Samsung Everland IPO adds to leadership transition talk

June 3, 2014 11:45 am

Samsung Everland IPO adds to leadership transition talk

By Song Jung-a and Simon Mundy in Seoul

The theme park operator at the heart of Samsung’s labyrinthine shareholding structure has announced plans to float, in what analysts called part of efforts to transfer power to the next generation of the South Korean group’s founding family.

“Through the IPO, we aim to strengthen management transparency in line with global standards,” said Samsung Everland on Tuesday, as it outlined plans for a public listing in the first quarter of next year. Read more of this post

Legitimate business unlocks growth in Mexico; Spur has been big improvements in policy but also in governance

June 3, 2014 7:46 pm

Legitimate business unlocks growth

By Martin Wolf

Spur has been big improvements in policy but also in governance

If Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, seeks an example of a democratically elected leader embarked on radical reform, he could look to Enrique Peña Nieto. True, the latter is president of a far- smaller country, and a richer one – Mexico’s average standard of living is double India’s, although poor economic performance in recent decades has narrowed the gap substantially. The two countries’ leaders confront related challenges. Both need to generate market-oriented growth in economies that show a huge gulf between a high-productivity formal sector and a low-productivity informal one. Mr Peña Nieto has embarked on bold reforms. Is his the model to be followed? Read more of this post

QE and the Tokyo stock market (part two, banks and others)

QE and the Tokyo stock market (part two, banks and others)

Andrew Smithers | Jun 03 08:30 | 1 comment | Share

In my last blog I emphasised the importance of foreign investors for the Tokyo stock market, but suggested that their future behaviour was either unpredictable or momentum based. If the latter assumption is correct, foreigners are likely to amplify rather than lead changes in the market’s direction and to assess its prospects we therefore need to look at the other participants.
Chart one (below) shows that Japanese banks have been rapidly reducing their holdings of government bonds. These have fallen from 20 per cent of total assets to 14 per cent. This has had a beneficial impact in that the risk that banks will suffer large losses when interest rates rise has been much reduced.

Read more of this post

Big banks rethink dealmaking strategies in Asia; Regulators and investors more interested in the here and now

June 3, 2014 12:02 pm

Big banks rethink dealmaking strategies in Asia

By Jennifer Hughes in Hong Kong

Regulators and investors more interested in the here and now

Matt Hanning piled out of his family car in a hurry and into Sydney’s Shangri-La hotel where he was greeted by Kuok Khoon Hong. The scion of Malaysia’s Kuok family and chief executive of Wilmar, the agribusiness group, was in town looking to buy Australia’s Goodman Fielder. Read more of this post

Samsung Everland IPO advances succession plan; Governance structure to change with profit made from listing

Samsung Everland IPO advances succession plan

Governance structure to change with profit made from listing  

June 04,2014

Less than a month after Samsung SDS announced plans to go public this year, the de facto holding company of the country’s largest conglomerate released its initial public offering plan yesterday with a goal of completing the process by the first quarter of 2015.  Read more of this post

“How can he act as the leader of education when he is unwilling to teach his own flesh and blood?” Irony for “God of study” Koh Seung-duk who thinks he is the best man to be Seoul’s top education policymaker

Updated : 2014-06-04 01:18

Irony for “God of study”

By Joel Lee

Koh Seung-duk, also known as the”God of Study,” is most famous forpassing state exams in law, diplomaticand administrative services whenyoung and writing self-help bookstouting his personal stock marketsuccess.
He also claimed to be the only livingperson to have law degrees fromHarvard, Columbia and Yale.  Read more of this post

What really happened at Tiananmen?

What really happened at Tiananmen?

BY GREGORY CLARK

JUN 3, 2014

Over the years the “black information” people in the U.S. and U.K. governments have had some spectacular successes — the myth that the Vietnam War was due to Beijing using Hanoi as a puppet to head its advance into Asia, that Iraq harbored weapons of mass destruction, that Kosovar ethnic cleansing of Serbs in Kosovo was in fact Serbian ethnic cleansing of Kosovars, and now the claims that Moscow was responsible for the pro-Russian protesters in eastern Ukraine. But the greatest achievement of them all still has to be the myth of a June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square massacre, with talk of hundreds if not thousands of protesting students mowed down by military machine guns. Read more of this post

To find the world’s only museum chronicling the brutal crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen protests, look for the skinny office building wedged between a Tibetan-themed pub and a sports bar on the edge of a Hong Kong tourist district

The June 4th Museum offers images that are largely unknown inside China, such as the celebrated photograph of ‘Tank Man,’ the lone protester who defied a column of tanks. | AP

ASIA PACIFIC / POLITICS & DIPLOMACY

Half of visitors to H.K. facility are mainland Chinese

Tiananmen museum keeps memories alive

AP

JUN 3, 2014

HONG KONG – To find the world’s only museum chronicling the brutal crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen protests, look for the skinny office building wedged between a Tibetan-themed pub and a sports bar on the edge of a Hong Kong tourist district — and take the elevator to its tiny fifth floor. Read more of this post

Women still rarely take the top seats at major conglomerates or chaebol in Korea’s male-dominated society

