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Watson Reports Positive Findings for Prostate Drug
RobertSimison
2007-01-16T14:16:56Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2007-01-16/watson-reports-positive-findings-for-prostate-drug-update1-.html
1
16
a5c7c556bd112ac22874492c4cdb18eb46a30905
Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. (WPI) , the largest U.S. maker of generic drugs, reported positive results for its experimental prostate treatment in two late-state trials. The drug, silodosin, was more effective than a placebo in treating enlarged prostates, or benign prostatic hyperplasia, the Corona, California-based company said today in a statement on PR Newswire. The tests were in the final of three phases of trials normally needed for regulatory approval. Non-cancerous enlarged prostate affects more than half of American men in their 60s and as many as 90 percent of them by age 85, Watson said. Prescription drug sales to treat the disorder total $1.7 billion a year, the company said. Watson plans to apply for U.S. approval to market the drug in the first half of 2008, after completion later this year of a one-year safety trial, the company said. The two studies reported today showed that cardiovascular and blood-pressure side effects were low, Watson said. To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Simison in Washington at rsimison@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story: Robert Simison at rsimison@bloomberg.net .
2007
watson-reports-positive-findings-for-prostate-drug-update1-
Roche to Buy CuraGen Unit for $140 Million to Map DNA
AngelaCullen
2007-03-29T20:22:31Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2007-03-29/roche-to-buy-curagen-unit-for-140-million-to-map-dna-update6-.html
3
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d404d27352ca7585f07c19b4a479725ae6176ecd
Roche Holding AG (ROG) , the world's biggest maker of diagnostic tests, agreed to buy CuraGen Corp.'s 454 Life Sciences for $140 million in cash to gain the company's DNA-mapping technology. Shareholders of 454 Life Sciences, a majority-owned unit of CuraGen, may also get as much as $14.9 million in cash from holders of stock options and warrants, if those are exercised, Basel, Switzerland-based Roche said today in a statement on its Web site. Roche already had a research collaboration with the company that gave it access to the genome-sequencing system. 454 Life Sciences' machines can read how genetic sequences are organized on a single strand of DNA. German scientists are using the technology to try to uncover the genetic makeup of Neanderthals using 45,000-year-old bones found in Croatia , the company said last year. Mapping can also help identify the genetic cause of a disease or suggest ways to treat it. ``This acquisition is part of our strategy to strengthen our position as a major player in the sequencing market,'' Severin Schwan, who heads Roche's diagnostics unit, said in the statement. ``Our existing collaboration is very successful.'' Roche shares gained 2.9 Swiss francs, or 1.4 percent, to 217.1 francs at the close of trading in Zurich. CuraGen shares slid 77 cents, or 20 percent, to $3.07 at the New York close of Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. ``It's an interesting addition for Roche Diagnostics, but it's not relevant to the value of the company's stock,'' said Holger Geissler, who manages the equivalent of $1.8 billion in pharmaceutical stocks, including Roche, at DWS Investment GmbH in Frankfurt. Avastin Separately, the European Union approved Roche's and Genentech Inc.'s Avastin drug as a first choice to treat breast cancer that has spread, in combination with chemotherapy. The approval was based on tests that showed the medicine helps women live on average twice as long as those given chemotherapy alone. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year delayed approving Avastin, Roche's and partner Genentech Inc.'s second-biggest cancer product, to treat breast tumors because it wanted more time to analyze the safety and effectiveness of the drug. ``This is a positive signal given the delay for this indication in the U.S.,'' said Geissler in a televised interview today. Avastin was first approved in the U.S. in February 2004 as a first-choice treatment for people with colon cancer that had spread. To contact the reporters on this story: Marthe Fourcade in Paris at mfourcade@bloomberg.net ; Angela Cullen in Frankfurt at acullen8@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Elser at celser@bloomberg.net
2007
roche-to-buy-curagen-unit-for-140-million-to-map-dna-update6-
Australian Dollar Gains; Japanese May Buy on New Financial Year
ChrisYoung
2007-03-29T07:14:06Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2007-03-29/australian-dollar-gains-japanese-may-buy-on-new-financial-year.html
3
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2f3c98bcc758486fbd7997bb91ab536f
The Australian dollar rose against the dollar to near the strongest in a decade as Japanese investors bought the nation's higher-yielding assets. Australia 's dollar was also the second strongest against the yen among 16 most active currencies, on speculation investors from Japan will resume buying overseas bonds as a new financial year starts in April. The currency was set for a fourth quarterly gain against the dollar and yen as investors borrowed cheaply in Japan to buy assets in Australia in so-called carry trades. ``It screams out to me that we're seeing carry trades going through,'' said Paul Milton, chief dealer at Societe Generale in Sydney. ``We've seen quite a lot of Japanese interest in the Australian dollar today.'' The Australian dollar was at 80.83 cents as of 4:48 p.m. in Sydney from 80.66 in late Asia yesterday. It touched 81.08 cents on March 26 and the day after, the highest since December 1996. The currency will trade between 80.6 and 80.9 cents today, Milton said. Australia's dollar rose 0.8 percent to trade at 94.82 yen from 94.11 yesterday. The nation's key interest rate is 5.75 percentage points above Japan's, which at 0.5 percent is the lowest among major economies. Australia's two-year government bonds yield 5.48 percentage points more than like-dated Japanese debt and offer an extra 1.77 percentage points over U.S. Treasuries. Barrier Options Further gains in the currency may be limited by speculation traders are unwilling to buy it above its decade-high. Speculators have left instructions to sell the currency to protect so-called barrier options that become worthless on a gain to 81.10, 81.25 and 81.50 cents, said Ray Attrill, director of foreign exchange research at Forecast Ltd. in Sydney. ``This means the upside on the Australian dollar will be pretty tough going above 81 cents so it will probably range between 80 and 81 cents this week,'' he said. The currency last week rose above 80 cents for only the second time since 1996 and extended its rally as traders boosted bets the central bank will lift interest rates from a six-year high of 6.25 percent in coming months. Its gained 2.5 percent this quarter as interest rate speculation has been buoyed by reports showing unemployment near a 30-year low, rising consumer confidence and retail spending. The probability of the Reserve Bank raising interest rates a quarter-percentage point by August is 94 percent compared with 26 percent odds two weeks ago, according to 30-day interbank rate tracking futures contracts. Bonds Decline Traders see the likelihood of a rate increase as soon as the bank's April 4 meeting at 51 percent, according to a Credit Suisse index calculated by the exchange of interest payments. ``The Australian dollar will sustain its gains above 80 cents'' and rise to 82 in a month, said Richard Grace , senior currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. ``Prospects for the currency are very good because an interest rate increase could come as soon as next week.'' Australian government bonds declined for a second day, pushing the yield of the benchmark 10-year security up 2 basis points to 5.85 percent, 1.23 percentage points higher than like- dated U.S. Treasuries. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. The price of the 6 percent bond maturing in February 2017 fell 0.181, or A$1.81 per A$1,000 face amount, to 101.104. Bond yields move inversely to price. To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Young in Sydney at cyoung12@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sandy Hendry at shendry@bloomberg.net .
2007
australian-dollar-gains-japanese-may-buy-on-new-financial-year
Imax Expands Accounting Probe, Sees More Restatements
EmmaMoody
2007-03-29T20:23:12Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2007-03-29/imax-expands-accounting-probe-sees-more-restatements-update3-.html
3
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61806b6c300535051fb56499eb5f1b26d8e57337
Imax Corp. (IMAX) , the biggest maker of large-screen movie theaters, expanded a probe into accounting errors and said restatements may exceed the $2.5 million already announced. The company delayed filing its 2006 annual report a second time to review its sales accounting at the prompting of U.S. and Canadian regulators, Toronto-based Imax said today in a statement. The company said it can't say when it will file its annual report, which was due tomorrow. Imax will examine its accounting for revenue from theater- system installations. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Ontario Securities Commission began probing revenue recognition by Imax last year. The company reviewed six years of accounting after finding errors the treatment of costs. The new filing delay will put Imax in default of the financial reporting covenant on $160 million in senior notes, said Michael Kelman, a Susquehanna Financial Group analyst in Bala Cynwyd , Pennsylvania , in a report today. It is also likely to prompt a delisting notice from Nasdaq , said Kelman, who rates the shares ``neutral.'' Earlier this month, the company said it misclassified some expenses as capital spending , which can be written off gradually, instead of current expenses, which can't be. Shares of Imax fell 38 cents, or 6.2 percent, to C$5.79 at 4 p.m. in Toronto Stock Exchange trading. They've risen 33 percent this year. To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Moody at emoody3@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Emma Moody at emoody3@bloomberg.net
2007
imax-expands-accounting-probe-sees-more-restatements-update3-
Liberty, Great Portland Start London Property Venture
PeterWoodifield
2007-03-29T16:11:48Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2007-03-29/liberty-great-portland-start-london-property-venture-update3-.html
3
29
b6ddaa28d88744f3ad15d1886241383875d63d20
Liberty International Plc, the U.K.'s largest owner of malls, and Great Portland Estates Plc, a property company focusing on London's West End, formed a 460 million-pound ($903 million) venture to invest in central London. Liberty's Capital & Counties unit is investing 299 million pounds of office assets in the venture, with Great Portland putting in 162 million pounds of properties and 68 million pounds in cash, the two companies said in separate statements today. Great Portland will manage the venture. Great Portland will be able to redevelop more assets in the West End, the most expensive place in the world to rent offices, while Capital & Counties can focus on retail assets in the U.K. capital's Covent Garden district, where it is the biggest landlord. ``This will allow us to prosecute our business plan much more aggressively,'' Great Portland Chief Executive Toby Courtauld said in an interview. ``Joint ventures give us access to messy raw material that we couldn't get if they came on the open market.'' The properties in the venture have around 850,000 square feet of space (79,000 square meters), generating 21.1 million pounds of rents at inception. That will rise to about 30 million pounds a year in four or five years, excluding any increases as a result of redevelopments, said Courtauld. ``This is another transaction in which Liberty receives cash,'' JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Harm Meijer said in a note to clients. ``We would suggest Liberty returns cash to shareholders by buying back its own shares, rather than pursuing further acquisitions in this hot market.'' The venture was a ``win-win'' for both companies, said Meijer. JPMorgan rates both companies ``overweight.'' West End Rents Some hedge fund managers are paying more than 100 pounds a square foot in rent for prime space in Mayfair in the West End. Tenants in the properties in the venture are paying around 26 pounds a square foot, said Courtauld. Two of Liberty's offices in the venture are in Piccadilly and Regent Street. Many of Liberty's properties in the venture are owned by the Queen of England's property estate, while a number of Great Portland's are close to Crown Estate properties. ``There will be buying and selling both ways and restructuring of leases,'' said Courtauld. Liberty's shares rose 23 pence, or 1.9 percent, to 1,243 pence in London. Great Portland's shares gained 16.5 pence, or 2.2 percent, to 772 pence. To contact the reporter for this story: Peter Woodifield in Edinburgh at pwoodifield@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rob Urban at robprag@bloomberg.net .
2007
iberty-great-portland-start-london-property-venture-update3-
Malaysian Bonds Rally on Best Sale Since October; Ringgit Gains
DavidYong
2007-03-29T09:47:24Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2007-03-29/malaysian-bonds-rally-on-best-sale-since-october-ringgit-gains.html
3
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f6275b602c014e81b1d14124ae328c88ee573547
Malaysian bonds rallied, pushing three-, five- and 10-year yields below the nation's benchmark interest rate for the first time, after demand at a debt auction surged. The ringgit strengthened. The government today auctioned 3.5 billion ringgit ($1.01 billion) of April 2010 bonds at 3.497 percent, the lowest since a similar-maturity debt yielded 3.229 percent at a September 2005 auction. The sale attracted 2.86 ringgit of bids for every 1 ringgit of debt sold, the most since the government sold the same three-year benchmark notes in October at 3.869 percent. ``We saw great interest in the new issue, especially from offshore players who are bullish on the ringgit,'' said Sing Yang, head of bond trading at OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Bhd. The yield on the 3.869 percent note due February 2017 fell 6 basis points, or 0.06 percentage point, to 3.45 percent at the 5 p.m. close in Kuala Lumpur, according to central bank data. The price rose 0.178, or 1.78 ringgit per 1,000 ringgit face amount, to 101.2. Bond yields move inversely to prices. Three- and five year benchmark bond yields have both dropped more than a percentage point in a rally since June, causing a so-called inversion of the yield curve to the overnight lending rate. Overseas investors in December raised their holding of local bonds to the highest since at least 2001 on speculation the ringgit will add to its 7.1 percent appreciation in 2006. Gains in the nation's currency may also temper inflation, giving more room to the central bank to cut interest rates. Bank Negara has kept its overnight rate at 3.5 percent in the past seven meetings, saying inflation will cool. The central bank this month forecast inflation to average 2 percent to 2.5 percent in 2007, compared with 3.6 percent in 2006. Ringgit Gains The ringgit pared earlier losses on speculation gains in the nation's stocks and bonds will underpin demand for the ringgit. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index gained 0.05 percent after falling as much as 1 percent. The currency traded at 3.455 against the U.S. dollar, compared with 3.463 in late Asian trading yesterday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It has gained 2.1 percent this year, the third-best in the Asia-Pacific region after the Thai baht offshore rate and the Australian dollar. ``The money keeps coming in, lately by foreign interests,'' said Tan Chee Wee, a senior bond analyst at AmResearch Sdn. in Kuala Lumpur. ``The capital gains from ringgit appreciation could give some extra returns, so that's quite an attraction to offshore players.'' To contact the reporter on this story: David Yong in Kuala Lumpur at dyong@bloomberg.net . To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sandy Hendry at shendry@bloomberg.net .
2007
alaysian-bonds-rally-on-best-sale-since-october-ringgit-gains
Carrefour Must Find Property `Solutions,' Duran Says
ElliottGotkine
2007-03-29T15:59:14Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2007-03-29/carrefour-must-find-property-solutions-duran-says-update3-.html Carrefour SA (CA) , Europe's biggest retailer, must find ways to sell real estate without disturbing its operations, Chief Executive Officer Jose Luis Duran said. ``We have to find solutions,'' the CEO said today in an interview during a conference in Barcelona , Spain. Duran softened his stance on real estate after strategy talks with representatives of Colony Capital LLC and Groupe Arnault, who teamed up this month to buy a 9.8 percent stake in Paris-based Carrefour. The CEO has resisted property sales until now, arguing that loss of control over rental costs would erode margins. ``We all agree on targets
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92ff08cab66b457bb3d0e40693c3ca84
faster, and how to create more value for shareholders,'' he said. ``The question is how to do it without endangering the operating side of the business.'' The retailer is ``clearly undervalued'' and has ``enormous potential'' for development, Bernard Arnault , the billionaire CEO of luxury-goods maker LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA (MC) , said today on Europe1 radio. ``Colony has pushed the management to think more about how to extract value from real estate,'' said Emmanuel Soupre, who helps oversee $33 billion in stocks as a fund manager at Banque de Neuflize in Paris. ``We will see if the relationship turns out to be a happy couple or an arranged marriage.'' Too Low? Carrefour has 6 million square meters (64.6 million square feet) of retail space excluding warehouses and backrooms worth 15 billion euros ($20 billion) to 20 billion euros, according to Finance Director Eric Reiss. That's too low, analysts and investors say. The retailer's land and buildings, 80 percent of which are located in Europe, are worth at least 26 billion euros, according to Guillaume Rascoussier, an analyst at Oddo & Cie. in Paris. ``Carrefour may first sell its shopping centers and subsequently launch an IPO of its Carrefour Property subsidiary,'' he wrote in a March 26 note. Duran said he aims to continue raising sales with the help of discounts. Executives will accelerate the price-cutting strategy implemented in the past 24 months, he said. The CEO declined to comment on speculation about a possible bid for Carrefour, the operator of Champion supermarkets, by buyout firms. ``There is not a single company, not just in retail, where private equity is not looking around,'' he said. Family Stake The company's stock has gained 19 percent this year, helped by speculation that the 13 percent stake controlled by its main investor may be for sale. The holding, owned by the Halley family, will not be sold, a spokesman said March 23. Carrefour is gearing up to enter India in ``months to come'' and taking time to choose a partner, according to Duran. ``It's a difficult market where we absolutely have to have a partner,'' he said. Duran declined to comment on reports that Carrefour is in talks to form a joint venture with Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) , India's largest company by market value. Reliance, whose activities range from refining oil to making textiles, is adding to its retail division to capitalize on growth of the Indian middle class and a pending loosening of retail laws. Carrefour shares added 63 cents, or 1.2 percent, to 54.72 euros in Paris today. To contact the reporter on this story: Ladka Bauerova in Paris at lbauerova@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story: Keith Campbell at k.campbell@bloomberg.net .
2007
carrefour-must-find-property-solutions-duran-says-update3-
Australian Media Law Changes to Take Effect April 4
FergusMaguire
2007-03-29T07:43:13Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2007-03-29/australian-media-law-changes-to-take-effect-april-4-update1-.html Laws removing most restrictions on media ownership in Australia will take effect April 4, paving the way for overseas companies to take control of local media and for broadcasters and newspaper publishers to combine. ``The government's media reforms will encourage greater competition and allow media companies to achieve economies of scale and scope,'' Communications Minister Helen Coonan said in a statement released in Canberra today. Parliament passed the laws in October, triggering a rush in media transactions as billionaire proprietors Rupert Murdoch, James Packer and Kerry Stokes and buyout firms including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. jockeyed for position ahead of the change. Under the new laws, 20-year-old rules stopping overseas investors from owning more than 25 percent of a city newspaper publisher and 15 percent of a TV network will be abolished. One company will also be able to own two forms of media
3
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a96b43ff218dfaa6849cd6f44c8602fb6c46ba1c
one. To contact the reporter on this story: Fergus Maguire in Canberra, Australia at fmaguire@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Vercoe at pvercoe@bloomberg.net
2007
australian-media-law-changes-to-take-effect-april-4-update1-
All Fiscal Roads Lead U.S. to a Value-Added Tax: Albert R. Hunt
2010-03-21T15:00:00Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-03-21/all-fiscal-roads-lead-u-s-to-a-value-added-tax-albert-r-hunt.html President Barack Obama , nearing the end of a bruising health-care battle, should consider the counsel of a former Bush official and propose a radical new consumption tax that most Americans oppose. Sounds nuts. It really isn’t. Just follow along for a bit. The federal budget deficit problem is chronic and most experts, and ultimately markets, see it as systemic and lethal; partial fixes involve painful spending cutbacks and middle-class tax increases. The promise of the president’s bipartisan fiscal commission, due to make recommendations after the November congressional elections, was set back last week when five of the six Republicans named to the panel by congressional leaders are theological opponents of any tax increases (the exception being New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg ). No one seriously believes the deficit can be controlled without cutting spending on entitlements and raising taxes. With this background the proposal by Columbia Law School professor Michael Graetz, a top Treasury official in the first Bush administration (the better Bush years in the view of most Democrats and independents), to partially replace the federal income tax with a consumption tax may start to look like more of a winner, on the substance certainly, and perhaps even politically. Worsening Deficit Last year, Graetz published a book on this notion, “100 Million Unnecessary Returns: A Simple, Fair, and Competitive Tax Plan for the United States .” In an interview last week, he said he had tweaked his proposals to adjust for the worsening deficit realities and some new data. A look at the options in fiscal year 2015 is instructive. Using reasonable economic assumptions, to reach Obama’s target of a deficit that is 3 percent of gross domestic product by that year would require about $400 billion in spending cuts or tax increases (That assumes terminating the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, which most Republicans resist). Graetz would impose a 14 percent value-added tax on goods and services; it would be collected piecemeal at each stage of production. Small businesses, those with gross receipts of less than $500,000, would be exempt. Ending Income Taxes He then would eliminate the federal income tax for taxpayers making less than $100,000 a year. A 25 percent rate would be slapped on income above that level, and, he says, a 30 percent or 35 percent rate on income above $500,000. This would remove up to 150 million Americans from the federal income-tax rolls. The corporate tax rate would be slashed to below 20 percent from the current 35 percent. This would make American corporations more competitive globally and the U.S. a more attractive place to invest. Almost 150 nations have a value-added or consumption tax, the outliers being some African and Middle Eastern countries, Greenland and the U.S. Payroll taxes would be unchanged and, with cost of living adjustments, Social Security recipients unaffected, as would expenditures in education and most health care. Adjustments would be made so the working poor, recipients of the current earned income-tax credit , would do just as well. Trimming Deductions An important question, Graetz says, is exactly which current deductions would be eliminated; this is a political and budgetary consideration. He envisions doing away with state and local tax write-offs as incentives would be created for states to piggyback off the value-added tax. Charitable deductions would be unchanged. There would be savings in compliance costs; Graetz dismisses complaints about that. “If Sri Lanka can administer a value-added tax, we can,” he says. A bottom line, he sees, would be a tax system that even if isn’t more progressive and more simplified than the current one, at least encourages economic growth and investment, and is easier to adjust for changing economic circumstances. “We can no longer afford the luxury of a tax system that relegates the goal of economic growth to the back burner,” Graetz declares. Five-Year Plan The most compelling case for the Graetz tax may be the alternatives. To reduce the deficit by $400 billion five years from now, assume half from spending cutbacks and half from more revenue. On the spending side, a big contributor would have to be the politically sensitive pension programs such as Social Security. Reducing the cost of living increases, boosting the retirement age and doubling the wages subject to Social Security taxes would get about a third of it. The other two-thirds would have to come from cutting the defense budget
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7a77fb48f04047c4bbeabf88fbb7b273
seat, they say. Since almost no one outside of Oregon remembers the late Democratic congressman, he was the House Ways and Means Committee chairman from 1975 to 1981 whose Washington duties caused him to lose touch with his sprawling district. He would have lost even if he had never mentioned a value-added tax. Yes, a consumption tax would be politically perilous. Yet, this fall, voters and the press should ask every congressional candidate if it’s acceptable, five years into the recovery, to run a budget deficit that by some estimates may reach almost $1 trillion. If not, they should be forced to spell out precisely how they would get it to $500 billion. The alternatives then will seem more perilous than Michael Graetz’s value-added tax. ( Albert R. Hunt is the executive editor for Washington at Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.) For Related News and Information: To contact the writer of this column: Albert R. Hunt in Washington at ahunt1@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this column: Max Berley at mberley@bloomberg.net .
2010
all-fiscal-roads-lead-u-s-to-a-value-added-tax-albert-r-hun
Gazprom May Buy Sakhalin-1 Gas for Russian Far East
ChristianSchmollinger
2007-09-04T09:41:45Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2007-09-04/gazprom-may-buy-sakhalin-1-gas-for-russian-far-east-update2-.html
9
4
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OAO Gazprom, Russia's state-run natural-gas exporter, may buy gas from the Sakhalin-1 project to sell domestically, said Victor Timoshilov, eastern projects coordinator for the company. Russian government officials told Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) in August not to plan on exporting natural gas from the $17 billion Sakhalin-1 venture it operates and instead to work more closely with Gazprom to ensure domestic demand for the fuel is met. ``Gazprom can be instrumental to help that these priorities are met,'' Timoshilov said at the Sakhalin Oil and Gas Conference in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. ``We can purchase the fuel and then sell it throughout the Russian Far East .'' Sakhalin-1 has escaped much of the pressure that Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) 's Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project faced from Russian environmental inspectors last year. Shell and its partners sold Gazprom a 50 percent stake plus one share for $7.45 billion in April. Exxon is ``looking at all options'' for the sale of its natural gas, said James Taylor , executive vice president for Exxon Neftegaz Ltd., the subsidiary that operates Sakhalin-1, at the conference. `Top Priority' Sakhalin-1 will be the only source to supply gas to Russia's eastern regions until ``at least'' 2015, Gazprom said in an e-mailed statement today. Supplying domestic customers is a ``top priority'' of the government's plan approved in June to develop gas production and transportation in the Far East and eastern Siberia, the company said. The Sakhalin-2 venture, which plans to start producing Russia's first liquefied natural gas next year, has contracts to sell almost all of its output to utilities in Japan and Korea . Irving, Texas-based Exxon owns 30 percent Sakhalin-1, which began pumping oil in 2005 to reach production of 250,000 barrels a day in February. SODECO of Japan also owns 30 percent and OAO Rosneft and India 's Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) each own 20 percent. The development is comprised of the Chayvo, Odoptu and Arkutun Dagi fields, which lie under seas choked with ice for half the year. The fields are estimated to hold up to 2.3 billion barrels of oil and 485 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Exxon signed a production sharing agreement with the Russian government for Sakhalin-1 in 1996, which allows it to export natural gas outside of Gazprom's monopoly. To contact the reporter on this story: Christian Schmollinger in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk at christian.s@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reinie Booysen at rbooysen@bloomberg.net
2007
gazprom-may-buy-sakhalin-1-gas-for-russian-far-east-update2-
N.Z. Oil & Gas Says Taranui Well to Be Abandoned
GavinEvans
2007-09-04T05:15:08Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2007-09-04/n-z-oil-gas-says-taranui-well-to-be-abandoned-update2-.html
9
4
487a3a5de5377753aa603c9071a891527eeec0f9
New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd. (NZO) , the nation's biggest publicly traded explorer, said the Taranui-1 well off the country's Taranaki coast contained only minor oil shows and will be plugged and abandoned. ``Logs recorded while drilling indicate that there are no potentially productive intervals present,'' the Wellington-based company said in a statement to the New Zealand stock exchange. Taranui, 30 kilometers (19 miles) off the west coast of New Zealand's North Island , had been estimated to contain 5 million to 15 million barrels of oil. It was targeted as an add-on to the nearby 32 million-barrel Tui field, developed in partnership with Australian Worldwide Exploration Ltd. and Mitsui & Co. N.Z. Oil & Gas owned 12.5 percent of Taranui. Its stock fell 2.9 percent to NZ$1.00 at the 5 p.m. close of trading in Wellington. Last month, the partners also abandoned the Hector well 65 kilometers southwest of Tui. The prospect had been estimated to hold about 60 million barrels of oil. To contact the reporter on this story: Gavin Evans in Wellington at gavinevans@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reinie Booysen at rbooysen@bloomberg.net
2007
n-z-oil-gas-says-taranui-well-to-be-abandoned-update2-
TA Associates Buys Stake in Bleichroeder Holdings
SreeVidyaBhaktavatsalam
2007-09-04T21:17:27Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2007-09-04/ta-associates-buys-stake-in-bleichroeder-holdings-update3-.html
9
4
c92a60689f779c37d218e2a9c83171040cd01f48
TA Associates , the private-equity firm with stakes in a dozen investment companies, bought a minority position in Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder Holdings Inc., manager of First Eagle mutual funds. Terms weren't disclosed. The founding-family shareholders of New York-based ASB Holdings will remain majority owners, the firms said today in a statement. The transaction provides funds for equity incentives to Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder's employees. TA Associates, formed 39 years ago to invest in fast-growing companies, has bought stakes in three investment managers this year as higher assets and rising stock markets have increased industry profits. In March, the Boston-based firm purchased a stake in K2 Advisors LLC of Stamford , Connecticut , which invests clients' money in hedge funds. Also in March, TA Associates acquired the Jupiter mutual-fund unit of German bank Commerzbank AG for $1.45 billion. ``It's part of a deliberate strategy to make more investments in asset-management companies as they have recurring revenues and rapid growth,'' Roger Kafker, a managing director at TA Associates, said today in an interview. ``Even during stock market declines, they stay profitable because there is a natural trend towards saving more money.'' Investment-management acquisitions rose 30 percent globally to 112 in the first half of 2007, according to Putnam Lovell NBF Securities. The value of those deals more than doubled to $32 billion, largely driven by private-equity buyers. Keystone, Affiliated Managers TA Associates made its first asset-management deal in 1989 with its investment in Keystone Group, a Boston-based mutual-fund distributor and investment adviser. TA Associates, which manages $10 billion, has since invested in money managers including Beverly, Massachusetts-based Affiliated Managers Group Inc. (AMG) and Amvescap Plc's Aim Investments in Houston. Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder manages $45 billion in assets, including the First Eagle funds, which is home to stock-picker Jean-Marie Eveillard. The company also manages hedge funds and separately managed accounts for institutions and wealthy individuals. Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder was formed from the merger of two German financing firms in 1931. It shifted to New York in 1937. Hedda Nadler, a spokeswoman for Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder, and TA Associates spokeswoman Marcia O'Carroll declined to comment on the terms. To contact the reporter on this story: Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam in Boston at sbhaktavatsa@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor on this story: Larry Edelman in Boston at ledelman3@bloomberg.net .
