Best Money

Walmart may sell energy to Texans

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 30 (UPI) — U.S. big-box store Wal-Mart announced plans to install solar panels and windmills at some stores, as well as the creation of its own electricity company.

The company’s environmental goals also include selling 100 million compact corkscrew fluorescent light bulbs this year, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The electricity company, Texas Retail Energy, will supply Wal-Mart’s stores with cheap, wholesale power. About $15 million will be saved by this endeavor annually, also giving the company control over its utility bills.

The infrastructure of the energy company has grown, so TRE can now sell electricity to Texas consumers. High prices for power in Texas and an open market could lead TRE to be a local competitor.

“We’ve considered it. Whether or not it will ever materialize, we don’t know. It boils down to whether the customers and suppliers want that,” said Chris Hendrix, general manager of Texas Retail Energy. “Short-term, it’s out of our scope. Longer-term, anything’s possible.”

Many retailers have begun installing software to control store lights and temperature to help cut bills. While many big-box stores have taken energy issues to the corporate level, Wal-Mart is the first to buy energy wholesale.

Swiss March trade surplus 718 mln sfr vs 1.381 bln in Feb

ZURICH (Thomson Financial) - Switzerland’s trade surplus narrowed to 718 mln sfr in March from 1.381 bln in February, the Federal Customs Office said.

Exports in February rose a nominal 9.2 pct or a real and inflation-adjusted 7.7 pct to 17.15 bln sfr, while imports rose a nominal 13.3 pct or real 13.4 pct to 16.4 bln sfr, the office said.

andrew.ge.thompson@thomson.com

at/vs

COPYRIGHT

Copyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News.

China takes steps to curb its surging economy

HONG KONG: The Chinese central bank announced Friday that it would allow its currency to fluctuate more during daily foreign exchange trading, but again rebuffed demands from the United States and Europe for a sustained rise in the yuans value.

The central bank also raised interest rates and demanded that commercial banks set aside more of their assets as reserves that cannot be lent. The two moves are aimed at tightening credit and reducing the risk of overheating in an economy that is growing at more than 11 percent a year and in mainland Chinese stock markets that have more than tripled since the beginning of last year.

The currency announcement came as top U.S. and Chinese economic policy makers prepared to meet Tuesday through Thursday in Washington in an effort to head off growing complaints from the U.S. Congress to address the widening U.S. trade deficit. But the policy shifts, announced Friday and taking effect Saturday, are unlikely to have any practical effect on soaring Chinese exports, economists said.

The Peoples Bank of China said in a statement posted on its Web site that it would allow the yuan to rise or fall up to 0.5 percent in daily trading. The daily limit was 0.3 percent.

But the central bank gave a clear signal that the new policy should not be interpreted as Chinese willingness to allow a run-up in the value of the yuan. The bank said it would continue to “keep the exchange rate basically stable at an adaptive and equilibrium level based on market supply and demand with reference to a basket of currencies.”

The bank issued a separate statement quoting an unidentified spokesman as saying that the decision does not mean that the exchange rate “will see large ups and downs, nor large appreciations.”

The Peoples Bank has not allowed the yuan to move the maximum allowed percentage on any day since it broke the yuans peg to the dollar on July 21, 2005. The Chinese government allowed the yuan to rise 2.1 percent then, and has only let it inch up by another 5 percent over the nearly two years since then.

By contrast, members of the U.S. Congress from manufacturing states that have lost jobs during the Chinese export boom have been calling for China to revalue by 25 percent or more. If China were to allow the yuan to rise more quickly against the dollar, this would make Chinese exports more expensive in foreign markets and would make foreign goods more competitive in China.

Liang Hong, an economist at Goldman Sachs, said that the wider trading band represented “a symbolic, but laudable development in Chinas foreign exchange reform.”

Widening the daily trading band is the latest in a long series of steps by Chinese officials to gently awaken Chinese businesses to the risks that fluctuating currencies can pose. China pegged the yuan at 8.27 to the dollar from 1997 to 2005, lulling some businesses and entrepreneurs into ignoring currency risk.

In interviews last month at the Canton trade fair, in Guangzhou, exporters from all over China said that they were paying much closer attention to exchange rates. While Chinese export contracts are still denominated mainly in dollars, Chinese companies increasingly ask their foreign customers to agree to provisions requiring the buyer to pay extra if the dollar starts falling faster against the yuan.

Chinese officials have acknowledged that there are economic arguments for faster appreciation of the yuan, but contend that this could threaten what they describe as “social stability” - the risk that Chinese workers and farmers who lose their jobs as a result of currency appreciation might protest against the government.

Two-thirds of the population still lives in rural areas, and the agricultural sector is barely competitive with imports at current currency levels, raising the prospect of increased rural unemployment if the yuan were to rise sharply and food exports drop as a result.

The Peoples Bank of China raised the benchmark regulated rate for one-year bank deposits by 0.27 percentage points to 3.06 percent, and increased the benchmark rate for one-year bank loans by 0.18 percentage points to 6.57 percent. By raising deposit rates more than lending rates, the government showed confidence that the banks have put enough of their bad loan problems behind them to survive on slightly narrower profit margins.

The central bank also ordered banks to hold 11.5 percent of assets as reserves, up from 11 percent. Many banks already have even larger reserves, however, as they have been swamped with deposits from the brisk Chinese economic growth and large trade surplus, and have had trouble finding ways to lend this money.

THOMSON FINANCIAL NEWS TOP STORIES UK 1105 BST

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Here are the top stories on Thomson Financial News

Royal Bank of Scotland consortium says intends to make public offer for ABN

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - A consortium of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, Banco Santander Central Hispano and Fortis NV has said that it intends to make a public offer for 100 pct of ABN Amro Hldgs NV.

