Tele2 AB Sweden Competition Authority to allow sale of residential cable and fiber operations to Telenor - press
Peugeot SA Price Target cut to €14 from €17 at UBS, reiterates Buy rating
Firm decreases earnings estimates substantially for this year to account for the €1.1bn FX-related write-down and lower than expected production rate (-2% for 2013 vs modest growth). Firm also cuts EPS -4% in 2014 and -15% from 2015 onwards, with lower depreciation partly offsetting the reduction in GM alliance synergies and higher cash absorption from working capital. Net debt forecast increases by €600m to €4.34bn for 2013 and by €476m to €4.26bn in 2014. In light of recent data from ACEA, firm estimates Peugeot sales volume will be down -5.5% this year.
Lamborghini Huracan: Now it is wild // Pictures {http://bit.ly/1c6rTNA}
The last Lamborghini premieres were not for the squeamish, rugged cars like the Aventador, Veneno or Egoista are a stress test for any aesthetic sense. Only the little Gallardo practiced so far in restraint - but so it is over to the successor.
The Lamborghini brand like to fell really hard in the past years. The presentations of new vehicles in which company boss Stephan Winkelmann, an ex-paratrooper, like occurred in extremely tight cut suits, had a high Fremdschämfaktor.
It was mainly due to the vehicles that were shown there, the approximately three million euro Veneno for example, or the Egoista . Rugged brutal race cars, some of which were presented on aircraft carriers and with which people would probably never trust without marked neurosis out of the garage. With the elegant designs of the first Lamborghini's, she at least had nothing in common.
More limited the brand in recent years was only really with the sports car Gallardo, which became a best-selling model. Now his successor takes. Although the is almost understated compared to its bigger brothers - but next to his actually relatively simple predecessors, he also acts as fallen into the testosterone pot.
Outfitted like a fighter jet
Huracan LP 610-4 called the car by its full name, which can be decoded as follows: Huracan was a legendary fighting bull, who fought in 1879 in Alicante and was known as "the Invincible", LP is the abbreviation for the longitudinally mounted engine, with 610 is the performance named in PS and the 4 stands for four-wheel drive.
However, especially wannabe fighter pilots feel in this Lambo at home. The instruments are fully animated, plus there is a battery of toggle switches and a start button in the style of a bomb release lever in a fighter aircraft.
Under the wide and towering stern of the more developed V10 engine with 5.2 liter displacement and 610 hp of power now lies. The maximum torque is 560 Nm at Lamborghini, all-wheel drive is mandatory and plus there is a new dual-clutch transmission. And these are data of the 1422 kg heavy Renner: From 0 to 100 in 3.2 seconds, from 0 to 200 in 9.9 seconds, top speed 325 km / h
As before, Lamborghini is focusing its "small" model to a naturally aspirated engine.The reaches its maximum power only when acoustically sure infernal 8250 revolutions per minute. To use the fuel at least a little house hold, there is a direct fuel injection and a start-stop system. The standard consumption is now at 12.5 liters per 100 kilometers, which are after all two liters less than before. For friends of the lame comparison: The Huracan needs so little more than twice as much as a VW Golf GTI - developed three times as much power.
Speaking of VW. That Lamborghini is almost doomed to overplay the issue of sports car continually, is in my mind that the VW empire, is one of the Lamborghini as Audi appendage since 1998, the roles are clearly defined: Porsche builds the innovative German tradition sports car , the luxurious Bentley-turgid types, the wacky About Bugatti cars and Audi R8 served with the emerging full-throttle friends. That leaves the radical rabid compartment, the Lamborghini occupied so convincing.
The official premiere of the Huracan is the beginning of March at the International Motor Show in Geneva, on the road the first models will probably earlier in the summer - for the price of an estimated 180,000 euros. Who belongs to the Lamborghini regular clientele, by the way - with some luck even in time for Christmas - have an invitation in the mail.For selected friends of the house leads Lamborghini the new car in the next few weeks at 130 Preview private parties in 60 countries before.There are probably a few extreme locations to be there.
