Charles De Vaulx Finding Value In China

Charles De Vaulx Finding Value In China

by VW StaffJune 03, 2014, 3:47 pm

Charles de Vaulx’s semi-annual IVA Funds letter to the shareholders from the portfolio managers.

Dear Shareholder,

Over the period under review, October 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014, your Funds continued to deliver strong absolute returns, in excess of inflation and nominal GDP growth. Importantly, this result was achieved with less than 55% invested in equities, on average, and a large cash position throughout the period that resulted in good principal protection in times of market weakness, particularly in January of this year. Read more of this post

Fed may shun global risk rules banks spent billions to meet

Fed may shun global risk rules banks spent billions to meet

11:56am EDT

By David Henry and Emily Stephenson

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve may scrap elements of international measures aimed at assessing bank health in favor of imposing its own rules, frustrating bankers who have spent billions of dollars retooling their books to meet global standards.

Fed officials are concerned that parts of a key tool that regulators have developed to measure banks’ riskiness—known as “Basel III capital rules” — are flawed and can be gamed by the companies. Read more of this post

“Without Indonesia, it (AEC) would be a half-baked grouping,” CIMB’s Nazir said. Indonesian delay in embracing AEC surprises CIMB chief

Published: Wednesday June 11, 2014 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Wednesday June 11, 2014 MYT 6:57:21 AM

Indonesian delay in embracing AEC surprises CIMB chief

BY M. SHANMUGAM

“Without Indonesia, it (AEC) would be a half-baked grouping,” Nazir (pic) said.

KUALA LUMPUR: A leading banker has expressed surprise on the delay by Indonesia, which is the economic powerhouse in the region, on embracing the concept of Asean Economic Community (AEC) that among others entails the opening up of the capital markets of the countries in the region. Read more of this post

Taipei’s cost of living ranks 26th in Asia, 89th globally; Hong Kong ranked eighth in Asia and 29th globally, overtaking Singapore’s ranking of ninth place in Asia and 31st place globally

Taipei’s cost of living ranks 26th in Asia, 89th globally

Wednesday, June 11, 2014 – 10:07

The China Post/Asia News Network

TAIPEI – Taipei’s cost of living ranked 26th in Asia and 89th globally, according to a report released by ECA International, a company that specializes in researching living conditions around the globe.

Taipei’s ranking dipped one place in the Asian region and dropped 11 places globally. While the cost of living in Taipei only dipped slightly compared with other Asian countries, fluctuations in exchange rate resulted in a larger drop on a global perspective. Read more of this post

Jane Mendillo, head of Harvard University’s $33 billion endowment, is leaving after a six-year tenure that started with the financial crisis and more recently saw investment performance that lagged behind some peers

Harvard Management Head Mendillo to Step Down

Search for Mendillo’s Replacement is Under Way

ROB COPELAND

Updated June 10, 2014 8:57 p.m. ET

Jane Mendillo, head of Harvard University’s $33 billion endowment, is leaving after a six-year tenure that started with the financial crisis and more recently saw investment performance that lagged behind some peers. Read more of this post

Some Traders Looking to Move Metal Out of China’s Port of Qingdao; Sources Say Metal Owners Are Inquiring About Moving Metal to Korea or Taiwan

Some Traders Looking to Move Metal Out of China’s Port of Qingdao

Sources Say Metal Owners Are Inquiring About Moving Metal to Korea or Taiwan

TATYANA SHUMSKY

June 10, 2014 7:14 p.m. ET

Metal warehouse operators in South Korea and Taiwan are receiving inquiries about moving metal held in the Chinese port of Qingdao to their facilities in the wake of an investigation into irregularities at the port, according to people at three warehouse companies. Read more of this post

Volatility Traders Have More to Fear than Fear Itself

Volatility Traders Have More to Fear than Fear Itself

SPENCER JAKAB

June 10, 2014 4:45 p.m. ET

The latest big worry to hit markets is an unusual one: calm. With stock prices high and various gauges of risk low, investors appear to have thrown caution to the wind.

That isn’t entirely true, though. Exchange-traded notes that profit handsomely from market-shaking events have boomed since the financial crisis. But they have two big shortcomings: They may not work as designed in another financial crisis since their value depends on the bank backing them. And due to the way the products work, anyone holding these for the long term will inevitably see their value erode.

Futures contracts linked to market volatility were pioneered by the Chicago Board Options Exchange CBOE -2.20% in 2004, offering a way for professional investors to hedge the risk of stock-market swings. The more accessible notes that opened bets on the CBOE’s Volatility Index, or VIX, only began after the 2008 crisis. Read more of this post

Modi Turns to the Supply Side; The Indian leader’s plan to boost growth and contain inflation

Modi Turns to the Supply Side

The Indian leader’s plan to boost growth and contain inflation.

