Finance news. My opinion.

Walgreen Co. announced Wednesday it is buying New York-based rival drugstore chain Duane Reade Holdings Inc. to expand its reach in the metropolitan area.

The $1.1 billion cash transaction, which includes some debt and is pending regulatory approval, is Walgreen’s largest retail acquisition to date and is expected to close in the current fiscal year ended Aug. 31.

Through the deal, Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreens (WAG, Fortune 500) drugstore, which currently operates 70 stores in New York City out of 7,100 nationwide, will acquire all 257 Duane Reade locations in New York City, as well as its corporate office and two distribution centers.

"Duane Reade is a compelling strategic acquisition that will immediately provide Walgreens with a leading position in the largest drugstore market in the United States," said Walgreens chief executive and president Greg Wasson in a statement. "The transaction is consistent with the capital allocation objectives we outlined last fall, which included investing in strategic opportunities that reinforce the company’s core strategies and meet return requirements."

The deal will also give Walgreens an edge over its national rival CVS Caremark (CVS, Fortune 500), which operates just over 7,000 drugstores across the nation.

"Walgreens lags its rival CVS in the New York metro area," said Craig Johnson, retail industry expert and president of retail consultancy Customer Growth Partners. "So this deal now allows Walgreens to leapfrog over its competitor and give it the kind of dominance in New York City that it has in Chicago, where it is headquartered."

Duane Reade, owned by private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, boasts the highest sales per square foot in the retail drugstore industry in the nation, and its sales reached an unaudited $1.8 billion in 2009.

"We are very pleased that this national leader has recognized the successful transformation under way at Duane Reade," said Duane Reade chief executive and chairman John Lederer in the statement.

Customer Growth Partners’ Johnson said the deal will also benefit shoppers.

"This is also a win-win for consumers. Walgreens is bringing the skill, capital and management strength of one of the top two pharmacies operating in the country to Duane Reade," he said. "This will certainly enhance the merchandise and shopping experience for Duane Reade consumers."

Duane Reade, which opened its first location on Broadway between Duane and Reade streets in Manhattan in 1960, will continue to operate under its name after the transaction closes. About 60% of Duane Reade stores are located in Manhattan, while 30% are in outer boroughs and 10% are outside the city.

Though Walgreens expects acquisition charges will lower its earnings per share during the first 12 months after the deal closes, the drugstore projects it will help cut costs by between $120 million and $130 million by the third year.

Shares of Walgreens fell 1% in early trading.  

Source

Cashadvance Online without the hassle of credit checks, faxing or long waits. Fill out application 100% online and get your money quickly!

The Toronto stock market started the trading week off positive Monday, led by higher commodity and financial stocks.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 65.17 points to 11,750.54 after a lukewarm start to the U.S. quarterly earnings season and moves by China to cool its economy had pushed the main index down more than two per cent last week to below where it started the new year.

“When China raised the reserve requirements (for banks), it was unexpected,” said Ian Nakamoto, director of research at MacDougall, MacDougall and MacTier.

“All of a sudden, you say: is some of the global stimulus going to be removed quicker than I thought?”

The TSX Venture Exchange climbed 12.25 points to 1,605.72.

Volumes were lower than normal as New York markets closed for the Martin Luther King holiday.

A day before the Bank of Canada makes its scheduled announcement on interest rates, the Canadian dollar moved 0.28 of a cent higher to 97.42 cents US. The central bank is widely expected to leave rates — which hover near zero — alone until at least the end of the second quarter.

The base metals sector was up 1.39 per cent. Late Monday afternoon, the March copper contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose five cents to US$3.41 a pound in electronic trading. Regular trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange was also closed Monday for the King holiday.

Teck Resources (TSX:TCK.B) added 43 cents to $41.23 while Labrador Iron Mines Holdings (TSX:LIM) ran up 69 cents to $5.57.

The February crude contract rose 25 cents to US$78.25 a barrel shortly before the TSX closed, taking the energy sector ahead 0.63 per cent. EnCana Corp. (TSX:ECA) improved 46 cents to $35.67 while Imperial Oil (TSX:IMO) gained 46 cents to $41.10.

