October 20, 2011 at 3:40am
Newsman Mark Whitaker details complex family in memoir
Then, exactly one year after his father passed away, he
woke up in the middle of the night and decided it was time.The result, “My Long Trip Home: A Family Memoir” published
on Tuesday, details Whitaker’s complex family history and
upbringing, focusing on the ups and downs of his relationship
with his bright but self-destructive father.Whitaker’s first book explores how growing up as the
biracial child of the “doubly taboo” marriage between his white
professor mother and black student father influenced his
professional and personal path.While Whitaker had long been hesitant to delve into the
darker aspects of his family history — and always resisted
being boxed in by his racial background — he realized that
those very things contributed to his success as a journalist,
husband and father.”I wanted to prove myself on my own, both vis-a-vis my
parents and my race,” he told Reuters.”But at the end of the day, you are formed by your racial
identity, by who your parents are. The fact that I was ready to
not only explore my past, but embrace the way in which my
parents and my racial background and my family influenced me,
in a way, was a sign of growing up.”Whitaker shares tidbits about the heroics of his French
grandfather during World War Two, his father’s alcoholism and
womanizing, and his year spent at a middle school in France.His journalistic skills, he noted, helped piece together
the book.”Because I’m a reporter, I became more and more curious
about the things I didn’t know, so I decided to start reporting
the story,” he said. “It was really the reporting and finding
out all the things that I didn’t know that really made me even
more fascinated and compelled.”CHANGING MEDIA INDUSTRYWhitaker acknowledges the changes in the media landscape
since he found his professional calling reporting for the
Harvard Crimson and interning at Newsweek during summers away
from the university. He points to recent industry developments
such as social media and self-publishing.”It’s disrupted traditional media in significant ways,” he
said. “I don’t think traditional media is going to go away, but
I think it’s radically changed people’s sources of information,
and that’s something that I think all the big media
organizations are going to have to deal with.”While new technology has posed challenges for the media
outlets where Whitaker has worked, he sees many positive
outcomes of changes taking place in publishing and media.”What has been bad news to some degree for the industry of
journalism is good news for a lot of people who want to do some
of their own reporting — about their own family history, or
anything else,” he said.He encourages his readers to do just that, even writing a
piece for CNN.com about his reporting methods. His
recommendations include interviewing and recording the stories
of surviving relatives, asking for letters and photos, and even
DNA testing for those interested in their genetic backgrounds.As the managing editor at CNN, Whitaker said that bringing
foreign news to U.S. audiences is a satisfying way to connect
his family history and career.After a long trip, it seems he is finally home.
October 18, 2011 at 4:17am
UPDATE 2-Bellway hikes dividend, eyes more growth
* Eyes 5 pct growth in volumes as opens new site* Says reservations up 11 pct in current trading* Shares up 0.9 pct vs 1.4 pct index dropBy Lorraine TurnerLONDON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - British homebuilder Bellway Plc
hiked its dividend by nearly a third after posting a 51
percent rise in full-year profit, and is eyeing further growth
in sales as it drives new site openings across the country.Bellway Chief Executive John Watson said on Tuesday the
company had made a good start to its new financial year, with
reservations up 11 percent so far.”It’s a steady marketplace and we’re glad to see
reservations are at least ticking up,” Watson told Reuters.”For us it’s about opening new outlets. We will hopefully
have another year of higher average selling price and a bit more
volume and margin growth,” he added. Bellway is targeting a 5
percent increase in the number of sites and sales volumes.The builder, which operates from over 200 sales outlets in
the UK, posted a pretax profit of 67.2 million pounds ($106
million) in the 12 months to end-July, compared with 44.4
million last year.That was towards the top end of market expectations, which
had already edged higher after an upbeat trading update from the
company in August. Forecasts ranged between 58 million pounds
and 67.7 million, with the average at 63.8 million, according to
18 forecasts on Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.But the outlook for the UK economy remains uncertain. Data
last week showed Britain’s jobless total hitting a 17-year high,
with youth unemployment its highest since records began in 1992.”The board is confident of delivering these improvements
over the next 12 months but, as ever, remains mindful of current
economic uncertainties,” said Chairman Howard Dawe in a
statement.BIG DISPARITYUK housebuilders have retrenched in recent years as a dearth
of mortgages continues to cripple housing sales, also prompting
builders to shift their product mix towards more popular
family-sized homes.Housebuilders have also refocused their activities on the
more lucrative market in crowded southeast England.Recent figures show asking prices in the south have risen
more than 5 percent since the start of the credit crunch, while
falling 9.4 percent in the north, resulting in the biggest
disparity between the two regions since records began in August
2002.Bellway, which operates from 35 sites in and around London,
said the majority of its new sites being opened will continue to
be in the south. However, it will invest in sites in the north
of England when growth returns, with volumes already proving
resilient in the northeast and the West Midlands.”It’s a pendulum, when one’s up, the other’s down. So I’m
mentally saying to myself, keep investing in these towns and
cities in the north because at some stage, the pendulum will
swing,” he said.Shares in Bellway, which said it would increase its final
dividend by over 30 percent to 8.8 pence to give a total 12.5p
for the year, were up 0.9 percent by 0750 GMT, outperforming the
FTSE midcap index which was down 1.4 percent.Bellway had said in August the number of completions in the
year through July had risen by 7 percent to 4,922, while the
average selling price of homes sold rose 7 percent to 175,613
pounds.
