Bamboo Innovator

Hong Kong’s Enduring Identity Crisis; 16 years after the territory reverted to Chinese sovereignty, its residents feel increasingly uneasy with Beijing’s rule

Hong Kong’s Enduring Identity Crisis

16 years after the territory reverted to Chinese sovereignty, its residents feel increasingly uneasy with Beijing’s rule.

SEBASTIAN VEGOCT 16 2013,

By Sebastian Veg

When Hong Kong reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, expectations were high—in Beijing and among the pro-mainland forces in Hong Kong—that identification with the Chinese nation would slowly but surely strengthen among the local population, especially among the younger generations, eventually solving the problem of Hong Kong’s full integration into China. Once the colonial education system ceased poisoning young minds, it was thought, future generations would embrace the worldview and politics favored in Beijing. However, 16 years later the situation is very different. It is precisely the younger generations, the ones educated after the handover, who are most hostile to the mainland and its local advocates. A June 2013 poll, the latest in a series released every six months, shows that identification with Hong Kong has even increased since the handover: today, 62 percent of the population identify primarily with Hong Kong and 38 percent exclusively. More surprisingly, the proportion is 84.3 percent among the 18 to 29 group (of which 55.8 percent identify exclusively with Hong Kong). Read more of this post

Hong Kong Peg Turning 30 as Another Decade Forecast: Currencies

Hong Kong Peg Turning 30 as Another Decade Forecast: Currencies

Banny Lam recalls how, in the first nine months of 1983, he helped his family stockpile rice as a drop of more than 30 percent in Hong Kong’s dollar led to panic-buying of goods. “Sometimes the shelves would be empty,” said Lam, the 41-year-old co-head of research at Agricultural Bank of China International Securities Co. in Hong Kong. “At that time, we just didn’t know what would happen tomorrow with the currency.” Read more of this post

BlackRock Cuts Hong Kong Investment Seeing Drop in Prices

BlackRock Cuts Hong Kong Investment Seeing Drop in Prices

BlackRock Inc. (BLK) is reducing its investment in Hong Kong, betting the city’s equity and property markets will trail other Asian countries as growth slows in the world’s two biggest economies. Hong Kong stocks may underperform as the U.S. pares stimulus and China tightens credit, said Andrew Swan, head of Asian equities at BlackRock, which manages $3.86 trillion as of June 30. Home values in the city may fall more than 10 percent into 2014 amid government measures to curb prices and rising U.S. interest rates, he said. Read more of this post

South Korea Introduces ‘Gangnam Style’ Tourist Police to protect tourists from being ripped off during their stay in the South Korean capital

South Korea Introduces ‘Gangnam Style’ Tourist Police

By Agence France-Presse on 2:34 pm October 16, 2013.
South Korean “tourist police” officers salute during their inauguration ceremony at Gwanghwamun square in Seoul on October 16, 2013. South Korea unveiled its new ‘tourist police’ force, with snappy uniforms from rapper Psy’s costume designer, formed to protect tourists from being ripped off during their stay in the South Korean capital. (AFP Photo/Jung Yeon–Je)

Seoul. South Korea unveiled its new “tourist police” force Wednesday, with snappy uniforms from rapper Psy’s costume designer and a “Gangnam Style” launch in central Seoul. Around 100 young policemen and women make up the first batch of the new force — formed to protect tourists from being ripped off during their stay in the South Korean capital. The officers were handpicked for their linguistic skills, and can speak a range of languages including English, Japanese and Mandarin. Read more of this post

FamilyMart joins 10,000 outlets in Japan club

FamilyMart joins 10,000 outlets in Japan club

JIJI

OCT 16, 2013

Major Japanese convenience store chain FamilyMart Co. now has more than 10,000 domestic outlets. FamilyMart is the third convenience store chain in Japan to reach the 10,000-store mark, following Japan’s largest convenience store chain, Seven-Eleven Japan Co., and the second-largest, Lawson Inc. FamilyMart opened its first store in 1973 in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture. “This achievement is just a passing point,” FamilyMart President Isamu Nakayama said at a ceremony held Tuesday at the 10,000th store, which opened in Nakano Ward, Tokyo. He said that as the FamilyMart name suggests, he hopes the chain will become popular with all people, including the elderly and women. Convenience stores in Japan exceeded 50,000 in 2012. The market is said to be saturated, but Seven-Eleven and FamilyMart each plan to open 1,500 new stores in the current business year. Major convenience store chains are trying to attract customers from other business categories amid intensifying competition. They have recently started focusing on the elderly and working women, with more frozen and prepared meals on offer.

The French will soon be able buy their cigarettes and do their banking at the same time with the launch of a stripped-down, cut price bank account by the country’s huge network of tobacconists

French banks face new foe as tobacconists offer accounts

12:23pm EDT

By Lionel Laurent and Matthias Blamont

PARIS (Reuters) – The French will soon be able buy their cigarettes and do their banking at the same time with the launch of a stripped-down, cut price bank account by the country’s huge network of tobacconists. France’s 27,000 “tabacs”, whose distinctive red, diamond-shaped signs dot the nation’s streets, will be out to win business from the likes of BNP Paribas and Societe Generale as established banks cut back their retail networks in a stagnating economy. Read more of this post

High-priced stocks are being traded in the dark

October 16, 2013 8:42 am

High-priced stocks are being traded in the dark

By Michael Mackenzie and Arash Massoudi in New York

A number of well-known US companies boast very expensive equity prices, but trading in these companies is increasingly taking place in the dark – a trend seen hurting individual investors. One-fifth of overall trading in US equities now consists of so-called odd lots, whereby a transaction consists of buying or selling less than 100 shares in a company. These trades are not publicly reported and their size in terms of overall US equity trading volumes has risen sharply since 2007, when electronic trading transformed the industry. Read more of this post

