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Shr 24 cts vs 26 cts
Net 1.5 mln vs 1.3 mln
Revs 40.5 mln vs 33.5 mln
Year
Shr 80 cts vs 82 cts
Net 4.9 mln vs 4.1 mln
Revs 143.0 mln vs 121.1 mln
Avg shrs 6.1 mln vs 5.0 mln
Reuter
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VMS Mortgage L.P. said it declared a
regular monthly cash distribution of nine cts a depositary unit
for the month of March, payable May 14, record April One.
Reuter
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The St. Lawrence Seaway, set
to reopen March 31 after the winter, faces another tough year
because of depressed traffic levels and the possibility of the
first strike in 20 years on the Great Lakes, seaway officials
said.
Depressed grain exports, rising costs, and competing modes
of transportation are all expected to result in only a marginal
increase over last year's traffic levels -- and revenues -- on
the 2,300 mile waterway, officials said.
In 1986, a season that ran from April 3 to December 27, the
seaway moved 37.6 mln metric tons of freight between Montreal
and Lake Ontario and 41.6 mln tons on the Welland Canal,
linking Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
By comparison, in 1985 about 37 mln tons of cargo traveled
through the Montreal-Lake Ontario section and 42 mln through
the eight-lock canal.
The waterway is expected to lose 9-10 mln Canadian dlrs
this year, about the same as the estimated deficit for fiscal
1986-87 ending March 31, said William Blair, an executive
member of Canada's St Lawrence Seaway Authority.
The seaway moves about one-half of Canada's exported grain.
Those exports of the single most important commodity carried on
the waterway have been depressed by world surpluses.
The Seafarers' International Union, which represents about
2,300 workers on the Great Lakes and the ocean coasts, has said
it will likely go on strike this spring to protest employers'
demands for wage rollbacks and other concessions.
"It's 99.9 pct (certain)--I guarantee you a strike," Roman
Gralewicz, head of the Seafarers' Canadian branch, has said.
The Canadian government has called in a labor conciliator
to try to hammer out a contract agreement between the two
sides. The seaway authority said a walkout tying up ships on
the Great Lakes would badly hurt traffic.
"We haven't had a strike on the seaway for years...a
prolonged strike would have a disasterous effect," Seaway
Authority spokeswoman Gay Hemsley said.
"These are the heaviest contract talks in the history of the
St Lawrence Seaway," George Miller, vice-president of the
Canadian Lake Carriers Association, an association of major
Canadian shipping companies, said recently.
The workers' current contract expires May 31. The
association said it is asking for a five per cent cut in wages
for the next three years, reduced crew levels and the power to
restructure crew dispatching.
The association said its members recorded about a 6 mln dlrs
(U.S.) loss in each of 1985 and 1986 due to lower traffic and
freight rates and increasing competition. The seaway said 1985
was its worst year in two decades.
Hemsley said the seaway authority plans to raise tolls on
the Welland Canal by eight pct this year, compared to last
year's 15 pct rise, while maintaining a freeze on tolls
throughout the rest of the waterway.
Canada is responsible for 13 of the seaway's 15 locks and
about 85 pct of its revenues and maintenance costs.
"We may see and hope for a steady upward climb...but we
won't see a major increase for a number of years," Hemsley said.
A Canada-U.S. delegation to promote the seaway to shippers
in Western Europe should result in some increased traffic this
season but the full benefits won't be felt for several years,
Blair said.
Reuter
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Chemlawn Corp and Ecolab Inc
said they signed a definitive merger agreement under which
Ecolab will buy all outstanding Chemlawn common stock for 36.50
dlrs a share in cash, for a total of about 370 mln dlrs.
Under terms of the agreement, Chemlawn said it rescinded
its previously announced rights dividend plan.
Chemlawn previously rejected a 27 dlr a share offer from
Waste Management Inc <WMX>.
Yesterday, the Oak Brook, Ill.-based waste disposal company
said it was prepared to offer 33 dlrs a share, or about 330 mln
dlrs, for Chemlawn, a lawn-care company.
Chemlawn had said last week that it was negotiating with
other possible suitors, which it did not identify.
A Chemlawn spokesman said further details on the merger
would be issued later.
Ecolab is a maker of commercial laundry detergent based in
St. Paul, Minn. For its first six months ended December 31, the
company earned 20.4 mln dlrs, or 76 cts a share, on sales of
421.8 mln dlrs.
Officials at Waste Management could not be reached for
immediate comment.
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Falcon Cable Systems Co said
its set an initial quarterly cash distribution of 53.75 cts per
unit, payable May 15 to unitholders of record March 31.
The partnership made its initial public offering in
December, 1986.
Falcon said it expects to pay cash distributions to limited
partners at an annual rate of 2.15 dlrs per unit, through
December 31, 1989.
Reuter
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The U.S. Department of Energy said
it has awarded bids for about 90,000 barrels per day, bpd, of
crude oil from the Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve in
California. The contract period runs from April one through
July one, the DOE said.
Successful bidders, the amount of crude oil and the price
per bbl according to the DOE are as follows -
Texaco Inc's <TX> Texaco Trading and Transport 15,000 bpd
at 15.79 dlrs and 2,200 bpd at 15.19 dlrs, Beacon Oil Co 7,000
bpd at 15.66 dlrs and 2,500 bpd at 16.04 dlrs, Golden West
Refining 8,110 bpd at 15.42 dlrs.
Successful bidders, the amount of oil and price per bbl,
according to the DOE continue as follows -
Chevron's <CHV> Chevron USA Inc 3,000 bpd at 14.51 dlrs and
4,000 bpd at 14.61 dlrs, Chevron International Oil Co 2,600 bpd
at 14.41 dlrs and 2,800 bpd at 14.51 dlrs, Newhall Refining Co
6,000 bpd at 15.82 dlrs, Caljet Inc 4,000 bpd at 15.32 dlrs,
Casey Co 4,000 bpd at 15.45 dlrs.
Also, Cryssen Refining Inc 4,000 bpd at 15.47 dlrs,
Edgington Oil Co 4,000 bpd at 15.54 dlrs, Sound Refining Inc
3,100 bpd at 15.51 dlrs, Atlantic Richfield Co <ARC> 3,000 bpd
at 15.75 dlrs.
Successful bidders, the amount of crude oil and the price
per bbl according to the DOE continue as follows -
Orkin Inc 2,679 bpd at 15.24 dlrs, Lunday-Thagard Co 2,511
bpd at 15.27 dlrs, Golden Eagle Refining 2,500 bpd at 15.37
dlrs, MacMillan Ring-Free Oil Co 1,000 bpd at 15.81 dlrs, 1,000
bpd at 15.71 dlrs and 230 bpd at 16.02 dlrs, Mock Resources
2,000 bpd at 15.76 dlrs, Petro-Diamond 2,000 bpd at 15.46 dlrs.
Reuter
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Mthly div 15 cts vs 15 cts
Pay April 15
Record April 1
Reuter
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Oper shr loss 12 cts vs profit four cts
Oper loss 1,069,000 vs profit 339,000
Revs 12.8 mln vs 10.9 mln
Note: 1986 shr and net exclude extraordinary gain of
382,000 dlrs or four cts share. 1985 shr and net exclude
extraordinary gain of 183,000 dlrs or two cts share
Reuter
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Halcyon Investments, a New York risk
arbitrage and securities dealing partnership, told the
Securities and Exchange Commission it has acquired 288,000
shares of Cyclops Corp, or 7.1 pct of the total outstanding.
Halcyon said it bought the stake for 26.1 mln dlrs as part
of its ordinary risk arbitrage and securities trading business.
Other than that, the firm said there was no specific purpose in
its purchases.
Halcyon said it might buy more stock or sell some or all of
its current stake. It said it bought the bulk of its stake
between Feb 6 and March 13.
Reuter
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Canadian Bond Rating Service said it
placed Chrysler Credit Canada Ltd, a subsidiary of Chrysler
Corp <C>, on creditwatch until all financial details concerning
the proposed acquisition of American Motors Corp <AMO> are
finalized.
The creditwatch affects Chrysler Credit Canada's short term
notes, guaranteed notes, debentures and the recently completed
75 mln dlr 9.25 Eurobond issue due April 15, 1993.
Canadian Bond Rating Service said that, based on facts
currently available on the proposed transaction, it does not
anticipate the necessity of a downgrade.
Canadian Bond Rating Service said Chrysler Credit Canada
short term notes are now rated A-2 (high) and guaranteed notes
and debentures are rated B plus plus (high).
Reuter
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Long Island Lighting Co said
it revised its preliminary 1986 net income to include a 16 mln
dlrs after tax provision for its investment in the Jamesport
Nuclear units.
Due to the provision, it said its revised 1986 net income
was 316.7 mln dlrs or 2.13 dlrs per share after deducting for
preferred stock dividend requirements, which were not paid in
either 1986 or 1985.
It had earlier reported 1986 income of 332.7 mln dlrs or
2.28 dlrs per share.
LILCO also said its board authorized contracts for its
corporate officers calling for payment of one year's salary,
and continuation of insurance and retirement benefits if the
company changes hands and these officers lose their jobs.
LILCO said none of these contracts will result in
additional costs to its customers.
Lilco said the downward revision in its 1986 earnings is a
reserve established to reflect a settlement agreement with the
staff of New York State's Public Service Commission respecting
the utility's spending on a nuclear power station planned for,
but never built at, Jamestown, N.Y.
The company declined to detail the settlement, explaining
the settlement has not been approved by the commission. Lilco
was seeking to include costs totaling 118 mln dlrs for the
abandoned nuclear power plant project in its rate base, a
spokeswoman said.
Reuter
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Rogers Corp said its board
approved a shareholder rights plan designed to protect its
shareholders in the event of an attempted hostile takeover.
Rogers said the plan is not being adopted in response to
any specific takeover attempt.
Under the plan, shareholders may buy one share of common
stock at 65 dlrs for each share held. The rights will be
exercisable only if a person or group acquires 20 pct or more
of Rogers' shares or announces an offer for 30 pct or more.
The dividend distribution will be made March 30 to holders
or record on that date.
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EASTGROUP PROPERTIES <EGP> DIVIDEND
JACKSON, MISS., May 20
Qtly div 65 cts vs 65 cts prior
Payable APril 22
REcord April 10
NOTE:Company paid 30 cts special dividend along with prior
quarter's dividend
Reuter

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Shr loss 40 cts vs loss 29 cts
Net loss 1.5 mln vs loss 1.1 mln
Revs 28.9 mln vs 28.5 mln
Six months
Shr loss 99 cts vs loss 69 cts
Net loss 3.7 mln vs loss 2.6 mln
Revs 52.5 mln vs 51.7 mln
Reuter
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Oper shr loss five cts vs loss six cts
Oper net loss 157,688 vs loss 96,573
Revs 1,094,331 vs 1,378,973
Avg shrs 3,315,654 vs 1,661,023
Six mths
Oper shr loss seven cts vs loss 24 cts
Oper net loss 198,555 vs loss 394,589
Net 2,243,377 vs 2,440,850
Avg shrs 2,796,848 vs 1,637,592
NOTE: Current year 2nd qtr and six mths excludes a loss
10,767 dlrs for discontinued operations.
Prior year 2nd qtr and six mths excludes a loss of 54,686
dlrs and 112,565 dlrs for discontinued operations.
Full name of company is Marcom Telecommunications Inc.
Reuter
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Qlty div 25 cts vs 25 cts prior
Payable April 22
Record April 10
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Trade is the most urgent problem
facing U.S.-Canadian relations because of a pressing need to
reach a new bilateral pact within the coming months, Joe Clark,
Canadian secretary of state for external affairs, said.
Negotiators for the two countries have been meeting for
more than a year in an effort to work out an agreement.
"The most urgent problem now is the trade question because
that has to be decided within the next 10 months," Clark told
the Commonwealth Club of California. "We have a fast track
authority from your Congress for approval or rejection of
whatever the negotiators achieve."
Clark said that, as a practical matter, an initial
agreement must be reached by late September or early October.
He listed environmental questions, particularly acid rain,
and defense as the second and third most important bilateral
issues facing Ottawa and Washington.
On Wednesday, President Reagan announced that he will seek
2.5 billion dlrs from Congress to address the acid rain
problem. Some interpreted the move as a goodwill gesture in
advance of his annual meeting, on April 5-6 in Ottawa, with
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
In a question-and-answer session with the public affairs
group, Clark said that the two countries must find better
mechanisms for resolving their trade disputes.
"This rash of countervailing actions, where we acted on
corn and you acted on soft wood and we both said they were
quasijudicial -- the dispute resolution mechanisims in place
now are not working adequately in either of our interests," he
said.
Ottawa also is seeking to change some of Washington's rules
on government procurement that penalize Canadian businesses, he
said.
"There are a number of Canadian companies that, in order to
secure substantial contracts in the United States, have had to
move their head offices out of our country into your country
because you have national procurement requirements," he said.
