text:
John Wiley & Sons Ltd. (NYSE:JW.A)
Q2 2013 Earnings Call
December 10, 2012 10:00 am ET
Stephen Smith – President, Chief Executive Officer
Ellis Cousens – Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Drew Crum – Stifel Nicolaus
Michael Corty – Morningstar
Ian Whittaker – Liberum Capital
Daniel Moore – CJS Securities
Welcome to the John Wiley & Sons' quarterly earnings call. Before introducing Steve Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer, I would like to remind you that this call is being recorded and may include forward-looking statements. You should not rely on such statements as actual results may differ materially and are subject to factors that are discussed in detail in the company's 10-K and 10-Q filings with the SEC. The company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.
Mr. Smith, please go ahead.
Stephen Smith
Good morning. Thank you for participating in Wiley's fiscal year 2013 second quarter investor conference call. Ellis Cousens, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial and Operations Officer, and Brian Campbell, Director of Investor Relations are with me on the call. I'll take a few moments to provide an overview of Wiley's performance in the second quarter and we will then respond to your questions and comments.
But first a quick update on my health situation. Wiley disclosed in September that I would be having follow-up radiation and chemotherapy treatment following my earlier treatment for urologic cancer a year ago. I'm happy to report that I am now at the end of that treatment and that my doctors are pleased with my progress and response. Of course, we will keep you informed of any future developments.
The prolonged economic downturn continues to depress revenue growth in the markets where Wiley competes, resulting in disappointing performance for the company at the midyear. Structural changes in our markets that we had anticipated and prepared for appear to be accelerating. While these changes in market conditions will open exciting new opportunities for Wiley in the medium term, we are concerned about the pressures on our core businesses in the short term. In response, we will move quickly to restructure the cost base supporting those core businesses to generate significant cost savings. Those cost savings will be deployed to generate improved financial results as well as to support further investments in transformational growth opportunities in the longer term.
Wiley's revenue declined by 3% in the second quarter, both including and excluding the effects of foreign exchange. Currency-adjusted revenue growth of 0.5% in STMS was offset by declines of 7% in professional development and 6% for global education. Tight library budgets, sluggish retail sales, and an unexpectedly sharp decline in the higher education textbook market affected the top line results.
Adjusted EPS for the quarter decreased by 4% to $0.77 per share, excluding foreign exchange. Adjusted EPS excludes an asset impairment charge of $0.16 per share and a 10% per share gain related to the consumer publishing assets sold in the quarter and those remaining to be sold or discontinued. Adjusted earnings performance is due to top line results and higher interest expense partially offset by operating and administrative expense control measures.
For the six months, revenue of $842 million declined 4% or 2% on a currency-neutral basis. Adjusted EPS for the six months fell by 13% excluding foreign exchange to $1.29 due to top line results and higher interest costs partially offset by cost control measures. Adjusted EPS for the six month excludes the following one-time items: consumer publishing gain on impairment of $0.06, restructuring charge of $0.06, and a U.K. tax benefit of $0.14 per share.
Year-to-date gross profit as a percent of revenue was 69.5%, 0.6% below the prior year figure of 70.1% reflecting lower print book volume across all three businesses and higher composition costs in global education partially offset by high margin revenue in professional development from the Inscape acquisition and the transition to digital products.
Year-to-date shared services and administrative costs of $190 million, excluding foreign exchange, declined by 1% due to lower distribution costs in connection with the transition to digital products and corresponding lower print sales volumes, and lower occupancy costs primarily related to overlapping rental expenses for new facilities in Asia and the U.K. in the prior year.
Free cash flow for the first six months was a use of $143 million, $55 million greater than the prior year. The increase was driven by higher cash use for operating assets and liabilities primarily due to a disputed tax payment in Germany and the timing of journal subscription receipts, as well as lower cash earnings. Net debt – that's long-term debt less cash and cash equivalents – increased from prior year by $182 million to $609 million. Higher borrowings included $220 million to finance the acquisition of Deltak.edu in October.
Now I'd like to provide some information regarding the performance of Wiley's global businesses. STMS second quarter revenue of $250 million increased by 0.5%, excluding the effect of foreign exchange. Currency-neutral journals revenues grew by 1.4% over prior year, reflecting modest underlying calendar year 2012 subscription growth, funded access and digital book sales growth partially offset by lower back file sales, lower advertising revenue, and a decline in print book sales. Calendar year 2012 journal subscription growth is up 1.8% year-to-date. It is still early in the calendar year 2013 journal subscription renewal process and we are working closely with our customers on a large number of significant license renewals. Early indications both on 2013 business closed to date are that our growth rates will be similar to those experienced in calendar year 2012.
The STMS book business for the quarter was down by 3% against prior year on a currency-neutral basis, reflecting tight library budgets. Solid growth in digital book revenue, which is up 14%, was more than offset by a 10% decline in print book revenue with the declines coming from all regions, but particularly from Europe. Direct contribution to profit for the quarter of $109 million was 2.5% ahead of prior year on a currency-neutral basis.
For the six months, STMS revenue declined 1.6% on a currency-neutral basis to $486 million, reflecting lower journals reprint and advertising sales, lower back files and print book sales partially offset by the growth in digital books and digital rights. At the midyear point, digital books are showing solid growth, up 24%, while print book revenue declined 9%. Year-to-date direct contribution to profit declined by 4.5%, excluding foreign exchange.
In the quarter, STMS signed new contracts with societies to publish five new journals with combined annual revenue of $2.4 million and renewed or extended contracts to publish 14 journals with combined annual revenue of $7.4 million. We lost no journals in the quarter.
For the 12 months ending October 2012, full text accesses on Wiley Online Library increased by 12% across all product types compared with the same period a year ago. In the second quarter, the company launched its functional chemistry program on Wiley Online Library. This program represents a significant enhancement to our digital publishing capabilities and is expected to lead to increased usage of our chemistry content, longer session times, greater up-sell opportunities for related content, and increased user engagement and satisfaction.
Eight Wiley STMS authors were named amongst the list of 2012 Nobel laureates. Wiley authors were joint winners of the 2012 Nobel Prizes in chemistry, physics, economic sciences and physiology of medicine.
Second quarter professional development revenue of $101 million declined 7.3%, excluding the effect of foreign currency. The decline is largely attributable to softness in consumer categories, which were $8 million below prior year, particularly the divested categories cooking and travel, partially offset by higher e-book sales and other digital revenue, including $5.5 million from the Inscape acquisition. Approximately $2 million of revenue was delayed until November due to Hurricane Sandy distribution interruption.
For the six months, professional development revenue of $204 million declined 1.9%, excluding the effect of foreign exchange. Excluding the divested consumer categories, sales of the retained businesses are approximately 1.2% ahead of prior year for the six months.
In August, Wiley sold its travel publishing program, including the Frommer's brand, to Google for $22 million. In November, Wiley announced the sale of its culinary, Cliff Notes and Webster's New World Dictionary consumer publishing programs to Boston-based global learning company, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for $11 million. In November, Wiley acquired Efficient Learning Systems – ELS Inc., an e-learning system provider in areas like professional finance and accounting, for $24 million. The acquisition helps Wiley become a leader in growing global online CPA exam preparation market and will accelerate our e-learning strategies with capabilities that could be scaled to other accounting and financial certifications. Annual revenue is expected to be approximately $7 million. As a result of these divestments and acquisitions, Wiley Professional Trade changed its name to Wiley Professional Development, signifying our strategic focus on professional career development.
Revenues in the business finance categories continue to grow, powered by our partnership with the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute and the growth of Inscape. Digital book revenue grew 17% to $11 million in the quarter. We expect to see a further increase in e-book sales following the release of a number of new digital reader devices in the coming holiday period. We have signed new distribution agreements with a large number of e-book vendors in Europe, Asia and Latin America in recent months.
Gross profit margin for the second quarter was 64.2%, up about 1%, while for the six months gross margin profit margin improved slightly by 0.3 percentage points to 63.7% due to the growth of digital sales and high margin revenues from Inscape. Digital sales now account for over 20% of total PD sales.
Adjusted direct contribution to profit for the quarter declined 13% to $26 million, excluding foreign exchange, asset impairment charges of $16 million, and a $10 million gain on the sale of travel publishing operations. For the six month period, adjusted direct contribution to profit declined 6% to $48 million. The drop in adjusted direct contribution reflects lower top line results, higher gross margins from digital products, and cost controls.
Second quarter global education revenue was down 6.3% to $81 million, excluding foreign exchange. The decline reflects a 14% drop in sales of traditional print textbooks due to lower enrollment in the for-profit segment, changes in student buying patterns, the impact of rental and the build-up of rental inventories in the prior year, and lower print inventory held at bookstores. According to published industry data, the U.S. higher education market declined by 4.5% from January to October, during which period Wiley's U.S. sales decreased by 3.4%. Non-traditional and digital revenue in the quarter, which includes Wiley Plus, e-books, digital content sold directly to institutions, binder additions and custom publishing was up 10% to $30 million.
For the six month period, global education revenue declined 5.8% to $153 million due to lower print textbook sales. Wiley Plus revenue was up 25% for the six months year-to-date while sales of e-books and digital content direct to institutions were up 29%. Digital revenue now accounts for 15% of total global education revenue, up from 11% a year ago. Global education direct contribution to profit for the quarter was down 12% at $29 million. The decrease reflected top line results and lower gross profit margins partially offset by cost reduction initiatives. For the six months year-to-date, direct contribution to profit was down 15% to $51 million.
We were pleased to announce the acquisition of Deltak for $220 million in the second quarter. Deltak, based in Chicago, has been highly successful for the past 10 years as an independent company in the fast-growing area of creating and managing online degree programs for traditional non-profit colleges and universities. This acquisition positions Wiley as a significant educational services provider. We have expanded beyond content, becoming a larger part of the services and content value chain for how people teach and learn. Through Deltak, we will now provide a complete solution to help traditional colleges and universities transition their programs into valuable online experiences offering market research, instructional design, marketing, and student recruitment and retention services with the goal of boosting the quality and efficacy of online and hybrid programs.
Deltak provides Wiley with access to high growth markets with a high revenue per student ratio and a variety of capabilities and technologies for our expansion into custom online courses and curriculum development. Wiley offers Deltak a stable base for new program investment, the ability to accelerate their growth globally, access to professional consumers, and expanded offerings of content and faculty development. The combination of Wiley and Deltak yields significant opportunities to accelerate growth and to drive improvement in profit margins and return on investment in the years ahead.
In conclusion, our disappointing revenue and EPS performance at midyear reflects the continuing softness we are facing in many of our markets, particularly for higher education. The Wiley leadership is intensely focused on the need to improve the financial performance of our core business, even as we innovate to create new business opportunity and revenue streams that leverage Wiley's unique combination of talent-rich content and enduring customer relationships. The comprehensive program of business restructuring and cost reduction initiatives which I spoke earlier will focus on areas such as sourcing and procurement of third party services, cost of sales and direct expenses. It will also evaluate the structure of our product acquisition, product development, marketing and sales organizations to ensure that resources are aligned with future market opportunities. While continuing to invest in our future, we believe we can identify significant opportunities to adjust our cost base with the aim of improving profitability, earnings and return on investment for the business as a whole in fiscal year 2013 and beyond.
Based on our first half results and expected market conditions, we are lowering our full-year revenue guidance from mid-single digit growth to flat. As a result of the lower revenue, we are reducing guidance for U.S. GAAP EPS to $2.95 to $3.05. This includes the impact of weaker than expected operating performance, modest dilution from acquisitions made this year, the net negative impact from the divestment of consumer businesses, the first quarter $0.06 restructuring charge, $0.14 benefit from changes in U.K. tax rates, and forecasted $0.02 of negative foreign exchange. At present, we do not have all the information required to quantify the earnings impact of additional restructuring charges that may result from accelerated cost restructuring actions yet to be taken this year.
With that as background, we welcome your comments and questions.
Question and Answer Session
Thank you. [Operator instructions]
And we'll take our first question from Drew Crum, Stifel Nicolaus.
Drew Crum – Stifel Nicolaus
Okay, thanks. Good morning everyone. So want to ask some additional questions concerning the restructuring and the cost savings, both for Steve and Ellis. Can you give us some sense as to what the cadence will look like or the timing of those restructurings, and any clarity or discussion you can provide around the magnitude of the cost savings you're anticipating would be helpful.
Ellis Cousens
Okay, Drew. You want to start, Steve, and I'll pick up?
Stephen Smith
Well, it's going to be quickly handed to you, Ellis. But just to say that we're not—at this point, we're not able to quantify the financial impact of those restructuring savings, but we do expect to be in that position by March. And I'll let Ellis talk qualitatively and to the timing of those.
Ellis Cousens
Yeah, thanks Steve. So Drew, as Steve says, as I think you know from prior history with us is that our planning cycle runs from pretty much December to March. In March, the Board approves an operating plan for the coming year. I think we've also been pretty clear that given that $4.8 million charge we took in the first part of the year, that we're already in this year undertaking a number of cost restructuring activities that when we disclosed that and discussed that at the end of last year and in the first quarter, that the benefits of those will come over the next 18 months, meaning 18 months from the beginning of this year. So some of those savings are reflected in some of the performance of the business to come, very little in the first half, a little bit in the second half to come. These activities go above and beyond that. We're in the midst of planning those activities and building those into our FY14 through '16 plans, so we would expect that when we get to March, we can give you a lot of clarity about the size of that overall initiative and quantify that, the areas it will affect and the periods of time in which we should realize savings.
I can tell you that we're focused intensely on driving benefits to the bottom line and for reinvestment in some cases over the course of the balance of '13 and in '14. Whatever is included in '13 is included in the guidance we've provided, so it's not incremental to that; but clearly a lot of the activities will be undertaken over the course of fiscal '14. They're in areas that we've talked a little bit about in the past, but with greater focus. I know we've talked about strategic sourcing and procurement. You can see some of the benefits of that already in our technology area. As you might recall, we have retained a new chief technology officer, a CTO who started earlier this year. Two principle focuses or three principal focuses of Patrick around technology, one had to do with effectiveness and efficiency of delivery; the second was to ensure that we had the right kinds of skill sets onboard to transform this business in a more efficient and effective way; and the third was to generate savings or a deflection of the curve from that sort of high teens growth to a growth trajectory that was more moderate than that. I think you'll see some of that benefit over the course of this year, and by the time we exit this year you'll see the benefits there, some of that, again, coming from strategic sourcing. We've consolidated all of our third party services into two providers from a significant number of providers previously, so we are realizing savings already, some of which, again, is reflected in the first half of the year and more to come in the second half of the year, and then more to come again in the years to come beginning in '14.
We're also looking at initiatives that Steve identified in the areas of cost of sales and direct expenses in just those areas that Steve had highlighted. Again, we'll put together a consolidated structure plan and communicate that in March in detail.
Drew Crum – Stifel Nicolaus
And then just another follow-up question, and thanks Ellis on that. Does it change or accelerate how you think about the margin profile for the company? I think at your investor meeting, you talked about starting to see some benefit from the investments you were making around technology in the next 18 to 24 months. With this accelerated focus on restructuring, does that in any way accelerate the margin expansion or does it alter the outlook for the margin profile for the business?
Ellis Cousens
It should certainly accelerate, but that acceleration would come in '14, not in '13. I think if you sort of tee up the time sequence of when I made that statement, that statement would take us to the end of '14, and certainly the performance of the business has disrupted that somewhat. So we've clearly identified the need to take additional actions to in fact reflect market realities, as we noted in the earnings release and also in Steve's comments, is that how the market responds to some of the print products that we've provided in the past is quite different. Some of that relates to economics and the economic downturn; some of that relates to just structural changes and how people are consuming many of the things that we provide in print, as well as the industry does. We see that most prominently, I think, in global education.
As a result of that, we are as part of changing the expense trajectory and improving margins from where they are certainly and where they could have been, we're going to take a look at how it is we support those kinds of activities that certainly in the present and the future are performing and behaving quite differently. So we need to structure our costs to reflect those realities, and in fact get ahead of that in terms of anticipating continued market changes with respect to those, how those products behave and perform in the marketplace.
So sorry for the long answer, but the short of it is that we will be back on track to the margin improvements that we had anticipated by the end of '14, but it's going to take us to '14 to do that because of this rather somewhat surprising and rapid change, particularly in global education, and some of the things that we had anticipated certainly with respect to restructuring our professional development businesses away from consume and more towards professional. There will also be some benefits coming certainly from the acquisitions that we've made. Inscape is a high margin, high growth business; Deltak is a high growth business with margins above the average margins of Wiley overall, so those will certainly add benefits, as will ELS in a smaller way. So certainly there are benefits to come, again mostly in '14 and beyond with respect to those acquisitions, both from how they perform themselves but also in terms of accelerating some of the digital strategies and transformational strategies we have been pursuing.
Drew Crum – Stifel Nicolaus
Okay, thanks Ellis. And Steve, just going back to global education, can you talk about from your perspective what the keys are to turning the business and maybe for the fortunes for the U.S. industry? I think the headwinds have been known for some time and been pretty well articulated. In your mind, what are the keys to turning the business?
Stephen Smith
Yeah, I think what we are seeing over the course of the last year or two is an acceleration of a process of transition to digital business that has been ongoing for some time, but it's absolutely clear that the pace of that change has accelerated and at the same time we've seen the introduction of new business models in the world of print, particularly around rental, that have accelerated the decline of that side of the business. So we feel well positioned to take advantage of the future growth of digital business opportunities in global education. I mentioned the growth of Wiley Plus. That 25% growth year-to-date is also backed up by a significant increase in the validation rate, so you're now seeing validation rates of around 78% of students who buy Wiley Plus. That improvement has been fuelled in large part by growth in e-commerce sales as well as by the integration of Wiley Plus with Blackboard, where we see particularly high validation rates as students find it very easy to integrate Wiley Plus into the whole learning experience.
And of course, the acquisition of Deltak, I think, signals very clearly something that we've been saying for some time. We aspired and have talked about our aspirations to become much more of an educational services provider, recognizing that while our content remains a very high value, in order for us to continue to improve returns on that value and to yield the kind of return on investment we're looking for, the addition of high value-added services to institutions, to teachers and to students is seen as a critical part of our growth plan. So we are very pleased to have this opportunity with Deltak. We believe that over the course of the next few years, we will see more and more growth opportunities from the services side of that business.
There are some things about the decline of print sales that certainly reflect some uneven patterns within market channels over the last two years, so we're expecting to see that normalize a little bit. I'm really referring here to the gearing up of an industry to support the rental business model, and at the same time our brick-and-mortar stores in particular are adjusting their inventory holdings, so we have a lot less inventory out in the marketplace today than we would have had, even a short while ago. So it's a story we've been talking about for a long time. What I see is we are approaching a point where the digital business models really begin to become the predominant source of growth for the business going forward, and as I say, I feel—or we as a leadership team feel good about how Wiley is positioned to compete in that market.
Drew Crum – Stifel Nicolaus
Okay, great. I'll just ask one last question and jump back into the queue. Can you quantify the impact from the hurricane in terms of EPS impact in the quarter?
Stephen Smith
Ellis Cousens
Yeah Drew, it was about 4 million in revenue, so EPS on the margin was maybe a penny or so.
Drew Crum – Stifel Nicolaus
Okay, got it. Okay, thanks guys.
Ellis Cousens
By the way, we've picked that back up in the third quarter, so those deliveries were made right after the storm.
Drew Crum – Stifel Nicolaus
Got it, okay. Thanks, guys.
And we'll take our next question from Michael Corty with Morningstar.
Michael Corty – Morningstar
Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. I actually have a few. In regards to the comment about the new market reality and in terms of a long-term projection, is that just your existing businesses might be more in the low single-digit growth range versus maybe what you'd hoped for in the past in terms of mid-single digits? And then a second one – in terms of Deltak, you've talked about having the content but needing to provide the service to improve returns. Can you talk about the competitive landscape, kind of where Wiley fits in with Deltak, because I would assume that there's other competitors looking to improve their returns as well.
Stephen Smith
Sure. So in terms of the new market reality, if you like, I think we've been on a continuum for some time of seeing growth rates of our core businesses have begun to moderate as customers find alternative ways to acquire content sometimes at lower price points, and as we see some consolidation in distribution channels. I think the key thing here is really the pace of transition from print to digital. We've been talking about that and anticipating that for at least 10 years on these calls, but I think we see that partly driven by economics and partly driven by customer preference a real rapid acceleration of that. And so our key challenge here is really to manage the decline, and there will be an absolute decline in print revenues going forward, not just low single-digit growth but perhaps absolute declines. But those revenues should transition directly to digital revenue that would still yield growth overall for the core businesses. I think characterizing the core business as being—looking forward, and we don't give guidance obviously beyond a single year, but something that has been similar to the pattern of the last few years is a reasonable projection at this point.
To answer your question about Deltak and the competitive landscape, probably the transaction that some of you may have seen that most paralleled our acquisition of Deltak was the Pearson acquisition of Embanet in the last quarter. Embanet and Deltak are in very similar businesses. It indicates that what we see as being a critical and exciting future opportunity for Wiley probably parallels what somebody is seeing at Pearson. That business has been growing very nicely over the last 10 years – I'm talking here about the general course creation and course development market. It is a relationship business that is founded on the ability to partner with institutions of learning in order to offer them complete turnkey solutions to launch new course offerings and to offer course offerings that are closely tied to employment opportunities for students, so there's a real focus on value for the university, value for the student.
I think it's a terrifically exciting business model. I'm sure there will be others who will seek to compete in that marketplace, but again, I feel that we're early movers there. Deltak has a really enviable track record of growth and has some fantastic relationships based on very long-term commitments with those customers, and it's something that we are really excited about being able to build upon, not just in traditional not-for-profit university sectors but also leveraging the capabilities globally where Wiley has a strong presence around the world, and also with our customer base in professional as well as those learning societies that we serve in STMS. So there are some really attractive synergistic opportunities there.
Michael Corty – Morningstar
Okay. And then one more – just on the STMS business itself, I know you're still squeaking out a little bit of growth on the subscription business. Do you get a sense of it's a tough market out there? I know I've asked in the past and it's hard to get real solid market share data, but do you think you're gaining share in those markets and your sales are growing faster than some of your competitors? What's the competitive landscape there in terms of Wiley maybe gaining some market share in a tough environment?
Stephen Smith
As we look at it, there is a real benefit to scale in that marketplace. There's also a real benefit to having the highest quality, so there is clearly a bit of a move to quality going on as budgets continue to tighten. That benefits those companies with a broad portfolio as well as those with the highest quality content, and Wiley stands to benefit from that. So we believe that we are continuing to take market share both in terms of subscription growth for our existing content but then also through our growth and addition of new content through new society agreements, and I'll remind you that in January we'll take on another major society agreement with the American Geophysical Union that will add a lot of growth in calendar year 2013.
So we see ourselves taking growth there—sorry, taking market share, but growth of the market overall is not totally heterogeneous around the world. So we continue to see pretty attractive mid-single digit growth rates coming out of Asia. Again, it's not uniform but our experience over the last couple of years has been that Asia is outgrowing the rest of the world. We've been pleasantly surprised by our performance in North America where subscriptions have held up very nicely and we've continued to see good growth, but not surprisingly we've run into some significant challenges in some parts of Europe and more lately the Middle East as the impact of the deep recession bites, particularly in southern European countries, as well as some impact from political and economic situations in the Middle East where we've seen some medium-sized markets disappear, at least in the short term, as we've been unable to serve customers in that region. We don't see that as being structural, but it will require some stabilization of markets and the situation in Europe and the Middle East.
Michael Corty – Morningstar
Okay, thank you for your answers.
And up next is Ian Whittaker of Liberum Capital.
Ian Whittaker – Liberum Capital
Hi there. Two questions, please, both on higher education. First of all, can you just comment on your thoughts of what California is doing. They have passed their bill on open source textbooks, and that's due to come into effect from January 1; and given that the price points they're talking about – digital content free and print content for $20 for some of their most popular courses – I just wondered whether you think could potentially be a big threat in terms of pricing deflation.
I guess the second question is more of a longer term one. You've been very open about the problems facing the industry and sort of your hopes that the transition of print to digital will see growth come back to the overall business in higher education at some point. But can you give sort of a view in your thinking as to how long that will take, and I guess part of the concern there would be that the message that you are giving is similar to what, for example, the newspaper industry has been giving for a number of years now, talking about digital sales eventually offsetting the declines in print; and in virtually all cases, that has just not happened and in fact in some, you're now starting to see newspaper digital revenues go backwards. So I'm just wondering sort of how long you think this will take and why you think you're probably a little bit of a different example to, let's say, newspapers or other industries that have said that digital will offset analog declines but haven't really seen that come through.
Stephen Smith
Right. Yes, thanks. Taking your first question on open source textbooks, we continue to monitor all of the developments in the area of open source textbooks and the growth and increasing interest around so-called MOOCs – Massive Online Open Courses – that are being offered by several institutions for free. In California particularly, the California digital library and the move towards the creation of a library of content of open source textbooks, it's not surprising to us that California has driven towards that more aggressively than some other states or other parts of the world, given the economic changes facing California.
In the immediate term, we haven't seen any impact that we can discern in terms of lost sales as a result of competition from open source textbooks; in fact, one for-profit provider in that space who had a similar model of digital books free and charging for print has recently moved that model to charge for digital as well, finding that frankly free is a fallacy. If there is going to be quality in the creation of these open source textbooks, if they're going to be well authored and well reviewed, and if they're going to meet the needs of students in terms of better student performance and ultimately employability, then that requires significant investment both in the creation of the content but also in its digitization distribution. We don't see free as being sustainable – someone has to pay for it, whether that's the taxpayer or whether it's paid for by the consumers of that content.
So I would never be dismissive of changes like this. We don't, frankly, see this as a great use of taxpayers' money to develop or to reinvent something that a marketplace has already—has been working well for generations and it serves the needs of teachers and students. We believe that we can continue to differentiate ourselves by the quality of authorship, by the quality of the content that we provide, but also increasingly as I mentioned earlier from the quality of the value-added services that we wrap around that content in areas like assessment, student support, as well as teacher support.
So it's interesting what's happening in California. We don't perceive that to be an immediate major threat, but something that we'll continue to monitor and make sure that we position ourselves to be able to sustain our position on that value chain.
With regard to how long this transition to digital will take and whether there's a parallel to the newspaper industry, no one can say for sure where the tipping point is or where it will suddenly flip to a world where it's primarily digital. But I would certainly say with a pretty high degree of confidence that the pace of that trajectory is accelerating on a monthly basis and that we seem to be moving much more quickly towards acceptance of digital content, acceptance that online learning or blended learning can be at least as effective as face-to-face, moderated teaching. So that represents to us more of an opportunity than it does a threat, but it would be absolutely in our interest to see that migration from print to digital happen even more quickly, which again is why we're making the investments we're making in product like Wiley Plus and in the acquisition of Deltak.
I don't believe that the analogy to the newspaper is a particularly valid one. Newspapers are offering really a platform for advertising. That clearly comes up against a whole range of alternatives, whereas what we're really focused on is providing the best student experience, the best student outcomes, and helping drive further efficiency in terms of the delivery of education. Our customers are still paying us for content and they are increasingly paying us for additional services alongside that content, so it doesn't feel to me like we're in anything like the same situation that newspapers would be with their heavy dependence on advertising.
Ian Whittaker – Liberum Capital
Can I just come back to your answer on the first question? I mean, accept those points are valid, but if you look at California and, indeed, Washington which had a similar program, both of them, their funding is coming from the State itself and both of them have co-opted in the state education institutions and professors into devising their open source textbook programs. So as I understand, I know with Flat World Knowledge they sort of scrapped their free book service, but surely it's a little bit different if you've got the states themselves who fund the educational institutions who are pushing the open source textbooks at such a cheap price rather than, let's say, a for-profit provider.
Stephen Smith
Well, I think the questions that remain to be answered, and we'll be looking very closely to see if they answer those questions, really relate to breadth of offering, so how much of the curriculum they're able to cover and with what degree of quality. Until we see that and we see student performance, I think it's just bears watching. But I'd also reiterate if they are going to cover the full breadth of the curriculum with high-quality content, with high-quality teaching and learning platforms, with all of the assessment and other capabilities wrapped into that, then it's going to have a very high cost.
Ian Whittaker – Liberum Capital
Thank you very much.
And as a reminder, it's star, one to ask your questions today. We'll turn next to Daniel Moore of CJS Securities.
Daniel Moore – CJS Securities
Thank you. Can you talk—remind us when you expect the closure of the remaining consumer businesses to be completed, the divestment? And beyond that, are there any other segments of the remaining portfolio you might consider non-core or potential divestment candidates?
Stephen Smith
Sure. Let me start on that, Dan, and then Ellis can jump in. So there are a few categories remaining after the divestment of travel, culinary, Cliff Notes and Webster's New World – in particular, our general interest publishing program. We are still in conversations with potential acquirers of those businesses, and those conversations are ongoing so I can't speak to them in detail, only to say that we are well prepared now to begin to wind up those programs if and when we determine that we're not going to complete a transaction at terms that are attractive to Wiley. Our colleagues who have ably managed and led those businesses are all well briefed and understand what we need to do in order to wind them up.
So Ellis, I don't know if you wanted to add anything on that?
Ellis Cousens
Yeah, I think that pretty much covers it, Steve, so those programs to the extent that there is a potential to sell any of those remaining businesses, which are Howl House which is pets, and nautical are the two largest pieces. To the extent that there's a possible sale there, it would be modest, quite frankly, and we're behaving from a publishing perspective as if we're winding those businesses down, so we're not engaging in new publishing, so to speak. The plan is to run that business through the next few months to its logical conclusion.
Stephen Smith
Then on the second half of your question, Dan, as to whether there are any additional programs or areas within Wiley, we continue to evaluate and analyze our entire publishing portfolio with a view the future opportunities to make sure that we are resourcing things appropriately. There is nothing that we see today that does not fit with our vision of where Wiley is headed. As we look at some of the restructuring opportunities and cost saving opportunities, we will be looking at programs that are in areas where there is high growth potential and putting more resources behind those, and at the same time consolidating or reducing the resources that support businesses that are seen to be highly immaterial or in potentially low growth mode for the future. But nothing else that we would identify as being ripe for divestment.
Ellis Cousens
I would just add to that, Dan, that as part of as Steve describes the cost restructuring opportunity, we're also looking at—I guess I would call it portfolio fine-tuning and pruning where there may be pieces of business that are performing less than we would like them to. We could look to determine if there is an investment opportunity to restore growth and acceptable levels of profitability, but if not, because of the views of the business and where the markets are headed, those would be candidates for us to wind down as well. It's sort of typical portfolio pruning and tuning. I mean, we do that pretty much on an ongoing basis, but for it not to be lost in the answer or the discussion around those things.
Daniel Moore – CJS Securities
Thanks. And in terms of technology spending, can you give us your expectations for technology spending growth for the remainder, perhaps, of fiscal '13? Obviously it was flat in the quarter. Are there programs or opportunities that are perhaps being delayed or pushed out, given the need to look at the cost side of the equation a little bit more closely?
Ellis Cousens
Dan, I partially answered that question in response to an earlier question, all to say that is in the first half the rate of spend was affected by a few things not having to do with any particular view having to do with cost considerations but having to do with sort of the cadence of spend against particular initiatives, but also that we had undertaken some efforts to reduce costs on a structural basis which we would have done in any set of circumstances in the first half into the second half and, again, into fiscal '14. Having said all of that is that the timing of expenditure is such that – and this is not atypical – is that the second half will be a bigger half, so to speak, with respect to spend, some of that having to do with some change-out in activity and skill sets that positively affected the first half that will, quote, negatively from an expense perspective affect the second half.
However, the rate of spend in the second half is not a rate that one should take as an annualized spending rate. I can tell you that it will be below that sort of mid to high-teens rate when you add it all together, and even the second half will be something clearly higher just by virtue of how I'm talking about it than the first half, so something in the mid-teens or so. But I wouldn't characterize that as the run rate going forward, so the effort here, which we've successfully and are successfully working on, is to reduce the rate of spend in technology, or inflect or deflect the growth rate downward somewhat so as to not see in the future on a sustained basis mid to high teens growth, but it could periodically sort of bounce around up or down, as we're seeing this year. But in effect, by the time we exit fiscal '13, we'll be on a run rate basis at a level lower than we were when we exited the prior year, or lower than where we would have been, I should say, than had we not taken some of the actions that we did take in fiscal '13. And again, most of those are structural actions. There isn't a lot of one-time stuff associated with that.
So clearly what we've done here, just to make sure that it is clear, is to look carefully and focused at our technology spend, beginning with the retention of a chief technology officer who is taking a careful look at both the nature of delivery, quality of delivery, the effectiveness and efficiency of spend – all of those things taken together, and has seen some pretty significant opportunities to, shall we say, get more for what would have been less, so to speak. So we feel better about the effectiveness of our technology organization and we see a greater efficiency around spend in the technology organization.
Daniel Moore – CJS Securities
Helpful. And lastly, just switching gears, perhaps give us a little bit more detail around Deltak with regards to anything you can tell us about operating margins, the operating model itself, how much of the revenue is recurring and what the incremental margin profile looks like in that business. That would be very helpful.
Ellis Cousens
Steve, I can sort of start on that and if you have anything to add, either quantitatively or qualitatively, certainly please do so.
So as we noted in the earnings release, there's about $36 million or so of revenue that will come from Deltak this year. That's a half-year's worth of revenue. We have noted that the growth rate around Deltak is extremely high, meaning top line growth rate. If you just look at that historically, and that is public information, the growth has been significant double-digit growth over the last couple of years or so. We expect that to continue. I'll characterize it as the operating margin associated with Deltak is on average higher than the average margin of all of Wiley; however, it is not a high margin play, so to speak, with respect to acquisition. What it is, is a high growth play in a market that we felt we could serve very effectively with the inclusion of their capabilities at a margin which is attractive, so I guess I would characterize that way. Whereas something like Inscape, which is smaller in scale, certainly is both high growth and high margin but coming off of a smaller base. I know you didn't ask about Inscape, but just to characterize it.
Daniel Moore – CJS Securities
Okay, thank you very much. Obviously Steve, very happy to hear the positive news and we look forward to seeing you both at our coming January conference.
Stephen Smith
Appreciate it. Thanks, Dan.
And we go back next to Michael Corty of Morningstar.
Michael Corty – Morningstar
Yeah, I just had one more. I know you've invested a lot in the business recently, and so the balance sheet has changed just a bit. I just wanted to get your thoughts in terms of capital allocation over the next few years. Maybe more specifically, if the market disagrees with your optimism at a certain point, would you be thinking about going back into the market and buying back some of your shares?
Ellis Cousens
Thanks for the question, Michael. We have 2.1 million shares of open authorization from the Board of Directors. As you saw, we were not active in the second quarter in share repurchase. We were focused on and were anticipating the acquisition of Deltak and the expenditure of $220 million on that, coming on the heels of the acquisition of Inscape a couple of quarters before that, and also the acquisition of ELS at a more modest level but certainly a price nonetheless.
I will say that on a going forward basis, given the open authorization and given the cash performance of the business, which is attractive even if the earnings growth is not, quite frankly, that among our capital allocation opportunities share repurchase would factor into that.
Michael Corty – Morningstar
Okay, great. Thank you.
And we have no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Smith for additional or closing remarks.
Stephen Smith
Well, I'd just like to thank you all for your participation in this second quarter earnings call. We look forward to talking to you again at the end of our third quarter. Thank you very much.
And this concludes today's presentation. Thank you for joining and have a nice day.
Copyright policy: All transcripts on this site are the copyright of Seeking Alpha. However, we view them as an important resource for bloggers and journalists, and are excited to contribute to the democratization of financial information on the Internet. (Until now investors have had to pay thousands of dollars in subscription fees for transcripts.) So our reproduction policy is as follows: You may quote up to 400 words of any transcript on the condition that you attribute the transcript to Seeking Alpha and either link to the original transcript or to www.SeekingAlpha.com. All other use is prohibited.
If you have any additional questions about our online transcripts, please contact us at: firstname.lastname@example.com. Thank you!


