LONDON (AFP) – The Bank of England admitted Tuesday it lent a total of 61.6 billion pounds to Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS in secret during last year’s financial crisis, adding that the cash had been repaid. The British central bank revealed the loans, equivalent to 68 billion euros or 102 billion dollars, in a statement to coincide with governor Mervyn King’s appearance before a Treasury Select Committee hearing. The BoE said that in autumn 2008 it had offered emergency lending to Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and HBOS bank, which is now part of Lloyds Banking Group (LBG). The bank said the loans could now be revealed because it judged that there was no longer a risk of a “potentially systemic disturbance” to the financial system. “Now that RBS has signed up for the asset protection scheme and Lloyds has embarked on its alternative strategy for capital raising, the bank judges that there is no longer a need for the assistance to remain secret,” the BoE said. RBS borrowed a maximum of 36.6 billion pounds on October 17, 2008, and HBOS borrowed a maximum of 25.4 billion pounds on November 13, 2008. The groups repaid the cash in December and January respectively. Junior finance minister Paul Myners defended the move, and declined to say if other secret loans had been made to banks. “This is precisely what a central bank does in terms of providing lender of last resort facilities to support the banking system,” he told Channel 4. “The future of the banks matters to parliament and parliament recognises that the Bank of England occasionally needs to act covertly and has given the Bank of England the legal power to do that.” Struggling HBOS was bought by rival Lloyds TSB in a government-brokered deal that created Lloyds Banking Group earlier this year. However, LBG fell under state control as a result of the global financial crisis and is now 43-percent owned by the taxpayer. Royal Bank of Scotland was also ravaged by the credit crunch and the takeover of Dutch giant ABN Amro at the top of the market in 2007. The state now owns 84 percent of RBS after an enormous bailout. Another British bank, Northern Rock, was nationalised in February 2008 after it ran into severe funding problems because of the global credit crunch. Read more: Bank of England reveals huge secret loans to RBS, HBOS

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) – A union representing train engineers at Canadian National Railway Co is unhappy with the railway’s decision to impose labor contract terms on its members and may consider the move tantamount to a lockout, the union’s president said on Tuesday. The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, which represents 1,700 engineers at Canada’s biggest railroad, is getting advice from its lawyers and will likely issue a statement later in the day, President Daniel Shewchuk said. “We are not very happy at all… it is a bit threatening,” Shewchuk told Reuters. “What we may be considering is that in essence you (CN) have locked us out as we don’t have to accept the changes you have imposed on us,” he said. CN said late on Monday it will raise locomotive engineers’ wages by 1.5 percent beginning November 28, but also hike their monthly mileage cap, the upper limit on the number of miles they must travel on the job, to 4,300 miles from 3,800. It said it had decided to impose these terms to “move the company forward” after holding on-again, off-again contract talks with the Teamsters for more than a year. The engineers’ last contract with CN expired at the end of 2008. “CN’s notice yesterday to the (Teamsters) is by no means a lockout and we expect our engineers to report to their assignments and carry out their duties as required,” CN spokesman Mark Hallman said in an emailed statement. CN said it would still prefer to resolve the dispute without a labor disruption. The two sides have the right under Canadian labor law to issue a 72-hour notice for a strike or lockout. The union has a strike mandate from its members. The higher cap could increase the number of days the engineers would have to be available for work each month, but CN says they would be paid more with the adjusted wage rate. The carrier said it made three offers, including one with a status quo mileage cap and another that would put the unsettled issues to binding arbitration. The union rejected those proposals. Shares in CN were 56 Canadian cents lower at C$56.91 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Tuesday afternoon. Lumber futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange were up sharply in thin holiday-week trade on Tuesday on concerns CN workers may strike. The contract dispute does not involve CN’s unionized locomotive engineers in the United States. (Reporting by Nicole Mordant; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson) Follow this link: Union mulling options after CN Rail imposes terms

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By Stephen Bernard, The Associated Press NEW YORK – Treasury prices rose Tuesday after solid results from an auction of five-year notes shored up the market’s confidence that demand for U.S. government debt would remain strong. The bid-to-cover ratio, a measure of demand, was 2.81 – the highest level seen at any auction for five-year notes since 2007. The ratio was 2.63 last month for an auction of notes with a similar maturity. “Everything about this auction was positive,” said Richard Bryant, senior vice-president of U.S. Treasury trading at MF Global. The price of five-year notes rose 6/32 to 101 5/32, pushing its yield down to 2.13 per cent from 2.18 per cent late Monday. Bryant said the results from auctions of shorter-term government debt remains strong because of the amount of cash looking to be invested in safe investments. Government debt with maturities of a few months or years have been in high demand recently because there is little concern about near-term inflation. Investors who have locked in gains from the stock market’s eight-month rally are now also looking for places to invest cash through the end of the year, which has further boosted demand, Bryant added. Tuesday’s results followed strong results at auctions Monday for two-year notes and three-month and six-month bills. The government is set to auction off $32 billion in seven-year notes on Wednesday as it wraps up sales for the week ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. Bryant said all indications point to another strong showing on Wednesday. In other trading, the price on the 10-year note, which is often used as a benchmark for consumer loans, rose 6/32 to 100 12/32. Its yield fell to 3.33 per cent from 3.36 per cent. The price of the 30-year bond rose 7/32 to 101 28/32, sending its yield down to 4.26 per cent from 4.28 per cent. The yield for three-month T-bills rose to 0.05 per cent from 0.03 per cent. Its yield had turned negative last week as investors looked for a safe place to invest short-term cash as the end of the year approaches. The cost of borrowing between banks declined. The British Bankers’ Association said the rate on three-month loans in dollars – the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor – fell to 0.2606 per cent from 0.2622 per cent. Read more: Treasury prices improve after strong demand seen for $42 billion in 5-year notes

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Tough words from Chinese bank regulators sent the Shanghai Index toppling 3.5% last night and also sent the dollar soaring as investors poured out of the risk trade.  The dollar carry remains a focal point of the rally.  Today’s FX View from IB : A slew of overnight woes concerning the health of banks around the world was limited in its support for the U.S. dollar. One year ago that evidence would have been enough to raise the heartbeat of the bears and send the pre-market futures down by 2%. Today, equity index futures continue to point to another positive North American session and the net impact is to provide a prop for the euro rather than the U.S. dollar. The euro also rose after the strongest reading for 15 months in a poll of investor sentiment. The euro is back to unchanged on Monday’s close at $1.4975. Asian markets felt the full impact of a fresh health-scare for Chinese banks. Shanghai stocks slumped 3.5% overnight after the mainland banking regulator warned banks to meet industry capital requirements or else be prepared to face its sanctions. According to media reports, a source with knowledge of the plans says that at least four Chinese lenders have submitted capital raising plans to regulators. An S&P report used in-house metrics to look at risk-adjusted capital ratios of European banks and served up a warning to several houses including UBS, Allied Irish and BBVA. In the meantime, Lloyds Banking Group announced terms of its attempted largest-ever domestic rights issue with a near-60% discount to where its shares are trading. Finally, WestLB – the state-owned regional German lender is reportedly going to be allowed to fail by its majority owners according to a major Frankfurt-journal. The bank said later that it is in discussions with SoFFin, the German financial market stabilization fund to isolate its toxic assets. Yet while all of the above continues to unwind negative news about the health of the financial sector we have to point out that as much as it is newsworthy today, it’s hardly new news. So some major banks are enacting plans to raise capital. Isn’t this a good thing? It is in our minds. Failure to accomplish the feat could be taken as a negative in the event that these entities fail to attract fresh cash and at the same time prevailing investors walk away. Hence our headline today that risk aversion is taking a back seat. The euro rebounded from an overnight low at $1.4888 after a report showed that German business confidence rose in November to a 15-month high. The IFO institute’s reading of sentiment from 7,000 business executives came in strong with a reading of 93.9 and above the expected 92.5. Third quarter manufacturing demand has boosted prospects for growth especially at a time when inventories were allowed to slip. The most significant component of today’s report comes from the 98.9 reading for expectations about the future for the economy. This confirms what we note above that current perceptions reflect buoyancy after the measures aimed at dealing with the stability of the financial sector. While today’s warnings might be necessary to keep a tight rein on the financial sector, it is ultimately beneficial for the ongoing recovery process. The dollar continues to lose ground against the Japanese yen at ¥88.68 with the yen refusing to cede ground against the dollar after as the initial bout of risk aversion appeared to subside. It very much confirms that the dollar’s loss of status is set to continue. The British pound continues to pare earlier losses against the dollar and is up to $1.6583 from an overnight low at $1.6504. Bank of England data shows a modest rise in the number of mortgage approvals while lending to consumers and businesses dropped again. In a quiet Australian session the Aussie dollar came under some selling pressure, reacting quickly to the latest bout of risk aversion as investors continued to lighten the load somewhat on long Aussie positions. At 92.06 U.S. cents the Aussie is firmly off its overnight low of 91.55 cents. Source: IB Follow this link: RISK AVERSION TAKES A BACK SEAT

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Oil prices fell below $76 a barrel Tuesday with new data showing a slow U.S. economic recovery and consumer confidence that remains luke warm at best. The dollar also gained against other major currencies, which can keep energy prices in check. Benchmark crude for December delivery fell $1.41 to $76.15 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The Commerce Department said the economy grew at a rate of 2.8 percent between July and September, short of estimates for 3.5 percent growth released just a month ago. Consumers are not spending much, commercial construction was weak, businesses trimmed inventories. The lack of consumer spending was partly explained in another report released Tuesday. Americans’ confidence in the economy improved slightly in November from October, but shoppers remain gloomy heading into the holiday shopping season, according to the monthly survey released by the Conference Board. The lack of industrial and consumer activity has played out in weekly oil inventory reports from the Energy Department, with supplies of crude in storage growing. The next weekly report arrives Wednesday, and expectations are that crude and gasoline supplies grew again last week. Retail prices edged lower again, falling less than a penny to $2.638 per gallon Tuesday. That’s a lot more than last year at this time, when gasoline prices plunged to about $1.91 as the economic crisis unfolded. Still, gasoline prices are being supported by crude, which as traded between $76 and $82 for more than a month. That is largely being blamed on the dollar because oil is bought and sold in the U.S. currency. Investors holding euros or other currencies can buy more oil when the dollar falls. Crude prices rose Monday when the dollar fell. On Tuesday, the dollar gained against the euro, yen, and British pound. Oil prices fell as much as 2 percent. In other Nymex trading, heating oil fell about 3 cents to $1.9502 a gallon. Gasoline for December delivery dropped 2.78 cents to $1.9516 a gallon. Natural gas for December delivery fell 7.2 cents to $4.40 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, Brent crude for January delivery dropped 92 cents to $76.54 on the ICE Futures exchange. Associated Press Writers Alex Kennedy in Singapore, Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, and Jeannine Aversa in Washington contributed to this report. Read the r est here: Crude prices near $76 per barrel (AP)

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By Tom Kaeckenhoff and Erik Kirschbaum DUESSELDORF/BERLIN (Reuters) – General Motors has paid back a loan from Germany and slightly lowered its target for job cuts at struggling European unit Opel. Nick Reilly, the boss brought in from GM’s thriving Asian operations to help revamp Opel, told reporters in Duesseldorf on Tuesday that his plans now call for cutting 9,000 to 9,500 jobs at Opel and British sister brand Vauxhall. GM will present that plan to Opel’s labor leaders on Wednesday, having decided not to sell Opel to auto parts maker Magna International and Russian lender Sberbank , who said they would cut 10,000 jobs. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose government had supported GM’s plan to sell Opel to Magna, said on Tuesday that GM had also paid back the last of a 1.5 billion euro bridge loan it had made available to Opel. “I can tell you that the last funds for Opel have been paid back by General Motors,” Merkel said. “I expect at least a thank you letter from General Motors in a few years.” “German taxpayers have not lost a single cent on the entire Opel operation,” she said. The U.S. automaker, which has been bailed out by the U.S. government, is revamping operations worldwide but reassured German workers over its immediate plans. “Bochum remains an important site for us, in the future as well,” Reilly said, referring to Opel’s plant in western Germany. He said last week that it was too soon to say whether any plants would be closed. “We’ll try not to do it but we still don’t know how we’re going to carry out the production cuts,” Reilly said during a visit to Spain, where Opel’s largest factory is located. GM has provided scant details on its 3.3 billion euros ($4.92 billion) rescue plan for Opel and European officials are set to discuss possible aid on December 4. The automaker, which emerged from bankruptcy in July, muddied the waters in the debate over whether it should get state aid when its third-quarter results revealed it had nearly $43 billion in cash at the end of September. Germany — home to over half of Opel’s 50,000 staff — has given mixed signals on aid since GM’s U-turn on the Magna deal. EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said on Monday that without state aid the revamp could not work. GM’s Reilly had traveled to Brussels to meet officials including Verheugen, Kris Peeters, the premier of Flanders, where Opel also has a plant, and EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. “General Motors made one point very clear, 100 percent clear, the restructuring plan could only be achieved when European member states with Opel plants give some financial help,” said Verheugen. (Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff and Erik Kirschbaum, writing by Michael Shields and Helen Massy-Beresford; Editing by Jason Neely) The rest is here: GM pays back Germany, signals fewer job cuts

