorri in Barcelona via
mbaigorri@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kenneth Wong at
kwong11@bloomberg.net | 2012 | elefonica-plans-to-bid-for-airwaves-in-chile-brazil-this-year |
ECB’s Weidmann Questions Greek Bond Profit Payout, Spiegel Says | By Tony Czuczka | 2012-02-26T11:34:20Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/ecb-s-weidmann-questions-greek-bond-profit-payout-spiegel-says.html | 2 | 26 | 15504488a1bf5277a0b350f3e9ac635340110db0 | European central banks may be unable
to make a profit on Greek sovereign bonds that euro-area
governments want to use in the country’s second bailout,
European Central Bank council member Jens Weidmann was quoted as
saying by Der Spiegel . Weidmann said it’s “not certain at all” that the bonds
will make a profit, the German magazine reported today, citing
an interview. Risks on the central banks’ balance sheets have
actually increased, Weidmann was quoted as saying. Germany ’s Bundesbank, which Weidmann heads, will increase
its risk provisions, lowering its 2011 profit payout to the
German government, he was quoted as saying. To contact the reporter on this story:
Tony Czuczka in Berlin at
aczuczka@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James Hertling at
jhertling@bloomberg.net | 2012 | ecb-s-weidmann-questions-greek-bond-profit-payout-spiegel-says |
Yandex Calls to Buy Soar to a Record on Internet Ad Boom: Russia Overnight | By Ksenia Galouchko and Halia Pavliva | 2012-02-27T04:05:37Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/yandex-calls-to-buy-soar-to-a-record-on-internet-ad-boom-russia-overnight.html | 2 | 26 | 6514efb84914423b83158a546ddf828f | Options traders are making the most
bullish bets on Yandex NV since Russia’s top search engine first
sold shares nine months ago on speculation rising online
advertising growth will bolster company revenue. The ratio of outstanding call options to buy Yandex’s U.S.-
traded shares versus puts to sell jumped to a record 3.15-to-1
on Feb. 24, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Futures (VEA) expiring in
March on Moscow’s RTS Index rose 5.4 percent to 172,585 in U.S.
trading on Feb. 24. Yandex gained 2.9 percent last week. Sales will jump as much as 45 percent in 2012, following a
60 percent advance last year, Chief Financial Officer Alexander Shulgin said on a conference call on Feb. 22 after Yandex
reported that fourth-quarter adjusted net income surged 50
percent to 2.2 billion rubles ($75 million). Internet ad
spending climbed the most of all advertising in Russia last
year, growing 56 percent to 41.8 billion rubles, according to
the Association of Communication Agencies of Russia. “Online advertising sales have a huge growth potential in
the Russian market,” Anna Lepetukhina , an analyst at Troika
Dialog who has a “buy” rating on the company, said by phone
from Moscow on Feb. 24. “Yandex has excellent prospects and a
fast sales-growth rate, right now it is undervalued.” The Bloomberg Russia-US 14 Index (RUS14BN) of Russian companies
traded in New York rose 4 percent to 113.24 on Feb. 24, bringing
its weekly gain to 3.8 percent. The Market Vectors Russia ETF (RSX) , a U.S.-traded fund that
holds Russian shares, rose 4.1 percent to $33.13, the highest
closing price since September 2011, data compiled by Bloomberg
show. The fund gained 4 percent last week and is up 24 percent
this year, compared with a 3.4 percent gain in the same period a
year ago. March $24 Calls The fastest growing bets among all Yandex options contracts
over the past two weeks are March $24 calls, which expire in
less than three weeks. Yandex last closed above that strike
price, 5.7 percent higher than what the shares traded at on Feb.
24, on Nov. 15, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Options are contracts that give the right, though not the
obligation, to buy or sell a security at a set price and date.
Calls give the right to buy a security for a certain amount, the
strike price, by a set date. Puts convey the right to sell. Investors use options to guard against fluctuations in the
price of securities they own, to speculate on share-price moves
or bet that volatility, or stock swings, will rise or fall. Shares of Yandex fell 1.2 percent to $22.70 on Feb. 24,
bringing the decline since its May listing to 42 percent. Troika
has a $38.50 price target for Yandex. ‘Better’ Than Mail.ru The company saw its share of the Russian search market drop
to 59.6 percent in January, compared with a three-month average
of 59.9 percent, according to Liveintenet.ru , an Internet-
service provider and researcher. The market share of Mail.ru
Group Ltd. (MAIL) , the largest Russian-language Internet company and an
investor in Web companies including Facebook Inc. and Groupon
Inc., rose to 8.5 percent from a three-month average of 8.4
percent, the data showed. Yandex is a “better option to gain exposure to the Russian
Internet market than shares of Mail.ru Group, which could be
subject to volatility due to its considerable exposure to
Facebook,” analysts at UralSib Financial Corp. in Moscow, led
by Konstantin Chernyshev, head of research, wrote in a Feb. 22
note. Mail.ru soared to a 13-month high on Feb. 24 after
reporting a tripling in second-half net income and forecasting
margins of 50 percent this year. The company’s Global Depositary
Receipts are up 47 percent in 2012, the best start to a year
since the stock started trading in November 2010. Urals Surges The RTS Volatility Index (RTSVX) , which measures expected swings in
the index futures, declined as much as 10 percent to 27.56 on
Feb. 24, the lowest level since Aug. 3. The index settled at
29.38, down 4.1 percent from the previous close and 4.9 percent
lower from the previous week. Urals crude , Russia ’s chief export blend and biggest export
earner, surged 0.8 percent to $124.99 per barrel on Feb. 24, the
strongest level since July 2008. Crude oil for April delivery rose 1.8 percent, to $109.77
on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Feb. 24, the highest
settlement since May 3 and completing the longest rally since
January 2010 as escalating tension with Iran threatened
supplies. Futures dropped 0.3 percent today to $109.46 a barrel. Brent oil for April settlement gained 1.5 percent to
$125.47 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange, the
highest close since April. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index, a gauge of stocks in the
region, fell 0.2 percent today as higher oil prices raised
concern higher energy costs will weigh on economic growth.
United Co. Rusal (486) , the world’s largest aluminum producer, rose
2.3 percent to HK$6.72 in Hong Kong trading as of the city’s
midday break. Cheapest BRIC OAO Surgutneftegas’s (SGTPY) ADRs rose 6.8 percent to $6.93 in U.S.
trading on Feb. 24, the highest level since November 2007. The
Russian oil company’s stock was the biggest gainer on the
Bloomberg Russia-US 14 (RUS14BN) measure last week, advancing 7.4 percent.
Preferred shares on Moscow’s Micex Index increased 6 percent on
Feb. 24 to 20.373 rubles, or 70 U.S. cents. One ADR equals ten
ordinary shares. Russia’s 30-stock Micex trades at 6.2 times analysts’
earnings estimates for member companies, compared with 10.9 for
the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (MXEF) of developing-nation stocks.
Brazil ’s Bovespa (IBOV) index trades at 11.6 times estimated earnings,
while the Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) trades at 10.2 times and the
BSE India Sensitive Index (SENSEX) has a ratio of 15.8, according to data
compiled by Bloomberg. To contact the reporters on this story:
Ksenia Galouchko in New York at
kgalouchko1@bloomberg.net ;
Halia Pavliva in New York at
hpavliva@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Emma O’Brien at
eobrien6@bloomberg.net | 2012 | yandex-calls-to-buy-soar-to-a-record-on-internet-ad-boom-russia-overnig |
Caltex Australia Swings to Full-Year Loss on Refinery Charge | By James Paton | 2012-02-27T06:20:24Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/caltex-australia-swings-to-full-year-loss-on-refinery-charges.html | 2 | 26 | f1d2d0ed21bd91e2c46e56beefb9801551890f63 | Caltex Australia Ltd. (CTX) , the nation’s
biggest oil refiner, swung to a full-year net loss after Asian
competition and a strong Australian dollar forced it to write
down the value of its plants by A$1.5 billion ($1.6 billion). The company had a loss of A$714 million in the 12 months
ended Dec. 31, compared with net income of A$317 million a year
earlier, the Sydney-based company said today in a statement.
Profit, excluding the effect of changes in oil prices and one-
time items, fell 17 percent to A$264 million. Caltex, half-owned by San Ramon , California-based Chevron
Corp. (CVX) , is considering closing its two refineries after
completing a review of the assets in about six months, the
company said Feb. 16. The operator of the Kurnell refinery in
Sydney and the Lytton refinery in Brisbane flagged earlier this
month it would write down the value of those assets. “The recent deterioration in the performance of the
refining business unit due to the challenging external
environment, including the ongoing strength of the Australian
dollar, lower refiner margins and increasing costs, is expected
to be sustained for a prolonged period,” Caltex said today. The shares dropped 0.6 percent to close at A$12.90 in
Sydney trading, while Australia ’s benchmark index dropped 0.9
percent. Caltex has gained 9.6 percent this year. Marketing Growth The Caltex plants are among seven oil refineries in
Australia, with others operated by Royal Dutch Shell Plc, BP Plc (BP/)
and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) Shell, Europe ’s largest oil company, said
last year that it would halt refining operations at its Clyde
plant in Sydney before mid-2013, saying it was no longer
competitive against Asian “mega-refineries.” Caltex’s full-year earnings before interest and tax for its
marketing business climbed more than 20 percent, driven by
growth in sales of premium petrol, diesel and jet fuel. The
division has posted an annual growth rate of more than 13
percent since 2007, Caltex said. “The marketing business has had a fairly lengthy trend of
volume growth and earnings growth,” Chief Financial Officer
Simon Hepworth told reporters on a call. “Without promising
that’s going to continue, it is reasonable to look at the
historical trend. It’s a business with lots of opportunities.” Caltex forecasts capital spending of between A$375 million
and A$450 million in 2012, with most of the money earmarked for
marketing. That compares with A$342 million in 2011. Caltex
plans to allocate the funds to improving its retail stores,
further developing infrastructure to distribute its products and
seeking “smaller” acquisitions, Hepworth said. To contact the reporter on this story:
James Paton in Sydney at
jpaton4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Amit Prakash at
aprakash1@bloomberg.net | 2012 | caltex-australia-swings-to-full-year-loss-on-refinery-charges |
Depositors Pull $1.75 Billion From Syrian Banks, National Says | By Anthony DiPaola | 2012-02-26T06:22:30Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/depositors-pull-1-75-billion-from-syrian-banks-national-says.html | 2 | 26 | 95d93787434dc33ae33f9bd6139429dd82c90326 | Syrian banks have seen almost 100
billion Syrian pounds ($1.75 billion) in deposits withdrawn from
the country amid violence and anti-government protests, The
National reported, citing data from lenders. Deposits at Syria ’s 14 listed banks have declined from 442
billion Syrian pounds last year, the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper
reported today. To contact the reporter on this story:
Anthony DiPaola in Dubai at
adipaola@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at
sev@bloomberg.net | 2012 | depositors-pull-1-75-billion-from-syrian-banks-national-says |
Colombia’s FARC Rebel Group Promises to Free Hostages, End Acts of Ransom | By Randall Woods | 2012-02-26T18:44:37Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/colombia-s-farc-rebel-group-promises-to-free-hostages-end-acts-of-ransom.html | 2 | 26 | 1825017d8449c51375a3fbfb8eaed46b1e786601 | Colombia ’s largest rebel group has
promised to stop kidnappings for ransom and will release the
remaining four hostages it holds in captivity following the
death of its leader Alfonso Cano in November. “We wish to express our feelings of admiration for the
families of the soldiers and police in our power,” according to
a statement from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or
FARC, a copy of which was on the website of Anncol, a news
service where the group’s statements are often published.
“They never lost faith.” The FARC’s ruling council signed the Feb. 26 statement,
which they say was published from the mountains of Colombia. The
statement comes after the FARC in December agreed to release six
hostages, some of whom had been held in captivity for more than
a decade. The group, in the statement, said it doesn’t agree to end
hostilities or the taking prisoners of war, and says government
decisions to increase military spending will prolong their
decades-old conflict. The FARC called on the government to free
“political prisoners” as part of a new way of ending the
conflict. “We appreciate the FARC’s announcement that it will
renounce kidnapping as an important and needed step, but it’s
not enough,” President Juan Manuel Santos said from his Twitter
account. The FARC, which is classified as a terrorist organization
by the U.S. and the European Union, was founded in 1964 as a
rural, Marxist insurgency. Cano, whose real name was Guillermo Saenz, began leading
the FARC after the movement’s founder, Manuel Marulanda, died of
a heart attack in 2008. Cano was killed during a firefight as
troops and police closed in on his camp. To contact the reporter on this story:
Randall Woods in Santiago at
rwoods13@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Joshua Goodman at
jgoodman19@bloomberg.net | 2012 | colombia-s-farc-rebel-group-promises-to-free-hostages-end-acts-of-ranso |
Gazprom Neft Unit Raises Serbia Investment to 500 Million Euros | By Misha Savic | 2012-04-25T11:21:45Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/gazprom-neft-unit-raises-serbia-investment-to-500-million-euros.html | 4 | 25 | e058100342d59915fdfc33fceff832a70ac7189a | Naftna Industrija Srbije AD (NIIS) opened
an acid recycling unit at its main oil refinery, bringing its
total investments to 500 million euros ($661 million) since
Russia’s OAO Gazprom Neft (GAZP) took over the Serbian company in 2009. The 14.3 million-euro unit is part of a 550 million-euro
overhaul of the Pancevo refinery that will be completed by the
end of the third quarter, enabling annual production of 640,000
tons of gasoline and 1.5 million tons of diesel, the company
said in a statement today. Gazprom Neft bought Naftna Industrija, known as NIS, from
the Serbian government for 400 million euros, pledging to invest
at least 500 million euros by the end of the third quarter of
2012. “Gazprom Neft has met its investment obligations ahead of
schedule envisaged by the purchase agreement,” Chief Executive
Officer Kirill Kravchenko said today. The vertically integrated NIS has also invested in oil and
gas fields in the northern Vojvodina province, its refinery in
Novi Sad as well as expanded its retail network of gas stations.
Its biggest investment is a 396 million-euro hydrocracking
facility at the Pancevo refinery. To contact the reporter on this story:
Misha Savic in Belgrade at
msavic2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James M. Gomez at
jagomez@bloomberg.net | 2012 | gazprom-neft-unit-raises-serbia-investment-to-500-million-euros |
Bawag Bankers Who Lost Billions Begin Austrian Retrial | By Boris Groendahl | 2012-04-25T11:20:58Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/austria-starts-retrial-of-bawag-psk-bankers-who-lost-billions.html | 4 | 25 | 15674318f4befd5b450dbe0f87945bbf661a0e3f | Fund manager Wolfgang Floettl and
others who helped run up as much as 1.7 billion euros ($2.25
billion) of losses at Austria ’s Bawag PSK Bank AG today face
retrial in Austria’s biggest ever white-collar crime case. Floettl, 56, and seven other men, including Bawag managers,
supervisory board members and one of its auditors, were granted
a new trial by Austria’s highest court in 2010. Floettl, who is
married to a granddaughter of former U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, had been found guilty of misuse of funds in the
first trial against the group in 2008. The overturned verdicts
against the others included fraud and false accounting,
depending on their roles in the losses. “The defendants sent millions of dollars on a trip, and
all of them were lost,” chief prosecutor Sonja Herbst told the
court, led by Judge Christian Boehm. “In the end, Bawag was on
the brink of ruin.” Herbst said that the high court rejected the original
judge’s findings mainly based on the defendants’ intent, and
that this would be the focus of the retrial. The retrial is
preliminarily scheduled to last 20 days. Floettl had run up the losses for Bawag, which was then
owned by Austria’s trade union federation, from the late 1990s,
mostly with wrong-way bets on the Japanese yen. Floettl’s
acquittal on part of the charges had been affirmed by the high
court when it granted the retrial. The losses weren’t discovered until U.S. futures broker
Refco Inc. collapsed into bankruptcy in 2006. Their discovery
eventually forced the union to sell Bawag to private equity firm
Cerberus Capital Management LP in 2007. Former Bawag Chief Executive Officer Helmut Elsner, 76, was
already sentenced to 10 years in jail, the harshest possible
punishment for the crimes of which he was already convicted.
While prosecutors aren’t retrying his case, he will attend the
retrial because Bawag is trying to claw back a one-time pension
payment he received when he retired. To contact the reporter on this story:
Boris Groendahl in Vienna at
bgroendahl@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Frank Connelly at
fconnelly@bloomberg.net | 2012 | austria-starts-retrial-of-bawag-psk-bankers-who-lost-billions |
Brazil Recommends Approval of Hypermarcas, Mantecorp Deal | By Helder Marinho | 2012-04-25T17:02:04Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/brazil-recommends-approval-of-hypermarcas-mantecorp-deal-1-.html | 4 | 25 | e731e4646d9dfff02968ea05bb816a7c80a6f29f | Brazil’s Justice Ministry’s
antitrust arm, known as SDE, recommended the approval of the
acquisition of Mantecorp Industria Quimica & Farmaceutica SA by
Hypermarcas SA (HYPE3) , according to the country’s official gazette. SDE agreed with the assessment of the transaction by SEAE,
the antitrust arm of the Finance Ministry , which also
recommended approval of deal, with a non-compete restriction
clause for operations of the two companies in Brazil. Hipermarcas was unchanged at 12.13 reais in Sao Paulo at 2
p.m. To contact the reporter on this story:
Helder Marinho in Sao Paulo at
hmarinho@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Karen Eeuwens at
keeuwens@bloomberg.net | 2012 | brazil-recommends-approval-of-hypermarcas-mantecorp-deal-1- |
Encana CEO Rules Out Company Sale Amid Gas Price Declines | By Jeremy van Loon | 2012-04-25T21:27:37Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/encana-not-considering-sale-of-company-ceo-eresman-says-1-.html | 4 | 25 | f691e15bf55ffe09d355c2eab49ba63771826a6c | Encana Corp. (ECA) Chief Executive
Officer Randall Eresman ruled out a sale of the Canadian oil and
natural-gas producer as the company markets assets to compensate
for slumping gas prices . Earlier this month, Petroliam Nasional Bhd., the Malaysian
state-owned oil company , said it was studying a Canadian
acquisition for more than $5 billion, spurring speculation that
Calgary-based Encana may be a target. A sale isn’t an option,
Eresman said during a conference call today. Gas prices in North America , where production has soared
amid a boom in hydraulic fracturing, fell to their lowest
quarterly average in 10 years during the period. The fuel sold
at an average of $2.50 a million British thermal units, down
from an average of $4.20 a year earlier and a high of $13.577 in
2008. Encana is Canada’s largest natural-gas producer by volume. “We would need a dollar higher to achieve our cost of
capital,” Eresman said. Encana plans to have $3 billion in cash
on its balance sheet by the end of the year, helped by joint
ventures and assets sales, he said. Encana today said first-quarter net income was $12 million,
compared with a net loss of $361 million a year earlier.
Commodity-price hedging contributed $358 million in realized
after-tax gains, helping counter a decline in gas prices. The gas producer agreed to sell a 40 percent stake in its
Cutbank Ridge operation for C$1.45 billion ($1.47 billion) to
Mitsubishi Corp. (8058) in February. Shares rose 4 percent to C$18.36 at the close in Toronto,
the most in more than two months. To contact the reporter on this story:
Jeremy van Loon in Calgary at
jvanloon@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Susan Warren at susanwarren@bloomberg.net | 2012 | encana-not-considering-sale-of-company-ceo-eresman-says-1- |
Japanese Sold Net 1170 Billion Yen Overseas Debt Last Week | By Minh Bui | 2012-04-25T23:52:15Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/japanese-sold-net-1170-billion-yen-overseas-debt-last-week.html | 4 | 25 | 6892517aeafd9b2fef573b3c7a33ffcc923f0bcf | Japanese investors were net
sellers of foreign bonds during the week ended April 20 according to
figures based on reports from designated major investors released by
the Ministry of Finance in Tokyo . Japanese investors sold 1170 billion yen ($14.4 billion)
in overseas bonds and notes, bought 42.3 billion yen in overseas stocks
and sold 8.4 billion yen in overseas short term securities.
That results in a total net sale of 1136 billion yen. Foreign investors sold 6.7 billion yen in Japanese bonds,
sold 63.1 billion yen in stocks, and bought 746.8 billion yen in
short term securities, resulting in a total net purchase of 677
billion yen. To contact the reporter on this story:
Minh Bui in Sydney at mbui@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Marco Babic at mbabic@bloomberg.net | 2012 | japanese-sold-net-1170-billion-yen-overseas-debt-last-week |
Morgan Stanley Strategist Said to Leave for Hedge Fund | By Yusuke Miyazawa | 2012-04-25T09:52:39Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/morgan-stanley-credit-strategist-said-to-leave-for-hedge-fund.html | 4 | 25 | 359b8934e24cf5e9ddb74e9a41e75c398ed5ab49 | Morgan Stanley’s (MS) Hidetoshi Ohashi,
a Tokyo-based credit strategist and the head of fixed-income
research, will leave the bank, according to Mika Watanabe, a
bank spokeswoman. Ohashi, 43, plans to leave at the end of June to start a
hedge fund based in Singapore with a focus on Japanese corporate
bonds and credit-default swaps, a person familiar with the
matter said, asking not to be identified because the details are
private. Takehiro Sato, the investment bank’s chief economist for
Japan, will take on Ohashi’s responsibilities as the head of
fixed-income research and continue in his current role,
Watanabe, a Tokyo-based spokeswoman at Morgan Stanley MUFG
Securities Co. said when contacted by telephone today. The
company is a Japan unit of New York-based Morgan Stanley. Ohashi joined Morgan Stanley in September 2000 after
leaving Nippon Life Insurance Co., Japan’s biggest life insurer,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg. To contact the reporter on this story:
Yusuke Miyazawa in Tokyo at
ymiyazawa3@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Shelley Smith at
ssmith118@bloomberg.net | 2012 | organ-stanley-credit-strategist-said-to-leave-for-hedge-fund |
IMF Is Best Guard Against Euro Crisis, U.K. Lawmaker Tyrie Says | By Gonzalo Vina | 2012-04-25T23:01:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/imf-is-best-guard-against-euro-crisis-u-k-lawmaker-tyrie-says.html | 4 | 25 | 574ffeac738c049c439c99371543ad2643293780 | The International Monetary Fund
remains the best backstop against a further deterioration in the
euro-area economy given the region’s “flawed” framework for
dealing with crises, said Andrew Tyrie , the chairman of
Parliament’s Treasury Committee. Sustained by “sticking plaster bailouts,” the crisis in
Europe risks spreading to the whole world, the Conservative
Party lawmaker will say in a speech in London today. Other
countries won’t be able to rely on the 17 euro-area nations to
“do the hard work for us.” The IMF is “the only global fire brigade we have,” Tyrie
will say, according to remarks released by his office. “That is
why it was right to increase their resources.” European policy makers were urged at the weekend to be
tougher and more agile in their efforts to end two years of debt
turmoil as the IMF won more than $430 billion to safeguard the
world economy. Finance chiefs from the Group of 20 stressed that Europe
must now justify the show of solidarity by doing even more to
restore fiscal health, help banks and spur economic growth.
Failure to do so could make it harder for countries such as
Spain to secure aid if they falter and imperil a global recovery
the G-20 labeled modest and subject to downside risks. To contact the reporter on this story:
Gonzalo Vina in London at
gvina@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James Hertling at
jhertling@bloomberg.net | 2012 | imf-is-best-guard-against-euro-crisis-u-k-lawmaker-tyrie-says |
Kingboard Loan Said to Attract Banks Including CCB and ICBC | By Wendy Mock | 2012-04-25T11:11:01Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/kingboard-loan-said-to-attract-banks-including-ccb-and-icbc-1-.html | 4 | 25 | a4a75364e7d2a1429ac62f15162a32959ecf5407 | Kingboard Laminates Holdings Ltd. (1888)
has completed syndication of a HK$3 billion loan with banks
including China Construction Bank Corp. (939) , Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd.,
according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to
be identified because the details are private. Other banks joining in syndication include Bank of East
Asia Bank Ltd., Bank of Taiwan, Bank SinoPac, Hua Nan Commercial
Bank Ltd., Mega International Commercial Bank Co., Banca Monte
dei Paschi di Siena SpA (BMPS) , Nanyang Commercial Bank Ltd., Sumitomo
Mitsui Banking Corp., Taiwan Cooperative Bank, Tai Fung Bank
Ltd., Taishin Financial Holding Co. and Yuanta Commercial Bank
Co., the person said. Another two banks joined in general
syndication, the person said. Kingboard hired Citigroup Inc., HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) and
Standard Chartered Plc to help arrange and underwrite the loan,
another person familiar with the matter said on March 8. To contact the reporter on this story:
Wendy Mock in Hong Kong at
wmock3@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Shelley Smith at
ssmith118@bloomberg.net | 2012 | kingboard-loan-said-to-attract-banks-including-ccb-and-icbc-1- |
Caveman Diet, Barefoot Running Help Man Get Healthy | By Elizabeth Lopatto | 2012-04-25T04:01:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/caveman-diet-barefoot-running-help-skinny-fat-man-get-healthy.html
“Eat right and exercise” doesn’t
sound so hard. In practice, though, it can be excruciating.
That’s the message of A.J. Jacobs ’s new memoir, “ Drop Dead
Healthy .” Jacobs, who describes himself as “skinny fat,” had begun
worrying that he might not be around for major milestones in his
children’s lives. And so, since he’s a pioneer in the field of doing extreme
things and then writing books about them | 4 | 25 | 6fd0608bf32f4ed4a92935697c5528f7 | goal). But that’s not the point of the book, really. Acquiring
healthy habits isn’t easy, but Jacobs makes it feel like
something that’s within reach of any Joe or Jill Couch Potato.
That’s an accomplishment worth admiring. “Drop Dead Healthy: One Man’s Humble Quest for Bodily
Perfection” is published by Simon & Schuster (402 pages, $26).
To buy this book in North America , click here . (Elizabeth Lopatto is a reporter for Bloomberg News. The
opinions expressed are her own.) Muse highlights include James Pressley ’s business book
reviews and Ryan Sutton on dining. To contact the writer of this column:
Elizabeth Lopatto in New York at
elopatto@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Manuela Hoelterhoff at
mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | caveman-diet-barefoot-running-help-skinny-fat-man-get-healthy |
Taiwanese Nationals Charged in Military Technology Plot | By David Voreacos | 2012-04-25T21:13:03Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/taiwanese-nationals-charged-in-military-technology-plot-1-.html | 4 | 25 | fe7948dcfa964feeac6ae9c748c74243 | Two Taiwanese nationals already
accused of trying to smuggle drugs through a New Jersey port
were charged today with plotting to export sensitive U.S.
military technology to benefit the Chinese government. Hui Sheng Shen, 45, and Huan Ling Chang, 41, who were
arrested in February and are being held without bail, appeared
before a judge today in Newark , New Jersey. They are accused of
conspiring to buy unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, as well
as E-2C Hawkeye surveillance airplanes and stealth technology
related to F-22 fighter planes. Shen and Chang “purportedly acted on behalf of agents of
the People’s Republic of China and sought to acquire assets and
information which, in their words, ‘would hurt America,’”
according to an amended criminal complaint. Agents posing as
crooked importers recorded the pair, U.S. authorities said. The two were among 29 people charged with smuggling
$325 million in counterfeit consumer goods from China, including
phony Nike Inc. sneakers and Coach Inc. handbags, through a New
Jersey port, authorities announced March 2. Shen and Chang were
charged with trying to import 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of
crystal methamphetamine from Taiwan to the U.S. “Initial investigations into counterfeit goods importation
led federal law enforcement to a meth trafficking operation and
an alleged plot to export some of America’s most sensitive
weapons and related technology to China,” U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said in a statement. Life Sentences Shen and Chang may face life sentences on the drug count
and as long as five years in prison on charges brought under the
Arms Export Control Act. “My client asserts her innocence and we look forward to
her vindication on all of the charges,” said Chang’s attorney,
Maria Noto. Shen’s attorney, Ken Kayser, declined to comment. Shen portrays himself as a logistics expert who can move
contraband around the world, according to the complaint prepared
by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Chang portrays herself
as a schoolteacher who is fluent in English, Spanish and
Mandarin, the FBI said. They were charged with trying to import crystal meth with
Soon Ah Kow, 72, of Hong Kong , who was indicted in January and
arrested Feb. 18 in Manila . He was also accused of illegally
importing cigarettes and footwear. ‘Sample Load’ Shen and Chang had discussed selling 50 kilograms of
crystal meth to undercover FBI agents, and delivered one kilo as
a “sample load” concealed in tea bags hidden in a computer
inside a cargo container, authorities said. While negotiating the meth sale, Shen and Chang said they
were “working with a special adviser to a high-ranking Chinese
government official,” according to the complaint. They asked
agents about “nuclear technology, Global Hawk drones, Reaper
drones, Raven drones, control panels of aircraft engaged in
advanced radar warning systems, and F-22 stealth technology,”
authorities said. In a series of recorded conversations about military
technology, Shen and Chang told the agents that their associates
were “connected to the Chinese government, worked for a Chinese
intelligence company like the CIA, and would be using government
money to make the purchases,” according to Fishman’s statement. Geng Shuang, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in
Washington , didn’t respond to an e-mail or call seeking comment
on the allegations. ‘Hurt America’ The FBI said an agent was recorded as saying: “I would
prefer not to make money on something that would hurt the United
States .” Shen replied, “I think that all items would hurt
America,” according to the U.S. Chang and Shen came to New York on Feb. 18 to discuss drug
and weapons transactions, according to the FBI complaint. Shen
and Chang told agents they bought cameras to photograph military
technology. They said they intended to take pictures, delete
them on their memory cards to avoid detection, and have a friend
in China retrieve them after leaving the U.S., the FBI said. In discussing how he would remove one military item from
the U.S., Shen said “he could use techniques that he had
learned from narcotics trafficking, such as using scuba divers
to swim out to a ship docked offshore with parts,” according to
the FBI. He also said he would load parts onto a “remote
controlled semi-submersible vehicle,” and rendezvous with a
ship, the FBI said. On Feb. 24, agents showed Chang and Shen manuals for two
weapons. They photographed both manuals, according to the FBI. “Before defendants could delete the photographs, law
enforcement officers arrested” them, the FBI said. The case is U.S. v. Shen, 12-mj-7062, U.S. District Court,
District of New Jersey (Newark). To contact the reporter on this story:
David Voreacos in Newark, New Jersey, at
dvoreacos@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | aiwanese-nationals-charged-in-military-technology-plot-1- |
RBNZ Keeps Official Cash Rate at Record Low of 2.5%: (Text) | By Garfield Reynolds | 2012-04-25T21:05:55Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/rbnz-keeps-official-cash-rate-at-record-low-of-2-5-text-.html | 4 | 25 | 8eca7109a6acc6c07b3463cf85ac02887ac0ab68 | New Zealand ’s central bank left
interest rates at a record low in a decision announced today in
Wellington. The following is the text of the announcement from RBNZ
Governor Alan Bollard: Inflation is restrained and is expected to stay near the
middle of the Bank’s target range. The domestic economy is showing signs of recovery. Housing
market activity continues to increase and a recovery in building
activity appears to be underway, as forecast. That recovery
will strengthen as repairs and reconstruction in Canterbury pick
up later in the year. However, the global outlook remains of concern. Near-term
indicators have moderated and financial market sentiment is
still fragile. The New Zealand dollar has stayed elevated despite recent
falls in commodity prices. Should the exchange rate remain
strong without anything else changing, the Bank would need to
reassess the outlook for monetary policy settings. For now, it is appropriate for the OCR to remain at 2.5
percent. To contact the reporter on this story:
Garfield Reynolds in Sydney at
greynolds1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephanie Phang at
sphang@bloomberg.net | 2012 | rbnz-keeps-official-cash-rate-at-record-low-of-2-5-text- |
Hong Kong Short Selling Turnover (GEM) Recorded 04/25/2012 (Tabl | By | 2012-04-25T04:45:23Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/hong-kong-short-selling-turnover-gem-recorded-04-25-2012-tabl.html
Hong Kong , 04/25/2012 (Bloomberg) - There was 0 short sell recorded on the
GEM Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as of 00:45 today. There was 0 short sell recorded on the board as of 00:45 today.
