FT : Prada’s profit rise misses expectations

Prada reported a shallower than expected rise in third-quarter net profit to €133m as stronger sales in the US and Japan failed to offset slowing growth in China and Europe, and the effect of currency swings.
In a presentation, Prada, which also makes the MiuMiu and Church’s brands, said its Far East region had seen “moderated growth, notably in Greater China”. A Reuters poll of analyst forecasts had expected a net profit of €154m in the third quarter.
Prada is the latest luxury goods group to report slowing growth in China, which companies including Rémy Cointreau have blamed in part on a clampdown on gift giving and lavish spending by the Chinese authorities.

    Net profit rose to €133m in the three months to the end of October, from €122.1m a year earlier, Milan-based Prada said. Revenues rose 7.1 per cent to €839.6m. Third-quarter sales grew 13 per cent, excluding currency swings.
    Sales in its retail business accelerated in the Americas and Japan over the period, Prada said.
    “Unfavourable exchange rates and softening consumption patterns in some regions could weigh on results and thus will require increasing attention by the management in order to ensure profitability and continue the retail expansion,” Prada said.
    Prada shares have lost nearly 10 per cent over their value over the past month on expectations that the company would be hit by the slowing of sales from China which is being felt across the industry.
    The company, led by designer Miuccia Prada and her husband Patrizio Bertelli, has proved one of the most resilient players in the industry as its fashion forward designs have grown beyond a cult following to one of the world’s fastest-growing luxury brands.
    In a note published this week, Mario Ortelli, an analyst at Bernstein Research, said he believed “investors recent concerns are excessive”.
    Mr Ortelli believes Prada will be able to sustain growth by opening about 200 new stores up until 2015, focusing on emerging market consumers, and growing its leather goods and MiuMiu brand business.
    Prada said it had 516 directly operated stores at the end of October in 70 countries. Since the start of this year it has spent €416m mostly on opening new stores, buying property in London and St Petersburg, and renovating old stores.

    (Telegraph) Mikhail Khodorkovsky release: what are his options now?

    Mikhail Khodorkovsky release: what are his options now?
    Mikhail Khodorkovsky spent a decade in Russia's notoriously tough prison system, only to be released by presidential decree. What are his options now?

    Go Home
    Mr Khodorkovsky was born in Moscow and his parents, wife and children still live in the surrounding region, so the obvious thing to do is get on the first train back to the capital – especially as concern for his mother's illness was apparently the factor that drove him to finally seek a pardon. His parents, Boris and Marina, still live on the grounds of a college for traumatised children and orphans that Mr Khodorkovsky founded before his downfall about 38 miles to the West of the city. His own house in the same compound was never completed – the project ran out of money after his arrests.
    His second wife, Inna, and their three children (a daughter born in 1991 and twin boys born in 1999) live in Istrinsky district, to the city's Northwest of the city. Inna, who has refused to move abroad despite advice to do so, said in a rare 2011 interview that emigration would be "practically impossible" for Mr Khodorkovsky. "He needs more than just a family, he needs to take part in society. And for him it would be very difficult to change his homeland," she said.
    Emigrate
    Mikahil Khodorkovsky has never been one to flee. He is said to have deliberately ignored advice to leave the country ahead of his arrest, despite being fully aware of the consequences. But despite his deep reluctance to move abroad, getting out of Russia would put Mr Khodorkovsky beyond the reach of the Russian authorities if they decided to bring fresh charges against him a third time – a possibility that was hinted at earlier this month by a deputy prosecutor. A base abroad would also prove more secure were he to launch a legal battle to reclaim Yukos's stripped assets.

    An obvious destination would be the United States, where his son from his first marriage, Pavel, lives. But leaving the country could be fraught with difficulty if the authorities decide they would rather keep him in the country. For one thing, he would need to get hold of a valid passport, and laws restricting travel for debtors could easily be manipulated to keep him inside the borders.
    Fight on
    In his decade in prison, Mr Khodorkovsky has been compared more than once to Nelson Mandela – a morally superior political prisoner jailed because of the danger he posed to a thuggish regime. Some still consider him the only man who could head a credible opposition movement to Putin – and many others believe he would find it impossible to quit public life.
    Could he emerge as an ally of younger opposition leaders like Alexei Navalny?
    Maybe. But while jail time has done much to transform him into a martyr, Mr Khodorkovsky is still unflatteringly viewed by many Russians as an oligarch who robbed the nation in the 1990s. Pleading for clemency may also have damaged his standing in the eyes of some hard-line oppositionist. And many are already pondering whether he would have been released if he still posed a threat to Mr Putin – the unspoken question on many minds is, did he do a deal to get out?
    Be a Great Russian Writer
    Prison time has informed many of Russia's greatest literary figures, and Mr Khodorkovsky could be the next to join their pantheon – as a reactionary. At least, that is Liberal democratic Party Leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky's advice to the released prisoner.
    "He reminds me a bit of the Count of Monte Cristo, Solzhenitsyn. He has rich material from his life," Mr Zhirinovsky said on Friday. "We have these very light-weight [thriller writer Boris] Akunin's, [surrealist novelist Victor] Pelevin's But such a venerable writer would write a lot. Maybe [he could write Dostoevsky's] The Possessed and expose the venality of the opposition."

    (RTR) Mexico's Pemex says weighing Repsol ties after energy reform

    Mexico's Pemex says weighing Repsol ties after energy reform {http://reut.rs/192au7p}


    MADRID, Dec 19 (Reuters) - The long-time oil alliance between Mexico's Pemex and Spain's Repsol <REP.MC is reaching a crossroads as the Mexican state-run firm seeks to take advantage of a historic energy reform in its home country to expand its foreign presence, a director said.