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DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) – General Motors will present labor leaders at European arm Opel a reorganization plan on Wednesday that envisions cutting nearly a fifth of the workforce, GM’s acting European head said. The plan calls for eliminating between 9,000 and 9,500 jobs, GM’s Nick Reilly told reporters on Tuesday. GM has said in the past around 10,000 jobs would go at Opel and its British sister brand Vauxhall. Reilly said the German plant in Bochum was safe for now. “Bochum remains an important site for us, in the future as well,” he said. GM has given scant details so far on its 3.3 billion euros ($4.92 billion) rescue plan for Opel. GM this month backtracked on plans to sell Opel to a consortium led by carparts firm Magna — a deal that involved government aid — but is now turning again to European states for help to keep Opel in business. (Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff, writing by Michael Shields) See the rest here: Opel labor to see revamp plan on Wednesday

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* Plan envisions 9,000-9,500 job cuts in Europe – Reilly * German state premier says Bochum plant is safe for now (Adds quotes and background) DUESSELDORF, Germany, Nov 24 (Reuters) – General Motors [GM.UL] will present labour leaders at European arm Opel a reorganisation plan on Wednesday that envisions cutting nearly a fifth of the workforce, GM’s acting European head said. The plan calls for eliminating between 9,000 and 9,500 jobs, GM’s Nick Reilly told reporters on Tuesday. GM has said in the past around 10,000 jobs would go at Opel and its British sister brand Vauxhall. Reilly said the German plant in Bochum was safe for now. “Bochum remains an important site for us, in the future as well,” he said. GM has given scant details so far on its 3.3 billion euros ($4.92 billion) rescue plan for Opel. GM this month backtracked on plans to sell Opel to a consortium led by carparts firm Magna ( MGa.TO ) — a deal that involved government aid — but is now turning again to European states for help to keep Opel in business. (Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff, writing by Michael Shields) ((michael.shields@thomsonreuters.com, Reuters Messaging: michael.shields.reuters.com@reuters.net; +49 69 7565 1266)) ($1=.6708 Euro) © Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved Read the original: UPDATE 1-Opel labour to see revamp plan on Wednesday

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PORT OF SPAIN (AFP) – Commonwealth leaders meeting in Trindad this week face a “crisis summit” as they battle the global recession and face calls to action on climate change, the body’s chief has said. Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma said the 53-member body composed mainly of former British colonies was holding its biennial summit, known as the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), at a key moment. “This CHOGM will be a meeting of its time, to consider the issues of its time,” Sharma said as he addressed hundreds of Commonwealth civic leaders, gathered in Trinidad ahead of the summit talks. Since the last such forum in Kampala, Uganda in 2007, “the global situation has drastically changed,” said Sharma, an Indian career diplomat. “We have all had a bad few years of crisis upon crisis. The fuel and food crises of last year have been compounded by a financial crisis in 2009, in which no less than half of our members are suffering negative growth.” Since its founding 60 years ago, the Commonwealth has stretched around the globe, and now represents two billion people and accounts for a fifth of world trade. “Everyone is hurting — there is a strong case for saying that CHOGM 2009 constitutes a crisis summit,” Sharma told the opening of the Commonwealth People’s Forum. He also said he believed summit leaders would put forward a strong political statement ahead of the UN climate change conference to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark from December 7. In a rare move, UN chief Ban Ki-moon as well as Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen will travel to Trinidad for talks with Commonwealth leaders on Friday, also set to be attended by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Rasmussen will visit Trinidad to encourage Commonwealth heads of state and government to attend the December 7-18 climate talks in Copenhagen, a Danish spokesman told AFP. The summit talks will be officially opened by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II on Friday and end on Sunday. Read more: Commonwealth faces ‘crisis summit’: body’s chief

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Tuesday, 24 November 2009 Financial Times LEADERS CLASH OVER DEFICIT Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his main rival David Cameron clashed at the annual conference of the Confederation of British Industry on Monday as both party leaders sought political advantage by claiming that their rival’s strategy on tackling Britain’s budget deficit would jeopardise the economic recovery. Mr Cameron said his plans for an “emergency growth budget” within 50 days of taking office were interlinked with his call for urgent measures to tackle the 175 billion pound ($290.7 billion) deficit; but Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the IMF, lauded Mr Brown’s global leadership, backing his warning that fiscal stimulus should not be withdrawn too quickly. LLOYDS SETS ISSUE AT DISCOUNT OF NEARLY 40 PERCENT Lloyds Banking Group( LLOY.L ) will launch Britain’s largest rights issue on Tuesday to raise 13.5 billion pounds in new capital at a discount of nearly 40 percent. The new shares are expected to be priced at just over 37 pence each, with about four shares allocated for every three that investors currently own. The issue comes on the back of strong investor appetite for the first stage of Lloyds’ 22.5 billion pound capital raising, with the bank saying that its offer to exchange existing debt for other bonds and equity was more than a third over-subscribed. BANKS EAGER TO SUPPORT CLIENTS, RBS SAYS Stephen Hester, the chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland( RBS.L ), has told members of the CBI that bank lending to businesses will continue to be available to “supportable propositions” on fair terms. Despite signs that the recession is bottoming out, small companies are still complaining about the availability and cost of bank credit, and the Bank of England says that the average interest rate on loans is 3.5 percentage points above the current central bank’s base rate, with some companies being charged as much as 5.5 percent. Mr Hester said that banks were eager to support customers and were able to lend to exactly the same proportion of people asking for money as before the recession. GOVERNMENT URGED TO FILL FUNDS GAP FOR SMALL BUSINESSES The business secretary, Lord Mandelson, has welcomed a government commissioned independent review which says that small companies seeking venture capital are facing a structural lack of investment made worse by the impact of the recession. Chris Rowlands, who conducted the review, said: “The easy availability of bank lending in recent years served to obscure an underlying lack of capital provision. An intervention from government is required.” The report calls for the government to provide funding in the range of 2-10 million pounds. The government is proposing a growth capital fund to enable private capital to invest in established and growing small and medium-sized enterprises, and detailed proposals are expected to be unveiled in the pre-Budget report. FIRST “CLEAN COAL” POWER PLANT GETS GREEN LIGHT  Continued… Continue reading here: PRESS DIGEST – Financial Times – Nov 24

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By The Canadian Press VANCOUVER, B.C. – Western Coal Corp. (TSX: WTN.TO ) said Monday a proposed class action lawsuit has been filed in Ontario Superior Court alleging inaccurate disclosure in company’s second-quarter financial report in 2007. The company said it believes “the allegations are without merit and intends to vigorously defend them as well as the plaintiff’s attempt to obtain court approval to proceed with the action.” Western is a producer of metallurgical and thermal coal from mines located in British Columbia and West Virginia. Go here to see the original: Western Coal Corp. faces potential class action lawsuit in Ontario court

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67 WALL STREET, New York – November 23, 2009 – The Wall Street Transcript has just published its Travel and Leisure Report–Airlines, Hotels, Resorts, Cruise Lines, and Restaurants offering a timely review of the sector to serious investors and industry executives. This 137 page special feature contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs, Equity Analysts and Money Managers. The full issue is available via The Wall Street Transcript Online . Topics covered: Consumer Traveler Spending – U-Shaped Recovery in Restaurant Sector – Low-Cost and Network Airlines – Airline Carriers and Online Travel Agencies – Hotel Occupancy Rates – Improvement in Transportation Sector – Upscale Casual and Fast Casual Restaurants – Near-Term Risk in Hotel Space – Fuel Prices a Universal Concern – Restaurant Industry Stability – Increased Consolidation in Airline Industry – Firming of Traffic Trends in Restaurant Space Companies include: Vail Resorts, Inc. (MTN); Air France-KLM (AFLYY); AirTrans (AAI); Alaska Air Group (ALK); Allegiant Travel Group (ALGT); American Airlines (AMR); Applebee’s (APPB); Ashford (AHT); BJ’s Restaurants (BJRI); Boeing (BA); Brinker (EAT); British Airways (BAY); Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD); Burger King Corp (BKC); California Pizza Kitchen (CPKI); Carnival (CCL); Cheesecake Factories (CAKE); Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG); Choice (CHH); Continental Airlines (CAL); Darden (DRI); Delta Airlines (DAL); Denny’s (DENN); DiamondRock (DRH); Domino’s Pizza (DPZ); Expedia (EXPE); Famous Dave’s (DAVE); FelCor (FCH); Gaylord Entertainment (GET); Great Wolf Resorts (WOLF); Green Mountain (GMCR); Hawaiian Holdings (HA); Home Inns & Hotels (HMIN); Hospitality Properties Trust (HPT); JetBlue Airlines (JBLU); LaSalle Hotel Properties (LHO); Lufthansa (LHA); MHI Hospitality Corporation (MDH); Marriott (MAR); McDonalds (MCD); Mesa (MESA); Morton’s Steakhouse (MRT); National Business Travel Association (NBTA); National Mediation Board (NMB); Orbitz (OWW); P.F. Chang’s (PFCB); Panera Bread (PNRA); Peet’s (PEET); Priceline (PCLN); Republic Airlines (RJET); Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCL); Royal Caribbean International (HST); Ruby Tuesday (RT); Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse (RUTH); Sonesta (SNSTA); Sonic (SONC); Southwest Airlines (LUV); Spicy Pickle (SPKL.OB); Starbucks (SBUX); Starwood Hotels (HOT); Strategic (BEE); Sunstone (SHO); Texas Roadhouse (TXRH); UFood (UFFC.OB); US Air (LCC); United Airlines (UAUA); Wyndham (WYN) In the following brief excerpt from just one of the in depth interviews in the 137 page Travel and Leisure Report, an award winning equity analyst discusses the outlook for the sector and for investors. HELANE BECKER is a Managing Director at Jesup & Lamont who covers the transportation industry, focusing on airlines, air freight and freight forwarding. Ms. Becker has more than 25 years of experience in the financial industry, holding positions within research, trading and investment banking departments. Prior to joining Jesup & Lamont, she was Managing Director at CapStone Investments and helped to raise capital for small- to mid-cap companies. She also previously held positions at Smith Barney, Lehman Brothers and several other broker-dealers as a Senior Transportation Analyst. Ms. Becker was ranked first, second or third from 1985 to 1993 by Institutional Investor magazine. She was also ranked in the top five by the Wall Street Journal in 1992, 1993, 1997, 2001 and 2002 as one of the best analysts on the Street. Ms. Becker holds a B.A. from Montclair State University and an MBA from New York University. She is a member of several organizations, including Who’s Who Among Women in Business, and she is a former President of The Society of Airline Analysts. TWST: Let’s start with your overall outlook for the airline industry today. What is your outlook and why? Ms. Becker: We think that the airlines have seen the bottom or are in the process of bottoming, and our outlook for the third quarter is for an aggregate total of about $30 billion in revenue, and operating profit of about $600 million and a net loss of about $400 million. Obviously, all numbers exclude non-recurring gains, charges and mark-to-market hedge-related gains and losses. The revenue estimate is for a decline of about 8%. That compares to our initial estimate earlier in the year that revenues would be down between 7% and 9%. I think that the fourth quarter should show a little bit of improvement versus the third quarter and versus last year. We’re thinking the fourth quarter will be low single digits, so down 3% to 7%. And then 2010 we think will be better. TWST: So perhaps the worst is behind us? Ms. Becker: We think the worst is behind us. TWST: I’m sure you saw these statistics too, but I read recently that globally the airline industry is expected to lose $11 billion this year and another $3.8 billion in 2010. How much of that is attributable to the U.S. airline industry? Ms. Becker: I think that most of that is attributable to airlines outside the United States. The U.S. is far ahead of the rest of the world in terms of capacity reductions and adjustments to declines in traffic. Of the $11 billion decline that IATA is estimating, which is the number that you just cited, probably about $3.5 billion to $4 billion is related to the United States; the rest is outside the U.S. And the reason for that is the U.S. airlines were very quick to cut capacity when fuel prices were going up and the rest of the world did not. The rest of the major airlines, like British Airways (BAY) and Lufthansa (LHA), Air France-KLM (AFLYY), Japan Airline (JALSY), waited a very long time before they moved the needle on capacity. And so the U.S. airlines had about a one-year head start, and the result was that when traffic turned down, it didn’t look quite as bad for the U.S. airlines as it did for the peer group. Note: Opinions and recommendations are as of 10/07/09. HELANE BECKER Jesup & Lamont The Wall Street Transcript is a unique service for investors and industry researchers – providing fresh commentary and insight through verbatim interviews with CEOs and research analysts. This 137 page special issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online . The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse the views of any interviewees nor does it make stock recommendations. For Information on subscribing to The Wall Street Transcript, please call 800/246-7673 The rest is here: The Time To Buy US Based Airline Stocks Is Now Says Award Winning Equity Analyst (Wall Street Transcript)

