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May 10 (Reuters) - Zomedica Pharmaceuticals Corp:
* ZOMEDICA SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH SERAPH BIOSCIENCES FOR INNOVATIVE VETERINARY POINT-OF-CARE DIAGNOSTIC
* ZOMEDICA PHARMACEUTICALS - ENTERED INTO A DEVELOPMENT, COMMERCIALIZATION, EXCLUSIVE DISTRIBUTION DEAL WITH SERAPH BIOSCIENCES
* ZOMEDICA PHARMACEUTICALS CORP - DEAL WITH SERAPH COVERS DEVELOPMENT & VALIDATION OF ZM-020 Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-zomedica-signs-agreement-with-sera/brief-zomedica-signs-agreement-with-seraph-biosciences-for-innovative-veterinary-point-of-care-diagnostic-idUSFWN1SH0QD |
LONDON (Reuters) - A U.N. monitoring group wants to enlist the help of the world’s biggest oil trading companies to enforce sanctions that cap the amount of crude and related products North Korea can import, the coordinator said.
FILE PHOTO: Missiles are driven past the stand with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and other high ranking officials during a military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary of the country's founding father, Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang, April 15, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj/File Photo The U.N. Security Council ramped up sanctions last year after North Korea said it had conducted missile tests that put the U.S. mainland in range of its nuclear weapons.
Under the restrictions, Pyongyang is limited to importing 4 million barrels of crude and 500,000 barrels of products a year.
But the panel of experts appointed by the Security Council said in March that additional fuel was being sold to North Korea via illicit deals involving transfers of petroleum from large ships to smaller vessels at sea to evade detection.
The panel said in its March report that it had investigated at least four such transfers and was “also investigating several multinational oil companies for their roles in the supply chain of petroleum products”.
Hugh Griffiths, the U.N. monitoring group coordinator, told Reuters he was seeking support from the top traders to help implement sanctions and proposed clauses that they could add to their oil deals to prevent fuel ending up in North Korea.
He said the big traders “represent the choke point in the supply chain and if all the big ones sign up and make this the industry standard ... all smaller players will have to comply”.
The panel sent a letter in May to 10 major traders operating in the region, outlining the recommended contract clauses. The letter was also sent to regional refiners and some specialist firms, mainly in Singapore.
Slideshow (2 Images) Griffiths, who did not identify the 10 firms or the other companies targeted, said all the firms had been asked to respond within a month of receiving the letter. A list of those that failed to reply would be published after that period, he said.
REQUIRING PROOF In its March report, the U.N. panel named Switzerland-based Trafigura as a trader that initially handled fuel that eventually ended up in North Korea in ship-to-ship transfers. It was the only multinational named in the report on the issue.
Trafigura denied involvement in the illicit trade and said it had no knowledge that its fuel would end up in North Korea.
Ben Luckock, Trafigura’s co-head of risk, said his firm had consulted with U.N. officials and had added new clauses requiring proof of a cargo’s final discharge.
“We are also stipulating that buyers require that vessels they use for such cargoes do not switch off their Automatic Identifier System (AIS),” he said, referring to a ship’s satellite tracking system.
Several major firms active in Asian trading said they already had measures in place to prevent sanctions-busting.
A spokeswoman for Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ), who did not say whether the firm had been sent a letter from the U.N. panel, said the company had clauses prohibiting clients selling to countries under U.N. sanctions, while BP ( BP.L ) said it complied with all sanctions requirements.
Vitol [VITOLV.UL] said it had “robust” compliance procedures in place, while Mercuria said it was “always happy to help international bodies to bring additional transparency on these issues”.
Glencore ( GLEN.L ) and Gunvor [GGL.UL], two other major oil traders in the region, had no comment.
Griffiths said the main focus was on free-on-board (FOB) contracts, in which a seller hands responsibility to the buyer once a cargo is loaded on a ship. Typically, the contracts have a final destination clause but no further proof of a cargo’s fate is usually required after the sale.
“Once the product is sold, they don’t really pay attention to what happens afterward,” Griffiths said.
He said traders, or those selling the cargoes, “should be implementing end-use verification measures which means that if a product is delivered to another ship ... all details of the shipment are provided”, including official documents showing that a cargo’s entire volume was delivered to a ship or port.
He said clauses should prevent a ship with a fuel cargo from turning off its AIS and an insurer could invalidate a policy if the AIS was switched off.
In March, the Security Council blacklisted dozens of ships and shipping firms over oil and coal smuggling by North Korea. The United States also imposed sanctions on dozens of firms to shut down what it said was illicit oil and coal smuggling activities.
Griffiths said the U.N. panel was also “investigating multiple companies particularly down the supply chain, smaller brokers” over suspected violations. He did not name the firms.
Reporting by Julia Payne; Editing by Edmund Blair
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-un-sanctions/u-n-seeks-help-of-oil-traders-to-enforce-north-korea-sanctions-idUSKCN1IN1YB |
Voya Financial Inc:
* VOYA FINANCIAL ANNOUNCES FIRST-QUARTER 2018 RESULTS
* Q1 EARNINGS PER SHARE $2.50 * Q1 EARNINGS PER SHARE VIEW $0.86 — THOMSON REUTERS I/B/E/S
* TOTAL ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF $541 BILLION Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-voya-financial-q1-earnings-per-sha/brief-voya-financial-q1-earnings-per-share-2-50-idUSASC09YRS |
May 5, 2018 / 4:47 PM / Updated an hour ago U.S. condemns China for 'Orwellian nonsense' over airline websites David Shepardson 5 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Saturday sharply criticized China’s efforts to force foreign airlines to change how they refer to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, labeling China’s latest effort to police language describing the politically sensitive territories as “Orwellian nonsense.” FILE PHOTO: A U.S. flag is seen during a welcoming ceremony in Beijing, China, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Amid an escalating fight over China’s trade surplus with the United States, the White House said China’s Civil Aviation Administration sent a letter to 36 foreign air carriers, including a number of U.S. carriers, demanding changes.
The carriers were told to remove references on their websites or in other material that suggests Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau are part of countries independent from China, U.S. and airline officials said.
The White House said in a statement that President Donald Trump “will stand up for Americans resisting efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to impose Chinese political correctness on American companies and citizens.”
“This is Orwellian nonsense and part of a growing trend by the Chinese Communist Party to impose its political views on American citizens and private companies. ... We call on China to stop threatening and coercing American carriers and citizens.”
Taiwan is China’s most sensitive territorial issue. Beijing considers the self-ruled, democratic island a wayward province. Hong Kong and Macau are former European colonies that are now part of China but run largely autonomously
The White House’s sharp criticism follows contentious trade talks between senior U.S. and Chinese officials earlier this week.
The Trump administration demanded a $200 billion cut in China’s trade surplus with the United States by 2020, sharply lower tariffs and a halt to subsidies for advanced technology, people familiar with the talks said.
“My group just got back from China. We’re going to have to rework China because that’s been a one-way street for decades,” Trump said at an event in Cleveland on Saturday.
“We can’t go on that way,” he said, although he also said he has a lot respect for Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump earlier this week praised his relationship with Xi but there were no signs of significant progress at the talks on Thursday and Friday, raising fears of a trade war between the world’s two largest economies. TARIFF THREATS
Trump has already proposed tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods which could go into effect next month.
China has said its own retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, including soybeans and aircraft, will go into effect if the U.S. duties are imposed.
It has also requested that Washington treat Chinese investment equally under national security reviews and stop issuing new restrictions on Chinese investment.
The dispute over how airlines refer to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau is another area of tension in U.S.-China relations.
A spokesman for Airlines for America, a trade group representing United Airlines ( UAL.N ), American Airlines ( AAL.O ) and other major carriers, said on Saturday it was working with the U.S. government to determine “next steps” in the dispute.
In January, Delta Air Lines ( DAL.N ), following a demand from China over listing Taiwan and Tibet as countries on its website, apologized for making “an inadvertent error with no business or political intention,” and said it had taken steps to resolve the issue.
Also in January, China suspended Marriott International Inc’s ( MAR.O ) Chinese website for a week to punish the world’s biggest hotel chain for listing Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as separate countries in a customer questionnaire.
The apparent intensification of efforts to police how foreign businesses refer to Chinese-claimed territories - even if only in pull-down web menus - underscores how sensitive the issue of sovereignty has become in China.
China’s aviation authority said in January it would require all foreign airlines operating routes to China to conduct comprehensive investigations of their websites, apps and customer-related information and “strictly comply with China’s laws and regulations to prevent a similar thing from happening.”
Australia’s Qantas Airways ( QAN.AX ) said in January it had amended its website to no longer refer to Taiwan and Hong Kong as countries rather than Chinese territories after China issued a similar warning. Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Kieran Murray, Leslie Adler and Jonathan Oatis | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-airlines-china-exclusive/exclusive-white-house-criticizes-chinese-pressure-on-foreign-airlines-idUSKBN1I60NL |
May 16, 2018 / 4:03 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Russian bikers, Crimeans cross 'Putin's bridge' in inaugural drive Reuters Staff 2 Min Read
KERCH (Reuters) - Leather-clad bikers with Russian national flags joined motorists driving for the first time across a newly-opened bridge linking Crimea with Russia on Wednesday. Cars and motorcycles move along a bridge, which was constructed to connect the Russian mainland with the Crimean Peninsula across the Kerch Strait, May 16, 2018. REUTERS/Pavel Rebrov
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday unveiled the new bridge to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. He chatted to workmen in overalls and drove a heavy, orange truck across the bridge’s 19 km (12 miles) length.
On Wednesday, the road was open to the public. Some local residents on the Crimean side of the bridge waved from the roadside as a convoy of bikers, among them the leader of a pro-Kremlin biker group, tooted their horns on their way onto the peninsula. Cars drive along a bridge, which was constructed to connect the Russian mainland with the Crimean Peninsula across the Kerch Strait, May 16, 2018. REUTERS/Pavel Rebrov
Some Russians have dubbed the road-and-rail bridge designed to link Crimea into Russia’s transport network “Putin’s bridge”. Slideshow (11 Images)
Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, drew sanctions and prompted a deterioration in ties with the West. Many in Russia saw the move as restoring Moscow’s rule over a historically Russian region.
“The Crimea bridge is a link,” said Andrey Merkulov, a resident from Sevastopol at the bridge on the Crimean side. “It is the greatness and might of my country. It’s yet more proof of this might and greatness.”
Some Crimean residents said they had driven through the night from the peninsula’s biggest city, Sevastopol, to attend what they described as a historic moment.
“We came to participate in the opening (of the bridge), to drive on it for the first time,” said Aleksandr Karavayev, a resident of Sevastopol.
In Kiev, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Tuesday the bridge was illegal. The European Union and the United States also used the opening of the bridge to condemn the annexation of Crimea. Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ukraine-crisis-crimea-bridge/russian-bikers-crimeans-cross-putins-bridge-in-inaugural-drive-idUKKCN1IH28L |
May 25, 2018 / 6:27 China's offshore money rates rise ahead of MSCI inclusion Reuters Staff 7 Min Read SHANGHAI, May 25 (Reuters) - Offshore yuan money market rates rose this week ahead of the inclusion of Chinese stocks in MSCI indexes, which is expected to drive strong demand for the currency, although analysts say recent central bank moves will prevent a liquidity crunch. One-year forwards on the offshore yuan, or CNH, stood at 915 points on Friday afternoon, compared with its closing price of 850 points a week earlier. The price of one-year offshore yuan forwards has fallen by about one-third so far this year. MSCI said on May 15 that it would include 234 yuan-denominated stocks, or China A-shares, in its benchmark Emerging Markets and All Country World Index indexes from June 1. The inclusion will represent an aggregate weight of 0.39 percent in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index at an initial 2.5 percent partial inclusion factor. Inclusion is expected to lead to a surge in foreign money flows into the A-shares, with the bulk of flows taking advantage of cross-border stock connect schemes with Hong Kong. To head off a crunch caused by spiking demand for offshore yuan, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) last week introduced measures to support cross-border fund flows, allowing banks involved in offshore yuan clearing and settlement to tap onshore liquidity. "The changes should greatly relieve liquidity pressure on the offshore CNH market, and reduce the upside risk to CNH forward points," said Frances Cheung, head of macro strategy for Asia at Westpac Institutional Bank in Singapore. "In particular, offshore investors under Stock Connect are allowed access to onshore FX market for funds and FX hedges. This should mean the renminbi funds for northbound flows can be sourced from onshore CNY, not necessarily withdrawing liquidity from CNH," she said. The cost of borrowing yuan in Hong Kong eased over the course of the week, with the rate for overnight contracts at 3.21467 percent on Friday, from 3.37367 percent a week earlier. As well as helping to avoid an offshore crunch, improved onshore access is likely to support the onshore yuan's value. "We expect the CNH-CNY spread to narrow as part of the CNH buying flow for A-share would divert to CNY market," said Ken Cheung, senior Asian FX strategist at Mizuho Bank in Hong Kong. The spread between onshore and offshore rates was at 54 pips early Friday afternoon, with CNY trading at a discount to CNH. Primary onshore money rates rose this week as the PBOC drained a net 30 billion yuan from money markets. The volume-weighted average rate of the benchmark seven-day repo traded in the interbank market, considered the best indicator of general liquidity in China, was 2.7808 percent. That is 8.5 basis points higher than the previous week's closing average rate 2.6962. The Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (SHIBOR) for same tenor rose to 2.7940 percent, up 2.6 basis points from the previous week's close of 2.7680 percent. The one-day or overnight rate stood at 2.5069 percent and the 14-day repo stood at 3.7326 percent. Key money rates at a glance: Volume-wei Previous Change (bps) Volume ghted day (%) average rate (%) Interbank repo market Overnight 2.5069 2.5141 -0.72 0.00 Seven-day 2.7808 2.6934 +8.74 0.00 14-day 3.7326 3.7937 -6.11 0.00 Shanghai stock exchange repo market Overnight 3.2500 2.7300 +52.00 220,628.3 0 Seven-day<CN7DR 4.4900 3.7300 +76.00 42,568.90 PO=SS> 14-day 3.9150 3.7000 +21.50 2,818.70 PBOC Guidance Rates Overnight 2.5200 2.5300 -1.00 <CN1DRPFIX=CFXS > Seven-day 3.0000 2.7500 +25.00 <CN7DRPFIX=CFXS > 14-day 3.8000 3.8200 -2.00 <CN14DRPFIX=CFX S> SHANGHAI INTERBANK OFFERED RATE Overnight 2.5280 2.5300 -0.20 Seven-day 2.7940 2.7510 +4.30 Three-month 4.2150 4.1930 +2.20 KEY INTEREST RATE SWAPS: Instrument RIC Rate Spread vs 1 yr official deposit rate* 2 yr IRS based on 1 CNABAD2YF= 0.0000 -1.5 year benchmark 5 yr 7-day repo swap CNYQB7R5Y= 3.5550 n/a *This spread can be seen as a proxy for forward-looking market expectations of an interest rate cut or rise China FX and money market guide: China debt market guide: SHIBOR rates: Reports on central bank open market operations: New Chinese debt issues: Prices for central bank bills, treasury bonds and sovereign bonds: Overview of China financial market data: (Reporting by Andrew Galbraith and Winni Zhou; Editing by Sam Holmes) | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/china-bonds/chinas-offshore-money-rates-rise-ahead-of-msci-inclusion-idUSL5N1SW0H7 |
Rolls-Royce CEO reveals luxury SUV with $325,000 price tag 2 Hours Ago | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/05/10/rolls-royce-ceo-reveals-luxury-suv-with-325000-price-tag.html |
Italy's new government to be 'reasonable and rational' with budget: source
Di Maio insisted after the March 4 election that he should be the next prime minister, but dropped this demand last week to help clinch a deal with the League.
5-Star won 32 percent of the vote, making it the largest party in parliament, while the League got 17 percent to become the second-largest. Salvini said weeks ago he would not insist on leading any government his group was a part of. “RATIONAL AND REASONABLE”
The parties said meetings to agree a program to cut taxes, hike welfare payments and bolster efforts to stop irregular immigration had made progress. FILE PHOTO: Anti-establishment 5-Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio speaks following a talk with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal Palace in Rome, Italy, April 12, 2018. REUTERS/Max Rossi/File Photo
On Thursday, news that they were seeking to form a government pushed the gap between Italian benchmark bond yields and the safer German equivalent to its widest in seven weeks on concerns that the state accounts might take a hit.
“It’s being called a populist government. Some have said it’s a threat to the people,” Di Maio told reporters after meeting Salvini. “Some say it’s a threat to Europe ... but it’s not Europe that’s under threat.”
The Italian-German bond spread narrowed on Friday, returning to where it was before 5-Star and the League began negotiations.
Though both parties have said they want to renegotiate the EU’s fiscal rules to allow Italy to spend more, a 5-Star source said that any plans to increase the budget deficit would be discussed with Brussels first.
“The government will be rational and reasonable (with the public accounts),” the source said.
5-Star’s flagship policy is universal income support for the poor, while the League’s main campaign promise was a “flat tax” of 15 percent for individuals and companies. Both policies would be costly for Italy’s strained public finances.
The parties have also said they want to head off a value-added tax increase worth 12.5 billion euros ($14.9 billion) due to kick in next year unless alternative deficit cuts are found.
President Mattarella can veto the make-up of any new administration and would need to endorse the parties’ choice for prime minister before a government can be formed. Additional reporting by Massimiliano Di Giorgio in Rome; Editing by Kevin Liffey | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics/wanted-italian-prime-minister-as-5-star-and-league-negotiate-idUSKBN1IC1QL |
May 9, 2018 / 11:06 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago BRIEF-Rocky Mountain Dealerships Reports Q1 Loss Per Share Of C$0.02 Reuters Staff
May 9 (Reuters) - Rocky Mountain Dealerships Inc:
* . REPORTS FIRST QUARTER 2018 RESULTS AND RECORD FIRST QUARTER NEW EQUIPMENT SALES
* Q1 SALES C$219.7 MILLION VERSUS I/B/E/S VIEW C$222 MILLION * Q1 LOSS PER SHARE C$0.02
* Q1 EARNINGS PER SHARE VIEW C$0.09 — THOMSON REUTERS I/B/E/S
* ROCKY MOUNTAIN DEALERSHIPS-AGRICULTURE AND AGRI-FOOD CANADA SEES TOTAL PRODUCTION OF PRINCIPAL FIELD CROPS TO BE 93.1 MILLION TONS FOR 2017-2018 CROP YEAR Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-rocky-mountain-dealerships-reports/brief-rocky-mountain-dealerships-reports-q1-loss-per-share-of-c0-02-idUSASC0A0W6 |
May 7 (Reuters) - KONTIGO CARE AB:
* Q1 REVENUE SEK 3.1 MILLION VERSUS SEK 881,000 YEAR AGO * Q1 EBIT LOSS SEK 2.2 MILLION VERSUS LOSS SEK 4.1 MILLION YEAR AGO Source text for Eikon: (Gdynia Newsroom)
Our | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-kontigo-care-q1-ebit-loss-at-sek-2/brief-kontigo-care-q1-ebit-loss-at-sek-2-2-million-idUSFWN1SD05E |
By Sarah Gray April 30, 2018
A committee for women of color within Time’s Up, the organization that played a key role in the #MeToo movement, is calling for a boycott of musician R. Kelly, who has been accused of a range of sexual misconduct.
The Time’s Up Women of Color committee, which includes director Ava DuVernay and television mogul Shonda Rhimes, asked on Monday that the music industry cut ties with the hit singer and songwriter while also seeking support for the #MuteRKelly movement that was started in 2017.
Time’s Up was started by women in the entertainment industry this year in order to combat sexual assault and harassment in the workplace. Its creation went hand-in-hand with the #MeToo movement of women coming forward with allegations of sexual harassment and assault.
In a statement to news site The Root on Monday, the organization called for “appropriate investigations and inquiries into the allegations of R. Kelly’s abuse made by women of color and their families for over two decades now.” We join the call to #MuteRKelly and insist on the safety + dignity of all women. We demand investigations into R. Kelly’s abuse allegations made by women of color + their families for two decades. We call on those who profit from his music to cut ties. #MuteRKelly #TIMESUP #WOC pic.twitter.com/TYmDRVIH00
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) April 30, 2018 We join the call to #MuteRKelly and insist on the safety + dignity of all women. We demand investigations into R. Kelly’s abuse allegations made by women of color + their families for two decades. We call on those who profit from his music to cut ties. #MuteRKelly #TIMESUP #WOC https://t.co/RTco2ZeetZ
— shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) April 30, 2018
The statement also referenced Bill Cosby, who was found guilty last week of aggravated indecent assault , saying “it is just a start.”
“We call on people everywhere to join with us to insist on a world in which women of all kinds can pursue their dreams free from sexual assault, abuse and predatory behavior,” the statement says. “To this end, today we join an existing online campaign called #MuteRKelly.”
Specifically, the committee asked that RCA Records (which produces Kelly’s records), Ticketmaster (which sells tickets for a May 11 show), the Greensboro Coliseum Complex (the venue hosting the May 11 concert), and music streaming companies Apple Music and Spotify drop Kelly. Fortune contacted all of the aforementioned companies for a response.
Kelly has denied all the allegations against him. In a statement to BuzzFeed, his management team said: R. Kelly's team responds to #MuteRKelly : "R. Kelly supports the pro-women goals of the Time’s Up movement. We understand criticizing a famous artist is a good way to draw attention to those goals … we will vigorously resist this attempted public lynching of a black man" pic.twitter.com/ByC9SR0vtD
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) April 30, 2018
A 1996 suit brought by Tiffany Hawkins, an aspiring singer, claimed he “engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with (her), included but not limited to engaging in group sexual intercourse with (her) and other minors.” The singer settled the suit in 1998 for an undisclosed amount .
From 2001 and 2002, Kelly was sued and settled with three other women. One suit alleged sexual harassment and assault, another claimed he had sex with a minor and forced her to have an abortion, and another alleged that he taped a sexual encounter without her consent, according to Newsweek .
In 2008, a jury in Illinois found Kelly not guilty on charges of possessing child pornography , stemming from a sex tape with an allegedly underage girl.
In 2017, both BuzzFeed and Rolling Stone published pieces alleging Kelly’s abusive controlling behavior.
Kelly was recently dropped from the lineup of the 2018 Love Jam concert in Chicago, where he was scheduled to perform on May 5. SPONSORED FINANCIAL CONTENT | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://fortune.com/2018/04/30/ava-duvernay-shonda-rhimes-times-up-mute-r-kelly/ |
May 15 (Reuters) - Meredith Corp:
* MEREDITH SAYS IN Q3, COMMITTED TO REDUCE HEADCOUNT BY ABOUT 1,800 EMPLOYEES, PRIMARILY IN NATIONAL MEDIA & UNALLOCATED CORPORATE DEPTS - SEC FILING
* EXPECTS TO INCUR COSTS OF ABOUT $300 MILLION RELATED TO TIME INTEGRATION TO ACHIEVE SYNERGIES Source text: ( bit.ly/2GhhrFu ) Further company coverage:
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-meredith-to-incur-costs-of-about-3/brief-meredith-to-incur-costs-of-about-300-mln-related-to-time-integration-to-achieve-synergies-idUSFWN1SM1B9 |
May 25, 2018 / 6:58 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Monaco is one side of F1, GP Trust helps another Alan Baldwin 4 Min Read
MONACO (Reuters) - The Monaco Grand Prix may give the impression that Formula One is all about parties and glamour, champagne and super-yachts, but there is another reality behind the fast cars and flaunted wealth. Motoracing - Formula One F1 - Monaco Grand Prix - Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo, Monaco - May 24, 2018 Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen during practice REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
More than 150 teams have come and gone since the championship started in 1950 and the years have not been kind to some who helped build the sport into today’s billion dollar business.
Ageing mechanics, one-time team members and even a few retired drivers who made it through the most dangerous of decades are among those now struggling with life.
“I think everybody would think immediately ‘Well, there’s loads of money in Formula One’,” former racer Martin Brundle told Reuters.
“‘It’s awash with cash and everybody makes a lot of money and so why would they need any kind of support mechanism?’” the Briton added.
“But of course Formula One is 68 years old now and a lot of the early pioneers and stalwarts didn’t have the benefit of HR departments, insurance, pensions, healthcare plans and what have you.”
Brundle, a familiar face and voice to fans worldwide as a commentator for Sky Sports television, is chairman of the Grand Prix Trust that was set up by triple world champion Jackie Stewart in the 1980s.
It ensures that those within the greater F1 community who may be out of sight are never out of mind.
The trust was originally intended for mechanics, with Stewart concerned there was no support structure for those who had helped him and others achieve their dreams.
“His view was there might be a big one — a car over the pit wall... who’s looking after these people?” Brundle added. “Who’s looking after the older guys that were beginning to struggle health-wise or whatever?
“There are some old drivers on our radar because a lot of those guys ended up with a divorce or two, and what seemed like a huge amount of money at the time suddenly wasn’t.
“Some bad business decisions later on in life or whatever. It’s surprising who needs help out there.” BURST OF ENERGY
The ‘mechanics’ bit has now been dropped and the trust aims to support anyone who has been involved in the sport for at least two years.
Some of those who once prepared the cars in glamour locations like Monaco may have been out of Formula One for decades.
“There’s a lot of Kiwis and Aussies who probably came over and worked for Brabham and McLaren back then (in the 1960s),” Brundle said. “We have helped people all over the world.”
Formula One’s managing director for motorsport and former team boss Ross Brawn is a trustee, as is Williams co-founder Patrick Head, while Brundle has taken over from Stewart in keeping everything ticking over.
“Jackie created it... he asked me to take it over and I’ll give it a good burst of energy, see how far we can get it and how much good we can do,” Brundle said.
“It’s very easy to assume that everybody in Formula One is unbelievably rich.”
Brundle said a primary aim, rather than focusing on fundraising, was to spread the word to people who were eligible that the Trust was there and ready to help.
There is also a social side, with an annual lunch and get-togethers. Some 30 people a year are currently supported but Brundle said that number could grow.
Plans to introduce budget caps on teams, slimming some of them down from more than 1,000 staff at present, could be a future factor.
“It’s clear to me that either through regulation or just financial necessity the teams can’t go on growing in the way they are now. And there’s going to be a correction, whether it’s a budget cap or a team pulls out of F1,” Brundle said.
“So we might well need to be there as a set of wicketkeeper’s gloves to help people out.” Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by John O'Brien | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-motor-f1-monaco-trust-brundle/monaco-is-one-side-of-f1-gp-trust-helps-another-idUKKCN1IQ0NT |
One person killed in Paris knife attack, attacker shot dead 6:25am IST - 00:59
French officials say an assailant shouting ''Allah Akbar'' killed at least one person and wounded four others in a knife attack in Paris late on Saturday before he was shot dead by police. Jillian Kitchener reports.
