Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Iranian Student With $750 Transformed Into Billionaire Made by Islamic Art Nasser David Khalili stands in an exhibition hall in St. Petersburg’s Winter Palace, gazing at an 18th-century painted enamel of flowers that’s one of 25,000 works of art he owns. “I’d have paid anything for it,” he says, appraising this miniature by Frenchman Philippe Parpette. “There’s no way I’d have let anybody else buy it.”


• New York Airports Top List of Worst Delays With 41 of 50 Tardiest Flights After meetings in New York, Chris Nagy often went home on Continental Airlines Inc.’s 7:30 p.m. flight to Omaha, Nebraska. It was so reliably late he could eat a leisurely dinner before going to New Jersey’s Newark airport.


• Vivendi's Levy Looks to Emerging Markets for Next Lady Gaga, Guitar Hero Vivendi SA and its competitors must extend the reach of content such as video games and music into emerging markets to remain global media leaders, Chief Executive Officer Jean-Bernard Levy said.


• IPad Weekend Sales Are Anyone's Guess as Analysts Shy Away From Estimates When it comes to predicting how many iPads Apple Inc. will sell this weekend, Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst Gene Munster has little company among Wall Street analysts in making a guess.


• Why Two-Meter Billionaire Prokhorov Says He's Only NBA Owner Who Can Dunk Mikhail Prokhorov steps off his Gulfstream V into the swirling snow and subzero temperatures of Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, where he’s come to visit his gold mine. Though it’s almost midnight, Prokhorov has no interest in retiring to his hotel room. Instead, he’s whisked away in a police-escorted Mercedes to the local gym, where he puts in two hours running on a treadmill and lifting weights, Bloomberg Markets reports in its May issue.


• U.S.-Bound Boxes Pile Up at Asian Ports as Ship Lines Avoid Adding Vessels South Korea’s biggest port, overwhelmed with empty containers a year ago, is now dealing with shipping lines that have more cargo than they can carry.


• Cash Remedy Preventing Lehman-Like Run Lacking From Congressional Reforms In 2,615 pages of financial reform legislation introduced in the U.S. Congress, there are no rules to ensure that banks keep enough cash-like assets when credit disappears.


• American Shoppers Emerging With Best Buy's Sales Signaling Retail Revival Companies from Saks Inc. to Best Buy Co. are growing more confident that the recent revival of consumer spending is more than just a blip.


• Halliburton Hunts for Bacteria Killer to Stave Off Crackdown on Shale Gas Halliburton Co. and Schlumberger Ltd., trying to forestall a regulatory crackdown that would cut natural-gas drilling, are developing ways to eliminate the need for chemicals that may taint water supplies near wells.


• AIG Increases Concentration of Storm Risk With Sale of Life Insurer Units American International Group Inc., the insurer that stayed profitable through the Sept. 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, may be more exposed to disasters after divesting life insurance units to repay its government bailout.


• JPMorgan, Lehman, UBS Named as Conspirators in U.S. Muni Bid-Rigging Case JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and UBS AG were among more than a dozen Wall Street firms involved in a conspiracy to pay below-market interest rates to U.S. state and local governments on investments, according to documents filed in a U.S. Justice Department criminal antitrust case.


• New York Helicopter Commute for $200 a Day Signals Revival on Wall Street Liberty Helicopters Inc. is offering to fly weary commuters from New Jersey to Manhattan for about $200 a day, saving them 14 hours in traffic a week and signaling that Wall Street may have seen the worst of the recession.

Bloomberg Daily News Tuesday 30th March

Review of the March Budget 2010

As you will be aware the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, has published his 2010 Budget. Below you will find a summary of the main announcements.
Personal pensions tax relief
In their April 2009 Budget, the Government announced that with effect from 6th April 2011, tax relief on pension contributions would be restricted for those with gross income in excess of £150,000. These are referred to as the 'permanent changes'.
The Act also included 'anti-forestalling restrictions' to prevent higher earners from paying unusually large pension contribution to take advantage of current tax benefits prior to the permanent changes coming into play in 2011.
Alongside the March 2010 Budget, the Government has outlined its plans for introducing these changes.
Change to Personal Allowance
In April 2009 Budget the Government announced that with effect from 6th April 2010 individuals receiving an income of more than £100,000 per year would face a cut in their Personal Allowance. This would reduce by £1 for every £2 of income above £100,000.
This was restated in the March 2010 Budget.
New 'additional rate' band of tax
In April 2009 Budget the Government announced that it would be introducing a new 50% rate of tax on income above £150,000 from April 2010.
This was restated in the March 2010 Budget.
Inheritance Tax
The nil rate band of Inheritance Tax will be frozen at £325,000 until 2014/2015.
Stamp Duty Allowance
For first time buyers Stamp Duty Allowance will double from £125,000 to £250,000 (from midnight on 24th March).
This is anticipated to be funded by a new 5% band of tax being introduced in the 2011/12 tax year on properties sold for £1,000,000 +.
Capital Gains Tax
The current CGT rate remains unchanged. However, Entrepreneurs' Relief for CGT will be extended from £1m to the first £2m of qualifying gains made over a lifetime. This takes effect from April 2010.
Income Tax
No changes to basic and higher rates, however from April 2010 there will be an additional rate band of tax (see above).
Annual ISA limit
As announced earlier, for savers, from April the annual ISA limit will rise from £7,200 to £10,200. Future ISA limits will be indexed by RPI.
Winter Fuel Payments
The Government will guarantee payments for another year - this will be at least £250 for pensioners (£400 for those over-80's).
Business Rates
Business rates will be cut for one year from October for SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises).
Tax credit
Individuals over the age of 60 will now be eligible for Working Tax Credit provided they work for at least 16 hours a week.
National Insurance
In the March 2010 Budget it was restated that employee, employer and self-employed rates of National Insurance contributions (NICs) will increase by 0.5% from April 2011 in addition to the 0.5% increase announced in 2008.
However the level at which people start to pay NICs will increase in April 2011 by £570 above the level previously announced.

