Corinthian Colleges Warns of Possible Shutdown; Restrictions on Federal Funding Leave For-Profit Educator in Cash Crisis

Corinthian Colleges Warns of Possible Shutdown

Restrictions on Federal Funding Leave For-Profit Educator in Cash Crisis

STEPHANIE GLEASON and JOSH MITCHELL

Updated June 19, 2014 8:01 p.m. ET

One of the country’s largest for-profit education companies warned Thursday that it may have to shut down after the Obama administration moved to restrict the company’s access to federal funding.

Corinthian Colleges Inc., COCO -67.06% which operates Everest College and other schools, has about 72,000 students who receive roughly $1.4 billion in federal financial aid each year. But the company and its for-profit rivals, which enroll about 13% of the nation’s higher-education students, are drawing greater scrutiny from regulators over concerns about their marketing, dropout rates and loan defaults among their students. Read more of this post

Probe May Hit China’s Imports of Copper, Iron Ore; Traders Report Disruptions to Trade

Probe May Hit China’s Imports of Copper, Iron Ore

Traders Report Disruptions to Trade

BIMAN MUKHERJI and CHUIN-WEI YAP

June 19, 2014 6:23 a.m. ET

BEIJING—China’s imports of copper and iron ore may drop due to an alleged financing scandal, as banks withhold credit and customs officials tighten checks on incoming shipments, metals traders say.

Western banks are looking into allegations that a Chinese trading company illegally pledged metals as collateral to more than one lender. The operator of Qingdao Port, the eastern Chinese port where the metals are stored, has confirmed that Chinese authorities are investigating allegations of fraud relating to stockpiles of metals. Read more of this post

China-Hollywood Venture Fizzles; Huayi Brothers Media’s Plan to Fund New Film Studio Hits the Pause Button

China-Hollywood Venture Fizzles

Huayi Brothers Media’s Plan to Fund New Film Studio Hits the Pause Button

BEN FRITZ

June 19, 2014 3:56 p.m. ET

Huayi Brothers Media Corp.’s 300027.SZ +1.29% plan to fund a new Hollywood studio is on hold.

The Chinese entertainment conglomerate announced in March that it intended to invest between $120 million and $150 million in Studio 8, a new company run by former Warner Bros. film chief Jeff Robinov. But those negotiations have fallen apart, people close to the venture said Thursday. Read more of this post

Indian Regulator Recommends State-Run Firms Raise Public Shareholding; SEBI Says the Government Should Cap its Stake in Listed Companies at 75%

Indian Regulator Recommends State-Run Firms Raise Public Shareholding

SEBI Says the Government Should Cap its Stake in Listed Companies at 75%

MUKESH JAGOTA And KENAN MACHADO

June 19, 2014 9:56 a.m. ET

NEW DELHI—India’s stock market regulator recommended Thursday that state-controlled companies be required to sell at least 25% stakes to the public.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India said it wants to close the loophole that allows state-run firms to remain listed even if only 10% of their shares are held by the public. Read more of this post

Want to Be a Millionaire? Move to Hong Kong; Hong Kong mints millionaires faster than any of the world’s other top 25 economic powerhouses, according to a new survey on the rich by Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management

Jun 19, 2014

Want to Be a Millionaire? Move to Hong Kong

Hong Kong mints millionaires faster than any of the world’s other top 25 economic powerhouses, according to a new survey on the rich by Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management.

Tis the season of wealth reports – the new 2014 World Wealth Report is the second global survey of the world’s rich in as many weeks (Boston Consulting Group released its wealth tome last week). And again, the latest survey confirmed an obvious outcome of Asia’s economic boom: The region is home to more millionaires than ever. Read more of this post

The tightrope China’s biggest business tycoon must walk; Can you be Maoist and ultra-capitalist at the same time? Yes, you can. The embodiment of this ultimate contradiction is Ren Zhengfei, the legendary founder of Huawei

The tightrope China’s biggest business tycoon must walk

Peter Cai

20 June 2014

Can you be Maoist and ultra-capitalist at the same time? Yes, you can. The embodiment of this ultimate contradiction is Ren Zhengfei, the legendary founder of the Chinese telecommunication giant, Huawei.

