Datasets:

genloop

/

bloomberg_financial_news_120k

like 4

Follow

Genloop AI 5

PBOC Researcher Calls on U.S. to Sell Gold Reserves, People's Daily Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-25/pboc-researcher-calls-on-u-s-to-sell-gold-reserves-people-s-daily-says.html

The U.S. should cut its government spending and sell some gold reserves to balance its budget and fund its recovery, the People’s Daily overseas edition reported, citing Xia Bin, an adviser to the People’s Bank of China. The U.S. has to resolve its “twin deficits” in the government budget and the current account, Xia was quoted as saying. Three ways that may help the U.S. achieve that target include reducing military expenses, selling part of its gold reserves and relaxing some export limits on technology, he said. “The U.S. has more than 8,000 tons of gold reserves; why can’t it sell some of it since the country wants to raise funds for economic recovery but doesn’t want to add more burden to the fiscal deficit,” Xia told the newspaper. He didn’t mention whether China would be willing to purchase any gold from the U.S. China ranks as the world’s largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasuries, with $883.5 billion as of Sept. 30, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. China should raise its gold holdings and its 1,054 tons of reserves are inadequate compared with the 8,133 tons held by the U.S. and 3,408 tons by Germany, Meng Qingfa, a researcher at the China Chamber of International Commerce said on Oct. 27. The U.S. won’t be able to get to the bottom of the problem if the government keeps relying on printing money, Xia said. “The financial market in the U.S. is not short of liquidity, and the money can’t get into the real economy,” he said. Expanding money supply may not be the answer in the U.S. as the high unemployment there is a structural, instead of a liquidity, issue, Xia said. The Federal Reserve said Nov. 3 it will buy an additional $600 billion of Treasuries through June. Policy makers, setting a pace of about $75 billion of purchases a month, “will adjust the program as needed,” the Fed’s Open Market Committee said in a statement in Washington. -- Feiwen Rong. Editors: Richard Dobson , James Poole To contact the Bloomberg News staff for this story: Feiwen Rong in Beijing at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim Poole at [email protected]

Iran Breaks Tradition, Invites Leaders to Rohani Inauguration

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-25/iran-breaks-tradition-invites-leaders-to-rohani-inauguration.html

Iran is inviting foreign heads of state to attend the swearing-in ceremony for new President Hassan Rohani next month, in a break with the Islamic Republic’s traditions. “For the first time, Iran decided to invite foreign dignitaries,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araghchi said. All nations except the U.S. and Israel are invited, he told reporters in Tehran on July 23. Iran hasn’t had diplomatic ties with the U.S. for more than three decades, and doesn’t recognize Israel. Previous events were attended by ambassadors, according to state-run Press TV. The Aug. 4 ceremony will take place a day after Rohani’s endorsement by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in the country. Rohani, who campaigned for more moderation in Iran’s domestic and foreign policies, was elected June 14 to succeed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Araghchi did not say why this inauguration will be different. The move may serve to illustrate Rohani’s pledge to better engage with the world after eight years under Ahmadinejad in which the Islamic republic became increasingly isolated politically and economically. Afghan President Hamid Karzai , Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman are planning to attend the event, Press TV reported. Syria’s Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi, Iraqi Vice-President Khudair al-Khuzaie, and top officials from Kuwait , Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar will also come, it said. To contact the reporter on this story: Ladane Nasseri in Dubai at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at [email protected]

JPMorgan Executive Dunleavy Named in FERC Complaint Retires

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-07/jpmorgan-executive-dunleavy-named-in-ferc-complaint-retires.html

Francis Dunleavy, the JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) energy executive who ran the Houston unit that developed trading strategies deemed illegal by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, has retired. The move, ending a career spanning more than three decades, took effect last month, Brian Marchiony , a spokesman for the New York-based bank, said today. Dunleavy, as head of JPMorgan’s principal investments unit, oversaw bidding strategies that the FERC said manipulated power markets. JPMorgan agreed in July to pay $410 million and forgo collecting on $262 million in disputed payments from California’s grid operator to settle the charges. Dunleavy was a Bear Stearns Cos. veteran, joining that firm in 1982 and becoming one of its senior energy executives, according to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority records. JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank by assets , acquired Bear Stearns in 2008. Andrew Kittell and John Bartholomew, who both reported to Dunleavy, still work for the bank, Marchiony said. While the FERC didn’t sanction individuals in the case, the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a separate probe to see if anyone committed crimes, a person briefed on the matter said in August. Dunleavy resigned from JPMorgan warehouse operator Henry Bath & Son Ltd., effective Oct. 25, according to a filing earlier this week. William Scherman, an attorney for Dunleavy at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Washington , said his client wasn’t available to comment. Reuters reported on Dunleavy’s departure from JPMorgan earlier today. To contact the reporter on this story: Dawn Kopecki in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Eichenbaum at [email protected]

Yellen Says, Yes, the Fed Makes the Rich Richer 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-14/yellen-says-yes-the-fed-makes-the-rich-richer-.html

During this morning's hearing, quite a few members of the Senate Banking Committee asked Janet Yellen, the president’s nominee to run the Federal Reserve, whether the Fed was benefiting certain segments of society more than others. Unsurprisingly, Yellen’s response was similar to what current Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said when he was asked the same sorts of questions in July : The Fed is trying to help all Americans. Even so, Yellen's answers reveal that the central bank’s policies are producing relative winners and losers. Early on, Yellen explained that the purpose of the Fed's policies “is to bring down interest rates to promote spending in interest-sensitive sectors.” That’s helped autos and housing relatively more than the rest of the economy. It also makes one wonder to what extent the Fed was responsible for some of the run-up in house prices during the go-go years, given its extraordinary efforts (at the time) to suppress interest rates. Toward the middle of the hearing, Yellen said the Fed’s asset purchases and commitment to keep short-term interest rates low boosts share prices, but also noted that many Americans benefited from falling mortgage interest rates and the parallel increases in house prices. But the biggest direct beneficiaries of lower mortgage rates were the well-to-do , who were best positioned to refinance. Although it’s certainly good that many borrowers have been lifted above water on their mortgages thanks to rising house prices, there are good reasons to be skeptical that this will generate much additional spending. The tens of millions of Americans who own neither shares nor their own homes may have benefited indirectly as relatively wealthy people got even wealthier, but that’s not much different than saying lower taxes on the rich improve the well-being of the poor. The increase in asset prices and collapse in real yields have also meant that workers have to save a larger chunk of their incomes to get the same quality of life in retirement. When confronted with concerns about people struggling to live off fixed incomes, Yellen agreed that “low interest rates harm savers, it’s absolutely true.” Harming at least some savers, however, may be part of the plan, at least if Yellen agrees with Charles Evans, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He has argued that the threat of wealth confiscation by negative interest rates is necessary to restore spending and “risk-taking” back to “normal levels.” To be fair, the wealthy probably hold far more safe assets than they really need. But Bankrate, a consumer financial services company, has found that less than one-quarter of Americans have enough cash on hand to cover just six months of expenses in the event of an emergency. Imposing negative rates on them in an attempt to boost consumer spending reminds me of the old saying that the beatings will continue until morale improves. These admissions suggest the Fed’s leaders believe that the central bank boosts the economy chiefly by enriching certain people in the hope that they go out and spend their newfound wealth. The strategy is probably better than doing nothing, but it’s understandable why so many senators are troubled by the distributional impacts of Fed policy. Congress could get around these unsavory side effects by enacting broad-based tax cuts or by having the Treasury send checks directly to every American. Unfortunately neither of those ideas seems to be on the agenda right now. (Matthew C. Klein is a writer for Bloomberg View. Follow him on Twitter.)

New York to Pursue Ernst & Young Lawsuit

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-18/new-york-to-pursue-ernst-young-lawsuit.html

Ernst & Young LLP, bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH) ’s former auditor, should “disgorge” $125 million in fees earned in an alleged fraud involving so- called Repo 105 transactions that concealed tens of billions of dollars in debt, the New York attorney general said. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman asked a judge today to let him pursue the suit after the auditing firm tried to get it dismissed. The state is limited by law from recovering the fees for itself or for Lehman’s former shareholders, Ernst & Young said. “E&Y is wrong on every count,” Schneiderman said in a court filing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. “It is well- settled that the state can, and frequently does, obtain disgorgement of ill-gotten gains under public enforcement statutes.” Repo 105 transactions are a form of short-term financing that Lehman used to move as much as $50 billion off its balance sheet temporarily to show investors it wasn’t carrying too much debt, according to a bankruptcy examiner’s report. The report was used as a basis for many suits, including one that Ernst & Young is fighting by investors including the Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Association, which alleges the firm made misleading statements about Lehman’s finances before its 2008 bankruptcy. Standards, Rules Charlie Perkins, an Ernst & Young spokesman, didn’t immediately respond to a call and e-mail after regular business hours seeking comment on the attorney general’s filing. The auditing firm has said its work for Lehman met all applicable professional standards and applied rules that existed at the time. Schneiderman said New York wasn’t suing on behalf of Lehman’s shareholders and could distribute money obtained from the suit “in any manner that serves justice, including to the state.” Lehman filed the biggest U.S. bankruptcy in history in September 2008 with $639 billion in assets. It has said it will spend the next few years completing a liquidation to pay unsecured creditors less than 18 cents on the dollar. The case is People of the State of New York v. Ernst & Young LLP, 11-cv-00384, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). To contact the reporter on this story: Linda Sandler in New York at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Pickering at [email protected]

Mogadishu Fighting Kills Six as Government Battles Islamists

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-19/mogadishu-fighting-kills-six-as-government-battles-islamists.html

At least six people were killed and two dozen others wounded in the Somali capital Mogadishu as government forces backed by African Union troops battled Islamist insurgents. The battle began early today when the government forces with the African Union Mission in Somalia attacked Al-shabaab entrenchments in the Wardigley and Howlwadag districts and the Sayid junction near the presidential palace. “Our troops are advancing towards their strong positions” Abdullahi Ali Anod, a commander for presidential forces, told journalists today. “We have lost one soldier, and six others have sustained injuries. We have launched a planned attack towards their positions this morning.” Both sides exchanged fire from artillery, mortar and rocket-propelled grenades. Residents and witnesses said the fighting is continuing. “The causalities are not confirmed exactly because the stray bullets and mortars have hit several people in different locations,” Ali Muse Sheikh, director of Mogadishu ambulances services, said in an interview today. “Until now, six civilian corpses have been collected and 16 others wounded.” Witnesses and residents said that heavily armed Al-shabaab troops have joined the battle. The fighting has resumed again this afternoon as civilians were wounded or killed by stray mortars from areas that are far from the battle including Bakara market, HamarJajab and Hamarweyne district. “Five Christians from Ugandan troops and seven apostate soldiers (a reference to government soldiers) have been killed in the battle, and their corpses are still in the street,” Sheikh Abdul Aziz Abu Musab, an army spokesman for Al-shabaab, said on a conference call with reporters today. “They have failed in their attack.” To contact the reporter on this story: To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at [email protected] -0- Feb/19/ :31 GMT

Swaziland to Slash Spending, State Jobs in Budget, Finance Minister Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-15/swaziland-to-slash-spending-state-jobs-in-budget-finance-minister-says.html

Swaziland, Africa ’s last absolute monarchy, will slash spending and fire thousands of state employees as it tries to ease a fiscal crisis, Finance Minister Majozi Sithole said. In a budget to be announced on Feb. 18, the government will introduce a value added tax and slash recurrent spending, such as salaries, by about 20 percent, Sithole said in an interview yesterday in Mbabane, the southern African nation’s capital. It will also cut support for state-owned companies by 10 percent in the fiscal year through March 2012. Budget cuts “have to be very large,” Sithole said. “For us credibility is very important. We would not want to have a budget, but not have the physical cash to support it.” Swaziland, which borders South Africa and whose 1.2 million people are ruled by King Mswati III, released an International Monetary Fund-backed plan last year to counter reduced income from the Southern Africa Customs Union. Lower imports because of recession in neighboring South Africa during the global financial crisis cut funding from what accounted for about 60 percent of state revenue. SACU pools customs payments from South Africa, Lesotho , Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland. Swaziland’s budget deficit will probably widen to about 16 percent of gross domestic product in the 2011-12 fiscal year, the IMF said on Jan. 24. Customs union money tumbled about 62 percent last year, Sithole said. “For the financial year 2010-11 we were seriously affected by our SACU receipts,” Sithole said. “We have over the years relied heavily on the revenue received from SACU.” Salary Freeze The government plans to freeze state salaries and cut 7,000 civil servant jobs, about 20 percent of the total, to bring down a “huge” wage bill, he said. Budget spending was 10.1 billion emalengeni ($1.39 billion) for the year to March 2011. The move will add to unemployment which stands at about 43 percent, according to the government. The government plans to raise taxes and has applied for a $100 million loan from the African Development Bank as it struggles to raise cash. The central bank sold one-fifth of the 750 million emalengeni ($103 million) of seven-year bonds it offered on Jan. 26. The AfDB loan depends on an endorsement from the IMF of the country’s plans to cut spending, Sithole said. IMF officials will visit the country this week., he said Economic growth will probably be unchanged at 2 percent this year, while inflation is estimated to accelerate to 6 percent in 2011 from last year’s 4.5 percent as oil prices and other imports costs rise, Sithole said. To contact the reporters on this story: Franz Wild in Johannesburg at [email protected] ; Vuyisile Hlathswayo in Mbabane at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at [email protected]

Google Mulling Who Testifies Before Senate

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-07/google-still-deliberating-whom-to-send-to-senate-subcommittee.html

Google Inc. (GOOG) is still deliberating over which executive to send to a U.S. Senate panel probing its market power, Chairman Eric Schmidt said. “We have not made a decision yet,” Schmidt said yesterday at a media-industry conference in Sun Valley , Idaho. “It’s a legal question of who is best to represent the company. We’ll make a decision soon.” The antitrust subcommittee has asked Google to provide a top executive who could deliver testimony, and has threatened to issue subpoenas to compel Schmidt or Chief Executive Officer Larry Page to attend. The Senate probe reflects a groundswell of scrutiny of Google’s competitive position. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is probing the business, as is the European Union. Separately, the antitrust division of the Department of Justice is reviewing Google’s $400 million purchase of the Internet-advertising company Admeld Inc. In a letter dated June 10, the Democratic chairman and leading Republican on the Senate antitrust subcommittee asked Google to provide one of the company’s two senior executives before Congress’s August recess. The letter urged an agreement, to avoid “more formal procedures,” according to a copy obtained by Bloomberg News. Beyond ‘Legal Issues’ Google offered to have Chief Legal Officer David Drummond appear at the hearing, according to the letter. The subcommittee would “strongly prefer” Page or Schmidt at the proceeding, “which will address fundamental questions of business operations rather than merely legal issues,” according to the letter. The FTC is preparing for its probe by asking technology companies to gather information about Google, three people familiar with the matter said in April. In his remarks yesterday, Schmidt referred to previous FTC investigations, which include the review of its AdMob acquisition and probes into the privacy implications of its Street View and Google Buzz products. “They know us pretty well,” Schmidt said. Google’s chairman recently met with European Union officials during a trip to Brussels, he said yesterday. That body is still reviewing Google’s answers to a round of questioning, Schmidt said. European investigators have contacted 800 companies, he said. Schmidt said he doesn’t know how long the Justice Department ’s review of its Admeld acquisition could take. Twitter, Hulu He also discussed other topics, such as a failed agreement with Twitter Inc. and Google’s new social-networking site Google+. Google couldn’t reach a search accord with Twitter after “lengthy” talks, Schmidt said. Google+, meanwhile, has struggled with a flood of users. Millions of invited users were blocked by the service, he said. Schmidt declined to comment on whether Google is interested in buying Hulu LLC, the video-streaming service. Bankers for Hulu have met with Google, Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) as the company explores a sale, people familiar with the process said last week. “We are not able to answer M&A questions,” Schmidt said. “But it’s widely reported that Hulu is being discussed.” He said acquiring a premium-content service like Hulu “is not the highest priority” for Google now because its own YouTube video site is doing well with revenue generation and developing original content. Hulu’s owners include Walt Disney Co. (DIS) , News Corp. and Comcast Corp.’s NBC Universal. Disney CEO Robert Iger said this week that Hulu’s owners are “committed to selling.” Google fell $18.19, or 3.3 percent, to $528.41 at 11:28 a.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares had declined 8 percent this year before today. To contact the reporters on this story: Joseph Galante in San Francisco at [email protected] ; Brett Pulley in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at [email protected]

South African Farmers May Expand Corn Planting 18%, Survey Shows

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-21/south-african-farmers-may-expand-corn-planting-18-survey-shows.html

South African farmers may plant 18 percent more cropland with corn in the 2011-12 production season as prices rise, according to a survey of traders. The government’s Crop Estimates Committee may say on Oct. 25 that farmers aim to sow 2.8 million hectares (6.9 million acres), up from 2.37 million hectares last season, according to the median estimate of nine traders surveyed by Bloomberg News. Estimates ranged from 2.65 million to 2.9 million hectares. White corn has increased 64 percent this year on the South African Futures Exchange in Johannesburg. The grain for December delivery closed at 2,364 rand ($292) a metric ton today. The country is Africa ’s largest corn producer. The U.S. and Argentina are the world’s biggest exporters of the grain. To contact the reporter on this story: Jana Marais in Johannesburg at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Viljoen at [email protected]

Lonmin Says Would Be Vulnerable to Xstrata Without Rights Issue

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-13/lonmin-says-would-be-vulnerable-to-xstrata-without-rights-issue.html

Lonmin Plc (LMI) , the platinum producer that rebuffed an approach by its largest shareholder Xstrata Plc (XTA) , urged investors to participate in its $817 million stock sale or the company could become vulnerable to new offers. “Failure to proceed with the rights issue would leave the company in a highly vulnerable position in its discussions with its banking group and, potentially, in relation to Xstrata if it were to make a further proposal,” Lonmin said today in a statement. Xstrata is sounding out other shareholders’ views on the performance of Lonmin management and its planned stock sale while considering a revised offer, two people familiar with the matter said yesterday. Lonmin has already rejected a proposal to buy Xstrata’s South African platinum and alloys businesses. The plan called for Lonmin to hold a $1 billion share sale that would be fully underwritten by Xstrata, increasing the Zug, Switzerland-based company’s stake to 70 percent from 25 percent in a reverse takeover. Lonmin also spurned a second offer from Xstrata to support its rights issue, which is necessary to meet pledges to creditors, on the condition that senior management are replaced. Xstrata said last week it was concerned about management and “longstanding operational problems” at Lonmin. “We think Lonmin is fearful that Xstrata’s previous proposals have merit and shareholders may approve a separate offer under similar terms,” Ben Davis, an analyst at Liberum Capital Ltd. in London , said in a note. Lonmin needs to raise at least $700 million from the share sale by Dec. 31 after negotiating a deal with creditors amid plans to restructure its balance sheet, the company said. Shareholders are due to vote on the rights issue on Nov. 19. “If the rights issue does not proceed by 31 December 2012 and the amended facilities agreements do not come into effect, the company may be unable to comply with its financial covenants in future tests which may ultimately jeopardize its very future,” Lonmin said. To contact the reporter on this story: Firat Kayakiran in London at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Viljoen at [email protected]

Royal Mail Misses Regulator’s First-Class Mail Targets

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-22/royal-mail-misses-regulator-s-first-class-mail-targets.html

Royal Mail Plc (RMG) , the U.K.’s 360-year-old postal company, missed service-quality targets set by regulators to ensure regular mail deliveries. The company delivered 91.7 percent of First Class letters the day after collection in the year through March, compared with a 93 percent target, the U.K.’s communications competition authority Ofcom said in a statement today. The postal service also failed to make next-day deliveries to many parts of the U.K., completing this service in only 62 percent of postcodes, below the 91.5 percent required, Ofcom said. “Should it miss the targets in future, Ofcom will consider opening a formal investigation which could result in enforcement action, including the possibility of fines,” the regulator said. Royal Mail raised 1.7 billion pounds ($2.8 billion) in an initial public offering last month, a move that was opposed by many union members and opposition politicians. “We were disappointed that we didn’t meet all of the regulatory quality of service targets we were required to last year,” a Royal Mail spokesman said in an e-mailed statement. “This remains a key area of focus for us.” About 86 percent of residential customers are generally satisfied with the postal service, Ofcom said. To contact the reporter on this story: Kari Lundgren in London at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at [email protected]

U.S. Doctors Shouldn’t Have to Beg for TB Drugs

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-30/u-s-doctors-shouldn-t-have-to-beg-for-tb-drugs.html

I am a tuberculosis doctor. My patients and I inhabit a world of TB medications, diagnostic technology and public-health investigations. Together we have celebrated many triumphs over this deadly, but curable, disease. The problem we are now facing, however, is so threatening that it will take a concerted national effort to prevail. I am talking about the shortage of tuberculosis drugs. Last December, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that U.S. supplies of isoniazid, the most important drug in the treatment of TB, were critically low. A national survey of health departments in January reported that 79 percent of responding jurisdictions were having trouble getting the drug. In California , where tuberculosis cases are the highest in the nation, we have struggled to keep the drug available. Physicians are now being advised by the CDC to ration their isoniazid supplies. As the TB controller for my county’s public-health department, I have to choose which patients get their potentially life-saving medications, and which ones don’t. Alternative regimens without isoniazid exist, but they can be more toxic, longer in duration and more expensive. Isoniazid is just the latest -- albeit the most essential - - drug to be added to the growing list of unavailable or critically low TB medications in the U.S. Many of the other drugs we have relied on -- including kanamycin, amikacin and capreomycin -- have been difficult to obtain for more than a year. California First California is ground zero for TB in the U.S. With 2.3 million Californians infected with M. tuberculosis, we have the most TB disease, the most TB deaths and the greatest number of the most feared form: multidrug-resistant TB. We aren’t exactly chanting “We’re No. 1.” In this emerging era of drug shortages, we are becoming desperate. How desperate are we? Desperate enough to turn for help to the Global Drug Facility, a part of the World Health Organization that ensures universal access to TB drugs for even the most impoverished countries. Kenya , India , the Philippines and Uganda (to name only a few) all rely on the facility for an uninterrupted supply of vital TB medications. The Global Drug Facility is funded partly by the U.S. I sat beside many other TB doctors from around the U.S. when we met with a GDF representative recently, and we all agreed: Asking the GDF for emergency help had to be considered. And last week, in an article about the nationwide isoniazid shortage in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agreed. How is it that the wealthiest country on Earth could be forced to resort to a Third World solution to treat a disease as dangerous as TB? To make things worse, we have received reports from pharmacies that isoniazid prices may skyrocket soon. Currently, a 30-pill batch of 100-milligram tablets costs $35.51. The notices, linked to one of the three isoniazid manufacturers, informed pharmacies that the price would rise to $1,309.94. That is a whopping 3,589 percent increase. (It hasn’t happened yet, possibly due to vocal protests -- and the promise of industry shaming -- by TB doctors.) Price-gouging isn’t unprecedented in the pharmaceutical industry. In October 2011, President Barack Obama issued Executive Order 13588 in response to such behavior. The order states that “some participants in the market may use shortages as opportunities to hoard scarce drugs or charge exorbitant prices.” The order directs the Food and Drug Administration to notify the Justice Department of any suspicious pricing. I think anyone would agree that a 3,589 percent increase qualifies as “exorbitant.” Unfortunately, the FDA directly contradicts Order 13588 by stating on its website, “Pricing issues are not within the purview of the FDA.” Moving Backward This shortage will have dire health consequences for the U.S. We are going to see marked increases in TB across the nation -- a tragic step backward for public health. The three U.S suppliers of isoniazid are Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Sandoz Inc. and VersaPharm Inc. Teva and Sandoz blame the problem on shortages of the drug’s active ingredient and on shipment delays. VersaPharm recently notified public-health officials that it is canceling all orders for isoniazid because tests have shown that the purity of its product falls outside FDA specifications. (The company is working to correct this by 2014.) Because no federal law mandates that pharmaceutical companies produce sufficient amounts of essential medications, public health is at the mercy of pharmaceutical executives’ decisions. This is a broken system. So what is the solution? First, the FDA and CDC should construct a list of essential public-health medications, such as those that treat TB. No such list exists. Next, President Obama should issue an executive order requiring that pharmaceutical manufacturers report any anticipated shortage of medications on the list six months in advance. Such an order, had it been in place, could have prevented much of our recent scrambling. TB doctors have been reduced to begging drugmakers not to push up their prices; asking pharmacies to send a few more isoniazid pills; and now pleading with the World Health Organization for aid from the Global Drug Facility. When it comes to treating a disease as contagious and deadly as tuberculosis, we can’t succeed as beggars. We must have a more reliable system for delivering the medicines our patients need. (Charity Thoman is a deputy health officer for the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department and oversees county HIV and tuberculosis clinics. The opinions expressed are her own.) To contact the writer of this article: Charity Thoman at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this article: Mary Duenwald at [email protected]

Dreyfus Cash Management Funds Daily Values as of Aug 25, 2011.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-26/dreyfus-cash-management-funds-daily-values-as-of-aug-25-2011-.html

The following are the closing values for the Dreyfus Cash Management Funds as of Aug 25, 2011. Name of the Fund Daily Weekly Maturity Assets Cusip # Yield% Yield% <days> <000’s> ________________________________________________________________ ____ _____________________INSTITUTIONAL SHARES___________________________ 0719 Dreyfus Cash Management Plus, Inc., Institutional Shares 261934-10-3 0.27 0.04 42 3,379,906 (MILLRATE: .000007454) 0288 Dreyfus Cash Management, Institutional Shares 26188J-20-6 0.01 0.00 31 23,070,378 (MILLRATE: .000000274) 0289 Dreyfus Government Cash Management, Institutional Shares 262006-20-8 0.00 0.00 35 18,259,493 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0227 Dreyfus Government Prime Cash Management, Institutional Shares 262006-88-5 0.00 0.00 47 2,489,821 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0521 Dreyfus Treasury & Agency Cash Management, Institutional Shares 261908-10-7 0.01 0.01 43 13,477,357 (MILLRATE: .000000274) 0761 Dreyfus Treasury Prime Cash Management, Institutional Shares 261941-10-8 0.00 0.00 47 16,003,831 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0132 Dreyfus Municipal Cash Management Plus, Institutional Shares 261950-10-9 0.01 0.02 32 284,302 (MILLRATE: .000000276) 0264 Dreyfus Tax Exempt Cash Management Funds 26202K-20-5 0.00 0.00 23 2,159,396 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0287 Dreyfus New York Municipal Cash Management, Institutional Shares 261954-10-1 0.01 0.00 35 393,635 (MILLRATE: .000000142) 0099 Dreyfus Institutional Cash Advantage Fund, Institutional Advantage Shares 26200V-10-4 0.05 0.06 36 26,801,605 (MILLRATE: .000001356) 6139 Dreyfus Liquid Assets, Inc., Class 2 Shares 262015-20-9 0.05 0.05 29 4,144,023 (MILLRATE: .000001370) 6188 Dreyfus California AMT-Free Municipal Cash Management, Institutional Shares 26202K-70-0 0.04 0.04 35 229,779 (MILLRATE: .000001030) ________________________INVESTOR SHARES_____________________________ 0671 Dreyfus Cash Management Plus, Inc., Investor Shares 261934-20-2 0.27 0.04 42 139,357 (MILLRATE: .000007454) 0670 Dreyfus Cash Management, Investor Shares 26188J-30-5 0.00 0.00 31 3,889,751 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0672 Dreyfus Government Cash Management, Investor Shares 262006-30-7 0.00 0.00 35 2,361,658 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0610 Dreyfus Government Prime Cash Management, Investor Shares 262006-70-3 0.00 0.00 47 573,201 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0673 Dreyfus Treasury & Agency Cash Management, Investor Shares 261908-20-6 0.01 0.01 43 1,861,893 (MILLRATE: .000000274) 0674 Dreyfus Treasury Prime Cash Management, Investor Shares 261941-20-7 0.00 0.00 47 4,257,478 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0676 Dreyfus Municipal Cash Management Plus, Investor Shares 261950-20-8 0.00 0.00 32 246,218 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0675 Dreyfus Tax Exempt Cash Management Funds 26202K-30-4 0.00 0.00 23 323,969 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0677 Dreyfus New York Municipal Cash Management, Investor Shares 261954-20-0 0.00 0.00 35 250,425 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0100 Dreyfus Institutional Cash Advantage Fund, Investor Advantage Shares 26200V-30-2 0.00 0.00 36 15,279 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 6189 Dreyfus California AMT-Free Municipal Cash Management, Investor Shares 26202K-80-9 0.00 0.00 35 102,411 (MILLRATE: .000000001) _____________________ADMINISTRATIVE SHARES__________________________ 0579 Dreyfus Cash Management Plus, Inc., Administrative Shares 261934-30-1 0.27 0.04 42 373,097 (MILLRATE: .000007454) 0566 Dreyfus Cash Management, Administrative Shares 26188J-40-4 0.00 0.00 31 1,154,848 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0567 Dreyfus Government Cash Management, Administrative Shares 262006-40-6 0.00 0.00 35 939,909 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0557 Dreyfus Government Prime Cash Management, Administrative Shares 262006-80-2 0.00 0.00 47 413,668 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0568 Dreyfus Treasury & Agency Cash Management, Administrative Shares 261908-30-5 0.01 0.01 43 502,239 (MILLRATE: .000000274) 0582 Dreyfus Treasury Prime Cash Management, Administrative Shares 261941-30-6 0.00 0.00 47 535,019 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0584 Dreyfus Municipal Cash Management Plus, Administrative Shares 261950-30-7 0.00 0.00 32 285,309 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0583 Dreyfus Tax Exempt Cash Management Funds 26202K-40-3 0.00 0.00 23 82,413 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0585 Dreyfus New York Municipal Cash Management, Administrative Shares 261954-30-9 0.00 0.00 35 30,672 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0093 Dreyfus Institutional Cash Advantage Fund, Administrative Advantage Shares 26200V-20-3 0.00 0.00 36 698,947 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 6187 Dreyfus California AMT-Free Municipal Cash Management, Administrative Sh 26202K-88-2 0.00 0.00 35 5,647 (MILLRATE: .000000001) _______________________SERVICE SHARES___________________________ 6181 Dreyfus Cash Management Plus, Inc., Service Shares 261934-50-9 0.27 0.04 42 1 (MILLRATE: .000007454) 6183 Dreyfus Treasury & Agency Cash Management, Service Shares 261908-50-3 0.01 0.01 43 4,526 (MILLRATE: .000000274) _______________________SELECT SHARES___________________________ 6182 Dreyfus Cash Management Plus, Inc., Select Shares 261934-60-8 0.27 0.04 42 5,409 (MILLRATE: .000007456) 6184 Dreyfus Treasury & Agency Cash Management, Select Shares 261908-60-2 0.01 0.01 43 13,711 (MILLRATE: .000000274) _______________________PARTICIPANT SHARES___________________________ 0599 Dreyfus Cash Management Plus, Inc., Participant Shares 261934-40-0 0.27 0.04 42 166,978 (MILLRATE: .000007454) 0596 Dreyfus Cash Management, Participant Shares 26188J-50-3 0.00 0.00 31 918,274 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0597 Dreyfus Government Cash Management, Participant Shares 262006-50-5 0.00 0.00 35 340,336 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0587 Dreyfus Government Prime Cash Management, Participant Shares 262006-60-4 0.00 0.00 47 370,643 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0598 Dreyfus Treasury & Agency Cash Management, Participant Shares 261908-40-4 0.01 0.01 43 591,645 (MILLRATE: .000000274) 0592 Dreyfus Treasury Prime Cash Management, Participant Shares 261941-40-5 0.00 0.00 47 2,624,371 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0594 Dreyfus Municipal Cash Management Plus, Participant Shares 261950-40-6 0.00 0.00 32 25,342 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0593 Dreyfus Tax Exempt Cash Management Funds 26202K-50-2 0.00 0.00 23 26,950 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0595 Dreyfus New York Municipal Cash Management, Participant Shares 261954-40-8 0.00 0.00 35 8,458 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0094 Dreyfus Institutional Cash Advantage Fund, Participant Advantage Shares 26200V-40-1 0.00 0.00 36 189,686 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 6190 Dreyfus California AMT-Free Municipal Cash Management, Participant Shares 26202K-60-1 0.00 0.00 35 39,324 (MILLRATE: .000000001) FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON DREYFUS CASH MANAGEMENT FUNDS AND THE DREYFUS ELECTRONIC TRADING SYSTEM TYPE DREY AND HIT GO BUTTON. TO SPEAK TO A DREYFUS INSTITUTIONAL CLIENT ADMINISTRATOR, PLEASE CALL (800)346-3621 OR (718)895-1650. Anibal Arrascue in the Bloomberg Princeton office. (609)279-5084 #<704025.996834.2.1.67.17757.25>#

