Online radio firm Pandora floats for $2.6bn in New York

Pandora lost $1.8m in its most recent full year

The US internet radio service Pandora Media rose sharply on its debut on the New York Stock Exchange, before falling back.

The firm, which has yet to make a profit, had an offering price of $16 (£9.76) a share.
It rose as high as $26 a share on Wednesday before settling down to around $18.75.
The share price values the company at about $3bn, which is well above the current value of AOL, for example.
Pandora is the latest in a series of high-profile internet share sales, with LinkedIn already having floated and Groupon planning a listing.
LinkedIn has a market capitalisation of about $7bn.
Facebook is also expected to launch on the stock market in the next year.
Pandora started out as a music recommendation service called Savage Beast Technologies in 2000.
It changed its name in 2005 when it launched an internet radio service, which allows users to create custom radio stations by specifying which artists and genres they want to hear.
It has 94 million registered users and makes most of its money through advertising.

Greek debt fears put French bank ratings on review

BNP Paribas is one of the banks that may be affected

Ratings agency Moody's has warned it may downgrade the credit rating of three French banks because of their exposure to Greek debt.

Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale all face a possible downgrade because they could face losses on a Greek default.
Credit ratings are a measure of how likely a company or country is to repay its debts.
Moody's has already downgraded the credit ratings of eight Greek banks.
European leaders have yet to agree on the terms of a second bail-out for Greece.
On Wednesday, the country is expected to see another wave of general strikes against austerity measures.
In a statement, Moody's said: "Today's actions reflect Moody's concerns about these banks' exposures to the Greek economy."
Societe Generale and Credit Agricole both hold majority stakes in Greek banks.
BNP Paribas does not have a stake in a Greek bank, but Moody's estimates that it held about 5bn euros (£4.4bn, $7.2bn) of Greek government debt as of December 2010.

Wealth management firms warned by FSA

The regulator is worried that client money is at risk from sloppy investment practices

Firms that manage investments for rich people have been warned they are failing to invest client money properly.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has found evidence that many "wealth management" firms may be exposing their customers to too much risk.
The regulator has written to 260 firms, telling them to ensure their clients' investment portfolios are suitable.
The FSA said a recent review had found "significant, widespread failings".
"We have recently reviewed the suitability of client portfolios in a sample of firms in the wealth management industry," the FSA said in a letter to the chief executives of the registered firms.
"We have identified significant, widespread failings, which we are concerned may also be prevalent in firms outside our sample."
Some of the firms are divisions of big banks and some are independent businesses.
The letter is a warning to the industry to get its house in order.
The FSA looked at a selection of 16 firms to see if the clients' investment portfolios had been managed in line with their "knowledge and experience, financial situation and investment objectives".
The review of records at 16 firms found that:

• 14 had exposed their customers to high, or medium-high, risk of loss, because of unsuitable investments, or investments whose suitability it was not possible to judge
• of the client files examined, 79% had a "high risk of unsuitability", or the suitability could not be decided
• of the files examined, 67% of the investments were not in line with either the firm's own investment model, the client's willingness to accept risky investments, or the client's own investment aims.

The firms that were scrutinised are being followed up by the FSA and some have put in place plans to bring their customers' portfolios back in line.
The FSA said it was especially worried about poor record keeping at the wealth management firms, which meant they did not have basic know-your-client information, or records of the personal financial situations of their clients.
It had also found that investment portfolios did not match the clients' stated willingness to take risk, or to their personal investment objectives.
"These findings give rise to concerns that there is an unacceptable risk of customers of wealth management firms experiencing unfavourable outcomes," the FSA said.
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) said it had received 1,148 complaints about portfolio management in 2010-11, which was 10% more than in the previous year.
About two-thirds of those complaints are currently being decided in favour of the complainant.

FTI: Industries index up in May

The Thai Industries Sentiment Index (TISI) for May rose to 108.3 points from 106.6 in April, thanks to the rising prices of agricultural products and growth in election-related business.

Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) chairman Payungsak Chartsutipol (Photo by Kosol Nakachol)

Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) chairman Payungsak Chartsutipol said on Wednesday there were more orders and sales in the previous month while operating costs and operating results also improved.
Mr Payungsak said the supporting factors were rising domestic demand and high agricultural product prices, which boosted consumption and spending.