The banks said that under Dutch regulations they cannot disclose full terms of the offer for seven days, but on Wednesday the consortium indicated that it may offer 39 eur per share for the Dutch bank, providing that the sale of LaSalle to Bank of America Corporation does not go through.

Sulzer hikes Bodycote offer to 344.5 pence per share from 332.0

ZURICH (Thomson Financial) - Sulzer AG said it has raised its offer for UK competitor Bodycote International to 344.5 pence per share from a previous 332.0 pence, but no agreement has been reached.

The Swiss engineering group said this is a final offer and represents a 49 pct premium over the Bodycote closing share price on Jan 25.

Friends Provident Q1 total new business sales up 12 pct at 1.497 bln stg

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Friends Provident PLC said that new business sales for the three months to end March 2007 rose by 12 pct to 1.497 bln stg, up from 1.331 bln stg in the same period last year.

The result was marginally higher than analysts’ expectations of 1.482 bln stg.

Cross Shore agrees to reverse takeover of ReSearch Pharmaceutical

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Cross Shore Acquisition Corp said it has agreed to a reverse takeover of Pennsylvania-based ReSearch Pharmaceutical Services Inc for about 39.1 mln usd cash plus shares and warrants.

“It provides us with the resources to aggressively expand our operations into China, India, Eastern Europe and other key markets,” Daniel Perlman, chairman and chief executive of ReSearch Pharmaceutical, said in a statement.

Taube Hodson Stonex further cuts stake in Alliance Boots to 0.672 pct

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Taube Hodson Stonex Partners Ltd said it has sold a further 7.9 mln shares in takeover target Alliance Boots PLC at 1121 pence each, cutting its stake to 0.672 pct from 1.49 pct.

Taube Hodson Stonex Partners now holds 6.5 mln shares in Alliance Boots.

Tesco could make joint bid for Coles with Australia’s Woolworths - report

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Tesco PLC could team up with Australia’s biggest retailer, Woolworths, to mount a bid of at least 7.9 bln stg for Coles Group Ltd, the country’s second biggest retail group, reports The Times.

It says Woolworths is considering a partnership with Tesco as one of several options as it plans the carve-up of its rival.

John Lewis week to Apr 21 dept store sales up 11.9 pct, Waitrose up 24.8 pct

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - John Lewis Partnership, the employee-owned retailer, said week to April 21 sales at its 26 UK department stores increased by 11.9 pct to 45.55 mln stg, while sales at its chain of 183 Waitrose supermarkets rose by 24.8 pct to 74.84 mln stg.

Total sales grew by 19.6 pct to 120.55 mln stg.

Dassault Systemes acquires UK’s ICEM for 51.4 mln eur cash

PARIS (Thomson Financial) - Dassault Systemes DS said it has agreed to acquire ICEM, a UK group specializing in styling, surface modelling and rendering software, for about 51.4 mln eur in cash.

The purchase, which is subject to closing conditions, is not expected to be dilutive to non-GAAP earnings, the group said in a statement. It gave no indication on the impact under IFRS earnings.

Auto: London shares

COPYRIGHT

Copyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News.

Naked truth wins £10,000 literary prize for stripper turned novelist

A FORMER stripper has won a top literary prize for a novel that draws heavily on her years at one of London’s best-known strip clubs.

Fiona Dunscombe, 44, drew on her work at Raymond’s Revuebar in the 1980s for her first novel, The Triple Point of Water. The heroine is a striptease artist looking for her lost father.

The book yesterday won the Dundee International Book Prize for an unpublished novel, with a 10,000 award and a publication deal with Polygon.

Radio 4’s Today show host, James Naughtie, one of the judges, called it “gritty, dark and full of life”.

From about 200 entries and a shortlist of ten, it was the one that stood out as the work of a real writer, he said. “Obviously it had rough edges, but it was a story with insight and touch. It is very personal to her, very intimate.”

The book’s central character, Arabella Cordon, is a rural English girl who finds work in London’s Soho as a stripper.

Arabella is looking for her real father, who left her mother long ago. Other women in the book are also seeking father figures, a strong theme of the novel.

It closely reflects Ms Dunscombe’s experience. Her biological father left her mother before she was born. She tracked him down three years ago through an internet search, e-mailing him at his home in Sweden. Colin Scott Wheatley was at the ceremony yesterday, along with one of the two half-sisters Ms Dunscombe never knew she had.

“The book is very much about the way identity can be determined by all the father figures around you,” said Sarah Ream, the book’s editor at Polygon.

Ms Dunscombe now lives in France, with her seven-year-old son and accountant husband. She is the first international winner of the Dundee prize, which she heard about from a French academic who specialises in Scottish literature.

Born in Derbyshire, she moved to London after school and answered an advert for Paul Raymond’s club. A version of her audition appears in the book.

She worked there three years. The book reflects the days of Thatcher’s Britain, she said, with homelessness on the streets of London and a culture of blame and a “lack of compassion”.

Ms Dunscombe said she never suffered from the sex industry’s association with drugs, prostitution or pornography. But she struggled with self-esteem in a business that placed all its value on physical looks.

“There’s nothing bad about taking your clothes off, or about being nude per se, but when you do that for a living, you suffer from other people’s perceptions of what you do,” she said.

“It’s absolutely central to the book, looking very much at Soho as well as the strip club. I wouldn’t have been able to write that without having the experience to draw on. I don’t want to forget it.”

Ms Dunscombe has begun her second book - exploring the idea of being very connected to a father she never knew.