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Kemet Chief Financial Officer David Gable resigning
Thursday April 24, 5:44 pm ET
Kemet Chief Financial Officer David Gable resigning to pursue other interests
GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) -- Kemet Corp., which makes components for electronic devices, said Thursday Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer David Gable is resigning.
The company said he is resigning to pursue other interests.
In January, the company announced a restructuring plan that will cut 120 jobs in the U.S. and 250 jobs in Mexico, moving some work to China. The company said the job cuts would save about $16 million a year, with a one-time cost of about $7 million.
Gable will remain with the company until a successor is found.
Shares of Kemet rose 12 cents, or 2.7 percent, to close at $4.59. The stock has traded between $3.93 and $9.14 over the past 52 weeks.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080424/kemet_personnel.html?.v=1
KLA-Tencor prices $750 million offering of senior notes
Wednesday April 30, 5:49 pm ET
KLA-Tencor prices $750 million senior notes offering, proceeds to be used for general purposes
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- KLA-Tencor Corp., which sells microchip testing equipment, priced $750 million in a senior notes offering Wednesday.
The company said the notes will be due May 1, 2018, with a coupon of 6.9 percent. Proceeds from the offering will be used for general corporate purposes, which could include buyouts and stock buybacks.
Merrill Lynch & Co. is acting as the sole book-running manager of the offering.
Shares of KLA-Tencor rise $2.05, or 4.7 percent, to $45.73 in after-hours trading after falling $2.05, or 4.5 percent to close at $43.68 during the regular trading session.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080430/kla_tencor_notes_offering.html?.v=1
Wedbush Morgan - 1 MAY 08 - downgrade Buy to Hold
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ud?s=DNEX
EDN Innovation Award Presented for Linear Technology Power Device
April 28, 2008 09:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Permalink
MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Linear Technology Corporation (Nasdaq:LLTC) today announced that EDN magazine has selected Linear’s LT3080 three-terminal parallelable low dropout linear regulator as EDN’s Innovation of the Year in the Power ICs category. The award was presented at the annual EDN Innovation Awards ceremony this month in San Jose, California to Linear Technology Vice President Engineering and Chief Technical Officer Robert Dobkin and Design Engineer Todd Owen, who developed the product.
“Every year the difficulty of technical challenges increases, the pressures of schedule, cost, and energy efficiency grow, and the resources available to design teams dwindle. That makes the achievements of this year’s EDN Innovation Award winners all the more impressive,” stated Ron Wilson, executive director of EDN Worldwide. “Selected by their peers in the design community for their outstanding results, these innovators stand in the front rank of the best and brightest electronics engineering has to offer.”
Robert Dobkin, CTO of Linear Technology, stated, “The LT3080 solves two difficult problems for linear regulators: spreading heat to eliminate heat sinks and increasing output current by simply adding additional devices. The circuit architecture is completely new and just as easy to use as older devices. I am proud to introduce this product.”
The LT3080 is a 1.1A three-terminal linear regulator that can easily be paralleled for heat spreading and higher output current, and is adjustable to zero with a single resistor. This is a new architecture for regulators and uses a current reference and voltage follower to allow sharing between multiple regulators, enabling multiamp linear regulation in all surface-mount systems without heat sinks.
The LT3080 has a wide input voltage capability of 1.2V to 40V, a dropout voltage of only 300mV and millivolt regulation. The output voltage is adjustable, spanning a wide range from 0V to 40V, and the on-chip trimmed reference achieves high accuracy of ±1%. The LT3080 really shines in generating multirail systems.
As a historical note, the LT3080 is a significant refinement of the industry-standard three-terminal linear regulators first developed by Robert Dobkin over 30 years ago. The new LT3080 device allows designers more flexibility in designing the power portion of their systems most simply and with optimal spreading of heat across the board.
Since the introduction of the LT3080 last year, there has been significant customer interest across a wide range of system applications.
About EDN and EDN.com
EDN serves the vital information needs of design engineers and engineering managers worldwide. EDN.com delivers a three-dimensional view of the electronics industry via news coverage, strategic business information, and in-depth technical content. (www.edn.com) EDN is published by Reed Business Information (www.reedbusiness.com/us), the largest business-to-business publisher in the U.S. and a member of the Reed Elsevier Group plc (NYSE: RUK and ENL) – a world-leading publisher and information provider.
About the EDN Innovation Awards
EDN was the first to create an award honoring people, products, and technologies that have shaped the electronics industry. The EDN Innovation Awards program also nurtures the growth of engineering careers and the future of electronics by donating a portion of the proceeds from the Innovation Awards ceremony to an engineering university selected by the Innovator of the Year. (www.EDN.com/innovation18)
About Linear Technology
Linear Technology Corporation, a manufacturer of high performance linear integrated circuits, was founded in 1981, became a public company in 1986 and joined the S&P 500 index of major public companies in 2000. Linear Technology products include high performance amplifiers, comparators, voltage references, monolithic filters, linear regulators, DC-DC converters, battery chargers, data converters, communications interface circuits, RF signal conditioning circuits, and many other analog functions. Applications for Linear Technology’s high performance circuits include telecommunications, cellular telephones, networking products such as optical switches, notebook and desktop computers, computer peripherals, video/multimedia, industrial instrumentation, security monitoring devices, high-end consumer products such as digital cameras and MP3 players, complex medical devices, automotive electronics, factory automation, process control, and military and space systems. For more information, visit www.linear.com.
Note: LT and LTC are registered trademarks of Linear Technology Corporation.
Contacts
Linear Technology Corporation
John Hamburger, 408-432-1900 ext. 2419
Director, Marketing Communications
jhamburger@linear.com
www.linear.com
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080428005408&newsLang=en
Cover Story
How T.J. Rodgers grew Cypress Semiconductor by incubating innovative ideas — no matter the source
By Leslie Stevens-Huffman
Smart Business Northern California | May 2008
Page 1 of 4
The Rodgers file
Silicon Valley is known as the birthplace of new business ideas and the home of the entrepreneurial spirit. The challenge is that even tech companies with entrepreneurial roots can struggle to maintain a competitive edge and a penchant for innovation as they grow.
Several times, one of the most famous, colorful and outspoken founders in the Silicon Valley, T.J. Rodgers, faced these same challenges.
“What’s important to sustaining growth is that you have to continue to learn as a CEO and as a company, you have to continue to drive things forward,” Rodgers says. “We started as an SRAM company, and we had a single-minded focus, which caused us not to diversify. That made us very vulnerable in 2001. What I’ve learned is that as a company, you exist to serve your customers, and you can evolve and change or simply disappear.”
Rodgers, president and CEO of Cypress Semiconductor Corp., has become famous for his business success and his expert opinions since founding the company in 1982. He testified before a senate committee in 1997, a senate judiciary committee in 1998 and, later that same year, he spoke to the Annual Cato Institute-Forbes ASAP Conference on Technology and Society about why the Silicon Valley should not normalize relations with Washington D.C. In addition, somewhere along the way, he’s grown a billion-dollar business with more than 6,000 employees, invented and patented new technologies, written a few books, and received numerous recognitions.
Given that Cypress’ core business was originally built in the ultracompetitive semiconductor industry, achieving revenue of $1.56 billion in 2007 — up from $1.09 billion in 2006 — is proof of Rodgers’ innovative tenacity.
At Cypress, the incubator switch is always in the on position and the company has become famous for its continual quest for new ideas. In addition to product diversification, Rodgers has sustained growth by creating and sustaining a visionary culture within the organization.
continued...
http://www.sbnonline.com/Local/Article/14498/80/0/The_power_within.aspx
American Dairy's Feihe Brand Named 'Top Ten Best' by SINA
Tuesday April 29, 9:10 am ET
BEIJING, April 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- American Dairy, Inc. (NYSE: ADY - News) one of the leading producers and distributors of infant formula, milk powder and soybean and walnut products in China, today announced that its flagship brand, "Feihe," has been named the "Most Energetic Brand" in the "Top Ten Best Infant Formula" category at the Annual Baby and Infant Industry Ceremony, hosted recently by SINA Corporation (Nasdaq: SINA, "SINA").
The Baby and Infant Industry Ceremony is one of the largest annual events in the industry and awards companies involved in all aspects of infant care, ranging from infant formula producers to baby food and clothing manufacturers. Participating companies are evaluated by a group of industry experts and the public, who votes on the Internet. Nominating companies go through a three-stage elimination process, and receive awards based on their achievements during the year, which include titles such as "Most Socially Responsible," "Most Competitive," and "Most Energetic."
Mr. Leng You Bin, Chief Executive Officer of American Dairy, stated, "Feihe is a nationally established and trusted brand in China. The award speaks to Feihe's growth in recent years and its potential for future growth. We expect that Chinese consumers will continue to seek our brand for quality and consistency."
About American Dairy, Inc.
American Dairy, Inc. conducts operations in The People's Republic of China ("China") through its wholly owned subsidiary, Feihe Dairy. Founded in 1962, Feihe Dairy is one of the leading producers and distributors of infant formula, milk powder and soybean and walnut products in China. Feihe Dairy is headquartered in Beijing, China, and has processing and distribution facilities in Kedong, Qiqihaer, Baiquan, Gannan, Shanxi, and Langfang, http://www.americandairyinc.com / http://www.feihe.com
Forward-Looking Statements
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Potential risks and uncertainties are set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes in the Company's plans or expectations.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080429/nytu093.html?.v=101
Yes, the current p/e ratio is 1.3 ... not bad! Show me another company with a p/e of 1.3
Management vs. Jr. Preferred 18 JUN 2008
from YMB
by bdk4pop
"We will have roller coaster stock prices until June 18. The Junior Preferred shareholders have and will continue to short this stock. They are due nearly $20 million on June 18 if the company is not sold by then. No way TMY can pay that in cash--they will have to pay in stock. The Preferreds will receive stock based on 97% of the June 18 closing price. The lower the price, the greater the number of shares they receive. Management will do whatever they can to support the price. If they don't, they will loose control of the company. Look for 1st Q. revenues in the $16-18M range and after that an announcement that they have stimulated the five wells boosting production, taking advantage of the record oil prices."
An excellent post imho! GLTA.
http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_T/threadview?m=te&bn=23748&tid=84572&mid=84572&tof=4&frt=2#84572
...This, in fact, has been the approach adopted by the Bush administration over the last seven years. It has involved repeated visits to key oil suppliers, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Nigeria, by top U.S. officials, including President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, along with promises of economic aid and, on occasion, increased levels of military assistance...
(full context below)
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April 30, 2008, 7:45PM
We're both over a barrel; let's cooperate with China
Shrinking oil supplies will stretch if we work together
By MICHAEL T. KLARE
TOOLS
Among the many reasons given for the recent surge in gas prices is China's soaring demand for petroleum. Because the Chinese are running around the world buying up every available barrel of oil, the theory goes, we Americans have to pay that much more to outbid them for the leftover pools of crude. And the fact that the Chinese yuan has been growing stronger while the American dollar is shrinking in value has only exacerbated the problem.
Unquestionably, there's some truth to this. China's consumption of oil rose from about 4.2 million barrels a day in 1997 to 7.8 million barrels in 2007, an increase of 86 percent, the U.S. Department of Energy reported earlier this year. More to the point, the percentage of this oil that had to be imported grew even more. In 1997, China supplied all but 1 million barrels of the oil it consumed each day from domestic fields; by 2007, the shortfall between domestic output and consumption had jumped to 4 million barrels, all of which had to be imported.
To obtain these additional barrels, the Chinese have, in fact, been shopping in some of the same foreign oil bazaars as the United States — and, with more demand chasing a finite supply, prices naturally tend to rise.
