US corporate executives believe the euro has further to fall, according to a JP Morgan survey released Friday.
The average forecast by executives at US companies is for the euro to reach $1.24 this yeara nearly 5% drop from the current $1.2938 exchange rate. Executives in Europe share this view and those in Japan think the euro will hit $1.26, according to the survey, which polled executives at 89 companies.
The euro has tumbled in the last few months as markets continue to worry about European leaders’ ability to address member governments’ crushing debt levels. However, the currency has climbed this week, boosted by strong bond auctions in Spain and France, and signs of progress in Greece’s negotiations with creditors.
For companies, a volatile euro makes it more difficult to predict revenue and profits; a US company exporting to Europe could see its products become less competitively priced if the euro’s value drops.
Corporate executives appear to have embraced the view that the situation in Europe is stabilizing. Companies are mainly sticking to their currency policies, with 69% of US and Japanese companies and 79% of European companies telling JP Morgan they were making no changes. Many companies trade currencies and options to protect against big moves in exchange rates, a practice known as hedging.
In October, only 30% of US companies and 43% of Japanese companies said they thought the crisis would have no impact on their hedging.
In the latest survey, 8% of US companies said they were doing more or longer euro hedges, compared to 19% of Japanese companies and 6% of European firms.
A few firms are using new financial instruments like options to deal with the crisis, including 4% of surveyed companies in the US, 6% in Japan and 3% in Europe.
There is a feeling that corporates are panicking and doing all sorts of things, but most of the companies we deal with are very systematic in their approach to Europe and to their exposure, and a large majority aren’t making significant changes, said Kevin Hebner, a senior foreign exchange strategist at JP Morgan .
The bank’s strategists are more optimistic on the euro’s outlook than the survey participants, forecasting $1.38 by year’s end, although with considerable volatility during the year, Hebner said.
The euro’s 3.2% drop in the fourth quarter is proving a problem for some companies’ results, as US firms report earnings.
Online auction giant eBay Inc. saw average selling prices fall during the fourth quarter, with the lower euro pushing annual revenue growth at its PayPal merchant services unit down 7 percentage points, analysts said Thursday. The crisis forced the company to forecast first-quarter earnings below the consensus figures.
Johnson Controls Inc. lowered its 2012 forecast for the euro to $1.30 from $1.35 also Thursday. The auto parts maker said its 2012 earnings would be lower than expected as European automotive production falls instead of the increase it had previously anticipated.
Most companies’ outlook hasn’t changed much over the last year. In JP Morgan ‘s December 2010 survey, US companies said they expected the euro to reach $1.24 in 2012.
US companies expect the euro to trade at $1.25 in 2013, while European executives expect a rebound to $1.29, and Japanese executives anticipate the euro to trade at $1.31.
Verizon, Comcast Send Marketing Deals to FCC in Airwaves Review January 20, 2012, 12:53 PM EST
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Television Blackout Rule for Pro Sports Events Faces FCC Review
By Todd Shields
Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) — Verizon Wireless and cable companies led by Comcast Corp. filed agreements with the U.S. government to sell each others’ services, and said the deals shouldn’t be part of a regulatory review of their $3.6 billion airwaves sale.
The marketing arrangements announced alongside the airwaves sale last month don’t require approval by the Federal Communications Commission, the companies said in a filing posted today on the FCC website. Under the proposed spectrum sale, largest U.S. wireless company Verizon would buy airwaves from a group made up of leading U.S. cable provider Comcast, Time Warner Cable Inc. and closely held Bright House Networks LLC.
The deal would let Verizon add airwaves as customers use smartphones such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone to watch video and browse the Web. AT&T Inc., the second-largest U.S. wireless operator, dropped a bid last month to increase its airwaves holdings by buying rival T-Mobile USA Inc.
The proposed sale to Verizon “appears to be only one small part of what could be a significant realignment of the competitive landscape,” companies including mobile carriers T- Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel Corp., and satellite-television provider DirecTV said yesterday in a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.
The competitors asked Genachowski to require Basking Ridge, New Jersey-based Verizon Wireless and the cable companies to divulge the marketing agreements, according to the letter, which was also signed by Washington-based policy groups Public Knowledge and Media Access Project.
