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Jets Flying Themselves Can Lull Pilots Into Complacency

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-09/jets-flying-themselves-can-lull-pilots-into-complacency.html

The Boeing Co. (BA) 777 is one of the world’s most advanced jets, capable of flying automatically most of the time and catching pilot errors before they endanger a flight. That technology may also be a drawback. Because it’s so tempting to let the 777 fly itself, pilots can allow their flying skills to atrophy or become confused when systems don’t work as expected, said aviation safety experts and pilots who have flown it. Determining how the pilots of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 interacted with the jet’s automation has become a top priority for investigators looking into why the plane crash-landed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6, U.S. National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Debbie Hersman said yesterday in an interview. “You’ve seen a lot of investigations internationally” in which aircraft automation contributed to an accident, Hersman said. “It’s not a new thing.” Two people died and scores were injured when the tail of the Asiana 777 arriving from Seoul struck a seawall short of the runway and the plane slid across the ground. The jet had slowed to 40 miles (64 kilometers) per hour below its target landing speed on approach and was in danger of losing lift, according to preliminary information from the flight-data recorder. The crew didn’t begin evasive action until seven seconds before impact, Hersman has said. The pilot at the controls had only 43 hours of experience in the wide-body 777 after advancing from narrow-body jets, and was making his first landing at San Francisco in that aircraft type. The management pilot sitting next to him got approval to train other pilots a month earlier. Fighting Technology The flight’s arrival required more manual flying skills than usually needed in San Francisco because a radio beam known as a glide slope, used to automatically guide planes to the runway, was inoperable, according to the safety board. Cockpit automation has played a role in several recent accidents by confusing pilots, particularly when they became startled or the equipment acted in unusual ways, Rory Kay, the former air safety chairman of the Air Line Pilots Association , said in an interview. ALPA is the largest pilots’ union in North America. “How well trained are we to handle departure from the norm?” said Kay, who declined to discuss the Asiana accident. On Feb. 25, 2009, a Turkish Airlines Inc. Boeing 737-800 crashed on approach to Amsterdam, killing nine people. An erroneous altitude reading caused the plane’s automatic throttles to slow the plane, causing it to lose lift and plunge to the ground, the Dutch Safety Board concluded. Misunderstandings Accumulate While the pilots had several opportunities to prevent the accident, the plane’s automated systems worked against them, the investigation concluded. After pilots added power to regain speed, for example, the autopilot pulled the power back again, according to the investigation. “A series of small misunderstandings start to accumulate that put the plane into a situation that makes the plane harder to handle,” David Woods, an Ohio State University engineering professor who has studied the issue, said in an interview. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is now trying to determine whether pilot training should better address cockpit automation, Woods said. The technology is so good that pilots have come to rely on it, Woods said. “It is making things go smoothly and effectively. When it doesn’t, it’s kind of a surprise,” he said. Stick, Rudder Pilots today need to have technical savvy as well as traditional “stick and rudder” skills, John Cox, a former airline pilot who has participated in NTSB investigations, said in an interview. “The concern is the pilots who become automation-dependent to the degradation of their manual flying skills,” Cox said. The 777, like similar Airbus SAS models, has automatic systems to prevent the plane from going too slowly. Investigators will want to know how the flight crew set the plane’s speed, and whether the systems malfunctioned or were overridden, Cox said. “Technology is a two-edged sword,” former NTSB Chairman Jim Hall said in an interview on Bloomberg Television today. “It can provide great safety on modern aircraft, but at the same time we have to be prepared if that technology is not available.” To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Levin in Washington at alevin24@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bernard Kohn at bkohn2@bloomberg.net

Chelsea, Manchester City Stay Unbeaten in Premier League

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-06/chelsea-manchester-city-stay-unbeaten-in-english-premier-league.html

Chelsea and Manchester City easily won at home, leaving them as the only unbeaten teams in English soccer’s Premier League. Chelsea defeated Norwich 4-1 to increase its lead at the top of the standings, and defending champion Manchester City handed Sunderland its first loss, 3-0. “We played some fantastic football, created a lot of chances and maybe could have scored a couple more,” Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo said on the club’s website. “We can only try and continue this momentum and form.” Arsenal won 3-1 at West Ham, West Brom held on to defeat last-place Queens Park Rangers 3-2, Swansea rallied for a 2-2 tie with Reading, and Everton came from behind to draw 2-2 at Wigan. Winless Norwich took a surprise lead at Chelsea on Grant Holt ’s goal in the 11th minute. It was short-lived as Fernando Torres drew the Blues even three minutes later with a header. Frank Lampard put Chelsea in front in the 22nd minute with a shot from the edge of the penalty area, and Eden Hazard made it 3-1 nine minutes later. Branislav Ivanovic then clinched the victory with a goal in the 76th minute. Chelsea has won six of its seven league games for 19 points. Manchester City is four points back after its fourth win moved it above Everton into second place. Aleksandar Kolarov, Sergio Aguero and James Milner scored at Etihad Stadium as Manchester City beat Sunderland, which had a win and four draws to open the season. Kolarov put City in front with a fifth-minute free kick. Aguero doubled the lead in the 60th minute and Milner closed the scoring with another free kick in the 89th minute. Gunners Win Theo Walcott and Santi Cazorla scored second-half goals to lift Arsenal past West Ham. Mohammed Diame gave West Ham the lead in the 21st minute, before Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud scored his first league goal just before halftime. Walcott put the Gunners in front in the 77th minute after getting behind the defense and Cazorla clinched the win six minutes later with a shot from about 25 yards out. James Morrison , Zoltan Gera and Youssuf Mulumbu scored as West Brom made it four wins in four home league matches and moved up to tie Everton for third place with 14 points. Adel Taarabt and Esteban Granero scored for QPR, which is winless in 17 away matches and sits last in the standings with two points. Swansea scored twice in the final 19 minutes to end a three-match losing run and deny Reading its first victory. Swansea Goals First-half goals from Pavel Pogrebnyak and Noel Hunt gave the Royals the lead in Wales. Miguel Michu then scored in the 71st minute for Swansea and Wayne Routledge added the second goal seven minutes later. Leighton Baines scored with a penalty kick in the 87th minute as Everton drew at Wigan. Nikica Jelavic also scored for the Toffees, while Arouna Kone and Franco Di Santo got the Wigan goals. Manchester United visits Newcastle, Tottenham hosts Aston Villa , Southampton is home for Fulham and Stoke is at Liverpool in tomorrow’s games. To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Bensch in London at bbensch@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Elser at celser@bloomberg.net .

Anglo American Quarterly Iron-Ore Output Falls, Copper Rises

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-18/anglo-american-quarterly-iron-ore-output-falls-copper-increases.html

Anglo American Plc (AAL) , a mining company with operations from Australia to Brazil, said second-quarter iron-ore output fell 1 percent from a year as its biggest production site recovers from strikes. Iron-ore volumes were 11.3 million metric tons, the London-based miner said today in a statement. Copper rose 14 percent to 182,900 tons and platinum-equivalent refined production advanced 2 percent to 594,000 ounces. “Weakish iron ore sales are the main concern, and an area to be monitored,” Investec Plc (INVP) said in an e-mailed note to clients. Iron-ore production was 2 percent below its estimate, the bank said. Chief Executive Officer Mark Cutifani , who is scrutinizing every aspect of the company’s business after taking over from Cynthia Carroll in April, will announce the outcome of his review next week. The evaluation focuses on the performance of Anglo’s divisions, allocation of capital and the importance of South Africa to its portfolio, he said last month. Production of export metallurgical coal, used in steelmaking, fell 9 percent to 4.4 million tons. Output of export thermal coal from South Africa declined 5 percent to 4 million tons and from Colombia fell 3 percent to 3 million tons. Anglo may report a 31 percent plunge in underlying profit to $1.17 billion when it releases interim results on July 26, according to the average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. The stock was little changed at 1,356 pence at 10:33 a.m. in London trading. Diamond Mines Anglo also mines diamonds in southern Africa and Canada. Production at De Beers, a gem producer owned by Anglo, jumped 10 percent in the second quarter to 7.9 million carats because of “favorable ore grades” at the Orapa and Jwaneng mines in Botswana , Anglo said. While output at the Venetia mine in South Africa declined 60 percent, full operations will be restored in the second half, it said. The company’s copper output at Los Bronces in Chile increased 13 percent to 101,700 tons. Production from the country’s Collahuasi mine jumped 25 percent to 37,700 tons. Anglo booked a negative provisional pricing adjustment of $189 million in the first half after selling copper at 318 cents a pound, compared with 370 cents the previous year, it said. The Kumba Iron Ore (KIO) unit said second-quarter production at Sishen in South Africa decreased by 9 percent to 8.6 million tons from a year earlier as its biggest mine continued to recover from strikes late last year. The Kolomela mine increased output 49 percent to 2.6 million tons, countering the output loss from Sishen, Kumba said. Platinum Unit Anglo American Platinum Ltd. (AMS) , the biggest producer of the metal, said July 15 that first-half profit almost doubled after the rand weakened, curbing the impact of cost increases in South Africa. Earnings excluding one-time items may have risen as high as 5.35 rand (54 U.S. cents) a share from 2.73 rand a year earlier. Amplats, as the company is known, will release full results next week. Platinum producers in South Africa, which has the largest known reserves of the metal, have seen costs rise after strikes led to above-inflation wage gains, while demand wanes. Amplats intends to cut 6,000 jobs as part of a plan to return to profit by idling shafts and reducing annual output by 350,000 ounces. Talks with unions on the proposal are due to end on Aug. 10. “Overall, not a great set of results, especially when compared to the better results from the other majors,” Numis Securities Ltd. said in a note. Anglo stock is expected to remain less attractive “with exposure to the weaker commodities and ongoing issues in South Africa , especially upcoming labor negotiations” and power-price increases, it said. To contact the reporter on this story: Firat Kayakiran in London at fkayakiran@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Viljoen at jviljoen@bloomberg.net

Mechel Leads Micex Declines on Quarterly Net Loss: Moscow Mover

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-02/mechel-leads-micex-declines-on-quarterly-net-loss-moscow-mover.html

OAO Mechel (MTLR) led declines on Russia ’s benchmark Micex Index after posting a second-quarter net loss. The stock dropped 3.5 percent to 218.10 rubles by the close in Moscow after falling as much as 4.7 percent earlier. The Micex Index declined 0.3 percent to 1,485.63. Mechel, Russia’s biggest producer of steelmaking coal, swung to a net loss of $823 million from profit of $218 million in the first quarter as prices fell. Excluding the impairment of some assets and provisions for amounts owed by related parties, the loss would be $177 million, Mechel said today in a statement. “The results are weak,” George Buzhenitsa , an analyst for Deutsche Bank AG in Moscow, said by phone. With steel and raw material prices likely to decline in the second half, “it’s hard to see how the company’s financial performance can improve in the short term.” To contact the reporters on this story: Yuliya Fedorinova in Moscow at yfedorinova@bloomberg.net ; Ksenia Galouchko in Moscow at kgalouchko1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Viljoen at jviljoen@bloomberg.net

Edenred May Raise Payout in Two Years on Voucher Sales Growth

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-27/edenred-may-raise-payout-in-two-years-on-voucher-sales-growth.html

Edenred SA , the voucher company that’s planning to pay as much as 50 percent of earnings in dividends, said it may increase the payout in two years as demand grows for meal and childcare tickets. “First phase could be 40 percent to 50 percent,” Chief Executive Officer Jacques Stern said in an interview in Milan. “Then an increase on that is not unlikely given the reality of our business and our capability to generate cash.” Other companies in the industry are paying about 30 percent of earnings in dividends, he said. Edenred, the biggest seller of service vouchers, owns the Ticket Restaurant brand and competes with companies including Sodexo SA’s Motivation Solutions business. A higher dividend may come after a “phase of gaining credibility,” if Edenred delivers on its plan to increase the number of vouchers it sells, the CEO said. The company, based near Paris, is targeting annual growth of as much as 14 percent in vouchers issued. “You have companies in the peer group sitting on a pile of cash, which will not be our case,” Stern said. Edenred has a “very straightforward strategy in what we want to achieve in terms of organic growth.” Edenred started trading in Paris in July, after Accor SA shareholders approved its split from Europe’s largest hotelier. Edenred has 33 million users and last year issued 12.4 billion euros in tickets, about half in emerging markets. Acquisitions Edenred shares have advanced about 15 percent since it started trading as a single entity. Sodexo has advanced almost 4 percent in the same period. Ticket Restaurant meal vouchers were introduced in France in 1962 and in Brazil, Italy, Belgium, Germany and Spain beginning in the 1970s. Brazil is Edenred’s largest market, followed by Italy. Edenred may make “bolt-on” acquisitions in countries where it already operates to boost its market share, Stern said. “If there’s a good opportunity at a reasonable price, we could buy a small competitor,” the executive said. Funding an acquisition won’t be a problem because Edenred is “a huge cash flow producer.” The company this month forecast that full-year earnings before interest and taxes will rise to 310 million euros to 330 million euros, raising the lower end of the range from 300 million euros. Third-quarter sales climbed to 207 million euros from 190 million euros in the year-earlier period as the number of tickets issued increased by 14 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Armorel Kenna in Milan at akenna@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net

Czechs Keep Rates Near Zero as Split Board Mulls Currency Sales

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-28/czechs-keep-rates-near-zero-as-split-board-mulls-currency-sales.html

The Czech central bank kept interest rates near zero for a third meeting as policy makers debate whether to stimulate an economy racked by a record-long recession through a weaker koruna. The Ceska Narodni Banka kept the main two-week rate at 0.05 percent, in line with forecasts of all 20 analysts in a Bloomberg survey and almost three-quarters of a percentage point less than the euro-area benchmark. Governor Miroslav Singer, who had said the March meeting would feature talk on the currency, will hold a news briefing at 2:30 p.m. in Prague. Monetary authorities from the U.K. to Japan are easing policy, fueling a depreciation of their currencies, while the Czech central bank ponders its first intervention in a decade. A weaker koruna would help exports, which make up 80 percent of a $217 billion economy that has contracted for four quarters amid government austerity measures and Europe ’s debt crisis. “Data have generally surprised the CNB on the downside, but the central bank is likely not in a rush to ease monetary conditions,” Mai Doan, economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London , said in a March 26 report to clients. This week’s board decision “will likely disappoint those expecting concrete signals for FX intervention.” The koruna is at the center of the policy plans as its depreciation helps boost competitiveness of Czech goods on foreign markets and makes imports more expensive, thus limiting deflation risks. The currency has lost 4.6 percent to the euro since Sept. 17, a day before Singer first said the central bank may sell the currency to meet its inflation goal. Koruna’s Performance The koruna had the fourth-worst performance among 25 emerging-market currencies tracked by Bloomberg in the period. The decline was also outdone by a 14.2 percent fall in the Japanese yen against the euro and matched by the British pound’s loss since Sept. 17. The koruna has traded at 25.538 to the euro on average so far this year, in line with the central bank’s forecast for the first quarter. It was 0.1 percent stronger at 25.754 per euro as of 12:50 p.m. in Prague. In the past month, several board members have voiced differing views on what policy setting is appropriate to meet the inflation target. The forecast of the central bank, whose mandate is price stability , signals that currency sales may be needed in the second half of the year, Singer said in an interview published in Euro magazine on March. 4. His comments echoed Feb. 26 remarks by board member Lubomir Lizal, while Kamil Janacek was cited as telling Reuters March 19 that no intervention is needed as monetary conditions are relaxed enough to allow for a gradual economic recovery. Deflationary Spiral For Hampl, the Czech economy isn’t in danger of falling into a deflationary spiral now that would warrant koruna sales. “For me personally, a trigger for interventions would be the moment when I see a highly probable risk of a long-lasting, devastating deflationary spiral,” Hampl in a March 18 interview. “I personally don’t see such a strong risk yet. It can’t be ruled out that this risk will appear in the future, but I don’t see it materializing for now.” The seven-member board, which was split on monetary easing at five meetings last year, would have to approve the use of direct interventions as a policy tool, Singer said. The bank last sold the koruna to stem its appreciation in 2002. The inflation rate dropped to 1.7 percent in February from 1.9 percent in January, below the central bank’s 2 percent target. Fourth-quarter gross domestic product shrank 0.2 percent from the previous three months, the fourth consecutive quarterly contraction. GDP Forecasts The central bank in February cut its economic forecast for 2013 as the government’s austerity measures continue to damp demand. It projects GDP contracting 0.3 percent this year before growing 2.1 percent in 2014. The inflation rate is seen at 1.7 percent in the first and second quarters of next year. Central banks in the region are cutting borrowing costs to foster economic growth. Hungary lowered its main interest rate this week to a record low of 5 percent. Poland has also cut its benchmark to a record, reducing it by a half-point to 3.25 percent on March 6. Hampl and Janacek’s comments were “hawkish” because they clashed with the central bank’s forecast, which assumes a “further, moderate decline in interest rates,” said Jaromir Sindel , an economist at Citigroup Inc. in Prague, by e-mail. The Czech currency will ease further to 25.8 per euro in the second quarter, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 23 analysts. That would be weaker than the central bank’s forecast of 25.3 per euro for the quarter. The koruna “is slightly weaker than the central bank expected in its forecast,” Jan Vejmelek , chief economist at Societe Generale SA’s unit Komercni Banka AS (KOMB) , said in an e-mail yesterday. “We don’t expect the central bankers to use direct market interventions against the domestic currency, moreover, we don’t see using verbal interventions as urgent either.” To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Laca in Prague at placa@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net

Man Is Jailed 16 Weeks for Assaulting Goalkeeper, BBC Reports

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-22/man-is-jailed-16-weeks-for-assaulting-goalkeeper-bbc-reports.html

A 21-year-old man was jailed for 16 weeks today for assaulting a goalkeeper at an English soccer match three days ago, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported. Aaron Cawley, 21, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, admitted assault and entering the field during Sheffield Wednesday’s home match against Leeds United in the Championship, the second level of the English game. Wednesday goalkeeper Chris Kirkland fell to the ground after Cawley pushed him in the face during the 1-1 draw at Hillsborough. Cawley, who appeared at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court, was also given a five-year soccer banning order. The court heard he had been drinking heavily and had already broken two previous orders banning him from games, the BBC added. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter-Joseph Hegarty at phegarty@bloomberg.net

RECHI PRECISION June Sales Rise 24.91% (Table) : 4532 TT

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-09/rechi-precision-june-sales-rise-24-91-table-4532-tt.html

RECHI PRECISION said unconsolidated sales in June rose 24.91% to NT$649,447,000 from NT$519,947,000, according to a statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. (Figures are in thousands of New Taiwan dollars) ================================================================= 6/2012 6/2011 Sales 649,447 519,947 YOY% 24.91% -----------------Year-to-date----------------- Sales 3,492,146 2,714,386 YOY% 28.65% =================================================================

SHIN ZU SHING CO June Sales Rise 64.09% (Table) : 3376 TT

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-09/shin-zu-shing-co-june-sales-rise-64-09-table-3376-tt.html

SHIN ZU SHING CO said unconsolidated sales in June rose 64.09% to NT$377,721,000 from NT$230,193,000, according to a statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. (Figures are in thousands of New Taiwan dollars) ================================================================= 6/2012 6/2011 Sales 377,721 230,193 YOY% 64.09% -----------------Year-to-date----------------- Sales 1,458,829 1,255,469 YOY% 16.20% =================================================================

Folau Re-Signs With Australian Rugby Targeting 2015 World Cup

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-29/folau-re-signs-with-australian-rugby-targeting-2015-world-cup.html

Israel Folau re-signed with the Australian Rugby Union through 2015, rejecting offers to move back to rugby league as he targets a spot in the Wallabies squad at the next World Cup. Folau, 24, scored three tries in five Tests for Australia in his debut season after being called up to the national squad following 14 professional rugby games for the Sydney-based New South Wales Waratahs. After starting his sporting career in rugby league, Folau also had a stint in the Australian Football League before switching to rugby’s 15-a-side version eight months ago on a one-year deal. He was voted the best Australian rookie in the southern hemisphere’s Super Rugby competition this year. “There were a few options,” Folau said of his decision to re-sign. “I had to weigh up a few things, but at the end of the day I was really enjoying the rugby. There is still a lot more improvement and things I need to tick off in rugby and that’s the reason I have decided to go on for another two years.” A full-back for the Waratahs and a winger for Australia, Folau joins players including Wallabies captain James Horwill , center Adam Ashley-Cooper and openside flanker Michael Hooper in re-signing with the ARU this year through the 2015 World Cup, which will be hosted by England. “We’ve got a young squad and a great coach and we’re building our game,” Folau said. “We’re only going to get better. The Rugby World Cup is definitely a draw card.” In making his Wallabies debut against the British and Irish Lions in June, Folau became the first player to compete at the elite level in Australian rules football and the country’s two rugby codes. Ewen McKenzie, who replaced Robbie Deans as Wallabies coach last month, said that Folau had made the transition to rugby with “surprising ease” and would improve over time. “Every week we’re finding more and more ways to use his unique skills,” McKenzie said in a statement. “There’s unlimited potential, he’s got a lot of really good attributes. He’s enigmatic, he just does things a bit differently and it allows us to use him in different ways.” To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Baynes in Sydney at dbaynes@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Elser at celser@bloomberg.net

South Korea Calls on Japan to Drop Heritage Push for Labor Sites

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-27/south-korea-calls-on-japan-to-drop-heritage-push-for-labor-sites.html

South Korea called on Japan to reassure neighbors about its defense expansion and drop plans to seek world heritage status for sites where Koreans were used as forced labor last century. South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung Se made the remarks during his meeting yesterday with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly annual meeting in New York , the Foreign Ministry in Seoul said on its website. One of the potential heritage sites, known as Battleship Island, was featured as the villain’s hideout in the most recent James Bond movie, “Skyfall.” South Korea says Koreans were forced to work at the mining facility before and during World War II. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s decision to raise the country’s defense budget for the first time in more than a decade has rattled relations with its Asian neighbors. Japan occupied South Korea from 1910 until its defeat in the war in 1945 and sent about 150,000 Koreans into forced labor in Japan, according to the South Korean government. “Yun expected Japan to strengthen its defense and security posture in a way that dispels neighbors’ worries and doubts arising from past history,” the ministry said. “Yun asked Japan to reconsider seeking UNESCO world heritage status for the modern industrial sites of Kyushu and Yamaguchi suffused with the painful history of our people being forced to work.” Forced Labor More than 31,100 Koreans were forced laborers in Kyushu and Yamaguchi during the Japanese occupation, according to the Commission on Verification and Support for the Victims of Forced Mobilization under Japanese Colonialism in Korea, which is affiliated with the prime minister’s office. Japan is seeking world heritage status for sites on the island of Kyushu and the neighboring prefecture of Yamaguchi. The talks between Yun and Kishida marked the second high-level meeting between the neighbors since Abe took office in December and South Korean President Park Geun Hye in February. To contact the reporter on this story: Sam Kim in Seoul at skim609@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson at rmathieson3@bloomberg.net

Strauss-Kahn Shows Justice for Accused/Accuser Uses Same Rules

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-29/strauss-kahn-prosecutor-shows-justice-for-accused-accuser-uses-same-rules.html

If Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. had decided to codename his investigation of former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn , he might have called it “Operation Rock and a Hard Place.” Eleven weeks ago, with Strauss-Kahn headed to a country that didn’t extradite, Vance had to decide whether to charge the French presidential hopeful with sexually attacking a hotel maid, based on his assessment of a credible claim. Six weeks after he said the maid admitted telling lies about her background and the aftermath of the alleged attack, Vance is grappling with whether to drop the charges even though there’s evidence of a crime. Lawyers for Strauss-Kahn and the maid are demanding that Vance make opposite decisions. Without indicating any doubts about pursuing the case, Vance has said he’s sticking to the principle he laid down on July 1, when prosecutors told the judge in charge of the case that the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, had lied and had other “credibility issues.” “As prosecutors, our duty is to do what is right in every case, without fear or favor wherever that leads,” Vance said after the court hearing. “Our judicial system seeks to ensure fairness and justice for both victims and defendants.” Since July 1, Vance, 57, has provided no public details of his investigation of the alleged May 14 attack in Strauss-Kahn’s Sofitel suite and set no deadline to finish his probe. A status hearing on the case was postponed to Aug. 1 from July 18 and then to Aug. 23, giving him more time to complete his mission. After Vance’s disclosure, Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers asked him to drop the charges of sexual assault and attempted rape, a demand echoed by French supporters of the 62-year-old ex-IMF chief, who is known as “DSK” in France. On the Offensive Going on the offensive, Diallo’s lawyer Kenneth Thompson demanded the same day that the district attorney pursue the case, claiming the 32-year-old maid hadn’t lied about her core claim: Strauss-Kahn had attacked her. Through statements and press interviews Thompson and Diallo, a political refugee from Guinea , have since attempted to explain or deny Vance’s “credibility issues” and other damaging allegations. A translation digest done for Vance of conversations Diallo had in her native dialect about Strauss-Kahn with a jailed friend quoted her as saying: “He’s got a lot of money. I know what to do,” according to a person familiar with it. After she, Thompson and prosecutors reviewed the taped conversations for hours July 27, he told reporters she’d never said that. “What she said was, ‘He is powerful and rich,’ during one conversation,” that was “merged together” with another in the translation, Thompson said. Drop the Charges Diallo took her damaged case to the public by revealing her identity in tearful print and broadcast interviews last weekend. She detailed her side of the story and denied a New York Post story, based on defense sources, that she is a prostitute. “I want justice,” she told ABC News. “I want him to go to jail,” adding: “God is my witness. I’m telling the truth. From my heart. God knows that. And he knows that.” In a statement, Strauss-Kahn lawyers said Diallo is “the first accuser to conduct a media campaign to persuade a prosecutor to pursue charges against an innocent person from whom she wants money.” Thompson said she plans to file a civil damages suit against Strauss-Kahn. After the Aug. 1 status hearing was postponed, Strauss- Kahn’s lawyers asked that the charges be dropped by the new Aug. 23 date. The French Amid noisy demands from both sides, French officials and intellectuals have called Vance’s handling of the case a rush to judgment. Former Culture Minister Jacques Lang called DSK’s arrest and charging “a lynching.” French philosopher Bernard- Henri Levy said Vance, the son of a former U.S. secretary of state, had destroyed Strauss-Kahn’s presumption of innocence. New York defense lawyers, normally critical of police and prosecutor tactics, took the opposite view. The initial decision to charge Strauss-Kahn, who pleaded not guilty, was the correct one, given the evidence available at the time, the nature of the crime and the flight risk Strauss-Kahn presented, defense lawyers such as Gerald Shargel said. “They did everything they were supposed to do,” said Shargel, a criminal defense lawyer in New York for more than 30 years who also teaches criminal law at Brooklyn Law School. “This DSK case is like the perfect storm. The DA’s office felt it had its back against the wall and didn’t want him to leave the country. I don’t think their judgment calls are subject to being second-guessed.” Swift Action Records show authorities moved swiftly during the more than 14 hours between the alleged assault, which police said occurred around noon on May 14 at a Midtown Manhattan hotel, and Strauss- Kahn’s arrest at about 2:45 a.m. the next day at the Special Victims Squad office in East Harlem. Vance spokeswoman Erin Duggan summed up the district attorney ’s view of the case: “The accuser’s credible account of a sexual assault by a stranger was corroborated by multiple sources, including witnesses and evidence. It was vetted and appropriately presented to the grand jury under the time constraints and circumstances unique to this case. After indictment prosecutors continued their investigation and disclosed additional relevant information to the defense and to the court, as they are legally and ethically obligated to do.” That tracks the assessment of the arrest and initial charges by Gerald Lefcourt, a New York-based criminal defense lawyer who has represented members of the Black Panthers and actor Russell Crowe. “They had probable cause, corroboration to the witness’s story when they made the arrest,” he said. “That was not, in any normal view of how the criminal justice system works in this country, a rush that wasn’t appropriate.” ‘On the Plane’ Brad Simon, a former federal prosecutor in New York who practices in France , said he doesn’t fault the decision to arrest Strauss-Kahn even after hearing the strong French criticism of U.S. authorities. “He was already on the plane, which means that if they didn’t apprehend him, he’d be gone,” Simon said. “I’m a defense attorney, and I’m generally skeptical of prosecutors, but here, what choice did they have? The French wouldn’t have willingly turned him over. Just look how they’ve reacted since.” Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer Benjamin Brafman declined to comment on defense lawyers’ view of the case. After prosecutors’ July 1 disclosures about the accuser’s credibility, Brafman said the case “should never have been brought to begin with.” One reason for the strident response from France may be the different way the two countries’ justice systems work. ‘Very, Very Fast’ “In the U.S., things went very, very fast,” said Thomas Morin, a Paris-based lawyer at Linklaters LLP. “In France, you have to either file a complaint to the police or through a lawyer to a judge, and things don’t begin to move for several weeks or even months.” Dominique Moisi, a founder and senior adviser at the French Institute for International Relations in Paris, said on France24 Television July 5 that the case would have been handled in France, “with greater discretion.” “For a lot of French people, the U.S. system broke down,” he said. “They feel that the Americans provoked an enormous global scandal without bothering to zero in on the personality of the woman who was accusing DSK.” In a letter to defense lawyers, Vance said Diallo’s credibility issues included telling prosecutors and a grand jury that after the alleged assault she’d fled his hotel room and hid in the hallway. She later said that after the incident she’d cleaned a nearby room, then returned to clean Strauss-Kahn’s suite before reporting the attack to her supervisor. Diallo also told prosecutors on June 9 that she had lied in recounting how she’d been granted political asylum, including a tale about being gang raped. Diallo’s Interviews In on-the-record interviews published by Newsweek and broadcast by ABC News, Diallo, reiterated her claim that Strauss-Kahn had sexually assaulted her. Through Duggan, Vance declined to comment on her remarks, published July 24 and 25. Without the benefit of her recent remarks at the time of the initial charges, police and prosecutors relied on what they had back then: The maid had identified Strauss-Kahn from a photo within hours of the alleged attack and picked him out of a police lineup at 4 p.m. the next day. A sexual encounter of some kind was corroborated by forensic DNA evidence police found at the scene, according to Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon. “It’s DSK who put this whole thing in motion,” said Linda Fairstein, former chief of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Sex Crimes Unit, who unsuccessfully tried to get an United Nations official accused of a similar sex crime 20 years ago pulled off a plane as he headed for a no-extradition country. “It’s his semen on her clothes and in that hotel room; there’s no question a sexual encounter occurred. I don’t know what people expect of police. You have a victim who was found credible at the time.” No Special Treatment Fairstein, who was never able to prosecute the official, disputed any suggestion that police and prosecutors should have safeguarded Strauss-Kahn’s reputation by not placing him under arrest and asking him to remain in the U.S. during an investigation of the woman’s claims. “If he were a French dishwasher from a restaurant in Paris he wouldn’t have been given that treatment,” she said. “A sexual encounter happened, and why in the world would he be entitled to a privilege that wouldn’t be extended to anyone else? It would have broken every police protocol to say ‘We’ll look into this, and we’ll get back to you.’” Missteps Once Strauss-Kahn was arrested, New York defense lawyers did say there were missteps in the way he was treated by police and prosecutors. The decision to parade him in handcuffs before reporters, news photographers and television cameras in a so- called perp walk was one cited by Levy as an abuse. “This vision of Dominique Strauss-Kahn humiliated in chains, dragged lower than the gutter -- this degradation of a man whose silent dignity couldn’t be touched, was not just cruel, it was pornographic,” Levy said in a July 2 column for the Daily Beast, an online news website. Lefcourt, a former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said that “in a perfect world, there are a few things we know they could have avoided. First they created this monstrous scene with the perp walk, and then they asked for no bail.” The decision to oppose bail was seen as cruel by French critics such as Levy. Defense lawyers said it was a tactical misstep because keeping Strauss-Kahn in custody set a legal clock ticking to get a grand jury to indict him, making the charges formal. Assistant Manhattan District Attorney John “Artie” McConnell called Strauss-Kahn “an incurable flight risk” at a May 16 bail hearing. New York Law Under New York law, if a suspect remains in custody without bail after arrest and arraignment, prosecutors must indict or release the suspect within five or six weekdays, depending on the day of arrest. By holding Strauss-Kahn in custody, “they really boxed themselves in a corner,” said Henry Mazurek , a New York defense lawyer. “They didn’t have the opportunity to make a review of the evidence and a background check of the complainant, so they ended up relying almost entirely on her and the physical evidence.” Should Vance decide to drop the charges after his investigation is complete, Strauss-Kahn may fare worse in France, where he faces a similar accusation, said Denis Chemla, a Paris-based Herbert Smith LLP partner who is also licensed to practice law in New York. The Banon Case French writer Tristane Banon has told Paris police that Strauss-Kahn attempted to rape her eight years ago. A preliminary investigation of the matter began July 8, Paris prosecutors said. Strauss-Kahn sued her for libel after her complaint. Vance’s prosecutors met with her lawyer July 19. They may interview her as part of their investigation, a person familiar with the case said. “For all the criticisms we have of the American system, nothing can erase that the American system is fairer and quicker than ours,” Chemla said. “The most terrible thing is that the guy is going to be under investigation for two and a half years and after two and a half years, nothing will come of it. That’s the French system. While in the American system, one can see a prosecutor who at the end of the week says ‘Oh hold on, there’s a problem.’ We’re not capable of doing that.” The case is People v. Strauss-Kahn, 11-02526, New York State Supreme Court, New York County (Manhattan). To contact the reporters on this story: Patricia Hurtado in Manhattan federal court at pathurtado@bloomberg.net ; Karen Freifeld in state supreme court in Manhattan at kfreifeld@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net

