Bamboo Innovator

South Korea aims to become defence powerhouse

November 6, 2013 2:29 am

South Korea aims to become defence powerhouse

By Simon Mundy in Ilsan, South Korea

As potential customers from Botswana and Peru milled around their tanks and howitzers last week, South Korean defence industry executives brimmed with confidence about a growing area for the country’s exports. Weapons made by several of the nation’s biggest conglomerates – from Samsung Techwin’s artillery systems to Hyundai Rotem’s battle tanks and Hanwha Corp’s precision missiles – were on display at an annual defence show in Ilsan north of Seoul. Read more of this post

Samsung to Increase Acquisitions as It Mulls Boosting Dividend

Samsung to Increase Acquisitions as It Mulls Boosting Dividend

Samsung Electronics Co., Asia’s biggest technology company by revenue, plans to seek more international deals and is considering boosting its dividend payout to investors. The maker of Galaxy smartphones will be more aggressive in acquisitions after spending about $1 billion investing in 14 companies since 2010, Chief Financial Officer Lee Sang Hoon told a briefing in Seoul today. Those deals include Sharp Corp., Boxee Inc. and Novaled AG. Read more of this post

Samsung Everland’s restructuring heralds corporate governance change

Samsung Everland’s restructuring heralds corporate governance change

Lee Sang-gyu

2013.11.05 17:03:45

With Samsung Everland looking to shake up its business portfolio, this could be interpreted as a signal of Samsung Group transforming its corporate governance to ensure the succession of management rights. This is because Samsung Everland is at the top of the Group’s corporate governance and thus will play the most vital role in handing over management rights, according to experts.  Read more of this post

More large Korean companies with unsecured debt will be included in the watch list of the country’s financial regulator next yea

FSC to expand debtor watch list

Nov 06,2013

More large companies with unsecured debt will be included in the watch list of the country’s financial regulator next year, the Financial Services Commission said yesterday.
Currently, there are 30 high-debt companies that were identified by the regulator in April and being watched closely by creditor banks. However, next year, the number of companies referred to as primary debtors is expected to increase to 45 as part of the government’s efforts to prevent large companies from turning insolvent. Read more of this post

Chaebols’ financial units under watch to prevent them from offering unlawful financial support to conglomerate owners or other cash-strapped subsidiaries

2013-11-05 16:56

Chaebols’ financial units under watch

By Kim Rahn
Authorities will strengthen regulations on money-lending affiliates of conglomerates in an effort to prevent them from offering unlawful financial support to conglomerate owners or other cash-strapped subsidiaries. Officials at the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Supervisory Service said Tuesday they plan to set a ceiling for loans which a large-sized conglomerate’s money-lending unit can offer to its largest shareholder. Read more of this post

JGBs Declared Dead by Mizuho as Kuroda Hides Risks: Japan Credit

JGBs Declared Dead by Mizuho as Kuroda Hides Risks: Japan Credit

By Masaki Kondo, Mariko Ishikawa and Yumi Ikeda – Nov 5, 2013

Mizuho Securities Co. said Bank of Japan dominance has killed the nation’s sovereign bond market, leaving it unable to reflect either the success of stimulus policies or fiscal risks. Monthly trading of Japanese government bonds among the biggest holders including banks and insurers shrank to 37.9 trillion yen ($385 billion) last quarter, the least on record going back to 2004, according to Japan Securities Dealers Association data. Totan Research Co. and Spiro Sovereign Strategy also said BOJ monetary stimulus is cutting the tie between economic fundamentals and bonds, which yield 0.6 percent for 10 years, the least in the world. Read more of this post

On Becoming China’s Farm Team; The Smithfield-Shuanghui deal guarantees China the pork while offloading the downsides of pork production onto the United States

November 5, 2013

On Becoming China’s Farm Team

By MARK BITTMAN

Look at the $4.7 billion purchase in September of the pork producer Smithfield Foods by Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. — the Chinese firm that counts Goldman Sachs among its backers — from the standpoint of the Chinese. As this century’s economic titan, they had to “take a position” in United States pork. China’s population of nearly 1.4 billion is not only growing rapidly but growing wealthier rapidly, and flattering us by emulating our consumption patterns (for better or worse) while having trouble replicating some our production systems. Read more of this post

Sweetener Maker Is Commodities Middleman; Ilene Gordon has been trying to reinvent Ingredion, a little-known producer of sweeteners and starches, into a full-scale ingredients maker for more modern tastes

