28 Feb 2009
SINGAPORE’S iconic Merlion statue, a popular tourist attraction, was damaged by lightning on Saturday afternoon during a thunderstorm, according to reports.
No one was hurt.
The Merlion was struck by lightning between 4 and 5 pm local time, causing parts of the statue to fall near a group of startled visitors.
super slack sat…bliss
the nuggets were gone so quickly i dun haf them in the pict
smales members get discounted kid’s meal at $1.50 which includes 5 piece nuggets, fries and a drink
besides being cheaper den mac, the nuggets and fries are nicer too and i luv the mayo dip
not to mention the yummy hotdog and soft ice-cream
ya, i go ikea to pig out…hehe…i like the earl grey and apple pie too
and of coz the muz eat item is the chicken wings…best !
i tink i should cut my hair soon
the back is getting quite untidy
i dun tink i can stand hair on the nape of my neck or reaching my shoulders again
ice cold root beer float on a hot and humid day, of coz not in sg lah
loyalty dun happen overnite
received a distressed phonecall on tue (24 Feb) informing mi of some sad but inevitable news at blue box
someone commented on my concern for blue box
it goes wifout saying
all the yrs of 感情 isn’t gone overnite
yes, my corporate colours haf changed but i will always haf a soft spot for blue
as jon puts it, we haf blue blood
no, not the jay chou song but the colours of the rainbow
QQ & YY taught mi tis :
红橙黄绿蓝靛紫
27 Feb 2009
US banking giant JPMorgan Chase said Thursday it expected 12,000 job cuts as part of its takeover of the failed Washington Mutual retail bank.
The figures came from a chart provided to analysts on its plans to absorb the thrift acquired last September.
According to the chart, JPMorgan Chase will cut “about 12,000 job cuts” from the acquisition.
The job cuts are part of a plan to save two billion dollars, including 1.35 billion in labor costs, by the end of 2009.
JPMorgan purchased Washington Mutual following the biggest-ever US bank failure amid deep troubles of the financial sector triggered by a home mortgage meltdown.
The Seattle-based Washington Mutual was heavily exposed to bad mortgage investments.
JPMorgan bought its deposits, assets and some liabilities for 1.9 billion dollars.
JPMorgan at the time of the merger had about 228,000 employees while Washington Mutual about 43,000 employees in June.
A third of common cancers could be prevented if people shifted to a sounder diet, exercised more and controlled their weight, researchers said on Thursday.
The report, by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research, analysed incidence of 12 types of cancer in the United States, Britain, Brazil and China.
Around a third of these cancers could be prevented by better nutrition, physical activity and obesity controls, it estimated.
The figure does not include the benefits of tackling cancer by stopping smoking. Tobacco use alone accounts for about a third of cancers.
“On a global level every year, there are millions of cancer cases and this is why we need to act now before the situation gets even worse,” said the report’s leader, Martin Wiseman.
“We are expecting a substantial increase in cancer rates, with the ageing population, obesity rates soaring, and with people becoming less active and increasingly consuming highly-processed and energy-dense food and drinks.
“The good news is that this is not inevitable and we still have the chance to avert a crisis before it is too late.”
The report, Policy and Action for Cancer Prevention, makes four dozen recommendations, authored by 23 leading cancer experts.
It includes the advice that schools and workplaces bar unhealthy foods from vending machines and governments encourage cycling paths and walking routes to promote physical exercise.
According to a report issued on February 2 by health foundation and consultancy Axios International, 12 million new cases of cancer were diagnosed worldwide in 2008, resulting in 7.6 million deaths.
There could be 20 million new cases of cancer each year, and 13 million deaths, by 2030, it estimated.
tastes horrible nw
i’ve been wanting to complain since xmas day
watever got into their mind to change the noodle
has a branch in a coffeeshop next to Bedok library
i luv the lemon lime chicken and fries. most of their chicken mains are great. the mashed potato is nice too
26 Feb 2009
The Royal Bank of Scotland posted an annual loss of 24.14 billion pounds ($34.4 billion) — the biggest in British corporate history — and unveiled a massive restructuring Thursday that will offload many of its international businesses.
The already part-nationalized bank also said it will dump 325 billion pounds of toxic assets into a government insurance program, a step that could result in the state increasing its stake to as high as 95 percent.
RBS Chairman Philip Hampton blamed the massive 2008 loss, which compared with a 7.3 billion pound profit in 2007, on the “unprecedented turbulence” in financial markets and deteriorating conditions around the world.
Revenue fell 15 percent to 25.87 billion pounds.
RBS’ financial downfall has stirred anger in Britain, prompting the resignations of former Chief Executive Officer Fred Goodwin and Chairman Tom McKillop.
Both men issued a public apology for their roles in the bank’s downfall, but controversy over their huge salaries continued to rage on Thursday with revelations that Goodwin, 50, is receiving a 650,000 pound a year pension.
“You cannot justify these excesses, especially when you have got such a failure of this magnitude,” Treasury chief Alistair Darling told BBC radio. Darling said the Treasury had urged Goodwin to give up his 16 million pound pension pot, but had not yet received a reply.
