WSJ : WhatsApp Rival Line's Hefty Sticker Price

WhatsApp Rival Line's Hefty Sticker Price
Mobile Messaging Service Needs to Justify Its Valuation

With Facebook FB -4.61% having shelled out $19 billion for WhatsApp, anyone buying into chat apps should prepare for sticker shock. When it comes to Line, an Asia-based app, prepare for two of them.

Line, developed by Korean Web-search firm Naver, 035420.SE -1.62% is the dominant mobile messaging service in Japan, and is becoming the top player in Taiwan and Thailand. Whereas WhatsApp is essentially a pure messaging platform, Line is ahead in coaxing users to pay for mobile games and virtual stickers.

Don't scoff at Line's stickers: 1.8 billion were sent in a single day recently. Most are free, but users pay a dollar or two for poses of, say, Hello Kitty. Some young users are giving up on words altogether.

Line's revenue expanded more than tenfold last year to $545 million. China's Tencent Holdings TCEHY -5.85% says WeChat and a companion chat app, Mobile QQ, together brought in about $95 million from games in the fourth quarter. Yet it has a much larger user base.

Naver's stock has nearly tripled in the past year. Its core search and portal business is probably valued at about $6.8 billion, or 15 times estimated 2014 earnings, says Nomura's Eric Cha. The remaining $18.2 billion of Naver's market cap is the implied value of Line.

Line has 400 million registered users, up from 300 million in November. It doesn't detail monthly active users, the industry standard. But Nomura estimates these are a bit more than half the total; 210 million implies a value of $87 each. That is about double the $42 Facebook paid per WhatsApp user but on par with estimates for WeChat's valuation.

Some premium is justified given Line's monetization prowess. Yet relative valuations assume Facebook didn't overpay for WhatsApp, which is far from certain. Using the same assumptions, Line is valued at more than 33 times sales. It isn't clear if Line makes a profit. To justify that multiple, investors must hope Line's stickers and games aren't a fad, and it has to add new markets. Indonesia, once a BlackBerry stronghold, is a big one that is up for grabs.

But given the glut of competitors, a lot has to go extraordinarily right for Line at this valuation. The biggest red flag in this industry is that sticker shock just doesn't seem that shocking anymore.

FT : No reason to give France more time to cut deficit says commissioner

BRUSSELS, April 5 – There is no reason to further extend a European Union deadline for France to cut its budget deficit, the EU’s top economic official said on Saturday, adding policy makers should have learnt the lessons of the debt crisis and stuck to agreed rules.
In June last year Paris got two more years, until 2015, to bring its budget shortfall below the EU ceiling of 3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), from a 4 per cent gap the European Commission expects it to have this year.

But after a government reshuffle this week, France said that while it agreed the deficit should fall, it wanted to discuss the deadline again as slower cuts would help the economy grow.
Under new EU budget rules, made stricter during the sovereign debt crisis to prevent runaway state spending, if a country ignores EU deficit reduction deadlines it can be swiftly fined.
EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, the only person who can propose a deadline revision, said there were no grounds for it.
“If I refer to the Stability and Growth Pact (EU budget rules), a new extension could only be justified if there were unexpected adverse economic events with major unfavourable consequences for government finances,” Mr Rehn told Reuters.
“I don’t see that there have been such unexpected adverse economic events since last June. On the contrary, the euro zone economy has actually been experiencing a strengthening . . . recovery,” Mr Rehn said.
His comments echo remarks from the top conservative candidate for European Commission president, and the head of the German Bundesbank, who both came out against granting France more time to cut its deficit, warning such a move would set a dangerous precedent for other EU states.
Official figures released on Monday showed the French deficit strayed off target again last year, reaching 4.3 per cent of GDP instead of the planned 4.1 per cent.
The situation has some resemblance to a dispute from 10 years ago, when France and Germany prevented the EU’s executive arm from stepping up disciplinary budget action against them, even though they failed to cut deficits under the existing rules.
The dispute between the two biggest euro zone countries and the European Commission lead to a watering down of EU budget rules in 2005.
Some among European governments then drew the lesson that they did not need to take seriously the EU budget rules, which limit government deficits to 3 per cent of GDP and debt to 60 per cent of GDP, because disciplinary action has no teeth.
Many policy makers believe this “original sin”, of the two biggest euro zone countries not respecting EU budget rules and getting away with it, was at the foundation of the sovereign debt crisis that started in 2010 when Greece revealed how unsustainable its public finances had become.
The Greek budget deficit, already well above limits in 2005 at 5.2 per cent of GDP, grew steadily after that to 15.7 per cent in 2009.
The full extent of the problem went undetected earlier because the Greek government was falsifying statistics and other EU countries would not give the Commission the right to check the accuracy of government accounts.
Asked if there was a risk that a large country like France would again try to undermine the new, stricter budget rules, Mr Rehn said: “Precisely because the policy makers of the euro zone are aware of that risk and should have learnt the lesson, we need to make sure that we respect those reformed rules of the smarter Pact.”
This time, Paris does not have Germany on its side. Berlin, now a model of fiscal health, has repeatedly said France must stick to the promises it has made on the deficit.
Mr Rehn said that if it does, it would be to France’s benefit.
“Recent economic history shows that those who have been able to take good care of public finances are stronger economies and have better growth,” he said.
“If you look at Germany, at countries that have reformed rapidly and effectively like Ireland, or Latvia or even Spain, you see that an effective and rapid turnaround of fiscal policy brings better results than letting things drag on,” Mr Rehn said.
By the end of April, Paris has to send the European Commission its fiscal plans setting out how it wants to bring its deficit within that target.

