Important news from Francoise

UPDATE 1-Abu Dhabi’s IPIC H1 profit surges on investment gains

* IPIC total debt $31.8 bln; total assets $61.8 bln at June 30* Aabar raised Virgin Galactic stake to 37.8 pct - prospectus (Recasts with earnings, adds details)DUBAI, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) saw its first-half profit nearly triple as the energy-focused investment vehicle posted gains on its financial investments, an updated bond prospectus showed.IPIC, which has stakes in Spain’s Cepsa and Austrian oil group OMV , posted a $424 million gain on financial instruments, compared with a loss of $1.1 billion for the year-ago period, boosting profit after tax to $1.16 billion from $413 million a year ago.Revenue rose 17 percent to $8.63 billion.State-owned IPIC, which has $61.8 billion in total assets, gave a 7.3 billion dirhams ($2.0 bln) interest-free loan to its unit Aabar in September, the prospectus showed. Unlisted IPIC had raised the funds via an unsecured conventional loan, it said.Aabar bought Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank’s (ADCB) 25 percent stake in Malaysian group RHB Capital earlier this year. Sources told Reuters earlier this month that Aabar would get a $1.9 billion loan through its parent IPIC from ADCB to pay for the deal.The prospectus also showed Aabar has raised its stake in Virgin Galactic to 37.8 percent from 31.8 percent after investing a further $110 million in the company.IPIC, which has a mandate to invest in the energy sector, had a total debt of $31.8 billion, according to the prospectus. It has received six equity contributions from Abu Dhabi totalling $3.5 billion since inception, the last of which was in 2008.IPIC will kick off investor meetings in Germany on Oct. 19 for a potential bond issue. .It tapped global debt markets in March when it raised about $4 billion in three-tranche euro and sterling-denominated bonds to fund its Cepsa acquisition.Earlier this month, IPIC also raised its stake in OMV to 24.9 percent. ($1 = 3.673 UAE Dirhams)

Posted 7 months ago
#UPDATE #1Abu #Dhabis #IPIC #H1 #profit #surges #on #investment #gains

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KKR, MBK bid for Samsung Group asset-sources

Goldman Sachs Group Inc has been hired to advise on the sale, which is valued at 372 billion won ($326 million) based on Tuesday’s closing share price of 17,650 won.An external spokeswoman for KKR could not offer an immediate comment, while MBK could not immediately be reached for comment. Goldman Sachs declined comment.The sources declined to be identified as the discussions were private.

Posted 7 months ago
#KKR #MBK #bid #for #Samsung #Group #assetsources

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Disabled adults found captive in Philadelphia basement

“They were abused physically and emotionally,” he said. “This is just a horror story.”Arrested in the case was Linda Westen, 50, a convicted murderer, who allegedly held them captive while posing as their caregiver and cashing their disability checks, police said.Westen and two alleged accomplices, a homeless man named Eddie Wright, 51, and Philadelphia resident Gregory Thomas, 48, were charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and other charges.The four people were found confined in a small, dirty basement boiler room that contained a mattress with some bedding and a flat board with a pillow.”There were a couple water bottles but no food or anything,” Green said. “There was a bucket they used to urinate in.”Two of the captives were held for 11 years and referred to Westen as “Mom,” police said.At least two of the victims traveled with Westen as she moved from city to city, they said. She had traveled to Texas and Florida, he said.The other two had been with Westen since February, and all of them arrived in Philadelphia earlier this month, he said.Green said Westen may have others in captivity but is not cooperating with the investigation, which was handled by local law enforcement, the FBI and the federal Social Security Administration.After they were discovered, the victims were taken for “much needed medical attention” at area hospitals, he said.They were moved on Sunday to a city-run shelter where they were receiving counseling and care, Green said, adding the “four complainants are doing well.”