He is one of China’s most respected and powerful businessmen, an admirer of the Whiz Kids of Ford — who pioneered a data-driven decision-making process — and is a personal friend of American business tycoons such as Hank Greenberg of AIG and John Chambers of Cisco. Read more of this post

China denies trying to ban unapproved critical media coverage

China denies trying to ban unapproved critical media coverage

9:08am EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) – China is not trying to ban reporters from publishing critical reports without prior approval, an official told state media on Thursday, insisting an order had been misinterpreted and its real goal was to stop journalists abusing their jobs.

The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television issued rules on Wednesday saying reporters could only publish critical stories if their employer had signed off on it, sparking accusations of censorship. Read more of this post

China Property Collapse Seen as $33 Billion in Trusts Due

China Property Collapse Seen as $33 Billion in Trusts Due

By Bloomberg News – Jun 19, 2014

Chinese property trusts face record repayments next year as the real-estate market cools, fueling speculation among bond funds that more developers will collapse.

The trusts, which channel money from wealthy individuals to smaller builders that have trouble obtaining financing elsewhere, must repay 203.5 billion yuan ($32.7 billion) in 2015, according to Use Trust, a Chinese research firm. That’s almost double the 109 billion yuan due this year. New issuance of the products slumped to 40.7 billion yuan this quarter, the least in more than two years, Use Trust data show. Read more of this post

Value Traps: Look Past Surface To Identify True Value

Value Traps: Look Past Surface To Identify True Value

by Mark MelinJune 19, 2014, 11:40 am

Morningstar pannel advises to avoid Chinese banks and other companies that look like values but aren’t, rather look for strong management in battered down geographic regions or market sectors exposed to long term growth trends

In finding value in today’s market environment, three professional investors shared a common theme: don’t let where the company is domiciled taint your view. This was the view of a morning keynote speech at theMorningstar investment Conference held today in Chicago- the panelists were Harry Hartford, Causeway Capital Management, David Herro, Oakmark Funds, and Rob Lovelace, The Capital Group. Read more of this post

Just how widespread is insider trading here?

Just how widespread is insider trading here?

Friday, Jun 20, 2014

R. Sivanithy

The Business Times

When a stock rises or falls in unusual fashion prior to a major corporate announcement, there are invariably complaints that the information was somehow leaked.

And the talk is that insiders have benefited, by either buying or selling before the rest of the market. Because this is unfair and undermines confidence, calls are then made for regulators to investigate. Read more of this post

Caterpillar Asia Sales Crater By 30% – Company Reports Weakest Stretch Of Global Demand Since Lehman Collapse

Caterpillar Asia Sales Crater By 30% – Company Reports Weakest Stretch Of Global Demand Since Lehman Collapse

Tyler Durden on 06/19/2014 10:54 -0400

The chart below, showing CAT latest monthly retail sales for the month of May and broken down by region as well as consolidated for the entire world, paints a vastly different picture than that presented by the company’s stock price. Read more of this post

A Peek Inside The Secret World Of Currency Manipulation

A Peek Inside The Secret World Of Currency Manipulation

Tyler Durden on 06/19/2014 17:28 -0400

We already know that Wall Street manipulates everything (not conspiracy theory, but now open conspiracy fact), but Reuters’ Jamie McGeever exposes the ugly chatroom realities of just how FX traders shared orders, split trades, front-ran clients in million of electronic messages providing fresh evidence of collusion among top currency traders. Traders pooled order details and discussed the ‘spread’ they would offer, “I don’t like this guy…I’d show 6 to good guys but guys like that I’m going to show 7 in future,” the trader added. Unrigged?

