DealBook: as pleads guilty, pays $ 1.5 billion in UBS over rigging rate

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UBS, the Swiss banking giant, announced a record settlement with global authorities on Wednesday, agreeing to a combined $1.5 billion in fines for its role in a multiyear scheme to manipulate interest rates.

In a sign that officials are increasingly taking a hard line against financial wrongdoing, the Justice Department also secured a guilty plea from the bank’s Japanese subsidiary, sending a warning shot to other big banks suspected of rate rigging. The UBS subsidiary, which agreed to plead to a single count of wire fraud, is the first unit of a big bank to agree to criminal charges in more than a decade.

The cash penalties represented the largest fines to date related to the rate-rigging inquiry. The fine is also one of the biggest sanctions that American and British authorities have ever levied against a financial institution, falling just short of the $1.9 billion payout that HSBC made last week over money laundering accusations.

The severity of the UBS penalties, authorities said, reflected the extent of the problems. The government complaints laid bare a scheme that spanned from 2005 to 2010, describing how the bank reported false rates to squeeze out extra profits and deflect concerns about its health during the financial crisis.

“The findings we have set out in our notice today do not make for pretty reading,” Tracey McDermott, the enforcement director for the Financial Services Authority of Britain, said in a statement. “The integrity of benchmarks,” she said, “are of fundamental importance to both U.K. and international financial markets. UBS traders and managers ignored this.”

The UBS case reflects a pattern of abuse that authorities have uncovered as part of a multi-year investigation into rate-rigging. The inquiry, which has ensnared more than a dozen big banks, is focused on key benchmarks like the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. Such rates are used to help determine the borrowing rates for trillions of dollars of financial products like corporate loans, mortgages and credit cards.

In the UBS matter, the wrongdoing occurred largely within the Japanese unit, where traders colluded with other banks and brokerage firms to tinker with Yen denominated Libor and bolster their returns. During the 2008 financial crisis, UBS managers also “inappropriately gave guidance to those employees charged with submitting interest rates, the purpose being to positively influence the perception of UBS’s creditworthiness,” according to authorities.

In a series of colorful e-mails and phone calls, traders tried to influence the rate-setting process. “I need you to keep it as low as possible,” one UBS trader said to an employee at another brokerage firm in September 2008, according to the complaint filed by the Financial Services Authority. “If you do that,” the trader promised to pay “whatever you want. I’m a man of my word.”

As the employees carried out the alleged manipulation, they also celebrated the efforts, with one trader referring to a partner in the scheme as “superman.” “Be a hero today,” he urged, according the complaint by regulators.

The British and Swiss authorities released their complaints on Wednesday before the bank’s shares began trading in Switzerland. American authorities are expected to release their own complaints later Wednesday in Washington.

In a statement, UBS highlighted its cooperation with the investigation. The firm previously stated that it made provisions of 897 million Swiss francs ($975 million) to cover potential legal and regulatory fines.

“We discovered behavior of certain employees that is unacceptable,” the chief executive of UBS, Sergio P. Ermotti, said in the statement. “We deeply regret this inappropriate and unethical behavior. No amount of profit is more important than the reputation of this firm, and we are committed to doing business with integrity.”

The UBS case provides a lens to view broader problems in the rate-setting process, which affects how consumers and companies borrow money around the world. In June, authorities scored their first Libor settlement, securing a $450 million payout from Barclays, the big British bank.

The UBS case — the product of cross-border collaboration among regulators and federal prosecutors – is more than triple the earlier fine.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Justice Department leveled about $1.2 billion in combined fines. The Financial Services Authority of Britain fined the bank $260 million. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, which does not have the power to fine, recovered $65 million in the bank’s supposed ill-gotten gains.

The Justice Department’s criminal division, which arranged the guilty plea with the Japanese subsidiary, also struck a non-prosecution agreement with the parent company. The exact total of the penalties was unclear, because the department has not yet released its settlement documents.

