(BFW) Aperam Launches Max $300m 7Y Convertible Bond

Aperam Launches Max $300m 7Y Convertible Bond
2014-06-27 08:14:37.122 GMT


By Tom Freke
     June 27 (Bloomberg) -- Proceeds of net share settled
convertible and/or exchangeable bonds to be used for general
corporate purposes including refinancing senior notes maturing
2016, according to a statement.
  * Initial size: $250m, which may be increased by co.
  * Expected coupon: 0.25% to 1%
  * Initial conversion premium: 30% to 35% over the volume-
    weighted average price of co. shares between launch and
    pricing
  * Issue price: par
  * Final terms due to be announced today


Link to Company News:APAM NA <Equity> CN <GO>

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

To contact the reporter on this story:
Tom Freke in London at +44-20-3525-8153 or
tfreke@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
James Holloway at +1-212-617-4454 or
jholloway8@bloomberg.net
Leo Laikola

>>> Gulf Keystone receives bid approach from Chevron – market reports

Stock is up 10% again today

Gulf Keystone receives bid approach from Chevron

Chevron, a listed, San Ramon, California-based oil company, was said to have approached the listed, Anglo-Irish exploration company Gulf Keystone Petroleum regarding a potential takeover bid, The Times reported.

The newspaper's market report section mentioned talk of a 150p per share bid approach from Chevron, but did not cite a source for the rumour.

A market report in The Daily Mail mentioned rumours that chevron was building a stake in Gulf Keystone, but did not attribute the rumour to a source.

The Independent's market report mentioned speculation that the departure of Gulf Keystone's Chairman Todd Kozel might prompt a takeover bid. The item mentioned talk that major oil and gas companies are thinking about making offers for Gulf Keystone, but did not cite a source for the speculation.

A Financial Times market report noted that Gulf Keystone shares gained 18.3% to close at 95p on the London Stock Exchange yesterday. Trading in Gulf Keystone’s shares was more than double the average volume, the item noted.

The Financial Times item noted that three of Gulf Keystone’s non-executive directors stepped down on Wednesday, and that the company’s finance director left last week.

Gulf Keystone’s market capitalisation stood at GBP 844m (EUR 1.05bn) at the close of trading yesterday.


Source The Times (London), Daily Mail, Independent

>>> Ophir Energy may consider M&A after disappointing drilling this year

it looks like Impact of UBS call more important that these comments in the press but worth mentionning it.


Ophir Energy may consider M&A after disappointing drilling this year 

Ophir Energy (Ophir) may consider mergers and acquisitions, according to market speculation cited by a Financial Times report. The newspaper’s market report section did not cite a source for the rumour.

Ophir shares closed 3.9% down at 231.2p yesterday (26 June) after the company reported that it had not found oil at an offshore well near Gabon, the item noted.

Traders cited by the report speculated that Ophir’s disappointing drilling campaign this year might lead the company to reconsider mergers & acquisitions. Ophir this year proposed a merger with UK-listed rival Premier Oil, the article noted.

Ophir’s market capitalisation stood at GBP 1.36bn (EUR 1.70bn) at the close of trading in London yesterday.


Source Financial Times

The Economist : The third arrow

The third arrow

Shinzo Abe has the best chance in decades of changing Japan for the better. He seems poised to take it

DURING Japan’s Meiji restoration, which began in 1868, a group of reform-minded officials and citizens worked together to stamp out feudalism, prise open borders and push the country onto a path of rapid industrialisation. In little over ten years they reshaped Japan from top to bottom. That well-known tale has left a perennial optimism among the Japanese that they can, when absolutely necessary, change direction. Others, especially foreigners, are not so sure. In two decades of economic stagnation Japan’s leaders have repeatedly failed to rescue their country’s fortunes.

Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister since 2012, has offered something for both sides. He started surprisingly well. Last year, with Meiji speed, he shot off the first two arrows of “Abenomics”: a huge fiscal stimulus and a dramatic programme of monetary easing. His approval rating soared, as did the stockmarket, and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) triumphed in an election for the upper house of the Diet, Japan’s parliament. But his first attempt at a third arrow of structural reforms to unleash growth, an announcement in June 2013, fell flat. He seemed to have been nobbled by Japan’s various lobbies. Then in December he paid a visit to the Yasukuni shrine, which was taken as a symbol of reverence for Japan’s criminal militarist past. That infuriated outsiders and strengthened suspicions that his focus on economic reform had wavered.

