UPDATE1-Private equity considers bidding for NBTY – source

July 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

NEW YORK, July 14 (Reuters) – Private equity firms Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) and Carlyle may acquire U.S. nutritional supplements maker NBTY Inc (NTY.N), a source familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.

The private equity firms are working separately from each other, not as a consortium, the source said. It was unclear how advanced the plans were.

News of a potential deal was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal which said Blackstone and Carlyle are in talks to buy the firm.

The companies could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.

NBTY, which has a market value of about $2.3 billion, posted a quarterly profit in April and missed market expectations by a wide margin, hurt by increased spending on television advertising.

Private equity deals, put on hold when the credit crisis shut off access to cheap debt, have been making a revival.

Earlier in July, BC Partners [BCPRT.UL] and Silver Lake Partners [SILAK.UL] announced a deal to buy U.S. healthcare services firm MultiPlan from two other buyout shops. That deal was worth about $3.1 billion, sources said at the time.

(Reporting by Megan Davies in New York and Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Valerie Lee)

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UPDATE1-Private equity considers bidding for NBTY – source

July 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

NEW YORK, July 14 (Reuters) – Private equity firms Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) and Carlyle may acquire U.S. nutritional supplements maker NBTY Inc (NTY.N), a source familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.

The private equity firms are working separately from each other, not as a consortium, the source said. It was unclear how advanced the plans were.

News of a potential deal was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal which said Blackstone and Carlyle are in talks to buy the firm.

The companies could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.

NBTY, which has a market value of about $2.3 billion, posted a quarterly profit in April and missed market expectations by a wide margin, hurt by increased spending on television advertising.

Private equity deals, put on hold when the credit crisis shut off access to cheap debt, have been making a revival.

Earlier in July, BC Partners [BCPRT.UL] and Silver Lake Partners [SILAK.UL] announced a deal to buy U.S. healthcare services firm MultiPlan from two other buyout shops. That deal was worth about $3.1 billion, sources said at the time.

(Reporting by Megan Davies in New York and Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Valerie Lee)

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Factbox: Colombian candidates’ main policies

June 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

His rival, former Bogota major Antanas Mockus, who has promised to boost investment in Latin America’s No 4 oil producer, is trailing by a wide margin in polls before the vote.

SECURITY POLICIES:

Colombia’s war has eased as FARC rebels have been battered and outlawed militia gangs disbanded. Violence, kidnapping and bombings have dropped off sharply. But Colombia remains the world’s No. 1 cocaine exporter, rebels are still fighting and new quasi-paramilitary gangs have emerged.

* As Uribe’s former defense minister, Santos is well-placed to continue the security policies. He promises “not one step back,” saying he will keep up military pressure on armed groups and focus on crime in the cities by strengthening police forces. He says he will not negotiate with the FARC rebels unless they first cease hostilities.

* Mockus took a tough crime stance in Bogota when he was its mayor and says he will move against the FARC and all criminal gangs, corruption, and Colombia’s drug culture with the same vigor that Uribe went after the FARC. He calls for military and social pressure on guerrillas as a way to peace. But he sees no conditions for talks with the rebels until they halt hostilities. The former university rector says education is key to changing the tolerance of cocaine culture.

THE ECONOMY:

Colombia, a top world coffee exporter and now a major oil producer, is climbing out of recession. But the recovery is moderate with the government expecting 3 percent growth this year. Unemployment stands at 12.4 percent with many Colombians employed in the informal sector, and it is a key campaign issue. The strength of the peso currency has also put exporters under pressure.

* Santos, who is also a former finance minister, wants to lower corporate taxes, clear barriers on investment and help drive growth by developing five areas — roads and other infrastructure, housing construction, oil and mining, agriculture and improved education. He plans to create 2.4 million jobs in the formal sector and bring unemployment to single digits by 2014. An overseas saving fund for commodities revenues would ease peso pressure. His possible finance minister, Juan Carlos Echeverry, says Santos would try to expand the base of Colombians paying taxes to generate revenue. But Santos is not in favor of complicated or prolonged tax reforms.

