A tie-up between SingPost and Adidas shows how postal carriers can make more from e-commerce

November 4, 2013 4:09 pm

Singapore delivers a new post

By Jeremy Grant

©FT/Munshi Ahmed

Mail man: Wolfgang Baier brings family pedigree and experience at McKinsey to the postal business

When Wolfgang Baier was on a trip to his native Austria from his current base inSingapore, he dropped by to catch up with his 94-year-old great aunt. To his surprise, he discovered something he had never known about her. Like his mother and maternal grandfather, she too had worked in the Austrian postal service decades before. “It can’t be an accident that I have the postal business in my blood,” says Mr Baier, who has been chief executive of Singapore Post since 2011. Read more of this post

Malaysia’s Iskandar Waterfront delays IPO on gov property measures-sources

Malaysia’s Iskandar Waterfront delays IPO on gov property measures-sources

Monday, Nov 04, 2013

Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR – Iskandar Waterfront Holdings, a Malaysian property developer focused on the southern state of Johor, has postponed an up to S$373 million IPO to the last quarter of 2014 due to property cooling measures, two sources said on Monday. The firm, tasked with developing a metropolis in Johor state that neighbours Singapore, had previously deferred the listing to early 2014 from an initial target to sell shares in this current quarter. The IPO is a casualty of the Malaysian government’s plan to raise real property gains taxes next year and double the minimum price at which foreigners can buy property as it seeks to cool prices. “The assets have to be revalued now with the changes in real property gains tax,” said one of the sources. The sources declined to be identified as the matter was private. Officials in Iskandar could not be immediately reached for comment.

World’s wet woodlands ‘at risk from water crisis’

World’s wet woodlands ‘at risk from water crisis’

Monday, November 4, 2013 – 18:57

AsiaOne

SYDNEY – Nations round the world need to cut back on their water use if they want to save their precious woodlands and rivers, warned scientists at the Australia’s National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT). The work of PhD researcher Sepideh Zolfaghar reveals that even trees in areas with abundant rainfall are at risk from over-extraction of groundwater. Read more of this post

Water Mystery Baffles Engineers as Rainy Dublin Endures

Water Mystery Baffles Engineers as Rainy Dublin Endures

In Dublin, where it rains about every other day, residents and businesses in Ireland’s biggest city enduring a second week of water restrictions don’t know when full service will resume. City engineers aren’t sure what caused a water-treatment plant at the country’s largest such facility to stop filtering properly and until that’s determined, the supply cutoffs that have upset Dubliners and hurt restaurants will continue. Read more of this post

Shiller’s Brazil Housing Bubble Warning Dismissed in Loan Surge

Shiller’s Bubble Warning Dismissed in Loan Surge: Brazil Credit

Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff is disregarding warnings about a housing bubble and is stoking demand instead by helping people buy more homes as prices surge. The government increased the price limit of houses people can buy using the unemployment insurance fund on Sept. 30 after public lending for homes increased more than four times as much as private banks in the two years through June, to 202 billion reais ($90 billion), according to central bank data. Read more of this post

Shell game: Britain makes a bold move on making firms say who owns them

Shell game: Britain makes a bold move on making firms say who owns them

Nov 2nd 2013 |From the print edition

CONCEALING a company’s ownership is legal in most countries. So long as you stay away from the stock exchange, you can register the owner as another firm or list a nominee (such as a friendly lawyer). Even using false or flimsy documents is often, in effect, risk-free. Checks are scanty: registrars record what they are told but often fail to check it. The result is a corporate vehicle that can prudently preserve privacy—or wreak mayhem. Global Witness, a London-based anti-corruption campaign, calls such anonymous shell companies the “global getaway cars for crime, corruption and tax evasion”. Read more of this post

Jetmakers feud over seat width with big orders at stake

Jetmakers feud over seat width with big orders at stake

Sunday, November 3, 2013 – 18:52

Tim Hepher

Reuters

PARIS – A row has flared up between leading planemakers over the width of tourist-class seats on long-distance flights, setting the tone for a bitter confrontation at this month’s Dubai Airshow. The dispute focuses on the width of seats provided on long-haul flights for economy passengers – not always the ones most courted by airlines, but whose allocated space holds the key to efficiency claims for the latest jets offered by Airbus and Boeing. Read more of this post

Gross Loses World’s Largest Mutual Fund Title to Vanguard

Gross Loses World’s Largest Mutual Fund Title to Vanguard

Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) — Bill Gross no longer runs the world’s largest mutual fund. Gross’s Pimco Total Return Fund (PTTRX) has shrunk by $37.5 billion since the start of this year, ending last month with $247.9 billion in assets, according to data provided by Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, California, and compiled by Bloomberg. The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSMX) ended October with $251 billion, Vanguard Group Inc. spokesman John Woerth wrote in an e-mail, taking the top spot. Read more of this post

