Pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts said this afternoon its first-quarter profit fell 18 percent as it worked to close its $29 billion acquisition of competitor Medco.
The north St. Louis County-based company earned $267.8 million, or 55 cents per share, down from $326.5 million, or 61 cents per share, in last year’s first quarter.
Excluding one-time items, it earned 73 cents per share. Analysts forecast earnings of 77 cents per share on $11.47 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.
Revenue climbed 9 percent to $12.13 billion. It filled 192.8 million adjusted prescriptions, up 3.6 percent from a year ago.
Express Scripts Holding Co. completed its acquisition of Medco Health Solutions on April 2. The deal made Express Scripts the largest pharmacy benefits manager by far.
Express Scripts expects the combined company to earn $3.36 to $3.66 per share in 2012, while filling 1.4 billion adjusted prescriptions.
Analysts are expecting a profit of $3.58 per share, on average.
Express Scripts said the deal should be “slightly accretive” while it integrates Medco and forecast a moderate increase in its profit after that process is finished in the first half of 2014. The company expects to create $1 billion in annual savings after it fully integrates Medco into its business.
The company said Medco’s first-quarter profit fell about 26 percent to $245.1 million, or 62 cents per share. Excluding transaction and amortization costs, it said Medco earned 79 cents per share.
Express Scripts shares rose 44 cents to $54.34 Thursday. The stock slid 60 cents to $53.74 in after-hours trading.
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The United States and Europe are urging Iran to use upcoming talks with world powers to ease international worry that it may be aiming to develop nuclear arms.
But Tehran says such concerns are based on “fake evidence” concocted to cause it political and economic harm.
Envoys for the U.S., the EU and Iran spoke Monday at a 189-nation meeting looking for ways to strengthen the Nonproliferation Treaty low interest rate personal loans.
The divide over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities threatens the success of both the talks and a meeting between Iran and the U.N. agency trying to probe its atomic secrets.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is widely expected to be kicked out of office in elections Sunday. If he goes, he’ll be in good company: Almost every crisis-hit European country that has held an election since disaster struck in 2009 has thrown out its leader.
Here’s a look at countries where political cadavers litter the landscape.
_ SPAIN: A burst real estate bubble also deflates faith in a Socialist government, which is nonetheless reluctant to admit Spain has problems. Blips of good economic news are seized upon as “green shoots” pointing to recovery. Wrong. Stimulus measures are enacted, then crushing austerity. Unemployment soars. The Socialists of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero are wiped off the map in November 2011 elections; Mariano Rajoy’s conservatives take over.
_ ITALY: Silvio Berlusconi, the long-serving Teflon leader accused of everything from bedding escorts to serial corruption, finally bites the dust in November 2011. He resigns to cheers and jeers as investors lose confidence in his ability to spur economic growth and rein in debt. It’s the end of a political era. Mario Monti, a former European Commissioner, is named to replace him and lead a technical government until elections in 2013.
_ BRITAIN: Gordon Brown leads the Labour Party to defeat in the May 2010 election; Conservative Party leader David Cameron becomes leader of a coalition government. Brown had been finance chief for a decade before succeeding Tony Blair in 2007. Brown had boasted endlessly of ending the cycle of boom and bust _ but as prime minister he presided mostly over bust.
_ IRELAND: Brian Cowen, promoted to prime minister in 2008 after being finance minister, doesn’t even get to run. He resigns as leader of the Fianna Fail Party weeks before the February, 2011 election. It doesn’t help his party, which suffers its worst ever defeat. Cowen was finance minister during Ireland’s banking crisis and the collapse of its housing bubble.
_ GREECE: Greek Socialist leader George Papandreou swept to power in October 2009 over conservative opponents, pledging to spend his way out of a deteriorating economic situation. Two years later, at the height of Greece’s worst financial crisis since World War II, Papandreou’s own deputies force him out after he endangers a hard-won bailout by announcing he would put it to a referendum. He’s replaced by caretaker Prime Minister Lucas Papademos.
