03.10.10
Posted in .com, Free blog Tips, hot news, online, world of money tagged All, markets, money, news, reviews at 2:30 pm by carydalton
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Citigroup Inc. shares rallied almost 7% Tuesday on speculation about mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. banking industry and after a bullish research note came out on the bank.
Barclays PLC is considering another major acquisition in the United States, and is hunting for a retail bank that would give it more deposits and extend the presence of its Barclays Capital unit in the country, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.
Bull-market birthday
As the bull market notches its first year anniversary, the News Hub panel weighs in on whether investors can still make money and how the market will react when the interest rates inevitably adjust.
The bank, in response to potential changes in banking regulation, has designated an internal team to assess possible targets, the newspaper added no teletrack payday loans.
Citigroup is “back from the brink and back in business,” research firm CreditSights wrote in a report released late Monday evening.
“Citi is still a work in progress,” the research firm said, but the bank’s debt and equity should benefit from its branch-light configuration, international consumer exposure, improving liquidity and the fact that the stock “is just plain cheap.”
Citi climbed 6.7% to $3.80 in afternoon action on Tuesday. More than 630 million shares were traded.
Citigroup shares rally on M&A speculation
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03.08.10
Posted in business, economic, news, shortly, world of money tagged finance, life, markets, news, reviews at 7:06 pm by carydalton
LISBON, Portugal – Portugal announced new austerity measures Monday to avoid a debt crisis like the one engulfing Greece, cutting welfare benefits and government hiring as well as selling assets and raising taxes on the well-off.
The announcement comes two days ahead of a bond issue in which Portugal will try to raise euro750 million ($1.02 billion). Greece was able to tap bond markets last week after also announcing more deep cutbacks to shore up its finances.
The two countries’ troubles have fueled a Europe-wide debt crisis that has undermined the euro and led the European Union to consider setting up a new European monetary fund to help support the euro.
Portugal aims to raise euro6 billion ($8.2 billion) from privatizations, trim welfare benefits and slash other state expenditure in an effort to reduce the country’s heavy debt load, Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos said.
The measures are part of a four-year austerity plan devised to convince financial markets and other eurozone countries that Portugal has its finances in order.
The plan “rests, essentially, on a reduction in public spending,” Teixeira dos Santos told a news conference.
Portugal’s budget deficit is projected to have hit a record 9.3 percent of gross domestic product last year, prompting fears it could face similar problems to Greece where a budget crisis has brought violent demonstrations, rattled the European Union and undermined the 16-country euro currency, of which Portugal is a member.
Portugal’s public debt is expected to climb to 85.4 percent of GDP this year, up from 76.6 per cent in 2009, and Teixeira dos Santos said he predicts it will peak at 90.1 percent of GDP in 2012 before falling back.
Teixeira dos Santos said he expected the privatizations over the next four years to bring revenue equivalent to 3.6 percent of Portugal’s gross domestic product.
The center-left Socialist government also wants to keep annual pay hikes for state employees below the rate of inflation up to 2013, cut welfare benefits and scrap some tax breaks personal business card.
Teixeira dos Santos said he would create a new tax rate of 45 percent for people earning more than euro150,000 ($205,000) a year and raise the ceiling on entitlements for tax breaks, but otherwise he ruled out tax increases.
“We are focussing on reducing spending and avoiding tax hikes,” Teixeira dos Santos said.
Planned spending on new military equipment projected for the next four years will be cut by 40 percent, and a plan to build a high-speed rail link to Spain will be postponed for at least two years.
The minority government was consulting Monday with opposition parties over the plan, though it has not said whether the measures will be put to a vote in Parliament.
The government has included some of the the planned austerity measures, including a contested pay freeze for civil servants, in its 2010 state budget, which parliament is expected to approve on Friday. The budget was delayed by a general election last year.
State spending cuts will be across the board, Teixeira dos Santos said. About 75 percent of current expenditure goes on salaries and welfare policies.
He said that increasing pay by less than the inflation rate would cut the state’s wage bill to 10 percent of GDP from just over 11 percent.
Staffing levels will be cut by allowing one new employee to be hired for every two that leave the civil service.
