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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Housing Finance Bank gets sh50b

THE Government plans to inject sh50b in the Housing Finance Bank. The housing state minister, Michael Werikhe, said the move was aimed at enabling more people to access credit and to promote development.

The boost follows sh40b that the bank had previously received from the Government.

Addressing journalists at the Media Centre in Kampala on Wednesday, Werikhe said over two million people lack housing units.

There is a deficiency of over 100,000 housing units in Kampala, he said, adding that the Government would address the problem.
The minister said they had established a housing policy and would pass other laws that guide the real estate development and housing constructions.

He explained that the Government was lobbying banks to provide mortgages to the public at affordable rates and other long-term loan facilities for development.
Werikhe noted that there were several slams in the country, but a slam upgrading strategy would be launched in October to facilitate the development of proper houses.

He said the construction sector, which is experiencing a boom had played a key role to socio-economic development and has been growing at 13% per annum.

Werikhe said the ministry had computerised the Kampala, Wakiso and Mpigi land registries to check forgeries of titles and would extend the programme countrywide.

He also announced the opening of the 7th annual construction exhibition and seminar at the Lugogo show grounds in Kampala that started yesterday.
The principal housing officer, Dane Khayangayanga, said the money they had received was generated from sales of the ministry’s houses.

Source: newvision.co.ug

L&T Finance not looking at equity listing for now

L&T Finance Ltd (LTF), a non-banking finance company, is not looking at a listing of its equity shares for now, its Chairman, Mr Y.M. Deosthalee, has said.

The company may go in for a series of non-convertible debenture (NCD) issuances in the coming months after it establishes and creates liquidity in the proposed NCD instrument slated to hit the market in mid-August. Promoted by engineering major Larsen & Toubro in 1994, LTF is a wholly-owned subsidiary of L&T Capital Holdings Ltd (a subsidiary company of L&T).

Two days ago, LTF announced that it proposes to raise at least Rs 500 crore through NCDs, which are to be listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

“This (NCD) is one option we want to make sure is available to us and use it from time to time after creating liquidity in existing NCD instrument through listing. We do understand that investors see a good opportunity in our equity story. But we are not ready (for listing) as yet. We have some homework to do,” Mr Deosthalee said here on Thursday. He was responding to a question on whether LTF intends to list its shares in the coming days. Mr Deosthalee said there were other options for price discovery that could always be explored by LTF.

Although the coupon rate for the proposed NCD instrument was yet to be finalised, Mr Deosthalee indicated that the rate will be higher than the yield of the 10-year G-sec paper. He also said that the NCD will have tenures of 5, 7, or 10 years.

“Our intent is to come up with a long-term instrument for the debt market. Through the NCDs we are also creating additional source of funding for the company. The idea is to make L&T finance a household name. We are also creating a market for NBFCs for retail funding,” he said.

Mr Deosthalee also said that LTF’s decision to come up with an NCD issue did not mean that the company would stop borrowing from banks and mutual funds.

On the possibility of merger with L&T Infrastructure Finance, he said that L&T Finance was not averse to any such move, but added that no decision has been taken on this front.

Asked about interest rates, Mr Deosthalee said that interest rates would remain stable for next few months. “After November or December, there is every likelihood of it going up. Now there is ample liquidity and credit needs of corporates have not gone up. I don’t think interest rates will come down in the near future.”

Source: thehindubusinessline.com

Finance Committee negotiations stall

After being “on the edge of a deal” earlier this week, the Senate Finance Committee has stalled in its health care negotiations, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is no longer promising that the committee will finish its work before the August recess.

Reid would only say he was “cautiously optimistic” that the committee would vote on a bill before the summer break begins next Friday. But in another blow to President Barack Obama’s attempt to move a bill through Congress by the recess, there were signs Thursday that Senate Democrats would not meet the latest deadline.

A morning negotiation session between the three Republicans and three Democrats did not happen as expected, and no further group meetings have been scheduled – an unusual break from the daily talks that have been ongoing for weeks. Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) spoke individually with senators, but there was confusion among Democratic and Republican staff as all sides tried to figure out where the talks stood.

Republicans, meanwhile, emphasized for the second consecutive day that the bipartisan group was not ready to reach an agreement.

“We're trying to do some really crazy stuff on a really short time frame," Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), a member of the Finance committee, said Thursday.

The three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee are under increasing pressure from their leadership not to cut a deal anytime soon, according to sources, and that message has been delivered frequently in recent weeks.

Baucus wanted to show progress on the negotiations before the August recess, either by announcing a deal or releasing the framework of a bill. He presented the senators Thursday with options for moving the process forward, sources said.

But Republicans decided that they did not want to operate on the Democratic timeline, GOP aides said. Despite the uptick in criticism from Enzi and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), there were no plans for them to leave the negotiations, aides said, but there is a desire to slow down the process.

