The spider-like nature of property market

The spider-like nature of property market

Saturday, Feb 22, 2014

Dennis Chan

The Straits Times

SINGAPORE – At a recent lunch, the conversation turned to crabs.

No, the popular dining crustacean wasn’t on the menu. But that didn’t stop my host, who is a developer, from comparing the state of the residential property market to a trussedup crab that has had all its eight legs bound up. Read more of this post

Chinese cities outstripping whole countries in infrastructure debt

Chinese cities outstripping whole countries in infrastructure debt

Staff Reporter

2014-02-22

Spending by the city of Wuhan on infrastructure construction alone is equivalent to the UK’s expenses for updating and enhancing the infrastructure of the entire country, according to British media. The city is part of a countrywide, multi-trillion dollar infrastructure upgrade. Read more of this post

Chinese entrepreneur advice clubs ‘more useful from EMBA’

Chinese entrepreneur advice clubs ‘more useful from EMBA’

Staff Reporter

2014-02-22

In order to improve corporate governance, growing numbers of Chinese entrepreneurs are resorting to EMBA programs and private coaching from their peers in the form of corporate clubs, according to Chinese-language China Entrepreneur magazine. Read more of this post

Are property clubs the problems in Malaysia/Asia? YES; Hopefully, the greed that brought speculators together to form such property clubs will cause the end of their existence

Updated: Saturday February 22, 2014 MYT 9:21:12 AM

Are property clubs the problems? YES

BY JAGDEV SINGH SIDHU

WHEN it comes to buying and selling shares on Bursa Malaysia, there are laws that prohibit the use of inside information to execute a trade. Investors will get the book thrown at them if proven they are creating a false market, which is essentially manipulating a particular counter. Read more of this post

The big guys get guidance on governance from the Malaysian Code for Institutional Investors (II Code); 10 things to know about new code for institutional investors

Updated: Saturday February 22, 2014 MYT 12:36:18 PM

The big guys get guidance on governance

BY ERROL OH

The big guys get guidance on governance

10 things to know about new code for institutional investors

THE public consultation on the Malaysian Code for Institutional Investors (II Code) ends this Friday . It would be a shame if few people actually went through the consultation paper, let alone took the trouble to submit feedback. Read more of this post

Asean: Focus on regional interest; research shows gaps in achieving the Asean Economic Community (AEC) regional promise

Updated: Saturday February 22, 2014 MYT 12:37:41 PM

Asean: Focus on regional interest

BY TAN SRI DR MUNIR MAJID

RESEARCH commissioned by CIMB Asean Research Institute on behalf of the Asean Business Club shows gaps in achieving the Asean Economic Community (AEC) regional promise.

These can be filled by a concentration on the regional interest which takes care of the national interest as well. Read more of this post

OECD Warns of New Era of Low Growth

The International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has suggested that emerging markets look at Malaysia’s capital market framework to build resilience

‘Malaysia great template for emerging marts to copy’

By Roziana Hamsawi

Published: 2014/02/22

KUALA LUMPUR: The International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has suggested that emerging markets look at Malaysia’s capital market framework to build resilience.
Lauding Malaysia’s focus in ensuring strong investor protection, proper governance and market conduct, IOSCO Board chairman Greg Medcraft said: “Malaysia is a great template for emerging markets to copy.”
Medcraft, who is chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, said if IOSCO needs to have a hub for the Asean region, Malaysia would get his full support.
He was speaking on the last day of the IOSCO Board meeting, here, yesterday.  Read more of this post

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) may consider bankruptcy as troubled airlines that did it have re-emerged stronger

Weathering the storm

By Sharen Kaur

Published: 2014/02/22

NOWHERE CLOSE TO PROFITS: MAS may consider bankruptcy as troubled airlines that did it have re-emerged stronger, say analysts

When a company goes bankrupt, it implies that it has no choice. But in recent cases involving troubled airlines, they did so deliberately and have re-emerged leaner and stronger.
Some analysts feel that Malaysia Airlines (MAS), which reported a net loss of more than a RM1 billion last year, may consider such a route. Read more of this post

Montreal business veteran Gerald Shtull: Stick to a few simple rules to build a successful firm

Montreal business veteran Gerald Shtull: Stick to a few simple rules to build a successful firm

John Greenwood | February 18, 2014 9:00 AM ET
More from John Greenwood

In 1994, Gerald Shtull took out a line of credit from the bank for $50,000. That was when $50,000 was real money. Then he sat down with his wife and explained that this is what the family would use to cover day-to-day expenses while he got his business up to speed. Read more of this post

Moody’s Offers to Increase Its Stake in India’s ICRA to 55%

Moody’s Offers to Increase Its Stake in India’s ICRA to 55%

ICRA is a Provider of Credit Ratings and Research in Region’s Emergings Markets

ERIN MCCARTHY

Feb. 21, 2014 8:44 a.m. ET

Moody’s Corp. MCO -0.16% unveiled plans to seek a majority stake in ICRA Ltd.532835.BY +4.18% , a provider of credit ratings and research in India, through a tender offer.

