JSW Steel Ltd., India’s third- largest producer, is considering putting its overseas coal and iron ore assets into a unit for a share sale to fund expansion, two people familiar with the plans said.
The unit would control coal and iron ore mines in the U.S. and Chile, as well as an exploration business in Mozambique, said the people who declined to be identified as the plans aren’t yet public. JSW may list the unit in an overseas exchange, they said, without giving a timeframe.
JSW Steel, Tata Steel Ltd. and Steel Authority of India Ltd., the nation’s largest producers, are looking to buy mines in Australia, the U.S. and Africa, to feed furnaces as demand increases. The Indian steel market has expanded more than 55 percent since 2005, fueled by automobile sales and government construction.
Mumbai-based JSW Steel spokesman Mithun Roy didn’t reply to e-mailed questions from Bloomberg News.
Shares in JSW Steel have climbed 31 percent this year to close yesterday at 1,326.90 rupees, making them the third-best performer on the 35-company Bloomberg Asia Pacific Iron and Steel Index behind South Korea’s Hyundai Steel Co. and Australia’s Fortescue Metals Group Ltd.
JSW Steel bought seven coking coal mines in May in the U.S. with reserves of about 123 million metric tons. In Chile, the company’s Bellavista iron ore mines, acquired in 2008, are likely to start production by December, Group Chief Financial Officer Seshagiri Rao said last month.
The company’s Mozambique unit is exploring for coal and iron ore resources, according to JSW’s latest annual report.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Cairn warns Delhi over $9bn sale
The way New Delhi handles Cairn Energy’s proposed $9.6bn sale to Vedanta of a controlling stake in its Indian energy business is a crucial litmus test for foreign investment in India, the UK oil and gas explorer has warned.
Sir Bill Gammell, Cairn chairman, said New Delhi’s attitude to the “high profile” deal would be a signal to other major international companies of India’s approach to its investors, especially those who potentially might wish to disinvest in Indian operations.
“It’s important this transaction be seen to be a smooth transaction from an investment point of view,” Sir Bill told the Financial Times on Monday. “People will be watching very carefully as to how it takes place.”
India’s government has insisted on its right to approve the transaction, which involves strategically important oilfields.
It has so far been muted in its response to Cairn’s surprise August decision to sell a majority stake in its Indian subsidiary to Vedanta, the London-listed mining and metals group founded by Anil Agarwal, the Indian-born billionaire.
Sir Bill said he hoped New Delhi would give its blessing by the end of the year.
Cairn began its Indian foray in the 1990s, acquiring the then struggling local exploration operations of the Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell. It subsequently made India’s biggest onshore oil discovery of the last two decades in Rajasthan’s desert sands and listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange four years ago.
However, some of Cairn India’s minority shareholders have been angered by Vedanta’s plan to pay Rs405 per share to Cairn Energy, which holds a 62 per cent stake in Cairn India, while offering them just Rs355 per share in a mandatory open tender.
Mr Agarwal appears undaunted. He has ruled out any increase in the offer price to minority shareholders.
“We have given a very lucrative offer – that offer will stand,” he said on Monday.
Sir Bill Gammell, Cairn chairman, said New Delhi’s attitude to the “high profile” deal would be a signal to other major international companies of India’s approach to its investors, especially those who potentially might wish to disinvest in Indian operations.
“It’s important this transaction be seen to be a smooth transaction from an investment point of view,” Sir Bill told the Financial Times on Monday. “People will be watching very carefully as to how it takes place.”
India’s government has insisted on its right to approve the transaction, which involves strategically important oilfields.
It has so far been muted in its response to Cairn’s surprise August decision to sell a majority stake in its Indian subsidiary to Vedanta, the London-listed mining and metals group founded by Anil Agarwal, the Indian-born billionaire.
Sir Bill said he hoped New Delhi would give its blessing by the end of the year.
Cairn began its Indian foray in the 1990s, acquiring the then struggling local exploration operations of the Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell. It subsequently made India’s biggest onshore oil discovery of the last two decades in Rajasthan’s desert sands and listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange four years ago.
However, some of Cairn India’s minority shareholders have been angered by Vedanta’s plan to pay Rs405 per share to Cairn Energy, which holds a 62 per cent stake in Cairn India, while offering them just Rs355 per share in a mandatory open tender.
Mr Agarwal appears undaunted. He has ruled out any increase in the offer price to minority shareholders.
“We have given a very lucrative offer – that offer will stand,” he said on Monday.
