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May 2 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp:
* SAYS APRIL CHINA VEHICLE SALES +9 PERCENT Y/Y TO 117,900 UNITS, VERSUS +5.4 PERCENT IN MARCH
* SAYS JAN-APRIL CHINA VEHICLE SALES +9 PERCENT Y/Y TO 439,800 UNITS, VERSUS +3.1 PERCENT A YEAR EARLIER Further company coverage: (Reporting by Hong Kong newsroom)
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-toyotas-april-china-vehicle-sales/brief-toyotas-april-china-vehicle-sales-up-9-pct-y-y-idUSB9N1S000H |
May 24, 2018 / 9:32 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Tennis-Briton Norrie upsets second seed Isner to reach Lyon semis Reuters Staff 2 Min Read
May 24 (Reuters) - Britain’s Cameron Norrie beat second seed John Isner 7-6(1) 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the Lyon Open on Thursday to record his first victory over a player in the ATP top 10.
The 22-year-old saved all four break points he faced against the big-serving American, who is ranked 10th in the world, to set up a semi-final with Gilles Simon after the Frenchman battled past Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin 4-6 6-4 7-6(5).
“I’m so stoked with my performance today,” Norrie said. “In the past I haven’t been so good at playing guys with big serves.
“I remember watching Isner when I was younger. He was a big idol of mine. It’s crazy to be competing against guys like that now.”
The win means Norrie will break into the top 100 when the latest ATP rankings are released next week.
Simon struck 11 aces as he edged Kukushkin in two hours and 37 minutes.
Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic beat American Taylor Fritz in 7-5 6-1 but will only discover his semi-final opponent on Friday after top seed Dominic Thiem’s quarter-final with Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez was suspended due to darkness.
Thiem, the only seed left in the draw, lost the first set tiebreak 7-6(4) but bounced back to win the second 7-6(0) in another tiebreak and level the match before play was suspended. (Reporting Editing by Ken Ferris) | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/tennis-lyon-men/tennis-briton-norrie-upsets-second-seed-isner-to-reach-lyon-semis-idUKL3N1SV6A0 |
May 2 (Reuters) -
* AMERICAN AIRLINES GROUP NEARING AN ORDER FOR ABOUT 15 REGIONAL JETS FROM BOMBARDIER WITH OPTIONS TO BUY MORE - BLOOMBERG, CITING SOURCES
* SALE WOULD HAVE A LIST VALUE OF ABOUT $700 MILLION BEFORE CUSTOMARY DISCOUNTS FOR AIRCRAFT PURCHASES - BLOOMBERG, CITING SOURCES Source: bloom.bg/2jonmj3 Further company coverage:
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-american-airlines-nearing-order-fo/brief-american-airlines-nearing-order-for-about-15-regional-jets-from-bombardier-with-options-to-buy-more-bloomberg-idUSFWN1S915W |
May 18, 2018 / 8:08 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Super League Fixtures Reuters Staff 1 Min Read May 18 (OPTA) - Super League fixtures for this weekend Saturday, May 19 fixtures (GMT) Widnes v St Helens (13:00) Wigan v Warrington (15:15) Castleford v Leeds (17:30) Sunday, May 20 fixtures (GMT) Salford v Catalans (11:00) Wakefield v Huddersfield (13:15) Hull Kingston Rovers v Hull (15:30) | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/rugbyleague-super-fixtures/super-league-fixtures-idUKMTZXEE5IWZSK58 |
Record Operating Revenues of $260.2 million, up 33%
Record Net Income of $22.7 million, up 106%
EPS of $1.18 per share, ROE of 19.9%
NEW YORK, May 08, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- INTL FCStone Inc. (the ‘Company’) (NASDAQ:INTL), a diversified global financial services organization providing execution, risk management and advisory services, market intelligence and clearing services across asset classes and markets around the world, today announced its financial results for the fiscal year 2018 second quarter ended March 31, 2018.
Sean M. O’Connor, CEO of INTL FCStone Inc., stated, “The return of volatility in some of our markets combined with higher short term interest rates created a favorable operating environment for us, resulting in both record operating revenues and net income, with an annualized ROE of nearly 20%. All of our segments increased profitability over the prior year led by record performance in both our Commercial Hedging and CES segments, up 48% and 61%, respectively, versus the prior year quarter.”
“We believe our year to date core earnings validate our goals of expanding our clearing and execution platform across nearly all markets and asset classes while focusing on growing our customer base.”
INTL FCStone Inc. Summary Financials
Condensed consolidated financial statements for the Company will be included in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q to be filed with the SEC. The Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q will also be made available on the Company’s website at www.intlfcstone.com .
Three Months Ended March 31, Six Months Ended March 31, (Unaudited) (in millions, except share and per share amounts) 2018 2017 %
Change 2018 2017 %
Change Revenues: Sales of physical commodities $ 6,255.8 $ 5,273.3 19 % $ 13,970.2 $ 11,169.3 25 % Trading gains, net 107.7 84.0 28 % 193.5 167.0 16 % Commission and clearing fees 97.2 70.3 38 % 175.0 139.5 25 % Consulting, management, and account fees 18.3 15.5 18 % 34.9 31.2 12 % Interest income 27.9 17.7 58 % 51.9 28.1 85 % Other income 0.1 — n/m 0.1 0.1 — % Total revenues 6,507.0 5,460.8 19 % 14,425.6 11,535.2 25 % Cost of sales of physical commodities 6,246.8 5,265.0 19 % 13,952.8 11,153.9 25 % Operating revenues 260.2 195.8 33 % 472.8 381.3 24 % Transaction-based clearing expenses 50.7 33.7 50 % 87.6 67.3 30 % Introducing broker commissions 36.2 28.2 28 % 67.3 56.9 18 % Interest expense 19.0 10.0 90 % 33.3 18.9 76 % Net operating revenues 154.3 123.9 25 % 284.6 238.2 19 % Compensation and other expenses: Compensation and benefits 88.2 76.6 15 % 165.4 147.2 12 % Trade systems and market information 8.9 8.5 5 % 17.1 17.4 (2 )% Occupancy and equipment rental 4.2 3.8 11 % 8.3 7.2 15 % Professional fees 3.9 3.4 15 % 8.6 8.2 5 % Travel and business development 3.0 3.0 — % 6.5 6.6 (2 )% Non-trading technology and support 3.4 2.8 21 % 6.5 5.7 14 % Depreciation and amortization 2.9 2.4 21 % 5.6 4.8 17 % Communications 1.4 1.2 17 % 2.8 2.4 17 % Bad debts 0.2 1.3 (85 )% 1.3 3.8 (66 )% Other 8.7 6.6 32 % 14.4 12.2 18 % Total compensation and other expenses 124.8 109.6 14 % 236.5 215.5 10 % Income before tax 29.5 14.3 106 % 48.1 22.7 112 % Income tax expense 6.8 3.3 106 % 32.3 5.4 498 % Net income $ 22.7 $ 11.0 106 % $ 15.8 $ 17.3 (9 )% Earnings per share: Basic $ 1.20 $ 0.58 107 % $ 0.83 $ 0.92 (10 )% Diluted $ 1.18 $ 0.58 103 % $ 0.81 $ 0.92 (12 )% Weighted-average number of common shares outstanding: Basic 18,559,849 18,404,236 1 % 18,502,795 18,325,383 1 % Diluted 18,859,333 18,661,418 1 % 18,836,213 18,637,480 1 % Impact of Tax Reform and Bad Debt on Physical Coal, Net of Incentive Recapture
The table below presents income (loss) before tax, income tax expense, net income (loss), diluted earnings (loss) per share and return (loss) on average stockholders’ equity as reported, on a GAAP basis. The table below also presents adjusted income before tax, adjusted income tax expense, adjusted net income, adjusted diluted earnings per share and adjusted return on average stockholders’ equity, which are non-GAAP measures. The “adjusted” non-GAAP amounts reflect each item after removing the impacts of H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“Tax Reform”) and the bad debt on physical coal, net of incentive recapture for the last six fiscal quarters. Management believes that presenting our results excluding Tax Reform and the bad debt on physical coal, net of incentive recapture is meaningful, as it increases the comparability of period-to-period results.
Three Months Ended (in millions) March 31, 2018 December 31, 2017 September 30, 2017 June 30, 2017 March 31, 2017 December 31, 2016 As reported, GAAP: Income (loss) before tax $ 29.5 $ 18.6 $ (22.5) $ 15.0 $ 14.3 $ 8.4 Income tax expense (6.8) (25.5) (1.1) (2.3) (3.3) (2.1) Net (loss) income $ 22.7 $ (6.9) $ (23.6) $ 12.7 $ 11.0 $ 6.3 Diluted (loss) earnings per share $ 1.18 $ (0.37) $ (1.27) $ 0.66 $ 0.58 $ 0.34 Return (loss) on average stockholders’ equity 19.9% (6.2)% (20.5)% 10.9% 9.8% 5.8% Adjusted (non-GAAP) (a): Adjusted income before tax $ 29.5 $ 19.6 $ 20.2 $ 15.0 $ 14.3 $ 8.4 Adjusted income tax expense (7.6) (4.6) (4.4) (2.3) (3.3) (2.1) Adjusted net income $ 21.9 $ 15.0 $ 15.8 $ 12.7 $ 11.0 $ 6.3 Adjusted diluted earnings per share $ 1.15 $ 0.78 $ 0.83 $ 0.66 $ 0.58 $ 0.34 Adjusted return on average stockholders’ equity 17.0% 12.1% 13.2% 10.9% 9.8% 5.8% (a) Adjusted income before tax, adjusted income tax expense, adjusted net income, adjusted diluted earnings per share and adjusted return on average stockholders’ equity are non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation between the GAAP and non-GAAP amounts listed above is provided in Appendix A.
Interest Income/Expense
Overall interest income increased $10.2 million to $27.9 million in the second quarter, as a result of an increase in short term interest rates, as well as increased activity in our domestic institutional fixed income and securities lending businesses. Average customer equity in the Financial Ag & Energy and Exchange-traded Futures & Options components of our Commercial Hedging and Clearing and Execution Services (“CES”) segments was $2.1 billion, increasing 3% in the second quarter compared to the prior year, which combined with an increase in short-term interest rates resulted in an aggregate $3.3 million increase in interest income in these businesses. Our domestic institutional fixed income business had an increase in interest income of $2.3 million in the second quarter over the prior year. In addition, interest income increased $3.7 million from securities lending started up during fiscal 2017 in our Equity Market-Making business.
We currently maintain U.S. Treasury bills, interest earning cash deposits with banks, clearing organizations and counterparties as part of our interest rate management strategy.
Interest expense increased 90% to $19.0 million in the second quarter compared to $10.0 million in the prior year. The increase in expense is primarily related to the trading activities of our institutional dealer in fixed income securities, which resulted in higher interest expense of $4.3 million. Also, an increase in short-term rates resulted in higher costs in our Exchange-traded Futures & Options component, as well as higher costs related to our securities lending business started up during fiscal 2017 in our Equity Market-Making business. Additionally, higher average borrowings outstanding on the credit facility available for our physical commodity financing resulted in increased expense.
Non-interest Expenses and Key Operating Metrics
The following table reflects a breakout of total non-interest expenses by variable and non-variable components, which is used by management in evaluating our non-interest expenses, for the periods indicated.
Three Months Ended March 31, Six Months Ended March 31, (in millions) 2018 2017 % Change 2018 2017 % Change Variable compensation and benefits $ 46.2 $ 36.2 28% $ 83.1 $ 70.7 18% Transaction-based clearing expenses 50.7 33.7 50% 87.6 67.3 30% Introducing broker commissions 36.2 28.2 28% 67.3 56.9 18% Total variable expenses 133.1 98.1 36% 238.0 194.9 22% Fixed compensation and benefits 42.0 40.4 4% 82.3 76.5 8% Other fixed expenses 36.4 31.7 15% 69.8 64.5 8% Bad debts 0.2 1.3 (85)% 1.3 3.8 (66)% Total non-variable expenses 78.6 73.4 7% 153.4 144.8 6% Total non-interest expenses $ 211.7 $ 171.5 23% $ 391.4 $ 339.7 15% The following table reflects key operating metrics used by management in evaluating our product lines, for the periods indicated.
Three Months Ended March 31, Six Months Ended March 31, 2018 2017 % Change 2018 2017 % Change Volumes and Other Data: Exchange-traded - futures and options (contracts, 000’s) 36,696.0 25,460.0 44% 62,558.2 49,572.7 26% OTC (contracts, 000’s) 410.5 350.8 17% 738.3 652.7 13% Global Payments (# of payments, 000’s) 153.0 153.7 —% 309.3 300.3 3% Gold equivalent ounces traded (000’s) 54,999.0 27,239.4 102% 88,502.1 51,568.6 72% Equity Market-Making (gross dollar volume, millions) $ 32,010.2 $ 23,631.3 35% $ 56,744.5 $ 45,986.6 23% Debt Trading (gross dollar volume, millions) $ 28,459.1 $ 37,429.2 (24)% $ 61,692.8 $ 70,474.8 (12)% FX Prime Brokerage volume (U.S. notional, millions) $ 122,869.1 $ 171,593.1 (28)% $ 237,171.0 $ 341,465.7 (31)% Average assets under management in Argentina (U.S. dollar, millions) $ 469.8 $ 548.9 (14)% $ 471.7 $ 529.4 (11)% Average customer equity - futures and options (millions) $ 2,070.9 $ 2,015.6 3% $ 2,098.4 $ 2,046.9 3% Balance Sheet Summary
The following table below provides a summary of asset, liability, and stockholders’ equity information for the periods indicated.
(in millions, except for share and per share amounts) March 31, 2018 September 30, 2017 Summary asset information: Cash and cash equivalents $ 336.0 $ 314.9 Cash, securities and other assets segregated under federal and other regulations $ 1,251.4 $ 518.8 Securities purchased under agreements to resell $ 604.7 $ 406.6 Securities borrowed $ 519.9 $ 86.6 Deposits with and receivables from broker-dealers, clearing organizations and counterparties $ 1,914.1 $ 2,625.1 Receivables and notes receivable from customers, net $ 232.8 $ 243.3 Financial instruments owned, at fair value $ 1,889.7 $ 1,731.8 Physical commodities inventory $ 286.3 $ 124.8 Goodwill and intangible assets, net $ 57.1 $ 59.4 Other $ 111.7 $ 132.1 Summary liability and stockholders’ equity information: Payables to customers $ 3,231.6 $ 3,072.9 Payables to broker-dealers, clearing organizations and counterparties $ 79.7 $ 125.7 Payables to lenders under loans $ 340.5 $ 230.2 Accounts payable and other accrued liabilities $ 129.6 $ 135.6 Securities sold under agreements to repurchase $ 1,562.5 $ 1,393.1 Securities loaned $ 559.1 $ 111.1 Financial instruments sold, not yet purchased, at fair value $ 822.9 $ 717.6 Income taxes payable $ 11.2 $ 7.3 Stockholders’ equity $ 466.6 $ 449.9 Common stock outstanding - shares 18,860,717 18,733,286 Net asset value per share $ 24.74 $ 24.02 Segment Results
The following table reflects operating revenues by segment for the periods indicated.
Three Months Ended March 31, Six Months Ended March 31, (in millions) 2018 2017 % Change 2018 2017 % Change Segment operating revenues (loss) represented by: Commercial Hedging $ 78.3 $ 62.7 25 % $ 139.8 $ 120.2 16 % Global Payments 23.4 21.5 9 % 48.0 44.6 8 % Securities 55.5 37.9 46 % 98.5 75.3 31 % Physical Commodities 15.5 11.2 38 % 26.1 21.0 24 % Clearing and Execution Services 88.0 64.2 37 % 160.2 127.8 25 % Corporate unallocated (0.5) (1.7) (71)% 0.2 (7.6) n/m Operating revenues $ 260.2 $ 195.8 33 % $ 472.8 $ 381.3 24 % The following table reflects segment income by segment for the periods indicated.
Three Months Ended March 31, Six Months Ended March 31, (in millions) 2018 2017 % Change 2018 2017 % Change Segment income represented by: Commercial Hedging $ 27.6 $ 18.7 48 % $ 48.7 $ 34.1 43 % Global Payments 13.5 11.7 15 % 28.1 24.9 13 % Securities 12.8 11.7 9 % 23.8 24.6 (3)% Physical Commodities 5.6 3.9 44 % 6.7 6.9 (3)% Clearing and Execution Services 12.7 7.9 61 % 23.2 13.6 71 % Total segment income $ 72.2 $ 53.9 34 % $ 130.5 $ 104.1 25 % Reconciliation of segment income to income before tax: Segment income $ 72.2 $ 53.9 34 % $ 130.5 $ 104.1 25 % Net costs not allocated to operating segments 42.7 39.6 8 % 82.4 81.4 1 % Income before tax $ 29.5 $ 14.3 106 % $ 48.1 $ 22.7 112 % Commercial Hedging
In our Commercial Hedging segment, we provide risk management consulting services in which we assist our customers in the execution of their hedging strategies through a wide range of products from listed exchange-traded futures and options on futures contracts, to basic over-the-counter (“OTC”) instruments that offer greater flexibility and structured OTC products designed for customized solutions. These services span virtually all traded commodity markets, with the largest concentrations in agricultural and energy commodities (consisting primarily of grains, energy and renewable fuels, coffee, sugar, cotton, and food service) and base metals products listed on the LME.
Operating revenues increased 25% to a record $78.3 million in the second quarter compared to $62.7 million in the prior year. Exchange-traded revenues increased 18%, to $41.1 million in the second quarter, resulting primarily from an increase in agricultural market revenues driven by an increase in both volatility and underlying prices, particularly in the domestic grain markets. In addition, agricultural exchange-traded revenues benefited from increased activity from customers in both food service and dairy markets as well as soft commodities which were both driven by increased market volatility. Energy and renewable fuels customer volumes more than doubled versus the prior year as a result of increased activity from institutional customers in both our domestic and London offices. Uncertainty surrounding the effect of potential U.S. tariff’s on global metals markets drove volatility and activity in our LME metals business in the second quarter. Finally, reflected in the ‘Other” category above we saw an increase in exchange-traded revenues from omnibus relationships introduced by our commercial hedging employees in the second quarter. Overall exchange-traded contract volumes increased 23%, however the rate per contract declined 3% versus the prior year to $5.52, with the decline primarily as a result of the increase in activity from institutional customers and omnibus relationships which have a lower rate per contract than our commercial business.
OTC revenues increased 34%, to $28.0 million in the second quarter, driven by both a 17% increase in OTC volumes and a 16% increase in the average rate per contract compared to the prior year. These increases were driven by increases in agricultural commodities, primarily with Brazilian grain customers as well as increased activity in food service, dairy and cotton. These increases were offset by lower interest rate swap activity as well to a lesser extent lower energy and renewable fuels revenues.
Consulting, management, and account fees increased 11% compared to the prior year, while interest income, increased 50%, to $5.1 million compared to the prior year. The increase in interest income was primarily driven by an increase in short-term rates, as average customer equity declined 5% versus the prior year to $892.3 million in the second quarter.
Segment income increased to $27.6 million in the second quarter compared to $18.7 million in the prior year, primarily as a result of the increase in operating revenues and a $1.5 million decline in bad debt expense. The prior year period included $1.3 million bad debt expense in our LME metals business, while the current period includes a $0.2 million recovery on a previously recorded bad debt. This decline was partially offset by a $0.6 million increase in non-variable compensation and benefits. Variable expenses, excluding interest, expressed as a percentage of operating revenues increased to 42% compared to 41% in the prior year, primarily as the result of an increase in transaction-based clearing expenses due to product mix.
Global Payments
Our Global Payments segment provides global payment solutions to banks and commercial businesses as well as charities, non-governmental organizations and government organizations. We offer payments services in more than 175 countries and 140 currencies, which we believe is more than any other payments solution provider, and provide competitive and transparent pricing.
Operating revenues increased 9% to $23.4 million in the second quarter compared to $21.5 million in the prior year. The volume of payments made was flat with the prior year period while the average revenue per trade increased by 9% as compared to the prior year period. Similar to the first quarter of 2018, the volume of payments declined and the average revenue per trade increased as compared to the third and fourth quarters of fiscal 2017, as certain commercial customers who had previously transacted their individual high volume but low value payments through our platform, opened their own bank accounts in certain countries to which we had made payments into on their behalf. However, we still made the foreign currency funding payments into their accounts on an aggregated basis in these countries. Ultimately we were able to capture higher operating revenues as compared to the third and fourth quarters of fiscal 2017 and the number of payments made were reduced which drove an increase in the average revenue per trade. Operating revenues declined $1.2 million versus the immediately preceding first quarter of 2018 as the first quarter of our fiscal year benefits from strong transactional volumes from our non-governmental charitable organizations during the holiday season.
Segment income increased 15% to $13.5 million in the second quarter compared to $11.7 million in the prior year. This increase primarily resulted from the increase in operating revenues, partially offset by a $0.5 million increase in non-variable direct expenses versus the prior year period, primarily driven by higher non-variable compensation and trade system costs. Variable expenses, excluding interest, expressed as a percentage of operating revenues were decreased to 25% in the second quarter as compared to 28% in the prior year, primarily as a result of a decrease in introducing broker commissions.
Securities
In our Securities segment, we provide value-added solutions that facilitate cross border trading in the equity markets as well as act as an institutional dealer in fixed income securities, including U.S. Treasuries, Federal Agency, Agency Mortgage-Backed and Asset-Backed Securities to a customer base including asset managers, commercial bank trust and investment departments, broker-dealers, and insurance companies. In addition, we also originate, structure and place debt instruments in the international and domestic capital markets as well as operate an asset management business in Argentina.
Operating revenues increased 46% to $55.5 million in the second quarter compared to $37.9 million in the prior year.
Operating revenues in our Securities segment are comprised of activities in four product lines, Equity Market-Making, Debt Trading, Investment Banking and Asset Management. Operating revenues in Equity Market-Making increased 81% in the second quarter compared to the prior year period. Gross dollar volume traded increased 35% driven by increased market volatility, the on-boarding of new customers and an increase in market share, while the average revenue per $1,000 traded increased 17% versus the prior year. Equity Market-Making operating revenues include the trading profits we earn before the related expense deduction for ADR conversion fees. These ADR fees are included in the consolidated income statements as ‘transaction-based clearing expenses’.
Operating revenues in Debt Trading increased, $4.4 million or 22% in the second quarter compared to the prior year, driven by increases in our domestic institutional fixed income business as well as in our Argentina and municipal securities businesses. Asset Management operating revenues increased 5% in the second quarter as compared to the prior year, despite a 14% decline in average assets under management to $469.8 million in the second quarter compared to $548.9 million in the prior year.
Segment income increased 9% to $12.8 million in the second quarter compared to $11.7 million in the prior year. This was driven by the increase in operating revenues, which was partially offset by a $6.2 million increase in transaction-based clearing fees in Equity Market-Making as well as a $8.2 million increase in interest expense, driven by both increases in short term interest rates in our Debt Trading business and an increase in securities lending activities. Variable expenses, excluding interest, expressed as a percentage of operating revenues increased to 39% in the second quarter compared to 36% in the prior year, primarily as the result of an increase in transaction-based clearing expenses.
Physical Commodities
In our Physical Commodities segment, we provide a full range of trading and hedging capabilities, including OTC products, to select producers, consumers and investors in precious metals. Additionally, we act as principal to facilitate financing, structured pricing and logistics services to clients across the commodity complex, including energy commodities, grains, oil seeds, cotton, coffee, cocoa, edible oils and feed products.
Operating revenues for Physical Commodities increased 38% to $15.5 million in the second quarter compared to $11.2 million in the prior year.
Precious Metals operating revenues increased 53% to $8.9 million in the second quarter compared to $5.8 million in the prior year as a result of a 102% increase in the number of ounces traded, which was partially offset by a 24% decline in the average revenue per ounce traded as compared to the prior year. Second quarter operating revenues include a $1.3 million reversal of a first quarter 2018 unrealized loss on derivative positions held against precious metals inventory carried at the lower of cost or net realizable value in our non-broker dealer subsidiaries.
Operating revenues in Physical Ag & Energy increased 22% to $6.6 million in the second quarter compared to the prior year. The increase in operating revenues is primarily due to business expansion in our U.S. subsidiary FCStone Merchant Services, LLC, highlighted by an increase in physical cotton transactions in the current period.
Segment income increased 44% to $5.6 million in the second quarter compared to $3.9 million in the prior year, primarily as a result of the increase in operating revenues, which was partially offset by a $0.3 million increase in non-variable compensation and benefits, a $0.2 million increase in professional fees incurred related to our exit of our physical coal business and a $0.5 million increase in bad debt expense. The increase in bad debt expense related to a $0.7 million bad debt in our Precious Metals business which was partially offset by a $0.2 million recovery of previously recorded bad debt expense in our Physical Ag & Energy business.
Clearing and Execution Services
Our CES segment provides competitive and efficient clearing and execution in all major futures and securities exchanges globally as well as prime brokerage in all major foreign currency pairs and swap transactions. Following our acquisition of the Sterne Agee correspondent securities clearing business, we are an independent full-service provider to introducing broker-dealers (“IBD’s”) of clearing, custody, research, syndicated and security-based lending products and services, including a proprietary technology platform which offers seamless connectivity to ensure a positive customer experience through the clearing and settlement process. Also as part of this transaction, we acquired Sterne Agee’s independent wealth management business which offers a comprehensive product suite to retail customers nationwide.
Operating revenues increased 37% to $88.0 million in the second quarter compared to $64.2 million in the prior year.
Operating revenues in our Exchange-traded Futures & Options business increased 77% to a record $49.6 million in the second quarter compared to $28.0 million in the prior year as a result of a 51% increase in exchange-traded volumes and a 21% increase in the average rate per contract compared to the prior year period. In addition, interest income in the Exchange-traded Futures & Options business increased $1.8 million to $3.9 million in the second quarter primarily as a result of an increase in short-term rates and a 10% increase in average customer equity to $1.2 billion.
Operating revenues in our FX Prime Brokerage increased 16% compared to the prior year to $5.0 million in the second quarter, despite a 28% decline in foreign exchange volumes, as market volatility drove a widening of spreads in this business.
Correspondent Clearing operating revenues declined 1% as compared to the prior year to $6.8 million in the second quarter, while operating revenues in Independent Wealth Management increased 2% versus the prior year to $18.8 million. Included within these operating revenues, Correspondent Clearing and Independent Wealth Management businesses had interest income of $1.8 million and $0.1 million, respectively. Operating revenues in Derivative Voice Brokerage increased 20% to $7.8 million in the second quarter as compared to the prior year.
Segment income increased to $12.7 million in the second quarter compared to $7.9 million in the prior year, primarily as a result of the increase in operating revenues. Segment income in the second quarter includes a $0.9 million quarterly charge to compensation and benefits per the terms of the acquisition of the Derivative Voice Brokerage business which will continue to be expensed through the end of fiscal 2018 based upon the employees’ continued employment. Variable expenses, excluding interest, as a percentage of operating revenues were 71% in the second quarter compared to 69% in the prior year.
Conference Call & Web Cast
A conference call will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, May 9, 2018 at 9:00 a.m. ET. A live webcast of the conference call as well as additional information to review during the call will be made available in PDF form on-line on the Company’s corporate web site at http://www.intlfcstone.com . Participants can also access the call by dialing 1-844-466-4112 (within the United States and Canada), or 1-408-337-0136 (international callers) approximately ten minutes prior to the start time.
A replay of the call will be available at http://www.intlfcstone.com approximately two hours after the call has ended and will be available through May 16, 2018. To access the replay, dial 1-855-859-2056 (within the United States and Canada), or 1-404-537-3406 (international callers) and enter the replay passcode 8835857.
About INTL FCStone Inc.
INTL FCStone Inc., through its subsidiaries, is a leading provider of execution, risk management and advisory services, market intelligence, and clearing services across asset classes and markets around the world.
Serving more than 20,000 customers in 130 countries on five continents, the company provides products and services across five market segments: commercial hedging, global payments, securities, physical commodities, and clearing and execution services. Our customers include the producers, processors and end users of virtually every major traded commodity, as well as asset managers, introducing broker-dealers, insurance companies, brokers, institutional and retail investors, commercial and investment banks, and governmental, non-governmental and charitable organizations. A Fortune 500 company headquartered in New York City, the company is listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “INTL”.
Further information on INTL is available at www.intlfcstone.com .
Forward Looking Statements
This press release includes forward-looking statements including statements regarding the combined company. All statements other than statements of current or historical fact contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. The words “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “should,” “plan,” “will,” “may,” “could,” “intend,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue” or the negative of these terms and similar expressions, as they relate to INTL FCStone Inc., are intended to identify forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements are largely based on current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that may affect the financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs of the company. They can be affected by inaccurate assumptions, including the risks, uncertainties and assumptions described in the filings made by INTL FCStone Inc. with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking statements in this press release may not occur and actual results could differ materially from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. When you consider these forward-looking statements, you should keep in mind these risk factors and other cautionary statements in this press release.
These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. INTL FCStone Inc. undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.
INTL FCStone Inc.
Investor inquiries:
Bruce Fields
1-866-522-7188
[email protected]
Appendix A
The “adjusted” non-GAAP amounts reflect each item after removing the impacts of Tax Reform and the bad debt on physical coal, net of incentive recapture for the last six fiscal quarters. Management believes that presenting our results excluding Tax Reform and the bad debt on physical coal, net of incentive recapture is meaningful, as it increases the comparability of period-to-period results.
Three Months Ended (in millions) March 31, 2018 December 31, 2017 September 30, 2017 June 30, 2017 March 31, 2017 December 31, 2016 Reconciliation of income (loss) before tax to adjusted non-GAAP amounts: Income (loss) before tax, as reported (GAAP) $ 29.5 $ 18.6 $ (22.5) $ 15.0 $ 14.3 $ 8.4 Bad debt on physical coal, net of incentive recapture (a) — 1.0 42.7 — — — Adjusted income before tax (non-GAAP) $ 29.5 $ 19.6 $ 20.2 $ 15.0 $ 14.3 $ 8.4 Reconciliation of income tax expense to adjusted non-GAAP amounts: Income tax expense, as reported (GAAP) $ (6.8) $ (25.5) $ (1.1) $ (2.3) $ (3.3) $ (2.1) Tax effect of bad debt on physical coal, net of incentive recapture — — (3.3) — — — Impact of tax reform (b) (0.8) 20.9 — — — — Adjusted income tax expense (non-GAAP) $ (7.6) $ (4.6) $ (4.4) $ (2.3) $ (3.3) $ (2.1) Reconciliation of net income (loss) to adjusted non-GAAP amounts: Net income (loss), as reported (GAAP) $ 22.7 $ (6.9) $ (23.6) $ 12.7 $ 11.0 $ 6.3 Bad debt on physical coal, net of incentive recapture, net of tax — 1.0 39.4 — — — Impact of tax reform (0.8) 20.9 — — — — Adjusted net income (non-GAAP) $ 21.9 $ 15.0 $ 15.8 $ 12.7 $ 11.0 $ 6.3
Three Months Ended (in millions) March 31, 2018 December 31, 2017 September 30, 2017 June 30, 2017 March 31, 2017 December 31, 2016 Calculation of adjusted diluted earnings per share: Adjusted net income (non-GAAP) $ 21.9 $ 15.0 $ 15.8 $ 12.7 $ 11.0 $ 6.3 Less: Allocation to participating securities (c) (0.3) (0.3) (0.3) (0.3) (0.2) (0.1) Adjusted net income allocated to common stockholders (non-GAAP) $ 21.6 $ 14.7 $ 15.5 $ 12.4 $ 10.8 $ 6.2 Divided by diluted weighted-average common shares used in the calculation of adjusted diluted earnings per share 18,859,333 18,786,145 18,768,660 18,702,128 18,661,418 18,484,995 Adjusted diluted earnings per share (non-GAAP) $ 1.15 $ 0.78 $ 0.83 $ 0.66 $ 0.58 $ 0.34
Three Months Ended (in millions) March 31, 2018 December 31, 2017 September 30, 2017 June 30, 2017 March 31, 2017 December 31, 2016 Calculation of diluted weighted-average common shares used in the calculation of adjusted diluted earnings per share: Weighted-average number of common shares outstanding, as reported 18,559,849 18,419,072 18,485,150 18,447,053 18,404,236 18,248,244 Effect of dilutive securities (d) 299,484 367,073 283,510 255,075 257,182 236,751 Diluted weighted-average common shares used in the calculation of adjusted diluted earnings per share 18,859,333 18,786,145 18,768,660 18,702,128 18,661,418 18,484,995
(in millions) March 31, 2018 December 31, 2017 September 30, 2017 June 30, 2017 March 31, 2017 December 31, 2016 Reconciliation of stockholders’ equity to adjusted non-GAAP amounts: Stockholders’ equity, as reported $ 466.6 $ 443.2 $ 449.9 $ 469.1 $ 455.7 $ 442.6 Bad debt on physical coal, net of incentive recapture, net of tax 40.4 40.4 39.4 — — — Impact of Tax Reform 20.1 20.9 — — — — Adjusted stockholders’ equity (non-GAAP) $ 527.1 $ 504.5 $ 489.3 $ 469.1 $ 455.7 $ 442.6 (a) During the three months ended September 30, 2017, fiscal 2017 incentive accruals for the executive team were reversed as a direct result of the bad debt on physical coal.
