It is a common notion that obesity brings along with itself a number of problems like cardiovascular diseases, depression and even cancer. However a new research has indicted lethargy and inactivity as a major cause of deaths across Europe every year. The study found that the figures are double that caused by obesity.
According to a research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition on Thursday reported that just a 20-minute brisk walk each day can significantly reduce the risk of early death. The report has been based on the study conducted by the researchers from the University of Cambridge. The study involved 334,161 European men and women whose height, weight and waist circumference, and self-assessed levels of physical activity between 1992 and 2,000 were measured. The subjects in the study were analyzed over a period of 12 years, during which time 21,438 of them died. The study estimated that physical lethargy led to 676,000 of the 9.2 million annual deaths in Europe, or twice the rate of deaths caused by obesity.
Professor Ulf Ekelund who led the study said, “This is a simple message: just a small amount of physical activity each day could have substantial health benefits for people who are physically inactive. Although we found that just 20 minutes would make a difference, we should really be looking to do more than this – physical activity has many proven health benefits and should be an important part of our daily life.”
Mining giant BHP Billiton said in a recent statement that it will put on some twists on its assets in order to reach as much as $12 billion.
This particular move is undertaken by the company in order to make up for its losses that it incurred from its acquisitions in the past. What BHP Billiton plans to do right now is solidify its four major products namely petroleum, copper, coal and iron ore.
Solidifying assets is just one of the several moves made by the mining giant in its attempt to come up with a simpler portfolio. It can be recalled that BHP Billiton was able to get rid of its $5.2 billion of losses last January which was a huge chunk that was taken off of its list.
The twists on assets that the company intends to make will include manganese, aluminum and nickel that are mostly found in BHP Billiton’s South Africa, Colombia and Australia operating centers.
BHP Billiton is just one of the many mining companies that have decided to simplify its portfolio as a number of others have already started following the same path. This is mainly because of the prices of the mentioned commodities.
While the company is planning to make twists on some of its assets into petroleum, copper, coal and iron ore, it is still looking at a possible addition that is Potash Corporation. For BHP Billiton, this company will prove as an important alternative just in case something wrong comes up with the main group.
BHP Billiton CEO Andrew Mackenzie said that the company still has a lot to offer as far as decision-making is concerned.
Malaysia’s second-biggest bank based on assets, the CIMB Group Holdings, is trying to clinch a merger deal with domestic competitors, involving and expecting 3 banks to finalize the merged enterprise structure in early 2015.
The merger deal involves domestic rival RHB Capital Bhd, including a joint of their respective Islamic banking setups with the Malaysia Building Society Bhd, setting up a deal, which will mark the merger as the biggest Malaysian bank based on assets, surpassing the Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank).
The parties involved are currently in in-depth discussions, and in the middle of a due diligence procedure, according to CIMB acting group CEO Zafrul Aziz. The acting chief executive also pointed out the company’s expectations to arrive at an agreement towards 2015’s first quarter.
However, the proposal’s fate hinges Aabar Investments, the Abu Dhabi-based key shareholder that own 21% of RHB as it hopes for higher price of its shares.
Also the fifth-biggest bank in Southeast Asia by assets, CIMB reported a 16% drop in its net profit for the third quarter, which was hurt by higher loan damages in the company’s Indonesian operations (the CIMB Niaga).
The company’s net profit for the quarter fell to 265.35 million dollars or 890M ringgit, compared to the 1.06B ringgit from last year’s same quarter. Revenue was slightly higher year-every-year, now at 3.53B ringgit.
CIMB’s sixth consecutive quarter results of year-every-year basis, marks a drop, which was hurt by fewer huge IPOs within the period as well as the slower growth of loans. Additionally, the results of Maybank will be released on November 27.
The firm’s Indonesian operations are expected to be hard continuously by tight liquidity and asset quality within the Indonesian banking systems in the future term, according to Zafrul.
Visteon Corporation, an auto parts manufacturer reported a 33% increase in quarterly overall revenue, which was helped by the company’s purchase of Johnson Controls Incorporated’s electronics business.
Overall revenue for Visteon’s electronics business, that manufactures vehicle displays and audio systems, doubled up to $760M during the year’s third quarter that ended last September 30.
Visteon Corporation completed the automotive electronics acquisition of business of Johnson Controls last July.
Timothy Leuliette, Chief Executive of Visteon, stated that the company is expecting record incremental wins because of the company’s new business wins and also re-wins amounting to $2.4B up to $2.8B for 2014.
Visteon clients like BMW, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Corporation, and also General Motors Corporation are clients that also significantly gained from the 3% increase worldwide vehicle overall production during the 3 months that would end by September.