* Mockus’ possible finance minister, former central bank board member Salomon Kalmanovitz, says Colombia needs a review of public finances to tackle deficits but also needs tax reform to give more incentives to export industries such as textiles, which create more jobs. He says that would stop “Dutch Disease” — a currency so strong it undermines exports — with a concentration on mining and energy. He proposes a tax reform to increase the state’s income by 2 percentage points of GDP and reduce government spending. Kalmanovitz says Mockus would remove some tax benefits for the rich introduced under Uribe, and create a sovereign fund overseas to ease peso appreciation. The candidate himself says he would ask Colombians to pay more to gain more.

FOREIGN POLICY:

A close ally of the United States, Colombia is locked in a diplomatic dispute with Venezuelan leftist President Hugo Chavez, who says Colombia is part of a plot by Washington to attack his OPEC country. Bilateral trade has been slashed. Relations with Ecuador are better, but are still tense after Colombia bombed a FARC rebel camp inside Ecuador in 2008. Colombia has received more than $5 billion in mostly military aid.

* Santos says he and Chavez are like “oil and water,” and Chavez calls Santos a threat to the region. But the Colombian candidate insists the two could still work together. He accuses Chavez of trying to scuttle his presidential bid because he would block Venezuela’s attempts to spread a Cuba-style revolution into Colombia. As defense minister, Santos signed a deal to allow U.S. troops more access to Colombian bases. He says he would develop a more equal relationship with Washington rather than one based only on military aid.

* Mockus has said he would deal with Venezuela with “prudence and respect,” calling the differences a competition of ideas where Colombia can do best by showing its model works better. He was criticized by some for saying that he respected Chavez as an elected president. But he says he would not allow Chavez to push his revolutionary ideas across the frontier and says Venezuela should not meddle in Colombian affairs. Mockus says he is sympathetic to U.S. President Barack Obama but that Colombia needs a more “symmetric” relationship with Washington. He also says he would look to Latin America for unity with regional players like Brazil and for promotion of markets.

(Reporting by Bogota newsroom, Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Factbox: Colombia’s leading candidates Mockus and Santos

June 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Polls show former defense minister Juan Manuel Santos poised to win the run-off vote against Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus and continue with Uribe’s security and free-market platform.

JUAN MANUEL SANTOS

The wealthy son of one of Colombia’s most powerful families, Santos, 58, is the consummate political insider, a U.S.- and British-trained economist whose great-uncle, Eduardo Santos, also served as president. His cousin is the current vice president.

Santos is a staunch ally of Uribe and promises to keep up military pressure on leftist FARC guerrillas. He benefited from Uribe’s popularity to win by a wide margin in a first-round vote that many pollsters had expected Mockus to lead on the back of corruption and spy scandals that tarnished the government.

Santos was editor of the country’s top newspaper before moving into politics. He has held several posts in recent governments, including finance minister.

As defense minister under Uribe, Santos oversaw the military campaign that largely drove the leftist FARC rebels into remote hill and jungle regions — major victories included the dramatic rescue of French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt along with three U.S. defense contractors held hostage by the guerrillas.

He was also in charge of a bombing raid in Ecuadorean territory that killed the FARC’s No. 2 commander — a huge blow to the rebels but also damaging to Colombia’s relations with neighboring Ecuador and Venezuela.

Lacking the natural charisma of his predecessor, Santos paid the political price for scandals under Uribe that include numerous extrajudicial killings of innocent citizens by the army.

But he revamped his campaign and won a May 30 first round easily, thanks in part to large numbers of people voting in newly safe rural areas where Uribe is most popular.

ANTANAS MOCKUS

The son of Lithuanian artists, Mockus, 58, was married in a circus tent and is as famous for his outlandish behavior as he is for helping Bogota shed its reputation as a violent, chaotic capital.

He sports a beard that recalls Abraham Lincoln, quotes philosophers Immanuel Kant and Soren Kierkegaard in meandering speeches and has a penchant for dressing in a spandex costume as “Super Citizen” during his two terms as Bogota mayor.

Such antics are tame compared with his years as the rector of Colombia’s National University, when he once urinated from a balcony and bared his backside to a rowdy crowd in the university’s auditorium.