Moody’s, a ratings and analytics company, offered to acquire up to 2.65 million shares of ICRA at a price of 2,000 Indian rupees (about $32.19) a share, a 26% premium over ICRA’s closing price on the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. on Thursday. The offer represents a 22% premium to ICRA’s record-high closing price at the end of last year, Moody’s said. Read more of this post

China Faces “Vicious Circle” As Commodity Collateral Collapses

China Faces “Vicious Circle” As Commodity Collateral Collapses

Tyler Durden on 02/21/2014 19:32 -0500

As we warned last week, stockpiles of iron-ore have reached record levels in China as end-demand slumps but, as Bloomberg notes, this is potentially creating massive dislocations in other markets. Record imports of iron ore and copper, driven by traders who use them as loan collateral, risk repeating the vicious cycle of repayment difficulties and falling prices already seen in the steel-trading market. A stunning 40 percent of the iron ore at China’s ports are part of finance deals (having replaced copper after China’s last shadow-banking crackdown) and with the glut, prices drop (driving down the value of collateral on loans) and “borrowers, forced by their bankers to repay loans or to top up collateral, will have to sell the metals, sinking market prices even further and begetting a vicious cycle.” Read more of this post

Data dump: New reporting rules for derivatives have produced a confusing mass of data

Data dump: New reporting rules for derivatives have produced a confusing mass of data

Feb 22nd 2014 | From the print edition

DURING the financial crisis regulators discovered the hard way how little they knew about the risky derivatives portfolios built up by large financial institutions. Lehman Brothers, for example, was thought to have been a counterparty to about $5 trillion of credit default swaps. When they turned sour in 2008, it brought the financial system to its knees. In response leaders of the world’s main economies demanded in 2009 that derivatives deals should all be reported to “trade repositories”—vast central databases—to make it easier to identify and then reduce systemic risks. Read more of this post

Against the odds: The costs of actively managed funds are higher than most investors realise

Against the odds: The costs of actively managed funds are higher than most investors realise

Feb 22nd 2014 | From the print edition

EVERYONE knows that if you go to a casino, the odds are rigged in favour of the house. But people still dream of making a killing. The same psychology seems to apply to fund management, where investors flock to high-cost mutual funds even though the odds are against them. Russel Kinnel, the director of fund research at Morningstar, has described fund costs as “the most dependable predictor of performance”. Read more of this post

Global banking: Inglorious isolation; To avoid another crisis, the Fed further fragments global finance

Global banking: Inglorious isolation; To avoid another crisis, the Fed further fragments global finance

Feb 22nd 2014 | Washington, DC | From the print edition

THE economics of international banking are straightforward enough: raise funds in countries where they are cheap, lend where they are dear. Done right, this is both lucrative for bankers and good for the world, by channelling savings to their most productive use. Read more of this post

Korea’s major builders are undergoing two contrasting paths. Some of them have enjoyed handsome gains despite the economic slump, while others are suffering; Hyundai, POSCO rise, while Daelim, GS fall

2014-02-20 17:36

Builders follow contrasting paths

Hyundai, POSCO rise, while Daelim, GS fall
By Yi Whan-woo
Korea’s major builders are undergoing two contrasting paths.
Some of them have enjoyed handsome gains despite the economic slump, while others are suffering from less than expected outcomes from their oversea projects. Read more of this post

Buffett’s Business Wire ends feeds to high-speed traders

February 20, 2014 11:38 pm

Buffett’s Business Wire ends feeds to high-speed traders

By Stephen Foley, Kara Scannell and Arash Massoudi in New York

Business Wire, which has published corporate news releases in the US for the last half century, will stop selling direct feeds to high-speed traders, amid concerns that the practice gives the firms an unfair advantage over other investors.