Similar auto parts manufacturers like Lear Corp and also Magna International Incorporated also reported better quarterly profit because of the overall increase in production of vehicles.
The company’s overall revenue when it comes to its climate control business that basically makes cooling and heating systems for various vehicles, increased to a total of $1.21B from last year’s $1.13B.
Visteon Corporation’s overall revenue increased to $1.97B from previous statistics of $1.48B.
Prysmian, based on Italy, and the world’s largest cable maker, posted on Thursday a 20% drop in its 9-month earnings, however, confirmed a full-year regulation for its consolidated profit.
Italy’s Prysmian said economic conditions continuously became difficult as other Latin American nations experienced a slowdown, and the European recovery continued to stumble. Simultaneously, the tensions within the Middle East were damaging the business, making it hard to finish some orders.
The company stated that in order to recover from such struggles, it has planned on closing two European plants towards the year-end, adding 3 more ending activities in 2015.
Valerio Battista, company CEO said many plants are no longer efficient through a fixed-cost perspective. Battista also stated that Prysmian will move towards a structure of the regional supply chain so as to better compete with rivals that are operating in low-cost nations.
In 2011, the company became an industry leader, taking the lead over Draka, which operates 91 plants in 50 nations currently.
Based on EBITDA adjustments, the company’s full-year fiscal would become very low, according to the CEO, indicating a range between 506 and 556 million euros.
In August, the company also cut its 2014 core earnings estimate, fearing investors that another reduction may be declared on Thursday.
Adjusted earnings before EBITDA for January to September dropped to 355 million euros, marginally in proportion to analysts’ estimates of 352 million euros. Meanwhile, sales were flat at 5.014B euros during the first 9 months, and expected to increase nearly 2% of the entire 2014.
One of the best mutual fund industries in Canada, the IGM Financial Inc., posted on Thursday its earnings for the third quarter, higher than before, meeting estimates, and indicated an increased quarterly dividend.
The company, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba said its net earnings for common shareholders was at 219.7 million Canadian dollars for the current quarter or 87-Canadian-cent per share, which is higher than the previous year.
IGM revenue was at 750.2 million Canadian dollars, higher than the 667.5 million the previous year. Meanwhile the average revenue forecast was expected at 755.1 million Canadian dollars and earnings at 87-Canadian-cent per share.
IGM is a Desmarais family division, with the Power Financial Corp as the umbrella, and operating mainly under the Mackenzie Investments, Invstors Group, and the Investment Planning Counsel brands.
As of Spetember 30, the company’s overall assets under management were at 140.6 billion Canadian dollars, higher than last year’s 126 billion. Under management, its mutual fund assets were at 125.2 billion Canadian dollars, higher than last year’s 111.2 billion.
The company board improved its dividend for the quarter of 2.5 cents, indicating a 56.25-cent a share for IMG’s common shares that are due on January 30, 2015 to its shareholders within the record as of December 31, 2014.
Daicel Corp., one of the air bag inflator producers said it has not received further discussions from its customers about their inflator sales after different automakers recalled their units worldwide due to potential defective airbags produced by Takata Corp, Daicel’s rival.
The Osaka-based company has 16% of the worldwide inflator market and contends against Takata. Daicel said it is not considering any new capital outlay for the production of airbags, until further notice.
Takata Corp, also based in Japan, warns a bigger full-year loss as it reported its quarterly revenue on Thursday. The company has 22% of the worldwide inflator market, securing $655 million or 75 billion yen in covering almost 9 million recalls of cars.
For many years, Takata’s air bag inflators have been used by different car makers across the globe. However, a United States regulatory probe focuses on the said products, ordering a recall of about 17 million vehicles worldwide due to potential defective products.
Two experts in the industry said the company might save 2 or more billion yen from its July-September revenue in covering charges for additional recalls.
On Thursday, Daicel announced its July-September earnings of 4.1 billion dollars as its shares rose more than a quarter during the recent two weeks. The company is also hopeful that it would obtain the automaker’s industry from Takata.
Regal Entertainment is looking at the possibility of selling the entire company out for better profit.
This is a move that may not be very well accepted by the supporters of the products of any particular company. However, this is proven to be among the widely-accepted strategies in the world of business. Selling out does not really mean that the company has lost everything. It could just mean that they will have the same team – meaning the same theme for their movies, but not the same management. After all, money is still important to run the shows.
In the past nine months, the company has experienced a steady meltdown in its portfolio. It has been struggling as seen in the $2.3 to $2.2 billion decrease in its assets. It may be small when it comes to the net assets but this is equivalent to fifteen percent already. Coming back up to the market will be harder without some solid changes to come on the way.
In the meantime, there are no contracts released on whether they will pursue with the sale. However, there is already a team inside