Welcome to Chariot
Chariot Oil and Gas Limited (AIM: CHAR) is an independent oil and gas exploration company with interests in Namibia. Enigma Oil and Gas Exploration (Pty) Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chariot and is the operator of the licence areas.
Chariot has highly prospective licences in Namibia – strategically positioned within the South Atlantic Margins (counterpart margin to that of Brazil where major discoveries have been announced). All of these blocks are in the exploration phase and Chariot is focused on investigating these using state of the art technologies which have previously led to giant oil finds.
Latest news
14 Oct 2009 Holding in Company
13 Oct 2009 Statement re. Share price movement
09 Oct 2009 Board Change
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Annual Report 2009: Unlocking Namibia’s Oil & Gas Potential
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16:35 27/10/2009
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Shares in issue: 141,173,471
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Please God let these deals close!
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
And the fact that I think I am following
your will does not mean that I am
actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please
you does in fact please you.
And I hope that I have that desire in all
that I am doing.
And I know that if I do this, you
will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always
though I may seem to be lost
and in the shadow of death, I will
not fear, for you are ever with me
and you will never leave me
to face my perils alone.
thomas merton
I have no idea where I am going
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
And the fact that I think I am following
your will does not mean that I am
actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please
you does in fact please you.
And I hope that I have that desire in all
that I am doing.
And I know that if I do this, you
will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always
though I may seem to be lost
and in the shadow of death, I will
not fear, for you are ever with me
and you will never leave me
to face my perils alone.
thomas merton
Monday, October 19, 2009
China is buying African oil interests.
China May Stumble in Race With Rivals for African Oil (Update3)
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By Carli Lourens and John Duce
Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- China’s plans to buy into oil fields in Africa may suffer a third setback in as many months if Exxon Mobil Corp. succeeds in snapping up drilling rights in Ghana, one of the continent’s newest oil nations.
Closely held Kosmos Energy LLC said last week it agreed to sell its stake in Ghana’s Jubilee oil field to Exxon Mobil, which may thwart ambitions in the same area by Cnooc Ltd., the listed arm of China National Offshore Oil Corp. While Ghanaian government officials say the Exxon deal, worth about $4 billion according to a person familiar with the transaction, has not been officially approved, Chinese explorers have hit hurdles since July on other oil deals in Angola and Libya.
At stake is China’s ability to secure fuel for its economy, which expanded 7.9 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier. China’s oil companies in Africa are diversifying from construction projects as a means to gain access to mineral resources, and turning to strategies that include Western deal structures and local banks. In the process, they are competing with some of the world’s biggest oil companies in the U.S. and Europe also seeking resources in the region.
“The Chinese are frustrated that they’re not doing more deals,” said Kobus van der Wath, group managing director of The Beijing Axis, which advises Chinese companies expanding overseas. “The interest, intent and general capacity to do deals is far greater.” He estimates non-financial investments in Africa may climb as high as $3 billion this year, double the 2008 level.
Secure Supplies
Since Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited seven African nations in 2006 and promised to double aid, establish a $5 billion investment fund and provide $3 billion in loans, China’s energy companies have announced plans to spend at least $16 billion on oil and gas fields on the continent.
“Chinese oil companies are very keen to gain stakes in large oilfields that are nearing production or are in the development stages,” said Thomas Grieder, a London-based analyst at market intelligence firm IHS Global Insight. “The government is keen to secure long-term supplies.”
China’s economy will need more than 11 million barrels of oil a day in five years, 38 percent more than last year, according to Paul Ting, president of New Jersey-based Paul Ting Energy Vision LLC, a Chinese oil and gas consultant.
On Aug. 27, Cnooc said it will step up exploration and acquisitions to meet fuel demand in China. Chairman Fu Chengyu said the company changed its overseas strategy to focus on taking stakes in ventures rather than buying out companies after failing to acquire Unocal Corp. of the U.S. in 2005.
Cnooc shares in Hong Kong more than doubled over the past year and closed at HK$12.42 today.
Cnooc-Ghana Talks
On Oct. 14, Ghana’s Energy Ministry spokesman Michael Sarpong said Cnooc was in talks with Ghanaian officials, without giving details.
His comment followed a Wall Street Journal report on Oct. 12 that said Cnooc was negotiating with Ghana National Petroleum Corp. to bid for Kosmos’s stake in Jubilee. Xiao Zongwei, a spokesman for Cnooc, declined to comment on the article, which cited unidentified people.
Ghana National Petroleum, known as GNPC, is “still in discussions” with Kosmos to acquire the stake, Thomas Manu, its director of exploration and production, said Oct. 13. “GNPC will acquire the stake and then consider proposals from other companies” to take on as partners, he said.
Further south off Angola, Cnooc’s $1.3 billion bid to buy 20 percent of an oil block from Marathon Oil Corp. may be held up after Marathon said the Angolan government and other partners have rights of first refusal. That bid was announced in July with China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., known as Sinopec.
Sinopec in Hong Kong rose 23 percent in the past year and closed at HK$7.06 today.
‘Intense’ Competition
The competition for overseas energy assets is “intense,” Su Shulin, President of Sinopec Group, said in an interview in Beijing Oct. 15. “There are opportunities in overseas acquisitions, but there are also many people looking at them.”
Cnooc’s Xiao declined to comment on reports the deal to sell Marathon Oil’s stake to Cnooc and Sinopec has been delayed by Angola’s government. Huang Wensheng, spokesman for Sinopec, said the company has no information on whether Angola has blocked the deal and declined to comment further.
Separately, Libya vetoed a C$499 million ($482 million) bid last month by China National Petroleum Corp., the Asian nation’s biggest oil and gas company, for Calgary-based Verenex Energy Inc., which has stakes in the North African country.
China National Offshore Oil expressed interest in Tullow Oil Plc’s oil finds in Uganda as the U.K. explorer with the most licenses in Africa started compiling a short list of potential bidders for a stake in a project in the country.
Lake Albert
Tullow said Sept. 17 the Ngassa oil field in Uganda may be the largest discovery in the Lake Albert Rift Basin. The Chinese explorer is interested in investing in the project, according to Brian Glover, Tullow Uganda’s country manager.
Tullow said about 10 companies had pre-qualified to work on the field. He was commenting after Dow Jones on Oct. 2 cited an unnamed official at Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s office saying Cnooc had held talks with Uganda on joining a project. Tamale Mirundi, a spokesman for Museveni, would neither confirm nor deny talks, while Cnooc’s Xiao declined to comment.
In West Africa, China Petrochemical Corp., or Sinopec Group, the nation’s second-largest oil company, acquired Swiss- based Addax Petroleum Corp. this year for C$8.3 billion ($8 billion), adding oil reserves in Nigeria, Cameroon and Gabon.
China National Offshore Oil is also among companies in talks to buy 16 production licenses in the West African nation, Olusegun Adeniyi, a spokesman for Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar’Adua, said in an e-mail on Sept. 29.
Surging Investment
Chinese direct investment in Africa surged 81 percent in the first half to $552 million from a year earlier, according to an Aug. 18 report by China’s Ministry of Commerce.
In Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, China’s strategy has evolved and oil-for-infrastructure deals are “dead,” Gregory Mthembu-Salter wrote in a September research paper for the South African Institute of International Affairs.
“The model has been replaced by one in which Chinese energy companies gain access to the country’s oil resources by buying stakes in established companies.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Carli Lourens in Johannesburg at clourens@bloomberg.net; John Duce in Hong Kong at Jduce1@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: October 19, 2009 08:51 EDT
Share | Email | Print | A A A
By Carli Lourens and John Duce
Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- China’s plans to buy into oil fields in Africa may suffer a third setback in as many months if Exxon Mobil Corp. succeeds in snapping up drilling rights in Ghana, one of the continent’s newest oil nations.
Closely held Kosmos Energy LLC said last week it agreed to sell its stake in Ghana’s Jubilee oil field to Exxon Mobil, which may thwart ambitions in the same area by Cnooc Ltd., the listed arm of China National Offshore Oil Corp. While Ghanaian government officials say the Exxon deal, worth about $4 billion according to a person familiar with the transaction, has not been officially approved, Chinese explorers have hit hurdles since July on other oil deals in Angola and Libya.
At stake is China’s ability to secure fuel for its economy, which expanded 7.9 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier. China’s oil companies in Africa are diversifying from construction projects as a means to gain access to mineral resources, and turning to strategies that include Western deal structures and local banks. In the process, they are competing with some of the world’s biggest oil companies in the U.S. and Europe also seeking resources in the region.
