Number of taxi licences surges to 100,000 in Singapore

Number of taxi licences surges to 100,000

Toh Yong Chuan | The Straits Times | Wednesday, Feb 19, 2014

SINGAPORE – Driving a taxi here has become more of a draw, going by the surge in the number of taxi driving licences.

The number of taxi vocational licences issued by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) swelled from 95,800 in 2012 to 99,800 last year. Read more of this post

China accuses Qualcomm of overcharging, abusing dominance

Updated: Wednesday February 19, 2014 MYT 3:03:07 PM

China accuses Qualcomm of overcharging, abusing dominance

BEIJING: China’s anti-monopoly regulator on Wednesday said Qualcomm Inc was suspected of overcharging and abusing its market position, allegations which could see the US chip giant hit with record fines of more than US$1bil. Read more of this post

Civil servants’ contract skills ‘lacking’; Almost two-thirds of British companies believe civil servants’ ability to negotiate public sector contracts is lacking

February 18, 2014 11:29 pm

Civil servants’ contract skills ‘lacking’

By Gill Plimmer

Nearly three years since David Cameron called civil servants the “enemies of enterprise”, British business says the government’s commercial skills have failed to improve or deteriorated.

Almost two-thirds of British companies believe civil servants’ ability to negotiate public sector contracts is lacking, according to a survey by the CBI employers’ group. They also say work is being awarded to the cheapest bidder, at the expense of quality and long-term costs. Read more of this post

It’s time US adopts global accounting standards

It’s time US adopts global accounting standards

Business Times

19 Feb 2014

David Mason

ACCOUNTING is the art of telling people what has happened in the past and what the value of something was at a specific date. Sounds very simple, but if it was, there would be little need for accountants. Read more of this post

Story stocks tell tall tales; Better yarns than at any time since the dotcom bubble

February 18, 2014 7:52 pm

Story stocks tell tall tales

By James Mackintosh

Better yarns than at any time since the dotcom bubble

Wall Street broking is based on the idea of telling stories to sell stocks. Depending how you measure it, the Street is spinning better yarns than at any time since the dotcom bubble. Read more of this post

Deputy PM: next 3-4 years last chance for S. Korean economy

Deputy PM: next 3-4 years last chance for S. Korean economy

2014.02.19 16:37:20

South Korea needs specific action plans in order to improve economic fundamentals, noted Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok, adding the next three to four years will be the last chance to determine whether the nation’s economy will take another leap forward.  Read more of this post

Big-name funds fall behind smaller counterparts as assets swell

February 17, 2014 12:31 pm

Big-name funds fall behind smaller counterparts as assets swell

By Emma Dunkley

Investors seeking safety in large funds risk portfolio underperformance as the biggest products on the market lag behind their smaller peers.

New research by FE Trustnet shows that investors would have been better off buying an average-sized fund instead of a large one over the past five years in the equity income sector. Read more of this post

Oversupply forces aluminium industry cuts

Last updated: February 18, 2014 10:56 pm

Oversupply forces aluminium industry cuts

By Xan Rice

Two of the world’s three biggest aluminium producers have announced cuts to production in the latest sign of how weak prices and oversupply are weighing on the industry. Read more of this post

Nespresso has shot at larger coffee sale

February 19, 2014 12:01 am

Nespresso has shot at larger coffee sale

By Shannon Bond in New York

Nespresso is betting that a new machine that brews larger coffees will help double its US sales to $600m in the next two years as the single-serve coffee maker seeks to boost its international growth.

The subsidiary of Swiss food group Nestlépioneered single-cup machines using coffee capsules nearly three decades ago, but the category’s trajectory has lifted in recent years. Read more of this post

Why the ‘Penfolds curse’ could strike again; A succession of six corporate owners of Australia’s most famous wine brand over the past three decades have either been taken over or run into financial strife

Why the ‘Penfolds curse’ could strike again

February 19, 2014 – 3:29PM

Simon Evans

Is there a Penfolds curse at work? A succession of six corporate owners of Australia’s most famous wine brand over the past three decades have either been taken over or run into financial strife, and the prospect of it happening again remains high.

