Tag Archives: Last October

News, Politics, Government

Chinese Oil Billionaire's Union Energy Says 1st-Half Profit Soared

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By Russell Flannery, Forbes Staff China’s energy business is largely under the purview of big government-controlled companies such as PetroChina, Cnooc and Sinopec.  An oil company led by one of only a handful of private sector entrepreneurs to make a large fortune in the field reported a big jump in profit today. Hong Kong-listed United Energy Group’s net profit in the six months to June more than doubled to HK$525 million, or $67 million, from HK$214 million a year earlier, according to a company announcement. Earnings rose on increased production and higher oil prices, United said.  Revenue climbed to HK$2.3 billion from HK$1.4 billion a year earlier.   Union acquired the upstream operations of BP in Pakistan for $775 million in 2011, and has since increased its production there.  Last October, it announced a “production cooperation agreement” with Chinese government-run China Development Bank for $5 billion, giving providing capital for additional acquisitions.   Union’s chairman Zhang Hongwei ranked No. 825 on the 2013 Forbes Billionaires List with wealth of $1.85 billion.   — Follow me on Twitter @rflannerychina     …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

Mexico captures Zetas cartel leader

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Mexican marines captured the head of the ultra-violent Zetas drug cartel, Miguel Angel Trevino, an official from the federal attorney general’s office told AFP.

“They carried out an important arrest, of Miguel Angel Trevino, in the early hours of Monday,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The Zetas are considered one of the most powerful and feared organized crime groups in Mexico, founded by former soldiers and known for their brutality.

Originally, the Zetas acted as the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, but the two groups split in recent years, sparking brutal turf wars in the north of the country.

Trevino’s capture comes eight months after Mexican troops killed his predecessor, Heriberto Lazcano, in a gunfight in the northern state of Coahuila, only to lose Lazcano’s body hours later.

Last October, gunmen burst into a funeral home and stole his body, which has never been recovered.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Think Your Taxes Are High? The 5 Countries With the Highest Taxes

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By Eric Bleeker, CFA, The Motley Fool

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Tomorrow’s D-Day for tax filers across the United Sates. While its easy to bemoan your tax rate, especially if you owe money to Uncle Sam, the United States actually has a relatively low personal tax rate compared with other countries. 

Last October, accounting firm KPMG put together a study of the countries with the world’s highest tax rates on personal income. Not surprisingly, Europe was among the most-taxed regions. Western Europe led all world regions with  a 46.1% tax rate on personal incomes. By contrast, North America stood at 27.7%. 

Also, while the top income-tax bracket for America is jumping to 39.6% this year, it stands neck-and-neck with Spain for having the world’s highest income level where the highest rate of taxes takes effect. 

Clearly, taxes are a matter of significant controversy. Not only do tax codes and deductions vary wildly by country, but the services a citizen receives for his or her tax dollars also differ. Services are difficult to measure in an objective manner, but KPMG tried looking beyond purely top tax rates by measuring effective taxes for people who earn both $100,000 and $300,000 per year. 

Let’s look which countries’ citizens had the highest tax burden in 2012, and how they compare with the United States. 

1. Belgium

  • 2012 top rate of income taxes: 50%
  • Effective tax rate on $100,000: 47% (13.1% Social Security, 33.9% income tax)
  • World rank on effective tax rate of $100,000: 1
  • Effective tax rate on $300,000: 53.4% (13.1% Social Security, 40.3% income tax)
  • World rank on effective tax rate of $300,000: 2

2. Italy 

  • 2012 top rate of income taxes: 43%
  • Effective tax rate on $100,000: 45.2% (9.6% Social Security, 35.6% income tax)
  • World rank on effective tax rate of $100,000: 4
  • Effective tax rate on $300,000: 51.8% (10% Social Security, 41.8% income tax)
  • World rank on effective tax rate of $300,000: 3

3. France

  • 2012 top rate of income taxes: 45%
  • Effective tax rate on $100,000: 42% (22% Social Security, 20% income tax)
  • World rank on effective tax rate of $100,000: 8
  • Effective tax rate on $300,000: 54% (20% Social Security, 34% income tax)
  • World rank on effective tax rate of $300,000: 1