FT : Global economic recovery ‘hinges on reforms’

Global economic recovery ‘hinges on reforms’

The recovery in the world’s leading economies is strengthening but concerted action by governments is needed to rebuild lost dynamism, according to the latest Brookings Institution-Financial Times tracking index.
With the upturn in advanced economies gathering momentum, and emerging markets cooling off after a nasty scare early in the year, global growth is steady, but the near-term prospects of a rapid acceleration remain small.

This stable but subdued outlook will intensify pressure on finance ministers and central bank governors at the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund this week to agree a co-ordinated plan to boost growth potential.
Eswar Prasad, an economist and senior fellow at Brookings, said: “The worst may be over, but prospects for a durable and sustained recovery hinge on whether national governments demonstrate their commitment to substantive structural reforms”.
The Tiger index – Tracking Indices for the Global Economic Recovery – shows that the global economy is “back on an even keel but remains bereft of a strong wind to fill its sails,” said Prof Prasad. Tiger combines measures of economic activity, financial variables and indicators of confidence, according to the degree to which they are all moving up or down at the same time. Using sophisticated statistical methods it can capture similar movements of data that are measured on a different basis and across many countries.
At the start of 2014, the overall level of the growth index dipped from levels reached at the end of last year but remains well above the scores in 2011 and 2012. Indicators of the strength of the recovery in real output for advanced economies are now considerably stronger than for emerging markets, suggesting that their recovery is more likely to endure.
The indicators of growth, however, are still below their levels in the immediate post-crisis period and in the long upswing before the global recession of 2008-09. Confidence indicators are back to pre-crisis levels, as indicated by buoyancy in many global stock markets.
The message from the Tiger index chimes with that of Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, who said last week that the “global economy is turning the corner of the Great Recession, although overall growth remains too slow and weak”.
At the IMF meetings in Washington, finance ministers of the Group of 20 leading economies will be urged to move faster in implementing structural reforms, including trade liberalisation, sufficiently powerful to raise global growth forecasts by 2 per cent by 2018.
This would imply 22 per cent growth over the next five years, rather than the 20 per cent forecast in the World Economic Outlook published by the fund in October. The IMF and the OECD club of mostly rich nations believe that this target is realistic and Australia has adopted it as its main ambition for its presidency of the world’s main economic club.
The IMF’s latest forecasts, which are about to be published, are likely to show a weaker outlook for emerging economies than thought in the second half of last year, alongside greater resilience in advanced economies, especially for the UK, where growth has been surprisingly strong.
The IMF has already added geopolitical concerns to its list of potential vulnerabilities that might throw the global economy off course this year. Its other main worries are low inflation, particularly in the eurozone, and the potential for monetary policy normalisation in rich countries to hit poorer countries hard.
US
The US economy is gaining strength as confidence is high, unemployment falling and the fiscal tightening of 2013 has eased. The US Federal Reserve has begun tapering its asset purchases, but monetary policy remains exceptionally loose.
Eurozone
No longer in intensive care, the eurozone still has chronic problems to fix in its economy. Growth prospects are exceptionally weak and inflation extremely low. The European Central Bank has been less interventionist than its global peers, but may be forced to do more.
China
China’s economy is slowing and the authorities face a dilemma between stoking up another credit-fuelled investment boom, which will hinder rebalancing towards domestic consumption, and risking a much more rapid slowdown than planned.
Japan
“Abenomics” is a year old and showing success in boosting inflation expectations. This month’s rise in consumption tax will test the resilience of the recovery, while there are few signs of long-lasting structural reforms.
India
India has shown its vulnerable side in 2013 and slowed markedly, but strong action by the central bank and the prospects of a new government have renewed confidence. The current account deficit has narrowed but growth prospects remain weak.
UK
A remarkable return to good growth last year confounded many of those sceptical about the UK’s ability to recover while reducing its deficit. The big questions now relate to a bubbly housing market and terrible productivity trends.