But let's put this in perspective. In 2007, according to Energy Department figures, the United States consumed about 21 million barrels of oil a day, nearly three times as much as China. Even more significant, we imported 13 million barrels every day, a vastly greater amount than China's import tally. So, although it is indeed true that Chinese and American consumers are competing for access to overseas supplies, thereby edging up prices, American consumption still sets the pace in international oil markets.
The reality is that as far as the current run-up in gasoline prices is concerned, other factors are more to blame: shrinking oil output from key producers such as Mexico, Russia and Venezuela; internal violence in Iraq and Nigeria; refinery inadequacies in the United States and elsewhere; speculative stockpiling by global oil brokers, and so on. These conditions are likely to persist for the foreseeable future, so prices will remain high.
Peer into the future, however, and the China factor starts looming much larger.
With its roaring economy and millions of newly affluent consumers — many of whom are buying their first automobiles — China is rapidly catching up with the United States in its net oil intake. According to the most recent projections, Chinese petroleum consumption is expected to jump from 8 million barrels a day in 2008 to an estimated 12 million in 2020 and to 16 million in 2030. American consumption will also climb, but not as much, reaching an estimated 27 million barrels a day in 2030. In terms of oil imports, moreover, the gap will grow even smaller. Chinese imports are projected to hit 10.8 million barrels a day in 2030, compared with 16.4 million for the United States. Clearly, the Sino-American competition for foreign oil supplies will grow ever more intense with every passing year.
How, then, should we respond to this challenge? One answer, favored by many officials in Washington, D.C., is to step up American political, economic and military involvement in Africa, the Middle East and Asia so as to enhance America's competitive advantage in the struggle for access to the world's remaining untapped supplies of crude oil.
This, in fact, has been the approach adopted by the Bush administration over the last seven years. It has involved repeated visits to key oil suppliers, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Nigeria, by top U.S. officials, including President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, along with promises of economic aid and, on occasion, increased levels of military assistance. China, sad to say, has responded in kind, inflaming regional tensions and sparking a series of local arms races.
This competitive approach may give American companies a slight advantage in a few oil-producing areas, but it is unlikely to alter the big picture or reduce the cost of gasoline to American consumers. At the same time, it is sure to boost U.S. military expenditures and produce a greater risk of American involvement in overseas energy conflicts.
A far wiser course, I believe, would be to promote energy cooperation with China, rather than competition. Given that the United States and China are the world's two biggest users of petroleum — a fuel whose worldwide availability is likely to peak at 100 million barrels or so per day in the next five years or so and then commence an irreversible decline — it makes great sense for us to collaborate in the development of oil alternatives and energy-saving technologies.
Such collaboration could take the form of joint ventures to develop advanced biofuels (not derived from food crops) and transportation fuels extracted from coal (without releasing heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere). It could also include the development of superlight vehicles, advanced hybrid engines and other energy-saving systems. Such endeavors have been discussed on a preliminary basis by U.S. and Chinese officials, so it is hardly utopian to envision a more elaborate and constructive undertaking of this sort.
Make no mistake: Intensified competition between the United States and China for access to the world's remaining supplies of oil (and other sources of energy) will inevitably add to the forces pushing gasoline prices skyward and will generate an increased risk of regional instability. Trying to fight China over oil is the wrong approach; we'd both be better off by cooperating in the search for petroleum alternatives.
Klare is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and the author of "Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy." This article originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5744175.html
Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia should Have Unity of Purpose: Interview with Georgian Minister of Economic Development
01.05.08 10:50
Kazakhstan, Astana, 30 April / corr. TrendCapital K. Konirova/ The exclusive interview of the special correspondent of TrendCapital in Astana with the minister of economic development of Georgia Ekaterina Sharashidze, who visited Kazakhstan recently.
Question: Association Head of Kazakhstan Exporters said that under such cut-throat competition among the routes, all depends on what Caucasus will suggest us. Were the transit tariffs for the export of Kazakhstan cargo through Georgia discussed during your meeting in Astana?
Answer: We did not discuss the tariffs. We discussed the possibility of Kazakh cargos transit, especially the oil and oil products through Georgia, through our ports in Batumi and Poti. Apart from this, we also discussed the various possibilities of the use of oil pipelines such as Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan. As you know, the capacity of BTC may be increased. There are rehabilitation works continuing in Baku-Supsa pipeline at present. By the way, a new port will be built in Poti, so the capacity of this port will increase in the future. We also discussed the transit of cargo via railway through Caucasus.
Question: There have been some problems concerning the transit of Kazakh strategic goods (oil, gas and grain) via Caucasus corridor. As I recall, a year and half ago, the Georgian parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze raised the issue of railway transit tariffs in Tbilisi during her meeting with Karim Masimov, Kazakh Premier…
Answer: As to the position of my country, Georgia strongly pursues open policy today. We do every effort so that the cargos passes through our country without any obstacles by eliminating all the tariff and administrative barriers, Today a lot of efforts are made to make the country more attractive for the transit purpose. The roads and related infrastructure have been built and we have begun investing into the development of Poti sea port. We have done that so that our regional transit tariffs would not be higher than the other countries and the cargos would not pass through Iran and Russia. We also make efforts to make the Caucasus corridor more attractive. There are high railway tariffs in Baku-Tbilisi section. We are holding talks with Azerbaijan in this regard and we know that Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are discussing it as well. Our chief goal is that Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia could have a unity of purpose. We believe that the development of a unified policy is a target of strategic importance for all these three countries today.
Question: What are your views about the implementation of project on construction of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway?
Answer: Works on the construction of Georgian section of the railway began at the end of 2007. Everything is being carried out in line with the schedule. As to the dividends expected from the project, they are very promising. This section will connect the Georgian railway infrastructure with Turkey, which is going to connect to the European railway infrastructure soon. Baku-Tbilisi-Kars will be one of the opportunities to expand the transit potential of the three countries, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, as it will connect Asia with Europe. The construction of the railway is expected to end in two years. We are sure that when the railway will be lunched, lot of cargos will come from China and Russia as well. Most important thing for today is that the processes are continuing dynamically and we are optimistic about the future of the Caucasus corridor.
Question: Todd Levy, the head of TSO, a large oil extracting company of Kazakhstan, stated recently that they plan to increase oil production from 2008 and part of it will be transported via BTC or via railway through Caucasus. Now the management of TSO is holding talks on transit of additional volumes of Tengiz oil via Caucasus route. Is Georgia ready for transit of such big volumes?
Answer: Yes. Baku-Supsa oil pipeline, which goes through our territory, is being reconstructed at present. As a matter of fact, there are two pipes. Their total capacity makes up to 10mln-15mln tons a year with a possible expansion of 27mln tons of oil a year. The oil pipeline is under the management of BP. As the representatives of the company said during the talks, the first stage of reconstruction will end by the end of May and early June 2008.
Question: How do you assess the participation of State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) in energy sphere of Georgia?
Answer: We have very good ties with Azerbaijan, especially with SOCAR. We purchase gas from the neighboring country’s Shah Deniz field. The national oil company of Azerbaijan is developing gas network and distribution in our country. They have completed the construction of Kulevi terminal and have also been granted one-year license.
Question: During his meeting with the President of Georgia, the President of Kazakhstan has expressed his wish for Georgian mandarins and apples to be brought to Kazakhstan…
Answer: We discussed this topic in Astana with the Prime Minister Karim Masimov. Discussions were held on how to assist the entrepreneurs of the two countries in supplying fruits from Georgia already in this season. The harvesting is supposed to be rich. From our side, we are prepared to export our products to Kazakhstan. Three or four years ago, we had lack of roads and electricity in the rural regions. At present, everything has changed. Roads have been constructed, electricity has been supplied and there is a favorable climate. In short, we are ready. Now everything depends on the Kazakh side and on the volume of orders. I think that today this question was raised at the level of governments and there will be positive results.
Question: There is an opinion that the absence of direct flights between Tbilisi and Astana presents obstacles for the development of many business projects between the two countries. What is your view point on this?
Answer: Georgia pursues an open sky policy. Everything will depend on the range of business people demand for flights to Kazakhstan and to Georgia. We have two or three Georgian private air companies. Earlier the flight were carried out to Almaty and Astana, and to my knowledge, there are intentions to re-establish the flights soon.
Question: It is not a secret that over the recent period, the media paid much attention to the discussions on Georgia’s entrance to NATO. One of the opposite arguments was that the membership to NATO envisages huge expenses for the country that joins the Alliance. Is Georgia prepared for that?
Answer: Georgia has implemented all the conditions and necessary expenses for its entrance to NATO. With regards to the military expenses, nearly 20% of the Public budget is being directed towards Georgian army. In my opinion, it is a normal case for a developing country. We began establishing our army from zero. Today our army has been trained well, physically and technically. Defence, social program and infrastructure projects are key articles of expenditures of Georgia today. We always look at the current situation. For instance, if we see that the development of economy will help in the development of infrastructure, we increase our expenses in this direction. But if the food crisis has been recorded in the recent period, we increase our expenses for the social programs.
Question: I heard that preference is given to the young people in labor establishment in Georgia, but there are difficulties for those under 50 years of age. Is that true?
Answer: Yes, there is such a problem. It deals with those who can not find their place in the realities of life. Today the Government carries out special job-trainings involving not only young generation, but also the old generation. In the beginning, the private companies make announcement on specialties they require, and the Government holds three months seminars where the people pass practice and receive $200 salary from the government. It is a huge help to the company and people. The firms gain additional workforce and people gets guaranteed salary and opportunity to test themselves.
Связаться с автором статьи можно по адресу: Capital@trend.az
http://capital.trendaz.com/index.shtml?show=news&newsid=1189098&lang=EN
New overland gas pipeline through Kazakhstan to Russia:
-- -- -- --
An Anniversary in Central Asia
One year after regime change, Turkmenistan remains an enigma
BY JESSE KAPLAN
It was a busy first year in office for Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov. The dentist-turned-bureaucrat formally assumed the presidency in February 2007 and has since visited Beijing, Brussels, New York, and Mecca. He has also received numerous visiting dignitaries and opened the country’s first internet cafés, all while reversing some of the bizarre and repressive policies of his predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov. Niyazov had abolished tenth grade education, forbidden mention of infectious diseases, and even renamed the month of January after himself.
Yet if Berdymukhammedov's Turkmenistan is a “little less the North Korea of Central Asia” than was Niyazov’s, as Olga Oliker, Senior International Policy Analyst at the RAND Corporation, told the HPR, the new regime has followed the same aggressive neutrality policy. Within the past year, Turkmenistan has negotiated deals with Russia and China while soliciting the attention of Western energy firms. For all of Berdymukhammedov’s rhetoric of opening the country, Turkmenistan has intentionally remained diplomatically nonaligned, leaving unclaimed the biggest prize in the race for influence in Central Asia.
Products of Paranoia
Few question Turkmenistan’s strategic importance. The country possesses some of the most abundant natural gas deposits in the world as well as substantial untapped oil reserves. So large are Turkmenistan’s hydrocarbon resources, and so little is consumed domestically, that the government distributes gas essentially free to its citizens. As for the geographic significance of Turkmenistan, the country borders Afghanistan and Iran and is a proverbial stone’s throw from China and Russia.
Under Niyazov, Turkmenistan proved to be the most hermetic nation in the world; his policies were products of his jealous grip on power. Fear that a well-educated populace threatened his rule led Niyazov to systematically dismantle elements of the Turkmen educational system. He reduced the length of compulsory schooling and replaced standard curricula with those based on the Rukhnama, a quasi-historical moral guide he penned in office. He also mostly forbade study abroad. “Niyazov had this idea that anybody with higher education would want to overthrow his government, which, when you think about it, is probably true,” Scott Horton, a lecturer at Columbia Law School who has worked extensively on foreign investments in Central Asia, told the HPR. As a result, an entire generation of Turkmen remains uneducated.
