• Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), the world’s largest maker of personal computers, offered a preview of its fiscal fourth-quarter profits – reporting that it will beat market expectations and raise its fiscal 2009 outlook. “HP is gaining market share in an extremely strong competitive position. They’ve got share gains, combined with very aggressive cost reduction,” Shannon Cross of Cross Research told Reuters.

• Lars Olofsson, Executive Vice President of Nestle SA, has been named Chief Executive Officer of Carrefour S.A., the world’s second-largest retailer. He’ll join the company in at the Carrefour’s next shareholder meeting in January, MarketWatch reported.

• Belgium’s InBev NV officially completed its $52 billion, or $70 a share, acquisition of Anheuser-Busch Cos., Inc. (BUD), as it won its last regulatory approval from China. The combined company will be based in St. Louis and named Anheuser-Busch InBev, Dow Jones reported.

• The Home Depot, Inc. (HD) reported a 31% decline in earnings during its fiscal third quarter ended Nov. 2. Profit declined 31% as well, but the home retailer expected steeper loses in the face of the U.S. housing crisis, Reuters reported.

• Kuwait’s Gulf Bank – the country’s second-largest lender – said Monday that it had lost $1.4 billion (375 million dinars) as a result of trading in derivatives and other financial instruments for customers who subsequently defaulted. The bank also said its board had resigned. To allay investor fears, Gulf Bank announced a plan to double its capital base by issuing 1.25 billion new shares. Investors knew there were losses. But the amount was nearly double the original estimate of $750 million. Trading in Gulf Bank shares remains suspended for their fourth week, Forbes.com reported.

• Mexican retail and media tycoon Ricardo Salinas Pliego could be building a controlling stake in bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City Stores Inc. (OTC: CCTYQ), Reuters reported. Salinas already owns 28% of the company, having accumulated stock in the open market before and after the retail chain went bankrupt.

• Wholesale prices experienced the biggest one-month drop in more than 60 years in October, The Associated Press reported. Wholesale prices dropped by a record 2.8% last month, as the cost of oil and other raw materials declined.

Source: Global Investing Roundups Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

The boards of both the St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch and InBev have approved the all-cash deal, according to a joint statement released today (Monday).

Anheuser-Busch’s popular Budweiser and Bud Light beers will join InBev’s stable of beers that includes such well-known brand names as Stella Artois, Beck’s and Brahma. The resulting merger will produce the largest beermaker by volume, as the newly formed entity will surpass the current title-holder, the British-owned SAB Miller PLC (OTC: SBMRY).

“Together, Anheuser-Busch and InBev will be able to accomplish much more than each can on its own,” InBev Chief Executive Officer Carlos Brito, who will helm the new company, said in a joint statement. “We have been successful business partners for quite some time, and this is the natural next step for us in an increasingly competitive global environment.”

The takeover battle has been hotly contested for months in both the boardroom and the courtroom since InBev’s original $46 billion offer for Anheuser-Busch in May. Fierce opposition from the board, led by Chief Executive Officer August Busch IV, was finally overcome by InBev’s bid increase of 7.7% and the Belgian brewer’s agreement to name the newly formed global entity Anheuser-Busch InBev.

“This is about giving InBev a U.S. presence and this is the most effective way they can see to achieve that,” Grant Saligari, a beverage industry analyst at Commonwealth Securities Ltd. in Sydney, told Bloomberg News. “Consumers are very emotionally attached to their beers. A peaceful deal helps maintain that.”

Aneheuser-Busch and InBev Merger Just One of Many

This merger is the latest in a string of consolidations in the largely mature global beverage industry, as skyrocketing grain costs and softening economies have led struggling brewers to seek economies of scale. Two of the largest brewers, InBev and SAB Miller, are themselves creations of mergers that took place within the past 10 years, The New York Times reported.

In January, Carlsberg A/S and Heineken N.V. (HINKY) agreed to buy Scottish & Newcastle PLC for $15.4 billion. Late last year, British-owned SAB Miller PLC (OTC: SBMRY) and Canada’s Molson Coors Brewing Co. (TAP), agreed to merge their U.S. brewing operations.

Once InBev acquires Anheuser-Busch, it will leave The Boston Beer Co. Inc. (SAM), maker of the popular Samuel Adams beer brand, one of the last large domestic brewers still under U.S. ownership.

Source: InBev Finally Woos Anheuser-Busch with Higher Offer, Top Billing

• New York’s Chrysler Building, the an iconic piece of the city’s skyline and the world’s tallest building until 1931, was bought by an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Tuesday. The Abu Dhabi Investment Council paid Abu Dhabi Investment Council acquired the Chrysler Building from a fund managed by
  Prudential Financial Inc. (PRU).

• Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWA) said yesterday (Wednesday) that it will cut 2,500 jobs because of high oil prices, and start charging $15 to check a single piece of luggage and as much as $100 to redeem a frequent-flier award ticket, the Associated Press reported. The airline hopes the new fees will add $250 million to $300 million a year in revenue.