Updated June 10, 2014 6:25 p.m. ET

Indian President Pranab Mukherjee presented the new government’s policy address Monday on behalf of incoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as prescribed by the British tradition for opening parliament. While the occasion favors pomp over substance, the speech confirmed that India may be at a historic turning point: Mr. Modi is suggesting that he wants to lead nothing less than a supply-side revolution. Read more of this post

MSCI Removes Korea, Taiwan From Developed-Market Consideration

MSCI Removes Korea, Taiwan From Developed-Market Consideration

Both Countries Are Two of Biggest in Emerging-Markets Index

NICOLE HONG and GREGOR STUART HUNTER

Updated June 10, 2014 6:32 p.m. ET

For now, you can keep counting South Korea and Taiwan as emerging markets.

Financial index provider MSCI Inc. MSCI -0.27% said late Tuesday that it will remove the nations from consideration for inclusion in its developed-market index. The two countries are currently the second- and third-largest components in MSCI’s Emerging Markets Index behind China, making up 27% of the index. Investors closely scrutinize the indexing decisions because they can trigger some funds to buy or sell assets. Read more of this post

How Come Brazil Isn’t Excited Yet? From Rio to São Paulo, the Country Is Surprisingly Subdued on the Eve of the World Cup

How Come Brazil Isn’t Excited Yet?

From Rio to São Paulo, the Country Is Surprisingly Subdued on the Eve of the World Cup

ROGERIO JELMAYER, LUCIANA MAGALHAES and LORETTA CHAO

June 10, 2014 7:28 p.m. ET

Most of the national soccer teams have arrived. Gaggles of journalists from Russia to Japan prowl the cities. Brazilian workers are hastily putting the finishing touches on the stadiums. But just two days before the World Cup opens here on Thursday, one crucial thing was missing: atmosphere. Read more of this post

Giant Japanese Fund Set to Invest More in Stocks, Foreign Bonds

Giant Japanese Fund Set to Invest More in Stocks, Foreign Bonds

World’s Largest Pension Fund Likely to Announce Increase in Autumn; Move Could Send Billions Into New Markets

ELEANOR WARNOCK

Updated June 10, 2014 6:54 p.m. ET

TOKYO—Japan’s $1.26 trillion public pension fund will likely announce a boost to stock and foreign-bond investments in early autumn, the head of its investment committee said Tuesday, potentially sending tens of billions of dollars into new markets. Read more of this post

LBOs Face Their Day of Reckoning; With the Energy Future Holdings bankruptcy, leveraged buyouts now represent 31 percent of all bond and institutional loan defaults since 2007

June 4, 2014

CFO.com | US

LBOs Face Their Day of Reckoning

With the Energy Future Holdings bankruptcy, leveraged buyouts now represent 31 percent of all bond and institutional loan defaults since 2007.

Vincent Ryan

Is the hangover from the leveraged buyout boom that took place prior to the financial crisis finally here? The bankruptcy filing of Energy Future Holdings has not only raised high-yield default rates for U.S. companies; it also means there have now been 10 LBO-related company defaults in 2014, one shy of the total for 2013. Read more of this post

Singapore Joins China With Dangerous Debt Level, GMT Says

Singapore Joins China With Dangerous Debt Level, GMT Says

Read more of this post

Samsung IPOs to finance Lee’s succession plans

Samsung IPOs to finance Lee’s succession plans

Wednesday, Jun 04, 2014

Park Hyong-ki and Kim Young-won

The Korea Herald/Asia News Network

The planned initial public offerings of Samsung Everland and Samsung SDS will allow Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee’s three children to secure capital worth some 5 trillion won ($4.9 billion) to inherit wealth and ownership of Lee’s business empire. Read more of this post

Bankers Focus on Trading Firm in Search for Metals Used as Collateral; Western Bank Executives Say They Made Loans to Entities Linked to Qingdao-Based Decheng Mining

Bankers Focus on Trading Firm in Search for Metals Used as Collateral

Western Bank Executives Say They Made Loans to Entities Linked to Qingdao-Based Decheng Mining

ENDA CURRAN

June 10, 2014 12:26 p.m. ET

Bankers in China are focusing on the actions of a commodities-trading firm as they scramble to find metals they believed were backing loans but which appear to have been used as collateral multiple times. Read more of this post

China Now Has More Millionaires Than Any Country but the U.S.

Jun 10, 2014

China Now Has More Millionaires Than Any Country but the U.S.

There are now more millionaires in China than in Japan, as the wealthiest Chinese reaped huge returns from shadow-banking-related financial products, a new study revealed.

China had 2,378,000 millionaire households in 2013, a rise of 82% from the previous year and almost double the 1,240,000 millionaire households in Japan, according to the Boston Consulting Group Global Wealth 2014 report unveiled on Tuesday. Read more of this post

China’s Rehypothecation Scandal In One Chart

China’s Rehypothecation Scandal In One Chart

Tyler Durden on 06/10/2014 13:51 -0400

Remember how small Greece was and how it wasn’t relevant to US stocks… until suddenly it got close to breaking up the EU and the world’s markets slumped. Remember how small subprime was? Remember how Lehman was not a ‘big’ bank? We hear the same “why would that impact us?” chatter now about the China rehypothecation scandal and we suspect the outcome will be just as dramatic a “whocouldanode” moment for many. The problem, as this chart so simply explains, is “more warrants than the volume of the underlying physical commodities have been issued in the repo business” and that is a problem for every foreign bank that was tempted into China’s carry trade (which is “every” bank).

