(BFW) El Al Israel Airlines to Allow Cancellations on Terrorism: Globe

El Al Israel Airlines to Allow Cancellations on Terrorism: Globe
2014-07-09 19:42:04.828 GMT


By Theo Mullen
     July 9 (Bloomberg) -- Airline to allow passengers with
tickets to fly abroad between now and the end of next week to
cancel their booking or postpone their flight due to Operation
Protective Edge.
Link to Story: {NSN N8GMLLBE5TS1<Go>}

Link to Company News:{ELAL IT <Equity> CN <GO>}

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To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Theo Mullen at +1-404-507-1301 or
tmullen11@bloomberg.net

WSJ : Publicis Chief Solicits Strategy Proposals From Lieutenants

Publicis Chief Solicits Strategy Proposals From Lieutenants
Push Comes After Omnicom Deal Collapse and as Firm Gears Up to Find Successor to Lévy

Maurice Levy at the Freedom and Solidarity Forum in Caen, France, on June 5.
Publicis Groupe SA PUB.FR +1.24% Chief Executive Maurice Lévy has called on top managers to help him chart the company's future as the advertising giant looks to rebound from the collapse of its proposed $35 billion merger with Omnicom Group Inc. OMC +0.19%

Mr. Lévy, who also holds the chairman post, has asked executives to submit proposals for Publicis's new strategy by July 14, according to people familiar with the matter.

"The plan is to come up with ideas of what the new Publicis might be," said one of the people.

A spokeswoman for Publicis confirmed that the group's network CEOs have been invited to propose ideas and suggestions for the new strategic plan.

Mr. Lévy's summer deadline illustrates his urge to get the world's third-largest advertising company's priorities back on track after recently admitting that the group "lost time" during the pending merger with Omnicom. The 72-year-old executive has pledged to present a new strategy this fall to show how the company will assure growth in a world increasingly dominated by digital firms. At the same time, Publicis is gearing up to find a new CEO to replace its longtime leader.

Top executives are devising possible scenarios of how the company could or should be structured, notably to better function in digital advertising, the people familiar with the matter said. Ideas run from merging different creative agencies, to reorganizing the firm's many digital assets, to folding certain digital agencies into creative agency networks, some of the people said. They also have been asked to identify potential acquisition targets, which could be small or "game changing," said some of the people.

One rationale behind the Publicis-Omnicom merger was to give both more scale to better compete and negotiate with Web giants such as Google Inc. GOOG +0.86% and Facebook Inc. FB +3.41%

"Now that this chapter is closed, we need to make sure that Publicis can deliver on the goals announced before the merger plan," said one of the people.

The tie-up, announced with much fanfare about a year ago, was called off in May amid disputes over positions and power, as well as difficulties in getting tax and other regulatory approvals.

Three months before unveiling the blockbuster merger, Publicis said it aimed to improve its profit margin by between two and four percentage points by the end of 2018, from the 16.1% margin posted in 2012, mainly by boosting the share of revenue coming from emerging markets and digital ads.

Mr. Lévy will take the summer to evaluate the different ideas before presenting a new plan in September, according to the people. It is possible that he won't follow through on any of the suggested ideas, some of the people said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Lévy last month said he won't seek to stay on as CEO after next year and that the board will work on a succession plan from the end of the year, reopening the question of who will eventually replace him—a question that has been haunting the French group for years.

Insiders are struggling to figure out who within the company could succeed Mr. Levy, according the people familiar with the matter.

Having been entrusted with the power by Publicis's founder, Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, Mr. Lévy over nearly three decades has aggressively expanded a mainly French group into an ad behemoth with 62,000 staff in more than 100 countries.

Some Publicis insiders and analysts say one potential successor could be Arthur Sadoun, a 43-year-old Frenchman who was recently named CEO of Publicis Worldwide, the company's namesake and one of the largest creative ad agencies. Mr. Sadoun and Mr. Lévy already work closely together and the CEO spends much time giving him advice, according to some company insiders.

Mr. Sadoun started his career in advertising by founding a small ad business in Chile at age 21 and later rose through the ranks of Omnicom-owned agency TBWA before being hired by Mr. Lévy. He was the only senior executive to be promoted to a top job while the merger with Omnicom was pending, a sign that Mr. Lévy wanted to assure he was going to be on board in the merged group, analysts say.

Still, some insiders say that to stand a chance, Mr. Sadoun must prove his capabilities of heading a global operation while shoring up growth at Publicis Worldwide.

Jean-Yves Naouri, Publicis's operating chief who also ran Publicis Worldwide before Mr. Sadoun's promotion, has been cited in the past as a potential successor but his current prospects are unclear, some of the people familiar with the matter said. Another option could be for Mr. Levy to hire an outsider or appoint several people to share the CEO job, other people said.