October 17, 2011 at 3:42pm
RLPC-Banks selling Com Hem bridge loan exposure
* Mezz investors ramp up presence in EuropeBy Claire RuckinLONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Banks arranging the 13.2 billion
Swedish crown ($2.0 billion)financing backing BC Partners’
buyout of Swedish cable company Com Hem are in talks to sell
around $200 million of a bridge loan to an unsecured high-yield
bond to investors, bankers close to the deal said on Monday.Arranging banks Goldman Sachs, Nordea, UBS, Deutsche Bank,
Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley underwrote the
financing in July but have been unable to issue the bond after
August’s market disruption.The banks are close to selling just under half of the 2.65
billion crown bridge loan to a planned eight-year unsecured
bond, the bankers said.The overall deal financing package also includes a 3.5
billion crown senior secured bridge to high yield bond, which
has not been changed, along with a 7.1 billion leveraged loan in
general syndication.Potential buyers of the unsecured high-yield bridge loan are
subordinated funds which specialize in junior debt, including
mezzanine loans and high-yield bonds, bankers said.The sale will ease pressure on the arranging banks’ balance
sheets. The banks have been finding it difficult to keep bridge
loan risk on their books in volatile markets, which makes it
more challenging and expensive to issue high-yield bonds.The news will be welcomed by subordinated lenders which have
been raising funds to invest in non-standard loans which offer
good yield and also the potential to convert into other types
of debt including mezzanine loans if the high-yield bond
refinancing route remains shut, as seen in the case of Swedish
alarm maker Securitas Direct.The bridge loan selldown follows several other changes made
by arranging banks to boost sales. Arrangers cut the size of the
subordinated bridge loan in September to 2.65 billion crowns
from 3.185 billion and agreed to increase the payment-in-kind
tranche to 1.37 billion.The inclusion of a PIK note reduced Com Hem’s total
cash-paying interest to 5.6 times EBITDA from 5.9 times, as the
notes only pay interest at maturity. Total leverage on the deal
is 6.2 times debt to EBITDA including the PIK note.BC Partners said on July 22 it will buy Com Hem from Carlyle
Group and Providence Equity Partners. The firm paid about 17.5
billion crowns ($2.6 billion) for Com Hem, banking sources said.
($1 = 6.639 Swedish crowns)
3:42pm
RLPC-Banks selling Com Hem bridge loan exposure
* Mezz investors ramp up presence in EuropeBy Claire RuckinLONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Banks arranging the 13.2 billion
Swedish crown ($2.0 billion)financing backing BC Partners’
buyout of Swedish cable company Com Hem are in talks to sell
around $200 million of a bridge loan to an unsecured high-yield
bond to investors, bankers close to the deal said on Monday.Arranging banks Goldman Sachs, Nordea, UBS, Deutsche Bank,
Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley underwrote the
financing in July but have been unable to issue the bond after
August’s market disruption.The banks are close to selling just under half of the 2.65
billion crown bridge loan to a planned eight-year unsecured
bond, the bankers said.The overall deal financing package also includes a 3.5
billion crown senior secured bridge to high yield bond, which
has not been changed, along with a 7.1 billion leveraged loan in
general syndication.Potential buyers of the unsecured high-yield bridge loan are
subordinated funds which specialize in junior debt, including
mezzanine loans and high-yield bonds, bankers said.The sale will ease pressure on the arranging banks’ balance
sheets. The banks have been finding it difficult to keep bridge
loan risk on their books in volatile markets, which makes it
more challenging and expensive to issue high-yield bonds.The news will be welcomed by subordinated lenders which have
been raising funds to invest in non-standard loans which offer
good yield and also the potential to convert into other types
of debt including mezzanine loans if the high-yield bond
refinancing route remains shut, as seen in the case of Swedish
alarm maker Securitas Direct.The bridge loan selldown follows several other changes made
by arranging banks to boost sales. Arrangers cut the size of the
subordinated bridge loan in September to 2.65 billion crowns
from 3.185 billion and agreed to increase the payment-in-kind
tranche to 1.37 billion.The inclusion of a PIK note reduced Com Hem’s total
cash-paying interest to 5.6 times EBITDA from 5.9 times, as the
notes only pay interest at maturity. Total leverage on the deal
is 6.2 times debt to EBITDA including the PIK note.BC Partners said on July 22 it will buy Com Hem from Carlyle
Group and Providence Equity Partners. The firm paid about 17.5
billion crowns ($2.6 billion) for Com Hem, banking sources said.
