Foreign Supermarkets Hand over Register Keys to Domestic Rivals; CP Lotus and Tesco are heading for the door, leaving Chinese companies with bigger operations – and even bigger questions on handling them

10.25.2013 19:35

Foreign Supermarkets Hand over Register Keys to Domestic Rivals

CP Lotus and Tesco are heading for the door, leaving Chinese companies with bigger operations – and even bigger questions on handling them

By staff reporters Qu Yunxu and Yu Ning, and Hong Kong correspondent Dai Tian

(Beijing) – Mergers and acquisitions have never been rare among supermarket operators in China. There have been frequent deals involving domestic and foreign companies, as well as private and state-owned players. Now, an increasing number of foreign supermarket owners have shown they intend to quit the market, selling their assets to Chinese operators. On October 14, domestic supermarket operator Wumart Stores Inc. said it would buy 36 CP Lotus stores in northern and eastern China from Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group). The transaction is worth HK$ 2.89 billion. Read more of this post

The E-Cigarette Industry, Waiting to Exhale

October 26, 2013

The E-Cigarette Industry, Waiting to Exhale

By MATT RICHTEL

Geoff Vuleta was in the crowd at a Rolling Stones concert last year when Keith Richards lit up a cigarette on stage, the arena’s no-smoking policy be damned. Feeling inspired, Mr. Vuleta, a longtime smoker, reached into his pocket and pulled one out himself. People seated nearby shot him scolding glances as he inhaled. So he withdrew the cigarette from his mouth and pressed the glowing end to his cheek. Read more of this post

China’s Coming Economic Slowdown; History shows that every economic miracle eventually loses its magic. How much longer can China sustain such astounding growth?

China’s Coming Economic Slowdown

History shows that every economic miracle eventually loses its magic. How much longer can China sustain such astounding growth?

JOSEF JOFFE

Oct. 25, 2013 7:49 p.m. ET

The big question of the 20th century has not disappeared in the 21st: Who is on the right side of history? Is it liberal democracy, with power growing from the bottom up, hedged in by free markets, the rule of law, accountability and the separation of powers? Or is it despotic centralism in the way of Stalin and Hitler, the most recent, though far less cruel, variant being the Chinese one: state capitalism plus one-party rule? Read more of this post

India and China Leave Asian Century Stalled

India and China Leave Asian Century Stalled

This week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made his last visit to China as India’s head of state, a prolonged exercise in great-power pageantry and platitudinousness. After all, we are allegedly living in the Asian century, though we may have to wait a little longer for these two countries to jointly turn the balance of power in the world eastward. In Beijing, Singh did his bit to keep to the Asian century script. “More than ever before, the world needs both countries to prosper together,” he said. “What is at stake is the future of India and China; indeed, what may be at stake is the future of our region and our world.” Speaking at the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party — a “rare honour,” according to one Indian newspaper — he also said: Relations between India and China are unique in the world. We are two continuous ancient civilizations. We are neighbors with a long history of cultural, spiritual and economic ties. We both embarked on a new phase of our political histories around the same time. Today, we are the world’s two most populous nations, engaged in a process of socio-economic transformation of our people on a scale and at a pace unprecedented in human history. Read more of this post

Bottled Water Sales Rising as Soda Ebbs

October 25, 2013

Bottled Water Sales Rising as Soda Ebbs

By STEPHANIE STROM

Few things are more American than Coca-Cola.

But bottled water is washing away the palate trained to drain a bubbly soda. By the end of this decade, if not sooner, sales of bottled water are expected to surpass those of carbonated soft drinks, according to Michael C. Bellas, chief executive of the Beverage Marketing Corporation. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Mr. Bellas, who has watched water’s rise in the industry since the 1980s. Read more of this post

India traders “cheating consumers” with onion prices: food minister

India traders “cheating consumers” with onion prices: food minister

POSTED: 26 Oct 2013 22:23
India’s ruling Congress government has accused traders of cheating consumers as it struggles to reduce the cost of the vegetable known as the “poor man’s food” ahead of a string of state polls.

