Cigna Corporation Sees Great Potential in Indonesia

CEO points to rising middle class, shifting lifestyle, an increasing awareness of health care.

Connecticut-based Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI), a global life and health insurance company, has said on Wednesday that Indonesia, among five other potential countries, is considered the next ‘big thing’ in terms of very strong growth potential. Despite being the largest Muslim population country with more than 200 million people, it is facing a bit of a slowdown due to weakening internal and external economic fundamentals.

CEO, David Cordani, pointed to a rising middle-class population, the changing lifestyle, and growing awareness of health care that has led to bullish assessment from the company to dub it as a great opportunity to expand.

During his two-day visit to the company, Mr. Cordani reflected upon the performance of its subsidiary in Indonesia, pointing out that while its contribution might be small relative to global revenues, the growth potential is very enormous, since the health insurance penetration in the market is quite low, at around 2%.

Country Manager for Cigna Indonesia, Tim Shields, also holds the same assessment, sharing his excitement about the strong outlook for the country’s micro insurance. The company believes that it has what it takes to capture a wider market share in the region due to Cigna’s better insurance offerings, which are cheap and affordable to lower and middle-income class. In fact, the products are good enough to easily complement the government’s universal health care program.

It will not be without challenges though. There is a decline in a growth rate (which is still high according to many European standards), the corruption, and bureaucratic hurdles that foreign companies still have to face while operating their businesses in the region. The plus side is that though Cigna is the sole foreign medical health insurance company in the region to cover insurances for the middle class, giving it a great advantage to consolidate its market position before its competitors.

During the visit, Mr. Cordani also announced that the company would move to a new, larger headquarters based on the outskirts of Jakarta, which will be able to better support its operations and new development strategy, with the aim to serve an estimate 1 million customers.

According to financial reports from the company’s subsidiary division, Cigna Indonesia reported net premium income to $51 million, a 6% increase in assets to $145 million. This high potential of Indonesian market appeals the company and might influence its future steps. Cigna Corporation stock price ended the day at $131.86, a gain of less than 3%.

Samsung Unveils 'Artik' To Push 'Internet of Things' (IoT)

Samsung has unveiled two Artik board to push Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity.

Lately, Samsung Electronics has been the center of attention with all the glamor and fame it is receiving. The company launched Samsung Galaxy S6 along with two new memory cards that made it the largest smartphone vendor in the market, as well as the best smartphone company; obviously after surpassing Apple. Recent news stated that the South Korean smartphone company is pushing itself for Internet of Things (IoT). Hence, in order to master that domain, it built a new board, named as ‘Artik’, which will be the hub for IoT devices, drones, and robots.

Wall Street Journal reported, “Samsung Electronics Co. unveiled a set of technologies to spur more companies to add computing power to everyday devices such as fitness trackers, light bulbs, security cameras and drones.” It is believed that the company has created this board in a way that it comes packed with various new processors, sensors, communication chips, and other advance components. Furthermore, the company is also focusing to provide software services that will configure new devices while connecting them to the internet.

It is believed that the size of these Artik boards are that of a lady bug, which comprises of a Samsung chip with two new processors, Bluetooth wireless connectivity, and many other features. According to the president and chief strategy officer at Samsung, Young Sohn, said, “The board, intended for applications like smartwatches, would sell for less than $10.” This is quite reasonable and shows company’s intents to push in for Internet of Things. A decade ago, the future was in information technology sector and when technology has taken over the world along with every new way coming, Internet of Things is the next ‘big thing’ in the market.

Another Artik is a larger board, which will have a size of two postage stamps stuck together side by side. This will include all the features of a normal Samsung smartphone. Furthermore, the board will have eight processor chips, 32 GB data space, and video capabilities. According to Mr. Sohn, these types of Artik board will be on sale for less than $100. It is believed that this board is suitable for applications including home hub devices and other consumer data, such as storing videos.

Atrik has been one of the most awaited technologies from the company’s end. Its unique and innovative idea to connect devices through this board is exemplary. Tech-savvy users are looking forward to using it in their application in the coming times.

Plug Power First Quarter earnings report for FY15

Plug Power reported its first quarter earnings and posted earnings per share of 7 cents in line with analysts estimate.