text:
Your browser is no longer supported by Kongregate. Upgrade to one of these browsers for the best gaming experience:
Activity Feed
Register or sign in to start receiving activity updates from around Kongregate!
Complete Initialization for 10 kreds
Congratulations! You've completed your Kongregate account!
Keep exploring Kongregate with more badges and games!
Hide the progress bar forever?
Limit my search to this forum
16 posts
Sign in to reply
Hi. I am a music producer and is looking for a team. If interested please post here.
I lulz at your gramm0r.
You win a cookie! I was waiting for someone to spot the grammar mistake. Now tell meh, what was the grammar mistake?
Will I get another cookie? If you don't promise I'm not telling! But I don't want anyone else to win the cookie so I'll take the risk.
"I am blahblahblah" followed by "is looking" is wrong! You should replace the "is" with "I am"! Right? Yeah? Yeah! Wooh!
Kongrats! You win another cookie! You become the cookie monster.
I want a cookie :'(
Panda is this a joke because I'll join if it's real . . .
I will join to see if panda is making another fail thread.
I must say, this is quite the appropriately named thread.
Seems like Panda_Man got permabanned.
i want to join a music group
plays a guitar and blows up a glass
He made this topic 2 days ago and hes not responding.
He requested to be banned for a week for some reason, so he's not going to respond until it runs out.
You do seem to be pretty obsessed with Panda_Man though so maybe that's why you're worried about him.
I'm worried he has had another car crash. :D
The last time he made the epic-est fail thread.
[post deleted]
Get more out of your Kongregate experience. Take advantage of ad-free gaming, cool profile skins, automatic beta access, and private chat with Kong Plus.
Learn more »
Did you know you can now score GameStop PowerUp Rewards® Points on Kongregate?
Find out how »