Source: Prudential 25.3.2010

Budget: Darling targets offshore tax dodgers

Alistair Darling today confirmed severe penalties for those who fail to pay taxes due on offshore income or gains.

Speaking in today’s budget, Darling said HM Revenue & Customs would be able to penalise deliberate and concealed tax evasion with charges of up to 200% of the tax due.He said the tougher penalties would target non-compliant investors who use less transparent jurisdictions in order to conceal gains as it is more difficult for HMRC to check an offshore tax position where there is limited or no scope to exchange information.In addition to tougher penalties, the Chancellor announced a number of other measures to tackle tax evasion including enhancements to strengthen the disclosure regime. Darling said these measures would raise £1.5bn in additional yield and will protect a further £4bn of tax receipts by 2012-13.Neil Chadwick, technical marketing manager at Royal London 360°, said: “The UK Government has been trying to get UK residents with undeclared income to ‘fess up’ for years now in a number of tax amnesties. “However, as I understand it, the latest amnesty did not prove to be all that successful, despite it being extended. For some UK residents, the benefits of not paying any tax on foreign accounts has outweighed risks and costs of getting caught. However, with the penalties being increased, that may no longer be the case.”

Source: International Adviser 25.3.2010

EU in move today to end squabbles over divorce venue

The European Commission today will unveil guidelines aimed at ending the bickering by couples over their choice of country in which to file for divorce.

It is understood that the new regulations will apply initially only to 10 of the EU’s 27 member countries, and will not include the UK, one of the favoured venues for wives in divorce cases due to its history of generous alimony awards.
In a statement issued today, Viviane Reding, who in February took office as the EU's first-ever commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, said: "International couples can encounter arbitrary legal problems that turn the tragedy of divorce into a financial and emotional disaster, making peoples' lives very hard.
"Thousands of couples find themselves in difficult personal situations because national legal systems have so far failed to provide clear answers. In many cases, children and the weaker spouse suffer. I do not want people in the EU to be left to manage complicated international divorces alone. I want them to have clear rules so that they always know where they stand. This is why we decided to move ahead today."
Reding is quoted in today’s Financial Times as saying that she expected other countries to sign up to the new regulations once the new regime was in place. She also stressed that the new rules were not an attempt to harmonise family law across the EU, the paper noted.
“We are not changing the divorce laws in countries – they stay the same,” the FT quoted Reding as saying.
France, Italy and Spain are among the 10 countries that have agreed to abide by the new rules.

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Alcoa Gets Energy Chill From Australia's $130 Billion Natural Gas Boom Australia is attracting more than $130 billion of investment in some of the world’s richest natural gas fields to supply buyers in Japan and China. Domestic customers, including Alcoa Inc., will have to wait.


• Insurers Bought Most Company Debt Since 2004 as Buffett Saw `Raining Gold' U.S. insurers, holders of more than $2.2 trillion in corporate debt, bought the bonds at the fastest pace in five years in 2009, taking advantage of a market that Warren Buffett said was “raining gold.”


• CDO `Samaritan' Hildene Duels With Fund Goliaths Over Stripping Collateral Hildene Capital Management LLC, the $150 million hedge fund that gained 33 percent last year, is fighting firms 100 times its size to preserve the value of collateralized debt obligations holding bank securities.


• Milberg's Former Class-Action Kings, Out of Prison, Head for Links, Slopes The four lawyers who ran Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach LLP, the firm that got investors $45 billion from securities lawsuits against publicly traded companies, are reacquainting themselves with life on the outside now that they’ve left prison.


• Greek Banks' Struggle to Make Profits May Trigger Credit-Rating Cut at S&P Profitability at Greece’s largest banks may be “challenging” in coming years as the country’s economy deteriorates, which may trigger a cut of the lenders’ credit ratings, Standard & Poor’s said.


• Norway's CEOs Race Inmates in `Dead Hard' Annual Cross Country Ski Event The Birkebeiner, Norway’s annual cross-country ski race, is attracting a record turnout, with chief executive officers and prison inmates lining up among tomorrow’s 16,150 participants.


• Finland Industry Group Seeks Labor-Law Change as Strike Blocks Sea Trade Finnish stevedores agreed to end a strike that shut ports for more than two weeks and halted 90 percent of the Nordic nation’s foreign trade.


• Enel to Seek Banks This Month to Advise on Green Power IPO, CEO Conti Says Enel SpA plans to seek banks this month to advise on the initial public offering of its renewable energy unit, likely to be Europe’s largest since 2007.