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67 WALL STREET, New York – November 23, 2009 – The Wall Street Transcript has just published its Travel and Leisure Report–Airlines, Hotels, Resorts, Cruise Lines, and Restaurants offering a timely review of the sector to serious investors and industry executives. This 137 page special feature contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs, Equity Analysts and Money Managers. The full issue is available via The Wall Street Transcript Online . Topics covered: Consumer Traveler Spending – U-Shaped Recovery in Restaurant Sector – Low-Cost and Network Airlines – Airline Carriers and Online Travel Agencies – Hotel Occupancy Rates – Improvement in Transportation Sector – Upscale Casual and Fast Casual Restaurants – Near-Term Risk in Hotel Space – Fuel Prices a Universal Concern – Restaurant Industry Stability – Increased Consolidation in Airline Industry – Firming of Traffic Trends in Restaurant Space Companies include: Vail Resorts, Inc. (MTN); Air France-KLM (AFLYY); AirTrans (AAI); Alaska Air Group (ALK); Allegiant Travel Group (ALGT); American Airlines (AMR); Applebee’s (APPB); Ashford (AHT); BJ’s Restaurants (BJRI); Boeing (BA); Brinker (EAT); British Airways (BAY); Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD); Burger King Corp (BKC); California Pizza Kitchen (CPKI); Carnival (CCL); Cheesecake Factories (CAKE); Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG); Choice (CHH); Continental Airlines (CAL); Darden (DRI); Delta Airlines (DAL); Denny’s (DENN); DiamondRock (DRH); Domino’s Pizza (DPZ); Expedia (EXPE); Famous Dave’s (DAVE); FelCor (FCH); Gaylord Entertainment (GET); Great Wolf Resorts (WOLF); Green Mountain (GMCR); Hawaiian Holdings (HA); Home Inns & Hotels (HMIN); Hospitality Properties Trust (HPT); JetBlue Airlines (JBLU); LaSalle Hotel Properties (LHO); Lufthansa (LHA); MHI Hospitality Corporation (MDH); Marriott (MAR); McDonalds (MCD); Mesa (MESA); Morton’s Steakhouse (MRT); National Business Travel Association (NBTA); National Mediation Board (NMB); Orbitz (OWW); P.F. Chang’s (PFCB); Panera Bread (PNRA); Peet’s (PEET); Priceline (PCLN); Republic Airlines (RJET); Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCL); Royal Caribbean International (HST); Ruby Tuesday (RT); Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse (RUTH); Sonesta (SNSTA); Sonic (SONC); Southwest Airlines (LUV); Spicy Pickle (SPKL.OB); Starbucks (SBUX); Starwood Hotels (HOT); Strategic (BEE); Sunstone (SHO); Texas Roadhouse (TXRH); UFood (UFFC.OB); US Air (LCC); United Airlines (UAUA); Wyndham (WYN) In the following brief excerpt from just one of the in depth interviews in the 137 page Travel and Leisure Report, an award winning equity analyst discusses the outlook for the sector and for investors. HELANE BECKER is a Managing Director at Jesup & Lamont who covers the transportation industry, focusing on airlines, air freight and freight forwarding. Ms. Becker has more than 25 years of experience in the financial industry, holding positions within research, trading and investment banking departments. Prior to joining Jesup & Lamont, she was Managing Director at CapStone Investments and helped to raise capital for small- to mid-cap companies. She also previously held positions at Smith Barney, Lehman Brothers and several other broker-dealers as a Senior Transportation Analyst. Ms. Becker was ranked first, second or third from 1985 to 1993 by Institutional Investor magazine. She was also ranked in the top five by the Wall Street Journal in 1992, 1993, 1997, 2001 and 2002 as one of the best analysts on the Street. Ms. Becker holds a B.A. from Montclair State University and an MBA from New York University. She is a member of several organizations, including Who’s Who Among Women in Business, and she is a former President of The Society of Airline Analysts. TWST: Let’s start with your overall outlook for the airline industry today. What is your outlook and why? Ms. Becker: We think that the airlines have seen the bottom or are in the process of bottoming, and our outlook for the third quarter is for an aggregate total of about $30 billion in revenue, and operating profit of about $600 million and a net loss of about $400 million. Obviously, all numbers exclude non-recurring gains, charges and mark-to-market hedge-related gains and losses. The revenue estimate is for a decline of about 8%. That compares to our initial estimate earlier in the year that revenues would be down between 7% and 9%. I think that the fourth quarter should show a little bit of improvement versus the third quarter and versus last year. We’re thinking the fourth quarter will be low single digits, so down 3% to 7%. And then 2010 we think will be better. TWST: So perhaps the worst is behind us? Ms. Becker: We think the worst is behind us. TWST: I’m sure you saw these statistics too, but I read recently that globally the airline industry is expected to lose $11 billion this year and another $3.8 billion in 2010. How much of that is attributable to the U.S. airline industry? Ms. Becker: I think that most of that is attributable to airlines outside the United States. The U.S. is far ahead of the rest of the world in terms of capacity reductions and adjustments to declines in traffic. Of the $11 billion decline that IATA is estimating, which is the number that you just cited, probably about $3.5 billion to $4 billion is related to the United States; the rest is outside the U.S. And the reason for that is the U.S. airlines were very quick to cut capacity when fuel prices were going up and the rest of the world did not. The rest of the major airlines, like British Airways (BAY) and Lufthansa (LHA), Air France-KLM (AFLYY), Japan Airline (JALSY), waited a very long time before they moved the needle on capacity. And so the U.S. airlines had about a one-year head start, and the result was that when traffic turned down, it didn’t look quite as bad for the U.S. airlines as it did for the peer group. Note: Opinions and recommendations are as of 10/07/09. HELANE BECKER Jesup & Lamont The Wall Street Transcript is a unique service for investors and industry researchers – providing fresh commentary and insight through verbatim interviews with CEOs and research analysts. This 137 page special issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online . The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse the views of any interviewees nor does it make stock recommendations. For Information on subscribing to The Wall Street Transcript, please call 800/246-7673 See the rest here: Buy Airline Stocks Now Says Ranked Equity Analyst (Wall Street Transcript)

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LONDON (AFP) – Britain’s political leaders clashed Monday at a key business conference over how to fix rocketing public debt and spark economic recovery, with an election looming next year. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, main opposition Conservatives leader David Cameron and Liberal Democrat chief Nick Clegg laid out their plans at the Confederation of British Industry’s annual meeting. The CBI, the nation’s biggest employers’ organisation, used its latest annual conference to discuss how companies can best recover from Britain’s longest recession on record, calling for a “new era” of business. With an election due by June, which Brown’s Labour party appears set to lose to Cameron’s Tories, one of the biggest debates is how to fix soaring public finances that were hit by recession and the global financial crisis. Britain is the last major world power still mired in recession, after the eurozone, France, Germany, Japan and the United States all emerged from a steep global economic downturn. “The most important driver of deficit reduction over the period ahead will be the growth performance of our economy, and the speed with which we can get unemployment down,” Brown told business chiefs. “As we take measures to halve the (public) deficit over the next four years, we will continue to make the necessary investment in growth and skills.” Labour and the main opposition Conservatives are at loggerheads over the public spending cuts and taxation hikes needed to balance the books. Tory leader Cameron on Monday blasted the prime minister over the issues in a separate speech to CBI delegates. “Today there is a growing international and domestic consensus that urgent action (on repairing public finances) is vital to recovery,” Cameron said. “We are at the end of the longest and deepest recession since the war, we face the largest public deficit in our peacetime history, unemployment is at two and a half million,” he added. “We cannot go on like this.” Another crucial topic is when the British government should begin withdrawing stimulus measures that are designed to haul the nation out of its deep recession. Brown said that stopping economic stimulus measures was not the answer to the economy’s problems. “You cannot say you are going for growth and then in the next breath demand the withdrawal of the very measures essential to lock in the recovery and enable the growth to take place,” Brown told the CBI. “Choking off recovery by turning off the life support for our economies prematurely would be fatal to British jobs, British growth and British prosperity for years.” The prime minister also urged stronger trade links with emerging Asian economic giants China and India, as he announced an international investment conference to be held in London early next year. In reaction, CBI Director-General Richard Lambert said all three political leaders had argued that healthy public finances were crucial to restoring economic growth. “All three party leaders rightly addressed the need for a strategy for economic growth, and (the) importance in reducing the public sector deficit,” Lambert noted. He added: “Without growth, getting out of this fiscal hole will be very difficult indeed.” Britain’s recession, which began in the second quarter of 2008, is now officially the country’s longest since records began in 1955. The economy has contracted for six quarters in a row. The government has borrowed 86.9 billion pounds so far in the current financial year that began in April. Analysts warned that borrowing was likely to breach its 2009/2010 target of 175 billion pounds. Lambert said the business community would now switch its focus to finance minister Alistair Darling’s pre-budget report on December 9. John Cridland, deputy director-general, added that the CBI was calling for a “clear and robust plan” to bring public finances under control. “It’s a plan that business needs to see because it’s a plan that will inspire confidence,” he said, adding that the CBI wanted the government to balance the books two years earlier than it has planned. Lambert added that there were “huge uncertainties” about the British economic outlook. “There are uncertainties both in terms of the scale of the structural deficit — we don’t know what that is — and there are uncertainties about the pace of recovery going forward, which would make a huge difference to the fiscal outlook,” Lambert said. See original here: British leaders clash over public finances, recovery

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If you remember my consistent position since this mess began in early 2007 has been that the banks have roughly $3-3.5 trillion in losses in residential real estate. The IMF now says that half of those losses remain unrealized and intentionally hidden: “It is our view we are still in the situation where a lot of losses haven’t been disclosed,” Strauss-Kahn said during questions at the Confederation of British Industry’s conference in London today. “How much is a difficult assessment, but let’s say something which is close to half of it.” Now consider the fact that the Central Banks, including The Fed, and governments, including ours (Treasury) have printed, lied, cajoled and otherwise “cushioned” the first half of these defaults and losses. But with interest rates at or near zero, gold skyrocketing and deficits running well north of $1 trillion annually in the US, the ability to pull that trick again has been extinguished. So what happens, my friends, when the second half of those losses “come out from the dark” and are forced to be recognized? Kudlow appears to have started to detoxify from the KoolAid to some extent, but he’s pretty much it.  Kneale and the other “useful idiots” continue to spew the party line – “it’s all getting better” – but none of them want to talk about what the IMF said over the weekend – and guess what – they’re telling the truth. Someone has figured it out. “We cannot spin a positive story from the fact that a third-of-a-trillion dollars a week is trying to lock down Treasury bill yields of less that 0.05 percent,” Bianco said. “There is still tremendous demand for the front end of the curve despite the fact that people are saying things like there is no yield there and that cash is trash.” $300 billion worth of “someones” – per week. Let’s cut the crap.  The IMF has (correctly) surmised that there will be no ability – politically or fiscally – to fund another bailout. The IMF has also (correctly) surmised that only half of the losses necessary to take have been realized, with the rest being papered over by government malfeasance, accounting chicanery and outright fraud. Now you might try to make a case that “the worst is over” and “it will all be good, we’re recovering in the economy”, but to do so you have to explain where the money is going to come from to absorb the other $1.5 trillion in residential real estate loan losses along with how we’re going to prevent the MBS on The Fed’s balance sheet from detonating - and we haven’t talked about the commercial real estate lending market yet. Have another glass of KoolAid folks – it’s grape-flavored, mixed by someone named “Jones” and tastes great! More: Uh, Better Cogitate On This One (Banks)