Obama to Invest Up to $510 Million in Biofuel Plants, Refineries

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-16/obama-to-invest-up-to-510-million-in-biofuel-plants-refineries.html

The Obama administration will spend as much as $510 million in the next three years to build or overhaul biofuel plants and refineries. The U.S. departments of Agriculture, Energy and Navy will invest with private companies that will have to at least match the U.S. contributions, according to a statement today. “America’s long-term national security depends upon a commercially viable domestic biofuels market that will benefit taxpayers,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in the statement. President Barack Obama is seeking a one-third cut in U.S. oil imports by 2025 to reduce dependence on Middle East supplies after the turmoil in Libya sent oil prices to the highest level in more than two years in February. Obama called for incentives to boost production of oil, natural gas and biofuels, tougher fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles and greater reliance on cleaner sources of energy on March 30. The three agencies are targeting companies that will develop aviation and marine biofuels for military and commercial transportation, according to the statement. To contact the reporter on this story: Katarzyna Klimasinska in Washington at kklimasinska@bloomberg.net ; To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net

NEOTECH PHOTOELE December Sales Fall 78.21% (Table) : 3606 TT

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-10/neotech-photoele-december-sales-fall-78-21-table-3606-tt.html

NEOTECH PHOTOELE said unconsolidated sales in December fell 78.21% to NT$3,248,000 from NT$14,909,000, according to a statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. (Figures are in thousands of New Taiwan dollars) ================================================================= 12/2011 12/2010 Sales 3,248 14,909 YOY% -78.21% -----------------Year-to-date----------------- Sales 160,636 256,332 YOY% -37.33% =================================================================

Nigeria Sovereign Wealth Fund to Start Investing in March

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-20/nigeria-sovereign-wealth-fund-to-start-investing-in-march.html

Nigeria ’s $1 billion sovereign wealth fund will start making investments in March after receiving board approval, it said. “We’ll start all the securities investing by March” for the Fiscal Stabilization Fund and the Future Generations Fund, Uche Orji, chief executive officer of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, said today in an interview in Abuja. For the Infrastructure Fund, “we’ll start investing in the second half of 2013.” Nigeria set up a wealth fund in May last year to invest savings made from the difference between budgeted oil prices and actual market prices. Africa’s most populous country of more than 160 million people relies on crude exports for more than 90 percent of foreign income and about 80 percent of government revenue, making it vulnerable to swings in prices. The wealth fund will help meet budget shortfalls in the future, provide dedicated funding for development of infrastructure and keep some savings for the future generation, according to the law establishing it. To contact the reporter on this story: Elisha Bala-Gbogbo in Abuja at ebalagbogbo@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dulue Mbachu at dmbachu@bloomberg.net

CHING FENG HOME April Sales Fall 23.74% (Table) : 9935 TT

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-10/ching-feng-home-april-sales-fall-23-74-table-9935-tt.html

CHING FENG HOME said unconsolidated sales in April fell 23.74% to NT$207,672,000 from NT$272,314,000, according to a statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. (Figures are in thousands of New Taiwan dollars) ================================================================= 4/2012 4/2011 Sales 207,672 272,314 YOY% -23.74% -----------------Year-to-date----------------- Sales 761,778 1,085,957 YOY% -29.85% =================================================================

Stress Tests, Swaps Rules, IPO Rules, CFPB: Compliance

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-28/stress-tests-swaps-rules-ipo-rules-cfpb-compliance.html

U.S. banks with more than $10 billion in assets may get more time to institute internal stress testing required by the Dodd-Frank Act, U.S. banking regulators said yesterday. The regulators proposed rules in December and January to require the big banks -- holding companies under the Federal Reserve and national banks under the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency -- to start self-testing their portfolios against adverse scenarios annually. The proposals, which initially called for banks to conduct tests this year, may be revised with a September 2013 deadline, the regulators said in coordinated statements. The extension would apply to banks between $10 billion and $50 billion in assets, according to the Fed, OCC and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The OCC said in its statement yesterday that banks with more than $50 billion may still have to run tests this year, with the agency reserving the right to let them “delay implementation on a case-by-case basis where warranted.” Dodd-Frank, the 2010 regulatory overhaul, instituted the tests after the 2008 credit crisis in order to ensure banks were stable enough to withstand a future calamity. The final timeline for implementing the stress tests will be included in the rules eventually adopted by each agency. In a separate stress-test requirement from Dodd-Frank, the Fed has conducted its own annual tests, reporting the first results in March. The Fed found 15 of the 19 largest U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) , Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Wells Fargo & Co., could maintain adequate capital levels in a recession scenario in which they kept paying dividends and buying back stock. Compliance Policy U.S. Swaps Rule May Lead to Regulatory Conflict, Say U.K., EU U.K. and European financial regulators warned their U.S. counterparts that a rule on trading swaps outside the U.S. could conflict with laws elsewhere, according to letters sent to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Rules defining U.S. entities in the trades are overly broad and could lead to regulatory overlaps, officials with the European Commission and the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority said in letters dated Aug. 24. “This will lead to duplication of laws and to potentially irreconcilable conflicts of laws for market operators,” said Jonathan Faull , the European Commission’s director general for financial services. “EU and U.S. firms could face permanent legal uncertainty if this issue is not resolved.” The CFTC and Securities and Exchange Commission have been writing regulations for the $648 trillion swaps market required by the Dodd-Frank Act after largely unregulated trades helped fuel the 2008 credit crisis. The law aims to have most swaps guaranteed at clearinghouses and traded on open venues. Banks have lobbied against automatically applying the rules to overseas operations, saying it would hurt their competitiveness. CFTC members proposed interpretive guidance in June allowing for so-called substituted compliance for branches, subsidiaries and other overseas affiliates of U.S. banks when foreign jurisdictions have comparable rules. That move is appreciated but insufficient, both letters said. The European regulators want U.S. rules to give more consideration to other jurisdictions when they have equally strong regulations. The CFTC is otherwise leaving the potential for multiple systems of rules to be applied to the same transaction, making it “economically and financially unsustainable for U.S. and EU firms,” Faull said. Steve Adamske , a CFTC spokesman, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment on the letters. SEC Staff May Seek Public Comment Over IPO Quiet Period Rules U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro has asked staff members to consider seeking public comment on whether the agency should relax rules limiting firms’ communications before initial public offerings. The SEC’s review of restrictions during the pre-IPO “quiet period” follows enactment of a federal law directing the agency to loosen limits on how closely held companies can raise capital, Schapiro said in an Aug. 23 letter to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa. The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act, “has made, and will continue to make, significant changes to the way IPOs are conducted and the permissible communications in both IPOs and unregistered offerings,” Schapiro wrote. Issa, a California Republican, questioned IPO rules in a letter to Schapiro after Facebook Inc. (FB) ’s share price declined following its May 18 public offering, setting off claims that institutional investors got advance word of a potential revenue decline that retail investors weren’t privy to. Issa in his June letter questioned whether conflicts of interest might be interfering with the pricing of offerings. Morgan Stanley (MS) , Facebook’s lead underwriter, has been faulted for improperly pricing the Menlo Park, California-based social networking company at $38 a share. Shares have since declined by about 50 percent, closing Friday at $19.41. Schapiro’s response to Issa was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Compliance Action Julius Baer Says Employee Stole German Offshore Client Data Julius Baer Group Ltd. (BAER) , the Swiss wealth manager, is contacting German customers after an employee stole information on their offshore bank accounts in Switzerland. “We launched an internal investigation and we discovered a case of data abuse,” Jan Vonder Muehll, a spokesman for the Zurich-based bank, said yesterday by phone. “We are in contact with potentially affected clients.” The suspected data thief was fired by the company and arrested, according to Vonder Muehll, who declined to give further details of the theft. SonntagsZeitung first reported the information theft. Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General is investigating the data theft, Jacqueline Buhlmann, a spokeswoman for the office, said in an e-mailed statement. The suspected data thief is still being detained, she said. For more, click here. CFTC Sanctions Russian SMP Bank Over Wash Sales in Yen Options The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission sanctioned Moscow-based SMP Bank over claims its employees conducted transactions with themselves that could have disrupted prices in Japanese Yen options contracts. SMP agreed to pay $700,000 to settle the CFTC’s claims, and Epaster Investments Ltd., a Nicosia, Cyprus-based investment company that was used by SMP traders to execute two of the so- called wash sales, will pay $280,000 to resolve the matter, the agency said yesterday in a statement. In settling the claims, SMP and Epaster didn’t admit or deny wrongdoing. SMP employees knowingly executed trades in the March 2012 Japanese Yen options contracts listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange at prices higher than any bids and offers in the market at the time, the CFTC said. In three instances SMP bought contracts from itself and on two occasions the employees used trading accounts at Epaster to carry out the transactions. Wash sales, in which a party buys a contract from itself, can alter the price of a contract if they are executed above or below market rates. They are illegal when done intentionally to manipulate prices. A phone call and e-mail to SMP Bank after regular business hours were not immediately answered. In the Courts Ghavami’s Rigged Bids Betrayed Municipal Issuers, U.S. Says Ex- UBS AG (UBSN) managing director Peter Ghavami and two former colleagues lied and cheated to rig bids for city and state finance deals, a federal prosecutor said in closing arguments at their criminal trial. Ghavami and former co-workers Gary Heinz and Michael Welty defrauded municipal-bond issuers by manipulating the competitive bidding process for investment transactions, the prosecutor, John Van Lonkhuyzen, told jurors yesterday in federal court in Manhattan. States, cities and other issuers of tax-exempt municipal bonds must use competitive bidding to select firms that will invest proceeds of the securities, according to a six-count indictment in the case. Ghavami and his co-defendants are accused of circumventing that process. From August 2001 to at least July 2002, the defendants colluded with conspirators at banks and at least one brokerage firm to learn about other bids before submission deadlines, according to an indictment. They also conspired to commit wire fraud from March 2001 to November 2004, prosecutors said. UBS, Bank of America Corp. , JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and GE Funding Capital Market Services, a former General Electric Co. unit, have paid more than $700 million to settle U.S. claims over the scheme. As many as 13 individuals have pleaded guilty to criminal charges. Ghavami, a Belgian citizen, was co-head of the municipal bond reinvestment and derivatives group at Zurich-based UBS from about January 2001 to March 2004, with Heinz and Welty reporting to him, according to prosecutors. Ghavami’s attorney, Charles Stillman , argued during his closing argument that the government had “not come close” to proving its case. Ghavami was a “diligent, successful employee who carried out his work in good faith,” he said. Closing arguments are scheduled to continue today. During the trial, which began July 30 before U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood, prosecutors sought to show that the defendants rigged auctions by talking to competitors and by paying kickbacks to brokerage firm CDR Financial Products Inc. Ghavami and co-conspirators often attempted to deliberately lose auctions rather than win them, according to the indictment. Defense lawyer Marc Mukasey , a lawyer for Heinz, told jurors that there were “plenty of sound, legitimate, honest business reasons,” for firms to bid on deals they didn’t want to win. The case is U.S. v. Ghavami, 10-cr-1217, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). For more, click here. HSH Nordbank Sues Over $634 Million in Mortgage Securities HSH Nordbank AG, a German regional lender bailed out during the financial crisis, sued Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley over more than $634 million in residential mortgage- backed securities. HSH Nordbank accused Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, both based in New York, of making “material misrepresentations and omissions” about the underwriting standards used to issue mortgage loans that were pooled together into the securities, according to documents filed Aug. 24 in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan. Goldman Sachs declined to comment on the lawsuit, Tiffany Galvin, a company spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview. Lauren Onis, a spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley, declined to comment on the lawsuit immediately in a telephone interview. HSH Nordbank sued Goldman Sachs over $110 million in mortgage securities and Morgan Stanley over $524 million of the investments, according court papers. Pools of home loans securitized into bonds were a central part of the housing bubble that helped send the U.S. into the biggest recession since the 1930s. The housing market collapsed, and the crisis swept up lenders and investment banks as the market for the securities evaporated. HSH Nordbank, based in Hamburg, is one of a group of regional German lenders sued in state court in Manhattan over mortgage-backed securities during the past year. Other banks sued by HSH Nordbank include UBS AG and Barclays Plc. The new cases are HSH Nordbank AG v. Morgan Stanley, 652988/2012, and HSH Nordbank AG v. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., 652991/2012, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, (Manhattan). Express Scripts Wins Dismissal of Medco Acquisition Claims Express Scripts Inc. won dismissal of most of the legal claims filed by groups of retail drug stores challenging its $29.1 billion acquisition of Medco Health Solutions Inc. The National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the National Community Pharmacists Association and independent pharmacies sued Express Scripts and Medco in March, claiming the pharmacy- benefit managers’ merger would reduce competition and make fewer services available to retail customers. U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon in Pittsburgh yesterday threw out the retailers claims made as buyers of national, full- service benefit-management services, saying any injuries they’d suffer from a loss of competition would be compensable with cash while they’d sought only injunctive relief. Bissoon provisionally dismissed other claims -- including those the retailers said arose as potential competitors in prescription benefits management business -- and gave the plaintiffs until Sept. 10 to re-plead them. Finally, the judge declined to toss retailer claims the Express Scripts/Medco combination could choke off competition in the dispensation of medicine requiring special handling, also known as clinical specialty drugs. Lisa Boylan, a spokeswoman for the plaintiff National Association of Chain Drug Stores, didn’t immediately return a telephone message left after regular business hours seeking comment on the ruling. The association’s attorney, Robert Robertson of Hogan Lovells LLP in Washington, who argued the case for the plaintiffs at the April hearing, declined to comment on the ruling in an e-mail message. Brian Henry , a spokesman for St. Louis-based Express Scripts, declined to comment on the court’s decision. The case is National Association of Drug Stores v. Express Scripts Inc. (ESRX) , 12cv395, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh). Rajat Gupta Insider-Trading Sentence Is Reset for Oct. 17 Ex-Goldman Sachs Group Inc. director Rajat Gupta ’s sentencing on securities fraud for leaking inside information to fund manager Raj Rajaratnam was reset for Oct. 17, a day earlier than previously set. Gupta, 63, formerly managing partner of McKinsey & Co., was convicted by a federal court jury in Manhattan on June 15 of three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy. Prosecutors said Gupta, who sat on the board of New York-based Goldman Sachs and Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) , leaked tips he learned from board meetings to Rajaratnam, who had also been his business partner. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who presided over the trial, originally set Gupta’s sentencing for Oct. 18. Rakoff, in an order made public yesterday, said that date had been reset with “the consent of the parties.” The case is U.S. v. Gupta, 11-cr-00907, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). Comings and Goings Consumer Bureau Names Acting Director for Its Rule-Writing Unit The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau named Kelly Thompson Cochran, formerly a lawyer with Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP, to serve as the agency’s acting assistant director for regulations. Cochran, who worked as the bureau’s deputy assistant director for regulations after joining from the Treasury Department, will replace Leonard Chanin, who left last week to join law firm Morrison & Foerster LLP. The consumer agency announced Cochran’s appointment in a statement yesterday. Stephen Van Meter, who previously was the assistant general counsel for policy, will become deputy general counsel, the bureau said in its statement. Meredith Fuchs became general counsel of CFPB in June after Leonard Kennedy became an adviser to consumer bureau Director Richard Cordray. The bureau also announced that Chris Lipsett will join from WilmerHale to become senior counsel in Cordray’s office and Delicia Reynolds Hand will serve as staff director for the consumer advisory board and councils. To contact the reporter on this story: Ellen Rosen in New York at erosen14@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net

RBS Unit Said to Plan Its First Commercial Property Sale in U.K.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-25/rbs-unit-said-to-plan-its-first-commercial-property-sale-in-u-k-.html

Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC is seeking to sell a portfolio of U.K. warehouses valued at about 65 million pounds ($105 million) in what would be the first U.K. commercial property sale by its distressed asset unit, two people with knowledge of the matter said. West Register, an RBS unit that takes over or buys properties in foreclosure, appointed broker Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. (JLL) to sell the 28 warehouses throughout the U.K., said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. A sale at 65 million pounds would generate a yield of 9.5 percent, one of the people said. Erfan Hussain, a spokesman for Edinburgh-based RBS, declined to comment. No one authorized to comment at Jones Lang was immediately available. RBS has shrunk its balance sheet by more than 900 billion pounds since its state-funded bailout in 2008 and the amount of assets the bank plans to sell or wind down declined to 45 billion pounds at the end of the second quarter from 258 billion pounds. Industrial properties and other commerical real estate assets outside London are gaining appeal as investors look for returns that beat the U.K. capital. Property Week reported the news earlier today. To contact the reporters on this story: Patrick Gower in London at pgower@bloomberg.net ; Gavin Finch in London at gfinch@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ross Larsen at rlarsen2@bloomberg.net

TEN REN TEA CO February Sales Fall 6.78% (Table) : 1233 TT

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-07/ten-ren-tea-co-february-sales-fall-6-78-table-1233-tt.html

TEN REN TEA CO said unconsolidated sales in February fell 6.78% to NT$139,266,000 from NT$149,401,000, according to a statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. (Figures are in thousands of New Taiwan dollars) ================================================================= 2/2012 2/2011 Sales 139,266 149,401 YOY% -6.78% -----------------Year-to-date----------------- Sales 370,632 383,185 YOY% -3.28% =================================================================

Bhansali’s Talma Chemical to Invest in Solar Projects, Economic Times Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-16/bhansali-s-talma-chemical-to-invest-in-solar-projects-economic-times-says.html

Talma Chemical Industries Pvt., a company founded by the family of Indian investment banker Vallabh Bhansali, plans to invest 17 billion rupees ($329 million) in solar projects, the Economic Times reported. Visual Percept Solar Projects Pvt., which is headed by Bhansali’s nephew Akash Bhansali, plans to build 100 megawatts of solar photovoltaic plants, the report said, citing Vishal Kedia, a director of the Talma Chemical unit. Vallabh Bhansali co-founded Enam Securities Pvt., which was bought by Axis Bank Ltd. in November 2010. Visual Percept is spending 3.3 billion rupees to set up a 25-megawatt solar plant in Gujarat state, ICRA Ltd., the India unit of Moody’s Investors Service, said in a report in August, when it assigned 2.31 billion rupees of the company’s debt a rating of BB+. To contact the reporter on this story: Natalie Obiko Pearson in Mumbai at npearson7@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net

Kit Digital Drops to Prague Record Low as Sales Trail Estimates

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-03/kit-digital-drops-to-prague-record-low-as-sales-trail-estimates.html

Kit Digital Inc. (KITD) fell to a record low in Czech trading after the online video software maker’s preliminary first-quarter revenue at $59 million trailed the $72.4 million mean estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The stock plummeted 21 percent to 98.9 koruna by 3:08 p.m. in Prague , the lowest intraday level since the New York-traded company cross-listed in Prague in January 2010. To contact the reporter on this story: Krystof Chamonikolas in Prague at kchamonikola@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net

Acciona's $2.1 Billion Loan May Signal Clean-Tech ‘Fear’ Over in Spain

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-13/acciona-s-2-1-billion-loan-may-signal-clean-tech-fear-over-in-spain.html

Acciona SA (ANA) ’s 1.4 billion-euro ($2.1 billion) loan backed by wind-power and hydroelectric plants shows lenders are ready to fund Spanish clean-energy assets again, according to a partner at the Garrigues law firm. The company, the world’s fourth-biggest producer of renewable power, refinanced the assets last week through a 12- bank syndicate advised by Madrid-based Garrigues including Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, Societe Generale SA and WestLB AG. The loan was the third-largest for clean energy in 2011, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Investors were burned in Spain by several regulatory changes, the most recent being the Dec. 24 law that reduced the income some existing photovoltaic plants earn by about a third, prompting Impax Asset Management Group Plc (IPX) , Hudson Clean Energy Partners and HgCapital to demand compensation from Spain. “The Acciona deal is very important because it confirms that this is a reliable country to invest in,” Jose Guardo, the Garrigues partner in charge of project finance, said in an interview. “The fear is over.” New investment in Spanish renewable assets remains below its 2008 peak. Asset finance slumped to about $7.6 billion last year compared with $17.1 billion in 2009 as the government negotiated subsidy cuts with plant owners, according to New Energy Finance data. Madrid-based Acciona will pay 2.75 percentage points more than the six-month euro interbank rate, or Euribor, during the first years of the 18-year loan, rising to 3.5 percentage points over the benchmark in later years, the company said on its website. Project Slowdown The funds replace a two-year loan Acciona took out in June 2009 when it acquired 2.1 gigawatts of generating assets from Endesa SA, paying 3.22 percentage points more than Euribor. “The transaction price doesn’t reflect any significant difference from the cost of financing for other projects across Europe ,” Guardo said. Analysts who have followed the slowdown in new projects in Spain don’t all agree that the outlook is substantially better. “With low energy demand, policy uncertainty and fiscal and sovereign debt problems, the short-term future does not look very good for Spain,” said Eduardo Tabbush, a New Energy Finance analyst in London. “The fundamentals in the long term remain good.” To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sills in Madrid at bsills@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net

Ranbaxy Falls Most Since March on Proposed Settlement Costs: Mumbai Mover

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-27/ranbaxy-may-forgo-200-million-in-lost-sales-after-settlement-kotak-says.html

Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. (RBXY) , India ’s biggest drugmaker, slumped the most in ten months in Mumbai trading because of costs of a proposed settlement with U.S. authorities over manufacturing violations. Ranbaxy declined 6.5 percent to 443.90 rupees, the worst fall since March 21, at the close in Mumbai, making it the biggest loser on the 50-member S&P CNX Nifty (NIFTY) index. The company, based on the outskirts of New Delhi , may forgo at least $200 million in sales as a result of the settlement, Kotak Securities Ltd. said. A decree signed last month and filed by the Department of Justice in federal court in Maryland on Jan. 25 requires Ranbaxy to relinquish 180-day marketing exclusivity for three pending generic drug applications. Court documents don’t identify the affected medicines, though probably include a version of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. (4502) ’s Actos diabetes pill, said Priti Arora, a pharmaceuticals analyst at Kotak in Mumbai. “Losing 180-day exclusivity is very bad,” Arora said in an interview yesterday. Selling generic Actos in the U.S. with limited competition may have generated more than $200 million in revenue for Ranbaxy, she said. The drug, which had global sales of $4.7 billion in 2010, faces generic competition in August. Ranbaxy set aside $500 million to resolve all potential civil and criminal liability related to the three-year-old dispute with the Justice Department and Food and Drug Administration , it said on Dec. 21. Before today, the stock had gained about 20 percent since then on optimism the company can press ahead with its applications to sell generic medicines in the U.S. Details of the proposed settlement released this week “dispel any optimism,” Credit Suisse AG said in a report yesterday. ‘More Severe’ “We had expected the filing of this consent decree to show a way out of Ranbaxy’s difficulties and reopen its exports to the U.S., but the decree’s actual terms are more severe than we anticipated,” Tokyo-based health-care analysts Fumiyoshi Sakai and Toshiyuki Tateno said. One of the three generic drug applications affected may include a version of Nexium, a heart-burn treatment sold by AstraZeneca Plc (AZN) that had global sales of $5 billion in 2010, according to Credit Suisse. Five other generic-drug applications are at risk if Ranbaxy doesn’t implement certain changes by a specified date, Mumbai-based analyst Anubhav Aggarwal said. Chuck Caprariello, a spokesman for Ranbaxy in the U.S., declined to specify the drug applications affected. ‘Potentially Unsafe’ The Indian drugmaker made “adulterated, potentially unsafe” medicines that were illegal to sell, U.S. prosecutors said in the court documents. The company didn’t admit or deny the accusations detailed in the 58-page filing, which requires approval by a federal judge. Ranbaxy consented to the proposed decree on Dec. 20 in an agreement signed by company officials including co-defendants Dale Adkisson, head of global quality; Managing Director Arun Sawhney; and Venkatachalam Krishnan, the company’s regional director for the Americas. Drug manufacturing and testing defects led the FDA to block more than 30 generic drugs made at the Indian drugmaker’s Paonta Sahib and Dewas plants, the FDA said in September 2008, three months after Tokyo-based Daiichi Sankyo Co. (4568) agreed to buy a controlling stake in Ranbaxy for $4.6 billion. Daiichi Sankyo closed down 2.3 percent in Tokyo trading at 1,422 yen, the lowest since Dec. 2. Earnings Prospects Earnings contributions from Ranbaxy “remain uncertain, weighing down shares in Daiichi Sankyo,” Sakai and Tateno said yesterday. They reiterated an “underperform” rating on the stock and expect it to fall to 1,200 yen in the next 12 months. The proposed decree made it clear why Ranbaxy and Daiichi Sankyo took more than three years to reach an agreement with U.S. authorities, a Morgan Stanley analyst said. “While the companies are making progress to resolve the issue, they still have many more hurdles to overcome,” said Mayo Mita, health-care analyst at Morgan Stanley in Tokyo by telephone today. “The timeframe of that is unclear. The process may require more staffing and investment, in addition to $500 million Ranbaxy set aside.” Daiichi Sankyo declined to comment on the proposed settlement until the court approves the filing, spokesman Masaya Tamae said. Ranbaxy has 66 generic-drug applications awaiting approval with the FDA. For 13 of these, the company was the first to challenge patents, according to a presentation on its website. Under a 1984 law, the first generic drugmaker to challenge U.S. patents gets six months of exclusive sales before competitors can enter the market. Provigil, Diovan Near-term exclusivities relate to versions of the sleep- disorder drug Provigil, which had $1.1 billion in sales in 2010; Actos; and Diovan, a blood-pressure pill made by Novartis AG (NOVN) that generated $1.5 billion in annual sales, Nomura Holdings Inc. said in a report yesterday. The proposed settlement includes requirements that Ranbaxy remove false data contained in past drug applications; hire an outside expert to conduct a thorough internal review at the affected facilities and to audit applications containing data from those facilities; withdraw any applications found to contain false data; set up a separate office of data reliability within Ranbaxy; and hire an outside auditor to audit the affected facilities in the future, according to court documents. “The detailed process, particularly product-by-product validation of data integrity, imply that complete resolution can take two to three years,” Nomura analysts Saion Mukherjee and Aditya Khemka said in a report yesterday. “As Ranbaxy works towards compliance with the help of external agencies, it will continue to incur high costs for resolution.” To contact the reporter on this story: Adi Narayan in Mumbai at anarayan8@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jason Gale at j.gale@bloomberg.net

