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Orders for U.S. Goods Probably Rose Excluding Transport | By Timothy R. Homan | 2012-04-25T04:01:10Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/orders-for-u-s-goods-probably-rose-excluding-transport.html | 4 | 25 | e5f171be4b0e4fecb2aab2f1ad5ba9d7 | Orders for U.S. durable goods
excluding transportation equipment probably rose in March,
indicating manufacturing continues to contribute to growth,
economists said before a government report today. Bookings for goods meant to last at least three years
outside of aircraft and automobiles increased 0.5 percent after
rising 1.8 percent the prior month, according to the median
forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Total orders
probably dropped as demand for planes, which is volatile, pulled
back after surging in February, economists projected. Rising demand for cars and auto supplies is supporting
companies from 3M Co. (MMM) to Texas Instruments Inc., showing
factories will underpin the expansion. Nonetheless,
manufacturing will probably give way to service industries as a
pillar of the expansion as slowdowns in Europe and China curb
exports , while business investment cools after the strongest 10-
quarter performance in a decade. “We’re still definitely on the recovery path,” said Scott Brown , chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc. in St.
Petersburg , Florida . “The slower global outlook should damp
U.S. exports to some extent. Domestic demand should be OK.” The Commerce Department will report the durables figures at
8:30 a.m. in Washington. Estimates for bookings excluding
transportation of the 51 economists surveyed by Bloomberg ranged
from little changed to a gain of 2.4 percent. Boeing Orders A decline in airplane bookings probably contributed to a
drop in total demand, economists said. Boeing Co., the largest
U.S. aircraft maker, said it received orders for 53 planes last
month, down from 237 in February. Orders for non-military capital goods excluding aircraft, a
proxy for business investment in items such as computers,
engines and communications gear, advanced 1 percent after a 1.2
percent gain the previous month, according to the median
forecast. Auto manufacturing has been bolstering factory growth. Cars
last quarter sold at the fastest pace in four years, according
to industry data. Manufacturers pointed to gains in automotive and high-
technology industries, the Federal Reserve said in its Beige
Book business survey, published two weeks before the Federal
Open Market Committee meets today in Washington to set monetary
policy. The firms “expressed optimism about near-term growth
prospects, but they are somewhat concerned about rising
petroleum prices,” the Fed said in the report. Other Gauges Other manufacturing gauges continued to expand this month
even as orders eased. Regional reports from the Federal Reserve
Banks in the New York and Philadelphia showed factory growth
slowed, while employment increased. 3M, maker of fuel system tune-up kits and Post-it Notes,
yesterday jumped the most since January after posting a first-
quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates because of rising
U.S. auto and industrial demand. The St. Paul , Minnesota-based
company’s industrial and transportation unit posted sales of
$2.66 billion, an 8.6 percent increase. Those gains help explain why shares of machinery makers
have outpaced the broader stock market this year. The Standard &
Poor’s Machinery Supercomposite (S15MACH) Index (SPX) , which includes companies
like Cummins Inc. and Caterpillar Inc., has climbed 15 percent
so far this year, compared with a 9.1 percent increase for the
S&P 500 Index.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Timothy R. Homan in Washington at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Christopher Wellisz at [email protected] | 2012 | orders-for-u-s-goods-probably-rose-excluding-transpor |
Persian Gulf Stocks: ADCB, Drake & Scull, Nawras, Shuaa Capital | By Zahra Hankir | 2012-04-25T13:03:19Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/persian-gulf-stocks-abu-dhabi-commercial-bank-drake-scull.html | 4 | 25 | 87f819116afd61707b0c88d2f88512b4a116ba62 | Abu Dhabi ’s ADX General Index (ADSMI) rose
0.3 percent, the biggest increase since April 18, to 2,512.19 at
the 2 p.m. close in the emirate. The DFM General Index (DFMGI) fell 0.6
percent. The following shares were active in the Persian Gulf
region. Stock symbols are in parentheses. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC (ADCB) rose the most
since April 1, gaining 2.2 percent to 3.20 dirhams. The United
Arab Emirates’ third-biggest lender posted a 38 percent increase
in first-quarter profit to 802 million dirhams ($218 million). Dlala Brokerage & Investment (DBIS) surged to the
highest since September 2008, rallying 4.1 percent to 47.9
riyals. The Qatari asset manager and stockbroker said first-
quarter profit rose 26 percent to 15.3 million riyals ($4.2
million). Drake & Scull International PJSC (DSI) advanced the most
since March 13, climbing 2.2 percent to 98.9 fils. The Dubai-
based construction company said it won a contract valued at 470
million dirhams in Abu Dhabi. Omani Qatari Telecommunications Co. (NWRS) tumbled to
the lowest on record, slumping 4.4 percent to 0.566 rial. The
unit of Qatar Telecom QSC said first-quarter profit fell 19
percent to 9.8 million rials ($25 million) as revenue from text
messaging declined. Shuaa Capital PSC (SHUAA) fell the most in more than a
week, dropping 1.9 percent to 78 fils. The Dubai-based
investment (DIC) bank had its ratings cut to B1 from Ba3 and assigned
a negative outlook at Moody’s Investors Service. To contact the reporter on this story:
Zahra Hankir in Dubai at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Claudia Maedler at
[email protected] | 2012 | persian-gulf-stocks-abu-dhabi-commercial-bank-drake-scu |
Repsol Pledges Ratings Defense Using Bonds, ’Black Stuff’ | By Esteban Duarte and Ben Sills | 2012-04-25T10:45:46Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/repsol-pledges-ratings-defense-using-bonds-black-stuff-3-.html
Repsol YPF SA (REP) will do “whatever it
takes” to defend its investment-grade credit rating after the
Argentine government seized the unit that made a fifth of the
company’s profit, a spokesman said. Repsol’s bonds rallied. Spain’s largest oil company plans to give investors the
choice of receiving dividends in the form of shares, and to
allow holders of about 3 billion euros ($4 billion) of preferred
shares to swap them for mandatory convertible bonds, Repsol’s
Kristian Rix in Madrid said yesterday in a telephone interview. Repsol’s finances also will be bolstered by new output in
Spain, Peru and Bolivia this year and by a 12 percent gain in
crude prices in the past six months as it battles to overcome
YPF SA (YPFD) ’s expropriation. The company has a better chance to keep
its credit rating because it’s an oil producer, which offers it
some protection from Europe ’s financial crisis, said Tim Barker,
head of credit research at Societe Generale SA in London . “Defending a business that is built around oil has to be
easier than in other areas | 4 | 25 | 46c587d56a4a40a9b060aa07bca7250cddf751b2 | center,” Barker said. “For a company to come out and offer
solutions is very encouraging for a debt investor.” Standard & Poor’s cut Repsol’s credit rating last week one
step to BBB-, one level above junk, and warned the oil company
faces another downgrade unless it cuts its debt this year after
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner seized a 51
percent stake in YPF on April 16 and ejected Madrid-based
Repsol’s officers from the unit’s Buenos Aires headquarters. Default Insurance Drops The cost of insuring Repsol’s bonds fell by the most in
almost two years, according to Bloomberg prices for credit-
default swaps. Contracts on the company tumbled 36 basis points
to 355.8, the biggest drop since it declined more than 60 basis
points on May 10, 2010. The swaps reached a more than three-year
high two days ago. Repsol’s 1 billion euros of 4.875 percent bonds due 2019
rose for a second day, to 96.26 cents on the euro compared with
91.63 cents on April 23 before the news, according to Bloomberg
Bond Trader Prices as of 12:08 p.m. in Madrid . The spread
compared with a similar duration government benchmark narrowed
to 439 basis points from 508 basis points in the two-day period. “Retaining an investment grade is the key for bondholders
and even shareholders since a junk rating would mean
significantly higher borrowing costs,” said Tony Bauchet, a
senior analyst at Axa Investment Managers in Paris, which
oversees 515 billion euros of assets. “Moreover, the access to
the bond market will become more difficult, especially for a
Spanish company.” The measures planned “will ensure we keep our rating, but
we have an additional buffer in the form of liquid assets that
can be converted to cash,” Rix of Repsol said, without giving
details. “We will do whatever it takes to maintain the
investment-grade rating.” The shares rose 1.8 percent in Madrid to 14.40 euros. The
stock has lost 18 percent since Argentina announced the
expropriation on April 16. “Even as the mandatory convertible bonds will end up
diluting shareholders, the focus is now on fixing the short-term
concerns,” said Nicolas Gouju, a Paris-based fund manager at
Groupama Asset Management, who helps to manage 80 billion euros
of assets. “The fact that the company has a clear plan is good
news for bondholders and even shareholders.” To contact the reporters on this story:
Esteban Duarte in Madrid at
[email protected] ;
Ben Sills in Madrid at
[email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Timothy Coulter at
[email protected] ;
Paul Armstrong at
[email protected] ;
Reed Landberg at
[email protected] | 2012 | repsol-pledges-ratings-defense-using-bonds-black-stuff-3- |
Czech Stocks: Erste Group Bank, Komercni Banka, Unipetrol Move | By Krystof Chamonikolas | 2012-04-25T14:46:55Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/czech-stocks-erste-group-bank-komercni-banka-unipetrol-move.html | 4 | 25 | 701715d20b455dd3fa1c9aba81d0cd30c7531edb | The Czech Republic’s PX (PX) stock index
gained the most in two weeks, rising 1.4 percent to 935.2 at the
close of trading in Prague. The following were among the most active equities in the
Czech market today. Stock symbols follow company names. Erste Group Bank AG (EBS) of Austria climbed 5 percent
to 435.6 koruna, the highest in a month. Komercni Banka AS (KOMB) , the Czech unit of Societe Generale SA, added 2.2 percent to
3,424 koruna. Lenders were among the best performers in Europe
as better-than-expected earnings at companies including Apple
Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG boosted demand for stocks. Unipetrol AS (UNIP) , the biggest Czech oil refiner, slid
0.1 percent to 171 koruna. The stock earlier dropped as much as
0.7 percent after the company reported a first-quarter loss. To contact the reporter on this story:
Krystof Chamonikolas in Prague at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Gavin Serkin at
[email protected] | 2012 | czech-stocks-erste-group-bank-komercni-banka-unipetrol-move |
Equity Residential FFO Climbs on Surging U.S. Apartment Demand | By Oshrat Carmiel | 2012-04-25T21:06:28Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/equity-residential-ffo-climbs-on-surging-u-s-apartment-demand.html | 4 | 25 | de37d9ee208304fc20b4c33ba25641db63551567 | Equity Residential (EQR) , the largest
publicly traded U.S. apartment landlord, said first-quarter
funds from operations climbed as the nation’s rents increased
amid surging tenant demand. FFO, which gauges a property company’s ability to generate
cash, increased to $188.3 million, or 60 cents a share, from
$173.5 million, or 56 cents, a year earlier, the Chicago-based
real estate investment trust said today in a statement. The
average of 20 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg was for
FFO of 62 cents a share. The company reported normalized FFO,
which excludes some items, of 61 cents per share compared with
56 cents a year ago. An improving job market and stricter mortgage-lending
standards that impede homebuying are fueling demand for
apartments nationally, allowing landlords to increase rents.
Multifamily owners’ rental revenue probably will climb 6.3
percent this year, according to Axiometrics Inc. Apartment REITs
have pushed rents up 2.8 percent this year, the Dallas-based
research firm said. “While there is much discussion of a housing recovery, we
believe the catastrophic housing downturn the country
experienced has profoundly changed the way potential homebuyers
view housing,” Alexander Goldfarb, an analyst with Sandler
O’Neill & Partners LP in New York , wrote in an April 16 note. He
has a buy rating on Equity Residential shares. Equity Residential, founded by Sam Zell , announced first-
quarter results after the close of regular U.S. trading. Its
shares rose 0.4 percent to $62.69 today in New York. They’ve
gained 7.5 percent in the past 12 months, compared with a 12
percent increase in the Bloomberg REIT Apartment Index (BBREAPT) of 16
companies. To contact the reporter on this story:
Oshrat Carmiel in New York at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kara Wetzel at
[email protected] | 2012 | equity-residential-ffo-climbs-on-surging-u-s-apartment-demand |
Revamping U.S. Disability Rules in Secret Draws Criticism | By Jim Efstathiou Jr. | 2012-04-25T14:35:47Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/new-u-s-disability-rules-criticized-by-business-delayed.html | 4 | 25 | 2ed37b3a205f4a23528c977ed9cfb4db22d31033 | Business groups led by the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce pressed the Obama administration to block
revised guidelines for discrimination against disabled workers
until the public has a chance to review the proposals. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which was
set to approve the guidance as early as today, deleted the item
from a meeting agenda without explanation. The Chamber, in an
April 19 letter to Cass Sunstein, administrator of the White
House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, said the
guidance could hurt businesses. The advice would help employers
comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act on issues such
as extended leave and making accommodations for the disabled
workers. “What’s really disturbing us is that it’s being done under
the cover of darkness,” Michael Eastman , the Chamber’s
executive director for labor law policy, said in an interview.
“There has not been any attempt to get input form
stakeholders.” The potential changes to the agency’s guidelines, updated
in 2005, haven’t been released, according to Christine Nazer, a
commission spokeswoman. The issues were discussed at a June 8
meeting. “It’s going to be a revision,” Nazer said in an
interview. “It will have some expanded information.” ‘Reasonable Accommodation’ Employers are required to provide “reasonable
accommodation” for people with disabilities, such as extended
unpaid leave for necessary treatment. Representatives of
employer and employee groups agreed that more clarity on how to
apply the law is needed, said Brian East, senior attorney with
Austin, Texas-based Disability Rights Texas . “Exactly what this guidance is going to say, I don’t
know,” East said in an interview. “Both the employer side and
employee side suggested the need for additional guidance on
leave as an accommodation and on other areas.” The commission failed to provide a draft of potential
changes at the June 8 meeting, according to the Chamber’s
letter. The process has advanced “without any meaningful
opportunity for stakeholder participation in development of the
guidance and without review by” the White House. The Chamber said it has “significant concerns that the
guidance under consideration by the EEOC will not interpret the
ADA in the balanced manner which Congress directed,” according
to the letter co-signed by the Alexandria, Virginia-based
Society for Human Resource Management and the HR Policy
Association based in Washington . Arrest Records Proposed changes to guidance on using arrest and conviction
records, which also are on today’s meeting agenda, have been
known to business groups for more than a year, Eastman said. “We’ve been talking with them throughout that time,”
Eastman said. “So while we don’t think the process is perfect,
its orders of magnitude better than the process on this ADA
document.” The commission follows public notice requirements set by
Congress when approving regulations, Nazer said. “Guidance approved by the commission, such as any possible
guidance on the use of arrest and conviction records, are sub-
regulatory,” she said in an e-mail. “That is, they do not rise
to the level or effect of regulations.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New York at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jon Morgan at
[email protected] | 2012 | new-u-s-disability-rules-criticized-by-business-delayed |
U.S. Companies Reporting Positive EPS Surprises, April 25 | By Wendy Soong | 2012-04-25T22:15:56Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/u-s-companies-reporting-positive-eps-surprises-april-25.html | 4 | 25 | 76286eb51e71b7976222c7dc81cdd617d2bba09a | The following U.S. companies reported positive
surprises or matched expectations today. This list ranks percent surprises
of actual earnings estimates. Earnings estimates provided by Bloomberg.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Wendy Soong in New York at at [email protected] . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Alex Tanzi at at
[email protected] | 2012 | u-s-companies-reporting-positive-eps-surprises-april-25 |
Anti-Euro Le Pen’s Gain Spooks Overseas French Investors | By Adria Cimino | 2012-04-26T10:33:09Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/anti-euro-le-pen-gain-spooks-overseas-investors-in-french-stocks.html | 4 | 25 | 35f147a5e41247e486e2595a96ea80c1 | Pierre Mouton, a fund manager at
Notz Stucki & Cie. in Geneva, looks at the rise of anti-
European, anti-austerity parties across the border in France
with concern. It may keep him out of the country’s stock market. “We’re cautious on French stocks,” Mouton, whose firm
manages $7.5 billion and has been reducing its holdings in
France, said in an interview. “If the new president breaks
under pressure from these groups, stocks will suffer. We prefer
not to take that risk.” Marine Le Pen of the anti-euro, anti-immigrant National
Front won 17.9 percent, while Communist Party-backed Jean-Luc Melenchon took 11.1 percent in the first round of the French
elections on April 22. Socialist Francois Hollande , who got 28.6
percent, and President Nicolas Sarkozy , with 27.4 percent, will
square off in the decisive second round on May 6. The risk for investors is that the strong showing by the
so-called extreme parties may influence the next president,
making him reluctant to embrace policies needed to revamp the
economy. France’s economy is slowing and its joblessness is at a
12-year high. With public debt at more than 85 percent of gross
domestic product, France was stripped this year of its AAA
rating by Standard & Poor’s . “What is worrisome is the strength of the extreme parties,
which say ‘no’ to Europe and ‘no’ to austerity,” Amelie de Montchalen, an economist at Exane BNP Paribas in Paris, said in
an interview. “Outside of France, Le Pen is equated with
leaving the euro zone, and Melenchon is seen as nationalizing
banks. That’s not very positive for the stock market.” Market Woes France’s CAC 40 Index (CAC) is up 1.5 percent this year, lagging
behind the Stoxx Europe 600 Index’s 4.7 percent gain. The French
benchmark was down 0.9 percent to 3,205.88 at 12:26 p.m. in
Paris. About 42 percent of the CAC 40’s market value is held by
non-residents, according to the Bank of France. Amandine Gerard, president and fund manager at Financiere
de l’Arc in Aix-en-Provence, France, which oversees $243 million
in assets, said the rise of extreme parties may make stock
market investors pause. Votes for such parties “can worry international
investors,” she said in an interview. “Whichever candidate is
elected will have to take that into account.” Philipp Musil, who helps manage about $10 billion at Semper
Constantia Privatbank AG in Vienna, says the rise of such
political parties worries him enough to stay away from French
companies that depend on the domestic market. Domestic Dependence “It makes the market more fragile and the market doesn’t
like uncertainty,” he said in a telephone interview. “It will
have a negative impact on French companies with mainly a
domestic market. They will suffer.” Musil said that while he would invest in French companies
that have a large global presence, he may steer clear of those
with most of their sales at home. Some investors see the next president having very little
room to maneuver. The ballot’s outcome won’t influence her
investment strategy, said Valerie Cazaban , a fund manager at
Stratege SA in Paris, with $105 million in assets. Hollande will beat Sarkozy by 56 percent to 44 percent in
the final round, according to surveys conducted after the first
round by the polling companies CSA and Harris Interactive . “The European Central Bank has more and more importance
and countries have less room for national sovereignty,” she
said in an interview. “If Hollande would break from the
framework, he would quickly be reminded. I don’t think that
Francois Hollande can revolutionize the French budget.” Market Test Meanwhile, Le Pen advocates taking France out of the euro,
tightening borders against immigration and pulling away from
European treaties. Melenchon’s proposals included a new constitution to found
the Sixth Republic with more parliamentary powers and a 100
percent tax on annual income above 360,000 euros ($472,600). De Montchalen said it will be important to note how
Hollande and Sarkozy address the ideas of Le Pen and Melenchon
ahead of the legislative elections on June 10 and 17. The extent to which they are embraced will be a bellwether
of the influence of such parties on economic policy and the
composition of the future government, she wrote in a note with
Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Beffy. “The market will test the winner of the election,” said
Notz Stucki’s Mouton. To contact the reporter on this story:
Adria Cimino in Paris at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andrew Rummer at
[email protected] | 2012 | anti-euro-le-pen-gain-spooks-overseas-investors-in-french-stocks |
Geithner Says Economy Faces Risk From Europe Crisis, Iran | By Cheyenne Hopkins | 2012-04-25T21:41:49Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/geithner-says-economy-faces-risk-from-severe-europe-crisis-iran.html
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the U.S. faces risks from the crisis in Europe
while the confrontation with Iran has helped drive up oil
prices . “We still face some risks ahead,” Geithner said to the
Portland City Club today. “We still live in a dangerous and
uncertain world, with Europe confronting a severe and protracted
crisis. The world is engaged in a critical struggle with Iran,
which has added to upward pressure on oil prices.” Geithner’s comments in Oregon come as Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said today that he remains prepared to
do more to stimulate growth if needed. Federal Reserve policy
makers said they expect growth to gradually accelerate, while
refraining from new actions to lower borrowing costs. Crude oil for June delivery rose 57 cents to $104.12 a
barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange , a one-week high.
Prices have advanced 1.8 percent in the past four days, the
longest rally since the period ended Feb. 24. Geithner said the economy is “gradually getting stronger”
while having a way to go to repair the damage of the financial
crisis. He warned that at year-end, the economy will face a
“fiscal cliff.” ‘Fiscal Cliff’ “At the end of the year, we face a so-called fiscal
’cliff’ | 4 | 25 | b8943fa1f7a578608709fee6f6b147986427e476 | than it was months ago. “Europe is doing a better job of managing their crisis,”
Geithner said in a CNBC interview. While growth is weak and
“they’ve got a really tough, long, hard road ahead of them,
they’ve done a much better job of providing a measure of calm
and stability.” Geithner said the “competitive playing field” with China
is shifting in the U.S. direction. Geithner dismissed a comment
by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney that if he were
president he would label China a “currency manipulator.” “By just calling them a name? Like you can solve problems
in the world, a very complicated world we live in, by calling
people names?” Geithner said. Geithner also responded “no” when asked at the Portland
City Club if he would become president of Dartmouth College , his
alma mater. Geithner has said he won’t remain Treasury secretary
after the end of President Barack Obama’s first term. To contact the reporters on this story:
Cheyenne Hopkins at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Christopher Wellisz at
[email protected] | 2012 | geithner-says-economy-faces-risk-from-severe-europe-crisis-iran |
South Korean Stocks: LG Display, Samsung, Sempio, Woongjin | By Saeromi Shin | 2012-04-25T06:36:33Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/south-korean-stocks-daewoo-harim-lg-display-sempio-woori.html | 4 | 25 | 0bcf8169aa374d63aa630837e7984b8d | Shares of the following companies
had unusual moves in South Korea trading . Stock symbols are in
parentheses and prices are as of the close in Seoul. The Kospi Index (KOSPI) retreated 0.1 percent to 1,961.98, falling
for a fifth day to the lowest level since Feb. 1. It’s the
gauge’s longest losing streak since a six-day drop through Aug.
9. Harim Co. (136480) (136480 KS), which makes poultry products,
climbed 3.2 percent to 4,910 won. Silla SG Co. (025870 KS),
which makes processed seafood products, jumped 4.4 percent to
5,020 won. The first U.S. case of mad cow disease in six years
has been found in a dairy cow in central California . “Expectations the reported mad cow disease case may boost
demand for alternative products such as seafood and chicken are
driving the stocks higher,” Park Hae Sung, an analyst at LIG
Investment & Securities Co., said by phone today. Hanil Feed Co. (005860 KS), which has a unit that imports
U.S. beef, dropped 8.9 percent to 1,235 won. LG Display Co. (034220) (034220 KS), the world’s second-largest
maker of liquid-crystal displays, gained 1.9 percent to 26,850
won, after saying it may return to profit in the second quarter.
The stock also rose after its client Apple Inc. (AAPL) said profit
almost doubled. Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) (005930 KS), which supplies chips
and panels for Apple, also added 1.7 percent to 1.3 million won. Sempio Foods Co. (007540) (007540 KS), which makes Korean
traditional sauces, advanced 6.7 percent to 19,250 won, the most
since Jan. 11. The company said it plans to buy back 150,000
shares to stabilize its stock price. Woongjin Energy Co. (103130) (103130 KS) slipped 4.5 percent to
6,640 won, its steepest drop since Feb. 23. Mirae Asset
Securities Co. cut its stock rating to hold from buy, citing the
first-half earnings outlook. To contact the reporter on this story:
Saeromi Shin in Seoul at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Darren Boey at
[email protected] | 2012 | south-korean-stocks-daewoo-harim-lg-display-sempio-woori |
Abertis Rises After Deal With OHL in Brazil, Chile: Madrid Mover | By Manuel Baigorri | 2012-04-25T08:27:45Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/abertis-rises-after-deal-with-ohl-in-brazil-chile-madrid-mover.html | 4 | 25 | 6784c61b4472ee0c1f77129bb92f64c449962d09 | Abertis Infraestructuras SA (ABE) climbed
the most in almost two years after it agreed to buy assets from
Obrascon Huarte Lain SA (OHL) in Brazil and Chile, creating the
world’s biggest toll-road operator. Abertis climbed as much as 6.5 percent, the steepest gain
since July 2010, and traded up 5.6 percent to 11.77 euros at
10:26 a.m. in Madrid. The highway operator signed a preliminary agreement with
OHL to acquire concession assets in Brazil and Chile in exchange
for a 10 percent stake in Abertis, the Barcelona-based company
said yesterday. Abertis said it would also assume about 530
million euros in liabilities. “For Abertis this means becoming the world’s biggest toll-
road operator,” Marta Olba, a Madrid-based analyst at Banesto
Bolsa, wrote in a report sent to investors today. Actividades de Construccion & Servicios SA rose as much as
9.7 percent to 14.86 euros, the biggest increase in three years.
OHL advanced 4.8 percent to 21.99 euros. ACS said it’s negotiating selling its indirect stake in
Abertis. ACS holds 10.3 percent of Abertis, according to the
Spanish securities regulator. Abertis said it may consider
buying as much as a 5.3 percent stake from ACS. “OHL benefits from the transaction thanks to Abertis’s
premium payment over Brazil and the ability to cut debt,” Juan
Moreno, a Madrid-based analyst at Ahorro Corp. Financiera, said
by phone. “The deal is also very positive for ACS.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Manuel Baigorri in Madrid at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kenneth Wong at
[email protected] | 2012 | abertis-rises-after-deal-with-ohl-in-brazil-chile-madrid-mover |
Feyenoord Offer Kuyt ‘Now or Never’ Contract: Soccer Roundup | By Danielle Rossingh | 2012-04-25T09:46:57Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/feyenoord-offer-kuyt-now-or-never-contract-soccer-roundup.html | 4 | 25 | 63c61806575a77d4f013f258f307919afcf40934 | The following is a roundup of
soccer stories from U.K. newspapers, with clickable links to the
Web. Kuyt Coming Home? Dutch club Feyenoord has offered to turn Liverpool forward
Dirk Kuyt into the best-paid player in Rotterdam, the Sun
reported. Kuyt had been the top scorer at Feyenoord in all three of
his seasons there before he joined Liverpool in 2006. He’s been
told he’s free to leave Anfield at the end of this season. Feyenoord wants him for next season and should he decline
the move, the Dutch team won’t return with another offer because
the 31-year-old will be too old, the newspaper said. Aquilani Return? Alberto Aquilani may return to Liverpool after AC Milan was
having “second thoughts” about keeping the player, the Sun
reported. The 27-year-old midfielder has two years left on his
contract with Liverpool, which is worth 70,000 pounds ($112,700)
a week. The player, who joined Liverpool from AS Roma in 2009
for 20 million pounds, is on loan at AC Milan. AVB to Valencia? Former Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas may return to
football management at Spanish club Valencia, the Daily Express
reported. Villas-Boas was fired by Chelsea in March, after eight
months in charge at the west London club. Besiktas in Race for Kalou Turkish side Besiktas has joined Tottenham Hotspur in the
race to sign Chelsea striker Salomon Kalou , the Daily Mail
reported. Arsenal’s Nicklas Bendtner , currently on loan at
Sunderland, is also on the radar of the Istanbul-based club, the
paper said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Danielle Rossingh at the London sports
desk on [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Christopher Elser at at
[email protected] | 2012 | feyenoord-offer-kuyt-now-or-never-contract-soccer-roundup |
Sub-Sahara Africa Stocks: Cadbury Nigeria, Equity Bank of Kenya | By Chris Kay | 2012-04-25T15:46:52Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/sub-sahara-africa-stocks-equity-bank-of-kenya-oando-of-nigeria.html | 4 | 25 | db086e6c457f4fc1e794744f2153a5eba585c951 | Kenya’s All-Share Index (NSEASI) snapped
five days of gains, declining 0.3 percent to 63 in Nairobi. Namibia’s FTSE/Namibia Overall Index (FTN098) rose for a second day,
jumping 1.1 percent to 898.05 in Windhoek. The Nigerian Stock
Exchange All-Share Index (NGSEINDX) advanced 0.3 percent to 21,970.21 in
Lagos, according to an e-mailed statement from the bourse. In
Mauritius, the SEMDEX Index (SEMDEX) increased 0.2 percent to 1795.82 in
Port Louis. The following shares rose or fell in sub-Saharan Africa,
excluding South Africa . Stock symbols are in parentheses. Cadbury Nigeria Plc (CADBURY) , a manufacturer of drinks
and food products, advanced for a fifth day, the longest streak
of gains since July 29, surging 5 percent to 13.07 naira on
speculation the stock is undervalued, according to Lambeth Trust
and Investment Co. Cadbury reported a profit of more than 3 billion naira ($19
million) in 2011, which has “stimulated the appetite” of
investors, David Adonri, chief executive officer of Lambeth
Trust, said by phone today. The stock is currently undervalued
and if Cadbury’s profit growth continues, the stock could rise
to 30 naira in a year, he said. Equity Bank Ltd. (EQBNK) , Kenya’s biggest lender by
customers, surged 4.9 percent to 21.25 shillings, the fifth day
of gains and the highest closing price since August, in
anticipation of first-quarter earnings scheduled to be announced
tomorrow. Kenya Reinsurance Corp. (KNRE) , the state-owned
reinsurer, rose 8.3 percent to 9.8 shillings, the highest since
June 8, after Business Daily reported the company will increase
its investment in the real estate industry. To contact the reporter on this story:
Chris Kay in Abuja at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Gavin Serkin at
[email protected] | 2012 | sub-sahara-africa-stocks-equity-bank-of-kenya-oando-of-nigeria |
Northrop Raises 2012 Forecast After Profit Gains 2 Percent | By Gopal Ratnam | 2012-04-25T13:46:20Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/northrop-says-profit-gained-2-percent-raises-2012-forecast.html | 4 | 25 | b71997038272993136c6047e25f01ac1a2b34b42 | Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) maker of the
U.S. military’s Global Hawk drone, raised its 2012 profit
forecast after first quarter income rose 2 percent aided by
higher sales and margins at its electronics unit. Profit for 2012 will be $6.70 to $6.95 a share, compared
with the forecast in January of $6.40 to $6.70 a share, the
company said today. Northrop rose 2.7 percent to $64.44 at 9:42
a.m. in New York trading. In the first quarter, net income from continuing operations
was $506 million, or $1.96 a share, compared with $496 million,
or $1.67 a year earlier, the company said today in a statement.