The government also wants to reduce outlays on welfare by 0.5 percent by 2013 by trimming benefits. Temporary measures introduced in recent years to ease the effects of the economic downturn, including financial help for companies hiring new workers, will be phased out.
The government is also expecting some relief from an improving economic growth rate which Teixeira dos Santos said is forecast to reach 1.7 percent in 2013.
The government estimates the economy contracted 2.7 percent last year. It predicts growth of 0.7 percent this year.
Portugal adds austerity measures
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03.02.10
Posted in .com, All, Free blog Tips, business, top tagged campaign, finance, markets, personal, reviews at 6:00 am by carydalton
FORT WORTH, Texas – Natural gas and oil producer Quicksilver Resources Inc. posted a fourth-quarter profit of $32.5 million, or 19 cents per share, Monday as revenue grew, compared with a loss a year earlier, when it recorded several charges.
A year earlier, the company lost $467 million, or $2.79 per share.
The results, which beat Wall Street’s expectations, sent Quicksilver’s shares up 50 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $15.42. The stock has traded the past 52 weeks at $3.98 to $16.59.
Excluding one-time items, the company earned $47.3 million, or 27 cents per share, up from an adjusted profit of $39.3 million, or 23 cents per share, a year earlier home kerosene heaters.
Revenue rose 12 percent to $234.1 million from $208.9 million.
Analysts, on average, were expecting a profit of 25 cents per share on sales of $217.4 million, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.
For the full year, Quicksilver posted a loss of $557.5 million, or $3.30 per share, compared with a loss of $378.3 million, or $2.33 per share, a year earlier.
Adjusted earnings were 86 cents per share for 2009.
Revenue rose to $832.7 million from $800.6 million.
Quicksilver reports profitable 4Q, shares climb
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03.01.10
Posted in Free blog Tips, economic, money, news, shortly tagged blogs, marketing, markets, people, politics at 4:54 am by carydalton
Merck of Germany said on Sunday that it had agreed to buy Millipore, an American provider of purifiers and filters for biotechnology laboratories, for about $7.2 billion, including debt.
With the Millipore acquisition, Merck will become the latest health care company to strike a deal during a period of industrywide consolidation. The takeover will give the German drug maker a big presence in products for the biotechnology industry.
Under the terms of the deal, Merck will pay $107 a share in cash, a 13 percent premium to Millipore’s closing price of $94.41 on Friday.
“This transaction is very attractive to shareholders, customers and employees of both companies,” Karl-Ludwig Kley, Merck’s chairman, said in a statement. “This is a combination with an excellent strategic fit.”
Millipore shares have risen more than 34 percent since last week, when news reports said that it had received a $6 billion bid from another company, Thermo Fisher Scientific bad credit pay day loans. Millipore later confirmed that was considering selling itself.
Millipore, based in Billerica, Mass., had $1.7 billion in sales last year. It has about 6,000 employees in more than 30 countries.
The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year.
Merck plans to pay for the deal with a mix of cash on hand and loans from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas and Commerzbank, though it expects to issue bonds to replace some of the bank financing.
Merck was advised by Guggenheim Securities, Perella Weinberg Partners and the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Millipore was advised by Goldman Sachs and the law firms Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Ropes & Gray.
Merck to Pay $7.2 Billion for Millipore
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02.04.10
Posted in .com, All, Free blog Tips, hot news, shortly tagged economics, events, markets, political, politics at 6:12 am by carydalton
GENEVA – In an embarrassment to Switzerland’s government, the country’s top court said Wednesday that at least $4.6 million in Swiss bank accounts previously awarded to charities must be returned to the family of Haiti’s ex-dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier.
The decision was reached on Jan. 12, just hours before the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti, killing at least 150,000 people. The ruling is urelated to the disaster, but the amount of money contested could feed more than a million Haitians for two weeks.
The court’s decision was only published Wednesday, prompting the Swiss government to issue an emergency decree to keep the money frozen in a Swiss bank until a new law can be passed allowing it to be donated to aid groups working in Haiti.
“This is a public relations disaster for Switzerland,” said Mark Pieth, a Swiss professor with a long resume in international corruption cases such as the U.N. oil-for-food scandal.