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By Pan Pylas, The Associated Press LONDON – World markets rose sharply Monday amid further hopeful signs about the economic recovery. Commodity stocks led the charge, particularly in London, after gold hit another record high amid renewed dollar weakness. European stocks tracked their Asian counterparts higher, with the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares up 88.99 points, or 1.7 per cent, at 5,340.40. Germany’s DAX rose 91.74 points, or 1.6 per cent, at 5,754.89 and the CAC-40 was 57.24 points, or 1.5 per cent, higher at 3,786.60. Wall Street was poised to open higher after a strong end to last week. Dow futures were up 91 points, or 0.9 per cent, at 10,394 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures rose 11.50 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 1,101.60. Sentiment in Europe was buoyed by data indicating that the economic recovery is gathering pace in the 16 countries that use the euro. The monthly composite purchasing managers index – a broad gauge of business activity in the manufacturing and services sector – rose to 53.7 in November from October’ 53. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion and the bigger the difference from 50 the greater the expansion – figures recently confirmed that the recession in the eurozone economy ended in the third quarter, though growth was a muted 0.3 per cent. “November’s rise suggests that the eurozone economy has gained a bit more momentum in Q4, but the recovery remains of the steady, rather than the spectacular, variety,” said Ben May, European economist at Capital Economics. Much of Monday’s activity centered on commodity stocks as the price of gold rose 1.7 per cent to a new record of $1,167.35 an ounce. Gold has garnered renewed support as the recent rally in the dollar ran out of steam after U.S. Federal Reserve official James Bullard said the central bank should continue to buy mortgage-backed securities after the March expiration date. Any suggestion that the Fed will maintain its extraordinary monetary policy measures for longer than previously anticipated heaps pressure on the dollar – by late morning London time, the euro was up 0.8 per cent at $1.4971. The falling dollar makes gold more attractive to international investors and as a result, commodity stocks were heavily in demand, particularly on London’s FTSE 100, where a number of resource companies are listed – near the top of the leaderboard were Eurasian Natural PLC, Xstrata PLC and Rio Tinto PLC. Attention later will focus on U.S. existing home sales figures for October. Analysts are hopeful the figures will not disappoint after a mixed series of housing data recently, and are forecast to have risen around 2.5 per cent to an annual rate of 5.7 million units. “The focus will be on the U.S. existing home sales data, with the expectation that the rate will come in at the fastest rate since July 2007, confirming the strength of the recovery,” said Richard Griffiths, senior equity trader at Spreadex. However, with Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day holiday approaching, there are doubts that stocks will be able to sustain their march ahead for too long – many analysts think investors will start taking profits on the rally at some point. “There’s still that lingering degree of caution as to whether stocks can continue to push much higher in general and with a relatively quiet few days ahead, combined with traders in the U.S. winding down for the Thanksgiving holiday, this issue is set to be played out yet again,” said Ben Potter, research analyst at IG Markets in Melbourne, Australia. Stock markets have rallied strongly since March’s lows as investors reined in their economic doomsday expectations to factor in a swifter than anticipated global economic rebound, but recent disappointing U.S. housing figures and mixed earnings from some of the country’s leading technology companies and retailers have dented the optimism. Many investors think stock valuations are now pricing in too rapid an economic recovery. There have been similar bouts of doubt since March, but most did not last long. Earlier, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 315.55, or 1.4 per cent, to 22,771.39 while South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.55, or 0.1 per cent, to 1,619.05. Elsewhere, Australia’s index gained 0.7 per cent and China’s Shanghai benchmark rose 0.9 per cent. Markets were lower in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, New Zealand and the Philippines. Japan was closed for a public holiday. Meanwhile, oil prices rose as Iran started five days of air defense war games aimed at protecting its nuclear facilities from attack. Benchmark crude for January delivery was up 96 cents at $78.43 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost 58 cents to settle at $77.47 on Friday. – AP Business Writer Kelly Olsen in Seoul, South Korea contributed to this report. Read more: World markets rally as gold hits new record high

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* U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Monday, with futures for the S&P 500 SPc1, Dow Jones DJc1 and Nasdaq 100 NDc1 up 0.8 to 1 percent. * Kraft Foods Inc ( KFT.N ) may raise its offer for British chocolatier Cadbury Plc ( CBRY.L ) or offer more cash in its bid if rival takeover offers emerge, a source familiar with the situation said on Sunday. Cadbury shares were up 2 percent. Kraft took a 9.9 billion pound ($16.37 billion) hostile offer for Cadbury to shareholders two weeks ago. Most of the remaining large players in the global confectionery industry – U.S.-based Hershey Co ( HSY.N ), Italy’s Ferrero and Switzerland’s Nestle ( NESN.VX ) — are now weighing takeover bids themselves, according to Reuters sources and media reports. [ID:nGEE5AL0HD] * A group of U.S. business economists boosted their forecast for economic growth over the next year, but said the jobless rate will remain stubbornly high, a survey released on Monday showed. The National Association for Business Economists predicted real growth in gross domestic product for 2010 would be 2.9 percent, up from its October forecast for 2.6 percent growth. [ID:nN20235772] * A senior U.S. Federal Reserve official said on Sunday the central bank should keep alive its mortgage-related assets purchase program beyond a planned end-date to give policymakers more flexibility as they seek to help the economy recover from a painful recession. [ID:nN22246631] * Ciena Corp ( CIEN.O ) will buy Nortel Networks Corp’s optical networking and carrier ethernet business for $769 million after trumping Nokia Siemens Networks in a three-day auction, sources told Reuters on Sunday. [ID:nN22395163] * Microsoft Corp ( MSFT.O ) has had talks with News Corp ( NWSA.O ) about a tie up, which would involve News Corp getting paid to take its news websites off Google Inc ( GOOG.O ), a source familiar with the matter said on Sunday. [ID:nN22225861] * Fertilizer maker Terra Industries Inc ( TRA.N ) on Sunday rejected rival CF Industries Holdings Inc’s ( CF.N ) latest proposal to buy it, saying the new offer was at the same price as CF’s already-rejected proposal from Nov. 1. [ID:nN22211872] * Shares of Activision Blizzard Inc ( ATVI.O ) were inexpensive despite record sales of a video game and the company buying back nearly $300 million in stock in the third quarter, Barron’s said on Sunday. [ID:nN22206301] * Commodity stocks will be in focus as crude prices CLc1 rose more than 1 percent to top $78 a barrel after the U.S. dollar lost its footing and heightened tensions between key oil exporter Iran and Western nations raised speculation of a potential supply threat. * Spot gold XAU= hit a record high and key base metals prices rose, supported by a weakness in the dollar. * The day’s earnings calendar includes quarterly results from Campbell Soup ( CPB.N ) and Hewlett-Packard ( HPQ.N ), while on the macro front, the agenda includes the Chicago Fed National Activity Index for October, due at 1330 GMT. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) releases existing home sales for October at 1500 GMT. * China’s annual economic growth will reach 10 percent this quarter and grow even faster in the first quarter of 2010, Yu Bin, a government researcher with the State Council Development Research Centre said in remarks published on Monday. [ID:nPEK280835] * General Motors GM.UL expects its China sales growth to drop dramatically in 2010 as the carmaker nears the end of a year of government stimulus-fuelled growth in the world’s biggest car market, the head of the company’s China operations said on Monday. [ID:nHKG294705] * Health insurer Humana Inc ( HUM.N ) is looking for acquisitions in complementary areas to adapt to changing healthcare need, its Chief Executive Mike McCallister told the Wall Street Journal in an interview. [ID:nBNG187715]  Continued… Visit link: U.S. stock futures signal gains; eyes on Kraft (at Reuters)

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LONDON (AFP) – British business will reshape the way it works as a consequence of the recession, with innovative lending practices and commercial models emerging, the nation’s top employers’ body said Monday. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) hosts its annual conference in London on Monday to discuss how business needs to adapt following Britain’s longest recession on record. The CBI said in a key report, published to coincide with the meeting, that the recession and credit crunch had “become the catalysts for a new era.” “The recession has raised concerns about commercial models, supply chains and finance that will reshape business behaviour well into the next decade,” the CBI said. It added: “Businesses do not see credit terms falling back to pre-crunch levels and, having become wary of higher debt levels, firms will look to alternatives to debt-driven growth to protect investment and innovation. “More financing options will be created and deployed,” the organisation noted in a report entitled ‘The Shape of Business — The Next 10 Years.’ The CBI also claimed that British companies will also reorganise their approach to working with partners, such as suppliers, and competitors. It added that “sustainability and ethics will become more integrated into the business model,” while a more flexible workforce will evolve. “We may be at the start of a new era for businesses, in which attitudes to finance and to corporate leadership are changed for a generation by the shock of the past two years,” said CBI Director-General Richard Lambert. “What we need now is a more balanced, less risky pathway to growth — one in which the short-term returns may be lower, but the long-term rewards for management success will be a lot more sustainable and secure.” The CBI said the findings of its report were supported by a poll that showed two-thirds of business leaders expect no improvement in credit availability in 2010 and are consequently reshaping their business financing. The CBI-sponsored Ipsos MORI survey, carried out between October and November, polled 500 people that were mostly chief executives and chairmen, who represented a British workforce of nearly one million people. View original post here: Recession triggers upheaval in British business: employers

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LONDON (Reuters) – Cadbury Plc would prefer a merger with U.S. chocolate maker Hershey Co rather than Kraft Foods Inc, the British company’s chairman Roger Carr told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper. However, he said both U.S. groups would fail if they cannot finance generous bids, the paper reported. Hershey is considering launching a bid of at least $17 billion for Cadbury as it seeks to trump a hostile $16.5 billion offer by Kraft, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday. “Clearly, whilst some potential offerors are more aligned with our business model than others, it is the value of the offer rather than the source of the offer that is our priority,” Carr told the Sunday Telegraph. Cadbury shares closed at 800.5 pence on Friday, valuing the company at about 11 billion pounds ($16.5 billion). In recent notes, analysts have said Cadbury is worth about 850-900 pence a share. “We’re focused on delivering value to shareholders as a standalone pure-play confectioner,” a Cadbury spokesman said on Sunday. “We have always said that we would give proper consideration to any serious offer that delivers full value for the company. Unless and until we find ourselves in that situation we have nothing to comment upon.” (Reporting by Julie Crust ; editing by Jon Loades-Carter) ($1=.6645 Pound) © Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved Go here to see the original: Cadbury prefers merger with Hershey over Kraft: report

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* In talks to sell interest for between $1.3-1.5 bln-source * Talks continuing, deal could be announced on Monday-source * Heritage looking to pay a special dividend-report By Quentin Webb and Julie Crust LONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) – British oil explorer Heritage Oil ( HOIL.L ) ( HOC.TO ) is in talks to sell its Ugandan assets to Italian oil group Eni SpA ( ENI.MI ) for between $1.3-1.5 billion, a person familiar with the matter said on Sunday Talks are continuing and a deal could be announced as early as Monday, the person said. Heritage is examining paying a special dividend to return some of the proceeds to shareholders, the person added. The Sunday Times reported that Heritage will pay a special dividend of 90 pence to 100 pence per share, citing no sources. Heritage Chief Executive Tony Buckingham, who previously ran companies which hired out mercenaries in Africa, could get about 84 million pounds ($126 million) from his 33 percent stake in the company, the paper said. Heritage, which is in talks with Turkey’s Genel Energy regarding a proposed $6 billion merger, is the operator and holds a 50 percent interest in two licences in Uganda. The fields are estimated to contain more than 700 million barrels of gross resources. Tullow Oil ( TLW.L ) holds the remainder of the two licences located in the Albert Basin, close to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and is looking to sell up to 50 percent of its stake. A spokeswoman for Eni declined to comment, while Heritage could not be reached. On Tuesday, Heritage said merger talks with Genel were ongoing and that it hoped to reach a formal agreement before the end of the year. [ID:nL0122820] It also said it was planning for early commercialisation of the Ugandan oil resources, with potential first production in 2011. (Editing by Jon Loades-Carter) ($1=.6645 Pound) ((julie.crust@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 542 3847)) Read the r est here: Heritage, Eni close to $1.5 bln Uganda deal-source

