Moodys warns of Australian Property Bubble

It’s a familiar story to those in the USA & Europe but it seems the Australian property market has got a lot of the characteristics of the credit fueled calamity that befell the economies of the USA, UK, Ireland and much of the EU.

House prices in Australia have risen sharply, fueled by record-low interest rates and growing interest in Australian property from offshore investors, including those from China.

“The housing market appears to be increasingly likely to get caught up in a positive price-feedback loop and eventually could face a correction,” Moody’s said in its understated report this morning.

Moody’s reaffirmed Australia’s AAA rating but we all know what’s going to happen next.

KPMG to protect La Senza lingerie chain from administration

Lingerie chain, La Senza, has become the latest UK retailer to face financial restructuring.

Global accounting firm, KPMG has been appointed to advise the company on a range of restructuring options, which could include administration or a company voluntary agreement (CVA) to shed some of its 158 stores in the United Kingdom.

News of the appointment of KPMG was first reported by Sky News and comes as a wave of high street retailers battle against possible insolvency as poor retail sales threaten their ability to pay basics such as rent bills

 

Read More:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2073938/Lingerie-retailers-La-Senza-festive-High-Street-casualty.html

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/88e9d7d4-25d8-11e1-856e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1gVqbtx6v

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/money/3996848/Lingerie-chain-La-Senza-may-go-bust.html

UK consumers tp spend 350 million hours shopping online this Christmas

Experian Hitwise has made twelve key retail, social media and video predictions for this year’s festive season. Based on the latest data trends in online shopping, social networking, email and entertainment, here are their “12 Insights of Christmas”

1. 350 million hours will be spent shopping online by the UK Internet population this December. This translates to an average of 8 hours and 45 minutes spent per person on shopping websites over the course of the month.
2. Cyber Monday (5 December) will be the UK’s biggest pre-Christmas shopping day online with 85 million visits to retail websites from UK Internet users, an 18 per cent increase on last year.
3. 2.1 billion visits will go to online retail sites in December, with record peaks in traffic both pre and post-Christmas.
4. Lego will be the most searched for toy this Christmas, in particular Lego Star Wars games and sets.
5. Hull will be the online shopping capital of Britain of December 2011, with proportionally more people doing their Christmas shopping online than any other city in the UK.
6. Monday 19 December will be the biggest day of December for online Grocery visits as people do some last minute food shopping but also check store opening times across the Christmas period.
7. Facebook will see a new peak in UK Internet visits as friends share messages of good will with one another. 25 million hours will be spent on Facebook on Christmas Day alone.
8. iPhones will be a third more popular online than iPads this Christmas. If search intent was reflected in sales, for every three iPads Apple sold this Christmas they would sell four iPhones.
9. Searches for the post-Christmas sales will start earlier than ever this year, with eager shoppers starting to do their research online as early as Christmas Eve.
10. Friday 23 December will be the biggest day of December for retailers receiving traffic from email as the multi-channel retailers prepare their customers for the post-Christmas sales.
11. The fashion sector will be the most reliant on Facebook traffic this Christmas, with TopShop, River Island and ASOS among the biggest recipients of Facebook traffic.
12. 12 million hours will be spent watching video clips on BBC iPlayer this Christmas with the biggest driver of traffic being the Dr Who Christmas special.

“Christmas 2011 looks set to be another record-breaker for many of the online sectors and particularly for retail,” commented James Murray, Marketing Research Analyst at Experian Hitwise.

“Cyber Monday is going to be crucial in the online retail sector and we are predicting 85 million visits on the 5th December, 15 per cent up on last year’s figures. Boxing Day could be another big day for retailers as more people go online to check out which stores have the best deals on offer. This year we will are expecting to see a massive multi-channel marketing push as brands look to win online to drive web purchases and in-store footfall.”

Subway overtakes McDonalds as world’s largest

Subway have today claimed that their Chain is now larger than McDonalds worldwide with 33,749 stores versus 32,737 displaying the famous Golden Arches.

However it is still safe to say that McDonalds is much larger in terms of revenue with turnover per store being much larger at McDonalds.