WSJ : Cement Mega-Firms Approve Merger, But It's Far From Set

Cement Mega-Firms Approve Merger, But It's Far From Set
European Cement Giants Lafarge, Holcim Envision Merger of Equals, But They Face Antitrust Hurdles

The boards of France's Lafarge SA and Switzerland's Holcim Ltd. have approved plans for a $50 billion merger that will create the world's largest construction materials company, said a person familiar with the matter.

The boards of both companies met separately on Saturday to discuss the merger and authorized it, the person said. Top Holcim executives are due in Paris on Monday when the merger is likely to be officially unveiled.

The planned tie-up could face lofty antitrust hurdles, as both Lafarge and Holcim are leading players in many markets around the world. The companies are prepared to sell assets to secure regulatory approval, said the person familiar with the matter.

If the deal is completed, the new company will be based in Switzerland and led by Lafarge Chief Executive Bruno Lafont, said the person. The company would have operating headquarters in Paris and in Switzerland.

The merger will be carried out through a Holcim public offer for Lafarge shares to be paid entirely in stock. Lafarge shareholders will be offered to swap each share they hold for a Holcim share.

All Lafarge board members approved the deal, the person said, including representatives of Belgian investment holding Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, which owns 21% in the company, and Nassef Sawiris, who represents Egypt's Sawiris family, which owns 13% in Lafarge.

Lafarge and Holcim said on Friday that they "believe that given the strong complementarity of their portfolio and the cultural proximity between the two companies, there is rationale in considering a potential merger that could deliver significant benefits to customers, employees and shareholders."

Holcim and Lafarge, the top two global cement makers, have battled both overcapacity and sluggish growth in European construction, which hasn't recovered from the debt crisis and the collapse of the Spanish housing market. They are also facing slowing building activity in some developing countries, where they have invested heavily.

By sharing facilities, the companies will be able to better coordinate production and shore up profit margins. A merger would also allow the combined company to accelerate their cost-cutting schemes, boosting profitability.

The European Commission, the European Union's executive arm and antitrust watchdog, is likely to give the deal a thorough review because of their overlapping market share, antitrust lawyers say.

The merged company would have combined sales of about $42 billion, dwarfing rivals including Germany's HeidelbergCement AG with sales of about $18 billion and Mexico's Cemex SAB with sales of about $15.2 billion.

WSJ : Sanpower Group Buys 89% of U.K.'s House of Fraser

Sanpower Group Buys 89% of U.K.'s House of Fraser

Formal Announcement of Deal is Imminent

LONDON—China's Sanpower Group Ltd. has agreed to buy House of Fraser, the 165-year-old British department-store chain, in a deal valuing the company at around £450 million ($746 million), according to a person familiar with the deal.

Sanpower, which is controlled by the multimillionaire entrepreneur Yuan Yafei, will buy an 89% stake in House of Fraser, the person said, adding that the terms of the deal had been agreed and a formal announcement was "imminent."

The deal puts an end to speculation surrounding closely held House of Fraser's future, after it searched for a buyer for more than two years.

During that time the retailer, which has 61 U.K. stores, has considered a flotation on the London Stock Exchange LSE.LN +0.30% and has held talks with various potential buyers, including France's Galeries Lafayette SA and Mike Ashley, the British sportswear billionaire who controls Sports Direct International SPD.LN +0.66% PLC.

Reports in the U.K. Sunday said Mr. Ashley had purchased the remaining 11% in House of Fraser for around £50 million. A spokeswoman for House of Fraser and a spokesman for Mr. Ashley didn't respond to requests for comment.

Sanpower owns the Nanjing Xinjiekou department store, one of China's oldest, as well as a number of retail companies listed in Shanghai. The House of Fraser deal is Sanpower's first investment in the U.K. retail sector.