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LONDON (AFP) – Britain’s business leaders gather here on Monday for an annual conference expected to focus on how companies can recover from the country’s longest recession on record. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the nation’s biggest employers’ body, has billed its one-day gathering ‘Routes to Recovery’. The worst global crisis since the 1930s has hammered consumer demand, ramped up unemployment and ravaged manufacturing in Britain. Businesses have also been blighted by the credit crunch as the struggling banking sector has tightened lending criteria, despite record low interest rates from the Bank of England. Britain faces a general election by next June and ahead of the polls, one of the biggest headaches facing the government is how best to fix the dire state of the nation’s public finances. British Prime Minster Gordon Brown’s Labour party is tipped to lose at the hands of David Cameron’s Conservatives, the country’s main opposition. The CBI meanwhile, the biggest lobbying organisation for Britain’s business sector, is calling on the government to sort out ballooning debt and extend its car scrappage scheme to safeguard valuable automaking jobs. “This time last year, the world was absolutely in the eye of the storm, unimaginable things were going on after the collapse of (US investment bank) Lehman,” CBI Director-General Richard Lambert told AFP ahead of the conference. “Just about everywhere in the world, demand for just about everything fell by about 30 percent. “The banking system was in a state of absolute shock and we really had no idea what on earth was going to happen next.” Lambert said the economic environment had improved over the past year, despite Britain being plagued by shrinking economic growth. “Although there are still big uncertainties and anxieties out there — particularly here in the UK compared for example with France — it is a lot better than it might have appeared 12 months ago,” Lambert told AFP. Britain’s recession, which began in the second quarter of 2008, is officially the country’s longest since records began in 1955. The economy has now contracted for six quarters in a row. The nation is also the only major power still officially in recession after the eurozone, France, Germany, Japan and the United States all emerged from the global downturn. In Britain meanwhile, the government and the Conservatives are at loggerheads over the level of public spending cuts and taxation hikes needed to balance the books and aid economic recovery. “The first most important job for the next government is to set out a credible plan for getting the public finances back into shape,” said Lambert. He added: “Public borrowing here, as a share of GDP, is running at a higher rate than any other major economy apart from the United States.” The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has also called for the government to outline plans to nurse the finances back to health and aid economic recovery. Britain has borrowed 86.9 billion pounds so far in the current financial year that began in April, recent data showed. Analysts warn that borrowing was highly likely to breach the government’s 2009/2010 target of 175 billion pounds. Britain’s finance minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, may be forced to lift his forecast in a preliminary annual pre-budget report due on December 9. Here is the original post: British business chiefs seek path to recovery

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YERINGTON, Nev. (AP) — Peggy Pauly lives in a robin-egg blue, two-story house not far from acres of onion fields that make the northern Nevada air smell sweet at harvest time. But she can look through the window from her kitchen table, just past her backyard with its swingset and pet llama, and see an ominous sign on a neighboring fence: “Danger: Uranium Mine.” For almost a decade, people who make their homes in this rural community in the Mason Valley 65 miles southeast of Reno have blamed that enormous abandoned mine for the high levels of uranium in their water wells. They say they have been met by a stone wall from state regulators, local politicians and the huge oil company that inherited the toxic site — BP PLC. Those interests have insisted uranium naturally occurs in the region’s soil and there’s no way to prove that a half-century of processing metals at the former Anaconda pit mine is responsible for the contamination. That has changed. A new wave of testing by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found that 79 percent of the wells tested north of the World War II-era copper mine have dangerous levels of uranium or arsenic or both that make the water unsafe to drink. And, more importantly to the neighbors, that the source of the pollution is a groundwater plume that has slowly migrated from the 6-square-mile mine site. The new samples likely never would have been taken if not for a whistleblower, a preacher’s wife, a tribal consultant and some stubborn government scientists who finally helped crack the toxic mystery that has plagued this rural mining and farming community for decades. “They have completely ruined the groundwater out here,” said Pauly, the wife of a local pastor and mother of two girls who organized a community action group five years to seek the truth about the pollution. “It almost sounds like we are happy the contamination has moved off the site,” she said. “But what we are happy about is … they have enough data to now answer our questions.” “Prior to this, we didn’t really have an understanding of where water was moving,” said Steve Acree, a highly regarded hydrogeologist for the EPA in Oklahoma, who was brought in to examine the test results. “My interpretation at this stage of the process is yes, you now have evidence of mine-impacted groundwater.” The tests found levels of uranium more than 10 times the legal drinking water standard in one monitoring well a half mile north of the mine. Though the health effects of specific levels are not well understood, the EPA says long-term exposure to high levels of uranium in drinking water may cause cancer and damage kidneys. At the mine itself, wells tested as high as 3.4 milligrams per liter — more than 100 times the standard. That’s in an area where ore was processed with sulfuric acid and other toxic chemicals in unlined ponds. Moving north toward the mine’s boundary and beyond, readings begin to decline but several wells still tested two to three times above health limits. “The hot spots, the treatment areas on the site, are places you totally expect to see readings like that,” said Dietrick McGinnis, an environmental consultant for the neighboring Yerington Paiute Tribe. “But this shows you have a continuous plume with decreasing concentration as you move away from the site.” The new findings are no surprise to Earle Dixon, the site’s former project manager for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which owns about half of the property. An administrative judge ruled last year that the BLM illegally fired Dixon in 2004 in retaliation for speaking out about the health and safety dangers at the mine. “The new data depicts the story that I had tried to hypothesize as a possibility,” Dixon told the AP. “It was speculation, because I didn’t have the dramatic evidence they have now. You just had all the symptoms,” he said from New Mexico, where he is now a state geologist. “The way the state has been telling the story and BP and Lyon County … is this is mostly all natural. Well, no it’s not,” he said. “We now know for a fact that most of this uranium as far as 2 miles out from the mine comes from the mine. “This site becomes a poster child for mining pollution.” Officials for BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, and its subsidiary Atlantic Richfield have insisted until now that the uranium could not be tied to the mine. They maintained the high concentrations were due to a naturally occurring phenomenon beneath Nevada’s mineral-laden mountains. The new discovery has Pauly, McGinnis and others renewing a call for the EPA to declare the mine a Superfund site — something the state and county have opposed despite a new potential source of money to help cover cleanup costs that could reach hundreds of millions of dollars. Jill Lufrano, spokeswoman for the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection, said an investigation into the source of contamination is continuing but “the new finding does put scientific confirmation behind the theory that this would migrate off site.” She said the new evidence doesn’t change the state’s opposition to Superfund listing. Nevada has a long tradition of supporting mining and now produces more gold than anywhere in the world except China, South Africa and Australia. Copper first was discovered around Yerington in 1865. Anaconda bought the property in 1941 and — fueled by demand after World War II — produced nearly 1.75 billion pounds of copper from 1952-78. A mineral firm launched a then-secret plan to produce yellowcake uranium from the mine’s waste piles in the 1970s. An engineer reported in 1976 that they weren’t finding as much uranium as anticipated in the processing ponds. “Where could it be now?” he wrote. “Should we continue to look for it?” Had they continued the search outside the processing area, Wyoming Mineral Corp. likely would have detected the movement of the contamination. But the market for uranium dipped and the company scuttled the venture. Pauly never suspected the mine was leaking contamination when she and her husband finished building their home in 1990. They drank water from their well until 2003 — and used it to mix formula for a baby from 1996-98 — before becoming suspicious as rumors swirled about the contaminated mine. “Everybody said it was fine,” she said. “Legally they didn’t have to disclose anything because technically there was nothing definitive then that showed the contamination was moving off the site.” BP and Atlantic Richfield, which bought Anaconda Copper Co. in 1978, have stopped claiming there is no evidence the mine caused any contamination, but they aren’t conceding anything about how much. “We know the mine has had an impact but to what extent is not really known at this time,” Tom Mueller, spokesman for BP America in Houston, told The Associated Press in a recent e-mail. He said the sampling “remains inconclusive regarding relative impacts from the mine” compared with other potential sources. Yerington Paiute Tribe Chairman Elwood Emm said he hopes the new findings help expedite cleanup. “In the meantime, we continue to lose our water resource,” he said. So who will pay for the cleanup? “That is the million-dollar question,” Dixon said. “Every Superfund site needs an advocate or two or three and in my view there are none for Yerington except for Peggy Pauly.” Regardless of who pays, Acree said, it likely will take decades to clean up. (This version CORRECTS SUBS 4th graf to correct to BP PLC, sted British Petroleum. Minor EDITS.) Read this articl e: EPA: Uranium from polluted mine in Nev. wells (AP)

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NEW DELHI (AFP) – British mobile phone giant Vodafone Group Plc has sought an extra two months to reply to a two-billion-dollar Indian tax claim over its purchase of India’s third-largest mobile operator. Vodafone had been told late last month to explain by November 16 the reasons why it did not deduct tax when paying 11.2 billion dollars to buy a majority stake in Indian mobile phone operator Hutchison Essar in 2007. The company “has requested for further time till January 29, 2010,” junior finance minister S.S. Palanimanickam told parliament in a written reply, news reports said on Saturday. The company has now been asked “to show cause why it should not be treated as an assessee in default for its failure to deduct and pay the tax”, Palanimanickam added, according to the Press Trust of India. The answer was tabled in the lower house of parliament late Friday. Vodafone argues capital gains tax is usually paid by the seller, not the buyer. But Indian tax officials argue Vodafone should have withheld two billion dollars for the Indian government from the sum it paid to a unit of Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa for its Indian subsidiary. In 2008, the Bombay High Court rejected Vodafone’s petition for exemption from the tax department demand. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case and ruled that the Central Board of Direct Taxes should rule. The board is slated to take a “final view” after Vodafone replies to the tax notice. Vodafone and the tax department are at loggerheads over whether the purchase of the Indian unit, which had been held by a company registered in the Cayman Islands, is subject to Indian taxes. The company has said it “is confident that no tax is payable on this transaction”. Indian tax department officials insist tax is payable on the purchase of the company as it is located in India. Vodafone bought 67 percent of Hutchison Essar — now called Vodafone Essar — to break into the world’s fastest-growing mobile phone market as the London-listed company struggled with slowing sales in the developed world. But cut-throat competition in India’s increasingly crowded cellular market has hit revenues from Vodafone’s Indian arm. See the rest here: Vodafone seeks more time to reply to Indian tax claim

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* Hershey mulls bid of at least $17 bln for Cadbury-source * Hershey still weighing joint bid with Ferrero-source * Hershey Trust aims to retain control of Hershey-WSJ (Adds details on Hershey advisers, trust) By Jessica Hall PHILADELPHIA, Nov 20 (Reuters) – U.S. chocolate maker Hershey Co ( HSY.N ) is considering launching a bid of at least $17 billion for British chocolatier Cadbury Plc ( CBRY.L ) as it seeks to trump a hostile offer by Kraft Foods Inc, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday. Hershey has lined up deal funding from Bank of America ( BAC.N ) and JP Morgan Chase & Co ( JPM.N ) to make a solo offer for Cadbury, but is also still weighing a joint bid with Italy’s Ferrero Spa, the source said. The interest from Hershey could add new pressure on Kraft ( KFT.N ) to sweeten its $16.5 billion offer, which Cadbury rejected last week as derisory. “It’s still very fluid and there are multiple prongs to this,” the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity. “It’s still very early. But they need at least $17 billion to top Kraft.” Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday afternoon that the impetus for the Hershey bid comes from the charitable trust controlling the company. The trust is pushing Hershey Chief Executive David West to compete with Kraft’s offer, but wants to structure a deal so that it remains in charge of Hershey, the report said. Officials for the Hershey Trust were not immediately available for comment. Hershey, Kraft and Cadbury declined to comment. A solo Hershey bid would be the most transformative move the company has made in its 100-year history. The company’s market capitalization stands at $8.3 billion, while Cadbury is valued at $18.1 billion. “Given that they generate 85 percent of their sales form the domestic market, gaining access to Cadbury’s platform would be highly advantageous,” said Erin Swanson, analyst at Morningstar, noting Cadbury’s presence in emerging markets. She added that Hershey would be able to expand its candy and gum business. But a deal would mainly aim to capture new growth as there is little overlap between the companies’ businesses and therefore slim opportunity for cost savings. A RISK-AVERSE TRUST Hershey’s offer could include at least $10 billion in cash from Hershey and $2 billion in new Hershey shares, plus $3 billion to $5 billion from outside investors in exchange for equity in Hershey, according to the Journal.  Continued… See the article here: UPDATE 4-Hershey mulls $17 bln solo bid for Cadbury – source

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PHILADELPHIA, Nov 20 (Reuters) – U.S. chocolate maker Hershey Co ( HSY.N ) is considering launching a bid of at least $17 billion for British chocolatier Cadbury Plc ( CBRY.L ) in an effort to outstrip a hostile offer by Kraft Foods Inc, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday. Hershey, which is still considering a joint bid with Italy’s Ferrero, lined up deal financing from Bank of America ( BAC.N ) and JP Morgan ( JPM.N ), said the source, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak with the media. JPMorgan declined to comment. Bank of America and Hershey could not be immediately reached for comment. (Reporting by Jessica Hall ) (For more M&A news and our DealZone blog, go to here ) © Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved Link: Hershey weighs $17 billion Cadbury bid – source