“The Chinese are frustrated that they’re not doing more deals,” said Kobus van der Wath, group managing director of The Beijing Axis, which advises Chinese companies expanding overseas. “The interest, intent and general capacity to do deals is far greater.” He estimates non-financial investments in Africa may climb as high as $3 billion this year, double the 2008 level.
Secure Supplies
Since Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited seven African nations in 2006 and promised to double aid, establish a $5 billion investment fund and provide $3 billion in loans, China’s energy companies have announced plans to spend at least $16 billion on oil and gas fields on the continent.
“Chinese oil companies are very keen to gain stakes in large oilfields that are nearing production or are in the development stages,” said Thomas Grieder, a London-based analyst at market intelligence firm IHS Global Insight. “The government is keen to secure long-term supplies.”
China’s economy will need more than 11 million barrels of oil a day in five years, 38 percent more than last year, according to Paul Ting, president of New Jersey-based Paul Ting Energy Vision LLC, a Chinese oil and gas consultant.
On Aug. 27, Cnooc said it will step up exploration and acquisitions to meet fuel demand in China. Chairman Fu Chengyu said the company changed its overseas strategy to focus on taking stakes in ventures rather than buying out companies after failing to acquire Unocal Corp. of the U.S. in 2005.
Cnooc shares in Hong Kong more than doubled over the past year and closed at HK$12.42 today.
Cnooc-Ghana Talks
On Oct. 14, Ghana’s Energy Ministry spokesman Michael Sarpong said Cnooc was in talks with Ghanaian officials, without giving details.
His comment followed a Wall Street Journal report on Oct. 12 that said Cnooc was negotiating with Ghana National Petroleum Corp. to bid for Kosmos’s stake in Jubilee. Xiao Zongwei, a spokesman for Cnooc, declined to comment on the article, which cited unidentified people.
Ghana National Petroleum, known as GNPC, is “still in discussions” with Kosmos to acquire the stake, Thomas Manu, its director of exploration and production, said Oct. 13. “GNPC will acquire the stake and then consider proposals from other companies” to take on as partners, he said.
Further south off Angola, Cnooc’s $1.3 billion bid to buy 20 percent of an oil block from Marathon Oil Corp. may be held up after Marathon said the Angolan government and other partners have rights of first refusal. That bid was announced in July with China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., known as Sinopec.
Sinopec in Hong Kong rose 23 percent in the past year and closed at HK$7.06 today.
‘Intense’ Competition
The competition for overseas energy assets is “intense,” Su Shulin, President of Sinopec Group, said in an interview in Beijing Oct. 15. “There are opportunities in overseas acquisitions, but there are also many people looking at them.”
Cnooc’s Xiao declined to comment on reports the deal to sell Marathon Oil’s stake to Cnooc and Sinopec has been delayed by Angola’s government. Huang Wensheng, spokesman for Sinopec, said the company has no information on whether Angola has blocked the deal and declined to comment further.
Separately, Libya vetoed a C$499 million ($482 million) bid last month by China National Petroleum Corp., the Asian nation’s biggest oil and gas company, for Calgary-based Verenex Energy Inc., which has stakes in the North African country.
China National Offshore Oil expressed interest in Tullow Oil Plc’s oil finds in Uganda as the U.K. explorer with the most licenses in Africa started compiling a short list of potential bidders for a stake in a project in the country.
Lake Albert
Tullow said Sept. 17 the Ngassa oil field in Uganda may be the largest discovery in the Lake Albert Rift Basin. The Chinese explorer is interested in investing in the project, according to Brian Glover, Tullow Uganda’s country manager.
Tullow said about 10 companies had pre-qualified to work on the field. He was commenting after Dow Jones on Oct. 2 cited an unnamed official at Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s office saying Cnooc had held talks with Uganda on joining a project. Tamale Mirundi, a spokesman for Museveni, would neither confirm nor deny talks, while Cnooc’s Xiao declined to comment.
In West Africa, China Petrochemical Corp., or Sinopec Group, the nation’s second-largest oil company, acquired Swiss- based Addax Petroleum Corp. this year for C$8.3 billion ($8 billion), adding oil reserves in Nigeria, Cameroon and Gabon.
China National Offshore Oil is also among companies in talks to buy 16 production licenses in the West African nation, Olusegun Adeniyi, a spokesman for Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar’Adua, said in an e-mail on Sept. 29.
Surging Investment
Chinese direct investment in Africa surged 81 percent in the first half to $552 million from a year earlier, according to an Aug. 18 report by China’s Ministry of Commerce.
In Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, China’s strategy has evolved and oil-for-infrastructure deals are “dead,” Gregory Mthembu-Salter wrote in a September research paper for the South African Institute of International Affairs.
“The model has been replaced by one in which Chinese energy companies gain access to the country’s oil resources by buying stakes in established companies.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Carli Lourens in Johannesburg at clourens@bloomberg.net; John Duce in Hong Kong at Jduce1@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: October 19, 2009 08:51 EDT
Friday, October 16, 2009
B of A is the worst!
Bank of America Posts Third-Quarter Loss on Defaults (Update4)
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By David Mildenberg
Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. lender, posted its second quarterly loss in less than a year, unable to shake off effects of the economic contraction that drove the company to take two taxpayer bailouts.
The $1 billion third-quarter loss, or 26 cents per diluted share, compared with a profit of $1.18 billion, or 15 cents, a year earlier, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said today in a statement. The loss was more than analysts estimated and the only one posted by the nation’s three biggest lenders. Bank of America dropped 4.1 percent in New York trading.
The quarterly report will be the last supervised by Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis, 62, who retires Dec. 31 after regulators and shareholders criticized his pursuit of Merrill Lynch & Co. The bank reported a fourth-quarter loss in 2008, its first in 17 years, and Lewis is trying to lead a rebound while fending off state and federal probes of the Merrill deal. He agreed yesterday to give up his 2009 salary and bonus.
“The idea that the financial crisis is over is a fantasy and it looks like the numbers bear that out,” said Harvard University professor Niall Ferguson on Bloomberg Television. “It’s clearly not over for Bank of America.”
Bank of America shares have rebounded fivefold since February when they traded at less than $3, their lowest in more than 20 years, on concern that the U.S. would seize a stake in the company. The stock declined 75 cents to $17.35 at 12:59 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
Succession Plans
Lewis declined to reveal who he’d recommend as a successor or give a timetable during a conference call today with analysts, saying only that the bank has an “appropriate sense of urgency.” He praised wealth management head Sallie Krawcheck and Tom Montag, who runs investment and corporate banking and markets.
“I’ve been very impressed with Tom Montag’s ability to attract really outstanding people when we have lost or needed to fill a position,” Lewis said. “I’m very pleased with the things Sallie Krawcheck is doing.”
Lewis has been under fire for not disclosing losses at Merrill Lynch and plans to pay $3.6 billion in bonuses at the firm before shareholders voted to approve the takeover in December. That sparked investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Congress and attorneys general in New York, North Carolina and Ohio. Shareholders stripped Lewis of his chairman’s title in April.
The bank has agreed to turn over more documents tied to the CEO’s deliberations, and New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has said he might pursue individual bank executives.
Lewis Says ‘Enough’
The decision by Lewis to step down was made when he took some time off, Lewis told analysts today. He reflected on “two- thirds of my life being at the company, and felt like it was the appropriate time,” Lewis said. “I always thought I would intuitively know that, and I did. Forty years with the same company and eight years as CEO was enough.”
The quarter’s results were aided by profit from Merrill Lynch, with gains from trading bonds, stocks and currencies. Losses on home lending and insurance widened to $1.6 billion from $724 million, and the loss on credit cards expanded to $1.04 billion from $167 million.
The bank said the provision for credit losses was $11.7 billion, with $9.6 billion of loans considered uncollectible. Reserves for future losses increased by $2.1 billion, compared with a $4.7 billion addition in the previous quarter, the statement said. The bank’s reserve is now 4 percent of total loans, compared with 4.7 percent at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and 5.9 percent at Citigroup Inc., analyst John McDonald of Bernstein Research said in a report today.
Revenue, Write-Offs
“Credit costs remain high, and that is our major financial challenge going forward,” Lewis said in the statement. “However, we are heartened by early positive signs, such as the leveling of delinquencies among our credit-card customers.”
Bank of America reported total revenue increased 32 percent to $26.4 billion. The total was 13 percent lower than forecast by Chris Mutascio of Stifel Nicolaus & Co.