"The Democrats' rush to produce a bill outline before recess was based more on political needs than policy progress," a GOP aide said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss strategy.

Grassley told National Public Radio Wednesday morning that the bipartisan group was "on the edge" of a deal by the weekend — an assessment he has walked back since then.


Source: politico.com

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Pearson's shares soar after it beats expectations

Pearson, the international media group, has shrugged off a dire advertising market to post half-year profits ahead of expectations, driven by a robust performance at its international education business.

Shares in Pearson, which owns Penguin books, soared by 73p to 679p yesterday, making it the FTSE 100's biggest riser, after said it expected full-year adjusted earnings per share to be "at or above" the 2008 level of 57.7p a share.

While underlying profit growth at FT Publishing, which includes the Financial Times, tumbled by 40 per cent, the group's education business – its main profit driver – traded ahead of expectations, delivering 5 per cent sales growth at constant currency over the half-year.

The group has substantially shifted its reliance away from advertising to focus on education and services, such as professional examination testing, and Pearson's chief executive, Dame Marjorie Scardino, struck up upbeat tone yesterday. She said: "The transformation we've been pursuing for a decade – from 'publishing' company to content, technology and services company – is paying off." She added: "Market conditions are tough and may stay that way; but we are confident that we will perform well this year and next."

For the half-year to the end of June, Pearson's pre-tax profits rose by 13 per cent to £62m. The group makes the bulk of its profits in the second half of the year, driven by spending on educational materials, as schools and universities start their new year. Over the six-month period, the group's international education division delivered underlying sales growth up 10 per cent to £446m.

Robin Freestone, finance director at Pearson, said that in North America the group was benefiting from the tough economy, particularly in the US, which is pushing more people back to college and university. North American education division grew sales by 1 per cent at constant exchange rates to £943m. Mr Freestone cited the "strength of our higher education business of selling books and digital products into US universities and colleges. You are seeing more students of 18 years old going to, or back to, college because of the tough job market."

Alex DeGroote, analyst at Panmure Gordon, said: "Ordinarily, H2 performance is most meaningful to full-year outcome due to the phasing of the education school year. Against a tough backdrop, however, Pearson talks of a 'stronger business performance offsetting negative currency impact'."

However, in the UK, underlying sales at FT Publishing, which includes the FT newspaper, tumbled by 40 per cent to £14m, hit by the fall in advertising in the financial and corporate sectors.

Mr Freestone said the global advertising market was down by between 20 and 40 per cent. He added: "The market is well down, but we are doing better than the market decline. Print advertising is bad, but online advertising is strong."

Pearson's group revenues were flat at £2.4bn, but adjusted operating profit jumped by 21 per cent to £158m. Pearson said it did not expect the advertising cycle to turn "any time soon", but said it expected its products to remain in demand and its subscription businesses to remain resilient.

The group has benefited from raising the cover price of the FT from £1 to £2 over the past two years. But the FT's circulation globally fell by 6 per cent to 421,429 over the half-year, as the financial crisis took its toll.

Source: independent.co.uk

Looking to use online tools to save? There are several with which you might click

Technology has revolutionized the way many Americans manage money. With a click of a mouse or right from our smartphones, we can get a complete picture of our finances and recommendations for our money.

The sheer multitude of choices, however, can be overwhelming. I did a Google search for “personal finance software’’ and got 25 million results; for personal finance blogs, 50 million.

And no software, no matter how sophisticated, is a substitute for a qualified professional adviser. Fraud and incompetence lurk online, and many “educational’’ sites are simply trying to sell you something.

With those caveats in mind, it can be fun and enlightening to search for innovative financial websites and tools.

Worthy of note is www.mint.com, a free and secure site where you can set up an anonymous virtual account by entering brief information about your bank, investment, and credit card accounts, plus any home loans.

The site can be quite useful to people who are technology-oriented and have little time or disposition to keep track of their money.

Mint.com connects with more than 7,000 financial institutions, so chances are it includes yours. It can pull up your complete financial information in one place. You get weekly e-mails summarizing your spending, savings, and investments, plus alerts if, for example, a credit card bill is due or your bank balance is low.

A survey found 90 percent of Mint.com users have changed their spending patterns based on something they learned from the site.

Also highly useful is www.MoneyAisle.com, another free, automated site where more than 100 federally insured banks compete for your money. You enter the amount you have available for a certificate of deposit or high-yield savings account, and banks bid to offer the highest interest rate. You are not obligated to accept any bid.

