Aides stop former RSS chief from speaking to media - Times of India
PUNE: Former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief K S Sudarshan was stopped from interacting with the media by his own men at a function held at Balgandharv Rangmandir on Thursday.
Sudarshan, who was in the city to attend a felicitation programme, was seated in the audience and not among dignitaries on the stage. When some media persons requested him to speak, Sudarshan readily agreed. However, his aides sitting nearby immediately surrounded him. They said that Sudarshan does not speak to the media without prior permission. Sudarshan looked puzzled by the reaction of his own men. "Why will I not speak? I am going to speak to them," he said. However, his aides did not relent and told the media persons to go away. "You need to understand the RSS system. Don't insist and go away. I know you are going to ask him about RSS," one of his associates said. Sudarshan remained a mute spectator as the journalists left the scene.
Sudarshan's early years as the sarsanghachalak were tumultuous with the BJP in power at the Centre. The Sangh Parivar came under attack for the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat and the Jinnah controversy triggered by Advani during a trip to Pakistan. Sudarshan, who retired in 2009 citing health reasons, made headlines for making controversial statements. In 2010, the Sangh had to express regret over one such statement he made against Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The Sangh had then clarified that Sudarshan's views on the Congress president do not represent the views of the organisation.
Sudarshan has kept a low profile since then and is guarded from making any statements, said an RSS worker present at the functioN.
TEXT-S&P summary: PT Medco Energi Internasional Tbk. - Reuters UK
(The following statement was released by the rating agency)
June 15 -
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Summary analysis -- PT Medco Energi Internasional Tbk. ------------ 15-Jun-2012
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CREDIT RATING: B/Stable/-- Country: Indonesia
Primary SIC: Oil and gas
exploration
services
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Credit Rating History:
Local currency Foreign currency
07-May-2009 B/-- B/--
03-Feb-2002 B+/-- B+/--
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Rationale
The rating on PT Medco Energi Internasional Tbk. (Medco) reflects the company's exposure to volatile hydrocarbon prices, its large investment requirements, and its aggressive financial policy that relies on debt to fund growth. Medco's favorable location and cost structure, good growth potential in its development and exploration blocks, and its partial insulation from currency instability and sovereign-debt risk temper these weaknesses.
Medco's liquidity and operating cash flow are exposed to volatility in hydrocarbon prices. Nevertheless, liquidity and operating cash flow have benefited from an increase in average realized oil prices to $113.7 per barrel in 2011, from $81.4 per barrel a year earlier. Overall production remained broadly stable at 67.6 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day. As a result, the company's debt-to-EBITDA ratio improved to 3.6x in 2011, from 4.1x in 2010, despite a 32% increase in debt.
Asset sales have also improved liquidity in the past 12 months. Medco sold a 20% stake in the Senoro-Toili production sharing contract to Mitsubishi Corp. (A+/Stable/A-1) for $260 million in early 2011. The company also sold Medco Tunisia Anaguid Ltd. for $58 million and a 51% stake in PT Medco Power Indonesia for $112 million in December 2011. These divestments have lowered Medco's future investment commitments under these projects.
We expect Medco's financial risk profile to remain "aggressive" in the next 12-24 months. This is due to the company's substantial estimated total capital expenditure of $695 million in 2012 and 2013. The spending relates to Medco's major development projects, namely the Senoro-Toili gas/liquefied natural gas development and the Block A gas reserves project in Indonesia. These projects will be predominantly debt-funded and would not generate any cash flows until 2014.
Progress at Medco's major projects is critical to prevent any deterioration in the company's "weak" business risk profile from the continuing decline in its producing asset: the Rimau block. In our view, the growth potential in Medco's major projects is solid. However, these projects expose the company to some execution and operational risks. Nevertheless, these projects are currently proceeding as planned. We continue not to factor in any benefit from Medco's Libya operations, given the contingent nature of the project and political instability in the region.