The Justice Department’s case is also expected to take aim at some of the bank’s traders, including 33-year-old Thomas Hayes. The Justice Department plans to announce charges against Mr. Hayes, the former UBS and Citigroup trader, who featured prominently in the investigation, according to people with knowledge of the matter. He was arrested in London last week and later released on bail. Other UBS employees have been suspended or fired following an internal investigation.

The fallout from the UBS case is expected to ratchet up the pressure on some of the world’s largest financial institutions and spur settlement talks across the banking industry.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has said it expects to pay fines before its next earnings statement in February, while Deutsche Bank has set aside an undisclosed amount to cover potential penalties. Some American institutions, including Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, also remain in regulators’ crosshairs.

The UBS case has exposed the systemic problems with the rate-setting process. Over a 6-year period, UBS traders targeted the major currencies that form the Libor system, including the U.S. dollar denominated rate. The bank was also cited for attempting to manipulate other benchmarks like the Euro Interbank Offered Rate, or Euribor, and the Tokyo Interbank Offered Rate, or Tibor.

Much of the activity took place in the bank’s Japanese unit. Authorities said four UBS traders colluded to manipulate submissions to Yen Libor. The individuals made more than 1,900 requests to brokers and other banks to alter the rate, according to regulatory filings. As part of their efforts, UBS employees made quarterly payments of £15,000 ($24,000) to outside brokers involved in the rate-rigging for at least 18 months for their help, the complaint said.

To avoid arousing suspicion, UBS employees routinely made small changes to submissions, the complaint detailed. The individuals, who communicated with colleagues about the rate-setting through emails and instant messages, also altered rate submissions to benefit traders at other banks.

The Japanese unit’s guilty plea for wire fraud follows frantic last-minute negotiations last week between senior UBS officials and American authorities. The actions detailed in the complaint emboldened the Justice Department to seek the guilty plea from the Japanese unit. By forcing the plea from the firm’s Japanese subsidiary, federal authorities sent a clear message about the level of wrongdoing, but stopped far short of shutting UBS out of the American markets.

Still, the steep sanctions come as a surprise, given the bank’s cooperation with investigators.

Since first announcing that it was the subject of Libor investigations, the Swiss bank has eagerly worked with authorities in a bid for leniency. UBS, for example, had received conditional immunity from the Justice Department’s antitrust unit, a deal that did not apply to the Justice Department’s criminal division.

The case presents the latest setback for UBS.

The Swiss bank already agreed to a $780 million fine in 2009 with American authorities to settle charges that it helped American clients avoid tax. The firm also announced a $2.3 million loss last year related to illegal trading activity by a former employee, Kweku M. Adoboli. Mr. Adoboli subsequently was sentenced to seven years, and British authorities fined UBS $47.5 million over the scandal.

UBS said it expected to report a net loss of up to $2.7 billion in the fourth quarter of the year because of the costs related to Libor and other legal matters. The figure includes around $2.3 billion of provisions of legal and regulatory costs, as well as $548 million in restructuring charges.

In the wake of the Libor scandal, UBS has been forced to beef up its compliance and rate-setting procedures, according to the Swiss regulator. The bank has also fired individuals connected to the rate-rigging.

“We are pleased that the authorities gave us credit for the important and positive changes we have already made,” the chairman of UBS, Axel Weber, said in a statement. “I have zero tolerance for inappropriate and unethical behavior of any of our staff.”

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Diseases from animals hit 2 billion people a year

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LONDON — A global study mapping human diseases that come from animals like tuberculosis, AIDS, bird flu or Rift Valley fever has found that just 13 such diseases are responsible for 2.4 billion cases of human illness and 2.2 million deaths a year.

Don't miss these Health stories After fighting for her life, mom finally gets to hold new baby After suffering a burst blood vessel in her brain while 38 weeks pregnant, Amber Scott was rushed to the hospital for an emergency C-section followed by brain surgery. After weeks of drifting in and out of consciousness, the new mom finally held her baby for the first time.