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Bike GripsProboardshop has the best selection of Bike Grips online! With our amazing deals, you won't want to search for bikes and bike accessories anywhere else. Don't miss out on our awesome selection of Bike Grips. These high quality grips mean you'll have more time riding before friction and hold develops blisters and rashes on your palms. Purchase your new Bike Grips from us today and we'll shoot these out with next-day shipment and a full customer satisfaction guarantee.
Bike Grips
Black Ribbon Bar Grip
Our Price: $9.95
Civia Linden Ergonomic Bike Grips
Size: 127mm
Our Price: $10.95
Eclat Filter Bike Grips
Size: 156mm
Our Price: $9.99
Eclat Zap Bike Grips
Size: 190mm
Our Price: $9.99
Fizik Superlight Tacky Bar Tape
Size: 2mm
Our Price: $31.50
Framed Single Speed Bike GripsComp. At: $9.95 On Sale: $5.95
FSA Cork Handlebar Tape
Our Price: $17.99
Gran Royale Long GripsReg: $11.00 On Sale: $6.95
GT DOHC Double Lock-On Bike Grips
Size: 135mmReg: $25.00 On Sale: $18.95
GT DOHC Dual Comp Slip-On Bike GripsReg: $15.00 On Sale: $11.95
Size: 140mm
GT DOHC Single Lock-On Bike GripsReg: $20.00 On Sale: $14.95
Size: 132.3mm
GT MTB2 Bike GripsReg: $10.00 On Sale: $7.95
GT Speed SGL Lock-On Bike GripsReg: $20.00 On Sale: $14.95
Size: 133mm
GT Trail Bike GripsReg: $20.00 On Sale: $14.95
Odi Cross Trainer Lock-On Bonus Pack Bike Grips
Size: 130mm
Our Price: $29.95
Odi Rogue Lock-On Bike Grips
Our Price: $30.00
Odyssey BOSS Aaron Ross Bike Grips
Size: 158mm
Our Price: $9.99
Profile Design Boxer Bar Ends
Size: 137mm
Our Price: $19.95
Raceface Half Nelson Lock-On Bike Grips
Size: 134mm
Our Price: $24.99
Sram SuperCork Bar Tape
Our Price: $15.95
We The People Raptor Bike Grips
Size: 150mm
Our Price: $10.99
WTB Technical Trail Bike GripsReg: $12.00 On Sale: $9.95