Liquidity
Medco has "adequate" liquidity, as our criteria define the term. We expect the company's sources of liquidity, including cash and available credit facilities, to exceed its uses of liquidity by at least 1.4x in the next 12 months.
Our liquidity assessment incorporates the following factors and assumptions:
-- As of Dec. 31, 2011, Medco has cash and cash equivalents of $703.9 million and short-term investments of $247.3 million, compared with $539.2 million of short-term debt due (including accrued interest).
-- As of March 31, 2012, Medco has access to unused committed credit facilities of $230 million. Some of these facilities are renewable every 12 months, which is in line with the typical banking practice in Indonesia.
-- Liquidity sources over the next 12 months include our expectation of FFO of about $190 million, short-term credit facilities, and cash and current investments.
-- Liquidity needs over the next 12 months include our expectation of capital expenditure of about $271 million and dividends and debt repayments of about $514 million.
-- We anticipate that the company's liquidity sources will exceed its needs even if EBITDA declines by 15%.
There are no rating triggers in Medco's current loan documents, but the company must comply with financial covenants on interest coverage, leverage, and liquidity. We believe Medco has been operating within these covenants.
Outlook
The stable outlook reflects our expectation that Medco's production and development projects will continue to progress as planned, and that oil prices will remain above US$90 a barrel and gas prices at about US$4.0 per million British thermal unit. Under this scenario, we expect the company's debt-to-EBITDA ratio to remain about 4.0x in 2012.
We may lower the rating if Medco's liquidity or financial risk profile weakens due to: (1) delays at the company's major projects that result in higher-than-expected capital expenditure or a delay in cash flow contributions; (2) lower-than-expected production in existing fields; or (3) a substantial fall in oil prices. A debt-to-EBITDA ratio rising to more than 4.5x on a sustained basis would indicate such a weakening.
We could raise the rating if the following occurs:
-- Higher-than-expected oil prices result in improved credit ratios and liquidity for Medco. A debt-to-EBITDA ratio of about 3.5x on a sustained basis would indicate such an improvement; and
-- The company's major development projects progress as planned. This includes a commercialization of the Block A gas reserves development by the second half of 2012 and timely progress of the Senoro-Toili block toward production in 2014.
Related Criteria And Research
-- Standard & Poor's Raises Its Oil Price Assumptions; Natural Gas Price Assumptions Unchanged, March 22, 2012
-- Key Credit Factors: Global Criteria For Rating The Oil And Gas Exploration And Production Industry, Jan. 20, 2012
-- Criteria Methodology: Business Risk/Financial Risk Matrix Expanded, May 27, 2009
-- 2008 Corporate Criteria: Analytical Methodology, April 15, 2008
Stars join Songwriters Hall of Fame - BBC News
Ne-Yo, Bette Midler, Ben E. King and Bob Seger give their reaction to their awards
Multi-platinum artist Bob Seger, Bette Midler and R&B star Ne-Yo have been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
The team behind enduring hit Stand By Me - Ben E. King and songwriting duo Mike Stoller and the late Jerry Leiber - were given The Towering Song Award.
King was also presented with a special award for his performance on the track.
Ne-Yo, who was given the Hal David Starlight Award for young songwriters, credited music with saving him.
"I was a pretty riled up little kid," he explained, on the red carpet. "If not for my mom giving me the pad and the pen and telling me to take my emotions and put them there, there's no telling. I might I have been sticking you up or something."
Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks presented Bette Midler with the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award. It honours industry veterans who are "pioneers in their craft" and have "inspired the music community".
Midler has enjoyed success on stage, screen and as a recording artist, winning three Grammys - including for her 1989 hit, Wind Beneath My Wings.
"Any award is a great honour," said Midler. "I mean people think of you and it is very sweet. It is all very sweet."
Seger kicked off the ceremony in New York with a performance of 1973 track, Turn the Page.