In turn, he added, the United States would like to change
some of the procurement requirements that exist at the
provincial government level in Canada.
Clark declined to forecast the outcome of the discussions.
"What will come out of it remains for the negotiators, in
the first instance, to propose, and then governments and
congresses will have judge," he said.
In his prepared remarks, Clark said that the United States
has tended to take Canada for granted, although it exports to
its northern neighbor more than twice what it exports to Japan.
"Yet you bought almost 10 per cent more from Japan last year
than you bought from Canada," he said. REUTER
Reuter
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Oper shr loss 11 cts vs profit 33 cts
Oper net loss 132,000 vs profit 408,000
Revs 25.2 mln vs 23.0 mln
NOTE: 1986 and 1985 oper net excludes a loss of 636,000
dlrs or 52 cts per share and a loss of 994,000 dlrs or 80 cts
per share for discontinued operations.
Reuter
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Shr loss 19.22 dlrs vs loss 3.90 dlrs
Net loss 276.4 mln vs loss 45.6 mln
Revs 85.4 mln vs 113.3 mln
NOTE: Shr results after deducting preferred share dividends
of 13.1 mln dlrs in both periods.
Current loss includes a 125 mln dlr writedown of oil and
gas properties, a 67 mln dlr writeoff of deferred charges, a
22.5 mln dlr loss on disposal of U.K. properties, a 21.2 mln
dlr equity loss from affiliate Sulbath Exploration ltd and a
4.6 mln dlr loss on other investments.
Reuter
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Shr loss 1.12 dlrs vs profit one cts
Net loss 1.7 mln vs profit 8,000 dlrs
Revs 31.8 mln vs 42.1 mln
Year
Shr loss 51 cts vs profit 57 cts
NEt loss 780,000 vs profit 876,000
Revs 117.8 mln vs 117.3 mln
NOTE:1986 4th qtr includes loss of 911,000 for termination
of licensing agreement and loss of 319,000 dlr for termination
of womens wear operation.
Reuter
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<Sulpetro Ltd> said its 1986
fiscal year net loss of 276.4 mln dlrs, or 19.22 dlrs per
share, was due to several factors, the largest of which was a
writedown of 125.0 mln dlrs of oil and gas properties.
Sulpetro also recorded a writeoff of deferred charges
amounting to 67.0 mln dlrs, a loss of 22.5 mln dlrs on the
disposal of all properties in the United Kingdom and an equity
loss of 21.2 mln dlrs from affiliate Sulbath Exploration Ltd.
There was also a loss on other investments of 4.6 mln dlrs
and a loss on operations of 36.1 mln dlrs after interest,
depletion, depreciation and income tax recoveries.
In the fiscal year ended October 31, 1985, Sulpetro had a
net loss of 45.6 mln dlrs, or 3.90 dlrs per share.
The company also said its non-recourse project financing
for the Irish-Lindergh heavy oil field remains in default due
to continuing low oil prices.
Reuter
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American Express Co's board of
directors Monday will discuss the company's arrangement to sell
13 pct of Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc to Nippon Life Insurance
Co, a company spokesman said.
The spokesman would not say whether the board is planning
to vote on the understanding between American Express and
Nippon Life. The Shearson stake is to be sold for 530 mln dlrs,
American Express has said.
The spokesman also would not comment on speculation that
the board was to discuss a sale of securities to the public.
Monday's board meeting is a regular monthly meeting. The
plan to sell part of Shearson to Nippon Life must be approved
by the American Express board and Japan's Ministry of Finance.
Earlier, American Express and Shearson said they were
subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. American
Express said it was subpoenaed for documents pertaining to
securities transactions of American Express and Fireman's Fund.
Shearson was subpoenaed for documents related to transactions
with Jefferies and Co and others.
The American Express spokesman said he could not comment on
whether any officials of the firm were subpoenaed.
Reuter
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Higher crude oil prices will raise
demand for natural gas, helping it to reclaim market share lost
to heavy oil when prices plunged in 1986, analysts said.
The analysts said that these efforts will be most
successful in the industrial sectors of the economy with large
and growing energy requirements.
"Natural gas stands a good chance to recapture the share of
oil supplied to electric utilities that it lost to the residual
fuel industry last year," Michael Smolinski, an energy
economist with Data Resources Inc, told Reuters.
An estimated 200,000 barrels per day of residual fuel went
into the utilities market at the expense of natural gas last
year when world oil prices plunged, Smolinski said.
Assuming oil prices hold above 15 dlrs a barrel, national
average gas prices delivered to the utilities at a projected
2.10 to 2.25 dlrs per mln Btu would be very competitive,
Michael German, vice president of economic analysis at American
Gas Association said.
The average delivered prices at the end of January were
2.10 dlrs per mln Btu, compared with 3.26 dlrs a year ago.
"We expect natural gas to regain 250 to 400 billion cubic
feet (of demand) in the overall energy market in the second and
third quarter (1987)," he said.
In addition to price competitiveness, availability will be
an important factor persuading energy users to switch to gas,
Frank Spadine, senior energy economist with Bankers Trust Corp.
in New York noted.
Spadine said the mild winter in many parts of the North
American continent has led to a build up of gas inventories and
less would be necessary to replenish underground storage this
spring freeing gas for spot sales.
These forecasts develop a strong counterpoint to the fears
that natural gas suplies would be tight and prices
significantly higher given a sharp decline in drilling last
year.
AGA's German contended that despite the drilling decline,
much of U.S. proved reserves could be brought to production
quickly through developments such as the infill drilling which
permits more wells to be drilled in proved reserve basins.
Citing recent EIA statistics, German said, the gas surplus
was likely to contract from three trillion cubic feet in 1986
to two trillion cubic feet in 1987, but the surplus would not
go away until 1990.
Smolinski of Data Resources agreed that the surplus would
persist until 1990. While gas supplies may tighten in certain
consuming areas, notably in California and in the Northeast
U.S., an overall shortfall appeared remote.
Reuter
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The United States will likely impose
sanctions soon on imports of Japanese microchips, senators said
today after a private meeting with Commerce Secretary Malcolm
Baldrige.
Although the senators said Baldrige told them no decision
would be taken until a final determination is made on whether
Japanese microchips were dumped in the United States, they said
they were virtually sure Japan would face penalties.
President Reagan's trade policy advisory group, of which
Baldrige is a member, will meet on the issue Wednesday.
"I am confident we will see action taken," Sen. John McCain,
an Arizona Republican, told reporters.
"I am expecting sanctions at least, and even more than
sanctions," Sen. Pete Domenici, a New Mexico Republican, said.
The senators, several congressmen and U.S. semiconductor
industry representatives met with Baldrige and State Department
officials to discuss Japan's alleged violations of a September
1986 agreement to stop dumping its microchips in the United
States and other countries.
They recommended Japanese firms be penalized through
tariffs or import duties over the next six to 12 months for
continuing to dump microchips. The violations were worth 100
mln dls to the Japanese semiconductor industry, they said.
Asked if Baldrige intended to recommend sanctions, Sen.
Pete Wilson told reporters, "The clear import of what he said is
that there will be."
"Japan can't just say they will comply. We think sanctions
must be applied," for past violations of the agreement, the
California Republican said.
The semiconductor industry produces microprocessor chips
which are used in high technology products ranging from radios
to defence missile guidance systems.
Sen. James McClure, an Idaho Republican, said Baldrige told
them the administration had not made a final determination that
Japanese companies had dumped semiconductor microchips below
the cost of production in the United States or other countries.
But McClure said senators told him, "There is no doubt
dumping is going on," based on evidence such as invoices of
purchases of the Japanese products.
The two countries signed a pact last September in which
Japan agreed to stop selling its microchips in the United
States and other countries below production costs and to allow
the U.S. semiconductor industry access to the Japanese market.
In return, the United States waived its right to impose
import duties on the Japanese microchips.
Japanese officials have said they have lived up to the pact
and have asked Japanese chip-makers to further slash output to
save the pact.
Japan has frequently been the target of congressional
discouragement over last year's record 169-billion-dlr trade
deficit. Tokyo had a 59-billion-dlr surplus with the United
States last year and had large surpluses with other countries.
The Senate yesterday unanimously passed a resolution
calling for action against Japan for violations of the pact
since September. The resolution will be introduced in the House
next week by Rep. Bob Matsui, a California Democrat.
Reuter
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Multi-Media Barter Ltd said it expects
to report a net loss of 820,000 dlrs or 17 cts a share for the
year ended December 31, compared to a loss of 553,000 or 11 cts
a share in the prior year.
The fourth quarter resulted in a net loss of 227,000 or
four cts compared to a loss of 330,000 or six cts a shares last
year.
It said it is currently in the process of restructuring by
reducing expenses and streamlining operations and has cut
expenses from 50,000 dlrs to less than 15,000 dlrs a month.
Reuter
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Shr loss nine cts vs profit nine cts
Net loss 478,000 vs profit 371,000
Revs 3.4 mln vs 2.6 mln
Six months
Net loss 466,000 vs profit 685,000
Revs 6.2 mln vs 5.0 mln
NOTE:1987 net loss includes writeoff of deferred start up
costs totaling 490,000 dlrs.
Reuter
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Shr 26 cts vs 38 cts
Net 44.0 mln vs 65.0 mln
NOTE:1986 net includes one mln dlr extraordinary gain and
1985 net icludes four mln dlrs extraordinary loss.
Reuter
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Minorco said it expects net
earnings to be substantially stronger than the 44.0 mln dlrs
reported for the first half.
In reporting that first half results declined from 65.0 mln
dlrs, Minorco said the contributions from its 50 pct investment
in December 1985 in Adobe Resources Corp was negative as a
result of low oil and gas prices.
Reuter
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Minorco said it expects net
earnings to be substantially stronger than the 44.0 mln dlrs
reported for the first half.
In reporting that first half results declined from 65.0 mln
dlrs, Minorco said the contributions from its 50 pct investment
in December 1985 in Adobe Resources Corp was negative as a
result of low oil and gas prices.
Reuter
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Shr loss 13 cts vs loss six cts
Net loss 1.4 mln vs loss 635,000
Revs 40.3 mln vs 28.5 mln
Year
Shr profit 40 cts vs profit 26 cts
Net profit 4.2 mln vs 2.6 mln
Revs 166.4 mln vs 94.6 mln
NOTE:1986 4th qtr and year net reflects dividend
requirements of 1.5 mln dlrs and 3.3 mln dlrs, and charges of
257,000 dlrs and 4.6 mln dlrs respectively which is not
accruable or payable because of pre-reorganization tax loss
carryforwards.
1985 4th qtr and year net reflects dividend requirement of
1.1 mln dlrs and 2.3 mln dlrs, respectively, and charges of
472,000 dlrs and 2.9 mln dlrs respectively which is not
accruable or payable because of pre-organization tax loss
carryforwards.
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Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank, the nation's
central bank, has denied the Zimbabwe dollar would be devalued.
Bank Governor Kombo Moyana told The Herald daily newspaper
"unfortunate and completely unfounded speculation that a
depreciation of the Zimbabwe dollar was about to occur" had
aggravated a serious foreign exchange shortage.
"During February and the early part of March this
(speculation) caused importers to bring forward their payments
and exporters to delay as long as possible the inward
remittance of export receipts, resulting in a significant
slowdown in net foreign exchange inflows," he added.
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World Bank President Barber Conable is
expected to press Indonesia, the Third World's sixth largest
debtor, to maintain the momentum of economic policy changes to
tackle the slump in its oil revenues, western diplomats said.
Conable, who flew to Indonesia yesterday from Tokyo, will
meet with President Suharto and senior economic ministers.
He said on arrival that the economy of South-East Asia's
largest nation was being managed well, but the slump in world
oil prices called for major policy adjustments.
Today the World Bank chief will visit Bank-funded projects
in the eastern section of Java, Indonesia's most populous
island. He will see Suharto on Tuesday after a day of detailed
discussions with ministers tomorrow.
Indonesia, the only Asian member of OPEC, has been severely
hit by last year's crash in oil prices, which cut its oil and
gas revenues in half.
Japan's state Export-Import Bank last month agreed to
provide around 900 mln dlrs in untied credits to help Indonesia
pay for its share of 21 World Bank development projects.
Indonesia, a country of 168 mln people, has responded to
the oil slump by cutting spending, devaluing its currency by 31
pct, and trying to boost exports, while using foreign loans to
bridge its deficit.
Diplomats said that Conable was expected to press Suharto
and leading economic ministers to maintain the pace of policy
change, particularly in dismantling Indonesia's high-cost
protected economy.
"Oil prices, the debt crisis, the world recession, all call
for major policy adjustments and external support," Conable said
in his arrival statement.
But with Indonesia facing parliamentary elections next
month, he is likely to avoid anything which would imply that
the Bank is demanding specific changes.
"We believe there has been wise leadership here and the
economy is being very well managed," Conable told reporters at
Jakarta airport.