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* Rothschild’s Sachak bags Ferrero role * Hershey bankers include Buffett’s chosen Trott * Hershey and Ferrero considering joint Cadbury bid By Victoria Howley and Jessica Hall LONDON/PHILADELPHIA, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Akeel Sachak, global head of the consumer team at Rothschild, may get a seat at the table for this year’s sweetest deal after all. Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ), Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) and UBS ( UBSN.VX ) secured the coveted roles defending Cadbury ( CBRY.L ) against Kraft’s ( KFT.N ) $16.7 billion hostile offer, but the Rothschild rainmaker is now advising Italy’s Ferrero as it looks at the British chocolatier and could spark a bidding war. He’ll be in good company if U.S. chocolate maker Hershey Co ( HSY.N ), which is also considering a bid for Cadbury and has held talks with Ferrero about a joint offer, steps into the frame. Hershey’s advisers include Warren Buffett’s chosen banker Byron Trott and, for some proxy celebrity pizzazz, Jamie Grant, the older brother of actor Hugh Grant. “This is the situation everyone wants to be involved in. It is the biggest bid in London and the consumer sector. It is what everyone is talking about,” said a head of UK investment banking at a top London firm. Sachak, who joined Rothschild after leaving Oxford University, brings insight to his appointment for the secretive, family-owned Ferrero, the maker of Ferrero Rocher chocolates and Nutella chocolate spread. Ferrero has yet to make an acquisition in its 60-year history. Sachak has worked for Cadbury on a number of acquisitions and has advised other companies that have bought some of the confectioner’s assets. He helped Cadbury cement its position as one of the leading players in the high margin global gum business, when it gobbled up Turkey’s Intergum for $450 million in 2007. That experience could be vital if Ferrero plans to take Cadbury’s gum and candy division, a unit worth around $7.4 billion, according to media reports. He was also an architect of Cadbury’s purchase of Orangina for 700 million euros in 2001, which helped scale up the company’s French and German soft drinks business after Coca-Cola Co ( KO.N ) was blocked from buying the assets on competition grounds a year earlier. Sachak flipped sides five years later, advising private equity firms Blackstone Group and Lion Capital on the acquisition of Orangina for around $2.6 billion.   Continued… See the original post: Rothschild star and Buffett banker circle Cadbury

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NEW YORK (AP) — The safe-haven dollar kept rising Friday and Treasury yields hovered around their lows for the year as worries about the economy in 2010 continued to weigh on traders’ taste for risky bets. After Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in September 2008, setting off a global financial crisis, the dollar got a huge boost. Investors flooded into the dollar and Treasurys as stocks and commodity prices tumbled worldwide. The greenback has now given back all of those gains since the stock market rally in March. “Once we got there, we got the question: Where does U.S. dollar go now?” said David Watt, senior currency strategist at RBC Capital in Toronto. Investors are not as willing to take on risk right now as they were in spring, he said, which could be a prop up for the greenback. There is a chance the euro has peaked slightly above $1.50, said Bob Sinche, independent global strategist and former head of global foreign exchange strategy at Bank of America, even though there’s not much demand for dollars outside of the lure of safety. Big investors winding down their books for the year may also give the dollar a boost. On Friday, the 16-nation euro dropped to $1.4864 in midday trading in New York from $1.4919 late Thursday. Earlier this morning, the euro dipped below $1.48 for the first time since Nov. 3. Meanwhile, the British pound tumbled to $1.6505 from $1.6647, while the dollar dipped to 88.97 Japanese yen from 89.01 late Thursday in New York. The dollar had jumped on Thursday as investors sought safe havens following disappointing U.S. economic data. The government reported that jobless claims for the newly unemployed remained high, and another report showed more homeowners sinking into foreclosure. The Conference Board, a private research group, said its forecast of economic activity grew, but analysts said momentum was dropping and the U.S. would have slow, bumpy growth next year. Weaker economic news can support the dollar as investors cut their bets on more volatile stocks, commodities and emerging-market currencies and buy up the dollar and short-term U.S. Treasurys. The yield on the three-month T-bill circled zero. On Friday afternoon, the T-bill gave a 0.02 percent return after falling as low as 0.005 percent late Thursday, its weakest level in a year. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones industrials were down about 44 points at midday. But other analysts cautioned that two days of a stronger dollar didn’t make a trend. “There’s not a lot to speak well for the dollar,” said Sinche. The big trade deficit in the U.S. and record U.S. budget deficits, along with rock-bottom interest rates near zero for what the Federal Reserve says is an “extended period” have investors looking askance at the buck. Super-low interest rates make a currency less attractive, and investors tend to transfer funds to assets that earn higher returns. In other trading, the dollar rose to 1.0188 Swiss francs from 1.0133 francs, and gained to 1.0701 Canadian dollars from 1.0626. “Right now, traders are poised to buy dollars and sell euros,” said David Gilmore of Foreign Exchange Analytics in Essex, Conn. That’s the way trading momentum is at the moment as some investors start to worry about problems in the U.S. economy next year, he said. But “the bar is pretty high to throw in the towel on being long risk.” Follow this link: Dollar keeps gaining as traders pare risk exposure (AP)

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It looks like the Europeans are going to grab the reigns from Mr. Bernanke.  This should put a wrinkle in the global reflation trade.  This morning’s FX View from IB : The ECB’s omnipresent desire to avoid the pitfalls of inflation caused by excessive money growth caused its president, Jean Claude Trichet to serve up a warning earlier this morning that it must pursue an exit strategy. His words, while not exactly new, turned a mediocre equity market recovery on its head and have caused a surge in the value of the dollar at the prospect of a further amelioration of growth. The euro tumbled half a penny to $1.4808 while dollar gains are evident across the board. Mr. Trichet said that the ECB should gradually withdraw the emergency cash loans to the domestic banking system made during a time when a special situation demanded it. He seemed to be prescribing a clinical weaning program in order to prevent the private sector from becoming more addicted to the exceptional support provided by central banks. Yet as that process begins in December when the one-year maturity date comes due Mr. Trichet fully admits that, “It’s too early to declare that the crisis is over.” Referring to the recently improved health of the financial system he said that a “significant volume of official support underlies these developments.” This appears to be what is rattling markets this morning. While investors have spent the week rolling out lower-for-longer interest rate expectations, they are starting to get cold feet over the health of asset market rallies taking the line that stocks have come too far too soon and that if – only for safety’s sake – they should perhaps hold onto their dollars after all. The earlier tone was one of strength for the Japanese yen. The Nikkei Dow closed down for its fourth straight weekly loss with exporting companies complaining about the currency’s impact on overseas earnings. Meanwhile the Bank of Japan maintained its uncomfortable position sitting on a knife-edge. It credited a near-term improvement in the economy on its low interest rate setting at 0.1%, which it agreed to maintain at its meeting today. However, it also discussed the problematic acceleration of deflationary pressures that emerged alongside strengthening growth this week. According to the central bank the economy is suffering a mild deflationary phase due to weak corporate and domestic demand. In order to squeeze this unwanted process out of the economy, it urged the government to boost growth expectations and spending. For the government’s part it wants that Bank to buy more corporate bonds to add liquidity to the market. But as we all know, you can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. The upshot against a backdrop of weakening risk appetite in the region was for a stronger yen. It rallied sharply to the dollar to ¥88.67 before giving some back as the dollar moved from an early morning jpg to a sprint. The yen is currently at ¥89.00. Meanwhile the euro dropped to ¥131.93. The British pound slumped to its lowest reading since November 4th to $1.6460 as the dollar flexed this morning. Since that time the pound rose to $1.6876 as investors bought into an extension of the asset purchase plan announced by the Bank of England. Subsequent worries over the health of the banking system and fresh warnings today for the value of home prices are cramping its style today. The rising threat of capital controls across Asian nations whose governments reside over booming capital markets funded by cheap dollar loans is reaching a crescendo. So not only do we have an ongoing discussion over the absolute health of the global recovery, not to mention the outlook into 2010, but we also have worries that the side effects of the G7 solution is creating bubbles in asset prices across the emerging markets. The commodity dollars are taking this combination pretty hard, especially the Australian dollar, which has also matched the reversal seen in the British pound. At 90.91 U.S. cents the Aussie is well off its November peak at 94.00 cents. Meanwhile the Canadian dollar is feeling the risk aversion sentiment too as it declines to 93.35. Source: IB Read more: TRICHET COMMENTS REVERSE THE RISK TRADE

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FRANKFURT (AP) — The euro rose against the dollar Friday after reports out of the U.S. on employment and housing raised further fears that the economy would continue to be weak into 2010. The 16-nation euro rose to $1.4913 in European morning trade, up from the $1.4865 late Thursday in New York. The British pound was higher at $1.6642 compared with $1.6617, while the dollar rose slightly to 88.80 Japanese yen from 88.74 late Thursday in New York. On Thursday, the dollar had gained some ground as the government said jobless claims for the newly unemployed remained elevated. Another report showed more homeowners sinking into foreclosure. The Conference Board, a private research group, said its forecast of economic activity grew — but analysts said momentum was dropping and the U.S. would have slow, bumpy growth next year. Weaker economic news can support the dollar as investors move investments into its safety as a steady currency. But weaker economic news can also weigh against the dollar as investors seek out better returns. Higher interest rates in Europe and some economic improvements there have contributed to the euro’s gains in recent weeks. Still, U.S. economic activity is picking up, according to The Philadelphia Fed’s General Activity Index, Wells Fargo analysts said. That should help the dollar. The November “general activity index rose 5.2 points to 16.7, higher than consensus expectations,” Wells Fargo said in a Thursday research note. “The future general activity index moved lower to 36.8, but the underlying trend (12-month moving average) continued to increase, likely indicating that manufacturers are still optimistic about future business conditions.” Continue reading here: Euro higher to $1.4913 in European morning trade (AP)

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MILAN (Reuters) – Italian chocolate maker Ferrero could be interested in Cadbury’s (LSE: CBRY.L – News ) gum and candy division, a unit worth about 5 billion euros ($7.4 billion), in a possible joint takeover bid, business daily Il Sole 24 Ore said on Friday. Reuters – Workers walk past a logo in Cadbury’s Bournville factory in Birmingham, central England, October 7, 2008. REUTERS/Darren Staples … {”s” : “hsy,kft”,”k” : “c10,l10,p20,t10″,”o” : “”,”j” : “”} Unlisted Ferrero and U.S.-based Hershey Co (NYSE: HSY – News ) are considering a joint offer for the British confectioner, which is the target of a hostile bid from Kraft Foods Inc (NYSE: KFT – News ). A Hershey-Ferrero takeover would have the goal of breaking up Cadbury, with Ferrero ending up with the gum and candy division, Il Sole said, citing unnamed sources. The controlling Ferrero family would like the division alone since it has historically shown it has little interest in sharing management. The family should meet advisers Mediobanca (Milan: MDBI.MI – News ) and Rothschild (ROT.UL) in coming days to discuss a possible deal, the newspaper said. Italy’s two biggest banks, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (Milan: ISP.MI – News ) and UniCredit SpA (Milan: CRDI.MI – News ), could be among those interested in financing the deal. However, Ferrero would like to take on little debt in a possible takeover, Il Sole 24 Ore said. Bank financing would pay for about half of Ferrero’s bid. (Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by David Holmes) ($1=.6722 Euro) Read more: Ferrero could eye Cadbury gum, candy unit: report (Reuters)

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LONDON (Reuters) – Five major private equity groups are among the first-round bidders for discount retailer Matalan MTLAN.UL, which is being auctioned with an estimated price tag of about 1.5 billion pounds ($2.50 billion). TPG TPG.UL, Blackstone ( BX.N ), Warburg Pincus WP.UL and BC Partners BCPRT.UL have submitted indicative bids for the privately-owned Matalan, which has shown resilience in the global economic downturn as consumers became more price conscious, the Financial Times reported. Advent International, whose investments include British budget store chain Poundland and German fashion retailer Takko, has also bid. If successful, Richard Baker, the former head of Boots and an operating partner at Advent, could be a contender for the chief executive position. Matalan founder John Hargreaves owns the company with his family and could gain hundreds of millions of pounds if a sale went through. Hargreaves took the chain private in an 817 million pound deal in 2006. If Matalan sells for 1.5 billion pounds, that would value the company at more than 10 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of 145 million pounds in the year to February 28. The board met to discuss the initial offers on Thursday. “Discussions are ongoing and no further announcement is expected until the new year,” Matalan told the Financial Times. Matalan could not be reached immediately for comment. (Reporting by Sharon Lindores; Editing by Bernard Orr) ($1=.6002 Pound) © Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved See original here: Private equity firms vye for Matalan: report