(b) Impact of Tax Reform includes tax (benefit) expense of ($0.1) million and $8.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017, respectively, related to the remeasurement of deferred tax assets and liabilities to the lower U.S. federal corporate income tax rate. Additionally, Impact of Tax Reform includes a provisional transition tax obligation of $12.0 million in the three months ended December 31, 2017 and a beneficial revision of $0.7 million in the three months ended March 31, 2018, related to the one-time mandatory repatriation transition tax on previously untaxed accumulated and current earnings and profits of certain of our foreign subsidiaries.
(c) For the three months ended December 31, 2017 and September 30, 2017, there were no amounts allocated to participating securities, as reported, due to net losses in each of the periods. In conjunction with the consideration of adjusted net income (non-GAAP), amounts allocated to participating securities has now been included for the periods. For the three months ended March 31, 2018, June 30, 2017, March 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016, the amounts allocated to participating securities are included as reported.
(d) For the three months ended December 31, 2017 and September 30, 2017, there were no amount of dilutive securities, as reported, due to net losses in each of the periods. In conjunction with the consideration of adjusted net income (non-GAAP), an amount of dilutive securities has now been included for the periods. For the three months ended March 31, 2018, June 30, 2017, March 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016, the dilutive securities are included as reported.
Source:INTL FCStone Inc. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/08/globe-newswire-intl-fcstone-inc-reports-fiscal-2018-second-quarter-financial-results.html |
May 4 (Reuters) - Emperia Holding SA:
* ITS UNIT, STOKROTKA’S, APRIL PRELIM. REVENUE FROM SALES OF GOODS AT 200 MILLION ZLOTYS, DOWN C 5.1 % YOY Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: (Gdynia Newsroom)
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-emperias-stokrotka-prelim-revenue/brief-emperias-stokrotka-prelim-revenue-from-sales-of-goods-in-april-down-c-5-1-yoy-idUSFWN1SB0R7 |
NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The United Nations and international rights groups have called on Sudan to pardon a 19-year-old girl sentenced to death after she killed her husband as he tried to rape her, saying that she is a victim of child marriage and acted in self-defense.
Noura Hussein is facing death by hanging after a Sharia court, which follows Islamic religious laws, found her guilty of premeditated murder for stabbing her husband as he raped her in April. On Thursday, the court sentenced her to death.
The UN Women, UN Population Fund and UN Office of the Special Advisor on Africa on Sunday appealed to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s government for clemency for Hussein.
“Reports indicate that she was forced against her will into marriage at the age of 16. She was raped by her husband while his three male relatives held her down,” said a joint statement.
“Speaking as the voices of women and girls of the world, we plead with the government of Sudan to save the life of Hussein.”
Noura Hussein said her father made her contractually marry her cousin when she was 16, but she refused to accept and sought refuge with a relative for three years.
She returned to her family home on the outskirts of the capital Khartoum in April this year after her father said the marriage was canceled, but found that she had been duped and preparations for her wedding ceremony were under way.
Hussein said she refused to have sex with her husband after the ceremony, but on the sixth day, he raped her as three of his male relatives restrained her.
The following day, he attempted to rape her again and as she struggled to stop him, she stabbed him, killing him.
Campaigners said Hussein sought help from her family, but fearing reprisals from her dead husband’s relatives, her father handed her over to the police.
Hussein’s lawyers said they are preparing to appeal against the court’s decision and have until May 25 to do so.
The case has attracted international attention. Social media users on Twitter and Facebook are sharing her story under the hashtag #JusticeForNoura, and a petition on change.org has attracted almost 300,000 signatures.
Amnesty International has started a campaign asking people to appeal to Sudan’s Minister of Justice Idris Ibrahim Jamil.
“The courts are saying Noura is guilty of premeditated murder - even though she was defending herself from being raped by a man she was forced to marry when she was just a young teenager,” said Amnesty International in a statement.
Sudan is ranked 165 out of 188 countries on the U.N.’s Gender Inequality Index, which measures how women fare compared to men when it comes to access to health, education, political participation and employment opportunities.
UN Women says violence against women and girls is prevalent in Sudan. Marital rape and child marriage are not considered crimes in the predominately Muslim African nation.
Reporting by Nita Bhalla @nitabhalla, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit news.trust.org
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sudan-women-death-penalty/pressure-mounts-on-sudan-to-pardon-teen-bride-for-killing-rapist-husband-idUSKCN1IF14R |
May 28, 2018 / 9:34 PM / Updated 8 hours ago ITV mulls buying half of UKTV in deal with BBC - Telegraph Reuters Staff 2 Min Read
(Reuters) - British broadcaster ITV Plc ( ITV.L ) is considering entering into a joint venture valued at 1 billion pounds ($1.33 billion) with BBC to acquire half of broadcaster UKTV, the Telegraph newspaper reported on Monday. A company sign is displayed outside an ITV studio in London, Britain July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo
According to terms of the joint venture, BBC has the right to buy out its partner at a set price before the end of next week, the newspaper reported.
The companies are attempting to create a deal that would compete with entertainment company Netflix Inc ( NFLX.O ), the report said. bit.ly/2sfuS4C A company sign is displayed outside an ITV studio in London, Britain July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo
The opportunity to seal the deal will close within two weeks, according to the report.
BBC declined to comment on the Telegraph report. ITV and Discovery did not respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours.
UKTV, whose channels include Dave and Gold, is an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Discovery Inc ( DISCA.O ), which earlier this year completed its acquisition of U.S. broadcaster Scripps Networks Interactive, the former owner of UKTV.
Discovery is working on an alternative plan for breaking up UKTV, the Telegraph said. BBC had earlier approached Sky Plc ( SKYB.L ) as a potential partner in the joint venture but the talks did not work out, the report added.
In November, the Telegraph had reported that BBC’s commercial arm was considering a 500-million-pound bid for full control of UKTV.
ITV is currently in the middle of a strategic review under new Chief Executive Carolyn McCall, who has previously said she would provide investors with an update of the review at the group’s half-year results in July. Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Brown and Diane Craft | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-itv-bbc-uktv/itv-mulls-buying-half-of-uktv-in-deal-with-bbc-telegraph-idUKKCN1IT22Q |
The 144th Kentucky Derby takes place on Saturday at Churchill Downs. Post time is scheduled for 6:34 p.m. ET, but the two-minute long race isn't set to start until 6:46 p.m. ET.
Tonight's favorite, Justify, is racing out of post position seven, and is looking to become the sixth consecutive favorite to bring home the roses. In all, 20 horses will race to win the first leg of the Triple Crown, but there's also prize money on the line.
A total of $2 million is up for grabs and will be divided among the top five finishers. The winning horse's owner takes home 62 percent of the purse, or $1.24 million. And the winning jockey gets 10 percent of that, or $124,000.
That number will get shaved down to about $100,000 after paying his agent and valet, the person who gets the jockey's gear in place. And that's before taxes.
Still, it's a nice payday for all of two minutes of work.
The second and third place jockeys get 5 percent of their owner's take ($400,000 and $200,000), meaning the second place jockey will get a check for $20,000 and the third place jockey will get one for $10,000. After fees, they'll take home closer to $14,000 and $7,000.
As for the 17 other jockeys, they won't make out nearly as favorably. Their ride is only worth "a couple hundred dollars apiece," jockey agent Ron Anderson told CNBC in 2010 .
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Don't miss: You can sip a $1,000 mint julep at the Kentucky Derby — here's what makes it so pricey
show chapters How to shop for a Kentucky Derby hat like the super rich 18 Hours Ago | 01:05 | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/05/how-much-money-the-kentucky-derby-jockeys-earn.html |
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India’s gold imports fell for a fourth straight month in April from a year ago to 57 tonnes on subdued demand after local prices jumped to the highest level in nearly 21 months, provisional data from precious metals consultancy GFMS and bank dealers showed.
A salesman shows gold bangles to customer inside a jewellery showroom on the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya, a major gold buying festival, in Kochi, April 18, 2018. REUTERS/Sivaram V The drop in purchases by India, though, could weigh on global prices, which are still up nearly 6 percent from a mid-December trough, despite dropping back from a 17-month high hit at the end of January.
Lower gold imports could also help the South Asian country reduce its trade deficit.
The price rise curtailed retail purchases and also prompted jewellers to postpone re-stocking, Sudheesh Nambiath, a senior analyst with GFMS, a division of Thomson Reuters, said on Tuesday.
Local gold prices jumped to their highest in 21 months in April following gains in the overseas market.
The drop in the rupee to the lowest level in 14 months in April made gold even more expensive for retail consumers and squeezed demand, said Abhishek Bansal, promoter of ABans Jewels Pvt. Ltd, which runs a gold refinery.
India imported 93.6 tonnes of gold in April 2017. Gold imports in the January to April period fell 34 percent from a year ago to 220.1 tonnes, data compiled by GFMS showed.
In April, Indians celebrated the annual festival of Akshaya Tritiya, during which buying of gold is considered auspicious.
“Price rise weighed on Akshay Tritiya demand,” said a Mumbai-based gold dealer.
India’s imports in May would be higher than April, but would be significantly lower than the 119.3 tonnes imported in May 2017, said a Mumbai-based head of the gold trading desk at a private bullion importing bank.
“Slowly, consumers and jewellers are adjusting to higher prices. Wedding season demand is also good,” the bank official said.
Gold is an essential part of a bride’s dowry in India and also a popular gift from family and guests at weddings.
Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://in.reuters.com/article/india-gold-imports/indias-april-gold-imports-plunge-39-percent-on-weak-demand-gfms-idINKBN1I90VP |
May 16 (Reuters) -
* ITERUM THERAPEUTICS PLC SEES IPO OF 5,333,333 ORDINARY SHARES - SEC FILING
* ITERUM THERAPEUTICS SAYS EXPECTS INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING PRICE TO BE BETWEEN $14.00 AND $16.00 PER SHARE
* ITERUM THERAPEUTICS - INTENDS TO USE ABOUT $65 MILLION OF IPO PROCEEDS TO FUND PHASE 3 CLINICAL TRIALS OF ORAL SULOPENEM, SULOPENEM IN THREE INDICATIONS
* ITERUM THERAPEUTICS - INTENDS TO USE ABOUT $15 MILLION OF IPO PROCEEDS FOR MILESTONE PAYMENTS TO PFIZER INC Source text: [ bit.ly/2rMAthB ]
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-iterum-therapeutics-says-expects-i/brief-iterum-therapeutics-says-expects-initial-public-offering-price-to-be-between-14-and-16-per-share-idUSFWN1SN0S2 |
May 4, 2018 / 5:51 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago Swiss sovereign money campaign headed for defeat - poll Reuters Staff 1 Min Read
ZURICH, May 4 (Reuters) - A radical “sovereign money” plan that would upend Switzerland’s traditional monetary system appears headed for defeat in a referendum next month, a poll showed on Friday.
The survey by the gfs.bern polling outfit found 49 percent of respondents opposed the plan, while 35 percent were in favour and 16 percent were undecided or had no opinion.
The sovereign money campaign, which has gathered more than the 100,000 signatures needed to trigger a binding referendum under the Swiss system of direct democracy, would bar commercial banks from “creating” new electronic money every time they give credit.
Only the Swiss central bank would be allowed to increase the money supply.
Switzerland risks being plunged into an “unnecessary and dangerous experiment” if it adopts the scheme on June 10, Swiss National Bank Chairman Thomas Jordan warned on Thursday.
Parliament and the government also oppose the unprecedented idea.
The poll surveyed 563 people and had a margin of error of 2.9 points. Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Sam Holmes | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/swiss-money/swiss-sovereign-money-campaign-headed-for-defeat-poll-idUSL8N1SB0W3 |
Royalty, politicians remember Manchester attack victims 12:19pm EDT - 00:46
Prince William and Prime Minister Theresa May attend a memorial service for the 22 people killed in a suicide bombing at a pop concert in Manchester last year. Rough cut (no reporter narration).
Prince William and Prime Minister Theresa May attend a memorial service for the 22 people killed in a suicide bombing at a pop concert in Manchester last year. Rough cut (no reporter narration). //www.reuters.com/video/2018/05/22/royalty-politicians-remember-manchester?videoId=429351592&videoChannel=13421 | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/video/2018/05/22/royalty-politicians-remember-manchester?videoId=429351592 |
Company Secures Several Contract Renewals
OLATHE, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- NIC Inc. (Nasdaq: EGOV), the dominant provider of digital government services, today announced net income of $15.5 million and earnings per share of 23 cents on total revenues of $86.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2018. In the first quarter of 2017, the Company reported net income of $14.0 million and earnings per share of 21 cents on total revenues of $83.2 million.
Quarterly portal revenues were $80.8 million, a 5 percent increase over the first quarter of 2017. On a same-state basis, portal revenues increased 7 percent over the prior year quarter. Same-state, transaction-based revenues from Interactive Government Services (IGS) rose 10 percent over the first quarter of 2017, due primarily to higher volumes from a variety of services including income tax filings, driver’s license renewals, and business filings, among others. Same-state, transaction-based revenues from Driver History Records (DHR) were up 1 percent due mainly to higher transaction volumes in several states. Same-state portal software development revenues increased 27 percent, driven primarily by new time & materials projects deployed by the Company’s Indiana portal.
Software & services revenues were $5.9 million in the current quarter, down 1 percent from the prior year quarter, driven by the previously announced loss of the City of Portland, Oregon, parking meter payment service beginning in the second quarter of 2017.
Quarterly operating income decreased 2 percent to $20.6 million, and the Company’s operating income margin was 24 percent for the current quarter, down from 25 percent in the prior year quarter. This reflects ongoing investments in the Company’s citizen-centric Gov2Go ® national platform, and the enterprise licensing and permitting platform, in addition to the loss of revenue and profit contribution from the legacy Tennessee portal contract. As previously announced, the Company’s contract with the state of Tennessee expired March 31, 2017. First quarter 2017 revenues from the legacy Tennessee portal contract totaled $1.8 million.
The Company’s effective tax rate in the current quarter was 25 percent, down from 34 percent in the prior year quarter. The lower rate was attributable to favorable benefits related to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which was signed into law on December 22, 2017. Results in the current quarter also include a tax deficit related to lower tax deductions from the vesting of restricted stock awards. This discrete tax item increased the Company’s effective tax rate by approximately 1 percent, decreasing earnings per share for the current quarter by approximately 1 cent. Results in the prior year quarter reflect excess tax benefits from the vesting of restricted stock awards. This discrete tax item decreased the Company’s effective tax rate by approximately 2 percent, increasing earnings per share for the prior year quarter by approximately 1 cent.
“We kicked off the year with solid financial performance,” said Harry Herington, NIC Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. “We launched several new services, and I would like to thank all of our government partners for working with us to advance digital government innovation.”
Operational Highlights
During the quarter, several NIC subsidiaries received contract extensions. The Company’s subsidiary, Kansas Information Consortium, LLC extended the base term of its contract with the state of Kansas through December 2022. The extension also includes two, two-year renewal options the state of Kansas may exercise to take the agreement through April 2026. In addition, Kentucky Interactive, LLC received a two-year contract extension from the Commonwealth of Kentucky taking its contract through August 2020. And, the Company’s subsidiary, Oklahoma Interactive, LLC received a one-year contract renewal from the state of Oklahoma extending its contract through March 2019.
First Quarter Earnings Call and Webcast Details
On the April 30, 2018 call, the Company will discuss its 2018 first quarter financial and operational results, and answer questions from the investment community. The call may also include discussion of Company developments, and forward-looking and other material information about business and financial matters.
Dial-In Information
Monday, April 30, 2018
4:30 p.m. (EDT)
Call bridge: 888-204-4610 (U.S. callers) or 719-325-2402 (international callers) Conference ID: 7713983 Call leaders: Harry Herington, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board Steve Kovzan, Chief Financial Officer Robert Knapp, Chief Operating Officer Webcast Information
To sign in and listen: The Webcast system is available at https://www.egov.com/investor-relations .
A replay of the Webcast will be available by visiting https://www.egov.com/investor-relations .
About NIC
NIC Inc. (NASDAQ: EGOV) is the nation’s premier provider of innovative digital government solutions and secure payment processing, which help make government interactions more accessible for everyone through technology. The family of NIC companies has developed a library of more than 13,000 digital government services for more than 5,500 federal, state, and local government agencies. Among these solutions is the ground-breaking personal assistant for government, Gov2Go, delivering citizens personalized reminders and a single access point for government interactions. More information is available at www.egov.com .
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information
Any statements made in this release that do not relate to historical or current facts constitute forward-looking statements. These statements include statements regarding the Company’s potential financial performance for the 2018 fiscal year, estimates, projections, the expected length of contract terms, statements relating to the Company’s business plans, objectives and expected operating results, statements relating to potential new contracts or renewals, statements relating to the Company’s expected effective tax rate and the potential effect of tax law changes, statements relating to possible future dividends and share repurchases, and other possible future events, including potential acquisitions, and the assumptions upon which those statements are based. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties which may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements, including regional or national business, political, economic, competitive, social and market conditions, including various termination rights of the Company and its partners, the ability of the Company to renew existing contracts –in whole or in part, and to sign contracts with new federal, state, and local government agencies, the Company’s ability to identify and acquire suitable acquisition candidates and to successfully integrate any acquired businesses, as well as possible data security incidents. Any statements regarding our expected effective tax rate for 2018 reflect provisional amounts subject to adjustment during the one-year measurement period permitted under applicable law. You should not rely on any forward-looking statement as a prediction or guarantee about the future. A detailed discussion of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from such forward-looking statements is included in the sections titled “Risk Factors” and “Cautions About Forward-Looking Statements” of the Company’s most recent Forms 10-K and 10-Q filed with the SEC. These filings are available at the SEC's web site at www.sec.gov . Any forward-looking statements included in this release speak only as of the date of this call. Except as may be required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
NIC INC. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME AND FINANCIAL SUMMARY (In thousands, except per share amounts and percentages) (Unaudited) Three months ended March 31,
Revenues: 2018 2017 Portal revenues $ 80,791 $ 77,198 Software & services revenues 5,934 5,979 Total revenues 86,725 83,177 Operating expenses: Cost of portal revenues, exclusive of depreciation & amortization 48,642 47,032 Cost of software & services revenues, exclusive of depreciation & amortization 2,228 1,763 Selling & administrative 13,150 11,660 Depreciation & amortization 2,065 1,613 Total operating expenses 66,085 62,068 Operating income before income taxes 20,640 21,109 Income tax provision 5,132 7,124 Net income $ 15,508 $ 13,985 Basic net income per share $ 0.23 $ 0.21 Diluted net income per share $ 0.23 $ 0.21 Weighted average shares outstanding: Basic 66,323 66,046 Diluted 66,323 66,046 Key Financial Metrics: Revenue growth - outsourced portals 5 % 5 % Same state revenue growth - outsourced portals 7 % 5 % Recurring portal revenue as a % of total portal revenues 97 % 98 % Gross profit % - outsourced portals 40 % 39 % Revenue growth - software & services (1 )% 15 % Gross profit % - software & services 62 % 71 % Selling & administrative expenses as a % of total revenues 15 % 14 % Operating income as a % of total revenue 24 % 25 % Portal Revenue Analysis: IGS $ 50,267 $ 45,925 DHR 27,239 28,169 Portal software development 2,047 1,829 Portal management 1,238 1,275 Total portal revenues $ 80,791 $ 77,198
NIC INC. CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (In thousands, except par value amount) (Unaudited) March 31, 2018
December 31, 2017 ASSETS Current assets: Cash $ 162,362 $ 160,777 Trade accounts receivable, net 87,241 103,938 Prepaid expenses & other current assets 14,478 12,843 Total current assets
264,081 277,558 Property and equipment, net 9,731 10,306 Intangible assets, net 6,237 5,214 Deferred income taxes, net — 667 Other assets 1,884 1,986 Total assets $ 281,933 $ 295,731 LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY Current liabilities: Accounts payable $ 68,789 $ 88,920
Accrued expenses 20,141 26,501 Other current liabilities 3,916 3,673 Total current liabilities 92,846 119,094 Other long-term liabilities 8,738 8,395 Total liabilities 101,584 127,489 Commitments and contingencies — — Stockholders' equity: Common stock, $0.0001 par, 200,000 shares authorized, 66,514 and 66,271 shares issued and outstanding 7 7 Additional paid-in capital 112,930 111,275 Retained earnings 67,412 56,960 Total stockholders' equity 180,349 168,242 Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 281,933 $ 295,731
NIC INC. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CHANGES IN STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY (In thousands) (Unaudited) Common Stock Additional
Paid-in
Capital
Retained
Earnings
Shares Amount Total Balance, January 1, 2018 66,271 $
7
$
111,275
$
56,960
$
168,242
Net cumulative effect of adoption of accounting standard
— — — 208 208 Net income — — — 15,508 15,508 Restricted stock vestings 202 — — — — Dividends declared — — — (5,370 ) (5,370 ) Dividend equivalents on unvested performance-based restricted stock awards
— — 34 (34 ) — Dividend equivalents cancelled upon forfeiture of performance-based restricted stock awards
— — (140 ) 140 — Shares surrendered and cancelled upon vesting of restricted stock to satisfy tax withholdings
(81 ) — (1,132 ) — (1,132 ) Stock-based compensation — — 1,511 — 1,511 Issuance of common stock under employee stock purchase plan
122 — 1,382 — 1,382 Balance, March 31, 2018 66,514 $
7
$
112,930
$
67,412
$
180,349
NIC INC. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (In thousands) (Unaudited) Three months ended March 31, 2018 2017 Cash flows from operating activities: Net income $ 15,508 $ 13,985 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities: Provision for (recoveries) losses on accounts receivable
(116 ) 425 Depreciation & amortization 2,065 1,613 Stock-based compensation expense 1,511 1,474 Deferred income taxes 685 912 Changes in operating assets and liabilities: Decrease (increase) in trade accounts receivable, net 16,813 (1,545 ) (Increase) decrease in prepaid expenses & other current assets (1,635 ) 2,461 Decrease (increase) in other assets 258 (1,493 ) (Decrease) in accounts payable (20,131 ) (9,789 ) (Decrease) in accrued expenses (6,360 ) (3,838 ) Increase in other current liabilities 295 148 Increase in other long-term liabilities 325 583 Net cash provided by operating activities 9,218 4,936 Cash flows from investing activities: Purchases of property and equipment (873 ) (929 ) Proceeds from sale of property and equipment — 6 Capitalized software development costs (1,640 ) (875 ) Net cash used in investing activities (2,513 ) (1,798 ) Cash flows from financing activities: Cash dividends on common stock (5,370 ) (5,342 ) Proceeds from employee common stock purchases 1,382 1,330 Tax withholdings related to stock-based compensation awards (1,132 ) (2,574 ) Net cash used in financing activities (5,120 ) (6,586 ) Net increase (decrease) in cash 1,585 (3,448 ) Cash, beginning of period 160,777 127,009 Cash, end of period $ 162,362 $ 123,561 Other cash flow information: Non-cash investing activities: Capital expenditures accrued but not yet paid $ — $ 176 Cash payments: Income taxes paid, net $ 4,418 $ 3,151
View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180430006262/en/
NIC Inc.
Angela Davied, 913-754-7054
[email protected]
Source: NIC Inc. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/30/business-wire-nic-earns-23-cents-per-share-on-total-revenues-of-86-point-7-million.html |
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Blueprint Medicines Corporation (Nasdaq: BPMC), a leader in discovering and developing targeted kinase medicines for patients with genomically defined diseases, today reported financial results and provided a business update for the quarter ended March 31, 2018.
"In the first quarter, we continued to make significant progress across our portfolio toward our vision of rapidly delivering potentially transformative kinase medicines to patients with genomically defined diseases," said Jeff Albers, Chief Executive Officer of Blueprint Medicines. "In particular, we were excited to present initial clinical proof-of-concept data for our highly selective RET inhibitor BLU-667, which showed consistent clinical activity in patients with multiple tumor types, RET alterations and prior therapies, along with a favorable safety and tolerability profile. In addition, we received positive feedback from the FDA supporting our registration plan in systemic mastocytosis, including support for a single-arm registration-enabling Phase 2 trial in patients with advanced systemic mastocytosis representing a potential expedited path to registration."
Clinical Programs:
Avapritinib: Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors (GIST)
In March 2018, Blueprint Medicines completed enrollment of the PDGFRα D842V expansion cohort of its ongoing Phase 1 NAVIGATOR clinical trial. Based on feedback from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) at an End-of-Phase 1 meeting in 2017, Blueprint Medicines believes that data from the PDGFRα D842V expansion cohort may be sufficient to support a New Drug Application (NDA) for avapritinib for the treatment of patients with PDGFRα D842V-driven GIST. Based on the expected timeline for the collection of data, Blueprint Medicines now anticipates it will submit an initial NDA to the FDA for avapritinib in the first half of 2019. In the first quarter, Blueprint Medicines announced it had completed enrollment of the third-line or later (KIT-driven) GIST cohort and initiated enrollment of the second-line GIST cohort in the Phase 1 NAVIGATOR trial. Blueprint Medicines anticipates presenting updated data from the NAVIGATOR trial in the second half of 2018.
Avapritinib: Advanced Systemic Mastocytosis (SM)
Blueprint Medicines recently received positive feedback from the FDA supporting its proposed registration plan for avapritinib in patients with advanced, smoldering and indolent SM. Consistent with feedback from the FDA, Blueprint Medicines plans to initiate a registration-enabling open-label, single-arm Phase 2 clinical trial in patients with advanced SM, called the PATHFINDER trial, by the middle of 2018. In addition, Blueprint Medicines plans to initiate a registration-enabling Phase 2 clinical trial in patients with indolent SM and smoldering SM, called the PIONEER trial, by the end of 2018. Enrollment in the expansion portion of the Phase 1 EXPLORER clinical trial for advanced SM is ongoing, and Blueprint Medicines anticipates presenting updated data from this trial in the second half of 2018.
BLU-667: RET-Altered Solid Tumors
In April 2018, Blueprint Medicines presented proof-of-concept data from its ongoing Phase 1 ARROW clinical trial of BLU-667 in patients with RET-altered non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) and other advanced solid tumors at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting. The data showed broad and robust clinical activity across multiple tumor types and RET genotypes, including in patients whose disease had progressed on prior multi-kinase therapy. Radiographic tumor reductions were observed in 84 percent of patients with RET-altered solid tumors and measurable target lesions, and preliminary overall response rates were 50 percent and 40 percent in patients with NSCLC and MTC, respectively. The data also showed that BLU-667 was generally well-tolerated, and most adverse events reported by investigators were Grade 1. Read the full data here . The maximum tolerated dose (MTD) was determined to be 400 mg once daily, and global enrollment in the dose expansion portion of the Phase 1 ARROW clinical trial is ongoing. In April 2018, Blueprint Medicines announced the publication of foundational preclinical data and clinical proof-of-concept results for BLU-667. The publication outlined preclinical data characterizing the potency and selectivity of BLU-667 against multiple oncogenic RET variants and resistant mutants and anti-tumor activity in multiple solid tumor models. It also included four patient vignettes from the ongoing Phase 1 ARROW clinical trial, showing clinical responses in patients with RET-KIF5B-altered NSCLC and MTC harboring multiple RET mutations. The paper, titled "Precision targeted therapy with BLU-667 for RET-driven cancers," was published online in Cancer Discovery.
Research Programs:
In the first quarter of 2018, Blueprint Medicines initiated investigational new drug application-enabling studies for BLU-782, its development candidate for the treatment of patients with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva. Blueprint Medicines plans to report preclinical data for the program in 2018. Blueprint Medicines also recently nominated a new wholly-owned discovery program for an undisclosed kinase target.
First Quarter Financial Results:
Cash Position: As of March 31, 2018, cash, cash equivalents and investments were $621.1 million, as compared to $673.4 million as of December 31, 2017. This decrease was primarily related to cash used in operating activities. Collaboration Revenues : Collaboration revenues were $0.9 million for the first quarter of 2018, as compared to $5.8 million for the first quarter of 2017. This decrease was primarily due to the termination of the Alexion agreement in 2017, which resulted in no revenue recognized under this agreement in the first quarter 2018, as well as the impact on revenue recognized under the Roche agreement as a result of the adoption of Accounting Standards Codification 606 effective January 1, 2018. R&D Expenses : Research and development expenses were $50.0 million for the first quarter of 2018, as compared to $28.5 million for the first quarter of 2017. This increase was primarily attributable to increased clinical and manufacturing expenses associated with advancing avapritinib, BLU-554, and BLU-667 further through clinical trials and increased personnel-related expenses. Research and development expenses included $3.0 million in stock-based compensation expenses for the first quarter of 2018. G&A Expenses : General and administrative expenses were $9.9 million for the first quarter of 2018, as compared to $5.7 million for the first quarter of 2017. This increase was primarily attributable to increased personnel-related expenses and increased professional fees, including pre-commercial planning activities. General and administrative expenses included $2.5 million in stock-based compensation expenses for the first quarter of 2018. Net Loss: Net loss was $56.5 million for the first quarter of 2018, or a net loss per share of $1.29, as compared to a net loss of $28.0 million for the first quarter of 2017, or a net loss per share of $0.84.
Financial Guidance :
Based on its current plans, Blueprint Medicines expects that its existing cash, cash equivalents and investments, excluding any potential option fees and milestone payments under its existing collaboration with Roche, will be sufficient to enable it to fund its operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into the middle of 2020.
Conference Call Information:
Blueprint Medicines will host a live conference call and webcast today at 8:30 a.m. ET. The conference call may be accessed by dialing (855) 728-4793 (domestic) or (503) 343-6666 (international) and referring to conference ID 7572918. A webcast of the conference call will be available in the Investors section of the Blueprint Medicines' website at http://ir.blueprintmedicines.com . The archived webcast will be available on Blueprint Medicines' website approximately two hours after the conference call and will be available for 30 days following the conference call.
About Blueprint Medicines:
Blueprint Medicines is developing a new generation of targeted and potent kinase medicines to improve the lives of patients with genomically defined diseases. Its approach is rooted in a deep understanding of the genetic blueprint of cancer and other disease driven by the abnormal activation of kinases. Blueprint Medicines is advancing multiple programs in clinical development for subsets of patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors, hepatocellular carcinoma, systemic mastocytosis, non-small cell lung cancer, medullary thyroid cancer and other advanced solid tumors, as well as multiple programs in research and preclinical development. For more information, please visit www.blueprintmedicines.com .
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release contains within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, including, without limitation, statements regarding plans and timelines for the clinical development of avapritinib, BLU-554, BLU-667 and BLU-782; the potential benefits of Blueprint Medicines' current and future drug candidates in treating patients; plans and timelines for presenting preclinical and clinical data for Blueprint Medicines' current or future clinical trials; plans and timelines for presenting preclinical data for the BLU-782 program; plans and timelines for initiating Blueprint Medicines' PATHFINDER and PIONEER trials; plans and timelines for engaging regulatory authorities to obtain input on registration pathways for avapritinib and BLU-667; expectations regarding the potential for current and future clinical trials to be registration-enabling for Blueprint Medicines' current and future drug candidates in one or more indications; expectations regarding the collection of data for the PDGFRα D842V-driven GIST cohort of the NAVIGATOR trial; plans and timelines for submitting an NDA to the FDA for avapritinib; expectations regarding potential regulatory and commercial milestones; expectations regarding Blueprint Medicines' existing cash, cash equivalents and investments; and Blueprint Medicines' strategy, business plans and focus. The words "may," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "intend," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "project," "potential," "continue," "target" and similar expressions are intended to identify , although not all contain these identifying words. Any are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and important factors that may cause actual events or results expressed or implied by any contained , including, without limitation, risks and uncertainties related to the delay of any current or planned clinical trials or the development of Blueprint Medicines' drug candidates, including avapritinib, BLU-554, BLU-667 and BLU-782; Blueprint Medicines' advancement of multiple early-stage efforts; Blueprint Medicines' ability to successfully demonstrate the safety and efficacy of its drug candidates; the preclinical and clinical results for Blueprint Medicines' drug candidates, which may not support further development of such drug candidates; actions of regulatory agencies, which may affect the initiation, timing and progress of clinical trials; Blueprint Medicines' ability to develop and commercialize companion diagnostic tests for its current and future drug candidates, including companion diagnostic tests for BLU-554 for FGFR4-driven HCC, avapritinib for PDGFRα D842V-driven GIST and BLU-667 for RET-driven NSCLC; and the success of Blueprint Medicines' cancer immunotherapy collaboration with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd and Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. These and other risks and uncertainties are described in greater detail in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in Blueprint Medicines' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 21, 2018, and any other filings that Blueprint Medicines has made or may make with the SEC in the future. Any contained represent Blueprint Medicines' views only as of the date hereof and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. Except as required by law, Blueprint Medicines explicitly disclaims any obligation to update any .
Blueprint Medicines Corporation
Selected Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet Data
(in thousands)
(unaudited)
March 31
December 31,
2018
2017
Cash, cash equivalents and investments
$
621,123
$
673,356
Working capital (1)
575,700
642,615
Total assets
664,468
715,737
Deferred revenue
39,734
35,373
Term loan payable
1,106
1,518
Lease incentive obligation
15,903
16,331
Total stockholders' equity
570,873
623,970
(1) Blueprint Medicines defines working capital as current assets less current liabilities.