2007
a-associates-buys-stake-in-bleichroeder-holdings-update3-
Alcoa to Invest $42 Million to Improve Massena, N.Y., Plant
By Dan Hart
2013-03-30T18:32:08Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/alcoa-to-invest-42-million-to-improve-massena-n-y-plant.html
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c5dc65d826b02fe60a8880953199dbf5458c8d71
Alcoa Inc. (AA) agreed to invest $42 million to prepare for the upgrade of a smelter at its Massena, New York, aluminum plant, as part of a long-term power supply accord with the New York Power Authority. The largest U.S. aluminum producer also will provide $10 million for a North Country Economic Development Fund, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. The agreement is expected to help keep at least 900 jobs at the site, the governor said. The project is awaiting approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which put forth a plan for cleanup of the Grasse River. The decision is expected next month, the governor’s office said. As part of a long-term power supply agreement with NYPA in 2008, Alcoa must invest at least $600 million to modernize the Massena operations, the statement said. Alcoa agreed to set up the fund to boost economic development in New York’s St. Lawrence, Franklin, Essex, Jefferson, Lewis, Hamilton and Herkimer counties as well as on the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation. The new power contract will begin January 2014, and extends to 2045, with a 10-year option to extend service , Cuomo said in the statement. Massena is about 400 miles (643 kilometers) north-northwest of New York City on the border with the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Hart in Washington at dahart@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sylvia Wier at swier@bloomberg.net
2013
alcoa-to-invest-42-million-to-improve-massena-n-y-plan
N.Z. Cricketer Jesse Ryder Out of Induced Coma After Bar Assault
By Ben Sharples
2013-03-30T05:24:56Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/n-z-cricketer-jesse-ryder-out-of-induced-coma-after-bar-assault.html
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599d056efde480e1944f838234c5d4b9ad51f59c
New Zealand cricketer Jesse Ryder is out of an induced coma and off a ventilator as he recovers from an assault outside a bar in Christchurch, according to a statement from his manager, Aaron Klee. Police have arrested and charged two men, aged 20 and 37, over the assault, and they will appear in Christchurch District Court on April 4, New Zealand Police said in statements on its website yesterday. To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stanley James at sjames8@bloomberg.net
2013
n-z-cricketer-jesse-ryder-out-of-induced-coma-after-bar-assau
Landslide in Tibet Traps 83 Miners, No Survivors or Bodies Found
By Bloomberg News
2013-03-30T06:39:52Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/landslide-in-tibet-traps-83-miners-no-survivors-or-bodies-found.html
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c837627bc3b80cdf36915b435e02a4b2a83f7b46
A landslide at a Chinese-run mine in Tibet trapped 83 workers, and after 28 hours rescuers have yet to find any survivors or recover bodies, the official Xinhua news agency reported today. The chances of survival for those buried are slim as rescue efforts are hindered by the high altitude and low temperatures, Xinhua said. Two of those trapped are Tibetan and the rest are Han Chinese migrant workers from neighboring provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan. President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have ordered every effort be made to rescue the workers, Xinhua said. The Jiama copper and gold mine in Maizhokunggar county near Lhasa is the Chinese government’s biggest project to tap mineral resources in Tibet, with planned investment of 5 billion yuan ($805 million) through 2015, according to the industry ministry’s website. The mine is operated by the Huatailong Mining Development Co. To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Xin Zhou in Beijing at xzhou68@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim McDonald at jmcdonald8@bloomberg.net
2013
andslide-in-tibet-traps-83-miners-no-survivors-or-bodies-found
Kenya Supreme Court Upholds Kenyatta’s Presidential Vote Win
By Eric Ombok and Sarah McGregor
2013-03-30T19:56:40Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/kenya-supreme-court-upholds-kenyatta-s-presidential-vote-win.html
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e6eb765a158242b2bcc4355d253b2ccd
Kenya ’s Supreme Court upheld Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory in this month’s presidential election, dismissing a petition from defeated candidate Raila Odinga for the result to be annulled, The court “reached a unanimous decision on all the four issues for determination,” Chief Justice Willy Mutunga said, reading a ruling on behalf of the six-judge bench in the capital, Nairobi. Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto , “were validly elected,” he said. The decision clears the way for the inauguration of Kenyatta, who is facing a separate legal challenge at the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity. Kenyatta, Ruto, and a Kenyan radio presenter are accused by the ICC of orchestrating violence after the last presidential election five years ago. They all maintain they are innocent and will fight the charges. “I want to assure all Kenyans, including those who did not vote for the Jubilee Coalition, and indeed even those who challenged the validity of my election, that my government will work with, and serve all Kenyans without any discrimination whatsoever,” Kenyatta said in an e-mailed statement. Kenyatta extended an olive branch to Odinga and other competitors to join him “so that we can work together in the interest of the well-being of our people.” Police used tear gas to disperse groups of youth burning tires and blocking roads in Kisumu after the verdict was read. Widespread fighting engulfed the western port city after the 2007 election. “The situation at the moment is under control and police are patrolling,” Elisha Cherono, head of the administrative police in Kisumu, said by phone today. Fair, Transparent Kenyatta, 51, won this year’s election with 50.07 percent of votes cast, surpassing by about 8,000 ballots the absolute majority required to avoid a runoff, while Odinga got 43.3 percent. More than 12 million Kenyans voted, a record 86 percent turnout, according to the country’s electoral agency. The vote “was conducted in a free, fair, transparent and credible manner,” Mutunga said. Odinga, 68, said the March 4 vote should be nullified and new elections held because of the failure of electronic systems including finger-print identification readers and the mobile phone-based transmission of provisional results. Turnout surpassed the number of registered voters at some polling stations and some return forms were doctored, he said. “I wish the president-elect, Uhuru Kenyatta, and his team, well,” Odinga said after the ruling. “Casting doubt on the judgment of the court could lead to higher political and economic uncertainty, and make it more difficult for our country to move forward.” Not Fraud The ruling means discrepancies pointed out by Odinga “don’t amount to enough to allow Odinga’s petition to succeed,” Mwalimu Mati, head of the independent watchdog Mars Group, said in a phone interview from Nairobi after the verdict. “They indicated institutional challenges which can be remedied and not corruption or fraud.” The court had ordered forms to be scrutinized from all polling stations. The Registrar of the Supreme Court said in a report yesterday that it examined documents from 18,000 out of 33,400 sites and found some discrepancies including some sites with missing forms. British Prime Minister David Cameron congratulated Kenyatta on his victory and urged Kenyans to accept the decision of the court, according to an e-mailed statement from the U.K. High Commission in Nairobi. The U.S. government also congratulated Kenyatta and commended Odinga for accepting the verdict, urging all of Kenya’s citizens to do the same. “Now is the time for Kenyans to come together to fully implement the political, institutional and accountability reforms envisioned in the Kenyan constitution,” a statement from the U.S. Office of the Press Secretary said. Allegations of vote-rigging by Odinga after he lost his campaign for the presidency in December 2007 led to two months of ethnic clashes that killed more than 1,100 people and cut economic growth to 1.5 percent in 2008 from 7 percent the year before. Kenya is East Africa ’s largest economy and the regional hub for companies including Google Inc. and Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) No Appeal The Supreme Court’s decision on a presidential election petition is final and no appeal is possible, according to the constitution. Kenyatta is set to be sworn in by April 9. Kenyatta’s trial at The Hague-based court is scheduled to begin in July. He is fighting to have the ICC prosecutor’s office drop the charges, as it did earlier this month for his co-accused Francis Muthaura, the former head of Kenya’s civil service, after a key witness recanted his testimony. To contact the reporters on this story: Eric Ombok in Nairobi at eombok@bloomberg.net ; Sarah McGregor in Nairobi at smcgregor5@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net
2013
kenya-supreme-court-upholds-kenyatta-s-presidential-vote-win
Louisville, Michigan Advance to NCAA Tournament Regional Finals
By Eben Novy-Williams
2013-03-30T02:16:49Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/louisville-michigan-advance-to-ncaa-tournament-regional-finals.html
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The University of Michigan and University of Louisville advanced to the regional finals at the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball men’s tournament. The Wolverines beat Kansas 87-85 in overtime at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas , behind 23 points from guard Trey Burke, who forced overtime with a three-point shot with 4.2 seconds remaining in regulation. Michigan never led in the second half and outscored Kansas 11-9 in the extra frame. Michigan advances to the South regional final on March 31 in Arlington to face the winner of tonight’s game between Florida and Florida Gulf Coast. Lousiville guard Russ Smith scored a game-high 31 points as the Cardinals, the top overall seed in the tournament, beat Oregon 77-69 for their 13th consecutive win. Louisville will play the winner of Michigan State and Duke in the Midwest regional final in Indianapolis. To contact the reporter on this story: Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
2013
ouisville-michigan-advance-to-ncaa-tournament-regional-finals
Michigan Wins in Overtime, to Face Florida in Regional Final
By Eben Novy-Williams
2013-03-30T05:45:37Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/michigan-wins-in-overtime-to-face-florida-in-regional-final.html
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The University of Michigan won the first overtime game of the men’s college basketball national championship, while the University of Florida ended Florida Gulf Coast University ’s unprecedented tournament run. The No. 4 seed in the 16-team South region, Michigan ’s Wolverines rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit yesterday to defeat the top-seeded University of Kansas 87-85 in overtime behind 23 points from guard Trey Burke. Michigan advances to the regional finals of the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament to play third-seeded Florida , which beat Florida Gulf Coast 62-50. “We just stuck with it,” Burke said in a televised interview after the game. “We’re in those situations every day in practice and we just try to find ways to come back and win. I’m so proud of my team.” Florida’s Gators took advantage of a 16-2 run to close the first half and cruised to a 12-point victory in Arlington, Texas . Florida Gulf Coast, the first No. 15 seed ever to advance to the round of 16, committed 19 turnovers and attempted 44 field goals, 13 fewer than Florida. In the first game of the evening, top-seeded Louisville beat Oregon 77-69 in Indianapolis to advance to the regional finals for the fourth time in the past six seasons. Cardinals guard Russ Smith matched a career-high with 31 points as Louisville, the only No. 1 seed remaining in the tournament, led by at least six points through the entire second half. Winners of 13 consecutive games dating back to Feb. 14, Louisville will face second-seeded Duke in the Midwest regional finals tomorrow. Blue Devils guard Seth Curry scored 29 points as Duke defeated Michigan State 71-61 in Indianapolis. The win marks the 13th regional finals appearance for Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski. “Seth Curry put us on his back offensively,” Krzyzewski said in a televised interview after the game. “And then defensively we played as a unit.” Michigan never led in the second half against Kansas , tying the game with 4.2 seconds remaining on a three-point shot from Burke. The Jayhawks blew a 10-point lead with 2:53 to play and missed shots to win at the end of regulation and overtime. Syracuse will play Marquette at 4:30 p.m. today in the East regional final in Washington , D.C. The Orange defeated the region’s top-seeded Indiana on March 28, while the Golden Eagles topped second-seeded Miami. Ohio State will face ninth-seeded Wichita State, the lowest-seeded team remaining in the tournament, in the West regional final tonight at 7:05 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) in Los Angeles. The Buckeyes, a No. 2 seed, rallied from an 11- point first-half deficit to beat Arizona two nights ago, while the Shockers beat La Salle to advance to the program’s first regional finals since 1981. To contact the reporter on this story: Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
2013
ichigan-wins-in-overtime-to-face-florida-in-regional-fina
Indonesia Leader Takes Over Ruling Party as Support Fades
By Berni Moestafa
2013-03-30T21:15:15Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/indonesia-leader-takes-over-ruling-party-as-support-fades.html
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Indonesia’s ruling Democrat Party selected the country’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, as chairman as it seek to overcome corruption probes and revive its popularity before elections. The party’s leadership chose Yudhoyono to succeed Anas Urbaningrum at an extraordinary congress in Bali yesterday, said Transport Minister Evert Erenst Mangindaan, who led the meeting. Urbaningrum, who was named chairman in May 2010, resigned last month after becoming at least the third senior party official in less than two years to be investigated by the country’s anti- corruption agency. Yudhoyono, who must step down after his maximum second- consecutive presidential term ends next year, may help the party regain credibility, said Kuskridho Ambardi, a political analyst at the University of Gadjah Mada. “The SBY factor is still attractive to some voters,” Mada said text message, referring to Yudhoyono’s initials. The Democrat Party’s approval rating sank to 8.3 percent in February, according to a survey by Saiful Muljani Research & Consulting. It won 20.85 percent of the national vote in the 2009 legislative election and 148 of parliament’s 560 seats. Yudhoyono’s decade at the helm of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy is nearing an end as a trade deficit pummels the rupiah and the economy expands at the slowest pace in more than two years. Yudhoyono will serve two years at most as chairman, Mangindaan said. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for next April, followed by the July ballot for president. Corruption Probes Former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin was sentenced in April 2012 to almost five years prison in a bribery case involving building projects for the 2011 Southeast Asian Games. Youth & Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng resigned in December after he was named a suspect in a case related to a sports center in Bogor, West Java. Chairman Urbaningrum was named a suspect in the same case last month. Both men denied any wrongdoing. Rival parties are gaining support. Former President Megawati Soekarnoputri, chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, is leading the presidential race at 20.7 percent, followed by Golkar Party Chairman Aburizal Bakrie at 20.3 percent, according to a March survey by the Indonesian Survey Circle, the Jakarta Post reported March 18. “If we look at the surveys, none of the popular candidates are from the Democrat Party,” Fauzi Ichsan, Jakarta-based economist at Standard Chartered Plc (STAN) , said in an interview before yesterday’s meeting in Bali. “So whatever the outcome is at the congress, its relevancy to the presidential election will be small.” Yudhoyono Victories Yudhoyono has had some recent victories. A parliamentary committee approved his choice for central bank chief, Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo, by a vote of 46 to seven on March 26. Martowardojo’s plan to raise fuel prices was scuttled last year by violent protests including an advance on parliament. The nomination of Martowardojo as governor of Bank Indonesia (BBRI) may be an attempt to sideline him from government decisions and “open the door for a more profligate approach to fiscal policy ahead of the election,” Gareth Leather, a London- based Asia economist at Capital Economics Ltd., said in a March 11 report. To contact the reporter on this story: Berni Moestafa in Jakarta at bmoestafa@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg Ahlstrand at gahlstrand@bloomberg.net
2013
indonesia-leader-takes-over-ruling-party-as-support-fades
Afghanistan’s Karzai Heads to Qatar to Discuss Taliban Office
By Eltaf Najafizada
2013-03-30T12:21:10Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/afghanistan-s-karzai-heads-to-qatar-to-discuss-taliban-office.html
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai is traveling to Qatar today to discuss the opening of a Taliban office there that will facilitate peace talks, according to his spokesman, Aimal Faizi. The leader’s agenda includes “issues of peace efforts with Taliban and the opening of an office for them in Qatar,” Faizi said by phone. He will meet with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, and other senior officials, according an e-mailed statement from Karzai’s office. Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul and Salahuddin Rabbani, chairman of the country’s high peace council, are traveling with Karzai on the two-day trip. Having an office with a direct line to Taliban militants may open the way for peace talks with Afghan officials and help end a 12-year conflict that started after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., Jawid Kohistani, a Kabul-based political analyst, said by phone. Karzai is trying “to guarantee the whole country’s security,” he said. To contact the reporter on this story: Eltaf Najafizada in Pakistan at enajafizada1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net
2013
afghanistan-s-karzai-heads-to-qatar-to-discuss-taliban-office
Sabic Leads Saudi Arabian Shares Down First Time in Five Days
By Deema Almashabi
2013-03-30T12:42:35Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/sabic-leads-saudi-arabian-shares-down-first-time-in-five-days.html
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Saudi Arabia’s benchmark stock index snapped a four-day advance, led down by petrochemical companies. The Tadawul All Share Index slid 0.3 percent to close at 7,157.64 in Riyadh. Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) , the world’s largest petrochemical maker, declined 0.5 percent to 97 riyals, the lowest level since March 25. National Industrialization Co. (NIC) , the petrochemicals maker known as Tasnee, fell 1.6 percent, the most since Jan. 21, to 31 riyals. The gauge of the Arab world’s biggest stock exchange has added 5.2 percent this year. “The Saudi index closed in an up-trend last week at its highest level since May and this week is the last week before first-quarter earnings start coming out,” said Turki Fadaak, head of research and consultancy at Albilad Investment Co. “I think the movement of the market is going to be volatile during the week until earning results.” Saudi Arabia ’s stock exchange is the only Persian Gulf bourse open on Saturdays. To contact the reporter on this story: Deema Almashabi in Riyadh at dalmashabi@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.net
2013
sabic-leads-saudi-arabian-shares-down-first-time-in-five-days
Belgian 2013 Budget Deal to Shrink Deficit, Lower Debt
By Rebecca Christie
2013-03-30T13:24:53Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/belgian-2013-budget-deal-to-shrink-deficit-lower-debt.html
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Belgium will cut spending, raise taxes and sell state assets as part of a 2013 budget deal that aims to reduce debt to 100 percent of gross domestic product, the government said. The budget will reduce the deficit to 2.46 percent of GDP, including a structural shortfall of 1.8 percent, the government said today in Brussels. The deal calls for 1.4 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in structural adjustments to lower the deficit, along with about 1 billion euros in one-off asset sales over the next year to meet the debt target. “Budget discipline is not a goal in itself,” Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo said at a press conference in Brussels. Rather, it’s “a means to overcome the crisis,” he said. Belgium’s budget deficit surpassed European Union targets last year as a shrinking economy curbed tax revenue and money was used to replenish Dexia SA (DEXB) ’s capital. The deficit widened to 3.9 percent of GDP in 2012 from 3.7 percent the year before, the Brussels-based National Bank of Belgium said in a March 28 statement. The Belgian economy shrank 0.2 percent last year. Di Rupo said the 2013 budget aims to address a “difficult” situation, meet European targets and help small and medium-sized businesses. “Since November 2012, the deterioration of economic growth and thus the drastic decrease in receipts has had a considerable impact on our public finances,” Di Rupo said. Today’s budget agreement aims to “reinforce the fundamentals that are necessary to leave the crisis,” he said. Asset Sales Belgium will aim to complete the asset sales this year, Finance Minister Koen Geens told reporters today. He declined to give details of the planned sales so as not to affect pricing. The Belgian Parliament will need to approve proposed tax measures , Geens said. Most of the other measures won’t require legislative action. “There will be no major hurdle in order to realize these measures,” Geens said. “As far as the tax measures are concerned, I will need new legislation before the summer.” Belgium is aiming to achieve “structural equilibrium” in its finances by 2015, Geens said. To contact the reporter on this story: Rebecca Christie in Brussels at rchristie4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net
2013
belgian-2013-budget-deal-to-shrink-deficit-lower-deb
Duke Beats Michigan State 71-61, Advance to NCAA Regional Finals
By Eben Novy-Williams
2013-03-30T04:17:09Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/duke-beats-michigan-state-71-61-advance-to-ncaa-regional-finals.html
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Duke University defeated Michigan State University 71-61 to advance to the regional finals at the National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament. Duke guard Seth Curry scored a game-high 29 points as the Blue Devils used a 9-0 run in the middle of the second half to pull away from the Spartans at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Duke advances to the Midwest regional final on March 31 in Indianapolis, facing the Louisville Cardinals who beat Oregon earlier in the evening. It will be the 13th regional finals appearance for Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who has led the Blue Devils to the Final Four 11 times. Elsewhere in the NCAA tournament, Michigan beat Kansas in overtime and will face the winner of Florida and Florida Gulf Coast in the South regional final. To contact the reporter on this story: Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
2013
duke-beats-michigan-state-71-61-advance-to-ncaa-regional-finals
Argentina One-Sixth Bond Offer Seen as ‘Thumbing Nose’
By Bob Van Voris
2013-03-30T16:05:38Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/argentina-one-sixth-bond-offer-seen-as-thumbing-nose-.html Argentina , which defaulted on a record $95 billion in sovereign debt in 2001, proposed giving holders of $1.3 billion of the repudiated bonds about one-sixth of what a U.S. judge has said they’re entitled to receive
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Capital $720 million. That compares with an estimated value of $120.6 million for NML under one of the payment alternatives the nation is proposing, the so-called discount option. “Argentina’s proposal accounts for past-due amounts to bring the debt current, provides for a fair return going forward, and also gives an upside in the form of annual payments if Argentina’s economy grows,” the country’s lawyers said in its letter. “The proposal fulfills the court’s dual objectives to satisfy the pari passu clause: non-discrimination in payment priority and equal treatment among bondholders.” New Bonds In 2005 and 2010, Argentina offered its creditors new bonds, at a deep discount. About 91 percent of bondholders agreed to the debt restructuring, or exchange. NML and other holdouts have tried to use U.S. courts to enforce their rights under the original bond agreements. In its letter to the appellate court yesterday, Argentina estimates that NML paid $48.7 million for the bonds in 2008. “The formula adopted by the district court would cause great harm to the exchange bondholders while giving plaintiffs a return that is exorbitant on its face,” Argentina said. Argentina’s top leaders previously vowed never to pay the “vulture” investors, many of which bought the distressed bonds in hopes of turning a profit. Argentina’s legislature in 2005 passed a so-called lock law barring payment on the defaulted bonds. Par Option Under Argentina’s proposal, a so-called par option, which is intended for small accountholders, would give bondholders new bonds due in 2038 in a nominal face amount equal to the amount of their defaulted debt, plus unpaid interest up to the end of 2001. The par bonds would pay interest that rises from 2.5 percent to 5.25 percent a year over the life of the bonds. They would also receive a one-time cash payment to compensate for interest they would have earned if the bonds had been issued on Dec. 31, 2003, according to the letter. The holders would receive additional payments when the Argentine gross domestic product growth exceeds about 3 percent a year, the government said in the letter. The discount option would give bondholders discount bonds due in 2033, less than the defaulted amount, with an 8.28 percent annual rate and an increase in principal over time. They would be compensated for past due interest on those bonds with new bonds due in 2017 that pay 8.75 percent annually, according to the letter. The holders would also receive GDP-tied payments, according to the proposal. No Better Terms “It is our hope that the plaintiffs will finally join the 92% of creditors, accept this fair and equitable offer and put this difficult period to rest,” said Sean O’Shea, a lawyer for the exchange bondholders, in an e-mailed statement. Argentina said its proposal wouldn’t allow the plaintiffs in the lawsuit to force it to offer payment on better terms than those received by bondholders who agreed to the restructuring. Eugenio Bruno, an attorney at the Buenos Aires law firm Estudio Garrido, said in an e-mail that Argentina’s proposal is similar to past debt-restructuring offers by the country that have been rejected by NML and the other holdouts. If the government were to offer a better deal, it would trigger provisions allowing holders of the exchange bonds to take advantage of more favorable terms offered to the holdouts, he said. Former Governor Bruno represents Alfonso Prat-Gay, a former governor of Argentina’s central bank, who submitted a brief in the case supporting his country’s effort to overturn the lower U.S. court ruling. Bruno said he also advises exchange bondholders and holdouts who aren’t involved in litigation. In November, U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa in Manhattan said Argentina must pay the entire $1.3 billion claimed by the creditors in the lawsuit whenever it made any payment on its restructured debt. The issue was argued before the appeals court on Feb. 27 in Manhattan. On March 1, the appellate court ordered Argentina to provide a suggested formula for paying the creditors, led by NML Capital, which refused to take the restructured bonds at a deep discount. Argentina’s lawyer, in the Feb. 27 hearing, “appeared to propose” an alternative to the payment formula devised by Griesa, according to the appeals court. The three-judge panel gave Argentina a final chance to influence its decision. The judges may ask for a response from the creditors to yesterday’s filing or come to a decision without one. Court’s Requirements The appellate judges said Argentina must tell them how and when it proposes to make current its payments on the defaulted bonds and the rate it proposes to pay. The panel also sought assurances that Argentina’s government would take the necessary actions to make the payments. In a related case, the U.S. Court of Appeals said March 26 that it won’t grant a full-court reconsideration of an earlier ruling. In that decision, a three-judge panel barred Argentina from treating restructured-debt holders more favorably than holders of the repudiated debt. Joshua Rosner , an analyst at Graham Fisher & Co., said in an e-mailed note this morning that Argentina’s last minute proposal in the current appeal amounted to the South American nation “ignoring (even thumbing its nose at)” the court. The lower court case is NML Capital Ltd. v. Republic of Argentina, 08-06978, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). The appeal is NML Capital Ltd. v. Republic of Argentina, 12-00105, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (New York). To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Van Voris in the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net
2013
argentina-one-sixth-bond-offer-seen-as-thumbing-nose-
Animal Kingdom, 2011 Kentucky Derby Champ, Wins Dubai World Cup
By Bob Bensch
2013-03-31T04:01:00Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/animal-kingdom-2011-derby-champ-wins-dubai-world-cup-correct-.html
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Animal Kingdom, winner of the 2011 Kentucky Derby , ran to a two-length victory in the $10 million Dubai World Cup , the world’s richest horse race. Animal Kingdom, ridden by Joel Rosario with 11-2 odds, captured the 1 1/4-mile event at Meydan Racecourse in a time of two minutes, 03.21 seconds. The 5-year-old is the first American horse to win the World Cup since Well Armed in 2009. “Turning for home, he was looking around,” said Rosario. “I was hoping I had enough horse left because it’s a long stretch.” Red Cadeaux, at 25-1, was second, with 10-1 shot Planteur third in the 12-horse field. Barry Irwin’s Team Valor sold a majority interest in Animal Kingdom to John Messara’s Arrowfield Stud, based north of Sydney in Scone, Australia . The stallion, with $8.4 million in lifetime winnings, will begin his stud career in Australia in September. Royal Delta set the early pace ahead of Side Glance, Animal Kingdom and 11-4 favorite Hunter’s Light. Rosario took Animal Kingdom to the front with about 2 ½ furlongs left and held off a late charge from Red Cadeaux along the rail for the win. Hunter’s Light faded and finished back in the pack. Defending champion Monterosso was scratched from the race earlier yesterday after becoming lame. Animal Kingdom won the Kentucky Derby, the first leg of U.S. racing’s Triple Crown, as a 20-1 longshot. He was favored in the remaining two races, but finished second at the Preakness Stakes and sixth at the Belmont Stakes. 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 .