Note: Figures are preliminary and subject to revision. | 4 | 25 | 81075d56dd38c59dacf68797914463b6f78e3d65 | 2012 | ong-kong-short-selling-turnover-gem-recorded-04-25-2012-tab |
|
Brazil’s Sugar Cane Harvest to Start May 1, ICAP Says | By Isis Almeida | 2012-04-25T17:04:04Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/brazil-s-sugar-cane-harvest-to-start-may-1-icap-says.html | 4 | 25 | f1ee5cd768748a58524b5a4558a38f3449eebebe | The sugar cane harvest in Brazil ’s
center south, the main growing region of the world’s biggest
producer, is set to start on May 1, after it stops raining,
according to Sao Paulo-based broker ICAP do Brasil Ctvm. Sugar cane-growing areas in Brazil will get rains this
week, preventing the start of the new crop’s harvest, according
to weather forecaster Somar Meteorologia. Heavy rains will fall
in the states of Parana and Sao Paulo from today to April 27,
Marco Antonio dos Santos, an agronomist at the company in Sao
Paulo, wrote in a report e-mailed on April 23. “As of April 30 on, it seems that rains may give a truce,
remaining dry for the next 10 days,” the broker said in a
report e-mailed today. The “sugarcane harvest should start its
activities in the first day of May.” Delays to the crop, which usually starts in April,
alongside rainfall may help to increase yields and “guarantee a
better recovery of output,” ICAP said in the report. Sugar cane output in Brazil’s center south may climb to 509
million metric tons in the 2012-13 season, industry group Unica
estimates. Output totaled 493.3 million tons in 2011-12, the
first drop in a decade, as dry weather, frost and flowering
reduced yields, it said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Isis Almeida in London at
ialmeida3@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
John Deane at
jdeane3@bloomberg.net | 2012 | brazil-s-sugar-cane-harvest-to-start-may-1-icap-says |
German 10-Year Bonds Open Lower With Yield Rising to 1.72% | By Lukanyo Mnyanda | 2012-04-25T06:06:50Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/german-10-year-bonds-open-lower-with-yield-rising-to-1-72-.html | 4 | 25 | b8324a5f8c8c5adf747bb305122842c98802eb41 | German 10-year government bonds
opened lower, with the yield rising two basis points, or 0.02
percentage point, to 1.72 percent at 7:05 a.m. London time. Two-
year yields were little changed at 0.14 percent. To contact the reporter on this story:
Lukanyo Mnyanda in Edinburgh at
lmnyanda@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Daniel Tilles at
dtilles@bloomberg.net | 2012 | german-10-year-bonds-open-lower-with-yield-rising-to-1-72- |
Mining Companies in Global Talent War | By Liezel Hill | 2012-04-25T20:46:34Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/mining-companies-in-global-talent-war.html | 4 | 25 | 15bbb271276e4339a2a0f2fee6b9d04b | Bruno Rizzuto’s father, Cesare, was
19 when he got off a boat in Halifax from southern Italy in
1951. With no coat, and “5 cents in his pocket” he headed for
the gold mines of Timmins, Ontario, where he worked underground
for 41 years. Six decades later Rizzuto, a Calgary-based recruiter, is
looking for people like his father, with a proposal to bring 10
to 20 miners to Canada from South America as companies scour the
world to find workers for the latest mining boom. “There are just simply not the people there, and I think
it’s going to be the Achilles heel of the industry,” said
Rizzuto, 38, managing partner at Cadre Staffing Inc. “A lot of
these projects will not be able to get off the ground because
they will not have either the management capacity to do so or
the operational workforce.” Mining companies such as Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) are struggling
to fill vacancies amid a skills shortage that stretches from the
iron-ore pits of Western Australia to Chile’s copper mines and
the gold deposits of Quebec . Producers of commodities including
gold, copper and coal are building mines to feed demand from
countries like China just as geologists, engineers and miners
begin to retire en masse, pushing up wages and crimping
productivity. Lost Generation Enrollment in mining graduate programs slumped in the 1980s
and 1990s after commodity prices fell and hiring stalled. The
sector also lost people to the technology boom from 1999 to
2001, said Aaron Regent, chief executive officer of Barrick, the
world’s biggest gold-mining company by revenue. “At that point we were basically in a depression as an
industry; we were an irrelevant industry,” Regent said in an
interview. “So we lost a generation of people.” About 61,550 to 71,740 mining workers in Canada, or more
than a third of the industry, may retire in the next 10 years,
according to forecasts by the Mining Industry Human Resources
Council. The council estimates Canada’s mining industry will need
about 141,540 new hires until 2021 if activity continues to
accelerate. Even if growth slows and hiring recedes, the sector
will have to find 112,020 new workers to replace retirees and
other departures in the next 10 years, according to council
estimates. Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM) , based in Greenwood Village , Colorado,
and the world’s second-largest gold miner by revenue, expects
about 500 mine engineers will retire in the next five to 10
years, Chief Executive Officer Richard O’Brien said in a
Bloomberg Television interview March 27. The company currently
has about 650 mine engineering positions. All Levels “We could hire every mining graduate in America and we
couldn’t replace them,” O’Brien said. “Whether it’s northern
Nevada , Australia, Ghana , Indonesia , we are looking for people
at all levels of employment.” Wages have risen with demand. In Canada, average weekly
wages for workers in the mining, quarrying, oil and gas
industries, the country’s highest paid industry, rose 8.2
percent to C$1,842.59 ($1,846.28) in January from a year ago,
according to Statistics Canada . That compares with a national
average of C$888.89, which was 2 percent higher than a year
earlier. Compensation packages for skilled mining professionals in
Canada have doubled in five years, said Chris Stafford,
president of Toronto-based C.J. Stafford & Associates, which
specializes in recruitment for the mining, engineering and
construction industries. Mining companies are building large in-house recruiting
departments, and using new sweeteners to find and keep skilled
employees, he said. Doubled His Salary “That ranges from signing-on bonuses, which were unheard
of 10 years ago, to all types of other bonuses, incentives and
stock options ,” Stafford said. Skilled mining professionals are
being offered sign-on bonuses of as much as 20 percent of
salaries, he said. Geologist Marc-Andre Brulotte left a position at a
consulting company in Montreal in December for a job in
Queensland, Australia . He almost doubled his salary. “It’s a really good time to be a qualified professional,
there are lots of good opportunities for us,” Brulotte said. “It’s another story for the fresh out of school geologists
or engineers, they will get a job for sure,” Brulotte said.
“But chances are they will not get well trained, simply because
there won’t be any experienced staff to teach them how to
work.” Projects in the industry will take longer to complete and
costs will be higher because inexperienced workers are less
productive and need to be supervised, Barrick’s Regent said. Supply-Chain Guy “It’s not just wage inflation, but turnover and
productivity: they all have a knock-on effect in terms of what
your overall labor cost profile looks like,” he said in a Feb.
16 interview. Barrick has a 25 percent turnover rate at its Australian
operations, Regent said. “We had a supply-chain guy, a young guy, who was making
$100,000 a year and he just got bid away for $150,000,” he
said. “Labor is a big issue.” Barrick said in July the price estimate for its Pascua-Lama
project, which straddles the Chile-Argentina border, had jumped
to as much as $5 billion from an earlier forecast of $3.6
billion due to higher labor, equipment and materials expenses. Gold futures for June delivery slid less than 0.1 percent
to $1,643.20 on the Comex in New York today. The metal has
climbed 4.7 percent this year. Poaching Mentality Copper Fox Metals Inc. (CUU) , studying a copper and gold mine in
northwest British Columbia, said March 19 it would miss a month-
end target for a feasibility study on its Schaft Creek project
because of “manpower shortages” at the contractor it hired. “I would say that it’s completely universal from company
to company, whether it be a junior or an intermediate or a
major, I think there’s a general delay in terms of shortages,”
said Shane Uren, the Vancouver-based company’s vice-president of
environment and permitting. For its part, North American Palladium Ltd. (PDL) , a precious-
metals company with operations in Quebec and Ontario, has bought
advertising in the regional airport in Thunder Bay, Ontario,
which serves several fly-in, fly-out operations in the region. “There is clearly a bit of a poaching mentality in the
sector,” Trent Mell, corporate development and human resources
vice-president, said in an interview. “We’re really fighting a
global war.” New Rules Canada will introduce new rules to make it easier for
skilled tradesmen to enter the country, Citizenship and
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said April 10. The changes
will help address growing labor shortages in the natural
resources and construction sectors, he said. Rizzuto, the recruiter, said his proposal to bring a group
of miners from South America is more likely to succeed if
friends and family move together, he said. “What the Canadians are selling is the prospect of
Canadian citizenship, education for their kids, social benefits,
health care,” he said. Still, the struggle for workers is ongoing, he said. Mining
still isn’t seen as a “glamorous” profession. “You can make good money, six-figures money, but how many
kids are coming out of school today saying ‘Hey, I want to be a
miner’?” he said. “I’m proof of that. My father, the last
thing he wanted me to be was a miner.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Liezel Hill in Toronto at
lhill30@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jacqueline Thorpe at
jthorpe23@bloomberg.net | 2012 | ining-companies-in-global-talent-war |
SEB’s $8.7 Billion German Property Fund Sets Make-or-Break Date | By Joseph de Weck and Dalia Fahmy | 2012-04-26T12:37:17Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/seb-asset-management-fund-to-open-for-redemptions-for-one-day.html | 4 | 25 | a0539b6fc1f4747f265744d341c3cc0ac29ad497 | SEB Asset Management’s 6.6 billion-
euro ($8.7 billion) property mutual fund will be liquidated if
it’s unable to meet all investor demands for repayment, the
company’s chief executive officer said. SEB ImmoInvest, the largest of 13 German real-estate funds
that suspended redemptions after the global financial crisis,
will re-open for one day on May 7 to take requests. It will
liquidate if it doesn’t have enough cash to cover all orders,
SEB Asset Management CEO said at a press conference today in
Frankfurt . The fund has been closed for almost two years. Knoflach said she’s optimistic the fund won’t have to
liquidate. ImmoInvest has “considerably” more than 30 percent
of its assets in cash or equivalents, after selling properties
she said. Germany’s 85.2 billion-euro real estate mutual fund
industry may be facing its biggest crisis. Following the global
recession that ended in 2009, funds struggled to meet redemption
requests. As a result, 13 funds were frozen over the course of
two years. Of those, six funds are liquidating, and several
more, including funds owned by Credit Suisse Group AG and UBS
AG, face deadlines this year to reopen or liquidate, according
to Germany ’s financial trade group, Bundesverband Investment und
Asset Management, or BVI. SEB, which proposed the one-day reopening with approval
from German financial regulator BaFin, said it would allow
withdrawals only once a year, instead of daily, if the fund
continues after May 7. More than 90 percent of the fund’s
customers are small private investors, according to Knoflach. The strategy “will fail,” said Bjoern Drescher, chief
executive of Drescher Cie, a consulting firm near Bonn. “It’s
herd psychology. I don’t think investors will heed her appeal.” ImmoInvest owns buildings in Paris, Singapore , Rome as well
as 19 buildings on Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz. SEB Asset
Management is a unit of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB. To contact the reporter on this story:
Dalia Fahmy in Berlin at
dfahmy1@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Ross Larsen at
rlarsen2@bloomberg.net | 2012 | seb-asset-management-fund-to-open-for-redemptions-for-one-day |
AvalonBay FFO Climbs as U.S. Apartment Vacancies Hit 11-Year Low | By Oshrat Carmiel | 2012-04-25T20:12:43Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/avalonbay-ffo-climbs-as-u-s-apartment-vacancies-hit-11-year-low.html | 4 | 25 | d3636f2acd83d32920e4dac07f10e92b6a6eedb1 | AvalonBay Communities Inc. (AVB) , the
second-largest publicly traded U.S. apartment owner, said funds
from operations climbed in the first quarter as the nation’s
multifamily vacancies fell to their lowest level since 2001. FFO, which gauges a property company’s ability to generate
cash, rose to $122 million, or $1.28 a share, from $93.5
million, or $1.08, a year earlier, the Alexandria, Virginia-
based real estate investment trust said in a statement today.
The average of 22 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg was
for FFO of $1.24 a share. The U.S. apartment vacancy rate fell to 4.9 percent in the
first quarter from 6.2 percent a year earlier, Reis Inc. (REIS) said in
an April 4 report. It was only the third time since the New
York-based property research firm began gathering the data 31
years ago that the rate was less than 5 percent. Renters are
competing for units as homeowners are displaced by foreclosures
and stricter mortgage standards block purchases. “The rent versus own dilemma is becoming more visible, but
the level of move-outs to single family homes remains ‘tame’”
Ross Nussbaum, a REIT analyst with UBS AG, wrote in an April 13
report. He has a neutral rating on AvalonBay shares. First-quarter results were released after the close of
regular U.S. trading. AvalonBay rose 0.8 percent to $145.64
today in New York . The shares have gained 17 percent in the past
12 months, compared with a 12 percent advance in the Bloomberg
REIT Apartment Index of 16 companies. AvalonBay is the largest U.S. apartment REIT after Equity
Residential. (EQR) To contact the reporter on this story:
Oshrat Carmiel in New York at
ocarmiel1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kara Wetzel at
kwetzel@bloomberg.net | 2012 | avalonbay-ffo-climbs-as-u-s-apartment-vacancies-hit-11-year-low |
Bernanke Says ‘Prepared to Do More’ as Policy Unchanged | By Caroline Salas Gage and Joshua Zumbrun | 2012-04-25T20:22:01Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/fed-says-economy-will-pick-up-gradually-policy-unchanged.html | 4 | 25 | 39f1f96b8943447993c38e84ce8d4e27 | Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank stands ready to add to its
stimulus if necessary even after leaving its policy unchanged
today and upgrading its view of the economy for this year. “We remain prepared to do more as needed to make sure that
this recovery continues and that inflation stays close to
target,” he said at a press conference today following a
meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee in Washington.
Additional bond-buying is still “very much on the table.” Treasuries pared losses after Bernanke kept speculation
alive that the Fed might embark on a third round of monetary
easing after expanding its balance sheet to a record of almost
$3 trillion. Central bankers today raised their forecasts for
growth and the labor market this year while repeating that
borrowing costs are likely to remain “exceptionally low” at
least through late 2014. The FOMC “expects economic growth to remain moderate over
coming quarters and then to pick up gradually,” it said in a
statement after a two-day meeting. The statement pointed to
“some signs of improvement” in housing while saying the
industry at the heart of the financial crisis “remains
depressed.” Policy makers are holding off on additional steps to boost
the economy amid signs the more than two-year expansion is
gaining strength. Still, the jobless rate isn’t declining fast
enough to satisfy central bankers, who are also concerned about
potential shocks from the European debt crisis. Global Strains “Strains in global financial markets continue to pose
significant downside risks to the economic outlook,” according
to today’s statement. The Fed has cited the risk in its previous
five meetings. In March it said those strains had “eased.” The yield on the benchmark 10-year note was little changed
at 1.99 percent at 4:15 p.m. in New York , according to Bloomberg
Bond Trader prices, after rising as high as 2.04 percent. Stocks rose for a second day after Bernanke’s comments and
as earnings beat estimates at companies from Apple Inc. to
Boeing Co. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 1.4 percent
to 1,390.7. Bernanke said that fiscal tightening may weigh on growth as
lawmakers seek an agreement to narrow the budget deficit by
year-end, before a deficit-reduction law requiring cutbacks
takes effect. ‘Bar Is High’ “The bar is high, but it is still on the table given
uncertainty with Europe and fiscal policy in the U.S.,” said
Diane Swonk , chief economist at Mesirow Financial Inc. in
Chicago , speaking about the prospects for new easing. Policy makers today upgraded their forecasts for growth and
unemployment this year. They now see the jobless rate at between
7.8 percent and 8 percent, compared with January estimates of
8.2 percent to 8.5 percent. The economy is forecast to expand at
2.4 percent to 2.9 percent, compared with 2.2 percent to 2.7
percent. They also raised their projections for the inflation rate
this year, as measured by the personal consumption expenditures
index (SPX) , to 1.9 percent to 2 percent, from 1.4 percent to 1.8
percent. The forecasts reflect the so-called central tendency,
which excludes the three highest and three lowest projections of
17 policy makers. Inflation “has picked up somewhat, mainly reflecting
higher prices of crude oil and gasoline,” the Fed said today.
Gas prices will affect inflation “only temporarily,” it said. Oil prices have declined since the Fed’s March meeting, and
the national average cost of gasoline has fallen to $3.84 a
gallon from a 2012 peak of $3.94 on April 4, according to the
American Automobile Association. Inflation Goal Bernanke rejected suggestions that the Fed should allow
inflation to rise above its 2 percent goal in order to stimulate
growth, saying such a move would undercut the Fed’s credibility. “To risk that asset for what I think would be quite
tentative and perhaps doubtful gains on the real side would be
unwise to do,” the Fed chairman said. It would be “very
reckless” to “actively seek a higher inflation rate in order
to achieve a slightly” faster reduction in unemployment. The central bank said it would continue its swap of $400
billion of short-term debt with long-term debt to lengthen the
average maturity of its holdings, a move dubbed Operation Twist.
The Fed is scheduled to complete the program at the end of June.
The Fed also didn’t alter its policy of reinvesting its
portfolio of maturing housing debt into agency mortgage-backed
securities. Echoes Yellen Bernanke echoed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen ’s April 11
remarks that the end of Operation Twist won’t amount to a
tightening of policy. The benefits of the plan stem from the
total amount of new purchases, rather than the “flow” of such
buying, he said. “If that theory is correct, then at such a time that our
purchases come to an end, there should be relatively minimal
effects on interest rates ,” Bernanke said. Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker dissented for the
third meeting in a row. Lacker has said he believes the first
increase in interest rates will likely be necessary in 2013. Fed policy makers met amid renewed concern over Europe’s
fiscal crisis. The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index of European
countries hit a three-month low on April 23 and has since
rallied as companies, including Electrolux AB (ELUXB) , posted earnings
that beat estimates. In the U.S., consumer spending is starting to power growth
as business investment cools. A report today showed orders for
durable goods fell in March by the most in three years,
indicating manufacturing will contribute less to growth this
year. Retail Sales Retail sales rose more than forecast in March as Americans
snapped up everything from cars and furniture to clothes and
electronics. The 0.8 percent gain was almost three times as
large as projected and followed a 1 percent advance in February,
Commerce Department figures showed April 16. An April 27 government report may show that gross domestic
product rose at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the first quarter,
according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of
economists, driven by the biggest increase in household demand
in a year. While Fed officials raised their projections for growth in
2012, they lowered their estimates for next year and 2014. The
economy will expand by 2.7 percent to 3.1 percent in 2013 and
3.1 percent to 3.6 percent in 2014, they projected. In January,
they predicted growth of 2.8 percent to 3.2 percent next year
and 3.3 percent to 4 percent in 2014. Fiscal Impact Bernanke said that the lower forecasts may reflect the
impact from fiscal tightening, and that Congress needs to reach
an agreement to address shortfalls. Bush-era tax cuts are set to
expire at the end of the year. “If no action were to be taken by the fiscal authorities,
the size of the fiscal cliff is such that there’s no chance that
the Federal Reserve could or would have any ability whatsoever
to offset that effect on the economy,” Bernanke said. Corporate earnings and an improving economic outlook are
powering stock-market gains. The S&P 500 is up more than 10
percent this year. “Despite its struggle with the sustained period of
relative high unemployment, we’re pleased to see some early
signs of a slowly improving macroeconomic environment” in the
U.S., Muhtar Kent , president and chief executive of Coca-Cola
Co. (KO) , the world’s largest soft-drink maker, said in an April 17
earnings call. More than 82 percent of companies in the S&P 500 that
reported quarterly results since April 10 topped the average
analyst earnings estimate, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg as of yesterday. Companies from AT&T Inc. to 3M Co.
beat analysts’ earnings projections. International Business
Machines Corp. boosted a stock buyback by $7 billion and
increased its dividend yesterday. To contact the reporters on this story:
Caroline Salas Gage in New York at
salas1@bloomberg.net ;
Joshua Zumbrun in Washington at
jzumbrun@bloomberg.net ; To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net | 2012 | fed-says-economy-will-pick-up-gradually-policy-unchanged |
Hong Kong Peg Architect Says Convertible Yuan `Long Way Off’ | By Stephanie Tong and Fion Li | 2012-04-25T03:22:25Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/hong-kong-peg-architect-says-convertible-yuan-long-way-off-.html | 4 | 25 | b8ab2730895e3b3a3d70b37887c9d54ed360717b | China is “still a long way off”
from making its currency fully convertible and until that
happens Hong Kong can’t shift its dollar peg to the yuan, said
John Greenwood , architect of the city’s exchange-rate system. The Hong Kong dollar’s value has been kept at about HK$7.80
to the greenback since 1983 Chief Executive-elect Leung Chun-
ying, who begins a five-year term on July 1, said last month he
has no plans to adjust the link. The city’s current leader,
Donald Tsang , said in November the existing arrangement would
stay at least until the yuan becomes fully convertible. China ended its currency peg to the dollar in 2005 after
keeping the exchange rate stable for a decade. Chinese officials
told European Union business executives that the yuan will
achieve “full convertibility” by 2015, EU Chamber of Commerce
in China President Davide Cucino said on Sept. 7. The People’s
Bank of China doubled the yuan’s trading band to 1 percent and
allowed lenders to hold short positions on dollar last week,
steps seen as paving the way for a convertible currency. “What Hong Kong needs in order to think about re-pegging
would be for the Chinese yuan to be fully and irreversibly
convertible,” Greenwood said in an interview in Hong Kong today.
“2015 is not possible in my view.” The Hong Kong dollar peg was adopted in 1983, when
negotiations between China and the U.K. over returning the city
to Chinese control triggered capital outflows and Greenwood
suggested a currency board system to stabilize the currency. In
2005, policy makers committed to limiting the currency’s decline
to HK$7.85 per dollar and capping gains at HK$7.75. The existing fixed-exchange-rate system ties Hong Kong’s
monetary policy to that of the U.S., where the jobless rate is
8.2 percent and the Federal Reserve has pledged to maintain a
near-zero benchmark interest rate through 2014. Hong Kong’s
jobless rate is 3.4 percent and the city’s inflation excluding
one-off reliefs reached 6.7 percent in January, the fastest
since at least February 2007. To contact the reporters on this story:
Fion Li in Hong Kong at
fli59@bloomberg.net ;
Stephanie Tong in Hong Kong at
stong17@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Sandy Hendry at
shendry@bloomberg.net | 2012 | ong-kong-peg-architect-says-convertible-yuan-long-way-off- |
Romania’s Hidroelectrica Tariffs to Be Probed by EU Regulators | By Aoife White | 2012-04-25T09:50:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/romania-s-hidroelectrica-tariffs-to-be-probed-by-eu-regulators.html | 4 | 25 | 0f3867212a5b9b57cc80e3eda90f95ea04ba8659 | Hidroelectrica SA, Romania ’s state-
owned hydropower generator, faces five European Union probes
into whether it bought or sold electricity tariffs at
preferential rates. To contact the reporter on this story:
Aoife White in Brussels at
awhite62@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | romania-s-hidroelectrica-tariffs-to-be-probed-by-eu-regulators |
Bond Risk Decreases in Asia, Credit-Default Swap Prices Show | By Rachel Evans | 2012-04-25T02:31:15Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/bond-risk-decreases-in-asia-credit-default-swap-prices-show.html | 4 | 25 | 104e156928b27d087b4a40d5b8c6da15f2388d98 | The cost of insuring corporate and
sovereign bonds from non-payment decreased in Asia, according to
traders of credit-default swaps. The Markit iTraxx Asia index of 40 investment-grade
borrowers outside Japan dropped 1.5 basis points to 163 basis
points as of 8:29 a.m. in Hong Kong, Credit Agricole SA (ACA) prices
show. The gauge is on course for its lowest close since April
17, according to data provider CMA. The Markit iTraxx Japan index fell 0.5 basis points to 178
as of 9:50 a.m. in Tokyo , Citigroup Inc. prices show. The
benchmark is set for its first fall since April 19, according to
CMA, which is owned by CME Group Inc. and compiles prices quoted
by dealers in the privately negotiated market. The Australian market is closed today for a public holiday. Credit-default swap indexes are benchmarks for insuring
bonds against default and traders use them to speculate on
credit quality. A drop signals improving perceptions of
creditworthiness, while an increase suggests the opposite. The swap contracts pay the buyer face value in exchange for
the underlying securities if a borrower fails to meet its debt
agreements. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. To contact the reporter on this story:
Rachel Evans in Hong Kong at
revans43@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Shelley Smith at
ssmith118@bloomberg.net | 2012 | bond-risk-decreases-in-asia-credit-default-swap-prices-show |
Edwards’s Broken Promise on Job Led to Rift, Ex-Aide Says | By Sophia Pearson and John Peragine | 2012-04-25T22:31:55Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/edwards-s-broken-promise-on-job-led-to-rift-ex-aide-says-1-.html | 4 | 25 | 1ec5b4cf904a4844885c2a9ccb7339aa | John Edwards for weeks assured a
campaign aide who was helping conceal his extramarital affair
that he wouldn’t abandon him after suspending his 2008
presidential campaign, only to do just that, the ex-aide said. In June 2008, about six months after dropping out of the
race, Edwards told the aide, Andrew Young, that he was seeking
$50 million from multimillionaire heiress Rachel “Bunny”
Mellon to fund a poverty foundation, Young testified today.
Young said he was told the foundation would give him a job. Edwards wanted to “be to poverty what Al Gore was to the
environment,” Young said during his third day of testimony
before a federal jury in Greensboro, North Carolina , where
Edwards is on trial for alleged campaign finance violations. In mid-June 2008, after not speaking since January, the two
men met at an inn in Washington , Young said. Edwards, a Democrat
and former U.S. senator for North Carolina, apologized for not
having called and told Young he was sad about the election,
Young said. Edwards said “he loved me and I should know that he would
not abandon me,” Young testified. “He promised to work on
returning phone calls, staying in touch and work on the
foundation.” ‘Fell in Love’ “Is it true you fell in love with John Edwards?” Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Edwards, asked Young on cross-examination.
“Is it true you fell out of love with John Edwards?” “Yes sir,” Young answered. “Is it true you’ve come to disdain him?” Lowell asked. “Yes, for what he’s done to me and my family,” Young
said. Young also testified that he saw Edwards as his “ticket to
the top” and that knowing Edwards as president or vice
president “would lead to great things.” Edwards is accused of illegally using almost $1 million in
contributions from Mellon and Fred Baron , a now-deceased trial
lawyer, to conceal his affair with Rielle Hunter , an unemployed
filmmaker he hired as a campaign videographer. Edwards, who
fathered a child with Hunter, faces a maximum five-year prison
term for each of the six counts against him if convicted. Prosecutors allege Edwards used Young to do his “dirty
work,” seeking out donors for money to support Hunter.
Edwards’s lawyers have labeled Young as an opportunist who used
some of the funds in dispute to build a mansion in Chapel Hill,
North Carolina. Foundation Declined In mid-July 2008, Mellon, who allegedly gave more than
$725,000 toward the plan to conceal Hunter, declined to fund the
foundation, Young said. “She was upset because she felt like we were just using
her for her money,” Young said. Still, Edwards continued to assure Young in e-mails and
voice mails that the foundation was “doable” and he would work
to “calm” Mellon. Edwards admitted he had an affair with Hunter in an ABC
News interview on Aug. 8, 2008. Several days later he and Young
had their last conversation, on a desolate country road near
Edwards’s home in Chapel Hill , Young testified today. Baron had
called and told him Edwards wanted to meet, Young said. Edwards told Young he had been to visit Mellon and was
confronted by her attorney and an accountant over “odd” checks
she wrote to an interior decorator. Edwards said “I didn’t know anything about these. Do
you?” Young recalled during testimony. Young said he told him
no. ‘Scared and Paranoid’ “I was scared and paranoid and I felt like the
conversation was being tape recorded,” Young testified. Edwards told him the foundation wasn’t going to happen and
offered him a job recommendation. “I have evidence of everything that’s going on and if you
don’t come clean I’m going public,” Young said he told Edwards. “You can’t hurt me Andrew,” Edwards said, according to
Young. Young acknowledged under questioning by prosecutors that
his testimony differs in part from what was published in his
2010 book “The Politician.” Young said he didn’t get to read
the final draft of the book, which details Edwards’s affair,
before it was published. The case is U.S. v. Edwards, 11-00161, U.S. District Court,
Middle District of North Carolina (Greensboro). To contact the reporters on this story:
Sophia Pearson in Philadelphia at
spearson3@bloomberg.net ;
John Peragine in Greensboro, North Carolina, at
drjohnnd@hotmail.com To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net | 2012 | edwards-s-broken-promise-on-job-led-to-rift-ex-aide-says-1- |
Ireland Said to Near Approval on Permanent TSB Loans Split | By Joe Brennan | 2012-04-25T16:23:26Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/ireland-said-to-near-approval-on-permanent-tsb-loans-split.html | 4 | 25 | d9039f631d06e9a78b9cd210ed315faf1d1bc201 | Ireland’s bailout partners are
nearing agreement to allow state-owned Irish Life & Permanent
Plc (IPM) to move some of its loss-making home loans into a so-called
bad bank unit, according to two people familiar with the matter. The transfer would mark a first step toward reorganizing
the Dublin-based bank, Permanent TSB, once the country’s biggest
mortgage lender, according to the people, who declined to be
named as the talks are not yet complete. Finance Minister
Michael Noonan may announce an accord as soon as tomorrow as
European and International Monetary Fund officials complete
their latest Irish aid program review. “The authorities will agree a way forward for PTSB by the
end of April 2012,” the Finance Ministry said in an e-mailed
response to questions. “The 6th review of the program will
conclude tomorrow and a press conference will be held and the
changes agreed” to the program will be outlined. Irish authorities are seeking to strip out distressed and
loss-making mortgages from Permanent TSB and Allied Irish Banks
Plc (ALBK) to clean up their balance sheets and ultimately help sell
them. Irish Bank Resolution Corp. Chief Executive Officer Mike Aynsley said last month he is in talks that may lead to the
company taking on residential mortgages from other banks. Some 25 percent of Permanent TSB’s 25.4 billion-euro ($33.6
billion) Irish residential mortgage book was classified as
either in arrears or impaired, according to its annual report,
published April 2. The state took control of Irish Life & Permanent after
injecting 2.7 billion euros into the company in July to help
Permanent TSB meet regulatory capital requirements . Irish Life spokesman Ray Gordon and Central Bank spokesman
Peadar Hayes declined to comment on the discussions. To contact the reporter on this story:
Joe Brennan in Dublin at
jbrennan29@bloomberg.net ; To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.net | 2012 | ireland-said-to-near-approval-on-permanent-tsb-loans-spli |
Colombia Proves Latin America’s Best Equities Since 2002 | By Andrea Jaramillo and Christine Jenkins | 2012-04-25T20:41:29Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/colombia-proves-latin-america-s-best-equities-since-2002.html | 4 | 25 | 916f0c18bb5c41e39859b6dd65dfb5c4 | Colombia (IGBC) , Latin America’s murder
capital when Pablo Escobar ran the Medellin drug cartel in the
1980s, produced the region’s best risk-adjusted stock returns
over the past decade as improved security bolstered economic
growth and foreign investment. The BLOOMBERG RISKLESS RETURN RANKING shows the IGBC index
returned 70 percent in the past 10 years after adjusting for
volatility, the most among six major benchmark indexes in the
region. Colombia, the top performer also over five years and
three years, had a volatility-adjusted return of almost six
times that of the Bovespa gauge in Brazil in the past decade. Colombia, which won an investment-grade credit rating last
year for the first time since 1999, outperformed as military
victories spearheaded by former President Alvaro Uribe turned
the tide in a 50-year war with Marxist rebels. Improved public
safety lured a record $13.2 billion last year from investors
including billionaires Carlos Slim and Eike Batista with
companies such as Tabasco Oil Co. and MPX Energia SA. The
growing economy swelled the middle class, which will bolster
consumer spending and fuel further stock gains, said Frederick Searby, the chief regional strategist at Deutsche Bank AG. “Colombia has had such a phenomenal peace dividend after
going through a wrenching decades-long guerrilla war,” Searby
said by phone from New York . “It’s got a sustainable growth
story, with a very high investment rate. From a macroeconomic
perspective, Colombia is one of the most attractive markets.” Volatility Outlook Colombia’s total return of 1,606 percent was second only to
the 1,719 percent from Peru’s Lima General Index. It moved to
the top spot because it had the third-lowest volatility.