Niyazov’s paranoia did lead to some positive consequences for Turkmenistan internationally. Spurning outside influence, Niyazov used the country’s UN-recognized neutrality to balance the interests of competing geopolitical powers. For example, his preoccupation with maintaining his rule, which hindered new infrastructure development, pleased Russian leaders wary of competition against existing gas pipelines that ran through Russia. Yet to reduce reliance on Moscow, Niyazov allowed American use of Turkmen airspace and removed Turkmenistan from permanent membership in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Niyazov may have been “crazy,” Horton noted, but Western perceptions to the contrary, “He wasn’t stupid.”
Gazpromonopoly
Niyazov’s energy policy, whatever it did for his political fortunes, prevented Turkmenistan from realizing the potential wealth from its reserves. Russia purchases 1000 cubic meters of Turkmen gas for approximately $100; the market price in the European Union for this gas is $250. Turkmenistan exports between 90 and 95 percent of its gas through Russia, leaving the Kremlin free to dictate trade terms. When Niyazov briefly cut off exports to Russian oil company Gazprom over a pricing dispute in 1996, the Turkmen economy collapsed.
To correct this imbalance, Berdymukhammedov has voiced support for a trans-Caspian pipeline favored by Western nations that would link with lines in the Caucasus, bypassing Russia. Berdymukhammedov appears “willing to place Russia in a market rather than a patriarchal context,” said Erika Dailey, director of the Turkmenistan Project at the Open Society Institute, in an interview with the HPR. Yet he remains willing to make deals advantageous to Moscow: In May, he committed to a new gas line overland through Kazakhstan to Russia, the proposed capacity of which may put visions of the trans-Caspian line to rest.
Due to simple geographic reality, Russia will continue to play the most significant role in Turkmen energy politics. “It's very difficult to build pipelines in that part of the world that don’t involve Russia,” said Oliker. “Look at a map.”
Courting the West, and the Rest
Some experts remain wary of investment in Turkmenistan. Berdymukhammedov has done little to open Turkmen society; he accompanied his much-lauded establishment of cybercafés by banning private satellite dishes. Added to the concern is the difficulty of pinpointing the size of energy reserves in the country, as well as the uncertainty surrounding hydrocarbon extraction. “What’s in the ground has been regarded as a [Turkmen] state secret,” Michael Cohen, specialist on Newly Independent States at the Energy Information Administration, told the HPR.
Regardless, American courtship of Berdymukhammedov continues. Chevron and ConocoPhillips sponsored the 2007 Turkmenistan International Oil & Gas Conference, and in late January the U.S. Coordinator for Eurasian energy diplomacy, the commander of U.S. Central Command, and the CEO of Midland Oil and Gas all visited the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat.
Other nations have followed America’s lead. China began exploration drilling for gas in eastern Turkmenistan in July. Iran, which “sees itself as the natural ruler of Central Asia,” as the former U.S. ambassador to Turkmenistan, Michael Cotter, told the HPR, may seek to use its substantial Turkmen population as leverage to increase its influence in the region. In addition, the European Union, which hosted Berdymukhammedov in November, as well as India and Pakistan, who desire a trans-Afghan pipeline to support growing energy consumption, are jockeying for influence. It is unclear how Berdymukhammedov will orient himself. “His dance with the nations is meaningful,” Steve LeVine, author of The Oil and the Glory, an analysis of Caspian Sea energy politics, told the HPR. “He’s simply an uncertain dancer.”
Berdymukhammedov appears willing to stay on the dance floor for the foreseeable future. Central Asian relations are not a zero-sum game; discussions of spheres of influence ignore the viability of a nonaligned Turkmen foreign policy similar to that of neighboring Kazakhstan. Pipeline diversification and foreign investment are beneficial to Turkmenistan, but the continuing need for internal consolidation of his power will also prevent Berdymukhammedov from taking decisive steps internationally. As Johannes Linn, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, told the HPR: “All signs point in the direction of continued neutrality.”
This spring, Berdymukhammedov will receive a delegation from the Harriman Institute to facilitate educational exchange with the West. Turkmenistan is considering an invitation to join the Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation Program. And the country will, for the first time, allow an independent audit of its gas resources. All of this presages another busy year for Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov during which his intentions will likely remain as inscrutable as ever.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 11:24AM
http://hprsite.squarespace.com/an-anniversary-in-cent-042008/
KAZAKH URANIUM STRATEGY STUMBLES ALONG
Thursday, May 01, 2008; Posted: 04:36 AM
ALMATY - Kazakh authorities have reiterated "plans" to become a world leader in uranium production.
Kazakhstan, apart from sitting on the world's largest untapped oil deposit off the Caspian coast, is also immensely rich in non-ferrous metal ore, including copper, gold, silver, zinc and last but not least uranium. It has the second largest reserves after Australia, with deposit volumes of class A (proven) and class B (assessed) amounting to 11.6 million tons. About two-thirds of the country's uranium is located in the northern provinces, with other fields scattered over the west, south and the east of the country.
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1474947/
Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan Discuss Caspian’s Status
[1 MAY 2008] 17:41
Azerbaijan, Baku, 1 May / corr. TrendNews S. Agayeva/ On 1 May, the Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan talks on status of the Caspian Sea began in Ashgabat. “The delegation of Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry headed by Khalaf Khalafov, the deputy foreign minister, has paid an official visit to Turkmen capital city in order to hold talks in this regard,” the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Turkmenistan said on 1 May.
Azerbaijan, Russia and Kazakhstan do not have claims to each-other concerning the division of Caspian’s bottom. Both bilateral and three-sided agreements on this issue have been signed amongst these three states. The parties have also reached a consensus on determination of the co-ordinates of the medium division line.
However, Turkmenistan and Iran abstain from determining the co-ordinate of the medium division line. It hinders the determining status of the Caspian sea.
The basic disagreement between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan is over the Kapaz field, which Turkmenistan considers to be its own field with a name of Sardar. According to the seismological prospecting, the field is supposed to have some 150mln barrels of oil and gas-condensate reserves.
The correspondent can be contacted at: trend@trend.az
http://news.trendaz.com/index.shtml?show=news&newsid=1189584&lang=EN
OVL eyes Transmeridian’s oilfield in Kazakhstan
Our Bureau
New Delhi, July 23 [2007] ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas arm of ONGC, may acquireUS oil firm, Transmeridian Exploration Inc’ s oilfields in Kazakhstan. An OVL team abroad is said to be considering the proposal.
However, senior officials of ONGC and OVL declined to confirm the development. In June, Transmeridian had announced that it is continuing with its previously announced plan to obtain proposals for the acquisition of the company or its South Alibek field. The company, in an investor filing on June 18 said that it has received expressions of interest from potential bidders and entered into confidentiality agreements with selected parties.
Transmeridian Explorationhas projects in Kazakhstan and southern Russia and is pursuing additional projects in the Caspian Sea region. It is an independent energy company established to acquire and develop oil reserves in the Caspian Sea region of the former Soviet Union. The company primarily targets fields with proved or probable reserves and significant upside reserve potential.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/07/24/stories/2007072450770300.htm
New Delhi: Steel czar Lakshmi N Mittal is mulling floating an oil and gas company as part of his inorganic growth path for achieving bid in the hydrocarbon sector.
Mittal is likely to transfer oil and gas assets he has acquired over the past two years to the new firm, industry sources said.
Currently, Mittal family's holding company Mittal Investment holds the 50 per cent stake the steel baron had acquired in Kazakhstan oil firm Caspian Investment Resources and the three per cent stake in Chevron-operated Olokola LNG (OK-LNG) project in Nigeria.
The new company will takeover these and possibly also Mittal's 49 per cent stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd's Bhatinda refinery, they said.
The new firm will be besides Mittal's joint venture with Oil and Natural Gas Corp, ONGC-Mittal Energy Ltd. OMEL, which was set up to leverage strengths of the two giants to acquire oil and gas assets in 27 countries, has since 2005 bagged two lucrative oil blocks in Nigeria, one gas block in Trinidad and Tobago, an oilfield in Syria and a gas block in Turkmenistan.
Sources said OMEL may continue to work along side, even though Mittal is withdrawing the Chief Financial Officer H Bhantia he had loaned to the venture. OMEL is without a CEO since August 2007 when Naresh K Nayyar resigned to join Essar.
Mittal's new company may also trade in oil and gas after his venture for the purpose with ONGC, ONGC Mittal Energy Services Ltd, folded up last year.
Sudhir Maheshwari, Mittal's acquisition man, is likely to head the new venture, sources said. Maheshwari currently is Executive Vice President (Finance and M&A) in ArcelorMittal.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Corporate_Trends/Lakshmi_N_Mittal_may_float_oil_firm_/articleshow/3001924.cms
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Is ONGC India still interested in Transmeridian?
-- -- -- --
ONGC mulls takeover of US listed oil firm
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is mulling a takeover of the US-listed oil firm, Transmeridian, that has 211-million-barrel reserves in Kazakhstan.
Transmeridian is listed on the AMEX Stock Exchange and independent valuers put its value at over $1.5 billion.
Transmeridian has been on the radar of ONGC Videsh Ltd (the overseas investment arm of ONGC) for sometime now. The company has done preliminary due diligence and it is expected to take a decision anytime now, industry sources said.
The sources said as per the US law OVL had two options to takeover Transmeridian — make offer directly to company shareholders for purchase of shares or make a merger proposal under which 100 per cent of the company is acquired with board and shareholder approving the OVL’s offer.
(Source: Business Standard)
http://www.whatisindia.com/issues/ongcpucs/ongcpucs_more.html
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEB20070723141421&Page=B&Title=Business&Topic=0&
Non-OPEC oil producers hampered in efforts to boost output
13 hours ago
PARIS (AFP) — Oil producers outside the OPEC cartel are unable to pump enough oil to reduce crude prices, hampered by robust domestic demand, weak investment and exhausted oil fields, analysts say.
In the short term, "no non-OPEC member is in a position to produce more," said Francis Perrin of the publication Petrole et Gaz arabes.
"They are selling all the oil they can."
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, by contrast, has reserves equivalent to about 2.0 million barrels a day, essentially in the hands of Saudi Arabia.
While the market until recently had been expecting an output hike in non-OPEC producers, analysts are now revising downward their projections in light of disappointing performances by Mexico, Russia and Brazil, said Mike Wittner of the bank Societe Generale.
While in the long-term Kazakhstan, Brazil and Canada could boost output, "it would hardly compensate for a decline" in British and Norwegian fields in the North Sea, Perrin said.
And in the United States, he added, "the development of off-shore fields in the Gulf of Mexico will not be enough to compensate for the decline of older facilities."
In some countries, a lack of investment is the problem. In Mexico, for example, the national oil group Pemex turns over all its profits to the state, depriving the company of the means to look for new sources.
In other producers, notably Kazakhstan, production has been plagued by physical difficulties, such as the great depth at which oil is found.
Kazakhstan's Kashagan field, the world's largest discovery since the end of the 1960s, should eventually produce nearly 1.5 million barrels a day. But its operational launch, repeatedly delayed, is not likely to take place before 2011.
The vast oil sands of Canada constitute the largest proven oil reserves in the world after those of Saudi Arabia. But the extraction of its extra-heavy crude poses complex technical hurdles.
While many parts of the world, such as Africa, remain untapped, prospecting costs have doubled in the last four years, discouraging oil companies -- despite healthy earnings from rising prices -- from investing there.