A company spokeswoman said it wasn't up to Publicis management but to the supervisory board to decide on Mr. Levy's successor and that speculations about his succession were "wrong."

Mr. Lévy has outlined some of the criteria for the job. He said in a recent radio interview the person would have to be "international" and "capable of seeing far ahead" but that he wasn't simply looking for a "clone" of himself. Being French would be "preferable" he said, but not "absolutely necessary."

"If there is one thing that keeps me awake at night, it's this," he said.

Any successor will likely work closely with Mr. Lévy for some time as the executive said that he was ready to support the group in its transition to a new leader in whatever form it takes. "I'll even stay as doorman," he joked.

>>> NYMEX Energy Closing Prices

NYMEX Energy Closing Prices
* Aug crude oil fell $1.12 to $102.24/barrel
* Crude oil trended lower in negative territory today as inventory data put pressure on prices and reports indicated that the El Sharara oil field in Libya was restarted. Although crude oil inventories for the week ending July 4 fell by 2.37 mln barrels when consensus called for a draw of 1.7-2.2 mln, gasoline inventories had a build of 0.579 mln barrels (a draw of 0.2-0.4 mln barrels was anticipated). The energy component pulled back from its session high of $102.91 set at pit trade open and traded as low as $102.00. Unable to find buying support, it settled with a 1.1% loss.
* Aug natural gas fell 3 cents to $4.17/MMBtu
* Natural gas rose to a session high of $4.23 but gave up the gain and slipped back into negative territory in afternoon action. It settled just above its session low of $4.16, booking a loss of 0.7%.
* Aug heating oil settled unchanged at $2.87/gallon
* Aug RBOB fell 3 cents to $2.94/gallon

>>> MINUTES OF THE JUNE 17-18 FOMC MEETING: IOER AND REVERSE REPOS COULD BE USEF

MINUTES OF THE JUNE 17-18 FOMC MEETING: IOER AND REVERSE REPOS COULD BE USEFUL IN NORMALIZING POLICY; TAPER LIKELY TO CONCLUDE IN OCTOBER 

- Officials felt that using both the interest on excess reserves (IOER) and reverse repo facility could be used in policy normalization 
- Could end bond purchasing program following the October meeting if economic conditions are still positive; Committee agrees that final $15B taper likely in Oct 
- Many agree should end reinvestments of securities either at the time of or after Fed funds rate is increased, want to wind down reinvestments gradually 
- Some officials concerned about persistent low inflation, some officials expect faster inflation pickup or upside risk to inflation 
- labor conditions continued to improve. average wages have continued to rise but only at a modest rate 
- some concern about the softness in residential construction 
- notes that supervisory measures could be implemented if necessary to curb excessive risk taking 

- Most participants agreed that adjustments in the rate of interest on excess reserves (IOER) should play a central role during the normalization process. It was generally agreed that an ON RRP facility with an interest rate set below the IOER rate could play a useful supporting role by helping to firm the floor under money market interest rates. One participant thought that the ON RRP rate would be the more effective policy tool during normalization in light of the wider variety of counterparties eligible to participate in ON RRP operations. The appropriate size of the spread between the IOER and ON RRP rates was discussed, with many participants judging that a relatively wide spread--perhaps near or above the current level of 20 basis points--would support trading in the federal funds market and provide adequate control over market interest rates. Several participants noted that the spread might be adjusted during the normalization process. 
- Also discussed the appropriate time for making a change to the Committee's policy of rolling over maturing Treasury securities at auction and reinvesting principal payments on all agency debt and agency MBS in agency MBS. It was noted that, in the staff's models, making a change to the Committee's reinvestment policy prior to the liftoff of the federal funds rate, at the time of liftoff, or sometime thereafter would be expected to have only limited implications for macroeconomic outcomes, the Committee's statutory objectives, or remittances to the Treasury. Many participants agreed that ending reinvestments at or after the time of liftoff would be best, with most of these participants preferring to end them after liftoff 
- Labor market indicators generally showed further improvement. The unemployment rate, though lower, remained elevated. Household spending appeared to be rising moderately and business fixed investment resumed its advance, while the recovery in the housing sector remained slow 

>>> FOMC in no rush to raise fed funds rate; door left open still for more QE if necessary

FOMC in no rush to raise fed funds rate; door left open still for more QE if necessary

• During their consideration of issues related to monetary policy over the medium term, participants generally supported the Committee's current guidance about the likely path of its asset purchases and about its approach to determining the timing of the first increase in the federal funds rate and the path of the policy rate thereafter. a number of participants noted their concern that a more gradual approach might be appropriate if forecasts of above-trend economic growth later this year were not realized. • A couple suggested that the Committee might need to strengthen its commitment to maintain sufficient policy accommodation to return inflation to its target over the medium term in order to prevent an undesirable decline in inflation expectations. • Alternatively, some other participants expressed concern that economic growth over the medium run might be faster than currently expected or that the rate of growth of potential output might be lower than currently expected, calling for a more rapid move to begin raising the federal funds rate in order to avoid significantly overshooting the Committee's unemployment and inflation objectives.