2013
animal-kingdom-2011-derby-champ-wins-dubai-world-cup-correct-
Disney to Release Separate ‘Iron Man 3’ Version in China
By Anthony Palazzo
2013-03-30T03:06:29Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/disney-to-release-separate-iron-man-3-version-in-china.html
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Walt Disney Co. (DIS) will release a separate version of its Marvel comic-book movie “Iron Man 3” in China , an unexpected plot twist for Hollywood’s most prominent collaboration yet in the country. Disney won’t seek official Chinese co-production status for “Iron Man 3,” according to an e-mailed statement. The film, set to debut in the U.S. on May 3, was partly filmed in China with partner DMG Entertainment. A release date for the Chinese version wasn’t announced. The decision, just over a month before “Iron Man 3” is set to kick off the U.S. summer movie season, hints at the challenges confronting Hollywood studios as they expand in China’s government-controlled market, which surpassed Japan last year as the biggest box office outside the U.S. The first two “Iron Man” movies grossed a total $1.21 billion worldwide. The studio won’t comment beyond the statement about the reasons for the decision, differences between the two versions or when the Chinese movie will be released, Melissa Zukerman of Principal Communications Group, a spokeswoman for Marvel Studios, said. DMG, which produced 2012’s “Looper,” is marketing and distributing the film in China, according to the statement. Chinese actor Wang Xueqi will appear in both versions, and both include footage filmed in Beijing in December. The Chinese version will feature actress Fan Bingbing and will include bonus footage for the Chinese audience, according to the statement. Disney added 0.6 percent to $56.80 on March 28 and has climbed 14 percent this year . U.S. markets were closed March 29 for Good Friday. Chinese Movies China limits the number of foreign movies released into theaters each year to about 34. U.S. studios have sought to bring more movies in by making co-productions, which don’t count against the quota. While the government censors all movies, co-productions must meet additional requirements. For example, one-third of the major actors must be Chinese, according to Robert Cain, who writes the China Film Biz blog . Co-productions also require a certain amount of Chinese cultural content, which could limit the film’s appeal elsewhere, making co-production status less attractive to the studio, he wrote in a March 7 blog post. Disney said in April 2012 it would co-produce “Iron Man 3” with DMG, which would make an investment in the production, manage the Chinese co-production and jointly produce the film in China, according to the statement at the time. To contact the reporter on this story: Anthony Palazzo in Los Angeles at apalazzo@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net
2013
disney-to-release-separate-iron-man-3-version-in-china
U.S. Envoy Tells Telegraph Further U.K. Defense Cuts a Concern
By Patricia Kuo
2013-03-30T14:34:12Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/u-s-envoy-tells-telegraph-further-u-k-defense-cuts-a-concern.html
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Louis Susman, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to the U.K., said further cuts to Britain’s defense spending would raise alarm for the Washington administration, the Daily Telegraph reported. The U.S. would have to “review the situation” if the U.K. were to make additional reductions in spending on top of cuts agreed in 2010, as it would jeopardize the nation’s defense capabilities, Susman, 75, told the newspaper in an interview. The US. government is pushing Britain to continue defense spending at 2 percent of gross domestic product, he said. To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Kuo in London at pkuo2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Faris Khan at fkhan33@bloomberg.net
2013
u-s-envoy-tells-telegraph-further-u-k-defense-cuts-a-concern
Napolitano Vows to Find Compromise Creating Italy Government
By Andrew Frye
2013-03-30T15:02:19Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/napolitano-vows-to-gain-a-compromise-creating-italian-government.html
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Italian President Giorgio Napolitano pledged to continue efforts to broker a parliamentary compromise aimed at giving the country a new government and denied he’s thinking about resigning. “I have come to the conclusion that, even though I am left with very limited options to help the formation of a government, I can until the last day at least try to create the most favorable conditions toward unblocking a political situation hardened by irreconcilable positions,” Napolitano said today at a press conference in Rome . He will create two teams to try to identify common ground on policy, he said. Napolitano is responsible for appointing the next prime minister and must find a leader capable of bringing together a majority of lawmakers in a divided parliament . The 87-year-old head of state, whose seven-year term ends May 15, has struggled to build a consensus among lawmakers since elections last month left the upper house split into three blocs. Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper reported today that Napolitano was considering resigning to make it easier for his successor to form a government. Presidents in the final stages of their mandates aren’t permitted to dissolve parliament and call new elections, an option that would be available to the next incumbent. Economic Stimulus Italy needs a government with a majority in parliament to pass economic stimulus measures and guard against bond-market speculation in the wake of the financial crisis in Cyprus . Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, who remains in office until a new government is installed, can’t count on a majority in parliament and has said he is eager for his mandate to expire. Italy is stuck in its fourth recession since 2001, and each of the top three political forces has proposed tax cuts aimed at spurring growth. Investors, who buy more than 30 billion euros ($38 billion) of bonds each month to finance Italy’s debt, are counting on a deal that will ensure a government strong enough to pass measures to boost the economy and manage the budget. Napolitano is seeking the help of the two teams after failing to broker a compromise when he met individually with leaders of the four biggest parliamentary groups yesterday. The members of the teams may be announced today, the president’s office said. Five Star The traditional balance of power in parliament was upset by the emergence this year of the euro-skeptic Five Star Movement, headed by ex-comic Beppe Grillo. Five Star won a quarter of the votes in the Feb. 24-25 election, preventing either Pier Luigi Bersani’s Democratic Party or former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Liberty party from securing the Senate. Napolitano took charge of negotiations on March 28 after Bersani failed to muster a majority. “I will continue to act in the interests of the country until the final day of my mandate, without hiding the difficulties I’m still facing, and reiterating my confidence in the chances of working through this crucial time for Italy ,” Napolitano said. To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Frye in Rome at afrye@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net
2013
napolitano-vows-to-gain-a-compromise-creating-italian-governmen
Business-Labor Deal Marks Major Step To Immigration Bill
By Kathleen Hunter and Heidi Przybyla
2013-03-31T17:55:35Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/business-labor-agreement-reached-on-u-s-guest-worker-program.html
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A deal between business and labor leaders on allocating visas to low-skilled foreign workers improves the chances that the Senate will pass an immigration bill, said three members of the bipartisan group of senators who are negotiating an agreement. Senator Charles Schumer , a New York Democrat, said he expected the bill to reach the Judiciary Committee in April and the full Senate in May. “With the agreement between business and labor, every major policy issue has been resolved,” Schumer, one of the eight senators negotiating the agreement, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Still, Schumer, along with Republicans Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina , said there was no final agreement among the lawmakers because details of legislation haven’t been written. “We’re much closer with labor and business agreeing on this guest-worker plan,” Flake said on NBC. “That doesn’t mean we’ve crossed every ’I’ or dotted every ’T’ or vice-versa.” The agreement is designed to resolve a long-simmering dispute over a proposed guest-worker program that had been impeding Senate efforts to spearhead the broadest changes in immigration law in almost 30 years. The heads of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lobbying group, and the AFL-CIO, the biggest labor federation, reached the accord late on March 29. ‘First Step’ The plan is “just a first step” on what will be a long and rocky road toward revamping U.S. immigration law, said Tamar Jacoby, president of ImmigrationWorks USA, a nationwide federation of state-based business groups that advocate rewriting immigration laws. If history is any guide, “battles will be fierce” and immigration-law proposals will face additional obstacles as they work through Congress, Jacoby said yesterday. Aides to lawmakers and the Chamber of Commerce stressed that the deal hasn’t been approved by the bipartisan Senate group. “The senators will make the decisions about any final agreements and what makes the best public policy overall,” Blair Latoff Holmes, spokeswoman for the U.S. Chamber, said in an e-mailed statement. Republican Challenge Democrats who control the Senate will have difficulty garnering the 60 votes needed for passage in that chamber, and the Republican-controlled House poses an even greater challenge. President George W. Bush , a Republican, tried unsuccessfully from 2005 to 2007 to get immigration legislation through Congress. President Barack Obama ’s push for a smaller- scale immigration law in 2010 similarly failed. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican member of the Senate group, said yesterday in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy , a Vermont Democrat, that “a rush to legislate, without fully considering all views and input from all senators, could be fatal to the effort of earning the public’s confidence.” Rubio said today in a statement that, while he was “encouraged” by the labor-business agreement, it would be “premature” to assume that the Senate group had reached a final decision. Any legislation the Senate group endorses “will only be a starting point,” he said. “In order to succeed, this process cannot be rushed or done in secret,” Rubio said. Citizenship Path The effort’s centerpiece would establish a 13-year path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., which Obama has made a priority for his second term. Republican opposition to providing a citizenship path, a major stumbling block in past efforts, has lessened since the November election, in which Obama won 71 percent of Hispanic votes cast. Republican leaders have said the party needs to do more to court the fast-growing voter bloc. “They will have a path to citizenship but it will be earned, it will be long, it will be hard,” Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said on CNN’s “ State of the Union .” Comments made March 27 by Representative Don Young, an Alaska Republican, highlighted some of the tensions and political challenges his party faces as it discusses immigration and works to attract Hispanic voters. ‘Insensitive’ Comment On radio station KRBD in Ketchikan, Alaska, Young referred to Hispanic farm workers as “wetbacks,” drawing quick condemnation from lawmakers in both parties, including Representative John Boehner , an Ohio Republican who is speaker of the House. Young, 79, has been in the House for 40 years, making him the fifth-longest-serving current member. He issued two statements, apologizing in the second one for the “insensitive term” and saying there was “no malice” intended. Schumer said today that Young’s latest statement was “fuller” than a previous one in which Young didn’t apologize. To get the business-labor agreement U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue and Richard Trumka , head of the AFL-CIO, reached a verbal agreement during a conference call with Schumer, according to a person familiar with the discussion, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private call. Schumer called White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough to alert him to the deal, the person said. Senate Compromise “This issue has always been the deal-breaker on immigration reform, but not this time,” Schumer said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The agreement “seems like a fair compromise,” said Marshall Fitz, head of immigration policy at the Democratic- aligned Center for American Progress. “The two sides have been looking at this through the prism of what they were losing. Appears they have reached a point where they both understand that they are getting a lot of what they wanted.” “I think this agreement will seal the deal” for a Senate compromise, Fitz said. “Labor gets more data-driven accountability in the system; business gets a new worker program that is more flexible than the current patchwork of temporary visas.” The agreement would establish a federal bureau called the Bureau of Immigration and Labor Market Research and a visa program called the W Visa Program, according to the AFL-CIO. The bureau would use labor market and demographic information to identify labor shortages and to help set an annual visa cap. It would be funded through registered employer fees. Visa Program Employers seeking workers in lesser-skilled fields including hospitality, janitorial services, retail and construction could apply through the new visa program, which also would allow workers to petition for permanent status after working for one year. The program would start with 20,000 visas in the first year, 35,000 in the second, 55,000 in the third and 75,000 in the fourth. In year five the number would grow or shrink based on a formula that takes into account the unemployment rate , the number of job openings and other factors. The number of visas awarded annually could never exceed 200,000, and one-third of all visas would go only to businesses with under 25 employees, according to the AFL-CIO. Construction visas would be capped at 15,000 per year, addressing Trumka’s concern about a potentially adverse impact on that industry. ‘New Model’ “Each day we have become more encouraged that our goal is in reach, and quickly,” Trumka said yesterday in a statement. “We have created a new model, a modern visa system that includes both a bureau to collect and analyze labor market data, as well as significant worker protections.” The proposal also borrows language from a current law requiring employers to offer visa holders wages and working conditions that wouldn’t adversely affect the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers. That means wages must be equal to the actual level paid by the employer to other workers with similar experience or the prevailing wage for the job at issue, whichever is greater. The deal between labor and business would apply to visas issued to foreign workers in low-skilled fields such as construction and restaurant and hotel work. It doesn’t deal with the issue of farm workers, who are covered under the existing H- 2A program, which provides for temporary labor to complete seasonal tasks, mainly harvests. Verifying Status Groups including the American Farm Bureau Federation , the biggest U.S. farmer group, say the H-2A program’s regulations are too onerous and inflexible and are lobbying for its replacement. The United Farmworkers say any new plan must include wage and labor-condition protections. The measure will probably include a better system for companies to verify the immigration status of job applicants and new rules that would prioritize the family members who can immigrate to the U.S. legally. Flake and Schumer also said they were working on creating “metrics” to measure the progress toward securing the U.S. border with Mexico . “We’re going to have to have that before we go any further,” Flake said. To contact the reporters on this story: Kathleen Hunter in Washington at khunter9@bloomberg.net ; Heidi Przybyla in Washington at hprzybyla@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at skomarow1@bloomberg.net ; Jodi Schneider at jschneider50@bloomberg.net
2013
business-labor-agreement-reached-on-u-s-guest-worker-progra
Asian Currencies Have Best Week in Two Months on Recovery Signs
By Bloomberg News
2013-03-30T00:10:08Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/asian-currencies-have-best-week-in-two-months-on-recovery-signs.html
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Asian currencies had their best week in more than two months on speculation an economic recovery in the U.S. will boost demand for the region’s exports. Gross domestic product in the world’s largest economy rose faster than previously estimated in the fourth quarter, while orders for durable goods climbed more than forecast in February, reports showed this week. The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index, which tracks the 10 most-active currencies in the region excluding the yen, advanced 0.2 percent since March 22. “The expectation is that the U.S. economy will continue to improve,” said Yeah Kim Leng, chief economist at RAM Holdings Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur. “With a stronger U.S. recovery, export- oriented Asian economies will benefit, strengthening their currencies.” The ringgit advanced 0.6 percent this week to 3.0938 per dollar in Kuala Lumpur, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. South Korea’s won climbed 0.7 percent to 1,111.35 and Taiwan’s dollar rose 0.1 percent to NT$29.875. The Asia Dollar Index lost 0.3 percent this month as global investors pulled $2.8 billion out of the stock markets of South Korea and Taiwan amid concern Europe ’s debt crisis will worsen. The Malaysian currency touched a five-week high of 3.0859 on March 25 after the central bank said last week that gross domestic product will increase as much as 6 percent this year from 5.6 percent in 2012. Prime Minister Najib Razak has embarked on a $444 billion spending program to build railways, roads and power plants in an effort to lift the country to developed-nation status by 2020. Yuan Rises The yuan touched a 19-year high yesterday after the People’s Bank of China raised the reference rate to the strongest level in more than 10 months. The PBOC increased the daily fixing by 0.08 percent to 6.2689 per dollar, the highest since May 2, 2012. The currency is allowed to trade 1 percent either side of the rate. The Purchasing Managers ’ Index for manufacturing in March will be 51.2, indicating a sixth month of expansion, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of economists before official data on April 1. “Investors continue to be convinced about the gradual appreciation of the yuan,” said Samson Tu, a Taipei-based fund manager at Uni-President Assets Management Corp., which oversees $700 million. The yuan advanced 0.02 percent this week to 6.2108 per dollar, prices from the China Foreign Exchange Trade System show. The currency rose as high as 6.2086 yesterday, the strongest level since the government unified official and market exchange rates at the end of 1993. Korean Won The won had the first weekly gain in almost a month after data showed South Korea ’s current-account surplus widened in February. The surplus increased to $2.71 billion from $2.33 billion in January, the Bank of Korea said on March 28. The gap for March is likely to be similar as improving exports will offset an expected rise in dividend payments to foreign investors, according to Cho Yong Seung, a central bank official. Elsewhere, Thailand’s baht was steady from a week earlier at 29.28 per dollar, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Financial markets in India , Indonesia and Philippines were closed yesterday. India’s rupee gained 0.1 percent from March 22 to 54.28 per dollar on March 28, while Indonesia’s rupiah advanced 0.3 percent to 9,715. The Philippine peso appreciated 0.1 percent to 40.823 on March 28. To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Judy Chen in Shanghai at xchen45@bloomberg.net ; Liau Y-Sing in Kuala Lumpur at yliau@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Regan at jregan19@bloomberg.net
2013
asian-currencies-have-best-week-in-two-months-on-recovery-signs
Israel Starts Tamar Gas Production
By Shoshanna Solomon and Gwen Ackerman
2013-03-31T06:31:33Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/israel-begins-gas-production-at-tamar-field-in-boost-to-economy.html
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Israel started gas production at the Tamar offshore field in an effort to put the country on the road to energy independence and save a projected 1 billion shekels ($274 million) a month, according to the government. The gas was expected to reach Israel’s port city of Ashdod by afternoon today, the Energy and Water Ministry said. The field in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, estimated to hold 9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, is being developed by a group that includes Noble Energy Inc. (NBL) , Delek Drilling-LP, Avner Oil Exploration LLP (AVNRL) and Isramco Negev 2 LP. (ISRAL) Along with Noble, Israeli energy exploration companies have discovered enough gas under the Mediterranean over the past three years to supply the country for 150 years. “We are talking about billions of dollars coming to the state from tax revenues from Tamar gas over a 20-year period,” Gilad Alper, a senior analyst at Excellence Nessuah Brokerage Ltd. in Tel Aviv, said in a phone interview. “It will also reduce energy costs as we will replace expensive imports with a cheap domestic supply of natural gas. The start of the flow is a big positive for the economy.” The Tamar and Dalit fields could supply Israel with gas for two decades. The larger Leviathan field is estimated to hold 18 trillion cubic feet of gas, Noble said in a statement March 6. “This is an important day for the Israeli economy,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today in an e-mailed statement. “We are taking an important step toward energy independence.” ‘International Player’ The three fields provide Israel with reserves more than 14 times larger than Germany’s total proven gas reserves, which the BP Statistical Review of World Energy published in June 2012 lists at 2.2 trillion cubic feet. Russia holds the biggest gas reserves, followed by Iran, according to BP Plc. (BP/) “This is the beginning of a new era,” said Isaac Tshuva, controlling shareholder of Delek Group Ltd. (DLEKG) , which owns stakes in Tamar via its Delek Drilling and Avner units. “The Israeli economy will be able to exploit the advantages of natural gas environmentally, geopolitically, socially and economically, and turn Israel into an important international player.” Qatar, the Persian Gulf emirate with the world’s third- largest reserves of gas, said on March 10 it found a deposit with 2.5 trillion cubic feet of the fuel, its first discovery since locating the world’s biggest gas field 42 years ago. The North Field, shared with neighboring Iran, provides Qatar with 900 trillion cubic feet of reserves. GDP Boost The flow from Tamar is expected to contribute about 1 percent to Israel’s gross domestic product, the Bank of Israel said in a March 24 report, forecasting that the economy will grow 3.8 percent in 2013, including the contribution from gas. The Bank of Israel also said the flow from the Tamar field will improve the nation’s current-account balance by as much as $3 billion this year. For every $1 billion improvement in the balance, the exchange rate should appreciate about 1 percent, the bank has estimated. In February, Russia’s OAO Gazprom (GAZP) , the world’s biggest natural gas producer, signed an agreement for the exclusive rights to export liquefied natural gas produced from the Tamar floating LNG plant. Noble Energy forecast Israeli demand for gas to grow at a compounded rate of 15 percent in 2012-2017. The Leviathan field is expected to supply the domestic markets in 2016, Noble said in December. To contact the reporters on this story: Shoshanna Solomon in Tel Aviv at ssolomon22@bloomberg.net ; Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net ; Riad Hamade at rhamade@bloomberg.net
2013
israel-begins-gas-production-at-tamar-field-in-boost-to-economy
Anglo American Says 3 Bodies Found in Brazil Iron Port Collapse
By Blake Schmidt
2013-03-30T16:26:42Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/anglo-american-says-3-bodies-found-in-brazil-iron-port-collapse.html
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Anglo American Plc (AAL) , the metals producer with mines from Chile to Zimbabwe, said three bodies were found after the collapse of a port used for loading iron- ore shipments on Brazil ’s Amazon River. The cause of the accident at the port of Santana is being investigated as rescuers look for three others missing, Anglo American said. The search “will continue intensively,” the company said today in an e-mailed statement. Anglo said yesterday an “abnormally large wave of water rushing down the river” in the early morning hours of March 28 dragged vehicles and shipping equipment into the river and may have triggered a landslide at the port. Anglo has said operations at its nearby Amapa mine, which it agreed in January to sell to Zamin Ferrous Ltd., continue as normal. To contact the reporter on this story: Blake Schmidt in Sao Paulo at bschmidt16@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sylvia Wier at swier@bloomberg.net
2013
anglo-american-says-3-bodies-found-in-brazil-iron-port-collapse
Singapore 3mo Property Auctions Beat 2012 Total: Business Times
By Sanat Vallikappen
2013-03-30T01:51:24Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/singapore-3mo-property-auctions-beat-2012-total-business-times.html
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Singapore sells S$76 million of property units through auctions in Jan.-March, compared with S$62.4 million in all of 2012, the newspaper reports, citing data from Colliers International * Four high-value sales accounted for 92 percent of quarter’s total, newspaper says * Sales of apartments and condominiums expected to remain low on additional buyers’ stamp duty introduced by government in January: Business Times To contact the reporter on this story: Sanat Vallikappen in Singapore at vallikappen@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stanley James at sjames8@bloomberg.net
2013
singapore-3mo-property-auctions-beat-2012-total-business-times
Rory McIlroy Makes Weekend Cut, Adds Tournament Prior to Masters
By Eben Novy-Williams
2013-03-30T04:00:01Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/rory-mcilroy-makes-weekend-cut-adds-tournament-prior-to-masters.html
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Rory McIlroy, the No. 2 player in the Official World Golf Ranking , will play the PGA Tour tournament prior to the Masters after qualifying for weekend play at the Houston Open on the 36-hole cut line. McIlroy added next week’s Texas Open in San Antonio to his schedule, according to a statement on the tournament’s website. The 23-year-old from Northern Ireland shot a two-under 70 yesterday to finish on the one-under-par cut line at Redstone Golf Club in Humble, Texas, and heads into play today nine strokes behind tournament leader Steve Wheatcroft of the U.S. Wheatcroft, a 35-year-old who qualified for the tournament on March 25, is alone atop the Houston Open leaderboard at 10- under, one stroke ahead of fellow Americans D.A. Points and Jason Kokrak. Phil Mickelson, a four-time major winner, is tied with McIlroy at one-under for the tournament. Defending-champion Hunter Mahan missed the cut, as did Australian Geoff Ogilvy and American Mark O’Meara. Players often skip at least one tournament prior to the Masters, the season’s first major championship, which begins April 11 this year in Augusta, Georgia . McIlroy, for example, took off three weeks prior to the Masters last year, according to ESPN. A two-time major champion, McIlroy has played three events this season, according to his PGA Tour profile. He lost the No. 1 spot in the world rankings to Tiger Woods earlier this week after Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitational. To contact the reporter on this story: Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
2013
rory-mcilroy-makes-weekend-cut-adds-tournament-prior-to-masters
Bank of Cyprus Clients May Lose Up to 60% on Deposits
By Paul Tugwell, Tom Stoukas and Georgios Georgiou
2013-04-02T07:41:35Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/bank-of-cyprus-s-customers-may-lose-as-much-as-60-on-deposits.html
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(Corrects eighth paragraph of March 30 story to show additional 10 basis points.) Cyprus may impose losses of as much as 60 percent on Bank of Cyprus Plc (BOCY) accounts exceeding 100,000 euros ($128,000) as part of an aid deal to stop the country from going bankrupt. Customers will have 37.5 percent of their deposits above this amount converted into shares with full voting rights and access to any future Bank of Cyprus dividend, the Nicosia-based central bank said in an e-mailed statement. A further 22.5 percent will be temporarily withheld to ensure the lender meets the terms of its recapitalization, as agreed under Cyprus’s loan agreement with international creditors, the central bank said. President Nicos Anastasiades agreed March 25 to impose losses on Bank of Cyprus’s larger depositors in exchange for a 10 billion-euro bailout after failing to get financial aid from Russia , one of the nation’s biggest investors. The agreement also shuttered Cyprus Popular Bank Pcl (CPB) , the country’s second- largest lender. The deposit-loss plan “will make things worse as small and medium-sized companies will run out of liquidity,” Marios Mavrides, a lawmaker for the ruling Disy party, said in a phone interview from Nicosia. The move “does not help to gain back people’s trust, deposits should be free in order to gain that trust.” Deal Rejected An earlier deal with the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank that would have forced losses on all depositors was rejected by the Cypriot parliament amid concern it would irreparably damage trust in the nation’s banking industry. The Central Bank of Cyprus will appoint an independent valuer for the commercial lender and all or part of the 22.5 percent additional haircut may also be converted into shares within 90 days of that process being completed, according to the statement. Any remaining amount will be returned to customers with interest, the central bank said. The so-called bail-in won’t apply to Bank of Cyprus account holders whose debts to the lender bring their net balance below the 100,000-euro threshold, according to the statement. Holders of accounts at other banks on the Mediterranean island aren’t being touched. The remaining 40 percent of Bank of Cyprus deposits above 100,000 euros that aren’t subject to the bail-in will be temporarily frozen to ensure the lender’s liquidity. This money, which won’t be used to recapitalize the lender, will receive interest at current levels plus an additional 10 basis points and be released “within a short timeframe,” the central bank said. Cyprus Popular Bank (CPB) will be divided into “good” and “bad” banks, according to the statement. Deposits of less than 100,000 euros will be absorbed by Bank of Cyprus and those above that level will be placed in the bad bank. Cyprus Popular Bank will operate normally from April 2 with all staff and branches passing to the control of Bank of Cyprus, according to the statement. Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades vowed yesterday to keep his country in the euro as citizens adapted to restrictions on their use of the common currency to prevent a financial collapse. To contact the reporters on this story: Paul Tugwell in Athens at ptugwell1@bloomberg.net ; Tom Stoukas in Athens at astoukas@bloomberg.net ; Georgios Georgiou in Athens at ggeorgiou5@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jerrold Colten at jcolten@bloomberg.net
2013
bank-of-cyprus-s-customers-may-lose-as-much-as-60-on-deposits
Mandela Breathes Without Difficulty on Third Day in Hospital
By Paul Burkhardt
2013-03-30T12:19:45Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/nelson-mandela-hospitalized-a-third-day-for-lung-infection.html
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Nelson Mandela is able to breathe “without difficulty” after a procedure was performed to drain excess fluid from around his lungs, according to a spokesman for South African President Jacob Zuma . The nation’s first black president remains in the hospital for a third day in Pretoria, the capital, being treated for pneumonia, Zuma’s spokesman, Mac Maharaj , said in an e-mailed statement. “He continues to respond to treatment and is comfortable,” Maharaj said. Mandela, 94, was admitted before midnight local time on March 27, his second hospital visit this year after a check-up less than three weeks ago. His health took a “downturn” that day and he was brought to the hospital to prevent the infection from spreading, Maharaj told Johannesburg-based broadcaster eNCA March 28. The Nobel Peace Prize winner was hospitalized from Dec. 8 to Dec. 26 to treat a lung infection and to have gallstones removed. He contracted tuberculosis while imprisoned on Robben Island during his 27-year incarceration for fighting white minority rule. Mandela led South Africa for five years after the African National Congress , or ANC, won the first all-race elections in 1994 that marked the end of apartheid rule. To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Burkhardt in Johannesburg at pburkhardt@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Viljoen at jviljoen@bloomberg.net
2013
nelson-mandela-hospitalized-a-third-day-for-lung-infection
Manchester United Moves Closer to Premiership Title With Win
By Bob Bensch
2013-03-30T19:47:01Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/manchester-united-moves-closer-to-premiership-title-with-1-0-win.html
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65ba85d918e84d459200ec9380d0ff07
Manchester United continued its march to the English Premier League soccer title with a 1-0 win over Sunderland to extend its unbeaten run to 18 games. A Titus Bramble own goal gave United its sixth straight league win. United remains 15 points ahead of Manchester City, which defeated Newcastle 4-0, with eight games remaining. “It was all about coming here and winning,” United midfielder Michael Carrick told Sky Sports . “We’re getting closer and it’s one game less. We have to keep going.” Tottenham won 2-1 at Swansea to move into third place over Chelsea, which lost 2-1 at Southampton. Arsenal defeated Reading 4-1, Everton beat Stoke 1-0, West Ham defeated West Brom 3-1, and Wigan beat Norwich 1-0 to move out of the three relegation places at the bottom of the standings. United dominated play at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light but needed the own goal in the 27th minute to clinch the win. Robin van Persie sent a shot from the left side of the area which clipped Phil Bardsley before deflecting off Bramble’s knee past goalkeeper Simon Mignolet. “It didn’t matter who scored today, it was all about the three points,” van Persie said. “This team is full of winners. Everyone knows what they have to do and it was never in doubt for me.” Sunderland is winless in eight league matches, positioned just one point above the relegation zone. Manchester City had goals from Carlos Tevez , David Silva and Vincent Kompany , plus an own goal, to rout Newcastle and keep its fleeting title hopes alive. City visits its Manchester rival on April 8. Relegation Goals from Jan Vertonghen and Gareth Bale in the opening 21 minutes gave Spurs the win at Swansea. It lifts the north London club up to third place, two points ahead of Chelsea. Southampton moved four points clear of relegation with a home win over Chelsea as Rickie Lambert scored the winning goal with a free kick in the 35th minute. Jay Rodriguez also scored for the Saints, while John Terry had the Chelsea goal. Gervinho, Santi Cazorla, Olivier Giroud and Mikel Arteta scored as Arsenal pulled within two points of Chelsea. Reading, in its first game under manager Nigel Adkins, fell into last place below Queens Park Rangers on goal difference with both teams on 23 points. Everton stayed in the hunt for a top-four finish and a Champions League berth with its home win over Stoke. Kevin Mirallas scored as the Toffess stayed two points behind Arsenal and moved within four points of Chelsea. Arouna Kone’s goal with nine minutes remaining gave Wigan the home victory over Norwich. The Latics’ second straight league win moves them out of the relegation zone on goal difference over Aston Villa. Andy Carroll scored twice as West Ham eased its relegation fears by beating West Brom. It was just the Hammers’ third win in 12 games, but moved them six points clear of the drop zone. 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 .