Mr. Yuan, a former government official, founded the group in 1993 to invest in China's growing service industry, according to the company's website. Sanpower owned assets worth 50 billion yuan ($8 billion) at the end of 2012.

A spokesman for Sanpower didn't respond to requests for comment on the deal.

From its start in Glasgow in 1849, House of Fraser has grown to be an upmarket staple of British high streets. The company has annual sales of £1.2 billion and employs 7,300 people.

By agreeing to sell to Sanpower, House of Fraser becomes the latest high-profile British brand to be bought by a Chinese company. In 2012, Bright Food Group Co. bought Weetabix, "Britain's favorite breakfast cereal," for £1.2 billion, while Gieves & Hawkes PLC, the Savile Row tailor, was recently purchased by Chinese clothing company Trinity Ltd. 0891.HK 0.00%

Even London's taxis are now produced by a Chinese company. In 2012, Manganese Bronze Holdings, maker of the black London cab, was bought by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. for £11 million.

(BFW) Altice Says It Welcomes Vivendi’s Decision on SFR

Altice Says It Welcomes Vivendi’s Decision on SFR
2014-04-06 14:37:01.937 GMT


By Gregory Viscusi
     April 6 (Bloomberg) -- Altice will hold press conference
tomorrow in Paris after Vivendi yday said it accepted its offer
for SFR mobile phone unit.
  * SFR-Numericable group to be headquartered in France, listed
    on Paris stock exchange, company says in statement
  * Altice said it’s taken on “formal engagements” to
    guarantee employment levels at combined group
  * NOTE: Vivendi agrees to sell SFR to Altice in $23B deal

Link to Company News:ATC NA <Equity> CN <GO>
Link to Company News:EN FP <Equity> CN <GO>
Link to Company News:NUM FP <Equity> CN <GO>
Link to Company News:VIV FP <Equity> CN <GO>

For Related News and Information:
First Word scrolling panel: FIRST<GO>
First Word newswire: NH BFW<GO>

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Gregory Viscusi at +33-1-5365-5068 or
gviscusi@bloomberg.net

(BN) Holcim With Lafarge Said to Maintain Listings in Merger (1)

Holcim With Lafarge Said to Maintain Listings in Merger (1)
2014-04-06 13:13:48.132 GMT


     (Adds Lafont appointment in third paragraph.)

By Matthew Campbell, Francois de Beaupuy and Aaron Kirchfeld
     April 6 (Bloomberg) -- Holcim Ltd. and Lafarge SA, in talks
to create the world’s biggest cement maker to cut production
overcapacity and energy costs, plan to retain dual Swiss and
French stock-market listings and headquarters, according to
people familiar with the matter.
     An all-share merger, creating a company with $40 billion in
sales, will likely be announced as early as tomorrow, the people
said, asking not to be identified because discussions are
private. The companies are exploring a merger of equals that
would build on their “strengths and identities,” Jona,
Switzerland-based Holcim and Paris-based Lafarge said April 4
after Bloomberg News reported the discussions.
     Lafarge Chief Executive Officer Bruno Lafont will probably
be named to lead the combined company, the people said.
     A deal would let the two producers cut costs by combining
operations as some of the industry’s kilns run at a loss after
the recent global recession eroded demand. To improve returns
from plants with high energy consumption, Holcim in August
agreed to swap assets in Germany and the Czech Republic with
Monterrey, Mexico-based Cemex SAB, the biggest cement maker in
the Americas.
     Lafarge on Friday rose 8.9 percent in Paris, giving the
company a market value of 18.4 billion euros ($25.2 billion)
while Holcim gained 6.9 percent in Zurich, valuing the firm at
26.2 billion Swiss francs ($29.4 billion) after they confirmed
talks. Representatives for Lafarge and Holcim declined to
comment on any details of the merger beyond the company
statements.
     “There is still massive oversupply in the industry,” Ian
Osburn, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, said in an interview. A
deal would help Holcim and Lafarge to “cut a lot of costs and
dominate a few more markets.”

                       Regulatory Scrutiny

     An acquisition spree before the financial crisis, including
Lafarge’s 10.2 billion-euro purchase of Orascom Cement in 2008
and Holcim’s $4.1 billion deal for Aggregate Industries in 2005,
widened the dominance of both companies.
     A transaction may face scrutiny from regulators in markets
around the world, and Osburn said the companies would need to
sell assets in Europe and the U.S. The deal would face reviews
in Europe, especially in France, as well as in Spain and
Germany, he said, while regulators in Russia, Hungary and the
Czech Republic may also examine the transaction.
     Lafarge estimates in its 2013 annual report that last year
it had a cement market share of 34 percent in France, 40 percent
in the U.K. and 10 percent in Germany and Spain. It had a market
share of 12 percent in the U.S. and 7 percent in Russia. Holcim
didn’t provide market shares for individual markets.
     Holcim now employs 71,000 people in about 70 countries
while Lafarge has about 65,000 workers in 64 markets.

