Fri Jan 18, 2013 7:07pm EST

n">(Reuters) - What's Jeff Immelt going to do with the money?

General Electric Co shareholders are wondering what the company's chief executive plans to do with a cash windfall that could total tens of billions of dollars over several years as the company sells its remaining stake in NBC Universal and recoups more of the profits earned by finance unit GE Capital.

Last year GE Capital sent $6.4 billion back to the company's headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut. Analysts estimate that the unit could generate a similar amount of cash this year.

But GE could get an even bigger infusion in mid-2014, when it is set to cash in on its option of selling the rest of its stake in NBC Universal to Comcast Corp. The stake is currently valued at roughly $17 billion, but the final price and timing of the deal could vary.

Immelt spoke with investors on Friday in a conference call after GE posted earnings that rose 7.5 percent from a year earlier, beating expectations.

During the call, the CEO of the largest U.S. conglomerate was cagey about his spending plans. He did not venture far beyond his often-repeated mantra that GE's priorities were balanced between raising its dividend, buying back shares and doing some small takeovers.

"This company is going to have a ton of cash over the next three years, right?" Immelt said. "I don't really want to make any other pronouncements other than disciplined and balanced capital allocation. We'll go over the other bridges as we get there but let's start with that."

GE shares were up 3 percent on a day that major U.S. stock indexes barely budged.

In January 2011, GE sold a majority stake in NBC to Comcast back. About that time, GE embarked on a $12 billion wave of acquisitions of smaller makers of energy equipment. That is a pattern that could repeat itself, suggested Jeff Sprague, analyst with Vertical Research Partners.

"They do need to redeploy that cash in a way that, at a minimum, preserves and ideally enhances the earnings profile," Sprague said. The company might consider deals to build up its newly created $7.4 billion Energy Management division, which makes equipment used to transmit electricity.

The company would do well to stick with Immelt's stated goal of aiming for targets worth about $1 billion to $3 billion, Sprague added.

"If they can keep it in that smaller range, smaller for them at least, you just lower risk," he said. "It's more digestible."

DECEMBER DIVIDEND

Immelt's plans for the money also include continuing to raise its dividend and buy back shares.

Investors suggested that Friday's better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings report could prompt the company to again boost its dividend, which it raised by 12 percent in December.

"Are they going to be in a position in the second quarter, perhaps if they perform so strongly again, to raise their dividend?" asked Oliver Pursche, president of Gary Goldberg Financial Services in Suffern, New York.

Chief Financial Officer Keith Sherin said the company did not plan to boost its payout quite so often.

"Our historical pattern was to do dividend increases at the end of the year by reviewing capital allocation plans with the board of directors and I would think that would continue to be our practice," he said in an interview.

The company's four increases from July 2010 through December 2011 were a special case, intended to make up for a sharp cut to the payout during the financial crisis.

Peter Sorrentino, senior vice president and portfolio manager at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati, suggested that GE should not try to reinvest all the money it gets when it sells the remainder of NBC to Comcast. Instead, he said the company should consider paying more out in dividends and buybacks.

"Let's benefit shareholders who've stayed the course over a long period of time," Sorrentino said. "Better to be lean and focused. Target new growth markets, but let's not continue to carry the size of the enterprise just because that's what we've always done."

The long languor of GE's shares stands as one of shareholders' main complaints about Immelt's tenure. While GE's 12 percent rise over the past year outpaced the 9 percent rise of the Dow Jones industrial average, it trades well below the $42 mark reached in 2007 before the financial crisis. The broader U.S. stock market also remains below its pre-crisis highs.

RECORD BACKLOG

GE, the world's biggest maker of jet engines and electric turbines, reported that its order backlog -- a closely watched indicator of future sales -- hit a record high $210 billion in the fourth quarter, up from $203 billion in the third quarter.

"The backlog was a really good number. I didn't expect to see a $7 billion, 3.5 percent rise in the backlog," said Jack De Gan, chief investment officer at Harbor Advisory Corp, which holds GE shares. "Orders in the fourth quarter must have been really good for the industrial side."

