Galaxy founder Lui Che-Woo’s wealth has leaped by $10.2 billion this year, the most of any Asian billionaire, as the world’s gaming capital Macau draws record revenue and shares hit a new high

Galaxy Magnate Lui’s Wealth Soars by $10 Billion in 2013

Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. (27) founder Lui Che-Woo’s wealth has leaped by $10.2 billion this year, the most of any Asian billionaire, as the world’s gaming capital Macau draws record revenue and shares hit a new high. Lui has a net worth of $22.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and is ranked as the second-richest individual in Asia, trailing only fellow Hong Kong developer Li Ka-Shing. His fortune is now bigger than Lee Shau-Kee, Cheng Yu-Tung, Mukesh Ambani and Gina Rinehart in advancing up the ranks in 2013. Only Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg and Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad have made more money this year. Read more of this post

Myanmar’s resources star dims after mine reform delay

Myanmar’s resources star dims after mine reform delay

5:17pm EDT

By Melanie Burton

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A year ago Myanmar was the hot new destination for resources investors looking to make a fast buck in a country opening up to the outside world, but a new mining law is still not passed, the hot-money crowd has filed out and reality has set in. Yet while funding options may have slimmed, opportunity is still knocking, industry participants at a conference in Singapore said this week. Read more of this post

In Malaysia, Mahathir’s rising son signals conservative shift

In Malaysia, Mahathir’s rising son signals conservative shift

7:48pm EDT

By Siva Sithraputhran

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – The chief minister of the rural Malaysian state of Kedah has a familiar face, even if he lacks the charisma, provocative rhetoric and razor-sharp political skills of his famous father. Mukhriz Mahathir is the youngest son of Malaysia’s longest-serving leader, Mahathir Mohamad, whose often authoritarian rule transformed the economy into a developing powerhouse while winning a reputation for cronyism and dubious “mega-projects”. Read more of this post

Troops Forage for Food While Golfers Play on in Shutdown

Troops Forage for Food While Golfers Play on in Shutdown

Grocery stores on Army bases in the U.S. are closed. The golf course at Andrews Air Force base is open. All 128 employees of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. are working, while 3,000 safety inspectors employed by the Federal Aviation Administration are off the job. The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing new pharmaceuticals. The National Institutes of Health is turning away new patients for clinical trials. Read more of this post

The NBA makes a play to slam-dunk the world

October 3, 2013 4:59 pm

The NBA makes a play to slam-dunk the world

By Emily Steel

In a new marketing campaign for the National Basketball Association, Chinese characters are plastered across a shot of Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryantthrowing down a slam dunk. Another version of the commercial features the same clip but the Portuguese phrase “E la é para todos”. Yet another in Spanish reads “Y es para todos nosotros”. The translation: the NBA is for everyone. Read more of this post

Stanley Fink’s Hedge-Fund Revival Sours as Losses Mount

Stanley Fink’s Hedge-Fund Revival Sours as Losses Mount

Stanley Fink, who oversaw a 10-fold increase in Man Group Plc (EMG)’s assets under management during his seven years as chief executive officer, is finding it harder to keep investors at his latest hedge-fund firm. Losses and client redemptions have reduced assets at International Standard Asset Management Ltd.’s main hedge fund by almost half over the past 18 months to $585 million, Fink, the firm’s CEO, said in an interview yesterday. London-based ISAM has responded by changing some of its management, examining why the fund hasn’t performed as well as expected and increasing the number of markets it invests in, he said. Read more of this post

Jim Rogers Warns US Stock Investors “Be Careful… You’re In A Fool’s Paradise”

Jim Rogers Warns US Stock Investors “Be Careful… You’re In A Fool’s Paradise”

Tyler Durden on 10/03/2013 17:03 -0400

“It is only a matter of time before the US stock market runs into devastating problems due to the Fed QE program”, Jim Rogers warned during an interview on CNBC Singapore, adding that the prevalance of similar stimulative pograms around the world merely exacerbates the probability and size of a fall. His simple message to US investors – “Be Careful.” Read more of this post

Investors Have to Wing It in the Shutdown; Numbers on Jobs, Oil, Corn and Other Important Indicators Are Casualties of Washington’s Gridlock—Which Could Leave Investors Flying Blind

October 2, 2013, 5:05 p.m. ET

Investors Have to Wing It in the Shutdown

Numbers on Jobs, Oil, Corn and Other Important Indicators Are Casualties of Washington’s Gridlock—Which Could Leave Investors Flying Blind

JUSTIN LAHART

As far as anyone can tell, the job market is holding steady. But until the government shutdown ends, who really knows? Wednesday, check-cutting giant Automatic Data Processing ADP -1.28% reported that private-sector employers added 166,000 jobs last month, a shade less than the 178,000 expected by economists. But the Conference Board reported its measure of online help-wanted ads reached its highest level on record. And on Tuesday, the Institute for Supply Management said its index of manufacturing employment rose to its highest level in more than a year. Read more of this post

Hedge funds step into the shadows; Financial investors replacing banks in $5tn repo markets

Last updated: October 3, 2013 5:59 pm

Hedge funds step into the shadows

By Tracy Alloway and Arash Massoudi in New York

Some of the world’s best-known hedge funds have stepped into the shoes of Wall Street banks and expanded into the $5tn “repo” market, where financial companies lend out their assets in exchange for short-term loans. The rise of non-bank players in the repo market has come as new rules make the decades-old business less attractive for banks. It marks an evolution of financial markets since the 2008 global financial crisis, which has seen the withdrawal of banks from certain markets and activities where they were once the main actors. Read more of this post