Indonesia has official and private overseas debts totalling
37 billion dlrs, according to the Bank, which makes it the
Third World's sixth biggest debtor. It has received 10.7
billion dlrs from the World Bank since 1968.
Conable did not spell out what further changes he would
like to see. Last month the Bank endorsed economic changes
already introduced by Indonesia, but implied it wanted more.
Giving a 300 mln dlr loan in balance of payments support,
the Bank said it will monitor progress on implementation of the
government's trade reform measures, and supported its
determination to promote efficiency and longer-term growth.
Indonesia has introduced a series of measures since last
May to boost non-oil exports, liberalise trade and encourage
outside investment.
Suharto has also ordered a government committee to look
into which of Indonesia's 215 state-run companies could be
sold.
But in a report last month, the U.S. Embassy said the
government appeared divided over how far to take its reforms.
Western analysts say that in particular the government is
unsure how far to go with dismantling Indonesia's high-cost
monopolies, which control core areas of the economy.
Central bank governor Arifin Siregar said this week that
Indonesia faced very limited economic choices.
It could not spend its way out of trouble because this
would increase the balance of payments deficit and domestic
inflation.
He said the main objective was to raise exports outside
the oil and natural gas sector.
Indonesia's current account deficit is projected by the
government to fall to 2.64 billion dlrs in the coming financial
year which starts on April 1, from an estimated 4.1 billion in
1986/87.
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Nigeria's Central Bank has changed the
rules governing its foreign exchange auctions in what analysts
see as a means of defending the naira currency, which has
depreciated steadily.
The bank said in a statement that from April 2, banks
bidding for foreign exchange would have to pay at the rate they
offered and not, as presently, at the rate of the lowest
successful bid made at the auction.
This should discourage banks from bidding high to ensure
that they were successful while paying the lower "marginal" rate,
analysts said.
"It should act as a brake because banks will know that if
they bid high they will have to pay what they offered," a
Western diplomat commented.
The naira has depreciated against the dollar by 62 pct
since the auctions, known as the Second-Tier Foreign Exchange
Market (SFEM), began last September 26.
At last week's session the Nigerian currency was fixed at
4.0 to the dollar, the third fall in a row.
"They were clearly worried... And this is the logical way of
trying to stop the trend," the diplomat said.
The Central Bank also announced the auctions would be
fortnightly, not weekly, beginning on April 2.
It was not immediately clear whether next Thursday's
scheduled session would still take place, nor if the bank was
planning to double the 50 mln dlrs which are normally on offer
at each auction.
Demand for foreign exchange has consistently outstripped
supply, encouraging banks to bid high and thus further
weakening the naira.
If the normal weekly allocation is not doubled at the
fortnightly session, high demand could undermine the objective
of the new system, analysts said.
Although bidding banks will now pay what they offered, the
official exchange rate for the naira applying to business
transactions will continue to be the marginal rate -- the
lowest successful bid.
SFEM is a central part of Nigeria's structural adjustment
program, which is considered to be the most ambitious economic
recovery plan in Black Africa.
The program involves setting a realistic exchange rate for
the naira, which was over-valued for many years, liberalising
imports, boosting agriculture, removing subsidies and reducing
inefficient government participation in the economy.
The World Bank has played a prominent part in designing
this dramatic blue-print and in selling it to an often
sceptical public which fears inflation and lower living
standards.
Ishrat Husain, the World Bank's representative in Nigeria,
said yesterday he was satisfied both with the adjustment
program as a whole and the foreign exchange auctions.
"So far so good" he told a meeting of bankers in Lagos,
adding that only members of Nigeria's import-dependent elite
would suffer hardship while the common man would benefit.
Fears that the program would encourage inflation were
incorrect, he said.
Bumper harvests had reduced rural inflation and urban
prices had already reflected the naira's black market value
before the currency was allowed to find its true level last
September.
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Ministers from more than 20
nations were told by New Zealand that the next international
negotiations on liberalising trade would be the last this
century and the cost of failure could not be measured.
Trade minister Mike Moore told his colleagues at a
welcoming ceremony before two days of talks here that great
progress had been made in preparing for the negotiations which
must not be sidetracked.
"We live in troubled and dangerous times for the world
trading system," he said.
"We have seen that the failure of the world trading system
has caused great depression and conflict in the past. Our
failure to maintain the momentum will be at great cost to us
all," Moore said.
He added: "The cost of failure is beyond calculation. It is
our last hope and best opportunity this century. We will not
get another chance before the year 2000."
The ministers are in New Zealand to review world trade
since the "Uruguay round" talks last Sepember. The meeting is
also part of preparations for a full-scale conference of the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in Venice in
June.
The Uruguay meeting is considered by most countries to have
been particularly successful, with northern hemisphere
countries managing to have service industries such as banking
and insurance included in the next full round.
The southerners' goal of including agricultural and
tropical products also was met.
The meeting at this North Island tourist resort is
described by participants as informal and no declaration is
expected.
Moore said one aim was to "instil a sense of political
urgency to avert potential economic tragedy."
Another was to seek ways of popularising freer trade to
people who felt the pain of readjustment but could not see the
benefits, as well as preventing "bush fires of confrontation
while we proceed with orderly negotiations."
The meeting is being attended by 25 overseas delegations
including representatives of GATT and the Economic Community.
The delegates include U.S. Trade Representative Clayton
Yeutter.
American sources say he is ready to state that the best way
to reverse protectionist sentiment in the United States is to
implement four key Uruguay proposals:
-- an end to agricultural subsidies;
-- inclusion of trade in services and investments in GATT
regulations;
-- tightening of restrictions on pirating of so-called
intellectual property such as trademarks, patents and
copyrights;
-- new rules to resolve trade disputes among GATT's 92
member states.
Earlier, New Zealand sources had said French Foreign Trade
Minister Michel Noir had pulled out of the informal GATT talks
for domestic political reasons.
Cabinet chief Bernard Prauge will lead the French
delegation.
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Diversified investment company, <Ariadne
Australia Ltd>, has offered 3.8 billion pesos for 38 mln shares
in the Philippine brewing firm <San Miguel>, a Manila newspaper
reported.
The Sunday Times quoted a letter sent yesterday to
President Corazon Aquino from Ariadne's chairman, New Zealander
Bruce Judge, that he was offering cash equivalent to five pct
of the nation's yearly budget to buy the shares from the
government.
The presidential office and Ariadne representatives in
Manila were not available for comment on the report.
The shares are the entire block seized by the government
from the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) on suspicion that
the real owner was Eduardo Cojuangco, the former chairman of
San Miguel and UCPB and a close associate of deposed president
Ferdinand Marcos.
The 38 mln shares consist of 24 mln class A stock and 14
mln class B shares.
Government officials have said earlier that the more
valuable class A shares would not be sold to foreigners.
The offer values each share at 100 pesos -- the price at
which the Philippine Social Security System suggested it might
buy eight mln class A shares last week.
"Judge's offer of 3.8 billion pesos is about five pct of the
Philippines' yearly budget," Ariadne's Philippine agent Domingo
Panganiban was quoted as telling reporters yesterday.
"Mr Judge's objective in this investment is to make his
corporation's management expertise available to San Miguel so
that the company's assets can be fully utilised."
San Miguel, the country's largest brewer, is also one of
the major manufacturers of grocery lines.
Panganiban is quoted as saying that San Miguel could tap
food and liquor distribution lines in Australia, Britain, the
U.S., New Zealand and Hong Kong through <Barwon Farmlands Ltd>,
a listed Australian firm in which it has 30 pct equity.
Ariadne, with about one billion dlrs in assets and turnover
of about two billion, has interests also in mining, real estate
and agricultural products.
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Provisional net profit 55 billion lire vs 48 billion
Turnover 3,750 billion vs 3,369 billion.
NOTE - Official results for Alitalia, Italy's national
airline which is controlled by the state industrial holding
company (Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale -IRI), are
expected to be announced at an annual shareholders meeting in
April.
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An explosion followed by
a fire ripped through a British Petroleum (BP) oil refinery,
killing one man.
A BP spokesman said the fire was confined to one plant at
the 700-acre refinery at Grangemouth, 25 miles west of
Edinburgh. The cause and extent of the damage had yet to be
determined.
Two people were killed in a previous explosion and fire at
the plant on March 13. That incident is still being
investigated, the spokesman said.
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The Australia based <Ariadne
Australia Ltd>, plans to set up a branch in the Philippines to
fulfill a prerequisite for the takeover of the Philippine
brewing firm, <San Miguel Corp>, a Hong Kong newspaper said.
The Hong Kong Economic Journal quoted a spokesman of
Australian stock broker Jacksons Ltd as saying that <Barwon
Farmlands Ltd>, a listed Australian firm of which Ariadne owns
a 30 pct stake, is planning a branch in the Philippines.
He added Jacksons is arranging an offer by Barwon to pay a
total 3.8 billion pesos in cash for 38 mln San Miguel shares.
Barwon is offering 100 pesos each for 24 mln class A San
Miguel shares and 14 mln class B stock. But the Jacksons
spokesman noted that the more valuable A stock would only be
sold to Filipinos or companies registered in the Philippines.
He said Barwon has approached the Philippine government
which seized the block of shares from the United Coconut
Planters Bank, which is believed to be linked with the
country's deposed President Ferdinand Marcos.
He added he expects a deal to be concluded between Barwon
and the Philippine Government in 14 days as it is the only
offer in cash, the newspaper reported.
Hong Kong Economic Journal also noted stock market rumours
that <Neptunia Corp>, a Hong Kong registered company which
controlled by San Miguel's president Andres Soriano, is the
other party keen on the block of San Miguel shares.
The Philippine's Commission on Good Government ruled last
May against a move of Neptunia to acquire 33 mln San Miguel
shares controlled by the brewery firm's former chairman Eduardo
Cojuangco, who is also chairman of United Coconut.
Commissioner Ramon Diaz said at the time the government
would not allow a subsidiary to buy into a parent firm, adding
San Miguel could have offered the shares to other parties.
The Manila newspaper Sunday Times published a letter sent
yesterday to President Corazon Aquino from Ariadne's chairman,
New Zealander Bruce Judge, that he was offering cash equivalent
to five pct of the nation's yearly budget to buy the shares
from the government.
"Judge's offer of 3.8 billion pesos is about five pct of the
Philippines' yearly budget," Ariadne's Philippine agent Domingo
Panganiban was quoted as telling reporters yesterday.
Spokesmen of Ariadne, Jacksons and Neptunia were not
available for comment, nor any officials of the Philippines.
<San Miguel Brewery Ltd>, a Hong Kong listed company which
is 69.65 pct held by Neptunia on behalf of San Miguel Corp,
closed 40 cents higher at 15.50 H.K. Dlrs on Friday.
REUTER
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Italy's national airline, Alitalia Spa
<AZPI.MI>, reporting a 14.6 pct rise in provisional 1986 net
profit, said it carried seven pct more passengers on domestic
routes last year, but 11.5 pct fewer passengers on flights from
North America and Canada.
Alitalia said the drop in North American traffic had been
due to a general fall in the numbers of American tourists
visiting Europe caused by fears of terrorism.
The airline reported provisional net profit rose to 55
billion lire from 48 billion in 1985.
A spokesman said Alitalia was hoping for an increase in
traffic with the U.S. In 1987.
It planned to increase the number of flights from Italy to
New York to 19 per week, to reinstate flights to Boston and to
re-open the direct Rome-Milan-Los Angeles service.
The spokesman announced that from March 29, Alitalia would
be starting a new weekly service to Shanghai.
For its summer 1987 programme, it would be adding 127 extra
flights to European destinations -- an increase of 27 pct.
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The Jordan branch of Iraq's Rafidain Bank
said it will raise paid-up capital to comply with the country's
minimum requirement of five mln dinars by drawing on profits
from its operations in the country.
Jordan's government asked banks in early 1985 to comply
with the new capital requirement -- raised from three mln
dinars -- by the start of 1986.
Rafidain's Area Manager Adnan Abdul Karim al-Azzawi told
Reuters the branch had now registered its capital at the higher
level but did not say how long it would take to pay it in. The
bank's 1986 balance shows paid-up capital of 3.1 mln dinars.
Banks in Jordan have generally complied with the higher
capital requirement except Chase Manhattan which decided
instead to close its operation, banking sources said.
Local banks floated shares to raise extra capital, while
the branches of foreign banks brought in additional cash.
Banking sources said it appeared that Jordan had made an
exception in Rafidain's case, allowing it longer to comply.
They said the gesture refelcted close political ties between
Jordan and Iraq as well as Baghdad's financial difficulties.
The Jordan branch saw pre-tax profit rise 80 pct in 1986 to
550,332 dinars on assets of 12.6 mln dinars.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker
again said the meeting of six major industrial nations in Paris
last month did not establish a target exchange rate for the
dollar.
Baker said in a television interview aired here yesterday:
"We don't have a target for the dollar." He declined to comment
on what might be a desired level for the dollar, saying: "We
really don't talk about the dollar."