In the decision, the Federal Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s ruling that the money should have gone to aid groups working in the impoverished nation because the statute of limitations on any crimes committed by the Duvalier clan would have expired in 2001.
Delays are common in Switzerland between court verdicts and their public announcements, but the release of the decision could not have come at a worse time. Beyond depriving Haiti’s relief efforts of additional money, the ruling also strikes a blow at Switzerland’s long-standing efforts to shed its image as an investment haven for the world’s dictators.
“We assume that this money doesn’t belong to the Duvalier family,” said Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, the Swiss justice minister. “We’ve blocked the money again today to prevent that it goes somewhere that it shouldn’t for political reasons. We really hope that this money finally goes back to the country.”
Many Haitians accuse Duvalier and his entourage of robbing millions from public funds before he was ousted in 1986. Duvalier is believed to be living in exile in France and has always denied wrongdoing.
The decision cannot be appealed, but the Swiss Foreign Ministry said it would try to keep the money from being withdrawn while it works on a better national law for dealing with assets of “criminal origin.” It said the amount of money actually totaled $5.7 million, though the reason for the discrepancy was unclear.
The government “wants to avoid the Swiss financial center serving as a haven for illegally acquired assets,” it said in a statement, adding that a new law working retroactively could be ready this month. Widmer-Schlumpf was less optimistic, but said the law could come into effect as early as 2011.
Switzerland has traditionally been a favorite location for potentate money because of its banking secrecy rules. But reforms over the last two decades have made it harder to hide money in Switzerland, and the country has become a world leader in returning cash.
Virtually all of about $730 million in Swiss accounts linked to the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha has been sent back to the African country, while the Philippines recouped hundreds of millions stashed in Swiss banks by late dictator Ferdinand Marcos low cost payday loans.
Problems have nonetheless persisted, particularly linked to the statute of limitations. Last year, the heirs of late Congo dictator Mobutu Sese Seko recovered about $7.4 million, even though Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey had promised in 2007 to return the cash to the Congolese government.
Swiss officials gave few details about the new law they hoped to create to make it easier for assets belonging to deposed dictators to be repatriated to national governments. The current rules only allow Switzerland to return cash when asked for by a national government that is pursuing its own criminal investigation — a handicap in countries where amnesty laws, corruption or weak legal systems hinder prosecution of past leaders.
Haiti made its first request for the money in 1986, shortly after Duvalier’s ouster.
But it has been frozen ever since because Switzerland would not give it back while the Haitian government wasn’t pursuing Duvalier under its own justice system. As a way out, the Swiss government had proposed giving the money to aid groups working in Haiti.
“At a time when everyone tries to help Haiti, issuing a decision that the money belongs to the dictator’s family because of the statute of limitations is very clumsy,” Pieth said. “You have a head of state with a secret army that tortures people, and at the same time he empties the state treasury. The people cannot defend themselves. It’s robbing from the people, and this aspect has to be addressed by the court.”
The U.N. says about $2 billion has already been donated to various relief efforts in Haiti. But the country’s long-term problems related to infrastructure, endemic poverty and criminality means more will be needed to stabilize the country.
The $4.6 million may represent only a drop in the bucket, but the U.N. food agency could use it to feed 1.25 million Haitians for two weeks, said spokeswoman Emilia Casella.
The Supreme Court said it was unhappy about the ruling but that its hands were legally tied, forcing it to reverse an August decision that said the Duvalier family had essentially acted as a “criminal organization” by diverting public funds through a Liechtenstein foundation to accounts at UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank.
UBS declined to comment, but said the bank and its employees have donated $3 million to Haiti.
The Swiss government’s decision to keep the money blocked is based on an article in the Swiss Constitution giving it the power to issue emergency decrees to protect national interests. Officials wouldn’t explain the move further.
__
Associated Press writers Bradley S. Klapper and Frank Jordans contributed to this report.
Haiti, Swiss gov’t losers in Duvalier cash ruling
Hot News: Civil Madoff-related fraud charges dismissed
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01.31.10
Posted in All, economic, money, online, top tagged All, blogs, markets, newsreports, opinion at 7:48 am by carydalton
LONDON – As captain of England’s national team, John Terry is used to appearing in the sports pages. But on Saturday, his picture was splashed across the front pages of Britain’s newspapers, and not because of his skill on the field.