NEW DELHI: India’s ruling Congress government has accused traders of cheating consumers as it struggles to reduce the cost of the vegetable known as the “poor man’s food” ahead of a string of state polls. Read more of this post

An ad campaign for a skin-whitening product in Thailand has sparked a debate over whether having lighter skin leads to better-paying jobs and higher social status in the Southeast Asian country

Whiter-Skin Ad Campaign Spurs Debate Among Thais

WARANGKANA CHOMCHUEN

Oct. 25, 2013 11:27 a.m. ET

BANGKOK—An ad campaign for a skin-whitening product in Thailand has sparked a debate over whether having lighter skin leads to better-paying jobs and higher social status in the Southeast Asian country. Social media sites were filled with messages that explored the role of skin color in Thai society following a recent ad campaign by Unilever‘s ULVR.LN -0.64% Thailand operation for its Citra Pearly White UV Body Lotion. Read more of this post

Brown Considering Ban on Investing in 15 Coal-Related Companies

Brown Considering Ban on Investing in 15 Coal-Related Companies

Brown University is considering a ban on investing in 15 companies that mine or burn coal, requiring the Ivy League school to sell some existing holdings. The 54 members of Brown Corp., the university’s governing body, are meeting this weekend at the campus in Providence, Rhode Island, and plan to discuss a recommendation to divest, according to Marisa Quinn, a spokeswoman for the school. Any actions taken at the meeting, which could include a vote on the issue, would come tomorrow, she said, declining to elaborate. Read more of this post

Indonesia’s Islamic parties in decline

Indonesia’s Islamic parties in decline

Friday, October 25, 2013 – 09:56

Salim Osman

Senior Writer

The Straits Times

WHEN former Solo mayor Joko Widodo was elected Jakarta governor in September last year, he became an overnight sensation for defeating the widely experienced and well-regarded incumbent Fauzi Bowo. But when he was touted as a presidential candidate because of the high ratings he received from pollsters, he became the source of disquiet among Jakarta politicians envious of his meteoric rise. Read more of this post

Export Slowdown Threatens World Economy

Export Slowdown Threatens World Economy

When HSBC Holdings Plc’s economists from around the world recently pooled their forecasts, virtually all had a similar source of growth in mind for the region they monitored: exports. The impossibility of every nation being able to sell more than it buys means some of the analysts must be wrong — unless the rest of the solar system becomes a source of demand for the globe’s products, Stephen King, HSBC’s chief economist, told an Oct. 16 conference in London, flashing a slide of the planets. “Export claims are just far too optimistic,” said King, a former U.K. Treasury official. Read more of this post

SEC Goes Fishing for Fraud in Puerto Rico

SEC Goes Fishing for Fraud in Puerto Rico

Many municipal-bond funds own at least some debt issued by the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico because the tax advantages and high yields boost returns. So it was interesting to find an article in the Bond Buyer reporting that the Securities and Exchange Commission is “probing” some mutual funds because they invest in Puerto Rican debt. According to a letter from the SEC’s San Francisco office obtained by the newspaper, the agency is checking whether funds “are adequately disclosing the risks involved.” The SEC is also asking for the funds’ “policies and procedures used to value portfolio positions,” including “copies of the most recent stress test” and “Value-at-Risk analysis.” Read more of this post

Big Banks Are Padding Profits With ‘Reserve’ Cash; As Revenue Slows, Some Banks Increasingly Use Loan-Loss Reserves to Boost Income

Big Banks Are Padding Profits With ‘Reserve’ Cash

As Revenue Slows, Some Banks Increasingly Use Loan-Loss Reserves to Boost Income

MICHAEL RAPOPORT

Updated Oct. 25, 2013 7:23 p.m. ET

Federal regulators have warned banks to be careful about padding their profits with money set aside to cover bad loans. But some of the nation’s biggest banks did more of it in the third quarter than earlier this year. J.P. Morgan Chase JPM +0.55% & Co.,Wells Fargo WFC +0.40% & Co., Bank of America Corp. BAC +0.64% and CitigroupInc., C -0.18% the nation’s largest banks by assets, tapped a total of $4.9 billion in loan-loss reserves in the third quarter, up by about a third from both the second quarter and the year-ago quarter after adjustments. All the banks except Citigroup showed significant increases compared with the second quarter. Read more of this post

Ford finally finds its place in China; Just five years ago, Ford was thought to be hopelessly behind in China. But sales in the country so far this year have reached 647,849, an eye-popping 51% higher than a year ago

Ford finally finds its place in China

October 25, 2013: 5:00 AM ET

Just five years ago, Ford was thought to be hopelessly behind in China. But sales in the country so far this year have reached 647,849, an eye-popping 51% higher than a year ago.