Germany’s biggest companies say they are looking to invest overseas rather than at home in the year ahead, suggesting that low investment in Europe’s biggest economy won’t improve soon

Corporate Germany Looks to Invest Overseas—Not at Home

Low Sales Growth, High Costs Deter Companies From Increasing Spending in Germany

NINA ADAM

Oct. 16, 2013 9:14 a.m. ET

FRANKFURT—Corporate Germany is looking to invest overseas rather than at home in the year ahead, a Wall Street Journal survey of top German companies reveals, suggesting that low investment in Europe’s biggest economy won’t improve soon.  Read more of this post

Foreign lawyers face Indonesia ethics test

October 16, 2013 8:32 am

Foreign lawyers face Indonesia ethics test

By Ben Bland in Jakarta

From corrupt judges to dodgy lawyers and capricious verdicts, Indonesia’s legal system is widely acknowledged to be in crisis. But amid a climate of growing economic protectionism, Indonesia’s bar association has a new target in its sights: foreign lawyers. Although they are banned from practising Indonesian law and can only work as international legal consultants, the bar association is proposing a new requirement that foreign lawyers must pass an ethics exam in Indonesian if they want to keep working in the country. Read more of this post

Real Estate Heating Up in Indonesia

October 15, 2013

Real Estate Heating Up in Indonesia

By KEITH BRADSHER

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Gita Wirjawan, Indonesia’s trade minister, made a steeply rising motion with his right hand, like an airplane soaring into the sky, when asked about the surging real estate market in this country. “Scary, isn’t it?” he said. But Boediono, the vice president who uses only one name and has been a leading economic policy maker for the last 16 years, was much more sanguine. Read more of this post

Lala, Mexico’s biggest dairy producer led by Chairman Eduardo Tricio Haro, started six decades ago as a dairy farmers’ collective in northern Mexico and now has 53 percent of formally tracked milk sales in the country

Lala Gains in Mexico Trading Debut After $938 Million Dairy IPO

Grupo Lala SAB (LALAB), Mexico’s biggest dairy producer, rallied in its first day of trading after raising at least 12.2 billion pesos ($938 million) in an initial public offering.

Lala gained 7.4 percent to 29.53 pesos at 9:25 a.m. in Mexico City, compared with a 0.4 percent advance for the country’s benchmark IPC index of 35 companies. The stock sold for 27.50 pesos yesterday, the top of a projected price range of 23.50 pesos to 27.50 pesos. The company offered 444.4 million shares, without considering a 15 percent overallotment option for underwriters. Read more of this post

LVMH Needs to Mix and Match; The French Fashion House Depends Heavily on Its Louis Vuitton Brand, Which May Cause Problems for Investors Unless It Can Find Another Star

LVMH Needs to Mix and Match

The French Fashion House Depends Heavily on Its Louis Vuitton Brand, Which May Cause Problems for Investors Unless It Can Find Another Star

JOHN JANNARONE

Updated Oct. 16, 2013 3:21 p.m. ET

These days, investors in LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton MC.FR -4.25% could do with a little variety. Shares of the French fashion house fell 4.3% Wednesday after the company issued disappointing third-quarter revenue. The culprit: a mere 3% rise in currency-adjusted sales from the key fashion and leather-goods division, which makes almost all of its profit from the Louis Vuitton brand. While LVMH has some other red-hot brands such as Celine, they were unable to make up for a soft performance from Louis Vuitton, which accounts for about half of operating profit overall. Read more of this post

Crocodile Bites Show Why Your Birkin Bag Is So Expensive; Exotic animal skins make up almost 10 percent of the total revenue from handbag sales for luxury brands, at least double their share a few years ago

Crocodile Bites Show Why Your Birkin Bag Is So Expensive

Crocodile-skin handbags can be to die for. Really.

As demand from the world’s elite surges for the skins, luxury-goods companies from LVMH Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy SA to Gucci-owner Kering SA are making acquisitions to secure supply of the beasts, whose habits can make simply collecting their eggs a matter of life and death. Raising the reptiles from hatchling to arm candy without scratches from other crocs is another major challenge. Read more of this post

Japan’s TDK gets lifeline from China’s rising smartphone stars

Japan’s TDK gets lifeline from China’s rising smartphone stars

10:58am EDT

By Reiji Murai and Sophie Knight

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s TDK Corp, an electronics parts maker that has struggled to make a profit while several of its peers grew rich in the smartphone boom, has found help rebuilding its fortunes with the rise of China’s smartphone makers. Once a leading brand in cassette tapes that later prospered in magnetic heads for hard disk drives until the PC business headed south, TDK fell behind rivals such as Murata Manufacturing Ltd in making tiny, high-spec parts for mobile gadgets like Apple Inc’s iPhones and iPads. Read more of this post

Wal-Mart Takes a Pause in China; Retailer Plans to Close About 25 Underperforming Stores

Wal-Mart Takes a Pause in China

Retailer Plans to Close About 25 Underperforming Stores

LAURIE BURKITT and SHELLY BANJO

Updated Oct. 16, 2013 11:28 a.m. ET

BEIJING—After years of furiously opening stores in China, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.WMT +1.65% has concluded that a couple dozen of them just aren’t working. As a result, the retailer on Tuesday told investors it will be closing about 25 stores in China, even as it continues to open others. Based on its current expansion plans, China would still add more stores than it subtracts. Wal-Mart is set to open about 30 stores this year as part of a three-year, 100-outlet expansion effort, which will continue to 2015. Currently, Wal-Mart has 398 China-based stores. Read more of this post