text:
Quotes & Info
|INDB > SEC Filings for INDB > Form 10-Q on 6-Nov-2012
|All Recent SEC Filings
Quarterly Report
• adverse changes in the local real estate market could result in a deterioration of credit quality and an increase in the allowance for loan losses, as most of the Company's loans are concentrated within the Bank's primary market area, and a substantial portion of these loans have real estate as collateral;
• a further deterioration of the credit rating for U.S. long-term sovereign debt could adversely impact the Company. Although the downgrade by Standard and Poor's of U.S. long-term sovereign debt did not directly impact the financial position for the Company, a further downgrade as a result of an ability by the federal government to address the so-called "fiscal cliff" or raise the U.S. debt limit could result in further downgrades which in turn could cause a re-evaluation of the 'risk-free' rate used in many accounting models, other-than-temporary-impairment of securities and/or impairment of goodwill and other intangibles;
• acquisitions may not produce results at levels or within time frames originally anticipated and may result in unforeseen integration issues or impairment of goodwill and/or other intangibles;
• the effects of, and changes in, trade, monetary and fiscal policies and laws, including interest rate policies of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, could affect the Company's business environment or affect the Company's operations;
• the effects of, any changes in, and any failure by the Company to comply with tax laws generally and requirements of the federal New Markets Tax Credit program in particular could adversely affect the Company's tax provision and its financial results;
• inflation, interest rate, market and monetary fluctuations could reduce net interest income and could increase credit losses;
• adverse changes in asset quality could result in increasing credit risk-related losses and expenses;
• competitive pressures could intensify and affect the Company's profitability, including continued industry consolidation, the increased financial services provided by nonbanks and banking reform;
• a deterioration in the conditions of the securities markets could adversely affect the value or credit quality of the Company's assets, the availability and terms of funding necessary to meet the Company's liquidity needs, and the Company's ability to originate loans and could lead to impairment in the value of securities in the Company's investment portfolios, having an adverse effect on the Company's earnings;
• the potential need to adapt to changes in information technology could adversely impact the Company's operations and require increased capital spending;
• the risk of electronic fraudulent activity within the financial services industry, especially in the commercial banking sector due to cyber criminals targeting bank accounts and other customer information, which could adversely impact the Company's operations, damage its reputation and require increased capital spending;
• changes in consumer spending and savings habits could negatively impact the Company's financial results;
• new laws and regulations regarding the financial services industry including, but not limited to, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, may have a significant effect on the financial services industry in general, and/or the Company in particular, the exact nature and extent of which is uncertain;
• changes in laws and regulations (including laws and regulations concerning taxes, banking, securities and insurance) generally applicable to the Company's business could adversely affect the Company's operations; and
• changes in accounting policies, practices and standards, as may be adopted by the regulatory agencies as well as the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and other accounting standard setters, could negatively impact the Company's financial results.
If one or more of the factors affecting the Company's forward-looking
information and statements proves incorrect, then the Company's actual results,
performance or achievements could differ materially from those expressed in, or
implied by, forward-looking information and statements contained in this Form
10-Q. Therefore, the Company cautions you not to place undue reliance on the
Company's forward-looking information and statements.
The Company does not intend to update the Company's forward-looking information and statements, whether written or oral, to reflect change. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements.
Selected Quarterly Financial Data
The selected consolidated financial and other data of the Company set forth below does not purport to be complete and should be read in conjunction with, and is qualified in its entirety by, the more detailed information, including the Consolidated Financial Statements and related notes, appearing elsewhere herein.
Three Months Ended September 30, June 30, March 31, December 31, September 30, 2012 2012 2012 2011 2011 (Dollars in Thousands, Except Per Share Data) FINANCIAL CONDITION DATA: Securities Available for Sale $ 323,156 $ 338,331 $ 362,109 $ 305,332 $ 293,073 Securities Held to Maturity 186,842 188,450 200,921 204,956 220,552 Loans 4,056,135 3,980,789 3,869,756 3,794,390 3,723,125 Allowance for Loan Losses (49,746 ) 48,403 48,340 48,260 47,278 Goodwill and Core Deposit Intangibles 137,293 139,924 140,323 140,722 141,103 Total Assets 5,192,094 5,124,564 4,985,739 4,970,240 4,899,766 Total Deposits 4,117,847 4,078,133 3,945,713 3,876,829 3,787,533 Total Borrowings 489,899 476,217 484,115 537,686 568,264 Stockholders' Equity 492,965 483,592 478,863 469,057 461,066 Nonperforming Loans 31,081 31,322 31,646 28,953 26,625 Nonperforming Assets 41,529 43,857 40,736 37,149 36,647 INCOME STATEMENT: Interest Income $ 48,555 $ 48,426 $ 47,796 $ 48,382 $ 48,935
Interest Expense 5,717 5,798 5,943 6,528 7,261 Net Interest Income 42,838 42,628 41,853 41,854 41,674 Provision for Loan Losses 3,606 8,500 1,600 3,800 2,000 Noninterest Income 16,108 14,983 13,909 14,315 12,315 Noninterest Expenses 40,052 36,999 37,358 36,952 35,423 Net Income 11,601 8,874 12,183 11,169 11,959 PER SHARE DATA: Net Income-Basic $ 0.54 $ 0.41 $ 0.57 $ 0.52 $ 0.56 Net Income-Diluted 0.53 0.41 0.56 0.52 0.56 Cash Dividends Declared 0.21 0.21 0.21 0.19 0.19 Book Value 22.75 22.36 22.16 21.82 21.48 PERFORMANCE RATIOS: Return on Average Assets 0.91 % 0.71 % 1.00 % 0.91 % 0.99 % Return on Average Common Equity 9.39 % 7.34 % 10.31 % 9.45 % 10.28 % Net Interest Margin (on a Fully Tax Equivalent Basis) 3.72 % 3.80 % 3.82 % 3.78 % 3.84 % Equity to Assets 9.49 % 9.44 % 9.60 % 9.44 % 9.41 % Dividend Payout Ratio 39.23 % 51.19 % 37.26 % 36.57 % 34.10 % ASSET QUALITY RATIOS: Nonperforming Loans as a Percent of Gross Loans 0.77 % 0.79 % 0.82 % 0.76 % 0.72 % Nonperforming Assets as a Percent of Total Assets 0.80 % 0.86 % 0.82 % 0.75 % 0.75 % Allowance for Loan Losses as a Percent of Total Loans 1.23 % 1.22 % 1.25 % 1.27 % 1.27 % Allowance for Loan Losses as a Percent of Nonperforming Loans 160.05 % 154.53 % 152.75 % 166.68 % 177.57 % CAPITAL RATIOS: Tier 1 Leverage Capital Ratio 8.73 % 8.68 % 8.77 % 8.61 % 8.59 % Tier 1 Risk-Based Capital Ratio 10.72 % 10.64 % 10.71 % 10.74 % 10.62 % Total Risk-Based Capital Ratio 12.71 % 12.63 % 12.73 % 12.78 % 12.67 %
Executive Level Overview During the third quarter of 2012 the Company continued to experience business volume growth, as indicated by the growth rates in the commercial and home equity loan portfolios. The Company's deposits also grew in the third quarter with core deposits now comprising 84.3% of total deposits. Growth in noninterest income year-over-year was solid at 17.2%. On an operating basis, excluding the proceeds from life insurance policies in 2012 and the gain on the sale of securities in 2011, noninterest income growth was still strong at 16.0% as compared to the prior year. Noninterest expense growth was well managed with a year-over-year increase of only 5.2%, and on an operating basis, which excludes the merger and acquisition
expenses and goodwill impairment in 2012, only increased by 2.0% year-over-year. The following table illustrates key performance measures for the periods indicated:
Three Months Ended September 30, Nine Months Ended September 30, 2012 2011 2012 2011 (Dollars in Thousands, Except Per Share Data) NET INCOME $ 11,601 $ 11,959 $ 32,658 $ 34,267 DILUTED EARNINGS PER SHARE 0.53 0.56 1.51 1.60 RETURN ON AVERAGE ASSETS 0.91 % 0.99 % 0.87 % 0.97 % RETURN ON COMMON AVERAGE EQUITY 9.39 % 10.28 % 9.01 % 10.10 % NET INTEREST MARGIN 3.72 % 3.84 % 3.78 % 3.94 %
The Company's net interest margin of 3.72% in the third quarter was well managed
but has decreased when compared to the 3.84% of the year ago period due to the
industry-wide pressure on interest margins caused by the prolonged low rate
environment and disciplined interest rate risk management. Management has
countered this ongoing pressure on earning asset yields by decreasing the
Company's costs of funds, which decreased to 0.50% at September 30, 2012, down
from 0.68% as of September 30, 2011. However, with limited ability to further
reduce the overall cost of funds, management anticipates maintaining the net
interest margin at this level to be challenging and expects the net interest
margin to be in the 3.60%'s in the fourth quarter of this year.
Consistent with the Company's strategic emphasis, the commercial loan portfolio was a driver of loan growth during the three months ended September 30, 2012, as evidenced by annualized growth for the quarter of 11.4%. The home equity portfolio also experienced annualized growth of 9.0%, driven largely by the demand for first position mortgage refinancing fueled by historically low interest rates.
Deposits increased to $4.1 billion, an increase of $39.7 million, or 3.9% on an annualized basis, for the three months ended September 30, 2012. The Company continues to focus on improving the mix of deposits with core deposits increasing by $53.8 million, or 6.3% on an annualized basis, to $3.5 billion with growth occurring in both consumer and business customer segments. In terms of asset quality, the Company continues to experience strong credit metrics as compared to peers in the industry. Loan delinquency measures range from stable to improving and nonperforming assets remain in a manageable position.
The following table shows the levels of the Company's nonperforming loans over
the trailing five quarters:
[[Image Removed]]
The Company considers a loan to be in early stage delinquency when it is between 30-89 days past due and a loan is considered to be in late stage delinquency when it is 90 days or more past due. Loan delinquency, both early and late stage, remained well contained as of September 30, 2012.
The chart below shows the level of delinquencies over the trailing five
[[Image Removed]]
Net loan charge-off activity decreased on a quarter-to-quarter basis due largely to a customer loan fraud detected in the prior quarter, which resulted in a $4.0 million charge-off last quarter. The Company's net loan charge-offs over the last five quarters are shown in the table below:
[[Image Removed]]
The provision for loan losses was $3.6 million, $3.8 million, and $2.0 million for the three months ended September 30, 2012, December 31, 2011, and September 30, 2011, respectively, and exceeded net charge-offs in all quarters. The allowance for loan losses as a percent of loans was 1.23% at September 30, 2012 and 1.27% at both December 31, 2011 and September 30, 2011.
The Company's organic customer growth continued to be strong in the third quarter of 2012 providing deposit, loan and
fee income opportunities. Noninterest income increased over the prior quarter by
7.5% to $16.1 million. The largest increase in noninterest income is due to the
Company receiving $1.3 million of net proceeds from life insurance policies,
which is tax-exempt income to the Company. Growth in noninterest income
year-over-year was solid at 17.2%. On an operating basis, excluding the proceeds
from life insurance policies in 2012 and the gain on the sale of securities in
2011, noninterest income growth was still strong at 16.0% as compared to the
prior year.
Noninterest expense increased over the prior quarter by 8.3% to $40.1 million. The increase is mainly due to increases in incentive compensation of $1.2 million, merger and acquisition expenses of $595,000, and a $2.2 million goodwill impairment charge, which represents the total amount of goodwill relating to Compass Exchange Advisors, LLC ("Compass"), which was acquired in January 2007. Compass is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the bank that provides like-kind exchange services pursuant to section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code. The Company determined the goodwill associated with this purchase to be impaired due to the prolonged low rate environment and the Federal Reserve Bank's stated intent to maintain low rates for the foreseeable future. Noninterest expense was well managed with a year-over-year increase of 5.2%, however, excluding the merger and acquisition expenses and goodwill impairment in 2012 noninterest expense increased only modestly by 2.0% for the same period. Management anticipates that the continuation of solid fundamentals and strong asset quality metrics will continue to drive the Company's results. Management expects net charge-offs for the year to be in the range of $15-$16 million and loan growth to be in the range of 7.0% to 8.0% particularly in the commercial category where pipelines are strong and the Company expects first position home equity to slow with a modest growth for the remainder of the year. Management is also focused on integration planning for the upcoming acquisition of Central Bancorp, Inc. in the fourth quarter and anticipates a customer conversion during the first quarter of 2013. At the beginning of 2012 management provided diluted earnings per share estimates of $2.05 to $2.15 for 2012 as compared to the diluted earnings per share of $2.12 for 2011. Management believes the $2.05 to $2.15 estimate to still be accurate and anticipates being in the middle of that range.
Non-GAAP Measures
When management assesses the Company's financial performance for purposes of making day-to-day and strategic decisions, it does so based upon the performance of its core banking business, which is primarily derived from the combination of net interest income and noninterest or fee income, reduced by operating expenses, the provision for loan losses, and the impact of income taxes. The Company's financial performance is determined in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ("GAAP") which sometimes includes gains or losses due to items that management does not believe are related to its core banking business, such as gains or losses on the sales of securities, merger and acquisition expenses, and other items. Management, therefore, also computes the Company's non-GAAP operating earnings, which excludes these items, to measure the strength of the Company's core banking business and to identify trends that may to some extent be obscured by gains or losses which management deems not to be core to the Company's operations. Management believes that the financial impact of the items excluded when computing non-GAAP operating earnings will disappear or become immaterial within a near-term finite period. Management's computation of the Company's non-GAAP operating earnings information is set forth because management believes it may be useful for investors to have access to the same analytical tool used by management to evaluate the Company's core operational performance so that investors may assess the Company's overall financial health and identify business and performance trends that may be more difficult to identify and evaluate when noncore items are included. Management also believes that the computation of non-GAAP operating earnings may facilitate the comparison of the Company to other companies in the financial services industry.
Non-GAAP operating earnings should not be considered a substitute for GAAP operating results. An item which management deems to be noncore and excludes when computing non-GAAP operating earnings can be of substantial importance to the Company's results for any particular quarter or year. The Company's non-GAAP operating earning information set forth is not necessarily comparable to non-GAAP information which may be presented by other companies.
The following table summarizes the impact of noncore items recorded for the time periods indicated below and reconciles them in accordance with GAAP:
Three Months Ended September 30, Net Income Available to Common Diluted Shareholders Earnings Per Share 2012 2011 2012 2011 (Dollars in Thousands) AS REPORTED (GAAP) Net Income available to Common Shareholders (GAAP) $ 11,601 $ 11,959 0.53 0.56 Non-GAAP Measures: Non-Interest Income Components: Proceeds from Life Insurance Policies, tax exempt (1,307 ) - (0.06 ) - Non-Interest Expense Components: Merger and Acquisition Expenses, net of tax 352 - 0.02 - Goodwill Impairment, net of tax 1,317 - 0.06 - TOTAL IMPACT OF NON-CORE ITEMS 362 - 0.02 - AS ADJUSTED (NON-GAAP) $ 11,963 $ 11,959 0.55 0.56 Nine Months Ended September 30, Net Income Available to Common Diluted Shareholders Earnings Per Share 2012 2011 2012 2011 (Dollars in Thousands) AS REPORTED (GAAP) Net Income available to Common Shareholders (GAAP) $ 32,658 $ 34,267 $ 1.51 $ 1.60 Non-GAAP Measures: Non-Interest Income Components: Net Gain on Sale of Securities, net of tax - (428 ) - (0.02 ) Proceeds from Life Insurance Policies, tax exempt (1,307 ) (0.06 ) Non-Interest Expense Components: Merger and Acquisition Expenses, net of tax 749 - 0.03 - Goodwill Impairment, net of tax 1,317 - 0.06 - TOTAL IMPACT OF NON-CORE ITEMS 759 (428 ) 0.03 (0.02 ) AS ADJUSTED (NON-GAAP) $ 33,417 $ 33,839 $ 1.54 $ 1.58
Critical Accounting Policies
Critical accounting policies are defined as those that are reflective of significant judgments and uncertainties, and could potentially result in materially different results under different assumptions and conditions. The Company believes that the Company's most critical accounting policies are those which the Company's financial condition depends upon, and which involve the most complex or subjective decisions or assessments.
There have been no material changes in critical accounting policies during the first nine months of 2012. Please refer to the 2011 Form 10-K for a complete listing of critical accounting policies.
Securities Portfolio The Company's securities portfolio consists of securities available for sale and securities which management intends to hold until maturity. Securities decreased by $8.5 million, or 1.7%, at September 30, 2012 as compared to December 31, 2011. The ratio of securities to total assets as of September 30, 2012 was 9.8%, compared to 10.4% at December 31, 2011. The Company continually reviews investment securities for the presence of other-than-temporary impairment ("OTTI"). Further analysis of the Company's OTTI can be found in Note 3 "Securities" within Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 1 hereof.
As of December 31, 2011 securities classified as trading were $8.2 million and were comprised of a community development mutual fund investment and securities that are held solely for the purpose of funding certain executive nonqualified retirement obligations. During the first quarter of 2012, management reclassified these securities to be available for sale.
Residential Mortgage Loan Sales The Company's primary loan sale activity arises from the sale of government sponsored enterprise eligible residential mortgage loans to other financial institutions. During 2012 and 2011, the Bank originated residential loans with the intention of selling them in the secondary market. Loans may be sold with servicing rights released or with servicing rights retained. A mortgage servicing asset is recognized when a loan is sold with servicing rights retained. During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2012 the Company sold $83.5 million and $222.8 million of mortgage loans . . .