Volatility in Brazil ’s Bovespa was 34 percent above that for the
Colombian gauge over the past 10 years. Volatility will probably stay low because local pension
funds, which generally buy stocks and hold securities, account
for 10 percent of trading in the market, said Ed Kuczma , who
helps manage $34 billion in assets at Van Eck Associates in New
York. Foreign investors accounted for 35 percent of trading last
year in the Bovespa, compared with 7.5 percent in Colombia. “Pension funds continuously invest in the equity of their
own country,” Kuczma said. “When you get a big or even a
regular size sell-off, they are very quick to put a floor into
the market.” The risk-adjusted return, which isn’t annualized, is
calculated by dividing total return by volatility , or the degree
of daily price variation, giving a measure of income per unit of
risk. A higher volatility means the price of an asset can swing
dramatically in a short period of time, increasing the potential
for unexpected losses. Changed Perception “The perception of Colombia is very different than what it
was a decade ago,” said Jose Fernando Restrepo, the head
analyst at Interbolsa SA, Colombia’s biggest brokerage. “The
country is in an upward growth trend” and attracting new
companies and investors into the stock market, he said. President Juan Manuel Santos , who took office in August
2010 after serving as defense minister from 2006 to 2009, and
Uribe, the president from 2002 to 2010, have drawn investment by
curtailing homicides and weakening rebel groups. The government’s stepped-up attacks on the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, after almost five decades of
battles helped cut the group’s membership to about 8,000 from a
peak of 17,000 in 2002, according to Defense Ministry data. The
annual number of murders dropped by almost half from 2002 to
2011 as kidnappings declined 89 percent. Economic Growth The government forecasts foreign direct investment may rise
to $16 billion this year, more than five times the levels of a
decade ago. The economy’s 5.9 percent growth last year was the
fastest since gross domestic product jumped 6.9 percent in 2007,
the most in 30 years. The central bank forecasts South America’s
fourth-biggest economy may grow as much as 6 percent in 2012. While Venezuela ’s return adjusted for volatility exceeded
Colombia’s in the past decade, trading was limited. About 142
million bolivars ($33 million) in stocks changed hands last year
in Venezuela , according to data from the Caracas stock exchange,
compared with average daily volumes of $92 million in Colombia
and $3.9 billion in Brazil. “Until not too long ago Colombia was considered somewhat
of a failed state,” Santos, sitting between U.S. President
Barack Obama and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff , told
hundreds of business leaders gathered April 14 for a summit in
the resort city of Cartagena. “Things have changed.” Medellin Murders Medellin was for many years the murder capital of Latin
America , registering 6,349 homicides in 1991, when the war
between cartels for control of the drug trade was at its height.
Escobar was killed 18 years ago by a special task force Colombia
created to track him down. Homicides in Medellin fell to 1,649
in 2011, according to government data. Drug violence also led to the assassination of presidential
candidates such as Luis Carlos Galan, who led polls in 1989 when
he was shot dead near Bogota. The limited number of investment options in Colombia have
driven valuations to relatively high levels, limiting the
potential for future gains in the short term, said Francisco Alzuru, who helps manage about $200 million in emerging-market
assets at Hansberger Global Investors in Fort Lauderdale,
Florida . Stocks in Colombia’s IGBC trade at 14 times trailing
12-month earnings, compared with a ratio of 12.7 for Brazil’s
Bovespa. “It creates pressures that might not exist in other
countries,” Alzuru said. “The stocks don’t offer as much value
as others in the region.” ‘Wanting to Stay’ Since 2008, the government has played on the word “risk”
to invite travelers to its cities, jungles and beaches. An
international advertising campaign uses the slogan: “Colombia:
the only risk is wanting to stay .” Colombia last year garnered an investment-grade credit
rating from Standard & Poor’s , Moody’s Investors Service and
Fitch Ratings, 11 years after it was cut to junk when violence
and a banking crisis helped trigger six straight quarters of
contraction beginning in 1998. The extra yield investors demand
to own Colombian government dollar debt instead of U.S.
Treasuries is 149 basis points, or 1.49 percentage point,
according to data from JPMorgan Chase & Co. That compares to 184
basis points in Brazil, 187 for Mexico and 968 for Argentina . Attacks on pipelines, roadways and bridges fell to 196 in
2011 from more than 900 in 2002, according to government
figures. Improved security helped draw investment from Slim’s
Grupo Carso SAB, which bought a stake last year in Geoprocesados
SA’s Tabasco Oil. Batista is investing in coal through MPX
Energia. Oil Output The country seeks to boost crude output to 1.5 million
barrels a day by 2020. Production increased 7.2 percent in March
from a year earlier to 951,000 barrels a day. Celsia SA, a holding company that is now focused on energy
projects, handed investors a risk-adjusted return of 148 percent
in the past decade, the most among members of the IGBC. Mineros
SA, Colombia’s largest gold producer, posted a risk-adjusted
return of 116 percent as prices for the metal soared. Bancolombia SA (BCOLO) and Banco de Bogota SA, the country’s
biggest and second-biggest banks, Grupo de Inversiones
Suramericana SA, Latin America’s largest private pension-fund
manager, and Grupo Nutresa SA, Colombia’s biggest food producer,
were also among the 10 top performers in the index as the
growing economy buoyed consumer spending and credit demand. Consumer Spending Investors are focused on companies in growing economies
such as Colombia’s, where consumer spending is picking up,
according to Deutsche Bank’s Searby. Retail sales jumped 23
percent in April 2011, the most since January 2000 when
Bloomberg records begin, and have risen every month since
October 2009. “People are playing the consumer story on this idea that
commodity prices stay high and you get this multiplier effect of
GDP growth,” Searby said. As more Colombians enter the middle
class, they’re “going from consuming almost none of these
products, whether its financial services or retail, to consuming
quite a bit,” he said. To contact the reporters on this story:
Andrea Jaramillo in Bogota at
ajaramillo1@bloomberg.net ;
Christine Jenkins in New York at
cjenkins28@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Christian Baumgaertel at
cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net ;
David Papadopoulos at
papadopoulos@bloomberg.net | 2012 | colombia-proves-latin-america-s-best-equities-since-2002 |
Japan’s Bond Futures May Fall to 2-Week Low: Technical Analysis | By Yumi Ikeda | 2012-04-25T00:44:24Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/japan-s-bond-futures-may-fall-to-2-week-low-technical-analysis.html | 4 | 25 | c097a67bb5acb14d10b85ccf13cdaafa66ed8a9d | Japan ’s government bond futures may
decline toward a two-week low, SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. said,
citing trading patterns. Futures for June delivery yesterday rose to 143.04, the
highest level for a lead contract on an intraday basis since
Feb. 14, when the Bank of Japan (8301) unexpectedly eased monetary
policy. The contract’s relative strength index signals that
gains have been too rapid, according to Makoto Noji, a Tokyo-
based senior debt and currency strategist at the unit of Japan’s
third-largest publicly traded bank by assets. The RSI for the bond futures touched 68.5 on April 23, the
most since August. It was 62.4 at the close of trading in Tokyo
yesterday. Readings above 70 suggest the contract is overbought. “With its RSI approaching 70, the contract may be poised
for a downward correction,” Noji said. Bond futures may decline toward their 50-day and 100-day
moving averages at about 142.30, the lowest level since April
10, Noji said. The 50-day and 100-day averages were at 142.29
and 142.33 yesterday respectively. Futures were little changed
at 142.77 as of 9:35 a.m. at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. In technical analysis , investors and analysts study charts
of trading patterns to forecast changes in a security,
commodity, currency or index. To contact the reporter on this story:
Yumi Ikeda in Tokyo at
yikeda4@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Rocky Swift at Rswift5@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | japan-s-bond-futures-may-fall-to-2-week-low-technical-analysis |
Alrosa May Spend $190 Million on Gas This Year, Vedomosti Says | By Stephen Bierman | 2012-04-25T03:59:23Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/alrosa-may-spend-190-million-on-gas-this-year-vedomosti-says.html | 4 | 25 | 171859c7ec82998b317d29e80078b6d8d607134c | OAO Alrosa, Russia ’s diamond
producer, may spend 5.6 billion rubles ($190 million) developing
natural gas assets this year to make them more attractive for
sale, Vedomosti said, citing company documents. The company may also simplify its holding structure,
placing it directly under Alrosa’s ownership rather than
offshore structures, Vedomosti reported. To contact the reporter on this story:
Stephen Bierman in Moscow at
sbierman1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Will Kennedy at
wkennedy3@bloomberg.net | 2012 | alrosa-may-spend-190-million-on-gas-this-year-vedomosti-says |
Castilla Says Peru GDP to Rise 6.2% in 2012, Peru21 Reports | By John Quigley | 2012-04-25T16:34:01Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/castilla-says-peru-gdp-to-rise-6-2-in-2012-peru21-reports.html | 4 | 25 | 9e40d9411da166d606984786ebc64e17ecf42b45 | Peru ’s Finance Minister Miguel Castilla increased his 2012 growth forecast to 6.2 percent from
5.5 percent previously, Peru21 reported . The Finance Ministry will detail its economic estimates
next month, Castilla said at an event in Lima yesterday,
according to the Lima-based newspaper. To contact the reporter on this story:
John Quigley in Lima at
jquigley8@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Joshua Goodman at
jgoodman19@bloomberg.net | 2012 | castilla-says-peru-gdp-to-rise-6-2-in-2012-peru21-reports |
High Court Limits IRS Time to Challenge Tax Shelters | By Greg Stohr | 2012-04-25T14:54:46Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/high-court-limits-irs-time-to-challenge-tax-shelters.html | 4 | 25 | ce04c028aff346a6e5942ea9f5227ddf78913977 | The U.S. Supreme Court ruled
against the Internal Revenue Service in a decision that may
prevent the collection of $1 billion from people who used a tax
shelter popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The justices, voting 5-4, said the IRS has only three years
to challenge so-called Son-of-BOSS tax shelters. Lower courts
had disagreed on the question, with some saying the IRS had up
to six years. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the court that the case is
governed by a 1958 high court decision that interpreted
“identical” language in an earlier version of the law. “It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to give the
same language here a different interpretation without
effectively overruling” that decision, Breyer wrote. The tax agency had said the extra three years are crucial
because of the complex, hard-to-detect nature of the disputed
shelters. The son-of-BOSS shelters were designed to artificially
inflate the cost basis of an asset so that taxpayers claimed
little or no capital gains when they sold it. Taxpayers often
used partnerships and short sales, trades that typically are
bets that the price of an asset will fall. BOSS stands for
“Bond and Option Sales Strategy.” Gross Income The question for the high court was whether basis inflation
is covered under a provision that gives the IRS six years to act
against taxpayers who omit “gross income” from a return. The
taxpayers in the case argued the IRS is bound by the three-year
period that applies in other contexts. The ruling may affect Warburg Pincus LLC’s Bausch & Lomb
unit, which is fighting a court case that concerns alleged basis
overstatement in a different context. The IRS is seeking
hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes, penalties and interest
from the company, whose case doesn’t involve a son-of-BOSS
shelter. The IRS says more than 1,900 taxpayers used son-of-BOSS
shelters, saving as much as $6 billion, according to agency
estimates. More than 1,200 of those took part in a settlement
program that the IRS said had recouped almost $4 billion in 2004
and 2005. In a court filing last year, the government said the basis-
overstatement issue was important to 30 pending cases, involving
$1 billion in taxes, interest and penalties. 1954 Version of Law Breyer’s opinion was joined in full by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito , while
Justice Antonin Scalia joined the main part of it. Dissenting
were Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg , Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan . Writing for the four, Kennedy said the re-enacted version
of the tax law at issue today contained additional language that
left room for the government’s view that it had six years to
file a challenge. The case before the justices stemmed from the sale of a
North Carolina company, Home Oil and Coal Co., by its two
shareholders, Robert Pierce and Steven Chandler. The IRS
concluded the men had improperly used a pass-through company to
increase their cost basis, leaving them with a $69,000 gain on a
sale of more than $10 million. After the IRS acted, the taxpayers paid an additional $1.4
million and sued for a refund. A federal appeals court said the
three-year period applied, meaning the IRS waited too long to
press its case. The case is United States v. Home Concrete & Supply,
11-139. To contact the reporter on this story:
Greg Stohr in Washington at
gstohr@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Steven Komarow at
skomarow1@bloomberg.net | 2012 | igh-court-limits-irs-time-to-challenge-tax-shelters |
Altech Gains After Announcing East, West African Review | By Sikonathi Mantshantsha and Stephen Gunnion | 2012-04-25T15:25:10Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/altech-gains-for-first-time-in-three-days-on-africa-review-1-.html | 4 | 25 | c288b05b8620f18b7471bf7afa353132826a1ab8 | Allied Technologies Ltd. (ALT) gained
after saying it is reviewing operations in East and West Africa
as it incurred losses in the regions, leading to a full-year
loss of 502 million rand ($65 million). Shares in the South African maker of pay-TV set-top boxes
rose 0.5 percent to 52.50 rand at the close in Johannesburg, the
first advance this week. The loss for the year through February compared with a
profit of 225 million rand a year earlier. Operations in Nigeria
and Kenya have not performed to management’s satisfaction, the
company said in a statement today. Kenya Data Networks is
trading below expectations and has been “heavily impacted” by
the cancellation of a major client’s dark fibre business, it
said. Impairments on the East and West African businesses
contributed to a pretax loss of 240 million rand, Altech said. “It’s been a poor performance so restructuring might have
a positive effect going forward,” Hennie Fourie, a portfolio
manager at PSG Konsult, said by phone from Pretoria . “The
results were expected so that was already priced into the
shares.” The company has restructured its operations in East Africa
into a more “regionally-focused” business, Altech said. Closer
collaboration between these businesses is already having a
“positive” effect, it said. “Given the disappointing performance, the turnaround of
Altech’s East African businesses is clearly a top priority
within the group and is receiving considerable management
attention,” the company said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Sikonathi Mantshantsha in Johannesburg at
smantshantsh@bloomberg.net or
Stephen Gunnion in Johannesburg at
sgunnion@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Gavin Serkin at
gserkin@bloomberg.net | 2012 | altech-gains-for-first-time-in-three-days-on-africa-review-1- |
Mexico’s IPO Drought Ends as Alpek Seeks $851 Million | By Jonathan J. Levin and Brendan Case | 2012-04-25T12:17:02Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/mexico-s-ipo-drought-ends-as-alpek-seeks-record-851-million-1-.html
Alpek SAB (ALPEK) , Mexico’s largest
privately owned petrochemical company, is planning the nation’s
biggest ever initial public offering, ending a nine-month lull
in new listings. Alfa SAB (ALFAA) , the conglomerate that also owns auto-parts and
processed-foods companies, is selling a stake in Alpek after
Mexico’s benchmark index rallied to a record high this month and
Brazil and Colombia snapped IPO droughts. Alfa plans to raise as
much as 11.2 billion pesos ($851 million) from the sale of 17.9
percent of Alpek, which makes polyester fiber used in clothing
and expandable polystyrene for packing material. “The IPO market is starting to show some signs of life,”
said Ed Kuczma , who helps manage $34 billion including Mexican
shares at Van Eck Associates in New York , speaking in a
telephone interview. “Mexico’s been slow to have deals come
out, and it’s good to see deals pop up and give investors a
chance to participate.” While Alpek’s deal is poised to overtake OHL Mexico SAB’s
9.7 billion peso offering in 2010 as the country’s largest, the
sale is dwarfed by Brazil’s biggest IPOs, including a 3.66
billion reais ($1.95 billion) transaction yesterday by Banco BTG
Pactual SA. Banco Santander SA, the Spanish bank whose Mexican
subsidiary is weighing a Mexican listing, raised a country
record 13.2 billion reais in Brazil in October 2009 by selling
its local unit. First Since July Alpek’s sale will be the first in Mexico since July, when
lender Banregio Grupo Financiero SAB (GFREGIO) raised 1.8 billion pesos,
as Europe ’s deepening debt crisis curbed demand for emerging-
market assets. Nine companies had outstanding exchange filings
to hold IPOs in Latin America ’s second-biggest economy, Javier Artigas, head of strategic planning at the exchange, told
reporters on Jan. 10. Alfa, which plans on keeping a controlling stake in Alpek,
will price the shares between 27.50 and 31.50 pesos, according
to prospectus filed with the local exchange. Banregio has surged 16 percent since its IPO, while OHL has
retreated 22 percent. Microfinance business Credito Real SA and bus company Grupo
Senda Autotransporte SA are among companies that have said
they’re considering listing shares in Mexico. Brazil’s first initial public offering since July, Sao
Paulo-based car-rental company Cia. de Locacao das Americas,
priced shares 36 percent below the upper end of its target.
Unicasa Industria de Moveis SA, a furniture maker in Brazil,
will announce the results of its IPO tonight. Colombian
construction company Construcciones El Condor (ELCONDOR) raised 162.6
billion pesos ($91 million) in an initial sale this month. Slim’s Frisco The Alpek sale | 4 | 25 | a9d2a0b794bb47a8a534f10de6267dfb | January 2011 by billionaire Carlos Slim ’s holding company, Grupo
Carso SAB. After that deal, Slim’s mining unit, Minera Frisco
SAB, soared 26 percent in its first day of trading. It’s up 93
percent since the IPO, beating the 0.4 percent gain in the IPC. “Alfa is seeking to maximize shareholder value ,” said
Ramon Leal, Alfa’s chief financial officer, in an April 11
telephone interview from London . The public offer gives Alpek
“the opportunity to have more independence to pursue the
projects that have been presenting themselves.” Enrique Flores Rodriguez, head of Alfa’s corporate
communication, declined to comment further. Carve outs can help pull in new buyers because investors
sometimes shy away from hard-to-value conglomerates, according
to Josef Schuster, founder of Chicago-based Ipox Schuster LLC,
which has about $2 billion tied to indexes that track IPOs. Polyester Sales Alpek, based in San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico , has 20
plants in three countries and had sales of $7.3 billion last
year, about half of Alfa’s $14.7 billion total. First-quarter
revenue rose 13 percent to $1.1 billion amid higher polyester
sales in North America , the company said in a filing with the
Mexican stock exchange. “It’s a stable old company, and from a diversification
perspective it makes good sense,” said Schuster, who said he’s
considering participating in the sale. Carve-outs in other
markets “have been very successful.” Alfa fell 0.9 percent to 187.74 pesos in Mexico City
trading yesterday. It’s up 24 percent this year, compared with a
4.8 percent advance for the benchmark gauge, which rose April 2
to a record high 39,963.64. The benchmark needs to climb another
2.9 percent to surpass its historic high. Citigroup Inc., HSBC Holdings Plc, Credit Suisse Group AG
and Morgan Stanley are managing the Alpek share sale. To contact the reporters on this story:
Jonathan J. Levin in Mexico City at
jlevin20@bloomberg.net ;
Brendan Case in Dallas at
bcase4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
David Papadopoulos at
papadopoulos@bloomberg.net | 2012 | exico-s-ipo-drought-ends-as-alpek-seeks-record-851-million-1- |
ZTE Quarterly Profit Rises 19% to $24 Million on Handset Sales | By Bloomberg News | 2012-04-25T08:46:16Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/zte-quarterly-profit-rises-19-to-24-million-on-handset-sales.html | 4 | 25 | b0893e0f7324d3f3be89e571e03e0df7c50f0dce | ZTE Corp. (000063) , China’s second-biggest
maker of mobile-phone equipment, reported first-quarter profit
increased 19 percent on higher sales of handsets. Net income rose to 151 million yuan ($24 million), from
127.3 million yuan a year earlier, the Shenzhen-based company
said in a statement today. Sales gained 24 percent to 18.6
billion yuan, from a restated 15 billion yuan. ZTE Chairman Hou Weigui is diversifying the company’s sales
from its traditional focus on phone-network equipment into
consumer devices such as smartphones and tablets. ZTE became the
world’s fourth-largest mobile-device seller in the fourth
quarter, behind Nokia Oyj (NOK1V) , Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple
Inc. (AAPL) The company this week said smartphone sales will more than
double this year as it gains market share in Europe, North
America , Brazil and Japan. ZTE’s Hong Kong-listed shares rose 2 percent to close at
HK$19.60 before the earnings announcement. The stock has lost 20
percent so far this year, compared with a 12 percent gain for
the benchmark Hang Seng Index. Huawei Technologies Co., China’s largest maker of equipment
for mobile phone networks, said this week that 2011 profit fell
to 11.6 billion yuan from 24.7 billion yuan a year earlier as
the company increased investment in research and development and
funded the global expansion of new businesses targeting sales of
consumer devices including smartphones and computer services for
businesses. To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story:
Edmond Lococo in Beijing at
elococo@bloomberg.net ;
Mark Lee in Hong Kong at
wlee37@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Tighe at
mtighe4@bloomberg.net | 2012 | zte-quarterly-profit-rises-19-to-24-million-on-handset-sales |
Twelve Countries to Sign Wind, Solar Agreement, Minister Says | By Sally Bakewell | 2012-04-25T09:20:43Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/twelve-countries-to-sign-wind-solar-agreement-minister-says.html | 4 | 25 | d587e95f554145b5fe7404279f7a09be31dcf3ce | Twelve countries will sign a
declaration on solar and wind energy to boost cooperation
between nations and encourage investors, Danish Energy Minister
Martin Lidegaard said. The agreement will be signed later this morning, he told a
news conference in London . The declaration will include new
efforts to map wind and solar resources on a global level to
encourage private investment in the renewables sector, the
minister said. With this kind of cooperation, “We can encourage the
industry and ensure that investors may come in in the right
places,” he said. Germany , the U.K. and the U.S. are on board
with the plan, he said at the Clean Energy Ministerial
conference, where ministers are gathering to discuss progress
made by clean energy initiatives and enhancing collaboration. To contact the reporter on this story:
Sally Bakewell in London at
sbakewell1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Randall Hackley at
rhackley@bloomberg.net | 2012 | welve-countries-to-sign-wind-solar-agreement-minister-says |
Gruma Posts Lowest Profit in Seven Quarters on Derivatives | By Carlos Manuel Rodriguez | 2012-04-25T22:43:20Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/gruma-posts-lowest-profit-in-seven-quarters-on-derivatives-1-.html | 4 | 25 | cac26a13976013bbc02a88aa0a57e64abeffaa3f | Gruma SAB (GRUMAB) , the world’s largest
maker of corn and wheat tortillas, posted its smallest profit in
seven quarters after derivative losses. First-quarter net income fell 98 percent to 83.9 million
pesos ($6.4 million) from the year-earlier period, when Gruma
profited from selling a stake in Grupo Financiero Banorte SAB.
Profit missed the estimate of 278 million pesos from analyst
Fernando Olvera of BBVA Bancomer SA in Mexico City. Sales were
5.4 billion pesos. Gruma said that natural gas hedging losses boosted sales
expenses by 17 million pesos. Financing costs rose by 207
million pesos because of a writedown from a “mark-to-market
currency valuation” on hedging contracts linked to corn
purchases. Gruma reported losses of 13.4 billion pesos from the third
quarter of 2008 through the first quarter of 2009 because of
wrong-way currency derivative bets, according to data compiled
by Bloomberg. The tortilla maker avoided bankruptcy by
refinancing debt and getting new loans in 2009. Gruma rose 4.7 percent to 38.94 pesos on the Mexican Stock
Exchange in trading prior to the report. The shares have gained
68 percent in the past year. To contact the reporter on this story:
Carlos Manuel Rodriguez in Mexico City at
carlosmr@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Helder Marinho at
hmarinho@bloomberg.net | 2012 | gruma-posts-lowest-profit-in-seven-quarters-on-derivatives-1- |
Aflac Jumps as Profit Doubles, Japan Sales Increase | By Zachary Tracer | 2012-04-25T20:18:09Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/aflac-jumps-as-profit-doubles-japan-sales-increase.html | 4 | 25 | 8ecd540add507f203e29bd6ffdf0f101fbe1e97d | Aflac Inc. (AFL) , the world’s biggest
seller of supplemental health insurance, gained the most in six
months after first-quarter profit doubled as Japan sales
increased. Aflac rose 7.8 percent to close at $45.26 in New York, the
most since Oct. 27. The Columbus, Georgia-based insurer, which
has gained 4.6 percent this year, forecast a 10 percent sales
gain in Japan in 2012 after previously saying the figure may
drop. Net income jumped to $785 million from $389 million a year
earlier as investment losses narrowed, Aflac said in a statement
yesterday after the close of regular trading. New annualized
premium sales in Japan, where the company gets about three-
quarters of its revenue, climbed 54 percent, led by deals
through banks. Aflac also introduced an upgraded medical policy
that’s seen “positive” response among Japanese consumers. “Sales in Japan were phenomenally strong,” analysts
including Edward Shields at Sandler O’Neill & Partners LP wrote
in an April 24 research note. “Sales trends will continue to be
strong.” Realized investment losses were $29 million, compared with
$376 million a year earlier, as Aflac reduced risk tied to
European financial companies. Book value, a measure of assets
minus liabilities, rose to $29.19 a share as of March 31 from
$27.76 on Dec. 31. To contact the reporter on this story:
Zachary Tracer in New York at
ztracer1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dan Kraut at
dkraut2@bloomberg.net | 2012 | aflac-jumps-as-profit-doubles-japan-sales-increase |
Yuan Forwards Snap Two-Day Decline After Wen’s Economy Pledge | By Andrea Wong | 2012-04-25T02:39:15Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/yuan-forwards-snap-two-day-decline-after-wen-s-economy-pledge.html | 4 | 25 | 3e2eddcebbc1444299406e0c2e52f7b91096679d | Yuan forwards snapped a two-day
loss after Premier Wen Jiabao said China’s economy will avoid a
sharp slowdown and as data added to evidence a U.S. recovery is
gaining traction. Wen said at a press conference in Stockholm yesterday that
the world’s second-biggest economy will sustain “steady and
robust” growth and will continue to commit to “reform and
opening up.” New homes in the U.S. were sold at a 328,000
annual rate in March, compared with the 319,000 pace forecast in
a Bloomberg News survey. The PBOC strengthened the reference
rate 0.13 percent to 6.2923 per dollar, near to this year’s
average fixing of 6.3056. Twelve-month non-deliverable forwards gained 0.05 percent
to 6.3455 per dollar as of 10:19 a.m. in Hong Kong , a 0.7
percent discount to the onshore spot rate, according to data
compiled by Bloomberg. One-month implied volatility for the
currency, a measure of exchange-rate swings used to price
options, stayed at a six-week low of 2.1 percent. “It’s been external sentiment that’s mainly affecting the
yuan recently,” said Chin Loo Thio, a senior analyst at BNP
Paribas in Singapore . “Yuan volatility is going to remain low
as the U.S. dollar has been quite stagnant.” The yuan rose 0.06 percent to 6.3037 in Shanghai, according
to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. The currency is
allowed to trade 1 percent on either side of the daily fixing
and Thio predicts it will appreciate to 6.21 by the end of the
year. In Hong Kong’s offshore market, the yuan rose 0.04 percent
to 6.3055. China ’s economic performance still faces downward pressure
and the domestic and external situations are still “grim,” the
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a
statement today. To contact the reporter on this story:
Andrea Wong in Taipei at
awong268@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Sandy Hendry at
shendry@bloomberg.net | 2012 | yuan-forwards-snap-two-day-decline-after-wen-s-economy-pledge |
Senate Approves U.S. Postal Service Financial Overhaul Bill | By Michelle Jamrisko | 2012-04-25T20:58:16Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/senate-to-vote-on-u-s-postal-service-financial-overhaul-bill.html | 4 | 25 | 4751a1fe7cd753bf2c1363eeb2a0b40bd6e36853 | The Senate passed a Postal Service
overhaul bill intended to save the cash-strapped organization
from default. The measure was passed 62-37. The bill would make it harder
for the Postal Service to close facilities, authorize it to
provide non-postal products and services, revise payments to two
federal funds that provide worker retirement benefits, and
install an innovation officer to create new business practices. Enactment would show that “we can face a tough problem
that exists in a public service,” said Connecticut independent
Joe Lieberman , the bill’s sponsor. He said the proposal will
“ask people to sacrifice but keep a venerable and critically
important American institution alive and well.” The vote on the bill, S. 1789, followed more than five
months of negotiations among senators, led by Vermont
independent Bernie Sanders , who were concerned about how post-
office closings would affect their constituents. The Postal Service has marked about 3,700 post offices and
more than 220 mail processing facilities for potential shutdown.
Those numbers are already being reduced in Postal Service
estimates to comply with revised minimum-service standards in
the Senate bill. The House hasn’t considered its main Postal Service
overhaul bill, H.R. 2309 , which would create a commission
modeled on the Defense Department’s base-closing commissions to
oversee closing postal facilities. Appeal Process The Senate legislation includes a new version of an appeal
process allowing customers to protest planned closures of
individual offices. The Postal Service would conduct surveys on
alternatives to offering retail services. Maryland Democrat Barbara Mikulski, who had placed a hold
on the Senate bill to protest the planned closing of a mail
processing facility in Easton, Maryland, withdrew an amendment
that would have placed new restrictions on the closing process.
