Latest news with #AOR
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Starcom secures McDonald's India West & South media mandate
Starcom India has been awarded the coveted media Agency of Record (AOR) mandate for McDonald's India West and South. This significant win follows a two-decade-long partnership between McDonald's India and Madison , which had handled the account since 2004. The win sees Starcom India taking charge of media planning and buying for the iconic fast-food giant in the crucial West and South markets. While OMD India continues to handle the mandate in the North and East region. The agency bagged the company's North and East region media mandate in 2023. Commenting on the new partnership, Arvind R.P, CMO, McDonald's India (W&S), stated, 'We welcome Starcom India as our new Agency of Record (AOR) for media. Starcom brings a strong blend of strategic thinking and future-forward capabilities across data, digital, and tech, making them well-placed to partner with us on our growth journey. We would also like to thank Madison for a collaborative partnership that has spanned over the past two decades.' In Q4FY25, Westlife Foodworld , the operator of McDonald's restaurants in West and South India, showed a revenue from operations of INR 603.14 crore, marking a 7.3 percent year-on-year growth. While net profit for the quarter saw a sequential decline to INR 1.52 crore, the company demonstrated a focus on digital sales , which contributed over 75 percent to total sales, and expanded its network by adding 18 new restaurants in Q4, bringing the total to 438 across 69 cities.
Malay Mail
06-05-2025
- General
- Malay Mail
Sultan Abdul Halim Airport closed after RMAF fighter jet skids on runway (VIDEO)
ALOR SETAR, May — The Sultan Abdul Halim Airport (AOR) runway is currently closed due to an aircraft-related incident at 5 p m today. In a statement, Malaysia Airports said the closure of the runway is to facilitate the removal of a Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) aircraft and the subsequent runway clearing works. 'A Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) has been issued and the (runway) closure is expected to continue until 10.30 tonight. During the closure, all flight operations at AOR will be affected. 'Passengers including those travelling for Haj are advised to check with their respective airlines or Lembaga Tabung Haji for the latest flight information,' it said. Panglima Angkatan Tentera sahkan terdapat insiden melibatkan pesawat TUDM di Lapangan Terbang Sultan Abdul Halim petang ini, tiada kemalangan jiwa media mengenai insiden pesawat TUDM di Lapangan Terbang Sultan Abdul Halim akan dikeluarkan sebentar lagi... — BERNAMA (@bernamadotcom) May 6, 2025 The airport will provide further updates once the runway is declared safe and open for flight operations by the Civil Aviation Authority Malaysia (CAAM). — Bernama
Forbes
22-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
This Outdated ‘Investing Rule' Is Costing Investors Millions
Business report graph with pen and calculator and notebook It's as predictable as night following day: Stock markets crash, and we almost immediately hear more about the so-called '60/40' investing rule as a way for investors to protect themselves. Don't fall for this overdone 'rule of thumb' (which, as the name says, recommends putting 60% of your portfolio into stocks and 40% into bonds). Today we're going to look at a much better way—one that pays you 9.7% dividends and delivers far better performance, too. Today's setup reminds me of what I heard near the end of 2022, when stocks were crashing. Back then, many advisors were dredging up this old idea to help ease worried investors' fears. Except, in doing so, they were costing those investors money, which I pointed out in an October 2022 Contrarian Outlook article: 'With the 60/40 portfolio, you're actively withdrawing money from your portfolio during a bear market, so the longer the market stays down, the more you need to gain to make your initial investment whole again.' Here's how a garden variety S&P 500 index fund has done compared to a 60/40 ETF, the iShares Core 60/40 Balanced Allocation ETF (AOR), since then: AOR Total Returns 2022 Forward In other words, even with the tariff panic (which you can see at right above), investors who opted for 60/40 rule then are $1,912 poorer, as of this writing, for every $10,000 they invested than those who simply bought an S&P 500 index fund. Now that investors are panicking again, I'm even more convinced 60/40 is a poor strategy. Let's zoom out and look at the lousy performance this rule has baked in over the long run: AOR Long Term Returns Lag Here we see that investors relying on 60/40 would've missed a staggering $47,120 in profits for every $10,000 invested over 16 years. Stretch that over a lifetime, and you can see that 60/40 can literally cost you millions. To be sure, moving cash into bonds might feel good today, with fear running high, but if you do, you will lose money compared to the average stock investor. The 60/40 rule stems from economist Harry Markowitz's modern portfolio theory (MPT) from back in the 1950s. This work suggested investors could optimize returns, relative to risk, by diversifying across asset classes. By the late 20th century, 60/40 was a go-to for many investors, although, as you can see from the chart above, it began badly lagging stocks in the early 21st century (it had actually begun doing this in the 1990s, but things really fell apart after the dot-com bubble burst). Markowitz never meant this rule to be an actual guide for advisors, but it is convenient, so it's not too surprising that it's endured—even with its poor performance. But that may be starting to change, as more pros speak out against 60/40. That may, funnily enough, speed up a stock rebound. Just before the Trump tariff selloff began, Blackrock's Larry Fink wrote about how the rule doesn't work anymore, saying it 'may no longer fully represent true diversification.' More recently, Apollo Chief Economist Torsten Sløk wrote that the 60/40 portfolio continues to underperform, 'with only a 2% annual return for the past three and a half years.' The question, then, becomes: What do we choose instead? In that October 2022 article I mentioned earlier, I suggested an alternative to 60/40: three closed-end funds (CEFs) that combine stocks, corporate bonds and real estate. This three-fund 'mini-portfolio' included the 9.5%-yielding, stock-focused Liberty All-Star Equity Fund (USA); the 11.2%-yielding, bond-focused PIMCO Corporate & Income Opportunity Fund (PTY); and the real-estate-heavy, 8.5%-yielding Cohen & Steers Quality Income Realty Fund (RQI). Why these funds? The reason is why members of my CEF Insider service choose CEFs in the first place: income. With an average 9.7% yield as I write this, they provide a huge income stream that index funds and 60/40 simply can't match. We have also seen, in the more than two decades since all three of these funds have been around, very consistent payouts, on average. Because profits from stocks fluctuate (every year will give different returns), USA's dividend will tend to move around more than the more stable payouts PTY provides. Meantime, changes in income from rents, as well as fluctuating interest rates, tend to cause RQI's payouts to take a small step up or down for a few years' time. Over the long haul, though, these payouts tend to remain roughly stable as managers move to keep them consistent. Beyond this, though, is the performance. CEFs Outperform Over the last decade, these funds have delivered a 9.3% average annualized return, while 60/40 (shown in orange above) has delivered about half that. The bottom line: These three funds have a proven history of delivering strong dividends, and they spread your money across asset classes. In other words, they do what 60/40 is supposed to—without the (potentially millions) in missed profits. Michael Foster is the Lead Research Analyst for Contrarian Outlook. For more great income ideas, click here for our latest report 'Indestructible Income: 5 Bargain Funds with Steady 8.6% Dividends.' Disclosure: none
The Independent
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Elton John and Brandi Carlile deliver out-sized, old-school fun on Who Believes in Angels?
