February 27, 2012, 10:33 PM EST
By Chong Pooi Koon
(Updates with analyst’s reaction in seventh paragraph.)
Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) — CIMB Group Holdings Bhd., Malaysia’s second-biggest bank, said fourth-quarter profit surged 30 percent to a record on increased lending as it seeks to grow its Asia-Pacific reach.
The Kuala Lumpur-based bank is in talks to buy part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Plc’s investment banking and securities business in the region, CIMB Chief Executive Officer Nazir Razak told reporters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. It’s simultaneously in negotiations to acquire a stake in Manila-based Bank of Commerce, he said, declining to give details on both deals.
Net income climbed to 1.13 billion ringgit ($374 million), or 15.2 sen per share, in the three months ended Dec. 31 from 872.6 million ringgit, or 11.8 sen per share, a year earlier, the company said in an exchange filing. It declared a higher dividend of 10 sen per share, compared with 8 sen previously.
“I think 2012 could surprise on the upside as most of the downside risks are already quite visible,” Nazir said in a separate e-mailed statement. “The investment banking deal pipeline is good,” he told reporters.
CIMB wants to extend its regional reach after being Malaysia’s top underwriter for equity and rights offerings in the past three years. It has made acquisitions in Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia in the last seven years and may be one of two remaining bidders for RBS’s Asian equities, mergers and acquisitions businesses as well as its research arm, the Financial Times reported Feb. 7, citing people it didn’t name.
Philippine Talks
The Malaysian group is in separate talks with San Miguel Corp. and other shareholders to buy a 60 percent stake in Bank of Commerce, a person with knowledge of the matter said last month. It was the 16th largest lender in the Philippines by assets as of June 30 with 122 branches, according to the county’s central bank.
“Management again reassured that both mergers and acquisitions if successful won’t be financed through equity,” UOB-Kay Hian Holdings Ltd. said in a report today. “Financing will come mostly through internal funds.”
UOB upgraded the stock to “hold” and increased its price target to 6.90 ringgit from 6.20 ringgit, still below its unchanged market price of 7.14 ringgit at 11:05 a.m. in Kuala Lumpur trading today. Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd. boosted its price target for CIMB to 7.78 ringgit from 7.69 ringgit, according to a separate broking report.
CIMB joined other Malaysian lenders Malayan Banking Bhd. and Public Bank Bhd. in posting increased earnings for the quarter as a domestic economy that expanded 5.1 percent last year helped spur demand for loans and financing. Hong Leong Bank Bhd. yesterday reported a 31 percent jump in quarterly net income, while RHB Capital Bhd. is expected to report today.
Net interest income, or revenue from borrowers after deducting interest paid to depositors, increased 7 percent to 1.76 billion ringgit in the quarter, CIMB said. Allowances for impairment losses on loans and financing grew 73 percent to 289 million ringgit, the company said.
–Editors: Barry Porter, Chan Tien Hin
To contact the reporter on this story: Chong Pooi Koon in Kuala Lumpur at pchong17@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Barry Porter in Kuala Lumpur at bporter10@bloomberg.net
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2012年1月20日星期五
Credit Suisse Toxic Bonuses Rival Stock, Gold With 75% Returns
January 20, 2012, 12:44 AM EST
By Bradley Keoun
Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) — The toxic-asset bonuses given to senior Credit Suisse Group AG bankers at the depths of the 2008 financial crisis are turning out to be almost as good as gold.
Credit Suisse employees who got $5.05 billion of junk-grade loans and commercial-mortgage-backed bonds in late 2008 as part of annual bonuses have reaped gains of 75 percent on the payouts since the end of that year through Nov. 30, people with knowledge of the results said. Gold futures returned 98 percent in the period, while Credit Suisse’s shares declined 23 percent.
The gains, which also beat the 4.8 percent return of two- year Treasuries, show how the rebound in debt markets from the lows of 2008 has sweetened the Zurich-based bank’s executive bonuses compared with the cash and stock bonuses rivals paid.
“It worked out in favor of the employees,” said Ann Rutledge, a former Moody’s Investors Service analyst who’s now a principal at R&R Consulting in New York, which rates mortgage bonds and other asset-backed securities. Looking back, “market valuations would have been at all-time lows” when the internal asset pool was set up.
The stock-beating performance may help explain why Credit Suisse employees were eager to invest in a $450 million pool of residential mortgage bonds the bank created last month. Credit Suisse loaned employees the money to buy shares in the fund, and demand was so great that the bank could only fill 90 percent of the orders, the people said.