It’s as if the ghosts of the founders Dr Christopher and Mary Penfold, who started Penfolds in 1844, are wreaking their revenge because the wine brand has strayed so far from its original purpose of being a medicinal benefit for patients of Christopher’s medical practice. Read more of this post

Australian treasurer warns world must be weaned off QE ‘morphine’

Last updated: February 18, 2014 7:39 pm

Australian treasurer warns world must be weaned off QE ‘morphine’

By Jamie Smyth in Sydney

Australia’s finance chief has hit out at the US, Europe and emerging market economies, calling for the latter to wean themselves off the “morphine” of easy money and embrace reform, days before he is due to host his global peers at this weekend’s G20 talks.

Proving egalitarian in his criticism, Joe Hockey, the Australian treasurer, also took a swipe at the US Congress for blocking budget increases and reforms to the International Monetary Fund, and warned Europe against trying to sideline the G20 as the world’s premier troubleshooter. Read more of this post

Brazilian companies face heavy fines with new corruption law; Country worse than Namibia and Ghana for fraud

Last updated: February 18, 2014 6:52 pm

Brazilian companies face heavy fines with new corruption law

By Joe Leahy in São Paulo

The period before Brazil’s annual carnival in late February is normally short of news. But this month, the nation’s media has been buzzing with the case of a man who fled the country after being convicted in Brazil’s biggest corruption case.

Henrique Pizzolato, the former marketing director of Banco do Brasil, the state-controlled bank, was allegedly found living in his nephew’s apartment in Maranello, Italy, by Italian police and is facing possible extradition. Read more of this post

Minimising currency risk is key to finding EM bargains; Risk is that everyone seeks to devalue in response to outflows

February 18, 2014 8:18 am

Minimising currency risk is key to finding EM bargains

By John Plender

Risk is that everyone seeks to devalue in response to outflows

Is the emerging-market scare already a thing of the past? Certainly the level of redemptions has abated from emerging-markets equity funds that are tracked by data provider EPFR Global.

Last week investors redeemed $3bn, halving the $6bn in the previous two weeks, while some markets even saw capital inflows. More importantly, the past month has not produced anything equivalent to the near-collapse of the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund that followed Russia’s default in the earlier emerging-market panic of 1998. Read more of this post

Philistines may carp but scientists should reach for the sky

February 18, 2014 3:43 pm

Philistines may carp but scientists should reach for the sky

By John Kay

Anthropology helps us understand the world, such as the pathologies of financial crises

In 1969 Robert Wilson, director of the National Accelerator Laboratory, was testifying before the US Congress. He sought funding for a particle accelerator (forerunner of the Large Hadron Collider at Cern where the Higgs boson was discovered in 2012). Asked by Senator John Pastore how his project would help defeat the Russians, he responded: “It only has to do with the respect with which we regard one another . . . are we good painters, good sculptors, great poets . . . new knowledge has nothing to do directly with defending our country except to help make it worth defending.” Read more of this post

India must tackle manufacturing malaise; Weak industry is the greatest challenge facing India

February 18, 2014 9:17 am

India must tackle manufacturing malaise

By James Crabtree

Weak industry is the greatest challenge facing India

The world’s largest carmakers gathered for New Delhi’s auto expo earlier this month, as the likes of Ford and Volkswagenparaded their latest wares. But the gathering showcased another and sadly rather rarer phenomenon: an Indian manufacturing success story. Read more of this post

Sticky or sweet – China’s tricky choice; The country witnessed a clash of eastern and western cultures

February 18, 2014 4:36 pm

Sticky or sweet – China’s tricky choice

By Patti Waldmeir in Shanghai

The country witnessed a clash of eastern and western cultures, writes Patti Waldmeir

It hadn’t happened in a generation: Valentine’s day, that most mercenary and occidental of holidays, coincided in China last week with Lantern Festival, culmination of the lunar new year holiday, oriental and traditional. Talk about culture clash.

