Activist Billionaire Investor Nelson Peltz Presses PepsiCo to Spin Off Beverages and Buy Mondelez

Updated July 17, 2013, 10:03 p.m. ET

Peltz Presses PepsiCo to Spin Off Beverages and Buy Mondelez

MIKE ESTERL, JULIET CHUNG and JULIE JARGON

Activist shareholder Nelson Peltz said he is urging PepsiCo Inc. PEP +1.45% to acquire Mondelez International Inc. MDLZ +2.13% to create a global snack giant and spin off PepsiCo’s underperforming beverage business. But PepsiCo “right now doesn’t love” the proposed deal, Mr. Peltz said in an interview on CNBC, adding that he is continuing to talk with the snack and beverage company. Read more of this post

A Bailout Lifeline to a Brazilian Billionaire Would Be Risky

JULY 17, 2013, 3:29 PM

A Lifeline to a Brazilian Billionaire Would Be Risky

By CHRISTOPHER SWANN

A bailout of billionaire Eike Batista would look bad for Brazil. Whiffs of cronyism hang over reports that state development bank BNDES has eased debt terms for the once high-flying tycoon. Taxpayers already have up to $4.7 billion wagered on his collapsing empire. If Brasilia risks more to save a pampered tycoon, it had better be prepared for another round of street protests.

The flamboyant billionaire once called BNDES “the best bank in the world.” Now he may have even more reason to think so. Daily newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo reported that the bank is voluntarily softening the loan conditions for his heavily indebted group of companies. BNDES, Mr. Batista’s largest creditor, has denied any favoritism. Still, it would not be the first time the government has come to the entrepreneur’s aid. Read more of this post

Downbeat Maersk Line chief warns of new era in shipping; Container shipping industry faces lower annual growth

July 17, 2013 11:02 am

Downbeat Maersk Line chief warns of new era in shipping

By Mark Odell, Transport Correspondent

The struggling container shipping industry must prepare for a new era that will see growth in demand fall to half the levels seen over the past two decades, the head of the world’s largest carrier has warned. Søren Skou, chief executive of Maersk Line, a bellwether for global trade, told the Financial Times that the more downbeat outlook was not just due to an prediction of sustained weaker economic growth globally. Read more of this post

Thai farm subsidy creates rice mountain; the effects on world prices could be serious if Thailand floods the market with its rice

July 17, 2013 2:52 pm

Thai farm subsidy creates rice mountain

By Emiko Terazono

Europe has had its butter mountain and wine lake. Now the Thai government is sitting on a rice hoard large enough to supply half of global imports for a year – and traders fear a price collapse as it starts to sell. Bangkok’s rice buying policy, designed to boost farmers’ incomes, has led to a stockpile of 17m-18m tonnes. With the new crop set to be harvested in October, the Thai government needs to dispose of its existing inventory to raise money for the new purchases. Rice market experts are on high alert as Bangkok could issue tenders for about 350,000 tonnes of its rice as early as next week. Concepción Calpe, senior rice analyst at the Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome, warns the effects on world prices could be serious if Thailand floods the market with its rice. “It could potentially have catastrophic consequences,” she said. Read more of this post

The 40-Year Club: America’s Longest-Serving Directors; Board Colleagues Say They Provide Useful Context, While Activist Investors Question Independence

July 16, 2013, 7:45 p.m. ET

The 40-Year Club: America’s Longest-Serving Directors

Board Colleagues Say They Provide Useful Context, While Activist Investors Question Independence

JOANN S. LUBLIN

Corporate governance has changed dramatically in 40 years. Just ask Robert Ted Enloe III. He’s been on the board of Leggett & Platt Inc LEG +0.69% . that whole time. “Governance is far better today,” says Mr. Enloe. The 74-year-old former attorney has served on the board of the maker of bedding and commercial fixtures since 1969. Mr. Enloe belongs to an unusual elite: He’s one of 28 outside directors with at least 40 years’ tenure at a company in the Russell 3000 stock index. Aged 67 to 87 years old, these senior statesmen—and they are all men—hold board seats at big businesses such asNike Inc., NKE +1.00% Level 3 Communications Inc. LVLT -0.05% andCenturyLink Inc., CTL -0.44% according to an analysis by governance researchers GMI Ratings for The Wall Street Journal. Read more of this post

Paying Auditors for Honest Appraisals; An Experiment in India’s Gujarat State Shows a Way to Realign Interests and Incentives

Updated July 17, 2013, 9:21 p.m. ET

Paying Auditors for Honest Appraisals

An Experiment in India’s Gujarat State Shows a Way to Realign Interests and Incentives

