Puerto Rico: Greece in the Caribbean; Stuck with a real debt crisis in its back yard, America can learn from Europe’s Aegean follies; Puerto Rico’s debt crisis: Puerto Pobre; A heavily indebted island weighs on America’s municipal-bond market

Puerto Rico: Greece in the Caribbean; Stuck with a real debt crisis in its back yard, America can learn from Europe’s Aegean follies

Oct 26th 2013 |From the print edition

IT WILL not be long till Congress and the White House start squabbling again about the budget in Washington, DC. But before they create another artificial debt crisis, Barack Obama and his Republican opponents ought to pay some attention to a real one 1,500 miles to their south-east. Puerto Rico, an American territory, risks a Greek-style bust. With $70 billion of debt outstanding, the equivalent of 70% of its GDP, it is more indebted than any of America’s 50 states. (Puerto Rico is not technically a state, but its bonds are treated as if it were.) Yields on its bonds have soared as high as 10%, as investors fret it may be heading for a default. Read more of this post

Most Americans accumulating debt faster than they’re saving for retirement

Most Americans accumulating debt faster than they’re saving for retirement

By Michael A. Fletcher, Published: October 24

A majority of Americans with 401(k)-type savings accounts are accumulating debt faster than they are setting aside money for retirement, further undermining the nation’s troubled system for old-age saving, a new report has found. Three in five workers with defined contribution accounts are “debt savers,” according to the report released Thursday, meaning their increasing mortgages, credit card balances and installment loans are outpacing the amount of money they are able to save for retirement. Read more of this post

Michael Novogratz, co-chief investment officer of macro funds at the $55bn Fortress Investment Group, endorses Bitcoin

October 24, 2013 6:46 pm

Bitcoin endorsed by top hedge fund manager

By Stephen Foley in New York

Financial advisers who gathered in New York to hear leaders of the asset management industry impart their best investment ideas for the year ahead were given a surprising tip by one prominent hedge fund manager: Bitcoin. Michael Novogratz, co-chief investment officer of macro funds at the $55bn Fortress Investment Group, used a panel discussion on the prospects for emerging markets to trumpet the much-hyped digital currency, which he said could be used as a cheaper way of transferring money in countries with weak banking systems. Read more of this post

Is Funeral Home Chain SCI’s Growth Coming at the Expense of Mourners?

Is Funeral Home Chain SCI’s Growth Coming at the Expense of Mourners?

By Paul M. Barrett October 24, 2013

Steering his jet-black Cadillac CTS sedan along the streets of West Palm Beach, Fla., Brad Zahn offers a tour of the area’s cemeteries, one more tropically lush than the next. Zahn, owner of the Tillman Funeral Home & Crematory, embalms and buries people for a living. He employs his wife, Maribel, and one of their adult sons. Another son attends mortuary school. “My succession plan is in place,” Zahn says. He speaks evenly and wears muted business attire. One hand on the wheel, he seems the very picture of a confident entrepreneur. His demeanor turns anxious, however, when I ask about the funeral chain Service Corporation International (SCI). “How can you not be nervous,” he responds, “when the 1,000-pound gorilla gets even bigger?” Read more of this post

How The 2003 Arrest Of The Richest Man In Russia Changed Everything — And What Happens Next

How The 2003 Arrest Of The Richest Man In Russia Changed Everything — And What Happens Next

ADAM TAYLOR OCT. 24, 2013, 4:51 PM 4,930 12

Pavel Khodorkovsky was in Boston when he first heard of his father’s arrest, of how masked men stormed his father’s jet at dawn in the Novosibirsk Airport in Siberia, aimed machine guns at him, slapped handcuffs on his wrists, and flew him to Moscow. He heard the news in a phone call from his mother on the morning of Oct. 25, 2003, but it would soon make headlines around the world. “Police in Russia seize oil tycoon,” read The New York Times, “Russia’s richest man held for fraud” went the BBC’s version. Read more of this post