Despite the quirks, the French-trained mathematician and philosopher won the respect of many Colombians by helping bring order to Bogota, known in the early 1990s for car bombings by drugs gangs, kidnappings and drive-by murders.

By the end of his second term in 2003, homicide rates had dropped, a modern public transport system had eased congestion and the city was fiscally sound.

Mockus surged in popularity during the first-round campaign and many voters say he presents an alternative to the Uribe administration, popular for gains against leftist rebels but rocked by a string of human rights and corruption scandals.

He is popular among young Colombians and has effectively used Internet services such as Twitter and Facebook to spread his message. Mockus is the candidate of Colombia’s recently founded Green Party, but his campaign has focused on clean politics rather than environmental issues.

Earlier this year, Mockus announced he had Parkinson’s disease, but that his illness was at an early stage and would not affect his work. His ratings continued to rise after the news. But he has also suffered from what even he calls his “own goals” giving confusing answers on key questions such as relations with Venezuela and frankly calling for tax raises.

(Reporting by Bogota newsroom, Editing by Sandra Maler)

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AlphaClone Launches Investable Hedge Fund Equity Strategies

June 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Jun 02 (MARKET WIRE) —
AlphaClone LLC today unveiled a series of equity strategies that enable
investors to systematically invest in the publicly disclosed holdings of
the world’s top fund managers. These investable strategies are available
exclusively via the firm’s new online managed account service.

AlphaClone’s “Core Strategies” span across several investment themes and
have demonstrated outstanding simulated performance over the past several
years. The six AlphaClone Core Strategies are:

– Value Masters — Invest in the top consensus stock picks of well known
value investors.
– Tiger Cubs — Invest in the top consensus stock picks of fund managers
formerly from Tiger Management.
– Activist Masters — Invest in the top holdings of well known activist
investors.
– High Conviction — Invest in the top holdings of managers with highly
concentrated equity portfolios.
– ETF Ideas — Invest in the top consensus ETF holdings amongst
AlphaClone’s fund universe.
– International — invest the top consensus international holdings
amongst AlphaClone’s hedge fund universe.

AlphaClone’s Core Strategies seek to systematically capture alpha
typically only available to high net worth investors. Each strategy has
outperformed its relevant benchmark index by a wide margin in simulated
backtests since 2000.

AlphaClone Core Strategies
Total Return Backtest Results as of May 27,
2010*

YTD 1Y 3Y 5Y 10Y
Value Masters 1.7% 32.8% 8.3% 64.0% 253.8%
Activist Masters 9.1% 27.2% -10.7% 32.3% 72.4%
Tiger Cubs -6.4% 20.4% 4.9% 92.6% 125.4%
High Conviction 3.6% 25.0% 4.4% 43.6% 169.0%
ETF Ideas -0.9% 18.7% 27.4% 83.4% n/a
International 8.7% 43.9% -0.2% 129.5% 60.9%

S&P500TR -0.3% 26.1% -22.1% 2.2% -8.5%
BNY ADR Composite -13.1% 7.8% -34.6% -1.1% -28.6%

AlphaClone Core Strategies follow the investments of over 280 firms,
including legendary fund managers such as Warren Buffett, Seth Klarman,
John Paulson, David Einhorn, David Tepper, and George Soros.

“We’re excited to announce the launch of our AlphaClone Core Strategies
and investment account service,” said Mazin Jadallah, founder and CEO of
AlphaClone. “These strategies allow investors to access the stock picking
prowess of the world’s top hedge funds without the high fees, lock ups or
hassles of continuously having to trade their own accounts.”

AlphaClone offers its investment accounts under a “wrap fee” program that
charges the client between 1.0% and 1.5% annually with AlphaClone paying
ALL trading commissions. Additionally, investment account clients get
convenient and continuous online access to their accounts through
AlphaClone’s broker Folio Institutional, a division of FOLIOfn
Investments Inc., a US registered broker/dealer and a comprehensive
service provider to financial advisors, professionals and institutions,
and their clients around the world.

AlphaClone’s managed investment accounts and research services are a
fraction of the cost of traditional hedge funds and offer better
transparency, liquidity, and tax management. The research service
includes an intuitive online strategy simulation tool that enables
investors to explore and customize smart money portfolios that fit their
needs. Investors can access current stock picks and backtest portfolios
with ten years of historical market data. For more information visit

http://www.alphaclone.com.

