Market week: investors dump Tesco stock as analysts remain gloomy

Better than expected US jobs figures helped the FTSE 100 to end the week on a positive note

Tesco fell to a two-month low on Friday in a rising market, as investors checked out of the supermarket group's shares in the wake of its first profit fall for 20 years.

The company reported half-year figures on Wednesday showing trading profits dropped 10.5% to £1.6bn, prompting concerns about its poor UK performance and growing problems in its international business. It closed down 2.8p at 315.35p on Friday, its worst level since the start of August as analysts queued up to downgrade the business. Kate Calvert and Freddie George at Seymour Pierce said: "The market was prepared for a decline in profits from Tesco, but we believe its first-half results were disappointing even in that context. With no visibility on where UK profitability will bottom and too many of its overseas businesses face trading issues shorter term, we reiterate our reduce recommendation and cut our target price to 290p from 310p."

Caroline Gulliver at Espirito Santo said: "We believe Tesco is in transition and may well emerge a well-run, mature retailer with operating margins of over 5% and a cashflow yield above 10%. But we are not there yet and with several obstacles on the path we cut our fair value by 10% to 300p and keep our neutral rating."

Overall the market ended the week on a positive note, boosted by better than expected US jobs figures, with the FTSE 100 finishing 43.24 points higher at 5871.02. Despite continuing concerns about the eurozone crisis – with the problems in Spain, Greece and Portugal far from resolved – the leading index added nearly 130 points over the course of the week.

Commodity companies were among the main gainers on Friday after the US data suggested a brighter picture for the global economy. Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation led the way, up 18.6p to 333.3p after Credit Suisse said its shares could gain ground in the near term after recent weakness.

Fellow Kazakh miner Kazakhmys climbed 31.5p to 738p, while Vedanta Resources rose 36p to £11.01. Evraz, the Russian steelmaker controlled by Chelsea football club owner, Roman Abramovich, recovered from a fall on Thursday in the wake of news it was taking a majority stake in coalminer Raspadskaya. Its shares ended 9p to 254.1p. But engineering and design firm WS Atkins fell nearly 5%, down 34p to 695p after reports that its role in the west coast rail franchise fiasco was being investigated. The franchise was taken away from the winner, FirstGroup, after irregularities in the bidding process. Atkins – along with law firm Eversheds – had reportedly been hired in January to give technical advice on the franchise process. Meanwhile FirstGroup fell 4.5p to 196.1p having lost 20% on the day the franchise was withdrawn.

Elsewhere energy services business Wood Group added 22.5p to 833.5p after an upbeat trading statement, with the company saying it was confident of meeting full year expectations.

AstraZeneca added 7.5p to 2918.5p, as traders suggested Monday's decision by the new chief executive, Pascal Soriot, to halt its share buyback programme could mean it was on the takeover trail. US group Forest Laboratories was one name mentioned as a possible target. Among the mid-caps, the biggest loser was Kcom. The telecoms group fell 5.6p to 78.75p after reporting lower than expected growth in its business and public sector markets.

Mitchells & Butlers rose 5.6p to 306.6p after Peel Hunt raised its rating from hold to buy. On Thursday horseracing tycoons JP McManus and John Magnier had bought 7m shares in the pubs group through their Elpida vehicle, raising their stake to 22.47%. Joe Lewis, the billionaire currency trader who saw two bids for the business rejected last year, owns 26.3%.

Finally Pursuit Dynamics lost a quarter of its value, down 2.05p to 6.075p after the company said it was seeking new funding as it awaited firm orders for its process technology equipment.

It hopes to provide an update by the end of the month.

In March this year the company raised £9.4m through a rights issue, eight months after an £8m placing.

• Stock markets

Nick Fletcher

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Germany's Merkel to Visit Greece Next Week

BBC News

Germany's Merkel to Visit Greece Next Week Voice of America (blog) German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she will visit Athens next week, her first visit to debt-ridden Greece since the three-year eurozone governmental debt crisis threatened to undermine the world's economic fortunes. Ms. Merkel has often drawn the ... Eurozone crisis as it happened: Protests planned as Angela Merkel heads to GreeceThe Guardian Merkel to visit Greece as money running outReuters Merkel takes gamble on Greek visitFinancial Times BBC News -Bloomberg all 812 news articles »

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Missing US priest had been to police

The translator and close friend of an American priest reported missing by his family earlier this week has not been seen at her residence in Koukaki, in central Athens, for several days, according to her neighbours.