A High Court judge lifted a court order Friday that had prevented the media from reporting allegations about Terry’s private life — a so-called “super injunction” which barred publication that any order even existed.
The court order related to a story about the 29-year-old Terry, who is married with two children, and his ties with another woman whom the judge did not name.
After the injunction was lifted, it wasn’t just the country’s famously racy tabloids that published page after page about the football (soccer) star — some of Britain’s more conservative broadsheet newspapers followed the story as well for its long-term impact on the country’s strict media laws.
Ambi Sitham, a media lawyer, called High Court judge Michael Tugendhat’s decision “hugely significant,” and said while those with legitimate privacy concerns would continue to be protected, people trying to escape scrutiny for other reasons won’t find relief in the courts.
“It’s a big red flag for high-profile people, who are increasingly using privacy law to keep sordid details out of the press,” she said.
In December, a similar injunction barred journalists in Britain from publishing material about Tiger Woods, even blocking the media from revealing the details of the order itself. Woods has since confessed to marital infidelities, lost millions as sponsorship deals evaporated, taken an unspecified amount of time off from professional golf and disappeared from public view.
Terry, whose past bad boy antics have been frequently chronicled by the press, never had the saintly reputation of Woods. Still, he is one of the sport’s highest-paid stars playing the world’s most popular game for one of the most renowned clubs — Chelsea — in the English Premier League, the world’s wealthiest.
Britain doesn’t have a formal privacy law, but is a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights. That guarantees the right to respect for privacy and family life, and this clause has been used repeatedly by celebrities to fight media exposes.
The position of England captain is highly prestigious in Britain — David Beckham was the team’s previous leader. Terry had been working on his image after a series of damaging incidents and last year was named “Dad of the Year” by a condiments company.
The injunction was granted Jan. 22 after Terry learned that a newspaper was about to publish a story about his private life.
Tugendhat, however, said Terry appeared more concerned about the effect that publication of the allegations might have on his public image rather than his private life, saying the “claim is essentially a business matter.”
Terry — who is identified as LNS in the judgment — has several sponsorship deals on top of his reported weekly salary of 170,000 pounds ($275,000; euro197,000) with Chelsea.
“I have reached the view that it is likely that the nub of LNS’s complaint in this case is the protection of reputation, and not of any other aspect of LNS’s private life,” the judgment says payday loan in advance. “The real basis for the concern of LNS is likely to be the impact of any adverse publicity upon the business of earning sponsorship and similar income.”
The judge did say the woman in question was “a famous person” but not from the sporting world — and not as famous as Terry. British papers on Saturday reported that the woman was a model who already had a son with one of Terry’s former teammates, a player who may also be chosen for England’s World Cup team.
His team, Chelsea, has called the situation “a personal matter” and said they would give Terry and his family “all the support they need in dealing with it.”
Much speculation Saturday focused on how the allegations could affect Terry’s position on the England team and its run at the World Cup this summer in South Africa. Coach Fabio Capello has instilled a strict disciplinary code within the squad, and could pull the captaincy from Terry if he thought his off-field behavior might affect the team.
“The daily headlines will continue to question his fitness to lead. In Fleet Street parlance, this story has legs and will run and run,” sports columnist Henry Winter wrote in the Daily Telegraph. “If it seems that Terry’s conduct and continued ownership of the captain’s armband affects morale going into a World Cup, then Capello has no choice. Terry should go.”
Terry has played for Chelsea his entire career. The Blues fended off an attempt by Manchester City to sign him last year by giving him a pay rise that reportedly made him the highest-paid player in the Premier League.
Appointed Chelsea captain in 2004, he has won two Premier League titles, three FA Cups and two League Cups in the most successful period in the club’s history.
He was first choice in central defense for England at the 2004 European Championship and 2006 World Cup, after which he was named national team captain when Beckham relinquished the role.
But allegations of off-field transgressions have followed him throughout his career. He was fined by Chelsea after he and three teammates drunkenly abused American guests at a hotel the day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Terry has also been ejected from nightclubs and newspapers have accused him of infidelities several times.