RIM Averts Shareholder Showdown in Agreement to Study Chairman Role Change

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-30/rim-said-investor-s-proposal-to-split-roles-withdrawn-as-committee-formed.html

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) , facing a shareholder vote on whether to split its chief executive and chairman roles, agreed to study the overhaul of its management structure to avoid a public showdown at its investors’ meeting this month. Northwest & Ethical Investments LP had proposed a split in the chairman and chief executive officer roles at the Waterloo, Ontario-based company, where Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are both co-CEOs and co-chairmen. Investors were scheduled to vote on the measure at RIM’s shareholder meeting on July 12. Instead, RIM reached an agreement with NEI to withdraw the proposal so no vote will take place. The company will establish a committee of independent directors to study its board structure, the merits of a lead director versus a chair and the “business necessity” for the company’s co-CEOs to hold “significant” board-level titles, RIM said yesterday in a statement. “At this point, they want to acknowledge there’s an issue that they want to look at and can’t ignore,” said Alkesh Shah, an analyst at Evercore Partners Inc. (EVR) in New York. “If they hadn’t said they would at least consider this split, they would have had a bigger problem.” RIM has come under pressure to shake up management as the BlackBerry smartphone maker loses market share to Apple Inc. (AAPL) and handset makers that use Google Inc. (GOOG) ’s Android operating system. RIM said on June 16 that quarterly revenue may decline for the first time in nine years, sending its stock down 21 percent the next day. The shares have lost half their value this year before today. Proxy Firm Support NEI’s proposal had won support from Glass Lewis & Co. and Institutional Shareholder Services Inc., proxy firms that advise shareholders how to vote on such measures. The committee of directors will also “propose and provide a rationale for a recommended governance structure” that will include clarification of the CEO and chairman roles, RIM said yesterday in the statement. The committee will issue a report on the matter by Jan. 31, 2012. “RIM and NEI Investments are pleased to have reached an agreement on this matter,” the company said in the statement. Robert Walker , vice president, ethical funds at Northwest & Ethical, who led the shareholder proposal, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment. Walker said in a June 24 interview that RIM’s shareholders are increasingly in favor of management change and the resolution would likely get the support to pass. ’Perfect Storm’ “It is a bit of a perfect storm in terms of long-term shareholder coalition around the concept that chairman and co- CEO should be separated,” he said at the time. Charlie Wolf , an analyst with Needham & Co., said the proposal may have been withdrawn because it wasn’t likely to pass. “It was a silly proposal,” said Wolf, who is based in New York and has a “hold” rating on the stock. “It was obviously withdrawn because it had no chance of passing.” RIM responded separately yesterday to what may have been an open letter posted on the Internet by an employee, saying that the company takes the operational challenges it faces ‘seriously’ by taking steps including cutting staff. “Regardless of whether the letter is real, fake, exaggerated or written with ulterior motivations, it is fair to say the senior management team at RIM is nonetheless fully aware of and aggressively addressing both the company’s challenges and its opportunities,” the company said on its BlackBerry blog. To contact the reporter on this story: Hugo Miller in Toronto at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at [email protected]

Gross Says Germany in Bond Bubble as Liabilities Increase

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-18/pimco-s-gross-says-germany-in-bond-bubble-as-liabilities-rise.html

Bill Gross , who runs the world’s largest mutual fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., said Germany is in a bond market bubble as the country is saddled with rising liabilities from Europe’s debt crisis. “I would be leery of German bunds simply because there are only a few scenarios in which they can do well,” Gross said today in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Market Makers” with Erik Schatzker and Stephanie Ruhle. “Germany for me is a credit risk. It’s not an attractive market.” Germany is the largest contributor to Europe’s bailout packages for Greece and a collapse of that nation’s economy and its possible exit from the euro area may weigh heavily on Chancellor Angela Merkel ’s administration. While German bonds have profited from Europe’s crisis, pushing yields on two-year notes below zero this month for the first time, Gross said the bonds have little room to rise further, except in a scenario such as Germany leaving the euro. German 10-year yields have advanced from a record low of 1.127 percent reached June 1 as Europe’s deepening crisis fueled concern the currency bloc’s biggest economy will be left picking up a mounting tab. The yield today closed at 1.44 percent. ‘Cleanest Shirts’ The difference between the yield on the 10-year Treasury note and comparable German bunds was at 17.35 basis points, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The gap was as high as 49 basis points on April 4. The gap has narrowed as investors have favored securities from outside the euro area amid the debt crisis. Gross, Pimco’s founder and co-chief investment officer, said the U.S. and U.K. are the “cleanest dirty shirts” for bond investors. Pimco is avoiding Spanish bonds because there’s a high probability that they won’t return investors’ money at par, he said. “It’s not a safe environment as long as the EU and as long as the global economy is delevering, which it continues to do,” said Gross. To contact the reporter on this story: Alexis Leondis in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at [email protected]

Audit Faults Stimulus-Backed $1.5 Billion U.S. Clean-Coal Effort

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-26/audit-faults-stimulus-backed-1-5-billion-u-s-clean-coal-effort.html

Poor management has hampered a U.S. program to develop technology to capture carbon-dioxide emissions, the Energy Department inspector general said in a report that raises new questions about a clean-energy initiative backed by the 2009 economic stimulus. In total, the Energy Department received $1.5 billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to invest in technology that responds to climate-change risks. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that most scientists think is making the planet hotter. Energy officials hadn’t “adequately documented the approval and rationale” in awarding $575 million to 15 recipients, the watchdog found. Three projects won $90 million even though a review process identified significant financial and technical issues with the companies that won the aid, according to the report. “The issues we identified occurred, in part, because program officials had not always provided effective monitoring and oversight of recipient activities,” the inspector general found. In response, the Energy Department said it would improve program oversight. “Project monitoring procedures will be reviewed to ensure sound guidance exists for conducting consistent, thorough reviews of documentation supporting invoiced costs,” Chuck McConnell, assistant secretary for fossil energy, wrote in response to the report. Clean Energy The stimulus provided a record $90 billion for clean-energy programs, about $35 billion of which went to the Energy Department to distribute. The money paid for a $535 million loan guarantee in 2009 to Solyndra LLC, a solar-panel maker that went bankrupt two years later. Republicans have criticized management of the program and what they say are the administration’s efforts to pick winners and losers among energy companies. As of February, the department has spent about $623 million, or less than 42 percent, of the money for the cleaner- coal program, according to the report. That leaves about $860 million left to be spent. The watchdog report covered $1.1 billion directed to 15 projects. Energy Department officials faced a Sept. 30, 2010, deadline to distribute the stimulus money, which was designed to kick-start an economy in a deep recession following the financial crisis of 2008. ‘Unprecedented’ Investment The program “represented an investment in the development of clean-coal technologies that was unprecedented in terms of cost and scope,” according to the report. The report found that the department reimbursed recipients about $18.3 million in questionable expenses. The department said in response that it was seeking to reclaim the money. The agency spent $90 million on three projects the review suggested faced technical challenges or were unable to raise the required amount of private capital to win the government money. The projects have experienced delays, the inspector general said. The department had only distributed about $7 million of the funds. The department sometimes changed the terms of the awards, in one instance reducing the amount the recipient was to put up to $11.6 million from $92.6 million. That $25 million project was supposed to create 272 jobs. As of July 2012, only 68 had been created, according to the report. While federal officials were supposed to award contracts through competitive bidding, the report found that $575 million went to accelerate existing projects without always documenting its rationale for doing so. The Energy Department told the watchdog that it didn’t receive the number of bids it had anticipated, so it decided to direct some money to existing programs in order to use the stimulus money by the deadline. To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Snyder in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at [email protected]

Ericsson's Indian Supplier Kavveri to Buy Two Companies in Europe, U.S.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-08/ericsson-s-indian-supplier-kavveri-to-buy-two-companies-in-europe-u-s-.html

Kavveri Telecom Products Ltd., an Indian supplier of equipment to Ericsson AB and Vodafone Group Plc, plans to spend $30 million to acquire a company each in the U.S. and Europe to tap the more profitable overseas markets. “One acquisition is at an advanced stage and we may close” it as early as this month, Managing Director Shivakumar Reddy , said in an interview in Bangalore yesterday. “The next deal is expected at the end of the financial year.” The purchases will help the Bangalore-based company triple its share of overseas revenue to 60 percent from 20 percent, according to Reddy. Kavveri plans to sell convertible warrants and preferential shares to help fund the acquisitions, Reddy said without specifying details. The company has spent 400 million rupees ($9 million) this year to increase capacity to make wireless antennas and radio frequency products. Net income fell 5.4 percent to 50.7 million rupees in the three months ended June 30 as sales growth slowed to 0.4 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “Margins overseas are much higher,” Reddy said. Kavveri’s shares , which have more than doubled this year, fell 1.4 percent to 133 rupees at 3:19 p.m. in Mumbai. The company also plans to hire 280 more employees to take the total staff strength to 800 by the end of the fiscal year, Reddy said. To contact the reporter on this story: Jay Shankar in Bangalore at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Foxwell in Mumbai at [email protected]

Rescued Nigerian Banks Drop on Report Loans Won’t Be Converted

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-13/rescued-nigerian-banks-drop-on-report-loans-won-t-be-converted.html

Nigerian lenders bailed out by the central bank in 2009 fell after ThisDay reported the central bank won’t convert those emergency loans to them into equity, citing Governor Lamido Sanusi. Oceanic Bank International Plc (OCEANIC) fell for the 14th day, losing the maximum daily limit of 5 percent to 1.14 naira by 11:50 a.m. in Lagos. Bank PHB Plc (PLATINUM) lost 4 kobo, or 4.8 percent, to 80 kobo, heading for the weakest close since at least January 2006. Afribank Plc lost 4.6 percent to 1.04 naira, the lowest intraday level since January 2002. Converting the loans into equity will require changing the Banking and other Financial Institutions Act, or the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, the Lagos-based ThisDay newspaper cited Sanusi as saying. The bank provided 620 billion naira ($4 billion) to eight of the nation’s 24 lenders after they amassed 700 billion naira of non-performing debt by lending to investors who speculated in stocks, according to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Abuja. Sanusi fired the chief executives of the distressed lenders and set up Asset Management Corp. of Nigeria, or Amcon, to buy bad debts from the banks to help recapitalize them before matching them with potential buyers. The central bank also provided funds to Union Bank of Nigeria, Finbank Plc (FIRSTINL) , Equitorial Trust Bank Ltd., Intercontinental Bank Plc (INTERCON) and Spring Bank Plc. (SPRINGBK) The bailed-out lenders are technically insolvent with a combined negative asset value of 1.28 trillion naira, Daily Trust cited Sanusi as saying today. To contact the reporter on this story: Vincent Nwanma in Lagos at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at [email protected] .

Bank of Canada Key Monetary Policy Variables

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-15/bank-of-canada-key-monetary-policy-variables-table-.html

The following table details some of the key monetary policy indicators the Bank of Canada watches to monitor pressures in the Canadian economy.

Colombia Stock Movers: Coltejer, Empresa de Telecomunicaciones

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-18/colombia-stock-movers-coltejer-empresa-de-telecomunicaciones.html

The following companies had unusual price changes in Bogota trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are as of 4 p.m. New York time. The IGBC Index gained 1.7 percent to 14,649.35, while the Colcap Index climbed 1.8 percent to 1,739.16. Coltejer SA (COLTEJ) , the Medellin-based clothing maker and exporter, dropped 3.5 percent to 82 centavos. Colombia ’s peso rose for a second day after the country’s credit rating was boosted to investment grade by Standard & Poor’s and central bank policy makers increased the benchmark interest rate, reducing revenues for exporters. State-controlled companies rose for a second day after the country was raised to investment grade by S&P. Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogota (ETB) SA, the telecommunications provider serving Colombia’s capital, surged 6 percent to 694 pesos, the highest level in three months. Isagen SA (ISAGEN CB), a state-controlled power producer, jumped 5.4 percent to 2,550 pesos, the biggest increase since January 2009. To contact the reporter on this story: Camila Russo in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at [email protected]

HSBC to Wind Down South Korea Retail Bank Amid Global Revamp

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-05/hsbc-to-wind-down-south-korea-retail-banking-amid-global-revamp.html

HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) plans to wind down its retail banking and wealth management business in South Korea as it seeks to revive profitability. Europe ’s biggest lender plans to close 10 of its 11 branches in Korea pending regulatory approval, according to a statement from the London-based bank today. HSBC “remains committed” to Korea, where it will focus on its global banking and markets business, it said. Plans by the U.K. lender to withdraw from retail banking in Korea suffered a blow when KDB Financial Group Inc. last year abandoned talks to take over the operation. HSBC Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver has closed or sold at least 52 businesses since he took the job in 2011, including retail operations in 17 markets, according to the statement. Consumer banking in South Korea has been constrained by rising household debt that’s also burdening the economy. Borrowing and credit purchases by Koreans swelled to a record 963.8 trillion won ($844 billion) at the end of 2012, central bank data show. President Park Geun Hye, who took office in February, set up a fund that is aimed at easing households’ debt loads by purchasing and rescheduling overdue loans. South Korean regulators are reviewing HSBC’s application, according to an e-mailed joint statement from the Financial Services Commission and Financial Supervisory Service. Shares of HSBC rose 0.7 percent in London to 716 pence at 9:24 a.m., outperforming the 0.3 percent gain in the benchmark FTSE 100 Index and taking their gain this year to 11 percent. Three Attempts HSBC has failed in at least three attempts to build up its Korean retail business since it began operations in 1998. In 1999, the U.K. lender walked away from talks with the Korean government to buy SeoulBank. In 2005, it lost a bid for Korea First Bank to Standard Chartered Plc. HSBC also abandoned a $6 billion bid to acquire Korea Exchange Bank in 2008 after authorities left the transaction in limbo for more than a year. HSBC in April sold the stake it bought in 2007 in South Korea’s Hana HSBC Life Insurance Co. back to Hana Financial Group Inc. (086790) The bank plans to keep a branch in the country to serve existing retail clients and its global banking and markets business, according to the statement. HSBC, whose history in Korea dates back to 1897, had 25 trillion won of assets in the country as of the end of 2011, according to its website. KDB, South Korea’s largest state-owned banking group, said last year that talks on buying HSBC’s local retail business broke down because of conditions related to employment. KDB in April 2012 had agreed to buy the lender’s assets and debt at 11 South Korean branches. To contact the reporter on this story: Stephanie Tong in Hong Kong at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chitra Somayaji at [email protected]

Pound Falls as U.K. Home Sellers Cut Asking Prices in December

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-19/pound-falls-as-u-k-home-sellers-cut-asking-prices-in-december.html

The pound weakened against the dollar as a report showed U.K. home sellers cut asking prices for a second consecutive month, adding to signs the economy is losing momentum. Sterling snapped two days of gains versus its U.S. counterpart as Rightmove Plc said prices in England and Wales fell 2.7 percent from November, and added that the property market will remain “challenging” in 2012. The pound fell against the euro even after France had its credit outlook lowered by Fitch Ratings , on speculation the U.K. economy will suffer as the euro-region debt crisis escalates. “Consumers who have found their incomes squeezed are also wary about the future, so in that context the background for sterling is relatively challenging,” said Jeremy Stretch , head of currency strategy at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in London. Still “the resilience of the U.K. versus the euro still looks attractive.” The pound weakened 0.1 percent to $1.5523 at 4:45 p.m. London time, adding to last week’s 0.8 percent decline. It was little changed at 83.85 pence per euro, after climbing last week to 83.73, its strongest level since Feb. 18. U.K. government bonds fell, pushing the 10-year gilt yield two basis points higher to 2.07 percent, trimming declines this year that pushed it to a record low 2.034 percent. The 3.75 percent bond due September 2021 fell 0.225, or 2.25 pounds per 1,000-pound face amount, to 114.745. Gilt Returns Gilts have returned 16 percent this year, according to indexes compiled by Bloomberg and the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies. German bunds earned 9.5 percent, and U.S. Treasuries climbed 10 percent. Investors bought British bonds as an alternative to assets denominated in the euro as European Union leaders struggled to solve a debt crisis that has forced Greece , Ireland and Portugal to seek international bailouts. The turmoil also engulfed Italy and Spain and prompted the bloc to create funds to help stricken economies. French 10-year yields rose four basis points, or 0.04 percentage point, to 3.10 percent, leaving the extra yield, or spread, investors get for holding the securities instead of similar-maturity gilts at 103 basis points. The French debt yielded 22 basis points less than gilts in February, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Sterling strengthened 0.1 percent today against nine developed-nation peers tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. The dollar was little changed and the euro lost 0.1 percent. Britain’s currency may slip to its October low against the dollar should it fall below $1.5400, Michael Hewson , a markets analyst at CMC Markets Ltd. in London, wrote in a client note today. Sterling slipped to $1.5272, the lowest since July 23, 2010. The pound weakened against the dollar last week as reports showed unemployment surged and retail sales fell more than economists forecast in November, strengthening the case for the Bank of England to add to its asset-purchase program. To contact the reporter on this story: Lukanyo Mnyanda in Edinburgh at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Tilles at [email protected]

Hungary’s Credit Rating May Be Upgraded, Natran Tells Mfor.hu

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-06/hungary-s-credit-rating-may-be-upgraded-natran-tells-mfor-hu.html

Hungary ’s budget overhaul may prompt credit rating services to raise the country’s debt in the second half of 2011, news portal Mfor.hu reported today, citing Roland Natran, deputy state secretary at the Economy Ministry. The increasing confidence among investors that Hungary can cut its public debt may push the country into a “positive spiral” that gets reflected in its credit ratings, Natran said in an interview with Mfor.hu. The market may put pressure on ratings companies to revise their stance on Hungary in the fall of this year, Natran said. The implementation of the program announced this year to cut spending is going according to schedule, Natran said, adding that the government is willing to introduce new measures if the plan doesn’t succeed in reining in the budget deficit as much as expected. Editors: To contact the reporter on this story: Andras Gergely in Budapest at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at [email protected]

Hungary Seeks Seat Among UN Powerful for Unsung Role in Libya

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-18/hungary-seeks-seat-among-un-powerful-for-unsung-role-in-libya.html

In Libya , as a revolt against Muammar Qaddafi’s four-decade regime turned dangerous, Hungarian diplomats did what most others didn’t do: They stuck around. “When everyone left, we still stayed,” Csaba Korosi, Hungary ’s ambassador to the United Nations, said in an interview. “We tried to be a bridge builder, even between the two sides.” Long after the U.S., U.K. and France shut down their embassies, evacuated their staffs and rushed to get their citizens out of Libya, Hungary kept a presence in the capital Tripoli. It became the diplomat of last resort for some 50 absent governments throughout the seven-month conflict. Among its successes was securing the release of four foreign journalists: two Americans, one Spanish and one British. In August, the Hungarian embassy even managed to get Talitha van Zon, a former Dutch model and one-time girlfriend of Qaddafi’s son Mutassim, out of the country after she jumped from the balcony of a Tripoli hotel trying to escape. Humgary’s reward for such steadfastness could be a seat on the 15-member Security Council, the UN’s most powerful body. UN members are scheduled to vote Oct. 21 for five new council members, who will serve two-year terms beginning Jan. 1. The tightest race will be for the Eastern European seat, sought also by Azerbaijan and Slovenia, to replace the nation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Hungary, an imperial power before World War I and a Soviet satellite until the late 1980s, had no vested interest in the North African country, Korosi said. Yet, when the Libyan uprisings began in February, Hungary, then-head of the rotating European Union presidency, felt duty-bound not to leave. Others Fled As the channel of communications, Hungary provided a way “to rescue a lot of people and civilians from the country,” Korosi said in an Oct. 14 interview. “We tried to speak on behalf of all those countries that asked us to do so. We sent messages back and forth.” The U.S. shut down its embassy on Feb. 25, as President Barack Obama prepared to sign an order to freeze assets of Qaddafi, his family and collaborators in the first of a series of sanctions. A day later, France and Britain closed their missions. Germany, Italy and Spain and others followed within weeks. Turkey, which conducted the biggest evacuation in its history to rescue 25,000 Turks who lived and worked in Libya, cited “great security risk” as the reason to shut its embassy in May. Skeleton Staff That left Hungary to hold the fort with a skeleton staff. Among the other countries that kept embassies operational were China and Russia -- among the fiercest critics of NATO’s military strikes in Libya -- and a handful of Qaddafi’s most stalwart, radical allies such as Belarus, Cuba and Venezuela. Maja Kociancic, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton , said in May that the “situation is definitely very difficult and we pay tribute to the Hungarian presidency for the work they are doing.” Hungary is weighing closer economic integration with Europe , where formerly Communist neighbors such as Slovenia, its biggest rival for the council seat, have joined the nations using the euro. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban , whose government took over in May, has set a new deadline to switch to the euro: 2020. Europe hasn’t reached “the bottom of the economic crisis,” said Korosi. “It will test the durability of many countries. Some fragile societies may suffer more than in the past years.” UN Rivals Azerbaijan , geographically the largest country in the Caucasus region, is seeking a seat in the council for the first time and is the only Muslim applicant for the Eastern European seat. It has the second highest concentration of Shiite Muslims after Iran. Slovenia, which like Bosnia was formerly part of Yugoslavia, was the first to secede from the communist state following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the only one to meet the economic criteria to qualify for the euro. As one of smallest and newest euro members, cradled between Italy and Hungary, Slovenia joined the 17-nation bloc in 2007 before Greece ’s financial debt plunged the region into a debt crisis that threatens the existence of the single currency. “We believe it’s going to be a tight race,” said Korosi of his competition. “There are two very good friends of ours. One is a neighbor.” The countries that fled Tripoli have since returned after rebel forces wrested control of the capital from Qaddafi loyalists. Libya’s ambassador to the UN praised the Hungarians’ actions during the conflict. “I think they have played a positive role,” said Ibrahim Dabbashi , who became Libya’s ambassador after defecting from the Qaddafi regime in February. Their actions have already met with some recognition on the ground. The road next to the Hungarian embassy was renamed by locals Hungarian Street. -- Editor: Terry Atlas To contact the reporters on this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson in United Nations at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Silva at [email protected] ;

European Stocks Drop for Third Day; Clariant, Merck Lead Decline

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-27/european-stock-index-futures-decline-clariant-merck-may-fall-on-earnings.html

European stocks fell for a third day as earnings from Clariant AG (CLN) to Merck KGaA (MRK) missed estimates and U.S. politicians wrangled over the nation’s debt limit. Clariant, a Swiss chemical maker, plunged the most in eight years. Merck, Germany’s second-biggest drugmaker, dropped 4.8 percent as it reported an unexpected loss. PSA Peugeot Citroen tumbled 7.6 percent after saying its automotive division may post a second-half loss. Banco Santander SA (SAN) led financial shares lower after Spain ’s biggest bank said profit declined as Spanish loan provisions surged. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slid 1.1 percent to 267.05 at the 4:30 p.m. close in London. The gauge has retreated 8.3 percent from this year’s high in February amid concern that Europe’s fiscal crisis will derail the economic recovery and speculation that U.S. lawmakers will fail to agree on increasing the nation’s debt ceiling by next week’s deadline. “The earnings season has revealed that weakness in the global economy remains,” Philippe Gijsels , the head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis Global Markets, said in a phone interview from Brussels. “There have been some misses in terms of guidance and this shows us we’re in a mid-cycle slowdown with companies being held hostage by economic conditions.” U.S. Rating Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings have said they may cut the U.S.’s top-level sovereign rating if officials fail to resolve the stalemate on the $14.3 trillion borrowing ceiling. The government needs to boost the cap by Aug. 2 so it can keep paying its bills, according to the Treasury Department. “The likelihood of a U.S. sovereign-rating downgrade is around 50 percent,” Andrew Garthwaite , the London-based head of global equity strategy at Credit Suisse Group AG, wrote in a report to clients today. “If there is no increase in the debt ceiling for a prolonged period -- say 3 months -- with no agreement in sight, we believe stock markets could easily fall 15 percent.” He predicted that an agreement will be made to raise the debt limit before next week’s deadline passes. Profit has missed analyst estimates by an average of 3.3 percent for companies in the Stoxx 600 that have reported results since July 11, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with an average beat of 7.5 percent for members of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in the same period. Durable Goods Stocks extended losses after a report in the U.S. showed orders for durable goods unexpectedly dropped in June and inventories climbed at the slowest pace in a year, evidence that companies lost confidence in the strength of the recovery as the second quarter ended. Bookings for goods meant to last at least three years fell 2.1 percent after a 1.9 percent gain the prior month that was smaller than last reported, the Commerce Department said. National benchmark indexes fell in all 18 western European markets. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 slid 1.2 percent, Germany ’s DAX lost 1.3 percent and France ’s CAC declined 1.4 percent. Clariant plunged 14 percent to 13.19 Swiss francs, the largest drop since February 2003. Second-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization declined to 241 million francs ($301 million) from 264 million francs, the Muttenz, Switzerland-based company said. JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts had predicted 293 million francs. Merck unexpectedly reported a second-quarter loss and cut its forecast for full-year operating profit. The Darmstadt, Germany-based company had a loss of 84 million euros ($122 million) in the quarter, compared with net income of 187 million euros a year earlier, and said operating profit will be about 1 billion euros this year due to one-time adjustments. The stock sank 4.8 percent to 73.76 euros. Peugeot Sinks Peugeot lost 7.6 percent to 27.26 euros after Europe’s second-largest carmaker abandoned a goal of increasing second- half earnings at the automotive division. Bank stocks posted the biggest decline among 19 industry groups on the Stoxx 600. Santander retreated 3.2 percent to 7.34 euros as second- quarter profit dropped 38 percent after Spanish loan provisions surged and it set aside funds for customers mis-sold personal- loan insurance in the U.K. UniCredit SpA (UCG) , Italy ’s largest bank, fell 4.3 percent to 1.22 euros and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (ISP) lost 5.1 percent to 1.57 euros. Lloyds Banking Group Plc (LLOY) slid 4.3 percent to 42.24 pence and Banco Comercial Portugues SA retreated 6.7 percent to 30.5 euro cents. Italy, Spain Bonds Italian and Spanish government bonds slumped amid speculation Europe’s aid package may not be sufficient to prevent contagion. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the government is against a “blank check” for the European Financial Stability Facility to buy bonds of troubled euro members in the secondary market. Jeronimo Martins SGPS SA (JMT) slid 5.6 percent to 13.54 euros even after the Portuguese retailer reported increased profit. The company said the second half is “expected to be marked by the sharp drop in consumption and by the increased financial difficulties of the Portuguese.” Distribuidora Internacional de Alimentacion SA, the Madrid- based discount retailer spun off from Carrefour SA this month, sank 6.3 percent to 3.07 euros. Alcatel-Lucent SA, France’s largest telecommunications equipment supplier, dropped 6.9 percent to 3.38 euros as U.S. rival Juniper Networks Inc. reported sales and profit that missed estimates. Meda AB (MEDAA) rallied 6.7 percent to 75.80 kronor as two people with knowledge of the matter said Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. approached the Swedish company about a takeover. The approach was informal and may not lead to a deal, said one of the people, who declined to be identified because the situation is private. Provident Financial Plc (PFG) climbed 8.4 percent to 1,115 pence after the U.K.’s biggest publicly traded subprime lender posted first-half profit that beat analyst estimates as bad loans declined. To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Haigh in London at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at [email protected]

U.S. Oil Fund Discount at 1.05 Percent on Sept. 21

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-22/u-s-oil-fund-discount-at-1-05-percent-on-sept-21-table-.html

The U.S. Oil Fund, the largest exchange-traded fund in crude oil, closed at a discount of 1.05 percent on Sept. 21, according to figures on the fund’s website. A discount means that the closing price of the shares is lower than the value of its underlying holdings in the fuel. Crude oil for November delivery fell 100 cents, or 1.15 percent, to $85.92 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Sept. 21. NOTE: The fund aims to track the price of West Texas Intermediate delivered to Cushing, Oklahoma. The ETF buys the near-month contract, then rolls forward by selling it before expiration and buying the following month. SOURCE: United States Oil Fund To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Petrie in Sydney at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alex Tanzi at [email protected]

Vomiting-Bug Vaccine Seen as Shot in the Arm for Cruises

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-25/vomiting-bug-vaccine-seen-as-shot-in-the-arm-for-cruises.html

(Corrects spelling of executive’s name in second paragraph.) As a new strain of stomach flu leaves a trail of stomach-clenching illness from Sydney to San Diego , scientists are moving closer to thwarting it for good. Early stage human studies on a vaccine against norovirus , the top source of gastroenteritis in the U.S., are set to finish this year. That would make work on the vaccine, developed by Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. (4502) , the farthest along of several immunization candidates. A course of shots may confer lifelong protection against 95 percent of strains, said Rajeev Venkayya, who heads the Japanese drugmaker’s vaccines unit. A norovirus vaccine would be a boon to cruise ships , schools and nursing homes struggling to deal with a highly contagious, untreatable scourge. Of the 21 million people infected in the U.S. annually, about 800 die, mostly the very young and the elderly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Given the highly infectious nature of norovirus and its ability to cause extensive outbreaks in hospitals, elder-care facilities and cruise ships, there is a need for prophylactic and preventative approaches to guard against infection,” said Peter White, a microbiology professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. A vaccine “would be particularly important for individuals with a high risk of exposure” or weakened immune defenses, he said. White’s lab last year helped characterize the new variant, dubbed GII.4 Sydney for the city in which was first identified. The germ was responsible for the worst bout of gastroenteritis in a decade in Australia ’s Victoria state and has sparked outbreaks worldwide since March 2012. Nausea, Vomiting Norovirus, also known as the winter vomiting bug, can be caught from an infected person, contaminated food or water, or by touching contaminated surfaces, according to the CDC. It causes the stomach and intestines to become inflamed, resulting in pain, nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. Most outbreaks occur from November to April in the U.S. If approved, Takeda’s norovirus vaccine would be the first to protect people against the germ. It would potentially add as much as $400 million in annual revenue for the Osaka-based drugmaker, said Atsushi Seki, a health-care analyst at Barclays Plc in Tokyo. Takeda fell 0.6 percent to 4,280 yen at the close of trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, paring to 11 percent its gain in 2013. That’s less than half the 24 percent advance of the Topix index. The benchmark index declined 0.9 percent today. $273 Million Cost In children younger than 5 years, norovirus caused 14,000 hospitalizations and 281,000 emergency room visits in 2009 and 2010 in the U.S., amounting to $273 million in annual treatment costs, the CDC said in a statement in March. Takeda’s vaccine candidate combines viral components from two norovirus types that laboratory studies suggest should fight all strains known to have circulated during the past 20 years, including the Sydney one, Venkayya said in an interview. Studies of the vaccine in healthy volunteers began in May 2012. Takeda, Asia’s largest drugmaker, plans further tests in children and the elderly, and a larger study to gauge the efficacy of one or two shots, he said, adding that it will be “several years” before the vaccine is ready for sale. “I’m optimistic for this vaccine,” he said. “It continues to look very good to us.” Takeda took over development of the vaccine when it bought Bozeman, Montana-based LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals Inc. last year for an initial payment of $60 million. Takeda will pay LigoCyte more based on the vaccine’s success. The acquisition is part of Takeda’s strategy to tap the $25.3 billion global vaccines market. Gates Foundation Venkayya was previously director for global health delivery at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he oversaw the foundation’s work on polio eradication and introducing vaccines. At least two other groups besides Takeda are developing vaccines against norovirus. UMN Pharma Inc. (4585) , based in Yokohama, Japan , and Finland’s University of Tampere are developing UMN-2003, which aims to protect against rotavirus, another cause of viral gastroenteritis. Charles Arntzen, professor of infectious diseases and vaccinology, is also working on one at Arizona State University in Tucson. All three vaccine candidates are based on virus-like particles -- proteins that resemble key components of the virus, enabling the immune system to recognize and fight the pathogens. Scientists are developing new weapons to fight norovirus years after they successfully produced vaccines against rotavirus. The delay reflects the difficulty of researching norovirus, which can’t be grown outside the human body, said White at the University of New South Wales. Glaxo, Merck GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) sold 360 million pounds ($556 million) of its Rotarix vaccine for rotavirus last year, while Merck & Co. (MRK) ’s RotaTeq generated $601 million. While long-term care facilities and schools are especially prone to outbreaks, new epidemics of acute gastro often emerge on cruise ships, where control is hindered by close living quarters and shared dining areas. With regular turnover of passengers, noroviruses on ships can repeatedly infect new travelers, researchers at the Center for Infectious Disease Control in Bilthoven, Netherlands , found in a 2008 study. This year, six cruise ships, including Celebrity Cruises Inc.’s Millennium, Solstice and Infinity, have had norovirus outbreaks on board, the CDC in Atlanta said. To contact the reporter on this story: Kanoko Matsuyama in Tokyo at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jason Gale at [email protected]