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BN 12/20 09:41 *DAIMLER, BMW, OPEL INVESTIGATED FOR GREECE TAX EVASION: SPEIGEL BN 12/20 09:39 *GREEK TAX AUTHORITIES INVESTIGATE GERMAN CAR COS., SPIEGEL SAYS
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*DAIMLER, BMW, OPEL INVESTIGATED FOR GREECE TAX EVASION: SPIEGEL 2013-12-20 09:42:51.151 GMT
--JAMES LUDDEN
-0- Dec/20/2013 09:42 GMT
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BN 12/20 09:29 *INTERFAX CITES UNIDENTIFIED PERSON ON URALKALI CEO CHANGE BN 12/20 09:28 *URALKALI TO APPOINT OSIPOV AS CEO, IFX SAYS
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Uralkali to Appoint Uralchem’s Osipov as CEO, Interfax Says 2013-12-20 09:37:20.128 GMT
By Yuliya Fedorinova Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Dmitry Osipov, deputy chairman of Uralchem, to become CEO of potash producer, Interfax says, citing 2 unidentified people. * Uralkali press office declines to comment * NOTE: Billionaires Close Deals to Buy 47% of Uralkali Potash Producer {NSN MY3M4E6TTDS3 <go>} * NOTE Nov. 22: Uralkali CEO Baumgertner Is Moved to House Arrest in Moscow {NSN MWNRAP6JTSE8 <GO>}
Link to Company News:{URKA RM <Equity> CN <GO>} Link to Company News:{0113457D RU <Equity> CN <GO>}
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To contact the reporter on this story: Yuliya Fedorinova in Moscow at +7-495-771-7707 or yfedorinova@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Torrey Clark at +7-495-771-7709 or tclark8@bloomberg.net
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BN 12/20 09:32 *GDF SUEZ UNIT ELECTRABEL CEO DUTORDOIR RESIGNS, TIJD REPORTS
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GDF Suez Unit Electrabel CEO Dutordoir Resigns, Tijd Reports 2013-12-20 09:34:38.620 GMT
By Andrew Clapham Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Electrabel CEO Sophie Dutordoir to step down, De Tijd says, without saying where it got the information.
Link to Company News:{GSZ 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: Andrew Clapham at +32-2-285-4302 or aclapham@bloomberg.net
Treasure piles up for Alibaba as depositors desert China’s banks
Li Mingyang only joined Alibaba’s investment platform one month ago but he has already transferred almost all the cash in his bank account – nearly Rmb200,000 ($32,000) – to the online fund.
He is far from alone. More than 30m people in China have signed up to Yu’E Bao, or “Leftover Treasure”, only six months since its launch.
Initially pitched by the Chinese ecommerce group as a platform for its users to manage excess funds in their online payment accounts, Yu’E Bao is becoming something far more powerful: a straight-up substitute for traditional bank deposits.
“There’s no point in keeping money in the bank any more. This is just as reliable, more flexible and you can earn a lot more from it,” Mr Li says.
A quick swipe of the Yu’E Bao app on his phone shows the Shanghai-based editor that he has earned more interest on his account over the past day than 94 per cent of other local users – an indication Mr Li is one of the bigger Alibaba converts, though not the biggest. “This is fun, almost like a computer game,” he says with a belly laugh.
For every Rmb12 that companies and individuals have deposited in Chinese banks since June, they placed roughly Rmb1 in their Yu’E Bao accounts, according to Financial Times calculations based on official data. While it remains tiny compared with total deposits in the Chinese banking system, this migration of cash from banks to the Alibaba platform is only speeding up.
In the process, it threatens to upend the rules of China’s state-protected financial sector, eroding banks’ profit model and shifting power to savers in a way that was scarcely imaginable at the start of this year.
Other Chinese tech companies are getting in on the act. Tencent, developer of the hugely popular messaging app WeChat, is said to be designing a fund platform similar to Yu’E Bao. Baidu, the search engine company, began marketing investment products in October.
“Internet companies, with their ability to instantly reach millions of consumers, have already started to subtly change the competitive dynamic in finance,” says Ernan Cui, an analyst with GK Dragonomics, a Beijing-based research firm.