Revenue from credit cards, brokerage services, investment banking and mortgage banking slid from the previous quarter, and Bank of America’s noninterest income dropped by 31 percent to $14.6 billion. Those declines offset a 57 percent gain in trading account profits.
Bank of America said net write-offs of uncollectible loans rose 11 percent from the second quarter to $9.62 billion. The bank wrote off $3.2 billion of home loans, including home equity loans, during the quarter, up 10 percent from the second quarter. Charge-offs on credit cards increased 5 percent to $2.17 billion.
Industry Profits
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second-biggest U.S. bank by assets, said this week that third-quarter profit climbed almost sevenfold to $3.59 billion. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said its income more than doubled to $3.19 billion. Both New York banks repaid their U.S. bailout funds.
Citigroup, the third-biggest U.S. bank, posted a $101 million profit yesterday as CEO Vikram Pandit said he wants to repay $45 billion in U.S. bailout funds as soon as possible. Bank of America also owes $45 billion.
Bank of America, largest in the U.S. by deposits and assets, was hampered during the quarter by accounting rules that require the lender to assess the value of some outstanding debt. Falling prices entitle the bank to take gains, on the theory that the debt could be bought back and retired for less money, while rallies that boost the price lead to charges that reduce reported earnings.
Acquisitions
Bank of America also earmarked $402 million to settle a dispute over a plan to share losses with the Treasury Department on $118 billion of loans and mortgage-backed securities, mostly acquired in the Merrill transaction.
Lewis has said the purchases of Merrill on Jan. 1 and home lender Countrywide Financial Corp. in July 2008 during the worst of the credit crunch bore fruit during the first part of this year, providing most of the company’s earnings growth.
Bank of America expects to add to its 20.5 percent share of U.S. home lending over the next five years, Barbara Desoer, president of home loans and insurance, said in an Oct. 14 interview. Home loans not accruing interest increased by 14 percent to $16.5 billion, or 6.9 percent of the bank’s loans and foreclosed properties, the bank said.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Mildenberg in Charlotte at dmildenberg@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: October 16, 2009 13:11 EDT
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By David Mildenberg
Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. lender, posted its second quarterly loss in less than a year, unable to shake off effects of the economic contraction that drove the company to take two taxpayer bailouts.
The $1 billion third-quarter loss, or 26 cents per diluted share, compared with a profit of $1.18 billion, or 15 cents, a year earlier, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said today in a statement. The loss was more than analysts estimated and the only one posted by the nation’s three biggest lenders. Bank of America dropped 4.1 percent in New York trading.
The quarterly report will be the last supervised by Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis, 62, who retires Dec. 31 after regulators and shareholders criticized his pursuit of Merrill Lynch & Co. The bank reported a fourth-quarter loss in 2008, its first in 17 years, and Lewis is trying to lead a rebound while fending off state and federal probes of the Merrill deal. He agreed yesterday to give up his 2009 salary and bonus.
“The idea that the financial crisis is over is a fantasy and it looks like the numbers bear that out,” said Harvard University professor Niall Ferguson on Bloomberg Television. “It’s clearly not over for Bank of America.”
Bank of America shares have rebounded fivefold since February when they traded at less than $3, their lowest in more than 20 years, on concern that the U.S. would seize a stake in the company. The stock declined 75 cents to $17.35 at 12:59 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
Succession Plans
Lewis declined to reveal who he’d recommend as a successor or give a timetable during a conference call today with analysts, saying only that the bank has an “appropriate sense of urgency.” He praised wealth management head Sallie Krawcheck and Tom Montag, who runs investment and corporate banking and markets.
“I’ve been very impressed with Tom Montag’s ability to attract really outstanding people when we have lost or needed to fill a position,” Lewis said. “I’m very pleased with the things Sallie Krawcheck is doing.”
Lewis has been under fire for not disclosing losses at Merrill Lynch and plans to pay $3.6 billion in bonuses at the firm before shareholders voted to approve the takeover in December. That sparked investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Congress and attorneys general in New York, North Carolina and Ohio. Shareholders stripped Lewis of his chairman’s title in April.
The bank has agreed to turn over more documents tied to the CEO’s deliberations, and New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has said he might pursue individual bank executives.
Lewis Says ‘Enough’
The decision by Lewis to step down was made when he took some time off, Lewis told analysts today. He reflected on “two- thirds of my life being at the company, and felt like it was the appropriate time,” Lewis said. “I always thought I would intuitively know that, and I did. Forty years with the same company and eight years as CEO was enough.”
The quarter’s results were aided by profit from Merrill Lynch, with gains from trading bonds, stocks and currencies. Losses on home lending and insurance widened to $1.6 billion from $724 million, and the loss on credit cards expanded to $1.04 billion from $167 million.
The bank said the provision for credit losses was $11.7 billion, with $9.6 billion of loans considered uncollectible. Reserves for future losses increased by $2.1 billion, compared with a $4.7 billion addition in the previous quarter, the statement said. The bank’s reserve is now 4 percent of total loans, compared with 4.7 percent at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and 5.9 percent at Citigroup Inc., analyst John McDonald of Bernstein Research said in a report today.
Revenue, Write-Offs
“Credit costs remain high, and that is our major financial challenge going forward,” Lewis said in the statement. “However, we are heartened by early positive signs, such as the leveling of delinquencies among our credit-card customers.”
Bank of America reported total revenue increased 32 percent to $26.4 billion. The total was 13 percent lower than forecast by Chris Mutascio of Stifel Nicolaus & Co.
Revenue from credit cards, brokerage services, investment banking and mortgage banking slid from the previous quarter, and Bank of America’s noninterest income dropped by 31 percent to $14.6 billion. Those declines offset a 57 percent gain in trading account profits.
Bank of America said net write-offs of uncollectible loans rose 11 percent from the second quarter to $9.62 billion. The bank wrote off $3.2 billion of home loans, including home equity loans, during the quarter, up 10 percent from the second quarter. Charge-offs on credit cards increased 5 percent to $2.17 billion.
Industry Profits
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second-biggest U.S. bank by assets, said this week that third-quarter profit climbed almost sevenfold to $3.59 billion. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said its income more than doubled to $3.19 billion. Both New York banks repaid their U.S. bailout funds.
Citigroup, the third-biggest U.S. bank, posted a $101 million profit yesterday as CEO Vikram Pandit said he wants to repay $45 billion in U.S. bailout funds as soon as possible. Bank of America also owes $45 billion.
Bank of America, largest in the U.S. by deposits and assets, was hampered during the quarter by accounting rules that require the lender to assess the value of some outstanding debt. Falling prices entitle the bank to take gains, on the theory that the debt could be bought back and retired for less money, while rallies that boost the price lead to charges that reduce reported earnings.
Acquisitions
Bank of America also earmarked $402 million to settle a dispute over a plan to share losses with the Treasury Department on $118 billion of loans and mortgage-backed securities, mostly acquired in the Merrill transaction.
Lewis has said the purchases of Merrill on Jan. 1 and home lender Countrywide Financial Corp. in July 2008 during the worst of the credit crunch bore fruit during the first part of this year, providing most of the company’s earnings growth.
Bank of America expects to add to its 20.5 percent share of U.S. home lending over the next five years, Barbara Desoer, president of home loans and insurance, said in an Oct. 14 interview. Home loans not accruing interest increased by 14 percent to $16.5 billion, or 6.9 percent of the bank’s loans and foreclosed properties, the bank said.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Mildenberg in Charlotte at dmildenberg@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: October 16, 2009 13:11 EDT
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Where is the ice?
Arctic ice cap 'to disappear in future summers'
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Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Twitter Yahoo! Bookmarks Print AFP/HO/File – In this undated image obatined from www.catlinarcticsurvey.com, British explorers Pen Hadow (R) and Ann … by Elodie Mazein Elodie Mazein – Thu Oct 15, 4:35 am ET
LONDON (AFP) – The Arctic ice cap will disappear completely in summer months within 20 to 30 years, a polar research team said as they presented findings from an expedition led by adventurer Pen Hadow.
It is likely to be largely ice-free during the warmer months within a decade, the experts added.
Veteran polar explorer Hadow and two other Britons went out on the Arctic ice cap for 73 days during the northern spring, taking more than 6,000 measurements and observations of the sea ice.
The raw data they collected from March to May has been analysed, producing some stark predictions about the state of the ice cap.
"The summer ice cover will completely vanish in 20 to 30 years but in less than that it will have considerably retreated," said Professor Peter Wadhams, head of the polar ocean physics group at Britain's prestigious Cambridge University.