Longest Win Streak Since 1975 Completed by Tokyo’s Small Listed Companies

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-21/tokyo-small-stocks-longest-run-since-75.html

Small Tokyo-listed companies have capped the longest streak of daily advances in almost 37 years. Japan ’s TSE Second Section Price Index (TSE2) , a capitalization- weighted index of smaller companies listed at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, added 0.2 percent to 2,308.56 at the 3 p.m. close today, rising for a 26th consecutive day. That’s the longest streak since May 13, 1975, said Takamichi Sugawara, an assistant manager in the information service division of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Even after rising for 26 days, shares on the index trade at an average of 0.68 times book value , compared with 1 times for the Topix Index, Japan’s broadest gauge, and 1.24 times for the Nikkei 225 Stock Average. A number less than one means that companies can be bought for less than value of their assets. The streak “suggests money is flowing into the Japanese market across the board,” said Makoto Sengoku, a market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Securities Co. “The TSE’s second section is a market that’s very undervalued. That’s another reason behind investors buying the shares.” Companies on the Tokyo bourse’s second section should have at least 800 shareholders and a market value of at least 2 billion yen ($25 million), bourse spokeswoman Yukari Hozumi said by telephone. For inclusion in the first section, where Toyota Motor Corp. and Canon Inc. are listed, companies are required to have at least 2,200 shareholders and market capitalization of 50 billion yen or more. Nippon Seiki Co., which makes instrument panels for cars and boats, and Kabuki-za Co., which owns a traditional Japanese theater and runs restaurants, are the biggest companies on the Topix second section by market value. To contact the reporters on this story: Norie Kuboyama in Tokyo at [email protected] ; Satoshi Kawano in Tokyo at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Gentle at [email protected]

Obama Stripped to Skeleton Staff in a Government Shutdown

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-27/obama-stripped-to-skeleton-staff-in-a-government-shutdown.html

A U.S. government shutdown means President Barack Obama will have fewer people to cook meals, do the laundry, clean the floors or change the light bulbs , according to a White House contingency plan. About three-fourths of president’s 1,701-person staff would be sent home. The national security team would be cut back, fewer economists would be tracking the economy and there wouldn’t be as many budget officials to track spending. White House policy decisions on the environment and drug policy might get postponed, as the executive mansion struggles to cope with a shutdown of the government. “If Congress chooses not to pass a budget by Monday -- the end of the fiscal year -- they will shut down the government, along with many vital services that the American people depend on,” Obama said yesterday in the White House briefing room. Lawmakers have reached an impasse in their search for compromise legislation to fund the government. The House and Senate have passed different versions of the bill, which must be reconciled and approved by the Oct. 1 start of the new fiscal year or the government would shut down. The congressional dispute would leave the White House with a bare-bones staff, according to the plan submitted Sept. 26. The executive office of the president would designate approximately 436 employees as “excepted,” or exempt from furlough to perform their jobs. The remaining 1,265 employees would be sent home. The president and Vice President Joe Biden are exempt from furlough. First Day Work will continue “with a limited number of employees to sustain minimal excepted operations,” according to the plan. Like other agencies, most White House workers are being directed to work on the first day of the shutdown for about four hours winding down activities, securing and closing computer files before going home. Top White House aides, political appointees and officials requiring Senate confirmation are permitted to work. Of the total, 438 people work directly for the president. Under a shutdown, 129 could continue working, according to the contingency plan. Biden, who has a staff of 24, would have had to make do with 12. Of the 90 people who maintain the president’s family living quarters, only 15 would remain to provide “minimum maintenance and support.” Contingency Plans Obama’s national security staff of 66 would be cut to 42. Similar staff cuts would be imposed at the White House Office of Management and Budget, the Council on Environmental Quality, the Council of Economic Advisers and the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which are all part of the president’s executive office. Agencies throughout the federal government have submitted contingency plans to the budget office to be implemented in the event of a shutdown. It marks the second time in Obama’s presidency this has happened -- many of this year’s plans track closely with preparations put together during a similar scenario in 2011. To contact the reporters on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at [email protected] ; Phil Mattingly in Washington at [email protected]

Swiss Franc Snaps Four-Day Advance as Risk Aversion Recedes in Europe

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-30/swiss-franc-snaps-four-day-advance-as-risk-aversion-recedes-in-europe.html

The Swiss franc snapped a four-day gain against the euro before a report forecast to show the economy is recovering from recession, as rising stock markets sapped demand for the currency as a refuge. The franc weakened from near its strongest level against the European currency since the euro’s 1999 debut. Switzerland’s leading economic indicators likely stayed at the highest in more than two years in June, economists said before the report is released today. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.2 percent, recovering some of a 3 percent plunge yesterday. “The franc has declined as the euro got a boost from an improved risk environment,” said Ian Stannard , a senior foreign-exchange strategist at BNP Paribas SA in London. “The Swiss franc is likely to remain very well supported going forward.” The franc weakened 0.2 percent to 1.3213 per euro as of 9:46 a.m. in London and was little changed at 1.0819 per dollar, near the lowest level since May 3. The franc appreciated to 1.3166 yesterday, its strongest-ever level against the euro. To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Brown in London at [email protected]

Fannie Mae to Redeem Step-Coupon Notes Due 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-19/fannie-mae-to-redeem-step-coupon-notes-due-2015.html

The following issue is being redeemed via the company's call option: Issuer: Fannie Mae Coupon: Step-Coupon Maturity: Oct. 29, 2015 Redemption Amount: $50 million Redemption Price: 100 percent Amount Remaining: Fully Retired Security ID: 3136FPQE0 Effective Date: Oct. 29, 2011

Japan’s Industry Minister Kaieda to Step Down After Nuclear Plant Disaster

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-04/japan-s-industry-minister-to-step-down-after-nuclear-disaster.html

Japan ’s industry minister, Banri Kaieda , said he will resign after replacing three officials in charge of energy policy and outlining a new structure for the ministry following the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The new structure will separate the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency from the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry, addressing the conflict inherent in the dual roles of promoting and regulating the nuclear industry. That conflict has been highlighted in the last week by revelations the regulator urged utilities to influence public opinion in favor of nuclear energy. The disaster at Fukushima capped decades of faked safety reports and fatal accidents in Japan’s atomic industry. Kaieda said in a meeting with reporters yesterday that the dismissal of the ministry’s top bureaucrat and the heads of agencies in charge of nuclear oversight and energy policy are part of “sweeping” changes. The outgoing officials are Kazuo Matsunaga, 59, the ministry’s vice minister; Tetsuhiro Hosono, 58, director general of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy; and Nobuaki Terasaka, 58, the director general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. Leadership Shuffle The leadership change isn’t enough to tackle failures that contributed to the Fukushima disaster, according to a former industry ministry official. “To account for the huge mess in Fukushima, they should fire all the director generals in the ministry, or dismantle it entirely,” said Hiroyuki Kishi, now a professor at the Graduate School of Media Design at Keio University. He described the move as “cosmetic,” saying the bureaucrats were due to leave the ministry as part of a regular reshuffle. The new appointments will be made from within the ministry. Kenyu Adachi, 52, director general of the Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau, will replace Matsunaga. Hosono will be replaced by Ichiro Takahara, 54, director general of the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, while Hiroyuki Fukano, 54, the director general of Commerce and Distribution Policy Group, will be appointed chief of the Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency, or NISA. NISA, which lists one of its codes of conduct as “neutrality and justice,” will be separated from METI to give it more independence, the government said last month. Kaieda said he will step down sometime after the appointments become official, which the ministry said would be Aug. 12, and after an outline for the new ministry structure is in place. Emitting Radiation Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima plant has been emitting radiation since an earthquake and tsunami on March 11 knocked out power and cooling, causing three reactor meltdowns and hydrogen explosions. The accident is rated at the highest level on a severity scale, the same as the Chernobyl disaster in the former Soviet Union in 1986. Tokyo Electric ignored warnings about the tsunami risks that caused the crisis at Fukushima, according to Tatsuya Ito, who represented Fukushima prefecture in the national parliament from 1991 to 2003. Chubu Electric Power Co., one of the country’s regional electricity monopolies, said on July 29 the nuclear regulator asked the utility to prepare questions favoring atomic power for a public hearing in 2007. Kyushu Electric Kyushu Electric Power Co. earlier said it asked staffers at affiliates to send e-mails supporting the restart of reactors to an internet-broadcast show run by METI on plant safety. A NISA official asked Kyushu Electric, Shikoku Electric Power Co. and Tohoku Electric Power Co. to send employees to a symposium on nuclear power to influence public opinion, Kyodo News reported this week. An independent panel may be set up to investigate the alleged attempts to sway opinion by the regulator and Japan’s power companies, Kaieda said. “We will cooperate with the investigation when requested,” said Takumi Koyamada, a NISA spokesman reached by telephone. To contact the reporters on this story: Tsuyoshi Inajima in Tokyo at [email protected] ; Yuji Okada in Tokyo at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Langan at [email protected]

U.S. Bus Riders Surge as Free Wi-Fi Beats Driving

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-21/-cool-bus-trips-surge-as-free-wi-fi-beats-driving-study-shows.html

Megabus.com and BoltBus led U.S. curbside bus companies that boosted trips by 32 percent this year as travelers opted to leave their cars behind and surf the Internet while traveling, DePaul University researchers said. The popularity of U.S. intercity buses picking up passengers at the curb rather than in a terminal has been growing since the industry reversed a 46-year decline in 2006, Joseph Schwieterman, director of DePaul’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development in Chicago , said in a telephone interview. Bus traffic including traditional service grew this year at the fastest pace since 2008, the institute said in a study released today. Higher gasoline costs make driving a car more expensive at the same time as buses offer access to free Wi-Fi and cheaper fares than on planes and trains, Schwieterman said. Once viewed as a last resort in the U.S., bus travel is now attracting more affluent riders, students and women traveling alone, he said. “Bus travel is suddenly cool,” Schwieterman said. “There’s a fatigue over driving combined with a revitalized image of the bus.” Exceeds Airline Gains Daily intercity curbside bus departures increased to 778 from 589 a year ago, according to a DePaul study to be published today. Scheduled departures for the total bus industry, which includes Greyhound Lines, increased 7.1 percent to 2,693. That compares with a gain of 1.5 percent for airline seat miles and 1.2 percent for rail seat miles, according to the study. The institute’s annual snapshot of the bus industry is based on the number of industry wide departures on one Friday in December. As bus customers come back, fares are increasing, Schwieterman said. Routes where fares of $20 or less were once common are now seeing tickets priced at $35 or $40, he said. Megabus and BoltBus offer a limited number of seats for as little as $1 with advanced booking. Typical one-way New York-to- Washington Megabus fares range from $17 to $26, according to its website. BoltBus tickets range from $15 to $27. Safety Questions Regulators are questioning the safety of bus travel after 28 people died in eight crashes this year. The National Transportation Safety Board warned in an Oct. 31 study that curbside operators are seven times more likely to be involved in a fatal wreck than intercity lines with more conventional business models. Neither of the two largest U.S. curbside operators -- Stagecoach Group Plc (SGP) ’s Megabus and FirstGroup Plc (FGP) ’s BoltBus, a partnership between Greyhound and Peter Pan Bus Lines Inc. -- were involved in this year’s fatal accidents. A Megabus coach traveling to Toronto crashed into a bridge outside Syracuse, New York, in September 2010, killing four. The NTSB’s warning about the dangers of curbside buses included so-called Chinatown operators, which can operate under multiple names, the board said. The DePaul researchers don’t include Chinatown companies in their calculations because the operators tend to pool their buses, may not run them under independent brands, and may also use unmarked, leased buses, Schwieterman said. Adding Routes New routes helped drive growth. BoltBus set up a hub in Newark , New Jersey , with 40 daily buses to Baltimore, Boston , Philadelphia and Washington, the study said. Aberdeen, Scotland- based FirstGroup also began Greyhound Express in Chicago and on the East Coast, and plans to expand further, according to the study. FirstGroup is experiencing across-the-board growth on U.S. routes, said Timothy Stokes, a spokesman for the company’s U.S. subsidiary based in Cincinnati. Station-based Greyhound routes are gaining as well as curbside BoltBus and luxury Greyhound Express, he said. “People are spending their money more wisely,” Stokes said. “They’re weighing their options more wisely.” Megabus opened new hubs in Pittsburgh, with 38 departures, and Atlanta, with 29. Its Chicago and New York hubs appear to now be profitable, the study said. Stagecoach is based in Perth, Scotland. More traffic in existing hubs in New York , Chicago and Philadelphia is also bolstering growth, said Bryony Chamberlain, director of Megabus USA. “We’ve come in with a product which is new and brings the long-distance, intercity buses to a new market,” Chamberlain said in a telephone interview. “It’s much nicer to be sitting there being driven somewhere than sitting in traffic.” To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Plungis in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bernard Kohn at [email protected]

Higher Oil Futures Margins May Boost Volatility, IEA Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-11/raising-oil-futures-margins-may-boost-price-volatility-iea-says.html

Rising margin requirements in oil futures trading may increase volatility and concentrate market share in the hands of large speculators, the International Energy Agency said. The Obama administration proposed rules on April 17 to strengthen the oversight of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to give it authority to raise margin requirements in oil futures trading. “If we consider raising margin requirements to a very high level through regulations to combat speculation, then we might find that certain trader groups, especially the hedgers and cash-constrained small speculators, will be driven out of the market,” the Paris-based adviser to oil-consuming nations said today in its monthly Oil Market Report. This would increase “concentration share where few traders, especially large traders, participate in the price discovery” and lead to “more volatile, rather than more stable, oil markets.” The IEA report also said that while higher margins may increase oil price volatility they may have “no effect on price levels ,” a reference to the overall price direction trend, which depends on physical supply and demand. Separately, CME Group Inc. (CME) , the world’s largest futures exchange, said on May 2 it would raise margins for non-hedged accounts from May 7 to comply with new regulations. On May 4, the CME received from U.S. regulators a 90-day extension for implementing those changes, under which members would have been treated as speculators for outright positions, paying a higher margin. To contact the reporter on this story: Sherry Su in London at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at [email protected]

Midwest to Heat Up Next Week Before Hotter Air Shifts West

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-23/midwest-to-heat-up-next-week-before-hotter-air-shifts-west.html

The Midwest has the best chance of heat next week before the odds shift west into the Rocky Mountain states, according to Matt Rogers , president of Commodity Weather Group LLC. Rogers’s 6- to 10-day outlook shows the entire U.S., with the exception of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, with a chance for warmer-than-normal weather. The most intense heat is forecast for western Kansas and Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle. In his 11- to 15-day outlook, for July 3 to July 7, Rogers shifts the most intense heat back into an area from southwestern Montana to Utah. “Model consensus has built for a burst of hotter conditions for the Midwest in the 6-10,” Rogers, based in Bethesda, Maryland, wrote in a note to clients today. Natural-gas traders monitor weather forecasts to determine whether temperatures may boost heating or cooling demand. Predictions of below-normal or above-normal temperatures may prompt traders to buy or sell gas futures. Commodity traders watch precipitation forecasts for impact on planting and yields. To contact the reporter on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at [email protected]

InBev Takeover Dilutes Loyalty to Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-11/inbev-takeover-dilutes-anheuser-busch-loyalty-as-st-louis-sips-craft-beer.html

St. Louis Cardinals fans are seeing something they never expected at Busch Stadium: craft beer flowing beside the Budweiser taps. Until a couple of months ago, Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s namesake baseball park allowed Schlafly draft beer to be sold at just one concession stand. Now eight sell it. “It’s like people are finally realizing that there is more than just a Bud,” said Mark Schwartz, 53, a season-ticket holder at the St. Louis Rams’ Edward Jones Dome, where Schlafly debuted for football fans this season. “It’s great to root on your hometown team with a hometown beer.” Generations of local loyalty is eroding in the wake of InBev’s 2008 hostile takeover of Anheuser-Busch -- a St. Louis tradition since 1852, when it was called Bavarian. For Schlafly and other small breweries in the city, it’s an opportunity to exploit the increased interest in craft beers nationwide. Drinking Bud in St. Louis used to be like driving a Ford or Chrysler in Detroit. Bars, restaurants and catering companies didn’t want to offend the company or its fans by offering other brands, said Mike Sweeney, a systems administrator and former part-time tour guide at Schlafly who runs a beer blog called STL Hops. Then Leuven, Belgium-based InBev bought Anheuser-Busch in November 2008 and by Christmas had trimmed about 1,400 U.S. jobs, three-quarters of them in St. Louis. They ranged from executives to brewery workers in a city where the baseball stadium carries the name of Anheuser-Busch’s founding family. Team Ties The brewer owned the Cardinals for more than four decades before selling the team in 1996. For years, the ballpark organist played the Budweiser theme song at games. “Now there’s a bit more ambivalence to AB: They’re just another major world company,” said Sweeney, 31, whose three- year-old website has attracted 50,000 visitors and a million page views in the past six months. “You don’t have that same hometown pride.” The AB InBev unit’s market share and number of tap handles in St. Louis are stable and its share in professional sports stadiums remains “exceptionally strong,” said Dave Peacock , president of the U.S. unit, Anheuser-Busch. “We have a strong bond with St. Louis and the people here, and they return the sentiment,” Peacock said. “We never take any beer sale for granted, whether it’s in St. Louis or anywhere across the United States.” Craft Surge Craft beers are a growing trend everywhere, he said, pointing out that Anheuser’s Shock Top wheat beer and AmberBock are sold at Busch Stadium and Edward Jones Dome. The Brewers Association, a Boulder, Colorado-based trade group for craft and microbreweries, calls such beers from major brewers “domestic specialties.” It defines craft beers as those less than 25 percent-owned by a large brewer and producing less than 2 million barrels a year. U.S. sales of craft beers increased 13 percent in the year ended Oct. 3, according to Chicago-based researcher SymphonyIRI Group. Domestic premiums such as Bud Light, the country’s best- selling beer, declined almost 3 percent. Businesses that serve beer see a turn in customer attitudes. Chris Sommers opened Pi Pizzeria in St. Louis six months before the InBev takeover and offered only microbrews as a way to stand out. “People were really angry with us in the beginning,” said Sommers, 34, whose restaurant now features Schlafly Pi Common, a custom-made brew. “After the takeover, that all changed. The anger shifted.” No More Grief Customers “come into our restaurant now and don’t even give us grief anymore, because they don’t think of AB as local,” he said. Some competitors come from Anheuser-Busch’s own ranks. Its stock even financed one entrepreneur. Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. was started by Florian Kuplent, a brewmaster who helped create Shock Top, and David Wolfe, 43, who was senior director of consumer strategy and innovation. Both left Anheuser-Busch earlier this year. Kuplent, 36, said he doesn’t see himself as a serious challenger to his former employer. “The more specialty brewers there are, the better it is for everybody,” he said. “There is space for everybody.” Tom Schlafly, 62, used Anheuser-Busch stock as part of the collateral for a loan to start Schlafly. He and partner Dan Kopman founded the brewery two decades ago. Last Laugh “They laughed at us when we first opened in 1991 -- a microbrewery in St. Louis, home of the Bud?” said Kopman, 49, who bills Schlafly Bottleworks as “St. Louis’s first new production brewery since the end of Prohibition.” Local restaurant and bar owners often spouted the same refrain when Kopman first tried to persuade them to serve his brands: They already stocked all the beers. “Of course, what they meant by ‘all’ was that they served the full lineup of Anheuser-Busch beers, and not just Bud and Bud Light,” Kopman said. AB InBev also makes Bud Ice, Michelob and Busch brands. Kopman said Schlafly expects to sell about 35,500 barrels this year, up from 9,600 in 2003. AB InBev shares have more than doubled to $43.72 from $18.25 since Nov. 18, 2008, the day it closed the Anheuser-Busch purchase. Yet St. Louis tastes continue to shift. Carleen Kramer, vice president of Catering St. Louis , said clients’ preferences have changed since the company was founded 30 years ago. It served only Anheuser-Busch products because that’s all people wanted to drink. Brother Bud “Your brother didn’t have a job if you didn’t drink AB beer,” said Kramer, 57. “It was about loyalty.’ That changed after the takeover led employees in St. Louis to worry about their jobs. Catering St. Louis has increased the proportion of Schlaflys it stocks. “It’s given people permission to try something new,” Kramer said. “Schlafly is the little guy, the underdog.” Delaware North Cos ., which holds the beer-vending concession license at Busch Stadium and Edward Jones Dome, noticed the growing interest in Schlaflys and decided to give them a try. “We wanted to see if that product line had legs,” said Dan Fetcho, regional director for the Buffalo, New York-based vendor’s Sportservice subsidiary. “Schlafly is a local flavor that has become more and more mainstream.” Boutique Brew That popularity may not carry the brand beyond its boutique status. Brewers whose output exceeds 60,000 barrels a year are required to pay the same $18-a-barrel excise tax as the world’s biggest brewers, according to the Brewers Association , which is working to get the law changed. For now, small brewers are growing one tap at a time, in venues such as the Edward Jones Dome, where Christopher Field manages the only beer stand carrying Schlafly. It’s in Section 104, near a corner of the north end zone. “People were coming from the other side of the dome just to buy it,” he said, noting the new preference as fans rushed to place orders during last call at a recent game. “People were saying, ‘All I want is one more Schlafly.’” To contact the reporters on this story: Angie Lau in Chicago at [email protected] ; Duane D. Stanford in Atlanta at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Flynn McRoberts at [email protected] .

Ukraine Grain Exports Total 313,000 Tons So Far, Researcher Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-22/ukraine-grain-exports-total-313-000-tons-so-far-researcher-says.html

Ukraine exported 313,000 tons of grain in the first 20 days of June, Kiev-based researcher UkrAgroConsult said, citing information from ports. Shipments included 109,000 tons of corn sold to Portugal and Tunisia , the company said in an e-mailed statement today. Wheat exports of 106,000 tons went mostly to the European Union. Barley exports totaled 82,800 tons, with shipments to Saudi Arabia , Israel and Italy, it said. Grain exports were 754,000 tons in May, according to UkrAgroConsult. To contact the reporter on this story: Kateryna Choursina in Kiev at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at [email protected]

Colombia Stocks: Cementos Argos, Isagen Rise; Aval Falls

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-04/colombia-stocks-cementos-argos-isagen-rise-aval-falls.html

The following companies are having unusual price changes in Bogota trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are as of 11:13 a.m. New York time. The IGBC Index fell 1 percent to 13,976.28, while the Colcap Index dropped 0.7 percent to 1,660.88. Cementos Argos (CEMARGOS CB), Colombia ’s biggest cement maker, rose 2.1 percent to 10,720 pesos, the most since March 18, after the company announced appraisal results for 5,242 hectares of property in northern Colombia. The properties nearly doubled in value to $1.5 billion. “That’s a very positive development and will affect the stock,” said Andres Jimenez , head of international sales at Interbolsa SA. Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores (AVAL) SA, Colombia’s biggest financial holding company, fell for a third day, dropping 0.8 percent to 1,330 pesos, its lowest in five months, as shareholders who had bid high on the company’s oversubscribed share issuance seek to sell off extra shares, Jimenez said. Isagen SA (ISAGEN CB), a Colombian energy company, rose 0.2 percent to 2,330 pesos, after the company said first-quarter net income increased to 122.5 billion pesos ($69 million). A year earlier, profit was 78.2 billion pesos, the company said in a statement posted yesterday on the website of Colombia’s securities regulator. Oil companies fell as crude oil extended its drop after a U.S. government report showed a bigger-than-forecast increase in inventories. Ecopetrol SA (ECOPETL) , Colombia’s state-run oil company , fell 1.5 percent to 3,740 pesos. Pacific Rubiales (PREC CB) declined 2.2 percent to 50,780 pesos, its lowest in a month. Canacol Energy Ltd. (CNE) , the Calgary-based oil company that operates fields in South America , dropped 3.7 percent to 2,200 pesos. To contact the reporter on this story: Blake Schmidt in Bogota at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at [email protected]

InterMune Doubles After European Panel Backs Esbriet Respiratory Drug

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-17/intermune-doubles-after-european-panel-backs-esbriet-respiratory-drug.html

InterMune Inc. had a record gain in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading after a European regulatory committee recommended approval of its medicine Esbriet to treat a fatal lung disease. InterMune rose $20.62 to $34.89 at 4 p.m. New York time, more than doubling in the stock’s biggest increase since the Brisbane, California-based company first sold shares to the public in March 2000. The European Commission is expected to ratify the committee’s decision in two to three months, the drugmaker said today in a statement. The drug isn’t approved for sale in the U.S., where regulators rejected the company’s application in May. The denial had sent shares down 75 percent. Peak sales in Europe may reach $1.2 billion, with the drug priced at $21,000 a year per patient, said Adam Cutler , an analyst with Canaccord Genuity. “This will drive significant sales and will enable the company to be profitable as soon as the end of 2011,” Cutler wrote today in a research note. Based in New York, Cutler raised his recommendation on InterMune shares to “buy.” The lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, “is among the most urgent of unmet medical needs in respiratory medicine,” said Roland du Bois, a professor of respiratory medicine at the National Heart & Lung Institute at Imperial College in London and co-chair of the program that tested InterMune’s medicine, in an InterMune statement today. More than 100,000 Europeans suffer from the disease, for which there are no approved therapies in the European Union, du Bois said. Appoints Team InterMune also said today that it appointed a team to prepare to sell the medicine in Europe, led by Giacomo Di Nepi , who joined the company in November 2009 after roles as chief executive officer of Osaka, Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.’s European business and global head for the Transplantation and Infectious Disease unit of Novartis Pharma AG. The company’s European headquarters will be in Basel, Switzerland, and it has established subsidiaries in Germany, Italy and the U.K. InterMune is in the final stages of establishing subsidiaries in France and Spain, and plans to have a European workforce of about 125 people by the end of 2012. In May, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked for a new clinical trial to prove the medicine delays progression of the disease, snubbing an advisory panel’s recommendation that the drug be approved. FDA Status The company plans to provide an update on the medicine’s status with the FDA in the first quarter of 2011, spokesman Jim Goff said in a telephone interview today. “We continue to evaluate various alternatives,” he said. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis causes an unexplained scarring and inflammation in the lungs and is usually fatal within five years. The condition mostly affects people ages 50 to 75, causing air sacs in the lung to be gradually replaced with scar tissue, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s website. Most patients die of respiratory failure when the lungs can’t expand to get oxygen into the bloodstream. To contact the reporter on this story: Meg Tirrell in New York at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at [email protected] .

Sumitomo Life Sticks to Buying Japanese Bonds in Second Half

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-21/sumitomo-life-sticks-to-buying-japanese-bonds-in-second-half.html

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. plans to invest mainly in yen-denominated bonds in the fiscal second half after buying about 800 billion yen ($10 billion) worth of domestic debt in the first half to safeguard returns. The insurer, which has about 21 trillion yen in assets, will mainly invest in Japanese government bonds with longer maturities in the six months through March 31, said Yoshiteru Hata, deputy general manager at the insurer’s investment planning division. He declined to provide specific figures for the investment plan, citing company policy. Sumitomo Life is sticking to the relative safety of bonds on concerns that the global economy will remain weak amid Europe ’s sovereign debt crisis and as Japan copes with the aftermath of the March earthquake. The government may sell about 1 trillion yen of bonds to fund the rebuilding of areas stricken by the record quake, said two government officials who declined to be identified because the plan isn’t public. “Japanese government bonds will remain our main investments,” Hata said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. “We’ve added more than we had expected in the first half on prospects that the yield will come down. We have no intention to earn returns by betting on riskier assets such as equities.” Sumitomo Life doesn’t have any investments in Portugal , Ireland, Italy , Greece and Spain , Hata said. The five European nations had their sovereign ratings cut. Japan’s sovereign bonds earned 2.4 percent in the fiscal first half ended Sept. 30, according to Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch index. The Nikkei 225 (NKY) Stock Average slumped 11 percent. Redeeming Hedge Fund Sumitomo Life expects demand for loans to remain weak, as many higher-rated companies are taking advantage of the strengthening yen to raise funds overseas, Hata said. Loan balance decreased by about 100 billion yen in the first half, according to the insurer. Holdings of overseas bonds and equities remained unchanged in the fiscal first half and investment decisions will hinge on market moves for the second half, Hata said. Domestic stock holdings declined in the first half as the insurer redeemed its investment in a fund-of-hedge funds, Hata said. The insurer remains “cautious” about investing in domestic stocks in the second half, while real estate holdings will remain unchanged, he said. Following are Sumitomo Life’s market forecasts for the fiscal second half through March 2012. The ranges refer to where the insurer expects securities to trade during the period. To contact the reporters on this story: Tomoko Yamazaki in Tokyo at [email protected] ; Komaki Ito in Tokyo at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andreea Papuc at [email protected]

Vijaya Bank and IDBI Bank CDs Deals: Indian Money Market

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-10/vijaya-bank-and-idbi-bank-cds-deals-indian-money-market.html

Following is a table showing certificate of deposits dealt by Indian companies. The data has been provided by NVS Brokerage Ltd., SPA Securities Ltd. and Trust Financial Consultancy Services. T = Tentative C=Confirmed Date Security Mty Date Qnty(Crs.)Rate Buyer Seller CTRB Status 10-Jul-13 CBI 02-Dec-13 8.00 NVSB T 10-Jul-13 VIJAYA 25-Sep-13 7.65 ALLAHB. SPAS T 10-Jul-13 IDBI 12-Sep-13 25 8.62 SPAS T 10-Jul-13 CORPI 04-Mar-14 50 8.09 SPAS T 10-Jul-13 PNB 10-Mar-14 50 8.10 SBI MF BANK TFCS T 10-Jul-13 PNB 05-Mar-14 25 8.10 SBI PRAM. MF TFCS T 10-Jul-13 CANARA 03-Mar-14 25 8.10 TATA MF TFCS T 10-Jul-13 BOI 24-Sep-13 25 7.60 SPAS T 10-Jul-13 CANARA 03-Mar-14 8.10 NVSB T 10-Jul-13 CANARA 06-Mar-14 8.10 NVSB T 10-Jul-13 CBI 05-Mar-14 8.12 NVSB T 10-Jul-13 SBT 03-Sep-13 50 7.53 UNI. KBC TEMP MF TFCS T 10-Jul-13 SBT 03-Sep-13 25 7.53 SAH. MF TEMP MF TFCS T 10-Jul-13 IOB 06-Sep-13 50 7.55 UNI. KBC AXIS TFCS T 10-Jul-13 VIJAYA 25-Sep-13 100 7.65 ALLAHBAD MF TFCS T 10-Jul-13 CBI 02-Dec-13 50 8.00 ALLAHB. TFCS T T = Tentative C=Confirmed Contributed via: Bloomberg Publisher WEB Service Provider ID: e994bd5f0f654a4b82aac57e89f64156

The College SAT: Higher Costs, Lower Relevance

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-04/the-college-sat-less-relevant-and-cruelly-expensive.html