The average estimate of 19 analysts compiled by Bloomberg was
$1.59 a share. Sales declined 8 percent to $6.2 billion. Northrop faces challenges from proposed cuts in the
Pentagon’s fiscal 2013 budget that would affect the company’s
top-selling programs, including the Global Hawk drone and the
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, on which it is a subcontractor to
planemaker Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) Wes Bush, Northrop’s chairman and chief executive officer,
has said he is focused on increasing profit margins and
returning cash to shareholders. He has raised dividends for
eight consecutive years. In 2011, Northrop paid out about $2.8
billion as dividends and share repurchases. Northrop of Falls Church , Virginia, rose $1.15 or 1.9
percent to $62.73 yesterday in New York trading and gained 7.3
percent percent this year before today. Global Hawk Cuts The Pentagon proposed in its 2013 budget saving $800
million by reducing purchases of Northrop’s Global Hawk Block 30
model. The Defense Department would also gain $1.6 billion from
the F-35 program by eliminating 13 planes. While Northrop’s business in cybersecurity, unmanned
systems, intelligence, sensors and reconnaissance systems and
logistics are well-aligned with Pentagon’s priorities, “we do
not expect much growth in these areas over the next several
years, given the budget situation,” Douglas Harned , an analyst
at Sanford C. Bernstein LLC in New York, wrote in an April 23
note to clients. He rates the stock market-perform. The Pentagon plans to cut about $490 billion from its
planned spending over the next 10 years under budget-reduction
legislation, with an additional $500 billion if automatic cuts
take effect starting in January. Improving Margins Performance improvements at the company’s Electronic and
Information Systems units contributed to an increase in
operating income and profit during the quarter even as sales
fell, Northrop said in the statement. Sales at Electronic Systems, the maker of radar equipment,
fell 4.6 percent to $1.72 billion, while profit rose 28 percent
to $304 million, the company said. Information Systems sales fell 9 percent to $1.84 billion
whereas profit increased 5.6 percent to $205 million, the
company said. Sales and profit at the Aerospace unit, maker of Global
Hawks, fell, according to the company. Revenue declined 8
percent to $2.38 billion and profit fell 2.7 percent to $279
million. To contact the reporter on this story:
Gopal Ratnam in Washington at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
John Walcott at
[email protected] | 2012 | northrop-says-profit-gained-2-percent-raises-2012-forecas |
WellPoint Sees $100 Billion ’Duals’ Market as Care Shifts | By Alex Nussbaum | 2012-04-25T20:45:21Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/wellpoint-sees-100-billion-duals-market-as-states-shift-care.html | 4 | 25 | 44ec960c67ee8ff6dfb2d10c54b6789d8767dc7c | WellPoint Inc. (WLP) , the No. 2 U.S.
health plan, sees a $100 billion market in the states it serves
to provide managed care for poor, elderly patients in the
Medicare and Medicaid programs. WellPoint’s purchase last year of CareMore Health Group and
its 29 neighborhood health clinics gives the Indianapolis-based
insurer an edge in winning the business for so-called dual
eligibles, Chief Financial Officer Wayne DeVeydt said today in a
telephone interview. WellPoint has 29 CareMore centers in
California, Nevada and Arizona and plans to add 12 more and
expand to other states this year, he said. “Because this is a group that needs highly coordinated
care, you really need a model that specializes in that and
that’s what CareMore does for us,” DeVeydt said. “It’s kind of
our missing link in being prepared for the duals, and we think
we’re uniquely positioned versus some of the other companies out
there.” About 9 million people in the U.S. are covered by Medicare,
the federal program for the elderly and disabled, and Medicaid,
the state-federal plan for the poor. This group accounts for
$320 billion in annual spending in the two health programs, said
Carl McDonald, a Citigroup analyst, in an April 24 note to
clients. Seeking to cut costs, at least 15 states, led by
California , Texas and Florida , may issue contracts in the next
two years to let managed-care companies coordinate their medical
coverage, McDonald said. The group “represents an enormous market for the
industry,” he wrote. 14 States DeVeydt, in an interview after WellPoint announced its
quarterly earnings, said the company would seek dual-eligible
contracts first in the 14 states where it operates Blue Cross
plans before trying to expand elsewhere. The company will
participate in a pilot project in California to cover dual
enrollees starting next year. “We want to prove to our state partners and to the federal
government that we can manage this population well and that we
can show better value for them and save the states money,”
DeVeydt said. WellPoint earlier said earnings excluding one-time items
were $2.34 a share in the first quarter, beating the $2.30
estimate of 17 analysts compiled by Bloomberg. The company
raised its full year forecast for profit excluding certain items
to $7.65 a share. The insurer declined less than 1 percent to $70.40 at the
close in New York . The shares fell 2.5 percent in the past 12
months. UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) , based in Minnetonka , Minnesota ,
is the biggest health insurer by sales. To contact the reporter on this story:
Alex Nussbaum in New York at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reg Gale at
[email protected] | 2012 | wellpoint-sees-100-billion-duals-market-as-states-shift-care |
Bo Brother Resigns From Everbright as Son Defends Lifestyle | By Bloomberg News | 2012-04-26T06:16:46Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/bo-xilai-s-brother-resigns-as-vice-chairman-of-china-everbright.html
The brother of ousted Chinese
politician Bo Xilai resigned from a corporate executive post,
and Bo’s son defended his lifestyle and educational expenses,
amid scrutiny of the family’s wealth and influence. Li Xueming, the brother of former Politburo member Bo Xilai, stepped down as a director and vice chairman of China
Everbright International Ltd. (257) , after media reports that
highlighted his personal background. “The board has been advised by Mr. Li that he, for the
best interest of the company and its shareholders as a whole,
has decided to resign from the board,” China Everbright, an
alternative energy company, said yesterday in a statement. The media reports about Li’s identity emerged after Bo’s
removal, which marks the biggest political upheaval in China in
more than two decades. Bo’s downfall and the arrest of his wife,
Gu Kailai, on suspicion of involvement in the murder of a
British businessman have heightened scrutiny of the family’s
business interests and influence. Bo’s Son Harvard student Bo Guagua, Bo Xilai ’s younger son, said his
education was funded by scholarships and his mother’s savings
and denied ever driving a Ferrari as he sought to dispel
speculation of an extravagant lifestyle supported by ill-gotten
wealth. In an April 24 statement, the first public comments
since his mother’s arrest, the 24-year-old said he was “deeply
concerned” by the events surrounding his family. Bo Xilai, 62, who was suspended as Chongqing Party chief
last month, has been accused of “serious violations of
discipline,” the Xinhua News Agency said April 10. His wife and
an aide were put in custody for suspicion of murdering British
businessman Neil Heywood. The arrests came after Bo Xilai’s former police chief, Wang
Lijun, had spent a night in February at the U.S. consulate in
Chengdu, an event confirmed by both the U.S. and Chinese
governments. Xinhua reported that Wang disclosed the murder
allegations. Most Serious Crimes The Communist Party believed one of Bo’s most serious
crimes was a wiretapping campaign that included monitoring the
phones of top leaders, the New York Times reported today, citing
people with party ties it did not identify. The report said Bo
was accused of damaging party unity by collecting the evidence.
Those monitored included President Hu Jintao , it said. Li Xueming, 64, who also goes by the name Bo Xiyong, sold
12 million shares in China Everbright in 2010 and 2011, cashing
out HK$43.2 million ($5.6 million), according to Hong Kong
Exchange filings. That left him with 10 million options,
according to the company’s latest annual report. Singapore and Hong Kong corporate filings reviewed by
Bloomberg News show shared addresses, shareholders and directors
indicating Bo Xiyong and Li Xueming are the same. ‘Quite Disgraceful’ “It is quite disgraceful that individuals are allowed to
adopt different identities depending on which company or
circumstance they are appearing in,” David Webb , a former
director of the Hong Kong bourse, said in an April 24 interview.
“Shareholders have a right to know exactly who is running their
companies.” Ernest Kong, a spokesman for the Securities and Futures
Commission, the Hong Kong regulator, didn’t respond to e-mails
or voicemail messages seeking comment on Li’s resignation.
Shares of China Everbright International rose as much as 7.3
percent in trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange today and
were up 7 percent at 1:35 p.m. The benchmark Hang Seng Index was
up 0.2 percent. Gu’s sisters controlled an international web of businesses
worth at least $126 million and the family members of Bo Xilai
have held positions at companies including Citigroup Inc. and
Citic Securities Co., according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Harvard Student Bo Guagua is a student at the Harvard Kennedy School in
Cambridge, Massachusetts . In his statement, which ran yesterday
in the Harvard Crimson , the university’s student newspaper, he
defended his lifestyle. “Recently, there has been increasing attention from the
press on my private life,” Bo said in the statement. “As a
result of these speculations, I feel responsible to the public
to provide an account of the facts.” Bo Xilai’s ouster and reports that his wife moved money
abroad have focused attention on how his son’s education was
funded. Along with Harvard, Bo Guagua has attended the exclusive
Harrow School and Oxford University in the U.K. While Bo Xilai’s
salary as Chongqing party secretary was about 10,000 yuan
($1,586) a month, his relatives have accumulated wealth of at
least $136 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg on
the extended family’s business interests. ‘Scholarships Earned’ “My tuition and living expenses at Harrow School ,
University of Oxford and Harvard University were funded
exclusively by two sources | 4 | 25 | 7c049593e3ef47f4ac0edf08ede383e5 | and my mother’s generosity from the savings she earned from her
years as a successful lawyer and writer,” Bo said. He didn’t
say where the scholarships came from. Harvard said it won’t comment on how many Chinese students
receive financial aid. He defended his academic record and social life while at
Oxford University , saying he debated at the Oxford Union and was
president of the Politics, Philosophy and Economics Society. ‘Broaden My Perspective’ “Like many other university students, I also devoted time
and energy to extra-curricular activities,” he said. “These
extra-curricular activities enabled me to broaden my
perspective, serve the student community, and experience all
that Oxford has to offer.” Bo Guagua said he had never driven a Ferrari and never
visited the U.S. ambassador’s residence in China , contradicting
a report in the Wall Street Journal in November. Speaking March
9 in Beijing, Bo Xilai denied as “completely rubbish” reports
that his son drives a red Ferrari, and said his son attended
Harvard and Oxford on scholarships. Bo Xiyong is the oldest son of Bo Yibo, a former vice
premier of China who died in 2007. The family patriarch was one
of the so-called eight immortals who helped steer China after
the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution. China Everbright said in the statement that “recent
reports by the media” on Li Xueming’s background “have no
relationship with the normal business and operations of the
company, and have not affected and will not affect the normal
business and operations of the company and its subsidiaries.” To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story:
Michael Forsythe in Beijing at
[email protected] ;
Yidi Zhao in Beijing at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Peter Hirschberg at
[email protected] | 2012 | bo-xilai-s-brother-resigns-as-vice-chairman-of-china-everbrig |
Hess’s Trading Unit Hetco Opens Office in Geneva for Oil | By Giles Broom | 2012-04-25T08:47:16Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/hess-s-trading-unit-hetco-opens-office-in-geneva-for-oil.html | 4 | 25 | bb671087459b9edbf77c6cf415d441843b112bc8 | Hetco, the trading unit of New
York-based energy firm Hess Corp. (HES) , opened a new office in Geneva
this month. “Hetco has established a small office in Geneva because
the city has become one of the leading centers for international
oil trading,” Jon Pepper , a spokesman, said by e-mail. Geneva accounts for about a third of the world’s crude and
oil products trading, according to the Swiss city’s commodity
trading and shipping association . Vitol Group and Trafigura
Beheer NV, two of the five biggest independent oil traders,
already have offices in Geneva. Hetco is working from an office on Rue du Rhone, the same
street as the headquarters of Mercuria Energy, another of the
five largest independent energy traders, Switzerland’s register
of companies shows. Pepper declined to provide further details
about the office. To contact the reporter on this story:
Giles Broom in Geneva at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Frank Connelly at
[email protected] | 2012 | ess-s-trading-unit-hetco-opens-office-in-geneva-for-oi |
Goldman Sachs International 2011 Revenue Falls to $5.1 Billion | By Liam Vaughan | 2012-04-25T14:48:44Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/goldman-sachs-international-2011-revenue-falls-to-5-1-billion.html | 4 | 25 | ccc663e72e85c8c4a3b565fc35c32784e9d63325 | Goldman Sachs International, the
European unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) , said revenue fell 31
percent to $5.1 billion from $7.4 billion in the year-earlier
period after volatile markets hurt its trading business. Net income rose to $2.4 billion from $775 million in the
year to 31 December, while administrative expenses were cut to
$2.1 billion from $6.1 billion, according to documents filed at
Companies House in London. The drop in expenses reflected a credit of $1.8 billion as
the company marked share-based compensation to market prices.
Shares in parent company Goldman Sachs Group, the fifth-biggest
U.S. bank by assets, fell 48 percent last year. Institutional Client Services, the trading business, saw
lower net revenue in fixed income, currencies and commodities.
Investment banking revenue was also “slightly lower” following
a drop in equity underwriting, the company said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Liam Vaughan in London at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Edward Evans at
[email protected] | 2012 | goldman-sachs-international-2011-revenue-falls-to-5-1-billion |
Hess to Ship 25,000 Barrels a Day by Rail to Louisiana | By Aaron Clark and Mike Lee | 2012-04-25T15:25:21Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/hess-to-ship-25-000-barrels-a-day-by-rail-to-louisiana-1-.html | 4 | 25 | f583fe5237d2c07eabec6b22cf537b647705439c | Hess Corp. (HES) has started operations
at a rail loading terminal in North Dakota and will begin moving
about 25,000 barrels a day of Bakken oil to St. James,
Louisiana. “We should be ramping up to higher volumes” and will ship
50,000 to 54,000 barrels a day by the end of the year, John B. Hess, the oil company’s chairman and chief executive officer,
told investors in a conference call. To contact the reporters on this story:
Aaron Clark in New York at
[email protected] ;
Mike Lee in Dallas at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dan Stets at
[email protected] | 2012 | ess-to-ship-25-000-barrels-a-day-by-rail-to-louisiana-1- |
Taiwan Dollar Advances as Gains May Be Tolerated; Bonds Steady | By Andrea Wong | 2012-04-25T08:34:19Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/taiwan-dollar-advances-most-in-april-as-gains-may-be-tolerated.html | 4 | 25 | 4ede0c01449198dac16048303392939141003d7e | Taiwan ’s dollar strengthened on
speculation the central bank will tolerate faster gains to tame
inflation. Government bonds were steady. Taiwan Power Co., the island’s only electricity retailer,
said on April 12 it will increase prices for the first time in
more than three years after posting losses on rising fuel costs.
Consumer prices rose 1.21 percent in March from a year earlier
after climbing 0.23 percent in February, official data show. “Gains in the Taiwan dollar will help ease imported
inflation,” said Eric Hsing, a fixed-income trader at First
Securities Inc. in Taipei. Taiwan’s dollar rose 0.04 percent to NT$29.514 against its
U.S. counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc. One-month
implied volatility, a measure of exchange-rate swings traders
use to price options, dropped 20 basis points, or 0.2 percentage
point, to 3.2 percent. The yield on Taiwan’s 1 percent bonds due January 2017 was
1.028 percent, compared with 1.031 percent yesterday, according
to Gretai Securities Market. That was the lowest level since
April 12. “There isn’t much room for Taiwan yields to go down
because of the concern on consumer prices,” Hsing said. The government sold NT$40 billion ($1.4 billion) of 20-year
securities yesterday at 1.725 percent, from 1.708 percent at a
March sale of debt of the same maturity. The overnight money-market rate was little changed at 0.498
percent, according to a weighted average compiled by the Taiwan
Interbank Money Center. It reached 0.5 percent yesterday, the
highest level since 2008. To contact the reporter on this story:
Andrea Wong in Taipei at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Sandy Hendry at
[email protected] | 2012 | aiwan-dollar-advances-most-in-april-as-gains-may-be-tolerated |
Cenovus First-Quarter Profit Surges on Higher Crude Oil Prices | By Jeremy van Loon | 2012-04-25T10:09:17Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/cenovus-first-quarter-profit-surges-on-higher-crude-oil-prices.html | 4 | 25 | ad1353d126645dcde7b6268220ae786e287b7f2b | Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE) , the oil-sands
company spun off by Encana Corp. (ECA) in 2009, said first-quarter
profit increased as output and prices rose. Net income climbed to C$426 million ($432 million), or 56
cents a share, from C$47 million, or 6 cents, a year earlier,
the Calgary-based company said in a statement on Business Wire
today. Adjusted per-share profit was less than the 54-cent
average of 18 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Producers have benefited from an increase in the price of
crude, which traded at an average $103.03 a barrel in New York
during the first three months of the year, 8.9 percent more than
a year earlier. Cenovus pumped 156,850 barrels of oil and
natural-gas liquids a day in the period, up from 137,355 barrels
a year earlier. The company said in December it plans to boost investment
23 percent to as much as C$3.4 billion this year to help
increase output. Production at its Christina Lake oil-sands
operation is forecast to more than double in 2012, according to
the Dec. 7 statement. Cenovus fell 0.2 percent to C$34.13 in Toronto yesterday.
The stock has 14 buy, two sell and 10 hold ratings from
analysts. To contact the reporter on this story:
Jeremy van Loon in Calgary at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Susan Warren at
[email protected] | 2012 | cenovus-first-quarter-profit-surges-on-higher-crude-oil-prices |
A New Race Begins When London Marathoners Cross Finish Line | By Alex Morales | 2012-04-25T15:26:52Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/a-new-race-begins-when-london-marathoners-cross-finish-line.html
Wilson Kipsang of Kenya led a field of 36,000 runners on Sunday in the London Marathon. Competitors ranged from elite athletes to former "Dr. Who" actor Christopher Ecclestone, to ordinary punters like me and 101-year-old Fauja Singh , who I first met at the marathon when he was a mere 93. Relatively cool temperatures meant runners needed to drink less water than our colleagues who ran the Boston Marathon in 30 degrees Celsius (87 degrees Fahrenheit) of heat on April 16, but I still grabbed a bottle every mile, and threw it away. I'd take a couple of swigs and toss them to the side of the road. And so did everybody else. That's a lot of water bottles to clean up. Westminster Council sets a goal for its cleaning contractors, with an element of competition: Clean the streets within three hours of the marathon's completion. Veolia Environnement, hired to sweep up, were charged with beating the cleaning record of 1 hour and 20 minutes set in 2008, according to the local authority. The city council hosts the iconic final two miles of the race, winding along the Thames River, doglegging before Big Ben, passing Buckingham Palace and finishing alongside St. James's Park. Westminster's 1.7 tons of plastic bottles recovered in 2011 represents just a fraction of the overall waste from a course that spans the boroughs of Greenwich, Lewisham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and the City of London, according to the marathon organizer's website. In 2011, total waste collected by the local authorities the length of the course amounted to 47 tons. Westminster Council's 40-member cleaning team has 14 vehicles to complement its paid litter-pickers. Weary runners are encouraged to toss bottles into roadside bins, but frequently miss. I've had to duck the odd errant bottle in the 14 marathons I've run. Runners this year set 29 speed records at the event, including unorthodox categories such as "the fastest marathon dressed as a vegetable (female)," 3 hours, 47 minutes and 15 seconds, set by Helen Juckes; to "fastest marathon on stilts," 6 hours, 50 minutes and two seconds, by brother and sister George and Charley Phillips. Kipsang himself finished four seconds behind the course record of 2 hours, 4 minutes and forty seconds, set last year by his compatriot Emmanuel Mutai. The clean-up crew finished respectably, 1 hour and 42 minutes | 4 | 25 | 684e80f693d0411eafff6b7150a45049 | 2012 | a-new-race-begins-when-london-marathoners-cross-finish-line |
|
EDF Wins Reprieve as Hollande Cools on Greens Nuclear Pact | By Tara Patel | 2012-04-25T16:18:02Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/edf-wins-reprieve-as-hollande-cools-on-greens-nuclear-pact-1-.html
Electricite de France SA , Europe ’s
largest power producer, may get a boost from frontrunner
Francois Hollande ’s backing off from a nuclear pact with the
Greens, who flopped in the first round of the elections. Socialist candidate Hollande has distanced himself from an
accord with the Greens to shut 24 of France’s 58 nuclear
reactors by 2025 in light of union support for the industry and
the perceived threat to jobs. The Greens candidate Eva Joly | 4 | 25 | ff753dd4718f462a82153bb97472a69e | of the French presidential election on April 22. Hollande led
with 28.6 percent, while President Nicolas Sarkozy got 27.2
percent. Hollande and Sarkozy will square off on May 6. “Eva Joly failed to seduce French voters,” said Nicolas
Tenzer, the director of CERAP, a political think-tank in Paris.
“There won’t be a radical change in French nuclear policy under
the Socialists.” The nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, Japan , last year had
sparked a debate on “over-reliance” on atomic energy in
France, which gets more than 75 percent of its electricity from
nuclear power, the most in the world. With Hollande putting the
pact on the back burner, the risk Paris-based EDF, the world’s
biggest nuclear operator, will be forced to close many reactors
in the case of a Socialist victory, has waned. “The threat of shutdowns for EDF won’t be as immediate and
severe as some had believed,” said Myriam Cohen, an analyst at
Alphavalue in Paris. Brokerages Oddo & Cie and Berenberg Bank
recommended buying EDF shares this week. The Pact EDF rose 5 percent, the biggest gain in five months, to
16.22 euros. The shares have fallen about 14 percent this year. Hollande’s pledge to lower France ’s reliance on nuclear
energy shook investor confidence in the state-controlled
operator EDF. Sarkozy backs prolonging the operating lives of
existing reactors past 40 years and developing new ones. Investor concern about the effects of a Hollande victory
peaked in November following the Socialists-Greens accord. The
never-published manifesto sent EDF share prices plummeting about
10 percent on Nov. 16 and Nov. 17. It cast doubt on the
utility’s ability to produce nuclear energy relatively cheaply
after spending billions on improving safety. The Greens want France to phase out nuclear energy
altogether like Germany decided to do after Fukushima. The
Sarkozy government’s unwavering support for nuclear power led
Joly to call Industry Minister Eric Besson a “nucleopath.” On the campaign trail, Sarkozy has raised the specter of
massive job losses and industry exodus from France without
nuclear power. EDF Chief Executive Officer Henri Proglio has
said a complete exit from nuclear energy would cost 400 billion
euros ($534 billion) and threaten one million jobs. ‘Gentle Transition’ The energy source keeps French electricity prices among the
lowest in Europe and gives it lower carbon emissions than other
large European Union countries. Under Hollande’s near-term plan, EDF’s oldest plant at
Fessenheim will be closed within five years because of safety
concerns, the new model EPR at Flamanville in Normandy will be
completed and the proportion of power production from nuclear
will be lowered to 50 percent by around 2025. “We need a gentle transition,” Socialist deputy Francois Brottes told an energy conference in Paris this month. “We
aren’t completely undoing one type of energy production.” The less-drastic plan prompted ratings upgrades this month
on EDF shares at Kepler Capital Markets and HSBC Holdings Plc. “The greatest tangible difference between a Socialist and
a Conservative win in the upcoming presidential elections
appears to be Fesseneheim, which hardly matters for the value of
EDF shares,” wrote Kepler analyst Ingo Becker, who recommends
buying the stock. EDF Tariffs EDF CEO Proglio is pushing ahead with plans to spend
millions improving safety at Fessenheim. EDF has spent more than
380 million euros since 2009 on the reactors so they can pass
once-a-decade safety inspections. “Fessenheim is complicated because it provides base power
for southern Germany ,” said Dominique Miniere, EDF’s director
of nuclear production. “Any shutdown can’t be done overnight.” For EDF, there may be other worries, however. With the French economy slowing and joblessness at a 12-
year high, it may be difficult for EDF to push through an
increase in the government-set tariff no matter who is elected. Hollande has promised new rates for power, natural gas and
water to help 8 million people struggling to pay energy bills. It’s unlikely that there will be “clarity over tariffs in
coming years,” according to Kepler’s Becker. Proglio’s Fate An Hollande victory might also mean changes in the
executive suite at EDF. Although the Hollande team has said
there won’t be a witch hunt of heads of state-controlled
companies should he come to power, “the management team at EDF
may be replaced,” said UBS AG analyst Per Lekander. “A
politician could be named.” EDF’s Proglio, who was then CEO of Veolia Environnement SA,
was among a handful of people to celebrate Sarkozy’s election
win in May 2007 at a restaurant on the Champs Elysees avenue.
EDF spokeswoman Carol Trivi declined to comment on the
presidential election and its implications for the company. Hollande’s campaign this month called “scandalous” an
increase since 2009 in salaries of EDF top managers. “How can we accept this intolerable behavior?” asked a
statement from Hollande’s spokesman, promising that compensation
will be reined in at state-controlled companies. To contact the reporter on this story:
Tara Patel in Paris at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Will Kennedy at
[email protected] | 2012 | edf-wins-reprieve-as-hollande-cools-on-greens-nuclear-pact-1- |
German Corn Planting May Surpass All Forecasts, DMK Says | By Rudy Ruitenberg | 2012-04-25T13:59:04Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/german-corn-planting-may-surpass-all-forecasts-dmk-says.html | 4 | 25 | 5a9ce814a36f495df32461f1c49bdc099b47eb5a | German corn planting may exceed all
estimates as farmers favor the crop to replace winter grains and
rapeseed that were plowed under after frost damage, industry
group Deutsches Maiskomitee e.V. said. Corn may be planted for use as animal feed and to produce
biogas, Bonn-based DMK wrote in a report on its website today. Some regions where winter kill was concentrated may have
insufficient drying capacity to handle increased corn
production, which could weigh on local prices, the group said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
John Deane at
[email protected] | 2012 | german-corn-planting-may-surpass-all-forecasts-dmk-says |
TSA Screeners at L.A. Airport Charged With Taking Bribes | By Edvard Pettersson | 2012-04-25T21:29:55Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/tsa-screeners-at-l-a-airport-charged-with-taking-bribes-1-.html | 4 | 25 | d8e97bd21c980be8340989f76dfd2e0b85a03a17 | Two former and two current
Transportation Security Administration screeners at Los Angeles
International Airport were charged with taking bribes to allow
drug shipments to pass through security checkpoints. The four are charged with taking as much as $2,400 to look
the other way as suitcases filled with drugs, including cocaine,
marijuana and methamphetamine, went through the X-ray machines
at the airport’s security checkpoints, U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. in Los Angeles said today in a statement. Three
alleged drug carriers were also charged. “Airport screeners act as a vital checkpoint for homeland
security , and air travelers should believe in the fundamental
integrity of security systems at our nation’s airports,”
Birotte said. “The allegations in this case describe a
significant breakdown of the screening system through the
conduct of individuals who placed greed above the nation’s
security needs.” The charges relate to five separate incidents last year,
one of which involved a shipment of 20 kilograms of cocaine. One
of the couriers didn’t follow instructions in one attempt and
went to the wrong security checkpoint where his bag with five
kilograms of cocaine was seized. The Drug Enforcement Agency used a confidential source to
bribe two of the screeners to let eight pounds of
methamphetamine pass through security, according to prosecutors.
The four screeners are charged with narcotics conspiracy and
could face life in prison if convicted. ‘Cooperated Fully’ “TSA has cooperated fully with the investigation and will
continue to do so,” Nico Melendez, an agency spokesman, said in
an e-mailed statement. “The employees involved are no longer
performing screening duties.” The former TSA screeners are Naral Richardson, 30, of Los
Angeles , who is accused of orchestrating the five incidents and
who was terminated by the TSA in 2010, and Joy White, 27, of
Compton, who was terminated last year. The current TSA employees are John Whitfield, 23, and
Capeline McKinney, 25, both of Los Angeles. The alleged drug couriers are Duane Eleby, 28, of Downey,
whose drugs were seized when he went though the wrong
checkpoint, and Terry Cunningham, 28, and Stephen Bayliss, 28,
both of Los Angeles. Cunningham is being sought by authorities
and Bayliss is in state prison, according to the U.S. attorney’s
statement. Curt Leftwich, a lawyer for Whitfield, and Ellen Barry, a
lawyer for McKinney, didn’t immediately return calls seeking
comment on the allegations. The names of the lawyers for the
other defendants weren’t available from court records. The case is U.S. v. Richardson, 12-00159, U.S. District
Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles.) To contact the reporter on this story:
Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at
[email protected] . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Hytha at [email protected] . | 2012 | sa-screeners-at-l-a-airport-charged-with-taking-bribes-1- |
Turkish Stocks: Akfen Holding, Garanti Bank Move in Istanbul | By Benjamin Harvey | 2012-04-25T14:58:15Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/turkish-stocks-akfen-holding-garanti-bank-move-in-istanbul.html | 4 | 25 | e6849b871935f9c45d1ca1c17002a3a455df00bb | Turkey’s benchmark ISE National 100
Index (XU100) gained 0.4 percent to 59,940.54 at the close in Istanbul. The following shares were active. Stock symbols are in
parentheses. Akfen Holding AS (AKFEN) , a builder, added 2.6 percent
to 9.54 liras, its biggest gain since April 13. Its unit TAV
Insaat and partners may win a contract for the expansion of Abu
Dhabi’s international airport, Reuters reported, citing people
it didn’t identify. Turkiye Garanti Bankasi AS (GARAN) , Turkey’s biggest
bank by market value, dropped 0.6 percent to 6.66 liras. Profit
will suffer as non-performing loans increase this year, Chief
Executive Officer Ergun Ozen said in Istanbul today. To contact the reporter on this story:
Sibel Akbay in Istanbul at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Gavin Serkin at
[email protected] | 2012 | urkish-stocks-akfen-holding-garanti-bank-move-in-istanbu |
Toyota’s Tiny Scion iQ Boosts U.S Sales by 19 Percent | By Alan Ohnsman | 2012-04-25T22:01:01Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/toyota-s-tiny-scion-iq-boosts-u-s-sales-by-19-percent.html | 4 | 25 | bc7f62f7549e6139361f51f38300f40ced0bce44 | Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) ’s Scion brand,
created to attract young drivers with quirky designs and low
prices, said many initial U.S. customers for the iQ minicar are
buying it as a fuel-saving third vehicle for urban trips. The tiny hatchback, starting at $15,995, appeals to city
drivers because it’s easy to park and gets the best fuel-economy
of any gasoline-only auto in the U.S., Jack Hollis, vice
president of Scion sales, said in an interview yesterday. Sales
of iQ, which became available in all U.S. markets last month,
lifted Scion deliveries 19 percent in the year’s first quarter. “The early indication is it’s more of a third vehicle, and
a little more of a higher-income buyer,” Hollis said. “This is
the highest mpg car in the country, non-hybrid, and what I think
is happening is people are seeing that.” Toyota is adding the iQ, rated at 37 miles (60 kilometers)
per gallon of gasoline in combined city and highway driving, and
the new FR-S rear-wheel-drive sports car, due in June, to revive
flagging sales for Scion. The brand was created in 2003 to draw
younger customers to dealerships that also sell the company’s
namesake Toyota models. Scion sales peaked at 173,034 in 2006,
and dropped to 49,271 last year. U.S. dealers should sell 10,000 FR-S models this year and
20,000 in 2013, Hollis said. iQ Outlook Sales of iQ this year have averaged 840 a month, in line
with Toyota’s target of 750 to 1,100, Hollis. Sales of the model
in April may be about 900 units, he said. Web-based advertisements for the 120.1-inch (305 cm) long
car that’s two feet smaller than Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) ’s
Mini Cooper show off both how easily it can be parked and its
tight turning radius is featured in a series of “donut” videos
with various people eating doughnuts and driving in sharp
circles. Demand for iQs has been stronger than Toyota expected in
states including Texas, Florida and Georgia, and it is also
selling well in Chicago, Philadelphia and New York, Hollis said. Fuel economy for competing mini-cars includes Daimler AG (DAI) ’s
Smart fortwo, at 36 mpg combined; the Mini Cooper at 32 mpg; and
Chrysler Group LLC’s Fiat 500 at 33 mpg with a manual
transmission. Toyota’s American depositary receipts rose 0.8 percent to
$81.36 at the close yesterday in New York. Scion is based in
Torrance, California, at Toyota’s U.S. sales unit. To contact the reporter on this story:
Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jamie Butters [email protected] | 2012 | oyota-s-tiny-scion-iq-boosts-u-s-sales-by-19-percen |
Oil Rises After Fed Says U.S. Economy Will Pick Up | By Mark Shenk | 2012-04-25T19:45:29Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/oil-retreats-as-iran-considers-halting-nuclear-program-ex.html | 4 | 25 | 12c232f92c9e4e9ca269ddeded8e9753 | Oil capped the longest rally in two
months after Federal Reserve policy makers said they expect
growth to accelerate gradually and held off on more steps to
boost the economy. Futures climbed 0.6 percent and equities rose as the
Federal Open Market Committee said it “expects economic growth
to remain moderate over coming quarters and then to pick up
gradually.” Crude fell earlier as U.S. supplies gained and
Iran’s envoy in Moscow said his country is considering a
proposal to halt the expansion of its nuclear program. “We’re seeing an impact of the Fed statement in all the
markets,” said John Kilduff , a partner at Again Capital LLC, a
New York-based hedge fund that focuses on energy. “The fact
that the economy is expected to grow is good for demand. They
also left room for stimulus at some point in the future.” Crude oil for June delivery rose 57 cents to $104.12 a
barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange , a one-week high.