Posted 7 months ago
#Disabled #adults #found #captive #in #Philadelphia #basement

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RPT-BlackBerry outages irk India, threaten key RIM market

* Rivals matching BlackBerry features in cheaper products* Consumer market seen most vulnerable for RIMBy Devidutta Tripathy and Henry FoyNEW DELHI/MUMBAI, Oct 13 (Reuters) - A four-day service outage has cast a shadow over BlackBerry’s reputation in India, one of the smartphone maker’s few growing markets, where the frustration of hundreds of thousands of users could mean a chance for its rivals to gain ground.The repeated shutdowns of email and messaging services that left BlackBerry users with only voice calls and SMS text infuriated Indian customers, including a tennis star and a Bollywood icon, leaving BlackBerry maker Research In Motion scrambling to control the damage.”In the capital market, every second matters. Time lost is money lost. Had it been for couple of hours, that was okay. But it stretched much beyond that,” said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, strategist and head of research at SMC Global Securities in New Delhi.RIM has fixed the root cause of the global disruption of BlackBerry services and is still working to clear a backlog of delayed messages, its co-CEOs said on Thursday, hoping to control the damage.More than a million people use BlackBerry in India, the world’s second-biggest mobile phone market. RIM has established a strong, but not dominant, foothold in the price-sensitive market thanks largely to its cheap models.A large corporate user base that relies on its enterprise email system, the huge popularity of RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger platform among young people and competitive pricing mean it outsells Apple Inc.’s iPhone by around five to one.In the June quarter, BlackBerry accounted for 15 percent of smartphone sales in the country, researcher IDC said, trailing Nokia’s share of nearly 46 percent and Samsung’s 21 percent, but far ahead of Apple’s 2.6 percent.The lowest-priced BlackBerry 8520, RIM’s best-selling model in India, is available at about 9,000 rupees ($184). The entry-level iPhone 3GS model is around 20,000 rupees.But low-cost competitors, especially those based on Google’s Android system, are poised to grab market share.”Apple is still a premium user play, but if you look at others, especially the Android ones, you can have the same features that BlackBerry is offering pretty much at half the cost,” said Abhishek Chauhan, Senior Consultant, ICT Practice, at Frost & Sullivan.BLACKBERRY BOYSBlackBerrys were initially seen as a tool for executives.With rising incomes and a burgeoning middle class in India, RIM has expanded, targeting young professionals and students with its youthful “We’re the BlackBerry boys” commercials, portraying the smartphone as a gadget for the aspiring masses.RIM’s shipment to India quadrupled to 770,652 in 2010, from 191,379 in 2009, according to CyberMedia Research, which estimates that RIM has sold 1.06 million smartphones in India over the past three years.”Companies will not switch to Apple or Google phones overnight, especially given BlackBerry’s secure corporate email system,” said Romal Shetty, head of telecommunications analysis in India for KPMG.”But from a youth perspective, there is certainly more of an impact from these kinds of failures. There is definitely a dent made in reputations.”BlackBerry’s free instant messaging service, has been a big draw for India’s urban youth, but rival products from Apple and Google now mean it is not unique.”The BB service failure surprisingly did affect me, from being out of touch with my Gmail to not being able to ‘ping’ my friends. The handicap was overwhelming at times,” said 22-year-old Snigdha Ahuja, who works for a television channel in Mumbai.”BBM doesn’t work.. I feel handicapped! Makes u realise how addicted u become of certain electronics,” wrote Indian tennis star Sania Mirza on Twitter.”Such a dependence on technology (in) our lives today .. no BBM and it seems like a major portion of your life has shut down ..!!,” wrote Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan.

Posted 7 months ago
#RPTBlackBerry #outages #irk #India #threaten #key #RIM #market

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UPDATE 2-JB Hunt reports higher Q3 profit, shares up