2013
anchester-united-moves-closer-to-premiership-title-with-1-0-win
Beijing Curbs Second Home Buying as China Cools Property Market
By Bloomberg News
2013-03-30T23:09:37Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/beijing-bans-single-person-households-from-buying-second-homes.html
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China ’s capital, Beijing, banned single-person households from buying more than one residence and increased the minimum down-payment for all buyers of second homes as the government seeks to cool the property market. The new measures take effect today, the official Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday. The city will also enforce a 20 percent tax on capital gains from property, it said. Current rules allow each household with a Beijing residence permit to buy a second home, opening the way for couples to divorce on paper to double their ability to invest. “This will help to calm people’s panic about home prices,” said Yi Xianrong , a Beijing-based researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences , which advises the Cabinet. “At the same time, restrictions on home purchases don’t change the fundamental demand, and it seems the new measures in Beijing are aimed more at short-term problems rather than long-term healthy development of the property market.” Prices in the capital jumped 5.9 percent from a year earlier in February, the biggest increase since February 2011, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said March 18. Prices across the country rose 160 percent in 1998-2011 after ownership passed into private hands, government data show. The city government of Shanghai , where new home prices in February rose 3.4 percent from a year earlier, also issued a notice saying the city will increase down-payment requirements and interest rates for second-home mortgages, while prohibiting banks from providing credit to third-home buyers. Property Bubble The measures come a month after former Premier Wen Jiabao , during his last days in office, ordered the central bank to raise down-payment requirements for second mortgages in cities with excessive price gains and told local governments with the biggest price pressures to tighten home-purchase limits. China has “very serious” property market bubbles in some regions, Xiang Songzuo, chief economist of Agricultural Bank of China , told a forum in Beijing March 29. China’s property curbs have seen “very limited” results as these measures are focusing on limiting demand while China should instead focus on boosting supply, Xiang said. The measures announced by Beijing yesterday will depress property trading in the city in the next six months, Hu Jinhui, vice president of Bacic & 5i5j, the second-biggest real estate broker in Beijing, said in a statement. “ Home prices will firstly stop rising before a possible moderation in the second half,” Hu said. Beijing, a city of about 20 million residents and a magnet for migrants from other provinces, has been implementing other rules including banning residents from buying more than two homes. Shanghai has been banning unmarried non-locals from buying homes in the city. To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Xin Zhou in Beijing at +86-10-6649-7731 or xzhou68@bloomberg.net To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Zhang Dingmin in Beijing at dzhang14@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stan James at sjames8@bloomberg.net
2013
beijing-bans-single-person-households-from-buying-second-homes
Catcher Posey Signs $167 Million Deal With Giants, MLB.com Says
By Eben Novy-Williams
2013-03-30T04:00:01Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/catcher-posey-signs-167-million-deal-with-giants-mlb-com-says.html
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Buster Posey signed the most lucrative contract in San Francisco Giants history after a 2012 season in which he won the National League’s Most Valuable Player award and batting title, according to MLB.com. The 26-year-old catcher agreed to a nine-year, $167 million contract, the website reported today citing an unidentified person familiar with the deal. The Major League Baseball club has an option for a 10th season that could raise the value of the contract to $186 million, according to the report. Posey hit an NL-best .336 last season, with 24 home runs and 103 runs batted in, becoming the first catcher in 40 years to be named NL MVP. He helped the Giants to their second World Series title in the past three years, a four-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers. San Francisco also won a World Series title in 2010, when Posey was named NL Rookie of the year. Giants pitcher Matt Cain’s six-year $127.5 million deal was the highest contract in team history before Posey’s, according to MLB.com. To contact the reporter on this story: Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
2013
catcher-posey-signs-167-million-deal-with-giants-mlb-com-says
Cohen Confidant Steinberg Crossed Paths at SAC With Lee
By Saijel Kishan
2013-03-30T04:00:01Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/cohen-confidant-steinberg-crossed-paths-at-sac-with-lee.html
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d241f8b604a4469a8462cb213afebc44
Of all the former employees at SAC Capital Advisors LP who have been accused of insider trading, Michael S. Steinberg was closest to Steven A. Cohen, starting as a young recruit and rising to become one of the hedge-fund founder’s most-trusted money managers. He joined SAC in 1997, three years after graduating college, and was part of a group of traders who socialized with billionaire Cohen at joint vacations and sporting events. Steinberg introduced the hedge-fund owner to his art adviser, and Cohen attended Steinberg’s 1999 New York wedding, according to former colleagues, friends and people with knowledge of SAC. Steinberg was arrested yesterday by FBI agents at his Manhattan apartment, the seventh current or former SAC employee to be accused by the U.S. of insider trading while at the hedge fund. A 16-year veteran of Cohen’s firm, he is part of a group of former technology portfolio managers and analysts whose careers crossed paths at SAC during the late 1990s, when the hedge fund posted annual returns averaging almost 60 percent, and who have since been linked to the government investigation. Related: SAC's Steinberg Indicted as Probe Gets Closer to Cohen “Steinberg is another domino that has fallen in a path that leads to a central person at SAC,” said John C. Coffee Jr., a professor at Columbia Law School in New York. “He’s one of the few that had direct communications with Cohen.” In an indictment unsealed yesterday, Steinberg was charged by a federal grand jury with five counts of conspiracy and securities fraud. He is accused of being part of a conspiracy that began in late 2007 and continued until 2009. The U.S. said he received and traded on illegal tips from Jon Horvath, a former analyst at Stamford, Connecticut- based SAC, on technology companies Dell Inc. and Nvidia Corp (NVDA) . ‘Aggressive Investigations’ Steinberg pleaded not guilty. Barry Berke, Steinberg’s lawyer, said his client did nothing wrong. SAC, which manages $15 billion, said Steinberg always conducted himself “professionally and ethically” while at the firm. Cohen hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing. Steinberg, who turns 41 next week, worked at SAC’s Sigma Capital Management unit and was one of 15 portfolio managers handling technology, media and telecommunications stocks before he was put on paid leave in September. He oversaw as much as $200 million in gross assets, a relatively small amount in a firm where some portfolio managers handle as much as $1 billion, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because they didn’t want to discuss their relationship with Steinberg or SAC publicly. The son of a doctor, Steinberg grew up in Great Neck, a village on Long Island in New York. After graduating in 1994 from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, he worked at Wall Street research firm Sanford C. Bernstein before joining SAC at the age of 25. Early Years Around the time when he joined, SAC had about 50 employees managing about $450 million, mainly Cohen’s own money, and was starting to transition from a proprietary-trading firm to a hedge fund with outside clients. As part of the process, the firm was expanding its fundamental research and organizing money managers along industries, according to SAC marketing documents dated 2011. Steinberg was part of a group of technology portfolio managers and analysts who sat together on a row in SAC’s former offices in the General Electric building in Stamford , where the hedge fund occupied a floor, according to two of the people. The group included David Ganek, who around the turn of the century ran the largest technology-stock portfolio after Cohen, his analyst Anthony Chiasson, and portfolio manager Richard Grodin, who had joined SAC around the time Cohen started the firm, the people said. Richard Choo Beng Lee, a Malaysian-born, Duke University graduate, worked as analyst for Steinberg out of SAC’s west coast offices. ‘SAC Family’ SAC at that time was a close-knit firm. Steinberg was among the employees who socialized with Cohen, taking vacations in places like the Caribbean, going to sporting events and parties at Cohen’s mansion, according to a person with knowledge of the firm. SAC held a beach-themed holiday party in 2000 and handed out videos titled the “SAC Family” that featured a slide show of photos of employees, said two of the people. Cohen was at Steinberg’s bachelor party in the Bahamas and a guest at his wedding in New York, according to three people. Steinberg married Elizabeth Sims in 1999, according to an announcement in the New York Times. Steinberg also introduced Cohen to Sandy Heller, who is Cohen’s longtime art adviser, said two people. Cohen has owned works by Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons. This month he bought Pablo Picasso’s “Le Reve” for $155 million, the highest paid by a U.S. collector for work of art, dealers told Bloomberg News. Gathering Information Steinberg and his colleagues at SAC’s technology teams analyzed markets and gathered information from corporations, helping the hedge fund score returns of 58 percent on average from 1997 to 2000. It was before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission introduced in 2000 a rule preventing corporations from disseminating confidential information to select investors before others. When some of SAC’s technology teams left to start their own hedge funds, Steinberg stayed, moving to SAC’s Sigma unit after that group was started in 2001. There he worked alongside technology portfolio manager Dipak Patel and his analyst Wesley Wang, who had both joined in 2002. Ganek, after successfully betting against technology stocks amid the 2000 stock market slump, left with Chiasson to start Level Global Investors LP in 2003. The following year Grodin left to co-start a hedge fund, taking Lee with him. Lee later left to co-found his own fund, Spherix Capital LLC. Rajaratnam Link Several of his former colleagues were eventually swept up in the government’s insider-trading investigation. Lee in 2009 pleaded guilty to securities fraud while at Spherix and cooperated in the investigation of Galleon Group co-founder and convicted insider-trader Raj Rajaratnam. It was the first time a former SAC employee was linked to the government’s probe. Grodin was among the individuals and firms that were subpoenaed in 2009 as part of the Galleon Group case, a person familiar with the investigation said at the time. He hasn’t been charged with wrongdoing. The offices of Ganek and Chiasson’s hedge fund, Level Global, were raided by the FBI in 2010, which led to the firm’s liquidation the following year. Chiasson was found guilty in December 2012 of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and is waiting to be sentenced. He faces as long as 25 years in prison. Ganek, who was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in Chiasson’s trial, wasn’t charged in that case. Dell Trades Wang, who left SAC in 2005, pleaded guilty last year to passing illegal tips to people including Patel and was sentenced in January to two years’ probation. Patel, who ran a five-person team before leaving SAC in 2011, hasn’t been charged with a crime. Steinberg himself emerged in September as an unindicted co- conspirator in an insider-trading scheme involving Horvath, whom he supervised. Steinberg was put on leave after Horvath pleaded guilty to passing nonpublic information to his portfolio manager, who he said traded on the tips. On Aug. 26, 2008, two days before Dell Inc. was set to report second-quarter earnings, Horvath e-mailed Steinberg and another portfolio manager, to warn that the computer maker would miss earnings estimates. “I have a 2nd hand read from someone at the company,” Horvath said in the e-mail, which provided details on gross margins, expenditures and revenue. “Please keep to yourself as obviously not well known.” ‘Be Discreet’ Steinberg responded: “Yes normally we would never divulge data like this, so please be discreet. Thanks.” Dressed in a dark sweater and slacks, Steinberg was led into a Manhattan federal courtroom in handcuffs. At the 30- minute hearing, his bail was set at $3 million. Steinberg is “caught in the crossfire of aggressive investigations,” Berke said in a statement. “His trading decisions were based on detailed analysis as well as information that he understood had been properly obtained through the types of channels that institutional investors rely upon on a daily basis.” “Mike has conducted himself professionally and ethically during his long tenure at the firm,” Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesman SAC, said in an e-mail. “We believe him to be a man of integrity.” Manhattan Apartment Steinberg lives in Manhattan in a Park Avenue apartment, which he bought for $8 million in 2009, according to Streeteasy.com. He co-founded Natan, a network of young philanthropists who hold events to promote Jewish culture and Israel , according to its website. Steinberg and his wife, along with Ganek and his wife and his hedge fund Level Global, were listed as supporters of a New York charity co-founded by Grodin. The charity’s 2007 gala auctioned a breakfast with Cohen at his Greenwich, Connecticut, home. Steinberg has had health issues recently, according to two people. He had an aortic aneurysm several years ago, the people said. He faces as long as 20 years in prison if convicted. To contact the reporter on this story: Saijel Kishan in New York at skishan@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net
2013
cohen-confidant-steinberg-crossed-paths-at-sac-with-lee
Louisville Beats Oregon, Advances to NCAA Midwest Regional Final
By Eben Novy-Williams
2013-03-30T01:30:48Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/louisville-beats-oregon-advances-to-ncaa-midwest-regional-final.html
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The University of Louisville beat the University of Oregon 77-69 to advance to the regional finals at the National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament. Louisville guard Russ Smith scored a game-high 31 points at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, while center Gorgui Dieng added 10 points, nine rebounds and four blocks. The top overall seed in the tournament, the Cardinals never trailed in the contest and have now won 13 consecutive games. Louisville advances to the Midwest regional final on March 31 in Indianapolis, where they will face the winner of tonight’s game between Michigan State and Duke. To contact the reporter on this story: Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
2013
ouisville-beats-oregon-advances-to-ncaa-midwest-regional-fina
Sunderland Manager O’Neill Fired With Club Battling Relegation
By Bob Bensch
2013-03-30T22:05:58Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/sunderland-manager-o-neill-fired-with-club-battling-relegation.html
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Martin O’Neill was fired as Sunderland manager with the club fighting relegation in English soccer’s Premier League. Sunderland announced the move on its website hours after a 1-0 loss to league leader Manchester United . The defeat left the Black Cats 16th in the 20-team league, one point above the three relegation positions at the bottom of the standings. “Sunderland AFC has announced that it has parted company with manager Martin O’Neill this evening,” a statement on the club’s website read. “An announcement will be made in the coming days regarding a successor.” O’Neill, 61, took over as coach in December 2011, replacing the fired Steve Bruce. Sunderland’s next game is April 7 at Chelsea. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bob Bensch at bbensch@bloomberg.net
2013
sunderland-manager-o-neill-fired-with-club-battling-relegation
Chelsea Leads Race for Atletico Madrid’s Falcao, Daily Star Says
By Bob Bensch
2013-03-30T13:33:53Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/chelsea-leads-race-for-atletico-madrid-s-falcao-daily-star-says.html
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Chelsea has moved ahead of Manchester City and Real Madrid in the race to sign Atletico Madrid striker Radamel Falcao, the Daily Star said. Chelsea has opened talks with Atletico and both sides are confident of reaching a deal to send the Colombian, who is rated at 40 million pounds ($61 million), to Stamford Bridge after the season, the Star said. Chelsea tried to sign Falcao in the past two transfer periods and one option available is offering Fernando Torres back to Atletico as part of a deal, the Star said. The Blues could also allow goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois to extend his loan stay at Atleico, the newspaper said. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bob Bensch at bbensch@bloomberg.net
2013
chelsea-leads-race-for-atletico-madrid-s-falcao-daily-star-says
Serena Williams Beats Sharapova for Sixth Sony Open Tennis Title
By Bob Bensch
2013-03-30T21:46:31Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/serena-williams-beats-sharapova-for-sixth-sony-open-tennis-title.html
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Serena Williams beat Maria Sharapova in a matchup of the top two players in women’s tennis for her record sixth Sony Open championship. Top-ranked Williams won 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 in Key Biscayne, Florida, for her 48th career title. She won the final 10 games in beating Sharapova for the 11th straight time and 12th time in 14 career meetings. No. 2 Sharapova had won her last 11 matches and captured the title at Indian Wells two weeks ago. She’s now winless in five Key Biscayne final appearances. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bob Bensch at bbensch@bloomberg.net
2013
serena-williams-beats-sharapova-for-sixth-sony-open-tennis-title
Bayern Munich Nears Bundesliga Title With 9-2 Rout of Hamburg
By Bob Bensch
2013-03-30T22:12:56Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/bayern-munich-nears-bundesliga-title-with-9-2-rout-of-hamburg.html
3
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Bayern Munich moved to the brink of the title in German soccer’s Bundesliga with a 9-2 rout of Hamburg. Claudio Pizzaro scored four goals as Bayern stayed 20 points ahead of Borussia Dortmund, which beat Stuttgart 2-1, with seven games remaining. Bayern can claim its record- extending 22nd Bundesliga title by beating Frankfurt next weekend. Barcelona drew 2-2 with Celta Vigo as Lionel Messi scored in his 19th straight match in Spain’s La Liga. Barcelona stayed 13 points clear of second-place Real Madrid, which drew 1-1 with Real Zaragoza. Juventus won 2-1 at Inter Milan to maintain its nine-point lead in Italy’s Serie A over Napoli, which beat Torino 5-3. AC Milan is 11 points back following a 1-0 at Chievo. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bob Bensch at bbensch@bloomberg.net
2013
bayern-munich-nears-bundesliga-title-with-9-2-rout-of-hamburg
Knicks Win Seventh Straight, Heat Win First Game Since Run Ended
By Eben Novy-Williams
2013-03-30T05:08:54Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/knicks-win-seventh-straight-heat-win-first-game-since-run-ended.html
3
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J.R. Smith scored 37 points as the New York Knicks beat the Charlotte Bobcats yesterday for their seventh consecutive win, while the Miami Heat were victorious in their first game since their 27-game winning streak ended. The Brooklyn Nets fell 109-87 to the Denver Nuggets and National Basketball Association’s Western Conference-leading San Antonio Spurs won on a three-point play in the final seconds. The Knicks (45-26) took a lead with their first field goal of the game and never trailed again, as Smith scored at least 30 points for the third consecutive game and forward Carmelo Anthony added 32 points at Madison Square Garden. New York’s seven-game winning streak is their longest of the season, and the longest current streak in the NBA. “He is dialed in, locked in,” Anthony said of Smith after the game. “His confidence is sky-high. We are following his lead.” Last year’s league Most Valuable Player, LeBron James , scored 36 points to lead the Heat to a 108-89 victory over the New Orleans Hornets in Miami’s first game since having a 27-game winning streak, the second-longest in NBA history, snapped in Chicago. Dwyane Wade added 11 points and nine assists for Miami, who have an 11 1/2-game lead over the Knicks in the Eastern Conference standings. The Western Conference-leading Spurs (55-17) beat the Los Angeles Clippers 104-102 on a three-point play from Tim Duncan with 2.2 seconds remaining. The Oklahoma City Thunder (53-20), who trail the Spurs in the conference by 2 1/2 games, fell 101- 93 to the Minnesota Timberwolves, their third loss in the last six games. Elsewhere around the league it was the Orlando Magic 97, Washington Wizards 92; Boston Celtics 118, Atlanta Hawks 107; Toronto Raptors 99, Detroit Pistons 82; Memphis Grizzlies 103, Houston Rockets 94; Utah Jazz 105, Portland Trail Blazers 95; and Philadelphia 76ers 97, Cleveland Cavaliers 87. To contact the reporter on this story: Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
2013
knicks-win-seventh-straight-heat-win-first-game-since-run-ended
Birinyi Says Buy Mining, Technology Shares as Bull Ages
By Whitney Kisling
2013-03-30T04:00:01Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/birinyi-says-buy-mining-technology-shares-as-bull-ages.html Laszlo Birinyi, one of the first money managers to tell clients to buy before the bull market began, said the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) ’s record rally probably has another year to go as investors give up their pessimism and buy. “As long as you have this sort of hesitancy or reluctance instead of acceptance, the positive case is still very much intact,” Birinyi, president of Birinyi Associates Inc. in Westport, Connecticut , said in a March 26 phone interview. “Don’t go looking for the exit. Leave the door open for a good year, because that is the one possibility that I do not hear.” The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent to 1,569.19 on March 28, exceeding its previous record from October 2007 and recovering losses from the financial crisis that wiped more than $10 trillion from U.S. market value. Even with the rally, share volume on all U.S. exchanges has declined for four straight years and, at less than 6.4 billion shares a day, is the lowest since at least 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Birinyi advised clients to purchase shares before March 2009, when the S&P 500 reached a 12-year low. The U.S. equity benchmark is up 132 percent since then. While companies with earnings most-tied to the economy such as retailers, computer makers and banks have led the advance , makers of home products such as soap and drugmakers are up the most in 2013. “It’s surprising to see that it’s not the deep cyclicals or the names that I would have expected in a really good market,” Birinyi said. “It just shows that people are comfortable with the market, and there’s a little bit more of a focus on stock picking than people realize.” S&P Profits S&P 500 profits are expanding for a third year and the U.S. Federal Reserve remains committed to continuing its unprecedented economic stimulus. The Fed pumped more than $2.3 trillion into the economy through monetary easing since 2008, sending Treasury yields to record lows last year. Per-share earnings are projected to reach $109.40 this year, compared with about $62 in 2009, analyst forecasts compiled by Bloomberg show. While profit estimates are set for a record, growth slowed last year to 8.1 percent for the fourth quarter compared with the 28 percent average of 2010 and 2011, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Analysts also cut their projections for the first quarter to a contraction of 1.8 percent from growth of 1.2 percent at the beginning of the year. “What I see looking forward is pretty flat earnings growth,” Jeffrey Kleintop , the Boston-based chief market strategist at LPL Financial Corp., which oversees $350 billion, said by telephone on March 28. “This market needs earnings to turn up before it can really begin to move higher.” Defensive Stocks Health-care stocks and consumer staples shares leading the rally also signal the advance in the S&P 500 may slow, he said. “You don’t usually see defensive groups leading the market to all-time highs,” Kleintop said. “What that suggests is that the rally may be getting a little tired. We might see something like we’ve seen in last few years
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2013
birinyi-says-buy-mining-technology-shares-as-bull-ages
Syracuse, Wichita State Are First to Reach Men’s NCAA Final Four
By Nancy Kercheval
2013-03-31T04:18:42Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/syracuse-beats-marquette-55-39-to-reach-men-s-ncaa-final-four.html
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Syracuse University and Wichita State University are the first two teams to advance to the Final Four of the national men’s college basketball championship. Their opponents will be decided today when third-seeded Florida plays No. 4 Michigan in the South regional final and top-seeded Louisville faces No. 2 Duke in the Midwest regional final. Ninth-seeded Wichita State topped No. 2 Ohio State 70-66 in the West regional final yesterday. Syracuse, seeded fourth in the East region, beat No. 3 Marquette 55-39, for its fifth trip to the Final Four and the first since 2003, when it won the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament. “Once we got in the Big East Tournament, we started to play good,” said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim in a televised interview. “It carried over into the NCAA tournament. When you bounce back like that, that says a lot about your kids, your team and your character. This is a heck of a bounce-back.” Syracuse (30-9) will play Florida or Michigan, who meet today in the South regional final, on April 6 in Atlanta. James Southerland scored 16 points, C.J. Fair added 13 and Michael Carter-Williams had 12 points and 10 rebounds. “I had a great game,” Carter-Williams said. “I think this was one of my best.” The Orange last went to the Final Four in 2003, when the team was led by Carmelo Anthony, who is the New York Knicks’ leading scorer this season. ‘Every 10 Years’ “It’s a great thing,” Boeheim said. “We go every 10 years. Every 10 years is our time.” Vander Blue and Davante Gardner each scored 14 points for the third-seeded Golden Eagles (26-9), who hit 12 of 53 from the floor for 23 percent. “They beat us start to finish,” Marquette coach Buzz Williams said. “When we get beat, we get beat.” At Staples Center in Los Angeles, Malcolm Armstead scored 14 points to lead the Shockers to their second appearance in the Final Four, the first coming in 1965. “Last year we were watching all this on television,” said Cleanthony Early, who scored 12 points. “Now I’m looking at a hat that says ‘Final Four Atlanta’ with my team on it. It feels good, and it feels even better that I could experience it with these guys who had to struggle so hard to get here.” Wichita State (30-8) was ahead by as many as 20 points with 12 minutes, 41 seconds left to go in the game before the Buckeyes hit nine straight free throws to trail by 56-45. Ohio State (29-8) chipped away at the Shockers’ lead before running out of time. “We didn’t get many easy buckets and it shows,” said Ohio State’s Aaron Craft, who hit 2-of-12 field goal attempts for nine points. “They came out firing and we didn’t regain our balance until it was too late.” Fred Van Vleet had 12 points and Tekele Cotton added 10 for Wichita State which had a 35-22 halftime lead. DeShaun Thomas scored 23 points and LaQuinton Ross added 19 points for the Buckeyes. The Final Four will be played April 6 in Atlanta with the championship game two days later. To contact the reporter on this story: Nancy Kercheval in Washington at nkercheval@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
2013
syracuse-beats-marquette-55-39-to-reach-men-s-ncaa-final-four
North Korea Says It’s in ‘State of War’ With South Korea
By Jungah Lee
2013-03-30T11:38:20Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/north-korea-says-it-has-entered-state-of-war-with-south-korea.html
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North Korea said it’s in a “state of war” with South Korea, escalating threats against the neighboring nation a day after putting its forces on standby to strike South Korean and U.S. targets. “Every issue raised between the North and South will be dealt with in a wartime manner,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said today, citing what it called a special statement. U.S. stealth bomber flights over South Korea this week are “unacceptable” and North Korea’s statement is a “final warning” to the U.S. and its allies, KCNA said. Tensions have risen to the highest level in at least three years since North Korea detonated a nuclear device in February, defying global sanctions. Kim Jong Un’s regime this month cut off a military hot line with the South, put artillery forces on high alert and threatened pre-emptive nuclear strikes, drawing condemnation from U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. “It’s part of what I call March Madness on the Korean Peninsula,” said Kenneth Quinones, professor of Korean studies at Akita International University in Japan . “Every March when the U.S. and South Korea hold military maneuvers, North Korea goes on full alert and makes similar threats. The only difference is the rhetoric has intensified, and the situation certainly merits concern and close monitoring.” Industrial Zone North Korea said it will shut a jointly run industrial zone in its border city of Gaeseong if the South and the U.S. continue to “insult the dignity” of the country, an unidentified spokesman for the General Bureau for Central Guidance to the Development of the Special Zone said today in a statement carried by KCNA. North Korea may “ban the south side’s personnel’s entry into the zone and close it,” the spokesman said. No unusual North Korean troop movements have been detected since the North’s threat to close Gaeseong, and South Korean businesspeople spending the night there are safe, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung Suk said by phone from Seoul . “We regret these continued threats and urge the North to retract them,” said the spokesman. Emergency communication channels with South Koreans in Gaeseong are operating to ensure their security, he said. Gaeseong is the last remaining example of inter-Korean cooperation. More than 120 South Korean companies employ about 53,000 North Koreans at the complex. From its opening in 2005 through Jan. 31, goods totaling more than $2 billion have been produced there, according to Unification Ministry data. Previous Disruption About 900 South Koreans regularly visit Gaeseong, located about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of the demilitarized zone, the world’s most heavily fortified border. Almost 800 South Koreans were stranded in Gaeseong in March 2009 after the North temporarily severed communications. The North also briefly cut ties in 2010 after an international panel found it responsible for the sinking of a South Korean warship that left 46 sailors dead. Four North Korean websites were inaccessible today due to what appeared to be a “loosely coordinated effort by hackers,” according to a website that monitors Internet activity on the Korean peninsula. The North’s main Naenara web portal and the homepages of KCNA, the state-run airline Air Koryo, and the Voice of Korea, a broadcast outlet, were malfunctioning, North Korea Tech said on its website. South Korea’s Unification Ministry spokesman said some North Korean sites seemed to be periodically working. Stealth Bombers South Korea’s armed forces “will continue to closely monitor the North’s military movements” and “comprehensively punish any instances of provocation by the North,” Kim Min Seok, a Defense Ministry spokesman, said by phone. North Korea yesterday put some units on standby after Hagel on March 28 denounced the totalitarian state’s “provocative actions and belligerent tone.” Kim met with military leaders yesterday and ordered the preparations after two U.S. B-2 stealth bombers flew over South Korea on March 28 in a show of deterrence. That followed earlier overflights by B-52 bombers as the U.S. and South Korea held a two-month exercise named Foal Eagle, an annual event scheduled to include about 10,000 soldiers. “The situation of the Korean peninsula being neither at peace nor at war has come to an end,” KCNA said today. The states remain technically at war because their 1950-1953 conflict ended without a peace treaty. Japanese Comments “It is extremely regrettable that North Korea continues to make provocative statements, including this one, and to carry out provocative actions,” Japanese Foreign Ministry Deputy Press Secretary Naoko Saiki said by phone. Japan will keep working with other countries, “seeking to have North Korea carry out its obligations.” Two calls to China ’s Foreign Ministry seeking comment on the North Korean statement went unanswered outside business hours. Kim’s country relies on its neighbor for diplomatic and economic support. “Barring any incident, I expect a gradual softening,” said Quinones, who worked for the U.S. State Department before joining the university in Akita. “I don’t think war is inevitable. I’m optimistic cooler heads in Washington and Seoul will prevail.” North Korea’s rhetoric has had little impact so far on South Korean stocks, as the benchmark Kospi index gained 2.9 percent this week, its best performance in six months. “Technically the two countries have been at war, just stopped fighting,” Sebastien Galy , a foreign-exchange strategist in New York at Societe Generale SA, wrote in a note to clients received today. “But in the game of rhetoric it feels a bit like closing the door behind you.” To contact the reporter on this story: Jungah Lee in Seoul at jlee1361@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stanley James at sjames8@bloomberg.net
