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Home Business Ideas Home July 7, 2007 In Brief - FridayComments (0) Filed under: business — admin @ 4:28 am Microsoft’s () $6 bil acquisition of online advertising group aQuantive () was given the green light by federal antitrust regulators. The software maker dipped 2 cents to 29.97. Mannatech, () a provider of nutritional supplements, plunged 23.5% to 12.25 after Texas’ attorney general alleged that the company made exaggerated claims about the therapeutic benefits of its products. For The Record: A July 2 story about Web-based photo services described Shutterfly () as the only publicly traded photo-sharing company. Actually, rival PhotoWorks () trades over-the-counter under the symbol PHTW. For The Record: A story about Juniper Networks () in Friday’s Internet & Technology section should have stated the company’s first-quarter sales were $627 million. Betting On A Building BoomComments (0) Filed under: business — admin @ 4:28 am The building boom that has boosted publicly traded heavy construction companies shows no signs of quieting. Spending on new skyscrapers, oil and gas plants, public transportation infrastructure, and other big projects worldwide is expected to remain strong, analysts say. Unlike the downbeat U.S. housing market, nonresidential construction is in an up cycle. The heavy construction industry is benefiting from the fact that many subsectors are doing well at the same time, such as hotels and casinos, oil and gas production, road construction, and commercial buildings. Growth is especially strong overseas in places such as China and the Middle East. “Right now the industry is in very good shape,” said John Rogers, an analyst with D.A. Davidson & Co. “There’s strong growth and strong prospects. The order books for these companies continue to expand faster than they can burn it off.” The American Institute of Architects is forecasting 7.2% growth in nonresidential construction spending throughout all of this year, driven by hotel and office building business. That’s on top of 6% growth last year. The institute’s closely watched Architecture Billings Index, a leading economic indicator of construction activity, revealed a spike in design activity in May. That follows three months of moderate growth. With a nine- to 12-month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending, the forecast for the nonresidential construction market remains favorable throughout 2007 and into early 2008, the AIA said. The U.S. Census Bureau is forecasting private nonresidential construction spending to rise nearly 9% this year to $343 billion. It sees public construction spending growing 6% to $285 billion. 1. Business IBD’s industry group for building companies involved in heavy construction includes 26 stocks. These firms are involved in engineering, design, construction and facilities management for large-scale projects. Leading the group are giants Fluor () and Jacobs Engineering Group. () What separates the winners from the also-rans in this construction segment is strong management, analysts say. The top-notch companies have a proven track record of project execution and bidding work properly. “This isn’t a business where it’s easy to set up a shingle somewhere and open your doors,” said Richard Paget, an analyst with Morgan Joseph & Co. “People award you work based on what you’ve done in the past.” The best performing companies have a firm grasp of local rules and regulations as well as issues associated with labor and materials. One trend helping to improve the stability and profitability of the sector is the shift to more cost-plus contracts. With fixed-price contracts, the rewards were higher but so were the risks. Companies often struggled when hit with unexpected increases in materials and labor costs or project delays. Cost-plus contracts allow contractors to pass on some cost increases. “The engineering and construction companies can push some of the risks back on to the project owners that historically they may not have,” said Steven Fisher, an analyst with UBS. “You’re seeing a decline in the amount of fixed-price work on backlog over time.” Name Of The Game: The leading heavy construction companies have a history of satisfying their customers on big projects. They focus on choosing the right projects, meeting their goals and doing so profitably. 2. Market The heavy construction industry is highly fragmented and dominated by many privately held companies. The largest U.S. contractor is Bechtel Group, a privately held engineering, construction and project management company based in San Francisco. Fluor is No. 2, according to Engineering News-Record. The largest U.S. design firm, meanwhile, is URS, () followed by Jacobs, ENR reports. The industry has seen a lot of acquisitions in recent years and that consolidation activity is expected to continue. Larger companies are using acquisitions to make inroads into faster growing international markets, analysts say. “As the bigger players generate cash, they will use it for making smaller, bolt-on acquisitions,” Fisher said. In May, URS announced plans to buy Washington Group International () for $2.6 billion. In March, Jacobs inked a deal to buy Edwards and Kelcey, a privately held engineering, design, planning, and construction management firm. Last October, Perini () bought Rudolph and Sletten, an established building contractor and construction management company. 