Orders were up 2 percent, and would have been up 7 percent factoring out a sharp drop in demand for wind turbines related to the expected expiration of a tax credit, as well as exchange-rate fluctuations.

GE shares were up 3 percent to $21.94 in early Friday afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 were up slightly.

Fourth-quarter earnings rose to $4.01 billion, or 38 cents per share, from $3.73 billion, or 35 cents per share, a year earlier.

Factoring out one-time items, profit came to 44 cents per share, a penny ahead of analysts' estimates, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose 3.6 percent to $39.33 billion from $37.97 billion a year earlier.

Solid demand in China and oil-producing countries helped GE to offset unsteady economies at home and in Europe, Immelt said.

"We saw real strength in the emerging markets and the developed regions stabilized," Immelt told investors.

GE kicks off a wave of earnings reports from the nation's largest manufacturers, with United Technologies Corp, 3M Co and Honeywell International Inc all due next week.

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Additional reporting by Ernest Scheyder in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Tim Dobbyn and David Gregorio)

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People walk past a Sprint store in New York December 17, 2012.

NEW YORK | Fri Jan 18, 2013 4:17pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors holding 29 percent of the outstanding minority shares of Clearwire Corp (CLWR.O) are unhappy with Sprint's $2.2 billion bid for the wireless service provider and are pushing for a higher offer.

Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. mobile service provider, announced on December 17 an agreement to acquire the outstanding shares of Clearwire it doesn't already own for $2.97 per share. While Sprint holds a more than 50 percent stake in Clearwire, the deal requires approval from holders of just over 50 percent of Clearwire's minority shares.

Securing that approval is looking increasingly tenuous, however.

Investors collectively owning almost 211 million shares of Clearwire - roughly 29 percent of its minority shares - told Reuters they do not think Sprint's bid is high enough and that they would not be happy casting their votes for the deal.

Crest Financial, which owns about 8 percent of Clearwire's minority shares, immediately sued to block the deal, for example. Crest's argument, echoed by other investors, is that Clearwire is worth a lot more than $2.97 per share as it has valuable wireless spectrum that would be crucial for Sprint.

While the 29 percent alone would not be enough to vote down the deal, its underscores the growing disenchantment Clearwire's minority shareholders have with Sprint's offer. Reuters was not able to reach all Clearwire shareholders.

For the deal to go through, Sprint needs approval from investors holding more than 362 million shares out of the roughly 725.89 million total minority shares outstanding. Share figures are based on the latest publicly available information.

Sprint said in December that it had support from three strategic investors - Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O), Intel Corp (INTC.O), and Bright House Networks LLC - who collectively own about 125.4 million Clearwire shares.

Excluding the almost 211 million votes from the investors Reuters spoke to and the 125.4 million shares supporting the deal, investors with about 389.8 million outstanding Clearwire shares have not disclosed if they will approve the deal or force Sprint to revise its offer.

HIGHER DISH OFFER

Dish Network (DISH.O), controlled by mercurial billionaire Charlie Ergen, made a $3.30 per share counter-offer for Clearwire on January 8, putting further pressure on Sprint to raise its bid. Clearwire's board is reviewing the Dish bid but said that the proposed deal may not be permitted because of Clearwire's existing legal obligations to Sprint.

However, the Dish bid has convinced many of Clearwire's minority shareholders that enough discontent exists to potentially block Sprint's bid.

"Sprint can't get 50 percent of those shares. They've no way to get them," said Chris Gleason, a managing partner at Taran Asset Management, which owns about 3 million Clearwire shares.

Mount Kellett, an investment firm with about 7.3 percent of Clearwire's minority shares, said Dish's offer is proof Sprint's bid is "grossly inadequate." Mount Kellett also said it is likely to be voted down and accused Clearwire's board of breaching its fiduciary duties for accepting the bid.

Another investment manager whose firm's holdings include Clearwire shares said the Dish offer was a turning point.

"If somebody was on the fence about saying no to Sprint, they're not on the fence any more," said the investment manager who asked not to be named due to their firm's policy on media comments.

"Anybody who thinks $2.97 is a full and fair value has already exited," said the person, referring to the fact that Clearwire shares have traded well above Sprint's offer price since Dish announced its bid. Clearwire shares were up 6 percent above Sprint's offer price at $3.16 on Friday.