4. Denmark

  • 2012 top rate of income taxes: 55.4%
  • Effective tax rate on $100,000: 42.3% (0.2% Social Security, 42.1% income tax)
  • World rank on effective tax rate of $100,000: 6
  • Effective tax rate on $300,000: 51.5% (0.1% Social Security, 51.4% income tax)
  • World rank on effective tax tate of $300,000: 4

5. Greece

  • 2012 top rate of income taxes: 45%
  • Effective tax rate on $100,000: 46.5% (16.5% Social Security, 30% income tax)
  • World rank on effective tax rate of $100,000: 2
  • Effective tax rate on $300,000: 45.1% (5.6% Social Security, 39.5% income tax)
  • World rank on effective tax rate of $300,000: 14

For comparison: The United States

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Apple's Ambitious Indian Expansion

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By Evan Niu, CFA, The Motley Fool

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Apple investors are now quite accustomed to focusing on the importance of the Chinese market, which is currently the second-largest geographical segment for the Mac maker behind its domestic U.S. turf. However, in recent months that attention has been shifting south towards a new potential growth frontier waiting to be tapped: India.

Last October, Apple significantly expanded its distribution strategy to broaden its reach. In February, there were reports detailing the company’s massive overhaul of its Indian operations, growing its local workforce and offering payment plans to make devices more affordable, among other changes. Early signs are that the overhaul is working with iPhone sales on the rise and Apple becoming the No. 2 smartphone vendor by revenue.

What’s the latest development for Apple on the Indian front?

More stores galore
A new report from The Economic Times details how Apple is scaling up its presence in India and hopes to triple the number of exclusive stores that sell Apple gear by 2015 to more than 200. That’s up from roughly 65 exclusive Apple stores in India today. Those stores aren’t owned and operated directly by Apple, but instead by local franchisees that have committed to help the iPhone maker aggressively grow in India.

In addition to these Apple exclusive stores operated by resellers, the company is also looking to grow its footprint within larger multibrand stores.

A sourcing problem
One of the biggest hurdles for Apple in India has always been local regulation regarding foreign ownership of single-branded retail stores. The country’s Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, or DIPP, used to limit foreign direct ownership of such stores to 51%. The DIPP changed its stance on this policy way back in January 2012, allowing foreign companies to own up to 100% of single-branded retail stores and potentially paving the way for official Apple stores.

There was a catch, though. Any single-brand retail store that’s owned by a foreign company must have 30% of the goods sold sourced from local vendors, a move by regulators to help boost local commerce. When the change was first made, a DIPP official implied that regulators would be willing to work with Apple, “If they tell us that the 30% sourcing is a problem, at that stage we will look into it.” That was over a year ago, and there haven’t been any reports since to the contrary. The Economic Times still cites the 30% sourcing rule as a continued hurdle for Apple to open its own stores.

Of course, Apple sources most of its components from China, like most consumer electronics companies. Manufacturing and assembly primarily takes place in the Middle Kingdom, further making it unrealistic for Apple to comply with the 30% standard.

The next best thing
Apple still lags smartphone rivals by a long shot in India, thanks in large part to the ubiquity of Google Android and …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

AuRico Gold Earnings: An Early Look

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By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

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Earnings season is just about over, with almost all companies already having reported their quarterly results. But there are still a few companies left to report, and AuRico Gold is about to release its quarterly earnings report. The key to making smart investment decisions with stocks releasing their quarter reports is to anticipate how they’ll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise. That way, you’ll be less likely to make an uninformed knee-jerk reaction to news that turns out to be exactly the wrong move.

Gold miners have gone through a tough time lately, as slipping gold prices, higher production costs, and labor strife around the world have weighed on mining stocks. But can AuRico’s cost advantage allow it to buck the trend? Let’s take an early look at what’s been happening with AuRico Gold over the past quarter and what we’re likely to see in its quarterly report on Monday.

