This Small Oil Producer is Ripe for a Takeover… Here’s How to Profit

by Sheena Martin, Contributing Editor Friday, November 20, 2009

Takeovers are big news in the market at the moment.

In fact, did you know that takeovers have the biggest one-day gain in stocks for any asset?

As my colleague – and takeover expert – Louis Basenese says, they’re “some of the safest companies you can own. According to FactSet Merger Stat LLC, the average one-day return for shareholders of the target company is 48%.”

Furthermore, Louis says, “Industries naturally go through cycles of consolidation – waves of mergers, acquisition and takeovers.”

One industry riding this wave as it comes out of recession is oil. And I have a takeover target making strides in oil exploration that could put money in your pocket in a few months

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The United States is the New Tanzania? Ugh…

by Robert Williams, Publisher

Switzerland sits atop the overall ranking in The Global Competitiveness Report, just released by the World Economic Forum, representing the first time since 2004 that the United States doesn’t hold the top spot. But hey, that’s what being at the epicenter of a global financial crisis will do, right?

Singapore, Sweden and Denmark round out the top five.

The shocker, however, is how badly the United States scored for the soundness of its banks. It placed 108th, just ahead of Venezuela, Serbia and Vietnam and right behind Tanzania.

“Given that the financial crisis originated in large part in the United States, it is hardly surprising that there has been a weakening of the assessment of its financial market sophistication…” said the WEF.

Yeah. But Tanzania?

For the record, Tanzania borders nations

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CNOOC Ltd. (NYSE ADR: CEO) …

According to its Assistant Chief Executive for Business Development and Government Relations Barrak al-Subeih, Zain’s possible decision to sell its African operations would be made in order to “look for expansion opportunities in other areas with higher growth rates, such as the Middle East or the Far East.”  Hitherto, the Kuwait telecom firm has spent upwards of US$12 billion in Africa since 2005 (when it purchased Celtel International), including roughly $3b in Nigeria alone, the continent’s most populous nation, while continuing to expand and operate in 23 countries across the Middle East and Africa.  Per Bloomberg, Zain has around 40.1 million subscribers in Africa, a figure that constitutes nearly 62% of its client base.  Additionally, more than half of its $7.4 billion of annual sales in 2008 came from Africa.

The strategy of chasing higher growth rates is not without concern, however.  A study published last year by

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Some markets which I would classify as “frontier” may be even too frontier to really invest in.  Uganda, for example, has only a dozen securities listed on its exchange, and typical volume is dominated largely by one of them—Stanbic Bank Uganda, whose market cap dwarfs that of any of the other country’s firms, and which made headlines earlier this year when it slashed its prime lending rate to a record low 15%, following the central bank’s own rate cut.  The firm is also intriguing, however, because it recently expanded into Kabale, a rapidly growing district (with a growing demand for financial services) in the southwest and very near the Rwandan border.  It also has an ongoing relationship with MTN Uganda, a telecom firm, to provide a Mobile Money Transfer service, which kicked off in March.

One way to get exposure to Uganda without being constrained by its exchange’s tepid

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Uganda will sell a 40% government stake in Uganda's National Insurance in mid-July to list it on the Uganda Securities Exchange. In 2005, Uganda sold a 60% stake in the company to Nigeria's Industrial and General Insurance company.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3742382075154765669-8585364637238558582?l=danfonds.blogspot.com'//div

The first company began trading on the Rwandese bourse yesterday. Kenya Commercial Bank is currently cross-listed both Uganda and Tanzania and joins a number of Kenyan companies seeking to gain a regional presence.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3742382075154765669-7064512493762673346?l=danfonds.blogspot.com'//div

Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution extending the presence of a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Abkhazia. At issue was the language used to describe the mission. Georgian leaders wanted it to continue to be called the "United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia," while Russian officials wanted the description to reflect Abkhazia's independence. Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly I. Churkin had this to say to the Washington Post:"The Sakaashvili regime put an end to the territorial integrity of his country, and on the world map two new states emerged, the Republic of Abkhazia and the Republic of South Ossetia." Alexander Lomaia, Georgia's ambassador to the United Nations, told the New York Times:"It is very unfortunate and alarming that the Secretariat has submitted to Russian blackmail."Of the 15 Security Council members, the 10 who voted in favor ...

Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko has said that Russia's gas output may fall by 18-20% this year.  Shmatko has adopted a more reassuring tone than his counterparts on the supply of gas to Europe, saying 'there are all the necessary reasons to see stable supplies . . . The problems of January 2009 will not be repeated'.  BP has said that it will nominate Pavel Skitovich, a former envoy to Uganda and Polyus CEO, for the post of CEO at TNK-BP, an appointment which should end the standoff between shareholders that has marred the company's fortunes of late.  This week Russia is expected to sign a deal to supply the US with low-enriched uranium.  Gazprom Neft is moving a step closer to a takeover of Sibir Energy as it increases its stake, making a cash offer for ...

Catastrophic Fall in 2009 Global Food Production Commodities / Food Crisis Feb 09, 2009 - 07:11 AM By: Eric_deCarbonnel

After reading about the droughts in two major agricultural countries, China and Argentina, I decided to research the extent other food producing nations were also experiencing droughts. This project ended up taking a lot longer than I thought. 2009 looks to be a humanitarian disaster around much of the world

To understand the depth of the food Catastrophe that faces the world this year, consider the graphic below depicting countries by USD value of their agricultural output, as of 2006.

Now, consider the same graphic with the countries experiencing droughts highlighted.

China

The drought in Northern China, the worst in 50 years, is worsening, and summer harvest is now threatened. The area of affected crops has expanded to 161 million mu (was 141 million last week),

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