* Shares up 4 percent in after-hours tradingOct 13 (Reuters) - J.B. Hunt Transport Services reported higher quarterly profit that slightly beat Wall Street estimates, driven by double-digit revenue growth in three of its four divisions.Shares in J.B. Hunt gained about 4 percent in after-hours trading after the Lowell, Arkansas-based freight transport company reported its third-quarter net income rose to $68.7 million, or 57 cents a share, from $52.2 million, or 41 cents a share, a year earlier.Analysts, on average, had expected profit of 56 cents a share, according to Thomsom Reuters I/B/E/S.The increase was due mainly to higher revenue, a reduced charitable contribution expense and other cost reductions, the company said in a statement.Total operating revenue rose 19 percent to $1.17 billion from $986 million a year ago, matching the average forecast.”We continued to invest capital in businesses that show resiliency despite the ongoing concern many have expressed about the economy,” Chief Executive John N. Roberts said in the statement.There was double-digit revenue and operating income growth in the intermodal (JBI), dedicated contract services (DCS) and integrated capacity solutions (ICS) segments.Intermodal refers to shipments of goods in containers that can be moved from one form or transportation to another, such as from truck to train.Revenue in this segment, the company’s biggest, rose 24 percent to $691 million on higher volume despite severe Northeast weather in the quarter, on fuel surcharge increases and a 4 percent rate increase excluding the fuel surcharge, J.B. Hunt said.”The improvement in overall operating income can be partially attributed to a reduction in the number of empty repositioning moves compared to the third quarter 2010, due to the later start to peak shipping season and additional container capacity,” the company said in its statement.The truck segment performance lagged, with a 2 percent rise in revenue to $127 million. Excluding fuel surcharges, revenue fell 5 percent on a 7 percent drop in tractor count.J.B. Hunt said it had more debt outstanding at the end of the quarter than a year earlier — $768 million compared with $649 million.It had $7.7 million in cash and cash equivalents, and repurchased about 4 million shares during the third quarter.The company’s shares ended down 1.3 percent at $38.89, down nearly 5 percent so far this year, having traded as low as $34.42 in September. In after-hours trading, the share price was up 4 percent at $40.50.This year’s share price drop is about half the decline in the Dow Jones Transportation average .

Posted 7 months ago
#UPDATE #2JB #Hunt #reports #higher #Q3 #profit #shares #up

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US STOCKS-Wall St jumps on euro-fund hope, Dow positive for year

* Alcoa drops after quarterly profit misses estimate* Dow up 1.4 pct, S&P 500 up 1.7 pct, Nasdaq up 1.5 pctBy Rodrigo CamposNEW YORK, Oct 12 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks extended their recent rally on Wednesday, with the Dow industrials back in positive territory for the year as the euro-zone rescue fund was set to get approval from all EU members.Momentum buying, or a move back into equities after the broader S&P 500 closed on Tuesday its largest six-day rally since March 2009, was also cited as boosting U.S. stocks.Slovakian lawmakers struck a deal to ratify more powers for the euro zone’s rescue fund, known as the EFSF, effectively ending a crisis that threatens the euro’s survival and which has weighed on equities and other risky assets for months.Slovakia is the last country in the 17-member currency zone left to approve the revamped EFSF.Bank shares led the advance again, with the KBW Bank Index up 3.9 percent. Citigroup gained 5.4 percent to $29.33.”Europeans feel very comfortable that a plan has been put in place with respect to their banks and Greece, and the EFSF is going to solve the problem for now,” said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co in New York.The S&P 500 traded above 1,200 for the first time in three weeks, taking the benchmark near the upper end of a range it has been stuck at since early August. The index rose more than 13 percent from the 2011 low hit last week, and some market participants say the steep rally has triggered more buying of equities, as traders try to catch up in performance.”No one was there for the rally because people were under-invested,” Boockvar said.”We’re getting close to the upper end of the range so I don’t know how much of it is left, but I would not be surprised if we overshot on the upside.”The S&P 500 has been trading roughly between 1,080 and 1,220 for two months.The Dow Jones industrial average rose 155 points, or 1.37 percent, to 11,571.30. The S&P 500 gained 19.92 points, or 1.67 percent, to 1,215.46. The Nasdaq Composite added 38.38 points, or 1.49 percent, to 2,621.42.PepsiCo Inc rose 4 percent to $63.39 after the soft drink maker reported slightly better-than-expected earnings and affirmed its full-year target.Liz Claiborne Inc surged 37.1 percent to $6.99 after the apparel company said it plans to sell off more of its major brands and will change its name.Alcoa Inc fell 1 percent to $10.20 and ranked as one of the biggest drags on the Dow. The largest U.S. aluminum producer’s third-quarter profit was below the second-quarter number and fell short of already reduced expectations due to a slump in global metals prices.Later in the session, investors will also keep an eye on the Federal Open Market Committee’s minutes from its Sept. 20-21 meeting, to be released at 2 p.m. EDT. (1800 GMT)

