Future Business

General Motors (GM), the giant US carmaker which is attempting to stave off bankruptcy, made a loss of $6 billion and burned through $10.2 billion in cash during the first quarter of the year.
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 General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC are racing to finish restructuring plans to present to the federal government as a government-imposed deadline looms Tuesday.
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Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson may ask Congress for the second half of the $700 billion bank rescue program, concerned that the deepening recession may spark further financial turmoil.
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Looking for signs of value in the wreckage? By one measure at least, the stock market seems cheap.

A BusinessWeek analysis of stocks with a market value of $500 million or more found that 29 U.S. companies and 185 foreign ones were trading for less than the amount of cash on their books as of Oct. 14. At the depths of the last bear market—in October 2002—only 14 U.S. and 77 foreign companies fit the bill. Notwithstanding debt, investors are essentially pricing the companies as if their operations were worth zilch—an indication the stocks may have been oversold. "It’s a tempting signal to buy," says Charles Wolf, an analyst at asset manager Needham & Co.

Poor men and women in Ghana, ex-militia fighters in steamy eastern Congo and farmers in Peru are among those joining the ranks of illegal miners and risking their lives as they seek to profit from soaring gold prices.

Grameenphone (GP) Ltd has signed an agreement with the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) Ltd to provide complete communication facilities under its business solutions package, said a press release.

DSE Secretary Shaikh Mohammadullah and GP’s Chief Marketing Officer Stein Naevdal signed the deal on behalf of their respective organisations in the city recently.

Buried in the voluminous GDP data from the Office for National Statistics yesterday was one eye-popping figure. Looking at the various sectors of the British economy, the official statisticians say “financial intermediation” grew by 4.7 per cent between the last quarter of 2006 and the first quarter of 2007. Financial intermediation is essentially financial services and takes in banking, broking, insurance and asset management.
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LAWYERS will take centre stage in the $11.1 billion takeover of Qantas as the bidding consortium seeks to keep its hopes alive.

As the Qantas board yesterday declared the takeover bid dead, and Airline Partners Australia raised the prospect of a new bid, the saga took another twist. Macquarie Bank-led APA will seek a ruling that could prove they actually held at least 50 per cent of the airline before the bid closed at 7pm on Friday.

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The last assets of Russia’s bankrupt oil company Yukos, including its HQ, have been sold to little-known firm Paran for 100bn roubles ($3.9bn; £2bn).

The company outbid state-run Rosneft - the expected winner - by offering four times the opening bid.

The move marks the end of once-dominant Yukos, whose assets are being sold to pay off $26bn in tax bills imposed after fraud investigations.

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BHP Billiton reported that diamond production grew 17 percent to 889,000 carats at its Ekati diamond mine in Canada for the quarter ending March 31, 2007.

The Australia-based mining company reported that for the first nine months of fiscal year 2007, production increased 17 percent to 2.31 million carats at the mine.

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Shell companies, along with junk bonds, penny stocks, and shoulder pads, are usually dismissed as an unfortunate trend of the 1980s. Back then, shells–that is, companies with ticker symbols but no operations–became synonymous with so-called pump-and-dump schemes in which stockbrokers artificially inflated share prices after a shell merged with a private company, without making financial statements on the acquisition available to investors.

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Cigarette makers Altadis and British Imperial are mulling a merger. If they combine, the new company will be No. 4 worldwide

Shares of Franco-Spanish tobacco company Altadis climbed more than 16% on the London Stock Exchange Mar. 15, to 31.01 [$59.85], after the British Imperial Tobacco Group made an approach the previous evening for a possible merger. The tentative offer of 45 [$58.95] per share of Altadis would make the bid worth about 11.5 billion [$15.2 billion]. Analysts say they have anticipated the move for months and expect it to be approved fairly swiftly.

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Women’s apparel retailer AnnTaylor Stores Corp. (NYSE:ANN - news) posted better-than-expected quarterly profit on Friday and forecast earnings for the year above the average Wall Street estimate, sending its shares up as much as 7 percent.

For the fourth quarter, ended February 3, the company reported lower earnings, hurt by unseasonably warm weather across much of the country and a fashion miss at LOFT stores.

But the results beat analysts’ forecasts, and the retailer said it expects first-half softness at LOFT, where it has reduced prices to spur sales, to be followed by improving trends in the second half.

Additionally, the company said during a conference call that business at Loft, which offers more relaxed fashions, was looking better in March. Sales at stores open at least a year have fallen at the division in recent months.

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Unilever bucket a lower London market on Friday as the Anglo-Dutch consumer industries group became the latest FTSE stock to be linked with a private equity takeover.

The maker of Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Dove soap gained 3.2 per cent amid reports that venture capital groups were targeting the company as a bid or break-up target.

The rumours were given impetus by news earlier this week that Cadbury Schweppes was planning to split its confectionary and drinks divisions.

In the wider market, the FTSE 100 was 30.3 points lower at 6,101.9, a day after the index registered its biggest one-day gain since last May.

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Stocks were little changed on Friday as several battered subprime lenders rallied after working out plans to stay in business, but concern about inflation and U.S. economic growth persisted.

Shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT - news) were helping to keep the Dow and S&P above water after Merrill Lynch lifted its rating on the world’s No. 1 retailer.

Stock investors have been jittery over the inflation picture since a report Thursday showing higher-than-expected producer prices. That data diminished hopes that the
Federal Reserve would be able to lower interest rates any time soon.

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