Perrin describes Russia, which currently produces 9.5 million barrels a day and is challenging Saudi Arabia for the number one producer ranking, as "a huge question mark."
"Investment is insufficient and it is not the most attractive place for foreign companies," he said.
"There are many areas that remain unexplored, especially in eastern Siberia, but the area is huge and difficult to exploit."
Conceded university professor Jean-Marie Chevalier, "our dependence on OPEC is going to increase even more."
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jKirnHzlnzQIkNXO82_-ZfB_ey2Q
All shareholders will receive 65 cents per share if the proposed agreement is approved. More information in the iBox. GLTA.
Northrop Grumman highlights homeland security solutions at GovSec
WASHINGTON, 28 April 2008. Last week Northrop Grumman highlighted different homeland security technologies for public safety and first responders at the 2008 Government Security Conference and Exposition (GovSec), April 23-24, at the Washington, D.C., Convention Center.
"Our systems integration expertise allows us to provide fully integrated solutions, allowing our nation's public safety agencies and emergency response personnel to work with complete information," says Gerald Buckwalter, Northrop Grumman's vice president of homeland security.
At their booth company officials demonstrated how they integrate a variety of homeland security solutions into a common situational awareness display via its new Critical Incident Response System (CIRS). CIRS combines the best of hardware and software enabling commanders to quickly and intuitively plan, engage, and manage emergency situations and complex events, Northrop Grumman officials say. The system's TouchTable enables small group collaboration and discovery at the local site, and remote information sharing over IP to any other TouchTable or IP enabled device. This ensures that all responders are working against the same information.
Some of Northrop Grumman's homeland security solutions integrated through CIRS include an Information Sharing Environment, where operations personnel can share technology, data, and expertise against a common objective for successful inter-agency, shared-mission execution.
The company also is involved in public safety wireless applications. They provide operations centers and the first responder a composite picture of incidents and situations to improve response time and decision making. Northrop Grumman also has emergency preparedness analysis and training tools provide the user with a simulation and visualization environment to study and train for alternative responses to natural and non-natural national incidents.
For perimeter security the company's solutions suite has integrated perimeter protection, gate access, closed circuit television control, and a video archiving system for one or multiple sites.
On the unmanned front Northrop Grumman deploys ANDROS Hazardous-Duty Robots, which are used by military organizations, law enforcement agencies, nuclear facilities, and research laboratories. Imagery from the company's Global Hawk high altitude, long endurance, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can be integrated into the CIRS application as well.
http://mae.pennnet.com/display_article/327145/32/NEWS/none/none/1/Northrop-Grumman-highlights-homeland-security-solutions-at-GovSec/?dcmp=ENL
Yes, the news is of regional interest. I expect TMY to go much higher over the next weeks and months although I plan to sell before long. What is your outlook for TMY? TIA.
European oil and gas companies reaping fruits of investments
By Benoit Faucon
Last update: 7:38 a.m. EDT April 30, 2008
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- First-quarter reports show that large European oil and gas companies are finally capturing higher crude prices as past investments begin to bear fruit on their production.
Anglo-Dutch major Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) and U.K. oil giant BP PLC said Thursday that first-quarter net profit rose 28%, lifted by high crude oil prices and stronger hydrocarbon output.
And BG Group PLC (BG.LN) is expected to post a 59% rise in quarterly profits Wednesday, taking the figure to GBP685 million.
Overall, the European oil and gas sector was expected to record a 21% rise in earnings per share, Deutsche Bank said.
The significant profits are a break from a recent trend that has seen oil and gas companies struggling to capitalize on a rise in oil prices.
According to Citigroup, the U.K. North Sea Brent crude contract was up 66% on average in the quarter and U.K. natural gas contracts were up 128.6%. Also, U.S. oil prices peaked close to $120 a barrel Monday.
On paper, higher oil and gas should automatically boost profits. But in recent years, rocketing hydrocarbon prices have triggered negative side effects such as cost inflation and pressure to distribute more revenue to host countries.
According to BP and Shell, a rush to build new projects to satisfy the world's energy demand has triggered an annual industrywide cost inflation of 20%. But both majors say they are now better able to negotiate and rein in the rise to 10% a year.
But other factors also contribute to reduce output, potentially hurting corporate profits every time prices rise. Under production-sharing agreements, which represent 80% of production at Shell, governments are entitled to a greater portion of the oil pumped when prices are higher. As a result, international oil companies get fewer barrels.
In addition, soaring oil prices have led governments to demand a greater share of revenue. That's particularly the case in countries to which European oil majors are strongly exposed, such as Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Russia and Venezuela.
And it's not just the governments that want more. The newfound oil wealth has led local populations to demand a larger share of revenue, triggering attacks on and shutdowns of oil facilities operated by Shell and ENI in Nigeria.
As a result, Eni's average daily hydrocarbon production dropped by 1.9% for the full year 2007, BP's by 3% and Shell's by 6%. BP is not present in Nigeria but faced a series of delayed projects after operational mishaps.
But for the first quarter of 2008, both BP and Shell reported no change in oil and gas output, while Eni's production was up 3.6% from the first quarter of last year.
The rise or stabilization of oil and gas production - the sale of which provides the bulk of their earnings - now enables the companies to translate higher oil prices into profits. The improved output performance itself stems largely from a diversification into new projects or businesses or acquisitions, not legacy assets.
Eni's profit rise come after an acquisition spree in 2007 - in which it spent more than EUR9 billion - allowed it to bag assets in Russia, Congo and the Gulf of Mexico, among other places.
Shell, despite being hurt by unrest in Nigeria, benefited from a decision a few years ago to invest in liquefied natural gas, or LNG, for which quarterly volumes increased by 6% year-on-year. Similarly, BG is also expected to get a boosted from the ramp-up of an Equatorial Guinea LNG supply contract, according to Dresdner Kleinwort.
Citigroup said that a key profit factor for BP in the first quarter was the startup of large oil projects in the fourth-quarter, which included Greater Putonio in Angola and Atlantis in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
StatoilHydro ASA (STO), which reports on May 13, is also expected to benefit strongly from improved production thanks to the startup of new projects, according to Deutsche Bank.
-Contact: 201-938-5400 End of Story
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/european-oil-gas-companies-reaping/story.aspx?guid=%7B5D9AC3F0-4810-4F0E-85B9-ABA23836DAE6%7D&dist=msr_1
From ITT.....
The Fluid Technology unit, which makes pumps and water systems, had ``strong'' sales growth in Europe, South America, China and the Middle East compared with ``flat North American'' sales, the company said. U.S. residential market was ``down'' and municipal projects ``slowed down,'' Ramos said on the call.....
(read below for full context)
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aXiOvdc0cOPI&refer=us
ITT Net Climbs 23%; Annual Profit Forecast Raised (Update5)
By Gopal Ratnam
April 25 (Bloomberg) -- ITT Corp. first-quarter profit rose 23 percent, beating analysts' estimates, aided by acquisitions. The world's largest maker of night-vision goggles said full-year profit and revenue will be higher than previously forecast, and its shares gained the most in 20 months.
Net income climbed to $171.9 million, or 94 cents a share, from $140 million, or 76 cents, a year earlier. Sales increased 36 percent to $2.81 billion, the White Plains, New York-based company said today in a statement.
Revenue at the defense unit rose 56 percent to $1.51 billion, fueled by last year's acquisition of EDO Corp. and record Pentagon spending to support the Iraq War. Profit climbed at least 17 percent at all its three units.
``The magnitude of the beat is impressive,'' Nicole Parent, analyst at Credit Suisse Securities wrote in a note today, about ITT exceeding analysts' estimates. She has a ``neutral'' rating on the stock.
ITT climbed $3.22, or 5.6 percent, to $60.81 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, the biggest increase since July 28, 2006.
Excluding a one-time charge, ITT had profit of 91 cents a share. The results exceeded the 82-cent a share average estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Analysts, on average, projected sales of $2.69 billion.
Full-year profit may reach $4 to $4.10 a share, higher than the company's February prediction of $3.80 to $3.95, ITT said. Full-year sales may rise to $11.4 billion to $11.5 billion, more than the previous prediction of $11.1 billion to $11.3 billion.
Lowered Interest Expense
About half the company's expected increase in 2008 per share earnings, or 9 cents, will be from lowered interest expense because of falling rates on the company's commercial paper debt, Chief Financial Officer Denise Ramos said on a conference call with analysts. The increased revenue projection amounts to about $250 million, and about $160 million of that will come from foreign currency translation, Ramos said.
Recent acquisitions accounted for 23 percent of the first- quarter's revenue growth and favorable currency translation boosted sales by 4 percent. International demand also helped increase revenue.
Construction on international oil and gas projects helped lift sales at the Fluid Technology unit by 12 percent to $881.4 million. Revenue at the Motion and Flow Control unit, which makes products including brake pads, increased 32 percent to $421 million. The division's results were aided by last year's acquisition of International Motion Control.
The Fluid Technology unit, which makes pumps and water systems, had ``strong'' sales growth in Europe, South America, China and the Middle East compared with ``flat North American'' sales, the company said. U.S. residential market was ``down'' and municipal projects ``slowed down,'' Ramos said on the call.
Communications Operations
ITT purchased EDO, a maker of ``jammers'' that prevent remotely triggered roadside bombs from detonating, in December for about $1.55 billion, its biggest acquisition ever. The company folded EDO into its Defense Electronics & Services unit. The division's sales were helped in the just-ended quarter by its communications systems business, partly because of radio shipments to Iraq.
Chief Executive Officer Steven Loranger told analysts on the conference call that the defense business projects a ``$4 billion pipeline'' of orders for communication systems and radios from Iraq and Bulgaria in the coming years. The company already is shipping hand-held radios to the Iraqi military, he said.
He also said ITT may win some work related to the U.S. military's Joint Tactical Radio System, or JTRS, the next generation of software-based radios under development. The company booked more than $175 million of orders for night-vision goggles in the first quarter and won a contract to develop the next generation device, he said.
Second-quarter earnings will be between $1.07 to $1.13 a share, the company said during the conference call.
To contact the reporter on this story: Gopal Ratnam in Washington at gratnam1@bloomberg.net.
25 APR 2008
NEW YORK (Reuters) - ITT Corp (ITT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday first-quarter profit rose a greater-than-expected 23 percent, helped by stronger sales of its defense and water treatment gear and the effects of foreign currency.
The company, which makes military electronics, sewage treatment equipment and a range of other products, much of it for export, also raised its full-year profit forecast above Wall Street's estimates.
The White Plains, New York-based company reported quarterly net income of $172 million, or 94 cents per share, compared with $140 million, or 76 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items, it reported a profit of 91 cents per share from continuing operations, well ahead of Wall Street's average forecast of 82 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.
Sales rose 36 percent to $2.8 billion, with gains in each of its main units, helped by recent acquisitions and the weak dollar.
ITT bought defense electronics manufacturer EDO Corp last year for about $1.7 billion and International Motion Control for about $400 million, which makes industrial and aviation products.
ITT Corp, the largest surviving remnant of the old ITT conglomerate, which was broken up in the 1990s, has been selling off its lower-margin businesses and expanding its core units focusing on defense, water treatment and motion control.
Citing strength in those main businesses, ITT forecast earnings of $4.00 to $4.10 per share for the full year, up from its last forecast of $3.80 to $3.95 per share. Analysts are expecting $3.94 per share on average.
(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Mark Porter and Steve Orlofsky)
By Mark Felsenthal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve lowered a key U.S. interest rate by a modest quarter percentage point on Wednesday and hinted the move could be the last in a series dating to mid-September.
However, it kept its options open and financial markets saw some chance more rate cuts could be in store.