Blueprint Medicines Corporation
Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations Data
(in thousands, except per share data)
(unaudited)
Three Months Ended
March 31,
2018
2017
Collaboration revenue
$
954
$
5,840
Operating expenses:
Research and development
49,954
28,487
General and administrative
9,911
5,683
Total operating expenses
59,865
34,170
Other income (expense):
Other income, net
2,394
425
Interest expense
(32)
(72)
Total other income
2,362
353
Net loss
$
(56,549)
$
(27,977)
Net loss per share applicable to common stockholders — basic and diluted
$
(1.29)
$
(0.84)
Weighted-average number of common shares used in net loss per share
applicable to common stockholders — basic and diluted
43,700
33,190
View original content with multimedia: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/blueprint-medicines-reports-first-quarter-2018-financial-results-300640587.html
SOURCE Blueprint Medicines Corporation | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/02/pr-newswire-blueprint-medicines-reports-first-quarter-2018-financial-results.html |
Denny’s Corp:
* DENNY’S CORPORATION REPORTS RESULTS FOR FIRST QUARTER 2018
* Q1 EARNINGS PER SHARE $0.15 * Q1 REVENUE $155.3 MILLION VERSUS I/B/E/S VIEW $155.9 MILLION
* Q1 EARNINGS PER SHARE VIEW $0.14 — THOMSON REUTERS I/B/E/S
* SEES FY 2018 TOTAL OPERATING REVENUE BETWEEN $634 MILLION AND $642 MILLION Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-dennys-q1-earnings-per-share-015/brief-dennys-q1-earnings-per-share-0-15-idUSASC09YQZ |
Several major U.S. media websites were blocked to Europeans on Friday as the European Union's new data protection law kicked in.
The websites of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News and other publications owned by Tronc were down, showing the message: "Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in most European countries. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to the EU market."
Tronc echoed that message in an emailed statement to CNBC. It said it would look to find "technical compliance solutions" to reopen its site to readers in Europe.
News sites owned by Lee Enterprises , which include the Arizona Daily Sun and Star papers and the Times of Northwest Indiana, were also unavailable in Europe. A message on Lee Enterprises' website and the websites of its subsidiaries read: "We recognize you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA) including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and therefore cannot grant you access at the time."
The Los Angeles Times Websites run by U.S. media firm A+E Networks, including History.com and FYI, were also down in Europe, with a message merely saying: "This content is not available in your area."
Lee Enterprises and A+E Networks were not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
The EU's GDPR was implemented on Friday. The new rules mean that firms must obtain explicit consent from customers in order to use their data. It also lets people request to see all the data firms have on them and to have the data deleted.
show chapters GDPR: Why everyone is freaking out over four letters 10:59 AM ET Wed, 23 May 2018 | 02:53 Major U.S. news sites like The Washington Post and The New York Times were unaffected. Others, including Oath-owned TechCrunch, the Huffington Post and Engadget, showed a message asking for users' consent before letting them visit.
GDPR threatens to fine firms up to 4 percent of global annual turnover or 20 million euros ($23.4 million) — whichever is bigger — for violations. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/25/us-media-websites-down-in-europe-after-a-huge-data-law-shakeup.html |
Pentagon disinvites China from major U.S. military exercise 2:16am BST - 01:21
The Pentagon on Wednesday disinvited China from a major U.S.-hosted naval drill in response to what it sees as Beijing's militarization of islands in the South China Sea, a decision China's top diplomat Wang Yi called an ''unconstructive move''. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).
The Pentagon on Wednesday disinvited China from a major U.S.-hosted naval drill in response to what it sees as Beijing's militarization of islands in the South China Sea, a decision China's top diplomat Wang Yi called an "unconstructive move". Rough Cut (no reporter narration). //reut.rs/2GKBpbY | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/video/2018/05/24/pentagon-disinvites-china-from-major-us?videoId=429715958 |
May 2 (Reuters) - MYR Group Inc:
* MYR GROUP INC ANNOUNCES FIRST-QUARTER 2018 RESULTS
* Q1 EARNINGS PER SHARE $0.34 * Q1 REVENUE $345.6 MILLION VERSUS I/B/E/S VIEW $320.6 MILLION
* Q1 EARNINGS PER SHARE VIEW $0.19 — THOMSON REUTERS I/B/E/S
* MYR GROUP - AS OF MARCH 31, MYR’S BACKLOG WAS $958.5 MILLION, WHICH REPRESENTED AN INCREASE OF $279.4 MILLION, OR 41.1 PERCENT, COMPARED TO DECEMBER 31, 2017 Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-myr-group-reports-q1-earnings-per/brief-myr-group-reports-q1-earnings-per-share-0-34-idUSASC09Z2Q |
Securus Technologies CEO & President honored as Gold Award Winner for Executive of the Year
American Business Award winners will be presented with their awards on June 11 in New York City
DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Securus Technologies, a leading provider of technology-enabled solutions for public safety, law enforcement, investigations, corrections and government payment services was named the winner of three awards in the 16th Annual American Business Awards on May 1 st .
Gold – Executive of the Year – Robert Pickens Silver – Support Staffer of the Year – Tamara Portis Bronze – Woman of the Year – Brenda Champion
The American Business Awards are the U.S.A.’s premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small.
Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word meaning “crowned,” the awards will be presented to winners at a gala ceremony at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York on Monday, June 11.
“I’m humbled to be named executive of the year and also very proud of the recognition of the accomplishments of Tamara and Brenda,” said Robert Pickens, Chief Executive Officer and President of Securus Technologies. “When I got to Securus ten years ago, it was a mid-sized inmate telecom company. Since then, we have experienced tremendous growth, both organically and through acquisitions, and have helped countless families maintain contact with incarcerated loved ones. We’ve also created tools that help the law enforcement community protect our communities. Finally, we’ve created educational opportunities and job training programs for inmates to help them achieve a better future for themselves. Today, we are the leading provider for all corrections and law enforcement technology needs. We achieved this through the hard work and dedication of all the men and women at our company who come to work every day and make America a safer place, and through the support and investment of our shareholders. This award is really for them.”
Securus also congratulates Tamara Portis and Brenda Champion. Their dedication to Securus, strong customer service, and teamwork are shining examples of why Securus has been so successful. Their tireless professionalism and that of others from the Securus family makes everything possible.
More than 200 professionals worldwide participated in the judging process to select this year’s Stevie Award winners.
“The nominations submitted for The 2018 American Business Awards were outstanding. The competition was intense, and those recognized as Stevie Award winners should be immensely proud of this accomplishment,” said Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards.
Details about The American Business Awards and the list of 2018 winners are available at www.StevieAwards.com/ABA .
ABOUT SECURUS TECHNOLOGIES
Headquartered in Carrollton, Texas, and serving more than 3,500 public safety, law enforcement and corrections agencies and over 1,200,000 inmates across North America, Securus Technologies is committed to serve and connect by providing emergency response, incident management, public information, investigation, biometric analysis, communication, information management, inmate self-service, monitoring products and services, and government payment services in order to help our customers with solutions to their problems and to make our world a safer place to live for all of us. Securus Technologies focuses on connecting what matters®. To learn more about our full suite of technology enabled solutions, please visit SecurusTechnologies.com .
ABOUT THE STEVIE AWARDS
Stevie Awards are conferred in seven programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards®, The International Business Awards®, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 10,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 60 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com .
View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180504005522/en/
Securus Technologies, Inc.
Mark Southland, 972-577-0687
[email protected]
Source: Securus Technologies, Inc. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/04/business-wire-robert-pickens-named-executive-of-the-year-by-2018-american-business-awards.html |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A foreign exchange trader in New York has been indicted in connection with a broader probe into the rigging of currency prices by major banks, U.S. prosecutors said on Thursday.
Akshay Aiyer conspired from at least October 2010 to July 2013 to eliminate competition by fixing prices of and rigging bids for Central and Eastern European, Middle Eastern and African currencies, according to the indictment filed with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Aiyer’s employer was not identified, but South African media reporting on the alleged rigging of that country’s currency, the rand, have said a person with that name worked for JPMorgan Chase & Co.
JPMorgan did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to similar requests.
The indictment said Aiyer’s co-conspirators included Jason Katz, a former trader at Barclays Plc and BNP Paribas SA, and Christopher Cummins, a former trader at Citigroup Inc.
Katz and Cummins pleaded guilty in January 2017 to conspiring to rig currencies.
Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and UBS Group AG have entered guilty pleas in the Justice Department’s currency probe, and have collectively been fined more than $2.8 billion.
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Sandra Maler
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-forex-manipulation/trader-indicted-in-u-s-over-currency-rigging-idUSKBN1IB2UU |
May 6, 2018 / 7:24 PM / Updated 2 hours ago UPDATE 2-ATP World Tour Masters 1000 / WTA Premier, Madrid Masters Women's Singles Results Reuters Staff 2 Results Masters 1000 / WTA Premier, Madrid Masters Women's 1st Round .. 1-Simona Halep (ROU) beat Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) 6-1 6-0 Elise Mertens (BEL) beat Alison Van Uytvanck (BEL) 6-4 6-4 Kristyna Pliskova (CZE) beat Natalia Vikhlyantseva 6-4 6-4 (RUS) Sara Sorribes Tormo (ESP) beat 13-Madison Keys (USA) 7-5 6-2 9-Sloane Stephens (USA) beat Silvia Soler Espinosa 6-3 6-2 (ESP) Samantha Stosur (AUS) beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1 6-7(2) 6-3 (RUS) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) beat Aleksandra Krunic (SRB) 6-3 6-3 3-Garbine Muguruza (ESP) beat Shuai Peng (CHN) 6-4 6-2 Donna Vekic (CRO) beat Georgina Garcia Perez 6-2 6-4 (ESP) Sorana Cirstea (ROU) beat Katerina Siniakova (CZE) 6-4 2-6 6-4 10-Petra Kvitova (CZE) beat Lesia Tsurenko (UKR) 6-1 6-2 Monica Puig (PUR) beat Zarina Diyas (KAZ) 6-4 2-6 6-2 Aliaksandra Sasnovich beat Danielle Collins (USA) 7-5 6-2 (BLR) Johanna Konta (GBR) beat 16-Magdalena Rybarikova 6-3 7-5 (SVK) Bernarda Pera (USA) beat Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) 6-4 2-6 6-3 Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP) beat Barbora Strycova (CZE) 6-3 6-3 Maria Sharapova (RUS) beat Mihaela Buzarnescu (ROU) 6-4 6-1 Shuai Zhang (CHN) beat Naomi Osaka (JPN) 6-1 7-5 15-Anastasija Sevastova beat Anna Schmiedlova (SVK) 6-3 4-6 6-3 (LAT) Ashleigh Barty (AUS) beat Sara Errani (ITA) 6-1 6-4 2-Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) beat Daria Gavrilova (AUS) 6-3 6-1 | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/tennis-atp-results-womens-singles/atp-world-tour-masters-1000-wta-premier-madrid-masters-womens-singles-results-idUKMTZXEE56BN1M65 |
May 25, 2018 / 2:36 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago Rohingya insurgents reject Amnesty report on Hindu villagers killed in Myanmar Reuters Staff 2 Min Read
YANGON (Reuters) - A Rohingya Muslim armed group on Friday denied a report that its members killed scores of Hindu civilians in August last year, amid a surge in violence in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine State.
In a report this week, rights group Amnesty International documented in detail alleged atrocities by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) near a remote village in Rakhine State.
The report, citing witnesses, including Hindu women who said they were abducted by ARSA insurgents, said fighters from the group killed as many as 99 Hindus near Kha Maung Seik after launching the raids on security posts on August 25.
“We categorically deny all of these unjustifiable and careless serious criminal accusations mentioned in the said report,” ARSA said in a statement signed by its leader Ata Ullah and posted on social media network Twitter late on Friday.
A military response to the Rohingya insurgent attacks pushed nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee from northern Rakhine to neighboring Bangladesh, which the United Nations and aid agencies called “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.
Myanmar rejected the accusation of ethnic cleansing, as well as most of the accounts of killings and rape recounted by many of the refugees arriving in Bangladesh. Reporting by Yimou Lee, Sam Aung Moon and Simon Lewis; Editing by Clarence Fernandez | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya/rohingya-insurgents-reject-amnesty-report-on-hindu-villagers-killed-in-myanmar-idUSKCN1IQ22E |
SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Zachry Holdings, Inc. (the “Company”) announces its first-quarter bondholder conference call.
The first-quarter bondholders’ call will be held on Tuesday, May 22, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. (Eastern Time). The call is available to holders of the Company’s Senior Notes and certain authorized users. Call-in information may be obtained by contacting Kirk McDonald via email: [email protected] . Also, call-in information is posted on the Company’s secure bondholder website.
About Zachry Holdings, Inc.
Zachry Holdings, Inc. has 90 years of experience delivering engineering, construction, maintenance, turnaround/outage and fabrication services to energy and industrial customers. Zachry develops long-term, high-trust, multi-project relationships with its customers and participates in a wide range of industry sectors including traditional and renewable power, petrochemical, refining, forest products and nuclear. The company operates 35 offices, and their 20,000 employees work in more than 400 locations nationwide. Visit www.zachrygroup.com for more information.
View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180508006041/en/
Zachry Holdings, Inc.
Kirk McDonald, 210-588-5157
[email protected]
Source: Zachry Holdings, Inc. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/08/business-wire-zachry-holdings-inc-announces-first-quarter-2018-conference-call.html |
Closing Bill Exchange: Never bet against Warren Buffett 2 Hours Ago Brian Milligan, Ave Maria Growth Fund; Steve Grasso, Stuart Frankel; and CNBC's Rick Santelli discuss today's markets. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/05/07/closing-bill-exchange-never-bet-against-warren-buffett.html |
By Aaron Pressman and Adam Lashinsky 9:17 AM EDT
This is the web version of Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the top tech news. To get it delivered daily to your in-box, sign up here .
If you’re fortunate enough to practice a craft and to achieve some modest success at it, and if you have even a modicum of humility, then you’re hyper aware of the giants of your field, the people whose least impressive effort is better than you’ll ever accomplish.
Journalist and novelist Tom Wolfe was one of the finest practitioners of narrative nonfiction ever to write in English. Wolfe, who died Tuesday at age 88 , was a lion of 20th century journalism, a hard-working, creative, brilliant writer, and a colorful character in his own right. There may be no better example of the genre than The Right Stuff , Wolfe’s meticulously researched and entertainingly told tale of the early American astronauts and the daring test pilot, Chuck Yeager, who never joined their ranks. He excelled at literary criticism, cultural and political portraits, and then, as if there was nothing left to achieve, fiction. His Bonfire of the Vanities recorded an era, the 1980s on Wall Street, as well as any writer ever will.
This being Data Sheet, it may shock you to know that Wolfe also wrote one of the best magazine feature stories every published about Silicon Valley. His December, 1983, profile in Esquire of Intel co-founder Robert Noyce captured the early days of the technology industry, a feat all the more astounding given Wolfe’s outsider status in these parts.
Anyone who thinks today’s “brogrammer” culture in the Valley is somehow new needs to read Wolfe’s insightful account of the proclivity of Intel men to leave their wives for the young women at work who found the engineers’ stories and business triumphs far more entertaining than their homebound spouses did.
I first read Wolfe’s Esquire article a baker’s dozen years ago when I was reporting a profile of Intel’s new CEO , Paul Otellini, who died last year. I asked the legendary Andy Grove, also no longer with us, about the Wolfe profile of his long-deceased boss, and Grove unleashed a typically expletive-laden condemnation of Wolfe’s sendup, arguing that Wolfe didn’t understand Silicon Valley.
I could see why Grove didn’t cotton to Wolfe’s account. But I thought then—and continue to think now—that Wolfe perfectly nailed the self-righteous, entitled, narcissistic mentality of the Valley, a place whose accomplishments equal its hubris. And this was nearly 35 years ago.
Godspeed, Tom Wolfe. @adamlashinsky NEWSWORTHY
All kinds of money . Digital currency startup Circle raised $110 million from private investors led by Chinese currency mining powerhouse Bitmain . The deal terms valued Circle at almost $3 billion, more than six times its value in 2016. Bitmain will work with Circle on efforts to tie new coins to actual currencies and make digital wallets more interoperable. “I think in the future the markets are not only about cryptocurrencies and ICOs but about stable tokens and traditional verticals like bonds and stocks,” Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu tells Fortune . Elsewhere in cryptocurrency startup land, Canaan , one of the largest makers of mining hardware setups, filed to go public in China and raise $1 billion. And phone maker HTC is trying to jump on the bandwagon with its new phone, called Exodus, that is chock full of features for digital currency traders.
All kinds of filters. Another day, another 2.5 million pieces of hate speech on Facebook . The social network said on Tuesday that it found that many bad posts in the first quarter, with 38% flagged by automated means and the rest caught by humans. The New York Times reports that the Justice Department is investigating Cambridge Analytica, the firm at the center of Facebook’s data oversharing scandal. Meanwhile, Twitter said it was incorporating many more variables into its algorithms to detect inappropriate or abusive tweets so such posts could be filtered out sooner.
Vow of silence. So just how dangerous is social media? So dangerous that a new set of guidelines from the Vatican is telling cloistered nuns not to overindulge . “These means must therefore be used with sobriety and discretion, not only with regard to the contents but also to the quantity of information and the type of communication,” the document states. Hopefully Pope Francis will still be able to tweet regularly to his 18 million followers.
Stripped down . With Apple’s iPad still dominating the tablet market, Microsoft is planning to release a line of cheaper Surface tablets of its own, Bloomberg reports. The new line, coming in the second half of the year, will start at $400 and have 10-inch screens.
Burning a hole in his pocket. Japanese billionaire and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son isn’t done spending his $100 billion Vision Fund, but he’s still looking ahead. Son is trying to drum up interes t to launch a new fund as early as 2019, Bloomberg reported.
Finally . The more than 1.5 million subscribers to AT&T’s DirecTV Now Internet video service finally are getting DVR capability, a year and half after launch. The upgrade , which includes 20 hours of stored recordings at no extra charge, arrives first on apps for Apple TV, iOS and the web, with Android, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku coming soon.
Zoom zoom zoom . Electric scooter scourge–I mean startup– Lime is raising another $500 million to spread its green and white rides to more cities. Some of the financing may come through debt, Axios reports.
Cheaper by the dozen. More discounts for Amazon Prime members are coming to Whole Foods . The company said Wednesday that members will get 10% off items already on sale, among other new perks. “What we’ve seen is when we do special deals for Prime members, we get a lot of traffic,” Whole Foods CEO John Mackey told Fortune . Advertisement FOOD FOR THOUGHT
With the changes wrought on our culture by smartphones and other digital technologies, the potential reach of marketing and promotion is deeper than ever before. But consumers are bombarded by so much information that marketers have to move beyond the usual kinds of advertising to cut through the clutter. In the Harvard Business Review , Antonis Kocheilas, managing director of strategy at Ogilvy Worldwide, examines how Nike is using new digital means to connect with its customers.
Space, as it relates to a brand system, denotes the proximity of a brand manifestation to a consumer. This goes beyond the traditional idea of physical availability — a term popularized by Byron Sharp, author of How Brands Grow, which he used to describe how brands can get their products physically in front of their consumers wherever they are, right when they want them. A successful brand must now be intimately integrated into the consumer’s life. It’s not enough for a brand to be physically available; it must also be relied upon.
Continuing with the example of Nike Plus, the Nike brand is granted access to personal health information so that it may help a consumer pursue their active lifestyle. As such, the Nike brand becomes spatially intimate with the consumer. Consumers trust and depend on Nike to help them carry out a certain aspect of their lifestyle. In this context, Nike acts as a lifestyle companion more so than a commercial entity. Thus, the consumer’s relationship with Nike becomes deeply personal, not just transactional. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://fortune.com/2018/05/16/data-sheet-tom-wolfe-obit-silicon-valley/ |
May 17, 2018 / 12:50 PM / Updated an hour ago Phoenix from the ashes: Investors pile into smaller European oil groups Shadia Nasralla 5 Investors have sent shares in European oil exploration and production (E&P) focussed companies like Premier ( PMO.L ), Tullow ( TLW.L ), EnQuest ( ENQ.L ) and Faroe ( FPM.L ), soaring, and some fund managers say they have not peaked yet. FILE PHOTO: A worker walks at a Tullow Oil explorational drilling site in Lokichar, Turkana County, Kenya, February 8, 2018. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo
Shares in smaller and mid-cap British oil companies are outperforming the London FTSE blue chip index .FTSE and their larger competitors .SXEP, riding the wave of rising oil prices LCOc1 much higher than oil majors.
“The sector has performed quite well, but not as well as it might have done, we’ve only just started the rally,” said Paul Mumford, senior fund manager at Cavendish Asset Management, who is invested in Faroe, EnQuest, Tullow, Hurricane Energy ( HUR.L ) and Cairn Energy ( CNE.L ) and other smaller E&P groups.
“I tend not to do majors. You’re not going to make ten times your money with BP and Shell, whereas with some of the (smaller companies) you will do that. It’s a very interesting undervalued part of the market.”
Smaller E&P companies have direct exposure to oil prices, reflected in benchmark Brent futures which have risen by around a quarter towards $80 a barrel in the past three months, levels last seen in late 2014.
Morgan Stanley, which sees oil prices rising to $90 a barrel in 2019/20, said in a note this week it was “time to increase E&P exposure”, raising E&Ps’ rating to attractive.
An index of 20 larger European oil and gas companies - most of which include refining and marketing operations known as downstream - rose by around a fifth in the past three months.
Meanwhile, pure E&Ps like Premier rose by around 60 percent, Tullow by 50 percent, Faroe by 40 percent and EnQuest by almost 30 percent. An index of smaller oil and gas groups rose by around 35 percent .TRXFLDEUPUOILE.
Low oil prices hit E&Ps harder than so-called integrated oil companies like the majors, whose downstream activities worked as a natural hedge when oil prices slumped starting in 2014.
With projects planned at a time of high oil prices, balance sheets came under pressure and debt mushroomed.
“Our sector has been unloved for a long time,” said Nathan Piper, who analyses mid-level oil companies for RBC. “Now they are (loved) - with some of these companies, which people thought would go out of business a couple of years ago, recovering.”
When oil prices were low, cost cuts and asset sales were the main way for companies trying to juggle rising debt, operating expenditure and lower revenues. Higher oil prices will allow debt piles to shrink faster - a focus for investors.
Barclays said this week that higher oil price assumptions had led it to raise 2018-20 “cash flow and price targets across our coverage group, with debt-levered oil producers benefiting the most. Current positive momentum is encouraging investors to revisit the sector.”
Tullow, with debt still at $3.4 billion, announced last month it swung back to profit after three years in the red, and is considering resuming dividend payments frozen in 2015.
British-based companies can carry forward tax losses, allowing groups to offset rising revenue in high-price periods against previous years’ losses - a double advantage for oil companies solely or mainly operating in Britain.
EnQuest, which is saddled with around $2 billion in debt, had corporate tax losses of over $3 billion at the end of 2017 so it will most likely not pay any material corporate tax on British operations for “the foreseeable future”, a spokesman said.
Premier, carrying $2.7 billion in debt, had $4 billion of UK tax losses and allowances to carry forward. It is ramping up its Catcher oil field and looking to expand in Mexico.
Premier Chief Executive Tony Durrant told Reuters investors are starting to realise the sector is undervalued and that he sees rising interest from generalist fund managers:
“Investor sentiment towards the sector is only just recovering. We were hit very hard on the downturn because we were leveraged. The logic is we’ve got further to go on the way back up. Over the coming weeks you’ll see some disclosable interest from some quite large institutional shareholders.”
But some investors are more reserved. Allianz energy analyst Rohan Murphy said he would like to see E&P companies’ valuations underpinned by more mergers and acquisitions and oil futures prices going up to signal the oil price rally has longer to run.
(European oil exploration and production shares May 16: reut.rs/2ImaUPx )
(E and P stocks versus sector: reut.rs/2wMxyvl ) Additional reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Adrian Croft | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oil-companies/phoenix-from-the-ashes-investors-pile-into-smaller-european-oil-groups-idUKKCN1II1T7 |
CALGARY, May 29, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Pembina Pipeline Corporation ("Pembina" or the "Company") (TSX: PPL; NYSE: PBA) announced an update to its 2018 guidance range and will host its annual Investor Day.
Pembina announced today that based on strong year-to-date results and the outlook for the remainder of the year, the Company has updated its 2018 Adjusted EBITDA guidance range to $2,650 to $2,750 million.
"We are seeing strong customer demand for our services, leading to increased utilization in the Pipelines and Facilities Divisions, and rising commodity prices are driving solid performance in our Marketing business," said Mick Dilger, Pembina's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Accordingly, we are raising the bottom end of our guidance range by $100 million."
Pembina's annual Investor Day will be held today at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto, Ontario, with a corporate presentation scheduled for 8:30 a.m. ET. The presentation will feature Pembina's executive team providing an update on corporate strategy, a business overview including project updates, and a review of Pembina's financial position.
A live webcast of the conference call can be accessed on Pembina's website at pembina.com under Investor Centre, Presentation & Events, or by entering: https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=reg20.jsp&referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pembina.com%2Finvestor-centre%2Fpresentations-and-events%2F&eventid=1586882&sessionid=1&key=175EA88F028C9CD48628882A2542CE5D®Tag=&sourcepage=register in your web browser. After the presentation a copy of the presentation and an archive of the webcast will be available on the website.
About Pembina
Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline Corporation is a leading transportation and midstream service provider that has been serving North America's energy industry for over 60 years. Pembina owns an integrated system of pipelines that transport various hydrocarbon liquids and natural gas products produced primarily in western Canada. The Company also owns gas gathering and processing facilities and an oil and natural gas liquids infrastructure and logistics business. Pembina's integrated assets and commercial operations along the majority of the hydrocarbon value chain allow it to offer a full spectrum of midstream and marketing services to the energy sector. Pembina is committed to identifying additional opportunities to connect hydrocarbon production to new demand locations through the development of infrastructure that would extend Pembina's service offering even further along the hydrocarbon value chain. These new developments will contribute to ensuring that hydrocarbons produced in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin and the other basins where Pembina operates can reach the highest value markets throughout the world.
Pembina strives to provide sustainable, industry-leading total returns for our investors; reliable and value-added services for our customers; a net positive impact to communities; and a safe, respectful, collaborative and fair work culture for our employees.
Pembina's strategy is to:
Preserve value by providing safe, environmentally conscious, cost-effective and reliable services; Diversify by providing integrated solutions which enhance profitability and customer service; Implement Growth by pursuing projects or assets that are expected to generate cash flow per share accretion and capture long-life, economic hydrocarbon reserves; and Secure Global Markets by understanding what the world needs, where they need it, and delivering it.
Pembina is structured into three Divisions: Pipelines Division, Facilities Division and Marketing & New Ventures Division.
Pembina's common shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges under PPL and PBA, respectively. For more information, visit www.pembina.com .
Forward-Looking Information and Statements
This news release contains certain forward-looking information and statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements") that are based on Pembina's current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends. In this news release, such forward-looking information and statements can be identified by terminology such as "guidance", "outlook", "expects", "will", and similar expressions suggesting future events or future performance.
In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements, including certain financial outlooks, pertaining to, without limitation, the following: anticipated future adjusted EBITDA; expectations around continuing producer activity and development; the ongoing utilization and expansions of and additions to Pembina's business and asset base, growth and growth potential. These forward-looking statements are being made by Pembina based on certain assumptions that Pembina has made in respect thereof as at the date of this news release, regarding, among other things: oil and gas industry exploration and development activity levels; the success of Pembina's operations and growth projects; prevailing commodity prices, margins, volumes and exchange rates; that Pembina's future results of operations will be consistent with past performance and management expectations in relation thereto; the continued availability of capital at attractive prices to fund future capital requirements relating to existing assets and projects, including but not limited to future capital expenditures relating to expansion, upgrades and maintenance shutdowns; that any third party projects relating to Pembina's growth projects will be sanctioned and completed as expected; that any required commercial agreements can be reached; that all required regulatory and environmental approvals can be obtained on the necessary terms in a timely manner; that counterparties to material agreements will continue to perform in a timely manner; that there are no unforeseen events preventing the performance of contracts; that there are no unforeseen material construction, integrity or other costs related to current growth projects or current operations; and prevailing interest and tax rates.
Although Pembina believes the expectations and material factors and assumptions reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the date hereof, there can be no assurance that these expectations, factors and assumptions will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned that events or circumstances could cause results those predicted, forecasted or projected. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur, which may cause actual performance and financial results in future periods any projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and information. These known and unknown risks and uncertainties, include, but are not limited to: the ability of Pembina to raise sufficient capital (or to raise sufficient capital on favourable terms) to fund future expansions and growth projects and satisfy future commitments; failure to negotiate and conclude any required commercial agreements or failure to obtain project sanctioning; increased construction costs, or construction delays, on Pembina's expansion and growth projects; labour and material shortages; non-performance of agreements in accordance with their terms; the impact of competitive entities and pricing; reliance on key industry partners, alliances and agreements; the strength and operations of the oil and natural gas production industry and related commodity prices; the continuation or completion of third-party projects; actions by governmental or regulatory authorities including changes in tax laws and treatment, changes in royalty rates or increased environmental regulation; adverse general economic and market conditions in Canada, North America and elsewhere; construction delays; labour and material shortages; and certain other risks detailed from time to time in Pembina's public disclosure documents including, among other things, those detailed under the heading "Risk Factors" in Pembina's management's discussion and analysis and annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2017, which can be found at www.sedar.com .
The forward-looking statements are expressly qualified by the above statements, and speak only as of the date of this document. Pembina does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements or information contained herein, except as required by applicable laws. The forward-looking statements contained in this document are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Readers are cautioned that management of Pembina approved the financial outlook contained herein as of the date of this press release. The purpose of the financial outlook contained herein is to give the reader an indication of the value to Pembina of planned capital projects and ongoing operations. Readers should be aware that the information contained in the financial outlook contained herein may not be appropriate for other purposes.
Non-GAAP Measures
The intent of Non-GAAP measures is to provide additional useful information respecting Pembina's financial and operational performance to investors and analysts and the measures do not have any standardized meaning under IFRS. The measures should not be considered in isolation or used in substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. Since Non-GAAP financial measures are unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies, securities regulations require that Non-GAAP financial measures are clearly defined, qualified and reconciled to their nearest GAAP measure.
In this news release, Pembina has used the term adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Adjusted EBITDA), which does not have any standardized meaning under IFRS ("Non-GAAP Measures"). Readers are encouraged to refer to Pembina's management's discussion and analysis for the period ended March 31, 2018, which is available online at www.sedar.com , www.sec.gov and through Pembina's website at www.pembina.com for Pembina's Non-GAAP definitions, quantifications and reconciliations.
View original content: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pembina-pipeline-corporation-updates-2018-guidance-and-will-host-annual-investor-day-300655288.html
SOURCE Pembina Pipeline Corporation | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/29/pr-newswire-pembina-pipeline-corporation-updates-2018-guidance-and-will-host-annual-investor-day.html |
864 COMMENTS Taxpayers should soon be receiving some good news from Washington. President Donald Trump and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) appear to have found a way to enact modest federal spending restraint, despite resistance from some GOP senators. Faced with a number of Republicans who claim they cannot repeal their 2018 spending surge because they made a deal with Democrats, Mr. Trump and House GOP leaders instead aim to cut funding approved in previous years. This amounts to billions of dollars that bureaucrats never got around to spending, and now perhaps they never will.
The idea that Republicans were honor-bound to continue all the spending that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) recently extracted probably makes little sense to those outside of government. This is especially true because, to secure his new budget buster, Mr. Schumer had to break his own previous agreement with Republicans to abide by reasonable limits on discretionary spending.
The opportunity to impose some small measure of discipline now exists because spending rules make it easier to rescind federal spending than to approve it in the first place. Republicans needed 60 votes on the first go-round so they had to deal with Mr. Schumer unless they wanted another government shutdown. The result exceeded the 2018 and 2019 spending caps under the Budget Control Act by a total of nearly $300 billion.
President Trump expressed contempt for this bipartisan fiscal disaster in March, but he signed it anyway. Then the Journal’s Kimberley Strassel pointed out that spending rescissions can happen with a simple majority. Now Capitol Hill is expecting an imminent White House request for taxpayer savings. By leaving untouched the 2018 omnibus train wreck that starred Chuck—rather than Amy—Schumer, the White House has provided a path for senators to do right by taxpayers while also honoring their Beltway values. On Sunday Mr. McCarthy told Fox News that some taxpayer money is still sitting in accounts for programs that no longer even exist.
Will some GOP senators find a new reason to resist spending restraint even after the Schumer excuse is taken off the table? It won’t be easy because those who favor spending cuts will likely now be able to force a vote. This will encourage reluctant GOP senators to endorse at least a baby step toward budget sanity.
Democrats may also have trouble maintaining their unified blue wall for ever-higher spending. Incumbents running in states that Mr. Trump carried—including Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Jon Tester of Montana—will not welcome an opportunity to go on record against modest reform and may be inclined to vote yes.
Then they can make their own excuses to Mr. Schumer.
***
Bottom Stories of the Day
Arizona Voters Regret Believing Promise of ObamaCare Repeal
“McCain says he regrets picking Palin as running mate,” The Hill, May 5
Any Regrets Among Voters in San Ramon?
