BUSINESS NEWS: Nasdaq slumps to worst day since July; S&P 500 dips

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed mixed on Monday as the tech sector dragged the Nasdaq to its worst day since July and kept the S&P 500 near the unchanged mark as investors cleared the decks for Alibaba's debut planned for later this week.

Alibaba's could be the largest initial public offering in history and has seen "overwhelming" interest, meaning Yahoo's 23 percent stake could be worth more next week than it is now. Yahoo stock pulled back from a 14-year high and fell 0.8 percent to 42.55 with 71.7 million shares traded, more than double its 10-day average of 34.2 million.

"There is some nervousness out there, so some money is coming out of the high-flyers and some of it is people getting ready to raise some cash to put to work to Alibaba," said Ken Polcari, Director of the NYSE floor division at O'Neil Securities in New York.

Heavily-traded Facebook (FB.O) and Netflix (NFLX.O) lost nearly 4 percent each. The S&P technology sector .SPLRCT lost 0.6 percent as the worst performing of the 10 major S&P sectors.
Investors also exercised caution ahead of the policy statement from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, which could provide clues on the timing of an interest rate hike.

"There is a lot of wait-and-see for what happens Wednesday, if anything new happens," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, New York.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) gained 43.63 points, or 0.26 percent, to 17,031.14, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 1.41 points, or 0.07 percent, to 1,984.13, and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 48.70 points, or 1.07 percent, to 4,518.90.

The decline for the Nasdaq marked its biggest drop since July 31.

The largest percentage gainer on the New York Stock Exchange was DRDGOLD Limited (DRD.N), which gained 20 percent, while the largest percentage decliner was BANKRATE INC (RATE.N), down 13.75 percent.

Among the most active stocks on the NYSE were Bank of America (BAC.N), down 0.30 percent to $16.74; Nokia Corp ADR (NOK.N), up 2.27 percent to $8.56; and Petrobras (PBR.N), up 0.98 percent to $16.54.

On the Nasdaq, Avanir Pharma (AVNR.O), up 85.3 percent to $12.49; Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O), down 0.8 percent to $42.55; and Apple Inc (AAPL.O), down 0.03 percent to $101.63, were among the most actively traded.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 2,021 to 1,031, for a 1.96-to-1 ratio to the downside; on the Nasdaq, 2,092 issues fell and 638 advanced for a 3.28-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The broad S&P 500 index was posted 14 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 32 new highs and 97 new lows.

Volume was modest, with about 5.51 billion shares traded on U.S. exchanges, slightly below the 5.6 billion average so far this month, according to data from BATS Global Markets.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT 'BEN Latest News'

'Like us on Facebook'
http://www.facebook.com/pages/BEN-Latest-News/443681719077160

'Follow us on Twitter'
www.twitter.com/benlatestnews

For Advertisment and Partnering with us contact CEO on BB PIN: 260158B5
BEN Latest News™

Read more ...

BUSINESS NEWS: Union Bank of Nigeria Plc has launched the Back to School MoneyGram campaign

Union Bank of Nigeria Plc has launched the Back to School MoneyGram campaign which will run through the end of September 2014. As the new academic year approaches, the promotion allows parents and guardians to send and receive money for school fees and other school related expenses through MoneyGram transfers from Nigeria or abroad. 

Commenting on the campaign, Mr Olufunwa Akinmade, Head of Retail Liabilities said “Union Bank’s partnership with MoneyGram affords Union Bank’s customers a fast, safe and secure money transfer option to meet their personal and business needs, especially during this ‘back to school’ season. We are also using the campaign as an opportunity to reward our customers.”

As part of the promotion, customers who make MoneyGram transfers during the period receive an instant gift from the Bank.

Union Bank is able to offer this service as an agent of MoneyGram and the service is available to both customers and non-customers of the Bank.

For further information and updates, visit Union Bank’s official

Website: http://www.unionbankng.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=253

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unionbanknigeria

Twitter: https://twitter.com/UNIONBANK_NG 

Read more ...

COMPANY NEWS UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Friday, Sept 12

LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 was seen edging higher at the open on Friday, with September futures on the index up 0.2 percent at 0628 GMT. For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on

* The UK blue chip index closed down 30.49 points, or 0.5 percent, at 6,799.62 points on Thursday.

* With just a week to go before Scots vote in a referendum on independence, a YouGov poll for The Times and Sun newspapers showed on Friday Scottish support for the union at 52 percent versus support for independence at 48 percent, excluding those who said they did not know how they would vote.

* JD WETHERSPOON - The mid-cap pub chain posted a 3 percent rise in full-year profit and said it expected a "reasonable" outcome for the current year after seeing an improvement in like-for-like sales in the first six weeks.