In announcing its decision, the U.S. central bank pointed to the "substantial" reductions it has already put in place and noted that energy and other commodity prices were on the rise. It also dropped a reference contained in its last interest-rate announcement that "downside risks to growth remain."
"The substantial easing of monetary policy to date, combined with ongoing measures to foster market liquidity, should help to promote moderate growth over time and to mitigate risks to economic activity," the central bank said.
While the Fed said uncertainty on the outlook for prices remained high, it also said it still believed inflation would moderate over time, which some analysts saw as suggesting the possibility rates could move lower. Two Fed officials dissented from the decision to cut rates, preferring no change.
Prices for U.S. stocks and government bonds rose, while the dollar fell.
"This statement strongly implies that the Fed will be on pause for some time," said Joseph Brusuelas, U.S. chief economist at IDEAglobal in New York. "The risks to the upside vis-a-vis inflation are serious enough to be on hold until the lagged impact of past Fed monetary policy and the fiscal stimulus on its way take hold."
The Fed's action takes the bellwether federal funds rate, which banks charge each other for overnight loans, to 2 percent, the lowest since December 2004. It was the seventh reduction in a campaign that has brought the key lending rate down by 3.25 percentage points since mid-September. Continued...
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2932860320080430
Calpers (California Public Employees Retirement Fund) bought 100k+ more shares recently.
www.mffais.com
New holding -- Calpers
http://www.mffais.com/institutions/126021/
Fund bought 147k shares.
New institutional shareholder...
http://www.mffais.com/amnf.pk.html
http://www.mffais.com/institutions/126021/
Calpers scooped up 2.5k shares.
California Public Employees Retirement System..CALPERS
http://www.mffais.com/tmy.html
CALPERS bought 677,900 shares of TMY on 28 APR 2008.
http://www.mffais.com/institutions/126021/
Some of the pipes are 15-20 feet in diameter. TTCM has trouble meeting the growing demand. I would not be shocked to see Dow or ITT come in and scoop up the company for $0.50 per share. All imho.
C.A.T. oil AG: Strong and successful expansion in 2007
• Revenues up 15.0% YoY to EUR 222.6 million • Massive increase in operative capacity • Geographic expansion to European Russia • New businesses launched
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ots.CorporateNews transmitted by euro adhoc. The issuer is responsible for
the content of this announcement.
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April 30, 2008 - C.A.T. oil AG (O2C, ISIN: AT0000A00Y78), one of the leading
providers of oil and gasfield services in Russia and Kazakhstan, today announced
the annual results for the financial year 2007. The reporting period was marked
by an impressive progress in the transformation of C.A.T. oil AG from a West
Siberian fracturing niche player into a diversified oilfield service company.
The Company successfully expanded into new high-growth, high-margin businesses
and new regions within and outside of Russia. The Company invested record EUR
89.1 million in new capacity additions and thus managed to significantly
increase its operating capacity both, in its core and new businesses.
Revenues up 15,0%
In 2007, C.A.T. oil´s revenues reached a new peak of EUR 222.6 million, up 15%
YoY. The key revenue drivers were a 5.9% YoY increase in the Company´s total job
count to 2,473 jobs (2006: 2,335 jobs) and an 8.5% YoY gain in an average
revenue per job to thou. EUR 90 (2006: thou. EUR 83). With more and more new
capacity becoming operational during the year, the Company´s 2007 quarterly job
count demonstrated strong YoY growth in the course of the year. Concurrently,
new capacity additions to the hydraulic fracturing business were more difficult
to market and deploy in the middle of the year without discount as the
fracturing market competition intensified. Additionally, demand for gas
fracturing jobs was lower than a year ago due to a mild winter in the northern
hemisphere. As a result, C.A.T. oil realized a slightly lower revenue growth
than originally expected for 2007. The Company´s EBITDA increased 8.8% YoY to
EUR 49.7 million compared to EUR 45.7 million in 2006. EBITDA-margin decreased
to 22.3% (2006: 23.6%). Earnings before interest and corporate tax (EBIT) were
essentially flat YoY at EUR 37.2 million (2006: 36.9 million), driving the EBIT
margin contraction to 16.7% in 2007 from 19.1% in 2006. C.A.T. oil´s net income
decreased 9.4% YoY to EUR 22.7 million (2006: EUR 25.0 million) as an unrealized
foreign exchange loss on intercompany loans surged to EUR 4.7 million in 2007
compared to thou. EUR 745 in 2006 on the back of the accelerated ruble
devaluation against Euro in the third and fourth quarter of 2007. As a
consequence, earnings per share amounted to EUR 0.46 compared to EUR 0.54 in
financial year 2006.
2007: year of investments and business expansion
Manfred Kastner, CEO of C.A.T. oil AG commented: "2007 was a very important year
for the development of our company. With our extensive investment program we
managed to enhance our regional and service coverage and our customer base. This
strategy of aggressive expansion combined with our technical expertise, our
highly qualified staff and the financial strengths of our Company, paves the way
for sustainable growth in 2008 and beyond."
In 2007, C.A.T. oil invested EUR 89.1 million in the operating capacity
additions. By the end of the year, C.A.T. oil extended the number of operating
hydraulic fracturing fleets 67% YoY to a total of 15 fleets. The Company´s
sidetrack drilling capacity rose 400% YoY to a total of 10 rigs. This
substantial expansion in the sidetrack drilling capacity facilitated a 153% YoY
increase in a total sidetrack job count in 2007. The performance in this
business was supported by rising job complexity and a greater share of higher
added value horizontal sidetracks at expense of less sophisticated inclined
sidetracks. Additionally, C.A.T. oil expanded its capacity for coiled tubing and
nitrogen services 50% YoY. These substantial capacity additions demonstrate the
Company´s commitment to defend its ample market share in the Russia and Kazakh
fracturing markets and meet the rising demand for its second core business,
sidetrack drilling, in a growing and booming market environment.
In 2007, C.A.T. oil benefitted both from intensifying and broadening customer
relationships. Long standing and successful cooperation over a number of years
led to an increased trend towards multiple-year strategic partnerships and order
contracts comprising a broader scope of services. In March 2007, C.A.T. oil´s
operating subsidiary CATKoneft was awarded a three-year-contract with Rosneft,
the largest oil producer in Russia. In November 2007, Rosneft charged the
operating subsidiaries of C.A.T. oil with another 385 fracturing jobs for the
challenging oil fields in the Yugansk area. In the fourth quarter of 2007 C.A.T.
oil´s subsidiary CATBOBNEFT was named winner in two major tenders by TNK-BP for
three-year-contracts for sidetrack drilling and workover services at the
Samotlor field, one of the largest oil fields in the world. Another positive
development in late 2007 was the deployment of two sidetrack drilling rigs in
Noyabrsk area for Gazprom´s oil subsidiary Gazprom Neft, which the Company
concluded a strategic partnership with back in 2006. C.A.T. oil also won a
tender to deploy two additional sidetrack drilling rigs for Gazprom Neft in
2008.
Another important step for C.A.T. oil was the expansion of its business to
European Russia. In April 2007, the Company acquired a 100% stake in the
oilfield services company FilOrAm from TNK-BP. The Company is located in
Orenburg region in the European part of Russia and provides C.A.T. oil with
strategic access to Russia´s Volga-Urals oil and gas basin, as well as a highly
competitive base towards northwestern Kazakhstan.
In 2007, C.A.T. oil not only expanded regionally, but also further advanced in
the diversification of its service portfolio. In July C.A.T. oil entered the
fast growing segment of geotechnical services, including 2D/3D seismic and
reservoir engineering by forming the new subsidiary CAToil-Geodata and hiring a
team of approximately 90 industry professionals. After more than a decade of
under-exploration in Russia, seismic is another booming business in the Russian
oil field service sector.
Record capital expenditures for future diversification and growth
In 2007, C.A.T. oil generated a cash flow from operating activities of EUR 21.1
million compared to EUR 23.4 million in the previous year. The decline is mainly
due to higher investments in working capital to pursue growth and
diversification strategies resulting in a build up of inventories for new
businesses and materially higher VAT prepayments for equipment.
The financial year was earmarked by the comprehensive investment program leading
to record investments in property, plant and equipment of EUR 89.1 million, up
34% YoY from EUR 66.5 million in 2006. C.A.T. oil´s cash flow from financing
activities amounted to EUR 8.0 million, reflecting primarily short-term
overdraft facilities used by the Company´s operating subsidiaries. On December
31, 2007, C.A.T. oil had cash and cash equivalents of EUR 15.0 million compared
to EUR 74.5 million at the end of 2006. C.A.T. oil´s balance sheet underlines
the Company´s dynamic growth and moderate financial policy. Total assets
increased 21.5% YoY to EUR 285.3 million and equity rose 8.7% YoY to EUR 234.9
million at the end of 2007 (2006: 216.1 million). Despite a sharp increase in
current and non-current liabilities to EUR 50.6 million (2006: EUR 18.8
million), the equity ratio´s level remained high with 82.3%.
In line with C.A.T. oil´s massive investment program, the Company´s average
weighted headcount increased by 32.4% to 3,127 employees (2006: 2,362
employees).
Sidetrack drilling to drive growth in 2008
In 2008 sidetracking drilling will remain the Company´s fastest growing
business. With currently 10 operating mobile sidetrack drilling rigs, C.A.T. oil
is among the top three independent sidetrack drilling service providers in
Russia. C.A.T. oil will benefit from a sustained wide gap between supply and
demand for sidetrack drilling services in the Russian oil industry resulting in
further price gains in 2008. Based on the existing back log of sidetrack
drilling jobs for 2008, C.A.T. oil is confident that it can increase its
sidetracking job count by 190%.
Despite the intensified competition in the Russian hydraulic fracturing market,
C.A.T. oil stays highly competitive on price and quality and anticipates its
fracturing job count rise 15% YoY in 2008.
Positive outcome is also expected from the growing business seismic services.
With a total of five 2D/3D crews, the Company is well positioned to benefit from
the increasing demand for this service.
In 2008, C.A.T. oil plans to expand into conventional drilling services to
benefit from a major upturn in greenfield capital expenditures. To this end,
C.A.T. oil has already ordered three new 180-ton mobile drilling rigs in 2008,
which have a significant technical advantage over Russian rigs currently
operating on the various oil fields. These mobile rigs are also efficient to
perform sidetrack drilling jobs, in particular deep ones.
Manfred Kastner, CEO of C.A.T. oil AG, outlined: "More than ever C.A.T. oil is
in an excellent position to benefit from the fast growing demand for oil and gas
services in Russia and Kazakhstan. Oil and gas producers show a fast increasing
interest in the employment of reliable independent service companies with
advanced and sophisticated technical capabilities and technologies. With our
extensive investment program we have expanded in core and new services and
technologies which confirm our standing as a preferred partner for the majors in
the industry. Our investments will certainly pay off in the future."
www.catoilag.com
About C.A.T. oil AG:
Austria-based C.A.T. oil AG (O2C, ISIN: AT0000A00Y78) is one of the leading
providers of oil- and gasfield services in Russia and Kazakhstan. C.A.T. oil´s
core business is hydraulic fracturing, a process which helps to open up oil- and
gas-bearing rock formations in order to increase or even enable oil and gas
production. The C.A.T. oil crews use state-of-the-art methods and technologies
to generate high pressure in the oil or gas reservoirs concerned. This pressure
causes cracks to appear in the rock through which oil or gas can be produced in
larger quantities from the production well, and hence efficiently boosts
extraction, particularly in the case of deposits that are difficult to develop
or low-output wells. In addition, hydraulic fracturing can be used to revitalize
wells that have previously been idle.