Chief Executive Officer Brady Dougan, now 52, said in December 2008 that the decision to transfer the assets to staff would position the firm “well for 2009” and strike the “appropriate balance” between employees, who might otherwise have suffered steeper pay cuts, and shareholders, who would have borne the risks of further declines.
Stock Slide
The company, which posted a loss of 8.2 billion francs ($8.8 billion) for 2008, recovered the following year with a 6.72 billion-franc profit. Suzanne Fleming, a company spokeswoman, said the fund’s results are private.
The Partner Asset Facility, or PAF, as the internal employee fund is known, has maintained gains even as the European sovereign-debt crisis weighed on Credit Suisse’s stock price. The bank’s shares, which surged 80 percent in 2009, tumbled 26 percent in 2010 and 41 percent last year.
Shares in PAF were given to about 2,000 senior Credit Suisse employees as part of their 2008 year-end bonuses, people with knowledge of the plan have said. The employees were given $800 million of equity in the fund, with Credit Suisse providing $4.25 billion of loans to bolster the fund’s buying power, the people said.
Drop Before Gain
While the plan relieved shareholders of risks, the timing proved to be a windfall for the employees. The S&P/LSTA U.S. Leveraged Loan 100 Index, which tracks prices for loans to companies with junk-grade credit ratings, fell that month to a record low of 59 cents on the dollar.
Initially, the value of the PAF shares fell, people with knowledge of the results said. As of February 2009, the equity in the PAF held 90 percent of its initial value, they said.
Then markets recovered. By May 2011, the value had doubled over the original, before sliding to the 75 percent gain estimated as of November, the people said.
The leveraged-loan index traded at 92 cents as of Jan. 13.
It could have turned out worse for the employees, said Anthony Sanders, a former Deutsche Bank AG analyst who’s now a finance professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Had the prices for leveraged loans or commercial mortgage-backed securities, known as CMBS, continued to plunge, “they would have gotten absolutely annihilated,” he said.
Subject to Change
The ultimate value of the PAF fund, overseen by Credit Suisse Managing Director Jonathan McHardy, won’t be determined until 2016, one person said. For now, employees’ investments are locked up, and their final payouts may change.
As of Nov. 30, assets in the PAF had been reduced to $2.6 billion, as some of the bonds and loans were paid off or sold, the people said. The equity is now estimated by the fund’s administrators at $1.4 billion.
In December, as the ratio of debt to equity in the fund shrank to less than 1-to-1 from more than 5-to-1, Credit Suisse set up the second fund, known as Expanded PAF. The move allows Credit Suisse to rid itself of residential mortgage bonds, while giving the employees a chance to use borrowed money to increase returns on their total investment, the people said.
As with the original fund, assets were transferred to the new fund at their estimated market value, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The mortgage market may be ripe for improvement, Sanders said.
“If you take a look at the data, housing prices are starting to stabilize,” Sanders said. “You’re starting to see a slowdown in serious delinquencies. So it’s like the CMBS play, it’s probably a good time.”
–With reporting by Christine Harper, Jody Shenn and Daniel Kruger in New York and Elena Logutenkova in Zurich. Editors: Peter Eichenbaum, David Scheer
To contact the reporter on this story: Bradley Keoun in New York at bkeoun@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net.
http://tourism9.com/ http://vkins.com/
By Bradley Keoun
Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) — The toxic-asset bonuses given to senior Credit Suisse Group AG bankers at the depths of the 2008 financial crisis are turning out to be almost as good as gold.
Credit Suisse employees who got $5.05 billion of junk-grade loans and commercial-mortgage-backed bonds in late 2008 as part of annual bonuses have reaped gains of 75 percent on the payouts since the end of that year through Nov. 30, people with knowledge of the results said. Gold futures returned 98 percent in the period, while Credit Suisse’s shares declined 23 percent.
The gains, which also beat the 4.8 percent return of two- year Treasuries, show how the rebound in debt markets from the lows of 2008 has sweetened the Zurich-based bank’s executive bonuses compared with the cash and stock bonuses rivals paid.
“It worked out in favor of the employees,” said Ann Rutledge, a former Moody’s Investors Service analyst who’s now a principal at R&R Consulting in New York, which rates mortgage bonds and other asset-backed securities. Looking back, “market valuations would have been at all-time lows” when the internal asset pool was set up.
