www.miami.com Posted on Wed, Mar. 19, 2003
BY CHRISTINA HOAG choag@herald.com

Two months after warning that bankruptcy was imminent, DirecTV Latin America filed Tuesday to reorganize the company's finances and announced a new management team to turn around the troubled satellite TV service.

The Fort Lauderdale-based company, which reported losses last year of $202 million on revenues of $680 million, said it will continue regular operations while under a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The filing does not apply to any of its operating companies in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Unable to stanch deepening losses despite extensive cost-streamlining over the previous 18 months, the direct-to-home satellite TV service had warned in January that bankruptcy was on the table if it did not satisfactorily renegotiate contracts with suppliers, programmers and lenders.

''The negotiations didn't give us the contractual modifications we needed for our long-term goals,'' said company spokeswoman Jannice Reyes.

NEW FINANCING

DirecTV's majority stockholder, Hughes Electronics, said it would provide the company with $300 million in debtor-in-possession financing, subject to bankruptcy court approval.

''While we have a formidable challenge ahead, I'm confident that we will emerge as a stronger and more efficient organization,'' said Larry N. Chapman, DirecTV Latin America's new president and chief operating officer.

Hughes named Chapman, formerly Hughes' corporate senior vice president, and Hughes corporate Senior Executive Vice President Eddy W. Hartenstein to lead the turnaround effort.

Hartenstein replaced former Chairman Kevin N. McGrath, who is retiring. The president's post had been vacant.

''I feel it is now time for me to move on,'' McGrath said in a statement. ``Therefore, I have elected to retire and spend more time with my family and pursue other goals.''

DirecTV, which is enjoying robust growth in the United States, is the leading satellite TV provider in Latin America, with 1.6 million subscribers in 28 countries, compared with rival Sky Latin America's 1.4 million.

ECONOMIC SLUMP

Both companies, like other pay TV operators, have been clobbered by Latin America's crashing economies over the past two years. Sky Latin America, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., reported losses of $152 million in 2002.

Analysts said DirecTV is expected to pull through the restructuring and emerge a competitive player in what should be a profitable market once Latin America's political and economic turmoil subsides.

The region's volatile economic swings have crimped DirecTV's cash flow, and coping with that while servicing debt is the company's challenge, said David Joyce, media analyst at Guzman & Co. in Miami.

TEMPORARY SETBACK

''It's liquidity issues that DirecTV is facing,'' he said. ``They have to take this prepackaged bankruptcy in order not to be swallowed by excessive debt payments. They need to restructure the balance sheets, but will continue to be around and operate, as will other players in the region.''

Hughes, a subsidiary of General Motors, owns 75 percent of DirecTV Latin America. The rest is held by Venezuela's Cisneros Group of Companies and Argentina's Grupo Clarín in a partnership called Darlene Investments.

www.bayarea.com Posted on Wed, Mar. 19, 2003
H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press

WASHINGTON - As the United States and Iraq move closer to war, oil markets seemed to be taking it all in stride. Global crude oil stocks are growing, prices declining and some analysts are talking cautiously of a possible oil glut on the horizon. Lower energy prices probably would follow.

That is, energy experts warned, if a war in Iraq doesn't drag on and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein doesn't torch his oil fields or, in the worst case, finds a way to disrupt other Persian Gulf supplies.

For now, the markets are betting those things won't happen and that the war will be a swift one.

Oil prices dropped by more than $3 a barrel, or about 9 percent, on Tuesday, falling to their lowest in more than two months as traders believed there is enough crude in the system to make up for Iraq's lost production if war erupts.

Oil traders "are beginning .. to realize there's a bit of a glut of oil around," said Leo Drollas, chief economist of the London-based Center for Global Energy Studies.

But that oil has yet to reach the U.S. markets.

The Energy Department said Wednesday U.S. crude oil stocks remained uncomfortably low at 270 million barrels, roughly where inventories have been most of this year and at the minimum industry says is needed for smooth refinery operation. The U.S. stocks increased only slightly over a week ago.

