Local tastes tempt China diners away from Golden Arches

Local tastes tempt China diners away from Golden Arches

Mon, Oct 28 2013

By Adam Jourdan

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Bearing rice burgers and lotus roots, an army of Chinese fast food firms is cooking up a challenge to McDonald’s Corp and Yum Brands Inc, tempting cost-conscious diners with healthy, homegrown fare and causing a drag on growth for the U.S. chains in the country’s $174 billion fast food market. McDonald’s said last week it was thinking of slowing expansion in China as diners are tempted by local rivals. KFC-parent Yum warned this month economic weakness in China would drag on a recovery in sales dented by a food safety scare at the end of last year. Read more of this post

Hopes of Market Reforms in China Tempered by Political Realities

OCTOBER 28, 2013, 4:10 AM

Hopes of Market Reforms in China Tempered by Political Realities

By CHRIS BUCKLEY

China’s leaders head toward a major policy-setting conference next month bearing heady expectations that they have encouraged, and a proposal from a prominent government research organization has magnified speculation that they will embrace bold pro-market overhauls. The grinding realities of politics, however, are likely to force proponents of such overhauls to settle for more modest changes, experts said. Read more of this post

Climbing the Value Chain Won’t Be Cheap for the World’s Most Profitable Car Maker

Crack in the Great Wall of Profits

Climbing the Value Chain Won’t Be Cheap for the World’s Most Profitable Car Maker

ABHEEK BHATTACHARYA

Oct. 28, 2013 5:46 a.m. ET

The world’s most profitable car maker may not wear its crown forever. Great Wall Motor, GWLLY -4.22% one of China’s largest SUV makers, sports higher operating margins than even ultraluxury players such as Ferrari. It has achieved this partly because utility vehicles, which fetch higher profits, make up a bigger proportion of its sales than of the average car maker’s. Great Wall has kept costs to a minimum. Research and development spending came to just 2.2% of sales in 2012, the lowest among major Chinese car makers, according to Goldman Sachs. Its global peers typically spend 4% to 5% of their sales on R&D. Read more of this post

China Stocks Drop to 7-Week Low as PBOC Fails to Cut Money Rates

China Stocks Drop to 7-Week Low as PBOC Fails to Cut Money Rates

Chinese stocks fell, dragging the benchmark gauge to the lowest level in seven weeks, as small companies plunged and the central bank’s first cash injection in two weeks failed to reduce money-market rates. Tsinghua Tongfang Co., a maker of personal computers, tumbled 6.5 percent to lead losses among technology companies. The ChiNext index of Shenzhen-listed companies sank 4.7 percent, the most since June 24. The fixing on the seven-day money-market rate rose seven basis points to 5 percent. A gauge of financial shares pared its rally to 1.3 percent after gaining 3.6 percent. Read more of this post

Curbing speculationm Singapore seeks to regulate new power futures market

Updated: Tuesday October 29, 2013 MYT 7:34:27 AM

Curbing speculation Singapore seeks to regulate new power futures market

SINGAPORE: Singapore will seek to regulate electricity trading to prevent speculation as Asia’s oil hub prepares to open the region’s first power futures market. Singapore Exchange will begin a trial for the contracts in 2014 and intends to start trading by the end of next year, S. Iswaran, the second minister for trade and industry, said in a speech during Singapore International Energy Week yesterday. Six power generation companies had said they were interested in the market, including Keppel Merlimau Cogen Pte, Sembcorp Cogen Pte, Senoko Energy Pte,Tuas Power Generation Pte, Tuaspring Pte and YTL PowerSeraya Pte, he said. Read more of this post

Japanese Traders to Start Myanmar Economic Zone Within Two Years

Japanese Traders to Start Myanmar Economic Zone Within Two Years

Three of Japan’s biggest trading houses agreed to form a venture with Myanmar that will build an industrial hub in the Southeast nation within two years, aiming to export electronics parts and clothes across Asia. Mitsubishi Corp. (8058), Sumitomo Corp. (8053) and Marubeni Corp. (8002) will own 49 percent and Myanmar’s government and local enterprises the rest in the venture near the commercial capital of Yangon, the companies said today in a joint statement. The partners may spend about 17 billion yen ($174 million) on power, water and transport infrastructure at the site. Read more of this post