‘Bail-in’ jitters for bank bond investors; Effect on funding costs for European banks could be significant

Last updated: November 4, 2013 7:07 pm

‘Bail-in’ jitters for bank bond investors

By Christopher Thompson in London and Michael Steen in Frankfurt

“Burden-sharing”, “bail-in” or “haircuts” – call it what you like. The prospect of bank creditors sitting in the line of fire is causing jitters among bond investors ahead of stress tests by European Union regulators. EU finance ministers have already raised concern among senior bondholders, agreeing in June rules to force losses on creditors in failed banks, a move Moody’s described as “clearly credit negative” for unsecured investors. Read more of this post

No need to dig: Many of Africa’s fastest-growing economies have not relied on oil or mining

No need to dig: Many of Africa’s fastest-growing economies have not relied on oil or mining

Nov 2nd 2013 |From the print edition

AFRICA is a continent rich in minerals and oil. China has an economy that requires them in abundance. Since the mid-1990s the economy of sub-Saharan Africa has grown by an average of 5% a year. At the start of this period Africa’s trade with China was negligible. It is now worth around $200 billion a year. Most of Africa’s exports are raw materials. China sends manufactured goods back in return. Read more of this post

Africa Water Utilities Lose as Much as $800 Million A Year because of leaks, fraud and unpaid bills

Africa Water Utilities Lose as Much as $800 Million

African water companies lose as much as $800 million a year, or about 35 percent of total production, because of leaks, fraud and unpaid bills, according to the African Water Association. As much as 50 percent of the water produced in some African nations is never accounted for, Sylvain Usher, the secretary-general of the Abidjan, Ivory Coast-based group, said Oct. 30 in an interview in Abidjan. The organization collects data on 100 private and government utilities in 40 African nations. Africa’s population will rise 66 percent to 1.2 billion people by 2050, putting a strain on the world’s poorest region, which is already struggling to meet water and sanitation metrics set by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Most of the waste is because of aging equipment and poor management of facilities, Usher said. Utilities need to use more meters and improve reading of the existing ones to reduce costs, he said. “Rampant urbanization is driving governments to try to extend their infrastructure, but they aren’t replacing existing equipment,” Usher said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Olivier Monnier in Abidjan at omonnier@bloomberg.net

Megawati urged not to run for Indonesia president

Megawati urged not to run for president

Monday, November 4, 2013 – 03:00

Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja

The Straits Times

INDONESIA – With just two months to go before the election year starts, observers and party insiders have suggested that former president Megawati Sukarnoputri take a tip from India’s Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi – do not seek the top job again, opt out instead while retaining a considerable amount of political influence. Their concern comes as Ms Megawati, chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P), continues to defer a decision on whether she will make another run for the presidency at a time when opinion polls suggest her party has a clear shot at power after 10 years on the outside. Read more of this post

Fixing Indonesia’s Public Transport Woes

Fixing Indonesia’s Public Transport Woes

By Rudy Setiawan on 9:20 am November 4, 2013.

Indonesia is one of the largest countries in the world without a decent or well-functioning public transportation system. The public transportation issue itself is not only limited to large cities such as Jakarta, Surabaya or Medan, but it also involves many intra-city transportation hubs and island transportation systems. It is, without a doubt, one of the largest and most complex issues that the government and private sector must tackle from all fronts. Read more of this post

Red flags waving over Asian corporate debt

November 3, 2013 5:06 pm

Red flags waving over Asian corporate debt

By Jeremy Grant

Anyone looking for signs of coming strains on Asia Inc as the end of easy central bank money looms needs look no further than the voracious borrowing by Chinese companies in the US dollar bond markets. The Bank for International Settlements estimates that foreign currency loans in China grew 35 per cent in the 12 months to March this year – more than twice the rate for renminbi loan growth, and much of that in US dollars. For some, this is the classic “canary in the coal mine” warning of problems just around the corner. Bryant Edwards, a lawyer with law firm Latham & Watkins, says the situation is “scarily reminiscent” of Europe in 2001, when the high-yield market was similarly dominated by telecoms and IT companies that subsequently crashed. “It really worries me that there is so much concentration in this sector,” he says. Read more of this post

China mimics worst of ‘Abenomics’ at worst time

China mimics worst of ‘Abenomics’ at worst time

BY WILLIAM PESEK

NOV 2, 2013

If imitation really is the greatest form of flattery, Shinzo Abe should be thrilled the Chinese are copying his “Abenomics” strategy to excite investors. The rest of the world shouldn’t be. China isn’t cribbing the prime minister’s actual blueprint, but his formula of spin and hype that has convinced the world something that doesn’t yet exist is real. The key to a great ad campaign is attracting customers and keeping them, something Abe has done with a brilliance that could teach the Edelman public relations firm a thing or two. Read more of this post

Wenzhou property prices may fall further amid lack of willing investors

Wenzhou property prices may fall further amid lack of willing investors

Staff Reporter

2013-11-03

Wenzhou, formerly looked upon as a benchmark for China’s property market and whose property prices once approached that of first-tier cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, has seen its property prices falling for 25 consecutive months at a time when 69 out of the nation’s 70 major cities saw their property prices rising, becoming the only major city that has seen declining property prices, the Beijing-based China Securities Journal reports. Read more of this post

China reform checklist: How to tell that this time it’s for real?