China Life, DeNA, Hitachi, JVC, San Miguel: Asia Stocks Preview

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-17/china-life-dena-hitachi-jvc-san-miguel-asia-stocks-preview.html

The following companies may have unusual price changes in Asian trading tomorrow. Stock symbols are in parentheses, and share prices are as of the latest close. The information in each item was released after markets shut unless stated otherwise. Australian retailers: Westpac Banking Corp. and the Melbourne Institute is due to release a monthly consumer confidence index for December. Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd. (HVN) , the country’s largest electrical retailer, rose 1 percent to A$1.99. JB Hi-Fi Ltd. (JBH) , an electronics retailer, gained 2.1 percent to A$12. AIA Group Ltd. (1299) (1299 HK): The third-largest Asia-based insurer by market capitalization asked four investment banks to advise it on a potential offer for ING Groep NV’s Asian business, a purchase that may be worth more than $6 billion, said people with knowledge of the matter. AIA gained 1.7 percent to HK$24.40. 361 Degrees International Ltd. (1361 HK): The sportswear products maker said same-store sales grew 9.4 percent in the fourth quarter. The stock advanced 0.3 percent to HK$2.92. China Life Insurance Co. (2628) (2628 HK): The nation’s biggest insurer by market value said premium income for the January to December period was about 318.3 billion yuan ($50.4 billion). The stock jumped 7.1 percent to HK$20.75. Cnooc Ltd. (883) (883 HK): China ’s largest offshore oil producer said sales and net profit had a “big increase” in 2011 as it met production targets. Cnooc advanced 5.3 percent to HK$15.62. City Developments Ltd. (CIT) : Singapore’s second-biggest homebuilder said its Sunmaster Holdings Pte unit and partners won a government auction for a residential site in the city. The group will pay S$388.1 million for the property on Mount Vernon Road. The shares added 0.9 percent to S$9.35. DeNA Co. (2432) (2432 JT): The social media website operator said it will form a venture with China’s NetDragon Websoft Inc. (777) (777 HK) to develop games for smartphones for mainland users. DeNA sank 5.5 percent to 1,810 yen. Hitachi Ltd. (6501) (6501 JT): The maker of electronic equipment and machinery said it will book a 33 billion yen ($431 million) charge on a standalone basis for the April-December period following a drop in the value of securities. The stock was unchanged at 410 yen. JVC Kenwood Corp. (6632) (6632 JT): Panasonic Corp. (6752) (6752 JT) will sell shares of the home-electronics maker for 300 yen each, JVC Kenwood said. JVC Kenwood advanced 4.7 percent to 312 yen. Panasonic retreated 0.8 percent to 611 yen. KB Financial Group Inc. (105560) (105560 KS): The company is interested in buying ING Groep NV’s life insurance unit in South Korea if ING puts the unit up for sale, Infomax reported. KB Financial, the owner of South Korea’s largest bank, advanced 5.3 percent to 39,650 won. Posco (005490) (005490 KS): The world’s third-biggest steelmaker reported a 13 percent decline in profit for last year as the global economic slowdown reduced demand and prices for the metal used in cars, ships and construction. The shares rose 2.2 percent to 394,000 won. San Miguel Corp. (SMC) : The largest Philippine food and drinks company submitted a proposal to the transport department to expand the capacity of the Metro Rail Transit commuter train, a stock exchange filing showed. The stock declined 1 percent to 118.10 pesos. Shimano Inc. (7309) (7309 JO): The maker of bicycle parts and fishing gear said it plans to buy back as much as 1.2 percent of its outstanding shares. The stock gained 0.8 percent to 3,640 yen. Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. (5713) (5713 JT): The copper producer will not purchase concentrate from BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) this year under an annual contract after failing to reach an agreement on processing fees, company spokesman Masashi Takahashi said. Sumitomo Metal gained 1.6 percent to 1,030 yen. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS) : The Indian company Asia ’s largest software-services provider, reported net income that rose 23 percent to 28.9 billion rupees ($570 million) in the December quarter, beating analysts’ estimates, as businesses sought savings through outsourcing and the rupee’s decline boosted overseas earnings. Analysts predicted 28.3 billion rupees, the median of 35 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Shares slid 0.5 percent to 1,103.95 rupees. To contact the reporters on this story: Kana Nishizawa in Hong Kong at knishizawa5@bloomberg.net ; Jonathan Burgos in Singapore at jburgos4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Gentle at ngentle2@bloomberg.net

Oil Falls Below $82 a Barrel in New York After Most U.S. Equities Decline

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-28/oil-falls-below-82-a-barrel-in-new-york-after-most-u-s-equities-decline.html

Oil declined in New York after most U.S. equities fell, signaling a recovery in fuel demand in the world’s biggest crude consuming nation may falter. Futures gave up yesterday’s 0.3 percent gain after about five stocks dropped for every four that advanced on U.S. exchanges. Crude supplies surged 5.01 million barrels to 366.2 million in the week ended Oct. 22, the biggest increase since July, an Oct. 27 Energy Department report showed. “The markets are wildly choppy,” said Bill O’Grady , chief market strategist at Confluence Investment Management in St. Louis. “Oil traders are looking at the dollar and stocks for direction. We will have to wait for the fundamentals to improve before prices can move much higher.” The December contract slipped as much as 32 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $81.86 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and was at $81.94 at 9:46 a.m. Sydney time. Yesterday it climbed 24 cents to $82.18. Prices are up 0.3 percent this week and 2.5 percent higher for the month. Crude has added 3.3 percent this year. Oil gained yesterday after the dollar tumbled against most major currencies amid speculation that the Federal Reserve will curb the greenback’s value by buying government debt. A weaker U.S. currency boosts investor demand for raw materials. The dollar traded little changed at $1.3929 a euro, after slumping 1.2 percent to $1.3930. U.S. Economy Crude also advanced as initial U.S. jobless claims unexpectedly declined 21,000 to a three-month low of 434,000 last week, signaling the labor market may be on the mend. U.S. gross domestic product increased at a 2 percent annual pace in the third quarter, up from a 1.7 percent rate in the previous three months, based on the median forecast in a Bloomberg News poll of economists before a Commerce Department report today. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 0.1 percent to 1,183.78 at the 4 p.m. close in New York after rising as much as 0.6 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 12.33 points, or 0.1 percent, to 11,113.95. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will increase shipments by 1.5 percent in the four weeks to Nov. 13, according to Oil Movements, which monitors tanker charters. The group will export 23.41 million barrels a day during the period, the Halifax, England-based consultant said yesterday in a report. The data exclude Ecuador and Angola. Brent crude for December settlement advanced 36 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $83.59 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange yesterday. To contact the reporters on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net ; Mark Shenk in New York at mshenk1@bloomberg.net ; To contact the editor responsible for this story: Clyde Russell in Singapore at crussell7@bloomberg.net

Pakistan Banks, Government Offices, Markets Closed Aug. 20-22

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-17/pakistan-banks-government-offices-markets-closed-aug-20-22.html

Pakistan’s stock exchanges, banks, central bank, government offices and businesses will be closed Aug. 20 through Aug. 22 for the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Fitr. They will reopen on Aug. 23, according to separate announcements by the central bank, Karachi Stock Exchange and government. Eid-ul-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, during which Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. To contact the reporter on this story: Khurrum Anis in Karachi at kkhan14@bloomberg.net ; To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Merritt at dmerritt1@bloomberg.net

IBurst Builds Fast Internet for South Sudan in Three-Year Plan

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-14/iburst-builds-fast-internet-for-south-sudan-in-three-year-plan.html

IBurst (Pty) Ltd. is expanding Internet capacity beyond the capital of South Sudan , Africa ’s youngest country, in a three-year plan to provide services to the nation’s government and biggest companies. “By the end of June we will have a few base stations running in the Abyei region” to enable services, Thami Mtshali, chief executive officer of the South African provider of mobile Internet services, said in an interview at the company’s Johannesburg headquarters. IBurst has four base stations in the South Sudan capital of Juba using fourth-generation systems, which allow faster downloads. The stations service Juba’s population of about 250,000 and coverage will extend to the whole nation in three years, said Mtshali. “From nothing to 4G, that is what we’re doing to the place,” Mtshali said. “It’s an initial $20 million investment,” and iBurst has already signed up some customers in the regions in which it is expanding, where the biggest clients are government institutions and the military. South Sudan is building infrastructure and institutions after gaining independence from Sudan last July. South Sudan seceded after a referendum on independence, the culmination of a 2005 peace agreement intended to end a two-decade civil war. The south kept three-quarters of the formerly united country’s oil output of about 490,000 barrels a day. Good Margins “We first identify the customer and then build the infrastructure after doing the agreements,” Mtshali said. Customer subscriptions immediately pay the company’s costs, he said. “Margins are very good out there, because there’s absolutely nothing in that country,” he said. South Sudan has a population of 10.6 million and only 60 kilometers (37 miles) of paved roads, according to the CIA World Factbook. The government has a target for economic growth of 7.2 percent in 2012, up from 6 percent last year, according to the Factbook. In Abyei, iBurst will enable “all the people to communicate and to have access to globally competitive technology this year,” Mtshali said. Abyei lies in a contested border region, with Sudan and South Sudan both claiming sovereignty. The two countries’ militaries have clashed in the area, and the north sent in the army in May last year. The UN established an “interim security force” to maintain peace ahead of a planned referendum in which the population will choose which country they want to be part of. Satellite Links While iBurst is rolling out infrastructure in South Sudan, the country is setting up a commission to regulate telecommunications, Khamisa Wani-Ndah, deputy minister of telecommunications and postal services, said in an interview in Cape Town on June 7. As South Sudan doesn’t have a fiber-optic network, iBurst will rely in satellite connections for its rollout, said Mtshali. Within three years iBurst will cover the entire nation with 4G long-term evolution technology. “We have access to funds and we are always in talks with our backers,” he said. The company also plans to put up 1,500 base stations using LTE technology in South Africa by the end of the year, and aims to reach a total of 4,000, Mtshali said in an interview this month. The first set of stations will cost $150 million, he said. IBurst has 100,000 data users in South Africa. To contact the reporter on this story: Sikonathi Mantshantsha and Tshepiso Mokhema in Johannesburg at and +27- smantshantsh@bloomberg.net and tmokhema@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net

Asian Stocks Drop as Fed Cuts Forecast, Retail Sales Fall

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-15/asian-stocks-decline-as-fed-cuts-growth-forecast-u-s-retail-sales-fall.html

Asian stocks fell from a three week high on concern an economic recovery may falter after U.S. retail sales declined, Federal Reserve members cut their growth forecasts for the world’s biggest economy, and China’s expansion slowed. Nissan Motor Co. , a Japanese carmaker that counts North America as its biggest market, retreated 3.3 percent, while LG Electronics Inc., which gets more than a third of its sales in the Americas, lost 0.8 percent in Seoul. BHP Billiton Ltd. , the world’s largest miner, fell 0.7 percent in Sydney on concern slower U.S. growth will crimp demand for commodities. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index declined 0.9 percent to 116.62 as of 5:50 p.m. in Tokyo, set for the biggest fall since June 30. About seven stocks fell for each two that advanced on the gauge, which rallied 1.5 percent yesterday after Intel Corp., the world’s biggest chipmaker, reported record second-quarter sales and Singapore raised its economic growth forecast. “The worst is already behind us, but the strength of the recovery is weak,” said Masayuki Kubota , a fund manager at Tokyo-based Daiwa SB Investments Ltd., which oversees about $51 billion in assets. “Concerns remain about the future once support from economic measures expires.” Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 1.1 percent, its biggest fall in two weeks. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index lost 0.4 percent and New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index slid 0.8 percent in Wellington. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index retreated 1.5 percent. S&P Futures Advance The Shanghai Composite Index declined 1.9 percent after adding as much as 0.7 percent as Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. completed the first part of its initial public offering and the Chinese government said the country’s economy grew 11.1 percent in the first half of the year. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index briefly pared losses after the nation’s slowing economic expansion and lower inflation fueled speculation the government won’t seek to curb growth further. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were little changed. In New York yesterday, the index slipped less than 0.1 percent as the decline in retail sales and the Federal Reserve’s assessment that the economic outlook has “softened” overshadowed Intel’s report. Nissan dropped 3.3 percent to 648 yen in Tokyo. Sony Corp. , which gets almost a quarter of its sales from the U.S., declined 2.4 percent to 2,530 yen. LG Electronics, South Korea’s second- largest electronics maker, retreated 0.8 percent to 99,200 won in Seoul. Sales at U.S. retailers dropped 0.5 percent in June, more than projected, after declining 1.1 percent in May, Commerce Department figures showed yesterday in Washington. ‘Outlook Has Softened’ “The economic outlook had softened somewhat and a number of members saw the risks to the outlook as having shifted to the downside,” according to minutes released yesterday of a June meeting of Federal Reserve officials. Japanese exporters also fell as the dimmer global economic outlook led the yen to appreciate to as much as 88.11 against the dollar in Tokyo, compared with 88.92 at the close of stock trading yesterday. Against the euro, Japan’s currency strengthened to 112.06 from 112.99. A stronger yen reduces income at Japanese companies when overseas revenue is converted into their home currency. BHP Billiton declined 0.7 percent to A$38.13 in Sydney and Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third-largest mining company, fell 1.1 percent to A$66.61. Oil, Metals Mitsubishi Corp., Japan’s largest trading company, retreated 1.9 percent to 1,963 yen in Tokyo. Inpex Corp., Japan’s largest oil explorer, sank 5.1 percent to 418,500 yen. In Hong Kong, Cnooc Ltd., China’s biggest offshore energy explorer, slumped 2.7 percent to HK$12.40. Copper futures for September delivery lost 0.3 percent yesterday in New York, while crude oil for August delivery dropped as much as 0.7 percent in electronic trading today. Among other stocks that fell today, Nufarm Ltd. , Australia’s largest supplier of farm chemicals, tumbled 28 percent to A$3.75 after the company cut its full-year profit forecast and said it won’t achieve one of its loan conditions. Nufarm also had its stock rating lowered at Credit Suisse Group AG, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and UBS AG. CSL Ltd., the world’s second-biggest maker of medical treatments derived from blood, dropped 2.8 percent to $32.80 after a German rival lowered its full-year profit forecast because of lower prices. ‘Upside Potential’ “It’s hard to eliminate concerns about the future,” said Mitsushige Akino, who oversees about $450 million in assets in Tokyo at Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. “However, shares have significant upside potential in terms of valuations.” The MSCI Asia Pacific Index has dropped 3.2 percent in 2010, compared with a 1.8 percent decline for the S&P 500 and a 0.8 percent gain by the Stoxx Europe 600 Index. Stocks in the Asian benchmark are valued at 14.1 times estimated earnings , compared with 13.4 times for the S&P 500 and 11.8 times for the Stoxx 600. China’s inflation cooled to 2.9 percent in June, the statistics bureau reported in Beijing today. Industrial output rose a less-than-estimated 13.7 percent. China’s data “could be a signal for a slowdown in economic growth and corporate earnings for the second half of the year,” said Peter So , head of research at CCB International Securities Ltd. Still, “this data is lower than market expectation and forms a case for credit easing and for holding interest rates.” In Shanghai, Agricultural Bank rose 0.8 percent to 2.70 yuan on its first day of trading. China’s largest lender by customers rose from the IPO price of 2.68 yuan after raising $19.2 billion in the world’s biggest initial public offering in four years. The lender is scheduled to list its shares in Hong Kong tomorrow. Intoll Group , an Australian toll-road operator, jumped 30 percent to A$1.45 in Sydney, the biggest gain on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index, after Canada Pension Plan Investment Board offered A$3.47 billion ($3.1 billion) for the Macquarie Group Ltd.-backed company. To contact the reporters on this story: Shani Raja in Sydney on sraja4@bloomberg.net ; Akiko Ikeda in Tokyo at iakiko@bloomberg.net. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index declined 0.8 percent to 116.82 as of 10:12 a.m. in Tokyo. About seven stocks fell for each that. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, talks with Bloomberg's Lori Rothman about Federal Reserve monetary policy and the outlook for the U.S. economy. Fed officials, in their minutes released today, saw no need to boost stimulus to the economy while trimming their forecasts for growth and noting that risks to the recovery had increased, minutes of the June Federal Open Market Committee meeting showed. Bloomberg's Michael McKee and Richard Yamarone also speak. (Source: Bloomberg) July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Edward McKelvey, senior U.S. economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., discusses U.S. economic conditions and the prospects for the Federal Reserve to deploy additional tools to stimulate the economy. McKelvey talks with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg) //<![CDATA[ $(document).ready(function () { $(".view_story #story_content .attachments img.small_img").each(function(){ var self = $(this); if (self.width() != 190){ self.width(190); } }); }); //]]>

Ukio Bankas Posts First-Quarter Loss of 3.64 Million Litai

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-05/ukio-bankas-posts-first-quarter-loss-of-3-64-million-litai.html

AB Ukio Bankas (UKB1L) Group, Lithuania ’s second-biggest publicly traded bank, had a net loss of 3.64 million litai ($1.55 million) in the first quarter, the Kaunas- based lender said today in a statement to the stock exchange. To contact the reporter on this story: Milda Seputyte in Vilnius at mseputyte@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net

Euro Slides Versus Dollar, Yen After China Central Bank Governor Comments

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-08/euro-slides-versus-dollar-yen-after-china-central-bank-governor-comments.html

The euro fell 0.3 percent to $1.4318 as of 8:35 a.m. in London. The 17-member currency declined 0.2 percent to 116.49 yen. To contact the reporter on this story: Lucy Meakin in London at lmeakin1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Tilles at dtilles@bloomberg.net

Chavez’s Political Agenda Seen Delaying Venezuela Devaluation

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-15/chavez-s-political-agenda-seen-delaying-venezuela-devaluation.html

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ’s political agenda could delay a currency devaluation expected by investors to at least early next year as the government tries to consolidate power in regional elections in December. The economy is always secondary to politics in the South American country and gubernatorial elections set for Dec. 16 will be the government’s near-term priority, Siobhan Morden , the head of Latin America fixed-income strategy at Jefferies Group Inc., said today in a note to clients. The earliest window for a devaluation would be in the first quarter next year, she said. “The ultimate timing is political,” Morden said today in an e-mailed response to questions. “The election agenda is still their dominant priority,” and they don’t want a devaluation pushing up inflation now. A decline in the supply of dollars to the central bank currency market is fueling speculation that Venezuela has to devalue the bolivar to boost oil revenue and help close a fiscal deficit. Increased spending ahead of last month’s election will push Venezuela’s fiscal shortfall to about 7.8 percent of gross domestic product this year, according to Francisco Rodriguez , senior Andean economist at Bank of America Corp. The government may opt in the “near term” to issue dollar-denominated bonds to satisfy importers’ demand for foreign currency because it won’t have a political cost, Morden said. Succession Rules “Devaluation is costly in political terms for the higher inflation,” Morden said. “Around 80 percent of the consumer price basket is dependent upon imports.” Chavez, who in June 2011 said he had cancer, could delay a devaluation well beyond the local election if he decides to hold a referendum next year on a constitutional change that would amend succession rules, Barclays Plc said in a note to clients yesterday. Under Venezuela’s existing law, if Chavez is too ill to serve during the first four years of his term, the vice president assumes the presidency for 30 days while elections are held. Chavez may want to change that to allow the vice president to see out his term, Barclays said. “If the government implements this modification of the constitution, it could delay - or at least minimize - the expected FX and fiscal adjustment,” Barclays analysts Alejandro Arreaza and Alejandro Grisanti said in the report. While Chavez said in June that he was completely recovered from cancer after three operations, he limited his public appearances during the election campaign, leading Barclays and Goldman Sachs & Co. to speculate that his health may not hold up for another six years. Political Damage The government may opt to lessen the political damage of a devaluation by only adjusting the exchange rate on the central bank-administered Sitme currency market, Barclays said. The system allows importers to purchase dollar-denominated bonds at a fixed rate of 5.3 bolivars per dollar, which they can sell for dollars in the secondary market. The government-run Foreign Exchange Board, known as Cadivi, sells dollars to Venezuelans at 4.3 bolivars for essential items such as medicine. Changing just the Sitme rate without adjusting the official Cadivi rate would only partly address the government’s fiscal deficit, Arreaza said. The government plans to raise spending 33 percent next year, Finance Minister Jorge Giordani said Oct. 23. Companies and investors that are unable to get dollars from the government through Cadivi or Sitme turn to an unregulated market that trades at over three times the official rate. The currency has weakened 37 percent this year to 13.69 bolivars per dollar in the unregulated market after trading at about 8 bolivars per dollar over the past two years, according to the blog Lechuga Verde, or Green Lettuce, which cites traders. The Bottom Line The central bank is selling fewer dollars on the Sitme to limit its losses as the gap between the official and black market hits a record, said a government official with direct knowledge of the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because no final decision has been made. The person declined to provide additional details other than saying scrapping the Sitme was a possibility. “The bottom line for bond markets is devaluation itself is fiscally positive for the government,” Ben Ramsey, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York , wrote in research note yesterday. “A correction via a formal devaluation seems inevitable. In terms of timing, we would be surprised to see any formal measures taken before December 16 gubernatorial elections.” To contact the reporters on this story: Nathan Crooks in Caracas at ncrooks@bloomberg.net ; Charlie Devereux in Caracas at cdevereux3@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net .

Schaeuble Said to Say No Need for New Bailouts in Next 3 Months

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-27/schaeuble-said-to-say-no-need-for-new-bailouts-in-next-3-months.html

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told lawmakers in Berlin that he sees no scenario under which the current euro-area rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, will have to issue new bailouts in the next three months, a ruling party official said. No new rescues will have to be made between now and the establishing of the permanent fund, the European Stability Mechanism, at the beginning of July, Schaeuble told lawmakers from his Christian Democratic Union today, the CDU official told reporters on condition of anonymity because the meeting was held in private. Schaeuble said that the EFSF bailouts will keep running alongside the ESM once it is set up, but that the rest of the EFSF pot won’t be transferred to the permanent fund, the official said. To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Czuczka in Berlin at aczuczka@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net

Spanish Bonds Advance Amid Central Bank Bets; German Bunds Rise

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-30/german-bunds-little-changed-before-euro-area-unemployment-report.html

Spain’s bonds rose, with 10-year securities extending an eighth monthly gain, as investors sought higher-yielding assets amid speculation central banks around the world will extend stimulus measures to boost growth. Two- and 10-year yields fell to the lowest levels since 2010, narrowing the yield premium over German bunds, after a report showed the nation’s economy shrank at a slower pace in the first quarter. Italy’s two-year yields dropped to a record as data showed euro-area inflation slowed in April more than economists forecast, backing the case for the European Central Bank to cut interest rates at its meeting this week. German 10- year yields slid to the lowest since July. “The rally in the periphery can run a bit further,” said Rainer Guntermann, a rates strategist at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt. “There is plenty of liquidity in the market with the prospect of lower rates from the ECB as early as this week. The pace of contraction in Spain has started to ease slightly.” Spain’s two-year yield fell seven basis points, or 0.07 percentage point, to 1.70 percent at 4:37 p.m. London time, after falling to 1.67 percent, the lowest level since April 2010. The 2.75 percent note due March 2015 rose 0.12, or 1.2 euros per 1,000-euro ($1,318) face amount, to 101.95. The nation’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 4.14 percent after dropping to 4.11 percent, the least since October 2010. The rate has dropped 92 basis points this month, the most since December 2011, while the eight-month streak is the longest since January 2005, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Rate Forecast The ECB will cut its main refinancing rate from the current record-low 0.75 percent at its May 2 meeting, according to 44 of 70 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Federal Reserve policy makers may signal they are considering increasing stimulus at a two-day meeting starting today, Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Mohamed A. El-Erian said in an interview with Willow Bay on Bloomberg Television. Spain’s economy contracted 0.5 percent from the fourth quarter, when it shrank 0.8 percent, the National Statistics Institute said. “It’s much less severe than the final quarter of last year,” Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said in a radio interview today. “All the leading indicators for the Spanish economy are signaling recovery.” Italy ’s two-year yield dropped as much as seven basis points to 1.08 percent, the lowest level since Bloomberg began compiling data on the securities in 1993. Senate Approval The nation’s Prime Minister Enrico Letta won the final confidence vote needed to install his government before taking his economic growth plan to Berlin to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The two leaders are due to hold a press conference at 6 p.m. local time. Letta, 46, won a majority in the Senate after a discussion about his program that reaffirms Italy’s commitment to budget discipline and calls for tax cuts for business, consumers and homeowners. Germany ’s 10-year bund yield was little changed at 1.22 percent after falling to 1.18 percent, the lowest level since July 23. Europe’s benchmark yield has decreased seven basis points this month. BNP Paribas SA recommends being selling bunds, strategists led by Patrick Jacq in Paris wrote today in a note to clients. “When it comes to the economic conditions in Europe, bad news is priced in,” as is a cut in the ECB’s benchmark rate, the analysts wrote. “We see little value at 1.20 percent.” ‘Revised Upwards’ The euro region’s annual inflation rate fell to 1.2 percent, the lowest since February 2010, from 1.7 percent in March, the European Union’s statistics office said today. Inflation has been below the ECB’s 2 percent ceiling since February. Economists had forecast a decline to 1.6 percent, according to a Bloomberg News survey. “The chances of an ECB cut this week have been revised upwards,” Francesco Garzarelli, the London-based co-head of macro and markets research at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “The Pulse” with Francine Lacqua and Guy Johnson. “The market has been chasing fixed-income, particularly in Europe .” Slovenia is selling two benchmark bonds denominated in dollars, according to a person with knowledge of the offering, who asked not to be identified before the transaction is completed. The nation is offering five-year notes and 10-year securities, the person said. The bonds will not price today, pending a potential ratings announcement, the person said. The rate on Slovenia’s 5.5 percent dollar bond maturing in October 2022 rose four basis points to 5.74 percent. Spanish bonds returned 5 percent in April through yesterday, set for the best month since December 2011, according to indexes compiled by Bloomberg and the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies. Italian securities climbed 4.6 percent and German securities advanced 0.7 percent. To contact the reporters on this story: Emma Charlton in London at echarlton1@bloomberg.net ; Neal Armstrong in London at narmstrong8@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Dobson at pdobson2@bloomberg.net

Lithuania Must Cut Deficit as Market Concern Rises, Premier Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-06/lithuania-must-cut-deficit-as-market-concern-rises-premier-says.html

Lithuania must stick to its goal of reducing the budget deficit to within the European Union’s rules next year to curb debt amid the financial-market turmoil, Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said. Lithuania needs to cut the budget deficit to within the EU rules to qualify for the planned euro adoption in 2014. Kubilius’ government aims to narrow the budget deficit to 3 percent of GDP in 2012 from an estimated 5.3 percent this year. The budget shortfall totaled 7.1 percent in 2010. “The situation in the international markets is an increasing concern,” Kubilius said in an interview with Lietuvos Radijas today. “In this environment, the goal of reducing the budget deficit to within 3 percent of gross domestic product is gaining more importance.” To contact the reporter on this story: Milda Seputyte in Vilnius at mseputyte@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net

CAL Bank of Ghana Targets as Much as 35% Deposit Growth in 2013

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-08/cal-bank-of-ghana-targets-as-much-as-35-deposit-growth-in-2013.html

CAL Bank Ltd., a Ghanaian lender whose shares have surged 92 percent this year, will increase deposits as much as 35 percent in 2013 amid plans to expand its network of branches in West Africa’s second-biggest economy. The Accra-based bank wants to lower the share of money in term deposits, where interest rates are higher than accounts with flexible withdrawals, Managing Director Frank Adu Jr. told brokers and reporters at the Ghana Stock Exchange today. “We are focusing on product-driven retail deposits mobilization in 2013,” he said. CAL’s push to retail clients is a move from its focus on corporate lending since the bank began in 1990. By the end of the first quarter of this year, 49 percent of client savings were in term deposits held by companies. Interest on the accounts can be higher than government Treasury bills, Adu Jr. said. The benchmark 91-day T-bill rate was 22.8 percent at the latest auction on May 5. In three years, CAL Bank targets term deposits at 35 percent of savings, General Manager Joseph Ofori-Teiko said. On savings deposits, the bank pays not more than 5 percent interest, said Philip Fynn, head of treasury. Net income almost tripled to 21.3 million cedis ($11 million) in the first quarter from a year earlier. Net interest income, the money banks make on loans less the ones they pay on deposits advanced to 32.4 million cedis from 12.8 million cedis. CAL Bank will open four branches this year to bring its network to 23, Adu Jr. said. By the end of 2015, it will have 30 locations and 100 automated teller machines, double the current number, he said. Ghana’s gross domestic product may rise to 100 billion cedis in three years from 67 billion cedis currently as the West African nation develops more oil fields , Adu Jr. said. CAL Bank “will target the growing middle class clientele who have the appetite for asset-backed consumption,” he said. The bank’s shares were unchanged at 73 pesewas by the close in Accra. The GSE’s Composite Index (GGSECI) has advanced 52 percent this year, the world’s best performing equities gauge. To contact the reporter on this story: Moses Mozart Dzawu in Accra at mdzawu@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Vernon Wessels at vwessels@bloomberg.net

Manos Says Greek Debt Default Has ‘High Probability’

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-19/manos-says-greek-debt-default-has-high-probability-video-.html

Stefanos Manos, former Greek finance and economy minister, discusses labor unrest in Greece and the outlook for a debt default. He speaks from Athens with Linzie Janis on Bloomberg Television's "Countdown." (Source: Bloomberg) Running time 04:41

