Mercedes allows Chinese to peek under hood in Asia growth push

Mercedes allows Chinese to peek under hood in Asia growth push

Wed, May 28 2014

By Edward Taylor

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Battling to catch up with German rivals in China, luxury carmaker Daimler is shifting gears, giving local authorities unprecedented access to new Mercedes models and even tailoring engines destined for its home market to Chinese regulations.

For years, Daimler has lagged Audi (VOWG_p.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and BMW (BMWG.DE: Quote, Profile,Research, Stock Buzz) in the world’s biggest car market. Last year, Mercedes-Benz, the company’s premier luxury brand, sold 228,000 cars there, compared to nearly 492,000 for Audi and over 362,000 for BMW.

The reasons for this are varied.

For years, Daimler harbored doubts over the sustainability of growth in China. German labor union resistance to shifting production out of Daimler’s main factory in Sindelfingen also played a role. Read more of this post

Behind Germany’s Success Story in Manufacturing; Public-Private Research Institutes Drive Exports of High-Tech Manufactured Goods-and Are Model for New U.S. Initiative

Behind Germany’s Success Story in Manufacturing

Public-Private Research Institutes Drive Exports of High-Tech Manufactured Goods—and Are Model for New U.S. Initiative

CHASE GUMMER

June 1, 2014 4:48 p.m. ET

As the Obama administration tries to move toward greater government-industry collaboration on high-tech manufacturing, Germany is showing what that approach can accomplish.

President Barack Obama has requested $1 billion from Congress to help fund a nationwide network of research institutes—the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation—that would work with companies and universities to develop manufacturing technology. The plan envisions at least 15 such institutes, funded by government and private-sector money. So far, four have been announced or set up, including one in Youngstown, Ohio, focused on 3-D printing.

One model for the Obama plan is the Fraunhofer Society, a network of government-backed research institutes that has helped make Germany one of the leading exporters of high-tech manufactured goods, despite the country’s relatively high wages and high levels of regulation.

“As one of the biggest and oldest innovation networks for advanced manufacturing, Fraunhofer was a key starting point when we began designing the NNMI,” says Mike Molnar, director of the U.S. program. Read more of this post

Why U.S. Manufacturing Is Poised for a Comeback (Maybe)

Why U.S. Manufacturing Is Poised for a Comeback (Maybe)

Some Say a Renaissance Is Already Under Way. Here’s the Case They Make—and the Skeptics’ Response

JAMES R. HAGERTY

Updated June 1, 2014 4:49 p.m. ET

Manufacturing in the U.S. is starting to make a comeback, and is poised for even bigger gains in the years ahead.

That, at least, is the way the optimists see it.

Driven partly by more competitive labor and energy costs and companies’ desire to produce goods closer to their customers, the number of factory jobs has started to rise after plunging for decades, edging up by about 600,000 over the past four years to more than 12 million. Some U.S. companies are bringing jobs back home, and foreign businesses are setting up shop. Newspapers are trumpeting investments in American production, and advertisements—such as the nostalgia-drenched Chrysler TV ad shown during the Super Bowl and featuring Bob Dylan —celebrate a resurgent U.S. manufacturing sector.

“The economics of the world are changing in favor of U.S. manufacturing,” says Hal Sirkin, a Chicago-based senior partner of Boston Consulting Group.

That’s the case made by the bulls, but plenty of skeptics argue that there are lots of reasons to doubt it. For all the positive trends and statistics, they cite numbers pointing the other way. And, the skeptics argue, the U.S. government needs to overhaul its policies and industry must invest more heavily before any real change can happen.

With that in mind, here are four reasons to bet on U.S. factories—and four reasons to be cautious.

THE OPTIMISTS’ CASE, PART 1: U.S. Costs Are Getting More Competitive.

While wages soar at double-digit rates in China and some other emerging countries, they have stayed roughly level in the U.S. in recent years, narrowing the gap between America and Asia. Boston Consulting Group estimates that China’s overall manufacturing-cost advantage has shrunk to just 4%. When wages are adjusted for productivity and the costs of shipping and inventories are included, it can be more economical to make some products in the U.S. than in Asia. Read more of this post

China’s food-safety regulators pulled production permits from more than a third of the country’s infant-formula makers, pushing for consolidation and greater control in an industry that has suffered quality scandals

China Pulls Permits From Some Infant-Formula Makers

Food-Safety Push Aims to Bolster Local Producers in Market Led by Imported Brands

CHUIN-WEI YAP and LAURIE BURKITT

May 30, 2014 7:17 a.m. ET

BEIJING—China’s food-safety regulators pulled production permits from more than a third of the country’s infant-formula makers, pushing for consolidation and greater control in an industry that has suffered quality scandals.