'I've been in a band with Elton John since I was 13, but he only just found out,' Brandi Carlile joked in an interview with CBS last month. As a Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975) superfan, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter from Washington (whose solo work has spanned everything from indie-folk to country-rock) has the British icon's style embedded in her bones. So on Who Believes in Angels? she leans comfortably into the paternal bombast of his bluesy-boppy AOR, her rich, clear (and higher) vocals adding melodic boosters to the Rocket Man' s deep, earnest rumble. You'll probably have heard their wholesome, interlocking power balladry in action on the radio-friendly single 'Never Too Late', hymning the carpe diem joys of 'a slow dance on a carousel/ A walk in the snow.' The pair have been friends for two decades – taking family holidays together with their spouses and kids – and last collaborated on John's 2021 duets album, Lockdown Sessions. Previous sessions, however, saw them writing and recording separately. For Who Believes in Angels?, they holed up together in a studio for 20 days with John's brother-in-arms lyricist Bernie Taupin and producer Andrew Watt (who was behind the desk for 'Hold Me Closer', John's 2021 hit with Britney Spears). Carlile got to see John's famous temper as he smashed up an iPad and tore up some of her lyrics in frustration: 'Predictable! Cliche! F*** off, Brandi!'. It's all on camera, the first time John has allowed an album's entire recording process to be filmed. Taupin, inured to such outbursts, apparently had to take Carlile out for whiskey sours to destress the woman John believes has brought him back to musical life. John admits he hasn't watched all of the footage, but it will likely serve as a helpful reminder for fans of the creative distress behind many of his songs. Otherwise, it's easy to forget, given the infectious ease with which he plays and sings. Many of the tracks on this album feel as though they've been swilling around the Radio 2 drivetime playlist for decades. That's part of the intention – to recreate the playfulness and sense of fun heard on some of John's Seventies gems. Watt borrowed the drum kit used on 1973's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (bought by Hollywood actor Ben Stiller at auction), while Carlile pinned up posters of vintage John tours on the studio walls. You can hear the feedback loop of John in his platform-kicking pomp in the blast of the title track. The record opens with 'The Rose of Laura Nyro', a tribute to one of John's idols, the late California singer-songwriter who died in 1997, aged 49. It's a track that hovers in an electric fog of proggy retro synths and big, gurning guitar noodling before John's piano weighs anchor. When Carlile's voice sweetens the scene – direct in the foreground, hazy in the backing vocals – there are echoes of The Carpenters. John brings a little glam stomp to his old pub piano on 'Little Richard's Bible'. Meanwhile, 'Swing for the Fences' is an uptempo LGBT+ album with a rather chugging melody, fortunately elevated by the passionately unified force of the singers' voices. There are echoes of 'Tiny Dancer' in the reflective rolls of the piano runs between verses of 'Never Too Late' as the septuagenarian star defies mortality in Taupin's words: 'F*** off, heaven's gate!' The pair embrace roadhouse jukebox Americana on several tracks; on others it's country gospel with 'A Little Light' and twangier country rock on 'The River Man' and 'Someone To Belong To'. Solo moments sparkle. Carlile's tenderly fingerpicked song for the eldest of her two daughters, Evangeline (11) looks forward to a time when she will 'find your own records, choose what you believe' while reassuring her: 'I would know you anywhere/ I found myself in you.' It's such a lightly, deftly delivered tune, and so generous of spirit, that it made me cry. John also moistens the eyeballs on the solo piano closer, 'When This Old World Is Done With Me'. Over gentle washes of ivory, he reminds us that 'none of this came easy/ The shadows, the curtains, or the lights…' You can hear his voice crack as he hits the chorus, asking that, 'When I close my eyes, release me like an ocean wave, return me to the tide.' The album's direct confrontation with aging and death serves to intensify these artists' joyful, companionable celebration of life. Outsized, old-school, dad-rockin' fun.