The stock-beating performance may help explain why Credit Suisse employees were eager to invest in a $450 million pool of residential mortgage bonds the bank created last month. Credit Suisse loaned employees the money to buy shares in the fund, and demand was so great that the bank could only fill 90 percent of the orders, the people said.
Chief Executive Officer Brady Dougan, now 52, said in December 2008 that the decision to transfer the assets to staff would position the firm “well for 2009” and strike the “appropriate balance” between employees, who might otherwise have suffered steeper pay cuts, and shareholders, who would have borne the risks of further declines.
Stock Slide
The company, which posted a loss of 8.2 billion francs ($8.8 billion) for 2008, recovered the following year with a 6.72 billion-franc profit. Suzanne Fleming, a company spokeswoman, said the fund’s results are private.
The Partner Asset Facility, or PAF, as the internal employee fund is known, has maintained gains even as the European sovereign-debt crisis weighed on Credit Suisse’s stock price. The bank’s shares, which surged 80 percent in 2009, tumbled 26 percent in 2010 and 41 percent last year.
Shares in PAF were given to about 2,000 senior Credit Suisse employees as part of their 2008 year-end bonuses, people with knowledge of the plan have said. The employees were given $800 million of equity in the fund, with Credit Suisse providing $4.25 billion of loans to bolster the fund’s buying power, the people said.
Drop Before Gain
While the plan relieved shareholders of risks, the timing proved to be a windfall for the employees. The S&P/LSTA U.S. Leveraged Loan 100 Index, which tracks prices for loans to companies with junk-grade credit ratings, fell that month to a record low of 59 cents on the dollar.
Initially, the value of the PAF shares fell, people with knowledge of the results said. As of February 2009, the equity in the PAF held 90 percent of its initial value, they said.
Then markets recovered. By May 2011, the value had doubled over the original, before sliding to the 75 percent gain estimated as of November, the people said.
The leveraged-loan index traded at 92 cents as of Jan. 13.
It could have turned out worse for the employees, said Anthony Sanders, a former Deutsche Bank AG analyst who’s now a finance professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Had the prices for leveraged loans or commercial mortgage-backed securities, known as CMBS, continued to plunge, “they would have gotten absolutely annihilated,” he said.
Subject to Change
The ultimate value of the PAF fund, overseen by Credit Suisse Managing Director Jonathan McHardy, won’t be determined until 2016, one person said. For now, employees’ investments are locked up, and their final payouts may change.
As of Nov. 30, assets in the PAF had been reduced to $2.6 billion, as some of the bonds and loans were paid off or sold, the people said. The equity is now estimated by the fund’s administrators at $1.4 billion.
In December, as the ratio of debt to equity in the fund shrank to less than 1-to-1 from more than 5-to-1, Credit Suisse set up the second fund, known as Expanded PAF. The move allows Credit Suisse to rid itself of residential mortgage bonds, while giving the employees a chance to use borrowed money to increase returns on their total investment, the people said.
As with the original fund, assets were transferred to the new fund at their estimated market value, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The mortgage market may be ripe for improvement, Sanders said.
“If you take a look at the data, housing prices are starting to stabilize,” Sanders said. “You’re starting to see a slowdown in serious delinquencies. So it’s like the CMBS play, it’s probably a good time.”
–With reporting by Christine Harper, Jody Shenn and Daniel Kruger in New York and Elena Logutenkova in Zurich. Editors: Peter Eichenbaum, David Scheer
To contact the reporter on this story: Bradley Keoun in New York at bkeoun@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net.
http://tourism9.com/ http://vkins.com/
2012年1月19日星期四
Goldman Sachs Is Said to Seek Up to $3.5 Billion for Dedicated Energy Fund
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. headquarters stands in New York. Photographer: Jin Lee/Bloomberg
The fund, Broad Street Energy Partners, will invest globally in areas such as oil, gas and power, said the investors, who asked not to be named because the information is private.
Goldman Sachs joins a growing lineup of firms raising pools of capital to take advantage of increased demand for energy and commodities. Barclays Natural Resource Investments, a unit of Barclays Capital, is raising its first dedicated private-equity energy fund to make investments globally. Blackstone Group LP (BX), the largest private-equity firm, and Apollo Global Management (APO) are also marketing debut energy funds.
Andrea Raphael, a spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs, declined to comment.