Crude prices fell every day last week, losing just over five per cent, as the first batch of fourth-quarter earnings and economic data pointed to signs of continued weakness in the U.S. economy.

Oil and gas explorer Enterra Energy Trust (TSX:ENT.UN) said Monday it will convert to a corporation by the end of May, changing its name in the process to Equal Energy Ltd. Calgary-based Enterra said Monday it wants to make the move before a change in the rules governing the taxation scheme for trusts takes effect in 2011. Enterra units jumped 56 cents or 25.93 per cent to $2.72.

Shares in Cirrus Energy Corp. (TSXV:CYR) dropped 68 cents or 24.46 per cent to $2.10 after delivering a disappointing update on its drilling activities at its subsidiary in Holland. A platform refurbishment was meant to allow “continuous uninterrupted production” from its well. Instead, production performance has steadily declined.

The financial sector moved up 0.65 per cent after losing ground at the end of last week in the wake of disappointing earnings results from American banking giant JPMorgan Chase. TD Bank (TSX:TD) was ahead 75 cents to $64.10 and Manulife Financial was up 22 cents at $20.54 .

The February gold contract was ahead $2.90 to US$1,133.40 an ounce and the gold sector edged up 0.19 per cent.

When Wall Street returns on Tuesday, the focus will turn towards the next batch of fourth-quarter corporate earnings figures, including those from Citigroup Inc. and IBM Corp.

So far, earnings have been fairly mixed, with upside surprises from the likes of Intel Corp. offset by disappointments elsewhere, most notably Alcoa Inc. and JPMorgan Chase.

“Are they going to meet their guidance? And how are they going to meet it? asked Nakamoto.

“Expectations have ratcheted up.”

In other corporate news, a group of bidders, including former Canadian senator Jerry Grafstein, says it’s preparing to make an offer for some of Canwest’s (CGS.V) newspapers, including its flagship National Post. The consortium of investors also includes former Global TV executive and Montreal Star editor Raymond Heard and writer and broadcaster Beryl Wajsman.

But Nakamoto said he expected there are funds and companies that would be interested in the whole newspaper chain.

“I would think there’s a bunch of private equity investors _ like even Onex Corp. (TSX:OCX). Why wouldn’t they look at it? It seems right up their alley. Or why wouldn’t the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund look at it? There’s a lot of money out there.”

Canwest shares were off one cent at 7.5 cents.

Mosaid Technologies Inc. (TSX:MSD) shares rose $1.45 to $21.51 after it said its revenue will be $3 million higher in the 2010 financial year than previously thought, rising to an estimated range of $68 million to $70 million. It said the improved performance is the result of a landmark licensing agreement between the Ottawa patent firm and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Heritage Oil Corp. (TSX:HOC) says that Tullow Uganda Ltd. has exercised its right to pre-empt Heritage’s sale of a 50 per cent interest of two blocks in Uganda to Italy’s Eni International B.V., and will pay more than US$1.35 billion for the assets. Heritage shares ran ahead $1.90 or 24.24 per cent to $10.20.

Financially troubled Coalcorp Mining Inc. (TSX:CCJ) says the proposed US$150-million sale of its La Francia coal mine in Colombia has been threatened by a company allegedly controlled by former Coalcorp directors. Coalcorp said Monday it received a letter from Blue Pacific Assets Corp. advising that it will ask a court to block the sale unless it receives about $2 million of royalties that are purportedly overdue and assurance that Coalcorp will terminate the proposed sale of La Francia to Goldman Sachs. Coalcorp shares were 1.5 cents higher at 19.5 cents.

New Flyer Industries Inc. (TSX:NFI.UN) said Friday it received orders for 711 buses in the fourth quarter for a total of $308 million. The company said the orders included 506 new firm and option orders and 205 exercised options for buses. Its units added 10 cents to $10.50.