2013
north-korea-says-it-has-entered-state-of-war-with-south-korea
Gillard May Seek China Currency Deal, Australian Reports
By Ben Sharples
2013-03-30T07:26:28Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/gillard-may-seek-china-currency-conversion-deal-australian-says.html
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Prime Minister Julia Gillard may seek a deal enabling direct conversion of Australian dollars into Chinese currency when she visits China next week, the Australian newspaper reported today. Gillard will attend the Boao Forum, which runs from April 6 to April 8, and visit cities including Shanghai and Beijing, the Australian newspaper reported , without saying where it got the information. Darrin Barnett, a spokesman for the prime minister, confirmed Gillard would attend the forum, declining to comment on the currency conversion deal or full itinerary. China remained Australia’s top trading partner in January, even as transactions slid to A$9.9 billion ($10 billion), the lowest since September, according to figures from the government’s statistics bureau. Australia’s business sector has been seeking a deal for some time and a pact will help reduce costs, said Arthur Sinodinos, shadow parliamentary secretary to the leader of the opposition, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp. website. The Australian dollar closed at $1.0419 in Sydney yesterday. It rose 1.8 percent last year against the greenback. The so- called Aussie has surged as demand for the nation’s resources from China and India set off a record mining boom. Internationalization of the yuan, China’s currency, is in the interests of Australian businesses and the nation’s economy, Treasurer Wayne Swan said in July. Japan last year started to use its currency in direct trading with China. The central banks of China and Australia signed a A$30 billion currency swap agreement to ensure the availability of capital between the trading partners, the Reserve Bank of Australia said in March 2012. To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stanley James at sjames8@bloomberg.net
2013
gillard-may-seek-china-currency-conversion-deal-australian-says
Alford Signs With UCLA Basketball After Contract With New Mexico
By Bob Bensch
2013-03-31T04:00:01Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/ucla-hires-steve-alford-as-basketball-coach-replacing-howland.html
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Steve Alford has signed on as men’s basketball coach at UCLA less than two weeks after agreeing to a 10-year contract with the University of New Mexico. Alford, who replaces the fired Ben Howland, joins the Bruins after six seasons at the University of New Mexico. The Lobos went 29-6 this season, winning the Mountain West Conference regular-season and tournament championships before losing their opening game of the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament to Harvard. Before the loss to Harvard, the 48-year-old coach had reached a deal with New Mexico that was worth more than $20 million over 10 years and was to take effect tomorrow, the Associated Press said. Alford agreed with UCLA on a seven-year deal worth $18.2 million, with a yearly salary of $2.6 million and a $200,000 signing bonus, AP said, citing UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero. “It was not an easy decision because I was extremely happy,” Alford said, according to the AP. “I was about as happy as I can be. When I kept thinking about things, it still came back to UCLA. You’re talking about the premier basketball program in the country. To have an opportunity like this, they don’t come around every day.” Guerrero called Alford “the perfect fit for UCLA.” “He is part of the storied history of the game of college basketball and understands the tradition and uniqueness of UCLA,” Guerrero said on the school’s website. “Yet he also connects with a new generation of players and brings an up-tempo and team-oriented brand of basketball to Westwood.” Alford, the captain of Indiana ’s 1987 NCAA championship team, has also coached at Iowa , Missouri State and Manchester College. He will be introduced at UCLA on April 2, the school said. Howland was fired March 25 after going 233-107 in 10 seasons. The Bruins were 25-10 this season and lost their opening NCAA tournament game to Minnesota . For Related News and Information: To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Bensch in London at bbensch@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
2013
ucla-hires-steve-alford-as-basketball-coach-replacing-howland
Mongolia Seeks to Play Peacemaker as North Korea Declares ‘War’
By Michael Kohn
2013-03-30T14:36:30Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/mongolia-seeks-to-play-peacemaker-as-north-korea-declares-war-.html
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Mongolia called for six-party talks to be resumed after North Korea said it’s in a “state of war” with its neighbor to the south. “Mongolia would like to extend its relationship with North Korea,” Prime Minister Norovyn Altankhuyag said at a press conference in Ulaanbaatar with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe. “Mongolia can contribute if they initiate any meetings.” North Korea’s official KCNA news agency stepped up its rhetoric against South Korea a month after the secretive regime defied global sanctions by detonating a nuclear device. Mongolia is one of the few countries to have a working relationship with both North Korea and the U.S., and hosted talks between the communist state and Japan in November. Six-party talks have continued, on and off, for years between South Korea , North Korea, China , the U.S., Russia and Japan. Mongolia has maintained good relations with North Korea for decades and, in a March 7 interview, Foreign Minister Luvsanvandan Bold said he’d broached the matter of opening up with the hardline state. Altankhuyag said he supports Japan’s efforts to repatriate citizens kidnapped by North Korea, which Abe said he hopes can be resolved during his administration. “Japan will never accept these North Korean tests,” Abe said, speaking at the start of a two-day visit to the Mongolian capital. “North Korea has to follow” United Nations Security Council resolutions, he said. Mongolia’s booming mining sector is attracting the attention of its neighbors and Abe agreed to cooperate on several economic initiatives. The Japanese leader announced a 4.2 billion-yen ($45 million) loan to upgrade Ulaanbaatar’s Power Station No. 4, built by the Soviets in 1981. The upgrade will increase the capacity of the power station by 100 megawatts to 580 megawatts. Japan also aims to assist Ulaanbaatar to build its first metro line, a 10 1/2-mile train line with 3.7 miles to be dug underground, according to a press release issued by Mongolia. The cooperation agreement also includes the development of a new international airport and Mongolia’s first oil refinery. To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Kohn in Ulaanbaatar at mkohn5@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Liu at jliu42@bloomberg.net
2013
ongolia-seeks-to-play-peacemaker-as-north-korea-declares-war-
Michigan, Louisville Advance to NCAA Tournament Regional Finals
By Eben Novy-Williams
2013-03-30T02:38:14Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/michigan-louisville-advance-to-ncaa-tournament-regional-finals.html
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The University of Michigan and University of Louisville advanced to the regional finals at the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball men’s tournament. The Wolverines rallied from a 14-point second half deficit to beat Kansas 87-85 in overtime at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas . In the tournament’s first overtime game, Kansas missed shots to win at the end of both the second half and the extra period. Michigan guard Trey Burke scored 23 points, including a three-point shot to tie the game at 76-76 with 4.2 seconds left in the second half. Wolverines forward Mitch McGary added 25 points and 14 rebounds. “We just stuck with it,” Burke said in a televised interview after the game. “We’re in those situations every day in practice and we just try to find ways to come back and win. I’m so proud of my team.” Michigan, in the regional finals for the first time since 1994, will face either Florida or Florida Gulf Coast in the South regional final on March 31. In the first game of the evening, Louisville guard Russ Smith scored a game-high 31 points as the Cardinals, the top overall seed in the tournament, beat Oregon 77-69 for their 13th consecutive victory. Louisville took a 13-7 lead five minutes and 23 seconds into the game and never trailed again by less than six points. Louisville coach Rick Pitino is now 11-0 in round of 16 games, including a 5-0 record with the Cardinals. The only top seed remaining in the tournament, Louisville is in the regional finals for the fourth time in the past six seasons, where they will meet the winner of tonight’s game between Duke and Michigan State. To contact the reporter on this story: Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
2013
ichigan-louisville-advance-to-ncaa-tournament-regional-finals
Argentina Offers One-Sixth of Court-Ordered Bond Payment
By Bob Van Voris
2013-03-30T06:07:24Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/argentina-submits-payment-proposal-to-court-in-bonds-case.html
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Argentina , which defaulted on a record $95 billion in sovereign debt in 2001, proposed giving holders of $1.3 billion of the repudiated bonds about one-sixth of what a New York judge has said they’re entitled to receive. The country’s filing of the proposed plan yesterday, less than an hour before a midnight deadline, paves the way for the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York to rule in a case in which a group of creditors, led by Elliott Management Corp.’s NML Capital Ltd., seeks to force the South American nation to pay after more than a decade of legal fighting. Argentina said it proposes two possibilities for bondholders to exchange their defaulted debt for new bonds. Argentine officials will submit a bill to their nation’s Congress to provide for the plan to be implemented, the government said in a 22-page letter filed in court. “Argentina’s proposal accounts for past-due amounts to bring the debt current, provides for a fair return going forward, and also gives an upside in the form of annual payments if Argentina’s economy grows,” the country’s lawyers said in the letter. “The proposal fulfills the court’s dual objectives to satisfy the pari passu clause: non-discrimination in payment priority and equal treatment among bondholders.” NML Recovery According to Argentina, the payment formula set by a New York judge that the country is challenging in the appeal, would pay NML Capital $720 million. That compares with an estimated value of $120.6 million for NML under one of the payment alternatives it is proposing, the so-called discount option. In its letter, Argentina estimates that NML paid $48.7 million for the bonds in 2008. “The formula adopted by the district court would cause great harm to the exchange bondholders while giving plaintiffs a return that is exorbitant on its face,” Argentina said in the letter. In 2005 and 2010, Argentina offered its creditors new bonds, at a deep discount. About 91 percent of bondholders agreed to the debt restructuring. NML and other holdouts have tried to use U.S. courts to enforce their rights under the original bond agreements. Argentina’s top leaders previously vowed never to pay the “vulture” investors, many of which bought the distressed bonds in hopes of turning a profit. Argentina’s legislature in 2005 passed a so-called lock law barring payment on the defaulted bonds. A decision forcing Argentina to pay defaulted bondholders immediately would expose the nation to $43 billion in additional claims it can’t pay and trigger a new default, the government has said. Par Option Under Argentina’s proposal, a so-called par option would give bondholders new bonds due in 2038 in a nominal face amount equal to the amount of their defaulted debt, plus unpaid interest up to the end of 2001. The par bonds would pay interest that rises from 2.5 percent to 5.25 percent a year over the life of the bonds. They would also receive a one-time cash payment to compensate for interest they would have earned if the bonds had been issued on Dec. 31, 2003, according to the letter. The holders would receive additional payments when the Argentine gross domestic product growth exceeds about 3 percent a year, the government said in the letter. The discount option would give bondholders discount bonds due in 2033, that would be less than the defaulted amount, with an 8.28 percent annual rate and an increase in principal over time. They would be compensated for past due interest on those bonds with new bonds due in 2017 that pay 8.75 percent annually, according to the letter. The holders would also receive GDP-tied payments, according to the proposal. No Better Terms Argentina said its proposal wouldn’t allow the plaintiffs in the lawsuit to force it to offer payment on better terms than those received by bondholders who agreed to the debt restructurings. Eugenio Bruno, an attorney at the Buenos Aires law firm Estudio Garrido, said in an e-mail that Argentina’s proposal is similar to past debt-restructuring offers by the country that have been rejected by NML and the other holdouts. If the government were to offer a better deal, it would trigger provisions allowing holders of the exchange bonds to take advantage of more favorable terms offered to the holdouts, he said. Bruno represents Alfonso Prat-Gay, a former governor of Argentina’s central bank, who submitted a brief in the case supporting his country’s effort to overturn the ruling. Bruno said he also advises exchange bondholders and holdouts who aren’t involved in litigation. Court Order In November, U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa in Manhattan said Argentina must pay the entire $1.3 billion claimed by the creditors in the lawsuit whenever it made any payment on its restructured debt. The issue was argued in front of the appeals court on Feb. 27. On March 1, the appeals court ordered Argentina to provide a suggested formula for paying the creditors, led by NML Capital, which refused to take the restructured bonds at a deep discount. Argentina’s lawyer, in the Feb. 27 hearing, “appeared to propose” an alternative to the payment formula devised by Griesa, according to the appeals court. The three-judge panel gave Argentina a final chance to influence its decision. The judges said they may ask the creditors to file a response before they issue a ruling. Court’s Requirements The judges said Argentina must tell them how and when it proposes to make current its payments on the defaulted bonds and the rate it proposes to pay. The panel also sought assurances that Argentina’s government would take the necessary actions to make the payments. The panel said March 26 that it won’t grant a full-court reconsideration of its ruling in a related appeal. In that decision, the court barred Argentina from treating restructured- debt holders more favorably than holders of the repudiated debt. The lower court case is NML Capital Ltd. v. Republic of Argentina, 08-06978, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). The appeal is NML Capital Ltd. v. Republic of Argentina, 12-00105, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (New York). To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Van Voris in New York at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net
2013
argentina-submits-payment-proposal-to-court-in-bonds-case
Penguins Go 15-0 for NHL’s First Perfect Month, Crosby Injured
By Nancy Kercheval
2013-03-31T04:01:00Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/penguins-record-first-perfect-month-in-nhl-history-crosby-hurt.html
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The Pittsburgh Penguins capped the first perfect month in National Hockey League history with a 2-0 victory over the New York Islanders, extending their winning streak to 15 games, two shy of their own league record. Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby needed surgery on his mouth last night after he was hit in the face when a shot by his defenseman Brooks Orpik deflected off a stick. “Sidney took a puck to the teeth and lost a few,” head coach Dan Bylsma said on the team’s website. “We’ll continue to evaluate and monitor that.” During the past two years, Crosby missed the final 41 games in 2011 and the Stanley Cup finals with a concussion, as well as most of the 2012 regular season with lingering symptoms. “When you see the replay, he had no chance to move,” forward Jarome Iginla told reporters after his debut with the Penguins. After two scoreless innings on home ice at Consol Energy Center, Matt Cooke scored eight minutes into the final period and James Neal added a second goal five minutes later. Goalie Tomas Vokoun made 35 saves as the Penguins, 15-0-0 in March, need two more wins to match the record 17 straight victories set by Mario Lemieux and the 1992-93 Penguins. “The shutout is nice, but preserving the winning streak is even better,” Vokoun said. “It’s been great.” Pittsburgh’s next two games are a visit from the Buffalo Sabres on April 2 and a trip to Madison Square Garden to face the New York Rangers on April 3. Pittsburgh has the best record in the NHL at 28-8-0 for 56 points. The Chicago Blackhawks are second at 25-5-3 for 53 points. To contact the reporter on this story: Nancy Kercheval in Washington at nkercheval@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
2013
penguins-record-first-perfect-month-in-nhl-history-crosby-hur
Jockey JT McNamara Paralyzed in Cheltenham Fall, Family Says
By Bob Bensch
2013-03-30T14:15:04Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/jockey-jt-mcnamara-paralyzed-in-cheltenham-fall-family-says.html
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Jockey JT McNamara suffered paralysis in a fall earlier this month at English horse racing’s Cheltenham Festival, his family said in a statement. The 37-year-old amateur from Ireland fractured two vertebrae in his neck after falling from Galaxy Rock in the Challenge Cup race on March 14. He was remains at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol after undergoing surgery, though plans are being made to transfer him to Matar Hospital in Dublin. “While he suffered a serious neck injury resulting in paralysis, he has made progress in the last week and is in a very positive frame of mind,” according to a statement on behalf of McNamara’s family posted today on the website of the Injured Jockeys Fund. McNamara was placed in a medically induced coma, after which his family said he was “fully alert” but required full- time ventilation. 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 .
2013
jockey-jt-mcnamara-paralyzed-in-cheltenham-fall-family-says
Napolitano Names Advisers in Renewed Push for Italy Deal
By Andrew Frye
2013-03-31T14:31:02Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/napolitano-names-advisers-in-renewed-push-for-italian-coalition.html
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Italian President Giorgio Napolitano renewed his push to forge a government from the country’s divided parliament by drafting advisers from two of the top three political forces. Members of the parliamentary coalitions headed by Pier Luigi Bersani and ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi were among the 10 men selected, according to an e-mail sent late yesterday by Napolitano’s office. Civil servants, a former politician, a retired judge and a central banker rounded out the two lists. Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement, the third-largest group, had no lawmakers included. The effort by Napolitano, 87, follows a week of talks among parliamentary leaders that failed to produce a government. Clashes that arose during the election campaign in January and February made it difficult for Bersani and Berlusconi to come to terms after the vote. Napolitano, in the final two months of his seven-year term, is counting on the lawmakers loyal to Bersani and Berlusconi to find common ground. “What Napolitano is trying to force is a kind of road map toward a coalition government,” said Giovanni Orsina, a history professor at Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome. “These names all together tell me dialogue.” Compromise between the top two groups may be easier after Bersani, who refused to share a cabinet with Berlusconi, took a step back on March 28 and relinquished control of negotiations. Berlusconi, a 76-year-old billionaire, has said he is open to governing with Bersani’s Democratic Party. Five Star, which campaigned for a renewal in Italian politics, has rejected forming a government in tandem with another party. Institutional Change Gaetano Quagliariello, a senator in Berlusconi’s People of Liberty party, and Luciano Violante, an ex-lawmaker with a forerunner of the Democratic Party, are on the team set to explore institutional changes. Democratic Party Senator Filippo Bubbico and Giancarlo Giorgetti, a representative with the Northern League, a Berlusconi ally, are among six members of the team focusing on economic, social and European issues. The work of the teams “may become in various forms the base for compromise among the various political forces,” Napolitano said at the presidential palace in Rome before the members were announced. “It could become useful material also for the tasks that will be required of the new president.” Grillo Criticism Napolitano reiterated that he will serve until his mandate ends on May 15, denying reports that he was considering a resignation to speed the entry of his successor into the talks. Presidents in the final stages of their mandates aren’t permitted to dissolve parliament and call new elections, an option that would be available to the next incumbent. Grillo, an ex-comic who characterized his party’s mission as the French Revolution without the guillotine, criticized Napolitano’s appointment of advisers in a blog posting today. Italy “doesn’t need ‘caretakers of democracy,’ but rather to make its parliament function better and quickly,” Grillo said . “The country doesn’t need mysterious negotiators or facilitators of the caliber of Violante, the grand master of backroom deals, to cite just one, to act as a group of wise men.” Violante, a former speaker of the lower house of parliament, didn’t respond to a request via his website for comment. Parliamentary Majority Italy needs a government with a majority in parliament to take steps such as passing economic stimulus measures and to guard against bond-market speculation in the wake of the financial crisis in Cyprus . Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, who remains in office until a new government is installed, can’t count on a majority in parliament and has said he is eager for his mandate to expire. Italy is stuck in its fourth recession since 2001, and each of the top three political forces has proposed tax cuts aimed at spurring growth. Investors, who buy more than 30 billion euros ($38 billion) of bonds each month to finance Italy’s debt, are counting on a deal that will ensure a government strong enough to pass measures to boost the economy and manage the budget. Quagliariello and Violante are joined on the institutional- change team by Valerio Onida, a former president of Italy’s Constitutional Court, and Mario Mauro, a senator in Monti’s Civic Choice party who previously belonged to Berlusconi’s group. The economic and social team is completed by European Affairs Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi, Competition Commissioner Giovanni Pitruzzella, Bank of Italy Deputy Director General Salvatore Rossi and Enrico Giovannini, chairman of the national statistics office Istat. To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Frye in Rome at afrye@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net
2013
napolitano-names-advisers-in-renewed-push-for-italian-coalition
Huawei Expects to Triple Smartphones Sales This Year to 60 Million Units
By Cornelius Rahn
2012-02-26T16:57:30Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/huawei-s-yu-pedicts-to-ship-60-million-smartphones-worldwide-this-year.html
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Huawei Technologies Co., China ’s largest maker of phone equipment, aims to triple the number of smartphones it delivers to 60 million this year as it takes aim at Apple Inc. (AAPL) ’s iPhone and new handsets by Nokia Oyj. (NOK1V) About 30 percent to 40 percent of this year’s shipments will probably go to China, Richard Yu, chairman of the company’s devices unit, said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Huawei today unveiled the Ascend D quad handset, calling it “the world’s fastest smartphone.” The device will cost 15 percent to 20 percent less than “comparable phones.” Huawei, based in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, forecast in April last year that it plans to boost revenue to $100 billion over five to 10 years. The company, which was founded in 1987, is also adding areas like cloud computing and small-business networks to its traditional network-equipment business, where it competes with companies including Ericsson AB and Nokia Siemens Networks. “We want to be the top brand in the industry,” Yu said. “Our phone brand isn’t that famous, but our products should be the best ones.” The Ascend D quad will be sold in all major markets starting next quarter. A version that works on networks based on the the faster long-term evolution technology will be available in the second half of 2012, the company said. To contact the reporter on this story: Cornelius Rahn in Barcelona at crahn2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net
2012
uawei-s-yu-pedicts-to-ship-60-million-smartphones-worldwide-this-year
Obrascon, PBG Win 221 Million-Euro Contract for Road in Poland
By Esteban Duarte
2012-02-26T11:04:12Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/obrascon-pbg-win-221-million-euro-contract-for-road-in-poland.html
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1e48ea63bb8a9440069073f33a276dee17bb6029
Obrascon Huarte Lain SA (OHL) said it won with Poland’s PBG SA (PBG) a 221.4 million-euro ($298 million) contract to build a section of a road in Gdansk, the Polish northern city, according to a statement from the Madrid-based company today. To contact the reporter on this story: Esteban Duarte in Madrid at eduarterubia@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Emma Ross-Thomas at erossthomas@bloomberg.net
2012
obrascon-pbg-win-221-million-euro-contract-for-road-in-poland
Pennsylvania Beats Harvard to Put Ivy League Basketball Title Up for Grabs
By Nancy Kercheval
2012-02-26T05:37:50Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/pennsylvania-beats-harvard-to-put-ivy-league-basketball-title-up-for-grabs.html
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df454c209dab3b5a7876827a8ea5232755d695cf
Zack Rosen hit two foul shots in the final 23.2 seconds to give the University of Pennsylvania a 55-54 win over Harvard University and throw the Ivy League Conference title up for grabs. A win by Harvard last night would have guaranteed the Crimson at least a share of the men’s college basketball conference title. Rosen, who had 20 points, scored the final nine for the Quakers, who overcame a 30-24 halftime deficit at Lavietes Pavilion in Boston . “It’s been a season of heart so far, and it’s going to be a season of heart for three more games,” Rosen told reporters. “We want this thing.” Pennsylvania (17-11, 9-2 Ivy), which last won the Ivy League title in 2007, ended Harvard’s 28-game home winning streak. Kyle Casey , who scored 12 points for Harvard, got his basket pulled back with four seconds left in the game by a charging call. Harvard (24-4, 10-2 Ivy) is seeking its first National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament spot since 1946. “It’s a devastating loss,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker told reporters. “It’s a disappointing loss.” Harvard finishes the season with games against Columbia on March 2 and Cornell on March 3. Pennsylvania faces Brown on March 2, Yale on March 3 and Princeton on March 6 before the regular season ends. To contact the reporter on this story: Nancy Kercheval in Washington at nkercheval@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
2012
pennsylvania-beats-harvard-to-put-ivy-league-basketball-title-up-for-grabs
New York Rangers End Two-Game Losing Streak With 3-2 Win Over Sabres
By Nancy Kercheval
2012-02-26T05:00:01Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/new-york-rangers-end-two-game-losing-streak-with-3-2-win-over-sabres.html Ryan Callahan scored a goal in overtime as the New York Rangers broke a two-game losing streak with a 3-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres . Callahan recorded his 100th National Hockey League goal and career-high 24th of the season at two minutes, 59 seconds into overtime last night at New York’s Madison Square Garden. “It’s something to look back on at the end of the year
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high,” Callahan said. “It’s nice to enjoy tonight but come Monday it’s another game.” Drew Stafford gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead with his first of two goals in the first period. Carl Hagelin tied it at 1-1 in the second period. Stafford got his second goal 44 seconds into the third period for a 2-1 Sabres lead. Marian Gaborik scored five minutes later to force the game into overtime. “We played much better in the little areas of the ice,” coach John Tortorella said. “When we tied it up, for some reason they ended up taking the momentum. That’s part of the game that wasn’t good. To go down early in the third period, you don’t want to script it this way as far as a win, but it turns out to be a good way to win. We were much better.” New York (39-15-6) leads the Eastern Conference with 84 points and is two points behind league-leading Vancouver. Buffalo (27-27-8) is 11th in the conference with 62 points, six points below the postseason cutoff. To contact the reporter on this story: Nancy Kercheval in Washington at nkercheval@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
2012
new-york-rangers-end-two-game-losing-streak-with-3-2-win-over-sabres
BP Gulf Spill Trial Delayed to Allow for Settlement Talks
By Jef Feeley and Allen Johnson Jr.