"In about 10 years, the Arctic ice will be considered as open sea."
Starting off from northern Canada, Hadow, Martin Hartley and Ann Daniels skied over the ice cap to measure the thickness of the remaining ice, assessing its density and the depth of overlying snow, as well as taking weather and sea temperature readings.
Across their 450-kilometre (290 mile) route, the average thickness of the ice floes was 1.8 metres (six feet), while it was 4.8 metres when incorporating the compressed ridges of ice.
"An average thickness of 1.8 metres is typical of first year ice, which is more vulnerable in the summer. And the multi-year ice is shrinking back more rapidly," said Wadhams.
"It's a concrete example of global change in action.
"With a larger part of the region now in first year ice, it is clearly more vulnerable. The area is now more likely to become open water each summer, bringing forward the potential date when the summer sea ice will be completely gone."
Doctor Martin Sommerkorn, senior climate change adviser for the World Wide Fund for Nature's international Arctic programme, said the survey painted a sombre picture of the ice meltdown, which was happening "faster than we thought".
"Remove the Arctic ice cap and we are left with a very different and much warmer world," he said.
Loss of sea ice cover will "set in motion powerful climate feedbacks which will have an impact far beyond the Arctic itself," he added.
"This could lead to flooding affecting one quarter of the world's population, substantial increases in greenhouse gas emission from massive carbon pools and extreme global weather changes."
"Today's findings provide yet another urgent call for action to world leaders ahead of the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen in December to rapidly and effectively curb global greenhouse gas emissions."
Buzz up! Send
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Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Twitter Yahoo! Bookmarks Print AFP/HO/File – In this undated image obatined from www.catlinarcticsurvey.com, British explorers Pen Hadow (R) and Ann … by Elodie Mazein Elodie Mazein – Thu Oct 15, 4:35 am ET
LONDON (AFP) – The Arctic ice cap will disappear completely in summer months within 20 to 30 years, a polar research team said as they presented findings from an expedition led by adventurer Pen Hadow.
It is likely to be largely ice-free during the warmer months within a decade, the experts added.
Veteran polar explorer Hadow and two other Britons went out on the Arctic ice cap for 73 days during the northern spring, taking more than 6,000 measurements and observations of the sea ice.
The raw data they collected from March to May has been analysed, producing some stark predictions about the state of the ice cap.
"The summer ice cover will completely vanish in 20 to 30 years but in less than that it will have considerably retreated," said Professor Peter Wadhams, head of the polar ocean physics group at Britain's prestigious Cambridge University.
"In about 10 years, the Arctic ice will be considered as open sea."
Starting off from northern Canada, Hadow, Martin Hartley and Ann Daniels skied over the ice cap to measure the thickness of the remaining ice, assessing its density and the depth of overlying snow, as well as taking weather and sea temperature readings.
Across their 450-kilometre (290 mile) route, the average thickness of the ice floes was 1.8 metres (six feet), while it was 4.8 metres when incorporating the compressed ridges of ice.
"An average thickness of 1.8 metres is typical of first year ice, which is more vulnerable in the summer. And the multi-year ice is shrinking back more rapidly," said Wadhams.
"It's a concrete example of global change in action.
"With a larger part of the region now in first year ice, it is clearly more vulnerable. The area is now more likely to become open water each summer, bringing forward the potential date when the summer sea ice will be completely gone."
Doctor Martin Sommerkorn, senior climate change adviser for the World Wide Fund for Nature's international Arctic programme, said the survey painted a sombre picture of the ice meltdown, which was happening "faster than we thought".
"Remove the Arctic ice cap and we are left with a very different and much warmer world," he said.
Loss of sea ice cover will "set in motion powerful climate feedbacks which will have an impact far beyond the Arctic itself," he added.
"This could lead to flooding affecting one quarter of the world's population, substantial increases in greenhouse gas emission from massive carbon pools and extreme global weather changes."
"Today's findings provide yet another urgent call for action to world leaders ahead of the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen in December to rapidly and effectively curb global greenhouse gas emissions."
There goes the US Dollar!
Dollar to Hit 50 Yen, Cease as Reserve, Sumitomo Says (Update1)
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By Shigeki Nozawa
Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar may drop to 50 yen next year and eventually lose its role as the global reserve currency, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.’s chief strategist said, citing trading patterns and a likely double dip in the U.S. economy.
“The U.S. economy will deteriorate into 2011 as the effects of excess consumption and the financial bubble linger,” said Daisuke Uno at Sumitomo Mitsui, a unit of Japan’s third- biggest bank. “The dollar’s fall won’t stop until there’s a change to the global currency system.”
The dollar last week dropped to the lowest in almost a year against the yen as record U.S. government borrowings and interest rates near zero sapped demand for the U.S. currency. The Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against the currencies of six major U.S. trading partners, has fallen 15 percent from its peak this year to as low as 75.211 today, the lowest since August 2008.
The gauge is about five points away from its record low in March 2008, and the dollar is 2.5 percent away from a 14-year low against the yen.
“We can no longer stop the big wave of dollar weakness,” said Uno, who correctly predicted the dollar would fall under 100 yen and the Dow Jones Industrial Average would sink below 7,000 after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. last year. If the U.S. currency breaks through record levels, “there will be no downside limit, and even coordinated intervention won’t work,” he said.
China, India, Brazil and Russia this year called for a replacement to the dollar as the main reserve currency. Hossein Ghazavi, Iran’s deputy central bank chief, said on Sept. 13 the euro has overtaken the dollar as the main currency of Iran’s foreign reserves.
Elliott Wave
The greenback is heading for the trough of a super-cycle that started in August 1971, Uno said, referring to the Elliot Wave theory, which holds that market swings follow a predictable five-stage pattern of three steps forward, two steps back.
The dollar is now at wave five of the 40-year cycle, Uno said. It dropped to 92 yen during wave one that ended in March 1973. The dollar will target 50 yen during the current wave, based on multiplying 92 with 0.764, a number in the Fibonacci sequence, and subtracting from the 123.17 yen level seen in the second quarter of 2007, according to Uno.
The Elliot Wave was developed by accountant Ralph Nelson Elliott during the Great Depression. Wave sizes are often related by a series of numbers known as the Fibonacci sequence, pioneered by 13th century mathematician Leonardo Pisano, who discerned them from proportions found in nature.
Uno said after the dollar loses its reserve currency status, the U.S., Europe and Asia will form separate economic blocs. The International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights may be used as a temporary measure, and global currency trading will shrink in the long run, he said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Shigeki Nozawa in Tokyo at snozawa1@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: October 15, 2009 03:34 EDT
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By Shigeki Nozawa
Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar may drop to 50 yen next year and eventually lose its role as the global reserve currency, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.’s chief strategist said, citing trading patterns and a likely double dip in the U.S. economy.
“The U.S. economy will deteriorate into 2011 as the effects of excess consumption and the financial bubble linger,” said Daisuke Uno at Sumitomo Mitsui, a unit of Japan’s third- biggest bank. “The dollar’s fall won’t stop until there’s a change to the global currency system.”
The dollar last week dropped to the lowest in almost a year against the yen as record U.S. government borrowings and interest rates near zero sapped demand for the U.S. currency. The Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against the currencies of six major U.S. trading partners, has fallen 15 percent from its peak this year to as low as 75.211 today, the lowest since August 2008.
The gauge is about five points away from its record low in March 2008, and the dollar is 2.5 percent away from a 14-year low against the yen.
“We can no longer stop the big wave of dollar weakness,” said Uno, who correctly predicted the dollar would fall under 100 yen and the Dow Jones Industrial Average would sink below 7,000 after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. last year. If the U.S. currency breaks through record levels, “there will be no downside limit, and even coordinated intervention won’t work,” he said.
China, India, Brazil and Russia this year called for a replacement to the dollar as the main reserve currency. Hossein Ghazavi, Iran’s deputy central bank chief, said on Sept. 13 the euro has overtaken the dollar as the main currency of Iran’s foreign reserves.
Elliott Wave
The greenback is heading for the trough of a super-cycle that started in August 1971, Uno said, referring to the Elliot Wave theory, which holds that market swings follow a predictable five-stage pattern of three steps forward, two steps back.
The dollar is now at wave five of the 40-year cycle, Uno said. It dropped to 92 yen during wave one that ended in March 1973. The dollar will target 50 yen during the current wave, based on multiplying 92 with 0.764, a number in the Fibonacci sequence, and subtracting from the 123.17 yen level seen in the second quarter of 2007, according to Uno.