This week Mr Abe is back with a proper third arrow. There are two reasons for thinking that this time it will hit the target. First, the country has reached a point at which almost all Japanese realise that reform of some sort is needed. Second, Mr Abe is at last pursuing schemes of such breadth that they touch on nearly every area of the economy that demands change.

The wrinkled society
Japan has changed in the 20 years of stagnation. Demography is the main reason. Like telltale grey hairs, the signs of ageing are everywhere. A think-tank has just predicted that some 900 municipalities, or half of the total, will have disappeared by 2040, as women of childbearing age migrate to big cities. Centenarians are the fastest-growing segment of the population, and over one-tenth of houses are already vacant, chiefly because of ageing. The workforce is shrinking so fast that even Japan’s often sexist and xenophobic elite is discussing subjects such as higher immigration and encouraging women to get a job. Among farmers, whose average age is a staggering 70, resistance to reform from those who wish to keep agriculture small-scale and inefficient is dying along with the resisters.

Another prompt is sluggish growth. Twenty years of underperformance has practical consequences. It helps explain why the nation’s companies increasingly belong to foreigners, who now own 30% of the stockmarket in total, up from 4% in 1989. Shareholder capitalism is spreading and many large firms are setting themselves ambitious aims for profitability. That greatly aids Mr Abe’s goal of forcing Japan Inc to invest its huge pile of savings, rather than hoard them, and to improve the allocation of capital. Foreign shareholders are also likely to argue for more rapid change to Japan’s post-war system of lifetime employment, which is slowly keeling over. Nearly 5m protected, permanent staff are now surplus to requirements yet cannot be laid off, even with severance pay. Meanwhile almost two-fifths of Japan’s employees, especially the young and female, are stuck in irregular, low-paid jobs.

The third prompt is China’s rise. Voters now understand the need for Japan to stand up for itself. That leads to some ugly nationalist poses, but it also makes economic reform seem more urgent—even to ugly nationalists.

Mr Abe’s reform plan is far weightier than its predecessors. It seeks to free up an overly restrictive health-care sector, to ease the way for local and foreign entrepreneurs in Japan and to overhaul corporate governance. Some measures take on deep cultural taboos, such as allowing Japanese households in a series of special economic zones to sponsor foreign maids to help care for children and the old. And more is still to come. Together, all this represents a coherent vision of a more innovative and globally minded society. Part of its strength is its breadth: it is less a single arrow than a 1,000-strong bundle of acupuncture needles.

That Mr Abe’s approval ratings are still so high after announcing his intention to tackle sensitive areas is a sign that the public is ready for fresh thinking. Japan’s previous effort at a radical overhaul was led by Junichiro Koizumi, prime minister in 2001-06. His successors diluted his reforms. (One of the main villains was his protégé, Mr Abe, whose first, disastrous, term as prime minister lasted only a year.) Nowadays, Mr Abe faces little serious opposition outside the LDP: the opposition Democratic Party of Japan is nowhere near reviving itself after its trouncing at the polls in December 2012.

That opinion is shifting in favour of reforms does not mean the country is united behind them. Many powerful interest groups, from farmers to doctors to big business to—strongest of all—the civil service, will fight them. Yet the sheer ambition of the growth plan that the cabinet approved this week is evidence of Mr Abe’s determination to act as a “drill bit” in spite of them all (see article).

Tries, shoots and leaves?
Mr Abe likes to quote Shoin Yoshida, an intellectual who inspired the Meiji’s reformers: “Once a man’s will is set, he can triumph through any obstacle.” But much still depends on whether enough reforms are enacted in full, without codicils that stealthily neuter their impact, and on when they will take effect. In some areas—notably the labour market, where permanent workers enjoy excessive protection—Mr Abe must go further. And across the range of reforms, he will have to force change on those still determined to resist.

Mr Abe needs to stay focused on his target and avoid being hobbled by interest-groups or sidetracked by nationalism. But the scale of what he has put forward this week is breathtaking. It offers the best chance for many years of revitalising Japan. That is something everybody should welcome.