To summarize just how, who and where this manipulation takes places is the following series of charts from Bloomberg demonstrating Wall Street at its best – breaking the rules and making a killing. Read more of this post

China’s Collateral Rehypothecation Fraud Is Systemic

China’s Collateral Rehypothecation Fraud Is Systemic

Tyler Durden on 06/14/2014 14:57 -0400

It’s official – everyone’s involved! According to the 21st Century Business Herald, at least 17 financial institutions involved in copper, aluminum and other nonferrous metals financing business face losses of almost 15 billion Yuan (not including the contagious rehypothecated collateral chains involved) due to the over-invoicing of the Qingdao port. Crucially, it appears that the evaporation of collateral (i.e. multiple loans secured by the same collateral) has been confirmed officially and banks such as Standard Chartered have already ceased any new business via this supposedly secured channel. Read more of this post

How Smart Beta ETFs Affect Stock Volumes, Correlations

How Smart Beta ETFs Affect Stock Volumes, Correlations

by Michael IdeJune 13, 2014, 12:17 pm

Fundamental investors may have to consider how smart beta strategies can impact their own positions Read more of this post

Thai leaders employ ancient hero to boost their cause

June 13, 2014 1:49 pm

Thai leaders employ ancient hero to boost their cause

By Michael Peel in Bangkok

Thailand famously banned the Hollywood movie The King and I for its allegedly offensive and distorted picture of the country’s monarchy. Now the new military junta in Bangkok is delivering its riposte: 35,000 free seats to see the sword-wielding biopic of an earlier royal ruler promoted as a nationalist hero for these troubled post-coup times. Read more of this post

Financial markets: Hurrah before the storm; Low volatility risks lulling investors into false sense of security

June 13, 2014 7:30 pm

Financial markets: Hurrah before the storm

By Ralph Atkins

Low volatility risks lulling investors into false sense of security

After Lehman Brothers collapsed in late 2008, financial markets around the world panicked. Almost six years later, the world may feel as vulnerable to geopolitical and economic shocks but serenity has broken out. Read more of this post

Barron’s: Picking Up the Pieces; Our investment experts see little growth for the market averages, but plenty of opportunities among stocks

Picking Up the Pieces

Our investment experts see little growth for the market averages, but plenty of opportunities among stocks.

LAUREN R. RUBLIN

June 14, 2014

Say goodbye to sunny skies and ditch the rose-colored glasses.

That’s the collective advice of the investment seers who populate the Barron’sRoundtable, and whose market forecasts for the back half of 2014 range from meh to feh. Specifically, the bulls in the bunch see a meager 5% gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500 in the months ahead, while the rest see a volatile rout in late summer that could leave stocks 10% lower, at least. Read more of this post

Indonesian property developers shaken by housing-loan regulation

Developers shaken by housing-loan regulation

Anggi M. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Business | Sat, June 14 2014, 1:02 PM

The central bank’s policy of tightening the loan-to-value (LTV) for property purchases, introduced late last year, has made the country’s publicly listed property developers more pessimistic about sales this year, as buyers are now required to pay a strict minimum down payment. Read more of this post

Ignore the market rally; Modi has limited room to turn things around

Ignore the market rally; Modi has limited room to turn things around

By Sunil B.S. @sunilbs_tweets June 13, 2014

Not so fast, bull market.

Earlier this week, president Pranab Mukherjee laid out Narendra Modi’s plans to reignite investment into India. But it is easier said than done.

A recent report by Credit Suisse says that markets have overestimated the powers of the central government. It pointed out that of the projects worth $1,391 billion that are under implementation, only those worth $351 billion have reached the central government for approval. The rest are stuck because either there are problems within respective organizations or these projects come under purview of state governments. Read more of this post

What bugs foreign investors about China?

Updated: Saturday June 14, 2014 MYT 9:20:56 AM

What bugs foreign investors about China?