Sweetener Maker Is Commodities Middleman

JASON DEAN

Updated Nov. 5, 2013 9:46 p.m. ET

Ilene Gordon has been trying to reinvent Ingredion Inc., INGR +0.28% a little-known producer of sweeteners and starches, into a full-scale ingredients maker for more modern tastes. When she became chairman and chief executive in May 2009, the company had $3.9 billion in annual revenue and was called Corn Products International. The next year, she acquired a company with an equally dull moniker, National Starch—a unit of Akzo Nobel N.V. AKZOY -0.92% —for $1.3 billion. Last year, she introduced the combined company’s new name. Read more of this post

Ryanair’s new touchy-feely O’Leary hits turbulence but sees clearer air ahead; Controversial airline’s chief admits mistakes but says firm had to change after ‘running like lunatics’ for 20 years

Ryanair’s new touchy-feely O’Leary hits turbulence but sees clearer air ahead

Controversial airline’s chief admits mistakes but says firm had to change after ‘running like lunatics’ for 20 years

Gwyn Topham

The Guardian, Tuesday 5 November 2013 21.09 GMT

Michael O’Leary is relaxing baggage policy, toning down onboard selling and softening penalties for customer errors. Photograph: Frank Leonhardt/EPA

Strange things are afoot at Ryanair. Shareholders have complained about the airline’s image. Profits are set to dip for the first time in five years. The ever-rising share price has finally tumbled. And chief executive Michael O’Leary, the man the flying public most loves to hate, has embraced customer service. Investors have been posing a previously unthinkable question. Has O’Leary screwed up? Read more of this post

New York Is Investigating Advisers to Pension Funds; Benjamin Lawsky, the state’s financial services regulator, wants to know if any advice is clouded by incentives or conflicts of interest

NOVEMBER 5, 2013, 9:02 PM

New York Is Investigating Advisers to Pension Funds

By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH

Public pensions in New York State have some of the most reliable funding in the country, but what happens to the money once it is in the pension system can be less clear-cut. Now, state financial regulators have subpoenaed about 20 companies that help New York’s pension trustees decide how to invest the billions of dollars under their control to determine whether any outside advice is clouded by undisclosed financial incentives or other conflicts of interest. Read more of this post

Half of the UK’s top flight FTSE 100 companies are to be hit by new rules designed to prevent a repeat of the stock market scandals at companies like ENRC and Bumi, where controlling shareholders rode roughshod over ordinary investors; Regulator to give new powers to minority investors in large companies where a shareholder has 30pc or more of equity

Half of FTSE 100 to be hit by new listing rules

Regulator to give new powers to minority investors in large companies where a shareholder has 30pc or more of equity

The City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has outlined a series of drastic new measures designed to protect minority investors by giving them a greater voice. Photo: Reuters

By James Quinn, Financial Editor

1:55PM GMT 05 Nov 2013

Half of the UK’s top flight FTSE 100 companies are to be hit by new rules designed to prevent a repeat of the stock market scandals at companies like ENRC and Bumi, where controlling shareholders rode roughshod over ordinary investors. The City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has outlined a series of drastic new measures designed to protect minority investors by giving them a greater voice. Read more of this post

Montreal: Where the Churches Convert; Religious Buildings Finding an Afterlife as Condos, Galleries and Spas

Montreal: Where the Churches Convert

Buildings Finding an Afterlife as Condos, Galleries and Spas

KAREN JOHNSON

Nov. 5, 2013 7:13 p.m. ET

Inside the former Saint-Jude Church in Montreal, personal trainers mill about where priests once did and hot-stone massages have replaced baptisms. In this city, a former Roman Catholic stronghold where Mark Twain once said you couldn’t throw a brick without breaking a church window, questions about what to do with all those churches have lingered for years.

Read more of this post

Developers Brace for End of Montreal’s Condo Boom

Developers Brace for End of Montreal’s Condo Boom

Sales Are Well off the Pace of Previous Years

DAVID GEORGE-COSH

Nov. 5, 2013 6:12 p.m. ET

With signs that Montreal’s more than decadelong condominium boom could be fading, some local developers are repositioning or even pulling projects due to waning demand. In the downtown core, quarterly presales of new condos have averaged nine units per project this year, according to Altus Group Ltd. AIF.T -0.07% , a real-estate consultancy. That is well below the pace of such sales in both 2012 and 2011, when the average was 16 units. Read more of this post

Canadian Investor Bets on a Montreal Revival; For more than two decades, Montreal was one of the sleepiest office markets in Canada

