| Q2 2006/07 Mediobanca Earnings Conference Call - Final
ALBERTO NAGEL, GENERAL MANAGER, MEDIOBANCA: Okay, we can start. Thank you for joining this call regarding the first half results. We would like to have a brief presentation with three sections. Group results, next point, half way in the three year's plan, and a short analysis on divisional results, and then more time for your questions. Group results. We started this year - that is our second year plan - from a very high result of last year, first half. You see, we had 42% increase in our revenue and we have doubled last year our net profit. So, the starting point was very high. And I think we managed very well this year to confirm last year's excellent performance, both in terms of Banking and EIP result. We are ahead of our budget of this year, and basically you see on page two we had a 27% increase -- a 26% increase in net profit from EIP and minus 8% a net profit from Banking.
An obstinate liberal
A newspaper photographer seeking pictures of federal Judge William R. Wilson Jr. is invited to come by the Wilson mule farm at 9 a.m. on Sunday morning. There, the judge says, Sonny Simpson, former Little Rock police chief, and Bill Tranum, retired oncologist and former Razorback football player, will be helping him castrate and dehorn miniature goats. He hopes the photographer isn't squeamish. (The photographer made it through the assignment without incident, but the memory of the spurting blood stayed with him awhile.) A couple of things can be learned here: (1) Bill Wilson is a colorful sort, as federal judges go, and (2) he knows everybody in Arkansas, just about. These impressions are buttressed on another occasion, when the judge cuts short an interview so he can go to the races at Hot Springs with a bunch of fellows who played football at Little Rock High School under the legendary coach Wilson Matthews.
Equity First to Publish Refinance Guide for Sub-Prime Borrowers
LOS ANGELES, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 03/16/07 -- Senior loan officer Kristina Benson of Newport Beach, California was tired of lying to loan applicants about the products her company was offering. As a direct response to the lies, manipulation, fraud, and deceit she witnessed while in the sub-prime mortgage industry, she wrote "So You Want to Refinance: An Insider's Guide to Refinancing Adjustable Rate Mortgages and Home Loans" (ISBN-10: 1933804637). The book walks the consumer through each step of the loan process in easy-to-understand language to demystify the process so he or she can make an informed decision on what is best. The book additionally gives the consumer tools to figure out how much of a house payment is realistic for his budget, how to assess and rebuild a credit score, methods of how to accurately calculate the equity in a home, and how to see through the lies and dirty tricks that sub-prime mortgage consumers are often subjected to.
RBA Reassuring on Banks
Within a month, four of the Big Five banks will produce interim earnings while the Bank of Queensland trots out its figures in the middle of next week.The ANZ, St George, National and Westpac will all produce solid profit performances in the first half of the 2007 financial year and analysts are generally agreed that the main points to be watched will be the level of bad and doubtful debts in housing mortgages and personal, such as credit cards.And while there were fears there could be an upsurge in the level of dodgy loans and actual losses, it is now becoming clear from the APRA and Reserve Bank data, plus the RBA's financial stability statement on Monday that much of that concern was misplaced.In fact the RBA's comments on the banks and the banking system should be read by all bank shareholders: unless the RBA has made a horrible error, it's clear there are no black holes in bank balance sheets.Perhaps the most interesting area to watch is the implicit warning about the contraction of lending margins on housing mortgages because of low demand and high levels of competition.The RBA points out that there are hardly any mortgages being sold where the borrower is paying the bank headline adjustable or fixed rate, such is the intensity of competition.Banks' share prices have increased by around 14 per cent over the past six months, slightly underperforming the broader market.
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