“ Facebook revealed last month that the median pay of its employees was $240,430 a year. But the fire chief in San Ramon has been doing pretty well, too, with total pay and benefits of $516,344 in 2016, according to the website Transparent California,” New York Times, May 7
Pollster May Regret Conducting Survey Showing Trump Surge
“This week’s Reuters/Ipsos Core Political release presents something of an outlier of our trend. Every series of polls has the occasional outlier and in our opinion this is one. So, while we are reporting the findings in the interest of transparency, we will not be announcing the start of a new trend until we have more data to validate this pattern,” Ipsos, May 4
The Lonely Lives of Scientists
“Scientists excited by huge New Zealand sinkhole,” Flipboard, May 7
And She Hasn’t Even Been Confirmed Yet
“Trump’s Nominee to Lead the CIA Divides the Resistance,” Bloomberg, May 6
***
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(Lisa Rossi helps compile Best of the Web. Thanks to Tony Lima, Irene DeBlasio, Jackie Harty and Frederick Welk.) | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-targets-the-schumer-excuse-1525719078 |
May 2 (Reuters) - AL EQBAL INVESTMENT COMPANY PLC:
* SHAREHOLDERS PROPOSE CAPITAL INCREASE TO 60 MILLION DINARS FROM 30 MILLION DINARS VIA BONUS SHARES Source: ( bit.ly/2JMvC7N ) Further company coverage:
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-al-eqbal-investment-shareholders-p/brief-al-eqbal-investment-shareholders-propose-capital-increase-idUSFWN1S902I |
SAN DIEGO, May 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- iMatrix, a leader in the field of websites and internet marketing solutions for practice-based businesses, has hired Aubrey Williams as its Director of Sales and Training. In this role he will develop and execute strategies for account development, sales, and the training program that has already contributed to iMatrix employees being the best in the business. Prior to joining iMatrix, he was the Director of Inside Sales at Sound, a VCA company and a global veterinary imaging leader and source for digital x-ray, ultrasound systems and education, PACS, advanced imaging tools, and imaging support.
Williams is a high-energy leader with experience in growing revenue. He excels in driving business from strategic, long-term planning and focuses on forecasting, operations, process improvement, and working with cross-functional teams to support sales initiatives.
“I believe that efficiency and great service are both essential for a company's success,” said Williams. “When I was at Sound, my goal was to increase efficiency and further improve customer loyalty. I intend to bring the same goals – and the accompanying increases in customer satisfaction – to iMatrix in its time of growth."
Williams joins iMatrix during an exciting time. The company recently introduced an entirely new service platform that includes a greatly improved website editor interface with excellent site customization capabilities and a greatly expanded website design gallery that includes themes with video background and live demo capabilities.
Since 2002, iMatrix has cut through online marketing clutter by providing solutions that are precisely tailored to specific areas of practice, strategically focusing on niche markets such as the chiropractic, veterinary, and eye care industries. This allows the company to properly address the needs and concerns of businesses in these fields and for its clients to reap the benefits of its signature tailored approach.
About iMatrix
iMatrix is a leader in providing online marketing solutions for small to medium size practice-based businesses looking to expand in a local market. Our online marketing services include professionally designed websites, social media management, online reputation management, video marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and custom advanced SEO solutions. The company is a Google Premier Partner with more than 12,000 clients. Learn more about their online marketing solutions and mobile-friendly websites at www.iMatrix.com .
iMatrix, 1-800-462-8749
Source: iMatrix | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/11/globe-newswire-imatrix-hires-aubrey-williams-as-director-of-sales-and-training.html |
STEVENSON, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The securities litigation law firm of Brower Piven, A Professional Corporation, has commenced an investigation into possible breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of state law by the Board of Directors of SteadyMed Ltd. (Nasdaq: STDY) (“SteadyMed” or the “Company”) relating to the proposed buyout of SteadyMed by United Therapeutics Corporation.
Under the terms of the agreement, SteadyMed shareholders are anticipated to receive $4.46 per share in cash, with an additional $2.63 per share in cash upon achievement of a certain milestone related to SteadyMed’s Trevyent drug-device combination product for each share of SteadyMed common stock held. The firm’s investigation seeks to determine, among other things, whether the Company’s Board of Directors failed to satisfy their duties to shareholders, including whether the Board adequately pursued alternatives to the acquisition and whether the Board obtained the best price possible for the Company’s shares of common stock.
If you currently own common stock of SteadyMed and believe that the proposed buyout price is too low, and you would like to learn more about the investigation being conducted, without cost or obligation to you, please contact Brower Piven either by email at [email protected] or by telephone at (410) 415-6616.
Attorneys at Brower Piven have extensive experience in litigating securities and other class action cases and have been advocating for the rights of shareholders since the 1980s.
View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180430006325/en/
Brower Piven, A Professional Corporation
Charles J. Piven, 410-415-6616
1925 Old Valley Road
Stevenson, Maryland 21153
[email protected]
Source: Brower Piven, A Professional Corporation | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/30/business-wire-shareholder-alert-brower-piven-commences-an-investigation-into-the-proposed-sale-of-steadymed-ltd-aand-encourages-investors.html |
May 6, 2018 / 6:38 AM / Updated an hour ago North Korea says denuclearisation pledge not result of U.S.-led sanctions Haejin Choi , Hyonhee Shin 3 Min Read
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Sunday its intention to denuclearise, unveiled at a historic inter-Korean summit, was not the result of U.S.-led sanctions and pressure, warning the United States not to mislead public opinion. FILE PHOTO: South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (L) are about to shake hands on their first ever meeting at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, South Korea, April 27, 2018. Korea Summit Press Pool via Reuters/File Photo
Impoverished North Korea has been hit by a series of U.N. and U.S. sanctions in recent years in a bid to rein in its nuclear and missile programmes.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in vowed “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean peninsula in the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade on April 27, but the declaration did not include concrete steps to reach that goal.
The North’s official KCNA news agency said Washington was “misleading public opinion” by claiming the denuclearisation pledge was the result of sanctions and other pressure.
The United States should not “deliberately provoke” the North by moving to deploy strategic assets in South Korea and raising human rights issues, KCNA said, citing a foreign ministry spokesman.
“This act cannot be construed otherwise than a dangerous attempt to ruin the hardly-won atmosphere of dialogue and bring the situation back to square one,” the spokesman was quoted as saying.
It would not be conducive to resolving the issue of denuclearisation if Washington miscalculated North Korea’s “peace-loving intention” as a sign of weakness and continued to pursue its pressure and military threats, KCNA said.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who plans to meet Kim over the next few weeks, has said he will maintain sanctions and pressure on the North and “not repeat the mistakes of past administrations” and has said his tough stance had led to the breakthrough.
Trump told the National Rifle Association’s annual convention in Dallas on Friday that he had toned down his rhetoric in anticipation of the talks after labelling Kim “Little Rocket Man” last year and threatening him with “fire and fury”.
Moon said Trump deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the standoff with the North.
The White House said that Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, met his South Korean counterpart, Chung Eui-yong, on Friday and both said there were no plans to change the U.S.–South Korea bilateral defence posture.
North and South Korea are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. South Korea said U.S. troops need to stay in the area even after a peace treaty is concluded to replace the armistice.
The United States stations 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the war. Reporting by Haejin Choi and Hyonhee Shin | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-northkorea-southkorea/north-korea-says-denuclearisation-pledge-not-result-of-u-s-led-sanctions-idUKKBN1I703P |
May 7 (Reuters) - Everi Holdings Inc:
* Q1 EARNINGS PER SHARE $0.06 * Q1 REVENUE $111 MILLION VERSUS I/B/E/S VIEW $106.9 MILLION
* Q1 EARNINGS PER SHARE VIEW $-0.01 — THOMSON REUTERS I/B/E/S
* EVERI HOLDINGS-INTENDS TO CAPITALIZE ON FINANCIAL POSITION, FAVORABLE MARKET CONDITIONS TO REPRICE ITS $814 MILLION TERM LOAN SCHEDULED TO MATURE IN 2024
* CAPITAL EXPENDITURES IN 2018 ARE EXPECTED TO BE APPROXIMATELY $125 MILLION TO $130 MILLION Source text for Eikon:
Our | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-everi-q1-earnings-per-share-006/brief-everi-q1-earnings-per-share-0-06-idUSASC0A06L |
May 16, 2018 / 2:47 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Ash cloud from Hawaii volcano sparks red alert for aviation Terray Sylvester 4 Min Read
PAHOA, Hawaii (Reuters) - Explosions intensified on Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano on Tuesday, spewing ash and triggering a red alert for aircraft for the first time since the latest eruption began 12 days ago.
Ash and volcanic smog, or vog, as it is called, rose to 12,000 feet (3,657 meters) above Kilauea’s crater and floated southwest, showering cars on Highway 11 with grey dust and prompting an “unhealthy air” advisory in the community of Pahala, 18 miles (29 km) from the summit.
An aviation red alert means a volcanic eruption is under way that could spew ash along aircraft routes, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) says on its website.
Ash was also a new hazard for residents of Hawaii’s Big Island, already grappling with volcanic gas and lava that has destroyed 37 homes and other structures and forced the evacuation of about 2,000 residents.
A shift in winds was expected to bring ash and vog inland on Wednesday and make them more concentrated, said John Bravender of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“We’re observing more or less continuous emission of ash now with intermittent, more energetic ash bursts or plumes,” Steve Brantley, a deputy scientist in charge at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO), said on a conference call with reporters.
The observatory warned the eruption could become more violent.
“At any time, activity may become more explosive, increasing the intensity of ash production and producing ballistic projectiles near the vent,” the HVO said in a statement on the change in aviation alert level to red from orange.
Ash is not poisonous but irritates the nose, eyes and airways. It can make roads slippery and large emissions could cause the failure of electrical power lines, said USGS chemist David Damby. Jolon Clinton, 15, (L), and her sister, Halcy, 17, take photos of a fissure near their home on the outskirts of Pahoa during ongoing eruptions of the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester NEW FISSURE
The eruption has hit the island’s tourism industry.
Big Island summer hotel bookings have dropped by almost half from last year, Rob Birch, executive director of the Island of Hawaii Visitor Bureau, told journalists on a conference call.
College exchange student Constantin Plinke, 24, was planning to go to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park before it was shut.
“We had a big list of things to do and maybe 80 percent of them were in the national park,” he said, after stopping by the side of the road to watch ash plumes rising into the air. “It’s sad.”
The area taking the brunt of the eruption is about 25 miles (40 km) down Kilauea’s eastern flank, near the village of Pahoa. Lava has burst from the ground to tear through housing developments and farmland, threatening one of the last exit routes from coastal areas, state Highway 132.
The latest fissure in the earth opened on Tuesday, spewing lava and toxic gases that pushed air quality into “condition red” around Lanipuna Gardens and nearby farms, causing “choking and inability to breathe,” the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and Hawaii County Civil Defense said.
Road crews put metal plates over steaming cracks on nearby Highway 130 and reopened it to give coastal residents an escape route should a lava flow reach the ocean and block another road, Highway 137, Civil Defense said.
No major injuries or deaths have been reported from the eruption. Slideshow (2 Images)
A looming menace remains the possibility of an “explosive eruption” of Kilauea, an event last seen in 1924. Pent-up steam could drive a 20,000-foot (6,100-meter) ash plume out of the crater and scatter debris over 12 miles (19 km), the USGS said. Reporting by Terray Sylvester in Pahoa; additional reporting by Jolyn Rosa in Honolulu; Writing by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Clarence Fernandez | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hawaii-volcano/ash-cloud-from-hawaii-volcano-sparks-aviation-red-alert-idUKKCN1IH07K |
CEO Pay The Highest Paid CEO on the S&P 500 Made 2,000 Times the Average U.S. Worker in 2017 Hock Tan, chief executive officer of Broadcom Ltd., center, speaks as U.S. President Donald Trump, center right, listens during an announcement in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington D.C., U.S., on Nov. 2, 2017. Tan said the company will return its headquarters to the U.S. from Singapore and the move to domicile the company would bring $20 billion in revenue into the country. Martin H. Simon—Bloomberg via Getty Images By Lucinda Shen May 9, 2018
The title of highest-paid CEO among the U.S.’s largest companies goes to Broadcom executive Hock Tan, who earned $103.2 million in 2017.
The semiconductor company’s CEO beat out second place Les Moonves, CEO of CBS ($69.3 million), and third place W. Nicholas Harvey, CEO of aerospace components maker Transdigm’s ($6l million), according to the Wall Street Journal.
In 2017, Tan had a base, cash salary of $1.1 million, plus a performance bonus of $3.7 million for exceeding revenue and operating margin targets in the year. Also wrapped into his nine-digit payday: some $23,234 in travel expenses for Tan to travel to his Pennsylvanian residence (Broadcom completed its move from Singapore to California in April), as well as $16,200 in 401(K) employer matching contribution, and another $36,386 for car service.
But all of that pales in comparison to the shares Broadcom awarded to Tan that had a value of $98.3 million, according to regulatory filings. All together, Tan earned $103.2 million—about 318% higher than a year earlier.
And so on the face of it, Tan earned roughly 2,039 times more than the average U.S. worker, who pulled in $50,620 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Still, it’s not as simple as that. That $98.3 million in stock awards won’t be immediately available to Tan. Instead, those stock awards will vest in 2020 and 2021, while the number of shares Tan will be eligible for will also depend on the value of Broadcom shares at the end of those two periods.
For example, if Broadcom shares perform better than 90% of companies in the S&P 500, Tan would be eligible for shares worth $179.2 million by 2021. Though on the flip side, if Broadcom shares perform worse than 75% of S&P 500 companies, Tan will receive no shares.
The compensation structure, common in many companies, is used to keep CEOs in their jobs over the long run, while tying their compensation to the company’s health. In doing so, the logic goes, chief executives are more motivated to improve and grow their company rather than making decisions based on the short term.
Even when factoring that in, however, it is hard to deny that the gap in pay between CEOs and the average worker is startling. According to the Journal, CEOs received raises of 9.7% or better compared to last year. Average hourly earnings for all U.S. workers, in contrast, rose 2.9%.
It’s no new trend. Adjusted for inflation, CEO pay skyrocketed 997% between 1987 and 2014—vastly outpacing the 10.9% gains made by the typical workers , according to a study from the Economic Policy Institute. But lawmakers and regulators are now making changes to tax laws and reporting standards in the hopes of addressing that gap. The Securities and Exchange Commission now requires companies to include pay-ratio disclosures, particularly the difference between median worker pay and that of the chief executive (Broadcom did not have to make that disclosure, as its fiscal 2017 year began in October 2016. Only companies reporting after Jan. 1, 2017 reported the ratio this year).
Separately, the tax bill signed in 2017 by President Donald Trump also does away with a tax deduction for performance-based pay. Previously, the first $1 million in executive pay was tax exempt—though any additional pay based on performance was also exempt. Under the new law, the federal government is expected to collect $9.3 billion more over a 10-year period.
Whether these changes will have an impact the trend of ever-rising CEO pay remains to be seen. SPONSORED FINANCIAL CONTENT | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://fortune.com/2018/05/09/ceo-pay-wage-gap-best-paid-sp-500/ |
Alaska Airlines plans to close its New York base in September to reinforce its West Coast fleet, asking more than 100 pilots to relocate to California in a matter of months.
The airline acquired Virgin America in April 2016 for a reported $4 billion which grew Alaska into the fifth largest airline in the U.S., serving over 44 million passengers in 2017.
Both aircraft and pilots, which flew routes from JFK, Newark EWR and La Guardia, will relocate and deploy from West Coast hubs this fall, although the company's aircraft will still serve that market. Prior to the merger, Virgin America competed with established airlines on this trans-continental route for over a decade, by advertising as the cool, alternative airline of Silicon Valley.
"This was a difficult decision — but a necessary one — based on the need to match our pilot staffing with the geographic areas on the West Coast where we deploy our aircraft every day. All of our JFK-based pilots are being offered the opportunity to transfer to either Los Angeles or San Francisco," a spokesperson for the airline told CNBC via email.
Alaska, along with Virgin America, currently operate fourteen flights a day to JFK and the company says it will add another in July.
Mid-continental and East Coast routes accounted for 4 percent of the Alaska's flight composition back in 2013, which climbed to 10 percent after the merger. In that same timeframe, Alaska's California presence has climbed from 15 percent to 25 percent in network composition, which could increase after the transition. Pulling pilots and aircraft from New York could potentially lower volume and weaken the company's leverage in any future merger deals while lowering expectations of international growth into Europe and Asia.
Alaska now serves 115-plus destinations from seven hubs along the West Coast. The airline leads domestic seat share in Seattle, Portland and Anchorage. It ranks second in San Francisco and fifth at LAX. However, transferring its New York workforce westward might not lead to sustained growth in the region. United Airlines still accounts for more than 40,000 seats per day at SFO, nearly four times more than Alaska. At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Delta has increased its stake by offering 50-plus destinations including eight foreign countries. Alaska will also face tough competition down the road in Hawaii, as Southwest Airlines is launching a low-cost service from four California cities, including inter-island routes.
show chapters American Airlines and Allegiant on DOT audit of FAA oversight 3:24 PM ET Wed, 9 May 2018 | 00:55 Many destinations in Mexico and Alaska that are already served by Alaskan Airlines from West Coast hubs are not oversaturated with direct flights from New York area airports. Popular Mexican vacations spots such as Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos, have little or no direct flights from New York. There are also no domestic airlines offering direct service to Anchorage, Alaska from JFK or Newark. Only a seven-and-half-hour flight, a summer seasonal direct option to Alaska's largest city could tap into the multi-billion dollar tourism sector which continues to grow in the Frontier State.
Alaska Airlines says its growth model consists of three parts, flying customers to desired locations for affordable fares, building loyalty through benefit programs and adding network depth and frequency. Alaska has promised the integration of Virgin America is ahead of industry standards and would be 85 percent complete by June of this year. However, pilots who are now Alaskan employees are still wearing Virgin uniforms, wings and flying Virgin branded aircraft.
Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect that Alaska and Virgin America currently operate fourteen flights a day to JFK. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/15/alaska-airlines-plans-to-pull-its-planes-and-pilots-out-of-new-york.html |
* Tongaat FY profits fall 37 pct
* Annual dividend nearly halved, shares fall
* Sugar producer in talks with Angola to grow presence (Recasts with growth in Angola, adds share price, gives CEO comment)
By Tanisha Heiberg
JOHANNESBURG, May 28 (Reuters) - Tongaat Hulett aims to expand its business in Angola and other African nations that rely on sugar imports, in line with a strategy to bulk up in the central and southern region of the continent, the company said on Monday.
The South African sugar producer said it had begun talks to expand its activities in Angola, an oil-producing nation which has a sugar deficit of over 300,000 tonnes a year that has mostly been met by Latin American and Asian producers.
Tongaat announced its plans for Angola eight months after Joao Lourenco secured the presidency of the oil producing nation with promises to revive the economy, attract investment and fight corruption.
“Traditional suppliers of many of the African markets have been places like Brazil, Thailand and India and we believe we will be displacing them in the future,” Chief Executive Officer Peter Staude told Reuters.
Tongaat, which already exports sugar to Angola, said it had set up teams to work with Angola’s agriculture and commerce ministries to investigate options to regulate the sugar market.
The firm, which also reported a fall in annual dividend payout, would then build a sugar packaging and distribution facility and investigate the suitability of various regions for the production of crops such as sugarcane and cassava.
Tongaat declared a final dividend of 60 cents per share, bringing the annual dividend to 160 cents, compared with 300 cents in the previous year and posted lower profits weighed down by higher-than-expected sugar imports into South Africa and low international prices, sending down shares.
Shares in Tongaat Hulett fell more than 3 percent before paring losses down 2.8 pct to 85.28 rand by 1206 GMT.
“The sugar operations were adversely affected by the dynamics of imports into the South African market, low international sugar prices and the impact of stronger local currencies on export realisations,” the company said in a statement.
Sugar production rose 10 percent to 1,171 million tonnes, reflecting a slight recovery in drought conditions of the previous two seasons.
An El Nino-induced drought in southern Africa, which led to the driest year on record in 2015, crippled production of maize, sugar and other agricultural products.
$1 = 12.4500 rand Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Edmund Blair
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/tongaathulett-results/update-1-tongaats-fy-profit-falls-37-pct-on-higher-sugar-imports-by-south-africa-idUSL5N1SZ0FO |
Most stocks in Asia closed lower on Wednesday as markets processed new geopolitical uncertainty related to North Korea and the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rising to its highest level in seven years overnight.
Japan's Nikkei 225 eased 0.44 percent, or 100.79 points, to close at 22,717.23 and the broader Topix slipped 0.27 percent as mining and oil shares weighed. Banking stocks also pulled back.
Elsewhere, South Korea's benchmark Kospi finished the day little changed at 2,459.82 after trading both above and below the flat line, a 0.05 percent gain. Gains by heavyweight Samsung Electronics offset declines seen in oil refiners and stocks in the manufacturing sector.
Symbol Name Price Change %Change NIKKEI --- HSI --- ASX 200 --- SHANGHAI --- KOSPI --- CNBC 100 --- Greater China markets drifted lower: Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index shed 0.52 percent by 3:00 p.m. HK/SIN, extending losses seen in the last session but off its session lows. Hong Kong-listed tech giant Tencent traded lower by 1.16 percent by 3:00 p.m. HK/SIN ahead of earnings due later.
On the mainland, the Shanghai composite declined 0.7 percent to close at 3,169.71 and the Shenzhen composite shed 0.41 percent to finish the session at 1,832.27. Financials were among the worst-performing sectors in Shanghai, with major insurers and banks downbeat. New China Life Insurance dropped 3.83 percent and China Pacific Insurance fell 4.03 percent.
Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 clung to gains and edged up by 0.15 percent to 6,107. Most of the country's heavily weighted "Big Four" banks carved out gains while the energy sector led gains on the index.
MSCI's broad index of shares in Asia Pacific excluding Japan slipped 0.18 percent in Asia afternoon trade.
North Korea concerns Geopolitics were also in focus after new developments out of North Korea. Pyongyang said on Wednesday it would reconsider an upcoming landmark meeting if the U.S. insisted on it giving up its nuclear weapons, Reuters said, citing North Korean media.
Earlier, North Korea had suddenly dropped plans for talks with South Korea slated to take place on Wednesday. Joint military drills between South Korea and the U.S. were highlighted as a reason for the cancellation of talks, Reuters reported, citing North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency.
In currencies, the dollar index, which tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of rivals, was gave up some overnight gains after firming to its strongest levels since December in the last session. The dollar index last stood at 93.263 at 2:52 p.m. HK/SIN after rising as high 93.457 on Tuesday.
Against the yen, the dollar traded at 110.25 — near levels not seen since February.
The tepid performance in Asia came after U.S. stocks closed lower on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average snapping eight consecutive days of gains.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose to 3.09 percent on Tuesday, its highest level in around seven years . That followed the release of solid data overnight: Retail sales stateside for April were in line with forecasts, rising 0.3 percent.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield was at 3.06 percent in Asia afternoon trade.
"Why this is significant, is that if bonds are embarked on a journey to higher yields, then the recent outflows from troubled emerging market countries (Argentina, Turkey, Indonesia) could become even greater," ING Chief Economist Robert Carnell wrote in a note.
Others market participants, however, said rising rates were not necessarily negative for emerging markets .
"Frankly, it's been so much discussed, it is completely priced in. There's no surprise. We all know that these rates are rising. The question has always been about the pace," Karine Hirn, partner at emerging markets manager East Capital, told CNBC's "Squawk Box."
Oil prices traded lower as markets focused on U.S. crude stockpiles along with the potential impact of U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil exports. U.S. crude futures edged down by 0.46 percent to trade at $70.98 per barrel and Brent crude futures shed 0.29 percent to trade at $78.20.
In individual movers, dairy company A2 Milk slumped 13.74 percent in New Zealand after announcing it expected full-year revenue to come in between 900 million New Zealand dollars ($618 million) and NZ$920 million ($631 million). That was below a Thomson Reuters forecast of NZ$940 million.
In Australia, shares of Myer jumped 16 percent after the department store operator reported that its third-quarter sales declined 2.7 percent. That was slower than the 3.6 percent drop in the first half of the year, Reuters reported. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/15/asia-markets-us-bond-yields-stocks-dollar-and-oil-in-focus.html |
MIAMI, May 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Starwood Capital Group ("Starwood"), a leading global private investment firm, announced today that a controlled affiliate has agreed to sell a portfolio of 14 U.K. hotels that form part of The Principal Hotel Company to Foncière des Régions (through its subsidiary dedicated to hotel real estate, Foncière des Murs). Terms of the transaction, which is expected to be completed in June 2018, were not disclosed.
The portfolio consists of 14 leading, full-service hotels comprised of 2,638 keys and split across two distinct landmark brands, Principal (12 hotels) and De Vere (2 hotels). The properties occupy flagship locations in high-growth cities across the U.K., including London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford, York and Leeds. Included in the portfolio are The Principal London and The Principal Manchester, two of the most iconic and historic hotels in the U.K.
"This landmark transaction represents a major milestone in our remarkable journey with The Principal Hotel Company," said Cody Bradshaw, Managing Director and Head of European Hotels for Starwood Capital Group. "Five years ago, we embarked on an investment strategy aimed at consolidating more than 50 hotels across four different U.K. hotel companies to form a leading platform. With this sale to Foncière des Régions, we will have realized 35 asset disposals in total since our acquisition. As long-term institutional investors, Foncière des Régions are extraordinary custodians of real estate and we could not be more thrilled to pass them this iconic collection of assets."
The Principal Hotel Company includes many of the properties that Starwood acquired through the purchase of Principal Hayley in 2013, Four Pillars and De Vere in 2014, and the Townhouse Collection in 2015, and the subsequent combination of the four portfolios. Starwood has invested significant capital into the portfolio in recent years to reinvigorate the properties and relaunch the Principal and De Vere brands to the market. This includes the highly acclaimed openings of The Principal Edinburgh Charlotte Square, The Principal York, The Principal Manchester, The Principal Edinburgh George Street and the flagship of the brand, The Principal London, which will complete its dramatic restoration this summer. The De Vere brand recently celebrated its official relaunch following substantial investment across the estate, which saw its historic, mansion house hotels extensively renovated to celebrate their British heritage and stunning natural landscapes. Following the successful rollout of its new Smart Space meeting and events product, together with nearly a dozen new restaurants and bars, De Vere has cemented its position as the U.K.'s leading independent conference hotel group.
Eastdil Secured and UBS served as advisors on the transaction.
About Starwood Capital Group
Starwood Capital Group is a private alternative investment firm with a core focus on global real estate, energy infrastructure and oil & gas. The Firm and its affiliates maintain 11 offices in five countries around the world, and currently have approximately 3,800 employees. Starwood Capital Group has raised $45 billion of equity capital since its inception in 1991, and currently manages approximately $56 billion in assets. The Firm has invested in virtually every category of real estate on a global basis, opportunistically shifting asset classes, geographies and positions in the capital stack as it perceives risk/reward dynamics to be evolving. Over the past 26 years, Starwood Capital Group and its affiliates have successfully executed an investment strategy that involves building enterprises in both the private and public markets. Additional information can be found at starwoodcapital.com .
View original content: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/starwood-capital-group-agrees-to-sell-an-830m-1-1b-portfolio-of-uk-hotels-to-fonciere-des-regions-300641638.html
SOURCE Starwood Capital Group | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/03/pr-newswire-starwood-capital-group-agrees-to-sell-an-a830m-1-point-1b-portfolio-of-u-k-hotels-to-fonciare-des-ragions.html |
STATE COLLEGE, Pa., May 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Rex Energy Corporation (REXX: OTC), an independent oil and gas exploration and production company, today announced that, following its previously announced strategic review, it has decided to begin an orderly sale process for its remaining assets in order to maximize their long-term value and prospects. To facilitate the sale and address its debt obligations, the Company initiated voluntary proceedings under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code with support outlined in a Restructuring Support Agreement signed by 100% of its first lien lenders and approximately 72% of its second lien noteholders.
Rex Energy's drilling and production programs are operating as usual, and the Company is maintaining the necessary staffing and resources to meet its commitments to gathering and processing partners.
"Over the past seven months, Rex Energy has been in deep discussion with our lenders and advisors to evaluate every aspect of our business and take proactive steps to overcome the challenges our industry continues to face," said Tom Stabley, Chief Executive Officer. "We have undoubtedly made progress in addressing the realities of the global commodities market but require a more fulsome debt restructuring to overcome the immense pressures our business is facing. Ultimately, we decided that the best possible outcome was to put our remaining assets into the hands of owners with the financial strength necessary to position them for long-term growth and success. Chapter 11 provides an orderly process to achieve these goals in a way that maximizes value for our stakeholders."
The Company has secured a financing commitment of $100 million from its existing first lien lenders, which, combined with its normal operating cash flow, will allow Rex Energy to maintain normal operations and meet ongoing financial commitments. In addition, and as is typical in these cases, the Company has filed a series of "First Day Motions" that, once approved by the Court, will allow it to uphold commitments to stakeholders, including employees, vendors and service providers, gathering and processing partners, and royalty owners.
Rex Energy aims to complete the planned sale process under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code within the next four to five months. All offers will be evaluated to ensure the highest and best sale agreement is reached. Parties interested in participating in the sale process may contact Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. for additional information.
The cases are being heard in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Additional information about Rex Energy's Chapter 11 cases can be found at http://cases.primeclerk.com/RexEnergy or by calling 1-877-870-2280.
Rex Energy is advised in this matter by Jones Day, Perella Weinberg Partners, Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., and FTI Consulting.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of federal securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this release that address activities, events, developments, forecasts, or guidance that Rex Energy expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements rely on assumptions concerning future events and are subject to a number of uncertainties, factors and risks, many of which are outside Rex Energy's ability to control or predict, that could cause results to differ materially from management's current expectations. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, economic and market conditions, operational considerations, the timing and success of our exploration and development efforts, and other uncertainties. Additional information concerning these and other factors can be found in our press releases and public periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, and we strongly encourage you to review those documents to understand these risks. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because they reflect management's views only as of the date of this release. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements, or to make any other forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
About Rex Energy:
Headquartered in State College, Pennsylvania, Rex Energy is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company with its core operations in the Appalachian Basin. The company's strategy is to pursue its higher potential exploration drilling prospects while acquiring oil and natural gas properties complementary to its portfolio.
View original content: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rex-energy-initiates-sale-process-for-all-remaining-assets-filing-voluntary-petitions-under-chapter-11-of-the-us-bankruptcy-code-300650990.html
SOURCE Rex Energy Corporation | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/18/pr-newswire-rex-energy-initiates-sale-process-for-all-remaining-assets-filing-voluntary-petitions-under-chapter-11-of-the-u-s-bankruptcy.html |
Major cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco are notorious for their high cost of living. But they're also hot spots for well-compensated jobs.
Job listing site Ladders ranked the U.S. cities that currently have the most job openings for positions that pay $100,000 or more, using a comprehensive list of job postings from both public and private sources.
Large, urban areas such as New York, Philadelphia and Boston dominate the list.
If you're in the market for a six-figure salary, here are the 15 U.S. cities with the most opportunities available.
15. Phoenix, Arizona $100,000+ jobs available: 4,061
Median annual income: $49,328
Local unemployment rate: 4.1 percent
Dennis Macdonald | Getty Images 14. Baltimore, Maryland $100,000+ jobs available: 4,381
Median annual income: $44,262
Local unemployment rate: 4.6 percent
Richard Cummins | Getty Images Baltimore, Maryland 13. Houston, Texas $100,000+ jobs available: 4,682
Median annual income: $47,010
Local unemployment rate: 4.6 percent
Kav Dadfar | Getty Images Houston, Texas 12. Minneapolis, Minnesota $100,000+ jobs available: 5,153
Median annual income: $52,611
Local unemployment rate: 3.3 percent
John Elk | Getty Images An early morning jog around Lake Calhoun, Minneapolis/St. Paul Minnesota. 11. Denver, Colorado $100,000+ jobs available: 5,760
Median annual income: $56,258
Local unemployment rate: 2.8 percent
Bridget Calip | Getty Images Denver, Colorado 10. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania $100,000+ jobs available: 7,495
Median annual income: $39,770
Local unemployment rate: 4.4 percent
David Zanzinger | Getty Images Philadelphia, Museum of Art; Rocky Steps to Downtown 9. Atlanta, Georgia $100,000+ jobs available: 7,724
Median annual income: $49,398
Local unemployment rate: 4 percent
Edwin Remsberg | Getty Images Atlanta, Georgia 8. Dallas, Texas $100,000+ jobs available: 7,974
Median annual income: $45,215
Local unemployment rate: 3.7 percent
f11photo | Getty Images Dallas, Texas 7. Seattle, Washington $100,000+ jobs available: 8,082
Median annual income: $74,458
Local unemployment rate: 3.9 percent
Getty Images Seattle 6. Chicago, Illinois $100,000+ jobs available: 10,790
Median annual income: $50,434
Local unemployment rate: 4.3 percent
Jeff Greenberg | Getty Images 5. Los Angeles, California $100,000+ jobs available: 12,003
Median annual income: $51,538
Local unemployment rate: 3.8 percent
Getty Images Los Angeles, California. 4. Boston, Massachusetts $100,000+ jobs available: 12,399
Median annual income: $58,516
Local unemployment rate: 3.4 percent
Getty Images Boston, Massachusetts 3. Washington, D.C. $100,000+ jobs available: 17,274
Median annual income: $72,935
Local unemployment rate: 3.6 percent
Mike Kline | Getty Images U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington D.C. 2. New York, New York $100,000+ jobs available: 22,648
Median annual income: $55,191
Local unemployment rate: 4.4 percent
Bryan R. Smith | AFP | Getty Images A ferry passes by the skyline of lower Manhattan. 1. San Francisco, California $100,000+ jobs available: 25,116
Median annual income: $87,701
Local unemployment rate: 2.7 percent
RudyBalasko | Getty Images San Francisco, California "These cities are hot spots for $100k+ jobs because of a high percentage of the areas' workforces being college educated," Marc Cenedella, CEO of Ladders, tells CNBC Make It . "A majority of these locations are also experiencing growing economies and are either established or growing regional hubs for hot, high growth sectors like tech or telecom."
