Posts Tagged investment
Parmalat Investors Want 8% More From Lactalis to Support Bid
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Trading Markets on Май 20th, 2011
Parmalat SpA (PLT) investors are holding out for at least 8 percent more from Groupe Lactalis of France in a takeover bid that would value Italy’s biggest dairy at 3.65 billion euros ($5.19 billion).
Parmalat shares have closed above the 2.60 euro-a-share offer every day since May 5 on expectations that Lactalis will have to raise its bid in order to succeed. The Laval, France- based company, the country’s biggest cheese-maker, has made the offer conditional on 55 percent of investors accepting it.
“Why would anyone tender to a 2.60 offer when they’ve been able to sell it above that level for several weeks now?” said Ben Rolfe, head of special situations at Tavira Securities Ltd. in Monaco. “Unless they waive the acceptance condition or increase the bid, it is doomed.”
Parmalat’s board said Tuesday that the Lactalis bid is too low and that it won’t recommend it to shareholders. Lactalis in March paid a group of activist investors 2.80 euros-a-share for a 15 percent stake in Collecchio, Italy-based Parmalat, raising its holding to 29 percent. On April 26, the Laval, France-based company announced a bid for the rest. The offer opens on May 23 and closes on July 8. Read the rest of this entry »
Federation Points to Signs Community Investing is Here to Stay
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Investing on Апрель 28th, 2011
The National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions has joined with two other community development institutions to hail some recent trends in the field.
The National Federation, Social Investment Forum and Green America cited rising participation from consumers, heightened interest among investment firms and growing awareness of community investing successes as reasons community investment is expanding.
The institutions defined community investing as “capital from investors and lenders that is directed, typically via community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and other community investing institutions, to communities and individuals that are underserved by traditional financial services.” And it reported that assets in community investing institutions grew 60% from $25 billion in 2007 to $41.7 billion as of the start of 2010, the most recent date for which data had been reported.
National Federation CEO Cliff Rosenthal argued that the increased attention was arriving at a crucial time as CDCUs have needed to make more of the work better known. Read the rest of this entry »
Vensure FCU: Poker Patsy or Plotter?
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Investing on Апрель 27th, 2011
Small Arizona CU Linked to Government Bust of Major Internet Gambling Operations. The closing of a small, single-sponsor federal credit union in Arizona has raised serious questions about some of the ways NCUA supervised or failed to supervise a federally chartered CU.
When it was first announced, the decision to close the $2.7 million Vensure Federal Credit Union, headquartered in Mesa, Ariz., did not appear justified. While there was no data available from the March Call Report, the agency’s announcement set the CU’s assets at $4.7 million and membership at 144, but the agency’s data site reported its assets as of Dec. 31, 2010 to be $2.7 million and 94 members.
But while small, there was nothing on the first glance that might suggest that the CU needed to be closed. The agency data also reported that the credit union had a net worth ratio of 33.52% as of Dec. 31, 2010 and had net income of almost $592,000 for the year.
But it also came to light fairly quickly that Vensure might have been either the dupe or a participant in what federal prosecutors have described as an extensive and sophisticated fraud and money laundering scheme around Internet gambling payments. Read the rest of this entry »
Following the Money: Venture Capital Flocks to Emerging Markets
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Favourites, Investing on Апрель 1st, 2011
The venture capital universe has grown, and the U.S. is no longer at the center of it. That was the message from investors speaking at the Global Technology Symposium on Sand Hill Road last week.
«The world is opening up,» Tim Draper, founder of VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, said in a keynote speech at the Menlo Park, Calif., event. «New technologies are happening everywhere and we’ve got to be prepared for a new globalization of the world.»
Part of the reason for VC’s globalization is that U.S. has lost ground as the biggest market economy, he said. After all, the richest man in the world (Carlos Slim) is Mexican, the tallest building in the world (the Burj Khalifa) is in Dubai, and the most valuable company in the world is in China, he added. At one point last year, Petro China (PTR) had the largest market capitalization of any public company in the world, but it’s currently smaller than Exxon Mobil (XOM) or Apple (AAPL).
Foreign investments now make up half of the successful VC deals — those in which investors get a return of at least 10 times the amount they invested — he said. Among emerging markets, DFJ has made investments in Russia, the Ukraine, India and China, for instance. «We have no idea where the next Baidu … is going to come from,» Draper said. Read the rest of this entry »
Buffett Fires Elephant Gun
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Investing on Март 18th, 2011
On Monday, business newswires buzzed with reports that the world famous investor, Warren Buffett, had agreed to purchase Lubrizol, a chemical company.
Under the deal, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway will purchase all outstanding shares of Lubrizol for $135 per share in a the deal valued at $9.7 billion, one of the firm’s largest acquisitions.
This move is a welcomed relief for Buffett fans who have been closely monitoring the multi-billionaire’s inflating pile of cash. In the period following his record-breaking purchase of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, Berkshire has seen little action on the M&A front, leading many to ponder what Buffett had in store for his legendary firm.
Historically, Buffett has not been a fan of large cash positions. In a recent article, I noted that, during an interview with Charlie Rose, he likened cash to oxygen, explaining that it is important to have around but unnecessary to have in excessive amounts.
In regards to Berkshire Hathaway, he insists that his company always has necessary reserves on hand but does not view cash as a good long-term investment. Read the rest of this entry »
Move Over, Apple! My Tablet Cost $200
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Trading Markets on Март 15th, 2011
I didn’t want to spend $500 for a tablet computer. I didn’t even want to spend $400. So instead I went online and bought a brand-new tablet for a bit less. The cost? Less than $200 … and about 20 minutes of my time. No kidding.