Source

Payday loans no faxing fall on the less risky side simply because the money loaned to you is a percentage of your next paycheck.

Today, Norty Cohen opens Buzz-hound Learning Lab in Maplewood, sharing space with Hatch, a focus group and research facility. Among its initial offerings, Buzzhound will offer classes on search engine optimization, the process of improving a website so it ranks higher in search engine results.

Cohen says he sees a strong market for the 10-member classes (prices range from $600 to $700 per person) at a time when there is so much emphasis on reaching customers through the Internet — particularly when research suggests it is critical to rank high in search results. By some estimates, 65 percent of all searchers will go to the first 10 sites they see.

It seems like we hear a lot these days about search engine optimization. Why is that?

There are 100 billion searches a month online. More and more people are using their cell phones to search and that’s where people are finding customers and businesses.

Even though Yellow Pages is still a $16 billion-a-year business, where everything is going is search. If you are in business or if you are in marketing, you need to understand search.

What is the most important thing one needs to know about SEO? And are there any big no-nos?

You need to understand how and why people are coming to your site. And how and what you need to do to improve your content. And to make more opportunities for people to find you online.

… There are people who will say that you can’t fool the search engine, that you can’t do this thing called black hat, where you put in some things that may not be true. I think the biggest no-no is not doing anything and assuming people are going to find you.

You have this lab set to open today low interest rate personal loans. What sort of response are you expecting?

We’ve had several major corporations commit to sending people to the classes. We tried to price it so that it’s incredibly reasonable, while at the same time, there is a ton of information that happens in one day.

There are two instructors, so it is a five-to-one student-teacher ratio. These people are experts much more than myself. Several major corporations have committed to sending several people, and that’s just in our first couple of announcements. We’re really going to start much more heavily marketing next week.

What prompted you to open Buzz-hound?

I’ve been trying to learn this subject for some time. And I found it to be incredibly hard. It was hard to follow webinars. It was hard to follow books. It was sort of like an advanced math problem that you just needed someone to show you how to do it.

And once you got into understanding it, it became very basic. And I realized we could create a business that could truly teach people how to help their businesses.

You’ve said you don’t think this is the sort of thing that can be taught or learned online. Why is that?

Search engine optimization is a language. It’s just like learning any other language. Someone has to show you and speak it for you so you can hear them.

If you go into the lab and you try the programs and the instructor shows you how to use them, it becomes very natural to you. But it’s the whole sort of foreign language aspect to it that makes it difficult to learn.

Source

Delta Air Lines Inc. has received government permission to operate its namesake service and its Northwest Airlines subsidiary as a single carrier, a Delta executive said Thursday.

The single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration allows Delta to put its code on Northwest flights and phase out the Northwest name. That process will be complete in the first quarter of this year. For now, travelers won’t notice anything different.

Delta, based in Atlanta, acquired Northwest for $2.8 billion in stock in October 2008 to become the world’s biggest airline.

Delta and Northwest are now one airline, meaning that for the first time pre-merger Northwest operations will be combined into Delta’s operations, Chief Operating Officer Stephen E. Gorman said in an internal memo.

Labor issues remain, however. While pilots and some smaller work groups from both carriers are operating under joint contracts and seniority lists, flight attendants and gate and reservation agents and ramp workers have not resolved representation issues. Pre-merger Northwest was heavily unionized, while pre-merger Delta was not — its pilots were its only major work group to be in a union.

Meanwhile, more than 80 percent of pre-merger Northwest aircraft have already been painted over with the Delta livery. Employees of both carriers are wearing the same uniforms, and the two carriers frequent-flier programs have already been combined under the Delta SkyMiles brand.

But operationally, the two carriers have been kept separate while Delta sought the FAA certificate.

Delta plans to operate Northwest-coded flights until all seats and fares are consolidated in Delta’s reservations system. Once that occurs, it will remove the distinction for passengers of purchasing on Delta or Northwest, and the Northwest website will be folded into Delta’s.

