Real Estate Daily News Buzz – April 13, 2015

Reserve & White house Real Estate Daily News
Real Estate Daily News Buzz – business perspectives, real estate, government, the Fed, local news, and the stock markets

Real Estate Daily News Buzz is designed to give news snippets to readers that our (yet to be award winning) editors thought you could use to start your day. They come from various business perspectives, real estate, government, the Fed, local news, and the stock markets to save you time. Here you will find the headlines and what the news buzz for the day will be.
On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 98.92 points, or 0.6%, to 18,057.65. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 10.88 points, or 0.5%, to 2,102.06. The NASDAQ composite gained 21.41 points, or 0.4% per cent, to 4,995.98.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose 85 cents to close at $51.64 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, rose $1.30 to close at $57.87 in London. Wholesale gasoline rose 4.8 cents to close at $1.807 a gallon. Heating oil rose 3.9 cents to close at $1.766 a gallon. Natural gas fell 1.7 cents to close at $2.511 per 1,000 cubic feet.

GE ANNOUNCED SELLING $50 BILLION SHARE REPURCHASE on Friday, General Electric announced it would sell most of its $26.5 billion real-estate portfolio to Blackstone funds, with Wells Fargo also taking on a portion of that portfolio’s performing loans, in the biggest commercial real estate deal since 207. The company, which has been refocusing on its industrial businesses, also said its board had authorized a share repurchase program of up to $50 billion. The plan allows GE to buy back nearly 2 billion of its outstanding shares, based on Thursday’s close. GE’s shares rose 2.2% to $26.30 in premarket trading on Friday. The stock rose nearly 2% on Thursday after the Wall Street Journal first reported that the company was close to selling its real estate holdings. GE has been selling off its property investments globally as it focuses on improving earnings from sales of products such as jet engines, generators, electric grid gear and oil field equipment. The company said on Friday it expected earnings from its aviation, power and water, and other industrial businesses to account for about 90% of total earnings by 2018. The units made up just over half of GE’s profit in 2013.

GE said it would take after-tax charges of about $16 billion related to the restructuring in the first quarter, of which about $12 billion would be non-cash. Blackstone and Wells Fargo said they would buy most of the assets of GE Capital Real Estate in a deal valued at about $23 billion. GE said it also had letters of intent to sell an additional $4 billion of commercial real estate assets to other buyers that it did not identify. The company said it expected to reduce its share count to 8 billion-8.5 billion by 2018. GE had 10.06 billion shares outstanding as of Jan. 31. The deal is the biggest commercial real estate deal since Blackstone’s acquisition of office landlord Equity Office Properties Trust in 2007 for $39 billion, including debt.

IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT GE; BLACKSTONE ALSO MADE ANOTHER HUGE REAL ESTATE DEAL ON FRIDAY – In a release, Excel Trust announced that it had agreed to be acquired by Blackstone Property Partners for about $2 billion in cash. Excel Trust is a real-estate investment trust that focuses on retail properties. In a release, Blackstone said it would buy all of Excel Trust’s outstanding shares for $15.85 per share, representing a 15% premium over Thursday’s closing price. Excel Trust shares rose by nearly 15% in premarket trading and have rallied 29% in the past 12 months. “Appetite for high-quality retail real estate is strong with cap rates and REIT stock multiples approaching historic levels, and we did not believe the market accurately reflected the value of the assets,” Excel Trust CEO Gary Sabin said in the release. “This led the Board to conclude it was time to more fully assess the value of our portfolio.”

ONLINE EXCITEMENT BUT NO LONG LINES FOR APPLE WATCH DEBUT (PALO ALTO, Calif. AP) — An online rush replaced the traditional overnight queues outside Apple stores Friday as the iconic tech company began taking orders and letting shoppers get their hands on its much-vaunted smartwatch for the first time. Eager customers placed online orders for the Apple Watch as soon as Apple’s website began accepting them, shortly after midnight Pacific Time. Within half an hour, the company appeared to sell out the initial batch of watches that were available for the first official day of shipping on April 24. By midmorning, Apple’s website was showing the earliest shipping date for many watch models would be in June or later.