* AVEVA GROUP - The firm said on Friday its expects its first half revenue to be in the range of 84-90 million pounds (282.26 million US dollar).

* FRESNILLO - The miner said on Friday it has signed a binding agreement to acquire Newmont Mining's 44 percent interest in the Penmont Joint Venture.

* WEIR GROUP - The manufacturing company said it would consider relocating its headquarters in the event of a "yes" vote in the Scotland independence referendum next week, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

TODAY'S UK PAPERS

> Financial Times

> Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit http://topnews.session.rservices.com * BridgeStation: view story .134 For more information on Top News visit http://topnews.reuters.com (1 US dollar = 0.6164 British pound) (Reporting By Francesco Canepa; editing by Blaise Robinson)


FIND OUT MORE ABOUT 'BEN Latest News'

'Like us on Facebook'
http://www.facebook.com/pages/BEN-Latest-News/443681719077160

'Follow us on Twitter'
www.twitter.com/benlatestnews

For Advertisment and Partnering with us contact CEO on BB PIN: 260158B5
BEN Latest News™

Read more ...

COMPANY NEWS UPDATE: 1-Mitsubishi buying 20 pct Ivory Coast oilfield stake from Anadarko

TOKYO, (Reuters) - Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp is buying a 20 percent stake in an offshore oilfield in Ivory Coast from U.S. firm Anadarko Petroleum , in what will be the first Japanese oilfield stake purchase in the African country.

Mitsubishi said in a statement on Friday it is buying the stake in the deepwater oilfield block CI-103, located about 50 km (31 miles) off the coast of Cote d'Ivoire. It declined to comment on the value of the stake.

Anadarko currently controls 55 percent of the block, while London-based Tullow Oil and Ivorian state oil company Petroci have 30 percent and 15 percent, respectively.

The Nikkei business daily earlier said the project could cost 800 billion yen ($7.46 billion), but a Mitsubishi spokesman termed it speculation.

Ivory Coast, French-speaking West Africa's largest economy, is seeking to accelerate development of its energy sector, neglected during a decade-long political crisis that ended in a brief civil war in 2011.

The oil ministry signed 18 production-sharing agreements in 18 months in 2012 and 2013, as investors bet it could emulate Ghana's hydrocarbons boom. Companies such as Anadarko drilled 10 wells last year alone - twice the number during the whole of the decade-long political crisis.

Mitsubishi said crude production from the oilfield is targeted to begin in 2019. An exploratory well drilled in 2012 has confirmed oil and gas deposits, and further evaluation works and drilling of additional appraisal wells are in the works.

Oil and gas reserves in the block are currently estimated at 300 million barrels, and peak daily production may reach 60,000 barrels per day, the Mitsubishi spokesman said. Mitsubishi's equity share would be 13,000 bpd, making it the firm's biggest concession in Africa.

Anadarko and the partners could make a final investment decision on the project at the end of 2015, the spokesman added. (1 US dollar = 107.2600 Japanese yen) (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori and Bangalore Newsroom; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)


FIND OUT MORE ABOUT 'BEN Latest News'

'Like us on Facebook'
http://www.facebook.com/pages/BEN-Latest-News/443681719077160

'Follow us on Twitter'
www.twitter.com/benlatestnews

For Advertisment and Partnering with us contact CEO on BB PIN: 260158B5
BEN Latest News™

Read more ...

COMPANY NEWS UPDATE: 2-Nevada Governor signs $1.3 billion tax break package for electric car maker Tesla

CARSON CITY, Nevada, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval signed a package of bills on Thursday to provide $1.3 billion in tax breaks and other incentives for Tesla Motors , putting a bow on the deal for the electric car company to build a massive factory in the state.

Sandoval said the agreement has "changed the trajectory of our state forever" during the signing ceremony late on Thursday, shortly after the four bills were unanimously passed by both legislative chambers.

"Nevada has announced to the world - not to the country, but to the world - that we are ready to lead," Sandoval said, to applause.

The biggest chunk of the deal won support in day two of a special session called by Sandoval to implement an agreement for Tesla to locate its planned $5 billion lithium-ion battery factory in an industrial park 20 miles east of Reno along Interstate 80.

Tesla, founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk, decided to locate its factory in Nevada after negotiating with several states, including Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and the company's home state of California.

To clinch the deal, Sandoval promised that tax credits and other incentives would be available for up to 20 years.

The biggest chunk of the deal gives Tesla sales tax exemptions for 20 years, a perk estimated at $725 million. In addition, the company would save more than an estimated $300 million in payroll and other taxes through 2024.