Derek Simpson, a spokesman for the Unite union, said the “historic and humiliating losses bring into sharp focus just how reckless RBS’s former management team have behaved,” and called for full nationalization.
New RBS Chief Executive Stephen Hester refused to make forecasts for the current “difficult” year but said he was confident the restructuring and the government assistance would return RBS to “standalone strength.”
The bank said it planned to shift 240 billion pounds, or 20 percent, of its funded assets to a noncore division, along with 145 billion pounds of derivative balances and 155 billion of risk-weighted assets. Those assets will then be wound down over the next three to five years.
Hester said the designated “bad” assets would be culled from a range of regions and businesses, but the bulk would come from the bank’s underperforming Global Banking and Markets division.
The restructuring, which includes plans to cut more than 2.5 billion pounds from the bank’s cost base, will leave the bank centered on Britain, with smaller, more focused global operations.
Hester declined to comment in detail on potential job losses but acknowledged reports of the bank shedding 20,000 positions, or 10 percent of its work force, were “not unreasonable.”
Investors liked the overhaul, with the bank’s shares soaring 28.5 percent to 29.7 pence on the London Stock Exchange. The stock has plummeted more than 90 percent over the past year.
Meanwhile, RBS’ participation with another 325 billion pounds in the government’s asset protection program was widely anticipated, though analysts had expected it to seek guarantees for only about 200 billion pounds in assets.
RBS will pay 6.5 billion pounds to the Treasury to take part in the program, aimed at encouraging a return to lending by increasing the capital strength of banks. The cost will be funded by issuing new shares.
The government has agreed to take a new class of “B” shares worth 13 billion pounds, with the option for another 6 billion pounds worth.
That raises the possibility of the government taking on as much as 25.5 billion pounds in new capital in the bank, which Hester acknowledged could lift its stake from 68 percent to as much as 95 percent. However, he said the government had agreed to cap its voting rights to 75 percent.
Panmure Gordon analysts said the asset protection program, also expected to be taken up by Lloyds when it announces full-year earnings on Friday, came at a favorable price.
“While we do have concerns about further losses and capital strains … we expect these concerns will crystallize over the next six months; for now, the markets will probably focus on the favorable terms of this bailout,” they said in a note.
However, Manoj Ladwa, a senior trader at ETX Capital, said that the better-than-expected figures — analysts had factored in losses of up to 28 billion pounds — were of “little comfort .. when you have booked the biggest loss in UK corporate history.”
“Although the share price is likely to rally today, a predominantly state-owned bank that is having a fire-sale on its assets gives investors little reason to buy,” Ladwa added.
Hester said that investing more in the government program would give the bank a greater degree of stability as well as allow it to fulfill an agreement with the government to increase lending to its core British customer base.
RBS’ downfall in the wake of the global credit squeeze has been swift.
As recently as July 2008, The Banker magazine rated it as one of the world’s top banks based on its Tier 1 capital.
McKillop earlier this month acknowledged that RBS’ decision to buy Dutch bank ABN Amro in December 2007 — when its investment banking business was heavily exposed to the complex financial instruments hit by the crisis — was a “bad mistake.”
26 Feb 2009
General Motors posts $9.6B 4Q loss, burns through $6.2B of cash while seeking government loans
Chief Financial Officer Ray Young said the determination will depend a lot on whether GM gets further government loans and whether it can accomplish its restructuring goals.
Young said that auditors are studying the future of the company because “there’s uncertainty with how the Treasury will view our viability plan,” and “uncertainty on whether we’re going to be able to execute the terms of our loan agreement.”
The company has received $13.4 billion in federal loans since Dec. 31 and says it needs up to $30 billion to stay out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Top GM executives were in Washington, D.C., Thursday to meet with the Obama administration’s auto task force to talk about restructuring and additional loans.
“2008 was an extremely difficult year for the U.S. and global auto markets, especially the second half,” Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said in a statement. “These conditions created a very challenging environment for GM and other automakers and led us to take further aggressive and difficult measures to restructure our business.”
GM reported a net loss of $15.71 per share for the fourth quarter, compared with a loss of $722 million, or $1.28 per share in the year-ago period.
Quarterly revenue fell 39 percent to $30.8 billion from $46.8 billion, as credit availability froze across the globe, and a lack of consumer confidence and fears of job losses kept people from buying vehicles.
Excluding special items, GM’s fourth-quarter adjusted loss was $5.9 billion, or $9.65 per share.
That was worse than Wall Street expected. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters predicted a quarterly loss of $7.40 per share on sales of $35.1 billion.
For the full year, GM’s net loss was $53.32 per share, the second-worst annual result in the company’s history. The worst loss occurred in 2007, when the Detroit-based company lost $38.7 billion, or $68.45 per share, in 2007, due largely to charges for unused tax credits.
GM’s cash burn rate, the difference between how much it takes in and how much it spends, narrowed slightly from $6.9 billion in the third quarter, reflecting GM’s restructuring efforts.
