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Alibaba: $9.4 Billion expected with new Alipay deal

After striking a new deal with the payment processor, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will get atleast $9.4 billion from future value of its finance affiliate. If Alipay or its parent company seek an initial public offering, China’s biggest e-commerce operator will be entitled to the payment. Alibaba also gets the perpetual right to 37.5 percent of the finance arm’s pretax earnings and can buy a stake of about one-third if regulators approve.

Since billionare founder Jack Ma spun off Alipay into a Chinese company in 2011, their relationship with the finance business has been contentious. Alibaba may be headed towards the largest IPO in history, the deal locks in a share of earnings from the payments unit, which has expanded into money markets and controls more than 574 billion yuan of funds.

According to Wang Weidong, an analyst at Shanghai based Internet consultant firm IResearch, ”The financial unit is adding more services and becoming bigger in scale and complete in services.” According to what was said in the US regulatory filing, the new deal will transfer Hangzhou based Alibaba’s small business lending arm to Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group Co. who is the parent of Alipay, for $518 million in cash and annual fees for seven years. The implications of the sale are that financial service assets will be owned by Chinese nationals instead of global investors that may buy shares in the IPO. Yahoo gave a statement saying that the terms outline in yesterday’s filing were negotiated through collaboration and that it supported the agreement. Softbank Corp. led by Masayoshi Son who owns more than 30 percent of Alibaba seems to think the deal is beneficial for both parties.

Apple stock hits all time high

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Apple’s stock closed at an all time high and beat record of 2012. The investors are quite hopeful from the launch of new products like big-screen iPhones and wristwatches. These products can play a vital role in the rise of revenue.
Apple ascended 1.4 percent to $100.53 which broke the highest record of 2012. On the 19^th of September 2012 Apple rose to $100.30 before the launch of iPhone 5. This year the shares mounted up to 12 percent.

Apple stock shook off a third of its value as soon as the iPhone 5’s got released. Most people believed that it happened since the Steve Jobs was not there to support the company.

Presently, analysts predicted that the new batch of iPhone would generate a great revenue for the company. The launch of this batch is expected at the end of the year 2014. According to a spokesman for Apple the company has designed a huge production strategy for the two upcoming smartphones. These smartphones are especially designed for the rivals since they contain quite large screens.

The increase in stock demonstrates that Tim Cook, CEO is successful in convincing its investors through the new strategies. Cook’s strategy is to give extra money to the stockholders and setup new devices.

Apple stock hits all time high

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Apple ascended 1.4 percent to $100.53 which broke the highest record of 2012. On the 19^th of September 2012 Apple rose to $100.30 before the launch of iPhone 5. This year the shares mounted up to 12 percent.

Apple stock shook off a third of its value as soon as the iPhone 5’s got released. Most people believed that it happened since the Steve Jobs was not there to support the company.

Global stocks rose on US housing, Ukraine negotiations

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Global stock markets mounted Tuesday on improved U.S housing sentiments and news of the diplomatic efforts of cessations in Ukraine.

In the morning trade, France’s CAC-40 increased 0.5 percent to 4,252.32 and Germany’ DAX rose 1 percent to 9,334.55 points. London’s FTSE 100 got higher with 0.5 percent to 6,773.25. Dow climbed more 0.3 percent to 16,846. Whereas, S&P 500 futures added 0.3 percent to 1,973.10.

Tokyo’s Nikkie 225 expanded 0.8 percent to 15,499.79 and China’s Shangai Composite Index escalated 0.3 percent to 2,245.33. Taiwan’s Taiex climbed 1.1 percent to 9,243.78 though India’s Sensex rose 0.2 percent to 26,454.99. The markets of Seoul, Sydney and Southeast Asian also levitated.

Sergey Lavrov, the Foreign Minister of Russian stated that matters associated with the humanitarian group to Ukraine was settled this weekend. The issue was resolved through talks in Berlin. Germany’s Frank Walter Steinmiere announced that some progress can be viewed on “some issue”. On the other hand, Lavrov stated that there was no development on setting up a cease fire between the regime

Credit Agricole CIB stated that Markets began to make a recovery since the investors heard the news regarding the dialogue between Russia and Ukraine. Although there was not any significant advancement has been made.

Global stocks rose on US housing, Ukraine negotiations

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Global stock markets mounted Tuesday on improved U.S housing sentiments and news of the diplomatic efforts of cessations in Ukraine.

PwC will pay $25 million for mishandling Tokyo-Mitsubishi

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The New York State’s Department of Financial Services has proclaimed that it has determined to take an action against a consulting firm. The company was responsible for the monitoring of its operations.

A superintendent of the New York State’s Department of financial Services Benjamin Lawsky stated after an inquiry that people will see the consequence of this investigation this summer.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP was the organization which was appointed by financial institution. This service network will be banished for two years and will have to pay almost $25 million in order to resolve accusations of New York state regulators. The New York sate regulators’ make allegations that the company mismanaged its work for Bank of Tokyo-Mistsubishi UFJ.

The New York State Department of Financial Services claimed that PwC reduced an anti-money laundering report of Japanese Bank which the company put forth to the regulators.

On the other hand, PwC stated that it has assented the fine and ban and that ban will put a stop on the functioning of one of its units with NEW York- regulated banks.

The New York Time will overtly announce it on Monday, alleged by some informants

Furthermore, Lawsky said that they have to evaluate the works of these banks, which is rather a difficult task. Since these are the banks which reimburse and give employment to them.

