Asean conglomerates do better than those in the West: study

PUBLISHED JUNE 13, 2014

Asian conglomerates do better than those in the West: study

Robust international strategies become critical as their economies mature

MICHELLE QUAH

MICHQUAH@SPH.COM.SG   @MichelleQuahBT

Conglomerates in Asia are more successful than most of their Western counterparts, defying conventional wisdom that such entities are anachronistic in the current business landscape and are ripe for break-up – PHOTO: SPH Read more of this post

Add COOs to the Endangered Species List; Waning Demand for Operating Chiefs Means Just 35% of Big Companies Have One

Add COOs to the Endangered Species List

Waning Demand for Operating Chiefs Means Just 35% of Big Companies Have One

RACHEL FEINTZEIG

Updated June 12, 2014 7:42 p.m. ET

Is the chief operating officer becoming an endangered species in American corporations? Read more of this post

FASB to Tweak Accounting for Inventories and Income Statements

June 11, 2014, 12:41 PM ET

FASB to Tweak Accounting for Inventories and Income Statements

EMILY CHASAN

U.S. accounting rule makers decided this week to start two, short-term projects aimed simplifying Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

The projects will streamline inventory measurement techniques and to reduce extraordinary items in corporate income statements, the Financial Accounting Standards Board said. Read more of this post

Rule Makers Tighten Accounting for ‘Repos’; Under New FASB Rule, to Take Effect in 2015, Most Repos Will Be Treated as Borrowings

Rule Makers Tighten Accounting for ‘Repos’

Under New FASB Rule, to Take Effect in 2015, Most Repos Will Be Treated as Borrowings

MICHAEL RAPOPORT

Updated June 12, 2014 5:45 p.m. ET

Rule makers on Thursday closed a loophole in the accounting for a key form of financing used by securities firms and that both Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and MF Global Holdings Inc. used to make themselves appear healthier before they collapsed. Read more of this post

Modern Shakespeare for a Theater-Mad Chinese Crowd; “In China, the people who go to the theater are exactly the opposite of who goes in the Western world. It’s really popular among the younger generation.”

Modern Shakespeare for a Theater-Mad Chinese Crowd

Tim Robbins brings his Los Angeles production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ to Beijing and Shanghai.

ALYSSA ABKOWITZ

June 12, 2014 6:40 p.m. ET

Humor doesn’t always get lost in translation.

That is what Academy Award-winner and the Actors’ Gang ensemble founder Tim Robbins discovered while directing “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in China. “There’s so much heart in this play,” Mr. Robbins told the audience, who whistled and yelled “Bravo!” at the end of the opening-night performance. “I’m so thrilled and honored and blessed to hear you react this way.” Read more of this post

Thai Generals and Corruption; A modest proposal to privatize Thailand’s state enterprises

Thai Generals and Corruption

A modest proposal to privatize Thailand’s state enterprises.

Updated June 12, 2014 10:25 p.m. ET

The Thai junta sent out its spokesman, Colonel Werachon Sukondhapatipak, on Wednesday to tell foreign journalists to stop calling last month’s “military intervention” a coup. Also, he reminded the press corps that Thailand doesn’t have political prisoners, just people who have been invited to enjoy the military’s comfortable accommodations. Read more of this post

Indonesia’s Candidates: July’s election could be a lost opportunity for Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

Indonesia’s Candidates

July’s election could be a lost opportunity for Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

Updated June 12, 2014 10:25 p.m. ET

At first glance, Indonesia’s July 9 presidential election offers voters a clear choice. The two candidates, Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto, promise very different governing styles—populist humility from one, military-style efficiency from the other. Read more of this post

Japan’s First Lady Launches Talk Show “Abe Akie no Shiawase-no Katachi” (Akie Abe’s Shape of Happiness) on Web that will feature guest speakers exchanging their thoughts on “what happiness is” with her

Jun 13, 2014

Japan’s First Lady Launches Talk Show on Web

JUN HONGO

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s wife Akie is launching a web-based talk showthat will feature guest speakers exchanging their thoughts on “what happiness is” with her.

The program, titled “Abe Akie no Shiawase-no Katachi” (Akie Abe’s Shape of Happiness), will be shot at the prime minister’s residence with volunteer staff. It will “invite guests from a variety of backgrounds and ask them what happiness means to them,” Mrs. Abe explains in opening remarks, before adding that she hopes to “make this a fun and happy program.” Read more of this post

Stock-Trade Winds Don’t Blow Wall Street’s Way

Stock-Trade Winds Don’t Blow Wall Street’s Way

JOHN CARNEY

June 12, 2014 3:41 p.m. ET

“A perfect storm” is what sailors call a disastrous concurrence of perilous weather events. Wall Street, by contrast, has experienced in the second quarter what might be better described as “a perfect calm.”