The company last year announced the closure of four assembly plants and a parts stamping factory.
Last week, a plan GM submitted to the Treasury Department to justify more loans said the company would close five more U.S. factories and cut another 47,000 jobs globally. GM also reached a tentative deal with the United Auto Workers on concessions that will reduce labor costs.
Since 2000, GM’s U.S. salaried work force has shrunk by 33 percent from its 2000 high of 44,000 people. At the same time, the number of hourly workers has plunged by more than half — to about 63,700 people at the end of last year from 133,000 in 2000.
GM ended last year with about $14 billion in cash, $10.5 billion less that the $24.5 billion it had at the end of 2007. The 2008 figure is close to the minimum amount of cash GM has said it needs to fund its operations.
Young told reporters the credit crisis spread from the U.S. to other markets, making the fourth-quarter a challenging one.
But there was some hope, he said. While global sales fell, some emerging markets, such as China, are off to a good start in 2009.
“A lot of the governments in these countries are putting a lot of stimulus into the economy as well as the automotive market,” he said, citing lower sales tax rates on cars sold in China and Brazil.
GM shares fell 19 cents, or 7.5 percent, to $2.36 in premarket activity.
for some strange reasons, my elbows are xtremely prone to being skinned off if i happened to rest my elbows on any surface and rub them
i first discovered tis at eddie m’s when both of my elbows started hurting and were skinned on the wooden table top
no, my name is not mozilla nor firefox
rather i luv to browse, be it books, toiletries…i luv reading all the little labels on bottles abt the products’ amazing effects
even when i was getting dressing for my knee last nite, i read the directions and use of all the plasters they had on the shelf
i couldn’t get another yishu book so i started browsing. i went from recipe books browsing to crochet books. no, i m NOT inspired by the collection but i muz try to pick up my hook & yarn again. i m onli inspired by the happy hooker.
when i can cycle again
my knee is reli taking its own sweet time to heal or mayb tat has stg to do wif age
damn painful lor
omg! so tat is how humane US is? freezing a 93 yr old man to death? surely tat is criminal ! when tis man was fighting in WWII, i’m sure he would nbr haf thot tat he would go out in such manner
05 Feb 09
An attorney says a 93-year-old Michigan man who froze to death after a power company restricted electricity to his home over roughly $1,000 in unpaid bills left an estimated $600,000 to a hospital.
Marvin Schur’s attorney, Cathy Reder, said the World War II veteran bequeathed his entire fortune to Bay Medical Center.
Schur’s frozen body was found Jan. 17, four days after Bay City Electric Light & Power installed a device on his electric meter that cuts power after a predetermined level is reached.
State regulators on Wednesday issued emergency rules designed to protect more people against electricity or heat shutoffs in the winter.
the toughest part is when u r climibing to the crest
and the best part is the rush as we go dwn the creat
it brings to mind one saying “and everything goes downhill’
are worth every cent they cost
coz my oakleys hit the ground when i fell and the front part of the shades wif the 2 lenses fell apart from the ear pieces
my first thot was ‘there goes my oakleys’ and i was tinking abt getting new shades as i pedaled along
good thing i picked up the lenses portion tat broke away from the ear pieces coz i later discovered my oakleys haf no screws and can b assembled again easily
and wifout a single scratch !
nursing a swollen and bloody kneecap tat kissed the ground on sun
i try something different everytime i change the dressing, so far the list goes :
yunnan bai yao : ouch! ouch!
dettol antiseptic cream : not bad
行军散 : cooling effect, reli nice, gave mi a good nite’s sleep
aloe vera : whole kneecap feels super tight and i haf prob sleeping after applying last nite coz i was still hurting
can fail sometimes
i was pretty sure den
nw i haf serious doubts abt the situation
watever it was, i’m pretty much over the moon or other celestial bodies
it feels kinda strange to go back to biz SME role and work wif PM from IT, vendors and biz
the weekly status calls, the status calls and action item logs r all still so familiar to mi tat it feels kinda weird tat i’m not leading the proj. definitely a switch in role tat i need to adjust to
there juz isn’t anywhere else i would rather be den in risk duing the credit crunch and crisis
my risk blood is stronger den my PM blood
17 Feb 09
Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc, the casino operator named for Donald Trump, filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday as recession and declining gambling revenues battered the company and its rivals.
The Chapter 11 filing marks the third plunge into bankruptcy for the company, which was created out of a restructuring in 2005. It also underscores the struggles facing the casino business as recession squeezes casino gambling.
Trump Entertainment owns and operates three casino hotels in hard-hit Atlantic City, New Jersey, including the Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Plaza and Trump Marina.
The company did not request debtor-in-possession financing to operate during its restructuring and said it would continue to run as normal.
“This filing will result in no immediate change in our daily operations, and we expect to make no changes regarding our operating structure or philosophy,” Trump Chief Executive Mark Juliano said in a statement.
Nine affiliates of the casino operator including Trump Plaza Associates, Trump Plaza Associates, Trump Marina Associates and Trump Taj Mahal Associates simultaneously sought protection, according to the filing.