Ioanna Lekakou is believed to be involved in the case of the missing Catholic cleric, Christiaan Kappes, who has been living in Greece for the past three years.

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.athensnews.gr

Greek PM: society will disintegrate without urgent financial aid

Antonis Samaras says Greece's democracy is in danger, comparing situation to Germany's pre-war Weimar Republic

Greece is teetering on the edge of collapse with its society at risk of disintegrating unless the country's near-empty public coffers are shored up with urgent financial aid, the country's prime minister has warned.

Almost three years after the eruption of Europe's debt drama in Athens, the economic crisis engulfing the nation has become so severe that democracy itself is now imperiled, Antonis Samaras said.

"Greek democracy stands before what is perhaps its greatest challenge," Samaras told the German business daily Handelsblatt in an interview published hours before the announcement in Berlin that Angela Merkel will fly to Athens next week for the first time since the outbreak of the crisis.

Resorting to highly unusual language for a man who weighs his words carefully, the 61-year-old politician evoked the rise of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party to highlight the threat that Greece faces, explaining that society "is threatened by growing unemployment, as happened to Germany at the end of the Weimar Republic".

"Citizens know that this government is Greece's last chance," said Samaras, who has repeatedly appealed for international lenders at the EU and IMF to relax the onerous conditions of the bailout accords propping up the Greek economy.

Mounting anti-austerity rage before a new round of sweeping EU-IMF-mandated austerity measures appears to have caught the government off-guard, with officials voicing fears over the ability of Samaras's fragile coalition to survive.

The unprecedented storming of Greece's defence ministry by hundreds of protesting dockworkers on Thursday – a breach of security not seen in modern times – has especially unnerved officials. On Friday, Samaras lashed out at "those who don't understand the meaning of law and order".

"The government is waging a battle on all fronts for the nation's credibility and its future so that the sacrifices made by Greeks aren't lost," he said, referring to the spending cuts and tax increases that have sparked record levels of poverty and unemployment. "I will not allow the country to become a free-for-all."

Many officials fear the conservative-led alliance is being pushed too far in negotiations that have dragged on for weeks over the latest €13.5bn package of austerity measures that is the price of further aid. Growing speculation that Greece will be kept waiting until after the US elections in November before it receives its next disbursement of aid has added to the pressure. On Friday EU officials made clear it was highly unlikely a decision would be made on the payment – vital to kickstarting the cash-starved economy – at an upcoming EU summit on 18 October. The Athens government is also appealing for a two-year extension of the debt-choked country's fiscal adjustment programme in an effort to ameliorate the impact of further punishing austerity.

In the interview Samaras emphasised that Greek cash reserves would run dry by the end of November. "The key is liquidity," said the leader. "That is why the next credit tranche is so important for us."

The high-wire act of placating international lenders while keeping social unrest at bay will be tested as never before when Merkel, the German chancellor, flies into Athens next Tuesday. With anti-EU sentiment at an all-time high, opposition parties and trade unions vowed a baptism of fire.

"She should expect demonstrations. Greek society will welcome her with mass protests," said Panos Skourletis, a spokesman for the radical left main opposition Syriza party.

The Independent Greeks party, also vehemently anti-bailout, has said it will make war reparations a major part of its own protest when it stages a "symbolic blockade" outside the German embassy in Athens during Merkel's visit.

• Greece
• Eurozone crisis
• Europe
• European Union
• Economics
• Financial crisis

Helena Smith

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Tesco falls to two month low but FTSE 100 lifted by US jobs figures

Analysts queue up to downgrade supermarket group after profit fall, while non-farm data outweighs eurozone woes

Tesco fell to a two month low in a rising market, as investors checked out of the supermarket group's shares in the wake of its first profit fall for twenty years.