Ford Valued Like It’s 1999 Seen Beating Toyota to Peak

Ford Valued Like It’s 1999 Seen Beating Toyota to Peak

Ford Motor Co. (F)’s market value is reaching levels last seen in 1999, putting the company closer to its historical peak than the world’s biggest carmaker, Toyota (7203) Motor Corp. For much of yesterday, Ford traded at a market capitalization of more than $70 billion, a level it has closed at only three times in the last 14 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That left the second-largest U.S. automaker within about $6 billion of its peak valuation in May 1999. Toyota ended the day $30 billion short of its $254 billion high reached in February 2007. Read more of this post

Facebook CEO paid record US$2.2 bil; “In the more than ten years that GMI has been publishing this report, I’ve never seen a top ten highest paid list that loomed this large”

Facebook CEO paid record US$2.2 bil.: survey

AFP
October 25, 2013, 12:27 am TWN

WASHINGTON — Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg set a new record for corporate compensation in 2012 with a package worth more than US$2.278 billion, according to a survey by a corporate governance firm. The report by GMI Ratings showed Zuckerberg’s salary of US$503,000 and bonus of US$266,000 were eclipsed by stock options worth some US$2.27 billion. This was the first year the survey found any chief executive collected more than US$1 billion, according to the GMI report released Tuesday. Read more of this post

Ex-Bankers Following Swiss Gain Traction Advising Asian Rich

Ex-Bankers Following Swiss Gain Traction Advising Asian Rich

Independent asset managers, who advise rich clients of private banks on their investments, may at least triple the funds they oversee in Asia as demand for specialized products rises, said Taurus Wealth Advisors Pte. Independent managers, mostly former bankers, will increase the assets they advise on in the region to about $70 billion by 2017 after boosting them to about $20 billion now from $4 billion five years ago, Mandeep Nalwa, chief executive officer of Singapore-based Taurus, estimated in an Oct. 23 interview. Nalwa was a founding member of the Association of Independent Asset Managers, which was formed in Singapore in March 2011, Read more of this post

European stock exchanges are courting small firms as never before

Stock exchanges are courting small firms as never before

Oct 26th 2013 | PARIS |From the print edition

TEN-YEAR-OLD Ekinops, a small French company that facilitates data transmission over high-speed fibre-optic cable, went public in April, raising €6.7m ($8.7m) on NYSE Euronext in Paris. The fast-growing firm wanted money to help it expand; its venture-capital backers wanted to start returning money to their investors. Didier Brédy, Ekinops’s boss, says he is “delighted” with the amount raised in exchange for over a fifth of the firm’s equity and with subsequent trading volumes in the company’s stock, the price of which has risen by a third. Read more of this post

Europe’s other debt crisis: It’s not just sovereign borrowing; there are too many zombie firms and overindebted households

Europe’s other debt crisis: It’s not just sovereign borrowing; there are too many zombie firms and overindebted households

Oct 26th 2013 |From the print edition

FIFTEEN months ago, in July 2012, Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), promised to do “whatever it takes” to preserve the single currency. Although the bond-buying scheme set up to fulfil that pledge has never been tested, yields on sovereign bonds have fallen. The euro mess has morphed from an acute crisis into a chronic one. This week Mr Draghi launched what could become the second big turning-point in the euro saga: an inspection of the balance-sheets of the region’s 128 biggest banks which the ECB will supervise from late 2014. As part of its “asset-quality review”, ECB officials, along with outside experts, will start peering into the banks’ balance-sheets and impose common standards for loan quality (see article). This process is supposed to find out which banks are viable now, which will need more capital and which should just be closed down. Read more of this post

A Crocodile’s Bumpy Road From Farm to Handbag

A Crocodile’s Bumpy Road From Farm to Handbag

By Janice Kew and Andrew Roberts October 24, 2013

These days, women of every economic stripe can be seen carrying pricey leather handbags. Not so with totes made of crocodile, one of the most difficult luxury materials to obtain, especially in the pristine condition wealthy fashionistas expect. As demand from the world’s elite surges for the skins, luxury goods companies such as LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (MC:FP) and Kering (KER:FP), the owner of Gucci, are making acquisitions to secure a supply of the beasts, whose habits make even collecting their eggs a matter of life and death. Keeping crocodiles from scratching or biting each other as you raise them from hatchling to arm candy is another major challenge. Read more of this post