_ PORTUGAL: A month after Portugal requests a 78 billion-euro bailout, the center-left Socialist government of Jose Socrates is voted out of power in June, 2011. Portugal’s woes stemmed from a decade of feeble growth as it failed to modernize amid increasing global competition and dug itself deeper into debt.
_ DENMARK: A center-right government in Denmark loses power in September in part due to discontent over austerity measures introduced amid the debt crisis. It is replaced by a center-left coalition.
_ FINLAND: Finland’s government is reconfigured after June elections following a sharp surge in support for nationalists who oppose bailouts for debt-stricken eurozone countries. A conservative-led coalition spanning left and right is formed to keep the nationalist True Finns out of power.
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_ ROMANIA: Romanian President Traian Basescu wins re-election in 2009, the year Romania’s economy shrinks by 7 percent and Romania takes a 20 billion-euro bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Union. Basescu, a former ship captain, prevails because he is seen as a strong leader in a time of crisis.
_ POLAND: This has been a rare European success story: It’s the only European Union country that did not to slip into recession during the global crisis of 2008-2009. Last fall the center-right party of Prime Minister Donald Tusk wins a second straight term in parliamentary elections, making history by becoming the first government since the fall of communism in Poland in 1989 to be re-elected.
_ ALSO: Sweden’s prime minister is re-elected in 2010 and the prime ministers of Latvia and Estonia are re-elected in 2011.
U.S. stock market futures are basically flat ahead of the government release of April employment data.
Dow Jones industrial average futures are up 4 points at 13,147. Standard & Poor’s 500 futures are up 1.17 to 1,387. Nasdaq 100 futures are gaining 2.75 points to 2,694.75.
In Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 index, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC-40 are all down, as traders waited for the U.S. jobs figures and fretted ahead of weekend elections in France and Greece that could impact Europe’s debt crisis instant payday loan. Earlier Asian markets were mixed, with the Nikkei in Tokyo gaining, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and South Korea’s Kospi both ended down.
U.S. stock to watch include Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Warren Buffett’s investment vehicle reports quarterly results after the market opens.
For Pennsylvanians with natural gas wells on their land, chances are they won’t know if a safety violation occurs on their property.
That’s because the state agency charged with regulating the wells — the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) — does not have to notify landowners if a violation is discovered. Even if landowners inquire about safety violations, DEP records are often too technical for the average person and incomplete.
While some landowners would like more transparency around safety issues, as a group they are not pushing for stronger regulations. Landowners, who are paid royalties by the companies that drill on their property, generally want the drilling to proceed.
Violations: In February, CNNMoney spoke with four families in Lycoming County, Pa., about violations issued against natural gas wells on or near their property.
The families have a total of 26 natural gas wells among them. They’ve received royalties from the wells, ranging from the low hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last few years.
How fracking works
Yet none said they had ever been notified by the DEP or any of the well operators that wells near their homes had been cited for what DEP’s website said were 62 safety violations over four years.
"We had no idea that there were any violations," said Dan Bower, who lives next door to his mother, Jane, and her five wells.
"We should have been contacted or something," echoed Neil Barto, another well owner.
DEP says that in cases in which violations pose risk to human health, they "certainly notify landowners."
The violations range from simple things such as improper signage to serious infractions such as subpar cementing — which according to DEP can allow gas to seep out of a well and in some cases "has the potential to cause a fire or explosion."
While the violations are posted online, the digital records are short on specifics — most importantly whether a violation poses a health risk.
A time consuming process: If landowners want to inquire about all violations on their property, DEP says they should do an in-person file review of the state regulator’s documents relating to each well.
The agency declined multiple interview requests, but assured CNNMoney that an in-person review would contain records of any communication with landowners about violations. CNNMoney conducted a file review in late March.
The process required a visit to the regional DEP office, which had to be scheduled weeks in advance.
But even then, the details discovered were largely in legal and technical language.
In approximately 1,000 pages of documents for the 26 permitted wells, there was only one record of any communication DEP had with a landowner about a violation.
A letter was sent to indicate that a spill of fluid used for drilling on Jane Bower’s property had been cleaned up, but the recipient’s name was redacted.
