Singh’s Easy Loans to Voters Lift Honda to TVS: Corporate India

Singh’s Easy Loans to Voters Lift Honda to TVS: Corporate India

India’s plan to pump cash into state-owned banks is brightening the prospects of two-wheeler makers as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh woos voters with cheaper loans in the world’s second-biggest market. The government on Oct. 3 said it will bolster risk buffers of its lenders to encourage lower financing costs for consumer durables. That sent the S&P BSE India Auto Index to an eight-month high with Bajaj Auto Ltd. (BJAUT), TVS Motor Co. (TVSL) and Hero MotoCorp Ltd. (HMCL), the nation’s largest, rallying on the move to revive vehicle demand after sales growth slumped to a four-year low. Read more of this post

India’s Cow-Belt King Is Put Out to Pasture

India’s Cow-Belt King Is Put Out to Pasture

Last week, the law finally caught up with the five-term member of India’s parliament Lalu Prasad Yadav, for decades one of the most colorful political figures. The son of a humble milkman, he rose to great power by throwing himself into the vicious caste wars of his region. In the process, Yadav, 65, brought millions of previously marginalized people into the mainstream of Indian politics, even as he established his own cult of power and brazenly bent every rule. Yadav is a one-man case study in Indian democracy at its most emancipatory — and its most exasperating. Read more of this post

Southern India Protests Leave 21 Million People Without Power

Southern India Protests Leave 21 Million People Without Power

Almost 21 million people were left without electricity for the third consecutive day in Andhra Pradesh as protests against a plan to split the southern Indian state spread, halting power plants and impeding distribution. No electricity has been supplied since Oct. 6 to the districts of Prakasam, Nellore, Cuddapah, Ananthapur, Krishna and Guntur, a top official in the state government’s electricity department said. Almost 3,600 megawatts of generation capacity, or 20 percent of the state’s total, remain shut as 60,000 workers stayed away from work, he said, requesting anonymity as he isn’t an authorized spokesman. Read more of this post

Land-hungry Hong Kong looks underground, as developers eye parks

Land-hungry Hong Kong looks underground, as developers eye parks

5:15pm EDT

By Yimou Lee and Alexandra Hoegberg

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Wild boar and water buffalo are not an image most people associate with one of the world’s great global financial centres. Yet in Hong Kong, where more than 7 million people are packed into just 30 percent of the territory, the green belts, country parks, woodlands and wetlands that take up the rest of the land provide ample space for such animals to roam. Read more of this post

Marlboro Man Dons Lab Coat to Find Next Big Tobacco Hit

Marlboro Man Dons Lab Coat to Find Next Big Tobacco Hit

Not all cigarette butts are trash.

At a Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) lab on a Swiss lake, researcher Bertrand Bonvin insists the butts of the Marlboro maker’s next-generation tobacco products be burned after testing, lest the proprietary technology in them sneak out. Despite the growing popularity of e-cigarettes, Bonvin and his peers at the biggest tobacco companies are still looking for their holy grail — a product that will hook nicotine-craving smokers like conventional cigarettes, without the health downfalls. Such an item could reignite stocks in the $760 billion industry, which have stagnated over the past 12 months amid falling sales and increased restrictions on smoking. Read more of this post

Commodity Prices Wrong as Often as 27% of the Time for Traders

Commodity Prices Wrong as Often as 27% of the Time for Traders

Commodities traders who buy and sell as much as $5.67 trillion of raw materials a year say the benchmark prices for everything from oil to iron ore to gasoline are wrong as often as 27 percent of the time. In a Bloomberg News survey conducted during the past eight weeks, 85 traders and analysts said they have little confidence in the assessed prices of crude, metals and iron ore. Regulators, including European Union Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, may examine commodities markets, having already increased investigations of manipulation of benchmarks for interest rates, derivatives, foreign exchange and oil. Read more of this post

Cargill’s expected cocoa coup rattles confectioners, dealers

Cargill’s expected cocoa coup rattles confectioners, dealers

5:52pm EDT

By Marcy Nicholson

NEW YORK (Reuters) – This past summer, European authorities took just six weeks to approve Barry Callebaut’s $950 million purchase of Petra Foods’ (PEFO.SI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) cocoa business, a deal that created the world’s largest cocoa company with a quarter of the $10 billion market. The European Commission decided the deal did not require deeper look partly because two other firms provided stiff enough competition in the niche industry. Read more of this post

