M&A activity up 12%: report November 30, 2009
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Canadian merger and acquisition activity edged higher in the third quarter, reflecting continued improvement in financing conditions and company valuations.
A report by Crosbie & Company says 221 transactions were announced in the July to September period, up 12 per cent from the second quarter.
In the same period, the value of Canadian M&A transactions increased by $30.2 billion, up 27 per cent from the prior quarter.
Crosbie says strategic buyers, private equity buyers and financiers have all stepped up activity over the past two quarters.
The oil and gas industry saw the most transactions, followed by the industrial products sector.
However, M&A activity remains well below pre-recession levels.
The Canadian Press, 2009
Russia to add loonie to reserves: report November 25, 2009
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The Canadian dollar rallied by more than a cent against the U.S. currency early Wednesday.
The climb followed a report the Russian central bank is preparing the buy the loonie to include in its official reserves, which are used to defend the ruble. There’s been no word on how much Canadian currency the Russian central bank intends to hold.
The Canadian dollar rose more than a cent against the U.S. currency Wednesday before falling back later in the day.(Canadian Press)
At one point, the dollar traded at 95.68 cents US, up 1.16. By midday, it was changing hands at 95.28, up .76 of a cent.
Gold also rose on signs central banks will continue buying it to use as a reserve currency and to move away from the U.S. dollar. The gold sector on the Toronto Stock Exchange was up more than one per cent as the December bullion contract on the Nymex continued to head higher into record territory. By midday, it was trading up $19.10 to $1,184.90 an ounce.
The Financial Chronicle newspaper reported India might buy more bullion from the International Monetary Fund for its central-bank reserves. India announced Nov. 3 it bought 200 metric tons.
With files from The Canadian Press (more…)
Canadian offered top Bank of America job: report November 3, 2009
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A Canadian-born bank executive has been offered the job of CEO at Bank of America but turned it down, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
Ken Lewis, right, listens to Bank of New York Mellon CEO Robert Kelly speak to reporters outside the White House in March. Kelly is rumoured to have been offered Lewis’s job atop Bank of America.(Ron Edmonds/Associated Press)
Bank of New York Mellon Corp.’s Robert Kelly was approached recently about the next CEO of Bank of America, the paper says, quoting unnamed sources familiar with the situation.
According to the report, Kelly turned the offer down.
The Nova Scotia-born Kelly spent five years as chief financial officer at Wachovia Corp. before his current stint at Mellon. Prior to that, he was an executive at Toronto-Dominion Bank.
After attending St. Mary’s University in Halifax, the chartered accountant worked at TD for 19 years. He was in charge of the bank’s trading desk in the 1980s.
The Journal report describes him as as a shrewd deal-maker who was the key architect of the 2007 combination of Pittsburgh’s Mellon Financial Corp. and Bank of New York Co.
The current CEO of Bank of America, Ken Lewis, is set to retire at year end. Last month, Lewis succumbed to pressure to resign after nearly a year of strife that followed his company’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co.
After a scandal plagued year, the board of the largest U.S. bank by assets are believed to favour outside candidates.
Harper delivers economic report Monday September 28, 2009
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper will deliver his government’s latest economic update in Saint John on Monday.
The Conservatives’ minority government was able to win approval for its economic stimulus plan in the House of Commons last spring by promising to deliver a series of economic report cards.
The latest update is sure to be watched closely since the government is dealing with the largest budget deficit in Canadian history.
Earlier this month, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the deficit this year will be more than $5 billion higher than originally thought, moving up to a projected $55.9 billion from $50.2 billion.
Parliament returns to work on Monday with the Liberals threatening a no-confidence vote and the NDP holding the balance of power.
During his speech in Saint John, Harper is expected to talk about the state of the economy and perhaps infrastructure projects ? where money is being spent and how many projects are underway. The Liberals have accused the government of spending only 12 per cent of the $4 billion set aside for immediate job-creating infrastructure projects.
Canadians may also hear more news about measures such as the home renovation tax credit, which has now passed because of a ways-and-means motion that was voted on a couple weeks ago.
Gerard Kennedy, the Liberal’s infrastructure critic, said he wants Harper to provide evidence, not just words, that the government is investing in getting the unemployed back to work.