Still unresolved for Delta is its effort to lure Japan Airlines Corp. away from its alliance with American Airlines and into Delta’s SkyTeam alliance. There’s been no word on a decision by JAL, which is said to be teetering on the verge of bankruptcy.

Delta also is dealing with the aftermath of a failed terrorist attack on a Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas.

Source

Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling this week may reverse a tax reduction for Britain’s richest households and will consider a levy on bankers’ bonuses in efforts to win over voters before next year’s election.

Darling said today that lowering the inheritance tax for the richest people is no longer a priority and didn’t dismiss an interviewer’s suggestion on BBC Television’s Sunday AM show that he is considering a one-time charge on bank bonuses. The chancellor is scheduled to publish a Pre-Budget Report with the tax plans on Dec. 9.

“I really can’t believe it would be the first priority of any government, at this time, to give a tax cut to the top 2 percent of estates in this country,” Darling said in the broadcast.

Darling and Prime Minister Gordon Brown are seeking to persuade voters that David Cameron’s Conservative Party, which is sticking to a similar inheritance tax plan, is siding with the rich at a time when the country is recovering from the worst economic crisis since World War II. That strategy has helped Brown’s Labour Party erode Cameron’s lead in opinion polls.

Darling said in 2007 that he would raise the inheritance tax threshold to 350,000 pounds ($578,000) from 325,000 pounds for single people and to 700,000 pounds from 650,000 for couples, starting April 2010. Cameron’s Conservatives want to abolish the tax for single people with estates below 1 million pounds and for couples with estates below 2 million pounds.

‘Lurch to Left’

“If the Labour Party wants to say don’t aspire to get on in life, then so be it,” George Osborne, the Conservative lawmaker who shadows Darling in Parliament, told the BBC program. “It’s part of their lurch to the left.”

Darling said he will not be “held to ransom” by banks threatening staff defections if their bonuses are curtailed, indicating he is considering plans to levy a one-time charge on bankers if they exploit loopholes on current bonus rules.

“We do have a veto over the package,” Darling said of government-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland Plc. “We are not going to be held to ransom by people who believe you can pay extremely large bonuses regardless of what’s going on.”

Osborne said he “wouldn’t rule out” such a charge if his party defeats Labour in the election, which has to take place before June.

An ICM Research poll for the Sunday Telegraph showed that the Conservatives are on course to obtain a majority of between 20 and 25 seats in the 646-seat House of Commons. A ComRes Ltd. survey Dec. 1 showed that the U.K. may be heading for a so- called hung Parliament, with Cameron leading Brown by 10 percentage points, down 3 points from October.

‘Party of Rich’

A YouGov Plc poll in today’s Sunday Times showed that more than half of the 2,000 people interviewed viewed the Conservatives as the party of the rich. Cameron said Brown had been “spiteful’ in his efforts to tell voters of his privileged upbringing and elite schooling.

Darling today stepped up the attack, saying Osborne’s plea to voters to endure tougher times isn’t consistent with tax cuts for the rich.

Darling said this week’s budget statement will spell out some detail on how he plans to implement his pledge to reduce the deficit by as much as half over four years. In April, the budget suggested the chancellor would have to find as much as 60 billion pounds to achieve this.

Darling has already announced tax increases that will account for about one-quarter of that amount, and has earmarked about 9 billion pounds by cutting waste in government departments, leaving him the challenge of finding a further 40 billion pounds by reducing government spending.

NHS Program

Darling told the BBC today that he will scrap a 12.4 billion-pound computer program for the National Health Service that is being developed mainly by iSoft Plc. Similar reductions, rather than staff cuts in schools and hospitals, would indicate “the direction of travel” in this week’s report, he said.

“The NHS had quite an expensive IT System and I don’t think we need to go ahead with it now,” he said.

Brown said yesterday in his weekly podcast that a plan to move more government services online would save about 400 million pounds a year.

Darling’s view is that the economy is too fragile to take more steps to repair the 175 billion-pound deficit this year, a Treasury official said this week. Darling will challenge the Labour government’s opponents to spell out their plans on what they plan to reduce, the official said.