China reform checklist: How to tell that this time it’s for real?

Sun, Nov 3 2013

By Tomasz Janowski

TOKYO (Reuters) – The message from Beijing could not be clearer: China needs to shift to a more balanced economy that is socially and environmentally sustainable. That was the conclusion of a key Communist Party meeting a decade ago, yet what followed was more of the same: rapid investment-led expansion, which turned China into the world’s no.2 economy, but left it laden with debt, environmental damage and excess capacity. Read more of this post

KT Corp. CEO Offers to Quit After Prosecutors Raid Headquarters

KT Corp. CEO Offers to Quit After Prosecutors Raid Headquarters

KT Corp. (030200), South Korea’s second-largest mobile operator, said Chief Executive Officer Lee Suk Chae offered to resign after prosecutors raided the company’s headquarters and his home. The board will soon decide the resignation date and discuss a successor to Lee, who also held the role of chairman, the Seongnam, South Korea-based carrier said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Read more of this post

Six years following bankruptcy, eikaiwa (English conversation) school chain Nova boosts the brand

Six years following bankruptcy, Nova boosts the brand

BY PATRICK BUDMAR

SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES

NOV 3, 2013

In September, Tokyo-based Jibun Mirai Associe Co. (JMA) announced it would adopt Nova as its official corporate name — 19 months after it acquired the eikaiwa (English conversation) school chain from its previous operators, and almost six years after its well-publicized downfall. It has been a rocky road for the school since the Oct. 26, 2007, bankruptcy announcement that put thousands of foreign-language instructors out of work (and in some cases out of apartments), even necessitating some governments to intervene and give them assistance.

Read more of this post

Coming Soon: A Mahindra Aircraft

Coming Soon: A Mahindra Aircraft

by Seema Singh | Nov 1, 2013

Aerospace is not quite automotive but Anand Mahindra believes that just as Mahindra Jeeps plied Indian roads even as they were being made, Mahindra utility aircraft will fly Indian skies even as runways are being readied. In two years Mahindra Aerospace will begin manufacturing GA-8s in India. GA-8 and GA-10 (the numeric indicates seating capacity) enters its portfolio via the acquisition of Australia’s GippsAero, which makes these aircraft. At the inauguration of its Rs 150-crore aerostructures facility near Bangalore, Mahindra announced a strategic partnership with Aernova of Spain, a Tier I global aerostructures supplier that will transfer technology to Mahindra. Initially, the Bangalore facility will supply components to the aircraft being made by GippsAero in Australia, but it soon plans to enter the global supply chain. At peak capacity the plant could gross Rs 250 crore in revenue and employ 400 people. With commercial aerospace booming even as defence aerospace shrinks, according to a Deloitte 2013 report, Mahindra’s vision to increase India’s footprint in the global sourcing market is not sentimentalism. It hasn’t named its customers but some of the top manufacturers—Boeing, Airbus and EuroCopter—were at the launch and were interested in testing the components. Between aerostructures and utility aircraft—provided it finds a good number of customers for the latter in India—Mahindra Aerospace could well turn out to be a worthy sibling of the group’s automotive business.

‘It’s Cloudy and It’s Gloomy and People are in a Bad Mood’: Rains and a Propane Shortage Leave Corn Farmers Wet Behind the Ears

Rains and a Propane Shortage Leave Corn Farmers Wet Behind the Ears

‘It’s Cloudy and It’s Gloomy and People are in a Bad Mood’

TONY C. DREIBUS and BRETT PHILBIN

Updated Nov. 1, 2013 7:50 p.m. ET

Farmers in the upper Midwest are used to dealing with drought, disease and pests. Now, they are grappling with a different problem: a propane shortage. Unusually heavy rains have left corn from this year’s bumper harvest soggier than normal. Farmers are struggling to acquire enough propane to fuel the giant, oven-like machines that dry corn before it is stored to prevent rot. The dash for the gas has helped send U.S. domestic propane prices to an 18-month high and is slowing the corn harvest, already delayed because of wet weather during planting. The propane shortage is keeping farmers in parts of the upper Midwest from finishing collection of their corn, because they have no way to quickly dry the kernels. About 59% of the U.S. harvest has been completed, behind the historical average of 62% for this point in the year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday.