The factory is key to Nevada's efforts to revitalize its economy, which was hard-hit by the mortgage meltdown and the Great Recession, and has yet to fully recover.
"This is arguably the biggest thing that has happened in Nevada since at least the Hoover Dam," the mammoth Depression-era project on the Colorado River that employed thousands and provided hydro-electric power to the state in the 1930s, said Assemblyman Ira Hansen, a Republican from Sparks.
Among the bills approved in both houses was a provision phasing out and eliminating 1970s-era tax credits for insurance companies, which backers said would free up about $125 million over five years beginning in 2016 for transferable tax credits to Tesla.

The package would also gut a pilot program approved just last year giving tax credits to the film industry, freeing up about $70 million for Tesla.

Another provision will require at least half of all workers hired by Tesla be Nevada residents, though it allows for waivers.

Lawmakers also agreed to buy right of way to build a road connecting I-80 and U.S. 50, a project estimated to cost $43 million that will improve access to the industrial park from other regions of the state.

The governor's office estimates the 5 million-square-foot factory will create an immediate 3,000 construction jobs, 6,500 factory jobs and 16,000 indirect jobs once completed.
Diarmuid O'Connell, Tesla vice president of business development, said the factory is crucial to the company's mission of mass-producing affordable electric cars within three years.
"We're looking forward to getting going," O'Connell said at the signing. (Editing by Sharon Bernstein, Curtis Skinner, Ken Wills and Kenneth Maxwell; Editing by Catherine Evans)

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT 'BEN Latest News'

'Like us on Facebook'
http://www.facebook.com/pages/BEN-Latest-News/443681719077160

'Follow us on Twitter'
www.twitter.com/benlatestnews

For Advertisment and Partnering with us contact CEO on BB PIN: 260158B5
BEN Latest News™

Read more ...

BUSINESS NEWS: Nigeria's growing number of female oil bosses

Catherine Uju Ifejika is one of Africa's few female oil industry bosses. The oil and gas industry is still overwhelmingly male, with surveys showing that the executive boardrooms of petroleum companies are mostly a boys' club.

In Nigeria, a number of well-financed businesswomen are aiming to change the picture there. The Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke is a powerful figurehead for them.

"The fact that two of the biggest cabinet positions in Nigeria, petroleum and finance, are held by women, show how far we have come," she told a recent meeting in Vienna, referring to the other prominent female member of the cabinet - Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

"We are there not because we are women. We are there because of our competence as managers."
Yet as surveys make clear, women managers are still in the minority in the world's oil and gas companies. Laura Manson-Smith, a consulting partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, says the representation picture is dismal.

"I was surprised at how low the percentage of female directors was [in oil and gas firms around the globe] - 11%, most of them are in non-executive positions, 1% of executive board seats are held by women."

"'People trust women more," says Ladol's Amy Jadesimi Offshore drilling Nigeria, the world's 14th-largest oil producing country with 2.4 million barrels a day, has taken steps to open up its oil industry to locals, a policy known as "indigenisation."
Now a handful of female entrepreneurs are hoping to build on that, by increasing women's stake in the industry.

"When we were growing up we only had Margaret Thatcher," says Amy Jadesimi, the managing director of Ladol, a petroleum services company based in Lagos.

Dr Jadesimi, a thirty-something former Goldman Sachs analyst, medical doctor and MBA says that today, "woman are taking for granted, that of course a woman can reach the highest levels of society".

Ladol has turned a site reclaimed from a swamp and an industrial wasteland into a $500m (£300m) port facility to support offshore drilling operations, including ship repair, maintenance, engineering and construction.

It is planning a second phase of expansion that will take the investment to $1bn. "Nobody had done what we'd done before across the whole of West Africa," says Dr Jadesimi.
Catherine Uju Ifejika is chairman and chief executive of the Britannia U Group, a group of oil and gas companies. Her business bought a stake in a major oil and gas field, Ajapa. The reserves, according to Britannia, are worth $4.3bn.

"You men, you don't even know how to boil water or where the children's school uniforms are," she jokes.

"We are able to hold your homes together, and we are beginning to translate that into boardroom jobs, and then owning companies. In six years I have formed seven companies."

She says 70% of her staff are men, "and they're not used to having a woman as a chairman or chief executive - a woman, a black woman, a black African woman."

Ladol plans to invest up to $1bn developing port facilities in Lagos. Thinking big Oil accounts for 95% of Nigeria's foreign exchange revenues. And though it supplies only 15% of the country's GDP ($522bn) it is the most symbolic industry.

Winihin Ayuli-Jemide, a Lagos-based entrepreneur and former lawyer, is a leading advocate of research on women in business and government.