Malaysia to build Asia’s Canary Wharf

October 28, 2013 7:30 am

Malaysia to build Asia’s Canary Wharf

By Jeremy Grant in Singapore

Malaysia is pushing ahead with a bid to join the ranks of the world’s financial centres, inviting bids from developers and investors to build a vast business district in the capital that it hopes will become Asia’s version of Canary Wharf in London. But even as Kuala Lumpur – Asia’s largest centre for Islamic finance, but with a stock market that is far smaller than its tiny neighbour Singapore – moves closer to making its ambitions reality, analysts are warning that the project risks becoming a burden on the government’s fragile finances. Read more of this post

Malaysia Leapfrogs Into Top 10 of World Bank Doing Business Rank

Malaysia Leapfrogs Into Top 10 of World Bank Doing Business Rank

Malaysia advanced for the first time into a top 10 ranking of nations the World Bank deems friendliest to businesses as Singapore (SGDPQOQ) led the annual competitiveness scorecard for an eighth straight year. Malaysia vaulted to sixth from 12th a year ago after easing procedures for registering a company, applying for a construction permit and getting electricity, the bank said in its 2014 “Doing Business” report. Rounding out the top five after Singapore were Hong Kong, New Zealand, the U.S. and Denmark, unchanged from a year ago. China slid five spots to 96th, while the U.K. dropped to 10th from seventh. Read more of this post

It’s not the Govt’s money: We should be more cautious the next time someone in a Malaysian state or Federal Government says ‘I have a plan’.

Updated: Tuesday October 29, 2013 MYT 6:56:32 AM

It’s not the Govt’s money

BY WAN SAIFUL WAN JAN

We should be more cautious the next time someone in a state or Federal Government says ‘I have a plan’.

ONE Friday afternoon, a man comes to your house. You don’t know him very well. Just someone you sometimes bump into when you go out. He tells you that he has big plans but, the weird thing is, this stranger demands that you give him your money so that he can spend it on his plans. He tells you what he has done in the past and what he now has in mind. He has staff to pay to run all his “initiatives” so a big chunk will go to people who work for him. He wants to build a grand building. He also has a lot of travel plans. And, since he overspent for many years, some of your money will be used to pay his debt. He insists you give him your money or you will get into trouble. Under normal circumstances, most people would slam the door shut for fear of being robbed. Now let’s change the scenario a little bit. The man is the Government. No one personally came into your house. Instead, you watched the Finance Minister make an announcement in your living room via television. Read more of this post

Fund manager Tan Teng Boo, dubbed Maalysia’s Warren Buffett, says country’s progress to advanced status hindered

Updated: Tuesday October 29, 2013 MYT 8:54:08 AM

Fund manager says country’s progress to advanced status hindered

BY YVONNE TAN

Tan:‘Services is a sector where sustained productivity is extremely difficult to achieve.’

KUALA LUMPUR: The decline in manufacturing activities is hindering Malaysia’s progress in becoming a developed nation, says a well-known fund manager. “For us to reach developed-economy status, manufacturing must be emphasised and we are not doing that,” said Tan Teng Boo, managing director of Capital Dynamics Asset Management Sdn Bhd and fund manager of icapital.biz Bhd. Capital Dynamics manages icapital.biz, the only close-end fund listed on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia. Read more of this post

World Bank: it’s easier to do business in Russia than China

World Bank: it’s easier to do business in Russia than China

Oct 29, 2013 12:05am by Luke Smolinski

The World Bank’s annual Ease of Doing Business indicators were published on Tuesday – and they make a pleasant read for Russian policy makers. In the last year, Russia has climbed 19 places to position 92, and is now the leading Bric nation. (That is, the country is 92nd out of 189 nations when it comes to the ease of doing business.) Ukraine – the country that has improved the most over the past year – rose 28 notches to 112. Read more of this post