Paying someone to take the SAT test on your behalf -- as six Long Island students were recently charged with doing -- is illegal. If convicted, the students could face jail time for their offense. That's justice, however sad. The episode points up the absurdities that have grown up like ivy around the long revered -- and increasingly criticized -- SAT. Many parents spend vast amounts of money, from SAT prep courses to private tutoring, for a test that, according to some college officials, isn't that predictive of how well students will perform in college. You might ask yourself, 'Isn't that the point of the SAT'? But shaky justification has done nothing to slow the flow of money into everything and anything related to the test. Gaming The System The alleged cheating scandal is "part and parcel of the test score arms race out there now," says Robert Schaeffer, public education director at FairTest, a nonprofit that monitors the testing industry. "Kids believe they need to raise scores by any means possible." Says Elizabeth Wissner-Gross, an international educational strategist hired to help students prepare for college: “People are desperate to get their kids into certain colleges.” In the get-into-college game, desperation quickly converts into cash. The smallest alleged payment to the test taker, $1,500, wouldn't cover one of the most basic SAT prep courses. The small-group SAT review course given by the Princeton Review consists of 24 hours of instruction and costs $1,600. The company's priciest one-on-one tutoring package in New York costs $8,400, and some professional tutors charge up to $800 an hour. If students such as the alleged cheaters are cynical about college admissions, it’s because “students understand it’s a system they can game,” says Wake Forest University Professor Joseph Soares. A critic of universities’ reliance on test scores, Soares is the editor of the book “SAT Wars: The Case for Test-Optional College Admissions,” released Sept. 30. Investments in test prep can pay off, to a point. According to FairTest, it boosts SAT scores an average of 100 to 120 points. Yet if the point of using the SAT is to determine how well a student will do in college, they're not that valuable, say critics. A study in Soares’ book shows that a 200-point difference in SAT scores makes virtually no difference in the grades college students get. High school grades, meanwhile, provide valuable information on how likely a student is to get good grades and complete a bachelor’s degree, he says. Kathleen Steinberg, spokesperson for the College Board , which administers the SAT, strongly disagrees. She says research, including a 2008 College Board study, shows that standardized test scores do help predict success in the first year of college. As well, “the SAT helps admission officers put high school grades in perspective,” she says. Colleges are casting their own vote and increasingly it's thumbs down. The number of accredited colleges that don't require all or most applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores has grown to about a third, according to FairTest. That includes prominent New England liberal arts schools such as Smith College , Bowdoin College, and Bates College, as well as Wake Forest University. The College Board cites its own statistics. Steinberg says that of the 1,500 most selective four-year not-for-profit colleges in the U.S. about 5% do not require standardized test scores "for the main body of students." Many test-optional schools still receive test scores from most applicants, she adds, and use them in admissions decisions. Doubters Abound DePaul University, a 25,000-student school, will convert to a test-optional policy starting with next year's class. Chicago-based DePaul made the decision after four years of comparing incoming student test scores with later academic performance. Other criteria, such as grades in college-preparation courses and involvement in extracurricular activities, were much better markers of future success, says Father Dennis Holtschneider, the university's president. Only some students can afford test prep courses and take tests multiple times, he says. “We’re trying to level the playing field a little bit by using something that’s a much better predictor.” Standardized test scores are also losing importance at Fairfield University. Starting with 2010's incoming class, it made test scores optional. For years before that, "test scores were becoming less and less a factor for us," says director of undergraduate admission Karen Pellegrino. "The hardest thing is making students believe that we're really not looking at them." Where the SAT's value soars is when it is used to get money. Standardized test scores remain very important in getting scholarships, including the National Merit Scholarship. “It is a smart economic decision to purchase [test] coaching for that reason,” says FairTest's Schaeffer. A small increase in scores can make a student eligible for thousands of dollars in extra scholarship money. That means many students are at a disadvantage in getting that money. On the SAT, men score higher than women, whites higher than blacks, and students with upper middle class backgrounds higher than working-class students, according to Soares. Says Schaeffer: "The thing that SATs measure best is socioeconomic status.” To contact the writer on this story: Ben Steverman at [email protected] To contact the editor on this story: Suzanne Woolley at [email protected]

Batista Warns Short Sellers That Bets Against Him Will Backfire

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-24/batista-warns-short-sellers-they-ll-regret-bets-against-him.html

Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista warned short sellers wagering against his companies that they’ll regret their bets, according to posts on his Twitter account. Asked by other Twitter users about the companies’ falling stock prices, Batista wrote on March 23 that “rumors and gossip are the tools of short sellers,” who will be “caught with their pants down.” Short sellers borrow shares and sell them in order to profit from buying them later at a lower price. Batista posted on Twitter a day after his companies came under renewed selling pressure on the Sao Paulo exchange on concerns they’re losing access to the financing needed to carry out investment plans. Shares of OSX Brasil SA (OSXB3) , Batista’s shipbuilding and oil services unit, plunged 17 percent to a record-low 4.88 reais at the close of trading. Oil company OGX Petroleo (OGXP3) & Gas Participacoes SA fell 9.2 percent. OGX has fallen 48 percent this year, and OSX is down 54 percent. Batista, whose personal wealth has fallen about $25 billion as the value of his companies declined in the past year, faces demands from creditors to boost collateral, people familiar with the matter said last week. OSX is planning to sell $265 million in secured bonds due in June 2014, a person familiar with the plans said on March 15. There is no collateral demand from creditors, said a person close to Batista's holding company, EBX Group Co., on March 22. Esteves Interview Batista’s units have the “necessary funding established for the coming years,” EBX Group said in an e-mailed statement on March 19. In his Twitter posts, Batista referred readers to an interview with Grupo BTG Pactual (BBTG11) President Andre Esteves published online March 23 by Estado de S. Paulo. Batista’s companies are in no danger of failing and he remains one of the best-capitalized businessmen in Brazil, Esteves is quoted by the Sao-Paulo based newspaper as saying. Earlier this month, BTG and Batista entered into a strategic cooperation agreement. BTG has extended Batista credit lines in the range of 1 billion reais ($498 million), Esteves said, according to Estado. Bloomberg News reported on March 7 that BTG provided a $1 billion credit line to EBX, according to a person with direct knowledge of the agreement. Asked on Twitter if it’s not time to start talking about what he is doing with his companies, Batista posted, “We’re going to turn on the communications engines.” Pointing out that the port he’s building at Acu in Rio de Janeiro state will help ease logistical logjams, he wrote: “It’s not I who needs help, it’s Brazil.” To contact the reporters on this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto in Rio de Janeiro at [email protected] ; Alex Cuadros in Sao Paulo at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andre Soliani at [email protected]

BOX Exchange Gets SEC OK to Trade Jumbo S&P 500 ETF Options

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-06/box-exchange-gets-sec-ok-to-trade-jumbo-s-p-500-etf-options.html

BOX Options Exchange, the third- smallest of 11 U.S. options venues, will be the first to begin trading larger-size contracts on the most-active U.S. equity derivatives product, according to a company executive. BOX will list and trade contracts based on 1,000 shares of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust starting May 10, according to Ed Boyle, senior vice president for strategy at the Boston-based exchange. The so-called jumbo options, approved May 3 by the Securities and Exchange Commission, will be 10 times larger than existing contracts on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index exchange- traded fund, known by the ticker symbol SPY. The contract is designed to give institutional investors another way to trade the S&P 500 at a time when many asset managers are increasing their use of ETFs as part of their investment strategies. Institutions often use larger-size contracts like S&P 500 options that enable them to buy or sell bigger positions without signaling their intentions and moving the market. “We see customer demand for the product because it offers flexibility to institutions and traders looking for larger notional size in trades,” Boyle said by phone. “It also provides additional price competition across indexes and ETFs.” The contracts, which will be a separate product from the regular-size options based on 100 shares of the S&P 500 ETF, also offer an alternative to indexes such as the S&P 500, which trades exclusively on the Chicago Board Options Exchange , Boyle said. ETF Popularity Some 18 percent of institutional investors in the U.S. now have ETFs among their holdings, up from 14 percent in 2012, according to a report today from research firm Greenwich Associates. BOX’s pricing, which will be announced in the middle of this week, will not be the standard taker/maker structure the venue uses for many options, Boyle said. The taker/maker regime pays firms to trade with bids and offers on the exchange and charges those providing quotes. If daily average volume exceeds 20,000 contracts by the end of the year, BOX will consider the jumbo SPY options a success, Boyle said. The exchange may ask the SEC for permission to introduce jumbo options on other actively traded ETFs including those based on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq-100 Index, he said. Other options exchanges are likely to list and trade jumbo SPY (SPY) options, Boyle said. BOX, owned by the operator of the Toronto stock market and a group of brokers, asked permission to trade the product in January. The SEC approval came over objections by CBOE Holdings Inc. (CBOE) , NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. BOX had 2.2 percent of U.S. volume in April, according to data compiled by Chicago-based Options Clearing Corp. To contact the reporter on this story: Nina Mehta in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson in New York at [email protected] .

NRA Win After 2012 Losses Shows Gap With Control Allies

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-18/nra-win-after-2012-losses-shows-gap-with-control-allies.html

The National Rifle Association used the threat of an election-year backlash to tamp down U.S. Senate support for expanded background checks on gun sales -- even though the lobbying group lost almost every race it spent money on during the 2012 campaign. The NRA’s power to sway federal lawmakers stems from its ability to motivate what it says are 4.5 million members to go to the polls, Democratic and Republican strategists said. So far gun-control groups haven’t proved an equal counterweight. “I’m sure the NRA is popping champagne corks,” Senator Tom Harkin , an Iowa Democrat, said as he walked off the Senate floor yesterday. Harkin voted for the background-check measure, which failed to reach the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster. Voting to support the proposal were 54 senators, while 46 opposed it. President Barack Obama blamed the demise of a compromise version of his gun legislation package on the NRA and similar groups and said advocates of change need to be “as passionate and as organized and as vocal” as they are. “The real impact is going to have to come from the voters,” Obama said in the White House Rose Garden after the vote as victims of gun violence stood by his side. “You need to let your representative in Congress know that you are disappointed, and if they don’t act this time, you will remember come election time.” NRA Scorecard The NRA had announced on April 10 that senators’ votes on the gun bill and its amendments would be included in its legislative scorecard that measures, on an “A” to “F” scale, lawmakers’ support for the group’s agenda. “If the NRA didn’t score this, we’d have had 15 more votes,” Senator Joe Manchin , a West Virginia Democrat and co-sponsor of the background-check amendment, said today on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program. The outcome of the four-month debate over gun control illustrates the imbalance between the experienced NRA and the pro-control organizations emerging in recent years that have yet to match its messaging and grassroots mobilizing. Former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, who was injured in a shooting in Tucson in 2011, appealed to supporters of her gun-control political committee after the vote. If the Senate won’t vote for new gun laws, she said in the e-mail, “then we need to change the members of the Senate.” Election Challenge New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg , a co-founder of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, made a similar pledge today at a news conference at Rockefeller University in Manhattan. The mayor, 71 and a billionaire, is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP. “You voted to have people out there who are mentally ill and criminals, who’ve proven they’re bad people, to have guns on the streets,” he said to the senators who opposed the bill. “The next time you run for office, I’m going to be working for the other side.” Yet to make inroads, challenges facing gun-control advocates include piercing the NRA’s intimidating reputation for beating elected officials who stray on the gun control issue. Vice President Joe Biden , who presided over the vote on background checks, said earlier yesterday during an online chat that one member of Congress he had met with spoke forthrightly about why he would vote against a plan that polls show is supported by as much as 90 percent of the public. Showing Up “The 10 percent who don’t agree, they’re going to show up, and the 90 percent who think it’s a good idea, they’re not going to vote for me or against me because of how I vote on this,” Biden said the member told him. Biden advised those watching the chat: “You gotta say, ’This means the most to me.’” Biden’s Capitol Hill conversation reflects what political scientists and congressional analysts have been saying: Gun owners are far more likely to be single-issue voters than gun- control advocates. Political scientist Jonathan Bernstein wrote March 28 on his website, “A Plain Blog About Politics,” that the “problem here is equating ’90 percent in the polls’ with ’calling for change.’” Passionate Base The NRA has at its disposal a passionate base of supporters, which it stokes with angry and sometimes exaggerated rhetoric about gun measures. Obama said yesterday that the gun lobby “willfully lied” about the background-check measure, telling its members it would start a gun registry. The legislation included a provision specifically banning such a roster of gun owners. PolitiFact, a St. Petersburg, Florida-based group that fact-checks political ads, labeled the NRA assertion a “pants on fire” false statement. “NRA members are what people in the activism world call champions,” said Blain Rethmeier, a Republican strategist and former press secretary on Capitol Hill. “They are more than supporters. They are willing to take action and see to it that you don’t get re-elected. The senators know this.” Senator John Boozman , a NRA “A-rated” Republican from Arkansas, said he received “lots of mail” from constituents on the gun-regulation legislation, “probably as much mail as I’ve received on any issue.” ‘Very Concerned’ Boozman said the sentiment is split “probably 80-20” percent opposed to more restrictions on gun purchases. “They are just very concerned in this climate that somebody is going to confiscate their guns,” he said in an interview. He voted against the background-check expansion. Senator John McCain , an Arizona Republican, said he has listened to “very passionate views on the issue. People feel strongly, they communicate.” Rated “B-plus” by the NRA, McCain voted in favor of the background-check measure. “I understand that will affect my rating with the NRA,” he said. Chris Cox, a spokesman for the Fairfax, Virginia-based NRA, said the expanded background checks “will not reduce violent crime.” The group, he said in a statement, will keep working with both parties on measures that help prosecute “violent criminals.” The NRA’s win on background checks comes after its losses last November, when the group spent millions of dollars in an unsuccessful bid to oust Obama and made a combined $4 million in investments in Senate races in Ohio, Virginia, Missouri, Indiana, Wisconsin and Florida, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based group that tracks political spending. All of the NRA-backed candidates in those Senate races lost. NRA Survivor Senator Tim Kaine , a Virginia Democrat with an “F” rating from the NRA, was one of the targeted candidates who overcame the gun lobby’s opposition to win his seat last year. He wrote in an April 9, 2013, opinion column in the Virginian-Pilot newspaper that “the power of the organization’s leadership is vastly overrated.” Just 5.2 percent of the $18 million the NRA spent on campaigns last year helped their preferred candidate win, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. “Is the NRA as politically powerful as it used to be?” asked Jim Manley , a Democratic strategist and former Senate aide. “If you look at the Senate this afternoon, the answer is yes. But the fact is that there are large sections of the country where it just doesn’t resonate anymore.” 2014 Elections A challenge for gun-control advocates is that seats up for grabs in 2014 Senate races includes several in western states where the NRA’s voice can move voters. Four Democrats opposed the background-check legislation: Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. All represent states that backed 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney , who beat Obama in their states by an average margin of 18 percentage points. Baucus, Begich and Pryor are up for re- election next year. ‘Definitional’ Moment Geoffrey Garin, president of the polling firm Hart Research Associates, said yesterday that voting against gun legislation “becomes definitional, showing whether someone is in the mainstream or out of the mainstream.” In a conference call arranged by the Democratic National Committee , Garin said continued Republican opposition to gun legislation supported by most of the public risks “degradation” of the party’s brand. Gun-control groups and the NRA will enter the next campaign showdown with target lists provided by the Senate vote, and they have already begun spending money. Mayors Against Illegal Guns spent $12 million on television ads to pressure senators on the legislation, with the money coming from Bloomberg. Through his super-political action committee, Independence USA, he also has spent more than $10 million in federal elections this year and last, much of it aimed at defeating NRA-backed candidates. In another echo of the NRA, the mayors’ group announced that it, too, would rate members of Congress on their gun votes and publicize that information come election time. Organizing for Action, a nonprofit formed from remnants of Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, plans to hold events in the states of senators it sees as “key” to expanding background checks. This could include the Democratic senators who voted against the legislation. Breaking ‘Stranglehold’ “The gun lobby’s power overall is receding, as shown by the last election,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal , a Connecticut Democrat who overcame $100,000 in NRA attack ads in his 2010 election. “The special interests like the NRA have long held a stranglehold, but we’re determined to break it.” Reaching a majority of the Senate to favor expanded background checks -- as well as last week achieving the 60 votes needed to even consider the gun bill, S. 649 -- showed that the gun lobby’s power is waning, Blumenthal said. “Just 4 1/2 months ago, this topic was politically untouchable,” he said in an interview. “About 10 days ago, 60 votes was completely unreachable. We reached 60 votes last week to continue the debate, and I think we can turn the tide on this one.” To contact the reporters on this story: Julie Bykowicz in Washington at [email protected] ; Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeanne Cummings at [email protected]

Emerging Markets Gain Clout at IMF Amid Faster Growth Trends

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-23/emerging-markets-gain-clout-at-imf-amid-faster-growth-trends.html

The clout of emerging markets at the International Monetary Fund is rising as faster economic growth from China to India in the past few years would boost their voting power, data released by the fund show. The calculated quota share of emerging and developing economies increased to 45.3 percent in 2011 from 43.9 percent in 2010 and 41.8 percent in 2008, according to a report released today and discussed by the board last month. The share for advanced economies fell to 54.7 percent from 56.1 percent. Most of the increase is linked to the countries’ gross domestic product, “reflecting a continued marked divergence in growth trends,” between developed and developing countries, according to the staff report. Among emerging countries, “the largest gains continue to be recorded by Asia while most other regions register modest increases.” The changes mirror a shift in the balance of economic power that saw developed economies struggling to recover from the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 while their emerging counterparts helped sustain global growth. IMF quotas help determine how much a country can borrow and its voting share at the IMF. Calculated with a formula that uses GDP as one of four components, they have been a point of discord between groups of countries as emerging markets demand more say at the institution. Paulo Nogueira Batista, who represents Brazil and 10 other countries at the IMF board, said in an e-mailed statement that the formula needs to change. “We remain of the view -- and have not found reasons to revise our position -- that to honor” commitments by the Group of 20 nations and the IMF’s steering committee, “the revised quota formula would need to be based essentially” on a GDP variable with more weight on purchasing power parity, he said. A 2010 agreement boosting the share of developing countries has not yet come into force, pending approval by the U.S. Congress. Fund members are trying to reach a new quota agreement by early next year. To contact the reporter on this story: Sandrine Rastello in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chris Wellisz at [email protected]

SocGen’s Yao Says China Rate Cut Shows More Accommodative Policy

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-07/socgen-s-yao-says-china-rate-cut-shows-more-accommodative-policy.html

Yao Wei, an economist at Societe Generale SA (GLE) , comments on China ’s decision to cut interest rates for the first time since 2008. “This move comes before the weekend release of China’s May data, which might imply negative data surprises.” “The further liberalization is more significant than the cut itself. Given the new floating band, deposit rates may actually rise to 3.575 percent. The lending rate can move to as low as 5 percent.” “It is a very strong policy signal in two-fold. One, monetary policy definitely turning more accommodative to restore market confidence. Two, Beijing is not forgetting structural reforms.” To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Daryl Loo in Beijing at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Liu at [email protected]

Hutchin Hill Credit Trader Ahmad Said to Leave, Unwind Positions

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-07/hutchin-hill-credit-trader-ahmad-said-to-leave-unwind-positions.html

Shahraab Ahmad, a credit trader at Hutchin Hill Capital LP who joined the firm at its 2008 inception, is leaving and has mostly completed liquidating his $150 million book. The 37-year-old money manager “has decided that he intends to retire,” New York-based Hutchin Hill said today in a letter to investors obtained by Bloomberg News. “We are parting amicably, we thank Shahraab for his many contributions to the firm and we wish him the best in his future endeavors.” Ahmad and his traders began selling positions in corporate bonds and credit-default swaps in May at the $1.1 billion firm founded by Neil Chriss, according to four people with knowledge of the situation. The hedge fund had sought investors last year for the Hutchin Hill Liquid Credit Master Fund Ltd. that Ahmad was managing, two of the people said. The private swaps market has been shrinking as U.S. rules that seek to curb risk and increase transparency take effect. Mandatory clearing of swaps, in which contracts are processed through clearinghouses and backed by collateral, began in March. A second phase requiring that users including hedge funds start clearing will begin June 10. Ahmad didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment on his departure. Nathaniel Garnick, a spokesman for Hutchin Hill at Sard Verbinnen & Co., declined to comment. Mark Meenan, a portfolio manager who joined the firm from Anchorage Capital Group LLC, will continue to oversee credit trading for the $1 billion Diversified Alpha Master Fund, Hutchin Hill said in the letter. Exceptional Trader Fortune named Ahmad one of Wall Street’s top traders in 2011. The magazine called him an “exceptional credit trader” and quoted an unnamed person who compared his talent with SAC Capital Advisors LP’s Steven A. Cohen. Ahmad was a money manager at Stamford , Connecticut-based hedge fund Sailfish Capital Partners LP from 2005 through 2007. Earlier, he worked at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Hutchin Hill has jumped 10.11 percent this year through the end of May, according to a person briefed on its returns. Chriss, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. trader who later managed a portfolio at SAC Capital, started the fund with $300 million from Renaissance Technologies Corp. founder James Simons. “My strategy does really well in environments where spreads are really wide, when you can find opportunities at distressed valuations, or where spreads are very narrow in which case you get to short opportunities at great valuations,” Ahmad said in a February interview with Bloomberg Brief. “Now I think we’re in sort of a middle environment.” Spreads Tighten The extra yield investors demand to hold speculative-grade bonds rather than similar-maturity Treasuries reached 423 basis points last month, the least in more than five years, before climbing to 508 yesterday, according to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch U.S. High Yield Index. Spreads on the debt, rated below Baa3 by Moody’s Investors Service and lower than BBB- at Standard & Poor’s , have tightened from a record 2,182 basis points in December 2008. The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 sought to regulate the financial industry after the credit crisis that led to the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and a U.S. rescue of American International Group Inc. Gross outstanding credit-derivative contracts have declined 60 percent to $24.8 trillion from a peak of $62.2 trillion in 2007, according to data from the International Swaps & Derivatives Association and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. To contact the reporter on this story: Mary Childs in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alan Goldstein at [email protected]

Bayer Settles With Onyx Pharmaceuticals Over Regorafenib Cancer Treatment

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-12/bayer-settles-with-onyx-pharmaceuticals-over-regorafenib-cancer-treatment.html

Bayer AG (BAYN) settled a lawsuit with Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. over the promotion and sale of regorafenib, a cancer treatment. Onyx jumped 6.5 percent in early U.S. trading. Under the agreement reached yesterday, Bayer will pay Onyx a 20 percent royalty on worldwide sales of regorafenib for use in oncology, South San Francisco-based Onyx said today in a regulatory filing. Leverkusen, Germany-based Bayer also will pay Onyx $160 million for the Japanese royalty rights for Nexavar, a liver-cancer treatment, according to the filing. “These new agreements strengthen the collaboration and provide Onyx the opportunity to participate significantly in the market potential of regorafenib,” Onyx Chief Executive Officer N. Anthony Coles said in a statement distributed by PR Newswire. Onyx climbed $2.09 to $34 in trading before U.S. markets opened. The shares had declined 13 percent on the Nasdaq Stock Market this year before today. Regorafenib hasn’t been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or the European Medicines Agency, according to the statement. Nexavar is approved in the U.S. The case is Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ONXX) v. Bayer Corp., 09- 2145, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California ( San Francisco ). To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Dunn in New York at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at [email protected] .

Iran Warns Against International Military Intervention in Syria

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-24/iran-warns-against-international-military-intervention-in-syria.html

Iran ’s foreign Ministry warned against any international military action in Syria , its long-time ally, saying that intervention would heighten regional tensions. “There are no international authorizations for a military intervention in Syria,” foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Araghchi was quoted as saying today by the state-run Iranian Students' News Agency. “We warn against any moves or announcements that would result in further tensions in the region.” Araghchi also questioned claims that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government used chemical weapons in an attack opposition groups say killed 1,300 people, saying “evidence” pointed to the fact that it had been carried out by “terrorist groups” with the aim to implicate the Syrian government. “The fact that they were used while UN inspectors were present is a sign that some hands are at work to accuse the Syrian government,” he said. U.S. President Barack Obama is coming under increased pressure to intervene in Syria amid allegations of chemical arms use by Assad. In comments to reporters yesterday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel indicated that U.S. military forces, including naval vessels, are positioned in the Mediterranean and ready to act if the president calls on the Pentagon to strike at Syria. “Provocative opinions by U.S. military officials or moves such as positioning war ships won’t help resolve the issue and will only endanger further the situation in the region,” Araghchi said. To contact the reporter on this story: Ladane Nasseri in Dubai at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at [email protected]

Fiat Raises 2010 Forecasts on Tractors, Trucks Sales

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-21/fiat-raises-earnings-forecast-for-2010-after-truck-tractor-sales-increase.html

Fiat SpA raised its 2010 forecasts after quarterly profit beat analysts’ estimates on sales of Iveco trucks and Case New Holland tractors. The shares jumped to the highest level in more than two years in Milan. Full-year earnings before interest, taxes and one-time items will be at least 2 billion euros ($2.8 billion), from a previous target of as much as 1.2 billion euros, the Turin, Italy-based carmaker said today. Third-quarter net income reached 170 million euros, surpassing the 42 million-euro average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne , who also runs Chrysler Group LLC, is spinning off Fiat’s industrial units to focus on reviving carmaking operations. Italy’s largest manufacturer led a sixth consecutive monthly decline in European car sales in September as demand wanes after government incentives expired, industry figures showed. “Results delivered by the auto business are better than expected,” said Erich Hauser , an analyst at Credit Suisse. “Despite a decline in unit sales, Fiat managed to show flat year on year revenue, helped by an exchange rate that favored Fiat in Brazil.” Two-Year High Fiat rose 52 cents, or 4.4 percent, to 12.24 euros, the highest price since June 2008, in Milan trading. The stock has advanced 19 percent this year, compared with a 22 percent gain in PSA Peugeot Citroen and a 44 percent advance in Volkswagen AG , Europe’s largest carmaker. Earnings before interest, taxes and one-time gains or losses, which Fiat calls trading profit, rose 90 percent to 586 million euros, topping the 409 million-euro average estimate of analysts. Nine-month trading profit more than doubled to 1.59 billion euros. Full-year sales will top 55 billion euros from an earlier forecast of more than 50 billion euros, Fiat said today. Third- quarter revenue climbed 12 percent to 13.5 billion euros. Full- year net income will be about 400 million euros instead of an earlier projection for break-even, Fiat said. Group sales may increase to 59 billion euros and trading profit to as much as 2.6 billion euros in 2011, according to the company’s business presentation in April. “Our view on 2011 hasn’t changed since,” Marchionne said today on a conference call with analysts. Fiat will update its 2011 targets in January, he said. Incentives Expire Auto sales in Italy in the first quarter of 2011 will be worse than the same period in 2010, just before government incentives in Italy for scrapping old cars for more fuel efficient vehicles expired, Marchionne said today, without giving numbers. The carving out of operations including Iveco and CNH Global NV into Fiat Industrial SpA will give Marchionne two entities to facilitate future alliances. Fiat plans to list Fiat Industrial shares on the Milan exchange Jan. 3. “Investors are more focused on the spinoff,” said Wolfram Mrowetz , who oversees 200 million euros including Fiat shares as chairman of Alisei SIM in Milan. “Fiat is a stock to have in your portfolio before the split, which will unveil the real value of the two units and may lead to mergers and acquisitions.” Chrysler Stake Fiat, which acquired a 20 percent stake in Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler last year, expects to raise the holding to 25 percent by the first quarter and to 35 percent by the end of next year. Marchionne plans to take the automaker public, probably in the second half of 2011, he said last month. Fiat is “no position” now to decide on an option to acquire a further 16 percent in the U.S. carmaker after the holding rises to 35 percent, Marchionne said. The CEO reiterated that the Alfa Romeo unit isn’t for sale and may become a “premium brand” helped by the integration with Chrysler. “If someone will show up with a number which is by definition outside the boundaries of what we consider achievable outcomes, Fiat will have to take a hard look,” he said. Volkswagen AG, Europe’s largest carmaker, is interested in buying Alfa, supervisory board Chairman Ferdinand Piech said last month. Fiat’s net industrial debt rose 7 percent in the third quarter to 3.97 billion euros. The Italian carmaker cut its debt target for end of the year to less than 4 billion euros from more than 5 billion euros. Fabbrica Italia Marchionne wants to boost efficiency at Fiat’s less productive domestic plants, in exchange for shifting production of its Panda model from Poland to Pomigliano. Fiat plans to invest 20 billion euros through 2014 in Italy to improve plants and vehicle development if unions agree to curb strikes and add shifts. “Fiat shares are appealing as the auto sector is reporting better than expected” results, said Emanuele Oggioni , who manages 650 million euros including Fiat stock at Saint George Capital Management in Lugano, Switzerland. Third-quarter deliveries in Europe declined 25 percent to 197,800 vehicles, according to Fiat. The company’s passenger-car sales worldwide slumped 16 percent to 391,400 cars. To contact the reporter on this story: Tommaso Ebhardt in Milan at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at [email protected]

Ukrainian Parliament Standoff Extends Into Second Week on Voting

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-19/ukrainian-parliament-standoff-extends-into-second-week-on-voting.html

Ukrainian opposition parties blocked Parliament for a second week to protest lawmakers who vote on behalf of absent colleagues, prompting threats that President Viktor Yanukovych may dissolve the legislature. Jailed ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko ’s party, world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko ’s UDAR and the right-wing Svoboda surrounded the speaker’s rostrum today in the capital, Kiev. UDAR lawmakers have stayed in Parliament since Feb. 5, including at night, attaching stickers saying “vote for yourself” to the seats of pro-presidential deputies. Yanukovych may exercise his right to dissolve Parliament if it fails to function for 30 days, Vitaliy Zhuravskyi, a member of the president’s Party of Regions, said today on parliamentary TV channel Rada. Klitschko called the threat a “bluff,” according to a statement on his website. Yanukovych’s spokeswoman, Darka Chepak, couldn’t comment immediately when called by Bloomberg. While the Party of Regions got more votes than its rivals in Oct. 28 elections, it fell short of a majority and relies on support from the Communists and independent lawmakers to pass legislation. Opposition parties, which boosted their number of seats, are demanding technological changes to the existing parliamentary voting system to stop absent lawmakers’ identification cards being used to submit ballots. To contact the reporters on this story: Kateryna Choursina in Kiev at [email protected] ; Daryna Krasnolutska in Kiev at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: James M. Gomez at [email protected] ; Balazs Penz at [email protected]

Shinsei, Aozora Bank Shares Jump in Tokyo After Profits Rise

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-29/shinsei-aozora-bank-shares-jump-in-tokyo-after-profits-rise-1-.html

Shinsei Bank Ltd. (8303) and Aozora Bank Ltd. (8304) gained in Tokyo trading after the Japanese lenders posted first-quarter profit increases helped by one-time income from securities sale and lower credit costs. Shares of Shinsei Bank partly owned by J. Christopher Flowers rose as much as 6.7 percent to 95 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange as of 9:26 a.m., the biggest gain since March 1. Aozora Bank, controlled by Cerberus Capital Management LP, climbed 2.8 percent to 182 yen. Income from selling assets including foreign stocks, coupled with fewer credit costs and operating expenses boosted Shinsei Bank’s net income by 31 percent to 18.2 billion yen ($234 million) in the quarter ended June 30 from a year earlier, it said in an exchange filing yesterday. Japan ’s bank lending decline slowed in June falling 0.6 percent from a year earlier, the smallest drop in 19 months, according to Bank of Japan data. Shinsei Chief Executive Officer Shigeki Toma plans to expand consumer financing including uncollateralized loans given that signs of recovery in the country’s lending demand are emerging, he said in the statement. Aozora’s first-quarter profit surged 50 percent to 11 billion yen, helped by a decline in credit costs, according to a statement filed yesterday to the exchange. To contact the reporter on this story: Shigeru Sato in Tokyo at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chitra Somayaji at [email protected] .