Warren Buffett, whose conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway owns Business Wire, stepped in personally to examine the direct sales, fearing that recent publicity around the practice could hurt the company’s reputation. Read more of this post

Huge losses by Malaysia Airlines can’t be tolerated forever

Huge losses by MAS can’t be tolerated forever

MAS has just reported a fourth consecutive quarter of losses with a net loss of RM343 million for this last quarter.
For the full FY 2013, the net loss amounted to a whopping RM1.17 billion, compared with a net loss of RM433 million in FY 2012.  Read more of this post

The Auditing Roadblock: It’s Not Just China

FEBRUARY 19, 2014, 2:40 PM  Comment

The Auditing Roadblock: It’s Not Just China

By FLOYD NORRIS

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is out with a list of 58 international audit firms that it has been unable to inspect for at least four years. Those firms all audited companies registered in the United States, and — under American law — must be inspected by the board. The board has tried to arrange joint inspections with regulators from other countries, but a variety of impediments have arisen. Read more of this post

Beijing is still far too reluctant to allow its equity market to function normally

Taking Stock of China’s Reforms

Beijing is still far too reluctant to allow its equity market to function normally.

CARL WALTER And FRASER HOWIE

Feb. 19, 2014 11:50 a.m. ET

If China’s leaders are as serious as they say they are about economic reform, the country’s stunted financial system will be at the top of their priorities list. So it’s worth checking in on the stock market to see how President Xi Jinping‘s economic program is going. Answer: not well. Read more of this post

The Chinese Dominoes Are About To Fall: Complete List Of Upcoming Trust Defaults

The Chinese Dominoes Are About To Fall: Complete List Of Upcoming Trust Defaults

Tyler Durden on 02/19/2014 22:03 -0500

As has been widely reported on these pages in the past month, after a near-reality experience almost claimed the first material Chinese shadow banking default, the Chinese government and central bank did what they do best: a mysterious “white knight” emerged out of nowhere, and bailed out the Credit Equals Gold #1 Trust. A few days later, we reported that China Development Bank lent 2 billion yuan to coal company Shanxi Liansheng, which owes almost 30b yuan to lenders including banks, trusts and asset management firms. And while we know how “difficult” it was for China to do the wrong thing and encourage moral hazard, despite repeated assurances by one after another PBOC director that this time the central bank means business, we have good news: these two narrowly averted Trust defaults are just the beginning – it is all downhill from here. Read more of this post

IMF Report Warns on Emerging-Markets Problems; Says Some Countries Need to Tighten Monetary Policy, Make Structural Changes

IMF Report Warns on Emerging-Markets Problems

Says Some Countries Need to Tighten Monetary Policy, Make Structural Changes

WILLIAM MAULDIN And JONATHAN HOUSE

Updated Feb. 19, 2014 1:24 p.m. ET

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday issued its most detailed warning about the financial problems arising in emerging markets this year, saying some countries need to tighten monetary policy and make structural economic changes.

While the IMF noted a rise of harmful inflation in developing countries, it also said Europe is at risk for the opposite problem—deflation, in which prices fall in a spiral that can sap consumption and growth. Read more of this post

Auditors escape attempts to tame them; The Big Four have maintained a wholesome image while doing exactly what they want

February 19, 2014 5:16 pm

Auditors escape attempts to tame them

By Michael Skapinker

The Big Four have maintained a wholesome image while doing exactly what they want

Years ago, I attended a discussion at London’s Brunel Business School that brought together people who never normally met: airport managers, pub owners, healthcare workers and others from the private and public sectors.

There was a presentation from two health visitors, the nurses who see new UK parents at home after a baby is born. Their job was an ambivalent one, the health visitors said. They were there to help, but also to watch out for worrying signs – of depression or possible abuse. Read more of this post

Revisit need for a separate securities regulator in Singapore

Revisit need for a separate securities regulator

Combining commercial and regulatory roles calls for a more robust framework

MAK YUEN TEEN

First published in Business Times on February 19, 2014

Two hats not better: The retired CEO of a listed stock exchange which, like SGX, has dual roles of a regulator and operator, admitted that there is conflict between the two roles but went on to reveal that he couldn’t say it when he was still the CEO. – ST FILE PHOTO

IN 2008, The Business Times published my letter arguing for a review of the regulatory framework of our securities markets and that as part of this review, “we should closely examine the current approach to dealing with the conflicts between Singapore Exchange’s commercial and regulatory roles” (“Thoughts on SGX’s regulatory stance”, BT, Dec 23, 2008). Read more of this post

Accounting Fraud on the Rise at U.S. Companies

Singapore’s satirical news site loves trolling legit media, gets 1 million page-views every month

Singapore’s satirical news site loves trolling legit media, gets 1 million page-views every month

February 19, 2014

by Enricko Lukman

Singapore’s satirical news site New Nation has gained a bit of a reputation inside Indonesia’s media circles since one of its articles became a major headline and topic of discussion among Indonesians last week. The news was about Singapore’s prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, who unfriended Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Facebook. In case you’re wondering, yes, it was all made up. Read more of this post