Crude inventories have consistently been 300,000 to 400,000 barrels below a year ago, said Doug MacIntyre, an oil analyst for the Energy Information Administration. Imports also have been down from previous levels, although OPEC producers other than Iraq and strife-torn Venezuela have been pumping more oil for weeks.

The low U.S. inventories reflect transportation delays, but also reluctance by refiners to buy oil when the price has been $35 to $37 a barrel, analysts said.

Much of that oil is now in storage in the Persian Gulf or in tankers on the high seas, say oil analysts. Saudi Arabia is believed to have as much as 50 million barrels in storage in the country and more en route to other storage facilities. That's enough to replace Iraq's 1.5 million to 2 million barrels a day for about a month.

Larry Goldstein, president of the private Petroleum Industry Research Foundation, said the markets also have been calmed because the Bush administration has made clear that it's ready to use some of the 600 million barrels in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to counter shortages.

Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said this week he is convinced the reserve is capable of providing oil quickly on orders from President Bush. It has shifted "from the fill mode to the flow mode," Tauzin said.

Still, there remains some trepidation among oil traders and analysts should war in Iraq last a while. Crude oil prices are likely to remain volatile in the months to come, they cautioned.

"This thing could go right back up," said Tom Bentz, an analyst at BNP Paribas in New York, suggesting prices could rebound once fighting erupts. "We're still vulnerable because inventories are tight."

When prices jumped in the weeks before the Gulf War, oil inventories already were high. That helped cushion the impact on prices, which jumped briefly to more than $40 a barrel and then declined rapidly when it became clear that the war would be settled quickly.

The biggest fear in the market is that oil facilities in other Middle Eastern countries, such as Kuwait or Saudi Arabia, could be attacked - a scenario that would cause oil prices to shoot higher very quickly, said Fadel Gheit, senior oil analyst at Fahnestock & Co. in New York.

Short of that happening, there is plenty of oil, Gheit said, and the recent price declines make clear that for the time being the "war premium" has disappeared. He said prices could drop an additional $5 a barrel in the coming days.

Energy experts say a glut could result if war in Iraq doesn't drag on and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein doesn't torch his oil fields or disrupt other Persian Gulf suppliers.

For now, the markets are betting those things won't happen and that the war will be a short one.

Associated Press Writer Brad Foss in New York contributed to this report.

By Allison Linn, Rocky Mountain News March 19, 2003

The biggest, baddest threat on Wall Street this year doesn't sound that scary: uncertainty.

Uncertainty - mainly over whether the country would go to war with Iraq - has been key to dragging the major market indexes down the past couple of months.

That all came to an abrupt halt a few days ago when the Bush administration signaled that war with Iraq was inevitable. The massive market rally that followed finally slowed Tuesday, with major indicators rising just slightly.

Financial advisers said the rally would likely have happened no matter what decision President Bush made - as long as he made a decision.

"I think the market just wanted it one way or the other. I think it would've gone up whether we went to war or not," said Joseph Mossa, managing director of investments with Piper Jaffray in Denver.

Now the big question is: What happens next?

"Right now what we are seeing is what I call a 'sense of relief rally,' " said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist with Wells Fargo in Minneapolis. "(But) once the war actually starts we will get a better fix on how short or messy this war is going to be, and depending on how the war unfolds we could see a significant change in the direction of the market."

In the near term, financial advisers expect investors to react strongly to daily war news, negative or positive.

"So much is going to depend on how things proceed, so for the next several weeks (market fluctuations) are going to be event-driven," said Judi Wagner, of Denver's Wagner Investment Management.

Some said the markets could be affected by the ongoing terrorist threat; others said the markets would only have a major reaction if there were an actual attack on U.S. interests.

No matter what, Sohn doesn't expect as strong a market rally as in the Gulf War in 1991.

For one thing, he said, it will be more difficult to oust Saddam Hussein from Baghdad than it was to liberate Kuwait.

Another factor, Sohn said, is that issues such as a long-term strike of oil workers in Venezuela could keep oil prices high even if a war with Iraq appears headed toward resolution. That would affect any number of industries.

Sohn also is worried about high cost of war and the ultimate effect it could have on the weak U.S. economy.

"I can't imagine it's really a positive," Sohn said.