Masisa Tumbles as Top Market Venezuela Devalues Currency

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-11/masisa-tumbles-as-top-market-venezuela-devalues-currency.html

Masisa SA , a Chilean wood panels manufacturer that gets a quarter of its revenue from Venezuela, tumbled the most in three months on speculation that a devaluation of the country’s currency will crimp profits. Masisa fell 3.3 percent to 54.5 pesos at 1:33 p.m. in Santiago trading after earlier falling as much as 4.2 percent in the biggest intraday loss since Oct. 19. It was the biggest decliner today on the Chile 65 stock-market index , which tracks the country’s largest companies based on an adjusted measure of market value. Venezuela’s finance minister said Feb. 8 the government would weaken the official exchange rate by 32 percent to 6.3 bolivars per dollar. The country accounted for 25 percent of Santiago-based Masisa’s revenue during the first nine months of 2012, according to regulatory filings. “They will have a lot of revenue in bolivars and to bring that back in dollars will cost more,” Jose Manuel Edwards , an analyst at Santiago-based broker IM Trust SA, said in a telephone interview. Masisa operates 38 Placacentro construction-material stores in Venezuela, according to the company’s website. Masisa also has an industrial facility and owns 84,800 hectares of forests in the country. To contact the reporter on this story: Eduardo Thomson in Santiago at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at [email protected]

India Winter Oilseed Output May Gain as High Prices Spur Mustard Planting

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-31/india-winter-oilseed-output-may-gain-as-high-prices-spur-mustard-planting.html

India’s winter-sown oilseed harvest may top last year’s output as higher prices encouraged farmers to increase mustard planting and as favorable weather boosts yields, according to the Solvent Extractors’ Association Ltd. Output for the crop, harvesting for which starts in March, may be more than the 9.27 million metric tons likely produced a year earlier, B.V. Mehta, executive director of the association, which represents 800 Indian oilseed processors, said in an interview yesterday. A bigger crop may cut vegetable oil purchases by India, the world’s largest buyer after China. India relies on overseas supplies to meet more than half of its edible oil demand and palm oil makes up almost 80 percent of the nation’s imports. “International prices have gone up and local prices have moved in tandem with them. This will have direct impact on domestic oilseeds prices and will ensure better return for the farmers,” Mehta said by telephone from Mumbai. “Farmers expect they will get a better price” for winter-sown oilseeds. Palm oil futures on Dec. 28 gained to 3,792 ringgit ($1,231) a ton, the highest level since March 2008, amid concern that the supply of cooking oils may tighten as dry weather in Argentina hurt the crop in the world’s largest producer of soybean oil, and after rains affected harvesting in Indonesia and Malaysia, the largest exporters of palm oil. The most-active contract in Malaysia rose 42 percent this year, the second straight annual increase, and ended at the highest since at least 1995, according to Bloomberg data. Prices Rise Refined soybean oil for January delivery has risen 20 percent since Oct. 12 on the National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange while crude palm oil has increased 30 percent since Oct. 18 on the Multi Commodity Exchange of India in Mumbai. Mustard seed, planted in October and November, accounts for more than 70 percent of India’s output of winter oilseeds. Its yellow-colored oil is the third-most used cooking oil in India after palm oil and soybean oil. Winter-sown oilseeds, including mustard and peanuts, were planted on 8.45 million hectares (20.8 million acres) as of Dec. 24, up from 8.24 million hectares a year ago, the farm ministry said last week. “Based on the acreage if everything remains normal we will have a better crop than last year,” Mehta said. “Favorable weather” is also supporting crops as late monsoon rains improved the soil moisture, Mehta said. India purchases palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, and soybean oil from Argentina and Brazil. To contact the reporter on this story: Pratik Parija in New Delhi at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Richard Dobson at [email protected]

Ghana’s Cedi Weakens for Fourth Day as Traders Seek Dollars

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-12/ghana-s-cedi-weakens-for-fourth-day-as-traders-seek-dollars.html

Ghana’s cedi weakened for a fourth day and headed for its third straight weekly decline as traders and manufacturers demanded dollars for their operations, according Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Ltd. The currency of the world’s second-biggest cocoa producer weakened as much as 0.6 percent to 1.5445 per dollar, the lowest since Feb. 4, and traded at 1.5398 per dollar by 2:30 p.m. in Accra, the capital, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “Today the demand pressure was from traders and manufacturers,” Othniel Kwainoe, a currency trader at the local unit of Standard Chartered Bank Plc said by phone. Traders sought the U.S. currency to import goods for resale while manufacturers bought the dollar to import raw material, Kwainoe said. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at [email protected] .

Schleck’s Positive Drug Test Is Confirmed by Second Analysis

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-20/schleck-s-positive-drug-test-is-confirmed-by-second-analysis.html

A backup drug test on Tour de France rider Frank Schleck confirmed a positive finding for a banned diuretic, cycling’s ruling body said in a release. Luxembourg’s Schleck quit the Tour three days ago in the second drug scandal to hit the race in a week. Schleck, third in the event last year, was found to have Xipamide in a urine sample, said the International Cycling Union, known as the UCI. The result was confirmed by analysis of the B sample, the UCI added today in an e-mailed statement. The diuretic can be used as a masking agent for performance- enhancing drugs. “The analysis of the sample B of Frank Schleck’s urine carried out today has confirmed the result of the adverse analytical finding,” the UCI said. “In accordance with the anti-doping rules, the UCI will request the Luxembourg Federation to open a disciplinary procedure against the rider.” Schleck has denied taking any banned substance, saying he could have been the victim of poisoning. He repeated his denial of wrongdoing after the latest test, Agence France-Presse reported. “The result of the counter-test was positive but for me nothing changes, I just know that I did nothing wrong,” he was cited as saying by AFP. “I will therefore continue my search to find out how the substance could have entered my body.” Even though UCI rules don’t mandate an automatic suspension for the drug in Schleck’s sample, the rider and his RadioShack- Nissan-Trek team agreed that he should withdraw from the Tour. Another rider, Remy di Gregorio, was suspended by the Cofidis team on July 10 as it investigates whether the French cyclist tried to take performance-enhancing drugs. He also denied wrongdoing. Latest Setback Schleck’s positive test is the latest setback for the RadioShack squad. Manager Johan Bruyneel is sitting out the race after being accused of overseeing doping on the U.S. Postal Service team that was led by Lance Armstrong. Bruyneel denies the charge by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and has asked for his case to be heard by an arbitration panel. The Tour ends July 22 in Paris, with Bradley Wiggins leading by 2 minutes, 5 seconds and poised to become the first British winner of the event. To contact the reporter on this story: Peter-Joseph Hegarty in London at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Elser at [email protected]

Live Nation Profit Climbs 12% on Concert Business Growth

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-06/live-nation-profit-climbs-12-on-concert-business-growth.html

Live Nation Entertainment Inc. (LYV) , the world’s biggest concert promoter, said third-quarter profit increased 12 percent on growth in ticketing, talent management and sponsorship. Net income grew to $57.9 million, or 31 cents a share, from $51.7 million, or 27 cents, a year earlier, Beverly Hills , California-based Live Nation said yesterday in a statement. Sales gained 9.7 percent to $1.96 billion, exceeding the $1.82 billion average of four analysts’ estimates. Live Nation is revamping Ticketmaster, adding territories outside the U.S. and expanding its roster of concert festivals to boost operating income 35 percent through 2015, Chief Executive Officer Michael Rapino told investors last month. The company expects growth in concerts, ticketing and sponsorship in the current quarter. The company has sold 3 million tickets for events in the year ahead, compared with 900,000 a year ago. “The more popular my concert business, even though it’s the least profitable in terms of margins, the more we make on ticketing and sponsorship,” Rapino said in an interview. “It’s the engine that drives our global platform.” Pink, Rihanna and other performers are selling tickets earlier, giving the company more time to market shows, Rapino said. With more tickets sold in advance, managers of other acts gain confidence to tour, he said. Thinking Ahead “We like that artists are thinking about 2013 in September,” Rapino said. “We usually aren’t putting these on sale until February or March. It doesn’t effect later business, we won’t see any decline next year.” Adjusted operating income of $202.4 million beat the $192.7 million average of estimates. Adjusted operating income excludes acquisition costs related to the 2010 purchase of Ticketmaster, asset sales, depreciation, amortization and stock-based compensation. Live Nation fell 0.8 percent to $9.17 yesterday in New York and has gained 10 percent this year. The company held 5,182 events that drew 11.5 million attendees in North America and 4.27 million elsewhere, with worldwide attendance up 1.6 percent, according to the statement. North American spending per attendee rose to $18.55 in the period from $18.03 a year earlier, the company said. International festival goers spent an average $15.71 each, up from $16.80 a year earlier. Live Nation sold 36.1 million tickets valued at $2.1 billion in the period, compared with 34.9 million tickets worth $2 billion a year earlier. Sponsorship revenue grew 12 percent to $81.5 million in the period from $72.7 million, the company said. Online advertising rose 4.3 percent to $14.3 million. To contact the reporter on this story: Andy Fixmer in Los Angeles at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at [email protected]

Uganda's State Pension Fund Reports 7% Return on Members' Contributions

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-28/uganda-s-state-pension-fund-reports-7-return-on-members-contributions.html

Uganda’s state pension fund reported a return of 7 percent on members’ contributions for the year through June, Chairman Vincent Ssekkono said. The “National Social Security Fund has increased the interest rate paid to members from 3 percent to 7 percent in fiscal 2010,” he said in a statement published on the Kampala- based fund’s website today. The fund “will pay a higher rate in future as the fund’s financial performance continues to improve.” The fund reported pretax profit of 160 billion Ugandan shillings ($71 million) for the year as fixed-income deposits grew 24 percent to 135 billion shillings. Members’ funds increased 12 percent to 1.6 trillion shillings from a year earlier, while workers contributing to the pension rose to 450,000 from 350,000. The East African nation’s annual inflation rate climbed to 4.4 percent in June. To contact the reporter on this story: Fred Ojambo in Kampala via Johannesburg at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at [email protected] .

Chilean Stocks: Banco Santander, Besalco, Lan and La Polar Gain

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-05/chilean-stocks-banco-santander-besalco-lan-and-la-polar-gain.html

The following companies had unusual price changes in Chilean trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are as of 4:11 p.m. New York time. The Ipsa index rose 0.8 percent to 4,808.53. Banco Santander Chile (BSAN) , Chile ’s largest lender, gained 1.6 percent to 42.93 pesos, its highest price since Jan. 6. Economic activity grew a higher-than-forecast 7.3 percent in May from a year earlier, the central bank said today. Besalco SA (BESALCO) increased 1.8 percent to 844.77 pesos. The Chilean construction and engineering company had its share price forecast increased to 977 pesos at Celfin Capital SA, which reiterated a “buy” rating. The company was also added to the portfolio of favorite Chilean stocks at the brokerage unit of lender Corpbanca, according to an e-mailed note to clients dated yesterday. Empresas La Polar SA (LAPOLAR) , the department store operator under investigation for consumer loan irregularities, rose 9.6 percent to 610.58 pesos, ending three days of losses. Lan Airlines SA (LAN) rose 2.1 percent to 13,904 pesos, the biggest gain in more than three weeks. Latin America ’s largest airline by market value is rising on speculation that Chile’s antitrust tribunal will rule this month in favor of the company’s takeover of Brazil ’s Tam SA, Mabel Weber, an analyst at BICE Inversiones, said in a phone interview today. To contact the reporter on this story: Eduardo Thomson in Santiago at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at [email protected]

Vietnam Stocks: Long An Food, PetroVietnam Drilling, Huu Lien

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-08/vietnam-stocks-long-an-food-petrovietnam-drilling-huu-lien.html

Shares of the following companies had unusual moves in Vietnam trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are as of the 11 a.m. local-time close. The VN Index, the benchmark measure of the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, gained 0.2 percent to 464.29. Long An Food Processing Co. (LAF VN), a seafood company, rose 1.9 percent to 21,600 dong. The company will pay its shareholders a dividend of 1,200 dong on May 10, it said in a statement on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange’s website. Huu Lien Asia Corp. (HLA) , which manufactures steel pipe, stainless steel pipe, and flat steel, dropped 2.2 percent to 9,000 dong. The company has received approval from the bourse to list an additional 1.66 million shares on April 13, according to a statement on the bourse’s website. PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Joint-Stock Co. (PVD VN), which offers technical services to the oil and natural gas industry, climbed 3.9 percent to 54,000 dong, the highest since March 11. Crude for May delivery rose as much as 63 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $110.93 a barrel, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange , and was at $110.91 at 10:36 a.m. Singapore time. --Nguyen Kieu Giang. Editor: Allen Wan To contact the Bloomberg News Staff on this story: Nguyen Kieu Giang in Hanoi at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Darren Boey at [email protected]

China VP Xi’s Absence From Public Fuels Speculation

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-11/china-vp-xi-s-abscence-from-public-fuels-speculation.html

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping ’s absence from public events for more than a week fueled speculation about the health of the leading candidate to succeed President Hu Jintao in a once-in-a-decade leadership change. Since speaking at the Party School of the Communist Party on Sept. 1, Xi canceled a Sept. 5 meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. After foreign journalists in Beijing were told the same day that Xi would meet Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt on Sept. 10, the event wasn’t included in an official agenda distributed Sept. 7. The foreign ministry said yesterday no such meeting was planned. Related: Xi Jinping Millionaire Relations Reveal Fortunes of Elite Secrecy surrounding China ’s leadership, combined with the ouster of Politburo member Bo Xilai earlier this year, has left investors with limited information on who’ll be overseeing the world’s second-biggest economy. The Communist Party has yet to release the dates for the gathering anticipated in coming weeks where the next generation of policy makers will be appointed. “China is the second-largest economy in the world and Beijing is one of the central stages of international diplomacy,” said Yawei Liu , director of the China Program at the Atlanta-based Carter Center. “Open government information is absolutely crucial for the government to maintain political stability. The lack of transparency will weaken the wobbling legitimacy even more.” Shanghai Composite The Shanghai Composite Index has risen 3.8 percent since Sept. 5, the day Xi and Clinton were supposed to meet. The cost of insuring Chinese sovereign bonds against default fell to the lowest in more than a year yesterday, according to data provider CMA. The Clinton meeting was canceled after Xi injured his back, the Wall Street Journal reported Sept. 5, citing an unnamed U.S. official. The cancellation was a “normal adjustment,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Sept. 5. Asked four times about Xi at a briefing today, Hong said he had no information about the vice president’s health and declined to give details about his whereabouts. “I hope you will raise some serious questions,” Hong said. “Next question.” ‘Timely Introduction’ In his last public appearance, at the Party School, Xi urged cadres to “constantly absorb new knowledge” to improve their level of leadership. “We must firmly establish the correct view of the world, power and career, and develop a broad mind and vision, noble interests, and a plain style of living, and always be the loyal public servants of the people,” Xi said, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Other Chinese leaders have continued to make public appearances. Hu attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vladivostok, Russia , over the weekend and Premier Wen Jiabao was scheduled to speak today at the World Economic Forum ’s conference in the Chinese port city of Tianjin. A week after the ouster of Bo as party chief of the municipality of Chongqing, speculation of a coup spread on the Internet, helping spark the biggest jump in credit-default swaps on Chinese government bonds in four months. Six people accused of spreading the coup rumors were later detained. Bo, once seen as a candidate for inclusion in the new leadership group to be appointed this year, was suspended from the Politburo in April for “serious violations of discipline,” according to Xinhua. His wife, Gu Kailai, was convicted last month of murdering British businessman Neil Heywood. To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: John Liu in Beijing at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chris Anstey at [email protected] ; Peter Hirschberg at [email protected]

Obama Rejects Speculation Summers Has Fed ‘Inside Track’

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-09/obama-says-summers-one-of-range-of-candidates-to-head-up-fed.html

President Barack Obama rejected the notion that Lawrence Summers is the front-runner to replace Federal Reserve Chairmen Ben S. Bernanke , explaining that he has defended his former National Economic Council director as an act of loyalty. “The perception that Mr. Summers might have an inside track simply had to do with a bunch of attacks that I was hearing on Mr. Summers pre-emptively, which is sort of a standard Washington exercise that I don’t like,” Obama said at a White House news conference yesterday. “I tend to defend folks who I think have done a good job and don’t deserve attacks.” The former Treasury secretary is one of a “range of outstanding candidates” to head lead the central bank, including Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen , the president said. While Obama didn’t express a preference between Summers and Yellen, calling them both “outstanding candidates,” he did elaborate on the need for the next Fed chairman to combat inflation. The president warned of the potential dangers of “artificial bubbles” and reiterated his requirement that the next chairman work to lower unemployment. “My main criteria for the Fed Reserve chairman is somebody who understands they’ve got a dual mandate,” he said. “A critical part of the job is making sure that we keep inflation in check, that our monetary policy is sound, that the dollar is sound.” Additional Candidates Besides Summers, 58, and Yellen, 66, Obama said he had a “couple” more candidates under consideration. Last week, he told House lawmakers that he was also considering former Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn , 70, for the job, bringing to three the names of publicly known candidates. It’s hard to make a case that Summers, Yellen or Kohn “clearly has a stronger reputation than the others” on inflation, said Lou Crandall , chief economist at Wrightson ICAP LLC in Jersey City , New Jersey. “Proponents of each individual might make subjective arguments on their favorite’s behalf.’ ‘‘Of the three, Yellen is probably seen as the most focused on unemployment (USURTOT) issues,” he said. “The common perception would probably be that Summers and Kohn have more experience with the financial bubble issues that the president cited.” Obama, 52, told House lawmakers last week that Summers was being unfairly criticized. Yesterday, he compared Summers to his National Security Adviser Susan Rice. Obama didn’t nominate her for Secretary of State after a backlash over statements she made following the attacks in Benghazi, Libya , last September. Rice Comparison “When somebody’s worked hard for me and worked hard on behalf of the American people, and I know the quality of those people, and I see him getting slapped around in the press for no reason before they’ve even been nominated for anything, then I want to make sure that somebody’s standing up for them,” Obama said. “I felt the same way when people were attacking Susan Rice before she was nominated for anything.” Obama ultimately picked former Massachusetts Senator John Kerry instead of Rice as the nation’s top diplomat and moved her to a post that doesn’t require Senate confirmation. For the Fed position, Obama said he’ll make a decision “in the fall” on a replacement forBernanke, 59, whose term expires on Jan. 31. Yellen has been the Fed vice chairman since October 2010. Summers, who was Treasury secretary from July 1999 to January 2001, returned to government in 2009 to serve as National Economic Council director during Obama’s first term. Sticky Wicket “Obama is on a sticky wicket at this stage,” said Jonathan Wright, an economics professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who worked at the Fed’s division of monetary affairs from 2004 until 2008. “If he appoints Summers, he upsets many people in his party. If he appoints Yellen, he seems to have backed down under pressure.” “So he is surely at least thinking about other alternatives, and not just Don Kohn,” he said. “One way out might be to persuade Ben Bernanke to stay for another term after all.” After warning about the need to preserve a strong dollar, Obama elaborated on the other aspect of the Fed’s dual mandate. “If you look at the biggest challenges we have, the challenge is not inflation,” he said. “The challenge is we’ve still got too many people out of work, too many long-term unemployed, too much slack in -- in the economy, and we’re not growing as fast as we should.” Missed Targets The Fed has been missing on both targets of its twin goals. The personal consumption expenditures index -- the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation -- rose 1.3 percent in June from a year earlier, below the central bank’s 2 percent goal. Unemployment, at 7.4 percent in July, has been above 7 percent since November 2008. Employers added 162,000 workers in July, the least in four months and following a revised 188,000 rise in June that was less than initially estimated. While the unemployment rate declined to 7.4 percent from 7.6 percent, policy makers have expressed concern that discouraged workers were dropping out of the labor force and others have been unable to find work for an extended period. The labor market is “far from satisfactory, as the unemployment rate remains well above its longer-run normal level, and rates of underemployment and long- term unemployment are still much too high,” Bernanke told Congress July 17. While Bernanke hasn’t said whether he’d be willing to stay for a third term, Obama indicated in a June interview with Charlie Rose that the Fed chief had stayed in the post “longer than he wanted.” To contact the reporters on this story: Hans Nichols in Washington at [email protected] ; Michelle Jamrisko in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at [email protected]

Lew Says Debt-Limit Fight Hurt Economy and Can’t Be Repeated

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-20/lew-says-debt-limit-fight-damaged-economy-and-can-t-be-repeated.html

Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said the political drama surrounding the debt limit hurt the U.S. economy and must not be repeated. “We need to make sure that government does not go through another round of brinkmanship,” Lew said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program airing today. “This can never happen again.” Even getting close to the breaching the debt ceiling “does do some damage,” Lew said. “But we have a resilient economy.” President Barack Obama signed legislation Oct. 17, the day Lew said the U.S. would exhaust its borrowing authority, to suspend the debt ceiling until Feb. 7 and end a 16-day partial government shutdown. The 11th-hour deal between Democrats and House Republicans sets the stage for another possible showdown early next year. “What we just went through was a political crisis, not an economic crisis,” Lew said. “This one was a little bit scary because it got so close to the edge.” The government closing shaved at least 0.6 percent from U.S. fourth-quarter gross-domestic-product growth, Standard & Poor’s said in a report Oct. 16. Americans in October were the most pessimistic about the nation’s economic prospects in almost two years, as concern mounted that the political gridlock in Washington would hurt the expansion, according to the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index of expectations. Fiscal Health As Congress hashes out a budget agreement in the wake of the shutdown, it should focus on accelerating economic growth and can build on progress already made in lowering U.S. budget deficits, Lew wrote in an opinion piece published in the New York Times today. “This is an opportunity to improve our nation’s long-term fiscal health,” Lew wrote, advocating “a comprehensive package that shrinks our deficits, protects Medicare and Social Security for those who rely on it, and expands our economy well into the future.” Lew, who as Treasury secretary oversees U.S. economic sanctions, told NBC it’s “premature to be talking” about easing measures targeting Iran. “We need to see that they’re taking the steps to move away from having nuclear weapons capacity,” he said. “We need to see real, tangible evidence of it, and that we will not make moves in the sanctions until we see those kinds of moves.” Iran Sanctions Iran is calling on the U.S. and European Union to ease sanctions that have battered its economy. The Western powers are demanding curbs on Iran’s nuclear work, which they say may be a cover for a weapons program. Iran says it has a right to enrich uranium and is interested only in using nuclear technology for peaceful, civilian purposes. President Hassan Rouhani’s phone call with Obama last month raised expectations of a compromise that would avert the risk of armed conflict over the issue. The U.S. and Israel say they’re ready to use force if diplomacy doesn’t work. Lew also said he’s confident Obama’s health-care law will be on track to ensure that people who need coverage can get it. “The huge outpouring of interest shows how important it is that we get this right,” Lew said. “There’s no one more frustrated than the president at the difficulty in the website.’ To contact the reporter on this story: Ian Katz in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chris Wellisz at [email protected]

Red Sox Beat Yankees 8-7 on Napoli’s Home Run in 11th Inning

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-22/red-sox-beat-yankees-8-7-on-napoli-s-home-run-in-11th-inning.html

Mike Napoli belted a solo home run with two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning to lift the Boston Red Sox to an 8-7 win over the New York Yankees and a third series win against their division rivals this season. Napoli’s second homer of the Major League Baseball game gave the Red Sox the victory just before 1 a.m. today at Fenway Park in Boston, where his teammates raced out of the dugout to celebrate as he crossed home plate. Boston won two of three games in the series and has taken six of nine meetings between the clubs this season. “I knew one swing could do it and I got a pitch I could drive,” Napoli, who finished with four runs batted in, said in a televised interview. “It was a great series win for us.” The Red Sox improved to 60-40 and stayed 1 1/2 games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays atop the American League Eastern Division. The Rays won for the 13th time in 14 games yesterday by holding on for a 4-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. The Red Sox and Rays open a four-game series in Boston today. Yankees starting pitcher CC Sabathia allowed seven earned runs on his 33rd birthday as the Red Sox opened a 7-3 lead last night. The left-hander has now given up 15 earned runs in his past two starts. Sabathia surrendered a three-run homer to Napoli in the third inning that put Boston ahead 4-3 and also gave up a towering home run to Jonny Gomes in the fifth. The Yankees scored two runs in both the sixth and seventh innings to tie the game and force extra innings. 423-Foot Homer In the bottom of the 11th, Yankees reliever Adam Warren retired the first two batters before Napoli blasted a 423-foot (129-meter) home run into the second row of seats in center field on a full-count fastball. It was the ninth time this season the Red Sox won a game in their final at-bat. Also yesterday, Matt Harvey had 10 strikeouts over seven scoreless innings in his first start since the All-Star Game as the New York Mets shut out the Philadelphia Phillies 5-0, while pitchers Adam Wainwright and Bartolo Colon each picked up their 13th wins of the season, tied for the most in the majors. Wainwright allowed two runs over eight innings in the St. Louis Cardinals’ 3-2 win against the San Diego Padres and Colon tossed a four-hit shutout as the Oakland Athletics blanked the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-0. To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at [email protected]

U.S. Company Credit Risk Gauge Falls From Worst Since June 2010

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-24/u-s-company-credit-risk-gauge-at-worst-level-since-june-2010.html

A gauge of U.S. corporate credit risk fell from the highest level since June 2010 as investors weighed what the Federal Reserve will do to bolster the faltering economy. The Markit CDX North America Investment Grade Index, which investors use to hedge against losses on corporate debt or to speculate on creditworthiness, declined 1 basis point to a mid- price of 125 basis points as of 5:35 p.m. in New York, according to index administrator Markit Group Ltd. The cost to protect Bank of America Corp. (BAC) debt for five years fell from the highest level since April 2009, while contracts for one year jumped. The credit swaps index, which typically rises as investor confidence deteriorates, had soared to as high as 129.6 basis points from 96.3 at the end of last month as concern mounts that the global economic recovery is fading and as Europe ’s sovereign crisis spreads. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and other central bankers meet this week in Jackson Hole , Wyoming, as U.S. unemployment holds above 9 percent. “You do have a number of potential policy headline events that could stem the tide” of negative sentiment, said Rizwan Hussain , a credit strategist at Morgan Stanley in New York. Contracts protecting against a default by Charlotte , North Carolina-based Bank of America dropped 12 basis points to 372.6 basis points, according to data provider CMA. That means it would cost $372,600 annually to protect $10 million of the debt for five years. Swaps protecting the debt against losses for one year jumped 24.4 basis points to 460, according to CMA, which is owned by CME Group Inc. and compiles prices quoted by dealers in the privately negotiated market. An inverted curve signals traders are pricing in a greater probability of credit deteriorating in the shorter term. Credit swaps pay the buyer face value if a borrower fails to meet its obligations, less the value of the defaulted debt. A basis point equals $1,000 annually on a contract protecting $10 million of debt. To contact the reporter on this story: Mary Childs in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alan Goldstein at [email protected]

Grayling Sees 18,000-Pound Tuition at New University, Times Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-05/grayling-sees-18-000-pound-tuition-at-new-university-times-says.html

U.K. professors, including AC Grayling and Richard Dawkins, will charge 18,000 pounds ($29,600) a year for tuition at a private university scheduled to open next year, the Sunday Times reported, citing an interview with Grayling. The London-based New College of Humanities will start taking applications from students next month and will begin teaching in autumn 2012, the newspaper said. A Swiss couple, several financiers in London and some of the 14 professors involved in the project have provided the funding for the university, the Sunday Times reported. To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Charlton in London at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dick Schumacher at [email protected] .

Kuwait's KIPCO to Buy Up to 55% of Arab Orient

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2008-04-28/kuwait-s-kipco-to-buy-up-to-55-of-arab-orient-update1-.html

Kuwait Projects Co. Holding K.S.C., or KIPCO, will buy up to 55 percent of Arab Orient Insurance Company in the coming few weeks to gain entry to the Jordanian market. ``KIPCO will buy Jordan Kuwait Bank's stake in AOIC in order to merge it with its insurance unit, Gulf Insurance Company,'' Isam Abdel Khaliq , general manger at AOIC, said today in a telephone interview from Jordan. Jordan Kuwait Bank owns about 66 percent of AOIC, he said. Abdel Khaliq didn't disclose the price of the transaction. The management team at AOIC won't be changed, while the name may become Gulf Insurance Company-Jordan, he said. KIPCO is Kuwait's largest non-state-owned investment firm. AOIC, based in Amman, was established in 1996 and is the largest insurance company in Jordan with 9 percent stake of the market. ``We have achieved around 650,000 Jordanian dinars ($910,000) in net profit for the first quarter of 2008,'' Abdel Khaliq said. ``The KIPCO group did announce that we were looking at ways of restructuring our financial service companies. We can not confirm the details given in this statement,'' KIPCO spokesman Robert Hipkins said in a telephone interview. To contact the reporter on this story: Nadim Issa in Beirut at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Merritt at [email protected]

Bankrupt Alabama County Reaches New Accord With Creditors

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-31/bankrupt-alabama-county-reaches-new-accord-with-creditors.html

Commissioners in Alabama ’s Jefferson County approved a deal with creditors, including $100 million in new concessions from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) , that may allow the county to end its two-year bankruptcy. JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, took the lead in arranging risky securities deals that pushed the county into bankruptcy in 2011. The bank had already agreed to forgive $842 million of the $1.22 billion it was owed. Under the debt-reduction settlement, bond insurers agreed to $40 million in additional concessions; hedge funds , $17.5 million; and liquidity banks, $2.8 million. JPMorgan additionally pledged to provide a 40-year letter of credit up to $180 million, commissioners were told. “We now have a clear path out of bankruptcy,” commission President David Carrington said yesterday after the panel voted to accept the agreement. Finance Chairman Jimmie Stephens called the plan less than ideal, but the best the county could do. “It’s confirmable, feasible and sustainable,” Stephens said in an interview in Birmingham. A JPMorgan spokesman, Justin Perras , said the company would have no comment. The agreement replaces a deal reached in June that became unworkable due to rising interest rates. It would have left the county about $350 million short of what it needed to exit bankruptcy. The earlier deal provided $1.84 billion in cash to settle about $3 billion in sewer debt, tied to a bankruptcy-exit plan. Biggest Bankruptcy Jefferson County became what was then the biggest U.S. municipal bankruptcy in 2011 when it couldn’t pay what it owed on the sewer bonds. The sewer project was tainted by political corruption and by risky refinancing methods. JPMorgan agreed in a 2009 settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to pay the county $75 million and give up more than $657 million in swaps claims. The hedge funds include Brigade Capital Management LLC, Claren Road Asset Management LLC, Fundamental Advisors LP, all based in New York , and Monarch Capital Master Partners LP, according to court records. Insurers, including Assured Guaranty (AGO) Municipal, Syncora Guarantee and Financial Guaranty Insurance, were to get $165 million under the earlier agreement. They said they were owed $315 million. ‘Integral Part’ “ Assured Guaranty has been an integral part of the solution by helping to facilitate a viable bankruptcy exit plan,” Chief Executive Officer Dominic Frederico said in a statement. Assured will insure $500 million in new Jefferson County debt under the agreement, according to the statement. Syncora doesn’t comment on matters being litigated, Managing Director Michael Corbally said by e-mail. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas Bennett is scheduled to consider approving the bankruptcy-exit plan next month at a hearing in Birmingham. The case is In re Jefferson County, 11-bk-05736, U.S. Bankruptcy Court , Northern District of Alabama (Birmingham). To contact the reporters on this story: Margaret Newkirk in Atlanta at [email protected] ; Kathleen Edwards in Birmingham, Alabama at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at [email protected]

Standard Bank’s Revenues to ‘Justify’ African Investments, Deputy CEO Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-15/standard-bank-s-revenues-to-justify-african-investments-deputy-ceo-says.html

Standard Bank Group Ltd., Africa ’s largest bank, expects future revenues from its businesses across the continent to justify its investment in infrastructure, Deputy Chief Executive Officer Sim Tshabalala said. The lender will “earn the right to expand internationally only through achieving excellence in our home base,” he told reporters in Johannesburg today. To contact the reporter on this story: Renee Bonorchis in Johannesburg at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Vernon Wessels at [email protected]

Husky to Buy Exxon Canadian Properties, Sell Stock

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-29/husky-energy-in-c-860m-buy-sale-pact-with-exxonmobil-canada.html

Husky Energy Inc. the Calgary-based company controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing , agreed to buy C$860 million ($842.5 million) of oil and natural-gas properties in western Canada from Exxon Mobil Corp ., adding production and reserves in areas where it’s already operating. The purchase in Alberta and northeast British Columbia will add the equivalent of 21,900 barrels a day of oil and gas production and 113 million barrels of proved and probable reserves, Calgary-based Husky said in a statement today. The deal is part of C$4.86 billion in planned capital spending next year, a 20 percent increase. The properties are “located in core operating areas where we will be able to leverage our existing infrastructure to create additional shareholder value,” Asim Ghosh , chief executive officer of Husky, said in the statement. Husky also said it intends to sell $1 billion of common stock to finance expansion, including initial development of the Sunrise oil-sands project it shares with BP Plc and a planned joint venture in Southeast Asia with China National Offshore Oil Corp. The company said it has decided not to spin off assets in Southeast Asia. Talks with China National Offshore on the Liwan 3-1 natural-gas joint venture in the South China Sea are at “an advanced stage” and plans will be submitted early next year, it said. Husky fell 95 cents, or 3.7 percent, to C$24.57 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the largest drop in four months. It has fallen 18 percent this year. Exxon, based in Irving, Texas, rose 22 cents to $69.45 in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange. To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Polson in New York at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Susan Warren at [email protected] .