About AlphaClone LLC
AlphaClone is a registered investment advisor and
equity research firm that empowers investors to intelligently follow the
collective intelligence of top money managers. AlphaClone offers both
managed investment accounts and online access to its powerful research
platform where investors can create and then simulate ten-year backtests
for investment portfolios derived from the public disclosures of the
world’s top hedge funds and institutional investors — a process called
“cloning.” Easy-to-use, powerful and flexible, AlphaClone is designed for
both individual and professional investors who want to know what the
smart money is doing and more importantly how they can benefit from that
knowledge. The firm is based in San Francisco, California.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES FOR BACKTEST PERFORMANCE RESULTS

Backtesting is the process of evaluating a core strategy by applying it
to historical data. Backtested performance results are provided for
purposes of illustrating historical performance had a core strategy had
been available during the relevant period. Backtested performance results
are hypothetical and have inherent limitations. AlphaClone makes no
representation that any core strategy will achieve performance similar to
any back-tested performance results. Actual results could differ
materially from backtested performance and future results could differ
materially from backtested performance. Past performance is no indication
or guarantee of future results.

Maz Jadallah
press@alphaclone.com

1 Market Street
Spear Tower, 36th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105

Copyright 2010, Market Wire, All rights reserved.

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Brighter, full-colour electronic readers coming your way

May 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Apr 30 (ANI): Buying an e-reader but not sure if you’d like reading the dim screen? Well, then get ready for e-book reading experience that will be as close to printed media as possible.

Scientists have announced, what is known as Electrofluidic Display Technology (EFD)- the first technology to electrically switch the appearance of pigments in a manner that provides visual brilliance equal to conventional printed media.

The work by an international collaboration of the University of Cincinnati, Sun Chemical, Polymer Vision and Gamma Dynamics, could offer better than 85 percent “white-state reflectance.”

White-state reflectance is a performance level required for consumers to accept reflective display applications such as e-books, cell-phones and signage.

“If you compare this technology to what’s been developed previously, there’s no comparison. We’re ahead by a wide margin in critical categories such as brightness, colour saturation and video speed,” Nature quoted developer Jason Heikenfeld, assistant professor of electrical engineering in UC’s College of Engineering, as saying.

The work on this technology has been underway for several years.

Heikenfeld said: “The ultimate reflective display would simply place the best colorants used by the printing industry directly beneath the front viewing substrate of a display.

“In our EFD pixels, we are able to hide or reveal colored pigment in a manner that is optically superior to the techniques used in electrowetting, electrophoretic and electrochromic displays.”

Project partners at PolymerVision see strong potential for rollable displays, because the optically active layer can be less than 15 microns thick.

And it could be used in a wide range of products, including electronic windows and tuneable colour casings on portable electronics.

“This takes the Amazon Kindle, for example, which is black and white, and could make it full colour. So now you could take it from a niche product to a mainstream product,” said Heikenfeld.

The details of the displays have been published in the paper ‘Electrofluidic displays using Young-Laplace transposition of brilliant pigment dispersions’. (ANI)

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Conservatives winning in Turkish Cypriot parliamentary elections

April 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Nicosia/Ankara – The conservative National Unity Party (UBP) was winning by a wide margin in premliminary results after Turkish Cypriots voted Sunday in parliamentary elections.

The UBP had 44 per cent with about two thirds of the vote counted, according to Turkish television reports.

The governing left-wing Republican Turkish Party (CTP), which currently has 25 seats in the 50-seat Parliament, was at about 30 per cent.

A change in government in the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), a state recognized only by Turkey, will not directly affect reunification talks with Greek Cyprus but could put pressure on TRNC President Mehmet Ali Talat to take a harder line.

The eastern Mediterranean island has been divided into a Greek Cypriot south and Turkish Cypriot north since 1974, when Turkey invaded in response to a coup by Greek Cypriots seeking unification of the island with mainland Greece.

Reunification hopes were scuppered in 2004 when – in twin referenda – Greek Cypriots rejected a UN-brokered deal that was accepted by Turkish Cypriots.