Across the U.S., Long Recovery Looks Like Recession
This is not what a recovery is supposed to look like.
In Atlanta, the Bank of America tower, the tallest in the Southeast, is nearly a fifth vacant, and bank officials just wrestled a rent cut from the developer. In Cherry Hill, N.J., 10 percent of the houses on the market are so-called short sales, in which sellers ask for less than they owe lenders. And in Arizona, in sun-blasted desert subdivisions, owners speak of hours cut, jobs lost and meals at soup kitchens.
Less than a month before November elections, the United States is mired in a grim New Normal that could last for years. That has policy makers, particularly the Federal Reserve, considering a range of ever more extreme measures, as noted in the minutes of its last meeting, released Tuesday. Call it recession or recovery, for tens of millions of Americans, there’s little difference.
Born of a record financial collapse, this recession has been more severe than any since the Great Depression and has left an enormous oversupply of houses and office buildings and crippling debt. The decision last week by leading mortgage lenders to freeze foreclosures, and calls for a national moratorium, could cast a long shadow of uncertainty over banks and the housing market. Put simply, the national economy has fallen so far that it could take years to climb back.
The math yields somber conclusions, with implications not just for this autumn’s elections but also — barring a policy surprise or economic upturn — for 2012 as well:
¶At the current rate of job creation, the nation would need nine more years to recapture the jobs lost during the recession. And that doesn’t even account for five million or six million jobs needed in that time to keep pace with an expanding population. Even top Obama officials concede the unemployment rate could climb higher still.
¶Median house prices have dropped 20 percent since 2005. Given an inflation rate of about 2 percent — a common forecast — it would take 13 years for housing prices to climb back to their peak, according to Allen L. Sinai, chief global economist at the consulting firm Decision Economics.
¶Commercial vacancies are soaring, and it could take a decade to absorb the excess in many of the largest cities. The vacancy rate, as of the end of June, stands at 21.4 percent in Phoenix, 19.7 percent in Las Vegas, 18.3 in Dallas/Fort Worth and 17.3 percent in Atlanta, in each case higher than last year, according to the data firm CoStar Group.
Demand is inert. Consumer confidence has tumbled as many are afraid or unable to spend. Families are still paying off — or walking away from — debt. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, estimates it will be the end of 2011 before the amount of income that households pay in interest recedes to levels seen before the run-up. Credit card delinquencies are rising.
“No wonder Americans are pessimistic and unhappy,” said Mr. Sinai. “The only way we are going to get in gear is to face up to the reality that we are entering a period of austerity.”
This dreary accounting should not suggest a nation without strengths. Unemployment rates have come down from their peaks in swaths of the United States, from Vermont to Minnesota to Wisconsin. Port traffic has increased, and employers have created an average of 68,111 jobs a month this year.
After plummeting in 2009, the stock market has spiraled up, buoying retirement accounts and perhaps the spirits of middle-class Americans. As a measure of economic health, though, that gain is overstated. Robert Reich, the former labor secretary, notes that the most profitable companies in the domestic stock indexes generate about 40 percent of their revenue from abroad.
Few doubt the American economy remains capable of electrifying growth, but few expect that any time soon. “We still have a lot of strengths, from a culture of entrepreneurship and venture capitalism, to flexible labor markets and attracting immigrants,” said Barry Eichengreen, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley. “But we’re going to be living with the overhang of our financial and debt problems for a long, long time to come.”
New shocks could push the nation into another recession or deflation. “We are in a situation where our vulnerability to any new problem is great,” said Carmen M. Reinhart, a professor of economics at the University of Maryland.
So troubles ripple outward, as lost jobs, unsold houses and empty offices weigh down the economy and upend lives. Struggles in Arizona, New Jersey and Georgia echo broadly.
Florence, Ariz.
In 2005, Arizona ranked, as usual, second nationally in job growth behind Nevada, its economy predicated on growth. The snowbirds came and construction boomed and land stretched endless and cheap. Then it stopped.
This year, Arizona ranks 42nd in job growth. It has lost 287,000 jobs since the recession began, and the fall has been calamitous.
Renee Wheaton, 38, sits in an old golf cart on the corner of Tangerine and Barley Roads in her subdivision in the desert, an hour south of Phoenix. Her next-door neighbor, an engineer, just lost his job. The man across the street is unemployed.
