Food manufacturers move in on thriving restaurant business

Food manufacturers move in on thriving restaurant business

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Business | Mon, February 24 2014, 12:21 PM

Food producers have increasingly moved into the restaurant business to gain footholds in the lucrative food-service industry, following the lead of beverage firm Rekso Group, which has run the fast-food restaurant chain McDonald’s since 2009. Read more of this post

Oversupply of real estate in Malaysia short-term situation

Updated: Tuesday February 25, 2014 MYT 7:06:24 AM

Oversupply of real estate in Malaysia short-term situation

KUALA LUMPUR: The oversupply of real estate in the country is only a short-term situation, which will clear over time, says Malaysian Institute of Estate Agentspresident Siva Shanker.

As long as the local economy is healthy and not in a tailspin, the property market will withstand the pressures of speculation and the curbs imposed by Budget 2014, he said. Read more of this post

MyEG will be getting 20% of revenue over and above what the Malysian Government is able to collect on its own for implementing the electronic monitoring system (EMS) project.

Updated: Tuesday February 25, 2014 MYT 7:55:13 AM

MyEG getting 20% more revenue than what Govt is able to collect

BY EUGENE MAHALINGAM

PETALING JAYA: MyEG Services Bhd confirms that it will be getting 20% of revenue over and above what the Government is able to collect on its own for implementing the electronic monitoring system (EMS) project. Read more of this post

Frontier market havens come under threat as frailties appear

February 24, 2014 3:46 pm

Frontier market havens come under threat as frailties appear

By James Kynge

Frontier markets are poised at the extremities of market capitalism, a position that often equates to life on the edge for investors. But this year, this exotic asset class of outliers has performed more like a haven from the turmoil of more established emerging markets. Read more of this post

Inside the Showdown Atop Pimco, the World’s Biggest Bond Firm; After clashing with Pimco co-founder Bill Gross, CEO Mohamed El-Erian decided to leave the fund giant.

Inside the Showdown Atop Pimco, the World’s Biggest Bond Firm

After clashing with Pimco co-founder Bill Gross, CEO Mohamed El-Erian decided to leave the fund giant.

GREGORY ZUCKERMAN and KIRSTEN GRIND

Updated Feb. 24, 2014 10:34 p.m. ET

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.—Tension increased at Pacific Investment Management Co.’s headquarters here last summer. The bond market was under pressure, losses grew and clients pulled billions of dollars from the firm. Read more of this post

Brazil: Loss of faith; Public unrest and economic worries threaten to spoil the World Cup host’s national party

February 24, 2014 7:20 pm

Brazil: Loss of faith

By Joe Leahy

Public unrest and economic worries threaten to spoil the World Cup host’s national party

©Getty

Fresh gospel: Brazil is preparing a new public-relations campaign to improve perceptions of the World Cup

For weeks workers at São Paulo’s Itaquerao stadium have been clearing up the damage from a deadly construction accident in November. A giant roof girder crashed through a wall of the unfinished 68,000-seat arena, killing two labourers and casting a pall over Brazil’s preparations for this year’s football World Cup. Read more of this post

Shenzhen property heads for dizzy heights

February 24, 2014 11:17 am

Shenzhen property heads for dizzy heights

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Hong Kong

Dozens of small fish lie basking in the sun on the roof of a penthouse apartment inShenzhen

that is on the market for about 20 per cent more than when it last sold in 2012. Read more of this post

Pensions – the Australian lesson

February 24, 2014 12:42 pm

Pensions – the Australian lesson

By Josephine Cumbo

Think back to the last time you changed jobs. You probably thought a lot about your new salary, responsibilities and hours of work. You might have taken into account how much travelling or commuting you would be doing, or whether the post came with attractive fringe benefits. What you might do with the pension savings you accumulated in your old employer’s fund was probably well down the list of priorities. Read more of this post

Indonesia’s anti-corruption agency urged to probe wealth of candidates

Indonesia’s anti-corruption agency urged to probe wealth of candidates

Monday, February 24, 2014 – 10:36

The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network

The deputy governor of Jakarta, Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, has urged the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) not only to verify the wealth of successful candidates for public office but also to examine how they achieved their wealth

The 1999 Corruption Law requires all successful candidates for public office, including those of governor, regent and mayor, as well as legislative and regional representatives, to submit wealth reports before starting their new state jobs. Read more of this post

Indonesia’s TV stations told to stop political ads

Indonesia’s TV stations told to stop political ads

Monday, February 24, 2014 – 16:31

Nurfika Osman

The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network

JAKARTA – The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) has officially ordered TV stations RCTI and Global TV to stop broadcasting two quiz shows, Kuis Kebangsaan (Nationalism Quiz) and Indonesia Cerdas (Smart Indonesia), for promoting the interests of the People’s Conscience (Hanura) Party. Read more of this post