French officials say an assailant shouting "Allah Akbar" killed at least one person and wounded four others in a knife attack in Paris late on Saturday before he was shot dead by police. Jillian Kitchener reports. //reut.rs/2KVnSBL | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://in.reuters.com/video/2018/05/13/one-person-killed-in-paris-knife-attack?videoId=426379796 |
United Airlines has hired former Obama administration press secretary Josh Earnest as chief communications officer, United said on Thursday, as the carrier seeks to recover from a string of public relations missteps.
Earnest replaces former communications head Jim Olson, who stepped down in January after two years in the post.
Olson's tenure was punctuated by public relations blunders, including an April 2017 incident in which a paying United passenger was physically dragged down the aisle of a parked plane to make room for an airline employee.
In the months since, United has struggled to contain public fallout from that incident and other customer service shortfalls. The airline's publicity suffered another blow in March when a small French bulldog puppy, Kokito, died onboard one of its flights after an airline employee forced the dog's owner to stow its carrying case in the plane's overhead bin.
"Josh is a proven leader and world-class communications strategist who has thrived when the stakes are the highest - and the margin for error is the smallest," Chief Executive Oscar Munoz said in a statement.
Prior to joining United, Earnest served as press secretary for President Barack Obama from 2014 to 2016. He has since worked as a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC.
Earnest will begin his role at United on May 21. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/03/united-airlines-recruits-josh-earnest-as-communications-chief.html |
May 28, 2018 / 12:46 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Cricket-Australia's Hazlewood ruled out of England ODIs with injury Reuters Staff 1 Min Read
May 28 (Reuters) - Australia’s fast bowling options have been further depleted after Josh Hazlewood was ruled out of next month’s one-day international series in England due to back soreness.
Hazlewood joins fellow quicks Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc in being out of action against their Ashes rivals, while all-rounder Mitchell Marsh also remains on the sidelines.
Uncapped Queensland seamer Michael Neser takes Hazlewood’s place in the touring squad.
“Josh has been managing some low-level bone stress in his lumbar spine for a short period,” Cricket Australia physiotherapist David Beakley said on Monday.
“He had a repeat scan and although it has not progressed to a fracture he is starting to experience some lower back pain.
“As such, we are taking a conservative approach and he will not travel to England for the one-day series.”
Australia will play five one-dayers and a Twenty20 match against England from June 13-27. (Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru Editing by Christian Radnedge) | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://in.reuters.com/article/cricket-australia-hazlewood/cricket-australias-hazlewood-ruled-out-of-england-odis-with-injury-idINL5N1SZ2V0 |
May 14 (Reuters) - Australian hospital operator Healthscope Ltd on Monday said it received a A$4.35 billion ($3.3 billion) bid from Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management Inc , $180 million more than a private equity firm offered it in April.
The A$2.50 per share offer is at a 1.2 percent premium to Healthscope’s last close on Friday, and a 23.2 percent premium to its closing price before it received the $3.1 billion offer from BGH Capital and its consortium partners last month.
$1 = 1.3247 Australian dollars Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/healthscope-ltd-ma-brookfield-asset/australias-healthscope-gets-3-3-bln-bid-from-brookfield-asset-management-idUSL3N1SK125 |
Buffett buys more Apple 2:23pm EDT - 01:21
Berkshire Hathaway bought 75 million additional Apple shares in the first quarter, CEO Warren Buffett told CNBC, aggressively ramping up its bets on the iPhone maker. Aleksandra Michalska reports.
Berkshire Hathaway bought 75 million additional Apple shares in the first quarter, CEO Warren Buffett told CNBC, aggressively ramping up its bets on the iPhone maker. Aleksandra Michalska reports. //reut.rs/2KBMv6j | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/video/2018/05/04/buffett-buys-more-apple?videoId=423885138 |
May 5, 2018 / 12:43 PM / in 8 hours House of Fraser shareholder Sports Direct sues over business plan Reuters Staff 2 Min Read
LONDON (Reuters) - A minority shareholder of Britain’s House of Fraser, Sports Direct ( SPD.L ), is suing the department store chain to gain access to its business plan, after House of Fraser announced a major restructuring this week. FILE PHOTO: Shoppers walk past House of Fraser on Oxford Street in central London, Britain, April 2, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo
House of Fraser said on Wednesday it would close some of its stores as a condition of securing new funds from Chinese retailer C.banner ( 1028.HK ), which will become the majority owner of the department store group with a 51 percent stake. A worker walks up stairs before a Sports Direct general meeting to vote on the re-appointment of chairman Keith Hellawell in Shirebrook, January 5, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Staples
Sportswear chain Sports Direct, which owns 11.1 percent of House of Fraser, said on Saturday that it had applied to London’s High Court for an injunction requiring House of Fraser to provide a copy of its corporate plan and other information.
“We have been frozen out by House of Fraser. Their dealings in China are opaque, and it is blatant that we have been unfairly prejudiced,” Sports Direct’s head of strategic investments, Liam Rowley, said.
A representative of House of Fraser was not immediately available for comment.
C.banner, a major retailer of mid-range to premium footwear brands in China, bought famous London toy shop Hamleys in 2015.
House of Fraser was founded in 1849 and has stores in 59 locations across Britain and Ireland, including London’s Oxford Street. Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Toby Chopra | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-houseoffraser-restructuring-sports-di/house-of-fraser-shareholder-sports-direct-sues-over-business-plan-idUSKBN1I60G2 |
May 2 (Reuters) - Moneymax Financial Services Ltd:
* NAMES WEE SUNG LENG AS CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-moneymax-financial-services-names/brief-moneymax-financial-services-names-wee-sung-leng-as-cfo-idUSFWN1S910P |
LONDON, May 17 (Reuters) - The ex-boss of Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy that closed down after being involved in a scandal about the improper use of the data of millions of Facebook users, will appear in front of British lawmakers on June 6.
The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee said that Alexander Nix had accepted its summons, but Dominic Cummings, of Brexit campaign group Vote Leave, had refused to appear.
Committee chairman Damian Collins said in a statement that Cummings would be reported for failing to appear, which “could result in a decision that a contempt of parliament has been committed, a very serious outcome for the individual.” (Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Costas Pitas)
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/facebook-privacy-britain-nix/former-cambridge-analytica-boss-to-appear-before-british-lawmakers-on-june-6-idUSL9N1QK04I |
May 14 (Reuters) - Sophiris Bio Inc:
* SOPHIRIS BIO REPORTS FIRST QUARTER 2018 FINANCIAL RESULTS AND KEY CORPORATE HIGHLIGHTS
* Q1 LOSS PER SHARE $0.11 * SOPHIRIS BIO - EXPECTS CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS WILL BE SUFFICIENT TO FUND OPERATIONS TO MIDDLE OF 2019, ASSUMING NO NEW CLINICAL TRIALS ARE INITIATED
* AT MARCH 31, 2018, CO HAD CASH, CASH EQUIVALENTS AND SECURITIES AVAILABLE-FOR-SALE OF $22.1 MILLION AND WORKING CAPITAL OF $19.2 MILLION Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:
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May 29, 2018 / 2:10 PM / Updated 2 hours ago UPDATE 2-Kenya finance bill would emasculate central bank -bank governor Reuters Staff
(Adds details)
By Duncan Miriri
NAIROBI, May 29 (Reuters) - Kenya’s central bank will be emasculated if a draft bill that aims to regulate the conduct of financial institutions becomes law, bank Governor Patrick Njoroge said on Tuesday.
The Financial Markets Conduct bill published last week by the finance ministry proposes to create a regulator in addition to the central bank to deal with the conduct of lenders.
The ministry says the bill aims to protect consumers from lenders who charge high rates for services provided over mobile phones. It is open for review and comment by the public and industry and will be presented to parliament next month.
Critics say a proliferation of lenders using mobile phone financial technology to extend credit to people even if they do not have bank accounts is saddling borrowers with high interest rates and leaving regulators scrambling to keep up.
The government caps the rate banks can charge their customers for loans at 4 percentage points above the central bank rate, saying they were charging very high rates. But lenders who offer mobile phone services are exempt from that rule because they are not covered by the banking act.
“The bill emasculates the central bank (which) ... is under attack,” Njoroge told a news conference. It relegates the banking act and leaves bank customers at the mercy of lenders by curbing the central bank’s ability to regulate fees and charges, he said.
It also takes away the central bank’s ability to deal with “reckless lending”, limits its power to issue prudential guidelines and place banks under receivership, he said.
Finance ministry officials were not immediately available for a comment.
The bill does not propose repealing the government’s cap on commercial lending rates, which local banks and the International Monetary Fund blame for sluggish growth in private-sector credit.
The central bank faced criticism in 2011 after inflation rose to nearly 20 percent and the shilling weakened to record lows against the dollar but it has won praise for maintaining macro-economic stability since then.
Njoroge, who was appointed in June 2015 from a senior post at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, was also credited with a robust response to the collapse of three financial institutions soon after he took office.
He said he had been warned there were some unnamed parties that were keen on creating mischief and frustrating the central bank’s fight to keep its independence, but he said he was ready.
“I have been warned in various ways about certain parties that lie in wait, poised for mischief but our actions have consequences, after all this is Kenya, we are ready for that,” he said. “That menace shall find us at our post and unafraid.”
He did not give details about who was making the threats.
Njoroge also said lower fiscal deficit targets set by authorities would be challenging to meet, but if they were achieved it would create room for monetary easing. (Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg) | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/kenya-cenbank-lawmaking/update-2-kenya-finance-bill-would-emasculate-central-bank-bank-governor-idUSL5N1T027T |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said it was unclear if his planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would still go forward and said he would continue to insist on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
“We’ll have to see,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if the summit was still on.
“No decision, we haven’t been notified at all ... We haven’t seen anything, we haven’t heard anything,” he said.
Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-trump/trump-well-see-if-north-korea-summit-still-on-will-insist-on-denuclearization-idUSKCN1IH2BA |
PARIS (Reuters) - Burberry ( BRBY.L ) is to take over one of its leather goods suppliers in Italy as the British group seeks to boost its handbag business in a drive to take its brand more upmarket.
FILE PHOTO: A shopper carries a Burberry bag in central London, Britain, November 3, 2017. Picture taken November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo GLOBAL BUSINESS WEEK AHEAD Burberry, which is seen as punching below its weight in handbags and leather accessories compared to its peers, said it will be taking a team of around 100 leather goods specialists in-house as part of the deal agreed with CF&P, one of its longstanding suppliers. It did not say how much it would pay for the deal.
Luxury goods firms tend to make the largest chunk of revenues from high-margin leather accessories, and many seek where possible to cut out the middle-man, giving them more control over costs and turnaround times.
CF&P, which is based in Scandicci just outside Florence, focuses on developing propotypes and works with other brands. A small part of its business will remain independent following the deal with Burberry.
The acquisition comes as Burberry Chief Executive Marco Gobbetti pushes to transform the brand known for its camel, red and black check designs into more of a top-end luxury player, in part by shaking up the product range.
“The challenge for Burberry in launching its new medium-term strategy to climb back up the luxury pyramid has been the fact that it is inherently weak in a core product area: leather goods,” analysts at Jefferies said in a note, adding that the Italian deal was a welcome move.
Burberry, which reports preliminary results on Wednesday, has also brought in a new designer, former Givenchy star Riccardo Tisci, and overhauled several layers of management.
The brand does not break out how much of its manufacturing process is internal, though it is known to produce some of its trademark items, like its trench coats, in Britain.
Rivals are also making similar moves to tighten control over suppliers. Italy’s Gucci, owned by the Kering ( PRTP.PA ) luxury conglomerate, earlier this year inaugurated a vast leather goods facility in Tuscany, with some 800 employees.
The Gucci ArtLab will be focused on prototyping as well as research into new materials and techniques.
Some other brands like LVMH’s ( LVMH.PA ) Louis Vuitton or Hermes ( HRMS.PA ) have long had full control of their leather goods manufacturing, but are also looking to cut lead times as they look to meet thriving demand.
Reporting by Sarah White; Editing by Susan Fenton
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-burberry-manufacturing/britains-burberry-takes-italian-leather-goods-supplier-in-house-idUSKCN1IF1FQ |
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) will host a conference call on Monday, July 23, 2018, to discuss its second quarter 2018 financial results. The call will begin at 8:00 AM Central Time (9:00 AM Eastern Time).
The company will issue a press release regarding the 2018 second quarter earnings prior to the conference call. Halliburton’s second quarter press release will be posted on the Halliburton website at www.halliburton.com . Please visit the website to listen to the call live via webcast. In addition, you may participate in the call by dialing (888) 393-0263 within North America or (973) 453-2259 outside North America. A passcode is not required. Attendees should log in to the webcast or dial in approximately 15 minutes prior to the call’s start time.
A replay of the conference call will be available on Halliburton’s website for seven days following the call. Also, a replay may be accessed by telephone at (855) 859-2056 within North America or (404) 537-3406 outside of North America, using the passcode 6883878.
About Halliburton
Founded in 1919, Halliburton is one of the world's largest providers of products and services to the energy industry. With over 55,000 employees, representing 140 nationalities and operations in approximately 80 countries, the company serves the upstream oil and gas industry throughout the lifecycle of the reservoir - from locating hydrocarbons and managing geological data, to drilling and formation evaluation, well construction and completion, and optimizing production through the life of the field. Visit the company’s website at www.halliburton.com . Connect with Halliburton on Facebook , Twitter , LinkedIn , Instagram and YouTube .
View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180524006161/en/
Halliburton
For Investors:
Lance Loeffler, 281-871-2688
Halliburton, Investor Relations
[email protected]
or
For Media:
Emily Mir, 281-871-2601
Halliburton, Public Relations
[email protected]
Source: Halliburton | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/24/business-wire-halliburton-2018-second-quarter-conference-call.html |
LONDON (Reuters) - The Northern Irish party propping up British Prime Minister Theresa May in parliament is waiting to hear her government’s plans to deal with future customs arrangements with the European Union, its leader Arlene Foster said on Sunday.
FILE PHOTO: DUP leader Arlene Foster looks on during a press conference in Parliament Buildings at Stormont in Belfast, Northern Ireland February 12, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, the DUP leader said she wanted the EU to work together with the British government to find a solution that would neither result in a return of a hard border with Ireland nor isolate Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom.
Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Adrian Croft
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-dup/waiting-to-hear-from-british-government-on-customs-plans-says-dup-leader-idUSKBN1I7064 |
BEIJING (Reuters) - China won’t change its opposition to protectionism in its ongoing bilateral trade negotiations with the United States, its commerce ministry spokesman said on Thursday, even as a top Beijing official is expected to visit Washington soon for talks.
FILE PHOTO: National flags of the U.S. and China are seen in front of an international hotel in Beijing January 17, 2011. REUTERS/Jason Lee Commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng said during a regular briefing the United States and China are currently preparing the next round of discussions. A U.S. trade delegation visited Beijing last week for talks but left without significant progress in resolving an escalating trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.
“The United States must put away its threatening stick. China’s position has not changed and will not change,” Gao said. He said China opposed protectionism and unilateralism in trade relations.
Beijing has previously said it will not negotiate on its core interests, though it has not clearly defined what those are.
“We hope that China-U.S. trade relations can become a powerful driving force for sustained growth of the global economy.”
China on Wednesday confirmed that Vice Premier Liu He will visit the U.S. to discuss trade at an appropriate time.
Reporting by Elias Glenn; writing by Se Young Lee and Kevin Yao; Editing by Sam Holmes
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china/chinas-wont-change-stance-on-trade-talks-with-u-s-china-commerce-ministry-idUSKBN1IB0A6 |
May 9, 2018 / 3:08 AM / Updated 10 hours ago Golf-Weary Kiradech tempers expectations at Players Reuters Staff 1 Min Read
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida, May 8 (Reuters) - Kiradech Aphibarnrat is dealing with a major dose of jetlag as he prepares for what he hopes is a top-10 finish at this week’s Players Championship, he said at TPC Sawgrass on Tuesday.
Kiradech arrived in Florida late on Monday after playing in the unofficial Golf Sixes in England at the weekend.
“I think my body is a little bit tired,” the world number 32 told Reuters after a long session on the range trying to work on shaping his irons shots. “I’m not playing great at the moment.”
Kiradech finished equal 44th at the U.S. Masters last month before taking a couple of weeks off to spend with his family.
He missed the cut two years ago in his previous appearance at the Players but said he felt better about the course after playing the front nine on Tuesday.
“Last time I didn’t strike ball well,” he said.
“I know the course better than last time. I know where to miss, where to get the ball in play.” Reporting by Andrew Both; Editing by Peter Rutherford | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/golf-players-aphibarnrat/golf-weary-kiradech-tempers-expectations-at-players-idUKL3N1SG1NG |
Wall Street rises on easing inflation concerns Thursday, May 10, 2018 - 01:01
Wall Street jumped on Thursday as tepid inflation data eased worries of faster interest rate hikes this year. Fred Katayama reports. ▲ Hide Transcript ▶ View Transcript
Wall Street jumped on Thursday as tepid inflation data eased worries of faster interest rate hikes this year. Fred Katayama 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/2KQ3Yru | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/video/2018/05/10/wall-street-rises-on-easing-inflation-co?videoId=425691890 |
France rewards Malian 'Spiderman' for rescue Tuesday, May 29, 2018 - 01:14
A Malian immigrant who scaled four floors to rescue a four-year-old boy hanging off a balcony is to get French citizenship, and is being lauded as a hero.
A Malian immigrant who scaled four floors to rescue a four-year-old boy hanging off a balcony is to get French citizenship, and is being lauded as a hero. //reut.rs/2IVm7qL | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/video/2018/05/29/france-rewards-malian-spiderman-for-resc?videoId=431486192 |
SINGAPORE/BEIJING (Reuters) - An unexpected drop in short-term Chinese purchases of Brazilian soybeans is denting exports of the oilseed from the South American nation, which just a few weeks ago looked poised to benefit from a Washington-Beijing trade war.
A view of the of soybean plants in the city of Primavera do Leste in the central Brazilian state of Mato Grosso February 7, 2013. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker Chinese importers rushed to buy Brazilian beans after Beijing proposed a 25 percent tariff on U.S. cargoes on April 4, but short-term purchases have dried up since last week as the world’s top importer grapples with weak demand at a time of abundant local supply, trade sources said.
“All the panic buying that we saw earlier in April has died down,” said a trader at an international trading firm that runs oilseed processing facilities in China.
“Demand for soymeal is very slow as pig farmers are making losses. Very few deals have been signed since last week for Brazilian soybeans for nearby shipment,” he added. Sources declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak with media.
China imports more than 60 percent of soybeans traded worldwide, crushing them to make cooking oil and protein-rich animal feed ingredient soymeal.
The premium for Brazilian soybeans, including freight, Quote: d in China has dropped to $94 a tonne over July Chicago futures compared to a high of $160 touched in April. The premium is typically $50-60 a tonne at this time of year.
Brazil's soybean export basis cools after April tariff-threat spike: reut.rs/2rw56IL
Beijing last month threatened to slap an additional 25 percent tariff on soybean imports and a host of other products from the United States in retaliation for trade actions taken by President Donald Trump.
Brazilian exports have also been hit as European and other Asian buyers have turned to cheaper U.S. supplies.
U.S. soybean exporters boost sales outside China, offsetting trade tiff losses: reut.rs/2ruMHMO
However, the fall in Chinese near-term demand for Brazilian beans is only seen as temporary as prices for cargoes from the South American country are expected to drop as it gathers a record harvest.
The nation is harvesting an all-time high crop of more than 119 million tonnes, boosting expectations of stronger exports, with consultancy Céleres estimating overseas sales will rise by 2 million tonnes in 2018 to 72 million tonnes.
And Chinese buyers have not been shying away from taking June-July shipments, with demand for further months also robust. Importers booked 20 cargoes last week for August shipment, traders said.
Brazil soybean production is projected to be a record 114.9 miln T in 2017/18: reut.rs/2rw5CH0
PIG OUT? China will cut its soybean imports for the first time in 15 years in 2018/19, the agriculture ministry forecast on Thursday, with demand for animal feed faltering.
Hog prices in China registered one of the sharpest ever declines in the first quarter and are below average production cost.
“Most soybean plants in China are now overstocked with meal and oil,” said a trader in Beijing.
“The main reason is demand-side. The hog price is not good so feed millers like to pick up cheap stuff hand-to-mouth.”
China’s April soybean imports fell to 6.9 million tonnes, a decline of 13.7 percent from a year ago.
China soybean crushing margins swoon after sharp Brazil sales price rally: reut.rs/2rx9ZSb
Reporting by Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Dominique Patton in Beijing; Additional reporting by Roberto Samora in Sao Paulo; Editing by Joseph Radford
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-soybeans-brazil/faltering-chinese-soybean-demand-dents-brazils-chances-of-trade-war-bonanza-idUSKBN1IC0AH |
May 22, 2018 / 2:16 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago Trump seeks delay in Summer Zervos' defamation lawsuit Jonathan Stempel 2 Min Read
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump asked New York state’s highest court to delay a defamation lawsuit against him by a former contestant on his reality television show “The Apprentice” who claimed he sexually harassed her. FILE PHOTO: Summer Zervos, a former contestant on The Apprentice, leaves New York State Supreme Court with attorney Gloria Allred, after a hearing on the defamation case against U.S. President Donald Trump in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
In a filing on Monday, Trump told the state’s Court of Appeals that Summer Zervos’ lawsuit should be put on hold because a sitting U.S. president is immune from being sued in a state court during his term in the White House.
Trump, who has denied Zervos’ allegations, is challenging a March 20 ruling by Justice Jennifer Schecter of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan allowing the case to proceed.
Saying “no one is above the law,” Schecter rejected Trump’s claim of immunity over private conduct predating his becoming president.
An intermediate state appeals court on May 17 refused to halt Zervos’ lawsuit, without ruling on its merits.
Trump said that refusal qualified as a “final appealable order” justifying intervention by the Court of Appeals.
Zervos’ lawyer, Mariann Wong, said, “Defendant has lost his effort to stay this action twice already, and for good reason. No one is above the law.
“We look forward to proving defendant lied when he attacked Ms. Zervos for telling the truth about his unwanted sexual groping,” Wong said in an email.
A preliminary conference before Schecter is scheduled for June 5, court records show.
Zervos accused Trump of subjecting her to unwanted kissing and groping after she sought career advice in 2007.
She came forward during the 2016 presidential campaign, and Trump called such allegations by women “lies.” He also retweeted a post calling Zervos’ claims a “hoax.”
Zervos said Trump defamed her by branding her a liar. She is seeking a retraction or an apology, compensatory damages and punitive damages in her lawsuit. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-trump-apprentice-lawsuit/trump-seeks-delay-in-summer-zervos-defamation-lawsuit-idUKKCN1IN1TU |
EditorsNote: Minor tweaks
Franchy Cordero’s RBI single in the sixth held up Friday as San Diego overcame a two-run deficit for a 3-2 win, halting the three-game winning streak of the host Pittsburgh Pirates.
Eric Hosmer doubled ahead of Cordero’s base hit and scored to give the Padres four wins in their past six games.
The teams have split the first two games of a four-game series.
Both starters went six innings.
San Diego’s Tyson Ross (3-3) allowed two runs and five hits, with two strikeouts and four walks. He made 100 pitches and has reached that count in seven of his nine starts.
Brad Hand pitched the final 1 1/3 innings for his 13th save.
Pittsburgh’s Ivan Nova (2-4), who has not picked up a win since April 15 (three losses, three no-decisions), gave up three runs (two earned) and six hits, with four strikeouts and no walks. He has allowed three runs or fewer in 19 of his 21 starts at PNC Park with the Pirates and has pitched at least six innings in 15 of those games.
Pirates center fielder Austin Meadows, making his major league debut with Starling Marte going on the 10-day disabled list because of a right oblique strain, was 2-for-4 with two singles and a stolen base.
The Pirates opened the scoring in the first. Adam Frazier and Gregory Polanco walked with no outs, and Frazier moved to third on Corey Dickerson’s double-play grounder. Josh Bell followed with an RBI double off the wall in left to make it 1-0.
Pittsburgh added a run in the third when Dickerson’s RBI single brought in Frazier, who again had walked and moved to second on a groundout.
The Padres tied it in the fourth. Travis Jankowski led off with a single and stole second. An out later, Hosmer hit an RBI double. Hosmer went to third when Cordero reached on Nova’s fielding error and scored on Raffy Lopez’s groundout to make it 2-2.
—Field Level Media
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/baseball-mlb-pit-sd-recap/padres-rally-to-sink-pirates-idUSMTZEE5JYEU8WH |
Dialing in a new era - Vodafone CEO to step down 7:41am EDT - 01:46
Vodafone Chief Executive Vittorio Colao will step down in October after 10 years in which he reshaped the world's second-largest mobile operator into a digital communications powerhouse with a string of major deals. As Kate King reports, the fortunes of the world's largest mobile operator contrast with French telecoms group Iliad which saw its shares tumble 16 percent. ▲ Hide Transcript ▶ View Transcript
Vodafone Chief Executive Vittorio Colao will step down in October after 10 years in which he reshaped the world's second-largest mobile operator into a digital communications powerhouse with a string of major deals. As Kate King reports, the fortunes of the world's largest mobile operator contrast with French telecoms group Iliad which saw its shares tumble 16 percent. Press CTRL+C (Windows), CMD+C (Mac), or long-press the URL below on your mobile device to copy the code https://reut.rs/2L0NbC8 | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/video/2018/05/15/dialing-in-a-new-era-vodafone-ceo-to-ste?videoId=427106775 |
TORONTO, May 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Beleave Inc. (" Beleave " or the " Company ") (CSE: BE; OTCQX: BLEVF) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase all of the outstanding shares of 9334416 Canada Inc., o/a Medi-Green, Karmacann, and My-Grow (" Medi-Green "), a leading network of medical cannabis clinics with three current locations across Ontario (the " Transaction "). Subject to customary closing conditions, including the completion of certain filings with the Canadian Securities Exchange (the " CSE "), the Transaction is expected to close on or about May 8, 2018 (the " Closing Date ").
Under the terms of the Transaction, Beleave will pay an aggregate purchase price of $3 million to the Medi-Green shareholders payable through the issuance of common shares in the capital of the Company (the " Beleave Shares ") with price determined based on the Company's 10-day VWAP leading up to closing. The Medi-Green shareholders will also be entitled to receive up to $2 million of additional Beleave Shares if certain operational milestones are attained following the first twelve months of the Closing Date.
"The acquisition of Medi-Green marks the first step in executing the Company's client acquisition strategy while becoming more closely involved in an integral part of the patient experience. Integrating with clinics is a proven model which provides a significant and fluid referral program between medical practitioners and prescribing doctors," commented Andrew Wnek, Beleave's Chief Executive Officer. "The Company plans to expand the reach of Medi-Green's clinic network across Canada."