($1 = 6.639 Swedish crowns)
October 13, 2011 at 5:31pm
GLOBAL MARKETS-China data weighs on stocks, copper
* Copper declines after data from China, the biggest user* Global stocks slip after six days of gainsBy Rodrigo CamposNEW YORK, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Global stocks fell and oil and
copper declined on Thursday after soft Chinese data drove
worries about the strength of world economy.The euro slipped against the dollar a day after hitting an
almost one-month high. European Central Bank policy makers
warned the euro zone could fall back into recession.The ECB also warned that forcing private bondholders to
accept losses on euro zone sovereign debt could damage the euro
and hurt banks.An index of U.S. bank shares slid 2.9 percent and an
index of European lenders lost 3.7 percent.Shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second largest U.S.
bank, slid 4.8 percent to $31.60. after it reported a drop in
quarterly earnings. JPMorgan was the first major U.S. bank to
post results this season.Prices of U.S. Treasury debt rose as investors sought
relative safety. Major stock markets and the euro had recently
jumped sharply on hopes the debt crisis was close to being
resolved.”Over the last week we have seen a major short squeeze in a
number of risk-sensitive assets,” said Jens Nordvig, head of
G10 currency strategy at Nomura in New York.”But the fundamental picture remains clearly negative,” he
said. “We remain very skeptical that European policy makers
will bring out a convincing policy response in coming weeks.”U.S. shares fell from three-week highs after China reported
its trade surplus narrowed for a second straight month in
September. Both imports and exports were lower than expected.The Dow Jones industrial average fell 40.72 points,
or 0.35 percent, to 11,478.13. The S&P Poor’s 500 dipped
3.59 points, or 0.30 percent, to 1,203.66. The Nasdaq Composite gained 15.51 points, or 0.60 percent, to 2,620.24.A spike in shares of chip makers helped drive the
tech-heavy Nasdaq higher.The S&P 500 has run up more than 10 percent from a 2011 low
hit on Oct. 4; on Wednesday it notched the largest seven-day
rally since March 2009 on growing optimism European leaders
were making progress in tackling the region’s debt problems.World stocks as measured by MSCI were down
0.2 percent after six days of gains.Crude oil imports into China, one of the largest engines of
demand growth, dropped 12 percent in September from last year’s
record high. Brent crude fell 0.2 percent on the day,
snapping a six-day winning streak. U.S. light crude futures dropped 1.2 percent, further hurt by a rise in
stockpiles.The soft data from China also pressured copper prices . The industrial metal, often taken as a proxy for
economic growth expectations, fell 2.5 percent. China is the
world’s largest copper consumer, accounting for nearly 40
percent of global demand.The euro slipped against the U.S. dollar, pulling back from
a one-month high, after the ECB warned about the impact on the
currency and the region’s banks of involving bondholders in
euro zone bailouts.Slovakia’s parliament backed a plan to bolster the euro
zone’s rescue fund after political parties agreed to hold an
early election, concluding the ratification process in all euro
zone countries.But even with a revamped rescue fund, European banks remain
vulnerable to a Greek default and to sovereign downgrades. That
increases the urgency for them to raise more capital to remain
financially sound, analysts said.The single currency hit a New York session low of
$1.3685 on trading platform EBS. It last traded at $1.3786,
down less than 0.1 percent on the day. The euro on Wednesday
touched its highest level versus the greenback since Sept. 16.Italy sold 6.2 billion euros of debt, split across four
bonds. But yields remained under pressure, and the European
Central Bank stepped into the secondary market after the
auction, buying Italian debt to cap rising yields.The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was up 9/32, with
the yield at 2.1798 percent.Thirty-year bonds gained as much as two points
after a $30 billion auction that saw yields fall below market
forecasts. They last traded up 30/32 in price to yield 3.149
percent.
October 12, 2011 at 4:26am
SSE set to offer wholesale deals to UK consumers-FT
The newspaper cited Ian Marchant, chief executive of SSE,
as saying he expected “one or two” of his competitors among the
big six utilities companies to follow suit by Christmas.Marchant had hoped to begin auctioning all of his
electricity as early as Wednesday, but the risk of “swamping
the exchange” meant that it would phase in auctioning, starting
on Friday, according to the FT article.SSE will buy all the electricity required for its customers
from the same source, which may help push down consumers’
bills.At present, the big utilities use their own power stations
to generate most of the electricity they supply to British
homes. In effect, only a relatively small surplus is traded on
the wholesale market.SSE aims to auction 25 percent of its electricity by the
end of November and 100 percent by early next year.