The Detroit rocker achieved commercial success with 1976 album Night Moves. He called songwriting the hardest but most rewarding thing he does.
The Songwriters Hall of Fame was founded in 1969 by Johnny Mercer to recognise the best in the field.
Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, the writers of long-running musical, The Fantastick's, were also honoured in the ceremony's 43rd year.
Other inductees include Jim Steinman, who wrote Bat Out of Hell and Total Eclipse of the Heart, Canadian folk rocker Gordon Lightfoot, and Don Schlitz, who penned country hits including When You Say Nothing at All.
Among those taking to the stage to hand out awards or perform were Meatloaf, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, Steve Miller and Kenny Rogers.
Milan hail hero Berlusconi over Silva affair - Football
Published: 15 Jun 2012 - 13:17:40
AC Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani has hailed club president and former Italy Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as a hero for deciding not to sell Thiago Silva to Paris St Germain.
The French runners-up had made a 46 million euro offer for the Brazilian, considered one of the best centre-backs in the world.
Galliani even flew to Paris to negotiate with PSG sports director Leonardo, a former Milan coach.
But after PSG announced they had cut off talks with the Italian giants, Milan came out and claimed Berlusconi had decided to keep the 27-year-old.
"I feel much better thanks to the president Berlusconi," said Galliani.
"I'm also a Milan fan and they (the fans) should thank Berlusconi. This was an act of heroism.
"By keeping Thiago Silva, Milan will lose a lot of money, even this year, and that's money that Silvio Berlusconi will cover.
"The Milan fans must remember what the president has been doing for the last 26 years. His heart won the day."
Silva's agent Paulo Tonietto said the decision to keep his client showed what the Brazilian is worth and claimed he deserved a pay rise.
However, only a year ago he signed a contract extension until June 2016 and Milan seem unwilling to renegotiate so soon.
"I think that's a natural possibility but I think it will be easy to come to agreement with a great person such as Thiago Silva," said Berlusconi.
"We're in a (financial) crisis and even for my family it's not easy to maintain Milan's great expenditure."
It wasn't just Galliani trying to position Berlusconi as the club's saviour, as happened three years ago when the Italians tried to sell Kaka to Manchester City for more than £100 million -- Kaka refused to go and so Berlusconi turned around and said he had decided to keep the Brazilian.
The main man himself was not slow to remind the club's fans just how important he is to them.
"They (PSG) made a very interesting offer of 46 million euros and we took this possibility on board," said Berlusconi.
"But then we had a look at the centre-backs transfer market to replace our Thiago and found that it would not have been a convenient operation.
"The old "rossonero" heart of Silvio Berlusconi managed to say no to this type of offer for a defender who will make Milan win in Italy and in Europe."
Related AC Milan News
Gerrard hails England spirit (From York Press) - The Press in York
Gerrard hails England spirit
6:10am Friday 15th June 2012 in National Sport News © Press Association 2011
Steven Gerrard insists what England's players lack in quality they make up for in heart and desire.
Ahead of Friday's Euro 2012 encounter with Sweden in Kiev, manager Roy Hodgson positively bristled when it was suggested his squad are technically inferior to some of their rivals in Poland and Ukraine.
Gerrard has a more realistic outlook and believes the Three Lions have other attributes that need to be taken into account, saying: "These people who have that opinion are watching Spain and Barcelona. Of course we are not as technically gifted as those teams or that type of player. They are the best in the world. What we haven't got in technique, maybe we gain on them in heart, desire and commitment."
Chelsea's backs-to-the-wall performances in both the Champions League semi-final and final this season was put to Gerrard as the obvious example of what he meant, to which the skipper quickly added: "So did we in 2005. Exactly the same."
The assessment is largely based upon France's dominance in possession in Donetsk on Monday and the glaring statistic Les Bleus completed twice as many passes.
Hodgson does not feel those figures tell a true picture, while Gerrard underlined a more circumspect approach that needs to be adopted in such situations.