“We have no real growth taking place in terms of jobs, yet we provided enough funding in the [January] budget for something in the order of 120,000 jobs. We’re down 178,000 jobs since the budget came out,” he said.
With files from The Canadian Press (more…)
Harper delivers economic report Monday September 28, 2009
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper will deliver his government’s latest economic update in Saint John on Monday.
The Conservatives’ minority government was able to win approval for its economic stimulus plan in the House of Commons last spring by promising to deliver a series of economic report cards.
The latest update is sure to be watched closely since the government is dealing with the largest budget deficit in Canadian history.
Earlier this month, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the deficit this year will be more than $5 billion higher than originally thought, moving up to a projected $55.9 billion from $50.2 billion.
Parliament returns to work on Monday with the Liberals threatening a no-confidence vote and the NDP holding the balance of power.
During his speech in Saint John, Harper is expected to talk about the state of the economy and perhaps infrastructure projects ? where money is being spent and how many projects are underway. The Liberals have accused the government of spending only 12 per cent of the $4 billion set aside for immediate job-creating infrastructure projects.
Canadians may also hear more news about measures such as the home renovation tax credit, which has now passed because of a ways-and-means motion that was voted on a couple weeks ago.
Gerard Kennedy, the Liberal’s infrastructure critic, said he wants Harper to provide evidence, not just words, that the government is investing in getting the unemployed back to work.
“We have no real growth taking place in terms of jobs, yet we provided enough funding in the [January] budget for something in the order of 120,000 jobs. We’re down 178,000 jobs since the budget came out,” he said.
With files from The Canadian Press (more…)
China firm approached Magna in bid for Opel: report September 17, 2009
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A Chinese automaker tried to team up with Canada’s Magna International in its bid for control of Opel, Reuters said Thursday.
The report said Geely Automobile approached Magna with its proposal but that Magna is refraining from any such partnership for now.
Magna chairman Frank Stronach reportedly has refrained from accepting Geely’s partnership proposal for now.(Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
Reuters did not name its source.
Geely has a public division that trades on the Hong Kong Exchange and a privately owned parent company. A spokesperson for the public firm said it had never approached Magna.
General Motors directors agreed last week to sell 55 per cent of its stake in Opel. The agreement is expected to be made final next month.
Airlines’ outlook worse than after 9/11: report September 16, 2009
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The financial outlook for the airline industry is worse today than it was in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, a group representing the industry says.
The International Air Transport Association says global airline losses will total $11 billion US in 2009. That’s $2 billion worse than the agency’s last estimate.
The first commercial A380 flight touches down at Sydney International Airport in Australia in 2007. Despite hype over new planes like the A380, the global industry will rack up more than $11 billion in losses in 2009, IATA says.(Rob Griffith/Associated Press)
With combined losses in 2008-09 of $27.8 billion, “the bottom line of this crisis ? is larger than the impact of 9/11,” IATA CEO Giovanni Bisignani said.
Worldwide, the airline industry lost $24.3 billion in 2001-02 after the attacks in New York and Washington.
Industry revenues for the year are expected to fall by $80 billion, or 15 per cent, to $455 billion compared with 2008 levels.
The body also revised the amount that the industry lost last year. Total losses for 2008 are now listed at $16.8 billion, worse than the previous figure of $10.4 billion.
The agency blames an increase in fuel prices and a decrease in demand for the mounting losses. But government focus on environmental issues and a reluctance to allow mergers are contributing to the losses, it said.
Regional discrepancies
Passenger traffic is expected to decline by four per cent for 2009 as a whole.
Regionally, Latin American and Middle Eastern carriers are expected to hold up comparatively well, breaking even in most cases or eking out small profits.
But carriers in Europe and North America are now forecast to double the losses that were anticipated for the year.
“The global economic storm may be abating, but airlines have not yet found safe harbour. The crisis continues,” Bisignani said.
Magna deal for Opel stake could face problems: Russian report June 28, 2009
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Magna International Inc.’s plan to buy part of the European Opel car company with a Russian bank could face problems, executives with the bank said Friday.
Denis Bugrov of Sberbank, which is to take a 35 per cent stake in Opel, said at the bank’s annual meeting that he “did not exclude the possibility” the deal could fail, Russian media reported.