The company reported half year figures on Wednesday showing trading profits dropped 10.5% to £1.6bn, prompting concerns about its poor UK performance and growing problems in its international business. It closed down 2.8p at 315.35p, its worst level since the start of August as analysts queued up to downgrade the business. Kate Calvert and Freddie George at Seymour Pierce said:

The market was prepared for a decline in profits from Tesco, but we believe its first half results were disappointing even in that context. We have reappraised our forecast and cut 2013 and 2014 [earnings] by 8% and 14% respectively. With no visibility on where UK profitability will bottom and too many of its overseas businesses face trading issues shorter term, we reiterate our reduce recommendation and cut our target price to 290p from 310p.

Caroline Gulliver at Espirito Santo said:

The deteriorating outlook for Tesco's international business, for both structural and cyclical growth, leads us to cut our group pretax profit estimates by 10% for 2013 and 16% for 2014. We believe Tesco is in transition and may well emerge a well-run, mature retailer with operating margins of over 5% and a cashflow yield above 10%. At which point we would see value in the shares up to 380p. But we are not there yet and with several obstacles on the path we cut our fair value by 10% to 300p and keep our neutral rating.

Overall the market end the week on a positive note, boosted by better than expected US jobs figures, with the FTSE 100 finishing 43.24 points higher at 5871.02. Despite continuing concerns about the eurozone crisis - with the problems in Spain, Greece and Portugal far from resolved - the leading index added nearly 130 points over the course of the week.

Commodity companies were among the main gainers after the US data suggested brighter prospects for the global economy. Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation led the way, up 18.6p to 333.3p. Analysts at Credit Suisse said:

With the strong pick-up in nickel prices (lead indicator for stainless demand), rising stainless prices in Europe and potential supply risk in South Africa (strike risk spreading) we expect the fourth quarter to be a trough for prices and, given very weak recent performance, ENRC shares could see improved momentum near term.

Fellow Kazakh miner Kazakhmys climbed 31.5p to 738p, while Vedanta Resources rose 36p to £11.01. Evraz, the Russian steelmaker controlled by Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich, recovered from a fall on Thursday in the wake of news it was taking a majority stake in coal miner Raspadskaya. Its shares ended 9p to 254.1p. In a hold note, analysts at Societe Generale said:

The deal is somewhat unexpected but is the logical conclusion to a prolonged saga of love and resistance as Evraz made unsuccessful takeover attempts before. The valuation looks pricey but we expect limited impact on the share price.

But engineering and design firm WS Atkins fell nearly 5%, down 34p to 695p after reports its role in the West Coast franchise fiasco was being investigated. The franchise was taken away from the winner, FirstGroup, after irregularities in the bidding process. Atkins - along with law firm Eversheds - had reportedly been hired in January to give technical advice on the franchise process. David Brockton at Espirito Santo said:

Should any review find Atkins to have been at fault during this tender process, then clearly it could have a negative reputational impact for the group, given this represents a high profile tender.

Andy Brown at Panmure Gordon added:

[The report] is unlikely to be helpful for the share price in the short term. That said, Atkins has strong rail expertise so we expect it to continue to play an active role in a strategically important infrastructure sector over the medium term.

Previously it suffered from negative sentiment surrounding its involvement in Metronet [the Tube consortium] but that did not stop it winning future government related work.

Meanwhile FirstGroup fell 4.5p to 196.1p having lost 20% on the day the franchise was withdrawn.

Elsewhere energy services business Wood Group added 22.5p to 833.5p after an upbeat trading statement, with the company saying it was confident of meeting full year expectations. The engineering division continues to perform well, with a number of contracts in the Gulf of Mexico, and it confirmed its contract problems in Oman would lead to a $15m-$20m loss from its business there.

Keith Morris at Investec kept his hold rating an 800p price target:

Today's statement does not highlight any significant changes to the 2012 outlook since the Interims at the end of August. With a rating in line with its large cap peers, we see no specific catalysts for outperformance.