"You have to understand, you can't approach some of these teams and go out all attacking and gung-ho," he said.
"If you are not organised, tight defensively and maybe sacrifice something going forward you go home early."
Black box funds profit in May from markets' slide - Reuters UK
(Removes stray character from paragraph 9)
* Computer-driven funds turn around after recent weak returns
* Small to mid-sized funds more nimble than big names
* Black boxes latched on strong downtrends in euro, oil, copper
By Eric Onstad
LONDON, June 15 (Reuters) - A clutch of computer-driven hedge funds have profited from steep market losses in May, outperforming other hedge funds in a welcome turnaround for the black box sector that has struggled recently amid volatile markets.
Many of the outperformers were small and mid-sized funds that were more nimble and able to switch direction easier than the big established ones, investors said.
Some well known names such as $29 billion Winton Capital and $21 billion AHL failed to exploit losses spurred by renewed troubles in the euro zone in May after also disappointing investors by missing out on a brief rally earlier in the year.
The so-called managed futures sector uses complex algorithms to latch on to market trends either up or down to churn out profits. They are also known as commodity trading advisers, CTAs, because they started off by trading commodities but have since expanded futures for any asset class.
They attracted a surge of funds in 2009 after hefty gains during the 2008 financial crisis, but since then performance has been uneven.
"Recently it's been a bit too choppy for the strategy, but May was perfect conditions for them, with clear trends on all the major asset classes they trade," said Gabriel Garcin, a portfolio manager at Europanel Research & Alternative Asset Management in Paris, which invests in European hedge funds and CTAs.
The CTA index, compiled by research firm BarclayHedge, gained 2.6 percent in May, while its hedge fund index fell 2.8 percent.
Financial computer programmes do best when markets move in strong trends, and most have struggled to profit amid choppy markets over the past year.
In May, a downtrend was clear as Brent crude tumbled 14.7 percent, copper by 11.6 percent, the euro 6.7 percent and the S&P index by 6.3 percent.
FUZZY LOGIC
A top performer was Chicago-based Clarke Capital Management, whose $49 million Millennium Fund soared by 46.5 percent and its $20 million Jupiter Fund by 39.7 percent in May.
Former computer programmer Michael Clarke, a veteran in the CTA sector since founding his firm in 1993, uses a "fuzzy logic" trend filter to confirm trading signals.
The Millennium Fund, which trades 42 markets and uses 22 computer models, has a volatile history, with a 95.5 percent gain in 2008 and a 48.3 percent loss the following year.
The fund's biggest winning positions in May were from shorting the euro and going long on bunds, with contributions from shorting gasoil, crude oil, cotton and coffee, Vice President of Operations Jim Andersen told Reuters.
Prior to May, several of the fund's computer models gave similar signals on the euro.
"When the price movement went our way in May, a majority of our trading models' positions were able to benefit from those moves, amplifying the gains," Andersen said.
Quantitative Investment Management's (QIM) $288 million Global Fund 3x jumped by 23.7 percent in May, according to performance information seen by Reuters.
QIM, headed by former Societe Generale trader Jaffray Woodriff, said in an investor newsletter that its bigger Global Program fund with $4.04 billion in assets, gained 7.17 percent last month by shorting the euro, the S&P index and crude oil.
"As the program is now at new highs, we would like to thank all of our investors who have weathered the storm with us," said Virginia-based QIM, whose Global Fund lost 4.5 percent in January and 1.4 percent in February.
Chicago-based Hawksbill Capital Management, run by former professional blackjack player Tom Shanks, saw its Global Diversified Program jump 16.13 percent in May. The $111 million fund made the bulk of its money on energy, currencies and European financials, it said in an investor update.
In the UK, Cantab Capital gained 7.32 percent in May mostly from positions on foreign exchange and interest rates. The Cambridge-based firm is run by former Goldman Sachs executive Ewan Kirk, who once headed the bank's quantitative unit.