The Elliot Wave was developed by accountant Ralph Nelson Elliott during the Great Depression. Wave sizes are often related by a series of numbers known as the Fibonacci sequence, pioneered by 13th century mathematician Leonardo Pisano, who discerned them from proportions found in nature.
Uno said after the dollar loses its reserve currency status, the U.S., Europe and Asia will form separate economic blocs. The International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights may be used as a temporary measure, and global currency trading will shrink in the long run, he said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Shigeki Nozawa in Tokyo at snozawa1@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: October 15, 2009 03:34 EDT
$527,192 per employee. That is a salary!
Goldman Sachs Nine-Month Compensation Totals $527,192 a Person
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By Christine Harper
Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. set aside $16.7 billion for compensation and benefits in the first nine months of 2009, up 46 percent from a year earlier and enough to pay each worker $527,192 for the period.
Revenue jumped 49 percent to $35.6 billion this year through September and the New York-based firm set aside 47 percent to cover its largest expense, compensation and benefits, Goldman Sachs said today as it released third-quarter earnings results. The amount set aside this year is just shy of the all- time high $16.9 billion allocated in the first three quarters of 2007.
Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, who set a Wall Street pay record in 2007, slashed compensation last year and went without a bonus after the firm reported its first quarterly loss and accepted financial support from the government. As earnings rebounded and the firm repaid $10 billion plus dividends to the government this year, the company resumed allocating billions of dollars for year-end bonuses.
“Goldman is sort of the maverick of financial services right now and they’re taking the lead as far as, ‘We believe in our people, we’ve done well, we’re going to stay the way we’ve always been and not change,’” said Jeanne Branthover, managing director at Boyden Global Executive Search Ltd., a recruiting firm in New York.
David Viniar, Goldman Sachs’s chief financial officer, said the firm is “very focused” on making sure compensation levels are appropriate.
Competitors’ Pay
“It will not surprise you that we’re giving it a lot of thought,” he told reporters on a conference call this morning. “Our competitors are paying people quite well” and are “very willing to pay employees guaranteed bonuses of very high amounts.”
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second-biggest U.S. bank by assets, reported yesterday that its investment bank allocated $8.79 billion for compensation in the first nine months of the year, equal to 38 percent of the unit’s revenue. That ratio was down from 52 percent in the same period a year earlier.
While Goldman Sachs typically sets aside about half of revenue for compensation in the first three quarters, the company often slashes the ratio in the last quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2007 the firm allocated 30.5 percent of revenue to pay employees and in the fourth quarter of 2006 the ratio was 26.6 percent. Last year, when the company posted a fourth-quarter loss it reported a negative $490 million compensation expense for the period.
Temporary Staff
Goldman Sachs, which last quarter began reporting staff numbers that include consultants and temporary staff instead of just full-time employees, had 31,700 workers at the end of September. The company today revised the number of employees it had at the end of June to 31,200 from the 29,400 it reported in July.
In the first nine months of fiscal 2008, Goldman Sachs set aside $11.42 billion, or an average of $350,763 per employee.
Blankfein, who was awarded a record-setting $68.5 million in salary and bonus for 2007, said in an April speech that the industry’s compensation decisions before the crisis “look greedy and self-serving in hindsight.”
The company published a three-page set of compensation principles in May that include paying a higher percentage of an employee’s bonus in stock as the pay level increases and deferring the payout of the stock over a period of years. The company also said it doesn’t believe in granting employees guaranteed bonuses for more than a single year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Harper in New York at charper@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: October 15, 2009 10:28 EDT
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By Christine Harper
Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. set aside $16.7 billion for compensation and benefits in the first nine months of 2009, up 46 percent from a year earlier and enough to pay each worker $527,192 for the period.
Revenue jumped 49 percent to $35.6 billion this year through September and the New York-based firm set aside 47 percent to cover its largest expense, compensation and benefits, Goldman Sachs said today as it released third-quarter earnings results. The amount set aside this year is just shy of the all- time high $16.9 billion allocated in the first three quarters of 2007.
Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, who set a Wall Street pay record in 2007, slashed compensation last year and went without a bonus after the firm reported its first quarterly loss and accepted financial support from the government. As earnings rebounded and the firm repaid $10 billion plus dividends to the government this year, the company resumed allocating billions of dollars for year-end bonuses.
“Goldman is sort of the maverick of financial services right now and they’re taking the lead as far as, ‘We believe in our people, we’ve done well, we’re going to stay the way we’ve always been and not change,’” said Jeanne Branthover, managing director at Boyden Global Executive Search Ltd., a recruiting firm in New York.
David Viniar, Goldman Sachs’s chief financial officer, said the firm is “very focused” on making sure compensation levels are appropriate.
Competitors’ Pay
“It will not surprise you that we’re giving it a lot of thought,” he told reporters on a conference call this morning. “Our competitors are paying people quite well” and are “very willing to pay employees guaranteed bonuses of very high amounts.”
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second-biggest U.S. bank by assets, reported yesterday that its investment bank allocated $8.79 billion for compensation in the first nine months of the year, equal to 38 percent of the unit’s revenue. That ratio was down from 52 percent in the same period a year earlier.
While Goldman Sachs typically sets aside about half of revenue for compensation in the first three quarters, the company often slashes the ratio in the last quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2007 the firm allocated 30.5 percent of revenue to pay employees and in the fourth quarter of 2006 the ratio was 26.6 percent. Last year, when the company posted a fourth-quarter loss it reported a negative $490 million compensation expense for the period.
Temporary Staff
Goldman Sachs, which last quarter began reporting staff numbers that include consultants and temporary staff instead of just full-time employees, had 31,700 workers at the end of September. The company today revised the number of employees it had at the end of June to 31,200 from the 29,400 it reported in July.
In the first nine months of fiscal 2008, Goldman Sachs set aside $11.42 billion, or an average of $350,763 per employee.
Blankfein, who was awarded a record-setting $68.5 million in salary and bonus for 2007, said in an April speech that the industry’s compensation decisions before the crisis “look greedy and self-serving in hindsight.”
The company published a three-page set of compensation principles in May that include paying a higher percentage of an employee’s bonus in stock as the pay level increases and deferring the payout of the stock over a period of years. The company also said it doesn’t believe in granting employees guaranteed bonuses for more than a single year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Harper in New York at charper@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: October 15, 2009 10:28 EDT
What a nice guy! Worth 19.8 billion and takes a pay cut to only $3.5 million USD a year. How thoughtful!
Asia’s Richest Man Takes 66% Pay Cut in India Austerity Drive
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By John Chacko and Natalie Obiko Pearson
Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, took a 66 percent pay cut to “set a personal example of moderation” after India’s government called for austerity in salaries of executives.
Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd., will take home 150 million rupees ($3.3 million) in salary and a share of profit for the year ended March 31, compared with 440.2 million rupees a year earlier, the company said in a statement in Mumbai today. Reliance’s net income fell 22 percent to 152.9 billion rupees in the year ended March 31.
The 52-year-old Ambani’s move preempts any government attempt to enforce rules regarding pay. Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid this month asked companies to refrain from paying “vulgar” salaries to their chief executives, according to Press Trust of India. Leaders from the Group of 20 nations last month said they plan to take steps to curb pay of bankers whose risk-taking triggered a global recession.
“This is a gesture to show shareholders that the company is thinking about them,” said Asish Bhattacharyya, coordinator of the Centre for Corporate Governance at the Indian Institute of Management in Kolkata. “You are also appeasing the government and signaling to the market that you care about costs.”
The salary component of Ambani’s total pay increased 25 percent to 15.9 million rupees, according to today’s statement.
India’s per capita gross domestic product rose to a record $724 last year, according to the World Bank.
Billionaire Brothers
Reliance Industries’ plan to pay shareholders dividend of 13 rupees a share means the Ambani family, which owns a 49 percent stake in India’s most valuable company, will get about 10 billion rupees, or 3.3 percent more payout than last year, according to Bloomberg calculations.
Mukesh’s estranged younger brother Anil Ambani on Sept. 22 said he will forego salary and commission from five of his group companies. Anil’s annual salary is about 300 million rupees, according to the Economic Times.
The Ambani brothers, India’s richest resident billionaires, split the business founded by their father Dhirubhai Ambani, in 2005.
Reliance Industries lowered the commission payable to Mukesh in accordance with limits set by shareholders, according to the statement. The Mumbai-based Reliance will also set the salaries of executives using a “capped structure method” instead of basing them on earnings, the company said.