Exports continued improving while business related to political electioneering, such as printing, enjoyed higher profits, he said.

However, business operators were still concerned aboutrising operating costs because of increases in prices of raw materials, fuel and interest rates, he said.

The FTI chief said the majority of business operators suggested the government strengthen the industrial sector by revising and amending certain rules and regulations, consider the appropriate level of labour costs to help businesses cope with rising operating costs, maintain political stability after the July 3 general election, and oversee the prices of oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

The TISI for March stood at 102.3.

Tokyo Electric stock surges after approval of rescue plan

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant is owned by TEPCO.

(CNN) -- Japan's beleaguered Tokyo Electric Power Co. received some rare good financial news Wednesday as its stock soared 32% after the government approved a rescue plan a day earlier.
TEPCO shares added 80 yen to close at 329 yen.
Speculators were in a buying mood after Japan's government approved the rescue plan for the owner of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant. The plan also must be approved by the Japanese parliament.
The plant was damaged during the March 11 earthquake and resulting tsunami.
The electricity and gas sector led overall gains in Tokyo's market.
Overall, Tokyo stocks rose Wednesday, after a smaller-than-expected fall in May US retail sales data, as investors' concerns eased over a slowdown in the world's largest economy.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average advanced nearly a third of point Wednesday, while the broader Topix was up 0.22% to 825.65.

Cambodia's riel survives alongside the dollar

By Guy De Launey BBC News, Phnom Penh

In Cambodia, money talks as loudly as it does anywhere else in the world - but at least it never burns a hole in your pocket.

That's because there aren't any coins. You can't talk about coppers or nickels in Cambodian riel. The national bank gave up striking anything metallic more than a decade ago.

People use the Cambodian currency for anything less than a dollar

Instead there's a lot of paper. Right down to the seldom-seen 50 riel note. That's worth all of a cent and a quarter - and it's regarded with about as much affection as the pitifully lightweight one yen coin in Japan.
So wallets, billfolds and purses bulge with dozens of notes - ranging from the crisply-minted to the well-used and filthy. But to many people, the riel is simply small change.
Almost all significant transactions are priced - and paid for - in US dollars. For the visitor it starts with the visa fee on arrival at the airport. But it continues everywhere else in the country.
ATMs pay out in dollars - and all but a tiny percentage of bank deposits are in the US currency.
As for lending, most financial institutions won't even consider doling out anything other than Benjamin Franklin and his presidential friends.
Bombing the bank
International travellers are used to hotels and airlines setting their prices in dollars to get round local currency fluctuations.
But here the shops, tradespeople and even the motorbike taxi drivers accept the folding green. And young people entering the increasing white-collar workforce expect their salary to be quoted in dollars.

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But there are no quarters, dimes or any other American coins in use here. So people use the Cambodian currency for anything less than a dollar.

Everyone knows the exchange rate - 4,000 to the dollar - give or take the odd hundred riel.
It's been that way since at least the start of the century - so people are actually fairly relaxed about taking payments in either currency.
A $5 bill or a 20,000 riel note - it's all the same to most Cambodians. Although the money exchanges at the markets do a brisk trade with people hoping to turn a profit from minor fluctuations in the rates.
It's a system that seems to keep everyone happy. And when you look at the history, it's easy to understand why.
Cambodia didn't have a currency of any kind in the late 1970s - when the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge banned money, and blew up the national bank.
When the riel was reintroduced in the 1980s, the new, Vietnamese-backed government initially had to give it away - such was the lack of public confidence.
The revived currency plunged when United Nations forces ran Cambodia in the early 90s - bringing oodles of dollars with them. Eventually the riel settled into its peg of 4,000 to the dollar - and a clear role as second fiddle.
Dollarisation?

Familiar fudge: Share prices will be quoted in riels, trades may be settled in dollars

But recently there have been agitations for that to change. And they've been taking the long-delayed launch of the Cambodian Stock Exchange as a cue.
The Wall Street Journal published an editorial last month, making the case for Cambodia to use the Exchange as an opportunity to embrace full dollarisation. It would, said the paper, attract more foreign investors - who wouldn't need to worry about currency fluctuations hitting their profits, the way they have in neighbouring Vietnam.
But there's a powerful pro-riel lobby in the government and the National Bank. And they see the Exchange as, perhaps, the final opportunity for the riel to make it as an independent currency.
The solution is a fudge with a familiar ring to it. When the Exchange opens, possibly in a few months' time, share prices will be quoted in riel. But trades may also be settled in dollars - at least for the first three years of the Exchange's operation.
It could all be enormously confusing - or as simple as paying in one currency and getting your change in another. And it's not as if Cambodia is short of practice in that.

