SMEs need competition, not just subsidies

SMEs need competition, not just subsidies

The fate of wages is linked to the structure of our economy.

BY DEVADAS KRISHNADAS –

14 FEBRUARY

The fate of wages is linked to the structure of our economy.

Ninety-nine per cent of firms in Singapore are small and medium enterprises (SMEs), while the remaining 1 per cent are large corporations, mostly foreign multinationals. About 70 per cent of our workforce are employed in SMEs. Read more of this post

China squeeze is hampering Asian growth

February 11, 2014 8:17 am

China squeeze is hampering Asian growth

By Henny Sender

Fed tapering raises the focus of China’s role as liquidity provider

Amilestone of sorts was reached last year when for the first time ever, more bank credit as a percentage of GDP went to emerging markets than to developed markets. Read more of this post

Appetite for US-listed Chinese stocks transcends audit dispute

February 11, 2014 2:39 pm

Appetite for US-listed Chinese stocks transcends audit dispute

By Simon Rabinovitch in Shanghai

Not too long ago, Chinese companies listed on US stock exchanges were anendangered species. Bears had pounced on them after short sellers exposed fraud after fraud. And a Washington-Beijing regulatory dispute over auditing threatened them all, even the good ones, with a mass delisting. Read more of this post

Thai academics and private-sector representatives slammed the government over its controversial rice scheme and its “insincerity” in tackling the country’s chronic corruption problems.

RICE CORRUPTION

Business lobbies, academics blast rice subsidies, govt’s ‘insincere’ anti-graft sentiments

Pichaya Changsorn
The Nation
February 12, 2014 1:00 am

Some academics and private-sector representatives yesterday slammed the government over its controversial rice scheme and its “insincerity” in tackling the country’s chronic corruption problems. Read more of this post

Big Banks’ Vanity Unfair for Their Investors

Big Banks’ Vanity Unfair for Their Investors

JOHN CARNEY

Feb. 11, 2014 2:46 p.m. ET

Even leaving aside the flashy watches, bespoke suits and ostentatious vacation homes, bankers’ obsession with the way they are perceived may be more costly than it appears—costly to investors, that is.

A recently revised working paper from a trio of economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York demonstrates that in the depths of the financial crisis, banks willingly overpaid for loans from the Fed. They did so by choosing to borrow from a special facility, even though the cost was at a substantial premium to funds available from the Fed’s discount window, the paper notes. Read more of this post

9 Undervalued Stocks From Around the World

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2014

9 Undervalued Stocks From Around the World

By DIMITRA DEFOTIS | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

Tocqueville’s James Hunt has outrun the index in good times, and, importantly, in down markets too.

A series of black and white photos line the wall of James Hunt’s New York office, testament to the day three decades ago when he outran the bulls in Pamplona. Read more of this post

South Korea releases jailed executives

February 11, 2014 12:46 pm

South Korea releases jailed executives

By Simon Mundy in Seoul

South Korean courts have commuted the prison sentences for fraud of two of the country’s most prominent businessmen, undermining hopes of a crackdown on high-level corruption. Read more of this post

Garuda, Gallant Venture to build hub in Bintan

Garuda, Gallant Venture to build hub in Bintan 

Nadya Natahadibrata, The Jakarta Post, Singapore | Business | Wed, February 12 2014, 10:20 AM

National flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Singapore-based investment company Gallant Venture on Tuesday to develop an airport and maintenance facility in Bintan, Riau Islands.
Garuda president director Emirsyah Satar and Gallant Venture CEO Eugene Park inked the deal during the 2014 Singapore Airshow in Singapore. Read more of this post

Tesco clothing brand takes expansion to 20 countries

Updated: Wednesday February 12, 2014 MYT 11:01:19 AM

Tesco clothing brand takes expansion to 20 countries

LONDON: The clothing brand sold by Britain’s biggest retailer Tesco said on Tuesday it had opened its first stores in the Philippines, expanding its footprint to 20 countries globally.

F&F, launched in the UK and Republic of Ireland in 2001, said it and local franchise partner Stores Specialist Inc had opened three stores already in the Philippines, with 10 in total planned this year. Read more of this post

Private-Equity Investors Join China’s Environmental Cleanup

Private-Equity Investors Join China’s Environmental Cleanup

CHAO DENG 

Feb. 11, 2014 7:49 a.m. ET

Private-equity firms are again betting on China’s environmental sector as the government adopts a new sense of urgency in cleaning up the nation’s filthy air and water.