Love really can grow from lust, study says Something not so tasty in your barbecue -- brush debris The strange reason diet soda makes you fat Science cracks the code of what makes us cool

The vast majority of infections and deaths from so-called zoonotic diseases are in poor or middle-income countries, but "hotspots" are also cropping up in the United States and Europe where diseases are newly infecting humans, becoming particularly virulent, or are developing drug resistance.

And exploding global demand for livestock products means the problem is likely to get worse, researchers said.

"From cyst-causing tapeworms to avian flu, zoonoses present a major threat to human and animal health," said Delia Grace, a veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Kenya and lead author of the study.

She said targeting these diseases in the hardest hit countries is crucial to protecting global health, and failing to tackle them would allow demand for meat products to "fuel the spread of a wide range of human-animal infectious diseases."

The study, conducted by the ILRI, the Institute of Zoology in Britain and the Hanoi School of Public Health in Vietnam, mapped livestock-keeping and diseases humans get from animals, and drew up a list of the top 20 geographical hotspots.

It found that Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania, as well as India have the highest zoonotic disease burdens, with widespread illness and death.

It also found the United States and Europe - especially Britain - Brazil and parts of Southeast Asia may be becoming hotspots of "emerging zoonoses", which are infecting humans for the first time, are especially virulent or are becoming drug resistant.

The report studied so-called endemic zoonoses which cause the vast majority of illness and death in poor countries.

One such disease is brucellosis, also known as Bang's diseases or Mediterranean fever, which is a highly contagious zoonosis people catch by consuming unsterilized milk or meat from infected animals.

The researchers estimated that about one in eight livestock in poor countries are affected by brucellosis. As well as threatening people with disease, this also reduces milk and meat production in cattle by around 8 percent.

The study also looked at epidemic zoonoses, which typically occur as outbreaks - such as anthrax and Rift Valley fever - and at the relatively rarer emerging zoonoses like bird flu. A few of these, like HIV/AIDS and H1N1 swine flu, have shown the ability to spread to cause pandemics.

While zoonoses can be transmitted to people by either wild or domesticated animals, most human infections are acquired from the world's 24 billion livestock, including pigs, poultry, cattle, goats, sheep and camels.

The study initially looked at 56 zoonoses that together are responsible for around 2.5 billion cases of human illness and 2.7 million human deaths per year.

It then zoomed in on the 13 most important, and found high levels of infection with these in livestock in poor countries.

Some 27 percent of livestock in developing countries showed signs of current or past infection with bacterial food-borne disease - a source of food contamination and widespread illness.

The researchers estimated at least a third of the world's cases of diarrhoeal disease are caused by animal-human diseases and said this was the biggest zoonotic threat to public health.

John McDermott, director of the CGIAR research program on agriculture for nutrition and health led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), said that in booming livestock sectors in developing nations the fastest growing areas are poultry and pigs - putting the potential disease risk emphasis on flu.

"Historically, high-density pig and poultry populations have been important in maintaining and mixing influenza populations," he said in a statement accompanying the study.

"A major concern is that as new livestock systems intensify, particularly small- and medium-sized pig production ... more intensive systems will allow the maintenance and transmission of pathogens. A number of new zoonoses ... have emerged in that way."

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

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Diseases from animals hit 2 billion people a year

AppId is over the quota AppId is over the quota LONDON — A global study mapping human diseases that come from animals like tuberculosis, AIDS, bird flu or Rift Valley fever has found that just 13 such diseases are responsible for 2.4 billion cases of human illness and 2.2 million deaths a year.http://bit.ly/PpXe4G

