Financial life in a big town

Solar power company GreenVolts Inc. hired Uday Bellary as its chief financial officer.

Bellary worked previously at Atrica Inc., where he was CFO and helped the company raise $34 million in equity and debt. That company was ultimately bought by Nokia Siemens Network. He was also CFO of Metro Optix. and MMC Networks.

GreenVolts’ CEO David Gudmundson will be his boss. Gudmundson took over as CEO in October, when previous CEO Gary Beasley left for a job in private equity.

Fremont-based GreenVolts makes “concentrating photovoltaic” technology — systems that track the sun and with mirrors that focus sunlight onto solar cells for greater generating efficiency.

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Chi-X Europe criticized the London Stock Exchange for adopting a procedure that prevented trades being routed to rival venues when glitches halted trading for more than three hours on Thursday.

The LSE’s main rival said the exchange put its market into auction status when the system broke down and that this triggered the block on routing to other venues.

“The auction status hampered investors’ ability to trade by not enabling participants to seek a reference price on another venue,” multilateral trading facility Chi-X said in a statement.

A spokesman for the LSE denied Chi-X’s claim.

“Our decision was a result of customer feedback,” he said. “Some were experiencing connection issues while others were not, and customers requested for the market to be put into auction status so that there would be a level playing field.”

Chi-X said many firms’ trading systems treated the auction status like a normal market event such as the daily closing auction.

By contrast, on November 9 the LSE halted trading during a partial systems failure, and many member firms were able to switch to other venues to trade UK stocks, Chi-X said.

“We call for the LSE and any other market of listing to close their market outright when outages occur in order to allow market participants to continue trading,” the statement said.

Chi-X also called on the Financial Services Authority to ensure the “continuation of trading and an orderly market.”

Another LSE rival, Nasdaq OMX called for standardization of market data in Europe.

“This would enable trading to continue even if one market fails to operate,” said Charlotte Crosswell president of Nasdaq OMX. “We are supportive of the European Commission further investigation this issue.”

(Editing by Will Waterman)

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Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group became the third major Japanese bank to post upbeat results, underscoring the improving outlook for the sector, and said it would raise $11 billion to meet stricter capital rules.

Japan’s top bank also said it would adjust its plan to merge its brokerage with Morgan Stanley’s Tokyo operation, cancelling its original target of full-scale integration. Mitsubishi UFJ owns one-fifth of the U.S. investment bank.

Japanese lenders have suffered smaller credit losses than their Western rivals, but have been slow on the rebound, hampered by their dependence on Japan’s sluggish economy.

“It appears that the worst is behind, but revenue momentum is still not strong and the outlook for Japanese banks is unclear, given the uncertainties about the economy and the possibility of deflation,” said Masahiko Watanabe, credit analyst at Fitch Ratings in Tokyo.

Economists expect Japan’s deflation to persist until at least the second quarter of 2011, a recent Reuters poll showed, meaning that interest rates and revenue from lending will have little chance to rise.

Mitsubishi UFJ confirmed earlier reports that it planned to raise up to 1 trillion yen ($11.2 billion), becoming one of scores of Japanese firms to tap a modest rebound in share prices for much-needed cash.

Japanese companies have so far raised about $40 billion this year by issuing common stock and convertible bonds to shore up balance sheets depleted by the economic downturn.

EYES ON MIZUHO, SUMITOMO MITSUI

Almost three-quarters of the fundraising has been by financial firms, and analysts say that Mizuho Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Japan’s other big banks, will also need to raise more funds cash til payday.

Speculation about the possibility of further fundraising has weighed on bank shares this year.

“These companies issuing their own shares is a big burden on the market,” said Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments.

“And now you have to wonder if Mizuho will do it, and how big, as well as a lot of smaller banks,” he said.

All three banks have already completed a round of fundraising, but only Mitsubishi UFJ is out of the “lock-period,” meaning it is the only one able to issue new shares now. The timing may be a critical advantage, analysts have said, if Japan’s stock market slides again.

Mitsubishi UFJ and Morgan Stanley said that they would be forming two separate companies to share their Japanese securities businesses, instead of one, fully merged unit. The creation of the two firms will be completed by May 2010 the said, two months later than originally planned.

Mitsubishi UFJ President Nobuo Kuroyanagi told a news conference that Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities, to be owned 60 percent by the Japanese bank, will concentrate on the retail business. 

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WASHINGTON–A group of businessmen on Monday launched a new coalition to urge the federal government to make a major investment in electric transportation, pointing to electric cars as the best way to confront the nation's dependence on imported oil.