She argues that one of the reasons South Africa was the dominant economy in Africa for so long is that South African women have been deeply involved in businesses of all sizes.

"They dominate the low capital businesses, the 'informal sector' such as manufacturing knitwear, tie and dye and homemade food for sale in municipal markets."

"At the level of small to medium enterprises, they're well ingrained and established."

She wants Nigerian women to think bigger - and to investment in areas such as oil and gas.

"When I was working for a large investment company in the City of London, the other woman on the board was the human resources director," said Jennie Paterson, founder of the financial consulting firm Fraser Whitley.

"I think we need to encourage women to have a broader executive skillset."

Oil accounts for 95% of Nigeria's foreign exchange revenues
Women 'are trusted more' Yewande Sadiku is chief executive of the Lagos-based financing firm Stanbic IBTC Capital. She says that the lenders providing loans to Nigerian and other African women too often had a limited outlook.

They only think women are good customers for micro-finance loans, she argues.
"[This mentality] says, let's give them lots of small loans, 50,000 to 100,000 naira, ($300 to $700), so they can run small businesses and feed their families," she says.

"Raising funds is difficult, but to be honest, people trust women more," Amy Jadesimi laughs.
"You have to have a watertight proposal, make a good financing case and be confident in your pitch."

A series of studies by McKinsey titled Women Matter, found that companies with a higher proportion of female executives showed stronger financial performance than those with no women in top positions.

The study showed that women tended to apply certain "leadership behaviours" more than men. They included people development, setting expectations and rewards and acting as role models.

Winihin Ayuli-Jemide welcomes these studies. "In Africa we really don't have information about gender issues", she said. "Nothing on how we are doing in the economy."

"In oil and gas, women are emerging. There is a business case for it."

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT 'BEN Latest News'

'Like us on Facebook'
http://www.facebook.com/pages/BEN-Latest-News/443681719077160

'Follow us on Twitter'
www.twitter.com/benlatestnews

For Advertisment and Partnering with us contact CEO on BB PIN: 260158B5
BEN Latest News™

Read more ...

BUSINESS NEWS: Santander bank's powerful patriarch Botin dies, daughter to succeed

MADRID (Reuters) - Emilio Botin, one of Spain's most powerful men who transformed Santander (SAN.MC) from a small domestic lender into the euro zone's biggest bank, has died of a heart attack, aged 79.

Sources familiar with the matter said his eldest daughter Ana Botin, currently head of Santander's British business, was expected to be approved as the bank's new chairman at a board meeting later on Wednesday.

Such a move could spark controversy, with banking dynasties coming under criticism after a scandal at Portugal's Banco Espirito Santo BES.L, where the founding family's holdings are being investigated over financial irregularities.

"Succession shouldn't just be saying 'my daughter's going to take over'," said a corporate governance expert at a global asset manager which owns Santander shares, speaking on condition of anonymity.
But others said Ana Botin, who has spent most of the last 25 years at Santander, could provide welcome continuity.

"The key issue is whether or not family control is a good or a bad thing. Ultimately this depends on individuals and his (Botin's) daughter is a chip off the old block," said Philip Saunders, co-head of multi-asset at Investec Asset Management.

"More often than not, family control or strong influence tends to bolster long termism which is particularly important in a banking context given that banks typically behave in an overly pro cyclical manner and destroy shareholder value as a consequence," he said.

If Ana Botin is confirmed as group chairman, it will leave a gap at Santander's UK arm just as it prepares for a separate listing. UK Finance Director Nathan Bostock has been lined up as her replacement, but he only joined a month ago. The UK arm is also looking for a new chairman.

DEALMAKER
Emilio Botin, "El Presidente" to co-workers and the third generation of Botins to run Santander, was at the forefront of a drive to create global banks, offering a one-stop shop to multinational companies and a range of services to consumers.

He used a keen eye for deals to spread Santander's red-liveried brand with its stylized 'S' logo around the world, amassing 1.4 trillion euros ($1.8 trillion) of funds and nearly 200,000 employees.
"He was a man who has been able to make Banco Santander the most important bank of our country," Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told journalists in Parliament.

"I had a meeting with him last week and he was well and in good form. It has been a surprise and a blow."

Botin shook up Spanish banking with a campaign to attract depositors in 1989, forcing rivals to compete on price, and bought troubled Banesto in 1994 to create Spain's biggest bank.
He took advantage of cultural and language ties to expand rapidly into Latin America, and in 2004 snapped up Britain's Abbey National for more than 9 billion pounds ($14.5 billion).
More canny dealmaking followed. In 2007, Santander made 2.4 billion euros in three weeks through deals to buy and then sell Italian bank Antonveneta. And while partners RBS and Fortis were driven to seek state bailouts after a carve up of ABN Amro on the eve of the financial crisis, Santander emerged comparatively unscathed with the Dutch group's healthier Brazilian arm.
The expansion helped to shield Santander from the euro zone debt crisis and Spain's long-running recession, with the bank now making only about 14 percent of its profit at home.