Don't miss these Health stories After fighting for her life, mom finally gets to hold new baby After suffering a burst blood vessel in her brain while 38 weeks pregnant, Amber Scott was rushed to the hospital for an emergency C-section followed by brain surgery. After weeks of drifting in and out of consciousness, the new mom finally held her baby for the first time.
Love really can grow from lust, study says Something not so tasty in your barbecue -- brush debris The strange reason diet soda makes you fat Science cracks the code of what makes us cool The vast majority of infections and deaths from so-called zoonotic diseases are in poor or middle-income countries, but "hotspots" are also cropping up in the United States and Europe where diseases are newly infecting humans, becoming particularly virulent, or are developing drug resistance.
And exploding global demand for livestock products means the problem is likely to get worse, researchers said.
"From cyst-causing tapeworms to avian flu, zoonoses present a major threat to human and animal health," said Delia Grace, a veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Kenya and lead author of the study.
She said targeting these diseases in the hardest hit countries is crucial to protecting global health, and failing to tackle them would allow demand for meat products to "fuel the spread of a wide range of human-animal infectious diseases."
The study, conducted by the ILRI, the Institute of Zoology in Britain and the Hanoi School of Public Health in Vietnam, mapped livestock-keeping and diseases humans get from animals, and drew up a list of the top 20 geographical hotspots.
It found that Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania, as well as India have the highest zoonotic disease burdens, with widespread illness and death.
It also found the United States and Europe - especially Britain - Brazil and parts of Southeast Asia may be becoming hotspots of "emerging zoonoses", which are infecting humans for the first time, are especially virulent or are becoming drug resistant.
The report studied so-called endemic zoonoses which cause the vast majority of illness and death in poor countries.
One such disease is brucellosis, also known as Bang's diseases or Mediterranean fever, which is a highly contagious zoonosis people catch by consuming unsterilized milk or meat from infected animals.
The researchers estimated that about one in eight livestock in poor countries are affected by brucellosis. As well as threatening people with disease, this also reduces milk and meat production in cattle by around 8 percent.
The study also looked at epidemic zoonoses, which typically occur as outbreaks - such as anthrax and Rift Valley fever - and at the relatively rarer emerging zoonoses like bird flu. A few of these, like HIV/AIDS and H1N1 swine flu, have shown the ability to spread to cause pandemics.
While zoonoses can be transmitted to people by either wild or domesticated animals, most human infections are acquired from the world's 24 billion livestock, including pigs, poultry, cattle, goats, sheep and camels.
The study initially looked at 56 zoonoses that together are responsible for around 2.5 billion cases of human illness and 2.7 million human deaths per year.
It then zoomed in on the 13 most important, and found high levels of infection with these in livestock in poor countries.
Some 27 percent of livestock in developing countries showed signs of current or past infection with bacterial food-borne disease - a source of food contamination and widespread illness.
The researchers estimated at least a third of the world's cases of diarrhoeal disease are caused by animal-human diseases and said this was the biggest zoonotic threat to public health.
John McDermott, director of the CGIAR research program on agriculture for nutrition and health led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), said that in booming livestock sectors in developing nations the fastest growing areas are poultry and pigs - putting the potential disease risk emphasis on flu.
"Historically, high-density pig and poultry populations have been important in maintaining and mixing influenza populations," he said in a statement accompanying the study.
"A major concern is that as new livestock systems intensify, particularly small- and medium-sized pig production ... more intensive systems will allow the maintenance and transmission of pathogens. A number of new zoonoses ... have emerged in that way."

Linde update 2-Germany buy Lincare to $4,6 billion

* Deal for $41,50 per share, a premium 22 pct

* To be financed with a loan of $ $4,5 billion acquisition

* Scheduled to close in 2012 third fiscal quarter

By Greg Roumeliotis

NEW YORK, July 1 (Reuters)-German industrial gases producer Linde AG said Sunday it has agreed to pay $4,60 billion to Lincare Holdings Inc., a Florida-based provider of oxygen and respiratory therapy services to patients at home.

The deal is the latest sign of raids that industrial gas suppliers are doing homecare sector, which is growing 6 to 9 percent a year, driven primarily by cost cuts at hospital operators and an aging population.

In his annual report 2011, Lincare, which serves more than 800,000 customers in the United States and in Canada, estimates that the total u.s. home respiratory market represented about $ 6 billion in annual revenue.