FT : Bearish stock market commentators are not necessarily reassuring

It is not true a watched pot never boils (I checked this morning, just to be sure there is no quantum-level effect of the observer). In investment, the same fact holds: one cannot take comfort from frequent discussion among the financial cognoscenti of the possibility of a correction or even a crash.
This seems to fly against the contrarian wisdom usually espoused here. The best money in investment is typically made by avoiding the herd. Near market tops, bears tend to give up, while great buying opportunities are often marked by the perma-bulls finally capitulating. Those who can sell when the crowd only wants to hear good news and buy when the end of finance is being loudly proclaimed will profit handsomely.

Contrarians, then, should surely be reassured by the continued forecasts of disaster by market bears? The bears are still growling about stock overvaluation, deflation, reliance on cheap money from central banks and worse. The more noise they make, the more pessimistic the overall tone and the less likely the market is to be near its peak.
Unfortunately, history suggests this is not right. True, at peaks such as 1929 or 2000, the talk was dominated by people trying to justify the rapid run-up in share prices, just as it is now. But there were still bearish types worrying, often loudly, about excess – as there are now.
The best-known of the dotcom bears was the late Tony Dye, nicknamed Dr Doom after years of warnings of a looming crash. The chief investment officer of the largest UK pension fund manager, he was eventually fired for his obstinate refusal to join in the dotcom boosterism – in February 2000, the month before the bubble popped.
But there was no shortage of concern within Wall Street; while the once-feted bears sometimes became objects of ridicule, their fears continued to be heard in the financial press.
In some ways the same can be said of today. A few bears have switched their views, notably David Rosenberg, chief economist of Canada’s Gluskin Sheff. Others, lionised in 2009 for predicting a crisis, are now dismissed as a stuck record after missing a five-year rally during which US shares have almost tripled.
Investors should not take heart from the occasional appearance of bearish commentary amid the welter of bullishness, then. The same goes for the (quiet) concerns being voiced by central banks. Those who listened hard enough in the late 1990s and during the credit bubble of the 2000s could find central bankers uneasy about the state of the markets – just as a few on both sides of the Atlantic are now worrying about the extraordinarily low volatility in everything from shares to bonds to foreign exchange.
Combine that with high equity valuations, near-record-low bond yields, clear signs of froth in the credit markets and rising corporate leverage, and it is easy to be concerned.
There is one measure that might help calm nerves, though: cash. Merrill Lynch regularly surveys mutual fund managers about the amount of cash they are sitting on, and it is high by historical standards. In the past this has been a good buying signal: holding a lot of cash suggests managers are relatively cautious, leaving scope for them to become more aggressive in their buying, and drive prices even higher.
There is an unfortunate tendency among market strategists to focus too much on mutual funds, merely because solid data are available. Yet mutual fund managers have provided a decent measure of sentiment in the broader market in the past, so their relative caution may be a sign the equity rally has further to go – before the eventual collapse.

The Economist: Shifting sands

Shifting sands

More upheaval in an accident-prone statelet

UP LIKE a rocket, down like a stick. Dubai’s stockmarket is living up to that old investing saw: having been one of the best performers in the world since the start of 2013, it has fallen by 25% in the past two months. Volatility is par for the course. Back in 2009, the emirate ran into financial trouble and had to be rescued by its neighbour, Abu Dhabi.

This time the trouble relates to a specific company, Arabtec. The construction group, which helped to build the Burj Khalifa (pictured), has parted company with its chief executive officer, chief operating officer and chief risk officer; meanwhile Aabar Investments, a company almost entirely owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, has reduced its stake. With confidence duly shaken and with little information to guide them, investors have headed for the exits: the price of Arabtec’s shares has fallen by more than half. There must now be questions about the feasibility of a $40 billion deal to build houses in Egypt that Arabtec signed in March.


As Arabtec’s shares plunged, local investors who had borrowed money to buy them were forced to sell other holdings to meet margin calls. That was a problem for a fairly illiquid market dominated by a few stocks. Property makes up 31% of the Dubai index and financials more generally 78%.

Property prices in Dubai rose by 30% last year, a reminder of the bubble that undermined the emirate five years ago. But Neil Shearing of Capital Economics says that investors should be wary of drawing too many parallels. “Crucially, the recent rise in property prices has not been fuelled by a rapid expansion in credit this time around,” he says. Bank lending is up by around 10% this year compared with annual gains of 20-50% between 2005 and 2008.

