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Why Natural Gas-Powered Vehicles Are Catching On

Why Natural Gas-Powered Vehicles Are Catching On

By Bradley Olson on May 02, 2013

Facing soaring gasoline prices in 2011 and more than 100 miles of daily driving for his job as a traveling nurse, Daniel Piekarek confronted an uneasy choice: find cheaper gas or start updating his résumé. So, a few years before many of the world’s biggest companies would follow suit, Piekarek crossed his fingers and turned his life over to natural gas. On EBay (EBAY) he bought a used Honda Civic GX, the only commercially available natural gas vehicle in the U.S. at the time. “My costs went from $30 a day to $5 a day,” says Piekarek, who lives in Michigan and pays as low as the equivalent of $1.50 a gallon to fill up. “It’s been a real moneymaker.” Read more of this post

China’s Parents Crave Illegally Imported Baby Formula

China’s Parents Crave Illegally Imported Baby Formula

By Liza Lin and Julie Cruz on May 02, 2013

For Hong Kong customs agents, baby formula is the new heroin. On March 1 a law went into effect limiting the amount of powdered milk travelers can carry out of Hong Kong to two 2-pound cans each. Since then, more people have been arrested for smuggling baby formula than were caught all of last year with heroin and cocaine. As of April 23, border officials say they’d seized nearly 20,000 pounds of powdered milk and arrested 879 people, many of whom were part of a smuggling syndicate. In 2012, 420-plus people were arrested for smuggling illegal drugs through Hong Kong.

Many Chinese parents are desperate to get their hands on foreign-made baby formula after numerous food safety scandals in recent years. In 2008 at least 22 Chinese companies were found to have sold dairy products containing melamine, a toxic chemical that can make diluted milk appear to have a higher protein content. Six babies died as a result. In 2011, China’s largest milk producer, China Mengniu Dairy (2319), said in a statement that moldy cattle feed led to excessive toxin levels in its milk. Last year another large milk producer, Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group (600887), recalled formula tainted with mercury. “Chinese consumers are so frightened and so sensitive to safety issues with milk powder that they are willing to pay a higher premium than consumers anywhere else,” says James Roy, a Shanghai-based senior analyst at China Market Research Group. That willingness to pay has led to baby formula shortages in Hong Kong, where food safety standards are higher. The surge in Chinese demand has even hit foreign markets, where baby formula is often cheaper than in China. Over the past year, stores in Germany, the U.K., and New Zealand have put limits on all bulk purchases of formula, such as Danone’s (BN)Aptamil and Mead Johnson Nutrition’s (MJN) Enfamil. Read more of this post

Passed Over for GE CEO, Dave Cote Thrives at Honeywell

Passed Over for GE CEO, Dave Cote Thrives at Honeywell

By Thomas Black on May 02, 2013

In the spring of 1999, General Electric (GE) Chief Executive Officer Jack Welch invited Dave Cote to dinner in his private dining room at GE’s headquarters in Fairfield, Conn. At the time, Cote was a 25-year GE veteran who’d worked his way up from an hourly job on the floor of GE’s aircraft engine plant in Hooksett, N.H. Since 1996, he’d been running GE’s appliances unit and was now one of a half-dozen GE executives competing to succeed Welch as CEO. Welch cut to the chase: Cote would not get the job.

The news wasn’t a surprise. “I could see the handwriting on the wall that it wasn’t going to be me,” Cote says. Not only was GE Appliances missing short-term financial targets, it was also the company’s only unit to see its profit decline in 1998. Meanwhile, Cote’s rivals were thriving. Earnings at GE’s medical systems division, run by Jeff Immelt, grew 25 percent in 1999. Jim McNerney’s aircraft engines unit had doubled its revenue over the previous five years. Under the direction of Robert Nardelli, GE’s power systems division had increased sales of its steam turbines and gas-fired generators by 33 percent since 1994. Although Welch told him he could stay at GE, Cote was gone by that fall, making him the first to bow out of the competition. “I wanted to see what I was capable of,” Cote, now 60, says. Read more of this post

Dr Copper ‘telling us the party’s over…’

Dr Copper, ‘telling us the party’s over…’