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Today’s FX View from IB : Overnight comments in Asia from two Fed officials served to expand upon Monday’s keynote speech at the Economic Club of New York in which chairman Bernanke discussed the falling dollar. Dallas Fed president, Richard Fisher noted that the value of the dollar was but one of the inputs when setting policy and that a gradual decline was not likely to lead to inflationary pressures. His fear for a sub-3% growth rate next year was compounded by a more optimistic OECD assessment for global growth, but one that only raised U.S. GDP for 2010 to 2.5%. Risk aversion is taking root once again today and is being played out in firming dollar and yen prices. It has to be said that it is neither the ambivalence of either of the Fed speakers nor is it the prospect of firmer growth from the OECD that have boosted the value of the dollar overnight. Rather a 1.3% slide in Japan’s Nikkei Dow index overnight appears to be weighing on sentiment. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong was also down by 0.9%. Negative sentiment seems to have sparked selling following an earlier in the week announcement from Mitsubishi UFJ that it would raise $11.2 billion through the sale of additional stock. Banking shares are looking less attractive as capital adequacy requirements prove more onerous. The pessimistic tone to Asian financial companies and a warning over the health of the British banking sector today confirms the negative tone and is dollar and yen supportive. The dollar rose to $1.4850 per euro ahead of the Conference Board’s leading indicator report, which should continue to point to economic growth six months forward. Meanwhile the Philadelphia Fed will also report on the state of the local manufacturing sector and we expect to see a fourth straight monthly expansion. Philly Fed chairman, Charles Plosser spoke to journalists after a speech in Singapore and sounded sanguine over the dollar’s position. His comments reflected surprise at the dollar’s current value and said that there was no reason to expect the dollar to not revert to its pre-crisis state, and since that’s precisely where we are, why the panic? He makes a good point we feel and so long as there is no blood on the streets – as was the case when equity prices sagged throughout the crisis – then we should expect an orderly decline. The dollar index is up by 0.4% at 8am ET with S&P 500 index futures showing a pre-market buckling for stocks of 9.25 points in early trade. The British pound is off by a penny against the dollar at $1.6644 and is little changed per euro at 89.30 pennies after an executive at Experian Plc, the world’s largest credit-checking company said he doubted that credit write downs at banks had peaked and that the state of Britain’s banks was the worst anywhere in the world. The Japanese yen was strong across the board as the latest bout of risk aversion swept the globe. It gained against the dollar, which today buys fewer yen at ¥88.88 and its rise to ¥132.11 makes for its strongest performance in two weeks. The leader of European area finance officials, Jean Claude Juncker attempted to remove discussion of 2010 stimulus removal from the table today. He noted that to do so would “weaken the economy and could have negative consequences.” While this underscores the less than robust nature of Eurozone recovery there is also the added threat of euro strength to consider looking ahead. In addition an OECD report today predicts that both the Fed and the ECB will leave monetary policy alone through the end of 2010. Over the course of the next year it predicts that the Fed will recapture a yield advantage by raising rates more aggressively from zero to 2.5% while the ECB doubles its short rate to 2%. While it’s still too early to state definitively that today’s forex action is shaped by such distant notions we can say that over time such expectations are factored into traders’ expectations. Like other commentators bearish of the dollar, we admit to being slightly disappointed by the euro’s failure to rally above $1.50 in the present climate, but we do see it as premature to throw in the towel on the longer term decline in the dollar. That’s more than likely a story for 2010. Feeling the cold shoulder today are the commodity dollars, which shouldn’t come as any surprise given risk aversion. The Aussie dollar still seems to be suffering from dwindling expectations for a December rate rise following sanguine wage growth data. In early New York trade the Aussie is quoted at 91.77 U.S. cents. Meanwhile Canada’s dollar is quoted at 94.17 U.S. cents. Source: IB Read more: COMMODITY DOLLARS GET THE COLD SHOULDER

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Rick Alexander has been a broker and analyst in the futures business for over thirty years. He is a Vice-President for Sales and Trading at the Zaner Group (zaner.com) a Chicago-based futures brokerage firm. Comments for Thursday, November 19, 2009 Looking Ahead to Today by Reflecting Back at Wednesday’s Price Action METALS: Higher closes yesterday for copper, gold, silver and platinum. Copper made a new recent high and close although settling near the lower end its trading range just like the silver and gold did. Gold made a new CONTRACT HIGH AND CLOSE while silver made a new recent high and close before both settled near the lower end of todays trading range as mentioned above. Platinum made a new CONTRACT HIGH before settling lower in reversal type action. Of course, all of the metals continue to be in strong bull markets overall. CURRENCIES: Higher for the Euro fx and Swiss franc while lower for the dollar index, British pound, Canadian and Aussie dollar along with the Japanese yen. The euro and franc continue to be in long-term up-trends with the latter looking stronger than the former but both in choppy action at this time. The yen made a new recent higher before selling off to close lower in reversal type action but still should test its higher sooner than later. The Canadian dollar also settled lower still in an uptrend overall with support under 9400 basis the December contract but needing to close over 9600 to help verify a continuation of its move higher. The pound and Aussie dollar also settled lower but are both still is in strong uptrends. The dollar finally had a strong close but continues to look very bearish overall. FINANCIALS: Higher settlements on Wednesday for the Eurodollars but lower for the notes and bonds. However, we have a little of everything off of today’s action. The Eurodollar made a new CONTRACT HIGH AND CLOSE while the bonds made a new recent high before settling lower in reversal type action. The notes just closed lower but are in a small BULL PENNANT. However, the overall results are still higher for all of the financials. See the balance of my morning comments, including the Metals, Softs, Energies and Grains, at my website. For my complete coverage, visit my commentary page at markethead.com. The information in this Report and the opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. Neither the information nor any opinion expressed constitutes a solicitation by Rick Alexander or the Zaner Group of the purchase or sale of any futures or options. Futures and options trading is speculative in nature and involves risks. Spread trading is not necessarily less risky than outright positions. Futures and options trading is not suitable for all investors. For more trading strategies, go to TradingMarkets.com/reports. Original post: What’s Up, What’s Down: Metals in Bull Market, Dollar Bearish (TradingMarkets.com)

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By Pablo Gorondi, The Associated Press Oil prices slipped below US$79 a barrel Thursday amid mixed signals over the strength of the global economic recovery. By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for December delivery was down 68 cents to $78.90 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 44 cents to settle at $79.58 on Wednesday. “The resistance to oil sustaining above the $80 level is very strong. There are signs of economic recovery but so far, the signals have been mixed and the sustainability of the recovery is uncertain,” said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with consultancy Purvin&Gertz in Singapore. Crude prices have zigzagged around $79 a barrel for more than a month. “While economic news has been mostly positive the poor fundamentals of the oil market are limiting the upside,” said analysts at JBC Energy in Vienna. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Thursday raised its forecasts for growth in the world’s developed economies in 2010, but said recovery would remain fragile. “The recovery is tepid because economic activity is being held back by households and businesses repairing their finances and reducing their debts,” the OECD said, adding that the jobless rate likely would peak in the first half of 2010 in the United States, while unemployment in the countries using the euro could start to fall only in 2011. Earlier, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that the country’s stockpile of crude oil fell by 900,000 barrels last week. But the drop was hardly a sign of a recovering economy. American petroleum consumption has fallen to the lowest level since July 17, and oil companies are importing much less oil as they scale back their refining operations. The Commerce Department separately said construction of homes and apartments fell 10.6 per cent in October to an annual rate of 529,000 – well below the pace of 600,000 that economists expected. Despite weak demand from consumers and doubts over the economic recovery, Shum said crude prices are expected to remain within the low $70 and high $80 range. A weak dollar continued to be a boost for the crude price as investors seeking a dollar hedge and better returns will continue to buy commodities such as oil and gold, he said. The price of crude, which is traded in the U.S. currency, tend to rise as the dollar falls and investors holding strong international currencies get more buying power. On Thursday, the euro fell to $1.4844 in European trade, down from the $1.4940 in late Wednesday in New York, the British pound fell to $1.6621 from $1.6718 and the dollar fell to 88.90 Japanese yen from 89.48 yen. A report on energy markets by Sucden Research in London said that milder weather than usual for this time of year in the United Stated – which could lead to less use of heating oil, for example – was also a cause of concern regarding crude oil demand levels. In other Nymex trading, heating oil fell 1.36 cents to $2.0350 a gallon. Gasoline for December delivery was down 1.24 cents to $1.9990 a gallon. Natural gas for December delivery fell 5.8 cents to $4.196 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, Brent crude for January delivery dropped 77 cents to $78.70 on the ICE Futures exchange. – Associated Press writer Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report. View original post here: Oil falls below $79 in European trade amid mixed signals about the global economic recovery

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(Reuters) – BofA Merrill Lynch lowered its 2010 growth forecast for global semiconductor industry and downgraded ten chipmakers, including Intel Corp (NasdaqGS: INTC – News ), turning more cautious on the group on expectations of a modest overshoot in global supply chain inventories. {”s” : “intc,lsi,mchp,mrvl,mxim”,”k” : “c10,l10,p20,t10″,”o” : “”,”j” : “”} “While we believe the correction will likely prove short and shallow, we think any hint of a correction in the supply chain could punish (semiconductor) stocks,” BofA Merrill wrote in a note to clients. The brokerage downgraded Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, to “neutral” from “buy,” and made similar rating changes to rivals LSI Corp (NYSE: LSI – News ), Marvell Technology Group Ltd (NasdaqGS: MRVL – News ), Texas Instruments Inc (NYSE: TXN – News ) and Dutch chip equipment maker ASML Holding NV (Amsterdam: ASML.AS – News ). BofA Merrill, which cut its 2010 growth estimate for the sector to 18 percent from 21 percent, also downgraded Microchip Technology Inc (NasdaqGS: MCHP – News ), Maxim Integrated Products Inc (NasdaqGS: MXIM – News ), National Semiconductor Corp (NYSE: NSM – News ), Power Integrations Inc (NasdaqGS: POWI – News ) and British microchip designer ARM Holdings Plc (LSE: ARM.L – News ) by a notch each to “underperform. After a period of rapid replenishment of inventory as well as normalization of semiconductor shipments to “true” consumption levels, inventories in the supply chain are approaching a level that suggests a modest overshoot versus equilibrium levels, the brokerage said. “Barring a sharp upturn in the global economy, our indicators point to the potential for an inventory correction, thus rendering the risk-reward associated with ownership of chip stocks unattractive,” it added. In addition, recent indications from the Asia PC supply chain suggest a downward bias to PC build forecasts in the near-term, the brokerage said. Given the importance of PC sales to semiconductor sales, more than 40 percent of which are directly or indirectly linked to PCs, the weakness in the PC supply chain cannot be ignored, BofA Merrill said. The brokerage revised its price targets on European semiconductor stocks to reflect the risk of negative news flow in the coming quarters. Despite the brokerage’s cautious view on the sector, it still expects continued growth in electronic end demand in conjunction with an economic recovery. Global semiconductor sales in the third quarter rose 19.7 percent sequentially, the Semiconductor Industry Association said earlier this month, as it forecast an upbeat full-year sales. Intel shares were down nearly 3 percent in pre-market trade Thursday, after closing at $20.12 Wednesday. Shares of ASML slid 4 percent to 20.52 euros and ARM was down 3 percent at 162.6 pence by 1134 GMT Thursday. (Reporting by Tenzin Pema in Bangalore; Editing by Anil D’Silva) See the rest here: BofA Merrill cuts ‘10 global semiconductor growth view (Reuters)

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* Profit taking hits miners, banks and oils * Public Sector debt, retail sales figures miss estimates * Reckitt rises on report of Colgate interest By David Brett LONDON, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Britain’s top share index was down 0.6 percent mid-session on Thursday, dragged lower by heavyweight commodity and banking stocks, which offset gains made by defensive stocks as risk appetite waned. At 1208 GMT, the FTSE 100 .FTSE was down 29.78 points at 5312.35, after closing 0.1 percent lower on Wednesday. Miners were the biggest drag on the index as metal prices eased and investors took profits. Eurasian Natural Resources ( ENRC.L ), Xstrata ( XTA.L ), Rio Tinto ( RIO.L ), Antofagasta ( ANTO.L ), Anglo American ( AAL.L ) and Vedanta Resources ( VED.L ) fell 1.8 to 4.9 percent. “It is time we had some sort of a correction. If you look at what’s happening in New York with the equity futures, which are quite low, we can’t really be that surprised that we’re coming down on a corresponding basis,” said David Buik, senior partner at BGC Partners. Poor outlooks from software makers and a surprising drop in home construction last month dented momentum in U.S. and Asian markets overnight. In the UK, the Office for National Statistics said the public sector had a net cash requirement of 5.899 billion pounds last month, nearly twice the expectations. Separately, the ONS said British retail sales rose 0.4 in October, slightly below forecasts of 0.5 percent. “There’s been a bit of a reality to check, but to be honest I though it would have kicked in sooner … We’ve reached dizzying heights. It appears this market sees every dip as a buying opportunity,” said Philip Gillett, sales trader at IG Index. The banking sector was generally lower. Europe’s largest bank HSBC ( HSBA.L ) shed 0.9 percent. Barclays ( BARC.L ) and Royal Bank of Scotland fell 1.1 and 0.1 percent, respectively. Lloyds Banking Group ( LLOY.L ) gained 0.7 percent after the Daily Telegraph reported the bank had received state aid approval from Europe for its planned restructuring. Energy stocks also edged lower. Royal Dutch Shell RDSA.L, Cairn Energy ( CNE.L ), Tullow Oil ( TLW.L ) and BP ( BP.L ) were down 0.2 to 1.1 percent.  Continued… Read the original: Commodities, banks drag FTSE down, Reckitt up (at Reuters)