Pound Rebounds

The pound snapped two weeks of declines against the euro last week as industry reports showed that U.K. services and manufacturing industries expanded in November, indicating that the recovery is taking hold.

Darling’s approach, contrasting with Conservative Party calls to make deeper and faster cuts, won the support of two groups in London today. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a London-based research group that counts the Treasury and the Bank of England as clients, said Darling should keep stimulating the economy during the next few months before reducing the deficit.

The British Chambers of Commerce said the government should refrain from cutting the fiscal deficit too quickly as the nation’s economic recovery faces “major risks,”

Darling will lower his forecast for the U.K. economy this year, saying the financial crisis has inflicted far deeper pain than he predicted in April, a government official said Nov. 27. Gross domestic product will fall 4.75 percent in 2009, compared with the 3.5 percent drop forecast seven months ago, the official said. Darling said today that growth in 2010 will be “moderate.”

Treasury officials said last week that Darling will scale back his estimate for the cost of bailing out Britain’s banks to no more than 10 billion pounds, from 50 billion pounds.

The reduction in the sum set aside in the government’s accounts to pay for losses will shave about 40 billion pounds off the Treasury’s debt, now about 792 billion pounds, the officials said.

Source

Safeway Inc. is sponsoring a gameday area on Sunday for the Arizona Cardinals home game in Glendale.

Safeway’s Gameday Experiene includes games, video game and TVs broadcasting other National Football League games. It also features food and drink stands offering samples of tailgating fare and other products fans might buy from the grocery store.

Safeway hosted a similar event outside University of Phoenix Stadium for the Nov payday loans with no fax. 15 game against the Seattle Seahawks.

The Cards game against the Minnesota Vikings is televised Sunday night on NBC. The Safeway promotion is free and located east of the stadium. The game starts at 6:20 p.m.

Source

Current valuations of waste managers such as Waste Connections Inc, Waste Management Inc and Republic Services Inc give the company’s shares a lot of room to rise, according to a Barron’s story.

In its November 23 edition, Barron’s said Waste Connections shares could rise to $37.50 in a year, citing Raymond James analyst William Fisher’s price target for the stock, which closed at $31.79 on the New York Stock Exchange Friday.

According to Barron’s, investor Todd Lowenstein of Highmark Value Momentum Fund sees Waste Management shares rising as high as $40 from their Friday NYSE close at $32.30.

Republic Service’s Chairman Jim O’Connor has said that analysts’ discounted cash-flow analysis pegs his company’s value in the mid $30s range, according to the story low fee payday loans. This compares to Republic Services NYSE close of $27.40 on Friday.

The story also noted that Warren Buffett has bought 1 percent of Republic Services, based on Berkshire Hathaway Inc filings.

It said that Bill Gates investment vehicle had doubled its shares in Waste Management, giving it a 15 percent stake.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing Bernard Orr)

Read more

Russia is unlikely to change the structure of its reserves from dollars and euros even as currencies including the yuan gain more importance in regional trade, VTB Group Chief Executive Officer Andrei Kostin said.

“Inevitably with the growth and importance of other economies like China or other BRIC countries’ economies, the role of their currencies should be more important,” said Kostin, who heads Russia’s second-biggest bank, in an interview yesterday in Singapore. “We think that the yuan and the ruble can be currencies in which we conduct bilateral trade. But as a reserve currency, I think the central bank is still dividing mainly between the dollar and the euro.”

The ruble gained 0.2 percent against the euro to 42.8600, the strongest level in almost ten months, at 1:12 p.m. in Moscow. The Russian currency was little changed against the dollar.

Russia has sought to promote regional currencies in trade and finance to reduce the risks posed by the dominance of the dollar. Medvedev has blamed the global financial crisis on an over-reliance on the U.S. currency and the U.S. role in the financial system.

“Things are changing for sure and I think the crisis showed the weaknesses of being dependent on only one currency,” said, Kostin who was accompanying President Dmitry Medvedev at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. ‘There is more concern among many investors, even in Russia, that America is printing too much money and that could devalue it.”