He said protectionism was becoming "extremely strong" in the
U.S. In response to widening U.S. Trade deficits and import
barriers in other countries.
"The mood in the United States is extremely disturbing. It's
extremely strong," he said.
"As I've said before, we sort of see ourselves as engaged
here in a real struggle to preserve the world's free trading
system, because if the largest market in the world (the U.S.)
goes protectionist we run the risk of moving down the same path
that the world did in the late 1930s," he said.
While relative exchange rates had a role to play in
defusing the threat of protectionism, it alone did not offer
any solution, he said.
"You must address this problem on the exchange rate side,
but it cannot be solved on the exchange rate side alone. It's
far more comprehensive and broad than that, and the solution of
it requires a comprehensive approach," Baker said in the
interview.
Baker said it would be necessary for other countries to
adjust their currencies upwards, as well as remove their
barriers to U.S. Imports. But he did not elaborate or name any
countries.
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A hefty slice of new U.S. Treasury
supply is not the most welcome prospect for a slumbering credit
market, but at least this week's offerings should provide it
with some focus, economists said.
"Banks and mutual funds have cash that should be put to
work, so the auctions should breathe some life into the market,"
said economists at Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Inc.
The Treasury will place a 25 billion dlr package of
two-year, four-year and seven-year notes on the sales block
this week.
The "mini-refunding," which will raise 9.27 billion dlrs in
new cash, comprises 10 billion dlrs of two-year notes for
auction on Tuesday, 7.75 billion dlrs of four-year notes on
Wednesday and 7.25 billion dlrs of seven-year notes on
Thursday. The market also faces the regular weekly three- and
six-month bill auction today, amounting to 12.8 billion dlrs.
The mini-refunding does not come at a particularly
auspicious time for the market. Bond prices have been drifting
sideways in a narrow range against the backdrop of a cloudy
U.S. Economic outlook, diminished chances of a change in
Federal Reserve Board policy and a stable dollar.
Moreover, the bond market's inertia has compared
unfavourably with the rash of activity taking place in
high-yield markets overseas, like the U.K., As well as in U.S.
Equities.
But according to the Merrill Lynch economists, there are
signs the pall hanging over the U.S. Bond market is lifting a
bit.
"Customer activity has been light, but all on the buy-side,
and there is a marked absence of selling," they said in a weekly
report.
Philip Braverman of Irving Trust Securities Inc believes
banks will snap up the two- and four-year issues at this week's
sales.
"The banks are in need of investments that provide earnings.
Though the yield spread to the cost of carrying these
maturities has been wider, it is still positive," he said in a
weekly market review.
But economists agreed not even the auctions will generate
enough impetus for a major move. This will only come once the
overseas markets have had their run.
"Based on last week's events, there is little to indicate
that the appetite for yield has begun to wane," said economists
at Salomon Brothers Inc.
Indeed, talk persisted last week that Japanese investors
are planning to re-weight their portfolios in favour of the
higher-yielding markets at the start of Japan's new fiscal year
on April 1.
And while traditionally the Japanese have not been big
buyers of the shorter-dated issues on offer at this week's U.S.
Auctions, such reports undermine market confidence.
Even actions by the British, Australian and Canadian
monetary authorities to curb the rise of their currencies
should also enhance the attractiveness of their respective bond
markets, the Salomon Brothers' economists said.
Meanwhile, ecomomic releases are unlikely to enliven the
U.S. Market unless they deviate widely from expectations,
economists said.
This week's economic calendar begins on Tuesday with
February durable goods orders. Economists expect a rebound from
January's depressed levels.
Peter Greenbaum of Smith, Barney, Harris Upham and Co said
several areas, including transport equipment, should have
bounced back. But a decline in military capital goods will cap
total new orders. He forecasts a rise of two pct after
January's 6.7 pct slump. Some other economists foresee a gain
as large as five pct.
Friday's consumer price report for February is expected to
show an increase of about 0.3 pct after a 0.7 pct January gain.
Economists said energy prices -- the driving force behind the
January rise -- rose more moderately last month, while food
prices declined.
Meanwhile, economists warned that the federal funds rate
will be subject to volatility in the weeks ahead due to the
approach of quarter-end and the mid-April tax date.
Some economists expect the Fed to execute a bill pass this
week because its adding requirement increases sharply in the
new statement period beginning on Thursday.
Fed funds traded at 6-1/16 pct late Friday and are expected
to open near that level.
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Cooper Basin oil producer Santos Ltd
<STOS.S> said it will bid 4.00 dlrs a share for the 96.03 pct
it does not already hold in diversified oil and gas company
<TMOC Resources Ltd>.
Santos said the bid values TMOC at 248.5 mln dlrs. It said
it already holds 1.91 mln of TMOC's 25 cent par shares.
TMOC held interests outside the Cooper Basin region of
South Australia and Queensland and the acquisition would
further the Santos objective of developing as a broadly based
oil and gas company with interests outside its existing base in
the Cooper Basin, the company said in a statement.
Santos said TMOC holds several important domestic oil and
gas production, exploration and pipeline interests.
In the Northern Territory it has a 43.75 pct stake in and
operates the Mereenie oil and gas field in the Amadeus Basin
and owns 32 pct of <N.T. Gas Pty Ltd>, owner and operator of
the Alice Springs to Darwin gas pipeline.
In Queensland, TMOC has extensive interests in the Surat
Basin, including the 100 pct owned and operated Moonie oil
field and 33 pct of the Boxleigh gas field.
TMOC owns 80 pct of the <Moonie Pipeline Co Pty Ltd> which
owns and operates the Moonie to Brisbane oil pipeline.
TMOC also holds 25 pct of the Jackson to Moonie oil
pipeline, 20 pct owned by Santos. Output from the Naccowlah
block, 40 pct owned by Santos, provides the bulk of the
throughput of both pipelines.
TMOC has exploration interests in a number of areas in the
Amadeus, Surat, Eromanga and Canning basins.
It also has oil and gas interests in Britain's North Sea,
Ecuador, and the U.S., Along with gold and base metal
production through its associate <Paringa Mining and
Exploration Co Plc>, Santos said.
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Long term pressure by trade
ministers is necessary if the current Uruguay round of talks on
the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) is to
succeed, New Zealand's Overseas Trade minister Mike Moore said.
Moore told the opening meeting of trade ministers from 22
nations gathered for informal talks on the GATT that ministers
"need opportunities to keep in touch and to consider how the
political problems inherent in an exercise like this one can be
faced and resolved."
Moore said the Taupo meeting is one of a series of such
international gatherings, which includes the OECD ministerial
meeting in May and the G-7 meeting in Venice in June, enabling
ministers to maintain contact.
World trade conditions are getting better not worse, he
said.
He said New Zealand is "moving rapidly and of our own
initiative in the direction of liberalisation, and I warn you
we shall be looking for partners."
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Japan's long-term banks will soon cut
their prime rate, now at a record low 5.5 pct, by 0.2 or 0.3
percentage point in response to falling secondary market yields
on their five-year debentures, long-term bankers said.
The long-term prime rate is customarily set 0.9 percentage
point above the coupon on five-year bank debentures issued by
the long-term banks every month.
The latest bank debentures, at 4.6 pct, have met strong
end-investor demand on the prospect of further declines in yen
interest rates, dealers said. The current 5.5 pct prime rate
has been in effect since February 28.
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The United States and Japan
are on the brink of serious conflict on trade, especially over
semiconductors, Japanese unwillingness for public bodies to buy
U.S. Super-computers, and barriers to U.S. Firms seeking to
participate in the eight billion dlr Kansai airport project,
U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter said.
He was talking to reporters yesterday on the eve of a
two-day meeting of trade ministers which will review progress
made by committees set up after the Uruguay meeting last
September launched a new round of GATT (General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade) talks.
European Community (EC) commissioner Willy de Clercq
meanwhile told reporters conflict between the world's three
major trading and economic powers -- the EC, the U.S. And Japan
-- set a poor example for other members of GATT.
Australian Trade Minister John Dawkins told the reporters
bilateral retaliation at the enormous expense of the rest of
the world was no way to solve trade disputes.
New Zealand trade minister Mike Moore told his colleagues
great progress had been made in preparing for the current round
of GATT negotiations which must not be sidetracked.
The ministers have said they want to maintain the momentum
towards fresh negotiations or avert serious trade conflicts.
Yeutter said the problem with international trade talks was
that they tended to get bogged down for years. "Countries don't
get very serious about negotiating until the end of the day
which is, maybe, five or six years in the future."
He also said he did not consider the new U.S. Congress as
protectionist as it was 18 months ago. "That's a very healthy
development," he added."If you asked me about that a year or 18
months ago I would have said that it was terribly
protectionist."
"Members of Congress, that is the contemplative members of
Congress, have begun to realise protectionism is not the answer
to the 170 billion dlr trade deficit," Yeutter said.
"They've also begun to realise that you cannot legislate
solutions to a 170 billion dollar trade deficit so they are
more realistic and, in my judgement, more responsible on that
issue than they were 12 or 18 months ago."
He added, "Whether that will be reflected in the legislation
that eventually emerges is another matter."
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Iran said reports that it intended to
threaten shipping in the Gulf were baseless, and warned the
U.S. And other countries not to interfere in the region.
Tehran radio, monitored by the BBC, quoted a Foreign
Ministry spokesman as saying any attempt at interference would
be met by "a strong response from Iran and other Moslems in the
world."
U.S. Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger, in remarks
apparently unrelated to the broadcast, said the U.S. Would do
whatever was necessary to keep shipping lanes open in the face
of new Iranian anti-ship missiles in the Gulf.
The U.S. State Department said two days ago Tehran had been
told of U.S. Concern that Iranian anti-ship missiles posed a
threat to the free flow of oil from the Gulf.
U.S. Officials have said Iran has new Chinese-made
anti-ship "Silkworm" missiles, which pose a greater threat to
merchant ships than missiles used before.
The Iranian spokesman said the reports that Iran intended
to attack ships were "misleading propaganda."
He said Iraq's President Saddam Hussein was the main cause
of tension in the Gulf and said Iran would continue to use "all
its legitimate means to stem the cause of tension."
Weinberger said in a television interview in the U.S. "We
are fully prepared to do what's necessary to keep the shipping
going and keep the freedom of navigation available in that very
vital waterway."
"We aren't going into any disclosures or discussions of what
might happen, but we are certainly very sympathetic to and
listening carefully to any suggestions for our assistance in
keeping navigation free in that area," he said.
Weinberger said U.S warship movements in the Gulf area were
not unusual.
A U.S. Navy battle group led by the aircraft carrier Kitty
Hawk is currently in the northern Arabian Sea.
The Iranian spokesman was quoted by Tehran radio as saying
the U.S. Was trying to build up its military presence in the
region.
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<Dart Group Corp> said it told
Supermarkets General Corp <SGL> it was flexible on the price it
would pay to acquire the company.
Dart has said it would offer 41.75 dlrs cash for each SGL
share if the SGL board recommended the offer to shareholders.
SGL has termed the 1.62 billion dlr offer unsolicited.
In a letter to SGL dated March 20, Dart also said it was
denied confidential information on SGL that would be given to
other potential bidders.
SGL officials could not be reached for comment.
Dart said it was advised that a selling brochure for the
sale of SGL had been distributed to about 20 potential buyers,
but not itself. These purchasers would also be given access to
SGL's books and records and the opportunity to talk with key
employees.
"We suspect that one or more of the 20 are leveraged buyout
firms," said a source close to Dart. Analysts have said SGL
management may be considering a leveraged buyout.
Dart said it remains interested in acquiring SGL on a
friendly basis and reiterated its willingness to negotiate all
the terms of its offer.
Dart said SGL representatives said the company has not
received any other offer.
It said it requested the confidential information to better
understand SGL, but was denied this because it refused to sign
an agreement prohibiting it from making a bid for SGL without
SGL's approval.
The agreement would also have limited its ability to buy
SGL shares, Dart said. It considered those conditions
unreasonable in the interest of trying to negotiate a friendly
transaction, it said.
Dart has just under five pct of SGL shares.
Dart said it requested the information before its meeting
with SGL representatives, but held the meetings in the hope
representatives would reach an agreement.
It said it indicated it was flexible on price, but was told
there were certain issues important to SGL management and while
they were not conditions to the deal, Dart was expected to take
them into account in putting together its package.
It said the issues include an immediate payment of 5.7 mln
dlrs to SGL chairman Leonard Lieberman, executive vice
president James Dougherty and financial officer Murray Levine.
Dart said this payment was intended for the three officers'
severance agreements, although there was an implication that
Lieberman and Dougherty would be leaving the company of their
own volition.
Dart said under their present agreements, none of these
officers have any right to such accelerated payments. Also,
Dart said Lieberman, Dougherty and Levine are to be paid 2.6
mln dlrs to pay their taxes. It also said top management's
incentive shares were to be accelerated and paid for at a cost
of six mln dlrs although there are restrictions on the shares
unless waived by the company's compensation committee.