The Company has its headquarters in Vienna and employed 3,388 people at the end
of 2007, most of whom are based in Russia and Kazakhstan. Customers include
leading oil and gas producers such as Gazprom, KazMunaiGaz, LUKOIL, Rosneft, and
TNK-BP. C.A.T. oil has been listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock
Exchange since May 4, 2006, and has been a member of the SDax since September
18, 2006.
Further inquiry note:
Press contact:
A&B Financial Dynamics
Dr. Lutz Golsch Claudia Werth
Tel.: +49 (0)69 92037-110 Tel.: +49 (0)69 92037-114
Email: l.golsch@abfd.de Email: c.werth@abfd.de
emitter: C.A.T. oil AG
Kärtner Ring 11-13
A-A-1010 Wien
phone: +43(0) 1 535 23 20 - 0
FAX: +43(0) 1 535 23 20 - 20
mail: ir@catoilag.com
WWW: http://www.catoilag.com
sector: Oil & Gas - Upstream activities
ISIN: AT0000A00Y78
indexes: SDAX, Classic All Share, Prime All Share
stockmarkets: regulated dealing: Börse Frankfurt
language: English
http://ots.euroadhoc.com/irmeldung.php?schluessel=OTA_20080430_OTA0012&ag=OTA
Facing Foreclosure: Brooklyn Retiree on Verge of Losing Home as Subprime Lenders Target Cash-Poor Black Seniors
By Joseph Huff-Hannon
From the April 25, 2008 issue | Posted in Local | Email this article
There was a time when Simeon Ferguson grew tomatoes and callaloo leaves in the garden behind his three-story brownstone in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the home he has owned since 1975. He would give out the excess harvest to friends and neighbors, according to his daughter, and cook up the rest. Ferguson, 86, is now retired, after working for more than 20 years as a chef at Long Island College Hospital. But his remaining years of rest and relaxation are facing a major obstacle — his home is at risk of foreclosure.
In early 2006, Michael Bocelli, a mortgage broker with the Long Island-based Global Financial Inc., sold Ferguson a new $450,000 option adjustable rate mortgage (ARM ) that was fairly guaranteed to put his house in foreclosure, according to Ferguson’s attorney. His fixed-rate 30-year mortgage at 5.95 percent interest was refinanced into a complex subprime mortgage that offered him a teaser interest rate of 1 percent — which lasted all of six weeks before jumping to 7 percent, and eventually, higher.
“Option” ARM mortgages, such as the one sold to Ferguson, have been called “time bombs for all but the most financially sophisticated.” BusinessWeek magazine calls them “the riskiest and most complicated home loan product ever created.”
Mr. Ferguson, a retiree on a fixed income, had no attorney or family members present during the closing, but was apparently quite happy with the deal. He later told his daughter Karlene that he had negotiated a new, more affordable fixed-rate mortgage. In fact the monthly payment of $1,480 on even the “teaser” rate was greater than his entire monthly income of $1,100.
Bocelli, the broker, did well by the transaction. On top of his $6,675 broker’s fee he was paid an additional $14,420 by IndyMac, the California-based bank that gave Ferguson the loan. This fee was contingent on signing Ferguson up to a “No Income No Asset Loan,” which carries a higher interest rate, according to documents obtained by South Brooklyn Legal Services. In its own paperwork, IndyMac explicitly instructs the broker that, “The file must not contain any documents that reference income or assets.” In fact, Ferguson has only a few sources of easily documented income — social security
and a pension.
Depending on when you speak with Ferguson though, he may or may not remember the details. That’s because he has dementia, a condition he was diagnosed with in 2005.
Ferguson, a squat bespectacled man whose Jamaican lilt plays up his gentlemanly manner of speaking, regularly forgets things, important as well as trivial. He often forgets that he visited his daughter Ruth in Jamaica shortly before she died of cancer two summers ago. He may not remember his move to Brooklyn more than 30 years ago by way of London and Jamaica. He could easily forget the amount of his mortgage payment, for example, or his interest rate.
These days Ferguson’s financial and legal affairs are managed by his daughter Karlene Grant, a cost accountant at a large Manhattan property management firm. Grant was forced to confront her father’s baffling new mortgage in 2006 after he fell behind on his bills during a five-month stay in the hospital for a serious bone infection.
“It’s not that my father went out to buy a home he couldn’t afford, that’s not what happened here,” says Grant. “Somebody solicited him and made him think he was getting a better deal. Then they made some money and ran.”
THE COLOR LINE
Ferguson’s story is no anomaly.
Many black seniors in New York and around the country are at risk of losing decades-worth of equity in their homes. Some are facing homelessness. People of color are more than three times more likely to hold subprime loans, according to
federal data. And in New York City, subprime loans made up 27 percent of all refinances last year, compared with the national average of 17 percent. That means if the housing market falls precipitously here as it has across much of the nation, a cascade of foreclosures is likely to follow. An alarming number of those losing their homes will likely be black seniors.
In New York, the subprime crisis has also brought the racial disparity into stark relief. By the fall of 2007, one in four homeowners with subprime mortgages in the historically black neighborhoods of Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant were in foreclosure, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. These northern Brooklyn communities have a subprime mortgage foreclosure rate almost four times the national average.
But in Brooklyn neighborhoods, like Bensonhurst and Borough Park, which have income levels similar to Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy, only 5 percent of mortgages are subprime. The main difference is race. Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights are about 70 percent African American; Bensonhurst and Borough Park are only 1 percent black.
Like many cities across the country, the neighborhoods with the highest rates of subprime mortgages in New York are overwhelmingly African American or Latino.
The subprime lending debacle has caused the greatest loss of wealth to people of color in modern U.S. history, according to a recent study by United for a Fair Economy, stripping African-American homeowners in communities such as Crown Heights of as much as $92 billion over the past eight years. As Ferguson’s story illustrates, one of the traditional avenues for building and holding on to family wealth in the black community is being obliterated, one home at a time.
“If you were a profiteer looking to make money, you’re going to go into these communities with instruments that make refinancing or ownership look much more attractive,” says Dr. Julianne Malveaux, economist and president of Bennett College for Women in North Carolina. “And you’re going to do that by taking advantage of a historic antipathy between the black community and banks.”
Many critics say the subprime mortgage industry is guilty of “predatory lending” by deliberately exploiting such vulnerable communities. Like other homeowners in peril, Simeon Ferguson appears to be a textbook victim of predatory lending, as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
HUD states on its website that predatory lending is any transaction in which a lender or a broker “encourages borrowers to lie about their income, expenses, or cash available for down-payments in order to get a loan;” “charges high interest rates to borrowers based on their race or national origin and not on their credit history;” “pressures borrowers to accept higher-risk loans such as balloon loans, interest only payments, and steep pre-payment penalties,” or “strips homeowners’ equity from their homes by convincing them to refinance again and again when there is no benefit to the borrower.”
‘SITTING DUCKS’
Housing advocates and attorneys use hunting terms such as “perfect targets,” “sitting ducks” or “easy marks” to describe the ways seniors were targeted by subprime lenders and brokers. In the subprime feeding frenzy of the last few years, black seniors with decades of equity in their homes were the lowest hanging fruit.
“They were the first wave,” says Josh Zinner, co-director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, a Manhattan policy institute. “In fact it was only because so much equity was stripped from seniors that they started going after first-time homebuyers.”
Before the subprime bubble burst in 2007 and the issue became front-page news, brokers and lenders perfected the art of “push marketing” to people like Ferguson — retirees who are often cash-poor but rich in home equity. By some accounts the targeting of seniors hasn’t slowed much. Just ask the men and women who regularly assemble at the Tompkins Park Senior Citizens Center in Bed-Stuy.
“I’m on the ‘Do Not Call List,’ but they still keep calling,” says Marjorie Robinson, 57. “They talk to you in that really soft voice and then they say MONEY real loud!”
During their weekly group meeting these retirees talk about calls in the morning, calls in the afternoon, calls at night. They talk about fliers clogging their mailbox, and some complain about all of the mortgage-and-financing-related messages clogging up their email inboxes.
“They tell you you’re pre-approved, offer cash for your property,” adds Alvin McPherson, 78. “I think they buy your name from some kind of list of retirees.”
Homeowners 65 and over are three times more likely to hold a subprime mortgage loan than those 35 and under, according to AARP, a nonprofit seniors’ advocacy organization. AARP and other groups are still scrambling to get the most accurate numbers on how many of those now facing foreclosure are seniors, but it’s not easy. While the federal government requires
lenders to list race on the mortgage loans they sell, it does not require them to list the age of the borrower.
To date only one major U.S. news organization, The Seattle Times, has published a thorough investigation of the ways in which seniors as a group have been affected by the subprime fallout. Reporters Susan Kelleher and Justin Mayo found that older, cash-strapped homeowners were the typical subprime borrowers in Seattle — not first-time homebuyers, as many
industry defenders often claim. A separate study by the Center for Responsible Lending found that subprime mortgages made between 1998 and 2006 will lead to a net loss of homeownership for almost one million families in the United States.
“All my clients tell the same story; it’s almost like a script,” says Donna Dougherty, a staff attorney with Queens Legal Services for the Elderly, and co-counsel on the Ferguson case. Typically, a homeowner falls behind on his taxes, a credit card bill or is hit with an unexpected medical bill. As a result he ends up on a credit agency list of homeowners in debt or with a less than perfect credit score, but substantial home equity. That’s when the phone calls begin.
“When somebody calls out of the blue and says ‘We’ll help you so you don’t lose your home,’ it’s almost like a white knight showing up,” says Dougherty. “Seniors are absolutely one of the key targeted groups. They’re vulnerable to sales pitches, to persuasion.”
OFF THE HOOK
On the other end of the receiver, South Brooklyn Legal Services had to shut down its housing hotline when the number of calls ballooned from around 10 per day to more than 10 per hour. One of the first things Jessica Attie noticed in the spring
of 2007, when the barrage of desperate calls began, was the high number of older people with extremely complicated loans. South Brooklyn has filed suit against IndyMac and Global Financial Inc. on behalf of Simeon Ferguson, for violations of the Truth in Lending Act.
“For most of our clients, their financial security is in their homes,” says Attie, co-director of the Foreclosure Prevention Program at South Brooklyn Legal Services and an attorney on Ferguson’s case. “They often don’t have 401Ks or other sources of savings they can live off if they lose their house.”
Attie describes the mortgage documents she sees as so complex that most people depended on the broker or loan officer to “explain” the rate structure. The result being that the vast majority of her clients didn’t understand they were signing an adjustable rate mortgage.
A spokesman for IndyMac, which sold Ferguson his loan, makes it clear the company leaves it to the broker to work out the best arrangement with their clients.
“Some of the new products that were created in the last few years had a lot of moving parts,” says Evan Wagner of IndyMac. “These were good for very specific borrowers, people who are self-employed or who expect their income to jump in the next year or so. But for people who got these loans that weren’t really intended for them, it’s kind of like taking a medication that isn’t intended for what it’s meant to do, and sometimes there are bad side effects.”
Artee McKoy of Jamaica, Queens, is one of those reeling from bad side effects. At age 93, and a homeowner for almost 50 of those years, he is still confused about how somebody could take his home out from under him without his knowledge or consent and saddle it with a new $315,000 mortgage from Fremont Investment & Loan, until recently one of the country’s biggest subprime lenders. McKoy is also confused why the three-bedroom duplex where he used to make his own ice cream for his three children is currently in foreclosure. Like Simeon Ferguson, he suffers from dementia, a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease, which he was diagnosed with in 2005.
McKoy’s story is particularly egregious since he was also the victim of deed theft, a common real estate crime often involving senior citizens or low-income homeowners. In this case the perpetrators were recently indicted by the Queens district attorney on charges of grand larceny for fraudulently refinancing his property. This has not slowed the foreclosure
action being pursued by HSBC, the current holder of the loan on McKoy’s home. An attorney for HSBC declined to comment on the particulars of the case, as it is currently under litigation.