                            Cost Cuts

     News of the discussions on Friday lifted construction and
materials shares in Europe, helping the Stoxx Europe 600 Index
rise to a six-year high. Germany’s HeidelbergCement AG, the
world’s third-largest maker of cement, rose 4.3 percent in
Frankfurt.
     Holcim CEO Bernard Fontana became the first outsider to
lead Holcim when he joined the 102-year-old Swiss company in
February 2012. Drawing on his past experience of overhauling
steelmaker Aperam, the French national has embarked on a similar
cost-cutting program, using the same “Leadership Journey”
label he employed in his prior post.
     At 181-year-old Lafarge, Lafont has been slashing spending,
pushing sales of higher-margin services and selling assets to
repair a credit rating that has fallen one level below
investment grade amid a slump in European construction and
rising energy prices.

                          Improving Demand

     Lafarge’s 750 million-euro 4.75 percent notes rose as much
as 3 percent to 111 cents on the euro, based on data compiled by
Bloomberg. Moody’s Investors Service rates Lafarge Ba1 and
Holcim two levels higher at Baa2.
     At least four billionaires own shares in Holcim or Lafarge,
including Egypt’s richest person, Nassef Sawiris, Belgium’s
Albert Frere, Switzerland’s fourth-richest individual, Thomas
Schmidheiny, and Georgia-born Filaret Galchev, according to data
compiled by Bloomberg.
     Both companies said earlier this year that demand for their
offerings is improving amid a global economic recovery. Holcim
in February forecast improved cement shipments this year. The
same month, Lafarge reported earnings that beat analyst
estimates and also predicted rising demand.
     “This is traditionally the time when you’d see M&A in
these sectors in upswings, when profits and margins are
improving,” Cantor Fitzgerald’s Osburn said.

For Related News and Information:
Holcim Turns Toxic Dolls Into Cement as Waste Boosts Profit
NSN MTKKFS6JIJZQ <GO>
Holcim balance sheet: HOLN VX <Equity> FA BS CHART <GO>
Top Stories: TOP<GO>

--With assistance from Manus Cranny and Andrew Noel in London,
Jacqueline Simmons in Paris and Jeffrey McCracken in New York. 

To contact the reporters on this story:
Matthew Campbell in London at +44-20-3525-8684 or
mcampbell39@bloomberg.net;
Francois de Beaupuy in Paris at +33-1-5365-5051 or
fdebeaupuy@bloomberg.net;
Aaron Kirchfeld in London at +44-20-3525-8830 or
akirchfeld@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Simon Thiel at +44-20-7673-2814 or
sthiel1@bloomberg.net
Aaron Kirchfeld

FT : Fund managers coached like Olympians

Fund managers coached like Olympians

The star cycling coach who steered Britain to victory at the 2012 London Olympics has been enlisted by the world’s second-biggest hedge fund company to help enhance investment performance.
Shane Sutton, who trained Tour de France winner Sir Bradley Wiggins and Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy, has joined forces with investment consultancy Inalytics to offer motivational advice to its fund management clients.

Inalytics, which is known for its statistical analysis, has developed a training academy with Mr Sutton in the hope of providing fund managers “with the same mentality as athletes so they cope better with pressure and endurance”.
GLG, a division of Man Group, is the first fund company to sign up to the Trading Peaks academy. Man Group also recently signed up to a new software program that aims to create the perfect environment to help individual fund managers produce their best trades.
Mr Sutton is confident that the methods perfected by British Cycling will help fund managers to change entrenched patterns of behaviour.
“We work in a system that collates data and outputs on a daily basis,” he said. “Everything we produce is based on evidence – the numbers don’t lie – and that way you can’t fail.”
Although at first glance cycling and fund management do not seem particularly alike, Mr Sutton believes they are “near enough identical”.
There is doubt, however, about how effective the academy will be in the long term.
Amin Rajan, chief executive of fund consultancy Create Research, said: “These motivational speakers create a momentary glow, but it’s business as usual when people return to their desks. These sessions tackle the symptom but not the cause of demotivation at today’s workplace.”
Rick di Mascio, founder and chief executive of Inalytics, said: “The world of sport is 20 years ahead in terms of coaching techniques and use of data.”