2012-02-27T00:54:42Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/bp-plaintiffs-committee-say-spill-trial-delayed-to-march-5-for-more-talks.html The BP Plc trial over liability for the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that followed was delayed until March 5 as settlement negotiations continue, according to court records. The one-week postponement of tomorrow’s scheduled start of a multibillion-dollar trial over who is to blame for the accident and spill is to allow for negotiations to reach a settlement to “fairly compensate people and businesses,” BP and lawyers for the plaintiffs said in a joint statement. “There can be no assurance that these discussions will lead to a settlement agreement,” according to the statement. “A further announcement will be made as appropriate.” U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans is scheduled to oversee the first phase of the case against London- based BP (BP) and other companies over the blast that killed 11 workers and caused the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. In his order today delaying the trial, Barbier cited “reasons of judicial efficiency and to allow the parties to make further progress in their settlement discussions.” The April 2010 Macondo well blowout sent more than 4 million barrels of oil spewing into the gulf over 87 days, according to a U.S. government report issued in September. The accident spawned hundreds of lawsuits against BP and its partners, including Transocean Ltd. (RIG) , the Vernier, Switzerland-based owner and operator of the drilling rig, and Houston-based Halliburton Co. (HAL) , which provided cementing services on the facility. Fishing, Tourism The lawsuits include pollution claims by federal and state governments and consolidated cases brought by thousands of commercial fishermen, seafood processors, property owners and tourism-related businesses harmed by the spill. BP has been in settlement talks with the federal government, plaintiffs suing over the spill and other companies facing liability in the cases for months, people familiar the discussions have said. Barbier, who will hear the case without a jury, is to rule whether London-based BP should get help from the other firms involved in paying the $26 billion in costs associated with the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon and the spill. If there isn’t a deal reached by all sides, the judge will determine whether the companies must pay punitive damages to thousands of business and property owners, and fines to the government for polluting the Gulf of Mexico . ‘Significant Progress’ The trial delay may indicate “there has been significant progress in settlement talks and it may not be necessary to have a trial, or at least a trial as currently configured,” David Uhlmann, a University of Michigan law professor and former chief of the U.S. Justice Department’s environmental crime section, said today in a phone interview. Any agreement will probably focus on claims filed by lawyers for federal and state governments, though it could also be broader, Uhlmann said. “The delay indicates the judge believes there is some good-faith bargaining going on,” Carl Tobias , who teaches product-liability and mass-tort law at the University of Richmond in Virginia , said today in a phone interview. ‘Moving Parts’ “I think a global settlement is very unlikely to be consummated in the next day or two,” Tobias said. “There’s just too many moving parts. The real question is can they do it all in a week or will they just be able to settle parts of it.” David Nicholas, a BP spokesman, declined to comment on the trial delay or settlement negotiations. Wyn Hornbuckle, a U.S. Justice Department spokesman, said, “We have no comment and refer you to the order just issued by the court.” Beverly Stafford, a Halliburton spokeswoman, had no immediate comment on the trial delay. “This delay doesn’t change the facts of the case and Transocean is still fully prepared to go to trial,” Lou Colasuonno, a spokesman for the company, said today in a phone interview. The cases over economic and environmental damage were initially consolidated before Barbier, who has scheduled a three-phase trial. In the first phase, he will determine which companies share blame for the explosion, and whether any of them engaged in gross negligence or willful misconduct. Such a finding might trigger punitive damages
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p.m., Monday through Thursday. He would not lightly agree to a delay unless he feels there is a genuine hope of an agreement.” The case is In re Oil Spill by the Oil Rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, MDL-2179, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana ( New Orleans ). To contact the reporters on this story: Jef Feeley in New Orleans, at jfeeley@bloomberg.net ; Allen Johnson Jr. in New Orleans at allenmct@gmail.com . To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net
2012
bp-plaintiffs-committee-say-spill-trial-delayed-to-march-5-for-more-talks
Schaeuble Seeks to Cut Banks From Market Regulator, Spiegel Says
By Tony Czuczka
2012-02-26T13:25:06Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/schaeuble-seeks-to-cut-banks-from-market-regulator-spiegel-says.html
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00da865880f70b72588c7d3e70a1dfc012ee0606
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is seeking to remove banking representatives from the board of Germany ’s BaFin financial-market regulator and replace them with academics or members of research institutes, Der Spiegel reported, without saying how it got the information. Schaeuble’s goal is to reduce the influence of the bank lobbies, which currently have a vote on the BaFin’s board along with government representatives, the magazine said today. To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Czuczka in Berlin at aczuczka@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net
2012
schaeuble-seeks-to-cut-banks-from-market-regulator-spiegel-says
Swiss Re Focusing on Organic Growth, CEO Tells SonntagsZeitung
By Klaus Wille
2012-02-26T12:27:15Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/swiss-re-focusing-on-organic-growth-ceo-tells-sonntagszeitung.html
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ba49bcefd396cb8c1dc605d120c5d8703353e679
Swiss Re Ltd (SREN) . is currently not focusing on acquisitions, Chief Executive Officer Michel Lies told SonntagsZeitung in an interview. The company is very much able at “growing organically,” Lies was quoted as saying by the Swiss newspaper. Swiss Re’s high liquidity enables the reinsurer to choose customers selectively and allows sustainable dividend payments, he said. To contact the reporter on this story: Klaus Wille in Zurich at kwille@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net
2012
swiss-re-focusing-on-organic-growth-ceo-tells-sonntagszeitung
Ex-BP Browne May Buy Into Fairfield, Sunday Times Says
By Catherine Airlie
2012-02-27T04:44:26Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/former-bp-boss-browne-may-buy-into-fairfield-sunday-times-says.html
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f08f8000579195478b314ba25866271b02b094ff
(Corrects John Browne ’s role at Riverstone in first paragraph.) A private equity company that includes former BP Plc Chief Executive Officer John Browne among its partners is in advanced talks to buy as much as half of Fairfield Energy Ltd., a U.K.-based oil and gas business, the Sunday Times reported. Browne heads the European unit of Riverstone Holdings LLC, which may acquire additional North-Sea oil and gas assets if it were to buy a stake in Fairfield Energy, the newspaper reported, without saying where it got its information. Riverstone and Fairfield together would have 30 billion pounds ($48 billion) under management, according to the report. Fairfield is controlled by Warburg Pincus LLC, a private equity fund based in New York . To contact the reporter on this story: Catherine Airlie in London at cairlie@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mike Harrison at mharrison5@bloomberg.net
2012
former-bp-boss-browne-may-buy-into-fairfield-sunday-times-says
Takeda’s TAK-875 Fights Diabetes as Well as Older Drug in Study
By Simeon Bennett
2012-02-26T23:30:00Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/takeda-s-tak-875-fights-diabetes-as-well-as-older-generic-drug-in-a-study.html
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Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. (4502) ’s experimental diabetes drug lowered blood sugar as much as an older generic medicine with fewer side effects, a company- sponsored study found. In a trial of 426 patients with Type 2 diabetes , TAK-875 reduced blood sugar below a pre-determined level in as much as 48 percent of those receiving it after 12 weeks, compared with 40 percent of those who got glimepiride, the older drug, according to findings published online by The Lancet medical journal today. The research was presented in June at the American Diabetes Association ’s annual meeting in San Diego . Takeda is testing TAK-875 in the third and final stage of patient studies usually required for regulatory approval. The Osaka , Japan-based company seeks products to replace sales of Actos, the world’s best-selling diabetes treatment, that will be lost when the therapy’s patent protection ends this year. About 90 percent of the 285 million people worldwide with diabetes have Type 2, the form that TAK-875 is designed to fight. The pill belongs to a new class of treatments called GPR40 agonists, which activate a receptor that stimulates and regulates insulin production. New treatments are needed because of “the expected increase in the number of cases of Type 2 diabetes during the next few decades” and because some current drugs have “insufficient effect,” the researchers, led by Charles Burant at the University of Michigan Medical School, wrote in the study. About 2 percent of those receiving TAK-875 in the trial developed hypoglycemia, a complication in which blood sugar is lowered too much, compared with 19 percent of those receiving glimepiride, the researchers wrote. About half of the TAK-875 group experienced an adverse side effect of any kind, compared with 61 percent of those in the glimepiride group. To contact the reporter on this story: Simeon Bennett in Geneva at sbennett9@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net
2012
akeda-s-tak-875-fights-diabetes-as-well-as-older-generic-drug-in-a-study
Spain’s BBVA Bids for ECB Three-Year Loans, Chairman Tells Pais
By Esteban Duarte
2012-02-26T11:32:57Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/spain-s-bbva-bids-for-ecb-three-year-loans-chairman-tells-pais.html
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Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBVA) chairman Francisco Gonzalez said the Spanish lender will bid for three-year loans in the Feb. 29 European Central Bank auction, according to El Pais . BBVA will seek a similar amount to the 11 billion euros ($14.8 billion) that the Bilbao-based bank raised in the first tender of this kind from the ECB on Dec. 21, Gonzalez said in an interview with the Madrid-based newspaper. There is no stigma for banks taking part in the central bank auction, he told El Pais. Banks shouldn’t ask for ECB money to invest in government debt and instead it should be used to fix problems, he said, according to El Pais. The ECB three-year loans will help the economic recovery, he told El Pais. The Spanish government bonds’ risk premium should decline by the end of this year to below 300 basis points, he told El Pais. If that is not the case, it means that things are not on the right track, he told El Pais. The Spanish-German 10-year yield spread narrowed on Feb. 24 to 316.1 basis points from 318.7 a day earlier, data compiled by Bloomberg show. To contact the reporter on this story: Esteban Duarte in Madrid at eduarterubia@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Emma Ross-Thomas at erossthomas@bloomberg.net
2012
spain-s-bbva-bids-for-ecb-three-year-loans-chairman-tells-pais
Acciona Joins Australian Solar Power Venture After BP Drops Out
By James Paton
2012-02-26T00:51:00Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/acciona-joins-australian-solar-power-venture-after-bp-drops-out.html
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ecabcf4316fffe9f74ebcd2f411d4e9dbcef2819
Acciona SA (ANA) , the Spanish renewable energy company, has joined Pacific Hydro Pty in a venture seeking Australian funds to build the Moree solar farm in New South Wales state after partner BP Plc (BP/) dropped out. Acciona will provide engineering and construction services to the solar-power project, while Pacific Hydro and Fotowatio Renewable Ventures will take up the ownership stake previously held by BP, Melbourne-based Pacific Hydro (PHY) said in an e-mailed statement today. The venture will sign a power-supply accord with Pacific Hydro, which plans to start its own retail energy group, according to the statement. While the partners in the proposed A$923 million ($987 million) solar plant won government funds last year, they failed to sign a power-purchase agreement in time to reach a December financing deadline. That prompted the government to reopen the funding competition to other bidders, including AGL Energy Ltd. To contact the reporter on this story: James Paton in Sydney at jpaton4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net
2012
acciona-joins-australian-solar-power-venture-after-bp-drops-ou
Athens Metro Driver Finds Explosive Device on Train, Police Say
By Paul Tugwell
2012-02-26T12:04:49Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/athens-metro-driver-finds-explosive-device-on-train-police-say.html
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d1ad3bcbdd004cf24c05b1eaf7f8263abb28e051
The driver of an Athens metro train found an explosive device under a seat in one of his train’s wagons yesterday evening, Greek police said. The device, which consisted of a four-liter (one gallon) container with inflammable liquid, batteries, a timer device, cables and a switch, was found in a gift box on a train at the Egaleo terminus station in western Athens before it was due to pick up passengers and begin a service to Athens International Airport , a police spokeswoman said today in a phone interview on condition of anonymity in keeping with police force policy. Officers neutralized the device and a forensic investigation is continuing, the spokeswoman said. To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tugwell in Athens at ptugwell1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jerrold Colten at jcolten@bloomberg.net
2012
athens-metro-driver-finds-explosive-device-on-train-police-say
Yen’s Worst Slump Since 2009 Shows Intervention No Match for BOJ Purchases
By Masaki Kondo and Hiroko Komiya
2012-02-27T13:47:59Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/yen-s-worst-slump-since-2009-shows-intervention-no-match-for-boj-purchases.html
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3108ef46be7647089f5ef7ef5863b500
Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa’s inflation goal is succeeding where record intervention failed, as the yen heads for its steepest monthly drop in two years. The currency reached an almost nine-month low after the BOJ, which has struggled for more than a decade against deflation, said on Feb. 14 it aimed for 1 percent annual gains in consumer prices and would add 10 trillion yen ($124 billion) to the economy. Traders are paying record premiums for options to buy the dollar versus the yen for three, six and 12 months. Bullish bets on Japan’s currency have fallen 70 percent from the end of last month. Shirakawa needs a weaker yen to help Japan export its way out of a recession made deeper by last year’s earthquake and the worst nuclear crisis in a generation. Energy imports to replace lost capacity have reversed trade surpluses that made the currency a refuge in a slowing global economy. Prospects of higher inflation are driving it down, at least for now. “The BOJ seems to have shifted their stance quite aggressively,” Mansoor Mohi-uddin, the Singapore-based chief currency strategist at UBS AG, said by telephone on Feb. 24. “It’s definitely a situation where the trend is now reversed.” UBS cut its year-end yen projection to 85 per dollar from 80, saying the BOJ’s inflation goal will help reinforce expectations that policy will remain easier for longer, a note from the brokerage said on Feb. 22. Current Account Japan has posted an annual current-account surplus , the broadest measure of trade, since at least 1985, according to the Ministry of Finance, turning the nation into the world’s largest creditor. It had 251.5 trillion yen in net assets overseas at the end of 2010, the latest data from the ministry show. That’s almost the size of Germany ’s annual economic output in dollar terms. The Trade Ministry said in November that the current account may slide into deficit from the middle of this decade, and Japan posted a record 1.48 trillion-yen trade deficit, a narrower measure, last month. Through the global financial crisis, the currency gained from more than 120 to the dollar in 2007 to about 80 as Japanese households accumulated 1,471 trillion yen in assets, helping the government finance its deficits. Domestic investors hold more than 90 percent of Japan’s public debt, the world’s largest at about double the size of the economy, allowing the government to borrow for 10 years at less than 1 percent interest. Five-Day Slide The currency climbed against all 16 most-traded counterparts in 2011 for a second-straight year. Even after the recent decline, the yen is 17 percent stronger than its five- year average. It will be at 77 by the end of March, according to the median estimate of currency analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. “As long as Japan maintains its current-account surplus, funds will accumulate inside the country and be invested in government bonds via bank deposits ,” Yunosuke Ikeda, head of Japan foreign-exchange research at Nomura Securities Co., the nation’s biggest brokerage, said by phone on Feb. 23. “A plunge in the yen is intriguing as a tale, but I am skeptical that it will actually come about.” The yen slid against the dollar for five-consecutive days through Feb. 22, the longest stretch since April, and is set for a 5.3 percent plunge in February, the biggest monthly drop since December 2009. It reached 81.67 against the dollar today, the weakest level since May, before appreciating 0.7 percent to 80.55 at 8:37 a.m. New York time. The yen slid to 109.93 per euro, the least since October, before strengthening 1.2 percent to 107.84. Two-Year Yields Government currency sales totaled 14.3 trillion yen last year, the third-biggest annual sum on record, Ministry of Finance data show. That didn’t stop the yen from rising to 76.03 per dollar this month before the BOJ’s shift, less than 1 percent off its record of 75.35 reached on Oct. 31. Combined with regular purchases and earlier stimulus measures, the BOJ will acquire 32.7 trillion yen in Japanese government debt this year, compared with the government’s planned issuance of 149.7 trillion yen for the 12 months starting April 1. Yields on Japan’s two-year bonds slid to 0.1 percent on Feb. 16, the lowest since October 2010. “The shift toward inflation targeting as well as the announcement to buy further JGBs is quite significant,” Frederic Neumann , the Hong Kong-based co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC Holdings Plc., said by phone on Feb. 22. The yen may extend declines this year to 84 per dollar, he said. Inflation Target Japan’s consumer prices , excluding fresh food, fell 0.1 percent in December. They’ve declined an average 0.2 percent for the past 10 years, and the rate hasn’t been above 1 percent for more than 12 months since 1993. The central bank forecast in October the so-called core inflation rate will rise 0.1 percent in the year starting April, followed by a 0.5 percent gain the next fiscal year. Finance Minister Jun Azumi said the BOJ effectively established an inflation target when it set a “goal” of 1 percent inflation on Feb. 14, replacing earlier wording that the central bank had an “ understanding” of where consumer prices should go. “I can feel their seriousness,” Masashi Murata, a currency strategist in Tokyo at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., said on Feb. 22 by phone, referring to the inflation goal. Before the change, “markets sensed the BOJ eschewed commitment to consumer prices.” Negative Bets Traders are giving in. The risk-reversal rate for three- month options on the dollar against the yen reached 0.53 on Feb. 20, the highest closing level in data compiled by Bloomberg going back to October 2003. It was as low as negative 2.49 in August. The six-month rate was at 0.25 today, while the one-year rate traded at 0.05. A higher number for the difference in volatility between call and put options indicates there is more demand from bulls than bears. The difference in the number of wagers by hedge funds and other large speculators on an advance in the yen compared with those on a drop slid to 17,257 on Feb. 21, figures from the Washington-based Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed. It reached 59,657 on Jan. 13, the most since March 2008. Efforts to spur the Japanese economy with asset purchases pale next to those in the U.S. and Europe . The Federal Reserve (FARBAST) ’s total assets have more than doubled since the beginning of the fourth quarter in 2008 as it started so-called quantitative easing by purchasing debt. The European Central Bank (EBBSTOTA) boosted its assets by 75 percent during the period, while the BOJ’s (BJACTOTL) balance sheet increased 25 percent, before the announced purchase plan. BOJ Divergence “BOJ policy is diverging from what we see in Europe and the U.S.,” Koji Fukaya , chief currency strategist in Tokyo at Credit Suisse Group AG, said by phone on Feb. 22. “Expectations for further easing are diminishing in Europe, while economic indicators point to decreasing likelihood of additional easing in the U.S.” A stronger yen hurts the overseas competitiveness of exporters and cuts the value of income earned abroad when repatriated. A previous yen record of 79.75 reached in April 1995 stood until March last year when a magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck Japan’s northeast, stoking speculation companies would bring home assets to pay for rebuilding. The currency jumped to 76.25 on March 17, prompting coordinated intervention by Group of Seven nations the next day. Record Deficit Companies listed on the Topix Index had a 69 percent drop in net income in the last reported quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Mazda Motor Corp., the Japanese carmaker most dependent on exports, predicted its biggest annual loss in 11 years. Television maker Panasonic Corp. forecast a record 780 billion yen loss this fiscal year. Japan posted a record trade deficit in January, official data showed on Feb. 20, with imports of liquefied natural gas surging 74 percent from a year earlier. Energy costs have swollen as nuclear plants were shuttered following meltdowns and radiation leaks at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s quake and tsunami- damaged Fukushima plant. “People took it for granted that Japan would always have a trade surplus, but they may be starting to realize that is not the case,” Takatoshi Kato, a former top currency official for Japan, said in an interview on Feb. 23. The economy has contracted in three of the past four quarters, and a November report from the Trade Ministry said the current account may slide into deficit from the middle of this decade, A shrinking current-account surplus is leading to a “reevaluation of the fundamentals in Japan,” Greg Gibbs, a foreign-exchange strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in Sydney, said by phone by Feb. 23. “The fiscal situation has deteriorated, and there’s certainly concern about a hollowing out of the Japanese economy.” To contact the reporters on this story: Masaki Kondo in Singapore at mkondo3@bloomberg.net ; Hiroko Komiya in 東京 at hkomiya1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rocky Swift at rswift5@bloomberg.net
2012
yen-s-worst-slump-since-2009-shows-intervention-no-match-for-boj-purchases
Euro Advances as China Says It Will Do Its Part to Raise Resources of IMF
By Candice Zachariahs
2012-02-26T22:57:17Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/euro-advances-as-china-says-it-will-do-its-part-to-raise-resources-of-imf.html
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The euro gained versus most of its major peers after China’s central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan told reporters that the country will do its part to boost resources for the International Monetary Fund . The dollar climbed to its highest level in almost nine months against the yen. The euro rose 0.6 percent to 109.83 yen as of 7:53 a.m. in Tokyo from 109.18 in New York on Feb. 24. The common currency traded as high as 109.91, its strongest level since Oct. 31. It advanced 0.1 percent to $1.3468. The dollar climbed as much as 0.6 percent to 81.67 yen, its highest level since May 31, before trading at 81.55. To contact the reporter on this story: Candice Zachariahs in Sydney at czachariahs2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rocky Swift at rswift5@bloomberg.net
2012
euro-advances-as-china-says-it-will-do-its-part-to-raise-resources-of-imf
Peacocks Seeks Rents Reductions to Reopen Stores, Times Reports
By Catherine Airlie
2012-02-26T11:17:17Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/peacocks-seeks-rents-reductions-to-reopen-stores-times-reports.html
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Peacocks Stores Ltd. is seeking rent reductions and a switch to monthly payments in a bid to reopen some of its unprofitable stores, the Sunday Times reported, citing Chief Executive Officer Philip Day. Day is renegotiating rental terms for 244 of the 388 stores he bought last week and hopes to reopen 75 of them, he said in an interview with the newspaper. He also plans to hire 80 staff for the company’s head office, it said. To contact the reporter on this story: Catherine Airlie in London at cairlie@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net
2012
peacocks-seeks-rents-reductions-to-reopen-stores-times-reports
Erdogan Confidence Means Lower Samurai Yields Than Uruguay: Turkey Credit
By Jason Webb
2012-02-27T11:42:38Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/erdogan-confidence-means-lower-samurai-yields-than-uruguay-turkey-credit.html
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e1a1e8b7419d4a5c81f4f73cc8dcc048
Japanese investors are poised to provide Turkey with its lowest borrowing costs as confidence in the nation’s economic outlook improves. Turkey is offering $1 billion of 10-year Samurai notes at a yield between 35 and 45 basis points above the benchmark yen swap rate, said a person with direct knowledge who declined to be identified. At current rates, the yield would be no higher than 1.44 percent, compared with 1.87 percent when Turkey tapped Japanese investors last March and 5.75 percent on dollar bonds sold Feb. 8, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Uruguay, rated a level higher than Turkey by Moody’s Investors Service, paid 1.64 percent on a 10-year Samurai in May. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 58, is taking advantage of resurgent confidence in the world’s second-fastest growing major economy after the central bank reduced interest rates twice this year. While Asahi Life Asset Management Co. Ltd., a unit of Japan ’s second oldest insurer, said it won’t buy the notes because the yield is too low, demand for emerging market assets will help the sale, according to ING Groep NV. “A tight spread for Turkey is justified if you look at the fundamentals on the fiscal side,” Simon Quijano-Evans, an economist at ING in London, said by phone on Feb. 24. “It wouldn’t surprise me to see the spreads falling even further over the next 12 months as the fiscal dynamics are among the best in the emerging markets universe.” Narrower Deficit Turkey’s economy expanded 9.6 percent in the first nine months of last year, second only to China among the Group of 20 nations. Rising gross domestic product helped Turkey reduce its budget deficit to 1.4 percent of GDP last year from 3.6 percent in 2010. Erdogan is targeting a gap of 1.5 percent of output this year, compared with an average 2.7 percent shortfall for developing countries monitored by the International Monetary Fund . The country’s growth outlook has improved since the central bank resumed lending to banks at the lower of its two main rates at 5.75 percent since Jan. 6. It also cut its maximum rate to 11.5 percent from 12.5 percent on Feb. 21. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its forecast for 2012 economic growth to 2.5 percent from 0.8 percent on Feb. 10. The Samurai sale is “well timed,” David Hauner , head of emerging Europe strategy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London, said in a phone interview on Feb. 24. “Over the course of the past two months, Turkey has experienced a certain amount of catch up in external debt as well as in local markets.” The yield on Turkey’s dollar bonds , which was the same as the average for emerging markets on Jan. 6, dropped 26 basis points below, or 0.26 percentage point, on Feb. 24, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) ’s Global EMBI Indexes. ‘Risk-Off’ While Turkey’s budget deficit has shrunk, the shortfall on the current account surged to more than 10 percent of GDP last year. Its reliance on foreign funding to cover the deficit leaves Turkey “particularly susceptible to potential risk-off sentiment,” Morgan Stanley analysts including Marianna Kozintseva in London said in an e-mailed report on Feb. 23. The vulnerability of the economy makes the yield on its Samurai offering too low, according to Yoshihiro Nakatani at Asahi Life Asset Management Co. “Turkey is familiar to Japanese investors but I think this time the issue is not a good deal,” Nakatani, a Tokyo-based senior fund manager who helps oversee about $1 billion at Asahi, said in a phone interview on Feb. 24. “This bond spread is not attractive.” Default Swaps The cost of protecting Turkish bonds against default using five-year credit-default swaps rose six basis points to 248 basis points today, higher than the spread of 195 for Russia , which is rated three levels higher by Standard & Poor’s , and 203 for Poland , rated five levels higher, according to CMA, which is owned by CME Group Inc. (CME) and compiles prices quoted by dealers in the privately-negotiated market. Turkish contracts cost 34 basis points less than the average for countries in central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa included in the Markit iTraxx SovX CEEMEA Index. The swaps pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent should a government or company fail to adhere to its debt agreements. Moody’s Investors Service rates Turkey Ba2, two steps below investment grade, with a “positive” outlook. S&P also rates Turkey at two levels below investment grade at BB. Fitch rates Turkey one level below investment. Yields on two-year benchmark bonds in liras rose 17 basis points to 9.35 percent by 1:39 p.m. in Istanbul, the highest intra-day level since Feb. 16. The lira declined 0.4 percent to 1.7738 per dollar. Borrowing Plans The Samurai sale is part of a foreign borrowing program to raise 9.5 billion liras ($5.4 billion) this year. The government sold $1 billion of dollar bonds due 2022 at a yield of 5.75 percent on Feb. 8, three weeks after issuing $1.5 billion of the same debt at 6.35 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The yield has since fallen to 5.37 percent. The Samurai bonds will be guaranteed by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation , said the person with knowledge of the deal, asking not to be identified as the information is private. The same bank guaranteed Turkey’s last sale Samurai debt as well as Uruguay’s securities. The offering in yen reflects the growing importance of Turkey’s trade with non-western partners, according to Quijano- Evans. The European Union’s share of Turkish exports fell to 42 percent in December 2011 from 45 percent a year earlier, according to the statistics office’s website . “It’s important for Turkey to look into a new investor base,” he said. “Over the last couple of years what Turkey has done is move more towards Asia .” To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Webb in London at jwebb25@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net