However, even on a substantial salary, many metro areas are becoming increasingly expensive, which forces employees to turn to longer commutes and creative housing solutions .
"We are seeing more job seekers who are looking to work in higher paying cities (but which also have extremely high costs of living like NYC and San Francisco) are offsetting housing costs by becoming "'super commuters,'" Cenedella says. "These individuals are living further and further outside of the respective cities — commuting up to two hours each way — in order to save on cost of living."
Don't miss: You may need to earn $418,000 to buy in NYC—here are 5 ways to save on housing
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show chapters Here are the highest paying jobs with the fastest growth 8:14 AM ET Tue, 23 May 2017 | 00:54 | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/16/us-cities-with-the-most-six-figure-salaries-available.html |
New fissures opened in the eastern corner of Hawaii’s Big Island over the weekend and Monday morning as the eruption of the Kilauea volcano more than 10 days ago continued to spew lava and threaten neighborhoods.
A 19th fissure opened Monday in Lanipuna Gardens, the area neighboring Leilani Estates, which was hardest hit by quakes and lava flows, the largest in decades from the volcano. Residents in both neighborhoods were ordered to evacuate in early May when fissures first began to appear, emitting lava and toxic gases.
... | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-fissures-from-hawaii-volcano-threaten-residences-1526334245 |
Cramer's game plan: This China-led strength could continue thanks to earnings Elizabeth Gurdus Reblog "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer goes over key stocks and events he's watching in the week ahead as the market turns positive on trade news. Cramer sees short-sellers worried about rising raw costs and broad-based weakness in the consumer food stocks, but he also sees investors with long positions who believe in millennials' love for protein and thus believe in the beef and poultry supplier. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/04/cramers-game-plan-china-led-strength-may-continue-thanks-to-earnings.html?__source=yahoo%7Cfinance%7Cheadline%7Cstory%7C&par=yahoo&yptr=yahoo |
Revenues up 134% like-for-like 1 , Project Backlog 2 at €21.6 million and €150 million of Pipeline 3 Completed production and testing for the 20MW system in Spain, construction site started Under development microgrids and smart islands projects (Italy and the Comoros), storage systems (Italy and Belgium) and hydrogen systems (Singapore) Liquidity 4 at € 5.3 million thanks to the constant support of Intesa Sanpaolo with new credit lines
PARIS & MILAN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Regulatory News:
The Board of Directors of Electro Power Systems S.A. (“ EPS ”) (Paris:EPS), technology pioneer in energy storage systems and microgrids, listed on the French-regulated market Euronext Paris (EPS:FP), today approved the consolidated group sales and cash position (unaudited) for the first quarter 2018.
Revenues increased by 134%, amounting to € 0.5 million on IFRS 15 basis and € 3.6 million according to IAS 11, the standard used for comparison with the first quarter 2017. Although from 1 January 2018 the application of the new accounting standard IFRS 15 is mandatory, the comparison of the like-for-like results with respect to 2017 will take place on a proforma basis with the IAS 11 standard for the whole of 2018.
This growth is mainly driven by the success of grid-connected storage solutions deployed in Europe. These positive developments are also attributable to the Group's credibility obtained thanks to projects with Enel, Terna, Edison and Endesa. In particular, production and tests for the 20MW storage system with Endesa have been completed and the site construction in Spain for commissioning has already been started. In parallel, EPS has under development microgrids and smart islands projects in Italy and in the Comoros Islands, battery storage systems for grid support and conventional power generation in Italy and Belgium, as well as a hydrogen-based storage system in Singapore.
The Project Backlog at the date of this press release is € 21.6 million 5 , of which € 6.6 million of final and irrevocable orders on an EPC basis, and € 15 million of projects secured on a Power Purchase Agreements basis, for which financing is currently being structured. The pipeline to date is essentially stable and stands at over € 150 million, which means that the projects converted into Project Backlog have been replaced by new opportunities under development.
At 31 March 2018, Net Financial Position 6 amounted to € -13.9 million compared to € -12.3 million at 31 December 2017. This result is mainly due to the increase in revenues and the order backlog and the related increase of working capital, as well as continuous investments in research and development, aimed at implementing the potential of EPS technology.
The Cash Position at 31 March 2018, represented by liquid assets, amounted to € 5.3 million compared to € 4.2 million at the end of 2017, in particular thanks to the continued support of Intesa Sanpaolo to finance working capital and the growth of EPS.
* * *
ABOUT EPS
Electro Power Systems (EPS) operates in the sustainable energy sector, specialising in storage solutions and microgrids that enable intermittent renewable sources to be transformed into a stable power source. Listed on the French-regulated market Euronext (EPS:FP), EPS is part of the ENGIE group and is listed in the CAC® Mid & Small and the CAC® All-Tradable indices. Its registered office is in Paris and conducts its research, development and manufacturing in Italy. Thanks to technology covered by 130 patents and applications, combined with more than 10 years of R&D, the Group develops utility scale energy storage systems to stabilize electrical grids that are heavily penetrated by renewable sources in developed countries and microgrids in emerging economies to power off-grid areas at a lower cost than fossil fuels. As of 31 December 2017, EPS has installed and has under commissioning an aggregate of 48 large scale projects, including off-grid hybrid systems powered by renewables and energy storage that provides energy to over 165,000 customers every day, with a total capacity output of 47MWh systems in 21 countries worldwide, including Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa.
BASIS OF PREPARATION
Effective 1 January 2015, French Law n°2014-1662, dated 30 December 2014, in transposing the European Directive 2013/50/EU, removed the reporting obligation to French-listed companied to disclose quarterly financial results. Therefore, this press release has been prepared on a voluntary basis in line with EPS’ policy to provide the market and investors with regular information about the Group’s financial and operating performance and business prospects, considering the disclosure policy followed by our energy peers.
The financial information (unaudited) for the three months ending 31 March 2018 consists of Revenues, Project Backlog, Cash and Net Financial Position. Revenues are presented on a consolidated basis for the three months of 2018. Project Backlog is presented as of the date of this press release, i.e. 15 May 2018. Information on liquidity and the Net Financial Position relates to the end of the period as of 31 March 2018 and 31 December 2017, in line with the 2017 Consolidated Financial Statements.
The accounts set forth herein have been prepared in accordance with the evaluation and recognition criteria set by the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and adopted by the European Commission according to the procedure set forth in Article 6 of the European Regulation (CE) No. 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and European Council of 19 July 2002. These criteria, except for the application of IFRS 15 which is mandatory since 1 January 2018, are unchanged from the 2017 Consolidated Financial Statements published on 28 March 2018, which investors are urged to read. The financial information of Electro Power Systems S.A. for the first three months of 2018 consists of this press release. All legally required disclosures, including the 2017 Annual Financial Report and the 2016 Registration Document are available on the Group’s website ( www.electropowersystems.com ) under "Financial Information" and are published by Electro Power Systems pursuant to the provisions of Article L. 451-1-2 of the French Monetary and Financial Code, as well as to Article 222-1 and follows the General Regulation of the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF).
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT
This press release contains forward-looking statements, i.e. assessments and assumptions which relate to future events and circumstances, particularly regarding the Project Backlog and pipeline, which are assessed based on the parameter described in the presentation of the Strategic Plan 2020, published at www.electropowersystems.com . Inherent in these statements are risk factors that are described in greater detail in our regulatory filings, including the 2017 Consolidated Financial Statements and the 2016 Registration Document. All figures are approximations based on the management's current beliefs and assumptions, and our actual results could differ from those presented above.
This announcement includes statements that are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. These statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the verbs or terms “anticipates”, “believes”, “estimates”, “expects”, “intends”, “may”, “plans”, “build- up”, “under discussion” or “potential customer”, “should” or “will”, “projects”, “backlog” or “pipeline” or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy, plans, objectives, goals, future events or intentions. These statements include all matters that are not historical facts. They appear throughout this announcement and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Group’s intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things, the Group’s results of business development, operations, financial position, prospects, financing strategies, expectations regarding product design and development, regulatory applications and approvals, reimbursement arrangements, costs of sales and market penetration.
By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances. Forward- looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and the actual results of the Group’s operations, and the development of the markets and industry in which the Group operates may differ materially from those described in, or suggested by, the statements contained in this announcement. In addition, even if the Group’s results regarding operations, our financial position and growth, as well as the development of the markets and industry in which the Group operates, are consistent with the statements contained in this announcement, those results or developments may not be indicative of results or developments in subsequent periods. A number of factors could cause the results and developments of the Group to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statement including, without limitation, general economic and business conditions, global energy market conditions, industry trends, competition, changes in law or regulation, changes in taxation regimes, the availability and cost of capital, the time required to commence and complete sale cycles, currency fluctuations, changes in business strategy and political and economic uncertainty. The forward-looking statements herein speak only of the date of this announcement. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/15/business-wire-electro-power-systems-first-quarter-2018-results-revenues-double-and-installations-in-three-continents.html |
CHICAGO, Hub International Limited (Hub), a leading global insurance brokerage, announced today that it has acquired the shares of Les Avantages Sociaux Delta Inc., operating as The dElta Group. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
With offices in the greater Montreal area, The dElta Group is a multidisciplinary benefits brokerage that provides support and actuarial services for group insurance and retirement plans, as well as human resources and disability management, for mid-size and large businesses in Canada. The company is the result of an amalgamation of Les Advantages Sociaux Delta Inc., Ressources Humaines Delta Inc., and Le Groupe Financier Tanner-Deland Inc.
"Since founding The dElta Group more than 20 years ago, our goal has always been to be a strategic employee benefits and HR partner for clients," said Roger d'Eschambault, Founder and Chairman of The dElta Group. "By joining Hub, we gain scale and the infrastructure for tremendous growth given the multitude of additional resources and capabilities that exist within Hub. This will allow us to provide even more tailored benefits solutions for our clients while maintaining our highly personal approach to administering benefits and retirement plans."
The dElta Group team will join Hub Quebec, and d'Eschambault will report to Stephen Blais, President of Hub Quebec.
"The dElta Group has earned a strong reputation in the employee benefits and retirement industry based on its experience, relationships with the pension plan providers in Canada and a client-centric approach to servicing hundreds of Canadian companies," said Blais. "We're excited to welcome The dElta Group team to Hub as they will strengthen our benefits and retirement offering throughout Canada."
"We remain committed to acquiring firms that are focused on enhancing the client experience through a culture of collaboration and building a robust set of complimentary services that round out the benefits and HR experience for our clients," said Mike Barone, Hub's North American President of Employee Benefits. "The dElta Group is a great fit for our strategy, and we're thrilled to welcome Roger and The dElta Group to Hub."
About Hub's M&A Activities
Hub International Limited is committed to growing organically and through acquisitions to expand its geographic footprint and strengthen industry and product expertise. For more information on the Hub M&A experience, visit WeAreHub.com .
About Hub International
Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Hub International Limited (Hub) is a leading full-service global insurance broker providing property and casualty, life and health, employee benefits, investment and risk management products and services. From offices located throughout North America, HUB's vast network of specialists provides peace of mind on what matters most by protecting clients through unrelenting advocacy and tailored insurance solutions. For more information, please visit hubinternational.com .
CONTACT:
Media: Marni Gordon
Phone: 312-279-4601
[email protected]
M&A: Clark Wormer
Phone: 312.279.4848
[email protected]
View original content with multimedia: releases/hub-international-acquires-the-shares-of-quebec-based-the-delta-group-300643057.html
SOURCE Hub International Limited | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/07/pr-newswire-hub-international-acquires-the-shares-of-quebec-based-the-delta-group.html |
May 21, 2018 / 6:21 PM / Updated 39 minutes ago Gay man says pope told him: 'God made you this way' - paper Reuters Staff 2 Min Read
MADRID (Reuters) - A Chilean man who suffered clerical sexual abuse has said Pope Francis told him in a private conversation that God had made him gay and loved him that way, according to the Spanish newspaper El Pais. Pope Francis leads the Italian conference of bishops (CEI) meeting in the Synod Hall at the Vatican, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Tony Gentile
The Vatican declined to comment on the report but, if confirmed, it would be a striking statement of tolerance towards homosexuality, which the Church has condemned as an immoral disorder if it is actively practised.
In an interview published on Sunday, abuse victim Juan Carlos Cruz told El Pais that Pope Francis had told him during a meeting this month: “The fact that you are gay does not matter.”
Cruz said Francis had also told him: “God made you this way and loves you this way, and it doesn’t matter to me. The pope loves you this way, you must be happy the way you are.”
Cruz was one of three Chilean victims who were invited by the pope to Rome this month in the wake of a scandal in Chile over priestly sexual abuse and efforts by the Church hierarchy there to hush it up.
After attending a crisis meeting with Francis about the cover-up last week, all of Chile’s bishops offered to resign.
Since his election in 2013, the pope has dramatically shifted the language the Church has used about homosexuality, which was once seen as a taboo subject.
“If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?” he said on his first overseas trip in 2013. In 2016, he said had ministered to people with unfulfilled homosexual tendencies as well as homosexuals who were not able to remain chaste, as the Church asks them to.
“When a person arrives before Jesus, Jesus certainly will not say: ‘Go away because you are homosexual’,” he said.
Francis’s predecessor, Pope Benedict, wrote in 2005 that homosexuality was “a strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil”. Reporting by Julien Toyer; Editing by Kevin Liffey | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-gay/gay-man-says-pope-told-him-god-made-you-this-way-paper-idUSKCN1IM22N |
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Akebia Therapeutics , Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA), a biopharmaceutical company focused on delivering innovative therapies to patients with kidney disease through the biology of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018.
“We began 2018 with strong momentum, focused on advancing our vadadustat clinical program, and we are targeting full enrollment in our PRO 2 TECT and INNO 2 VATE registration studies by year end,” said John P. Butler, President and Chief Executive Officer of Akebia Therapeutics. “We drive our business forward from a position of financial strength. Our existing cash resources and committed capital from our collaboration partners are expected to fund our current operating plan into early 2020.”
First Quarter 2018 and Recent Corporate Highlights
Announced targeting of full enrollment in the Phase 3 PRO 2 TECT and INNO 2 VATE studies by the end of 2018, with top-line results anticipated in 2019, subject to the accrual of major adverse cardiovascular events, or MACE, and market launch planned in 2020, subject to regulatory approval; Announced enhanced study designs for FO 2 RWARD and TRILO 2 GY, now referred to as FO 2 RWARD-2 and TRILO 2 GY-2, which Akebia believes will provide additional characterization and differentiation of vadadustat and further strengthen the company’s commercial position, subject to vadadustat’s approval. Top-line results from FO 2 RWARD-2 are expected in the first half of 2019; Following a positive consultation with the Japanese regulatory authority, PMDA, collaboration partner Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation (MTPC) initiated Phase 3 studies of vadadustat in patients with non-dialysis dependent chronic kidney disease (NDD-CKD) and dialysis dependent chronic kidney disease (DD-CKD) in Japan, which generated $10.0 million in milestone payments to Akebia. Data read-outs are expected in 2019; Raised $89.3 million in gross proceeds through a public offering of common stock; existing cash resources and cost-share funding from collaborators are expected to fund Akebia’s current operating plan into the first quarter of 2020; Announced positive top-line results from a Phase 2 study of vadadustat in Japanese patients with anemia associated with DD-CKD; the data from this study were consistent with findings from previous studies of vadadustat; and The Independent Data Monitoring Committee for Akebia’s global Phase 3 PRO 2 TECT and INNO 2 VATE programs held another meeting and recommended continuing the studies without modification.
Financial Results
Akebia reported a net loss of $23.4 million, or ($0.48) per share, for the first quarter of 2018 as compared to a net loss for the first quarter of 2017 of $44.5 million or ($1.15) per share.
Collaboration revenue was $45.9 million for the first quarter of 2018 compared to $20.9 million for the first quarter of 2017. Collaboration revenue recognized in the first quarter of 2018 related to revenue recognized under both the U.S. collaboration agreement with Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., or Otsuka, and the collaboration agreement with Otsuka related to Europe, China and certain other regions, which was consummated in April 2017, as well as revenue recognized in connection with the collaboration agreement with MTPC. Collaboration revenue recognized in the first quarter of 2017 related only to the U.S. collaboration agreement with Otsuka, which was consummated in December 2016.
On January 1, 2018, Akebia was required to retrospectively adopt the new revenue recognition standard, ASC 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, as if the standard had been in effect during all prior periods. The adoption of ASC 606 resulted in a retrospective $3.2 million of additional collaboration revenue for the year ended December 31, 2017. As required by ASC 606, Akebia will adjust the comparative 2017 financial results to reflect the retrospective additional revenue in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018.
Research and development expenses were $61.4 million for the first quarter of 2018 compared to $60.0 million for the first quarter of 2017. The increase is primarily attributable to external costs related to the development of vadadustat, including the manufacture of drug substance and drug product for the global Phase 3 program, and regulatory activities as well as other clinical and preclinical activities. Research and development expenses were further increased by headcount, consulting and facility-related costs related to additional resources required to support the company’s expanding research and development programs.
General and administrative expenses were $9.0 million for the first quarter of 2018 compared to $5.8 million for the first quarter of 2017. The increase is primarily attributable to an increase in costs to support the company’s research and development programs, including headcount and compensation-related costs and associated facility-related costs.
Akebia ended the first quarter of 2018 with cash, cash equivalents and available for sale securities of $393.0 million. The company also generally receives cost-share funding from its collaboration agreements with Otsuka on a prepaid quarterly basis. Akebia expects its existing cash resources, including the prepaid quarterly committed cost-share funding from its collaborators, to fund its current operating plan into the first quarter of 2020.
About Akebia Therapeutics
Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, focused on delivering innovative therapies to patients with kidney disease through hypoxia-inducible factor biology. For more information, please visit our website at www.akebia.com , which does not form a part of this release.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release regarding Akebia’s strategy, plans, prospects, expectations, beliefs, intentions and goals are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, including but not limited to statements regarding the rate and timing of enrollment of our clinical trials; the anticipated timing of the availability and presentation of clinical trial data and results; the planned timing of market launch of vadadustat; the benefits, including the potential effect on commercial position, of the designs of our studies; the potential characterization and differentiation information we believe will result from the designs of our studies; potential and anticipated payments from our collaborators, including the timing thereof; expectations regarding financial position, including the period of time our cash resources and committed funding from our collaborators will fund our current operating plan; and expectations regarding the implementation of the new revenue recognition standard, ASC 606. The terms “anticipate,” “believe,” “expect,” “planned,” “target,” “will” and similar references are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Each forward-looking statement is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to expressed or implied in such statement, including the rate of enrollment in clinical studies of vadadustat; the rate of major adverse cardiovascular events in PRO 2 TECT and INNO 2 VATE; the risk that clinical trials may not be successful; the risk that existing preclinical and clinical data may not be predictive of the results of ongoing or later clinical trials; manufacturing risks; the quality and manner of the data that will result from clinical studies of vadadustat; the actual funding required to develop and commercialize Akebia's product candidates and operate the company, and the actual expenses associated therewith; the actual costs incurred in the clinical studies of vadadustat and the availability of financing to cover such costs; the risk that clinical studies are discontinued or delayed for any reason, including for safety, tolerability, enrollment, manufacturing or economic reasons; early termination of any of Akebia’s collaborations; Akebia’s and its collaborators’ ability to satisfy their obligations under Akebia’s collaboration agreements; the timing and content of decisions made by regulatory authorities; the timing of any additional studies initiated for vadadustat; the actual time it takes to initiate and complete preclinical and clinical studies; the success of competitors in developing product candidates for diseases for which Akebia is currently developing its product candidates; the scope, timing, and outcome of any ongoing legal, regulatory and administrative proceedings; changes in the economic and financial conditions of the businesses of Akebia and its partners; and Akebia’s ability to obtain, maintain and enforce patent and other intellectual property protection for vadadustat and any other product candidates. Other risks and uncertainties include those identified under the heading “Risk Factors” in Akebia’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2018, and other filings that Akebia may make with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the future. These forward-looking statements (except as otherwise noted) speak only press release, and Akebia does not undertake, and specifically disclaims, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release.
AKEBIA THERAPEUTICS, INC.
Consolidated Statements of Operations
(in thousands except share and per share data)
(unaudited) Three Months Ended March 31, 2018 March 31, 2017 Collaboration revenue $45,930 $20,865 Operating expenses: Research and development 61,404 60,049 General and administrative 9,024 5,788 Total operating expenses 70,428 65,837 Operating loss (24,498) (44,972) Other income, net 1,080 429 Net loss $(23,418) $(44,543) Net loss per share - basic and diluted $(0.48) $(1.15) Weighted-average number of common shares - basic and diluted
48,613,565 38,759,221
AKEBIA THERAPEUTICS, INC.
Selected Consolidated Balance Sheet Data
(in thousands)
(unaudited) March 31, 2018
December 31, 2017
Cash, cash equivalents and available for sale securities $393,029
$317,792
Working capital 285,562
217,250
Total assets 442,713
364,247
Total stockholders' equity 197,097
122,574
View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180509005962/en/
Akebia Therapeutics
John Garabo, 617-844-6130
Director, Corporate Communications
[email protected]
Source: Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/09/business-wire-akebia-therapeutics-announces-first-quarter-2018-financial-results.html |
With the number of pedestrians struck and killed by vehicles in the U.S. climbing to a 28-year high, safety regulators are sounding the alarm.
"This is a wake-up call. We need to do much better keeping pedestrians from being hit and killed," said David Harkey, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The IIHS studied crashes that lead to the death of pedestrians to determine why the numbers have spiked in recent years.
In 2016, 5,987 pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents, the highest number since 1990. Even more alarming to the institute: The 46 percent increase in pedestrian deaths since 2009 far outpaces the 11 percent rise in total traffic deaths over the same period.
What's behind the increase?
"When you look at the data, it is clear many of these fatalities are happening after dark on the busiest streets, often when people try to cross somewhere other than a designated crosswalk," said Harkey.
In addition, the institute believes higher speed limits in many municipalities mean a deadlier outcome when pedestrians are hit.
The institute is calling for city and state governments to do a better job lighting and designating intersections and pedestrian crosswalks.
What about drivers and pedestrians being more distracted and failing to stop a vehicle in time or look before crossing a road?
"We've all seen those stories where someone is distracted and it lead to an accident, but quantifying how much of a role distraction played in pedestrian accidents is very difficult."
Meanwhile, automakers are slowly adding technology to vehicles to prevent pedestrian collisions. Harkey pointed out that Subaru's EyeSight system has been particularly effective in cutting pedestrian accidents.
"Subaru's EyeSight technology has lead to a 35 percent reduction in pedestrian accident-related insurance claims," Harkey said. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/08/safety-advocates-sound-alarm-over-surge-of-pedestrians-killed-by-cars.html |
You may think of your virtual assistant as a kind of trusty companion, giving out weather forecasts, recipes, news and all sorts of ephemera on request.
But these devices also pose a host of security risks that render users vulnerable to hacks, eavesdropping, data siphoning and other threats that might not be immediately apparent. That danger was highlighted Thursday when Amazon.com Inc. said one of its Echo home speakers mistakenly recorded a private conversation and sent it to someone in the owners’ contact list. Amazon,... To Read the Full Story Subscribe Sign In | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.wsj.com/articles/alexa-just-how-secure-are-you-1527271565 |
PARIS (Reuters) - The French finance minister on Sunday raised the pressure on Air France managers and unions to resolve a stand-off over wages, saying the government would not ride to the carrier’s rescue as it grapples with worker strikes and a leadership vacuum.
French Minister for the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire arrives for the Informal meeting of economic and financial affairs ministers (ECOFIN) in Sofia, Bulgaria, April 27, 2018. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov The dispute at Air France-KLM ( AIRF.PA )’s French arm intensified on Friday when staff rejected a pay deal, prompting the group’s chief executive to resign and raising questions over the airline’s capacity to cut costs and reform.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire urged the company and workers to resume talks, delivering a blunt assessment of the airline’s future as he warned the state’s 14 percent Air France-KLM stake was no guarantee it would pick up the pieces.
“If Air France does not make efforts to become more competitive, allowing this flagship to be at the same level at Lufthansa and other airline companies, Air France will disappear,” Le Maire told BFM television.
“We’re minority shareholders ... those that think that whatever happens the state will come to Air France’s rescue and soak up Air France’s losses are mistaken,” Le Maire said.
Air France-KLM CEO Jean-Marc Janaillac, who will stay on until May 15, had been battling to cut costs to keep up with competition from Gulf carriers and low-cost airlines.
Rivals like British Airways ( ICAG.L ) and Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) have already gone through painful restructurings to cope.
The empty podium is seen after Jean-Marc Janaillac, Chief Executive Officer of Air France-KLM Group, attended a news conference to announce his resignation in Paris, France, May 4, 2018. REUTERS/Charles Platiau Air France-KLM, which reported widening losses in the first quarter even as profits at Dutch carrier KLM improved, has reined in growth expectations for 2018 after walkouts at the French airline.
Strikes have already cost the company 300 million euros ($359 million) and stoppages by pilots, ground staff and other workers are due to resume on May 7 and May 8. Close to 85 percent of flights are likely to run on Monday, the carrier said.
Air France-KLM’s board is set to announce an “interim governance solution” on May 15 following Janaillac’s departure. The company declined to comment further on what format that would take or how long the transition would last.
Delta Airlines and China Eastern both hold 9 percent of Air France-KLM.
NOT ASTRONOMICAL Until new management plans are in place, Air France executives lack a mandate to continue negotiations with unions, prolonging the dispute.
Some worker representatives hit back at Le Maire on Sunday, after he called their demands unjustified.
Unions had been calling for a salary hike of 5.1 percent in 2018 alone, and staff rejected a management pay deal offering 7 percent wage increase over four years.
“Our demands are far from astronomical,” Yannick Floc’h, vice-president of the SNPL pilots union, told BFM TV later in the day, adding there was room to find middle ground between the two sides. “I think we can find a way out.”
Others, including the more moderate CFDT union, which had urged Air France to back management’s pay proposal, warned that “dialogue was blocked” and said the SNPL was too inflexible.
“There’s reason enough to be worried,” CFDT leader Laurent Berger.
The Air France turmoil has coincided with other strike action as rail workers press on with rolling stoppages to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s planned overhaul of SNCF, the state-run train operator.
French travelers have faced transport misery since early April, and Le Maire said the drag on economic growth from the strikes stood at around 0.1 percentage points of output as tourism and the transport of raw materials took a hit.
Representatives from Air France unions are due to meet on Monday. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe is also due to meet rail unions for talks over the SNCF stand-off.
($1 = 0.8363 euros)
Additional reporting by Cyril Altemeyer and Yann Le Guernigou; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg, Larry King
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-air-france-klm-government/french-state-not-there-to-backstop-air-france-losses-minister-idUSKBN1I70AU |
ANTANANARIVO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - In a small boat off the coast of Madagascar, Idrissa Tsirvelo struggled with a spanner on his rusted dive cylinder, then put a regulator in his mouth and disappeared under the water, risking death illegally harvesting sea cucumbers from the ocean floor.
Deep sea diving for the worm-like marine animals - a delicacy selling for hundreds of dollars in Asia - can lead to death, injury or paralysis, but many young men in the Indian Ocean island say they have no other means of survival.
“This work really scares me,” said Tsirvelo. “As humans we are not meant to live underwater.”
Madagascar, the world’s fourth largest island, is one of the poorest countries in Africa. With some 5,000 km (3,100 miles) of coastline, many of its people rely on the ocean to survive.
Divers are not the only ones at risk. Marine life is also rapidly being exhausted. Almost 90 percent of global fish stocks are fully or overfished, according to the United Nations.
As global fish stocks are threatened with collapse, locals around the coast in southern Madagascar have pioneered safer fishing alternatives that protect the natural world.
“When I was a kid I went fishing with my dad and there was plenty,” said Clin Ratsimbazafy, who is part of a grassroots initiative to stop overfishing.
“But that changed and we had nothing, until we learned how to preserve marine resources,” he said, sitting fixing his nets in the late afternoon sun in Andavadoaka, a village on Madagascar’s southwest coast, after a day out at sea.
Madagascar’s first locally managed marine area (LMMA) was set up in 2006 and is called Velondriake, which means living with the ocean. It has blossomed, spawning more than 100 LMMAs on the island and as far afield as Fiji and Costa Rica.
MY HEART IS AT EASE Visitors have come all the way from Mexico to learn about Velondriake’s octopus reserves - areas closed to fishing to allow octopus to grow to full size, replenishing stocks and maximizing catches.
“Once we told them about how the depletion of the resources would negatively affect them, they realized how important it is to protect the resources that they use every day,” said Velondriake’s president Richard Badouraly.
Madagascar bans using deep sea dive equipment to harvest sea cucumbers in order to protect the plundered species.
However, locals say the practice persists as foreigners, particularly Chinese, pay a high price to fishermen while officials are bribed to turn a blind eye.
“Madagascar is one of the most corrupt countries in the world,” said Ndranto Razakamanarina, president of Alliance Voahary Gasy, an alliance of almost 30 environmental groups.
Madagascar’s fisheries ministry did not respond to requests to comment.
Working with the government, communities now manage 11 percent of the Malagasy coastline often using customary environmental law known as the dina, according to Blue Ventures, a UK-based conservation group supporting the initiative.
Velondriake is the largest locally managed marine reserve in the Indian Ocean, spanning 640 square km (247 square miles).
To compensate for temporary and in some cases, permanent closures, diversification has been vital. In Tampolove village, the community has learned to farm the sea.
Hundreds of aquaculture farmers - many of them women - grow seaweed and raise baby sea cucumbers in ocean pens for sale to local seafood exporters.
This has transformed lives as sea cucumber farmers can earn $124 a month, triple the average income in the area, said Liz Day, a manager with Blue Ventures.
“Life was very hard before we started farming sea cucumber and seaweed,” said Nadia Rasolonaina, one of about 30 women who wade out into shallow waters to clean and monitor their pens.
“I had to leave my children with my older brother as I didn’t have any source of income. It broke my heart. Now they are back, my heart is at ease.”
DINOSAURS Back on the ocean, Olivie Zaratombo sat in the boat waiting for Tsirvelo to return with their sea cucumber catch.
“I don’t want my child to follow in my footsteps,” said Zaratombo, unable to dive as his equipment was broken. “It is becoming more dangerous and the resource is depleting.”
Like most Malagasys, he learned to dive from his father with no formal training. He has seen many accidents.
“Not long ago one, of my friends went diving and did not come back,” Zaratombo said. “I went out to look for him every day but only discovered he had died when his body floated to the surface three days later.”
Velondriake’s Badouraly hopes that other communities will adopt their grassroots conservation approach, before endangered species become extinct.
“It’ll be the same as us having never seen dinosaurs,” he said. “My hope for the future is that all communities will be satisfied with the harvest of the sea, and everything will grow.”
Reporting by Nicky Milne, Editing by Katy Migiro. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit news.trust.org
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-madagascar-fishing-environment/locals-pioneer-safer-fishing-alternatives-to-protect-seas-off-madagascar-idUSKCN1IU19Y |
PARIS (Reuters) - French group AccorHotels ( ACCP.PA ) has agreed to buy the management company behind Chile’s Atton Hotels for around $105 million, in a deal which AccorHotels said would boost its earnings and strengthen its position in Latin America.
The Atton Hotels deal marks the latest example of AccorHotels’ ambitious takeover plans, and follows its acquisition last month of Movenpick Hotels.
AccorHotels will acquire 100 percent of the management company that operates 11 Atton hotels across Chile, Peru, Colombia and Florida in the United States.
AccorHotels will also buy 20 percent of the property company that owns these assets, with the remaining 80 percent being bought by Chilean company Algeciras. AccorHotels will also have an option to sell its 20 percent in that property company to Algeciras after five years.
AccorHotels, whose portfolio ranges from upmarket brands such as Sofitel to the Mercure and Ibis brands, expected the Atton deal to be completed in the second half of this year.
The French group said the Atton takeover would boost its earnings from the first year of the deal being completed.
“With Atton’s portfolio, AccorHotels will strengthen its leadership position in Latin America and complement its offer to its customers and loyalty members with attractive key destinations,” said Patrick Mendes, AccorHotels’ South America chief executive, in a statement.
Previous acquisitions under AccorHotels’ chief executive Sebastien Bazin, who took over in 2013, include London’s Savoy Hotel, The Plaza in New York, the Raffles Hotel in Singapore and Australian hotel group Mantra.
Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Stephen Coates and Sunil Nair
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-accor-chile/accorhotels-strikes-deal-to-buy-chile-hotel-group-atton-idUSKCN1IF0ED |
Novartis discloses it paid $1.2M to Michael Cohen firm 52 Mins Ago CNBC's Sue Herera reports on the latest disclosure from Novartis that Michael Cohen's Firm was paid $100,000 per month for a total of $1.2 million. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/05/09/novartis-discloses-it-paid-1-point-2m-to-michael-cohen-firm.html |
May 15, 2018 / 7:50 PM / in 40 minutes At least 100 people kidnapped along road in northern Nigeria Garba Muhammad 3 Min Read
KADUNA, Nigeria (Reuters) - At least 100 people have been kidnapped along a road in northern Nigeria in the past few days, officials, witnesses and relatives of the abducted told Reuters on Tuesday, underscoring the insecurity still afflicting parts of the country.