Still, while war may be at the forefront of many investors' minds, financial experts caution that in the long-term investors will likely become more interested in the fundamental issues that normally drive markets.

The overall economy remains weak, they say, and many will be looking for indicators of a rebound - most notably, an increase in capital spending - before the markets can really improve.

Without improvement in corporate spending, Wagner said, "I see us going sideways for quite a while."

www.businesswire.com BW5919 MAR 17,2003 14:14 PACIFIC 17:14 EASTERN Business Editors

MONTERREY, Mexico--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 2003--CEMEX, S.A. de C.V. (NYSE: CX) announced today that it expects EBITDA for the quarter ending March 31, 2003 to reach approximately US$425 million, versus US$473 million for the first quarter of 2002, while operating income is expected to reach about US$275 million for the first quarter of 2003 versus US$320 million a year ago. For the first quarter, CEMEX expects to achieve revenue of about US$1,550 million versus US$1,571 million a year ago.
For the first quarter, CEMEX Mexico's domestic gray cement and ready mix volumes are expected to grow by about 9% and 19% respectively versus the same period a year ago. Cement demand in Mexico continues to benefit from the strength of the low-income housing sector, a robust infrastructure sector driven by government spending, and a stable self-construction sector.
Cement sales volumes for CEMEX's operations in the United States are expected to decline by about 3% versus same quarter last year. Cement demand was partially affected by adverse weather conditions relative to last year.
Cement sales volumes for CEMEX's operations in Spain are expected to grow by about 2% versus first quarter last year, supported by strong public works spending and a healthy residential sector.
Overall, our quarterly results are expected to be positively impacted by more business days in some of the countries where we have operations as a result of the lesser number of religious holidays during this first quarter, when compared with a year ago.
Rodrigo Trevino, Chief Financial Officer, said: "We are pleased by the better than expected performance in Mexico and Spain. While we continue to have a challenging environment in Venezuela, its performance is on track with our expectations. We are however increasingly cautious with respect to our United States operations and its performance going forward. This is primarily driven by revised expectations of lower growth due to continued geopolitical uncertainty and to lower consumer confidence. Our results for the quarter will benefit from the achievement of important cost cutting measures underway. Given our expected performance during the first quarter, we remain comfortable about our previously stated sales and EBITDA guidance for 2003."
CEMEX expects to release its first quarter results and host its quarterly conference call on April 11th, 2003. Guidance numbers for the first quarter of 2003 are calculated on the basis of market close exchange rates as of March 14th, 2003.
CEMEX is a leading global producer and marketer of cement and ready-mix products, with operations primarily concentrated in the world's most dynamic cement markets across four continents. CEMEX combines a deep knowledge of the local markets with its global network and information technology systems to provide world-class products and services to its customers, from individual homebuilders to large industrial contractors. For more information, visit www.cemex.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements and information that are necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of CEMEX to be materially different from those expressed or implied in this release, including, among others, changes in general economic, political, governmental and business conditions globally and in the countries in which CEMEX does business, changes in interest rates, changes in inflation rates, changes in exchange rates, the level of construction generally, changes in cement demand and prices, changes in raw material and energy prices, changes in business strategy and various other factors. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein. CEMEX assumes no obligation to update or correct the information contained in this press release.
EBITDA is defined as operating income plus depreciation and amortization. All of the above items are presented under generally accepted accounting principles in Mexico. EBITDA (as defined above) is presented herein because the company believes that it is widely accepted as a financial indicator of the company's ability to internally fund capital expenditures and service or incur debt. EBITDA should not be considered as an indicator of the company's financial performance, as an alternative to cash flow, as a measure of liquidity or as being comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies.


--30--AD/ny*

CONTACT: CEMEX
         Media Relations:         
         Daniel Perez Whitaker, +(52) 818-152-2738       
         mr@cemex.com
         or
         Investor Relations:                        
         Abraham Rodriguez, +(52) 818-328-3631             
         arodriguez@cemex.com          
         or                              
         Analyst Relations:                     
         Jose Antonio Gonzalez, 212/317-6008                  
         josegonzalez@cemex.com

KEYWORD: MEXICO INTERNATIONAL LATIN AMERICA
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: REAL ESTATE CONFERENCE CALLS EARNINGS
SOURCE: CEMEX, S.A. de C.V.