"UNOFFICIAL KING OF SPAIN"
But it has not been all success. Santander has trailed the total returns to shareholders delivered in the past 10 years by rivals JPMorgan (JPM.N) and HSBC (HSBA.L) - two firms Botin liked to measures himself against, according to colleagues.

There has been controversy too. Botin's family, which owns barely 2 percent of Santander, paid 200 million euros in penalties in 2011 to avoid charges of tax evasion related to a secret Swiss bank account.

Few doubt Ana Botin, 53, has a strong claim to succeed her father. But her high profile in the bank has drawn criticism.

Earlier this year two shareholder advisory firms, ISS and Glass Lewis & Co, recommended shareholders vote against her re-election as a director - one because it thought Botins were over-represented on the board, the other because it considered there were not enough independent members.

In the event, she got the backing of 81.3 percent of the votes, almost unchanged from three years earlier.

"Botin was the unofficial king of Spain. His death creates uncertainty and a power vacuum at the top," said a London-based hedge fund manager, who declined to be named.
"The obvious successor is his daughter Ana, which was always the plan, but he hasn't had a proper chance to groom her and install her as chairwoman before he died so there could be some infighting."
(1 US dollar = 0.6198 British pound)
(1 US dollar = 0.7731 euro)
(Additional reporting by Elisabeth O'Leary and Paul Day in Madrid; Lionel Laurent, Simon Jessop and Steve Slater in London; Editing by Mark Potter)

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT 'BEN Latest News'

'Like us on Facebook'
http://www.facebook.com/pages/BEN-Latest-News/443681719077160

'Follow us on Twitter'
www.twitter.com/benlatestnews

For Advertisment and Partnering with us contact CEO on BB PIN: 260158B5
BEN Latest News™

Read more ...

BUSINESS NEWS: Dollar General goes hostile with Family Dollar bid

(Reuters) - Dollar General Corp (DG.N) took its $9.1 billion offer for Family Dollar Stores Inc (FDO.N) hostile, directly approaching the shareholders of its smaller rival after being spurned twice by the company.

Dollar General said on Wednesday it had started a tender offer to buy all shares of Family Dollar for $80 per share.

Family Dollar rejected Dollar General's sweetened takeover bid last week, saying the offer still did not address antitrust concerns.

Dollar General has downplayed those concerns by committing to sell up to 1,500 stores to clear any competition review and also offered to pay $500 million as break-up fee if the deal were to fall apart.

The company said on Wednesday it would stick to those terms.

"We now can begin the antitrust review process and will have an opportunity to present our position directly to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission)," Dollar General Chief Executive Rick Dreiling said.

Family Dollar's shares closed at $78.70 on Tuesday, valuing the company at $8.97 billion. The company's CEO, Howard Levine, is the largest shareholder with an 8.17 percent stake as of Aug. 5.

Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management L.P. had a 7.34 percent stake as of July 27, while John Paulson's Paulson & Co Inc reported a 7.04 percent stake on June 30.

Dollar General's tender offer is scheduled to expire on Oct. 8 unless extended, the company said.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that Dollar General would go hostile with its offer, citing people familiar with the matter.

(Reporting by Siddharth Cavale in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)


FIND OUT MORE ABOUT 'BEN Latest News'

'Like us on Facebook'
http://www.facebook.com/pages/BEN-Latest-News/443681719077160

'Follow us on Twitter'
www.twitter.com/benlatestnews

For Advertisment and Partnering with us contact CEO on BB PIN: 260158B5
BEN Latest News™

Read more ...

BUSINESS NEWS: Fiat's Marchionne to become new Ferrari chairman after Montezemolo quits

MILAN (Reuters) - Luca Cordero di Montezemolo will step down as chairman of Ferrari as of Oct. 13 and will be replaced by Sergio Marchionne, who also serves as the chief executive of parent group Fiat (FIA.MI).

The departure of Montezemolo, announced by Fiat on Wednesday, was widely expected after escalating clashes between the two executives over strategy and the role of the luxury sports car business within the Fiat group.

Fiat shares were up 2.4 percent by 0721 GMT (3.21 a.m. EDT), against a 0.1 percent fall for Milan's blue-chip index (.FTMIB).