Medi-Green has operated since 2015 and since then has opened 3 locations with plans to rapidly expand its footprint over the next 12 months. The company currently has an active patient base of approximately 4,000 with average patient subscriptions in the 2 to 3 gram per day range. Medi-Green has no long-term debt and had annual revenue of approximately $2.9 Million in 2017. As part of the agreement the Medi-Green leadership team will remain on board and will continue operating the business as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Beleave.
"Our team is eager and excited to work under the Beleave brand. We feel our team aligns nicely with Beleave and their attention to quality assurance and sound science will be beneficial to our patients," commented Trevor Hands, C.E.O. of Medi-Green. "Together I think we can bring strong vision and expertise to multiple areas of the ACMPR market, the newly emerging recreational sector, as well as other domestic and international opportunities. We plan on adding at least six more locations by the end of 2018."
About Beleave
Beleave Inc. is a biotech company and Beleave's wholly-owned subsidiary Beleave Kannabis Corp. (formerly First Access Medical Inc.) is a licensed producer pursuant to the ACMPR. Beleave's purpose-built facility is located in Hamilton, Ontario.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law ("forward-looking statements"). The use of any of the words "plan", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur are intended to identify forward-looking information. These statements are only predictions. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking information is based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to satisfy the conditions associated with its cultivation license, the Company's ability to obtain a sales license and the related timing considerations, the availability of further financing, consumer interest in its products, competition, regulation, operational and technological risks, and anticipated and unanticipated costs and delays. There is no assurance that the Transaction will close on the terms or within the timeframe contemplated herein or at all. Assuming the Transaction is completed, certain risks relating to the integration and future performance of Medi-Green may also arise. Since forward-looking information addresses future events and conditions, by its very nature it involves inherent risks and uncertainties. This information speak only as of the date of this news release. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks including various risk factors discussed in the Company's disclosure documents, which can be found under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com .
View original content with multimedia: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/beleave-to-acquire-medi-green-cannabis-clinic-network-300640145.html
SOURCE Beleave Inc. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/01/pr-newswire-beleave-to-acquire-medi-green-cannabis-clinic-network.html |
2 COMMENTS A digital-currency startup backed by Goldman Sachs GS -0.25% Group Inc. is now worth about $3 billion after a new fundraising round.
Circle Internet Financial Ltd. disclosed the new valuation Tuesday, making it one of the most highly valued financial technology startups in the U.S.
The increase in the Boston-based trading firm’s value, more than seven times the level achieved at a prior fundraising in 2016, stems from the recent explosion of interest in bitcoin and other so-called digital assets.
Indeed, despite a 40% decline this year, bitcoin is still making fortunes for companies that deal in the volatile currency. In particular, it shows how some of the biggest winners from last year’s 1375% surge in bitcoin, which was bested by other tokens including ether, may be the service firms that have formed to facilitate cryptocurrency trading and investment.
Those firms include Coinbase Inc., the most popular consumer bitcoin wallet, and Bitmain Technologies Ltd., a Chinese builder of computer chips for digital currency transactions that is leading the $110 million investment round in Circle announced Tuesday.
The fundraising, one of the largest ever among crypto startups, also includes new investments by venture-capital firm Blockchain Capital and Tusk Ventures, as well as more money from existing investors IDG Capital, Breyer Capital, General Catalyst, Accel and Digital Currency Group. Goldman is not among the new round’s investors.
Five-year-old Circle’s first product was designed for buying bitcoin and moving traditional money between individuals by using bitcoin as a medium of exchange.
But in the past year, its other business, facilitating big trades of digital currencies, has surged in volume and revenue.
That desk, called Circle Trade, says it has traded about $4 billion in the past month, handling trades from institutions, companies and wealthy individuals, Circle said. The company has said it generated $250 million in revenue from November to January.
By one measure, Circle is now the most valuable U.S. cryptocurrency startup. Its $3 billion equity valuation surpasses that of Coinbase, which raised money at a $1.6 billion valuation late last year, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.
Circle is one of a handful of so-called over-the-counter market makers who augment the smaller-value trades on exchanges, alongside such firms as Cumberland Mining . At least one big bank, Goldman, is exploring a role for itself in trading around cryptocurrencies.
As part of the funding, Bitmain will also join Circle’s new project to launch new digital coins that can be exchanged for a fixed amount of traditional, or fiat, currency.
Jeremy Allaire, Circle’s chief executive and co-founder, said the new coin and fundraising is part of the company’s “long-term vision for what’s possible in building a new global economic system.”
Circle also recently acquired a digital asset exchange, Poloniex, and a retail investment application, now called Circle Invest.
Write to Telis Demos at [email protected] | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.wsj.com/articles/bitcoin-may-be-down-but-a-digital-currency-startup-still-soars-1526416063 |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three black people plan to sue a Southern California police department over what they say was an excessive response to a racially motivated 911 call, but police say their officers' response was polite, brief and nothing out of the ordinary.
The Rialto Police Department said Monday it had received notice of legal action by the three, who were leaving an Airbnb rental with their luggage when a neighbor called police on April 30 to report a burglary in progress.
The encounter is the latest example of friction between law enforcement and minorities because of a call to 911. Last month, two black men in Philadelphia were arrested after a Starbucks employee called police because they hadn't bought anything.
Also in April, two Native American brothers on a college tour were questioned aggressively by police after a parent called to report her unease over their presence. Before that, in Pennsylvania, a golf club co-owner and his father called police on five African-American women who they say were playing too slowly.
Georgetown University law professor and former prosecutor Paul Butler, who wrote the book "Chokehold: Policing Black Men," says African-Americans bear the brunt of proving their innocence no matter how mundane the activity.
"The standard for an extreme law enforcement response to black people is very low," he said. "All you have to do is be waiting in a Starbucks or playing golf in Pennsylvania, or now, moving your luggage out of an Airbnb rental. That's literally all you have to do."
One of the Airbnb renters, Kells Fyffe-Marshall, wrote on social media that they were "surrounded" by seven police cars and told to put up their hands. Police said a helicopter was tracking them and an officer accused them of lying, she said.
"You want to laugh about this but it's not funny," said Fyffe-Marshall in her post, adding that police told her the woman called 911 when they "didn't wave to her as she looked at us" packing up.
But police pushed back, saying in a news release that officers were polite during the 22-minute interaction. The caller did not recognize the vehicle or the people, police said.
Rialto police Lt. Dean Hardin said it is standard for a helicopter to monitor the scene in a residential burglary in progress, in case someone leaves the house before ground police can get there.
"We didn't detain anybody, we didn't put anyone in handcuffs, we didn't point any weapons at anybody," he said. "We actually allowed them pretty free movement about the scene, so it's a pretty mild response to a situation."
Fyffe-Marshall declined comment, citing legal advice.
Rialto is in San Bernardino County about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Los Angeles.
Har reported from San Francisco
The ext. headline has been corrected to say three black people were questioned, not women. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/07/the-associated-press-3-black-airbnb-guests-questioned-by-police-plan-lawsuit.html |
May 15 (Reuters) - Bravo Brio Restaurant Group Inc:
* BRAVO BRIO RESTAURANT GROUP BOARD OF DIRECTORS REAFFIRMS RECOMMENDATION TO PROCEED WITH ACQUISITION BY AN AFFILIATE OF SPICE PRIVATE EQUITY LTD.
* BRAVO BRIO RESTAURANT GROUP INC - BOARD OF DIRECTORS UNANIMOUSLY REJECTS ACQUISITION PROPOSAL FROM ROMANO’S MACARONI GRILL
* BRAVO BRIO RESTAURANT GROUP INC - SPECIAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS ON MAY 22 TO APPROVE TRANSACTION WITH SPICE PRIVATE EQUITY LTD
* BRAVO BRIO RESTAURANT - BOARD CONTINUES TO UNANIMOUSLY RECOMMEND SHAREHOLDERS VOTE “FOR” PROPOSAL TO APPROVE AND ADOPT SPICE MERGER AGREEMENT Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: ([email protected])
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-bravo-brio-restaurant-group-board/brief-bravo-brio-restaurant-group-board-of-directors-reaffirms-recommendation-to-proceed-with-acquisition-by-an-affiliate-of-spice-private-equity-ltd-idUSASC0A28J |
Your application for public service loan forgiveness was denied? You're far from alone.
Now the Department of Education has issued directions for some student loan borrowers who work in public service jobs to reapply for a second chance at debt relief.
Congress authorized the $350 million "fix" to the popular, yet challenged student loan program in its March spending bill. The Department of Education was given 60 days to put out an application.
show chapters It may soon be easier to declare bankruptcy on your student loans 10:31 AM ET Thu, 22 March 2018 | 01:03 Now it has come out with one, dubbed the "temporary expanded public service loan forgiveness" opportunity.
Don't let the word "expanded" get your hopes up, though. The second chance is available only to people who still meet several demands.
The (many) qualification requirements Getty Images The U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. First, to apply you still need to have made the 120 qualifying and on-time payments under the program and have already been rejected for public service loan forgiveness.
But not all those rejected can apply — only those borrowers who were initially denied because of their repayment plan. Specifically, if you were deemed ineligible because you were enrolled in a graduated or extended loan repayment program instead of an income-driven one, you should reapply.
One important note: Your most recent payment on whatever plan you were in, as well as your payment made 12 months ago, must be as much as you would have paid on the income-driven repayment plan.
If you learn your payments were too low, you might consider switching into an income-driven repayment plan and reapplying for the fix-it fund in a year. The Department of Education warns, however, "This opportunity is temporary, has limited funding, and must be provided on a first come, first served basis."
Other technical reasons that commonly lead to disqualification remain.
You still need to have a loan from the federal direct program — not a Federal Family Education Loan, Perkins loan or any kind of private loan.
The program also has a narrow definition of a public service worker: generally someone employed by the government or a 501(c)(3) organization.
If you're unsure whether your employer qualifies, you can fill out the Department of Education's employer certification form to find out.
How to apply Sadeugra | Getty Images If you're one of those lucky people who meet all of the above requirements, you'll want to send an email to FedLoan servicing — the agency that handles public service loan forgiveness — as soon as possible.
Include your name and date of birth in your email to [email protected]. Simply state that you request the Education Department reconsider your eligibility.
If you don't meet all those requirements, you can try to switch into an income-driven repayment plan or finish the 120 payments and then go through the process of getting formally rejected from Fed Loan, and then reapply for the fix-it fund — so long as it hasn't run out.
More from Personal Finance
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People with massive student debt hope Trump will let them declare bankruptcy | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/24/the-government-may-forgive-your-student-loans-if-you-do-this.html |
David Price went the distance and struck out eight and both Xander Bogaerts and J.D. Martinez homered as the host Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-2 to open a four-game series Thursday night.
Price (4-4) allowed two runs on only five hits and walked none on 95 pitches. He came within one strike of his first complete-game shutout since June 12, 2015, with the Detroit Tigers, but Manny Machado spoiled the bid with a two-run homer.
Bogaerts hit a three-run shot, his second in as many days and his sixth homer this season, while Martinez knocked a two-run bomb. Martinez tied the major league lead for homers (13) and RBIs (38) with his blast.
Machado’s home run was his 14th of the season for Baltimore. Orioles starter Kevin Gausman (3-3) allowed all six runs on eight hits with two walks and six strikeouts in a 4 2/3-inning defeat.
Boston won its second straight game after beating the Oakland Athletics 6-4 on Wednesday to avoid a three-game sweep. Baltimore had won five of seven coming in, including a 17-1 rout of the Tampa Bay Rays last Sunday.
Thursday’s game was a makeup for the annual Patriots’ Day game scheduled for the morning of Monday, April 16. The game was postponed due to rain, marking the Red Sox’s first rainout of a Patriots’ Day game since 1984.
Martinez’s two-out homer sailed an estimated 431 feet into the center field bleachers only four batters into the Boston first following a leadoff single for Mookie Betts, who proceeded to steal second base.
Bogaerts’ bomb (estimated to be 383 feet) cleared the Green Monster in left and chased Gausman from the game with two outs in the Red Sox’s fifth. Andrew Benintendi plated Jackie Bradley Jr. on a sacrifice fly earlier in the inning.
Martinez left the game in the seventh with a stomach illness. Blake Swihart replaced him in left field.
Machado’s homer over the Monster came with two outs in the Baltimore ninth.
Before the game, Baltimore recalled catcher Andrew Susac from Triple-A Norfolk and optioned catcher Caleb Joseph to Norfolk. Susac, who started and batted ninth, went 1-for-3 with a strikeout in his season debut.
Boston second baseman Dustin Pedroia (left knee surgery recovery) will rehab again with Triple-A Pawtucket on Friday. Red Sox manager Alex Cora said Pedroia could return to the team before the end of May.
Red Sox left-hander Drew Pomeranz (1-1, 5.47 ERA) opposes Orioles right-hander and Massachusetts native Alex Cobb (0-5, 7.06) on Friday night.
—Field Level Media
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/baseball-mlb-bos-bal-recap/price-tosses-complete-game-as-red-sox-top-orioles-idUSMTZEE5IWJAZJS |
ATLANTA, May 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- DEKRA, one of the leading global expert organizations, has acquired the emission-check business of Jiffy Smog, based in Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada. The 24 stations included in the acquisition are the first for DEKRA in the state. DEKRA, the world's No. 1 in vehicle inspections now operates stations for safety and emission checks in six U.S. states and Ontario, Canada.
"DEKRA has been active in the field of vehicle inspections for more than 90 years. Our goal is to bring our international experience and our expertise to Nevada in order to give vehicle owners the best service possible", said Eric Labe, President of DEKRA North America, Inc. "We are also looking at a significant potential for growth in the state beyond Clark County."
"Jiffy Smog has been in the market for decades and has been doing well in a very competitive environment. We are aiming to build on this success", says Pete Villari, Executive Vice President in charge of vehicle inspections at DEKRA North America, Inc. "We are looking forward to working with the former employees of Jiffy Smog who have joined DEKRA following the close of the acquisition."
The regulatory environment in Nevada requires most vehicle owners to have emissions checked annually. Jiffy Smog is the largest "Test Only" business in the state, which means that the stations are authorized to check emissions, but not to perform repairs. "This fits DEKRA's general focus on neutral and independent third-party expert services and a clear distinction between inspection and repair," says Eric Labe.
About DEKRA
DEKRA has been active in the field of safety for more than 90 years. Founded in 1925 in Berlin as Deutscher Kraftfahrzeug-Überwachungs-Verein e.V., it is today one of the world's leading expert organizations. DEKRA SE is a subsidiary of DEKRA e.V. and manages the Group's operating business. In 2017, DEKRA estimates to have generated sales totaling approximately 3.1 billion Euros. The company currently employs more than 43,000 people in more than 50 countries on all five continents. With qualified and independent expert services, they work for safety on the road, at work and at home. These services range from vehicle inspection and expert appraisals to claims services, industrial and building inspections, safety consultancy, testing and certification of products and systems, as well as training courses and temporary work. The vision for the company's 100th birthday in 2025 is that DEKRA will be the global partner for a safe world.
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SOURCE DEKRA | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/01/pr-newswire-dekra-to-perform-emission-checks-in-nevada-after-acquisition-of-jiffy-smog.html |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices ended a shade firmer after retreating from multi-year highs hit early in the day on Tuesday, supported by concerns that U.S. sanctions on Iran are likely to restrict crude exports from one of the biggest producers in the Middle East.
A burn-off flare is seen at the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation's (CPS) Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery in Colombo, Sri Lanka May 11, 2018. REUTERS/ Dinuka Liyanawatte Brent crude oil LCOc1 settled at $78.43 a barrel, up 20 cents, or 0.3 percent, after reaching an intraday peak of $79.47 a barrel, up $1.24 and its highest since November 2014.
U.S. light crude CLc1 closed 35 cents, or 0.5 percent, higher at $71.31 a barrel, also not far off the day’s peak at $71.92, its highest since November 2014.
The difference between the two benchmarks briefly widened to more than $8 a barrel, the widest gap since April 2015, reflecting surging U.S. crude supplies and a greater geopolitical risk to Brent-based crudes.
“U.S. oil prices have flip-flopped on a strong dollar,” said Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. “Brent is pricing in the idea that all the risk to supplies is overseas - there’s a concern that all the supplies that are tight in Europe are only going to get tighter.”
World oil prices have surged more than 70 percent over the last year as demand has risen sharply while production has been restricted by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, led by Saudi Arabia, and other producers, including Russia.
The United States has announced it will impose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, raising fears that markets will face shortages later this year when trade restrictions take effect.
Iran will restart its uranium enrichment if it cannot find a way to save the 2015 nuclear deal with the European Union after the United States pulled out last week, Tehran’s government spokesman said.
The tightening market has all but eliminated a global supply overhang that depressed crude prices between late 2014 and early 2017.
Surging prices were capped after China reported weaker-than-expected investment and retail sales in April and a drop in home sales, clouding its economic outlook even as policymakers try to navigate debt risks and defuse a heated trade dispute with the United States.
The data poses worries that near-record high refinery runs may be short-lived. China’s refinery runs rose nearly 12 percent in April from a year earlier, to around 12.1 million barrels per day, marking the second-highest level on record on a daily basis, data showed.
Additionally, the market retreated as the U.S. dollar .DXY strengthened against other currencies to the highest since December. As the dollar strengthens, investors can retreat from dollar-denominated commodities like oil. [USD/]
Despite these downward forces, the market retains support from OPEC and other producers’ production cuts and U.S. sanctions on Iran.
OPEC figures published on Monday showed oil inventories in OECD industrialized nations in March fell to 9 million barrels above the five-year average, from 340 million barrels above the average in January 2017.
U.S. crude is trading at a hefty discount to Brent, the international marker, thanks to sharp rises in U.S. production to 10.7 million bpd, which has left the American domestic oil market well supplied.
U.S. shale oil production is expected to rise by about 145,000 bpd to a record 7.18 million bpd in June, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Monday.
Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore and Christopher Johnson in London; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Dan Grebler
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-near-november-2014-highs-firm-as-markets-tighten-amid-opec-cuts-iran-sanctions-idUSKCN1IG03C |
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and BEIJING, China, May 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BeiGene, Ltd. (NASDAQ:BGNE), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative molecularly targeted and immuno-oncology drugs for the treatment of cancer, today reported recent business highlights and financial results for the first quarter of 2018.
“We continue to make great progress launching new clinical trials on a global scale for patients with a wide variety of cancers, where we believe our investigational treatments can have a profound impact,” said John V. Oyler, Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of BeiGene. “We have now enrolled more than 2,300 patients worldwide in more than 30 clinical trials of our investigational agents as of the end of March 2018 and remain on target for our first NDA filings in China later this year.”
“Given the significantly reformed regulatory environment in China, as well as important additions to our senior leadership team highlighted by the appointment of Dr. Xiaobin Wu as our General Manager of China and President of BeiGene, Ltd., we are excited about our China and global prospects,” continued Mr. Oyler.
Recent Business Highlights
Clinical Programs:
Zanubrutinib (BGB-3111) , an investigational small molecule inhibitor of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK)
Completed enrollment in the Phase 2 pivotal trial in China in patients with Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM).
Tislelizumab (BGB-A317) , an investigational humanized monoclonal antibody against the immune checkpoint receptor PD-1
Initiated the following trials:
• Global Phase 2 trial in patients with relapsed or refractory mature T- and natural killer (NK)-cell lymphomas; and
• Global Phase 2 trial in patients with previously treated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC or liver cancer), under collaboration with Celgene Corporation for solid tumors.
Pamiparib (BGB-290) , an investigational small molecule PARP inhibitor
Presented preliminary Phase 1 clinical data in Chinese patients with ovarian or triple-negative breast cancer at the 2018 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in Chicago.
Commercial Products:
Continued to expand potential patient access to ABRAXANE ® (nanoparticle albumin-bound paclitaxel) in China by obtaining inclusion in the provincial reimbursement drug list in Jiangsu and critical illness insurance in Zhejiang; and
Launched a first-line indication of REVLIMID ® (lenalidomide) in China following its regulatory approval by the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) for the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM) in combination with dexamethasone in adult patients with previously untreated MM who are not eligible for transplant.
Corporate Development:
Appointed J. Samuel Su, former Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Yum! Brands, Inc. and Chairman and CEO of its China division, to the BeiGene Board of Directors;
Appointed Dr. Xiaobin Wu to the position of General Manager of China and President of BeiGene, Ltd.;
Appointed Yifei Zhu to the position of China Co-Commercial Head, Sales and Market Access; and
Appointed Dr. Guillaume Vignon to the position of Senior Vice President, Business Development.
Expected Upcoming Milestones in 2018
Zanubrutinib
Present updated Phase 1 clinical data in patients with WM and pooled safety analysis in patients with hematologic malignancies at the 2018 European Hematology Association (EHA) Annual Congress in Stockholm, Sweden, June 14-17;
Present other updated Phase 1 data and China pivotal trial data;
Submit first new drug application (NDA) in China for mantle cell lymphoma;
Complete enrollment in the global Phase 3 trial for WM in Q3 2018; and
Initiate a global head-to-head Phase 3 trial versus ibrutinib in relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Tislelizumab
Present updated Phase 1 data and China pivotal trial data; Submit first NDA in China for Hodgkin’s lymphoma;
Complete enrollment in the Phase 2 pivotal trial in China for urothelial carcinoma; and Initiate additional pivotal trials.
Pamiparib
Present updated Phase 1 data;
Initiate a global Phase 3 trial in gastric cancer in Q2 or Q3 2018; and Initiate a Phase 3 trial in China as maintenance therapy in patients with platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer.
Commercial Products
Continue to expand provincial reimbursement for ABRAXANE in China.
First Quarter 2018 Financial Results
Cash, Cash Equivalents, Restricted Cash and Short-Term Investments were $1,481.48 million as of March 31, 2018, compared to $837.52 million as of December 31, 2017. The increase was primarily due to net proceeds of $757.59 million raised in a public offering in January 2018. Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments include approximately $131.04 million held by our 95%-owned joint venture, BeiGene Biologics, to build a commercial biologics facility under construction in Guangzhou, China. Restricted cash of $17.46 million relates to BeiGene Guangzhou Factory’s secured deposits that are held in designated bank accounts for the issuance of a letter of credit.
Cash used in operations for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 was $104.50 million, compared to $35.71 million for the same period in 2017. The increase was primarily attributable to higher operating expenses in support of our clinical programs and organizational growth. Capital expenditures for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 were $9.70 million, compared to $7.39 million for the same period in 2017. The increase was primarily attributable to the construction of our manufacturing facilities in Guangzhou.
Revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2018 were $32.54 million, compared to nil in the same period in 2017, attributable to product and collaboration revenue under our collaboration with Celgene.
Product revenue from sales of ABRAXANE, REVLIMID and VIDAZA ® in China totaled $23.25 million for the first quarter 2018.
Collaboration revenue totaled $9.29 million for the first quarter 2018, reflecting $7.55 million that was recognized as research and development reimbursement revenue from Celgene and $1.74 million of deferred upfront fees from Celgene recognized in the first quarter of 2018. In addition, unbilled receivables of $23.86 million on the balance sheet reflect research and development reimbursement under the Celgene collaboration for expenses incurred through the first quarter of 2018.
Expenses for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 were $143.35 million, compared to $51.54 million in the same period 2017, consisting primarily of the following:
Cost of sales for the first quarter were $4.55 million, compared to nil in the first quarter of 2017. Cost of sales relates to the cost of acquiring ABRAXANE, REVLIMID and VIDAZA for distribution in China.
R&D Expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2018 were $109.70, compared to $42.77 million in the same period in 2017. The increase in R&D expenses was primarily attributable to increased spending on our ongoing late-stage clinical trials and increased employee compensation expense as a result of increased headcount to support our clinical programs. Also contributing to the increase was the up-front license fee of $10 million paid to Mirati Therapeutics for the license of sitravatinib in Asia (excluding Japan), Australia and New Zealand. R&D-associated share-based compensation expense was $12.05 million for the three months ended March 31, 2018, compared to $4.53 million for the same period in 2017, due to increased headcount and a higher share price.
SG&A Expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2018 were $28.92 million, compared to $8.77 million in the same period in 2017. The increase in SG&A expenses was primarily attributable to increased headcount, including employees transferred from Celgene China in connection with the license agreement for Celgene’s commercial products in China, as well as higher professional service fees and costs to support our growing operations. SG&A-associated share-based compensation expense was $5.34 million for the three months ended March 31, 2018, compared to $1.46 million for the same period in 2017, due to increased headcount and a higher share price.
Net Loss for the first quarter of 2018 was $105.12 million, or $2.03 per American Depositary Share (ADS), compared to a net loss of $50.62 million, or $1.27 per ADS in the same period in 2017.
Financial Summary
Select Consolidated Balance Sheet Data (U.S. GAAP)
(Amounts in thousands of U.S. Dollars)
As of March 31, December 31, 2018 2017 (unaudited) (audited) Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments $ 1,481,475 $ 837,516 Accounts receivable 23,485 29,428 Unbilled receivables 23,862 — Working capital 1,443,806 763,509 Property and equipment, net 76,990 62,568 Total assets 1,708,927 1,046,479 Accounts payable 52,719 69,779 Accrued expenses and other payables 55,712 49,598 Shareholder loan 154,551 146,271 Total liabilities 350,205 362,248 Noncontrolling interest 14,341 14,422 Total equity $ 1,358,722 $ 684,231 Consolidated Statements of Operations (U.S. GAAP)
(Amounts in thousands of U.S. Dollars, except for number of American Depositary Shares (ADSs) and per ADS data) (unaudited)
Three Months Ended March 31, 2018 2017 Revenues Product revenue, net $ 23,250 $ — Collaboration revenue 9,294 — Total revenues 32,544 — Expenses Cost of sales - product (4,550 ) — Research and development (109,700 ) (42,773 ) Selling, general and administrative (28,915 ) (8,769 ) Amortization of intangible assets (188 ) — Total expenses (143,353 ) (51,542 ) Loss from operations (110,809 ) (51,542 ) Interest income, net 1,552 186 Other income, net 729 913 Loss before income tax expense (108,528 ) (50,443 ) Income tax benefit (expense) 3,412 (180 ) Net loss (105,116 ) (50,623 ) Less: net loss attributable to noncontrolling interests (520 ) — Net loss attributable to BeiGene, Ltd. $ (104,596 ) $ (50,623 ) Net loss per ADS, basic and diluted $ (2.03 ) $ (1.27 ) Weighted-average number of ADSs outstanding – basic and diluted 51,577,739 39,725,977 Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss (U.S. GAAP)
(Amounts in thousands of U.S. Dollars) (unaudited)
Three Months Ended March 31, 2018 2017 Net loss $ (105,116 ) $ (50,623 ) Other comprehensive loss, net of tax of nil: Foreign currency translation adjustments 272 90 Unrealized holding gain (loss), net 329 (12 ) Comprehensive loss (104,515 ) (50,545 ) Less: comprehensive loss attributable to noncontrolling interests (456 ) — Comprehensive loss attributable to BeiGene, Ltd. $ (104,059 ) $ (50,545 ) About BeiGene
BeiGene is a global, commercial-stage, research-based biotechnology company focused on molecularly targeted and immuno-oncology cancer therapeutics. With a team of over 1,100 employees in China, the United States, and Australia, BeiGene is advancing a pipeline consisting of novel oral small molecules and monoclonal antibodies for cancer. BeiGene is also working to create combination solutions aimed to have both a meaningful and lasting impact on cancer patients. BeiGene markets ABRAXANE ® (nanoparticle albumin–bound paclitaxel), REVLIMID ® (lenalidomide), and VIDAZA ® (azacitidine) in China under a license from Celgene Corporation. i
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other federal securities laws, including statements regarding BeiGene’s advancement of, and anticipated clinical development, regulatory milestones and commercialization of its drugs and drug candidates, the potential for the Company’s drugs and drug candidates, and the expected milestones under the caption “Expected Upcoming Milestones in 2018”. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated in the as a result of various important factors, including BeiGene's ability to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of its drug candidates; the clinical results for its drug candidates, which may not support further development or marketing approval; actions of regulatory agencies, which may affect the initiation, timing and progress of clinical trials and marketing approval; BeiGene's ability to achieve commercial success for its marketed products and drug candidates, if approved; BeiGene's ability to obtain and maintain protection of intellectual property for its technology and drugs; BeiGene's reliance on third parties to conduct drug development, manufacturing and other services; BeiGene’s limited operating history and BeiGene's ability to obtain additional funding for operations and to complete the development and commercialization of its drug candidates, as well as those risks more fully discussed in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in BeiGene’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K, as well as discussions of potential risks, uncertainties, and other important factors in BeiGene's subsequent filings with the U.S. Commission. All information in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and BeiGene undertakes no duty to update such information unless required by law.