FCC Jurisdiction
The deal would let the cable companies offer wireless services to customers without investing in their own network or acquiring a wireless company, Neil Smit, an executive vice president at Philadelphia-based Comcast, said in an interview.
The companies submitted copies of the marketing agreements to the FCC under confidentiality protections to avoid delay in reviewing the airwaves sale, and to fulfill an agency request, according to the filing posted today.
The companies’ filing “will eliminate a controversy that surely would have taken place had they not done so,” Harold Feld, legal director for Public Knowledge, said in an e-mailed statement.
“No one should accept the companies’ claim that the arrangements are outside of the FCC’s jurisdiction,” Feld said. “They clearly are” within the agency’s purview, he said.
Neil Grace, an FCC spokesman, didn’t immediately provide a comment.
The FCC will “undertake a thorough, fair and fact-based review of the proposed transaction,” Grace said last month.
The FCC and Justice Department are likely to approve the deal, though they may require the sale of assets in some markets, said Jeff Silva, senior policy director for telecommunications, media and technology at Medley Global Advisors LLC in Washington.
–With assistance from Alex Sherman in New York. Editors: Michael Shepard, Steve Geimann
To contact the reporter on this story: Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Shepard at mshepard7@bloomberg.net
Corporate executives expect the value of the euro to continue falling in 2012, which would continue pressuring earnings of companies exposed to currency risk in Europe. Still, many companies are inclined to stand pat on their currency hedging strategies, according to a new survey from JP Morgan.
NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Mitt Romney in South Carolina, making his pitch to make America profitable. My next guest says if we want to grow, high taxes have to go. That is why shes leading a group of major American companies demanding an overhaul of the tax code, period.
Elaine –
(CROSS TALK)
CAVUTO: Kamarck — Im sorry, Elaine — of the Rate Coalition, joins me right now. What do you want to see? When you say overhaul, it isnt even an issue of whether you find taxes too high or not. It is just too complicated.
ELAINE KAMARCK, RATE COALITION CHAIR: Its too complicated and its too high. On April the first, the United — when Japan is scheduled to lower its corporate tax rate, the United States is going to have the highest corporate tax rate in the world.
Our competitors in the OECD have a corporate tax rate of around 25 percent. Guess what ours is? Thirty five percent.
CAVUTO: You always see the argument, but very few pay at that rate.
If youre a genie, you dont pay anything in all.
KAMARCK: Heres what happens, is that there is this massive set of loopholes in the tax code. So all the corporations say, OK, we have to get our tax rate down, so lets do this and do this and do this, to qualify for the loopholes. They are distorting Americas business decision.
That is why these 25 companies that make up the Rate Coalition, big companies, Boeing, CBS, big companies in America — theyve said, look, were going to put our loopholes on the table in order to get a lower tax rate.
CAVUTO: So they do want a lower tax rate?
KAMARCK: They absolutely want a lower — theyd like a tax rate that is in keeping with their competitors in the rest of the advanced world.
CAVUTO: you know in Washington — I had an interview with a former Clinton administration official. Were you –.
KAMARCK: I did reinventing government in the Clinton White House.
CAVUTO: Good luck reinventing this. But my argument has been that a lot of people have tried this. But the Washington argument for being against this is, its get nervous because it has got to be revenue neutral.
We cant risk, all of a sudden, even short-term losing a lot of money.
How do you address that?
KAMARCK: Well, 25 years ago, a Republican president, Reagan, and a Democratic speaker of the House, Tip ONeill, they did a tax deal. And the tax deal was exactly this combination of things, a lower rate, a broader base. That is sort of the essence –
CAVUTO: And taking away a lot of the tax breaks and all, the right offs for credit card interests and all. I remember that day was a horrible day for me because I couldnt write off my Visa and Mastercard. But we need to do something like that?
KAMARCK: We need to do something like that. We need a deal. You know, Senator Wyden had a really good line a couple days ago. He said, you know, nobody ever believes tax reform will happen until 15 minutes before it happens. Thats why the way — thats what happens. Thats why these big companies have banded together to — and thats why –
CAVUTO: But not everyone can pay less, right? So everyone is for it until they crunch the numbers, or their accounting people crunch the numbers, and they say, well, Im going to pay more. Im still going to deal with the complicated tax code, and the write-offs and allowances, and the thousands of pages of gobbledygook I have to go through, to justify it.