The new fund will be managed by the principal investment team of the bank. Kenneth Pontarelli, head of natural resources and a managing director in the merchant-banking division at Goldman Sachs, is heading the effort, according to the investors.
The Goldman Sachs merchant-banking division has made energy private-equity investments in the past out of its global private-equity funds, and Pontarelli managed those energy deals.
Past energy deals by GS Capital Partners (PEF3383) included the $45 billion buyout of electric utility company TXU (TXU), now called Energy Future Holdings Corp., Cobalt International Energy Inc. (CIE) and Kinder Morgan Inc.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sabrina Willmer in New York at swillmer2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net
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Goldman Sachs Said to Seek Up to $3.5 Billion for Energy Fund
January 18, 2012, 1:51 PM EST
By Sabrina Willmer
Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is seeking $2 billion to $3.5 billion for its first dedicated energy private-equity fund, according to two prospective investors.
The fund, Broad Street Energy Partners, will invest globally in areas such as oil, gas and power, said the investors, who asked not to be named because the information is private.
Goldman Sachs joins a growing lineup of firms raising pools of capital to take advantage of increased demand for energy and commodities. Barclays Natural Resource Investments, a unit of Barclays Capital, is raising its first dedicated private-equity energy fund to make investments globally. Blackstone Group LP, the largest private-equity firm, and Apollo Global Management are also marketing debut energy funds.
Andrea Raphael, a spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs, declined to comment.
The new fund will be managed by the principal investment team of the bank. Kenneth Pontarelli, head of natural resources and a managing director in the merchant-banking division at Goldman Sachs, is heading the effort, according to the investors.
The Goldman Sachs merchant-banking division has made energy private-equity investments in the past out of its global private-equity funds, and Pontarelli managed those energy deals.
Past energy deals by GS Capital Partners included the $45 billion buyout of electric utility company TXU, now called Energy Future Holdings Corp., Cobalt International Energy Inc. and Kinder Morgan Inc.
–Editors: Christian Baumgaertel, Steven Crabill
-0- Jan/18/2012 13:55 GMT
-0- Jan/18/2012 14:00 GMT
To contact the reporter on this story: Sabrina Willmer in New York at swillmer2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net
http://tourism9.com/ http://vkins.com/
By Sabrina Willmer
Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is seeking $2 billion to $3.5 billion for its first dedicated energy private-equity fund, according to two prospective investors.
The fund, Broad Street Energy Partners, will invest globally in areas such as oil, gas and power, said the investors, who asked not to be named because the information is private.
Goldman Sachs joins a growing lineup of firms raising pools of capital to take advantage of increased demand for energy and commodities. Barclays Natural Resource Investments, a unit of Barclays Capital, is raising its first dedicated private-equity energy fund to make investments globally. Blackstone Group LP, the largest private-equity firm, and Apollo Global Management are also marketing debut energy funds.
Andrea Raphael, a spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs, declined to comment.
The new fund will be managed by the principal investment team of the bank. Kenneth Pontarelli, head of natural resources and a managing director in the merchant-banking division at Goldman Sachs, is heading the effort, according to the investors.
The Goldman Sachs merchant-banking division has made energy private-equity investments in the past out of its global private-equity funds, and Pontarelli managed those energy deals.
Past energy deals by GS Capital Partners included the $45 billion buyout of electric utility company TXU, now called Energy Future Holdings Corp., Cobalt International Energy Inc. and Kinder Morgan Inc.
–Editors: Christian Baumgaertel, Steven Crabill
-0- Jan/18/2012 13:55 GMT
-0- Jan/18/2012 14:00 GMT
To contact the reporter on this story: Sabrina Willmer in New York at swillmer2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net
http://tourism9.com/ http://vkins.com/
2012年1月6日星期五
How to Restore Communities Blighted by Subprime Loans
Hill’s latest book Reimagining Equality: Stories of Gender, Race, and Finding Home was published in October 2011.
(MORE: 25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis)
To begin with, the $10,000 compensation some of the 200,000 Countrywide customers covered in the settlement are entitled to is likely not enough to put them back in their homes, let alone rebuild their neighborhoods. No one is more aware of this than Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Madigan’s investigation into Countrywide and Wells Fargo Bank began in March of 2008. From 2004 until 2007, at the height of subprime and high-cost lending, Countrywide was the state’s most prolific mortgage banker. During that same period, Wells Fargo aggressively embraced the increasingly lucrative subprime mortgage market as well. Madigan had been tipped off to huge disparities in the numbers of risky loans given to African Americans and Latinos by an investigation conducted by the Chicago Reporter. The Reporter found that African Americans, even those with six-figure salaries, were as much as three times more likely to get subprime or high-cost loans from the two lenders than whites or Asians and that the preponderance of those loans were given out in black and Latino neighborhoods. These practices, combined with the targeting of specific neighborhoods, wound up bankrupting poor working- and middle-class communities of color.
