Samsung Group Holding Company Plans IPO; Everland Listing Could Help Ownership Transition From Group Chairman to His Children

Samsung Group Holding Company Plans IPO

Everland Listing Could Help Ownership Transition From Group Chairman to His Children

MIN-JEONG LEE

June 2, 2014 9:48 p.m. ET

SEOUL—Samsung Everland Inc., the de facto holding company of South Korea’s largest conglomerate, Samsung Group, is seeking an initial public offering by the first quarter of 2015 in a move that is expected to help the succession of ownership from the group chairman to his children.

Samsung Everland operates an amusement park and runs a fashion business, and serves as the holding company for various Samsung affiliates. It will pick managers for the IPO this month and plans to list its shares by the first quarter of next year at the latest, the company said. It said it plans to go public to “raise capital and expand overseas.”

The company is expected to list in Seoul, but a spokesman declined to confirm the location. Read more of this post

China disrupts Google services ahead of Tiananmen anniversary

China disrupts Google services ahead of Tiananmen anniversary

6:32am EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) – Google services are being disrupted in China ahead of this week’s 25th anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, a censorship watchdog said on Monday.

GreatFire.org said in a blog post that the government appeared to have begun targeting Google Inc’s main search engine and Gmail, among many other services, since at least last week, making them inaccessible to many users in China.

It added that the last time it monitored such a block was in 2012, when it only lasted 12 hours.

“It is not clear that the block is a temporary measure around the anniversary or a permanent block. But because the block has lasted for four days, it’s more likely that Google will be severely disrupted and barely usable from now on,” the advocacy group said.

Asked about the disruptions, a Google spokesman said: “We’ve checked extensively and there’s nothing wrong on our end.” Read more of this post

It’s Easy to Forget About Risk in a Stable Market

It’s Easy to Forget About Risk in a Stable Market

By CARL RICHARDSJUNE 2, 2014

Stability itself is destabilizing.

This is one of the defining ideas of the economist Hyman Minsky. And it matters because when we have periods of relative stability or happy results in the stock market (like now), we start to tell ourselves little stories. For example, we might believe that the stock market will behave like a bank certificate of deposit but pay us double-digit returns year after year.

We forget what normal market risk feels like, and we get comfortable with more and more risk. That makes it easier to borrow more money, because it’s all good. We say, “Risk? What risk?” as we move more of our 401(k) allocation into the stock market.

Forgetting about risk and pain is a wonderful human trait. Without this amazing ability, I doubt there would be many families with more than one child, and I’m certain that very few people would sign up for a second marathon. Forgetting pain has been good for us as a species, but it’s bad for us as investors. Read more of this post

In Slightly Less Wealthy Circles, Too, Interest Rises in Private Equity

In Slightly Less Wealthy Circles, Too, Interest Rises in Private Equity

MAY 30, 2014

By PAUL SULLIVAN

AS a young lawyer in New York, Robert Rich sometimes bought stocks based on tips he received while playing squash at the Yale Club. Most of them did not do well, so eventually he chose to put his money into mutual funds and focus on his work.

But then the itch for more control and the potential for bigger gains got the best of him and now, at 76, Mr. Rich has put nearly a fifth of his wealth into private equity — an illiquid, risky asset class with returns that range from double digits to a complete loss of principal.

In this, Mr. Rich has been at the vanguard of a wave of affluent do-it-yourselfers investing in private equity by buying into funds that focus on a sector of the economy or on direct investments in particular companies. They most often do this through self-directed I.R.A.s — a type of retirement account that can invest in nonpublic securities. These accounts have been around since the 1970s and are typically used to invest in real estate.

But in the last five years, the custodians for self-directed I.R.A.s report an increasing interest in private equity. Equity Trust, in Westlake, Ohio, said private equity now accounted for 10 to 15 percent of the $12 billion it holds as a custodian. The Pensco Trust Company, based in San Francisco, said 60 percent of new accounts in the last three years had been opened by people who wanted to invest in private equity. Read more of this post

Rules of the Fund Road: Watch the Fees, and Don’t Look Back; The expenses of a mutual fund often tell you something that its past performance can’t

Rules of the Fund Road: Watch the Fees, and Don’t Look Back

MAY 31, 2014

Strategies

By JEFF SOMMER

Investing would be easy if you could predict the future. Unfortunately, I can’t help you with that. But I do know a little about what works and what doesn’t work.

How an investment performed in the past doesn’t work: Past performance doesn’t guarantee future results. That thought should be familiar, since the Securities and Exchange Commission requires that it be published in all advertising dealing with mutual fund performance.

How much a fund charges in expenses does work. Within certain limits, fee levels provide an excellent guide to the future. Of course, fund fees in themselves don’t guarantee that you’ll do well with a particular investment; a bad bet doesn’t magically turn into a good one if the fees are low. But all things equal, you will be a lot better off if hefty fees aren’t eating up your returns. And low fees may tell you much more than that: When fees are low, the chances are much greater that an overall investment portfolio will outperform its peers. Read more of this post

David Jones may not be main prize for Solomon Lew

David Jones may not be main prize for Solomon Lew

June 3, 2014

Elizabeth Knight

At last the big end of town can stop talking about why gaming billionaire James Packer and his best friend Nine Entertainment boss David Gyngell partook in a fisticuffs set-to on the pavement at Bondi Beach and instead turn its attention to what Solomon Lew is hatching at David Jones.

There are theories aplenty but my money’s on the one that says Lew wants to sell his stake in Country Road, rather than make a bid for David Jones. It’s greenmail with a twist. But more on this in a moment. Read more of this post