Kingfisher climbed 1.6p to 270.3p despite Morgan Stanley downgrading the DIY chain from overweight to equal-weight. It said the retailer's shares had been weighed down by concerns about its French business, but investors should possibly be more worried about B&Q in the UK:

B&Q has delivered just five quarters of positive like for like growth in the last 7.5 years. Gross margin improvements and cost savings have mitigated the top-line weakness thus far, but with first half profits down 24%, we fear that 'self help' may no longer be enough to sustain the chain's recovery.

AstraZeneca added 7.5p to 2918.5p, as traders suggested Monday's decision by new chief executive Pascal Soriot to halt its share buyback programme could mean it was on the takeover trail. US group Forest Laboratories was one name mentioned as a possible target.

Among the mid-caps, the biggest loser was Kcom. The telecoms group fell 5.6p to 78.75p after reporting lower than expected growth in its business and public sector markets.

Mitchells & Butlers rose 5.6p to 306.6p after this week's news that horseracing tycoons JP McManus and John Magnier had bought 7m shares in the pubs group through their Elpida vehicle, taking their stake to 22.47%. Joe Lewis, the billionaire currency trader, owns 26.3% and saw two bids for the business rejected last year. Shareholders have been unhappy about the dominance of the major shareholders, with no independent directors on the board.

In a buy note Nick Batram at Peel Hunt moved from hold to buy. He said:

Few would argue that M&B has not got a high quality estate, but extracting the full potential from its assets has proved frustratingly difficult. This has been further compounded by the boardroom sideshow played out over the past few years. However, we believe that a platform (built on management stability and culture change) is now in place to finally deliver the potential that M&B has long held.

Finally Pursuit Dynamics lost a quarter of its value, down 2.05p to 6.075p after the company said it was seeking new funding as it awaited firm orders for its process technology equipment. It hopes to provide an update by the end of the month. In March this year the company raised £9.4m with a rights issue, eight months after an £8m placing. It said:

[The company] has a growing pipeline of quotations and prospects in its public health & safety and brewing, food & beverage businesses, a number of which the board believes will be converted into orders in due course but their timing is such that they will not eliminate the need for additional funding.

• Tesco
• Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation
• Kazakhmys
• Vedanta Resources
• Evraz
• WS Atkins
• FirstGroup
• Wood Group
• Kingfisher
• AstraZeneca
• Mitchells & Butlers

Nick Fletcher

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Greek organizations raise election awareness with voter registration

Lehighvalleylive.com (blog)

Greek organizations raise election awareness with voter registration Lehighvalleylive.com (blog) “We felt as though students haven't really had the opportunity to register and we thought it would be a great way to get both the Greek community as well as the rest of the school involved in voter registration,” said Elizabeth Keenan, '14, an ... and more »

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Greece moving forward with plans to

Greece moving forward with plans to AutoWeek The financially beleaguered national government of Greece has announced that it will subsidize a third of the cost of an all-new Formula One circuit. An event promoter is in place and is expected to work through ELPA, the national motorsports body, on ... and more »

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'We let them starve'

The former UN food envoy explains his claim that we are all accomplices in creating a world where children starve to death – in a confrontational interview with Swiss media

Jean Ziegler was until recently (2000-2008) the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, and subsequently, in a similar function, he served on the Advisory Committee to the UN Human Rights Council. He is also a vocal critic of global capitalism's effects on the developing world, especially Africa.

The last few days he has been doing the media circuit promoting his new book, "Mass Destruction: The Geopolitics of Hunger" (the French title) or "We Let Them Starve: The Mass Destruction in The Third World" (the German title). There's no English title available yet.

Ziegler is a well-known Swiss author and politician — his writing is prolific and ever since his first publication (Sociology of the New Africa, 1964), he has taken on the cause of the developing world, against imperialism, capitalism, and injustice. In 1964, as a young academic, he chauffeured Che Guevara around Geneva when the Cuban revolutionary visited the UN.

His combative and at times polemical style has earned him much admiration, but also vilification, and legal persecution. As a socialist member of the Swiss parliament, he particularly attracted the ire of Switzerland's liberal-conservatives, closely related to big business, and of course the major Swiss banks, for denouncing their hiding away of stolen funds, such as those of former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, of those of Jewish people who perished in the holocaust, and of all kinds of dubious origin that ended up in Swiss banks.