The China Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that it granted production permits to 82 companies out of 133 that had applied, as it wound down a six-month review that officially ends on Saturday. Read more of this post

Investors Rewarded for Trek Into Little Known Markets

Jun 1, 2014

Investors Rewarded for Trek Into Little Known Markets

DAN KEELER

Investors who ventured into frontier markets—the smaller, lesser-known cousins of emerging markets—have been rewarded with impressive equity returns over the past 18 months.

While the MSCI Emerging Markets Index has been essentially flat since the start of 2013, the MSCI Frontier Markets Index has shot up by more than 50%. Developed markets grew strongly too, but the 32% surge in the MSCI World Index was still dwarfed by frontier markets’ growth. Read more of this post

Carry trade, politics boost emerging market equities

Carry trade, politics boost emerging market equities

Fri, May 30 2014

By Daniel Bases

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Emerging market equities in the second quarter have undergone a rebirth of sorts, rebounding from severe underperformance over the prior 12 months to flirt with the best levels in a year, but analysts say warning signs are flashing.

Major emerging markets like Brazil and India have benefited from cheap borrowing in U.S. dollars and hopes that elections will translate into economic reforms. Valuations in these markets are also historically cheap. Read more of this post

U.S. bond market faces possible reckoning

U.S. bond market faces possible reckoning

Fri, May 30 2014

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The rally in U.S. Treasury bonds surprised many, taking 10-year yields to their lowest levels in 11 months. Jobs data and the European Central Bank meeting next week will determine whether bond prices have further to go.

The bond market’s rally is the result of a confluence of factors – falling yields in Europe, extra demand from pension funds, concerns among investors about long-term economic demand and technical factors, including short-covering from those who thought bond yields were headed higher. Read more of this post

Modi does not want to be part of school syllabus; Modi has opposed a proposed move by some states ruled by his BJP to include a chapter on his life and struggles in school textbooks

Modi does not want to be part of school syllabus

Monday, June 2, 2014 – 09:37

Ng Si Hooi

G. Surach and A. Raman

The Star/Asia News Network

India’s newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi has opposed a proposed move by some states ruled by his Bharatiya Janata Party to include a chapter on his life and struggles in school textbooks.

The leader, reported Makkal Osai, firmly believed that the life stories of living individuals should not be included in the school syllabus. Read more of this post

S. Korea’s top 10% income share hits 45% of total: research

S. Korea’s top 10% income share hits 45% of total: research

Noh Young-woo, Shin Hyun-gyu

2014.06.01 19:42:50

South Korea’s income inequality is similar to that of the US, according to recent research, which came after the book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” written by professor Thomas Piketty at the Paris School of Economics, caused global ramifications.
Korea’s top 10 percent took up 45.51 percent of total income as of 2012, according to professor of economics Kim Nak-nyun at Dongguk University, who released the analysis of the top 10 percent’s income shares in major five countries Sunday as requested by the Maeil Business Newspaper. This is merely two percentage points lower than 48 percent of the US.  Read more of this post

Heavily-indebted Korean public firms pay over 9 tln won in interest

Updated : 2014-06-02 11:24

Heavily-indebted public firms pay over 9 tln won in interest

Public companies under close government monitoring for their debtproblems spent more than 9 trillion won (US$8.8 billion) last year inpaying for interest on their borrowing, a government report showedMonday.
The government has been closely monitoring 18 public companies,including housing developer LH Corp. , the power company KoreaElectric Power Corp. (KEPCO) and their power generating subsidiaries,which are struggling in the face of rising debt.
This is part of the government’s ongoing “normalization” efforts for thepublic sector, which is often criticized for lax management and pesteringdebt problems.  Read more of this post

Lord Bilimoria, founder of the Cobra Beer company, has an innovative idea on how to create jobs – and he should know: his firm is growing