Top executives with more than a dozen companies, including Nissan Motor Co., Fedex Corp., electric utility PG&E Corp. and battery developers A123 Systems Inc. and Johnson Controls-Saft, announced the formation of the Electrification Coalition to lay the groundwork for millions of electric cars to reach U.S. highways.

Issuing a lengthy plan to electrify the nation's fleet, the coalition urged Congress to pass a series of tax credits and loan guarantees to bring 14 million electric cars to the road by 2020 and more than 100 million by 2030. The group envisions a network of electric vehicles in six to eight cities in the short term and an expansion across the country, making 75 percent of all vehicle miles traveled powered by electricity by 2040.

"There's no pie-in-the-sky here," said Frederick W. Smith, FedEx's chairman, president and CEO. "It's simply a matter of organization, a matter of will and a matter of execution.''

Participants, however, acknowledged that the proposals would be expensive and would require a major commitment from Congress. The group's blueprint would cost more than $120 billion over eight years and promote tax credits for the installation of advanced batteries, loan guarantees for the retooling of plants, and tax credits for public charging stations and home charging equipment no credit check payday loans.

"Ultimately the consumer will make the judgment about where this country goes, but from the standpoint of public policy we can set the stage for it," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who joined the group for its announcement.

Nissan President and CEO Carlos Ghosn said the auto industry was working quickly to develop zero-emissions cars in response to concerns about oil security, tighter emissions requirements in the United States and elsewhere and a public thirst for alternative vehicles not tied to petroleum.

Ghosn said the world market of 600 million vehicles is expected to expand to 2.5 billion vehicles in 2050 with the growth in vehicle purchasing in developing nations such as China and India, making electric cars a must. Nissan is releasing the Leaf, an all-electric car, in limited numbers next year and plans to put the vehicle into mass-production globally in 2012.

"The time is right for electric cars – in fact the time is critical," Ghosn said.

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On the Net:

Electrification Coalition: http://www.electrificationcoalition.org/

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Contracts in the $450 trillion derivatives markets would need to be cleared through central counterparties unless they are exempted by regulators, under a financial regulation reform bill introduced by U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd on Tuesday.

The bill here calls for all swaps to be centrally cleared, but said regulators may exempt the contracts if no central clearinghouse accepts the swaps, or of if one of the counterparties to the trade is not a dealer.

Details on what constitutes a swap and a major swap participant, both of which would fall under the regulation of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission, are included in the bill.

The CFTC and SEC would adopt rules further defining terms within 180 days of the act being implemented and the regulators would have the right to prescribe definitions for swaps to include transactions that have been structured to avoid the classification, under the bill online payday advance.

Regulators are pushing for the majority of derivatives to be cleared through central counterparties, which stand between trade counterparties and assume the risks of the trade, to reduce systemic risks posed by the interconnectiveness of the contracts.

Derivatives can be used to hedge against or bet on the changes in value of the underlying assets such as stocks, bonds, commodities.

(Reporting by Karen Brettell and Kevin Drawbaugh; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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DuPont posted an 11 percent jump in third-quarter profit on Tuesday, beating Wall Street estimates, but narrowed its earnings outlook for the year.

Net income rose to $409 million, or 45 cents per share, from $367 million, or 40 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts on average expected 33 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue fell 18 percent to $5.96 billion from $7.29 billion. Analysts expected $6.14 billion.

For the full year, the company now expects earnings of $1.95 to $2.05 per share, compared with a previous estimate of $1.70 to $2.10.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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The receiver overseeing the assets of accused swindler Allen Stanford has sued two former Stanford Capital Management employees, seeking the return of $11 million in investor funds, court documents showed.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in Dallas federal court, accuses Stanford and his co-defendants in an alleged $7 billion Ponzi scheme of transferring the funds of defrauded investors to Christopher Aitken and Stephen Thacker to hide it from creditors.

Aitken and Thacker, who received the funds when they joined the firm in November of 2008, were employed for only three months and left “no indication that they provided any meaningful services,” the lawsuit said.

Aitken received $8.7 million and Thacker $2.6 million as a partial payment for “personal goodwill” or the “personal relationships (they) have developed and maintained with clients,” the suit said.

Ralph Janvey, the receiver in the case, says the men have no legitimate claim to the funds, which must be returned to help make victims of the fraud whole.

Lawyers for Aitken and Thacker could not be located immediately for comment. Stanford’s attorney could not be reached for comment.

Janvey asked the judge to seize the funds and hold them in a trust while his investigation is under way.

