LONDON, May 3: Britain’s No. 4 grocer Wm Morrison Supermarkets posted a fall in underlying sales in its first quarter, reflecting tough comparatives with a bumper period of trading last year and customers switching to rivals who are promoting more heavily.
Morrisons, which trails market leader Tesco, Wal-Mart’s Asda and J Sainsbury in UK market share, said on Thursday sales at stores open over a year fell 1.0 percent excluding fuel in the 13 weeks to April 29.
That was in line with analysts’ average forecast, according to a company poll, and compared to a fourth quarter rise of 0.7 percent.
Morrisons was up against tough comparative numbers as in the same period a year ago like-for-like sales rose 2.5 percent with spending boosted by an exceptionally warm Easter and the Royal Wedding.
But analysts reckon the firm may have lost share to Tesco, after the market leader stepped-up vouchering in the wake of its January profit warning, as well as Asda and discounters Aldi, Lidl and Netto.
‘The uncertain economic background is expected to remain challenging for the consumer and accordingly the board remains cautious,’ Morrisons said, adding its financial outlook for the year remains unchanged.
(agencies)
UK’s Morrisons sales fall in tough market
Abbott in pact with Syngene to open nutrition R&D centre
BANGALORE, May 3: Health care company Abbott today announced plans to establish its first nutrition research and development centre in the country in collaboration with contract research organisation Syngene.
The centre will focus on developing affordable nutrition products for the country and enable the expansion of Abbott’s nutrition product portfolio, according to a joint statement.
Abbott selected Syngene, a subsidiary of biotech firm Biocon, to provide a science-based research and innovation team to work closely with Abbott researchers, it said.
More than 50 researchers and scientists will be based at the AbbottNutrition R&D centre at Biocon Park here, expected to open next month.
It will focus on nutrition products for maternal and child nutrition and diabetes care.
The statement said preventing under-nutrition has emerged as one of the most critical health challenges in India.
“With malnutrition and common chronic diseases at their highest in this region, Abbott and Syngene have a common vision and commitment to support the development of a healthier India,” said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder, chairman and managing director, Biocon Group.
“The combined market insights and nutrition science expertise of our two organisations will enable us to address these immediate needs by developing critically important, innovative yet affordable nutrition products for the Indian population,” she added.
Among the products being developed for the Indian market are meal complements for diabetics and pre-diabetics. In addition, the centre will address local taste and texture preferences with new flavours and formulations. (PTI)
This year will be crucial for global economy: ADB
MANILA, May 3: Financial crisis in Europe could escalate and along with slow recovery in the US, this year will be crucial for global economy but Asian nations must continue long term structural reforms while insulating the region against the troubles, ADB said today.
“While authorities continue to strengthen macroeconomic resilience to shocks, we also need to reinvigorate focus on the region’s long-term development goals,” ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said at the Governors’ Seminar this morning.
“The ultimate challenge is to continue transforming economies in a way that promotes peoples’ welfare and reduces poverty,” he added.
Meanwhile, an ADB report presented at the seminar said this year could prove crucial for the global economy as financial tensions in Europe could escalate further and there remains concern over fledgling economic recovery in the US.
Against this backdrop, the region must update its growth model to accommodate a ‘new normal’ — prolonged restructuring in advanced economies – and surmount obstacles to sustained and equitable growth in Asia, the report said.
The global economic crisis is a wake-up call for Asia and policymakers have to boost Asia’s resilience to external shocks in the near-term and also tackle the risks posed by ongoing global rebalancing and overall structural transformation, said the report.
Currently, the national focus is on containing crisis, risks from potential financial contagion and weaker trade, said the report—How Can Asia Respond to Global Economic Crisis and Transformation.
Asia can weather a renewed financial crisis and weakened export demand from developed markets, but long-term prosperity hinges on relying more on domestic and regional markets as well as expanding ties with Latin America and Africa, it said.
The Asian Development Bank is holding 45th Annual Meeting of ADB’s Board of Governors here. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will attend the meet which will discuss the global economic problems and deliberate on steps to promote growth and improve governance. (PTI)
Temasek sells $2.5 bln China bank shares, reshuffles holdings
HONG KONG, May 3: Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings sold shares in two of China’s largest banks for $2.5 billion, according to term sheets seen by Reuters, in a reshuffle of its sprawling $150 billion portfolio that still bets on China’s long-term potential.
