Business news for Mon, 17 Dec 2007 & with word capital. 27 news.

Related Companies, the US real estate business run by billionaire developer Stephen Ross, has taken a $1.4bn capital infusion from a consortium of investors including the Abu Dhabi government

CHINA International Capital Corp, the country's first joint-venture investment bank, has acquired a US$5 billion quota under the qualified domestic institutional investor scheme, a senior foreign exchange management official said. Sun Lujun, deputy head of the capital project department under the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said by early December, the forex market regulator had verified a total of US$23 billion as QDII quotas for China Southern Fund, Huaxia Fund, Harvest Fund and China International Fund. Sun said that through the end of October, 16 QDIIs had put on the market 154 QDII products. Sun added that US$28.6 billion were actually remitted abroad for QDII operations by the end of the month. The total indicates that capital flows accelerated sharply over the past few months as only US$4 billion or so were remitted between April 2006 and March 2007. In May, QDII banks were approved to invest in Hong Kong stocks.

ROYAL KPN NV, the largest phone company in the Netherlands, will reach nearly 500,000 customers for its television products this year, says Chief Financial Officer Marcel Smits. The company's share of the Dutch television market will be about eight percent, Smits said, according to Bloomberg News. Most of KPN's clients subscribe to Digitenne, which offers digital television for a monthly fee of 6.95 euros (US$10.15). "TV will be an important component of the revenue stream," said Smits. The Hague-based KPN is counting on new services such as television and calls over the Internet to make up for the loss of customers at its traditional phone business. KPN, which started offering Digitenne three years ago, aims to beat its initial goal of 10 percent of the Dutch television market, Smits said without being more specific. "They need new products to offset line losses, and TV is one of them," says Joris Franssen, a fund manager at Kempen Capital Management in

CONSUMER confidence is falling, the odds of a recession have risen, analysts predict the worst holiday shopping since 2002 - and retail-industry executives are buying their companies' shares like never before. Limited Brands Inc Chief Executive Officer Leslie Wexner and eight other executives bought a record amount of stock last month after prices fell to a four-year low. Dillard's Inc director Warren Stephens made the biggest insider purchase ever as shares of the Arkansas-based department store chain headed for the steepest decline since at least 1980. Cambiar Investors LLC, Royce & Associates LLC and Becker Capital Management Inc say insider buying foreshadows a rebound. The last four times executives added to their holdings, the Standard & Poor's Supercomposite Retailing Index rose an average 9.9 percent in the next three months, topping a 6.2-percent average rise in the S&P 500 Index. Retail company officials increased their investments by US$346.4 million since the start

Reuters - Sentiment toward the U.S. housing sector remained poor in December and a regional factory index showed weakness, while other data on Monday suggested the dollar's shrinking value had boosted trade and capital inflows in recent months.

Chapeau Inc., which does business as BluePoint Energy Inc. has signed a deal to receive $10 million for working capital secured by a promissory note.

Banks that lent to failed hedge fund Basis Yield Alpha, run by Australia's Basis Capital, are likely to get all their money back and there could be a payment to investors, the fund said

Bristol-Myers Squibb agreed to sell its medical imaging group to private equity firm Avista Capital Partners for about $525 million.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Air France-KLM on Monday said it's made a non-binding offer to acquire all the shares of Alitalia and detailed plans to inject at least 750 million euros ($1.09 billion) of fresh capital into the struggling Italian airline.

The current account deficit narrowed to $178.5 billion during the third quarter as exports of capital goods and motor vehicles increased.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Marshall & Isley on Monday said it's booking a one-time, after-tax charge of $48 million in connection with the retirement of $1 billion of Puttable Reset Securities. M&I expects to recover this charge through lower financing costs over the next three years. It also expects fourth-quarter charge-offs of up to $195 million and a loan loss provision of up to $235 million for its loan portfolio. "Despite these challenging market conditions, we are fortunate to have one of the strongest capital positions in the industry," said Mark Furlong, president and CEO, Marshall & Ilsley Corporation. "We believe we are well positioned to weather the downturn in the real estate market."

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - RBC Capital Markets analyst Larry Miller cut his rating on Starbucks Corp. on Monday to sector perform from outperform after a meeting with company management. The analyst said he came away from the meeting "believing Starbucks' multiple pressure will last longer than we expected as sales weakness, EPS risk, and return compression continues." He cut his price target to $22 a share from $26 on the Seattle-based coffee-shop operator. Starbucks shares traded about 1.2% lower in Monday premarket trading after closing Friday at $21.25.

Related Companies, the New York real estate developer, said Monday it would receive $1.4 billion in equity and debt investments from a group including Goldman Sachs, Michael Dell’s MSD Capital and Mubadala Development, an affiliate of an investment firm owned by Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Related is one of New York’s biggest residential [...]

An interesting note: Charles Dumas, global strategist for Lombard Street Research, says the bulls are deluding themselves. "The long-run real return on commodities is negative, except for oil where it has been nil for one and a half centuries. So much for the idea that the oil companies have us all over a barrel (sorry). If there were in fact any form of monopoly or oligopoly in the oil markets then they'd do a great deal better than simply covering their cost of capital over the decades. The fact that they don't is evidence that there is no such mon-

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Plains Exploration & Production Company on Monday said it would sell oil and gas properties to Occidental Petroleum and XTO Energy for $1.75 billion. The Houston energy firm also set plans to buy back $1 billion in stock and spend $1.15 billion on its 2008 capital budget. "The oil and gas property divestments balance PXP's asset portfolio and align operator strengths to specific assets maximizing efficiencies and returns," PXP Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Flores said in a statement. (An earlier version of this item incorrectly omitted the transaction with XTO Energy.)

Air France-KLM and Air One unveiled details of plans to relaunch Alitalia, pledging to inject fresh capital and renew the aging fleet of Italy's troubled state-controlled airline.

THE subprime crisis is not over yet and could spread to other credit markets, making it important that banks have a strong capital base, a Swiss regulator and prominent member of the Basel Committee said.

INTERNATIONAL Securities Trading Corporation (ISTC), the capital lender run by Tiarnan O’Mahoney, returns to the High Court today to update progress on finding a rescue package after it was forced into examinership last month.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Compton Petroleum said it's "puzzled" by a request from a shareholder representing 19.8% of its capital -- Centennial Energy Partners, according to an SEC filing -- to consider strategic alternatives. "The current business environment for Compton and the Canadian natural gas industry at large is challenging to say the least. Our current share price reflects the depressed state of the natural gas industry, particularly in Alberta, resulting from (a) low natural gas prices, (b) the rapid appreciation of the Canadian dollar, (c) the high cost structure of the basin, and (d) regulatory issues including uncertainties relating to the proposed new Crown royalty structure in Alberta," it said. The company said it is bullish on the outlook for natural gas and is confident that its longer-term strategy is sound and achievable.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Capital One Financial and Radian Group were downgraded to sell from hold, and Countrywide Financial and MGIC Investment Corp. were cut to hold from buy at Citigroup. "We expect consumer lenders and insurers to face further credit challenges as home prices decline 3% to 5% in each of the next two years, mortgage rates reset and the macro economy slows. Moreover, tightening lending standards and underwriting practices should initially compound the problems, making it generally more difficult for consumer lenders to grow out of the downturn," the broker said.