• Erdogan Thwarting Judges Amid Army Probes Fails to Upset Turkey's Markets Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government is already backing an investigation of senior Turkish military officers, this month will seek curbs on a judiciary that has teamed with the army to oppose his Islamist-rooted party.


• Mexico Tourism Drops as Drug Gangs, Economy Rain on Spring Breakers' Party Mexican tourism revenue may decline for a second year as violent clashes between drug gangs and a weak U.S. job market threaten to spoil its spring break party.


• Traders' Mobile Phones Would Be Recorded in U.K. Plan to Curb Inside Deals Traders’ mobile-telephone calls may be taped in an effort to stamp out insider trading, according to proposals from the U.K. financial regulator.


• Zapatero's Campaign to Avoid Greek Deficit Fate Hobbled by Spanish Regions Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s drive to show Spain can avoid Greece’s fate is being held hostage by the country’s regional governments.


• Malone's Liberty, Elliott Said to Drop Out of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Bidding John Malone’s Liberty Media Corp. and hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. have decided not to bid for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. movie studio, according to people with knowledge of the bidding.

Bloomberg Daily News 22nd March 2010

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Erdogan Thwarting Judges Amid Army Probes Fails to Upset Turkey's Markets Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government is already backing an investigation of senior Turkish military officers, this month will seek curbs on a judiciary that has teamed with the army to oppose his Islamist-rooted party.


• Giorgio Armani Said to Postpone Hotel in Dubai Tower by More Than a Month Giorgio Armani’s first hotel, due to open in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa today, will be delayed by more than a month, said two people with knowledge of the plan.


• Malone's Liberty, Elliott Said to Drop Out of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Bidding John Malone’s Liberty Media Corp. and hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. have decided not to bid for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. movie studio, according to people with knowledge of the bidding.


• Coal Beats Solar as Analysts Favor Peabody Amid Shrinking Green Subsidies Wall Street’s contribution to the debate on how to curb global warming: Buy coal, sell solar.


• Russia Wields Three-Pronged Policy Fix to Cap Ruble, Steer Uneven Recovery Russia, the biggest economy still cutting interest rates, will probably deploy a three-pronged strategy to steer an uneven recovery as the ruble soars, inflation hovers at a 12-year low and bank liquidity swells.


• `Pink Slip Party' Host Has $2.2 Million Payday as Tokyo Bankers Find Jobs Soichiro “Swimmy” Minami parlayed a get-together for laid-off bankers into a $2.2 million paycheck in less than a year.


• Jerome York, Apple Director, Is Critical After Suffering Brain Hemorrhage Jerome York, a director of Apple Inc. and former chief financial officer of International Business Machines Corp. and Chrysler Corp., was hospitalized in critical condition today in Pontiac, Michigan.


• Eaton Vance's Cirami Wins Greek Bet Five Years After Buying Credit Swaps Michael Cirami, co-manager of the $2.2 billion Eaton Vance Global Macro Absolute Return Fund, waited five years for investors to realize that insurance on Greek government bonds was too cheap.


• For a Head Start on China's GDP Growth, Study Power Output: Chart of Day Investors looking for an early indication on expansion in China, the world’s third-biggest economy, can study the latest power production, which signals “robust growth,” Standard Bank Plc said.


• Panasonic Profit May Be Boosted More Than $885 Million by Sanyo Purchase Panasonic Corp., which acquired a controlling stake in battery maker Sanyo Electric Co. in December, may boost annual profit by more than 80 billion yen ($885 million) in three years by merging operations.

Bloomberg Daily News 18th March 2010

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Coal Beats Solar as Analysts Favor Peabody Amid Shrinking Green Subsidies Wall Street’s contribution to the debate on how to curb global warming: Buy coal, sell solar.


• Russia Wields Three-Pronged Policy Fix to Cap Ruble, Steer Uneven Recovery Russia, the biggest economy still cutting interest rates, will probably deploy a three-pronged strategy to steer an uneven recovery as the ruble soars, inflation hovers at a 12-year low and bank liquidity swells.


• `Pink Slip Party' Host Has $2.2 Million Payday as Tokyo Bankers Find Jobs Soichiro “Swimmy” Minami parlayed a get-together for laid-off bankers into a $2.2 million paycheck in less than a year.


• Israel's Fischer Said Likely to Serve Second Term After Bank Law Passed Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer is likely to agree to a second term after parliament overhauled the law regulating the central bank for the first time since 1954, a person familiar with the situation said.


• Rich China Communists Echo U.S. Tea Party Activists in Property-Tax Debate Zong Qinghou, China’s richest man, says a property tax will hurt homeowners. Wang Jianlin, the 16th wealthiest, agrees. Lu Guanqiu, No. 19, says China isn’t ready for such a levy.


• India May Create Fund to Buy Overseas Energy Assets Amid China Competition India, with $254 billion of foreign-exchange reserves, may create a sovereign wealth fund to help state companies compete for overseas energy assets with China, a government official said.


• Mercedes Bets `Old Man' Car Image Ends With Schumacher's Formula 1 Return Mercedes-Benz scored a publicity coup by luring Michael Schumacher out of retirement to race for its new Formula One team. It might backfire if he can’t keep up with drivers a generation younger.