Mukesh Ambani, a chemical engineer from the University of Bombay, is ranked seventh on Forbes’ 2009 ranking of the world’s billionaires with a net worth of $19.5 billion.
To contact the reporter on this story: John Chacko in New Delhi at jchacko@bloomberg.net; Natalie Obiko Pearson in Mumbai at npearson7@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: October 15, 2009 10:09 EDT
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By John Chacko and Natalie Obiko Pearson
Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, took a 66 percent pay cut to “set a personal example of moderation” after India’s government called for austerity in salaries of executives.
Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd., will take home 150 million rupees ($3.3 million) in salary and a share of profit for the year ended March 31, compared with 440.2 million rupees a year earlier, the company said in a statement in Mumbai today. Reliance’s net income fell 22 percent to 152.9 billion rupees in the year ended March 31.
The 52-year-old Ambani’s move preempts any government attempt to enforce rules regarding pay. Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid this month asked companies to refrain from paying “vulgar” salaries to their chief executives, according to Press Trust of India. Leaders from the Group of 20 nations last month said they plan to take steps to curb pay of bankers whose risk-taking triggered a global recession.
“This is a gesture to show shareholders that the company is thinking about them,” said Asish Bhattacharyya, coordinator of the Centre for Corporate Governance at the Indian Institute of Management in Kolkata. “You are also appeasing the government and signaling to the market that you care about costs.”
The salary component of Ambani’s total pay increased 25 percent to 15.9 million rupees, according to today’s statement.
India’s per capita gross domestic product rose to a record $724 last year, according to the World Bank.
Billionaire Brothers
Reliance Industries’ plan to pay shareholders dividend of 13 rupees a share means the Ambani family, which owns a 49 percent stake in India’s most valuable company, will get about 10 billion rupees, or 3.3 percent more payout than last year, according to Bloomberg calculations.
Mukesh’s estranged younger brother Anil Ambani on Sept. 22 said he will forego salary and commission from five of his group companies. Anil’s annual salary is about 300 million rupees, according to the Economic Times.
The Ambani brothers, India’s richest resident billionaires, split the business founded by their father Dhirubhai Ambani, in 2005.
Reliance Industries lowered the commission payable to Mukesh in accordance with limits set by shareholders, according to the statement. The Mumbai-based Reliance will also set the salaries of executives using a “capped structure method” instead of basing them on earnings, the company said.
Mukesh Ambani, a chemical engineer from the University of Bombay, is ranked seventh on Forbes’ 2009 ranking of the world’s billionaires with a net worth of $19.5 billion.
To contact the reporter on this story: John Chacko in New Delhi at jchacko@bloomberg.net; Natalie Obiko Pearson in Mumbai at npearson7@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: October 15, 2009 10:09 EDT
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Nice Apt!
Hong Kong apartment sells for whopping $57 million
Buzz up! Send
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Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Twitter Yahoo! Bookmarks Print AP – A luxurious residential building named � Conduit Road 39 ' is seen from the Peak in Hong Kong Wednesday, … By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ, AP Business Writer Jeremiah Marquez, Ap Business Writer – Wed Oct 14, 9:41 am ET
HONG KONG – It's a price tag that would make even New Yorkers and Londoners gasp — an outsized luxury apartment sold for nearly $57 million in Hong Kong Wednesday amid growing fears of a real estate bubble.
The five-bedroom duplex suite with as much as 6,158 square feet was sold to an unidentified buyer from mainland China, said the developer, Henderson Land Development, a major Hong Kong property company. It is believed to be Asia's most expensive property by square foot at nearly $9,200.
Aside from an aroma spa center, fitness room, outdoor yoga gym and grand harbor views, the new homeowner will enjoy an exclusive address in the hills of Hong Kong's main island — "a majestic realm for the city who's who," according to a statement from the developer.
The deal comes at a time when ever-higher prices of Hong Kong real estate, benefiting from mainland China's booming market and easy money sloshing through the world financial system, are inspiring worries of a bubble in the making. Several blockbuster deals in the tens of millions of dollars have made headlines of late.
Hong Kong's leader, Donald Tsang, said Wednesday in his annual policy address that the government may free up more land for development to help add supply and bring down prices.
"The relatively small number of residential units completed and the record prices attained in certain transactions this year have caused concern about the supply of flats, difficulty in purchasing a home, and the possibility of a property bubble," Tsang told lawmakers.
The city has long had one of the world's most expensive property markets, with prices that many local residents are hard pressed to afford. About 47 percent of Hong Kong lives in publicly subsidized housing, according to government data.
At 39 Conduit Road, the name and site of the building where the high-end apartment was purchased, another unit was snapped up for a mere $51 million.
The building "offers a chance to allow the elites in town to enjoy such prestigious property," said Thomas Lam, Henderson's sales general manager.
Buzz up! Send
Email IM Share
Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Twitter Yahoo! Bookmarks Print AP – A luxurious residential building named � Conduit Road 39 ' is seen from the Peak in Hong Kong Wednesday, … By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ, AP Business Writer Jeremiah Marquez, Ap Business Writer – Wed Oct 14, 9:41 am ET
HONG KONG – It's a price tag that would make even New Yorkers and Londoners gasp — an outsized luxury apartment sold for nearly $57 million in Hong Kong Wednesday amid growing fears of a real estate bubble.
The five-bedroom duplex suite with as much as 6,158 square feet was sold to an unidentified buyer from mainland China, said the developer, Henderson Land Development, a major Hong Kong property company. It is believed to be Asia's most expensive property by square foot at nearly $9,200.
Aside from an aroma spa center, fitness room, outdoor yoga gym and grand harbor views, the new homeowner will enjoy an exclusive address in the hills of Hong Kong's main island — "a majestic realm for the city who's who," according to a statement from the developer.
The deal comes at a time when ever-higher prices of Hong Kong real estate, benefiting from mainland China's booming market and easy money sloshing through the world financial system, are inspiring worries of a bubble in the making. Several blockbuster deals in the tens of millions of dollars have made headlines of late.
Hong Kong's leader, Donald Tsang, said Wednesday in his annual policy address that the government may free up more land for development to help add supply and bring down prices.
"The relatively small number of residential units completed and the record prices attained in certain transactions this year have caused concern about the supply of flats, difficulty in purchasing a home, and the possibility of a property bubble," Tsang told lawmakers.
The city has long had one of the world's most expensive property markets, with prices that many local residents are hard pressed to afford. About 47 percent of Hong Kong lives in publicly subsidized housing, according to government data.
At 39 Conduit Road, the name and site of the building where the high-end apartment was purchased, another unit was snapped up for a mere $51 million.
The building "offers a chance to allow the elites in town to enjoy such prestigious property," said Thomas Lam, Henderson's sales general manager.
Brazil has mucho oil now!
OGX May Have Found 1.5 Billion Barrels Oil in Brazil (Update2)
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By Lucia Kassai
Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA, the oil company controlled by billionaire Eike Batista, said it may have discovered as much as 1.5 billion barrels of oil in an offshore block after drilling off Brazil’s southeastern coast.
The BM-C-43 block, located in the shallow waters of the Campos Basin, may hold between 500 million and 1.5 billion barrels, based on well information and seismic data, Rio de Janeiro-based OGX said today in a regulatory filling. The company owns all of the block, according to its Web site.
OGX raised 5.87 billion reais ($3.43 billion) in its June 2008 initial public offering as investors bet Batista could match Brazil’s state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s success at finding oil. Batista, who owns about 62 percent of OGX, is ploughing about $4 billion into crude exploration and production, with first oil output expected by late 2011.
The company earlier this month also said it found signs of crude in the BM-S-29 block, in the Santos Basin off the coast of Sao Paulo state. The company estimates it holds a total 4.8 billion barrels of oil and gas and plans to spend $2 billion during the next three years drilling about 50 wells, Chief Financial Officer Marcelo Faber Torres said Oct. 2.
OGX holds 22 exploratory blocks in Brazil’s Campos, Santos, Espirito Santo and Para-Maranhao basins with an offshore exploration area of 7,000 square kilometers.
Brazilian Reserves
Brazil’s proven crude reserves totaled 12.6 billion barrels last year, according to London-based BP Plc. The country’s so- called pre-salt oil region, including the biggest oil discovery in the Americas since 1976, may hold as many as 100 billion barrels, Brazilian Cabinet Chief Dilma Rousseff said Sept. 29.
OGX fell 58 reais, or 3.6 percent, to 1,565 reais at 11:36 a.m. in Sao Paulo. The shares have almost tripled this year.
