ABC Money

Student loans encourage culture of debt

News

Sam Allcock

-

24 August 2009

Students are racking up crippling debts because they’re not being taught the difference between student loans and other forms of credit, a financial education charity warned this week.

Chris Tapp, director of Credit Action, said because it’s “basically impossible” to get into difficulties with student loans, students are given the message that it’s fine to be in debt.

Tapp believes students should be taught the difference between student loans and other debts such as overdrafts and credit cards to help them avoid getting into financial difficulties.

“It’s important to make a distinction between the kind of burden that you face with student debt as opposed to any other type of debt,” he said.

“I don’t think that’s been done as effectively as it could have been by the government and others.”

Two years ago, before the onset of the credit crunch, Tapp warned that student loans were fostering a culture of debt that encouraged students to “live beyond their means”.

“We now have a generation for whom you’re extremely odd if you’re not in a substantial amount of debt. It’s that culture of borrowing that student loans have really fed into,” he said.

FX Asset Management teams up with Saxo Bank, and sees EUR/USD volatility

News

Sam Allcock

-

23 July 2009

0

(1888PressRelease) July 22, 2009 – FXAssetManagement.com specializing in managed forex options has teamed up with Saxo bank to provide clients unparalleled access to the true 24Hr FxOptions market in this era of “new normal”.

FXAssetManagement.com and ManagedForexOptions.com, to coincide with FXAssetManagement new website and Saxo’s new Fx Option Board ,has announced its focus on FX Options. It says it expects EUR/USD volatility similar to the 4th quarter last year.

In this era of the “new normal” of high risks and low returns such has been seen in the last 18 months as markets tumbled along with assets it would be sensible refer to an LA attorney for asset protection.

FXAssetManagement is giving clients what it feels is the best option to compete for and get the best returns. FXAssetManagement feels risk reward ratio should be much different and suggests people keep a large percentage in guaranteed and dividend yielding investments and take a smaller percentage and aim for higher returns.

Saxo bank provides an excellent platform for FXAssetManagement and it’s clients with a world class FX option product selection and protection of client funds. This FXAssetManagement says, is a tremendous combination providing it and its clients the best opportunities, as it expects EUR/USD volatility similar to the 4th quarter last year.

About

FXAssetManagement.Com is a COMMODITY TRADING ADVISOR REGISTERED, NFA ID#: 0391484 specializing in Transparent, Separately Managed Accounts, they can be contacted via its website www.FXAssetManagement.com or ManagedForexOptions.com Saxo Bank is a global investment bank specializing in online trading and investment across the international financial markets and is one of the world’s top 25 foreign exchange banks operating in the global capital markets.

Disclosure: The information provided in this document has been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable. FxAssetManagement Corporation, does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness, nor does FxAssetManagement Corporation assumes any liability for any loss that may result from the reliance by any person upon any such information or opinions.

Such information and opinions are subject to change without notice, are for general information only and are not intended as an offer or solicitation with respect to the purchase or sales of any foreign exchange transaction, or as personalized investment advice. In addition, any projections or views of the market provided by the author may not prove to be accurate. FxAssetManagement will not be responsible for any losses incurred on investments made by readers and clients as a result of any information contained.

LA Investment Capital Announces Five New Private Equity Funds for June 2009

News

Sam Allcock

-

22 June 2009

0

(1888PressRelease) June 20, 2009 – By taking advantage of the of a downturn market place where the supply of equity capital available for equity investments is far from reaching the demand or need for it, senior advisors and managers of LA Investment Capital look to make investments into early stage or growth stage companies that provide their equity funds a “value added investment opportunity with an opportunistic return on investment”.

LA Investment Capital prides itself on its ability make investments into US Companies that add jobs to the US Job Market while providing safe and high investment returns, and investments into foreign based companies that provide an elevated investment return potential to its US Based Equity Funds and Investors.

The Private Equity Funds offered by LA Investment Capital are termed “True Closed-End Private Equity Funds”, or as company officials call them, “Non-Blind Private Equity Funds”. Simply put, the firm may go out seeking early and growth stage energy investment opportunities and settle to make investments into seven A+ quality privately held energy companies for a total investment amount of $100 million dollars for the seven opportunities.