Subway has had a major push into international markets in recent years focused on the franchise model opening small, low-cost outlets.

Subway was established 46 years ago in 1965 in the USA and there are now Subway restaurants in a total of 95 countries around the globe.

Obama’s Nuclear Plans suffer setbacks

US Preseident, Barack Obama’s hopes of reshaping US foreign policy stand on the brink of failure tonight, after two of his most cherished initiatives, nuclear disarmament and better relations with Moscow, suffered major setbacks.

According to a leaked NATO document seen by a UK newspaper, a move to withdraw US tactical nuclear weapons from European territory has been omitted from the alliance’s draft strategic plan.

Additionally in Washington, a Republican leader in the Senate signalled that the nuclear arms control treaty Obama signed in April with Dmitry Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation, is unlikely be ratified this year. Most observers say that if the treaty (known as New Start) is delayed until next year, it will be as good as dead, as the Democratic majority in the Senate will be even thinner by then, following the party’s losses in the midterm elections.

Together the setbacks mark a new low point for Obama’s ambitions, set out in a landmark 2009 speech in Prague, to set the world on a path to abolition of nuclear weapons.

UK offers help to bankrupt Ireland

While the UK is not part of the Euro currency, the Finance Chief in the new UK government has announced that the UK is ready to stand up and help it’s “closest neighbor”

“We’re going to do what is in Britain’s national interest,” George Osborne – the UK Finance Chancellor said, as he joined other European finance ministers for a crunch European meeting in Brussels, Belgium.

“Ireland is our closest neighbour and it’s in Britain’s national interest that the Irish economy is successful and we have a stable banking system. So Britain stands ready to support Ireland in the steps that it needs to take to bring about that stability.”

Discussions with the EU and IMF will begin tomorrow, Irish finance minister Brian Lenihan said in an interview with Irish state run broadcaster,, RTE this morning. “We’re part of a common currency, we’re not on our own”…………. “In relation to the position of the United Kingdom, that’s a matter for the United Kingdom, in general the UK has not participated in European Union-wide assistance, but I know that the British authorities are anxious to ensure any help that Ireland needs will be given.”

The cost of Irish dept remains volatile with default insurance jumping in price again this morning.

GM to accelerate Volt Electric Car production

General Motors is stepping up production of its new Chevrolet Volt electric car in response to “huge demand,” according to a statement by a top executive yesterday.

GM product chief, Tom Stephens, was Speaking at an event where the Volt was named Motor Trend magazine’s 2011 Car of the Year and said: “If you look at where we were originally, in terms of what we thought the volume would be, we have stepped it up.”

He declined to give production volume forecasts however.

More info on this story is available at:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AF4V720101116
or
http://www.automotiveworld.com/news/oems-and-markets/84707-us-gm-boosts-volt-production-plans

The Irish want to pay more tax?

As the Irish economy follows the USA into a double dip recession, it appears from a new poll released today that the Irish population will choose higher taxes over control of public spending when the next national election takes place in less then 2 years from now.

The poll puts the Government at just 18% of the electorate’s support (22% when undecideds are excluded) which is in line with the trend since the Irish property bubble exploded in late 2008.

However when deciding between the alternatives to the current administration, the Irish electorate seems to be rejecting the policy of reform of public spending put forward by the Fine Gael group and choosing the higher spending policy of the Labour Party group. This route can only be funded by higher taxes and such a desire by the electorate would make Ireland unique.

However there is a huge contradiction in the poll. While the electorate want a government with a spend&tax leaning, when asked specifically on economic policy a majority would prefer cuts to public spending than increases in taxes.

From a political science point of view it will be every interesting to observe how this contradiction plays out.

The main coverage however is of the relative popularity of the potential new Prime Ministers (Taoiseachs) and how the Labour Group leader, Eamon Gilmore is almost twice as popular as the Fine Gael Group Leader, Enda Kenny and more than 3 times more popular than the current prime minister Brian Cowen.