The oil producer also said it will start drilling at the BM-C-41 block, also in the Campos Basin, later this month.
To contact the reporters responsible for this story: Lucia Kassai at lkassai@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: October 14, 2009 10:57 EDT
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By Lucia Kassai
Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA, the oil company controlled by billionaire Eike Batista, said it may have discovered as much as 1.5 billion barrels of oil in an offshore block after drilling off Brazil’s southeastern coast.
The BM-C-43 block, located in the shallow waters of the Campos Basin, may hold between 500 million and 1.5 billion barrels, based on well information and seismic data, Rio de Janeiro-based OGX said today in a regulatory filling. The company owns all of the block, according to its Web site.
OGX raised 5.87 billion reais ($3.43 billion) in its June 2008 initial public offering as investors bet Batista could match Brazil’s state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s success at finding oil. Batista, who owns about 62 percent of OGX, is ploughing about $4 billion into crude exploration and production, with first oil output expected by late 2011.
The company earlier this month also said it found signs of crude in the BM-S-29 block, in the Santos Basin off the coast of Sao Paulo state. The company estimates it holds a total 4.8 billion barrels of oil and gas and plans to spend $2 billion during the next three years drilling about 50 wells, Chief Financial Officer Marcelo Faber Torres said Oct. 2.
OGX holds 22 exploratory blocks in Brazil’s Campos, Santos, Espirito Santo and Para-Maranhao basins with an offshore exploration area of 7,000 square kilometers.
Brazilian Reserves
Brazil’s proven crude reserves totaled 12.6 billion barrels last year, according to London-based BP Plc. The country’s so- called pre-salt oil region, including the biggest oil discovery in the Americas since 1976, may hold as many as 100 billion barrels, Brazilian Cabinet Chief Dilma Rousseff said Sept. 29.
OGX fell 58 reais, or 3.6 percent, to 1,565 reais at 11:36 a.m. in Sao Paulo. The shares have almost tripled this year.
The oil producer also said it will start drilling at the BM-C-41 block, also in the Campos Basin, later this month.
To contact the reporters responsible for this story: Lucia Kassai at lkassai@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: October 14, 2009 10:57 EDT
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Gold is at an all time high today!
Sinopec’s Oil Refining Profit Falls on Crude Costs (Update1)
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By Bloomberg News
Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.’s profit from turning crude into fuels fell in the third quarter because of higher oil costs, an official familiar with operations at Asia’s biggest refiner said.
Margins were narrower between July and September, compared with the first six months, the official who declined to be named because the information is confidential, said in an interview in Beijing. Increased sales volume wasn’t enough to offset higher crude costs and the company’s refining business probably broke even in the quarter, he said.
China, the world’s second-biggest oil user, raised the price of gasoline and diesel three times between January and June compared with once in the third quarter. Crude oil in New York averaged about $68 a barrel in the last three months, representing a 32 percent increase from the first half.
“Domestic fuel price adjustments have lagged behind crude gains, which hurt the state oil refiner’s refining profit,” Grace Liu, an analyst with Guotai Junan Securities Ltd., said by telephone from the southern city of Shenzhen. “We expect the company’s processing margin to drop to $5.40 per barrel in the second half from $8.60 per barrel in the first six months.”
Chen Ge, the board secretary at the Beijing-based company also known as Sinopec, wasn’t available to comment.
Fuel Price Caps
Sinopec has gained 45 percent this year in Hong Kong trading, compared with the 49 percent increase in the benchmark Hang Seng Index. The shares climbed 1.6 percent to HK$6.93 at 10:13 a.m. while rival PetroChina Co. gained 3.7 percent to HK$9.82. The Hang Seng was up 1 percent.
The refiner posted a record second-quarter profit of 22 billion yuan ($3.2 billion) and forecast a more-than-50 percent gain in nine-month earnings after the government eased curbs on fuel prices.
China raised fuel prices four times and cut them three times this year, compared with two adjustments in 2008, under a system introduced in December that keeps oil-product prices in line with global crude costs and ensures refiners a profit. The policy shift helped Sinopec end at least four years of refining losses.
First-half operating profit for the refining business was almost 20 billion yuan, compared with a loss of 74.7 billion yuan for the same period of last year, the company said in August, citing domestic accounting standards.
Smaller refining profits at Sinopec contrast with improving margins in Singapore, Asia’s biggest oil-trading center. The profit from turning Dubai crude oil into fuels at Singapore refineries were at minus 29 cents as barrel on Sept. 30, compared with minus $2.04 on June 26, when they were at the lowest this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Crude Oil
Sinopec forecasts crude oil to stay between $60 and $80 a barrel this year for budgeting purposes, the official said, without giving details. Crude oil averaged about $71.35 a barrel this month.
The official said separately that Africa is one of the areas targeted by Sinopec’s parent, China Petrochemical Corp., in its quest for overseas acquisitions. China Petrochemical will pursue at least a 12 percent rate of return on investments in overseas acquisitions, he said.
Chinese energy companies have spent at least $13 billion on overseas assets since December as they take advantage of lower valuations caused by the global recession to meet energy demand in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
Addax Petroleum
China Petrochemical acquired Swiss-based Addax Petroleum Corp. this year for C$8.3 billion ($8 billion), adding oil reserves in Iraq and West Africa.
Sinopec has set up a unit to review overseas acquisition opportunities, including assets in Angola, Russia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Australia owned by China Petrochemical Corp., Chairman Su Shulin said in August.
Sinopec will focus on upgrading and expanding its existing refineries in its plan to increase processing capacity rather than build new plants, the official said.
Sinopec aims to increase oil processing volume to 202 million tons in 2011 from 168.8 million tons in 2008, the company said in its three-year plan announced in August. Fuel sales will rise 10 percent to 135 million tons by then from 123 million tons, it said then.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ying Wang in Beijing at Winnie Zhu in Shanghai at wzhu4@bloomberg.net Last Updated: October 13, 2009 22:25 EDT
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By Bloomberg News
Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.’s profit from turning crude into fuels fell in the third quarter because of higher oil costs, an official familiar with operations at Asia’s biggest refiner said.
Margins were narrower between July and September, compared with the first six months, the official who declined to be named because the information is confidential, said in an interview in Beijing. Increased sales volume wasn’t enough to offset higher crude costs and the company’s refining business probably broke even in the quarter, he said.
China, the world’s second-biggest oil user, raised the price of gasoline and diesel three times between January and June compared with once in the third quarter. Crude oil in New York averaged about $68 a barrel in the last three months, representing a 32 percent increase from the first half.
“Domestic fuel price adjustments have lagged behind crude gains, which hurt the state oil refiner’s refining profit,” Grace Liu, an analyst with Guotai Junan Securities Ltd., said by telephone from the southern city of Shenzhen. “We expect the company’s processing margin to drop to $5.40 per barrel in the second half from $8.60 per barrel in the first six months.”
Chen Ge, the board secretary at the Beijing-based company also known as Sinopec, wasn’t available to comment.
Fuel Price Caps
Sinopec has gained 45 percent this year in Hong Kong trading, compared with the 49 percent increase in the benchmark Hang Seng Index. The shares climbed 1.6 percent to HK$6.93 at 10:13 a.m. while rival PetroChina Co. gained 3.7 percent to HK$9.82. The Hang Seng was up 1 percent.
The refiner posted a record second-quarter profit of 22 billion yuan ($3.2 billion) and forecast a more-than-50 percent gain in nine-month earnings after the government eased curbs on fuel prices.
China raised fuel prices four times and cut them three times this year, compared with two adjustments in 2008, under a system introduced in December that keeps oil-product prices in line with global crude costs and ensures refiners a profit. The policy shift helped Sinopec end at least four years of refining losses.
First-half operating profit for the refining business was almost 20 billion yuan, compared with a loss of 74.7 billion yuan for the same period of last year, the company said in August, citing domestic accounting standards.
Smaller refining profits at Sinopec contrast with improving margins in Singapore, Asia’s biggest oil-trading center. The profit from turning Dubai crude oil into fuels at Singapore refineries were at minus 29 cents as barrel on Sept. 30, compared with minus $2.04 on June 26, when they were at the lowest this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Crude Oil
Sinopec forecasts crude oil to stay between $60 and $80 a barrel this year for budgeting purposes, the official said, without giving details. Crude oil averaged about $71.35 a barrel this month.
The official said separately that Africa is one of the areas targeted by Sinopec’s parent, China Petrochemical Corp., in its quest for overseas acquisitions. China Petrochemical will pursue at least a 12 percent rate of return on investments in overseas acquisitions, he said.
