UAE’s Aabar to raise minority buyout price

(Reuters) – UAE government officials have told Aabar Investments (AABAR.AD) to raise its buyout offer to minority shareholders by over a third after the Abu Dhabi company angered investors with a lowball bid.

Aabar, controlled by government investment vehicle International Petroleum Investment Corp (IPIC), must increase the price to 1.95 dirhams per share from the 1.45 announced last week, the United Arab Emirates’ bourse watchdog said in a statement on Sunday, citing the ruling of a panel that included officials from the UAE economy ministry.

It said the new offer price is based on the average closing price of the share in the six months preceding the offer.

The announcement from the Emirates Securities & Commodities Authority (SCA) sent Aabar’s share price up 8.3 percent to 1.59 dirhams and drew renewed criticism from an investment community already angry that the initial offer was so low.

“The timing has been unfortunate. The suggestion that 1.45 would be the trade price would have caused investors to sell around that level,” says Zahed Chowdhury of Al Mal Capital.

“The fact there are no clear rules and regulations for such events didn’t help anybody.”

Another investor said trading in the investment firm, whose holdings include about 9 percent of German carmaker Daimler (DAIGn.DE) and 4.99 percent of Italian bank UniCredit (CRDI.MI), should have been halted after news on July 12 that the government panel would study the offer.

“Who will profit and who will lose and who will compensate (those) who had to sell last week between 1.42 and 1.45?” said Mohamed Ali Yasin, CEO of Shuaa Securities.

“I believe that the small investor got mostly hurt in this, and he is the one the regulator is trying to protect the most in this market, and that is not what happened here.”

In Sunday’s announcement, SCA also said the offer period should run from July 20 until August 5. The original period was July 12-August 1.

A shareholder meeting to approve delisting is scheduled for August 15. The statement also said the transaction should be complete by August 10.

DELISTING AFTER LESS THAN 5 YEARS

The delisting move was announced earlier this year and some investors had hoped for a much higher price.

It takes Aabar, one of the more transparent groups in the secretive world of sovereign funds since its IPO in late 2005, back into the shadows, and marks the first retreat of a local firm from the Abu Dhabi bourse.

Aabar is majority owned by IPIC, and has assets estimated at about $10 billion, including the stakes in Daimler and UniCredit, which are together worth about $7.8 billion based on Reuters data and closing share prices last week.

According to Abu Dhabi bourse data, IPIC holds 75.5 percent of Aabar.

PRICE STILL TOO LOW?

Valuation is tricky, and it is unclear exactly how many shares are in issue and how many are held by minorities, but investors say even the improved offer undervalues their holdings.

“It is difficult to come up with a valuation because there isn’t complete transparency in terms of the derivatives on Aabar’s balance sheet,” says Robert McKinnon, ASAS Capital chief investment officer.

(But) “The rest is typically fairly easy to value because it is a pretty much a holding company and so we can look at its net asset value, which is essentially the book value.

“The offer price is about 55 to 60 percent of this and the question a lot of people are asking is; Why there is such a discrepancy?”

McKinnon said he nevertheless expects minority shareholders to accept Aabar’s revised offer, although cheap compared to the company’s balance sheet, because of the current economic environment.

Aabar and IPIC were not immediately available for comment.

(Additional reporting by Stanley Carvalho in Abu Dhabi, Writing by Andrew Callus, Editing by Dinesh Nair)

Karzai to ask UN to trim Taliban blacklist -report

July 12 (Reuters) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai plans to ask the United Nations to remove as many as 50 former Taliban members from a U.N. blacklist, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

The request to remove about a quarter of the 137 names on the list is aimed at advancing reconciliation talks with insurgents, the report said, citing a senior Afghan official.

At least five of those named on the sanction list are former Taliban officials who now serve in parliament or privately mediate between the Afghan government and the insurgents battling NATO-led forces and their Afghan partners.

The senior Afghan official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Karzai would request that 30 to 50 names be delisted to “remove all those Taliban who are not part of al-Qaeda and are not terrorists,” the Post reported.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, met with U.N. officials on Tuesday to press them to move forward on the delisting process, the Post reported, citing sources familiar with the talks in New York.

Holbrooke hopes to reach agreement on delisting some of the purportedly reformed Taliban members before an international conference this month in Kabul that is aimed at bolstering stability in Afghanistan, the article said.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1267 freezes assets and limits travel of senior figures linked to the Taliban, as well as al Qaeda, but recent Afghan efforts to engage some insurgents in diplomacy have raised doubts about who should be on the list.