Trump had assets of about $2.1 billion and total debts of about $1.74 billion on December 31, 2008, it said in its filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.
The company, eager to conserve cash, missed a $53.1 million bond interest payment due on December 1 as a sharp downturn in consumer spending hit casino revenue, prompting bondholders to push for bankruptcy.
WIDELY EXPECTED
Experts had been looking for a Chapter 11 filing from Trump since it missed the December 1 bond interest payment.
“It had been moving in this direction for two months,” said KeyBanc gaming industry analyst Dennis Forst.
“I think (restructuring) could take a while,” he said. “Obviously, they weren’t able to restructure it with the debt holders in the two months they had.”
The filing comes days after the casino operator’s namesake founder said he would resign from the board over disagreements with bondholders who wanted the company to file for bankruptcy.
Friday’s statement did not say when Trump’s resignation would be offered or take effect. His daughter Ivanka Trump also said she was resigning.
Trump, a very public and flamboyant figure in an industry filled with colorful, headstrong executives, said the company represents less than 1 percent of his net worth, and that “my investment in it is worthless to me now.”
No stranger to bankruptcy, Trump Entertainment Resort Holdings went into Chapter 11 in 2004, from which it emerged a year later with Trump having relinquished the position of CEO.
Casino companies have been hurt in the last year as the gambling boom fizzled and tight credit markets stifled growth plans. Meanwhile, the Chinese government has made efforts to slow down the Macau gambling market.
The sector now faces a wave of restructurings. In May, the privately held casino operator Tropicana Entertainment LLC filed for Chapter 11.
The Dow Jones U.S. Gambling Index has fallen some 83 percent since its lifetime high reached in October 2007.
tat she found her happiness…一定要幸福哦!
it took mi a while to decide on the next course of action
but nw tat i m decided, i need to start righting the wrongs
i feel so inspired knowing i will start to fix some of the things tat r broken in my life
played my fav machines, ate my fav asam laksa (i can eat tis everyday but mum says will get stomach ulcers so i try to limit my intake) and caught up wif my fav travel partners
our meal at old town was the funniest as the waiters got confused by our orders and we were served endless supplies of half boiled eggs and iced chocolate…we had a good laff over the incident
10 Feb 09
General Motors Corp. said Tuesday it will cut 10,000 salaried jobs, citing the need to restructure itself with a government deadline looming and amid some of the worst sales in the auto industry’s history.
The Detroit-based automaker said it will reduce its total number of salaried workers to 63,000 from 73,000 this year. About 3,400 of GM’s 29,500 salaried U.S. jobs are expected to be eliminated.
The company’s statement said that the separations would be done through GM’s severance plan, so there would be no buyout or early retirement packages as GM had offered in the past.
In its plan to Congress submitted late last year, GM said work force reductions would be necessary in order for it to be viable for the long term. Most of the cuts are expected to take place by May 1.
GM said the cuts will vary by global regions depending on staffing levels and market conditions.
In addition, GM said it will cut the pay of most of its salaried U.S. workers beginning May 1 and continuing at least through the end of the year at which time the pay cuts will be evaluated.
The pay of U.S. executive employees will be cut by 10 percent, while other salaried workers will see cuts of 3 percent to 7 percent, GM said.
GM faces a Feb. 17 deadline to present to the government a plan showing it can become viable. The plan is required by the terms of $9.4 billion in low-interest government loans to the wounded automaker, which is seeking another $4 billion from the Treasury Department.
The automaker is negotiating with bondholders and the United Auto Workers union for concessions and it is planning to close several factories. To prove its viability, it must show an ability to repay the loans and prove “positive net present value.”
if i wear the wrong shoes tat pinch my toes on mon, i literally got off the wk on the wrong footing
i will suffer for the following 3 days, every nite telling myself tat i’ll wear boots the next day coz it’s so much more comfy
but wearing boots take careful wardrobe planning so i dun wear them as often as i would like to
my shoes agony and feet misery ordeal seems to b on repeating and looping mode so i go thru the cycle every wk
OMG! krispy kreme ! even station casinos and six flags
06 Feb 09
Who’s next?
With consumers shutting their wallets and corporate revenues plunging, the business landscape may start to resemble a graveyard in 2009. Household names like Circuit City and Linens ‘n Things have already perished. And chances are, those bankruptcies were just an early warning sign of a much broader epidemic.
Moody’s Investors Service, for instance, predicts that the default rate on corporate bonds – which foretells bankruptcies – will be three times higher in 2009 than in 2008, and 15 times higher than in 2007. That could equate to 25 significant bankruptcies per month.
We examined ratings from Moody’s and data from other sources to develop a short list of potential victims that ought to be familiar to most consumers. Many of these firms are in industries directly hit by the slowdown in consumer spending, such as retail, automotive, housing and entertainment.
But there are other common threads. Most of these firms have limited cash for a rainy day, and a lot of debt, with large interest payments due over the next year. In ordinary times, it might not be so hard to refinance loans, or get new ones, to help keep the cash flowing. But in an acute credit crunch it’s a different story, and at companies where sales are down and going lower, skittish lenders may refuse to grant any more credit. It’s a terrible time to be cash-poor.