By Doron Levin

FORTUNE — After a slow start, Ford (F) has finally found its footing in China. Alan Mulally ought to count such a feat among his signal achievements as CEO at the auto giant. Sales so far this year have reached 647,849, an eye-popping 51% higher than a year ago. Just five years ago, Ford was barely selling 250,000 vehicles a year and thought to be hopelessly behind. The last few months have been trending toward an annual sales rate of 1 million vehicles. Read more of this post

Oil’s $5 Trillion Permian Boom Threatened by $70 Crude

Oil’s $5 Trillion Permian Boom Threatened by $70 Crude

Bryan Sheffield, a third-generation oil wildcatter in Texas’s Permian Basin, knows what he’ll do if crude drops to $80 a barrel: shut down half his drilling rigs and go on a takeover hunt for weaker rivals. Sheffield is among producers who’ve together invested $150 billion in the Permian since 2010 seeking their piece of an oil trove estimated to be worth as much as $5 trillion. As the money pours in, risks are mounting of a bust as analysts including Marshall Adkins of Raymond James & Associates Inc. forecast crude is heading down to $70 a barrel next year, a price that would slow drilling in the most expensive U.S. shale formation. Read more of this post

Indonesian Oil, Gas Exploration May Halt Over Land-Tax Issue

Indonesian Oil, Gas Exploration May Halt Over Land-Tax Issue

Work at 19 Indonesia exploration wells may halt after the finance ministry shifted the cost of land and building taxes for oil and natural gas projects. The companies that operate the wells have temporarily halted orders for drilling rigs because they are required to pay the tax before starting exploration, according to Aussie Gautama, planning deputy at SKK Migas, the country’s upstream oil and gas regulator. The suspension may hamper effort to find potential resources of 1.6 billion barrels of oil and 3.7 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, Gautama said. Read more of this post

Upcoming Elections May Hinder Asian Reforms; Indonesia and India are both slated to hold national elections next year –in April and July in Indonesia, and by the end of May in India

October 24, 2013, 10:59 PM

Upcoming Elections May Hinder Asian Reforms

NATASHA BRERETON-FUKUI

The U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to keep its easy monetary policy in place for now has given Asia time to prepare for the eventual drawback of foreign capital. But upcoming elections mean policy makers are unlikely to take the hard decisions needed to make their economies more resilient once the Fed does move. Indonesia and India, the two Asian economies hit hardest this summer when investors pulled out of emerging markets in anticipation of Fed tightening, are both slated to hold national elections next year –in April and July in Indonesia, and by the end of May in India. Read more of this post

Najib Drives Malaysian Shift to Fiscal Prudence as 6% GST Planned from April 2015

Najib Drives Malaysian Shift to Fiscal Prudence as GST Planned

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak took steps for a shift toward fiscal prudence, scrapping sugar subsidies and unveiling plans for a consumption tax in 2015 while softening the impact with handouts to the poor. The government will implement a goods and services tax of 6 percent in April 2015, while corporate and personal income tax rates will be lowered after the new levy comes into force, Najib said in his 2014 budget speech yesterday. The fiscal deficit will shrink to 3.5 percent of gross domestic product next year from 4 percent in 2013, meeting targets set previously, the finance ministry said in a report. Read more of this post

Norway’s $810-Billion Sovereign Wealth Fund Warns of Stock Market Correction

Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Warns of Stock Market Correction

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, warned that stock market gains may reverse as Europe’s biggest equity investor said it won’t use new inflows to buy more shares. “Our share in the stock market has been stable or falling even though markets are rising, and that means in practice that we’re not using inflows to buy stocks,” Yngve Slyngstad, chief executive officer of Norges Bank Investment Management, said at a press conference today in Oslo. The fund is preparing for a “correction” in stock prices, he said. Read more of this post