But Terry has retained the England captaincy, even after the country’s failure to reach the 2008 European Championship, and appeared in advertisements for Samsung and sportswear manufacturer Umbro.
Despite speculation that he might hide out after all the bad publicity, Terry started in his team’s game Saturday. He was booed by fans but scored the winning goal in Chelsea’s 2-1 victory over Burnley, keeping his team on top of the Premier League.
“He is a fantastic player,” Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti said after the game. “That is his private life. He is about work. We don’t have to say nothing because he is very professional.”
___
Associated Press sports writer Stuart Condie contributed to this report from London.
UK court lifts media ban on soccer star’s life
Hot News: Toyota to Issue a Fix for Recalled Cars
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01.28.10
Posted in .com, All, money, news, online tagged All, events, marketing, markets, political at 11:00 am by carydalton
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Bank of China said Thursday it may sell additional shares in Hong Kong even as it moves ahead with a 40 billion yuan ($5.9 billion) convertible bond sale, moves designed to ensure it meets capital adequacy ratios.
Asian Shares Mostly Up After Fed Announcement
Asian markets rise after a modest rise on Wall Street, and the Fed’s more upbeat assessment on the economy. Dow Jones Newswires’ Leslie Shaffer reports.
Bank of China said in statement filed with stock market regulators in Hong Kong that the fund raising is designed to help the bank maintain a capital adequacy ratio of at least 11.5% in 2010 and 2011.
The bank was the most aggressive in terms of issuing new loans last year, responding to Beijing’s order to help prop up the economy.
In total, Chinese banks extended 9.6 trillion yuan in 2009, nearly double levels from a year earlier.
Beijing has targeted an additional 7 car loans for people with bad credit.5 trillion yuan in new lending this year, stoking concerns that the institutions will need to raise funds to ensure they stay within regulatory requirements.
Bank of China said in a statement on Thursday that the timing of the Hong Kong equity sales would depend on market conditions, regulatory approvals and other factors.
The bank’s capital adequacy ratio may have slipped to below 11% at the end of December, down from 11.6% at the end of September, according to a report by Dow Jones Newswires Thursday, which cited unidentified analysts.
China Merchants Securities research estimates Bank of China will need to raise about 60 billion yuan in addition to the planed 40 billion yuan convertible bond to maintain an 11.5% capital adequacy ratio, the report said.
Bank of China may issue more HK-listed stock
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01.21.10
Posted in .com, Free blog Tips, hot news, shortly, top tagged business, financial, markets, people, world at 6:36 pm by carydalton
WASHINGTON – The number of newly-laid off workers seeking jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week, as the economy recovers at a slow and uneven pace.
Layoffs have slowed and the economy began to grow in last year’s third quarter, but companies are reluctant to hire new workers. The unemployment rate is 10 percent and many economists expect it to increase in the coming months.
The Labor Department said Thursday that initial claims for unemployment insurance rose by 36,000 to a seasonally adjusted 482,000. Wall Street economists expected a small drop, according to Thomson Reuters.
The four-week average, which smooths fluctuations, rose for the first time since August, to 448,250.
The weekly claims figure is volatile and it can take time for trends to emerge. A Labor Department analyst said that much of the increase last week was due to administrative backlogs leftover from the winter holidays in the state agencies that process the claims.
Claims have dropped steadily since last fall, as companies cut fewer jobs. That has caused some economists to hope that hiring may increase soon. Initial claims have dropped by 50,000, or almost 10 percent, since late October.
Still, the economy is not consistently generating net increases in jobs. The Labor Department said earlier this month that employers cut 85,000 jobs in December, after adding only 4,000 in November. November’s increase was the first in nearly two years.
Many economists say the four week average of claims will need to fall to below 425,000 to signal that the economy is close to generating net job gains free credit score online.
Meanwhile, the number of people continuing to claim regular benefits dropped slightly to just under 4.6 million. The continuing claims data lags initial claims by a week.
But the so-called continuing claims do not include millions of people who have used up the regular 26 weeks of benefits customarily provided by states and are now receiving extended benefits for up to 73 additional weeks, paid for by the federal government.