Banks often get a revenue boost from jittery investors shifting portfolios in more volatile times. Trading desks benefit from both higher volume and wider spreads—or the difference between what one investor will sell for and what another will pay—that tend to accompany price swings, as long as they aren’t too sudden or abrupt. Read more of this post

Hedge Funds Get Stung by Slow Markets; Louis Bacon and Paul Tudor Jones Are Among Prominent Investors Losing Money on Bad Bets

Hedge Funds Get Stung by Slow Markets

Louis Bacon and Paul Tudor Jones Are Among Prominent Investors Losing Money on Bad Bets

GREGORY ZUCKERMAN, ROB COPELAND and JULIET CHUNG

Updated June 12, 2014 7:13 p.m. ET

Some of the biggest investors on Wall Street are losing money with wrong-way bets in markets around the globe, a surprising black eye amid a rise in stock and bond prices.

Hedge-fund managers including Paul Tudor Jones, Louis Bacon and Alan Howardare among those who have misread broad economic and financial trends. Some have lost money as Japanese stocks fell, while others have been upended by the surprising resilience of U.S. bonds. Read more of this post

Britain Warns Boom in Real-Estate Prices Threatens Economy; Financial Policy Makers Enact New Powers to Curb Mortgage Lending, Seek to Avoid Hurting Overall Recovery

Britain Warns Boom in Real-Estate Prices Threatens Economy

Financial Policy Makers Enact New Powers to Curb Mortgage Lending, Seek to Avoid Hurting Overall Recovery

ART PATNAUDE and JASON DOUGLAS

June 12, 2014 4:01 p.m. ET

LONDON—The U.K.’s two chief financial-policy makers warned Thursday in strident tones that the British fervor for real estate had swelled into a threat to the wider economy, and the government moved to enact new powers to curb mortgage lending amid a gathering boom. Read more of this post

China Commodity Loans Add to Surge in Offshore Borrowing; Beijing Tries to Limit Flow of Funds; Collateral in Qingdao

China Commodity Loans Add to Surge in Offshore Borrowing

Beijing Tries to Limit Flow of Funds; Collateral in Qingdao

DANIEL INMAN, FIONA LAW and ENDA CURRAN

June 12, 2014 10:35 a.m. ET

The commodity-backed loans at the center of a probe into an alleged financial scam at a Chinese port are part of a ramp-up in offshore borrowing by Chinese companies that Beijing is looking to tamp down. Read more of this post

Prabowo Debt Plan Stirs Isia Rating Worries; Isia has a 0.5 percent chance of defaulting within a year, more than ten times higher than Msia or the Philippines, even though its liability ratio is half that of its Southeast Asian peers

Prabowo Debt Plan Stirs Indonesia Rating Worries: Asean Credit

Read more of this post

Global Capital Markets 2014: The Quest for Revenue Growth

Global Capital Markets 2014: The Quest for Revenue Growth

by Philippe Morel, Nick Gardiner, Gwenhaël Le Boulay, James Malick, Pierre Paoli, Sukand Ramachandran, Shubh Saumya, and Astrid Woloszczuk

MAY 06, 2014

Overview

The capital markets and investment banking (CMIB) industry continues to try to navigate its way through a transformational period that requires tough strategic choices. Declining revenues, an extremely challenging regulatory climate, clients that demand higher service levels and more innovative products, a shifting workforce culture, and the need to forge meaningful business partnerships are common items on the agendas of senior management teams globally. Read more of this post

Time to Reengage with, Not Retreat from, Emerging Markets

Time to Reengage with, Not Retreat from, Emerging Markets

by Bernd Waltermann, David C. Michael, and Dinesh Khanna

MAY 19, 2014

These are challenging times for emerging markets. China’s economy is expanding at the slowest pace in more than a decade, and annual growth in once-booming nations like Brazil, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa has slowed to about 1.5 to 2.5 percent. Look around the developing world, and currencies are weakening, worries about asset bubbles and rising debt are mounting, and foreign direct investment has fallen sharply. This volatility leaves many companies wondering if they are overexposed to the risks of emerging markets. Read more of this post

Creating Value for Machinery Companies Through Services

Creating Value for Machinery Companies Through Services

by Victor Du, Kelly Howe, Rahul Jain, Rafael Rilo, Patrick Staudacher, Pekka Vanne, and Francisco Salmerón

MAY 06, 2014

Machinery companies come in forms as varied as the equipment they manufacture. Just as equipment prices range from thousands to millions of dollars, companies vary from large business conglomerates to highly specialized niche companies. What most have in common is that they generate substantial value from after-sales services. Read more of this post

Ferry family boss eludes S Korea’s biggest and most bizarre manhunt

Ferry family boss eludes S Korea’s biggest and most bizarre manhunt

Thursday, June 12, 2014 – 21:28

Reuters

SEOUL – South Korea’s biggest and most bizarre manhunt, linked to a ferry disaster in which hundreds drowned, has come full circle at the compound of a sect known for its organic ice cream as police on Thursday used earth movers to search for tunnels. Read more of this post

Investors will leave if Prabowo wins: Deutsche Bank

Investors will leave if Prabowo wins: Deutsche Bank

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Business | Thu, June 12 2014, 5:50 PM

A recent survey by Deutsche Bank shows that the investors’ investment decisions will be significantly affected by the change in government.