She cited assurances from the Postal Service that the facility
would remain open under standards set by the bill. “We need postal reform, but we need to be smart about how
we do it so that we preserve important mail delivery services in
our communities,” Mikulski said in a press release. Before passing the bill the Senate adopted several
amendments, including one restricting agency spending on travel
and conferences. Vote By Mail Other adopted amendments would prohibit, through the
November election, closings of postal facilities in states that
use vote-by-mail procedures, and set a one-year moratorium on
rural post office closures, with some exceptions. The Postal Service has estimated it may reach its $15
billion debt ceiling as soon as this year if scheduled payments
to its retiree health benefits fund aren’t deferred or if there
were a major interruption in service, such as an anthrax scare. The Senate bill would adjust the health benefits costs,
canceling a 10-year payment schedule enacted in 2006 that
required the Postal Service to set aside about $5.5 billion a
year for future retirees. Instead, the bill would create a 40-
year payment schedule with reduced pre-funding levels for the
projected liabilities. The Postal Service, which reported losses of $3.3 billion
in the quarter that ended Dec. 31, attributed $3.1 billion of
that to required payments into the retiree health-care fund. The Postal Service has estimated the measure could save it
$19 billion a year starting in 2016, Lieberman said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Michelle Jamrisko in Washington at
mjamrisko@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jodi Schneider at
jschneider50@bloomberg.net | 2012 | senate-to-vote-on-u-s-postal-service-financial-overhaul-bi |
Eskenazi Said to Tell Brufau YPF Buyback Pact Off Table | By Rodrigo Orihuela and Ben Sills | 2012-04-26T11:41:21Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/eskenazi-said-to-tell-repsol-he-won-t-enforce-ypf-buyback-pact.html | 4 | 25 | b7904eeaa20e480997d7ab705f36f801 | Sebastian Eskenazi, YPF SA (YPF) ’s former
CEO, told Repsol YPF SA (YPFD) Chairman Antonio Brufau in a meeting in
Madrid that he won’t immediately seek to enforce a buyback
option on YPF, two people familiar with the meeting said. The Eskenazi family is looking at different plans for its
25 percent YPF stake after the Argentine government seized
control April 16, one of the people said, declining to be
identified because the meeting wasn’t public. Eskenazi and
Brufau met in the Spanish capital last week, the people said. The Eskenazis, which owe at least $2.7 billion to Repsol
and banks including Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) ,
are waiting to see if Congress approves a bill to nationalize a
51 percent stake in YPF before making any decision, the person
said. The bill is being discussed today by Argentina’s Senate. “We’ve assumed the worst, so anything incrementally
positive is good for Repsol (REP) ,” said Jason Gammel , an analyst at
Macquarie Capital Ltd. in London . “There is transparently value
in the stock but there are still potential risks that could come
to life as this whole political mess plays out.” Argentina’s Senate a few hours ago approved President
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s proposal to nationalize YPF,
the country’s biggest energy company, as the government seeks to
increase oil production and reduce imports. The legislation now goes to the lower house, where
Fernandez’s ruling Victory Front coalition and its allies have a
majority, for a vote next week. Repsol in 2008 agreed to buy back the Eskenazi family’s
stake in YPF should Madrid-based Repsol lose control of the
company, according to an agreement between the Spanish oil
producer and the Eskenazis’ Petersen Group holding company. Fernandez Decision YPF’s American Depositary Receipts dropped 2.5 percent to
$13.31 in New York yesterday. Repsol fell 1.5 percent to 14.06
euros in Madrid today as of 1:37 p.m. local time, down 20
percent since the takeover was announced on April 16. That’s
made it the worst performer on the 122-member MSCI World/Energy
Index (MXWO0EN) this year, down 41 percent. Kirchner’s decision to expropriate 51 percent of YPF from
Repsol invalidates the agreement because it qualifies as a force
majeure event, an unforeseeable event comparable to a hurricane
which can release a company from contractual obligations, a
Repsol spokesman, who declined to be named under corporate
policy, said last week. “My question would be, over what time frame that
commitment was valid for?” said Stuart Joyner, an analyst at
Investec Securities Ltd. in London. “I’d be very surprised if
the Eskenazis unequivocally gave up something that has some
insurance value for them at least.” The government is seeking investors to help YPF develop
shale reserves in the Vaca Muerta block, which holds at least 23
billion barrels of oil, 13 billion of which belong to YPF,
according to a report published by the crude producer in
February. Developing the reserves requires $25 billion a year. Output Declines Argentine oil output declined to 35.3 million cubic meters
in 2010 from 45.4 million in 2001, according to the most recent
data published by the Argentina Oil and Gas Institute. YPF
produces about 34 percent of the country’s crude. YPF executives, including Eskenazi and the head of
exploration and production, Tomas Garcia Blanco, were told to
leave YPF’s headquarters in Buenos Aires on April 16, the day
that Argentina announced Planning Minister Julio de Vido would
run the company on an interim basis. The European Union will do “everything in our power” to
support Spain in the dispute with Argentina, which nationalized
only the Spanish majority shareholder and not local
stockholders, EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said April
24. Fernandez, in a speech in Buenos Aires province on April
24, said she was never more nervous than before her April 16
speech announcing the takeover. Argentina needs energy
independence, she said. Repsol Investments Since taking over YPF’s management, De Vido and Deputy
Economy Minister Axel Kicillof have met with officials from
Chevron Corp. (CVX) , Exxon Mobil Corp and ConocoPhillips (COP) to discuss
possible investments in Argentina. The government today denied claims by Repsol that the
Madrid-based company invested $20 billion in YPF between 1999
and 2011. Repsol invested $3.7 billion in the period, the
government said in an e-mailed statement. To contact the reporters on this story:
Rodrigo Orihuela in Rio de Janeiro at
rorihuela@bloomberg.net ;
Ben Sills in Madrid at
bsills@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dale Crofts at
dcrofts@bloomberg.net | 2012 | eskenazi-said-to-tell-repsol-he-won-t-enforce-ypf-buyback-pac |
RIL CAP CP deal:India Money Markets | By Shraddha Kothari | 2012-04-25T13:03:52Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/ril-cap-cp-deal-india-money-markets.html | 4 | 25 | 304632b8a84a3149c29d08d0005e67322c9252ee | Following is a table showing commercial paper
dealt by Indian companies. The data has been provided by SPA Securities Ltd. And
Mata Securities India Pvt Ltd
Contributed via: Bloomberg Publisher WEB Service Provider ID: 62c6137b1fa4457c99e2b2720043b6f7 | 2012 | ril-cap-cp-deal-india-money-markets |
North Korea’s Modern Weapons Can Defeat U.S., General Says | By Sangwon Yoon | 2012-04-25T09:08:46Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/north-korea-s-weapons-can-defeat-u-s-general-claims-correct-.html | 4 | 25 | 81e455d4714d4520931c001b112978d1 | North Korea celebrated the 80th
anniversary of its military two days after threatening to turn
South Korea’s capital into ashes, with a senior general claiming
the totalitarian state’s weapons can defeat the U.S. New leader Kim Jong Un, head of the 1.2 million-strong
military, attended a ceremony in Pyongyang to mark the
milestone, the official Korean Central State News Agency
reported today. Vice Marshal Ri Yong Ho said the army has
“powerful modern weapons” capable of defeating its enemies. “We are able to continuously corner the U.S. and
forcefully retaliate to the enemy’s provocative schemes for
war,” Ri said, according to a transcript of his remarks from
South Korea’s Unification Ministry. The commemoration is the latest in a series of festivities
surrounding the April 15 centennial of state founder Kim Il
Sung ’s birth. North Korea unsuccessfully fired a rocket on April
13, prompting speculation that the government will detonate an
atomic device to compensate for the failure. A North Korean military squad threatened to “soon” turn
South Korean President Lee Myung Bak and his government to
“ashes in three or four minutes,” according to an April 23
KCNA statement. Kim’s regime has escalated its threats of
aggression against the South in the past month. North Korea broke off an agreement to halt testing of
nuclear devices and long-range missiles after the U.S. canceled
food assistance in response to the botched launch. A North
Korean atomic test could come as early as today, NBC News
reported, citing unidentified U.S. officials. ‘Provocative Actions’ “We strongly suggest that the North Koreans refrain from
engaging in any more hostile or provocative actions,” White
House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters yesterday. South Korea last week unveiled new cruise missiles that it
said could hit anywhere in the North. The military has deployed
the missiles and is preparing to ensure it can respond firmly to
North Korean provocations, Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min
Seok said on April 19. Lee the same day said South Korea needs “powerful weapons,
a strong mindset and the newest weapons that can overpower North
Korea.” His government asked the United Nations Security
Council to freeze assets of 19 North Korean institutions and
organizations, Yonhap News reported, citing an unidentified
person at the UN. North Korea is already under UN sanctions after detonating
nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009. The Security Council censured
Kim’s government after this month’s rocket launch. North Korea’s Arsenal North Korea’s arsenal includes Scud, Rodong and Musudan
missiles. The Musudan has a range of more than 3,000 kilometers
(1,865 miles) and can carry a 650-kilogram warhead, according to
South Korean estimates. The country is trying to develop
missiles with a range of 6,700 kilometers that may eventually be
able to carry warheads weighing as much as 1,000 kilograms,
according to U.S. and South Korean estimates. China , North Korea’s closest ally, yesterday expressed
“deep concern” over the latest developments on the Korean
peninsula and called for calm. North and South Korea technically remain at war since their
1950-53 conflict ended without a peace treaty. To contact the reporter on this story:
Sangwon Yoon in Seoul at
syoon32@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Peter Hirschberg at
phirschberg@bloomberg.net | 2012 | north-korea-s-weapons-can-defeat-u-s-general-claims-correct- |
Rubio Echoes Obama More Than Romney on Foreign Policy | By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan | 2012-04-26T04:01:26Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/rubio-echoes-obama-more-than-romney-on-foreign-policy.html
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida , a
potential Republican vice presidential pick, outlined a vision
of foreign policy that sounded more like President Barack Obama’s than that of Mitt Romney , the presumptive Republican
nominee. Rubio, 40, a first-term senator whose popularity with Tea
Party supporters and Hispanics has raised his political profile,
used a speech yesterday in Washington to praise international
alliances and bipartisanship in foreign policy. His message | 4 | 25 | 529f38a12f1741bb849e970a7d9c5153 | are gospel to the Obama administration. He reserved his
criticism for a mild rebuke that also has come from some
Democratic lawmakers: that Obama should be more forceful leading
coalitions he has built to address problems such as Syrian
leader Bashar al-Assad’s violent crackdown on his opponents. “Global problems do require international coalitions; on
that point this administration is correct,” Rubio told foreign
policy makers and reporters at the Brookings Institution , a
Washington policy research organization. “But experience has
proven that American leadership is almost always
indispensable.” No Cuba Mention Rubio, whose family and many of whose Florida supporters
hail from Cuba, didn’t once mention U.S. policy toward the
communist island, although it’s one of the most contentious
foreign affairs issues in his home state. His remarks underscore the difficulty the Republican Party
may face this year trying to sharpen its differences with Obama
over national security. The president has won credit in polls
for killing Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, helping oust Muammar Qaddafi from Libya, withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and
setting a timetable to draw down American forces in Afghanistan. Obama fared better than Romney on foreign policy in an
April 11-17 Quinnipiac University national survey , preferred by
46 percent compared with 40 percent for Romney. ‘Sober’ Speech Rubio’s “main message was, ‘Hi, I’m not Sarah Palin,’”
said Brian Katulis, a foreign policy analyst at the Center for
American Progress, a research group in Washington associated
with the Obama administration. “The speech was sober. It was
knowledgeable.” “Rubio seemed to be closer to the Obama administration’s
actual foreign policy than to the Republican Party’s rhetoric,”
Katulis said. “This speech surprised a lot of people in its
tone.” Robert Kagan, a Brookings scholar who attended the speech,
said Rubio “was trying to shore up a broad bipartisan consensus
that the U.S. needs to remain engaged in the world. I think the
Obama administration, after some initial hesitation, shares this
view.” Kagan, a foreign-policy adviser to the Romney campaign and
a member of Secretary Clinton’s foreign affairs policy board,
said Rubio made clear that “the administration has not done
what is necessary to lead a coalition to remove Assad. But this
difference occurs within the broad consensus.” War Fatigue The main Republican attacks on Obama in this campaign won’t
be about foreign policy , Stuart Rothenberg , editor of the
nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report in Washington, said in
an interview. “There is no appetite for picking a fight in that area
right now” because of the American public’s fatigue over the
military involvements in Iraq and Afghanistan, Rothenberg said. Most Republican office-seekers this year, Romney included,
are devoting the bulk of their time and energy to criticizing
Obama on jobs, the economy, the size of government and spending. “Domestic issues are where they think the president is
weakest,” Rothenberg said. Romney, in his first foreign policy speeches of the
campaign last October in South Carolina , attacked Obama and
advocated a more military-centered foreign policy than Rubio
laid out yesterday. Romney pledged to add 100,000 active-duty
troops, boost naval shipbuilding, deploy Navy carriers to deter
Iran , boost intelligence cooperation with Israel and review aid
to Afghanistan. ‘Weakens Our Hand’ Rubio, by contrast, said he believes in keeping “foreign
policy nonpartisan as much as possible. I think it weakens our
hand” to show divisions when dealing with foreign adversaries. Asked after his speech where the “daylight” was between
his policy and Obama’s, Rubio said the administration has shown
“an over-reliance” on global institutions, such as the United
Nations Security Council , to solve crises in Libya and Syria. After an initial push on NATO to take action to oust
Qaddafi in Libya, Rubio said, Obama “backed off and allowed our
allies to do most of the work.” If the president had “more
energetically” led the NATO coalition, he said, “the
engagement would’ve been shorter, cheaper” and may have had
fewer side-effects, such as the rise of militias, the
destruction of infrastructure and the death of many Libyans in
the conflict. “Ultimately, it worked out fine,” said Rubio, who sits on
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Select Committee
on Intelligence. He said he was struck during a visit to Libya a
month after Qaddafi’s death by the amount of pro-U.S. graffiti
and the number of Libyans who approached his delegation to say,
“Thank you, President Obama, thank you, United States .” On ending the bloodshed in Syria, Rubio said the scores of
nations that united as the so-called Friends of Syria coalition
need “a center of gravity” that only the U.S. can provide. Safe Haven Rubio advocated “forming and leading a coalition with
Turkey and the Arab League nations to assist the opposition, by
creating a safe haven and equipping the opposition with food,
medicine, communications tools and potentially weapons,” a step
the administration has been reluctant to take. Yet in the question-and-answer portion, Rubio expressed
concern that “weapons don’t fall into the wrong hands,” and
said nations other than the U.S. “may be willing to step into
the void.” Regarding concerns that Iran is seeking a nuclear-weapons
capability, Rubio said he supports a “dual-track” strategy for
sanctions and talks, while “preparing our allies” for the
possibility that, “if all else fails, preventing a nuclear Iran
may tragically require a military solution.” “No option should be off the table” on Iran, and “the
president has said as much,” Rubio said. Rubio said when he came to the Senate last year, he found
“liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans working
together to advocate our withdrawal from Afghanistan , or our
staying out of Libya.” At the same time, he wound up “partnering with Democrats”
such as Senators Bob Menendez of New Jersey or Bob Casey of
Pennsylvania “on a more forceful foreign policy,” he said. In the Senate, “on foreign policy, if you go far enough to
the right, you wind up on the left,” he joked. To contact the reporter on this story:
Indira A.R. Lakshmanan in Washington at
ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
John Walcott at
jwalcott9@bloomberg.net | 2012 | rubio-echoes-obama-more-than-romney-on-foreign-policy |
Nigeria Inflation Accelerates, Keeping Pressure on Rates | By Chris Kay and Maram Mazen | 2012-04-25T14:56:22Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/nigeria-inflation-accelerated-to-12-1-on-fuel-prices.html | 4 | 25 | 8084ae6e6ef3fab625930e4f1ebe6a7f52ca9424 | Nigerian inflation accelerated to
12.1 percent in March as food prices increased, adding to
expectations the central bank will keep interest rates at a
record. The inflation rate in Africa’s top oil producer climbed
from 11.9 percent in February, the National Bureau of Statistics
said in an e-mailed statement today. The median estimate of
eight economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for inflation to slow
to 11.4 percent. Prices rose 1.6 percent in the month. The central bank raised its policy rate by 6 percentage
points to a record 12 percent since 2010 to curb price
pressures. Inflation is still below the central bank’s estimated
peak of 14.5 percent in the first half of this year, giving the
Monetary Policy Committee room to keep the benchmark rate
unchanged next month. “As long as we’re around these levels, it’s unlikely the
Central Bank of Nigeria will react,” Samir Gadio , an emerging-
markets strategist at Standard Bank Group Ltd., said in a phone
interview from London. The naira rose 0.1 percent to 157.17 per dollar as of 2:50
p.m. on the interbank market in Lagos, the commercial capital.
The currency of the West African nation has gained 3.3 percent
this year. Food prices, which account for more than half of the
consumer price index , rose 11.8 percent in March from 9.7
percent in the previous month, the statistics agency said. Core
inflation , which excludes farm produce, accelerated to 15
percent from 11.9 percent in the same period. President Goodluck Jonathan partially cut fuel subsidies in
January, pushing up the gasoline price by half to 97 naira
($0.62) a liter (0.26 gallon). The central bank is targeting an inflation rate below 10
percent. To contact the reporters on this story:
Chris Kay in Abuja at
ckay5@bloomberg.net ;
Maram Mazen in Abuja at
mmazen@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Gavin Serkin at
gserkin@bloomberg.net | 2012 | nigeria-inflation-accelerated-to-12-1-on-fuel-prices |
Acquity Pushing Ahead With U.S. IPO After China Auto Postpones | By Belinda Cao | 2012-04-25T17:43:19Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/acquity-pushing-ahead-with-u-s-ipo-after-china-auto-postpones.html | 4 | 25 | 33f283d27dd6449c9daa44dd2111a07259f8ef08 | Acquity Group Ltd. (AQ) , a Hong Kong-
based digital marketing firm, will push ahead with its U.S.
initial public offering, even as the second Chinese company to
try and sell shares in New York this year postponed its IPO. Acquity plans to raise as much as $55.6 million tomorrow
selling American depositary receipts in the company in a price
range of $8 to $10 apiece, according to an April 23 filing .
Beijing-based China Auto Rental Holdings Inc. delayed its IPO
late yesterday because of “the current capital market
conditions” according to an e-mailed statement from the car
rental company’s public relations firm. “We are still on schedule,” Audrey Ling, Acquity’s
investor relations manager, said by phone today in New York ,
after China Auto’s announcement. The IPO will be priced tomorrow
and the shares will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange
on April 27, she said. Vipshop Holdings Ltd. (VIPS) , the first Chinese company to go
public in the U.S. this year, raised 39 percent less than
planned in its March 23 IPO and is trading 17 percent below its
offer price. IPOs by Chinese companies fell to 13 last year,
from 38 in 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, as
short sellers including Muddy Waters LLC accused firms of
misstating assets and the European debt crisis boosted concern
over a global slowdown. Acquity “has a better chance to complete its IPO because
they are profitable,” Francis Gaskins , president of Marina Del
Rey, California-based IPO desktop, which monitors IPO deals,
said in an interview. “China Auto was profitable in the recent
quarter and needs to show profits for several more quarters.” Acquity had a net profit of $8.3 million in 2011, after
incurring losses in the previous three years, according to its
filing. To contact the reporter on this story:
Belinda Cao in New York at
lcao4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Emma O’Brien at
eobrien6@bloomberg.net | 2012 | acquity-pushing-ahead-with-u-s-ipo-after-china-auto-postpones |
Credit Suisse Posts 96% Profit Drop on Debt Charge | By Elena Logutenkova | 2012-04-25T07:54:27Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/credit-suisse-posts-first-loss-in-three-years-on-revamp.html | 4 | 25 | e290999e9abe460ea8a967f95542a05c | Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) , the second-
largest Swiss bank, reported a 96 percent decline in first-
quarter profit after booking accounting charges related to its
own debt and costs for 2011 bonuses. Net income fell to 44 million Swiss francs ($48 million)
from 1.14 billion francs in the year-earlier period, the Zurich-
based bank said in a statement today. Earnings beat the 297.9
million-franc average loss estimate of nine analysts surveyed by
Bloomberg. Chief Executive Officer Brady Dougan said the bank
benefitted from an “improved environment” in the quarter and
cut risk-weighted assets at the investment bank by more than
previously targeted. Credit Suisse decided to scale down its
investment bank last year as the European sovereign-debt crisis
and stricter capital requirements contributed to a 62 percent
drop in the group’s annual earnings. “I’m relatively impressed with what they’ve achieved in
the first quarter,” Dirk Becker , a Frankfurt-based analyst at
Kepler Capital Markets who rates the bank “reduce,” said in an
interview. Still, “the challenges are really huge for Credit
Suisse” going forward, in both investment banking and in wealth
management, he said. Credit Suisse was little changed at 23.56 francs by 9:42
a.m. in Zurich trading. The stock has gained 6.8 percent this
year, compared with a 2.1 percent increase in the 43-company
Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index and a 1.6
percent advance in UBS AG, its larger Swiss competitor. Fixed-Income Rebound Pretax profit at the investment bank fell 33 percent to 993
million francs in the quarter, while earnings from private
banking dropped 27 percent to 625 million francs. The asset
management division had a 43 percent increase in pretax profit
to 250 million francs, driven by a 178 million-franc gain from
the sale of part of the bank’s stake in Aberdeen Asset
Management Plc. The firm benefited less from the rebound in fixed-income
markets in the quarter than its U.S. competitors. Revenue from
fixed-income sales and trading fell 21 percent to 2 billion
francs from a year earlier, compared with the average 12 percent
increase excluding valuation adjustments reported by Citigroup
Inc. (C) , JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) , Bank of
America Corp. and Morgan Stanley, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg. The bank’s deleveraging efforts contributed to the decline
in revenue, Dougan said in an interview with Bloomberg
Television today, adding that he’s “happy with the diversity”
of revenue. Not as Favorable The bank cut risk-weighted assets in the quarter by 45
billion francs to 294 billion francs on a Basel III basis,
exceeding the accelerated targets announced in February. Equities sales and trading fell 12 percent to 1.4 billion
francs, compared with the average 9 percent decline reported by
the U.S. companies. Revenues from underwriting debt and equity
sales and advising clients on mergers and acquisitions fell 18
percent to 761 million francs, compared with the average 15
percent drop reported by U.S. competitors, Bloomberg data show. Market conditions in April “haven’t been as favorable” as
in the first quarter, Dougan said in the interview. While the
bank has a “pretty constructive” view for the rest of the
year, it has to be prepared for renewed market volatility, he
said. Credit Suisse booked a 1.55 billion-franc charge related to
an increase in the price of its own debt in the first quarter.
The accounting charge stems from a rule tied to the theoretical
cost of buying back the bank’s debt as market prices fluctuate.
The bank also had 534 million francs in costs related to bonds
linked to derivatives, which were awarded as part of 2011
bonuses to more than 5,500 bankers. Job Cuts The firm, which announced 3,500 job cuts last year, said
it’s on track to save about 2 billion francs in annual costs by
the end of 2013. Dougan said the bank doesn’t have plans for any
additional cost reductions. Credit Suisse intends to boost the
private bank’s pretax profit by 800 million francs by 2014 as
sluggish client activity squeezes margins. Credit Suisse reported net new money of 5.8 billion francs
in wealth management in the quarter. That compared with 15.7
billion francs a year ago, after an outflow of 4.1 billion
francs from Clariden Leu clients as the company integrated the
private bank with the rest of its business. The bank is a target of a criminal investigation by the
U.S. Department of Justice over former cross-border private-
banking services to American customers, the company said in
July. Eight bankers, including Credit Suisse’s former head of
North America offshore banking, were charged with conspiring to
help American clients evade taxes through secret bank accounts.
Credit Suisse continues to “work hard” to resolve the U.S.
probe, Dougan said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Elena Logutenkova in Zurich at
elogutenkova@bloomberg.net ; To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Frank Connelly at fconnelly@bloomberg.net | 2012 | credit-suisse-posts-first-loss-in-three-years-on-revamp |
Hanwha, ESB Back TenKsolar’s Systems for Boosting Solar Power | By Andrew Herndon | 2012-04-25T21:19:51Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/hanwha-esb-back-tenksolar-s-systems-for-boosting-solar-power.html | 4 | 25 | 0d1bf210e8b8b2a28f232793fca4dd484cde46fb | South Korean conglomerate Hanwha
Corp. (000880) and ESB Novusmodus LP, a fund backed by Irish state
utility Electricity Supply Board, led a $15.5 million Series B
investment in closely held TenKsolar Inc. Hanwha, which owns a controlling stake in photovoltaic
manufacturer Hanwha SolarOne Co., will help TenKsolar sell solar
panels, it said today in a statement. The company, based in Minneapolis , has developed racking
and reflector systems that are incorporated with conventional
solar cells and sold as a package that boosts energy production,
according to TenKsolar Chief Executive Officer Joel Cannon. Hanwha plans to sell TenKsolar’s products in Japan , and
both companies are “making plans to roll out joint marketing in
other markets as well,” Cannon said today by telephone. The cells in conventional solar panels are strung in
series, meaning the total output drops if a single cell is
damaged or isn’t producing optimally, Cannon said. The company
builds its modules in such a way that each cell produces power
independently, which also enables reflectors to be used to boost
output, he said. Using reflected light with conventional solar
panels typically isn’t allowed under warranty due to fire risk,
Cannon said. Cannon wouldn’t say how much more his company’s panels sell
for than competing products. “We get this tremendous performance gain because you don’t
have any cell dependencies inside the module, and then when you
add the reflector you get this energy gain,” Cannon said.
“It’s a truly revolutionary system.” The company has used “a lot” of cells from Hanwha, though
it also has suppliers in Taiwan and the U.S., including Suniva
Inc., Cannon said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Andrew Herndon in San Francisco at
aherndon2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net | 2012 | anwha-esb-back-tenksolar-s-systems-for-boosting-solar-power |
Kindred, Long-Term Hospitals Rise on Medicare Pay Plans | By Alex Wayne | 2012-04-25T21:00:32Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/medicare-seeks-to-pay-u-s-hospitals-0-9-more-for-patient-care.html | 4 | 25 | d27d528883e44fd1933d4a1b8ea46c2a | Kindred Healthcare Inc. (KND) and Select
Medical (SEM) Holdings Corp. rose after Medicare said it would
increase payments by 1.9 percent to operators of U.S. long-term
hospitals in fiscal 2013. Kindred surged 19 percent to $9.86 for its biggest single-
day gain in almost 15 months while Select Medical climbed 12
percent to $8.82, the largest increase since September 2009. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed
yesterday to spread over three years a planned 3.75 percent cut
in payments for medical services at long-term care hospitals.
The decision gives the companies the 1.9 percent increase in
fiscal 2013. Money for short-term, or acute care, hospitals will
rise 0.9 percent under the proposal, primarily to cover
inflation and greater costs to serve Medicare, the U.S.
government’s health-care program for the elderly and disabled. The proposal is “modestly better than our expectations,”
Sheryl Skolnick , an analyst at CRT Capital Group in Stamford,
Connecticut, said in a note to clients. Acute-care facilities are the most numerous type of
hospitals in the country and include facilities owned by HCA
Holdings Inc. (HCA) , the largest publicly traded hospital chain, and
nonprofits such as Cleveland Clinic . Medicare, one of the
largest sources of revenue for U.S. hospitals, pays about $100
billion a year to those facilities. HCA, Tenet Hospitals owned by Nashville, Tennessee-based HCA and
Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC) would see an average payment
increase of 1.1 percent, according to Lazard Capital Markets
analysts led by Tom Gallucci, who called the proposed increase
“a bit below expectations.” Community Health Systems Inc. (CYH) in
Franklin, Tennessee, would get an average increase of 0.7
percent at its hospitals, Lazard said in a note to clients. LifePoint Hospitals Inc. (LPNT) in Brentwood, Tennessee, which
specializes in rural hospitals, would see an average increase of
0.3 percent at its facilities, Lazard estimated. The increase for acute-care hospitals takes into account
policy changes that will reduce payments to some rural
facilities, and will cost taxpayers $175 million, according to
the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The increase for
long-term care hospitals will cost about $100 million. The changes, which aren’t final until a public review is
completed, would take effect in the year beginning Oct. 1. A
final rule on the 2013 payments is scheduled to be issued by
Aug. 1, the government said. The increases don’t include automatic, across-the-board
cuts in Medicare payments that are scheduled to take effect in
January because Congress failed to agree to legislation last
year that would reduce the deficit. Those 2 percent cuts, combined with the proposed increase
from Medicare, would mean a net 1 percent reduction in hospital
payments in 2013, said Jason Gurda , an analyst at Leerink Swann
& Co. in Boston, in a note to clients. To contact the reporter on this story:
Alex Wayne in Washington at
awayne3@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reg Gale at
rgale5@bloomberg.net | 2012 | edicare-seeks-to-pay-u-s-hospitals-0-9-more-for-patient-care |
Dollar Weakens Before Fed Ends Meeting; Pound Declines | By Catarina Saraiva and David Goodman | 2012-04-25T15:32:34Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/yen-appreciates-against-dollar-strengthening-0-2-to-81-17-yen.html | 4 | 25 | dc03a330342b490590ae7d9a672c7ff9 | The dollar fluctuated against the
euro on speculation Federal Reserve officials meeting today will
signal they remain open to a further round of asset purchases to
spur economic growth. The greenback dropped earlier as U.S. durable-goods orders
fell by the most in three years, a sign the world’s largest
economy is slowing. Sterling slid versus most of its major peers
after the U.K. economy entered its first double-dip recession
since the 1970s. Higher-yielding currencies, including South
Africa ’s rand and Canada’s dollar, gained as stocks rose amid
increasing risk appetite after company earnings beat estimates. “It’s all about the tone of the Fed, and whether or not
they sound more upbeat or more cautious on the economy could set
the tone for the dollar,” said Joe Manimbo , a market analyst in
Washington at Western Union Business Solutions, a unit of
Western Union Co. “The positive corporate earnings from the
likes of Apple, that’s provided a timely distraction.” The dollar depreciated less than 0.1 percent to $1.3203 per
euro at 11:28 a.m. New York time after rising 0.1 percent
earlier and falling as much as 0.3 percent. The U.S. currency
traded little changed at 81.35 yen. The euro was little changed
at 107.41 yen. The Dollar Index (DXY) , which Intercontinental Exchange Inc. uses
to track the U.S. currency against those of six major trading
partners, fell as much as 0.2 percent to 79.038, the lowest
level since April 3, before trading little changed at 79.165. Hollande on Pact The euro erased earlier gains versus the dollar after
Francois Hollande , the leading candidate to become France ’s next
president, said the country won’t ratify the euro fiscal pact in
its current form if he is elected. He spoke at a press
conference in Paris. Hollande, a Socialist, has also criticized austerity
measures imposed throughout the euro region, saying he’ll
refocus the economy on growth if he wins. The euro zone’s
economy is forecast to contract 0.4 percent this year. “Some of the Hollande comments have really had an impact,”
said Mary Nicola , a currency strategist at BNP Paribas SA in New
York. “The candidates have a week to go and elections are tight.
It’s still a nervous point for investors.” The South African rand strengthened 0.3 percent to 7.7750
per dollar. The Canadian dollar rose 0.3 percent to 98.44 cents
to the greenback. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 1 percent. Apple
Inc. (AAPL) posted quarterly earnings late yesterday that almost
doubled, reflecting demand for the iPhone in China . Boeing Co.
and Electrolux AB also posted earnings that beat estimates. Fed Policy Statement The Federal Open Market Committee will probably repeat in a
policy statement after its meeting ends that subdued inflation
and economic slack will result in “exceptionally low” interest
rates through at least late 2014, economists said. The statement
is due around 12:30 p.m. in Washington. The central bank at 2 p.m. will release policy makers’
forecasts for growth, unemployment, inflation and the
appropriate path of the federal funds rate over the next several
years. Chairman Ben S. Bernanke plans to hold a press conference
at 2:15 p.m. The Fed has held its benchmark interest rate at zero to
0.25 percent since December 2008. It purchased $2.3 trillion of
bonds in two rounds of quantitative easing from December 2008 to
June 2011. “We don’t expect the FOMC outcome to mark an end to
speculation of more QE,” Mitul Kotecha , head of global currency
strategy in Hong Kong at Credit Agricole CIB, wrote in a note to
clients. “The U.S. dollar will continue to be restrained until
there is more clarity on the economy, and in turn, Fed
thinking.” Durable Goods U.S. durable goods orders slid 4.2 percent in March, the
biggest decrease since January 2009, after a revised 1.9 percent
gain the prior month, data from the Commerce Department showed
today in Washington . Economists forecast a 1.7 percent decrease,
according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. A report on April 27 will show U.S. economic growth slowed
to a 2.5 percent annual rate last quarter, from 3 percent in the
previous three months, a separate Bloomberg survey showed. The dollar has weakened 2.5 percent this year, the second-
worst performance among the 10 developed-nation currencies
tracked by Bloomberg Correlation Weighted Indexes. The yen has
tumbled 8.3 percent. The pound fell from a seven-month high versus the dollar
after a government report showed the U.K. slipped back into
recession, backing the case for the Bank of England to extend
its asset-purchase program. British GDP Sterling weakened after the Office for National Statistics
in London said gross domestic product shrank 0.2 percent last
quarter, after contracting 0.3 percent in the previous three
months. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News forecast growth of
0.1 percent. The British currency was down 0.1 percent to $1.6133 after
rising to $1.6171, the highest level since Sept. 6. It slipped
0.1 percent to 81.80 pence per euro. It appreciated to 81.44
pence yesterday, the strongest since August 2010. Investors should sell the euro at $1.3205, targeting a
decline to $1.3057 with an order to exit the trade if the shared
currency strengthens to $1.3250, UBS AG said. The euro is struggling to break resistance levels at the
April 12 high of $1.3212 and the 62 percent Fibonacci
retracement of the March-to-April decline at $1.3239, Richard Adcock , head of fixed-income technical strategy in London, wrote
in a research note. Resistance is an area on a chart where sell
orders may be clustered. Fibonacci analysis is based on the
theory that prices rise or fall by certain percentages after
reaching a high or low. Draghi Softens Tone European Central Bank President Mario Draghi softened his
tone on the inflation outlook and called for a “growth
compact” as the sovereign debt crisis weighs on the euro-area
economy. While inflation will remain above the ECB’s 2 percent limit
this year, it will slow in 2013 and “underlying price pressures
should remain modest,” Draghi told lawmakers in Brussels today.