KAMARCK: Well, except that I think a lot of companies — first of all, they dont like the distortion in their business decision making. And secondly, remember that there is a huge administrative cost to accessing all of those loopholes and all of those write-offs.
In fact, I joke sometimes that the tax VPs the companies that are in the coalition are actually doing a really selfless thing. They may be putting themselves out of a job. Because theres huge tax department that are doing just this in these big companies.
CAVUTO: Another reason not to get anything done. Theyre going to realize, wait a minute, Im not –
KAMARCK: Not going to have a job. but they have actually said we want a lower rate, and we are willing to, you know, put things on the table that might need to be on the table for this lower rate.
CAVUTO: Another guest who makes way, way, way too much sense. Again, Elaine, youre going nowhere. Seriously, very good ideas. Excellent ideas.
KAMARCK: As something, by the way, that actually could happen, even in this polarized environment.
CAVUTO: I think the two parties agree what a mess it is. We will see if they get together on it.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The US Treasury Department said on Tuesday it was expanding sanctions on Iran to include 10 shipping and front companies and one individual based in Malta affiliated with the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL).
As IRISL and its subsidiaries continue their deceptive efforts to escape the grasp of US and international sanctions, we will continue to take action – as we are today – to expose the front companies, agents and managers working with IRISL and work to stop this illicit business, David Cohen, US Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a statement.
The move is part of a continuing US effort to stop Irans nuclear weapons program by freezing the assets of individuals and companies that support the program and denying them access to the US financial system and commercial market.
IRISL is already facing international sanctions for its involvement in Irans efforts to advance its missile programs and transport military cargoes, the Treasury Department said.
Jamshid Khalili, an Iranian national who is chief executive and managing director of the shipping company Irano Hind, was also designated for sanctions, the department said.
Irano Hind is an IRISL-Shipping Corporation of India joint venture that is already subject to both US and United Nations Security Council sanctions, the Treasury Department said.
The newly designated companies are: BIIS Maritime Limited, ISIM Amin Limited, ISIM Atr Limited, ISIM Olive Limited, ISIM Sat Limited, ISIM Sea Chariot Limited, ISIM Sea Crescent Limited, ISIM Sinin Limited, ISIM Taj Mahal Limited and ISIM Tour Limited.
(Reporting By Doug Palmer; Editing by Vicki Allen)
(Sarah McBride) – Immigrants founded or cofounded almost half of 50 top venture-backed companies in the United States, a new study shows, underscoring some of the high stakes in potential immigration reform.
The venture capital community argues the study, completed by research group National Foundation for American Policy, proves the need to overhaul rules governing how entrepreneurs can immigrate to the United States to spur job development.
Its a gamble whether an entrepreneur should stay or leave right now, and thats not how the immigration system should work, said Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association, on a call with reporters. What we need is legislation that helps these entrepreneurs from outside the United States.
Of the 50 top venture-backed companies, 23 had at least one immigrant founder, the study found. In addition, 37 of the 50 companies employed at least one immigrant in a key management position such as chief technology officer.
Companies with immigrant founders include some of Silicon Valleys hot start-ups, such as textbook-rental service Chegg, founded by Indian Aayush Phumbhra and Briton Osman Rashid; online craft marketplace Etsy, founded by Swiss Haim Schoppik; and Web publisher Glam Media, founded by Indians Samir Arora and Raj Narayan.
The countries that supplied the most founders included India, Israel, Canada, Iran and New Zealand, the study found, and the immigrant-founded companies created an average of 150 jobs.
Olympus-Related Companies Searched by Japan Investigators December 22, 2011, 3:14 AM EST
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By Mariko Yasu and Takashi Amano
(Updates with company confirmation in second paragraph.)
Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) — Japanese prosecutors raided offices of Olympus Corp. in Tokyo, more than a month after the camera maker admitted to a $1.7 billion accounting fraud that hid investment losses over more than a decade.
Officials from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office and police entered Olympus offices in Tokyo today, the company confirmed in a statement. Footage from public broadcaster NHK showed investigators entering the building of three companies Olympus used in its scheme.