Arsenal to Miss Llorente, Juve Wants Walcott: Roundup

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-24/arsenal-to-miss-out-on-llorente-as-juve-targets-walcott-roundup.html

(Corrects Llorente’s team in second paragraph.) The following is a roundup of soccer stories from U.K. newspapers, with clickable Internet links. Gunners to Miss Out Arsenal is set to be beaten to the signature of Athletic Bilbao striker Fernando Llorente by Juventus, which will also try to acquire Gunners forward Theo Walcott, the Daily Mirror reported. Llorente is said to have been offered a provisional contract of 145,000 pounds ($225,000) a week by Juventus, which has been monitoring Walcott since learning that his contract negotiations with Arsenal have stalled, the newspaper added. Mikel Extension Chelsea is ready to give midfielder John Obi Mikel a new five-year contract with a salary raise, the Sun reported. “The club agrees with us he deserves a new and improved contract,” the Sun cited Mikel’s agent, John Shittu, as saying. “He has a year left and Chelsea have decided to add four more years to it.” Goal-line Technology England’s Premier League is pushing ahead with its 6 million-pound drive to install goal-line technology for the start of next season, the Independent reported. FIFA yesterday granted the companies that developed the Hawk-Eye and GoalRef systems licenses to install them worldwide, the newspaper added. It is said to cost about 300,000 pounds per stadium to install a system and all 20 Premier League clubs will have to have the technology operational by August, the Independent added. Racist-Abuse Sanctions The Football Association will review the sanctions applied to racist abuse following high-profile protests from some players about the four-match ban handed to John Terry, the Guardian reported. FA Chairman David Bernstein defended Terry’s sanction under the current rules, though said the tariffs and processes would be reviewed, the newspaper added. The review will probably establish a minimum sanction, the Guardian said. Friedel to Retire? Tottenham goalkeeper Brad Friedel is considering retiring at the end of this season when his contract runs out, the Daily Mirror reported. Friedel, 41, is undecided over whether to sign a new deal, seek media work or start a coaching career, the Mirror added. To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Baynes in Sydney at dbaynes@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Elser at celser@bloomberg.net

Lacker Sees Potential for October Tapering as Fed in Tough Spot

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-26/lacker-sees-potential-for-october-tapering-as-fed-in-tough-spot.html

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Jeffrey Lacker , who voted repeatedly last year against expanding stimulus, said the Fed could scale back support as soon next month after this month “disappointing” expectations. “I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t do it in December or potentially in October depending on what the data looks like,” Lacker said to reporters today in Stockholm. “We’re in a tough spot because of the communications coming into the September meeting and having disappointed expectations.” U.S. policy makers last week unexpectedly kept in place their $85 billion in monthly bond buying, saying they need to see more evidence of lasting improvement in the economy. The Fed has expanded its balance sheet to a record level to hold down long-term interest rates and stoke economic growth. The Federal Open Market Committee also affirmed its plan, known as “forward guidance,” to keep the main interest rate between zero and 0.25 percent so long as unemployment remains above 6.5 percent and the outlook for inflation doesn’t exceed 2.5 percent. The FOMC released a statement on Sept. 18 after a two-day gathering. Lacker, 57, dissented against FOMC decisions at all eight policy meetings last year, including the announcement of a third round of quantitative easing last September. The economic gains from bond buying by the Fed “have been minimal,” Lacker also said today in the text of prepared remarks. He won’t hold a policy vote again until 2015. Lacker said the unexpected decision not to taper this month will make it more difficult to steer policy. “It will be harder for us to communicate credibly in the future” as markets “will doubt things we say in a way they didn’t before this,” he said. “I think forward-guidance will be more difficult. I think that the credibility of our thresholds will be questioned.” To contact the reporter on this story: Johan Carlstrom in Stockholm at jcarlstrom@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonas Bergman at jbergman@bloomberg.net

U.K. House Prices Rise to Record as Mortgage Market Loosens

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-13/u-k-house-prices-rise-to-record-as-mortgage-market-loosens.html

House prices in England and Wales rose to a record in May as government measures to ease credit strains improved the availability of mortgages. The average cost of a home rose 0.4 percent from April to 233,061 pounds ($365,000), Acadametrics and LSL Property Services Plc (LSL) said in a monthly report published in London today. Prices were up 2.7 percent from a year earlier. The government has offered assistance to prospective home buyers and cheap finance to banks to aid the property market. Critics of the latest initiative, designed to help people struggling to raise a deposit, say the plan risks fueling another property bubble. Government efforts “have acted like a steroid injection for the mortgage market and made it markedly stronger than last year,” David Brown , commercial director of LSL Property Services, said in the report. “The only real solution is a sustained improvement in the wider economy which will help increase the supply of mortgage finance and improve demand for it.” Seven of the 10 regions tracked by Acadametrics showed an average annual increase over the last three months, led by a 10.1 percent pickup in London. Wales had the biggest drop of three regions showing declines, at 1.3 percent. The average price was 151,821 pounds, down 10.8 percent from a peak reached in October 2007. North/South Divide A “North/South” divide in property prices persisted as foreign purchasers continue to be drawn to London while other parts of the country suffer from government spending cuts, the report said. “The red hot London market is giving the property market as a whole a deceptively healthy glow,” Brown said. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and Bank of England Governor Mervyn King last year announced a Funding for Lending plan to give banks that improve lending cheap access to finance. Data so far show that net lending still hasn’t turned positive, though some mortgage rates have dropped. “More needs to be achieved to help banks lend to new buyers, as a strong improvement in first-time buyer lending is the crucial catalyst for a full market recovery,” Brown said. To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Ryan in London at jryan13@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net

Japan’s Topix Hits Two-Month High on Easing Expectations

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-03/japan-stocks-rise-on-expectations-of-easing-from-fed-ecb.html

Japanese stocks rose, with the Topix (MXAP) Index closing at a two-month high, on expectations shrinking U.S. manufacturing may spur the Federal Reserve to ease policy and that the European Central Bank will cut rates to contain the debt crisis after the region’s unemployment hit a record high. Canon Inc. (7751) , a camera maker that gets nearly 60 percent of its sales from the Americas and Europe, gained 1.3 percent. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., Japan’s No. 2 bank by market value, climbed 1.6 percent after the sector’s rating was upgraded by Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. (9107) plunged 15 percent after the shipping line said it will sell shares equivalent to a quarter of its market value. The Topix rose 1 percent to 777.11 at 3 p.m. in Tokyo , the highest close since May 2. About four shares rose for each that fell. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average (NKY) added 0.7 percent to 9,066.59, with volume about equal to the 30-day average. “Expectations the Fed and ECB may take action to prevent the real economy from deteriorating are supporting stocks,” said Koichi Kurose, chief economist in Tokyo at Resona Bank Ltd., which manages about $75 billion. “Negative economic data has already been factored into stock prices.” The Topix has fallen 11 percent from its peak on March 27 as growth in the U.S. and China slows amid concern Europe’s debt crisis is spreading. The decline has cut the price of shares on the gauge to 1.1 times book value, compared with 2.2 times for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and 1.4 times for the Europe Stoxx 600 Index. A number less than one means that companies can be bought for less than value of their assets. Easing Expectations Shares rose on optimism for additional policy easing after U.S. manufacturing unexpectedly shrank in June for the first time since the world’s biggest economy emerged from a recession three years ago, indicating a pillar of the expansion may be faltering, a report showed yesterday. The contraction may encourage more accommodative policies, Princeton University economist Alan Blinder said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “Data like this that keep coming in are encouraging or strengthening the positions of the doves on the Fed,” said Blinder, a former vice chairman at the central bank. Canon climbed 1.3 percent to 3,195 yen. Mitsubishi Motors Corp., an automaker that gets almost 40 percent of its sales from the U.S. and Europe, gained 2.5 percent to 81 yen. Futures on the S&P 500 added 0.1 percent today. The gauge gained 0.3 percent in New York yesterday as takeovers helped the market recover from earlier losses triggered by reports of shrinking manufacturing. Among the deals announced, Micron Technology Inc. agreed to pay $2.5 billion for bankrupt Japanese chipmaker Elpida Memory Inc. Europe Joblessness Unemployment in the 17-nation euro area reached the highest on record as a deepening economic slump and budget cuts prompted companies from Spain to Italy to reduce their workforces, a report showed yesterday. European stocks rose as investors bet the jobless data will spur central banks (TPX) will further ease policy to contain the debt crisis. The ECB and the Bank of England are scheduled to announce interest-rate decisions on July 5. ECB officials are expected to lower the key rate by a quarter point to a record- low 0.75 percent, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 57 economists. Banks contributed the most to the Topix’s gain after Daiwa Securities boosted the sector rating to bullish from neutral, saying lenders’ shares are still undervalued even though earnings are firm. Banks Advance Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316) climbed 1.6 percent to 2,660 yen. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan’s biggest lender by market value, gained 3.2 percent to 392 yen. The individual ratings for the two banks were also raised to buy from outperform by Daiwa Securities. Among companies that fell, Kawasaki Kisen plunged 15 percent to 134 yen to lead declines on the Nikkei 225. Japan’s third-biggest shipping line by sales said it will raise as much as 28.6 billion yen ($360 million) in a public share sale. The company also cut its full-year net income forecast 73 percent to 3 billion yen, citing a drop in the value of investment securities. -- With assistance from Toshiro Hasegawa in Tokyo. Editor: Jim Powell To contact the reporter on this story: Norie Kuboyama in Tokyo at nkuboyama@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Gentle at ngentle2@bloomberg.net

Turkey’s January Electricity Consumption Rose 8.6% Year-on-Year

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-06/turkey-s-january-electricity-consumption-rose-8-6-year-on-year.html

Turkey ’s electricity consumption rose 8.6 percent, to 21.3 billion kilowatt-hours, last month compared with January 2011, the governmen’s power transmission company said. Power generation was 21.4 billion kwh, up from 19.5 billion kwh, the company said on its website today. Turkey consumed 229.3 billion kwh of power in 2011, 9 percent more than in the previous year; it produced 228.4 billion kwh, up 8.1 percent, the company said. To contact the reporter on this story: Ercan Ersoy in Istanbul at eersoy@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at bkammel@bloomberg.net

Saudi Banks, Led by Al Rajhi, Post Higher Profit on Lending

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-12/saudi-banks-led-by-al-rajhi-post-higher-profit-on-lending.html

Al Rajhi Bank (RJHI) , Saudi Arabia’s largest lender by market value, led others in posting higher third-quarter profit as lending income rose amid higher government spending in the biggest Arab economy. Al Rajhi’s net income in the period climbed 18 percent to 1.94 billion riyals ($516 million), it said in a statement to the Saudi bourse today. The mean estimate of six analysts was for a profit of 1.9 billion riyals, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Higher lending has helped improve earnings at Saudi banks as growth in the world’s largest oil producer accelerates, spurred by a $130 billion spending plan announced by King Abdullah. Saudi British Bank (SABB) , the kingdom’s fourth-largest lender by market value, Banque Saudi Fransi (BSFR) and Saudi Hollandi Bank (AAAL) reported higher quarterly profit. Saudi British reported a 50 percent jump in profit to 630 million riyals and Banque Saudi, a Saudi lender part-owned by Credit Agricole SA, said profit climbed to 760 million riyals in the period. Saudi Hollandi posted a third-quarter profit of 299.4 million riyals, compared with 85.3 million riyals a year earlier, and beating the 239.6 million-riyal mean estimates of five analysts compiled by Bloomberg. Al Rajhi’s profit rose as the lender gained “higher income from banking fees and investment income,” the company said. Operating profit rose 7.6 percent to 3.65 billion riyals in the third quarter, while total lending climbed 12.3 percent to 134.6 billion riyals at the end of September. Al Rajhi shares advanced 0.4 percent to 68.50 riyals while Saudi British dropped 0.5 percent to 40 riyals. Banque Saudi declined 1 percent to 38.60 riyals and Saudi Hollandi fell 0.8 percent to 25.90 riyals. The Tadawul All Share Bank Index has tumbled 15 percent this year. To contact the reporter on this story: Mourad Haroutunian in Riyadh at mharoutunian@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.net

Mexican Stocks: Cemex, Compartamos, Grupo Elektra Decline

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-09/mexican-stocks-cemex-compartamos-grupo-elektra-decline.html

The following companies had unusual price changes in Mexico trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are as of 4:45 p.m. New York time. The IPC index fell 2.6 percent to 33,812.62. Grupo Elektra SA (ELEKTRA* MM), the retail and banking company controlled by billionaire Ricardo Salinas , dropped 6.5 percent, its largest decline in two weeks, to 1,103.22 pesos amid concern the U.S. Congress won’t pass President Barack Obama ’s $447 billion plan to boost the economy. Cemex SAB (CEMEXCPO MM), the largest cement maker in the Americas, retreated 4.2 percent, its biggest decline in three weeks, to 6.32 pesos on concern U.S. growth will remain weak and Europe ’s financial crisis may be worsening, said Gerardo Roman, a trader with Mexico City-based Corp. Actinver SAB, in a telephone interview. U.S. sales accounted for about 18 percent of Cemex’s 2010 revenue while Europe comprised around 34 percent of the northern Mexico-based company’s revenue last year. Compartamos SAB (COMPARC* MM), the holding company that controls microlender Banco Compartamos, slid 5.4 percent to 18 pesos, its lowest price in a month. To contact the reporter on this story: Leon Lazaroff in New York at llazaroff@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net

Uganda Leaves Benchmark Rate Unchanged at 12%

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-03/uganda-leaves-benchmark-rate-unchanged-at-12-as-inflation-jumps.html

(Corrects spelling of acting deputy governor’s name in second paragraph.) Uganda’s central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged for the first time since May, even after inflation accelerated last month, to spur lending and support the currency. The Bank of Uganda kept the central bank rate at 12 percent, Justine Bagyenda, the acting deputy governor, told reporters today in the capital, Kampala. The bank cut rates nine times last year as it seeks to stimulate an economy whose growth slowed to 3.2 percent in 2011-2012, less than half the previous year’s pace. Inflation accelerated to 5.5 percent last month from 4.9 percent, driven by higher energy costs, and the shilling has slid to the lowest in more than a year. The central bank was unlikely to raise the rate because inflation accelerated only “marginally” and it is “focused on stimulating private sector borrowing to boost growth,” Robert Katabaire, a researcher at the Kampala-based Dyer & Blair Uganda Ltd., said by phone before the decision was announced. The central bank expects growth of between 4 and 4.5 percent in the 12 months through June. It trimmed the forecast from 5 percent because of slow credit growth and an aid freeze by donors including the U.K. and Scandinavian countries, which have cited embezzlement of funds. The central bank raised its benchmark rate as high as 23 percent in 2011 to halt a plunge in the shilling and a surge in inflation. Its reductions since then haven’t been matched by commercial lenders. Stanbic Uganda Ltd. (SBU) , the biggest bank, said last month it would cut its prime lending rate by 50 basis points to 20 percent this month. Barclays Bank Plc’s local unit said it cut its rate by 120 basis points this month to 19.8 percent. The shilling fell 8 percent against the dollar last year, making it Africa’s fifth-worst performing currency. To contact the reporter on this story: Fred Ojambo in Kampala at   fojambo@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Richardson in Nairobi at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net .

Asian Currencies Decline on Concern Europe’s Debt Crisis to Damage Exports

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-19/asian-currencies-decline-on-concern-europe-s-debt-crisis-to-damage-exports.html

Asian currencies weakened, led by South Korea ’s won, as investors cut their holdings of emerging- market assets on concern Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis will slow global economic growth, hurting the region’s exports. The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index dropped to its lowest level since March after European policy makers failed to introduce a plan to stem the region’s debt crisis. Finance chiefs from the euro region said last week the situation leaves no room for tax cuts or extra spending to spur their economies. Global funds sold $1.6 billion more South Korean, Taiwanese and Indonesian stocks than they bought last week, exchange data show. The Asia Dollar Index, which tracks the region’s 10 most- traded currencies excluding the yen, declined 0.8 percent to 116.71 as of 4:06 p.m. in Hong Kong. The won plunged 2.2 percent to 1,137.07 per dollar, Indonesia ’s rupiah slumped 1.5 percent to 8,933 and Malaysia’s ringgit dropped 1.1 percent to 3.1135, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. India ’s rupee slid 1.1 percent to 47.81. “When investors don’t have confidence in the European situation, they try to hold U.S. dollars and try not to expose themselves to riskier assets,” said Amonthep Chawla, a Bangkok- based market analyst at Kasikornbank Pcl. “Investors are waiting for policies that would help to rescue European countries.” Indonesia is preparing a stimulus package that it may implement in the first half of 2012 should the global economy deteriorate and hurt growth, the government said Sept. 15. The risks to growth have increased as the economic problems in Europe and the U.S. have worsened, Bank of Thailand Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul said the same day. Take Steps The won weakened to a six-month low. The authorities will take steps to stabilize the currency market if it spots “herd- behavior,” the finance ministry said in a report to parliament today. The won should reflect economic fundamentals and market supply and demand, it said. Finance Minister Bahk Jae Wan said the won’s recent declines will likely add more pressure on import prices. “Uncertainties regarding Europe’s debt crisis make it difficult to take a strong one-sided bet,” said Kim Seong Soo, a Seoul-based currency trader with Kyongnam Bank. The rupiah traded near a seven-month low as the MSCI Asia- Pacific Excluding Japan Index of stocks snapped a two-day advance. Overseas investors cut their holdings of Indonesian government bonds by 2.1 percent to 245.92 trillion rupiah ($27.7 billion) in the first three days of last week, debt management office data show. Foreign funds sold $411 million more local shares than they bought last week, according to exchange data. Export Orders “The market is cautious on what is going to happen in the euro zone,” said Gundy Cahyadi , an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. in Singapore. “That is keeping Asian currencies under pressure including the rupiah. Bank Indonesia has been active to smooth the flows in the currency.” The ringgit fell to its weakest level since December as European Union and International Monetary Fund officials assess whether Greece ’s budget measures would qualify the nation for another tranche of bailout aid. “The market is scared of the contagion risk, not just the Greece situation alone,” said Ahmad Zubaidi Samse, a foreign- exchange trader at Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur. “The ringgit is reflecting that sentiment.” Taiwan’s dollar fell 0.7 percent to NT$29.78 against the greenback before a report tomorrow that economists surveyed by Bloomberg predict will show growth in export orders, an indication of shipments in the next one to three months, slowed to 7 percent in August from a year earlier compared with 11.1 percent the previous month. Elsewhere, the Philippine peso weakened 0.4 percent to 43.463 per dollar and Thailand’s baht declined 0.3 percent to 30.46. China ’s yuan dropped 0.05 percent to 6.3869. To contact the reporter on this story: Yumi Teso in Bangkok at yteso1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sandy Hendry at shendry@bloomberg.net

Margaux ’96 Selling at $7,270 Trades Near 3-1/2 Year Liv-Ex Low

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-10/margaux-96-selling-at-7-270-trades-near-3-1-2-year-liv-ex-low.html

A case of 1996 Chateau Margaux, a Bordeaux first-growth wine estate, sold for 4,555 pounds ($7,270) on Liv-ex, near the 3-1/2 year low it touched last month as demand for the region’s top wines weakened. The price on yesterday’s sale was little changed from the 4,550 pound level at which 12 bottles changed hands on Oct. 1, and was just 4 percent above the 4,400 pounds at which a case sold on Sept. 23. All three transactions took place below the vintage’s previous trading band for this year. The Liv-ex Fine Wine 50 Index, tracking leading Bordeaux vintages, has declined since March 15, paring an 8 percent gain made in the previous 11 weeks to leave it 1 percent up since the start of this year. Bordeaux’s share of trade “remains low,” Liv-ex said in its October market report. In the past month “buyers continued to eschew the region in favor of wines from beyond the Gironde.” The wine is trading 34 percent below the 6,900 pound peak it reached in March 2011 at the height of Asian demand for Bordeaux wines, although more than double the 1,890 pounds at which it traded in October 2002, Liv-ex data shows. The 1996 Margaux ranks as the estate’s fifth highest-priced wine of the past 20 years, trailing only those from 2010, 2009, 2005 and 2000, according to merchant prices collated by Liv-ex on its Cellar Watch website. The vintage was awarded a 99 rating on a 100-point scale by U.S. critic Robert Parker , putting it among the six highest-ranked Margaux wines of the past quarter century, according to the eRobertParker.com website. First Growth Chateau Margaux, whose wines have been sold in London since the early 18th century, was acquired in 1977 by Greek retail magnate Andre Mentzelopoulos and has been run since his death in 1980 by his daughter Corinne. The estate has 80 hectares (198 acres) planted with red-grape vines Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc and 12 hectares planted with white Sauvignon Blanc. It produces an annual average 130,000 bottles of its main wine, a similar quantity of second wine Pavillon Rouge du Chateau Margaux and 15,000 bottles of white Pavillon Blanc, according to its website. The vineyard is on the left bank of the Gironde estuary and ranked among the top Medoc first-growth estates in the classification drawn up for Napoleon III’s 1855 Paris Exhibition, which remains in force. To contact the reporter on this story: Guy Collins in London at guycollins@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Sillitoe in London at psillitoe@bloomberg.net

Arab League Committed to Libya No-Fly Zone, Moussa Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-21/arab-league-committed-to-libya-no-fly-zone-moussa-says-1-.html

The Arab League remains committed to United Nations ’ efforts to enforce a no-fly zone in Libya and urged coalition forces to make protecting civilians a priority for the operation, Secretary General Amr Moussa said. “The Arab League decisions have been announced and we are committed to them,” Moussa said at a press conference with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in Cairo. “We respect the Security Council resolution and have no contradiction with this resolution, especially since it stated that there be no invasion or occupation of Libyan lands.” Ban praised the Arab League for its continued support, saying it was critical for the international community to remain united. “We need one global voice” to sustain the no-fly zone, he said. The Arab League’s support for a no-fly zone was decisive in getting the Security Council to support the idea, Ban said at the press conference. Media reports have indicated that some Arab League members have been reconsidering their backing since coalition aircraft began bombing Libyan military targets. Talks are under way for an emergency meeting of Arab League nations to discuss the situation in Libya, the Egyptian government-owned Middle East News Agency reported yesterday, citing Moussa as saying. Moussa said his remarks were misinterpreted. Ban also condemned violence in Yemen after press reports that 20 people were killed when the army clashed with Houthi rebels. He also warned about spreading unrest in Bahrain. The secretary general was forced to drop plans to walk through Tahrir Square -- the scene of massive demonstrations last month that toppled President Hosni Mubarak -- before flying to Tunis. Ban was turned back after he left the press conference and was surrounded by a group of about 40 pro-Qaddafi demonstrators chanting “Down, Down USA!” and waving their fists at the secretary general. To contact the reporters on this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson in Rome at fjackson@bloomberg.net ; Mariam Fam in Cairo at mfam1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net ; Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net

Merkel’s Permanent Euro-Rescue Plan Needs Opposition Backing

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-14/merkel-s-permanent-euro-rescue-plan-needs-opposition-backing.html

Chancellor Angela Merkel will need opposition support in Germany for a planned permanent euro-area rescue mechanism that aims to enroll private investors in future sovereign debt crises, a parliamentary report showed. As European Union governments work on the post-2013 successor to the 750 billion-euro ($1 trillion) rescue fund, constitutional lawyers in Germany’s lower house of parliament have concluded that Merkel needs a two-thirds majority for the measure to pass in a vote. The threshold is higher than the simple majority in regular votes because it risks breaching constitutional budget rules. “The implications are massive for Frau Merkel -- I see a huge wall to climb to get a majority and it may be one that is just too high,” Frank Schaeffler , a lawmaker with Merkel’s Free Democratic Party coalition partner who commissioned the report, said today in an interview. The study “is explicit: beware eroding parliament’s fundamental right to control the budget and try to do so at your own peril.” The report adds to Merkel’s headaches three days after she lost Bundesbank President Axel Weber as the German front-runner to become the next head of the European Central Bank , and as she prepares for two March EU summits that will determine Europe ’s response to the debt crisis that threatens Portugal and Spain. Facing elections in seven of Germany’s 16 states beginning on Feb. 20, Merkel is already hemmed in by voter resistance to further aid for indebted nations and a Free Democratic coalition partner that refuses to contemplate changes to existing crisis- fighting tools. Germany , as Europe’s biggest economy, is the largest country contributor to the rescue fund. ‘Hardly Possible’ Amending the rescue fund’s remit means the parliament ceding fiscal powers on a scale that it is “hardly possible to foresee,” said the report. “Democratic legitimacy” for German support “is that much higher the graver the risks for future generations beyond the current legislative period.” Merkel secured a commitment from fellow EU leaders in December for a change to the EU treaty to provide for a permanent rescue facility, known as the European Stability Mechanism. She won a concession that investors will be made to share in the cost of any future crisis on a case-by-case basis. The government controls 332 seats in the 622-seat lower house, the Bundestag , enough to ensure legislation passes by a simple majority. Yet a two-thirds requirement would need 83 opposition lawmakers to come on board to achieve the 415 votes necessary to pass the law. The ESM would also need to be put to the upper house, the Bundesrat, where Merkel lacks a majority, according to the report. To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Parkin in Berlin at bparkin@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net

Penn National Gaming Raises 2011 Profit Forecast With Las Vegas's M Resort

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-21/penn-national-gaming-raises-2011-profit-revenue-forecasts.html

Penn National Gaming Inc. (PENN) , the operator of 25 casinos and racetracks, raised its 2011 profit and revenue forecasts, and said it expects to take ownership of the M Resort in Las Vegas in June. Full-year profit will rise to $1.64 a share, up from the $1.48 forecast in February, the Wyomissing, Pennsylvania-based company said in a statement today. Analysts projected $1.54, the average of 21 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Peter Carlino said in the statement that consumer spending has stabilized across the company’s businesses. Penn is building casinos in Ohio and Kansas, expanding through acquisitions in Texas and Nevada and adding to its existing locations as states allow more gambling to boost tax revenue. Penn said operating results will include the acquisition of the M Resort Spa Casino in June, after buying the Las Vegas property’s debt at a discount last year. Penn gains a casino about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of the Las Vegas Strip for a fraction of the almost $1 billion the 390-room resort cost to build. Revenue for 2011 will rise to $2.71 billion, up from a prior forecast of $2.69 billion, Penn said. Analysts projected $2.72 billion, the average of 18 estimates. Penn rose 52 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $37.34 yesterday in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares had gained 6.2 percent this year before today. To contact the reporter on this story: Beth Jinks in New York at bjinks1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net

Barrick May Raise $3.45 Billion in Share Sale to Cut Debt

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-31/barrick-may-raise-3-45-billion-in-share-sale-to-reduce-debt.html

Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) , the world’s largest producer of the metal, plans to sell shares to raise as much as $3.45 billion to help reduce its debt, which has increased this year as the price of the commodity declined. It agreed to sell 163.5 million shares for $18.35 apiece in a so-called bought deal that’s being underwritten by a group led by RBC Capital Markets , Barclays Plc and GMP Securities LP, Toronto-based Barrick said today in a statement. There’s an over-allotment option for the sale of an additional 24.5 million shares, the company said. Barrick has come under pressure this year after the price of gold fell 21 percent. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Sokalsky has explored cash-raising options including a strategic equity investment, a sale of a stake in its copper business and selling a stale in its $8.5 billion Pascua-Lama project to a state-backed Chinese investor, people with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Barrick said earlier today it will suspend construction work at Pascua-Lama to help conserve cash. The announcement of the share sale was made after the close of regular trading in New York , where Barrick fell 5.4 percent to $18.34 at 6 p.m. Barrick plans to use $2.6 billion from the stock sale to buy back bonds. It will use $1.1 billion to repurchase $700 million of 1.75 percent notes due 2014 and $350 million of 4.875 percent notes, also due in 2014. Asset Sales A further $1.5 billion will be used to buy back bonds from 10 issues due between 2015 and 2023, with priority given to notes with shorter maturities, the company said in a separate statement. Even before today’s announcement, Sokalsky had chosen a series of measures to counter the gold decline and rising mining costs, including the sale of some mining and energy assets. Barrick took $8.7 billion of writedowns in the second quarter and cut its dividend. Long-term debt was $14.6 billion at the end of the third quarter, up from $12.1 billion at the end of 2012. Barrick said in a separate statement today before announcing the stock sale that options to improve liquidity included drawing down $4 billion available on a credit facility, further asset sales, and selling debt or equity either in the public markets or to private investors, a course of action that may include the creation of a strategic partnership. Barrick said today it’s targeting $500 million of additional annual savings from measures including an organizational restructuring, which involves cutting 1,850 jobs. Project Suspension Today It reported third-quarter earnings excluding tax adjustments and foreign-exchange losses of 58 cents a share, topping the 50-cent average of 20 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales declined 12 percent to $2.99 billion, beating the $2.91 billion average estimate. The suspension of work at Pascua-Lama will cut capital spending in 2014 by as much as $1 billion and improve near-term cash flows. The project is located more than 12,000 feet (3,657 meters) up in the Andes mountains on the Argentina-Chile border and was already partially halted amid concerns from local groups about potential water contamination. Barrick said all activity except that needed for environmental protection and regulatory compliance will cease, with a restart depending on future costs, gold prices and the regulatory and legal outlook. Barrick has struggled with the project, its sole mine-construction project, amid ballooning costs, delays and environmental challenges. Pascua-Lama was originally expected to cost no more than $3 billion when construction was approved in 2009. To contact the reporters on this story: Liezel Hill in Toronto at lhill30@bloomberg.net ; Steven Frank in Toronto at sfrank9@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Simon Casey at scasey4@bloomberg.net

OGX to Drill More Santos Wells as It Seeks to Boost Reserves

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-01/ogx-to-drill-more-santos-wells-as-it-seeks-to-boost-reserves-1-.html

OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA , the oil explorer controlled by billionaire Eike Batista , plans to drill additional wells at a recent discovery in the Santos Basin and may increase estimated reserves in the area. OGX, based in Rio de Janeiro , halted drilling at the OGX-63 well to replace the current rig with one that can handle the high pressure encountered in the reservoir, the company said today in a regulatory filing. OGX found hydrocarbons in two separate well sections, including the thickest reservoir the company has found to date in shallow waters of Santos. OGX will “drill delimitation wells to assess the existing volumes in the area which may potentially surpass current estimates,” the company said. OGX estimates 1.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil and equivalents at Santos. The company has drilled the well to nearly four miles below the sea floor where it has found a so- called pre-salt reservoir, similar to the geology at Brazil ’s biggest discoveries in deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean. To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Millard in Rio de Janeiro at pmillard1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net

Brazil Stock Movers: MMX, Petroleo Brasileiro, Tam Decline

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-28/brazil-stock-movers-mmx-petroleo-brasileiro-tam-decline.html

The following companies had unusual price changes in Sao Paulo trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are as of 4:15 p.m. New York time. Preferred shares are usually the most-traded class of stock. The Bovespa Index fell 1.2 percent to 53,270.36. MMX Mineracao & Metalicos SA (MMXM3 BS), the iron-ore producer controlled by Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista , slid 0.9 percent to 7.42 reais while state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4) (PETR4 BS) declined 1 percent to 19.35 reais. Crude and metals prices tumbled on concern Europe ’s burgeoning debt crisis will hurt commodity demand. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI index of 24 raw materials fell 2.7 percent. Tam SA (TAMM4) (TAMM4 BS), Brazil ’s biggest airline by passengers carried, fell 5.2 percent to 31.60 reais as Lan Airlines SA said Chile’s antitrust court overestimated the income generated by fees charged by the airline during the tribunal’s evaluation of its proposed merger. Lan said it will continue studying the measures proposed by the court this week and expects the merger to be completed in the first quarter of 2012. To contact the reporter on this story: Leon Lazaroff in New York llazaroff@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos in New York at papadopoulous@bloomberg.net

Norway to Raise Value-Added Tax on Food Next Year, NRK Reports

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-30/norway-to-raise-value-added-tax-on-food-next-year-nrk-reports.html

Norway will raise the value-added tax on food by 1 percentage point next year to 15 percent, NRK reported, citing people familiar with the budget that will be presented next week. Click here for web link To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonas Bergman at jbergman@bloomberg.net

German Stocks Erase Losses; Deutsche Boerse, Henkel, Infineon Shares Gain

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-18/german-stocks-erase-losses-deutsche-boerse-henkel-infineon-shares-gain.html

German stocks erased losses, with the benchmark DAX Index climbing 0.1 percent to 6,338.76 as of 10:41 a.m. in Frankfurt. The gauge earlier retreated as much as 0.8 percent. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Julie Cruz at jcruz6@bloomberg.net

Tiger Woods, Angelina Jolie Shouldn't Set Bonuses: Mark Gilbert

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2009-09-09/tiger-woods-angelina-jolie-shouldn-t-set-bonuses-mark-gilbert.html

The Group of 20 proclamation suggesting remedies for what ails finance is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Its proposed solutions are not only flawed, they are impossible to implement

Copper in London Drops 0.7% to $6,566/Ton, Lead Falls 0.7% to $1,815/Ton

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-23/copper-in-london-drops-0-7-to-6-566-ton-lead-falls-0-7-to-1-815-ton.html

Copper dropped as much as 0.7 percent to $6,566 a metric ton in London. Lead declined as much as 0.7 percent to $1,815. To contact the reporter on this story: Xiaowei Li in Shanghai at xli12@bloomberg.net

Shanghai Gold Exchange Benchmark Contract Volume Jumps to Record

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-18/shanghai-gold-exchange-benchmark-contract-volume-jumps-to-record.html

Gold volumes for the benchmark cash contract on the Shanghai Gold Exchange climbed to a record today, as the market re-opened after a weeklong break and lower prices lured buyers. The volume for bullion of 99.99 percent purity exceeded 22,000 kilograms (22 metric tons), according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Prices dropped 2.8 percent to 327.25 yuan a gram ($1,630.29 an ounce) as of 5:04 p.m. Singapore time. Markets were closed last week for the Lunar New Year holiday. “Chinese investors returned to the market today after the holiday, and the slump in gold prices in the past week provided great incentive for buying as many Chinese are still holding a bullish outlook on gold,” Qu Mingyu , a trader at Bank of China Ltd., the nation’s fourth-largest lender by assets, said by phone from Shanghai today. Spot gold tumbled 3.4 percent last week, the worst such showing since May, as improving data from the U.S. reduced the appeal of haven assets. The metal today rebounded as much as 0.6 percent to $1,618.90 an ounce and last traded at $1,615.40. -- Glenys Sim and Feiwen Rong. Editors: Ovais Subhani, To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net ; Feiwen Rong in Beijing at frong2@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net ; Brett Miller at bmiller30@bloomberg.net

Tesla Libel Suit Over BBC’s ‘Top Gear’ Dismissed in U.K.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-05/tesla-libel-suit-over-bbc-s-top-gear-dismissed-by-u-k-court.html

A U.K. appeals court dismissed a libel lawsuit from Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) , a maker of electric vehicles led by billionaire Elon Musk, against the British Broadcasting Corp. show “Top Gear.” The court rejected Tesla’s appeal of last year’s decision to strike out its “libel and malicious falsehood” case against the BBC. The Palo Alto, California-based company said “Top Gear” faked a scene that appeared to show a Tesla Roadster running out of power, which led to lower sales. The “Top Gear” review wouldn’t have misled “a reasonable viewer” into thinking the Tesla car’s range was less than the company’s estimate of “200 miles under normal driving conditions,” Martin Moore-Bick, an appeals court judge in London, said in his decision today. Musk last month told Bloomberg Television that a story by New York Times reporter John M. Broder, which claimed that the car-maker’s Model S sedan fell short of its estimated range, was “fake.” Shares in the company have fallen more than 9 percent, from $39.24 to $35.58, since Feb. 8, the day the Times article first appeared. “I am pleased that the Appeal Court has upheld the previous ruling and the case has been struck out,” Andy Wilman, executive producer of Top Gear, said in an e-mailed statement today. “I’d also like to apologize to the judges for making them have to watch so much ’Top Gear.’” Track Test The BBC show tested the Tesla Roadster in 2008, driving two vehicles around a track to “push the cars to the limits of their performance in terms of acceleration, straight line speed, cornering and handling,” according to the judgment. “Top Gear” claimed the car ran out of power after 55 miles, in contrast to the company’s estimated range. Tesla claimed it had missed out on $171,000 in lost sales as a result of the show’s review of the car. Sales of the Tesla Roadster “within the U.K. have been lower than expected and, in particular, have fallen well below the level of sales in the EU and the United States,” lawyers for Tesla said, according to the judgment. A lawyer for Tesla at Carter-Ruck in London couldn’t be immediately reached to comment on the ruling. To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Moshinsky in London at bmoshinsky@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net

HSBC, UniCredit Said to Pull Out of Bidding for AIB's Polish Unit Zachodni

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-12/hsbc-unicredit-said-to-pull-out-of-bidding-for-aib-s-polish-unit-zachodni.html

UniCredit SpA and HSBC Holdings Plc withdrew from the bidding for Bank Zachodni WBK SA , the Polish lender that Allied Irish Banks Plc aims to sell this year, a person with knowledge of the negotiations said. PKO Bank Polski SA , Poland’s largest lender, is in talks to buy the 70 percent stake in Zachodni, valued at 9.77 billion zloty ($3 billion) in Warsaw trading today, the person said, declining to be identified because the details aren’t public. Arkadiusz Mierzwa , a spokesman for UniCredit Polish unit Bank Pekao SA; Brendan McNamara , a spokesman for HSBC; and Catherine Burke , a spokeswoman for AIB, all declined to comment. AIB is selling its entire stake in Poland’s third-biggest bank by market value, to help meet capital requirements set by Irish banking regulators. Zachodni could give a foreign bank a foothold in Poland, the only European Union economy to avoid recession last year. HSBC and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA of Italy were among the banks that placed initial bids last month, two people familiar with the transaction said July 2. Dublin-based AIB asked bidders to improve their offers before it closes a shortlist and allows for due diligence scrutiny, Rzeczpospolita newspaper reported today, citing a person close to the transaction. On June 22, Treasury Minister Aleksander Grad said the government would support PKO’s bid for Zachodni. Three days later, PKO’s shareholders postponed their vote on a 2009 dividend until its chances to buy Zachodni become clear. PKO’s Chief Executive Officer Zbigniew Jagiello declined to comment last week on whether the bank actually placed the bid. To contact the reporter on this story: Maciej Martewicz in Warsaw at mmartewicz@bloomberg.net

Dollar Tumbles on Prospects for ECB to End Stimulus as Fed Sets Purchases

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-04/dollar-declines-on-fed-purchases-euro-jumps-after-ecb-holds-lending-rate.html

The dollar fell against all of its major peers as the European Central Bank signaled it will likely stick with its stimulus-exit strategy even as the Federal Reserve buys $600 billion of bonds to boost the U.S. economy. The greenback reached a nine-month low versus the euro as the ECB said it will decide on further exit steps next month. The pound rose as the Bank of England refrained from adding to its asset purchases. The New Zealand dollar climbed against all of its counterparts as commodities surged. “The lack of policy adjustment from the ECB, from the Bank of England and the aggressive action by the Fed gives traders no reason that there’s not going to be a steady depreciation of the dollar,” said Jessica Hoversen , a Chicago-based analyst at the futures broker MF Global Holdings Ltd. The dollar weakened 0.5 percent to $1.4207 per euro at 5 p.m. in New York, from $1.4139 yesterday. It earlier reached $1.4282, the weakest since Jan. 20. Against the yen, the dollar lost 0.4 percent to 80.75. The U.S. currency was 1.8 percent weaker at 79.45 cents per New Zealand dollar. The yen was little changed at 114.68 against the euro. IntercontinentalExchange Inc.’s Dollar Index , which tracks the currency against those of six major U.S. trading partners including the euro, dropped for a third day, losing 0.8 percent to 75.895 and reaching 75.631, the lowest since December. The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee said yesterday it will buy about $75 billion a month through June in Treasuries in a strategy called quantitative easing that pumps money into the U.S. economy and debases the dollar. The Fed has kept interest rates near zero since December 2008 to try to stimulate growth following the worst slump since the Depression. Temporary ‘by Definition’ ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet signaled today the bank intends to pursue its strategy to end emergency stimulus. “The non-standard measures are by definition temporary in nature,” Trichet said at a press conference in Frankfurt today after the ECB left its benchmark interest rate at 1 percent. Policy makers will decide on possible further exit steps next month, he said. “The nervousness about what the quantitative easing package looks like, it’s done and that chip is off the table,” said Tim O’Sullivan , chief trader at FOREX.com, a unit of the online currency trading company Gain Capital in Bedminster, New Jersey. “If you look at the playing field with dollar rates, U.K. rates and European rates all around a half percent, people are asking where to find yield.” Aussie, Kiwi Climb The New Zealand dollar, nicknamed the kiwi, surged to its highest level in more than two years. The Australian dollar touch a record against the greenback as investors bet the Fed’s bond purchases would weaken the dollar, making commodities priced in the currency cheaper in terms of other currencies and fueling demand for raw materials as an alternative investment. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Index of 24 commodities gained as much as 2.4 percent to the highest level since October 2008. Benchmark interest rates are 4.75 percent in Australia and 3 percent in New Zealand, attracting investors to the South Pacific nations’ higher-yielding assets. The kiwi gained as much as 2.3 percent to 79.76 U.S. cents, the highest level since April 2008. Australia’s currency touched $1.0177, the highest level since exchange controls were lifted in 1983. Sterling climbed 1.2 percent to $1.6268 and touched $1.6299, its strongest level since January. The Bank of England kept its main interest rate at a record low of 0.5 percent and maintained the size of its bond stimulus plan at 200 billion pounds ($325 billion), as forecast by economists in Bloomberg News surveys. Strongest This Year The pound may climb to its strongest level this year against the dollar should it end the week above $1.6320, according to CMC Markets. The currency hasn’t traded above $1.6460 since December, when it reached $1.6722. The Fed’s decision to leave its asset-purchase plan open- ended and based on price stability and employment is a “policy error” that will keep the dollar under pressure, according to Commerzbank AG. The program “might become a bottomless pit,” Lutz Karpowitz and Ulrich Leuchtmann , foreign-exchange strategists in Frankfurt, wrote today in a note to clients. “It is far from certain that its purchases of Treasury-notes will ignite a quicker recovery.” The analysts said investors should consider buying the Australian dollar against the U.S. currency. Swiss Franc Gains The franc was the second-best performer versus the greenback among the 16 most-traded currencies even as Swiss National Bank Governing Board member Jean-Pierre Danthine said the bank is ready to act if a stronger currency threatens to spark deflation risks. It gained 1.2 percent to 95.92 per dollar and 0.8 percent to 1.3618 per euro. While the franc has depreciated against the euro over the past two months, it’s still up 8.5 percent this year, threatening to undermine the country’s export-led recovery and pushing down costs of imported goods. Payrolls in the U.S. probably added 60,000 jobs in October, the first monthly gain since May, according to economists in a Bloomberg News survey before a Labor Department report tomorrow. That may stem the dollar’s declines, after the Fed indicated yesterday its bond buys will depend on how the economy performs, Standard Bank Plc said. “The risks to payrolls tomorrow lie to the upside,” Steve Barrow , head of research for Group-of-10 currencies in London, said in a note. “If we are right, this could put at least a temporary block on dollar weakness and bond-market strength.” To contact the reporters on this story: Allison Bennett in New York at abennett23@bloomberg.net ; Catarina Saraiva in New York at asaraiva5@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net

Facebook Targets Russian Web Users, Aiming to Be More Than Social Network

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-29/facebook-targets-russia-with-aim-to-be-more-than-social-network.html

Facebook Inc. is the world’s largest social network site, with 500 million-plus members at last count. However, there are plenty of big markets where Mark Zuckerberg ’s creation isn’t dominant. In Japan, Facebook doesn’t rank in the top three, and the site isn’t much of a force in Brazil or China, two populous countries where Internet usage is off the charts. The outlook for Facebook in Russia may be more promising, despite the popularity of homegrown social network sites, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its Jan. 3 issue. Facebook officially launched its site in April and only ranks No. 5 so far, according to Internet tracker comScore, but its growth has been impressive. From January until August in 2010, its Russian operation has racked up a 376 percent increase in users, to 4.5 million, according to comScore data. The company cut deals with Russian wireless carriers Beeline and OAO Mobile TeleSystems , so that their subscribers could tap the mobile version of Facebook. To overcome the language barrier, Facebook allowed users to suggest translations for the name of features not easily understood in Russian such as “poke” (as in trying to get another Facebook user’s attention), and then let the site’s members vote them up or down. “Russian is a very complex language, so we allowed the users to translate the interface themselves so that it captures the complex grammar,” said Javier Olivan , a London-based Spaniard who is head of international growth at Facebook. Google’s Struggle Its founder has made no secret of his ambitions to thrive in Russia, a market where other Western players, including Google Inc., have struggled to get their footing. Speaking at an Oct. 17 event at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, Zuckerberg said that if Facebook succeeded in penetrating the Russian market, it might have a shot at doing the same in China, the country with the largest number of Netizens. Russians’ heavy use of social network sites makes the country an ideal test case. Russians spend 9.8 hours per visitor on a monthly basis on such sites -- more than double the world average, according to comScore. Why do Russians while away so many hours online? For one thing, there’s the climate: Staying indoors and socializing via the Internet is much more attractive when winter lasts a good six months. Then there’s the physical isolation, compounded by poor infrastructure, especially in cities like Murmansk, which lies north of the Arctic Circle. Network of Friends Most importantly, though, there is a tradition in Russia of relying on informal information networks for simple day-to-day survival. “In Russia, there is no sense that you can rely on the public or the system, so you’ve traditionally had to rely on a network of friends,” says Esther Dyson , a venture capitalist who has been investing in Russia’s technology sector for over a decade. In a country with weak institutions, “it’s very natural for people to network for what they want.” Even in these less oppressive, post-Soviet times, relationships are critical to everything from landing a job to wriggling out of a problem with authorities. It’s no coincidence that the Russian love affair with the Internet has blossomed at a time when citizens are once again seeing their political and media freedoms dwindle. “[The Web] has become a place where you have absolute freedom of speech, where you can say whatever you want, good or bad,” says Ilya Krasilshchik, editor-in-chief of Afisha, a Russian lifestyle magazine and website. ‘Like’ Feature Afisha was one of the first Russian sites to incorporate the Facebook “Like” feature, which allows users to share content with friends on the site. Krasilshchik points out that Russia is different from China, where censorship prevails online. “We have this strange paradox where civil society is hemmed in, but its freedoms are limitless online.” Not surprisingly, then, social networks have multiplied in Russia. Odnoklassniki.ru, a site modeled on Classmates.com with 17 million users, is the preferred destination for older, less tech-savvy users, along with being a popular dating site for Russians of all ages. Then there’s Moi Mir, similar to News Corp.’s MySpace, with 20 million members. The leader of the social networking pack is VKontakte, which is majority owned by Mail.ru Group Ltd. , a Russian investment fund specializing in Internet companies that also owns a small stake in Facebook. VKontakte Inspiration VKontakte, which has 28 million users, is inspired by Facebook. VKontakte has been dogged by claims that it has allowed the unauthorized posting of pirated music, movies, and other content free on its site. Mail.ru declined to comment on allegations that VKontakte has engaged in such practices, though the company did disclose in a prospectus for a recent initial public offering in London that it is currently defending itself against several lawsuits. As for Facebook, the company “will not host any content that violates our terms of agreement,” Olivan said. One thing Facebook does have over its Russian competitors is cachet. Whereas Odnoklassniki.ru has become the domain of the older generation, and VKontakte the hangout of young middle- and lower-class Russians, Facebook is the network of choice for the urban and the urbane. Facebook’s Russian users are generally of the wealthier, well-traveled, cosmopolitan variety, have foreign friends and tend to live in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Facebook’s status received a boost in September, when the company hosted its first developers’ conference in Russia. The event, held in Winzavod, an up-and-coming art complex in Moscow, drew hundreds, including some prominent Russian Internet investors. The bulk of the crowd was made up of software developers hoping to transform their Facebook apps into riches. Anton Nossik, the Russian Web guru who has a number of successful Web startups and used to run the company that owned the popular blogging platform LiveJournal, notes that in Russia sites such as Facebook and Google attract a particularly cosmopolitan set. Both are “for the global Russian, for the circle of people for whom the world doesn’t begin and end with Russia.” To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim Aley at jaley@bloomberg.net

Marks & Spencer Seeks to Re-Acquire European Stores, Telegraph Reports

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-31/marks-spencer-seeks-to-re-acquire-european-stores-telegraph-reports.html

Marks & Spencer Group Plc plans to buy back some of the 38 stores in continental Europe that it sold in 2001, the Sunday Telegraph reported, without saying where it got the information. The retailer has approached El Corte Ingles SA regarding nine stores it sold to the Spanish chain, and is considering re- acquiring some of the 18 outlets sold to Galeries Lafayette SA of France, according to the Telegraph. Marks & Spencer Chief Executive Officer Marc Bolland may outline the plan this week, the newspaper said. The company was paid 150 million euros ($209 million) for nine shops sold to El Corte Ingles in 2001, The Telegraph reported. A Marks & Spencer spokesman declined to comment to Bloomberg. To contact the reporter on this story: Grant Smith in London at gsmith52@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss on sev@bloomberg.net

Canada's Nova Scotia Cuts Annual Deficit Forecast to C$203.2 Million

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-22/canada-s-nova-scotia-cuts-annual-deficit-forecast-to-c-203-2-million.html

The government of Nova Scotia cut its deficit forecast for the fiscal year that started April 1 to C$203.2 million ($198.3 million), which is C$18.9 million less than initially estimated, the Canadian province’s finance department said in a statement posted on its website. The province said it will spend C$35.3 million less than forecast, while revenue is C$16.2 million less than initially budgeted. To contact the reporter on this story: Theophilos Argitis in Ottawa at targitis@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Badertscher at pbadertscher@bloomberg.net

Vinashin Asks Bondholders to Write Off 90% of Debt After Default in April

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-02/vinashin-asks-bondholders-to-write-off-90-of-debt-after-default-in-april.html

Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group, the state-owned company with more than $4 billion of debt, asked holders of a local-currency bond it defaulted on in April to write off as much as 90 percent of the money owed, according to a bondholder who met with company officials in Hanoi last week. Officials told creditors the shipyard is unable to make any payments until 2015 at the earliest, Pham Viet Bac, general director of Ho Chi Minh City-based Sabeco Fund Management, which holds 30 billion dong ($1.5 million) of Vinashin bonds, said in a phone interview yesterday. The shipbuilder’s financial difficulties have raised questions about the extent Vietnam’s government will support state-owned enterprises, threatening to undermine investor confidence in the nation as it aims to accelerate privatization. A missed payment by Vinashin to international lenders in December showed government support for state companies isn’t guaranteed, Moody’s Investors Service said in an April 20 report. “The Vietnamese government has a long way to go in terms of restoring its credibility with investors,” said Christian de Guzman, a Singapore-based assistant vice president at Moody’s. “Investors will be wary of dealing with the government and state-owned enterprises, given these developments.” Vinashin Chief Executive Officer Truong Van Tuyen declined to comment when reached by phone at his office yesterday. Calls to Chairman Nguyen Ngoc Su weren’t answered. Vinashin Debts The Hanoi-based company almost collapsed with debts of 86 trillion dong as of June last year, Vietnam ’s government said Aug. 4. The government has said the company needs to narrow its focus after diversifying beyond shipbuilding into businesses including securities and tourism. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asked police to investigate whether there are any signs of corruption at the company, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported in April. Vinashin accounts for as much as 80 percent of Vietnam’s domestic shipbuilding capacity. Vinashin failed to pay a 9 percent coupon due April 13 on a 3 trillion dong, 10-year bond issued in 2007, according to Sabeco’s Bac. The shipbuilder asked foreign lenders for a one-year extension after missing a $60 million principal payment in December on a $600 million syndicated loan, Chairman Su said in February. ‘Classified’ Audit The shipbuilder has amassed total debts of 96.7 trillion dong, while total assets were 92.6 trillion dong as of Dec. 31, 2009, Lao Dong newspaper reported today, citing an audit by the Government Inspectorate. Vinashin told bondholders at the meeting it wouldn’t provide a copy of its latest audit as the document is “classified,” said Bac. “I’m very disappointed,” said Bac, who attended the meeting at Vinashin’s headquarters along with about 20 other creditors. “I want the company to be transparent to its creditors. We have the right to know.” Vietnam’s bonds slumped at the end of 2010 as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s cut the nation’s credit rating in December with a negative outlook. Moody’s, which rates Vietnam four levels below investment grade at B1, cited the risk of a balance of payments crisis and a drop in foreign reserves as inflation accelerates and the currency weakens. S&P has concerns over Vietnam’s banking system and ranks the country at BB-, the third highest non-investment grade level. Government debt rallied as the government approved a plan in February to tackle quickening inflation with higher interest rates and implemented measures to boost the local currency’s value. Vietnam’s year-on-year inflation rate in May reached 19.78 percent, the highest in more than two years, according to the General Statistics Office in Hanoi. Vietnam’s dollar bonds are posting the best performance in Asia this year, returning 6.1 percent, according to indexes compiled by HSBC Holdings Plc. To contact the reporter on this story: K. Oanh Ha in Hanoi at oha3@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Johnson at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net

Unemployment in U.K. Rises Most Since May 2009 as Economic Outlook Worsens

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-16/unemployment-in-u-k-rises-most-since-may-2009-as-economic-outlook-worsens.html

Britain’s coalition government will go ahead with index-linked rail-fare increases that were boosted by unexpectedly high inflation, Transport Minister Theresa Villiers said today. The price rise, which will average 8 percent for regulated fares, is vital if Britain is to fund 2,700 new railcars and projects such as Crossrail and the Thameslink upgrade in London , Villiers said on BBC Radio 4’s Today program. More people are forecast to travel by rail even after the fare hike, which was triggered by a higher-than-predicted inflation rate, she said, adding that an improvement in efficiency is what’s required to rein in ticket prices. “The real solution is that we need to get the cost of running the railways down,” she said. “I think it’s essential that we deliver these cost savings.” To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Jasper at cjasper@bloomberg.net

Euro Rises Against Most Major Counterparts, Climbing to as High as $1.3575

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-29/euro-rises-against-most-major-counterparts-climbing-to-as-high-as-1-3575.html

The euro strengthened against most of its 16 major peers. The 17-nation currency bought as much as $1.3575 before trading at $1.3569 as of 11:58 a.m. in Tokyo from $1.3543 yesterday in New York. To contact the reporter on this story: Masaki Kondo in Singapore at mkondo3@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Annells at jannells@bloomberg.net

Egypt Stocks Drop to 3-Month Low as Authority Announces NSGB Tax

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-26/egypt-stocks-drop-to-3-month-low-as-authority-announces-nsgb-tax.html

Egypt ’s benchmark stock index tumbled to the lowest level in more than three months after the country’s tax authority said it will impose a levy on profit made on the buyout of Societe Generale SA (GLE) ’s local unit. The EGX 30 Index (EGX30) slumped 2 percent to 5,129.09 at the close in Cairo, the lowest level since Dec. 11, as all 30 stocks fell. That brings the measure’s decline this year to 6.1 percent, making it the world’s seventh-worst performer in the period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Commercial International Bank Egypt SAE (COMI) , the country’s biggest publicly traded lender, fell to the weakest level since Aug. 30. Egypt will impose a 10 percent tax on shareholders that profited from selling stakes in National Societe Generale Bank to Qatar National Bank (QNBK) SAQ over the past month, the authority said in a letter released by the bourse today. The decision exempts NSGB’s parent Societe Generale SA because of an agreement with France that prevents double taxation. The news “is affecting the entire market because of the fact that this was announced after closing of the tender offer and ambiguity on how it will be implemented,” said Wafik Dawood, director of institutional sales at Cairo-based Mega Investments Securities. “Investors can’t be pleased with the inconsistency and contradictions in the market’s regulation.” QNB completed a monthlong offer to buy all NSGB shares yesterday at 38.65 Egyptian pounds apiece, for a total 17.1 billion pounds ($2.5 billion). SocGen had owned 77.2 percent of NSGB, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The levy on the NSGB deal comes amid negotiations with Orascom Construction Industries for the payment of 14 billion pounds in back taxes. The government claims the company’s sale of its listed cement business in 2007 to Lafarge SA (LG) should have been taxed. OCI disagreed. Orascom Construction lost 2.8 percent, the most since March 14, to 233.18 pounds while Commercial International Bank declined 1 percent to 30.89 pounds. To contact the reporter on this story: Ahmed A. Namatalla in Cairo at anamatalla@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Maedler at cmaedler@bloomberg.net

China's Pension Fund Said to Offer Shares in Chongqing Rural Bank's IPO

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-01/china-pension-fund-said-to-offer-stock-in-chongqing-bank-s-hong-kong-ipo.html

China’s National Social Security Fund is offering stock in the Hong Kong initial share sale of a commercial bank from Chongqing, expanding the size of the lender’s offering, three people familiar with the matter said. The state pension fund is offering 185.5 million shares in Chongqing Rural Commercial Bank , boosting the amount of stock available for sale by 9.3 percent, said the people, who declined to be identified before an announcement. Some 2.19 billion shares are being offered to investors at HK$4.50 to HK$6, according to a term sheet sent to investors today. That compares with 2 billion shares previously. The price range is unchanged, the terms show. Morgan Stanley and Nomura International are managing the sale for Chongqing Rural, the largest lender to agricultural and small businesses in China’s most populous city. Chongqing Rural plans to list in Hong Kong on Dec. 16 with the ticker 3618, the term sheet shows. The initial sale would raise $1.69 billion if priced at the top end of the range and before the exercise of an overallotment option, the document shows. Chen Han, a spokeswoman for the pension fund said she had no information about the matter. A call to the bank’s board of directors in Chongqing was answered by a man who declined to comment or give his name. Companies have raised a record $49.2 billion from Hong Kong IPOs this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg that include overallotment shares. To contact the reporter on this story: Fox Hu in Hong Kong at fhu7@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Darren Boey at dboey@bloomberg.net

Faroes’ 50,000 Residents Leap Into DNA Testing Quagmire

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-25/faroes-50-000-residents-leap-into-dna-testing-quagmire.html