Weitz to Yacktman Hold Cash as Managers Find Few Bargains

Weitz to Yacktman Hold Cash as Managers Find Few Bargains

Wally Weitz, the mutual-fund manager who beat 90 percent of rivals in the past five years by buying stocks he deemed cheap, says bargains are so scarce these days that he’s letting his cash holdings swell. “It’s more fun to be finding great new ideas,” Weitz, whose $1.1 billion Weitz Value Fund (WVALX) had 29 percent of assets in cash and Treasury bills as of Sept. 30, said in a telephone interview from Omaha, Nebraska. “But we take what the market gives us, and right now it is not giving us anything.” Read more of this post

Euro zone suffers from integration fatigue

Euro zone suffers from integration fatigue

7:40am EDT

By Jan Strupczewski and Martin Santa

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The euro zone is suffering from integration fatigue and banking union might be the last big push for the foreseeable future, officials in the currency bloc say. After three years of tightening policy cooperation, forced by a sovereign debt crisis, the single currency area may be reaching the limits of how much power governments are willing to cede. Read more of this post

New blockbuster movie shows why Pakistan loves to hate India

New blockbuster movie shows why Pakistan loves to hate India

6:57am EDT

By Mehreen Zahra-Malik

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Militants overrun a Pakistani police academy and kill 100 officers. An Indian spy and her accomplice waltz in a glitzy flat in Islamabad to celebrate the success of their mission. This is a scene from Waar (“Strike”), Pakistan’s first big-budget movie which opened this month to enthusiastic audiences in the nuclear-armed South Asian country of 180 million. Read more of this post

Indonesia Pledges Budget Prudence as Ministers Avoid First Class

Indonesia Pledges Budget Prudence as Ministers Avoid First Class

Indonesia will seek to rein in state spending next year to tackle a record current-account shortfall that has hurt the rupiah. The government is aiming for a budget deficit of 1.69 percent of gross domestic product in 2014, compared with an earlier target of 2.4 percent, Finance Minister Chatib Basri told reporters in Jakarta today after the parliament approved the budget. Authorities accept growth next year will be slower, he said, with the expansion target reduced to 6 percent from 6.4 percent. Read more of this post

China conjures up new ‘bad bank’ magic trick; Solution to prospect of growing bad debts is same as in the past

October 24, 2013 6:04 am

China conjures up new ‘bad bank’ magic trick

By Henny Sender

Solution to prospect of growing bad debts is same as in the past

Beijing is authorising the establishment of a second batch of so-called bad banks, this time at the provincial level, as it continues its slow move towards more financial deregulation. This time around the incentive is to prepare for any nasty side-effects as interest rate controls are gradually relaxed. Those include a rise in the cost of capital for already cash-strapped Chinese companies as well as the possible risk of accidents in Chinese banks that have not had to worry about asset liability management in the past. The purpose is also to deal with a new round of bad debts following the stimulus programme adopted in the wake of the global financial crisis. Read more of this post

Michael Petis: Hidden China Debt MUST Still be Repaid

Hidden Debt MUST Still be Repaid

Michael Petis, 2013-10-24 13:57:13

导读：中国庞大的外汇储备是否能用来清理银行坏账？当然不能。用外汇储备纾困银行只能减少央行资产，而债务不会相应减少。换言之，外汇储备转移多少，央行净负债将增加多少。
谁来承担中国银行里的坏账损失？要是家庭部门继续像目前这样承受损失——不管是通过抑制利率这种隐藏的方式，还是以更明显的形式，如税收，来实现——中国银行体系的坏账必将压制家庭消费开支的增长。中国的债务增加的速度似乎比偿还能力的增长快得多，说明未来的增长必定会放缓。

Five or six years ago, a few skeptics first started pointing out that the credit dynamics underlying Chinese growth was creating an unsustainable increase in debt. This, they warned, would ultimately undermine the banking system and cause growth to collapse if it were not addressed in time. There were three standard rejoinders to the warnings. First, analysts argued that investment was not being misallocated, and because credit growth poured mostly into investment, it did not therefore follow, as the skeptics argued, that debt was rising faster than debt servicing capacity. Although I think few analysts still support this argument, there remain some analysts who do not think China has an overinvestment problem. For example my Carnegie colleague Yukon Huang, who has argued, for example in one of the FT blogs that China is actually underinvested: Read more of this post