That’s a contrast to the “upside risks” to inflation he warned
of three weeks ago. To contact the reporters on this story:
Catarina Saraiva in New York at
asaraiva5@bloomberg.net ;
David Goodman in London at
dgoodman28@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net | 2012 | yen-appreciates-against-dollar-strengthening-0-2-to-81-17-yen |
U.S. Companies Reporting Unchanged Quarterly EPS, April 25 | By Wendy Soong | 2012-04-25T22:15:56Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/u-s-companies-reporting-unchanged-quarterly-eps-april-25.html | 4 | 25 | 92a714b66dac8d8dfc94ae0878265d6097555fc3 | The following U.S. companies reported unchanged
quarterly year-over-year earnings per share (end date of the quarter is
noted in the last column). Earnings estimates provided by Bloomberg.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Wendy Soong in New York at at csoong@Bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Alex Tanzi at at
atanzi@Bloomberg.net | 2012 | u-s-companies-reporting-unchanged-quarterly-eps-april-25 |
U.S. Mutual Funds Got $6.48 Billion Net Deposits Last Week | By Charles Stein | 2012-04-25T21:06:44Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/u-s-mutual-funds-got-6-48-billion-net-deposits-last-week.html | 4 | 25 | f2cc132cd961ea991cc532e34d068d6f3f66ea84 | U.S. mutual funds attracted $6.48
billion in net new assets last week as investors bought taxable
bond and international stock funds while dumping domestic
equities. Taxable bond funds attracted $4.86 billion and
international stock funds won $8.73 billion in the week ended
April 18, the Washington-based Investment Company Institute said
today in an e-mailed statement. Domestic stock funds lost $8.68
billion to net withdrawals. To contact the reporter on this story:
Charles Stein in Boston at
cstein4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Christian Baumgaertel at
cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net | 2012 | u-s-mutual-funds-got-6-48-billion-net-deposits-last-week |
C.H. Robinson Falls Most Since October as Sales Trail Estimates | By Ed Dufner and Rachel Layne | 2012-04-25T16:28:28Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/c-h-robinson-falls-most-since-october-as-sales-trail-estimates.html | 4 | 25 | 7984cabe6df456b996e6dcdb30c532eb2248b2a3 | C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. (CHRW) , an
arranger of freight shipments, fell the most since October after
reporting first-quarter sales that trailed analysts’ estimates. The shares declined 7.1 percent to $61.18 at 12:02 p.m. in
New York, a drop that was among the biggest for companies in the
Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. The stock slumped as much as 8.9
percent earlier for the steepest intraday decline since Oct. 26. Revenue was $2.55 billion, while net income rose 9.8
percent to $106.5 million, or 65 cents a share, the Eden
Prairie , Minnesota-based company said late yesterday. Analysts
projected sales would be $2.61 billion and per-share earnings of
65 cents, based on the average of estimates compiled by
Bloomberg. “While the company’s long-term outlook remains favorable,
we do not currently see a compelling reason to be more
constructive on the stock,” Jason Seidl , a Dahlman Rose & Co.
analyst in New York, said today in a note to investors. He
rates the shares as hold. To contact the reporters on this story:
Ed Dufner in Dallas at
edufner@bloomberg.net ;
Rachel Layne in Boston at
rlayne@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Ed Dufner at
edufner@bloomberg.net | 2012 | c-h-robinson-falls-most-since-october-as-sales-trail-estimates |
Hong Kong Short Selling Turnover (Main Board) Recorded 04/25/201 | By | 2012-04-25T04:45:21Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/hong-kong-short-selling-turnover-main-board-recorded-04-25-201.html
Hong Kong , 04/25/2012 (Bloomberg) - Short selling was recorded on the
Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for the following
companies as of 00:45 today. Number Short Percent of shares selling Total of short
Tkr sold short turnover turnover to total
Sym Company Name (thousand) (HK$ mln) (HK$ mln) turnover 1868 NEO-NEON 12 0.02 0.03 63.3
1813 KWG PROPERTY 1717 8.33 16.10 51.8
1899 XINGDA INT'L 284 0.95 1.93 49.1
2331 LI NING 165.50 1.22 2.50 48.6
743 ASIA CEMENT CH 11 0.04 0.09 47.8
410 SOHO CHINA 1800.50 10.80 22.90 47.1
2600 CHALCO 1878 7.05 15.35 45.9
338 SHANGHAI PECHEM 418 1.15 2.51 45.7
493 GOME 15343 22.96 51.22 44.8
1812 CHENMING PAPER 7.50 0.03 0.06 44.2
631 SANY INT'L 157 0.95 2.27 41.8
2800 TRACKER FUND 2310 48.40 115.91 41.8
220 U-PRESID CHINA 982 6.19 15.13 40.9
2338 WEICHAI POWER 271 9.80 24.13 40.6
168 TSINGTAO BREW 78 3.52 9.00 39.1
1025 WUMART 64 1.14 2.92 39.0
975 MONGOL MINING 416 2.64 6.84 38.5
2314 LEE & MAN PAPER 81 0.29 0.81 36.1
606 CHINA AGRI 519 2.91 8.34 34.9
658 C TRANSMISSION 255 0.97 2.93 33.1
750 SINGYES SOLAR 45 0.17 0.53 32.2
1114 BRILLIANCE CHI 970 7.99 25.12 31.8
358 JIANGXI COPPER 1239 22.52 70.79 31.8
1071 HUADIAN POWER 90 0.16 0.52 30.4
1618 MCC 172 0.30 0.99 30.2
1193 CHINA RES GAS 58 0.83 2.86 28.9
3933 UNITED LAB 1472 4.52 15.64 28.9
23 BANK OF E ASIA 108.20 3.10 10.74 28.9
17 NEW WORLD DEV 564 5.12 17.80 28.8
363 SHANGHAI IND H 89 2.27 8.06 28.2
2357 AVICHINA 560 1.96 6.99 28.0
2607 SH PHARMA 41.40 0.46 1.67 27.8
3808 SINOTRUK 355 1.59 6.15 25.8
297 SINOFERT 1114 1.89 7.52 25.1
2010 REAL NUTRI 255 0.60 2.38 25.0
700 TENCENT 670 155.96 632.30 24.7
845 GLORIOUS PPT H 972 1.12 4.54 24.6
6808 SUNART RETAIL 92.50 0.95 3.93 24.2
2601 CPIC 290.80 7.46 30.85 24.2
688 CHINA OVERSEAS 1742 28.17 119.28 23.6
460 SIHUAN PHARM 383 1.14 4.96 23.0
887 EMPEROR WATCH&J 1510 1.69 7.43 22.7
659 NWS HOLDINGS 134 1.56 7.04 22.1
825 NWDS CHINA 16 0.08 0.39 21.7
773 CH METAL RECYCL 57.60 0.51 2.35 21.6
883 CNOOC 4804 77.74 361.33 21.5
3993 CMOC 306 0.95 4.51 21.2
1171 YANZHOU COAL 694 11.23 53.36 21.1
2313 SHENZHOU INTL 46 0.65 3.12 20.9
5 HSBC HOLDINGS 912 63.15 302.57 20.9
210 DAPHNE INT'L 174 1.85 9.00 20.6
914 ANHUI CONCH 446.50 11.51 56.16 20.5
3818 CHINA DONGXIANG 1491 1.54 7.51 20.5
388 HKEX 209.30 26.37 135.52 19.5
1988 MINSHENG BANK 3321.50 25.22 131.12 19.2
1728 ZHENGTONGAUTO 103.50 0.84 4.43 18.9
272 SHUI ON LAND 154.50 0.49 2.66 18.5
267 CITIC PACIFIC 87 1.10 6.06 18.1
371 BJ ENT WATER 238 0.41 2.29 18.1
991 DATANG POWER 370 1.02 5.79 17.7
315 SMARTONE TELE 71 1.14 6.47 17.6
1068 YURUN FOOD 716 6.92 39.50 17.5
242 SHUN TAK HOLD 192 0.61 3.55 17.2
3618 CQRC BANK 833 2.99 17.42 17.1
2688 ENN ENERGY 150 4.01 23.64 17.0
322 TINGYI 432 8.62 50.85 16.9
347 ANGANG STEEL 180 0.96 5.86 16.4
38 FIRST TRACTOR 84 0.61 3.74 16.3
4 WHARF HOLDINGS 223 10.17 62.63 16.2
2168 YINGDE GASES 35 0.30 1.88 16.1
1055 CHINA SOUTH AIR 436 1.41 8.86 15.9
2727 SH ELECTRIC 248 1.00 6.28 15.9
41 GREAT EAGLE H 39 0.90 5.67 15.8
2008 PHOENIX TV 22 0.06 0.37 15.7
12 HENDERSON LAND 54 2.42 15.42 15.7
303 VTECH HOLDINGS 15.60 1.36 8.67 15.7
691 SHANSHUI CEMENT 315 1.96 12.48 15.7
511 TVB 16 0.87 5.54 15.6
494 LI & FUNG 668 11.09 71.01 15.6
3383 AGILE PROPERTY 474 4.62 29.61 15.6
2282 MGM CHINA 209.60 3.00 19.32 15.6
694 BEIJING AIRPORT 1062 5.21 34.04 15.3
148 KINGBOARD CHEM 37 0.87 5.67 15.3
1368 XTEP INT'L 173.50 0.60 3.98 15.0
1117 CH MODERN D 62 0.14 0.91 15.0
697 SHOUGANG INT'L 900 0.37 2.49 15.0
3898 CSR TIMES ELEC 227 4.75 31.71 15.0
857 PETROCHINA 2520 28.24 188.71 15.0
2866 CSCL 1130 2.81 18.86 14.9
19 SWIRE PACIFIC A 44.50 3.92 26.95 14.6
1888 KB LAMINATES 52.50 0.20 1.41 14.5
1137 CITY TELECOM 51 0.23 1.58 14.5
1138 CHINA SHIP DEV 140 0.71 4.92 14.4
20 WHEELOCK 51 1.33 9.30 14.3
1766 CSR 526 3.12 21.91 14.3
135 KUNLUN ENERGY 932 12.04 84.72 14.2
2689 ND PAPER 129 0.82 5.75 14.2
1115 TIBET 5100 41 0.07 0.52 13.9
2208 GOLDWIND 65.60 0.24 1.75 13.9
1122 QINGLING MOTORS 100 0.25 1.78 13.9
2299 BILLION IND 69 0.29 2.12 13.7
2233 WESTCHINACEMENT 572 1.02 7.53 13.6
1234 CHINA LILANG 54 0.39 2.89 13.4
3813 POU SHENG INT'L 658 0.47 3.55 13.3
751 SKYWORTHDIGITAL 1408 4.51 34.02 13.3
2827 X WISECSI300ETF 98.80 2.93 22.16 13.2
2698 WEIQIAO TEXTILE 54 0.20 1.54 13.2
1157 ZOOMLION 878.40 9.81 74.57 13.2
1919 CHINA COSCO 1085 5.03 38.74 13.0
2343 PACIFIC BASIN 30 0.12 0.96 12.8
3331 VINDA INT'L 98 1.24 9.77 12.7
3308 GOLDEN EAGLE 44 0.85 6.75 12.6
2628 CHINA LIFE 656 13.63 109.47 12.5
8 PCCW 489 1.41 11.32 12.4
3988 BANK OF CHINA 5993 19.37 161.64 12.0
981 SMIC 1132 0.44 3.64 12.0
1066 WEIGAO GROUP 68 0.58 4.88 11.8
1633 MAGIC HOLDINGS 19 0.06 0.47 11.8
1259 PRINCE FROG 244 0.71 6.15 11.6
1800 CHINA COMM CONS 722 5.67 49.59 11.4
440 DAH SING 3.20 0.09 0.81 11.1
1212 LIFESTYLE INT'L 63.50 1.14 10.29 11.1
323 MAANSHAN IRON 418 0.96 8.64 11.1
1387 RENHE COMM 2026 0.98 8.96 11.0
69 SHANGRI-LA ASIA 36 0.60 5.49 10.9
1828 DCH HOLDINGS 108 0.90 8.38 10.7
1109 CHINA RES LAND 604 8.75 82.17 10.6
14 HYSAN DEV 167 5.62 53.12 10.6
489 DONGFENG GROUP 796 11.92 113.49 10.5
656 FOSUN INTL 80.50 0.37 3.51 10.4
639 SHOUGANG RES 722 1.88 18.15 10.4
270 GUANGDONG INV 198 1.08 10.63 10.2
813 SHIMAO PROPERTY 1130.50 11.16 111.41 10.0
992 LENOVO GROUP 634 4.66 46.58 10.0
1224 C C LAND 50 0.08 0.81 9.9
867 CMS 35 0.19 1.98 9.7
1880 BELLE INT'L 276 4.10 42.18 9.7
552 CHINACOMSERVICE 60 0.25 2.55 9.7
960 LONGFOR PPT 50 0.61 6.32 9.6
848 MAOYE INT'L 125 0.22 2.32 9.6
2388 BOC HONG KONG 546.50 12.73 133.20 9.6
2 CLP HOLDINGS 27 1.78 18.76 9.5
159 WAH NAM INT'L 196 0.10 1.10 9.3
1893 SINOMA 95 0.29 3.13 9.3
107 SICHUAN EXPRESS 56 0.18 1.92 9.2
1929 CHOW TAI FOOK 113 1.32 14.40 9.2
522 ASM PACIFIC 15.90 1.63 17.78 9.1
1088 CHINA SHENHUA 245.50 8.24 91.42 9.0
179 JOHNSON ELEC H 35 0.17 1.88 9.0
538 AJISEN (CHINA) 123 1.08 11.96 9.0
1833 INTIME 156 1.51 16.88 9.0
173 K. WAH INT'L 378 1.20 13.62 8.8
2899 ZIJIN MINING 1566 4.58 52.14 8.8
2222 NVC LIGHTING 146 0.42 4.82 8.7
2880 DALIAN PORT 152 0.29 3.35 8.5
762 CHINA UNICOM 152 1.97 23.88 8.3
941 CHINA MOBILE 405 34.39 417.33 8.2
2238 GAC GROUP 100 0.83 10.11 8.2
116 CHOW SANG SANG 10 0.20 2.45 8.1
1393 HIDILI INDUSTRY 102 0.26 3.26 8.1
728 CHINA TELECOM 670 2.74 34.09 8.1
1194 C PRECIOUSMETAL 204 0.28 3.51 7.9
386 SINOPEC CORP 1158 9.43 121.16 7.8
1186 CHINA RAIL CONS 256 1.46 19.16 7.6
1910 SAMSONITE 85.80 1.30 17.33 7.5
1555 MIE HOLDINGS 46 0.12 1.59 7.4
1788 GUOTAI JUNAN I 79 0.20 2.74 7.4
321 TEXWINCA HOLD 14 0.13 1.79 7.3
1733 WINSWAY 681 1.24 17.17 7.2
1336 NCI 122.60 4.25 59.64 7.1
3377 SINO-OCEAN LAND 119.50 0.43 6.11 7.1
2877 SHINEWAY PHARM 45 0.53 7.55 7.0
902 HUANENG POWER 636 2.88 41.52 6.9
3998 BOSIDENG 108 0.23 3.38 6.9
2722 CHONGQING M&E 70 0.10 1.46 6.9
1913 PRADA 58.20 3.00 43.97 6.8
881 ZHONGSHENG HLDG 73.50 1.14 17.11 6.7
1333 CHINA ZHONGWANG 22 0.07 1.02 6.7
980 LIANHUA 38 0.31 4.69 6.6
218 SHENYIN WANGUO 45 0.11 1.69 6.5
809 GLOBAL BIO-CHEM 238 0.35 5.43 6.5
215 HUTCHTEL HK 50 0.17 2.68 6.4
1238 POWERLONG 72 0.10 1.53 6.4
866 CHINA QINFA 16 0.03 0.44 6.3
1999 MAN WAH HLDGS 42 0.18 2.84 6.3
2380 CHINA POWER 32 0.05 0.88 6.2
966 CHINA TAIPING 30.20 0.47 7.56 6.2
2342 COMBA 71 0.33 5.40 6.0
101 HANG LUNG PPT 89 2.57 42.67 6.0
189 DONGYUE GROUP 1746 10.91 181.13 6.0
16 SHK PPT 117 11.05 185.56 6.0
11 HANG SENG BANK 6.30 0.66 11.07 5.9
2626 HNC 46 0.11 1.81 5.9
66 MTR CORPORATION 18.50 0.50 8.60 5.8
375 YGM TRADING 6 0.13 2.20 5.8
934 SINOPEC KANTONS 360 1.94 34.86 5.6
1072 DONGFANG ELEC 36.80 0.72 13.01 5.6
973 L'OCCITANE 6.75 0.13 2.42 5.6
178 SA SA INT'L 50 0.24 4.31 5.5
670 CHINA EAST AIR 200 0.47 8.59 5.5
200 MELCO INT'L DEV 136 1.09 20.19 5.4
1968 PEAK SPORT 5 0.01 0.17 5.4
763 ZTE 119.80 2.35 43.92 5.3
916 CHINA LONGYUAN 57 0.34 6.54 5.3
828 DYNASTY WINES 8 0.01 0.24 5.1
868 XINYI GLASS 132 0.66 13.09 5.0
2007 COUNTRY GARDEN 221 0.74 14.91 4.9
1900 CHINA ITS 80 0.10 2.05 4.9
1928 SANDS CHINA LTD 359.60 11.36 231.75 4.9
27 GALAXY ENT 539 12.41 256.29 4.8
151 WANT WANT CHINA 591 5.58 115.28 4.8
903 TPV TECHNOLOGY 16 0.03 0.61 4.8
13 HUTCHISON 102 7.54 156.60 4.8
3833 XINXIN MINING 21 0.04 0.93 4.8
268 KINGDEE INT'L 78 0.14 2.87 4.8
1685 BOER POWER 14 0.04 0.89 4.7
873 INT'L TAIFENG 30 0.07 1.54 4.6
2228 COSTIN NEW MAT 41 0.16 3.65 4.5
1029 IRC 16 0.02 0.40 4.4
958 HN RENEWABLES 10 0.02 0.42 4.4
1288 ABC 1730 6.18 140.37 4.4
1133 HARBIN ELECTRIC 14 0.11 2.47 4.4
506 CHINA FOODS 108 0.84 19.28 4.4
563 SH IND URBAN 94 0.15 3.47 4.4
316 OOIL 8.50 0.46 10.58 4.3
769 CHINA RAREEARTH 68 0.14 3.30 4.3
1199 COSCO PACIFIC 32 0.35 8.28 4.3
2018 AAC TECH 68 1.67 39.18 4.2
302 WING HANG BANK 2 0.16 3.77 4.2
177 JIANGSU EXPRESS 40 0.30 7.27 4.1
3333 EVERGRANDE 1604 6.96 168.62 4.1
3968 CM BANK 122 1.99 48.25 4.1
1044 HENGAN INT'L 19.50 1.56 38.15 4.1
1128 WYNN MACAU 84.80 2.00 48.70 4.1
653 BONJOUR HOLD 78 0.09 2.25 4.0
546 FUFENG GROUP 57 0.18 4.47 4.0
576 ZHEJIANGEXPRESS 44 0.24 6.16 3.9
83 SINO LAND 96 1.29 33.07 3.9
3323 CNBM 420 4.37 113.37 3.9
817 FRANSHION PPT 120 0.25 6.43 3.8
1211 BYD COMPANY 44.50 0.95 25.20 3.8
2823 X ISHARES A50 3471.50 38.15 1015.97 3.8
3 HK & CHINA GAS 66 1.32 35.04 3.8
917 NEW WORLD CHINA 114 0.26 6.99 3.7
3339 LONKING 109 0.30 8.19 3.7
2333 GREATWALL MOTOR 115.50 1.86 50.42 3.7
6 POWER ASSETS 21 1.20 32.66 3.7
2319 MENGNIU DAIRY 105 2.48 69.62 3.6
2318 PING AN 45 2.80 79.18 3.5
144 CHINA MER HOLD 28 0.70 19.84 3.5
119 POLY HK INV 250 0.97 29.42 3.3
551 YUE YUEN IND 32 0.81 24.51 3.3
467 UNITEDENERGY GP 56 0.09 2.90 3.2
623 SINOMEDIA 9 0.04 1.29 3.2
486 RUSAL 4 0.02 0.70 3.1
754 HOPSON DEV HOLD 36 0.17 5.43 3.1
1299 AIA 231 6.32 217.92 2.9
10 HANG LUNG GROUP 3 0.15 5.23 2.8
1136 TCC INT'L HOLD 28 0.08 2.82 2.7
175 GEELY AUTO 240 0.72 27.02 2.7
1038 CKI HOLDINGS 6 0.27 10.25 2.7
1121 BAOFENGMODERN 34 0.04 1.64 2.7
3368 PARKSON GROUP 31 0.26 9.96 2.6
1033 YIZHENG CHEM 16 0.03 1.17 2.5
2888 STANCHART 2.70 0.52 20.43 2.5
1208 MIN RESOURCES 20 0.08 3.05 2.5
712 COMTEC SOLAR 4 0.00 0.17 2.5
425 MINTH GROUP 20 0.18 7.45 2.5
1623 HILONG 13 0.02 1.02 2.4
590 LUK FOOK HOLD 9 0.19 7.75 2.4
1361 361 DEGREES 5 0.01 0.49 2.4
1 CHEUNG KONG 23 2.30 98.22 2.3
709 GIORDANO INT'L 34 0.22 9.44 2.3
2328 PICC P&C 48 0.46 20.05 2.3
2777 R&F PROPERTIES 84 0.82 36.05 2.3
939 CCB 2269 13.44 592.32 2.3
1313 CHINARES CEMENT 30 0.18 8.05 2.2
330 ESPRIT HOLDINGS 23.10 0.37 16.74 2.2
331 PCD STORES 78 0.08 3.50 2.2
2009 BBMG 92 0.65 29.66 2.2
995 ANHUIEXPRESSWAY 6 0.03 1.20 2.2
341 CAFE DE CORAL H 8 0.17 7.73 2.1
6030 CITIC SEC 51.50 0.83 40.27 2.1
2005 LIJUN INT'L 10 0.02 0.82 2.1
1200 MIDLAND HOLDING 4 0.02 0.78 2.0
389 TONTINE WINES 8 0.01 0.34 2.0
1938 CHU KONG PIPE 6 0.02 0.89 2.0
392 BEIJING ENT 2.50 0.11 5.75 2.0
933 BRIGHTOIL 3 0.01 0.29 1.9
2678 TEXHONG TEXTILE 2 0.01 0.32 1.9
257 CHINA EB INT'L 64 0.21 11.70 1.8
1836 STELLA HOLDINGS 1 0.02 1.20 1.8
285 BYD ELECTRONIC 4 0.01 0.55 1.7
3800 GCL-POLY ENERGY 122 0.26 15.53 1.7
998 CITIC BANK 162 0.77 47.48 1.6
393 GLORIOUS SUN 2 0.01 0.33 1.6
3983 CHINA BLUECHEM 46 0.26 16.04 1.6
2355 BAOYE GROUP 12 0.06 3.75 1.6
517 COSCO INTL HOLD 2 0.01 0.44 1.6
1099 SINOPHARM 14.40 0.29 18.52 1.6
3389 HENGDELI 16 0.05 3.54 1.4
548 SHENZHENEXPRESS 2 0.01 0.47 1.4
819 TIANNENG POWER 10 0.04 2.87 1.3
2883 CHINA OILFIELD 10 0.12 8.98 1.3
230 MINMETALS LAND 10 0.01 0.75 1.3
1052 YUEXIUTRANSPORT 4 0.01 1.18 1.3
2020 ANTA SPORTS 42 0.32 26.30 1.2
945 MANULIFE-S 0.80 0.08 6.84 1.2
893 CHINAVTM MINING 5 0.01 0.78 1.1
142 FIRST PACIFIC 8 0.07 6.38 1.1
398 ORIENTAL WATCH 4 0.01 1.23 1.1
2778 CHAMPION REIT 28 0.09 8.97 1.1
1006 CHINA CORN OIL 1 0.00 0.36 1.0
669 TECHTRONIC IND 17.50 0.17 16.22 1.0
293 CATHAY PAC AIR 20 0.26 25.90 1.0
1338 BAWANG GROUP 88 0.06 6.24 1.0
1882 HAITIAN INT'L 13 0.12 11.70 1.0
1966 CHINA SCE PPT 5 0.01 0.91 1.0
3328 BANKCOMM 42 0.24 25.73 0.9
165 CHINA EB LTD 12 0.14 15.54 0.9
1198 ROYALE FURN 2 0.00 0.53 0.9
2038 FIH 57 0.26 28.81 0.9
1112 BIOSTIME 2 0.04 4.83 0.9
1177 SINO BIOPHARM 4 0.01 1.02 0.8
384 CHINA GAS HOLD 24 0.09 11.72 0.8
983 SOCAM DEV 4 0.03 4.35 0.8
88 TAI CHEUNG HOLD 1 0.01 0.74 0.7
999 I.T 8 0.03 4.57 0.7
823 LINK REIT 35 1.10 156.29 0.7
3393 WASION GROUP 8 0.03 3.78 0.7
54 HOPEWELL HOLD 0.50 0.01 1.66 0.6
34 KOWLOON DEV 5 0.04 6.57 0.6
1093 CHINA PHARMA 4 0.01 1.17 0.6
836 CHINA RES POWER 8 0.11 20.99 0.5
1101 CH RONGSHENG 208.50 0.39 79.95 0.5
368 SINOTRANS SHIP 2 0.00 0.78 0.5
1398 ICBC 375 1.92 431.40 0.4
1308 SITC 1 0.00 0.51 0.4
291 CHINA RESOURCES 2 0.05 13.59 0.4
1898 CHINA COAL 15 0.13 34.21 0.4
3888 KINGSOFT 5 0.02 4.93 0.4
182 CHINA WINDPOWER 10 0.00 1.09 0.3
853 MICROPORT 1 0.00 1.21 0.3
163 EMPEROR IHL 2 0.00 0.97 0.3
390 CHINA RAILWAY 10 0.03 13.22 0.2
806 VALUE PARTNERS 3 0.01 7.48 0.2
1768 SATERI 0.50 0.00 0.70 0.2
569 CH AUTOMATION 1 0.00 1.83 0.1
6823 HKT-SS 3 0.02 16.90 0.1
1638 KAISA GROUP 1 0.00 2.87 0.1
886 SILVER BASE 1 0.00 7.15 0.1 Total No. of Securities recording Short Selling : 351
Total No. of Designated Securities recording Short Selling : 351
Short Selling Turnover Total Shares (SH) : 118,033,250
Short Selling Turnover Total Value ($) : HKD 1,155,811,585
*Total No. of non-Designated Securities recording Short Selling : 0
Short Selling Turnover Total Shares (SH) : 0
Short Selling Turnover Total Value ($) : HKD 0
Note: Figures are preliminary and subject to revision. | 4 | 25 | b63c6a0d385f4b9ab549d059b12193fa | 2012 | ong-kong-short-selling-turnover-main-board-recorded-04-25-201 |
|
Bernanke Says Fed May Name Officials Making Rate Forecasts | By Joshua Zumbrun | 2012-04-25T22:28:39Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/bernanke-says-fed-may-identify-officials-making-rate-forecasts.html | 4 | 25 | 83bdf7692ae2195dd2075593046701bbc84537c3 | Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank is considering identifying the
interest-rate forecasts of individual policy makers as it
reviews ways to improve its communications with the public. The Fed is looking “for ways to improve transparency, and
we’re looking at everything,” Bernanke said at a press
conference today following a meeting of the Federal Open Market
Committee in Washington. Giving the names of the individuals
making forecasts is “on the table.” The Fed currently releases a chart showing dots which
correspond to the interest-rate forecasts of its 17 policy
makers and a table showing the range of their forecasts for
inflation, growth and unemployment . The chart doesn’t give the
names of the policy makers. Only 10 of them are voting members
of the FOMC in any given year, and the chart and table do not
explain the preferences of the FOMC’s voting membership. The FOMC’s committee on communications discussed providing
more information that “could convey a sense of how the
committee might adjust policy in response to changes in the
economic outlook,” according to minutes of the Fed’s March
meeting. Seven of 17 Fed officials expect borrowing costs to remain
below 1 percent at the end of 2014, compared with nine in
January, while 10 expected rates to be 1 percent or higher,
versus eight in January, according to the chart released today. 2014 Pledge Even so, the FOMC today repeated that borrowing costs are
likely to remain “exceptionally low” at least through late
2014. The Fed lowered its target for the benchmark federal funds
rate to zero to 0.25 percent in December 2008 as it battled the
recession and later bought $2.3 trillion of Treasuries and
housing debt to bring down long-term interest rates . “We remain prepared to do more as needed to make sure that
this recovery continues and that inflation stays close to
target,” Bernanke said. Additional bond-buying is still “very
much on the table.” Officials forecast the unemployment rate would average 7.8
percent to 8 percent in the final three months of this year
versus a forecast of 8.2 percent to 8.5 percent in January,
according to central tendency estimates. The new forecasts are
still far above policy makers’ estimates for full employment,
which range from 4.9 percent to 6 percent. The so-called central tendency economic forecasts exclude
the three highest and three lowest projections. Fed officials estimated the economy will expand 2.4 percent
to 2.9 percent this year, compared with a January forecast of
2.2 percent to 2.7 percent. They see growth of 2.7 percent to
3.1 percent in 2013 and 3.1 percent to 3.6 percent in 2014. To contact the reporter on this story:
Joshua Zumbrun in Washington at
jzumbrun@bloomberg.net ; To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Christopher Wellisz at
cwellisz@bloomberg.net | 2012 | bernanke-says-fed-may-identify-officials-making-rate-forecasts |
TAG Immobilien Annual Profit Soars as Rental Income Climbs | By Dalia Fahmy | 2012-04-25T10:42:05Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/tag-immobilien-full-year-profit-soars-as-rental-income-climbs.html | 4 | 25 | 435529bcbede4990d3786e51749e961f112b63e9 | TAG Immobilien AG (TEG) , the German
company buying a Bayerische Landesbank real-estate unit, said
full-year profit more than tripled on rising rental income and
lower borrowing costs. Net income climbed to 66.9 million euros ($87 million), or
1.05 euros a share, from 18.5 million euros, or 48 cents, a year
earlier, the Hamburg-based company said in a statement today.
Analysts expected earnings of 72 cents a share, the average of
six estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Rental income rose to 115 million euros from 52 million
euros after several acquisitions last year doubled the value of
TAG’s real-estate holdings. TAG last month agreed to pay 160
million euros for Bayerische Landesbank’s DKB Immobilien unit,
adding 25,000 homes. “It will be more difficult to buy more,” TAG Chief
Executive Officer Rolf Elgeti said on a conference call today.
“Prices are rising and the environment is becoming more
competitive” with a growing number of bidders making it more
difficult for TAG to win property auctions, he said. The commercial real-estate market isn’t attractive, Elgeti
said. “We will focus our investments on the residential side,
and if anything, we would sell commercial assets,” he said. A drop in funding costs also helped boost 2011 earnings.