Plug Power reported its first quarter earnings for fiscal year 15 on Monday May11. The company posted 7 cents in earnings per share in line with Thomson Reuters consensus forecast of 7 cents per share, as reported by Stock Market News. The company also reported $9.40 million n revenue for the period as compared to $18.13 million of consensus estimate. The revenue of the company was up 68% on year over year basis.

For t full fiscal year 2015, the company provided revenue guidance of $100 million against consensus forecast of $103 million. The fuel cell manufacturer said that these sales will incline throughout the year with almost 35% to 40% of the yearly revenue estimated in the first six months of current fiscal year.

Chief Executive Officer and President of Plug Power, Andy Marsh said, “The backlog for our products and services continued to grow in the first quarter. This has provided us with a high level of confidence in meeting this year’s financial projections”.

During the first quarter, Plug Power earned $9.4 million in revenue; this includes 1 hydrogen station and 265 GenDrive units. Furthmore, the company shipped almost 419 GenDrive units and progress its construction on 7 different hydrogen fueling stations. The amount of these shipments will be reflected in revenue part in the Q2 of fiscal year 2015. The Company shipped around 175 units out of these 419 GenDrive units to a new customer.

Related to GenCare services, Plug Power had around 5,500 unit of GenDrive and 8 infrastructure sites of hydrogen as of March 31 service contract against 3,000 unit of GenDrive and no hydrogen infrastructure sites in the similar quarter last year.

Total administrative costs for the quarter were $10.7 million compared to $5.1 million in the prior year quarter.

Plug Power stock opened at $2.43 on Monday. The company has twelve month low and high of $2.40 and $6.47, respectively. The stock has 50 day and 200 day moving average of $2 and $3, respectively. Plug Power had $421.38 of market capitalization.

Plug Power stock was up 4.94% to $2.55 at market close on Monday.

Why Samsung Galaxy S6 has an edge over iPhone 6

It seems Apple has a lot to catch up on after the release of Samsung's flagship.

It's been a month since the tech giant, SAMSUNG ELECT new flagship smartphone hit stores; much for to please the Android lovers. On the other hand, Apple’s iPhone 6 sales are still going steady, even after an extremely profitable quarter; the holiday season saw massive iPhone 6 sales. And this may prove to be a cause for concern for Samsung. With not only Apple posing a threat to Samsung, but also because the HTC One M9 was also set to hit stores the same day as Samsung.

While all of these phones are wonderful options, there are certain things though which are only limited to Samsung Galaxy S6; Apple fans may not agree but the fact is that the most impressive things listed in this article do not apply to iPhone 6.

Even though Apple’s iPhone 6 charges pretty quickly, it’s still nowhere as fast as the Galaxy S6. The phone is equipped with super-fast-changing technology. The iPhone does support multitasking, but it doesn’t let you use two or more apps simultaneously. Whereas, with Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, users can open two apps together and even copy paste content form one to another.

The Rub to wake up gesture is pretty amazing as well, it doesn’t require you to unlock the screen or even reach for your phone. You can just wake up the side panel of your S6 and look at your notifications. One of the spectacular features of the Galaxy S6 is that it allows you to assign specific colors to your contacts; therefore, if your phone is face down, you can still determine who is calling. The edges of the phone glow the color you’ve assigned to one of your favorite contact, you’ll never miss a call from your favorite peeps.

Samsung Pay is going to launch very soon, the service is compatible with NFC payment terminals, which are relatively new. Samsung pay will also support older credit card terminals. The service will be more widely available mainly because of the way hybrid technology is incorporated to make the service viable and useful. Apple Pay, however, limits users to certain stores only.

S6’s camera is so quick, you just have to double tap the home button, and capture in 0.7 seconds! Even if the phone is asleep, users can still avail the fantastic function. Now we all know that the iPhone camera is also pretty easy to manage, but it certainly isn’t as quick as Galaxy S6 camera, come on, the thing is ready to capture in 0.7 seconds.

Not only this, but the new phone features built-in remote. Infrared blasters in your phone can control almost any device, your TV being one of them. The function doesn’t require any additional accessories or apps.

Woes For Bank Of America Corp As Shareholders Reject Proposal To Breakup of 'BofA'

National financial institution also investigated by SEC for failing to protect sensitive client information.

