Chicago Bridge & Iron Company NV (CBI) reported net income of $40.8 million, or 42 cents per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2009, compared with $8.6 million, or 9 cents per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2008. This was higher than Zacks Consensus Estimate of 38 cents per share. Revenue for the quarter was $1.0 billion compared with third quarter 2008 revenue of $1.6 billion.  New awards for the reported quarter totaled $1.6 billion, including CB&I’s $550 million Gorgon LNG contract in Australia and the $530 million GASCO award in Abu Dhabi. With less work, the company cut sales-related costs 39%, although overhead shrank by a more modest 12%.  Earlier, the company had announced that it has agreed to buy hydrogen-management technology from H2Gen Innovations Inc. in order to get hold of the Mars modularized Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) technology. H2Gen's PSA technology ...

The second show trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky on trumped up charges is one thing, but the worldwide legal assault on those in the Russian government who illegally stole his former company, Yukos, is an entirely different set of concerns for the kingmakers of the Kremlin.  According to this opinion column by Evgeny Kiselyov in the Moscow Times, certain unscrupulous individuals within the State do indeed have quite a lot to fear, as the chances for these multiple hundreds of billions in arbitration decisions linked to the Energy Charter Treaty are looking more and more likely.The fact that Russia has hired the prominent law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton to represent its interests at an annual cost totaling millions of dollars indicates that the Kremlin is very concerned ...

Headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, Aegon N.V. (AEG) provides a multitude of insurance and pension-based saving and investment solutions. It is one of the world's ten largest life insurance companies ranked by assets, profits and market capitalization. Insurance services include personal and commercial life, health and accident insurance.We are maintaining our Buy recommendation on Aegon after its 4th quarter results. While the current environment will be challenging for investment portfolios, we think that, at its current multiple, the stock is at a significant discount. Our six-month target price is $5.00.At a current multiple of 3.3x our 2009 EPS and 0.2x Book, the stock is trading at a multiple substantially below the average of that of its peers. As such, fundamentally we think that there will be potential gain for stock in the near term. Read the full analyst report on "AEG"...