Debtors’ prison: The euro zone is blighted by private debt even more than by government debt

Debtors’ prison: The euro zone is blighted by private debt even more than by government debt

Oct 26th 2013 |From the print edition

THE European Central Bank (ECB) announced this week how it will undertake a root-and-branch examination of banking assets before it takes charge of supervision in the euro area late next year (see article). One aim of the exercise is to identify the bad debts that are fouling up euro-zone banks and preventing the flow of new credit. This is important because parts of the single-currency area are crippled not just by public borrowing but by private debt, most of which is sitting on banking books. Read more of this post

Bowing to Wall Street, DuPont to spin off titanium dioxide performance chemicals unit

Bowing to Wall Street, DuPont to spin off titanium dioxide unit

Thu, Oct 24 2013

By Ernest Scheyder

(Reuters) – DuPont (DD.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Thursday it will spin off its titanium dioxide unit into a separately traded public company within 18 months, yielding to intense pressure from Wall Street to divest the volatile business. Spinning off the performance chemicals business, which also sells refrigerants, would allow DuPont to focus more on specialty materials and agriculture, two growth areas. Read more of this post

The Misreading of China’s Growth Data; Even if not technically inaccurate, Beijing’s GDP numbers mislead, resulting in misguided optimism over an economy slowing down

The Misreading of China’s Growth Data

Even if not technically inaccurate, Beijing’s GDP numbers mislead, resulting in misguided optimism over an economy slowing down.

LELAND R. MILLER and

AND CRAIG CHARNEYCraig Charney

Oct. 24, 2013 12:54 p.m. ET

Another day, another release of economic data in China—this time, Thursday’s HSBCHSBA.LN +0.57% purchasing manager’s index, where an uptick this month suggests improving business confidence. This will contribute to what many observers have described as increasingly positive economic news. But it’s a mistake to draw that conclusion from recent official data, which manage to present potentially misleading data misleadingly. Read more of this post

Yields on Chinese government bonds have risen to their highest level in nearly six years, as a confluence of factors makes investors more demanding

China Bond Yields Soar

Inflation Worries, Growth Outlook, Central Bank Moves Make Investors More Demanding

SHEN HONG

Updated Oct. 24, 2013 6:10 a.m. ET

SHANGHAI—Yields on Chinese government bonds have risen to their highest level in nearly six years, as a confluence of factors makes investors more demanding, analysts say. The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond hit 4.20% Thursday, the highest since it reached 4.60% in November 2007. “Rising inflationary pressures, a rebound in economic growth and the central bank’s shift toward a slightly more hawkish monetary policy have led to tighter liquidity conditions,” said Chen Long, an analyst at Bank of Dongguan. “These have made bonds less attractive to investors.” Read more of this post

Hong Kong Needs Debate on Share-Class Rules, Exchange’s Li Says

Hong Kong Needs Debate on Share-Class Rules, Exchange’s Li Says

Hong Kong needs a debate on how to handle “innovative companies,” including whether to allow them to have multiple share classes, said Charles Li, head of the city’s stock exchange, after initial-offering talks with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. broke down last month. Jack Ma, the billionaire founder of China’s largest e-commerce company, and his partners wanted to retain control after a Hong Kong listing through a partnership that would nominate a majority of board members. Hong Kong rules don’t permit such a structure. Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai said last month that the exchange operator should “adapt to future trends and changes.” Read more of this post

India eyes $15 billion rollover of subsidy costs into next budget

India eyes $15 billion rollover of subsidy costs into next budget

5:33pm EDT

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s finance minister is finding it harder and harder to meet the government’s budget promises and may sweep as much as $15 billion in subsidy costs into next year’s accounts to ensure he hits fiscal targets ahead of national elections, ministry officials say. The finance minister, P. Chidambaram, insists that the fiscal deficit target of 4.8 percent of GDP for the year to March 31, 2014, is a red line that will not be breached. The worst economic downturn since 1991 and a fall in the rupee to a record low have undermined budget assumptions for some months. Read more of this post

