news blog from Malorie

* Bid-cover ratio 2.86 vs 2.84 in previous saleATHENS, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Greece sold 1.625 billion euros ($2.22 billion) of three-month debt on Tuesday to refinance T-bills that mature this month, paying lenders more than at a similar auction in September.The sale drew comparable demand to the previous sale with the market’s focus on Sunday’s summit of European Union leaders, where measures are expected to be announced to cushion the euro bloc’s financial system from a potential Greek debt default.The bid-to-cover ratio in Tuesday’s sale rose to 2.86 from 2.84 in the Sept. 20 auction.”The sale went well considering the system’s tight liquidity. All eyes are on this Sunday’s EU council meeting and whether there will be a convincing resolution to the debt woes troubling the euro zone and not just Greece,” said Theodore Krintas, head of wealth management at Attica Bank.Shut out of bond markets, T-bills are Greece’s only remaining access to market funding. The debt agency carries out monthly short-term auctions of six- and three-month paper.Markets expect a new rescue package to reduce Greece’s debt, strengthen the capital of banks exposed to troubled euro zone sovereigns and leverage the euro zone’s bailout fund to prevent market contagion to bigger economies.Greece has said it has enough cash to cover its needs until mid-November. International lenders had threatened to withhold further aid funds until Athens took additional measures to make up for fiscal slippage and meet deficit-reduction targets.EU/IMF/ECB inspectors completed a performance review earlier in the month, saying Athens will likely receive an 8-billion euro loan tranche in early November.Greek banks, which usually take up the bulk of the issues, about 70 percent, have used T-bills as collateral to borrow from the European Central Bank.But the ECB has put a brake on the practice, meaning some banks may have hit their ceilings on using T-bills as collateral for funding at the ECB window.The debt agency did not provide details on foreign take-up.Tuesday’s issue fetched 1.625 billion euros, including 375 million in non-competitive bids. It was priced to yield 4.61 percent, up five basis points from last month and above the roughly 4.2 percent Greece pays on its EU/IMF bailout loans.Athens needs to roll over 2.0 billion euros of six-month T-bills on Oct. 21, which is also the settlement date for the 13-week T-bill auction. Non-competitive bids up to another 30 percent of the auctioned amount may be submitted by Oct. 20.

* To double global annual capacity to 30,000 units by 2015BANGALORE, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Volvo Bus Corp, part of Swedish truckmaker Volvo AB (VOLVb.ST), expects to double its annual manufacturing capacity by 2015, as it ramps up its presence in Asia, its chief executive told reporters on Thursday.The company expects European and North American markets to remain weak and is depending heavily on the Asian market to drive growth.Volvo Bus plans to increase its global manufacturing capacity to 30,000 units a year, from 15,000 units — half of which will be made in Asia.The company, which is looking to make India a manufacturing and product development hub, plans to invest 4 billion rupees ($81.7 million) in the country in the next 5 years, CEO Hakan Karlsson told a news conference in the southern Indian city of Bangalore.The company’s India unit expects revenue growth of 25-30 percent in 2012 from the 7-8 billion rupees expected this year.

Oct 12 (Reuters) - Robert Galvin, 89 — a long-time chief executive of Motorola, the telecommunications company that created the first cellphone — has died.Galvin, who was CEO of Motorola for almost three decades, passed away during the night of Oct 11, according to a statement from his family on Wednesday.Robert Galvin took the reins of the company in 1959 after the death of his father, Motorola founder Paul Galvin. At that point Motorola had annual revenue of about $290 million, which it derived primarily from North America.By the time Galvin stepped down as Motorola’s chairman in 1990, the company’s annual sales had grown to $10.8 billion. He had relinquished the post of CEO in 1986.It was under his leadership that Motorola expanded in overseas markets and in 1973 unveiled the first prototype cellphone.Robert’s son Chris Galvin became Motorola CEO in 1997, but Robert stayed on the Motorola board until 2001.Motorola Inc, was split in two in January this year under pressure from investors including Carl Icahn as the company’s storied cellphone division had been losing ground to rivals for years. The split formed Motorola Solutions and Motorola Mobility , which is being sold to Google Inc .Motorola Solutions CEO Greg Brown said Robert Galvin was the CEO that made the biggest impact on Motorola’s history.”He was a global thinker. He saw around corners. He put an extraordinary emphasis on innovation,” Brown told Reuters.Galvin was also a very personable leader and “remembered people’s names.” “He knew about their families. He knew what they did,” Brown said.

The BdB said the proposals are unsuited because they fail to address the causes of the sovereign debt crisis. Banks have already used the past months to strengten capital, the BdB said in a statement.Efforts to consider banning dividend payouts as a way to accelerate capital accumulation could hinder efforts to raise capital on the market, the BdB said.

Analysts on average currently expect Alcoa to earn $1.00 per share for the full year 2011, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Rizzuto said although third-quarter results fell below consensus estimates, Alcoa’s segment performance was in line with what he expected. The majority of the variance from his estimate was due to currency translation caused by a stronger U.S. dollar and higher-than-expected corporate expenses.On Tuesday, Alcoa said an economic slowdown hurt demand and knocked aluminum prices lower, denting its third-quarter profit and sending its shares down almost 5 percent in after-hours trading.On Wednesday, Alcoa stock was down 3 percent at $9.99 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Merkel, who is on a trip to Vietnam, repeated that the European Union must have more powers to intervene in national budgets of member states which flout stability rules.She also said that as the Doha round was not progressing, one must be realistic and look at more bilateral trade deals.