BIGGER FUNDS LESS AGILE
While the overall CTA sector showed positive returns in May, many major funds were still struggling after they failed to profit from the market rebound early in the year.
Winton's main Futures Fund fell another 0.17 percent in May, bringing the yearly return to a 0.93 percent loss, and Man Group's AHL fund is down 0.7 percent through June 11.
"The largest guys ... seem to have got caught. Probably they are too big and too heavy on the markets, so they are less flexible and it takes more time to reverse from long to short," said an industry source who declined to be named.
The $14 billion BlueTrend Fund, part of manager BlueCrest and headed by Brazilian-born Leda Braga, has made a modest recovery and is up 1.75 percent this year through May after falling 2.5 percent in the first quarter.
Smaller CTAs are attracting more attention from investors who have been disappointed with returns from some of the big funds that dominate the industry.
Most trend-following CTAs made their money in the last few days of the month, said Jan Auspurg, managing director at AQ Advisors, which manages the 180 million euro AC Spectrum Fund.
"Most of them were positioned correctly, but the size of the positions was generally not that large as those trends were still developing," said Zurich-based Auspurg.
"Most systems made money towards the end of May as most markets had trended for three weeks, and then the market reaction at the end of May was even more pronounced," he said.
Spectrum, a UCITS fund, gained 6.0 percent in May, but losses earlier in the year meant the fund was down 2.0 percent so far this year. (Additional reporting by Claire Milhench and Tommy Wilkes, editing by Jane Baird)
Tickets fly as benefactor makes Derry concert free - BBC News
All tickets for the Peace One Day concert in Ebrington Square in Londonderry have been snapped up.
The tickets were offered free on Friday after benefactor Michael Hamyln offered to pay for them.
People who had already paid for tickets will get their money back.
The film producer said he is delighted to have made the gesture.
The concert on 21 June marks the start of the London 2012 Festival.
It will be the first major event to be staged at the arts quarter, which was formerly a military barracks.
The line-up includes Pixie Lott, Dublin singer Imelda May, indie-rockers Guillamots, Derry's Wondervillains and Newton Faulkner.
Founder of Peace One Day Jeremy Gilley said: "It's incredible that someone has come forward to make the concert free.
"I'm delighted. This opens the doors to everyone. It'll be a wonderful show in a wonderful city."
The free tickets were made available at 10:00 BST on Friday morning and ran out in less than two hours.
The director of the London 2012 Festival, Ruth Mackenzie, said the concert will "highlight the key theme of how sport and culture can resolve conflict.
"We are really grateful that thousands of lucky people will now be able to join in the celebration for free."
The event also marks the three-month countdown to Global Truce, a campaign that promotes peace.
The culmination of the Global Truce campaign will be another Peace Once Day concert in London on 21 September, the day of Global Truce and World Peace Day.
Bendtner facing UEFA rap over lucky pants - Football
Published: 15 Jun 2012 - 15:18:05
UEFA on Friday said that it was taking action against Denmark's Nicklas Bendtner over his goal celebration against Portugal, when he flashed the waistband of his underpants showing an apparent sponsor.
European football's governing body said in a brief statement that Bendtner was facing disciplinary proceedings for "improper conduct (Law 4 of the Laws of the Game)" during Wednesday's match in Lviv, Ukraine, that Denmark lost 3-2.
"The UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body will deal with this case on Monday," the statement added.
Law 4, which covers "The players' equipment" states: "Players must not reveal undershirts which contain slogans or advertising. A player removing his jersey to reveal slogans will be sanctioned by the competition organiser.
Article 18.18 of the "Regulations of the UEFA European Football Championship 2010-12" also states: "All kit items worn during the final tournament must be free of any sponsor advertising."
The waistband of Bendtner's green and white underwear had the name of a Dublin-based online betting firm. The company, Paddy Power, said on its website that they were "lucky pants".
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