China bans officials from buying mooncakes with public funds

China bans officials from buying mooncakes with public funds

8:30am EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) – China is banning officials from using public funds to buy mooncakes, pastries offered as gifts during the Mid-Autumn Festival, as part of President Xi Jinping’s fight against corruption, the government said on Tuesday. Officials cannot use public money to send mooncakes as gifts or to arrange banquets that are not related to official duties during the festival, which falls on September 19 this year, the ruling Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said on its website. Read more of this post

For Rich Mainlanders, Hong Kong Loses Luxury Luster

September 3, 2013, 6:22 PM

For Rich Mainlanders, Hong Kong Loses Luxury Luster

By Jason Chow and Chester Yung

Has Hong Kong lost its perch as China’s preferred luxury hub? Mainland Chinese passport holders account for 78% of all visitors to Hong Kong, and they have an outsize presence on the city’s shopping scene. The sheer number of Chinese visitors is huge: Last year saw 34.9 million arrivals from China, equal to about five times’ Hong Kong’s population. But while mainlanders continue to arrive in the city in droves – more than 3.7 million entered the territory in July, up 15.7% from a year before – they seem to be spending less than they used to, and veering away from big-ticket items in particular, according to Hong Kong government figures released on Monday. Read more of this post

Citigroup has shed more than $6 billion in private-equity and hedge-fund assets in the past month in order to comply with new regulations limiting banks’ holdings of “alternative” investments

Updated September 2, 2013, 9:28 p.m. ET

Citigroup Dialing Back Its ‘Alternative’ Holdings

SHAYNDI RAICE

Citigroup Inc. C +2.13% has shed more than $6 billion in private-equity and hedge-fund assets in the past month, according to people familiar with the transactions, in order to comply with new regulations limiting banks’ holdings of “alternative” investments. The nation’s third-largest bank by assets last week sold a $4.3 billion private-equity fund called Citi Venture Capital International for an undisclosed price to Rohatyn Group, a private-equity fund run by Nick Rohatyn, son of financier Felix Rohatyn, said people familiar with the matter. It couldn’t be determined what price the fund fetched. On Aug. 9, Citigroup sold a $1.9 billion emerging-markets hedge fund to the fund’s managers, the people said. Read more of this post

China’s Struggle Sessions; A messy leadership transition suggests the return of ideology

September 3, 2013, 1:10 p.m. ET

China’s Struggle Sessions

A messy leadership transition suggests the return of ideology.

When the trial of Bo Xilai, the former Communist Party boss of Chongqing, ended last week, most observers assumed that Chinese politics would settle into its usual monotonous patterns. But the power plays continue. On Tuesday, Jiang Jiemin was removed as head of the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), a post he had held for only a few months. Read more of this post

Buying a Frontier Market Fund? This Theater’s Got a Teeny, Tiny Exit

September 3, 2013, 10:26 A.M. ET

Buying a Frontier Market Fund? This Theater’s Got a Teeny, Tiny Exit

By Brendan Conway

It’s been a rotten year for one of yesteryear’s favorite investing categories: iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) is down 13% on the year. But iShares MSCI Frontier 100 ETF(FM), which tracks stocks from tiny, less trodden markets that are too underdeveloped for EEM, is up more than 10%. If you guessed frontier markets are even less liquid than emerging markets and, thus, harder to exit in a panic, Joe Light of the Wall Street Journal has some data you should see. Namely, Vanguard Group estimates the one hour it takes to liquidate $100 million in emerging-markets expands to more than 10 days when you’re on the frontier. Being so small can have bad consequences, says Chris Philips, senior analyst at Vanguard Group, which doesn’t offer a frontier-market fund. For one thing, it can take funds a long time to move into and out of stocks. Mr. Philips calculated that a frontier-market fund would need more than 10 days to liquidate a $100 million position. Read more of this post

Europe’s Workers Flock to Norway for Better-Paying Jobs

Europe’s Workers Flock to Norway for Better-Paying Jobs

Pedro Dias cut his workday almost in half and tripled his pay after leaving his native Portugal for a job as a software developer in Oslo. The 27-year-old, who escaped 15-hour days as a researcher at New University of Lisbon and now rarely works past 5 p.m., landed his job at Metafocus AS, a producer of web-based software, at a career fair in the Portuguese capital in February. “In Portugal, with an average salary you will struggle and have to work longer hours,” he said as he looked at the waters of the Oslo Fjord from a patio outside his office in the capital. Dias says he enjoys his new job and his free time, during which he is preparing for his first half-marathon run. Read more of this post