But if the student-led “McKoy Team” at the St. John’s University Law School Elder Law Clinic in Queens can make its case, McKoy will not lose his home. They fault the perpetrators of the deed theft — but they also cite Fremont Investment & Loan (the originator of the mortgage) and HSBC for aiding and abetting the fraud.
“It’s a huge warning sign when a 93-year-old man with no attorney present can take out a $300,000 mortgage,” says Professor Ann Goldweber, director of the Elder Law Clinic. “They should have used more due diligence.”
After moving his family to New York from North Carolina in the 1950s, McKoy worked two jobs for decades: as a barber by day and airport security at John F. Kennedy International Airport by night. McKoy bought his Jamaica property in 1959, and except for payments on a small home-improvement loan, it was all paid off — and he is proud of the fact.
Now McKoy’s financial stresses are tumbling down the generational ladder and mostly landing on his daughter’s shoulders. Mary Thompson, 66, recently took an unpaid leave from her job at a New Jersey hospital to take care of her father and to shepherd him through the legal system as they fight to keep his home.
“I know how hard my father worked,” says Thompson. “For him to not be able to sit down and enjoy a little peace of mind at his age, it’s awful.”
New York City is attempting to stem the bloodletting by launching the Center for NYC Neighborhoods. With $5.5 million from the mayor’s office, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the Open Society Institute, the Center’s purpose is to improve loan-counseling services across the city and help borrowers renegotiate loans or refinance troubled properties.
The city’s initiative is similar to proposals currently under debate in Washington that would provide $100 million to expand foreclosure counseling services nationwide. Some observers criticize it as a tepid solution when 8,000 homeowners are
tumbling into foreclosure on a daily basis, according to some economists.
Counseling offers little immediate hope to Karlene Grant as she spends hours of her spare time every week consulting with the attorneys on her father’s case, and renovating his house so they can bring in a tenant or two to help pay the ever-expanding mortgage payments. And Grant considers herself one of the fortunate ones, since her father has pro bono legal representation.
“I think that Daddy doesn’t really understand what happened because he just goes on about his business,” says Grant. “But he’d understand if he lost his home.”
As for Simeon Ferguson, he hopes to enjoy his garden now that it’s spring. “I love anything to do with the land,” Ferguson says. “I used to grow tomatoes in the garden out back; sometimes I’d harvest two pounds! If the weather permits I’ll grow
them again.”
Photos by Sophie Forbes: Crown Heights resident Simeon Ferguson, 86, is on the verge of losing the three-story brownstone he has owned for more than 30 years due to a complex subprime loan he acquired in 2006. Below: Simeon Ferguson’s daugher, Karlene Grant, is working with lawyers to try and save her father’s Crown Heights home.
http://www.indypendent.org/2008/04/25/facing-foreclosure/
World Bank to help reduce urban pollution in the Han River area
30/04/2008 11:09 (07:33 minutes ago)
The FINANCIAL -- On April 29 the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved a loan of $84 million to the People’s Republic of China to help reduce urban pollution generated from wastewater and solid waste through proper collection, treatment and disposal in selected second-tier cities, mainly located in the Han River area of Hubei Province.
Hubei Province in central China has a population of 60.5 million of which 26.5 million (44%) are living in the urban areas. The province ranks the 10th in China in terms of industrial gross regional product, focusing on such sectors as chemicals and fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, food processing, paper and ferrous metals. Industrial pollution is a serious problem in Hubei with around 65% generated in the Han River area. The urban wastewater treatment rate in the Han River area is much lower than the provincial average of 23.5% due to lack of wastewater treatment facilities. Untreated wastewater contaminates groundwater and river system, posing a major threat to the citizen’s health and the ecological environment. The water quality of the Han River is expected to deteriorate further after the start of South-North Water Diversion in the upper stream of the Han River in 2010. Furthermore, there is no sanitary landfill in the Han River area. Most of the municipal solid wastes go to dumps without protection from leachate contamination for underlying aquifers or local surface waters.
“The Han River Urban Environment ImprovementProject aimsto help address these problems and reduce the urban pollution generated from wastewater and solid waste through their proper collection, treatment and disposal,” said project manager, Hiroaki Suzuki, Lead Operations Officer of the World Bank. “It is also intended to develop well-managed and sustainable municipal utilities which could be referred to as models/best practice for other similar projects or programs to be implemented elsewhere.”
The project will focus on nine selected cities in the Hanjiang River areas - Danjiangkou, Dawu, Hanchuan, Honghu, Shayang, Tianmen, Xiangfan, Xiaochang andYunmeng. It will finance the construction of new wastewater collection systems and wastewater treatment plants, new sanitary landfills and solid waste collection and transfer stations, equipment and closures of existing dumps. In the meantime, the province and project cities will implement the industrial wastewater pollution control programs with their own funds, including provincial-level program for installation of online monitoring at major pollution sources and specific industrial wastewater pollution control action plans for major polluting enterprises. The Bank will also provide technical assistance to strengthen the capacities of wastewater utilities and solid waste management organizations.
The total project cost is $172.43 million with the World Bank contributing about 49%. Upon completion, the project is expected to benefit 2-3 million people through improved wastewater and solid waste services.
http://finchannel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11634&Itemid=15
---
We went up 3 days in a row. Much more upside coming imho. What other stocks are you trading?
Posted date: 4/28/2008
Analysts Expect Good Revenue Reports from Beckman
Apria, Oxygen Providers Should Weather Slowdown in Hospitals’ Spending, Medicare Cuts
By Vita Reed
Orange County Business Journal Staff
Analysts are highlighting medical diagnostic companies as standouts and predicting strong first-quarter financial results.
Fullerton-based Beckman Coulter Inc. hopes not to disappoint when it releases its earnings this week.
Beckman Coulter, which is considered the last large stand-alone company in its sector, is set to release its earnings Wednesday. Wall Street expects the company to post a first-quarter profit of $42 million on revenue of $669 million.
Diagnostic companies such as Beckman Coulter “(look) attractive to us,” Jeffrey Frelick, a Lazard Capital Markets analyst, wrote in a recent preview note.
In particular, Frelick likes what he calls “pure plays” or potential straight buyout deals in the sector, such as Beckman and Becton Dickinson Inc. of Franklin Lakes, N.J.
With diagnostic imaging companies under pressure, companies such as Beckman, which has nearly 80% of its revenue coming from leases of supplies, chemistry kits and services, are less likely to be affected by hospitals’ budgets, Frelick said in the note.
Frelick said that Beckman’s existing contracts should carry it through a slowdown in spending by hospitals, which most likely will reallocate money to expand or renovate their buildings and buy expensive equipment.
Three years ago, Beckman changed how it accounted for leases of its medical testing instruments to recognize revenue spread out for the life of an equipment contract, rather than booking revenue as a lump sum at the start of the lease.
“The diagnostic industry has weathered many storms,” Frelick wrote.
Even with pricing pressures and lagging reimbursements, hospitals are spending money on new tests and automated instruments because they “have permitted hospital laboratories to address challenges such as labor shortages while increasing productivity,” Frelick said.
In an earlier report, Frelick said that Beckman watchers are looking to see if the company will develop a simple diagnostic machine that runs various tests that would be meaningful to the routine hospital laboratory market.
Concern for Oxygen Providers
A few weeks ago, Apria Healthcare Group Inc., the Lake Forest home healthcare company, said it was confident that it could hold its own this year in the wake of deep Medicare cuts for its mainstay oxygen business.
But some on Wall Street are a bit concerned about what lies ahead.
In a recent report, Wachovia Securities’ William Bonello wrote that he expected chatter surrounding a final Medicare bill to escalate, potentially causing volatility for some healthcare providers’ stocks. Bonello predicted that Congress could draft a bill in late May or June.
Oxygen providers such as Apria and Clearwater, Fla.-based Lincare Holdings Inc. are at risk because the Senate might consider cutting reimbursement for traditional oxygen concentrator machines by as much as 39%, while more than doubling reimbursement for portable oxygen, according to Bonello.
The analyst estimated that such a cut could dramatically hit Apria and Lincare’s earnings in 2009.
Bonello believes that the odds of a nursing home cut, while less than 50%, were still higher than the odds of home healthcare cuts.
“Of the market adjustments proposed by MedPAC, we believe that skilled nursing facility payments would be one of the first to be tapped if a bill cannot be funded through Medicare Advantage (health plan) and oxygen cuts alone,” he said.
Irvine-based Sun Healthcare Group Inc., Skilled Healthcare Group Inc. of Foothill Ranch and Mission Viejo’s Ensign Group all are part of the nursing home sector, although Bonello only mentioned Louisville, Ky.-based Kindred Healthcare Inc., which has 225 nursing homes, as an example of a company that could be affected by cuts.
Bits and Pieces:
Edwards Lifesciences Corp., the Irvine-based heart valve maker, said longtime board member Vernon Loucks Jr. is retiring, effective May 31. Loucks is chairman of Aethena Group LLC, a Chicago firm that invests in healthcare companies. He’s served on Edwards’ board since its spinoff from Baxter International Inc. eight years ago … BioLase Technology Inc., an Irvine maker of dental lasers, launched its Endolase Root Canal Therapy System. Endolase allows general dentists and endodontists to perform root canal surgeries in a faster fashion … Boyd Hendrickson, chief executive of Skilled Healthcare, will speak at Bank of America’s healthcare conference next month in Las Vegas … Children’s Hospital of Orange County said the clinical documentation team at its CHOC at Mission facility received an honor from Advance for Nurses magazine. The nursing team created and implemented electronic medical records at the hospital.
Bio-Rad Releases Detailed Brochure on its Bio-Plex Suspension Array System
HERCULES, Calif.- April 28, 2008 - Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (AMEX: BIO and BIOb), a multinational manufacturer and distributor of life science research and clinical diagnostic products, today announced the availability of a product brochure on its BioPlexR suspension array system.
Entitled "Bio-Plex Suspension Array System", the 22-page product brochure covers features and benefits of the Bio-Plex system including workstation software, assay development tools, and the various Bio-Plex ProT assays. The brochure provides detailed lists of all of its available assays for the system in addition to ordering information.
The Bio-Plex suspension array system is a powerful array technology platform that offers reliable multiplex assays. The system is composed of all of the products necessary for a complete workflow, from sample preparation reagents and diluents to sophisticated data analysis software. The fully integrated system can enable protein and nucleic acid researchers to analyze up to 100 biomolecules in a single sample, with accurate reproducible assay results.
The assays are multiplexable bead-based assays based on xMAP technology and optimized for the Bio-Plex suspension array system. The assays and associated products include cytokines, chemokines, growth factors, diabetes, acute phase, angiogenesis, phosphoproteins, and isotyping.
Bio-Plex assays can also be run on the Luminex 100 or 200 systems.
Availability
The brochure is available either from a local Bio-Rad sales office or it can be requested by visiting the Bio-Rad web site at http://www.bio-rad.com/bio-plexassays.
About Bio-Rad
Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (AMEX: BIO and BIOb) has remained at the center of scientific discovery for more than 50 years manufacturing and distributing a broad range of products for the life science research and clinical diagnostic markets. The company is renowned worldwide among hospitals, universities, major research institutions, as well as biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies for its commitment to quality and customer service. Founded in 1952, Bio-Rad is headquartered in Hercules, California, and serves more than 85,000 research and industry customers worldwide through its global network of operations. The company employs approximately 6,300 people globally and had revenues approaching $1.5 billion in 2007. For more information, visit www.bio-rad.com.