For Lego, rising wealth means more play – and business

For Lego, rising wealth means more play – and business

6:32am EDT

By Eveline Danubrata and Laura Philomin

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The boss of Lego Group carries two business cards – one the usual kind and the other a Lego mini-figure in his likeness, complete with beard and glasses, with contact details on the back. That kind of playful thinking has helped the Danish company become the world’s second-biggest toy maker as it clicks with fast-growing Asia and builds on its popular plastic bricks with video games and theme parks. Read more of this post

Congress Plays With Fire as Asia Examines Debt

Congress Plays With Fire as Asia Examines Debt

The U.S. doesn’t deserve Asia’s money, not with half of its government in financial jihad mode, damn the global consequences. The biggest economy has long taken its reserve-currency status for granted, but the events of recent days raise Washington’s hubris to entirely new levels. Chinese President Xi Jinping didn’t mention Ted Cruz, John Boehner or the Tea Party this week when he urged major developed economies to adopt responsible policies that avoid negative spillover. He didn’t have to. Their shutdown of the U.S. government and the specter of U.S. default were written between the lines in bold type. The U.S. is playing with fire here in ways it might not recover from. Read more of this post

A group of Norwegian investors and Henning Oldendorff, chairman of the largest charterer of dry-bulk vessels, are forming a shipping bank that will start next year to fill a funding gap in the shipping industry

Investors Form New Shipping Bank to Fill Financing Retreat

A group of Norwegian investors and Henning Oldendorff, chairman of the largest charterer of dry-bulk vessels, are forming a shipping bank that will start next year to fill a funding gap in the shipping industry. Maritime & Merchant AS will be based in Oslo and offer secured lending and syndications and will apply for a banking license later this year, according to a presentation yesterday. It’s seeking to start operations in the second quarter and will raise about $300 million in equity to fund operations and satisfy regulatory requirements on ownership, it said. Read more of this post

Shocked Bitcoin backers reel after raid

Last updated: October 3, 2013 8:30 pm

Shocked Bitcoin backers reel after raid

By Stephen Foley and Tracy Alloway in New York

“Sit him down at his computer and make him do it … Give him the note, let him use his computer to send the coins back, and then kill him … Considering his arrest, I have to assume he will sing.” For the libertarians who championed Silk Road as a free market for drugs and other goods that governments have no business banning, and who back Bitcoin, its currency of choice, the indictment of the website’s founder has been a shock. Read more of this post

More Than 5,000 Stockbrokers From Expelled Firms Still Selling Securities

October 3, 2013, 7:32 p.m. ET

More Than 5,000 Stockbrokers From Expelled Firms Still Selling Securities

Many Brokers Migrate Between Firms Expelled By Regulators

JEAN EAGLESHAM and ROB BARRY

Regulators expelled the first brokerage firm where Kenneth Dwyer sold securities. They did the same to his third, fourth, seventh and eighth. His 10th closed in June after regulators accused it of fraud. The expelled and defunct firms where Mr. Dwyer worked have left thousands of investors with alleged losses and estimated unpaid claims totaling more than $85 million, according to court documents and lawyers. Read more of this post

Hutchison Whampoa plans to list Watsons in Hong Kong

Hutchison Whampoa plans to list Watsons in Hong Kong: report

Staff Reporter

2013-10-03

Hutchison Whampoa — an investment holding company owned by Hong Kong tycoon Sir Li Ka-shing — plans to list its drugstore chain Watsons on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after the sale of its ParknShop supermarket business, as the struggling supermarket chain may hurt the value of Watsons, reports the Chinese-language web portal NetEase. A market observer said Hutchison Whampoa is likely to sell ParknShop and list Watsons on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange within the next 12 to 18 months, with the initial funds raised estimated at US$8-$10 billion. A company spokesperson refused to comment on the matter, however. Read more of this post

Late for class: India woos foreign colleges as population clock ticks

Late for class: India woos foreign colleges as population clock ticks

1:18am EDT

By Shyamantha Asokan

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – When 19-year old Pavitra Singh, one of 20 million students at India’s universities and colleges, gets her degree in two years’ time, she fears it will not be enough to secure a job. Indian employers tend to agree. Many say graduates from homegrown universities are often unemployable because job seekers do not have the skills they want, one reason why New Delhi is trying to fast-track legislation to allow foreign colleges, until now largely shut out of India, to open their own campuses in the country. Read more of this post

Tourism related real estate projects may cause crisis in China’s Yunnan

Tourism related real estate projects may cause crisis in Yunnan

Staff Reporter

2013-10-03

Models working for Country Garden, a property development company based in China’s Guangdong province. (Photo/CFP)

The potential tourism market in southwest China’s Yunnan province has attracted developers entering the local real estate market. However, the market is on the verge of a potential crisis as the government does not supervise the development of land, reports the Chinese-language China Real Estate News. Many market observers, for instance, have criticized the Century Golden Resources Group for constructing a five-star hotel, villas, a golf course, and a hot-spring resort, saying that the development was a huge waste of Yunnan’s unique natural resources. Read more of this post