Shell profits rise on oil prices

Royal Dutch Shell has announced a 41% increase in first quarter profits on the back of higher world oil prices.

The Anglo-Dutch company said profits for the first three months of the year were $6.9bn (£4.1bn) compared with $4.9bn a year ago.

"We are making good progress against our targets, to deliver a more competitive performance," said chief executive Peter Voser.

On Wednesday, rival BP reported first quarter profits of $5.5bn.

BP's profits were down slightly from the same period last year. Production in the quarter was down 11% after BP sold assets to help pay for the cost of cleaning up last year's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Production target

As well as higher oil prices, Shell said asset sales and cost saving measures had also contributed to its profitability in the first quarter.

In March, the firm set out a new $100bn investment programme to meet demand for oil and gas.

It has set a production target of 3.7 million barrels of gas and oil per day by 2014.

Shell is one of the world's major suppliers of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The firm said it had started commercial production at its Qatargas 4 LNG facility.

As a consequence of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, demand for LNG is expected to increase as nuclear power there is scaled back.

President Trump?

Donald Trump may or may not run for the White House, but he has already reached his preferred destination: the center of attention...."I'm Very Serious"

Photograph by Michele Asselin

By Sheelah Kolhatkar
More than anything else, Donald Trump wants you to know that he is rich.
"Look, the news is that I'm much richer than everyone thinks," Trump says, possibly for the 11th time in one afternoon. "I'm worth more than $7 billion, with hundreds of millions in cash. That's after paying off mortgages, after buying airplanes … "
Trump thrives on an audience and a foil, and today, inside his Trump World Tower offices in New York City, he has both. He's sitting behind his desk, stacked with magazines and newspaper clippings about himself, discussing his proto-Presidential campaign whose sudden momentum seems to have surprised even him. His longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, hovers nearby with a bunch of papers: a list of assets as of June 30, 2010, and a blue-bound report by the accounting firm WeiserMazars. "Each line's a different asset," Trump murmurs, running his finger down one of the pages, which lists categories such as residential properties, commercial properties, clubs, real estate licensing deals, and the Miss Universe Pageant, plus around $245 million in cash and equivalents. Then the papers are whisked away. "Most people think I'm worth two billion. They don't know." He adds, "You know, I don't even have mortgages." It turns out that he has at least one: Documents on file with the city of New York indicate there is a $160 million mortgage on 40 Wall Street, which Trump borrowed $10 million to buy in 1996.
Trump has spent years trying to bulldoze the world into believing that he is worth a great deal more than independent analyses have confirmed. He wants the doubters and the haters and the petty critics and the other real estate people to know that not only could he do a better job than President Obama—that, if he were in charge, he would kick China's and Saudi Arabia's butts and have jobs flowing back into the U.S. within months—but that he's been goddamn successful at business.
Throughout his career's wild ups and downs, the value of Trump's holdings has been estimated anywhere from negative $295 million in 1990 (according to data released that year by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission), to $150 million to $250 million (Timothy L. O'Brien in The New York Times in 2005), to $2.7 billion (the latest Forbes ranking). Trump is so obsessed with the public perception of his wealth that he sued O'Brien for defamation in 2006, charging him with damaging his reputation and costing him business opportunities by low-balling his net worth. (He requested $5 billion in damages; the suit was later dismissed.)
Several observers—from veteran pollster Frank Luntz to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and longtime Trump friend Larry King—believe he will never actually run for office because, per King, "It's just not Donald," or because it would require that he make public his tax returns. Trump insists that isn't a factor: "I wouldn't mind doing it because I have a great company," he says, "very little leverage, lots of cash and tremendous assets." He's toyed with the notion before, having contemplated a run as a Reform Party candidate in 1999 before pulling out a few weeks after the GOP Iowa Caucus. The final test will be if he formally files with the Federal Election Commission.
"You can call up the banks," Trump continues, tapping his finger on the page. "This is cash. This isn't bulls--t, this isn't, like, ribbons. This is cash."
A woman pops her head into the room. "Senator D'Amato … " she says.
Trump grabs the phone. "Senator Alfooonse! How're you?
"Another poll just came out! I'm doin' well, huh?" Trump oozes into the handset. "Absolutely. Go ahead. You know I know what I'm doing. Hey, did you see the poll? Go ahead … Let me tell ya, Al, I'm having fun. Have you seen the polls, Al? I'm No. 1. In the worst poll I'm No. 2 …
"I have a lot of cash … " he says. "Hey Al, they came in with a building last week, a building I wanted for two years, and I said, 'Who gives a f--k?' … Right? Who cares? No, I see what you're talking about. What did Koch say? No, he's come a long way. I like the guy. Even though he sort of f--ked me.
"I'm going to the Washington correspondents' dinner. That's going to be bedlam. You'll love that one … I love you. Thanks, Senator!"
Trump hangs up the phone. "He said, 'I've never seen anything like this in my life,' " he says. " 'Everybody thinks you're gonna win.' "