The Faroe Islands , a tiny, windswept land halfway between Scotland and Iceland, is so barren its 50,000 inhabitants import almost everything except fish and sheep. Now it wants to leap to the frontier of genetic medicine. A proposed plan would decipher the complete DNA sequence of every citizen, from its fishermen to the prime minister, using the data for medical treatment and research. Scientists already see the Faroes becoming a model for the use of human genomes. “We’re feeling our way right now to figure out if this new technology can really benefit individual patients and populations,” said James Evans , a geneticist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “It’s really important that they do it right.” Like an ethical petri dish, the Gulf Stream-warmed Faroes are incubating debate about issues of privacy, ownership and the utility of making each patient’s complete DNA makeup accessible in everyday medical decisions. Questions range from how to protect information, when it’s appropriate to use and whether it might heighten discrimination against the mentally ill and people with inherited diseases. “They’re going to have to deal with the reality that with whole genome sequences, people will inevitably find out things that they don’t wish to know,” said Evans, who isn’t associated with the Faroes project. “They’re guaranteed to find some mutations that predispose people to untreatable, unpreventable and severe disease.” New Clues Faster, cheaper analysis of DNA, the molecule that transmits an organism’s structural information from one generation to the next, is transforming biological research and medicine. As thousands of people begin having their genomes sequenced, variations are giving new clues to potential causes and treatments for both rare and common diseases. Bogi Eliasen, the blond, blue-eyed political scientist who’s spearheading the project, called FarGen, has become a fixture at genetic conferences worldwide and has gained collaboration from top minds in the field, including James Watson , the co-discoverer of the structure of the DNA molecule. Working at his small office in an outbuilding next to the main hospital in the Faroes capital, Torshavn , Eliasen has received Watson’s hand-written letters, scanned into a computer and attached to an e-mail, encouraging him to go forward with the project. Eliasen has brought executives from Illumina Inc. (ILMN) , the biggest maker of the sequencers that decipher DNA molecules, to visit the country and spend time on the North Atlantic Ocean, which almost everyone on these islands can walk to from their front door. Prime Minister Faroese Prime Minister Kaj Leo Holm Johannesen, a former fisherman, said he would like to be one of the first sequenced and has proposed budgeting 12 million Danish kroner, or $2 million in support. That’s a princely sum for this self- governing community of Denmark with an economy of about $2.1 billion. Eliasen estimates the project could take about 10 years to complete and cost as much as $100 million. “The genome era is coming whether we like it or not,” he said in an interview, as winter’s early afternoon darkness gathered outside his window. “We need to see how we can make it work here. Of course there is an interest in research. But my approach has always been, what can we use it for?” Wayward Vikings Settled by wayward Vikings in the 9th century, the small size and isolation of the Faroe Islands have given rise to a population that’s vulnerable to disorders caused by recessive genes. One called, carnitine transporter deficiency, is 1,000 times more common in the Faroes than the rest of the world. Recessive genetic diseases often hit without warning, because each parent harbors a piece of DNA that, by itself, doesn’t cause symptoms. Affliction occurs when a child inherits the same flawed DNA string from both parents. Elisabeth Eldevig, who owns three fishing boats with her husband in the islands, has experience that made her a supporter of FarGen. She became concerned about her twin daughters’ constant, debilitating fatigue about the time they turned 14. Even reading a book was too tiring for them. “They couldn’t concentrate,” said Eldevig. “They would say, ‘Mama, you read the next page, I’m too tired.’” For years, there were signs that Eldevig’s family was susceptible to carnitine transporter deficiency , a potentially lethal genetic disease that interferes with cells’ ability to use fuel. Eldevig’s aunt suffered a sudden, unexplained death at the age of 24 that might have been due to CTD, her cousin’s child was affected, and later, an uncle was diagnosed with the disease. Eldevig insisted her daughters get tested. Simple Treatment Treatment for CTD is relatively simple. Since they were diagnosed, Eldevig’s girls take carnitine tablets several times a day that keep their cells from starving. They’re careful about vigorous exercise. Today, they’re back to gymnastics and other sports. Now her girls say they don’t want to marry a Faroese boy because of the risk their children will have the disease. They don’t like feeling tired or having to take medication. While Eldevig thinks they’ll change their minds as they get older, her two other children have a 50 percent chance of being carriers of the disease; she’d like to know whether they are. Carriers are at elevated risk of miscarriage, and Eldevig had one herself. Because FarGen will help identify couples at risk of having a child with CTD, Eldevig has become a supporter of the project. Citizens’ Concerns Because the genome contains so much information about individuals -- who they’re descended from and their risks of certain diseases -- some citizens are concerned about the project. Ten years ago, an Icelandic company asked the Faroese parliament to contribute DNA to a database aimed at discovering new drugs. While the Faroes parliament refused, it passed legal protections for DNA data that remain in force. The law of the islands says that if scientists collect genetic data on citizens, it must be kept in a secure database where it will be available for clinical use. The whole genome has too much ambiguous information that doctors don’t yet understand for it to be handed over to patients, Eliasen said. The Faroes DNA data will only be shared with patients through a doctor who provides a reason for accessing it. The power of the human genome -- the unique depth of information that its 6 billion chemical letters provide about individuals -- pose new challenges to scientists and doctors who want to access the code. Studies suggest that a full DNA sequence alone might provide enough clues to allow determined sleuths to identify its owner. DNA Worldwide The same concerns face large-scale DNA analysis projects that governments are starting around the globe. The U.S. Veteran’s Administration is gearing up to sequence the genomes of 1 million of its members and recently announced signing up 100,000 volunteers. The U.K. said in December that it plans to sequence the genomes of 100,000 people for research purposes. The Canadian government is working with Harvard Medical School to sequence genomes of citizens and offer them for public use. While Eliasen plans to keep individuals from accessing their own genomes, that plan may not be realistic, said George Church , a Harvard Medical School geneticist who started the Personal Genome Project , which makes individuals’ DNA sequences public for researchers’ use. Once the Faroes system goes live, Faroese people may ignore the law and demand their genetic information, he said. “It’s like medical marijuana,” Church said in his office in Boston. “Are you just going to say ‘no?’” Legal Safeguards Many Faroese say their country’s legal safeguards don’t answer all their concerns about FarGen. Runa Sivertsen, a former member of the Faroes parliament and the head of a group that advocates on behalf of patients with a genetic condition called glycogen storage disease, said there has been virtually no national discussion of the project. “At first I felt bad because I didn’t know about it. Then I called a number of other people, and none of them knew anything about it, either,” Sivertsen said, sitting in her shop in Klaksvik, a fishing village, where she sells folk art to benefit orphans in Liberia and Senegal. “It may be a good thing, but it’s not good that people don’t know about it.” Widespread genetic testing affects the counseling doctors give pregnant patients whose fetuses have disability-related mutations, said Sigrun Wardum, chairwoman of Javni , a Faroese group that advocates for youth with disabilities. The use of tests, such as those made by Sequenom Inc. (SQNM) , Verinata Health Inc. and LifeCodexx AG, that can detect fetal DNA in a mother’s blood has already set off charges that faster, less-invasive testing techniques are leading to the systematic eradication of people with Down syndrome and similar genetic conditions. Medical Decisions “In most cases with mental disabilities, I can’t imagine other decisions than abortion” would arise through counseling, said Wardum, whose 28-year-old son is mentally retarded and lives in a group home. FarGen has been promoted in press releases, reported on internationally in newspapers and websites and discussed at several public meetings, Eliasen said. The most recent one in September had about 80 participants, which he deemed an encouraging turnout. He said he’s still working to educate the population about the project and will probably have to do so for some time. “It’s an ongoing process, you’ll never finish to do the outreach on this,” he said. Gene Sequencer In the next three months, the Faroes will have a powerful new sequencer set up in a renovated beverage building, Eliasen said. Technicians will be trained to run it, samples will be collected and, by the end of the year, the first DNA results of the project will go into the databank. With that, the era of genome-based treatment in the Faroe Islands will begin. The effort will bring home the health technology that Faroese residents now fly hours to get, said Sigurd Vang, director of the National Hospital in Torshavn. “Our ambition is to do as much as we can at home,” he said. “We want to bring expertise here, and that expertise will breed more expertise.” Vang, who has been friends with Eliasen since grade school, comes from a traditional Faroese background and spent teenage summers fishing on a long-line boat. The volunteer, pioneering spirit of the islanders, coupled with their unique health problems, suggest that people will be willing to sign on to FarGen, Vang said. “We’re quite used to seeing the horizon,” he said. To contact the reporter on this story: John Lauerman in Boston at jlauerman@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jonathan Kaufman at Jkaufman17@bloomberg.net

Baidu Slumps on Outlook as U.S. Trade Resumes: Overnight

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-31/baidu-slumps-on-outlook-as-u-s-trading-resumes-china-overnight.html

Chinese stocks fell in New York as trading resumed after the two-day shutdown, with Baidu Inc. (BIDU) driving declines after issuing a lower-than-estimated sales forecast. The Bloomberg China-US Equity Index (CH55BN) of the most-traded Chinese companies in the U.S. slipped 0.4 percent to 93.90, reducing the gain in October to 2 percent. Internet company Baidu sank 6.3 percent as Citigroup Inc. cut the stock to sell while Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. traded at the biggest discount to its Hong Kong shares since Oct. 19 after forecasting that it will swing to a loss in 2012. China ’s seven-quarter slowdown is taking its toll on companies’ bottom lines, with the 16 firms on the China-US gauge that have reported third-quarter earnings missing analysts’ estimates by an average 9 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Baidu, owner of China’s biggest online search engine and the biggest Internet stock in the Bloomberg index, forecast on Oct. 29 that sales will rise as much as 42 percent in the fourth quarter, the slowest revenue growth in three years and below analysts’ estimates. “We are seeing slower guidance from Baidu as a result of the macro” situation, Jeff Papp, a senior analyst at Oberweis Asset Management Inc., said in a phone interview from Lisle, Illinois yesterday. “Baidu has created such high expectations given the multiple years of super fast growth.” Slower Revenue Growth The iShares FTSE China 25 Index Fund , the biggest Chinese exchange-traded fund in the U.S., retreated 0.4 percent to $36.79 yesterday, paring its second consecutive monthly advance to 6.3 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was little changed at 1,412.16 as U.S. equity trading resumed after a shutdown brought about by Hurricane Sandy. The gauge fell 2 percent last month. Baidu’s revenue will range from 6.16 billion yuan ($987 million) to 6.35 billion yuan in the fourth quarter, the company said in an Oct. 29 statement. That compares with the 6.41 billion-yuan average of 13 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The top end of the forecast range implies the slowest pace of revenue growth since the fourth quarter of 2009, when sales gained 40 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Citigroup reduced Baidu from buy and lowered its price target by 50 percent to $95.10, according to a report released yesterday. “Baidu turns into a de-rating story” given advertisers have been slow to embrace ads on the company’s search pages for mobile phones, and a slowdown in search revenue, analysts led by Ravi Sarathy, a Citigroup managing director, wrote. Sell Recommendation Aluminum Corp., which is known as Chalco and is the largest producer of the metal in China, declined 1.3 percent to a more- than two-week low of $10.77 in New York. The Beijing-based company’s ADRs traded 1.5 percent below its shares in Hong Kong , the biggest discount since Oct. 19. Each ADR is equal to 25 ordinary shares. Robin Tsui, an equity analyst at Bank of China Ltd., lowered his recommendation on the stock to sell from hold yesterday. Chalco said on Oct. 30 that it will swing to a full- year loss as overcapacity and slowing demand weigh on prices. The producer posted a fourth consecutive unprofitable quarter in the three months ended in September. The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) of Chinese domestic shares advanced 0.3 percent to 2,068.88 yesterday, trimming its October loss to 0.8 percent. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of Chinese companies traded in Hong Kong climbed 1.2 percent to 10,582.05 for a monthly gain of 7.6 percent, the most since January. ‘Reflect Green Shoots’ “I don’t think the ADRs have paid any attention to the strong move in Hong Kong the last three nights,” Oberweis Asset Management’s Papp said. “I would expect earnings would take a few quarters before they reflect green shoots in the economy.” The China-US index rose to the highest level since May 11 on Oct. 22 as industrial production rebounded last month from a three-year low and retail sales climbed the most in six months. Renren Inc. (RENN) , which runs a real-name social networking website in China, sank 4.1 percent to $3.27, the lowest on record. E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc. (DANG) , the biggest online book retailer in China, tumbled 5.7 percent to a record low of $3.78. Cnooc Ltd. (883) , China’s biggest offshore oil explorer, slid 1.2 percent to $205.55. Its ADRs, each representing 100 underlying shares in the company, traded 1.1 percent below the Hong Kong stock, the widest discount since Oct. 19. Cnooc’s parent, China National Offshore Oil Corp., will pay BG Group Plc (BG/) $1.93 billion for a supply contract and an additional stake in an Australian liquefied natural gas project as China secures fuel sources to meet soaring consumption. To contact the reporter on this story: Belinda Cao in New York at lcao4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Emma O’Brien at eobrien6@bloomberg.net

BHP Says PNG Removing Ok Tedi Protections Raises Sovereign Risk

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-19/bhp-says-png-removing-ok-tedi-protections-raises-sovereign-risk.html

BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, said Papua New Guinea’s decision to legislate to make the company liable for environmental damage caused by the Ok Tedi mine raised the nation’s sovereign risk. “The removal of protections that were legislated for BHP Billiton at the time that it gifted its shareholding to PNG raises squarely the question of sovereign risk for PNG,” the Melbourne-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. Mining waste, known as tailings, from the Ok Tedi copper-gold mine caused damage to the Fly River in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2002, BHP transferred its majority share in the mine to the PNG Sustainable Development Program Ltd., and in return was granted legal immunity. The mine has continued to operate. Prime Minister Peter O’Neill yesterday said the decision to grant immunity was wrong, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp. The parliament also passed legislation to take control of the mine from the PNG Sustainable Development Program. “The arrangements around our exit from Ok Tedi were agreed with the PNG government in 2001 and unwinding them shows lack of good faith by the PNG government,” BHP said in the statement. The company is confident its shareholders aren’t exposed to potential claims, it said. Investor’s Eyes The mine produces about 170,000 metric tons of copper and 500,000 ounces of gold annually from its Mt. Fubilan open-cut mine, Ok Tedi Mining Ltd. previously said on its website. The government’s decision to claim ownership of the PNG SDP and revoke previous agreements made the Pacific nation riskier in the eyes of investors, said Michael Elliott, sector leader for EY LLP’s global mining practice. “While the PNG government and those promoting projects may see this as an isolated case, many others who are providing the investment will be factoring it in,” Elliott said. “It’s hard to see how this doesn’t increase mining risk.” Companies with mining and energy assets in PNG include Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM) , Barrick Gold Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., Oil Search Ltd. and Santos Ltd. “It does show how keen the PNG government is for income,” Peter Rudd, resources and mining manager at Altitude Private Wealth in Melbourne , said by phone. “BHP absolved itself from all the environmental concerns, or at least incorporated them into that trust and not part of BHP itself, so you’d think it would be sufficiently at arm’s length.” To contact the reporter on this story: Elisabeth Behrmann in Sydney at ebehrmann1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jason Rogers at jrogers73@bloomberg.net

Colombian Peso Falls for a Second Day on Bets of Central Bank Measures

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-21/colombian-peso-falls-for-a-second-day-on-bets-of-central-bank-measures.html

Colombia’s peso fell for a second day on speculation the central bank will take further measures to ease the peso’s world-beating rally. The currency dropped 0.2 percent to 1,805 per dollar at 2 p.m. New York time, from 1,800.7 yesterday. Today’s decline pares the peso’s jump this year to 13.2 percent, still the best performance among all currencies tracked by Bloomberg. Banco de la Republica said in a Sept. 15 statement it plans to buy at least $20 million daily for at least four months to bolster foreign reserves. Brazil yesterday authorized the country’s wealth fund to buy an unlimited amount of dollars for reais, and Japan last week said it sold yen in the spot market for the first time since 2004, a sign that intervention against a weak dollar is spreading globally. “There’s a lot of nervousness the central bank will take additional measures, and more so given other countries like Brazil are announcing efforts to boost dollar purchases,” said David Aldana , head analyst at Bogota-based brokerage Ultrabursatiles SA. Colombian policy makers may announce measures such as ordering Colombian companies and investors taking out overseas loans to deposit a percentage of the funds in the central bank, according to Aldana. ‘More Time’ Colombia isn’t considering capital controls to stem a rally in the peso, Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry said last week, while central bank board member Carlos Gustavo Cano said in an interview with La Republica newspaper published Sept. 13 that policy makers are considering the measures. Should the central bank decide to take further measures, it likely won’t announce anything in the Sept. 24 monetary policy meeting as they “give it more time to see how the peso reacts to the initial intervention announcement,” said Aldana. The peso has dropped 0.8 percent since last week’s announcement. Banco de la Republica will leave its overnight lending rate unchanged at a record low of 3 percent, according to all 24 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Colombia’s peso is also weakening as investors are likely pushing the peso lower in order to sell dollars to the central bank at a higher price, said Juan Carlos Hernandez , a fixed- income trader at Miami-based brokerage Tradewire Securities. The central bank acquired $20.3 million today, according to the bank’s website. The yield on the benchmark 11 percent bonds due 2020 rose eight basis points, or 0.08 percentage point, to 7.22 percent, according to Colombia’s stock exchange. The bond’s price fell 0.635 centavo to 125.927 centavos per peso. To contact the reporter on this story: Andrea Jaramillo in Bogota at ajaramillo1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net

Juventus to Meet Club America in Soccer Exhibition at Mets’ Citi Field

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-09/juventus-to-meet-club-america-in-soccer-exhibition-at-mets-citi-field.html

Juventus will play Club America in a soccer match at the New York Mets ’ Citi Field on July 26. Juventus, a record 27-time champion of Italy ’s top league, and Club America, one of Mexico ’s most popular teams, will meet in the second soccer exhibition at the Mets’ three-year-old stadium. Ecuador and Greece drew 1-1 at Citi Field two days ago. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Siddons at lsiddons@bloomberg.net

Mother’s Action Saved Daughter as Tornado Neared School

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-21/mother-s-action-saved-5-year-old-as-tornado-bore-down-on-school.html

As the mile-wide tornado carved a path of destruction toward Moore, Oklahoma, Henry De La Cruz’s wife drove to Plaza Towers Elementary School to pick up their 5-year-old daughter, Isabelle. Shortly after she fetched the girl, the twister chewed the school into rubble. Seven children died, Moore Police Sergeant Jeremy Lewis said, while dozens of others survived after being spirited away like Isabelle or, in at least one case, sheltered under a heroic teacher who was injured by storm debris. “I’m sad for the other ones,” De La Cruz said. “I’m glad we made it on time.” Plaza Towers Elementary was at the center of the worst devastation from the storm, which left a swath of destruction 20 miles long and transformed neighborhoods into fields of ruins. The state medical examiner’s office has received 24 bodies, and the agency has gotten reports of 27 more deaths, officials said. Hundreds were injured. “We had to pull a car off a teacher in the hallway,” a man who helped with early rescue efforts at Plaza Towers told CNN. “I don’t know what that lady’s name was, but she had three little kids underneath her.” The children were alive, and the teacher was seriously hurt, he said. More than 75 students were believed to have been huddled inside when the tornado struck, hugging and clinging to the walls as the twister took the building apart, KFOR-TV reported. Hero Teachers At Briarwood Elementary, which is about 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) away and where one person died, some teachers carried crying youngsters outside after the twister roared through, and comforted them in the street until parents arrived. President Barack Obama praised teachers at the two schools “who gave their all to shield their children” in comments on the tornado today. Police officers and other rescuers dug through the rubble of Plaza Towers with their hands yesterday in the search for survivors, “moving cinder block walls and children were coming out unscathed,” said Lewis, the police sergeant. “We’re confident everyone is out of the school,” he said. After the tornado passed, Clayton Alexander and Amy Hatchcox left Hatchcox’s mobile home on foot to check on Alexander’s house near Plaza Towers. They saw bodies wrapped in plastic and blankets lying on the ground. Frantic Hunt “I saw people running up and down the street saying, ‘I can’t find my kids,’” Hatchcox said. Searchers continued working their way through other destroyed buildings today after toiling through the night at Plaza Towers, where the recovery efforts included a rescue dog trained to help ferret out survivors. Crews from across Oklahoma and neighboring states “flooded into” the area, Betsy Randolph, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, told CNN. “It’s been an amazing recovery effort,” she said. “Our hope is we’re still going to find more people alive and buried in the rubble.” At Plaza Towers, a few snapped-off tree trunks were the only things standing near the ruins of a building that once housed about 440 students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade. The tornado turned the school into merely the largest pile of debris in a wide swath of mud-splattered ruins. Resting atop the heap was what appeared to be a piece of metal roof. The storm was so intense “you’ve got to be underground to be safe,” said U.S. Representative James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican whose district includes parts of the area. To contact the reporters on this story: Mike Lee in Moore, Oklahoma at mlee326@bloomberg.net ; Tom Korosec in Moore, Oklahoma, at tkorosec@texaswordworks.com; Mary Schlangenstein in Dallas at maryc.s@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at smerelman@bloomberg.net

Durable U.S. Recovery at Hand as Growth Shifts

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-23/durable-u-s-recovery-at-hand-as-growth-drivers-shift-economy.html

Almost three years after it began, the U.S. recovery may strengthen as autos and housing begin to reemerge as mainstays of growth. “The traditional engines that tend to give you a recovery are kicking in now,” Joseph Carson , director of global economic research at AllianceBernstein LP in New York, said in an interview. “We’re seeing confirmation of sustainability from all sides. That’s a real business cycle.” Over the past two quarters, measures normally associated with early stages of lasting rebounds, including hours worked, employment, consumer and business sentiment, household spending on durable goods and residential investment, have picked up in tandem, said Carson. Ian Shepherdson at High Frequency Economics Ltd. is betting the comeback from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression will be rooted in a thawing of lending, an area that usually lags behind. Household spending led by durable goods like automobiles, as well as gains in homebuilding, may account for more than half of the first-quarter advance in gross domestic product, according to Carson. Those two areas contributed 1.7 percentage points to the 3 percent gain in gross domestic product at an annual rate in the fourth quarter and probably made a similar contribution in the past three months, he said. That marks a shift from the period following the recession. Exports and business investment accounted for about 70 percent of the 2.4 percent growth seen in the first nine quarters of the recovery, compared with a historical contribution of about 20 percent in rebounds spanning the past five decades, according to Carson, who worked as an economist at the Commerce Department. Shares Fall U.S. stocks joined a global selloff today as political uncertainty in France and the Netherlands intensified concern about Europe ’s sovereign debt crisis. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.8 percent to 1,366.94 at the 4 p.m. close in New York. So far this year, the S&P 500 is up 8.7 percent amid signs the U.S. is gaining strength. The world’s largest economy grew at a 2.5 percent pace from January through March, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before the Commerce Department’s report on April 27. Carson projects the gain will be 3.5 percent. Consumer spending rose at a 2.3 percent rate, the best performance in more than a year, the Bloomberg survey showed. One stand-out in the rebound for consumer durable goods is automobiles, typical of the early stages of a lasting expansion, Carson said. Cars and light trucks sold in the first quarter at the strongest pace in four years, according to Ward’s Automotive Group. The pickup is linked to job gains, according to Mark Fields , president of the Americas at Ford Motor Co. (F) Auto Sales “Bolstered by a recent strengthening in the economy and the improving employment situation, U.S. industry sales have surged in the early months of 2012,” Fields said in a conference presentation telecast on April 4. Ford this month raised its 2012 forecast for total U.S. vehicle sales to as much as 15 million. If Ford’s prediction is on the mark, industrywide vehicle purchases would rise by about 2 million this year from 12.7 million in 2011, according to Carson. Such an increase has occurred only three times in the past 40 years, and in each of those cases -- 1971, 1976 and 1984

Geithner Says U.S. Must Face Budget, Fiscal Challenges to Support Growth

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-16/geithner-says-u-s-must-face-budget-challenges-support-growth.html

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the U.S. needs to face its fiscal challenges in a way “that’s designed to support future growth” as he testified to the Senate Finance Committee. Geithner said today that job creation isn’t happening fast enough as the economy recovers from the recession. He called for tax incentives to encourage investment along with infrastructure and education improvements. The Treasury chief repeated the administration’s call for an overhaul of the corporate tax structure, possibly accompanied by an agreement to allow companies to repatriate overseas profits. Such an agreement won’t be considered on its own, he said. Senator Michael Crapo, an Idaho Republican, said the administration was making a “huge mistake” by proposing the elimination of many tax breaks in the budget without also proposing a rate reduction. “It uses up a huge portion of our opportunity for tax reform ,” Crapo said. Companies such as Cisco Systems Inc. have been seeking a change that would let them bring profits back to the U.S. at a reduced tax rate. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told the House Budget Committee on Feb. 9 that Congress shouldn’t consider a temporary repatriation holiday and instead should look at switching to a “territorial” tax system that exempts overseas profits. Territorial Taxation Geithner said today that the administration was open to considering a territorial system, as long as the details of such a plan didn’t encourage companies to shift income and investment outside the U.S. In recent years, Japan and the U.K. have shifted to similar tax systems, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports territorial taxation. “When we look at territorial tax systems, we’ve got to make sure that the ultimate outcome supports that objective,” Geithner said. The Obama administration is open to additional ideas beyond those it has proposed and doesn’t have a “monopoly on wisdom,” Geithner said. “If there are better ideas out there, we’ll be happy to take ‘em.” Obama’s proposed budget for the 2012 fiscal year aims to reduce deficits by more than $1 trillion in coming years. The plan, his first since Republicans took control of the House of Representatives , includes cuts to energy, transportation, housing and other programs popular with Democrats. ‘Drunken Sailor’s Budget’ Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah , the top Republican on the finance committee, said Obama’s plan falls short of what is needed. He said at the opening of the hearing that the U.S. could learn about managing finances from inebriated sailors. “Unlike the drunken sailor’s budget, the president’s budget doesn’t cut the government off from its spending spree,” Hatch said in his opening statement. Geithner said that limiting the home-mortgage interest deduction and other itemized deductions to 28 percent wouldn’t harm the housing market. “In my judgment, if Congress were to enact that proposal we could withstand the impact, if any, on the broader housing market,” he said. Also, he said the U.S. must rein in budget deficits over the next 10 years and then tackle entitlement spending that is poised to reach “untenable, unsustainable” levels. He said it would damage the economy to attempt this only through discretionary spending cuts without considering revenue. “We do have a real problem in the next 10 years,” Geithner said. “It’s about a huge imbalance between commitments and resources.” Long-term Plan Geithner said he isn’t worried the U.S. will face an immediate liquidity crunch, noting that investors continued to allow the U.S. to borrow at low rates during the financial crisis. He called on lawmakers to pass a long-term plan that would allow companies and households to build the confidence needed for economic growth. “You cannot provide that confidence” if the tax and budget environment is uncertain, he said. “We have to have a multiyear, clear set of commitments to bring those deficits down over time.” Geithner repeated his call for Congress to raise the debt limit, which stands at $14.29 trillion now. Treasury projects the limit will be reached between April 5 and May 31. He said the department’s cash-management tools can provide only six to eight ways of extra time. “It’s a question of math. It’s not a question of discretion,” Geithner said. “They will not relieve the Congress of the obligation to pass” legislation raising the debt limit. The U.S. “would never contemplate” putting financial markets in a position of uncertainty as to whether the government could meet its obligations, he said. -- With assistance from Ian Katz in Washington. Editors: Jodi Schneider, Jim Rubin. To contact the reporters on this story: Rebecca Christie in Washington at rchristie4@bloomberg.net ; Richard Rubin in Washington at rrubin12@bloomberg.net

Oil Options Volatility Sinks Below 20 Percent on Steady Crude

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-08/oil-options-volatility-sinks-below-20-percent-on-steady-crude.html

Oil options volatility fell to the lowest level since at least 2006 as the underlying futures were little changed for the fourth straight day. Implied volatility for at-the-money options expiring in February, a measure of expected price swings in futures and a gauge of options prices, was 19.79 percent at 3:25 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange , down from 21.19 percent yesterday. That’s the lowest level in data compiled by Bloomberg going back to March 22, 2006. Crude oil for February delivery fell 4 cents to $93.15 a barrel on the Nymex. It’s the fourth day in a row that settlement prices moved 20 cents or less. The most active options in electronic trading today were March $110 calls, which slipped 1 cent to 9 cents a barrel on volume of 2,536 contracts. The second-most active, with 2,255 lots exchanged, were February $90 puts, down 11 cents to 24 cents a barrel. Bets that prices would fall, or puts, accounted for 54 percent of electronic trading volume. The exchange distributes real-time data for electronic trading and releases information the next business day on open- outcry volume, where the bulk of options activity occurs. In the previous session, puts accounted for 56 percent of volume. March $78 puts were the most active options yesterday, with 8,558 contracts trading as they fell 2 cents to 15 cents a barrel. March $73 puts slipped 1 cent to 6 cents a barrel on 3,091 lots. Open interest was highest for February $105 calls with 32,421 contracts. Next were March $70 puts at 27,580 lots and February $110 calls with 25,916. To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Murtaugh in Houston at dmurtaugh@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net

Hungarian Premier Orban Seeks ‘Total’ Central Bank Takeover, Simor Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-15/hungarian-premier-orban-seeks-total-central-bank-takeover-simor-says.html

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is seeking a “total takeover” of the central bank with a bill aimed at regulating the institution, Magyar Nemzeti Bank President Andras Simor told the news website Index. The draft law breaks EU rules and harms the central bank’s independence, Simor said, according to a transcript of the interview posted on the website today. “This is the latest and almost total takeover of the central bank, since the law vacates and eliminates the mandate of the current president and vice presidents,” Simor said. The Economy Ministry this week submitted the bill, which would expand the rate-setting Monetary Council to as many as nine members from seven, according to the draft posted on Parliament’s website. The central bank chief would have to cede powers, including naming vice presidents, which would belong to the prime minister and the country’s president. Hungary may create a new institution through the merger of the central bank and the financial regulator, in which Simor would be a deputy chief, according to a separate ruling-party proposal. Legislators will vote on this tomorrow. The plan may be aimed at “deflecting attention” from the central bank bill, Simor said. To contact the reporter on this story: Zoltan Simon in Budapest at zsimon@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net

Morgan Stanley Hires Collins for Investment-Banking Operations

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-10/morgan-stanley-hires-collins-for-investment-banking-operations.html

Morgan Stanley re-hired John Collins, a mergers-and-acquisitions banker who left the firm three years ago to join Moelis & Co., for a newly created role as global operations officer for the investment-banking division. Collins, 45, will start the job in New York in early July, according to Mark Lake , a spokesman for the New York-based bank. He will report to Mark Eichorn and Franck Petitgas , the global co-heads of investment banking. Collins first joined Morgan Stanley in 1990 as an analyst in the firm’s real-estate banking group and spent most of his career in the mergers-and-acquisitions department, where he was promoted to managing director in 2004, according to Lake. He left to join Moelis in April 2010. Morgan Stanley’s investment-banking division generated $945 million in first-quarter revenue, up 11 percent from a year earlier, the company reported last month. To contact the reporters on this story: Christine Harper in New York at charper@bloomberg.net ; Serena Saitto in New York at ssaitto@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net