Beijing’s drive to instill nationalism fires up the young

Beijing’s drive to instill nationalism fires up the young

Tuesday, February 25, 2014 – 09:00

The Straits Times

Ties between China and Japan are at a new low. The Straits Times’ China Bureau examines the attitudes towards Japan among young Chinese, as well as how mainland-based Japanese nationals cope amid the public acrimony between the two Asian powers. Read more of this post

More Communist Party officials expected to flee abroad

More Communist Party officials expected to flee abroad

Tuesday, 25 February, 2014, 4:48am

Keith Zhai keith.zhai@scmp.com

Growing numbers of corrupt officials are likely to flee the country because of the crackdown on graft, according to a new government think tank report.

The number of Communist Party cadres escaping abroad may also rise because a lack of extradition pacts with some countries means fugitives may find bolt holes overseas, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) said. Read more of this post

Chinese Arts Company Goes Public in Bid to Grow

Chinese Arts Company Goes Public in Bid to Grow

By DAVID BARBOZAFEB. 24, 2014

SHANGHAI — The China Poly Group Corporation, a state-run conglomerate that got its start selling weapons to the People’s Liberation Army, has over the past few decades successfully branched into developing real estate, selling sports cars and producing television sitcoms. Now the company’s huge arts and culture division — Poly Culture Group Corporation — is planning an initial public stock offering that could raise up to $330 million and bolster the prospects of the company in the world’s biggest and fastest-growing art and auction market. Read more of this post

Fangs In: Yu E Bao Is Not to Blame; Criticism of Alibaba’s e-investment product is misguided because it represents exactly the kind of innovation the financial industry badly needs

02.24.2014 16:35

Fangs In: Yu E Bao Is Not to Blame

Criticism of Alibaba’s e-investment product is misguided because it represents exactly the kind of innovation the financial industry badly needs

By Liu Shengjun

Niu Wenxin, the executive editor of CCTV’s Stock Information Channel, recently called Alibaba’s e-investment product Yu E Bao a “vampire” in a blog article. He wrote that it should be banned because of the damages it does to banks, the financial industry and the country’s real economy. Read more of this post

SEC Grows Suspicious of Declining Auditor Fees

February 24, 2014, 1:48 PM ET

SEC Grows Suspicious of Declining Auditor Fees

EMILY CHASAN

Senior Editor

U.S. securities regulators are wary that pressure to reduce auditor fees could lead to worse audits.

Regulators grow “worried” when auditor fees appear to fluctuate with economic cycles, Paul Beswick, chief accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission, said at a Practising Law Institute conference in Washington, D.C., on Saturday. Read more of this post

Five Myths of Bond Investing; We puncture some dangerous misconceptions-and set out a plan for investors to follow now.

Five Myths of Bond Investing

We puncture some dangerous misconceptions—and set out a plan for investors to follow now.

JASON ZWEIG And JOE LIGHT 

Feb. 21, 2014 6:28 p.m. ET

Are bonds a portfolio’s bulwark or its Achilles’ heel? Investors can’t seem to decide.

Over the last seven months of 2013, amid rising interest rates and falling bond prices, skittish investors yanked $18 billion more out of bond funds than they put in. Read more of this post

U.S. Authorities Investigating Western Union over money moved on its network that may have been tied to alleged fraud

U.S. Authorities Investigating Western Union

Company Says It Has Received Multiple Subpoenas Since November

ANDREW R. JOHNSON

Updated Feb. 24, 2014 6:53 p.m. ET

Western Union Co. WU +1.93% , the world’s largest money-transfer company, is being investigated by the U.S. government over money moved on its network that may have been tied to alleged fraud, according to a regulatory filing released Monday.

The Englewood, Colo.-based company said in the filing it has received multiple subpoenas since Nov. 25 from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Read more of this post

Beijing Squeezes Hong Kong’s Media; China reneges on the democracy and freedom it promised

Beijing Squeezes Hong Kong’s Media

China reneges on the democracy and freedom it promised.

Updated Feb. 24, 2014 7:14 p.m. ET

Hong Kong’s battle over press freedom is escalating, as several thousand journalists and regular Hong Kongers marched on Sunday to protest increasing government pressure on independent media. The “Free Speech, Free Hong Kong” rally is the latest sign that locals won’t quietly let Beijing renege on promises to grant the city democratic self-government by 2017. Read more of this post

China’s Premier Lays Out Corruption Fight Plan

Feb 24, 2014

China’s Premier Lays Out Corruption Fight Plan

One of the biggest obstacles China’s leadership faces in fighting corruption, according to Premier Li Keqiang, is the Chinese government.