Investor Contact Media Contact Lucy Li, Ph.D. Liza Heapes +1 781-801-1800 + 1 857-302-5663 [email protected] [email protected] | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/09/globe-newswire-beigene-reports-first-quarter-2018-financial-results.html |
May 31, 2018 / 7:30 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago Ahead of Sainsbury's takeover, Asda says results on track Reuters Staff 2 Min Read
LONDON (Reuters) - Asda, the British supermarket arm of Walmart ( WMT.N ) that is set to be acquired by Sainsbury’s ( SBRY.L ), posted a 13 percent fall in profit in 2017, a performance which it said was in line with expectations and showed its recovery was on track. FILE PHOTO: People walk past branches of ASDA and Sainsbury's in Stockport, Britain April 30, 2018. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo
Sainsbury’s and Asda announced plans to combine in April in a deal which will see Britain’s no.2 and no.3 supermarkets respectively overtake Tesco ( TSCO.L ) as Britain’s biggest supermarket group.
The deal comes just as a turnaround plan for Asda gains momentum, with Asda saying it returned to underlying sales growth in 2017, posting sales up 0.5 percent, a big improvement on the 5.7 percent fall it reported last year.
Asda said it had benefited from investing in lower prices for customers and improved service in stores and online.
Statutory accounts for Asda Group Limited published on Thursday show that operating profit came in at 735.4 million pounds compared to the 845.3 million pounds it made in 2016.
“Our 2017 accounts reflect a solid performance and a strong, well-managed business,” said Asda President and CEO, Roger Burnley.
“During the year momentum returned driven by a series of planned investments in lowering prices, further improving quality and innovation in our Own Brand ranges and providing an even better shopping experience whether in store or online.” Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Kate Holton | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-asda-results/ahead-of-sainsburys-takeover-asda-says-results-on-track-idUKKCN1IW0PX |
Breaking down the $1.2 billion ValueAct stake in Citigroup 2 Hours Ago Bruce H. Goldfarb of Okapi Partners and Devin Ryan of JMP securities discuss ValueAct's $1.2 billion stake in Citigroup. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/05/08/breaking-down-the-1-point-2-billion-valueact-stake-in-citigroup.html |
May 23, 2018 / 12:23 PM / Updated an hour ago Surprise fall in UK inflation muddies Bank of England rates picture Andy Bruce , William Schomberg 3 Min Read
LONDON (Reuters) - British inflation fell unexpectedly in April, according to data that prompted fresh questions about when the Bank of England would next raise interest rates and pushed sterling to its lowest level against the dollar this year. FILE PHOTO: A shopper reaches to a high shelf in an Aldi store in London, Britain February 15, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Summers/File Photo - RC19A7E7B0A0
Consumer prices rose by an annual 2.4 percent, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday, marking a 13-month low as the timing of the Easter holidays meant air fares pushed down on inflation last month.
Although the BoE had expected inflation to ease in April, most economists in a Reuters poll thought it would hold steady at 2.5 percent and some had forecast a rise. It was the second surprise fall in a row after a drop in March’s figures.
“With consumers remaining cautious and borrowing appearing to have fallen substantially, a rate hike over the next few months is certainly not a done deal,” ING economist James Smith said.
Investors priced in a one-in-three chance of the BoE raising borrowing costs in August — the next time it updates its economic forecasts — down from 50/50 earlier this week.
Two weeks ago the BoE refrained from a hike that had at one point been widely expected as it waited to see if the economy’s weak start to the year simply reflected heavy snowfall.
A Reuters poll of economists, conducted before Wednesday’s data, showed most still expected an August hike. [BOE/INT]
High inflation, caused by the pound’s drop after the 2016 Brexit vote, squeezed British consumers last year. Although it has receded from its November peak of 3.1 percent, it is running above the BoE’s target of 2.0 percent.
On Tuesday, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney cited a new sugar tax on soft drinks, as well as higher utility bills and petrol prices, as reasons why inflation in Britain “probably tips up a bit” in the coming months before resuming a decline.
The ONS said soft drink prices rose sharply over the last couple of months but the overall impact on inflation was small.
Data last week showed inflation in the euro zone also slowed in April.
Wednesday’s figures pointed to some signs of inflation pressure still in the pipeline in Britain.
Prices of goods leaving factories increased at a faster rate than expected last month and the cost of raw materials — many of them imported such as oil — was 5.3 percent higher than in April 2017, up sharply from an increase of 4.4 percent in March and suggesting a long run of weakening price growth has ended. Editing by Toby Chopra | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-economy-inflation/surprise-fall-in-uk-inflation-muddies-bank-of-england-rates-picture-idUKKCN1IO1Q3 |
BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Ukraine will offer Gazprom discounted fees for natural gas transit to ensure a flow from Russia to Europe after 2020, European Commission Vice President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic said on Friday.
The logo of Russian gas giant Gazprom is seen on a board at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017 (SPIEF 2017) in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 1, 2017. Picture taken June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin Russia’s Gazprom and five European companies, with German backing, plan to build the North Stream 2 gas pipeline on the Baltic seabed to connect Russia directly with Germany, bypassing eastern Europe and limiting the flows via Ukraine.
The pipeline will double Russia’s gas export capacity to Germany but threatens to cost Ukraine valuable revenues, while increasing European Union reliance on Russian gas.
“Ukraine is saying they want to maintain the transit of Russian natural gas to Europe and will seek solutions that would guarantee the higher the volume the cheaper for Gazprom,” Sefcovic told Reuters at the Globsec security forum.
The volume of transit would have to be “commercially viable” for Ukraine, Sefcovic added.
According to energy firm Naftogaz’s expectations, Ukraine will earn around $3 billion from transit in 2018.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday after meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Moscow was ready for talks with Ukraine on continued gas transit through the country.
Reporting by Tatiana Jancarikova; Editing by Alexander Smith
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-russia-gas-eu/eu-says-ukraine-to-offer-gazprom-discounted-transit-fees-idUSKCN1IJ2J1 |
"Sweet spot" for equity investors is now, says Ken Kamen 12:36am IST - 05:32
The president of Mercadien Asset Management tells Reuters' Fred Katayama he likes equities for now but adds that investors may reposition their portfolios at year's end as yields climb higher.
The president of Mercadien Asset Management tells Reuters' Fred Katayama he likes equities for now but adds that investors may reposition their portfolios at year's end as yields climb higher. //reut.rs/2IMZ8hy | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://in.reuters.com/video/2018/05/25/sweet-spot-for-equity-investors-is-now-s?videoId=430285700 |
May 8, 2018 / 1:25 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago BRIEF-Timken Increases Dividend
May 8 (Reuters) - Timken Co: * SETS QUARTERLY CASH DIVIDEND OF $0.28PER SHARE
* 4 PERCENT INCREASE TO COMPANY’S QUARTERLY CASH DIVIDEND, RAISING IT TO 28 CENTS PER SHARE Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-timken-increases-dividend/brief-timken-increases-dividend-idUSASC0A0IO |
4 Hours Ago | 03:07
Any meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "probably was a bad idea in the first place," Thomas Hubbard, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea , told CNBC on Thursday.
Trump and Kim were too far apart on the objectives of next month's now-canceled summit , said Hubbard, who served in diplomatic roles during the administrations of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton .
It was "probably doomed from the outset," added Hubbard, a principal negotiator of the 1994 framework that had been aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Meanwhile, former U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns , in an earlier CNBC interview, said Trump made the "right move" on Thursday in canceling the Kim summit.
Referring to angry statements in recent days out of North Korea , Burns said these were not the actions of leader who sincerely wants to work toward dismantling his nuclear apparatus.
North Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son Hui said early Thursday, "I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the U.S. vice-president."
The remarks out of Pyongyang were in response to what Vice President Mike Pence said in a Monday interview on Fox News. Pence said, "As the president made clear, this will only end like the Libyan model ended if Kim Jong Un doesn't make a deal."
The reference to Libya , which was forced to give up its nuclear weapons in 2003 and later saw the regime of its former leader Moammar Gadhafi decimated by NATO during the country's civil war, set North Korea on edge.
Trump's decision to pull the plug on the Kim meeting demonstrates U.S. strength, which is a "good thing right now," said Burns, currently a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
A summit may happen at some point, but for now, keeping U.S. sanctions in place against North Korea is the "leverage" to possibly bring Kim around, said Burns, whose 27-year career in foreign service spanned both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Burns served as U.S. ambassador to NATO and was the State Department's third-ranking diplomat during the presidency of Bush 43. He also advised George H.W. Bush and Clinton. WATCH: Burns on Trump's decision to cancel Kim summit show chapters | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/24/trump-kim-summit-bad-idea-in-the-first-place-former-us-ambassador.html |
May 2, 2018 / 1:32 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago UK developing options for satellite system to rival EU's Galileo Reuters Staff 2 May has asked experts to look into options for a British satellite navigation system to rival the European Union’s Galileo project amid a row over attempts to restrict Britain’s access to sensitive information after Brexit. FILE PHOTO: A satellite for the Galileo satellite navigation network stands in a hangar at Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan December 15, 2005. REUTERS/Str/File Photo
Galileo, a 10 billion euro (8.8 billion pound) satellite programme being developed by the EU as a rival to the U.S. Global Positioning System, has emerged as a flashpoint in talks ahead of Britain’s exit from the bloc.
“The Prime Minister has tasked engineering and aerospace experts in the UK to develop options for a British global navigation satellite system,” May’s spokesman said on Wednesday.
“This could see Britain develop and launch its own satellite navigation system by the mid 2020s. This is a response to the EU indicating that it would not allow the UK to participate fully in Galileo.”
The European Commission has started to exclude Britain and its companies from sensitive future work on Galileo ahead of the country’s exit from the EU in a year’s time, a move which Britain has said threatens security collaboration. Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; writing by Costas Pitas; editing by Stephen Addison | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-galileo/uk-developing-options-for-satellite-system-to-rival-eus-galileo-idUKKBN1I31TR |
REHOVOT, Israel, May 2, Nova (Nasdaq: NVMI), a leading innovator and a key provider of metrology solutions for advanced process control used in semiconductor manufacturing, today reported financial results for the first quarter 2018, the period ended March 31, 2018.
First Quarter 2018 Highlights:
Record quarterly revenue of $62.6 million, up 15% year-over-year, exceeding guidance of $54 to $60 million GAAP net income of $14.1 million, or $0.49 per diluted share, exceeding guidance of $0.29 to $0.40 per share Non-GAAP net income of $15.4 million, or $0.54 per diluted share, exceeding guidance of $0.34 to $0.45 per share Growing position in China yielded 40% of overall product revenue Expansion in the Memory sector generated 50% of overall product revenue
GAAP Results ($K)
Q1 2018
Q4 2017
Q1 2017
Revenues
$62,603
$57,378
$54,430
Net Income
$14,080
$8,241
$13,403
Earnings per Diluted Share
$0.49
$0.29
$0.48
NON-GAAP Results ($K)
Q1 2018
Q4 2017
Q1 2017
Net Income
$15,430
$13,021
$14,115
Earnings per Diluted Share
$0.54
$0.45
$0.50
A reconciliation between GAAP operating results and non-GAAP operating results is provided following the financial statements that are part of this release. Non-GAAP results exclude amortization of acquired intangible assets, certain discrete tax items and stock-based compensation expenses.
Management Comments
"Nova continued to perform well this quarter, setting new revenue and profit records that demonstrate our competitive strength in the market and the growing adoption of our diversified portfolio," commented Eitan Oppenhaim, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nova. "Growth in the first quarter was driven by two main notable factors: the expansion of our Memory business and our continued growth in China. This strong start supports our outlook for another growth year in which we continue to execute our strategic plan to expand our portfolio and enhance our value proposition. These efforts contribute directly to our customers' success in transitioning to the most advanced technology nodes," concluded Mr. Oppenhaim.
2018 Second Quarter Financial Outlook
Management provided an outlook for the second quarter, the period ending June 30, 2018. Based on current estimates, management expects:
$57 million to $63 million in revenue $0.30 to $0.40 in diluted GAAP EPS $0.35 to $0.45 in diluted non-GAAP EPS
2018 First Quarter Results
Total revenues for the first quarter of 2018 were $62.6 million, an increase of 9% compared to the fourth quarter of 2017, and an increase of 15% relative to the first quarter of 2017.
Gross margin for the first quarter of 2018 was 58%, compared with gross margin of 56% in the fourth quarter of 2017 and compared with gross margin of 60% in the first quarter of 2017.
Operating expenses in the first quarter of 2018 were $20.3 million. This is compared with $19.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 and compared with $17.7 million in the first quarter of 2017.
On a GAAP basis, the company reported net income of $14.1 million, or $0.49 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2018. This is compared with net income of $8.2 million, or $0.29 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2017, and compared with net income of $13.4 million, or $0.48 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2017.
On a Non-GAAP basis, which excludes amortization of acquired intangible assets, certain discrete tax items and stock-based compensation expenses, the company reported net income of $15.4 million, or $0.54 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2018. This is compared with net income of $13.0 million, or $0.45 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2017, and compared with net income of $14.1 million, or $0.50 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2017.
Conference Call Information
Nova will host a conference call today, May 2, 2018, at 9 a.m. Eastern Time, to discuss the financial results and future outlook. To attend the conference call, please dial one of the following teleconferencing numbers. Please begin by placing your calls five minutes before the conference call commences. If you are unable to connect using the toll-free numbers, please try the international dial-in number.
U.S. Dial-in Number: 1-888-394-8218
Israel Dial-in Number: 1-809-212- 883
International Dial-in Number: 1-323-701-0225
At:
9 a.m. Eastern Time
6 a.m. Pacific Time
4 p.m. Israel Time
The conference call will also be webcast live from a link on Nova's website at http://ir.novameasuring.com . For those unable to participate in the conference call, there will be a replay available from a link on Nova's website at http://ir.novameasuring.com .
Replay Dial-In Numbers:
U.S. Dial-in Number: 1-844-512-2921
International Dial-in Number: 1-412-317-6671
From: 05/02/18 at 12:00 pm Eastern Time
To: 05/09/18 at 11:59 pm Eastern Time
Replay Pin Number: 1121259
About Nova: Nova Measuring Instruments delivers continuous innovation by providing advanced metrology solutions for the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Deployed with the world's largest integrated-circuit manufacturers, Nova's products deliver state-of-the-art, high-performance metrology solutions for effective process control throughout the semiconductor fabrication lifecycle. Nova's product portfolio, which combines high-precision hardware and cutting-edge software, supports the development and production of the most advanced devices in today's high-end semiconductor market. Nova's technical innovation and market leadership enable customers to improve process performance, enhance products' yields and accelerate time to market. Nova acts as a partner to semiconductor manufacturers from its offices around the world. Additional information may be found at www.novameasuring.com .
Nova is traded on the NASDAQ & TASE under the symbol NVMI.
This press release provides financial measures that exclude charges for amortization of acquired intangible assets, certain discrete tax items and stock-based compensation expenses and are therefore not calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Management believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding Nova's performance because they reflect our operational results and enhances management's and investors' ability to evaluate Nova's performance before charges or benefits considered by management to be outside Nova's ongoing operating results. The presentation of this non-GAAP financial information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. Management believes that it is in the best interest of its investors to provide financial information that will facilitate comparison of both historical and future results and allows greater transparency to supplemental information used by management in its financial and operational decision making. A reconciliation of each GAAP to non-GAAP financial measure discussed in this press release is contained in the accompanying financial tables.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 relating to future events or our future performance, such as statements regarding, but are not limited to, anticipated growth opportunities and projections about our business and its future revenues, expenses and profitability. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied in those forward-looking statements. Factors that may affect our results, performance, circumstances or achievements include, but are not limited to, the following: our dependency on three product lines; our dependency on a small number of large customers and small number of suppliers; the highly cyclical and competitive nature of the markets we target and we operate in; our inability to reduce spending during a slowdown in the semiconductor industry; our ability to respond effectively on a timely basis to rapid technological changes; our dependency on PEMs; risks related to exclusivity obligations and non-limited liability that may be included in our commercial agreements and arrangements; our ability to retain our competitive position despite the ongoing consolidation in our industry; risks related to our dependence on our manufacturing facilities; risks related to changes in our order backlog; risks related to efforts to complete and integrate current and/or future acquisitions; risks related to the worldwide financial instabilities; risks related to our intellectual property; new product offerings from our competitors; unanticipated manufacturing or supply problems; risks related to government programs we participate in; risks related to taxation; changes in customer demand for our products; risks related to currency fluctuations; risks related to technology security threats and changes in privacy laws; risks related to acquisitions we may pursue and risks related to our operations in Israel. We cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The matters discussed in this press release also involve risks and uncertainties summarized under the heading "Risk Factors" in Nova's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2017 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 28, 2018. These factors are updated from time to time through the filing of reports and registration statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.
(Tables to Follow)
NOVA MEASURING INSTRUMENTS LTD.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(U.S. dollars in thousands) - (Unaudited)
As of
ASSETS
March 31,
December 31,
2018
2017
Current assets
Cash and cash equivalents
28,468
27,697
Short-term interest-bearing bank deposits
132,198
121,390
Trade accounts receivable
37,425
40,949
Inventories
39,064
34,921
Other current assets
5,807
7,313
Total current assets
242,962
232,270
Long-term assets
Long-term interest-bearing bank deposits
1,100
750
Deferred tax assets
2,093
1,957
Severance pay funds
1,512
1,503
Property and equipment, net
13,612
13,891
Identifiable intangible assets, net
12,147
12,800
Goodwill
20,114
20,114
Total long-term assets
50,578
51,015
Total assets
293,540
283,285
LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY
Current liabilities
Trade accounts payable
18,050
15,754
Deferred revenues
5,965
10,334
Other current liabilities
23,191
26,038
Total current liabilities
47,206
52,126
Long-term liabilities
Liability for employee severance pay
2,558
2,590
Other long-term liabilities
2,115
1,833
Total long-term liabilities
4,673
4,423
Shareholders' equity
241,661
226,736
Total liabilities and shareholders' equity
293,540
283,285
NOVA MEASURING INSTRUMENTS LTD.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(U.S. dollars in thousands, except per share data) - (Unaudited)
Three months ended
March 31,
2018
March 31,
2017
Revenues:
Products
50,185
43,516
Services
12,418
10,914
Total revenues
62,603
54,430
Cost of revenues:
Products
17,969
15,120
Services
8,277
6,450
Total cost of revenues
26,246
21,570
Gross profit
36,357
32,860
Operating expenses:
Research and development expenses, net
11,226
9,275
Sales and marketing expenses
6,231
6,088
General and administrative expenses
2,230
1,657
Amortization of acquired intangible assets
653
640
Total operating expenses
20,340
17,660
Operating income
16,017
15,200
Financing income, net
448
415
Income before tax on income
16,465
15,615
Income tax expenses
2,385
2,212
Net income for the period
14,080
13,403
Earnings per share:
Basic
0.50
0.49
Diluted
0.49
0.48
Shares used for calculation of earnings per share:
Basic
27,915
27,467
Diluted
28,739
28,148
NOVA MEASURING INSTRUMENTS LTD.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
(U.S. dollars in thousands) - (Unaudited)
Three months ended
March 31,
March 31,
2018
2017
Cash flows from operating activities:
Net income for the period
14,080
13,403
Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:
Depreciation
915
955
Amortization of acquired intangible assets
653
640
Amortization of deferred stock-based compensation
834
663
Increase (decrease) in liability for employee termination benefits, net
(41)
32
Deferred tax assets, net
(136)
(591)
Decrease in trade accounts receivable
3,567
4,387
Increase in inventories
(4,475)
(1,575)
Decrease in other current and long-term assets
1,506
421
Increase in trade accounts payable
2,353
90
Increase (decrease) in other current liabilities and other long-term liabilities
(2,684)
1,879
Increase (decrease) in short and long term deferred revenues
(4,369)
2,394
Net cash provided by operating activities
12,203
22,698
Cash flow from investment activities:
Increase in short-term interest-bearing bank deposits, including long-term
(11,158)
(20,078)
Additions to property and equipment
(361)
(420)
Net cash used in investment activities
(11,519)
(20,498)
Cash flows from financing activities:
Shares issued under employee stock-based plans
87
1,817
Net cash provided by financing activities
87
1,817
Increase in cash and cash equivalents
771
4,017
Cash and cash equivalents – beginning of period
27,697
20,406
Cash and cash equivalents – end of period
28,468
24,423
NOVA MEASURING INSTRUMENTS LTD.
RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP RESULTS
(U.S. dollars in thousands, except percentage and per share data) - (Unaudited)
Three months ended
March 31,
2018
December 31,
2017
March 31,
2017
GAAP cost of revenues
26,246
25,324
21,570
Stock-based compensation in cost of products
(92)
(107)
(76)
Stock-based compensation in cost of services
(79)
(89)
(66)
Non-GAAP cost of revenues
26,075
25,128
21,428
GAAP gross profit
36,357
32,054
32,860
Gross profit adjustments
171
196
142
Non-GAAP gross profit
36,528
32,250
33,002
GAAP gross margin as a percentage of revenues
58%
56%
60%
Non-GAAP gross margin as a percentage of revenues
58%
56%
61%
GAAP operating expenses
20,340
19,723
17,660
Stock-based compensation in research and development
(340)
(346)
(262)
Stock-based compensation in sales and marketing
(219)
(216)
(165)
Stock-based compensation in general and administrative
(104)
(141)
(94)
Amortization of acquired intangible assets
(653)
(640)
(640)
Non-GAAP operating expenses
19,024
18,380
16,499
Non-GAAP operating income
17,504
13,870
16,503
GAAP operating margin as a percentage of revenues
26%
21%
28%
Non-GAAP operating margin as a percentage of revenues
28%
24%
30%
GAAP tax on income
2,385
4,800
2,212
Certain discrete tax items
137
(3,241)
591
Non-GAAP tax on income
2,522
1,559
2,803
GAAP net income
14,080
8,241
13,403
Amortization of acquired intangible assets
653
640
640
Stock-based compensation expenses
834
899
663
Certain discrete tax items
(137)
3,241
(591)
Non-GAAP net income
15,430
13,021
14,115
GAAP basic earnings per share
0.50
0.30
0.49
Non-GAAP basic earnings per share
0.55
0.47
0.51
GAAP diluted earnings per share
0.49
0.29
0.48
Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share
0.54
0.45
0.50
Shares used for calculation of earnings per share:
Basic
27,915
27,873
27,467
Diluted
28,739
28,786
28,148
Company Contact:
Dror David, Chief Financial Officer
Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd.
Tel: +972-73-229-5760
E-mail: [email protected]
www.novameasuring.com
Investor Relations Contact:
Miri Segal
MS-IR LLC
Tel: +917-607-8654
E-mail: [email protected]
View original content: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nova-reports-first-quarter-2018-results-300640888.html
SOURCE Nova | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/02/pr-newswire-nova-reports-first-quarter-2018-results.html |
Bayern knocked out by Real in Champions League Wednesday, May 02, 2018 - 01:26
Bayern Munich coach Jupp Heynckes voices his disappointment at his team's European exit despite a strong performance at the Bernabeu. ▲ Hide Transcript ▶ View Transcript
Bayern Munich coach Jupp Heynckes voices his disappointment at his team's European exit despite a strong performance at the Bernabeu. Press CTRL+C (Windows), CMD+C (Mac), or long-press the URL below on your mobile device to copy the code https://reut.rs/2FAlufI | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://in.reuters.com/video/2018/05/02/bayern-knocked-out-by-real-in-champions?videoId=423064881 |
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - French energy major Total will buy a 10 percent stake in a Russian Arctic gas project under a deal struck during Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Russia, and showing the Kremlin’s ability to find foreign partners despite Western sanctions.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of French oil giant Total is seen on a flag at La Defense business and financial district in Courbevoie near Paris, France. May 16, 2018. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo - RC1EA60A2810 Total will buy the minority stake in the Novatek-led Arctic LNG-2 project, which would produce liquefied natural gas, Leonid Mikhelson, the head of Novatek, said on Thursday.
The deal was signed in St Petersburg, where French President Emmanuel Macron arrived to take part in an economic forum, seen as Russia’s shop window for attracting foreign investment, and held three hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The agreement solidifies Total’s footprint in Russia, the world’s second-largest natural gas producer after the United States.
Novatek, Total and their Chinese partners already started producing gas on the Arctic Yamal peninsula last year.
LNG production itself in Russia is not sanctioned, however Russian companies’ ability to raise financing is constrained by the punitive measures introduced for Moscow’s role in Ukrainian conflict and alleged meddling in the U.S. elections in 2016.
Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne, asked by reporters whether Arctic LNG can be “sanction bullet proof” on the sidelines of Macron’s meeting with Putin, said: “nothing is sanction bullet proof”.
“The best way to be sanction bullet proof is to have no sanction,” he said.
Novatek was also in talks with Saudi Arabia about a possible participation in the project, which would produce up to 20 million tonnes of the frozen gas in 2022-2023.
Mikhelson valued the project at $25.5 billion, saying that the deal with Total, which owns almost 20 percent of Novatek, could be completed in the first quarter of 2019.