That’s why Moody’s assigns most of these firms its lowest rating for short-term liquidity. And all the firms on this list have long-term debt that Moody’s rates Caa or lower, which means the borrower is considered at least a “very high” credit risk.
Once a company defaults on its debt, or fails to make a payment, the next step is usually a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Some firms continue to operate while in Chapter 11, retaining many of their employees. Those firms often shed debt, restructure, and emerge from bankruptcy as healthier companies.
But it takes fresh financing to do that, and with money scarce, more bankrupt firms than usual are likely to liquidate – like Circuit City. That’s why corporate failures are likely to be a major drag on the economy in 2009: In a liquidation, the entire workforce often gets axed, with little or no severance. That will only add to unemployment, which could hit 9 or even 10 percent by the end of the year.
It’s possible that none of the firms on this list will liquidate, or even declare Chapter 11. Some may come up with unexpected revenue or creative financing that helps avert bankruptcy, while others could be purchased in whole or in part by creditors or other investors. But one way or another, the following 15 firms will probably look a lot different a year from now than they do today:
Rite Aid. (Ticker symbol: RAD; about 100,000 employees; 1-year stock-price decline: 92%). This drugstore chain tried to boost its performance by acquiring competitors Brooks and Eckerd in 2007. But there have been some nasty side effects, like a huge debt load that makes it the most leveraged drugstore chain in the U.S., according to Zacks Equity Research. That big retail investment came just as megadiscounter Wal-Mart was starting to sell prescription drugs, and consumers were starting to cut bank on spending. Management has twice lowered its outlook for 2009. Prognosis: Mounting losses, with no turnaround in sight.
Claire’s Stores. (Privately owned; about 18,000 employees.) Leon Black’s once-renowned private-equity firm, the Apollo Group, paid $3.1 billion for this trendy teen-focused accessory store in 2007, when buyout funds were bulging. But cash flow has been negative for much of the past year and analysts believe Claire’s is close to defaulting on its debt. A horrible retail outlook for 2009 offers no relief, suggesting Claire’s could follow Linens ‘n Things – another Apollo purchase – and declare Chapter 11, possibly shuttering all of its 3,000-plus stores.
Chrysler. (Privately owned; about 55,000 employees). It’s never a good sign when management insists the company is not going out of business, which is what CEO Bob Nardelli has been doing lately. Of the three Detroit automakers, Chrysler is the most endangered, with a product portfolio that’s overreliant on gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs and almost totally devoid of compelling small cars. A recent deal with Fiat seems dubious, since the Italian automaker doesn’t have to pony up any money, and Chrysler desperately needs cash. The company is quickly burning through $4 billion in government bailout money, and with car sales down 40 percent from recent peaks, Chrysler may be the weakling that can’t cut it in tough times.
Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group. (DTG; about 7,000 employees; stock down 95%). This car-rental company is a small player compared to Enterprise, Hertz, and Avis Budget. It’s also more reliant on leisure travelers, and therefore more susceptible to a downturn as consumers cut spending. Dollar Thrifty is also closely tied to Chrysler, which supplies 80 percent of its fleet. Moody’s predicts that if Chrysler declares Chapter 11, Dollar Thrifty would suffer deeply as well.
Realogy Corp. (Privately owned; about 13,000 employees). It’s the biggest real-estate brokerage firm in the country, but that’s a bad thing when there are double-digit declines in both sales and prices, as there were in 2009. Realogy, which includes the Coldwell Banker, ERA, and Sotheby’s franchises, also carries a high debt load, dating to its purchase by the Apollo Group in 2007 – the very moment when the housing market was starting to invert from a soaring ride into a sickening nosedive. Realogy has been trying to refinance much of its debt, prompting lawsuits. One deal was denied by a judge in December, reducing the firm’s already tight wiggle room.
Station Casinos. (Privately owned, about 14,000 employees). Las Vegas has already been creamed by a biblical real-estate bust, and now it may face the loss of its home-grown gambling joints, too. Station – which runs 15 casinos off the strip that cater to locals – recently failed to make a key interest payment, which is often one of the last steps before a Chapter 11 filing. For once, the house seems likely to lose.
Loehmann’s Capital Corp. (Privately owned; about 1,500 employees). This clothing chain has the right formula for lean times, offering women’s clothing at discount prices. But the consumer pullback is hitting just about every retailer, and Loehmann’s has a lot less cash to ride out a drought than competitors like Nordstrom Rack and TJ Maxx. If Loehmann’s doesn’t get additional financing in 2009 – a dicey proposition, given skyrocketing unemployment and plunging spending – the chain could run out of cash.
Sbarro. (Privately owned; about 5,500 employees). It’s not the pizza that’s the problem. Many of this chain’s 1,100 storefronts are in malls, which is a double whammy: Traffic is down, since consumers have put away their wallets. Sbarro can’t really boost revenue by adding a breakfast or late-night menu, like other chains have done. And competitors like Domino’s and Pizza Hut have less debt and stronger cash flow, which could intensify pressure on Sbarro as key debt payments come due in 2009.