Paul Murphy

| May 02 16:19 | 9 comments | Share

With the S&P 500 making a fresh run higher at pixel time, it would be rude not to share the latest thoughts of Albert Edwards, Socgen’s Ice Age bear. Rather than gawping stocks, he reckons we should be mindful of the red metal… Edwards’ central argument is that just as both the US and Europe are slipping towards outright deflation, investors have convinced themselves they just have to participate in the liquidity fueled frenzy offered by unlimited QE. But the copper price is saying something different — and it offers a solid reminder that liquidity itself can disappear very quickly indeed, as it did when Edwards’ last drew our attention to ‘Dr Copper’ (and Wile E. Coyote) back in January, 2007… Read more of this post

SEC Zeroing In on ‘Prime’ Funds; Money Funds Viewed as Most Vulnerable to Flight by Anxious Investors Would Face Tighter Rules

Updated May 2, 2013, 7:01 p.m. ET

SEC Zeroing In on ‘Prime’ Funds

Money Funds Viewed as Most Vulnerable to Flight by Anxious Investors Would Face Tighter Rules

By ANDREW ACKERMAN

WASHINGTON—U.S. securities regulators, under pressure to address risks posed by the $2.6 trillion money-market-mutual fund industry, are considering a scaled-back approach that would tighten rules for about half of the sector that is seen as most vulnerable to investor runs, according to people familiar with staff discussions. Read more of this post

Malaysia Risks Post-Election Protests as Group Cites Vote Buying

Malaysia Risks Post-Election Protests as Group Cites Vote Buying

Malaysia faces the risk of public protests over the accuracy of results from the May 5 national election after an opposition-backed group cited evidence of vote buying and bias by the official ballot oversight agency.

The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections, known as Bersih, has captured vote-buying on video and received complaints ranging from improper electoral rolls to government abuse of state-run media, according to co-chairwoman Ambiga Sreenevasan. The group, whose protests in recent years have drawn thousands of people onto Kuala Lumpur’s streets, has yet to decide on organizing demonstrations, she said this week.

A contested result between Prime Minister Najib Razak’s ruling coalition and Anwar Ibrahim’s opposition alliance threatens to spark protests in a country that has never seen a transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1957. A tight finish would be the worst outcome for Malaysian stocks because it would lead to policy paralysis and may end Najib’s tenure, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts said this week.

“Anything over a 15-to-20 seat victory margin will lead to suspicion — the race is that close,” said Bridget Welsh, associate professor of political science at Singapore Management University, who has edited two books on Malaysian politics. “You’re going to see people on the streets” if election observers produce solid evidence of fraud, she said. Read more of this post

Goldman Sachs CEO Blankfein warned that the interest- rate environment has parallels to 1994, when a sudden and sharp increase in rates caught many investors off-guard

Blankfein Sees Parallels to 1994 Interest-Rate Increases

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein warned that the interest- rate environment has parallels to 1994, when a sudden and sharp increase in rates caught many investors off-guard. “I worry now — I look out of the corner of my eye to the ‘94 period,’’ Blankfein, 58, said today at a conference in Washington sponsored by the Investment Company Institute. He recalled how investors got used to low interest rates and were shocked by losses when borrowing costs rose.

The Federal Reserve increased its benchmark rate 3 percentage points from February 1994 to February 1995, from a then record-low 3 percent to 6 percent. The yield on the 30-year U.S. Treasury bond surged above 8 percent in late 1994 from below 6 percent 12 months earlier. The rate increase and corresponding collapse in bond prices and stock markets caused losses for Wall Street trading desks and investors. Goldman Sachs, which at the time was a private partnership, suffered a drop in its capital and raised $250 million by selling a stake in the firm to a Hawaiian trust. Partners exited the firm, including then-Chairman Stephen Friedman, who now serves on the company’s board. The rate increase was something ‘‘you’d think in hindsight should have been expected,” Blankfein said, although it “really was stunning.”