After a full due diligence and audit package has been completed on each investment opportunity, Senior Management at LA Investment Capital put together a “Bulk Equity Fund Package”, better known as “A Fund”, for investors to review and make their investment into. Before making an investment into one of these “Funds”, investors get an opportunity to review each of the companies in the “Fund” (sometimes referred to as a “portfolio”), not an investment criteria or a general investment profile as offered by most funds today, and in many instances the investors even get an opportunity to speak to the managing partners of each of the companies into which the fund will be making an investment.

The true upside of this investment model is that each investor making an investment into a “Fund” is getting an investment in a truly diversified portfolio of A+ investment opportunities. Most private equity investment opportunities are single investment opportunities, meaning you invest into a single company, and your investment dollars “fly or die” with that companies success or lack-there-of. By investing in one of LA Investment Capital’s “Funds”, each share holder of a “fund” is equally invested in each of the multiple investments the fund invests into, essentially making each “fund” a “mutual fund of private equity investment opportunities”, which helps minimize the risk of each investment made by the investor(s).

The term “True Closed-End Fund” comes from the fact that after the full investment of the $100 million dollars is made by the “Fund”, the Fund never again makes another investment. The Fund and its investors simply sit back as the companies the fund has invested into perform in the market place and collect their quarterly investment returns. When the partnership with its investments come to an end, whether through and equity buy-out or IPO, the Fund simply distributes its last set of investor returns and dissolves.

In an effort to address the growing investment frauds in the market place today, and to ensure each investor that their investment dollars are safe with LA Investment Capital, LA Investment Capital has retained a private third party accounting firm to provide quarterly financial statements and year end audited financial statements to all shareholders of each of LA Investment Capitals Private Equity Funds.

LA Investment Capital currently has Private Equity Investment funds in the following market sectors: Energy, BioFuels, Oil & Natural Gas, Mineral Rights, Domestic Real Estate and International Real Estate. If you are sophicated investor looking for low risk investments with investment returns in the teens or greater, LA Investment Capital may have the investment vehicle for you.

LA Investment Capital

9107 Wilshire Blvd.

Unit 450

Beverly Hills, California 90210

www.LAInvestmentBanc.com

Air France-KLM Dec traffic up 3.1 pct; load factor 78.6 pct – UPDATE

News

ABC Staff

-

8 January 2008

0

PARIS (Thomson Financial) – Air France-KLM reported a 3.1 pct year-on-year rise in passenger traffic for December, following a slowdown at Air France at the end of the month because of strike action at Paris Orly airport.The airline said its load factor was down 0.8 percentage points at 78.6 pct thanks to a 4.1 pct capacity increase.The carrier said it recorded a further rise in unit revenue excluding currency impact.Overall, Air France-KLM carried 5.8 mln passengers, up 0.5 pct on the year-earlier period.The group’s Americas network saw a 4.7 pct traffic increase, while capacity grew 6.4 pct, leading to a 1.4 point slip in load factor to 83.1 pct.On its Asia network, traffic grew 4.9 pct while capacity was up 5.6 pct and load factor slipped 0.6 points to 82.1 pct.The Africa and Middle East network saw a 2.6 pct increase in traffic while capacity was up 5.7 pct, causing load factor to decline 2.4 points to 79.1 pct.Air France-KLM’s Caribbean and Indian Ocean network’s traffic was up 1.5 pct, capacity was stable and load factor rose 1.3 points to 83.6 pct.The airline’s European network saw traffic edge 0.2 pct lower while capacity was up by 0.7 pct, leading to a 0.6 point decline in load factor to 65.8 pct.Cargo activity saw a 2.9 pct traffic increase, driven by the Americas and Africa and Middle East networks, the airline said, adding that capacity was up 3.7 pct, while load factor declined 0.5 pct to 70.2 pct.helen.beresford@thomson.comhem/salCOPYRIGHTCopyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.

Eutelsat, Viasat to work together on providing internet services

News

ABC Staff

-

8 January 2008

0

PARIS (Thomson Financial) – Viasat Inc said it has agreed with Eutelsat Communications, Loral Space & Communications Corp and Telesat to work together to expand broadband internet services via satellite.ViaSat and Eutelsat are cooperating around ViaSat’s Ka-band SurfBeam networking system and a common wholesale business model to offer service through ISPs, telecommunication companies, and direct-to-home television providers, the US company said.Eutelsat announced separately that it has selected EADS Astrium to deliver its first satellite operating exclusively in Ka-band frequencies.The satellite will form the cornerstone of a major new satellite infrastructure programme that will significantly expand capacity for consumer broadband services across Europe and the Mediterranean Basin, while providing new opportunities for local and regional television markets, it said.In a linked move, Viasat said it has awarded a contract to Space Systems/Loral, a subsidiary of the Loral group, for the construction of Viasat-1, which it expects to be the world’s highest capacity broadband satellite.The company has secured financial commitments from partners of over 100 mln usd to date towards ViaSat-1, it said.Eutelsat and ViaSat are already partners in Eutelsat’s Tooway Ka-band service using the Hot Bird 6 satellite, the company added.Andrew.Newby@Thomson.coman/lamCOPYRIGHTCopyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.

