Korea FSS reports financial CEOs’ pay; Average compensation for top 28 executives a cool $1.9 million a year

FSS reports financial CEOs’ pay

Average compensation for top 28 executives a cool $1.9 million a year

LEE EUN-JOO [angie@joongang.co.kr]

Nov 14,2013

While much attention has been given to exactly how much the heads of financial institutions are paid, a study by the country’s financial regulator shows that average annual compensation for the highest-paid 28 executives is 2.1 billion won ($1.96 million). According to the Financial Supervisory Service yesterday, chief executives at 65 financial institutions – financial holding companies, banks, investment companies and insurance companies – received an average of 850 million won in compensation last year, including regular bonuses, while financial group chiefs earned the most. Bank presidents received 1.8 billion won in compensation annually, while the heads of investment firms got 1.6 billion won and chiefs of insurance companies received 2 billion won. Read more of this post

Not so happy birthday: Abenomics ages, challenges remain

Not so happy birthday: Abenomics ages, challenges remain

9:15pm EST

By Stanley White and Tetsushi Kajimoto

TOKYO (Reuters) – A year after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took financial markets by storm with promises to revive the moribund Japanese economy, data showed growth slowed sharply and that his “Abenomics” policy mix is yet to secure a durable recovery. Growth in the world’s third-biggest economy decelerated in the third quarter after leading the Group of Seven industrial powers in the first half of the year, as capital spending, personal consumption and exports moderated. Read more of this post

To farmers, WCB dairy deal is not just about the money

To farmers, WCB dairy deal is not just about the money

PUBLISHED: 12 HOURS 38 MINUTES AGO | UPDATE: 5 HOURS 13 MINUTES AGO

Murray Goulburn’s sweetened $9-a-share bid for Warrnambool Cheese & Butter may be far higher than any other offer in the three-way fight for the Victorian dairy company. But in this remarkable $505 million takeover ­battle it is not just about the money. Many farmers who spoke to The Australian Financial Reviewsaid they would consider a lower bid – even from a foreign predator – if they believed it would better serve the state’s dairy industry. Read more of this post

Mahathir: Malaysia has potential in aircraft manufacturing

Updated: Thursday November 14, 2013 MYT 7:33:06 AM

Mahathir: Malaysia has potential in aircraft manufacturing

By LOSHANA K SHAGAR

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has the potential to expand into the aircraft manufacturing industry by producing the parts and components at a low cost, said former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. “Now that we have a national automotive industry, we can expand into aircraft; not by making our own but by producing parts, which we can do at a cheaper rate than Europe,” he said at the 4th Kuala Lumpur International Automotive Conference here yesterday. Read more of this post

Malaysia has highest level of English proficiency in Asia, overtaking Singapore who fell behind to 12th position

06 November 2013| last updated at 05:00PM

Malaysia has highest level of English proficiency in Asia

By A. Azim Idris

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia has the highest English language proficiency level in the entire Asian region, according to a latest research by Swiss-based international education company EF Education First (EF).

The nation also climbed two notches higher to 11^th place from 13th position last year in the EF English Proficiency Index which saw over 60 countries being surveyed. The results revealed that Malaysia, which was placed in the ‘High Proficiency’ category, had overtaken Singapore who fell behind to 12^th position in the world ranking. Malaysia scored 58.99 points in the survey while neighbouring Singapore received a 58.92 score. Read more of this post

How to copy a hedge fund billionaire’s investment plan

How to copy a hedge fund billionaire’s investment plan

By Tim Fernholz @timfernholz 7 hours ago

I realized the pop culture phenomenon that is the activist investor had taken a new turn when a friend showed me an iPhone app at a party. iBillionaire lets you track the investments of “billionaire investors” whose names you know (Carl Icahn, David Loeb, David Tepper and David Einhorn among them) and compare them to your own feeble portfolio. Read more of this post

China Billionaire Zhang Shiping Beats State Firms as Summit Encourages Markets

China Billionaire Beats State Firms as Summit Encourages Markets

China’s leaders sent a mixed message at a summit in Beijing this week: vowing to boost the role of markets while endorsing the state’s dominance of the economy. The tale of two aluminum companies shows why the nation needs to resolve that paradox. On a Martian landscape in China’s east, yellow bulldozers shovel truckloads of red dirt from a four-story-high mountain to be smelted into molten metal by China Hongqiao Group, the country’s largest private aluminum maker. Read more of this post

Korean Shipping Lines Face Cash Crunch After Expansion

Korean Shipping Lines Face Cash Crunch After Expansion

South Korea’s three biggest shipping companies face a cash crunch as 3 trillion won ($2.8 billion) of bonds are due for repayment in the next two years amid mounting losses from a global slump in rates to carry cargo. Hanjin Shipping Co. (117930), Hyundai Merchant Marine Co. (011200) and STX Pan Ocean Co. (028670) are all forecast to post losses in 2013 for a third consecutive year, further denting the combined 1.5 trillion won of cash and near cash items they had as of the end of June. The companies need to repay 1.4 trillion won of bonds next year and 1.6 trillion won the year after. Read more of this post

Will Shanghai Luxury Rides Rival U.S.? Car Makers Bet Buyers Want Same in China as in U.S.

Will Shanghai Luxury Rides Rival U.S.?

Car Makers Bet Buyers Want Same in China as in U.S.