The final investment decision on Arctic LNG-2 is expected in the second half of 2019. Italy’s Saipem plans to take part in a tender for building a platform base for the project.
Total has an option to increase its stake in Arctic LNG-2 by a further 5 percent, Mikhelson said, while Novatek plans to keep its stake at no less than 60 percent in the project.
Russia plans to double its share of the global LNG market from about 4 percent now by 2020. Qatar is the biggest LNG exporter, with a 30 percent market share.
Reporting by Oksana Kobzeva, Denis Pinchuk and Michel Rose; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Alexandra Hudson
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-economy-forum/frances-total-to-get-10-percent-in-russias-arctic-lng-2-project-idUSKCN1IP3AF |
Tech Guide US jury awards Apple $539 million in Samsung patent retrial A U.S. jury has ruled that Samsung should pay $539 million to Apple for copying patented smartphone features. The jury had been deliberating the latest case since last week. Samsung has previously paid Apple $399 million to compensate for the infringement of some of the patents at issue in the case. The world's top smartphone rivals have been in court over patents since 2011. Published 14 Hours Ago Reuters Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
After nearly five days of deliberations, a U.S. jury on Thursday said Samsung Electronics Co Ltd should pay $539 million to Apple Inc for copying patented smartphone features, according to court documents, bringing a years-long feud between the technology companies into its final stages.
The world's top smartphone rivals have been in court over patents since 2011, when Apple filed a lawsuit alleging Samsung's smartphones and tablets "slavishly" copied its products. Samsung was found liable in a 2012 trial, but a disagreement over the amount to be paid led to the current retrial over damages where arguments ended on May 18.
Samsung previously paid Apple $399 million to compensate Apple for infringement of some of the patents at issue in the case. The jury has been deliberating the case since last week.
Because of that credit, if the verdict is upheld on appeal it will result in Samsung making an additional payment to Apple of nearly $140 million.
In a statement, Apple said it was pleased that the members of the jury "agree that Samsung should pay for copying our products."
"We believe deeply in the value of design," Apple said in its statement.
"This case has always been about more than money." show chapters 12:36 PM ET Thu, 24 May 2018 | 04:32
Samsung did not immediately say whether it planned to appeal the verdict but said it was retaining "all options" to contest it.
"Today's decision flies in the face of a unanimous Supreme Court ruling in favor of Samsung on the scope of design patent damages," Samsung said in a statement. "We will consider all options to obtain an outcome that does not hinder creativity and fair competition for all companies and consumers."
The new jury verdict followed a trial in San Jose, California, before Judge Lucy Koh that focused on how much Samsung should pay for infringing Apple patents covering aspects of the iPhone's design. The jury awarded Apple $533.3 million for Samsung's violation of so-called design patents and $5.3 million for the violation of so-called utility patents.
Apple this year told jurors it was entitled to $1 billion in profits Samsung made from selling infringing phones, saying the iPhone's design was crucial to their success.
Samsung sought to limit damages to about $28 million, saying it should only pay for profits attributable to the components of its phones that infringed Apple patents.
Jurors in the earlier trial awarded $1.05 billion to Apple, which was later reduced. show chapters 11:37 AM ET Thu, 26 April 2018 | 00:49
Samsung paid $548 million to Apple in December 2015, including $399 million for infringement of some of the patents at issue in this week's trial.
Apple's case against Samsung raised the question of whether the total profits from a product that infringes a design patent should be awarded if the patent applies only to a component of the product, said Sarah Burstein, a professor of patent law at the University of Oklahoma.
The verdict appears to be a compromise between Apple and Samsung's positions and does not offer much clarity on that question, said Burstein, who predicted Samsung would appeal it to the Circuit.
"This decision just means we are going to have more uncertainty," Burstein said. "Smart tech industry players are waiting to see what the Federal Circuit does. This is just one jury applying one test." Related Securities | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/25/apple-in-samsung-patent-retrial-awarded-539-million-by-us-jury.html |
CALGARY, Alberta, May 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Crown Point Energy Inc. (“Crown Point”, the “Company” or " we " ) (TSX-V:CWV) today announced its operating and financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2018.
Copies of the Company’s unaudited condensed interim consolidated financial statements and management’s discussion and analysis (“ MD&A ”) filings for the three months ended March 31, 2018 are being filed with Canadian securities regulatory authorities and will be made available under the Company’s profile at www.sedar.com and on the Company’s website at www.crownpointenergy.com . All dollar figures are expressed in United States dollars (" USD ") unless otherwise stated.
In the following discussion, the three months ended March 31, 2018 may be referred to as “Q1 2018”, the comparative three months ended March 31, 2017 may be referred to as “Q1 2017”, and the previous three months ended December 31, 2017 may be referred to as “Q4 2017”.
Highlights
During Q1 2018, the Company:
Reported net income of $0.3 million as compared to a net loss of $0.6 million in Q1 2017; Reported average daily production volumes of 1,519 BOE per day, up 17% from 1,298 BOE per day in Q1 2017; Earned $5.54 million of oil and gas revenue, up 100% from $2.77 million earned in Q1 2017; Received an average of $59.67 per bbl for its oil compared to $50.20 per bbl earned in Q1 2017, which represents a 19% increase; Sold gas at an average price of $4.30 per mcf as compared $3.97 per mcf in Q1 2017, which represents an 8% increase; Reported an operating netback of $22.12 per BOE, up 128% from $9.69 per BOE in Q1 2017; Repaid the $461,036 balance under the loan facility with Banco Industrial; and Launched a short form prospectus rights offering to raise up to $12 million and entered into a commitment letter for a loan of up to $14 million, in each case to fund the balance of the purchase price for the Company's proposed acquisition of Apco Austral S.A.
Subsequent to Q1 2018, the Company:
Closed the rights offering, pursuant to which the Company issued 40,000,000 common shares at a price of $0.30 per share for gross proceeds of $12 million; and
repaid its last remaining bank loan of $216,227 owing under the loan facility with HSBC Argentina and the related $157,000 in USD denominated letters of credit were released to the Company.
Operational update
Tierra del Fuego Concession ("TDF")
Rio Cullen and La Angostura Concessions
During Q1 2018, the San Martin discovery well (SM x-1001), located on the La Angostura Concession, produced a total of 25,943 m3 (163,180 bbls) of 35 API gravity oil (gross) plus 39 m3 (247 bbls) of basic sediment and water. Daily oil production averaged 288 m3 (1,813 barrels) per day (net 74 m3 (467 bbls) per day). Total associated natural gas production during the period was 1,492,320 m3 (52,701 mcf) (gross) or an average of 16,581 m3 (586 mcf) of gas per day (gross). Facilities were installed during March to capture the associated gas for transportation and sale at YPF’s TDF San Sebastian gas plant. Gas capture and sales commenced on April 12.
The Company and its joint venture partners plan to drill two appraisal wells on the San Martin structure during 2018. The first well (SM a-1002) will be drilled to the south of the discovery well in the second quarter of 2018. The second well (SM a-1003) will be located north and west of SM x-1001 and is scheduled to be drilled in July 2018.
Las Violetas Concession
The Company and its joint venture partners will drill one exploration well (LR x-1001) in late Q2 or early Q3 2018 to test the eastern extension to the Rio Chico gas pool. The Company has identified an additional number of older producing and non-producing gas wells on the Las Violetas concession as candidates for intervention and possible fracture stimulation in the second half of 2018 to restore and/or improve production.
The Company has scheduled completion and testing operations on LFE-1004, the last well in the Company's 2014-2015 drilling program, for June 2018. This well did not encounter the Springhill formation objective but was subsequently cased after recording oil and gas shows in the underlying Tobífera formation.
Cerro de Los Leones Concession
The Company has a 100% working interest in the 100,907 acre area covered by the Cerro de Los Leones (“ CLL ”) Concession Permit (the “ Permit ”), located in the northern portion of the Neuquén Basin in the Province of Mendoza, Argentina. In March 2018, the Company received formal approval from the government extending the deadline to acquire 234 km 2 of 3-D seismic and drill one exploration well to January 22, 2019. The Company is waiting on final environmental approval before commencing field operations to record the 3-D seismic program. Barring unforeseen circumstances, seismic operations are scheduled to commence in late May 2018.
Outlook
The Company modified its capital spending for 2018 as follows:
Previous guidance for 2018 Updated guidance for 2018 Explanation TDF concessions ($) 5.4 million 6.0 million Increase in estimated costs CLL Permit ($) 7.4 million 4.3 million Deferral of $2.1 million to 2019 Total capital expenditures ($) 12.8 million 10.3 million The Company’s 2018 capital spending is based on expenditures for the following activities:
Acquisition of 234 km 2 of 3-D seismic on the CLL Permit to fulfill the work commitment for the second exploration period. Complete and test the Tobífera formation in LFE-1004 which was drilled, cased and left standing in 2015. Drill two appraisal wells on the San Martin structure in the La Angostura concession. Drill one exploration well (LR x-1001) in the Las Violetas concession to test the eastern extension of the Rio Chico gas pool. Improvements to facilities in TDF.
Crown Point expects to meet these obligations, along with its other anticipated expenses, using funds flow from operations, additional debt and/or equity financings and potential joint venture arrangements.
The Company expects to receive an average of $63.76 per bbl of crude oil and $4.42 per mcf of natural gas during the remaining nine months of 2018.
SUMMARY OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION
(expressed in $, except shares outstanding) March 31
2018 December 31
2017 Working capital 2,239,833 685,653 Exploration and evaluation assets 6,036,233 6,013,387 Property and equipment 21,723,485 23,198,458 Total assets 40,943,655 40,856,370 Share capital 119,982,644 119,982,644 Total common shares outstanding 32,903,038 32,903,038
(expressed in $, except shares outstanding) Three months ended March 31 2018 2017 Oil and gas revenue 5,541,446 2,773,174 Net income (loss) 272,779 (567,457 ) Net income (loss) per share (1) 0.01 (0.03 ) Cash flow from operations 2,039,243 634,124 Cash flow per share – operations (1) 0.06 0.04 Funds flow from operations (2) 1,724,635 371,031 Funds flow per share – operations (1)(2) 0.05 0.02 Weighted average number of shares 32,903,038 16,451,522 (1) All per share figures are based on the basic weighted average number of shares outstanding in the period. The effect of options is anti-dilutive. Per share amounts may not add due to rounding.
(2) "Funds flow from operations" and "Funds flow per share - operations" are non-IFRS measures. See "Non-IFRS Measures" in the "Advisory" section of this press release and in the Company’s March 31, 2018 MD&A for a reconciliation of these measures to the nearest comparable IFRS measures.
TDF Operating Netback
The Company’s operating netback was higher in Q1 2018 as compared to Q1 2017 due primarily to an increase in oil and gas revenue per BOE.
Three months ended March 31 2018 2017 Sales Volumes and Revenues Light oil bbls per day 649 94 NGL bbls per day 14 36 Natural gas mcf per day 5,240 6,423 BOE per day 1,536 1,200 Per BOE Oil and gas revenue ($) 40.09 25.68 Royalties ($) (6.29 ) (4.73 ) Operating costs ($) (11.68 ) (11.26 ) Operating netback (1) ($) 22.12 9.69 (1) "Operating netback" is a non-IFRS measure. See "Certain Oil and Gas Disclosures".
PROPOSED ACQUISITION OF APCO AUSTRAL
The Argentine Court of Appeal recently rejected Roch S.A.'s appeal, with the result that the lower court's decision to revoke the injunction preventing Pluspetrol S.A. from selling the shares of Apco Austral S.A. to Crown Point has been restored. The Company has been advised that Roch has until June 4, 2018 to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court of Argentina. In light of this development, the Company is preparing to close the acquisition and is targeting a closing date by the end of June 2018. In this regard, the Company is in negotiations with Pluspetrol to extend the outside date for closing the acquisition past the current outside date of May 30, 2018. For further details, see the Company's press release issued on May 18, 2018, a copy of which is available under the Company’s profile at www.sedar.com and on the Company’s website at www.crownpointenergy.com .
About Crown Point
Crown Point Energy Inc. is an international oil and gas exploration and development company headquartered in Calgary, Canada, incorporated in Canada, trading on the TSX Venture Exchange and operating in South America. Crown Point’s exploration and development activities are focused in two of the largest producing basins in Argentina, the Austral basin in the province of Tierra del Fuego and the Neuquén basin, in the province of Mendoza. Crown Point has a strategy that focuses on establishing a portfolio of producing properties, plus production enhancement and exploration opportunities to provide a basis for future growth.
Advisory
Certain Oil and Gas Disclosures : Barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) may be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. A boe conversion ratio of six thousand cubic feet (6 Mcf) to one barrel (1 bbl) is based on an energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip and does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead. In addition, given that the value ratio based on the current price of crude oil in Argentina as compared to the current price of natural gas in Argentina is significantly different from the energy equivalency of 6:1, utilizing a conversion on a 6:1 basis may be misleading as an indication of value. “Mcf” means thousand cubic feet. "bbls" means barrels. "3-D" means three dimensional. "Q1" means the three months ended March 31. "Q2" means the three months ended June 30. "Q3" means the three months ended September 30. "Q4" means the three months ended December 31. "m3" means cubic metres. This press release also contains other industry benchmarks and terms, including “operating netbacks” (calculated on a per unit basis as oil, natural gas and natural gas liquid revenues less royalties, transportation and operating costs), which is a non-IFRS measure. Management believes this measure is a useful supplemental measure of the Company’s profitability relative to commodity prices. Readers are cautioned, however, that operating netbacks should not be construed as an alternative to other terms such as net income as determined in accordance with IFRS as measures of performance. Crown Point’s method of calculating this measure may differ from other companies, and accordingly, may not be comparable to similar measures used by other companies.
Non-IFRS Measures : This press release contains the term “funds flow from (used by) operations” which should not be considered an alternative to, or more meaningful than, operating cash flows as determined in accordance with IFRS as an indicator of the Company’s performance. Funds flow from (used by) operations and funds flow per share – operations do not have any standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS and may not be comparable with the calculation of similar measures used by other entities. Management uses funds flow from (used by) operations to analyze operating performance and considers funds flow from (used by) operations to be a key measure as it demonstrates the Company’s ability to generate cash necessary to fund future capital investment. Funds flow per share – operations is calculated using the basic and diluted weighted average number of shares for the period consistent with the calculations of earnings per share. A reconciliation of funds flow from (used by) operations to operating cash flows is presented in the MD&A for the three months ended March 31, 2018 which will be made available under the Company’s profile at www.sedar.com .
Forward-looking Information: This document contains forward-looking information. This information relates to future events and the Company’s future performance. All information and statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature constitute forward-looking information, and the words “may”, “will”, “should”, “could”, “expect”, “plan”, “intend”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “propose”, “predict”, “potential”, “continue”, “aim”, or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology are generally intended to identify forward-looking information. Such information represents the Company’s internal projections, estimates, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions, intentions or statements about future events or performance. This information involves known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. In addition, this document may contain forward-looking information attributed to third party industry sources. Crown Point believes that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable; however, undue reliance should not be placed on this forward-looking information, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. This press release contains forward-looking information concerning, among other things, the following: under "Operational Update – Tierra del Fuego Concession", the operations that the Company intends to conduct on certain of its TDF assets and the expected timing of certain operations; under "Operational Update – Cerro de Los Leones Concession", the operations that the Company intends to conduct on certain of its CLL assets and the expected timing of certain operations; under "Outlook", our estimated capital expenditures for fiscal 2018, the allocation of such capital expenditures between our TDF and CLL concessions, the anticipated elements of this capital program, our expectations for how we will fund our capital programs during this period, and the average crude oil and natural gas prices that the Company expects to receive for the nine months ended December 31, 2018; under "Proposed Acquisition of Apco Austral", the Company's target to close the acquisition by the end of June 2018 and the Company's expectation that the outside date to close the acquisition will be extended. The reader is cautioned that such information, although considered reasonable by the Company, may prove to be incorrect. Actual results achieved during the forecast period will vary from the information provided in this document as a result of numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors. A number of risks and other factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information contained in this document including, but not limited to, the following: the risks and other factors described under “Business Risks and Uncertainties” in our MD&A for the three months ended March 31, 2018 and under “Risk Factors” in the Company’s most recently filed Annual Information Form, which is available for viewing on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . In addition, note that information relating to reserves is deemed to be forward-looking information, as it involves the implied assessment, based on certain estimates and assumptions that the reserves described can be economically produced in the future. With respect to forward-looking information contained in this document, the Company has made assumptions regarding, among other things: that Roch will not appeal (or will not be successful in appealing) the Court of Appeal's decision; that the Company and Pluspetrol will extend the outside date to close the acquisition beyond May 30, 2018; that the Company will be able to secure the financing necessary to fund the balance of the purchase price for the acquisition; that the acquisition can be closed by the end of June 2018; the impact of increasing competition; the general stability of the economic and political environment in which the Company operates, including operating under a consistent regulatory and legal framework in Argentina; future oil, natural gas and NGL prices (including the effects of governmental incentive programs thereon); the timely receipt of any required regulatory approvals; the ability of the Company to continue as a going concern without the loss of any assets; the ability of the Company to obtain qualified staff, equipment and services in a timely and cost efficient manner; drilling results; the costs of obtaining equipment and personnel to complete the Company’s capital expenditure program; the ability of the operator of the projects which the Company has an interest in to operate the field in a safe, efficient and effective manner; the ability of the Company to obtain financing on acceptable terms when and if needed, including the ability of the Company to obtain the new credit facility; the ability of the Company to service its debt repayments when required; field production rates and decline rates; the ability to replace and expand oil and natural gas reserves through acquisition, development and exploration activities; the timing and costs of pipeline, storage and facility construction and expansion and the ability of the Company to secure adequate product transportation; currency, exchange and interest rates; the regulatory framework regarding royalties, taxes and environmental matters in the jurisdictions in which the Company operates; and the ability of the Company to successfully market its oil and natural gas products. Management of Crown Point has included the above summary of assumptions and risks related to forward-looking information included in this document in order to provide investors with a more complete perspective on the Company’s future operations. Readers are cautioned that this information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing lists of factors are not exhaustive. The forward-looking information contained in this document are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking information contained herein is made as of the date of this document and the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly any such forward - looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, other than as required by applicable Canadian securities laws .
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
For inquiries please contact: Brian Moss President & CEO Ph: (403) 232-1150 Crown Point Energy Inc. [email protected] Marisa Tormakh Vice-President & CFO Ph: (403) 232-1150 Crown Point Energy Inc. [email protected]
Source: Crown Point Energy Inc. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/23/globe-newswire-crown-point-announces-operating-and-financial-resultsafor-the-three-months-ended-march-31-2018.html |
Cannes opens with star-studded red carpet 01:06
The Cannes film festival opened with a star-studded red carpet and with the world premiere of Asghar Farhadi's new film ''Everybody Knows''. Rough Cut - no reporter narration.
The Cannes film festival opened with a star-studded red carpet and with the world premiere of Asghar Farhadi's new film "Everybody Knows". Rough Cut - no reporter narration. //reut.rs/2KKykvu | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/video/2018/05/08/cannes-opens-with-star-studded-red-carpe?videoId=425062078 |
Market bull warns 2019 could turn ugly as inflation grows 3 Hours Ago Blackstone investment strategist Joseph Zidle sees stocks returning to rally mode this year, but isn’t upbeat on next year. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/05/24/market-bull-warns-2019-could-turn-ugly-as-inflation-grows.html |
May 28, 2018 / 5:24 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Box Office: 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Stumbles With $103 Million Holiday Opening 3 Min Read
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) - The force was not with “Solo: A Star Wars Story” at the box office. 71st Cannes Film Festival - Screening of the film "Solo: A Star Wars Story" out of competition - Red Carpet Arrivals - Cannes, France May 15, 2018. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
The latest installment struggled over the Memorial Day weekend, securing $103 million in 4,381 North American locations over the four-days, according to Monday estimates. It came in way under projections, opening with $84.7 million over three days, and just $148 million globally.
“Solo” represents the lowest opening for a “Star Wars” film since Disney took over the franchise starting with 2015’s “The Force Awakens.” As the first film in the sequel trilogy, “The Force Awakens” launched with a massive $248 million three-day total. A year later, “Rogue One” debuted with $155 million, while the most recent installment prior to “Solo” — “The Last Jedi” — bowed just five months ago in December 2017 with $220 million.
“Solo” did help land the best domestic Memorial Day weekend since 2014 when “X-Men: Days of Future Past” was the top film. However, it wasn’t enough to land the highest Memorial Day opening. That title still belongs to “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” which debuted with $139.8 million in 2007. Related Coverage 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Stalls Overseas With $65 Million Launch
The second standalone “Star Wars” anthology film has received mixed reviews. It currently holds an A- CinemaScore, along with a 71% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Solo” was the only wide release this weekend, meaning the rest of the North American box office consists of a series of holdovers. Cast member Alden Ehrenreich poses for a portrait while promoting the movie "Solo: A Star Wars Story" in Pasadena, California, U.S., May 12, 2018. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
“Deadpool 2” slid to No. 2, where it made $55 million from 4,349 screens over four-days. That brings its domestic total up to $219 million.
In third is another heroic blockbuster, “Avengers: Infinity War.” The Marvel and Disney title’s scored $21.2 million in 3,768 locations. In five weeks, its domestic tally has topped $626 million, while globally it has made $1.9 billion.
“Book Club” landed in fourth during its sophomore outing. Paramount’s latest comedy took in $9.5 million for the three days on 2,810 screens. Its domestic total now reads $34.2 million after earning $12.5 million for the four-day weekend.
That leaves Warner Bros.’“Life of the Party” at No. 5, with $6.9 million from 2,937 locations for the four days. Its three-day total was $5 million, while its three-week domestic grosses lands at $40.9 million. Cast member Chewbacca poses with photographers at the photocall for "Solo: A Star Wars Story" at Cannes. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau
Also in the top 10 is the little documentary that could— “RBG.” The title centered on the life and career of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made $1.5 million on just 415 screens over the four-day weekend. In four weeks, the Magnolia and Participant Media film has grossed an impressive $6 million.
“Solo” still boosts the domestic box office 23.1% compared to Memorial Day weekend in 2017, according to comScore. Meanwhile, the year-to-date box office is up 7.6%. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-boxoffice/box-office-solo-a-star-wars-story-stumbles-with-103-million-holiday-opening-idINKCN1IT1SY |
Toyota to use GAC branding as it rolls into China's EV market Friday, May 18, 2018 - 01:47
Toyota Motor Corp is taking an unprecedented route to meet China's stringent green car quotas: its showrooms will sell an electric vehicle without the Japanese company's distinctive triple-oval logo. Adam Jourdan explains.
Toyota Motor Corp is taking an unprecedented route to meet China's stringent green car quotas: its showrooms will sell an electric vehicle without the Japanese company's distinctive triple-oval logo. Adam Jourdan explains. //reut.rs/2Isp5mb | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://in.reuters.com/video/2018/05/18/toyota-to-use-gac-branding-as-it-rolls-i?videoId=428041932 |
SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) announced the appointment of software chief architect, Dr. Jeffrey Cheng, to AMD corporate fellow. The appointment is based on his demonstrated technical leadership and role evolving the company’s graphics technologies and approach to software development. Dr. Cheng has played a key architect role spanning hardware, software and system component design at AMD and has a deep understanding of operating systems, applications and end user requirements. Dr. Cheng has been at the helm of major AMD products and technologies that significantly impacted the industry, including GPU architectural design for Microsoft® Windows®, GPU virtualization with SR-IOV technology (single-root input/output virtualization), the AMD Radeon™ “Vega” High-Bandwidth Cache Controller, and GPU datacenter projects.
“Jeffrey has been an integral part of the team for many years and is one of the most respected leaders in graphics system engineering and software architecture,” said David Wang , senior vice president, engineering, Radeon Technologies Group. “He is a creative, independent thinker whose technical mind and ability to coach and mentor other staff members has led AMD to develop great graphics products over the years. In his new role, Jeffrey will continue helping evolve our software strategy as we introduce our future high-performance products to create more immersive experiences and use the power of the GPU to solve some of our industry’s most pressing computing challenges.”
With AMD for almost 20 years, Dr. Cheng is a respected technology leader in graphics system engineering, graphics software architecture, GPU virtualization and cloud computing, GPU memory management and scheduling subsystem, heterogeneous computing and shared virtual memory systems. He is known for motivating and driving technical teams to explore new technologies and create new solutions, and pushing teams to analyze and problem solve complex critical system interaction issues.
Promotion to AMD Fellow is an honor bestowed to the most accomplished innovators. AMD Corporate Fellows are appointed after a rigorous review process that assesses not only specific technical contributions to the company, but involvement in the industry at large, mentoring of others and improving the long-term strategic position of the company.
About AMD
For more than 45 years, AMD has driven innovation in high-performance computing, graphics and visualization technologies ― the building blocks for gaming, immersive platforms and the datacenter. Hundreds of millions of consumers, leading Fortune 500 businesses and cutting-edge scientific research facilities around the world rely on AMD technology daily to improve how they live, work and play. AMD employees around the world are focused on building great products that push the boundaries of what is possible. For more information about how AMD is enabling today and inspiring tomorrow, visit the AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) website , blog , Facebook and Twitter pages.
Contact:
Theresa Chavez
AMD Communications
(408) 749-4112
[email protected]
Source: Advanced Micro Devices | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/10/globe-newswire-amd-appoints-graphics-software-architecture-leader-jeffrey-cheng-to-corporate-fellow.html |
SEATTLE, May 31, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CFN Media Group (“CFN Media”), the leading agency and financial media network dedicated to the North American cannabis industry, announces publication of an article covering the strategy and positioning of BlissCo Cannabis Corp. (CSE:BLIS) (BLIS.CN) (CNSX:BLIS), a licensed producer that recently went public in Canada.
As the landscape of Canadian licensed producers becomes a bit more crowded, there are some characteristics that may help identify those with a better chance of succeeding than others. Partnerships, licenses, management, and location are among these differentiating factors, and BlissCo is one of the young producers with a strong resume in all of these areas. With adult-use legalization on the horizon and the legal cannabis market set to explode, BlissCo looks ready to carve out its niche in the multi-billion dollar industry.
Recently Licensed, Recently Public
BlissCo went public through a reverse merger and began trading on March 2, 2018 following an oversubscribed financing of about C$5.6 million. That financing helped the company put some finishing touches on its level 10 security production facility in the Metro Vancouver area, and Health Canada granted the company its ACMPR cultivation license on March 29. BlissCo is in the process of applying for a cannabis oil extraction license, and anticipates applying for a sales license this summer.
Watch a short video featuring the BlissCo facility here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrIzuswu50M&feature=youtu.be
The Supreme Cannabis Company participated in the financing to the tune of C$3 million. The investment gives Supreme an approximate 10% ownership of BlissCo, and comes along with a supply agreement for dried cannabis which will enable BlissCo to begin sales and distribution immediately following receipt of its sales license. This 3,000 kilo, two year supply agreement with Supreme has the potential to generate over C$25 million in medical cannabis revenue for BlissCo.