The survey reveals that 74 percent of investors will invest if non-active Jakarta governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and his running mate Jusuf Kalla win the election, while only 6 percent would sell their shares.  Read more of this post

The aim of Xi’s reforms is to preserve party control; Economic policies will not be matched by political openness, writes Robert Zoellick

June 12, 2014 11:55 am

The aim of Xi’s reforms is to preserve party control

By Robert Zoellick

Economic policies will not be matched by political openness, writes Robert Zoellick

About a year since he took office, Xi Jinping’s direction as president of China is increasingly clear. His priority is the preservation of the Communist party. Cadres now watch a documentary about the end of the Soviet Union; Mikhail Gorbachev is not the hero. Read more of this post

‘I Do’ Becomes ‘I Might’ as Marriage Views Shift in Seoul

Jun 12, 2014

‘I Do’ Becomes ‘I Might’ as Marriage Views Shift in Seoul

JEYUP S. KWAAK

Traditional views on marriage are changing in Seoul, with more people saying tying the knot is optional and divorce is OK. While fewer people take vows each year, the number of women marrying younger men is on the rise.

Seoul City Hall released this week a set of data from recent years that suggest that citizens are showing an increasingly lax attitude toward matrimony. Read more of this post

Let there be light in Singapore’s vacant “dark condos”

Let there be light

Thursday, Jun 12, 2014

Kalpana Rashiwala

The Business Times

SINGAPORE – No official statistics are available on vacancy rates in individual completed condominium projects. But BT’s lensmen put together a snapshot of “dark condos” in Singapore when they photographed a selection of projects between 8pm and 9.30pm on weekdays in the last week of May, before the start of the school holidays – and it’s a telling picture. Read more of this post

Anger rises as India swelters under record heatwave

Anger rises as India swelters under record heatwave

5:55am EDT

By Tommy Wilkes

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Swathes of north India are sweltering under the longest heatwave on record, triggering widespread breakdowns in the supply of electricity and increasingly angry protests over the government’s failure to provide people with basic services.

The power crisis and heatwave, which some activists say has caused dozens of deaths, is one of the first major challenges for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was elected three weeks ago partly on promises to provide reliable electricity supplies. Read more of this post

Foreign interns pay the price for Japan’s labor shortage

Foreign interns pay the price for Japan’s labor shortage

12:30am EDT

By Alexandra Harney and Antoni Slodkowski

HAKUSAN, Japan/HAIMEN, China, June 12 (Reuters) – Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012 was a regular work day at Kameda, a family-owned apparel factory housed in rusting corrugated metal buildings in the western Japanese city of Hakusan. For three Chinese women, it was a day of escape.

At about 6:30 that morning, Ichiro Takahara, a Japanese union organizer, rolled up outside the dormitory where the women lived. Lu Xindi, Qian Juan and Jiang Cheng were waiting – they had been secretly plotting this move for months. Takahara drove them to a convenience store and then to the local labor standards office. Read more of this post

Following the (M&A) Example of Others

Posted: June 9, 2014

Matt Palmquist is a freelance business journalist based in Oakland, Calif.

Following the (M&A) Example of Others

Bottom Line: Acquiring a company in an emerging market carries a considerable amount of risk for U.S. firms. But carefully watching the decisions and outcomes of other companies leads to substantially better postmerger performance for acquiring firms.

Following in another firm’s footsteps doesn’t usually make for an effective business plan. But as the world’s economies continue their steady march toward integration, a new study finds that U.S. companies can better plan and execute mergers in developing markets by monitoring other firms’ previous acquisitions in the same countries. Read more of this post

Here’s What You Need To Know About The Crisis In The Chinese Metals Market

Here’s What You Need To Know About The Crisis In The Chinese Metals Market

MAMTA BADKAR MARKETS  JUN. 12, 2014, 3:22 AM

A scandal surrounding metals-wear housing is rocking Asian markets.

At issue are numerous loans that have been made with copper and aluminum pledged as collateral. The growing concern is that the same copper and aluminum has been pledged multiple times improperly.

A subsidiary of a Chinese aluminum producer, Dezheng Resources, is being investigated for allegedly pledging the same stock of aluminum and copper against multiple banks, to access cheap funding, reports Lucy Hornby at Financial Times. Read more of this post

IMF sounds global housing alarm

June 11, 2014 7:00 pm

IMF sounds global housing alarm

By Robin Harding in Washington

The world must act to contain the risk of another devastating housing crash, the International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday, as it published new data showing house prices are well above their historical average in many countries.

   Read more of this post

Foreign carmakers milk China’s cash cow

June 11, 2014 5:31 pm

Foreign carmakers milk China’s cash cow

By Tom Mitchell in Beijing

In the 1950s, a former GM president reportedly observed that “what’s good for General Motors is good for the US”. Charles Erwin Wilson was in fact misquoted, but 60 years later it would appear that what is really good for GM is the China market.

In the first quarter of this year, GM’s China joint ventures reported net income of $595m, compared to just $100m for the company’s global operations. Read more of this post