Lululemon board battle highlights pressure for short-term shareholder gain

Lululemon board battle highlights pressure for short-term shareholder gain

Theresa Tedesco | June 11, 2014 | Last Updated: Jun 11 8:01 PM ET
Having watched his iconic creation stretched too thin, the founder of yogawear maker Lululemon Athletica Inc. took an unusually bold stance. Chip Wilson went public with his battle against the Vancouver-based company’s board of directors at the annual general meeting on Wednesday by voting against the reappointment of two independent directors, most notably the chairman of the board. Read more of this post

In Indonesia, Foreign Investors Wait to See Who Will Be President

In Indonesia, Foreign Investors Wait to See Who Will Be President

By Eveline Danubrata & Faith Hung on 07:45 am Jun 12, 2014

Jakarta/Taipei. Billions of dollars in foreign investment hinge on next month’s Indonesian presidential election, with at least one major company holding back after a former special forces general made a surprisingly strong entry into the fray.

A tight July 9 election that will decide who runs Southeast Asia’s largest economy for the next five years pits popular Jakarta governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo against the ex-general, Prabowo Subianto. Read more of this post

Portraits of the 500: The busiest Costco in the world – in Seoul

Portraits of the 500: The busiest Costco in the world

Caroline Fairchild

@FortuneMagazine

JUNE 6, 2014, 2:00 PM EDT

Portraits of the 500: The busiest Costco in the world

At Costco’s busiest store, the aisles are often packed.

This location in Seoul, South Korea, isn’t bigger than the retail giant’s typical warehouse store, just busier. Read more of this post

Anti-chaebol regulation eased

Updated : 2014-06-11 17:26

Anti-chaebol regulation eased
By Yoon Ja-young

The government plans to ease restrictions on chaebol in their competition with small companies and mom-and-pop stores.
The National Commission for Corporate Partnership (NCCP) announced plans to improve the regulations on competition between conglomerates and SMEs, Wednesday. Read more of this post

More than one-fourth of senior executives in Singapore feel it is justifiable to misstate financial performance in order to survive an economic downturn

PUBLISHED JUNE 12, 2014

More execs say it’s OK to misstate financials

MICHELLE QUAH

MICHQUAH@SPH.COM.SG   @MichelleQuahBT

More than one-fourth of senior executives in Singapore feel it is justifiable to misstate financial performance in order to survive an economic downturn. The staggering statistic was one of many in EY’s 13th and latest Global Fraud Survey. – PHOTO: SPH Read more of this post

Scrambling to Win China’s Auto Prize

Scrambling to Win China’s Auto Prize

ABHEEK BHATTACHARYA

June 11, 2014 4:11 a.m. ET

When China’s car market was speeding up, it dragged everyone along for the ride. Now car makers have to fight among themselves to get ahead.

China sold 11% more passenger cars in the first five months of 2014 than the year before, a comedown from the nearly 15% growth over the same period in 2013. Some of the deceleration is because last year was in comparison to a weak year in 2012. It’s also possible that China’s broader economic problems are weighing down on consumption.

Read more of this post

Ready or Not, Here Come the Asian Regulators

Ready or Not, Here Come the Asian Regulators

Soon, international banking investigations won’t be the sole preserve of the West.

WILLIAM MCGOVERN

June 11, 2014 12:45 p.m. ET

Global investigations of banking activity are becoming a fact of life given that banking is now a global activity. So far most of the headlines have come from Western regulatory inquiries into the activities of Western banks in Western markets. But more of this heat is destined to shift to Asia, and bankers, local regulators and Western authorities alike will face new challenges. Read more of this post

Curtain Up in China: Broadway Gives Its Regards to Beijing

Curtain Up in China: Broadway Gives Its Regards to Beijing

Jun 06, 2014

The next must-see Andrew Lloyd Webber musical may be making its debut in Beijing rather than Broadway. Recently, the composer and theater impresario announced plans to restructure his company so he can infuse more investment capital in Asia. The move by Lloyd Webber, famous for musicals such as Cats, Phantom of the Opera and Evita, lends further recognition to the region’s increasing influence as a growth market and tastemaker.

“They love the product out [in Asia],” Mark Wordsworth, chairman of Lloyd Webber’s companies, told The Daily Telegraph. “The commentators in London think it is all about the West End or Broadway. Well, we make more money globally from performances of The Phantom of the Opera in Manila, [Philippines].” Read more of this post

Howard Marks, Investing In A Low Return World

Howard Marks, Investing In A Low Return World

by Michael IdeJune 10, 2014, 4:34 pm

Marks says Oaktree Capital is fully invested, but recommends proceeding with caution

Value investors are contrarian by nature. They want to buy when everyone else is cashing out, and sell when sentiment is driving asset prices ever higher. So when dyed-in-the-wool value investor and founder of Oaktree Capital Management Howard Marks spoke at the Morgan Stanley Financials Conference earlier today you might have expected him to warn people against being too optimistic, but you would only be half right. Read more of this post

US Has The Most Overvalued Equity Market: Rothschild

US Has The Most Overvalued Equity Market: Rothschild

by Michael IdeJune 11, 2014, 2:20 pm

Rothschild likes equities, short maturity corporate debt, and gold

Even though economic growth was weak last quarter (and negative in the US), Rothschild Wealth Management is bullish on global economic growth and believes that developed economies should continue to expand and emerging markets stabilize through the rest of the year as capital spending picks up speed. Even though it calls equity valuations ‘stretched’, especially in the US, it still believes that equities are the most attractive asset class available.

   Read more of this post

Large banks and trading firms are frantically trying to determine whether they have fallen victim to a suspected commodities fraud emanating from the giant Qingdao Port in northeast China

Banks Fear Missing Collateral In China

By PETER EAVIS and NEIL GOUGH

JUNE 11, 2014 6:49 AM 11 Comments

Large banks and trading firms are frantically trying to determine whether they have fallen victim to a suspected commodities fraud emanating from the giant Qingdao Port in northeast China.

Citigroup and several other big Western banks are concerned that their loans may lack the appropriate collateral of big stockpiles of copper and aluminum at the port. The banks have inspectors on the ground who are trying to assess whether enough of the metals are there. Read more of this post

Coles builds a team to establish financial services in empire expansion to better bind customers to its stores and boost grocery sales

Coles builds a team to establish financial services in empire expansion

Date

June 12, 2014

Eli Greenblat and Eric Johnston

Coles has pulled together a high-level strategy team to develop its burgeoning financial services arm, with an eye to offering banking services to better bind customers to its stores and boost grocery sales.

The team have been meeting in a sealed-off section of Coles’ Melbourne headquarters where their confidential discussions are quarantined from other staff in the building’s open-plan office. Read more of this post