text:
ADHD in Children Health Center
Time Management for Teens and Tweens With ADHD
In this article
For teens and tweens with ADHD, simple tasks like cleaning their room or doing homework can seem to take forever, to you and them. And trying to enforce these tasks may often lead to arguments and frustration.
By teaching time management, you can make these daily responsibilities more manageable and lessen the stress for everyone. These life skills will also allow your child to become more independent. He'll gain confidence in knowing he can take care of himself.
Set Routines
Routines give the day structure, which is helpful for kids with ADHD.
An unplanned day can seem overwhelming to a child with ADHD. There are ways to make things more manageable for you and your teen or tween.
Sit down with your child and make a list of all of his daily responsibilities. Together, break down big activities into smaller steps, and decide how long he needs for each task. Don't make the schedule just about tasks. Schedule breaks and other activities your child wants to do.
As much as possible, schedule activities for the same times every day, so they're easier for your teen to remember. If you know your mornings are rushed, why not plan for him to pick out clothes or put homework in his backpack the night before, when the pace is a bit slower?
Put the list where you both can see it. Have your child cross off each item when finished. Kids get a sense of accomplishment from knowing they've completed tasks.
Eliminate Dawdling
It may be scheduled homework time, but when you check in, you find your child still sharpening pencils a half-hour later. It's common for kids with ADHD to put off doing things.
Stick to the start and end times you agreed on for each task. Set a timer for each activity, and make his goal to finish tasks before the timer dings. Make sure to reward success. An incentive-based program with rewards for positive behavior is the best approach, but there need to be consequences for missing the mark.