Bloomberg Daily News 17th March 2010

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Rich China Communists Echo U.S. Tea Party Activists in Property-Tax Debate Zong Qinghou, China’s richest man, says a property tax will hurt homeowners. Wang Jianlin, the 16th wealthiest, agrees. Lu Guanqiu, No. 19, says China isn’t ready for such a levy.


• Disney World Bullet Train May Spur U.S. Sales of Japan, China Locomotives Walt Disney World in Florida may be the next stop for bullet-train makers in Japan and China.


• Goldman Sachs Squeezes Hedge Funds in $110 Billion `Collateral Arbitrage' Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., two of the biggest traders of over-the- counter derivatives, are exploiting their growing clout in that market to secure cheap funding in addition to billions in revenue from the business.


• Muni Middleman's Financing in the Dark Leaves Homeless Outside Looking In David Rubin, accused of rigging hundreds of investment contracts for local governments across the U.S., is at the center of investigations by city and federal authorities into a Los Angeles housing development.


• Google Advertisers in China Told to Switch on Speculation Site Will Shut Google Inc. advertisers in China are being advised to switch to rivals such as Baidu Inc., and business partners are exploring alternatives as speculation grows the U.S. company will shut its Web site in the country.


• Regulators Blamed Human Error as Ford Led Non-Toyota Acceleration Deaths U.S. regulators have tracked more deaths in vehicles made by Ford Motor Co., Chrysler Group LLC and other companies combined than by Toyota Motor Corp. during three decades of unintended acceleration reviews that often blamed human error.


• Money Rates Rising Foreshadow Treasury Losses as Bernanke Prepares an Exit Money market interest rates at five-month highs show the Federal Reserve is laying the groundwork to siphon a record $1 trillion in excess cash from the banking system and sending a bearish signal on Treasuries.


• OPEC Expands Oil Rigs Most in Three Years as Quota Promises Prove Illusory OPEC is increasing oil drilling at the fastest rate in 2 1/2 years, even as production exceeds its quotas by the equivalent of a supertanker of crude a day and delegates prepare to pledge no increase in output.


• nooc May Step Up Overseas Acquisitions After $3.1 Billion Bridas Purchase Cnooc Ltd.’s failure to buy Unocal Corp. for $18.5 billion in 2005 taught Chairman Fu Chengyu a lesson: use overseas ventures rather than takeovers to gain the global oil resources China needs.


• `Invisible Power' of London Money Exposed as Lord Mayor Fights Politicians When money needs to talk in London, it’s the lord mayor who speaks.


• Monsanto May Have Antitrust Edge as Protecting Patents Trumps Competition Monsanto Co., facing antitrust probes into its genetically modified seeds, may benefit from previous court rulings in which intellectual property rights trumped competition concerns, antitrust lawyers say.


• BHP, Anglo, Xstrata Bypass Europe on 10,000-Mile Coal Route to China Ports BHP Billiton Plc, Anglo American Plc and Xstrata Plc are shipping coal 10,000 miles to China from their Cerrejon mine in Colombia for the first time this year because of surging demand and rising prices in Asia.


• Toyota Sets Goal of Regaining U.S. Market Share Lost to Recalls Within '10 Toyota Motor Corp. set a 2010 goal of regaining most of the U.S. market share lost in the past two months after global recalls of 8 million vehicles damped demand, the No. 2 U.S. sales executive said.

Bloomberg Daily News 16th March 2010

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Goldman Sachs Squeezes Hedge Funds in $110 Billion `Collateral Arbitrage' Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., two of the biggest traders of over-the- counter derivatives, are exploiting their growing clout in that market to secure cheap funding in addition to billions in revenue from the business.


• Regulators Blamed Human Error as Ford Led Non-Toyota Acceleration Deaths U.S. regulators have tracked more deaths in vehicles made by Ford Motor Co., Chrysler Group LLC and other companies combined than by Toyota Motor Corp. during three decades of unintended acceleration reviews that often blamed human error.


• Google Advertisers in China Told to Switch on Speculation Site Will Shut Google Inc. advertisers in China are being advised to switch to rivals such as Baidu Inc. and business partners are exploring alternatives as speculation grows the U.S. company will shut its Web site in the country.


• `Invisible Power' of London Money Exposed as Lord Mayor Fights Politicians When money needs to talk in London, it’s the lord mayor who speaks.


• Monsanto May Have Antitrust Edge as Protecting Patents Trumps Competition Monsanto Co., facing antitrust probes into its genetically modified seeds, may benefit from previous court rulings in which intellectual property rights trumped competition concerns, antitrust lawyers say.


• BHP, Anglo, Xstrata Bypass Europe on 10,000-Mile Coal Route to China Ports BHP Billiton Plc, Anglo American Plc and Xstrata Plc are shipping coal 10,000 miles to China from their Cerrejon mine in Colombia for the first time this year because of surging demand and rising prices in Asia.


• Toyota Sets Goal of Regaining U.S. Market Share Lost to Recalls Within '10 Toyota Motor Corp. set a 2010 goal of regaining most of the U.S. market share lost in the past two months after global recalls of 8 million vehicles damped demand, the No. 2 U.S. sales executive said.