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REIT firm may buy low-quality properties – or overpay for real estate – to boost the portfolio size and increase management fees; “If you have money to spend and it’s not your money, your decision-making might be different than if it was your own money,”

Lucrative Fees Behind Property Management Spark Fights

CommonWealth REIT (CWH) owns office buildings throughout the U.S., yet employs no one. Cole Credit Property Trust III Inc., which leases about a thousand stores around the country to retailers such as CVS, Lowe’s and Wal- Mart, also had no workers until a recent acquisition. Instead, both real estate investment trusts have been run by outside managers who are paid to choose properties to buy and at what prices, and which ones to sell and when. That has raised criticism from some investors, who say a management company may make decisions for its own benefit — decisions not necessarily right for REIT shareholders. “It’s a good business if you can get it,” said Jim Sullivan, a managing director at Green Street Advisors Inc., a Newport Beach, California-based research company. “The adviser does well if the REIT gets bigger, but the shareholders may not be well-served by the REIT getting bigger.” That conflict has been at the heart of two of the biggest REIT fights this year. CommonWealth, based in Newton, Massachusetts, is battling an attempt by its second-biggest investor to remove its board. Phoenix-based Cole Credit had to fend off a rival’s buyout offer after announcing plans to purchase the firm that oversaw its properties. CommonWealth — and other REITs that share the same external manager — are among the few publicly traded property trusts with the structure, Sullivan said. It’s a common setup among REITs not listed on stock exchanges, such as Cole.

The problem with using an outside manager is that the firm may buy low-quality properties — or overpay for real estate — to boost the REIT’s portfolio size and increase management fees, Sullivan said. The manager may be focused more on its own income than in building the best portfolio for investors, he said. Read more of this post

Hong Kong Overheating Risk Seen by HKMA’s Chan as Debt Rises

Hong Kong Overheating Risk Seen by HKMA’s Chan as Debt Rises

Hong Kong’s economy is at risk of overheating after household debt rose to a record 61 percent of gross domestic product, said Norman Chan, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

“Hong Kong’s consumption and personal-debt growth have consistently outpaced overall economic growth,” Chan told lawmakers today, citing risks to “macroeconomic stability.”

While the housing market has shown signs of cooling after extra curbs in February, it’s too early to say that it’s in a downward cycle, Chan said. A declining current-account balance is a “warning signal” that consumption and the economy are at risk of overheating, he said.

Hong Kong home prices, the most expensive among major global cities, last month fell the most in three years after the government imposed its harshest measures yet to curb prices and as lenders raised mortgage rates for the first time since 2011. Chan’s comments come amid signs that the global economic recovery is faltering, with industrial and manufacturing data from China, Japan and South Korea less than estimates.

In December, the HKMA said the overheated property market is increasingly disconnected from the rest of the economy. Sanford C. Bernstein H.K. Ltd. said prices could fall as much as 25 percent after the government stepped up measures to curb an asset bubble and banks raised mortgage rates. Read more of this post

Baht’s Rally Seen Throttling Thai Rice Shipments: Southeast Asia

Baht’s Rally Seen Throttling Thai Rice Shipments: Southeast Asia

The Thai baht’s rally to the highest level in 16 years is hindering exports from the world’s biggest rice shipper, curbing the government’s efforts to diminish record state stockpiles and threatening to increase its losses.

Overseas buyers have rejected attempts by the government to boost prices in dollars to offset reduced revenues as the baht has strengthened, according to Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom. Thai stockpiles are set to double to 11.6 million metric tons in 2012-2013 from two years ago, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s administration began buying rice from farmers at above-market rates in 2011 to boost rural incomes. While benefiting growers, the program has spurred the buildup of the biggest-ever stockpiles. Even as the USDA forecasts Thailand will regain its role as the largest exporter this year, displacing India, the estimated 8 million tons shipped would be about 25 percent less than two years ago.

“If it’s maintained at this level, our sales will definitely be seriously affected,” Boonsong said at his office in Nonthaburi, outside Bangkok on May 1, referring to the baht. “If we cannot sell to exporters, we might have to open bids here in Thailand for the local market.” Read more of this post

Gridlocked Jakarta launches subway project, 20 years late

Gridlocked Jakarta launches subway project, 20 years late

4:42am EDT

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Jakarta’s popular new governor, who threatens to shake up Indonesian crony politics, has launched the first mass transit railway project to help end the gridlock that brings the capital to a near halt during rush hour.

It is also the first major test of Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, who swept to office seven months ago with the promise to sweep away the corruption and inefficiency that has long been the hallmark of Indonesian politics and the way the world’s 17th-largest city has been run.

The project, announced late on Thursday and which has been delayed for over two decades, would mark a rare bright spot in Indonesia’s growing infrastructure bottleneck which threatens to throttle what have been record levels of investment in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy.