Dart said it was to fund up to five mln dlrs for top
management's supplemental retirement plan.
Dart said another issue was to agree to future severance
obligations and future salary guarantees for top management,
estimated at more than 15 mln dlrs in excess of obligations
under the company's present policy.
Dart said despite such management payments, it agreed to
discuss all aspects of its offer and in fact did try to
negotiate a transaction at the March 18 meeting with SGL.
Supermarkets General owns the Path Mark supermarket chain
and Rickels home centres.
Dart also released a copy of a lawsuit that was being filed
by an SGL shareholder, seeking to stop SGL from taking such
actions as paying greenmail or enacting a poison pill defence.
The suit also sought to have directors carry out their
fiduciary duty.
Greenmail is the payment at a premium for shares held by an
unwanted suitor and a poison pill is typically the issue of
securities to shareholders which make a takeover more
expensive.
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The government's
over-reliance on revenue from crude oil is adversely affecting
Australia's economic performance, Australian Petroleum
Exploration Association (APEA) chairman Dennis Benbow said.
Over one-third of Australia's indirect tax income is
derived from oil at a time of falling domestic output and weak
crude prices, he told the APEA annual conference here.
This dependence on oil-generated revenue distorts the
country's economic performance directly by acting as a
disincentive to new exploration and indirectly by affecting
trading competitiveness through high energy costs, he said.
Australia's medium-term liquid fuel self-sufficiency
position is posing a major economic threat, yet the
government's response has been to load new tax burdens on the
oil industry, Benbow said.
Domestic oil output from existing fields is expected to
fall to 280,000 barrels per day (bpd) in fiscal 1992/93 from
546,000 bpd in 1985/86, reflecting mainly the decline of the
Bass Strait fields, he said.
Bass Strait reserves are now two-thirds depleted, with the
three largest fields 80 pct depleted, he said.
By 1992/93, Bass Strait output is expected to be just over
half the 1985/86 level, assuming a number of so far undeveloped
fields are brought on stream and enhanced recovery from
existing fields goes ahead, Benbow said.
Government projections of output from as yet undiscovered
fields range from 40,000 to 130,000 bpd, he said.
Australian liquid fuel demand is forecast to rise to
680,000 bpd in 1992/93 from 565,000 in 1985/86, implying a
crude oil gap of between 270,000 and 360,000 bpd in five years
time, he said.
At present world oil prices and the current value of the
Australian dollar, annual oil imports in 1992/93 would cost
between 3.2 billion and 3.6 billion dlrs, Benbow said.
Despite intensive exploration in the early 1980's, the
addition to reserves has been inadequate, he said.
For example, the 409 mln barrels discovered in the five
years 1980-84 represent about two years' consumption, he said.
He called on the government to review its tax policies to
restore incentive to exploration.
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Shr 4.16 cents vs 28.80
Final Div nil vs 10.5 cents making six for year vs 16.5
Pre-tax profit 2.68 mln dlrs vs 107.71 mln
Net 9.27 mln vs 63.20 mln
Turnover 5.47 billion vs 4.83 billion
Other income 65.33 mln vs 51.68 mln
Shrs 222.94 mln vs 219.54 mln.
NOTE - Net is after tax credit 6.6 mln vs tax paid 43.39
mln, depreciation 41.18 mln vs 34.10 mln, interest 42.42 mln vs
36.23 mln and minorities 11,000 vs 1.12 mln but before
extraordinary net profit 24.98 mln vs loss 51.71 mln
REUTER
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<Bell Resources Ltd> said it has executed
an underwriting agreement with <Equiticorp Tasman Ltd> to
acquire 57.6 mln ordinary shares in The Broken Hill Pty Co Ltd
<BRKN.S> for 540 mln dlrs.
Bell said in a statement that it now holds 29.93 pct of
BHP's 1.2 billion shares.
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Ariadne group unit <Barwon Farmlands
Ltd> confirmed it offered 3.8 billion pesos in cash for the 38
mln shares of Philippine brewing company <San Miguel Corp>.
The Australia-based Barwon, 30 pct owned by New Zealander
Bruce Judge's Ariadne group, said in a statement released in
Hong Kong that a formal offer had been made to the Philippines
government, which holds the shares.
It said it was confident the offer will be reviewed
favourably.
Newspapers in Manila and Hong Kong reported at the weekend
that an offer had been made.
Barwon said it was represented by Australian stockbroker
<Jacksons Ltd>, which forwarded a formal offer to Philippine
President Corazon Aquino of 100 pesos for each of the 38.1 mln
A and B shares of San Miguel.
The Philippine government seized the shares, which
represent a 31 pct stake in the brewery firm, from the <United
Coconut Planters Bank>, alleged by the government to be linked
with the country's deposed President Ferdinand Marcos.
The Barwon statement said a deal is expected to be
concluded between Barwon and the Philippines government in 14
days.
Barwon also said it made recommendations to the government
on how it could purchase the class A shares, which can only be
held by a Philippine national or a firm which is at least 60
pct held by a member of the country. It did not elaborate.
The Hong Kong Economical Journal quoted a spokesman of
Jacksons as saying Barwon plans to set up a branch in the
Philippines to meet the criteria.
<San Miguel Brewery Ltd>, a locally listed firm 69.65 pct
held by San Miguel's <Neptunia Corp> affiliate, was last traded
at 16.30 H.K. Dlrs against 15.50 dlrs on Friday.
REUTER
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World governments
should prepare for an inevitable significant increase in the
price of oil as non-Middle East supplies diminish, Exxon Corp
<XON> director and senior vice-president Donald McIvor said.
Policymakers must also face up to the reality that the bulk
of world oil reserves lies in the Middle East, he said in a
speech prepared for delivery to the Australian Petroleum
Exploration Association (APEA) annual conference.
It appears ever more likely that new discoveries elsewhere
will not change this fact, he said.
McIvor said 37 of the world's 30,000 oil fields contain
about 35 pct of all oil ever discovered.
Only 11 of these 37 super-giant fields lie outside the
Middle East and only five of the 37 have been discovered in the
last 20 years, three of them in the Middle East, he said.
He also said that since 1970, the world has been consuming
20 to 25 billion barrels a year while making discoveries at the
rate of only 10 to 15 billion barrels a year.
More than half of remaining proved reserves are in the
Middle East, he said.
McIvor said it was important to continue to search for oil
outside the Middle East because each addition contributes to a
diversity of supply desirable for global political and economic
stability.
"It is important to enhance the likelihood of home-country
discoveries with measures such as non-discriminatory and stable
taxation, and minimum regulation, together with opening up of
acreage for exploration," he said.
Increasing reliance on the Middle East will also boost the
incentive to use natural gas and synthetic sources of
petroleum, he added.
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Taiwan is expected to boost agricultural
imports from the U.S. And Europe in calendar 1987 to help
balance trade, the Council of Agriculture said.
A council official, who declined to be named, told Reuters
the imports, which will include about seven mln tonnes of
oilseeds, grains and dairy products, would be worth some four
billion U.S. Dlrs against 3.72 billion in 1986 and 3.38 billion
in 1985.
Taiwan's surplus with the U.S. Rose to 13.6 billion dlrs
last year from 10.2 billion in 1985, government figures show.
Government figures also show Taiwan's surplus with Europe
rose to 1.53 billion dlrs last year from 543 mln in 1985.
Taiwan's imports of U.S. Farm produce last year amounted to
1.41 billion dlrs against 1.52 billion in 1985.
Imports from Europe rose to 182 mln U.S. Dlrs from 148 mln,
the official said.
He attributed the decline in the value of U.S. Imports to
falling agricultural products prices last year.
REUTER
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A 10 percentage
point reduction in the Australian government's maximum crude
oil levy on old oil would stabilize Bass Straits oil output,
resources analyst Ian Story said here.
A reduction to 70 pct from 80 pct would enable Bass Strait
output to be maintained at the current rate of 420,000 barrels
per day (BPD) for the next year rather than falling to 380,000
BPD in 1987/88, he told the Australian Petroleum Exploration
Association annual conference.
Story is an analyst with and a director of Sydney
stockbroker Meares and Philips Ltd.
Windfall profits taxes on Bass Strait crude are no longer
appropriate in the current economic climate, Story said.
The maximum 80 pct levy on old oil -- that discovered
before September 1975 -- is now forcing the Broken Hill Pty Co
Ltd <BRKN.S>/Exxon Corp <XON> partnership to shut-in
production, accelerating the decline in output and reducing
government revenue, he said.
He said the producer return per barrel at a price of 30
Australian dlrs a barrel would rise to 2.07 dlrs from 0.80 dlrs
if the levy was cut to 70 pct.
"The economics at an 80 pct levy are simply not attractive
at oil prices below 30 dlrs," Story said.
Cutting the maximum levy rate to 70 pct would create higher
levels of self-sufficiency, increase government revenue, boost
exports and provide incentives for exploration and development,
he said.
The government is currently reviewing the oil tax
structure.
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Debt among African countries
will continue to grow and their economies remain stifled unless
developed countries lower their interest rates, Nigerian Trade
Minister Samaila Mamman said.
He told an informal General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) meeting the widening gap between developed and
developing countries and an inequitable international economic
system were major impediments to growth in developing
countries.
Delegates from 23 countries are attending the GATT talks in
the New Zealand resort of Taupo.
"I wish to emphasise that the growth in the volume of the
external indebtedness of African countries reflects the full
effect of the deflationary monetary and trade policies of the
developed market economy countries," Mamman said.
"The developed market economy countries have slowed down
output growth thereby drying up markets for the commodity
exports of African countries."
Mamman said the World Bank estimated 35.3 billion dlrs a
year would be needed over the next five years for the African
continent to be able to achieve a gross domestic product growth
(GDP) rate of three to four pct by 1990.
Yet at the same time Africa's debt service was estimated at
24.5 billion dlrs a year between 1986 and 1990.
"With the best of intentions Africa cannot attain a three to
four pct GDP growth rate if the current high level of debt
persists," Mamman said. Developed countries must seek
alternatives to policies that resulted in the transfer of
resources and more indebtedness, he said.
"The international community cannot fail to respond
positively to the collapse of the international market for
commodities ... And act quickly to stabilize demand and prices
of our commodity exports," he added.
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West German bond yields could decline
over the next few months if recent efforts to stabilize
exchange rates, as seen in last month's Paris pact, extend to
keeping down European interest rates, banking economists said.
But in the longer term domestic yields could rise under
agreements to stimulate West Germany's economy, they said.
The Paris agreement has so far successfully stabilized
currencies with the threat of central bank intervention,
economists said.
Economists speculated that G-7 countries may try to bolster
the pact by uncoupling U.S. and West German interest rates
further when they meet for the IMF Interim Committee in April.
"The recent round of monetary accommodation by the Bundesbank
and the Bank of Japan and the firming of the Federal Funds rate
are significant. They mark an uncoupling of movements in U.S.
and foreign interest rates," Salomon Bros Inc said in a recent
study.
It said narrowing of international interest rate spreads
was a major factor in the dollar's fall. These spreads will
have to be widened if the dollar is to be stabilized.
West German Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl encouraged
the U.S. not to cut interest rates in January when the
Bundesbank cut its own rates by half a point, to avoid
weakening the dollar.
West German economists see room for further cuts in leading
West German rates if the dollar resumes its decline.
"It's not a taboo," Peter Pietsch, spokesman for Commerzbank
AG said.
But most economists see room for a cut in West German rates
only in the first half of the year, as re-emerging inflation
will limit room for manoeuvre later in the year.
The Bundesbank's average yield of public paper is already
nearing last year's low. Last week, yields fell to around 5.50
pct, not far from the 1986 low of 5.35 pct posted in mid-April.
Economists said the trend may cause domestic investors to
shift some funds from short to longer-term paper. Such a move
would tend to flatten the yield curve between short and
long-term rates, which has become more pronounced since the
Bundesbank lowered its discount rate.
It might also facilitate a further cut in leading rates, as
the shift out of savings accounts into securities would slow
growth of the Bundesbank's central bank money stock aggregate.
But conflicting with this trend are plans to increase West
German tax cuts, part of the Paris currency pact designed to
meet U.S. demands for faster West German growth. This move may
force interest rates up by creating a revenue vacuum which must
be filled by higher government borrowing.
This may not occur if private sector demand for credit
remains weak, but demand could emerge if rates begin rising.
Economists said it appeared the government had already
stepped up borrowing this year to accomodate revenue loss from
other sources, including tax losses resulting from weaker than
expected economic growth, and higher than expected spending.
Josef Koerner, chief economist of the West German
Ifo-Institut, said in a newspaper interview he expected 1987
tax revenue to be some 11 billion marks below estimates by the
West German government in November.
Any tax shortfall in itself is unlikely to push yields up.
But coupled with other factors such as waning foreign
speculative buying of mark bonds on the dollar's decline, long
term yields may to have to rise, economists said.
Public authority borrowing in 1988 may also rise owing to
increases in the second phase of Bonn's tax reform package.