The United States opposes the delisting of some of the most violent Taliban fighters, including leader Mohammad Omar, the Post said.

Karzai’s office said last month that the United Nations had agreed to gradually delist Taliban figures provided they had “no links to al Qaeda or other terrorist groups.”

U.N. officials were demanding more evidence that they have renounced violence, embraced the new Afghan constitution and severed any links with the Taliban and al-Qaeda, The Washington Post said. (Reporting by JoAnne Allen; editing by Eric Beech)

Low Stock Shares Prompt Fannie and Freddie to Act

In 2007 Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) were trading above $60; now, with shares hovering around $1, the companies are delisting from the New York Stock Exchange, reports the Washington Post. While Freddie’s shares were trading above $1, Fannie has been below for 30 trading days. According to the NYSE rules, a company has to “take action to boost its shares or delist.” Shares for both companies tumbled more than 40 percent after the announcement. Both Fannie and Freddie plan to start trading on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board on July 8.

A complicated claims process helped bring about a new $20 billion fund set up by BP (BP) for damage claims related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to Reuters. The money would be paid into the fund over a period of four years. To help create the fund, BP agreed to “cut three quarters of dividends, significantly reduce its investment program and sell $10 billion of assets.” The company also has to pay $100 million to workers who are unable to work during the six months of halted deep-sea drilling. The deal seems to help both sides: Obama now has “his most tangible success since the crisis began 58 days ago,” and BP has little less pressure on it.

The $20 billion fund set up by BP could be dwarfed by potential criminal charges and rising civil fine estimates, according to the New York Times. For all the oil escaping into the Gulf, BP could owe $280 million. However, the real costs would come from legal costs and criminal fines that could reach $62 billion, according to Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov. Most likely, BP will be charged for environmental misdemeanors since “merely negligent actions can lead to misdemeanor penalties.” Any tougher penalties would require proving that BP “knew its actions would lead to the gushing well on the ocean floor.”

The circuit breakers put in place after May’s “flash crash” began operating this week and not a moment too soon: They were triggered Wednesday when the price of Washington Post Company (WPO) shares doubled in a second, reports the Financial Times. Three erroneous trades went through around 3 p.m., causing the breakers to kick in and halt trading on the company’s shares. The breakers were put in place to halt trading in an S&P 500 stock “if the price either rises or falls by 10 percent inside a period of five minutes.” Afterward, a total of 766 shares in three separate orders were determined to be incorrect.

Once again, AT&T (T) has proven itself incapable of handling the sheer amount of customers Apple (AAPL) brings in, according to the Wall Street Journal. The newest iPhone was available for preorder, but after 600,000 advance orders, AT&T had “difficulty processing orders.” The carrier had system malfunctions, and there were “reports that some customers had inadvertently gained access to others’ account information.” After the troubles AT&T stopped taking preorders yesterday but might take more orders before the phone is released on June 24. According to Apple’s site, “customers who preorder the iPhone 4 will receive their phones on July 14.”

After almost a week, Spirit airlines will no longer be grounded by a pilot strike when its planes take to the sky on Friday, reports the Wall Street Journal. The strike cost the airline “an estimated $2 million a day in lost revenue.” The airline left its passengers stranded—roughly 1 percent of U.S. passengers—even though it was supposed to “team up with other airlines to serve its customers in the event of a strike.” Spirit may have made the pilots happy, but it now has to work on winning back its customers.

Finally, companies that aren’t among the World Cup’s official sponsors are using “guerilla-marketing tactics” to get around FIFA’s restricted zones, according to the Wall Street Journal. The event is so exclusive that companies who didn’t pay the millions of dollars to become an official sponsor can’t advertise close to the venues. Despite the restrictions, companies have taken to plastering Johannesburg with advertisements. Others are resorting to drastic measures like the pair of women who supposedly were “involved in a large scale ambush marketing effort by Dutch brewer Bavaria NV.”

Nortel sells wireless biz to Nokia

TORONTO: Toronto-headquartered Nortel, which is under bankruptcy protection in both the US and Canada, has announced that it will liquidate itse
lf. In a statement, the 127-year-old Canadian telecom equipment giant said it has entered into a deal with Nokia Siemens to sell its wireless business for $650 million.