Olympus last week restated more than five years of earnings to avoid being automatically delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange after admitting to the 13-year cover-up. The company inflated fees to advisers on the 2008 acquisition of Gyrus Group Plc and overpaid in purchasing three Japanese companies with the intention of increasing goodwill, an independent panel investigating the fraud said Dec. 6.
Prosecutors were probably waiting “until the company completed filing restatements, which saved it from automatic delisting,” said Mitsushige Akino, who oversees about $600 million in Tokyo at Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. “I’m expecting a strict investigation to be carried out.”
Olympus fell as much as 5 percent in Tokyo to 1,012 yen and changed hands at 1,048 yen at 2 p.m. The company’s market value has tumbled 58 percent since the Oct. 14 dismissal of former Chief Executive Officer Michael Woodford, who had challenged former Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa and the Tokyo-based company’s board about inflated takeover payments.
Wider Implications
How Japan handles the scandal has wider implications for investment in the country, according to Josh Shores, a London- based principal at Southeastern Asset Management Inc. The Memphis, Tennessee-based fund is Olympus’s biggest overseas shareholder, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Some “very late” raid of Olympus “which we were anticipating in late October as a buy signal should not be viewed as such now,” said Amir Anvarzadeh, the Singapore-based manager for Asian equity sales at BGC Partners. “This could very well be a delayed reaction by Japan’s bureaucrats to finally stamp their authority on what looks to be an open and shut case of financial fraud.”
The world’s biggest maker of endoscopes was being searched for suspected violation of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, according to NHK.
Hiding Losses
Kikukawa’s home is also being searched, Kyodo News reported, without citing anyone. Kyodo also said the prosecutors are searching the offices of three Japanese companies acquired by Olympus.
Olympus admitted Nov. 8 Kikukawa, Hisashi Mori, fired as executive vice president, and Hideo Yamada, a former company auditor, colluded to hide losses from securities investments in the 1990s.
Three former Olympus chairmen and at least three senior aides were “rotten to the core,” according to the Dec. 6 findings of an independent investigative panel. Others “involved in the fraudulent accounting one way or the other” should be “fully eliminated” from the company, it said.
‘Yes Men’
The company’s corporate culture created “yes men” who failed to stop or denounce senior managers, the panel said. The failure of Olympus’s corporate governance eroded all Japanese companies’ credibility and highlighted the need to break from a tradition of unthinking deference to superiors, it said.
The panel report traced a global network of mostly Japanese advisers who used offshore companies in the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands to hide impaired financial securities and channel funds to conceal those losses.
The company began making financial investments after 1985 as a strong yen hurt operating profit, the panel said. When Japan’s stock-market bubble burst at the end of 1989, it purchased high-risk products and structured bonds in an effort to recoup the loss. In late 1990, the company had a little less than 100 billion yen of unrealized losses, and this swelled to 118 billion yen by 2003, it said.
–With assistance from Kyung Bok Cho, Kazuyo Sawa and Yuki Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Anand Krishnamoorthy in Singapore. Editors: Anand Krishnamoorthy, Ben Richardson
To contact the reporters on this story: Mariko Yasu in Tokyo at myasu@bloomberg.net; Takashi Amano in Tokyo at tamano6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ben Richardson at brichardson8@bloomberg.net
US companies say they expect to add more jobs in 2012, and many are hiring right now.
For more on the companies that are looking for workers, The Early Show on Saturday Morning turned to Jack Otter, executive editor of CBS Moneywatch.com, who named names on the broadcast.
These are the companies he listed that are currently hiring workers:
Acquity Group, which builds websites and other Internet-enabled applications, has hired 190 people so far this year and expects to add another 10 employees before the year ends. It currently has 475 employees, and plans to hire many more next year.
Ideeli had an information technology (IT) staff of 12 a year ago. The Internet flash sale retailer now has more than 60 IT employees, and is searching for more. The company is seeking project, program and product managers, developers, testers, system engineers, system administrators, application support personnel, and data science and data services experts.