For more information contact:
Emily C. Dale
Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.
510-741-6571
Emily_Dale@bio-rad.com
Jury awards $24.2 million in asbestos lawsuit
A Miami-Dade jury awarded a Weston doctor and his family almost $24.2 million after finding that his rare type of cancer was caused by exposure to brake pads made with asbestos.
Posted on Tue, Apr. 29, 2008
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BY PATRICK DANNER
pdanner@MiamiHerald.com
As a teenager working on his stepfather's farm in Punta Gorda, Stephen E. Guilder learned to repair tractors and other farm equipment.
Guilder, of Weston, parlayed his deft handiwork on the farm into a career as a head and neck surgeon, but it's now expected to cost him his life. Guilder, 50, was diagnosed in September with a rare, fatal type of cancer -- which he blames on exposure in the 1970s and early 1980s to brake pads made with asbestos.
On Friday, a Miami-Dade County jury found Honeywell International, the parent of brake maker Bendix, negligent for selling asbestos brakes and awarded Guilder and his family almost $24.2 million.
While it's the largest compensatory jury verdict involving a single defendant in a Florida asbestos case, it was bittersweet for the Guilders, said their lawyer, David A. Jagolinzer.
''They would trade every dime of that for another day of his life,'' said Jagolinzer, of the Ferraro Law Firm in Miami.
Guilder's oncologist testified during the two-week trial that Guilder has a less than 10 percent chance of surviving beyond the fall of next year, Jagolinzer said.
Honeywell spokesman Rob Ferris expressed disappointment with the jury verdict, a rare defeat for the company in Bendix-related asbestos litigation.
Honeywell is ''confident we will ultimately prevail on appeal,'' Ferris said in an e-mail. ``There is no supportable evidence that Mr. Guilder's disease was caused by exposure to Bendix products.''
Honeywell came to own Bendix as a result of a 1999 merger with Allied-Signal, which had merged with Bendix in 1982. Honeywell says it no longer make products containing asbestos.
Nine other defendants named in the lawsuit, including Deere & Co. and General Motors, reached confidential settlements before the case went to trial, Jagolinzer said. Caterpillar and Ford Motor were dismissed from the case.
Guilder was diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma, a cancer that affects the abdominal lining. Last November, two months after the diagnosis, Jagolinzer said Guilder closed his medical practice. Since then, the cancer has spread throughout his body. Despite his poor health, Guilder attended the trial.
Guilder's case was expedited because of his short life expectancy. The case went to trial less than six months after the suit was filed.
Of the $10.1 million the jury awarded Guilder personally, $3 million is for future lost earnings and $6.78 million is for pain and suffering. His wife, Shelia, was awarded $3.6 million. His three children, ages 18, 16 and 14, were each awarded almost $3.5 million.
Honeywell has prevailed in the vast majority of Bendix-related asbestos claims that have gone to trial, a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in February indicates. From 1981 through the end of last year, Honeywell says, 125 trials resulted in verdicts in its favor. Ten trials resulted in ''adverse'' verdicts, although two were reversed on appeal, three were settled, and the remaining five are slated for appeal.
Honeywell has also resolved 113,000 claims outside court, the SEC filing states. Almost 52,000 Bendix-related claims remained unresolved as of the end of last year. Honeywell estimated that its liability for resolving pending and future claims is $517 million.
Marietta, Georgia Selects Tyco Electronics’ M/A-COM VIDA Broadband Network To Aid Crime Prevention And Surveillance
WEBWIRE – Tuesday, April 22, 2008
LOWELL, Mass. - April 2008 - Tyco Electronics’ M/A-COM business, a worldwide leader of critical radio communications systems, announced today that the City of Marietta, Georgia has completed the initial integration of the M/A-COM VIDA (Voice, Interoperability, Data and Access) Broadband network into the city’s information technology system. The wireless broadband technology will enable Marietta’s public safety agencies and the Board of Lights and Water (BLW) to monitor video traffic at remote city locations via WiMAX technology to assist with crime prevention and surveillance. Using digital video technologies on the wireless network, representatives of the BLW and the Marietta Police Department can access real-time video feeds using viewing software installed on authorized computers located anywhere on the city’s existing wide area network.
"The M/A-COM VIDA Broadband network will enable the city to take the next step in the further development of our network capabilities by extending wireless communications with features such as quality of service (QoS) and encryption. While we already had widespread wire line connectivity to most city buildings, the new wireless network will allow the city to extend that network to remote locations such as water tanks, pump stations, radio towers and other remote locations" said Rich Tieslau, City of Marietta information technology director. "We anticipate that in the future, the wireless network will provide advanced broadband capabilities to other city-owned locations throughout Marietta"
Because the M/A-COM VIDA Broadband network uses 4.9 GHz licensed frequencies, which are only available to city, county and state agencies, Marietta does not have to contend with interference from other, non-licensed broadband technologies. "The M/A-COM VIDA Broadband system can be used for mission-critical communications because it does not share spectrum with laptops, coffee shops and cordless telephones" said Greg Henderson, director, Broadband Products and Technology, Tyco Electronics. "With VIDA Broadband, the city can prioritize subscribers and even types of transmissions. While public safety agencies previously thought of mission-critical communications as only voice transmissions, the VIDA Broadband network is designed to transmit the next generation of services, including data and video, during emergency mission-critical response efforts"
M/A-COM VIDA Broadband networks are based on 802.16 (or WiMAX) technologies and were developed exclusively for the needs of governmental organizations and agencies. These networks can be deployed in simple configurations to address a specific need, or be scaled to city-wide or larger installations. VIDA Broadband can also be seamlessly integrated into the entire suite of Tyco Electronics’ M/A-COM IP-based mission-critical radio networks.
The M/A-COM VIDA network platform is a cost-effective, IP-based interoperable radio communications technology that supports P25 and other IP-based systems. It addresses voice and data communications needs of public safety radio users around the world. VIDA provides a full IP management platform including interoperability without intervention of console operators, IP consoles, networking technology for both the P25 phase I and P25 phase II standards, plus many other benefits inherent in open IP architecture systems.
Tyco Electronics’ M/A-COM business is a leading supplier of critical communications systems and equipment for public safety, utility, federal and select commercial markets. M/A-COM products range from some of the most advanced IP-based voice and data networks, to traditional wireless systems that offer customers the highest levels of reliability, interoperability, scalability and security. Tyco Electronics is also a recognized leader in the design and manufacture of M/A-COM radio frequency (RF), microwave and millimeter wave solutions for the commercial wireless telecommunications, aerospace and defense industries. More information about M/A-COM solutions can be found on the Web at www.macom.com or www.macom-wireless.com.
April 2008
New generation in advanced service test
JDSU has announced the latest generation of its T-BERD/MTS optical tester line, the T-BERD/MTS-6000A Multi-Services Application Module.
The compact 10 GigE multi-function tester is designed for the installation and maintenance of Carrier Ethernet and IP services.
Testing high-bandwidth services like IPTV has become a requirement beyond the access network because of the convergence of cost-effective Carrier Ethernet networks and high-bandwidth triple-play services.
This convergence is complicated by the development and deployment of a number of new Ethernet technologies such as Provider Backbone Bridge Transport (PBT), requiring significant qualification during the design and deployment phase to ensure QoS of business and residential triple-play services.
JDSU
www.jdsu.com
http://www.cieonline.co.uk/cie2/articlen.asp?pid=1784&id=19228
Juniper Networks reports 66% profit rise
By Benjamin Pimentel, MarketWatch
Last update: 4:40 p.m. EDT April 24, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Juniper Networks Inc. on Thursday reported a 66% jump in first-quarter profit thanks to strong sales of its network infrastructure products and the success of its efforts to manage costs.
The Sunnyvale, Calif. company reported net income of $110.4 million, or 20 cents a share, compared with a profit of $66.65 million, or 11 cents a share, for the year-earlier period.
Revenue was $822.9 million, up from $626.9 million. Adjusted income was $149.5 million, or 27 cents a share. Analysts had expected the company to report earnings of 24 cents a share on revenue of $815.4 million, according to a survey by FactSet Research.
In a statement, Juniper Chief Executive Scott Kriens said the results highlighted the company's high-performance networking business, saying the networking gear maker sees opportunities for growth "across our markets and around the world."
Presstek Appoints Wayne L. Parker Vice President and Corporate Controller
HUDSON, N.H., April 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Presstek, Inc. NASDAQ: PRST, the leading manufacturer and marketer of digital offset business solutions, today announced that Wayne L. Parker has been appointed Vice President and Corporate Controller. Mr. Parker is a CPA with extensive financial experience, including compliance and audit, in major organizations across several industries. Mr. Parker joined Presstek in May, 2007 as Director of Internal Audit. Prior to joining Presstek, Mr. Parker served as Director, Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance at Eastman Kodak Company's Graphics Communications Group; and Director of Internal Audit at Kodak Polychrome Graphics, a $1.7 billion international organization that manufactured and distributed consumables for the printing industry.
"I am pleased to appoint an individual with Wayne's talent, dedication and expertise to this critical role at Presstek," commented Jeff Cook, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. "Since his arrival, Wayne has played a significant role in the extensive business process reviews we conducted during 2007. He is ideally positioned to assume the Controller responsibilities and continue strengthening our internal controls while becoming a key member of the company's leadership team."
About Presstek
Presstek, Inc. is the leading manufacturer and marketer of high tech digital imaging solutions to the graphic arts and laser imaging markets. Presstek's patented DI(R), CTP and plate products provide a streamlined workflow in a chemistry-free environment, thereby reducing printing cycle time and lowering production costs. Presstek solutions are designed to make it easier for printers to cost effectively meet increasing customer demand for high-quality, shorter print runs and faster turnaround while providing improved profit margins. Presstek subsidiary, Lasertel, Inc., manufactures semiconductor laser diodes for Presstek's and external customers' applications. For more information visit www.presstek.com, or call 603-595-7000 or email: info@presstek.com.
DI is a registered trademark of Presstek, Inc.
Contacts
Investor Relations Trade Relations
Kathleen Makrakis Betty LaBaugh
Director of Investor Relations Public Relations Manager
203-485-7534, ext. 1432 603-594-8585, ext. 3441
kmakrakis@presstek.com blabaugh@presstek.com
Website: http://www.presstek.com/
Veeco Instruments Posts Q1 Loss On Charge; Guides Q2 [VECO]
4/28/2008 8:33:41 PM Veeco Instruments Inc. (VECO), a Woodbury, New York-based manufacturer of equipment in the data storage, on Monday reported a first quarter net loss, compared to profit in the previous year period, largely due to a restructuring and asset impairment charge.
The company reported a first quarter net loss of $1.6 million or $0.05 per share, compared to net income of $0.3 million or $0.01 per share in the previous year period. The latest quarter includes a restructuring and asset impairment charge of $3.2 million principally related to the consolidation and relocation of Veeco's Corporate headquarters.
Veeco's earnings per share, excluding certain items, was $0.09 compared to earnings per share of $0.10 last year. On average, eight analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial expected earnings of $0.03 per share.
Gross profit declined to $42.63 million from $43.70 million. Revenue rose to $102.3 million from $99.2 million posted last year, falling short of Street estimate of $103.87 million.
For the second quarter, Veeco's earnings per share are currently forecasted to be between $0.02-$0.07 on a GAAP basis, and between $0.05 and $0.11 on a non-GAAP basis.
The company expects second quarter 2008 revenues to be in the range of $102-$110 million. Analysts expect second quarter earnings of $0.08 per share on revenues of $108.10 million.
VECO closed Monday's regular trade at $17.89, up $0.40 from the previous close, on 434,028 shares. The stock dropped 23 cents in the extended trade.