President Muhammadu Buhari won elections in 2015 partly on promises to bring security to Nigeria but has struggled to fulfill them. He is now seeking a second term in February 2019.
His critics and opponents question his record of tackling the multitude of conflicts that plague Nigeria from Boko Haram and an Islamic State insurgency in the northeast to clashes between farmers and herders in which hundreds have died.
Kidnapping is also rife. In 2014, the abduction of more than 270 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok shot the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency into the spotlight, prompting the global #BringBackOurGirls campaign.
“Over 120 people were kidnapped between Friday and today, Tuesday along the Birnin Gwari-Kaduna road,” said Surajo Usman, of Nigeria’s National Union of Road Transport Workers, who escaped an abduction himself.
Birnin Gwari, in the northern state of Kaduna, is infamous for its lawlessness, and thick forests provide bandits with hideouts from security forces. Earlier this month, at least 45 people died in an attack on a village in the region.
Those bandits have for years frustrated authorities’ attempts to apprehend them. In some cases they have amassed thousands of stolen cattle and fought off security agents sent to deal with them.
Yahaya Hussaini, who works for a civil society group, said his organization’s motorcade was waylaid.
“On Sunday, in our entourage alone four vehicles were blocked by the kidnappers in military fatigue,” he said, adding that eight of them carried assault rifles.
“They kidnapped about 48 people,” said Hussaini. “Many of those vehicles attacked are still left on the road and the luggage of victims still litters it.”
Ibrahim Aliyu’s daughter was one of those abducted by kidnappers seeking the equivalent of $16,000. “They have contacted me with a 5 million naira ransom demand,” he said. “Where do I get that kind of money that I have never seen in my life?”
Kaduna state’s commissioner of police, Austin Iwar, told Reuters he would have been informed if there had been reports of such attacks, adding that he would investigate.
($1 = 305.3000 naira) | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-security/at-least-100-people-kidnapped-along-road-in-northern-nigeria-idUSKCN1IG33Z |
May 2, 2018 / 4:49 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago BRIEF-Cognizant Acquires Hedera Consulting
May 2 (Reuters) - Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp :
* COGNIZANT ACQUIRES HEDERA CONSULTING, A BELGIAN ADVISORY AND ANALYTICS COMPANY
* TERMS OF TRANSACTION WERE NOT DISCLOSED. Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-cognizant-acquires-hedera-consulti/brief-cognizant-acquires-hedera-consulting-idUSASC09Z1Z |
* Annual parade marks Soviet victory over Nazis
* Follows Putin re-installed for new term as president
* Russia uses event to boost patriotism, display new weapons
* Parade held amid sharp tensions with West
By Christian Lowe and Andrew Osborn
MOSCOW, May 9 (Reuters) - Russia’s Vladimir Putin watched advanced jets carrying a hypersonic missile he has touted as invincible scream over Red Square on Wednesday, days after the start of his fourth presidential term.
Part of an annual event marking the Soviet Union’s World War Two victory over the Nazis, Putin looked on as thousands of troops marched past him and columns of tanks rumbled across the famous square in a show of military might reminiscent of those displayed during the Cold War.
Putin reviewed the parade from a tribune packed with Soviet war veterans, some of whom wore rows of campaign medals and clutched red roses. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Moscow for talks on Syria, was also present, as was Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
The authorities, backed by state media, use the event to boost patriotic feeling and show the world and potential buyers of military hardware how a multi-billion dollar modernisation programme is changing the face of the Russian military.
Putin, whose relations with the West are on a hostile trajectory, has said he does not want an arms race while warning potential enemies that his country has developed a new generation of invincible weapons to protect itself just in case.
“We remember the tragedies of the two world wars, about the lessons of history which do not allow us to become blind. The same old ugly traits are appearing along with new threats: egoism, intolerance, aggressive nationalism and claims to exceptionalism,” Putin said, addressing the parade.
“We understand the full seriousness of those threats,” added Putin, who complained about what he said were unacceptable attempts to rewrite history while saying Russia was open to talks on global security if it helped ensure peace in the world.
Weapons displayed on Red Square included Russia’s Yars mobile intercontinental nuclear missile launcher, its Iskander-M ballistic missile launchers, and its advanced S-400 air defence missile system, which Moscow has deployed in Syria to protect its forces.
Putin has sharply increased military spending over the 18 years he has dominated Russian politics, handed the Russian military significant policy-making clout, and deployed Russian forces in Ukraine and Syria, stoking tensions with the West.
As commander-in-chief, he has also at times donned military uniform himself and been filmed at the controls of a strategic bomber and on the conning tower of a submarine in photo opportunities designed to boost his man of action image.
‘INVINCIBLE MISSILE’ The first public outing of the Kinjal (Dagger) hypersonic missile, carried by advanced MiG-31K interceptor jets, was one of several world premieres for Russian weapons.
Putin disclosed the Kinjal’s existence in March along with other missile systems he touted as unbeatable, describing how it could evade any enemy defences.
Russian media have said it can hit targets up to 2,000 km (1,250 miles) distant with nuclear or conventional warheads and that the missiles have already been deployed in Russia’s southern military district.
Russia’s most advanced fifth generation Su-57 stealth fighter, which has undergone testing in Syria, also took part in the parade for the first time, as did an unmanned armoured reconnaissance and infantry support vehicle, the Uran-9.
Armed with a 30mm automatic cannon, a machine gun, anti-tank missiles and a rocket launcher, it looks like something out of a Hollywood science fiction film.
An unmanned de-mining vehicle, the Uran-6, was also put on show, as were Russia’s latest military drones and an armoured vehicle designed to support tanks on the battlefield dubbed “The Terminator” by its maker.
An advanced Russian military snowmobile fitted with a machine gun, the Berkut, built to bolster Moscow’s Arctic ambitions, also traversed the cobbled square.
The Moscow parade was one of many which took place across Russia on Wednesday involving a total of 55,000 troops, 1,200 weapons systems and 150 war planes in 28 Russian cities.
Some politicians in former Soviet republics and satellite states regard the parade as crude sabre-rattling by a resurgent Russia they say poses a threat to Europe’s security. Russia dismisses such allegations as nonsense. (Writing by Andrew Osborn; additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin Editing by Richard Balmforth)
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/ww2-anniversary-russia-parade/putin-newly-inaugurated-reviews-russias-invincible-weapons-on-red-square-idUSL8N1SB653 |
May 19, 2018 / 12:31 PM / Updated 37 minutes ago Halep faces Svitolina again in Rome final after beating Sharapova Reuters Staff 3 Min Read
(Reuters) - World number one Simona Halep will face Elina Svitolina in a repeat of last year’s Italian Open final after recovering from a set down to beat Russian Maria Sharapova 4-6 6-1 6-4 in Rome on Saturday. Tennis - WTA Premier 5 - Italian Open - Foro Italico, Rome, Italy - May 19, 2018 Romania's Simona Halep celebrates winning her semi final match against Russia's Maria Sharapova REUTERS/Tony Gentile
Defending champion Svitolina put in a clinical performance earlier in the day to beat unseeded Estonian Anett Kontaveit 6-4 6-3 in the other semi-final.
Halep and Sharapova both made nervy starts, with neither able to hold serve until the seventh game, when the Russian finally managed to get her nose in front.
That proved to be the only hold of the first set, with Sharapova relinquishing her serve once more either side of breaking Halep to clinch the opener.
The Romanian came out stronger at the start of the second set, breaking Sharapova in the first game before holding service for the first time in the match to go 2-0 up.
She saved break points to extend her lead to 3-1 and then 5-1 before levelling the match. Tennis - WTA Premier 5 - Italian Open - Foro Italico, Rome, Italy - May 19, 2018 Romania's Simona Halep celebrates winning her semi final match against Russia's Maria Sharapova REUTERS/Tony Gentile
Both players exchanged breaks again at the start of the decider, before Halep held to go 2-1 up.
Sharapova surrendered a 30-0 lead on serve to allow Halep to extend her advantage to 3-1 before breaking back to reduce the deficit, but the Russian, who made 42 unforced errors and nine double faults, was unable to find a rhythm.
The pair exchanged breaks again before Sharapova finally held to tie things up at 4-4.
But Halep chose the right moment to turn in her most impressive service game, holding to love before breaking Sharapova for the 11th time to reach the final. Slideshow (8 Images) SVITOLINA SEES OFF KONTAVEIT
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian fourth seed Svitolina struck at key moments against Kontaveit in a display that bodes well for her chances at the French Open later this month.
Twenty-two-year-old Kontaveit offered stiff resistance, hitting 24 winners to Svitolina’s 18, but her opponent converted four of her five break-point opportunities while making seven fewer unforced errors in a contest of tight margins.
Svitolina started well, breaking early in the first set to go 2-0 up, but Kontaveit held her nerve to take the next three games and edge in front.
Svitolina responded well, though, and took the opener.
With Svitolina’s speed proving decisive, Kontaveit was forced to mix things up, but the baseliner’s touch deserted her at times in the second set, allowing the speedy Ukrainian to run down a couple of poorly disguised drop shots.
The world number four took an early break in the second set for a 2-1 lead, and went on to take the match on her opponent’s serve, converting her second match point with a deep forehand that left Kontaveit flailing. Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Davis, Neville Dalton | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tennis-rome-women/clinical-svitolina-sails-into-italian-open-final-idUKKCN1IK0GC |
* Oil slumps weighs
* FTSE 100 rises 0.2 pct
* Index posts weekly loss
* UK GDP barely grew in Q1 (Adds closing prices)
By Julien Ponthus
LONDON, May 25 (Reuters) - A slump in oil prices hit British majors on Friday, limiting the gains of the FTSE 100 benchmark index while Kingfisher shone after Australia’s Wesfarmers said it would sell rival UK home improvement chain Homebase.
The blue chip FTSE 100 ended the day up 0.18 percent at 7,730.28 points but posted a weekly loss of 0.6 percent, breaking an eight-week run of gains.
“The move lower in the oil market on account of speculation that OPEC will raise output slightly has hit London-listed stocks like BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Tullow Oil,” said David Madden, an analyst at CMC Markets UK.
Index heavyweights BP and Royal Dutch Shell lost 2 percent and 1.5 percent respectively while Tullow Oil fell 4.1 percent.
Confirmation that Britain’s economy barely grew during the first quarter of 2018 added pressure to the pound on a five-month low as worries over Brexit continued to take their toll.
A lower sterling typically provides an accounting boost to UK companies who sell products or services in foreign currencies.
Kingfisher, Europe’s second largest home improvement retailer, was a top gainer, up 3.4 percent, as Wesfarmers’ sale of Homebase is expected to ease competition in the DIY sector.
Analysts at Jefferies said the sale constituted “very good news” for Kingfisher and its B&Q chain, which competes with Homebase.
“Today’s news should see B&Q’s biggest competitor become much more sensitive to short, and mid term, margin and cashflow challenges,” they argued.
Britain’s BT rose 3.3 percent. The group received informal interest from infrastructure funds keen to own a stake in its core fixed-line network, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Royal Mail shares sustained the heaviest losses, down 2.8 percent as broker Berenberg downgraded the stock to “sell” on increasing growth and profit risks.
It also noted that complying with new EU regulations to protect privacy may weigh on marketing activities.
AstraZeneca rose 0.9 percent after its immunotherapy drug Imfinzi hit a second important goal by improving overall survival in lung cancer patients, boosting prospects for a medicine that has already got off to a promising commercial launch.
Among smaller companies, Gold miner Centamin dropped about 18 percent after it made a drastic cut to its full-year production guidance while Capita jumped 7.7 percent after it raised 681.4 million pounds through a rights issue.
Environmental infrastructure company Pennon Group added 7.6 percent after reporting its full-year profits. Gambling company GVC Holdings was up 4.3 percent after it raised its forecast of cost savings from its 4 billion pound acquisition of Ladbrokes Coral. (Reporting by Julien Ponthus Editing by Alison Williams)
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks/update-1-oil-weighs-on-britains-ftse-kingfisher-shines-idUSL5N1SW53C |
0 COMMENTS Adeel Saeed, CIO of corporate technology services and interim chief security officer at State Street Corp., speaks on the big screen at the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium in Cambridge, Mass., May 23, 018. The panelists seen below are, left to right: Joe Peppard, principal research scientist at MIT; Saeed; Jay Jamison, senior vice president of strategy and product management at Quick Base; Bruce Lee, head of operations and technology at Fannie Mae; and Naufal Khan, a senior partner at McKinsey & Co. Photo: Kim S. Nash / The Wall Street Journal
Sign up here for The Morning Download, and get the most important news in business technology emailed to you each weekday morning. Subscribe to WSJ Pro Cybersecurity for in-depth coverage on cybersecurity trends, breaches and best practices. Good morning, CIOS. Europe’s new privacy law, known as GDPR, is set to take effect today, an event representing the culmination of a months-long or years-long effort to get cloud and analytics policies in line with a much stricter regulatory environment. But for many CIOs tasked with driving digital strategy across the company, May 25 is just another deadline. It’s an important one, and much work remains , but with automation, AI, cybersecurity, various blockchain projects and talent issues pressing for attention, CIOs are not allowed to stop.
How do they do it? CIO Journal’s Kim S. Nash attended the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium in Cambridge, Mass., this week where attendees told her that they increasingly must rely on their non-tech capabilities to drive change. Highlights below.
Encourage a sense of mission. Harmeen Mehta, global CIO and head of digital at Bharti Airtel Ltd ., tells CIO Journal that she often will talk with individual coders or engineers about their part in a larger project and about what the company is trying to accomplish for customers. Working for a clear purpose, not a cog in a technology wheel, “gives a sense of achievement,” she said.
Understand the power dynamics. Atefeh Riazi, chief information technology officer at the United Nations said understanding unwritten power structures can help a technology leader know when to nurture or push new ideas. “Our job as CIO is [to be] a priest. We can’t shy away from it,” she said.
Use tech to relieve stress. Adeel Saeed, CIO of corporate technology services and interim chief security officer at State Street Corp. , said in an interview that he is working to reduce stress among his staff in part by developing chatbots to handle routine tasks such as finding forms and helping employees adhere to security policies.
MORE FROM CIO JOURNAL
From left to right: Mara Lemos Stein, reporter for WSJs Risk & Compliance Journal; Theresa Payton, president and CEO of Fortalice Solutions; Meerah Rajavel, CIO at Forcepoint; James Stickland, CEO at Veridium. Photo: SARA CASTELLANOS / THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The search for cyber’s ‘insatiable’ problem solvers . Employers on the hunt for excellent cybersecurity analysts don’t necessarily need to look for technical talent. What’s overlooked is the importance of diversity in soft skills such as creativity, problem-solving, and a willingness to continuously learn, a group of cybersecurity firm executives told WSJ’s Cybersecurity Executive Forum on Thursday .
TECHNOLOGY NEWS
National Transportation Safety Board investigators inspected the self-driving Uber vehicle after the fatal crash in Tempe, Ariz. Photo: NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD/REUTERS
Self-driving Uber not set up to stop . U.S. safety investigators said the Uber Technologies Inc . self-driving car involved in a fatal accident in Arizona this spring determined the need to apply emergency braking a little more than a second before impact, but wasn’t set up to automatically do so, the Journal’s Tim Higgins and Austen Hufford write .
Amazon Alexa-powered device shared user’s conversation without permission. Confirming a report by a local television station in Seattle, Amazon.com Inc. said that one of its Echo home speakers mistakenly recorded a private conversation and sent it to a person in the owners’ contact list, the WSJ’s Laura Stevens reports . The company said that the Echo device misunderstood pieces of a conversation as commands, causing it to think it was being instructed to send the message.
Feds target bitcoin manipulation . The Justice Department has opened a criminal probe into whether traders are manipulating the price of bitcoin and other digital currencies, Bloomberg reports , citing four sources familiar with the matter. Investigators are focused on illegal practices that can affect prices, such as flooding the market with fake orders to trick other traders into buying or selling.
Also of note : According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, criminals have stolen about $1.2 billion in cryptocurrencies since the beginning of 2017. Reuters has more .
Europe: the Goldilocks of tech regulation? French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said Europe should set global standards for tougher tech regulation, saying the United States was too lax while China was too restrictive, Reuters reports . “For me, the U.S. model is not sustainable because there’s no political accountability,” he said. China, he continued, was “over-centralized.”
Retailers push back on card companies’ payment initiative . Representatives for large retailers including Walmart Inc . and Home Depot Inc . met with federal regulators to raise concerns about an initiative from Visa Inc . and Mastercard Inc . that would combine their individual payment buttons on merchants’ online checkout pages, the Journal’s AnnaMaria Andriotis writes . Retailers say combining the buttons won’t let merchants route their debit-card transactions to lower-cost networks.
Apple wins $539 million jury award from Samsung in iPhone patent battle. The jury’s decision in the U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., increases the amount that Samsung Electronics Co . previously was ordered to pay Apple Inc. for the patents under dispute from $399 million to $539 million. The bulk of the new damages award, $533.3 million, was for infringing three Apple design patents on the iPhone. An additional $5.3 million was for infringing two utility patents. The Journal’s Tim Higgins has more .
Bill moves to block U.S. from buying Chinese surveillance equipment. The Journal’s Dan Strumpf reports that the House bill, which passed on a 351-66 vote, is the latest U.S. measure to take aim at Chinese technology companies, which have raised fears over national security. A spokesperson for surveillance equipment maker Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co ., which is 42%-owned by the Chinese government, said the vote “was made without a complete accounting of the facts and with no evidence to justify the claims of its sponsors.”
WHAT YOUR CEO IS READING
The grave marker of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda Fitzgerald is seen at St. Mary's Church Cemetery May 9, 2013 in Rockville, MD. Photo: Matt McClain / Associated Press
Every week, CIO Journal offers a glimpse into the mind of the CEO, whose view of technology is shaped by stories in management journals, general interest magazines and, of course, in-flight publications.
Introducing the F. Scott Fitzgerald test for AI. Quartz’s Paul Sonderegger says he found the perfect test for artificial intellegence from some lines written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1936: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” Mr. Fitzgerald ended up failing the test, washing out in Hollywood. And much of today’s AI may be heading along the same path, minus the martinis. “They offer a cheap imitation of a life well-lived, but only from a narrow perspective,” Mr. Sonderegger writes. “They are unable to hold two opposing thoughts at once, instead needing to exist in a state where decisions are made with one model or another, but not debate between the two.”
Bill Gates has your summer reading. Hide that copy of Vanity Fair you saved for the beach. Here comes the Microsoft Corp . co-founder with a ton–literally a ton– of summer beach reads , including “Leonardo da Vinci”, by Walter Isaacson and “Origin Story: A Big History of Everything,” by David Christian, “which tells the story of the universe from the big bang to today’s complex societies, weaving together insights and evidence from various disciplines into a single narrative.” Looks like it’s going to be another summer spent indoors.
Face-fashion must-have for open-office alpha-dogs. Funny how most stories on the deconstructed, espresso-machine-outfitted, zeppelin-hanger-sized open office plan fail to mention the cacophony of noise from employees yammering on their iPhones. Introducing Bloxvox, a new “voice privacy tool” worn on the face that lets employees carry on conversations without annoying everyone else. The muzzle-like design may take some getting used to. “Yes, it sounds weird, and I’m not going to spend any more time explaining it,” David Carnoy writes in CNet . “However, I will point out that there’s a little air hole in the front that allows you to breathe and have some air circulate in the muzzle.”
EVERYTHING ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW
President Donald Trump says he has canceled the planned June 12 summit with North Korea, citing the “anger and open hostility” in a recent North Korean statement. (WSJ)
U.S. steel prices won’t stop breaking away from those in Asia and Europe, in a rally driven by confusion about what Washington’s import tariffs will look like.
Deutsche Bank confirmed plans to cut thousands of jobs , and the troubled lender’s shares fell sharply following an update on investment-banking strategy. (WSJ)
Harvey Weinstein, the veteran Hollywood producer , is expected to turn himself in to authorities Friday in connection with a sex-crimes investigation conducted by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. (WSJ)
The Morning Download cues up the most important news in business technology every weekday morning.
Share this: AMAZON.COM DOWNLOAD GDPR ROLE OF THE CIO SOFT SKILLS UBER Previous CIOs: Digital Business Demands Political Savvy, Soft Skills Next Human-Machine Work Teams: The Promise and Today's Reality | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2018/05/25/the-morning-download-cios-find-softer-skills-matter-in-tsunami-of-digital-change/ |
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May 29 (Reuters) - Salesforce.com Inc reported quarterly revenue on Tuesday that topped analysts' expectations as demand for its cloud-based sales and marketing software continues to fuel rapid growth.
The San Francisco-based company's shares rose 1.3 percent in trading after the bell.
Salesforce has been a key beneficiary of so-called digital transformations - a growing trend in which companies move their operations onto lower cost cloud-based services that offer more scalability.
Revenue from the company's flagship product, Sales Cloud, rose 16.3 percent to $965 million.
The company's unearned revenue - a key metric used to measure future business for subscription-based software vendors - rose 25 percent to $6.20 billion.
Analysts on average expected $6.27 billion, according to financial and data analytics firm FactSet.
Salesforce accounted for about 20 percent of the 2017 global customer relationship management software market, up from 18.1 percent in 2016, according to research firm IDC.
Oracle is the company's closest rival with 7.1 percent of the market. However, Microsoft's Dynamics enterprise software is emerging as a major competitor after nearly tripling its market share to 4 percent in 2017.
Salesforce reported net income of $344 million, or 46 cents per share, in the first quarter ended April 30, compared with $1 million, or breakeven per share, a year earlier. Total revenue rose 25.4 percent to $3.01 billion, beating analysts' average estimate of $2.94 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. (Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva) | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/29/reuters-america-update-1-salesforce-revenue-beats-on-cloud-strength.html |
David Cote, the former longtime chief executive of Honeywell International Inc., is leading a company backed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that is trying to raise some $600 million to pursue industrial deals.
Blank-check companies, also known as special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, are listed companies with no assets that raise money from investors for acquisitions and have become a popular tool among well-known executives, particularly in the oil patch.
... | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.wsj.com/articles/blank-check-company-backed-by-goldman-sachs-files-for-ipo-1526681736 |
Netflix-Disney comparison & a famous Babe Ruth quote 9 Hours Ago Jim Cramer addresses Netflix's stock passing Disney's in market cap and puts it in context with the current investing environment. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/05/24/netflix-disney-comparison-a-famous-babe-ruth-quote.html |
(Reuters) - LaSalle Hotel Properties ( LHO.N ) decided to sell itself to private equity firm Blackstone Group LP ( BX.N ) for $3.7 billion in cash, rejecting a cash-and-stock offer from rival Pebblebrook Hotel Trust ( PEB.N ).
FILE PHOTO: The ticker and trading information for Blackstone Group is displayed at the post where it is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), New York, NY, U.S., April 4, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Blackstone’s offer values LaSalle at $33.50 per share and represents a premium of 5 percent to LaSalle’s closing price on Friday.
Pebblebrook’s offer, which values the U.S. hotel owner at $35.89 per share based on Friday’s close, consisted of a maximum of 20 percent in cash and the rest in stock.
“Blackstone offer provides immediate and certain cash value,” Baird Equity Research analyst Michael Bellisario wrote in a note.
LaSalle Chairman Stuart Scott said it was in touch with 20 potential buyers and signed confidentiality agreements with 10 of them before deciding on Blackstone’s offer.
Shares of LaSalle rose above Blackstone’s offer and were trading up 5.6 percent at $33.70 on Monday, indicating that the market was expecting a higher offer.
“We believe Pebblebrook would likely have to raise its offer by 5-10 percent,” SunTrust analyst Patrick Scholes said in a note, adding that the company may not want to be involved in a bidding war.
Pebblebrook could not be immediately reached for a comment on whether it would raise its offer further.
Pebblebrook had raised its offer on April 20 to $31.75 per share, after LaSalle rejected its previous bid, saying it undervalued the owner of high-end locations including ‘W’ Los Angeles.
Blackstone usually buys hotels and other real estate holdings at a discount, restructures them and sells for a profit.
The private equity firm exited Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc ( HLT.N ) on Friday after nearly 11 years by selling about 5.8 percent stake or 15.8 million shares in the hotel chain operator for about $1.32 billion.
Citigroup Global Markets Inc and Goldman Sachs & Co LLC were the financial advisers, while Goodwin Procter LLP and DLA Piper LLP (US) were the legal advisers to LaSalle.
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and J.P. Morgan were the financial advisers to Blackstone. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP was acting as legal adviser to Blackstone.
Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas and Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lasalle-hotel-m-a-blackstone-group/blackstone-to-buy-lasalle-hotel-for-3-7-billion-idUSKCN1IM161 |
May 14 (Reuters) - ENTREC Corp:
* CORPORATION ANNOUNCES 2018 FIRST QUARTER FINANCIAL RESULTS
* Q1 REVENUE ROSE 7 PERCENT TO C$40.1 MILLION * QTRLY LOSS PER SHARE $0.05 Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:
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© 2018 Reuters. All Rights Reserved. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-entrec-corporation-q1-loss-per-sha/brief-entrec-corporation-q1-loss-per-share-0-05-idUSASC0A249 |
May 8, 2018 / 2:50 PM / Updated 28 minutes ago German firm may finish Turkish construction halted after coup - fund head Behiye Selin Taner 3 Min Read
KAYSERI, Turkey, May 8 (Reuters) - The Turkish state fund that manages seized companies is in advanced talks with a German firm about completing building projects halted after the 2016 coup attempt, the head of the TMSF savings and deposit insurance fund said on Tuesday.
Turkish authorities seized the assets of, or took management control over, 960 companies worth 50.3 billion lira ($11.7 billion) for suspected links to the failed coup, Muhiddin Gulal said. The seized companies employed around 48,000 people, he said.
Ankara blames the network of the U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen for the attempted putsch. Gulen, who has lived in the United States since 1999, has denied the charges. His followers had been active in Turkish business, running companies spanning mining to financial services.
Two major construction groups, Dumankaya and Fi Yapi, halted building work on housing complexes after the companies were taken over by authorities.
The TMSF is now in talks with a German firm to take over those projects, Gulal said, without naming the company.
“A Germany-based group has committed to complete unfinished housing projects. The talks are at the final stage, we will take action within 10 days,” he told a news conference in the central Turkish province of Kayseri.
Turkish authorities have detained 160,000 since the failed coup and sacked a similar number of civil servants, according to a United Nations report this year.
Separately, Turkey will introduce steps to reduce a backlog of unsold homes, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Monday, in an attempt to fend off a decline in housing sales.
The plan would likely include reduction of interest rates on mortgage loans, banking sources said.
Construction has helped drive Turkey’s strong economic growth for years, but the industry has been hit by declining demand and the post-coup crackdown.
Total housing sales declined 14 percent in March, official data showed last month. ($1 = 4.2950 liras) (Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by David Dolan and Adrian Croft) | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/turkey-security-companies/german-firm-may-finish-turkish-construction-halted-after-coup-fund-head-idUSL8N1SF3C9 |
YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenian President Armen Sarkissian dismissed the heads of the security service and police at the request of newly elected Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the presidential press service said on Thursday.
FILE PHOTO - Armenian President Armen Sarkissian attends a wreath laying ceremony to commemorate the 103rd anniversary of mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, at the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex in Yerevan, Armenia April 24, 2018. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich The sackings of Vladimir Gasparyan as head of the police and Georgy Kutoyan as director of the National Security Service follow parliament’s election of Pashinyan as prime minister this week.
The former opposition leader was swept to power by a peaceful revolution driven by mass protests against corruption and cronyism in the ex-Soviet republic.
Pashinyan said in a social media post on Thursday that he had written to the president proposing Kutoyan and Gasparyan be dismissed.
Related Coverage Armenia's acting finance minister quits post: RIA news agency Gasparyan, who had served as head of the police since 2011, will be replaced by Valery Osipyan, the deputy chief of police of the capital Yerevan, a presidential decree published on Thursday said.
Kutoyan, who had worked as head of the national security service since 2016, will be succeeded by Artur Vanetsyan, the head of the service in Yerevan.
The election of Pashinyan, a former newspaper editor who spent time in prison for fomenting unrest, marked a dramatic rupture with the cadre of rulers who have run Armenia since the late 1990s.
On Thursday, acting finance minister Vardan Aramyan said he was quitting his post before the formation of a new government under Pashinyan. Aramyan served as finance minister in the previous government led by former president Serzh Sarksyan, who stood down on April 23 amid protests.
Reporting by Hasmik Mkrtchyan, Writing by Denis Pinchuk and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, Editing by Gareth Jones, William Maclean
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-armenia-politics/heads-of-armenian-security-service-police-dismissed-at-new-pms-request-idUSKBN1IB20G |
(Recasts with details on dating service)
SAN JOSE, Calif., May 1 (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to add a dating service, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Tuesday, marking the first time the world's largest social media network has actively tried to help people form romantic relationships.
Zuckerberg told software developers at Facebook's annual F8 conference that a dating service would be a natural fit for a company that specializes in connecting people online.
"There are 200 million people on Facebook that list themselves as single, so clearly there's something to do here," Zuckerberg said.
The feature would be for finding long-term relationships, "not just hook-ups," he said. It will be optional and will launch soon, he added, without giving a specific day.
The dating service is being built with privacy in mind, so that friends will not be able to see a person's dating profile, Zuckerberg said.
Concerns about Facebook's handling of privacy have grown since the social network's admission in March that the data of millions of users was wrongly harvested by political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.
Zuckerberg also said Facebook was building a new privacy control called "clear history" to allow users to delete browsing history.
"This feature will enable you to see the websites and apps that send us information when you use them, delete this information from your account, and turn off our ability to store it associated with your account going forward," the company said in a separate blog post https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/05/clear-history-2 .
(Reporting by David Ingram in San Jose; Additional reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr and Richard Chang) | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/01/reuters-america-update-2-facebook-to-offer-dating-service-for-first-time.html |
May 31, 2018 / 1:27 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago U.S. consumer spending accelerates; weekly jobless claims fall Lucia Mutikani 5 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer spending increased more than expected in April, a further sign that economic growth was regaining momentum early in the second quarter, while inflation continued to rise steadily. FILE PHOTO: Job seekers line up to apply during "Amazon Jobs Day," a job fair being held at 10 fulfillment centers across the United States aimed at filling more than 50,000 jobs, at the Amazon.com Fulfillment Center in Fall River, Massachusetts, U.S., August 2, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo
Other data on Thursday showed a bigger-than-expected drop in the number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits last week. Moderately rising inflation and a tightening labour market bolster expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next month.
Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, jumped 0.6 percent last month, the biggest gain in five months, the Commerce Department said. That followed a 0.5 percent increase in March.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast consumer spending advancing 0.4 percent. Spending was boosted by purchases of gasoline and other energy products. Nondurable goods purchases increased 0.9 percent. There were also increases in purchases of long-lasting goods. Outlays on services rose 0.5 percent, lifted by demand for household utilities.
Prices continued to gradually rise last month. The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding the volatile food and energy components increased 0.2 percent for the third straight month.
That left the year-on-year increase in the so-called core PCE price index at 1.8 percent. The core PCE index is the Fed’s preferred inflation measure. The U.S. central bank has a 2 percent inflation target.
Economists expect the annual core PCE price index will breach the Fed’s target in the coming months. The Fed increased borrowing costs in March and has forecast at least two more rate hikes for this year.
U.S. Treasury yields slipped after the data. U.S. stock index futures were largely unchanged while the dollar .DXY was trading lower against a basket of currencies. LABOUR MARKET TIGHTENING
The moderate inflation also helped support consumer spending last month. When adjusted for inflation, consumer spending rose 0.4 percent in April after increasing 0.5 percent in the prior month. That suggests an acceleration in consumer spending after it grew at a 1.0 percent annualised rate in the first quarter, the slowest pace in nearly five years.
The solid consumer spending added to data on trade and industrial production that have left economists anticipating a pickup in economic growth in the second quarter.
Gross domestic product estimates for the April-June period are above a 3.0 percent rate. The economy grew at a 2.2 percent pace in the first quarter.
Households dipped into their savings to fund purchases last month, with income growth remaining sluggish. Personal income rose 0.3 percent after a gain of 0.2 percent in March. Wages increased 0.4 percent. Savings fell to $419.6 billion (315.5 billion pounds) last month from $445.7 billion in March.
But with the labour market rapidly tightening, there is hope that wage growth will gain steam. In a separate report on Thursday, the Labor Department said initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 221,000 for the week ended May 26.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims falling to 228,000 in the latest week. The labour market is viewed as being close to or at full employment. The jobless rate is near a 17-1/2-year low of 3.9 percent, within striking distance of the Fed’s forecast of 3.8 percent by the end of this year.
Labour market strength is likely to be underscored by May’s employment report, which is scheduled for release on Friday. According to a Reuters survey of economists, nonfarm payrolls probably increased by 188,000 jobs after rising by 164,000 jobs in April.
The Fed’s latest Beige Book report of anecdotal information on business activity collected from contacts nationwide showed labour market conditions remained tight across the country in late April and early May.