Her family is not doing so well either. Her husband’s hours have been cut by 15 percent, leaving her family of five behind on water and credit card bills — more or less on everything except the house and car payment. She teaches art, but that’s not much in demand.
“I say to myself ‘This can’t be happening to us: We saved, we worked hard and we’re under tremendous stress,’ ” Ms. Wheaton says. “My husband is a very hard-working man but for the first time, he’s having real trouble.”
In Atlanta, the Bank of America tower, the tallest in the Southeast, is nearly a fifth vacant, and bank officials just wrestled a rent cut from the developer. In Cherry Hill, N.J., 10 percent of the houses on the market are so-called short sales, in which sellers ask for less than they owe lenders. And in Arizona, in sun-blasted desert subdivisions, owners speak of hours cut, jobs lost and meals at soup kitchens.
Less than a month before November elections, the United States is mired in a grim New Normal that could last for years. That has policy makers, particularly the Federal Reserve, considering a range of ever more extreme measures, as noted in the minutes of its last meeting, released Tuesday. Call it recession or recovery, for tens of millions of Americans, there’s little difference.
Born of a record financial collapse, this recession has been more severe than any since the Great Depression and has left an enormous oversupply of houses and office buildings and crippling debt. The decision last week by leading mortgage lenders to freeze foreclosures, and calls for a national moratorium, could cast a long shadow of uncertainty over banks and the housing market. Put simply, the national economy has fallen so far that it could take years to climb back.
The math yields somber conclusions, with implications not just for this autumn’s elections but also — barring a policy surprise or economic upturn — for 2012 as well:
¶At the current rate of job creation, the nation would need nine more years to recapture the jobs lost during the recession. And that doesn’t even account for five million or six million jobs needed in that time to keep pace with an expanding population. Even top Obama officials concede the unemployment rate could climb higher still.
¶Median house prices have dropped 20 percent since 2005. Given an inflation rate of about 2 percent — a common forecast — it would take 13 years for housing prices to climb back to their peak, according to Allen L. Sinai, chief global economist at the consulting firm Decision Economics.
¶Commercial vacancies are soaring, and it could take a decade to absorb the excess in many of the largest cities. The vacancy rate, as of the end of June, stands at 21.4 percent in Phoenix, 19.7 percent in Las Vegas, 18.3 in Dallas/Fort Worth and 17.3 percent in Atlanta, in each case higher than last year, according to the data firm CoStar Group.
Demand is inert. Consumer confidence has tumbled as many are afraid or unable to spend. Families are still paying off — or walking away from — debt. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, estimates it will be the end of 2011 before the amount of income that households pay in interest recedes to levels seen before the run-up. Credit card delinquencies are rising.
“No wonder Americans are pessimistic and unhappy,” said Mr. Sinai. “The only way we are going to get in gear is to face up to the reality that we are entering a period of austerity.”
This dreary accounting should not suggest a nation without strengths. Unemployment rates have come down from their peaks in swaths of the United States, from Vermont to Minnesota to Wisconsin. Port traffic has increased, and employers have created an average of 68,111 jobs a month this year.
After plummeting in 2009, the stock market has spiraled up, buoying retirement accounts and perhaps the spirits of middle-class Americans. As a measure of economic health, though, that gain is overstated. Robert Reich, the former labor secretary, notes that the most profitable companies in the domestic stock indexes generate about 40 percent of their revenue from abroad.
Few doubt the American economy remains capable of electrifying growth, but few expect that any time soon. “We still have a lot of strengths, from a culture of entrepreneurship and venture capitalism, to flexible labor markets and attracting immigrants,” said Barry Eichengreen, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley. “But we’re going to be living with the overhang of our financial and debt problems for a long, long time to come.”
New shocks could push the nation into another recession or deflation. “We are in a situation where our vulnerability to any new problem is great,” said Carmen M. Reinhart, a professor of economics at the University of Maryland.
So troubles ripple outward, as lost jobs, unsold houses and empty offices weigh down the economy and upend lives. Struggles in Arizona, New Jersey and Georgia echo broadly.
Florence, Ariz.
In 2005, Arizona ranked, as usual, second nationally in job growth behind Nevada, its economy predicated on growth. The snowbirds came and construction boomed and land stretched endless and cheap. Then it stopped.
This year, Arizona ranks 42nd in job growth. It has lost 287,000 jobs since the recession began, and the fall has been calamitous.
Renee Wheaton, 38, sits in an old golf cart on the corner of Tangerine and Barley Roads in her subdivision in the desert, an hour south of Phoenix. Her next-door neighbor, an engineer, just lost his job. The man across the street is unemployed.
