Blair Takes Flak for Luxury Jet

English Prime Minister Tony Blair has faced a lot of criticism lately, most notably for his continued support of the war in Iraq. But now he is fighting a different kind of air war involving flying to the United States in a top of the line private jet.

The jet in question, a Boeing Business Jet 737-700, is rumored to have cost someone upwards of £189,000 for the round trip. The question many are asking is who actually footed the bill.

One spokesman for Private Jet Charter, said that this type of jet is “very exclusive, like a flying luxury hotel.” Indeed it would seem so as a standard package of a Boeing Business Jet 737-700 includes Jacuzzis, restaurants, dining rooms, and business sites.

According to industry experts, the round trip to Washington could have been carried out with any other executive jet for only £45,000. It is a price differential that has many people raising their eyebrows.

While Blair’s farewell tour might have been carried off in style, it has to be a bitter goodbye to his tenure as one of Great Britain’s most popular prime ministers.

Luxury autos vroom into Punjab

Chandigarh: Luxury car brands like Audi, Porsche and BMW till date did not have any authorised dealer in the Punjab-Haryana region, despite it boasting 15% of the Indian luxury car marketshare. Ludhiana and Jalandhar, for instance, are home to the largest number of Mercs in India. Sure enough, things are changing. BMW and Audi have appointed authorised dealers here, while Porsche is about to finalise its dealer in the region.

Chandigarh-based JC Automobiles has bagged the dealership for German auto giant Audi. Currently, it has dealerships in three cities, namely New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. "Punjab has plenty of NRI money and they spent them on luxury items like cars. Luxury cars are a status symbol for the people here. Moreover, Punjab along with Chandigarh, has one of the strongest economic centres in the country.

There is a lot of business opportunity in this region and that's the main reason we have taken the Audi dealership. All the Audi models, including A4, A6, A8 and Q7, will be available now in Chandigarh," JC Automobiles director Atul Aggarwal told ET.

Seeing the huge potential in the market Mr Aggarwal expects to sell about 200 cars in the first year. "The first year will be very significant for us and we expect to sell about 200 cars in the region," added Mr Aggarwal.

Last month BMW India, a 100% subsidiary of the German company BMW, had appointed Krishna Automobiles as its dealer in Chandigarh. And its sales volume for the two months speaks about the demand in the region. "In the last two months, we have had about 65 bookings and that itself speaks of the volume.

We plan to sell at least 150 cars this year, but as the demand is getting higher it seems we'll exceed the target. We will also be moving to Punjab next year and will be opening a new showroom in either Jalandhar or Ludhiana," Krishna Automobiles partner Sachit Passi said. BMW had earlier never sold its cars in the region as it didn’t have a dealer here and the company policy does not allow it to sell at a place where service is not available.

“The year 2007 is the year of India for BMW. Last year, BMW did not have any production facility in the country and we sold 257 BMW cars here. But now the company started its first manufacturing unit in Chennai and the company expects to sell about 1,200 cars in the calendar year in the country. Phase I of the dealer expansion plans would include 12 dealers in all metropolitan cities by the end of 2009,” said Mr Passi.

Porsche, another German company which has come to India, will also look into the region sooner or later. The company is currently focusing on the south. Chandigarh-based Joshi Autozone is in discussions with them to bring the company to this region.

"We just had an informal discussion in bringing the brand to the region. Porsche is a very famous brand and we are interested in starting a dealership here," Joshi Autozone MD Deepak Joshi said.

Porsche Cars India in the next two months will be adding a centre each at Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. By the end of the year, the company expects to have a total of five dealers in the country.

Net Income Falls 79% at Luxury-Home Builder

PHILADELPHIA, May 24 (AP) — Government data showing an unexpected surge in new-home sales was little comfort to the luxury-home builder Toll Brothers, which reported a 79 percent decline in its fiscal second-quarter profit on Thursday.

Shares of Toll Brothers initially rose as much as 4.6 percent before falling back, and closed at $30.07, up 30 cents.

Other home builders also gave up their gains. The Philadelphia housing sector index, which tracks housing stocks, was down after an early rise.