2012
erdogan-confidence-means-lower-samurai-yields-than-uruguay-turkey-credi
Starbucks to Open Stores in U.K., Europe, Sunday Telegraph Says
By Andrea Gerlin
2012-02-26T10:09:24Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/starbucks-to-open-stores-in-u-k-europe-sunday-telegraph-says.html
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66db2a4710259133ec9464ae09e2cd7b0fdd3ab6
Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) plans to open “hundreds” of stores in Europe , including 300 in the U.K., the Sunday Telegraph reported, citing an interview with Michelle Gass, the president of Starbucks Europe, Middle East and Africa . The Seattle-based coffee-shop chain has 17,000 outlets in the EMEA region, including 700 in the U.K., The Sunday Telegraph reported. To contact the reporter on this story: Andrea Gerlin in London at agerlin@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mike Harrison at mharrison5@bloomberg.net
2012
starbucks-to-open-stores-in-u-k-europe-sunday-telegraph-says
Dubai’s Power Use Will Grow 4% as Emirate Plans Carbon Cuts
By Anthony DiPaola
2012-02-26T14:32:59Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/dubai-s-power-use-will-grow-4-as-emirate-plans-carbon-cuts.html
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27786a785f922889f0ca60e3a4d0e472df56fcc6
Dubai’s power demand is set to grow this year at a rate in line with the Persian Gulf emirate’s economy, or about 4 percent, as the city develops a plan to cut emissions. The emirate plans to survey its carbon dioxide emissions from energy and industrial production in a study this year, Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer , vice chairman of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, said today. Dubai will use the study to estimate a baseline figure for emissions that it will use to plan cuts in the release of the gas, he said. The emirate may trade credits linked to emission reductions, depending on future international climate change rules, Al Tayer said at a press conference today. Al Tayer, who is also managing director of Dubai Electricity & Water Authority, spoke at the utility’s offices in the city. DEWA, as the utility is known, is still evaluating bids from companies seeking to join it in a partnership to build a 1,500-megawatt natural-gas-fired power plant, Al Tayer said. Dubai has enough flexibility in natural gas import contracts to secure sufficient supply of fuel to cover current demand and the needs for the new power unit, Nejib Zaafrani, chief executive of the Supreme Council of Energy said. Dubai is also expanding production of solar energy. The emirate currently has about 4.5 megawatts of generation from individually installed capacity, Zaafrani said. The utility will build a 10-megawatt solar plant by the end of 2013 and has hired consultants to help with the project, said Waleed Salman, vice president for business development at the utility. GDF Suez (GSZ) SA’s Tractebel engineering unit is developing the regulations and procedures for connecting solar plants to Dubai’s power grid and ILF Consulting Engineers will help plan the plant as well as the expansion of a planned solar park with a forecast 1,000-megawatt capacity, Salman said. To contact the reporter on this story: Anthony DiPaola in Dubai at adipaola@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net
2012
dubai-s-power-use-will-grow-4-as-emirate-plans-carbon-cuts
Kirch Heirs May Dump Deutsche Bank Settlement, Sueddeutsche Says
By Tony Czuczka
2012-02-26T12:43:44Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/kirch-heirs-may-dump-deutsche-bank-settlement-sueddeutsche-says.html
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Leo Kirch’s heirs are threatening to extend legal action against Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) if the bank doesn’t pay damages of 812 million euros ($1.1 billion) under a proposed settlement, Sueddeutsche Zeitung said, citing negotiators it didn’t identify. Deutsche Bank is balking at the amount, meaning the settlement proposed by a Munich court may collapse, the Munich- based newspaper said in an e-mailed article to appear in tomorrow’s edition. To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Czuczka in Berlin at aczuczka@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net
2012
kirch-heirs-may-dump-deutsche-bank-settlement-sueddeutsche-says
Arsenal Rallies to Defeat Archrival Tottenham 5-2; Manchester United Wins
By James Cone
2012-02-27T00:00:01Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/arsenal-rallies-to-beat-tottenham-5-2-manchester-united-defeats-norwich.html
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Arsenal rallied to defeat local rival Tottenham 5-2 yesterday in English soccer’s Premier League, while Ryan Giggs scored a late winner at Norwich on his 900th appearance for Manchester United. The Gunners trailed by two goals after 34 minutes at the Emirates Stadium in north London, but efforts from Bacary Sagna and Robin van Persie saw them level at halftime. Tomas Rosicky then put the Gunners ahead, with Theo Walcott adding two goals. “It was a performance full of everything you want from your team,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger told Sky Sports. “It was an exciting game, we had a difficult start but kept going and showed great character.” The win lifts Arsenal above Chelsea into fourth spot because it has scored more goals. Both have the same goal difference. United needed a 90th-minute goal from Giggs to secure a 2-1 win at Norwich and maintain pressure on league leader Manchester City. Paul Scholes also scored for the defending champion at Carrow Road, with Grant Holt replying for the hosts. “Norwich put up a great fight but we didn’t really play very well,” Giggs told the British Broadcasting Corp. “But I think if you look at the last 10 minutes, we probably just deserved it.” City has 63 points, two ahead of United, with Tottenham remaining on 53 points. Arsenal and Chelsea have 46 points. Stoke City beat Swansea City 2-0 in yesterday’s other match. Spurs Lead Spurs took only four minutes to take the lead at the Emirates, with Louis Saha scoring his third goal for the club since joining from Everton last month. Former Arsenal forward Emmanuel Adebayor slid the ball through the home team’s defense and Saha scored from a shot which deflected off defender Thomas Vermaelen and over goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny. Van Persie missed an opportunity to tie the game when he fired wide after 20 minutes, then goalkeeper Brad Friedel tipped over a header from Rosicky. The visitor’s second goal came from a penalty kick after Szczesny was adjudged to have fouled Gareth Bale. Adebayor scored to make it 2-0. Bale had an effort saved by Szczesny as he looked to increase the lead, then Van Persie hit a post at the other end of the field with Sagna heading into the net moments later. Van Persie scored after 43 minutes from the edge of the area. First Goal Six minutes after halftime, Rosicky got his first goal of the season before Walcott completed the turnaround with two strikes. Walcott clipped his first over Friedel, then struck a low shot into the bottom corner. Tottenham, which came into the game on a three-match unbeaten run in the league, finished with 10 men after Scott Parker was shown a second yellow card late on. “Even at 2-0 I couldn’t say I felt over-comfortable,” Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp told Sky Sports . “We didn’t defend well. It was basic, really.” Giggs scored from close range late on to extend United’s unbeaten league run to six games. Norwich looked to have earned a point when Holt fired past David de Gea on 83 minutes, with United striker Danny Welbeck then missing a close-range header. Scholes had given the visitors an early lead with a header from a cross by Nani, his second goal since returning to the team in January after reversing his decision to retire. “It was more about the result than the performance,” Giggs said. Matthew Upson and Peter Crouch got first half goals for Stoke as it beat Swansea at the Britannia Stadium. Stoke climbs to 12th, while Swansea is 14th. Two days ago, Man City beat Blackburn 3-0, Chelsea defeated Bolton 3-0, Wolverhampton Wanderers tied 2-2 at Newcastle, while West Bromwich Albion won 4-0 against Sunderland. Fulham beat Queens Park Rangers 1-0, and the match between Wigan and Aston Villa was 0-0. To contact the reporter on this story: James Cone in London at jcone@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Elser at celser@bloomberg.net NI BFBNEWS NI BFBMATCH NI ARSENAL NI TOTTENHAM NI NORWICH NI MANUTD NI STOKE NI SWANSEA NI BFBTEAMS NI UK
2012
arsenal-rallies-to-beat-tottenham-5-2-manchester-united-defeats-norwic
Belgium Plans Extra 2 Billion Euros in 2012 Savings, Belga Says
By Jonathan Stearns
2012-02-26T23:20:41Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/belgium-plans-extra-2-billion-euros-in-2012-savings-belga-says.html
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f591ebfc1418a101386bc07bdf4c29dd557d357a
The Belgian government will seek extra budget savings of around 2 billion euros ($2.7 billion) this year in a bid to bring the deficit within the European Union limit amid a weaker economy, Belga reported. Leading members of Premier Elio Di Rupo’s administration endorsed in Brussels yesterday a budget-monitoring panel’s projection that the additional amount of austerity is needed to reach a deficit goal of 2.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2012, the newswire said. The monitoring committee recommended savings of 1.5 billion euros and a buffer of 500 million euros, according to Belga, which said the government aims for a decision in a week following further ministerial consultations. Belgium’s budget for 2012 was drafted on the assumption the country’s economy would expand 0.8 percent this year. The Belgian central bank in mid-February forecast an economic contraction in 2012 of 0.1 percent. The EU deficit limit is 3 percent of GDP. To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at jstearns2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net
2012
belgium-plans-extra-2-billion-euros-in-2012-savings-belga-says
Goldman Fights for Prized Oktoberfest Conference
By Oliver Suess
2012-02-26T23:01:00Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/goldman-fights-unicredit-for-prized-oktoberfest-conference-slot.html
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Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) will spar with UniCredit SpA (UCG) over steins of Bavarian beer this autumn as they jostle to lure German equity investors to rival conferences in Munich during Oktoberfest . When UniCredit quit its western European equities business on Nov. 14, Italy ’s largest bank took another month to confirm that it would team up with Kepler Capital Markets SA to continue the annual conference it started in 2003. Both Goldman, along with partner Berenberg Bank, and Baader Bank AG (BWB) had in the meantime announced similar events, leaving investors with three ways to spend their days before heading for the beer tents. “Goldman and Berenberg as well as Baader have obviously opportunistically jumped on this fixed conference date in people’s diary in the wrong expectation that we would no longer host the conference,” said Christian Steffens, UniCredit’s co- head of global capital markets . “People have always enjoyed coming to Munich for the conference, as it is a nice place to be, especially during the Oktoberfest.” The first Oktoberfest was held in 1810 to honor Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig’s marriage to Princess Therese von Sachsen- Hildburghausen. This year’s festival, which runs from Sept. 22 through Oct. 7, will attract about 6 million revelers to the tents and halls set up by local breweries. Economic Strength More important for the conference organizers is that Germany , Europe’s largest economy, continues to buck a recession that’s gripping the region’s southern countries. “At the moment the whole world is looking at Germany,” said Benon Janos, a Frankfurt-based managing director at Goldman, who is in charge of the conference in September. Goldman and Hamburg-based Berenberg start their three-day “German Corporate Conference 2012” on Sept. 24, one day before their rivals. They have invited more than 100 companies, according to Janos, and 800 institutional investors are expected to attend. “Until now, we didn’t have such an event and we wanted to keep this conference in Munich alive,” said Janos. “We will deliver a very good event this year, next year and the year after that and then we will see.” UniCredit and Kepler, the French securities firm that now provides research on stocks in western Europe to the Italian bank’s customers, expect more than 100 company representatives and about 700 investors to attend their three-day conference, starting Sept. 25, said Steffens. Hiring Organizers Baader Bank, the German securities brokerage that is expanding its capital markets offerings, will invite investors to Munich’s BMW-Welt venue on the same days as the UniCredit event. Baader, based in Unterschleissheim near Munich, has hired Oliver Riedel, Karin Brinkmann and other people who previously helped arrange the event at UniCredit, said Nico Baader, a member of the management board and son of founder Uto Baader. So far, 70 companies have confirmed their attendance and the bank is targeting 500 to 600 participants, Baader said. “We provide a broad range from blue chips to small caps and, uniquely, Austrian companies as well,” said Baader. “We’re not here to do this once.” “While for us, as a Munich-based investor, the Oktoberfest isn’t as much as an attraction as maybe for U.S. investors, we don’t mind so much having three conferences on exactly the same topic simultaneously,” said Stefan Degen, who helps manage about 36 billion euros ($48 billion) as head of equities at BayernInvest, the asset manager owned by Bayerische Landesbank (BLGZ) in Munich. “We will simply decide where the most interesting presentations are being offered.” Starting to Rebuild UniCredit and Kepler will have to battle to attract participants after losing sales people to Baader and other rivals, said Degen. “Kepler is just starting to rebuild those relationships,” he said. UniCredit can overcome the loss, said Steffens. Linking up with Kepler has added about 2,000 investor contacts from France , Spain , Benelux, Scandinavia and the U.S., he said. “We’re confident that this year’s conference will become even broader in terms of investor participation than last year’s, when we counted 591 investors,” Steffens said “Companies want to see investors from all over the world at such a conference and we have the track record of being able to attract them to Munich.” For some companies and investors, the choice will be easy. “We will attend the Goldman/Berenberg conference as we haven’t been invited by the others, which don’t cover our stock,” said Claudia Gutjahr-Loeser, head of corporate communications and investor relations at German biotechnology company MorphoSys AG (MOR) . “Generally it doesn’t make sense to try to accommodate three conferences at the same time.” To contact the reporter on this story: Oliver Suess in Munich at osuess@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Frank Connelly at fconnelly@bloomberg.net ; Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.net
2012
goldman-fights-unicredit-for-prized-oktoberfest-conference-slo
Eircom Drafts 1 Billion-Euro Investment Plan, Sunday Times Says
By Joe Brennan
2012-02-26T12:47:00Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/eircom-drafts-1-billion-euro-investment-plan-sunday-times-says.html
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cbef8d49931bbf7619abdac080a77fbd8aa0975d
Eircom Group Ltd (ERU) . says it needs to invest 1 billion euros ($1.59 billion) to upgrade its network to compete, the Sunday Times reported. The Irish telecommunications company, which is seeking to restructure its 3.75 billion-euro debt, put the targeted investment figure in a five-year business plan to lenders, the newspaper said. Spending could be funded from the company’s cash resources if lenders agree to write down some of their debt, the newspaper said, citing the plan. To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Brennan at jbrennan29@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.net
2012
eircom-drafts-1-billion-euro-investment-plan-sunday-times-says
Navy SEALs’ ‘Act of Valor’ Captures Weekend Box Office With $24.7 Million
By Anthony Palazzo and Matt Townsend
2012-02-27T22:35:20Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/-act-of-valor-tops-box-office-with-24-7-million-in-receipts.html
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“Act of Valor,” from Relativity Media, led the box office in its debut weekend, collecting $24.5 million in ticket sales at U.S. and Canadian theaters. “Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds” opened in second place with $15.6 million for Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (LGF) , researcher Hollywood.com Box-Office said today in an e-mailed statement. “Act of Valor,” filmed with active U.S. Navy SEAL forces, broke through in a crowded Oscar weekend that saw four new movies open. Weinstein Co.’s “The Artist,” winner last night of five Academy Awards, including best picture, generated $3 million in sales this past weekend after expanding to 966 theaters from 808. “Most of the films that are nominated get a little bit of a bump once they are nominated, and then, of course, films that win an Academy Award get some pretty substantial bumps following,” said Paul Sweeney , an analyst for Bloomberg Industries, in a telephone interview. “The King’s Speech” received a boost in ticket sales last year after taking the top prize, and ended up grossing more than $400 million in global box office, he said. “The Artist” has grossed $31.9 million in domestic theaters since its release on Nov. 25. “We’ve had a tremendous track record with ‘The Artist’ and should we garner awards, it could have a positive effect on the box office,” Erik Lomis, Weinstein Co.’s president of theatrical distribution and home entertainment, said in an interview last week. The Most Elite For “Act of Valor,” directors Scott Waugh and Mike McCoy hired active-duty SEALs to create realistic action scenes such as a raid on a drug compound. They are out to rescue a missing CIA agent played by Roselyn Sanchez. SEAL teams, among the most elite of U.S. troops, gained worldwide attention for the May 2011 raid on a safe house in Pakistan that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The film cost $12 million to make, according to Hollywood.com. “Hollywood profitability is a difficult thing to achieve,” Sweeney said. “It’s hard for lower-budget films to break through, and when they do it tends to be very profitable.” ‘Good Deeds’ Perry, known for the “Madea” comedies aimed at African- American audiences, stars in “Good Deeds” as a businessman whose scripted life takes an unexpected turn after he does a favor for a single mother, played by Thandie Newton, who works on the cleaning crew in his building. Perry’s four “Madea” movies have taken in $455 million worldwide for Lions Gate , including $288 million in the domestic market. Returning movies “Journey 2: The Mysterious Islands,” “Safe House,” and “The Vow” rounded out the top five. “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island,” from Time Warner Inc. (TWX) ’s Warner Bros., generated $13.4 million, good for $76.6 million in its third weekend. The picture features Dwayne Johnson in a 3-D sequel to the 2009 hit “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” “Safe House,” from Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) ’s Universal Pictures , took in $10.9 million, falling to fourth from first. The film, starring Denzel Washington as a rogue CIA agent, has generated $97.6 million in three weeks. The romantic drama “The Vow” dropped to fifth from second with $9.9 million in receipts for Sony Corp. (6758) ’s Screen Gems unit. The film, starring Channing Tatum as a man whose wife awakens from a coma with no memory of their marriage, has drawn $102.9 million in U.S. ticket sales. Out of Top Five A pair of major new releases failed to crack the top five. Universal’s R-rated comedy “Wanderlust” made its debut in eighth place with $6.5 million. The movie stars Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd as a New York couple that stumbles on a hippie commune. “Gone,” from Summit Entertainment , starring Amanda Seyfried as a woman searching for a sister who has been abducted, was ninth with $4.8 million. “That’s a disappointment for both of them,” Sweeney said. “They weren’t well reviewed, and there was different types of box office behavior given the Academy Awards and people going to see the nominated films.” Weekend revenue for the top 12 films rose 19 percent to $114.2 million from a year earlier, Hollywood.com said. Attendance is up 20 percent year to date, while revenue is up 18 percent. The amounts below are based on actual tickets sales for Feb. 24 through Feb 26. To contact the reporters on this story: Anthony Palazzo in Los Angeles at apalazzo@bloomberg.net ; Matt Townsend in New York at mtownsend9@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net
2012
-act-of-valor-tops-box-office-with-24-7-million-in-receipts
Premier Foods in Talks With Lenders Over New Loans, Times Says
By Mike Harrison
2012-02-26T14:42:27Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/premier-foods-in-talks-with-lenders-over-new-loans-times-says.html
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8e4ce6b994ca71e5d55d1579b86798e14fd04961
Premier Foods Plc (PFD) is close to agreeing 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) of new bank loans to help secure its future, the Sunday Times reported, citing unidentified sources close to the company. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc are among 28 lenders expected to be part of the agreement, the newspaper said. The deal will extend Premier’s repayment deadline for a further three years beyond the current 2013 maturity, it said. To contact the reporter on this story: Mike Harrison at mharrison5@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Colin Keatinge at ckeatinge@bloomberg.net
2012
premier-foods-in-talks-with-lenders-over-new-loans-times-says
Mahan Wins World Match Play Championship to Deny McIlroy Top Golf Ranking
By Dex McLuskey
2012-02-27T05:01:00Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/hunter-mahan-beats-rory-mcilroy-in-world-match-play-golf-final-in-arizona.html
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4c1b457f07b440f0b704ef46b7cf3506
Hunter Mahan prevented Rory McIlroy from becoming the top-ranked golfer by beating him in the final of the World Match Play Championship. The 2-and-1 win for Mahan at the Ritz-Carlton’s Dove Mountain course in Marana, Arizona , yesterday means American players have claimed victory in the opening eight events on the U.S. PGA Tour’s schedule for the first time since 2001. “It feels good,” Mahan told reporters after securing his second World Golf Championships title. “I put everything I had into that match.” Mahan’s fourth victory on the PGA Tour follows wins at the 2007 Travelers Championship and the Phoenix Open and WGC Bridgestone Invitational two years ago. Mahan earned $1.4 million, while McIlroy collected $850,000 for finishing second. The loss for second-ranked McIlroy ensures Luke Donald will remain world No. 1 for at least another week. McIlroy, at 22 years, nine months and 22 days, was seeking to become the second-youngest golfer to top the Official World Golf Ranking after Tiger Woods , who was 21 years, five months and 17 days old when he first achieved the feat on June 15, 1997. “He’ll be No. 1,” Mahan said of McIlroy, who won the 2011 U.S. Open . “He’s phenomenal. He’s really talented.” Mahan, 29, is the first U.S. player to claim the World Match Play title since Woods won for a third time in 2008. The final was the first between a European and an American since Steve Stricker defeated Pierre Fulke of Sweden 11 years ago. McIlroy was seeking to become the fifth European and second golfer from Northern Ireland after Darren Clarke in 2000 to win the event. A victory for McIlroy would have been the third straight for the U.K. at the tournament, which was won by Englishmen Donald and Ian Poulter the previous two years. Career-High Ranking Mahan, who is projected to climb to a career-high ninth after starting the tournament ranked 22nd, never trailed in the final and birdied the sixth hole to take a lead he’d never relinquish. A six at the par-4 seventh after Mahan made a bogey cost McIlroy another hole. A par was good enough at the next to allow Mahan to stretch his advantage and McIlroy found himself trailing by four when Mahan birdied No. 10. McIlroy rallied with an eagle at the par-5 11th and a birdie at No. 14 to trail by two holes, which was as close as he’d get to Mahan. Mahan’s putt to win the match at the 16th hole caught the lip of the cup and stayed out. The Texan sealed the victory at the next when both players made pars, leaving Mahan two ahead with one hole to play. The last time the finalists played the 18th hole was in 2002. ‘Responded Well’ “Even though I threw a few birdies and an eagle at him in the back nine, he still responded well and held on,” McIlroy said in a news conference. “During the course of the week he’d played the best golf and deserved to win.” In the consolation match, world No. 42 Mark Wilson of the U.S. defeated third-ranked Englishman Lee Westwood by one hole. Mahan beat Wilson 2-and-1 in the semifinals and Westwood lost 3- and-2 to McIlroy. Third place is worth $600,000 to Wilson, $110,000 more than Westwood receives for finishing fourth. Match play involves head-to-head competition over 18 holes, each one decided by the low score. The match is decided when one player has an insurmountable lead. In stroke-play events, which make up most of the world’s pro golf tours, the player with the lowest score wins the tournament. Rookie John Huh won the PGA Tour ’s Mayakoba Golf Classic in Riviera Maya, Mexico , yesterday by beating Robert Allenby on the eighth hole of a playoff. Huh made eight straight pars in the sudden-death playoff to win in his fifth PGA Tour start. The PGA Tour moves to the PGA National Champion Course in Palm Beach, Florida , for the Honda Classic from March 1-4, which Woods is scheduled to play in. The next event on the European Tour is the Cadillac Championship, the second World Golf Championships event of the year, from March 8-11 at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami. To contact the reporter on this story: Dex McLuskey in Dallas at dmcluskey@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net .