Chinese banks’ shares have rebounded this year – the Hong Kong financial sub-index is up about 15 percent – after last year’s 27 percent slide, though the outlook is clouded by slowing economic growth and political and regulatory hurdles, and the nation’s ‘Big Four’ lenders last week posted weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings.
The ‘rebalancing move is also partly to prepare for other opportunities that may arise in China and elsewhere,’ Temasek spokesman Jeffrey Fang said. ‘Temasek continues to see the leading Chinese banks as long term proxies to the growing Chinese economy as well as the country’s rising middle income groups.’
James Antos, a banking analyst at Mizuho Securities in Hong Kong, said Temasek may further trim its stakes in underperforming banks, casting an overhang on shares of second-ranked China Construction Bank (CCB) and fourth-biggest lender Bank of China (BOC).
‘The fact they’re selling shares in the two weakest performers just a couple of days after (Q1) results might be significant,’ Antos said. ‘To me, it’s signalling a longer-term investment reallocation by Temasek and obviously it’s clearly negative for these two stocks.’
In Hong Kong on Thursday, CCB shares were down 3.3 percent and Bank of China shares dropped 4 percent. The benchmark Hang Seng share index slipped 0.5 percent.
Two Temasek subsidiaries based in Mauritius sold about 1.61 billion CCB shares at HK$5.99 each – at the bottom of an indicative range and a near-3 percent discount to Wednesday’s closing price. Its Fullerton Financial Holding sold 3.08 billion Bank of China shares at HK$3.13 per share, also at the bottom of an indicative range and at a 4 percent discount.
It was not immediately clear who bought the shares.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley were joint bookrunners on the block deals, the term sheets showed.
After the sales, Temasek’s stake will fall to about 7 percent in CCB and 1 percent in Bank of China.
The Singapore investor manages a portfolio of some 200 companies, though just 30 or so make up 80 percent of the portfolio’s value. Some critics have said it should trim that down and be more focused.
Temasek, the single-biggest shareholder in Standard Chartered Bank, had added to its China bank exposure last month by buying a $2.3 billion stake in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) , the biggest bank by assets, from Goldman Sachs.
PORTFOLIO RESHUFFLE
Temasek, which translates as ‘sea town’ in Malay, was burned by its financial industry exposure in 2008 as stakes in large European and U.S. Banks plunged in value because of the turmoil in global markets. But it has kept nearly 40 percent of its investment portfolio in banks it feels are strong and capture emerging market growth.
The Singapore state investor has been shuffling its financial portfolio fairly regularly.
About two weeks ago, it sold $300 million worth of shares in India’s No.2 lender ICICI Bank, and that deal came hard on the heels of an agreement to swap its controlling stake in Indonesia’s Bank Danamon to boost its holding in DBS Group as part of DBS’ $7.2 billion takeover of Bank Danamon.
Temasek had previously trimmed its stakes in Bank of China and CCB last July in what it called a ‘portfolio rebalancing,’ only to increase the CCB stake a month later. It further boosted its CCB holding in November, buying shares from Bank of America Corp.
(agencies)
Jack White scores first No 1 album with “Blunderbuss”
LOS ANGELES, May 3: Jack White scored his first No. 1 album ever on Wednesday as his debut solo “Blunderbuss” topped the Billboard 200, while the record also reigned over music charts in the United Kingdom, Canada and Switzerland in its initial week. “Blunderbuss,” which sold 138,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan, notched seven top ten albums with his former band The White Stripes and side projects the Dead Weather and The Raconteurs. (agencies)
Munch’s “The Scream” sells for record 120 million Dollar
NEW YORK, May 3: Edvard Munch’s masterpiece “The Scream,” one of the world’s most recognizable works of art, sold for $120 million at Sotheby’s yesterday, setting a new record as the most expensive piece of art ever sold at auction. Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern art auction featured top works by Picasso, Dali and Miro, but Munch’s vibrant work from 1895 was the star attraction in a salesroom packed with art collectors, dealers and media. (agencies)
A Minute With: Scarlett Johansson and the Black Widow
LOS ANGELES, May 3: Scarlett Johansson first joined the Marvel comic book superhero universe when she was introduced as the mysterious Black Widow opposite Robert Downey Jr in the 2010 blockbuster “Iron Man 2.” The action-filled movie role marked a big change for the actress, who’s known more for low-key performances in films like Sofia Coppola’s drama “Lost in Translation” or Woody Allen’s sly comedy “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” (agencies)
Osama offered no resistance to US commandos: book
WASHINGTON, May 3: Al-Qaeda emir Osama bin Laden, who all his life boasted that he would go down fighting and would ask his bodyguards to shoot him if ever he came near Americans, offered no resistance when US commandos cornered him in his Abbottabad hideout a year ago, claims a new book.