Ticketmaster is a product of mergers and acquisitions – and its technology mix reflects that. It has system administrators, database administrators, an architecture group, engineering staff and other IT roles. The company currently has 100 tech openings across the US, a combination of filling vacancies and expanding to build out new platforms. It expects to have a staff of around 800 IT employees next year.
Tango, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based company makes tools that allow people to communicate via video on virtually any device. Its product is just over a year old and it has been adding users at a rapid pace – more than 27 million so far.
The company, which launched in 2009 in stealth mode with two people, today has 85 employees, with openings for about 18 more. The firm expects to have as many as 200 employees in a year.
Corbis, a Seattle-based digital imaging company owned by Bill Gates, is adding some 70 positions, system engineers, front-end Web developers, and experts in systems infrastructure.
For more on employment and the industries with the most demand, check out the video above.
FRAMINGHAM, Mass., Dec 21, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
PeopleCube, provider of intelligent workplace management technology,
today predicted that maximizing the efficient utilization of real
estate, resources, and energy will be a critical business focus during
2012. To arrive at astute, accurate financial decisions, management
teams will focus on increasing data acquisition so they can analyze
workspace utilization trends down to a finite level. They will also
place greater emphasis on leveraging flexible space and
videoconferencing solutions, all in an attempt to maximize productivity
without increasing costs.
Tweet This: #PeopleCube
predicts business trends for 2012: efficient use of real estate and
resources is key focus bit.ly/se0MJl
Precision Management of Space Utilization and Energy Consumption
To gain a more detailed understanding of how space and energy is used,
companies will extend occupancy detection beyond conference rooms and
work areas down to individual workspaces, desks, and drop-in space.
Monitoring space and energy at the granular level provides details
needed to identify the necessary amount of real estate for efficient
functions, while avoiding unnecessary expenditures on excess workspace.
It also facilitates the reduction of energy consumption in underutilized
areas.
“Companies that are not measuring and monitoring how their space is
being used are missing out on a massive opportunity to reduce
real-estate and energy costs,” said John T. Anderson, president and CEO
of PeopleCube. “We’re not talking about simply making sure a room
doesn’t sit empty all day, but rather implementing and automatically
enforcing usage rules so space is used to its maximum potential, while
simultaneously reducing energy consumption.”
From Energy Monitoring to Active Energy Management
Similarly, PeopleCube sees companies moving from energy monitoring to
active energy management, primarily by implementing automated energy
control systems that can track, measure, adjust, and then repeat the
process. Companies will tie energy-efficient workspace reservation
systems into building management systems to automatically control the
heating and cooling of real estate based on how and when it will be used.
“Rising energy costs and government mandates have resulted in an
explosion in the active energy management of buildings,” said Stephen
Stokes, research vice president and distinguished analyst for Gartner.
“Progressive companies need to make use of submetering to monitor energy
consumption down to a finite level. Only then can they understand how,
when, and where excess energy is being consumed, track space utilization
trends to uncover inefficiencies, and implement active energy control
systems to eliminate unnecessary consumption.”
Hibernation Is Not Only for Bears
Tying together systems for managing space utilization and energy
consumption will enable companies to hibernate underutilized space; for
example, rendering overflow workspace unavailable for booking until
other areas are fully occupied. Another example is consolidating
bookings of sequential similarly sized meetings into a single meeting
room, rather than allowing reservations to be made for rooms located on
various floors, thus minimizing climatization needs.
“The concept of space hibernation provides companies with a tremendous
opportunity for energy savings,” said Peter Tarca, general manager of
PeopleCube’s Intelligent Buildings Unit. “This is true both on the macro
level, by enabling companies to shut off large areas of underutilized
facilities, but also on a micro level, by making it possible for them to
consolidate room usage to achieve efficient energy consumption.”
Business Intelligence Sheds Light on Both Trends and Details
Another business trend that PeopleCube foresees for 2012 is the
evolution of interactive reporting. Instead of producing copious static
reports to get a handle on real-estate utilization trends, companies
will rely on comprehensive business intelligence systems. Dashboards and
interactive visualizations will ease the process of identifying trends
and inefficiencies, both companywide and at individual locations.
“Management is demanding more from a reporting engine,” said Anderson.