• Retail Buyouts Return in `Goldilocks' Market After Credit Freeze Thawed Private-equity firms looking to buy retail and consumer companies said they’re now able to finance deals and pay reasonable prices after the credit crisis and global recession triggered a buyout slump.


• Finnair, Norwegian Air Discussing Pact to Squeeze Unprofitable Rival SAS Finnair Oyj is seeking an agreement with Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA that would funnel more passengers onto the Helsinki-based carrier’s long-haul flights, helping win market share from unprofitable rival SAS Group AB.


• Fat Surgery Urged for Obese Kids May Boost Allergan Sales, Trim Liability David Ludwig, director of the obesity program at Children’s Hospital Boston, was against weight-loss surgery for kids, he says, because it ignored the real problem, a “toxic environment” jammed with junk food.


• Petrofac Targets Iraq's Oil Boom After CEO Asfari Quadruples Share Value Ayman Asfari, the chief executive officer whose oil and gas engineering skills guided a fourfold increase in the value of Petrofac Plc within five years, is now preparing to tap Iraq’s energy boom.

Bloomberg Daily News 15th March 2010

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Apple, Netflix Wait in Wings While Cable's TV Everywhere Stamps Out Free Once upon a time, not so long ago, a bunch of small companies in Silicon Valley thought the future of television was theirs.


• `Invisible Power' of London Money Exposed as Lord Mayor Fights Politicians When money needs to talk in London, it’s the lord mayor who speaks.


• Monsanto May Have Antitrust Edge as Protecting Patents Trumps Competition Monsanto Co., facing antitrust probes into its genetically modified seeds, may benefit from previous court rulings in which intellectual property rights trumped competition concerns, antitrust lawyers say.


• BHP, Anglo, Xstrata Bypass Europe on 10,000-Mile Coal Route to China Ports BHP Billiton Plc, Anglo American Plc and Xstrata Plc are shipping coal 10,000 miles to China from their Cerrejon mine in Colombia for the first time this year because of surging demand and rising prices in Asia.


• Toyota Sets Goal of Regaining U.S. Market Share Lost to Recalls Within '10 Toyota Motor Corp. set a 2010 goal of regaining most of the U.S. market share lost in the past two months after global recalls of 8 million vehicles damped demand, the No. 2 U.S. sales executive said.


• Retail Buyouts Return in `Goldilocks' Market After Credit Freeze Thawed Private-equity firms looking to buy retail and consumer companies said they’re now able to finance deals and pay reasonable prices after the credit crisis and global recession triggered a buyout slump.


• Fat Surgery Urged for Obese Kids May Boost Allergan Sales, Trim Liability David Ludwig, director of the obesity program at Children’s Hospital Boston, was against weight-loss surgery for kids, he says, because it ignored the real problem, a “toxic environment” jammed with junk food.


• Petrofac Targets Iraq's Oil Boom After CEO Asfari Quadruples Share Value Ayman Asfari, the chief executive officer whose oil and gas engineering skills guided a fourfold increase in the value of Petrofac Plc within five years, is now preparing to tap Iraq’s energy boom.


• Chavez Outdone by Billionaire Mendoza as Wealth Soars Amid Takeover Threat Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s “21st Century Socialism” is failing to rein in billionaire Lorenzo Mendoza.


• Brown Tries to `Perversely' Benefit From U.K. Relapse Risk Before Election Gordon Brown is trying to turn the threat of a double-dip U.K. recession into an advantage.


• Solar Prospectors Chase `Gold Mine' Deals in Chinese, Israeli Subsidies Olivier de Vergnies quit managing family fortunes at Dexia Private Bank (Switzerland) Ltd. in 2008 to run a New York start-up at 100 Wall St. that’s trying to tap riches in solar energy.


• Chrysler in Hibernation Means Marchionne May Have to Wait on Fiat Spinoff Fiat SpA, the Italian carmaker that helped Chrysler Group LLC emerge from bankruptcy, may wait to turn around the U.S. business before deciding on a share sale or spinoff for its automotive division.

Bloomberg Daily News 12th March 2010

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Carlsberg Says It Will Forgo Major Acquisitions in Focus on Russia, China Carlsberg A/S will pursue Asian expansion and growth in the Russian beer market rather than chasing major acquisitions to catch larger brewing rivals, Chief Executive Officer Jorgen Buhl Rasmussen said.


• Pfizer's Failures Clear Path for Cholesterol Drug Push by Canadian Upstart Resverlogix Corp., without a marketed product, may accomplish what Pfizer Inc., the world’s biggest drugmaker, couldn’t: Creating a new medicine that fights heart disease by raising so-called good cholesterol.


• Verizon Said to Be Aiming to Release Microsoft Phones for Teens by June Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. wireless carrier, will introduce two phones from Microsoft Corp. in about May or June that are targeted at teenagers, two people with knowledge of the companies’ plans said.


• Portugal Telecom Should Buy Telefonica's Stake in Vivo, Top Investor Says Portugal Telecom SGPS SA’s biggest individual investor said Brazil is “a must” for future growth and that the phone company should try to buy Telefonica SA’s stake in Vivo Participacoes SA.


• State-Controlled RBS, Lloyds Asked to Back Ineos Tax Move to Switzerland Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc, recipients of 66 billion pounds ($99 billion) of taxpayer-funded bailouts, are being asked to endorse plans to move the headquarters of Britain’s biggest closely held company to Switzerland to save on tax.