Some see it in even starker terms. “This could be a game-changer. It is the biggest threat to the low- and middle-income customer base of banks,” says an analyst with an international bank who asked to remain anonymous as he was not authorised to speak to media.
Richer customers have already started shifting their funds into banks’ wealth management products, which offer much better returns than regulated deposit accounts but have high minimum investment thresholds. With Yu’E Bao, users can invest as much or as little as they want.
Moreover, just like demand deposits at banks, users can withdraw their money from Yu’E Bao whenever they want. But while demand deposits earn an annualised rate of 0.35 per cent in banks – a level capped by the government to ensure that banks have plump profit margins – Yu’E Bao rates have averaged about 5 per cent over the past month.
Little wonder that it has drawn such rampant demand. Launched in June, Yu’E Bao has in short order become China’s most successful money market fund. As of last month it had raised Rmb100bn, the first to reach that milestone.
Behind the Yu’E Bao brand name stands Tianhong Asset Management, in which Alibaba bought a majority stake in October. Tianhong invests all the Yu’E Bao cash in money market funds, mainly consisting of interbank loans and some short-term debt securities, according to analysts. So the cash still largely ends up with banks, but rather than paying a government-controlled rate for it, they pay whatever is the going market price for money.
It is, in other words, ushering in interest rate deregulation in a big way. This week’s spike in Chinese interbank rates in part reflects the growing competition for deposits. Given that regulators have been loosening their grip on interest rates but want to proceed in a gradual manner, the success of Yu’E Bao and other internet-based money market funds poses a big challenge to that strategy and could yet invite more scrutiny.
“The banking network will always have its place in the financial architecture, and the government will keep its hands on it, so I don’t think it will let Alibaba become a huge threat. It will be more of an addition,” says Billy Leung, an analyst with the RHB Research Institute.
Alibaba downplays the challenge Yu'E Bao poses to banks. “The users that our platforms are serving may not necessarily overlap with those that are being served by the traditional banking and financial services industry,” says Alipay, Alibaba’s online payment system.
But in recent days Alibaba has launched an aggressive marketing campaign, plastering subway stations in Shanghai and Beijing with ads that leave little doubt the company has banks in its sights.
“The Yu'E Bao annualised return is nearly 14 times higher than the demand deposit rate,” the ads blare. “It’s a wallet that makes you money.”
Germany Oct Conference Board Leading Index: 106.7, flat (-0.2% prior)
- Coincident index: 107.6, -0.2% (flat prior)
- Taken together, the recent behavior of the composite indexes suggests that the economy will continue to expand at a slow pace into early 2014.
- Taken together, the recent behavior of the composite indexes suggests that the economy will continue to expand at a slow pace into early 2014.
The following table shows strategists’ estimates for where benchmark European stock
indexes will finish 2014. It also shows 12-month rolling forecasts where applicable.
Year-End Forecasts
Firm European Index 2014 Close Implied Move
Barclays MSCI Europe ex-UK 150 28%
Citigroup Stoxx 600 370 15.5%
Deutsche Bank Stoxx 600 375 17.2%
JPMorgan MSCI Europe Local 1,470 11.3%
HSBC Euro Stoxx 50 3,300 8.8%
Nomura FTSE Dev. Europe 207 14%
Macquarie MSCI Europe Local 1,512 14.45%
Credit Suisse Euro Stoxx 50 3,500 15.36%
Bank of America Stoxx 600 360 12.5%
indexes will finish 2014. It also shows 12-month rolling forecasts where applicable.
Year-End Forecasts
Firm European Index 2014 Close Implied Move
Barclays MSCI Europe ex-UK 150 28%
Citigroup Stoxx 600 370 15.5%
Deutsche Bank Stoxx 600 375 17.2%
JPMorgan MSCI Europe Local 1,470 11.3%
HSBC Euro Stoxx 50 3,300 8.8%
Nomura FTSE Dev. Europe 207 14%
Macquarie MSCI Europe Local 1,512 14.45%
Credit Suisse Euro Stoxx 50 3,500 15.36%
Bank of America Stoxx 600 360 12.5%