Her family is not doing so well either. Her husband’s hours have been cut by 15 percent, leaving her family of five behind on water and credit card bills — more or less on everything except the house and car payment. She teaches art, but that’s not much in demand.
“I say to myself ‘This can’t be happening to us: We saved, we worked hard and we’re under tremendous stress,’ ” Ms. Wheaton says. “My husband is a very hard-working man but for the first time, he’s having real trouble.”
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Asian Stocks Advance on Speculation U.S. Fed Will Act to Stimulate Growth
Asian stocks rose on speculation the U.S. Federal Reserve will join the region’s central banks in further stimulating economic growth, supporting a fragile global economic recovery.
BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, gained 0.7 percent as oil and metal prices rallied. Korea Zinc Co., which produces gold and silver, advanced 1.9 percent in Seoul. Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. jumped 10 percent in Shanghai. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd., Australia’s third-largest iron-ore exporter, surged 5.7 percent in Sydney after securing bank funding.
“Further quantitative easing will hopefully stimulate economic activity to where the recovery is self-sustaining,” said Tim Schroeders, who helps manage about $1 billion at Pengana Capital Ltd. in Melbourne. “That would bolster the outlook for jobs creation, higher consumption and earnings growth, and give a positive impetus to equity valuations.”
The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index gained 0.4 percent to 460.45 at 12:38 p.m. in Sydney after a larger-than- estimated cut in U.S. jobs stoked optimism the Fed will intensify action to bolster the economy. The gauge advanced 2 percent last week after Japan’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate and Australia unexpectedly kept its key rate unchanged.
Material Stocks
Material stocks were the biggest drivers of the MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan gauge’s advance. The index has rallied 29 percent from this year’s May 25 low amid signs a U.S. recovery is regaining momentum and that China’s economic expansion will continue.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 0.6 percent as a statistics bureau report showed Australian home-loan approvals rose in August from a month earlier. South Korea’s Kospi index rose 0.2 percent, while New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index added 0.1 percent. Japanese markets are closed for a public holiday.
Futures on the U.S. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index increased 0.2 percent. The gauge climbed 0.6 percent to 1,165.15 in New York on Oct. 8 as the jobs report fueled speculation the Fed would do more to ensure a lasting recovery.
“Further quantitative easing will boost short-term liquidity, which should find its way into financial markets,” said Prasad Patkar, who helps manage about $1.8 billion at Platypus Asset Management in Sydney. “It should also support broader economic activity in the longer term. The rising supply of dollars in the system will increase demand for hard assets like commodities and precious metals as a store of value.”
U.S. Employment
U.S. employers cut 95,000 jobs in September, Labor Department figures showed. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 5,000 drop. The dollar fell below 82 yen for the first time since 1995, while the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 raw materials climbed to the highest level in almost two years.
Copper futures for December delivery rose 2.6 percent to a 27-month high on Oct. 8 in New York, while gold futures for December delivery gained 0.8 percent to settle at $1,345.30. Crude oil for November delivery advanced 1.2 percent to settle at $82.66 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
“The U.S. jobs data was basically a win-win for equities,” said Chris Weston, a Melbourne-based institutional dealer at IG Markets. “If it was better, we’d have seen a rally in risk, but as we saw a worse-than-expected number, it again heightened the need for stimulus. Fed liquidity into markets helps inflate asset prices, providing a solid platform for equities to rally in the short term.”
The MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan Index has risen 11 percent this year on speculation growth in corporate profits will weather Europe’s debt crisis, Chinese steps to curb property- price inflation and concern about the pace of the U.S. economic rebound. Stocks in the gauge trade at 13.8 times estimated profit on average, compared with 13.9 times for the S&P 500 and 12.1 times for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index.
BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, gained 0.7 percent as oil and metal prices rallied. Korea Zinc Co., which produces gold and silver, advanced 1.9 percent in Seoul. Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. jumped 10 percent in Shanghai. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd., Australia’s third-largest iron-ore exporter, surged 5.7 percent in Sydney after securing bank funding.
“Further quantitative easing will hopefully stimulate economic activity to where the recovery is self-sustaining,” said Tim Schroeders, who helps manage about $1 billion at Pengana Capital Ltd. in Melbourne. “That would bolster the outlook for jobs creation, higher consumption and earnings growth, and give a positive impetus to equity valuations.”