Not All LPs Need Huge Production
Many licensed producers have undertaken massive expansion projects over the last year or so, spending huge amounts of capital to increase production ahead of full legalization. The approach makes sense in light of the anticipated initial shortfall of supply for the greatly expanded market, but comes with its own set of risks. These include problems associated with scaling agricultural production on an industrial level, like crop failure and quality control. They also include issues that could arise as a result of market forces, like the eventual commoditization of cannabis flower causing a significant price decrease.
BlissCo, while not eschewing its own production capacity, is taking a different approach. The company is more focused on packaging, branding, and distribution. Its facility is designed from the ground up as a center for high volume extraction, processing, packaging and distribution in addition to its cultivation capacity. Set in the Metro Vancouver area, it is ideally located for efficient and low-cost distribution.
The supply agreement with Supreme allows BlissCo to jumpstart its operations and revenue while it scales its own production. BlissCo hopes to have a sales license by September, which is coincidentally about the time that adult-use is anticipated to be legalized. With supply assured, the company should be able to hit the ground running at that point.
"Over the past year, we have revised our business model to concentrate on our core strength: in-province cannabis distribution," said Damian Kettlewell, CEO and Founder of BlissCo. "British Columbia will be a competitive retail market where quality will be a differentiating factor. Our focused business plan has allowed us to avoid the time and capital commitments of developing massive cultivation infrastructure, and instead pursue partnerships with leading quality-focused cultivators such as Supreme Cannabis' 7ACRES."
BlissCo recently purchased CO2 cannabis oil extraction equipment that it can use, when properly licensed, to make high quality extracts and eventually products (like edibles, creams etc.) based on those extracts. Recent data from Health Canada shows sales of cannabis oil as of April 2017 on par with dried flower. But demand for quality cannabis oil is on the rise. Fast forward to the most recent data from December 2017, and cannabis oil sales are almost 50% higher by volume than dried flower sales. BlissCo recognizes this explosive trend and is positioning to take advantage. As of now, only 6 of the 22 licensed producers in British Columbia are approved to produce and sell oil.
Management Offers Varied Experience
CEO Damian Kettlewell has a deep background in alcohol sales and distribution that should serve BlissCo exceedingly well as the cannabis model evolves. He is a director of British Columbia’s Alliance of Beverage Licensees ( ABLE BC ) and was also involved in a recent public-private partnership called the Responsible Marijuana Retail Alliance of BC . Prior to founding BlissCo, he was a partner for 11 years with a major BC liquor store chain. Undoubtedly Mr. Kettlewell knows how to distribute and sell adult-oriented products in British Columbia.
The public side of the company is in good hands with CFO Rob Kang. He is well-versed in all aspects of the regulatory side, with over 20 years of experience at TMX Group prior to joining BlissCo. Shawn McDougall heads up the production side with over 10 years of experience as a Health Canada certified cultivator. Vipin Vikraman adds more than 10 years of experience in quality assurance, with a background in the packaged foods, poultry, and dairy industries.
The Upshot
Developments have been coming fast and furious for BlissCo, as the company has gone public, been licensed, inked a major partnership, and begun cultivation all in the last three months. There are plenty of potential catalysts in the next few months as well, with more licenses anticipated and the pending legalization of cannabis in Canada. BlissCo bears watching as it is taking a slightly different tack from many licensed producers. By focusing less on production and more on creating a processing, distribution, and branding company, BlissCo appears positioned to deliver value both in the near term and over the long haul.
Please follow the link to read the full article: http://www.cannabisfn.com/blissco-new-public-licensed-producer-focused-distribution/
Forward-Looking Statements
This article contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation (collectively “forward-looking statements”). The use of any of the words “may”, “will”, “in the process” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied upon. This article contains forward-looking statements and assumptions pertaining to the following: the ability to execute on the strategic plans and the impact on future operations, capital expenditures, receipt of a cannabis oil license and a license to sell dried cannabis, the generation of revenue from the sales of cannabis, the anticipated benefits of the location of the company’s facilities, the production of products based upon extracts, the relevance of management’s experience to the cannabis model, the ability of the company to deliver value and other objectives. Actual results achieved may vary from the information provided as a result of numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors. It is believed that the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct. Neither we nor the company undertake to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.
About CFN Media
CFN Media (CannabisFN) is the leading agency and financial media network dedicated to the global cannabis industry, helps companies operating in the space attract investors, capital, and publicity. Since 2013, private and public cannabis companies in the US and Canada have relied on CFN Media to grow and succeed.
Learn how to become a CFN Media client company, brand or entrepreneur: http://www.cannabisfn.com/featuredcompany
Download the CFN Media iOS mobile app to access the world of cannabis from the palm of your hand: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cannabisfn/id988009247?ls=1&mt=8
Or visit our homepage and enter your mobile number under the Apple App Store logo to receive a download link text on your iPhone: http://www.cannabisfn.com
Disclaimer
CannabisFN.com is not an independent financial investment advisor or broker-dealer. You should always consult with your own independent legal, tax, and/or investment professionals before making any investment decisions. The information provided on http://www.cannabisfn.com (the ‘Site’) is either original financial news or paid advertisements drafted by our in-house team or provided by an affiliate. CannabisFN.com , a financial news media and marketing firm enters into media buys or service agreements with the companies that are the subject of the articles posted on the Site or other editorials for advertising such companies. We are not an independent news media provider. We make no warranty or representation about the information including its completeness, accuracy, truthfulness or reliability and we disclaim, expressly and implicitly, all warranties of any kind, including whether the Information is complete, accurate, truthful, or reliable. As such, your use of the information is at your own risk. Nor do we undertake any obligation to update the items posted. CannabisFN.com received compensation for producing and presenting high quality and sophisticated content on CannabisFN.com along with financial and corporate news.
The above article is sponsored content. Emerging Growth LLC, which owns CannabisFN.com and CFN Media, has been hired to create awareness. Please follow the link below to view our full disclosure outlining our compensation: http://www.cannabisfn.com/legal-disclaimer/
CFN Media
Frank Lane
206-369-7050
[email protected]
Source: CFN Media | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/31/globe-newswire-blissco-new-public-licensed-producer-focused-on-distribution--cfn-media.html |
Published 3:24 AM ET Tue, 8 May 2018 CNBC.com
— This is the script of CNBC's news report for China's CCTV on April 25, Wednesday.
The 3 major indexes opened high yet closed low and slumped in the mid-day trading amid potential renegotiation of Iran's nuclear agreement improved market panic and the decline in greenback and oil price boosted gold and other safe-haven asset. Meanwhile, in the US stock, both macroeconomics and individual stocks affect the market sentiment. Ten-year US Treasury yield exceeded 3%, aggravating investor concerns about the Fed's rate hike, it's believed that the Fed will increase interests for 4 times this year, and the blue chip stock, like Caterpillar, google and Facebook plummeted in the mid-day trading, making market sentiment ebb
Caterpillar that is believed as "Weather forecast" for global economy released strong earnings before the market, with a 12.9 billion revenue in the 1 st quarter, which increased 31.6% year-on-year, topping the market's expectation.
That drives the stock price of Caterpillar increased more than 4% at the beginning of the session. The executive on the earnings tele-conference said, however, the first quarter's performance may be the highest point of the year, making the market has a negative view to its future performance and sold out Caterpillar, finally, its stock price fell 6.2%.
And because Caterpillar is a very important blue chip stock, it is highly relevant to the broader stock index, so it also weighted down the Dow by 1.74%, S&P 500 declined 1.34%. It has passed 53 trading days from this index formally entered the correction zone since Feb 8; this is the longest correction time in the past decade. The correction time for S&P 500 is 37 trading days on average. At the same time, the negative outlook and news on the earnings of technology stocks caused the technology stocks to dive.
NASDAQ composite index descended 1.7%. First, a 1.39% decrease was seen in Apple amid the TSMC, a Taiwan-based IC manufacturing company and is also a key partner to Apple, published the second-quarter profit forecast that is below Wall Street's expectations, making the market believes that Apple's shipments are expected to be far lower than expected. For example, on the day after TSMC announced its profit forecast, Morgan Stanley lowered its forecast for Apple's mobile phone sales in the second quarter.
Apple's stock price has declined by 7.4% and its market value lost nearly $64 billion since the last Fri amid the negative sentiment in market.
In addition, the financial report released by Google's parent company – Alphabet, is actually very strong, but the market concerns that;
The earnings shows that "TAC", as much as $6.3 billion, indicates that Google's payment to partners exceeds expectations, leaving the market worried about Google's profitability.
Facebook faced new data security scandals, which caused the stock price to fall by 3.7%.
According to reports, some cybercriminals posted sensitive personal information on Facebook, including credit card numbers and social security IDs, and some of these messages have been on Facebook for several years. The negative news made investors lose confidence in the Facebook Company that will publish the financial report on Wednesday, causing Facebook's share price to fall again.
Bezos, the Amazon CEO, said in an award ceremony that Amazon will be subject to strict supervision of government, adding that, the supervision over the U.S. tech giants is becoming more and more strict, making the market worried about Amazon's profitability and the stock price declined 3.8%, the entire technology stocks fell is also called as FANG stocks. Netflix, the last one of the top4 tech giants, was off more than 3.6%, which make its market value lost 85 billion USD in the overnight trading. We will keep an eye on this issue. Business | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/08/cctv-script-250418.html |
May 24 (Reuters) - Krystal Biotech Inc:
* U.S. FDA GRANTS FAST TRACK DESIGNATION FOR KRYSTAL BIOTECH’S KB103 FOR THE TREATMENT OF DYSTROPHIC EPIDERMOLYSIS BULLOSA Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: ([email protected])
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-us-fda-grants-fast-track-designati/brief-u-s-fda-grants-fast-track-designation-for-krystal-biotechs-kb103-idUSASC0A3JW |
Quarterly Highlights:
Net sales increased 12.5% to $33.4 million from the first quarter of 2017 Gross profit was $1.3 million, or 4.0% of net sales, compared to a gross profit of $1.2 million, or 4.2% of net sales in the first quarter of 2017 Net loss from continuing operations per diluted share was $0.20, compared to a net loss from continuing operations per diluted share of $0.37 in the first quarter of 2017
VANCOUVER, Wash., May 02, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Northwest Pipe Company (Nasdaq:NWPX) today announced its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2018. The Company will broadcast its first quarter 2018 earnings conference call on Thursday, May 3, 2018 at 7:00 am PDT.
Outlook
“With the recent improvement in bidding activity and major programs scheduled to bid over the next several months, we expect 2018 to be a very strong bidding year. The improving demand along with a stable competitive landscape should lead to improving revenue and margins in the third and fourth quarters of 2018,” said Scott Montross, President and CEO of the Company. “We saw a lull in the bidding activity beginning in the fourth quarter of 2017 continuing into March 2018. It was only in the last ten days of March that we saw bidding activity begin to improve. As a result, we have experienced a very small revenue first quarter of 2018, and expect a very small second quarter.”
First Quarter 2018 Results
Net sales increased 12.5% to $33.4 million in the first quarter of 2018 from $29.7 million in the first quarter of 2017 due predominantly to increased tons produced. The increase in tons produced was due to project timing.
Gross profit was $1.3 million (4.0% of net sales) in the first quarter of 2018 compared to a gross profit of $1.2 million (4.2% of net sales) in the first quarter of 2017. Gross profit increased due to increased sales.
Net loss from continuing operations was $2.0 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2018 which included $0.3 million, or $0.2 million net of taxes (using a statutory tax rate) in restructuring expense. Net loss from continuing operations in the first quarter of 2017 was $3.5 million, or $0.37 per diluted share, which included $0.9 million, or $0.6 million net of taxes (using a statutory tax rate) in restructuring expense.
Backlog represents the balance of remaining performance obligations under signed contracts (“Backlog”). The Company also has projects for which it has been notified that it is the successful bidder, but a binding agreement has not been executed (“Confirmed Orders”). Beginning in 2018, accounting guidance requires disclosure of Backlog, which was $41 million as of March 31, 2018. Backlog including Confirmed Orders, which is the metric the Company has traditionally reported, was $87 million as of March 31, 2018 compared to $88 million as of December 31, 2017 and $77 million as of March 31, 2017.
Conference Call
The Company will hold its first quarter 2018 earnings conference call on Thursday, May 3, 2018 at 7:00 am PDT. To listen to the live call, visit the Northwest Pipe Company website, www.nwpipe.com , under Investor Relations. For those unable to listen to the live call, the replay will be available approximately one hour after the event and will remain available until Thursday, May 31, 2018 by dialing 1‑800‑846‑5780 passcode 6301.
About Northwest Pipe Company
Northwest Pipe Company is the largest manufacturer of engineered steel pipe water systems in North America. The Company’s manufacturing facilities are strategically positioned to meet North America's growing needs for water and wastewater infrastructure. The Company serves a wide range of markets and its solution-based products are a good fit for applications including: water transmission, plant piping, tunnels and river crossings. The Company is headquartered in Vancouver, Washington and has manufacturing facilities across the United States.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release by Scott Montross are "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended that are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about the Company’s business, management’s beliefs and assumptions made by management. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in such forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of important factors. While it is impossible to identify all such factors, those that could cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated by the Company include changes in demand and market prices for its products, product mix, bidding activity, the timing of customer orders and deliveries, production schedules, the price and availability of raw materials, price and volume of imported product, excess or shortage of production capacity, international trade policy and regulations, the Company’s ability to identify and complete internal initiatives and/or acquisitions in order to grow its Water Transmission business, the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and other risks discussed in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10‑K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and from time to time in its other Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports. Such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release. If the Company does update or correct one or more forward-looking statements, investors and others should not conclude that it will make additional updates or corrections with respect thereto or with respect to other forward-looking statements.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
The Company is presenting Backlog including Confirmed Orders as well as restructuring expense net of tax. These non-GAAP measures are provided to better enable investors and others to assess the Company’s results and compare them with its competitors. These should be considered as supplements to, and not as substitutes for, or superior to, financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP.
For more information, visit www.nwpipe.com .
Contact :
Robin Gantt
Chief Financial Officer
(360) 397-6325
NORTHWEST PIPE COMPANY CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Unaudited) (In thousands, except per share amounts) Three Months Ended March 31, 2018 2017 Net sales $ 33,365 $ 29,657 Cost of sales 32,017 28,414 Gross profit 1,348 1,243 Selling, general and administrative expense 3,385 3,840 Restructuring expense 305 881 Operating loss (2,342 ) (3,478 ) Other income (expense) 170 (89 ) Interest income 77 - Interest expense (128 ) (137 ) Loss from continuing operations before income taxes (2,223 ) (3,704 ) Income tax benefit (272 ) (162 ) Loss from continuing operations (1,951 ) (3,542 ) Loss on discontinued operations - (326 ) Net loss $ (1,951 ) $ (3,868 ) Basic and diluted loss per share: Continuing operations $ (0.20 ) $ (0.37 ) Discontinued operations - (0.03 ) Net loss per share $ (0.20 ) $ (0.40 ) Shares used in per share calculations: Basic and diluted 9,707 9,604
NORTHWEST PIPE COMPANY CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Unaudited) (In thousands) March 31,
2018 December 31,
2017 Assets Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 39,991 $ 43,646 Trade and other receivables, net 24,241 28,990 Contract assets 44,845 44,502 Inventories 17,126 17,055 Prepaid expenses and other 5,683 6,562 Total current assets 131,886 140,755 Property and equipment, net 78,349 78,756 Other assets 9,492 10,813 Total assets $ 219,727 $ 230,324 Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity Current liabilities: Accounts payable $ 4,460 $ 7,521 Accrued liabilities 5,105 6,563 Contract liabilities 1,155 2,599 Current portion of capital lease obligations 397 318 Total current liabilities 11,117 17,001 Capital lease obligations, less current portion 1,022 737 Other long-term liabilities 11,321 12,322 Total liabilities 23,460 30,060 Stockholders' equity 196,267 200,264 Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity $ 219,727 $ 230,324
Source:Northwest Pipe Company | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/02/globe-newswire-northwest-pipe-company-reports-first-quarter-results-and-announces-conference-call.html |
MILWAUKEE, Wis., May 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- STRATTEC SECURITY CORPORATION (NASDAQ:STRT) announced today that the Company’s Board of Directors, at its meeting held May 15, 2018, declared a cash dividend for the Company’s 2018 fiscal fourth quarter of $0.14 per common share. The dividend is payable on June 29, 2018 to shareholders of record as of June 15, 2018.
STRATTEC designs, develops, manufactures and markets automotive Access Control Products, including mechanical locks and keys, electronically enhanced locks and keys, steering column and instrument panel ignition lock housings, latches, power sliding side door systems, power lift gate systems, power deck lid systems, door handles and related products. These products are provided to customers in North America, and on a global basis through a unique strategic relationship with WITTE Automotive of Velbert, Germany and ADAC Automotive of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Under this relationship, STRATTEC, WITTE and ADAC market our products to global customers under the “VAST” brand name. STRATTEC’s history in the automotive business spans over 110 years.
Certain statements contained in this release contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking words or phrases such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “planned,” “potential,” “should,” “will,” and “would.” Such forward-looking statements in this release are inherently subject to many uncertainties in the Company’s operations and business environment. These uncertainties include general economic conditions, in particular, relating to the automotive industry, consumer demand for the Company’s and its customers’ products, competitive and technological developments, customer purchasing actions, changes in warranty provisions and customers’ product recall policies, foreign currency fluctuations, and costs of operations (including fluctuations in the cost of raw materials). Shareholders, potential investors and other readers are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements made herein are only made as of the date of this press release and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances occurring after the date of this release. In addition, such uncertainties and other operational matters are discussed further in the Company’s quarterly and annual filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contact: Pat Hansen
Senior Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
414-247-3435
www.strattec.com
Source:STRATTEC SECURITY CORPORATION | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/15/globe-newswire-strattec-security-corporation-declares-quarterly-dividend.html |
U.S. government bond prices rose Friday, sending yields to their biggest one-day decline in six weeks.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.067%, from 3.109% Thursday, while still closing out its sixth weekly gain in the past seven weeks. Yields fall as bond prices rise.
Yields fell after two antiestablishment parties... | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-government-bonds-advance-as-high-yields-attract-demand-1526657686 |
EditorsNote: changes to “unbeaten series” in second graf
Arizona center fielder A.J. Pollock had two hits and drove in two runs, and Houston right-hander Justin Verlander took his first regular-season loss since joining the Astros last August in the Diamondbacks’ 3-1 victory on Sunday in Phoenix.
Pollock tripled in a run in the sixth inning and continued home to score when Houston third baseman Alex Bregman was called for obstruction. He singled home an insurance run in the eighth inning as the Diamondbacks extended their streak of unbeaten series to 11. They are 10-0-1 in that span.
Bregman homered and Marwin Gonzalez had two hits for the Astros, who have lost five of six.
Daniel Descalso contributed two hits apiece for Arizona, and Pollock took the NL lead with 29 RBIs.
Brad Boxberger pitched around a leadoff walk and a one-out single in the ninth inning to strike out three for his 11th save.
Verlander (4-1) gave up three hits and two runs (one earned) in six innings, with eight strikeouts and three walks. He had not lost a regular-season start since a 10-4 defeat to Texas while with Detroit on Aug. 10, 2017, the last time he allowed more than three earned runs in a game.
Verlander had been 9-0 in 12 regular-season starts with the Astros and was 4-1 in their World Series run. He has 70 strikeouts, second in the American League behind teammate Gerrit Cole, who had 16 in the first game of the series Friday and has 77.
Descalso walked to open the pivotal sixth inning off Verlander before Pollock hit a line drive over center fielder George Springer’s head to score Descalso and tie it at 1. Pollock raced for third, and the throw skipped past third Bregman to the fencing in front of the Arizona dugout.
Pollock broke for home and was thrown out when the Astros recovered the ball, but third base umpire Mike DiMuro ruled that Bregman impeded Pollock’s path to the plate, so Pollock was ruled safe on obstruction to make it 2-1. Bregman’s right leg appeared to contact Pollack as he broke home.
Arizona right-hander Matt Koch (2-0) gave up six hits and one run in 6 1/3 innings, with three strikeouts and no walks. He has a 2.31 ERA in four starts after replacing Taijuan Walker (elbow surgery) in the rotation. Koch used only 77 pitches.
—Field Level Media
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/baseball-mlb-ari-hou-recap/diamondbacks-hand-verlander-first-loss-3-1-idUSMTZEE57BY3ARR |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - There have been no discussions of a possible meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin since the two leaders spoke on the phone on March 20, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said on Friday.
Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; Writing by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Polina Ivanova
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-putin-kremlin/kremlin-aide-says-no-talks-on-trump-putin-meeting-since-march-20-idUSKBN1IC1KQ |
SHANGHAI, May 19 (Reuters) - China’s air force has landed bombers on islands and reefs in the South China Sea as part of a training exercise in the disputed region, it said in a statement.
“A division of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) recently organized multiple bombers such as the H-6K to conduct take-off and landing training on islands and reefs in the South China Sea in order to improve our ability to ‘reach all territory, conduct strikes at any time and strike in all directions’,” it said in the statement issued on Friday.
It said the pilot of the H-6K bomber conducted assault training on a designated sea target and then carried out take-offs and landings at an airport in the area, describing the exercise as preparation for “the West Pacific and the battle for the South China Sea”.
The notice, published on the PLAAF’s Weibo microblogging account, did not provide the precise location of the exercise.
The United States has dispatched warships to disputed areas of the South China Sea in a bid to challenge China’s extensive sovereignty claims in the territory, which is subject to various claims by China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia.
“The United States remains committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Logan told Reuters.
“We have seen these same reports and China’s continued militarization of disputed features in the South China Sea only serves to raise tensions and destabilize the region.”
Reporting by David Stanway and Winni Zhou; Additional reporting by Phil Stewart in WASHINGTON; Editing by Kim Coghill
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/southchinasea-china/china-air-force-lands-bombers-on-s-china-sea-island-idUSL3N1SQ02C |
May 9 (Reuters) - resTORbio, Inc.:
* RESTORBIO COMPLETES DOSING OF PATIENTS IN PHASE 2B STUDY TO REDUCE THE INCIDENCE OF RESPIRATORY TRACT INFECTIONS IN THE ELDERLY Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: ([email protected])
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-restorbio-completes-dosing-of-pati/brief-restorbio-completes-dosing-of-patients-in-phase-2b-study-idUSFWN1SG177 |
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad vowed on Monday to investigate faults that may have been committed by the government toppled in last week’s general election, and said all ministries had been instructed not to destroy any documents.
Mahathir announced that he would appoint a new anti-corruption commission chief and replace the attorney-general who had cleared former Prime Minister Najib Razak of wrongdoing in a multi-billion-dollar scandal linked to the 1MDB state fund.
He also told a news conference that his government had a rough idea of the whereabouts of Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, who is accused of links to a plot to siphon billions of dollars from the fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Najib set up 1MDB in 2009 and previously served as chairman of its advisory board. He and the fund have denied wrongdoing.
Asked about other possible crimes, Mahathir said: “We cannot do everything at the same time at one go.”
“We have to take time. There are many faults committed by the previous government, but we cannot do everything in one day, so you have to be patient.”
Mahathir, who was Malaysia’s prime minister from 1981 to 2003, led his four-party alliance to victory against Barisan Nasional in last week’s general election, ousting a coalition that had ruled the Southeast Asian nation for six decades.
MOODY’S DOWNBEAT Malaysia’s stock market fell sharply after opening on Monday, the first day of trading since Mahathir’s stunning triumph in the May 9 election. But it later recovered to close the day slightly higher.
Some analysts are concerned over populist promises that Mahathir’s alliance made during the election campaign, including plans to remove a goods and services tax, scrap toll fees, reinstate fuel subsidies and review Chinese investment deals.
Ratings agency Moody’s said on Monday that there was “little clarity” on the new government’s economic policy agenda and it fulfilled its campaign promises without adjustments, it would be credit negative for the economy.
The main share index was initially dragged lower by falls in financial, telecom and airline shares, especially those with links to the former government, but closed to end the day 0.21 percent higher.
Shares in AirAsia Group Bhd fell as much as 10 percent after its chief Tony Fernandes apologized for endorsing former prime minister Najib Razak in the election.
The ringgit currency hit a four-month low of 3.9850 per dollar, but stabilized off those lows.
Mahathir said last week that there was enough evidence to investigate Najib’s links to the 1MDB scandal, and had moved to prevent his predecessor from leaving the country.
News broke in 2015 that about $700 million allegedly stolen from 1MDB had made its way into Najib’s personal bank accounts. Najib has said the deposit was a donation by an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family which had been largely returned.
Earlier, state news agency Bernama and other media reported that a former official of the anti-graft agency, MACC, had lodged a report against Najib on suspicion of blocking probes in cases involving 1MDB and a government pension fund.
Mahathir said he would appoint a new MACC chief on Tuesday.
The attorney-general who cleared Najib of wrongdoing in the 1MDB affair, Mohamed Apandi Ali, would be put on leave and replaced by the solicitor-general, he said.
Mohamed Apandi did not respond to a request for comment.
The government has also transferred the top bureaucrat in the finance ministry while the chairman of the state palm oil plantation agency, Felda, has resigned.
Malaysia's newly elected Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad attends a news conference in Menara Yayasan Selangor, Pataling Jaya, Malaysia May 12, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer Writing by John Chalmers, Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-politics/malaysias-mahathir-vows-to-investigate-toppled-government-idUSKCN1IF19L |
RIYADH (Reuters) - A slump in Saudi Arabia’s economy cast a shadow over ambitious plans for reform this week as top officials met businessmen to discuss freeing the kingdom from its dependence on oil exports.
A car drives past the Kingdom Centre Tower in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, November 12, 2017. Picture taken November 12, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser At a conference with hundreds of foreign and local bankers and potential investors, ministers said privatisations and partnerships between the government and private companies to build infrastructure projects would begin within months.
They pointed to major successes since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched the reform programme in April 2016. A huge state budget deficit, which threatened the stability of the currency, is shrinking. Foreign portfolio funds are pouring into the country after a revamp of the stock market.
But data released during the conference showed the private sector, which the reform programme assumes will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and play a much bigger role in the economy in the next decade, is struggling.
A monthly survey of companies’ purchasing managers, published on Thursday, found growth in private business activity slowed in April to its lowest since the survey started in August 2009. New orders shrank for the first time in the survey’s history, suggesting there is little new business on the way.
Bank lending to the private sector shrank from a year earlier in March for the 13th straight month, according to central bank data released on Monday; banks are awash in funds, but private firms see little point in borrowing to invest.
Car sales shrank an estimated 24 percent in 2017. Estimates for this year have not yet been published but businessmen said they had seen little or no pick-up in sales, despite initial hopes that the lifting of a ban on women driving, expected to take effect in coming months, would trigger a mini-boom.