Procter & Gamble Monday March 17, 4:58 pm ET

CINCINNATI, March 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG - News) today stated it is raising earnings guidance for the January to March 2003 quarter behind solid volume growth and favorable exchange rates.

Volume for the quarter is expected to grow in the six to eight percent range, with broad scale improvement across global business units and geographies. The health care business unit and developing markets continue to lead the volume progress. The solid volume growth is on top of a strong base period when volume grew by 10 percent, and includes the current year negative impact of the Jif and Crisco spin-off, which was completed at the end of May 2002.

Sales, excluding foreign exchange, are expected to finish the quarter with growth in the mid single-digit range. Foreign exchange is expected to add approximately three to four percent to sales growth, which is one to two percent above previous estimates. Total sales growth is projected in the high single-digits, reflecting the solid volume growth and favorable exchange rates.

Operating margin is expected to grow in the range of 20 to 50 basis points versus a very strong base period when operating margins grew by 280 basis points.

Core earnings per share, which excludes restructuring program charges, are expected to grow in the 13% to 14% percent range, at or above consensus estimates. Previous guidance included anticipated core earnings per share growth of 11% to 13%.

Also, the company announced that A.G. Lafley, chairman of the board, president and chief executive, and Clayton C. Daley, Jr., chief financial officer, will be presenting at the Merrill Lynch Consumer Products Conference in New York City tomorrow, March 18, at 7:00 a.m. (ET). The presentation will be made in the Spellman Room of the Palace Hotel. Analysts and investors are invited to attend.

For those unable to participate in person, a conference call of the meeting will be available by calling 800-946-0742 in the U.S. For calls outside the U.S., the number is 719-457-2650. Please use the following confirmation code 177504 to get access to the conference. Also, the meeting will be available via webcast on Tues., March 18 at 7:00 a.m. (ET). You may link to the webcast by going to our website at: www.pg.com .

A replay of the call will be available until midnight, Tues., March 25, 2003 by calling 800-289-0579 in the U.S. The confirmation code is 177504. Outside the U.S., please call 719-457-2550 and use the same confirmation code.

All statements, other than statements of historical fact included in this news release, are forward-looking statements, as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In addition to the risks and uncertainties noted in this news release, there are certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by some of the statements made. These include: (1) the achievement of expected cost and tax savings associated with changes in the Company's organization structure; (2) the ability to achieve business plans, including growing volume profitably, despite high levels of competitive activity, especially with respect to the product categories and geographical markets in which the Company has chosen to focus; (3) the ability to manage and maintain key customer relationships; (4) the achievement of growth in significant developing markets such as China, Turkey, Mexico, the Southern Cone of Latin America, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the countries of Southeast Asia; (5) the ability to successfully manage regulatory, tax and legal matters, including resolution of pending matters within current estimates; (6) the ability to successfully implement, achieve and sustain cost improvement plans in manufacturing and overhead areas; (7) the ability to successfully manage currency (including currency issues in Latin America), interest rate and certain commodity cost exposures; and (8) the ability to manage the continued political and/or economic uncertainty in Latin America (including Venezuela) and the Middle East, as well as any political and/or economic uncertainty due to terrorist activities or war (including Korea). If the Company's assumptions and estimates are incorrect or do not come to fruition, or if the Company does not achieve all of these key factors, then the Company's actual results might differ materially from the forward-looking statements made herein. For additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those projected herein, please refer to our most recent 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K reports.

About Procter & Gamble

P&G is celebrating 165 years of providing trusted quality brands that make every day better for the world's consumers. We market nearly 300 brands -- including Pampers®, Tide®, Ariel®, Always®, Whisper®, Pantene®, Bounty®, Pringles®, Folgers®, Charmin®, Downy®, Lenor®, Iams®, Crest®, Actonel®, Olay® and Clairol® -- in more than 160 countries around the world. The P&G community consists of nearly 102,000 employees working in almost 80 countries worldwide. Please visit www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.