Here are a few things we know about Donald Trump: He likes to brag; he's an excellent salesman and a master brander, having put his name on condos, golf clubs, watches, chocolate, ties, and dozens of other products available for purchase at Macy's and elsewhere; he exaggerates as a strategic tool and a birthright. He has learned over time that if he says something often enough and is willing to ignore evidence to the contrary, eventually people will stop bothering to challenge him on matters ranging from his net worth to unsubstantiated claims about President Obama's citizenship—and, that if they do, he can brush them aside and bluff onward, making him the perfect avatar of the truthiness age.
For the past few weeks, he has been impossible to avoid, which is the way he likes it, for just as a shark needs to move, Donald Trump needs attention. And nothing—not splashing his name on buildings, dumping older wives for younger ones, writing books, starring in a hit TV show, The Apprentice, and decades of general ostentation, bluster, and outrageousness—has whipped up the kind of frenzy that his sudden coming-out as a birther and potential Republican Presidential candidate has. "Right now, if I wanted to make three calls, I could do all three networks live within twenty minutes," Trump says. "I mean, it's CRAZY what's going on."
What might have started out as a stunt to gin up ratings as his show grinds through its 11th season has led to a drumbeat of press suggesting that Trump might be semi-serious. As several polls came out putting Trump even or ahead of Mitt Romney, a familiar sense of intoxication washed over the popularizer of the phrase "You're Fired!" Suddenly, people were calling Trump, soliciting his thoughts on world peace and the global economy: What do you think about Libya, Mr. Trump? What are you going to do, Mr. Trump? "I'm very serious," Trump says repeatedly of his pre-campaign. The season finale of The Apprentice is on May 22; he promises a decision shortly thereafter.
So far, Trump has spoken to at least five Republican strategists in his search for political advice, including Tony Fabrizio and John McLaughlin. (Fabrizio, who recently worked with former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and Florida governor Rick Scott, ultimately declined to work with Trump; McLaughlin has counseled many members of Congress as well as former Presidential candidates Steve Forbes and Fred Thompson.) Trump has also laid plans for appearances in key states such as New Hampshire and Nevada, which he planned to visit on Apr. 27 and 28, South Carolina on May 19, and Iowa in June. "He's a known commodity. You've got to think beyond the man to the larger brand," says Kellyanne Conway, a Republican pollster with whom Trump has also had talks. "He just seems to be able to say things and do things that no one else can." But, she adds, "My vote is, don't beat Obama on where he was born, beat him on where he's taken this country."...more



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Nokia market share falls but Microsoft deal confirmed

Mobile phone maker Nokia has posted better-than-expected profits for the first three months of 2011, down 1% to 344m euros (£304m).

Investors have been awaiting news of how Nokia will boost its presence in the smartphone market

But its market share fell 4% to 29% as cheaper rivals and the popularity of competitors' smartphones ate into Nokia's dominance.
Nokia also said that it had struck a long-awaited deal to develop smartphone technology with Microsoft.
Investors welcomed the news, sending Nokia shares up almost 3%.
Stephen Elop, chief executive, said: "In the first quarter, we shifted from defining our strategy to executing our strategy. On this front, I am pleased to report that we signed our definitive agreement with Microsoft and already our product design and engineering work is well underway."
The Finnish company's slow response to the smartphone threat from Apple's iPhone and the Blackberry handsets has been one of investors' key concerns.
On Wednesday Apple unveiled a 95% rise in first-quarter profits, and said it had sold a record 18.65 million iPhones during the quarter.
Consultants Strategy Analytics said that Apple had now overtaken Nokia as the world's largest handset seller in revenue terms.

Nokia v Apple (Q1)

                                                         Nokia                       Apple

Handset sales                                    108.5m                      18.6m
Average wholesale price                    $87                            $638
Handset revenues                              $9.4bn                       $11.9bn
Source: Strategy Analytics

Despite shifting more than 108.5 million handsets in the last quarter - almost six times that sold by Apple - Strategy says that the US's firms revenues from its more expensive phones far outstripped its Finnish rival's.
'Under control'
Under the Microsoft deal, Nokia will start using the US company's software on its smartphones instead of its own Symbian platform.
Nokia said the deal will enable it to cut annual costs by around 1bn euros.
Nokia's group sales rose by 9% to 10.40bn euros, while smartphone sales were up 6% at 7bn euros.
The company's key phone unit reported an operating profit margin of 9.8% for the January-March period, well ahead of analysts forecast of 8.6%.
However, Nokia said that for the full year, margins would fall to within a 6%-9% range.

"Finalisation of the agreement with Microsoft means Nokia can now focus on execution, but margin guidance underlines that difficult times lie ahead as it transitions the portfolio," said analyst Geoff Blaber from CCS Insight.
Despite the drop in Nokia's market share - the first time in a decade it has fallen below 30% - Sami Sarkamies, analyst at Nordea, said: "The first quarter was very strong, much better than expected.
"It seems the situation is under control, there were no dramatic changes," he added.