The Fed said contacts continued to report difficulty filling positions across skill levels. There were notable shortages of truck drivers, sales personnel, carpenters, electricians, painters, and information technology professionals, the U.S. central bank said in its report published on Wednesday. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy/u-s-consumer-spending-accelerates-weekly-jobless-claims-fall-idUKKCN1IW1T4 |
North Korea summit called off in letter from Trump to Kim Jong Un 2 Hours Ago CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Caruso weighs in on why the drama unfolding around the cancellation of the U.S. summit with North Korea may not be over yet. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/05/24/north-korea-summit-trump-kim-jong-un.html |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has again asked a U.S. court to dismiss a suit accusing him of flouting constitutional safeguards against corruption by refusing to separate himself from his business empire while in office, claiming “absolute immunity.”
U.S. President Donald Trump waves goodbye after presenting the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy to the U.S. Military Academy football team in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, U.S., May 1, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis The lawsuit, filed by the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia, accused Trump of violating the U.S. Constitution’s “emoluments” clause that bars U.S. officials from accepting gifts or other payments from foreign governments without congressional approval. The same clause also bars the president from receiving gifts and payments from individual states.
“If Plaintiffs want to sue the President for acts taken while in office, they must sue him in official capacity. But he is absolutely immune from any suit, including this one, seeking to impose individual liability premised on his assumption of the Presidency itself,” Trump’s lawyer William Consovoy wrote in a court filing on Tuesday.
“The Supreme Court has concluded that the costs to the Nation of allowing such suits to distract the President from his official duties outweigh any countervailing interests. That choice must be respected,” Consovoy added.
Trump’s legal team previously sought to have the case tossed out but U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte in Greenbelt, Maryland, last month let it proceed even as he narrowed the claims only to those related to Trump’s hotel in downtown Washington.
Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh and District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine, both Democrats, argued in their suit, filed last June, that local residents were harmed by unfair competition by Trump’s hotel and other businesses. Lawyers for the Republican president previously argued that such harm was speculative and difficult to link directly to Trump.
Trump, whose businesses include a host of real estate properties as well as golf courses and a Virginia winery, handed day-to-day management to two of his sons. But the plaintiffs said Trump has not disentangled himself and is vulnerable to inducements by people, including foreign officials, seeking to curry favor.
Frosh and Racine have indicated they will seek numerous documents related to Trump, including his tax returns. Trump has bucked precedent by not releasing his tax returns during his 2016 presidential campaign or as president.
A U.S. judge in Manhattan in December threw out a similar lawsuit against Trump brought by another group of plaintiffs.
Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Will Dunham
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-trump-emoluments/trump-claims-immunity-asks-court-to-toss-foreign-payments-suit-idINKBN1I31Y4 |
May 24, 2018 / 2:35 PM / Updated 21 hours ago Commentary: What are "critical" minerals and what is the US going to do about them? Andy Home 7 Min Read
LONDON (Reuters) - NioCorp Developments, which is in the process of raising financing for a minerals project in Nebraska, has just seen its Toronto-listed shares surge from C$0.52 to $0.70 in the space of two days thanks to the U.S. government. File photo: An employee works with a titanium ingot at the VSMPO-Avisma factory in Verkhnyaya-Salda, some 1,800 km east of Moscow. REUTERS/Svetlana Burmistrova
NioCorp’s planned mine and processing facility at Elk Creek will produce three metals - scandium, niobium and titanium - that have all been officially designated “critical” minerals by the Interior Department.
No-one’s mined niobium in the United States since 1959, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The country relies exclusively on imports, mostly from Brazil.
The same is true of scandium, a metal which, according to NioCorp, has been used for several decades in “cutting-edge Soviet and Russian military technologies” but not by the U.S. armed forces due to a lack of supply.
This is precisely the point for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, which is developing a strategy to reduce import reliance for metals considered “critical to the economic and national security of the United States.” WHAT’S CRITICAL?
The Department of the Interior has identified 35 minerals as “critical”.
The designation is based on a matrix of criteria, including physical scarcity, concentration of production, supply chain reliability and U.S. import dependency.
Or, as summarized by one Commerce Department representative, “critical means you need it, strategic means you don’t have it.”
The unnamed official, quoted by the USGS in its explanation of the methodology behind the list, was involved with the 1978-1979 Presidential Review of Nonfuel Minerals Policy.
Which is a reminder that this is not the first U.S. Administration that has been worried about mineral import dependence.
However, the list of minerals deemed “critical” has changed significantly over the intervening 40 years as manufacturing processes have advanced.
Consider, for example, the case of the humble computer chip. In the 1980s, according to the USGS, only 12 elements were used in its manufacture. A decade later and the number had risen to 16 and by 2006 as many as 60 elements were being used for high-speed, high-capacity integrated circuits.
Whole new industries have emerged over the same time frame. The lithium ion battery, which sits at the heart of the green transport revolution, was only commercialised at the start of the 1990s.
No big surprise, then, to see both lithium and cobalt, two key but supply-challenged inputs into the new generation of batteries, appear on the list.
So too does the rare earth elements group. None of them are domestically produced in the U.S. and most of them come from just one country, China.
China is also the dominant supplier of other esoteric but “critical” components of the elemental table such as antimony, indium, tellurium and tungsten.
The list includes more conventional commodities such as the platinum group metals (all of them), tin and aluminium.
The USGS stresses that in such cases it’s not just the metal but the entire supply chain that is problematic.
“Aluminum is included to represent the aluminum supply chain because the United States is 100 percent reliant on imports of metallurgical grade bauxite, and some forms of high purity alumina and aluminum metal used for important applications also are considered critical.”
The full list of critical minerals can be found here: here REDUCING IMPORT RELIANCE
The U.S. government is imposing tariffs on imports of aluminium with the stated aim of rekindling dormant domestic production capacity and reducing import dependency.
And increasing domestic supply across the spectrum of the periodic table is going to be a core recommendation in the report being compiled by the Commerce Department for submission to President Trump by Aug. 16, 2018.
Commerce is also likely to recommend improved mapping of resources, streamlining lease permitting and anything else that will “increase discovery, production and domestic refining of critical minerals.”
One possible outcome, welcomed by companies such as NioCorp but feared by environmental groups, could be a revitalization of the U.S. mining industry.
As the Commerce Department itself notes, “any recommendations to improve permitting processes for critical minerals will improve permitting processes for all minerals administered under the same laws and regulations by the Bureau of Land Management and other Federal land management agencies.”
However, it’s going to be a slow process.
NioCorp, for example, is the only prospective near-term project for niobium and scandium in North America and, even with a full feasibility study already completed, the company still needs to raise around $1 billion to realise its ambitions.
Which is why the Commerce Department report will also look at other sources of supply such as recycling and cooperating with “allies and partners” to access targeted minerals. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
The Commerce Department’s list of potential measures doesn’t include the creation of a national stockpile of critical minerals such as that operated in China by the state-run Strategic Reserves Bureau.
That’s because the United States already has one, operated by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), the body charged with managing supply chains for the country’s armed forces.
As of September 2016, the most recent operational report, the DLA held stocks of many of the minerals on the Interior Department’s list with a total value of $1.15 billion.
On the current financial year’s potential shopping list are rare earths (up to a maximum 416 tonnes), battery precursors such as lithium nickel cobalt aluminium oxide (2.16 tonnes), ferroniobium (209 tonnes) and truly esoteric goodies such as cadmium zinc tellurium and tungsten rhenium. CATCHING UP
The DLA is also heavily involved both in recycling materials such as germanium and studying possible alternatives to existing “critical” military inputs.
But it can only be part of a broader strategy that will have to be both multidimensional and highly flexible.
There is no simple solution to the fact that the United States doesn’t have any commercially exploitable bauxite deposits or that cobalt production is so concentrated on the African Copperbelt.
Moreover, other countries, particularly China, have already aggressively built out supply chains to supply the battery-makers that will power the world’s growing electric vehicle fleet.
Identifying which minerals are “critical” is the easy part. Working out what to do about them is going to be much harder.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters. Editing by Keith Weir | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-minerals-ahome/commentary-what-are-critical-minerals-and-what-is-the-us-going-to-do-about-them-idUKKCN1IP2EJ |
It's that time of the year again, when deferred compensation elections must be made ahead of the June 30 deadline.
Deferred compensation is a benefit to higher-paid employees as a way to set aside additional funds for retirement. It is also a key attraction and retention tool for executives in this competitive marketplace; deferred compensation can provide new key employees a greater fringe benefit, and an important employee can be deterred from leaving, if leaving means the loss of a match or appealing investment alternatives.
H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock | Getty Images As such, many organizations have taken notice and increased the availability of company-sponsored non-qualified deferred compensation (NQDC) plans. While corporate executives have several retirement vehicles available to them, such as a 401(k) plans, there are limits on the amount that can be contributed in a given year. As an additional option, executives might consider NQDCs.
Significant wealth may be created in NQDC plans, where assets have the opportunity to compound tax-free and investment options are frequently attractive. Two times a year corporate executives are offered the option of deferring a portion of their compensation in order to put away money for their retirement in these plans. The June 30 deadline for deferring variable or incentive compensation for this year is rapidly approaching, so it's important to start examining the issue now.
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Basic modeling shows that assets invested inside a deferred compensation plan for 10 years would grow 1.86 percent more annually than the same amount invested for the same period receiving identical returns.
It is important to remember there are always risks associated with investing, as well as eventual tax payments. As such, below are six ways to help determine whether deferring compensation is a good choice for you:
Find out if there is company matching and how much it could increase your final return. Often, the match will be paid in stock if you invest in stock, so be sure to find out if you can diversify within the plan at a later time. Also, make sure you consider the dividend, if any. It may be beneficial for you to get a loan so you have sufficient liquidity and can put more into a deferred compensation plan. Given the growth potential of tax-free compounding and today's low interest rates, if the borrowed money is invested, you can enjoy an interest-rate deduction against investment income. Feel comfortable with your company's credit risk. If your company goes bankrupt, you are merely one of its general creditors. Review the options with your financial planning team to determine the most compelling ones. If you work or reside in a state with an income tax, the benefit of deferring taxation is further enhanced. If you later move to a state with a lower income tax or no tax at all, you would realize additional, significant savings as long as the distribution is taken in 10 or more installments. The longer you are able to defer, the more cushion you have against rising rates. The length of the deferral depends on the investment choices and the rate of return in the plan.
While asking yourself these questions, it is important to consider the impact of deferring. For example, it is usually best to defer for at least seven years to take full advantage of tax-deferred growth. While there are no federal limits to contributions to NQDC plans generally, a company's particular plan may impose certain limits on the amount you can defer, either each year or as an aggregate over multiple years.
Typically, the human resources department will notify you prior to the election. It is important to review the risks and rewards, including the investment alternatives and whether the election is irrevocable under the terms of the plan. In completing the forms, you will decide how much to defer, for how long and ultimately how to take the distribution — that is, a lump sum or as annual installments. You can select a specific year or an event, such as retirement or separation from service, to start the distribution.
Now is the time to decide if a NQDC is right for you. If your company does not offer these plans, now might be the time to discuss the idea to get ahead of next year.
— By Robert K. Barbetti, head of executive compensation advisory at JP Morgan Private Bank | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/31/deferring-compensation-now-could-build-retirement-wealth.html |
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The following issues have been halted by IIROC / L'OCRCVM a suspendu la negociation des titres suivants:
Company / Société : Central Iron Ore Limited
TSX-Venture Symbol / Symbole à la Bourse de croissance TSX :
CIO
Reason / Motif : At the Request of the Company Pending News / À la demande de la société en attendant une nouvelle Halt Time (ET) / Heure de la suspension (HE) 10 :11 am IIROC can make a decision to impose a temporary suspension of trading in a security of a publicly listed company, usually in anticipation of a material news announcement by the company. Trading halts are issued based on the principle that all investors should have the same timely access to important company information. IIROC is the national self-regulatory organization which oversees all investment dealers and trading activity on debt and equity marketplaces in Canada.
L'OCRCVM peut prendre la decision d'imposer une suspension provisoire des negociations sur le titre d'une societe cotee en bourse, habituellement en prevision d'une annonce importante de la part de la societe. Les suspensions de negociations sont imposees suivant le principe que tous les investisseurs devraient avoir un acces egal et simultane a l'information importante au sujet des societes dans lesquelles ils investissent. L'OCRCVM est l'organisme d'autoreglementation national qui surveille l'ensemble des societes de courtage et l'ensemble des operations effectuees sur les marches boursiers et les marches de titres d'emprunt au Canada.
Please note that IIROC is not able to provide any additional information regarding a specific trading halt. Information is limited to general enquiries only.
Veuillez prendre note que l'OCRCVM n'est pas en mesure de fournir d'informations supplementaires au sujet d'une suspension des negociations en particulier. L'information est restreinte aux questions generales.
IIROC Inquiries
1-877-442-4322 (Option 2)
Source:Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/25/globe-newswire-iiroc-trading-halt-suspension-de-la-negociation-par-locrcvm--cio.html |
VAL-D'OR, Quebec, May 01, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Metanor Resources Inc. ("Metanor" or the “Company”) (TSX-V:MTO) reports its financial results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2017. This press release should be read in conjunction with Metanor’s financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2017 and the related Management’s Discussion and Analysis (MD&A), which can be found on the Company’s website www.metanor.ca and on SEDAR www.sedar.com . All amounts are in Canadian dollars unless stated otherwise.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS
Corporate Refocusing: Simultaneously Increasing Production and Exploration Programs By Leveraging Our Infrastructure. The Company is currently developing new mining areas with the intent of mining greater tonnages in the near future. Management firmly believes that the Company is in the strongest position within the Urban-Barry Camp as Metanor has the only permitted mill, and most advanced infrastructure in the Camp. This competitive advantage, along with our robust organic exploration and development opportunities put us in the prime position to reap the rewards of what is likely to be significant consolidation within the Urban-Barry district.
Metanor has begun a public consultation, as part of the permitting process to increase the daily capacity of it’s mill from 800 tonnes per day to 2,400 tonnes per day. This increased capacity at Bachelor would allow feed from the Barry project, the Bachelor mine and Moroy sector.
Metanor is also focusing on developing Moroy 1 km south from Bachelor mine which, if successful, could generate enough ore, in the short term to increase the tonnes milled per day to 800 tonnes (the quantity the mill is currently permitted for) from the current milling rate of approximately 525 tonnes per day. Increasing the milling to 800 tonnes per day would have a significant positive impact.
The development on level 11 of the Bachelor Mine toward the Moroy deposit, 1 km south of the Bachelor Mine, continued in the period. A second diamond drill on level 11 was commissioned in the period to define the Moroy structures from underground and 5,566 metres were drilled in the period.
The Company restructured its streaming contract with Sandstorm Gold Ltd., as it believes it to be in the best interest of the Company to end the requirement to sell 20% of the gold produced from its Bachelor mine (which includes the Moroy sector) to Sandstorm, at US$500 per ounce of gold, in exchange of a 3.9% NSR on the Company’s properties (of which, 2.1% can be repurchased).
The Company began the construction of a new camp at the Barry project, to accommodate the additional workers required to proceed with an underground bulk sample scheduled for this year (2018).
Using two drills, 32,271 metres were drilled at the Barry Project in the period focusing on the shear type structures below and laterally from the pits. These drill results have led to: Presence of a series of high grade gold sub-vertical shears below the three small pits, 1,500 metres along strike length, and a depth of 440 metres; Presence of a series of gold bearing tension veins associated with the shears; Since then, a third drill was added to the Barry project to accelerate the definition of the veins.
A total of 16,709 metres of surface drilling were completed on gold targets mainly in the Urban-Barry, and Bachelor camp.
HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE TRANSITIONAL YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2017
The Company has changed its fiscal year end from June 30 to December 31, to better align its reporting requirements with its industry peers. Therefore, the reader should consider that the amounts presented in the financial statements are not entirely comparable, as the transitional fiscal year ended December 31, 2017, is a six-month period and the comparative information is for the full twelve-month fiscal year ended June 30, 2017.
Gold production of 13,651 ounces of gold leading to gold sales of 12,895 ounces from Bachelor Mine; $20,800,441 in gross revenues from gold sales at an average realized price of $1,613 per ounce sold (US$1,278/oz using an exchange rate of US$0.7926/C$1.00); $18,647,281 in net revenues from gold sales for the quarter after sales of ounces in the stream agreement.
operation summary
Three months Ended Three months Ended Six months Ended Twelve months Ended 31-Dec-17 31-Dec-16 31-Dec-17 30-Jun-17 Operational Summary Drilling - metres Underground development 1,263 999 2,589 4,638 Diamond drilling Bachelor 10,239 7,748 21,204 35,796 Diamond drilling Barry 12,864 7,843 32,271 17,815 Diamond drilling Moroy 4,961 2,832 5,566 10,969 Diamond drilling Other 10,113 0 16,709 10,401 Tonnes milled 44,979 61,790 97,261 239,238 Feed grade (g/t) 4.54 5.1 4.51 4.7 Mill recovery rate (%) 96.8 96.5 96.8 96.4 Ounces produced 6,358 9,764 13,651 34,853 Ounces sold 5,848 10,430 12,895 36,620 Financial results Gross sales $ 9,456,192 16,917,461 20,800,441 60,682,905 Net sales $ (net streaming) 8,098,420 15,874,919 18,647,281 56,292,643 average realized price $ 1,617 1,522 1,613 1,657 average realized price US $ 1,272 1,141 1,278 1,159 Exchange rate US to CDN $ 0.7867 0.7500 0.7926 0.7500 Cost of sales $ 9,747,406 12,565,028 19,865,998 44,925,659 Qualified Persons
Pascal Hamelin, P. Eng., President, is the Qualified Person under NI 43-101, responsible for reviewing and approving the technical information contained in this news release.
Cautionary and Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of the Company with respect to the future business activities and operating performance of the Company. The words “may”, “would”, “could”, “will”, “intend”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect” and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made, and are inherently subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other known and unknown factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. These factors include, among others, the development of the Company’s properties, expected production from, and the further potential of, the Company’s properties, the anticipated timing and commencement of exploration programs on various targets within the Company’s land holdings, the ability of the Company to successfully achieve business objectives, the Company's expectations in connection with the projects and exploration programs being met, the impact of general business and economic conditions, fluctuating gold prices, currency exchange, possible variations in ore grade or recovery rates, changes in accounting policies, changes in the Company's corporate mineral resources, changes in project development, construction, production, the possibility of project cost overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses, failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, unexpected changes in mine life, seasonality and unanticipated weather changes, costs and timing of the development of new deposits, success of exploration activities, permitting time lines, risks relating to infrastructure, permitting and licenses, government regulation of the mining industry, risks relating to foreign operations, uncertainty in the estimation and realization of mineral resources and mineral reserves, quality and marketability of mineral product, environmental regulation and reclamation obligations, risks relating to litigation, government regulation of mining operations, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses, title disputes or claims. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements except as otherwise required by applicable law.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange, nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
For more information, please contact:
Pascal Hamelin, President & COO
Telephone: 819-825-8678
email: [email protected]
2872, Sullivan Rd, suite 2
Val-d'Or, QC J9P 0B9
Source: Metanor Resources Inc. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/01/globe-newswire-metanor-reports-its-financial-results-for-the-quarter-and-year-ended-december-31-2017.html |
Yum China Holdings Inc:
* Q1 REVENUE ROSE 15 PERCENT TO $2.2 BILLION * Q1 EARNINGS PER SHARE VIEW $0.49 — THOMSON REUTERS I/B/E/S
* QTRLY TOTAL SYSTEM SALES GREW 6% YEAR OVER YEAR * QTRLY SAME-STORE SALES GREW 3%
* QTRLY SAME-STORE SALES INCREASE OF 5% AT KFC, A 5% DECREASE AT PIZZA HUT, EXCLUDING F/X
* AS OF MARCH 31, 2018, KFC LOYALTY PROGRAM HAD MORE THAN 120 MILLION MEMBERS AND PIZZA HUT LOYALTY PROGRAM HAD OVER 40 MILLION MEMBERS
* MOBILE PAYMENT ACCOUNTED FOR APPROXIMATELY 56% OF COMPANY SALES IN Q1 OF 2018, AS COMPARED TO 31% IN PRIOR YEAR PERIOD
* OPENED 203 NEW RESTAURANTS AND REMODELED 125 RESTAURANTS IN Q1 OF 2018
* DELIVERY CONTRIBUTED TO 16% OF COMPANY SALES IN Q1 OF 2018, AN INCREASE OF 3 PERCENTAGE POINTS YEAR OVER YEAR Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-yum-china-holdings-q1-earnings-per/brief-yum-china-holdings-q1-earnings-per-share-0-72-idUSASC09YSN |
May 15, 2018 / 7:29 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago British royal wedding thrown into confusion by bride's father Michael Holden 4 This weekend’s carefully planned wedding of Britain’s Prince Harry to his fiancee Meghan Markle was mired in confusion on Tuesday after the father of the American actress told a celebrity news website he was no longer coming.
Harry, 33, Queen Elizabeth’s grandson and the sixth-in-line to the British throne, and Markle, 36, will marry on Saturday at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.
Markle’s father Thomas, 73, was due to walk his daughter down the aisle in front of 600 guests including all the senior Britain’s royals and a smattering of celebrities.
However, the TMZ website reported on Monday that he had decided not to attend the glittering wedding at the castle, the home of English and British monarchs for almost 1,000 years.
He told TMZ he did not want to embarrass his daughter or the royal family after reports he had staged pictures with a paparazzi photographer for a fee. He also said he had suffered a heart attack a week ago.
“This is a deeply personal moment for Ms Markle in the days before her wedding,” Kensington Palace, Harry’s office, said in a statement. “She and Prince Harry ask again for understanding and respect to be extended to Mr Markle in this difficult situation.”
A spokeswoman for the prince declined to comment directly on the TMZ report or to say whether Markle’s father would be at the wedding. DEPENDS ON HIS HEALTH
Samantha Markle, the actress’s half-sister, told the Good Morning Britain TV program she hoped he would still be there but it depended on his health. Related Coverage Timings for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding
“He was really having heart pains and suffered a heart attack,” she said. “It was an unbelievable amount of stress.
“I don’t know as of today what his plans are, but there’s a very real concern. I wanted to see him go (to the wedding). I didn’t want him deprived of that. But clearly the priority should be whether or not it’s safe for him to do that.”
The bride-to-be’s parents are divorced and while Harry has been pictured with her mother Doria Ragland, 61, there had been speculation about how Thomas Markle, a former lighting director for TV soaps and sitcoms, would feature.
However, Harry’s communications secretary told reporters last week he would have an important role and would give away his daughter on the couple’s big day. He had also been expected to meet the queen, her husband and the other senior members of the Windsor family this week.
Thousands of journalists from across the world are descending on the genteel town of Windsor for the wedding, and Thomas Markle told TMZ that the media attention had taken its toll. He said he had been offered up to $100,000 for interviews and been ambushed by paparazzi whose snaps had shown him buying beer and looking disheveled.
TMZ said he had agreed to the staged pictures, which showed him looking at images of the couple on a computer and being sized up for a suit, because he hoped they would improve his image.
Prince Harry and his elder brother Prince William have both made clear in the past their dislike of the press, fueled by the death of their mother Princess Diana in a Paris car crash in 1997 as her limousine sped away from chasing paparazzi. FILE PHOTO: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend a reception for young people at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, February 13, 2018. REUTERS/Andrew Milligan/Pool
Kensington Palace has limited press access to the ceremony itself and strictly controlled the release of details about the wedding to the media.
If her father does not come, British newspapers suggested that Markle’s mother, with whom she is spending the night before the ceremony at a nearby luxury hotel, would walk her daughter down the aisle. Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew Heavens | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-royals-wedding/uk-royal-wedding-thrown-into-confusion-by-brides-father-idUKKCN1IG0UW |
May 17 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 index is seen opening down 4 points at 7,730 on Thursday, according to financial bookmakers. * ROYAL MAIL: New chief executive of Royal Mail, Rico Back, has been paid nearly 6 million pounds ($8.13 million) to buy him out of his contract in a move that could spark fury among former state-owned company's trade unions and shareholders. bit.ly/2ILWaJ6 * MOTHERCARE: Britain's Mothercare Plc will shutter 50 stores in the UK and bring back Mark Newton-Jones as chief executive as part of a restructuring plan to be unveiled on Thursday. * KPMG: KPMG, Deloitte, EY and PwC have drawn up contingency plans for a break up of their UK businesses, in case regulators force them to spin off their audit from their consulting businesses, FT reported. on.ft.com/2k3DXsM * BETTING: The maximum stake on fixed odds betting terminals in the UK will be dramatically slashed to just 2 pounds in a major victory for gambling campaigners. bit.ly/2IrYcuK * GOLD: Gold prices made modest gains on Thursday after touching their lowest level this year in the previous session, amid geopolitical uncertainty and a slightly weaker U.S. dollar. * OIL: Oil prices firmed on Thursday, with Brent crude creeping ever closer to $80 per barrel, a level it has not seen since November 2014, as supplies tighten while demand remains strong. * EX-DIVS: HSBC, Intertek Group, Tesco will trade without entitlement to their latest dividend pay-out on Thursday, trimming 6.77 points off the FTSE 100 according to Reuters calculations * The UK blue chip index closed 11 points higher at 7734.20 on Wednesday, as mining stocks rallied. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets * UK CORPORATE DIARY: British Land Company PLC Full Year 2018 Earnings Release National Grid PLC Full Year 2018 Earnings Release 3i Group PLC Full Year 2018 Earnings Release Future PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Investec PLC Full Year 2018 Earnings Release Euromoney Institutional Investor Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Grainger PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Thomas Cook Group plc Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Royal Mail PLC Full Year 2018 Earnings Release Just Group PLC Q1 2018 Business Update TODAY'S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com ($1 = 0.7382 pounds) (Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru)
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-may-17-idUSL3N1SO2DQ |
(Reuters) - Investors in India’s Fortis Healthcare Ltd ( FOHE.NS ) voted out a fourth director from the hospital operator’s board, it said on Wednesday, expressing displeasure over the company’s handling of offers of investment.
FILE PHOTO: A Fortis hospital building is pictured in Gurgaon, India, May 11, 2018. REUTERS/Saumya Khandelwal/File Photo Cash-strapped Fortis has received proposals of investment or takeover from five domestic and international firms, attracted by a rise in private healthcare spending and a government plan to expand access to insurance in a country lacking adequate heath facilities.
Shareholders voted on Tuesday to remove Brian Tempest, as sought by East Bridge Capital and Jupiter India. The two investors, who together control about 12 percent of Fortis, said the four board members failed to exercise their fiduciary duties.
Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in BENGALURU and Zeba Siddiqui in MUMBAI; Editing by Christopher Cushing
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fortis-health-m-a/indias-fortis-investors-oust-fourth-director-idUSKCN1IO147 |
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush during a news conference a decade ago is standing for parliament, campaigning against corruption and the sectarianism that has plagued his country.
Iraqi reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi listens during a news conference at the Geneva press Club in Geneva October 19, 2009. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/Files TV correspondent Muntazer al-Zaidi became famous across Iraq and the Middle East after throwing his footwear at Bush during a news conference in Baghdad in 2008, shouting “This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog!”
Bush ducked twice as the shoes sailed over his head. Zaidi served six months in prison for assaulting a visiting leader.
Today, Zaidi is standing for parliament as a member of the movement of firebrand Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose militia waged a violent campaign against the U.S. military during its occupation of Iraq, but who has lately redefined himself as an opponent of militant sectarianism.
Sadr and his followers argue that the sectarian and ethnic parties representing Iraq’s Shi’ites, Sunnis and Kurds, dominant since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, have abused their power and looted the state. The Sadrists have formed an unlikely alliance with the Communists and other secular groups.
“The main real purpose and reason behind my nomination is to get rid of the corrupt, and to expel them from our country,” Zaidi told Reuters in an interview.
“I was a journalist when I hurled a shoe at Bush. Before that event and I was, and still am, against the occupation and corruption. But the corrupt aren’t listening to people who demand that they give up corruption. So I decided to enter the political process.”
Zaidi said he has made a point of omitting from his posters any images of the shoe-throwing incident that made him famous.
“I refused to have any images of me from that incident used for my election campaign. I rely on the present, what I can bring to Iraqis. I don’t want an emotional (vote), I want people to be convinced (by my policies),” he said.
Zaidi’s shoe-throwing divided opinion in Iraq at the time. Some saw it as sticking up for the country; others as a crude gesture that undermined Iraq’s dignity.
Local residents erected a giant concrete monument of a shoe in Zaidi’s honour outside an orphanage in the city of Tikrit in 2009, but it was taken down a day later by the municipal authorities.
A decade on, reaction to his candidacy in the election this weekend has been similarly mixed.
“I hope he wins. He was jealously protecting his country. What he did was correct: the country was under occupation,” said Mohannad Ibrahim, 26-year-old supermarket cashier in Baghdad.
Journalist Haider Qassem, 41, disagreed. “He is not fit to be a candidate, he is not even fit to be a low-ranking civil servant. He has no manners. A journalist should be cultured. You can’t just throw shoes.”
Iraqi reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi gestures during a media conference at the Geneva press Club in Geneva October 19, 2009. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/Files Reporting by Reuters Video News and Ahmed Aboulenein; writing by Peter Graff; editing by Andrew Roche
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://in.reuters.com/article/iraq-election-shoe-thrower/iraqi-journalist-who-threw-shoes-at-bush-stands-for-parliament-idINKBN1IC1AY |
NEW YORK, May 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Acreage Holdings ("Acreage") ( www.acreageholdings.com ), one of the nation's largest, multi-state cannabis corporations, has announced that it will be a key sponsor and participant in the 2018 Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo (CWCBE) taking place in New York City, May 30 th to June 2 nd at the Jacob Javits Center. The CWCBE is a one of the largest business-to-business trade show events for the legalized cannabis industry and is held three times per year in New York, Los Angeles, and Boston, respectively.
As the Keynote Sponsor of the CWCBE, Kevin Murphy , CEO of Acreage Holdings will introduce Keynote Speaker Bruce Linton, Chairman & CEO of Canopy Growth, on Thursday May 31 st . Canopy Growth was the first cannabis producing company in North America to be listed on a major stock exchange. Murphy's introduction will include a look how Canopy Growth has paved the way for companies like Acreage to thrive in the evolving cannabis market.
Former Governor of Massachusetts and recent addition to Acreage's Board of Advisors, Bill Weld , will present on the very first Surprise Speaker Series, taking place on Thursday, May 31 st . Entitled "Our View of Cannabis," this panel will include well-known leaders from politics, professional sports, research and advocacy who will each share the story of how they came to be a supporter of cannabis. Only a few of the participants will be announced in advance of the event.
Acreage President, George Allen will also be speaking on one of the event's most anticipated panels, Cannabis and the Capital Markets, taking place on Saturday, June 2 nd . Allen, a seasoned executive with extensive financing and transaction experience, was previously Chief Investment Officer of Cambridge Information Group (CIG), where he managed a portfolio of private and public direct investments and founded an internally managed hedge fund focused on global growth equities. His panel will address what it takes for cannabis companies to access the capital markets, as well as the benefits and pitfalls of being publicly traded.
Kevin Murphy , Acreage Founder and CEO said, "We are thrilled to take such an active role in this year's Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo in New York. This event is one of the foremost opportunities for industry leaders, advocates, educators, and influencers to come to together and tackle the biggest issues facing the industry today. As a leading sponsor and participant, Acreage is always looking to drive the discussion around cannabis as the industry continues to evolve and the country moves towards legalization."
Founded in 2014, Acreage Holdings has the most diverse portfolio of any company in the American cannabis industry, with cultivation, processing and dispensing operations across 12 states and growing. Acreage Holdings recently made headlines when it announced that former House Speaker John Boehner and former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld were joining its Board of Advisors.
ABOUT ACREAGE HOLDINGS
Acreage Holdings is a vertically integrated, multi-state owner of cannabis licenses and assets in states where either medical and/or adult use cannabis is legal. Headquartered in New York City and currently operating in 11 states, Acreage owns cultivation, processing and dispensary operations and has among the largest footprints of any cannabis company in the U.S. The company is focused on building and scaling the best-in-breed operations and creating the best consumer-focused cannabis experiences and brands in the space.
View original content with multimedia: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/acreage-holdings-to-be-a-leading-participant-and-sponsor-of-cannabis-world-congress-and-business-expo-in-nyc-300656205.html
SOURCE Acreage Holdings | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/30/pr-newswire-acreage-holdings-to-be-a-leading-participant-and-sponsor-of-cannabis-world-congress-and-business-expo-in-nyc.html |
President Trump has done what would have seemed impossible just several months ago. Not only has he gotten North Korea , the most rogue of rogue regimes, to stop missile and nuclear weapons testing—thanks to a maximum pressure campaign that could end up bankrupting the regime —but three American hostages were just released, creating the conditions for a summit between the president and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un.
Considering how last winter it seemed possible that nuclear war was about to be unleashed, potentially putting at risk millions of lives around the world, Trump deserves the highest of praise— and indeed the Noble Prize .
show chapters Trump: We'll announce North Korea summit site in 3 days 4 Hours Ago | 01:30 In fact, with every new breakthrough, the pages of history are being written and rewritten when it comes to relations in Northeast Asia, with the implicit hope that the Korean War will finally come to an end and that Pyongyang will have the wisdom to truly seek better ties with Washington and the entire world.
