SunGard reports income from operations for 2006 at $532 million
SunGard ( http://www.sungard.com ), a global leader in integrated software and processing solutions and the pioneer and leading provider of information availability services, reported that adjusted income from operations (defined in Note 1 to the Notes to the Consolidated Condensed Financial Information) for the year 2006 was $994 million, a 7% increase over $933 million for the year 2005.
Reported income from operations for the year 2006 was $532 million compared to $493 million for the year 2005, an increase of 8%.
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Standard Chartered joins the launch of initiative in trade finance
Standard Chartered Bank, India’s largest international bank, is the first foreign bank to join the launch of Structured Financial Messaging System (SFMS) in Trade Finance by the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), under the aegis of Reserve Bank of India.
–www.theasianbanker.com (February 27 2007)–
American Express names Dan Henry as acting CFO
American Express (NYSE:AXP) has announced that it has named Dan Henry as Executive Vice President and acting Chief Financial Officer. This change becomes effective immediately. As acting CFO, Mr. Henry succeeds Gary Crittenden, who informed American Express on Friday of his decision to leave the Company to become Chief Financial Officer of Citigroup.
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Forrester names Fiserv as top five strong performer
Fiserv CBS Worldwide, a unit of Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV), has announced that the company was among the top five performers included in a recently released report entitled “The Forrester Wave: Retail Banking Platforms, Q4 2006.” (November 2006).
Forrester notes that Fiserv “shows a number of strong points around product strategy, platform agility, and architecture and development.” The report stressed, “As a strong performer among retail banking platforms, Fiserv’s ICBS (international comprehensive banking system) is a good shortlist for banks that need a clearly identified back-end functionality; are seeking an agile banking platform that is able to cope with changing business needs and that supports IFX standards; or want to leverage their iSeries experience or move to Linux.” Fiserv earned a five out of five for its functional coverage of the banking platform regarding sales.
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MasterCard reports results for the Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa regions
MasterCard Worldwide has announced successful fourth quarter and full year results for the Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa (APMEA)1 region. For the quarter ending 31 December, the region witnessed double-digit growth in purchase transactions (22.7%), gross transactions (21.3%), purchase volume (18.6%), cash transactions (16.2%) and cards issued (11.1%), versus the same period in 2005.
As at 31 December 2006, over 180 million MasterCard cards (excluding Maestro? and Cirrus) had been issued by MasterCard customer financial institutions in APMEA.
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Risk Appetite Remains Elevated For U.S. High-Risk Prospects, Says Report
Of the 1,237 U.S. high-yield parent-level issuers rated by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services at the end of January 2007, we evaluate the prospects for 1,194 issuers with outstanding debt in a report published late Friday. The article, which is titled, “U.S.
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Article Examines Why NDBs And ECAs Are Rarely Rated Above The Sovereign
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services today published an article explaining why 15 national development banks (NDBs) and 14 export credit agencies (ECAs) are (with a few exceptions) rated at the sovereign level. The conclusions reached in the article, entitled “Why National Development Banks And Export Credit Agencies Are Rarely Rated Above The Sovereign,” are supported by evidence from the credit default swap market, which suggests that the default risk of these government-related entities (GREs) tends to be slightly higher than that of the sovereign.
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Thai Futures Exchange hosts experts’ competition to expand investor base
Thailand Futures Exchange PCL (TFEX), in conjunction with four leading brokers, will use simulation-based approaches in the competition, “TFEX Futures Camp: Challenge 2007”, on SET50 Index Futures and SET50 Index Options in May 2007. Applications can be made online at www.tfex.co.th from March 1.
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TRIS Rating Upgrades Company Rating of “BECL” to “A/Stable” from “A-/Stable”
TRIS Rating Co., Ltd. has upgraded the company rating of Bangkok Expressway PLC (BECL) to “A” from “A-” with “stable” outlook. The rating reflects the continuous increase in traffic volume on the expressways despite the rising popularity of the mass transit systems, stable cash flow generation supported by established traffic volume, the benefit of being the only toll road system linked to the First Stage Expressway System (FES) to form a comprehensive road network for Bangkok, and the proven track record of management. The rating also takes into consideration the company’s current debt profile, which is structured to match debt servicing obligations with internal cash generation until debts mature. These strengths are partially offset by high leverage, uncertainty over future government transportation policies, and the government’s potential intervention in toll adjustments.
The “stable” outlook reflects the expectation that the traffic on the expressways will remain strong, which will in turn produce BECL’s sufficient debt service coverage from annual revenue. TRIS Rating also expects the company to maintain good service and conditions on toll roads to attract new commuters. In addition, should the company decide to explore new business opportunities, its financial structure should not deteriorate from the current position.
GECAS SIGNS COMPONENT MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT WITH AIRASIA
AirAsia Berhad (AirAsia) today announced it has signed an agreement with GE Commercial Aviation Services (GECAS) to finance and manage the airline’s spare parts inventory for its fleet of 34 Boeing 737-300 aircraft. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
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