In newly published remarks, Premier Li said the government’s broad regulatory powers over markets and business are key drivers of rampant graft.  He named bidding for construction projects, government procurement and the awarding of land-use and mining rights as areas particularly prone to corruption. Read more of this post

Beijing Choking on Air Pollution

Feb 24, 2014

Beijing Choking on Air Pollution

Despite closing dozens of factories, halting outdoor construction and sending teams to inspect factories, Beijing on Monday entered its fifth day of intense air pollution, with city officials forecasting the smog to last for at least another three days.

Since Friday, 36 companies in Beijing have suspended production, while another 75 have cut output in a bid to curb emissions and make the air more breathable, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing the Beijing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology. Read more of this post

Taiwan Considers Tax Increase on High-Income Earners

Taiwan Considers Tax Increase on High-Income Earners

Government Also Looking at Boosting Taxes on Financial Institutions

ARIES POON And FANNY LIU

Feb. 24, 2014 6:11 a.m. ET

TAIPEI—Taiwan’s government, running a deficit budget for the sixth straight year, is considering increasing taxes on high-income earners and financial institutions, as the export-dependent economy is showing more signs of picking up.

Finance Minister Chang Sheng-ford said Monday the government is looking at raising the top rate of income tax to 45% from 40% on individuals whose annual taxable income exceeds 10 million New Taiwan dollars (US$329,161). Read more of this post

JPMorgan To Fire Thousands

JPMorgan To Fire Thousands

Tyler Durden on 02/24/2014 19:27 -0500

Following last year’s realization that mortgage origination as a product line is effectively dead (which has forced such origination dependent banks as Wells Fargo to return to subprime lending in hopes of keeping the revenue stream alive, knowing full well how it all ends), and that only investors and “all cash” buyers are keeping the myth of the housing recovery alive on their shoulders, banks fired tens of thousands of workers in the mortgage business hoping to stem the bottom line bleeding from the collapse in revenues. It turns out that they didn’t fire enough and/or that the housing market contraction was far worse than even the banks, in their most, pessimistic forecasts, had expected. Case in point: JPMorgan, which after firing 15,000 in its mortgage business, has just revealed it will fire thousands more. Read more of this post

Technology Unlocks “Economies Of Unscale” For Small Businesses

Technology Unlocks “Economies Of Unscale” For Small Businesses

Posted 7 hours ago by Hemant Taneja (@htaneja)

Editor’s note: Hemant Taneja is a partner at General Catalyst and an investor in Stripe, Snapchat and Tunein. Follow him on Twitter@htaneja.

It’s been an exhilarating time for small business owners. Twenty years ago, they lacked the tools to expand outside of their niche markets. Today, the Internet opens a flourishing global market of consumers ready and willing to engage with businesses of any size. As Patrick Collison, co-founder of Stripe, once told me, the company’s largest customers may not even exist today. Anyone can turn a living room idea into the next Fortune 500 company. Read more of this post

Success splitting China’s startups

Success splitting China’s startups

Staff Reporter 

2014-02-23

Kungfu Catering Management founder Cai Dabiao. (Photo/CFP)

Even if startups can make down the long road to riches, the test is not over. The increasing number of ligitations in China point to the conflict between partners in their now-profitable ventures, where solidarity meets conflicting interests and concepts. Read more of this post

Half of China’s major cities face risk of propery bubble burst

Half of China’s major cities face risk of propery bubble burst

Staff Reporter

2014-02-24

The property markets in more than half of 120 cities at prefecture level and above in China have been exposed to risks, according to a survey cited by our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

The cities at risk are facing excessive property supply and extremely imbalanced economic structures. Read more of this post

World’s largest drilling services firm Boart Longyear posts full-year net loss of 620 mln USD

Feb. 24 (Xinhua) — Boart Longyear, the world’s largest drilling services company, on Monday posted a net loss of 620 million U.S. dollars for the full year ended December 31, 2013, down from a 68 million U.S. dollar net profit in 2012.

The company said the result was hit by 461 million U.S. dollars of restructuring costs and impairments after cutting nearly 3,500 jobs in the past year.

Boart Longyear’s revenue was 1.22 billion U.S. dollars in 2013, compared to 2.01 billion U.S. dollars in 2012. Read more of this post

Tesla faces bumpy ride in China

BEIJING, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) — Like Steve Jobs, the founder of Tesla Motors Elon Musk is called a genius and is highly skilled in hype. Read more of this post