This appeal to Linde, who said in a statement on Sunday that it had signed a merger agreement with Lincare based on a cash offer of $41,50 per share, a premium of 22 percent, as shares ended trading at Lincare $ 34.02 on Friday.

Linde added that want to finance the deal with available cash and a loan of $ 4.50 billion acquisition that will be refinanced by issuance of debt and equity. It expects the deal to close in the third quarter of fiscal 2012.

In January, Linde bought the European homecare business rival U.S. Air Products and Chemicals Inc. for $ 750 million.

Linde, who is also the producer of industrial gases World No. 2, saw sales increase of homecare 6 percent in 2011 to 300 million euros ($ 379 million). Lincare posted net revenues for 2011 of $1,850 billion, an increase of 10.7% year-over-year.

Linde's chief executive Wolfgang Reitzle told reporters in May the company could make more acquisitions in the healthcare sector and that any agreement would be manageable in size.

The principal clients of Linde are in the fields of steel and chemicals, but also provides the gas used to produce solar cells, make LCD flat screens and lift the giant helium character balloons in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade's in United States.

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Linde update 1-Germany buy Lincare to $4,6 billion

NEW YORK, July 1 (Reuters)-German industrial gases producer Linde AG said o n s Sunday that it had agreed to buy Lincare Holdings Inc., a provider of oxygen and respiratory therapy services to patients at home in Florida to $4,60 billion.

The deal is the latest sign of raids that industrial gas suppliers are doing homecare sector, which is growing 6 to 9 percent a year, driven primarily by cost cuts at hospital operators and an aging population.

Linde said in a statement that it had signed a merger agreement with Lincare based on a cash offer of $41,50 per share. Lincare shares finished trading at $ 34.02 on Friday.

Linde added that want to finance the deal with available cash and a loan of $ 4.50 billion acquisition that will be refinanced by issuance of debt and equity. It expects the deal to close in the third quarter of fiscal 2012.

In January, Linde bought the European homecare business rival U.S. Air Products and Chemicals Inc. for $ 750 million. The acquisition made Linde a strong No. 2 in the field of home care after Air Liquide SA of France.

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Linde is an excursion of 1.5 billion euros to cap Lincare buy

Frankfurt am Main, 2 July | Monday July 2, 2012 3:40 am EDT

Frankfurt, July 2 (Reuters)-German industrial gases producer Linde AG plans to increase the capital up to 1.50 billion euros ($ 1.90 billion) to finance the planned acquisition of Lincare Holdings Inc. to become the world's largest provider of medical gases.

Linde said late Sunday agreed to pay $4,60 billion for Florida-based service provider of oxygen and respiratory therapy to patients at home, funded with available cash and a loan of $ 4.50 billion acquisition.

"The acquisition loan will be refinanced through equity issuances to 1.50 billion and debt capital markets," Linde said Monday.

Linde shares extended losses and decreased 4.8% to Euro 116.75 0731 GMT.

Linde added that it was committed to maintaining its current credit ratings, which are "A" by Standard and poor's and "A3" by Moody 's.

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U.S. Bicyclists Save $4.6 Billion Per Year By Riding Instead Of Driving

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May 18 2012

Contact:
Joseph Rendeiro
NCLR
(202) 776-1566

Carolyn Szczepanski
League of American Bicyclists
(202) 822-1333

Eddie Scher
Sierra Club
(415) 977-5758

Millions to participate in National Bike to Work Day tomorrow

New data released today by the League of American Bicyclists, Sierra Club, and NCLR (National Council of La Raza) highlights the tremendous economic benefits of bicycling and its importance as a transportation choice that should be safe and accessible for every U.S. resident.

The fact sheet release coincides with National Bike to Work Day, when millions of U.S. residents will participate in hundreds of events across the country showcasing bicycling as a healthy, affordable, and efficient form of transportation.

Among the new data highlighted in the fact sheet:

• Bicyclists in the U.S. save $4.6 billion per year by cycling instead of driving.
• If American drivers replaced just one four-mile car trip with a bike trip each week, it would save more than 2 billion gallons of gas per year.
• From 2001 to 2009, Hispanics, African Americans, and Asian Americans took up biking at faster rates than other Americans, representing 21% of all bike trips in the U.S. in 2009.