Six Flags. (SIX; about 30,000 employees; stock down 84%). This theme-park operator has been losing money for several years, and selling off properties to try to pay down debt and get back into the black. But the ride may end prematurely. Moody’s expects cash flow to be negative in 2009, and if consumers aren’t spending during the peak summer season, that could imperil the company’s ability to pay debts coming due later this year and in 2010.
Blockbuster. (BBI; about 60,000 employees; stock down 57%). The video-rental chain has burned cash while trying to figure out how to maximize fees without alienating customers. Its operating income has started to improve just as consumers are cutting back, even on movies. Video stores in general are under pressure as they compete with cable and Internet operators offering the same titles. A key test of Blockbuster’s viability will come when two credit lines expire in August. One possible outcome, according to Valueline, is that investors take the company private and then go public again when market conditions are better.
Krispy Kreme. (KKD; about 4,000 employees; stock down 50%). The donuts might be good, but Krispy Kreme overestimated Americans’ appetite – and that’s saying something. This chain overexpanded during the donut heyday of the 1990s – taking on a lot of debt – and now requires high volumes to meet expenses and interest payments. The company has cut costs and closed underperforming stores, but still hasn’t earned an operating profit in three years. And now that consumers are cutting back on everything, such improvements may fail to offset top-line declines, leading Krispy Kreme to seek some kind of relief from lenders over the next year.
Landry’s Restaurants. (LNY; about 17,000 employees; stock down 66%). This restaurant chain, which operates Chart House, Rainforest Café, and other eateries, needs $400 million in new financing to finalize a buyout deal dating to last June. If lenders come through, the company should have enough cash to ride out the recession. But at least two banks have already balked, leading to downgrades of the company’s debt and the prospect of a cash-flow crunch.
Sirius Satellite Radio. (SIRI – parent company; about 1,000 employees; stock down 96%). The music rocks, but satellite radio has yet to be profitable, and huge contracts for performers like Howard Stern are looking unsustainable. Sirius is one of two satellite-radio services owned by parent company Sirius XM, which was formed when Sirius and XM merged last year. So far, the merger hasn’t generated the savings needed to make the company profitable, and Moody’s thinks there’s a “high likelihood” that Sirius will fail to repay or refinance its debt in 2009. One outcome could be a takeover, at distressed prices, by other firms active in the satellite business.
Trump Entertainment Resorts Holdings. (TRMP; about 9,500 employees; stock down 94%). The casino company made famous by The Donald has received several extensions on interest payments, while it tries to sell at least one of its Atlantic City properties and pay down a stack of debt. But with casino buyers scarce, competition circling, and gamblers nursing their losses from the recession, Trump Entertainment may face long odds of skirting bankruptcy.
BearingPoint. (BGPT; about 16,000 employees; stock down 21%). This Virginia-based consulting firm, spun out of KPMG in 2001, is struggling to solve its own operating problems. The firm has consistently lost money, revenue has been falling, and management stopped issuing earnings guidance in 2008. Stable government contracts generate about 30 percent of the firm’s business, but the firm may sell other divisions to help pay off debt. With a key interest payment due in April, management needs to hustle – or devise its own exit strategy.
after a while, it’s juz yet another piece of retrenchment news. ppl actualli start to get numb and i can also feel myself bracing for more bad news.
09 Feb 09
Nissan is slashing 20,000 jobs, or 8.5 percent of its global work force, to cope with what Japan’s third-largest automaker expects will be its first annual loss in nine years.
“The global auto industry is in turmoil, and Nissan is no exception,” Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn told reporters Monday in Tokyo.
Nissan Motor Co. now expects a 265 billion yen ($2.9 billion) net loss for the fiscal year through March — joining a raft of other Japanese corporate giants, including Toyota, Toshiba and Sony, in slashing jobs and projecting annual losses.
The last time Nissan racked up an annual net loss was for the fiscal year ended March 2000, at the start of its alliance with Renault SA of France, which sent in Ghosn to rescue Nissan from the brink of collapse. Then, a bloated Nissan had lost money in seven of the previous eight years.
Ghosn, now also chief executive at Renault, said the troubles back then had been limited to Nissan but no automaker has been spared from the global economic slump.
“In 1999, we were alone. In 2009, everybody is suffering,” he said.
The maker of the Z sports car and the March compact sank to a loss of 83.2 billion yen for the October-December period from a 132.2 billion yen profit a year earlier. That was its first quarterly net loss since it began reporting quarterly earnings in 2003.
Like other Japanese automakers, Nissan has been battered by the global slump, which has undermined sales in its vital North American market. A strong yen also ate into profits by eroding overseas earnings when converted back to yen.
As a key step in weathering the downturn, Ghosn said Nissan’s global work force will be reduced by 20,000 through March 2010, to 215,000. Of the job cuts, 12,000 will be in Japan, including group companies, and the rest will be overseas, it said. The company did not give a further regional breakdown.