Indonesia’s Kharisma Sells 1,000 Tons of Palm Oil

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-18/indonesia-s-kharisma-sells-1-000-tons-of-palm-oil-table-.html

PT Kharisma Pemasaran Bersama Nusantara , which sells palm oil from Indonesia ’s state-owned plantations, sold 1,000 metric tons of 12,500 tons of the commodity it offered at an auction in Jakarta. The following table lists the results of the sale today, based on a faxed statement. The volumes are given in metric tons, while prices are in rupiah per kilogram including a 10 percent value added tax, unless stated otherwise. Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of palm oil. To contact the reporter on this story: Eko Listiyorini in Jakarta at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at [email protected]

Moody’s, S&P Caved In to Ratings Pressure From Goldman, UBS Over Mortgages

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-13/moody-s-s-p-caved-to-mortgage-pressure-by-goldman-ubs-levin-report-says.html

Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s adjusted the way they graded securities after Goldman Sachs Group Inc., UBS AG and at least six more banks pressured them, according to a U.S. Senate report. The world’s two largest bond-ranking companies, both based in New York, made exceptions to rules when bankers asked for better safety ratings on complex mortgage-backed securities, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said yesterday. When Moody’s and S&P changed their assessments of hundreds of those bonds in July 2007, it helped trigger the financial crisis, the panel said. “The ratings agencies weakened their standards as each competed to provide the most favorable rating to win business and greater market share,” according to the report. “The result was a race to the bottom.” The conclusions cap a two-year investigation into the financial crisis during which senators questioned executives about the failings of Wall Street banks, regulators and mortgage companies. In a televised hearing last year, lawmakers compared Goldman Sachs bankers to bookies and subcommittee Chairman Carl M. Levin grilled them about marketing securities. Levin’s committee wants regulators to eliminate rules shielding Moody’s and S&P from being sued over flawed ratings and publish accuracy rankings for the companies. ‘Key Enablers’ Levin and Republican Senator Tom A. Coburn of Oklahoma held four public hearings in 2010. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission also looked into the role of ratings companies, calling them “key enablers of the financial meltdown” in its January report. Relying on mathematical models, Moody’s and S&P awarded AAA ratings to mortgage securities packaged during the five-year housing boom, deeming them as safe as government bonds. About 90 percent of AAA securities backed by subprime mortgages from 2006 and 2007 were later downgraded to junk status, Levin’s committee said. Such revisions forced banks, pension funds and insurance companies to sell holdings, contributing to $2 trillion in losses and asset-writedowns worldwide. S&P Rejects Responsibility Lower ratings “reflected the unprecedented deterioration in credit quality , but were not a cause of it,” Catherine Mathis, an S&P spokeswoman, said in an e-mail response to Levin’s findings. “We regret that, like many others, we did not foresee the speed and extent of the housing downturn, which was the steepest decline since the Great Depression.” Michael Adler , a Moody’s spokesman who hadn’t seen the Levin report, declined to comment. Moody’s gross revenue from rating the complex products quadrupled to $260 million in 2006 from $61 million in 2002, according to the congressional report. For S&P, the number also quadrupled to $265 million in 2006 from $64 million in 2002. “Investment bankers who complained about rating methodologies, criteria, or decisions were often able to obtain exceptions or other favorable treatment,” according to the Levin report. The decisions appeared to be “concessions made to prevent the loss of business.” Eight Banks Cited The subcommittee released e-mails showing UBS, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Citigroup Inc., Bear Stearns Cos., Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Nomura Holdings Inc. all pressured the ratings companies to loosen standards for assessing certain securities or make exceptions. UBS told S&P that grading securities the bank was selling more conservatively might shift business to Moody’s and competitor Fitch Ratings, according to Levin’s findings. In another case, a Goldman Sachs banker objected to a rating decision S&P made on a collateralized-debt obligation called Abacus 2006-12, according to an e-mail released by the panel. S&P director Chris Meyer at first “pushed back” then “suggested an exception could be made if it were limited to the CDO at hand,” the committee said. Lucas van Praag, a spokesman at Goldman Sachs in New York , declined to comment. UBS, JPMorgan Moody’s made concessions in 2007 when it rated a deal called Lancer II for UBS and exceptions for three Bear Stearns deals in 2006, according to the report. JPMorgan acquired Bear Stearns in 2008 as the company teetered on the brink of collapse. Robert Miller of JPMorgan complained in 2007 that Moody’s was planning to give a deal a lower rating than S&P. “There’s going to be a three notch difference when we print the deal if it goes out as is,” Miller wrote in an e-mail to Moody’s Mark DiRienz. “I’m already having agita about the investor calls I’m going to get.” DiRienz replied that an analyst “is looking into some adjustments to his methodology that should be a benefit to you folks.” Jennifer Zuccarelli , a JPMorgan spokeswoman, declined to comment before seeing the report, as did UBS spokeswoman Kelly Smith. Flawed Fees Levin, a Michigan Democrat, criticized the ratings providers’ business model of collecting fees from the companies whose deal they rate, comparing the practice to “one of the parties in court paying the judge’s salary.” Ray McDaniel, Moody’s chairman and chief executive officer, told the panel those potential conflicts are well-managed. “We, like many others, did not anticipate the unprecedented confluence of forces that drove the unusually poor performance of subprime mortgages in the past several years,” McDaniel said in prepared testimony. To contact the reporter on this story: Zeke Faux in New York at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alan Goldstein at [email protected] .

Is it Time for Mutiny?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-09/is-it-time-for-mutiny-.html

Perhaps you have dreamed of mutiny. Perhaps you serve under a boss whose grasp of what is important to the organization's success and how to achieve it is so shaky that he or she should be dispatched as an incompetent. Or maybe that leader's treatment of subordinates is so uncaring as to be abusive. If the situation is so bad that you are actually plotting the insurrection, it's a good moment to ask: When do mutinies actually succeed? We actually know the answer to that question, from the people who did mutiny best: seafarers in the Age of Discovery. My colleague Ray Coye and I spent four years mining obscure primary-source accounts and journals from the era from the mid-1400s to the early 1600s to write Mutiny and Its Bounty. This was the time when seafarers like Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, and Henry Hudson undertook risky ventures at sea. Their venturing began in Portugal and Spain and went on for hundreds of years and with staggering volume. It's a rarely studied era, but it holds deep lessons in human enterprise — even more, in many respects, than the study of modern industrial organizations. Mutinies were as common as the wind on Age of Discovery seafaring ventures. What's more, the people participating in them often had very sophisticated conceptualizations of leadership and service. They also recorded firsthand much of what happened. Our analysis of records and diaries from their long enterprises shows that mutinies are successfully carried out when a few conditions are present: Put all this together and you have a situation where an influential member is able to make the case that the current leader can't be trusted to deal with new threats because of their demonstrated lapse in upholding values. When mutiny occurs, the leader involved usually sees it as a sudden flash that is obscene. But the members involved in the action see it differently. Like an entrepreneurial team, they formulate a strategic plan for mutiny in secret, execute it tactically, and face the risks with a sense of justice and purpose. And here is the real surprise of our research: the mutinies are usually for the better. Given the connotations of the term mutiny, and the images it brings to mind, few would expect that it would have a largely ameliorative function. In our post-industrial age, mutiny is taboo. But the culture of the Age of Discovery assumed that members should depose a bad leader. It was understood that mutiny could save a venture or help it succeed. Ship captains recognized this and the best of them were, amazingly, able to harness the mutinous energy and put it in service of the venture. Christopher Columbus dealt with three mutinies during his most famous enterprise; he used the first mutiny to bolster commitment from members and discover land. Although there were also some infamously fierce mutinies, those cases turn out to have been the exceptions. Reflect for a moment on the nature of high-risk business ventures, and you might conclude that this mutinous ethos still exists. If you are familiar with entrepreneurial communities, then you know that not deposing bad leadership is hostile to the survival of a venture. Entrepreneurial founders and leaders are often removed via mutinies, and it usually happens when environmental uncertainty is most salient. Indeed, the current entrepreneurial age, launched in mid-twentieth century Silicon Valley, is itself the product of a mutiny. The brief history is that it all began when the team at Shockley Semiconductor rose up against its founder William Shockley. The "traitorous eight" as Shockley would call them ever after, went on to found the set of firms (including Intel and AMD) that made Palo Alto the center of technology innovation. It was a culture-defining event that embedded assumptions still present in the Valley about the value of trained specialists, delegated power, autonomy, flat and adaptable organizational structures, and questioning flawed authority. The similarities do not end there. Another peculiarity of the Age of Discovery is that its bold seafaring ventures were revered at a sociocultural level, much as high-impact entrepreneurial exploits are revered today. Now as then, people dream of leading such ventures, and come to do so through a remarkably analogous process. By contrast, the case for mutiny is very hard to make in the modern industrial organization. Here, successful performance is defined above all by efficiency. Members cannot mutiny against their leader without violating policy, disrupting operations, and usually creating a situation even uglier than bad leadership itself. Typically, even if perceptions of the inadequacy of management are widely shared and easily justified, members can't do very much about it. Unlike in entrepreneurial communities, the notion of mutiny is anathema to the dominant logic of organizational life in big companies. That doesn't mean that those working under a bad leader don't fantasize about taking mutinous action, or indulge in more subtle forms of it. (A mutiny that is social and intellectual can still be intense.) It may mean, however, that they are putting their careers much more at risk, and that perhaps they should consider another kind of life: the authority-dashing life of the entrepreneur.

Italian President Sees No Room for Democratic Secession, ‘Grotesque’ State

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-01/italian-president-sees-no-room-for-democratic-secession-grotesque-state.html

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said secession advocated by the governing Northern League coalition party would violate the constitution, recalling the imprisonment of a Sicilian separatist leader in the 1940s. “Within the constitution and laws, there is no room for a democratic path to secession,” Napolitano said late yesterday in Naples in remarks broadcast on Sky TG24 television. While discussions about fiscal federalism are acceptable, secession is not, the Corriere della Sera daily reported, citing Napolitano. The president pointed to the arrest of Andrea Finocchiaro Aprile for seeking to orchestrate Sicily’s secession in the 1940s, according to the report. Northern League leader Umberto Bossi has made increasingly explicit calls for the wealthier northern regions to separate from the rest of Italy. The League is one of the parties holding up Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ’s government, and its departure from the coalition would cause a collapse. La Padania , the Northern League’s official newspaper, responded to Napolitano today with a full, front-page article saying “I exist and am Padanian,” referring to the alternative name for Northern Italy that the League often uses. In the article, Roberto Calderoli, a party member and minister for legislative simplification, said Napolitano needs to consider people’s rights to self-determination. The League has been on Italy’s political scene for more than 20 years and has always guaranteed democracy, according to the report. “Padania does not exist,” Napolitano said yesterday, according to Corriere. He called the formation of a hypothetical separate Lombard-Venetian state “grotesque.” The president’s press service wasn’t immediately available for comment on the weekend. To contact the reporter on this story: Alessandra Migliaccio in Rome at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at [email protected] .

Supreme Court Seen Influenced by Politics in Health-Care Ruling

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-15/supreme-court-seen-influenced-by-politics-in-health-care-ruling.html

Three-quarters of Americans say the U.S. Supreme Court will be influenced by politics when it rules on the constitutionality of a health-care law signed by President Barack Obama two years ago. The sentiment crosses party lines and is especially held by independents, 80 percent of whom say the court will not base its ruling solely on legal merits, according to a Bloomberg National Poll. More Republicans than Democrats, by 74 percent to 67 percent, say politics will play a role in the court’s health- care decision. The case is scheduled for arguments March 26-28, pitting the Obama administration against 26 states that say Congress overstepped its authority by requiring Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty. “The ones that were appointed by Obama are more or less going to vote the way he would want them to,” said Republican poll participant Jacqueline Richey, an 86-year-old in Fort Myers , Florida. “Don’t get me wrong -- I don’t think they’re crooked. I just think they were appointed because they think like him.” The public’s perception of the court comes more than a decade after its 2000 Bush v. Gore ruling, which ended the Florida vote recount and let Republican George W. Bush assume the presidency. The court will be thrust into the political debate this year beyond the issue of health care. It also is scheduled to take up cases dealing with illegal immigration and race-based admission policies at universities. Political Peril “I always worry when the court steps into the political thicket,” said Barbara Perry , a Supreme Court scholar and professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. “It does so at its peril.” For the first time, the court’s ideological divide reflects the party of the president who appointed each of the justices. In the nine-month term that began in October 2010, the justices divided along party lines in a dozen cases. Five justices on the court, including Chief Justice John Roberts , were appointed by Republican presidents. Four were chosen by Democrats, including two, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan , by Obama. The justices themselves have said they don’t make decisions for political reasons. “It is a very serious threat to the independence and integrity of the courts to politicize them,” Roberts said at his 2005 Senate confirmation hearing. Legal Grounds Only Justice Stephen Breyer told Bloomberg News in a 2010 interview that politics doesn’t influence the court, even in cases with electoral implications. “It would be bad if it were there,” he said. “And I don’t see it.” The health-care case has already created some political maneuvering around the court, with partisans on each side seeking the disqualification of a justice. Opponents of the law have called for Kagan to recuse herself because she previously served as Obama’s top Supreme Court lawyer. Kagan, appointed to the court in 2010, has said she didn’t play a role in formulating the administration’s legal defense of the law. Supporters of the law have said Justice Clarence Thomas should disqualify himself because his wife, Virginia , previously worked for groups fighting passage of the measure. Thomas, who was appointed in 1991 President George H.W. Bush , is perceived by outsiders as being a likely vote to strike down the health- care law. No Recusals Neither justice has indicated any intent to step aside in the case. Roberts came to their defense in December, saying he has “complete confidence in the capability of my colleagues to determine when recusal is warranted.” He didn’t mention either justice by name. Bloomberg asked the question: “The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide the constitutionality of the health-care reform law signed by President Obama in 2010. Do you expect the court will make this decision based solely on legal merits, or do you expect politics will influence how some justices vote?” Seventy-five percent of the 1,002 respondents said they expect politics will influence the court’s ruling, 17 percent said the decision would be based solely on legal merits and 8 percent said they weren’t sure. ‘Small Modifications’ The poll also sought opinions of the health-care law. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said it should be repealed, the same percentage as the first time Bloomberg asked the question in July 2010. Eleven percent said it should be left alone, the smallest percentage in the four polls during which the question has been asked. Just under half, 46 percent, said the law “may need small modifications, but we should see how it works.” Health care ranked fourth on a list of issues that respondents named as the most important facing the country, behind unemployment, the federal deficit and gas prices. The margin of error for the telephone poll conducted March 8-11 is 3.1 percentage points. It was done by Des Moines , Iowa- based Selzer & Co. The Bloomberg poll shows that Tea Party supporters, who seek a smaller federal government role, are particularly wary of the Supreme Court’s approach to the health-care case, with 81 percent saying politics will play a role in the decision -- the highest percentage of any subgroup the poll examined. Illegal Immigration In addition to the health-care case, the justices will rule by June on Arizona ’s illegal-immigration crackdown, which the Obama administration is challenging. Late this year, probably just before the November general election, the justices will consider whether universities must stop using race-based admissions, which are designed to help minorities gain access to higher education. “There’s a cynicism, particularly among Republicans, about judges and justices being tools of social engineering by Democrats and liberals, and that’s linked to a strain of libertarian thinking, get government off our backs, get courts of our backs,” said Perry. “What you’re seeing,” she said, “is something of a hangover from the anti-Warren court era,” From 1953 and 1969, Earl Warren served as chief justice and the court expanded federal and judicial power, particularly in the area of civil rights. Perry could recall seeing “Impeach Earl Warren” billboards along highways near Louisville, Kentucky , where she grew up. Republican presidents appointed Warren and every chief justice since. The Supreme Court has typically been held in higher esteem than Congress or the president, Perry said. “I just think that justices live in this isolated world where they surround themselves with academics and the law,” said poll respondent Jeffrey North, a 36-year-old information technology employee in Grant, Michigan. He identified himself as an independent. “Maybe I’m naive but I hope that at that level of the judiciary, they’re interpreting the Constitution, not basing things on politics.” To contact the reporters on this story: Julie Bykowicz in Washington at [email protected] ; Greg Stohr in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeanne Cummings at [email protected]

Risk Unrewarded as Emerging Stocks Lag Behind Most Since ’98

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-24/risk-unrewarded-as-emerging-stocks-lose-in-worst-start-since-08.html

The link between risk and reward in stocks is breaking down as emerging markets post the worst first quarter since 2008 and lag behind shares of developed economies by the most in 15 years. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index (MXEF) ’s 3.8 percent drop this year through last week trimmed its rebound from an October 2011 low to 22 percent. That compares with a 33 percent advance for the MSCI World Index and marks the first time since 1998 that developing-country shares have underperformed during a global rally. When adjusted for price swings , emerging market returns are 37 percent smaller than in advanced nations, data compiled by Bloomberg show. While higher volatility in developing countries led to outsized gains during the last six bull markets, this time is proving different as government intervention curbs profits at companies such as PetroChina Co. (857) and Light SA and growth slows from South Korea to Poland. Bulls say emerging markets will lead the next stage of the global rally as record low interest rates send investors into riskier securities. Pessimists say the trend will continue as investors favor more transparent markets. “The old rules of thumb may need to be questioned,” Wayne Lin, a money manager at Baltimore-based Legg Mason Inc., which oversees about $661 billion, said in a phone interview. “It is surprising to many investors that emerging markets haven’t participated in the rally.” Correlation Drops Money managers surveyed by Bank of America Corp. cut developing-nation shares in March for the first time in six months while boosting positions in the U.S. (SPX) to the highest level since July, Michael Hartnett, the bank’s chief investment strategist in New York, wrote in a March 19 report. Morgan Stanley, owner of the world’s largest brokerage, reduced its estimate for gains in emerging-market equities on March 18 while boosting its projections for U.S. and Japanese shares. MSCI’s emerging index rose 0.6 percent at 4 p.m. in New York, after falling 2.6 percent last week. The MSCI World (MXWO) Index fell 0.4 percent to 1,426.61 after a 0.8 percent decline last week. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slid 0.3 percent to 1,551.69. The 120-day correlation between the two MSCI gauges fell to an eight-year low of 0.54 on March 14. A reading of 1 shows lockstep moves, while minus 1 means opposite directions. Asian Crisis Investors willing to endure bigger price swings in developing nations have usually been rewarded during global stock rallies. Emerging shares beat developed equities by an average 46 percentage points during bull markets -- defined as a gain of at least 20 percent in the MSCI All-Country World Index (MXWD) from a recent low without a decline of the same magnitude -- since the index data began in 1988. Now, developing markets are trailing after most of their companies missed analyst profit estimates for the last five quarters and economic expansions from China to Brazil slowed to the weakest rates since 2009. A majority of MSCI World companies beat earnings projections, while the pace of U.S. growth has rebounded to levels reached before the financial crisis. The only other bull market emerging stocks lagged behind was from September 1990 through July 1998, a period when U.S. shares surged during the dot-com bubble and Asian (MXAPJ) equities were dragged down by the region’s financial crisis. Volatility (EEM) in the MSCI emerging index was higher than that of the developed-country gauge during each rally, by about 30 percent on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Emerging equities also posted steeper declines and bigger price swings than developed shares during bear markets, the data show. ‘Safety Play’ The current rally suggests equity investors are still hesitant to take on risk, five years after the worst financial crisis since the 1930s sparked a contraction in the global economy and wiped out $37 trillion of stock market value , according to Wells Fargo Advisors LLC’s Scott Wren. “It’s a safety play,” said Wren, the St. Louis, Missouri- based senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors, which oversees about $1.2 trillion. “People want to own stocks more than they did a while ago, but they want to be a little cautious.” Brazilian shares led the decline in emerging markets this year, with the benchmark Bovespa Index (IBOV) falling 9.4 percent. Light SA (LIGT3) , a Rio de Janeiro-based power distributor, tumbled 18 percent this year as President Dilma Rousseff cut electricity rates by as much as 32 percent in a bid to boost economic growth. Poland’s WIG20 Index (WIG20) dropped 8.2 percent as figures showed the nation’s economic expansion slowed for a fourth straight quarter in the period ended December. Economic Surprises Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average (NKY) surged 19 percent in 2013, the biggest gain among 45 equity indexes in emerging and developed markets tracked by Bloomberg. Sony Corp. (6758) , Japan’s biggest consumer electronics exporter, jumped 73 percent this year as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took steps to weaken the yen and revive the economy with more expansionary monetary policies. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced 9.2 percent since the end of December and closed last week at 1,556.89, within 1 percent of its all-time high. Citigroup Inc. (C) , the third-biggest U.S. bank by assets, increased 14 percent this year as the Federal Reserve pledged to continue its unprecedented monetary stimulus and the housing market showed signs of a sustained recovery. ‘Enormous Momentum’ The U.S. Citigroup Economic Surprise Index, a measure of how much reports are exceeding economists’ estimates, rose to a two-month high on March 14 while the gauge for emerging markets shows reports have trailed projections since January. “The U.S. has been delivering,” said Russ Koesterich, the chief investment strategist at New York-based BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest money manager with $3.8 trillion in assets. Not all emerging markets are losing. Thailand’s SET Index has surged 73 percent since the current global rally began on Oct. 4, 2011, while the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PCOMP) rose 70 percent. The Thai economy may expand by as much as 5.5 percent this year and the Philippines will probably grow at least 6 percent, according to government estimates. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predict a 1.9 percent expansion in the U.S. “These are emerging markets and they have flaws,” said Byron Wien, vice chairman of the advisory services unit at Blackstone Group LP, the world’s largest manager of alternative assets such as private equity. “They also have enormous economic momentum and the developed markets are mature and the momentum is not as pronounced.” Lower Debt Wien said emerging markets will lead gains in global stocks this year with “double digit” returns. Developing nations are becoming safer bets by some measures. Government debt has declined to 34 percent of gross domestic product from 52 percent a decade ago, according to the Washington-based International Monetary Fund. That compares with 110 percent in advanced countries. Emerging markets have more than $6 trillion of foreign exchange reserves, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The extra yield investors demand to own their sovereign bonds over U.S. Treasuries has narrowed to 3 percentage points, or 300 basis points, from an average of 371 during the past five years, according to the JPMorgan EMBI Global Index. “Relative to Europe and Japan, emerging markets do not have the same indebtedness problem,” said David Kelly, who helps oversee about $400 billion as the New York-based chief global strategist at JPMorgan Funds. Rousseff Intervention Developing stocks also have lower valuations. The MSCI emerging gauge trades for 10 times analysts’ 12-month profit estimates , versus 13 times for the MSCI World, the widest gap since November 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In the biggest emerging markets, government interference is eroding returns for minority shareholders. PetroChina, which dropped 6.7 percent in Hong Kong trading this year, posted annual earnings that trailed analysts’ estimates on March 21 as the government capped retail fuel and natural gas prices to contain inflation. Brazil’s Rousseff has intervened to curb utility rates, bank lending margins, mobile-phone fees and fuel prices -- reducing earnings prospects for industries with a combined weighting of about 50 percent in the Bovespa index. OAO MRSK Holding (MRKH) , a Moscow-based power distributor, tumbled 49 percent during the past 12 months as President Vladimir Putin delayed tariff increases and signed a decree to combine the company with state-run Federal Grid Co., instead of selling shares to private investors as some analysts had anticipated. Fed Stimulus “The risk of the emerging markets is that the institutional frameworks are still a work in progress,” said Rupal Bhansali, who helps oversee about $5 billion as a New York-based chief investment officer for international equities at Ariel Investments LLC. Inflation is preventing central banks in emerging markets from stimulating their economies as much as developed nations, said Jason Hsu, the chief investment officer of Newport Beach, California-based Research Affiliates LLC. Consumer prices in Brazil rose at the fastest pace since December 2011 in February, spurring speculation that the central bank will raise its benchmark interest rate this year. People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said at a March 13 press conference that policy makers should be on “high alert” over inflation, while India’s central bank said on March 19 that scope for further monetary easing is limited. By contrast, the Federal Reserve maintained its $85 billion-a-month bond purchase program on March 20 and Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda vowed the next day to pursue “bold” monetary stimulus. “I can certainly see quantitative easing continuing” in advanced economies, said Andrew Milligan, who helps oversee about $264 billion as head of global strategy at Edinburgh-based Standard Life Investments Ltd. “At the margin, that’s going to support developed rather than emerging markets.” To contact the reporters on this story: Michael Patterson in Hong Kong at [email protected] ; Inyoung Hwang in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at [email protected]

China Yuan Climbs to 19-Year High on Record Fixing, Export Data

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-08/china-yuan-climbs-to-19-year-high-on-record-fixing-export-data.html

The yuan rose to a 19-year high as the central bank strengthened the daily fixing to a record and Chinese exports topped analysts’ estimates. The currency completed its biggest two-day gain in 15 months as an official report showed overseas sales rose 14.7 percent in April from a year earlier, beating the 9.2 percent median forecast in a Bloomberg survey and March’s 10 percent gain. The People’s Bank of China raised the daily reference rate 0.17 percent to a record 6.1980 per dollar. The currency can diverge a maximum 1 percent from the fixing. The yuan rose 0.21 percent to 6.1410 per dollar in Shanghai , taking the two-day gain to 0.42 percent, the most since Jan. 31, 2012, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. The currency touched 6.1396 earlier, the strongest level since the government unified official and market exchange rates at the end of 1993. “The size of capital inflows into China and onshore demand for the yuan continue to dominate,” said Khoon Goh, a strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Singapore. “I still expect further near-term appreciation pressure.” Yuan positions at Chinese financial institutions stemming from foreign-exchange transactions, a gauge of cross-border capital flows, climbed 236 billion yuan ($38 billion) in March, central bank data show. Gains are a sign of inflows, and the positions increased 1.22 trillion yuan in the first three months of this year. Five-Year Plan China may introduce a five-year plan for yuan capital- account convertibility this year, China Securities Journal reported today, citing Chen Bingcai, a former deputy chief at State Administration of Foreign Exchange’s capital account management department. The yuan’s capital account may be convertible by 2020, the report said. In Hong Kong , the yuan gained 0.25 percent to 6.1414 per dollar, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Twelve-month non-deliverable forwards advanced 0.29 percent to 6.21, a 1.1 percent discount to the onshore exchange rate. One-month implied volatility in the yuan, a measure of expected moves in the exchange rate used to price options, increased 26 basis points, or 0.26 percentage point, to 1.76 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Kyoungwha Kim in Singapore at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Regan at [email protected]

Petrobras First Female CEO Is Rousseff’s Response to Delayed Oil

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-01/petrobras-first-female-ceo-is-rousseff-s-response-to-delayed-oil.html