Madigan’s pleadings in a 2009 lawsuit filed against Wells Fargo outline how this discrimination siphoned off equity in neighborhoods until they became drags on municipalities and, over time, the state. Ongoing lawsuits against Wells Fargo in Baltimore and Memphis paint a similar picture and make clear the short-term and long-term negative impact of era’s lending tactics on the safety and security and the tax-based funding of schools in blighted neighborhoods. There is no reason to believe that Wells Fargo and Countrywide were the only banks engaged in such behavior.
Madigan flanked Holder at the news conference when he announced the settlement with Countrywide, which ends the state of Illinois claim against that bank. Yet, as she contemplated “the enormous amount of work that needs to be done to rebuild communities and our economy,” Madigan’s endorsement of the DOJ’s settlement agreement was understandably measured. Illinois’ suit against Wells Fargo continues. In it the state alleges that Wells Fargo broke a number of its consumer-protection and human-rights laws and asks for what could amount to much as $110,000 for every violation of credit and civil rights protections. Unlike the DOJ settlement, that compensates individuals, Baltimore and Memphis ask that a jury determine the amount of compensatory and punitive damages owed the cities for Wells Fargo’s actions.
(MORE: Hill: The Stories I Carry with Me)
Yet, even if Madigan and the cities of Baltimore and Memphis prevail, more needs to be done. Relief is in order for countless other cities which the DOJ acknowledges continue to suffer losses attributable to the reckless practices of lenders leading up to the foreclosure crisis. Ultimately, after the financial market collapsed, the government bailed out the banking industry, including Bank of America, which now owns Countrywide. The industry rebounded because the government concluded that a secure banking system was in the public’s interest. Yet, the playing field won’t be level as long as American communities pay for the corrupt decisions made by lenders. A federal effort targeted at restoring blighted neighborhoods is needed to clean up the mess left behind by such egregious predatory practices as those alleged in the Department’s reports and pleadings. The establishment of a pool of money, drawn from fines for violation of the laws and modeled after the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund, to be distributed by the DOJ in collaboration with state and local governments, is also in the public’s interest. The process for prioritizing communities set for restoration and structuring relief could be coordinated with other agencies under the DOJ’s direction.
Speaking before Congress in April 2011, Attorney General Holder acknowledged that “communities of all kinds, in every state, from coast to coast” have been touched by the foreclosure crisis. But Holder noted that “communities of color [had] been hit particularly hard, and [had] suffered greater consequences” as the basis for his establishment of the agency’s enforcement of fair housing laws. Funding to restore the neighborhoods Holder’s team of attorneys, economists and mathematical statisticians have identified would enhance the DOJ’s effectiveness as well as assist state and local governments currently dealing with costs associated with these sites. As importantly, it would show our federal government’s commitment to the protections enshrined in our Constitution and laws.
Hill, author of Reimagining Equality, is a professor of social policy, law and women’s studies at Brandeis University. The views expressed are solely her own.
2012年1月2日星期一
General Atlantic, Sequoia Invest $108 Million in Analytics Firm Mu Sigma
Mu Sigma, a company that helps businesses make decisions by analyzing data, attracted a $108 million investment, the largest round of private-equity financing in the analytic-services industry.
The funding was led by General Atlantic LLC and followed a $25 million round in April, Northbrook, Illinois-based Mu Sigma said today in a statement. Sequoia Capital led the earlier investment and participated in the new round, raising its stake in Mu Sigma, according to the statement.
Mu Sigma will use the capital to add 600 to 700 employees to its 1,500 within the next year, said Dhiraj Rajaram, chairman and chief executive officer of Mu Sigma.
“The whole area of big data and data analytics and support, we think, is very large and will continue to grow,” Pat Hedley, a managing director at General Atlantic, based in Greenwich, Connecticut, said in an interview. “Mu Sigma has a great client base and a strong management team.”
The deal is the largest investment on record by a private- equity or venture-capital firm in the data-processing and enterprise-software services industries, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The second-largest is Penta Capital LLC’s $94 million investment earlier this year in Six Degrees Technology Group Ltd., a company that specializes in cloud computing.