Low prices mean highest U.S. sugar subsidy cost in decade

Low prices mean highest U.S. sugar subsidy cost in decade

5:24pm EDT

By Charles Abbott

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States faces its highest sugar subsidy cost since 2000, an estimated $280 million, following a new wave of defaults by processors on government-backed loans. Nearly 382,000 tons were forfeited in the final two months of fiscal 2013, despite repeated Agriculture Department efforts to whittle down a mammoth surplus and bolster futures prices. The surplus was projected to persist for months to come. Read more of this post

‘Aristocratic’ Ways Are Getting Tired at P&G; Dividends and Buybacks Have Become Procter & Gamble Stock’s Only Source of Return

‘Aristocratic’ Ways Are Getting Tired at P&G

Dividends and Buybacks Have Become Procter & Gamble Stock’s Only Source of Return

SPENCER JAKAB

Oct. 24, 2013 1:54 p.m. ET

Get ready to hear an aristocrat speak Friday when Procter & Gamble Co. PG -0.37%unveils fiscal first-quarter results. No, revered Chief Executive A.G. Lafley hasn’t been knighted and, oddly, isn’t slated to be on the earnings call. The blue blood is the company itself. Nobody will confuse Cincinnati with Versailles, even if P&G’s headquarters has more floor space than the historic palace. But, by dint of having increased its dividend annually for at least a quarter century, the company is a “dividend aristocrat.” Read more of this post

Indian Banks Head Out to the Country; India’s largest private-sector banks are ramping up their rural networks, building hundreds of backwater branches as a slowing Indian economy squeezes business in the cities. “We are not like a biscuit company that sells you something, you eat it, burp and the work is done”

Indian Banks Head Out to the Country

NUPUR ACHARYA

Updated Oct. 24, 2013 5:10 p.m. ET

CHOMU, India—Until last year, Anita Yogi had never had a bank account. She would stash what little savings she had around the house. Today, the 26-year-old seamstress from this village in the northwest state of Rajasthan has a new account and a small loan for materials to make saris, the traditional, draped garment worn by women in India. “Now I want to expand my business and save more for my children’s educations,” Ms. Yogi said, showing off her new automated-teller-machine card from HDFC Bank Ltd.500180.BY +1.38% India’s largest private-sector banks are ramping up their rural networks, building hundreds of backwater branches as a slowing Indian economy squeezes business in the cities. Bankers say operations in small towns and villages are booming because they are capturing first-time savers and borrowers in pockets of the country that were previously ignored. This group of customers—and there are hundreds of millions of them in India—is set to be the next big opportunity for the country’s banking industry, which already has a total loan book of close to $1 trillion, according to the Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank. Read more of this post

Wal-Mart to Accelerate China Expansion With 110 New Stores

Wal-Mart to Accelerate China Expansion With 110 New Stores

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), the world’s largest retailer, plans to add as many as 110 stores over three years in China, while shutting some outlets and remodeling dozens more as it seeks to overhaul its business there. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company plans to open the new stores from 2014 to 2016 in the world’s second-largest economy, it said in a statement today. The retailer expects to shutter up to 30 under-performing outlets over the next 18 months, Greg Foran, its China chief, said at a media briefing in Beijing today. Read more of this post

Hong Kong aircraft maintenance giant Haeco buys US firm Timco for $389 million to expand global reach

Hong Kong’s Haeco buys US firm Timco to expand global reach

Friday, 25 October, 2013, 3:23am

Charlotte So charlotte.so@scmp.com

Hong Kong aircraft maintenance giant boosts services and product range with purchase of Timco for HK$3 billion

Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co (Haeco) has expanded into the United States by acquiring Timco Aviation Services for HK$3 billion, bringing it one step closer to its ambition to be a global player in aircraft maintenance. The acquisition also enables Haeco to strengthen its capabilities in cabin modification, design engineering, testing and certification services. It also could expand its product range to some smaller domestic jets. Read more of this post

Asia exports’ sluggish showing a puzzle

Asia exports’ sluggish showing a puzzle

Friday, Oct 25, 2013

Fiona Chan

The Straits Times

The rebound among developed economies is fuelling a synchronised world recovery, but the good times have yet to start rolling for Asian exporters. Regional manufacturers should be working flat out to meet the increased demand in the United States, Japan and Europe, yet the opposite seems to be happening. Shipments from China, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan fell last month from the year before, while exports from here for the first nine months of the year are now about 7 per cent lower than in the same period a year ago, according to data out last week. Read more of this post