Mamoru Katou, analyst with Tokai Tokyo Research, remained pessimistic about Nissan’s recovery prospects.
Nissan’s job cuts in Japan — more aggressive than its domestic rivals — show its strategy to take production overseas and take advantage of the soaring yen but that would make the Nissan brand less popular in its home market, Katou said.
“The job cuts will hurt Japanese parts-makers, too, and in the long run diminish the Nissan brand value in Japan,” he said.
Toyota and Honda, which both have gas-electric hybrids going on sale this year, are also better positioned to boost sales when the recovery kicks in, he said. Nissan does not have a comparable hybrid model.
Ghosn said hiring will become minimal, contracts for temporary workers will be ended and the company is offering early retirement packages.
Tokyo-based Nissan has already reduced its temporary plant workers in Japan by about 2,000, slashed its British work force by 1,200 at its plant in Sunderland, northern England, where it had employed about 5,000 people. It has offered early retirement to 1,200 workers in the U.S., but that number will likely increase, according to Nissan. It also has work stoppages in Spain.
Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp., which is projecting a 350 billion yen ($3.85 billion) net loss for the fiscal year through March, its first such loss since 1950, is reducing contract workers in Japan from 8,800 in June last year to 3,000 in March.
Honda Motor Co., Japan’s No. 2 automaker, is faring relatively better and is expecting to stay in the black, with a 80 billion yen ($879 million) profit. But it will cut the number of temporary workers at its Japan plants from 3,100 to zero by the end of April.
Nissan’s directors on the board will forgo bonus pay for the year ending March. Their salaries, as well as the salaries of corporate officers, will be reduced by 10 percent, while managers’ salaries will be reduced by 5 percent.
Nissan will also negotiate a “work-sharing” scheme with the unions, Ghosn said.
In work-sharing, an employee’s work load gets doled out to two or more employees, but they also must take a pay cut. The effort allows troubled companies to avoid layoffs while adjusting to plunging production. The benefits are that skilled staff aren’t lost and the arrangement can be quickly dropped, allowing production to be ramped up without delay, once the industry recovers.
“You’d be ready to restart immediately when the crisis is over,” said Ghosn.
He said he was interested in changing to a four-day week from a five-day week, while reducing compensation per worker, and that was better than cutting jobs.
Among other measures, production will be reduced and inventory will be controlled, according to Nissan.
Shift elimination, work stoppages and shorter hours will help reduce global production by 20 percent, or 787,000 vehicles, from the initial plan, by the end of this fiscal year, it said.
Inventory is being reduced by 20 percent to 480,000 vehicles from 630,000 in March 2008, Nissan said.
Nissan sold 731,000 vehicles worldwide in the quarter ended Dec. 31, down 18.6 percent from a year earlier. Nissan’s vehicle sales suffered especially in the U.S., where they dropped 29.7 percent in January.
Nissan remains committed to developing electric vehicles and other zero-emission technology, Ghosn said.
“We don’t think this crisis is going to last forever,” he said.
Nissan shares slid 5.8 percent to 261 yen. Earnings were announced after trading ended in Tokyo.
is a cure is found for AIDS in 2009, it won’t go dwn in history as a bad yr
09 Feb 09
Gels to protect women from infection with the AIDS virus have shown hints that they may work, researchers said on Monday.
But two studies show that men who take powerful HIV cocktails can still pass the virus on in their semen, even if it cannot be found in the blood.
The studies presented at a meeting of AIDS in Canada show slow progress in finding ways to slow the pandemic of deadly human immunodeficiency virus, which infects 33 million people globally and which has killed 25 million.
Dr. Salim Abdool Karim of the Center for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa and colleagues tested a gel made by Massachusetts-based Indevus Pharmaceuticals called PRO 2000 in women.
They are trying to find a microbicide — a gel or cream that women and perhaps men can use to protect against the AIDS virus when their partners cannot or will not use a condom.
PRO 2000 reduced the rate of HIV infection by a third, they told the meeting. “This is the first study that now shows that we have a promising candidate,” Karim told a news conference.
“We do not regard it as a definitive conclusion that PRO 2000 is a microbicide but we certainly view it as very promising.”
The researchers tested another microbicide called BufferGel made by ReProtect Inc, but were unable to find any significant indication that it helped. The study was only designed to show the gels were safe, an especially important issue because other studies have shown would-be microbicides actually raised the risk of infection.
DRUGS AS PROTECTION
Two studies in monkeys showed combinations of Gilead Sciences Inc.’s HIV drug Viread, or tenofovir, combined with its newer drug emtricitabine, marketed under the brand name Truvada, could protect monkeys from infection with a monkey virus similar to HIV both as a gel or in pills.
Dr. Gerardo Garcia-Lerma and colleagues at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave Viread and Truvada pills to monkeys in an approach called pre-exposure prophylaxis and found the monkeys were completely protected.
CDC’s Drs. Charles Dobard and Walid Heneine treated monkeys with one of two gels, one containing Viread alone and one with both drugs. Either gel worked equally well in protecting the monkeys, they told the meeting.