After a decline in 2012, the firms’ investments in environment-related businesses in China last year totaled $1.2 billion, a record-high 7.1% of all private-equity investment in the country, according to the Hong Kong-based Centre for Asia Private Equity Research. That’s up from 2.3% in 2012 and 6% in 2011, according to the center. The media, construction and consumer goods sectors were among those that were more popular. Read more of this post

Not a Run on China, But a Brisk Walk; Wealthy Chinese are voting with their feet to move wealth abroad. That ought to send a message to investors

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2014

Not a Run on China, But a Brisk Walk

By RANDALL W. FORSYTH | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

Wealthy Chinese are voting with their feet to move wealth abroad. That ought to send a message to investors.

The popular perception is that money is gushing into China, between its burgeoning trade surpluses and the rush to invest in the world’s second-largest economy. That perception is sorely out of date. Read more of this post

New York planning a reality check for virtual currencies

Updated: Wednesday February 12, 2014 MYT 10:36:13 AM

New York planning a reality check for virtual currencies

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK: New York’s financial regulator on Tuesday revealed new details on how the state plans to govern virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, just as problems in the nascent market took a turn for the worse. Read more of this post

Real estate investors are pouring into property assets around the world but do not properly understand the risks of doing so, according to new research

February 11, 2014 3:05 pm

Investors warned over real estate risks

By Kate Allen

Real estate investors are pouring into property assets around the world but do not properly understand the risks of doing so, according to new research.

Investors in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia do not have sufficiently strongrisk management procedures and have not integrated their real estate teams into their wider asset allocation systems, the report by property data specialists IPD/MSCI found. Read more of this post

7-Eleven gets SC aproval for re-entry into Bursa Malaysia; 7-Eleven has 1,542 outlets across Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. The firm owns 1,376 of its stores, while 166 are managed by franchisors.

Updated: Wednesday February 12, 2014 MYT 8:40:14 AM

7-Eleven gets SC aproval for re-entry into Bursa Malaysia

BY TEE LIN SAY

Sources said the approval came about on the back of lower valuations accorded to the country’s largest operator of 24-hour convenience stores

PETALING JAYA: The Securities Commission (SC) has approved the listing of convenience chain outlet 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd, paving the way for its re-entry into Bursa Malaysia. Read more of this post

‘Too-big-to-fail banks’ the most critical issue facing financial system, says Fed official

Updated: Wednesday February 12, 2014 MYT 10:54:12 AM

‘Too-big-to-fail banks’ the most critical issue facing financial system, says Fed official

PALO ALTO, California: Calling too-big-to-fail banks “the most critical issue facing our financial system,” a top Federal Reserve official on Tuesday urged new laws to address the problem, including ending Fed emergency lending powers. Read more of this post

M’sian banks vulnerable to falling household health

Updated: Wednesday February 12, 2014 MYT 6:48:36 AM

M’sian banks vulnerable to falling household health

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian banks are particularly vulnerable to deterioration in household health, given that the household sector accounts for about 57% of the banking system’s total loans, a report by Standard & Poor’s Rating Services (S&P) shows. Read more of this post

Investment Assets To Swell To $102 Trillion By 2020; Nearly half of those assets will reside in North America.

PwC: Investment Assets To Swell To $102 Trillion By 2020

by Mark MelinFebruary 11, 2014, 11:37 am

Global assets under management are expected to rise from $64 trillion to $102 trillion by 2020, growing at a 6% compounded annual rate, a new study predicts.  Nearly half of those assets will reside in North America.

The report, “Asset Management 2020: A brave new world,” published by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC), notes six disruptive “game changers” and trends that will result, offering asset managers new opportunity. Read more of this post

Francois Sicart: Contrarian Value Investing in a Liquidity-Driven Environment

Investment Principles and Habits

Contrarian Value Investing in a Liquidity-Driven Environment

“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them…well, I have others.” – Groucho Marx

Of course, principles are supposed to be unbendable.  But the recent global financial crisis and recessions have forced even the most thoughtful investors to revisit some of their long-held beliefs and evaluate whether some of these were true principles or just old habits.  For example, one of my most successful and well-known value-investor friends commented a couple of years after the crisis, “Maybe we should have paid more attention to the macro picture.”  I suspect that many value investors, who profess to be above all bottom-up stock pickers, have felt that way. Read more of this post

Tony Abbott warns colleagues of more economic pain in the wake of Toyota’s decision to pull out of Australia.

Tony Abbott warns party room of more economic shocks to come in wake of Toyota pullout

February 12, 2014

Mark Kenny

Tony Abbott has told his colleagues that there would be more economic shocks to come in the wake of Toyota’s decision to pull out of Australia.