Return-Hungry Investors Tap ‘Frontier’ Markets; As Growth Elsewhere Becomes Elusive, Riskier Economies Get Noticed

Return-Hungry Investors Tap ‘Frontier’ Markets

As Growth Elsewhere Becomes Elusive, Riskier Economies Get Noticed

ERIN MCCARTHY

Oct. 24, 2013 7:23 p.m. ET

Stock investors are looking for new frontiers. Faced with sluggish growth in developed markets and a recent bout of volatility in emerging markets, fund managers are heading toward riskier countries like Pakistan and Nigeria in the hope of bigger returns. So-called frontier markets—the developing economies considered among the riskiest places to invest—are up 16% this year, according to MSCI Inc. MSCI +0.95% That compares with a 2% drop for stocks in more mainstream developing economies. Read more of this post

Bank Born Out of Black Death Struggles to Survive

Bank Born Out of Black Death Struggles to Survive

Siena, the medieval city renowned for its Palio horse races, is home to the world’s oldest bank. Within its aging walls lies a distinctly 21st century tale of devastation wrought by local politicians and global financiers. Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, Italy’s third-largest lender, is struggling to survive as it seeks to repay a second bailout or face nationalization. Its downfall proved a boon to global investment banks. They offered merger and investment advice to executives beholden to politicians that helped wipe out 93 percent of Monte Paschi’s value. Then they sold it complex derivatives that hid, even worsened the losses. Read more of this post

Fed to propose banks would have to hold enough easy-to-sell assets to survive a 30-day credit; estimates a shortfall of about $200 billion in liquid assets across all institutions as a result of the rule

Fed to Propose Banks Hold Funds for Credit Drought

By Jesse Hamilton and Jim Brunsden – Oct 24, 2013

(Corrects spelling of law firm in last paragraph.)

Banks would have to hold enough easy-to-sell assets to survive a 30-day credit drought under a rule to be proposed today by the Federal Reserve that may have the greatest effect on banks with big trading operations such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) The demand for 30 days of liquidity is intended to satisfy global Basel III accords for strengthening the financial system. Increasing the banks’ liquid assets is meant to make them less vulnerable in a crisis like the one that struck in 2008. Read more of this post

Buying spree puts Qatar emir’s daughter atop art’s ‘power list’

Buying spree puts Qatar emir’s daughter atop art’s ‘power list’

5:09am EDT

By Michael Roddy

LONDON (Reuters) – The daughter of the emir of Qatar was named as the art world’s most powerful figure on Thursday after the tiny Gulf state went on an unprecedented spending spree at auction houses and in private sales around the world to fill its new museums. Sheikha al-Mayassa al-Thani, who also heads the Qatar Museums Authority, tops ArtReview magazine’s annual Power 100 list, the second year in a row that a woman has taken the No. 1 spot. Read more of this post

Mark Dixon, the billionaire founder of Regus, the world’s largest operator of serviced offices, has more than doubled his fortune in the past year as increased demand for flexible office space propelled the company’s share price to all-time high

Billionaire Doubles Fortune on Workspace Demand Surge

Mark Dixon, the billionaire founder of Regus Plc (RGU), the world’s largest operator of serviced offices, has more than doubled his fortune in the past year as increased demand for flexible office space propelled the company’s share price to an all-time high. Regus shares have surged 106 percent since last October, compared to a 30.3 percent gain in the FTSE 250 index. Dixon, 53, owns a 34.2 percent stake in the company valued at $1.1 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Read more of this post

American Firms Find China Hard Work

October 24, 2013, 4:35 PM

American Firms Find China Hard Work

It’s hard to know whether things are getting better or worse for American businesses operating in China. One day they’re slammed for charging too much for coffee and just a couple days later, the president is praising them for providing insight into global economics. But if you ask American businesses how things are going, you’ll find that they have a long list of complaints about barriers to working in China. Read more of this post