Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're
saying, what they're saying, what you should be thinking
Top stories
The Times: The Shadow Chancellor provoked a confrontation
with the unions by suggesting that a Tory administration could introduce new
measures to curb their power.
BBC: Opec, the oil producing cartel, gave warning that the price
of crude could keep rising to reach $200 a barrel.
Financial Times: Retail developments are being
shelved across Britain as the effects of a funding crisis for commercial
property are exacerbated by fears of flagging consumer demand.
Comment
Gerard Baker in The Times: The big worry now is the shock from energy
and food prices. Financial markets may be healing, but the outlook is
clouded by soaring oil and food costs.
Lex in Financial Times: France Telecom and Orange provide an example of
partial listings later bought back. This should be considered as European
utilities become so fond of the move.
Jeremy Warner in The Independent: Banks
are fickle. In good times, they pay out as much capital to investors as
possible. In the bad, they ask for it all back again.
Upside
BBC: Visa reported a 28 per cent rise
in profits for the first three months of 2008 as credit card
transactions increased.
Financial Times: Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund is in the "final
stages" of launching the kingdom's first sovereign
wealth fund with initial capital of SR20 billion (£2.7 billion; $5.3
billion).
The Daily Telegraph: ING Real Estate is to raise a €1 billion (£786
million; $1.6 billion) infrastructure fund to invest
in pan-European assets.
Downside
The Times: Northern Rock breached
capital rules six months before its collapse, yet failed to tell
shareholders and continued to be given favourable treatment by financial
regulators.
The Wall Street Journal: The Fed's intervention to stave off bankruptcy
at Bear Stearns is "the worst
policy mistake in a generation", a former head of monetary affairs
at the Fed said.
Bloomberg: HSBC may be forced to delay
the biggest foreign acquisition in South Korea, a $6.2 billion
controlling stake in Korea Exchange Bank, as a deadline expires.
Mergers and shakers
Reuters: Mars's bumper $23 billion agreed
takeover of Wrigley is set to reignite Cadbury Schweppes's effort to
sweet talk Hershey into a merger, analysts said.
The Times: Kirk Kerkorian, the investor, said that he had bought 100
million shares in Ford, or 4.7 per cent, and was seeking to increase
his stake to 5.6 per cent.
The Wall Street Journal: Fred Buenrostro is resigning
as chief executive of Calpers, the biggest US pension fund. He is the second
top official to announce his departure in a week.
Around Asia
Bloomberg: Hainan Airlines, the Chinese carrier backed by George Soros,
said that first-quarter profits had surged
more than fivefold on a stronger yuan and higher ticket sales.
The Nikkei: Matsushita, maker of Panasonic electronics, reported on
Monday that group net profit had surged 30 per cent to a 22-year high as
robust European and Asian sales offset a weaker US.
South China Morning Post: Bank of China, the country's third-biggest
lender, set aside $198 million for sub-prime investments in the US in the
first quarter but still reported 85 per cent growth in profits.
Look ahead
The Independent: British Airways will issue
its second profit warning of the year next month owing to the record oil
price, analysts said.
BBC: The deadline that Microsoft gave Yahoo! to respond to its takeover
offer has expired, opening the way
for a hostile takeover battle.
The Daily Telegraph: Eurotunnel is on Tuesday expected to unveil a
fully-underwritten €915 million (£720 million; $1.4 billion) rights
issue - the final element of its restructuring.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 6,090.40 down 1 point (Monday close)
Dow 12,871.75 down 0.2% (close)
S&P 500 1,396.37 down 0.1% (close)
Nasdaq 2,424.40 up 0.1% (close)
Nikkei - closed for a holiday
Hang Seng 25,747.81 up 0.3% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.9896/1.2722 euros (latest)
Euro $1.564 (latest)
Commodities
West Texas crude $118.57 down 18 cents (latest)
Gold $892.00 down $3.50 (latest)
New York
Reuters: Stocks ended little
changed on Monday after Mars's agreed takeover of Wrigley's helped to
offset a downbeat assessment of the economic outlook from Warren Buffett.