Beer emperor’s plan to boost small firms is more than just froth

Lord Bilimoria, founder of the Cobra Beer company, has an innovative idea on how to create jobs – and he should know: his firm is growing

Lord Bilimoria learnt how to recover from failure when his own company nearly collapsed five years ago, with reported debts of £70m

By Andrew Cave

8:30PM BST 01 Jun 2014

Help for small businesses, better access to bank funding and immigration will feature high on the political agenda ahead of the Queen’s Speech this week. Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea has strong views on all three. Read more of this post

Almost all Spanish stock market firms use tax havens, report finds; Between them, 33 of the 35 companies listed on Spain’s IBEX exchange had 449 subsidiaries in 17 tax havens in 2012

Almost all Spanish stock market firms use tax havens, report finds

Between them, 33 of the 35 companies listed on Spain’s IBEX exchange had 449 subsidiaries in 17 tax havens in 2012

Stephen Burgen in Barcelona

theguardian.com, Friday 30 May 2014 13.34 BST

Almost all of the 35 companies listed on the Spanish stock exchange use tax havens, according to a report from Observatorio RSC, an organisation that monitors corporate social responsibility.

The figures, based on company reports for 2012, show a 31.9% increase in the use of tax havens compared with 2010, with 33 firms (94%) using them. The favourite haven is the US state of Delaware, followed by the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Ireland. In total, the 33 companies have 449 subsidiaries in 17 tax havens. Read more of this post

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding’s controlling shareholder and executive chairman Ren Yuanlin has shot back at allegations of misdeeds levelled against him by a China-listed railway company, saying that these are “mischievous” and calcula

PUBLISHED JUNE 02, 2014

Allegations ‘mischievous’: Yangzijiang’s Ren

Claims of misdeeds meant to damage him, adds chairman

ANITA GABRIEL

ANITAG@SPH.COM.SG   @AnitaGabrielBT

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding’s controlling shareholder and executive chairman Ren Yuanlin has shot back at allegations of misdeeds levelled against him by a China-listed railway company, saying that these are “mischievous” and calculated to damage him – PHOTO: YANGZIJIANG SHIPBUILDING

Sharp fall

[SINGAPORE] Yangzijiang Shipbuilding’s controlling shareholder and executive chairman Ren Yuanlin has shot back at allegations of misdeeds levelled against him by a China-listed railway company, saying that these are “mischievous” and calculated to damage him.

Yangzijiang disclosed yesterday that Mr Ren has personally reassured the firm of this, and said he took a serious view of the allegations by Tianjin Guoheng Railway Holding against him and his investment vehicle Taixing City Liyuan Investment (Liyuan Investment). Read more of this post

Reading becomes form of resistance in junta-ruled Thailand

Reading becomes form of resistance in junta-ruled Thailand

BANGKOK — In junta-ruled Thailand, the simple act of reading in public has become an act of resistance.

JUNE 2

BANGKOK — In junta-ruled Thailand, the simple act of reading in public has become an act of resistance.

On Saturday evening in Bangkok, a week and a half after the army seized power in a coup, about a dozen people gathered in the middle of a busy, elevated walkway connecting several of the capital’s luxurious shopping malls.

As pedestrians trundled past, protesters sat down, pulled out books such as George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, a novel about life in a totalitarian surveillance state, and began to read. Read more of this post

Modi-fying India

Modi-fying India

What does India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi have in store for the world?

BY SREERAM CHAULIA –

JUNE 2

What does India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi have in store for the world?

Is he the man to supply statesmanship and solve key international problems in Asia and beyond? Is his stewardship of India going to propel this vast land with an impoverished population to finally realise its true potential? Is he going to launch India to the next level in terms of economic prosperity and foreign influence to become an equal of China? Read more of this post

Adapting Swiss policies to needs of S’pore

Adapting Swiss policies to needs of S’pore

Monday, June 2, 2014 – 09:00

Gillian Koh

Yvonne Guo

The Straits Times

Switzerland has long served as a model for Singapore. In 1984, then Deputy Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong promised that Singaporeans would achieve a “Swiss standard of living” by 1999.