The main problem, businessmen say, is part of the reform programme itself: austerity measures designed to cut the budget deficit, including 5 percent value-added tax imposed in January, higher domestic fuel prices, and rising fees which companies must pay to hire foreign workers.
“The reforms were supposed to help the private sector but in the short term at least, there’s been the opposite effect,” said one frustrated Saudi businessman who, like others, declined to be Quote: d publicly for fear of appearing to oppose the reforms.
WORKERS Many businessmen said the rising fees for foreign workers were the biggest single burden on them, making it uneconomic in some cases to keep employing foreigners — even though it can be hard or impossible to find trained Saudis to replace them.
The fees are encouraging an exodus of foreigners from Saudi Arabia, hurting consumer demand. The number of foreigners employed in the kingdom dropped by over 277,000 to 10.42 million between the third and fourth quarters of last year, according to official data released this week.
“It wouldn’t be surprising if the number decreased by a million in 12 months,” said a top executive at a big Saudi company in the retail industry.
At the end of last year, the government said it would spend more to support the economy and relax its austerity drive, aiming to balance its budget by 2023 instead of 2020.
But while authorities are launching a string of development projects - such as a multi-billion dollar resort area near Riyadh, for which ground-breaking occurred on Saturday - little money seems to be reaching the private sector so far. Some firms complain the government is several months late paying its bills to them.
In private, one Saudi official worried the austerity component of the reforms might still be too strong compared to the growth component.
“The fiscal reforms have succeeded, but in the long run it’s counter-productive if you stifle the private sector,” he said.
Mazen al-Sudairi, head of research at Al Rajhi Capital, said recent data was positive in some ways. He noted that while unemployment among Saudi citizens was almost 13 percent, over 100,000 Saudis obtained jobs in the fourth quarter, suggesting Saudis were moving into some of the jobs vacated by foreigners.
Al Rajhi calculations show the spending power of 70 percent of Saudi households is fully shielded from the austerity steps by a government scheme of cash handouts to compensate them.
That implies most of the slump in consumer spending is due to the exodus of foreigners and their falling real incomes — a result which may be acceptable to the government as it manages the tricky domestic politics of the reform programme.
Mohammed El-Kuwaiz, chairman of the capital market authority attends Euromoney Saudi Arabia Conference, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia May 2, 2018. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser Reporting by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Hugh Lawson
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://in.reuters.com/article/saudi-economy/slumping-economy-overhangs-saudi-reforms-as-officials-businessmen-meet-idINKBN1I41IM |
LONDON, May 17 (Reuters) - Britain’s Mothercare, the struggling mother and baby products retailer, said on Thursday it would ask investors for 28 million pounds ($38 million) as part of a restructuring plan that would see a further 50 stores close.
The firm also said Mark Newton-Jones had agreed to return as chief executive following his abrupt departure last month.
Mothercare said it would seek creditor approval for a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) that would enable it to shut 50 stores and secure rent reductions on 21 others.
In addition to the proposed equity issue it has also secured revised committed debt facilities of 67.5 million pounds, 8 million pounds of new shareholder loans and a new debtor backed facility of up to 10 million pounds from a trade partner. ($1 = 0.7376 pounds) (Reporting by James Davey; editing by Costas Pitas)
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/mothercare-restructuring/uks-mothercare-to-close-50-more-stores-in-restructuring-plan-idUSFWN1SO08S |
A federal appeals court on Monday wrestled with whether a Maine statute that bars women from pursuing “wrongful birth” lawsuits was constitutional, in a case by a woman suing Merck & Co Inc over a contraceptive implant she claimed was defective.
Members of the three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston expressed concern during oral arguments about the extent to which the law would prohibit women like Kayla Doherty from pursuing any claims for damages.
To read the full story on Westlaw Practitioner Insights, click here: bit.ly/2rqqCOz
Our | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/health-merck/1st-circuit-hears-challenge-to-maine-wrongful-birth-lawsuit-ban-idUSL1N1SE24Q |
* U.S. crude stocks rise by 4.9 mln bbl to 435.6 mln bbl -API
* Physical spot cargoes trade at discount to financial crude
* Production by oil majors rising - S&P Global Ratings (Updates prices)
SINGAPORE, May 16 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Wednesday, weighed down by ample supplies despite ongoing output cuts by producer cartel OPEC and looming U.S. sanctions against major crude exporter Iran.
Brent crude futures were at $78.22 per barrel at 0644 GMT, down 21 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last close.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $71.03 a barrel, down 28 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their last settlement.
Despite the dips, both financial oil benchmarks remained close to their November 2014 highs of $79.47 and $71.92 a barrel respectively, reached the previous day.
But there are signs in physical crude markets that may give pause to financial investors.
There are also signs that oil production will rise, especially at majors like ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell , Chevron, BP and Total.
"Aggregate production - both actual and projected - is growing for the majors," S&P Global Ratings said in a report published on Tuesday.
Spot crude oil cargo prices are at their steepest discounts to futures prices in years as sellers are struggling to find buyers for West African, Russian and Kazakh cargoes, while pipeline bottlenecks trap supply in west Texas and Canada.
The bottleneck in North America likely contributed to a 4.9 million barrel rise in U.S. crude oil inventories, to 435.6 million barrels, that the private American Petroleum Institute reported on Tuesday.
"The API inventory data in the U.S. fits with ... a topping pattern or at least a decent pause for oil prices at the moment," said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at futures brokerage AxiTrader.
Official U.S. government fuel storage data is due for release by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) later on Wednesday.
"We expect the EIA report to display bearish results amidst higher rig counts and production levels in the U.S.," said Singapore-based brokerage Phillip Futures.
Despite Wednesday's dips and some indicators implying the financial oil has overshot physical oil, overall crude market conditions have tightened since 2017 when the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) started to withhold supplies to push up oil prices.
With renewed U.S. sanctions looming against OPEC-member Iran and oil demand strong, analysts said crude markets will likely remain tight for much of the year.
Stronger oil prices are also spilling into other markets.
"A rising oil price brings upside price risk to all commodities," Morgan Stanley said in a note to clients this week. (Reporting by Henning Gloystein Editing by Joseph Radford) | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/16/reuters-america-update-3-oil-dips-on-signs-of-ample-supply-despite-opec-cuts-iran-sanctions.html |
Home / NEWS / RPT-Tokyo May core CPI rises 0.5 pct yr/yr RPT-Tokyo May core CPI rises 0.5 pct yr/yr 3 hours ago NEWS , tokyo (Repeats to attach to additional alerts) TOKYO, May 25 (Reuters) - Core consumer prices in Tokyo rose 0.5 percent in May from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday. The core consumer price index for Japan’s capital, which includes oil products but excludes fresh food prices, compared with economists' median estimate for a 0.6 percent annual rise. (For queries, contact Stanley White at: [email protected]; +81 3 6441 1984) (Reuters Messaging: [email protected]) | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-economy-inflation/rpt-tokyo-may-core-cpi-rises-0-5-pct-yr-yr-idUST9N1SM00H/ |
The Wall Street Journal
Their second home is one of hundreds threatened by renewed eruption at Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano , which has already destroyed more than 80 houses and other structures, threatened a geothermal power plant and forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents since May 3. Rob Holcombe, left, and his husband, Christian Jusinski, bought a home in Puna Beach Palisades on Hawaii’s Big Island in 2015.
Rob Holcombe and Christian Jusinski
The properties are in subdivisions built decades ago as part of an ambitious development push by local officials, despite geologic maps at the time that showed the areas were in hazard zones for lava.
An impetus for the development was providing a new revenue source after Hawaii became a state in 1959, said Mary Begier, a realtor in Hilo, Hawaii. At the time, the remote lots weren’t intended to hold homes because they lacked basic infrastructure, she said.
Over time, thousands of homes sprung up as the area, known as lower Puna, became one of the most affordable places to live in the Aloha State. A three-bedroom home there costs as little as $200,000, or about half the $400,000 median home price on Hawaii’s largest island. Some more expensive homes have been built there in recent years.
“It’s easy to say in hindsight we shouldn’t have done that,” Ms. Begier said, referring to the development. “But where would those families be if we had not done that?” A destroyed home in the Leilani Estates neighborhood
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Gavan Daws, a Honolulu-based historian, said developers early on played down the volcanic risk.
“Would you offer land for sale and tell the people there is a volcano and stress the word ‘active’?” asked Mr. Daws, who co-wrote the 1985 book “Land and Power in Hawaii: The Democratic Years,” which chronicles how land projects in the 1950s and ’60s turned lava fields below the world’s most active volcano into subdivisions with thousands of homes.
Daryn Arai, deputy planning director for Hawaii County, said many of the subdivisions in question were created in the 1960s before the county came out with detailed lava-flow hazard maps a decade later. “So I can only assume that these subdivisions were permitted based on the limited information available at that time,” Mr. Arai said.
Lono Lyman, who served as county planning director in the 1980s and manages 4,500 acres of family-owned land in the eruption zone, said shortsightedness on the part of local developers helped drive the development.
“People wanted to make a buck, and it was cheap land being sold,” said the 70-year-old Mr. Lyman. “They saw an opportunity.”
About 200 acres of Mr. Lyman’s mostly agricultural land have been inundated with lava in the latest eruption. But Mr. Lyman played down the impact on his own property, saying he is most concerned for the residents who are losing their homes.
Even some builders say developers never should have built homes in the lava fields. “It was a real lush, green forest, but I don’t think they should have built a subdivision there because there was a lava flow underneath,” said Mark Ferreira, a general contractor in Hilo. “They should have known better.“
Though precise risk-assessment maps didn’t come out until the 1970s, the hazards were well known: Federal officials say lava-flow hazard maps were available for the Kilauea area since the 1940s, and the volcano had erupted at least a dozen times in the century before land sales began in earnest in the 1960s.
“Anybody who lived over there knew very well about the dangers of the volcano,” said George Cooper, a former Hawaii lawyer who specializes in land issues and who co-wrote the book with Mr. Daws. He said many of the initial sales of undeveloped lots were directed at buyers from out of state.
“They thought people would want to buy a piece of Hawaii, and the prices were so low,” said Mr. Cooper, who now lives in Cambodia.
In 1983, after a lull, Kilauea rumbled back to life and has remained in a continuous eruption since. Some communities were inundated by lava soon after, and over the years hundreds of homes have been lost.
What has alarmed local officials this time is the fact that the latest eruption has occurred about a dozen miles away from the previous site , in an area that hasn’t erupted in more than a half-century and where many homes are concentrated.
“This is like a new phase of the long-term eruption,” said Michael Poland, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Vancouver, Wash. “In this area, eruptions tend to last weeks to months. The longer it goes on, the more potential there will be additional areas will be impacted.”
That uncertainty has set the general lower Puna community on edge. Like many home buyers, Mr. Holcombe said he and his husband, Christian Jusinski, were drawn there by the relaxed, junglelike setting. The deck on the two-story home they bought in Puna Beach Palisades for $300,000 overlooks the ocean.
The couple had planned to retire there in a year, but if the home gets swallowed up by lava, their insurance won’t nearly cover the losses, Mr. Holcombe said.
“It’ll be a massive stress in our retirement plans if the house is lost,” Mr. Holcombe said from California. “The loss of the area, the dream, is unimaginable.”
Jim Oberman contributed to this article. Popular Homes Based on your last search Editors' Picks | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.wsj.com/articles/hawaii-homes-in-lavas-path-were-built-decades-ago-despite-geologic-threat-1527505200 |
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia is cancelling a project to build a high-speed rail link between its capital, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore, and will talk with its southern neighbor about any compensation Malaysia has to pay, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Monday.
FILE PHOTO: Malaysia's newly elected Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad attends a news conference in Menara Yayasan Selangor, Malaysia May 12, 2018 in this picture grab taken from video. REUTERS TV via REUTERS Mahathir, the 92-year-old who triumphed in a general election this month, has made it a priority to cut the national debt and pledged to review big projects agreed by his predecessor that he says are expensive and have no financial benefit.
“It is a final decision, but it will take time because we have an agreement with Singapore,” Mahathir told a news conference referring to his scrapping of the project, valued by analysts at about $17 billion.
The project is out for tender and was scheduled to be completed by 2026.
Mahathir said Malaysia may have to pay about 500 million ringgit ($125.63 million) to Singapore to get out of the deal.
“We had agreed to proceed with the High Speed Rail project based on mutual benefits and obligations,” Singapore’s Ministry of Trade said in a statement.
“We will wait for official communication from Malaysia.”
Companies from China, Japan, South Korea and Europe were eyeing a contract to build, operate and finance the trains and the rail assets, sources close to the bidding process had told Reuters. [nL4N1P72OV]
Even picking a winner was expected to test ties between Malaysia and Singapore, which have been frosty since the end of the colonial era in the 1960s, against the backdrop of broader tension over China’s growing influence in the region.
About 90 percent of the rail network was set to be in Malaysia, including a terminal in Bandar Malaysia, a big property development owned by scandal-hit state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
A $1.7 billion deal to sell a majority stake in Bandar Malaysia to a Malaysian-Chinese consortium fell through in May 2017. A year on, the project has failed to attract any buyers.
Mahathir has reopened an investigation into 1MDB following his election victory. It is being investigated in other countries, including the United States.
Properties linked to former prime minister Najib Razak have been searched as part of the investigation, and Najib has given statements to an anti-graft agency.
Najib has long denied any wrongdoing.
Mahathir said his government was also in the process of renegotiating with Chinese partners over the terms of a $14 billion rail deal aimed at connecting the South China Sea at the Thai border in the east with the strategic shipping routes of the Straits of Malacca in the west. [nL5N1SX0CC]
He estimates that Malaysia could cut almost a fifth of its $250 billion national debt and liabilities by scrapping such big projects.
Reporting by Liz Lee, John Geddie and A. Ananthalakshmi in KUALA LUMPUR and Fathin Ungku in SINGAPORE; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-politics-rail-singapore/malaysia-pm-to-drop-high-speed-rail-project-with-singapore-ft-idUSKCN1IT0PA |
Mexican presidential front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has extended his lead well beyond his nearest rivals with just a month to go before the July 1 election, an opinion poll showed on Thursday.
The survey by polling firm Parametria showed support for the leftist former mayor of Mexico City at 45 percent, an increase of six percentage points from a prior April poll. That gave Lopez Obrador more backing than his nearest two rivals combined.
Lopez Obrador, 64, was runner-up in the previous two elections, with fears that he could destabilize the economy contributing to his defeat. This time frustration over corruption, rising violence and tepid growth have all helped lift his bid.
Lopez Obrador's closest competitor is Ricardo Anaya, a former chairman of the center-right National Action Party (PAN), who is fronting a right-left coalition of parties.
Bernardo Montoya | Reuters Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto However, support for Anaya slipped 5 percentage points to 20 percent, in spite of the May 16 withdrawal from the race of former first lady and onetime PAN member Margarita Zavala.
"Anaya was expected to go up because of Margarita quitting, but it seems that the one who benefited was (Lopez Obrador)," Parametria founder Francisco Abundis said.
Holding steady at 14 percent support in third place was former finance minister Jose Antonio Meade, the candidate of President Enrique Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. The law prevents Pena Nieto from running again.
The fourth candidate on the ticket, independent Jaime Rodriguez, dipped one point to 1 percent. Rodriguez was fined this week for raising illicit campaign funds.
show chapters Canada, Mexico trade reps: Remaining in DC for talks 5:22 PM ET Thu, 26 April 2018 | 00:37 All told, 17 percent of respondents expressed no preference in the latest poll, which followed a separate survey by newspaper Reforma published on Wednesday that gave Lopez Obrador support of more than half the voters.
Parametria said its poll consisted of 1,000 face-to-face interviews and was conducted from May 23-29. The poll had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
The silver-haired Lopez Obrador has pledged to root out corruption and reduce violence, as well as re-invigorate the domestic economy and address chronic inequality if elected.
His room for maneuver as president will depend considerably on how much control his National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party can exercise in Congress.
The latest poll showed increasing support for MORENA, but it is unclear whether the party will have an outright majority. No party has held an absolute majority in Mexico since 1997.
Support for MORENA and its two main allies came to about 37 percent in the lower house and 39 percent in the Senate. Once undecided voters are stripped out, the percentage rises. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/31/mexico-andres-manuel-lopez-obrador-lead-widens-before-election-poll.html |
CAIRO, May 23 (Reuters) - Egypt’s tourism revenues jumped 83.3 percent in the first quarter of 2018 to $2.2 billion, a government official told Reuters.
The number of tourists who visited Egypt in that time jumped 37.1 percent to 2.383 million, added the official who asked to remain anonymous.
The tourism sector is one of the country’s main sources of foreign currency but has struggled since a 2011 uprising that ousted then president Hosni Mubarak. A total of 14.7 million people visited Egypt in 2010 before the uprising. (Reporting by Ehab Farouk Writing by Amina Ismail Editing by Andrew Heavens)
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/egypt-tourism/egypt-tourism-revenues-jump-83-pct-to-2-2-bln-in-q1-government-official-idUSL5N1SU131 |
Expect a commercially less strong World Cup: Adidas 12 Hours Ago Chief Executive Kasper Rorsted speaks about the upcoming soccer World Cup, saying that it will still be strong for his brand. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/05/03/expect-a-commercially-less-strong-world-cup-adidas.html |
KABUL (Reuters) - Rockets and heavy machines guns fired from Afghan government helicopters killed and wounded at least 107 boys and men attending a religious ceremony near the northern city of Kunduz last month, according to a United Nations report on Monday.
FILE PHOTO: Afghan security forces patrol in Kunduz, Afghanistan April 30, 2015. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani/File Photo On April 2, villagers in Dasht-i Archi district of Kunduz said dozens of people including many children were killed in an attack on a religious ceremony, prompting the UN to launch an investigation.
The UN report underlined the risks of a new strategy, developed with U.S. advisers, which has seen a big build up in Afghan air power, with rocket-equipped helicopters and attack aircraft deployed to try to break a stalemate with the Taliban.
“A key finding of this report is that the government used rockets and heavy machinegun fire on a religious gathering, resulting in high numbers of child casualties,” the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said.
It said at least 36 people, including 30 children, were killed and 71 wounded and there were questions “as to the government’s respect of the rules of precaution and proportionality under international humanitarian law”.
In October 2015, 42 people were killed in a U.S. airstrike on a hospital in Kunduz city run by medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres.
Investigators verified 107 victims but had received victims’ lists from various sources indicating over 200 casualties, the report said, noting that it did not claim to be providing final, verified civilian casualty figures.
It said there were serious concerns about the incident that required further investigation but said it was not in a position to determine whether the attack amounted to a violation of international law.
Last month the government said the attack was intended to hit members of a senior leadership group based in the Pakistani city of Quetta, who it said were in the area. It also targeted members of a Taliban “Red Unit”, or special forces group, that was planning an attack on Kunduz city, which has been overrun by insurgent forces twice since 2015.
According to the UN report, based on interviews with over 90 witnesses, the helicopters swooped down, firing rockets and .50 caliber machine guns into a crowd attending a so-called dastar bandi ceremony in Laghmani village, Dasht-e-Archi.
The ceremony celebrates boys who have learned the Koran by heart.
It said as many as 12 rockets may have been fired at the meeting, held in a field about the size of a football pitch, which was adjacent to a madrassa.
The helicopters continued to attack as people fled towards nearby roads and houses but the UN could not verify allegations that they deliberately targeted civilians and could not determine the civilian status of each person killed or injured.
In the wake of the attack, the government acknowledged that civilians had been killed and President Ashraf Ghani ordered an investigation but so far no results have been made public.
While overall civilian casualties this year have remained stable from last year, the UN had expressed concern over the high number of casualties from air attacks even before the Dasht-i Archi incident, with 67 deaths and 75 injuries in the first three months to the end of March.
Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-airstrike/afghan-gunships-killed-and-wounded-107-boys-and-men-in-attack-last-month-u-n-idUSKBN1I81XA |
May 24, 2018 / 10:18 AM / in 16 minutes EU antitrust regulators accept Gazprom concessions, no fine Reuters Staff 1 Min Read
BRUSSELS, May 24 (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators ended a seven-year-long investigation into Gazprom on Thursday after the Russian gas giant agreed to reforms aimed at bringing down gas prices and allowing rivals a foothold in eastern Europe.
The European Commission, which launched the case with dawn raids at 20 offices in 10 countries in 2011, said Gazprom’s concessions addressed its concerns over excessive pricing in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
The EU decision to accept Gazprom’s pledges has allowed the company to avoid a possible fine of as much as 10 percent of its global turnover, a move criticised by several of the governments and utilities concerned by the case.
Reuters was the first to report on April 3 about the deal between the EU competition enforcer and Gazprom, which supplies about a third of the EU’s gas and contributes 9 percent of Russian gross domestic product. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Alissa de Carbonnel) | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/eu-gazprom-antitrust/eu-antitrust-regulators-accept-gazprom-concessions-no-fine-idUSB5N1E0014 |
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle have asked a senior U.S. bishop to deliver the address at their wedding next Saturday.
The Reverend Michael Bruce Curry laughs as he waits for the traditional opening of the doors after arriving for his Installation ceremony at the Washington National Cathedral, in Washington, November 1, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Theiler/Files Harry, grandson of Queen Elizabeth and sixth-in-line to the throne, and Markle, star of U.S. TV drama “Suits”, will tie the knot next Saturday at Windsor Castle, home to British royals for nearly 1,000 years.
Kensington Palace said the Most Reverend Michael Bruce Curry would join Justin Welby, the spiritual head of the Anglican communion, for the wedding which is expected to be watched by millions of people around the world.
Curry, the 27th Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church, was the first African-American presiding bishop when elected in 2015.
Welby will preside over the exchange of vows, while the service itself will be conducted by the Dean of Windsor.
The Reverend Michael Bruce Curry gives a thumbs up as he arrives for his Installation ceremony at the Washington National Cathedral, in Washington, November 1, 2015. Files “The love that has brought and will bind Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle together has its source and origin in God, and is the key to life and happiness,” Curry said in a statement. “And so we celebrate and pray for them today.”
Markle was reported to have been baptised by Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in March.
The United States-based Episcopal Church is a constituent member of the global Anglican Communion, of which the Church of England is the Mother Church.
The Reverend Michael Bruce Curry applauds as he begins his sermon after his Installation ceremony, at the Washington National Cathedral, in Washington, November 1, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Theiler/Files According to its website, Curry has been active in issues of social justice including immigration policy and marriage equality.
Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Ros Russell
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-royals-wedding-bishop/prince-harry-and-meghan-markle-ask-u-s-bishop-to-deliver-wedding-address-idINKCN1ID0JR |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge expressed skepticism on Wednesday toward a request by lawyers for President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort to suppress evidence seized by FBI agents working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
The hearing before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson gave Manafort another opportunity to hinder the criminal case against him. Jackson last week refused to dismiss the charges, which include conspiring to launder money, conspiring to defraud the United States and failing to register as a foreign agent.
Two indictments against Manafort, this one in Washington and another in Virginia, arose from Mueller’s ongoing investigation into potential collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia, a probe that could threaten his presidency. He is the most senior member of Trump’s campaign to be indicted, though the charges do not relate to campaign activities.
Trump has denied collusion with Russia and called Mueller’s investigation a “witch hunt.”
Manafort, trying to deprive prosecutors of what could be pivotal evidence in his Washington trial scheduled for September, is asserting that his rights against unreasonable searches and seizures under the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment were violated in the 2017 FBI raids.
Manafort’s lawyers told the judge the FBI conducted an illegal warrantless search in May 2017 on a storage unit by getting one of Manafort’s low-level employees to unlock it and let an agent look inside. The agent later obtained a warrant to seize business records stored there.
Defense lawyers said the employee was permitted only to go inside the unit “as directed by Manafort” in the course of his employment, and could not give lawful consent for the search.
Jackson seemed highly dubious about that claim.
“The lease says on its face he’s the occupant,” the judge said. “He’s named as the occupant and he has a key.”
One of Manafort’s attorneys, Thomas Zehnle, told Jackson that “warrantless searches are disfavored” by courts. “Well, consensual searches are not disfavored,” Jackson replied.
U.S. President Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort arrives for a motions hearing regarding evidence in his case at U.S. District Court in Washington, U.S., May 23, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas Jackson also expressed skepticism as Manafort’s lawyers tried to challenge the scope of warrants issued both for the storage locker and Manafort’s Virginia home.
‘REALLY BROAD’ In the July 2017 search of the residence, Manafort’s lawyers contend the FBI improperly seized every single electronic and media device there, and has not returned copies of data unrelated to the case.
“This is a really broad warrant,” defense lawyer Richard Westling said. “It allows me to go in the door and look at every piece of paper in the place and every piece of digital media.”
Jackson noted that devices deemed irrelevant for the case have been returned, and the government also imaged the computers and created search terms to “cull out” materials covered in the case.
“They made an effort to only look at what was covered,” she said. “Where are his constitutional rights violated?”
Manafort performed lobbying work for a pro-Russian former Ukrainian president before serving as Trump’s campaign chairman in 2016. He has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors also said they expect to call another Manafort attorney, Melissa Laurenza, to testify against him about false statements he allegedly asked her to file with the Justice Department related to his retroactively registering as a foreign agent for Ukraine.
Slideshow (2 Images) Prosecutor Greg Andres said Laurenza is not considered a co-conspirator and was merely carrying out her client’s orders.
Laurenza did not reply to an email seeking comment.
Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Will Dunham
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-manafort/ex-trump-campaign-chief-seeks-to-suppress-evidence-seized-by-fbi-idUSKCN1IO19F |
May 15 (Reuters) - Flanigan’s Enterprises Inc:
* FLANIGAN’S REPORTS EARNINGS * FLANIGAN’S ENTERPRISES INC - QTRLY EARNINGS PER SHARE $ 0.75
* FLANIGAN’S ENTERPRISES INC QTRLY TOTAL REVENUE $29.5 MILLION VERSUS $27.4 MILLION Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-flanigans-enterprises-qtrly-earnin/brief-flanigans-enterprises-qtrly-earnings-per-share-0-75-idUSASC0A2I3 |
Why Ethiopian farmers choose Khat over coffee 2:39pm BST - 01:36
Coffee farmers in Ethiopia say climate change and low prices have made it difficult for them to depend on coffee in recent years and as a result many of them in the southern Oromia region are turning to khat instead. As Sonia Legg reports, the narcotic - a flowering plant, native to east Africa - is illegal to chew in many countries but not in the Horn of Africa, where it is an increasingly profitable option for farmers.