But though North Korea seems to be committed to some sort of denuclearization, I simply can't shake this pit in my stomach. For I know the history of Pyongyang's promises—more like breaking every pledge they have ever made.
Kim will never give up his nukes I also know the chances of Kim giving up his nuclear weapons are still slim to none. His demands for giving up those nuclear weapons could be a price we could never meet—like hundreds of billions of dollars and the complete removal of U.S. military forces.
History cries out for us to be skeptical, to listen to Kim's own people, who were promised a communist paradise, but who were treated worse than slaves. In interviewing several North Korean defectors while researching a book project, I saw the mental and physical scars they will never heal from.
What one defector told me in 2014 seems even more relevant now than ever: "The Kim family not only killed my entire family but they broke my soul into pieces that I will never be able to put back together. You don't talk to monsters like that—you fear them. You run from them. And you never trust them. Ever."
The nature of this vile regime, that lies, cheats and steals whatever it wants to survive, along with a human rights rap sheet filled with millions of innocent dead men, women and children serves as the ultimate warning to trust nothing that comes out of Kim's mouth.
Several examples only go to show the lengths North Korea will go to when it wants to silence internal dissent or hush up anyone internally who cries out for anything resembling freedom.
A reign of terror First, if you dare speak out in anyway, or are suspected of speaking out, you—along with multiple generations of your family—will be hauled away, most likely to be never heard from ever again. Your friends and co-workers will wonder what happened to you, but none will ever voice their worries publicly, knowing that if they do, their families could end up with the same fate.
Next, you may or may not have a trial—but the verdict is guaranteed. You will be sentenced to serve in a prison camp that more resembles the worst horrors of Hitler or Stalin's most terrible reigns of terror. You will be starved, you will be worked to the bone, and your capturers will hope you die from your labor.
From there, it gets far worse. As the days pass, desperation will set in. You will be willing to eat anything—insects, grass, leaves, bark, mice and perhaps undigested corn from the waste of cows—all to survive.
Grotesque stories must be retold If you are a woman in these camps, you face even more horrific treatment. You are routinely raped in the most violent of ways, sometimes by multiple assailants, for days on end. If you become pregnant by your rapist, you will be forced to undergo an abortion, many times with no pain killers whatsoever.
And if you try to hide your pregnancy, in an attempt to save the life of your unborn child, you will be killed in the most horrific of ways, but only after you watch your baby murdered beforehand.
Such descriptions are grotesque, but must be retold—again and again—to serve a constant reminder of the nature of the regime that we are now trying to negotiate with. All the photo-ops and slick media campaigns to rehabilitate the Kim family's image can't wash away the blood this regime has on its hands.
While I am hopeful that Kim Jong Un may have had his come to Jesus moment and truly wants to give up his nuclear weapons and potentially open his nation economically and politically, history cries out for us to be wary. The Kim family's victims—including America's own Otto Warmbier and millions more—demand from us such skepticism.
Commentary by Harry J. Kazianis, director of defense studies at the Center for the National Interest. He also serves as executive editor of its publishing arm, The National Interest . He previously served as part of the foreign policy team for the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Ted Cruz. Follow him on Twitter @Grecianformula .
For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/09/north-korea-freed-3-prisoners-it-still-cant-be-trusted.html |
Despite the fresh horror of the rising cost of college, few people seem to understand the tax-advantaged account that will help you pay for it.
A recent survey from Edward Jones found that only about 30 percent of American adults were able to correctly identify a 529 plan as "an educational savings plan."
The St. Louis-based brokerage firm polled 1,004 adults via phone in April.
Other answers included "a retirement savings plan," at 17 percent and "I don't know," which was chosen by 34 percent of participants.
Just to be clear, a 529 plan permits families to save money for qualified educational expenses and generally have it accumulate free of taxes.
Families can take tax-free withdrawals from the account to cover college costs, including tuition, fees, books, room and board.
show chapters New parents: This is how much college will cost in 18 years 12:20 PM ET Mon, 7 May 2018 | 01:35 You'll need all the help you can get: During the 2017-2018 school year, the average private non-profit college charged $46,950 for tuition, fees, room and board, according to the College Board .
Public in-state expenses for the same period were $20,770.
"There's a general awareness on the importance of a college education and we all know how expensive it is," said Danae Domian, a principal at Edward Jones. "It's perplexing as to why there is so little awareness on the ways people can do something about it."
Common errors Despite all the virtues of 529 plans, misconceptions about how they work continue.
A 2016 survey by SavingforCollege.com found that nearly 20 percent of parents and grandparents erroneously believe they must use the 529 plan offered in their state of residence.
On the contrary, you can choose any plan — not just the one in your home state.
If your home state is among the approximately 30 to offer a tax break for saving in a 529, be sure to look deeper and see how the fees stack up.
More than 10 percent of the 1,777 participants in the SavingforCollege.com survey believed that if a child doesn't go to college, they'll lose the money saved in the plan.
This is incorrect.
If your child decides not to attend college, you may be able to repurpose the funds and use them to cover vocational school. You can also change the beneficiary to another member of your family.
Think twice before taking a withdrawal for non-educational purposes: You'll be on the hook for income taxes and generally a 10 percent penalty on the earnings.
Elementary and secondary school Ariel Skelley | Getty Images The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act recently expanded the use of 529 accounts so that families with children in private elementary and secondary school can make withdrawals up to $10,000 a year to pay for tuition.
The Edward Jones survey found that even after the broadened applicability of these savings accounts, 65 percent of the respondents said they were not more likely to open a 529.
Be aware that even if the federal government allows you to pull money from your 529 plan to cover K-12 expenses, your state's tax laws may differ.
That means that the state in which you reside may consider this a non-qualified withdrawal and you could face taxes, penalties and a clawback of your tax breaks if you use your 529 to foot the elementary school bill.
Factors to weigh David Oxberry | Getty Images "You don't need a lot of money to start saving," said Domian of Edward Jones. "A little investigation and research can go a long way toward helping your kids."
As you compare your options, consider the following:
Risk and return: Understand the allocation of your child's portfolio. Age-based portfolios reduce equity exposure as the college start date approaches. Heavy allocation toward stocks might make sense if your child is an infant; it's probably too risky if your child is a sophomore in high school.
Fees: Be on the lookout for enrollment and maintenance fees. Investment costs can vary dramatically across plans: Costs for age-based portfolios in the Utah Educational Savings Plan range from 0.17 percent to 0.60 percent, while the NJ Best 529 College Savings Plan has fees between 0.41 percent and 0.91 percent.
Advisor-sold vs. direct: As of 2015, average fees for advisor-sold 529s were 1.04 percent, while direct-sold plans were 0.51 percent. Know what you're paying for: Is your advisor's guidance worth an additional fee for planning or a commission?
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Apply to these three types of colleges to head off student debt
New parents: Here's how much you need to save to cover college in 2036 | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/16/this-account-can-help-you-slash-your-tuition-bill--and-few-americans-know-it.html |
5/22/2018 5:37PM Mark Zuckerberg’s Face-Off With European Parliament: The Highlights Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced questions from European Parliament’s most-senior members Tuesday about the social media company’s handling of fake news, elections and user data. Here are the highlights. Photo: Getty Images | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.wsj.com/video/mark-zuckerbergs-face-off-with-european-parliament-the-highlights/0680067A-C8E7-494C-A125-A71DDA3FC408.html |
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- On Wednesday, May 9, 2018, the Board of Directors of Cabot Corporation (NYSE:CBT) declared a quarterly dividend of $0.33 per share on all outstanding shares of the Corporation’s common stock. The dividend is payable on June 8, 2018, to stockholders of record at the close of business on May 25, 2018.
“Our strong cash flow generation and our confidence in the future earnings of the company allow us to increase our dividend again this year," said Sean Keohane, president and chief executive officer of Cabot. “We remain committed to investing to returning cash to our shareholders through dividends and share repurchases, while also investing for growth in our core businesses."
About Cabot Corporation
Cabot Corporation (NYSE: CBT) is a global specialty chemicals and performance materials company, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The company is a leading provider of rubber and specialty carbons , activated carbon , inkjet colorants , cesium formate drilling fluids , masterbatches and conductive compounds , fumed silica , and aerogel . For more information on Cabot, please visit the company’s website at: http://www.cabotcorp.com .
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in the press release regarding Cabot's business that are not historical facts are forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K.
View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180509006632/en/
Cabot Corporation
Steve Delahunt, 617-342-6255
Investor Relations
Source: Cabot Corporation | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/09/business-wire-cabot-corporation-board-declares-dividend.html |
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc. (NYSE: GPMT), a commercial real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on directly originating, investing in and managing senior floating rate commercial mortgage loans and other debt and debt-like commercial real estate investments, today announced its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 and provided an update on its activities subsequent to quarter-end. A presentation containing first quarter 2018 highlights and a business update can be viewed at www.gpmortgagetrust.com .
First Quarter 2018 Summary
GAAP net income of $14.6 million or $0.34 per basic share; Core Earnings (1) of $15.2 million or $0.35 per basic share (including $0.9 million or $0.02 per basic share of prepayment fee income). Taxable income of $19.6 million or $0.45 per basic share; dividend of $0.38 per common share; and book value of $19.05 per common share. Closed senior floating rate commercial real estate loans with total commitments of $133.4 million having a weighted average stabilized LTV of 62% (2) and a weighted average yield of LIBOR + 5.22%. (3) Funded $156.2 million of principal balance on loans during the quarter, including $31.9 million on existing loan commitments and $19.7 million to upsize 2 existing loans. Received prepayments and principal amortization of $101.2 million. Owned a portfolio with a principal balance of $2.4 billion, which was over 97% floating rate and over 95% senior commercial mortgage loans with a weighted average stabilized LTV of 64%.
Activity Post Quarter-End
Generated a pipeline of senior floating rate commercial real estate loans, including upsizings, with total commitments of over $420 million, and initial funding loan amounts of over $370 million, which have either closed or are in the closing process, subject to fallout. On May 9, 2018 closed an $826 million commercial real estate CLO with an advance rate of 80% and a weighted average interest rate at issuance of LIBOR plus 1.27% (4) . On April 13, 2018 closed a $75 million two-year revolving bridge financing facility.
(1) Core Earnings is a non-U.S. GAAP measure that we define as comprehensive income attributable to common stockholders, excluding “realized and unrealized gains and losses” (impairment losses, realized and unrealized gains or losses on the aggregate portfolio and non-cash related to restricted common stock). We believe the presentation of Core Earnings provides investors greater transparency into our period-over-period financial performance and facilitates comparisons to peer REITs. Please see page 6 for a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial information. (2) Stabilized LTV is calculated as the fully funded loan amount (plus any financing that is pari passu with or senior to such loan), including all contractually provided for future fundings, divided by the as stabilized value (as determined in conformance with USPAP) set forth in the original appraisal. As stabilized value may be based on certain assumptions, such as future construction completion, projected re-tenanting, payment of tenant improvement or leasing commissions allowances or free or abated rent periods, or increased tenant occupancies. (3) Yield includes net origination fees and exit fees, but does not include future fundings, and is expressed as a monthly equivalent yield. (4) Excludes deferred debt issuance costs. Conference Call
Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc. will host a conference call on May 10, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. EST to discuss first quarter 2018 financial results and related information. To participate in the teleconference, approximately 10 minutes prior to the above start time please call toll-free (866) 807-9684, (or (412) 317-5415 for international callers), and ask to be joined into the Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc. call. You may also listen to the teleconference live via the Internet at www.gpmortgagetrust.com , in the Investors section under the Events and Presentations link. For those unable to attend, a telephone playback will be available beginning May 10, 2018 at 12:00 p.m. EST through May 17, 2018 at 12:00 a.m. EST. The playback can be accessed by calling (877) 344-7529 (or (412) 317-0088 for international callers) and providing the Access Code 10118879. The call will also be archived on the company’s website in the Investors section under the Events and Presentations link.
Granite Point Mortgage Trust
Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc., a Maryland corporation, is a real estate investment trust that is focused on directly originating, investing in and managing senior floating rate commercial mortgage loans and other debt and debt-like commercial real estate investments. Granite Point is headquartered in New York, New York, and is externally managed by Pine River Capital Management L.P. Additional information is available at www.gpmortgagetrust.com .
Forward-Looking Statements
This presentation contains, in addition to historical information, certain that are based on our current assumptions, expectations and projections about future performance and events. In particular, statements regarding future economic performance, finances, and expectations and objectives of management constitute . Forward-looking statements are not historical in nature and can be identified by words such as “believes,” “expects,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “seeks,” “approximately,” “intends,” “plans,” “estimates,” “anticipates,” “targets,” “goals,” “future,” “likely” and other expressions that are predictions of or indicate future events and trends and that do not relate to historical matters.
Although the contained in this presentation are based upon information available at the time the statements are made and reflect the best judgment of our senior management, inherently involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from anticipated future results. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expected results, including, among other things, those described in our filings with the (“SEC”), including our annual report on form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, and any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q under the caption “Risk Factors.” Factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to: the state of the U.S. economy generally or in specific geographic regions; the general political, economic, and competitive conditions in the markets in which we invest; defaults by borrowers in paying debt service on outstanding indebtedness and borrowers' abilities to manage and stabilize properties; our ability to obtain financing arrangements on terms favorable to us or at all; the level and volatility of prevailing interest rates and credit spreads; reductions in the yield on our investments and an increase in the cost of our financing; general volatility of the securities markets in which we participate; the return or impact of current or future investments; allocation of investment opportunities to us by our Manager; increased competition from entities investing in our target assets; effects of hedging instruments on our target investments; changes in governmental regulations, tax law and rates, and similar matters; our ability to maintain our qualification as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes and our exclusion from registration under the Investment Company Act; availability of desirable investment opportunities; availability of qualified personnel and our relationship with our Manager; estimates relating to our ability to make distributions to our stockholders in the future; hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters, acts of war and/or terrorism and other events that may cause unanticipated and uninsured performance declines and/or losses to us or the owners and operators of the real estate securing our investments; deterioration in the performance of the properties securing our investments that may cause deterioration in the performance of our investments and, potentially, principal losses to us; and difficulty or delays in redeploying the proceeds from repayments of our existing investments. These apply only as of the date of this press release. We are under no duty to update any of these after the date of this presentation to conform these statements to actual results or revised expectations. You should, therefore, not rely on these as predictions of future events.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
In addition to disclosing financial results calculated in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), this press release and the accompanying investor presentation present non-GAAP financial measures, such as Core Earnings and Core Earnings per basic common share, that exclude certain items. Granite Point management believes that these non-GAAP measures enable it to perform meaningful comparisons of past, present and future results of the company’s core business operations, and uses these measures to gain a comparative understanding of the company’s operating performance and business trends. The non-GAAP financial measures presented by the company represent supplemental information to assist investors in analyzing the results of its operations. However, because these measures are not calculated in accordance with GAAP, they should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, the financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. The company’s GAAP financial results and the reconciliations from these results should be carefully evaluated. See the GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation table on page 6 of this release.
Additional Information
Stockholders of Granite Point and other interested persons may find additional information regarding the company at the ’s Internet site at www.sec.gov or by directing requests to: Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc., 590 Madison Avenue, 38 th floor, New York, NY 10022, telephone 212-364-3200
GRANITE POINT MORTGAGE TRUST INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(in thousands, except share data)
March 31, December 31, 2018 2017 ASSETS (unaudited) Loans held-for-investment $ 2,364,647 $ 2,304,266 Available-for-sale securities, at fair value 12,814 12,798 Held-to-maturity securities 37,376 42,169 72,070 107,765 Restricted cash 4,998 2,953 Accrued interest receivable 7,641 7,105 Deferred debt issuance costs 7,468 8,872 Prepaid expenses 198 390 Other assets 13,507 12,812 Total Assets $ 2,520,719 $ 2,499,130 LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY Liabilities Repurchase agreements $ 1,524,456 $ 1,521,608 Convertible senior notes 139,745 121,314 Accrued interest payable 5,280 3,119 Unearned interest income 57 197 Dividends payable 16,588 16,454 Other liabilities 6,237 6,817 Total Liabilities 1,692,363 1,669,509 10% cumulative redeemable preferred stock, par value $0.01 per share; 50,000,000 shares authorized and 1,000 and 1,000 shares issued and outstanding, respectively 1,000 1,000 Stockholders’ Equity Common stock, par value $0.01 per share; 450,000,000 shares authorized and 43,437,059 and 43,235,103 shares issued and outstanding, respectively 434 432 Additional paid-in capital 830,366 829,704 Accumulated other comprehensive income 16 — Cumulative earnings 43,386 28,800 Cumulative distributions to stockholders (46,846 ) (30,315 ) Total Stockholders’ Equity 827,356 828,621 Total Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity $ 2,520,719 $ 2,499,130 GRANITE POINT MORTGAGE TRUST INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME
(in thousands, except share data)
Three Months Ended March 31, 2018 2017 Interest income: (unaudited) Loans held-for-investment $ 38,793 $ 22,638 Available-for-sale securities 272 246 Held-to-maturity securities 885 932 27 2 Total interest income 39,977 23,818 Interest expense: Repurchase agreements 16,194 4,756 Convertible senior notes 2,179 — Note payable to affiliate — 1,350 Interest expense 18,373 6,106 Net interest income 21,604 17,712 Other income: Fee income 882 — Total other income 882 — Expenses: Management fees 3,209 1,662 Servicing expenses 458 322 General and administrative expenses 4,232 2,273 Total expenses 7,899 4,257 Income before income taxes 14,587 13,455 Provision for income taxes 1 1 Net income 14,586 13,454 Dividends on preferred stock 25 — Net income attributable to common stockholders $ 14,561 $ 13,454 Basic earnings per weighted average common share (1) $ 0.34 $ — Diluted earnings per weighted average common share (1) $ 0.33 $ — Dividends declared per common share $ 0.38 $ — Weighted average number of shares of common stock outstanding: Basic 43,374,228 — Diluted 50,467,978 — Comprehensive income: Net income attributable to common stockholders $ 14,561 $ 13,454 Other comprehensive income, net of tax: Unrealized gain on available-for-sale securities 16 80 Other comprehensive income 16 80 Comprehensive income attributable to common stockholders $ 14,577 $ 13,534 (1) The Company has calculated earnings per share only for the period common stock was outstanding, referred to as the post-formation period. The Company has defined the post-formation period to be the period from the date the Company commenced operations as a publicly traded company on June 28, 2017 and on. Earnings per share is calculated by dividing the net income for the post-formation period by the weighted average number of shares outstanding during the post-formation period. GRANITE POINT MORTGAGE TRUST INC.
RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP FINANCIAL INFORMATION
(dollars in thousands, except share data)
Three Months Ended March 31, 2018 (unaudited) Reconciliation of GAAP net income to Core Earnings: GAAP Net Income $ 14,561 Adjustments for non-core earnings: Non-cash equity compensation 664 Core Earnings (1) $ 15,225 Core Earnings per basic common share $ 0.35 Basic weighted average shares outstanding 43,374,228 (1) Core Earnings is a non-U.S. GAAP measure that we define as comprehensive income attributable to common stockholders, excluding “realized and unrealized gains and losses” (impairment losses, realized and unrealized gains or losses on the aggregate portfolio and non-cash related to restricted common stock). We believe the presentation of Core Earnings provides investors greater transparency into our period-over-period financial performance and facilitates comparisons to peer REITs.
View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180509006450/en/
Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc.
Investors:
Marcin Urbaszek, Chief Financial Officer, 212-364-3200
[email protected]
Source: Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/09/business-wire-granite-point-mortgage-trust-inc-reports-first-quarter-2018-financial-results-and-post-quarter-end-business-update.html |
DUBAI (Reuters) - Sembcorp Salalah Water and Power Co SSPW.OM, which operates an electricity generation and seawater desalination plant in Oman, said its water production plant had been temporarily shut down because of rough seas as a result of a tropical storm.
General view after Cyclone Mekunu in Salalah, Oman May 26 2018. Oman News Agency/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY Cyclone Mekunu hit southern Yemen and the coast of neighboring Oman over the weekend, leaving several dead and others missing.
The company said its preliminary assessment is that the impact is not expected to be material, however the “total impact of the cyclone on plant operations cannot yet be precisely assessed at this point in time.”
Sembcorp Salalah is 40 percent owned by a subsidiary of Sembcorp Industries ( SCIL.SI ) and 13 percent owned by Oman Investment Corp, according to its website.
Other Muscat-listed companies such as Dhofar Poultry Co DPCI.OM have also announced some losses from the cyclone.
Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Alexander Smith
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oman-weather-companies/cyclone-shuts-sembcorp-salalah-water-production-plant-idUSKCN1IS04L |
DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co ( F.N ) said on Wednesday it has halted production of some of its most profitable vehicles, the F-150 and Super Duty full-size pickup trucks, at two U.S. factories after a fire at a supplier plant that produces parts for the trucks.
Production of F-150 pickups at a third Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan, could be idled Wednesday or Thursday, people familiar with the situation said.
It was not clear how long the production disruptions will last and Ford did not specify what parts were affected in the pickup trucks. A Ford spokeswoman said on Wednesday the automaker is working closely with the supplier to get production restarted. Ford shares dropped 2.1 percent.
A fire last week at the plant in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, operated by Meridian Lightweight Technologies disrupted production of parts used in the Ford trucks.
Production of the Super Duty at Ford’s Kentucky truck plant will run “day to day,” based on the availability of parts, Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker said. Super Duty production was halted on Wednesday.
The F-150 is the top-selling model in the United States, and the Super Duty is one of the automaker’s most profitable vehicles. A two-week production halt for the F-150 could slice as much as $310 million from Ford’s second-quarter profits, Buck Research analyst Joseph Amaturo wrote in a note Wednesday.
Ford could make up some of the lost production later in the year by running overtime.
It was not clear how many other automakers could face production shutdowns because of the damage at the Meridian plant.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles ( FCHA.MI ) said on Wednesday the fire has affected production of the Chrysler Pacifica minivan in Windsor, Ontario, adding it is “adjusting production schedules as needed to minimize plant downtime (and) will make up any lost production.”
General Motors Co ( GM.N ) said on Wednesday it has temporarily halted production of Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana full-size vans at its Wentzville, Missouri, plant because of parts shortages caused by the fire. The plant continued to produce Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon mid-size pickups. GM said it is working to resume van production “as quickly as possible.” GM shares were off 0.8 percent.
Meridian, owned by Chinese supplier Wanfeng Auto Holding Group [WFAHG.UL], also provides parts to Daimler AG ( DAIGn.DE ), BMW AG ( BMWG.DE ), Toyota Motor Corp ( 7203.T ), Honda Motor Co ( 7267.T ) and Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ) among others, according to the websites of Meridian and Wanfeng.
Meridian, which makes aluminum and magnesium structural components at four plants in North America, could not be reached immediately for comment.
Automakers use magnesium parts to cut weight in vehicles, and improve fuel economy.
Reporting by Joseph White and Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jeffrey Benkoe
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://in.reuters.com/article/us-ford-trucks/ford-temporarily-halts-f-series-super-duty-production-because-of-parts-shortage-idINKBN1IA1VX |
May 25th, 2018 Americas , North America
A federal jury found a former Long Island official not guilty on Thursday following a public-corruption trial in which jurors said they were struggling to reach a verdict for two other defendants.
John Venditto, former supervisor of the Town of Oyster Bay, was acquitted of 27 criminal counts, including bribery and extortion.
“We are thrilled with the verdict, acquitting Mr. Venditto of all 27 counts against him,” said his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, in an email. “It’s a great day for him, his family and the jury system.”
www.wsj.com | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.wsj.com/articles/former-long-island-official-found-not-guilty-on-bribery-charges-1527194039 |
May 14 (Reuters) - Buhler Industries Inc:
* Q2 REVENUE C$56.9 MILLION * QTRLY NET LOSS/SHARE C$0.26 Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-buhler-industries-q2-net-loss-per/brief-buhler-industries-q2-net-loss-per-share-c0-26-idUSASC0A23T |
Judge reads charges against Harvey Weinstein 1 Hour Ago | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/05/25/judge-reads-charges-against-harvey-weinstein.html |
May 16, 2018 / 6:57 AM / Updated an hour ago Marcelo's son goes viral with Real heading challenge Reuters Staff 1 Min Read
(Reuters) - The eight-year-old son of Brazil left back Marcelo has gone viral on social media with the help of his dad’s Real Madrid team mates and an already prodigious talent for heading the football. FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - La Liga Santander - Real Madrid vs Celta Vigo - Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain - May 12, 2018 Real Madrid's Marcelo celebrates after the match REUTERS/Susana Vera
In a video Marcelo posted on Instagram on Tuesday which has already been viewed more than four million times, Enzo Vieira exchanges headers with a line of 11 Real players, including his father, sitting on a dressing room bench.
The youngster, who represents the Spanish club at a junior level, concludes the display by exchanging lofted headers with standing club captain Sergio Ramos before steering the ball into a nearby laundry bin.
The Real players, who face Liverpool in the Champions League final on May 26, explode in delight at the successful completion of the feat and mob the schoolboy, hoisting him into the air.
"Daddy's pride," Marcelo wrote next to the video here .
“This is a family @realmadrid.” Reporting by Nick Mulvenney in Sydney; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-soccer-spain-mad-marcelo-son/marcelos-son-goes-viral-with-real-heading-challenge-idUKKCN1IH0KF |
May 29, 2018 / 9:21 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago British shares join European sell-off; Dixons hammered Danilo Masoni , Kit Rees 3 Min Read
MILAN (Reuters) - British stocks fell on Tuesday, joining a Europe-wide sell-off triggered by worries over a political crisis in Italy, while a profit warning at Dixons Carphone wiped one fifth off the retailer’s market value. Traders looks at financial information on computer screens on the IG Index trading floor in London, Britain February 6, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
The UK's top share FTSE 100 index .FTSE ended the session with a 1.3 percent loss, hitting its lowest level in three weeks. The blue chip benchmark shrugged off a fall in the pound as it resumed trading after a long holiday weekend. The FTSE 250 midcap index .FTMC fell 1.7 percent.
“Even a weaker GBP (typically a boon for FTSE global stocks) and EUR battered by Italian/Spanish geopolitical risks were not sufficient to prop up equities,” said Accendo Markets analyst Artjom Hatsaturjants in a note.
Dixons Carphone ( DC.L ), which is struggling in a difficult market for selling phones and electrical goods in Britain, warned profits were likely to plunge by a fifth this year and said it would have to close shops to fix itself.
Shares in the company, formed in 2014 by the merger of Dixons Retail and Carphone Warehouse, plunged 20.7 percent and hit their lowest level since December 2017.
“We look forward to a fuller update from the company at the full year results on the company’s plans on 21st June,” said Liberum analysts in a note.
“The key question remains as to what, ultimately, the Carphone Warehouse will look like and how profitable this can be. Deeper clarity on management’s strategy could be the next catalyst,” they added.
Top fallers on the FTSE included banks Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS.L ) and Barclays ( BARC.L ), both down more than 3 percent, as financials in Europe were under pressure on worries the next Italian election could turn into a referendum on the euro.
Among the few gainers were precious metal miner Fresnillo ( FRES.L ), up 3.1 percent, tracking a rise in gold prices, while engineering firm Smiths ( SMIN.L ) surged to a record high before trimming gains after news it was in early talks over a potential combination of its medical division with U.S.-based ICU Medical.
M&A talk also lifted serviced office provider IWG ( IWG.L ). U.S. real estate investment company Prime Opportunities said IWG had rejected its offer approach for the British serviced office provider, sending its shares up 2 percent. Reporting by Danilo Masoni and Kit Rees; Editing by Richard Balmforth | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/britain-shares-join-european-sell-off-dixons-hammered-idUKKCN1IU0X4 |
BUENOS AIRES, May 17 (Reuters) - Argentina’s peso opened 1.86 percent weaker at 24.75 per U.S. dollar on Thursday, and the central bank offered to intervene in the spot market by selling up to $5 billion dollars at 25 pesos per greenback, traders said.
President Mauricio Macri said late on Wednesday the recent round of turbulence in the foreign exchange market, which had pressed the local currency to record lows, was over.
Reporting by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Bernadette Baum
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/argentina-peso/argentine-peso-opens-down-1-86-pct-central-bank-offers-intervention-idUSE6N1NS016 |
May 2 (Reuters) - PANAMAX AG:
* SEES PUBLICATION OF ANNUAL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS TO BE POSTPONED UNTIL THE END OF MAY 2018 Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: (Gdynia Newsroom)
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-panamax-postpones-publication-of-a/brief-panamax-postpones-publication-of-annual-financial-statements-until-end-of-may-idUSFWN1S912R |
May 2, 2018 / 9:25 AM / a minute ago Citi considers Saudi expansion as banks aim to captalize on reforms Tom Arnold , Stephen Kalin 3 Min Read
RIYADH (Reuters) - Citigroup ( C.N ) is considering seeking a full banking license in Saudi Arabia as Western banks aim to capitalize on Saudi economic reforms, with rival HSBC ( HSBA.L ) announcing it has won mandates for several privatizations in the kingdom
More than a dozen foreign banks have licenses to operate branches in Saudi Arabia, battling for business resulting from the kingdom’s efforts to itself off reliance on oil revenues.
U.S. bank Citi ended a five-decade presence in Saudi Arabia in 2004 with the sale of its 20 percent stake in Samba Financial but in 2015 won permission to invest directly in the local stock market and in January this year gained approval to begin investment banking operations in the kingdom.
“We’re looking at whether or not we should expand our activities here into a full banking license,” James Forese, the president and chief executive of the bank’s institutional clients group, said at a business conference in Riyadh.
Other banks seeking a Saudi license include Credit Suisse ( CSGN.S ), while Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ) plans to expand its services in the kingdom after being cleared to trade equities there.
The banks are vying for a role in Saudi Aramco’s IPO-ARMO.SE planned initial public offering, which could float up to 5 percent of the state oil giant and make it the world’s biggest oil company by market capitalization.
Citi has already played an active role in Saudi Arabian finance and was one of the banks that helped to arrange the government’s $11 billion U.S. dollar bond issue last month.
The kingdom is now working on a pipeline of privatizations aimed at generating up to 40 billion riyals ($10.7 billion) in non-oil revenues by 2020 and creating up to 12,000 jobs, according to an official document published last month.
HSBC ( HSBA.L ) has been mandated for several of the planned privatizations and will announce them very soon, Samir Assaf, HSBC’s chief executive of global banking and markets, said at Wednesday’s conference.
The bank is “very much contributing to the privatization program”, he said.
HSBC Saudi Arabia is already acting as an adviser on the sale process for the kingdom’s flour milling sector and the Saudi Stock Exchange’s planned flotation. It also has an advisory role on the proposed Aramco listing.
($1 = 3.7502 riyals) | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-citigroup-saudi-rates/citis-senior-banker-says-rate-environment-supportive-of-corporates-raising-funds-idUSKBN1I310B |
Oil markets on guard ahead of Trump's ruling on Iran 1:01pm BST - 01:46
Oil prices eased off 3-1/2 year highs as nervous investors waited on an announcement by President Donald Trump on whether the United States will reimpose sanctions on Iran. David Pollard reports. ▲ Hide Transcript ▶ View Transcript
Oil prices eased off 3-1/2 year highs as nervous investors waited on an announcement by President Donald Trump on whether the United States will reimpose sanctions on Iran. David Pollard reports. Press CTRL+C (Windows), CMD+C (Mac), or long-press the URL below on your mobile device to copy the code https://reut.rs/2FTOv6c | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/video/2018/05/08/oil-markets-on-guard-ahead-of-trumps-rul?videoId=424953470 |
Vatican says markets need infusion of ethics 5:49pm BST - 01:14
A 15-page document released by two Vatican offices is calling for more regulation of markets and financial systems, saying economic crises showed they were not able to govern themselves and needed a strong injection of morality and ethics. ▲ Hide Transcript ▶ View Transcript
A 15-page document released by two Vatican offices is calling for more regulation of markets and financial systems, saying economic crises showed they were not able to govern themselves and needed a strong injection of morality and ethics. Press CTRL+C (Windows), CMD+C (Mac), or long-press the URL below on your mobile device to copy the code https://reut.rs/2KuAfDF | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/video/2018/05/17/vatican-says-markets-need-infusion-of-et?videoId=427800220 |
May 18, 2018 / 7:38 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago China says it stands for stability, peace on Korean peninsula
BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Friday that it stands for stability and peace on the Korean peninsula and for settlement of the issue through talks, after U.S. President Donald Trump said that China may be influencing North Korea. FILE PHOTO: A North Korean flag flutters on top of a 160-metre tower in North Korea's propaganda village of Gijungdong, in this picture taken from the Tae Sung freedom village near the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), inside the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, South Korea, April 24, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang made the comments at a regular briefing in Beijing. Reporting by Micheal Martina; Writing by Christian Shepherd | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-china/china-says-it-stands-for-stability-peace-on-korean-peninsula-idUSKCN1IJ0PA |
Google awarded this teenager $36,000 for finding a security flaw Jillian D'Onfro Reblog Google just awarded a Uruguayan teenager a "bug bounty" of more than $36,000. It marks Pereira's fifth accepted bug, but it's by far his most lucrative. Ezequiel Pereira was about a month shy of 17 when he first got paid for exposing a Google security flaw through its bug bounty program . | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/26/teenager-wins-36k-from-google-bug-bounty-program.html?__source=yahoo%7Cfinance%7Cheadline%7Cstory%7C&par=yahoo&yptr=yahoo |
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