India’s LIC June-quarter premium income jumps as policy sales rebound

India’s LIC June-quarter premium income jumps as policy sales rebound

A security guard walks past logos of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) inside the BSE building in Mumbai, India, May 17, 2022. REUTERS/Niharika KulkarniRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterBENGALURU, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) (LIFI.NS) reported a 20.4% rise in June-quarter premium income on Friday, as easing COVID-19 restrictions boosted sales of policies for the insurer that largely depends on its agents.The company, which drives its business mostly through an army of 1.3 million sales agents, was hit by pandemic-led lockdowns last year that disrupted the work of its agents who focus on in-person engagement.”As the COVID situation normalises, we are seeing a larger activity on the ground, therefore bringing us back closer to our model of having ‘feet on street’,” Chairperson M R Kumar said.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterLIC, India’s biggest insurer, said net premium income rose to 983.52 billion rupees ($12.34 billion) from 817.21 billion rupees a year earlier, with nearly a 60% jump in the number of policies sold.The company’s gross value of new business (VNB), which measures expected profit from new premiums and is a key gauge for future growth, stood at 18.61 billion rupees, while VNB margins came in at 13.6%.We don’t see much market volatility going forward that could impact results, Kumar said in a press briefing, adding that the insurer sees VNB margin at over 15% by the end of the year.The company, synonymous with buying protection policies in India, listed in May following a record $2.7 billion initial public offering. It commands a market share of over 60% in terms of overall premiums.LIC’s profit for the three months ended June 30 stood at 6.83 billion rupees, compared with 29.4 million rupees in the COVID-hit quarter a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing.Shares of LIC have fallen about 22% since its May listing, compared to a 23% rise in no. 2 rival SBI Life Insurance (SBIL.NS) over the same period.($1 = 79.6830 Indian rupees)Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterReporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru and Nupur Anand in Mumbai; Editing by Shinjini GanguliOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. .

AppLovin offers to buy video game software maker Unity in $17.5 bln deal

AppLovin offers to buy video game software maker Unity in $17.5 bln deal

People play “Pokemon GO” on the Pokequan GoBoat Adventure Cruise in the Occoquan River in the small town of Occoquan, Virginia, U.S. August 14, 2016. REUTERS/Sait Serkan GurbuzRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterAug 9 (Reuters) – Gaming software company AppLovin Corp (APP.O) made an offer on Tuesday to buy its peer Unity Software Inc (U.N) in a $17.54 billion all-stock deal, threatening to derail Unity’s announced plan to acquire AppLovin’s smaller competitor ironSource .AppLovin has offered $58.85 for each Unity share, which represents a premium of 18% to Unity’s Monday closing price. Unity will own 55% of the combined company’s outstanding shares, representing about 49% of the voting rights.AppLovin hired advisors to work out an offer after Unity last month said it would buy ironSource in a $4.4 billion all-stock transaction, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Unity’s board will have to terminate the ironSource deal if it wants to pursue a combination with AppLovin, according to the proposal.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterUnder the proposed deal, Unity’s Chief Executive John Riccitiello will become CEO of the combined business, while AppLovin Chief Executive Adam Foroughi will take the role of chief operating officer.Unity said its board would evaluate the offer. The company is slated to report its earnings after the bell on Tuesday.Both companies make software used to design video games. Game-making software has also been expanding to new technologies such as the so-called metaverse, or immersive virtual worlds.Unity’s software has been used to build some of the most-played games such as “Call of Duty: Mobile,” and “Pokemon Go”, while AppLovin provides helps developers to grow and monetize their apps.AppLovin’s offer comes as game developers and console makers warn of a slowdown in the sector as decades-high inflation and easing of COVID-19 restrictions lead gamers to pick outdoor activities. The company lowered its sales guidance on Tuesday.”The deal comes as surprise to everybody in the business,” said Serkan Toto, founder of game industry consultancy Kantan Games. “It’s a $15 billion company going after a $15 billion company. It’s a desperate attempt to consolidate and the chances of this deal happening are very slim.”Shares of Palo Alto, California-based AppLovin, which went public last year, fell 9.9% while those of Unity rose 1% in the morning trading session. Shares of ironSource were down 9.7%.Foroughi said the combined company will have the potential to generate an adjusted operating profit of over $3 billion by the end of 2024.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterReporting by Eva Mathews and Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru, Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Mike HarrisonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. .

Petronas sells Sept Labuan crude at record premium on tight supplies -sources

Petronas sells Sept Labuan crude at record premium on tight supplies -sources

A logo of Petronas is seen at their office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 27, 2022. REUTERS/Hasnoor HussainRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterSINGAPORE, July 21 (Reuters) – Malaysia’s state oil company Petronas has sold a cargo of Labuan crude at a record premium amid tight supplies for sweet crude in the region, several traders said on Thursday.The cargo, loading in September, was sold at a premium of more than $20 a barrel to dated Brent to Vitol, they said.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterReporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. .