text:
Type: Posts; User: Slatts
It is if it's one of mine...
resurrected in deed.
Thanks phase, that's how I thought it worked.
I'm starting to think the BMS boy is playing silly buggers with my controllers again.
- - - Updated - - -
That thought had occurred to me...
Hi, I have a problem with a rack controlled by an E2 controller.
Due to a faulty AHU supply fan, the heat reclaim coil has been isolated.
My problem is that the building management controller,...
anybody see this post?
I don't know what to make of it.
I mean really?
you would take that seriously for even a moment?
And you're allowed out without a minder?
What I don't understand is how...
Indeed, but if the bomber didn't have faith that it'd get him a free ticket to paradise, he'd never buckle the bomb to his breast.
Sorry, couldn't help the alliteration. The wine made me do it.
Faith that blowing up the enemies of their particular brand of religion or heretical members of your own faith will buy them an eternity of bliss is one thing.
self immolation by Buddhists, while...
Maybe, but you don't want to mess with the godless.:grin2:
And who were those lowlifes that blew up the federal building?
They were home grown scum weren't they?
And let's not go into the...
league. RSL
Dairy's big around the table lands. Google Malanda.
just about an hour from Cairns and the reef comes in close to the coast up there.
You've got the year round climate of the...
It's my belief, and I feel I have a right to it, that the best feed I ever had was a pig cooked in a pit one Christmas.
The bloke who butchered it shot it point blank with a .22 pistol. It seemed...
My point is that an atheist would know there's no virgins on offer and that if there were an after life they'd burn in hell
RSA or RSL? either way it's too bloody close to Brisbane for my taste....
Stands to reason.
Still, a cranky atheist with a chip on his shoulder wouldn't be worried about being punished in an after life..
And atheists are just as prone to mind snaps as the next...
something you've neglected to tell me barbar?
Those big rabbits cook up alright too. No fat in the meat so good for your heart.
Some of the labourers would go out after work at the rock and knock over a roo (shoot it) and we'd throw it on the...
No, they left it draped over a fence.
Now I remember, the bomber was the cousin of a doctor in Australia and Howards attack dogs went after him wrong or wrong (not a typo)
When he left England...
I rather thought you might have been pulling my chain Tool.
Christians haven't been into much terrorism since the IRA hung up its bombs. (mostly)
Of course being good Catholic boys and girls,...
From what I can find out it seems to be Asian gangs and home grown bikies arguing over drug markets.
As it happens all the non aboriginals in Aus are descendent of immigrants. They call us boat...
Come on barbar, what do you blokes know about snakes?
I once worked alongside a crew of Maoris at Ayers Rock. I watched them pull a rubbish heap apart with their bare hands to catch a king brown....
Gee thank you too much Tool.
Seems to me that Australians have been fighting and dying in your little wars of late too.
remember that little to do about alleged weapons of mass destruction in...
here's a link to an Australian news program from this morning (my time).
About 22 minutes in is a bit about the gun buy back that you may find interesting (or enraging, depending on your view).
Can't say as how I've noticed it.
I get to vote in free and fair compulsory elections.
I have freely travelled all of the mainland states and territories and have worked in2 of them.
I can...
In Australia, we don't have a bill of rights and so our rights aren't limited by a bill.
We therefore don't have lawyers sitting around looking for ways to interpret a form of words, mind reading...
Gee ga, it looks like you're in perfect agreement with the OP.
What you just wrote pretty well paraphrases it.
Perhaps you should read it again.
Here's the sixth and seventh sentences for you jtrammel
The rest of the post mostly explained these sentences in parables for you.
Why don't you pick them apart and show us the logical...
True believers of most faiths would be happy to pass on as it would mean a free trip to paradise.
That is unless they've been diddling the alter boys or some such..
I find it kind of perverse...
As I demonstrably do give a ****, you can now see that your original belief, taking on board my comment, is wrong, and as a rational person, you'll now change your above stated belief.
OK, so it's the vibe...
I did a quick search for the 1st ammendment of your constitution and all I found was:
Nothing there about a legal right to an opinion.
Did I miss something?
Perhaps it's in the vide?
Bit of a bugger having to drive everywhere then wolfy?
So he's farting music then?
There, you see?
Another belief based on false assumption.
My ancestry is Scott, Irish and British, with a touch, so I'm told, of Maori.
All immigrants, none sent at the monarch of the days...
I hope you aren't wedded to that belief hurtinhvac, because I'm going to have to disabuse you of it.
I personally believe that the original post was one of the best that I've read on this forum....
Struth barbar, I'd vote for you!
Even if you are a kiwi! :angel:
my personal belief is that the perpetrator of these atrocities (read: scum) should be put down like a mad dog and be removed from the gene pool by the sterilisation of their parents and siblings.
Sounds like the second best thing Parsons did for JPL was bring his solid fuel to the party.
The best thing he did for them was to blow himself up with it and let the JPL move on without him.
Nine out of every 10?
How many of these shootings are there in your country?
Follow the link in alcomechs post and read the second page.
I've had 2 different medium temp R22 rooms in the last year or so that were running with POE from new that shared the same problem.
They were both LP pumpdown systems.
After cycling off, they...
special person and personality.
Can't argue with that. It takes a masochistic fool.
I should know, I've been doing it for over 30 bloody years now.
I love it when the reps drop in to a forum.
It shows that they care about us poor buggers in the field.
Thanks for the link Tim.
Heatcraft sell a smallish one off the shelf over here.
depending on the size of your room it could do the trick.
Failing that, get your local sheet metal company to knock you up a stainless...
play nicely you 2.
And I saw that episode of Big Bang.:cheers:
why? have you been professionally evaluated?
We don't use 120 here except for on control circuits in machines from over your way.
240 volt, a neutral and a separate ground.
We also have 415 volt single phase motors that use 2 phases.
If you follow me.
They're something of a rarity though. Kirby tend to use them on their 3 phase condensing units so you don't need...
1 active and a neutral tied to earth potential.
Oh, and it's 14:47, 9/12/12 (D/MM/YY)
Yes, all of our single phase motors are 240 volt single phase.
kind of counter intuitive, don't you think?