Montezemolo, Ferrari's chairman since 1991, has been wanting to keep Ferrari autonomous, while Marchionne has been pushing to better integrate the business within Fiat to boost the group's move into the premium end of the car market as it seeks to rival the likes of Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) and BMW (BMWG.DE).

The Oct. 13 resignation date coincides with the day when Fiat, which owns 90 percent of Ferrari, plans to list Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in New York after completing a merger with its U.S. business and cementing a shift of the Italian group from its home for the past 115 years.

"Ferrari will have an important role to play within the FCA Group in the upcoming flotation on Wall Street. This will open up a new and different phase, which I feel should be spearheaded by the CEO of the Group," Montezemolo said in a separate statement.

Marchionne said that he and Montezemolo had discussed the future of Ferrari at length and that "our mutual desire to see Ferrari achieve its true potential on the (Formula One racing) track has led to misunderstandings, which became clearly visible over the last weekend".

The Fiat CEO said on Sunday that the recent disappointing performance of Ferrari's Formula One racing team was "unacceptable" and that it was "absolutely non-negotiable" that Ferrari should win Formula One races. Under Montezemolo's more than two decade-long tenure, Ferrari raced to the top of the Formula One grid, increased revenues tenfold and tripled sales volumes as the Italian family business grew into one of the world's most powerful brands.

(This story has been refiled to change "chairman" to "CEO" in penultimate paragraph)
(Reporting by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by David Goodman)

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT 'BEN Latest News'

'Like us on Facebook'
http://www.facebook.com/pages/BEN-Latest-News/443681719077160

'Follow us on Twitter'
www.twitter.com/benlatestnews

For Advertisment and Partnering with us contact CEO on BB PIN: 260158B5
BEN Latest News™

Read more ...

BUSINESS NEWS Exclusive: Mylan near multibillion-dollar deal for Abbott drug assets - sources

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. generic drugmaker Mylan Inc is in advanced talks to acquire a multibillion-dollar portfolio of established products from Abbott Laboratories, people familiar with the matter said.

The proposed transaction, which is in late-stage discussions, would see Mylan acquire a big chunk of Abbott's Europe-based mature drugs for several billion dollars, said the people, who asked not to be named because the matter is not public.

The acquisition of the foreign assets, according to some of the people, could also allow the U.S. company to change its tax address to overseas, a practice known as inversion that has become popular among healthcare companies seeking to cut their tax bills and gain access to cash held offshore.

The exact value of Mylan's bid could not be learned, but people familiar with the matter previously told Reuters that Abbott was looking to sell a portfolio of mature drugs that could fetch more than $5 billion. A deal could come as soon as next week, but the discussions are continuing and could still fall apart, the people cautioned.

Abbott's established pharmaceuticals division is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland and had 2013 sales of roughly $5 billion. About half of the sales come from emerging markets, and the remainder from other international markets. Representatives for Mylan declined to comment, while Abbott did not respond to requests for comment.

A potential deal with Abbott would come after Mylan's failed attempt to buy Swedish drugmaker Meda AB earlier this year. Meda in April rejected Mylan's revised $6.7 billion takeover bid, saying its biggest shareholder did not back a deal.

Mylan was looking to do an inversion deal partly because it was at a disadvantage compared with foreign rivals as well as other U.S. generic drugmakers that have redomiciled to a low-tax country.

Major competitors include Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd, which is based in Israel, and Actavis Plc, which re-domiciled to Ireland through a 2013 acquisition of Warner Chilcott. Both face lower tax rates.

Tax inversions allow U.S. companies, which face one of the highest tax rates in the world - a federal tax rate of 35 percent, and an overall rate that can be close to 40 percent, including state and local taxes - to move to a lower-tax country by buying or creating a new holding company.

The deal would add to a flurry of dealmaking in the healthcare sector, which more than tripled to $317.4 billion in the first half of 2014 from the same period last year.

Reuters first reported in May that Abbott has tapped Morgan Stanley to find a buyer for the off-patent drugs so that it can free up resources to invest in high-growth areas.

Other large pharmaceutical companies including GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Sanofi SA and Merck & Co Inc are also looking to shed older drugs, many of which have lost patent protection and face shrinking sales.

Faced with healthcare spending cuts and generic competition, the pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a major restructuring, with companies playing to their strengths by building up certain businesses and divesting others.

(Reporting by Soyoung Kim in New York; Editing by Chris Reese, Gunna Dickson and Diane Craft)

_______________________________________

PLEASE: Like Our Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/BEN-Latest-News/443681719077160

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/benlatestnews

For Advertisment and Partnering with us contact CEO on BB PIN: 260158B5
BEN Latest News™®

Read more ...

Warning: Stocks Will Collapse by 50% in 2014

It is only a matter of time before the stock market plunges by 50% or more, according to several reputable experts.