The West German government is raising its total tax cuts in
1988 by 5.2 billion marks to 14.4 billion.
West German chancellor Helmut Kohl said last week increased
borrowing to finance the tax reform is acceptable.
Finance minister Gerhard Stoltenberg said last Thursday he
was looking for other ways to finance the reform, such as
raising indirect taxes.
But few economists believe the government will be able to
go through with its tax measures without increasing net
borrowing.
The Bundesbank said in its February report that it was
wrong to believe that the first stage of the tax reform in 1986
could be managed without increasing deficits.
The Bundesbank said West German public authorities borrowed
a large 21.9 billion marks in credit markets in the 1986 final
quarter compared with 14.8 billion in fourth quarter 1985.
The federal government took up nearly 10 billion marks of
the fourth quarter 1986 figures, and also drew on two billion
marks of Bundesbank advances at the end of the year, when it
had not required such a credit in the 1985 quarter.
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The Philippines posted a trade deficit
of 68 mln dlrs in January, compared with deficits of 57 mln in
January 1986 and 28 mln in December, government figures show.
The National Census and Statistics Office (NCSO) said
imports of 436 mln dlrs in January were up from 371 mln in
January 1986 and 393 mln dlrs in December, while exports of 368
mln were up on the 314 mln in January 1986 but lower than
December's 421 mln.
The country's 1987-92 medium-term development plan targets
a 9.8 pct average annual growth in exports and a 10.7 pct
growth in imports, the NCSO said.
REUTER
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Japanese compound feed output fell to
2.06 mln tonnes in January from 2.57 mln in December, against
2.04 mln a year earlier, Agriculture Ministry statistics show.
January sales totalled 2.07 mln tonnes against 2.59 mln in
December and 2.04 mln a year earlier, while end-month stocks
were 233,003 tonnes against 230,764 and 241,567.
Base mixes for the January compound feed output included
corn, sorghum and soybean meal.
Corn use totalled 993,156 tonnes, against 1.20 mln in
December and 896,718 a year earlier, and its compounding ratio
was 48.1 pct against 46.6 pct and 43.1 pct.
Sorghum use totalled 339,013 tonnes in January against
459,067 in December and 412,743 a year earlier, and its
compounding ratio was 16.4 pct against 17.8 pct and 19.8 pct,
the ministry's figures shows.
Soybean meal use amounted to 202,546 tonnes against 253,498
and 213,287 and its compounding ratio was 9.8 pct against 9.8
pct and 10.2 pct.
REUTER
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Japan has assured a meeting
of trade ministers it is making every effort to expand domestic
demand and restructure its economy.
Japanese trade representative Tsomu Hata told an informal
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) meeting that, in
addition to demand boosting measures adopted last September, a
comprehensive economic program will be prepared after the
1987/88 budget is approved.
Hata, speaking at the first session of the two-day meeting,
said agriculture is no exception to the goal of restructuring
the economy, but did not elaborate.
Hata said protectionist pressures in the international
economy are as strong as ever, reflecting financial deficits,
payment imbalances and serious unemployment in many countries.
Despite great potential, developing economies are still
confronted by grave difficulties, particularly debt, he added.
The basis for the talks is the GATT ministerial declaration
last September in Punta del Este, Uruguay, and the subsequent
trade negotiating plan agreed in Geneva.
"It is essential that we first reaffirm here our commitment
to implementing that plan as scheduled," Hata said.
Hata added it is not constructive to speed up negotiations
in some areas at the expense of others.
In order to rebuild the free trade system, it is important
for each participant to have domestic policies that will serve
this end.
As part of its contribution, Japan plans in April to
fundamentally improve its generalised system of preferences for
industrial and mining products to make Japan's domestic market
more open to developing countries, he said.
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The Bundesbank set a new tender for a
28-day securities repurchase agreement, offering banks
liquidity aid at a fixed rate of 3.80 pct, a central bank
spokesman said.
Banks must make their bids by 1000 GMT tomorrow, and funds
allocated will be credited to accounts on Wednesday. Banks must
repurchase securities pledged on April 22.
REUTER
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The Bank of England said it forecast a
shortage of around 800 mln stg in the money market today.
Among the main factors affecting liquidity, bills maturing
in official hands and the take-up of treasury bills will drain
around 1.18 billion stg while bankers balances below target
will take out some 20 mln stg.
Partly offseting these outflows, a fall in note circulation
and exchequer transactions will add some 355 and 55 mln stg to
the system respectively.
REUTER
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Indonesia's non-oil and gas exports
fell to 5.79 billion dlrs in calendar 1986 from 5.98 billion in
1985, according to Bank Indonesia figures.
Coffee exports rose to 753 mln dlrs from 580 mln in 1985,
but rubber shipments fell to 625 mln from 720 mln and tin to
180.6 mln from 246 mln, weekly central bank figures show.
Indonesia hopes to boost its non-oil exports to make up for
oil revenue lost because of lower prices. But the lower value
of commodities such as timber, rubber, palm oil and tea on
world markets has prevented this, despite a 31 pct devaluation
of the rupiah against the dollar in September.
REUTER
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Australian Trade Minister
John Dawkins said if the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) does not give high priority to agricultural trade reform
it will be neglecting the area of greatest crisis.
In a statement to the informal GATT trade ministers
conference here he said agriculture is a problem which involves
all countries and seriously affects the debt servicing
abilities of a number of developing countries.
He said major countries should be showing leadership on
this problem.
"We will be giving close attention to the processes in the
OECD (Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development) and
elsewhere leading to the Venice economic summit where we will
be looking to the participants to adopt a strong commitment to
agricultural trade reform," Dawkins said.
The Venice summit is scheduled for June.
He said Australia's interests in the Uruguay Round, the
eighth under the GATT, are wide ranging. Dawkins said he sees
the round as providing a timely opportunity to secure further
meaningful trade liberalisation in all sectors and to restore
confidence in the multilateral system.
Dawkins said initial meetings of the negotiating groups
established in Geneva after the GATT declaration last September
in Punta del Este, Uruguay, have made a reasonable start, but
it is vital that trade ministers maintain the pressure on these
processes.
"We must see that the commitments made at Punta del Este on
standstill and rollback are carried into practice."
The standstill and rollback of protection offers the global
trading system a chance to hold and wind back protection during
the negotiations which are expected to last up to four years,
he said.
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Japan is expected to post a 3.6 pct rise
in real gross national product in 1987/88, higher than the
official 3.5 pct target, a private economic institute said.
The Research Institute on National Economy said in a report
the economy will start picking up in the April-June quarter,
partly because of an improvement in earnings performance and
capital spending in manufacturing industries.
The institute assumed an average exchange rate in the year
starting April 1 of 150 yen to the dollar. It predicted the
Bank of Japan will not change the official discount rate in the
year.
The institute forecast that Japan's exports will gradually
rise in the year in volume terms as the dollar's fall in the
past 18 months is likely to help prop up the U.S. Economy.
Japan's trade surplus is expected to narrow slightly to
90.2 billion dlrs in 1987/88 ending March 31 from an estimated
98 billion in the current fiscal year, it said.
REUTER
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Shr 27.89p vs 24.24p
Div 9.0p vs 7.75p making 13.75p vs 12.0p
Turnover 1.26 billion stg vs 1.19 billion
Pretax profit 54.6 mln vs 46.5 mln
Tax 16.5 mln vs 13.5 mln
Interest paid 2.2 mln vs 2.4 mln
Minority interests 2.3 mln debit vs same
Extraordinary items 42.3 mln profit vs 5.4 mln loss
Pretax profit includes -
Agribusiness 28.3 mln vs 22.5 mln
Health products 6.5 mln vs 5.4 mln
Wholesale food distribution 8.3 mln vs 7.3 mln
Retail food distribution 4.2 mln vs 5.9 mln
U.K. 28.7 mln vs 27.2 mln
U.S. 21.1 mln vs 16.1 mln
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Philippines Trade and
Industry Secretary Jose Concepcion told world trade ministers
he wondered if their agreement was of any real value after the
European Community (EC) imposed a levy on vegetable oils.
Concepcion, speaking at an informal meeting of the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) here, said ministers
declared in Uruguay last September that the trade of
less-developed nations should not be disrupted.
He said the EC not only ignored Manila's request for lower
tariffs on coconut oil but introduced a levy on vegetable oils
and fats that are vital exports for Southeast Asian countries.
Concepcion said while the levy might be rejected by the EC
Council of Ministers, he noted that "I cannot help but wonder
whether the agreements we produce in meetings like this are of
any real value."
He also said industrialised nations saved about 65 billion
U.S. Dlrs in 1985 through low commodity prices, but this had
affected the ability of developing nations to import goods and
services.
"The health and the growth of world trade requires that the
new development of developing countries losing their share of
world trade be arrested and reversed," he said.
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Burma's debt service ratio will have
fallen to 48.8 pct in the fiscal year to end-March 1987 from 50
pct in 1985-1986, the official Council of People's Inspectors
(CPI) reported.
Western diplomats in Rangoon estimate the figure at above
70 pct and say the country can no longer depend on foreign
exchange reserves to cover more than a few weeks' imports.
The CPI, which oversees government spending, said in its
latest report to parliament that foreign currency reserves fell
to a record low of 407.9 mln kyats in September 1986 from 430.3
mln in March 1986. Earlier figures were not available.
Debt servicing cost Burma 1.62 billion kyats in 1985-1986
while foreign exchange earnings -- export revenues plus loans
and aid -- totalled 3.23 billion kyats in the same period, the
council said.
Later figures were not available.
Burma, which diplomats here say now has foreign debts of up
to 3.4 billion dlrs, has applied to the United Nations to be
reclassified as one of the world's least developed countries in
order to qualify for softer loan and grant aid.
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The Indian State Trading Corporation
(STC) bought four cargoes of rbd palm olein totalling 24,000
tonnes at its vegetable oil import tender last week, traders
said. Market reports on Friday said the STC had booked two
cargoes.
The business comprised three 6,000 tonne cargoes for June
at 346 dlrs and 6,000 tonnes for July at 340 dlrs per tonne
cif.
It also secured a 20,000 tonne cargo of optional origin
rapeseed oil for May 15/Jun 15 shipment at 321 dlrs cif.
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The entire British Petroleum Co PLC
refinery at Grangemouth in Scotland has been shut down
following the explosion and fire that severely damaged the
hydrocracker at the site, a refinery spokesman said.
He said the rest of the 178,500 bpd refinery, including the
19,000 bpd catalytic cracker, was undamaged. The whole refinery
was closed pending enquiries but a decision when to reopen the
main units will be taken in the next couple of days, he said.
But there was extensive damage to the central part of the
32,000 bpd hydrocracker, which upgrades heavy oil products to
gasoline, and it will be out of operation for some months.
The spokesman said BP will not suffer supply shortages as a
result of the explosion as it will be able to bring in product
from other sources. BP has a 437,000 bpd refinery in Rotterdam,
a 181,900 bpd unit at Ingolstadt, West Germany, a 181,900 bpd
plant at Lavera in France and a smaller Swedish plant.
He said the explosion and fire, in which one worker was
killed, occurred when the hydrocracker was not in operation.
The refinery as a whole had been operating at about half of
its capacity since the end of January while an extensive
overhaul was carried out on the North Side of the complex where
the hydrocracker is sited, he said.
This work was scheduled to be completed by mid-April, but
this is now being assessed following the hydrocracker accident.
Two people were killed in an explosion and fire in a flare
line at the Grangemouth refinery on March 13, but the spokesman
said this incident was some 100 yards from the latest accident.
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China's top leader Deng Xiaoping said
China must not import more than 10 mln tonnes of grain, Ming
Pao newspaper of Hong Kong said.
Customs figures show that China imported 7.73 mln tonnes of
grain in 1986, up from 5.97 mln in 1985 but down from a record
16.15 mln in 1982.
The newspaper quoted Deng as saying that grain output is
one of several key issues that will influence the whole
development of the economy. It did not give the context of his
remarks. The 1987 grain production target is 405 mln, up from
391 mln in 1986.
The newspaper quoted Deng as saying that the situation has
reached the point where "pigs are not fed, there is not enough
grain and increases in output have slowed."
"We should in our overall economic planning put agriculture
in its proper place to reach our target of 480 mln tonnes by
the year 2000," he said. "We must avoid the situation in recent
years of importing more than 10 mln tonnes of grain."
The paper quoted Deng as saying that the State Council has
decided to raise the price of five grains, including corn and
rice, unchanged since 1978, but it gave no details.
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Woolworths Ltd <WLWA.S> said policy,
management and financial changes initiated during the 1986/87
business year should cause profits to reach more acceptable
levels in 1987/88 end-February 1.
Net profit reported earlier fell 85.3 pct in the year ended
February 1.
Results for the first month of the new year were
encouraging after a period of uncertain consumer confidence and
difficult trading conditions, it said in a statement.
The Big W discount store division and New South Wales
supermarkets produced very disappointing results, it added.
