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Letters: Letters: Paying With Pennies

January 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Re “Dear Starbucks: A Penny for Your Thoughts” (Strategies, Jan. 15), which described how Starbucks had raised the cost of a tall cup of coffee in Manhattan to $2.01, after tax:

I have a totally different reaction to that not-so-round price.

Every day I leave my apartment with a scooped-up handful of change, hoping to use it when paying for odd-priced items. How satisfying to buy a bag of clementines for $6.99 and plunk down 99 cents on the counter: it lightens my pocket and I get four almost weightless singles back from a $10 bill. Starbucks should be congratulated for helping us recycle our coins and reduce our mounds of change. Allan Ripp

Manhattan, Jan. 16

To the Editor:

If you’re thinking of buying a cup of coffee at a Manhattan Starbucks, here’s a whimsical idea: Go to the bank and exchange $2 for four rolls of pennies. Pour them into a clear plastic bag. Then go to Starbucks and order your tall cup of coffee. When the barista tells you the price, hand her the bag — with an added penny and a smile. Samm Carlton

Waquoit, Mass., Jan. 15

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=b2a1d84bf45aa832280c116427449566

Filed Under: Business News Tagged With: , ,

DealBook: Yandex Shares Surge in Debut

May 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

2:06 p.m. | Updated

Shares of Yandex, one of the largest Internet companies in Russia, jumped on their Nasdaq trading debut on Tuesday.

The stock, which was priced at $25 on Monday, opened at $35 and briefly rose as high as $42.01. By mid-afternoon, the shares were trading around $35.50, a 42 percent gain from the offering price.

The enthusiasm for the Yandex offering, the largest technology offering since Google’s $1.7 billion market debut in 2004, reflects the rising exuberance for Internet companies in the United States and elsewhere in the world.

Over the last few weeks, a handful of multibillion-dollar companies have jumped into the public markets, enjoying robust first-day pops reminiscent of the last technology boom. Renren, one of China’s leading social networks, surged 29 percent on its debut on May 4 and raised $743 million in its offering.

LinkedIn, a social network for professionals, more than doubled on its first day of trading on Thursday. The company, which had recently traded in the secondary markets at an implied valuation of $2.5 billion, is now valued at more than $8 billion.

While overall demand for promising Internet companies is running high, some stocks have struggled to hold on to investors at lofty prices. Renren is now trading below its offer price. LinkedIn has also pulled back, but it is still trading sharply above its offer price.

Over all, there have been 23 technology I.P.O.’s so far this year, raising $4.5 billion, according to data from Renaissance Capital. Not including Yandex, these I.P.O.’s traded up 14.9 percent on their first day on average.

Enthusiasm has been building for Yandex. Two weeks ago, it forecast a more modest price range of $20 to $22 a share.

On Monday evening, the company, based in Moscow, sold 52.2 million shares in its offering, raising $1.3 billion. The stock began trading Tuesday under the ticker symbol YNDX.

Its underwriters, led by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank Securities, also have the option to sell an additional 5.2 million shares to cover over-allotments.

For investors, Yandex represents a bet on Russia’s burgeoning technology market. Last year, the company generated about 64 percent of all search traffic in the country, recording revenue of $439.7 million and net income of $134.3 million.

“This is the Google of Russia,” said Scott Sweet, a senior managing partner of I.P.O. Boutique. “They are profitable, their growth is outstanding and they have over 60 percent market share; Google has about 22 to 30 percent.”

Yandex’s largest shareholders include the hedge fund Tiger Global Management, Baring Vostok Private Equity Funds and the company’s chief executive, Arkady Volozh. All are selling some shares in the offering.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=afa912a88c917f7a8a4c24cbe978ce0b

Filed Under: Business News Tagged With: , ,

You’re the Boss: Survey Says Small-Business Lending Is Surging

April 30, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The Agenda

Some small-business owners will surely disagree, but signs continue to show that more small businesses are seeking — and getting — loans. The latest evidence comes from Greenwich Associates, which does market research for major banks. A survey of small businesses released in April found that 59 percent had applied for a loan within the preceding 12 months, and demand grew with each quarter.

In the third quarter of 2010, five percent of the small companies surveyed applied for a loan, a share that tripled in the last three months of the year. In the first three months of 2011, the figure leaped to 29 percent. Loan demand is typically highest at the end of the year, according to Marc Bernstein, the head of small-business banking for Wells Fargo. That would make the jump in applicants in the first months of 2011 especially notable.

Among small businesses that did apply for a loan, 57 percent reported winning approval from the bank. In a summary of the survey distributed to its banking clients, Greenwich described the small-business lending market as rapidly returning to normal.

Greenwich Associates also reported one striking finding: more small businesses turned away by big banks. In the past, said Greenwich consultant Duncan Banfield, the small-business market has been concentrated at a handful national banks. But the latest survey reports that about half of small and midsized businesses found credit from lenders outside the top 20 institutions in the United States.

This was the banks’ doing, said Mr. Banfield. Bad loans and sinking collateral values forced those institutions to retrench, and lending to the riskier small-business market was often the first casualty. “The balance sheet issues and capital requirements, and the uncertainty of the economy, caused banks to restrict credit, or even wean some of these businesses off,” said Mr. Banfield. “They had to choose to stop doing business with some of these companies.”

Nonetheless, Mr. Banfield said that major banks were in a position to recapture at least some of the market share they had surrendered, in part by simply getting the word out that they are once again making loans. But, he added, “clients value trust, and they value a bank that understands their business, so if a bank can demonstrate that, that’s an important way to win the business back of these small businesses.”

The 271 small businesses polled were chosen randomly from nationwide lists, and interviewed by phone in March.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=96d7f19b41abb2a847494479d3f1f568

Filed Under: Small Business Tagged With: , ,