But two studies showed that men who take drug cocktails known as highly active antiretroviral therapy or HAART can still pass the virus in their semen.
Prameet Sheth of the University of Toronto in Canada, and Anne-Genevieve Marcelin of the Pitie-Salpetriere in Paris, both found that men whose blood seemed clear of HIV nonetheless had some in their semen.
“I would argue that it is infectious although we don’t know what level of virus is required,” Sheth told the news conference.
The drug cocktails do not cure AIDS, but they do drive down levels of the virus to so-called undetectable levels in blood. This helps stop the virus from destroying the immune system and keeps patients healthy.
The hope had been they would reduce the spread of AIDS, and on a population level that may still be true, the researchers told the meeting.
But both teams found when they tested individual men, they often had virus in their semen, which means they could infect someone else if they had unprotected sex. It was not clear why the virus could be found in semen but not in blood but experts know it is impossible to completely suppress the virus.
since i started practising my cycling from xmas, it was on my longest ride to changi coast road tat i experienced my most significant fatigue point beyond which i felt like i could ride on forever.
after my mth long break for CNY, i finally re-started my cycling regime yest
and my stamina has dropped so much
not to mention my sore bum after the long ride
stressed leh…not much time left till the event, i muz try to cycle everyday and get in form again, so frens, feel free to jio mi to go cycling
also to reduce my fatigue points
from the new 9pm sitecom, the irresponsible father is seen scolding tay ping hui “it’s only right tat a son provides for his father”
i told YY tis should b preceded wif “it’s only right tat a father provides for his son”
tis is wat i call karma
thurs nite, YY told mi he stardeed his chinese in the afternoon
when i told him i wana test him his 听写. he quoted mi in my own words, it doesn’t matter how many marks i get for 听写 as long as i stardeed
argh! i should haf seen it coming back to bite mi someday
the bike seat is much too high for mi and i haf been wanting to adjust it forever
1st attempt : i couldn’t find a spanner so i took a pliers. the nut didn’t budge
2nd attempt : i bought a small and cute little spanner and tried again, it still didn’t budge one bit
last nite, i searched again in the house and found a array of spanners in a toolbox! yea! looks like i can finally get the seat adjusted and start practising
was kinda disappointed tat donations r coming in very very slowly.
guess it juz means tat i need to work harder at soliciting and pedalling to ensure i reach my goal !
加油! 让我为自己打气!
someone shoved 2 postcards at mi which i put into my bag wifout even glancing at it
the next morn, a sudden craving of paella and sangria came to mi, omg! i can live on sangria and paella, i luv them so much!
after lunch the same day, i took out the postcards to bin them and got a shock coz they were for a new restaurant at vivo tat sells paella and sangria !
omg! tis muz b a sign!
it takes a mum to understand wat another is going thru esp when the circumstances r similar
the pain is u feel is greater den the physical pain inflicted on ur child
the only good tat came out of QQ’s ordeal was for wat little comfort it offered another mum many yrs later
i went to Bao today to tabao eggtarts for kiddos. unfortunately all sold out so i walked into mrt station from the other direction of the station control
i took the escalator at the unfamiliar end of the station too
i boarded the homebound train and next thing i knew, the announcement went ‘tanjong pagar’
OMG！ i was on the wrong train. i got out at the next station to correct my error. to my surprise, the signs above the doors i juz exited from reads my destination
now i m totally confused. the train on the opp platform was headed for marina bay which isn’t rite too
i looked up the station and saw lotsa escalators and another platform above this level. omg! when did tanjong pagar become an interchange? i muz haf been living under a rock not to know tat
finally i realised wat muz haf happened : the train i was on made a wrong announcement and i was actually at city hall and not tanjong pagar !
ＹＹdrives mi mad
i cannot understand y he refuses to study chinese though he has such excellent guidebooks and assessment books
i hate screaming at him but my blood reli boils coz he has no intiative to improve his chinese and it irks mi
i shall impose no tv for him and make him stardee chinese every nite till he scores well
frankly, i tink he has no reason not to do well in chinese. every consequence is a result of choices.
juz did the fundraising page tdy.
hope i can 抛砖引玉 and get more ppl to support the cause
2 Feb 09
A Chinese man was killed at the Guangzhou computer shop where he worked when the mobile phone in his pocket exploded, severing a major artery.
According to local Chinese daily Shin Min Daily News, the rare accident happened on Friday (30 January) when the mobile phone the victim put in his chest pocket exploded, severing an artery in his neck and killing him on the spot.
The man who is in his twenties, is an employee at the computer store and was carrying out his duties when the accident happened.
An employee working at the same store told the Chinese media that the incident happened at about 7.30pm. The employee, who was not named in the report, said that she heard a loud sound and saw her colleague lying on the floor of the shop in a pool of blood.
Shin Min reported that the employee also told the Chinese media that the victim had recently changed the batteries in his mobile phone.
It was believed that the victim had just finished charging his mobile phone and put the device into his pocket when the phone exploded.
Chinese authorities have yet to determine the make and model of the phone and its battery.
Sushi Go Round