Former astronaut quits Rocketplane

News

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3 January 2008

0

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Former astronaut and retired U.S. Navy Commander John Herrington has resigned from Rocketplane Global, an Oklahoma company that hopes to offer commercial space travel.

Herrington, who was hired in September 2005 as the company’s vice president and director of flight systems, resigned on Dec. 21, according to a news release from the Chickasaw Nation media relations office.
Herrington is a member of the Chickasaw Nation. He became the first American Indian to fly in space in 2002, when he was a mission specialist on the space shuttle Endeavour.

Herrington did not immediately return an e-mail message sent Thursday morning, and Rocketplane’s chairman and chief executive officer, George French Jr., did not immediately return a phone message left Thursday at the company’s Oklahoma City office.

Herrington has retired from the Navy and from NASA. When he joined Rocketplane, plans were for him to serve as the pilot on the first test flight of Rocketplane XP in 2006 and to fly commercial spaceflights that were expected to begin this year.

But the company has yet to get its spacecraft off the ground and NASA dropped a multimillion dollar space transportation agreement with Rocketplane Global’s sister company, Rocketplane Kistler, in October.

‘I was fortunate during my tenure at Rocketplane to work with an incredibly talented group of professionals,’ Herrington said in a statement issued by the Chickasaw Nation. ‘My decision to leave was a difficult one.’

Herrington said in the release that he plans to continue working in the commercial space industry, because he believes ‘commercial space is the next great adventure in aerospace.’

He said he will continue working with the Chickasaw Nation, for which he has appeared in television commercials, and to serve as an adviser to the national Institute for Space, Science and Security Centers at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Galapagos enters into oncology target discovery deal with Janssen Pharmaceutica

News

Sam Allcock

-

3 January 2008

0

LONDON (Thomson Financial) – Galapagos NV said it has entered into a new two-year oncology target discovery collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceutica.

The company said its service division BioFocus DPI will apply Galapagos’ proprietary adenoviral platform to identify novel drug targets for the development of cancer therapies.

BioFocus DPI receives an upfront payment of 2.9 mln eur and in total it may receive additional research, acceptance, license and development fees of up to 7.6 mln eur should certain predetermined criteria be achieved.

‘This marks BioFocus DPI’s first target discovery agreement in oncology, as well as the largest target discovery agreement to-date for the service division,’ Galapagos chief executive Onno van de Stolpe said.

TFN.newsdesk@thomson.com

tsm/slm

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The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.

PetroChina to spend 800 mln yuan on an ethanol project in Sichuan

News

Sam Allcock

-

21 December 2007

0

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) – PetroChina Co Ltd (SHA;601857;HK 0857), the country’s largest oil and gas producer, plans to invest 800 mln yuan to build a non-grain ethanol plant in Nanchong, in the southwestern province of Sichuan, its parent China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) said.

The ethanol plant has a designed annual capacity of 100,000 tons, CNPC said in a statement.

It didn’t say when the plant would enter service.

In January, PetroChina signed a framework agreement with the State Forestry Administration to build a biomass base in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces.

The biomass base will grow plants that can be processed into 60,000 tons of biodiesel per year.
CNPC said it will spend 180 mln yuan on the biodiesel project, also located in Nanchong. It has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.

China’s non-grain ethanol output is expected to reach 10 mln tons in 2020 with non-grain biodiesel output hitting 2 mln tons, according to government plans.

( 1 usd = 7.4 yuan )
kelly.zang@xfn.com
–
xfnkz/xfjamesa
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The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.