This person described the $2.97 offer as "dead on arrival."

Sprint, which has agreed to sell a 70 percent of its own shares to Japan's Softbank Corp (9984.T), has said that it believes its Clearwire bid is superior to Dish's offer.

Sprint argues that the Dish deal is not viable because it comes with conditions Clearwire could not accept.

While Sprint said in December that it had commitments from Intel, Comcast, and Bright House, it is worth noting that those companies have not updated their position since the Dish offer and declined to comment for this story.

(Reporting By Sinead Carew; Editing by Peter Lauria, Bernard Orr)

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The U.S. Capitol Building stands in Washington December 17, 2012.

LONDON | Fri Dec 21, 2012 7:28am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Global investors are betting Washington will overcome its budget deadlock despite an apparently serious setback.

If they are wrong, there could be a sharp market reaction and the U.S. dollar and Treasury bonds would be among the main beneficiaries, making for a very different dynamic to the euro zone crisis, where bond market pressure was instrumental in forcing policymakers to act.

Republican lawmakers rejected a proposal on Thursday by their leader, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, designed to extract concessions from President Barack Obama.

It threw into disarray attempts to head off $600 billion worth of tax hikes and spending cuts that could push the U.S. economy into recession.

The dollar climbed versus the euro, stocks slid from Tokyo to London and safe haven government bonds rose but in only muted fashion, indicating a continued belief that a deal will be done.

Is this sensible or complacent?

Jeffrey Rosenberg, chief investment strategist for fixed income at BlackRock, said the only approach was to "hope for the best, but plan for the worst".

"Given the much greater downside from a fiscal cliff failure than upside from success, we continue to maintain our tactical defensive positioning," Rosenberg said.

If differences between Republicans and Democrats cannot be bridged, the dollar -- counter intuitively to the layman's eye -- would attract safe haven flows as the world's reserve currency. The yen could do even better despite the new Japanese government's intent on more forceful monetary and fiscal easing.

"The dollar goes up when people get more nervous because the reflex in the market is to assume it's a safe haven, there's very little consideration given to the nature of the crisis," said Daragh Maher, FX strategist at HSBC.

"If the U.S. is heading towards recession it's not good for anyone, therefore if I have to hold something I may as well hold the dollar. That's how the sequence of logic goes."

Obama and Boehner aim to reach a deal before the New Year, when taxes will automatically rise for nearly all Americans and the government will have to scale back spending on domestic and military programs. The politicians are now in recess until at least December 27.

"The time left to seal a deal is limited," said Kit Juckes at Societe Generale in London.

There is, however, good reason not to panic since the term "fiscal cliff" is somewhat misleading. America will not crash off it on January 1. The tightening process will be more gradual.

The head of G10 FX Strategy at one bank in London said it was much more of a slope than a cliff. "The market's working assumption has been all along that it's going to go right down to the wire, and then they're going to cut a deal."

Hong Hao, Bank of Communications International Securities' chief equity strategist in Hong Kong, said: "If I were a fund manager, I would be looking to lock in gains and going off for the holidays. The U.S. will eventually come to a deal, maybe just not by their self-imposed deadline."

NO BOND PRESSURE

As with the euro debt crisis, the markets could offer a natural check and balance -- if their reaction turns savage, it might pressure a divided Washington to come together.

The difference is that, as with the dollar, U.S. government bonds are viewed as a harbor from risk, so the bond market pressure brought to bear on the euro zone is unlikely to be replicated in this case.

"Although trading at all-time lows, treasury yields could benefit both from renewed equity volatility and the short-term economics after any resolution," said Edward Smith, global strategist at Collins Stewart Wealth Management.

Unlike the euro zone periphery, shunning U.S. assets is not really an option, not least because global markets tend to correlate closely with Wall Street anyway.

For Juckes, the latest standoff in Washington could go two ways: The weakening of Boehner's position could strengthen Obama's hand, particularly since he has already given ground. Alternatively, the Republicans may now be so divided that they cannot back any sort of deal that raises taxes on the wealthier.