Bloomberg Daily News 10th March 2010

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Toyota Stigma Prompts Hatoyama to Turn Technology Salesman to Revive Japan French President Charles de Gaulle once labeled a Japanese premier a “transistor salesman.” Now Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is hawking bullet trains and nuclear plants after Toyota Motor Corp.’s recalls hurt the country’s image as a top manufacturer.


• Exxon Lowers Investment Bar, Buys Projects Previously Deemed Too Piddling Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc and Total SA are investing in assets that previously weren’t worth their time or money after oil-rich nations reduced access to reserves and exploration drilling faltered.


• `Cinderella' Wine Valley Razed by Chile Quake Signals Bankrupt Vineyards Chile’s strongest earthquake in 50 years may bankrupt smaller winemakers after vines collapsed, casks broke apart and millions of liters were spilled, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker-turned-winemaker said.


• City of London Developers to Start Skyscrapers as Rents End Two-Year Drop Brookfield Asset Management Inc., owner of a stake in the U.K.’s tallest building, is about to start constructing an even higher tower in the City of London.


• Pound's Slide to Help U.K. Outpace Euro Economies, Goldman's Nielsen Says The pound’s drop last week to a 10- month low may help the U.K. economy grow faster than the region sharing the euro, which is hobbled by budget deficits and aging populations, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.


• Ethanol Poised for Rally as Valero Sees Profits Where Gates Found Losses Ethanol, the commodity that cost Bill Gates more than $44 million the last time prices collapsed, is poised to rally as much as 20 percent as the fastest drop since 2008 spurs demand.


• New Normal Becomes Old Normal With Exports Spurring Growth in New U.S. Mix The “new mix” is out to topple the “new normal” as the paradigm for America’s economic future.


• `On the Edge' Banks Facing Writedowns After FDIC Auctions of Seized Loans A Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. plan to auction more than $1 billion in assets seized from failed banks next month, including a loan to build a W Hotel in Atlanta, may trigger writedowns that weaken lenders nationwide.


• Vineyard Defaults Surge as Lost California Land Values Undermine Napa Wine In California’s Napa Valley, producer of the most expensive U.S. wines, 2010 may be a vintage year for foreclosures as the industry is squeezed by falling land values and a consumer shift to cheaper brands.


• China to Nullify Local Governments' Loan Guarantees as Credit Risk Grows China plans to nullify all guarantees local governments have provided for loans taken by their financing vehicles as concerns about credit risks on such debt increases.


• FDIC May Invite Pension Funds to Buy Stakes in U.S. Banks Facing Seizure The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is trying to encourage public retirement funds that control more than $2 trillion to buy all or part of failed lenders, taking a more direct role in propping up the banking system, said people briefed on the matter.


• States Will Cut More Workers to Offset Declining Revenue: Chart of the Day U.S. state and local governments are likely to keep cutting jobs even as the broader labor market shows signs of emerging from the worst slump since World War II, economists said.


• Sleepless in Zurich Has ABB, Bouygues Bunkering Cash for European `Angst' ABB Ltd., Daimler AG, Fiat SpA and Europe’s biggest companies hoarded more cash in 2009 than the previous three years as they curbed acquisitions to protect themselves against an economic slump.

Bloomberg Daily News 9th March 2010

Hollingsowrth Daily Post

• Singapore Plans Greenwich-Style Hedge Fund Home in Nepal Hill Neighborhood Singapore is planning to create its own hedge-fund capital modeled after Greenwich, Connecticut, in a cluster of ex-British army homes called Nepal Hill, a 15- minute cab-ride from the city-state’s main banking district.


• Pfizer's Failures Clear Path for Cholesterol Drug Push by Canadian Upstart Resverlogix Corp., without a marketed product, may accomplish what Pfizer Inc., the world’s biggest drugmaker, couldn’t: Creating a new medicine that fights heart disease by raising so-called good cholesterol.


• Silicon Valley's Talent Dominates Academy Awards as Hollywood Looks North No matter which film gets the Oscar for best visual effects at the Academy Awards this weekend, it’s a guaranteed win for Autodesk Inc. and Nvidia Corp.


• JPMorgan, Citi Lead Bond Market in Year When High-Yield Issues Set Record The thawing of the credit markets in 2009 spawned record debt sales as companies sought to ensure they had enough capital to run their businesses and meet their debt obligations. Corporate bond sales worldwide climbed 31 percent to $3.04 trillion and issuance of high-yield, high-risk securities -- the most lucrative market for underwriters -- ballooned by 181 percent to $207 billion, Bloomberg Markets reports in its April issue. Both set records.


• Citigroup's Auction-Rate Bonds Freeze Hawaii's Cash as Teachers Forgo Pay Two years after the auction-rate bond market froze, Hawaii has lost about $250 million in market value on $1 billion in student-loan securities sold by a single Citigroup Inc. broker as a cash substitute that the state has had difficulty unloading.


• Goldman Leads Slumping Merger Market as Buffett Deal Boosts Hopes for 2010 A pair of takeovers by billionaire investor Warren Buffett and oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. late last year were all the encouragement that investment bankers needed, Bloomberg Markets reports in its April issue.