Water, wealth and whites – South Africa’s potent anti-fracking mix

Water, wealth and whites – South Africa’s potent anti-fracking mix

11:03am EDT

By Ed Cropley

NIEU-BETHESDA, South Africa (Reuters) – Stretching across the heart of South Africa, the Karoo has stirred emotions for centuries, a stunning semi-desert wilderness that draws artists, hunters and the toughest of farmers. It is now rousing less romantic passions. If energy companies and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) get their way, it will soon be home to scientists and geologists mapping out shale gas fields touted as game-changers for Africa’s biggest economy, and working out whether fracking will work here. Read more of this post

The German Miracle, Riding on Bad Roads

The German Miracle, Riding on Bad Roads

Chancellor Angela Merkel won re-election in Germany with an impressive share of the vote, but talks to form a coalition remain jammed over whether to establish a minimum wage. This focus is myopic. The next government — probably a grand coalition between Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party — will need to concentrate on fundamental issues affecting the next generation that have been neglected under Merkel as she concentrated on balancing the budget. Read more of this post

Fed Seen Avoiding Historic Loss by Holding Mortgage Debt

Fed Seen Avoiding Historic Loss by Holding Mortgage Debt

The Federal Reserve can avoid unprecedented losses by never selling mortgage-backed securities from its record $3.84 trillion balance sheet, according to updated estimates by Fed economists in Washington. The Fed every month is purchasing $85 billion in Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities in a program aimed at fueling economic growth and combating unemployment, which was 7.2 percent in September. Read more of this post

Fed Bubble Agonistes Persists as Zero Rates Prompt Debate

Fed Bubble Agonistes Persists as Zero Rates Prompt Debate

Financial-market bubbles are proving a more pressing threat than inflation to Federal Reserve officials who’ve bought trillions of dollars in bonds and kept the target for short-term interest rates near zero since 2008. “There is a threshold out there somewhere” where markets will become too frothy or the balance sheet becomes too large and the central bank will have to react, said Michael Gapen, a former member of the Fed board’s Division of Monetary Affairs and now a senior U.S. economist at Barclays Plc in New York. “The problem since the beginning of quantitative easing three is there isn’t significant enough clarity for what is the stopping rule.” Read more of this post

Beirut Real Estate Boom Makes Buyers Choose Smaller Flats

Beirut Real Estate Boom Makes Buyers Choose Smaller Flats

When Fadia Srour’s husband proposed 38 years ago, one of her conditions was an apartment of no less than 180 square meters (1,940 square feet) in Beirut or suburbs, so she would have living space similar to her parents’ house. Srour advised her two eldest daughters to do the same when they married more than a decade ago, when middle-income families in Lebanon could afford mortgages on such spacious homes. Now, Srour has one daughter left at home, and she knows she can’t expect the same if her youngest marries. Read more of this post

An Intriguing Product That’s Too Complex for Many; Alternative mutual funds have been gaining in popularity, but some advisers urge caution

October 25, 2013

An Intriguing Product That’s Too Complex for Many

By TARA SIEGEL BERNARD

The sales pitches go something like this: A mutual fund that promises to zig when the rest of the stock market zags. Bond funds that protect investors when interest rates rise. Access to the most sophisticated hedge fund managers in the country, even if you’re not particularly wealthy. Many investors and their financial advisers have been lured into these alternative mutual funds, which use an array of complex investment strategies meant to protect clients against steep market declines, for instance, or hedge against interest rate movements. Billions of dollars have poured into these funds during the economic uncertainty of recent years, and total assets, which stand at $234 billion, are already up nearly 33 percent from 2012.