More than 5.9 million are receiving extended benefits in the week ending Jan. 2, the latest data available, an increase of more than 600,000 from the previous week. The data for emergency benefits lags initial claims by two weeks.
The increasing number of people claiming extended unemployment insurance indicates that even as layoffs are declining, hiring hasn’t picked up. That leaves people out of work for longer and longer periods of time.
Among the states, California saw the largest increase in claims, with 16,160. Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania and Georgia saw the next largest increases. The state data lags the initial claims data by a week.
Oregon saw the biggest drop in claims, of 5,784, followed by Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan and Massachusetts.
Initial jobless claims unexpectedly rise
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01.20.10
Posted in All, Free blog Tips, business, news, online tagged economics, finance, life, markets, politics at 10:24 am by carydalton
The possibility that the dynamics of the health care debate could changed helped spur the market on Tuesday, overshadowing fresh concerns about banks and the American consumer.
Investors were preparing for the prospect that a Republican might win the Senate seat once held by Edward M. Kennedy in Massachusetts and, with it, deny Democrats the 60th vote needed to surmount Republican filibusters and advance the health legislation.
As voters headed to the polls in Massachusetts, shares of pharmaceutical companies surged. The possibility of disarray over the bill eased concerns that profits would suffer at insurance and drug companies. Merck climbed nearly 3 percent, and Pfizer was up 2 percent. Rising health stocks pulled the broader market higher.
In midday trading, the Dow Jones industrial average climbed 0.73 percent or 76.94 points. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 0.8 percent, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq was up 0.94 percent.
Amid Tuesday’s zeal, however, there were indications that financial firms face high hurdles as they try to escape the worst recession in decades. The banking giant Citigroup reported a loss for a second consecutive year, held back by losses on mortgages and credit cards.
Citigroup’s figures followed similarly cautious results from JPMorgan Chase last week. Taken together, the reports suggest Americans are still struggling to pay the bills amid high unemployment and depleted savings accounts, leaving banks looking for fertile revenue streams.
“What’s going to be critical for banks is their ability to cut their loan losses — that’s going to be the principal source of earnings growth,” said David A payday loans with no fax. Rosenberg, chief economist and strategist for Gluskin Sheff. “Citigroup’s loss certainly raises a bit of a cautionary flag in terms of the entire financial sector.”
Still, investors said Citigroup’s results could have been much worse, and they were pleased its $1.6 billion loss in 2009 was a stark improvement from the $27.7 billion loss in 2008. Shares of Citigroup rose 0.58 percent, while JPMorgan Chase fell 0.23 percent and Bank of America dropped 0.92 percent.
In other markets, the dollar gained and the euro fell amid continuing concern about the ability of several European nations, including Greece, to pay off debt. Oil dropped.
Investors were also encouraged by heavy merger and acquisition activity over the holiday weekend, analysts said. Cadbury agreed to a takeover offer from Kraft on Tuesday, worth about $19 billion, that would create the world’s largest confectioner. Cadbury rose 5.34 percent.
In addition, Berkshire Hathaway said it would acquire part of the Swiss Reinsurance Company for nearly $1.3 billion, sending shares of Berkshire up 1.23 percent.
Overseas, European markets were poised to close higher. The FTSE 100 in London was up 0.52 percent, the CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.9 percent, and the DAX in Frankfurt climbed 0.96 percent.
Drug Companies Lead Markets Higher
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01.19.10
Posted in .com, hot news, shortly, top, world of money tagged blogs, economics, economy, marketing, markets at 4:06 am by carydalton
Kraft Foods has reached a tentative deal for a friendly takeover of Cadbury of Britain, agreeing in principle to pay about $19 billion in cash and stock for the confectioner, people briefed on the matter said on Monday.
Barring any last-minute complications — these people cautioned that the talks could still fall apart — the deal would create a global food giant that would unite Kraft and its Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers with Cadbury and its Trident gum and Dairy Milk chocolates. Together, the two companies would have more than $50 billion in revenue and a big presence in markets globally.
Over the last decade, food companies have sought to gain scale by combining with each other, most recently with Mars buying the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company in 2008 for $23 billion.