William Ford, General Atlantic’s CEO, will join the Mu Sigma board.
Mu Sigma’s revenue will increase 35 percent to 40 percent in 2012 and profit will “dip slightly” as the company increases investments in a training program, marketing and services for clients such as Microsoft Corp. and Dell Inc. (DELL), Rajaram said. The money raised will also be used for hiring and to buy out early investors, he said.
Mu Sigma helps clients analyze larger sets of data than software tools ordinarily are capable of handling. The amount of data in the world is doubling every two years, according to EMC Corp.
“It’s a big problem that we’re trying to solve,” Rajaram said in an interview.
To contact the reporter on this story: Danielle Kucera in San Francisco at dkucera6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
http://tourism9.com/
The funding was led by General Atlantic LLC and followed a $25 million round in April, Northbrook, Illinois-based Mu Sigma said today in a statement. Sequoia Capital led the earlier investment and participated in the new round, raising its stake in Mu Sigma, according to the statement.
Mu Sigma will use the capital to add 600 to 700 employees to its 1,500 within the next year, said Dhiraj Rajaram, chairman and chief executive officer of Mu Sigma.
“The whole area of big data and data analytics and support, we think, is very large and will continue to grow,” Pat Hedley, a managing director at General Atlantic, based in Greenwich, Connecticut, said in an interview. “Mu Sigma has a great client base and a strong management team.”
The deal is the largest investment on record by a private- equity or venture-capital firm in the data-processing and enterprise-software services industries, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The second-largest is Penta Capital LLC’s $94 million investment earlier this year in Six Degrees Technology Group Ltd., a company that specializes in cloud computing.
William Ford, General Atlantic’s CEO, will join the Mu Sigma board.
Mu Sigma’s revenue will increase 35 percent to 40 percent in 2012 and profit will “dip slightly” as the company increases investments in a training program, marketing and services for clients such as Microsoft Corp. and Dell Inc. (DELL), Rajaram said. The money raised will also be used for hiring and to buy out early investors, he said.
Mu Sigma helps clients analyze larger sets of data than software tools ordinarily are capable of handling. The amount of data in the world is doubling every two years, according to EMC Corp.
“It’s a big problem that we’re trying to solve,” Rajaram said in an interview.
To contact the reporter on this story: Danielle Kucera in San Francisco at dkucera6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
http://tourism9.com/
Swan Forecasts Record Investment as Australia’s Economy ‘Growing Solidly’
Australia’s economy is “growing solidly” and capital expenditure by businesses is forecast to rise 32 percent to a record A$158 billion ($161 billion) this financial year, Treasurer Wayne Swan said yesterday.
“That spending, although a drag on productivity now, will increase our economy’s capacity down the track,” Swan said in his weekly economic note. His office also released for public comment an interim report on the tax treatment of losses, in a move he said could “encourage investment in businesses that are struggling or that are just starting up.”
Australia, the only economy in the Group of 10 to avoid a recession during the global credit crisis, expanded 1 percent in the third quarter, faster than earlier estimated. Still, the country’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate on Dec. 6 for a second straight month, citing Europe’s “much more difficult” financing conditions.
The cut marked the RBA’s first consecutive easing since the depths of the world financial crisis in 2009 and reflected a worsening global outlook that’s weighing on Australia’s exports.
“There’s no doubt the global instability is hitting our economy and our budget,” Swan said. “European leaders made progress during the week on addressing the sovereign debt crisis, but clearly the world now wants to see the talk turned into action. The global community and international financial markets need to see the full details and swift implementation of Europe’s plans.”
Swan said the government intends to boost productivity in Australia, which has declined following “a decade of neglect of investment in critical infrastructure and skills.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Soraya Permatasari in Melbourne at soraya@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim McDonald at jmcdonald8@bloomberg.net
http://tourism9.com/
“That spending, although a drag on productivity now, will increase our economy’s capacity down the track,” Swan said in his weekly economic note. His office also released for public comment an interim report on the tax treatment of losses, in a move he said could “encourage investment in businesses that are struggling or that are just starting up.”
Australia, the only economy in the Group of 10 to avoid a recession during the global credit crisis, expanded 1 percent in the third quarter, faster than earlier estimated. Still, the country’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate on Dec. 6 for a second straight month, citing Europe’s “much more difficult” financing conditions.