The full opinion poll can be downloaded here:

Part 1: http://content.tv3.ie/downloads/tv3_national_opinion_poll_23rd_feb2010_part_1.pdf
Part 2: http://content.tv3.ie/downloads/tv3_national_opinion_poll_23rd_feb2010_part_2x.pdf

Largest ever share offering raises $70Billion

As the B.R.I.C. countries flex their muscles in the ever changing world economy, the Brazilian state oil company, Petrobras has raised a whopping $70 billion in the world’s largest ever share offering.

The cash will help fund the world’s largest oil exploration plan, which at $224 billion for the 2010-2014 period aims to turn Brazil into a major energy exporter.

More coverage of this story is available from Reuters and the New York Times

France Telecom to buy 40% of Moroccan telco

France Telecom SA announced an agreement to buy 40% of Morocco’s No. 2 telecommunications operator, Meditelecom, as the French telecom giant seeks to boost revenue growth outside of Europe.

Read more on the Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704129204575505733072743138.html

Irish Government to Create Deposit-Only Bank

The dublin government is to split Anglo Irish Bank retaining a deposit-taking unit while winding down the troubled lender’s other activities over time.
The announcement on Wednesday followed an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the plight of the nationalized property lender, which has already received €23bn ($30bn) in state aid to stay afloat.

read more at the financial times: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6f89fe62-bb45-11df-b3f4-00144feab49a.html

German retailer Aldi to pull out of Greece

German discount giant Aldi is to exit the Greek market, with the retailer saying that it is now in talks with several parties to take over its 38 Greek stores. Reports from Greece suggest that the company is said to feel that its operations there are ‘not sustainable’, with management taking the decision to suspend all future expansion and sell off its existing portfolio of outlets. Aldi (Sud) entered Greece in November 2008, with its first stores in the capital, Athens, opening in autumn 2009. It said last year that it planned to open 20 stores in 2010, along with a second distribution facility, however, it has come no-where near the reported target of 100 stores. In particular, analysts said that Aldi had struggled to compete with Lidl on price, while it had also not succeeded in attracting the large German expat community to its stores. With the Greek exit the first ever market withdrawal in Aldi Sud’s history, the company is now expected to focus on existing markets.

Irish Company changes Scottish soccer sponsorship strategy

Tennents Lager, owned by Irish Company C&C Group PLC, has announced that it is to end its 36 year relationship with the Scottish Football Association (SFA) the governing body for Soccer in Scotland.

Instead the Irish company has announced that it is to sponsor both rival Glasgow Soccer clubs, Glasgow Celtic and Glasgow Rangers.

Glasgow Celtic has a long relationship with Ireland and is, in fact, owned by Irish Billionaire Dermot Desmond, however it is the first time in the history of rival club Glasgow Rangers that it is to be sponsored by an Irish Company.

The company had already announced the three-year shirt sponsorship agreement with Celtic and Rangers, however it only yesterday announced the end of the SFA deal

Yahoo announces 87% profit growth results

Yahoo has announced profit growth of a whopping 87% on 1% revenue growth for the first quarter of 2010 versus the same period in 2009.

Yahoo’s Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz said:

We had a good quarter, delivering income from operations higher than our outlook. Thanks to our efforts, our search share has stabilized, and we grew display advertising by 20% year over year. More importantly, guaranteed display grew by 24% as advertisers took advantage of the science, art and scale that only Yahoo! can offer.

Former Irish PM, Bertie Ahern, rules out run for Dublin mayor

Considered by many as the architect of Ireland’s particularly deep recession, former Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Bertie Ahern, has ruled out running to be first directly elected mayor of the state’s capital, Dublin.

When questioned Tuesday on the issue, Mr Ahern gave an emphatic no when asked if he would be running.

Many commentators believe that Mr Ahern, once considered a hero in his Dublin city constituency, would be embarrassed in any election considering his brother, Maurice, achieved his political party’s worst ever result in an election for the national parliament last June.

Once tipped as a possible European commission president during Ireland’s economic bubble, Mr Ahern,  is keeping his options open on running for President of Ireland next year; He refused to rule out running when asked on the subject.