text:
TORONTO - "Candy Crush Saga" and "Minecraft - Pocket Edition" were the most downloaded apps on Apple's Canadian iTunes store in 2013, while the debut record from "The Lumineers" topped the album charts.
Apple released its year-end lists on Tuesday and also named "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke as the most downloaded track of the year, ahead of "Wake Me Up" by Avicii, "Stay" by Rihanna, "Roar" by Katy Perry and "Royals" by Lorde.
"Skyfall" was the most downloaded movie and the final crop of "Breaking Bad" episodes was the TV season of the year.
"Inferno" by Dan Brown was the most purchased fiction ebook and "Wheat Belly" was the biggest non-fiction title. "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald was the most popular free ebook.
In the U.S., Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience" topped the album charts, while Beyonce's recently released digital album was second.
— with files from The Associated Press


text:
Mature Content
This content is intended for mature audiences.Sign In To Confirm Your Age
or, enter your birth date.
Please enter a valid date format (mm-dd-yyyy)
Please confirm you have reviewed DeviantArt's Terms of Service below.
* We do not retain your date-of-birth information.
London calling by LauraDoreWatch
©2010-2016 LauraDoreMature Content
We waited until the block was almost clear and jumped out of the cab and took this lol....I was dressed already and put a bathrobe over it


text:
|Reviews for A Few Thoughts on Turning Thirty
| Golden Asp chapter 1 . 7/7/2015
I really liked that. Well done.
| Born in 20th Century chapter 1 . 12/15/2014
Thank you for sharing this, loved how you used Harry's pespective to give an insight into Hermione, Snape, and their lives :)
| SexySloth chapter 1 . 9/28/2014
Ughhhh…YEEEESSSSSS! This is so amazing! I love Harry's Point of View stories. I always think people write him with such maturity…he's a good outside perspective. :D Loved this!
| jensteed chapter 1 . 9/16/2014
Such a sweet little piece.
| Karen Bristow chapter 1 . 10/1/2013
Fluffy indeed...and satisfying.
| CRMediaGal chapter 1 . 7/18/2013
Another wonderful snapshot that's going on my favorites. I really enjoy your writing, and this piece was truly heartwarming.
| browni'dbrunette chapter 1 . 4/1/2013
This was brilliant!
Also "The surest way to get hexed by a bunch of war veterans is to jump up in a darkened room and yell "SURPRISE!"" Literally dying! That was hilarious!
| Dimac99 chapter 1 . 2/1/2013
I have no idea why I hadn't read this before, but I enjoyed it :-)
| Alexa1993 chapter 1 . 2/1/2013
Love it! :)
| HnH chapter 1 . 1/16/2013
The surest way to get hexed by a bunch of war veterans is to jump up in a darkened room and yell "SURPRISE!" - ROFL!
Nice one.
| CelticGlamazon chapter 1 . 1/6/2013
What a lovely o/s. Fun read.
| Lizzy Gray chapter 1 . 8/18/2011
Just stumbled upon your great little oneshot - I'm very impressed and I absolutely love it!
Harry's descriptions are so endearing, I simply adore the storyline and how you styled the characters.
You've got such a huge talent in writing - thank you very much for sharing it with us!
Best wishes,
| Bauerbaby24 chapter 1 . 6/22/2011
This was adorable! Really really enjoyed it! I hope everything is going better for you and your family and that you will finish your other stories soon...I'll be on the lookout :)
| Clover Bay chapter 1 . 3/19/2011
What a lovely and endearing story! Great job :)
| annz chapter 1 . 2/6/2011
First I want to say that I cant writing reviews. I haven't go a practise.
Oh,and I can't speak english very good. But I try!
Somebody persuaded me to read Looking for magic. But before it, I read this story. Well, it's a little shorter.
It's nice . When I started, I knew what would happened, but in fact it wasn't important. In hg/ss story suprices are rather rare.
I like that it is harry potter's view. And he is so calm. This relation is quiet, he just presents facts. In some texts it isn't good, but there - very. At least to me.
I cant imagine Snape working with Weasleys, but ...
This fragment about suprise party was so real. Personally I don't like such suprises, so they, after war, it's well, very possible.
And I'm sure, that Snape was a romantic(of course after reading seventh book ;D )
Well, I 'd better finish and start Looking for magic. But this will certainly takes me a lot of time...


