First round of Iceland Foods bids due Wed -sources
However, Morrisons and Asda may be interested only in a
parcel of stores, which mean they might team up with other
parties.Morrisons, Asda and Landsbanki, which along with fellow
failed Icelandic bank Glitnir is selling a combined 77 percent
stake in Iceland Foods, declined to comment.It was unclear whether Iceland Foods’ founder and chief
executive, Malcolm Walker, would be involved in the first round
of bidding.Walker, who along with other managers owns a 23 percent
stake, has a pre-emption right, which means he only has to match
the highest bid to win the auction.A person close to the matter said he had been talking to a
number of parties about potentially teaming up with them but had
not yet made a decision.The auction is being managed by UBS and Bank of America
Merrill Lynch.
govt and pro-Gaddafi forces fighting in Tripoli
Local residents said the group of armed men had appeared in
Abu Salim earlier and had begun chanting pro-Gaddafi slogans.
Anti-Wall St. protesters ready to block clean-up
NEW YORK Oct 13 (Reuters) - Anti-Wall Street protesters
threatened on Thursday to block any efforts by clean-up crews
to enter their camp to clear away three-weeks worth of debris,
raising anxiety about a potential showdown between
demonstrators and police.While New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said the
protests by the Occupy Wall Street movement can continue as
long as laws are obeyed, the city has become concerned over the
build-up of trash and general wear and tear on Zuccotti Park,
headquarters for the demonstrators.Bloomberg visited protesters at the park on Wednesday night
and informed them it would be cleaned by work crews on Friday.Zuccotti Park is about five blocks from City Hall, located
in lower Manhattan.Occupy Wall Street pledged to resist any effort by cleaning
crews or police to enter the park, asking protesters to create
a human chain around the area to “peacefully/non-violently
stand our ground,” according to a post on its Facebook page.The movement, which began on Sept. 17 when protesters set
up camp in Lower Manhattan, plans to undertake its own clean-up
effort and sent out requests on Thursday for mops, brooms,
garbage bags and power washers.Since an unremarkable beginning, the protests have spread
across the United States, as people in other cities take up the
cry against the billions of dollars in bank bailouts doled out
during the recession that is allowing banks to resume earning
huge profits while many average Americans lost their jobs and
savings.In New York, residents have complained about loud music at
night, including bongo playing, and filthy conditions at
Zuccotti Park, overseen by Brookfield Office Properties Inc.
City officials said they planned to clean the park in stages,
and allow protesters to return once the work is complete.
New China Life presses ahead with dual listings-IFR
The insurer is targeting to seek approval from Hong Kong’s
stock exchange at the end of this month, it said.Listing hearings for the Shanghai portion of the deal are
expected to happen a few days before the Hong Kong hearings, it
added.New China Life hired BNP Paribas , Bank of America
Merrill Lynch , Deutsche Bank <DBKGn.DE >, Goldman Sachs
, HSBC , JPMorgan , UBS AG and
China International Capital Corp (CICC) to handle the dual
listings.