While his fighting spirit, his relentless engagement for justice across the world, and his international standing have earned him respect, he has remained a thorn in the side of Switzerland-based businesses (such as Nestlé) who he has accused of active participation in practices that kept developing countries poor and dependent.

With this in mind, it is then quite understandable that business journalist Philip Löpfe's interview with Ziegler for newsnet, the online presence of the Swiss newspapers Basler Zeitung and the Zürich-based Tagesanzeiger, would be a challenging affair. And yet, the combative and perhaps provocative personality of Ziegler and his engagement with poor countries alone do not fully explain the nature of the questions he faced. Rather, Löpfe's questions seem to reflect the same strained arrogance as those whose profiteering from global misery was usually explained away as natural and which has now, as global neoliberalism struggles and inequalities become more glaring, been opened up to closer scrutiny and contestation.

Some excerpts from the interview, which I translated from the German:

Ziegler: According to the UN World Food Programme, there is enough food in the world for 12 billion people. If today people are still starving, then this is organized crime, mass murder. Every five seconds, one child under the age of ten dies, one billion people are permanently and heavily undernourished.

Löpfe: [Your] book's title is "We let them starve". I am not aware that I let anyone starve.

Ziegler: That is true, but we are all accomplices. We allow multinational food corporations and speculators to decide every day who is eating and living, and who is starving and dying.

Löpfe: What should the individual do? Donate money? Eat less meat?

Ziegler: It is mainly about becoming politically active in order to put an end to the murderous activities of food speculators and multinationals. We can do so, we live in a democracy.

Löpfe: Food speculation has existed for thousands of years. What is wrong when a farmer seeks insurance against bad harvests or when a baker ensures that his supply of flour is stable?

Ziegler: Nothing. But that is not the point ... The commodities market was 'financialised'. Speculators are making billions, while millions of people starve to death.

[...]

Löpfe: How could we avoid such speculation?

Ziegler: We could exclude all non-producers and non-consumers from the commodities exchange – in this sense only the farmer and the baker, through the commodities exchange, engage in trade with each other.

Löpfe: However, the experts have agreed that during emergencies, such as droughts and floods, and so on, commodities exchange and trade should remain open. It was disastrous that during the famine of 2008 some countries blocked the export of rice.

Ziegler: Famines, such as in 2008 and 2011, are additional disasters; they add to the daily massacre of hunger, the so-called 'silent hunger'. It is true that at the time rice exporting countries such as Thailand and Vietnam closed their borders. Governments were afraid of riots in their own countries. That is understandable. But for a country like Senegal, importing 75% of its rice, it was a disaster.

Löpfe: Why is a country like Senegal forced to import rice? The majority of its population are still subsistence farmers.

Ziegler: It remains a fact that in terms of percentage of the population, there are no more starving people anywhere than in Africa. About a third of the population's men, women and children are permanently undernourished.

Löpfe: Could one not argue in a provocative way that Africa is not starving because of the speculators but because it is too poor for the speculators: there is nothing to be earned there.

Ziegler: No, no. African countries have incredible civilisations, based on agriculture, with much knowledge and very fertile soils.

Löpfe: Why is it that Africa is the continent where most people starve and which imports more than a quarter of its food supply?

Ziegler: Because the colonial pact is still enforced.

Löpfe: Isn't this a bit too simple? Colonialism has been over for more than half a century.

Ziegler: But there still is a small upper class, dependent on rich countries, and extremely corrupt. Again Senegal: The country exports peanuts and at the same time imports three quarters of its food requirements.

Löpfe: Why?

Ziegler: Because the colonial pact was never broken. The Senegalese farmers are forced to grow and exports peanuts because the revenue serves to pay for foreign debt. At the same time, Europe sells its food surplus at dumping prices on the African markets. How can a small farmer survive under these conditions?

Löpfe: African farmers are not very productive. Their productivity is less than 10 percent of Europe's agriculture. Are they not just lazy?