Taiwan Warns That China Could Mount Successful Invasion by 2020

Taiwan Warns That China Could Mount Successful Invasion by 2020

China may be able to successfully invade Taiwan by 2020 as it develops technology to prevent allies such as the U.S. from coming to the island’s aid, the Taiwanese defense ministry said. A military modernization campaign has seen China’s People’s Liberation Army enhance its ability to make long-range precision strikes and develop so-called area-denial technology, the ministry said in its 2013 National Defense Report. Read more of this post

Spain’s indebted cities target dog-lovers, fortune-tellers for cash

Spain’s indebted cities target dog-lovers, fortune-tellers for cash

12:52pm EDT

By Clare Kane

MADRID (Reuters) – Beggars, dog-lovers and fortune-tellers who venture onto Madrid’s busy streets may soon find themselves out of pocket as authorities in the city and elsewhere seek creative solutions to their financial problems. The Madrid council laid out plans this week to levy fines of 750 euros ($1,000) for public activities including soliciting for money outside shopping centers, feeding or washing dogs, reading tarot cards and performing acrobatics with a bike. Read more of this post

Santiago Office Glut Looms as Tallest Tower to Open: Real Estate

Santiago Office Glut Looms as Tallest Tower to Open: Real Estate

Billionaire Horst Paulmann began developing South America’s tallest tower in 2006, when economic expansion fueled by copper demand pushed Santiago office rents to a six-year high. He’s completing it as vacancies soar. The retail magnate’s 62-floor Torre Gran Santiago in the city’s financial hub is part of a record amount of office space about to flood the market. Santiago developers, in an effort to fill the new buildings, are sweetening terms for tenants with such perks as six months of free rent, double the norm, or by helping pay for improvements that usually are the responsibility of occupants, according to brokerage CBRE Group Inc. (CBG) Read more of this post

Recession Looms If Treasury Uses Tools to Prevent a Debt Default

The U.S. Treasury has the means to avoid a debt default even if Congress fails to raise the government’s $16.7 trillion borrowing limit. The bad news is that it can’t prevent a recession. Economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., IHS Inc. (IHS) and BNP Paribas SA said they expect the Treasury to husband the tax money it collects to make sure it can meet interest and principal payments on the nation’s debt. Other obligations, from salaries of government workers to payments to defense contractors, would face the ax. The result: $175 billion less in government spending during November alone, said Goldman’s Alec Phillips in Washington. Read more of this post

In hot IPO market, exchange traded funds look beyond first day

In hot IPO market, exchange traded funds look beyond first day

4:34pm EDT

By Ashley Lau

NEW YORK (Reuters) – While active mutual fund managers get in line early for hot initial public offerings (IPOs), their counterparts at exchange-traded funds often sit on the sidelines and wait days, if not months, before joining the action. That is because most index-tracking ETFs need to wait for an IPO stock to be added to an underlying benchmark before the fund can add the company. That delay can cost some ETFs money because many IPOs get a first-day pop in price. Read more of this post

IMF Sees Business-Loan Losses of EU250 Billion in EU Banks

IMF Sees Business-Loan Losses of EU250 Billion in EU Banks

Banks in Spain, Italy and Portugal face about 250 billion euros ($338 billion) in potential losses on their business loans over the next two years, the International Monetary Fund said. About one-fifth of combined corporate loans is at risk of default in the three economies, which are forecast to contract this year, according to the fund’s Global Financial Stability Report released today. The Spanish banking system is the only one with enough reserves to cover the losses, it said. Read more of this post

Swedish Bidding Wars Fuel Record Debt Politicians Accept

Swedish Bidding Wars Fuel Record Debt Politicians Accept

Jenny Segerstedt learned about the downside of Sweden’s soaring real-estate market the hard way. The 39-year-old teacher, who needed to move this year after a divorce, lost out on one property after a bidding war sent the price to 2.2 million kronor ($342,000), 70 percent above the starting bid. She eventually found a 63-square meter (678 square-foot) apartment in a 1950s building in the western Stockholm suburb of Vaellingby for 1.7 million kronor. Read more of this post

Icelanders Run Out of Cash to Repay Foreign Debts: Nordic Credit

Icelanders Run Out of Cash to Repay Foreign Debts: Nordic Credit

Iceland’s private sector is running out of cash to repay its foreign currency debt, according to the nation’s central bank. Non-krona debt owed by entities besides the Treasury and the central bank due through 2018 totals about 700 billion kronur ($5.8 billion), the bank said yesterday. The projected current account surpluses over the next five years aren’t estimated to reach even half of that and will equal a shortfall of about 20 percent of gross domestic product. Read more of this post