JOSEPH B. WHITE

Nov. 13, 2013 12:05 a.m. ET

When it comes to luxury cars, consumers in Chicago have more in common with Shanghai than Stuttgart. That is the bet that Ford Motor Co. F +2.27% is placing with a new Lincoln luxury model. And many of its rivals in the premium car business are making the same call. Lincoln, best known for cushy, plus-size vehicles, is expected to unveil on Wednesday a new small sport-utility vehicle called the MKC. It will go on sale starting next year in largely identical versions for in the U.S. and China. It won’t be sold in Europe. Read more of this post

Crocs Considers Ways to Go Private; Crocs has struggled amid shifting fashion tastes and tried to expand into in high-heels and boots. Crocs

Crocs Considers Ways to Go Private

Sales, Stock Price Remain Soft at Maker of Colorful Plastic Clogs

Crocs has struggled amid shifting fashion tastes and tried to expand into in high-heels and boots.

DANA MATTIOLI And MIKE SPECTOR

Nov. 13, 2013 12:14 p.m. ET

Crocs Inc. CROX +9.76% is trying a leveraged buyout on for size. The footwear maker, famous for its colorful plastic clogs, is considering going private, said people familiar with the matter. The company’s board has invited a small group of private-equity firms to present their ideas for a buyout, according to one of the people. The talks may go nowhere, this person cautioned. Read more of this post

In Amazon and Walmart’s Battle for Dominance, Who Loses Out?

In Amazon and Walmart’s Battle for Dominance, Who Loses Out?

Nov 13, 2013 Strategic Management North America

In the retail realm, it’s a clash of the titans: Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, versus Amazon, the online giant that aspires to be “the everything store.” Both are slashing prices and increasing free, same-day and other enticing delivery-and-return services in pursuit of market domination. Amazon’s online savvy and forbearance of profit-taking are well known. Walmart, with its vast bricks-and-mortar network, is finally getting serious about e-commerce. Read more of this post

Gucci’s Owner Kering Sees Very Significant Profit Drop on La Redoute, Puma

Kering Sees Very Significant Profit Drop on La Redoute, Puma

Kering SA (KER), the owner of Gucci, said it expects net income this year to drop “very significantly” because of costs related to its planned sale of mail-order unit La Redoute and one-time charges related to its Puma brand. Any “solution” for La Redoute “will have a significant impact on the net result from discontinued operations,” the Paris-based company also said in a statement today after the close of trading. Puma, the sporting-goods brand in which Kering is controlling shareholder, last week said it would book one-time charges of about 130 million euros ($175 million) this quarter. Read more of this post

Everyone has a price: Retailers are starting to charge different people different prices. The more you shop, the less you pay

Everyone has a price

November 11, 2013

Michael Baker

Retailers are starting to charge different people different prices. The more you shop, the less you pay. Charging different customers a different price for the same product is not exactly a new idea. The airlines have been doing it for ages, so have the hotel chains. They are simply exploiting the fact that different kinds of people have a different level of willingness to pay. Read more of this post

Asean can tussle with emerging economic giants

Asean can tussle with emerging economic giants

Thursday, Nov 14, 2013

Anita Gabriel

The Straits Times

If asean comes together as a single economic bloc by 2015, it would become a serious contender for investor dollars, compared with emerging economic giants China and India, said a leading economist yesterday. Mr Leif Eskesen of HSBC noted that, as a single entity, the 10-nation ASEAN bloc is home to about 600 million people and ranks as the eighth-largest economy in the world with a combined gross domestic product of around US$2 trillion (S$2.5 trillion). Read more of this post

Japan Passes First of Reforms to Reshape Power Industry

Japan Passes First of Reforms to Reshape Power Industry

Japan’s lawmakers approved a first step to weakening the monopolies of regional power utilities by setting up an independent body to coordinate supply and demand across the nation’s electricity grids. Legislation passed today by the upper house calls for the creation of the body by 2015, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The step is a first move to reforming the power industry of the world’s third-largest economy after the March 2011 nuclear disaster. Read more of this post

Teva to Pay Israel $565 Million in ‘Trapped Profits’ Tax Accord; joins fertilizer maker Israel Chemicals in releasing profits accumulated since 2005 under a law designed to encourage investments

Teva to Pay Israel $565 Million in ‘Trapped Profits’ Tax Accord

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) agreed to pay Israel 2 billion shekels ($565 million) in taxes, joining fertilizer maker Israel Chemicals Ltd. in releasing profits accumulated since 2005 under a law designed to encourage investments. Teva, Israel’s largest publicly-traded company, said the amount would be paid within the framework of the amendment 69 to the Law for the Encouragement of Capital Investments, according to a Business Wire statement. That includes another 336 million shekels paid in May, it said. In addition, Teva will pay about 840 million shekels for taxes during the years 2005 to 2011, it said. Read more of this post

Attack on Junk-Loan Excess Risks LBO Profits as U.S. Cracks Down

Attack on Junk-Loan Excess Risks LBO Profits as U.S. Cracks Down

Fees for bankers and payouts for leveraged-buyout funds are at risk of being crimped as federal regulators crack down on underwriting standards in the market for high-risk, high-yield loans. The government, in an annual review of bank credit, looked at a $429 billion sample of leveraged loans and found 42 percent were “criticized,” or classified as having a deficiency that might lead to a loss. Starting in September, it sent letters demanding banks draw up plans to improve the quality of their loans and a warning that regulators will pay close attention to high-risk loan performance in stress tests. Read more of this post