Investor Dan Loeb Launches Attack on Sotheby’s; Loeb Seeks CEO’s Ouster, Says He Fails to Grasp Importance of Modern Art

Updated October 2, 2013, 8:10 p.m. ET

Investor Launches Attack on Sotheby’s

Loeb Seeks CEO’s Ouster, Says He Fails to Grasp Importance of Modern Art

DAVID BENOIT, SARA GERMANO and KELLY CROW

Dan Loeb is adding art criticism to his investor activism, accusing the management of auction powerhouse Sotheby’s BID +0.66% of failing to understand what kind of art sells best. The hedge fund manager is seeking to oust William Ruprecht as the chairman and chief executive officer of Sotheby’s, BID +0.66% claiming the auction house’s leader has failed to grasp the modern art world. Instead, Mr. Loeb, himself an avid art collector, says he should be on the board. The activist investor disclosed in a federal filing that his Third Point LLC has boosted its stake to 9.3% from 5.7%, making it the largest shareholder in Sotheby’s.

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Cargill close to agreeing purchase of ADM’s cocoa unit creating global giant

Updated: Wednesday October 2, 2013 MYT 10:43:06 AM

Cargill close to agreeing purchase of ADM’s cocoa unit creating global giant

NEW YORK: Cargill Inc, one of the world’s leading cocoa traders, is in the final stages of a deal to buy Archer Daniels Midland Co’s cocoa business, sources familiar with the situation said, creating a global giant. The two rivals are hammering out the final details of the deal, said the sources, paving the way to the second major takeover this year in an industry that is set to be dominated by two firms. The timing of an official announcement is not known but could be made within days, the sources said. Read more of this post

Tourists baffled and angry as Statue of Liberty shut; Yellowstone visitors, turned away, get taste of U.S. government shutdown

AFP | Wed, Oct 02 2013

Tourists baffled and angry as Statue of Liberty shut

NEW YORK – Where once she welcomed immigrants pursuing the American dream and more recently hordes of tourists, the Statue of Liberty stood alone on Tuesday, victim of the US government shutdown. Thousands of frustrated tourists had the choice of a one-hour boat trip around New York harbour or their money back, with one of the most iconic monuments in the United States closed. Read more of this post

Why Thailand gave up its dream of becoming a duty-free “Shopper’s Paradise”

Why Thailand gave up its dream of becoming a duty-free “Shopper’s Paradise”

By Newley Purnell 2 hours ago

Last month, Thailand proposed a plan to woo a special kind of tourist: Shoppers who splash out on expensive goods. The government would cut taxes on some imported luxury products—like designer clothes and high-end watches—to entice even more of the deep-pocketed, big-spending Chinese tourists who are flooding into the country. “Thais declare shopping war,” blared a headline in Hong Kong’s The Standard. “We can easily compete with Hong Kong and Singapore,” Tos Chirathivat, head of Thailand’s Central Retail Corp., told Bloomberg. “Our infrastructure, our malls are the same or better. We have more. The service is good. The rental cost is lower and labor cost is lower.” Read more of this post

Russia Enters New Era of Stagnation

Russia Enters New Era of Stagnation

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says he recognizes the problems holding back the country’s economy. Sadly, nobody has much confidence in his plans to address them.

With the country’s rate of economic growth declining toward zero, Medvedev is making a renewed effort to show the business community that he knows what to do. In an unusually long article published in the business daily Vedomosti, he acknowledged that what growth the country has is largely artificial, that the government is too dependent on revenue from the oil industry, and that Russia offers a terrible environment for investment. Read more of this post

Six Lessons From Blowing $30 Billion in Brazil: Avoid companies no one understands.

Six Lessons From Blowing $30 Billion in Brazil

Brazil’s OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA, the flawed jewel of ex-billionaire Eike Batista’s EBX conglomerate, is one step closer to bankruptcy after missing a $45 million dollar debt payment that was due yesterday. If OGX goes under, its largest U.S. creditors, Pacific Investment Management Co. and BlackRock Inc., stand to lose millions in Latin America’s largest corporate default. Batista’s salesmanship and Brazil’s growth boom drew investors to his over-hyped companies. The warning signs they missed offer precious investing lessons.

1. Avoid companies no one understands. Batista’s EBX is a head-scratching maze of 13 interconnected startup companies, and only six of them are publicly listed. For instance, OGX was the main client of shipbuilding unit OSX Brasil SA. OSX in turn leased space from Batista’s port operator LLX Logistica, another sister company. As one company ran into trouble the others did as well. Even Batista’s employees couldn’t figure out the corporate puzzle. A company spokesman once confessed to having trouble keeping up with the new companies Batista created. Read more of this post

Singapore will see an even higher percentage of the world’s crude oil pass its coastline over the next couple of decades as the center of global energy demand shifts toward Asia from the U.S.

Oct 2, 2013

Singapore Will Be Seeing Lots More Oil Traffic

By Eric Yep

Already one of the most important transit points in the global energy trade, Singapore will see an even higher percentage of the world’s crude oil pass its coastline over the next couple of decades as the center of global energy demand shifts toward Asia from the U.S. The narrow sea lane that runs through the straits of Malacca and Singapore is expected to carry as much as 45% of global crude trade by 2035, according to the International Energy Agency. That amounts to 16.5 million barrels a day, up from 12 million barrels a day in 2012, when a little over a third of globally traded crude was routed past the city-state, the Paris-based organization said in its “Southeast Asia Energy Outlook.” Read more of this post