A U.S.-led group – the Crown consortium – has revealed its interest to acquire the ailing Volvo unit from Ford Motor Co. (F). The group included former Ford director Michael Dingman and former Ford and Chrysler executive Shamel Rushwin. In 1999, Ford had acquired the Volvo Car Corporation from Sweden-based Volvo Group for $6.45 billion. However, the company put up the unit for sale in December last year in an effort to cut costs and raise cash amidst plunging industry-wide auto sales. Ford had discussions with many automakers for the sale, including Renault SA and China’s third-largest automaker, Dongfeng Motor Group. So far, China's Geely Automotive has submitted the only concrete bid for the unit. Media reports have disclosed that Geely has valued the unit at around $2 billion. Rumors had spread that Crown consortium had offered significantly less than Geely, but both plans involved ...

According to media reports, leading financial data, news and analytics provider Bloomberg is the frontrunner in the race to acquire BusinessWeek. McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP) also considers Bloomberg as the best bidder for the struggling magazine as it views that both the companies are at the helm of the financial media industry. Bloomberg had reportedly been approached to acquire BusinessWeek earlier, even before the start of the official auction process in July. However, the company did not consider the proposal on grounds of higher valuation. Bloomberg’s renewed interest in the struggling magazine is part of its business strategy to sustain expansion beyond its core business. The company has a news service, publishes books and magazines, and circulates business information through TV, radio and the Internet. Earlier in July, parent group McGraw-Hill said that it was seeking strategic options for BusinessWeek, which was severely battered by ...

Manulife Financial Corporation (MFC) is growing its operations in China. The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) has approved Manulife-Sinochem, Manulife’s joint venture company, to operate in the Province of Tianjin, which is one of the fastest growing provinces in China. Manulife-Sinochem is now licensed in 37 cities across 11 provinces in China. Manulife-Sinochem is a joint venture company between Manulife (International) Limited (51%) and China Foreign Economic and Trade Trust & Investment Company, a member of the Sinochem group (49%). The company currently serves over 450,000 customers across China through approximately 11,500 professionally trained staff and agents. Manulife Financial has confirmed its commitment to China after media reports suggested that foreign insurance companies were intending to leave the country. Many insurers are eyeing the Chinese market for its growth potential. In August Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd (FFH) entered the Chinese market by purchasing 15% ...

According to media reports, Apple (AAPL) has been approved by the telecommunications regulator in South Korea to sell its iPhone in the country. Apple did not make any comment on the same. We are pleased with the South Korean Communications Commission approval of the iPhone’s sale in the South Korean domestic market, which comes against the backdrop of the technical issues that required the iPhones to use South Korean technology for location-based services such as GPS.  As a result, the Commission had previously blocked the sale of iPhone in South Korea because of its built-in mapping capabilities that violate a South Korean rule. The Commision’s spokesperson said that the approval to sell the iPhone device has been given by five commissioners during a meeting after amending a technical rule due to high consumer demand for iPhones.  It is speculated that the iPhone will be sold in ...

Interesting piece here from Transitions Online about the ERBD loan to Ukraine to help them pay their bill to Gazprom ... however this money will only come at the price of Kiev incorporating urgent economic and political reforms.Backed by the EU, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and other international banks have laid out an approximately $1.7 billion aid package to help Ukraine pay for gas supplies during a recession that saw its GDP fall 18 percent last quarter year-on-year, and reform its domestic natural gas market to prevent future crises. Despite media reports to the contrary, this is not a done deal. Kyiv must implement preliminary reforms before receiving any money. Because many of these will be politically unpopular and Ukraine will hold presidential elections in January, the lenders are reticent. But if the country's famously incompetent leadership can shape up long enough ...

Recently, my colleague Marc Lichtenfeld and I took a collective pop at some lazy journalists and other media cheerleaders. Their crime? Whipping the investment community into false optimism through misleading headlines regarding earnings announcements.

They’re at it again.

This time, the flashy headline writers grabbed onto the latest report from the National Association of Realtors, which stated that existing home sales climbed for the third straight month, and at a faster pace than economists expected.

And they were out in force again when the Commerce Department said new U.S. home sales saw an 11% bounce in June. On an annualized basis, that equated to 384,000 homes - 9% higher than estimates.

Collectively, new and existing home sales hit the highest level in eight months in June.

Sweet! Hand me some champagne - let’s celebrate. Or maybe we should hang on a sec… there’s a problem with these headlines. Here’s what you need to know about

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On Aug. 3, Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) reportedly agreed to sell its acrylic acid and esters plant in Clear Lake, Texas, and the North American UCAR Emulsion Systems specialty latex businesses to Arkema Inc. for $50 million. Arkema is a global chemical company and France’s leading chemicals producer, specializing in Vinyl Products, Industrial Chemicals and Performance Products.

Media reports said that Dow would use proceeds from the sale for further de-leveraging which will be accretive to the company’s shareholders. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) should approve Arkema as the buyer of Dow’s assets. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Earlier in July, Dow had entered an agreement with Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) of Malaysia, a state-owned integrated oil and gas corporation, to divest its ownership in Optimal Group of Co.s for $660 million. This transaction is likely to close by the

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The Real Estate Market: Don’t Celebrate Housing’s Recent Uptick Yet

by Martin Denholm, Contributing Editor

Recently, my colleague Marc Lichtenfeld and I took a collective pop at some lazy journalists and other media cheerleaders. Their crime? Whipping the investment community into false optimism through misleading headlines regarding earnings announcements.

They’re at it again.

This time, the flashy headline writers grabbed onto the latest report from the National Association of Realtors, which stated that existing home sales climbed for the third straight month, and at a faster pace than economists expected.

And they were out in force again when the Commerce Department said new U.S. home sales saw an 11% bounce in June. On an annualized basis, that equated to 384,000 homes - 9% higher than estimates.

Collectively, new and existing home sales hit the highest level in eight months in June.

Sweet! Hand me some champagne - let’s celebrate. Or maybe we should hang on

...

Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT), the nation's largest defense contractor, unveiled yesterday the carrier variant of the F-35 fighter plane. The F-35 variant, known as F-35C Lightning II, is the first-ever stealth fighter added the U.S. Navy's arsenal.

Lockheed Martin is focusing on F-35 as its primary growth driver in the Aeronautics segment to offset the loss of F-22. The Senate recently voted to stop production of the F-22 plane, putting it as too advanced for the recent trend of low-intensity warfare.

Subsequent to the end of the second quarter of 2009, Lockheed Martin's Aeronautics segmental order backlog was $27.9 billion. The F-35 is slated to replace the F-16 and A-10 fleets. As per media reports, the Pentagon will have to procure about 3,000 F-35 variants over the coming decade for the purpose. The F-35 has three variants, of which two of them are land based differing on the take-off and

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Break out the tissues, folks… Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner can’t sell his house.

Frustrated at not being able to sell his $1.6 million New York mansion after three-and-a-half months on the market, Geithner has yanked down the “For Sale” sign. And that’s after he and his wife lowered the price to below what they paid for it in 2004. Having taken out a $1.25 million mortgage at the time, they’re now apparently renting the home at a loss.

Doesn’t Tim read the papers? He didn’t seriously expect to sell Fort Geithner in such a short time in a market like this, did he? It’s tough out there, mate. First, you have to persuade buyers that it’s worth shelling out $1 million-plus for a house. Then you have to convince them that it’s not made of cards - you know, like some of his economic theory.

But wait… haven’t we just seen some

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