Stats on AuRico Gold

Analyst EPS Estimate

$0.05

Change From Year-Ago EPS

(67%)

Revenue Estimate

$71.3 million

Change From Year-Ago Revenue

(33%)

Earnings Beats in Past 4 Quarters

2

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Will AuRico Gold glitter or tarnish this quarter?
Over the past few months, analysts have gotten a lot more pessimistic about AuRico Gold’s prospects. Consensus earnings-per-share estimates for the just-ended quarter have come down by $0.02, while full-year 2013 calls have come down by $0.13 per share, or 25% of where they were three months ago. The stock has followed suit, falling 13% since mid-December.

AuRico has had a disappointing track record with its mines lately. Last October, it added its once-flagship Ocampo mine in Mexico to the list of projects on which it has failed to reach its full potential, selling the mine for about $315 per ounce of gold reserves and including a couple of high-potential speculative properties into the mix. Meanwhile, Endeavour Silver scored a major coup by grabbing up AuRico’s El Cubo mine last year, giving Endeavour the inside track at its riches at AuRico’s expense.

In preliminary results it released in January, AuRico already gave some details on how tough an environment it has faced. Overall cash costs soared to $630-$650 in the fourth quarter, well above its full-year guidance of $483-$548. For 2013, the company said that it expects production to rise from 127,000 ounces in 2012 to 190,000-220,000 ounces this year. Yet it sees a range of all-in costs, a more accurate measure of production expenses than cash costs, of between $1,100 and $1,200. Rival Yamana Gold , by contrast, has all-in costs of around $800, showing how much of a competitive disadvantage AuRico has.

Yet some good news for shareholders came in February, when AuRico said it would start paying a dividend. Its anticipated $0.04 quarterly payout only amounts to a yield of 2.3%, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Proof That Ben Bernanke Loves Bank of America

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By John Maxfield, The Motley Fool

Source: Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review 2013: Assessment Framework and Results.

And last but not least, during the second stage of Moynihan’s strategy, he said that the bank plans on returning “all earnings to investors in dividends or share buybacks.” The normally reticent CEO was particularly keen to note that, “We need to get back most of the shares we issued in the crisis that caused

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At long last, it seems as if shareholders in Bank of America finally have a tangible reason to celebrate. After the market closed on Thursday, the Federal Reserve announced the results of this year’s comprehensive capital analysis and review, or CCAR, giving B of A and others permission to increase the amount of capital they returning to shareholders over the next four quarters. In B of A’s case, that means using $5 billion for share buybacks and an additional $5.5 billion to redeem all of the outstanding shares of two of the company’s preferred stock.

Making it even sweeter was the fact that two of the Charlotte-based bank’s fiercest competitors were put on notice about the adequacy of their capital planning processes, and two additional banks had their capital plans outright rejected. With respect to the former, while the Fed was careful to point out that it did not object to the capital plans of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase , it is nevertheless requiring them to submit new plans by the end of the third quarter in order to remedy the aforementioned inadequacy. By all indications, meanwhile, B of A seems to have sailed through the process.

What about the dividend?
Of course, the biggest question is why didn’t B of A increase its dividend like so many analysts, me included, had expected it to? Last October, I stated that “all of the evidence suggests to me that B of A will be in a position to increase its dividend at the beginning of next year after submitting its capital plan to regulators.” In the middle of December, noted banking analyst Meredith Whitney said basically the same thing, predicting that the bank could as much as quadruple its payout. And in an article I wrote earlier this week, a reader commented that: “I think everyone will be shocked if B of A doesn’t get at least a $0.03/share dividend…. [T]he real question will be how soon it can go higher.”

The answer to this question is threefold. First, it obviously appears as if CEO Brian Moynihan sees more value in buybacks than he does in dividends right now. This is probably because B of A’s shares trade at a 10% discount to tangible book value compared to, say, Wells Fargo , which trades for a 60% premium over tangible book, or JPMorgan, which trades for a 27% premium.

Second, Moynihan is clearly preparing the bank for the heightened capital requirements that are coming down the pike. In explaining his capital strategy to Fortune‘s Shawn Tully back in 2011, Moynihan divided the then-future into two main periods. During the first period, lasting for two years, he said that B of A would retain “virtually all of its earnings to build the funds necessary to comply with the new Basel III [capital standards].” B of …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Fidel Castro laments loss of 'best friend,' Chavez

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Retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro has broken nearly a week of silence since the death of friend and ally Hugo Chavez, calling the late Venezuelan president Cuba‘s “best friend.”