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LONDON, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Britain’s FTSE 100 .FTSE is seen opening flat to 5 points lower on Thursday, or down as much as 0.1 percent, as investors are expected to stay cautious following weakness on Wall Street overnight and falls in Asian stocks. The blue-chip index closed 0.1 percent lower on Wednesday at 5,342.13, hovering near a 14-month high hit earlier in the week. Stocks on Wall Street broke three days of gains following worrisome outlooks from software makers and a surprising drop in home construction last month. Japan’s Nikkei .N225 hit a four-month low and elsewhere in Asia stocks were pressured by doubts over the pace of economic recovery. On the economic front, investors will keep an eye on British retail sales data for October at 0930 GMT. Analysts forecast a monthly rise of 0.5 percent against a flat reading in September and an annual rate at 2.9 percent compared to 2.4 percent year-on-year in September. British public sector net borrowings for October is also expected to gain some attention at 0930 GMT, following last month’s reading which showed public finances suffered their worst six months on record between April and September. Economists expect borrowing to come in at 6.1 billion pounds ($10.26 billion) in October compared to 14.8 billion pounds in September. Across the Atlantic, data set for release include the weekly U.S. jobless claims at 1330 GMT. * GLOBAL MARKETS-Recovery doubts grow: Japan stocks 4-mth low [ID:nSP461853] * US STOCKS-Wall St dips as tech outlook and housing take toll[ID:nN18129862] * Nikkei hits 4-month closing low as banks fall [ID:nTKW006647] * Dollar steady after slip, processes Fed rate comment [ID:nT197525] * TREASURIES-Steady to firmer in Asia as stocks fall [ID:nT246220] * Crude drifts lower; watching dollar, US weather [ID:nSP484907] * PRECIOUS-Gold inches down a day after topping $1,150/oz [ID:nT326689] * METALS-Copper dips on U.S. data, but sentiment upbeat [ID:nMAN418794] * METALS-Shanghai copper up, market awaiting directions [ID:nSHA213320] UK stocks to watch on Thursday are: LLOYDS BANKING GROUP ( LLOY.L ) The lender has received state aid approval from Europe for its planned restructuring unveiled earlier this month, the Daily Telegraph reported. Lloyds is raising 13.5 billion pounds in a rights issue and nine billion pounds by converting debt into hybrid capital instruments. BP ( BP.L ) TNK-BP is likely to approve Mikhail Fridman to remain as acting chief executive of the oil joint venture between BP and a group of Russian tycoons until 2011, the Financial Times reported. LEGAL & GENERAL ( LGEN.L ) The board of Legal & General has identified its preferred candidate to succeed Sir Rob Margetts as chairman and is likely to make an announcement within days, the Financial Times reported. HAMMERSON ( HMSO.L ) Hammerson has emerged as Lloyds Banking Group’s preferred buyer for a shopping centre near Glasgow being sold by the bank after the original owner defaulted on its loan, the Financial Times reported. MORRISON SUPERMARKETS ( MRW.L ) The supermarket firm releases a trading update. SABMILLER ( SAB.L ) The drinks group reports first-half results. NATIONAL GRID ( NG.L ) The utility firm reports first-half results. PENNON GROUP ( PNN.L ) The water utility firm reports first-half results. DERWENT LONDON ( DLN.L ) The property group releases a third-quarter trading update. HALFORDS ( HFD.L ) The retailer reports first-half results. INVESTEC ( INVP.L ) The investment bank and asset manager reports first-half results. CHAUCER HOLDINGS ( CHU.L ) The insurance group releases a trading update. PREMIER OIL ( PMO.L ) The oil explorer releases trading update. AEGIS GROUP ( AEGS.L ) The marketing group releases a trading update. PAYPOINT ( PAYP.L ) The electronic payments firm reports first-half results. MORGAN CRUCIBLE COMPANY ( MGCR.L ) The industrial materials firm reports third-quarter results. TODAY’S UK PAPERS > Financial Times [PRESS/FT] > Other business headlines [PRESS/GB] Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * BridgeStation: view story .134 For more information on Top News visit topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Harpreet Bhal) © Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved Continue reading here: UK Stocks — Factors to watch on Nov 19 (at Reuters)

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By David Jones and Brad Dorfman Reuters – A worker stacks bars of chocolate at Cadbury World in Birmingham, central England, October 7, 2008. REUTERS/Darren Staples … {”s” : “cbry.l,hsy,kft”,”k” : “c10,l10,p20,t10″,”o” : “”,”j” : “”} LONDON/CHICAGO (Reuters) – Italy’s Ferrero and U.S.-based Hershey Co are considering a bid for chocolatier Cadbury Plc (LSE: CBRY.L – News ), but Kraft Foods Inc (NYSE: KFT – News ) is still seen as the front-runner with its $16.8 billion hostile offer. Hershey (NYSE: HSY – News ) and family-owned Ferrero, the maker of Nutella chocolate spread, both said separately on Wednesday they were reviewing a possible bid, but gave no assurance that they would make an offer for the British confectioner. The two were asked by the UK Takeover Panel to clarify their intentions after Reuters and other media reported that they were discussing a joint bid, news which pushed Cadbury’s shares to their highest level in nearly a month. Meanwhile Kraft locked in financing agreements with lenders backing its bid, a strategy likely to thwart counter offers, according to Reuters Loan Pricing Corp. Cadbury said it would give proper consideration to “any serious offer that delivers full value for the company,” but stressed it has yet to see such a bid. Cadbury Chairman Roger Carr has dismissed Kraft’s offer as “derisory.” The Ferrero and Hershey statements gave no hint that they might be working together on a joint bid. Analysts and investors doubt the two could rival the hostile cash-and-share offer from Kraft, though Cadbury could use the interest to extract a higher bid from Kraft. “What it means for Kraft is if they are going to want to sign, seal and deliver this, they are going to have to up their bid,” said Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo. Investors also expressed doubts. “It’s a very long shot, and we would be very surprised if they got involved,” said one top-10 Cadbury investor speaking on condition of anonymity, referring to Hershey and Ferrero. Cadbury shares rose above 800 pence for the first time in almost a month to a high of 802-1/2p before easing to 797.6p, up 1.2 percent. The shares traded at more than a 10 percent premium to Kraft’s offer, currently valued at 721p. Kraft shares ended the day’s trade down 1.4 percent to close to $27.26 and Hershey shares closed down more than 2 percent to $37.63. KRAFT CONFIDENT IN OFFER A Kraft spokeswoman said the Oreo cookie and Velveeta cheese maker stood by its offer on Wednesday, but declined to comment further on the company’s strategy. Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld had so far succeeded in lowering Cadbury investors’ hopes for a big sweetener to the deal. “We remain confident that we are absolutely the best, most logical partner for Cadbury,” spokeswoman Perry Yeatman said. Kraft has signed exclusivity agreements with the banks financing its bid, Reuters Loan Pricing Corp reported, citing unnamed sources. The exclusivity agreement prevents the banks in Kraft’s 5.5 billion pounds, 364-day bridge loan from jumping ship to finance any rival bidders. The unusual move to sign exclusivity agreements with the lenders is likely to thwart counter offers by locking in more and more banks into its loan agreement, thereby limiting the lending universe available to potential rival bidders, according to RLPC. Whatever shape a potential deal takes, it would shake up the global candy market. Cadbury had about 10.2 percent of that market in 2008, trailing only Mars Inc, which had a 14.5 percent share, according to Euromonitor International. Kraft, Hershey and Ferrero are closely lumped at fourth through sixth place, with shares of 4.7 percent, 4.6 and 4.5 percent, respectively. Antitrust regulators will likely look closely at any combination, delaying a possible deal for months, said John Briggs, antitrust lawyer at the New York law firm Axinn Veltrop and Harkrider LLP. “If Hershey and Ferrero go together, that would be a double risk,” he said. But if Kraft wins Cadbury, Hershey could shrink. It now has the license to sell Cadbury products in the United States. HERSHEY BOUND BY TRUST, FERRERO BY SECRECY If Hershey came in as part of a counterbid, Kraft would be battling with one of its former executives, David West, who is now Hershey’s CEO. West left Kraft in 2001 and worked under yet another former Kraft executive, Richard Lenny, before replacing Lenny as Hershey CEO in 2007. Ferrero-Hershey would have to fund the bid with debt rather than equity, as Ferrero is privately owned and Hershey is controlled by a charitable trust. Smaller than Cadbury and with relatively high debt, Hershey’s status as subject to the Hershey Trust complicates a deal. “The Hershey Trust needs to ensure that it can meet its charitable purposes and protect its long-term income…It will probably act conservatively and won’t want to see Hershey ovrpay and take on a lot of leverage for an acquisition,” said a lawyer at a top-10 London law firm. Ferrero has made no acquisitions in its 60-year history and has built a reputation for secrecy. “The company doesn’t tell us anything, total reserve reigns. Up until a few years ago, there wasn’t even a sign saying Ferrero on the Alba factory,” said one employee in the factory car park in Alba, Italy. JP Morgan is advising Hershey and is likely to provide financing to support its client, while Rothschild is advising Ferrero, according to sources close to the situation. Kraft first disclosed its cash and shares offer for Cadbury in early September, and the rebuffed U.S. group turned hostile with its bid on November 9, with Cadbury again rejecting it. Most analysts and investors expect Kraft to have to raise its bid for Cadbury to 800p or above to succeed. Kraft has up to December 7 to publish its official offer document, which would then trigger a 60-day bid timetable under UK takeover rules. That would give Ferrero-Hershey until early February to come up with any rival bid for Cadbury. ($1.68=1 pound) (Additional reporting by Paul Hoskins, Rhys Jones, Raji Menon, Victoria Howley and Diane Bartz, editing by Michele Gershberg, Gerald E. McCormick, Leslie Gevirtz and Carol Bishopric) Read the r est here: Ferrero, Hershey mull Cadbury bid, Kraft seen No.1 (Reuters)

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HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The chief financial officer of United Technologies Corp. said Wednesday the industrial conglomerate will likely boost profit next year even as revenue remains flat. CFO Greg Hayes also said at an analysts conference that the parent company of Otis elevator, jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky Aircraft and other businesses is boosting restructuring costs this year to $800 million from $750 million. That includes the elimination of 14,000 jobs. He backed the company’s earnings guidance for 2009 at $4.10 per share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect earnings for the year to be $4.11 per share. Hayes said cost-cutting “gives us confidence we will grow earnings in 2010, high confidence in that even with revenues that will probably be flattish.” United Technologies’ commercial construction and aerospace businesses will continue to have a “tough go of it,” though he said the conglomerate, based in Hartford, expects growth in the fourth quarter in the Carrier heating, ventilating and air conditioning and other residential businesses. United Technologies announced last week it will buy General Electric Co.’s fire detection and electronic security business for $1.82 billion in a deal to expand its similar operations in North America. Hayes said it was United Technologies’ largest purchase since it bought Kidde, a British fire and safety company, in 2005 for about $3 billion “It’s a fair price and a great business fit,” he said. Shares edged down 97 cents, or about 1.4 percent, to $68.57 in afternoon trading. Read more from the original source: United Technologies sees 2010 profit rise (AP)

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TORONTO (Reuters) – Teck Resources has warned customers there will be an “impact” on lead shipments due to the temporary shutdown of a furnace at its Trail, British Columbia, facility for repairs, a company spokesman said on Wednesday. Production of lead will likely fall by around 6,000 tonnes to about 79,000 tonnes this year, assuming repairs to the furnace go as planned, said Richard Deane, a spokesman for the Trail smelter and refinery operations. “We’ve had to advise some customers of an impact on our lead shipments as a result of this, but the amount is not expected to be material,” he said. The Vancouver, British Columbia-based metals producer idled the furnace on November 10 following an equipment failure, and expects repairs to take a total of three weeks. The refinery will continue to refine lead from inventory, which will reduce the impact of the shutdown, Deane said. Zinc production at Trail has not been affected, he said. The company’s shares were up 74 Canadian cents at C$36.63 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. ($1=$1.05 Canadian) (Reporting by Cameron French; editing by Rob Wilson) Read more: Teck idles Trail lead furnace, shipments affected

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