Woolworths earlier reported a fall in net profit to 9.27
mln from 63.20 mln on sales of 5.47 billion against 4.83
billion. Capital spending for the year was 119 mln dlrs against
105 mln for the previous year with 50 new stores opened, but
total sales were below target, Woolworths said.
The company provided 20 mln dlrs against operating profit
for the year to cover mark-downs on stock.
Extraordinary items included a 53 mln dlr profit on the
sale of properties and investments less a 28 mln provision for
reorganising the Big W chain.
Woolworths is unrelated to the U.S. Group F.W. Woolworth
<Z.N>. It has been the subject of takeover speculation since
<Industrial Equity Ltd> acquired a 20 pct stake last year.
New Zealand's diversified investment group <Rainbow Corp
Ltd> bought Safeway Stores Inc's <SA> 20 pct holding in
Woolworths for 190 mln dlrs late last year.
Safeway put its stake up for tender just in time to take
advantage of changes in U.S. Tax laws effective from the end of
December, informed sources said.
Woolworths shares closed on Australian stock exchanges
today at 3.50 dlrs, down five cents from Friday.
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Booker Plc <BOKL.L> said 1987 had
started well and the group had the resources to invest in its
growth business both organically and by acquisition.
It was commenting on figures for 1986 which showed pretax
profits rising to 54.6 mln from 46.5 mln previously. Profits
from the U.S. Accounted for 39 pct of the total. The results
were broadly in line with analysts' forecasts and the company's
shares firmed in morning trading to 421p from 413p at Friday's
close.
The group ended the year with a cash surplus higher at 54
mln stg, compared to 26 mln previously, after capital
expenditure which rose to 54 mln from 43 mln.
In a statement, the company said the U.K. Agribusiness
group reported excellent profits growth while health products
profits rose to 6.5 mln from 5.4 mln.
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Gross domestic product is expected to
grow by 4.4 pct in the year ending June 30, Finance Minister
Mohammad Syeduzzaman told reporters.
Inflation fell to an estimated 12 pct this fiscal year from
17 pct in 1981/82, he said last night.
The World Bank and other independent sources have said
inflation would be around 15 pct in 1986/87.
Syeduzzaman said remittances from expatriates would rise to
600 mln dlrs this year from 425 mln in 1981/82.
Foreign exchange reserves at end-June are projected at 680
mln dlrs compared with 105 mln in 1981/82, he said.
Syeduzzaman said the export target has been set at 900 mln
dlrs this year against 626 mln in 1981/82. Commitments for
foreign loans and grants total more than five billion dlrs in
1986/87, against 3.54 billion five years previously, he said.
The government's liberal industrial policy has attracted
investment commitments totalling 250 mln dlrs, he said
Foodgrain output is estimated at 16.4 mln tonnes this year,
up from 16.12 mln in 1985/86 and 14.4 mln in 1981/82.
Government officials have said Bangladesh must import
nearly two mln tonnes of grain annually up to 1990, when the
government expects to attain self-sufficiency in food.
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French sugar group Beghin-Say, which is
49.6 pct owned by Italy's Gruppo Ferruzzi, is to raise its
capital to 703 mln francs from 527 mln through a three-for-one
issue of shares and investment certificates to finance
expansion, president Jean-Marc Vernes told analysts.
For the first stage Beghin-Say will issue some 2.05 mln new
65 franc shares at 500 francs to increase capital to 660 mln
francs. The share currently trades at 734 francs. Then 658,000
new 65 franc investment certificates will be issued at 400
francs, raising capital to 703 mln francs.
The capital increase will bring the group around 1.2
billion francs in new funds to finance its expansion plans.
These include the possible acquisition of the Corn Products
maize starch plant at Haubourdin in northern France, Vernes
said.
Ferruzzi is one of several groups bidding to buy all of
Corn Products' installations in Europe. Apart from the French
plant, these include three factories in each of Italy and West
Germany, two in Britain and Spain and one in the Netherlands
and Denmark.
Corn Products has put a 650 mln dlr price tag on the
installations, and Beghin-Say estimates that acquisition of the
Haubourdin plant would cost between 80 and 100 mln dlrs, Vernes
said.
If this bid fails, Beghin-Say would consider acquiring and
developing two other French plants, either in the maize or
wheat starch sector.
Beghin-Say is also planning to finance European expansion
for its Kaysersberg subsidiary, another major reason for its
capital increase.
Kaysersberg, which was transformed from a division of
Beghin-Say into a fully-fledged chemical subsidiary last year,
has been holding talks with other European companies on
possible accords, Vernes said. He added the company could be
introduced onto the Paris Bourse in the near future.
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Iraq said its warplanes launched two
bombing raids on Iran's offshore Nowruz oilfield in the
northern Gulf today.
A military spokesman, quoted by the official Iraqi news
agency, said platforms at the field were reduced "to rubble."
He said attacks on the field, 55 miles northwest of Iran's
Kharg Island oil terminal, were carried out at 0600 GMT. He
said today's raids "fall within Iraq's policy to deprive Iranian
rulers of oil revenue used to serve their aggressive aims."
Iraqi planes yesterday raided the nearby Ardeshir oil
field, resuming attacks on Iranian targets after a month-long
lull.
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The Bank of France will not hold a money
market intervention tender today, ruling out a further cut in
its 7-3/4 pct intervention rate, central bank sources said.
At the tenders, depending on market conditions, the Bank
injects liquidity into the market by buying up first category
paper. But market sources said that while the recent franc
performance leaves room for a further quarter point cut in the
intervention rate there was plenty of market liquidity.
The Bank cut its rate to 7-3/4 pct from eight pct on March
9, the first change since January 2. Interest rates also fell
the same week in Britain, Belgium and Italy.
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<ZAMBIA COPPER INVESTMENTS LTD> JOHANNESBURG, March 23
-Halfyear ended december 31
Shr net 53 U.S. Cents vs loss 3.67
Pre-tax 677,000 dlrs vs 857,000
Net earnings 646,000 vs loss 4.50 mln
Foreign tax gain 31,000 vs 30,000
Extraordinary items nil vs loss 5.33 mln period
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French gross domestic product should grow
by 2.3 pct in 1988 after two pct growth this year and 2.1 pct
in 1986, the Finance Ministry said.
The latest forecast, prepared by the National Accounts and
Budget Commission, assumed an exchange rate of 6.20 francs to
the dollar this year and next and an average oil import price
rising to 18.9 dlrs a barrel next year from 17.4 dlrs this year
and 14.7 in 1986.
The Commission, headed by Finance minister Edouard
Balladur, forecast a fall in consumer price inflation to two
pct year-on-year at end-1988 from 2.4 pct at end 1987 and 2.1
pct last year.
In annual average terms inflation would fall to two pct in
1988 from 2.5 pct this year and 2.7 pct last year, it said.
Trade should show a one billion franc annual surplus this
year and next after last year's 0.5 billion surplus, it added.
Employment should rise by 0.1 pct a year over the next two
years while the state budget deficit should be cut to 2.2 pct
of GDP in 1988 from 2.6 pct this year and 2.9 pct in 1986.
Other forecasts prepared by the Commission indicated a 1.8
pct 1988 rise in household purchasing power, up from 1.1 pct
this year but less than last year's 2.9 pct, and a 1.6 pct rise
in household consumption, compared with this year's 1.5 pct and
last year's 2.9 pct.
Business investment is forecast to rise four pct a year
this year and next after 3.7 pct last year, with private sector
productive investment rising 4.9 pct in 1988 after a six pct
rise this year and 5.5 pct in 1986.
The Ministry said updated forecasts would be prepared
before the autumn to serve as the basis for the 1988 budget,
which the government is now preparing for presentation in
September.
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Denmark's balance of payments on
current account was provisionally put at zero in February,
against a 181 mln crown surplus in January and a 1.5 billion
deficit in February 1986, the National Statistics Office said.
Exports rose to 13.94 billion crowns in February from 12.53
billion in January, against 14.16 billion in February last
year. February imports rose to 13.94 billion from 12.35 billion
in January, against 15.67 billion in February 1986.
The February figure provisionally gives a trade surplus for
1987 of 180 mln crowns, against a 3.04 billion deficit in the
same 1986 period.
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A Dresdner Bank AG <DRSD.F> spokesman
said the bank had no comment on newspaper reports that
shareholders would be offered free subscription shares.
Dresdner shares surged to open 10.50 marks higher at
319.50, before climbing further. Other bank stocks also rose
strongly and dealers cited speculation already in the market
that Deutsche Bank AG <DBKG.F> would make a similar move. Such
"scrip" issues, if they occurred, would mark the first time
German banks had ever issued free shares.
The varying reports said Dresdner shareholders may be
offered one free share for every 15, 18 or 20 already held.
REUTER
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Australian wheat plantings are
forecast to fall to 10.40 mln hectares in 1987/88 from 11.72
mln sown in 1986/87, Australian Wheat Forecasters Pty Ltd (AWF)
said in its first preliminary crop forecast.
But there was no reason to expect Australian production in
1987/88 would be less than the 16.5 mln tonnes of last year,
the private forecaster said, as crops in New South Wales and
Queensland suffered from poor yields last season.
Most of the fall in plantings was expected in Western
Australia while state average yields would be assisted by
growers sowing wheat on fallows and rest paddocks, it said.
The main reason for a low Western Australia estimate was a
poor profit outlook under cost, credit and yield pressures. But
in the eastern states the wheat area should hold up provided
that rainfall between now and June is not less than average,
AWF said.
Although some farmers were saying they intended to cut back
wheat area by 20 pct, AWF said this was unlikely since they
needed cash flow and there were problems with alternative
crops.
"The lack of statutory marketing for oilseeds, pulses and
oats is a cause for concern if those crops are to comprise a
high proportion of growers' income," AWF said.
AWF's state area forecasts in mln hectares, with 1986/87
production in mln tonnes, are as follows (crop forecasts were
not given for the new wheat year)
Area Crop
1987/88 1986/87 1986/87
Queensland 0.82 0.82 0.95
N.S.W. 3.07 3.17 4.40
Victoria 1.53 1.63 3.25
S.Australia 1.45 1.64 2.30
W.Australia 3.53 4.46 5.60
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The Bank of England said it revised down
its forecast of the deficit in the money market today to 750
mln stg from 800 mln.
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Japan's long-term banks will soon cut
their prime rate, now at a record low 5.5 pct, by 0.2 or 0.3
percentage point in response to falling secondary market yields
on their five-year debentures, long-term bankers said.
The long-term prime rate is customarily set 0.9 percentage
point above the coupon on five-year bank debentures issued by
the long-term banks every month.
The latest bank debentures, at 4.6 pct, have met strong
end-investor demand on the prospect of further declines in yen
interest rates, dealers said. The current 5.5 pct prime rate
has been in effect since February 28.
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The United States and Japan
are on the brink of serious conflict on trade, especially over
semiconductors, Japanese unwillingness for public bodies to buy
U.S. Super-computers, and barriers to U.S. Firms seeking to
participate in the eight billion dlr Kansai airport project,
U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter said.
He was talking to reporters yesterday on the eve of a
two-day meeting of trade ministers which will review progress
made by committees set up after the Uruguay meeting last
September launched a new round of GATT (General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade) talks.
European Community (EC) commissioner Willy de Clercq
meanwhile told reporters conflict between the world's three
major trading and economic powers -- the EC, the U.S. And Japan
-- set a poor example for other members of GATT.
Australian Trade Minister John Dawkins told the reporters
bilateral retaliation at the enormous expense of the rest of
the world was no way to solve trade disputes.
New Zealand trade minister Mike Moore told his colleagues
great progress had been made in preparing for the current round
of GATT negotiations which must not be sidetracked.
The ministers have said they want to maintain the momentum
towards fresh negotiations or avert serious trade conflicts.
Yeutter said the problem with international trade talks was
that they tended to get bogged down for years. "Countries don't
get very serious about negotiating until the end of the day
which is, maybe, five or six years in the future."
He also said he did not consider the new U.S. Congress as
protectionist as it was 18 months ago. "That's a very healthy
development," he added."If you asked me about that a year or 18
months ago I would have said that it was terribly
protectionist."
"Members of Congress, that is the contemplative members of
Congress, have begun to realise protectionism is not the answer
to the 170 billion dlr trade deficit," Yeutter said.
"They've also begun to realise that you cannot legislate
solutions to a 170 billion dollar trade deficit so they are
more realistic and, in my judgement, more responsible on that
issue than they were 12 or 18 months ago."
He added, "Whether that will be reflected in the legislation
that eventually emerges is another matter."
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Iran said reports that it intended to
threaten shipping in the Gulf were baseless, and warned the
U.S. And other countries not to interfere in the region.
Tehran radio, monitored by the BBC, quoted a Foreign
Ministry spokesman as saying any attempt at interference would
be met by "a strong response from Iran and other Moslems in the
world."
U.S. Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger, in remarks
apparently unrelated to the broadcast, said the U.S. Would do
whatever was necessary to keep shipping lanes open in the face
of new Iranian anti-ship missiles in the Gulf.