The optimists would buy equities and the euro on any dip, he said. "(They) will look at the improving tone to U.S. data and at the vast amount of money that needs investing."

If the glass-half-full view prevails and the world economy starts looking up, Reuters asset allocation polls show major investors are looking to areas that underperformed this year -- notably the Chinese stock market, one of the few major bourses in the red for 2012.

After two years in which the stock markets of the emerging giants underperformed, Russia and Brazil also have backers.

For now, most investors seem to be hoping for the best rather than altering their strategies.

"If it turns out that there's a poor agreement delaying a number of issues until the spring but skating away from the immediate catastrophe of January, or no agreement at all, that clearly is not priced into market expectations," said Andrew Milligan, head of global strategy at Standard Life Investments, which has 163.4 billion pounds of assets under management.

"I think (a lack of agreement) would encourage people even more to go into the dividend yield type stocks ... And clearly the stocks that are more associated with global trade would be the ones that investors would be pulling back from," he said.

(Reporting by Sinead Cruise, Sujata Rao, Nia Williams, Tricia Wright, Richard Hubbard and Clement Tan. Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)

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n" readability="105">Aug 9 (Reuters) - Early in 2012 President Barack Obama responded to critics of his multi-billion-dollar green technology initiative by saying he was "not going to cede the wind or the solar or the battery industry to China."

Six months later, he faces that very real possibility for the U.S. car battery industry, a once-high flying sector buttressed by generous federal grants, but struggling with a green car market that has fallen far short of expectations.

A123 Systems Inc on Wednesday became the second U.S. government-backed battery maker this year to go overseas for a lifeline - and it turned to China. Auto parts supplier Wanxiang Group will take a controlling interest and invest $450 million in the Massachusetts-based battery maker, which faced running out of cash by the year-end.

Earlier this year, Ener1 Inc, another battery maker that received a government green technology grant, emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy under the control of Russian investor Boris Zingarevich. New York-based Ener1 is also a joint-venture partner in China with a Wanxiang subsidiary.

In the past three years, U.S. battery makers, anticipating consumer demand for green cars that never materialized, have over built production capacity, often with government funding.

Electric vehicle and hybrid sales for the first seven months of the year totaled 270,000, representing only 3 percent of total U.S. car sales, according to the green-car website Hybridcars.com.

As part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 's E lectric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative, A123 was awarded a grant of $249.1 million. Ener1 subsidiary EnerDel was awarded $118.5 million to manufacture advanced lithium-ion batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles.

A123 promised to create 38,000 U.S. jobs, including 5,900 at its own plants. A123 said on Thursday it has 1,300 workers.

Theodore O'Neill, a former equities analyst with Wunderlich Securities, said A123 "built a factory that's big enough to meet demand that's probably not going to materialize until 2020 ... They built it much larger than the market turned out to need."

FINDING 'PARTNER' FOR U.S. JOBS

That kind of underperformance provides new fodder for Obama's opponents in the Republican Party with just three months until election day.

Obama has spent months battling critics of the administration's green-tech initiative in the wake of the high-profile bankruptcy of solar-panel maker Solyndra.

"It's not going to be a smooth, easy ride ... Some companies will fail," he said in his State of the Union speech in January.

But tempering expectations has done little to quiet the critics in Washington, who ramped up their attacks on Thursday with the added accusation of putting technology in Chinese hands.

"Once again it appears the Department of Energy and the Obama administration have failed to secure sensitive taxpayer-funded intellectual property from being transferred to a foreign adversary, which raises serious national security issues," said Rep. Cliff Stearns. Stearns is a Florida Republican and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

A123 spokesman Dan Borgasano said on Thursday that, with Wanxiang's bid to take control of the battery company, "our intention is to continue to build in the United States and reach certain job levels. We think we found a partner to help us do that ... I don't think we'll necessarily be making hard and fast job projections."

After it received the DOE grant, Ener 1 said in early 2010 that it planned to create 1,400 jobs at its Indianapolis battery plant. Today, the plant employs around 250. The plant was designed to produce battery packs for up to 600,000 hybrid vehicles.

The companies' struggles with over capacity are typical of an industry whose fortunes are tied directly to those of electric and hybrid vehicle manufacturers.