As Maria das Gracas Silva Foster took over as chief executive officer at Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR) , she couldn’t help giving a shout-out to two forces that have shaped her life. The first went to Petrobras, the world’s biggest deep-water oil producer, on whose Rio de Janeiro stage she was standing on Feb. 13 to be sworn in as CEO, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its July issue. The second was to her mother, who decades ago encouraged a work ethic that propelled her young daughter from a poor neighborhood to the pinnacle of her profession. “The badge and I have been together for more than 30 years,” Foster told several hundred employees as departing CEO Jose Sergio Gabrielli handed her a symbolic Petrobras ID card. “I thank my mother, Terezinha, for the power of her transforming love.” Foster, a 58-year-old engineer who favors pantsuits and has two small stars tattooed on her wrist, is leading Latin America’s biggest company by market value just as Brazil ’s economy cools. During a decade-long boom, at least 30 million Brazilians have emerged from poverty, and the country now has at least 100,000 millionaires. In 2011, though, growth slowed to 2.7 percent from an annual average of 4.6 percent in the previous four years. Self-Sufficient Brazil is counting on Petrobras to provide national energy self-sufficiency that will meet the demands of a growing economy. The company, which is 51 percent controlled by the government, produces 91 percent of Brazil’s oil and 90 percent of its natural gas. It’s struggling to increase output and develop reserves after new offshore wells have failed to compensate for faster- than-expected declines at older fields. That imbalance is putting Petrobras behind in reaching its 2020 target of 6.4 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, up from the current 2.6 million. Petrobras will account for about 40 percent of the 922 billion reais ($456 billion) in energy and infrastructure spending in Brazil from 2010 to 2015, even as the country splurges on airports and stadiums for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. ‘Tremendously Important’ “Oil and gas are an increasingly important sector of the economy and will only grow in size and import,” says Christopher Garman , an analyst who covers Latin America at Eurasia Group in New York. “The capacity of Petrobras to deliver is tremendously important.” Investors are betting that Foster, an engineer who has spent 31 years immersed in Petrobras -- from its drilling platforms to its management suites -- is the right person for the job. Petrobras stock, hit by the slowing output growth, jumped 3.8 percent on Jan. 23 when she was named the company’s first female CEO -- the biggest increase in eight months. Nick Robinson , a portfolio manager at Aberdeen Asset Management in Sao Paulo , says Foster is a skilled technical manager who can tackle glitches that have forced unscheduled shutdowns at drilling sites. Delays in platform construction and increased outages to perform maintenance began surfacing during Gabrielli’s tenure. The former CEO, an economist and academic, focused more on finances than on day-to-day operations as he shepherded Petrobras’s $70 billion share offering in September 2010, the world’s biggest. Attractive Bonds Today, public shareholders own 49 percent of the company’s voting stock. Petrobras shares have dropped 29 percent since the share offering through May 31. Luz Padilla, who helps manage $1 billion of emerging-market debt, including Petrobras, at Doubleline Capital LP in Los Angeles , is bullish on the company. “It’s an industry that could reshape the profile of Brazil, given the potential of their finds,’’ she says. Padilla says Petrobras bonds are attractive compared with such global peers as BP Plc because they have a lower price and higher yield, paying more interest. Foster is pushing Petrobras to cut through bottlenecks. In May, she created a management position to oversee the purchase and installation of platforms, rigs and pipelines. The division will try to head off cost overruns and construction setbacks at local yards that have slowed progress at a company with 80,000 employees and 244 billion reais in annual revenue. “Someone like her, who is perhaps more of an operational person, could be a huge asset,” says Robinson, whose firm held 5.8 million Petrobras shares on Feb. 29. Detail-Oriented Manuel Fernandes, head of KPMG International’s oil and gas division in Rio, met Foster when she ran Petrobras’s natural gas business and KPMG was its auditor. He says she knows the nitty- gritty of the company and the industry. “You wouldn’t expect someone in her position to look into too many details, but she does,” he says. “That’s how she is.” Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is another fan. The two, now among the world’s most powerful female leaders, began working together in 2003. Rousseff was energy minister under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Foster, who holds a degree in chemical engineering from the Fluminense Federal University in Niteroi, in Rio de Janeiro state, was Rousseff’s secretary for oil, natural gas and renewable fuels. ‘Good Hands’ Foster returned to Petrobras in 2005, while Rousseff served as its chairman from 2003 through 2010. Like Rousseff, Foster is a member of the governing Workers’ Party, which has close ties to unions. The party’s jobs programs and subsidies for poor households have helped vault millions into the middle class. “With Graca at the helm, Petrobras will be in good hands,” Rousseff said at the February event, using Foster’s nickname. “I know the work capacity, competence and seriousness with which Graca dedicates herself, not only to this company but also to everything she does in her professional life.” For investors, Foster’s first order of business is to boost output , which rose 1.5 percent last year, to an average 2.6 million barrels per day of oil equivalent. It was the slowest pace since 2007 and well below the company’s 7.7 percent target. The new CEO is stymied by rules enacted under Lula. Petrobras must buy as much as 70 percent of its equipment -- from giant offshore platforms to polyester rope for anchors -- from domestic suppliers. Local Rules The former president set the local-content regulations to aid Brazil’s oil services industry and reduce reliance on imports. In December, Petrobras canceled a plan to lease 21 drilling rigs after offers by local suppliers proved too expensive. One bidder, Sete Brasil Participacoes SA, is a shipbuilder that Petrobras and the Brazilian Development Bank formed to construct the platforms. In an effort to control inflation , which reached 5.2 percent in March, the government also caps how much Petrobras can charge for gasoline. The price of fuel in early May was 4.38 reais per gallon at the refinery gate, a 21 percent discount from international markets, according to estimates by Banco Bradesco SA. Brazilian motorists pay more at the pump than U.S. drivers do because of taxes. With domestic prices low, Petrobras loses money on every liter of imported gasoline and diesel it sells in Brazil. Foster must guide the company through some of the world’s most challenging petroleum-engineering feats. She knows the territory, having been the first woman at Petrobras to board an oil platform in the Atlantic Ocean to install drilling equipment. Drilling Deep As of March, 90 percent of Petrobras’s oil production in Brazil came from offshore fields, most from wells at depths of more than 300 meters (980 feet). With these wells aging, Petrobras is betting on so-called pre-salt fields -- regions as deep as 7,000 meters and as far as 300 kilometers (186 miles) from land. Rough seas, tricky geology and the distance workers must travel make drilling more complex than in the Campos Basin off southeastern Brazil, where Petrobras gained most of its expertise. Petrobras will be going it alone with these deep wells. A law passed in 2010 requires the company to be the sole operator of new pre-salt developments. Foreign oil companies can only take stakes, not run the sites. “That’s a problem,” says Scott Black , president of Delphi Management Inc., an investment management firm in Boston. He says Petrobras is a good investment that would be even more attractive if Brazil’s oil industry were a free market. “Free enterprise might do better long term,” he says. Chevron Spill Foster is also navigating the environmental hazards of drilling in deep waters. Chevron Corp., the second-biggest U.S. oil company, spilled 3,000 barrels in November at the Frade Field, where Petrobras is a partner. It was Brazil’s eighth- most-productive area until Chevron suspended drilling. Prosecutors are going after Chevron with three lawsuits seeking a total of 40 billion reais in damages, and lawmakers have demanded investigations into the incident. Petrobras said in a March 30 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it’s liable for 30 percent of any payments for the spill. Petrobras foresees as much as $527 million in possible losses from other environmental claims. Among these are a July 2000 spill at the President Getulio Vargas Refinery in Araucaria, Parana state, and payouts to fishermen for a spill in Rio that same year, the company said in the filing. Jobs Machine Ultimately, Foster, with guidance from Rousseff’s government, will have to decide whether to run Petrobras as a state-owned, job-creating bureaucracy or a modern public company. Today, the government names seven members of the 10- person board, and shareholders lack any real power. Petrobras workers say the company must tilt toward local industries and the interests of Brazil. “Petrobras can’t produce oil according to what’s needed by others,” says Silvio Sinedino, who represents employees on the company’s board. “It can’t be a company that’s concerned about revenue for the sake of revenue.” Jim Crandell, an analyst at Dahlman Rose & Co. in New York who leads coverage of oil services providers, says ignoring market realities can hurt Petrobras. “The goal of Brazil seems to be to provide employment to its citizens,” he says. “Brazil may find that it has to pay more for equipment and services going forward. There certainly is the risk of material delays.” ‘Net Exporter’ Should Foster overcome Petrobras’s drilling hurdles, appease shareholders, satisfy employees and boost output as planned, Brazil may go from being almost self-sufficient in oil to becoming a big source for the U.S. and other consumers. President Barack Obama said during a 2011 visit that he wants the country to be a major U.S. supplier. “If Petrobras doesn’t help Brazil by increasing production growth, there’s a serious chance Brazil moves back into an oil- importing situation and loses its status as a self-sufficient producer,” says analyst Gustavo Gattass at Banco BTG Pactual SA in Rio. T.J. Conway, a research and advisory manager at New York- based Energy Intelligence Group, says Petrobras must strike a balance between local demands and exporting. “Brazil can definitely be a contributor to global markets and an important player, and perhaps eclipse the rest of the region in terms of being a net exporter,” he says. Dubbed ‘Caveirao’ Foster, whom colleagues have dubbed “Caveirao” in a reference to the armored vehicles police deploy in crime-ridden neighborhoods, is used to plowing through roadblocks. Her mother raised young Graca and her sister, Rita, in Rio’s Morro do Adeus, a poor neighborhood that eventually deteriorated into a shantytown. Her mother worked. Her father was an alcoholic, Foster told Bloomberg News last year. Graca collected cans and paper for pocket money until the family moved in with an aunt in Niteroi. Foster graduated from Fluminense Federal University in 1978, going on to earn a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and a Master of Business Administration from the Rio-based Getulio Vargas Foundation. She joined Petrobras’s exploration and production division as an intern in 1979. Corporate Ladder Two years later, she boarded an offshore oil platform to install equipment, going on to manage the drilling division. She became the first woman to run Petrobras’s field engineering, taking over the distribution unit and the chemical and petrochemical division, Petroquisa. In September 2007, Gabrielli named her Petrobras’s first female director, the second-highest management level, when she took charge at the gas and energy division. Today, of about 12,200 engineers at Petrobras, about 1,400 are women. Foster married and had a daughter. She then divorced, remarried and had a son. Her second marriage stirred controversy after Brazilian newspapers reported that husband Colin Foster owned an engineering company that had supplied Petrobras with equipment from 2007 to 2010. Petrobras responded in 2010, saying the division Foster headed didn’t do business with Colin Foster’s company, according to Petrobras’s website. Foster, wearing a pink suit with a satin blouse at headquarters the year before she was named CEO, said she had to be 100 percent available for her job. “I have two children,” she said in the January 2011 interview in a 23rd-floor office with a view of Guanabara Bay. “I gave up a lot for my career, but I’m very happy for it. I’ve done what I’ve always thought was best for me and my family.” ‘Above Expectations’ Foster expects similar dedication from her employees. She says she wants her staff to work one day a week -- joking that the day starts on Monday and ends on Saturday. “I once called one of my managers, and he answered while he was bathing his two children,” she recalls. “While he spoke, he dropped the cell phone in the tub, picked it up and continued talking.” Marcio Mello, CEO of Brazilian oil explorer HRT Participacoes em Petroleo SA, worked with Foster for 18 years. He recalls their time at the research division, Cenpes, which develops technology to explore the pre-salt region. “She’s the kind of person you give a mission to and she delivers above expectations,” Mello says, showing a framed photo of himself with Foster in 1999, when they received a research award for their work at Cenpes. “This is why Graca will do a fantastic job at Petrobras. She’s fair, a hard worker, focused; she has targets; she’s a performer. My dream is to have a person like Graca at HRT.” Oil Women Foster isn’t the only woman leading Brazil’s energy effort. There’s also Magda Chambriard, who, like Foster, rose through Petrobras. She heads Brazil’s oil regulator, ANP. “Brazil is in a unique moment,” Mello says. “Now we have two ladies, not only with huge experience but huge knowledge.” Chambriard’s job at the regulator ends years of the plum political appointment going to people with little oil experience. Foster’s promotion at Petrobras may mean continued government meddling, Delphi’s Black says. “They’ve got probably the best drilling profile of any of the national oil companies,” he says of Petrobras. “They’ve got expansive fields off the coast. The problem is, the government keeps upping the ante.” ‘Slightly Aggressive’ Black points to the controls on gasoline as one way the government hurts the company. Publicly traded competitors benefited as oil prices rose 8.3 percent during the fourth quarter. Petrobras lost by operating as an arm of the government instead of competing in a free market. Fourth-quarter net income dropped to 5.05 billion reais, 52 percent less than a year earlier. Foster may be willing to challenge Rousseff on gasoline prices. Petrobras’s budget for 2012 estimated oil at about $90 a barrel. With oil above $110, she told an April conference organized by the Brazilian Oil, Gas and Biofuel Institute that prices may have to be adjusted. “The very fact that she’s brought this argument to the forefront and is being slightly aggressive means the government is being tested,” Aberdeen’s Robinson says. “There’d be a pretty clear signal that they are going to use Petrobras as a tool of economic policy rather than let it be run for the benefit of minority shareholders if they don’t allow the company to increase prices.” Effort Ahead At the same time, employees are demanding that Foster look after them. Board member Sinedino, an engineer in the seismic department, says Petrobras must improve worker safety. He expects Foster to remain an ally. “She is one of us,” he says. “She has spent her life at the company, has worked everywhere; she knows exactly what’s going on and what needs to be done.” Foster, in her acceptance speech, acknowledged the effort ahead. “Taking over the company is a big challenge, bigger than the combination of all those challenges I faced till I reached this day,” she said. Then she touched her heart in a gesture to her Petrobras colleagues. “I owe the moment to you all,” she said. “Finally, I thank the Lord for this moment, my children for accepting me as I am, and my mother, Dona Terezinha.” To contact the reporters on this story: Rodrigo Orihuela in Rio de Janeiro at [email protected] Peter Millard in Rio de Janeiro at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at [email protected]

Lithium Demand May Triple by 2020 on Demand for Batteries, Orocobre Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-19/lithium-demand-may-triple-during-next-decade-on-batteries-orocobre-says.html

Lithium demand may triple in the next decade as consumers buy more portable electronics and battery-powered vehicles, said James D. Calaway , chairman of lithium miner Orocobre Ltd. Global lithium demand of about 110,000 metric tons may double by 2020 solely from existing applications such as mobile phones and glass making, Calaway said yesterday in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. Sales to electric-vehicle battery makers will add 10,000 tons by 2015 before increasing more rapidly, he said. “You could very easily see by 2020 the need to triple production or even more just to accommodate the auto sector,” Calaway said. Orocobre will begin producing lithium in 2012 at its first project, Salar de Olaroz, atop salt flats in Argentina’s Jujuy province, he said. The company should become profitable the next year when output reaches 15,000 tons of lithium and 36,000 tons of potash fertilizer, he said. The Brisbane, Australia-based company may start pumping lithium-rich water from a second mine in Argentina in 2014, said Calaway, 53. The second project, called Salar de Salinas Grandes, will boost Orocobre’s total annual lithium production to as much as 40,000 tons, making it the world’s fourth-biggest producer, Calaway said. Toyota Partnership Toyota Tsusho Corp., an affiliate of Toyota Motor Corp., is financing the $100 million to $120 million cost of Salar de Olaroz in exchange for a 25 percent stake in the project. Toyota also may market the mine’s lithium for Orocobre to Asian manufacturers, he said. Salinas Grandes may cost as much as $150 million and will be financed from cash generated by the first mine or with partners such as Toyota, Calaway said. Prices for lithium carbonate, the processed form of the mineral used in lithium-ion batteries, are likely to remain in a range of $4,000 to $6,000 a ton, Calaway said. Prices fell last year as much as 20 percent from a peak of about $6,500 in 2008, and have climbed back to about $6,000, he said. Prices may drop through 2015 if capacity increases faster than demand, Calaway said. “We are managing our business with the assumption that it’s going to be fairly tough” through 2014, Calaway said. “And then I think we get into a fairly substantial period where you get very strong firming of prices. From 2015 through 2025, it is going to be a wonderful time to have low-cost lithium production.” Orocobre’s cost of production will be less than output from lithium rock mines, primarily in Australia, that comprise 35 percent of global output, he said. Orocobre fell 20 cents, or 8 percent, to C$2.29 yesterday in Toronto Stock Exchange trading. To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Kaskey in New York at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Simon Casey at [email protected] .

Graham Puts Hold on Energy Nominee Over Nuclear Facility Cuts

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-23/graham-puts-hold-on-energy-nominee-over-nuclear-facility-cuts.html

Senator Lindsey Graham , a South Carolina Republican, is blocking a vote on the nomination of Ernest Moniz to be energy secretary over proposed funding cuts to a nuclear processing facility in his home state. The U.S. Energy Department’s budget requested $503 million in fiscal year 2014, down from $667 million in 2012, for a program that includes a plant being built in South Carolina to convert weapons-grade plutonium into fuel for nuclear power plants. The project is being led by a consortium that includes Paris-based Areva SA. (AREVA) Tate Zeigler, a spokesman for Graham, confirmed that the senator had placed a hold on Moniz’s nomination. Bloomberg BNA earlier reported Graham was upset about reduced spending for the processing plant, which is behind schedule and over budget. Graham planned to meet with Moniz, who serves as the head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , tomorrow, Bloomberg BNA reported. To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Snyder in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at [email protected]

Microsoft Faces EU Antitrust Probe Over Web-Brower Choice

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-17/microsoft-faces-eu-antitrust-probe-over-web-brower-choice.html

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) risks European Union penalties for failing to comply with a settlement to give users a choice of web browsers, more than two years after it tried to end a decade-long clash with antitrust regulators. EU Competition Commission Joaquin Almunia said Microsoft may have misled regulators by failing to display a browser choice screen to users of the Windows operating system since February 2011. The world’s largest software company blamed a technical error for not showing the screen to some users and offered to extend its commitment until March 2016. Microsoft has already been fined 1.68 billion euros ($2.06 billion) in EU antitrust probes, including an 899 million-euro penalty for failing to obey an order to share data with competitors. The Redmond, Washington-based company agreed to offer access to rival browsers as a part of a 2009 settlement to repair its relationship with the bloc’s regulators. It told regulators last December that it was complying with its commitments. “I trusted that the company’s reports were accurate,” EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in an e-mailed statement. “If, following our investigation, the infringement was confirmed, Microsoft should expect sanctions.” Microsoft said it only learned this month that it didn’t offer its browser choice software to some 28 million computers running Windows 7 Service Pack 1, or 10 percent of the computers that should have received it. It blamed a technical error and said it has already started distributing a fix. Deep ‘Regret’ “We deeply regret that this error occurred and we apologize for it,” Microsoft said in a statement. “We understand that the commission may decide to impose other sanctions.” Almunia said he may have to step up how regulators supervise companies’ commitments to end antitrust probes. Recent binding pledges by Standard & Poor’s (MHP) and Electricite de France SA (EDF) “are particularly complex and require strengthening of our monitoring,” Almunia told reporters in Brussels. Michael Privitera, a spokesman for Standard & Poor’s in New York , declined to immediately comment. EDF in Paris declined to comment. Regulators only became aware that Microsoft’s browser choice screens weren’t working when they received complaints, he said, without identifying who had alerted the EU. The EU’s new probe is a “real surprise, given Microsoft’s long and painful past” with regulators and earlier fines imposed for not complying with the earlier investigation, said Mark Tricker, a lawyer with Norton Rose LLP in Brussels. Repeat Offenses Any fines for Microsoft may take into account repeat offenses, Almunia said in a reference to the EU’s 2008 penalty for the company’s failure to obey an earlier EU decision. That ruling ordered it to provide information to software developers to make compatible products. EU antitrust fines are usually capped at 10 percent of yearly revenue. Under the terms of Microsoft’s 2009 pledge, consumers who buy personal computers were given a choice of the 12 most widely used browsers to install in addition to, or instead of, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Microsoft said today that it would extend this browser choice for an extra 15 months, or until March 2016. After settling with the EU, Microsoft moved to the other side of the fence, filing complaints against Google Inc. (GOOG) and what is now its Motorola Mobility unit for alleged antitrust violations. Microsoft declined 0.7 percent to $29.25 at 11:21 a.m. in New York. To contact the reporter on this story: Aoife White in Brussels at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at [email protected] .

Seven French Refineries Ready to Resume Processing; Await Crude Supplies

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-28/seven-french-refineries-ready-to-resume-processing-await-oil.html

Seven oil refineries in France are ready to resume processing as soon as crude supplies become available from ships stranded by month-long port strikes. “The refiners are back at work but they cannot operate because they don’t have any crude oil,” Yves le Goff, a spokesman for refiner’s group UFIP, said by phone today from Paris. France’s 11 refineries can process 1.84 million barrels of oil a day, according to Bloomberg data. Plants such as Total SA’s La Mede facility began halting production as early as Oct. 10 amid protests that began at ports on Sept. 27, before escalating over President Nicolas Sarkozy ’s pension reform. Workers at the oil terminal of Marseille on France’s southern coast were on strike today leaving 38 crude carriers and 20 refined product vessels stranded, according to an e- mailed statement from port officials. Total’s La Mede plant in the south is in the preliminary stages of start-up following the end of strike action, Michael Crochet-Vourey , a company spokesman, said yesterday. The company’s other facilities remain halted amid countrywide protests. Workers at Petroplus Holdings AG’s Petit Couronne site voted yesterday to return to work and fuel deliveries have resumed, Sevillane Lambret, a CFDT union representative said today by phone. Staff at the company’s other French plant at Reichstett agreed to return to work at the beginning of the week and production remained halted because of limited oil feedstock. Swiss Halt Petroplus was forced to start closing its Cressier refinery in Switzerland because of a lack of crude, the company said on Oct. 26. The plant relies on oil from France via a pipeline. Ineos AG started to reduce production to “stand-by” mode at its Lavera refinery and petrochemical site in the south of France because of limited raw materials, the company said on Oct. 25. “We’re keeping the assets warm and when we get the crude, we’ll ramp up production,” Richard Longden , a U.K.-based Ineos spokesman, said yesterday. Exxon Mobil Corp. said yesterday its employees wouldn’t take part in today’s nationwide protests over the government’s plan to increase the minimum age of retirement to 62 from 60. The company’s 233,000 barrel-a-day Gravenchon refinery, which depends on crude supplies from the port of Le Havre, was waiting for shipments, and its 119,000 barrel-a-day Fos facility in the south of France was running at reduced rates, said Catherine Brun , an Exxon spokeswoman. Both sites had resumed fuel deliveries. The following table shows the status of French refineries, ranked by processing capacity in barrels a day. The Cressier plant in Switzerland is the only one outside France affected by the strikes as it gets crude supplies via pipeline from Fos. To contact the reporter on this story: Nidaa Bakhsh in London at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at [email protected]

Indonesian Bonds Extend Gains on Surprise Central Bank Rate Cut

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-11/indonesian-bonds-gain-for-fourth-day-on-central-bank-support.html

Indonesia ’s benchmark 10-year bonds extended gains, pushing yields to the lowest level in a month, after the central bank unexpectedly cut borrowing costs. The rupiah maintained its decline after the decision. The notes advanced for a fourth day on speculation the central bank is buying the debt as foreigners trim their holdings. Bank Indonesia lowered its reference rate by 25 basis points to 6.5 percent after holding it steady for seven months, citing easing inflation. All 15 analysts in a Bloomberg survey predicted the rate would stay at 6.75 percent. The yield on the 10-year bond fell seven basis points, or 0.07 percentage point, to 6.57 percent as of 3:29 p.m. in Jakarta, prices compiled by Bloomberg showed. The rate was down five basis points before policy makers announced their decision. “The central bank is worried about slowing growth in the global economy,” said Juniman, chief economist at PT Bank Internasional Indonesia in Jakarta who goes by only one name. “The rupiah will depreciate in the short term because yields are going down. Investors expected the rate to be flat.” The rupiah was 0.4 percent weaker at 8,941 per dollar, according to prices from local banks compiled by Bloomberg. It traded at 8,938 in the run-up to the announcement. The currency fell 4 percent in the past month and reached 9,115 on Sept. 26, the lowest level since June 2010, as a faltering U.S. economy and Europe ’s debt crisis curbed investor appetite for emerging-market assets, including Indonesia. Bond Holdings The central bank said today inflation this year may be lower than 5 percent. Consumer prices rose 4.61 percent in September from a year earlier after having climbed 4.79 percent the prior month, official data showed on Oct. 3. The 10-year yield, which reached a record low of 6.45 percent on Sept. 9, dropped 57 basis points in the last three days. The central bank will purchase government bonds and remain in the currency market to stabilize the rupiah, Hendar, director of monetary policy who uses only one name, said on Oct. 3. Foreign ownership of the nation’s debt declined 4 trillion rupiah ($447 million) this month through Oct. 5 to 214.1 trillion rupiah, after record withdrawals of 29.3 trillion rupiah in September, according to data from the finance ministry’s website. “BI is trying to make yields go down,” said Handy Yunianto, a fixed-income analyst at Mandiri Sekuritas in Jakarta. “Foreigners are still cutting their holdings of government bonds. They are trying to take profits and wait for better entry levels to come in.” The government will aim to sell today 500 billion rupiah of Islamic bonds maturing in six months to 25 years, Yunianto said. Indonesian bonds have returned 16 percent so far this year, the best performance among 10 Asian local-currency debt markets tracked by HSBC Holdings Plc. Debt in the Philippines and Singapore delivered the second-biggest gains, rising 6.8 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Lilian Karunungan in Singapore at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sandy Hendry at [email protected]

Severed Pipe, Hard Hats Seized by U.S. in BP Well Probe

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-02/severed-pipe-hard-hats-seized-by-u-s-in-bp-well-probe.html

The U.S. Coast Guard seized a section of pipe from BP Plc’s leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico as part of a federal investigation into the catastrophe that killed 11 rig workers and triggered the worst oil spill in U.S. history. The 50-foot (15-meter) section of pipe was attached to a stack of safety valves on the sea floor known as a blowout preventer, said Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Jeff Bray. Investigators plan to examine the pipe at a Coast Guard base in New Orleans for clues about what caused BP’s Macondo well to spew out of control on April 20, Bray said today. The well has been pumping as much as 60,000 barrels of crude a day into the sea for more than two months, fouling fisheries, oyster beds and beaches. “This is something we’re examining as part of the ongoing investigation,” Bray said in a telephone interview from Washington. The 50 feet of pipe was severed from the blowout preventer in the weeks following the disaster to allow remotely controlled robots to attempt to cap the leaking well. The section was originally part of a 5,000-foot string of pipes that connected the well to the Deepwater Horizon rig until the vessel sank on April 22. The Coast Guard took possession of the pipe section from Transocean Ltd., the Geneva-based rig owner, under the terms of a subpoena issued by an investigative panel comprised of Coast Guard and Interior Department representatives, court documents show. Debris, Logs Transocean has also been ordered to hand over any debris from the wrecked rig and personnel logs that cover the period from when the Deepwater Horizon arrived at the Macondo site about 40 miles off the Louisiana coast earlier this year, the documents show. Hard hats and storage tanks used to hold mechanical oil are among the debris that has been recovered from the disaster zone and handed over to the Coast Guard for examination, said Guy Cantwell, a Transocean spokesman. The blowout preventer won’t be detached from the sea floor and brought to the surface until the leak has been capped, he said. A BP spokeswoman in the company’s Houston office who declined to be identified said she was unable to immediately comment. The investigative panel is scheduled to resume hearing testimony from survivors and company executives on July 19, Bray said. The panel has yet to determine who it will summon to provide testimony, he said. At the last round of hearings in late May, Robert Kaluza, one of two BP managers involved in directing the drilling project aboard the rig, declined to testify, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Poor Health Donald Vidrine, the other BP manager who oversaw the project aboard the Deepwater Horizon, postponed a May appearance before the panel, telling investigators he was in poor health. In a June 23 interview outside his home in Lafayette, Louisiana, Vidrine declined to say whether he will testify when the hearings resume later this month. Vidrine said he had been on administrative leave from the company since the catastrophe. In addition to the Coast Guard and Interior Department, investigations are under way by the Justice Department, U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board and several House and Senate committees. BP and contractors that included Transocean and Halliburton Co. were in the process of sealing the Macondo well with cement plugs when the rig was rocked by two explosions and caught fire. 50 Million Barrels BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward last month estimated the well, which lies under almost 1 mile of water, tapped a field holding 50 million barrels of crude. At current prices, that much crude is worth about $3.6 billion. London-based BP rose 2.8 percent to 327.95 pence today. Anadarko, based in The Woodlands, Texas, rose 3 percent to $37.17 in New York trading. Transocean rose 5.5 percent to $48.89. BP, the largest oil and natural-gas producer in the Gulf of Mexico, and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., which owns a minority stake in the well, have each lost half their market value since the disaster. Mitsui & Co ., the Tokyo-based owner of an indirect stake in the project, lost almost one-third of its value. Transocean has tumbled 47 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Carroll in New Orleans, Louisiana, at [email protected] BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward last month estimated the well, which lies under almost 1 mile of water, tapped a field holding 50 million barrels of crude. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg //<![CDATA[ $(document).ready(function () { $(".view_story #story_content .attachments img.small_img").each(function(){ var self = $(this); if (self.width() != 190){ self.width(190); } }); }); //]]>

U.K. FSA Fines Towry Investment $773,000 Over Incorrect Data

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-29/u-k-fsa-fines-towry-investment-773-000-over-incorrect-data.html

The U.K.’s Financial Services Authority fined Towry Investment Management Ltd. 494,000 pounds ($773,000) for misleading the regulator and failing to comply with client money rules, the FSA said in an e-mailed statement today. The company “failed to maintain adequate records” of client money and provided “inaccurate information” to the FSA, the regulator said. Towry earned a 30 percent discount on the fine by agreeing to settle at an early stage. To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Moshinsky in Brussels at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Scinta at [email protected]

Russia Asset Sales to Be Undermined by Lack of Transparency, Kasyanov Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-22/russia-asset-sales-to-be-undermined-by-lack-of-transparency-kasyanov-says.html

Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said he’s concerned that the planned sale of stakes in state-controlled companies will be undermined by a lack transparency. Kasyanov, who served as prime minister from 2000-2004 during Vladimir Putin ’s presidency and is part of a pro- democracy opposition group, said the secrecy of the process casts doubt on the credibility of the offerings. “I have always been in support of privatization, but having in mind that this government is not a transparent one, this privatization is going to be an imitation of the real process,” he said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York last night. “It is not going to be done in a clear and transparent manner. The revenue is going to finance the budget deficit, but prices will raise a lot of questions.” Russia’s government unveiled plans this week to sell stakes in the nation’s two largest lenders. The state may give up control of VTB Group within three years and plans to reduce its OAO Sberbank holding by 2014, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said Oct. 20. To contact the reporter on this story: Halia Pavliva in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Willy Morris at [email protected]

Verizon Wireless Will End Unlimited Data Plans for IPhone

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-01/verizon-wireless-to-drop-unlimited-iphone-data-plans-cfo-says.html

Verizon Communications Inc. will stop offering unlimited data plans for Apple Inc .’s iPhone as soon as this summer and switch to a tiered pricing offering that can generate more revenue and hold the heaviest users in check. The carrier, which began selling the iPhone last month, now offers $30 unlimited data service on the device. Such plans on the handset are “not a long-term solution,” Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said today at a Morgan Stanley conference. Verizon Wireless, co-owned by Vodafone Group Plc and Verizon Communications, ended AT&T Inc.’s four-year exclusive hold on the iPhone in the U.S. Analysts, including Wells Fargo & Co.’s Jennifer Fritzsche , estimate Verizon may sell 2 million iPhones this quarter. After beginning iPhone sales in February, Verizon said it may limit the download speeds for some customers, who are among the top 5 percent in data consumption, in areas where they risk jamming the network. Verizon also has an opportunity for additional revenue as customers adopt smartphones, such as the iPhone, because they tend to use more data than customers with more traditional devices, Shammo said. “We have a very big opportunity at Verizon Wireless because 67 percent of our customers are either feature phones or multimedia phones,” which have optional data plans of about $10 per month, said Shammo. “We see the potential of our customer base spending in that $30 to $50 range.” Online iPhone Sales AT&T in June stopped offering unlimited data plans, except to those already under contract. The Dallas-based carrier offers a $15 plan for 200 megabytes of data monthly or a $25 plan for 2 gigabytes of data. Customers to date have bought 60 percent of their Verizon iPhones online, rather than in stores, Shammo said at the conference in San Francisco. He didn’t give details on the number of units sold or on the planned tiered data-pricing plans. Later this month, Verizon will begin sales of the iPhone in smaller retailers and other storefronts. Today it is available primarily online, in Verizon and Apple stores and at the largest retailers, such as Best Buy Co. Verizon Communications, based in New York, fell 90 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $36.02 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Apple, based in Cupertino, California , lost $3.90, or 1.1 percent, to $349.31 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Bensinger in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at [email protected]

GENERAL SILICON April Sales Fall 18.18% (Table) : 4730 TT

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-10/general-silicon-april-sales-fall-18-18-table-4730-tt.html

GENERAL SILICON said unconsolidated sales in April fell 18.18% to NT$18,070,000 from NT$22,085,000, according to a statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. (Figures are in thousands of New Taiwan dollars) ================================================================= 4/2012 4/2011 Sales 18,070 22,085 YOY% -18.18% -----------------Year-to-date----------------- Sales 73,171 81,740 YOY% -10.48% =================================================================

Iran Says EU Ban Will Boost Oil Prices, Hurt West’s Growth

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-24/iran-says-eu-ban-will-boost-oil-prices-hurt-west-s-growth-2-.html

The European Union’s ban on imports of Iranian crude will drive up oil prices and aggravate market instability, the Islamic Republic said in comments that were contradicted by some analysts. The decision by EU foreign ministers to phase out purchases of Iranian oil from July was “hasty” and may lead to “heavy economic loss and damages to the crisis-stricken people of Europe,” the Iranian oil ministry said in a statement on state- run Fars news agency late yesterday. Iran ’s foreign ministry said the decision “would bear bitter fruit.” The EU ban is part of efforts by the bloc and the U.S. to pressure the Persian Gulf state over a nuclear program that Western nations say is aimed at producing weapons. Iran says the program is for civilian energy and medical purposes. The EU measures include freezing assets of the Iranian central bank in Europe and banning trade in petrochemicals from Iran. “They were rattled by the EU actions and their ability to reach a clear consensus, so these statements seem like more bluster to reassure a domestic audience,” Robin Mills, an analyst at Manaar Energy Consulting in Dubai, said today. Crude gained since the middle of last month, partly because of concern that Iran may close the Strait of Hormuz , the passage for about 20 percent of the world’s oil. The risk of disruption is already included in prices, adding $10 a barrel this month, said Ole Hansen, trading advisory manager at Saxo Bank A/S. The Iranian ministry’s comments may point to an easing in tension between the West and Iran as the Islamic Republic may seek alternative customers before the EU embargo comes into effect, said Mills, who worked on Iran for a decade with Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Alternative Buyers “If they are able to find buyers without having to offer too much in the way of discounts, they won’t have much of a problem with the embargo come June,” Mills said by telephone. Crude futures closed yesterday at 99.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That’s less than the closing level on Dec. 27, when Iran threatened to blockade shipments from the Persian Gulf. Increased output from members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries such as Libya (OPCRLIBY) may make up for a decline in Iranian crude supply, Oswald Clint , an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., said in a note today. Brent crude may trade from $100 to $120 a barrel if other producers make up any fall in Iran’s exports, according to Bernstein. Brent futures were trading at about $110 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London today. Yield to Pressure “The Iranian nation has many times proved that it would never yield to pressure and unjust moves, aimed at abandoning its legitimate and legal rights,” the foreign ministry said in its statement. “Any confrontation move against the independence and advancement of the independent countries would lead to further complication of the present day world crises,” it said. Iran has “no concerns whatsoever for finding new customers” for its crude, according to the oil ministry’s statement. Europe, collectively the second-biggest buyer of Iranian oil after China , imported 450,000 barrels a day of the nation’s crude in the first half of last year, U.S. Energy Department data show. To contact the reporters on this story: Ladane Nasseri in Tehran at [email protected] ; Anthony DiPaola in Dubai at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at [email protected] ; Stephen Voss at [email protected]

Natural-Gas Supply Probably Fell 182 Bcf, Bloomberg Users Say

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-26/natural-gas-supply-probably-fell-182-bcf-bloomberg-users-say.html

The U.S. Energy Department’s natural-gas inventory report, scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. in Washington , will show that supplies fell 5.5 percent last week, according to a survey of Bloomberg users. The government’s Natural Gas Storage Report will show that inventories declined 182 billion cubic feet in the week ended Jan. 20 to 3.108 trillion cubic feet, according to the survey. Natural gas for February delivery fell 4.7 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $2.682 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 10:20 a.m. Bloomberg compiles the anonymous survey based on estimates by at least 100 users each week. To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Buurma in New York at [email protected] ; To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at [email protected]

U.S. Said to Open Criminal Probe of FX Market Rigging

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-11/u-s-said-to-open-criminal-probe-of-fx-market-rigging.html