Prices have advanced 1.8 percent in the past four days, the
longest rally since the period ended Feb. 24. Futures are up 5.4
percent this year. Brent oil for June settlement increased 96 cents, or 0.8
percent, to end the session at $119.12 a barrel on the London-
based ICE Futures Europe exchange. It was the highest settlement
since April 13. The Fed remains prepared to take additional action if
needed to boost the economy, Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said at a
press conference today following the FOMC meeting in Washington . Equity Increase Equities also advanced as earnings beat estimates at
companies including Apple Inc. and Boeing Co. (BA) The Standard &
Poor’s 500 (SPX) Index was up 1.3 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial
Average was 0.6 percent higher. “Equities are quite strong, which is giving us a boost,”
said Kyle Cooper, director of IAF Advisors, a Houston-based
consulting firm. “There’s a strong correlation between the
equity and oil markets.” Crude inventories rose 3.98 million barrels to 373 million
last week as output climbed to a 12-year high. Stockpiles were
projected to increase 2.8 million barrels in the week ended
April 20, according to the median of 11 analyst estimates in a
Bloomberg survey. U.S. crude oil production grew 70,000 barrels to 6.11
million barrels a day last week, the highest level since
November 1999, the report showed. Iranian Tension Oil in New York reached $110.55 on March 1, the highest
intraday level since May 4, amid speculation that Western
sanctions aimed at halting Iran ’s nuclear program would disrupt
Middle East shipments. Prices have fallen 5.8 percent since that
peak since tensions have eased. “Oil will drop $5 to $10 if the Iranian nuclear crisis is
resolved,” said David McAlvany, chief executive officer of
McAlvany Financial Group in Durango, Colorado. “Investors
mustn’t be taking either the Russian offer or Iranian statement
all that seriously.” Iran is studying a Russian proposal to halt the expansion
of its nuclear program to avert new sanctions, Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi, the Iranian ambassador to Russia , said in an interview
today at the embassy in Moscow. The plan, announced by Deputy
Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov last week, would allow Iran to
avoid a European Union ban on imports of its crude that is
scheduled to start July 1. Russian Plan Under the Russian proposal, Iran would stop building
centrifuges, machines used to enrich uranium, and mothball ones
that haven’t been put into use yet. “There is very little information about the Russian
proposal,” said Mike Wittner , head of oil market research at
Societe Generale SA in New York . “I’m dismissing it because
there have been many failed proposals.” Iran, the second-biggest producer in the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries, pumped 3.39 million barrels of
oil a day last month, the lowest level since June 2002,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Saudi Arabia is the
leading producer. “Any resolution of the dispute between Iran and Europe
could see much lower prices, heading toward $100 a barrel,”
said Ehsan Ul-Haq, senior market consultant at KBC Energy
Economics in Walton-on-Thames, England . “If they are able to
find a solution that suits both sides, then Brent is likely to
fall to between $100 to $110 a barrel in a matter of days.” Electronic crude trading volume of on the Nymex was 490,111
contracts as of 3:45 p.m. Volume totaled 369,531 contracts
yesterday, the lowest level since March 26 and 41 percent below
the three-month average. Open interest was 1.54 million. To contact the reporter on this story:
Mark Shenk in New York at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dan Stets at
[email protected] | 2012 | oil-retreats-as-iran-considers-halting-nuclear-program-ex |
Deutsche Bank to Take $340 Million Writedown on Actavis | By Aaron Kirchfeld and James Kraus | 2012-04-25T22:08:47Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/deutsche-bank-says-will-take-257-mln-euro-writedown-for-actavis.html | 4 | 25 | 8a0491effa46e36c1333977566fa987ad9b8af9d | Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) , Germany’s biggest
lender, said it will take a 257 million euro ($340 million)
writedown tied to the sale of Actavis Group hf to Watson
Pharmaceuticals Inc. (WPI) The charge will take effect for the first quarter,
according to an e-mailed statement yesterday from the Frankfurt-
based lender. The bank added that it expects to boost its core
Tier 1 capital ratio by 6 basis points this year through a 290
million euro capital increase. The sale will allow Deutsche Bank to recoup money it loaned
to Icelandic billionaire Bjorgolfur Thor Bjorgolfsson to acquire
Actavis in 2007. It will also free up capital as Anshu Jain and
Juergen Fitschen prepare to become the bank’s co-chief executive
officers at the end of May. The deal would create one of the
world’s largest producers of generic drugs. Deutsche Bank, which is scheduled to report financial
results before markets open today, may say that net income fell
to 1.57 billion euros in the first quarter from 2.06 billion
euros in the same period of 2011, according to the average
estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Actavis overhauled its business after Bjorgolfsson lost
money during the financial crisis, leaving the lender with as
much as 5 billion euros of debt, people familiar with the
company said in 2009. The drugmaker refinanced in 2010. Deutsche
Bank posted an impairment of 407 million euros tied to Actavis
in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank climbed 2.1 percent to 34.14 euros in
Frankfurt trading yesterday. The shares have advanced 16 percent
this year, compared with a 4 percent gain for the Bloomberg
Europe Banks and Financial Services Index. To contact the reporters on this story:
Aaron Kirchfeld in London at
[email protected] ;
James Kraus in London at
[email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Jacqueline Simmons at
[email protected] ;
Colin Keatinge at
[email protected] | 2012 | deutsche-bank-says-will-take-257-mln-euro-writedown-for-actavis |
Germany Expects to Select TLG Real Estate Bidder by End of 2012 | By Brian Parkin and Dalia Fahmy | 2012-04-25T09:33:30Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/germany-expects-to-select-tlg-real-estate-bidder-by-end-of-2012.html | 4 | 25 | 5ce9d702946aefc1ec05af4d8cb33ae453829c89 | The German government said it’s
confident of a successful sale of its TLG Immobilien GmbH
property company because of the number and range of interested
bidders. The Finance Ministry , which is organizing the sale with
Barclays Capital Plc (IEAC) , said it expects to pick a buyer for TLG’s
two units by the end of the year. The ministry’s deadline for
expressions of interest was April 16. The company was valued at
1.76 billion euros ($2.3 billion) in 2010. “The large number of filed statements of interest
encompasses all investor classes,” said the ministry in the
April 23 report prepared for the Budget Committee and seen by
Bloomberg News. “What’s positive is also the reputation” of
the potential bidders. The sale of one of the federal government’s last major
property assets is drawing interest from both foreign and
private investors after commercial and residential rents grew
amid economic growth of 3.7 percent in 2010 and 3 percent last
year. The ministry canceled a planned sale of TLG in 2008 as
bids dried up in the international banking crisis. TLG’s properties are based mainly in formerly communist
East Germany, including Berlin. The company evolved from
property inherited at the collapse of the former communist
regime and from new investments. It has reported a profit every
year since 2002. To contact the reporters on this story:
Brian Parkin in Berlin at
[email protected] ;
Dalia Fahmy in Berlin at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James Hertling at
[email protected] | 2012 | germany-expects-to-select-tlg-real-estate-bidder-by-end-of-2012 |
Chelsea Galleries Star Marden’s Marbles, Matelli, Neto | By Katya Kazakina | 2012-04-25T04:01:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/chelsea-galleries-star-marden-s-marbles-matelli-neto.html
Ernesto Neto’s crocheted
installations at Tanya Bonakdar gallery in Chelsea are
irresistibly interactive. Suspended from the ceiling, these mazelike pathways are
filled with thousands of colorful, hollow, plastic balls. Touch
them, smell them, let your feet sink into them. On the second floor, two smaller pieces resemble a swing
and a cradle. I plopped into the latter and spent 10 minutes
rocking back and forth while observing the gallery through the
intricate weaving and knotting and color transitions in lilac,
ochre and green. One of the sprawling installations is weighed down by rocks
and round clay pots holding spices and plants. The room smells
like cumin. Prices range from $24,000 to $300,000. “Slow iis goood”
(sic), runs through May 25 at 521 W. 21 St. Information: +1-212-
414-4144; http://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com Marble Marden One block north, Brice Marden has new abstract paintings at
the Matthew Marks Gallery’s two spaces on West 22nd Street. The smaller houses nine canvases and a Song dynasty (960-
1127 A.D.) ceramic shard that inspired their palette of washed-
out blue and green. The 4-inch chip of Ruyao-glazed bowl sits in a glass case
on a pedestal (earlier this month, a whole bowl from the period
fetched $26.7 million at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong ). Marden saw an exhibition of Ru ware in Taipei in 2007. The
nine-panel group captures the shades of the ancient glazes, once
described as “the color of the sky after rain,” according to
the press release. The main gallery displays 15 new paintings Marden made with
oil and graphite on marble while staying on the Greek island of
Hydra last year. With their uneven shapes, cracks and rough
edges, the marble slabs convey a sense of history. The compositions evoke Mondrian with yellow, red, green,
blue and brown geometric shapes sparsely placed on the marble’s
milky surface. The rock’s natural veins and swirls are often
complemented by graphite marks and clouds. Prices start at $250,000. “Brice Marden: New Paintings”
runs through June 23 at 502 and 526 W. 22nd St. Information: +1-
212-243-0200; http://www.matthewmarks.com . Hyperrealist Sculpture Walk north a block to see an adult man levitating a few
inches above the floor at Leo Koenig Inc. “Josh” is a hyperrealist sculpture by artist Tony Matelli
who likes to meticulously recreate reality | 4 | 25 | 6bcf9761702c41fc92ac3370a5867106 | entire arrangement balances on a single bud. The walls are lined with mirrors whose dusty surfaces
feature seemingly random scribbles and doodles done with a hand.
The randomness is deceiving, and the dust is not real; the works
have been laboriously layered with urethane and acid. Prices for sculptures range from $10,000 to $120,000.
“Windows, Walls and Mirrors” runs through May 19 at 545 W.
23rd St. Information: +1-212-334-9255; http://leokoenig.com . (Katya Kazakina is a reporter for Muse, the arts and
leisure section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are
her own.) Muse highlights include Jeremy Gerard on Broadway and Greg
Evans on film. To contact the reporter of this story:
Katya Kazakina in New York at
[email protected] . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Manuela Hoelterhoff at
[email protected] . | 2012 | chelsea-galleries-star-marden-s-marbles-matelli-neto |
China Unicom First-Quarter Profit Trails Estimates on 3G | By Bloomberg News | 2012-04-25T16:29:11Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/china-unicom-first-quarter-profit-trails-estimates-on-3g.html | 4 | 25 | 34a8652981b3c7258c6683d7896cb60c24e38b84 | China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd. (762) , the
nation’s second-largest mobile phone company, posted first-
quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates on weaker than
expected subscriber additions to its high-speed service. Net income rose to 1 billion yuan ($159 million), from a
restated 145 million yuan a year earlier, the Beijing-based
company said in a statement yesterday. That compared with the
1.1 billion yuan median of six analysts’ estimates in a
Bloomberg News survey. China Unicom (728) Chairman Chang Xiaobing lost the advantage of
being the only carrier in China to offer Apple Inc. (AAPL) ’s iPhone
with a service contract when China Telecom Corp. began sales of
the device March 9. China Unicom added 8.84 million users to its
third-generation network in the first quarter, which Macquarie
Group Ltd. analyst Lisa Soh called “a weak number.” “At this stage it is unclear whether this 3G net adds
number was impacted by China Telecom’s iPhone launch,” Soh, a
Hong Kong-based analyst who rates the shares underperform, wrote
in an April 19 note to clients. “Unicom will need to incur
higher costs/lower average revenue per user to accelerate its 3G
run rate throughout the remainder of the year.” Revenue rose 25 percent to 61.2 billion yuan in the first
quarter, from 49 billion yuan, beating the median estimate of
56.8 billion yuan in the Bloomberg News survey. Unicom rose 0.2 percent to HK$13.02 at the close in Hong
Kong trading yesterday, before the announcement. The shares have
declined 20 percent this year. 3G Subscribers China Unicom’s 3G subscribers totaled 48.9 million at the
end of March. The company lagged behind China Mobile Ltd. (941) ’s 59.6
million 3G users, according to data the companies released this
month. Unicom’s total mobile customer base of 209.5 million was
less than half of China Mobile’s total of 667.2 million. On April 20, China Mobile said first-quarter profit rose
3.5 percent, missing analyst estimates, as the world’s biggest
carrier by subscribers increased spending to attract users. Net
income climbed to 27.8 billion yuan, from 26.9 billion yuan a
year earlier. The median of four estimates by analysts in a
Bloomberg News survey was 28.2 billion yuan. China Telecom, the country’s biggest fixed-line carrier and
third-largest mobile phone company, will publish earnings on
April 27. To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story:
Edmond Lococo in Beijing at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Tighe at
[email protected] | 2012 | china-unicom-first-quarter-profit-trails-estimates-on-3g |
AstraZeneca, Medicines Co. to Collaborate on Heart Medicines | By Elizabeth Lopatto and Phil Serafino | 2012-04-25T20:18:38Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/astrazeneca-medicines-co-to-collaborate-on-heart-medicines-1-.html | 4 | 25 | 12a80e5c42b38b7ce0dbfebcc2a53e1867a5d86f | AstraZeneca Plc (AZN) and the Medicines
Co. (MDCO) agreed to collaborate on drugs for acute ischemic heart
disease , the companies said. The Medicines Co.’s sales force will begin supporting
London-based AstraZeneca’s Brilinta in the U.S. next month, the
companies said today in a statement. AstraZeneca will pay
Parsippany, New Jersey-based Medicines Co. $15 million a year
during the four-year deal with as much as $5 million a year more
if performance thresholds are met, the companies said. AstraZeneca, the U.K.’s second-biggest drugmaker, acquired
Ardea Biosciences for $1.26 billion on April 23, its biggest
acquisition in five years. AstraZeneca’s head of business
development, Shaun Grady, said then that the pharmaceuticals
maker was in talks with several companies about licensing deals
and acquisitions. The company is interested in late-stage assets
outside its traditional focus on cancer, diabetes, and
gastrointestinal ailments, Grady said. Medicines Co. rose 7.2 percent to $21.52 at 4:04 p.m. in
New York , the most since October 3. The company gained 32
percent in the past 12 months. AstraZeneca and the Medicine Co. also agreed to create
development plans Brilinta and Angiomax, the Medicine Co.’s
anticoagulant, for injection and Medicine Co.’s experimental
drug cangrelor. To contact the reporters on this story:
Elizabeth Lopatto in New York at
[email protected] ;
Phil Serafino in Paris at
[email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reg Gale at
[email protected] ;
Phil Serafino at
[email protected] | 2012 | astrazeneca-medicines-co-to-collaborate-on-heart-medicines-1- |
Russia to Cut Crude Export Duty Next Month on Urals Drop | By Jake Rudnitsky | 2012-04-25T14:22:50Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/russia-to-cut-crude-export-duty-next-month-on-urals-drop.html | 4 | 25 | e1a58061ee512b2399e82704335da3b8be325c20 | Russia , the world’s biggest oil
producer, will reduce its export duty on most crude shipments by
2.6 percent from May 1 after Urals prices dropped. The standard duty will fall to $448.60 a metric ton, or
$61.20 a barrel, from $460.70 a ton in April, according to an
order signed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and published
today on the government website . The discounted rate on some
Eastern Siberian and Caspian Sea oil will drop to $232.40 a ton,
compared with $241.50 this month. Russia bases the export duties on the average Urals crude
price from the 15th day of one month to the 14th of the next.
Urals, Russia’s benchmark export blend, averaged $120.76 a
barrel during the most recent period, Alexander Sakovich , a
Finance Ministry adviser, said by phone on April 16. In the
previous monitoring period, the crude price averaged $123.53,
according to the ministry. The government lowered the crude tax rate in October,
applying a coefficient of 60 percent, down from 65 percent, and
unifying the duty on most refined products at 66 percent of that
levy. The duty for middle distillates and heavy products will
fall to $296 a ton next month, from $304 in April. A gasoline tax that Putin imposed in May 2011 to counter
domestic shortages will fall to $403.70 a ton from $414.60 this
month. That is 90 percent of the crude duty. The government will
raise the duty on liquefied petroleum gases such as butane and
propane to $196.60 a ton from $158.60 this month. To contact the reporter on this story:
Jake Rudnitsky in Moscow at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at
[email protected] | 2012 | russia-to-cut-crude-export-duty-next-month-on-urals-drop |
Chinese Writers Seek $17 Million Censorship Suit Default | By Don Jeffrey | 2012-04-25T21:19:34Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/chinese-writers-seek-17-million-judgment-against-china-in-u-s-.html | 4 | 25 | 7065e85b089d86b1de842a8abad009bff0db5769 | A group of Chinese residents of New
York who sued the People’s Republic of China last year claiming
the government censored their writings asked a federal court in
New York for a $17.4 million default judgment because the
country didn’t answer the complaint. The writers sued China and Baidu.com Inc., (BIDU) the owner of
China’s most popular Internet search engine, in May 2011,
seeking $16 million in damages. They claimed that their pro-
democracy writings about China were censored or banned from the
search engine. “The execution of the request would infringe the
sovereignty or security of the People’s Republic of China,” the
Ministry of Justice said in a letter dated Jan. 29, referring to
a request to serve legal papers on the government or Baidu.com . Stephen N. Preziosi , the lawyer representing the writers,
said he filed the request to enter the default judgment today
after learning that the ministry wouldn’t serve the complaint.
The next step, he said, is to file a formal motion with the
court seeking the default judgment against the Internet company
and the People’s Republic. The ministry is “making this blanket argument that
Baidu.com can enjoy the protection of sovereignty,” Preziosi
said in an interview. “Baidu.com has not responded and they are very much aware
this lawsuit is pending,” he said. “Baidu.com is an arm of the
People’s Republic of China.” The case is Zhang v. Baidu.com, 11-03388, U.S. District
Court, U.S. Bankruptcy Court , Southern District of New York
(Manhattan). To contact the reporter on this story:
Don Jeffrey in New York
at [email protected] . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Hytha at ‘ mhytha @bloomberg.net. | 2012 | chinese-writers-seek-17-million-judgment-against-china-in-u-s- |
Suntec Rises to 7-Month High on Higher Dividend: Singapore Mover | By Pooja Thakur | 2012-04-25T09:32:51Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/suntec-rises-to-7-month-high-on-higher-dividend-singapore-mover.html | 4 | 25 | 96c66a68a4d55e86f6a6ac1001ef83be386d75f1 | Suntec Real Estate Investment Trust (SUN) ,
a Singapore property trust partly owned by billionaire Li Ka-
shing, climbed to the highest in more than seven months after
reporting a 2.7 percent increase in its payout to shareholders. The stock rose 1.2 percent to S$1.30, the highest since
Sept. 12, at the close in Singapore. The trust yesterday
reported a distribution per unit of 2.453 Singapore cents for
the quarter ended March 31 of 2012. Suntec’s earnings are increasing as office rents in the
city-state advanced to the highest in three years at the end of
2011, based on government data . The property trust owns stakes
in the city’s biggest downtown office developments, including
One Raffles Quay and Marina Bay Financial Centre. “The leasing of office space in both One Raffles Quay and
Marina Bay Financial Centre went better than expected,” TiWee
Pang, a Singapore-based analyst at DMG & Partners Securities Pte
with a buy recommendation, said in a note today. “We are
confident that Suntec’s office portfolio will outperform the
general office market industry in Singapore.” Distributable income increased 3.8 percent to $54.9 million,
for the quarter ended March, Suntec said. The property trust also owns Suntec City, one of
Singapore’s largest integrated developments with office towers,
a mall and convention center. It also holds a third of One
Raffles Quay and Marina Bay Financial Centre Towers 1 and 2 and
the Marina Bay Link Mall. To contact the reporter on this story:
Pooja Thakur in Singapore at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andreea Papuc at
[email protected]
SUN SP <Equity> | 2012 | suntec-rises-to-7-month-high-on-higher-dividend-singapore-mover |
Chrysler to Let Ally Auto-Financing Pact Expire | By Craig Trudell and Dakin Campbell | 2012-04-26T04:00:45Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/chrysler-to-let-ally-auto-financing-pact-expire.html | 4 | 25 | 215e744fb8e14aacb73ae8e72304c4dd | Chrysler Group LLC, the automaker
controlled by Fiat SpA (F) , will let its operating agreement with
Ally Financial Inc. (ALLY) expire in April 2013 as the company
negotiates with other banks for vehicle financing. Chrysler notified Detroit-based Ally yesterday that it
won’t renew the agreement, according to regulatory filings from
both companies. The pact required Auburn Hills , Michigan-based
Chrysler to allow Ally to finance a minimum percentage of
vehicles sold with subvented loans, which are made to consumers
at below-market rates. Automakers pay lenders to make up the
difference. Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne said Feb. 28 that
Chrysler is negotiating with several banks about the third-
largest U.S. automaker’s financing needs. Chrysler generates
more than $25 billion in auto loans annually, people familiar
with the matter said in February. Ally’s agreement with Chrysler extends through April 2013
and has automatic one-year renewals, according to its annual
report filed Feb. 28. Chrysler needed to notify Ally of
nonrenewal before the end of this month, the filings show. Subvented loans with Chrysler accounted for about 5 percent
of Ally’s total U.S. consumer originations in the first quarter,
according to Ally’s filing yesterday. The agreement does not
cover other business Ally does with Chrysler dealers, such as
wholesale financing, so-called standard rate financing for
consumers and leasing, according to the filing. ‘Constructive Discussions’ “Chrysler and Ally continue to have constructive
discussions about the future relationship,” the Ally filing
said. “Ally expects to continue to play a significant role with
Chrysler dealers in the future as the dealer is Ally’s direct
customer for the majority of business that is conducted.” Ally Chief Executive Officer Michael Carpenter is trying to
repay U.S. bailouts exceeding $17 billion that left the Treasury
Department with a 74 percent stake . Carpenter has backtracked on
a prediction in August 2010 that Ally could stage an initial
public offering valuing it at as much as $30 billion, saying
Feb. 2 that a sale won’t happen until the company resolves
issues tied to faulty loans at its home-mortgage business
Residential Capital LLC. ResCap didn’t make a scheduled interest payment on about
$473 million of debt on April 17, Ally said in an April 17
regulatory filing. Ally said ResCap had 30 days after the missed
payment of about $20 million before a default occurs, and people
familiar with the matter have said the company is considering
bankruptcy for the unit. Banks Negotiating Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) , Santander Holdings USA Inc., General
Electric Capital Corp., U.S. Bancorp and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)
are among banks that have negotiated with Chrysler about its
auto-financing needs, three people familiar with the talks said
in February. Chrysler has told banks they can submit two bids: one to
form a joint venture that covers “captive” finance business
such as dealer financing, and the second for Chrysler-branded
auto loans, said the people, who declined to be identified
because the talks were private. Turin, Italy-based Fiat has a
financing joint venture with Credit Agricole SA (ACA) in Europe . Ally originated 2.3 million auto loans and leases worldwide
last year totaling about $53.3 billion, according to its annual
report. The lender provided financing for 29 percent of
Chrysler’s North American retail sales and 65 percent of its
dealer inventory in North America . To contact the reporter on this story:
Craig Trudell in Southfield, Michigan at
[email protected] ;
Dakin Campbell in San Francisco at
[email protected] . To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Jamie Butters at [email protected] | 2012 | chrysler-to-let-ally-auto-financing-pact-expire |
German Construction May Rise 3.8% in 2012, ZDB Trade Group Says | By Editors: Jeff St.Onge | 2012-04-25T15:50:08Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/german-construction-may-rise-3-8-in-2012-zdb-trade-group-says.html | 4 | 25 | 3699eb52bd756267235f60a00833bdb06634c26c | Construction in Germany is likely
to increase 3.8 percent in 2012, with stronger demand for new
apartments making up for weaker government orders, Germany’s
largest builders’ trade group said. The industry is expected to charge 6.7 percent more for
apartment construction than it did last year and 4.1 percent
more for commercial projects, the Zentralverband Deutsches
Baugewerbe , or ZDB, said in a statement today. Revenue from
government projects was forecast to remain unchanged. “Construction companies are seeing a hopeful start to the
year,” ZDB President Hans-Hartwig Loewenstein said in prepared
remarks for a press conference today. Low unemployment, cheap financing and rising incomes are
boosting demand for new homes, Loewenstein said. Orders are also
being buoyed by investors seeking safety amid Europe ’s
sovereign-debt crisis. The ZDB’s 35,000 members account for about 70 percent of
German construction revenue. | 2012 | german-construction-may-rise-3-8-in-2012-zdb-trade-group-says |
Halliburton Opposes BP’s Proposed Settlement of Gulf Spill | By Margaret Cronin Fisk and Allen Johnson Jr. | 2012-04-25T03:34:07Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/halliburton-opposes-bp-s-proposed-settlement-of-gulf-oil-spill.html | 4 | 25 | 280fc9f888c44e57cef3e9d1185df9562ac2ea25 | Halliburton Co. (HAL) is opposing a
$7.8 billion proposed settlement between BP Plc (BP/) and lawyers
suing the London-based company over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil
spill, according to a court filing. BP in March agreed to resolve most private plaintiffs’
claims for economic loss, property damage and spill and clean-up
related injuries. Lawyers for BP and the plaintiffs filed the
accord April 18 with U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New
Orleans for preliminary approval. Barbier is considering the
request for approval at a hearing tomorrow. Halliburton “objects to the limited amount of time
available to analyze the settlement agreements and files these
preliminary objections,” Donald E. Godwin, a lawyer for the
Houston-based company, said in court papers today. The proposed
agreements cover two classes, for economic loss and medical
injury. Halliburton also objects to the agreement because it
assigns BP’s claims against the company to the plaintiffs
lawyers and attempts to make Halliburton “liable in part for
settlement payments,” Godwin said. The settlement also
restricts Halliburton’s ability to settle claims, he 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, which provided
cementing services. Proposed Settlement 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 . Also excluded are 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. 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
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Hytha at
[email protected] | 2012 | alliburton-opposes-bp-s-proposed-settlement-of-gulf-oil-spi |
Hungary Wins EU Go-Ahead for Aid Talks as Economy Teeters | By James G. Neuger and Zoltan Simon | 2012-04-25T14:30:35Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/hungary-wins-eu-go-ahead-for-aid-talks-as-economy-teeters.html | 4 | 25 | 7dd8b13b4c40447e853b4794f7503c78 | Hungary won the go-ahead from the
European Commission to pursue a financial-aid package after
Prime Minister Viktor Orban scaled back attempts to exert
control over the central bank. Five months after Orban pleaded for a bailout, the European
Union executive cleared the way for the start of talks on a
joint program from the EU and the International Monetary Fund to
shore up the recession-threatened country’s finances, currently
saddled with a junk credit rating. The EU is “ready today to enter into the negotiations on
financial aid that Hungary asked for,” commission spokesman
Olivier Bailly told reporters in Brussels today. The next step
is to examine the “modalities of these discussions,” he said. Hungary’s currency rallied the most in three years since
yesterday and bonds rose on expectations that the EU, battling a
flare-up of the debt crisis in the euro area, would seek to halt
the spread of economic distress by allowing Orban’s government
to tap aid. The forint advanced 2.1 percent to 288.2 per euro at 3:00
p.m. in Budapest, extending its two-day advance to 3.8 percent,
the most since April 2009. The government’s benchmark 10-year
bonds jumped, cutting yields 60 basis points to 8.2 percent. ‘Like No Tomorrow’ “Everyone is closing short positions like there’s no
tomorrow,” Daniel Bebesy , who helps oversee $1.5 billion,
mostly in Hungarian government bonds at Budapest Fund
Management, said by phone. “We had been pessimistic about the
outlook for an IMF deal. Now it seems the rally may continue.” Orban, a student leader during Hungary’s transition from
communism to democracy now in his second stint as prime
minister, was the focus of the Brussels-Budapest clash. Back in
power since 2010, he has met with criticism for using a two-
thirds majority in parliament to skew Hungary’s system of checks
and balances in his party’s favor. While Orban bowed to some European demands to amend a law
that extended government oversight over the Hungarian central
bank, the European Central Bank on April 5 said it still has
“serious concerns” about possible political meddling with
monetary policy. Orban promised “additional commitments and
clarifications” on the central bank regulation, the commission
said in a statement today, adding that it would close the case
once the changes are adopted by the Hungarian Parliament. ‘Satisfied to Acknowledge’ The government pledged to the European Commission not to
name an additional vice president to the Magyar Nemzeti Bank ,
nor expand the rate-setting Monetary Council until central bank
President Andras Simor’s term ends in 2013, Tamas Fellegi, the
country’s chief negotiator for a bailout, told reporters in
Budapest today. Orban’s administration is ready to go to court on prior
objections to a reduction of Simor’s salary and the oath the
governor is required to take, Fellegi said, adding that he has
no indication so far on whether the commission will file a
lawsuit. The bank “is satisfied to acknowledge that the government
made guarantees in the interest of central bank independence in
line with the EU treaty,” it said in a statement today. Adopting Changes Hungary can start financial aid talks with the EU and the
IMF once the pledged changes are adopted, Gyula Pleschinger,
state secretary at the Economy Ministry , told reporters today in
Budapest. An accord may be concluded by the third quarter of this
year, Eszter Gargyan , a Budapest-based economist at Citigroup
Inc., said in an e-mail today. Orban only went part of the way to meeting calls to rewrite
laws that the EU said give his ruling party too much authority
over the appointment of judges and the independent data-
protection commissioner. The commission, the EU’s executive,
will appeal to the EU’s supreme court to force Hungary to fix
those laws. Orban made his case to Jose Barroso , the commission’s
president, in Brussels yesterday. He told reporters afterwards
that obstacles to aid talks have “essentially been
surmounted.” ‘Limited Appetite’ European consent for the talks “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 euro-zone periphery crisis, and
perhaps limited appetite for another potential crisis in an EU
member state,” Tim Ash, head of emerging-market research at
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London , said in an e-mail
yesterday. An EU member since 2004, Hungary pushed its budget deficit
below the bloc’s limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product
only once, in 2011, thanks to the onetime nationalization of
private pension funds. In March, EU finance ministers voted to
suspend 495 million euros ($655 million) in regional subsidies
as of next year unless Hungary cuts the deficit. Hungary 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. The government is counting on
economic growth of 0.1 percent in 2012, at odds with an
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast
of a 0.6 percent contraction. The government said this week 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. To contact the reporters on this story:
James G. Neuger in Brussels at
[email protected]
Zoltan Simon in Budapest at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Balazs Penz at
[email protected] | 2012 | ungary-wins-eu-go-ahead-for-aid-talks-as-economy-teeters |
West Texas Sour Weakens After Ponca City Refinery Flaring | By Aaron Clark | 2012-04-25T20:18:43Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/west-texas-sour-weakens-after-ponca-city-refinery-flaring.html | 4 | 25 | eb14d742a2f71ef7193a2580f1dbd141b8b17953 | The discount for West Texas Sour
oil widened after flaring was reported at ConocoPhillips (COP) ’ Ponca
City refinery in Oklahoma . West Texas Sour’s discount widened $2.65 a barrel to $8.35
a barrel below West Texas Intermediate at 3:54 p.m. in New York ,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg. WTI in Midland, Texas,
widened its discount versus the benchmark grade at Cushing,
Oklahoma, by $2.90 to $7.50 a barrel. The 187,000-barrel-a-day refinery flared gases late
yesterday, Paula Cain, director of the city’s emergency
management division, said in a telephone interview. In the U.S. Gulf Coast region, Mars Blend’s premium to the
benchmark fell 70 cents to $11. Poseidon’s premium decreased 35
cents to $9.85, while Southern Green Canyon’s weakened 50 cents
to $9.50. The three grades are used in the Argus Sour Crude
Index. The premium for Thunder Horse , a sour oil with lower sulfur
content than the other three grades, fell 5 cents to $14.65. Sweet oils gained against the benchmark. Light Louisiana
Sweet’s premium to WTI added 25 cents to $17.75 a barrel. Heavy
Louisiana Sweet strengthened 25 cents to a premium of $16.75. Western Canada Select’s discount to WTI narrowed 75 cents
to $16.25. Syncrude’s discount widened 50 cents to $2. Bakken
oil’s discount was unchanged at $6.50. To contact the reporter on this story:
Aaron Clark in New York at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dan Stets at
[email protected] | 2012 | west-texas-sour-weakens-after-ponca-city-refinery-flaring |
Freepoint Commodities to Buy JPMorgan’s Metal-Concentrates Unit | By Lynn Doan | 2012-04-25T11:00:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/freepoint-commodities-to-buy-jpmorgan-s-metal-concentrates-unit.html | 4 | 25 | 4cddeac1775b887c8857cb02bb1d1b23f800f568 | Freepoint Commodities LLC, founded
last year by three former RBS Sempra Commodities LLP executives,
agreed to buy JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) ’s metal-concentrates trading
arm, marking the company’s first foray into the market. The energy-trading company based in Greenwich, Connecticut,
signed an agreement to buy J.P. Morgan Metals & Concentrates LLC,
which trades concentrates and copper cathodes. The terms are
confidential, David Messer, Freepoint’s chief executive officer,
said in a phone interview from Stamford, Connecticut yesterday. Global metals demand is rising as China, the world’s
largest user, builds more infrastructure, housing and consumer
appliances. The LMEX Index (LMEX) , which tracks six base metals traded
on the London Metal Exchange, has risen 5.5 percent this year. The J.P. Morgan Metals traders, based in Stamford and China,
including Hong Kong , will become Freepoint’s first in metals and
will probably be its first in Asia , where it’s looking to tap
into the growing demand for raw materials, Messer said. Messer said that the acquisition is a “reunion” because
he worked with the team of about 25 traders from the time Sempra
bought the unit in 2002 until he resigned as RBS Sempra’s chief
executive officer in 2009. “Concentrates is a business we’re very familiar with since
we worked with them for almost a decade,” Messer said.