Magna — which is to take 20 per cent of Opel — and Sberbank reportedly have a July 15 deadline to decide whether to continue with the transaction.
It’s a complicated situation:
Opel seller General Motors is expected to keep 35 per cent of the company.Opel workers will get 10 per cent.The German government is lending $2.31 billion to keep the company afloat while it restructures.Bidders, other than Magna-Sberbank, are hovering in the wings.
On Friday, the head of one of those competitors said the Magna-Sberbank deal “is not doing too well.”
Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat, also said the company is still interested in buying Opel. “We have confirmed our interest,” he said.
Magna and Sberbank have a non-binding agreement to buy their stakes in Opel, but the exact relationship between the government-owned bank and the Aurora, Ont.-based auto parts company is not clear.
German Gref, Sberbank’s CEO, said conditions set by the bank and Russia have to be met before the deal can go ahead.
“If the conditions suit us, then we can close this deal,” the RIA-Novosti news agency reported Gref saying.
Executives with both Magna and Sberbank have said it will probably be September before the deal can be signed.
Magna Class B shares fell 96 cents to $46.48 in TSX trading.
With files from The Canadian Press
Apple CEO Jobs received liver transplant: report June 22, 2009
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Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs, seen here joking about his health at an October 2008 appearance, is said to be aiming to return to work by the end of June.(Paul Sakuma/Associated Press)
Apple Inc. CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs received a liver transplant about two months ago and is recovering well, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
The report, which did not name its sources, said he underwent the procedure in Tennessee in April. Jobs did not respond to a request by the Wall Street Journal for comment.
“Steve continues to look forward to returning at the end of June, and there’s nothing further to say,” the journal quoted Apple spokeswoman Katie Cotton as saying.
Jobs has been on medical leave since January. At the time, he announced that he would return to work by the end of June, and is expected to stick to that schedule, though he may only work part time initially.
Apple’s chief operating officer, Tim Cook, has taken over Jobs’s day-to-day responsibilities in the interim.
Jobs, a survivor of a rare form of pancreatic cancer, said Jan. 5 that he had a treatable hormone imbalance and would continue to run Apple. But the following week he went on leave to treat medical issues that were “more complex” than he had believed.
The Journal said in Saturday’s editions that the type of cancer Jobs had can metastasize in other organs, according to William Hawkins, a doctor specializing in pancreatic and gastrointestinal surgery at Washington University in St. Louis.
Jobs’s health is a concern for investors because of the influence he has had in shaping Apple’s products and design choices. Jobs regained control of the company in 1997.
With files from The Associated Press
Lululemon stock falls on 1st quarter report June 15, 2009
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Lululemon TSX trading over the past month
Shares of Lululemon Athletica Inc. fell from the market opening Thursday after the yoga-focused clothing company reported weak first-quarter results and warned that sales would fall in the current quarter.
Lululemon stock fell $2.26, or 13.4 per cent, to $14.56 in TSX trading.
The company said revenue for the first quarter rose, but profit fell and sales-per-comparable store — a key statistic for retailers — also dropped.
The Vancouver-based company said profit for the 13 weeks ending on May 3 was $6.5 million US (nine cents a diluted share), down from $8.5 million (12 cents) a year earlier.
Revenue was $81.7 million, compared with $77 million a year earlier.
But comparable-store sales fell eight per cent, Lululemon said.
The sales gain of about $4.7 million was swamped by costs that surged by $10.8 million.
For the second quarter, the company said it expects a comparable-store sales drop “in the middle-single digits,” compared with the second quarter of 2008. Revenue will be around $85 million to $90 million and share profit will be eight or nine cents, half the 18 cents reported in the 2008 second quarter.
“Given the troubled outlook for the economy in early 2009 when we began the quarter, we are pleased with the current pace of our business and our ability to continue to bring our customers through our doors to make full price purchases,” chief executive officer Christine Day said in the company’s news release.
The stock-price drop reclaims the gains made since June 3, when shares closed at $14.74 (Cdn). It was as low as $12.65 on May 22.
The 52-week range is $5.60 to $30.50.
The company went public at $18 US in July 2007.