UniCredit sees lenders reworking their business models on 1980s lines as regulatory demands for higher capital levels force retrenchment

Mustier Sees Banks Heading Back to 80s Amid Rising Capital Needs

UniCredit SpA (UCG)’s Jean Pierre Mustier, a 26-year veteran of European investment banking, sees lenders reworking their business models on 1980s lines as regulatory demands for higher capital levels force retrenchment. “Capital requirements will probably keep increasing, specifically for markets,” said Mustier, who runs the corporate- and investment-banking unit of Italy’s biggest lender by assets. “This will push banks to simplify further their activities, going back to a business model from the 1980s focusing mostly on lending, transaction banking and some intermediation.” Read more of this post

Bad Banks Turn Toxic China Debt to Treasure for Investors?

Bad Banks Turn Toxic China Debt to Treasure for Investors

Lai Xiaomin, chairman of China Huarong Asset Management Co., found his schedule packed one morning this year with back-to-back meetings with visitors from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Morgan Stanley. (MS) Since the nation’s largest bad-loan manager was restructured into a commercial company last October, Wall Street banks have been clamoring to get in the door. Executives including Goldman Sachs Vice Chairman J. Michael Evans and Morgan Stanley’s co-head of investment banking in the Asia-Pacific region, Shane Zhang, lauded Huarong’s success and expressed interest in buying stakes, according to statements issued by the firm after the meetings in Beijing in January. Read more of this post

Starbucks Aims to Move Beyond Beans

October 8, 2013

Starbucks Aims to Move Beyond Beans

By STEPHANIE STROM

La Boulange baked goods at a Starbucks in Seattle.

SEATTLE — In a suburb due east of Los Angeles, Starbucks is opening a $70 million, state-of-the-art plant that will produce cold-pressed juices. The factory is the latest investment that underscores Starbucks’ determination to transform its brand from being synonymous with coffee to a food and beverage juggernaut. In the last two years, Starbucks has spent $750 million acquiring three new businesses — Evolution Fresh juices, La Boulange Café and Bakery, and Teavana — as it tries to muscle in on prized grocery shelves and compete in territory now dominated by the likes of Panera Bread and Chipotle. “We have a lot going on,” Howard Schultz, the chief executive, said in an interview at the company’s offices here. Read more of this post

ASEAN stumbling on road to single community goal by 2015, Brunei urges political will

ASEAN stumbling on road to single community goal by 2015, Brunei urges political will
(45 mins ago)

Asian leaders began meeting today in Brunei against a backdrop of divisive territorial disputes and flagging free trade efforts. Opening the 23rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Brunei today, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah (pictured) said the outlook for the bloc was positive, but there are challenges to the one community goal.
“Overall the outlook for the ASEAN region remains promising,” Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah said. “Nonetheless, with two years left to go we still face challenges in implementing our community roadmap.” Read more of this post

Korean firms lag far behind in innovation; Three Korean firms have been included in a list of the world’s 100 most innovative companies: Samsung, LG Electronics, LG Industrial Systems)

2013-10-08 18:20

Korean firms lag far behind in innovation

By Kim Tae-jong
Three Korean firms have been included in a list of the world’s 100 most innovative companies. But Korea still lags far behind Japan in terms of patent-based metrics, as a total of 28 Japanese companies made the list. The three local firms appearing in Thomson Reuters’ Top 100 Global Innovators report were LG Electronics, LSIS and Samsung Electronics
This list shows patent activity as a proxy for innovation and honors the 100 corporations that are at the heart of pushing patents, and selects those that secure global patent protection for their intellectual property, continue to push the envelope with new technologies and invest more in R&D. Read more of this post

Long working hours entail a heap of associated problems in Korea; OECD averaged 1,696 hours while Korea reached 2,092 hours a year

2013-10-08 17:17

Cutting working hours

Few will deny that South Koreans are the hardest-working people on the planet. While the yearly working hours among the member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) averaged 1,696 in 2011, South Korea’s reached 2,092 hours last year. In fact, long working hours entail a heap of associated problems. First of all, employees are prone to depression and anxiety disorders. It’s also rare to find any improvements in productivity because employees work at a slower rate during business hours.     Read more of this post

The Korea New Exchange (KONEX) has suffered from sluggish trading as the bourse has failed to attract companies and investors