“We have no right to be surprised by a severe and imminent stock market crash,” explains Mark Spitznagel, a hedge fund manager who is notorious for his hugely profitable billion-dollar bet on the 2008 crisis. “In fact, we must absolutely expect it."

Unfortunately Spitznagel isn’t alone.

“We are in a gigantic financial asset bubble,” warns Swiss adviser and fund manager Marc Faber. “It could burst any day.”

Faber doesn’t hesitate to put the blame squarely on President Obama’s big government policies and the Federal Reserve’s risky low-rate policies, which, he says, “penalize the income earners, the savers who save, your parents — why should your parents be forced to speculate in stocks and in real estate and everything under the sun?”

Billion-dollar investor Warren Buffett is rumored to be preparing for a crash as well. The “Warren Buffett Indicator,” also known as the “Total-Market-Cap to GDP Ratio,” is breaching sell-alert status and a collapse may happen at any moment.

So with an inevitable crash looming, what are Main Street investors to do?

One option is to sell all your stocks and stuff your money under the mattress, and another option is to risk everything and ride out the storm.

But according to Sean Hyman, founder of Absolute Profits, there is a third option.

“There are specific sectors of the market that are all but guaranteed to perform well during the next few months,” Hyman explains. “Getting out of stocks now could be costly.”

How can Hyman be so sure?

He has access to a secret Wall Street calendar that has beat the overall market by 250% since 1968. This calendar simply lists 19 investments (based on sectors of the market) and 38 dates to buy and sell them, and by doing so, one could turn $1,000 into as much as $300,000 in a 10-year time frame.

Editor's Note: Sean Hyman Reveals His Secret Wall Street Calendar in This Controversial Video, Click Here

“But this calendar is just one part of my investment system,” Hyman adds. “I also have aCrash Alert System that is designed to warn investors before a major correction as well.”

(The Crash Alert System was actually programmed by one of the individuals who coded nuclear missile flight patterns during the Cold War so that it could be as close to 100% accurate as possible).

Hyman explains that if the market starts to plunge, the Crash Alert System will signal a sell alert warning investors to go to cash.

“You would have been able to completely avoid the 2000 and 2008 collapses if you were using this system based on our back-testing,” Hyman explains. “Imagine how much more money you would have if you had avoided those horrific sell-offs.”

One might think Sean is being too confident, but he has proven himself correct in front of millions of people time and time again.

In a 2012 interview on Bloomberg Television, Hyman correctly predicted that Best Buy would drop down to $11 a share and then it would rally back up to $40 a share over the next few months. The stock did exactly what Hyman predicted.

Then, during a Fox Business interview with Gerri Willis in early 2013, he forecast that the market would rally to new highs of 15,000 despite the massive sell-off that was haunting investors. The stock market almost immediately rebounded and hit Hyman’s targets.

“A lot of people think I am lucky,” Sean said. “But it has nothing to do with luck. It has everything to do with certain tools I use. Tools like the secret Wall Street calendar and my Crash Alert System.”

With more financial uncertainty that ever, thousands of people are flocking to Hyman for his guidance. He has over 114,000 subscribers to his monthly newsletter, and his investment videos have been seen millions of times.

In a recent video, Hyman not only reveals the secret Wall Street calendar, he also shows how his Crash Alert System works so that anybody can follow in his footsteps (click here to watch it now).

Read more ...

“Perfect is Not an Option! It is A Mark of Excellence” 4 Tips For Every Business Owner

By Bukola Olayemi

As I waited outside the barber’s shop, I looked up at the entrance and saw a sheet of paper taped to the glass door. On it was a phone number- the barbers’. However, it was a 10-digit number; the last digit was missing. Staring hard, I noticed the missing digit was actually there, but was hidden away from view by some other piece of information that had been taped to the door. I sat there wondering the number of people that would have needed the barber’s services and got to the door only to find an incomplete number which made it unable to contact him.

As insignificant as this error may seem to you, it is by no means so. That the barber had actually put up that number in the first place means he probably understood that there would be times when people who didn’t have his contact would be at his door when he wasn’t around, and would need to reach him. But Mr. Barber, how can they reach you when the last digit of your phone number is hiding behind that sticker?

This oversight happens to even the best of us. As business owners we need to regularly check all our marketing materials to ensure nothing is out of place.

Entrepreneurs, let’s dust out the cobwebs. Here are a few checks you need to make.