Chinese energy companies have spent at least $13 billion on overseas assets since December as they take advantage of lower valuations caused by the global recession to meet energy demand in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
Addax Petroleum
China Petrochemical acquired Swiss-based Addax Petroleum Corp. this year for C$8.3 billion ($8 billion), adding oil reserves in Iraq and West Africa.
Sinopec has set up a unit to review overseas acquisition opportunities, including assets in Angola, Russia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Australia owned by China Petrochemical Corp., Chairman Su Shulin said in August.
Sinopec will focus on upgrading and expanding its existing refineries in its plan to increase processing capacity rather than build new plants, the official said.
Sinopec aims to increase oil processing volume to 202 million tons in 2011 from 168.8 million tons in 2008, the company said in its three-year plan announced in August. Fuel sales will rise 10 percent to 135 million tons by then from 123 million tons, it said then.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ying Wang in Beijing at Winnie Zhu in Shanghai at wzhu4@bloomberg.net Last Updated: October 13, 2009 22:25 EDT
Sinopec China's Oil Giant
Sinopec’s Oil Refining Profit Falls on Crude Costs (Update1)
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By Bloomberg News
Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.’s profit from turning crude into fuels fell in the third quarter because of higher oil costs, an official familiar with operations at Asia’s biggest refiner said.
Margins were narrower between July and September, compared with the first six months, the official who declined to be named because the information is confidential, said in an interview in Beijing. Increased sales volume wasn’t enough to offset higher crude costs and the company’s refining business probably broke even in the quarter, he said.
China, the world’s second-biggest oil user, raised the price of gasoline and diesel three times between January and June compared with once in the third quarter. Crude oil in New York averaged about $68 a barrel in the last three months, representing a 32 percent increase from the first half.
“Domestic fuel price adjustments have lagged behind crude gains, which hurt the state oil refiner’s refining profit,” Grace Liu, an analyst with Guotai Junan Securities Ltd., said by telephone from the southern city of Shenzhen. “We expect the company’s processing margin to drop to $5.40 per barrel in the second half from $8.60 per barrel in the first six months.”
Chen Ge, the board secretary at the Beijing-based company also known as Sinopec, wasn’t available to comment.
Fuel Price Caps
Sinopec has gained 45 percent this year in Hong Kong trading, compared with the 49 percent increase in the benchmark Hang Seng Index. The shares climbed 1.6 percent to HK$6.93 at 10:13 a.m. while rival PetroChina Co. gained 3.7 percent to HK$9.82. The Hang Seng was up 1 percent.
The refiner posted a record second-quarter profit of 22 billion yuan ($3.2 billion) and forecast a more-than-50 percent gain in nine-month earnings after the government eased curbs on fuel prices.
China raised fuel prices four times and cut them three times this year, compared with two adjustments in 2008, under a system introduced in December that keeps oil-product prices in line with global crude costs and ensures refiners a profit. The policy shift helped Sinopec end at least four years of refining losses.
First-half operating profit for the refining business was almost 20 billion yuan, compared with a loss of 74.7 billion yuan for the same period of last year, the company said in August, citing domestic accounting standards.
Smaller refining profits at Sinopec contrast with improving margins in Singapore, Asia’s biggest oil-trading center. The profit from turning Dubai crude oil into fuels at Singapore refineries were at minus 29 cents as barrel on Sept. 30, compared with minus $2.04 on June 26, when they were at the lowest this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Crude Oil
Sinopec forecasts crude oil to stay between $60 and $80 a barrel this year for budgeting purposes, the official said, without giving details. Crude oil averaged about $71.35 a barrel this month.
The official said separately that Africa is one of the areas targeted by Sinopec’s parent, China Petrochemical Corp., in its quest for overseas acquisitions. China Petrochemical will pursue at least a 12 percent rate of return on investments in overseas acquisitions, he said.
Chinese energy companies have spent at least $13 billion on overseas assets since December as they take advantage of lower valuations caused by the global recession to meet energy demand in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
Addax Petroleum
China Petrochemical acquired Swiss-based Addax Petroleum Corp. this year for C$8.3 billion ($8 billion), adding oil reserves in Iraq and West Africa.
Sinopec has set up a unit to review overseas acquisition opportunities, including assets in Angola, Russia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Australia owned by China Petrochemical Corp., Chairman Su Shulin said in August.
Sinopec will focus on upgrading and expanding its existing refineries in its plan to increase processing capacity rather than build new plants, the official said.
Sinopec aims to increase oil processing volume to 202 million tons in 2011 from 168.8 million tons in 2008, the company said in its three-year plan announced in August. Fuel sales will rise 10 percent to 135 million tons by then from 123 million tons, it said then.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ying Wang in Beijing at Winnie Zhu in Shanghai at wzhu4@bloomberg.net Last Updated: October 13, 2009 22:25 EDT
Share Email Print A A A
By Bloomberg News
Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.’s profit from turning crude into fuels fell in the third quarter because of higher oil costs, an official familiar with operations at Asia’s biggest refiner said.
Margins were narrower between July and September, compared with the first six months, the official who declined to be named because the information is confidential, said in an interview in Beijing. Increased sales volume wasn’t enough to offset higher crude costs and the company’s refining business probably broke even in the quarter, he said.
China, the world’s second-biggest oil user, raised the price of gasoline and diesel three times between January and June compared with once in the third quarter. Crude oil in New York averaged about $68 a barrel in the last three months, representing a 32 percent increase from the first half.
“Domestic fuel price adjustments have lagged behind crude gains, which hurt the state oil refiner’s refining profit,” Grace Liu, an analyst with Guotai Junan Securities Ltd., said by telephone from the southern city of Shenzhen. “We expect the company’s processing margin to drop to $5.40 per barrel in the second half from $8.60 per barrel in the first six months.”
Chen Ge, the board secretary at the Beijing-based company also known as Sinopec, wasn’t available to comment.
Fuel Price Caps
Sinopec has gained 45 percent this year in Hong Kong trading, compared with the 49 percent increase in the benchmark Hang Seng Index. The shares climbed 1.6 percent to HK$6.93 at 10:13 a.m. while rival PetroChina Co. gained 3.7 percent to HK$9.82. The Hang Seng was up 1 percent.
The refiner posted a record second-quarter profit of 22 billion yuan ($3.2 billion) and forecast a more-than-50 percent gain in nine-month earnings after the government eased curbs on fuel prices.
China raised fuel prices four times and cut them three times this year, compared with two adjustments in 2008, under a system introduced in December that keeps oil-product prices in line with global crude costs and ensures refiners a profit. The policy shift helped Sinopec end at least four years of refining losses.
First-half operating profit for the refining business was almost 20 billion yuan, compared with a loss of 74.7 billion yuan for the same period of last year, the company said in August, citing domestic accounting standards.
Smaller refining profits at Sinopec contrast with improving margins in Singapore, Asia’s biggest oil-trading center. The profit from turning Dubai crude oil into fuels at Singapore refineries were at minus 29 cents as barrel on Sept. 30, compared with minus $2.04 on June 26, when they were at the lowest this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Crude Oil
Sinopec forecasts crude oil to stay between $60 and $80 a barrel this year for budgeting purposes, the official said, without giving details. Crude oil averaged about $71.35 a barrel this month.
The official said separately that Africa is one of the areas targeted by Sinopec’s parent, China Petrochemical Corp., in its quest for overseas acquisitions. China Petrochemical will pursue at least a 12 percent rate of return on investments in overseas acquisitions, he said.
Chinese energy companies have spent at least $13 billion on overseas assets since December as they take advantage of lower valuations caused by the global recession to meet energy demand in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
Addax Petroleum
China Petrochemical acquired Swiss-based Addax Petroleum Corp. this year for C$8.3 billion ($8 billion), adding oil reserves in Iraq and West Africa.
Sinopec has set up a unit to review overseas acquisition opportunities, including assets in Angola, Russia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Australia owned by China Petrochemical Corp., Chairman Su Shulin said in August.
Sinopec will focus on upgrading and expanding its existing refineries in its plan to increase processing capacity rather than build new plants, the official said.
Sinopec aims to increase oil processing volume to 202 million tons in 2011 from 168.8 million tons in 2008, the company said in its three-year plan announced in August. Fuel sales will rise 10 percent to 135 million tons by then from 123 million tons, it said then.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ying Wang in Beijing at Winnie Zhu in Shanghai at wzhu4@bloomberg.net Last Updated: October 13, 2009 22:25 EDT
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