Coffee farmers in Ethiopia say climate change and low prices have made it difficult for them to depend on coffee in recent years and as a result many of them in the southern Oromia region are turning to khat instead. As Sonia Legg reports, the narcotic - a flowering plant, native to east Africa - is illegal to chew in many countries but not in the Horn of Africa, where it is an increasingly profitable option for farmers. //reut.rs/2G67SsZ | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/video/2018/05/11/why-ethiopian-farmers-choose-khat-over-c?videoId=425885670 |
(Adds additional Quote: and information)
BEIRUT, May 9 (Reuters) - Iran’s Supreme Leader called U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments on withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear agreement “silly and superficial”, said he did not trust the European countries that were sticking with the agreement, and cast doubt on the future of the deal.
The comments came on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s official website on Wednesday, where Khamenei reiterated his distaste for the agreement.
“I said many times from the first day: don’t trust America,” Khamenei said. And he added, “I don’t trust these three countries,” Britain, France and Germany.
All three are parties to the agreement and were trying after Trump’s withdrawal to salvage the deal. But Khamenei sounded dubious about their efforts.
“If you can’t get a definite guarantee, then the nuclear deal can not be continued,” he said.
Khamenei heaped scorn on Trump, saying “You heard last night that the president of America made some silly and superficial comments.
“He had maybe more than 10 lies in his comments. He threatened the regime and the people, saying I’ll do this and that. Mr. Trump, I tell you on behalf of the Iranian people: You’ve made a mistake.
“This man will turn to dust and his body will become food for snakes and ants,” he added. “And the Islamic Republic will still be standing.”
Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran, reluctantly gave his backing for the Iran nuclear deal and has publicly criticized the U.S. multiple times for not following through on its promises under the agreement.
Raising the issue of Iran’s nuclear programme was an excuse to curb the Islamic Republic’s regional influence and missile programme, Khamenei said. Accepting negotiations on its missiles and regional influence would mean Iran had to make endless concessions, he said.
“We accepted the nuclear deal, but the enmity against the Islamic Republic did not end,” Khamenei said.
Iran needs to preserve its nuclear programme because the country will need 20,000 megawatts of electricity in the next few years, he said.
Reporting By Babak Dehghanpisheh, editing by Larry King
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/iran-nuclear-supreme-leader/update-1-trump-speech-silly-and-superficial-irans-supreme-leader-says-idUSL8N1SG3QF |
LOS ANGELES, May 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Unitas Global , a leading enterprise hybrid cloud solution provider, announces today that Jarrett Appleby has been named an independent board director. Appleby is a technology and IT industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience, including C-suite roles in marketing, operations and strategy. In this role, Appleby will work alongside fellow board members to establish policies for corporate management and advise on strategic planning.
Unitas Global announces that Jarrett Appleby has been named an independent board director
“Unitas Global is honored to welcome Jarrett Appleby to our board of directors as we continue to strengthen our position in the rapidly growing cloud market,” says Patrick Shutt, CEO of Unitas Global. “With his years of experience in the IT industry, Jarrett brings a track record of success, achieving significant revenue growth and operational efficiencies for leading data center providers and IT organizations around the world. We look forward to receiving his valuable input regarding Unitas Global’s business strategies as we strive to expand our global customer base.”
Appleby was Chief Operating Officer of Digital Realty, responsible for corporate strategy and global operations, including data center, technical and customer operations, and global design and construction delivery. He has also served as Chief Operating Officer of CoreSite Realty where he led the company's sales and marketing teams, as well as operations, engineering and facilities management across eight markets in the U.S. In addition, Appleby was Chief Marketing Officer of Equinix, and Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at both Reliance Globalcom and FLAG Telecom. Currently, he is CEO of the Appleby Strategy Group, LLC, a CEO and board advisory business for digital infrastructure that works with leading private equity and technology companies interested in accelerating growth through investment.
“I’m excited for the opportunity to work with an innovative company that truly understands and appreciates the value of combining infrastructure with automation and managed services to meet the needs of enterprises migrating to the cloud,” says Appleby. “In this new role, I look forward to leveraging my extensive industry experience to provide the Unitas Global team with strategic insight and a fresh perspective on effective growth strategies.”
“Jarrett has worked with some of the largest and most well-known data center providers in the world, helping them to plan and execute strategies for increased revenue, as well as long-term growth and success,” says Paul Weinstein, General Partner of Azure Capital Partners and Chairman of the Board at Unitas Global. “It’s with great pleasure that we welcome Jarrett to the board of directors, and I personally look forward to working with him to help drive continued growth and expansion, and to further solidify Unitas Global’s industry-leading position within the global cloud market.”
Unitas Global is attending ITW 2018 to meet with global carriers, and data center and colocation providers to expand its partner reach and enable networks to meet the needs of global enterprise businesses connecting to the cloud. To learn more about Unitas Global, you can request a meeting with the team at ITW by clicking here , or visit www.unitasglobal.com .
About Unitas Global
Unitas Global is a leading provider of enterprise hybrid cloud solutions. Each solution provides clients with custom, highly secure, and dedicated cloud-based IT environments that are easy-to-consume, fully managed, and backed by an end-to-end SLA, guaranteeing application uptime. By offloading day-to-day infrastructure operations to Unitas Global, our clients are able to refocus and optimize their internal IT resources toward their business-centric initiatives. Unitas is headquartered in Los Angeles, with clients and locations spanning the globe. For more information, please visit www.unitasglobal.com .
Contact:
iMiller Public Relations for Unitas Global
+1 866.307.2510
[email protected]
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/e1549f87-047a-42bc-9bb7-d964285afec0
Source: Unitas Global | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/07/globe-newswire-unitas-global-welcomes-jarrett-appleby-as-independent-board-director.html |
BOCA RATON, Fla., May 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MedAmerica Properties Inc. (OTC: MAMP) ("MedAmerica" or the "Company") today announced that Vineet Bedi, CFA has been appointed to the Board of Directors, effective May 23, 2018.
Gary O. Marino, the Company's Chairman of the Board of Directors, commented, "We are excited that Vineet has agreed to join our Board of Directors. His extensive experience in public and private market real estate, capital raising and deal structuring will be of significant importance over the coming months as we transform the Company in its path forward as a leading real estate company."
Mr. Bedi commented, "I are extremely excited to join the Board of Directors of MedAmerica Properties, Inc. I have long shared Gary, Joe and the Board of Directors' vision that fragmentation within the medical real estate space, especially at a smaller asset size. holds great potential to capitalize on the spread between public and private market real estate values. MedAmerica is a compelling value proposition with a wide range of real estate opportunities in a large but untapped sandbox, a lean and high-quality team of employees and a platform to focus on long-term NAV growth for stakeholders."
New Executive Biography
Mr. Vineet P. Bedi has over 15 years of experience in real estate investing, private equity, capital markets and public securities investing. Mr. Bedi served as the Founder, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of KRV Capital LP, an alternative asset management firm investing in real estate and hard assets across the capital structure with a focus on liquid and illiquid deep value investment opportunities. Previously, Mr. Bedi served as a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Guggenheim Partners where he managed an opportunistic portfolio in the public and private real estate markets. Prior, Mr. Bedi was a Principal and senior investment professional at High Rise Capital Management LP, a multi-billion dollar opportunity fund investing in the public and private real estate markets. Mr. Bedi began his career in the investment banking and proprietary trading groups at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and has held senior positions with Carlson Capital LP, Schonfeld Group Holdings and Booth Park Capital Management LLC. Mr. Bedi serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Finance at the NYU-Stern School of Business. Mr. Bedi is a graduate of the NYU-Stern School of Business and is a CFA® charterholder.
About the Company
MedAmerica Properties Inc. is a Delaware corporation pursuing the acquisition and management of well-located medical office buildings with the intention of aggregating multiple properties with strong fundamentals in attractive geographic locations, in the United States.
SAFE HARBOR REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
Although we believe that the acquisition and ownership of medical office buildings is fundamentally sound, we cannot assure you that we will be successful in this endeavor or that we can locate, finance and acquire these properties. Some of the statements that we make in this presentation, including statements about our confidence in the Company's prospects and strategies, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are statements other than historical information or statements about our current condition. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terms such as "believes," "contemplates," "expects," "may," "will," "could," "should," "would," or "anticipates," other similar phrases, or the negatives of these terms. We have based the forward-looking statements on our current expectations, estimates and projections about us. We caution you that these statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties. We have based many of these forward-looking statements on assumptions about future events that may prove to be inaccurate. Accordingly, our actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what we have expressed or forecast in the forward-looking statements. Any differences could result from a variety of factors, including our ability to (i) continue to successfully raise capital to fund our operations; (ii) successfully find medical office buildings to acquire; (iii) comply with SEC regulations and filing requirements applicable to us as a public company; and (iv) any of our other plans, objectives, expectations and intentions contained in this presentation that are not historical facts. You should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, which reflect our analysis only as of the date of this release. The risks and uncertainties listed above and other documents that we file with the SEC, including our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and any current reports on Form 8-K, must be carefully considered by any investor or potential investor in the Company. We undertake no obligation to update forward-looking statements, except as required by law.
View original content: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/medamerica-properties-inc-appoints-real-estate-veteran-vineet-bedi-cfa-to-the-board-of-directors-300654947.html
SOURCE MedAmerica Properties Inc. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/25/pr-newswire-medamerica-properties-inc-appoints-real-estate-veteran-vineet-bedi-cfa-to-the-board-of-directors.html |
At the start of 2018, Dallas Wolford felt inspired to declutter. "I realized I had all these things I didn't need," she tells CNBC Make It . Rather than tossing old clothes, kitchenware and tech gadgets, she decided to try to sell them.
Having just finished med school, "I hadn't been making money," the 28-year-old says. "I'd just been spending a lot of money on education. And with that mounting debt, I wanted to slowly chip away at bills and school loans, so I created a huge pile of things to sell."
She downloaded the selling app Mercari and started listing "a huge array of things. Anything from Nike tennis shoes to Kendra Scott jewelry." By April, after minimal effort and just four months of posting items on the app, she had an extra $2,400 in her bank account. The fact that the process was so efficient was important: After all, "time is a luxury and not something I have a lot of," says Wolford, who is currently studying for the boards.
If you're looking for an easy way to make some extra cash, follow Wolford's top tips for selling anything in your closet or garage online.
1. Sell the small stuff
Wolford's impressive profit this year "is not all from big ticket items," she says. "I did sell one laptop, but some of my items sell for just $10."
Sales of kitchenware or clothes can add up: "Say you sell something for $10. After shipping and the seller fee, you'd maybe have $6. If you sell one item a day, after 10 days, you have $60 in your account that you would not have before. After 15 days, you'd have almost $100."
Even if you don't earn thousands like Wolford has, an extra $60 to $100 is still something: "When it comes to those little items, I think people oftentimes think it's not worth selling. But think of what you could do for your kids for $60? Or what could you buy for your husband for Valentine's Day that you couldn't before."
Courtesy of Dallas Wolford 28-year-old Dallas Wolford 2. Give lots of detail
Wolford has found that items are more likely to sell when she includes a description with specific details, like the brand of the item. "People want to know exactly what it is they're buying," she says, adding that brands such as Nike, Lululemon and Patagonia sell quickly.
3. Be open-minded
"I can't tell you how many things I've sold that I literally thought, 'Nobody is going to buy this,'" says Wolford. "I had athletic shorts that had paint on the side and somebody bought them. I don't think people realize that somebody will find value in things that you don't find value in anymore."
Plus, "you have nothing to lose other than a minute of time from uploading it, and potentially $5 to $50 to gain."
show chapters This 28-year-old's company makes millions buying from Walmart and selling on Amazon 11:46 AM ET Thu, 2 Nov 2017 | 01:40 4. Don't delay
"The biggest thing is to just dive in and not put it off for later," says Wolford. Make a goal of selling one item a day, she says. And if you're having a hard time collecting things to sell, try following Wolford's rule of thumb: "If you haven't used it, touched it or worn it in a year, it's got to go. Don't hang onto things because you think you're going to use it. If you haven't used it, you're still not going to use it."
There are other apps besides Mercari that make it easy to sell used items, including Letgo and OfferUp . If you're selling clothes, shoes and accessories, try sites like Poshmark , thredUP and TheRealReal .
Keep in mind that even if your apartment is clean and tidy, chances are "there is a bunch of stuff you don't use that somebody else could find valuable," says Wolford.
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Don't miss: 6 ways to make money without much effort
Video created by Richard Washington .
show chapters How to start a business with less than $1,000 3:17 PM ET Thu, 12 April 2018 | 03:13 | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/30/top-tips-from-a-28-year-old-who-made-2400-selling-things-online.html |
ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The world map, beamed on a large display screen, shows a stark contrast between Latin America, where dark colors cover most of the continent, and the rest of the world, where there are few.
This map’s focus is nations that have laws and policies supporting eco-farming techniques, a practice known as “agroecology”. Fewer than 30 countries worldwide have such laws, and more than half of those that do are in Latin America.
But in practice, campaigners told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, some Latin American governments are ignoring these laws and policies, while Brazil is accused of rolling them back.
That threatens the environment and, cumulatively, the livelihoods of tens of thousands of farmers, they said.
“For the last three years ... we have been losing resources to sustain agroecology policies,” said Maria Noel Salgado, a Uruguayan farmer and coordinator with the Agroecological Movement of Latin America and the Caribbean (MAELA), a network of indigenous people and small-scale farmers and fishermen.
“The laws are there but there are no resources. We now have a lot of governments who only believe in the power of markets and biotechnology,” she added, referring to the rise of conservative leaders across the region.
Agroecology, as its name implies, shuns chemical inputs. Instead it uses nature-friendly methods such as planting trees on farms and rotating crops to improve the soil and protect against pests.
Its proponents say it can provide more nutritious and environmentally-friendly food for a growing world, increase farmers’ earnings and make farms resilient to climate change.
“There is growing evidence that these systems keep carbon in the ground, support biodiversity, rebuild soil fertility and sustain yields over time, providing a basis for secure farm livelihoods,” said a 2016 report by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food).
GOOD ON PAPER... The world map showing Latin America apparently leading the way was the centerpiece at an international meeting on agroecology in early April, organized by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The laws and policies that are now in place in the region are the result of decades of campaigning by farmers and campaigners, Angela Cordeiro, a Brazilian agronomist, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the meeting.
“Despite the fact that we have a very strong agribusiness sector in Brazil ... civil society and social movements managed to influence some laws,” Cordeiro said.
Ross Mary Borja, director of Ecuador-based charity EkoRural, said her country’s progressive laws were due to pressure: its 2008 constitution, which includes specific rights for nature, was a result of constant campaigning by groups, including hers.
Both Brazil and Nicaragua have laws and policies on agroecology and organic production, for example, while El Salvador is considering a similar approach.
Brazil, for instance, stipulates that 30 percent of food for its school-feeding program must come from family farms, which earn a premium if they use agroecology.
And in December, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), an intergovernmental grouping of 33 countries, agreed to strengthen policies “that contribute to the development of agroecological family farming”.
...LESS GOOD IN PRACTICE That said, countries’ implementation of laws that support agroecology and sustainable agriculture has been uneven, said Jean-Francois Le Coq of the French Agricultural Research Centre for Development (CIRAD), a French government agency.
Nicaragua has not implemented its agroecology law at the grassroots level, for example, and Costa Rica has only partly implemented its law to promote organic agriculture, said Le Coq, whose organization in 2017 studied how agroecology is practised in eight Latin American countries.
Another problem, campaigners said, is the gap between what is in the law and what happens on the ground.
Despite Ecuador’s constitutional protection for nature, for example, its biodiversity is under threat from industrial agriculture, oil exploration, mining and poverty, they said.
There are other gaps too, said Stephen Sherwood, Borja’s colleague at EkoRural and an organic farmer.
Instead of promoting cheaper and proven solutions - such as using crop residues to improve soil and non-chemical means of pest control - Ecuador’s government offers farmers free synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, he said.
Borja said the government’s motives were flawed.
“The government thinks small farmers are inefficient so the way to help them is through these (giveaways),” said Borja.
Ecuador’s agriculture ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
Borja said support for family farmers to follow an agro-ecology path is key given that they produce 60 to 70 percent of food consumed in Ecuador. That holds true elsewhere too: FAO figures show smallholders in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa provide up to 80 percent of the food supply.
Meanwhile in Brazil, the national policy on agroecology is in limbo, said Cordeiro, and austerity measures are affecting the Food Acquisition Program, a public procurement program based on buying produce from local family farmers.
A change in government has caused support for agroecology to wane, she added.
In a statement Brazil’s ministry of agriculture acknowledged government purchases had suffered budget cuts, but insisted its commitments to agroecology were “concrete”, and said the national policy had been in force since its publication in 2012.
Changes in governments, dominance of industrial agriculture and the power of agrochemical businesses play a role in the challenges agroecology is facing in Latin America, but there is hope, said CIRAD’s Le Coq, who is based in Colombia.
Although agroecology remains small-scale, many policies are in place, he said, and there is growing recognition it could help to solve the region’s environmental and social challenges.
Reporting By Thin Lei Win, Additional Reporting by Karla Mendes in Brazil, Editing by Robert Carmichael. 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
Our | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-latam-agriculture-environment/campaigners-fear-latin-america-is-rolling-back-on-eco-farming-promises-idUSKBN1I41QR |
Swansea City midfielder Britton announces retirement Reuters Staff 2 Min Read
(Reuters) - Swansea City midfielder Leon Britton will retire from football at the end of the season after spending 15 years across two spells with the Welsh club. FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - FA Cup Fifth Round Replay - Swansea City vs Sheffield Wednesday - Liberty Stadium, Swansea, Britain - February 27, 2018 Swansea City's Leon Britton in action with Sheffield Wednesday's David Jones Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Boyers
The 35-year-old made 536 appearances since initially moving from West Ham United in 2002 on a one-month loan.
Britton played a crucial role in Swansea avoiding relegation from the Football League and then winning three promotions to the top-flight, thus becoming one of the few players ever to represent his side in all four of the English divisions.
He featured in the team that won the 2013 League Cup, Swansea’s first major honour, and was part of their Europa League adventure the following season.
“I have decided that this year will be my last as a Swans player,” Britton said in a statement on the club website.
“It’s a sad day obviously, but this season has been very difficult for me. I have had a lot of niggling injuries and I haven’t played a lot when I have been fit.
“I have pushed my body through a lot, playing with injuries and injections and what have you over the years, and I think now is the right time.”
Britton has made four Premier League appearances this season and since the arrival of manager Carlos Carvalhal in December has featured just once, in an FA Cup win over Sheffield Wednesday. Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Ian Chadband | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-soccer-england-swa-britton/swansea-city-midfielder-britton-announces-retirement-idUKKBN1IC1HR |
LONDON, May 21 (Reuters) - Pivot Power plans to develop a 2-gigawatt (GW) network of grid-scale batteries and rapid electric vehicle charging stations in Britain, it said on Monday.
The British-based firm plans 45 sites, each with a grid-scale 50-megawatt battery, at sub-stations which are connected to the grid.
The 1.6-billion pound ($2.2 billion) programme will provide infrastructure to support the take-up of electric vehicles and help reduce strain on the grid from the demands of massive EV charging and intermittent renewable energy.
Britain has said it will ban all new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040.
Pivot Power said the network will be the world’s biggest, storing enough power to supply 235,000 average homes a day.
It aims to have operational batteries at 10 sites in 18 months, while a site on the south coast of England could be up-and-running by the middle of 2019, subject to planning approval.
Last December in Australia, Tesla Inc. switched on a 129-MW hour battery to help feed the country’s power grid. ($1 = 0.7448 pounds) (Reporting by Nina Chestney Editing by Alexander Smith)
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/pivotpower-energy/pivot-power-to-build-british-battery-network-for-electric-cars-idUSL5N1SS333 |
22 Hours Ago | 04:26
Netflix shares just hit their 27 th all-time high of 2018, and one Netflix bull sees even more explosive gains ahead.
"I think by year-end we could see another 30 to 40 percent price appreciation from here," Mark Tepper , founder and president of Strategic Wealth Partners, told CNBC's " Trading Nation " on Thursday.
Such an increase on top of year-to-date gains would easily make Netflix the best performer in the S&P 500 for 2018. The streaming giant is currently the benchmark index's top performer, having already advanced 83 percent since the beginning of the year.
"Netflix is the real deal," Tepper said. "Really the key number that drives Netflix is their subscriber base. They currently have 125 million subscribers globally. ... They also increased their average price by 14 percent and they're just absolutely killing it internationally."
Netflix has disclosed reliably solid subscriber growth in recent years. The company is expected to report 24 percent domestic growth and 59 percent growth internationally over fiscal 2018.
"They could easily double their prices today and nobody would bat an eye so they've got this perfect combination of an addictive product along with pricing power that makes them a buy even at today's level," said Tepper.
The options market is also reflecting market optimism surrounding the red-hot stock, said Stacey Gilbert , market strategist at Susquehanna.
"From an options perspective, flow continues to be bullish," Gilbert said on Thursday's "Trading Nation." "Fast forward to January of next year, what is the probability that Netflix is back to the levels that we saw Dec. 31 of 2017? Right now the options market is suggesting that's less than 10 percent."
In fact, the options market is betting on a big swing higher from here, according to Gilbert.
"What's the probability that Netflix actually doubles?" she asked. "Right now the options market is pricing in around a 35 percent probability for that, so overall bullish sentiment continues in the options."
Netflix shares hit a new all-time high Friday. The stock was on track for a weekly gain of more than 8 percent. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/25/netflix-could-rise-by-another-30-percent-in-2018-market-watcher-says.html |
May 10, 2018 / 11:06 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Wells Fargo trims expected hit from regulatory cap on assets Ross Kerber 4 Min Read
BOSTON (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co ( WFC.N ) on Thursday said a cap on the bank’s growth imposed by regulators after sales practices scandals would hurt earnings less than it thought this year, and forecast 2019 expenses below Wall Street expectations. FILE PHOTO: A Wells Fargo bank sign is pictured in downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S. August 10, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
The lender is under Federal Reserve orders to keep its assets below $1.95 trillion until governance and controls improve, and said at its annual investor day that net interest income would remain flat in 2018.
Analysts were upbeat about the expense forecast and improved take on the fallout from the regulatory restrictions, but some had been hoping for more details on possible improvement in revenue.
“While we expect the market to view this financial outlook favorably, (portfolio managers) keep on telling us they need to see the negative headlines abate ... and revenue growth to return,” Barclays analyst Jason Goldberg wrote in a note to clients.
Wells Fargo Chief Executive Tim Sloan said the bank is making plans to operate under the asset cap for the first part of 2019 and acknowledged “we have not executed as well as we could have” on compliance and risk oversight.
The bank previously expected the net income hit after taxes from the asset cap would be $300 million to $400 million, but lower deposit and loan growth gave it room under the limit and caused it to cut that figure to less than $100 million, Treasurer Neal Blinde said.
Well Fargo said net interest income, or the difference in what it pays for deposits and what it earns on loans, will likely be relatively flat in 2018 as lower earning assets and higher deposit costs offset higher interest rates.
The bank’s shares were up 1.3 percent in afternoon trading.
The bank forecast 2019 noninterest expenses of between $52 billion and $53 billion, excluding litigation and remediation items, slightly lower than analyst expectations of $53.2 billion according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Wells Fargo Chief Financial Officer John Shrewsberry said the bank would not provide updated guidance on its efficiency ratio because it gave the expense component. Investors and analysts have closely watched for improvements in that key measure of costs per dollar of revenue since the sales scandal erupted in 2016.
Shrewsberry said under one scenario for 2020 it is possible the bank would have expenses of $50 billion to $51 billion, and revenue consistent with 2017 results, but cautioned that was not a formal projection.
Analysts had said they would be looking for signs of when revenues will stabilize after being hurt by weak lending and fee income and the Federal Reserve order.
Barclays analyst Goldberg noted that two profitability targets Wells Fargo gave on Thursday roughly met his expectations: a two-year return on equity of 12 percent to 15 percent and two-year return on average tangible common equity of 14 percent to 17 percent.
Mary Mack, senior executive vice president for community banking and consumer lending, said voluntary turnover among branch employees was nine percentage points lower in the first quarter of 2018 compared to the first quarter of 2014.
The attrition rate for consumer primary checking accounts has also fallen over the same period, she said. The sales scandal involved the unauthorized opening of customer accounts by employees, among other issues.
Mack said Wells Fargo is focused on helping customers solve specific problems, not just trying to sell new products.
“We evolved from being really nice. Right after the settlement we became the nicest bank in America,” she said. Reporting by Ross Kerber; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Bernadette Baum | ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wells-fargo-investors/expectations-capped-wells-fargo-investors-await-details-on-costs-idUSKBN1IB1FR |
ROME (Reuters) - Carlo Cottarelli, a former International Monetary Fund official, gave up his mandate to form a cabinet of technocrats on Thursday, opening the way for law professor Giuseppe Conte to head an anti-establishment coalition government.
Former senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official Carlo Cottarelli arrives to talk to the media after a meeting with Italy's President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal Palace in Rome, Italy, May 28, 2018. REUTERS/Tony Gentile Conte’s first effort to put together a government, after being nominated eight days ago, was thwarted at the weekend by Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who rejected his eurosceptic candidate for the economy ministry.
The new government will include a different choice for the pivotal ministry, economics professor Giovanni Tria, 5-Star and League sources said.
“A political government is by far the best solution for the country,” Cottarelli said after giving up his mandate.
Reporting by Steve Scherer
| ashraq/financial-news-articles | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-cottarelli-quit/italys-pm-designate-quits-mandate-opens-way-for-5-star-league-government-idUSKCN1IW2MX |
ATLANTA, May 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HD Supply Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq:HDS), one of the largest industrial distributors in North America, today announced that the company is planning to release its first-quarter 2018 results via press release on Tuesday, June 5 th , at 6 a.m. (ET) to be followed by a conference call at 8 a.m. (ET). The conference call and presentation materials can be accessed via webcast by logging on from the Investor Relations section of the company's website at hdsupply.com . The online replay will remain available for a limited time following the call.
To learn more about HD Supply , please visit the company's website at hdsupply.com . HD Supply uses its website as a channel of distribution for material company information. Financial and other material information regarding HD Supply is routinely posted on the company's website and is readily accessible.
About HD Supply:
HD Supply ( www.hdsupply.com ) is one of the largest industrial distributors in North America. The company provides a broad range of products and value-add services to approximately 500,000 customers with leadership positions in maintenance, repair and operations, and specialty construction sectors. Through approximately 275 branches and 44 distribution centers, in the U.S. and Canada, the company's more than 11,000 associates provide localized, customer-driven services including jobsite delivery, will call or direct-ship options, diversified logistics and innovative solutions that contribute to its customers' success.
Investor Contact:
Charlotte Mclaughlin
HD Supply Investor Relations
770-852-9100
[email protected]
Media Contact:
Quiana Pinckney, APR
HD Supply Public Relations
770-852-9057
[email protected]
Source:HD Supply Holdings, Inc. | ashraq/financial-news-articles | http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/17/globe-newswire-hd-supply-holdings-inc-announces-fiscal-2018-first-quarter-earnings-release-date-and-conference-call.html |
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