JAPAN’S MITSUBISHI SETS SIGHTS ON NICHE IN AIRCRAFT SECTOR – (NAGOYA, Japan AP) — At a tightly guarded factory in central Japan, Mitsubishi, a maker of the Zero fighter planes of World War II, is launching its MRJ regional jet and aiming to fulfil Japan’s long-cherished ambitions to regain status as a major aviation power. The company said Friday that a recent decision to push back the jet’s maiden flight from this spring to a few months later would not delay its commercial deliveries. Workers were conducting hydraulic and other tests on two of the test jets in a cavernous assembly facility; another jet had been sent out for painting.

GM says it has fixed 70 pct. of faulty ignition switches

GM SAYS IT HAS FIXED 70% OF FAULTY IGNITION SWITHCES – (DETROIT AP) — Fourteen months after General Motors started recalling more than 2 million small cars with faulty ignition switches worldwide, the company says it has repaired about 70% of the vehicles that are still on the road. The figures, which the company says are current as of Thursday, show that the switch replacements are now running at about the same pace as the average recall in the U.S. for a similar time frame.

FDA PANEL OPPOSES DROPPING WARNGINS FROM TOBACCO POUCH (WASHINGTON AP) — Government advisers recommended against a proposal by Swedish Match to market its smokeless tobacco pouches as less harmful than cigarettes and other tobacco products. The company has asked the Food and Drug Administration for permission to remove or revise several warning labels on the pouches, called snus. It’s the first request the FDA has considered publicly since it gained authority to regulate tobacco products in 2009. But a panel of FDA advisers said overwhelmingly Friday that company data do not support relaxing warning labels on snus.

AMERICAS SUMMIT: OBAMA TWEETS CANAL PRAISE – He didn’t put 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue under the address column, but President Barack Obama did leave a message in the Panama Canal’s guest book. The president wrote: “The Panama Canal is a testament to human ingenuity and vision. The world thanks Panama for its stewardship of this vital link to our shared prosperity.” A picture of the president’s message and signature was posted on the canal’s Twitter feed a few hours after he visited Friday.

SPRINT TO PAY $15.5m TO SETTLE CASE OVER WIRETAPPING COSTS – (SAN FRANCISCO AP) — Sprint Communications has agreed to pay $15.5 million to settle a lawsuit alleging the telephone carrier overcharged the U.S. government to collect and deliver information gathered under court-ordered wiretaps. The settlement announced late Thursday revolves around a dispute about how Sprint Communications Inc. billed the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and several other federal agencies for its wiretapping expenses.

SMITHSONIAN TO LAUNCH NEW MAGAZINE ON CULTURAL TRAVEL (WASHINGTON AP) — Smithsonian Enterprises, the business arm of the popular museum complex, is launching its first new magazine in 30 years with a focus on cultural travelers. Smithsonian Journeys will hit newsstands April 21 as a quarterly publication, the publisher said Friday. Each edition will focus on one destination with photography and stories about history, food, customs and science.

MINING CO IN MEXICO HAS ‘GOOD RELATIONSHIP’ WITH CARTEL (CULIACAN, Mexico AP) — The head of the mining company robbed of $8.5 million in gold in Mexico made the rare revelation in a television interview that his company has a “good relationship” with area drug traffickers. Rob McEwen, president and chairman of Canada-based McEwen Mining Inc., said in an interview Thursday with Canada’s Business News Network that company employees ask the drug cartels for permission before they explore. He said the company had not suffered any other crime beyond the robbery of the gold. McEwen said the mining company operates in the foothills, and more problems occur higher in the mountains.

INDIA PM WANTS 36 FRENCH RAFALE FIGHTER JETS, TALKS PROGRESS (PARIS AP) — India’s prime minister on Friday announced plans to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France, but said negotiations on “terms and conditions” of the multibillion euro sale are ongoing. Visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at a joint news conference with French President Francois Hollande, said India wants the aircraft to be “ready to fly,” meaning the planes would be made in France. That is a departure from an earlier plan for 126 Rafales mainly built in India. Hollande said India wanted the deal sealed “in the shortest time possible.”