Bank of America Corp’s (NYSE:BAC) shareholders have turned down a proposal by the consumer advocate group to divide and break up the company into more manageable business units. The decision was made at an annual general meeting on Wednesday in Charlotte, where the banking group’s headquarter is situated.

The proposal presented by the ‘Public Citizen’ was based on the notion that the financial company is deemed “too big to fail”, on top of being too big to manage. They point out that in this way, BAC Stock would curtail the risk of another financial meltdown and can handle the proposed manageable business units better than before. The bank has around less than a quarter of a million employees, $2 trillion in assets, and around 1000 separate companies knotted together.

Analysts are warning that the country, still facing the scars of a recession, is facing additional challenges of new government fines and growing risk, making it really difficult to squeeze in a profit, resulting in GE pulling out of its financial wing.

Public Citizen is not entirely giving up though, and has called on Bank of America directors to go for a provision of the Dodd-Frank law to reform the bank into smaller, safer, and more manageable units.

When contacted for his views, CEO, Brian Moynihan,said that the reason for the disapproval among shareholders has to do with the bank already working on making it a simpler and less risky bank by selling units and cutting expenses to be more customer oriented than before.

However, even though he stated that the company’s past legacy is behind them, it is currently facing investigation for its failure to protect sensitive client accounts. The SEC claims that the financial group executed sophisticated trading schemes using millions of dollars that would otherwise had been used for funding costs. This is also leading to strong indications that a major shakeup in the top management is even more likely, given the dismal quarterly earnings report, which has only darkened the future even more.

There is dissatisfaction with the way Mr. Moynihan is handling the company, preferring a ‘dictator-style’ top down approach, given that he has to put out a number of fires while keeping shareholders happy at the same time. Even when he does post profits, he is still criticized! Therefore, in addition to the bank, Moynihan’s future looks cloudy too.

Bank of America stock price ended the day at $16.30, a 0.30% drop.

 

Petrobras Depend On Vale CEO for Corruption Investigation

Will the appointment of Vale CEO, Murilo Ferreira, as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Petrobras will help the company tackle the corruption scandal.

Murilo Ferreira, CEO of Vale SA has taken more responsibilities followed by his take over as Chairman of Board of Directors at Brazilian Oil Company, Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras on Wednesday. The Brazilian oil company is the most indebted energy company in the world, and is combating to come out of the largest bribery and corruption scandal that occurred in October last year.

The appointment of Mr. Ferreira takes place together with the 10 board members appointment. They arrived just after one week after the company logged $15 billion impairment charges.

The appointment of Mr. Ferreira was a good sign for the company as he will support to enhance the Petrobras and Vale relations.

As per Bloomberg, Aldemir Bendine, CEO of Brazilian Oil Companies related to the news of appointment said, “We’ve received from the government the prerogative to work with a board that’s more geared toward the market, with more technical market experience and without the participation of members of the federal government.”

In spite of the appointment of new chairman of board, the Brazilian government appoints nearly seven out of ten board members of the company. The government of Brazil holds the maximum of the voting rights in the oil and gas company. On Petrobras, the government will be represented by Luciano Coutinho, Segen Astefen, Gueded de Carvalho, Luiz Navrro, Mr. Bendine and Roberto Costello Branco.

The minority of stockholders are liable for two other members’ appointment, while one board member is appointed by the company employees. The members selected by the minority shareholders are Walter Mendes and Guiherme Ferreira. However, Fayyid Bacelar will be representing the company employees.

While majority have greeted Mr. Ferreira appointment as Board chairman, some have also shown disappointment regarding the decision. They think that the appointment will drive to some conflict of interests, as currently he is Chief Executive Officer of the Vale.

On Monday April 27, Moody’s Investor Service declared that it has decided to review Petrobras credit rating. They stripped company’s investment grade followed by its involvement in biggest corruption scandal that causes billion of dollar loss to the company. Federal prosecutor has accused that company’s officials along with a lobby of Construction Companies worked to shaft money out of company’s account by manipulating public contract prices.

Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) stock was up 1.17% to $9.50 at market close on Thursday April 30 but decreased 0.21% to 49.48 during after hour trading as on 7:57 PM EDT.