Fed's Bullard sees risks with "extended period" phrase

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Lengthening the "extended period" of low U.S. interest rates could encourage a liquidity trap, a top Federal Reserve official said on Saturday.
St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard was commenting on the Fed's promise to keep interest rates low for an "extended period" to blunt the effect of recession.
"The conventional wisdom policy response to a negative shock is to promise a longer 'extended period'," St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said, according to slides he was due to present in Marseille, France on Saturday.
"This may work -- but it may also encourage a liquidity trap outcome," he added in the slides, part of a presentation entitled 'Reducing Deflationary Risk in the U.S.'.
"A better policy response to a negative shock is to expand the QE program," he added, referring to the quantitative easing, which he said have been successful in the United States and Britain.
Bullard, who is a not a voting member on the Fed's policy setting panel this year, is viewed as a centrist on the spectrum of supporters or opponents of aggressive Fed actions to boost the economy.
The global economic recovery is continuing, Bullard said, adding: "During the recovery process, economies are susceptible to further negative shocks."
(Writing by Paul Carrel)

European stock markets higher

AFP/File – A trader looks at computer screens where financial markets curves are scrolling in Paris, 2010. European …
LONDON (AFP) – European stock markets rose Friday, with the energy sector in focus after a court blocked British energy giant BP's Arctic oil tie-up with Rosneft.
Traders also assessed the state of Portugal's debt and political crisis.
The British capital's benchmark FTSE 100 index rose 0.30 percent to 5,898.71 points in late morning trade.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 climbed 0.31 percent to 6,955.08 points, the Paris CAC 40 gained 0.26 percent to 3,979.03 points and Portugal's main index was up 0.23 percent to 7,885.99.
"Friday marked yet another day of gains for European equities with traders continuing to buy into stocks which they feel are good value," said Joshua Raymond, an analyst at London trading group City Index.
"On the flip side to the positive equity session thus far was BP shares, which lagged the FTSE 100 Index after an arbitration panel ruled against their partnership with Russian firm Rosneft for oil exploration in the Arctic.
"The ruling is a bit of a setback for the oil giant which is looking to maximise operations and restore its core brand value after the Gulf of Mexico oil leak last year," Raymond added.
The arbitration tribunal's decision Thursday hit Russia's hopes of expanding its share of the world energy market, according to analysts.
The Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal ruling upholds a freeze on the tie-up issued by a London court in February and formally puts a halt to the $16 billion deal.
The British firm immediately issued a statement saying it "remains committed to partner with Russia" and would seek other ways of completing the historic deal.
"BP has always been and remains fully committed to investing in Russia," it said. The group's share price fell 0.91 percent to 476.55 pence in London trade.
Rosneft shares opened sharply lower and were down about 1.5 percent in early trading on Moscow's MICEX exchange.
Meanwhile in Portugal, the country's President Anibal Cavaco Silva met with leaders of political parties in a bid to resolve a deepening political crisis as rail and bus workers went on strike over pay cuts.
Analysts said the most likely outcome to the crisis caused by the Portuguese parliament's rejection of the government's austerity programme would be a snap election at the end of May or early June.
The austerity plan -- the government's fourth in a year -- was aimed at preventing Portugal from becoming the third eurozone country, after Greece and Ireland, to seek a multi-billion-euro bailout from the EU and the IMF.