Mitsubishi pays record premium for Vietnam oil for power generation – sources

Mitsubishi pays record premium for Vietnam oil for power generation – sources

A man walks past in front of a sign board of Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation, the asset management unit of Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. (MUFG), in Tokyo, Japan July 31, 2017. REUTERS/Issei KatoRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterSINGAPORE, July 20 (Reuters) – Mitsubishi Corp bought a cargo of Vietnamese crude for loading in September on behalf of Japanese utilities at a record premium for the grade, traders said on Wednesday.The purchase comes after Nippon Steel bought a liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo at the highest price ever paid in Japan. The world’s No. 2 LNG importer is scrambling for power fuels as a global heatwave drives electricity demand this summer. read more “Japan has a power shortage, so it has to pay up. Other countries also have the same problem now, especially in Europe,” one of the traders said.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterMitsubishi paid a premium of $21 a barrel to dated Brent for the 300,000-barrel cargo of Vietnamese Chim Sao crude, said two of the traders who regularly track the grade.That puts the cost of the cargo at about $127 a barrel based on current Brent prices, or $38.1 million.Mitsubishi does not comment on individual deals, a spokesperson said.Japan last imported Chim Sao crude in February and April, according to Refinitiv data.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterReporting by Florence Tan, Additional reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo in Tokyo; Editing by Louise HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. .

Wall St Week Ahead Recession fears loom over U.S. value stocks

Wall St Week Ahead Recession fears loom over U.S. value stocks

A screen displays trading informations for stocks on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., June 27, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermidRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterNEW YORK, July 15 (Reuters) – Fears of a potential economic slowdown are clouding the outlook for value stocks, which have outperformed broader indexes this year in the face of surging inflation and rising interest rates.Value stocks – commonly defined as those trading at a discount on metrics such as book value or price-to-earnings – have typically underperformed their growth counterparts over the past decade, when the S&P 500’s (.SPX) gains were driven by tech-focused giants such as Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and Apple Inc (AAPL.O).That dynamic shifted this year, as the Federal Reserve kicked off its first interest rate-hike cycle since 2018, disproportionately hurting growth stocks, which are more sensitive to higher interest rates. The Russell 1000 value index (.RLV) is down around 13% year-to-date, while the Russell 1000 growth index (.RLG) has fallen about 26%.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterThis month, however, fears that the Fed’s monetary policy tightening could bring on a U.S. recession have shifted the momentum away from value stocks, which tend to be more sensitive to the economy. The Russell value index is up 0.7% in July, compared with a 3.4% gain for its growth-stock counterpart.”If you think we are in a recession or are going into a recession, that does not necessarily … work to the advantage of value stocks,” said Chuck Carlson, chief executive at Horizon Investment Services.The nascent shift to growth stocks is one example of how investors are adjusting portfolios in the face of a potential U.S. economic downturn. BofA Global Research on Thursday cut its year-end target price for the S&P 500 to 3,600 from 4,500 previously and became the latest Wall Street bank to forecast a coming recession. read more The index closed at 3,863.16 on Friday and is down 18.95% this year.Corporate earnings arriving in force next week will give investors a better idea of how soaring inflation has affected companies’ bottom lines, with results from Goldman Sachs , Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) and Tesla among those on deck.For much of the year, value stocks benefited from broader market trends. Energy shares, which comprise around 7% of the Russell 1000 value index, soared over the first half of 2022, jumping along with oil prices as supply constraints for crude were exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.But energy shares along with crude prices and other commodities have tumbled in recent weeks on concerns that a recession would sap demand.A recession also stands to weigh on bank stocks, with a slowing economy hurting loan growth and increasing credit losses. Financial shares represent nearly 19% of the value index. read more An earnings beat from Citigroup, however, buoyed bank shares on Friday, with the S&P 500 banks index (.SPXBK)gaining 5.76%.At the same time, tech and other growth companies also tend to have businesses that are less cyclical and more likely able to weather a broad economic slowdown.”People pay a premium for growth stocks when growth is scarce,” said Burns McKinney, portfolio manager at NFJ Investment Group.JPMorgan analysts earlier this week wrote they believe growth stocks have a “tactical opportunity” to make up lost ground, citing cheaper valuations after this year’s sharp sell-off as one of the reasons.Value stock proponents cite many reasons for the investing style to continue its run.Growth stocks are still more expensive than value shares on a historical basis, with the Russell 1000 growth index trading at a 65% premium to its value counterpart, compared to a 35% premium over the past 20 years, according to Refinitiv Datastream.Meanwhile, earnings per share for value companies are expected to rise 15.6% this year, more than twice the rate of growth companies, Credit Suisse estimates.Data from UBS Global Wealth Management on Thursday showed value stocks tend to outperform growth stocks when inflation is running above 3% – around a third of the 9.1% annual growth U.S. consumer prices registered in June. read more Josh Kutin, head of asset allocation, North America at Columbia Threadneedle, believes a possible U.S. recession in the next year would be a mild one, leaving economically sensitive value stocks primed to outperform if growth picks up.”If I had to pick one, I’d still pick value over growth,” he said. “But that conviction has come down since the start of the year,” Kutin said.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterReporting by Lewis Krauskopf, additional reporting by David Randall and Ira Iosebashvili; Editing by Ira Iosebashvili and Richard ChangOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. .