.bbc.co

When Hedge Fund Owners Invest in Sports Teams

By Katherine Burton

 it may be "a function of ego"—and it tends to send investment performance sliding

John W. Henry, founder of futures trader John W. Henry & Co., became the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox in 2002. Two years later the team won its first World Series in 86 years. Three years after that it chalked up a second championship. While the Sox were winning, the firm's assets were dwindling, falling to $319 million as of Apr. 15 from a peak of $3.4 billion in 2005.
James Pallotta, a Boston-based hedge fund manager who at his peak oversaw more than $11 billion, bought part of the Boston Celtics in December 2002. Six years later the basketball team won the National Basketball Assn. championship. In June 2009, following two years of losses, he closed his Raptor Global hedge funds.
The trend hasn't gone unnoticed by hedge fund investors. "Owning a team can be a function of ego, it is very high-profile, and it could prove to be a distraction," says Brad R. Balter, head of Boston-based Balter Capital Management, which farms out money to hedge funds. "As an investor, I have to consider that." Words to bear in mind for Steven A. Cohen, the billionaire hedge fund manager who is bidding for a minority stake in the New York Mets.
Of course, there are plenty of reasons hedge fund managers lose money, and most have to do with unexpected events like, say, a global financial crisis. The average hedge fund tumbled almost 20 percent in 2008, mostly in the last quarter of the year, following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.
Investors such as Balter are watchful for signs fund managers have become less attentive to their day jobs. "We don't begrudge managers getting rich, but we want to invest with people who are motivated and are concentrating full-time on managing money," says Brett H. Barth, a partner at New York-based BBR Partners, which invests in hedge funds.
Cohen, 54, oversees $12 billion at his SAC Capital Advisors in Stamford, Conn. A Mets fan since his childhood in Great Neck, N.Y., Cohen is competing against at least two other groups, including one formed by hedge fund manager Anthony Scaramucci, for a stake of 25 percent to 49 percent of the team, which hasn't won a World Series since 1986. The Mets' owners, the Wilpon family, are fighting a $1 billion lawsuit filed by the trustee trying to recover money for victims of the Ponzi scheme created by Bernard Madoff.
Cohen, who declined to comment, has been enjoying his status as a billionaire for years. His art collection boasts works by Van Gogh, Picasso, and Warhol, and his Connecticut mansion has a two-hole golf course and a basketball court. So far his lifestyle hasn't hurt his returns, which have averaged about 30 percent a year over almost two decades, one of the best records in the industry.
For a billionaire fund manager, buying a stake in a sports team might be about "fulfilling a childhood fantasy, showing the world you've made it, or buying out of boredom," says Brad Klontz, a financial psychologist and associate research professor in personal financial planning at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan.
In October, Henry, 61, added Liverpool FC, the English soccer club, to a sports portfolio that also once included the Florida Marlins baseball team. Henry's funds buy and sell based on computer models that haven't changed dramatically since Henry designed them in the 1970s. That means Henry doesn't need to spend his days glued to trading screens, says Kenneth Webster, the firm's president. Webster says returns have picked up since 2007, after two years of underperformance.
Pallotta, 53, has also added to his sports holdings, joining a group that bought AS Roma, an Italian soccer club, last week. Pallotta, who started Raptor Global in October 1993, had returned about 19 percent on average annually until 2007. That year his funds tumbled 8.5 percent, followed by a 20 percent drop in 2008. He's now running a new stock fund, Raptor Evolution. "Every investment helps me in what we are doing—our network is our business," says Pallotta, who adds that his investments in the teams are passive. His minority stake in the Celtics involves going to two board meetings a year—after market hours. "It's not a lack of focus," he says. "It's absolutely the opposite."
For Philip Falcone, 48, head of New York-based Harbinger Capital Partners, his interest in owning a team predates his hedge fund career. He played professional hockey in Malmö, Sweden, for a year, until a leg injury sent him to Wall Street. He became a billionaire after making a profitable bet on the collapse of the subprime loan market in 2007 and started spending his money immediately.
By February 2008, Falcone had bought Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione's 27-room townhouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side for $49 million. He became a noncontrolling partner of the National Hockey League's Minnesota Wild in April of that year. His fund assets peaked two months later at $26 billion. He now manages about $7 billion. Falcone also declined to comment.
Not all managers have seen their performance suffer after investing in sports. David Tepper, 53, who runs the $16 billion Appaloosa Management in Short Hills, N.J., bought a 5 percent stake in the Pittsburgh Steelers in September 2009. That year his main fund climbed 130 percent. His fund returned about 30 percent last year and is up 10 percent so far this year—meaning the Steelers haven't kept him from scoring.


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