Archive for April, 2008

30 April, 2008 | No comments

Thai Baht surges upward

The Thai Baht has been on a tear recently, up 10% since the start of this year and up close to 20% since last summer. Up until a few weeks ago, the currency had largely been flying under the radar of forex traders. Since then, however, the Baht has appreciated at a breakneck pace, surging to a 9-year high against the USD. JP Morgan, an investment bank, has raised its rating on Thailand, calling it one of the most promising emerging markets on its radar screen. Many analysts feared the worst several months ago, when a military junta seized power in Thailand, an event which was quickly followed by draconian capital controls and political stability. Thailands economy seems to have largely shrugged off these concerns, propelling the Baht upward. Nation Multimedia reports: JP Morgan compared Thailand to Korea in 2004. In October 2004, the Korean won started a sharp appreciation. [That year] Korea outperform emerging markets by 20 per cent in 2005, and Asia Pacific excluding Japan by 30 per cent. Read More:

30 April, 2008 | No comments

Aerospace Flies High With Military Demands

Lousy commercial airline performance might have customers squawking these days, but investors in the aerospace industry have been soaring.

Demand for new and improved aircraft and defense systems has profits at individual companies lifting off. Of shining note has been iShares Dow Jones U.S. Aerospace & Defense Fund. () The year-old exchange traded fund is up 21% year to date, and up 0.5% for the past month.

The fund likely will continue to perform, analysts say, as long as demand stays up.

If anti-war activists succeed in ending the Iraq War, it is likely some industry slump would occur and cause a bump in the fund, experts predict.

But the fund’s current height isn’t all due to the ongoing war in Iraq and resulting increased need for defense materials. Increased need for air travel has aircraft manufacturers smiling.

Last month, three of the fund’s top holdings announced big profits.

Boeing Reports

The fund’s biggest player, Chicago-based aircraft maker Boeing, () posted higher-than-projected second-quarter profits. Boeing hiked its full-year forecast, citing strong sales of commercial planes. Its commercial aircraft unit sales climbed 22% and its defense units rose 3%.

Boeing was the third major aerospace and defense company to report increased profits last quarter. Other top holdings General Dynamics () and Lockheed Martin () also performed well, with General Dynamics beating projected quarterly earnings by almost 3%.

Another of the fund’s holdings, Precision Castparts, () continues to please.

Analysts expect the maker of metal parts for turbine engines should profit from recent acquisitions.

Other Profit Reports

When it comes to profits, B/E Aerospace () is no slouch, either. Its second-quarter earnings jumped 29%, from 24 cents per share to 31 cents per share, and its stock hit new highs in July. The Wellington, Fla.-based company is the world’s largest maker of plane seats and also installs oxygen masks, food carts and other equipment for jets.

Waltham, Mass.-based Raytheon () also saw a recent stock price surge.

The company announced last week that it nailed a $24.4 million U.S. Navy contract to equip 24 Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18F Super Hornets with its new ALR-67(V)3 digital radar warning receiver.

Raytheon recently landed a contract to provide 55 radar warning receivers plus spares for the RAAF.

The company also is designing combat systems for a new class of naval destroyers that analysts and executives say will reshape the company and possibly the U.S. Navy.

30 April, 2008 | No comments

AFX TOP STORIES Global 0805 GMT

LONDON (AFX) - Here are the top stories on AFX News

Dell 4Q earnings and revenues drop

DALLAS (AP) - Dell Inc.’s fourth-quarter profits plunged 33 percent because of weak sales of laptops and notebooks, and the computer maker still faces an unresolved federal accounting probe, customer service complaints, several shareholder lawsuits and stiff competition from rivals.

But amid another disappointing quarter, analysts said Dell at least appears ready to do something about its many problems, even if it takes years to resolve.

Gallaher FY pretax pre-ex profit up 4.9 pct, says current trading in line

LONDON (AFX) - Gallaher Group PLC, Britain’s third-biggest tobacco group, posted a 4.9 pct rise in full-year pretax profit, beating market expectations, on the back of a strong performance from the CIS region.

Pretax profit before amortisation and exceptional charges rose to 597 mln stg from 570 mln stg a year ago. Analysts were expecting profit of some 580 mln stg.

Oracle to buy Hyperion for $3.3 billion

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Business software maker Oracle Corp. will buy Hyperion Solutions Corp. for $3.3 billion in cash, renewing a shopping spree aimed at toppling rival SAP AG.

The deal announced Thursday will give Oracle an arsenal of Hyperion products that are widely used by SAP’s customers. Hyperion’s tools, known as “business intelligence” software, help chief financial officers and other top corporate executives track their company’s performance.

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30 April, 2008 | No comments

Andrew Levy: Architecture, art and all that jazz

People don’t readily associate musicians with property development. But I’ve been interested in and investing in properties for a long time. My uncle owned a lot of property in London, and when I was 15 I used to collect the rents for him, so I could appreciate then the kind of money that could be made.

The music industry is very transient – one minute you can be driving a Lamborghini down the freeway selling hundreds of thousands of records every day, then you can sell nothing for ages. I needed to find something that I enjoyed doing that could provide a sound investment. I studied fine art and film at Middlesex University, so I have always been interested in design and art, and I’ve loved architecture and interior design for a long time too, so it seemed that property was my ideal number.