Sticky rice dumplings with the family, or Lafite and Louis Vuitton with the girlfriend? The choice was clear: east or west. Nobody could choose both. Read more of this post

Mexico and Nafta at 20. Why it went wrong for one of ‘Tres Amigos’

February 18, 2014 7:18 pm

Mexico and Nafta at 20. Why it went wrong for one of ‘Tres Amigos’

By John Paul Rathbone in London

The country has not become the developed one it thought it would

Twenty years into Nafta, Mexico has too many criminals and not enough policemen; too many workers earning low wages and not enough skilled jobs; too many false dawns and not enough economic growth. Read more of this post

New Push to Throw Assets Overboard; Breaking up may be hard to do, but that isn’t stopping activist investors from urging companies to do just that

New Push to Throw Assets Overboard

DAVID BENOIT

Feb. 18, 2014 7:43 p.m. ET

Breaking up may be hard to do, but that isn’t stopping activist investors from urging companies to do just that.

Companies ranging from chemical giants to restaurant chains have come under fire from shareholders wanting to break them apart, arguing that businesses perform better when they aren’t part of a sprawling conglomerate. The year isn’t even two months old, and already five companies have been targeted by investors pushing them to sell or spin off pieces, according to FactSet SharkWatch, which tracks such campaigns. That puts the year on pace to catch up with 2008, which marked the high-water mark for activism campaigns. Read more of this post

Opportunities Lurk in Emerging Markets; Investors Need to Do Their Homework to Find the Right Companies Rather Than Make Broad Developing-Country Bets

Opportunities Lurk in Emerging Markets

Investors Need to Do Their Homework to Find the Right Companies Rather Than Make Broad Developing-Country Bets

JENNY GROSS

Feb. 18, 2014 7:25 p.m. ET

Until recently, it seemed the only way to seek refuge from the havoc in emerging markets was to avoid them completely.

Tidal shifts in U.S. Federal Reserve policy and worries about Chinese economic growth battered emerging-market stocks and bonds nearly across the board last month. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index, priced in dollars, is down 3.8% since the start of the year, and spooked investors have withdrawn billions of dollars from emerging-market funds. Read more of this post

China Fund Shifts Focus From Energy; Sovereign Fund China Investment Corp. Looks for Plays on U.S., European Recoveries

China Fund Shifts Focus From Energy

Sovereign Fund China Investment Corp. Looks for Plays on U.S., European Recoveries

LINGLING WEI

Feb. 18, 2014 12:39 p.m. ET

BEIJING—China Investment Corp. is selling energy and commodity holdings while seeking to capitalize on recovering U.S. and European economies, a major shift in strategy for the $600 billion sovereign-wealth fund.

Since late last year, CIC has unloaded more than $1.5 billion of shares in companies including AES Corp. AES +0.96% , a U.S. power company, and GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Ltd. 3800.HK +1.52% , a Hong Kong-listed green-energy company, according to regulatory filings by the companies. CIC, the world’s fifth-largest government-controlled fund, has also sold stakes in two other Hong Kong-traded wind-power companies, according to filings. Read more of this post

China Fuels Australian Olive-Oil Rush; Wealthy Chinese Looking Safe, Prestigious, Healthy Products

China Fuels Australian Olive-Oil Rush

Wealthy Chinese Looking Safe, Prestigious, Healthy Products

SIMON HALL And ROBB M. STEWART

Feb. 18, 2014 10:11 p.m. ET

Wealthy Chinese consumers are switching to olive oil for cooking, fueling a surge in spending on imported bottles and spurring companies to snap up olive groves in Australia to secure supplies.

The buying has been driven by shoppers looking for prestigious and healthy products that aren’t tainted by domestic food safety scandals at home. A raft of advertising campaigns showcasing the benefits of the oil not traditionally used in Chinese cuisine is also boosting demand at the expense of other cooking oils. Read more of this post

Singapore banks to stop setting Indonesia FX reference rate

Singapore banks to stop setting Indonesia FX reference rate

Tuesday, February 18, 2014 – 21:04

Reuters

SINGAPORE – Banks in Singapore are to stop setting a reference rate for the Indonesian rupiah, the local banking and foreign exchange associations said on Tuesday, eight months after 20 banks were censured for trying to rig benchmark rates in the city-state. Read more of this post

China Sees Big Loss of RMB Deposit amid Rise of Internet Finance

China Sees Big Loss of RMB Deposit amid Rise of Internet Finance

02-17 16:06 Caijing

Chinese lenders lost CNY94.02 billion in RMB deposit in January from a month ago.