“There are so many reasons more people are riding, from improving their health to protecting the environment,” said Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists. “But, especially in tough economic times, bicycling can also be an economic catalyst, keeping billions of dollars in the pockets of American families.”

“Biking is an important piece of a 21st century transportation system,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune. “Biking reduces America’s dependence on oil and lets individuals bypass the gas pump, saving individuals money and protecting our health and environment from dirty oil pollution.”

“Bicycling is a crucial mode of commuting for many Latinos,” said Catherine Singley, Senior Policy Analyst at NCLR. “Federal transportation policy should ensure that biking is a safe and viable way to connect people to jobs.”

Widespread interest in—and benefits to be gained from—bicycling make it a crucial and timely priority in our transportation system. Everyone who chooses to bicycle should have access to safe infrastructure that lets them take advantage of the economic and other benefits of cycling.

Click here to view the full fact sheet.

Find additional information, data, and National Bike Month events at www.bikeleague.org/bikemonth.

###

Issues:
Geography:California, Far West, Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, Texas

View the original article here

U.S. Bicyclists Save $4.6 Billion Per Year By Riding Instead Of Driving

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

May 18 2012

Contact:
Joseph Rendeiro
NCLR
(202) 776-1566

Carolyn Szczepanski
League of American Bicyclists
(202) 822-1333

Eddie Scher
Sierra Club
(415) 977-5758

Millions to participate in National Bike to Work Day tomorrow

New data released today by the League of American Bicyclists, Sierra Club, and NCLR (National Council of La Raza) highlights the tremendous economic benefits of bicycling and its importance as a transportation choice that should be safe and accessible for every U.S. resident.

The fact sheet release coincides with National Bike to Work Day, when millions of U.S. residents will participate in hundreds of events across the country showcasing bicycling as a healthy, affordable, and efficient form of transportation.

Among the new data highlighted in the fact sheet:

• Bicyclists in the U.S. save $4.6 billion per year by cycling instead of driving.
• If American drivers replaced just one four-mile car trip with a bike trip each week, it would save more than 2 billion gallons of gas per year.
• From 2001 to 2009, Hispanics, African Americans, and Asian Americans took up biking at faster rates than other Americans, representing 21% of all bike trips in the U.S. in 2009.

“There are so many reasons more people are riding, from improving their health to protecting the environment,” said Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists. “But, especially in tough economic times, bicycling can also be an economic catalyst, keeping billions of dollars in the pockets of American families.”

“Biking is an important piece of a 21st century transportation system,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune. “Biking reduces America’s dependence on oil and lets individuals bypass the gas pump, saving individuals money and protecting our health and environment from dirty oil pollution.”

“Bicycling is a crucial mode of commuting for many Latinos,” said Catherine Singley, Senior Policy Analyst at NCLR. “Federal transportation policy should ensure that biking is a safe and viable way to connect people to jobs.”

Widespread interest in—and benefits to be gained from—bicycling make it a crucial and timely priority in our transportation system. Everyone who chooses to bicycle should have access to safe infrastructure that lets them take advantage of the economic and other benefits of cycling.

Click here to view the full fact sheet.

Find additional information, data, and National Bike Month events at www.bikeleague.org/bikemonth.

###

Issues:
Geography:California, Far West, Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, Texas

View the original article here

BP hoping for $15 billion spill settlement with DoJ: Financial Times

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A BP logo is seen on a petrol station in London November 2, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Suzanne Plunkett

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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Chesapeake to sell pipeline assets for more than $4 billion

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n">(Reuters) - Chesapeake Energy Corp plans to sell its pipeline and related assets to Global Infrastructure Partners for more than $4 billion, as the company scrambles to plug an estimated $10 billion funding shortfall and prepares to face what promises to be a fiery annual shareholder meeting later on Friday.