Ziegler: On the contrary. Nobody works harder than farmers in Africa. They just cannot thrive because they are not supported: no irrigation, no seed, no draft animals, no tractors, no fertilizer, nothing.

[...]

So there you have it. Like the now jobless Greeks, if only those poor people weren't so lazy...

But there is more to this story. Löpfe's 'provocative' questions — especially his last one — might be seen as a thinly disguised nod to the media owners who have recently acquired one of the papers in which the interview was published. Thus, both papers are now owned by holding companies in which business tycoon Tito Tettamanti controls the majority of shares.

Georges Bindschedler, co-investor in the rather cynically called 'Medienvielfalt Holding' (Media Diversity Holding) makes it clear why it was necessary to acquire the newspaper.

In an interview last year, he elaborated on their 'mission'. He suggests that the 'liberal music' is not heard loud enough in the Swiss media landscape, and hence Swiss voters fail to understand important political issues, and vote the wrong way, one might add. In particular, he was referring to the rejection by Swiss voters of the rationalisation of a national health care system earlier this year, which according to some analysts would have led further down the slippery slope to a two-tier system – one for the rich, and one for the poor.

As everywhere in the world, corporate control of the media is not about safeguarding the diversity of opinions, as he claims, but about propagating more neoliberal, pro-business values and ideas.

Perhaps it is a sign of the times that even in Switzerland, the sheltered island of wealth and prosperity, neoliberal capital feels the need to step up its propaganda efforts.

• Poverty
• Africa
• United Nations
• Switzerland

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Greek Lenders Discuss Merger

Greece's two largest lenders, National Bank of Greece and Eurobank Ergasias have entered merger talks, a combination that would dominate Greece's domestic market and be among the biggest in southeast Europe.

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT online.wsj.com

Greek festival: Gyros, souvlaki, calamari and delicious pastries all weekend

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Greece's National Bank, Eurobank in Merger Talks

Greece's National Bank, Eurobank in Merger Talks Wall Street Journal ATHENS—Greece's two largest lenders, National Bank of Greece SA and Eurobank Ergasias SA, have entered merger talks aimed at forming a combined bank that would dominate Greece's domestic market and would be among the biggest in southeast ...

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Greek neo-Nazi party welcomed into anti-discrimination body

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National Bank of Greece, Eurobank Said to Be in Talks to Merge

Economic Times

National Bank of Greece, Eurobank Said to Be in Talks to Merge Bloomberg National Bank of Greece SA, the nation's biggest lender, and domestic competitor Eurobank Ergasias SA (EUROB) are in talks to merge, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. The banks may announce the discussions as soon as today, ... Report: Two of Greece's Biggest Banks in Merger TalksFox Business National Bank of Greece in merger talks: reportsMarketWatch Greece's National Bank, Eurobank in merger talks: reportCNBC.com 24/7 Wall St. all 109 news articles »

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Trade in top Greek banks halted after merger talk

Greek stock market authorities have temporarily suspended trading in the country's two biggest banks following press reports that they are in merger talks.

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT news.yahoo.com

Samaras Says Greece Will Run Out Of Cash In November: Report

Business Recorder

Samaras Says Greece Will Run Out Of Cash In November: Report RTT News (RTTNews) - Greece will run out of cash in November without the next tranche of bailout fund, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said in an interview with German business daily Handelsblatt. According to an interview published by the business daily on ... Greece bailout: Tension in Athens over unpaid workersBBC News Greek PM Says Country's Till Will Empty by End-NovABC News German Chancellor Merkel to Head to AthensNovinite.com Idaho Press-Tribune -RT -The Seattle Times all 697 news articles »

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Greece bailout: Tension in Athens over unpaid workers

BBC News

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Merkel to visit Greece as money running out

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Greek labor unions call work stoppage, rally to protest Merkel visit

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek labor unions called a work stoppage and a rally in Athens on Tuesday to protest against the planned visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Athens, a union official said on Friday.

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Amid Turmoil, Greece Streamlines Energy Recovery Action

Sky News Australia

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Greece Races to Finalize Cuts to Clear Aid Tranche

OpenMarket.org

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