“People don’t want to review a tableful of graphs and spreadsheets to
get the big picture. They want fast access to detailed information,
presented in a graphical format that is easier to analyze and process,
so they can make educated decisions before–not after–inefficiencies
occur.”
Multisystem Videoconferencing Integration for Greater Collaboration
and Reduced Costs
Organizations are increasingly leveraging videoconferencing and
telepresence technology to accommodate mobile workers and reduce travel
expenses. As more mergers and acquisitions take place, companies are
trying to manage multiple videoconferencing systems that lack
interoperability. Emphasis will therefore be placed on videoconferencing
management technology that both ensures the optimal utilization of these
assets and provides multisystem integration.
“Videoconference and telepresence technology has advanced tremendously,”
said Anderson, “but if that technology isn’t leveraged fully, it becomes
more of an economic liability than an effective productivity and
collaboration tool. Efficient management is a must if a company is to
maximize ROI.”
Increased Use of Variable Workspace
As companies strive to use their facilities as efficiently as possible
and, perhaps, to reduce their overall real-estate portfolio, they will
make use of variable workspace offered by outside vendors as an
alternative to real-estate expansion and to accommodate occasional
spatial overflows. PeopleCube believes companies will also use variable
workspace to eliminate locations such as underutilized satellite
offices, so they will pay for space only when they need it.
“On average it costs more than $10,000 annually to maintain a single
workspace, so the variable workspace model is an attractive alternative
to fixed-space leasing,” said Anderson. “Swapping in variable workspace
to replace a satellite office of, say, twenty workspaces can pay for
itself within the first quarter alone.”
Integration of IT and Real Estate Eliminates Redundancies and Reduces
Costs
One technical trend PeopleCube foresees for 2012 is companies’
integrating business applications relating to resource, facilities, and
energy management with information technology (IT). Real-estate and
facility professionals working together with IT can eliminate redundant
information databases, create centralized data repositories for
analysis, and reduce the total cost of application ownership by
eliminating duplicate data entry. Likely applications in this scenario
are computer-aided design (CAD), integrated workplace management systems
(IWMS), building management systems (BMS), SharePoint, security badging,
internet protocol (IP) addresses, and collaborative tools such as
Outlook and Lotus Notes.
“It’s clear from talking to people at industry events that the
integration of real estate and IT will be a key initiative in 2012,”
said Anderson. “Any time you miss the chance to integrate, you’ve got
groups operating in silos, and you lose the cohesiveness that a
multisystem approach offers.”
About PeopleCube
PeopleCube provides intelligent on-demand workplace management software
and services that enable organizations to maximize the efficient
utilization of real estate and energy. Through its corporate
headquarters in Framingham, Massachusetts, and offices around the world,
PeopleCube supports 8,000 customers and more than 2.7 million users in
small, medium, and large enterprises. More information is available at
www.peoplecube.com .
SOURCE: PeopleCube
PeopleCube
Ward Russell, 508-416-3629
wrussell@peoplecube.com
or
Frances Y J Wheeler, 978-475-7970
fwheeler@peoplecube.com
MONTREAL – About 80 per cent of global mining companies expect the price of gold to move higher next year and a clear majority sees bullion hitting a new record of $2,000 U.S. per ounce, says consultant PwC in its latest Annual Gold Price Report.
About 62 per cent of respondents said bullion positively affected their stock price – but less than expected.
As of Dec. 15, gold bullion had risen this year by 11 per cent, but gold stocks within the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index have declined by 10.6 per cent.
“The main driver behind this disparity is the availability of alternative investments that investors can use to generate a return from higher gold prices,” said PwC’s John Gravelle. “Such investments don’t give the investor such risks as project cost overruns and resource nationalism.”
But the disparity has influenced ways in which companies use their higher cash flows, he added: 27 per cent paid dividends in 2011, up from nine per cent last tear, and 29 per cent expect to spend cash on acquisitions.
The report assesses gold mining companies globally, with the companies surveyed representing 26.5 million ounces of gold mined in 2011 compared with 37.75 million ounces to be mined in 2012.
“Fat-cat acquisition companies are in the driver’s seat, ready to take over smaller companies that aren’t certain when the current market malaise will llift,” Gravelle said. Juniors may want to accept takeovers given their challenges in raising capital.”