Important news from Chanda

[conceptionlfrec-blog]

UPDATE 1-Milan judge clears Berlusconi in fraud case

The judge ordered Berlusconi's son Pier Silvio and Fedele Confalonieri, respectively the deputy chairman and chairman of Mediaset, to stand trial in the same case, which has been dubbed the "Mediatrade" case."We had always said that there was no wrongdoing and that Berlusconi had nothing to do with this," the premier's lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, said."It's a fairly rare decision ... but nonetheless we still think Berlusconi is being hounded by the Milan judges."The case centres on accusations that Mediaset acquired television rights at inflated prices in deals prosecutors allege resulted in embezzlement of 35 million euros and an 8 million euro tax fraud.Berlusconi still faces two separate corruption and tax fraud court cases linked to his business empire, and a third trial where he is accused of paying for sex with an underage prostitute and abusing his power to cover it up.Berlusconi denies all charges and accuses Milan prosecutors of waging a politically-motivated campaign to oust him from power.The prosecutors in the Mediatrade case will appeal against the decision to clear Berlusconi, judicial sources said.

[conceptionlfrec-blog]

Europe tempted to save Greek trauma for later

Greece’s creditors originally agreed to a 21 percent haircut on their bonds, in the 135 billion euro swap agreed as part of the country’s second bailout. Euro zone officials are now contemplating a 30-to-50 percent haircut, officials told Reuters. But part of that would simply come from changing market conditions, suggesting banks may simply use a higher discount rate to value the new securities they would get in exchange for their bonds. In other words, the larger apparent haircut could be more of an accounting trick than a way to lighten Greece’s debt load.The swap agreed in July used a below-market discount rate of 9 percent to value coupons on the new 30-year bonds. But yields for 30-year Greek debt have risen since July to 17 percent. Twiddle the discount rate to 15 percent, and banks losses jump to 39 percent, even though the terms of the deal haven’t changed.Greece’s budget deficit this year will be larger than forecast in July, largely because austerity is biting hard. The swap may also need tweaking to lighten Greece’s interest costs and cut the deficit. Cutting the interest rate offered to creditors by a full two percentage points — to 2 percent — would be a step in the right direction, increasing the haircut to some 52 percent.But Europe seems to be hesitating to go that far. There may be advantages to a more gentle approach for both banks and politicians. Banks would stagger losses over time, taking some pain now and some later. And they would preserve the benefits of the July swap, which protects their principal by getting Greece to collateralise the new bonds with risk-free securities; this means lower losses in the future restructuring.Euro zone governments can argue they have extracted more from bondholders, and delay the day when they have to take losses on their own loans to Greece. Moreover, Athens would still be slaving under a heavy debt load, keeping it under pressure to reform. But Europe’s leaders should understand that the risk of the crisis dragging on, or even getting worse increases if the debt problem isn’t tackled for good now.

[conceptionlfrec-blog]

UPDATE 1-UGI buys some of Shell's European businesses

Oct 14 (Reuters) - UGI Corp said it acquired some European businesses of oil and gas major Royal Dutch Shell Plc to expand its European Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) business to over 700 million gallons."The acquired businesses provide UGI with an attractive opportunity to expand our footprint in northern Europe to LPG markets that are in close proximity to our existing operations in France and Central Europe," the company said in a statement.The Valley Forge, Pennsylvania-based company did not disclose the value of the deal but said it would modestly add to UGI's 2012 profit.The acquired LPG businesses - located in United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden - delivered about 300 million gallons of LPG in 2010, UGI said.Both companies could not be reached for comments.UGI's shares closed at $26.83 on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

[conceptionlfrec-blog]

Russia's InterRAO says studying Italy's CIR unit

"We will study how interesting it can be to us," he told Reuters.Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore wrote on Thursday that InterRAO was looking to acquire Sorgenia and had hired investment bank UBS as advisor.