Updated : 2014-06-04 14:52

Women struggling to stay atop corporate ladder

By Kim Yoo-chul

Women still rarely take the top seats atmajor conglomerates or chaebol inKorea’s male-dominated society.
While the number of women atop thecorporate ladder is growing; chancesof them staying there are significantlyslim.
Some female CEOs are impressingmarkets despite this existing bias; butsome are seemingly failing to live up toexpectations.  Read more of this post

The value of transactions between Korea’s 10 biggest conglomerates and their affiliates hit a record high last year despite the government’s efforts to reduce it

Updated : 2014-06-04 11:12

Internal trades still headache at 10 big firms

By Choi Kyong-ae

The value of transactions between Korea’s 10 biggest conglomeratesand their affiliates hit a record high last year despite the government’s efforts to reduce it, Chaebul. com said Tuesday.
The government has stepped up the “economic democratization” driveto curb business transactions between the country’s 10 big companiesand their affiliates through stricter tax and corporate regulations.  Read more of this post

POSCO has decided to hire a veteran industrial bureaucrat to handleits relations with the government, a move seen as challenging Park’s anti-corruption drive of banning ranking state officials from working for major companies

Updated : 2014-06-03 18:34

POSCO challenges gov’t anti-corruption drive

By Park Si-soo

POSCO has decided to hire a veteran industrial bureaucrat to handleits relations with the government, a move seen as challengingPresident Park Geun-hye’s anti-corruption drive of banning ranking state officials from working for major companies after retirement.  Read more of this post

Tiananmen, Forgotten

Tiananmen, Forgotten

By HELEN GAOJUNE 3, 2014

BEIJING — I don’t remember the first time I heard the term liu si — June 4 — which is how the Tiananmen protests, the widespread demonstrations in 1989 that ended in bloodshed, are referred to in China. It was perhaps sometime around 2003, when I was 15 or 16. The word was probably uttered at the dinner table by one of my parents, both of whom were on the Avenue of Eternal Peace, the street in front of Tiananmen Square, on that night. They bore witness to the senseless killing, a memory that has haunted them ever since. Read more of this post

With Choice at Tiananmen, Student Took Road to Riches; Xiao Jianhua, the leader of the official student union at Peking University in 1989, sided with the government and found wealth and favor

With Choice at Tiananmen, Student Took Road to Riches

By DAVID BARBOZA and MICHAEL FORSYTHEJUNE 3, 2014

Xiao Jianhua seen in a park in Beijing. CreditThe New York Times

BEIJING — A few days after the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests 25 years ago, the Chinese government filled the airwaves with a list of the 21 most wanted student leaders accused of stirring up an antigovernment rebellion. At the top of the list was a 20-year-old student at Peking University named Wang Dan, who set up an unofficial student union to mobilize his classmates to demand democracy. Read more of this post

In order to ensure a fair and peaceful election, Jokowi and Prabowo should appear together in a press conference and read out each others’ text to declare openly that those smear campaign allegations are wrong

The Thinker: Jokowi and Prabowo

By Jakarta Globe on 11:30 am Jun 04, 2014

If surveys are to be believed, there is valid reason to assume that Joko Widodo, or Jokowi, as he is popularly known, has the upper hand compared to his contender Prabowo Subianto.

Jokowi’s electoral preponderance has been consistently shown in various surveys. However, as the election draws near, there are some indications that he will face an uphill battle and things have become less predictable. Read more of this post

Indonesia Loses $4b Annually to Procurement Graft, Study Finds

Indonesia Loses $4b Annually to Procurement Graft, Study Finds

By Vanesha Manuturi on 09:22 pm Jun 03, 2014

1.  Indonesia loses $4 billion every year due to poor procurement practices in the public sector, according to a recent study by consultant firm A.T. Kearney.

“This equals 40 years of operational cost for 32,000 schools in Indonesia. It also represents 20 percent of Indonesia’s public infrastructure spending,” said ShirleySantoso, a principal at Kearney, in a statement, a copy of which was obtained by the Jakarta Globe on Monday. Read more of this post

Ivy Mid Cap Growth: Rethinking Risk; Talking with Kimberly Scott, portfolio manager of Ivy Mid Cap Growth fund

Ivy Mid Cap Growth: Rethinking Risk

Talking with Kimberly Scott, portfolio manager of Ivy Mid Cap Growth fund.

AMY FELDMAN

May 31, 2014

Kimberly Scott worked as a technology analyst during the bubble before taking over management of the $4.7 billion Ivy Mid Cap Growth fund (ticker: WMGAX) in February 2001. That experience seared into her memory the idea that even growth managers need to pay heed to valuations — and be very, very careful about risk. Read more of this post

Oakmark’s Bill Nygren Names 9 Favorite Stocks

Oakmark’s Bill Nygren Names 9 Favorite Stocks

Why the market-beating value manager likes big financial firms, TRW, and one energy company.

GRACE L. WILLIAMS

June 3, 2014 5:46 a.m. ET

While many investors think U.S. stocks are fully valued, Bill Nygren of Oakmark Funds sees plenty of opportunity, particularly among financials. Moreover, Nygren says many of America’s best companies can be bought at a market multiple. Read more of this post