Another site that helps people save and earn competitive rates is www.SmartyPig.com, which I can describe as a combined piggy bank/federally insured high-yielding online savings account. When you open an account, you establish a personal savings goal. You say how much money you want to save by when, and SmartyPig suggests an amount to deposit each month, automatically deducted from a checking or other account. To keep your SmartyPig account open, you must make this monthly contribution until you reach your goal.

You can make additional contributions at any time and invite family and friends to help you save by going online and adding to your account gifts for birthdays or other occasions. And you can place your SmartyPig widget on your Facebook or MySpace page to give all friends the opportunity to cheer you on toward your goal - and to contribute.

Source: boston.com

Wells Fargo Introduces Online Same Day Payments

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) today announced the nationwide availability of its newest online bill pay feature, which allows customers to make "just in time” online bill payments to merchants, such as utility, auto finance and mortgage companies. The service helps customers avoid missing payments or making late payments.

According to Javelin Strategy & Research, nearly three out of four consumers initiated expedited payments last year and use is expected to continue to rise in the next five years.

"The launch of same day payments further highlights Wells Fargo’s commitment to listening to our customers and continued leadership and innovation in the online space,” said Adam Vancini, senior vice president of Wells Fargo Internet Services Group. "Our customers continue to discover the convenience and speed of paying bills electronically; the expedited payments service is an additional online bill pay option.”

Currently Wells Fargo offers same day payment options for a fee with a select group of payees; additional payees continue to be added on an ongoing basis. Wells Fargo teamed up with Western Union for the service.

"Western Union is pleased to join an industry leader like Wells Fargo to provide expedited bill payment,” said Ranjana Clark, executive vice president, Global Payments and Global Strategy. "Through its Global Payment Services division, Western Union is an expert in connecting consumers with billers. We understand that under current economic circumstances, consumers are managing their budgets more closely than ever and are looking for options that allow them to pay bills quickly, conveniently and without incurring costly late charges.”

Wells Fargo integrates customers’ bill pay data with optional online tools, such as its online budgeting tool My Spending Report with Budget Watch and archiving service Wells Fargo vSafeSM.

Wells Fargo’s bill pay service presents bills online for nearly 460 merchants, lenders and other billers.
Wells Fargo’s online and mobile bill pay alerts give customers more control by notifying them when bills arrive, if a bill didn’t arrive, when a bill is due, when a payment is sent, among other notifications.
With Wells Fargo Mobile, bill pay customers can schedule payments and pay bills with their mobile device while waiting in line, on a break, or anywhere else they want to access the mobile web or WF.com.
About Wells Fargo Online & Mobile Banking

Wells Fargo is a leading provider of online and mobile financial services for individual consumers, small and middle market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, money movement, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products. Wells Fargo launched its personal computer banking service in 1989 and was the first bank to offer Internet banking through wellsfargo.com in May 1995. Since January 2009, Wells Fargo has been named the No. 1 Consumer Internet Bank in the United States by Global Finance Magazine, ranked the No. 1 website out of 68 leading U.S. corporations' websites for technology innovation by the Brookings Institution and was awarded two Monarch Innovation Awards by Barlow Research for online services for small business, including Foreign Exchange Online and My Spending Report with Budget Watch.

About Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $1.3 trillion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance through more than 10,000 stores and 12,000 ATMs and the internet (wellsfargo.com) across North America and internationally.

Source: newsticker.welt.de

Online Car Loans Available Through Low Car Loan Interest Rate

We all love to shop online as its ease because it’s easy and simple to buy no matter whatever the thing is, including big purchases such as automobiles. Simply going to EBay Automotive will provide you thousands of choices, which offers you cheap car loans with low interest rates. Knowing of the average auto loan rates in the USA make certain that you can be no way be covered in debt though trying to keep up by the rates of interest on your car loan. Evaluating car loan rates would most certainly give you the idea while dealing with car loans.

Out here in the “actual world”, there are lot of credit organizations such as auto finance companies, banks, and car lenders where you can apply for a car loan. Searching for the best car loan and comparing different interest rates means you need to spend a lot of time. And it’s too not easy to go from one bank to the next in search of low interest car loan. It takes a lot of time to evaluate the various offers and alternatives “out there”. The only way out is to apply for an online car loan.

Online Car Loans made simple

If you’re looking for online car loans, the procedure is quite easy and it saves you money as well as time. In addition, you can compare the rate of interest of different banks as well as finance companies. It’s possible to save some money by applying for “free applications”. Normally, online auto loan rates are lower as compared to the loan rates offered by traditional car dealers or finance companies. Online car loans are approved very fast. Some loans are approved within an hour. While applying for online auto loans you won’t find any hidden fees, any bad credit frauds, and penalties. Once your online auto loan is approved, you will receive a check from the loan company. It’s like, you apply for a car loan today and can drive off in your brand new car tomorrow.

Source: nurido.at