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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dorine Essey who wrote (154043)	2/20/2000 1:07:00 AM
From: calgal	Respond to of 176387

Hi Dorine! Is there any stone Dell is not turning over for partnership? OT OT Re: "Herb and I are going to PARIS and Italy in the springtime. I already bought the tickets so there is NO backing out now." How fun! My sister spent several months in Florence when she was at Stanford. Her husband travels frequently to Europe and Asia. I studied French, from elementary school, through college. You will have so much fun! Is this your first trip to Europe? My brother and I are the only ones in my family who have not been to Europe! :)Leigh "Abbey said cahoot, available on PCs and mobile phones, would be more than just a bank and had already identified partners outside financial services, including Belfast-based BlackStar for videos, Swedish online retailer Boxman for CDs, Thomas Cook <PRSG.F> for travel and Dell <DELL.O> for computers." Abbey<ANL.L> unveils e-bank as profits rise By Jane Merriman LONDON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Abbey National Plc, Britain's second largest mortgage lender, reported a 17 percent rise in 1999 profits on Thursday as it unveiled a new Internet bank called cahoot and a doubling of e-commerce investment. As well as cahoot, Abbey will put its retail banking services online under the Abbey National brand and launch transactional accounts on digital TV. Chief Executive Ian Harley said the bank would increase investment in e-commerce to 200 million pounds ($321.4 million) from 100 million over the next two to three years. "Our feeling at the moment is that's at least doubled. It will be 200 million over the same time frame, the next two to three years." Abbey's new stand-alone Internet bank comes as UK financial services groups rush on to the Net to fend off competition from start ups such as First-e and Egg <PRU.L>. Lloyds TSB <LLOY.L>, the UK's biggest retail bank last week said it would spend 200 to 300 million pounds in a pan-European online bank, while the UK's biggest mortgage lender Halifax <HFX.L> is due to flesh out its online arm Greenfield.co, on Friday with annual results. Halifax's shares rocketed on Thursday after announcing a 150 million pound investment on a new online car and home insurance business called esure, headed by UK insurance market guru Peter Wood. Abbey said cahoot, available on PCs and mobile phones, would be more than just a bank and had already identified partners outside financial services, including Belfast-based BlackStar for videos, Swedish online retailer Boxman for CDs, Thomas Cook <PRSG.F> for travel and Dell <DELL.O> for computers. ONE MILLION CUSTOMER TARGET Harley said Abbey aimed to have more than one million new customers registered for its e-commerce venture within the next 12 months. cahoot would be launched in the UK initially but continental Europe would follow. "We're already talking to venture capitalists and other potential partners who are interested in investing in this business," he said. Harley said floating off the new e-bank was certainly a possibility but that this was something for the future. cahoot would make money quite quickly because is was not a loss-leading proposition, he said. PROFITS AHEAD OF FORECASTS Abbey's pre-tax profits rose to 1.78 billion pounds ($2.85 billion) in 1999 from 1.52 billion in 1998 and were ahead of most market forecasts, which centred around 1.73 billion pounds. Earnings per share increased by 19 percent to 86.2 pence and were above the Barra consensus forecast for 81 pence a share. The final dividend proposed was 26.85 pence a share, making a total of 40.25 pence, an increase of 14 percent and in line with expectations. Harley said the bank remained committed to growing revenues whilst continuing to improve cost efficiency. He said revenue grew 20 percent in 1999. The bank's shares, which have underperformed the wider market by 44 percent since the beginning of November, closed 7.2 percent higher at 713 pence, up 47 pence. Analysts said the profits were in line, but Abbey had clearly faced a squeeze on mortage market share. "The bottom line was ahead of expectations, but the market share performance was very poor," said Jon Kirk at Fox Pitt Kelton. He said the bank had re-priced in the fourth quarter aggressively when its market share was 17 percent versus six percent pct for the whole year. AGGRESSIVE PRICING Harley said Abbey was now pricing its mortgages aggressively and had room to cut its lending margins or "spreads" further to keep market share. "We still feel that the retail spread is manageable within the traditional tramlines, which are 175 basis points to 225 basis points," he said. "At 220 we're right at the top of the range and we've plenty of powder in the bucket so to speak, so we would expect the spread to drift downwards -- but not to plummet." Kirk, who is keeping his "buy" recommendation on the stock, was reasonably impressed by the e-commerce plans. "The e-commerce initiative looks fairly aggressive and comprehensive." The competitive UK climate has fuelled speculation about further consolidation in the UK banking sector, which has just seen National Westminster Bank <NWB.L> taken over by Royal Bank of Scotland <RBOS.L>. MERGER 'NOT A PRIORITY' But Harley played down any suggestion that Abbey National might be interested in a merger with one of Britain's big four banks or with a mortgage bank. "It's not high on my list of priorties," he said. He said Abbey National had all the branches it needed and the history of bank mergers in the United States in particular, had shown they were not easy to get right. Abbey also said it planned another new business, currently codenamed Prosper, to meet the investment and cash management needs of customers with more than 50,000 pounds in net assets. The bank said it aimed to launch this later in 2000. 17:57 02-17-00 Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.