• Icici Bank Ltd. (ADR: IBN), a leading Indian lender, is considering acquisitions to expand outside its home market, the International Herald Tribune reported. The bank has about $5 billion cash on hand to spend on an international expansion. Targets could include consumer banks in Britain, Canada or Germany, Sonjoy Chatterjee, the executive director responsible for the bank’s international business unit told the Tribune.

• OPEC’s earnings from oil exports are expected to reach a record $1.251 trillion this year, about $73 billion more than previously estimated, Reuters reported. Net oil export earnings from OPEC are projected to grow by 86% this year from $671 billion in 2007, before rising 6%in 2009 to $1.322 trillion, the Energy Information Administration said.

• Clothing retailer Steve & Barry’s LLC is planning to file for bankruptcy protection, as its low-cost strategy wasn’t enough to offset a softening domestic economy, The New York Times reported. The company claimed annual sales of $1.1 billion, but was operating on an extremely thin margin due to its $10 or less pricing.

• Stocks tumbled yesterday (Wednesday) leaving the S&P 500 Index down 20% from its October peak, the definition of a bear market, Reuters reported. The S&P 500 closed down 29.02 points, a decline of over 2%, at 1,244.68.

• Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. (BUD) yesterday (Wednesday) urged shareholders to revoke consent of the InBev NV proposal to replace the board of directors. “We believe that the InBev consent proposals are solely designed to enable InBev to take control of your board in order to facilitate InBev’s acquisition of Anheuser-Busch pursuant to a proposal that your board has determined is inadequate and not in the best interests of the company’s stockholders,” said Anheuser in its filing, The Washington Post reported.

• Speaking in Los Angeles yesterday (Wednesday), Bank of America Corp. (BAC) Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis predicted the U.S. housing crisis would begin to abate mid-2009. “Until then, depending on what sector of the economy you’re in, it will feel slow and may feel like a recession,” Lewis said, Bloomberg News reported.

Source: Global Investing Roundups Thursday, July 10th, 2008

• Siemens AG (ADR: SI) announced yesterday (Tuesday) that it would eliminate almost 17,000 positions to prepare for a global economic downturn. The Germany-based industrial giant hopes to achieve $1.9 billion (1.2 billion euros) in cost savings by 2010. Chief Executive Peter Loescher said Siemens needed to be faster, more efficient and have a leaner administration if it hoped to compete, Reuters reported.

• Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) and Canada-based WestJet Airlines Ltd. yesterday (Tuesday) announced a marketing alliance that is planned to go into effect in 2009. “This gives WestJet exactly what they need in terms of growing their trans-border flights,” Chris Murray, an analyst at CIBC World Markets Inc. in Toronto, told Bloomberg News. “The deal would make sense for Southwest to build its service into Canada, too.”

• Shares of VMWare Inc. (VMW) plummeted yesterday (Tuesday) after the software maker announced it would not meet 2008 expectations, and as a result, replace Chief Executive Officer Diane Greene, an original company co-founder, Reuters reported. VMWare stock dropped $13.00 to close at $40.19.

• Office Depot Inc. (ODP) stock took a hit yesterday (Tuesday) when the office supply retail firm announced North American sales dropped 10% in the second quarter, causing earnings before taxes and interest to be 200 basis points lower than expected. Full earnings for the period will be released July 30. Shares declined $3.29 to close at $7.12.

• U.S. light crude fell more than $6 to as low as $135.14 a barrel yesterday (Tuesday), its lowest level since June 26. Crude oil has now fallen about $10 a barrel since hitting a record high of $145.85 hit last week.

• The U.S. Federal Reserve will issue new rules next week aimed at protecting future homebuyers from dubious lending practices, The Associated Press reported yesterday (Tuesday). The rules would restrict lenders from penalizing risky borrowers who pay loans off early, require lenders to make sure these borrowers set aside money to pay for taxes and insurance and bar lenders from making loans without proof of a borrower’s income.

• Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. (BUD) is suing InBev NV after calling the Belgian brewer’s takeover attempt an “illegal plan and scheme” to acquire Anheuser “at a bargain price,” Reuters reported. The suit seeks an injunction to stop InBev from furthering its consent solicitation to replace Anheuser’s board until certain alleged false and misleading statements are fixed.

• ConocoPhillips (COP) has signed an interim agreement with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. to develop the Shah Gas Field in Abu Dhabi, Thomson Financial reported. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will share the cost of engineering and design and project mobilization for the field’s development. Abu Dhabi National Oil will have a 60% interest and ConocoPhillips will have a 40% interest in the project.

Source: Global Investing Roundups Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

• Belgian brewer InBev NV announced yesterday (Monday) that it would attempt to remove the entire Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. (BUD) board of directors after InBev’s $46.3 billion hostile takeover offer bid was rejected. InBev is seeking to use a process outlined in Anheuser- Busch’s bylaws that allows shareholders to vote on a new board without a meeting, Bloomberg News reported.

• Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) said yesterday (Monday) that it would be willing to reopen talks to buy all or part of Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO), but only if a new Yahoo board is elected, Reuters reported. Carl Icahn, the billionaire financier who owns a 4% stake in Yahoo, has for the past several months been rallying other shareholders to overthrow the current Yahoo board at the company’s August 1 stockholder meeting. Icahn said he had “spoken frequently” to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer over the last week. Microsoft walked away after Yahoo rejected a $47.5 billion takeover bid in May.

• Light, sweet crude for August delivery fell $3.92 (2.7%) to settle at $141.37 on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday (Monday) after falling as low as $139.50 earlier in the day. Concerns about escalating tensions in the Middle East and tightening supplies sent futures sharply higher last week. Prices dropped after the threat of potential disruptions subsided and investors took profits.

• Merrill Lynch & Co (MER) may write down about $6 billion in the second quarter primarily driven by losses on high-grade collateralized debt obligations, said Citigroup Inc. (C) analyst Prashant Bhatia. Bhatia also forecast a second quarter loss and widened his 2008 loss per share view, Reuters reported.

• Shares of mortgage giants Freddie Mac (FRE) and Fannie Mae (FNM) plunged yesterday (Monday) on liquidity concerns. Investors are concerned the two largest U.S. lenders will need to raise additional capital, Bloomberg News reported. Freddie shares shed almost 18%, with a loss of $2.59 to close at $11.91, while Fannie Mae’s shares dropped $3.04, a decline of 16%, to close at $15.74.

• San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellen said yesterday (Monday) that the U.S. Fed’s monetary policy is shifting “slightly tighter,” as inflation concerns mount and start to outweigh worries about economic growth, Reuters reported. “On a continuum I would say things are shifting to somewhat more inflation risk,” Yellen told reporters after a speech at the University of California San Diego.

• Gold for August delivery closed down $4.80 to $928.80 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, MarketWatch reported. Earlier the yellow metal contract had traded as low as $916.60. “Unfortunately, gold doesn’t have any independent thought right now, and is simply tracking what goes on in the dollar market,” said Frank McGhee, the head precious metal trader at Chicago-based Integrated Brokerage Services.

• The popular Prius hybrid from Toyota Motor Corp. (ADR: TM) is about to get even greener, according to media reports yesterday (Monday). As early as Spring 2009, Toyota plans to install solar panels on the Prius that will provide energy to power the hybrid’s air-conditioning unit, MarketWatch reported, making Toyota the first major automaker to utilize solar technology.

Source: Global Investing Roundups Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

• Toyota Motor Corp. (ADR: TM) plans to drop more than $1 billion on a new factory in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Valor Economico reported without citing a source. The new factory would be a bid to capture a share of the economic growth and rising incomes in South America.

• A pair of mortgage executives in India said the country’s five-year property boom is coming to an end as the number of available homes increases along with interest rates. “Due to the state of the equity markets, many investors who would have bought a second or a third house are abstaining from doing so,” Keki Mistry, vice chairman of Housing Development Finance Corp., India’s largest provider of home loans, told Bloomberg News. “Genuine home buyers who are looking to buy a house for self occupation will continue to buy.”

• The economy turned in a better, though still unimpressive, performance in the first quarter of 2008, edging up a full 1%, the Associated Press reported. The Commerce Department had originally estimated a growth rate of 0.9% for the January-to-March quarter.

• Existing home sales picked up in May, but home values continued their decline, according to a report from the Associated Press. The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing single-family homes and condominiums rose by 2% to 4.99 million units last month. However, the median price of an existing home sold in May dropped to $208,600, down 6.3% from a year go.

• Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. (BUD) is expected to reject InBev NV’s unsolicited $46.3 billion offer, saying it undervalues the company, and announce its own restructuring plan, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company will then outline its own restructuring, which includes the sale of nonessential assets such its theme parks in an effort to boost its stock price.

• Bank of America Corp. (BAC) announced it would cut approximately 7,500 jobs after its merger with Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC), Reuters reported. The second largest U.S. bank will let go of 3% of the combined workforce after its acquisition of the largest U.S. mortgage lender.

• Kinross Gold Corp. (KGC) stock gained almost 12% yesterday (Thursday) on the back of a gold increase, which saw a 4% gain to $915 an ounce. The gold miner’s shares gained $2.35 to close at $22.34. Canada-based Eldorado Gold Corp. (EGO) saw a similar gain, with shares climbing over 10% with a 77-cent increase to close at $8.02.

• Oshkosh Corp. (OSK) shares plunged over 33% yesterday (Thursday) after the aerial work platforms manufacturer forecast a loss of as much as $1.32 per share in the third quarter, Bloomberg News reported. Shares plunged $11.22 to close at $22.29.

Source: Global Investing Roundups Friday, June 27th, 2008