Average interest charges for its mortgage loans fell to 3.9
percent from 4.5 percent over the course of the year, the
company said. Chief Financial Officer Hans-Ulrich Sutter resigned and
will be replaced by Georg Griesemann, a TAG accounting and tax
executive, the company said in a separate statement. TAG rose 2.4 cents to 7.09 euros as of 11:59 a.m. in
Frankfurt trading. The shares have risen about 2.2 percent in
the past 12 months, while the 564-member CDAX Performance Index
has dropped 8.8 percent. To contact the reporter on this story:
Dalia Fahmy in Berlin at
dfahmy1@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Ross Larsen at rlarsen2@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | ag-immobilien-full-year-profit-soars-as-rental-income-climbs |
Akamai Says CEO Sagan to Leave; Profit Less Than Estimates | By Sarah Frier and Brian Womack | 2012-04-26T13:39:01Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/akamai-says-ceo-departing-by-end-2013-sales-top-estimates-1-.html | 4 | 25 | 6b532077ad854478a67608fbabb28ea7 | Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM) , which
helps businesses deliver data at faster speeds over the
Internet, said Chief Executive Officer Paul Sagan will leave by
the end of 2013. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company is starting a
search to replace Sagan, who became president in 1999 and CEO in
2005. Akamai’s sales more than quadrupled during his leadership,
to $1.16 billion in 2011 from $283.1 million in 2005. Sagan, 53, has been with Akamai for almost 14 years,
helping the company become less dependent on its content-
delivery network business, which was becoming commoditized. He
acquired companies to add services and products that would
differentiate Akamai from competitors, said Sameet Sinha , an
analyst at B. Riley & Co. in San Francisco . “They’re positioning themselves as a cloud-computing
applications-services provider, while their competitors just
sell core CDN,” Sinha said. “Paul has been around a long time
in a tough industry.” Second-quarter profit excluding some costs will be 36 cents
to 38 cents a share, James Benson, Akamai’s chief financial
officer, said during a call with analysts yesterday. That’s less
than the average analyst estimate of 39 cents, according to data
compiled by Bloomberg. Sales will be $322 million to $330
million, more than analysts’ average estimate of $314.8 million. Akamai shares declined 8.8 percent to $35.35 at 9:37 a.m.
in New York. The stock has climbed 20 percent this year before
today. No ‘Radical Change’? “Of course, he would like to go out with great numbers,”
said Donna Jaegers , an analyst at D.A. Davidson & Co. in Denver,
referring to Sagan. “I don’t sense that there’s going to be a
radical change in the company.” Akamai’s customers include Apple Inc. (AAPL) When former CFO J.D.
Sherman departed earlier this year, Akamai promoted Benson, who
had joined the company in 2009 from Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) This
time, they’re likely to replace Sagan with an outside candidate
with a corporate sales background, Sinha said. “They need somebody who’s not a telecom guy,” Sinha said.
“They need somebody who’s worked in hardware or software who
has enterprise sales experience.” Sagan, a cousin of scientist Carl Sagan, has a background
in broadcast journalism. In 1991, while working at Time Warner
Inc., he helped design and introduce NY 1 News, the cable
network in New York City , and later helped found Road Runner,
the first broadband cable-modem service. He joined Akamai in
October 1998. ‘Next Level’ “Starting a search now means the board and I can take the
time we need to find the right person to elevate the company to
the next level and achieve the $5 billion revenue goal I set for
us by the end of this decade,” Sagan said on a conference call.
“I intend to vigorously lead the company until my successor has
been named.” Akamai, which went public at the height of the Internet
boom in late 1999, lost most of its value after the bubble
burst. Sagan helped lead Akamai after its co-founder, Daniel Lewin, died aboard American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed
into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Sagan owns $15.4 million worth of shares in Akamai,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Today, the company is
being helped by demand for services that push data-heavy digital
media content, such as videos, around the world more quickly.
While Sagan is still running the company, he needs to get more
traction internationally, Jaegers said. “They need to grow faster in China and India and they need
to increase the size of the sales force to take advantage of
opportunities in the enterprise,” she said. Acquisition Prospects The CEO transition will make an acquisition of the company
less likely, Jaegers said. The company also said first-quarter sales rose to $319.4
million, topping $310.8 million, the average analyst estimate.
Profit excluding some costs was 41 cents a share, Akamai said in
a statement yesterday. That beat the 38-cent estimate. Net income fell to $43.2 million, or 24 cents a share, from
$50.6 million, or 26 cents, a year earlier, the company said. To contact the reporters on this story:
Brian Womack in San Francisco at
bwomack1@bloomberg.net ;
Sarah Frier in New York at
sfrier1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Tom Giles at
tgiles5@bloomberg.net | 2012 | akamai-says-ceo-departing-by-end-2013-sales-top-estimates-1- |
Wells Fargo, Blackstone Said to Buy $560 Million Eurohypo Loans | By Hui-yong Yu | 2012-04-25T07:56:27Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/wells-fargo-blackstone-said-to-buy-560-million-eurohypo-loans.html | 4 | 25 | c011a11cef6b42e8b65cfc7434feb672 | Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and Blackstone
Group LP (BX) agreed to buy about $560 million of U.S. property loans
from Eurohypo AG, a German bank, said three people with
knowledge of the transaction. The deal will include debt on a New York property designed
by Frank Gehry that calls itself the tallest residential tower
in the Western Hemisphere, the people said, who asked not to be
named because the information is private. The letter of credit
on the “New York by Gehry” building at 8 Spruce Street is the
largest of about 13 loans being sold by Eurohypo, said one of
the people. Wells Fargo will buy that loan, the person said. Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco , also agreed to buy a
loan on the retail component of 15 Central Park West, the luxury
New York condominium complex, where hedge-fund manager Daniel
Loeb and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd
Blankfein own units. About 60 percent of the Eurohypo loans will be purchased by
Wells Fargo, while Blackstone will buy the rest, said one of the
people. The two will own separate loans, although they bid
jointly, agreeing to pay about 5 percent to 10 percent less than
face value, said two of the people. The loans are current, they
said. The loans being sold to Blackstone are backed mainly by
office and industrial properties in New York and Boston, said
two people. Blackstone also plans to buy a land parcel on
Manhattan’s 57th Street between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue
owned by Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group LLC, the
people said. U.S. Bancorp Additionally, Eurohypo sold about $180 million of loans
backed by U.S. shopping malls to U.S. Bancorp (USB) , said Nicole
Garrison-Sprenger, a spokeswoman for the Minneapolis-based bank.
Those loans are backed by malls owned by General Growth
Properties Inc. “From time to time, U.S. Bank does buy individual loans or
portfolios when it makes strategic and financial sense,”
Garrison-Sprenger said in an e-mail. “This was one of those
unique opportunities.” Commerzbank AG (CBK) , Germany’s second-largest bank, is winding
down its Eurohypo real estate and public finance lending unit to
comply with European Union state aid conditions. Commerzbank
attracted more than 100 prospective buyers for the $740 million
of U.S. real-estate loans held by Eurohypo, two people with
knowledge of the matter said April 4. Heinrich Froemsdorf, spokesman at Eurohypo, declined to
comment. Elise Wilkinson, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo,
declined to comment. Peter Rose , a spokesman for Blackstone,
didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment e-mailed
after regular business hours in the U.S. The loan sale was reported earlier by the Wall Street
Journal. To contact the reporter on this story:
Hui-yong Yu in Seattle at
hyu@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kara Wetzel at kwetzel@bloomberg.net | 2012 | wells-fargo-blackstone-said-to-buy-560-million-eurohypo-loans |
Climate Goals Require $5 Trillion Investment by 2020 | By Alex Morales | 2012-04-25T12:54:52Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/climate-goals-require-5-trillion-investment-by-2020.html | 4 | 25 | 3906dcf7aa414f6aa900efdf1fdd3307 | Five trillion dollars of investment
is needed worldwide by 2020 in renewable power, energy
efficiency and cleaner transportation to contain rising global
temperatures, the International Energy Agency said. After fuel savings of $4 trillion are taken into account,
the net investment required by 2020 is about $1 trillion to
ensure the temperature gains since industrialization don’t
exceed 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), IEA Deputy Executive
Director Richard Jones told energy ministers from 23 nations
today in London. While renewable energy is on track to deliver its share of
the savings, Jones said industries are falling behind in efforts
to build projects employing nuclear power, carbon capture and
storage, biofuels, efficiency measures and technology that cuts
emissions from coal plants. “Under current policies, we estimate that energy use and
CO2 emissions would increase by a third by 2020, and almost
double by 2050,” Jones said. “This would likely boost global
temperatures at least 6 degrees Celsius. Such an outcome would
confront future generations with significant economic,
environmental and energy security hardships.” Jones was addressing the third meeting of the so-called
Clean Energy Ministerial group, hosted by U.K. Energy Secretary
Ed Davey and U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. Ministers from 23
economies accounting for 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions
and 90 percent of global clean energy investment are attending
to help devise policies that cut carbon emissions. Saving Money Chu told ministers that one of the biggest gains to be made
in reducing emissions was to ratchet up the efficiency standards
for household appliances, a measure he described as a “no-
brainer.” Construction efficiency standards also represent an
opportunity to cut carbon, he said. “It will save your citizens money and your country
energy,” Chu said. “There’s a tremendous opportunity to build
an infrastructure that literally could be twice as efficient as
the ones that were built in the previous century.” Davey from the U.K. said that ministers have a challenge in
making sure clean energy investment “soars” even in a
“sluggish” economy. Britain’s economy shrank in the first
quarter, pushing the nation into the first double-dip recession
since the 1970s, according to figures published today. Recession Risk “The risk is that recession delays low-carbon investment,
leaving us a high-carbon legacy even when the global economy
recovers and making meaningful action on climate change more
expensive,” Davey said. “We don’t start from a good place.
Eighty percent of our emissions from energy are already locked
in, and the emissions gap is growing.” The U.K. today announced plans to offer 35 million pounds
($57 million) in funds to support entrepreneurs who start
businesses developing and demonstrating low-carbon technologies.
U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg yesterday pledged 25
million pounds of new aid to help scale up renewable energy in
developing nations. Global investment in clean energy dropped $27 billion in
the first quarter, its lowest since the depths of the financial
crisis three years ago, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said on
April 12. The research group’s Chief Executive Officer Michael Liebreich told delegates today that new banking rules are making
it harder for wind farms to get financing, while trade friction
between the world’s biggest economies is also hindering wind,
solar and other forms of renewables. Jones said that for every euro not spent on carbon
reductions before 2020, 4.3 euros will be required afterwards to
get the world back on a track to 2 degrees of warming rather
than the 6 degrees that may result from current policies. Prior to the ministerial discussions, members of United
Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s “Sustainable Energy for
All” panel met yesterday in London . The group, led by Bank of America chairman Chad Holliday
and UN-Energy Chairman Kandeh Yumkella, devised an “action
agenda” to advise governments on how ton increase energy access
for the poorest people while promoting efficiency and
renewables. The panel recommended governments support lower carbon
development in seven sectors including cooking appliances and
fuels, renewable energy, small-scale off grid electricity
generation, transportation, appliances and buildings, grid
infrastructure and industrial and agricultural processes. To contact the reporter on this story:
Alex Morales in London at
amorales2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net | 2012 | climate-goals-require-5-trillion-investment-by-2020 |
Czech Policy Maker Sees Debate on Rate Increase After June | By Peter Laca | 2012-04-25T14:00:34Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/czech-rate-increase-should-be-discussed-after-june-janacek-says.html | 4 | 25 | ddbc0c7654db436ea009fcf12da170fd | The Czech central bank should
consider increasing interest rates for the first time in four
years after June as price growth exceeding its target may boost
inflation expectations and wage demands, a policy maker said. The Prague-based Ceska Narodni Banka has left the two-week
repurchase rate at a record-low 0.75 percent, a quarter point
below the European Central Bank ’s main benchmark, since a cut in
May 2010. While the central bank doesn’t react to price spikes
fueled by government measures, it should stop them from boosting
inflation expectations, board member Kamil Janacek said in an
interview yesterday. Borrowing costs have been steady as the economy slid into
recession in the second half of 2011 and an increase in the
value-added tax at the start of this year drove inflation to the
fastest pace in more than three years. One of seven rate-
setters, Eva Zamrazilova , voted for a quarter-point increase at
the last meeting on March 29. “I’m not saying we will change rates for sure, but it’s
clear that the discussion about trends in inflation expectations
will be more dominant in the second half of this year, mainly in
the fourth quarter,” Janacek said, declining to say how he will
vote at the next meeting on May 3. “And, as a result, there
will be a discussion on whether the time has come to react by
increasing interest rates.” Forward-rate agreements fixing the three-month interbank
rate in nine months rose to 1.23 percent today from 1.03 percent
on Feb. 2, when the central bank’s forecast signaled interest
rates may decline later this year. The three-month interbank
offered rate, or Pribor, was 1.25 percent. The koruna extended
its gains after Janacek’s comments, trading up 0.7 percent
against the euro at 24.743 as of 3:55 p.m. in Prague. Growth Prospects Policy makers across Europe are weighing economic-growth
prospects against inflationary pressures amid the continent’s
sovereign-debt crisis. Hungary kept its two-week deposit rate at
7 percent for a fourth month yesterday. Romania ’s central bank
has cut the benchmark interest rate four times since November to
5.25 while Poland left its main rate at 4.5 percent for a 10th
month on April 4. The economy, which exports about 80 percent of its output,
contracted in the third and fourth quarters of 2011 as
government spending cuts outweighed demand abroad for Czech-made
vehicles, car parts and electronics goods. The inflation rate
rose to 3.8 percent in March, exceeding the central bank’s 2
percent target for a sixth month. Inflation Forecast The bank forecasts the inflation rate above 3 percent this
year, before falling to 1.5 percent in the first quarter of
2013. Inflation relevant for monetary policy, defined as price
growth adjusted for the primary impact of changes in indirect
taxes, was 2.7 percent in March, the central bank said. It sees
monetary-policy inflation moving “near” the 2 percent
inflation target by the third quarter of 2013. “There is a prevailing agreement within the bank board
that the domestic demand is not a pro-inflationary risk at the
moment, but the question is how long will this last and how
quickly it can change,” he said. “Provided that the VAT rates
rise again at the beginning of 2013, the question is whether
this time it doesn’t push these inflation expectations up.” The bank’s inflation forecasts may change with the
government of Premier Petr Necas planning to push through
another increase in the value-added tax rate as of 2013 as part
of measures to cut the public-finance deficit below the European
Union’s limit of 3 percent of GDP. ‘Well Anchored’ While outlook for future price growth is “well-anchored”
now, a second VAT increase in as many years would be a “new
situation for developments with inflation expectations, and a
new challenge for monetary policy,” said Janacek. Gross domestic product shrank 0.1 percent in the last
quarter of 2011, the same as in the previous three months,
according to statistics office data. The country ships about 70
percent of its exports to the euro area’s 17 members, with
Germany taking the largest share, and exports will probably stay
the sole contributor to GDP growth this year, Janacek said. “We can’t expect domestic demand, households, government
and investments, to contribute to gross domestic product growth
this year,” he said. Households tend to increase savings in
“uncertain times,” while the government is cutting spending
and companies that don’t have enough export orders are cautious
to invest, Janacek said. Wage negotiations for next year will be an indication of
whether the current higher price growth is spilling into
inflation expectations in the economy, Janacek said. Skoda Auto
AS, the unit of Volkswagen AG (VOW) and the largest Czech
manufacturing company, agreed to raise salaries by 5 percent for
the year ending March 2013. “Nominal wage growth of 4 or 5 percent and more, across
all sectors of the economy, could be risky in the current
situation of anemic economic growth,” Janacek said. “It would
mean a relatively rapid increase in unit labor costs, which
could negatively affect competitiveness and create demand-driven
pressures.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Peter Laca in Prague at
placa@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Balazs Penz at
bpenz@bloomberg.net | 2012 | czech-rate-increase-should-be-discussed-after-june-janacek-says |
Tyson Credit Swaps Climb on Mad Cow, Pink Slime Publicity | By Sridhar Natarajan | 2012-04-25T21:18:13Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/tyson-credit-swaps-climb-on-mad-cow-pink-slime-publicity.html | 4 | 25 | bf6255d2dd1949c9b123e86c6f89faf4 | The cost to protect against a
default by Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN) recorded the biggest five-day
increase since 2010 as the identification of mad cow disease in
California compounds consumer wariness about beef safety. Credit-default swaps on Springdale, Arkansas-based Tyson
increased 27.5 basis points in the last five trading sessions to
a mid-price of 168.5 basis points at 5:03 p.m. in New York,
according to prices compiled by Bloomberg. The increase in the
contracts, which typically rise as investor confidence
deteriorates and fall as it improves, was the biggest since they
climbed 31.4 basis points in the five-day period ending Sept.
28, 2010. A case of mad cow disease has been found in a dairy cow in
Central California, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official
said yesterday in Washington . The news of the first U.S. case in
six years follows a consumer backlash against a meat product
made from leftovers and treated with chemicals, dubbed “pink
slime” by critics. “People are not going to stop eating hamburgers entirely,
but when you get news like mad cow, it’s going to cause some
fear on the part of the consumer,” Standard & Poor’s equity
analyst Thomas Graves said in a telephone interview. “As a
result, Tyson and other beef producers would not sell as much
beef.” The USDA announcement is the latest in a series of negative
events for cattle or beef producers, including drought, profit
volatility and concern about “pink slime,” Graves wrote in a
research note yesterday. Not Tyson’s Cow The dairy cow identified with mad cow disease was not from
one of Tyson’s facilities, the meat producer said in a statement
yesterday. “The mad cow headlines are not favorable but I don’t think
there will be a long-term impact,” Graves said today. “They
are a diversified business, and their chicken and pork products
will partly offset losses in the beef business.” Beef accounted for 41 percent of Tyson’s sales in its
latest year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Tyson has more than $2 billion of bonds maturing by 2018 ,
Bloomberg data show. Moody’s Investors Service has a junk rating
of Ba1 on the food distributor, while S&P grades the company
BBB-, the lowest level of investment grade. A gauge of U.S. company credit risk fell for a second day
as Apple Inc. added to the list of companies reporting better-
than-expected quarterly profits. Beating Estimates The Markit CDX North America Investment Grade Index, a
credit-default swaps benchmark that investors use to hedge
against losses on corporate debt or to speculate on
creditworthiness, dropped 2.1 basis points to a mid-price of
97.6 basis points at 4:43 p.m. in New York , Bloomberg prices
show. The fall was the biggest for the gauge in more than a
week. The tally of companies in the Standard & Poor’s index that
beat consensus estimates on quarterly profits was 141 of the 178
that have reported earnings so far. Following the Federal Open Market Committee Meeting in
Washington, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the
central bank is “prepared to do more as needed” to help the
recovery, while keeping a check on inflation. The swaps contracts pay the buyer face value if a borrower
fails to meet its obligations, less the value of the defaulted
debt. A basis point equals $1,000 annually on a contract
protecting $10 million of debt. To contact the reporter on this story:
Sridhar Natarajan in New York at
snatarajan15@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Alan Goldstein at
agoldstein5@bloomberg.net | 2012 | yson-credit-swaps-climb-on-mad-cow-pink-slime-publicity |
Military Probe Into Prostitute Scandal May Be Expanding | By David Lerman | 2012-04-25T21:31:14Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/military-probe-into-prostitute-scandal-may-be-expanding.html | 4 | 25 | e910ca4b2190fef446d4539a055f560acd25a4de | The Pentagon’s investigation of
personnel being involved with prostitutes in Colombia will
examine whether more senior officials bear responsibility,
according to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee. “They’re going to see whether there are others who may
have done something wrong, including anyone up the chain of
command,” said Senator Carl Levin , a Michigan Democrat, who
spoke to reporters today after a closed-door briefing with
Defense Department representatives. The military is investigating the possible involvement of
its personnel in the scandal focused on whether Secret Service
employees consorted with prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia,
before President Barack Obama’s visit there this month for the
Summit of the Americas. Twelve military personnel and another dozen Secret Service
employees have been investigated for misconduct in Cartegena, in
some cases involving rules such as curfews. Senator John McCain , the committee’s senior Republican,
said defense officials were “woefully unprepared” for the
briefing and couldn’t answer “even the most basic questions.” “We are being denied access to the information we need in
order to make informed judgments or take needed actions,”
McCain of Arizona said in a statement. “This is entirely
unacceptable.” ‘Sketchy’ Briefing Levin called the briefing “sketchy” while declining to
join McCain in criticizing the Defense Department. “The military is traditionally reluctant to provide
details of an investigation before it’s completed,” Levin said.
“I was surprised it was not fuller, but they gave us the
reasons for why they proceeded in this way.” The military plans to complete its investigation by the end
of next week and the Senate panel will arrange for a follow-up
briefing early in the following week, Levin said. Levin said he wants to know why some of the 12 military
personnel were allowed to continue on the mission in Cartagena
even after commanders knew they had violated curfews. “They did know that there were curfew violations,
apparently, by at least some of the 12 members of the military
prior to the arrival of the president,” Levin said. “A
decision was made nonetheless to let those folks, those members
of the military, continue with the mission.” While that decision may not necessarily have been wrong,
Levin said it “raises a question” that needs to be resolved by
the commander of U.S. Southern Commmand. He said the investigation may not be confined to the 12
service members already involved. “At this moment, it’s an investigation,” Levin said.
“There are no conclusions reached.” To contact the reporter on this story:
David Lerman in Washington at
dlerman1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
John Walcott at
jwalcott9@bloomberg.net | 2012 | ilitary-probe-into-prostitute-scandal-may-be-expanding |
Bulls Clinch Top Spot in East, Jazz Claim Final Playoff Place | By Nancy Kercheval | 2012-04-25T05:36:08Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/bulls-clinch-top-spot-in-east-jazz-claim-final-playoff-place.html | 4 | 25 | 7708a222b8c779b1370e69a5c420ee7e55f9d221 | The Chicago Bulls clinched the best
record in the Eastern Conference with the Miami Heat’s 78-66
loss to the Boston Celtics , while the Utah Jazz secured the
final playoff berth in the National Basketball Association. The Bulls are tied with the San Antonio Spurs atop the
league with a 48-16 record. The Spurs and Bulls each have two
games remaining in the regular season, which ends tomorrow, two
days before the playoffs begin. Sasha Pavlovic had 16 points for the Celtics (38-27) at TD
Garden in Boston last night. Dexter Pittman scored 12 for the
Heat, who played without LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. The Jazz (35-30) defeated the Phoenix Suns (33-32) 100-88
to secure the eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference. Paul Millsap had 26 points and 15 rebounds, while Al Jefferson tallied 18 points and 16 rebounds for the Jazz at
EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City . Jared Dudley and
Michael Redd led the Suns with 15 points. The Los Angeles Lakers (41-24) clinched the Western
Conference’s Pacific Division on the Los Angeles Clippers’ 109-
102 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. Joe Johnson led the Hawks (39-26) with 28 points at Philips
Arena in Atlanta. Blake Griffin had 36 points for the Clippers
(40-25). To contact the reporter on this story:
Nancy Kercheval in Washington at
nkercheval@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Sillup at
msillup@bloomberg.net | 2012 | bulls-clinch-top-spot-in-east-jazz-claim-final-playoff-place |
Al-Qaeda Seeks Cyber-Attack Skills, U.S. Official Says | By Tony Capaccio | 2012-04-25T04:15:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/al-qaeda-seeks-cyber-attack-skills-u-s-official-says.html
Al-Qaeda operatives are seeking the
capability to stage cyber attacks against U.S. networks, the
intelligence chief of the U.S. Cyber Command said. While it’s “accurate today,” that the terrorist group
isn’t close to having such a capacity, “how fast that can
change is my concern,” Rear Admiral Samuel Cox said at a
conference yesterday in Arlington, Virgina. “We are used to what the current threat is, and we lose
sight of just how fast that can change and go bad,” Cox said at
the conference organized by Representative Jim Moran, a Virginia
Democrat who serves on the House defense appropriations panel.
“They don’t have to build some technological thing.” Al-Qaeda “could hire it, or blackmail it, or find the
right person who has that skill set and be able to use that and
rapidly increase their capabilities,” he said. Cox gave his assessment during an overview of cyber threats
the U.S. faces from nation states and non-state actors that can
infiltrate computer networks to gather information or launch
attacks that take down networks. Certain nations that don’t now
have them are within a few years of acquiring offensive cyber
capabilities comparable to those of the U.S., he said. “We have a good understanding of what techniques the
United States could use against other countries if directed, and
how long it would take other adversaries to achieve the same
capability | 4 | 25 | 4cd3705ff0d7a23bbbf73551060dfdf85c0854bd | huge amounts of resiliency built into the system that makes that
kind of catastrophic thing very difficult,” he said. “But you could do more tailored, precise-type strikes”
against the U.S. financial network “that results in an
uncontrolled run on U.S. banks,” Cox said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Tony Capaccio in Washington at
acapaccio@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
John Walcott at
jwalcott9@bloomberg.net | 2012 | al-qaeda-seeks-cyber-attack-skills-u-s-official-says |
Mersch Says ‘Powerful’ ECB Loans Help Banks Clean Balance Sheets | By Svenja O’Donnell and Gabi Thesing | 2012-04-25T07:30:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/mersch-says-powerful-ecb-loans-help-banks-clean-balance-sheets.html | 4 | 25 | 9f896e91a1921f7e52365c345f0d9834bb7344b3 | European Central Bank Governing
Council member Yves Mersch said the ECB’s “powerful” three-
year loans will help banks to cleanse their balance sheets. The ECB’s longer-term refinancing operations have “shown
themselves to be powerful levers on many levels,” Mersch said
in the editorial of the Luxembourg central bank’s Financial
Stability Report published today. The loans are helping banks to
“clean up their balance sheets and begin a controlled
deleveraging,” Mersch wrote. His comments were translated from
French. The ECB loaned banks more than 1 trillion euros ($1.3
trillion) for three years at its benchmark rate of 1 percent to
head off a credit crunch, encourage lending to companies and
consumers and spur demand for unsecured bank debt. The bond-
market rally sparked by the loans has since faded amid concern
that Spain may follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal in seeking a
bailout. Mersch said the “complexity of the transmission channels
of monetary policy, combined with the time needed to transform
central bank money into loans for the real economy” makes
evaluating the impact of the loans on credit supply
“difficult.” A slowdown in euro-area credit growth “may simply be the
result of the current slowdown in economic growth in Europe ,”
Mersch said. Loans to the private sector grew 0.7 percent in
February from a year earlier after gaining an annual 1.1 percent
in January, the ECB said March 28. Economic growth in the euro area will remain “subdued” in
the short-term, even though “the situation seems to have
stabilized since the beginning of 2012,” the Central Bank of
Luxembourg, which Mersch heads, said in the report. To contact the reporters on this story:
Svenja O’Donnell in London at
sodonnell@bloomberg.net ;
Gabi Thesing in London at
gthesing@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Craig Stirling at
cstirling1@bloomberg.net | 2012 | ersch-says-powerful-ecb-loans-help-banks-clean-balance-sheets |
Standard Life’s Sales Beat Estimates on Pension Inflows | By Kevin Crowley | 2012-04-25T11:00:56Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/standard-life-s-sales-beat-estimates-on-pension-inflows-2-.html | 4 | 25 | e521bee10e24b271c36c6912ecf62a3a68e748bb | Standard Life Plc (SL/) , Scotland ’s
biggest insurer, reported first-quarter revenue that beat
analysts’ estimates as pension sales to companies helped boost
assets under management. Revenue from long-term savings fell to 5 billion pounds ($8
billion) in the three months to March 31, the Edinburgh-based
firm said today in a statement, beating the 4.87 billion-pound
estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by the company. Assets under
administration rose 4 percent to 206.8 billion pounds in the
three-month period. “We view this as a relatively solid result in what remain
challenging conditions,”Christopher Esson, a London-based
analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG, wrote in a note to clients
today. “We continue to regard Standard Life as one of the
structurally better positioned for upcoming regulatory reforms,
and this should be reflected in superior growth.” Standard Life wants to manage more Britons’ savings as they
move to private pension plans from so-called final-salary plans.
It had previously cautioned that sales may slow early in the
first half due to regulatory changes scheduled for later in the
year. The insurer is investing in technology that will help
boost sales when the government compels firms to automatically
enroll employees into a pension plan starting in October. The stock-market rally in the first quarter, inflows into
the company’s institutional pension business and its absolute
return funds helped boost funds under management, Chief
Financial OfficerJackie Hunt said on a call with reporters this
morning. The stock climbed 1.3 percent to 226.9 pence as of 11:32
a.m. in London trading, valuing the company at about 5.3 billion
pounds. To contact the reporter on this story:
Kevin Crowley in London at
kcrowley1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Edward Evans at
eevans3@bloomberg.net ; | 2012 | standard-life-s-sales-beat-estimates-on-pension-inflows-2- |
Arch Said to Seek Buyers for Several U.S. Coal Mines | By Zachary R. Mider, Jeffrey McCracken and Sonja Elmquist | 2012-04-26T20:15:44Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/arch-said-to-seek-buyers-for-several-u-s-thermal-coal-mines.html | 4 | 25 | 774c760344864cde96e3290c3f3ccd2c | Arch Coal Inc. (ACI) , the fourth-largest
U.S. producer of the fuel, is seeking buyers for several of its
thermal-coal mines in the U.S., which together may fetch $600
million or more, said people with knowledge of the matter. First-round bids for the mines, located in Kentucky,
Illinois and Utah, are expected to come in late May, said one of
the people, who declined to be named because the process is
private. The mines will probably be sold in separate deals, said
this person. Financial advisers including Deutsche Bank AG were hired in
recent weeks by St. Louis-based Arch to help sell the mines,
said the people. The mines are attracting interest from private-
equity investors as well as U.S. and foreign coal producers, one
of the people said. “If you were able to sell thermal mines for that
valuation, it would give a big lift to the whole sector,” said
Kuni Chen, an analyst at CRT Capital Group in Stamford ,
Connecticut. The assets “may be strategic to certain buyers if
the reserves are contiguous to their mines.” Arch is among U.S. coal companies to curtail production
this year as some power stations switch to natural gas, which
has fallen to its cheapest in a decade. Arch has cut jobs in
eastern Kentucky and idled mines and as part of its plan to
reduce output by 5 million tons. Retiring CEO Steven F. Leer, who’s retiring as chief executive officer
today after leading Arch since it formation in 1997, has
expanded the company’s international sales. The company paid
$3.4 billion for U.S. competitor International Coal Group Inc.
in June to boost output of coal used by steelmakers, which is
more profitable than thermal coal burned by power stations. Arch rose 0.6 percent to $9.62 at the close in New York .