Your Business Stationery
Entrepreneurs who have been in business for many years are more prone to business card errors. You started business in 2009 as a Make-up artiste and you printed your business cards listing your services as “wedding makeup, gele-tying, makeup training, skin-care consultation, Event-planning.” Three years later, you have stopped offering makeup and gele-tying services, all you do now is event planning. However,  you still pass around your business card that lists all those services you have stopped providing.  Now and again, a prospect calls your phone line to book your makeup services and you keep saying  “ermm… … I’m sorry, I don’t do makeup anymore, only event planning.”

You  go to a networking event, or bump into an old friend, and you exchange cards, next thing they are referring their friends to you for your makeup services which you don’t run anymore, only for them to call you saying Shakira gave them your contact and you have to give them the sorry line. How tacky is that?

Check your business card. Is the business name on it the same one you are using now, or have you changed it?

Are the services listed on it still the same services you offer? Do you have Veterinary Doctor written, when what you do now is Pet sales? Do you have additional services that are not written out on the card?

Is the office address on it still the same address you occupy? Do you have Obele-Oniwahala street on it, when you have moved to Adeola Odeku street? When you printed your cards your office was number 38, after the last house re-numbering by the government, your number was changed to 42. Is it the old number 38 that’s on your card? You don’t want to have clients looking for you at number 38 and instead of your eye-clinic they find a dentist’ place. A friend of mine who is a marketing executive went looking for her client whose office was supposedly at number 54 in a certain market premise, alas, what she found at number 54 wasn’t her client’s office. Apparently, that was his old address. Now you don’t need these errors in your business, do you?

Or your business card reads  “Eleke crescent” which is now Walter Carrington crescent, and your prospective clients go out trying to locate Eleke crescent which no longer exists?

Check your office phone number. You printed your stationery back in the days when NITEL lines were functional, now they’ve been wiped out but  your card still lists that NITEL number as one of your office lines. No way! The only numbers on your card should be the ones that are valid. Customers shouldn’t be calling non-existent lines and wondering why they never get through to you.

Some years ago, I headed the administrative office in an organization. I remember my boss calling me out for still making use of office stationery that had old, non-functional phone and fax numbers. He found this totally unacceptable, and asked that I call in the printers to produce new stationery with the current office details. At this time, we still had thousands of un-used stationery, but because he was one who always paid attention to the tiniest of details, he couldn’t continue with the flawed documents. By the way, why do you have a fax-number on your card when it doesn’t work?

Your Signage
Next check you need to make is your signage. Are the details up to date? You shouldn’t have a sign above your office, with the inscription ‘Chic-Choc House of Chocolates’ when what you now have inside is a florist’s store. No, I didn’t come for flowers; I came to buy a box of chocolates for my girlfriend! Your sign must indicate the accurate business name and service.

Many times I see signs with some letters fallen off from the board. Where there used to be eye clinic, there’s now “e clinic” (with the ‘ye’ in eye gone). Sometimes you might find an alphabet that has turned upside down. This is not acceptable. Has any part of the information on your sign been washed off or distorted by the wind or rain? Fix this.

Your Company Brochure/Flyer
Read through your brochure/flyer. Confirm that every detail is accurate and up-to-date, else, you’ve got to edit and reprint. You will not have the opportunity to explain to everyone who gets the promotional materials that “sorry, we no longer provide personal home fumigation services, we only serve corporate customers now.” Be wary of ‘typos’! No sort of typographical error should exist in your materials. Set a standard for yourself, whether you are a legal practitioner, fashion stylist, or cleaner!

There is dignity in labour, it is the standard you set for yourself and business that determines how you will be perceived and regarded.

Your Website
Your website is your online location, while your office is your offline location. The same way you don’t want your clients knocking on your office doors and finding no one, you don’t want them visiting your website and not finding the information you claim is available.

Visitors to your site shouldn’t click on an information link only to find it’s a dead-end containing no content. For instance, I recently visited a company website and clicked on the link titled ‘our services’ it didn’t direct me to any information. Nothing came up.

Regularly click on all links and pages on your website to ensure they are up and running. Also ensure your website address is correctly listed in all your stationery and promotional materials.

These checks may seem unnecessary to you, but trust me, they are highly important. Errors in any of these categories can reduce the number of customers you could have had. It can affect the way your business is perceived- you don’t want prospective customers thinking of your business as ‘just there’. They should see your business as exceptional.

Dear entrepreneur, perfection is not an option; it is a mark of excellence. It is a must-have, and traits of perfection are found in the little things that count.

Photo Credit: www.ebony.com

________________________________________________________________________________________

Like you, sales and marketing coach and consultant Bukola Olayemi has seen many businesses fail in their ultimate aim of selling their products/services. She works with small-businesses and entrepreneurs that are stuck in this low-sales maze, helping them get more customers and make bigger sales, faster than they thought possible.

Read more ...