China’s Tallest Tower Builder Assures Quality Amid Sand Scandal

China’s Tallest Tower Builder Assures Quality Amid Sand Scandal

China State Construction Engineering Corp. (601668), which is building the country’s tallest tower, said materials used in all its projects meet quality standard as the southern city of Shenzhen conducted inspections on builders.

Samples from buildings, including the 660-meter Ping An Finance Center due to be completed in 2015, were tested, according to Shenzhen’s Housing and Construction Bureau. The industrywide inspection in the city last week followed a China Central Television newscast on March 14 that investigated the use of substandard concrete by some developers in Shenzhen that used low-quality sea sand instead of river sand. Read more of this post

Singapore’s property trusts, the second-best performers in Asia in the past year, may have to diversify funding sources as they aren’t prepared for an “interest rate shock,” according to Fitch Ratings.

Singapore REITs to Vary Funds on Interest Rates: Southeast Asia

Singapore’s property trusts, the second-best performers in Asia in the past year, may have to diversify funding sources as they aren’t prepared for an “interest rate shock,” according to Fitch Ratings.

The city’s real estate investment trusts or REITs have been increasing short-term debt with record-low interest rates, according to Johann Kenny, director of corporates at Fitch. They face refinancing risks when borrowing costs rise, and may be pushed to sell assets or shares to boost their funding, he said.

“Singapore REITs are not really well equipped to withstand an interest rate shock,” Kenny said in a phone interview from Sydney yesterday. “When a rating agency looks at a company, we look at the long-run average through the cycle of the interest rate environment and we don’t see the current low interest rates as a sustainable model from a macro-economic perspective.”

Singapore REITs, the biggest fundraisers in the city’s initial public offering market in the past year, had relied on short-term debt to reflect the length of commercial leases, Kenny said. Their funding costs in the past six years don’t reflect the challenges in a “normalized” interest rate scenario, he said. Read more of this post

Indian gold funds are shrinking as investors in the biggest bullion- consuming nation follow billionaire George Soros in pulling money from products backed by the precious metal.

India Gold ETF Sales Mimic Soros as Goldman More Bearish

Indian gold funds are shrinking for the first time since June as investors in the biggest bullion- consuming nation follow billionaire George Soros in pulling money from products backed by the precious metal.

Exchange-traded funds in gold saw outflows of 80 million rupees ($1.5 million), data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India show. Investments in sovereign-debt funds rose by 4.46 billion rupees, the sixth straight month of inflows. Gold prices in India have slid 4.3 percent this year, while rupee bonds returned 2.7 percent, the second-highest gains in Asia.

“Globally we are seeing a decelerating gold trend, and overweight investors will be adjusting asset allocations,” Lakshmi Iyer, Mumbai-based head of fixed income and products at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Co., which oversees about $6 billion of assets, said in a March 14 telephone interview. “We should see some interest-rate easing over the next two or three quarters,” encouraging people to seek capital gains in bonds, she added.

Soros cut his holdings in SPDR Gold Trust, the largest exchange-traded gold product, by 55 percent last quarter, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. predicts the metal’s 12-year rally will end as a U.S. economic recovery gathers momentum. The Reserve Bank of India will lower its benchmark repurchase rate to 7.50 percent from 7.75 percent today, according to 30 of 35 economists in a Bloomberg survey. Five predict no change. Read more of this post