The deal underscored the notion that stocks are relatively cheap and helped
financial stocks to overcome a report from Morgan Stanley that predicted
more profit headwinds for several big US banks, including Bank of America.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks fell
the most in more than a week, led by airlines and shipbuilders, on concerns
that rising prices for fuel and steel will cut earnings. Korean Air Lines
dropped the most in two weeks and Qantas, the Australian carrier,
fell to a 20-month low. Hyundai Heavy Industries, the biggest
shipbuilder, led declines in Seoul after Credit Suisse reduced its profit
estimates. The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index was down 0.3 per cent
in intraday trading.
Paul Larter
paul.larter@thetimes.co.uk
London
Shire dropped another 37p to 911p following a 42p fall on Friday after
the company said that sales of Vyvanse this year would be at the low end of
its earlier predictions, even though it has just won approval to begin
marketing the drug to adults in the US.
Jeff Holford of Credit Suisse cut his target price from 930p to 823p, warning
that there would be a big earnings gap next year when patents on the “super
profitable” Adderall pill begin to expire but patients were proving slow to
convert to the replacement drug Vyvanse.
The FTSE 100 ended down 1 at 6090.4 as an early 43 point gain was eroded by a
flat Wall Street.
The big three listed supermarkets all fell on the news of raids by the Office
of Fair Trading in an investigation into their relationship with suppliers.
J Sainsbury lost 8.75p to 384p and Wm Morrison fell 8.25p to
289.75p and Tesco lost 6.5p to 420p. Many other retailers, however,
enjoyed a bounce back with Marks & Spencer up 14.75p at 375.25p
and Home Retail Group, owner of Argos and Homebase, up 11p at 251.25p
ahead of results tomorrow.
A record high oil price helped oil stocks with Cairn Energy one of the
top performers, up 93p at 2999p. Xstrata was up 89p at £40.49, also
helped by Credit Suisse saying that strikes in key copper mines in Chile
could send the price of copper shooting up to records. It upgraded its price
target to £50 from £40.
Whitbread, the owner of Beefeater pubs, Premier Inn and Costa Coffee,
rose 37p to £12.27 on better than expected results.
The London Stock Exchange lost 38p to £11.06, as worries about lower trading
volumes and competition from rival exchanges continued to mount.
Barratt Developments added 7.5p to 284.5p despite both Dresdner
Kleinwort and Goldman Sachs saying there would likely be a big write-off
with its May 14 trading statement. “Get out before then,” Dresdner advised,
slashing its target price to 199p.
Wellstream, the flexible drill pipe maker, lost 38p to £13.14 as
directors said they were selling shares amounting to 5.26 per cent of the
company.
Robert Lindsay
robert.lindsay@thetimes.co.uk
AGENDA
INTERIMS
Arm Holdings (Q1)
BP (Q1)
Character Group
ICON (Q1)
Lancashire Holdings (Q1)
Royal Dutch Shell (Q1)
Superglass Holdings
FINALS
N Brown Group
Corsie Group
Flomerics Group
Game Group
Johnson Service Group
Plantic Technologies
Plethora Solutions
PuriCore
ServicePower Technologies
Surgical Innovations Group
AGMs
Admiral Group
BPP Holdings
Customer Systems
Forth Ports
Gresham Computing
HBOS
Highway Insurance
IP Group
Johnson Service Group
Pangea DiamondFields
Premier Utilities Trust
EGMs
None scheduled
TRADING STATEMENTS
Anglo American
Carpetright
Forth Ports
Friends Provident
HBOS
McBride
JD Wetherspoon
Talvivaara Mining
NEW BUSINESS FIGURES
Friends Provident (Q1)
St James’s Place Capital (Q1)
PRODUCTION FIGURES
Anglo American (Q1)
ECONOMICS
UK BSA March lending figures (0930 GMT)
UK March lending to individuals (0930 GMT)
UK March final M4/M4 lending (0930 GMT)
BoE’s King to testify before Treasury Select Committee on his
reappointment(0945 BST)
Darling to speak on ’New Financial Frontiers’ (1045 BST)
UK CBI distributive trades survey (1100 BST)
Sign up for The Times
To receive Kill the Competition click here
To sign up for Top stories you missed while you were away click here
Keep up with the day's top stories click here
Need to Know, the essential daily business guide sector by sector click here