BY TAN SRI LIN SEE-YAN

I spent the last week of May at Shanghai’s Fudan University – attended two global conferences there. The network is quite fantastic, full of “lao-wai” (foreigners) academics and policymakers seeking analytical clarification on four main areas of concern: (i) Surely, China can’t keep on growing at 7.5%; (ii) Is the property bubble going to bust? (iii) Will China ever reform?; and (iv) Can the yuan go international? Investors expect wrenching change. Here’s my take. Read more of this post

Challenges in Malaysia’s SPAC land

Updated: Saturday June 14, 2014 MYT 11:54:03 AM

Challenges in SPAC land

BY STARBIZWEEK TEAM

HOW much control should Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) exert over the assets they acquire? This is a question that is increasingly becoming a moot point with listed SPACs.
Here’s one indication of this: According to sources, Reach Energy Bhd, the oil and gas SPAC seeking a listing on Bursa Malaysia, has tweaked one the clauses in its prospectus relating to control over the assets it hopes to buy. It has now stipulated that it will seek to secure majority control over the assets it buys into.  Read more of this post

Global Rules for Auditors? Don’t Hold Your Breath

Global Rules for Auditors? Don’t Hold Your Breath

JUNE 12, 2014

By FLOYD NORRIS

Chris Cox, who as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission tried to bring international accounting rules to the United States, has now done an about-face.

“The first thing we should give up is the counterproductive fiction that the United States is going to replace Generally Accepted Accounting Principles with International Financial Reporting Standards,” he said in a speech at a conference in Pasadena, Calif., last week. Read more of this post

Commodity finance in China: An assay-light strategy; A fraud investigation casts a shadow over China’s metal imports

Commodity finance in China: An assay-light strategy; A fraud investigation casts a shadow over China’s metal imports

Jun 14th 2014 | From the print edition

AT THE best of times, seizing collateral on defaulted loans in China is a fraught task, plagued by patchy enforcement. These are not the best of times in the port of Qingdao, a trading hub in the north-east. Police are investigating whether companies have committed fraud by pledging the same holdings of copper and aluminium to multiple banks, multiple times. The banks are scrambling to see how much of the metal sitting in Qingdao’s warehouses actually belongs to them. Read more of this post

The ownership of Italian firms: Untangled; Control of corporate Italy is changing hands

The ownership of Italian firms: Untangled; Control of corporate Italy is changing hands

Jun 14th 2014 | MILAN | From the print edition

MEDIOBANCA was founded in 1946 with an explicit mission to rebuild Italian industry in the aftermath of the second world war. The result was a web of cross-shareholdings and pacts among big shareholders, with the Milanese investment bank at its centre, which allowed a narrow elite to control many of the country’s biggest businesses for decades. So the announcement last year that Mediobanca would exit these pacts and focus on its core business constituted a dramatic reversal. What with a similar move by Generali, Italy’s biggest insurer, the web is beginning to look a little tattered (see chart). Read more of this post

The wisdom of the laity: Retail investors are more influential than most people think

The wisdom of the laity: Retail investors are more influential than most people think

Jun 14th 2014 | From the print edition

“FOLKS are dumb where I come from,” wrote Irving Berlin in the musical “Annie Get Your Gun”. The song’s condescension towards yokels is reminiscent of professional investors’ disdain for their retail counterparts. The “smart money” in New York and London thinks it can make a living exploiting the “dumb money” of people who live in the sticks. Yet a new paper from researchers at the Federal Reserve shows that retail investors—in America, at any rate—are a lot smarter than the professionals imagine. In fact, they have a bigger effect on the markets than the highly paid investment strategists of Wall Street. Read more of this post

The reform that got away: Mexico may pay a high price for Enrique Peña Nieto’s failure to discourage the informal economy

The reform that got away: Mexico may pay a high price for Enrique Peña Nieto’s failure to discourage the informal economy

May 31st 2014 | From the print edition

SINCE taking office as Mexico’s president 18 months ago, Enrique Peña Nieto has implemented an extraordinarily ambitious set of reforms. He has swept away a constitutional taboo on private investment in energy, gained new tools to bust private oligopolies, and wrested power from the teachers’ union, whose leader is in jail. This month a limited political reform was approved as well. Read more of this post