The shares have slumped 71 percent in the past 12 months. The
company, which has a BB- credit rating from Standard & Poor’s ,
was placed on CreditWatch with negative implications by S&P
yesterday. Arch operates 24 mining complexes in eight states,
according to its website. Kim Link, a spokeswoman for Arch,
declined to comment in an e-mail. A spokesman for Deutsche Bank
declined to comment. The three largest U.S. coal producers ranked by revenue are
Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) , Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (ANR) and Consol
Energy Inc. (CNX) To contact the reporters on this story:
Zachary R. Mider in New York at
zmider1@bloomberg.net ;
Jeffrey McCracken in New York at
jmccracken3@bloomberg.net ;
Sonja Elmquist in New York at
selmquist1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jennifer Sondag at
jsondag@bloomberg.net | 2012 | arch-said-to-seek-buyers-for-several-u-s-thermal-coal-mines |
Indonesian Stocks: Astra Agro Lestari, Kalbe, Panin Sekuritas | By Berni Moestafa | 2012-04-25T09:33:35Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/indonesian-equity-movers-astra-agro-declines-kalbe-farma-gains.html | 4 | 25 | 7b4fd031f02415b95718a18466806079a46d9d39 | Shares of the following companies
had unusual moves in Indonesian trading . Stock symbols are in
parentheses and prices are as of the close in Jakarta. The Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) lost 0.2 percent to 4,163.64. PT Astra Agro Lestari (AALI) , Indonesia’s biggest listed
plantation company by market value, fell 1.4 percent to 21,900
rupiah, the lowest close since March 27. First-quarter net
income declined 42 percent from a year earlier to 377.9 billion
rupiah ($41.1 million), the company said yesterday. Astra Agro’s
“unexciting earnings growth will persist,” PT Kim Eng
Securities wrote in a note today. PT Kalbe Farma (KLBF) , Indonesia’s biggest
pharmaceutical company, advanced 6.3 percent to 3,825 rupiah, a
record close. The company reported yesterday first-quarter net
income rose 28 percent from a year earlier to 403 billion
rupiah. PT Panin Sekuritas (PANS) , a brokerage, jumped 15
percent to a record 1,900 rupiah. The company said today first-
quarter net income rose 79 percent from a year earlier to 72
billion rupiah. To contact the reporter on this story:
Berni Moestafa in Jakarta at
bmoestafa@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Darren Boey at
dboey@bloomberg.net | 2012 | indonesian-equity-movers-astra-agro-declines-kalbe-farma-gains |
BP Spill Pact Should Be Approved, Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Argues | By Allen Johnson Jr. and Margaret Cronin Fisk | 2012-04-25T20:02:13Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/bp-spill-pact-should-be-approved-plaintiffs-lawyer-argues-1-.html | 4 | 25 | 2ffe21159c51930005d961cc1eebd3918a27db6b | BP Plc (BP/) ’s proposed $7.8 billion
partial settlement of claims arising from the 2010 Gulf of
Mexico oil spill should be given preliminary approval, a lawyer
suing the company told the judge overseeing the litigation. BP in March agreed to resolve most private plaintiffs’
claims for economic loss, property damage and spill and cleanup-
related injuries. Lawyers for BP and the plaintiffs filed the
accord April 18 with U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New
Orleans , seeking preliminary approval. Barbier is considering
that request at a hearing today. “We are here today to present a fairly unique class-action
settlement, actually two settlements,” the plaintiffs’
attorney, Steve Herman , told Barbier. The settlement establishes
two separate classes, one for economic loss and the other for
any physical injuries related to the spill or the cleanup,
Herman said. The blowout and explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling
rig killed 11 workers and caused the worst offshore oil spill in
U.S. history. The accident prompted hundreds of lawsuits against
London-based BP; Transocean Ltd. (RIG) , the Vernier, Switzerland-based
owner and operator of the rig; and Halliburton Co., which
provided cementing services. Not Final “This is not a final approval of anything,” Barbier said
as today’s hearing began. The proceeding is meant only to
consider the request by BP and plaintiffs’ attorneys for
preliminary approval, he said. “The earliest we could get final
approval on this scheduled would be early November,” he said. The proposed settlement, reached March 2, days before a
scheduled trial on liability for the 2010 spill, doesn’t cover
federal government claims and those of the Gulf Coast states
Louisiana and Alabama . It also excludes claims of financial institutions, casinos,
private plaintiffs in parts of Florida and Texas , and residents
and businesses claiming harm from the Obama administration’s
moratorium on deep-water drilling prompted by the spill. BP and the Plaintiffs Steering Committee, a group of
lawyers appointed by Barbier to handle the lawsuits, asked the
judge to hold a Nov. 8 fairness hearing before final approval of
the accord and to postpone any trial on liability until after
the hearing. BP has agreed to pay claimants before final
approval of the settlement, Herman said today. Macondo Well The plaintiffs’ and government claims against BP’s
contractors on the doomed Macondo well remain, and no new trial
date has been set. A trial would cover federal and state
government pollution claims, as well as cross-claims between BP
and its partner companies in the Macondo site and rig. Under the settlement, BP has assigned to the plaintiffs the
company’s right to seek cleanup costs and the value of the lost
oil from Transocean and Halliburton. (HAL) The case is In re Oil Spill by the Oil Rig Deepwater
Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, MDL-2179, U.S.
District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans). To contact the reporter on this story:
Margaret Cronin Fisk in Detroit at
mcfisk@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net | 2012 | bp-spill-pact-should-be-approved-plaintiffs-lawyer-argues-1- |
VimpelCom Rises Most in a Month as S&P Revises Outlook to Stable | By Halia Pavliva | 2012-04-25T15:14:39Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/vimpelcom-rises-most-in-a-month-as-s-p-revises-outlook-to-stable.html | 4 | 25 | 9cfe22ab6efcd63f1bdd253f6ee3c7c1a514028c | VimpelCom Ltd. (VIP) rose the most in a
month in U.S. trading after Standard & Poor’s raised the
company’s outlook to stable from negative today and Moody’s
Investors Service praised the sale of its Vietnamese unit. VimpelCom, the world’s sixth-largest wireless operator by
subscribers, climbed 2.3 percent to $10.19 at 10:38 a.m. in New
York, the biggest one-day advance since March 28 based on
closing prices. “The stable outlook reflects our view that VimpelCom will
retain its strong operating performance across its various
markets and use its free operating cash flow to reduce debt,”
S&P analysts, led by Alexander Griaznov in Moscow, said in an e-
mailed report dated today. Moody’s said the sale of VimpelCom’s entire 49 percent
stake in its GTEL subsidiary in Vietnam for $45 million in cash
is “credit positive.” VimpelCom announced the sale in an April
23 statement. “Moody’s regards this divestment as evidence of VimpelCom
pursuing its new strategy, which is focused on operating
efficiencies,” Moody’s analysts led by Artem Frolov in Moscow
said in an e-mailed report today. “One of the building blocks
of this strategy is a review of VimpelCom’s developing
businesses and their value for the group.” VimpelCom’s subsidiary Orascom Telecom Holding SAE (ORTE) , North
Africa’s biggest mobile phone company, is disputing the $1.3
billion fine imposed by an Algerian court against its Djezzy
unit for allegedly violating foreign-exchange regulations,
according to an April 12 statement. Algeria is in talks to buy a
stake in Djezzy from VimpelCom, which merged with Orascom last
year. “VimpelCom’s credit profile has sufficient financial
flexibility to absorb the risks related to an unsettled dispute
concerning its Algerian subsidiary,” S&P analysts said in the
report today. “We assume that VimpelCom will remain committed
to its financial policy.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Halia Pavliva in New York at
hpavliva@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Emma O’Brien at
eobrien6@bloomberg.net | 2012 | vimpelcom-rises-most-in-a-month-as-s-p-revises-outlook-to-stable |
OHL Brasil Rises to Record High on Abertis Deal: Sao Paulo Mover | By Katerina Petroff | 2012-04-25T20:20:59Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/ohl-brasil-rises-to-record-high-on-abertis-deal-sao-paulo-mover.html | 4 | 25 | f6ddd4079db80faf0c0b4f811beaa942e68b6e88 | Obrascon Huarte Lain Brasil SA (OHLB3) , the
Brazilian unit of Obrascon Huarte Lain SA (OHL) , rallied to a record
after Spain’s Abertis Infraestructuras SA (ABE) agreed to buy a stake
in the company. Shares gained 2.1 percent to 81.90 reais at the close in
Sao Paulo, the highest since the company’s initial public
offering July 2005. The benchmark Bovespa index fell 0.4
percent. Abertis agreed to acquire a 60 percent stake in OHL Brasil
and also OHL assets in Chile. The implied valuation of the deal
with OHL Brasil indicates a 14.3 percent premium over
yesterday’s closing price, according to analyst Renata Faber at
Banco Itau BBA in Sao Paulo. “We therefore expect a positive
market reaction,” she wrote in a report today. OHL Brasil “will remain a public company in Brazil and
maintain its development strategy, to be implemented through new
growth projects,” the company said in the filing. Spain’s OHL will receive a 10 percent stake in Abertis as
part of the deal, according to the filing. To contact the reporter on this story:
Katerina Petroff in Sao Paulo at
kpetroff@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Helder Marinho at
hmarinho@bloomberg.net ;
David Papadopoulos at
papadopoulos@bloomberg.net | 2012 | ohl-brasil-rises-to-record-high-on-abertis-deal-sao-paulo-mover |
U.S. Companies Reporting Midmorning EPS, April 25 | By Wendy Soong | 2012-04-26T15:34:03Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/u-s-companies-reporting-midmorning-eps-april-25.html | 4 | 25 | 665ea26dcced8ea565effaf592dbd95a1767f6e8 | (Corrects the Q1’12 earnings of Nielsen Holdings in story published
April 25.) The following table lists the 77 U.S. companies
that reported quarterly earnings today (end date of the quarter is noted in
the last column). Companies are sorted alphabetically by ticker symbol. Earnings estimates provided by Bloomberg.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Wendy Soong in New York at at csoong@Bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Alex Tanzi at at
atanzi@Bloomberg.net | 2012 | u-s-companies-reporting-midmorning-eps-april-25 |
Hungary May Take ‘Major Step’ on Bailout, Citigroup Says | By Zoltan Simon | 2012-04-25T09:18:53Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/hungary-may-take-major-step-on-bailout-citigroup-says.html | 4 | 25 | 7b78d2bd95924a3585e7b10c48fcf596 | The European Commission is
discussing a compromise proposal by Hungarian Prime Minister
Viktor Orban , aimed at starting talks on a bailout. Orban asked the European Union and the International
Monetary Fund for aid in November as the forint fell to a record
low and the country’s debt grade was cut to junk. Commissioners
headed by President Jose Manuel Barroso are discussing Hungary
at a meeting that started at 10 a.m. in Brussels. The EU has blocked Hungary’s request over concern that
Orban’s concentration of power in the past two years undermined
the independence of state institutions including the central
bank. The premier is seeking to unblock the talks without fully
adjusting the country’s laws to meet EU norms. The country has
moved “a lot closer” to starting talks, Orban said after
meeting Barroso yesterday. The commission “may deliver a major step towards starting
talks,” Eszter Gargyan , a Budapest-based economist at Citigroup
Inc. (C) , said in an e-mailed report today. Yesterday’s comments
suggest that “both parties have become more flexible, which may
deliver unexpected progress.” The forint advanced 0.8 percent to 291.86 per euro at 11:18
a.m. in Budapest, its strongest in almost a month.The currency
dropped 15 percent in the second half of last year, the most in
the world, before paring losses after the Cabinet pledged Jan. 5
to reach a quick deal on an IMF loan. The government’s benchmark 10-year bonds jumped, cutting
yields 21 basis points to 8.586 percent, following a 22 basis
point decline yesterday and the lowest yield since March 2. ‘Essentially Surmounted’ Obstacles to talks have “essentially been surmounted,”
Orban said yesterday. Barroso was “satisfied” with Orban’s
commitment to changing the central bank law, spokesman Cezary
Lewanowicz said after the meeting. The Hungarian government submitted amendments to the
central bank law on April 17, heeding some of the commission’s
concerns while ignoring a European Central Bank opinion on what
the government needs to do to ensure monetary-policy
independence. The ECB said April 5 that “serious concerns”
remained about Hungary ’s central-bank law. Orban is pushing for a compromise as the EU’s attention is
focused on the struggle to restore confidence in the euro area.
Germany , the largest country contributor to euro-area bailouts,
is facing growing resistance from traditional allies to its
anti-crisis prescriptions as a $1 trillion firewall and
unlimited ECB loans to the region’s lenders fail to stop the
turmoil from threatening Spain and Italy . ‘Blinked First’ “Ultimately the EC seems to have blinked first,” Tim Ash,
head of emerging market research at Royal Bank of Scotland Group
Plc in London , said in an e-mail yesterday. “The apparent
change of heart on the part of the EC probably reflects a
combination of the changes/concessions made by the Hungarian
government, but also by the broader context of a
continued/deepening in the eurozone periphery crisis, and
perhaps limited appetite for another potential crisis in an EU
member state.” Hungary’s gross domestic product may contract 0.6 percent
this year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development said on March 13. The commission forecasts the
economy will shrink 0.1 percent, the only one of the bloc’s non-
euro members expected to not grow this year. The government
expects the economy to expand 0.1 percent in 2012 and 1.6
percent in 2013. Budget Measures The government this week said it will introduce new taxes
and cut spending to meet deficit targets required to unlock EU
grants. The Cabinet plans additional savings of 150 billion
forint ($680 million) this year and 600 billion forint in 2013
on top of measures announced last year. Hungary has been on the EU’s excessive-deficit list since
joining the bloc in 2004 and risks losing funds in 2013 if it
fails to show it can sustainably rein in its shortfall. The
country can “safely” meet its deficit targets of 2.5 percent
of GDP in 2012 and 2.2 percent in 2013, the Economy Ministry
said on April 23. Orban won a two-thirds majority in parliament in 2010 that
allowed him to unilaterally change the constitution and reduce
the power of independent institutions, raising objections from
the EU, the IMF, the U.S. and the United Nations . Ruling-party lawmakers have ousted the chief justice of the
Supreme Court and the data-protection commissioner, narrowed the
jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court , replaced an
independent fiscal council with one dominated by the members
nominated by the ruling party and chose a party member to lead
the State Audit Office. ‘Total Takeover’ Hungary’s bailout talks were blocked in December on EU and
IMF concern about a new central bank regulation, which the
Magyar Nemzeti Bank President Andras Simor had called a “total
takeover” of the institution. The EU later expanded its
objections to include the judiciary and the data-protection
agency. The government agreed to scrap an option to demote the
central bank president if the monetary authority is combined
with the financial regulator. The amendments don’t address the
EU’s concern for a 75 percent cut in Simor’s salary or ECB
objections to the planned enlargement of the rate-setting
Monetary Council. The government also submitted amendments to Parliament on
the judiciary, reducing the power of the new head of the court
system. On the data-protection authority, parliament, where
Orban’s lawmakers have a two-thirds majority, has approved
changes limiting the prime minister’s influence over the firing
of the independent commissioner. The change failed to address EU
objections over the removal of the commissioner last year. Court Order The EU executive on March 7 took a formal step toward
seeking a court order to require Hungary to redraft laws on the
judiciary and data-protection agency and asked for more
information on planned changes to a new central bank law. Orban said he tried to convince Barroso yesterday to allow
bailout talks to proceed even if he maintained reservations
about some of the changes in Hungary. “Disputes within the EU need to be separated from
financing packages,” Orban told reporters in Brussels
yesterday. “Linking the two may be justified in peace time but
only makes things more difficult in hard times.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Zoltan Simon in Budapest at
zsimon@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Balazs Penz at
bpenz@bloomberg.net | 2012 | ungary-may-take-major-step-on-bailout-citigroup-says |
House Republicans to Propose Own Anti-Domestic Violence Bill | By Kathleen Hunter and Derek Wallbank | 2012-04-25T18:33:07Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/house-republicans-to-propose-own-anti-domestic-violence-bill-1-.html
U.S. House Republicans said they
will introduce their version of legislation to reauthorize
assistance to victims of domestic violence, an attempt to defuse
Democrats’ efforts to portray congressional Republicans as
hostile toward women. Representative Sandy Adams of Florida said she and fellow
freshman Republican Kristi Noem of South Dakota will sponsor the
bill reauthorizing the 1994 Violence Against Women Act. Adams
said today the measure, still being drafted, will be introduced
this week and a House vote will be held as early as the week of
May 14. Adams said the man she married at age 18 was a “violent
alcoholic” and an abuser. She escaped that marriage and later,
as a deputy sheriff in Orange County, Florida , would respond to
cases involving victims of domestic violence. “I know what they’re feeling because I was there, and I
know how much this law has helped so many people in our
country,” Adams said. Senate Democrats , meanwhile, urged quick passage of their
measure to reauthorize the law. They began debate on the
legislation today. Reauthorization “will ensure the police have tools to more
effectively stop this and prosecute these people who are the
abusers,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , a Nevada
Democrat, said today. “People should realize that we need law
enforcement | 4 | 25 | 28c259261ba94770a2a9a74b8e611782 | victims of criminal activity who have been certified by law
enforcement as having aided in investigating a crime. “All this is about is 5,000 visas, ones that were already
issued in the past few years but simply weren’t used,” Senator
Amy Klobuchar , a Minnesota Democrat, told reporters today. “So
it’s not like we did some radical thing that would cause
Republicans to oppose it.” Shelters, Police Training The Senate’s Violence Against Women Act would authorize
$660 million in annual funding through 2016 for domestic
violence shelters and police training, less than the $682.5
million authorized in the previous reauthorization, which
expired Sept. 30. First authorized as part of a broader violent-
crime control bill, the Violence Against Women Act was
reauthorized in 2000 and 2005. Apart from a new $5 million annual grant program for
domestic violence prevention in American Indian tribal
communities, the Senate bill holds steady or cuts all other
grant programs. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison , a Texas Republican, is
planning to offer an amendment that would address Republican
concerns over the immigration language and tribal court
jurisdiction. House Republicans said their bill will largely
track the Senate Republican alternative. The Senate Republican proposal seeks to address
constitutional concerns about language in the bill that aims to
protect Native American women who are victims of domestic
violence. The Senate bill is S. 1925. To contact the reporters on this story:
Derek Wallbank in Washington at
dwallbank@bloomberg.net ;
Kathleen Hunter in Washington at
khunter9@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jodi Schneider in Washington at
Jschneider50@bloomberg.net | 2012 | ouse-republicans-to-propose-own-anti-domestic-violence-bill-1- |
Virgin Media’s Usain Bolt Ad Campaign Gains Customers | By Jonathan Browning | 2012-04-25T08:35:52Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/virgin-media-s-usain-bolt-ad-campaign-weighs-on-profit.html | 4 | 25 | e3c45d10e8bda170b6c41ca2e143c0519afea081 | Virgin Media Inc. (VMED) said its
advertising campaign with Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt helped
the pay-TV operator gain the most customers in two years even as
the associated surge in marketing costs weighed on earnings. Virgin Media added 21,200 net customers in the first
quarter, the most since 2010, while marketing spending soared 49
percent to 52.6 million pounds ($84.9 million). Earnings before
interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and other one-
time charges in the three months ended March 31 were little
changed from a year earlier at 376.5 million pounds. “Such a large increase won’t be repeated but we’re
starting to ramp up marketing spend,” Chief Financial Officer
Eamonn O’Hare said today in an interview. “We’re massively
outspent” by competitor British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc. (BSY) Virgin Media, the U.K.’s second-largest pay-TV company,
aired advertising with Bolt and Richard Branson, the founder of
Virgin Group Ltd., to market its plan to double broadband speeds
for existing customers. The Hook, England-based company is
investing 110 million pounds as it seeks to upgrade the speeds
and retain customers. Vodafone Group Plc (VOD) ’s 1.04 billion-pound acquisition of
Cable & Wireless Worldwide Plc (CW/) will lead to a “more
formidable” operation, O’Hare said today. Virgin Media competes
with the British operator in offering services to enterprises
and may gain from the short-term disruption following the
purchase, he said. “ Cable & Wireless had a bit of flailing-arm mentality at
the end,” as it was squeezed by competitors, O’Hare said. “It
may actually lead to more rational pricing.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Jonathan Browning in London at
jbrowning9@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kenneth Wong at
kwong11@bloomberg.net | 2012 | virgin-media-s-usain-bolt-ad-campaign-weighs-on-profi |
Jim Koch Discusses Helping Small Businesses (Audio) | By | 2012-04-25T13:25:09Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/jim-koch-discusses-helping-small-businesses-audio-.html | 4 | 25 | 0f72618790f7e25e54564147dbc73db705092b55 | Jim Koch, chairman and founder of
the Boston Beer Co. Inc., and brewer of Samuel Adams, discusses
his small business initiative called "Brewing the American
Dream." Koch talks with Bloomberg's Pimm Fox and Courtney
Donohoe on Bloomberg Radio's "Taking Stock." (Source: Bloomberg) Running time 08:16 | 2012 | jim-koch-discusses-helping-small-businesses-audio- |
Square Payment Pace Rises 25% in Niche Coveted by EBay | By Danielle Kucera | 2012-04-25T16:00:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/square-payment-pace-rises-25-in-niche-coveted-by-ebay.html | 4 | 25 | a9f7ee33a0834cc696b35f087b481bb6 | Square Inc., maker of credit-card
readers for smartphones and tablets, has increased its payment
volume 25 percent since March, when EBay Inc. (EBAY) ’s PayPal showed
off a new mobile scanner and underscored growth in the field. Square, founded in 2009, is processing transactions at an
annualized rate of $5 billion, up from $4 billion a month ago,
as more consumers embrace mobile payments, Chief Operating
Officer Keith Rabois said in an interview. The San Francisco
company is making cash from sales before 5 p.m. on any day
available in merchants’ accounts on the next business day,
compared with as many as five days out for other processors. The market may top $170 billion in transactions by 2015, up
from about $60 billion last year, according to Juniper Research
Ltd. Square’s rivals include Intuit Inc. and Paypal, which has
said its mobile-payment volume will jump 75 percent this year to
$7 billion. To lure merchants, Square is speeding access to
funds. “Sole proprietors and small businesses live and die by
their cash flow ,” Rabois said in an interview. “They don’t
have access to capital; banks don’t give them loans. They need
to take the money they make today and use it to pay bills, buy
things and pay employees the next day, so having access to funds
is super-crucial for them.” Square, which is closely held, was created by Jack Dorsey,
the co-founder of Twitter Inc. Investors in Square include
Sequoia Capital and Khosla Ventures. Waiting for Money Before the appearance of services such as Square, merchants
grew accustomed to waiting for credit-card payments to translate
into cash. Normally, a payment is evaluated for risk exposure,
transferred to the merchant’s bank and sent through a national
network, or automated clearinghouse, before it brings cash to a
seller’s account. That can take two to five days. Square declines to say how it reduces the process to a
single day, citing competitive reasons. The company doesn’t
release its financial results, and won’t say whether it is
profitable. Square’s technology enables U.S. businesses to handle
payments through Apple Inc.’s iPhone or iPad, or through devices
running on Google Inc.’s Android software. The card reader plugs
into the headphone jack of the mobile device. The reader,
introduced in 2010, is available at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) , Target
Corp. (TGT) and Apple outlets. Payments processors are pushing deeper into the mobile-
payment market with smartphone readers that allow merchants to
accept payments in any location. Last month, PayPal announced
PayPal Here, a device that competes with Square’s card reader.
It charges merchants 2.7 percent on transactions, less than
Square’s 2.75 percent. Adding Staff Both PayPal and Square accept cards from MasterCard Inc. (MA) ,
Visa Inc. (V) , Discover Financial Services (DFS) and American Express Co. (AXP)
About 200,000 merchants have signed up for PayPal Here, EBay
said earlier this month. More than 1 million are using Square to accept credit
cards, according to the company. Square, is aiming to double its staff to 500 by the end of
the year. The company hired Ricardo Reyes as vice president of
communications and brand marketing earlier this month. Reyes
previously ran communications at Tesla Motors Inc. and Google’s (GOOG)
YouTube. To contact the reporter on this story:
Danielle Kucera in San Francisco at
dkucera6@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Tom Giles at
tgiles5@bloomberg.net | 2012 | square-payment-pace-rises-25-in-niche-coveted-by-ebay |
Midmorning Positive EPS Surprises for U.S. Companies, April 25 | By Wendy Soong | 2012-04-25T14:37:33Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/midmorning-positive-eps-surprises-for-u-s-companies-april-25.html | 4 | 25 | f064e9e1dfbc331c8bc1703abf19fb05a5982b94 | The following U.S. companies reported
positive surprises or matched expectations today. This list ranks
percent surprises of actual earnings to earnings estimates. Earnings estimates provided by Bloomberg.
* - Company in Standard & Poor’s 500 Index To contact the reporter on this story:
Wendy Soong in New York at at csoong@Bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Alex Tanzi at at
atanzi@Bloomberg.net | 2012 | idmorning-positive-eps-surprises-for-u-s-companies-april-25 |
U.K. Pledges $97 Million for Carbon Capture in Emerging Markets | By Sally Bakewell | 2012-04-25T15:47:42Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/u-k-pledges-97-million-for-carbon-capture-in-emerging-markets.html | 4 | 25 | 2556f252a962b4775d139108f053b1dd967a35da | The U.K. allocated as much as 60
million pounds ($97 million) to encourage the development of
carbon capture and storage technology in emerging markets . The funds will boost projects and develop new partnerships,
U.K. Energy Minister Greg Barker said today in a statement. The
money was drawn from International Climate Finance funding
that’s already been announced, the e-mailed statement said. The International Energy Agency estimates that 3,400 plants
using CCS technology are needed by 2050 to meet a goal of
cutting carbon emissions in half. Efforts to introduce CCS are
falling behind, along with nuclear power and biofuels, IEA
Deputy Executive Director Richard Jones told energy ministers
from 23 nations today in London. The U.K. funds contribute to the $200 million that should
be allocated globally to speed up deployment of the technology,
according to the Carbon Capture , Use and Storage Action Group,
the government said in the statement. “We recognize that it is important to ensure CCS is
deployed in developing as well as developed countries,” Barker
said in the statement. The U.K. is promoting the technology
itself with a 1 billion-pound funding contest begun in April. To contact the reporter responsible for this story:
Sally Bakewell in London at
Sbakewell1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net | 2012 | u-k-pledges-97-million-for-carbon-capture-in-emerging-markets |
Chile Studying Elimination of Oil Import Duties, Tercera Reports | By Randall Woods | 2012-04-25T12:55:36Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/chile-studying-elimination-of-oil-import-duties-tercera-reports.html | 4 | 25 | d033209a21dff6a5d6e49721eba26d4daf0871c5 | Chile’s government is studying
whether to eliminate import duties on oil in a bid to reduce
fuel prices and improve earnings at state-owned refiner Empresa
Nacional del Petroleo, La Tercera reported today , citing sources
it didn’t identify. The government is studying whether to include the measure
in a series of tax reforms that President Sebastian Pinera is
scheduled to announce this month, the Santiago-based newspaper
reported. To contact the reporter on this story:
Randall Woods in Santiago at
rwoods13@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Joshua Goodman at
jgoodman19@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | chile-studying-elimination-of-oil-import-duties-tercera-reports |
Stocks Advance, Treasuries Fall After Fed’s Statement | By Michael P. Regan | 2012-04-25T16:44:31Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/stocks-advance-treasuries-fall-after-fed-s-statement.html | 4 | 25 | 4921da2088ec690004e5b2b88260caf305e7e666 | U.S. stocks maintained gains, while
Treasuries slid and the Dollar Index reversed a drop, as Federal
Reserve policy makers said economic growth will gradually
accelerate and refrained from new stimulus actions. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rallied 1 percent to
1,385.99 at 12:42 p.m. in New York . The yield on the 10-year
Treasury note increased two basis points to 2.00 percent and the
Dollar Index, a gauge of the currency against six major peers,
was little changed after slipping 0.2 percent earlier. Oil fell,
helping drag the S&P GSCI Index of commodities lower. U.S. equities maintained earlier gains triggered by higher-
than-forecast earnings at companies including Apple Inc. and
Boeing Co. Fed policy makers led by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke are
holding off on additional steps to boost the economy amid signs
the expansion is gaining strength. “The committee expects economic growth to remain moderate
over coming quarters and then to pick up gradually,” the
Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement at the
conclusion of a two-day meeting today in Washington. “Despite
some signs of improvement, the housing sector remains
depressed,” the panel said. The S&P 500 has rallied 10 percent in 2012 on better-than-
estimated economic and corporate data. Profits have topped
forecasts at about 80 percent of S&P 500 companies that reported
results since April 10. To contact the reporter on this story:
Michael P. Regan in New York at
mregan12@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael P. Regan at
mregan12@bloomberg.net | 2012 | stocks-advance-treasuries-fall-after-fed-s-statemen |
Intel Fights $1.4 Billion EU Antitrust Fine at July Hearing | By Aoife White | 2012-04-25T15:14:31Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/intel-to-fight-1-4-billion-eu-antitrust-fine-at-july-hearing.html | 4 | 25 | 0a4b0b1d6d2640fb6e42d681d815737d888425a8 | Intel Corp., (INTC) the world’s largest
maker of computer chips, will fight a 1.06 billion-euro ($1.4
billion) antitrust fine by European Union regulators at a July
court hearing. Intel’s challenge at the EU’s General Court will be heard
over four days from July 3 to July 6, according to a
spokesperson for the Luxembourg-based tribunal who couldn’t be
identified in line with official policy. Intel is seeking to overturn a 2009 decision from the
European Commission that said Intel’s use of rebates violated EU
antitrust rules. The Santa Clara, California based company
believes the commission “was mistaken in its findings” and is
availing of its right to appeal, spokesman Chuck Mulloy said in
an e-mail. The antitrust fine was the biggest ever issued by the EU,
more than double the 497 million-euro penalty against Microsoft
Corp. (MSFT) in 2004. Advanced Micro Devices Inc., (AMD) which initiated the
EU antitrust case, had struggled to overcome Intel’s hold on the
market for processors that run PCs. Antoine Colombani, a spokesman for the EU regulator,
declined to comment. Decisions by the EU court can be appealed a last time to
the European Court of Justice , the 27-nation bloc’s highest
court, which is also in Luxembourg. The case is T-286/09 Intel v Commission. To contact the reporter on this story:
Aoife White in Brussels at
awhite62@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | intel-to-fight-1-4-billion-eu-antitrust-fine-at-july-hearing |
Home Values in Most Large U.S. Cities Bottoming, Zillow Says | By Prashant Gopal | 2012-04-25T04:01:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/home-values-in-most-large-u-s-cities-bottoming-zillow-says.html | 4 | 25 | fac1edcd1a535784a08784d7f4d67297347e057b | Home values in more than half of
major U.S. markets will probably reach a bottom by December as
the five-year slide in prices comes to an end, according to a
forecast by Zillow Inc. (Z) Nineteen of 30 large metropolitan areas have already
reached a floor or will by late 2012, the Seattle-based property
data provider said in a report today. Among the regions that are
at the bottom, Phoenix and Miami are poised to have the largest
price increases through March 2013, gaining 6.5 percent and 5.6
percent, respectively. Atlanta will have the steepest decline,
falling 4.1 percent, the company projected. The U.S. housing market, bolstered by job growth , has shown
some improvement. Home values nationwide climbed 0.5 percent in
March from February, the biggest monthly increase since May
2006, according to the seasonally adjusted Zillow Home Value
Index. Prices are 25 percent below the May 2007 peak and will be
little changed through the end of the year, the company said. “I remain cautiously optimistic about the full year of
2012, and the first-quarter numbers are very encouraging,” Stan Humphries , Zillow’s chief economist, said in a telephone
interview. “The bottom in home values is in sight.” Any recovery might be threatened if the pickup in
employment falters, he said. Markets that have reached the low point include Los
Angeles , Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington , Boston and Denver,
according to the report. The New York metro area’s trough will
come in the second quarter, followed by Baltimore and Las Vegas
in the third quarter, Zillow projected. San Francisco, Seattle Chicago , San Francisco , Cleveland, Seattle, Atlanta and
Charlotte in North Carolina are among the 11 areas that won’t
reach a floor in 2012, the company said. Home prices in 20 U.S. cities dropped 3.5 percent in
February, the smallest year-over-year decline since February
2011, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index released
yesterday. The Federal Housing Finance Agency yesterday said property
values rose 0.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from
January to February. Prices climbed 0.4 percent from February
2011, the first gain since the 12 months through July 2007. Zillow’s index measures the value of 100 million homes,
whether or not they’ve sold, and calculates the median. Other
gauges, such as the the Case-Shiller index, include only sales. To contact the reporter on this story:
Prashant Gopal in New York at
pgopal2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kara Wetzel at
kwetzel@bloomberg.net | 2012 | ome-values-in-most-large-u-s-cities-bottoming-zillow-says |
Copper Declines on China Demand Speculation: LME Preview | By John Deane | 2012-04-25T06:23:02Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/copper-declines-on-china-demand-speculation-lme-preview.html | 4 | 25 | a0cf280934b27935a8258ea023066d3374d0050d | Copper declined in London on
speculation demand in China , the world’s biggest consumer of
industrial metals, may slow as signaled by declining imports. Market News: Metals News: Metal Prices: | 2012 | copper-declines-on-china-demand-speculation-lme-preview |
Peru Stocks: Alturas Minerals, Atacocha, Minera IRL | By Alex Emery | 2012-04-25T21:17:58Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/peru-stocks-alturas-minerals-atacocha-minera-irl.html | 4 | 25 | 8732387fe105670ec536d922d980985a88e077cb | The following companies had unusual
price changes in Peru trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses
and prices are as of the close of trading. The Lima General Index (IGBVL) fell 0.4 percent to 22,845.02. The
MSCI All Peru Capped Index rose 0.6 percent to 2,936.07. Alturas Minerals Corp. (ALT) , a Canadian gold and copper
exploration company, fell 9.1 percent to 10 cents, a three-month
low, after gold declined in New York , said Francisco Miranda , an
analyst at Lima-based investment fund NC&F Inversiones SA. Minera IRL Ltd. (MIRL) , a U.K. gold producer with a mine
in Peru, dropped 2 percent to $1. Cia. Minera Atacocha SA (ATACOBC1 PE), the Lima-based
silver and zinc mining company, slid 3.1 percent to 62 centimos
after silver slumped to a three-month low in New York. To contact the reporter on this story:
Alex Emery in Lima at
aemery1@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
David Papadopoulos at
papadopoulos@bloomberg.net | 2012 | peru-stocks-alturas-minerals-atacocha-minera-ir |
Certificate of Deposits Reported: India Money Markets | By | 2012-04-25T13:00:14Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/certificate-of-deposits-reported-india-money-markets.html | 4 | 25 | 96b234425f795e37ab62dd6d457c8928de911cf6 | Following is a table showing certificate of
deposits reported by Companies. The data has been provided by the Fixed Income
Money Market & Derivatives Association of India . | 2012 | certificate-of-deposits-reported-india-money-markets |
England’s Football League to Adopt Financial Fair Play Rules | By Bob Bensch | 2012-04-25T13:57:44Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/england-s-football-league-to-adopt-financial-fair-play-rules.html | 4 | 25 | f9468755c059b847726737718f3c49b07929372d | England’s Football League, which
covers the three soccer divisions below the Premier League, will
introduce regulations to put caps on spending after teams
approved the measure. Beginning next season, clubs will be required to limit
losses and owner investment under “Financial Fair Play,” the
Football League said on its website . The rules are similar to
those designed by European soccer’s governing body UEFA for
clubs in continental competitions. The regulations will entail sanctions for non-compliance
commencing from the 2014-15 campaign, for which Championship
teams have approved a move to limit total losses to 6 million
pounds ($9.7 million) and owner investment to 3 million pounds. Third- and fourth-tier clubs will operate a system based on
curbing players’ wages as a percentage of sales. “It means for the first time, all 72 Football League clubs
have agreed to take concerted actions towards controlling their
financial destiny,” league chairman Greg Clarke said in a
statement. “While we cannot promise that these rules will
deliver results overnight, they will begin to lay the
foundations for a league of financially self-sustaining football
clubs.” The penalties for non-compliance will be either a transfer
embargo or a fine. An offending Championship club will be fined
if it is promoted to the Premier League, while one remaining in
the lower league will be banned from signing new players until
it shows compliance with the regulations. UEFA’s rules could lead to clubs being barred from Europe ’s
elite Champions League from 2014 for failing to meet criteria on
limiting losses. The regulations came in response to rising debt
across the continent and the effect of cash infusions from
wealthy benefactors in its competitions. Like England’s Premier League, the second division has been
unable to keep costs under control, even with rising revenue.