HP expands PC sales lead, Lenovo No. 2 -Gartner
Oct 12 (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co’s personal
computer shipments grew 5.3 percent in the third quarter, while
China’s Lenovo overtook Dell to become the
world’s No. 2 PC maker for the first time, Gartner data
showed.HP — which is scrambling to decide whether to sell, keep
or spin off its PC division by the end of October — now
commands a 17.7 percent share of an ailing global market, up
marginally from 17.3 percent a year ago, the tech research
house said.Wall Street analysts had speculated a premature
announcement about the potential spinoff of its largest
division would drive customers away.Lenovo, aided by a laptop-sales tie-up with Japan’s NEC and aggressive marketing, expanded its market share to
13.5 percent from 11.1 percent, eclipsing Dell’s 11.6 pecent.PC sales are sputtering as consumers turn increasingly to
mobile devices from smartphones to tablets like Apple Inc’s iPad, while faltering economies pressure corporate
spending on technology hardware.U.S. PC shipments edged up just 1.1 percent to 17.8 million
units in the third quarter. While anemic, that marked the first
time shipments had grown in three straight quarters. HP notably
expanded its shipments by 15.1 percent in its home market.”Despite the potential spinoff of its PC business, HP
executives’ efforts to give the appearance of ‘business as
usual’ seemed to work,” Gartner wrote in its statement.Emerging markets — such as Lenovo’s backyard, China —
remain however a rare bright spot in an otherwise gloomy
outlook.”The PC industry has been performing below normal
seasonality,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at
Gartner. “As expected, back-to-school PC sales were
disappointing in mature markets, confirming that the consumer
PC market continues to be weak. The popularity of non-PC
devices, including media tablets, such as the iPad and
smartphones, took consumers’ spending away from PCs.”As the PC market faced a slowdown, vendor consolidation
has become a more apparent trend in the industry. Lenovo’s
recent merger with NEC, and its acquisition of Medion, as well
as HP’s announcement that it may spin off or sell its PC
business, underlined this trend during the quarter.”
Private bank clients urged to avoid U.S. securities
FATCA, or the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, will require overseas banks to report U.S. clients to the Internal Revenue Service, but its loose definition of who is a U.S. citizen will create a huge administrative burden and could push non-residents to slash their U.S. exposure, some bankers say.”Wegelin believe this is a regulatory monster. It is an important regulatory burden not only on Swiss banks but all over the world,” said Ivan Adamovich, head of the Geneva branch of Switzerland’s oldest bank, Wegelin.”We decided to tell our clients not to invest in U.S. securities any more. If clients want exposure to U.S. securities we would buy an ETF which does not have a U.S. regulatory base,” Adamovich said.Due to become law in 2014, FATCA will ask overseas banks to report U.S. clients with more than $50,000 in assets to the U.S. Internal Revenue Services, or withhold 30 percent of the interest, dividend and investment payments due those clients and send the money to the IRS.Bankers say the scheme will be extremely costly to implement, and some say that as the legislation stands, any bank with a client judged to be a U.S. citizen will be also obliged to supply documentation on all other clients.”FATCA will cost 10 times to the banks than it will generate for the IRS. It is going to be extremely complicated,” said Yves Mirabaud, managing partner at Mirabaud & Cie and Swiss Bankers Association board member.”We (will) try to convince the IRS to make something which is a bit lighter, a bit more reasonable. We are not in favor of automatic exchange of information.”But despite concerns about FATCA, it may be unfeasible to advise clients who want a globally diversified portfolio to sell all their U.S. company stocks and bonds, said Vontobel head of private banking Peter Fanconi.”We as an industry need to seriously start to talk about the consequences of FATCA. (But) we can’t advise clients to pull out of one of the biggest global markets,” Fanconi said.Alexandre Zeller, head of the private banking business for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at HSBC (HSBA.L) said avoiding U.S. assets will not be an option for global institutions.”We are a global bank… There is no way we are going to say we don’t do business with the US so clearly it’s about finding the best way to implement this new regulation,” he said.A U.S. inheritance law dating back at least 50 years which may now be more vigorously applied as the United States seeks to rake in tax revenues is also making bankers think twice about client holdings of U.S. securities.”Holding US securities on a direct basis can give rise to inheritance tax independent of the holders of those securities,” said Pierre de Weck, global head of private wealth management at Deutsche Bank.”Therefore we definitely advise non-U.S. clients not to hold U.S. securities on a direct basis. There’s no reason for a Swiss resident with nothing to do with the U.S. to incur 40 percent U.S. inheritance tax.”The broader definition of who is subject to U.S. taxation under FATCA could also bring more private banking clients under the U.S. tax net, regardless of their domicile.”The client needs to be aware… being a Swiss citizen and having U.S. exposure, there could be an inheritance issue. We have not actively advised, we have informed our clients there is possibly an end risk there,” said Fanconi.