“For all his bluster that he would go down fighting and his bodyguards would shoot him if he were ever found by the Americans, when the moment finally came, bin Laden went out not with a bang but with a whimper,” wrote Peter Bergen, author of the ‘Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden – from 9/11 to Abbottabad’ that hit the bookstores this week.
Director of New America Foundation – a Washington-based think-tank and national security analyst of the CNN, Bergen in his new book provides fresh insight into the last few hours of bin Laden and the successful American operation that killed the most wanted terrorist of the world on May 2 last year.
“The 54-year-old bin Laden may have grown complacent or tired during his decade on the run; he had no real escape plan, and there was no secret passageway out of his house. Perhaps he expected some kind of warning that never came. Or perhaps he knew that a firefight inside the enclosed spaces of his house would likely end up killing some of his wives and children,” Bergan wrote in his book giving a detailed account of what happened when US commandos entered his safe house.
“On a shelf in his bedroom were the AK-47 and Makarov machine pistol that were bin Laden’s constant companions, but he didn’t reach for them. Instead, he opened a metal gate, which blocked all access to his room and could be opened only from the inside, and quickly poked his head out to see what the commotion was. He was immediately spotted by the SEALs, who bounded up the next flight of stairs,” he wrote.
(PTI)
UK court orders extradition of ‘classic fugitive’ Tiger Hanif
LONDON, May 3: Tiger Hanif, who is wanted in India in connection with two bomb attacks in Gujarat in 1993, has been ordered to be extradited to India by a British judge who called him a “classic fugitive” during a hearing here.
Hanif, whose full name is Mohammed Hanif Umerji Patel, 51, was traced to a grocery store in Bolton, Greater Manchester in March 2010. He is said to be an associate of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
The Westminster magistrates’ court in London yesterday ordered Hanif’s extraditition to India.
Hanif was arrested by the Metropolitan Police in February 2010 on an extradition warrant that alleged conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions.
He is wanted in India for his alleged role in a grenade attack on a packed market place which killed an eight-year-old schoolgirl in Surat in 1993.
He is also accused of plotting to carry out a second grenade attack at a crowded railway station which seriously wounded 12 commuters.
Hanif has since been contesting extradition on the ground that he would be tortured by Indian officials, and that confessions of others involved with the bombings had been allegedly gained through torture interrogations.
He can appeal against the extradition ruling, but the final order clearing his extradition will be signed by Home Secretary Theresa May. (PTI)
Munch’s ‘The Scream’ sets auction record, sells for USD 119 mn
NEW YORK, May 3: Edvard Munch’s iconic painting ‘The Scream’, considered one of the most recognizable in art world, was sold for over USD 119 million, creating a new record for the highest price ever paid for a work of art at any auction.
The painting, depicting image of a man holding his head and his mouth wide open, was sold for USD 119,922,500, which includes the premium paid to Sotheby’s at the auction held here yesterday.
The auction house did not release the name or any other details of the buyer. The bidder was participating in the auction through phone.
“A seminal image of the pulsating anguish of modernity, The Scream is among the most recognizable images in the history of art,” Sotheby’s said.
Till now Pablo Picasso’s ‘Nude, Green Leaves and Bust’ was the most expensive painting ever sold. It was bought for USD 106.5 million at a Christie’s auction in 2010.
At over USD 119 million, Munch’s 1895 painting has become the highest-priced artwork to ever sell at auction. The painting was estimated to sell for at least USD 80 million.
Bidding at the packed Sotheby’s auction started at USD 40 million with bidders from the US and China competing for the sunset-colored portrait which is in its original frame.
The painting is one of the four versions that Munch created and the only one still in private hands. The other three are housed in the National Gallery of Oslo and the Munch museum in the Norwegian capital.
The painting is being sold by Norwegian businessman Petter Olsen, whose father is believed to have been Munch’s friend and neighbour. (PTI)