The tentative deal for Cadbury would end a four-month battle for control of the British candy maker, one in which Cadbury executives accused Kraft of showing “contempt” with an undervalued offer.
Under the terms of the proposal, Kraft will pay 840 pence ($13.70) for each Cadbury share, while Cadbury will pay out a special dividend of 10 pence a share. The offer is about a 5 percent premium over Cadbury’s closing share price of 807.5 pence on Monday. The majority of the increase was in the cash component, which was raised to £5 a Cadbury share, from £3, a person briefed on the matter said.
The agreement is expected to be announced as soon as Tuesday, this person said, which is the last day Kraft can raise its offer under British takeover rules.
Spokesmen for Cadbury and Kraft declined to comment on Monday.
The deal will draw to a close an often acrimonious takeover battle between the two food companies, one that began with Kraft making public an unsolicited $16.7 billion bid for Cadbury in early September. The Cadbury management quickly derided the offer as too low and dismissed the prospect of being absorbed into what it called a slow-growing food conglomerate.
Most of Cadbury’s major shareholders resisted Kraft’s original offer, with just 1.5 percent having accepted by an earlier January deadline. Many are likely to be swayed by a recommendation from Cadbury’s board now that Kraft has addressed a common complaint by raising the cash portion of its bid.
A takeover of the 186-year-old Cadbury, especially by an American giant like Kraft, will most likely send shudders throughout Britain. Politicians and unions have pointed to both a loss of jobs — the Unite labor union has estimated that as many as 30,000 jobs could be lost — and of national pride business card templates.
Cadbury has argued repeatedly that it would prefer to remain independent, pointing to faster-than-expected success in its turnaround program. But its executives have acknowledged that Kraft’s bid put the company in play and they would consider any offer made at the right price.
From the beginning, speculation mounted among investors that another bidder could step in, forcing Kraft to raise its original offer. Representatives for Cadbury have held talks with Hershey, the American company that Cadbury had viewed as a preferable merger partner, according to people briefed on the matter.
For Hershey, buying Cadbury would prevent it from being relegated to a mostly domestic company. Hershey moved closer to making a bid in recent days, lining up more than $10 billion in financing, these people said.
Hershey had been waiting for Kraft to unveil its final offer on Tuesday before it made its final decision on a bid, but analysts have said that Hershey would most likely be unable to top the much larger Kraft in a bidding war. Other potential suitors, including Nestlé of Switzerland and Ferrero of Italy, dropped out.
Despite Kraft’s strong desire to gain control of Cadbury, its chief executive, Irene Rosenfeld, vowed to keep the company disciplined in its bidding and to maintain its investment-grade credit rating. Still, Kraft began raising its original offer earlier this month, increasing the cash portion of its bid after selling its North American frozen pizza business to Nestlé for $3.7 billion. Ms. Rosenfeld met with Cadbury shareholders in London last week to solicit their opinions.
Others have sounded notes of caution. Warren E. Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway is Kraft’s largest shareholder, delivered an unusually public admonishment, warning Kraft to avoid overdiluting its shareholders by issuing too many new shares.
William A. Ackman, who runs the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management and has been amassing a big position in Kraft, echoed concerns about shareholder dilution, though he said he supported the company’s takeover effort.
Andrew Ross Sorkin contributed reporting.
Kraft Said to Reach Deal for Cadbury
Hot News: Asia Markets: Indian state-run banks may outpace private peers
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01.16.10
Posted in .com, All, Free blog Tips, hot news, online tagged economics, finance, markets, people, personal at 3:24 pm by carydalton
A veteran General Motors executive, Nick Reilly, left, will take over as Opel’s chief executive, Opel announced on Friday. The widely expected appointment of Mr. Reilly, who is already president of G.M. Europe, was part of a management shake-up. Mr. Reilly will be responsible both for Adam Opel and its British sister brand Vauxhall. Also on Friday, G.M. said in a regulatory filing that it lent Opel $900 million in November to maintain operations and to repay a loan from the German government payday loans. Also, G.M. on Jan. 4 accelerated $930 million in payments to Opel for engineering work. The accelerated payments will keep Opel going until more permanent financing is arranged, the filing said.