It’s hardly a perfect comparison—more on this below—but the tablet is perfect for what I want. I’m not talking about one of those junk tablets from a Chinese website, either.
I bought a Barnes & Noble Nook Color tablet (for $190 plus tax from a temporary online promotion, down from the usual $250). And then I downloaded a very simple, perfectly legal software fix from the Internet that turned it into a fully functioning tablet running on Google’s Android platform. The fix, known as a «rooting,» unlocks Barnes & Noble’s proprietary overlay. The instructions came via Ars Technica, a reputable site devoted to technology, and were pretty easy to follow.
I wasn’t really expecting it to work. I tried it as an experiment. But the results were remarkable.
The Nook Color, which was designed mainly for reading books and magazines, is about half the size of an iPad or a Xoom. It weighs about 30% less. It runs on WiFi, but not 3G. It has an absolutely superb screen. And, once you’ve unlocked the software, it runs many Android applications, from email to news readers TweetDeck to, yes, Angry Birds. Read the rest of this entry »
China flexed its muscles using U.S. Treasuries
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Fund Markets on Февраль 25th, 2011
Confidential diplomatic cables from the U.S. embassies in Beijing and Hong Kong lay bare China’s growing influence as America’s largest creditor.
As the U.S. Federal Reserve grappled with the aftershocks of financial crisis, the Chinese, like many others, suffered huge losses from their investments in American financial firms — from Lehman Brothers to the Primary Reserve Fund, the money market fund that broke the buck.
The cables, obtained by WikiLeaks, show that escalating Chinese pressure prompted a procession of soothing visits from the U.S.Treasury Department. In one striking instance, a top Chinese money manager directly asked U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for a favor.
In June, 2009, the head of China’s powerful sovereign wealth fund met with Geithner and requested that he lean on regulators at the U.S. Federal Reserve to speed up the approval of its $1.2 billion investment in Morgan Stanley, according to the cables, which were provided to Reuters by a third party.
Although the cables do not mention if Geithner took any action, China’s deal to buy Morgan Stanley shares was announced the very next day.
The two Treasury officials to whom the cables were addressed, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia Robert Dohner and Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Monetary and Financial Policy Mark Sobel, declined through a spokesperson to comment for this story. The State Department also declined to comment. Read the rest of this entry »
Copper Market 2011 Deficit May Be as Much as 600,000 Tons
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Trading Markets on Январь 21st, 2011
The world refined copper market is expected to have a 500,000-metric-ton to 600,000-ton deficit in 2011, even with a significantly weaker demand scenario, according to JPMorgan Securities Ltd.
Disruptions last year seemed to have wiped out most of mine supply growth, metals strategist Michael Jansen told a conference in Shanghai. “As demand further recovers into 2011, supply-side issues will become more influential,” he said.
Copper for delivery in three months in London advanced to a record of $9,754 a metric ton on Jan. 4 after rising 30 percent last year as the improving global economy and rising investment demand for commodities prompted buying. The International Copper Study Group is expecting a 435,000-ton global deficit in the refined metal this year.
While current prices are sufficient to encourage brownfield and greenfield developments, longstanding issues, including capital availability, relative merit of projects, resource nationalism, and geotechnical issues, remain key impediments for supply increase, said Jansen.
“Copper is also increasingly being seen as scarce and is in many ways adopting some store of value attributes normally associated with precious metals,” he said in his presentation. Read the rest of this entry »
How to Invest in Commodities, Carefully
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Investing on Декабрь 22nd, 2010
All through the year, commodity prices have been rising: Copper has soared 24.5% since 2010 began, while gold is up 23%. Wheat, corn and oil also have continued to climb. Unsurprisingly, that growth has attracted many investors. Is this a good time for small investors, too, to put some money in commodities?
Adrian Day, a financial adviser who has just published a book about commodities called Investing in Resources, cautions small investors that commodities are incredibly volatile. «Trying to play commodities in the short term is a recipe for disaster,» he says. Commodity prices have already climbed so high in the last couple of months that he has become a «little bit cautious,» he adds.
But Day remains bullish about using long-term commodities investments to diversify portfolios, even for the little guy. After all, some good fundamentals are behind the commodities’ growth, including the continuing strength of the Chinese economy — which has created huge demand for many commodities — and signs that the U.S. starting to improve. «With many metals, they’re unable to increase production, and the price is just continuing to go up» as demand increases, Day says.
First Steps
How can small investors best tap into this trend? There are myriad ways to invest in commodities, of course, such as via futures and options offered by CME Group. But those types of commodities futures and options require sophisticated knowledge and can be very risky for a novice investor, Day warns. Read the rest of this entry »
Why The Market Multiple Will Be Higher In 2011
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Fund Markets on Декабрь 17th, 2010
Market relationships differ depending upon the time frame. Right now, higher bond yields are bullish for stocks. This article explains why.
The most important question for equity investors relates to rising interest rates and the implications for stocks. Nearly everyone (including us) agrees that long-term rates are moving higher. That has been the recent move and it implies significant capital losses for those holding long bonds. Here is a nice analysis of the risk by John Lounsbury.
Several pundits have weighed in on the effect of an interest rate increase. Let us take a closer look.
Background
On a theoretical basis, lower interest rates are bullish for stocks. Companies can borrow more cheaply. The choice for those doing asset allocation tilts toward equities. The data support the traditional stock/bond relationship — usually.
But these are not typical times. Higher interest rates may be consistent with higher stock multiples. Abnormal Returns covers the topic and also highlights other sites on bond yields. I want to go beyond the generalized arguments and look to some strong supporting data. Read the rest of this entry »
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