“What you’re seeing is the blue-light special,” said Pat McPherron, an economist with Moody’s Economy.com. “The only way this market is going to move is by price-cutting.”

Robert I. Toll, the chief executive of Toll Brothers, was cautious. In a conference call with analysts, he said he was “a little more confident, but I would emphasize ‘a little.’ ”

Over the years, Toll Brothers has not cut prices as quickly as other builders.

In the quarter, it reported net income of $36.7 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with $174.9 million, or $1.06 a share, in the period a year earlier. Revenue fell to $1.17 billion from $1.44 billion the year before

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had estimated profit of 25 cents a share on revenue of $1.12 billion.

The quarter included write-downs of $72.9 million, or 44 cents a share. Excluding one-time items, the company would have earned 66 cents a share, compared with $1.10 a share last year.

Second-quarter net signed contracts fell 25 percent, to $1.17 billion. The company signed 2,031 contracts, before cancellations, in the latest period, a 14 percent decline from a year earlier.

Joe Snider, an analyst with Moody’s Investors Service in New York, noted that Toll Brothers had managed its debt so that interest payments were not weighing as heavily on earnings as at other home builders.

Last month, Pulte Homes posted a quarterly loss, while D. R. Horton said its earnings fell 85 percent. Profit at the Centex Corporation dropped 49 percent in what the company called one of the most difficult housing slumps in 25 years.

Toll said it expected to deliver 6,100 to 6,900 homes this fiscal year and to produce total home-building revenue of $4.26 billion to $4.88 billion.

For the third quarter, which ends July 31, the company said it expected to deliver 1,400 to 1,800 homes and produce revenue of $990 million to $1.28 billion.

“The bad times may not be behind us yet, but it could be,” Mr. Toll said. “You never know.”

Net Income Falls 79% at Luxury-Home Builder

PHILADELPHIA, May 24 (AP) — Government data showing an unexpected surge in new-home sales was little comfort to the luxury-home builder Toll Brothers, which reported a 79 percent decline in its fiscal second-quarter profit on Thursday.

Shares of Toll Brothers initially rose as much as 4.6 percent before falling back, and closed at $30.07, up 30 cents.

Other home builders also gave up their gains. The Philadelphia housing sector index, which tracks housing stocks, was down after an early rise.

“What you’re seeing is the blue-light special,” said Pat McPherron, an economist with Moody’s Economy.com. “The only way this market is going to move is by price-cutting.”

Robert I. Toll, the chief executive of Toll Brothers, was cautious. In a conference call with analysts, he said he was “a little more confident, but I would emphasize ‘a little.’ ”

Over the years, Toll Brothers has not cut prices as quickly as other builders.

In the quarter, it reported net income of $36.7 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with $174.9 million, or $1.06 a share, in the period a year earlier. Revenue fell to $1.17 billion from $1.44 billion the year before

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had estimated profit of 25 cents a share on revenue of $1.12 billion.

The quarter included write-downs of $72.9 million, or 44 cents a share. Excluding one-time items, the company would have earned 66 cents a share, compared with $1.10 a share last year.

Second-quarter net signed contracts fell 25 percent, to $1.17 billion. The company signed 2,031 contracts, before cancellations, in the latest period, a 14 percent decline from a year earlier.

Joe Snider, an analyst with Moody’s Investors Service in New York, noted that Toll Brothers had managed its debt so that interest payments were not weighing as heavily on earnings as at other home builders.

Last month, Pulte Homes posted a quarterly loss, while D. R. Horton said its earnings fell 85 percent. Profit at the Centex Corporation dropped 49 percent in what the company called one of the most difficult housing slumps in 25 years.

Toll said it expected to deliver 6,100 to 6,900 homes this fiscal year and to produce total home-building revenue of $4.26 billion to $4.88 billion.

For the third quarter, which ends July 31, the company said it expected to deliver 1,400 to 1,800 homes and produce revenue of $990 million to $1.28 billion.

“The bad times may not be behind us yet, but it could be,” Mr. Toll said. “You never know.”