Read more of this post

Insular Takeda adopts a global outlook

October 28, 2013 3:50 pm

Insular Takeda adopts a global outlook

By Jean-Louis Barsoux and Anand Narasimhan

The story. When Yasuchika Hasegawa took over as president of Takeda in 2003, the Japanese pharmaceutical company was experiencing sluggish domestic growth and facing a drop in revenue as lucrative patents expired. A fluent English speaker who had spent more than a decade working for the company in Germany and the US, Mr Hasegawa was the first non-member of the Takeda family to run the business. Read more of this post

A Quake Revives Japan’s Nuclear Nightmare

A Quake Revives Japan’s Nuclear Nightmare

As Tokyo shook early Saturday morning and loud shrieks from mobile-phone earthquake-warning alarms filled bedrooms around the city, one word immediately sprung to mind: Fukushima. Those who don’t reside 135 miles away from the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl won’t understand this reaction. But the first thing most of Tokyo’s 13 million residents do once things stop wobbling is check if all’s well at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant still leaking radiation into the atmosphere and the Pacific Ocean. Worse, a fresh spate of accidents there make some wonder if the Marx Brothers are in charge. I’m no engineer, gents, but next time you might want to avoid disconnecting the wrong pipe, dumping another 10 tons of toxic water into the soil and contaminating yourself to boot. Read more of this post

Abe’s Special Zones to Fuel Economic Reform, Hatta Says

Abe’s Special Zones to Fuel Economic Reform, Hatta Says

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s reforms may be aided by excluding the agriculture, trade and welfare ministries from oversight of special economic zones, according to the head of a working group on the plans. “Abe sees the strategic special zones as the heart of regulatory reforms,” Tatsuo Hatta, 70, said in an interview in Tokyo on Oct. 26. The prime minister is aware that the public is “fed up” over the sway that vested interests have had over policy in Japan, Hatta said. Read more of this post

The decentralisation of government has been a blessing to Indonesia. It has not only given people in far-flung parts a say in their affairs, but also talented individuals a chance to rise?

Updated: Tuesday October 29, 2013 MYT 6:48:01 AM

Indonesia shows the way

BY KARIM RASLAN

The decentralisation of government has been a blessing to Indonesia. It has not only given people in far-flung parts a say in their affairs, but also talented individuals a chance to rise.

FIVE years ago, I re-member asking the then-political analyst Bima Arya from Indonesia what he really wanted to be. At the time, we were sitting in his swish political consultancy office in Keba-yoran Baru, surrounded by all the latest technology for monitoring, gauging and displaying political trends. Read more of this post

Morgan Stanley-backed Continuum Wind Energy is dumping a 20-year model that helped Suzlon Energy dominate Asia’s second-biggest turbine market in India

Morgan Stanley’s Continuum Dumps Suzlon Model for Growth

Morgan Stanley-backed Continuum Wind Energy Pte, which plans a more than 10-fold surge in its India capacity, is dumping a 20-year model that helped Suzlon Energy Ltd. (SUEL) dominate Asia’s second-biggest turbine market. Continuum aims to build 1,360 megawatts of wind farms by 2017, almost all of that on its own, abandoning an industry practice of hiring turbine makers to execute projects on a turnkey basis, Chief Executive Officer Arvind Bansal said. The new model will help utilities manage the assets better and boost their profitability, he said. Read more of this post

India’s Farmers Start to Mechanize Amid a Labor Shortage; Move Increases Productivity and Provides Opportunities for Manufacturers

India’s Farmers Start to Mechanize Amid a Labor Shortage

Move Increases Productivity and Provides Opportunities for Manufacturers

BIMAN MUKHERJI

Oct. 28, 2013 7:27 p.m. ET

NEW DELHI—Each fall at harvest time, Leela Dhar Rajput used to hire 25 farm hands to work from dawn to dusk every day for a week bringing in the rice crop on his 20 acres of land in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. This year, he plans to use a combine harvester instead. With the machine and the help of two or three men, he expects to finish the job in a single day. Read more of this post

India raises interest rates again, warns on stubborn inflation

India raises interest rates again, warns on stubborn inflation

8:41am EDT

By Suvashree Dey Choudhury and Tony Munroe

MUMBAI (Reuters) – India’s central bank raised interest rates for the second time in as many months on Tuesday, warning that inflation is likely to remain elevated despite sluggish growth, and rolled back an emergency measure put in place in July to support the rupee. Facing some of the fiercest price pressures in Asia, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lifted its policy repo rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 7.75 percent, in line with expectations in a Reuters poll. Read more of this post