The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation of possible manipulation of the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market, a person familiar with the matter said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation , which is also looking into alleged rigging of interest rates associated with the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, is in the early stages of its currency market probe, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the inquiry is confidential. The U.S. investigation comes as the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority said in June it was reviewing potential manipulation of exchange rates. That month, allegations that dealers at banks pooled information through instant messages and used client orders to move benchmark currency rates were reported by Bloomberg News. Regulators are probing the alleged abuse of financial benchmarks used in markets from oil to interest rate swaps by the firms that play a central role in setting them. Swiss regulators said last week they were “coordinating closely with authorities in other countries as multiple banks around the world are potentially implicated.” The probes include alleged manipulation of ISDAfix, a benchmark in the $379 trillion market for interest-rate swaps. The International Organization of Securities Commissions, the Madrid-based group representing regulators from more than 100 countries, set tougher guidelines for publishing benchmarks in a July 17 report, including making prices based on “observable” deals where possible to increase transparency. Commodities Markets Regulators, including European Union Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia , may examine commodities markets, having already increased investigations of manipulation of benchmarks for oil, interest rates, derivatives and foreign exchange. EU investigators searched the offices of Platts, the unit of New York-based McGraw Hill Financial Inc. that assesses the price of Dated Brent, the benchmark for more than half of the world’s crude. Kathleen Tanzy, a New York-based spokeswoman for Platts, said in an Oct. 4 e-mailed statement that the company’s “aim is to bring transparency to price discovery by publishing as much detailed and meaningful information as possible.” In a Bloomberg News survey conducted over eight weeks, commodities traders who buy and sell as much as $5.67 trillion of raw materials a year say the benchmark prices for everything from oil to iron ore to gasoline are wrong as often as 27 percent of the time. The person familiar with the U.S. currency market probe didn’t say which banks may be under scrutiny. Peter Carr , a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department, declined to comment on the investigation. Antitrust Regulators Probes of Libor manipulation led to fines totaling about $2.6 billion against four firms, including UBS AG (UBSN) , Switzerland ’s largest bank, for rigging the benchmark for more than $300 trillion of securities worldwide. Earlier this week, European Union antitrust regulators said they were examining the possible manipulation of currency rates by the financial industry, while Switzerland’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority, or Finma, and the nation’s competition commission said they were probing similar potential wrongdoing. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has also been reviewing possible currency market rigging, said a separate person with knowledge of the matter. The U.K.’s FCA sent requests for information to four banks, including Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) and New York-based Citigroup Inc. (C) , a person with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified said in June. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc has handed over records of instant messages to the FCA after concluding a former currency trader’s communications with counterparts at other firms may have been inappropriate, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Reviewing E-Mails RBS, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup are among firms reviewing e-mails, instant messages and phone records of their foreign-exchange employees for evidence of potential manipulation, according to three people with knowledge of those probes. Spokesmen at all the firms have previously declined to comment. Seb Howell, a spokesman for Deutsche Bank, Jeffrey French , a spokesman for Citigroup, and Jason Knauf, a spokesman for RBS, declined to comment on the U.S. investigation. RBS, in its deferred prosecution agreement over Libor manipulation with the U.S. in February, agreed to cooperate in “any and all matters” related to “manipulation, attempted manipulation, or interbank coordination of benchmark rate submissions.” Prosecutors filed a nonpublic document in that case listing the rates that are the focus of its ongoing investigation, according to court records. German Regulator Germany ’s financial regulator said it sees no reason for a special audit of any of the country’s banks for potential currency manipulation, Ben Fischer , a spokesman for Bafin, said earlier this week. FTSE Group , the compiler of Britain’s FTSE 100, is reviewing the currency benchmarks it uses to value its global stock indexes, said three people with knowledge of the plan. The index provider, a unit of London Stock Exchange Group Plc (LSE) , is setting up a working group to examine its use of the WM/Reuters foreign exchange rates, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t allowed to talk publicly. The review, at an early stage, will probably focus on proposing changes to the way WM/Reuters calculates the figure rather than on whether to stop using it, one of the people said. Currencies WM/Reuters rates are published hourly for 160 currencies and half-hourly for the 21 most-traded. They are the median of all trades in a minute-long period starting 30 seconds before the beginning of each half-hour. Rates for less-widely traded currencies are based on quotes during a two-minute window. The data are collected and distributed by World Markets Co., a unit of Boston-based State Street Corp. (STT) , and Thomson Reuters Corp. Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, competes with Thomson Reuters in providing news and information as well as currency-trading systems. To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Schoenberg in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at [email protected]

Take-Two's Third-Quarter Profit Beats Estimates With Sports Video Games

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-09/take-two-profit-tops-estimates-with-sports-video-games-update1-.html

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc ., the publisher of “Grand Theft Auto” video games, beat analysts’ estimates for third-quarter profit with sales of its basketball game. The company raised its fourth-quarter forecast. Profit excluding some costs rose to $49.5 million, or 52 cents a share, from $49.2 million, or 53 cents, a year earlier, Take-Two said in a statement. That exceeded the 34-cent average of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The company had forecast profit of 25 cents to 35 cents a share on that basis. Sales fell 7.2 percent to $334.3 million, beating analysts’ estimates of $312.6 million. “We will have a lot of work to do,” Take-Two Chief Executive Officer Strauss Zelnick said in an interview. “That said, I think the release schedule looks great.” Take-Two jumped as much as 6.6 percent to $15.50 in late trading after the results were announced. The shares advanced 19 cents to $14.54 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market, their highest price since October 2008, and have gained 19 percent this year. Take-Two, based in New York, may be reversing a history of annual losses by building a strong portfolio of company-owned games, Arvind Bhatia, an analyst with Sterne Agee in Dallas , said in a Feb. 3 note to investors. He has a “buy” rating on the shares. “Our sum-of-the-parts valuation yields values in the $17- plus range and is based on the company’s strong game portfolio,” including “L.A. Noire” and “Agent,” Bhatia wrote. New Releases “L.A. Noire” is slated for May 17 release. Take-Two hasn’t said when it will release “Agent,” an espionage game announced in June 2009. Take-Two’s 2K Sports division shipped more than 4 million units of its “NBA 2K11” game worldwide over the holiday period, according to the statement. The company said it also continues to benefit from add-on packs for its “Red Dead Redemption” Western shooter, which shipped more than 8 million copies since its May 2010 release. For the current quarter, Take-Two forecast a loss of 40 cents to 45 cents a share, excluding items, on revenue of $130 million to $150 million. That compares to an estimated loss of 51 cents a share on revenue of $136.3 million, according to 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. In October, Take-Two announced a change to a fiscal year ending on March 31 from Oct. 31. To contact the reporter on this story: Cliff Edwards in San Francisco at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo in Los Angeles at [email protected]

Mauritius' GBOT Bourse to Raise Daily Value to $200 Million by End of Year

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-25/mauritius-gbot-bourse-to-raise-daily-value-to-200-million-by-end-of-year.html

Global Board of Trade Ltd. , a Mauritius-based commodities and currencies derivatives exchange, expects daily transaction value to surge to $200 million by the end of 2011, Managing Director Joseph Bosco said. The daily target for the bourse, which started operating on Oct. 18, compares with value of $22 million recorded in for the whole of February to date, Bosco said in an interview at the Ebene-based exchange yesterday. GBOT, as it’s known, had contracts worth $12 million traded in its first month of operations. “We are not in a hurry,” Bosco said. “We need to settle down. We are trying to create an edifice of a market.” GBOT, owned by Financial Technologies India ) Ltd., started trading gold and silver contracts, together with the dollar- rupee as well as rand , pound and yen contracts against the dollar, according to an e-mailed statement from the company. It currently has 24 members, with 11 coming from Africa , according to Bosco. The company will offer contracts on the Kenyan shilling versus the dollar followed by the Nigerian naira, he said, without giving any specific date. “We have sought clearance with all the regulators from these countries. It’s on”, Bosco said. GBOT’s current focus in creating awareness of the exchange in Africa, targeting commodity-rich economies such as Uganda, Angola and Zambia, Bosco said. To contact the reporter on this story: Kamlesh Bhuckory in Port Louis via Johannesburg at 1933 or [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at [email protected]

SEB’s $8.7 Billion German Property Fund Sets Make-or-Break Date

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/seb-asset-management-fund-to-open-for-redemptions-for-one-day.html

SEB Asset Management’s 6.6 billion- euro ($8.7 billion) property mutual fund will be liquidated if it’s unable to meet all investor demands for repayment, the company’s chief executive officer said. SEB ImmoInvest, the largest of 13 German real-estate funds that suspended redemptions after the global financial crisis, will re-open for one day on May 7 to take requests. It will liquidate if it doesn’t have enough cash to cover all orders, SEB Asset Management CEO said at a press conference today in Frankfurt. The fund has been closed for almost two years. Knoflach said she’s optimistic the fund won’t have to liquidate. ImmoInvest has “considerably” more than 30 percent of its assets in cash or equivalents, after selling properties she said. Germany’s 85.2 billion-euro real estate mutual fund industry may be facing its biggest crisis. Following the global recession that ended in 2009, funds struggled to meet redemption requests. As a result, 13 funds were frozen over the course of two years. Of those, six funds are liquidating, and several more, including funds owned by Credit Suisse Group AG and UBS AG, face deadlines this year to reopen or liquidate, according to Germany ’s financial trade group, Bundesverband Investment und Asset Management, or BVI. SEB, which proposed the one-day reopening with approval from German financial regulator BaFin, said it would allow withdrawals only once a year, instead of daily, if the fund continues after May 7. More than 90 percent of the fund’s customers are small private investors, according to Knoflach. The strategy “will fail,” said Bjoern Drescher, chief executive of Drescher Cie, a consulting firm near Bonn. “It’s herd psychology. I don’t think investors will heed her appeal.” ImmoInvest owns buildings in Paris, Singapore , Rome as well as 19 buildings on Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz. SEB Asset Management is a unit of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB. To contact the reporter on this story: Dalia Fahmy in Berlin at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ross Larsen at [email protected]

EU Carbon Drops Most in Two Weeks After Breaching Support Level

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-22/eu-carbon-drops-most-in-two-weeks-after-breaching-support-level.html

European Union carbon permits fell the most in almost two weeks after prices breached a technical support level and the U.K. auctioned allowances. The December futures contract declined as much as 7.3 percent to 3.30 euros ($4.27) a metric ton on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange. Allowances closed at 3.32 euros a ton, the lowest for 10 days and the biggest decline since May 10. The contract dropped below a trendline at 3.46 euros that started from the record-low 2.46 euros on April 17, according to Clive Lambert, an analyst in Billericay, England at FuturesTechs.com Ltd. The breach of support means prices may fall to as low as 2.86 euros a ton, Lambert said. Aggregate daily trading volume for EU permits in May declined yesterday to the lowest since Jan. 22, according to ICE Futures data. The 20-day moving average for all contracts fell to 20.4 million tons. The U.K. sold 4.1 million EU allowances at 3.43 euros a ton in a fortnightly auction. The sale had bids of 11.1 million tons, the most for a U.K. offer since Feb. 27, according to ICE data compiled by Bloomberg. United Nations carbon offsets for December fell as much as 24 percent to 29 euro cents a ton, their lowest in almost three weeks, before closing 11 percent lower at 34 cents a ton. To contact the reporter on this story: Alessandro Vitelli in London at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lars Paulsson at [email protected]

Canadian Dollar Weakens to Three-Month Low on Growth Concern

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-17/canadian-dollar-weakens-to-three-month-low-on-growth-concern.html

The Canadian dollar weakened to the lowest level against the greenback since August on concern that budget gridlock in the U.S. and Europe’s unresolved sovereign- debt crisis will weigh on demand for the nation’s exports. The loonie, as the dollar is nicknamed for the image of the waterfowl on the C$1 coin, traded in the narrowest range this week since March. Statistics Canada is forecast to report on Nov. 23 that the rise in consumer prices slowed in October from the prior month, suggesting Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney doesn’t need to emphasize raising interest rates. “There’s already risk impairment that’s embedded in the marketplace right now, which is having an adverse effect on the Canadian dollar,” Jack Spitz , managing director of foreign exchange at National Bank of Canada in Toronto, said in a phone interview. “Every other country is effectively going through the same scenario, so we’re not an outlier.” The Canadian currency weakened to as low as C$1.0057 yesterday, the least since Aug. 3, and was little changed on the week at C$1.0012, after trading between C$1.0057 and 99.85 U.S. cents. One Canadian dollar buys 99.88 U.S. cents. The loonie touched its more than three-month low as Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said he’ll delay plans to balance the budget and run larger-than-expected deficits because global turmoil risks slowing growth in the world’s 11th largest economy. Global Outlook The 17 nation euro-area economy slipped into a recession for the second time in four years as governments imposed tougher budget cuts and leaders struggled to contain the debt crisis that broke out in October 2009. Gross domestic product slipped 0.1 percent in the third quarter after a 0.2 percent decline in the previous three months, the European Union’s statistics office said this week. House Speaker John Boehner said he offered a “framework” including new revenue to reduce the U.S. budget deficit in his first face-to-face talks yesterday with President Barack Obama and top Congress leaders since the Nov. 6 election. “The fiscal cliff has dominated the market,” Benjamin Reitzes , senior economist and vice president economic research in Toronto at BMO Capital Markets, said at a telephone interview. “This is going to persist and be a weight on risk sentiment, stocks, and the Canadian dollar. That won’t change until there’s more clarity on that front.” The $607 billion fiscal cliff is a combination of tax increases and spending cuts that will take effect in January if Congress doesn’t act. Lawmakers of both parties want to avoid a short-term shock to the economy while making progress on long- term deficit reduction. International Demand Canadian government bonds rose, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year security falling two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 1.69 percent this week. The price of the 2.75 percent bond maturing in June 2022 rose 18 cents to C$109.27. Foreign net purchases of Canadian securities almost doubled in September from the month before on government bond sales, the federal statistics agency said. Purchases totaled C$13.9 billion ($13.9 billion) in September and the estimated August purchase was increased to C$7.56 billion from an initial C$6.90 billion. The consumer price index rose 1.2 percent in October from a year ago, according to the median forecast of 13 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The central bank’s preferred core rate probably slowed to 1.2 percent from 1.3 percent in September, according to the survey. Moving Averages Carney has kept his key lending rate at 1 percent for more than two years and will probably leave it unchanged again at the Dec. 4 decision, according to a Bloomberg economist survey. The Canadian currency weakened past its 50-day, 100- and 200-day moving averages this week for the first time since July 25. The averages, momentum indicators, are seen by some traders as a turning point in the direction of a currency’s price. They’re calculated by adding closing prices for a specific number of assessment days, then dividing by that number. “This week the U.S. dollar-loonie cross failed to make any meaningful gains above 1.0040,” and “continues to trade within a relatively narrow range around its two-hundred day moving average,” Camilla Sutton , head of currency strategy at Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto, said in a note to clients. To contact the reporter on this story: Katia Dmitrieva in Toronto at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at [email protected]

Richest Man Slim Cited for Profiting From Phones for Poor

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-25/richest-man-slim-cited-for-profiting-from-phones-for-poor.html

Congressional Republicans want to rein in a $2.2 billion U.S. mobile-phone subsidy for the poor, saying it’s riddled with fraud and benefits the world’s richest man, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. Slim’s TracFone Wireless Inc. received about a quarter of the funds from the U.S. government’s Lifeline program, according to the latest figures. Today, a House subcommittee asked why the program, paid for by fees charged to U.S. phone subscribers, tripled in cost since 2008. “It’s not fair that people save and work and pay for phones from whatever funds they have, and other people get them for free,” Representative Tim Griffin, an Arkansas Republican who wants to eliminate the mobile subsidy, said in an interview before the hearing. “It’s not fair the biggest beneficiary of this is Carlos Slim , the billionaire owner of TracFone.” Slim owns Mexico ’s biggest phone company, America Movil SAB (AMXL) , which offers mobile service in 17 Latin American countries and the U.S. Its TracFone unit is the largest recipient under the U.S. Federal Communication Commission’s Lifeline program, taking in $451.7 million, or 28 percent, of payments in 2011, the last year for which records are available. “It doesn’t matter who owns the company,” Jose Fuentes, a spokesman for Miami-based TracFone, said in an interview. “Tim Griffin needs to focus on finding jobs, not trying to focus on a valuable program.” ‘Obama Phone’ The Lifeline program subsidizes monthly service, and carriers give away phones. Recipients generally can’t earn more than 135 percent of the federal poverty line , which in most states is $23,550 for a family of four. Rules limiting phones to one per household may be violated in some cases, Representative Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican who chairs the subcommittee, said today. “We are spending large sums of money and probably squandering much of it,” Walden said. The program has seen “explosive growth,” said Representative Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, at the hearing. “It’s why so many of our constituents are questioning the program and are questioning the use of the ’Obama phones’ as they are commonly called.” Started in 1985, Lifeline pays companies $9.25 per customer per month. It disbursed $772 million in 2008 and $2.2 billion last year, according to the Universal Service Administrative Co., a Washington-based nonprofit that oversees the subsidies. TracFone is the largest prepaid wireless company in the U.S., with 23.2 million customers at the end of March and $4.8 billion in revenue last year. Lifeline accounts for about 3.6 million of those customers, Fuentes said. Program Trimmed Largest U.S. telephone company AT&T Inc. (T) took in $274.9 million and third-largest wireless provider Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) , based in Overland Park , Kansas , received $273.5 million, according to the FCC. AT&T’s share includes aid for wired phone customers. The FCC last year moved to trim the Lifeline program. The agency voted to set up a database of participants, which is under construction, to prevent households from collecting more than one subsidized phone service from different companies. The FCC also told carriers to check eligibility of customers annually, which can be shown through enrollment in social assistance programs. Verifying Eligibility The number of program participants has dropped, from 18.2 million to 13.2 million, as the FCC has revamped the program, said Representative Anna Eshoo of California , the top Democrat on the subcommittee. “What we need to stay away from, with all due respect, is simply a disdain for the president and then moving that to apply to policies in telecommunications -- I mean, it just doesn’t mix,” Eshoo said. “It doesn’t make sense; it’s not dignified. I don’t want to have anything to do with that.” Sprint in January told the FCC it couldn’t verify the continued eligibility of 1.6 million customers, or 44 percent of its Lifeline participants. Dallas-based AT&T said it dropped 47 percent of its customers, or 609,900 people, and TracFone said it couldn’t verify 739,500, or 19 percent, of its customers. People could drop from the rolls for not responding to a carrier’s query or if they earn more money. John Taylor , a Sprint spokesman, declined to comment. Until recent changes, FCC rules restricted AT&T from dropping customers with traditional wired phones from the program, Robert Quinn , senior vice president regulatory and chief privacy officer, said in an e-mail. ’Waste, Abuse’ The House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology’s hearing was called “in response to the growth, waste and abuse that has occurred,” Representative Fred Upton , a Michigan Republican who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Walden said in a March 26 letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Representative John Shimkus , an Illinois Republican, said program supporters don’t seem to “understand the anger that’s out there in America over this.” Griffin, the Arkansas lawmaker, isn’t on the subcommittee and his bill isn’t slated to receive a vote during the session. The measure has attracted 42 supporters, all Republicans. It calls for eliminating the wireless subsidy. Payments could continue for wired telephones so households retain the ability to communicate, Griffin said. Wireless Perspective Regulators shouldn’t cut mobile service from the program because communications increasingly is moving to wireless devices and assistance should be neutral as to technology, Christopher Guttman-McCabe, vice president of regulatory affairs at CTIA-The Wireless Association, said in testimony submitted to the panel. The trade group based in Washington includes as members largest U.S. mobile carriers Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile USA Inc. The NAACP and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights in letters April 23 to Walden and Eshoo said Lifeline should continue to support wireless and traditional wire-based phones. The name “Obama Phone” was popularized during the 2012 elections as a video of an excited Cleveland woman extolling the program went viral on the Web. Critics have seized on the misnomer, even though the program was begun under President Ronald Reagan and a Republican FCC chairman in 2005 changed the program to admit new carriers such as TracFone that are driving program growth. “People say, ‘Well everybody needs a cellphone,’” Griffin said. “Well, what does ’need’ mean? Do you need an iPad? How about a computer? A printer?” To contact the reporter on this story: Todd Shields in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bernard Kohn at [email protected]

Packed Congress Calendar Topped by Syria Crowds Out Bills

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-09/packed-congress-calendar-topped-by-syria-crowds-out-bills.html

A new U.S. immigration law at one time looked like the main thing Congress could get done this year. Syria is crippling its chances. The debates over U.S. military involvement in Syria and federal government spending are crowding an already-packed congressional calendar, leaving little time or energy for revising the nation’s immigration laws, changing the tax code, passing a voting rights bill or stabilizing a money-losing U.S. Postal Service. Congress returns today from a five-week break. “Everything else is on the back burner,” said Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma , a member of Republican House Speaker John Boehner’s leadership team. Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican working on an immigration policy revision, said there was a 5 percent chance an immigration bill would pass by year’s end. He said he was optimistic because in previous years the chances were zero. If Congress doesn’t pass immigration legislation this year, it becomes more difficult in 2014 as lawmakers focus on their re-election campaigns, Diaz-Balart said. “Running out of time is a real issue,” Diaz-Balart, a House Appropriations Committee member, said in an interview. “Nothing is impossible but it gets a heck of a lot more difficult if we don’t get it done this year.” Time is short, even for the must-do fiscal items and the Syria vote. Lawmakers have three weeks until the government shuts down without a spending plan and less than two months to raise the debt limit or risk a U.S. default. Vote Planned First up is Syria, with a vote in the Senate planned this week. The House will consider legislation this week to extend current spending levels for the new fiscal year starting Oct. 1. Days when both chambers are working in the next two months are limited. The House, scheduled to work just 10 weeks for the rest of year, has a five-day break starting Sept. 23. The Senate is in session until an Oct. 14-18 break. President Barack Obama asked Congress for a “prompt” vote on authorization for strikes, which the White House says would deter and degrade Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s ability to use chemical weapons. The U.S. blamed Assad for an attack that killed more than 1,400 people, including women and children. The Syrian government denies using chemical weapons, saying elements of the opposition were responsible. Vote Count In the House, 26 members publicly support military action and 202 are opposed or leaning against the resolution as of Sept. 8, with 205 undeclared. In the Senate, where 60 votes are needed, 22 members favor the measure, 26 are opposed and 52 are undeclared. Many lawmakers will attend their first classified briefings today and Obama will deliver an address to the nation on Syria at 9 p.m. tomorrow. That’s pushing the timetable back on revamping immigration policy, one of Obama’s legislative goals this session. The Senate passed its immigration bill in June while House leaders worked during their break to find consensus in a reluctant Republican majority. The House hasn’t proposed legislation to change U.S. immigration policy and is working on a piecemeal approach. The Republican National Committee recommended that the party reach out to minority voters after its presidential candidate, Mitt Romney , won just 27 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2012. No Timetable An immigration revision’s biggest hurdle might be that it doesn’t have a timetable to force lawmakers into action. A Republican leadership aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed to the RNC report and suggested the only deadline is the 2016 presidential election. Money is the other top priority starting this week. In 2011, lawmakers fought for months over raising the nation’s debt limit. Stock investors were affected, with the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) falling 16.8 percent between July 22, when talks on a broad deal faltered, and Aug. 8, the first trading day after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating citing the partisan gridlock. Credit markets weren’t rattled by the 2011 standoff, as yields on 10-year Treasury notes declined to 2.61 percent on Aug. 2, 2011, from 3.18 percent the previous July 1, and continued to fall to 1.88 percent at year-end. Still, fiscal deadlines push lawmakers to act. ‘Wiggle Room’ “Votes have a way of forcing politicians to take a position and give up the wiggle room that is the bread and butter of politics,” said Tom Perriello, a former Democratic House member from Virginia. He is now president of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a Washington research group founded by former aides to President Bill Clinton. “It’s easier to be on both sides of an issue.” A record 83 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Congress was doing, according to an NBC News poll released July 24. The survey of 1,000 adults had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they would vote to replace every single member of Congress, including their own, if they could. That was the highest in at least three years, according to the poll results. “The American people are concerned about two main things: gridlock and doing important things,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, told reporters before lawmakers started their recess on Aug. 2. “We have to overcome the gridlock of the Republicans and pass some important bills.” Republican View Republicans view the divide differently. They see a Democratic president refusing to negotiate on a debt ceiling, though he voted against raising the limit when he was a U.S. senator in 2006. At the time Obama said “raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.” A pair of Tea Party Republicans, Utah Senator Mike Lee and Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina, have gathered signatures from lawmakers who back defunding the president’s health-care law in return for passing a short-term spending bill. They’ve gained support from about-one third of the House and Senate Republicans, not enough to force the issue. Instead, Republicans will claim victory with a short-term spending resolution that maintains discretionary levels at $988 billion. If lawmakers can keep the government running, that would set up negotiations over the debt limit. Republicans see some leverage with across-the-board spending cuts, known as sequestration, that began taking effect in March. Spending Reductions The spending reductions were set to be so intolerable that lawmakers of both parties would compromise on spending to avert $1.2 trillion in cuts over nine years. Instead, no accord was reached and the reductions began. As much as $85 billion will be withheld for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, forcing curtailed services and payroll cuts. “There’s a variety of things we could do that would allow us to both address at least part of the sequesters, which the president and Democrats in the Senate very much want to do,” Cole said in an interview. On the debt limit, Republicans will seek to define their price for agreeing to an increase, said Jonathan Traub, a managing principal at Deloitte Tax LLP in Washington. “It can’t be so big that it can’t pass,” he said, citing calls for repealing the 2010 health-care law. “But it can’t be so small that it’s meaningless.” Common ground might include expanded means-testing for Medicare and trimming Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustments, which Obama included in his budget proposal. Obama’s plan canceled the spending cuts and included $580 billion in revenue increases. There’s been little sign of negotiations since Congress left Washington. “Let me reiterate what our position is, and it is unequivocal,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Aug. 26. “We will not negotiate with Republicans in Congress over Congress’s responsibility to pay the bills that Congress has racked up, period.” To contact the reporter on this story: Michael C. Bender in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jodi Schneider at [email protected]

Biogen to Pay Elan $3.25 Billion for Full Tysabri Rights

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-06/biogen-to-pay-elan-3-25-billion-for-full-tysabri-rights.html

Biogen Idec Inc. rose to its highest value ever after the drugmaker agreed to buy partner Elan Corp. ’s stake in the Tysabri multiple sclerosis medicine for $3.25 billion in cash plus future royalties. Biogen gained 2.3 percent to $160.98 at 4 p.m. New York time, its highest price since the company began trading in 1991. The shares of the Weston, Massachusetts-based drugmaker have gained 32 percent in the last 12 months. The agreement gives Biogen all rights to the product, the companies said in separate statements today, and leaves Dublin- based Elan to hunt for possible acquisitions with the proceeds. The companies had been splitting profit equally on Tysabri, which generated $1.6 billion in sales in 2012 and is Biogen’s second-best selling drug. “The deal puts Tysabri marketing rights 100 percent in Biogen hands and accordingly we see incremental medium- to long- term upside potential to revenues,” Ravi Mehrotra , an analyst with Credit Suisse, wrote in a research note today, calling the purchase a “significant positive” for Biogen. He recommends buying Biogen shares. The move ends speculation that Biogen would buy Elan and transforms the Irish company into an investment vehicle in search of health-care assets. Elan’s experimental drug for Alzheimer’s disease failed in late-stage trials last year, leaving Tysabri as the company’s single major product. Elan’s Shares Elan’s American depositary receipts, each representing one ordinary share, declined 10 percent to $9.40, their biggest one- day decline since July 24. The stock’s drop may reflect selling by investors who had been speculating on an acquisition by Biogen, Corey Davis , an analyst with Jefferies & Co. in New York, said in an e-mail. Investors also may be skeptical that Elan can create more value through acquisitions than it would by repurchasing shares or paying dividends, said Richard Parkes of Deutsche Bank AG in London. “This move gives us a chance to reinvest a fair amount of capital across a whole host of assets and helps us redefine and reposition the whole company,” Elan Chief Executive Officer Kelly Martin said in an interview. The company seeks a “balanced portfolio of assets” that would include products already on the market and experimental medicines, he said. Under the terms of the deal, Biogen will pay Elan 12 percent of global net sales of Tysabri for the first year. After the first year, the payments will be 18 percent on annual sales of as much as $2 billion and 25 percent on sales of more than $2 billion. Elan has said Tysabri sales may reach $2.5 billion to $3 billion by 2016, Eric Schmidt , an analyst with Cowen & Co., wrote in a research note. He estimated $1.9 billion by 2017. Companies’ Advisers Centerview Partners LLC acted as exclusive financial adviser to Biogen, while Ropes & Gray LLP was legal counsel. Citigroup Inc. and Ondra Partners are acting as financial advisers to Elan, who had Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP and A&L Goodbody as legal counsels. Tysabri was left as Elan’s single major product after the experimental Alzheimer’s drug bapineuzumab failed to improve cognitive or functional ability in patients in late-stage studies. Future actions will be guided by Elan’s “assessment of business opportunities,” Martin said in the statement. “We are enthusiastic about the market opportunities around the globe and remain flexible and creative about the manner in which we would participate in those opportunities.” Seeking Assets Elan isn’t in talks to sell the company and has been negotiating for months to acquire assets, Martin, 53, said in the interview. The first investment could happen shortly after the deal closes, he said. “Elan has no track record of running a fully integrated specialty pharma company, so a lot of uncertainty remains,” Guillaume van Renterghem , an analyst at UBS AG in London, said in a telephone interview. “Investors would probably appreciate getting their cash back instead of seeing the company diversify through the acquisition of assets.” He recommends buying Elan shares. Martin, a former Merrill Lynch & Co. investment banker who joined Elan in 2003, planned to leave the company by May 1 last year. The board asked him to stay until the bapineuzumab trial results, and once the drug failed, efforts to find a new CEO ended. After the failure, Elan said it wouldn’t discourage suitors that approached it about an acquisition, and announced the spinoff of its drug discovery unit into a company called Prothena Corp., completed in December. Earnings Impact Elan didn’t consider winding down the company and returning the proceeds to shareholders, Martin told reporters today. He said he plans to stay involved as the Tysabri deal closes and as the company reviews possible acquisitions and licensing opportunities. Elan plans to return a portion of the capital to shareholders though the amount and timing would depend on investment opportunities, he said. The $3.25 billion in cash that Biogen will pay equals more than half of Elan’s $6.23 billion market value. For Biogen, purchasing full control of Tysabri will add about 20 cents to 30 cents a share to 2013 earnings , or 50 cents to 60 cents when adjusted for some items, the company said in a statement. Biogen said it anticipates the deal will continue to add to profit depending on how well Tysabri sells. The purchase has been approved by both companies’ boards and is expected to close by the end of the second quarter, Biogen said. Next Step “This is a natural next step for Biogen Idec and Tysabri, and it underscores our deep, long-term commitment to improving the lives of MS patients around the world,” Biogen Chief Executive Officer George Scangos said in the statement. “Full ownership will improve our ability to navigate its role as part of our leadership in MS.” Tysabri is Biogen ’s second-best-seller after the MS medicine Avonex. The company also is awaiting regulatory approval for another drug for MS, BG-12, now known as Tecfidera. “Biogen has three sales forces, one for each product,” Credit Suisse’s Mehrotra wrote today. “However, over time, we see an obvious consolidation into one sales force with a central message that could effectively state, ‘We are THE MS Company. What approach to treatment would you or your patient like? We have the best drug in each segment.”’ Biogen told analysts in response to questions on a conference call today that it had no current plans to reorganize its sales strategy, though it wouldn’t rule out future changes. Biogen also said it plans to open a $500 million to $750 million line of credit to fund working capital needs. The company had $3.7 billion in cash , equivalents and marketable securities at the end of 2012, according to a Jan. 28 statement. Tysabri is a once-monthly infusion for relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, a disease that affects more than 2.1 million people worldwide, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Higher Efficacy The drug has shown higher efficacy in staving off the neurological attacks that characterize relapsing MS. It is generally recommended for patients who have already tried other therapies because it’s associated with a rare brain infection called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML. Biogen has developed a test to help determine patients’ risk. Biogen also is testing Tysabri in secondary-progressive MS, a form of the disease that follows relapsing-remitting in which the disease progresses more steadily. The drug is in the third and final stage of clinical trials generally required for approval, with data expected in 2015. To contact the reporters on this story: Meg Tirrell in New York at [email protected] ; Makiko Kitamura in London at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at [email protected] ; Reg Gale at [email protected]