The second-largest U.S. natural gas producer, whose shares have lost about half their value over the last year, is trying to convince its shareholders that it is still a good investment despite steep drops in profits and corporate governance scandals centered around Chief Executive Officer Aubrey McClendon.

McClendon has said he will step down as chairman, and Chesapeake has said it will replace four of its current board members with directors chosen by its top shareholders -- activist Carl Icahn and Mason Hawkins' Southeastern Asset Management. This would give shareholder-backed directors a majority of the board.

Chesapeake is under pressure to sell assets and cut spending to reduce debt after tumbling natural gas prices have pinched profits.

It said it would sell its limited partner units and general partner interests in Chesapeake Midstream Partners LP to infrastructure fund GIP for $2 billion. GIP will own all of the general partner and 69 percent of the limited partner units after the deal.

The company also entered into an agreement with Chesapeake Midstream Partners to sell certain Mid-Continent gathering and processing assets.

It also has a letter agreement with Global Infrastructure Partners for the sale of its interests in wholly owned subsidiary Chesapeake Midstream Development LP. That agreement with GIP includes an exclusive 45-day negotiating period and the option to extend talks for another 45 days if the parties agree on a price and make progress on the talks, Chesapeake said.

The company expects to raise more than $2 billion from the latter two transactions.

Oppenheimer & Co analyst Fadel Gheit said he was encouraged that Chesapeake was selling the assets for more than the book values of $1 billion for Chesapeake Midstream Partners assets and $1.4 billion for the others.

"We have not seen a fire sale, but we are not out of the woods yet," Gheit said. "You are still talking about a huge, huge capital spending deficit."

Chesapeake Midstream Partners has more than 3,700 miles of natural gas gathering pipelines, according to the company's website. Chesapeake also held about 1,950 miles of pipelines in the Chesapeake Midstream Development unit at the end of last year, according to U.S. regulatory filings.

Chesapeake said it was now on track to generate proceeds of $11.5 billion to $14 billion from its asset sales this year to fund operations and pay down debt. Last month, the company arranged for a pricey $4 billion loan from investment bankers Goldman Sachs and Jefferies to tide it over.

The company has said it is looking to sell assets including its 1.5 million acres of lease holdings in the oil-rich Permian basin and about 337,000 acres in Ohio. It is also trying to find a joint venture partner in the liquids-rich Mississippi Lime basin.

McClendon said the Permian sale, the Mississippi Lime partnership and other transactions should come over the second half of the year.

The company's shares were up 0.5 percent at $17.94 in morning trading.

(Reporting by Michael Erman in New York, Additional reporting by Swetha Gopinath in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Lisa Von Ahn)

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Box Office: 'Avengers' Makes Billion Dollars Worldwide

 

Box Office: 'Avengers' Makes Billion Dollars Worldwide

 

Box Office: 'Avengers' Makes Billion Dollars Worldwide

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LOS ANGELES — "The Avengers" is taking a page out of Superman's comic book – flying faster than a speeding bullet to the billion-dollar mark at the box office.
The superhero blockbuster took in $103.2 million to lead for a second-straight weekend, raising its domestic total to $373.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
With $95.4 million more overseas, "The Avengers" lifted its international receipts to $628.9 million and a worldwide haul of just over $1 billion, only 19 days after it began rolling out in some markets.