The similar case happened in 2013 when a Deloitte LLP unit made a settlement of $10 million and agreed one year consulting ban for New York regulated banks. The regulators’ claimed that the firm produced a heap of its anti-money laundering work for U.K bank Standard Chartered PLC.

China Caught Mercedez-Benz Guilty for Vertical Price-Fixing

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The government of China has accused Mercedes-Benz of violating anti-monopoly laws and charging excessive prices for parts. Regulators found that they were engaged in “vertical price-fixing” by abusing their control over supplies of replacement parts according to reports by the Xinhua News Agency. They also said that, investigators from the eastern province of Jiangsu found that prices were so high that purchasing the parts for one Mercedes C-class car would be equal to buying 12 other vehicles. Regulators in China have investigated industries including foreign auto, technology, pharmaceutical and dairy companies since the past two years, using the 2008 anti-monopoly law to force down consumer prices.

“Mercedes-Benz is a typical case of vertical price fixing — that is, the use of its dominant position in after-market parts to maintain price controls,” said Zhou Gao, chief of the Jiangsu price agency’s anti-monopoly unit, according to Xinhua.

No indication was given as to the company’s penalty. China has used the 2008 anti-monopoly law against foreign companies more excessively. Other companies being investigated include Microsoft Corp., and Qualcomm Inc.

Mercedes did respond to the investigation earlier, by cutting the price of their replacement parts. They reduced the prices of their windshields by 38%, this was also done by Audi.The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, in a statement last week, expressed concern foreign companies might be “disproportionately targeted” by regulators.The chamber said it had received reports of “intimidation tactics” by regulators who pressure foreign companies to accept punishments without a full hearing or involving their governments.
“Competition law should not be used as an administrative instrument to harm targeted companies or serve other aims, such as administratively forcing price reductions,” the chamber said.

Dollar General Outbids Dollar Tree for Family Dollar

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Its interesting to see the low-price retailer heat up as Dollar General made an all cash bid of nearly $10 billion for Family Dollar, topping a deal made by Dollar Tree last month. Dollar General is bidding $78.50 per share to a total of $9.7 billion. Dollar General has itself stated that its deal is superior to the $74.50 per share cash and stock offer Dollar Tree made last month. Their deal has been valued at $8.6 billion. No comments were received from Family Dollar regarding these deals as attempts to reach them for comments was not immediately successful.

Brazilians into new zone of Banana wars

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Renowned juice maker firm Cutrale and investment firm Safra Group say they have proposed a tender to take possession of the US based Chiquita Brands International in a $6.10m cash deal that rivals the Irish tropical fruit company Fyffes.

Cutrale and Safra both based in Brazil, Cutrale a juice maker company and Safra a global Banking and a real estate group with a strong hold in Brazil said they were paying $13 a share in hard cash to Chiquita shareholders, a 29% bonus to Chiquita’s closing price on Friday.

Chiquita is attempting to shut down its coalition with Fyffes, which was previously announced in March. The combined price cost of Chiquita and Fyffes is currently approximately $1 bn.

A shot up of more than 30% in shares of Chiquita was announced in response to the competing offer. New York Stock Exchange listed it at $13.30 at the closing of the day which exceeded the offer price $13, suspecting a conflict among its investors in bidding.

Reduced consumption of orange juice globally led Cutrale to expand its venture into other products and geographies like the grain trading in recent years.

The Curtales rising into fame and creating vast wealth is a bit conscious with its strong reputation it held. A recent fall down surfaces in media due to slashing down of the business after the major frost destroyed Florida’s citrus crop.

Safra held a strong roots in Brazil, while Safra’s niche has been in Banking but it didn’t confined into this instead expanded its wealth by investing into pulp and paper, telecommunications, cattle ranching and global real estate.

Both groups stated that their offer has been sent to Chiquita’s board of directors and pleaded to come up with some definite takeover agreement. They are looking forward to have some response from Chiquita on Friday.

Biggest economic contraction in Japan since the Tsunami

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The increase of sales tax in Japan has triggered an abrupt fall in consumer spending in the last quarter, which has consequently lead to an economic contraction that hasn’t been seen since the earthquake and tsunami more than three years ago. The annualized 6.8% decline in GDP reported by the government in a preliminary estimate on Wednesday, was relatively mild compare to the latest market forecasts but still far more severe than what most experts had predicted when the tax rise originally took effect in April.

Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, took office in late 2012, and promised to rejuvenate Japan’s economy with his program of “Abenomics”. The GDP decline could be analyzed keeping in mind the similar sized jump in the first quarter, and some may even call it a statistical anomaly.
Changes in spending patterns were noticed as many moved expensive purchases forward and stockpiled daily items. However, the point of importance here is that, the contraction was more significant than the earlier gain. Growth from January to March was revised in Wednesday’s report from 6.7% to 6.1% while the government also said that it had reason to believe that the economy had shrunk slightly in the final quarter of 2013.

Mr. Abe should understand that it is imperative to address the tax issue again soon, he needs to decide whether to let it increase or if the economy is too fragile. The dominant opinion among the experts regarding the current quarter is that the economic activity has picked up and data for this period is due for release in November, and is one of the biggest considerations in Abe’s decision.
Japan’s public debt is the largest in the world which makes raising revenue crucial for the government and the sales tax is still much lower than that of other wealthy, developed countries.

However, it must be noted that the previous time tax was increase in 1997, the economy suffered greatly and many critics and experts haven’t forgotten that. On the other hand, the government argues that it was the Asian currency crisis and not the tax increase that caused the crash while the critics still remain unconvinced.

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