The equity market’s recent woes could be put down to simple profit-taking. Share prices may well have been ramped up earlier this year by investors anticipating the promotion of the United Arab Emirates (of which Dubai is a part) from frontier- to emerging-market status, a move that was confirmed by MSCI, an index provider, last month. Local investors clearly hoped that promotion would spark buying by international investors, both from those who are simply tracking the index and from those who shy away from frontier markets. To invoke another market adage: buy on the rumour, sell on the news.

>>> What to look at today - 27/06/2014

US Market Closed slightly lower, Finamcials were weak as in Europe GoPro Ipo soared 30.6% to close @ $31.34 ( IPO $24), On the upside, four sectors—consumer discretionary (+0.1%), energy (+0.1%), health care (+0.1%), and utilities (+0.2%)—posted slim gains with the utilities space extending its year-to-date gain to 15.1%...Volume were below average @ 600mil shares...VIX @ 11.63 +0.35%...Nike +3% After Hours after numbers...Japan : Eco Data were mixed with household spending down sharply (adjustement from sales tax), National CPI continued its steady climb to 3.7%, while core rate hit its highest since 1982, potentially further diminishing the outlook for more BOJ easing. USD/JPY hit a 1-month low below 101.40, - China industrial profits growth slowed but not sufficiently to signal a pronounced retreat... Nikkei -1.70% Hang ?Seng -0.14% Shanghai -0.07%


Eur$ 1.3625 S&P -0.23% EuroStoxx+0.30% FTSE +0.17% DAX+0.21% SMI+0.22%

Macro
- World Bank Says Emerging-Market Calm May Turn to ‘Sudden Spikes’
- Moody’s Says Japan PM Abe’s Growth Strategy Is Credit Positive
- Asia Stocks Attract Most Funds 1st Time in 81 Weeks: Citigroup
- EU Finance Ministers said to consider excluding military spending from deficit calculation

Keep an eye on :
- ADS GY : NKE +3% in after Hours on better numbers, beat on top & bottom line better future order & margin
- AIR FP : Airbus May Upgrade A330 Using Rolls-Royce Engines, Reuters Says
- MT NA : Sell ArcelorMittal, Consensus Still Too Optimistic, UBS Says
- BARC LN : Barclays Directed Employees to Falsify Data About Pool: N.Y. AG
- BNP FP : BNP Paribas Is Said to Prepare to Pay $8.9b Penalty: NYT
- CSGN VX : Credit Suisse Gets Permanent Waiver of Ban in Tax Evasion Case
- DBK GY : Deutsche Bank Seeks to Sell Maher Terminals for Up to $1b: DJ
- DTE GY : Favor T-Mobile Stand-Alone Vs Sprint Merger: Pacific Crest
- GKP LN : Gulf Keystone Petrol There is speculation that Exxon and Chevron could be interested in the company
- KMR LN : BofAML Says Iluka Deal for Kenmare Would Boost Zircon Share
- LSE LN : LSE to Re-Rate Further on Russell Deal, Credit Suisse Says
- TAP US : Molson Coors CEO Foused on Lowering Debt Level: WSJ Link
- NOVN VX : U.K.’s NICE Now Backs Novartis’s Glivec for Some GI Tumors
- NUM FP : SFR Still Confident It Can Share Network With Bouygues: Tribune
- RNO FP : Renault-Nissan Gain Control of Russia’s AvtoVAZ, Vedomosti Says
- ROG VX : Roche Says EU CHMP Recommends Approval of Avastin for Cancer
- SIE GY : Siemens Submits FDA Application for 3-D Breast Imaging: WSJ Link
- STAN LN : Standard Chartered Falls in Hong Kong After 1H Profit Slumps
- TEC FP : Technip Wins Consultancy Contract From Petronas
- TIT IM : Telecom Italia Changes Bylaws to Reflect ‘Golden Power’ Limits
- TLW LN : Buy Tullow Oil, UBS Says After Capital Markets Day
- VK FP : Vallourec CEO Says Oil, Gas Market Trends Favorable: La Tribune
- VWS DC : Vestas Reaches Conditional Settlement in U.S. Class Action Suit