CENTRAL REINS CO February Sales Rise 54.95% (Table) : 2851 TT

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-10/central-reins-co-february-sales-rise-54-95-table-2851-tt.html

CENTRAL REINS CO said unconsolidated sales in February rose 54.95% to NT$1,124,383,000 from NT$725,628,000, according to a statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. (Figures are in thousands of New Taiwan dollars) ================================================================= 2/2011 2/2010 Sales 1,124,383 725,628 YOY% 54.95% -----------------Year-to-date----------------- Sales 2,375,863 1,334,036 YOY% 78.10% =================================================================

LNG Prices in Asia Advance on Shortage of Spot Cargoes, WGI Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-20/lng-prices-in-asia-advance-on-shortage-of-spot-cargoes-wgi-says.html

Liquefied natural gas prices for Northeast Asia rose this week on a shortage of spot cargoes for winter, according to Energy Intelligence Group. Power-station fuel for delivery over the next four to eight weeks increased to $18.60 per million British thermal units in the period through today, up from $18.10, the New York-based research company said on the website of its World Gas Intelligence publication. Southwest Europe prices increased to $13.20 from $12.60. LNG prices are forecast to rise this week, according to four of six traders surveyed by Bloomberg News through Nov. 15. Asian buyers typically purchase spot cargoes from December to March to meet peak heating and power demand during the northern hemisphere’s winter. Asian companies are trying to secure additional supply as they discuss long-term contracts for 2014, WGI said. This has reduced the number of short-term shipments available for the North Asian winter, according to the research company. North Asian utilities and gas companies want as many as 10 spot cargoes for January delivery, while producers are offering five shipments loaded from storage in Europe, WGI said. Latin America Latin America has taken two-thirds of Europe’s reloaded LNG this year, compared with one-third last year, according to the research company. Brazil ’s state-owned Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4) imported 64 LNG cargoes as of October this year compared with 45 shipments last year, Angelica Laureano, the company’s executive manager, said at an industry event in Paris yesterday. Rio de Janeiro-based Petrobras will import as many as 15 cargoes a month in 2014, Rodrigo Vilanova, LNG trading manager, said Sept. 25. Brazil doesn’t have long-term supply contracts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. To contact the reporter on this story: Chou Hui Hong in Singapore at chong43@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net

CapAsia CEO Bastin Sued for Defamation in Singapore

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-29/capasia-ceo-bastin-sued-for-defamation-in-singapore.html

CapAsia’s founding chief executive officer Vijay Sethu sued Johan Bastin, his successor at the Rohatyn Group-owned private equity firm in Singapore , claiming Bastin impugned him by suggesting he was front-running a deal. Sethu is seeking unspecified damages for defamation and a restraining order against Bastin to stop him from making any further disparaging comments, according to a lawsuit filed in Singapore High Court. Bastin has denied the allegations. Bastin told three people that Sethu personally bought debt that he had recommended to a company where he was a board member and in which a CapAsia fund had invested, according to the court filing. Bastin as a result suggested Sethu traded with advance knowledge about a deal, known as front-running, which is illegal and unethical, Sethu alleged. A pre-trial hearing is scheduled for today. “Our client’s position is that the lawsuit is entirely without merit,” Bastin’s lawyers Hri Kumar and Shivani Retnam said in an e-mail. The lawsuit was filed with the “ulterior motive” of harassment, rather than to protect Sethu’s reputation, Bastin, who replaced Sethu as CEO in 2009, said in his defense filing. “My client is very confident in the Singapore legal system and that the merits of his case will be proved at trial,” Sethu’s lawyer Edmund Kronenburg said. Sethu, after being replaced as CEO, remained at CapAsia as the head of one of its funds and later as a consultant before leaving in November. $400 Million CapAsia manages $400 million in assets across three funds, according to its website. The firm is owned by New York-based Rohatyn, an emerging markets asset manager founded by former JPMorgan Chase & Co. bankers, and Malaysia ’s CIMB Group Holdings Bhd. (CIMB) CapAsia is the brand name for Capital Advisors Partners ( Asia ) and was originally a venture between CIMB and South Africa ’s Standard Bank Group. Rohatyn said this month it will buy Citigroup Inc.’s emerging-markets private-equity unit. The combined firm, dubbed TRG, will have more than $7 billion in assets, including about $6 billion in private equity, according to a joint statement. The case is Vijay Vijendra Sethu v Johan Frans Jozef Maria Bastin, S612/2013. Singapore High Court. To contact the reporter on this story: Andrea Tan in Singapore at atan17@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Douglas Wong at dwong19@bloomberg.net

Washington Follows Path to Credibility Downgrade: Neil Barofsky

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-27/washington-follows-path-to-credibility-downgrade-neil-barofsky.html

We have been told that unless the legislative process is well under way by today, and a bill raising the debt limit is passed and in place by Aug. 2, catastrophe will strike the U.S. This follows previous warnings of other calamitous deadlines that have come and gone with little tumult, such as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner ’s January claim that the debt limit had to be raised no later than March 31. That deadline passed, followed by a series of other supposed moments of truth in June and July, and most recently, the proclamation by congressional leaders that a deal had to be announced by 4 p.m. this past Sunday before the Asian financial markets opened. Fortunately, these predictions, so far, have been off the mark. While there may have been market shudders, the predicted Great Panic of 2011 hasn’t struck. Treasury’s warnings raise two important questions. Why has it served up visions of the apocalypse time and again and what have been the costs of it being wrong? The most obvious cost has been an incremental loss of credibility, with even the oft-cited Aug. 2 deadline for Congressional action now widely questioned. Reluctant Congressional Republicans, Geithner’s intended audience, long ago lost their faith in Treasury and view the deadline warnings as mere political spin. False Twilights After all, this isn’t the first time in recent years that there have been warnings of dire consequences that haven’t come to pass. For example, the Federal Reserve ’s repeated predictions that severe damage would result if it were forced to disclose the identities of its counterparties during the financial crisis were wrong, as were Treasury’s warnings that my former office, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), would inflict financial carnage when it announced its survey of what lending institutions had done with the taxpayer funds they had received under the program. So why keep issuing what appear to be false deadlines? The obvious answer is it’s part of an attempt to gain political leverage. Congress apparently can no longer act without deadlines, and by planting them early and often, the hope must have been to gain some traction in negotiations and achieve the concessions necessary to garner bipartisan support for a deal. These pressures may have been part of the reason Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner came close to reaching an agreement with the Obama administration before the deal fell apart last week with the now all-too-familiar accusations of bad faith by both sides -- and leaving us with even less time to find a solution. Political Goals The false alarms also were intended to serve other political goals. One of the sharpest criticisms aimed at Geithner, his predecessor Hank Paulson and other federal regulators in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis was their failure to recognize the danger created by financial institutions’ reliance on supposedly safe subprime mortgage- backed securities -- bonds that once held the same AAA rating as Treasury securities. By sounding alarms, the administration wanted to limit its vulnerability and be in a better position to build on the narrative set forth by President Barack Obama in his Monday night address: blame for default lies not with the White House, but with Republicans in Congress who ignored these admonitions. Treasury’s warnings will also have the benefit of eventually proving to be accurate if the true deadline passes without a deal (whatever date that may actually be) and the U.S. fails to make its debt payments. While wrong on dates, Geithner, of course, would ultimately be correct that should the U.S. default on its debt, the impact on the markets would likely far exceed even the darkest days of 2008. Takes a Collapse Finally, the early predictions of chaos could, in a perverse way, reflect recognition that it may take a collapse in the markets to galvanize congressional action. During the last crisis, it was only after the panic that followed the first unsuccessful Congressional vote on TARP -- which caused the single largest one-day drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average

Mitsubishi to Operate London Array Wind-Farm Link With Barclays

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-10/u-k-names-owner-of-459-million-pound-offshore-wind-link.html

Mitsubishi Corp. (8058) and Barclays Plc (BARC) will operate the transmission link connecting the world’s largest offshore wind farm, the U.K. energy regulator said. Ofgem named The Blue Transmission group comprising Barclays Infrastructure Funds Management Ltd. and a U.K. unit of Mitsubishi to maintain and operate the link for the London Array project for the next 20 years, it said in an e-mailed statement. Half of the debt funding for the purchase was provided by the European Investment Bank , it said. “With a value of 459 million pounds ($721 million), these are the highest value assets to have been tendered under the offshore regime to date, bringing the total value of new investment attracted into the sector to over 1 billion pounds,” Ofgem Chairman John Mogg said in the statement. The competitive bidding process means running the link will cost consumers a quarter less than previous projects, he said. EON SE, Dong Energy A/S and Masdar Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co. opened the 2.2 billion euro ($2.9 billion) London Array project, the world’s largest marine wind farm, in July. It comprises 175 turbines for an installed capacity of 630 megawatts. Britain plans a 10-fold expansion in offshore wind by the end of this decade as it seeks to curb polluting greenhouse gas emissions and create jobs. The country wants 15 percent of its energy to come from clean sources by 2020 from about 9.4 percent now. To contact the reporter on this story: Louise Downing in London at ldowning4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net

U.S. Swap Spreads to Narrow on Increase in Debt Issuance, Barclays Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-15/u-s-swap-spreads-to-narrow-on-increase-in-debt-issuance-barclays-says.html

Interest-rate swap spreads may extend their retreat from the highest levels in over a year as volatility in bank credit spreads declines and companies boost debt issuance, according to Barclays Plc. The difference between the rate to exchange floating- for fixed-interest payments and Treasury yields for two years, known as the swap spread, narrowed 2.43 basis points to 36.38 basis points. The spread touched 64.21 last month, the widest in almost 14 months. The five-year spread was at 28.62 basis points, compared with 30 basis points yesterday. Swap spreads are based in part on expectations for the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, and are used as a gauge of investor perceptions of credit risk. “A combination of seasonal effects and declining credit spread volatility, together with redemptions of bank TLGP debt next month, argues for higher financial issuance,” Amrut Nashikkar , an interest-rate strategist at Barclays Plc in New York, wrote in a note published on June 10. “And, therefore, tighter intermediate and long-end spreads over the coming weeks.” The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s temporary loan guarantee program, or TLGP, provided financial companies, such as banks, with access to credit markets after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008. Debt issued under the program is backed with FDIC guarantees. European Crisis Debt issuance by financial firms is typically swapped from fixed-rate back into floating-rate payments, triggering receiving in swaps, which causes swap spreads to tighten. Swap rates are usually higher than Treasury yields in part because the floating payments are based on interest rates, such as Libor. Swap rates serve as benchmarks for investors in many types of debt, including mortgage-backed and auto-loan securities. “The recent increase in credit spread volatility because of the European crisis may have contributed” to lower than seasonally typical debt issuance by financial firms in May and so far in June, Nashikkar wrote. “If the uncertainty in bank credit spreads declines, financial issuance could pick up substantially,” he wrote. Three-month dollar Libor rose to an eleven-month high of 0.539 percent from 0.537 percent, according to data from the British Bankers’ Association, after Moody’s Investors Service yesterday lowered Greece’s debt rating to junk. The Libor-OIS spread, a gauge of demand for cash and banks’ willingness to lend, was little changed at 32.2 basis points. The spread has risen from about 6 basis points in mid-March amid concerns Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis was spreading. To contact the reporter on this story: Liz Capo McCormick in New York at emccormick7@bloomberg.net

Hong Kong Short Selling Turnover Recorded 06/24/2011

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-24/hong-kong-short-selling-turnover-recorded-06-24-2011-table-.html

Hong Kong , 06/24/2011 (Bloomberg) - Short selling was recorded on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for the following companies as of 01:00 today. Number Short Percent of shares selling Total of short Tkr sold short turnover turnover to total Sym Company Name (thousand) (HK$ mln) (HK$ mln) turnover 522 ASM PACIFIC 245.20 26.04 40.05 65.0 220 U-PRESID CHINA 513 2.33 3.83 60.9 272 SHUI ON LAND 2162 6.96 12.28 56.7 151 WANT WANT CHINA 3606 26.94 50.26 53.6 3368 PARKSON GROUP 1345 15.03 28.24 53.2 923 FOOK WOO GROUP 214 0.50 0.97 51.5 754 HOPSON DEV HOLD 558 3.73 7.76 48.1 87 SWIRE PACIFIC B 40 0.85 1.81 47.1 1633 MAGIC HOLDINGS 41 0.16 0.37 43.1 773 CH METAL RECYCL 1349.40 12.09 28.10 43.0 751 SKYWORTHDIGITAL 5138 22.08 51.94 42.5 322 TINGYI 3100 73.50 187.25 39.3 1169 HAIER ELEC 294 2.56 6.61 38.7 1638 KAISA GROUP 539 1.47 3.93 37.4 1068 YURUN FOOD 5969 156.08 439.56 35.5 270 GUANGDONG INV 3208 12.93 37.06 34.9 1685 BOER POWER 10 0.07 0.20 34.5 268 KINGDEE INT'L 862 3.46 10.12 34.2 817 FRANSHION PPT 686 1.37 4.13 33.1 2866 CSCL 4658 12.17 36.87 33.0 293 CATHAY PAC AIR 1679 29.19 88.99 32.8 3808 SINOTRUK 432.50 2.28 7.32 31.1 3889 GLOBAL SWEET 84 0.13 0.43 30.4 336 HUABAO INTL 2117 17.27 61.09 28.3 1133 HARBIN POWER 1432 13.22 47.12 28.1 2333 GREATWALL MOTOR 3049.50 36.95 134.20 27.5 4 WHARF HOLDINGS 305 15.91 58.24 27.3 1833 INTIME 584 7.67 28.20 27.2 83 SINO LAND 706 8.55 31.77 26.9 3377 SINO-OCEAN LAND 2289.50 8.42 32.25 26.1 347 ANGANG STEEL 2010 16.31 62.84 26.0 2007 COUNTRY GARDEN 874 2.92 11.45 25.5 27 GALAXY ENT 988 15.25 60.51 25.2 539 VICTORY CITY 2 0.00 0.01 25.1 14 HYSAN DEV 86 3.21 13.09 24.5 1966 CHINA SCE PPT 17 0.03 0.14 23.8 1086 GOODBABY INTL 358 1.25 5.26 23.7 2338 WEICHAI POWER 766 34.12 148.25 23.0 1393 HIDILI INDUSTRY 351 2.26 10.23 22.1 700 TENCENT 436 91.16 414.07 22.0 1988 MINSHENG BANK 1947 14.27 66.05 21.6 2009 BBMG 2879 32.87 153.23 21.4 228 CHINA ENERGY 200 0.04 0.17 21.3 631 SANY INT'L 490 4.11 19.50 21.1 1919 CHINA COSCO 1940 11.51 55.01 20.9 762 CHINA UNICOM 9092 135.47 654.15 20.7 440 DAH SING 4.80 0.19 0.90 20.7 818 HI SUN TECH 186 0.35 1.72 20.6 2208 GOLDWIND 286.60 2.37 11.74 20.2 1387 RENHE COMM 7852 11.64 58.74 19.8 178 SA SA INT'L 418 2.05 10.44 19.7 460 SIHUAN PHARM 2188 7.72 41.06 18.8 291 CHINA RESOURCES 54 1.64 8.92 18.4 1768 SATERI 152 0.86 4.71 18.2 2600 CHALCO 2292 14.67 81.13 18.1 1880 BELLE INT'L 591 9.20 50.86 18.1 1688 ALIBABA 242 2.91 16.73 17.4 2883 CHINA OILFIELD 562 7.94 46.07 17.2 893 CHINAVTM MINING 756 2.18 12.80 17.0 2823 X ISHARES A50 10531.90 133.91 804.41 16.6 11 HANG SENG BANK 130.60 15.87 95.44 16.6 1157 ZOOMLION 3577.20 51.83 314.82 16.5 5 HSBC HOLDINGS 1446 109.99 668.90 16.4 1928 SANDS CHINA LTD 455.20 8.47 52.29 16.2 302 WING HANG BANK 22.50 1.91 12.28 15.6 2899 ZIJIN MINING 2022 7.85 50.79 15.5 3339 LONKING 4050 16.86 109.67 15.4 2777 R&F PROPERTIES 1112 11.59 76.80 15.1 168 TSINGTAO BREW 58 2.56 17.35 14.8 1099 SINOPHARM 162.40 4.24 28.79 14.7 1211 BYD COMPANY 812.50 19.57 135.18 14.5 914 ANHUI CONCH 1302 45.85 320.39 14.3 991 DATANG POWER 472 1.23 8.63 14.2 939 CCB 24453 156.69 1105.65 14.2 368 SINOTRANS SHIP 128.50 0.29 2.09 14.0 1828 DCH HOLDINGS 366 3.13 22.90 13.7 3333 EVERGRANDE 5995 29.44 219.29 13.4 493 GOME 6958 21.43 160.77 13.3 980 LIANHUA 27 0.46 3.50 13.2 177 JIANGSU EXPRESS 548 3.93 30.21 13.0 321 TEXWINCA HOLD 68 0.59 4.51 13.0 101 HANG LUNG PPT 328 10.27 79.17 13.0 1044 HENGAN INT'L 224.50 15.26 117.79 13.0 1066 WEIGAO GROUP 40 0.45 3.50 12.8 728 CHINA TELECOM 3764 18.22 142.91 12.8 66 MTR CORPORATION 72 1.94 15.40 12.6 13 HUTCHISON 630 52.14 414.51 12.6 696 TRAVELSKY TECH 99 0.46 3.79 12.3 857 PETROCHINA 3452 38.11 316.03 12.1 883 CNOOC 5380 95.98 806.00 11.9 303 VTECH HOLDINGS 8.70 0.82 6.87 11.9 1072 DONGFANG ELEC 89.60 2.50 21.35 11.7 845 GLORIOUS PPT H 470 1.09 9.41 11.6 1733 WINSWAY 648 1.99 17.23 11.6 480 HKR INT'L 16.80 0.08 0.65 11.5 489 DONGFENG GROUP 3284 48.69 427.42 11.4 20 WHEELOCK 33 0.98 8.66 11.3 1883 CITIC TELECOM 25 0.05 0.45 11.3 392 BEIJING ENT 89.50 3.49 31.27 11.2 3800 GCL-POLY ENERGY 5848 22.71 206.64 11.0 2328 PICC P&C 992 12.24 111.47 11.0 2020 ANTA SPORTS 231 3.14 29.35 10.7 23 BANK OF E ASIA 72 2.32 21.79 10.7 1813 KWG PROPERTY 162.50 0.83 7.78 10.6 1053 CHONGQING IRON 46 0.08 0.74 10.6 2010 REAL NUTRI 81 0.38 3.57 10.6 688 CHINA OVERSEAS 1756 28.54 279.91 10.2 1398 ICBC 15025 87.48 857.98 10.2 941 CHINA MOBILE 4006 288.88 2845.91 10.2 3383 AGILE PROPERTY 428 5.01 49.60 10.1 3933 UNITED LAB 54 0.58 5.78 10.1 1029 IRC 506 0.89 9.03 9.8 855 CHINA WATER 92 0.25 2.50 9.8 1338 BAWANG GROUP 118 0.19 1.93 9.8 338 SHANGHAI PECHEM 540 1.81 18.48 9.8 682 CHAODA MODERN 390 1.25 12.77 9.8 2 CLP HOLDINGS 170 11.54 118.48 9.7 877 O-NET COMM GP 202 0.52 5.33 9.7 2331 LI NING 88 1.20 12.59 9.6 31 CHINA AEROSPACE 222 0.18 1.88 9.5 1109 CHINA RES LAND 278 3.64 38.81 9.4 2000 SIM TECH 802 0.65 7.05 9.2 1999 MAN WAH HLDGS 225.20 1.67 18.50 9.0 1114 BRILLIANCE CHI 870 6.87 76.42 9.0 1171 YANZHOU COAL 462 13.87 154.52 9.0 992 LENOVO GROUP 648 2.79 31.15 9.0 916 CHINA LONGYUAN 339 2.45 27.81 8.8 386 SINOPEC CORP 5352 40.29 459.59 8.8 683 KERRY PPT 114 4.21 48.15 8.7 670 CHINA EAST AIR 2296 7.68 87.96 8.7 16 SHK PPT 132 14.57 172.43 8.5 350 JINGWEI TEXTILE 70 0.43 5.14 8.4 576 ZHEJIANGEXPRESS 136 0.77 9.25 8.3 218 SHENYIN WANGUO 35 0.10 1.29 8.1 2128 CHINA LIANSU 456 2.95 36.88 8.0 12 HENDERSON LAND 98 4.79 60.25 7.9 2888 STANCHART 12.60 2.46 30.99 7.9 371 BJ ENT WATER 402 0.81 10.27 7.9 3389 HENGDELI 280 1.17 14.93 7.9 165 CHINA EB LTD 328 4.63 59.61 7.8 3323 CNBM 2256 34.45 446.91 7.7 3308 GOLDEN EAGLE 112 2.14 27.85 7.7 1766 CSR 197 1.45 19.15 7.6 269 CHINA TIMBER 1300 0.44 5.92 7.5 67 LUMENA NEWMAT 5000 14.58 195.30 7.5 54 HOPEWELL HOLD 5 0.12 1.62 7.5 2626 HNC 282 0.78 10.47 7.5 2038 FIH 210 0.70 9.56 7.3 568 SHANDONG MOLONG 4 0.03 0.41 7.2 123 YUEXIU PROPERTY 468 0.66 9.42 7.0 1234 CHINA LILANG 42 0.44 6.53 6.8 3328 BANKCOMM 956 7.01 104.18 6.7 809 GLOBAL BIO-CHEM 962 2.13 31.92 6.7 763 ZTE 117.40 3.23 48.31 6.7 3888 KINGSOFT 76 0.32 4.80 6.6 1555 MIE HOLDINGS 358 1.16 17.45 6.6 1683 IMM 154.50 1.12 16.85 6.6 494 LI & FUNG 604 9.68 146.78 6.6 323 MAANSHAN IRON 302 1.06 16.05 6.6 238 EVERGREEN INT 24 0.09 1.44 6.5 358 JIANGXI COPPER 223 5.62 86.76 6.5 881 ZHONGSHENG HLDG 93.50 1.44 22.32 6.5 2356 DAHSING BANKING 11.60 0.12 1.86 6.5 825 NWDS CHINA 5 0.03 0.46 6.4 422 VMEP HOLDINGS 10 0.02 0.24 6.4 1055 CHINA SOUTH AIR 1776 7.30 115.48 6.3 1666 TONG REN TANG 21 0.15 2.45 6.3 2018 AAC ACOUSTIC 36 0.62 9.94 6.2 175 GEELY AUTO 3845 11.59 186.76 6.2 2314 LEE & MAN PAPER 291 1.28 20.75 6.2 2836 ISHARES INDIA 20 0.35 5.71 6.2 382 WELLINGHOLD-NEW 16 0.02 0.39 6.1 1199 COSCO PACIFIC 214 2.96 49.67 6.0 995 ANHUIEXPRESSWAY 12 0.07 1.21 5.9 1212 LIFESTYLE INT'L 29 0.63 10.64 5.9 1878 SOUTHGOBI 3.45 0.27 4.73 5.8 551 YUE YUEN IND 39.50 1.00 17.33 5.8 506 CHINA FOODS 82 0.53 9.22 5.7 1006 CHINA CORN OIL 17 0.08 1.43 5.7 653 BONJOUR HOLD 154 0.20 3.46 5.7 62 TRANSPORT INT'L 1.20 0.03 0.47 5.7 590 LUK FOOK HOLD 37 1.23 21.78 5.7 384 CHINA GAS HOLD 100 0.31 5.55 5.5 2238 GAC GROUP 560 4.99 92.44 5.4 410 SOHO CHINA 287.50 1.87 34.87 5.4 1128 WYNN MACAU 58 1.32 25.66 5.1 107 SICHUAN EXPRESS 18 0.07 1.38 5.1 3818 CHINA DONGXIANG 123 0.30 5.89 5.0 820 HSBCDRAGON FUND 8 0.06 1.28 5.0 3 HK & CHINA GAS 131 2.26 46.46 4.9 1200 MIDLAND HOLDING 96 0.43 8.80 4.9 1818 ZHAOJIN MINING 26.50 0.44 9.03 4.8 823 LINK REIT 114 3.07 64.69 4.7 1208 MIN RESOURCES 60 0.34 7.14 4.7 233 MY MEDICARE 190 0.10 2.06 4.6 998 CITIC BANK 527 2.65 58.18 4.6 2689 ND PAPER 673 4.07 90.35 4.5 1288 ABC 6512 25.22 560.02 4.5 144 CHINA MER HOLD 150 4.19 94.00 4.5 902 HUANENG POWER 316 1.28 28.98 4.4 2380 CHINA POWER 84 0.16 3.71 4.4 1333 CHINA ZHONGWANG 66.40 0.21 4.81 4.3 3049 X DBCSI300 1564.80 12.27 286.90 4.3 945 MANULIFE 1.10 0.14 3.37 4.2 868 XINYI GLASS 360 2.70 64.21 4.2 1163 DEJIN RES 186 0.05 1.10 4.1 425 MINTH GROUP 166 1.79 44.57 4.0 848 MAOYE INT'L 91 0.38 9.43 4.0 999 I.T 448 3.27 82.70 3.9 1898 CHINA COAL 274 2.82 72.57 3.9 3983 CHINA BLUECHEM 84 0.51 13.24 3.9 2345 SHANGHAI PRIME 8 0.01 0.34 3.8 17 NEW WORLD DEV 200 2.36 62.08 3.8 966 CHINA TAIPING 42.80 0.73 19.47 3.8 882 TIANJIN DEV 18 0.08 2.07 3.8 589 PORTS 29.50 0.53 14.57 3.6 1313 CHINARES CEMENT 280 2.02 56.88 3.6 257 CHINA EB INT'L 171 0.50 14.22 3.5 587 HUA HAN 4 0.01 0.24 3.5 1091 CITIC DAMENG 16 0.03 0.99 3.5 200 MELCO INT'L DEV 114 0.82 23.96 3.4 388 HKEX 104.80 16.93 494.07 3.4 552 CHINACOMSERVICE 20 0.09 2.71 3.4 1205 CITIC RESOURCES 134 0.17 5.20 3.3 1798 DATANG RENEW 39 0.08 2.31 3.3 3883 CHINA AOYUAN 74 0.10 2.93 3.3 19 SWIRE PACIFIC A 33.50 3.67 112.23 3.3 2318 PING AN 158.50 12.13 371.38 3.3 591 C HIGHPRECISION 14 0.08 2.61 3.2 242 SHUN TAK HOLD 94 0.43 13.17 3.2 1777 FANTASIA 108 0.13 3.96 3.2 2313 SHENZHOU INTL 5 0.05 1.65 3.1 2882 HKRH 48 0.03 0.89 3.1 2727 SH ELECTRIC 80 0.32 10.47 3.1 2343 PACIFIC BASIN 119 0.50 16.30 3.1 558 LK TECH 22.50 0.06 1.91 3.0 8 PCCW 208 0.69 22.99 3.0 1 CHEUNG KONG 59 6.48 215.94 3.0 1299 AIA 318 8.56 286.03 3.0 1800 CHINA COMM CONS 151 1.03 34.77 3.0 3993 CMOC 47 0.30 10.31 3.0 3833 XINXIN MINING 12 0.05 1.84 2.8 297 SINOFERT 66 0.22 8.19 2.7 658 C TRANSMISSION 27 0.22 8.10 2.7 215 HUTCHTEL HK 56 0.13 5.06 2.7 1308 SITC 2 0.01 0.35 2.5 2222 NVC LIGHTING 62 0.23 9.50 2.5 1138 CHINA SHIP DEV 64 0.46 18.63 2.4 331 PCD STORES 70 0.12 4.90 2.4 6 POWER ASSETS 22.50 1.27 52.40 2.4 363 SHANGHAI IND H 17 0.46 19.18 2.4 738 LE SAUNDA HOLD 42 0.19 7.99 2.4 538 AJISEN (CHINA) 4 0.06 2.55 2.4 3898 CSR TIMES ELEC 10 0.26 11.07 2.3 517 COSCO INTL HOLD 24 0.10 4.46 2.3 2628 CHINA LIFE 394 9.94 444.28 2.2 2006 JINJIANG HOTELS 30 0.04 1.87 2.2 1361 361 DEGREES 52 0.25 11.59 2.1 1788 GUOTAI JUNAN I 16 0.05 2.30 2.1 813 SHIMAO PROPERTY 109 1.02 48.15 2.1 159 WAH NAM INT'L 68 0.07 3.70 2.0 142 FIRST PACIFIC 10 0.07 3.33 2.0 3337 ANTON OILFIELD 2 0.00 0.13 2.0 2388 BOC HONG KONG 135 3.06 152.61 2.0 3968 CM BANK 205.50 3.81 192.25 2.0 135 KUNLUN ENERGY 116 1.47 75.47 1.9 525 GUANGSHEN RAIL 18 0.06 3.11 1.9 3311 CHINA STATE CON 118 0.92 49.95 1.8 853 MICROPORT 8 0.04 2.14 1.8 2002 SUNSHINE PAPER 3 0.01 0.33 1.8 327 PAX GLOBAL 7 0.02 1.00 1.8 606 CHINA AGRI 33 0.26 14.86 1.7 873 INT'L TAIFENG 4 0.02 0.88 1.7 1224 C C LAND 41 0.11 6.65 1.7 1088 CHINA SHENHUA 127.50 4.57 279.41 1.6 604 SHENZHEN INVEST 44 0.10 6.29 1.6 1899 XINGDA INT'L 32 0.24 15.34 1.6 3331 VINDA INT'L 34 0.28 18.01 1.6 874 GUANGZHOU PHAR 16 0.11 7.04 1.6 2362 JINCHUAN INTL 14 0.05 3.05 1.6 753 AIR CHINA 454 3.43 219.62 1.6 2233 WESTCHINACEMENT 130 0.37 24.03 1.6 860 MING FUNG JEWEL 60 0.06 3.64 1.5 2088 XIWANG SUGAR 8 0.02 1.04 1.5 2005 LIJUN INT'L 40 0.06 4.29 1.5 113 DICKSON CONCEPT 8.50 0.05 3.42 1.5 1900 CHINA ITS 9 0.03 1.76 1.5 2357 AVICHINA 112 0.51 34.93 1.4 316 OOIL 13 0.65 45.37 1.4 806 VALUE PARTNERS 19 0.12 8.53 1.4 1882 HAITIAN INT'L 5 0.05 3.68 1.4 836 CHINA RES POWER 54 0.76 56.70 1.3 3618 CQRC BANK 206 0.94 72.31 1.3 511 TVB 7 0.35 27.17 1.3 548 SHENZHENEXPRESS 18 0.08 6.03 1.3 832 CENTRAL CHINA 19 0.03 2.66 1.3 179 JOHNSON ELEC H 15.50 0.08 6.46 1.2 1618 MCC 20 0.06 5.07 1.2 486 RUSAL 9 0.09 8.29 1.1 975 MONGOL MINING 6 0.06 5.13 1.1 710 VARITRONIX INTL 13 0.06 5.49 1.1 2778 CHAMPION REIT 50 0.22 19.70 1.1 633 CH ALL ACCESS 30 0.06 5.32 1.1 1194 C PRECIOUSMETAL 16 0.03 2.41 1.1 691 SHANSHUI CEMENT 47 0.42 41.14 1.0 196 HONGHUA GROUP 2 0.00 0.16 1.0 976 CHIHO-TIANDE 10 0.06 6.51 0.9 354 CHINASOFT INT'L 10 0.02 2.88 0.9 811 XINHUA WINSHARE 1 0.00 0.49 0.9 3998 BOSIDENG 60 0.13 15.03 0.8 1101 CH RONGSHENG 111 0.45 54.45 0.8 1812 CHENMING PAPER 3 0.01 1.86 0.8 1039 CHANGFENG AXLE 6 0.02 2.02 0.8 661 CDAYENONFER 18 0.01 1.17 0.8 3988 BANK OF CHINA 1227 4.68 610.15 0.8 842 LEOCH INT'L 1 0.00 0.41 0.7 2319 MENGNIU DAIRY 16 0.40 54.15 0.7 1083 TOWNGAS CHINA 1 0.00 0.57 0.7 189 DONGYUE GROUP 139 1.08 155.16 0.7 435 SUNLIGHT REIT 3 0.01 1.06 0.7 82 VODONE 34 0.06 9.19 0.7 1186 CHINA RAIL CONS 35.50 0.22 37.92 0.6 3336 JU TENG INTL 12 0.02 4.23 0.6 119 POLY HK INV 36 0.16 30.51 0.5 345 VITASOY INT'L 2 0.01 2.21 0.5 1728 ZHENGTONGAUTO 4.50 0.04 7.11 0.5 709 GIORDANO INT'L 12 0.08 15.84 0.5 390 CHINA RAILWAY 34 0.12 23.34 0.5 449 CHIGO HOLDING 56 0.04 8.39 0.5 1038 CKI HOLDINGS 3 0.12 25.10 0.5 45 HK&S HOTELS 0.50 0.01 1.43 0.5 2698 WEIQIAO TEXTILE 2.50 0.01 3.32 0.4 724 SINO-TECH INT'L 20 0.00 0.67 0.4 669 TECHTRONIC IND 6 0.06 13.90 0.4 904 CHINA GREEN 3 0.01 3.74 0.4 1698 BOSHIWA INT'L 10 0.04 12.14 0.4 285 BYD ELECTRONIC 6 0.02 5.50 0.4 136 MASCOTTE HOLD 28 0.01 3.74 0.4 10 HANG LUNG GROUP 2 0.10 28.82 0.3 2368 EAGLE NICE 34 0.06 18.53 0.3 341 CAFE DE CORAL H 4 0.07 22.13 0.3 267 CITIC PACIFIC 8 0.14 47.21 0.3 694 BEIJING AIRPORT 8 0.03 9.81 0.3 656 FOSUN INTL 7.50 0.04 14.38 0.3 398 ORIENTAL WATCH 24 0.13 46.29 0.3 1136 TCC INT'L HOLD 8 0.03 11.48 0.3 330 ESPRIT HOLDINGS 11.50 0.27 103.70 0.3 210 DAPHNE INT'L 4 0.03 10.34 0.3 2008 PHOENIX TV 6 0.02 7.08 0.3 2880 DALIAN PORT 8 0.02 8.72 0.3 960 LONGFOR PPT 3.50 0.04 17.81 0.2 769 CHINA RAREEARTH 4 0.01 4.86 0.2 3025 X DBCSI300CONDI 1 0.01 5.20 0.2 1033 YIZHENG CHEM 12 0.03 16.92 0.2 173 K. WAH INT'L 1 0.00 2.51 0.1 2800 TRACKER FUND 7 0.16 167.28 0.1 2168 YINGDE GASES 3 0.02 24.94 0.1 2828 HS H-SHARE ETF 0.40 0.05 169.40 0.0 2601 CPIC 0.20 0.01 68.22 0.0 Total No. of Securities recording Short Selling : 359 Total No. of Designated Securities recording Short Selling : 359 Short Selling Turnover Total Shares (SH) : 254,871,350 Short Selling Turnover Total Value ($) : HKD 2,776,821,495 *Total No. of non-Designated Securities recording Short Selling : 0 Short Selling Turnover Total Shares (SH) : 0 Short Selling Turnover Total Value ($) : HKD 0 Note: Figures are preliminary and subject to revision. -- Cheryl Yiu in Hong Kong 852-2977-6726