• Your Taxes Supporting For-Profit Firms as They Acquire Non-Profit Colleges ITT Educational Services Inc. paid $20.8 million for debt-ridden Daniel Webster College in June. In return, the company obtained an academic credential that may generate a taxpayer-funded bonanza worth as much as $1 billion.


• Iraq Opens to BP, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell for First Time Since 1972 BP Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. took the best deal they could get in Iraq last year when they won the largest oil contracts since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. Oil companies may wait a long time to get a better one.


• Toyota Recalls Spark Divergence in Swaps, Bond-Yield Spread: Chart of Day Toyota Motor Corp.’s recall of about 8 million cars has elicited divergent responses from foreign and Japanese investors, with the cost of protecting the company’s bonds against default rising while the yield spread to sovereign debt has varied little this year.


• Malone's Liberty Global Sees Kabel Baden-Wuerttemberg as a Takeover Target Liberty Global Inc., controlled by billionaire John Malone, sees Kabel Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany’s third-largest cable operator, as a potential acquisition target, said Chief Strategy Officer Shane O’Neill.


• Japan Takes On Consumption-Tax `Taboo' Obama Won't Touch to Rein in Debt Finance Minister Naoto Kan’s readiness to debate Japan’s first sales-tax increase since 1997 signals the risk of a fiscal crisis may be weighing heavier with policy makers than dangers to economic growth.


• Geithner Adviser Sachs to Resign This Year as Emergency Programs Wind Down Lee Sachs, a counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, plans to step down this year as the banking crisis wanes and the Obama administration winds down its emergency programs.


• Pinera May Splurge on Chile Earthquake Rebuilding After Vowing Austerity Chilean President-elect Sebastian Pinera, who vowed austerity after the outgoing government posted its first deficit in five years, may have to go on a spending spree to rebuild from Chile’s biggest earthquake in 50 years.


• Wen May Prove Powerless to Fix Booming Chinese Economy as Term Winds Down Premier Wen Jiabao calls China’s economic growth path “unbalanced, uncoordinated, and unsustainable.” This week’s annual parliament session may prove he is unable to change its course.


• Tiger Woods Mea Culpa Failed to Improve His Public Standing, Study Shows Tiger Woods’s televised apology for infidelity on Feb. 19 failed to reverse his plummeting stature with the American public, according to a survey by a unit of Omnicom Group Inc.

Blomoberg Daily News 5th March 2010

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Queen's Bankers to Rich Get Taxpayer Support Courtesy of RBS Owning Coutts On a gray January afternoon in London, John Baines had a blunt message for prospective buyers of Coutts, the 318-year-old British private bank. Coutts & Co., the U.K.’s second-largest wealth manager, and its Zurich-based international arm, RBS Coutts Bank AG, were not on the market.


• Singapore's GIC, Abu Dhabi Face $10 Billion Loss on UBS, Citigroup Stakes It took the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. three days in 2007 to agree to prop up UBS AG, ailing from subprime losses. It may take a decade to recoup that investment of 11 billion Swiss francs ($10 billion).


• Drought Threatens Syria's Economy as 300,000 Families Flee Parched Farms A few miles beyond an irrigated golf course on the outskirts of Damascus, scores of refugees fleeing drought in Syria’s northeastern breadbasket have settled into tents on a rocky field.


• Chile's `Somber' Peso, Bond Markets Weeks Away From Earthquake Recovery Chilean equity, bond and currency trading may take two weeks to recover after volumes plunged following the strongest earthquake in five decades, according to the local unit of Bank of Nova Scotia.


• SABMiller May Sell 12 Million Beers at South Africa's World Cup Fan Parks SABMiller Plc may sell 12 million more units of beer at this year’s soccer World Cup if it capitalizes on the decision by Anheuser-Busch InBev NV not to sell Budweiser at fan parks in the nine host cities.


• Home-Price Drop in U.S. Supports Fed's Low-Rate Outlook: Chart of the Day A possible relapse in home prices that had Fed policy makers concerned late last year may now be coming to pass, underscoring forecasts by economists such as Jan Hatzius that an interest-rate increase is a long way off.


• WPP Chief Sorrell Predicts Organic Growth in Second Quarter of This Year WPP Plc Chief Executive Officer Martin Sorrell forecast growth for the world’s largest network of ad agencies in the second quarter compared with the same period last year.


• Redrow's Morgan Aims to Revive His Company With Shift to Higher-End Homes Steve Morgan, who took the job of chairman at Redrow Plc for the second time almost 12 months ago, said the U.K. homebuilder’s biggest mistake during his nine-year absence was shifting to the low end of the market.


• IBM Cut Almost 500 Jobs Across the U.S. Today, Employee Labor Group Says International Business Machines Corp., the world’s largest computer-services provider, fired almost 500 workers in the U.S. and that number may rise, according to employee advocate Alliance@IBM.


• Sawgrass Resort Where Tiger Woods Apologized Seeks Bankruptcy Protection The owners of Florida’s Sawgrass Marriott Resort, the site of the U.S. PGA Tour’s Tournament Players Championship, sought bankruptcy protection from creditors including Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Bloomberg Daily News 3 March 2010

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Singapore's GIC, Abu Dhabi Face $10 Billion Loss on UBS, Citigroup Stakes It took the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. three days in 2007 to agree to prop up UBS AG, ailing from subprime losses. It may take a decade to recoup that investment of 11 billion Swiss francs ($10 billion).