"There was a bit of a rush to put in capacity that really wasn't justified by the events as they turned out," said Tom Gage, president of EV Grid, an infrastructure company based in Palo Alto, California. "In retrospect (the industry) was over-optimistic in terms of projecting the rate of growth for demand for car batteries."

Charles Ebinger, head of the energy security initiative at the Brookings Institution, said controversies surrounding government-backed companies such as A123 will make lawmakers hesitant to support expanded funding of clean energy, especially with federal budget battles looming.

"I think it's going to slow down," Ebinger said. "It's going to be increasingly difficult to argue for subsidies for any sector."

View the original article here

Thu Aug 9, 2012 7:49pm EDT

n">Aug 9 (Reuters) - Early in 2012 President Barack Obama responded to critics of his multi-billion-dollar green technology initiative by saying he was "not going to cede the wind or the solar or the battery industry to China."

Six months later, he faces that very real possibility for the U.S. car battery industry, a once-high flying sector buttressed by generous federal grants, but struggling with a green car market that has fallen far short of expectations.

A123 Systems Inc on Wednesday became the second U.S. government-backed battery maker this year to go overseas for a lifeline - and it turned to China. Auto parts supplier Wanxiang Group will take a controlling interest and invest $450 million in the Massachusetts-based battery maker, which faced running out of cash by the year-end.

Earlier this year, Ener1 Inc, another battery maker that received a government green technology grant, emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy under the control of Russian investor Boris Zingarevich. New York-based Ener1 is also a joint-venture partner in China with a Wanxiang subsidiary.

In the past three years, U.S. battery makers, anticipating consumer demand for green cars that never materialized, have over built production capacity, often with government funding.

Electric vehicle and hybrid sales for the first seven months of the year totaled 270,000, representing only 3 percent of total U.S. car sales, according to the green-car website Hybridcars.com.

As part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 's E lectric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative, A123 was awarded a grant of $249.1 million. Ener1 subsidiary EnerDel was awarded $118.5 million to manufacture advanced lithium-ion batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles.

A123 promised to create 38,000 U.S. jobs, including 5,900 at its own plants. A123 said on Thursday it has 1,300 workers.

Theodore O'Neill, a former equities analyst with Wunderlich Securities, said A123 "built a factory that's big enough to meet demand that's probably not going to materialize until 2020 ... They built it much larger than the market turned out to need."

FINDING 'PARTNER' FOR U.S. JOBS

That kind of underperformance provides new fodder for Obama's opponents in the Republican Party with just three months until election day.

Obama has spent months battling critics of the administration's green-tech initiative in the wake of the high-profile bankruptcy of solar-panel maker Solyndra.

"It's not going to be a smooth, easy ride ... Some companies will fail," he said in his State of the Union speech in January.

But tempering expectations has done little to quiet the critics in Washington, who ramped up their attacks on Thursday with the added accusation of putting technology in Chinese hands.

"Once again it appears the Department of Energy and the Obama administration have failed to secure sensitive taxpayer-funded intellectual property from being transferred to a foreign adversary, which raises serious national security issues," said Rep. Cliff Stearns. Stearns is a Florida Republican and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

A123 spokesman Dan Borgasano said on Thursday that, with Wanxiang's bid to take control of the battery company, "our intention is to continue to build in the United States and reach certain job levels. We think we found a partner to help us do that ... I don't think we'll necessarily be making hard and fast job projections."

After it received the DOE grant, Ener 1 said in early 2010 that it planned to create 1,400 jobs at its Indianapolis battery plant. Today, the plant employs around 250. The plant was designed to produce battery packs for up to 600,000 hybrid vehicles.

The companies' struggles with over capacity are typical of an industry whose fortunes are tied directly to those of electric and hybrid vehicle manufacturers.

"There was a bit of a rush to put in capacity that really wasn't justified by the events as they turned out," said Tom Gage, president of EV Grid, an infrastructure company based in Palo Alto, California. "In retrospect (the industry) was over-optimistic in terms of projecting the rate of growth for demand for car batteries."