Read more of this post

A seemingly “unbridgeable valuation gap” between buyers and sellers continues to stymie big merger activity in the mining sector

November 3, 2013 3:46 pm

Mining valuation gap blocks big mergers

By Neil Hume, Commodities Editor

A seemingly “unbridgeable valuation gap” between buyers and sellers continues to stymie big merger activity in the mining sector while private capital has emerged as a growing force in dealmaking. A total of 165 deals worth only $8bn were completed in the three months to September, down from 236 deals worth $20bn in the same period a year ago, according to figures from consultants E&Y. Read more of this post

Mitsubishi Expands Into Asian Condos as Commodity Profits Slow

Mitsubishi Expands Into Asian Condos as Commodity Profits Slow

Mitsubishi Corp. (8058), Asia’s largest trading company by market value, is expanding into property development in Southeast Asia as the slowdown in China shrinks profits from its commodity businesses. The first project, starting next year, entails building an apartment complex with more than 1,000 units in the Philippines at a cost of 40 billion yen ($405 million), Masahiro Nagaoka, head of township development and construction at Mitsubishi, said in an interview in Tokyo. Read more of this post

Wei Chuan Falls Most Since 2003 After suspending the sale of some edible oil products on concern about the sources of raw materials

Wei Chuan Falls Most Since 2003 After Pulling Oils: Taipei Mover

Wei Chuan Foods Corp. plunged the most in more than 10 years after the Taiwanese food retailer said it suspended the sale of some products amid a government probe into the labeling of edible oils sold to consumers. The stock fell by the maximum 7 percent daily limit to NT$51.90, headed for the biggest loss since March 2003, after the company said yesterday it voluntarily removed some edible-oil products from shelves on concern about the sources of raw materials. The Taipei-based company said it would cooperate with the government investigation, according to the statement it filed with Taiwan’s stock exchange. Taiwan Premier Jiang Yi-huah said Nov. 1 the government will improve systems to prevent substandard foods from reaching the public, the Taipei-based Central News Agency reported. The health ministry discovered cases where oil mixtures were labeled as pure oils through tests on ingredients and additives in cooking oils, the China Post reported Nov. 1. As of yesterday, officials discovered 129 products were in breach of regulations out of 7,665 products tested in spot checks around Taiwan, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

To contact the reporter on this story: Debra Mao in Taipei at dmao5@bloomberg.net

Wine World Atlas Revised to Include Finger Lakes, China

Wine World Atlas Revised to Include Finger Lakes, China

A rich cabernet blend at a recent reception tasted like a cru classe Bordeaux, but it was a terrific red 2010 from RdV Vineyards Lost Mountain in Virginia. The state gets a nod as a world-class wine region in the latest edition of “The World Atlas of Wine” by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson. For the first time, the authoritative reference allots Virginia wine country, less than an hour’s drive from Washington D.C., a detailed map and two pages of text. Read more of this post

Property hot spots from Canada to China renew easy-money bubble fears

Property hot spots from Canada to China renew easy-money bubble fears

Alan Wheatley and Tim Reid, Reuters | 01/11/13 8:22 AM ET
LONDON/LOS ANGELES — From China to Canada and London, fast-rising property markets are haunting the global economy again, five years after the U.S. subprime mortgage bubble burst and triggered the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. For now, house price inflation is neither as high nor as widespread as it was in the middle of last decade. Except in a few cases, the warning signals are flashing amber, not red, and several countries have acted to cool overheating markets. Read more of this post

Rewards shift to stock pickers in U.S. market rally

Rewards shift to stock pickers in U.S. market rally

2:34am EST

By David Randall

NEW YORK (Reuters) – It’s a good time to be a stock picker. Some 57 percent of U.S. funds run by active managers are beating their benchmark indexes this year, according to fund-tracker Morningstar. That is the best overall performance for the industry since 2009 and well above the 37 percent of funds that typically top the indexes. Stock pickers are doing well in part because after more than four years of marching higher en masse, stocks have started to separate themselves into leaders and laggards. The lines of demarcation became more pronounced during the past few weeks as U.S. companies reported their recent quarterly results. Read more of this post

How Turkey made its railway tunnel under the Bosphorus earthquake-proof

How Turkey made its railway tunnel under the Bosphorus earthquake-proof

By Philip A. Stephenson @phantomath November 1, 2013

This week, the world’s first transcontinental tunnel was opened in Turkey. Istanbul’s Marmaray tunnel connects Europe and Asia, delving 1.4 kilometers (0.87 miles) across the Bosphorus Strait at  a depth of 60 meters (185 feet), breaking records for an immersed tube tunnel. The name is a portmanteau of “Marmara” (the Turkish body of water just outside the strait) and “ray,” the Turkish word for “rail.” As construction was a mere 20 kilometers from the active North Anatolian earthquake fault, the tunnel segments had  to be built to withstand earthquake magnitudes up to 9.0. Read more of this post