3. Climate The heavy construction industry is a cyclical business. But the current up trend is likely to continue, thanks to the need for more oil and gas production and refinery capacity, public infrastructure projects such as road and airport improvements and other trends. “This particular cycle will be longer and drawn out,” Paget said. It also will be less volatile than in the past, he says. Up cycles in the building industry typically last seven to 10 years and down cycles last two to four years, he says. One of the big drivers lately has been the oil and gas sector, Paget says. The high price and demand for oil has led to refinery expansion projects, oil sands ventures in Canada and petrochemical plants in the Middle East, he says. Fluor and Jacobs are two major beneficiaries of this trend. Analysts also are seeing the start of an increase in power infrastructure spending. With systems strained to the limit, countries need better power transmission and distribution systems, Paget says. Eventually the market for power generation will stage a comeback, as new nuclear, coal and other plants are built, Paget says. But about half the market for heavy construction comprises general buildings. That includes office buildings, hospitals and schools. China and the Middle East, especially the United Arab Emirates, have seen big booms in general construction. In the U.S., federal and state governments have recognized the need to fund more public infrastructure improvement projects. In particular, California has pledged to spend tens of billions of dollars on infrastructure upgrades over the next decade. 4. Technology Companies involved in the engineering and construction of big works projects have benefited from new technology to share design and planning with multiple offices. In years past, a lot of the engineering, planning and project management staff had to be on-site or near the construction site, Rogers says. But thanks to Internet-based project management and collaboration systems, a lot of the detail work can be done in virtual meetings. “That’s one of the reasons some of the bigger companies are gaining an advantage,” Rogers said. 5. Outlook The outlook for the heavy construction industry remains positive, analysts say. Valuations for public companies in the sector are at historical highs, but there’s still room for growth, Paget says. Since the building industry follows macroeconomic trends, analysts are keeping an eye out for signs of a slowdown. They’re also watching trends in the energy sector and government spending on infrastructure improvements. Possible shortages of labor and materials are a concern, too, since they could drive up costs and cause project delays and cancellations. Upside: Lots of big construction projects are forecast for fast-growing markets in Asia and the Middle East. Energy trends are prompting companies to add oil refining capacity and build new power generation and distribution systems. Risks: The big risks for companies in the sector often are related to their performance on particular big projects. Their execution on those projects can have a huge impact on their profitability. Options In Focus: Option Splits IIComments (0) Filed under: investment — admin @ 4:28 am Stock splits carry with them special concerns for options traders. In Thursday’s article, we explored some basic split types and their impact on positions involving either Calls or Puts. In today’s piece, we’re picking up with a 3-for-2 split in Brookfield Asset Management () and working through the associated math to remove any mysteries that might be present. For holders of Brookfield Asset Management options on June 1, a 3-for-2 or 1.5-for-1 stock split was going to make their positions look slightly askew the following Monday on June 4th. In Thursday’s article we left off posing the question of what would happen to a +3 Call position. Without the elves at the Options Clearing Corp and our brokerage putting +4.5 Calls into our accounts, which they won’t, something would have to give. And something does of course. In this “odd” split situation, it’s the multiplier beneath the surface which keeps our aggregate value or cost basis in check. Let’s take a look at an example position in BAM Calls, before and after its split, to better appreciate the mechanics. Let’s assume a trader has purchased +3 July 65 Calls for 1.50, which represented the mid market close on June 1. The aggregate value is 3 x 1.50 or $450 for the position. On June 4, if one were to pull up an options matrix on BAM, they’d find that the July 65 strike had been converted (65 / 1.5) into the July 43.37 Strike. Further, if the Calls closed at 0.80 s by day’s end. That represents a loss of 0.20, as an unchanged value would be 1.00 (1.50 pre split / 1.50). At this point, there shouldn’t be any problems with the math involved. However, some scratching of the head over a 0.20 price shaving in the options, with BAM stock down just 0.14 on the day, is another situation / potential problem altogether. A loss is never fun, even if it’s still an unrealized and tolerable one in the scheme of things. However, in the case of BAM, if the same positioned trader pulled up their trading account and didn’t know any better, by looking at the number of contracts and the P & L for the day; they’d likely need an aspirin as well. The reason being, they’d see the account still maintained +3 Calls, but was down -$60 for the session. How’d did the Call premium drop from 1.50 pre-split to 0.80 post split, the contract count remain the same, but only result in a loss of $60 bucks? The answer is the multiplier involved. Since