Indeed, the similarities between both countries have inspired Singapore to see Switzerland as a model of how to grow the economy and develop a world-class workforce. Read more of this post

Starwood Caters to Chinese Travelers; CEO Frits Van Paasschen Discusses Strategies to Meet the Shifting Demands of Chinese Travelers, Expansion Plans in Asia

Starwood Caters to Chinese Travelers

CEO Frits Van Paasschen Discusses Strategies to Meet the Shifting Demands of Chinese Travelers, Expansion Plans in Asia

LAURIE BURKITT

June 1, 2014 2:30 p.m. ET

When Frits Van Paasschen launched a special hotline several years go for Chinese travelers to conveniently use Mandarin to make their bookings atStarwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., HOT +0.66% there was one thing he didn’t think to add: English.

But as it turns out, Chinese travelers—the business ones in particular—frequently demand to speak English when they call the Chinese hotline, said Mr. Van Paasschen, Starwood’s chief executive. So the hotelier, which runs more than 1,000 hotel brands across the world including Westin and St. Regis, is adding more English speakers to its Chinese staff. Read more of this post

China Sees Citic Listing as Model for State-Firm Overhauls; Skeptics Cite Government’s Continued Control, Even After Hong Kong Listing

China Sees Citic Listing as Model for State-Firm Overhauls

Skeptics Cite Government’s Continued Control, Even After Hong Kong Listing

SHEN HONG and YVONNE LEE

June 1, 2014 3:25 p.m. ET

China is poised this week to complete plans for one of the world’s biggest mergers of the year, a $37 billion deal that could be a blueprint for overhauling massive, inefficient state-owned enterprises.

Beijing is using Citic Group, a conglomerate created under Deng Xiaoping as China’s first capitalist enterprise, to change the way the country’s biggest state-owned companies, known as SOEs, are controlled by investors. The merger will essentially list Citic Group’s assets in Hong Kong, where they will be subject to tougher rules and disclosure requirements than they face in mainland China. Read more of this post

In China, managers are the new labor activists

In China, managers are the new labor activists

Sat, May 31 2014

By Alexandra Harney and John Ruwitch

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Behind China’s biggest strike in decades last month was a new player in Chinese labor activism: management.

A previously unpublished account from inside the strike at Taiwanese shoe manufacturer Yue Yuen obtained by Reuters shows that supervisors were the first to challenge senior plant leaders about the social insurance contributions that became the focus of the dispute. Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings declined to comment. Read more of this post

The Surge in Investing by Conscience: Investment funds that take into account environmental, social and corporate governance criteria have experienced explosive growth in the last five years

The Surge in Investing by Conscience

By ANNA BERNASEKMAY 31, 2014

Financial risk and return may be the main focus of most investments. But strategies with an explicit social component are growing rapidly, according to the most current data from the industry association that supports and tracks this field: US SIF — the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment.

Investment funds incorporating environmental, social and corporate governance criteria in their decisions had net assets of $1 trillion in 2012, up from $202 billion in 2007, according to US SIF. That was the value of such investments in mutual funds, annuity funds, closed-end funds, exchange-traded funds, alternative investment funds and other pooled products. Read more of this post

‘India is a Price-Sensitive Market’: Andreas Barner, Boehringer Ingelheim

‘India is a Price-Sensitive Market’: Andreas Barner, Boehringer Ingelheim

by Prince Mathews Thomas | May 31, 2014

Andreas Barner, the chairman of the board of managing directors, Boehringer Ingelheim, tells Prince Mathews Thomas that it’s important for the German pharma company to strengthen its presence in India

Andreas Barner
Career: Assistant professor at the Federal Institute of Technology; Ciba-Geigy AG; joined BI in 1992
Education: Medicine from University of Freiburg, Germany; Mathematics from Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich Read more of this post

Pearl River Delta Economic Zone reports GDP of nearly 10 trillion yuan

Pearl River Delta Economic Zone reports GDP of nearly 10 trillion yuan

Staff Reporter

2014-05-31

Compared with the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze River Economic Zone, the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone is the mostly likely to be elevated to the national level of economic planning.

The Pearl River connects Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau in the east and links Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi in the west, and is an extensive river system in southern China with a total length at 2,197 kilometers. Read more of this post

BlackRock’s Fink jolts ETF business with ‘blow up’ warning

BlackRock’s Fink jolts ETF business with ‘blow up’ warning

10:46am EDT

By Tim McLaughlin and Jennifer Ablan

(Reuters) – BlackRock Inc Chief Executive Larry Fink this week dropped a stink bomb on a small corner of the $2.5 trillion global market for exchange-traded funds.