FT : China funds suffer strong outflows

China funds suffer strong outflows

Investors pulled $1bn from China-focused funds in the first two months of the year as fears about the country’s slowing economy continued to affect investor appetite.
The withdrawals from Chinese equity funds in the US and Europe follow net redemptions of $5.4bn, $1.8bn and $5.1bn respectively in the three preceding years, according to figures from Morningstar, the data provider.

Haiyan Li-Labbé, China analyst at French fund house Carmignac, said that concerns about China are unlikely to ease given the slowdown in Chinese property sales.
She added: “The [government’s] anti-corruption drive is impacting not only consumption but also fixed asset investment. I don’t expect a strong pick-up of investor appetite for China funds this year.”
Diana Mackay, chief executive of asset management research group MackayWilliams, said a lot of money poured in to China funds after the financial crisis when “investors were desperately searching for markets that were uncorrelated”.
“When concerns started to build about the sustainability of [Chinese] GDP growth, there was a lot of investment to come out,” she said.
Fresh concerns have been raised about the Chinese economy this year after the country experienced its first corporate bond default in March, on top of weaker than expected industrial production and exports.
Mark Konyn, chief executive of Hong Kong-based Cathay Conning Asset Management, said: “Investor sentiment [towards China] is at rock bottom despite efforts by the mainland government to provide greater access to the onshore market.”
“Recently announced stimulus measures on their own are unlikely to prove the catalyst for international flows to return.”

>>> Barron's Summary: Positive on DELB.BE, DBS.SG, HPQ, NDAQ, BE

Barron's Summary: Positive on DELB.BE, DBS.SG, HPQ, NDAQ, BEAV, BBRG, Cautious on BRCM, Emerging markets and Sugar prices

- Cover Story: Discusses the evolution of indexing that has moved more towards attempts to beat the market as opposed to a low cost tracking of underlying performance by sector. As a result, many of the new 'indexes' may appear to beat the market, but have yet to be tested over full economic cycles. 

- Tech trader: Cautious on BRCM as its large R&D spending recently has barely made a dent in the markets it sought to dominate. Highlights QCOM still dominates the space BRCM was attempting to enter. Overall positive on chip stocks as valuations are reasonable despite appreciation of 8%. 

- Emerging Markets: Interview with a CIO of unit at Harris Associates calls emerging markets overvalued despite recent selloff. Feels prices are too high despite the fact he is a medium to long term bull on the space. 

- Features: 
1) Positive on HPQ for its reasonable valuation despite strong appreciation in the last year. Highlights cost controls and recent restructuring together with better customer experiences and higher employee morale. 
2) Positive on BEAV as a benefactor of a stronger airline industry. Sees potential for shares to further appreciate over the coming year despite its recent rise of 50% in the last 12 months. Streetwise: Positive on NDAQ despite the worries raised by Michael Lewis' new book on high frequency trading. Despite a potential hit to revenue from a regulator crackdown, company likely could increase profit margins elsewhere along with furthering the diversification of its business units. Smallcaps: Positive on BBRG on valuation vs peers in light of weak performance following harsh winter hit zones. Sees likelihood of a same store sales rebound as harsh winter abates. 

- DC Current: Cautions on holding stocks during the coming mid term election cycle. History suggests the market will suffer from May onwards as a result of likely political turbulence. - CEO Spotlight: CEO of Viacom Dauman. Piece lauds his academic and intellectual prowess, becoming useful in high stakes negotiations crucial to the ongoing success of the company in furthering its strength in the TV market. 

- Barrons: Discusses study that finds entering 'unloved' market areas could allow for market outperformance over 3 year time horizon. Investors should consider purchasing Gold, commodities and high quality large company funds as they underperformed in 2013. 

- International Trader: Positive on Delhaize given the trajectory of the restructuring plan and strong balance sheet. Valuation is below that of peers and it has the potential to be debt free by the end of 2015. 

- Asia trader: Positive on DBS Group along with Singapore banking in general. Other large Singapore bank shares could weigh heavily following recent acquisitions but DBS is better poised to succeed as it is the best positioned to benefit from a rising interest rate environment. 

- Commodities Corner: Sees potential for sugar prices to decline following a strong run up in prices on earlier concerns in Brazil. Sees likelihood that rains will help minimize any further damage to the crop.