“This (sale) will ensure Nortel’s strong assets – technologies, customer relationships and employees – continue to play an important role in driving the future of communications. The value of Nortel’s wireless business is recognised throughout the industry,” said Nortel president and chief executive Mike Zafirovski.

“The agreement we are announcing today is solid proof of that value and represents the best path forward for our other businesses,” he added.

Once the biggest maker of telecom equipment and Canada’s most valuable company, Nortel said it was in advanced stages of discussions with other parties to sell its other businesses.

“Maximising the value of our businesses in the face of a consolidating global market has been our most critical priority. We have determined the best way to do this is to find buyers for our businesses who can carry Nortel innovation forward, while preserving employment to the greatest extent possible,” said Zafirovski.

Nortel, which once accounted for the bulk of the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), said it was delisting from the stock market.

“Trading in such shares on the TSX is expected to be suspended pending the TSX’s decision on the delisting application,” the statement said.

Nortel, which has been in business making telephones and later telecom technology since 1882, had to file for bankruptcy after suffering losses to the tune of $5 billion last year.

Even as its top bosses restructured the company and cut jobs, Nortel posted a further loss of $507 million in the first quarter ending March 31. The telecom giant’s accumulated problems – from the bubble burst to internal accounting scandal to the current meltdown – forced it to seek bankruptcy protection in the US and Canada this January.

Its bankruptcy plea was accepted ahead of its $107 million interest payment in January. The telecom giant had announced last month to sell its majority stake in LG-Nortel, which it formed with Korea’s LG Electronics in 2005.

Nortel, which once employed 90,000 people worldwide, has about 30,000 employees now. But under the deal with Nokia-Siemens, 2,500 of its employees will stay with the new company.

FX Real Estate and Entertainment Inc. Announces Voluntary Delisting of Common Stock from NASDAQ and Receipt of Notice of Initiation of Trustee Sale Procedure against Las Vegas Property

Company Anticipates Last Day of Trading on NASDAQ on or about May 4, 2009; Plans
to Seek Listing on OTC Bulletin Board
NEW YORK–(Business Wire)–
FX Real Estate and Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ: FXRE) announced that on April 8,
2009 it received notice from The NASDAQ Stock Market (“NASDAQ”) indicating that,
as of December 31, 2008, FXRE is no longer in compliance with NASDAQ`s
continuing listing requirement of a minimum of $10,000,000 in stockholders`
equity.

Under the NASDAQ Marketplace Rules, FXRE is permitted to submit to NASDAQ a plan
to regain compliance with NASDAQ`s continued listing criteria. However, based on
FXRE`s deteriorating financial condition, FXRE has determined that it will not
be able to regain compliance. As a result, FXRE has provided notice to NASDAQ of
its intent to voluntarily delist its common stock from NASDAQ. On or about April
24, 2009, FXRE will file a Form 25 with the Securities and Exchange Commission
relating to the delisting. The delisting is expected to be effective 10 calendar
days after filing the Form 25. FXRE anticipates that the last day of trading for
its common stock on The NASDAQ Global Market will be on or about May 4, 2009.
FXRE will seek to have its common stock quoted on the Over-The-Counter Bulletin
Board shortly after the date of delisting from The NASDAQ Global Market, though
FXRE cannot provide any assurances in this regard.

FXRE further announced that on April 9, 2009, as a result of its Las Vegas
subsidiaries continuing to be in default under the $475 million mortgage loan
secured by their Las Vegas property, the first lien lenders sent a Notice of
Breach and Election to Sell, which initiates the trustee sale procedure against
the Las Vegas property to satisfy the principal amount of $259 million and other
obligations owed to them under the mortgage loan and secured by the property.

Under Nevada law, the Las Vegas subsidiaries have the legal right to cure the
default during a 35-day redemption period that expires on May 18, 2009 or else
the Las Vegas property may be sold thereafter in accordance with Nevada law (the
process takes approximately 120 days) in a trustee sale to satisfy the first
lien lenders` obligations secured by the property. Neither FXRE nor its
subsidiaries are able to cure the default. Consequently, FXRE and the Las Vegas
subsidiaries are considering all possible legal options, including bankruptcy
proceedings. FXRE cannot guarantee to what extent, if any, such actions may be
viable or effective.

FX Real Estate and Entertainment Inc.
Ed Tagliaferri, 212-981-5182

Copyright Business Wire 2009