Passport-free Schengen zone expands to 9 further European countries

Finance

ABC Staff

-

21 December 2007

0

PRAGUE, TALLINN (Thomson Financial) – Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone expanded from 15 to 24 countries on Friday with the historic event marked by celebrations at a series of frontier posts across Central Europe. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania halted land and sea border controls at midnight Thursday (2200 GMT), becoming the first in a wave of new members of Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone, officials said.
Border guard service and government officials in the three Baltic states told AFP that frontier checks had formally ended. The countries entered Schengen ahead of six other incoming member nations, thanks to their one-hour time difference.
In the Estonian capital Tallinn, authorities laid on a welcome for the first vessel to dock as the frontier fell, the Viking Line ferry Rosella which arrived at 11:45 pm (2145 GMT) after a three-hour journey from Helsinki, the capital of Finland which is an existing Schengen member state.
The disembarking passengers were serenaded by a seven-piece border guard as they stood patiently in line to show their passports to the grinning guards.
On the stroke of midnight, the guards left their booths and the gates were flung open, allowing the remaining waiting passengers to cross en masse.
The Estonian guards said they had mixed feelings about leaving their posts.
‘I’m sad. It’s a big change for me. But it’s a happy moment too,’ said Ursula Matt, who has worked at the port border post for 10 years, as she wiped away a tear.
Matt will lose her daily fix of sea air, because she is being transferred to Tallinn airport — where, as in other Schengen newcomer countries, checks will continue until March.
In Lithuania, the border service said checks had ended bang on time.
‘Border control has been abandoned. The roads are open,’ border service spokesman Giedrius Misutis told AFP.
The issue of timing had caused debate with Lithuania’s neighbour Poland, because of the two countries’ time-lag. Polish authorities in the end decided to operate ‘minimal controls’ for an hour on travellers crossing from Lithuania, before Poland officially joined Schengen.
On Lithuania’s border with Latvia, government officials cut a ribbon at a crossing post at midnight, and guards from both countries gave drivers gifts rather than scrutinising them.
In Latvia, Foreign Minister Maris Riekstins hailed his country’s accession to the Schengen zone.
‘This is a logical step for Latvia and other new EU member states towards further integration into the EU space,’ he said.
Membership of the now 24-country zone stretching from Norway to Portugal is particularly symbolic for the Baltic states, which were ruled by the Soviet Union from the end of World War II until they broke free from the crumbling communist bloc in 1991.
While citizens of communist countries such as Poland benefited from some freedom to travel — albeit tightly-controlled — most residents of the Baltic states had to obtain permission to travel even within their own country, and were rarely if ever allowed to go abroad.
People in Soviet-ruled Estonia, for example, faced special internal border checks when they went to the region’s Baltic Sea islands — in case they then tried to sail to freedom in Sweden or Finland.
The Baltic states were among the eight ex-communist countries which joined the European Union in 2004, ending the requirement for their citizens to obtain visas to visit western Europe.
Schengen membership is a bonus, since Baltic travellers — and European visitors to the three countries — will no longer have to show identity documents.
For Estonia and Finland, the end of maritime border controls is an extra boon.
Almost 9 mln people a year flit back and forth on ferries between Estonia and its neighbours, and while border checks are far from rigorous, they can be frustrating in the peak season.
‘For our passengers, it’s going to be easier. They won’t have to queue!’ said Monica Sutinen, a Finn who works on board the Rosella.
Schengen expansion will also ease the trip of ferry passengers who travel from Estonia to Germany, another existing member of the zone.
To date, passengers who began their journey in Tallinn had to disembark in Helsinki with their luggage in order to pass Schengen border controls, before getting back on the same ship to continue their journey to Germany.
The 1985 Schengen Agreement is an agreement among most Western and Central European countries which allows for the abolition of systematic border controls between the participating countries. By the Treaty of Amsterdam, the agreement itself and all decisions having been enacted on its basis had been implemented into the law of the European Union.
tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.com
afp/lam
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Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, i

Booz Allen Hamilton may split company into business, public sector ops – report

News

Sam Allcock

-

14 December 2007

0

FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) – US-based consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton will discuss today possible plans to split the company into business and public sector consulting, Financial Times Deutschland reported, citing company sources.

According to estimates, some three quarters of the company’s business come from public sector consulting, and a spin-off of the business consulting operations could help boost profitability, the newspaper said. Edit date and time

A spokeswoman for the company confirmed the company is mulling a move to split the company, but emphasised that the so called ‘operating council’s’ talks today are ‘purely theoretical’.
No decision will be made today, she said.

maria.sheahan@thomson.com

mas/sal

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The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.