Friday 5 December 2014

Hedge funds win big from oil plunge - YouTube

Hedge funds win big from oil plunge - YouTube: ""



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Putin Grasps at Straws as Economic Cures Fail to Impress - Bloomberg

Putin Grasps at Straws as Economic Cures Fail to Impress - Bloomberg:



"Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recipe for riding out an economic storm has a whiff of panic, say analysts from Moscow to London.



The measures, announced yesterday in a 70-minute Kremlin speech to lawmakers and top officials, ranged from a proposed tax and legal amnesty for those repatriating capital to a four-year moratorium on tax increases. That’s too little, too late, say analysts at banks including VTB Capital and Danske Bank.



The Russian leader is trying to revive an economy battered by a tailspin in oil prices, a plunging currency and sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies over the conflict in Ukraine. With the country walled off from foreign funding and sapped by capital outflows, Putin needs to harness the billions stashed away in low-tax offshore jurisdictions in the years following the Soviet breakup in 1991"



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Brent Drops From 4-Year Low as Saudi Discounts Spur Competition - Bloomberg

Brent Drops From 4-Year Low as Saudi Discounts Spur Competition - Bloomberg:



"Brent fell from a four-year low as Saudi Arabia offered customers in Asia the biggest discount on record for its crude, boosting speculation it’s defending market share. West Texas Intermediate fell in New York.



Futures fell as much as 0.9 percent in London and are headed for a second weekly decline. State-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co. widened its discount for Arab Light sales to Asia next month to $2 a barrel below a regional benchmark, according to a company statement. That’s the lowest in at least 14 years. The kingdom doesn’t want to subsidize Iran, Iraq and Venezuela and is willing to let the market decide prices, said Daniel Yergin, an energy analyst and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. 




Crude slumped 18 percent last month as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries maintained its output quota, letting prices decrease to a level that may slow U.S. production. Saudi Arabia has no price target and will let the market decide at what level oil should trade for now, said a person familiar with its policy."



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Casino-Like Hedges Seen Hurting Airlines as Crude Plunges - Bloomberg

Casino-Like Hedges Seen Hurting Airlines as Crude Plunges - Bloomberg:



"Investors from Sydney to Mumbai cheered the plunge in crude-oil prices, sending Asian airline shares to their highest level in three years. The bad news is several carriers could end up losing money from the sudden drop.



Some Asian carriers, like Singapore Airlines Ltd. (SIA), have hedged fuel at an average of $116 a barrel of jet fuel, when spot market rates are about $85. That can result in losses on paper as airlines will have to account for their hedges or pay charges to unwind contracts prematurely.



Oil’s dramatic decline in the past month is a replay of events in 2008 and 2009, when Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. (293), Chinese carriers and Singapore Air all reported millions in losses because of bets on fuel. An inability to take advantage of a drop in their biggest expense also means airlines may be reluctant to cut fuel surcharges and lower ticket prices for consumers."



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Canary Wharf Owner Gets Offer From Qatar, Brookfield - Bloomberg

Canary Wharf Owner Gets Offer From Qatar, Brookfield - Bloomberg:



"Qatar Investment Authority and Brookfield Property Partners LP (BPY) increased their bid for London Canary Wharf owner Songbird Estates Plc (SBD), and the Qatar fund agreed to buy as much as 9 percent of Brookfield.



The companies offered 350 pence a share in cash for Songbird, they said in a statement today. That’s 33.6 percent more than Songbird’s closing share price on Nov. 5, the day before the initial bid was disclosed, and values the company at about 2.6 billion pounds ($4 billion). Songbird owns 69 percent of Canary Wharf Group Plc, which controls London’s second-biggest financial district.



Buying Songbird would expand Qatar’s London property portfolio, which includes stakes in the Shard skyscraper, Harrods department store and the Olympic Village. It would also allow the new owners to construct thousands of homes in London, the best-performing part of the U.K. residential market in the past five years."



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