Castro says in an editorial published in Communist Party newspaper Granma that Chavez’s delicate health was well known, but news of his passing March 5 nonetheless came as a shock.

The 86-year-old Castro has all but ceased penning his once-regular columns known as “Reflections.”

Last October he explained that he decided to do so because they were taking up valuable space in state media that was needed for other purposes.

His column on Chavez was carried Monday in Granma and other official newspapers.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Discovery Labs Earnings: An Early Look

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By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

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Earnings season is winding down, with most companies already having reported their quarterly results. But there are still some companies left to report, and Discovery Labs is about to release its quarterly earnings report. The key to making smart investment decisions with stocks releasing their quarter reports is to anticipate how they’ll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise. That way, you’ll be less likely to make an uninformed kneejerk reaction to news that turns out to be exactly the wrong move.

Discovery Labs had to wait a long time, but it finally got its best drug prospect approved last year. But so far, that hasn’t led to the long-anticipated ramp-up in sales, and investors are nervous about the delay. Let’s take an early look at what’s been happening with Discovery Labs over the past quarter and what we’re likely to see in its quarterly report on Wednesday.

Stats on Discovery Labs

Analyst EPS Estimate

($0.28)

Year-Ago EPS

($0.18)

Revenue Estimate

$60,000

2011 Full-Year Revenue

$582,000

Earnings Beats in Past 4 Quarters

1

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Will Discovery Labs move forward this quarter?
Analysts haven’t moved much on their estimates for Discovery Labs, adding a single penny per share to loss estimates for the just-ended quarter and the full 2013 year. But the stock has jumped more than 16% as the company gets closer to finally bringing in substantial revenue.

Discovery Labs is the model of how tenacity can eventually lead to success in the biotech industry. After years of waiting eight years and overcoming four separate rejections from the FDA, Discovery finally received approval for Surfaxin, its treatment to prevent infant respiratory distress syndrome. The company also got its Afectair drug-delivery product approved, which makes use of inhaled drugs more efficient, and Discovery opened 2013 with an announcement that it had started its launch of Afectair.

But the real question is how well Discovery will do in marketing and selling Surfaxin. Last October, the company said it would delay sales of Surfaxin until the second quarter of 2013, citing the need to improve one of the methods Discovery uses to assure quality control. Moreover, AbbVie already offers the competing Survanta, and Cornerstone Therapeutics offers its Curosurf drug. But Surfaxin’s advantage is that it’s synthetic rather than derived from animals, which should appeal more to medical professionals.

In February, the company successfully got a credit facility from Deerfield Management, which will provide as much as $30 million in financing, with $20 million becoming available as soon as the company makes its first commercial sale of Surfaxin. But with Deerfield getting warrants to buy as many as 7 million shares of Discovery at $2.81 per share, investors will face substantial dilution if the share price rises.

In its quarterly report, watch closely for Discovery to talk about its …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Earthquake detected in North Korea, USGS says

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The U.S. Geological Survey said Tuesday it had detected a magnitude 4.9 earthquake in North Korea, but neither Pyongyang nor Seoul confirmed whether North Korea had conducted its widely anticipated third nuclear test.

The South Korean Defense Ministry said it was trying to determine whether North Korea had conducted a nuclear test. Nuclear blasts can create tremors but they are distinct from those caused by natural earthquakes.

North Korea‘s powerful politburo vowed to continue firing “powerful long-range rockets,” but a statement Tuesday made no mention of Pyongyang’s promise to conduct a nuclear test.

The United States and its allies have been on edge since North Korea said last month it will conduct its third nuclear test to protest toughened sanctions over a December rocket launch that the U.N. called a cover for a banned missile test.

North Korea‘s powerful National Defense Commission said Jan. 23 that the United States was its prime target for a nuclear test and long-range rocket launches. North Korea accuses Washington of leading the push to punish Pyongyang for its December rocket launch.

Last October, a spokesman from the commission told state media that the country had built a missile capable of striking the United States, but did not provide further details. A missile featured in an April 2012 military parade appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile, but its authenticity has not been verified by foreign experts.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News