Posts Tagged ‘North America’

Reliance To Pay Atlas $1.7 Billion For Marcellus Stake

Posted by Amita Kalra on April 9th, 2010

Reliance Industries, the largest private sector firm in India will pay $1.7 billion to form a joint venture in the Marcellus Shale with U.S. based Atlas Energy.

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance, has long been looking to venture out of the country, broaden its businesses including refining, oil and gas exploration and petrochemicals, and break into the overseas markets. The company in fact, raised a war chest of $2 billion by selling stock in recent months.

Bankrupt petrochemicals firm LyondellBasell recently rejected a bid from Reliance that valued the target at about $14.5 billion, and the Indian firm also lost a race for Canadian oil sands firm Value Creation, in which it wanted to take a majority stake for $2 billion.

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Google Vs. China

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 20th, 2010

Even as talks between Google and the Chinese government reach a virtual stalemate, Google intends to retain substantial business presence in the region.

If speculation is to be given any weight at all, the US internet group will be announcing the closure of its flagship local search engine; google.cn; as early as monday – just as it had threatened earlier, in case the government does not allow uncensored search results.

A state-owned Chinese newspaper, quoting an unnamed Google employee, reported yesterday that the company could announce the closure of google.cn on Monday. A person familiar with the situation said last week that Google had drawn up plans for the closure of the Chinese search engine and hoped to manage an orderly exit from the country. Google.cn is a joint venture between the company and a domestic partner since the government does not allow foreigners to hold content in the internet content business. Google’s workforce is employed by a wholly US based company, however.

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Foreclosure Filings Increase at Slowest Pace in Four Years

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 11th, 2010

Probably like a silver lining to the dark cloud of the foreclosure crisis, RealtyTrac Inc. said on Thursday that the number of U.S. households facing foreclosure in February grew 6 percent from a year ago, the smallest annual increase in four years. A state wise analysis reveals that foreclosures declined on a monthly basis and yearly basis in the hard-hit states of Nevada (One in every 102 Nevada housing units received a foreclosure filing), Arizona (1 in 163 homes received a filing) and California (15% year-over-year decline), but still grew rapidly in Florida. Banks claimed nearly 79,000 homes last month, down 10 percent from January but still up 6 percent from February 2009.

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Chevron To Cut 2000 Jobs

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 9th, 2010

With a clear cut shrink-to-focus strategy in mind, Chevron Corp., America’s second largest multinational energy corporation, is planning to sell a U.K. oil refinery, cut 2,000 jobs as well as shed assets in the Caribbean and Central America in order to make up for losses from its fuel-making business. It is also contemplating further job reductions in 2011, along with asking for bids for some assets in Europe, including the Pembroke Refinery in the U.K. It may also reduce operations at a refinery in Hawaii, which reportedly lost $613 million during the last three months of 2009. The company said the cuts come as a part of its plans to boost earnings by lowering costs, exiting unprofitable markets, and streamlining its business.

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FDIC: US Banking Industry Still Suffering

Posted by Amita Kalra on February 23rd, 2010

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation today released the fourth quarter report which revealed that the number of distressed banks in the US rose from 552 at the end of September to a whopping 702 in the last quarter. Based on the result, roughly one in 11 of the approximate 8,000 U.S. banks are on the troubled list, the highest in sixteen years.

Banks insured by the FDIC dropped to a total quarterly profit of $914 million in the fourth quarter, which ended Dec. 31, compared with $2.8 billion in the third quarter. The result was significantly better than the $37.8 billion loss for insured institutions during the fourth quarter of 2008, but well below historical norms.

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Duane Reade Acquired By Walgreen

Posted by Amita Kalra on February 17th, 2010

The Walgreen Company, the largest drug store in the United States, today announced that it will acquire privately-held drugstore chain Duane Reade Holdings for $1.075 billion in cash including assumption of debt to the tune of $457 million from private-equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners.

Calling the purchase of the 50-year-old Duane Reade “a compelling strategic acquisition,” Walgreen said it would fund the purchase and hopes to close the deal by the end of the current fiscal year on August 31. This acquisition will add to its portfolio of 7100 locations across the country. Walgreen, currently runs 70 of its own stores in the New York metropolitan area, compared to Duane Reade’s 257.

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U.S. Stocks Surge

Posted by Amita Kalra on February 16th, 2010

In the wake of some positive world developments, US stocks rose to almost a two week high. Between rally highs hit on January 19 and the lows of early February, the S&P 500 had fallen more than 9% and the Dow and Nasdaq lost more than 7%. After many such down sessions, worries about China curbing lending and Greece in a severe debt crisis, the market finally heaved a sigh of relief, as positive results for Barclays, U.K’s second largest bank, amongst many others, upped spirits.

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McDonald’s global sales rise 2.6% in January

Posted by Amita Kalra on February 9th, 2010

Fast food giant and world’s biggest restaurant company, Mc Donald’s, today posted a 2.6% rise in the global same store sales in January. Perhaps taking a cue from the CVS Q4 results that came out yesterday, Mc Donald’s too, as a pleasant surprise, beat analysts’ expectations. Global sales were predicted to rise 2 percent, the average of estimates from analysts at Barclays Capital, Jefferies & Co. and Robert W. Baird. U.S. sales were projected to be unchanged.

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CVS Posts 11% Growth In Q4 Profit

Posted by Amita Kalra on February 8th, 2010

CVS Caremark Corp., one of US’ biggest drugstore operators, and the largest distributor of prescription drugs in the country today announced it fourth quarter results. Much to the surprise of Wall Street analysts, it posted an 11 percent hike in profit, as shares gained 2.7% in early morning trading. Net income rose to $1.05 billion, or 74 cents a share, from $949 million, or 65 cents, a year earlier. Sales gained 7 percent to $25.8 billion said the official statement. Wall Street analysts expected the pharmacy giant to earn 77 cents a share on revenue of $26.3 billion.

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Amazon Removes All Macmillan Books

Posted by Amita Kalra on January 30th, 2010

In a pricing dispute that had been brewing for over an year now, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) has removed all books from Macmillan, one of the largest publishers in the United States. The publisher’s books can only be purchased from third parties now.

People in the industry on condition of anonymity claim that Amazon was expressing strong resentment by this (hopefully) temporary removal of books. Macmillan’s imprints include popular books such as ‘A Long Way Gone’ by Ishmael Beah, ‘Wolf Hall’ by Hillary Mantel and ‘Finger Lickin’ Fifteen’ by Janet Evanovich.

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