The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index gained 0.4 percent to 460.45 at 12:38 p.m. in Sydney after a larger-than- estimated cut in U.S. jobs stoked optimism the Fed will intensify action to bolster the economy. The gauge advanced 2 percent last week after Japan’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate and Australia unexpectedly kept its key rate unchanged.
Material Stocks
Material stocks were the biggest drivers of the MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan gauge’s advance. The index has rallied 29 percent from this year’s May 25 low amid signs a U.S. recovery is regaining momentum and that China’s economic expansion will continue.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 0.6 percent as a statistics bureau report showed Australian home-loan approvals rose in August from a month earlier. South Korea’s Kospi index rose 0.2 percent, while New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index added 0.1 percent. Japanese markets are closed for a public holiday.
Futures on the U.S. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index increased 0.2 percent. The gauge climbed 0.6 percent to 1,165.15 in New York on Oct. 8 as the jobs report fueled speculation the Fed would do more to ensure a lasting recovery.
“Further quantitative easing will boost short-term liquidity, which should find its way into financial markets,” said Prasad Patkar, who helps manage about $1.8 billion at Platypus Asset Management in Sydney. “It should also support broader economic activity in the longer term. The rising supply of dollars in the system will increase demand for hard assets like commodities and precious metals as a store of value.”
U.S. Employment
U.S. employers cut 95,000 jobs in September, Labor Department figures showed. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 5,000 drop. The dollar fell below 82 yen for the first time since 1995, while the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 raw materials climbed to the highest level in almost two years.
Copper futures for December delivery rose 2.6 percent to a 27-month high on Oct. 8 in New York, while gold futures for December delivery gained 0.8 percent to settle at $1,345.30. Crude oil for November delivery advanced 1.2 percent to settle at $82.66 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
“The U.S. jobs data was basically a win-win for equities,” said Chris Weston, a Melbourne-based institutional dealer at IG Markets. “If it was better, we’d have seen a rally in risk, but as we saw a worse-than-expected number, it again heightened the need for stimulus. Fed liquidity into markets helps inflate asset prices, providing a solid platform for equities to rally in the short term.”
The MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan Index has risen 11 percent this year on speculation growth in corporate profits will weather Europe’s debt crisis, Chinese steps to curb property- price inflation and concern about the pace of the U.S. economic rebound. Stocks in the gauge trade at 13.8 times estimated profit on average, compared with 13.9 times for the S&P 500 and 12.1 times for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index.
Bloomberg Plans a Data Service on the Business of Government
Ambition and confidence have never been in short supply at Bloomberg L.P.
Chapter 4 of Michael R. Bloomberg’s autobiography, the part in which he describes conceiving the idea for Bloomberg News in the late 1980s, is titled “We Can Do That: Elementary Journalism, Not Rocket Science.”
Now Bloomberg is taking that entrepreneurial ethos and making an aggressive push into the Washington media terrain long dominated by trade publications and news outlets like Congressional Quarterly and National Journal, which charge high subscription fees to provide lobbyists and Capitol Hill insiders with information on the nuts-and-bolts of lawmaking and government regulation.
In the same way that Bloomberg terminals have become a ubiquitous presence on the desks of Wall Street traders, Bloomberg executives aim to make their new service an indispensable tool for lobbyists, Capitol Hill staff members and government contractors.
The service, called Bloomberg Government, is based on the same guiding principle that spawned the original Bloomberg financial data machine: people need an aggregator and filter for information, and they will pay a lot of money for that convenience.
Bloomberg Government is an information behemoth — a news aggregator, government contract database, Congressional staff directory and source for policy research and analysis all in one Web site.
Unlike the Bloomberg financial information service, Bloomberg Government will not require separate hardware to operate. For $5,700 a year for each user (a discount will be available for government users), subscribers will be able to gain access to the system through their personal computers.
The idea for the service was born in part from what Bloomberg executives saw as an opening in the Washington media market. As numerous Web sites, blogs and even traditional policy-focused outlets like National Journal have ramped up their coverage of political news, reporting on the less glamorous aspects — how the legislative sausage is made — has become less of a priority for many news organizations.
“There has been a bloom in news around political reporting,” said Kevin Sheekey, chairman of Bloomberg Government. “There’s been at the same time a sort of hidden but very sharp decline in coverage of government apart from politics, in terms of what government is doing and regulating, and the impact that will have on segments of the economy. That part of press coverage of our society has probably dropped off tenfold. That’s where Bloomberg is stepping in.”