Both Jane and Dan say they never received such a letter, even though DEP fined Chief Oil and Gas, the operator of the well at the time, $2,100 for the five barrel spill. There were no details of this spill on the DEP website.
The file review revealed there was also a spill of 294 gallons of ‘frac fluid’ at the same Bower well. The fluid is what is used in hydraulic fracturing, a process where water, sand and a small amount of chemicals, are injected into shale deep underground to fracture the rock and release gas.
There was no mention of this spill in DEP’s online records, and the paper records did not clearly indicate whether the ground water was tested after the spill.
It is not clear from the physical records whether these spills, or any other violations reviewed, ever posed a threat to human health.
Obama tightens oil and gas drilling regulations
The well operator at the time, Chief, said it did not.
But David Yoxtheimer, a hydrogeologist at Penn State’s Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research, said there’s not enough information to say for certain.
He said that if the Bower spills had gotten into surface or ground water then they "could have a water quality impact of low to moderate severity," but that such a risk would depend on site-specific factors not available in the files.
Landowner apathy: Despite the violations, it’s not clear that the landowners are doing all in their power to check for violations on their property.
Neither the Bowers nor the Bartos have a computer to check for violations, and neither plans on changing that.
"I sure as hell am not gonna buy one to check DEP," Neil Barto said.
All four families continue to support the drilling and note it has been a boon to the local economy. The Bartos, who have six wells on their property, say they have made about $150,000 in royalties off of the wells on their property in the last three years.
Plus, increased regulation is not a priority for them. That’s a fairly common viewpoint among landowners.
"In our experience, landowner groups have been focused on advancing expanded drilling to maximize royalty payment opportunities, and have generally been opposed to increased regulation," said Kate Sinding at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
And that, says the NRDC, could be delaying further regulation for the industry, or taking pressure off regulators to report violations more clearly.
"Advocacy for those kinds of protections would undoubtedly carry more weight were they to come from landowners themselves, as opposed to the environmental community," Sinding said.
– with additional reporting by CNN’s Poppy Harlow
U.K high street lender Lloyds Banking Group on Tuesday reported a modest net profit of 2 million pounds ($3.2 million) in the first quarter when its performance beat market expectations.
The company, 40 percent owned by U.K. taxpayers, also recorded a pretax profit of 288 million pounds ($467 million) in the first quarter, which included a 375 million provision to compensate customers for missold insurance.
In the previous quarter, it made a 316 million pounds net profit and a loss of 3.5 billion pounds in the same period last year. Its 2 million pound net profit compares with a 2.4 billion pound net loss last year and a 37 million pound profit in the previous quarter.
Lloyds has taken a total provision of 3.575 billion pounds, by far the biggest of any British bank, to compensate customers who were sold payment protection insurance which they didn’t need.
Total income net of insurance claims was down 6 percent to 4.49 billion pounds.
Lloyds shares were up 1.6 percent at 31.5 pence in early trading.
The U.K. government injected much needed capital into Lloyds at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. It is now looking to sell off its shares, but only when their price has reached a certain level.
“The likelihood of reaching the government’s 70 pence-plus break-even point seems a long way off, even if Lloyds is making slow and steady progress, whilst the absence of a dividend is another drag on enticing potential buyers,” said Richard Hunter, head of equities, Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers payday loans in one hour.
Total impairments improved from 2.6 billion pounds a year ago to 1.66 billion pounds. Within that total, the charge in the first quarter in the bank’s wealth and international division was 705 million pounds compared to 1.5 billion pounds a year earlier, primarily because of lower charges in its Irish and Australasian businesses.
Nonetheless, with two-thirds of the Irish portfolio classed as impaired, the bank warned that “further vulnerability exists.”
Customer deposits were up 6 percent year-on-year to 412 billion pounds. The core tier 1 capital ratio_ a key gauge of underlying financial strength _ was up from 10 percent last year to 11 percent in the first quarter.
Lloyds is still seeking to clinch a deal to sell 632 branches to meet the European Commission’s conditions for receiving state aid. While continuing to talk to the Co-operative Group, the bank’s preferred bidder, Lloyds said last week it was open to other offers.