Ireland wants bank bondholders to share the pain

By Carmel Crimmins Carmel Crimmins – Sun Mar 27, 9:33 am ET

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland's government wants to impose losses on some senior bondholders in Irish lenders to reduce the burden on taxpayers from a prolonged banking crisis, a senior minister said on Sunday.
Dublin wants to impose losses on banks' senior unsecured bonds not covered by a state guarantee, which currently amount to over 16 billion euros, as part of a new deal with the European Union, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
"A sustainable and comprehensive solution for Irish banking that involves recapitalization but also involves an element of burden-sharing ... That is certainly the outcome that the government is looking for," Simon Coveney, minister for agriculture, told state broadcaster RTE.
Under an EU-IMF bailout agreed late last year Ireland can impose losses on banks' junior debt, but the ECB is opposed to treating senior bondholders, which are ranked on a par with depositors, in the same fashion for fear of a contagion risk.
Ireland's new government, elected in February, has said the state cannot afford the current EU-IMF bailout deal and European finance ministers will decide on what sort of concessions they can offer Dublin in coming weeks.
They are awaiting the results of fresh stress tests on Ireland's banks, expected to show a capital hole of around 25 billion euros, on March 31 before deciding on any new deal.
Coveney said investors are already pricing in the possibility of a restructuring of senior bank debt given that it is trading at a discount in the secondary market.
"Markets are already ahead of us on this one. There is an acceptance that there is a possibility if not a likelihood that bondholders in Irish banks may have to share some of the pain," he said.
Analysts widely expect the government to impose losses on senior bondholders in nationalized lenders Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide because they have sold their deposits and are being wound down.
Hitting any unsecured unguaranteed senior bonds in Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks (AIB), which amount to over 11 billion euros, would be more controversial.
Rumours that AIB was planning to miss a coupon payment on a bond, denied by the bank, helped send the yield on two-year Irish sovereign paper soaring to euro-era highs as investors feared a sovereign restructuring was in the works.
(Editing by David Holmes)

.US experiencing uneven job growth across states

AP – FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2011, file photo first-term GOP Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., listens to Sen. Orrin 

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer Christopher S. Rugaber, Ap Economics Writer – Fri Mar 25, 6:46 pm ET

WASHINGTON – U.S. companies have added jobs for 12 straight months, giving some of the hardest hit states a lift. But the gains have been uneven and several states are still losing jobs.
California and Michigan, which each suffered some of the worst losses during the recession, are adding jobs again. California last month had its single best month for job creation in more than two decades.
Still, six states lost jobs from February 2010 through last month. Among the worst for job creation in that time were New Mexico and New Jersey, states that only a year ago were in the middle of the pack.
Overall, 44 states boosted employment in that stretch, one of the best year over-year showings since the recession ended in June 2009. And the unemployment rate has fallen in 41 states. The February report from the Labor Department on state and regional employment is the latest sign that job growth is picking up.
Nationwide, employers added 1.3 million net jobs in that period.
California, which was still losing jobs as recently as September, has added nearly 200,000 jobs in that time. That's second only to Texas, which added 254,200 net jobs.
Nearly half of that increase in California occurred in February, when the state gained 96,500 jobs. That's the most on records dating back to 1990.
The nation's largest state by population still has a long way to go to recover the 1.3 million jobs lost during the recession, which began in December 2007. But analysts were encouraged by the recent gains.
"California ... has been lagging the United States a bit, but it seems to be catching up this year," said Jerry Nickelsburg, senior economist with the University of California, Los Angeles' quarterly Anderson Forecast.
The job gains are broad-based, Nickelsburg said, noting that they occurred in manufacturing, transportation and warehousing and information technology. Even construction firms added about 15,000 jobs. But those were most likely for commercial real estate and infrastructure projects, rather than housing, Nickelsburg added.
Rising imports have boosted jobs among shipping companies that take the goods from ports and distribute them around the country.
Internet services firms have also been a major source of growth. Google Inc. has been on a hiring spree, adding 4,600 employees last year. It plans to add 6,200 more in 2011, though some will be overseas. Zynga, which developed the popular "FarmVille" game for Facebook, has been hiring rapidly. It was founded in 2007 in San Francisco and already has 1,500 employees.
California isn't the only state getting back on its feet.
Michigan added 71,000 jobs in the same period. That's the first sustained job gain the state has seen in the past decade, said Sophia Koropeckyj, a managing director at Moody's Analytics.
The state is benefiting from a turnaround in the auto industry. Both General Motors Co. and Chrysler LLC have boosted sales and employment since emerging from bankruptcy in 2009. Both said late last year that they would each hire 1,000 engineers and researchers.
Ford Motor Co. announced earlier this year that it will hire 7,000 workers in the next two years. Overall, Michigan has added 28,000 manufacturing jobs in the past 12 months.
At the same time, Michigan no longer has the nation's highest unemployment rate. It has plummeted over the past year from 13.5 percent to 10.4 percent, the biggest drop in the nation. Half of the decline reflects a large drop in the state's work force. Once unemployed workers give up looking for jobs, they are no longer counted as unemployed.
But six states still experienced job losses over the past year — Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico and New Jersey.
Most of the losses were small. As a percent of their work forces, Kansas reported the biggest loss. Layoffs by telecommunications companies, particularly Sprint, and cuts by insurance companies, restaurants and bars have cost Kansas a net total of 10,500 jobs in the past year.
New Mexico's payrolls have fallen by 6,800 since February 2010. The drop mostly reflects small losses from many firms rather than any large layoffs, business leaders say.
"It's like a duck nipping at our ankles. It's a little bit here and a little bit there and before you know it, it becomes a big number," said Terri Cole, president and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce.
Construction firms and governments have cut jobs. And while the state produces oil and natural gas, it hasn't benefited as much as its neighbors, Texas and Oklahoma. That's because those states produce more oil. New Mexico focuses more on production of natural gas, said Jim Peach, an economics professor at New Mexico State University. Natural gas prices haven't risen nearly as much in the past year as oil.
New Jersey, which lost 6,500 jobs in the past 12 months, has suffered from cuts in the pharmaceutical industry. Several large companies have combined and cut staffs in the face of growing generic competition. Pfizer, for example, bought Madison, N.J.-based Wyeth in 2009. Before the recession, about one in every seven pharmaceutical industry jobs was based in New Jersey.
"I thought it was a great industry to be in. I never thought I'd be out of work because there were so many opportunities to choose from with so many firms around here," said Justin Mangiore, an Ocean County resident who worked as a sales representative for several pharmaceutical firms before losing his job last winter.
Growing competition has also hurt its casino industry, as neighboring states such as Pennsylvania and Delaware have recently allowed gambling.
Atlantic City's unemployment rate is above 14 percent and has barely budged in the past year, even as the nation's jobless rate has fallen by almost a percentage point.
"It doesn't have the monopoly it once had," said James Hughes, a dean and regional analyst at Rutgers University. "It was like Las Vegas east there for a couple of decades."
___
AP Writers Jacob Adelman in Los Angeles, Bruce Shipkowski in Trenton, N.J., and Susan Montoya in Albuquerque, N.M. contributed to this report.
source http://news.yahoo.com/business;_ylt=Arg_e3HZVlJ6rkL92DmUVWWaK8MA