The cut marked the RBA’s first consecutive easing since the depths of the world financial crisis in 2009 and reflected a worsening global outlook that’s weighing on Australia’s exports.
“There’s no doubt the global instability is hitting our economy and our budget,” Swan said. “European leaders made progress during the week on addressing the sovereign debt crisis, but clearly the world now wants to see the talk turned into action. The global community and international financial markets need to see the full details and swift implementation of Europe’s plans.”
Swan said the government intends to boost productivity in Australia, which has declined following “a decade of neglect of investment in critical infrastructure and skills.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Soraya Permatasari in Melbourne at soraya@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim McDonald at jmcdonald8@bloomberg.net
http://tourism9.com/
Financing a hurdle for airport hotel
By John Nolan, Staff Writer 7:27 PM Sunday, December 4, 2011
DAYTON — Dayton International Airport officials face a stiff challenge in their latest attempt to find a developer that can obtain financing to build a hotel at the airport, commercial real estate executives said.
“The economy has slightly improved for hotel financing, but I still think it’s going to be very difficult,” said Terry Baltes, president of Baltes Commercial Realty in Washington Twp.
The Dayton airport’s first try lagged for more than a year and fizzled in October when three banks that were evaluating the project decided not to loan the money to a Cincinnati-area developer. The airport has asked for a new round of proposals that developers must submit by 4 p.m. Dec. 30.
Terrence G. Slaybaugh, Dayton’s director of aviation, wants a developer to build on the two-acre site that was cleared when the city demolished the 40-year-old Dayton Airport Hotel this year. It would be convenient to PSA Airlines Inc.’s corporate headquarters and its crew training facility at the airport, he said.
Slaybaugh said he has received calls expressing interest from several developers, whom he declined to identify.
“I am optimistic that we’ll be able to put something together,” he said.
Half a dozen representatives of developers or construction subcontractors showed up this week for a non-mandatory meeting to discuss the project with airport officials.
Construction loans are hard to come by, and hotel construction financing is even tougher because businesses and leisure travelers tend to cut back on travel in lean times, commercial real estate brokers said. It is critical that the city-owned airport attract a developer who can inspire confidence in potential lenders, brokers said.
“I think that has more to do with the quality of the developer, than the timing in the financial market,” said Mark Fornes, a partner in Mark Fornes Realty Inc. “The key to getting that deal done is finding a good, reputable hotel developer with the track record necessary to do the development.”
“The stars must align for the right developer, right brand, right sponsor, feasibility and financing availability,” said Eric Belfrage, vice president of CBRE Group Inc.’s hotels and investment properties unit in Columbus.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.
DAYTON — Dayton International Airport officials face a stiff challenge in their latest attempt to find a developer that can obtain financing to build a hotel at the airport, commercial real estate executives said.
“The economy has slightly improved for hotel financing, but I still think it’s going to be very difficult,” said Terry Baltes, president of Baltes Commercial Realty in Washington Twp.
The Dayton airport’s first try lagged for more than a year and fizzled in October when three banks that were evaluating the project decided not to loan the money to a Cincinnati-area developer. The airport has asked for a new round of proposals that developers must submit by 4 p.m. Dec. 30.
Terrence G. Slaybaugh, Dayton’s director of aviation, wants a developer to build on the two-acre site that was cleared when the city demolished the 40-year-old Dayton Airport Hotel this year. It would be convenient to PSA Airlines Inc.’s corporate headquarters and its crew training facility at the airport, he said.
Slaybaugh said he has received calls expressing interest from several developers, whom he declined to identify.
“I am optimistic that we’ll be able to put something together,” he said.
Half a dozen representatives of developers or construction subcontractors showed up this week for a non-mandatory meeting to discuss the project with airport officials.
Construction loans are hard to come by, and hotel construction financing is even tougher because businesses and leisure travelers tend to cut back on travel in lean times, commercial real estate brokers said. It is critical that the city-owned airport attract a developer who can inspire confidence in potential lenders, brokers said.
“I think that has more to do with the quality of the developer, than the timing in the financial market,” said Mark Fornes, a partner in Mark Fornes Realty Inc. “The key to getting that deal done is finding a good, reputable hotel developer with the track record necessary to do the development.”
“The stars must align for the right developer, right brand, right sponsor, feasibility and financing availability,” said Eric Belfrage, vice president of CBRE Group Inc.’s hotels and investment properties unit in Columbus.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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