State-run VTB is Russia’s second-biggest bank after OAO Sberbank.

Border Arrangements

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin traveled to China last month to strengthen a relationship forged by Russian oil exports to Asia’s largest energy consumer. The total value of oil deals signed with Chinese companies this year is about $100 billion, according to the Russian government.

China, the world’s fastest-growing major economy, has signed 650 billion yuan ($95 billion) in currency-swap agreements since December with Argentina, Belarus Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea, encouraging greater use of its currency guaranteed online payday loans.

Russia already has agreements that allow the use of the ruble and yuan in cross-border trade, First Deputy Central Bank Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev said on Oct. 23. Russia is also in talks with India and Brazil to use their currencies in trade.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said today that the yuan may in future be added to the basket of currencies that set the value of IMF monetary units, called special drawing rights.

Reserve Currency

The yuan may be added in a “while,” Strauss-Kahn said at a press briefing in Beijing today. The move would require the currency to be market-based, he said.

While Chinese officials, including central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan, have called this year for an alternative to the dollar as the main reserve currency, they maintain controls on the yuan that prevent it for now from becoming a competitor.

Leaders from the APRC, who met in Singapore over the weekend, declined to back U.S. calls for a stronger yuan.

It’s “not easy” to say when the yuan could become convertible, Kostin said.

The currency could become a global reserve currency in about 10 years should the country make it convertible, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Oct. 24.

While the yuan cannot be freely exchanged, making it impossible to use it for reserves at present, a change in policy would make the currency a “notable and weighty” global reserve currency given China’s trade volumes with others, Kudrin said.

Russia’s reserves, the world’s third largest holdings, are made up of 47 percent dollars, 41 percent euros, 10 percent pounds and 2 percent yen, Ulyukayev said on Nov. 2.

Source

Europe’s biggest bank HSBC Holdings said its underlying third quarter profits were “significantly ahead” of a year ago and said losses on U.S. consumer loans had shown their first fall in three years.

HSBC said loan impairment allowances for its U.S. consumer finance business declined in the third quarter, representing the first quarterly fall since the start of 2006 and their lowest level for over a year.

HSBC said its investment bank arm had maintained its record performance so far this year.

HSBC shares were up 1.8 percent at 704.9 pence at 0830 GMT (3:30 a bad credit payday advance.m. EST).

“I believe the biggest jolt has now passed through the global economy,” said HSBC Chief Executive Michael Geoghegan. “The world will likely see a two-speed recovery,” he said, adding that emerging markets are likely to drive the recovery.

The bank said on a reported basis, including losses on the fair value of its own debt, Q3 profits were lower than a year ago.

(Reporting by Steve Slater and Clara Ferreira-Marques)

Read more

U.S. banks are at risk of sizable new loan losses, particularly on commercial property, and some banks may not have sufficient capital to fully cushion against losses, a Federal Reserve official said on Monday.

Some large regional and community banks that have built up unusually high concentrations in commercial real estate loans will be "particularly affected" by conditions in those markets, said Jon Greenlee, associate director of the Fed’s Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation.

In the second quarter, said Greenlee, "Credit losses at banking organizations continued to rise, and banks face risks of sizable additional credit losses given the outlook for production and employment."

Greenlee’s comments were in testimony prepared for delivery to a House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee.

"Poor loan quality, subpar earnings, and uncertainty about future conditions raise questions about capital adequacy for some institutions," he said.

While the stability of the banking system has improved, it is far from robust as banks face pressures from weakness in both residential and commercial property markets, Greenlee said.

Although year-on-year housing price price declines slowed in the second quarter, foreclosures and mortgage loss severities are likely to remain high, he said.

Delinquencies of mortgages backing commercial mortgage-backed securities have increased markedly in recent months and market participants anticipate the delinquency rates will rise by the end of the year, Greenlee said.

Fed examiners are noticing a sharp deterioration in loans in banks’ portfolios and loans in commercial mortgage-backed securities, he said. 

Source