text:
Yen Reaches Record High Against Dollar on Repatriation Demand
The yen rose to a post-World War II high versus the dollar as risk of radiation leaks from crippled nuclear plants in Japan added to speculation insurers and investors will redeem overseas assets to pay for damages.
The four-day rally in the yen prompted speculation the Bank of Japan may intervene for the first time since September in an effort to counter repatriation flows and shore up the competitiveness of Japanese companies. The euro fell for the first time in four days after a Portugal credit downgrade revived concern about the region's debt crisis.
"Speculators are becoming increasingly confident about pushing the currency pair around," said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist in New York at Bank of New York Mellon Corp., the world's largest custodial bank, with more than $20 trillion in assets under administration. "Everyone is curious to find out why they chose not to defend the 80 level. Wow. That's all I have to say, just wow."
The yen gained to 77.48 per dollar at 5:42 p.m. in New York after passing its post-World War II high of 79.75 reached in April 1995, from 80.72 yesterday.
"We've breached 79.75 and there was enormous support there initially and that's given way with stop losses on a New York close in extremely thin conditions with absolutely no signs of the Bank of Japan and the selling has just snow-balled," said Kurt Magnus, executive director of currency sales at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Sydney.
Market Moves
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped, erasing its 2011 gain, and Treasuries rallied. The S&P 500 fell 2 percent to 1,256.88 and the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield fell as low as 3.14 percent, the least since Dec. 8.
"There are real concerns that if it's a disorderly move down in dollar-yen, the BOJ may start to intervene," said Paresh Upadhyaya, head of Americas G-10 currency strategy at Bank of America Corp. in New York. "This time around there will be support for unilateral intervention. In order for Japan to regain competitiveness, they need a weaker yen. They can now build an economic case for that."
In an attempt to slow the yen's 15 percent appreciation last year, the Bank of Japan sold 2 trillion yen ($25 billion) in Sptember in the nation's first currency market intervention since 2004. Governments and central banks intervene by selling or buying currencies to influence prices.
'Destabilizing Event'
"A surge in the yen could be a destabilizing event," said Robert Sinche, global head of foreign exchange strategy at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc's RBS Securities unit in Stamford, Connecticut. "I would expect that they would intervene and that U.S. and European authorities would be fine with them intervening here. If there's activity required now, it would be the Federal Reserve acting on behalf of the Bank of Japan."
The Australian and New Zealand dollars dropped to the weakest this year against the greenback as concerns about the impact of the nuclear disaster in Japan spurred investors to sell riskier assets.
The Australian dollar fell to as low as 97.35 U.S. cents, the least since Dec. 2, before trading at 97.89 cents as of 8:32 a.m. in Sydney. The kiwi dollar slid to 71.30 U.S. cents, the lowest since Sept. 2.
The Aussie tumbled 3.5 percent to 75.56 yen, while the New Zealand currency dropped 4.5 percent to 55.39 yen.
Krona Drop
Sweden's krona dropped against most major currencies, falling 1.3 percent to 6.4826 per dollar and 2.7 percent to 12.28 yen. Mexico's peso dropped 1.3 percent to 12.1503 per dollar and the British pound lost 0.3 percent to $1.6030.
Norway's krone earlier gained against the dollar after Norges Bank left its key rate at 2 percent and Deputy Governor Jan F. Qvigstad said policy makers raised their forecast for future increases "slightly."
The krone dropped 0.1 percent to 5.6683 per dollar and weakened 1.5 percent to 14.04 yen.
The euro fell 0.7 percent to $1.3897 per dollar from $1.3998.
The euro dropped after Portugal was cut two steps by Moody's Investors Service yesterday to A3, four levels from so-called junk status. The company cited the nation's "less supportive" economic environment and said its outlook remained negative given Portugal's "subdued growth prospects" and risks that the government won't be able to implement deficit-reduction plans.
Swiss Record
The Swiss franc advanced to a record against the greenback on investor demand for a refuge amid turmoil in the Middle East and Japan. Bahrain closed its stock exchange as clashes between security forces and anti-government protesters intensified.
Concern that violence may spread to neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer, damped demand for higher-yielding assets.
"The focus will remain on Bahrain as well as Japan," said Kathy Lien, director of currency research with online currency trader GFT Forex in New York. "For the time being, risk aversion will still be something that's more dominant in the market right now."
The franc appreciated 0.9 percent to 90.77 centimes per dollar after touching 90.72, the strongest level since at least 1971, when Bloomberg records begin.
Carry Trade
The yen may continue to strengthen as investors unwind carry trades amid reduced demand for assets from higher-yielding countries. In a carry trade, investors borrow where yields are low, such as in Japan, to fund purchases in higher-returning countries.
The carry trade of borrowing in yen and selling it to buy the currencies of Australia, Norway, New Zealand and Brazil has lost 45 percent this month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with a loss of 22 percent using the U.S. currency and return of 8.3 percent in the yen in January and February.
Japanese investors own about $3.9 billion of rand-based Eurobonds, known as uridashi, more than the $3 billion of Brazilian reais and $765 million in Turkish lira, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Japan's mutual funds held 2.8 trillion yen ($34.6 billion) in Brazilian stocks and bonds as their fourth-largest foreign assets, leaving the real among the most "vulnerable" during the selloff, HSBC Holdings Plc said.
Yen Gains
The yen has strengthened 7 percent since Japan's strongest earthquake on record last week caused a 7-meter (23 foot) tsunami that engulfed the northeast coast and damaged nuclear reactors.
The Bank of Japan added 5 trillion yen in one-day operations today. The BOJ has added 28 trillion yen to the financial system since March 14 after Governor Masaaki Shirakawa pledged to keep pumping cash into the economy to stabilize markets.
The currency touched 80.22 on Nov. 1 as the Federal Reserve announced a second round of so-called quantitative easing to purchase $600 billion in Treasuries. The U.S. is Japan's second biggest trading partner.
The currency reached its postwar high three months after Japan's 6.9-magnitude Kobe earthquake, on speculation that bilateral talks to open up Japan's auto market to U.S. exports would fail. Nearly two-thirds of the U.S.'s $66 billion trade deficit with Japan in 1994 came from cars and auto parts, and the Clinton administration repeated threats in April 1995 that unsuccessful negotiations might lead the U.S. to impose sanctions.


text:
Gul wicket first ball!
bye guptil
it was a valiant innings
Our world XI ODI player is out, to a short ball....
Umar Akmal to Guptill, OUT
MJ Guptill c Naved-ul-Hasan b Umar Akmal 11 (10b 1x4 1x6) SR: 110.00
LOL, cricinfo is dire.
stage set for Redmond's day
Long Live Test Cricket
Ajmal gets a wicket.
This is some excellent spin bowling from both ends. It's hard to see the inexperienced NZ batting handling this. Their best hope is probably a big partnership between Taylor and Vettori.
Boom. There's the slog sweep.
NZ looking good ATM, 106-3
Long batting to come for NZ; that will help them win this
Naved-ul-Hasan back on to get the runs flowing again.
World Scrabble Champion 2014. National Scrabble Champion 2009, 2015.
Author of Word Addict
Countdown Series 57 Champion
King of the Arcade
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)


text:
Fadi Ghandour, Founder Of Aramex
Fadi Ghandour, Founder Of Aramex
Host Jessica Harris speaks with Fadi Ghandour, the founder of Aramex, a company that has been referred to as the Fedex of the Middle East.
Harris also speaks with Peter Manning, the founder of Peter Manning/Five Eight New York.
You must be signed in to leave a comment. Sign In / Register
Please keep your community civil. All comments must follow the NPR.org Community rules and terms of use, and will be moderated prior to posting. NPR reserves the right to use the comments we receive, in whole or in part, and to use the commenter's name and location, in any medium. See also the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Community FAQ.


text:
by Zack Ford Dec 19, 2013
The National Organization for Marriage, along with conservatives across Twitter, is eagerly defending Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson for condemning homosexuality as sinful and suggesting that African-Americans were better off under Jim Crow.
by Alyssa Rosenberg Dec 10, 2013
Treating Sarah Palin as a relevant political figure is a losing game for liberals. Let's hope she becomes a pure celebrity, so we can just ignore her.
by Aviva Shen Oct 14, 2013
Veteran protest organizers are dismayed that their march devolved into a platform for Tea Party lawmakers, Confederate flags, and calls for Obama to "put down the Quran."
by Ian Millhiser Aug 11, 2013
Sarah Palin's most famous falsehood simply will not die.
by Ryan Koronowski May 21, 2013
by Ruy Teixeira - Guest Contributor Mar 18, 2013
by Alyssa Rosenberg Jan 28, 2013
by Alyssa Rosenberg Jan 25, 2013
by Hayes Brown Oct 24, 2012
by Igor Volsky Aug 1, 2012


text:
Poets: Peter Campion and Ray Gonzalez. Fiction writers: Charles Baxter, M. J. Fitzgerald, Julie Schumacher, and V. V. Ganeshananthan. Nonfiction writers: Patricia Hampl, Madelon Sprengnether, and Kim Todd.
All admitted students receive full in-state tuition waivers and Teaching Assistantships or Research/Administrative Fellowships.
Gesell Summer Writing Fellowships, O'Rourke Travel Fellowship, Awards and Prizes
Dislocate, Ivory Tower
The program hosts the Edelstein-Keller Visiting Writers Series, Charles Baxter's Annual Benefit for Hunger, and the First Books reading and reception.
Subscribe to P&W Magazine |
Donate Now |
Advertise |
Sign up for E-Newsletter |
Help |
About Us |
Contact Us |
View Desktop Site
© Copyright Poets & Writers 2016. All Rights Reserved


text:
A blog entry from March 3rd has been magically moved to the sidebar and the sidebar contents have been pushed to the bottom. I have only posted a few blog entries and have done NOTHING to the site, sidebar, or codes in weeks! I tried removing that particular blog entry and it was replaced with the entry from March 2nd!
I tried changing the appearance template, but the problem remained the same. Please help! Thanks!
The site is http://www.scafighterblog.com.


text:
Ecosystem Sciences Software
- Programming Language: JSP ×
DLESE: Digital Lib. for Earth System Ed.
DLESE (Digital Library for Earth System Education) is a community-supported digital library dedicated to the collection, enhancement, and distribution of materials that facilitate learning about the Earth. Sponsored by the US National Science Foundation.6 weekly downloads
OpenAMIS (Open AgroMeteorological Information System) is customable free and open software for websites providing agrometeorological information to farmers and agroindustry.2 weekly downloads
Environmental Data Analysis System
EDAS2 is a web-based environmental quality data management and decision support framework1 weekly downloads
NVC Revision System
The NVC Revision System is an online tool for preparing, submitting, reviewing and managing proposals for changes in the U.S. National Vegetation Classification (NVC).