    The relationship between the two companies started to fray two years ago after a failed attempt to oust Repsol's chairman, Antonio Brufau, and reached a climax last month when Pemex , which holds a 9.4 percent stake in Repsol, voted against the Spanish firm's management.

    But Arturo Henriquez, Pemex's representative on the board, said in an interview with Reuters that there was still time to repair the partnership and even take it forward by seizing jointly new opportunities in oil-rich Mexico and beyond.

    Mexico voted last week to open its oil and gas sector to foreign investors for the first time in 75 years as part of a sweeping energy reform.

    "The energy reform is a major milestone for Pemex," said Henriquez, who is also chairman and chief executive of Houston-based subsidiary Pemex Procurement International Inc. (PPI).

    "We have to assess the investments we have on the table in light of such a dramatic game changer for the company. ... We want to evaluate whether Repsol is an ally for this new era. If so, excellent. We'll have to boost (the partnership) and if not, we'll have to take a decision."

    He said the Mexican company has made a priority of seeking juicier returns from its 25-year investment in Repsol.

    Pemex played an active role in striking a multi-billion-dollar deal to compensate Repsol for the nationalization of its former Argentine subsidiary YPF, although the boardroom drama that followed threatened last month to fracture further the strategic accord between the two.

    While some analysts speculated Pemex could even sell its stake in the Spanish oil major, Henriquez said Repsol, with specialized deepwater technology, could be an ideal partner to explore Mexico's undeveloped resources given the long relationship and the cultural ties between the two companies.

    Mexico has Latin America's third-largest proven crude reserves after Venezuela and Brazil with more than 10 billion barrels, and it also has nearly 30 billion barrels of prospective resources in its territorial deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

    Henriquez stressed, however, that any partner would not only have to offer technology but also help the company expand in new markets. These could include the United States, Europe or Asia.

    "What we want from any alliance, whether with Repsol, Exxon or Chevron is help in developing expertise, technology, capital ... mainly in deep water and shale oil and gas," he said.

    Both Chevron and Exxon Mobil Corp have expressed broad support for Mexico's reforms, though final investment decisions will likely depend on how new rules are implemented.

    Another potential partner could be Royal Dutch Shell , with which Pemex has a profitable 50-50 refinery tie-up in Texas, the sixth-largest in the United States.

    "We're in a privileged position, in fashion as the latest country to open up its energy sector. Right now everyone wants to come to Mexico," said Henriquez. (Additional reporting by Reuters Breaking Views columnist Fiona Maharg Bravo in Madrid and David Alire Garcia in Mexico City; Editing by Julien Toyer and Leslie Adler)

    >>> US Gapping down:

    Gapping down:

    In reaction to disappointing earnings/guidance: TIBX -11.15%, NAV -8.8%, SWFT -6.8%, KMX -5.3%, AVD -5.1%, BBRY -5.0%,

    Other news: WPCS -24.12% (following earnings/acquisition conference call in after-hours), IDCC -10.94% (co lost a patent case against Nokia (NOK), Huaweui, and ZTE), DHT -5.4% (Filed for ~28.13 mln share common stock offering by selling shareholders), PSDV -6.8% (following yesterday's surge), BSPM -2.8% (filed for $35 mln mixed securities shelf offering), ALIM -2.2% (following yesterday's surge), ALU -0.88% (agrees to sell LGS Innovations LLC, its US Federal Government-serving subsidiary, to Madison Dearborn Partners and CoVant, for a total amount of up to $ 200 million),

    >>> US Gapping up

    Gapping up

    In reaction to strong earnings/guidance: RHT +13.84%, FINL +4.63%, WAG +1.83%

    M&A news: JNY +4.39%(To be acquired by Sycamore Partners for $15 per share in cash); GENT +2.4% (To be acquired by Jazz Pharmaceuticals for $57 per share in cash tender offer)

    Other news: AMRN +15.09%( receives FDA notification that action on ANCHOR sNDA review will be delayed), APRI +7.4% (announced national phase approval for erectile dysfunction cream - Vitaros in France), TRAK +6.7% (announced agreement to acquire Dealer.com for 8.7 mln shares of common stock and $620 mln in cash), CIM +2.56% (Announced special dividend of $0.20 per share),BCRX +1.44% (files peramivir NDA for the treatment of influenza ), RAD +0.77% (along with WAG)

    Analyst comments: CCL +3.68% (upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse; raises tgt to $43), ARRS +0.78% (upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies; tgt $30)

    (BFW) Telefonica Deutschland, E-Plus Deal Gets In-Depth EU Probe

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    BN 12/20 12:30 Telefonica Deutschland, E-Plus Deal Gets In-Depth EU Probe

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    Telefonica Deutschland, E-Plus Deal Gets In-Depth EU Probe 2013-12-20 13:18:25.406 GMT

    By Sam Chambers Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Regulators had concerns that the transaction may reduce competition for retail mobile customers, lower wholesale access bought by MVNOs. * The EC has set a May 14 deadline to rule on the deal. Story * O2 Deutschland shrs -1.1%, KPN -0.4% * NOTE: Proposed merger is seen as pivotal for sector sentiment

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

    --Editor: James Ludden

    To contact the reporter on this story: Sam Chambers in London at +44-20-7673-2021 or schambers7@bloomberg.net

    To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Ludden at +44-20-7673-2645 or jludden@bloomberg.net