2012
unter-mahan-beats-rory-mcilroy-in-world-match-play-golf-final-in-arizona
Tombini Says He’ll Keep Cutting Selic as Survey Shows Rates Can’t Curb CPI
By Arnaldo Galvao
2012-02-27T03:00:00Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/brazil-will-continue-cutting-interest-rates-tombini-says.html
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A Brazilian central bank survey showing interest rate levels are inconsistent with the country’s inflation target won’t alter policy makers’ strategy of lowering borrowing costs further, bank President Alexandre Tombini said. The so-called “neutral” rate of interest needed to keep inflation on target with the economy growing at a sustainable pace is 5.5 percent, according to the median estimate in the survey of economists published Feb. 23. That is higher than the current inflation-adjusted interest rate of 4.3 percent. “I think it will have little impact on the monetary authority’s strategy,” Tombini said, referring to the survey’s results. He spoke to reporters yesterday in Mexico City, where he’s attending a meeting of finance officials from the Group of 20 richest nations. Tombini reiterated that there is a high chance the central bank will cut the benchmark interest rate to less than 10 percent this year, from the current 10.5 percent. The bank’s monetary policy committee next meets March 6-7. “This strategy hasn’t changed until now,” he said. Since August, the policy makers have cut the Selic rate four times, reduced taxes and pledged to boost public investments to ensure growth of 4.5 percent this year. The stimulus has raised concerns among economists that Tombini may fail to fulfill his pledge to slow inflation to the bank’s 4.5 percent target this year. Consumer prices rose 6.22 percent in January from a year ago. Declining Trend The real neutral interest rate was 6.75 percent in November 2010, according to the median forecast in a previous central bank survey. Brazil has the highest real interest rate in the Group of 20 Nations. Tombini said that perhaps more important than the decline in the neutral rate since the bank’s last survey is the fact that most analysts expect it to fall even further in the next two years. “This process hasn’t ended according to the people we consulted,” he said, adding that the analysts’ perception is consistent with the bank’s current rate-cutting strategy. Inflation slowed to 6.22 percent in January, from 6.5 percent. Analysts expect consumer prices to rise 5.24 percent this year and 5.02 percent next year, according to the median forecast in a Feb. 17 bank survey. Tombini reiterated that the central bank will continue to buy dollars and act in the foreign exchange futures market whenever necessary. Brazil ’s real has gained 9.2 percent this year, more than all 16 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg. To contact the reporter on this story: Arnaldo Galvao in Mexico City at agalvao1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net
2012
brazil-will-continue-cutting-interest-rates-tombini-says
Santorum Says Separation of Church and State Isn’t Absolute
By Sara Forden
2012-02-26T14:48:54Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/santorum-says-separation-of-church-and-state-isn-t-absolute.html Republican presidential primary hopeful Rick Santorum said he doesn’t believe in the separation of church and state, noting that a speech on the topic by former President John F. Kennedy makes him want to “throw up.” “I don’t believe that the separation of church and state is absolute,” Santorum said in an interview today on ABC’s “This Week” program. “The First Amendment means the free exercise of religion and that means bringing people and their faith into the public square.” Santorum, 53, made the comments in an interview from Michigan , where he is campaigning ahead of the Republican primary this week. Polls show a close race there against Mitt Romney who spent his boyhood in the state and where his father, George Romney , served as governor and an automobile company chief executive officer. Santorum said Kennedy’s 1960 speech in Houston about the separation of church and state, was an “absolutist doctrine” that he disagrees with. “To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? What makes me throw up is someone who is now trying to tell people that you will do what the government says,” Santorum said. “That now we’re going to turn around and impose our values from the government on people of faith.” Santorum said “there are people I disagree with. Come into our town hall meetings and let’s have a discussion. Air your ideas and why you believe what you believe.” “That’s what America is all about
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Sara Forden in Washington at sforden@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeanne Cummings at jcummings21@bloomberg.net
2012
santorum-says-separation-of-church-and-state-isn-t-absolute
Mexico Exceeding 100% Reserve-Replacement Rate, Calderon Says
By Randall Woods
2012-02-26T21:58:01Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/mexico-exceeding-100-reserve-replacement-rate-calderon-says.html
2
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5c47438b1eb04b2f025689856ffdf9733a0bdaac
Petroleos Mexicanos’ proven reserve replacement rate now exceeds 100 percent, meaning the Mexican state-owned oil company is replacing every barrel of oil it extracts with at least one new barrel of reserves, President Felipe Calderon said today. Calderon made the comment at a ceremony to start operations of the Bicentenario semi-submersible oil platform, according to a transcript e-mailed by his press office. To contact the reporter on this story: Randall Woods in Santiago at rwoods13@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net
2012
exico-exceeding-100-reserve-replacement-rate-calderon-says
Billabong Rejects TPG $818 Million Offer as Talks Continue for Higher Bid
By David Fickling
2012-02-27T04:55:12Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/billabong-rejects-tpg-s-818m-offer.html
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Billabong International Ltd. (BBG) , Australia ’s largest surfwear company, rejected a A$765 million ($817 million) takeover proposal from buyout firm TPG Capital and said it’s continuing talks to try for a higher offer. The A$3-a-share cash bid doesn’t reflect the “fundamental value” of Billabong with a change in control, the Gold Coast , Australia-based company said today. Gordon Merchant, the founder and largest shareholder with an almost 15 percent stake, wouldn’t accept that price, Billabong said. Billabong shares rose above the offer price today, the first time since it announced the TPG bid on Feb. 17. The company, whose stock slumped 78 percent in the 12 months before the bid, is selling assets, cutting jobs and closing as many as 150 stores as it battles stalling consumer demand and debt payments loom. Shareholders “are taking the view that there’s going to be another bid,” Andrew McLennan, an equity analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney with a “sell” rating on Billabong, said by telephone. “Clearly Gordon Merchant is pivotal. There’s no deal to be done without him.” Billabong advanced as much as 6.5 percent to A$3.10 and traded 4.1 percent higher at A$3.03 as of 3:40 p.m. in Sydney. The shares have surged 69 percent since TPG’s bid was revealed. Biggest Solo Bid The proposed takeover is the largest solo bid announced by Fort Worth , Texas-based TPG since its $1.65 billion buyout of blood test-maker Immucor Inc. last July, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It is the biggest deal announced in the global apparel industry since VF Corp.’s acquisition of the Timberland Co. last June, the data show. Any sale may have to be structured such that Merchant retains a stake in Billabong after the takeover, such as through a holding vehicle, McLennan said. Unless that’s achieved, it’s doubtful the company founder will agree to sell even if the price is raised to as much as A$3.50, according to the analyst. The offer could be increased to A$3.85 a share and still be the cheapest comparable clothing sector takeover since at least 1998, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. While the talks with TPG continue, it isn’t known whether they will lead to an improved offer, Billabong said. The company’s earnings have declined as consumer spending stalls in the main markets for Billabong, which generated about 65 percent of revenue from the Americas and Europe in the first half. The profit drop has been compounded as a stronger Australian dollar cuts the value of overseas sales when earnings are repatriated. Earnings Drop First-half net income fell 72 percent to A$16.1 million in the six months ended Dec. 31. That was the smallest half-year profit since the surfwear maker first sold shares to the public in 2000. Net debt totaled A$525.6 million. The Australian dollar has risen 5.6 percent against its U.S. counterpart in the past 12 months, the second-best performer among 10 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg. The TPG proposal didn’t preclude the planned sale of about half the Nixon watches and accessories business. Billabong plans to sell 51.5 percent of Nixon to buyout firm Trilantic Capital Partners and management to raise $285 million for paying debt. The Nixon sale “has all but solved Billabong’s near-term debt issues,” Ben Gilbert, an analyst at UBS AG in Sydney, wrote in a Feb. 17 report. To contact the reporter on this story: David Fickling in Sydney at dfickling@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephanie Wong at swong139@bloomberg.net
2012
billabong-rejects-tpg-s-818m-offer
Atlantia to Sell Impregilo Stake to Gavio in Swap for Chile Motorway Stake
By Francesca Cinelli
2012-02-26T11:08:47Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/atlantia-to-sell-impregilo-stake-to-gavio-to-buy-chile-motorway.html
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Atlantia SpA (ATL) ’s Autostrade per l’Italia toll-road division agreed to sell its stake in builder Impregilo SpA (IPG) to Gavio Group’s Argo Finanziaria division in a cash and asset-swap that helps it expand in South America. ArgoFin will get Atlantia’s 33 percent stake in IGLI, the biggest investor in Impregilo with a 29.96 percent holding, for 87.6 million euros ($117.8 million), Rome-based Atlantia said in a statement yesterday. Gavio’s Societa Iniziative Autostradali & Servizi (SIS) toll-road unit will shift its 45.765 percent stake in Autostrade Sudamerica, which controls Chile’s Autopista do Pacifico motorway, to Autostrade per l’Italia for 565.2 million euros, SIAS and Atlantia said in separate statements. Atlantia, Italy’s biggest toll-road operator, predicted in December that earnings this year will rise as it wins contracts outside its home market. The transactions with Gavio will help fulfill a strategy of expanding “in countries with the highest growth potential,” Atlantia said today. Autostrade per l’Italia will also buy a further 8.5 percent of Autostrade Sudamerica from Mediobanca SpA (MB) for 104.6 million euros, Atlantia said. The transfer of stakes in Autostrade Sudamerica from SIAS and Mediobanca is expected by June 30, it said. A call option for SIAS to buy Autostrade per l’Italia’s 99.98 percent stake in Turin-Savona toll road in Italy for 223 million euros is also included in the agreement, SIAS and Atlantia said. The option is set to expire on Sept. 30. To contact the reporter on this story: Francesca Cinelli in Milan at fcinelli@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net
2012
atlantia-to-sell-impregilo-stake-to-gavio-to-buy-chile-motorway
Greek Rescue Opposed by German Majority, Bild am Sonntag Says
By Tony Czuczka
2012-02-26T16:17:56Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/greek-rescue-opposed-by-german-majority-bild-am-sonntag-says.html
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100d2a42c1a72e72178df2c230b77f3579cab16d
Sixty-two percent of Germans want lawmakers to reject renewed aid for Greece in a parliamentary vote scheduled for tomorrow in Berlin, Bild am Sonntag said, citing a poll. Thirty-three percent said parliament should approve German participation in Greece’s second bailout, the newspaper said in an e-mailed advance version of an article appearing today. Bild didn’t give a margin of error for the Feb. 23 Emnid poll of 500 people. To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Czuczka in Berlin at aczuczka@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net
2012
greek-rescue-opposed-by-german-majority-bild-am-sonntag-says
Boston’s Valentine Bans Alcohol in Red Sox Clubhouse, on Road Trip Flights
By Nancy Kercheval
2012-02-27T05:00:15Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/boston-s-valentine-bans-beer-in-red-sox-clubhouse-road-trip-final-legs.html
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Boston Red Sox players can no longer drink beer in the team’s clubhouse. Manager Bobby Valentine banned alcohol consumption after it was disclosed last year that starting pitchers drank beer in the clubhouse on days they weren’t pitching. The Red Sox are the 19th of 30 Major League Baseball teams to prohibit alcohol in the clubhouse, MLB.com said . The Red Sox on Sept. 4 held a nine-game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays for the American League wild-card playoff spot. They then went 7-20, the worst final-month collapse according to the Elias Sports Bureau, and missed the playoffs on the season’s final day. Valentine, who was hired Nov. 30, two months after Terry Francona left, also told the team that alcohol is prohibited on team flights at the end of road trips. Players didn’t openly object to the rules during a meeting at spring training camp in Fort Myers , Florida, he said. “You mean standing ovation or booing?” Valentine replied when reporters sought the team’s reaction. “I didn’t get either of those. Probably fell somewhere in between a standing O and a standing boo.” Designated hitter David Ortiz supported Valentine’s decree. “We’re not here to drink,” Ortiz told reporters. “We’re here to play baseball. It ain’t a bar.” To contact the reporter on this story: Nancy Kercheval in Washington at nkercheval@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
2012
boston-s-valentine-bans-beer-in-red-sox-clubhouse-road-trip-final-legs
Egyptian Stocks: Orascom Construction, Raya Holding, Asek Co.
By Ahmed A Namatalla
2012-02-26T12:55:28Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/egyptian-stocks-credit-agricole-orascom-construction-raya.html
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Egypt’s benchmark EGX30 Index (EGX30) rose 2.5 percent to 5,269.65, the highest since July 10, at the 2:30 p.m. close in Cairo. The following shares were active on the Egyptian Exchange. Stock symbols follow company names. Asek Co. for Mining (ASCM EY) declined 1 percent to 10.01 Egyptian pounds, the lowest close since Feb. 22. The unit of private equity firm Citadel Capital SAE reported a full-year loss of 96.8 million pounds ($16 million) after a profit in the year-earlier period. Orascom Construction Industries (OCIC) climbed 3.6 percent to 270.37 pounds, the highest close in more than seven months. A group led by Egypt’s biggest publicly traded builder is competing with three others to build a hotel in central Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Al Mal newspaper reported today. The winner is expected to be announced in April, it said. Raya Holding Co. (RAYA) gained 4.6 percent to 4.56 pounds, the highest close since Feb. 14. The provider of information technology approved investing in a company to be set up in Abu Dhabi and closing its unit in Algeria . 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
2012
egyptian-stocks-credit-agricole-orascom-construction-raya
Explosion Kills 3 People in Nigeria
By Ardo Hazzad and Emele Onu
2012-02-26T19:05:54Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/explosion-kills-3-people-in-central-nigerian-city-of-jos.html
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10950dec5c51b375b0fe20d215a2189651491dd8
An explosion killed at least three people at a church today in the central Nigerian city of Jos, the country’s National Emergency Management Agency said. “The explosion was triggered by a suspected suicide bomber whose body was shredded into pieces,” Yushau Shuaib, head of the emergency management agency, said by telephone, adding that at least 38 injured people were taken to hospitals. Boko Haram“was responsible for the attack in a reaction to the molestation of Muslims by Christian residents in Jos,” its spokesman, Abul Qaqa, said by telephone today. The group, wants to impose Shariah, or Islamic law, in Africa ’s most populous country. Authorities in Africa’s top oil producer have blamed Boko Haram for bomb and gun attacks in northern Nigeria and Abuja since 2009 in which hundreds of people have died. The group, whose name means “Western education is a sin,” claimed responsibility for attacks in Kano, northern Nigeria’s biggest city, on Jan. 20 that killed at least 256 people, according to the Civil Rights Congress . “Government is gradually and firmly bringing justice to those behind these attacks and exposing their identities and dismantling their terror infrastructure,” President Goodluck Jonathan said in a statement from the capital, Abuja. “Those behind similar acts of terror in recent times have been arrested and are being investigated with a view to prosecuting them accordingly, as a deterrent to others,” he said. Nigeria , with more than 164 million people, is roughly split between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south. More than 14,000 people died in ethnic and religious clashes in the West African nation between 1999 and 2009, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group . To contact the reporters on this story: Ardo Hazzad in Bauchi at ahazzad@bloomberg.net ; Emele Onu in Lagos, Nigeria at eonu1@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
2012
explosion-kills-3-people-in-central-nigerian-city-of-jos
Mets to Wear Patches Honoring Catcher Carter, Team’s 50th Anniversary
By Nancy Kercheval
2012-02-27T05:00:11Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/mets-to-wear-patches-honoring-catchr-carter-team-s-50th-anniversary.html
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The New York Mets will honor late catcher Gary Carter and celebrate the team’s 50th anniversary with two patches on their uniforms this season. Carter, a leader of the Mets’ 1986 World Series-winning team whose enthusiasm on the field earned him the nickname “The Kid”, died Feb. 16 at the age of 57, nine months after being diagnosed with brain cancer. He’ll be remembered with a patch on the team’s jersey sleeves featuring a black home plate and “KID 8” in white lettering, the Mets said. Carter wore No. 8 for 18 of his 19 Major League Baseball seasons, including five with the Mets. After 11 seasons with the Montreal Expos, he spent 1985 through 1989 with the Mets and helped guide the team through one of its most productive periods, with a World Series title and a 485-323 record. An 11-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove Award winner for his defense at catcher, Carter was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003. The Mets’ 50th anniversary logo patch, which will be worn on the opposite sleeve, features a gold 50 over a blue New York City skyline. One of the first expansion teams, the Mets restored National League baseball to New York after the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants moved to California in 1958. The Mets played their first official game on April 11, 1962, an 11-4 loss to the Cardinals in St. Louis. To contact the reporter on this story: Nancy Kercheval in Washington at nkercheval@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
2012
ets-to-wear-patches-honoring-catchr-carter-team-s-50th-anniversary
IMF Will Probably Discuss Loan to Greece at March 13 Meeting, Batista Says
By Sandrine Rastello
2012-02-26T00:05:58Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/imf-will-probably-discuss-loan-to-greece-at-march-13-meeting-batista-says.html The International Monetary Fund set March 13 as a tentative date to discuss its contribution to a 130 billion-euro ($175 billion) rescue package for Greece , an IMF board official said. While the Washington-based fund has until now borne about one third of the cost of euro-area aid, it has yet to announce its share of the second Greek bailout. IMF chief Christine Lagarde said Feb. 21 after euro governments approved the rescue that the fund’s contribution will hinge on Europe ’s progress in building a broader financial firewall to fight the debt crisis. “The fund has to play a mainly catalytic role now because it’s already overexposed in Greece and Greece is highly problematic,” Paul Nogueira Batista, who represents Brazil and eight other nations on the IMF board, said in an interview today in Mexico City. The IMF should provide “some modest additional financing, very modest.” The U.S., as the IMF’s biggest shareholder, is pushing back against European calls for the fund to play a bigger role in tackling the euro-area debt crisis now in its third year. Europe has “more work to do,” and “until we see that, I think it’s unlikely you’re going to see the major shareholders of the IMF be prepared to have the IMF play a larger response,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said in an interview with CNBC yesterday. Heeding Member Calls With about $108 billion already promised to euro-region countries including Portugal and Ireland, Lagarde must heed members’ calls to limit its commitments to the currency bloc, said Thomas Costerg, a European economist with Standard Chartered Bank in London . IMF participation is “one of the main uncertainties of this Greek deal,” Costerg said in a Feb. 21 interview. The IMF will seek to keep its credit to Greece under the new bailout package at 30 billion euros, including money still owed from a first loan, an IMF official said Feb. 22. IMF loans to Greece and the level of participation of private bondholders in a voluntary debt swap are matters still to be resolved as Europe’s most indebted nation battles to avert default. Greece’s government formally asked investors on Feb. 24 ago to exchange their holdings of government debt for new securities in the biggest sovereign restructuring in history. Greece remains “unique” and private-sector involvement in resolving the debt crisis won’t be extended to Portugal , said European Central Bank Executive Board member Joerg Asmussen. “As far as PSI is concerned, Greece is a unique case
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different from Greece,” Asmussen told Bloomberg News today in Mexico City, where he was attending a meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors. “The euro area is a safe place to invest for international investors.” To contact the reporter on this story: Sandrine Rastello in Mexico City via srastello@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net
2012
imf-will-probably-discuss-loan-to-greece-at-march-13-meeting-batista-says
3i Group’s Enterprise Faces Review by UBS, Sunday Telegraph Says
By Andrea Gerlin
2012-02-26T12:40:32Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/3i-group-s-enterprise-faces-review-by-ubs-sunday-telegraph-says.html
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3i Group Plc (III) has asked UBS AG (UBSN) to carry out a strategic review of Enterprise, its parks maintenance company, the Sunday Telegraph reported, without citing the source of the information. The strategic review could lead to Enterprise being split into its government services and utilities and defense divisions and each part being sold separately, the newspaper said. To contact the reporter on this story: Andrea Gerlin in London at agerlin@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net
2012
3i-group-s-enterprise-faces-review-by-ubs-sunday-telegraph-says
Carlyle Group Hires Woodhouse to Run RAC, Sunday Telegraph Says
By Andrea Gerlin
2012-02-26T10:56:32Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/carlyle-group-hires-woodhouse-to-run-rac-sunday-telegraph-says.html
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The Carlyle Group has hired former Debenhams Plc Finance Director Chris Woodhouse to run the RAC Plc (RAC) , a roadside assistance business, the Sunday Telegraph reported, quoting Woodhouse. To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Andrea Gerlin in London at agerlin@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mike Harrison at mharrison5@bloomberg.net
2012
carlyle-group-hires-woodhouse-to-run-rac-sunday-telegraph-says
Swatch Will Create 1,000 Jobs This Year, Hayek Tells Der Sonntag
By Klaus Wille
2012-02-26T11:37:58Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/swatch-will-create-1-000-jobs-this-year-hayek-tells-der-sonntag.html
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Swatch Group AG (UHR) will probably create more than 1,000 new jobs this year, among them at least 500 in Switzerland , Chief Executive Officer Nick Hayek told Der Sonntag in an interview. The company wants to come “as close as possible” to reaching 8 billion francs ($8.9 billion) in revenue this year, Hayek was quoted as saying by the Swiss newspaper. To contact the reporter on this story: Klaus Wille in Zurich at kwille@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net
2012
swatch-will-create-1-000-jobs-this-year-hayek-tells-der-sonntag
Germany’s Schaeuble Says Confident Lawmakers to Back Greece Aid
By Rainer Buergin and Jana Randow
2012-02-26T09:00:00Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/germany-s-schaeuble-says-confident-lawmakers-to-back-greece-aid.html
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German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said he’s confident his country’s parliament will support a second aid package for Greece in a Feb. 27 vote, leaving open whether the euro region’s financial backstops should be increased. “I assume that we will get the necessary support in parliament on Monday,” Schaeuble told reporters during a meeting in Mexico City of finance officials from the 20 biggest economies. A decision on the need to boost the size of the region’s permanent rescue fund, known as the European Stability Mechanism, will be taken “in the course of March,” he said. That’ll be “in time” for the International Monetary Fund to decide about an increase of its lending capacity at its meeting in Washington on April 20-22, Schaeuble said. The minister said he assumes that the IMF will provide the “necessary support” for the second bailout for Greece. Group of 20 officials gathered less than a week after Europe agreed to a second bailout for Greece in a bid to avert the euro-area’s first sovereign default. European Union governments are due to review whether to raise the ESM’s ceiling “in the course of March,” European Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told reporters in Mexico City yesterday, suggesting no final decision will be made at a leaders’ summit starting March 1. Germany’s priority on the ESM is deciding how quickly countries should pay into the fund “if we want it actually to enter into force this summer,” Steffen Seibert, Chancellor Angela Merkel ’s spokesman, told reporters in Berlin on Feb. 22. Schaeuble said there has been “a broad tendency, but no decision,” to pay capital into the ESM in two tranches instead of an originally envisaged five installments. Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann said Germany is making an “important contribution” to solving the debt crisis. Financial aid can only buy time that needs to be used to improve competitiveness and restore confidence, Weidmann said at a press briefing alongside Schaeuble. To contact the reporters on this story: Rainer Buergin in Berlin at rbuergin1@bloomberg.net ; Jana Randow in Mexico City at jrandow@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net
2012
germany-s-schaeuble-says-confident-lawmakers-to-back-greece-aid
Ovarian Stem Cells Produce Eggs in Method That May Aid Fertility
By Ryan Flinn
2012-02-27T05:00:01Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/ovarian-stem-cells-produce-eggs-in-method-that-may-aid-fertility-therapy.html Stem cells taken from human ovaries were used to produce early-stage eggs by scientists in Boston who may have created a new method to help infertile women. Females have a fixed number of eggs from birth that are depleted by the time of menopause. The finding, published today in the journal Nature Medicine , challenges the belief that their ovaries can’t make more. The research was led by Jonathan Tilly , the director of Massachusetts General Hospital’s Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology . Tilly reported in 2004 that ovarian stem cells in mice create new eggs, or oocytes, in a way similar to how stem cells in male testes produce sperm throughout a man’s life. His latest work, if reproduced, would suggest the same is true for human ovaries, potentially pointing at new ways to aid fertility by delaying when the ovaries stop functioning. “The 50-year-old belief in our field wasn’t actually based on data proving it was impossible, or not ongoing,” Tilly said in a telephone interview. “It was simply an assumption made because there was no evidence indicating otherwise. We have human cells that can produce new oocytes.” In the study, healthy ovaries were obtained from consenting patients undergoing sex reassignment surgery. The researchers were able to identify ovarian stem cells because they express a rare protein that’s only seen in reproductive cells. The stem cells from the ovaries were injected into human ovarian tissue that was then grafted under the skin of mice, which provided the blood supply that enabled growth. Within two weeks, early stage human follicles with oocytes had formed. 7-Million Eggs A female is most endowed with oocytes, or eggs, as a fetus, when she has about 7 million. That number that drops to 1 million by birth, and around 300,000 by puberty. By menopause, the number is zero. Since the 1950’s, scientists thought that ovarian stem cells capable of producing new eggs are only active during fetal development. “This paper essentially opens the door to the ability to control oocyte development in human ovaries,” Tilly said. About 10 percent of women of child-bearing age in the U.S., or 6.1 million, have difficulty getting pregnant or staying pregnant, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most cases of female infertility are caused by problems with ovulation, hormone imbalance or age. The study by Tilley and his colleagues offers “a new model system for understanding the human egg cell,” said David F. Albertini , director of the Center for Reproductive Services and professor in the department of molecular and integrative physiology at Kansas University, in a telephone interview. ‘Practical Applications” Still, “there’s a long way to go before this has real practical applications. I’ve spent 35 years of my life studying egg cells and this is a cell that is at least as complicated as a neuron in the brain, if not more,” Albertini said. The work needs to be reproduced and expanded by other scientists “to make it into something that will make us confident the cells are safe to use and we could actually use them to repopulate an egg-depleted ovary,” he said. Tilly’s team is exploring the development of an ovarian stem-cell bank that can be cryogenically frozen and thawed without damage, unlike human eggs, he said. The researchers are also working to identify hormones and other growth factors for accelerating production of eggs from human ovarian stem cells and ways to improve in-vitro fertilization. “The problem we face with IVF is we don’t have many eggs to work with,” he said. “These cells are renewable. If we are successful
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eggs from these cells, we can generate as many eggs as we need to on a per patient basis.” Tilly is also collaborating with researchers at the University of Edinburgh in the U.K. to determine whether the oocytes can be developed into fully mature human eggs for fertilizing. The U.S bans creating or fertilizing embryos for experimental purposes, he said. A company Tilly co-founded, Boston-based OvaScience Inc., has licensed the technology for potential commercial applications. To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan Flinn in San Francisco at rflinn@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net
2012
ovarian-stem-cells-produce-eggs-in-method-that-may-aid-fertility-therapy
Israel Short-Term Bonds Drop on Bets Central Bank to Hold Rates
By Sharon Wrobel
2012-02-26T13:59:33Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/israel-short-term-bonds-drop-on-bets-central-bank-to-hold-rates.html
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Israel ’s short-term government bond yields rose to the highest level in more than a month amid speculation the central bank will leave borrowing costs unchanged tomorrow. The yield on the 4.5 percent notes due January 2015 climbed three basis points, or 0.03 percentage point, to 3.04 percent at 3:37 p.m. in Tel Aviv, the highest since Jan. 23. Shorter-term notes are typically more sensitive to rate fluctuations. The Bank of Israel will maintain the benchmark rate at 2.5 percent, according to all of 24 analysts in a Bloomberg survey. “Yields on shorter-term bonds are rising as the market is pricing in that interest rates may hold this month on optimism the situation in Europe is getting under control,” Dror Waserman, a bonds trader at Clal Finance Brokerage Ltd. in Tel Aviv , said by telephone. “The Bank of Israel is expected to pause on rates to reassess the impact of growth in Europe on the local economy.” Euro-area finance ministers awarded 130 billion euros ($175 billion) in aid to Greece and reached an accord for greater debt relief from investor representatives in an exchange offer to tide the nation past a bond redemption next month. Exports make up about 40 percent of the Israeli economy and Europe is one of its largest markets. Interest Rate Bets One-year interest-rate swaps , an indicator of investor expectations for rates over the period, fell one basis point to 2.47 percent on Feb. 24. The rate has advanced 13 basis points this month. The Bank of Israel ’s monetary committee, led by Governor Stanley Fischer , lowered the benchmark lending rate to 2.5 percent on Jan. 23, the third cut in five months. The economy expanded an annualized 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter compared with a revised 3.8 percent in the third quarter as exports and private consumption declined, the statistics bureau said Feb. 16. The central bank and the Finance Ministry reduced their growth predictions for this year on concern over the impact of Europe’s debt crisis. The one-year break-even rate, the yield difference between the inflation-linked bond and fixed-rate government bonds of similar maturity, fell eight basis points to 257, implying an average annual inflation rate of 2.57 percent. The yield on the benchmark 5.5 percent bonds due January 2022 rose one basis point to 4.64 percent. Israeli funds raised 343 million shekels ($91 million) from investors in the week ended Feb. 23, Tel Aviv-based Meitav Investment House Ltd. said today. Government bond funds drew investments of 213 million shekels and corporate-bond funds raised 167 million shekels, while money market funds recorded redemptions. The Tel-Bond 40 (TEL-B40) index of corporate bonds declined 0.2 percent to 263.58. The shekel weakened 0.7 percent to 3.7729 a dollar on Feb. 24. To contact the reporter on this story: Sharon Wrobel in Tel Aviv at swrobel4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Maedler at cmaedler@bloomberg.net
2012
israel-short-term-bonds-drop-on-bets-central-bank-to-hold-rates