“Jokowi has no choice but to build the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit railway) to satisfy the emerging middle class,” said Marco Kusumawijaya, head of Rujak, a Jakarta-based urban planning think-tank. “But this will not solve the traffic problems of the city in the long run because the backlog of demand for public transport here is so huge. You can’t solve this with one or two inner-city (subway) lines.” Read more of this post

China has the option of selling to the public some assets from its $3.44 trillion foreign-exchange reserves. China could follow practices of the Tracker Fund (2800) of Hong Kong to sell off the “best, the most complete, and the most liquid” assets to investors

China Magazine Floats Idea of Selling Parts of Currency Reserves

China has the option of selling to the public some assets from its $3.44 trillion foreign-exchange reserves, according to an opinion piece in Caixin Century Weekly, a Chinese magazine. The article, “How to Cope With ‘Excessive’ Foreign- Exchange Reserves,” was published in the April 29 issue under the pseudonym Xiao Yi. Caixin said the author is a “senior economist” without elaborating and that a more detailed account of the proposal will be published in a sister magazine, China Reform.

One possibility is that the author is an official involved in management of the reserves, said Zhang Bin, a Beijing-based researcher with the government’s Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. China could follow practices of the Tracker Fund (2800) of Hong Kong to sell off the “best, the most complete, and the most liquid” assets to investors, according to the piece. Read more of this post

‘Abenomics’ Meets Curse of Second 100 Days

‘Abenomics’ Meets Curse of Second 100 Days

Insight: As economy flounders, Vietnam banks on debt cleanup

Insight: As economy flounders, Vietnam banks on debt cleanup

Thu, May 2 2013

By Martin Petty

HANOI (Reuters) – When Nguyen Manh Hung’s furniture company Phuc Luc was bustling, orders flew in from wealthy Vietnamese who sought his hand-crafted beds, cabinets and tables, netting him $25,000 a month after costs and wages for 35 staff. Two years later, hurt by the slump in Vietnam’s economy, business in his Hanoi shop is crumbling. Hung is hemorrhaging about $4,000 a month even after slicing costs to the bone and idling 30 workers he could no longer afford to pay.

“I just need a few customers to stay afloat, but the ones I have, they’ve cancelled orders,” Hung says. “None of the banks will lend to me. I’m finished.” Read more of this post

Billionaire investor Sam Zell’s tip for real estate newbies? “Go to medical school”; Equity Residential chief shares wisdom at NYU REIT conference

Sam Zell’s tip for real estate newbies? “Go to medical school”

Equity Residential chief shares wisdom at NYU REIT conference

April 12, 2013 06:00PM
By Hiten Samtani

Had Equity Residential’s Samuel Zell known that Lehman Brothers would accept a fixed price for Archstone’s sprawling apartment building portfolio, he would have bought the whole company outright, he told participants yesterday at a real estate investment trust symposium hosted by New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate. “The fixed price removes a lot of uncertainty from the deal,” said Zell, looking rakish in a grey blazer and jeans, amidst a suit-clad crowd at the Pierre, a swank Central Park-facing hotel at 2 East 61st Street.  In November of last year, Zell and AvalonBay Communities, a Washington, D.C.-based REIT, agreed to pay roughly $6.5 billion in cash and stock for the portfolio, which contained just under 58,000 apartment units scattered around the Northeast. Zell said he wasn’t aware that Lehman would agree to a fixed price — rather than a fair market value deal — and if he had known that up front, he would have gone solo. Still, AvalonBay was a stellar partner on the deal, Zell said. “To do a deal of that size with such limited friction is pretty extraordinary,” he said. In New York City, Equity Residential is building 400 Park Avenue South, a 40-story condominium and rental apartment tower in partnership with Toll Brothers. But ground-up development — given its inherent risk — is only a small part of the publicly traded company’s arsenal, Zell said, noting that the firm built only “5 percent” of its portfolio, valued at $35 billion.

“We’re going to find out in the next three or four years what happens when you’re in the middle of construction and inflation starts to go up,” he said. When asked about the housing market, Zell said that elevated home ownership rates had historically preceded turmoil. “Every time we’ve got into a crisis in this country, the housing rate has hovered over 62 percent,” he said. “It was 69 percent recently, now it’s at 65.5 percent.” Read more of this post