this type of odd split doesn’t allow contract adjustments due to the possibility of non-whole numbers being involved, the new premium levels must be multiplied by 1.50. In this instance, 0.80 x 1.50 = 1.30; which when multiplied by the three contracts ’still’ in inventory we come up with an aggregate value of $390. With an initial cost basis of $450, by finding the difference of the two, we come up with the $60 P & L swing. Hopefully the process of what happens to existing option positions in front of a stock split is clearer. Additionally, as it relates to those “odd” situations, if traders are looking to open up a position and the strikes do appear funny looking, check with your broker as to the pricing involved, before acting. Generally, new classes of options will be rolled out with standard strikes and multipliers of 100 shares per contract; and that’s where fresh trader interest will likely be, if any. Finally, if you do find yourself needing to close out an adjusted (pre-split) position, make sure the option code of your inventory matches what you’re trying to exit, as the old symbol code will have changed if new options were listed. Otherwise, some mostly easy math could turn into a financial problem not so easily handled. If questions are still unanswered or more details wanted, traders can turn to the Option Industry’s Council website (888options.com) or my forum at Optionetics.com. Visit the «www.investors.com» for an extensive list of option-related terms. The observations provided are not investment advice or a recommendation, the suitability of which is considered the responsibility of the trader.Copyright 2007 through Optionetics, Inc. All rights reserved. «www.optionetics.com?source=ibdweb» is a Trademark or a registered Trademark of Optionetics, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. A Way Into Canada’s Crude And Oil SandsComments (0) Filed under: investment — admin @ 4:27 am When you think of oil, you think of the Middle East. But our neighbor to the north has the second-largest oil reserves in the world behind Saudi Arabia. Canada boasts being the world’s third-largest producer of natural gas and ranks ninth in crude oil production. Canadian oil production is projected to grow from 2.6 million barrels a day in 2006 to 4.6 million barrels per day by 2015 and to more than 5.3 million by 2020. That’s according to the June 2007 crude oil forecast report from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. CAPP attributes most of the growth to increasing production from the oil sands, which have only begun to be tapped. Claymore Securities aims to tap into Canada’s rich reserves with the Claymore/SWM Canadian Energy Income Index () ETF, launched July 3. It combines 29 Canadian royalty trusts and oil sands producers that have been screened for profitability, liquidity and production growth. Royalty Trust A royalty trust is a corporation that’s structured like a real estate investment trust or REIT. A high percentage of the profits are passed on to shareholders as dividends. Oil sands are a mix of bitumen, a heavy tar-like oil, sand, water and clay. Unlike regular crude oil, it has to be mined, processed and blended into synthetic crude oil and diesel fuel. Suncor Energy () accounts for 7.3% of assets. It reported that oil sands production averaged 225,000 barrels of crude per day as of the end of June. It plans to increase production to 265,000 barrels per day this year and more than half a million barrels a day by 2010 or 2012. Other Pursuits Suncor is also engaged in energy exploration and refining. And it’s trying to be a major player in renewable energy. It runs Canada’s largest ethanol plant, which can produce as much as 200 million liters of ethanol annually. It’s building four wind-power projects that are set to be up and running by the end of this year. But analysts polled by Thomson Financial expect sales to decline the next four quarters. Earnings are also expected to slow down. Another major holding that trades in the U.S., Imperial Oil, () makes up 5.8% of assets. It bought back 47.1 million shares for about $2.0 billion as of mid-June. In addition, it plans to buy back up to 5% of its outstanding common shares over the next 12 months. That’s relatively significant considering Exxon Mobil () owns 69.6% of total shares. Imperial claims to have more than 1.6 billion barrels in proven reserves and 12 billion unproven barrels. It sells gas at about 2,000 Esso stations located throughout Canada. Sales growth declined the past five quarters. Earnings growth tapered off from 96% year over year to 5% in Q1. From fox diaries to Wildlife WatchComments (0) Filed under: business — admin @ 4:27 am AT FIRST glance, the streets of Glasgow may seem like the last place you would go looking to find exciting wildlife tales. But, as Gordon Buchanan has been discovering, Scotland’s urban areas are teaming with different species - and one of the most entertaining is the fox. The wildlife cameraman - who is more used to jetting around the world to film exotic creatures or watching white-tailed eagles on his native Mull - has spent the past few weeks following animals in Glasgow and filming fox diaries as part of BBC2’s Springwatch. The escapades of some of the individuals he has seen - including “Jamie Fox” and the “Chip Shop Family” - have kept millions of viewers entertained over the past three weeks. The fox diaries have developed into individual stories following each of the creatures, with viewers meeting Jamie’s cubs and learning more about