“Historically, the unit was considered one of the top three
players in the concentrates market, and I expect it to grow in
stature over time now that its future is determined.” Brian Marchiony , a spokesman for JPMorgan in London,
declined to comment. Asian plans Freepoint has expanded operations in Europe, entered U.S.
power and natural-gas markets in June and said earlier this year
that it was planning to establish offices in Asia to trade
metals, oil and refined-petroleum products and coal. The company is in the process of acquiring businesses in
Singapore, Dan Hecht, Freepoint’s general counsel, said in a
telephone interview yesterday from Greenwich, Connecticut. Once the acquisition of J.P. Morgan Metals receives
regulatory approvals and is complete, the name of the company
will change to Freepoint Metals & Concentrates LLC, Hecht said. Glencore International Plc (GLEN) and Trafigura AG are also major
players in the concentrates market, Messer said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Lynn Doan in San Francisco at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dan Stets at
[email protected] | 2012 | freepoint-commodities-to-buy-jpmorgan-s-metal-concentrates-uni |
Yen Climbs Before Central Bank Meets; Pound Up a 9th Day | By Catarina Saraiva | 2012-04-26T20:29:06Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/dollar-stays-lower-on-fed-easing-speculation-before-gdp.html | 4 | 25 | c66f14cdf1c8457fa6a025b633c3c7e4 | The yen rose for the first time in
three days versus the euro and dollar, even before a meeting
tomorrow where the Bank of Japan may boost stimulus measures,
after the Federal Reserve said yesterday U.S. borrowing costs
will stay at virtually zero into 2014. The euro dropped against Japan’s currency after economic
confidence fell in the 17-nation region. The pound gained to its
highest level since September versus the greenback after U.K.
consumer confidence climbed more than economists estimated. The
dollar remained weaker after Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said
yesterday the central bank is ready to introduce more stimulus
if the economy deteriorates. “The expectation is that the BOJ will increase the asset
purchase program, and the scope for disappointment is helping
the yen stay strong,” said Brian Kim, a currency strategist in
Stamford , Connecticut , at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc.
“You also get the sense that people were expecting a more
hawkish Fed, and they didn’t get that.” The yen gained 0.5 percent to 80.97 per dollar at 4:27 p.m.
New York time and touched 80.67, the strongest level since April
17. It appreciated 0.3 percent against the euro, to 107.18. The
U.S. currency weakened 0.2 percent to $1.3237 per euro after
reaching $1.3263, the weakest level since April 3. Japan’s currency rose against all of its 16 most-traded
counterparts, and Brazil ’s real was the biggest loser. The real
slid 0.3 percent to 1.8850 per dollar. Norway’s krone
depreciated 0.2 percent to 5.7332 per to the greenback, and
South Africa ’s rand weakened 0.1 percent to 7.7582. Stock Gains The yen stayed higher versus the dollar even after an index
of pending U.S. home purchases rose more than forecast, pushing
stocks up. The National Association of Realtors’ gauge of the
sales increased 4.1 percent in March to the highest level since
April 2010. A Bloomberg News survey projected a 1 percent rise.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 0.7 percent. Fed policy makers refrained yesterday from new actions to
stimulate the economy, while saying the housing sector remains
depressed and global financial strains present “significant
downside risk.” They repeated their view borrowing costs are
likely to remain “exceptionally low” at least through late 2014.
The benchmark interest rate has been at zero to 0.25 percent
since December 2008. While they upgraded forecasts for growth this year to 2.4
percent to 2.9 percent, policy makers lowered projections for
growth in 2014 to 3.1 percent to 3.6 percent, below a January
estimate of 3.3 percent to 4 percent. “Right now, equities are higher and the dollar is weaker,”
said Eric Viloria, senior currency strategist at Gain Capital
Group LLC in New York. “That’s consistent with a market that’s
still expecting the Fed to do more.” Prepared for More Bernanke said yesterday after a two-day Fed policy meeting
that central bankers “remain prepared to do more” if economic
conditions worsen. U.S. gross domestic product rose at a 2.5 percent annual
rate in the first quarter after advancing 3 percent in the
previous three months, according to the median forecast of
economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before a report tomorrow. The Bank of Japan (8301) is due to release new inflation forecasts
tomorrow and will probably announce an increase in asset
purchases ranging from 5 trillion yen ($62 billion) to 10
trillion yen, economists surveyed by Bloomberg said. “Yen direction will remain mainly driven by safe-haven
demand linked to developments in the euro zone ,” said Lee Hardman , a foreign-exchange strategist at Bank of Tokyo-
Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in London . Confidence Flags The euro fell against the yen after the European Commission
said in Brussels an index of executive and consumer sentiment in
the 17-nation currency area slid to 92.8 in April from a revised
94.5 in March. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey was for
a drop to 94.2 from a previously reported 94.4. The implied volatility of three-month options for Group of
Seven currencies slid to as low as 9.19 percent, according to
the JPMorgan Volatility Index. A close at that level would be
the lowest since 2007. The 10-year average is 10.6 percent.
Lower volatility makes investments in currencies of nations with
higher benchmark rates more attractive because the risk in such
trades is that market moves will erase profits. The Dollar Index (DXY) , which Intercontinental Exchange Inc. uses
to track the greenback against the currencies of six major U.S.
trading partners, declined 0.1 percent to 78.932 after dropping
to 78.823, the lowest level since April 3. The greenback has slid 2.7 percent this year, the second-
worst performance among the 10 developed-nation currencies
tracked by Bloomberg Correlation Weighted Indexes. The yen has
tumbled 8.1 percent, while the euro has declined 0.4 percent. Pound Winning Streak The pound climbed for a ninth day against the dollar, the
longest winning streak since January 2011, after a Nationwide
Building Society index of sentiment rose to 53 in March from 44
the previous month. The U.K. currency gained 0.2 percent to $1.6195, after
touching $1.6207, the highest level since Sept. 2. It was little
changed at 81.74 pence per euro. Sterling may strengthen to $1.6425 if it ends the day’s
trading above a key level of resistance, Commerzbank AG said,
citing trading patterns. “Pound-dollar is starting to erode the $1.6167
resistance,” Karen Jones , head of fixed-income, commodity and
currency technical analysis in London, wrote in a note to
clients. “This is the October 2011 high and the 61.8 percent
retracement of the move seen 2011-2012,” she wrote, citing
Fibonacci analysis. Fibonacci analysis is based on the theory that securities
tend to rise or fall by specific percentages after reaching a
new high or low. Resistance is an area on a chart where orders
to sell a security may be clustered. To contact the reporter on this story:
Catarina Saraiva in New York at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dave Liedtka at [email protected] | 2012 | dollar-stays-lower-on-fed-easing-speculation-before-gdp |
Akfen Gains in Istanbul After Report on TAV Insaat Contract | By Aydan Eksin | 2012-04-25T10:16:41Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/akfen-gains-in-istanbul-after-report-on-tav-insaat-contract.html | 4 | 25 | 149539f886e454503d4285c162a6e243c42e99e8 | Akfen Holding AS (AKFEN) , a Turkish
builder, climbed in Istanbul after Reuters reported Akfen’s unit
TAV Insaat and partners may win a contract valued at about $3
billion in Abu Dhabi . Akfen rose 3.4 percent to 9.62 liras at the 12:30 p.m.
midday close, in the biggest increase since April 13. A group
including Arabtec Holding PJSC, TAV Insaat and Consolidated
Contractors Co. may win the contract for the expansion of Abu
Dhabi’s international airport, Reuters reported, citing people
it didn’t identify. To contact the reporter on this story:
Aydan Eksin in Istanbul at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Shaji Mathew at
[email protected] | 2012 | akfen-gains-in-istanbul-after-report-on-tav-insaat-contrac |
Bernanke Takes On Krugman’s Criticism Ignoring Own Advice | By Jeff Kearns and Craig Torres | 2012-04-26T14:28:51Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/bernanke-rejects-criticism-he-ignores-his-own-policy-advice.html | 4 | 25 | 4a2e406209234f3fa517eaab7bbeb04e | Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke took on Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman
yesterday and called his advice to reduce unemployment by
boosting inflation “reckless.” “The question is, does it make sense to actively seek a
higher inflation rate in order to achieve” a slightly faster
reduction in the unemployment rate , Bernanke said yesterday to
reporters after a Federal Open Market Committee meeting. “The
view of the committee is that that would be very reckless.” Krugman, whom Bernanke hired at Princeton University in
2000 when he was chairman of the economics department, said in a
New York Times Magazine article that the Fed should raise its 2
percent inflation target to cut unemployment. Such a policy
shift would align with Bernanke’s comment in 2000 that the Bank
of Japan (8301) should pursue faster inflation to escape deflation, he
said. Japan’s consumer prices fell 0.2 percent that year. “While the Fed went to great lengths to rescue the
financial system, it has done far less to rescue workers,”
Krugman wrote. “Higher expected inflation would aid an
economy” because it would persuade investors and businesses
“that sitting on cash is a bad idea,” Krugman said. Bernanke, during yesterday’s press conference in
Washington, denied that the FOMC’s policy contradicts his prior
academic work. The chairman spoke in response to a reporter’s
question referring to Krugman’s story, titled “Earth to Ben
Bernanke ,” published April 24. The article cited “the
divergence between what Professor Bernanke advocated and what
Chairman Bernanke has actually done.” ‘Completely Consistent’ “So there’s this view circulating that the views I
expressed about 15 years ago on the Bank of Japan are somehow
inconsistent with our current policies,” Bernanke said. “That
is absolutely incorrect. My views and our policies today are
completely consistent with the views that I held at that time.” Krugman didn’t respond to telephone and e-mail messages to
his publicist, Sarah Fogarty. Bernanke said the main difference between Japan’s economic
slump 15 years ago and the U.S. today is that Japan was in
deflation and the world’s largest economy isn’t, with an
inflation rate that’s close to the Fed’s objective. The U.S. today doesn’t face a deflation threat, in part
because the Fed expanded its balance sheet to $2.88 trillion
through $2.3 trillion in bond purchases, Bernanke said. The FOMC
yesterday raised its estimate for the personal consumption
expenditures price index for this year to 1.9 percent to 2
percent versus 1.4 percent to 1.8 percent in January. Inflation, Deflation Bernanke said pushing the increase in prices above the
Fed’s 2 percent goal would risk undermining inflation
expectations and erode the central bank’s credibility as a force
for stable prices. “There are academics who have suggested that the Fed
actively seek very high inflation for a couple of years,” said
Laurence Meyer , senior managing director at Macroeconomic
Advisers LLC in St. Louis and a former Fed governor. “Central
bankers appreciate that credibility helps stabilize inflation
and makes the real sector more stable. The costs of getting it
back when you lose it are enormous.” If the Fed can’t convince investors that it can contain
inflation, “we would in fact have less rather than more
flexibility to use accommodative monetary policy to achieve our
employment goals,” Bernanke said. ‘Doubtful Gains’ “We, the Federal Reserve , have spent 30 years building up
credibility for low and stable inflation, which has proved
extremely valuable in that we’ve been able to take strong
accommodative actions in the last four, five years,” Bernanke
told reporters. “To risk that asset for what I think would be
quite tentative and perhaps doubtful gains on the real side
would be, I think, an unwise thing to do.” The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.1 percent to
1,391.92 as of 10:16 a.m. in New York. Yields on benchmark 10-
year Treasury notes slumped four basis points to 1.95 percent. Krugman, who won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics, said in
a blog posting on the New York Times’ opinion page yesterday
that Bernanke’s response was “disappointing stuff.” Krugman, 59, has previously proposed higher inflation to
boost employment and criticized Bernanke in a Bloomberg News
interview last year for not taking more aggressive action. Bernanke, 58, joined Princeton, in New Jersey , as a
professor in 1985, according to the central bank’s website. He
was a member of the Fed’s Board of Governors from 2002 to 2005
and chairman of President George W. Bush ’s Council of Economic
Advisers from 2005 to 2006, when he took office as Fed Chairman. “Krugman’s views are not closely related to the reality in
which Bernanke is forced to operate,” said Anthony Karydakis,
an adjunct professor of economics at New York University’s
Leonard N. Stern School of Business and former chief U.S.
economist at JPMorgan Asset Management. “One of them has the
responsibility of steering the economy through treacherous
waters and the other has the luxury of sitting in his office and
sending articles to the New York Times,” Karydakis said. To contact the reporters on this story:
Jeff Kearns in Washington at
[email protected] ;
Craig Torres in Washington at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Chris Wellisz at
[email protected] | 2012 | bernanke-rejects-criticism-he-ignores-his-own-policy-advice |
Brazilian Stock Movers: Autometal, JBS, Itau Unibanco and OGX | By Ney Hayashi | 2012-04-25T15:07:55Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/brazilian-stock-movers-autometal-jbs-itau-unibanco-and-ogx.html | 4 | 25 | 13f104b3b1e182cc25d7eaa77feb68059ea1ca24 | The following companies are having
unusual price changes in Sao Paulo trading. Stock symbols are in
parentheses, and prices are as of 12:04 a.m. local time.
Preferred shares are usually the most-traded class of stock. The Bovespa (IBOV) index dropped 0.3 percent to 61,783.25. Autometal SA (AUTM3) (AUTM3 BS) slid 3.8 percent to 15.15 reais.
The Brazilian unit of Spanish auto-parts maker Cie Automotive SA
had first-quarter net income of 39.9 million reais
($21.2 million), a 24 percent drop from a year earlier,
according to a regulatory filing. JBS SA (JBSS3) (JBSS3 BS) gained 2.9 percent to 7.37 reais. The
meatpacker said today in a regulatory filing that a reported
case of mad cow disease in the U.S., where the company produces
more than one-third of its beef, won’t affect its business. Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ITUB4) (ITUB4 BS) sank 4.5 percent to
30.02 reais. Latin America ’s biggest bank by market value
expects to spend as much as 6.4 billion reais in bad-loan
provisions in the second quarter, compared with 6 billion in the
first quarter, according to a regulatory filing. OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA (OGXP3 BS) added 2.2
percent to 13.30 reais. The oil company controlled by the
billionaire Eike Batista said in a filing that its Waikiki field
was declared commercially viable with 285 million barrels of
estimated recoverable crude reserves. To contact the reporter on this story:
Ney Hayashi in Sao Paulo at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
David Papadopoulos in New York at
[email protected] | 2012 | brazilian-stock-movers-autometal-jbs-itau-unibanco-and-ogx |
Forint Rallying Most in 3 Years as Stocks Soar on EU Aid Consent | By Andras Gergely | 2012-04-25T15:34:52Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/forint-gains-for-second-day-as-ec-considers-hungary-aid-request.html | 4 | 25 | 7e4143845b347734aefaf3fee11e2ac1c2a8fe3e | The forint had its biggest two-day
gain against the euro since 2009 and Hungary ’s benchmark equity
index jumped the most since November after the European
Commission approved the start of bailout talks. Hungary’s currency appreciated 1.8 percent to 289 per euro
by 5:09 p.m. in Budapest, extending its two-day advance to 3.7
percent, the most on a closing basis since April 2009. The
government’s benchmark 10-year bonds increased, cutting yields
66 basis points to 8.138 percent, the lowest since November. The
BUX stock index rallied 4.2 percent as OTP Bank Nyrt. (OTP) , Hungary’s
largest lender, strengthened 6.7 percent. The European Commission is willing to open financial aid
talks with Hungary, Olivier Bailly, a spokesman for the European
Union’s executive arm, told reporters in Brussels today, five
months after Prime Minister Viktor Orban requested the aid from
the EU and the International Monetary Fund . The delay in the
talks drove the forint to its weakest ever against the euro on
Jan. 5 at 324.24. “We would expect negotiations to be lengthy still,”
Timothy Ash, a London-based strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland
Group Plc, wrote by e-mail today. “That said, the market in the
short term will still focus on this good news story.” The Commission said it is “ satisfied ” with Hungary’s
pledges to change legislation which threatened the independence
of the central bank and whose passage at the end of last year
led to the halting of preparations for the aid talks. The
country was referred to the Court of Justice of the EU over the
independence of the judiciary and the data protection authority,
the commission said in a statement today. ‘Very Soon’ The cost of insuring against default on Hungary’s debt with
credit-default swaps fell 38 basis points to 532 basis points,
the lowest on a closing basis since March 21, according to data
compiled by Bloomberg. Hungary can start the aid negotiations as soon as the
country passes legislation required by the EU, Gyula
Pleschinger, state secretary at the Economy Ministry told
reporters today, adding that he hoped the talks will start
“very soon.” The forint may weaken against the euro and dollar as
approval for Hungary’s international bailout talks to go ahead
doesn’t guarantee a positive outcome for the aid negotiations,
Wells Fargo & Co . said. “We had expected forint to be an underperformer and we
still expect that,” Nick Bennenbroek , New York-based head of
currency strategy at Wells Fargo, said in a phone interview
today. The Commission’s approval is “only one step in what is
seemingly quite a long process,” he added. ‘Remains a Risk’ Hungary’s central bank is “satisfied to acknowledge” that
Orban guaranteed the Magyar Nemzeti Bank’s independence in his
talks this week with the European Commission, the bank said in
an e-mailed statement today. “The interruption of negotiations remains a risk,”
Gergely Hudecz, a London-based economist at Credit Suisse Group
AG, wrote in a research report today. “However, we maintain our
view that an agreement will be reached this year.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Andras Gergely in Budapest at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Gavin Serkin at
[email protected] | 2012 | forint-gains-for-second-day-as-ec-considers-hungary-aid-reques |
U.K. Culture Secretary Blames Aide Over News Corp. Contacts | By Robert Hutton | 2012-04-25T13:46:08Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/u-k-culture-secretary-blames-aide-over-news-corp-contacts-2-.html | 4 | 25 | e33be7ee30c040d58bef7c8dc7be4079 | U.K. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt ,
fighting calls for his resignation over contacts between his
office and News Corp. (NWSA) during a takeover bid, blamed an aide for
“unintentionally” going too far as he denied any wrongdoing. Hunt told lawmakers in London that a News Corp. lobbyist
had exaggerated his contacts with him. Hunt’s adviser, Adam
Smith , who resigned today, had acted without his knowledge, he
said. He said he couldn’t explain how the lobbyist came to have
advance knowledge of market-sensitive decisions. Opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband earlier told Prime
Minister David Cameron he should fire Hunt. The Leveson Inquiry
into media ethics yesterday saw e-mails from 2010 and 2011
showing that Hunt’s office, which was judging whether News Corp.
should be allowed to take full control of British Sky
Broadcasting Group Plc (BSY) , had briefed executives at the company on
Hunt’s thinking and decisions before they were made public. “The crucial question is whether any of those contacts
affected my decision and they did not,” Hunt said in the course
of more than an hour of questions in Parliament. He rejected
suggestions he was a “cheerleader” for News Corp. Smith quit just over an hour before the culture secretary
stood up, saying in an e-mailed statement he had gone “too
far” in his communications with News Corp. lobbyist Frederic Michel. Unable to Say Asked by Peter Bone, a fellow Conservative, to deny his
office had been responsible for leaking decisions to News Corp.,
Hunt said he couldn’t. “I’m not able to come to the House today
and say what the truth was,” the culture secretary replied. Labour lawmaker Tom Watson asked Hunt if he was “seriously
trying to convince the nation that these incriminating e-mails
and texts are all the work of a single rogue adviser?” Hunt said Parliament should wait for the media ethics
inquiry, led by judge Brian Leveson, to reach its conclusion. He
has asked the probe if he can appear earlier than his current
slot in late May. Initially, Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable
was deciding on the proposed BSkyB takeover. On Dec. 21, 2010,
Cameron removed responsibility for examining the deal from Cable
after undercover journalists recorded the business secretary
saying he had “declared war” on Rupert Murdoch . The job was
passed to Hunt. Michel E-Mails In early 2011, Michel sent James Murdoch a series of e-
mails detailing Hunt’s thinking and explaining the stage the
process had got to. Often sent in the evenings, they typically
began: “Just spoke to JH.” In his sworn statement to the Leveson Inquiry, Michel said
these had in fact been the result of conversations with or text
messages from Smith, Hunt’s adviser, and other aides. “It was
my understanding that when they told me something, it was always
on behalf of the minister and after having conferred with him,”
Michel said. “At no point between Dec. 24, 2010 and the end of July
2011 did I have any direct conversation with Jeremy Hunt
relating to the BSkyB proposal beyond the two formal meetings I
attended,” Michel said. “It was never my intention to imply to
readers of my e-mails that I had had direct access to the
minister.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Robert Hutton in London at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James Hertling at
[email protected] | 2012 | u-k-culture-secretary-blames-aide-over-news-corp-contacts-2- |
Litigation Fatigue Cited in Apple, Microsoft Patent Fight | By Susan Decker | 2012-04-25T16:49:35Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/litigation-fatigue-cited-in-apple-microsoft-patent-fight.html
As Apple Inc. (AAPL) , Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and
Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI) keep trying to prove who
violated each other’s patents, the companies may be motivated to
prevent a possible ban on imports of Xboxes and IPhones. Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook , in the wake of a
preliminary finding yesterday that it infringed one of four
Motorola Mobility smartphone patents, said the company would
“highly prefer to settle versus battle” over patents. Cook’s comments follow remarks by Google Inc. (GOOG) CEO Larry Page , who called the spate of litigation over smartphones a
“sad thing” in a Bloomberg Businessweek interview published
April 4. “It’s getting to the point where it is now seriously in
the way of business,” Victor Siber, former chief intellectual
property counsel for International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) who’s
now with Baker & Hostetler LLP, said today. “I don’t think
these companies are run by their lawyers. The CEOs will
eventually say, enough of this.” Lawsuits have spread across four continents as companies
vie for a greater share of a market for smartphones that
researcher Gartner Inc. said rose 47 percent in the fourth
quarter. The total market for mobile devices, which includes tablet
computers and e-readers, is projected to reach $360 billion this
year, said Carl Howe , an analyst with Yankee Group , a Boston-
based advisory firm. Consumers spend about $1.05 trillion a year
on related costs including monthly phone bills on their devices,
he said. ‘A Big Deal’ “When we say this is a big deal, that this is revolution
in the making, it really is,” Howe said. “It’s 2 percent of
the global economy.” A U.S. International Trade Commission judge said Apple
products including the iPad and iPhone infringe a Motorola
Mobility patent, while another said the Xbox infringed four
patents. Both determinations announced this week are subject to
review by the six-member commission, which can block the Asia-
made products from entering the U.S. A victory at the trade agency may give Motorola Mobility | 4 | 25 | ced11fb65c154a75b736109818be9cce | as Apple and Microsoft can’t afford to stop selling the Xbox,
iPhone and iPad. Apple is appealing a loss in an ITC case it
filed against Motorola Mobility. “At the end of the day, companies that have a lot of money
are going to be reapportioning who has how much,” said David Long, a patent lawyer with Dow Lohnes in Washington who
specializes in telecommunications inventions. “The question is
how they get there.” Steve Jobs Vow Apple filed the first large-scale patent case over
smartphone technology in March 2010 with a case against HTC
Corp. (2498) The legal fights have expanded to include smartphones and
tablets using Google’s Android operating system, Apple’s
products and Microsoft’s Xbox video-gaming system. Apple’s first strike reflected a pledge by the late Steve Jobs, as told in his authorized biography last year, that he
would “spend every penny” of the company’s cash to prove that
Android’s features were copied from the iPhone and iPad. In the interview with Google’s Page published this month,
he said the legal wrangling was taking its toll, with “a lot of
money going to lawyers and things, instead of building great
products for users.” After this week’s rulings, the next step in both cases is
for Microsoft and Apple to petition the commission with
arguments they said will undermine Motorola Mobility’s case.
Microsoft and Apple have said they will challenge Motorola
Mobility’s right to seek import bans on the patents, as well as
whether there was infringement and if the patents are valid. More Arguments Pending Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington , and Cupertino,
California-based Apple say requests from Motorola Mobility that
they pay 2.25 percent of the consumer price of products that
incorporate standards set by industry groups isn’t reasonable.
It filed a federal lawsuit accusing Motorola Mobility of
breaching its obligation to license its patents on fair terms. A judge in Seattle is scheduled to hear arguments on
Microsoft’s claims on May 7. Apple has its own breach-of-
contract suit against Motorola Mobility pending in federal court
in Madison, Wisconsin . The patent found to be infringed “covers industry-standard
technology which Motorola has refused to license to Apple on
reasonable terms,” Kristin Huguet , a spokeswoman for Apple,
said in an interview. Microsoft said it was confident “the commission will
ultimately rule in Microsoft’s favor in this case and that
Motorola will be held to its promise to make its standard
essential patents available on fair and reasonable terms.” ‘Opportunity for Settlement’ The trade agency is reviewing a judge’s findings that
Motorola Mobility’s Android phones infringed one Microsoft
patent and not six others. Motorola Mobility, based in Libertyville, Illinois , said
that Microsoft didn’t submit a counteroffer and instead filed a
breach-of-contract suit in federal court in Seattle . It said in
a court filing that Apple “refuses to negotiate for and will
not accept a license to Motorola’s declared-essential patents.” The legal arguments show that any settlement will take some
time to negotiate, said Edward Weisz of Cozen O’Connor in New
York , a patent lawyer who specializes in communications. “Every other week, some big player is buying up a big
chunk of patents or licensing a big chunk of patents,” Weisz
said. “I don’t see it ending it too soon. The products are
still hot, there’s still a lot of money to be made.” Settlements are inevitable, he said. “As the big players
become more and more armed with chunks of patents in this area,
and some of these are pioneering patents that go back years,
you’ll see more opportunity for settlement and cross-
licensing,” he said. The case against Apple is In the Matter of Wireless
Communication Devices, Portable Music and Data Processing
Devices, Computers and Components Thereof, 337-745, and the case
against Microsoft is In the Matter of Gaming and Entertainment
Consoles, 337-752, both U.S. International Trade Commission
(Washington). To contact the reporter on this story:
Susan Decker in Washington at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Bernard Kohn at
[email protected] | 2012 | itigation-fatigue-cited-in-apple-microsoft-patent-fig |
Grain-Ship Rates Erase 2012 Decline as Agricultural Exports Rise | By Rob Sheridan | 2012-04-25T14:15:53Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/grain-ship-rates-erase-2012-decline-as-agricultural-exports-rise.html | 4 | 25 | 48dc1c7e33614eb98fa6e09e570c85f5 | The cost of shipping grains and
minerals erased this year’s decline on speculation expanding
South American agricultural exports are eroding a record fleet
of vessels competing for the cargoes. Day rates for Panamaxes, each 750-feet long and hauling
about 75,000 metric tons of cargo, rose 3.9 percent to $13,520,
according to the Baltic Exchange in London, which publishes
shipping prices on more than 50 maritime routes. Today’s
increase, the 12th in a row, means costs have risen 2.9 percent
in 2012. They plunged by as much as 59 percent in February. Brazilian soybean exports will jump 19 percent to 35.7
million tons in the 12 months ending in September, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture estimates. The extra cargoes from the
world’s largest soy shipper are enough to fill about 75
Panamaxes. China may have purchased as much as 1 million tons of
corn last week to increase stockpiles, Beijing-based researcher
Grain.gov.cn said yesterday in a report. “The key driver in Panamax right now is the grain demand
from East Coast South America ,” Steve Rodley, U.K. managing
director at Global Maritime Investments Ltd., a Cyprus-based
company that operates as many as 80 dry-bulk ships and trades
freight derivatives, said by e-mail today. “This is
supplemented by a number of other stars aligning.” In addition to rising agricultural shipments, delays are
above normal at many of the ports where cargoes are loaded,
curbing the supply of ships, he said. The vessels are also
loading more coal from both Indonesia and the U.S., he said. Australian Delays Earnings for Capesize vessels, which are about twice the
size of Panamaxes and haul iron ore and coal, slid for a fourth
session because of a surplus of available ships and reduced
shipments from Australia , said Rodley. Hire costs declined 0.5 percent to $6,509 a day, the Baltic
Exchange data show. The Baltic Dry Index, a wider measure of
commodity shipping costs, added 1.9 percent to 1,137 points, the
highest since Jan. 11, according to the exchange. Workers at mines in Queensland owned by the BHP Billiton
Mitsubishi Alliance, or BMA, the world’s biggest exporter of
steel making coal, have intensified industrial action since the
start of the year, adding to rolling strikes since June. About
3,000 miners at seven operations stopped work for a week last
month and have held further strikes since. Rates for Supramaxes, about 25 percent smaller than
Panamaxes, gained 1.9 percent to $11,369, the highest price
since Jan. 9. Handysizes, the smallest vessels tracked by the
gauge, gained 0.9 percent to $8,698, the data show. Like
Panamaxes, both the vessels can also be used to move crop
exports. Record Fleet The carrying capacity of global Panamax fleet reached 160.7
million deadweight tons this month, the largest since since at
least 1970, according to data from Clarkson Research Services
Ltd., a unit of the world’s largest shipbroker. “Chinese imports of grain from South America starts mid-
march and finishes end of May, so there’s only a short window
opportunity to buy grain,” Philippe van den Abeele, managing
director of Castalia Fund Management (U.K.) Ltd., a London-based
adviser to a hedge fund trading shipping derivatives, said by
phone today. “Panamax rates have a tendency to go up and so we
will see this short-term spike in rates.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Rob Sheridan in London at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Alaric Nightingale at
[email protected] | 2012 | grain-ship-rates-erase-2012-decline-as-agricultural-exports-rise |
Ericsson Profit Rises as Handset Disposal Helps Margins | By Diana ben-Aaron | 2012-04-25T16:08:48Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/ericsson-reports-first-quarter-profit-that-matches-estimates.html | 4 | 25 | a0df5b97aab040cc8e70a9d029844a42 | Ericsson AB’s first-quarter profit
more than doubled on the sale of a stake in its mobile handset
venture while the company increased its profit margins from the
previous period amid cautious spending from European operators. The net income of 8.95 billion kronor ($1.3 billion)
included 7.7 billion kronor in one-time gains from the sale of
half of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, the world’s largest
maker of wireless networks said. Gross profit margin, the
percentage of sales left after costs of goods sold, climbed to
33.3 percent from 30.2 percent in the previous period, Ericsson
said, topping the average estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 12
analysts of 31.4 percent. “The competition is out there but nobody has really gained
anything behind us, basically I see it’s flat behind us,” Chief
Executive Officer Hans Vestberg said today in an interview. As phone-equipment spending slows, Stockholm-based Ericsson
is relying on wireless operators in the U.S., its largest
market, to invest in faster fourth-generation networks as they
seek to add smartphone customers. Revenue fell 4 percent to 51
billion kronor. Vestberg said the pattern with some European
operators “cautious” to spend amid the region’s debt crisis
“hasn’t deteriorated.” Market Share Ericsson closed little changed at 63.65 kronor at 5:30 p.m.
in Stockholm . The stock had lost 10 percent this year through
yesterday, while Alcatel-Lucent SA gained more than 15 percent
so far this year and was up 5.7 percent in Paris. Ericsson’s mobile infrastructure market share gained to 38
percent in the quarter from 32 percent in 2011 on contracts to
replace aging mobile phone networks, mostly in Europe, and
presence in growth markets, Vestberg said in the interview. “The underlying result is fine thanks to the gross margin,
which should be reassuring,” said Alexander Peterc , a London-
based analyst with Exane BNP Paribas. “Networks sales were
light because of the decline in CDMA and macro factors in
regions like southern Europe ,” he said, referring to the code
division multiple access wireless standard. Profit adjusted for the sale of Sony Ericsson and the loss
in joint venture ST-Ericsson was 2.47 billion kronor, according
to data compiled by Bloonberg, compared with the average
estimate of 2.04 billion kronor in the Bloomberg survey. Reduce Funding Need ST-Ericsson said this week it will cut 1,700 jobs and
transfer applications processor development to
STMicroelectronics to concentrate on integrated mode and
application chips. “With this new plan we believe we can get profitability
and our loans back,” Vestberg said on a conference call with
analysts. “That’s why we have done this restructuring, and we
are trying to reduce the need for funding by having the focus on
modems and combination modem-applications chips. It will hurt
for some more time.” Last quarter, Ericsson expanded its stake in a joint
venture with LG Electronics Inc. (066570) to capture growth in Korea ,
where it is building 4G networks for all the major carriers. Modernization contracts in Europe, which produce smaller
margins because of tough competition for them, could depress
margins for several years, the company said today, reiterating
comments it made in November. Its latest mid-term sales target
is 2 percent to 8 percent through 2014, two percentage points
below the previous three-year target. Financial Impact “Modernization is important for us with the footprint,”
said Chief Financial Officer Jan Frykhammar. “We took the
decision to improve our position in Europe and we have to live
with the financial impact, which on average will be with us for
18 to 24 months,” he said. The company doesn’t see any more major modernization
projects coming up in Europe and all the contracts it has won
are now underway, Vestberg said in a Bloomberg Television
interview. Nokia Siemens Networks, the joint venture of Nokia Oyj (NOK1V) and
Siemens AG (SIE) , last week reported a loss of 147 million euros as
revenue declined 7 percent. The company is cutting units and
staff to focus on mobile broadband and services. ST-Ericsson, the unprofitable chipmaking joint venture with
STMicroelectronics SA, said April 23 that its first-quarter loss
widened to $312 million from $178 million. Revenue fell 35
percent to $290 million in the period. To contact the reporter on this story:
Diana ben-Aaron in Helsinki at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kenneth Wong at
[email protected] | 2012 | ericsson-reports-first-quarter-profit-that-matches-estimates |
Blast Injures Four Bahraini Policemen, Interior Ministry Says | By Donna Abu-Nasr | 2012-04-25T06:30:36Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/blast-injures-four-bahraini-policemen-interior-ministry-says.html | 4 | 25 | baab2b8890e37368bbbb5947c2ce8c09e87ee5df | A blast in a Bahraini village
injured four policemen accompanying civil defense workers who
were putting out a fire in a vandalized shop, the Interior
Ministry reported on its website last night. The explosion occurred at 10:35 p.m. in the village of
Deraz, the ministry said, citing the General Directorate of
Northern Governorate Police. It called the blast a “terror”
act. Deraz, west of the capital Manama, is a Shiite Muslim
village that has been the site of frequent clashes between
protesters and security forces. Bahrain quashed a month of mass rallies last year by mostly
Shiite demonstrators demanding equal rights and representation.