DAVID WESSEL

The auditing business rests on what Joshua Ronen, a New York University accounting professor, once called “a structural infirmity.” Auditors are paid by companies they audit, much as rating agencies are paid by companies they rate. This gives auditors an economic incentive to lie on their clients’ behalf, even if that puts their reputations at risk. As an old German proverb puts it: Whose bread I eat, his song I sing. These conflicts of interest figured in the corporate-accounting scandals of the early 2000s and the subprime-mortgage securitization debacle of the late 2000s. Despite attempts to lessen conflicts, resolution has defied easy solution. Read more of this post

The Demanding Off-Hour Escapes of China’s High-Tech Workers

http://nyti.ms/1bmHNnt

July 16, 2013

The Demanding Off-Hour Escapes of China’s High-Tech Workers

By DAN LEVIN

ZHENGZHOU, China — The hottest nightclub in this factory town is a neon-encrusted dive down the road from the industrial park where iPhones are made 24 hours a day. Tucked behind an open construction site, “Through the Summer,” as the nightspot is known, had it all on a recent Saturday night — plastic whistles, fruit plates, a toddler with a mohawk, counterfeit light sabers and a bawdy comedian who imbibed beer through his nose. Read more of this post

Once-Coveted Asian Oil Riches Take Backseat to U.S. Shale

Jul 17, 2013

Once-Coveted Asian Oil Riches Take Backseat to U.S. Shale

By Ross Kelly

Once captivated by Asia’s untapped oil-and-gas riches, some midsize U.S. energy producers are now selling their Asian assets as the North American shale revolution offers bright prospects closer to home. Companies such as Anadarko Petroleum CorpAPC +0.73%Hess Corp. HES +0.76% andNewfield Exploration Co. NFX +1.91% recently started looking for buyers for either all or some of their Asian portfolios, together worth billions of dollars. Assets for sale include oil fields in China’s Bohai Bay and natural-gas hubs in Thailand. Pulling back from Asia may appear counterintuitive. China’s energy demand alone will rise by 60% between 2010 and 2035, accounting for the largest share of growth in global energy use, according to the International Energy Agency. Read more of this post

China renews pledge to push property tax expansion

China renews pledge to push property tax expansion

English.news.cn   2013-07-17

BEIJING, July 17 (Xinhua) — The long-discussed expansion of China’s property tax plan has once again come under the spotlight following a renewed pledge by tax authorities to research the plan. The State Administration of Taxation (SAT) said in a circular issued late Tuesday that it will research the possible expansion of property tax pilot programs. However, like similar statements previously made by other authorities, the circular did not include any details regarding a timetable for the expansion. The comment is the latest in a string of official statements in which authorities have vowed to implement a property tax plan currently being used in the cities of Shanghai and Chongqing. Read more of this post

By the way, China isn’t rebalancing

By the way, China isn’t rebalancing

Kate Mackenzie

| Jul 17 13:09 | 14 comments | Share

Stephen Roach recently wrote for Yale Global Online arguing that yes, rebalancing is happening, but the new leadership have it under control because they are enacting the necessary reforms to facilitate this transition. A quick look at the composition of second quarter growth statistics suggests that is not happening — at least not now. INET’s China Economics Seminar summarises the composition revealed at the National Bureau of Statistics press conference on Monday: […]the spokesman of the NBS told reporters that overall consumption contributed 45.2% of GDP growth in the first six months of 2013 while investment’s contribution still stood well above half at 53.9%. Net exports contributed the rest at 0.9%. Consumption’s 45.2% is the lowest proportion since 2010, as consumption contributed 55.5% and 51.8% of GDP growth in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Read more of this post

When does a Chinese growth deceleration become a crisis?

When does a Chinese growth deceleration become a crisis?

Kate Mackenzie

| Jul 17 11:55 | 23 comments | Share

It’s clear to everyone that something big is happening in China.

Double-digit growth is long forgotten and even high single-digit growth is above the consensus (for whatever that’s worth). The implications of this alone are quite massive and you could throw around any number of predictions about what it might mean for commodities, global imbalances, and more. Nomura sees a 30 per cent chance of growth falling below 7 per cent later this year, and Barclays are talking about the odds of growth slowing to as little as 3 per cent growth. Even entertaining the possibility of an outright economic contraction would not get you accused of being a crazed permabear these days. Read more of this post

China defies IMF on mounting credit risk and need for urgent reform

China defies IMF on mounting credit risk and need for urgent reform

If you think China’s Communist Party fully understands the mess it has created by ramping credit to 200pc of GDP and running the greatest investment bubble know to man, read its shockingly complacent response to warnings from the International Monetary Fund.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

8:00PM BST 17 Jul 2013

The IMF’s Article IV report on China states – as clearly as the IMF dares – that excess credit has been pushed to the outer limits of sanity, and that there is a growing risk of an “adverse feedback loop” as the financial system and the economy take each other down in a mutually reinforcing spiral.