Sabic CFO Sees Perfect Timing for Second Debt Sale This Year

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-27/sabic-cfo-sees-perfect-timing-for-second-debt-sale-this-year.html

Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) , the world’s second-biggest chemicals maker, is planning a second foreign-currency bond sale this year as it seeks to refinance debt amid lower interest rates. The state-controlled company will sell euro-denominated securities before the end of this year although it hasn’t decided how much money it will raise, Chief Financial Officer Mutlaq al-Morished told reporters in Riyadh yesterday. “It’s excellent timing for anybody to refinance.” Sabic, as the company is known, last month raised $1 billion from five-year notes in its first dollar-bond deal since 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The securities pay a coupon of 2.625 percent and were priced to yield 130 basis points over similar maturity U.S. Treasury securities. Orders exceeded the issue’s size by more than five times, two people familiar with the sale said at the time. Issuers from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Saudi Arabia and Qatar, are seeking to benefit from lower borrowing costs before the Federal Reserve reduces monetary stimulus. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries (USGG10YR) has declined 48 basis points from its September peak after the U.S. central bank surprised investors last month by maintaining its bond-buying program. Euro Diversification Sabic’s preference for a euro-denominated issue will “enable a greater diversification in Sabic’s debt financing,” Montasser Khelifi, a Dubai-based senior manager for global markets at Quantum Investment Bank Ltd., said in an e-mail. “The recovery in the euro zone is not as strong as in the U.S., so the European Central Bank is more committed to lower rates than the Fed.” ECB President Mario Draghi has vowed to hold borrowing costs low for an extended period. Fed policy makers, who meet again this week, will pare the monthly pace of asset buying to $70 billion at their March 18-19 meeting, according to the median of 40 responses in a Bloomberg News survey of economists. Sabic, which has Moody’s Investors Service’s fifth-highest investment grade of A1, has $12.5 billion of debt outstanding, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Of that $1 billion is due this year and $1.9 billion next year. To contact the reporters on this story: Deema Almashabi in Riyadh at dalmashabi@bloomberg.net ; Arif Sharif in Dubai at asharif2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.net

Brazil Economists Cut 2012 Growth Forecast for Eighth Week

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-02/brazil-economists-cut-2012-growth-forecast-for-eighth-week-1-.html

Analysts covering the Brazilian economy cut their growth forecast for the eighth straight week even as the government steps up efforts to bolster a recovery. The world’s sixth-largest economy will grow 2.05 in 2012, according to the median estimate in a central bank survey of about 100 analysts published today. A week earlier, analysts forecast growth of 2.18 percent. Consumer prices will rise 4.93 percent in 2012, down from 4.95 percent in the previous week’s survey. Over the next 12 months inflation will reach 5.5 percent, up from 5.48 percent in the June 22 survey. The government last week stepped up government equipment purchases by 6.6 billion reais and increased crop financing by 14.8 billion reais, the latest in a series of measures including tax breaks on industrial and consumer goods to help stimulate demand. Brazil ’s economy expanded 2.7 percent in 2011, down from 7.5 percent in 2010. Brazil’s economy grew by a lower-than-expected 0.8 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, as manufacturers lost ground to foreign competitors and indebted consumers showed signs of easing demand. Last week, the central bank lowered its growth forecast for this year to 2.5 percent, from 3.5 percent. The central bank has lowered its benchmark Selic rate by 400 basis points since August to 8.5 percent. Economists maintained their call for policy makers to cut the rate to 7.5 percent this year, the survey showed. The bank targets inflation of 4.5 percent, plus or minus two percentage points. To contact the reporter on this story: Raymond Colitt in Brasilia Newsroom at rcolitt@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net

Ukrainian Corn Exports Neared Record in May, Researcher Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-21/ukrainian-corn-exports-neared-record-in-may-researcher-says.html

Ukrainian corn exports reached 1.05 million metric tons in May, the second-highest on record after the 1.07 million tons shipped in December 2009, according to UkrAgroConsult. Outbound shipments of grains last month increased to 1.157 million tons from 424,000 tons a month earlier, the Kiev-based researcher said in an e-mailed statement today. Corn was delivered to Egypt, Spain and Iran , it said. The eastern European nation canceled corn export quotas on May 5 after seven months. Wheat and barley quotas were scrapped on June 4. Authorities will tax grain exports from next month through December. To contact the reporter on this story: Kateryna Choursina in Kiev at kchoursina@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net

ENTIRE TECHNOLOG April Sales Fall 6.92% (Table) : 3573 TT

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-08/entire-technolog-april-sales-fall-6-92-table-3573-tt.html

ENTIRE TECHNOLOG said unconsolidated sales in April fell 6.92% to NT$302,424,000 from NT$324,905,000, according to a statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. (Figures are in thousands of New Taiwan dollars) ================================================================= 4/2012 4/2011 Sales 302,424 324,905 YOY% -6.92% -----------------Year-to-date----------------- Sales 1,193,773 1,544,948 YOY% -22.73% =================================================================

Brazilian Stocks Drop as Petrobras, Steelmakers Decline

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-24/brazilian-stocks-drop-as-steelmakers-decline-petrobras-drops-after-sale.html

Brazil’s Bovespa stock index sank, paring a fourth week of gains, after Petroleo Brasileiro SA dropped and Bank of America Corp. said steel prices will likely fall in the country. Petroleo Brasileiro SA , Brazil’s state-controlled oil company, declined after selling shares in a $70 billion offering at a 2 percent discount to yesterday’s closing price, smaller than some analysts estimated. Gerdau SA, Brazil’s biggest steelmaker, dropped 4.6 percent after Bank of America cut its rating on the stock, citing a “weak” price outlook. Declines in the Bovespa were limited by a rally in Vale SA , the world’s biggest iron ore producer, after it approved a stock buyback of as much as $2 billion and proposed an extraordinary dividend. “The steel sector is dropping after the downgrade,” said Fabio Cardoso , a partner at Adinvest Consultoria, a Rio de Janeiro-based equity consulting firm. “Banks are giving back some after rallying a lot lately. If it wasn’t for Vale, we’d be falling a lot more.” The Bovespa dropped 0.9 percent to 68,196.48. At least two stocks fell for every one that rose. The gauge is up 1.7 percent this week, the biggest weekly gain in three. It’s slipped 0.6 percent this year, pushed down by a 27 percent drop for Petrobras, the biggest stock in the index, on concern the share sale would dilute earnings. Brazilian steel prices will probably fall in the fourth quarter as rising imports boost competition, Felipe Hirai and Thiago Lofiego , analysts at Bank of America in Sao Paulo, wrote in a note to clients today. Gerdau’s earnings in the second half “are likely going to disappoint” because of higher raw- material costs, the analysts wrote. ‘IPO Bubble’ Petrobras fell 1.9 percent to 26.30 reais. The company’s $70 billion stock sale was an “abomination” that treated minority shareholders unfairly and may signal share offerings are overvalued, said Mark Mobius , who oversees about $34 billion as executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management Ltd. “The entire Petrobras issue is an abomination and a terrible violation of shareholder rights,” Mobius said in a telephone interview from Kazakhstan. “We may be entering an IPO bubble. It means that people are just not looking at the values and irrationally buying these things.” Petrobras, based in Rio de Janeiro, sold 2.4 billion common shares for 29.65 reais each and priced 1.87 billion preferred stock at 26.30 reais a piece in the world’s biggest share sale, according to a statement late yesterday. Investors may be selling other stocks to have cash on hand to pay for shares they ordered in the Petrobras offering, said Young Kim, who oversees $1.1 billion as chief investment officer of Mirae Asset Global Investments Brasil in Sao Paulo. ‘Huge Overhang’ “That’s why there’s pressure for this kind of selling,” Kim said. “I can’t see any reason why it’s so weak today.’ Petrobras is tapping demand for emerging-market assets to fund development of oil deposits such as Tupi, the largest discovery in the Americas in three decades, and to preserve its investment grade credit rating. As part of the share sale, Petrobras issued about $42.5 billion of stock to Brazil’s government in exchange for the rights to develop 5 billion barrels of oil reserves. “The fact that Petrobras was able to raise the largest equity offering ever done in the world, 10 days before a presidential election shows how far this market has come,” Will Landers , who oversees about $8 billion in Latin American stocks at BlackRock Inc., said in an e-mail. “I continue to be very positive on the Brazilian stock market, and removing this huge overhang from the market has to be seen as positive.” Vale, BM&FBovespa Vale jumped 2.8 percent to 44.66 reais. The Rio de Janeiro- based company will buy back as many as 64.8 million voting shares and 98.4 million preferred shares, or 5 percent of the total stock in each class, according to a statement posted to its website late yesterday. The company also proposed a $1 billion extraordinary dividend to return to shareholders funds generated by asset sales to be completed by the end of the year, according to a separate statement. BM&FBovespa SA, the operator of the Sao Paulo exchange, dropped 4.8 percent to 14.19 reais as its valuation became “stretched” after surging 14 percent this month through yesterday on speculation the Petrobras offering would boost volumes, Kim said. The stock traded yesterday at 28.5 times earnings after posting the best September performance on the Bovespa. The Bovespa index trades for 12.7 times analysts’ 2010 earnings estimates, compared with 12.6 times for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index of 21 developing nations’ stocks and 15.6 times for Mexico’s IPC index, according to weekly data compiled by Bloomberg. To contact the reporters on this story: Alexander Ragir in Rio de Janeiro at aragir@bloomberg.net ; Alexander Cuadros in Sao Paulo at acuadros@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net

Bertelsmann to Remain in Guetersloh, Neue Westfaelische Reports

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-22/bertelsmann-to-remain-in-guetersloh-neue-westfaelische-reports.html

Bertelsmann AG will keep its headquarters in Guetersloh, Germany , and manage its planned international expansion from the German city, Neue Westfaelische Zeitung reported, citing an interview with Bertelsmann’s new Chief Executive Officer Thomas Rabe. To contact the reporter on this story: Niklas Magnusson in Hamburg at nmagnusson1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Angela Cullen at acullen8@bloomberg.net

Getin Noble Jumps as Profit Tops Estimates: Warsaw Mover

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-30/getin-noble-jumps-as-profit-tops-estimates-warsaw-mover.html

Getin Noble Bank SA, the Polish lender controlled by billionaire Leszek Czarnecki, jumped the most in three weeks after quarterly profit beat estimates. The shares climbed as much as 3.7 percent, the most since Aug. 1, and traded up 1.9 percent at 2.18 zloty as of 10:18 a.m. in Warsaw. More than 890,000 securities changed hands, 91 percent of the three-month daily average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Second-quarter net income rose 27 percent to 102.9 million zloty ($31.9 million), the bank said today, beating the 80.6 million-zloty mean estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Bad loan provisions dropped 42 percent to 143.1 million zloty. The bank is “on its way to meet and exceed the consensus expectations” of 278 million zloty for the full year, Michal Konarski, an analyst at Wood & Co., said in a note today. “The results announcement should have a slightly positive trading impact.” Getin Noble sees profit above 100 million zloty in future quarters as economic growth improves, Chief Executive Officer Krzysztof Rosinski told reporters today. Gross domestic product rose 0.8 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, according to data published by the Central Statistical Office in Warsaw, quickening from 0.5 growth in the first quarter. To contact the reporter on this story: Marta Waldoch in Warsaw at mwaldoch@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Frank Connelly at fconnelly@bloomberg.net

MasterCard Website Besieged After Blocking WikiLeaks

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-08/mastercard-s-website-besieged-by-hackers-after-network-cuts-off-wikileaks.html

MasterCard Inc. , the world’s second- biggest payments processor, said its website was slowed by a “flood” of traffic after the company blocked use of its network by WikiLeaks. The MasterCard website was knocked offline today in a so- called denial-of-service attack orchestrated by Anonymous, an “Internet vigilante group,” and users of 4Chan, a network of uncensored message boards, TechCrunch reported. In a post on Twitter that referred to WikiLeaks, Anonymous dubbed the move “Operation Payback.” The group also claimed responsibility for taking down Visa Inc. ’s website later in the day. “The issue appears to be the result of a concentrated effort to flood our corporate website with traffic and slow access,” said James Issokson, a spokesman for Purchase, New York-based MasterCard, in an e-mail. MasterCard’s systems haven’t been compromised and “there is no impact on our cardholders’ ability to use their cards for secure transactions globally,” he said. MasterCard and London-based Visa Europe Ltd. said yesterday that they are suspending use of their networks by WikiLeaks, an organization that publishes secret documents on its website. The actions are the latest in a series by companies that may crimp access to funds for WikiLeaks, a nonprofit that relies on donations. ‘Political Pressure’ EBay Inc. unit PayPal recently cut off WikiLeaks for violating the online payment processor’s acceptable use policy. PostFinance, the banking arm of SwissPost, closed a bank account held by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange , saying he doesn’t qualify to be a client. Amazon.com Inc. dropped WikiLeaks from its website-hosting service for breaching terms of service. Visa Europe, the biggest payment-card network in the 27- member European Union, is bowing to “political pressure to close us down,” said Andreas Fink, chief executive officer of Reykjavik, Iceland-based DataCell ehf, a company that helps WikiLeaks accept donations online. “The suspension of payments towards WikiLeaks is a violation of the agreements with their customers,” Fink said in a statement on the company’s website, in which he vowed legal action to keep contributions flowing. “Visa users have explicitly expressed their will to send their donations to WikiLeaks and Visa is not fulfilling this wish.” Simon Kleine, a spokesman for Visa Europe, declined to comment beyond a company statement yesterday that said it had suspended payment acceptance on WikiLeaks’ website “pending further investigation into the nature of its business and whether it contravenes Visa operating rules.” Assange Arrested Visa Europe split from Visa Inc., the world’s biggest payments network, before the San Francisco-based company’s initial public offering in March 2008. Chris Monteiro , MasterCard’s chief spokesman, has said that the company didn’t receive a request from the U.S. government or any third party before cutting off WikiLeaks. “This decision was MasterCard’s alone,” he said yesterday. Visa Inc.’s website was “experiencing heavier than normal traffic,” said Ted Carr, a spokesman. “The company is taking steps to restore the site to full operations.” Assange, 39, was arrested in the U.K. yesterday after Swedish police issued an international arrest warrant on rape allegations. Assange, who denies the charges, challenged the request to turn him over to Swedish authorities. Since it began releasing thousands of secret U.S. military and State Department documents on Nov. 28, WikiLeaks also has faced denial-of-service attacks, where hackers attempt to overwhelm a website with repeated requests for data. MasterCard climbed $3.86, or 1.6 percent, to $250.64 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have declined 2.1 percent this year. Visa Inc. advanced 1.4 percent to $77.94. To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Eichenbaum in New York at peichenbaum@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net

Morgan Stanley Currency Strategists Say Sell Sweden’s ‘Vulnerable’ Krona

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-20/morgan-stanley-currency-strategists-say-sell-sweden-s-vulnerable-krona.html

Morgan Stanley foreign-exchange strategists advised selling Sweden ’s krona versus the Norwegian krone, saying slower global growth may weaken demand for Swedish assets while higher oil prices boost Norway’s currency. “In the current environment we warn that the krona is vulnerable given Sweden’s exposure to the global manufacturing cycle,” strategists led by Hans Redekerin London wrote in a research report today. “We expect the krone to outperform on a relative basis, given that our commodities team still expects oil prices to rise further this year, on the back of both strong demand and tight supply.” Investors should bet the krone will strengthen to 1.20 against the krona and end the trade if it falls to 1.151, the strategists wrote. The krone weakened 0.2 percent to 1.1583 against the krona as of 11:06 a.m. in London. To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Dobson in London at pdobson2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Tilles at dtilles@bloomberg.net

Canada to Introduce Budget Bill That May Alter CMHC Rules

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/canada-to-introduce-budget-bill-that-may-alter-cmhc-rules.html

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty plans to introduce legislation as early as tomorrow that may contain changes to the oversight of Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. and rules governing covered bonds. The government said yesterday it plans to introduce a law “to implement certain provisions of the budget,” according to a document known as the Notice Paper. Under parliamentary rules, the legislation can be introduced in the House of Commons as early as tomorrow. In his March 29 budget, Flaherty said the government will introduce “enhancements to the governance and oversight framework” for CMHC, which insures mortgages and guarantees mortgage-backed securities issued by banks. Asked about the potential role of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions in overseeing CMHC, Flaherty told reporters “I’ll talk to you about that tomorrow. Tomorrow’s Thursday, right?” The International Monetary Fund has called on the federal government to review the agency’s governance and oversight, and assess whether the agency needs to do more to protect itself against housing market risks. The government is considering whether OSFI, the banking regulator, can play a role in “strengthening the oversight of CMHC’s commercial operations,” Chisholm Pothier , Flaherty’s chief spokesman, said in an e-mail April 3. Pothier declined to comment today on the government’s plans. Covered Bond Legislation Flaherty also said in the budget that he would introduce legislation to govern covered bonds, fixed-income securities sold by banks using pools of mortgages as collateral. The federal government guarantees the full value of mortgages insured by CMHC and 90 percent of loans insured by private firms. The Finance Department said in a May consultation paper it was considering whether the law should encourage banks to secure covered bonds with uninsured mortgages. If Canada barred banks from securing covered bonds with government-insured loans, it would raise costs for covered bonds because issuers would need to pledge more collateral to gain AAA ratings. Canadian banks increased issuance of covered bonds this year before Flaherty’s fiscal plan. The lenders sold $12.6 billion in covered bonds in the December-March period, compared with $6.6 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Mayeda in Ottawa at amayeda@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chris Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net

BSkyB Is Worth 950 Pence a Share, Fidelity Tells News Corp., Times Reports

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-06/fidelity-seeks-higher-bid-for-bskyb-from-news-corp-times-says.html

Fidelity International said News Corp. should raise its 7.8 billion-pound ($12.7 billion) bid for British Sky Broadcasting Corp. by 3 billion pounds, the Sunday Times reported, without saying where it got the information. Fidelity requested the increase in a letter 10 days ago to Nick Ferguson, BSkyB’s deputy chairman, and said the British broadcaster was worth 950 pence per share, the newspaper said. Fidelity International Associate Director Anne Read declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News. To contact the reporter on this story: Blanche Gatt in London at bgatt@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Colin Keatinge at ckeatinge@bloomberg.net .

Atlantic System Has 20% Chance of Becoming Tropical Cyclone

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-09/atlantic-system-has-20-chance-of-becoming-a-tropical-cyclone.html

Showers associated with the remnants of the Atlantic storm Emily east of Bermuda decreased today, and the system has a 20 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone within 48 hours, the National Hurricane Center said. The system 650 miles (1,045 kilometers) from Bermuda is moving eastward-northeastward at about 30 miles per hour, the Miami-based center said in an advisory at 8 a.m. New York time. Conditions are not conducive for much development, it said. Emily, the fifth named storm of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, weakened into a depression the past weekend. To contact the reporter on this story: Sherry Su in London at lsu23@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net

Swiss Stocks Drop as U.S. Services Gauge Misses Estimates

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-03/most-swiss-stocks-climb-as-chinese-services-expand.html

Swiss stocks declined to their lowest level in more than three weeks after a report showed that U.S. non-manufacturing industries expanded at a slower-than-expected last month. Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) and UBS AG (UBSN) fell more than 1 percent. Sonova Holding AG (SOON) rose 1.7 percent as UBS named the maker of hearing aids among its most-preferred equities. Addex Therapeutics Ltd. (ADXN) jumped 5.8 percent after the biotechnology company released the results of a comparative trial of its treatment for a hereditary motor disease. The Swiss Market Index (SMI) lost 0.3 percent to 7,942.5 at the close of trading in Zurich. The equity benchmark rose 3.6 percent in September, extending its gain last quarter to 4.4 percent, as the Federal Reserve refrained from reducing its monthly bond purchases. The gauge has rallied 16 percent so far in 2013. The broader Swiss Performance Index also slipped 0.3 percent today. “The September ISM non-manufacturing index came in below market expectations,” Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse in New York, wrote in a note. “Disappointment. The words ‘uncertain/uncertainty’ showed up three times in the report, the most in at least the last 12 months. And this was before the Federal government shutdown.” The volume of shares changing hands in SMI-listed companies was 28 percent lower than the average of the last 30 days, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Many businesses were closed in Germany today for the Unity Day holiday. The U.S. non-manufacturing index decreased to 54.4 in September from 58.6 in August, according to the Institute for Supply Management. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey had called for a drop to 57. A number greater than 50 means that activity expanded. Budget Talks The first face-to-face talks between President Barack Obama and congressional leaders late yesterday failed to break the impasse over the budget for the new financial year. The U.S. government shutdown has temporarily placed as many as 800,000 federal employees out of work. A partial halt lasting one week would probably shave 0.1 percentage points from economic growth, according to the median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg survey. The costs will accelerate if the closure persists. Congress also faces a dispute over raising the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling this month. The Treasury has said that it will exhaust measures to avoid exceeding the borrowing limit on Oct. 17. If that happens, the government would run out of cash to pay all of its bills at some point between Oct. 22 and Oct. 31, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Credit Suisse Credit Suisse fell 1.2 percent to 28.05 Swiss francs, its biggest drop in almost three weeks, while UBS slipped 1.1 percent to 18.46 francs, its lowest price in a month. Sonova rose 1.7 percent to 110.30 francs. UBS predicted that the company will post good growth for the first half of its financial year because of the success of its new Phonak products, according to a note. Sonova reports its financial results on Nov. 18. Addex Therapeutics jumped 5.8 percent to 3.63 francs, its biggest gain in seven weeks. The company said its drug reduced the expression of a gene that can cause a rare type of hereditary motor and sensor neuropathy. Addex compared the effect of the treatment in a trial on rats to baclofen, a drug which is marketed to treat nervous-system disorders and spinal-cord injuries, it said in a statement. To contact the reporter on this story: Sofia Horta e Costa in London at shortaecosta@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net

Wheat Climbs as U.S. Debt-Ceiling Agreement Averts Default; Corn Advances

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-01/wheat-futures-advance-as-u-s-debt-deal-gives-commodities-an-early-lift-.html

Wheat and corn rose in Chicago after President Barack Obama said U.S. lawmakers agreed to raise the federal debt limit, avoiding a possible default. Both grains climbed for a first session in three after falling 2.6 percent on July 29 on concern talks would fail to produce an accord. Without an agreement, the U.S. may have defaulted tomorrow. The House plans votes on the measure today, and the Senate may follow suit. Grains were “buoyed by news over a preliminary agreement to increase the debt ceiling after negotiations over the weekend,” Sudakshina Unnikrishnan, an analyst at Barclays Capital in London, said in a report today. Wheat for December delivery gained 12.75 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $7.285 a bushel by 1:15 p.m. London time on the Chicago Board of Trade. Milling wheat for November delivery traded on NYSE Liffe in Paris added 1 euro, or 0.5 percent, to 198.75 euros ($286.32) a metric ton. Corn for December delivery advanced 8.75 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $6.775 a bushel in Chicago. Prices are up 7.7 percent this year, making corn the second-best-performing grain in 2011 behind rice, which has added 15 percent. Congressional leaders reached a bipartisan agreement to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by at least $2.1 trillion and slash government spending by $2.4 trillion or more. Raw materials from crude oil to tin advanced. “The early lift in the commodity complex certainly appears to be tied to the debt news that’s come out of the U.S.,” said Luke Mathews , a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. “The markets have responded very positively.” Soybeans Climb November-delivery soybeans rose 14.75 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $13.72 a bushel. The oilseed gained for a first session in four. Corn and soybean crops in reproductive and filling stages are likely to face increased stress in the U.S. Midwest as hotter, drier weather persists through the early part of this week before showers and more seasonal weather return later in the period, Joel Burgio, senior agricultural meteorologist at Telvent DTN Inc., said in a forecast July 29. To contact the reporters on this story: Ranjeetha Pakiam in Kuala Lumpur at rpakiam@bloomberg.net ; Tony C. Dreibus in London at tdreibus@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Richard Dobson at rdobson4@bloomberg.net