Small rallies still take place regularly in Shiite
neighborhoods, sometimes spilling into commercial areas of
Manama. To contact the reporter on this story:
Donna Abu-Nasr in Manama at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andrew J. Barden at
[email protected] | 2012 | blast-injures-four-bahraini-policemen-interior-ministry-says |
SAP Sees ‘Very Solid Pipeline’ as Quarterly Profit Rises | By Cornelius Rahn | 2012-04-25T08:13:59Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/sap-first-quarter-net-income-rises-10-on-asia-mobile-software.html | 4 | 25 | cb012f9ba9b2e34ad376593f2b0b2a771ccd99c6 | SAP AG (SAP) , the biggest maker of
business management software, said a “very solid pipeline” of
new deals will help meet growth targets as demand picks up for
mobile programs and software to process large amounts of data. First-quarter net income jumped 10 percent from a year
earlier to 444 million euros ($587 million) helped by record
sales in Asia , the Walldorf, Germany-based company said today.
Analysts had estimated profit of 476 million euros in a
Bloomberg survey. New business fields, including software as a service run
via external datacenters, rather than installed on customers’
premises, “drive a high interest from our customers, combined
with our core products,” co-Chief Executive Officer Jim Hagemann Snabe said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.
“In the first quarter, we saw an increase in the win ratio
against competition, and that’s why, if we combine these
factors, we see a strong opportunity for growth.” SAP, which competes with Oracle Corp. (ORCL) , said this month
that sales growth will rise in the second quarter after a sales
strategy that grouped clients by geography in North America and
initially weak business in some European countries trimmed new
software sales at the start of the year. SAP is betting on
revenue from mobile applications, on-demand software and the
real-time processing platform Hana to lift revenue to more than
20 billion euros by 2015. SAP shares declined 0.7 percent to 48.94 euros at 10:12
a.m. in Frankfurt , paring the gain this year to 20 percent and
giving the company a market value of 60.1 billion euros. Hana Revenue In the three months ended March 31, the company won
customers for Hana including India ’s United Breweries Ltd. (UBBL) ,
posting sales of 28 million euros. Revenue from new mobile-
software licenses totalled 21 million euros in the quarter.
Revenue from new software licenses rose 16 percent in Asia at
constant currencies, beating growth in any other region. SAP
pre-released revenue and operating profit on April 13. In the current quarter , revenue from software and software-
related services will increase 14 percent to 16 percent, based
on non-IFRS accounting standards and at constant currencies,
after a 10 percent gain last quarter, SAP reiterated today.
Software revenue is set to grow by 15 percent to 20 percent,
also excluding currency swings, following an increase of just 1
percent. “They have to get back on track with new software licenses
in coming quarters,” said Heinz Steffen, an analyst at
Fairesearch in Kronberg, Germany , who recommends investors buy
SAP shares. “In the short term, the results were a bit
disappointing, but in the longer term SAP is very well-
positioned, especially with mobile and Hana.” SAP’s co-CEOs have acquired mobile-software and database
company Sybase Inc. as well as cloud-computing specialist
SuccessFactors Inc. since taking over in 2010. Sales and support revenue from cloud-computing, or software
sold as an on-demand service, rose to 29 million euros in the
quarter, boosted by the SuccessFactors deal and new contracts
with clients including Rio Tinto Plc (RIO) and Ceva Logistics Ltd. To contact the reporter on this story:
Cornelius Rahn in Frankfurt at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kenneth Wong at
[email protected] | 2012 | sap-first-quarter-net-income-rises-10-on-asia-mobile-software |
Japan Recommends Preferential Price Rates for Renewable Energy | By Chisaki Watanabe | 2012-04-25T04:59:05Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/japan-recommends-preferential-price-rates-for-renewable-energy.html | 4 | 25 | cff0280d2587102d5ced219354e9d5702bca1e02 | Japan will require power utilities
to pay above market rates for electricity generated from
renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, based on
recommendations announced today by a government panel. The preferential rate, known as a feed-in tariff, for solar
power was recommended at 42 yen (52 U.S. cents) a kilowatt-hour
for 20 years, compared with the current rate of 13.65 yen a
kilowatt-hour for industry and commercial users, according to
the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Wind-generated power was recommended at 23.10 yen a
kilowatt hour for plants with the capacity of 20 kilowatts or
more and 57.75 yen for smaller ones, both for 20 years. For
geothermal, the panel recommended 27.30 yen a kilowatt hour for
plants with the capacity of 15,000 kilowatts or more and 42 yen
for smaller plants, both for 15 years. Japan currently gets
about 9 percent of its electricity from renewable energy . Pending approval by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Industry, the feed-in tariffs will be introduced in July to spur
investment in solar, wind geothermal, biomass and hydroelectric
power generation as Japan plans a shift away from atomic power
after the Fukushima disaster. In August, Japan’s parliament approved legislation for the
feed-in tariffs to help diversify its energy mix following the
devastating accident at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant in
March 2011. Atomic power provided about 30 percent of the
country’s electricity before the Fukushima crisis. Nuclear Free Japan is set to be nuclear free for the first time in more
than four decades next month as the last of its 50 operating
reactors is scheduled to be shut for maintenance. All the
reactors are being kept offline pending safety tests and
government approval for restarts. The price recommendation for solar is in line with that
earlier proposed by the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association.
The Japan Wind Power Association had suggested a wind tariff of
up to 25 yen over 20 years for bigger producers. The Japan Geothermal Developers’ Council had recommended
25.8 yen a kilowatt-hour for 15 years for bigger suppliers. To contact the reporter on this story:
Chisaki Watanabe in Tokyo at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
[email protected] | 2012 | japan-recommends-preferential-price-rates-for-renewable-energy |
Saudi Clerics Out-Tweet Liberals Forcing King to Balance | By Glen Carey | 2012-04-26T09:36:07Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/saudi-clerics-out-tweet-liberals-forcing-king-to-balance.html
The Saudis making the biggest
splash on social media aren’t the youthful, secular activists
who led protest movements elsewhere in the Arab world last year.
They’re religious scholars like Salman al-Oadah. Saudi Arabia jailed al-Oadah in the 1990s, when he was
advocating the kind of Islamic militancy espoused by al-Qaeda.
Now, after renouncing extremism, he has more than 1 million
followers on Twitter , as does Muslim scholar Ayed al-Qarnee. A
third preacher, Mohammed al-Arefe, tops the national rankings
with 1.4 million readers, more than the population of Bahrain.
By contrast, one of the highest-profile campaigners against the
religiously motivated ban on women drivers, Manal al-Sharif, has
about 80,000 followers. Their influence limits King Abdullah’s ability to introduce
further liberalizing measures designed to prevent ferment
elsewhere in the Middle East spreading to the world’s biggest
oil exporter. The king has pledged social and economic steps to
reduce the swelling ranks of unemployed young Saudis and ensure
they don’t join their peers in Tunisia or Egypt by seeking to
topple the government. Even so, change must be acceptable to a
clergy with the capacity to shape public opinion. “To get an impression about how people are really feeling,
look at the social networks,” Robert Lacey , British author of
“Inside the Kingdom,” a 2009 history of Saudi Arabia, said.
“There are reformers calling for Western-style democracy and
human rights | 4 | 25 | 9d946813490546a9bc79398fe0b1bb19 | all conservative religious sheikhs,’’ he said. Under a pact between the al-Saud family and Sheikh Mohammed
Ibn Abdul Wahhab dating to 1744 , Saudi Arabia adopted and
promoted the austere Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, according
to a Saudi government website . Conservatism permeates the
country, where women are banned from driving, men and women can
only mix socially under strict monitoring, and shops close
during prayer times. Some clerics have been critical of the royal family in the
past, accusing it of corruption and attacking its alliance with
the U.S. Al-Oadah was jailed for his role in the opposition
religious movement of the 1990s known as Sahwa, or Awakening. At
the time, he advocated a purge of liberals from positions in
government, schools and media to make society more Islamic,
according to ‘‘The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia’’ by David
Commins. Religious Police While al-Oadah is socially traditionalist on many issues,
he doesn’t advocate the extreme positions of some other Sunni
clerics. When the king appointed Sheikh Abdul Latif al-Asheikh,
a more liberal candidate, in January as the head of the
religious police, Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Barrak , a prominent
Wahhabi cleric, criticized the move as a Western plot against
Islamic values and in support of gender mixing. He has also
called for supporters of mixing to be killed. Sheikh Nasser al-Omar , with 180,000 readers on Twitter, in
February called for Saudi writer Hamza Kashgari’s execution for
his postings on the Prophet Mohammed. Kashgari is in a Riyadh
jail awaiting trial. Al-Oadah, 55, says he turned to Twitter and Facebook after
the government last year banned him from leaving the country
because they felt his support for Arab revolts meant ‘‘I was
representing revolution,” he said. The cleric says he’s
sensitive in using social networking sites. “I don’t only
lecture young people,” he said. “I stop and listen.” ‘Credible and Popular’ Al-Oudah isn’t aggressive or extreme compared with his
Saudi peers, said Bander Alnogaithan, a Riyadh-based lawyer who
follows the sheikh on Twitter. “He is credible and popular
among all types of people.” Al-Oadah is against women working
alongside men and participating in public activities, such as
sporting events. Even more popular is al-Arefe, a conservative whose website
offers video-clips of his sermons and a text-message service
outlining religious duties. His Twitter postings address
religious and social issues, including female employment. “Employing a man is beneficial to him, his wife, his kids,
his sisters and so on,” he wrote this month. “Employing a
woman is beneficial to only her (usually). Then why is the race
to hire her and deprive men from jobs? There are intentions
behind this matter!” $130 Billion Spree Abdullah responded to the regional turmoil last year with a
$130 billion spending spree. The main aim was job creation - a
critical consideration in a country where more than a quarter of
people in their 20s are unemployed. Extra cash was also
channeled to the religious organizations, after they backed a
ban on public demonstrations. Liberalizing social measures have included last month’s
decision by the governor of Riyadh allowing young men to enter
shopping malls during peak hours rather than just on weekday
lunch hours. Rules on gender mixing in mall workforces were also
changed since Abdullah became king in 2005 so that women could
work in lingerie and cosmetic outlets. That’s aimed at cutting
an unemployment rate of more than 50 percent among women in
their 20s. Abdullah, who’s 88 this year, opened the first co-ed
university in 2009 and for the first time in the kingdom’s
history gave women last year the right to vote in future
municipal elections. They can also join his advisory council. Eastern Clashes The kingdom has mostly escaped unrest sweeping the Arab
world, though there have been clashes between security forces
and protesters in the east where the oil industry is
concentrated and where the Shiite Muslim minority mostly lives. The surface calm may be misleading, said al-Oadah in his
Riyadh office as he sat surrounded by piles of Islamic texts. “The Arab Spring did affect Saudi Arabia,” said the
Muslim scholar, who served Arabic coffee and dates, according to
Saudi custom. “Before it was taboo to ever talk about things.
Now, young people are expressing their opinions vividly, and
they don’t really care about the consequences. To have someone
come and just preach to them isn’t acceptable anymore.” The Muslim scholars are joined on social media by Saudi
princes, government officials and political activists, all using
the 140-character messaging space allowed by Twitter to contest
the country’s future. Osama Nugali, the foreign ministry’s
spokesman, is a regular poster. Prince Talal, a liberal from
King Abdullah ’s generation of the ruling family, has 288,000
followers. Twitter Investor His son, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, actually owns part of
Twitter Inc., after buying an undisclosed stake in December for
$300 million. Alwaleed is the world’s 24th-richest man with a
$20.5 billion fortune, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Among the most controversial figures on Saudi social media
is Mujtahidd, who has attracted more than 300,000 followers with
posts about the alleged misdeeds of royal family members, and
housing and stock market corruption. The anonymous blogger said
in response to e-mailed questions that the aim was to expose
“those who are corrupt” and said, “I have the information and
I am capable of using it in an effective manner.” The growing domination of Saudi social networking sites by
religious conservatives pushing a traditionalist agenda, and
individuals criticizing the government, has sparked comment from
those clerics most sympathetic to the crown. ‘Abusive Remarks’ Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheik spoke
out last month against the use of social-networking sites for
political criticism. The government is “constantly under attack
from people who post insulting and abusive remarks,” he said. “The mufti? No one follows him,” Waleed Abu al-Khair, a
human rights activist who is also barred from leaving the
kingdom, said in a phone interview. Al-Oadah, he said, is “the
most revolutionary cleric in Saudi Arabia.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Glen Carey in Riyadh at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andrew J. Barden at
[email protected] | 2012 | saudi-clerics-out-tweet-liberals-forcing-king-to-balance |
Saudi Arabia Seeks Bigger Vote in IMF With Funds, Al Sharq Says | By Glen Carey | 2012-04-25T08:17:14Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/saudi-arabia-seeks-bigger-vote-in-imf-with-funds-al-sharq-says.html | 4 | 25 | 681c089d90bcce630873aa33e0e686238289bb75 | Saudi Arabia is seeking a larger
share of voting rights at the International Monetary Fund after
pledging an additional $15 billion in commitments to the
organization earlier this month, Al Sharq newspaper reported
today, citing Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf. To contact the reporter on this story:
Glen Carey in Riyadh at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andrew J. Barden at
[email protected] | 2012 | saudi-arabia-seeks-bigger-vote-in-imf-with-funds-al-sharq-says |
Total Ghana First-Quarter Profit Rises 48% on Higher Prices | By Moses Mozart Dzawu | 2012-04-25T15:49:01Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/total-ghana-first-quarter-profit-rises-48-on-higher-prices-1-.html | 4 | 25 | 9b8935ab4a6902952c318947256d85f576645d30 | Total Petroleum Ghana Ltd. (TOTAL) , a unit
of France ’s Total SA (FP) , said profit jumped 48 percent in the first
quarter as revenue climbed amid higher prices for gasoline. Net income for the three months through March rose to 8.3
million cedis ($4.5 million) while revenue increased to 292.4
million cedis from 223 million cedis in the year-earlier period,
the company, which runs the largest network of fuel stations in
Ghana, said in a statement e-mailed by the Ghana Stock Exchange
today. “The company’s revenue gained from the increase in
gasoline prices in February,” Derrick Mensah, a research
analyst at SIC Financial Services Ltd. in Accra, said by phone.
“Easy access to its filling stations by motorists also helped
to drive volumes.” Ghana raised gasoline prices by 12 percent in February,
Yaro Kasambata, a spokesman for Ghana’s National Petroleum
Authority, said by phone today. A 15 percent increase, announced
by the state-run authority in December, was later scaled back to
12 percent before it was implemented, he said. “Growing competition on the market may affect the
company’s ability to grow revenue in the future,” Randy Mensah,
a stock trader at Accra-based Databank Financial Services Ltd.,
said in an e-mailed comment. “Other players on the market
marginally reduce prices to attract customers.” Total gained 3 pesewas to 27 cedis by the close in Accra. To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Emily Bowers at
[email protected] | 2012 | otal-ghana-first-quarter-profit-rises-48-on-higher-prices-1- |
CEZ in Purchase Talks in Germany, Poland, Romania, Mediafax Says | By Irina Savu | 2012-04-25T12:23:58Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/cez-in-purchase-talks-in-germany-poland-romania-mediafax-says.html | 4 | 25 | d1dcaf25c598fcb2834a4b75d49164f62bad43ee | CEZ AS (CEZ) , the Czech Republic’s
largest power producer, is in advanced talks to buy wind power
projects in Germany, Poland and Romania, Mediafax reported
today , citing a manager at the company’s Romanian unit. The Czech company is also holding talks to purchase micro
hydropower plants that aren’t as advanced as the wind-project
acquisition discussions, the Bucharest-based news service quoted
Adrian Borotea, the corporate affairs manager at CEZ Romania, as
saying. To contact the reporter on this story:
Irina Savu in Bucharest at
[email protected] . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James M. Gomez at
[email protected] | 2012 | cez-in-purchase-talks-in-germany-poland-romania-mediafax-says |
Japan Finance Ministry Maintains Economic Assessment of Regions | By Mayumi Otsuma and Keiko Ujikane | 2012-04-25T06:30:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/japan-finance-ministry-maintains-economic-assessment-of-regions.html | 4 | 25 | 22e2a30dffdbb7174c98e0fa8077c11d0a6d6084 | Japan ’s Finance Ministry maintained
its overall economic assessment of the country’s regions, with
government reconstruction spending seen as supporting growth. Regional economies “continue to improve at a moderate
pace, though there are differences between various areas” the
ministry said in its quarterly report released today in Tokyo. The ministry raised its economic evaluation for three
regions: quake stricken Tohoku, the Tokai area where Toyota
Motor Corp. and auto parts makers are based, and Kyushu. The
assessment of the eight other regions including the Tokyo area
was unchanged. The Ministry’s outlook was that government spending is
expected to continue fueling these regional economies.
“Downside risks” such as foreign exchange rates, oil prices,
overseas economic growth and the stability of the electricity
supply still remain, the report said. To contact the reporters on this story:
Mayumi Otsuma in Tokyo at
[email protected] ;
Keiko Ujikane in Tokyo at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Paul Panckhurst at
[email protected] | 2012 | japan-finance-ministry-maintains-economic-assessment-of-regions |
Gingrich to Suspend Campaign After Tough Primary Showing | By Catherine Dodge and Lisa Lerer | 2012-04-25T16:39:14Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/gingrich-to-suspend-campaign-after-tough-primary-showing.html | 4 | 25 | e6db6c5a18c54d0a9067818d2d954b7e | Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich will suspend his presidential candidacy after winning
just two Republican primaries and falling far behind in the
delegate count to his party’s presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney ,
several people familiar with his plans said. The former speaker is expected to announce his decision
next week and will throw his support behind Romney, a person
close to the campaign said. “At present time we’re trying to work through some
details,” said Gingrich adviser Bob Walker, a former U.S.
representative from Pennsylvania. “He’s talking to Governor
Romney and the Republican National Committee about how he might
be useful in the future.” Gingrich, who had vowed to stay in the race until the
party’s national convention convenes Aug. 27 in Tampa, Florida ,
said in an NBC interview on April 23 that he would reassess his
candidacy based his showing in yesterday’s Delaware primary,
where he had focused his recent campaigning. He came in second
with 27 percent; Romney won with 56.5 percent. Other Races Romney, 65, also coasted to victories in primaries
yesterday in New York , Connecticut , Pennsylvania and Rhode
Island. Gingrich finished third or fourth in those votes. Gingrich, 68, failed to build on his Jan. 21 victory in the
South Carolina primary. That momentum sputtered in Florida’s
Jan. 31 primary, the next contest, where Gingrich lost to Romney
by 14 percentage points. As the Republican race proceeded, the anti-Romney vote
Gingrich sought moved to former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum , who established himself as the main alternative to the
former Massachusetts governor when he swept Feb. 7 contests in
Minnesota , Colorado and Missouri. Santorum went on to win
several other primaries while the only other one Gingrich
captured was his home state of Georgia on March 6. Gingrich rebuffed calls by Santorum supporters to drop out
of the race to consolidate the anti-Romney vote. Santorum suspended his bid April 10, all but assuring the
Republican nomination for Romney, who unsuccessfully sought the
party’s nod four years ago. Romney’s remaining competitor is
Representative Ron Paul of Texas , who has yet to win a primary
or caucus. Campaign Debts Gingrich’s campaign listed $4.3 million in debts and
obligations at the end of March, according to Federal Election
Commission reports made public April 20. Gingrich owed himself
$271,775 for travel, the reports showed. Other large debts include more than $1 million to Moby Dick
Airways and $49,502 to the Patriot Group for security services,
according to the reports. Winning Our Future, a political action
committee supportive of Gingrich, had almost $5.8 million cash
on hand at the end of March. It listed no debt or outstanding
loans. Billionaire casino executive Sheldon Adelson and his wife
gave $20 million to the super-PAC to support Gingrich’s
candidacy. Gingrich in March cut his staff by a third and scaled back
travel plans to conserve his resources. Following Santorum’s exit from the campaign, he urged
Santorum’s former supporters to make donations to his campaign.
“As the last remaining conservative in this race, we urgently
need your financial support,” Gingrich wrote in an e-mail
fundraising pitch sent shortly after Santorum’s announcement. ‘Big Solutions’ Gingrich, who branded Romney as a “Massachusetts
moderate,” portrayed himself as the only Republican who could
successfully debate President Barack Obama and who offered “big
solutions.” The former Georgia congressman’s debate performances during
the latter part of last year fueled his candidacy and spurred
him to the lead in polls of Republican voters in Iowa , site of
the caucuses that began the nomination voting on Jan. 3. In
December he also benefited from Herman Cain ’s departure from the
race that month amid allegations of improper sexual conduct,
which the former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza Inc.
denied. Cain endorsed Gingrich in January. As Gingrich’s stature rose, his Republican critics grew
more vocal and numerous. In an editorial published Dec. 15, the
editors of the National Review warned Republicans against
nominating Gingrich. “The White House seems winnable next year, and with it a
majority in both houses of Congress,” they wrote. “We fear
that to nominate former Speaker Newt Gingrich, the front-runner
in the polls, would be to blow this opportunity.” Ad Attacks A super-PAC supporting Romney, Restore Our Future, also
began a media barrage against Gingrich, attacking him as a
candidate with “a ton of baggage.” An estimated $5.8 million was spent on television
advertising in Iowa through Dec. 30, with $3.7 million financing
negative ads, according to most recent data available from New
York-based Kantar Media’s CMAG, a company that tracks
advertising. Most of those ads were directed against Gingrich. The criticism of Gingrich focused extensively on his $1.6
million in earnings as an advocate for Freddie Mac (FMCC) , a mortgage-
finance company seized by the government in 2008 after its stake
in subprime loans pushed it to the brink of collapse, and his
appearance that same year in a climate change advertisement with
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat. Gingrich finished fourth in the Iowa caucuses, which
Santorum won. In South Carolina, he mounted a comeback after a
strong debate performance in which attacked CNN John King for
asking about the candidate’s second wife’s claim that he asked
for an “open marriage” to carry on an affair with Callista Gingrich, his third and current wife. In Florida, though, the new attention on his personal life
contributed to his loss to Romney, and voters motivated by
religious issues began shifting to Santorum. To contact the reporters on this story: Lisa Lerer in Washington
at [email protected] ;
Catherine Dodge in Washington at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jeanne Cummings at [email protected] | 2012 | gingrich-to-suspend-campaign-after-tough-primary-showing |
U.S. Mad Cow Finding Shows Controls Working, FAO and OIE Say | By Rudy Ruitenberg | 2012-04-25T11:46:11Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/u-s-mad-cow-finding-shows-controls-working-fao-and-oie-say-1-.html | 4 | 25 | 6302578a085a407bbea23699dca368cc | The U.S. finding of a case of mad
cow disease shows the country’s surveillance system is working,
according to the United Nations ’ Food & Agriculture Organization
and the World Organisation for Animal Health . The case shouldn’t affect the U.S. status of “controlled
risk” for BSE, the Paris-based intergovernmental animal health
group, known by its French acronym OIE, wrote in an e-mailed
statement today. A cow at a California rendering plant tested positive in a
routine check for the illness, or atypical bovine spongiform
encephalopathy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported
yesterday. The disease didn’t enter the human food chain, said
John Clifford, the USDA’s chief veterinarian. “This detection demonstrates that the national
surveillance system is efficient,” the OIE said. “This case
should not have implications for the current U.S. risk
categorization.” The case in a dairy cow is the fourth in the U.S. cattle
herd since the first was discovered in 2003, in an animal that
came from Canada . The finding of the disease before it entered the food chain
should reassure importers of U.S. beef, FAO Chief Veterinary
Officer Juan Lubroth said by phone from Rome today. “The fact that the U.S. picked it up before it entered the
food chain and the fact that they were transparent should give
more confidence to the trading partners, not less,” Lubroth
said. “However, I do see that sometimes countries take measures
that are not based on science and that we do not support.” Quarantine Inspections South Korea said it will strengthen quarantine inspections
of U.S. beef after the case. The finding is a “serious issue” and Russia is ready to
take “adequate measures,” Alexei Alekseenko, a spokesman for
Russian food-safety agency Rosselkhoznadzor, said today. Any
decision on curbing U.S. beef imports would be scientifically
grounded, he said. The OIE is waiting for official notification from the U.S.
on data of the case, the organization said. Samples have been
sent to OIE reference laboratories in the U.K. and Canada for
final confirmation, it said. Based on USDA statements, the steps taken so far by U.S.
authorities are consistent with OIE standards, the animal health
organization wrote. “The fact that it was picked up before anything entered
the food chain is significant,” Lubroth said. “It shows that
the surveillance systems in place have done their job.” Random Tests Random tests of about 40,000 cows a year, less than 0.1
percent of the U.S. cattle herd, aren’t enough to ensure
diseased cows don’t get into the food supply , Michael Hansen, a
staff scientist at Yonkers, New York-based advocacy group
Consumers Union , said yesterday. “All downers are tested, but not all animals that enter
the food chain,” Lubroth said, using a term for cattle too weak
to stand up. “In an ideal world you’d be testing everything but
that is not really logistically possible or financially sound.
The testing is likely sufficient.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
John Deane at
[email protected] | 2012 | u-s-mad-cow-finding-shows-controls-working-fao-and-oie-say-1- |
Qatar Commits $400 Million to Help Egyptian Refinery, MEED Says | By Robert Tuttle | 2012-04-25T10:20:35Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/qatar-commits-400-million-to-help-egyptian-refinery-meed-says.html | 4 | 25 | b1ddd41c82a7c67cb1f0c2674587b0188ba5c6ba | Qatar is providing $400 million to
support Egypt ’s Mostorod refinery project, which has been
stalled since former President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster in
February last year, MEED reported . State-run Qatar Petroleum is providing $300 million in
equity, and Qatar National Bank, which counts the emirate’s
government as its biggest shareholder, is providing $100 million
in loans, MEED reported today, citing unnamed people involved in
the effort. The Qatari funding ensures that the project will
reach its financial close in May, according to the report. To contact the reporter on this story:
Robert Tuttle in Doha at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss on [email protected] | 2012 | qatar-commits-400-million-to-help-egyptian-refinery-meed-says |
Mexico Facing Cost of Bribe Ethos That Snared Wal-Mart | By Crayton Harrison and Nacha Cattan | 2012-04-25T15:17:51Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/mexico-seen-losing-capital-over-bribe-ethos-that-snared-wal-mart.html | 4 | 25 | b5384713d84d49d9a07565b477201c6c | Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN) was searching for
a way to speed up Mexican approval to export chickens raised in
that country in the mid-2000s. Company employees, Tyson later
acknowledged to U.S. authorities, achieved this by paying off
local officials. The decision ended in Tyson, the largest U.S. meat
processor, paying regulators $5.2 million last year. Siemens AG (SIE) ,
Europe ’s largest engineering company, made a more expensive
mistake, paying $1.6 billion in fines and criminal and civil
penalties in 2008 for violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act in markets including Mexico. Corruption is one of the biggest obstacles to foreign
investment in Mexico, watchdogs and local attorneys say, and it
has now ensnared Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) , the world’s largest
retailer. The New York Times reported April 21 the company’s
Mexican unit paid more than $24 million in bribes to open stores
more quickly. The company says it’s aiding U.S. probes into the
matter. “This type of activity is common practice in Mexico ,”
said Luis Alberto Perez, a partner at the Mexico City law firm
Camelo y Perez Abogados, referring to corruption. “The reality
is, if your competition is partaking of these practices and you
don’t, it’s going to be difficult for you to grow and expand
quickly.” He says he still advises his clients not to pay bribes
because it’s against the law and unethical. Mexico, the world’s 13th largest economy, is perceived as
less honest than 99 other nations, including communist China and
Cuba, in dealing with companies, according to Berlin-based
Transparency International. Wal-Mart Case The culture of bribery and kickbacks that pervades Mexico
hinders government efforts to attract foreign investment and
boost growth that has averaged 2.2 percent over the past decade,
less than other major emerging markets such as Brazil and China.
It also presents a quandary for companies seeking to expand in
the country. Wal-Mart, which owns 69 percent of its Mexican unit, said
April 21 it is looking into the allegations that it paid bribes
in the early 2000s to expedite permits for new stores in Mexico.
The company is taking steps to ensure it remains in compliance
with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and is strengthening
controls and training in Mexico to achieve this, according to a
statement yesterday. ‘Any Pretext’ The government’s failure to tackle graft pushed Mexico to
100 out of 183 countries in a corruption index compiled by
Transparency International, down from 72 in 2008. Arturo Pueblita, a Mexico City lawyer whose clients include
international pharmacies and local retailers, said corruption is
“an everyday occurrence.” His firm, Cuevas y Pueblita
Abogados, hands out manuals to clients on how to react to public
officials and conducts “preventive audits” to ensure
authorities cannot find an excuse to pressure their clients for
payments, he said. “Authorities find any pretext to close a company or
threaten to do so, unless they get what they want, which is a
bribe,” he said. As a result, companies pay about 10 percent of their
earnings to corrupt officials, according to a study released
last week by the Business Coordinating Council’s Private Sector
Economic Studies Center. The total economic cost is 10 percent
of Mexico’s $1 trillion gross domestic product, the study said. ‘Gestores’ “Corruption and the backlog in establishing and
administering an adequate legal framework are considered the
most problematic factors of doing business in Mexico,” Gerardo
Gutierrez Candiani, president of the Mexican lobbying group,
said in a statement accompanying the study on April 16. The long waits to process paperwork and administrative
proceedings have created an industry of “gestores,” or legal
fixers who navigate people and businesses through the
bureaucracy, and in some cases, grease palms to speed up the
process, Pueblita said. The Economy Ministry said in a statement April 23 that
there’s no evidence Mexican federal officials were involved in
alleged bribes paid by Wal-Mart employees. Corruption described
in the New York Times story dealt with land use and construction
permits, which fall under local and not federal jurisdiction,
the ministry said, adding that it would collaborate with any
U.S. investigation. The ministry declined to comment further on what the
government has done to reduce corrupt practices. A request for
comment from Mexico City authorities went unanswered. ‘Cozy Relationships’ “This is a serious problem in Mexico,” said Claudio Loser, a former International Monetary Fund official. “The
country is characterized by very strong domestic interests, very
cozy relationships between government and local big
enterprises.” Mexican prosecutors said March 14 they are investigating
Bizjet International Sales and Support Inc. after the company
agreed to pay an $11.8 million criminal penalty to U.S.
authorities to resolve charges related to the U.S. Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act. Bizjet, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma , allegedly paid $2 million
between 2004 and 2009 to obtain maintenance, repair and general
inspection contracts worth about $24 million for federal and
state helicopters, according to a statement last month from
Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office. Two phone calls and an e-mail to Jay Holtmeier, a Bizjet
attorney in New York, weren’t immediately returned yesterday. Settlements involving the corrupt practices act are
typically 1 percent to 2 percent of sales, and that would
probably be $4.5 billion or more in the case of Wal-Mart, Robert
Carroll, an analyst at UBS AG in New York, said in an April 23
report. Largest Settlement FCPA investigations take two to six years to resolve and
the largest such settlement ever was Siemens’s 2008 payment,
Carroll said. Among other accusations, from the mid-1990’s until
2007, units of the Munich-based company paid bribes to obtain
contracts to work on refineries in Mexico, the SEC said .