Simply put – the collateral that I promised you on my loan… I also promised to between 10 and 30 other people… but we’re good right?

Read more of this post

Pension reforms gather pace as demands grow

Pension reforms gather pace as demands grow

Tuesday, June 10, 2014 – 22:59

Jamie Lee

The Business Times

SINGAPORE – The search for retirement adequacy is a global one – the raging debate over Singapore’s Central Provident Fund (CPF) system comes amid recent reviews of pension systems by countries around the world that underscore themes of risk and return, personal responsibility, and macroeconomic prudence.

In Asia, Europe and the US, pension systems have been put in focus.

Japan this week completed a review of its public pension fund – the world’s largest – and is expected to boost returns by raising the risk taken by its nearly 130 trillion yen (S$1.59 trillion) pension fund. Read more of this post

Thai army chief and songwriter: Prayuth opens his heart

Thai army chief and songwriter: Prayuth opens his heart

Tuesday, June 10, 2014 – 10:23

AFP

The show, aired on all digital TV channels last Friday, has become the talk of the town and left people asking this question: Who is the producer?

Prayuth did not look stiff like he did when he last appeared on television. He seemed relaxed and one could sense his aura of power, his command and confidence. Read more of this post

Former journalist CK Moon, a political novice, named South Korea’s new PM; Moon has “long tried to correct the wrong practices and deep-rooted evils in our society through rational solutions and a cool-headed critical mind.”

Park Nominates Former Journalist as New South Korean Premier

South Korean President Park Geun Hye nominated a former journalist as prime minister to lead a government shakeup prompted by public anger over the Sewol ferry sinking.

Moon Chang Keuk, who worked at JoongAng Ilbo newspaper and teaches journalism at Seoul National University, was picked to replace Prime Minister Chung Hong Won, presidential spokesman Min Kyung Wook said today at a televised briefing. Chung offered his resignation to assume responsibility for the April 16 sinking that left about 300 people dead or missing, most of them high school students on a field trip. Read more of this post

Johor housing Bill amended after uproar over sultan’s powers

Johor housing Bill amended after uproar over sultan’s powers

Wednesday, June 11, 2014 – 04:00

Yong Yen Nie

The Straits Times

Johor Menteri Besar Mohamed Khaled Nordin yesterday amended a controversial housing Bill that would have given powers to the Johor sultan to intervene in housing and property matters, following an uproar from law experts, politicians and the media that it could be unconstitutional. Read more of this post

Former SEC Chair Cox Declares IFRS “Bereft of Life”; The former chairman of the SEC declares that full-scale adoption of IFRS in the United States is no longer possible, but his European counterparts disagree

June 10, 2014

CFO.com | US

Former SEC Chair Cox Declares IFRS “Bereft of Life”

The former chairman of the SEC declares that full-scale adoption of IFRS in the United States is no longer possible, but his European counterparts disagree.

Vincent Ryan

In 2008, addressing an audience of accountants who were worried that the United States would adopt global accounting standards too fast, Christopher Cox said the end of U.S. GAAP and the full-scale adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards wouldn’t happen for “many, many years.” Read more of this post

Déjà vu: echoes of pre-crisis world mount

June 10, 2014 6:07 am

Déjà vu: echoes of pre-crisis world mount

By John Plender

But missing credit bubble indicates next crash is not imminent

An occupational hazard of observing markets is a recurring sense of déjà vu. Even so, 2014 is proving a vintage year for echoes of the pre-crisis world.

First, we have the return of the Great Moderation, that period of eerie stability before 2007 which economists and central bankers hailed as the harbinger of a new era of non-inflationary growth. Today market volatility has again collapsed across all asset classes. Ten-year US Treasuries, the global bond market benchmark, have been trading in a relatively narrow range all year. Read more of this post

China Reminds Hong Kong of Its Control; Unusual ‘White Paper’ Warning Comes Days After Tiananmen Remembrance

China Reminds Hong Kong of Its Control

Unusual ‘White Paper’ Warning Comes Days After Tiananmen Remembrance

CHESTER YUNG

June 10, 2014 10:42 a.m. ET

HONG KONG—Days after tens of thousands of people held a candlelight vigil commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, China’s cabinet gave a blunt reminder to Hong Kong residents that it was in charge in the city and would fend off any intervention from an “external force.” Read more of this post

China Tries to Electrify Clean Car Market as Consumers Yawn

Jun 10, 2014

China Tries to Electrify Clean Car Market as Consumers Yawn

From next year, Chinese owners of electric cars will be able to zip from Beijing to Hong Kong, stopping off en route at charging stations, according to media reports.

But even as the number of new initiatives aimed at addressing the country’s lack of charging stations for electric cars increases, more data has emerged that suggests electric vehicles may becoming even less popular among Chinese consumers. Read more of this post