Stanford, 59, and his former top aides James Davis and Laura Pendergest-Holt are accused of selling fraudulent certificates of deposit issued by Stanford’s offshore bank, and of bribing regulators and accountants in Antigua to ignore the alleged wrongdoing.

Davis, Stanford Financial Group’s former chief financial officer, has pleaded guilty to his role in the alleged scheme. Stanford and Pendergest-Holt, Stanford Financial Group’s former chief investment officer, have pleaded not guilty.

Three others were also charged and pleaded not guilty.

Stanford, whose fortune was estimated at $2.2 billion by Forbes magazine in 2008, is jailed in Houston awaiting trial.

The case is Janvey v. Aitken, Case No. 09-1946, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.

(Reporting by Gina Keating)

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PHILADELPHIA–The head of Time Warner Inc. says he's not interested in making a bid for NBC Universal. That could strengthen the hand of Comcast Corp. as it explores whether to buy a controlling stake in the parent of the NBC network and Universal Studios.

At a conference Friday in Washington, D.C., Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said an investment in NBC Universal doesn't make sense for his company.

Time Warner is already whittling the slate of films it puts out each year no teletrack payday loan. Time Warner, which owns HBO, CNN and other cable networks, could have a better fit with NBC Universal's cable networks, but Time Warner says it's not interested in those assets either.

Philadelphia-based Comcast is in talks to take a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal if General Electric Co. spins the unit out.

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Las Vegas casino company Wynn Resorts raised $1.63 billion after pricing its Asian IPO at the top of its indicated range, a sign that demand is still strong for certain offerings despite a glut of Asian stock deals.

Wynn Macau, the fourth-largest global IPO this year, now faces the challenge of its Hong Kong trading debut, where several new listings have been battered by increasingly selective investors.

Wynn Macau sold 1.25 billion shares Hong Kong-listed shares at HK$10.08 each, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the deal but were not authorized to speak publicly about it.

The IPO’s range was HK$8.52-HK$10.08, with Wynn selling 25 percent of the business to the public.

But some brokers said the high price may make a strong debut more difficult for Wynn.

“The valuations are really high and market sentiment is not that good now,” said Conita Hung, head of equity research for Delta Asia Financial Group. “I don’t expect this to be a good one.”

On a 2010 enterprise value to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization ratio (EV/EBITDA), Wynn Macau trades around 16 times, much higher than Macau gambling tycoon Stanley Ho’s flagship casino firm SJM Holdings’ 7.5 times, according to Credit Suisse analyst Gabriel Chan.

The Macau gambling sector EV/EBITDA average trades at around 14.5 to 19.4 times, Chan said.

“It’ll get a big hit,” said Linus Yip, strategist at First Shanghai Securities, referring to the Wynn Macau debut. “The main concern is the price range.”

“MCC had set its price at the middle of its range, but it still fell below the issue price. Valuations for Wynn are definitely still a concern.”

The dismal debut of Metallurgical Corp of China (MCC), a building and engineering firm, last week has weighed heavily on investor sentiment for new share offerings in Hong Kong.

Wynn’s successful sale also puts pressure on arch-rival Las Vegas Sands, which plans to raise billions of dollars through a public offering in Hong Kong at the end of November or early December.

NOW THE HARD PART

The Wynn Macau offer is especially important given the deal’s potential impact on the company’s flagship Las Vegas operations. Wynn is hoping a high valuation through the Hong Kong listing will boost valuations at its other divisions.

U.S. casino operators, grappling with high debt levels and a recovering economy, are hoping to boost valuations through spinoffs in China’s gambling hub, Macau, the former Portuguese colony located an hour away from Hong Kong by ferry. 

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Sales of newly built U.S. single-family homes rose to their highest level in nearly a year in August, according to government data on Friday that indicated the housing market was gradually recovering from a three-year slump.

New home sales have risen for five straight months. The Commerce Department said sales rose 0.7 percent to a 429,000 annual pace, the highest since September last year, from a downwardly revised 426,000 in July.

However, the increase was below market expectations for a 440,000 unit rate. July’s sales pace was previously reported at 433,000 units.

Compared to August last year, total new homes sales fell 3.4 percent.

The median home sales price in August fell percent 11.7 percent from a year earlier to $195,200, the lowest since October 2003, the department said. In July, the median home price was $215,600.

The inventory of new homes available for sale at the end of August fell 3.0 percent to 262,000 units, the lowest since November 1992.August’s sales pace left the supply of new homes available for sale at 7.3 months’ worth, the lowest since January 2007.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Theodore d’Afflisio)

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