My first home in London was in Stoke Newington. It was a two-storey four-bedroom maisonette where I lived with my girlfriend at the time. I bought it from an avant-garde architect, Joe Hagan, who had designed it really well.

I bought my first investment flat for 25,000 in 1999. It was a one-bedroom place in Margate. It was a terrible mess, but after I spent some money redecorating it, I sold it last year and made quite a good profit. I had bought it as a retreat, but that was really my starting point in acquiring properties. Now I have a portfolio of properties, but I’m planning to sell these soon to finance a new project – a boutique hotel in Wales.

My home has four bedrooms and two bathrooms and I bought it in 2002 for 350,000. People are always surprised when they come in the door that it looks so good, as a lot of the other houses in the street are not as well looked after. When I moved in I had to completely redecorate – nothing had been done since the 1960s. I had to rewire, replumb, take the floors out and rip off the wallpaper. I have had a lot of help from an interior design and architectural company, called Manda.

I like the fact that this house has a lot of space, and high ceilings. For a long time I didn’t have any furniture in it – as I don’t like buying things unless I’m completely happy with them. Also, it is better environmentally just to buy one good thing that will last forever.

I designed some of my own sofas, with a company called Box 3, as I was so desperate to find what I wanted. I have always loved designer furniture, and unusual pieces. This probably stems from the fact that I have been travelling constantly for the past 15 years.

The first time I was aware of a really stylish interior, was staying at The Mondrian in Los Angeles in 1993 – it was before Ian Schrager took over there – and it looked amazing. It was full of original Sixties art. We stayed there for six weeks while we were making The Brand New Heavies’ Brother/Sister album. Then we went back there a year later and Shrager and Philippe Starck had worked on it. It was even more incredible.

When I’m away from home I used to miss my girlfriend, but now we’re no longer together, I tend to miss British television. American TV is all focused on advertising revenue, so they have very short bitty programmes. I like factual programmes. I think travel has influenced my home. I like to have a few hotel luxuries – like bottles of Badoit mineral water – and I’ve also had a cleaner ever since I left art college. I think it’s the best way of avoiding arguments with your partner, so in a way it’s cheap relationship counselling.

I get a lot of inspiration for my music from the radio, and I listen to all sorts of channels around the house – Classic FM, Galaxy, XFM, Radio 1… I like early Italian classical composers too. Recently I have been very inspired by Amy Winehouse, I love that she has this amazing jazz soul voice but a wonderful punk aesthetic.

All the walls in my home are white, and the floors are pale wood. I prefer a blank canvas and to gather colour and texture from artworks. I bought two original paintings by the furniture designer Verner Panton in Los Angeles in 1993. They cost around $180 at the time, but I had them valued recently and they are now worth over 1,000 each. I also have a portrait of myself by my friend, the photographer Mary McCartney, hanging above my bed.

I collect designer chairs and have about 25 different types, from the Tulip chair by the Finnish-AmericanEero Saarinen, to Matthew Hilton’s Balzac chair, to the Knoll Pollack chair. I like having fresh flowers, and must have been one of the first aficionados of Diptyque candles. I remember buying one from the Conran Shop about 14 years ago.

I collect vintage clothes and have over 30 feet of clothes rails crammed with vintage Gucci, YSL and Dior, but it is too much to keep at home, so it’s in storage in Oxford, along with my collections of Elle Decoration magazine, of which I must have every issue since August 1992, and old issues of The Face and Blitz.

My ideal home would be an old manor house somewhere in England – if not there, then I could be tempted by an ocean-front villa in Miami.

Andrew Levy, 41, is a founding member and bassist/keyboard player for the influential eight-album acid jazz and funk group The Brand New Heavies, and has been performing since the band’s inception in Ealing in 1985. He lives in a four-bedroom house in Islington, north London

Andrew Levy’s home is on sale for 625,000, www.jtm homes.co.uk. The Brand New Heavies are on tour in America with Macy Gray, www.myspace.com/thebrandnewheavies. Their album, ‘Get Used to It’, is out now

30 April, 2008 | No comments

No buyer for nuclear power, Alberta company says

A Calgary-based company that wants to build a nuclear power plant in northern Alberta denies saying it had a purchaser lined up to buy70 per cent of the power produced.

When Energy Albertaannouncedin August that it had filed an application to build the plant near Peace River, president Wayne Henuset told CBC Newsit had a deal to sell the most of the power, buthe would not say who the buyer was.

In an interviewMonday,Henuset denied some of those statements, saying there must have been a misunderstanding.

Although he said there are potential buyers, it would be impossible to finalize a deal atthis stage when the project still faces what will likely be a lengthy regulatory process.

“There is a number of companies that are, right now, if we could give them a firm price, we could start our negotiations for a PPA [Power Purchase Agreement] but we’re not ready for that at this point,” Henuset said.

Oil and utility companies are among the potential buyers he has had discussions with, he said.

Peace River Mayor Lorne Mann, a supporter of the nuclear plant, does not believe the company has made contradictory statements but admits some people may have been left with the wrong impression.The proposed $6-billion plant would be built on private land near Lac Cardinal, about 30 kilometres from the community.

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