Many news organizations are coy about their ambitions, preferring to let their journalism speak for itself and content to let others speculate about what designs they have on the future. Not Bloomberg. And Bloomberg Government is an unmistakable signal that the company is positioning itself to be not only a major media player in Washington, but the dominant one.
“Our aspiration is to be the most influential news organization in the world,” said Mike Riley, the managing editor of Bloomberg Government in Washington. “I think Bloomberg sees a great opportunity here, and they are wisely investing on the front end,” he added, declining to say exactly how much the company has spent building the service over the last nine months. “Suffice it to say, it’s not inexpensive.”
Bloomberg’s existing Washington bureau employs 175 journalists apart from the nearly 40 journalists and analysts Mr. Riley has hired so far for Bloomberg Government. He plans to hire 60 more by the end of the year, half of them journalists, half policy experts like trained economists.
By the end of 2011, Bloomberg Government expects to have 150 journalists and analysts on staff. Counting nonjournalists, plans call for Bloomberg Government to expand to 300, which would make the company’s Washington office the largest for a news organization not based in the capital.
Bloomberg’s investment in the staff alone will be in the area of $30 million a year.
Chapter 4 of Michael R. Bloomberg’s autobiography, the part in which he describes conceiving the idea for Bloomberg News in the late 1980s, is titled “We Can Do That: Elementary Journalism, Not Rocket Science.”
Now Bloomberg is taking that entrepreneurial ethos and making an aggressive push into the Washington media terrain long dominated by trade publications and news outlets like Congressional Quarterly and National Journal, which charge high subscription fees to provide lobbyists and Capitol Hill insiders with information on the nuts-and-bolts of lawmaking and government regulation.
In the same way that Bloomberg terminals have become a ubiquitous presence on the desks of Wall Street traders, Bloomberg executives aim to make their new service an indispensable tool for lobbyists, Capitol Hill staff members and government contractors.
The service, called Bloomberg Government, is based on the same guiding principle that spawned the original Bloomberg financial data machine: people need an aggregator and filter for information, and they will pay a lot of money for that convenience.
Bloomberg Government is an information behemoth — a news aggregator, government contract database, Congressional staff directory and source for policy research and analysis all in one Web site.
Unlike the Bloomberg financial information service, Bloomberg Government will not require separate hardware to operate. For $5,700 a year for each user (a discount will be available for government users), subscribers will be able to gain access to the system through their personal computers.
The idea for the service was born in part from what Bloomberg executives saw as an opening in the Washington media market. As numerous Web sites, blogs and even traditional policy-focused outlets like National Journal have ramped up their coverage of political news, reporting on the less glamorous aspects — how the legislative sausage is made — has become less of a priority for many news organizations.
“There has been a bloom in news around political reporting,” said Kevin Sheekey, chairman of Bloomberg Government. “There’s been at the same time a sort of hidden but very sharp decline in coverage of government apart from politics, in terms of what government is doing and regulating, and the impact that will have on segments of the economy. That part of press coverage of our society has probably dropped off tenfold. That’s where Bloomberg is stepping in.”
Many news organizations are coy about their ambitions, preferring to let their journalism speak for itself and content to let others speculate about what designs they have on the future. Not Bloomberg. And Bloomberg Government is an unmistakable signal that the company is positioning itself to be not only a major media player in Washington, but the dominant one.
“Our aspiration is to be the most influential news organization in the world,” said Mike Riley, the managing editor of Bloomberg Government in Washington. “I think Bloomberg sees a great opportunity here, and they are wisely investing on the front end,” he added, declining to say exactly how much the company has spent building the service over the last nine months. “Suffice it to say, it’s not inexpensive.”
Bloomberg’s existing Washington bureau employs 175 journalists apart from the nearly 40 journalists and analysts Mr. Riley has hired so far for Bloomberg Government. He plans to hire 60 more by the end of the year, half of them journalists, half policy experts like trained economists.
By the end of 2011, Bloomberg Government expects to have 150 journalists and analysts on staff. Counting nonjournalists, plans call for Bloomberg Government to expand to 300, which would make the company’s Washington office the largest for a news organization not based in the capital.
Bloomberg’s investment in the staff alone will be in the area of $30 million a year.
Subbarao Says India May Act If Capital Inflows Disrupt Economy
India may intervene in the foreign exchange market if capital flows “disrupt” the economy, the central bank’s governor, Duvvuri Subbarao, said after the rupee rallied to be Asia’s best performer of the past month.