Cambodia Securities Exchange got licence from SECC

Photo from the Post

Finance Ministry’s the Securities Exchange Commission of Cambodia –SECC- granted licence to Thе Cambodian Securities Exchange as a market machinist.

Ming Bankosal, SECC director AƖƖ-purpose, ѕаіԁ that it had certified the Cambodia Securities Exchange, meaning another hurdle has been cleared before іtѕ launch, according to the Post.

Meanwhile, trading firms got certificates at Phnom Penh Lodge to act as cash agreement agents, securities, and accountants and auditor firms.

Hong Sok Hour, Chief Executive Officer of Cambodia Securities Exchange, ѕаіԁ that the licences were an indispensable constituent for the exchange, which is due to launch in July this year, papers continued.

“Wе are optimistic in this area the notch of the securities market in Cambodia, but we are not sure whether it will be thriving or not as we don’t have all the components in places уеt,” added hе.

The Securities Exchange Commission of Cambodia suspended 5 trading firms

Cambodia stock exchange

After the government has been granting license to local domestic trading firms to run its business of stock market in Cambodia, recently, the Securities Exchange Commission of Cambodia – SECC- halted temporarily five domestic trading firms because of lack of the necessary regulatory framework.

According to the SECC issued announcement on March 1, there are five domestic trading companies to be suspended, named as Gold Financial Comprehensive, First State Gold Investment companionship, Comprehensive Gold and Forex Investment Consultant Companionship, CMDK Gold Companionship and International Gold Market Companionship.

The SECC have main role in cooperating with all trading firms in order to prepare the necessary regulatory.

Ming Bankosal, SECC director, said that Cambodian companies offering derivatives trading had operated without the necessary regulatory framework being in place, according to the Post.

He added that “we had not prepared any regulatory or policy to manage them [firms trading in derivatives] and it is not the priority for us – we want the public to know the stock exchange first, then we will think about preparation of regulations for derivative products.”