Canadian Investor Bets on a Montreal Revival

Cadillac Fairview Wants to Expand City’s Business Center to the South

DAVID GEORGE-COSH

Nov. 5, 2013 6:11 p.m. ET

For more than two decades, Montreal was one of the sleepiest office markets in Canada, seeing no new private development as cities such as Toronto and energy-rich Calgary added millions of square feet of new space. Now, as Canadian investors step up real-estate investment throughout the world, a company owned by one of Canada’s largest pension funds is looking to shake things up. Read more of this post

The creative strength of Hong Kong’s artistic community has declined and now lags behind the mainland, media entrepreneur Li Ruigang warns

Warning over HK’s slipping creative strength
Grace Cao
Tuesday, November 05, 2013
The creative strength of Hong Kong’s artistic community has declined and now lags behind the mainland, media entrepreneur Li Ruigang warns. “Hong Kong should have done better as there is no dearth of talent and media industry professionals,” said Li, the former president of Shanghai Media Group – an arm of the municipal government. Li worked for SMG before starting his private equity fund in 2009. Read more of this post

Some Food Companies Ditch ‘Natural’ Label; Amid Lawsuits Over the Claim, More Producers Drop the Word

Some Food Companies Ditch ‘Natural’ Label

Amid Lawsuits Over the Claim, More Producers Drop the Word

A growing number of food and drink companies are quietly removing “all natural” claims from packages amid lawsuits challenging the “naturalness” of everything. Mike Esterl reports on the News Hub.

MIKE ESTERL

Updated Nov. 6, 2013 12:07 a.m. ET

Now you see them. Now you don’t. Food products labeled as “natural” are starting to disappear. “Natural” Goldfish crackers will soon be just Goldfish. “All Natural” Naked juice is going stark Naked. “All Natural” Puffins cereal is turning into plain old Puffins. A growing number of food and drink companies including PepsiCo Inc.PEP +0.30% and Campbell Soup Co.CPB +0.07% are quietly removing these claims from packages amid lawsuits challenging the “naturalness” of everything from potato chips to ice cream to granola bars. Read more of this post

Chains of pain: FMCG remains one of business’ toughest segments

Phil Ruthven Columnist

Chains of pain: FMCG remains one of business’ toughest segments

Published 06 November 2013 11:37

Acronyms abound these days and FMCG is one of them; standing for fast-moving consumer goods. Marketers define this category of spending as consisting of high-volume goods, low margins, wide distribution networks and high stock turns. While the consumers do not readily relate to the term FMCG, their behaviour identifies with these products through frequent purchase, low prices, and low involvement in choosing items other than those with strong brand loyalty. It is a sector worth about $200 billion in 2013. That expenditure represents about a sixth of household income and virtually half all retail sales. Read more of this post

Shale revolution boosts US Gulf refiners; Record discount to Brent global benchmark highlights impact

November 5, 2013 1:11 pm

Shale revolution boosts US Gulf refiners

By Ajay Makan in London

Crude oil prices in the Gulf of Mexico have been pushed to record discount levels against the Brent global benchmark, boosting profits for refiners in America’s principal oil processing hub. The moves are the latest sign of the impact of the shale revolution on the US refining industry and promise to further accelerate already booming US exports of petroleum products. Read more of this post

This Is Why Bitcoin Is Fundamentally Broken

This Is Why Bitcoin Is Fundamentally Broken

 ITTAY EYAL AND EMIN GÜN SIRER, CORNELL UNIVERSITY NOV. 5, 2013, 11:21 AM 5,244 21

Bitcoin is broken. And not just superficially so, but fundamentally, at the core protocol level. We’re not talking about a simple buffer overflow here, or even a badly designed API that can be easily patched; instead, the problem is intrinsic to the entire way Bitcoin works. All other cryptocurrencies and schemes based on the same Bitcoin idea, including Litecoin, Namecoin, and any of the other few dozen Bitcoin-inspired currencies, are broken as well. Read more of this post

India’s bitter land battles set to roll on

November 5, 2013 7:57 am

India’s bitter land battles set to roll on

By Amy Kazmin in Meerut, India

India’s new land law was designed to resolve one of the most vexing problems of its sputtering economy: bitter stand-offs over state acquisition of agricultural land for industry, infrastructure and urban development. But the ruling Congress party’s attempt to ensure fair treatment for farmers – and protect them as India industrialises and urbanises – has left landowners awaiting windfall profits, companies fearing projects will be unaffordable, and experts warning of an abdication of state powers to take land for economically desirable projects. Read more of this post