“If the inflows are lumpy and volatile or if they disrupt the macroeconomic situation, we will do so,” Subbarao said in a panel discussion at the International Monetary Fund in Washington on Oct. 9. “We’ve not found the need to intervene so far,” he told reporters.
The rupee gained 5 percent against the dollar in the past month as global funds pumped a record $21 billion into Indian stocks this year on optimism about the South Asian’s nation’s growth prospects. Subbarao’s comments came as countries from Brazil to South Korea took steps to slow currency appreciation amid rising capital flows into emerging and Asian economies.
“In recent months, when inflows have swamped most emerging market economies, several central banks have intervened in the forex markets,” Subbarao said. “The reason we did not feel the need to intervene is because our absorption, driven by a widening current-account deficit as imports have surged on the back of a positive outlook on growth and investment, has also increased.”
India’s current-account deficit widened to a record $13.7 billion in the three months ended June 30 as an accelerating economy boosted imports of oil and machinery. The International Monetary Fund last week raised its 2010 economic growth forecast for India to 9.7 percent from 9.4 percent it estimated in July.
Advance Pared
The rupee declined 0.5 percent to 44.4350 per dollar at close of trading on Oct. 8 in Mumbai, paring its advance during the week to 0.3 percent on concern importers will step up dollar purchases and the central bank may intervene in the foreign exchange market. In the past month, the Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index has gained 8.6 percent to a near record 20,250.26.
“Our intervention will be to keep liquidity conditions consistent with activity in the real economy and to maintain financial stability,” Subbarao said. “And not to stand against developments driven by changing economic fundamentals.”
“If the inflows are lumpy and volatile or if they disrupt the macroeconomic situation, we will do so,” Subbarao said in a panel discussion at the International Monetary Fund in Washington on Oct. 9. “We’ve not found the need to intervene so far,” he told reporters.
The rupee gained 5 percent against the dollar in the past month as global funds pumped a record $21 billion into Indian stocks this year on optimism about the South Asian’s nation’s growth prospects. Subbarao’s comments came as countries from Brazil to South Korea took steps to slow currency appreciation amid rising capital flows into emerging and Asian economies.
“In recent months, when inflows have swamped most emerging market economies, several central banks have intervened in the forex markets,” Subbarao said. “The reason we did not feel the need to intervene is because our absorption, driven by a widening current-account deficit as imports have surged on the back of a positive outlook on growth and investment, has also increased.”
India’s current-account deficit widened to a record $13.7 billion in the three months ended June 30 as an accelerating economy boosted imports of oil and machinery. The International Monetary Fund last week raised its 2010 economic growth forecast for India to 9.7 percent from 9.4 percent it estimated in July.
Advance Pared
The rupee declined 0.5 percent to 44.4350 per dollar at close of trading on Oct. 8 in Mumbai, paring its advance during the week to 0.3 percent on concern importers will step up dollar purchases and the central bank may intervene in the foreign exchange market. In the past month, the Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index has gained 8.6 percent to a near record 20,250.26.
“Our intervention will be to keep liquidity conditions consistent with activity in the real economy and to maintain financial stability,” Subbarao said. “And not to stand against developments driven by changing economic fundamentals.”
Mittal urges China to relax investment rules
Lakshmi Mittal has called for Beijing to reduce its restrictions on inward investments to help damp hostility to efforts by Chinese companies to take stakes in businesses in countries such as the US.
“You cannot expect business people in the US to be relaxed [about planned inward investments by Chinese companies] if their attempts to do the same thing in China are covered by restrictions,” the chief executive and main owner of ArcelorMittal said in an interview with the Financial Times in Tokyo.
Mr Mittal was speaking in light of a row in the US over a planned participation by Anshan Iron & Steel, one of China’s biggest steelmakers, in a $168m venture to build a steel plant in Mississippi by John Correnti, a veteran US steel executive.
The head of the world’s biggest steelmaker – whose own efforts to expand in China have been hampered by Beijing’s inward investment rules – said he was, in principle, relaxed about plans by Anshan to take a minority stake in the plant.
“In today’s free market, I don’t think you can stop projects by Chinese companies to expand overseas,” he said.
But Mr Mittal added that in thinking about this issue, Beijing had to become more relaxed about the conditions under which foreign companies could participate in running China-based businesses.
“There has to be a two-way aspect to policy,” Mr Mittal said.