Alexander Becker, a Siemens spokesman, declined to comment. Tyson Foods, based in Springdale, Arkansas , paid government
veterinarians in charge of inspecting chicken plants to keep the
officials from disrupting operations, according to the U.S.
Justice Department. Tyson spokesmen Worth Sparkman and Gary Mickelson referred
to a 2011 statement following the settlement and said the
company had no additional comment. Tyson said at the time it
voluntarily disclosed the illegal payments to U.S. authorities
and the bribes started before it acquired a stake in the company
that became Tyson de Mexico. Under their settlements, neither Siemens nor Tyson admitted
or denied SEC allegations. ‘Stagnate’ “On an economic level, this causes investment to
stagnate,” said Alejandro Salas, Transparency International ’s
regional Americas director. Mexico received $19.4 billion of foreign direct investment
in 2011, according to preliminary figures from the Economy
Ministry. It received $20.2 billion in 2010. Brazil, the
region’s largest economy, received $66.7 billion in 2011,
according to data from the South American nation’s central bank. Eduardo Bohorquez, head of Transparency International’s
Mexico organization, said enforcing a 2002 federal transparency
law, which was also approved at the state level, has been
difficult. “This is a shared responsibility,” Bohorquez said.
“Governments of course have to lead anti-corruption efforts.
The private sector also has a crucial role in leading important
changes in self-regulation and promotion of anti-corruption
policies.” Extortion Mexico’s IPC stock index has advanced 4.7 percent this
year, compared with a gain of 10.2 percent by the Standard &
Poor’s 500 index and a 9 percent rise by Brazil ’s Bovespa index
over the same period. Yields on Mexican corporate dollar bonds
have declined 32 basis points, or 0.32 percentage point,
according to information compiled by JPMorgan Chase & Co. “There’s an image of corruption where people think that in
Mexico we solve everything that way,” Pueblita said. “It’s a
problem for investment in Mexico.” In many cases international
clients “end up feeling like they’ve been extorted.” To contact the reporters on this story:
Crayton Harrison at
[email protected] ;
Nacha Cattan in Mexico City at
[email protected] . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Joshua Goodman at
[email protected] . | 2012 | exico-seen-losing-capital-over-bribe-ethos-that-snared-wal-mar |
Viacom Lease at Times Square Tower Extended Through 2031 | By David M. Levitt | 2012-04-26T22:18:41Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/viacom-to-extend-lease-at-sl-green-s-times-square-tower-to-2031.html | 4 | 25 | 6761f208780444e9baa28fd81b3cebdc | Viacom Inc. (VIAB) , the owner of MTV ,
Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures , extended its lease at SL
Green Realty Corp. (SLG) ’s 1515 Broadway in New York and is poised to
occupy the entire office portion of the tower after 2020. The media company’s lease will run through 2031 with the
new agreement, SL Green President Andrew Mathias said in a
telephone interview yesterday. After 2020, Viacom will have
about 1.6 million square feet (149,000 square meters) at the
Times Square building, which is its headquarters, he said. The deal ends speculation that Viacom might leave Times
Square after its leases expire in 2015. Projects in Manhattan
including the World Trade Center and Hudson Yards are seeking
anchor tenants. It’s the city’s largest-ever office lease,
excluding deals in which a building was sold and immediately
rented back from the buyer, according to SL Green. “It’s a seminal moment for New York City and Times
Square,” Mathias said. “It’s terrific to have them at the
crossroads of the world with an enhanced and increased presence.
It cements New York City’s status as the media capital of the
world.” SL Green rose 3.9 percent to $81.71, the highest price in
almost nine months, at the close in New York. The real estate
investment trust was today’s biggest gainer in the 120-member
Bloomberg REIT Index. (BBREIT) Bank of China SL Green, based in New York, agreed to take a $775 million
mortgage from Bank of China Ltd. on the 56-story Broadway tower,
replacing $447 million of existing debt, Mathias said. The
interest rate on the seven-year, floating-rate loan is tied to
the London interbank offered rate, a benchmark for commercial
mortgages, he said. Mathias declined to disclose the interest rate or terms of
the new Viacom agreement. The Viacom deal is a “big positive” for SL Green, Brendan Maiorana, an analyst with Wells Fargo & Co ., wrote in a note to
clients. “The announcement removes a major overhang, in our
view, since Viacom was considering a move downtown.” The lease “sets up very well” for SL Green to consider
bringing in a joint-venture partner to share ownership of the
tower, Mathias said in a conference call with analysts today.
The building, which includes two Broadway theaters, has retail
space that may become available, providing “upside” to the
building’s value, he said. Chief Executive Officer Marc Holliday, on the call, put the
skyscraper’s value at $1.6 billion. The company last year bought
out partner SITQ, a real estate investment unit of Canadian
pension-fund manager Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, in
a deal that valued the building at $1.21 billion. Biggest Lease The agreement is the biggest U.S. office lease since at
least 2008, according to data from CoStar Group Inc. (CSGP) , a
Washington-based real estate data service. Other large deals
include Morgan Stanley (MS) ’s lease of almost 1.2 million square feet
at 1 New York Plaza, announced last week, and two media deals
from last year: NBC Universal’s renewal of more than 1.2 million
square feet at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, and Conde Nast Publications
Inc.’s 1 million-square-foot lease at 1 World Trade Center. New York City is “a vibrant source of inspiration for
Viacom’s innovative and creative employees,” Philippe Dauman ,
Viacom’s president and chief executive officer, said in a
statement. “We have had a great partnership with SL Green and
have been proud to lead the revitalization of the Times Square
neighborhood for two decades.” Viacom’s broker was CBRE Group Inc. (CBG) , while SL Green was
represented by company employees. FFO Falls Separately, SL Green yesterday reported first-quarter funds
from operations of $99.3 million, down from $142.8 million a
year earlier. The decline was due in part to a drop in gains
from loan investments. Per-share FFO, which gauges a property
company’s ability to generate cash, totaled $1.10 a share,
beating the $1.08 average of 17 analyst estimates compiled by
Bloomberg. The company raised its projection for 2012 FFO to $4.50 to
$4.60 a share, up from $4.45 to $4.55. Matt DiLiberto, SL Green’s chief accounting officer, said
on today’s conference call that the increase was the result of
the “brisk” pace of acquisitions and leasing during the first
four months of the year, as well as the 1515 Broadway
refinancing. Viacom rents 1.3 million square feet at an average of
$61.59 a square foot from SL Green, making it the real estate
investment trust’s second-biggest tenant, according to the
REIT’s fourth-quarter regulatory filing. Its largest tenant is
Citigroup Inc. (C) To contact the reporter on this story:
David M. Levitt in New York at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kara Wetzel at
[email protected] | 2012 | viacom-to-extend-lease-at-sl-green-s-times-square-tower-to-2031 |
LCH Raises Margin Cost for Trading Some Spanish, French Debt | By Lucy Meakin | 2012-04-25T16:49:09Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/lch-raises-margin-cost-for-trading-some-spanish-french-debt-1-.html | 4 | 25 | fca3a8379bf96b37f420e77d5a176a4fa2b067ed | LCH Clearnet Ltd., Europe ’s biggest
clearing house , raised the extra deposit it demands from clients
to trade some Spanish and French government bonds. The margin needed for Spanish bonds due in 3.25 years to
4.75 years will be increased to 4.9 percent from 4.4 percent,
according to information posted on LCH Clearnet’s website today.
The rate for securities due between seven years and 10 years was
boosted to 11.2 percent from 8.4 percent. LCH raised margins for
all Spanish securities maturing between 2 years and 15 years,
the statement showed. LCH Clearnet increased the so-called deposit factor for
French bonds maturing from 10 years to 15 years, to 6.4 percent
from 6.1 percent. Margins on all other French securities, and
all Italian bonds, were left unchanged. A London-based spokeswoman for LCH Clearnet confirmed the
changes. To contact the reporter on this story:
Lucy Meakin in London at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Daniel Tilles at
[email protected] | 2012 | ch-raises-margin-cost-for-trading-some-spanish-french-debt-1- |
U.S. Mad Cow Case May Impact Ukrainian Corn Price | By Marina Sysoyeva | 2012-04-25T11:28:19Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/u-s-mad-cow-case-may-impact-ukrainian-corn-price.html | 4 | 25 | 45631a9b4ce8ffc9bdc3f63c0dc0b60fdea6ec2f | Elizaveta Malyshko, a grain analyst
at UkrAgroConsult, a Kiev-based agricultural researcher,
commented on the mad cow disease case in the U.S. and its
potential influence on corn sales from Ukraine . She spoke by phone from the capital Kiev today. “At the moment, we see a risk only from a price side,
because wheat and corn on the Chicago exchange dropped after
news about mad cow disease in California , despite other factors
which were supposed to push the prices up.” “Ukraine’s corn price at a free-on-board basis in the
Black Sea ports is influenced by the Chicago exchange, and thus
its price may decline with some lag. As for corn exports from
Ukraine, U.S. news will not have any impact because our
traditional markets are far from the U.S. and cannot be
affected.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Marina Sysoyeva in Moscow at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
John Deane at
[email protected] | 2012 | u-s-mad-cow-case-may-impact-ukrainian-corn-price |
Encana Reports Quarterly Profit on Gains From Commodity Hedging | By Jeremy van Loon | 2012-04-25T10:26:09Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/encana-reports-quarterly-profit-on-gains-from-commodity-hedging.html | 4 | 25 | 0f97c45cfe43fb3c461abd7532c54041e6d6530c | Encana Corp. (ECA) , Canada ’s biggest
natural-gas producer by volume, reported a first-quarter profit
on gains from a price hedging program and asset sales. Net income was $12 million, compared with a net loss of
$361 million a year earlier, the Calgary-based company said
today in a regulatory statement. Excluding one-time items,
Encana earned 33 cents a share, beating the 3-cent average
estimate of 19 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Commodity price hedging contributed $358 million in
realized after-tax gains, helping counter a slump in gas prices .
Encana has also divested assets and brought in partners to boost
project funding, agreeing 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. Encana is expanding exploration and development of oil and
natural gas liquids, increasing first-quarter production 26
percent to about 29,000 barrels a day, according to the
statement. Natural-gas output was about 3.27 billion cubic feet
a day, 2 percent higher than a year earlier. Gas prices in North America , where production has soared
amid a boom in hydraulic fracturing, fell to their lowest
quarterly average in 10 years in 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 rose 0.1 percent to C$17.65 in Toronto yesterday.
The stock has six buy, four sell and 16 hold ratings from
analysts. To contact the reporter on this story:
Jeremy van Loon in Calgary at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Susan Warren at [email protected] | 2012 | encana-reports-quarterly-profit-on-gains-from-commodity-hedging |
Ukrain Says Hlushchenko Paintings Missing From Cabinet | By Daryna Krasnolutska and Kateryna Choursina | 2012-04-25T14:10:42Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/ukrain-says-hlushchenko-paintings-missing-from-cabinet.html | 4 | 25 | 970c9557604ddf7458674c369cdb902426825f68 | Two paintings by Mykola
Hlushchenko, which were given to the Ukrainian government to
hang in the Cabinet building in 2001, are missing and were
replaced by forgeries, the National Art Museum said. The Kiev, Ukraine-based institute, which had lent the
paintings to the government of former President Leonid Kuchma,
urged authorities to open a criminal probe after it turned out
the art works hanging on display were copies, it said in a
statement on its website today. The disappearance was first made
public by museum officials on March 29, prompting tests to
verify the claim. “The results of chemical expertise showed that two
paintings are copies of Hlushchenko,” a Ukrainian Soviet-era
artist, according to a statement by experts from the museum and
the National Science and Restoration Center posted today on the
Culture Ministry’s website. The copies were made after 2000, the
experts said. Vitaly Tytych, an attorney for the National Art Museum,
said museum officials alerted the Prosecutor General’s Office a
year ago to the possibility that four works were missing. Two of
the original paintings were recovered and returned to the museum
in August, while the Prosecutor General’s Office in a letter
dated January declined to open the probe, Tytych said. Hlushchenko was born in 1901 in eastern Ukraine. He served
in the Russian army fighting communists in 1919, was taken
prisoner, escaped from a camp in Poland and made his way to
Germany , where he entered the Berlin Academy of Art in 1920. Soviet Spy Hlushchenko moved to Paris in 1925 and soon started to work
as a Soviet spy, according to his official biography on the
museum’s website. His works have been exhibited in some of the
most prestigious galleries of Paris, including the Salon
d’Automne, the Salon des Independants, and the Salon des
Tuileries. He moved to Moscow in 1936, then left for Germany again on
a spy mission in 1940, organizing a Soviet exhibition in Berlin
and German exhibition in Moscow as a cover, according to his
biography. Joachim von Ribbentrop, who was foreign minister under
Adolf Hitler ’s Nazi regime, attended Hlushchenko’s exhibition
and presented him an album of Hitler’s paintings, who praised
Hlushchenko for his talent, according to Roksolana Halych, an
art historian. Hlushchenko died in 1977. “Hlushchenko is a famous Ukrainian artist,” Maryna
Skyrda, the deputy director at the museum, which has more than
more than 300 paintings, said by phone. “While socialist
realism was the main dominant style, Hlushchenko remains
himself, attaining the glory of a French-like painter.” Museum Director Anatoliy Melnyk was fired by Culture
Minister Mykhaylo Kulinyak on April 5 because of declining
attendance in recent years. Kulinyak appointed his adviser, Tetyana Myronova, the owner
of a private gallery and the wife of businessmen and politician
Valeriy Myronov, to run the National Museum of Arts until a new
director is appointed by May 18. To contact the reporters on this story:
Daryna Krasnolutska in Kiev at
[email protected] ;
Kateryna Choursina in Kiev at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Balazs Penz at
[email protected] | 2012 | ukrain-says-hlushchenko-paintings-missing-from-cabine |
EBRD to Provide 13.3 Million Euros for Ukraine Wind Project | By Daryna Krasnolutska | 2012-04-25T10:30:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/ebrd-to-provide-13-3-million-euros-for-ukraine-wind-project-1-.html | 4 | 25 | effff0299e5d4190a9a690840626074c9d2a61e2 | The European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development will provide 13.3 million euros
($17.6 million) for a wind farm in western Ukraine to improve
power-supply reliability and reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. The financing will consist of a 10-year loan of 9.5 million
euros from the EBRD and a 15-year loan of 3.8 million euros from
the Clean Technology Fund, the London-based bank said today in
an e-mailed statement. Eco-Optima Ltd., a closely held Ukrainian company, will use
the funds to build and operate a wind farm with a capacity of
12.5 megawatts that will supply power to more than 10,000
households. The plant will be operational by the end of this
year and should reduce carbon emissions by about 26,000 tons a
year, according to the statement. “Ukraine has a great potential in developing renewable
energy generation and this project is our contribution to this
good cause,” said Olivier Descamps, EBRD Managing Director for
Turkey , Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia. “We are
committed to support the development of wind, solar, small hydro
and biomass energy projects in Ukraine through our own funds and
by providing technical assistance to them.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Daryna Krasnolutska in Kiev at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Balazs Penz at
[email protected] ; | 2012 | ebrd-to-provide-13-3-million-euros-for-ukraine-wind-project-1- |
Arizona’s Immigration Crackdown Gets Support at Top Court | By Greg Stohr | 2012-04-25T19:12:38Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/arizona-illegal-immigrant-crackdown-gets-support-at-top-court.html
U.S. Supreme Court justices
spanning the ideological divide signaled they were prepared to
uphold the core of Arizona’s trailblazing crackdown on illegal
immigrants in what would be a blow to President Barack Obama . Both Republican and Democratic appointees, hearing
arguments today in Washington in a case with ramifications for
this year’s elections and for laws across the country, aimed
skeptical questions at U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli as
he argued that the measure would lead to the harassment of U.S.
citizens and legal residents. “You can see it’s not selling very well,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor , the first Hispanic named to the high court, told
Verrilli half way through his presentation. Like the health-care case argued last month, the
immigration dispute pits the Obama administration against
Republican-controlled states over the federal-state balance of
power. The court’s decision, likely to come in June, may affect
laws enacted during the past two years in Alabama , South
Carolina , Georgia , Utah and Indiana . Both cases have placed the court in the middle of a
campaign. Mitt Romney , who along with Obama is vying for
Hispanic votes, has taken a tough stance on illegal immigration
in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination even with
a report this week that the wave of illegal immigrants from
Mexico has ended as many return to their native country. Activists on both sides demonstrated outside the court as
the justices heard the case. Defending the Borders Inside, court members voiced skepticism about parts of the
Arizona law, including penalties on illegal immigrants who seek
jobs. Still, the justices made clear they see states as having a
role to play in addressing the presence of what the government
has estimated is 11.5 million unauthorized aliens in the U.S. “What does sovereignty mean if it does not include the
ability to defend your borders?” Justice Antonin Scalia said
during the 80-minute session, which ran 20 minutes beyond its
scheduled time. The central legal question is whether the U.S. Immigration
and Nationality Act, which says states may cooperate in
enforcing federal law, pre-empts the Arizona law. The administration sued to challenge four provisions in the
2010 Arizona law, known as S.B. 1070. Probably the measure’s
most contentious part says police officers must check
immigration status when they arrest or stop someone and have
“reasonable suspicion” that the person is in the U.S.
illegally. The disputed provisions haven’t taken effect. Playing Down Impact Early on, Paul Clement , representing Arizona, sought to
minimize the provision’s impact. Answering questions from
Sotomayor, Clement | 4 | 25 | 4b857e699c7e46c499d2ab991312dbae | possibility of upholding the provision with the understanding
that it wouldn’t cause people to be detained “significantly
longer” than they would have been previously. “If that were the situation, and we said it had to be the
situation, then what in the federal statute would that conflict
with?” Breyer asked Verrilli. The Obama administration says the measure would undermine
its efforts to give highest priority to illegal aliens who
threaten public safety and those who belong to gangs that
smuggle other aliens, drugs and weapons. “These decisions have to be made at the national level,”
Verrilli argued. ‘Unusual Theory’ Clement said many Arizona police officers already are
routinely checking immigration status when they stop a person or
make an arrest. The new law would simply extend those “ad hoc”
checks into a statewide policy, he said. “The government’s rather unusual theory that something
that’s OK when done ad hoc becomes pre-empted when it’s
systematic, I think that theory largely refutes itself,”
Clement argued. One issue not directly before the justices is the
contention that the law will lead to racial profiling by police
officers. That claim is part of a separate lawsuit being waged
by civil rights advocates against the Arizona measure. ‘Probable Cause’ In addition to the status-check provision, Arizona’s law
would authorize officers to arrest anyone they have “probable
cause” to believe is eligible to be deported. The law also would bar aliens without proper papers from
seeking or performing work. It would be a state criminal offense
for a foreigner to be in Arizona without correct documentation,
subjecting violators to as much as 30 days in prison. Roberts suggested he was skeptical about the employment
provision. Federal law punishes employers that hire illegal
aliens rather than focusing on workers seeking jobs. The Arizona employment provision “does seem to expand
beyond the federal government’s determination about the types of
sanctions that should govern the employment relationship,” he
said. Verrilli was making his first appearance before the
justices since he argued the health-care case in March, squaring
off again against Clement, the former solicitor general who
represented 26 states challenging the health-care law. Justice Elena Kagan didn’t take part today’s case. She
played a role in the litigation as Obama’s top Supreme Court
lawyer before her 2010 appointment to the court. 4-4 Split? Her disqualification creates the possibility that the court
might divide 4-4 on some aspects of the law. That would leave
intact a lower court ruling blocking those provisions, without
setting a nationwide precedent. Arizona says its 370-mile border with Mexico is the
crossing point for half the nation’s illegal immigrants, giving
it the right to tackle a problem the national government has
failed to address. Arizona had 360,000 unauthorized immigrants in 2011,
according to the U.S. Homeland Security Department. During the
last four decades, 12 million immigrants came to the U.S. from
Mexico, most illegally, according to a report released April 23
by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group in
Washington . Net Mexican migration to the U.S. has now stopped
and may have reversed, the report said. The court last year upheld a separate Arizona law that
threatens companies with loss of their corporate charters if
they hire illegal immigrants. The 5-3 ruling said a federal law
governing immigrant hiring leaves room for states to impose
their own penalties for non-compliance. The current case is Arizona v. United States , 11-182. To contact the reporter on this story:
Greg Stohr in Washington at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Steven Komarow at
[email protected] | 2012 | arizona-illegal-immigrant-crackdown-gets-support-at-top-cour |
Iran Cyber Attack Oil Industry Contained, Official Says | By Ladane Nasseri | 2012-04-25T15:28:45Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/iran-cyber-attack-oil-industry-contained-official-says.html
A cyber attack that targeted Iran ’s
crude industry and caused computer systems at the Oil Ministry
and other related state-owned businesses to crash has been
“fully contained,” a government official said. “All operational activities of the oil industry are
following their natural course at the moment,” Iran’s deputy
oil minister for engineering affairs, Hamdollah Mohammadnejad,
told the state-run Mehr news agency. “The software attack has
been fully contained and controlled with the help of experts
three days after it hit.” None of the data of the Oil Ministry were accessed,
Mohammadnejad said, adding that costs incurred as a result of
the April 22 attack were “minimal.” Iranian officials said earlier this week that the malware
hadn’t affected oil production or exports, though they said that
operational sites, including some of the Persian Gulf country’s
main oil terminals, had been disconnected from the Internet in
an effort to prevent infiltration. The attack was at least the second directed against Iran’s
government-related computer systems in two years. In 2010, a malicious software known as Stuxnet affected
computer systems and several centrifuges used in Iran’s nuclear
program to enrich uranium, Iranian officials said at the time.
Stuxnet may have been part of a campaign to disrupt Iranian
nuclear installations, international computer-security
researchers have said. Economic Sanctions Iran, the second-largest crude-oil producer in the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries after Saudi
Arabia , is subject to sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the
European Union seeking to force it to curb its nuclear program.
An EU oil ban against Iranian oil is set to go into effect on
July 1. The latest attack comes a week after Iran and six world
powers ended a 15-month stalemate on discussions about the
country’s atomic program. Iran and the five permanent United
Nations Security Council members | 4 | 25 | da41496534c32d3dc26deca765db262613ffd0e9 | talks in Baghdad on May 23. Iran’s uranium-enrichment program is at the center of the
dispute between the U.S., its allies and Iran. Iran denies
allegations it’s trying to build atomic weapons and says it is
producing uranium to use as fuel in nuclear reactors. To contact the reporter on this story:
Ladane Nasseri in Dubai at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andrew J. Barden at
[email protected] | 2012 | iran-cyber-attack-oil-industry-contained-official-says |
LG Electronics Profit Beats Estimates on TVs, Mobiles | By Jun Yang | 2012-04-25T09:49:06Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/lg-electronics-first-quarter-profit-beats-analysts-estimates.html | 4 | 25 | 68fa093f73941acc80e336c201d256fb01b763c5 | LG Electronics Inc. (066570) , the world’s
second-largest television maker, reported first-quarter profit
that exceeded analyst estimates as TV and smartphone sales led
earnings gains at its main businesses. The company had net income of 242.5 billion won ($213
million) in the three months ended March 31, compared with a
loss of 15.8 billion won a year earlier, Seoul-based LG said in
a statement today. The average of 20 analyst estimates compiled
by Bloomberg was for a profit of 181.9 billion won. Profit at LG’s home-entertainment unit was boosted by sales
of high-end TVs featuring 3-D screens and Web-based services,
while new devices using Google Inc.’s Android software helped
the mobile-phone business return to profit. LG is racing to
introduce new smartphones and TVs to narrow the gap with Samsung
Electronics Co. (005930) and recover market-share losses in mobile phones
to its South Korean competitor and Apple Inc. “The TV side is improving a lot, nearly showing the best
profitability ever, as their product mix is getting better,”
Kim Ji San, a Seoul-based analyst at Kiwoom Securities Co., said
by phone. “Investors have been the most worried about the
mobile business, but profit is widening there, as well.” LG fell 1.3 percent to 77,700 won at the close of trading
in Seoul , after rising as much as 2.3 percent, while the
benchmark Kospi index slipped 0.1 percent. Operating profit more than tripled to 448.2 billion won
even as sales fell 7.1 percent to 12.2 trillion won. Operating Profit Profit rose 92 percent to 217.1 billion won at LG’s TV
business and increased to 38.9 billion won at the mobile-phone
division, compared with a loss of 100.5 billion won a year
earlier. LG is seeking to boost LCD TV sales by about 20 percent to
30 million units this year with models showing 3-D images and
connected to the Web. The company will likely sustain profitability at its TV
business in the second quarter, as it offers more 3-D models,
Chief Financial Officer David Jung said at a briefing. LG’s
overall profit in the second quarter will probably remain
similar to the previous three months or slightly decrease as
marketing costs for new products increase, Jung said. The company wants to become the largest seller of 3-D TVs
this year by capturing about 25 percent of the market, with
about 80 percent of new products to be sold in South Korea to
have 3-D features, LG said in January. OLED TV LG also plans to start selling TVs using the organic light-
emitting diode, or OLED, technology, which measures as thin as 4
millimeters and produces sharper images than LCD sets. Such new models are helping the company increase profit
from selling TVs at a time when Japanese competitors are mired
in mounting losses and global demand is slowing. Shipments of mobile devices in the first quarter fell 22
percent from the fourth quarter to 13.7 million units, LG said.
Operating profit margins on mobile-phone sales still widened to
1.4 percent in the first quarter from 0.4 percent in the
previous three-month period. The company’s mobile-phone sales, including basic models,
will probably decrease 18.4 percent this year, according to
estimates by Kiwoom Securities Co. LG was overtaken by Apple as
the world’s third-largest largest handset maker last year,
according to estimates from market researcher Strategy
Analytics . To contact the reporter on this story:
Jun Yang in Seoul at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Tighe at
[email protected] | 2012 | g-electronics-first-quarter-profit-beats-analysts-estimates |
U.S. Will Ease Rather Than Remove Myanmar Sanctions | By Nicole Gaouette | 2012-04-25T23:00:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/u-s-will-ease-rather-than-remove-myanmar-sanctions.html | 4 | 25 | f0e6442d9ddd47a2878d8254913d0d58 | The U.S. will only ease sanctions
against Myanmar, not lift them, a U.S. official said as
Republican lawmakers warned against engaging too quickly with
the South Asian nation. “There’s no intention to lift sanctions,” said Assistant
Secretary of State Kurt Campbell in remarks yesterday to a House
Foreign Affairs subcommittee. “In certain prescribed areas, we
would ease sanctions,” Campbell said, adding that the
administration would work closely with lawmakers in doing so. Campbell was testifying on the increasing U.S. engagement
with Myanmar, officially still known as Burma under U.S. policy.
Since a new government took power in March 2011 and initiated
steps to liberalize after five decades of military rule,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled there in December.
This month, Clinton announced that sanctions on financial
transactions by non-profit groups would be relaxed to support
humanitarian work inside the country. The European Union and Australia recently announced they
will ease sanctions, steps that drew criticism from several
Republicans on the panel who argued that there has been little
fundamental change. “The rule of law in Burma continues to be non-existent,”
said the chairman of the subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific,
Illinois Republican Representative Donald Manzullo. “Bribery
and cronyism rule the day.” If the U.S. lifts sanctions, “the people of Burma will see
next to nothing,” Manzullo said. “A generation of efforts by
human rights champions will be wasted. We must not let this
happen.” North Korea Ties Lawmakers raised the issue of Myanmar’s close ties to North
Korea, which is threatening to conduct a nuclear test
imminently. Representative Ed Royce, a California Republican,
said the April 1 voting that gave opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi and her party 43 out of 45 seats only covered less than
seven percent of the legislature. “That is still a small, small percentage, a sliver,”
Royce said. “Progress this is, but progress can be quickly
reversed.” Campbell said work with the nation would happen in a slow
and calibrated way. “Although we assess this nascent opening as real and
significant, we also believe it is fragile and reversible,”
Campbell told the committee. “We need to carefully calibrate
our approach to encourage continued progress.” Limited Reforms Campbell said that the reform efforts haven’t extended far
beyond the capital and major cities. Fighting continues between
the government and ethnic minority groups, and reports of human
rights violations persist, Campbell said. “Much more needs to be done” with unconditional releases
of political prisoners, on ending hostilities in ethnic minority
areas, on advancing civil society, on abandoning unfair laws and
writing new ones, he said. Campbell also said that the U.S. is pushing the nation to
end proliferation activities and seeks “a full discontinuance,
on the military side” of its ties with North Korea , Campbell
said. “Countries are judged by the company they keep and we
think that is extremely important,” he said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Nicole Gaouette in Washington at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
John Walcott at
[email protected] | 2012 | u-s-will-ease-rather-than-remove-myanmar-sanctions |
Wipro Shares Tumble After IT Segment Guidance Lags | By Ketaki Gokhale | 2012-04-25T14:55:31Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/wipro-net-rises-to-14-8-billion-rupees-as-orders-boost-revenue.html | 4 | 25 | 0a24af58087441b8a4bf6f52bdcb260b | Wipro Ltd. (WIT) , India’s third-largest
software exporter, dropped the most in almost three years in
Mumbai trading after its forecast for information-technology
revenue lagged behind some analysts’ estimates. IT segment revenue in the three months ending June 30 may
be between $1.52 billion and $1.55 billion, compared with $1.54
billion in the fiscal fourth quarter, Bangalore-based Wipro said
in a statement today. The company’s fourth-quarter total sales
of 98.4 billion rupees ($1.9 billion) also missed analysts’
estimates for 101.5 billion rupees. “The guidance doesn’t look amazing,” said Vihang Naik, an
analyst at MF Global Sift Securities Pvt. in Mumbai. “The fact
that they are saying this quarter is going to be flat is
significant, as Wipro is generally pretty realistic with their
guidance.” Naik said he had expected the IT segment revenue to rise
about 2 percent in the first quarter from the previous one. That
compares with Wipro’s guidance of an increase of as much as 1
percent. Wipro joins larger rival Infosys Ltd. (INFO) in forecasting sales
that lagged behind analysts’ estimates as companies take longer
time to complete outsourcing deals. Worldwide spending on IT
services may rise 1.3 percent to $856 billion this year, after
climbing 6.5 percent in 2011, Stamford , Connecticut-based
researcher Gartner Inc. said April 5. Shares Drop Wipro fell 7.2 percent to 410.40 rupees at the close in
Mumbai trading, the biggest drop since May 2009. Tata
Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS) , India’s largest computer services
provider, declined 1.9 percent, while Infosys was little
changed. Wipro shares traded in the U.S. tumbled 5.1 percent to
$9.80 at 10:20 a.m. New York time. The American depositary
receipts have lost 3.6 percent this year. The Bank of New York
Mellon India ADR Index gained 0.4 percent to 1,006.76. Wipro today reported fourth-quarter net income rose 7.2
percent to 14.8 billion rupees, matching analysts’ estimates . Wipro, which provides services such as designing and
building software programs, product-engineering and back-office
support to companies including BP Plc. (BP) , William Morrison
Supermarkets Plc. and Pitney Bowes Inc., added 41 new clients in
the quarter, according to the statement. “We’ve seen some softness in growth in financial
services” particularly in Europe , Chief Financial Officer
Suresh Senapaty said. “We should be able to get a lot of deal
closures in quarter one, therefore in subsequent quarters we
should be able to get very good growth, compared with what we
have guided for quarter one.” Raise Salaries The company had a net reduction of 814 workers at its
technology unit last quarter, ending the period with 135,920
workers, according to the statement. Workers left Wipro at a rate of 17.5 percent in the
quarter, down from 22.7 percent for the same period last year.
