Useful terms and expressions

1. Johnson – is a podcast of the online version of The Economist magazine.

2. ROI (return on investment) – коэффициент рентабельности (доходности) инвестиций

3. to lowball smth – занижать оценку, принижать важность чего-либо

4. compound interests – эффективные проценты, проценты на процент

5. plausible – приемлемый, оправданный, имеющий все основания

6. opportunity cost – «цена выбора», альтернативные издержки, упущенная выгода; стоимость неиспользования (лучшей) альтернативы экономической деятельности

Texts for oral translation

TEXT 1

Interpret the newspaper clipping into Russian orally. Comment on the competition strategy used by Alisher Usmanov. Do you think it is a viable well-calculated strategy? Has the billionaire’s attitude to holding American assets changed?

Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov has snapped up $100m worth of Apple shares because he believes they will rise again. In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, he said: “I believe in the future of this company even after Steve Jobs. When the company lost $100 billion of its market value, it was a good time to buy its shares, as the capitalization should rebound.”

Mr Usmanov, who owns Russia's biggest iron-ore producer and a sizeable chunk of the mobile-phone firm MegaFon, made a more than 10-fold return from his investment in Facebook.

Bloomberg Businessweek

Useful terms and expressions

1. shares - акции

2. rebound – отскочить, дать неожиданный результат, восстанавливаться, выйти из рецессии), быть на подъёме

3. iron-ore – железная руда

TEXT 2

Interpret the newspaper clipping into Russian orally. Comment on the competition strategy used by the mentioned companies. Which do you think is winning judging by their posted financials? While translating such phrases as ‘Kremlin-controlled’, mind political correctness and inter-state competition.

BP's first quarter results were also out this morning. Emily Gosden reports that its profits more than tripled to $16.6bn (£10.7bn) in the first three months of 2013 as the oil giant received $12.4bn from Kremlin-controlled Rosneft for its stake in TNK-BP.

Excluding the one-off boost from the Russian megadeal, completed at the end of March, BP reported underlying profits of $4.2bn, down 9 per cent from $4.7bn in the same period of 2012, as the company sold off assets to pay for the Gulf of Mexico disaster. The underlying result was however almost $1bn above the expectations of analysts, who had forecast a profit slump of as much as 30%. The same analysts had also warned that profits would be hard to predict given the major changes BP has undergone in the past year.

The profits are given on a net 'replacement cost profit' basis, the oil industry standard for stripping out changes to the value of the oil inventory.

Bloomberg Businessweek

Useful terms and expressions

1. a stake in – доля в компании

2. one-off – одноразовое явление

3. underlying profits – основная прибыль

4. sell off assets – продавать активы

5. Gulf of Mexico – Мексиканский залив

6. replacement cost - стоимость восстановления экологического объекта

7. stripping out – снимать, одновременно поднимать оборудование, относить (изменения)

8. oil inventory – суммарный товарный запас нефти

TEXT 3