Mr Mittal has had plans to expand in China – by far the world’s biggest producer and consumer of steel – for some years.
But so far, he has been allowed only to take minority stakes in two medium sized China-based steel producers, rather than take control of large ventures, as he would have liked.
Behind this is the refusal by the Chinese government to allow non-Chinese companies to take majority stakes in business fields that Beijing regards as “strategic” to the country’s long-term interests, one of which is the steel industry.
In the case of the this industry, it is fairly easy for Beijing to stop foreign ownership since most big Chinese steel companies, including Anshan, are state-owned.
The plan by Zhang Xiaogang, Anshan’s president, to link up with Mr Correnti has run into strong criticism by large US steelmakers on concerns that it would lead to other efforts by Chinese steelmakers to set up plants in the US, which in turn could lead to new competitive pressures.
The US industry believes that companies such as Anshan are helped by hidden government subsidies that give them an unfair advantage.
Mr Mittal also gave further details of his new thinking on setting up steel plants in India in the next few years.
Confirming that plans to set up two big steel sites producing between them 24m tonnes of steel a year by 2015 were highly unlikely to be realised, Mr Mittal said his new strategy was to have a number of smaller steelmaking hubs in different parts of the country each capable of making a few million tonnes of steel a year.
“My plan is now to have 2-4 sites rather than concentrate everything on large plants,” Mr Mittal said. However, he gave no time frame for when these units could come into operation.
Mr Mittal’s original scheme to spend about $20bn on two large steel plants in Jharkand and Orissa was put on hold last year after difficulties in persuading farmers and others in selling the land that is needed.
However, Mr Mittal said he was still “determined to participate” in the steel industry in India where demand for the metal is increasing quickly as a result of new investments in industrial expansion and infrastructure development.
“You cannot expect business people in the US to be relaxed [about planned inward investments by Chinese companies] if their attempts to do the same thing in China are covered by restrictions,” the chief executive and main owner of ArcelorMittal said in an interview with the Financial Times in Tokyo.
Mr Mittal was speaking in light of a row in the US over a planned participation by Anshan Iron & Steel, one of China’s biggest steelmakers, in a $168m venture to build a steel plant in Mississippi by John Correnti, a veteran US steel executive.
The head of the world’s biggest steelmaker – whose own efforts to expand in China have been hampered by Beijing’s inward investment rules – said he was, in principle, relaxed about plans by Anshan to take a minority stake in the plant.
“In today’s free market, I don’t think you can stop projects by Chinese companies to expand overseas,” he said.
But Mr Mittal added that in thinking about this issue, Beijing had to become more relaxed about the conditions under which foreign companies could participate in running China-based businesses.
“There has to be a two-way aspect to policy,” Mr Mittal said.
Mr Mittal has had plans to expand in China – by far the world’s biggest producer and consumer of steel – for some years.
But so far, he has been allowed only to take minority stakes in two medium sized China-based steel producers, rather than take control of large ventures, as he would have liked.
Behind this is the refusal by the Chinese government to allow non-Chinese companies to take majority stakes in business fields that Beijing regards as “strategic” to the country’s long-term interests, one of which is the steel industry.
In the case of the this industry, it is fairly easy for Beijing to stop foreign ownership since most big Chinese steel companies, including Anshan, are state-owned.
The plan by Zhang Xiaogang, Anshan’s president, to link up with Mr Correnti has run into strong criticism by large US steelmakers on concerns that it would lead to other efforts by Chinese steelmakers to set up plants in the US, which in turn could lead to new competitive pressures.
The US industry believes that companies such as Anshan are helped by hidden government subsidies that give them an unfair advantage.
Mr Mittal also gave further details of his new thinking on setting up steel plants in India in the next few years.
Confirming that plans to set up two big steel sites producing between them 24m tonnes of steel a year by 2015 were highly unlikely to be realised, Mr Mittal said his new strategy was to have a number of smaller steelmaking hubs in different parts of the country each capable of making a few million tonnes of steel a year.
“My plan is now to have 2-4 sites rather than concentrate everything on large plants,” Mr Mittal said. However, he gave no time frame for when these units could come into operation.
Mr Mittal’s original scheme to spend about $20bn on two large steel plants in Jharkand and Orissa was put on hold last year after difficulties in persuading farmers and others in selling the land that is needed.
However, Mr Mittal said he was still “determined to participate” in the steel industry in India where demand for the metal is increasing quickly as a result of new investments in industrial expansion and infrastructure development.
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