2013-10-08 17:15

KONEX struggles to attract investors

By Yi Whan-woo
The Korea New Exchange (KONEX) has suffered from sluggish trading as the bourse has failed to attract companies and investors. The country’s third stock market was launched on July 1 to help the start-ups and venture companies draw investors under the Park Geun-hye administration’s creativity-based economic paradigm. According to the Korea Exchange (KRX), Monday, the average daily trading volume at the KONEX stood at 222 million won in September, a pittance of the main KOSPI’s 4.46 trillion won and the tech-heavy KOSDAQ’s 1.59 trillion won. Read more of this post

Uighurs in China Say Bias Is Growing

October 7, 2013

Uighurs in China Say Bias Is Growing

By ANDREW JACOBS

KASHGAR, China — Job seekers looking for opportunities in this ancient oasis town in China’s far western Xinjiang region would seem to have ample options, based on a quick glance at a local help-wanted Web site. The Kashgar Cultural Center has an opening for an experienced dance choreographer, the prefectural Communist Party office is hiring a driver and nearby Shule County needs an archivist. But these and dozens of other job openings share one caveat: ethnic Uighurs, the Muslim, Turkic-speaking people who make up nearly 90 percent of Kashgar’s population, need not apply. Roughly half of the 161 positions advertised on the Civil Servant Examination Information Web site indicate that only ethnic Han Chinese or native Mandarin speakers will be considered. Read more of this post

CCTV interviewed Chinese on streets: “What is patriotism?”

CCTV interviewed Chinese on streets: “What is patriotism?”

Alia | October 8th, 2013 – 3:09 am

“What is patriotism? What kind of behaviors do you consider to be patriotic?” These are the questions that many Chinese were asked by China Central Television (CCTV) during this past National Day holidays. In the current China where the word “patriotism” has more negative connotation than positive, some of the “unexpected” answers unsurprisingly went viral. The latest viral response is from a college student in Beijing. When asked about what came to his mind after hearing the word “patriot,” the student in the picture answered: “Patriot reminds me of missiles.” The response, while completely off the point, perfectly illustrates the absurdity of asking such questions in today’s China, especially among the younger generations. Yes, many Chinese are still hardcore patriots, or even nationalists as described in many western media, when it comes to Japan, islands/rocks in the ocean, Taiwan and Tibet. But most of them, when asked about being a patriot on an abstract level, would give very mixed answers. Read more of this post

4G and overcapacity to reshape China’s smartphone industry

4G and overcapacity to reshape China’s smartphone industry

Staff Reporter 

2013-10-09

On the eve of the release of 4G mobile phone licenses, indigenous mobile phone brands in China are in for a bumpy ride due to the vicious price competition arising from overcapacities, reports the Chinese-language Beijing Times. Although market leaders Samsung and Apple are still going strong in China’s mobile phone market, indigenous brands dominate the remainder of the market share. According to research firm Canalys, the leading domestic brands — ZTE, Huawei, Coolpad, Lenovo, and Xiaomi — account for 20% of the global shipment in the second quarter this year. On the global top-10 list for mobile phones, headed by Samsung and Apple, Chinese brands also take four spots, including Lenovo in third, Coolpad in fourth, Huawei in sixth, and ZTE coming in seventh. Read more of this post

In China, parents bribe to get students into top schools, despite campaign against corruption

In China, parents bribe to get students into top schools, despite campaign against corruption

By William Wan, Published: October 8

BEIJING — For years, Yang Jie’s friends warned her to save up for her daughter’s education. Not for tuition or textbooks, but for the bribes needed to get into this city’s better public schools. A strong-willed, self-made businesswoman, Yang largely ignored their advice. “Success in life,” she told her daughter, “is achieved through hard work.” But now, with her daughter entering the anxiety-filled application process for middle school, Yang is questioning that principle. She has watched her friends shower teachers and school ­administrators with favors, ­presents and money. One friend bought a new elevator for a top school. His child was admitted soon after. Read more of this post

2% of China’s public consumes one-third of world’s luxury goods

2% of China’s public consumes one-third of world’s luxury goods

Staff Reporter

2013-10-08

According to China’s official population clock, there are an estimated 1,359,025,970 people in China as of Sept. 26, with just 2% of that number — some 27,180,519 people — consuming one third of the world’s luxury items. The 2% are the backbone of the global luxury goods sales and the target of hundreds of international brand names, the Chinese-language Money Week magazine reports. Read more of this post