The warning came as the manufacturing sector reeled from the news amid fears that related high-technology manufacturing might also face extinction. Read more of this post

Neuberger Berman Rises From the Ashes; Caught in the bankruptcy of parent company Lehman Brothers, the 75-year-old asset management firm has returned to its partnership roots

Neuberger Berman Rises From the Ashes

11 FEB 2014 – JULIE SEGAL

Caught in the bankruptcy of parent company Lehman Brothers, the 75-year-old asset management firm has returned to its partnership roots.

After George Walker IV left a 14-year career at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in 2006 for Lehman Brothers Holdings, he found himself at groundzero of the financial crisis. Walker, who had been hired to run Lehman’s global investment management business, which included value-focused money manager Neuberger Berman, was swept into the firm’s mid-September 2008 bankruptcy — the largest in U.S. history — trapped in meetings with bankruptcy attorneys, the restructuring firm, creditors’ committees and Lehman’s corporate deal-making team while struggling to disentangle his business from the investment bank without killing it. Read more of this post

Recent sharp sell-off has many RIAs and family offices developing new EM strategies across asset classes.

Emerging-Markets Jitters Rattle Registered Investment Advisers

10 FEB 2014 – ANDREW BARBER

Amid the recent spike in volatility, registered investment advisers are rethinking how they approach emerging markets. Concerns over such factors as the cooling pace of growth in China and political turmoil in Turkey have sparked an exodus from emerging-markets indexed funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The IShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) fell 9.5 percent during the week of January 27 alone. Read more of this post

Brevan Howard Said to Shut $2.7 Billion Emerging Markets Fund After Losses

Brevan Said to Shut Emerging Markets Fund After Losses

Lease Accounting Changes Could Jar Bank Covenants If standards setters require lease accounting on corporate balance sheets, borrowers could break their loan covenants.

February 11, 2014

CFO.com | US

Lease Accounting Changes Could Jar Bank Covenants

If standards setters require lease accounting on corporate balance sheets, borrowers could break their loan covenants.

David M. Katz

Bottom of Form

Practically lost in the brouhaha concerning the effects of the imminent changes in lease accounting has been the impact they could have on lessees’ relationships with their banks. Read more of this post

HSBC Sued by Singapore Billionaire Peter Lim’s Ex-Wife; HSBC “was always eager, motivated by their own commercial interests and/or financial benefits” to persuade her to buy products including accumulators, decumulators and equity-linked notes

HSBC Sued by Singapore Billionaire Lim’s Ex-Wife

Thailand in political limbo with vote re-runs seen in April

Thailand in political limbo with vote re-runs seen in April

7:48am EST

By Amy Sawitta Lefevre

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s Election Commission said on Tuesday it would try to complete this month’s disrupted poll in late April, leaving the country facing another two-and-a-half months in political limbo under a caretaker government with limited powers. Read more of this post

India’s Latte Lift: How Coffee Chains Help Social Mobility

February 11, 2014, 10:00 AM

India’s Latte Lift: How Coffee Chains Help Social Mobility

By Shanoor Seervai

Upscale coffee shops and restaurants that have sprung up throughout India in recent years are providing a chance for youth from lower middle-income groups to become more socially mobile, according to a recent study. Read more of this post

Alibaba Enters Wealth Management Sector

Alibaba Enters Wealth Management Sector

Chinese Internet Company’s Alipay Affiliate to Launch Fixed-Term Investment Product Friday

Updated Feb. 11, 2014 1:50 a.m. ET

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s online-payment affiliate is set to roll out its first wealth management product Friday, as Chinese Internet companies move deeper into financial services. Read more of this post

How Lego Came Back From The Brink Of Bankruptcy

How Lego Came Back From The Brink Of Bankruptcy

RICHARD FELONI

FEB. 10, 2014, 6:07 PM 4,502 3

Will Arnett with “Emmet Brickowski” at the premiere of “The Lego Movie.”

“The Lego Movie” premiered last Friday and made $69 million in its opening weekend, giving it the largest debut of the year so far. Yet only 10 years ago, the company was on the brink of bankruptcy, and such a massive undertaking (let alone a successful one) would have been out of the question. Read more of this post

The Vietnamese Dong joins our Big Mac index

The Vietnamese Dong joins our Big Mac index

Feb 10th 2014, 16:55 by R.L.W.

TRAFFIC was heavier than normal in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday February 10th as McDonald’s opened its first branch in Vietnam. Mostly motorbikes queued in the new “drive-thru”, while hundreds waited under the golden arches and Ronald McDonald posed with customers. Read more of this post