• Drought Threatens Syria's Economy as 300,000 Families Flee Parched Farms A few miles beyond an irrigated golf course on the outskirts of Damascus, scores of refugees fleeing drought in Syria’s northeastern breadbasket have settled into tents on a rocky field.


• Earth's Axis Probably Shifted in Chilean Earthquake, NASA Scientist Says The earthquake that killed more than 700 people in Chile on Feb. 27 probably shifted the Earth’s axis and shortened the day, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientist said.


• `Golden Era' May Elude Private-Equity Investors as Deal Valuations Climb Private-equity firms tell investors that the years following recessions offer the best opportunity to make money. This time may be different.


• Microsoft to Make Web-Based Programs a Billion-Dollar Business, Elop Says Microsoft Corp.’s business-software unit expects to get at least $1 billion from Web versions of its Office and e-mail programs in the next three to five years, said Stephen Elop, head of the division.


• Google May Spend `Hundreds of Millions' on Its Broadband Internet Project Google Inc. said it may spend as much as “hundreds of millions” of dollars on an experimental broadband service that offers Internet speeds 100 times faster than current networks.


• Google's Angels Tweet and Dine on Tofu Wraps as They Bankroll 200 Startups During the holidays last year, Aydin Senkut and Elad Gil gathered 50 of their friends at a health- food restaurant in Palo Alto, California. Over turkey burgers and tofu wraps, they talked about technology trends and how to get rich. Or, more precisely, how to get richer.


• Germany Considering Buying Greek Bonds Through State's KfW, Lawmakers Say Germany is considering buying Greek bonds through state-owned lender KfW Group, German lawmakers said today.


• Gap Contacted by Antitrust Regulator on Simon Property's Prime Outlet Deal Gap Inc. was contacted by the Federal Trade Commission about Simon Property Group Inc.’s proposed acquisition of Prime Outlets Acquisition Co.


• SAC's Cohen Trades Secrecy for Golf With Investors Enticed by 30% Returns In late January, billionaire Steven A. Cohen hosted a golf outing for two dozen people at the Bear Lakes Country Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.


• Toyota Recalls Traced Back to Cost Cuts, Growth That `Hijacked' Quality Katsuaki Watanabe, Toyota Motor Corp.’s former president, did something at his first meeting with U.S. investors out of character for a leader of Japan’s biggest automaker: He boasted of what he’d accomplished.

Bloomberg Daily News 2nd March 2010

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Soros Signals Gold Bubble as Momentary Buyer While Goldman Predicts Record George Soros is helping drive up gold prices by doubling his bet in a market even he considers a “bubble” as Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Barclays Capital and HSBC Holdings Plc predict more gains before it bursts.


• Fortress Said to Be Near Restructuring of Resort Operator Intrawest's Debt Fortress Investment Group LLC has agreed with lenders on the outline of a debt restructuring for Intrawest ULC, owner of Olympic downhill skiing resort Whistler Blackcomb, said a person with knowledge of the talks.


• Microsoft to Make Web-Based Programs a Billion-Dollar Business, Elop Says Microsoft Corp.’s business-software unit expects to get at least $1 billion from Web versions of its Office and e-mail programs in the next three to five years, said Stephen Elop, head of the division.


• Google May Spend `Hundreds of Millions' on Its Broadband Internet Project Google Inc. said it may spend as much as “hundreds of millions” of dollars on an experimental broadband service that offers Internet speeds 100 times faster than current networks.


• Google's Angels Tweet and Dine on Tofu Wraps as They Bankroll 200 Startups During the holidays last year, Aydin Senkut and Elad Gil gathered 50 of their friends at a health- food restaurant in Palo Alto, California. Over turkey burgers and tofu wraps, they talked about technology trends and how to get rich. Or, more precisely, how to get richer.


• Germany Considering Buying Greek Bonds Through State's KfW, Lawmakers Say Germany is considering buying Greek bonds through state-owned lender KfW Group, German lawmakers said today.


• Gap Contacted by Antitrust Regulator on Simon Property's Prime Outlet Deal Gap Inc. was contacted by the Federal Trade Commission about Simon Property Group Inc.’s proposed acquisition of Prime Outlets Acquisition Co.


• SAC's Cohen Trades Secrecy for Golf With Investors Enticed by 30% Returns In late January, billionaire Steven A. Cohen hosted a golf outing for two dozen people at the Bear Lakes Country Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.


• Toyota Recalls Traced Back to Cost Cuts, Growth That `Hijacked' Quality Katsuaki Watanabe, Toyota Motor Corp.’s former president, did something at his first meeting with U.S. investors out of character for a leader of Japan’s biggest automaker: He boasted of what he’d accomplished.


• Congo's Hydro-Electric Failure Threatens Biggest Power Project in Africa A plan to build the world’s biggest power complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo may never happen because the government is too indecisive, the head of a venture that had planned to invest $5.2 billion said.


• Star Fund Manager Goes From Gold to Manure as He Remakes His Life in U.K. Graham Birch was the best natural- resource stock picker in Britain for a decade. Now most of the stock he owns has four legs and a tail.

Bloomberg Daily News 1st March 2010