As you can see from the first chart, total credit has jumped from 129pc to 195pc of GDP since 2008, and has completely departed from its historic trend. The great mistake, plainly, was to keep the foot on the floor in 2010 and 2011, long after the Lehman crisis had subsided. Read more of this post

China’s Easy Money Flows Abroad as Credit Squeeze Hurts at Home

China’s Easy Money Flows Abroad as Credit Squeeze Hurts at Home

As China’s cash squeeze claims victims across the nation — from a bailout-seeking shipyard to a solar-panel maker missing a bond payment — there are places where Chinese money remains cheap and plentiful. Like Nigeria.

China Development Bank Corp. and Export-Import Bank of China are lending billions of yuan to some of the world’s riskiest regimes at interest rates hundreds of basis points below the cheapest commercial loans available at home. That lending in turn generates overseas contracts to build airports, roads and shopping malls for state-owned Chinese companies that are mired in debt. Read more of this post

SEC Said Near Proposal on Disclosure of CEO-to-Worker Pay Ratios

SEC Said Near Proposal on Disclosure of CEO-to-Worker Pay Ratios

Public companies would be required to disclose how much more their chief executives are paid than rank-and-file workers under a rule to be proposed next month by U.S. securities regulators, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The Securities and Exchange Commission proposal, part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank overhaul of financial markets, would require companies to calculate and disclose their CEO’s compensation as a multiple of average worker pay, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the commission’s agenda has not been made public. Read more of this post

China’s Thinning Margins Has Marubeni Betting on U.S. for Growth

China’s Thinning Margins Has Marubeni Betting on U.S. for Growth

China’s economic slowdown could be worse than official forecasts and a recovery may not come before 2014, according to the chairman of Marubeni Corp. (8002), Japan’s biggest power and agriculture trading company.

Thinning cargo volumes and trading margins suggest China’s gross domestic product may be expanding at less than the announced 7.5 percent in the second quarter, Teruo Asada said in an interview in Tokyo, making the U.S. a better prospect for the trader’s expansion. Read more of this post

Temasek Racing Exxon to Build Biggest LNG Stash: Southeast Asia

Temasek Racing Exxon to Build Biggest LNG Stash: Southeast Asia

A Temasek Holdings Pte unit is up against Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) in a contest to fill storage that will hold three times as much liquefied natural gas as Singapore will consume this year.

The city-state’s Energy Market Authority is seeking proposals through the end of July for stocking a 9 million metric-ton LNG terminal. The threefold expansion will allow Singapore to offer last-minute deliveries, or spot cargoes, to buyers in Asia seeking an alternative to long-term contracts linked to oil. Read more of this post

Rupee’s plunge drives up offshore debt costs for India Inc

Rupee’s plunge drives up offshore debt costs for India Inc

5:04pm EDT

By Sumeet Chatterjee

MUMBAI (Reuters) – The Indian rupee’s slide to record lows is squeezing mid-sized companies that borrowed offshore when times were good, with a slowing economy now making it even harder for them to generate the extra funds needed to cover dollar payments.

Many firms in capital-intensive industries such as infrastructure, manufacturing and metals that borrowed in offshore markets lack an overseas income stream to buffer their currency exposure, and the impact is expected to become clear in the current reporting season. Read more of this post

Designing cars in China: Can Nissan give “daqi” global appeal? “Daqi” is the hard-to-define sense of style and road “presence” that Chinese buyers look for in a vehicle.

Designing cars in China: Can Nissan give “daqi” global appeal?

5:41pm EDT

By Norihiko Shirouzu

BEIJING (Reuters) – Nissan Motor Co. plans to start selling more China-inspired cars around the world, its design chiefs said, a nod to the growing importance of China’s auto market and the country’s up-and-coming design talent. Staff at the Japanese automaker’s new design center in Beijing will attempt to export homegrown concepts like “daqi” – the hard-to-define sense of style and road “presence” that Chinese buyers look for in a vehicle.

Read more of this post

Woolworths’ loss-making hardware start-up, Masters, admitted a failure to understand the hardware business

Woolworths ‘failed to understand’ hardware

July 18, 2013 – 4:59PM

Eli Greenblat

The director of Woolworths’ loss-making hardware start-up, Masters, has defended the overly optimistic sales and earnings forecasts set down for its new business, but admitted a failure to understand the hardware business. Addressing analysts in the wake of Woolworths being forced to blow out its projected losses for Masters in its first five years, CEO Melinda Smith said the company failed to grasp the seasonality of hardware and acknowledged she didn’t know a lot about the structure of the business when it began. “We didn’t know a lot about this business when we set the budget for financial 2013,” she said. “We didn’t know a lot about the seasonal curves,” she added. “We didn’t have the right stock in some instances.” Read more of this post