Business Briefing | Automobiles: Opel Names a G.M. Executive as Its New Chief
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01.07.10
Posted in .com, All, Free blog Tips, economic, hot news tagged campaign, life, markets, news, political at 10:30 am by carydalton
TOKYO (MarketWatch) — Japan’s newly appointed Finance Minister Naoto Kan sent his nation’s currency significantly lower against its U.S. counterpart Thursday, as he used his inaugural press conference to talk down the yen.
Kan said many Japanese companies are in favor of the dollar trading around 95.00 yen, and that he will work with the Bank of Japan to get the currency to “appropriate” levels. The dollar spiked to 92.63 yen, from 92.15 yen before Kan spoke.
It is unusual for Japanese ministers to make comments on specific foreign-exchange levels.
The currency market trend “has been corrected a lot toward yen weakness since the Dubai shock … but I’m hoping the correction will make a bit more progress, making the yen weaker,” Kan was quoted as saying by Dow Jones Newswires.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Wednesday appointed the deputy prime minister — who will also keep that title — to replace Hirohisa Fujii, who stepped down for health-related reasons.
Kan “is a bit of a contrast to Fujii, who had, in our view, adopted a ‘benign neglect’ stance’” through December toward the Japanese yen, said strategists at Barclays Capital.
By contrast, Kan “has been expressing his preference” for a weaker yen, they said payday loan online.
“Thus, the government’s stance to prevent renewed [Japanese yen] strength has become clearer, and we think Kan’s appointment is likely to reduce the upside risk” for the yen, they wrote in a note to clients.
Ironically, Fujii once did the opposite of what Kan did Thursday.
In September, even before he was sworn in as finance minister, Fujii inadvertently sent the yen soaring when he was quoted as telling reporters that a strong yen had some economic benefits and that the recent foreign-exchanges moves weren’t rapid.
Not all analysts believe a weaker-yen stance is a given from now.
“We continue to expect the government to give priority to more pressure on the BOJ for additional easing and to reserve intervention as the last resort,” said Tomoko Fujii, a rates and currency strategist at Bank of America Securities-Merrill Lynch.
“We also think that the BOJ is likely to remain reactive. The BOJ probably intends to ease policy further only after sharp [Japanese yen] appreciation increases risks of deeper deflation,” she said in emailed comments.
Japan’s new finance minister call for weaker yen
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12.27.09
Posted in Free blog Tips, business, hot news, money, shortly tagged financial, life, marketing, markets, work at 3:30 am by carydalton
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A group of financiers is trying to put a U.S. mattress maker now under bankruptcy court protection into play by encouraging Chinese bidders to top an already arranged offer for Simmons Bedding Co. (SIMBB.UL), the Wall Street Journal reported late on Saturday.
Success looks unlikely for the eleventh-hour effort to encourage a Chinese bidder to challenge a deal already worked out between Simmons, its creditors and new investors, the report said, quoting sources involved in the effort.
It is the first attempt by the government-linked Chinese financiers behind the Simmons push, as well as the Pennsylvania-based bankruptcy lawyer trying to find similar deals for them, to help Chinese bidders shop for acquisitions in U.S. bankruptcy courts, the newspaper said.
Simmons discounted the move.
"In response to recent rumors … Simmons wants to reiterate that it is not contemplating any alternate bids in China or elsewhere nor has Simmons authorized any agent in China to solicit any such bids," the report quoted William S. Creekmuir, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Simmons, as saying in a written response to questions instant payday loans.
In November, Simmons, maker of the Beautyrest mattress and other bedding products, filed for bankruptcy protection and said it expects to be sold to two buyers in a transaction valued at roughly $760 million.
The Journal report said details of the pre-packaged reorganization plan, designed to reduce the company's debt $1 billion by more than half, were translated into Chinese and posted on the website of a government-owned registry in the southern city of Guangzhou where large corporate and government assets are put on sale.
The idea was to encourage potential Chinese bidders to offer Simmons creditors a better deal than the one presented to the bankruptcy court, and generate fees for themselves if such a bid were to proceed, the report said, citing people involved.
(Editing by Jerry Norton)
Simmons Bedding financiers seek Chinese bidder: report
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