"You never think that it can happen this quickly," said Dave Hollis, head of distribution for Disney, whose Marvel Studios unit produced the ensemble film after a long buildup in its solo superhero outings. "You hope you can get to this day, and the fact that it is happening this early is a testament to a lot of work that went in on the Marvel side over the last six years to get us to a place where people wanted to see the Avengers assemble."
"The Avengers" easily fended off Johnny Depp and Tim Burton's vampire romp "Dark Shadows," which had a so-so domestic start of $28.8 million to finish a distant No. 2.
That's far below such past Depp-Burton collaborations as "Alice in Wonderland," which opened with $116.1 million, and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," which debuted with $56.2 million.
"Dark Shadows" added $36.7 million in 42 overseas markets for a worldwide total of $65.5 million.Click Here!
"The Avengers" was the first movie ever to pull in more than $100 million domestically in its second weekend, passing the previous best of $75.6 million for "Avatar." The film also topped $300 million domestically Saturday after just nine days in release, beating the previous record set by "The Dark Knight," which hit that mark in 10 days.
Already the year's biggest hit worldwide, "The Avengers" is on the verge of passing "The Hunger Games" at $386.9 million to become the top-grossing film domestically for 2012.
Revenue for "The Avengers" was off just 50 percent from the film's domestic debut of $207.4 million the previous weekend, a remarkable hold given how big it started.
A round-up of such Marvel idols as Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth), "The Avengers" has shot past the revenues that its solo superhero predecessors took in for their entire runs. The best of those domestically was "Iron Man" with $318.4 million.
"There has been a surprise around every corner with this picture in terms of how high is high and how big is big," Disney's Hollis said.
Inspired by the supernatural soap opera that debuted on TV in the mid-1960s, "Dark Shadows" stars Depp as an 18th century vampire who is freed after two centuries of burial and returns to his ancestral homestead in the 1970s, aiming to rebuild the family fortunes.
The TV show has only a cult following, so the Warner Bros. update relied on the lure of a reunion between frequent collaborators Depp and Burton taking on another otherworldly tale. But "Dark Shadows" left both critics and audiences cold, failing to make much of a dent in the intense appeal of "The Avengers."
"Certainly, more is better, but it was a busy weekend, especially with `Avengers' doing $100 million in its second weekend," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution at Warner Bros. "The box office can only expand so much, and that was a hard one to anticipate. Those numbers are staggering."
Fox Searchlight's crowd-pleaser "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" broke into the top-10 in its second weekend as it expanded from a handful of cinemas to 178 theaters. The film took in $2.7 million to finish at No. 8.
"The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" features Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith and Tom Wilkinson in a tale of older Brits looking to retire to a cozy life in India.
Also in narrower release of 322 theaters, Eva Mendes' comic drama "Girl in Progress" opened at No. 10 with $1.4 million. The Lionsgate release stars Mendes as a nomadic single mom with a precocious teenage daughter.
"The Avengers" again provided the bulk of Hollywood's business. Overall domestic revenues totaled $172 million, up 23 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Thor" led with $34.7 million, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
Domestic receipts for the year are at $3.83 billion, 17.6 percent ahead of last year's with a huge summer lineup yet to come.
Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian said he expects Hollywood to break the summer revenue record of $4.4 billion it set last year and top its all-time annual high of $10.6 billion from 2009.
"I think we will surpass that given the strength of just the first two weeks of the summer and the strength of the films on the way," Dergarabedian said. "Records are just made to be broken this summer and this year."
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "The Avengers," $103.2 million ($95.4 million international).
2. "Dark Shadows," $28.8 million ($36.7 million international).
3. "Think Like a Man," $6.3 million.
4. "The Hunger Games," $4.4 million ($2.4 million international).
5. "The Lucky One," $4.1 million ($2.5 million international).
6. "The Pirates! Band of Misfits," $3.2 million ($2.2 million international).
7. "The Five-Year Engagement," $3.1 million ($1.7 million international).
8. "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," $2.7 million ($1.9 million international).
9. "Chimpanzee," $1.6 million.
10. "Girl in Progress," $1.4 million.
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Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:
1. "The Avengers," $95.4 million.
2. "Dark Shadows," $36.7 million.
3. "American Reunion," $15.6 million.
4. "Battleship," $11.2 million.
5. "21 Jump Street," $3.2 million.
6. "Titanic" in 3-D," $3.1 million.
7. "As One," $2.6 million.
8. "The Lucky One," $2.5 million.
9. "The Hunger Games," $2.4 million.
10. "The Pirates! Band of Misfits," $2.2 million.
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Online:
http://www.hollywood.com
http://www.rentrak.com
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Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.
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