Posted 7 months ago
#US #STOCKSWall #St #jumps #on #eurofund #hope #Dow #positive #for #year

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Credit terms for dealers little changed in summer: Fed

The so-called Senior Credit Officer Opinion Survey was conducted in late August and at the beginning of September but asked about changes between June and August — a period of considerable strain in markets when worry about Europe’s debt crisis was sapping stock prices.It covered 21 firms that handle nearly all the dealer financing of dollar-denominated securities and that are the most active intermediaries in over-the-counter derivatives markets.”Dealers indicated that their clients’ willingness to bear risk had decreased somewhat, on net, over the past three months,” the survey said, adding that hedge funds had displayed “a more pronounced decline” since the start of 2011 in their risk appetite than had other client types.The survey said that “a significant majority” of dealers said they now were devoting more resources and attention toward managing concentrated exposures to dealers and other financial intermediaries in recent months.It also said that there had been some tightening in terms under which a broad spectrum of securities were financed in recent months, though terms on equities financing were little changed.”These responses stood in contrast with prior surveys in which responses had generally indicated an easing of terms,” the survey said,. adding the tightening of terms appeared to apply to both average and most-favored clients.Reporting by Glenn Somerville, Editing by Andrew Hay)

Posted 7 months ago
#Credit #terms #for #dealers #little #changed #in #summer #Fed

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On the Move: Veteran Citi adviser starts RIA, taps Focus

The 25-year veteran, who most recently co-headed Convergent Wealth Advisors’ Institutional Group, has started her own independent advisory firm in a partnership with Focus Financial, the firm said on Tuesday.The move illustrates a recent surge of experienced brokers going into business for themselves.Van Dusen and her 10-member team opened shop at their new Rochester, New York-based firm, LVW Advisors, on Monday. The team had been together for more than a decade after forming at Citi Smith Barney in the late 90s.”It’s been a business model that’s been in my head for 20 years,” Van Dusen said in an interview. “The industry just wasn’t there before. I couldn’t have put together the pieces the way I did.”Large asset groups are streaming into registered investment adviser practices, said Rich Schwarzkopf, a New York-based recruiter with Schwarzkopf Recruiting Services.”It’s probably one of the fastest-growing segments of the financial services industry, Schwarzkopf said. “Their assets have been growing enormously for the past couple of years.”FOCUSVan Dusen turned to Focus to build up her new firm’s technological infrastructure. The partnership also helped LVW source vendors for products, aid in succession planning and offer equity ownership advice.”I needed to be able to set up shop … in a way that wasn’t distracting,” Van Dusen said. “Most advisers are good investment people, but they need guidance in building a business the right way.”Van Dusen, who has about $4.9 billion in assets under management, collectively has about 35 clients with her team and said she expects to retain all of them during the transition. She said her firm is in the process of hiring another adviser to join the team.”We have a sizable business now and our foremost goal is to retain our clients and keep them happy,” she said.About 50 percent of LVW’s clients are institutional, while the other are high-net-worth clients, whose assets range from $10 million up to about $1 billion.LVW is the 23rd team to join Focus since its start in 2006 and is the sixth transaction for the firm this year.Focus has largely grown by acquiring independent advisers and teams across the United States.The firm’s vice president Rich Gill told Reuters that Focus has grown about six-fold since he first joined in May 2007. Focus had about $7 billion in assets under management at the time, and now has about $45 billion,He said Focus does not set targets for asset growth.”It’s really about quality,” Focus founder Rudy Adolf said in an interview. “If we don’t grow that much in a particular year, but the deals we do are very good, we’d prefer to have quality than just growth.”

Posted 7 months ago
#On #the #Move #Veteran #Citi #adviser #starts #RIA #taps #Focus

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