the Chip Shop Family, including the troublesome cub Mungo, whose antics have had hearts in mouths night after night. Mr Buchanan lives in Glasgow and has been putting his local knowledge to good use while following the foxes. It is the close attention to detail - which is demonstrated by so many contributors to the Springwatch survey and The Scotsman Wildlife Watch - that helps Mr Buchanan and his colleagues when it comes to making wildlife films and finding out more about birds and animals. Mr Buchanan thinks Wildlife Watch and other surveys have an important role to play in building our knowledge of Scotland’s wildlife. “It’s of huge importance, and I think it’s really great that there is a platform for pulling all that information together and putting it to good use,” he said. “It’s important because you can’t have eyes and ears everywhere when it comes to the science side of recording wildlife goings-on.” Mr Buchanan added: “I’ve found that, wherever I am, speaking to the local people rather than the scientists, you can find out much more, because there are people living in certain areas of the country that are seeing stuff all the time. “They may not think of it as being of that much importance, but when you actually collate all that information, it’s of huge relevance and you get a much broader picture of what’s going on, rather than plonking one researcher or one scientist down in one location.” The Scotsman Wildlife Watch, which is supported by the Scottish Wildlife Trust, returns tomorrow. In our third survey, we want readers to go out into their gardens and the countryside and tell us about what they see. Photographs are especially welcome and a selection of notes and pictures will be published in The Scotsman next week. All readers’ records will be passed on to Biological Recording in Scotland (BRISC), which will distribute the notes to its network of local records centres and local recorders. The last Wildlife Watch, in March, attracted a lot of interest among readers, especially with schools and families. Mr Buchanan said he thinks it is important to help children and young people to form links with nature. “I think it’s really important for children to take an interest in wildlife because, in today’s world, people are more in-tune with the countryside and issues like climate change. “It’s today’s children that will have to make sure that we really look after what we’ve got. “The adults who are around today didn’t grow up knowing anything about concerns for the planet or wildlife - we’ve really just been learning as we go. “It’s really encouraging that children from an early age are beginning to understand about wildlife and about the challenges that they face.” Springwatch comes to an end tonight - with a final highlights programme on BBC1 tomorrow - but Mr Buchanan is already planning his next wildlife filming trip. He is heading to Shetland in pursuit of orcas, better known as killer whales, to find out why the huge mammals choose to spend time in Scottish waters. And remember, please send in your sightings and photographs over the course of the weekend. How you can take part in our nature survey WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO? Go outside and make a record of the wildlife you see, both in your garden and out in the country. Either take photographs or make written notes and e-mail them to wildlife@scotsman.com or post them to: Wildlife Watch, The Scotsman, 108 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh EH8 8AS. WHERE SHOULD I GO? We are interested in wildlife sightings from towns and cities, through to the countryside and coast. Sightings on Scottish Wildlife Trust reserves are also welcome. For details about SWT reserves, log on to http://www.swt.org.uk WHAT SHOULD I LOOK FOR? Anything and everything - birds, mammals, fish and insects. Records of unusual plants are also welcome. WHAT NOTES SHOULD I TAKE? Note the name of the species; the date you saw it; where you saw it (preferably including a postcode or a six-figure grid reference); how many you saw; and your own contact details. The records will be collected by The Scotsman and passed to the SWT and Biological Recording in Scotland, which may use them in their work. WHAT SHOULD I TAKE WITH ME? Take a pen and paper to note sightings. If you have binoculars take them; it is important to identify correctly the creatures you see. Take your camera; photographs can be useful for identifying species. If it is sunny, remember your sun-cream. HOW CAN I TELL WHAT SPECIES IT IS? Books to help you identify wildlife are often available in libraries. The SWT and RSPB websites can also be useful for identification: log on to http://www.swt.org.uk or try visiting http://www.rspb.org.uk. Related topic - http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1429http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1429 — Next Page » Categories business investment fx realty Archives July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 News In Brief - Friday Betting On A Building Boom Options In Focus: Option Splits II A Way Into Canada’s Crude And Oil Sands From fox diaries to Wildlife Watch Copper Rally Rolls On, But Gold Lags; Crude Oil Closes In On Its Old Record Daily Report: Focus on ‘Vigilance’ from ECB Nightlife at the Museum UK smoking ban will dent hospitality sector - CEBR report China credit growth too fast, investment needs to be curbed - premier - UPDATE Feeds            Friends Make Money With YoPages! Ads
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