Reunification talks resumed in September, and mediators are hopeful that a new deal can be brokered within a year. (dpa)

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Americans Favor New Approach to Cuba: Lift the Travel Ban, Establish Diplomatic Relations

April 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Americans Favor New Approach to Cuba: Lift the Travel Ban, Establish
Diplomatic Relations

COLLEGE PARK, Md., April 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A new
WorldPublicOpinion.org poll finds that a majority of Americans feel that it is
time to try a “new approach to Cuba.”

The study indicates most (70%) favor lifting the ban on American travel to
Cuba and re-establishing diplomatic relations (a 69% majority of Americans).
Freedom for Americans to travel to Cuba is broadly supported by Republicans
(62%), Democrats (77%), and independents (66%).

A majority (59%) endorses the view that it is “time to try a new approach to
Cuba, because Cuba may be ready for a change.” Thirty-nine percent of
Americans favor the counter position of continuing current policy, i.e., “the
Communist Party is still in control; therefore the US should continue to
isolate Cuba.”

At the Summit of the Americas convening April 17-19, President Obama will meet
leaders from 33 other countries in the hemisphere, most of whom disagree with
US policy of isolating Cuba. The American public seems to disagree as well.

By a wide margin, the public believes that increasing trade and travel between
the US and Cuba will lead “Cuba in a more open and democratic direction” (71%)
rather than have the effect of “strengthening the communist regime in Cuba”
(26%).

“US policy towards Cuba is seen as having been ineffectual,” observes Stephen
Weber of WorldPublicOpinion.org. “The American public believes that contact
with the US through normal relations, travel, and trade will produce more
change in Cuba than attempts at isolation.”

The public by a very large majority approves of the Obama administration
policy announced in early March which relaxed restrictions on travel to Cuba
for the purpose of visiting relatives (79% approve, 19% disapprove).

Though most Americans think increasing travel and trade will be effective in
opening up Cuba, Americans are nonetheless divided about whether the US should
end the embargo now: 49 percent favor ending it and 48 percent favor
continuing it.

The findings are based upon a nationwide survey conducted March 25 – April 6,
2009 among 765 American adults (margin of error +/- 3.7%). It was fielded by
Knowledge Networks using its online panel. This panel is randomly selected
from the entire adult population and Internet access is provided to households
that need it.
For more information, visit www.WorldPublicOpinion.org

SOURCE Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of
Maryland

Stephen Weber, WorldPublicOpinion.org, +1-202-232-7500

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Ex-New York Guv Spitzer’s return to public stage stirs talk of political comeback

April 13, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New York, Apr.13 (ANI): Disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s return to the public stage, with articles on Wall Street’s role in the economic crisis and interviews on TV and radio, has led some observers to suggest conditions now are better than ever for him to return to the limelight — if he wants to.

“I don’t think he’s interested in a political comeback at this point. I think he’s now at a point where he can move on with his career It’s time to speak out. … He feels a need to make a public contribution. This is a perfect opportunity for him to enter the public debate,” Fox News quoted Mark Weingarten, a Democratic Party activist and friend of Spitzer, as saying.

As New York’s top attorney for eight years, Spitzer sent chills up the spine of people on Wall Street with investigations of white-collar crime, including a fraud case against insurance giant AIG, which led to the resignation of CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg and a 1.6 billion dollar settlement.

Spitzer was elected governor by a wide margin in 2006, but he resigned in disgrace in March 2008 when it was revealed he was “Client 9″ of a Washington, D.C., prostitution ring.

Recently he has returned with articles on the Wall Street’s role in the economic crisis and interviews on TV and radio.

But Douglas A. Muzzio, a political scientist at Baruch College and an expert on New York politics, said it would be “real difficult” for Spitzer to mount a political comeback.

“It’s not only his problems as Client 9 but his problem as the …steamroller,” he said, referring to Spitzer’s vow to roll over opponents of his agenda as governor.

Muzzio said that although Spitzer may never be able to win elected office again, he could be appointed to a study commission or advisory council.

Since December, Spitzer has written a column for Slate, offering a critique of the financial crisis, and granted his first interviews since falling from grace last year. (ANI)

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