Operating losses in the Championship during the 2009-10 season
increased for the sixth straight year to a record 133 million
pounds, according to a report published last year by accountant
Deloitte LLP. To contact the reporter on this story:
Bob Bensch in London at
bbensch@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Christopher Elser at celser@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | england-s-football-league-to-adopt-financial-fair-play-rules |
Chicago Gasoline Discount Narrows After Wood River Upset | By Dan Murtaugh | 2012-04-25T18:34:34Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/chicago-gasoline-discount-narrows-after-wood-river-upset.html | 4 | 25 | df8091464e3cd4e8a43da7d9bec2d4263185146f | Chicago gasoline rose against
futures after an upset at the Wood River refinery in Illinois. Conventional, 87-octane gasoline in Chicago rose 3 cents
against futures to a discount of 12 cents a gallon on the New
York Mercantile Exchange at 1:02 p.m. The prompt-delivery price
fell 4.41 cents to $2.9652. The refinery, which is owned by ConocoPhillips (COP) and Cenovus
Energy Inc. (CVE) , flared sulfur dioxide yesterday because of a wet
gas compressor upset, according to a filing with state
regulators. The 306,000-barrel-a-day plant is the third-largest
in the Midwest, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. To contact the reporter on this story:
Dan Murtaugh in Houston at
dmurtaugh@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dan Stets at
dstets@bloomberg.net | 2012 | chicago-gasoline-discount-narrows-after-wood-river-upse |
Norway’s Arctic Oil Bonanza Gets Reality Check in Pipe Limbo | By Alastair Reed | 2012-04-26T15:57:57Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/norway-arctic-oil-bonanza-gets-reality-check-in-pipeline-limbo.html | 4 | 25 | 914e32defc70499a87a109cded2410c9 | Norway is grappling with how to
turn last year’s oil and gas finds in the Arctic Circle into
real money as the world’s seventh-largest crude exporter seeks
to sustain output after more than 40 years of extraction. Norway, whose oil finds in the North Sea starting in 1969
helped turn it into the world’s second-richest nation per capita
after Luxembourg, can’t waste time in deciding on how to
transport what it finds off its northern tip down south to the
rest of Europe , Petroleum and Energy Ministry Ola Borten Moe
said at a conference in the Arctic town of Hammerfest this week. The issue is “when we need more gas transportation
capacity, not whether,” he said. Companies including Statoil ASA (STL) , Norway’s largest oil
producer, and Total SA (FP) of France , Europe’s third-biggest, last
year made commercial discoveries of oil and gas in the Barents
Sea, the first in more than a decade. Norway is moving into the
waters off its northern tip to boost output after oil production
fell by half in the past decade amid dwindling North Sea output. The Nordic country also offered 72 new blocks in the
Barents Sea for exploration as part of its 22nd licensing round.
Statoil, which is 67 percent-owned by the Norwegian government,
signaled it may boost the pace of production at its Snohvit gas
field, the only producing deposit in the Barents Sea , to free up
transport facilities and send more gas south. The company would reduce the commercial life of Snohvit by
20 years to 2030 should it push ahead with plans to double
production capacity, spokesman Anders Ola Skauby said. ‘From Scratch’ “We’re now starting to build a production cluster here
from scratch,” Oeystein Michelsen, Statoil’s executive vice
president of development and production in Norway, said on April
24 in Hammerfest. “The question is should we aim to produce
more so we can open up capacity for our new fields later.” Statoil’s Snohvit sends gas to the Melkoeya plant in
Hammerfest where it’s turned into liquefied natural gas and put
on tankers for shipment as far away as Japan . At issue is
whether Norway should invest in pipelines that will connect to
its network in the Norwegian and North Sea that is hooked up
with continental Europe. Gassco AS, Norway’s gas network operator, in January
proposed a pipeline to tap the Barents Sea deposits. An analysis
of resources showed there may be a need for a 25 billion-krone
($4.4 billion) pipe to connect with existing facilities in the
Norwegian Sea by 2020, the operator said. Russian Delays Norway’s neighbor to the east, Russia, is also grappling
with the difficulties of Arctic oil development. In March, OAO
Gazprom (GAZP) , Russia’s gas export monopoly, and its partners Total
and Statoil postponed a final investment decision on the Barents
Sea Shtokman gas project, adding to previous delays in part
because of high costs. The partners held off on an agreement,
saying they’re “confident the project can be improved further,
both technically and economically.” Statoil’s discoveries at Skrugard last year and nearby
Havis may hold 600 million barrels of oil equivalent. Total’s
Norvarg discovery, announced in August, may hold 10 billion to
50 billion cubic meters of recoverable gas, according to the
Norwegian Petroleum Directorate . Helge Lund, chief executive officer at Statoil, had said
the industry had been unable to “crack the code” of the
Barents Sea after participating in more than 80 wells there
since 1980. Norway directly gets about 25 percent of its
economic output from oil and gas. ‘Difficult Decision’ Shares in Statoil, based in Stavanger, have gained 5.1
percent during the last two years, underperforming a 27 percent
gain in the oil price on the New York Mercantile Exchange .
Statoil closed 1.3 percent higher at 153.20 kroner Oslo, while
crude for June delivery was up 0.5 percent at $104.65 a barrel
as of 5:55 p.m. in the Norwegian capital, having yesterday
climbed to the highest level in more than a week. “It’s a very difficult decision,” Michelsen said. “Do we
go for LNG, which we can export to countries willing to pay the
most, or do we build a pipeline to the south, which will create
opportunities for other actors.” While output is waning in the North Sea, the area is also
vying for investments after Statoil and partners last year
discovered the Johan Sverdrup deposit, the country’s largest
find since 1974. It may hold 3.3 billion barrels of oil
equivalent, which has helped rekindle interest in the North Sea. ‘Sea of Possibilities’ Norway produces about 100 billion cubic meters of gas a
year and is the second-biggest supplier to Europe after Russia .
Norway, for example, supplied an average of 100 million cubic
meters a day to the U.K. from Jan. 10 to March 31, according to
Gassco. LNG terminals provided 33 million cubic meters. Norway is likely to meet plenty of demand from willing
buyers. World energy demand will grow 20 percent to 50 percent
by 2035, meaning new discoveries must be made if only to replace
existing reserves, according to Statoil, which operates about 80
percent of Norwegian production. The Barents Sea region could produce about 400,000 to
500,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2020, more than
four times what Statoil gets from Snohvit today, Michelsen said. Success may also open a gateway even farther north. “The Barents Sea itself is a sea of possibilities,” he
said. “But it’s also the gateway to other parts of the Arctic.
What we do here and now gives us the competencies and experience
we need when we start developing even farther north.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Alastair Reed in Oslo at
areed12@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jonas Bergman at jbergman@bloomberg.net | 2012 | norway-arctic-oil-bonanza-gets-reality-check-in-pipeline-limbo |
Coal No Longer King as Southern Speeds Switch to Gas-Fired Power | By Julie Johnsson | 2012-04-25T21:13:06Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/coal-no-longer-king-as-southern-speeds-switch-to-gas-fired-power.html | 4 | 25 | 8192661b483f3cd0ea70bd922e1237371e2d738c | Southern Co. (NSC) , one of the largest
U.S. consumers of coal, expects to generate 57 percent of its
power from natural gas by 2020 if low prices and new
environmental rules remain in effect. Southern, based in Atlanta, Georgia, burned more gas than
coal during the first quarter as collapsing prices made gas the
cheapest fossil fuel in the utility’s four-state region of the
southeastern U.S., Thomas Fanning, Southern’s chairman and CEO,
said during an interview today. “We think with this change in energy production, we will
be the third-largest gas consumer in our industry,” Fanning
said. The rapid switch away from coal by Southern and other large
U.S. power companies is expected to dent gas inventories that
ballooned as production expanded and a warm winter tempered
demand. Gas futures in New York rose for the third time in four
days after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) said prices may rebound to
$4 per million British thermal units “relatively quickly.” Natural gas for May delivery increased 9.3 cents to $2.068
per million British thermal units at the close on the New York
Mercantile Exchange . Southern, whose energy output matches that of the country
of Australia , has halved its coal use to about 35 percent of
energy sales since 2007, Fanning said. The company’s gas-fired
generation rose threefold to 47 percent. Fanning and his team accelerated the transition to gas last
year as prices began to tumble and the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency announced stricter curbs on common coal-fired
plant pollutants. Southern is monitoring stockpiles and renegotiating mine
and rail contracts as its coal burn drops to 45 million tons
this year from 56 million tons in 2011, Fanning said during a
quarterly conference call. Southern fell 0.9 percent to $45.48 at the close in New
York . To contact the reporter on this story:
Julie Johnsson in Chicago at
jjohnsson@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Susan Warren at
susanwarren@bloomberg.net | 2012 | coal-no-longer-king-as-southern-speeds-switch-to-gas-fired-power |
Astra International’s Quarterly Profit Rises; Warns of Slowdown | By Berni Moestafa and Widya Utami | 2012-04-25T11:29:36Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/astra-international-s-quarterly-profit-rises-warns-of-slowdown.html | 4 | 25 | 54e06304ed04c0b5bd7c39a1c2bc6830fe901925 | PT Astra International (ASII) , Indonesia ’s
largest automotive retailer, said first-quarter net income rose
8 percent from a year earlier, while adding its vehicle and
financing businesses will be impacted by tighter lending rules. Net income in the three months ending March 31 rose to 4.65
trillion rupiah ($500 million) from 4.3 trillion rupiah a year
earlier, the Jakarta-based company said in an e-mailed statement
today. That’s 24 percent of the full-year mean estimate of 19.5
trillion rupiah, according to 22 analysts in a Bloomberg News
survey. Sales at Astra, which sells Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) vehicles
and Honda Motor Co. (7267) motorcycles, increased 20 percent from a
year earlier to 46.4 trillion rupiah, it said. Sales growth at retailers such as Astra may slow as Bank
Indonesia requires buyers to pay a down payment of at least 30
percent for vehicle loans starting June 15 . About 65 percent of
Indonesian vehicles are purchased through financing, with an
average down payment of 10 percent to 15 percent, Sudirman M.R.,
chairman of the Indonesian automotive industries association,
said today. Sales this year may fall 20 percent short of the
association’s earlier target of 1 million units, Sudirman said. “Astra Group has shown a strong performance throughout the
first quarter of 2012 in which almost all main businesses posted
growth,” President Director Prijono Sugiarto said in the
statement. “We’re optimistic in the long-term even though in
the short term, the automotive and financing divisions will be
impacted by the new regulation.” Bank Indonesia kept on April 12 its benchmark interest rate
at a record low of 5.75 percent for a second month, helping spur
consumer spending in Southeast Asia ’s biggest economy. The
nation’s domestic vehicle sales in the first quarter rose 11
percent from a year ago to 251,000 units, Astra said. The
company’s vehicle sales rose 16 percent to 146,000 units over
the same period, while motorcycle sales slid 3 percent to 1.9
million units, it said. Astra’s heavy equipment unit, PT United Tractors (UNTR) , said
today net income rose 18 percent from a year earlier to 1.5
trillion rupiah. PT Astra Agro Lestari (AALI) , its palm oil unit, said
yesterday net income fell 42 percent to 377.9 billion rupiah. Shares of Astra fell 0.7 percent to 70,900 rupiah at the
close in Jakarta, widening this year’s loss to 4.2 percent
compared with an 8.9 percent gain in the benchmark stock index . To contact the reporter on this story:
Berni Moestafa in Jakarta at
bmoestafa@bloomberg.net ;
Widya Utami in Jakarta at wutami@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Greg Ahlstrand at
gahlstrand@bloomberg.net | 2012 | astra-international-s-quarterly-profit-rises-warns-of-slowdown |
Konecranes Gains Most in Three Months on Record Order Book | By Kasper Viita | 2012-04-25T15:57:20Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/konecranes-gains-most-in-three-months-on-record-order-book-1-.html | 4 | 25 | 5a71ae68de907b11fd9b6d4267bd13a8c430b466 | Konecranes Oyj (KCR1V) , the world’s biggest
supplier of industrial cranes, climbed the most in almost three
months, boosted by a record order book. Konecranes rose as much as 8.5 percent, the most since Feb.
2, adding 7.2 percent to 22.70 euros at the close of trading in
Helsinki. It was the day’s biggest gain on the OMX Helsinki 25
index. The shares extended their rise to 56 percent so far this
year, the third-biggest increase on the Stoxx Europe 600. (SXXP) Konecranes is benefiting from an increase in global
container traffic, which boosts port handling volumes and demand
for lifting equipment. The Hyvinkaa, Finland-based company’s order book is at “an
all-time high,” Chief Executive Officer Pekka Lundmark said at
a briefing in Helsinki today. The order book rose 12.4 percent
to 1.08 billion euros ($1.4 billion) from a year ago. Sales grew by 22.2 percent to 474 million euros and
operating profit rose by 29.4 percent to 24 million euros from a
year earlier. These were “good achievements,” Lundmark said in
a statement today. Lundmark will relocate to Singapore in August for a year as
the company expands in emerging markets . The relative share of
the Asia-Pacific region in Konecranes’ sales has doubled in 10
years to 20 percent. The company reiterated forecast of sales and operating
profit rising in 2012. To contact the reporter on this story:
Kasper Viita in Helsinki at
kviita1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Christian Wienberg at
cwienberg@bloomberg.net | 2012 | konecranes-gains-most-in-three-months-on-record-order-book-1- |
Emerging-Market Stocks Gain on Apple Earnings, Hungary | By Christine Harvey and Jason Webb | 2012-04-25T21:28:14Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/emerging-stocks-gain-as-apple-suppliers-jump-hungary-nears-deal.html | 4 | 25 | c596bef06894449a85e2bb5e7187f378 | Most emerging-market stocks
climbed, led by shares in Hungary and Mexico, as companies from
Apple Inc. to Boeing Inc. (BA) had better-than-forecast earnings and
the U.S. said it will keep interest rates low. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index was little changed at
1,011.54 by 4:30 p.m. in New York, with 403 stocks rising and
360 declining. Information technology and consumer companies
advanced as Indian alcohol distributor United Spirits Ltd. rose
the most since Jan. 25 and Inotera Memories Ltd. (3474) , a Taiwanese
chipmaker, had its biggest jump in more than seven months. Hungary’s BUX Index (BUX) added the most since Nov. 11 after the
nation got the go-ahead from the European Union’s executive arm
to pursue an aid package. Mexico’s IPC Index climbed for the
first time in three days and Brazil ’s Bovespa Index slipped. Quarterly earnings-per-share for the 174 companies in the
Standard & Poor’s 500 Index that have reported since April 10
rose 11 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Federal Reserve policy makers today repeated the view that
borrowing costs are likely to remain “exceptionally low,”
between zero to 0.25 percent, through 2014 amid heightening
inflation and middling economic growth. “The low interest rate motivates investors to invest in
places where the returns are theoretically better,” Bernard Horn, president and portfolio manager of Polaris Capital
Management, said by phone from Boston. “As a result, we’re
seeing some leaking of liquidity into emerging markets.” The MSCI Emerging Markets Index (MXEF) has climbed 10.4 percent
this year, while the MSCI World Index (MXWO) added 8.7 percent.
Companies on the gauge of developing nations are valued at 10.5
times estimated profits, compared with the MSCI World’s multiple
of 12.5 times. Brazil, Russia The IShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index exchange-traded
fund , the most-traded ETF to track developing-nation shares,
rose 0.9 percent to $41.99 in New York. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Emerging Markets ETF
Volatility Index (VXEEM) , a gauge of options prices on the fund and
expectations of price swings, tumbled 2.5 percent to 25.59. Brazil’s benchmark index fell 0.4 percent as Itau Unibanco
Holding SA, the country’s biggest lender by market value,
dropped 5.9 percent after the company reported it expects losses
from bad loans to be between 6 billion reais and 6.4 billion
reais in the second quarter. Common shares of Usinas
Siderurgicas de Minas Gerais S.A. advanced 2.8 percent. Mexico’s
IPC rose 0.6 percent, with Cemex SAB gaining 6.1 percent. The Micex Index (INDEXCF) in Russia rose 0.3 percent, paring losses
of 3.2 percent over the past two days, as OAO Aeroflot rose the
most in almost two weeks. The Moscow-based company gained 2
percent after Kommersant, a Russian publication, reported
Russia’s biggest airline is considering buying Belarus’s Belavia
air carrier. Hungary Progress The Hungarian benchmark BUX stock index jumped 4.2 percent
to lead gains in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index for a second
day as OTP Bank Nyrt. (OTP) , the nation’s biggest lender, added 6.7
percent and Mol Nyrt. (MOL) , the country’s largest refiner, gained 5.8
percent. The European Commission said today it welcomes the
possibility to start talks on a joint program with the European
Union and the International Monetary Fund to shore up the
recession-threatened country’s finances, which are currently
saddled with a junk credit rating. The forint advanced 1.8
percent to 289 per euro. The PX Index (PX) surged 1.4 percent in Prague while the
FTSE/Africa All Shares Index (JALSH) jumped 0.6 percent in Johannesburg
and Turkey’s ISE National 100 Index (XU100) added 0.4 percent. India Revision India ’s BSE India Sensitive Index, or Sensex (SENSEX) , fell 0.3
percent after Standard & Poor’s lowered India’s local-currency
credit outlook to negative from stable. The country’s government
faces the widest budget deficit among the biggest emerging
economies and has set out record borrowing needs for 2012-2013.
The gap in the year through March was 5.9 percent of gross
domestic product, compared with a projection of 5.1 percent for
2013. “We are revising the outlook on the long-term ratings on
India to negative to reflect at least a one-in-three likelihood
of a downgrade if the external position continues to
deteriorate, growth prospects diminish, or progress on fiscal
reforms remains slow,” S&P said. Wipro Limited (WPRO) , India’s third-largest software exporter,
dropped 7.2 percent, the most since May 2009, after its forecast
for information-technology revenue lagged behind some analysts’
estimates. United Spirits, a manufacturer of alcohol and
spirits, rose 8.9 percent after the Economic Times reported
London-based alcoholic beverage marketer Diageo Plc. (DGE) was in
talks to buy a minority stake in the company. United, based in
Bangalore, India, said the report on the stake sale was
factually incorrect. State-run gas utility company Gail India Limited fell 3.3
percent to the lowest since Aug. 2009 after the New Delhi-based
company suspended cargo operations at a liquefied natural gas
terminal in Dabhol, India. Benchmark Gains Suppliers of Apple Inc. (AAPL) , the world’s largest company by
market value, gained after the company reported profit that
almost doubled last quarter, reflecting demand for the iPhone in
China . “The support from the better earnings is helping to lift
all global risk asset valuations and give some comfort that
growth might be doing reasonably well,” Nick Chamie , the head
of emerging markets at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto, said by
phone. In Taiwan, the Taiex Index (TWSE) advanced 0.9 percent led by
gains in electronics companies. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (2317) ,
an assembler for Apple products, climbed 2.4 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) jumped 0.8 percent and the
Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) of Chinese stocks listed in
Hong Kong was little changed as 32 companies gained and 13
declined. The extra yield investors demand to own emerging-market
debt over U.S. Treasuries fell five basis points, or 0.05
percentage point, to 351, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s
EMBI Global Index. To contact the reporters on this story:
Christine Harvey in New York at
charvey32@bloomberg.net ;
Jason Webb in London at
jwebb25@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Gavin Serkin at
gserkin@bloomberg.net | 2012 | emerging-stocks-gain-as-apple-suppliers-jump-hungary-nears-dea |
Arcandor Wins Liability Ruling Against Middelhoff, Former Board | By Karin Matussek | 2012-04-25T13:14:36Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/arcandor-wins-liability-ruling-against-middelhoff-former-board.html | 4 | 25 | 091427f6438eeb34ae059ebf3f2fcaba89bdeac2 | Arcandor AG (ARO) ’s insolvency
administrator won a German ruling holding former Chief Executive
Officer Thomas Middelhoff and other former management board
members liable for management failures. While dismissing most of the 175 million-euro ($231
million) suit, the Essen Regional Court said the former
management board members should have stopped or unwound a sale
and lease-back transaction concerning a Wiesbaden department
store. Similar claims regarding four others transactions were
rejected, as was the case against six former supervisory board
members, court spokesman Stephan Hackert said. “The court didn’t rule on the amount of damages, which
will have to be determined in a separate proceeding,” said
Hackert. An expert hired by Arcandor’s administrator claims that
damage to be between 30 million and 46 million euros, Hackert
said. Arcandor, the former parent of German department-store
chain Karstadt, filed for insolvency in June 2009. Middelhoff’s
home and office were searched in 2010 as part of a criminal
probe into the company’s demise. The agreements under which Karstadt sold the five stores
and agreed to later lease them back were closed in 2001 and
2002. The sale prices were too low and the lease prices too
high, Arcandor’s insolvency administrator Gerd Jauch claims. Middelhoff’s attorney Winfried Holtermueller described the
liability ruling as wrong and said he will appeal. Stopping the
transaction would have cost Arcandor 71 million euros and the
court failed to take that into account. The case is LG Essen, 41 O 45/10. To contact the reporters on this story:
Karin Matussek in Berlin at
kmatussek@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Anthony Aarons in London at
aaarons@Bloomberg.net | 2012 | arcandor-wins-liability-ruling-against-middelhoff-former-board |
Austrian Airlines Reaches Deal With Flight Crews on Cost Savings | By Alex Webb | 2012-04-25T14:01:38Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/austrian-airlines-reaches-deal-with-flight-crews-on-cost-savings.html | 4 | 25 | 9a74d74c4c1cd31044473d7a0c8dbc0d3b8e1dbc | Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA) ’s Austrian
Airlines unit has reached an agreement with labor
representatives over reducing flight crew costs, avoiding the
need to transfer 2,100 staff to cheaper contracts at a lower-
cost subsidiary. The agreement, if approved by the 600 pilots and 1,500
cabin crew, would preclude moving the employees to contracts at
regional operator Tyrolean Airways, Austrian Airlines
spokeswoman Patricia Strampfer said by telephone. Austrian had said last week that it would implement the
“Plan B” of forcing staff to accept contracts at Tyrolean in
order to deliver a 220 million-euro ($289 million) cost-savings
program after talks failed to make progress. “We have to reduce our personnel costs, which due to a
number of mechanisms increase by 10 percent each year,”
Strampfer said. “Now this new collective agreement has been
agreed, we don’t need the Plan B.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Alex Webb in Munich via
awebb25@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Chad Thomas at
cthomas16@bloomberg.net | 2012 | austrian-airlines-reaches-deal-with-flight-crews-on-cost-savings |
Siemens Cuts Full-Year Profit Forecast on Wind-Power Cost | By Alex Webb and Sheenagh Matthews | 2012-04-25T10:58:26Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/siemens-cuts-full-year-profit-forecast-on-wind-power-char.html | 4 | 25 | e84b2db0a3ec42eaa98ce9f128b360fd | Siemens AG (SIE) cut its annual profit
forecast for the third time in five years as delays in linking
off-shore wind parks to Europe ’s power grid hinder Chief
Executive Officer Peter Loescher ’s thrust into renewable energy. Siemens now expects net income from continuing operations
of 5.2 billion euros ($6.9 billion) to 5.4 billion euros in the
year through September, down from a 6 billion-euro target, the
Munich-based company said. Ingo-Martin Schachel, an analyst at
Commerzbank AG, said he expected a reduction to 5 billion euros. Loescher is suffering setbacks to his goal for Siemens,
Europe’s biggest engineering company, to generate 40 billion
euros in sales within two years from products related to the
environment and energy saving. Siemens’s transmissions unit has
booked 481 million euros in extra costs this year from delays in
hooking up marine wind farms. Loescher said today that the
“majority” of charges have already been booked. “There were fears that didn’t materialize,” Schachel said
by telephone. “It was a positive surprise” that they didn’t
cut the goal more. Schachel raised his recommendation on Siemens
stock today to buy from hold. Siemens rose as much as 2.2 percent to 71.33 euros and was
trading 1 percent higher as of 12:54 p.m. in Frankfurt , valuing
the company at 64.5 billion euros. The increase compares with a
1.3 percent gain in Germany ’s benchmark DAX Index. Orders to Revive Orders, which fell 13 percent in three months through
March, are expected to revive in the second fiscal half compared
with the first, Loescher said today on a conference call. “This year we had quite a hard comparison basis, with some
large orders being booked in the second quarter last year,”
said Sjoerd Ummels, a Brussels-based analyst at ING Groep NV,
who advises investors to hold Siemens stock. “It will be quite
a different picture in the second half.” Second-quarter sales rose 9 percent to 19.3 billion euros,
beating an analyst estimate of 18.8 billion euros, according to
a Bloomberg survey. Profit from continuing operations fell 67
percent to 1.05 billion euros. “As expected, the second quarter was not easy,” Loescher
said. For the full year “we anticipate that most of our
businesses, including the short-cycle businesses of the industry
sector, will deliver strong earnings performances.” Operating profit gained 5.1 percent at Siemens’s industry
division and 9.8 percent at the infrastructure and cities unit,
Siemens said. Earnings at the health-care and energy businesses
fell because of charges. ‘Demanding’ Wind Projects The German company’s off-shore wind projects in the North
Sea are “extremely demanding,” Loescher said today. Compared
with coastal U.K. platforms, the projects are five times as far
from the mainland, have twice the capacity and weigh five times
as much, he said. Regulatory authorities haven’t reached a final
decision on whether facilities of this size should be governed
by regulations for ships or for oil platforms, he said. Siemens appointed Karlheinz Springer to replace Udo Niehage
as head of the power-transmission unit as it seeks to stem
losses from the business. Springer, who was formerly head of
power transmissions solutions, take the post on May 1. The wind power industry is struggling with low margins and
investment risks that are being exacerbated by cuts in European
subsidies, Felix Ferlemann, the head of Siemens’s wind-power
division, said at a conference in Copenhagen on April 16. ABB Earnings ABB (ABBN) , the world’s largest maker of power-distribution
equipment, expects no delays or one-time charges at its off-
shore wind park projects, Financial Times Deutschland said
yesterday, citing an interview with Peter Terwiesch, head of the
Zurich-based company’s German operations. ABB’s first-quarter
earnings before interest and taxes held steady at $1.05 billion,
the manufacturer said today. Siemens’s power-transmission unit reported a loss of 169
million euros in the second quarter. Siemens also incurred a 640
million-euro equity loss at its Nokia Siemens Networks joint
venture. To contact the reporters on this story:
Sheenagh Matthews in Frankfurt at
smatthews6@bloomberg.net ;
Alex Webb in Frankfurt at
awebb25@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andrew Noel at
anoel@bloomberg.net | 2012 | siemens-cuts-full-year-profit-forecast-on-wind-power-char |
Japan’s ‘Great Tohoku’ Quakes Have Recurred, Data Show | By Jonathan Tirone | 2012-04-25T10:11:35Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/japan-s-great-tohoku-quakes-have-recurred-data-show.html | 4 | 25 | 89211a043b1c49c08e6d02076a96b85eb4dd24b8 | The “Great Tohoku Earthquake”
that shook Japan , unleashed a tsunami and killed 20,000 people
last year wasn’t as unusual as geologists first supposed,
according to new geological data collected near the fault lines . Earthquakes like the March 11, 2011, temblor have probably
occurred at least three other times in history, according to
German, Swiss and Japanese scientists who drilled into sediment
7,000 meters (22,967 feet) beneath the sea. The discovery will
help planners measure the risk of such events recurring, said
Michael Strasser, a Swiss scientist who led a research
expedition to the quake zone this month. “We were able to get a record to suggest the potential
occurrence of three other large-scale Tohoku-type events,”
Strasser told reporters today in Vienna. “It’s the first time
the cores have shown this.” Germany dispatched the “Research Vessel Sonne,” a 100-
meter ship, in March to aid Japanese researchers collecting data
about the earthquake. Scientists found layers of sediment and
fossils in undersea trenches deposited by earthquake-triggered
landslides. Researchers are trying to carbon-date the material. “They must go back beyond 1,000 years,” said Kiyoshi Suyehiro, president of Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, an
international research group. “It is very important to know the
recurrence rate. Unfortunately, seismologists including myself
weren’t expecting this to happen.” Understanding Risks While Japanese geologists know from historical records that
a similar earthquake struck the region between 500 and 1,000
years ago, there’s no record or data beyond that time, Kiyoshi
said. Policy makers must understand natural-disaster risk before
investing in infrastructure built to last for many generations,
according to the scientists. Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) ’s
Fukushima Dai-Ich nuclear-power plant was overwhelmed by the
tsunami triggered by the earthquake and three of the facility’s
four reactors melted down. Minutes of a June 2009 Trade Ministry meeting on safety at
the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant show Tokyo Electric and the
regulator ignored scientific findings that emerged after the
power station was built. “We didn’t think the damage would be that significant,”
Isao Nishimura, a manager at the department at the utility that
studies earthquake resistance, said when asked at the meeting
why its safety review omitted studies showing the area had a
history of major earthquakes and tsunamis. To contact the reporter on this story:
Jonathan Tirone in Vienna at
jtirone@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Zoe Schneeweiss at
zschneeweiss@bloomberg.net | 2012 | japan-s-great-tohoku-quakes-have-recurred-data-show |