Charles Ebinger, head of the energy security initiative at the Brookings Institution, said controversies surrounding government-backed companies such as A123 will make lawmakers hesitant to support expanded funding of clean energy, especially with federal budget battles looming.

"I think it's going to slow down," Ebinger said. "It's going to be increasingly difficult to argue for subsidies for any sector."

View the original article here

Employees of Standard Chartered leave a branch of the bank in central Seoul August 9, 2012.

LONDON | Thu Aug 9, 2012 2:36pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Standard Chartered is failing to convince some shareholders of its defense against allegations it broke U.S. sanctions on Iran, leaving them worried about possible lawsuits, fines and the loss of top executives.

StanChart, which has cherished its image as one of the cleanest names in global finance, lost more than a quarter of its market value in 24 hours after New York's banking regulator accused it on Monday of assisting $250 billion of money-laundering transactions over nearly 10 years.

Despite StanChart's protests that just $14 million of deals flouted the U.S. rules, its shares are still around 15 percent below levels before the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) branded it a "rogue institution".

"Even if it is only $14 million, they have still committed a crime, and they are still guilty," one of the 10 biggest institutional investors in the bank told Reuters, explaining why the shares remained depressed.

"And if this is hot air and they are just bluffing, then they are playing a very dangerous game," the investor said, putting the risk of either chief executive Peter Sands or Chief Financial Officer Richard Meddings quitting the bank at "5-8 percent and rising".

The bank could face a huge fine and even its state banking license is under threat, a punishment that would paralyze its U.S. operations and relegate the London-listed institution to the second tier of global banks.

The accusations could end up harming StanChart's 'AA-' credit rating, Fitch Ratings said.

Speculation that StanChart could sue the New York regulator for injury to its reputation and stock price were adding to worries about the potential loss of U.S. business, one of the 25 biggest investors in the bank said.

"I think the phrase 'Don't fight the Fed' applies in more ways than just one. Who knows what else the regulator could unearth if they really wanted a fight?" he said.

"(StanChart) tend to have a chippy approach which doesn't always win friends, and they need to be careful ... I would rather see them settle and leave this whole sorry saga behind them."

London lawyers echoed the warning.

"It's very difficult to say whether Standard Chartered believe they have a case without knowing all the details ... but I think history tells us that it is extremely tough to take on the U.S. regulators and win," Tom Hibbert, head of the banking litigation group at City of London law firm RPC.

OVERVALUED?

Standard Chartered's stock was already ripe for a sell-off even before its high-profile tussle with U.S. regulators came to light, analysts at Canaccord Genuity said.

Low exposure to the euro zone's troubles, healthy capital reserves and a halo burnished by steering clear of the interest rate manipulation scandal tainting other banks have given it a trading premium so wide that returns could only be reached through "near flawless execution of ambitious consensus estimates".

"To our mind the stock is priced for everything to go right, and nothing to go wrong," the analysts said, maintaining their advice to sell the stock.

The bank's woes offer a timely reminder of the risks investors face by supporting lenders with deep roots in emerging markets, said Jeff Yeh, Chief Investment Officer at Capital Investment Trust in Taipei, with about $5 billion in assets.

"I think the events of the past few days really drove home that point, and I think a growing number of funds may not be as comfortable with these large banks as they used to be."

While quick to deny the money laundering allegations in the press, some say StanChart's lack of direct communication with shareholders is limiting its share price recovery.

"They haven't been in touch with us, which surprises me, because when they had rights issue one, two and three, they were in touch well in advance, but this time, not a tweet," the top 10 investor said.

"We have been proactive in reaching out to all our investors, both shareholders and debtholders, and the process is ongoing," a spokesman for Standard Chartered said.

It will not want to lose the goodwill of those such as Hugh Young, managing director of top-five StanChart shareholder Aberdeen Asset Management Asia, who is giving it the benefit of the doubt for now.

"It's something to worry about, although I noticed a lot of emotive and sensational language which slightly diminishes the allegation ... The StanChart we recognize is not the rogue bank portrayed in the allegation," he said.

(Reporting by Sinead Cruise, additional reporting by Sarah White, Sudip Kargupta, Kelvin Soh and Denny Thomas; Editing by Will Waterman and Matthew Tostevin)

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