Fink, who runs the world’s largest asset manager and ETF provider, said structural problems with leveraged ETFs have the potential to “blow up the whole industry one day.” Sponsors of leveraged ETFs and related products, which make up only about $60 billion of global industry assets, called his remarks an exaggeration. Read more of this post

Investors want to ban ‘junk’ companies from London; Call for changes after poor treatment of minority shareholders at Bumi and ENRC

Investors want to ban ‘junk’ companies from London

Call for changes after poor treatment of minority shareholders at Bumi and ENRC

By Louise Armitstead

8:15PM BST 31 May 2014

A group of powerful institutional investors has demanded that City regulators tighten the UK’s listing rules to ban sub-standard foreign companies floating in London.

In the wake of concerns over the treatment of minority shareholders at a number of companies, including Bumi, the investors demanded changes in the way overseas companies are allowed to list on the London Stock Exchange. Read more of this post

Charles Brandes Explains Why He Invested In IEX

Charles Brandes Explains Why He Invested In IEX

by VW StaffMay 29, 2014, 4:32 pm

Trading Value – Pursuit of Best Execution and Innovation

This edition of the Brandes Quarterly Commentary offers an inside look at our trading team, and how its commitment to efficient, positive change in the marketplace helps serve our clients’ long-term interests. An important part of the firm’s commitment to best execution is our investment in The IEX Group (IEX), which we describe in detail below i .

More investors are now aware of the industry challenges created by high frequency trading, mostly due to the intense interest in the new book by best-selling author Michael Lewis, Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt . Read more of this post

Thailand’s Junta Turns Its Attention to State Enterprises; Company Heads Told to Submit Reviews, Business Plans and Get Option to Resign

Thailand’s Junta Turns Its Attention to State Enterprises

Company Heads Told to Submit Reviews, Business Plans and Get Option to Resign

JAKE MAXWELL WATTS And NOPPARAT CHAICHALEARMMONGKOL

May 31, 2014 11:06 a.m. ET

Thailand’s ruling military on Saturday gave the heads of the country’s largest state enterprises, many of them affiliated with the ousted civilian government, a two-day deadline to submit a review of their operations and invited them to resign if they wished.

Just over a week since the army ousted Thailand’s caretaker government and suspended the constitution, military chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha has been under pressure to lay out plans for reviving a spluttering economy in which state enterprises play a significant role in sectors ranging from banking to transport and energy. Read more of this post

Online banking thefts hit Japan firms prompting compensation rethink

Online banking thefts hit Japan firms prompting compensation rethink

Fri, May 30 2014

By Taiga Uranaka and Taro Fuse

TOKYO (Reuters) – Hackers stole nearly $2 million from the online bank accounts of Japanese businesses in April, a surge in theft that has prompted some banks to curtail online services and rethink compensation policies, executives and regulators say.

In April there were 50 cases of theft from online accounts held by Japanese businesses with nearly 200 million yen stolen, according to a person with knowledge of the industry-wide tally, which has not been made public. That was more than the entire previous year. Read more of this post

The Tiananmen Square massacre, 25 years on

May 30, 2014 6:32 pm

The Tiananmen Square massacre, 25 years on

By Jonathan Fenby

The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited, by Louisa Lim, OUP USA, RRP£16.99/$24.95, 240 pages

Tiananmen Exiles: Voices of the Struggle for Democracy in China, by Rowena Xiaoqing He, Palgrave Macmillan, RRP£18/$29, 240 pages

Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China, by Evan Osnos, Bodley Head, £20/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, RRP$27, 416 pages Read more of this post

Thailand’s junta stokes stifled anger of ‘red shirts’

May 30, 2014 2:49 pm

Thailand’s junta stokes stifled anger of ‘red shirts’

By Michael Peel in Ubon Ratchathani

Phangsri still wears her blood-red top with pride to signal her disgust at Thailand’s coup and her opposition to a junta that has forbidden criticism during an ever-tightening crackdown.

The shop owner and her allies in the popular “red shirt” political movement are lying low for now, but say they are ready to rise – peacefully – if the generals fail to deliver on a promise to return the country to parliamentary rule. Read more of this post