Tata Consultancy reported employee attrition of 12.2 percent for
the period, while Infosys reported a figure of 15.4 percent. To keep employees amid rising competition from Tata
Consultancy and International Business Machines Corp., which
also hires workers in India , Wipro will raise salaries this
fiscal year, Senapaty said. The percentage of increase, which
will be effective June 1, hasn’t been determined yet, he said. Infosys decided to delay a decision on wage increases for
the year to the second or third quarter, Chief Executive Officer
S.D. Shibulal told analysts on April 12. Earlier this month, Infosys shares slumped the most in
almost three years in Mumbai trading after forecasting sales
that missed analyst estimates. Sales in the year that began April 1 may be between 384.3
billion rupees and 391.4 billion rupees, Bangalore, India-based
Infosys said in a statement on April 13. That lagged behind the
396.3 billion-rupee median of 64 analyst estimates compiled by
Bloomberg. Infosys also reported fourth-quarter sales that
trailed estimates. Wipro had its outlook reduced to negative by Standard &
Poor’s , which cut India’s sovereign credit outlook to negative
from stable and said the revision reflects a one-in-three
likelihood of a downgrade. To contact the reporter on this story:
Ketaki Gokhale in Mumbai at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Tighe at
[email protected] | 2012 | wipro-net-rises-to-14-8-billion-rupees-as-orders-boost-revenue |
SSE, Repsol Unit Seeks Approval for Wind Farm in Scottish Waters | By Sally Bakewell | 2012-04-25T16:41:42Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/sse-repsol-unit-seeks-approval-for-wind-farm-in-scottish-waters.html | 4 | 25 | c0f95e89e990799c6f4fd130ea978c8b4a30b401 | SSE Plc (SSE) and Repsol YPF SA (REP) sought
approval for their planned Beatrice offshore wind project in
Scotland’s Outer Moray Firth. Units of the two companies applied to build as many as 277
wind turbines at the site about 13.5 kilometers (8.4 miles) from
the Caithness coastline, according to application documents
posted on SSE’s website. The project may generate as much as 1
gigawatt, enough power for more than 796,000 homes, SSE said. The application was presented as a battle between Scottish
First Minister Alex Salmond and New York real-estate
entrepreneur Donald Trump over offshore wind escalates. Salmond
is promoting turbines at sea to create jobs and boost the
economy. Trump, planning to open a golf course overlooking a
different, experimental offshore turbine project in July, argues
they’ll damage tourism and cost the economy in subsidies. A decision on Beatrice from Scottish ministers is expected
in about nine months, according to SSE’s website. SSE Renewables
Holdings U.K. Ltd. owns 75 percent of Beatrice Offshore Windfarm
Ltd. with Repsol Nuevas Energias U.K. Ltd. holding the remaining
shares, according to the statement. To contact the reporter responsible for this story:
Sally Bakewell in London at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
[email protected] | 2012 | sse-repsol-unit-seeks-approval-for-wind-farm-in-scottish-waters |
S&P 500-to-GDP Ratio Shows Stocks Worth Buying: Chart of the Day | By David Wilson | 2012-04-25T04:00:01Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/s-p-500-to-gdp-ratio-shows-stocks-worth-buying-chart-of-the-day.html | 4 | 25 | fd61a99c720b9adb56513ac2148ee9b6dcf8b864 | U.S. stocks look reasonably priced
when the value of companies is measured against the size of the
country’s economy, according to David R. Kotok, Cumberland
Advisors Inc.’s chairman and chief investment officer. The CHART OF THE DAY shows the comparison he made in a
report two days ago: between the total market capitalization of
companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and nominal gross
domestic product, which isn’t adjusted for inflation. The chart
displays monthly readings for the last 12 years. Yesterday’s ratio was 83 percent, according to data
compiled by Bloomberg. The gauge peaked at 101 percent in May
2007, near the end of a five-year bull market , and 131 percent
in August 2000, when the Internet bubble of the 1990s had begun
to burst. The earlier readings are circled in the chart. “We are still two years away from a new high” for the S&P
500 , Kotok wrote in the report. The prediction stems from the
outlook for corporate profits and labor costs along with the
index’s ratio to GDP, he wrote. The S&P 500 may climb in 2014 to 1,600, which would lift
the total market value of its companies to 90 percent of GDP,
according to Kotok. His estimate for the index exceeds the
record close of 1,565.15 on Oct. 9, 2007. Cumberland’s equity accounts are “fully invested” in the
market through exchange-traded funds, he wrote. He outlined the
strategy used by his Sarasota, Florida-based investment firm in
“From Bear to Bull With ETFs,” a book published this month. To contact the reporter on this story:
David Wilson in New York at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Nick Baker at
[email protected] | 2012 | s-p-500-to-gdp-ratio-shows-stocks-worth-buying-chart-of-the-day |
PGNiG Shares Set for Month Low on Delay in Norway Gas Production | By Piotr Bujnicki | 2012-04-25T07:34:26Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/pgnig-shares-set-for-month-low-on-delay-in-norway-gas-production.html | 4 | 25 | 7bdd8b47c737681e959c81b6e7c9449a17a6fdab | Polskie Gornictwo Naftowe i
Gazownictwo SA , Poland’s biggest gas company, headed for the
lowest in almost a month after saying gas production from its
Skarv field off Norway has been delayed. The stock declined 1.2 percent to 4.01 zloty by 9:29 a.m.
in Warsaw, set for the lowest closing level since March 29. Production was postponed to the fourth quarter from the
second quarter as winter weather prevented the installation of
riser pipes, the company said in a statement yesterday. To contact the reporter on this story:
Piotr Bujnicki in Warsaw
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Gavin Serkin at
[email protected] | 2012 | pgnig-shares-set-for-month-low-on-delay-in-norway-gas-production |
Emirates Joins British Airways Prodding Boeing on New 777 | By Andrea Rothman | 2012-04-25T23:03:24Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/emirates-joins-british-airways-prodding-boeing-on-new-777.html | 4 | 25 | 4b53a1ac29b89e0670acd34103dc79a29dc1c6c3 | Emirates Airline and British
Airways Plc (IAG) , two of the biggest buyers for Boeing Co.’s (BA) 777, are
urging the planemaker to decide soon on a successor to the top-
selling wide-body model so it’s ready for service before 2020. “We want it done now so they have the plane in 2019,”
Emirates President Tim Clark said in an interview at an industry
conference in Barcelona. British Airways Chief Executive Officer
Willie Walsh gave the same timeline yesterday as well. Boeing will brief its board by year-end or early 2013 on
potential plans to offer an upgrade to the current version, the
company’s commercial airplanes chief, Jim Albaugh , said last
month. He said the Chicago-based planemaker expected the new
plane to be in service “towards the end of the decade.” Emirates, the largest customer for the 777, and British
Airways, the fifth-biggest, are pushing for a follow-on model to
the 777-300 by decade’s end so they can move quickly to replace
some of their older planes. Airbus SAS (EAD) is promoting the roomiest
version of its A350 as a challenger to the twin-engine 777. The 777, Boeing’s most-profitable commercial jet, lists for
$298.3 million for the 777-300 model, which like other airliners
is typically sold at a discount. A Boeing spokesman, Marc Birtel , said yesterday that there had been nothing to contradict
the time frame given by Albaugh. “I think 2019 at the latest would be my view,” Walsh said
in an interview in Barcelona. “Everyone would like to have
visibility around the plane and see it enter service as soon as
possible.” Fleet Replacement British Airways, a unit of International Consolidated
Airlines Group SA, intends to replace 52 Boeing 747 jumbo jets.
It is currently evaluating the purchase of a 777 successor, the
787-10 Dreamliner, or possibly A350-1000s, the biggest variant
of the Airbus plane. While some of the four-engine 747s can still operate until
as late as 2018 or 2019, rising fuel prices heighten the need
for a more fuel-efficient replacement, said Walsh, who is CEO of
London-based British Airways and IAG. Air France is the second-
biggest 777 operator. Emirates’s Clark said he has been talking to Boeing for
more than two years about a new 777, and that in recent months
he has urged Boeing to canvass other potential buyers to
encourage a quicker decision. Dubai-based Emirates began taking
its first 777s in 1995 and has ordered 174. “Boeing had a hugely enthusiastic response when they spoke
to all operators of the 777, so in terms of the business case
that has to go before the board, I believe they’ve got what they
need,” Clark said. He remained concerned that Boeing’s
struggles with the 787 Dreamliner, which was more than three
years late entering service, would stall a 777 decision. “They screwed up badly on the non-recurring costs on the
787,” Clark said. Boeing’s Birtel said the 777’s “strong market position”
gives the planemaker time to make the right decisions on an
upgrade. “Those decisions are aligned with the right technologies
and the right timing for our customers, and we are working
details and studies now,” Birtel said yesterday in an e-mail. To contact the reporter on this story:
Andrea Rothman in Barcelona at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Benedikt Kammel at
[email protected] | 2012 | emirates-joins-british-airways-prodding-boeing-on-new-777 |
Unipetrol Shares Drop After Czech Refiner Has First-Quarter Loss | By Krystof Chamonikolas | 2012-04-25T08:01:15Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/unipetrol-shares-drop-after-czech-refiner-has-first-quarter-loss.html | 4 | 25 | 553b989f377d51a5f4d061c8f1d489c57d28ae1d | Unipetrol AS (UNIP) , the biggest Czech oil
refiner, fell after reporting a first-quarter net loss on
declining sales of motor fuels and rising crude price. The stock slid 0.7 percent to 170 koruna as of 9:58 a.m. in
Prague, making it the third-worst performer today in the PX (PX)
index of 14 companies, which gained 0.9 percent. To contact the reporter on this story:
Krystof Chamonikolas in Prague at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Gavin Serkin at [email protected] | 2012 | unipetrol-shares-drop-after-czech-refiner-has-first-quarter-loss |
Eagles Trade Asante Samuel to Falcons for Draft Pick, ESPN Says | By Eben Novy-Williams | 2012-04-25T19:57:27Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/eagles-trade-asante-samuel-to-falcons-for-draft-pick-espn-says.html
The Atlanta Falcons acquired Pro
Bowl cornerback Asante Samuel from the Philadelphia Eagles for a
late-round draft pick, according to ESPN . As part of the trade, the 31-year-old cornerback agreed to
a three-year, $18.5 million contract with the Falcons, ESPN
reported, citing an unidentified person. The National Football League ’s annual college player draft
starts tomorrow. The round or year of pick that the Eagles
received in exchange for Samuel was not reported. Reggie Roberts, a spokesman for the Falcons, did not
immediately return a voicemail and e-mail seeking comment.
Eagles spokesman Derek Boyko said in an e-mail that the team had
made no announcements. A Pro Bowl selection from 2007-2010, Samuel played the last
four seasons in Philadelphia. His exit comes one year after the
Eagles acquired Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie,
giving the team three Pro Bowl cornerbacks. Samuel, 31, has 45 interceptions and six forced fumbles in
a nine-year career with the Eagles and New England Patriots. His
three interceptions last year were his fewest since 2005. | 4 | 25 | 706eb81ecceb9ed0bcc2fcc139baf9c099831a7b | Eben Novy-Williams in New York at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Sillup at
[email protected] | 2012 | eagles-trade-asante-samuel-to-falcons-for-draft-pick-espn-says |
Oil Options Volatility Falls as Futures Stay in Range | By Barbara Powell | 2012-04-25T20:31:54Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/oil-options-volatility-falls-as-futures-stay-in-range.html | 4 | 25 | 735570384fe19736e19fa34af870462f73472f68 | Oil options volatility declined to
the lowest level in more than a year as the underlying futures
gained 57 cents while holding within a three-week trading range. Implied volatility for at-the-money options expiring in
June, a measure of expected price swings in futures and a gauge
of options prices, was 23.3 percent at 4:10 p.m. on the New York
Mercantile Exchange , compared with 23.7 percent yesterday. It
was the fifth straight decline and lowest level since at least
March 4, 2011. “You see volatility naturally come in because of the
higher price and we’re still within the range here,” said Fred Rigolini, vice president of Paramount Options Inc. in New York . Crude oil for June delivery settled at $104.12 a barrel on
Nymex, a one-week high. Crude has traded in a range of $100.68
to $105.07 since April 4. Prices climbed today as the Federal Open Market Committee
said it “expects economic growth to remain moderate over coming
quarters and then to pick up gradually.” Futures have declined
5.1 percent since reaching a high of $109.77 on Feb. 24. The most-active oil options in electronic trading today
were June $110 calls, which gained 6 cents to 50 cents a barrel
at 4:16 p.m. with 2,914 contracts trading. June $100 puts were
the second-most active with 2,572 lots changing hands. They fell
21 cents to 99 cents. Puts Lead Trading Puts accounted for 58 percent of electronic trading volume.
One contract covers 1,000 barrels of crude. The exchange distributes real-time data for electronic
trading and releases information the next business day on floor
trading, where the bulk of options trading occurs. Bearish bets accounted for 54 percent of the 94,286 trades
in the previous session. June $100 puts were the most actively
traded, with 4,034 lots changing hands. They were down 21 cents
to $1.20 a barrel. The next-most active options, June $115
calls, fell 1 cent to 13 cents on volume of 3,257. Open interest was highest for December $80 puts with 43,054
contracts. Next were December $150 calls with 38,301 lots and
June $140 calls with 34,911. To contact the reporter on this story:
Barbara J Powell in Dallas at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dan Stets at
[email protected] | 2012 | oil-options-volatility-falls-as-futures-stay-in-range |
China Life Drops in U.S. Trading After Saying Profit Fell | By Bloomberg News | 2012-04-25T16:39:01Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/china-life-drops-in-u-s-trading-after-saying-profit-fell.html | 4 | 25 | 9f0402479653a376e38ddd14a553f9b7968ed2e1 | China Life Insurance Co. (2628) , the
nation’s biggest insurer, dropped in New York trading after it
said profit fell 29 percent in the first quarter as impairment
losses on equity investments surged. Net income dropped to 5.63 billion yuan ($893 million), or
0.20 yuan a share, from 7.97 billion yuan, or 0.28 yuan, a year
earlier, the Beijing-based company said in a statement to the
Shanghai stock exchange yesterday. The insurer’s American depositary receipts dropped 1
percent to $39.74 at 12:36 p.m. in New York, after earlier
declining as much as 1.7 percent. Each ADR represents 15
underlying common shares. The stock fell 1.2 percent to close at
HK$20.50 in Hong Kong , before the earnings. China Life recorded 7.69 billion yuan in impairment losses,
up almost fivefold from a year earlier, as the value of its
stock holdings fell. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP)
slumped 25 percent in April-December last year as the government
tightened lending to curb inflation and imposed restrictions on
the property market . The index rallied 4 percent in the first
quarter of 2012. The insurer also reported a 433 million-yuan fair-value
loss on investments, compared with a 332 million-yuan gain a
year earlier, according to the statement. Net premiums earned fell 7.6 percent to 112.7 billion yuan
in the first quarter, the company said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Bloomberg News in Beijing at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andreea Papuc at
[email protected] | 2012 | china-life-drops-in-u-s-trading-after-saying-profit-fe |
Najib Spending Could Risk Downgrade Without Revenue Boost | By Chong Pooi Koon | 2012-04-26T04:48:37Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/najib-spending-binge-could-risk-downgrade-without-revenue-boost.html | 4 | 25 | 907ee63aa1eb46ae96e1cb52f0a51419 | Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s record spending binge, aimed at shoring up support
before elections as early as next month, may risk the country’s
first credit-rating downgrade since the Asian financial crisis. Standard & Poor’s “might have to think about” a potential
cut in a few years unless the next government enacts measures to
boost revenue and reduce subsidies after the vote, Takahira
Ogawa , an analyst at the rating company, said in an interview.
Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings also said Malaysia
must take steps to bring down its debt-to-GDP ratio, which the
International Monetary Fund projects may climb to a 20-year high
of 55.9 percent this year. Najib, 58, has raised civil servant salaries and pensions,
waived school fees and boosted handouts for the poor in a bid to
extend the ruling party’s 55-year lock on power. His National
Front coalition won its lowest-ever share of the vote in 2008,
and failure to secure a clear mandate may lead to political
gridlock that would impede plans to strengthen public finances. “Elections have delayed the required policy adjustments
and aggravated the fiscal situation as populist policies take
center stage,” said Chua Hak Bin, an economist at Bank of
America Merrill Lynch in Singapore . “Not going through with
structural reforms, including introducing a broad-based
consumption tax and reducing fuel subsidies, will eventually
hurt Malaysia’s credit standing.” Debt Ratio Malaysia’s ratio of gross debt to gross domestic product
rose to an estimated 55 percent in 2011 from 35 percent in 2000,
according to IMF. South Africa , which shares with Malaysia an A3
rating from Moody’s, has a ratio that fell to 36 percent in 2011
from 42 percent in 2000. Malaysia is rated A- by Standard & Poor’s, along with
Botswana, which has a debt ratio of 16 percent. Indonesia,
Southeast Asia ’s largest economy, is rated BB+ by S&P and has
seen its debt fall to 25 percent in 2011 from 95 percent of GDP
in 2000, according to the IMF. Najib unveiled a record 232.8 billion ringgit ($76 billion)
budget in October, saying the government would increase civil
servant salaries by as much as 13 percent and also remove school
fees for primary and secondary students. Households with monthly
incomes of 3,000 ringgit or less have begun receiving one-off
cash handouts of 500 ringgit. Spending on salaries and allowances is projected to rise
4.2 percent to 52 billion ringgit in 2012 versus an estimated
49.9 billion ringgit in 2011, according to numbers released by
the government in October. Malaysia has also set aside more than
3 billion ringgit not included in the proposed budget to finance
the pay raise for civil servants, according to the treasury
department. ‘Particularly Crucial’ “This election is particularly crucial given that the
long-term outlook for fiscal sustainability and economic growth
will likely hinge on the next government’s reform agenda,”
Christian de Guzman, a Singapore-based assistant vice president
at Moody’s said in an e-mail. “While both sides of the
political divide readily acknowledge the need for such reforms,
getting them passed will indeed be much more difficult with a
weak mandate.” Najib may call an early election in May or June, ahead of
the due date in early 2013, according to four officials who
spoke last month on condition of anonymity because the talks are
private. Najib told reporters on March 19 that winning back the
two-thirds majority lost in 2008 would be “challenging.” Public Opinion Satisfaction with Najib’s leadership rose to 69 percent in
February from 59 percent in August, according to the latest poll
by the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research. Any risk of a downgrade isn’t reflected in credit markets,
with the cost to protect Malaysia’s sovereign debt from default
dropping 36 basis points this year to 110 basis points on April
25, according to data provider CMA, which compiles prices quoted
by dealers in the privately negotiated market. That
compares with 170 in Indonesia and 133 in Thailand . Credit-default swaps pay the buyer face value in exchange
for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent if a
government or company fails to adhere to its debt agreements. A
basis point equals $1,000 annually in a contract protecting $10
million of debt. “The bigger concern is after the general election,” Kun Lung Wu, a Singapore-based economist at Credit Suisse Group AG,
said in a telephone interview. “Whenever there’s another global
shock, either a global downturn or drop in commodity prices,
particularly oil prices , then that could easily send the debt-
to-GDP ratio much, much higher.” Oil Producer Malaysia is Southeast Asia second-largest oil producer
after Indonesia. Petroliam Nasional Bhd., the state-owned oil
company which manages the country’s energy reserves, accounted
for about a third of the government’s revenue in 2011. Malaysia’s economy may expand 4 percent to 5 percent in
2012, Bank Negara Malaysia said in its annual report released in
March. That compares with last year’s 5.1 percent rise . Since Najib took office on April 3, 2009, the benchmark
FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index (FBMKLCI) has risen 74 percent and hit a
record on April 3. The MSCI Asia Pacific index has gained 43
percent in the same period. While the debt level of many countries rose amid the global
financial crisis of 2008-2009, Malaysia stands out, said Fitch
analyst Andrew Colquhoun . “Malaysia has yet to articulate a clear strategy for
getting the debt ratios back down,” he said, adding that the
country is over-dependent on oil revenue. “Structural fiscal
reforms including tax reform remain on the back-burner.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Chong Pooi Koon in Kuala Lumpur at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Peter Hirschberg at
[email protected] | 2012 | najib-spending-binge-could-risk-downgrade-without-revenue-boos |
CFTC Said to Debate Small-Bank Clearing Exemption in Dodd-Frank | By Silla Brush | 2012-04-25T17:00:35Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/cftc-said-to-debate-small-bank-clearing-exemption-in-dodd-frank.html
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading
Commission is poised to consider a rule that could require
smaller banks to clear swaps and comply with higher collateral
standards under the Dodd-Frank Act, according to two people
briefed on the measure. The so-called end-user rule, which may come up for a final
vote next month, will determine when companies must use
clearinghouses to reduce risk in trades. Dodd-Frank, the 2010
regulatory overhaul, requires the CFTC to consider a small-bank
exemption that isn’t currently in the measure, according to the
people, who requested anonymity because the process isn’t
public. The agency is debating whether to include an exemption,
according to a third person. Banks with as much as $50 billion in assets are urging the
CFTC to exempt them from the clearing requirement, arguing that
their trades don’t pose the financial-system risk the law is
meant to rein in. Lenders including Los Angeles-based City
National Bank , San Antonio-based Frost National Bank and
Susquehanna Bank of Lititz, Pennsylvania , have told regulators
they should be considered end-users of swaps. “These small institutions use derivatives in a limited | 4 | 25 | 0426188f693054c9b9ff243dd29de9170a645137 | CFTC in an Aug. 2 letter. “Small institutions do not engage in
trades of the size or scope necessary to create systemic risk,”
the Pennsylvania Democrat wrote. Derivatives, including swaps, are financial instruments
used to hedge risks or for speculation. They’re based on stocks,
bonds, loans, currencies and commodities, or linked to specific
events such as interest-rate changes. The CFTC is working to complete Dodd-Frank rules to reduce
risk and boost transparency in the $708 trillion swaps market
after unregulated trades helped fuel the 2008 credit crisis. Flexible Threshold Dodd-Frank calls for most derivatives trades to be moved
into clearinghouses, though Congress asked regulators for some
exemptions, notably for end users. The law authorizes the CFTC
to consider exempting banks with assets of $10 billion or less. Congressional lawmakers have told regulators that the
threshold is flexible, and banks have urged that it be raised to
as much as $50 billion. The CFTC proposed an end-user exception in December 2010
without seeking comment on a specific exemption for small banks. “At the end of the day there are going to be rules that
come out on this small bank, small farm credit, small credit
union provision,” CFTC chairman Gary Gensler said at a Dec. 9,
2010 meeting. “I don’t think we should necessarily delay.” The CFTC hasn’t proposed an exemption since that meeting,
and smaller banks have continued to lobby regulators. The prospect of a U.S. small-bank exemption has prompted
objections from Jonathan Faull, the European Commission’s
director general for financial services. “The adoption of a small-bank exemption would cause
serious concern,” Faull wrote in a March 16 letter to Gensler.
“This would lead to a significant increase in systemic risk, a
potential for unlevel playing-fields between US and EU banks,
and scope for regulatory arbitrage.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Silla Brush in Washington at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Maura Reynolds at
[email protected] | 2012 | cftc-said-to-debate-small-bank-clearing-exemption-in-dodd-frank |
Ganek Is Said to Have Been on Insider Trading Call, NYT Says | By Joel Rosenblatt | 2012-04-25T01:56:16Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/ganek-is-said-to-have-been-on-insider-trading-call-nyt-says.html | 4 | 25 | 6003fb048ca5f10d4b61e928ec4caedfc0c9cba1 | Level Global Investors LP founder
David Ganek participated in a 2008 employee telephone
conversation about confidential information concerning Dell
Inc. (DELL) ’s earnings announcements, the New York Times reported,
citing an unidentified source. Ganek was on the call with Level Global co-founder Anthony Chiasson and two of the hedge fund’s analysts, according to the
New York Times. Details of the call are explained in
prosecutor’s January complaint which referred to Ganek as
“Individual 4,” the Times reported, citing a person briefed on
the case. Ganek’s alleged participation in the call was first
reported by the Financial Times, which also cited unidentified
sources. The New York Times reported that Ganek hasn’t
been accused of wrongdoing, and that there is no indication he
knew the information about Dell was illegal. The government’s
case claims Level Global made more than $50 million from the
insider trading , according to the Times. John Carroll , Ganek’s lawyer, didn’t immediately return a
voice mail from Bloomberg News left after regular business hours
seeking comment. Ellen Davis , a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney
Preet Bharara in Manhattan, declined to comment. Davidson Goldin, a spokesman for Level Global, declined to
comment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Antonia Apps told U.S. District
Judge Richard Sullivan at an April 13 conference that the U.S.
didn’t intend to file any new indictment in Chiasson’s case or
add any new defendants. To contact the reporter on this story:
Joel Rosenblatt in San Francisco at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Hytha at [email protected] | 2012 | ganek-is-said-to-have-been-on-insider-trading-call-nyt-says |
Commercial Papers Reported: India Money Markets | By Shraddha Kothari | 2012-04-25T13:02:41Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/commercial-papers-reported-india-money-markets.html | 4 | 25 | b91cf5bdc4522f8709b257f81d7eb16105746659 | Following is a table showing commercial papers
reported by Companies. The data has been provided by the Fixed Income Money
Market & Derivatives Association of India .
Contributed via: Bloomberg Publisher WEB Service Provider ID: 3998308a71cc462795e1cf27c9eda37a | 2012 | commercial-papers-reported-india-money-markets |
Treasuries Recover Losses as Bernanke Keeps QE Hope Alive | By Susanne Walker | 2012-04-25T21:10:50Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/treasuries-rise-as-europe-debt-crisis-spurs-haven-demand.html | 4 | 25 | bbdfcf3f542b4b978fb5e9ddaa19497d | Treasuries recovered most of their
losses after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke kept
speculation alive that policy makers would embark on another
round of monetary stimulus if economic growth slows. Government bonds slumped for a second day after central
bank policy makers said they expect growth to accelerate, while
refraining from new actions to lower borrowing costs such as
additional bond purchases, which has become known as
quantitative easing. The Fed remains “prepared to do more as
needed,” Bernanke said at a press conference following a
meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee in Washington . “Bernanke basically said QE is not really off the table,”
said Michael Franzese , managing director and head of Treasury
trading at Wunderlich Securities Inc. in New York. “That’s why
Treasuries rebounded.” The yield on the benchmark 10-year note rose one basis
point, or 0.01 percentage point, to 1.98 percent at 5 p.m. in
New York , according to Bloomberg Bond Trader prices, after
rising as high as 2.04 percent. The 2 percent note due February
2022 fell 3/32, or 94 cents per $1,000 face value, to 100 1/8.
The yield has dropped for five straight weeks after touching 2.4
percent on March 20. Yields on 30-year bonds, which are at risk for the biggest
losses as inflation accelerates, increased two basis points to
3.15 percent after rising to as high as 3.19 percent. Unemployment Forecast 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 repeated their view today
that borrowing costs are likely to remain “exceptionally low”
at least through late 2014. Fed 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. 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. The Fed has kept the benchmark lending
rate close to zero since December 2008. “The Fed is very determinedly accommodative,” said Jay Mueller , who manages about $3 billion of bonds at Wells Capital
Management in Milwaukee . “They’re going to stay
accommodative.” Inflation Outlook The Fed bought $2.3 trillion of bonds in two rounds of so-
called quantitative easing between December 2008 and June 2011. The central bank is also replacing $400 billion of shorter-
term debt in its holdings with longer maturities to hold down
borrowing costs, what traders have dubbed Operation Twist. Policy makers said inflation has increased somewhat, though
the effect of higher gas prices will be temporary. Bernanke
expects inflation to moderate to about 2 percent this year. The five-year, five-year forward break-even rate, a measure
of traders’ inflation expectations that the Fed uses to help
guide monetary policy was at 2.63 percent, below its 2.76
percent average during the past decade. Today’s $35 billion five-year note auction’s bid-to-cover
ratio , which gauges demand by comparing total bids with the
amount of securities offered, was 3.09, compared with an average
of 2.88 for the previous 10 sales. Indirect bidders , an investor class that includes foreign
central banks, purchased 47.5 percent of the notes, compared
with an average of 43.5 percent for the past 10 sales. Auction Demand “The auction went very well,” said Charles Comiskey , head
of Treasury trading at Bank of Nova Scotia in New York, one of
21 primary dealers that bid on the sale. “The concession was
good.” Direct bidders, non-primary dealer investors that place
their bids directly with the Treasury, purchased 9.4 percent of
the notes, compared with an average of 12.1 percent at the last
10 auctions. The notes were sold at a so-called high yield of 0.887
percent. The record low auction yield for the five-year note was
0.88 percent in December. “When cash earns you zero, buying a five-year at 88 basis
points is attractive in an environment where the Fed won’t be
doing anything for a couple of years and there are challenges to
the global economy,” said David Ader , head of U.S. government-
bond strategy at CRT Capital Group LLC in Stamford Connecticut. Investors get 2.30 percentage points of extra yield by
buying 30-year bonds instead of five-year notes. The average
spread over the past decade is 1.47 percentage points. Technical Levels U.S. five-year notes have returned 0.5 percent this year,
while the broad market is little changed, according to Bank of
America Merrill Lynch indexes. The yield may encounter resistance at the Feb. 15 low of
0.7736 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The
yield may find support at the 100-day moving average, currently
at 0.888 percent, the data show. Resistance refers to an area on a chart where technical
analysts anticipate orders to sell a security to be clustered. A
support level is an area where they anticipate buy orders will
be grouped. Ten-year yields will increase to 2.54 percent by year-end,
according to a Bloomberg survey of financial companies with the
most recent projections given the heaviest weightings. To contact the reporter on this story:
Susanne Walker in New York at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dave Liedtka at [email protected] | 2012 | reasuries-rise-as-europe-debt-crisis-spurs-haven-demand |
SEB’s ImmoInvest Fund to Open for Redemptions for One Day in May | By Dalia Fahmy | 2012-04-25T20:25:52Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/seb-s-immoinvest-fund-to-open-for-redemptions-for-one-day-in-may.html | 4 | 25 | 2ac55549f1b7cfc3c2ff52e1fbcb256a2c22d08c | SEB Asset Management will open its
6.4 billion-euro ($8.4 billion) ImmoInvest (S3EA) fund for investor
redemptions for a single day on May 7. SEB ImmoInvest, which has been closed for redemptions for
more than two years, will remain in operation if its able to
meet all the requests for that day, the company said today in a
statement. The fund raised 1 billion euros selling 17 assets,
giving the company total liquidity of 30 percent as of May 7,
according to the statement. Germany ’s 85.2 billion-euro real estate mutual fund
industry may be facing the biggest crisis in its 50-year
history. More than 13 of the 44 funds, which own 29 percent of
the industry’s assets, are liquidating or suspended redemptions
after being unable to generate sufficient cash. SEB Asset Management said today that will meet none of the
redemption requests on May 7 if it can’t satisfy all of them. If
the fund continues to operate, it will change its legal status
so redemptions will be allowed just once a year. The quality of the fund’s portfolio hasn’t been affected by
the asset sales, said SEB, the asset-management arm of
Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB. (SEBA) SEB ImmoInvest owns large
commercial properties around the world, including a 50 percent
stake in Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz. The collection of 19
buildings may be sold individually, the company said. When the credit crisis started to escalate in 2008, a
scramble to withdraw money exposed a flaw in real estate mutual
funds that own properties directly. While investors are allowed
to withdraw money daily, the funds hold assets that usually take
months to sell. Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) also faces a May deadline to reopen
its fund for redemptions. In February, the company said it’s in
the process of selling 850 million euros of properties owned by
its CS Euroreal fund and will decide in April whether it can
reopen the fund. Credit Suisse said the fund has almost 1.6
billion euros available. UBS AG (UBSN) and Aberdeen Asset Management Plc (ADN) must also sell
assets this year to cover redemptions. To contact the reporter on this story:
Dalia Fahmy in Berlin at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andrew Blackman at
[email protected] | 2012 | seb-s-immoinvest-fund-to-open-for-redemptions-for-one-day-in-may |
Implied Stock-Price Moves for U.S. Companies Reporting Results | By Wendy Soong | 2012-04-25T12:00:34Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/implied-stock-price-moves-for-u-s-companies-reporting-results.html | 4 | 25 | 117b01c0ef973a8e4c2576405cc24e0deda78dee | The following table shows the
expected stock-price move for U.S. companies about to release
quarterly results, according to options data compiled by Bloomberg.