The Senate on Wednesday passed a plan to save the struggling U.S. Postal Service, an effort that could save thousands of jobs and 100 mail processing plants now slated to be closed or consolidated next month.
In an unusual showing of bipartisanship, the Senate voted 62-37 to throw a lifeline to the indebted Postal Service. Without help, the Postal Service would otherwise cut Saturday service, delay mail delivery and close hundreds of postal processing plants and post offices, triggering thousands of job cuts nationwide.
"My hope is that our friends over in the U.S. House, given our bipartisan steps we took this week, will feel a sense of urgency," said Sen. Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat, one of the Senate bill’s co-sponsors. "The situation is not hopeless, the situation is dire."
The House has yet to take up a different bill to reform the Postal Service. However, Rep. Darrell Issa, a key Republican on postal service legislation, called the Senate bill "wholly unacceptable," in a statement released Wednesday.
Congress faces a deadline of May 15, when a moratorium on postal closures expires.
The recession, declining mail volume and a congressional mandate to prefund retirement health care benefits have put the service in a bind. It reported a $5.1 billion loss for the year ended Sept. 30.
The Senate bill, offered by members in both parties, forces the Postal Service to ease off part of its plan to slow down the delivery of first-class mail, the kind of mail that most consumers use.
Postal Service: We need more junk mail
The bill makes controversial changes, including cuts to workers’ compensation benefits, as well as a transition from door-to-door delivery to curbside delivery in some areas, such as suburban neighborhoods.
The Senate bill also prevents the Postal Service from cutting Saturday delivery for two years, until the agency can prove such a cut is needed as a "last resort."
During debate on the postal bill the past two days, the Senate agreed to order the Postal Service to postpone the May 15 expiration of a moratorium on closures until the House passes a postal service bill.
The Senate also agreed to cap executive pay of high-ranking postal officials to that of Cabinet officials, $199,000 cheap credit report. (Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe made $384,000 last year.)
The cost of the Senate bill could prove a major sticking point with the House. The Congressional Budget Office says the bill would cost $33.6 billion over 10 years.
The tab comes from increased borrowing authority for the Postal Service, allowing it to borrow $11 billion more from Treasury. The Postal Service can currently borrow up to $15 billion, and has tapped $12 billion of that loan.
The other cost comes from elimination of regular billion-dollar payments, now required by law, to Treasury to pre-fund health care benefits for retirees. That $23 billion would ease financial pain for the Postal Service, but it also means less revenue to ease federal deficits.
Several Senate Republicans, including Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, said they voted against the bill, because it wasn’t paid for in an appropriate way.
Earlier this year, the Postal Service said it was doing away with overnight delivery of many kinds of first-class mail, opening the door for closing 223 mail processing plants at a cost of 35,000 jobs.
The Senate bill would force the Postal Service to maintain some one-day delivery of first-class mail, mostly for items mailed within the same processing area — saving 100 mail processing plants.
The Senate bill would also tap most of an estimated $10.9 billion overpayment in the Federal Employees Retirement System to pay down postal service debt and use up to $2 billion on buyout packages to entice long-time employees to retire.
Unions oppose the Senate bill, saying it doesn’t provide a good long-term business model.
"We are very disappointed that the Senate approved such a flawed bill, but we are determined to continue the fight for legislation that will provide a path to long-term viability for the Postal Service," said Fredric V. Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers.
The U.S. Postal Service is, by law, an "independent establishment" of the executive branch. The agency doesn’t normally use tax dollars for operations, except for its $12 billion loan from Treasury.
Spain’s central bank says the country is now in a technical recession as the economy contracted 0.4 percent in the first quarter of the year.
The drop, published in a Bank of Spain report Monday, follows a 0.3 percent quarterly decline in the fourth quarter. A technical recession is commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction.
The Bank of Spain figure comes as no surprise, however. The government has said the economy is shrinking and forecasts it will contract 1.7 percent this year.
Here are two words to guide you financially through the rest of 2012
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