The U.S. State Department said two days ago Tehran had been
told of U.S. Concern that Iranian anti-ship missiles posed a
threat to the free flow of oil from the Gulf.
U.S. Officials have said Iran has new Chinese-made
anti-ship "Silkworm" missiles, which pose a greater threat to
merchant ships than missiles used before.
The Iranian spokesman said the reports that Iran intended
to attack ships were "misleading propaganda."
He said Iraq's President Saddam Hussein was the main cause
of tension in the Gulf and said Iran would continue to use "all
its legitimate means to stem the cause of tension."
Weinberger said in a television interview in the U.S. "We
are fully prepared to do what's necessary to keep the shipping
going and keep the freedom of navigation available in that very
vital waterway."
"We aren't going into any disclosures or discussions of what
might happen, but we are certainly very sympathetic to and
listening carefully to any suggestions for our assistance in
keeping navigation free in that area," he said.
Weinberger said U.S warship movements in the Gulf area were
not unusual.
A U.S. Navy battle group led by the aircraft carrier Kitty
Hawk is currently in the northern Arabian Sea.
The Iranian spokesman was quoted by Tehran radio as saying
the U.S. Was trying to build up its military presence in the
region.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker
again said the meeting of six major industrial nations in Paris
last month did not establish a target exchange rate for the
dollar.
Baker said in a television interview aired here yesterday:
"We don't have a target for the dollar." He declined to comment
on what might be a desired level for the dollar, saying: "We
really don't talk about the dollar."
He said protectionism was becoming "extremely strong" in the
U.S. In response to widening U.S. Trade deficits and import
barriers in other countries.
"The mood in the United States is extremely disturbing. It's
extremely strong," he said.
"As I've said before, we sort of see ourselves as engaged
here in a real struggle to preserve the world's free trading
system, because if the largest market in the world (the U.S.)
goes protectionist we run the risk of moving down the same path
that the world did in the late 1930s," he said.
While relative exchange rates had a role to play in
defusing the threat of protectionism, it alone did not offer
any solution, he said.
"You must address this problem on the exchange rate side,
but it cannot be solved on the exchange rate side alone. It's
far more comprehensive and broad than that, and the solution of
it requires a comprehensive approach," Baker said in the
interview.
Baker said it would be necessary for other countries to
adjust their currencies upwards, as well as remove their
barriers to U.S. Imports. But he did not elaborate or name any
countries.
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The Bank of England said it provided the
money market with help of 97 mln stg in the morning session.
This compares with the Bank's revised estimate of a 750 mln
stg shortage in the system today.
The central bank bought bank bills outright comprising 12
mln stg in band one at 9-7/8 pct and 85 mln stg in band two at
9-13/16 pct.
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The Iranian steam tanker Avaj, 316,379
tonnes dw, was attacked and hit at 1715 hours on March 21,
Lloyds Shipping Intelligence service reported.
One person was killed. The tanker is owned by the National
Iranian Tanker Co.
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Ministers from more than 20
nations were told by New Zealand that the next international
negotiations on liberalising trade would be the last this
century and the cost of failure could not be measured.
Trade minister Mike Moore told his colleagues at a
welcoming ceremony before two days of talks here that great
progress had been made in preparing for the negotiations which
must not be sidetracked.
"We live in troubled and dangerous times for the world
trading system," he said.
"We have seen that the failure of the world trading system
has caused great depression and conflict in the past. Our
failure to maintain the momentum will be at great cost to us
all," Moore said.
"The cost of failure is beyond calculation. It is our last
hope and best opportunity this century. We will not get another
chance before the year 2000," he added.
The ministers are in New Zealand to review world trade
since the "Uruguay round" talks last September. The talks are
also part of preparations for a full-scale June meeting of the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in Venice.
The Uruguay meeting is considered by most countries to have
been particularly successful, with northern hemisphere
countries managing to have service industries such as banking
and insurance included in the next full round.
The southerners' goal of including agricultural and
tropical products also was met.
The meeting at this North Island tourist resort is
described by participants as informal and no declaration is
expected.
Moore said one aim was to "instil a sense of political
urgency to avert potential economic tragedy."
Another was to seek ways of popularising freer trade to
people who felt the pain of readjustment but could not see the
benefits, as well as preventing "bush fires of confrontation
while we proceed with orderly negotiations."
The meeting is being attended by 25 overseas delegations
including representatives of GATT and the Economic Community.
The delegates include U.S. Trade Representative Clayton
Yeutter.
American sources say he is ready to state that the best way
to reverse protectionist sentiment in the United States is to
implement four key Uruguay proposals:
-- an end to agricultural subsidies;
-- inclusion of trade in services and investments in GATT
regulations;
-- tightening of restrictions on pirating of so-called
intellectual property such as trademarks, patents and
copyrights;
-- new rules to resolve trade disputes among GATT's 92
member states.
Earlier, New Zealand sources had said French Foreign Trade
Minister Michel Noir had pulled out of the informal GATT talks
for domestic political reasons.
Cabinet chief Bernard Prauge will lead the French
delegation.
Reuter
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Sight deposits of commercial banks at
the Swiss National Bank rose 743.7 mln Swiss francs in the
second 10 days of March to 8.40 billion, the National Bank
said.
Foreign exchange reserves fell 392.1 mln francs to 33.55
billion.
Sight deposits are a major indicator of money market
liquidity in Switzerland.
REUTER
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Uganda's state-run Coffee Marketing
Board (CMB) has been suffering a cash crisis for the past two
months due to a bottleneck in export shipments and
administrative delays in handling payments, trade sources said.
The CMB needs between 10 and 15 billion shillings (the
equivalent of seven to 10 mln dlrs) to pay farmers and
processors for coffee already delivered, but its present export
revenue is insufficient to cover such expenditure, they said.
The board's cash crisis has serious implications for the
economy as a whole, since coffee accounts for 95 pct of
Uganda's total exports.
The CMB's financial difficulties first started in January
following delays in rail-freighting export consignments of
coffee to the ports of Mombasa, Dar es Salaam and Tanga.
These delays were caused by a shortage of railway wagons in
Uganda and bottlenecks on the ferries which transport Ugandan
wagons across Lake Victoria to link up with the Kenyan and
Tanzanian railway systems, the sources said
Marketing Minister John Sebaana-Kizito publicly
acknowledged on February 19 that the CMB had run up arrears to
local suppliers as a result of the shortage of transport for
moving exports.
Sebaana-Kizito said at the time that the payments squeeze
would be resolved in two weeks.
However, an accident to the rail ferry which plies between
the Ugandan lake port of Jinja and Kisumu in Kenya put it out
of action between February 21 and March 15, causing fresh
delays in cargo movements.
Coffee exports are especially sensitive to the disruption
of rail transport since president Yoweri Museveni has banned
their haulage by road in a drive to save transport costs.
Transport difficulties meant that by early February the CMB
was holding unsold coffee stocks of around 750,000 bags.
These stocks were equivalent to one quarter of Uganda's
expected three mln 60-kilo bag 1986/87 (October-September)
crop, the sources said.
According to the sources, the board's financial problems
have been aggravated by long delays in processing export
receipts.
The coffee board was taking about eight weeks to recycle
export receipts into payments to local producers, whereas
export bills handled by local banks took half that time to
process, they said.
The sources said the CMB's price structure had been
overtaken by Uganda's high inflation rate, unofficially
estimated at about 200 pct, and that this was a further
disincentive to producers, already owed large arrears.
"The coffee pricing structure is wrong and three months
behind, the foreign exchange rate is unrealistic, and the
sooner the so-called economic package is put in top gear, the
better for the coffee industry and the economy as a whole," one
of the sources said.
The government is currently negotiating a package of
economic reforms with the World Bank and International Monetary
Fund aimed at underpinning a renewed inflow of foreign aid to
help Uganda's economic recovery after 15 years of political
strife.
REUTER
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General Partners, the group tendering
for all GenCorp Inc shares at 100 dlrs each, said it has
started soliciting proxies against GenCorp's proposals to
increase its number of authorized shares outstanding, create a
board with staggered election dates and eliminate cumulative
voting.
The proposals are to be voted on at the March 31 annual
meeting.
General Partners, a partnership of privately-held <Wagner
and Brown> and AFG Industries Inc <AFG>, made the disclosure in
a newspaper advertisement.
The partnership has already filed suit in U.S. District
Court in Columbus, Ohio, seeking to block a vote on the
proposals and to invalidate GenCorp's defensive preferred share
purchase rights.
General Partners asked shareholders to either vote against
the proposals or abstain from voting on them.
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USAir Group Inc said it has amended
its 69 dlr per share tender offer for shares of Piedmont
Aviation Inc to reduce the maximum number it will accept to
9,309,394. Previously it had sought all shares.
In a newspaper advertisement, USAir said the offer and
withdrawal rights have not been extended and will still expire
April 3, along with the new proration period.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Transportation approved
USAir's acquisition of 51 pct of Piedmont. If USAir were to
acquire more than 51 pct in the tender, it would be required to
sell the excess within one week.
USAir said receipt of the 9,309,394 shares -- which is also
the minimum amount it will accept -- would give it a total of
about 61 pct of Piedmont shares currently outstanding and 50.1
pct on a fully diluted basis.
The company said even if the purchase of the 9,309,394
Piedmont shares caused it to exceed the 51 pct limit, USAir
would waive the condition to the offer that the Transportation
Department approve a voting trust agreement permitting USAir to
buy and hold shares under the offer pending review of USAir's
application to gain control of Piedmont, subject to the order
not being rescinded or modified in an adverse way.
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The sharp drop in world oil prices
the past year triggered a 60 pct increase in bankruptcies in
the country's oil states, according to a study released by the
American Petroleum Institute (API).
API said the Dunn and Bradstreet study found that business
failures rose nationally by 6.9 pct in 1986 over 1985, but in
the "oil patch" of the Southwest the increase was 59.9 pct.
It said bankruptcies in Texas were up 57.4 pct, Oklahoma,
55.9 pct, Colorado, 55.8 pct and Louisiana, 46.6 pct.
In Alaska, failures rose by 66.2 per cent, it said.
API also said that three of the states with the highest
number of bank failures last year were large oil and gas
producers - Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.
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The world's dependency on the Mideast
as the source for its petroleum is growing and nothing is going
to stop it, Donald K. McIvor, an Exxon Corp <XON> Director and
senior vice president told Reuters in an interview.
"Non-OPEC production will begin to decline and the gap
between demand and supply will widen so that the trend to
increasing dependence on OPEC and the Middle East is
inevitable," McIvor said.
Decreased supplies will firm prices for crude oil but are
not likely to change a growing dependence, McIvor said.
McIvor, Exxon's senior vice president responsible for oil
and gas exploration and production said that dependence would
result from the Mideast's large spare capacity at a time when
the rest of the world consumes more oil than it was finding.
"Since 1970 we've been consuming oil at rates of 20-25
billion barrels per year while making new discoveries of only
about 10-15 bilion barrels per year," McIvor said.
"The bulk of the inventory and more than half of the
remaining proved reserves lies in the middle east which is
producing at much less than current capacity," he added.
McIvor said that of the some 30,000 oil fields discovered
so far only 37 "one-one thousandth of the total number contained
about 35 pct of all the oil ever discovered."
McIvor said, in response to a question, that he did not
believe there were any more "super giants", or oil fields with
reserves greater than five billion barrels, to be found which
would change the conclusion of the world's growing dependency.
"Of those 37 super giants only 11 lie outside the Middle
East. Only five of the 37 have been discovered in the past 20
years and only two of these lie outside the middle east
(Cantarell in Mexico and Alaska's North Slope)." McIvor said.
McIvor said that many of the large fields outside the U.S.
like Alaska's Prudhoe Bay and the North Sea were reaching a
peak and would soon begin to decline.
But the Exxon executive said that there were still plenty
of opportunities to be explored and developed outside of the
Middle east, particulartly in Canada, the North Sea, and
Australia and Africa.
McIvor said that decisions to explore and drill in those
areas would be depedent upon both the expectations of a higher
price of oil as well as the legal regime affecting the
companies.
"The ideal regime is a stable one not one where there is a
constant change in policies," McIvor said.
McIvor said he opposed import subsidies or tariffs used to
increase exploration as these only benefit one part of the
economy at the expense of other parts of the economy.
Asked about the options offered this week by U.S. Energy
Secretary Herrington to increase U.S. production McIvor said he
could not comment on subjects like the oil depletion allowance
now but "the thrust of his (Herrington) report is valid. It has
highlighted the growing dependency on the Middle east and the
need to increase U.S. production."
McIvor also said that he expected natural gas to play a
greater role in the future in meeting energy needs.
"Natural gas will have the opportunity to become an
increasingly important part of the worlkd's energy supply,"
McIvor said.
"Crude oil will be used more and more as a transportation
fuel and natural gas will be used more to generate heat, as an
industrial fuel," he added.
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