(BN) Airbus A330Neo Said to Move Ahead With View to Air Show Launch

Airbus A330Neo Said to Move Ahead With View to Air Show Launch
2014-07-09 15:36:57.859 GMT


By Andrea Rothman and Julie Johnsson
     July 9 (Bloomberg) -- Airbus Group NV is preparing to
announce more fuel-efficient engines for its A330 model at the
Farnborough Air Show next week as it seeks to extend the
lifespan of the popular wide-body jet, people with knowledge of
the plans said.
     The company wants to introduce the revamped model at the
world’s largest aviation expo, said the people, who asked not to
be identified because discussions remain private. Airbus, based
in Toulouse in southern France, has lined up a sufficient number
of early customers to proceed, including AirAsia Bhd and several
leasing companies, two of the people said, though a final go-
ahead requires approval from the company’s board.
     Airbus, which has open production slots for the twin-engine
A330 from 2016, was successful with a re-engined version of its
A320 single-aisle model, turning that aircraft into the fastest-
selling airliner in civil aviation after the launch. The A330
competes with Boeing Co.’s 787 Dreamliner, and while it doesn’t
boast cutting-edge technologies such as a fuselage made of
lighter carbon fiber, the aircraft is cheaper to purchase
because it’s been in service for 20 years.
     An Airbus spokesman said the company had no comment ahead
of an official decision.
     The current A330 has a choice of engines made by either
Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc, General Electric Co. and Pratt &
Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp., though Rolls-Royce
has won 80 percent of orders in recent years.
     Rejuvenating the A330 may make the aircraft a viable
alternative to Airbus’s planned A350-800, which has been selling
poorly and losing orders to the larger A350-900. Airbus has
encouraged customers to select bigger, more expensive models of
its new A350 wide-body, which will be handed over to its first
commercial customer this year.


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Top transport stories: TOP TRN <GO>
Stories on airline industry: NI AIR<GO>
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statistics

To contact the reporter on this story:
Andrea Rothman in Toulouse at +33-5-6365-7668 or
aerothman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
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bkammel@bloomberg.net
Christopher Jasper

FT : Event-driven hedge funds pull ahead

Hedge funds that trade on corporate dealmaking and agitate for change in boardrooms have been the winners in the first half of the year as managers that try to anticipate wider economic trends have suffered.
So-called event driven hedge funds, which broadly try to profit by making trades based on company specific deals such as takeovers and refinancing, returned 4.3 per cent in the first half, according to data compiled by HFR, outpacing overall returns of 3.2 per cent across all hedge fund strategies after fees.

The HFR data showed that the average manager failed to beat both US equities, as measured by the S&P 500 index, or the low fee Vanguard Total Bond Fund over the period.
Critics have long argued that hedge fund managers charge high fees to investors for low or inconsistent returns. The industry’s defenders have countered by arguing hedge funds provide returns that are not closely correlated with other assets, such as stocks or bonds.
In a generally mediocre year for many of the best known managers, the stand out performance in the first half came from activist investor Bill Ackman, whose Pershing Square fund has attracted attention for its aggressive short selling against US company Herbalife.
Pershing Square, which manages about $15bn of assets, returned 25 per cent up to the end of June, making it the world’s best performing large hedge fund in the first half.
Mr Ackman, whose attack against Herbalife placed him at odds with rival investors, most notably veteran activist Carl Icahn, was helped by his large stake in the pharmaceuticals company Allergan, which is subject to a hostile takeover offer by Valeant.
The “Offshore Fund” of Dan Loeb’s Third Point, which has also made headlines for its activist campaign against auction house Sotheby’s, was up by 6 per cent to the end of June, according to a letter to its investors.
The comparatively strong showing of event driven funds however was less than the 6.2 per cent return of the US S&P 500 index over the period, and down from a 5.6 per cent gain during the first half of last year.
While event driven and activist funds benefited from robust equity markets, hedge fund strategies linked to broader based bets on the global economy, known as global macro, have struggled.
The main fund of Brevan Howard is on course to post its first calendar year loss in its 10 year history, with its $26bn “Master Fund” off by 4 per cent at the start of June. Other well known macro managers such as Louis Bacon and Paul Tudor Jones have also struggled.
According to the HFR data, macro funds returned 1.1 per cent for the first half, up from an 0.94 per cent decline in the same period last year.
The data tracks a diverse number of hedge funds by size and strategy, meaning that funds that are not easily comparable, such as those focused on equities and those focused on commodities, are included in the overall performance numbers.