China is losing large amount of RMB deposit as the country’s Internet giants join a race to tap into Chinese wealth explosion.

Chinese lenders lost CNY94.02 billion in RMB deposit in January from a month ago, while M1, the narrow measure of money supply, climbed 1.2 percent year-on-year, compared with a 15.3 percent surge a year ago, the central bank said Saturday. Read more of this post

Ansell chief says the automotive manufacturers have begun to cut back on purchases

Car industry fallout ‘already here’, says condom maker Ansell

February 18, 2014

Jessica Gardiner

The demise of car making in Australia is already causing pain in the wider economy, as Ansell chief executive Magnus Nicolin says the automotive manufacturers and their suppliers have begun to cut back on purchases of the protective equipment it supplies.

Australia was one of the weaker markets that dragged back Ansell’s underlying revenue growth to just 1 per cent in the December half. Read more of this post

Ian McLeod, who has led the $1 billion profit turnaround at supermarket chain Coles, is stepping down as managing director

Coles boss Ian McLeod steps down

February 18, 2014 – 4:46PM

Eli Greenblat

Coles managing director Ian McLeod is moving to a position in the Westfarmers group. Photo: Paul Jones

Coles boss Ian McLeod, who has led the supermarket group for more than five years and helped turn around the grocery chain, will step aside from the retailer in July to make way for new boss John Durkan. Read more of this post

IKEA napkins among substandard paper towels sold in China

IKEA napkins among substandard paper towels sold in China

Staff Reporter

2014-02-18

Napkins sold by Swedish furniture giant IKEA have been identified as one of several substandard items sold in China and Hong Kong after undergoing tests by the Beijing Consumer Association, reports Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao.

The Fantastisk napkin made by IKEA and sold at its Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong outlets, were among the 14 items found to be substandard by the association out of 30 samples randomly selected from stores in more than 10 provinces and municipalities including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Fujian and Guangdong. Read more of this post

Jim Rogers Tells Us What Everyone Keeps Getting Wrong About China

Jim Rogers Tells Us What Everyone Keeps Getting Wrong About China

MAMTA BADKAR MARKETS  FEB. 17, 2014, 11:48 PM

Concerns about a Chinese hard-landing set off by Beijing’s efforts to deflate the credit bubble are making headlines again.

GDP growth slowed to 7.7% in 2013, the lowest level in 14 years. And the slowdown has played a part in the emerging markets rout we have seen recently. But recent tradeand lending data, and Lunar New Year saleshave come in better than expected.

We reached out to Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings , to get his thoughts on the slowdown and on what everyone is getting wrong about China. Read more of this post

Nobel Winner’s Frank Advice to China’s Leadership

Nobel Winner’s Frank Advice to China’s Leadership

By JONATHAN SCHLEFERFEB. 17, 2014

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A. Michael Spence won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science in 2001 for esoteric research on how people make decisions when critical information is hard to obtain. But by that time, after more than a decade and a half as an academic dean at Harvard and Stanford, many of Mr. Spence’s colleagues had begun referring to him as a “former economist.” Read more of this post

Fosun Group invests US$30m in Malaysia’s Secret Recipe; Secret Recipe, founded in 1997, opened more than 300 restaurants in 10 countries

Fosun Group invests US$30m in Malaysia’s Secret Recipe

Staff Reporter

2014-02-18

Fosun Group, a leading private conglomerate in China, has invested 210.5 million yuan (US$30.7 million) in its first overseas investment in the chain restaurant industry, the Shanghai-based China Business News reports.

In recent years, Fosun has been active in investing in the tourism consumption industry before selecting Malaysia-based chain Secret Recipe as its first target. Read more of this post