Cancer Express Carries Sufferers of India’s Deadly Waters

Cancer Express Carries Sufferers of India’s Deadly Waters

Mahendra Singh parts the crowd massed on the dimly lit platform to pull his ailing mother-in-law on board the train locals call the Cancer Express. The farmer from northern India jostles for space in the blue train before gently laying Charanjit Kaur down on the bare wooden bench. Cradling two small bags, the couple are bound on an overnight train for a hospital a state away in Rajasthan where she’s to be tested for suspected water poisoning. Read more of this post

Unilever’s Competitive Prowess Untarnished

Unilever’s Competitive Prowess Untarnished

By Erin Lash, CFA | 10-28-13 | 06:00 AM | Email Article

Unilever‘s (UL)/(UN) third-quarter update shed light on concerns that surfaced last month. The firm has stressed recently that emerging-markets growth is trending down (56% of consolidated sales), topping out at just 5.9% in the third quarter–a marked deceleration from 10.4% in the first quarter and 10.3% in the second. Conversely, developed markets posted minor sequential improvements, as sales ticked down just 0.3% compared with negative 1.9% in the first quarter and negative 1.3% in the second. North America was particularly weak, as sales tumbled 1.9%; this is even more dismal since it compares with a 3.5% drop last year. Beyond weakness in spreads and intentional pruning in its ice cream lineup, management cited increased competitive intensity in North American hair care and deodorants. Read more of this post

Richemont’s Lancel: a risky bet on a struggling brand

Richemont’s Lancel: a risky bet on a struggling brand

9:51am EDT

By Astrid Wendlandt

PARIS (Reuters) – Potential buyers of Lancel see reviving the loss-making leather goods maker as a high-risk gamble that could take at least six or eight years to pay off, sources close to the matter say. Facing a struggle to offload the business, Swiss parent Richemont (CFR.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) would be ready to pay for two years of losses – up to an estimated 20 million euros ($28 million) – to entice bidders, the sources say. Read more of this post

LVMH’s DFS Group Plans To Open First Europe Shop in 2016

LVMH’s DFS Group Plans To Open First Europe Shop in 2016

DFS Group, an operator of duty-free shops controlled by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA (MC), said it plans to open its first stores in Europe to cater to Chinese consumers who travel more frequently to the region. The company plans to add “a few” outlets in Europe in 2016 and is looking at prime destinations for Chinese tourists, such as France, Italy and Switzerland, Chief Operating Officer Michael Schriver said. DFS, which gets more than half of its global sales from Chinese shoppers, currently has no outlets in Europe. Read more of this post

Coffee Heads for Longest Slump Since 1972 on Brazil Crop Outlook

Coffee Heads for Longest Slump Since 1972 on Brazil Crop Outlook

Coffee futures headed for the worst rout in more than four decades as wet weather boosted the outlook for crops in Brazil, the world’s largest grower.

Increasing precipitation in Brazil this week will improve conditions for crops that have been able to flower multiple times amid ample rain, MDA Weather Services in Gaithersburg, Maryland, said yesterday. Soil moisture will also gain in Colombia, the second-biggest producer, the forecaster said. Read more of this post

Sugar Falling as Brazil Blaze Seen No Bar to Glut: Commodities

Sugar Falling as Brazil Blaze Seen No Bar to Glut: Commodities

Sugar is retreating from a one-year high as traders judge that record stockpiles in China and accelerating exports from India will more than offset lost supplies from a warehouse fire in Brazil. Raw-sugar futures fell 6.1 percent in New York since the Oct. 18 blaze damaged Brazil’s biggest port. Prices will drop another 8.9 percent to average 17.25 cents a pound in the second quarter, Deutsche Bank AG says. While Brazil’s center south, the largest producing region, may ship 500,000 metric tons less at the peak of its production cycle in the third quarter, that will still leave a global export glut of 1.5 million tons, according to Kingsman SA, a Lausanne, Switzerland-based research company. Read more of this post