Criteria are listed below the table. To contact the reporter on this story:
Wendy Soong in New York at at [email protected] . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Alex Tanzi at at
[email protected] | 2012 | implied-stock-price-moves-for-u-s-companies-reporting-results |
Harley-Davidson Rises After Boosting Sales Forecast | By Mark Clothier | 2012-04-25T15:30:32Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/harley-davidson-rises-after-boosting-sales-forecast.html | 4 | 25 | 5d385f4e1c024b1a88c7a83be4ce531b | Harley-Davidson Inc. (HOG) , the biggest
U.S. motorcycle maker, jumped the most in almost five months
after the company increased its full-year production forecast. Harley, as part of its first-quarter earnings statement,
said it expects to ship 245,000 to 250,000 motorcycles this
year, up from a January forecast of as many as 245,000, based on
demand from its “outreach” customers, which include people
under the age of 34, as well as women, Hispanics and blacks.
Harley rose 4.9 percent to $52.83 at 11:29 a.m. New York
time, after reaching $53.03, the biggest intraday jump since
Nov. 30. Bikes such as the $7,999 Super Low and the Forty-Eight,
starting at $10,499, are winning new riders. Such customers made
up more than one-third of U.S. sales in the quarter, the
Milwaukee-based company said today, as marketing efforts bore
fruit. “There were barriers that were keeping our outreach groups
from going to the dealership and riding a bike,” Chief
Executive Officer Keith Wandell said in an interview. “We
understand what those barriers are and we’re breaking them
down.” First-quarter net income was $172 million, or 74 cents a
share, compared with $119.3 million, or 51 cents, a year
earlier, Harley said today in the statement. The average
estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for a profit
of 71 cents a share. Harley shipped 64,263 motorcycles in the
quarter, a 19 percent increase from 2011. Sales, excluding financial services revenue, increased 20
percent to $1.27 billion. The average estimate of 10 analysts
surveyed by Bloomberg was for $1.22 billion in sales. Harley, which also makes Fat Boy and V-Rod motorcycles, has
cut expenses by renegotiating labor contracts at factories in
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin . First-quarter gross margin widened
to 35.9 percent from 33.1 percent a year ago. Harley doesn’t expect production shutdowns because of a
shortage of a resin used in fuel and brake parts, Wandell said
in the interview. Dana Holding Corp. (DAN) , a maker of driveshafts for cars and
trucks, reported a profit of $70 million, or 33 cents a share,
from a loss of $30 million, or 26 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding some items, profit was 44 cents a share. The average
estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg survey was for a
profit of 41 cents. Sales for Maumee, Ohio-based Dana gained 9.8 percent to
$1.98 billion, topping the $1.93 billion average estimate of
nine analysts in a Bloomberg survey. The shares rose 9.9
percent, to $15.28, after climbing as much as 11 percent, the
biggest intraday gain since Jan. 10. To contact the reporter on this story:
Mark Clothier in Southfield, Michigan , at
[email protected] . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jamie Butters at [email protected] . | 2012 | arley-davidson-rises-after-boosting-sales-forecas |
Goldman’s Blankfein Says He’s More Optimistic | By Erik Schatzker and Christine Harper | 2012-04-25T17:44:07Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/goldman-s-blankfein-says-he-s-more-optimistic.html
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein said he’s more
optimistic about markets than some economists and investors. “I tend to be a little more positive than what I’m hearing
from other people,” Blankfein, 57, told Bloomberg Television
today in an interview at the investment bank’s New York
headquarters. “One of the big risks that people have to
contemplate is that things go right.” Blankfein, chairman and CEO since June 2006, warned about
the potential for a credit crisis during a June 2007 conference,
15 months before the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
In November, he said he expected markets to “snap back.” The
Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 12 percent in the first three
months of this year, the most since the third quarter of 2009. While profit at Goldman Sachs improved from the end of
2011, the fifth-biggest bank by assets reported last week that
first-quarter net income fell 23 percent from a year earlier as
revenue from trading bonds, currencies and commodities lagged
behind rivals JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Citigroup Inc. (C) Blankfein said his bank’s 12.2 percent return on equity in
the first quarter was a reflection of muted economic growth and
client demand, which he called a “lower third-quartile
opportunity set.” He said that investors shouldn’t extrapolate
the firm’s long-term prospects from those results. ‘Room Ahead’ Goldman Sachs’s business model “suits us just fine” and
“we have a tremendous amount of room ahead of us to expand in
the businesses we’re in,” Blankfein said. The firm has been
conservative in expanding in overseas markets where it sees some
of the best opportunities going forward, he said. “There’s a chance to be what Goldman Sachs is in the U.S.
over a much broader swath of the world, and that’s good,” he
said. Still, he added “there’s a consequence sometimes to being
too early.” Blankfein has sought to emphasize the firm’s focus on
clients after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a
Senate subcommittee accused the company of misleading investors
about mortgage-related investments in the run-up to the
financial crisis. Arthur Levitt , a former SEC chairman who is
now an adviser to Goldman Sachs, said last month that the firm
should stop saying it puts customers first “because nobody
really puts customers first.” Market-Making Blankfein said he’d spoken to Levitt since he made those
comments and that he thinks Levitt was referring to Goldman
Sachs’s market-making business, where the firm is typically
buying what clients are selling or selling what clients are
buying. “Arthur’s comments were reserved for a narrower part of
the business,” Blankfein said. Even in market-making, the firm
shows that clients come first because in rough markets “we will
hold ourselves out as standing out there and doing more than
other people would be doing,” he added. In a separate interview today with CNBC, Blankfein said
that an internal inquiry has found no “substantiation” of a
former employee’s claims that staff disparage clients. Greg Smith , a former derivatives salesman who quit after 12 years at
the firm on March 14, wrote a New York Times op-ed that blamed
Blankfein and President Gary D. Cohn, 51, for presiding over a
decline in the firm’s culture of putting clients first. “The reaction internally was one of shock,” Blankfein
told CNBC. “We had 30,000 people who felt the opposite and
clients who were supportive.” Hit by Bus Blankfein told CNBC that Goldman Sachs’s board of directors
has a leadership succession plan for the long term and for the
hypothetical situation in which the CEO is hit by a bus. If that
were to happen, the person who would succeed Blankfein doesn’t
know it. “We have a lot of terrific senior executives including,
but not limited to, Gary,” Blankfein said, referring to Cohn.
“I have no plans to leave.” Goldman Sachs as an institution doesn’t have a view on who
should be elected U.S. president in November, Blankfein said. He
said he hasn’t made up his mind about whom to support. “I’m a Rockefeller Republican | 4 | 25 | f3ef724824894044b4a3495b3a4b4858 | a Rockefeller Republican,” he said, adding that he holds
conservative views on fiscal policy and more liberal positions
on social issues. “Where that will get me, I’m not sure yet.” Goldman Sachs closed yesterday at $114.11 in New York ,
lower than the firm’s $123.94 per share tangible book value as
of March 31. The shares fell 0.4 percent at 1:20 p.m. today. To contact the reporters on this story:
Erik Schatzker in New York at
[email protected]
Christine Harper in New York at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
David Scheer at
[email protected] . | 2012 | goldman-s-blankfein-says-he-s-more-optimistic |
U.S. Companies Reporting Lower Quarterly EPS, April 25 | By Wendy Soong | 2012-04-25T22:15:56Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/u-s-companies-reporting-lower-quarterly-eps-april-25.html | 4 | 25 | 050395c97e921b327914e4225e29cc1396d73814 | The following U.S. companies reported lower
earnings per share for their latest quarter (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 [email protected] . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Alex Tanzi at at
[email protected] | 2012 | u-s-companies-reporting-lower-quarterly-eps-april-25 |
General Dynamcs Cites’ Anxiety Over Pentagon Budget Cuts | By Gopal Ratnam | 2012-04-25T20:25:40Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/general-dynamcs-cites-anxiety-over-pentagon-budget-cuts.html | 4 | 25 | cf9b654f003d47feada188c8f5b9329a | General Dynamics Corp. (GD) and Northrop
Grumman Corp. (NOC) are working to cut costs and improve productivity
to compensate for declining defense sales, the companies said in
reporting first-quarter results. Defense orders are slowing, particularly for information-
technology services, as the Pentagon seeks cuts of $490 billion
over a decade, with the potential of $500 billion more if
automatic reductions take effect in January, Jay Johnson,
chairman and chief executive officer of General Dynamics, said
today. “Anxiety over these issues will almost certainly escalate
as we move into the summer months and election campaigns roll
into high gear,” Johnson said on a conference call with
analysts. Net income at General Dynamics declined to $564 million, or
$1.57 a share, in the first quarter from $618 million, or $1.64
a share, a year earlier, the maker of Abrams battle tanks and
Gulfstream jets, said today in a statement. After adjusting for a non-cash charge of 13 cents a share,
profit was $1.70 a share compared with the average estimate of
$1.69 a share by 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Sales
declined 2.8 percent to $7.58 billion. In the first quarter, Northrop’s net income from continuing
operations was $506 million, or $1.96 a share, compared with
$496 million, or $1.67 a year earlier, the company said today in
a statement. The average estimate of 19 analysts compiled by
Bloomberg was $1.59 a share. Sales declined 8 percent to $6.2
billion. Northrop’s Forecast Northrop boosted its 2012 profit forecast today to $6.70 to
$6.95 a share, compared with its prediction in January of $6.40
to $6.70 a share. General Dynamics reaffirmed its profit
projection of $7.10 to $7.20 a share made in January. Northrop rose 28 cents to $63.01 at the close of trading in
New York . General Dynamics fell $2.50, or 3.6 percent, to
$67.56, the biggest decline since Nov. 23. Both are based in
Falls Church , Virginia. Defense sales growth will continue to be elusive for the
companies, according to Joel Levington, a bond analyst at
Brookfield Investment Management Inc. in New York “Both companies experienced that this quarter and will
likely for years to come,” Levington said in an e-mail. All four of Northrop’s business units reported better
margins in the quarter than a year earlier. Wes Bush, the
chairman and chief executive officer, attributed that to cost-
cutting and productivity gains. Gulfstream Jets A 20 percent increase in sales and an 18 percent rise in
profit at General Dynamics’ Gulfstream jet business was offset
by a one-time charge at its Combat Systems unit as operating
income declined. Demand for Gulfstream jets was “healthy” in the quarter
with “particularly strong interest from North American
customers,” General Dynamics said in the statement. The aerospace unit, which makes the business jets , had a
funded backlog of $16.7 billion at the end of the first quarter,
the company said. The threat of automatic federal budget cuts, known as
sequestration, is slowing orders for General Dynamics’ military
radios, satellites, and information-technology systems, Johnson
said. Revenue at the Combat Systems unit, maker of Abrams tanks
and Stryker vehicles, fell 2.3 percent to $1.91 billion and unit
income declined 27 percent to $203 million, the company said. General Dynamics said the European operations of its Combat
Systems unit had a $67 million non-cash charge during the first
quarter. Sales at the Marine Systems unit, maker of the Navy’s
destroyers and nuclear-powered submarines, fell 4.2 percent to
$1.61 billion and profit gained 11 percent to $185 million. Information Systems and Technology sales fell 13.3 percent
to $2.44 billion and profit declined 21 percent to $218 million,
the company said. Northrop’s Drones Northrop faces challenges from proposed cuts in the
Pentagon’s fiscal 2013 budget that would affect the company’s
top-selling programs, including the Global Hawk drone and the
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, on which it is a subcontractor to
planemaker Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) The Pentagon proposed in its 2013 budget saving $800
million by reducing purchases of the Global Hawk Block 30 model.
The Defense Department would also gain $1.6 billion from the
F-35 program by eliminating 13 planes. Bush has said he is focused on increasing profit margins
and returning cash to shareholders. He has raised dividends for
eight consecutive years. In 2011, Northrop paid out about $2.8
billion as dividends and share repurchases. Cybersecurity, Sensors While Northrop’s business in cybersecurity, unmanned
systems, intelligence, sensors and reconnaissance systems and
logistics are well-aligned with Pentagon’s priorities, “we do
not expect much growth in these areas over the next several
years, given the budget situation,” Douglas Harned , an analyst
at Sanford C. Bernstein LLC in New York, wrote in an April 23
note to clients. He rates the stock market-perform. Performance improvements at the company’s Electronic and
Information Systems units contributed to an increase in
operating income and profit during the quarter even as sales
fell, Northrop said in the statement. Sales at Electronic Systems, the maker of radar equipment,
fell 4.6 percent to $1.72 billion, while profit rose 28 percent
to $304 million, the company said. Information Systems sales fell 9 percent to $1.84 billion
whereas profit increased 5.6 percent to $205 million, the
company said. Sales and profit at the Aerospace unit, maker of Global
Hawks, fell, according to the company. Revenue declined 8
percent to $2.38 billion and profit fell 2.7 percent to $279
million. To contact the reporter on this story:
Gopal Ratnam in Washington at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
John Walcott at
[email protected] | 2012 | general-dynamcs-cites-anxiety-over-pentagon-budget-cuts |
U.S. ‘Snapback’ Helps Apple to 3M Beat Earnings Estimates | By Thomas Black and Lu Wang | 2012-04-25T12:42:03Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/u-s-snapback-helps-apple-to-3m-beat-earnings-estimates.html | 4 | 25 | a1526c50a7324428868e97ddbd26b418 | U.S. companies from Apple Inc. (AAPL) to
3M Co. (MMM) are surpassing earnings estimates at the highest rate in
two years as economic growth at home helps drive demand and
counter a drag from Europe. Profit has outpaced forecasts for 82 percent of Standard &
Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) companies that have reported in the earnings
cycle, which if it holds would be the highest rate since 2010’s
first quarter. The 12 percent average jump before today topped
the 0.6 percent gain analysts projected as the bulk of reporting
began April 10, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “The domestic economy is faring far better than people
thought and that, even in the face of Europe and the slowdown in
the emerging world, is blowing away estimates,” said Jim Paulsen , chief investment strategist for Well Capital
Management, which oversees about $333 billion. Profits running ahead of forecasts may help ease investor
concern that a shrinking economy in Europe and slower growth in
China will weigh down earnings this year. Eaton Corp. (ETN) , the Cleveland-based producer of circuit
breakers and truck parts, beat earnings projections as
construction and vehicle sales rebounded, said Chief Executive
Officer Sandy Cutler in an interview. “What we’ve seen is a pretty good snapback,” Cutler said,
referring to U.S. economic growth since the financial crisis of
2008. “The industrial side of the economy had a very difficult
downturn.” Outpaced Forecasts All 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 delivered better-
than-forecast results, with financial, materials and technology
companies leading with a positive rate of more than 11 percent,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg. So far about 168
companies have reported earnings. Boeing Co. (BA) , Corning Inc. (GLW) and Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) all
reported results that beat analysts’ estimates today. Chicago-
based Boeing, the world’s biggest aerospace company, delivered
more commercial jets while pushing production to record levels.
First-quarter earnings rose to $1.22 a share, excluding some
items, Boeing said, exceeding the average prediction by 29
cents. Apple, the world’s largest company by market value, helped
drive the earnings growth rate for S&P companies that have
reported to 12 percent yesterday from 6.5 percent the previous
day. The company yesterday said its fiscal second-quarter profit
almost doubled to $11.6 billion, reflecting demand for the
iPhone in China and purchases of a new version of the iPad.
Earnings per share outstripped estimates by 23 percent. Among other technology bellwethers, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) , the
largest software maker, last week reported higher-than-expected
corporate purchases of computers, while Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) ,
the biggest maker of analog chips, earlier this week indicated
robust demand for a range of electronics. ‘Operational Discipline’ 3M, the maker of Post-it Notes and fuel system tuneup kits,
posted earnings per share that beat analysts’ estimates by 10
cents, helped by rising domestic auto and industrial demand. “The Americas were strong,” Chief Executive Officer Inge Thulin said yesterday. “Asia-Pacific was somewhat slower and
Western Europe held its own with very good operational
discipline.” Honeywell International Inc. (HON) , maker of products from flight
controls to work boots, raised its 2012 forecast after posting
quarterly profit that beat analysts’ estimates on demand for
aircraft parts and energy technology. General Electric Co. (GE) beat
earnings per share predictions by a cent. U.S. retail sales, vehicle purchases and even housing
starts have helped drive the economy and earnings, according to
Paulsen, based in Minneapolis. Budget Cuts The U.S economy may expand 2.3 percent this year, up from
1.7 percent in 2011, according to the median of 74 estimates
compiled by Bloomberg. The euro area is forecast to shrink 0.4
percent and China’s growth is expected to slow to 8.4 percent. The S&P 500 Index has gained 9.1 percent since the end of
2011. It gained 12 percent in the first three months of 2012,
the biggest first-quarter gain since 1998. Companies had tamped down expectations because of the
difficulty in predicting how sales would be affected by budget
cuts in Europe and a Chinese economy that posted its slowest
pace of growth in 11 quarters, said David Sowerby, a Bloomfield
Hills, Michigan-based portfolio manager at Loomis Sayles & Co. “What we’re seeing in the first quarter is inordinately
high,” Sowerby, whose firm oversees about $160 billion, said in
a telephone interview. “That’s primarily a reflection that
companies have been more conservative in their guidance.” With about a third of companies reporting, Paulsen said
he’s optimistic earnings will maintain their positive track. “A legacy of the great 2008 crisis is that it’s left us
feeling that things just can’t be this good.” To contact the reporters on this story:
Thomas Black in Dallas at
[email protected] ;
Lu Wang in New York at
[email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Ed Dufner at
[email protected] ;
Kevin Miller at
[email protected] | 2012 | u-s-snapback-helps-apple-to-3m-beat-earnings-estimates |
Unipetrol Reports Loss on High Crude Price, Lower Fuel Sales | By Ladka Bauerova | 2012-04-25T07:16:51Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/unipetrol-reports-loss-on-high-crude-price-lower-fuel-sales.html | 4 | 25 | 69a03c1056783687c3f6841750a03bf83a5806f6 | Unipetrol AS (UNIP) , the biggest Czech oil
refiner, reported a first-quarter net loss as the economic
slowdown crimped sales of fuels and profitability was reduced by
higher crude oil prices . The net loss in the three months through March of 361
million koruna ($19.1 million) compared with a profit of 464
million koruna reported a year earlier, the Prague-based company
said today in a statement on its website. The operating loss of
51 million koruna compared with a profit of 571 million koruna. Earnings have been squeezed by rising crude prices and
lower demand as slower growth caps consumption. The planned
outage at the Paramo refinery also reduced volumes during the
quarter. The company expects positive earnings before interest and
tax in 2012 and plans to invest 2 billion koruna in operations
this year, according to the statement. It will continue its
“long-term trend in staffing reduction,” it said. Crude oil throughput dropped 10 percent from the previous
three months to 906,000 metric tons, the company said. Foreign-
exchange rates boosted first-quarter earnings by about 156
million koruna, while sales of carbon allowances added more than
100 million koruna to earnings before interest and tax,
according to the statement. Polish refiner PKN Orlen SA, which controls 63 percent of
Unipetrol shares, said today first-quarter net income rose to
1.26 billion zloty ($396 million), beating analyst estimates. To contact the reporter responsible for this story:
Ladka Bauerova at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Will Kennedy at
[email protected] | 2012 | unipetrol-reports-loss-on-high-crude-price-lower-fuel-sales |
Bayer Sues Watson Over Generic Erectile Dysfunction Drug | By Phil Milford | 2012-04-25T22:36:25Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/bayer-sues-watson-over-generic-erectile-dysfunction-drug-1-.html | 4 | 25 | 8d08915a1d1c891e62606bd81577a0523beb8e99 | A Bayer AG (BAYN) unit sued generic drug
maker Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. (WPI) for allegedly infringing two
U.S. patents for Staxyn , a medicine approved in the U.S. in 2010
for treatment of male erectile dysfunction. Bayer Pharma AG contends that Parsippany, New Jersey-based
Watson is planning to market a copy of Staxyn, a minty
preparation that dissolves in the mouth, before the patent
protections expire. “Watson has acted with full knowledge” of the patents
“without a reasonable basis for believing that it would not be
liable for infringing,” Leverkusen, Germany-based Bayer said in
a complaint filed today in federal court in Wilmington,
Delaware. Watson, which also makes a generic version of the Lipitor
cholesterol drug, said in a statement today that it would buy
Iceland’s Actavis Group hf for about $5.6 billion to create the
world’s third-largest maker of generic drugs. Charlie Mayr, a Watson spokesman, didn’t immediately return
a phone call seeking comment on the lawsuit. The case is Bayer v. Watson, U.S. District Court, District
of Delaware (Wilmington). To contact the reporter on this story:
Phil Milford in Wilmington, Delaware, at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Hytha at [email protected] . | 2012 | bayer-sues-watson-over-generic-erectile-dysfunction-drug-1- |
Housing Declared Bottoming in U.S. After Six-Year Slump | By John Gittelsohn and Prashant Gopal | 2012-04-25T15:51:21Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/housing-declared-bottoming-in-u-s-.html
The U.S. housing market is showing
more signs of stabilization as price declines ease and home
demand improves, spurring several economists to call a bottom to
the worst real estate collapse since the 1930s. “The crash is over,” Mark Zandi , chief economist for
Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester , Pennsylvania , said in a
telephone interview yesterday. “Home sales | 4 | 25 | 85ca3413a1ec463d9f5bca74630c0582 | home sales and a slowdown in price declines are bolstering
optimism that the market is poised for a sustainable recovery.
Economists including Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ’s Chris Rupkey , Bank of America Corp.’s Michelle Meyer and Mark Fleming
of CoreLogic Inc. are also predicting prices are close to a
trough after a 35 percent slump from a July 2006 peak, even as
the threat of more foreclosures loom to boost supply. Values in 20 U.S. cities fell 3.5 percent in February, the
smallest 12-month drop since February 2011, the S&P/Case-Shiller
index showed yesterday. The Federal Housing Finance Agency ’s
home-price index, which measures properties with mortgages
backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac , had a 0.4 percent rise for
the same period, according to a separate report. New Home Sales New homes sold at an annual pace of 328,000 in March, up
7.5 percent from a year earlier, the Commerce Department said.
The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey forecast a rate
of 319,000. The pace of sales for February was revised upward to
353,000, a two-year high. A report on consumer confidence yesterday showed the most
important signal that housing can only go up, said Rupkey, chief
financial economist for Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in New York.
The Conference Board said its confidence index was at 69.2 in
April, compared with a revised 69.5 in March. Beneath the
headline number, an important indicator was that consumers said
jobs are easier to find, Rupkey said. “Today’s consumer confidence shows labor markets
recovering and that confidence is going to allow consumers to go
out and buy homes,” Rupkey said in a telephone interview
yesterday. Contract Signings The National Association of Realtors probably will say
tomorrow that the number of Americans signing contracts to buy
previously owned homes rose 1 percent in March, according to the
median estimate of 43 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. That
would put the pending home-sales index close to a two-year high. Trulia Inc.’s housing barometer showed that the market was
32 percent of the way “back to normal” in March, up from 23
percent a year earlier, while down from 34 percent in January
and February, said Jed Kolko, chief economist for the San
Francisco-based real estate information service. The measure
takes into account data on home construction , sales and mortgage
delinquencies. “The housing recovery is progressing, though it’s taken
one step backwards after a few strides forward,” Kolko wrote in
a note on Trulia’s website yesterday. Foreclosure Supply While the volume of sales has increased, prices still have
a way to fall because as many as 6 million homes with delinquent
mortgages and in the foreclosure process are likely to come to
the market, Scott Simon , head of mortgage- and asset-backed debt
at Newport Beach , California-based Pacific Investment Management
Co., said yesterday on Bloomberg Television. “We think we’d go down another 3 or 4 percent over the
next 12 months, probably bottoming sometime next year,” Simon
said on “Surveillance Midday” with Tom Keene . “One month
doesn’t change anything.” Robert Shiller , a Yale University economics professor and
co-creator of the home-price index, also said prices may be
poised to fall further. “I’m more concerned about the downside than most people,”
Shiller said yesterday on Bloomberg Radio. “I could see it
staying languishing and edging down for years.” Home values took eight years to reach a bottom during the
Great Depression and 11 more years to regain their lost ground,
according to data compiled by Shiller. Nominal U.S. home prices
fell about 30 percent from 1925 to 1933 and didn’t return to
their pre-crash peak until 1944, the year before World War II
ended. Rising Home Seizures Foreclosure filings in the U.S. fell in the first quarter
to their lowest level in more than four years after lenders
under legal scrutiny slowed actions against delinquent
homeowners, according to RealtyTrac Inc. Home seizures will
increase as banks work through the backlog following a
settlement by loan servicers over faulty mortgage practices, the
Irvine, California-based data firm forecasts. Meyer, senior economist with Bank of America in New York ,
said the recovery will be led by the parts of the country with
fewer foreclosures and more job growth. She estimates that U.S.
prices will reach bottom this year and stay little changed until
2014, when they may gain about 2.5 percent. Home values in more than half of major U.S. markets will
probably reach a bottom by the end of the year, according to
Seattle-based Zillow Inc. Signs that the market is close to a
trough include improving home sales and rising prices in some
areas, said Chief Economist Stan Humphries . The market, which
has been bolstered by investors, second-home buyers, and
retirees, will need more traditional first-time and trade-up
buyers to return for a rebound, he said. ‘Healing’ Market “I characterize 2012 as a year in which the market is
healing and the bottoming process is playing out,” Humphries
said in a telephone interview. Median prices averaged 5.8 percent higher in March than a
year earlier in 53 metro areas surveyed for a monthly housing
report by Re/Max LLC, the Denver-based company said in an April
16 report. It was the second consecutive month that home prices
increased year-over-year and the ninth straight month of higher
sales volume, according to the report. “This year’s selling season is shaping up to be the
strongest we’ve seen in years,” Margaret Kelly, Re/Max’s chief
executive officer, said in a statement. “Although we don’t
expect home prices to rise in every market at the same rate, the
worst is definitely behind us, and a slow, steady recovery is
taking hold.” U.S. home prices compiled by CoreLogic, a Santa Ana ,
California-based real estate information service, had month-
over-month gains in January and February when sales of
distressed properties were excluded, said Fleming, the company’s
chief economist. “It’s just a matter of months before we get positive year-
over-year numbers in the overall index,” Fleming said in a
telephone interview from Washington . “Our data lags the
reality. The turnaround is happening in the March, April and May
time frame.” To contact the reporter on this story:
John Gittelsohn in Los Angeles at
[email protected] ;
Prashant Gopal in New York at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kara Wetzel at
[email protected] | 2012 | ousing-declared-bottoming-in-u-s- |
OGX Gains as Waikiki Oil Field Declared Viable: Sao Paulo Mover | By Ney Hayashi | 2012-04-25T20:17:40Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/ogx-gains-as-waikiki-oil-field-declared-viable-sao-paulo-mover.html | 4 | 25 | f1159cc2c0759cb7385b97d7d9ec3b9ab45641c0 | OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes
SA, the oil company controlled by billionaire Eike Batista, rose
the most in four months after saying its Waikiki field was
declared commercially viable. Shares gained 6.3 percent to 13.83 reais at the close in
Sao Paulo, the steepest advance since Dec. 20. The benchmark
Bovespa index slid 0.4 percent. “The declaration of commerciality is a positive sign and
supports the company’s proposed production schedule for 2013,”
Banco Itau BBA SA’s analysts Paula Kovarsky and Diego Mendes
wrote in a note to clients today. “Declaring commerciality at
such an early stage of development came as a surprise.” The company said the field off the coast of Rio de Janeiro
has 285 million barrels of estimated recoverable oil reserves. OGX was founded by Batista in 2007 and it started to
produce oil in January after delaying the start of production
from August, the company said in a filing on Jan. 31. To contact the reporter on this story:
Ney Hayashi in Sao Paulo at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
David Papadopoulos in New York at
[email protected] | 2012 | ogx-gains-as-waikiki-oil-field-declared-viable-sao-paulo-mover |
U.K. Stocks Advance for Second Day; Vedanta, ARM Climb | By Srinivasan Sivabalan and Peter Levring | 2012-04-25T15:59:14Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/u-k-stocks-rise-before-gdp-report-man-group-leads-gains.html | 4 | 25 | 35e40ad65b3746aab3b456623c5a374b | U.K. stocks advanced for a second
day as mining companies gained and ARM (ARM) Holdings Plc climbed
after Apple Inc.’s earnings, outweighing data that showed the
British economy contracted for a second straight quarter. Vedanta Resources Plc (VED) , the largest copper producer in
India, rallied 4.3 percent for the biggest increase in the FTSE
100. (UKX) ARM, which designs chips for Apple’s iPhone and iPad, rose
1.1 percent after the U.S. company reported profit that exceeded
estimates. Man Group Plc (EMG) extended yesterday’s rally amid
continued speculation the world’s biggest publicly traded hedge-
fund manager may be a takeover target. The benchmark FTSE 100 advanced 9.4 points, or 0.2 percent,
to 5,718.89 at the close in London. The gauge has increased 2.6
percent this year as U.S. economic data exceeded forecasts and
the European Central Bank moved to support the economy. The FTSE
All-Share Index also added 0.2 percent today, while Ireland’s
ISEQ Index surged 1 percent. “Apple pulled its usual rabbit out of the hat last night,
smashing expectations for its quarterly earnings, and this has
helped to keep the bulls broadly in charge,” said Yusuf Heusen,
a sales trader at IG Index in London. The U.K. economy shrank in the first quarter as
construction slumped, pushing Britain into its first double-dip
recession since 1970s. Gross domestic product contracted 0.2
percent from the fourth quarter of 2011, when it shrank 0.3
percent, the Office for National Statistics said. The median of
40 estimates in a Bloomberg survey was for a gain of 0.1
percent. A technical recession is defined as two straight
quarters of contraction. Miles Policy Bank of England policy maker David Miles said his vote for
more so-called quantitative easing this month still looks
vindicated. Miles was the sole official seeking more stimulus,
after his colleague Adam Posen switched his vote and policy
makers said inflation may turn out faster than forecast. “The weakness of demand, given the amount of spare
capacity in the economy, still made a strategy of having
monetary policy even more expansionary the right one,” Miles
said in an interview in London yesterday. “On reflection that
seems to me still the right strategy.” In the U.S., the Federal Reserve’s policy-setting panel
will probably repeat in a statement today 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. About 90 minutes later, the Fed 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 will hold a press conference at
2:15 p.m. Mining Companies A gauge of London-listed mining companies rose 2 percent as
base metals including copper and nickel climbed. Vedanta
advanced 4.3 percent to 1,225 pence. Fresnillo Plc (FRES) added 3.4
percent to 1,597 pence. Glencore International Plc (GLEN) and Xstrata
Plc (XTA) climbed 3.2 percent to 429.2 pence and 3 percent to 1,183
pence, respectively. ARM advanced 1.1 percent to 537.5 pence. Apple, which uses
chips designed by ARM, climbed in New York trading after
reporting that robust demand for the iPhone in China fueled a 94
percent surge in quarterly profit. ARM was upgraded to hold from underperform at Jefferies
Group Inc. and to buy from hold at Natixis. Man Group rose 2.8 percent to 95.2 pence. Analysts at UBS
AG said in a report yesterday that the past year’s share-price
decline makes it a takeover target. International Consolidated Airlines Group rallied 3.3
percent to 174.1 pence. Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh
said the company may bring a Gulf airline into the Oneworld
alliance this year and considers Qatar Airways Ltd. to be a top
candidate. GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) sank 3 percent to 1,413.5 pence, the
biggest drop in three months. The U.K.’s largest drugmaker
reported first-quarter profit and sales that missed analyst
estimates as revenue declined in Europe. To contact the reporters on this story:
Srinivasan Sivabalan in London at
[email protected] ;
Peter Levring in Copenhagen at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andrew Rummer at
[email protected] | 2012 | u-k-stocks-rise-before-gdp-report-man-group-leads-gains |
Greece Locates 200,000 False Pension Payments, Kathimerini Says | By Natalie Weeks | 2012-04-25T06:43:03Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/greece-locates-200-000-false-pension-payments-kathimerini-says.html | 4 | 25 | 3eb1a6535bcd54ef29b08111184ed38f417111c2 | Greece ’s pension funds can save as
much as 800 million euros ($1.1 billion) a year from cutting
false pension payments, Kathimerini said, citing Labor Minister
George Koutroumanis. The ministry found that at least 200,000 pensions were
being paid to people who weren’t entitled to them, the Athens-
based newspaper reported, citing Koutroumanis. Some of the false claims are redirected pension payments of
deceased Greeks or people residing outside of Greece, the
newspaper said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Natalie Weeks in Athens at
[email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jerrold Colten at
[email protected] | 2012 | greece-locates-200-000-false-pension-payments-kathimerini-says |