Bad timing? US Senators visit China
By Richard McGregor in Washington and Jamil Anderlini in Beijing
Beijing will host one of the largest and most senior delegations ever from the US Senate this week in a trip which coincides with one of the most severe internal political crackdowns in recent memory in China.
The bipartisan group of ten senators will be led by Nevada Democrat, Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, and includes other senior members of the chamber. Continue reading »
Huawei’s attempt to soothe fears about the US government and investors about its corporate governance by disclosing the names of its board members – not too radical a step, one might think – begs some questions.
Huawei has two image problems – its links to the Chinese government and People’s Liberation Army, and the degree to which the family of Ren Zhengfei, its founder and chief executive, are involved in running the business. Mr Ren is a fomer PLA engineer. Continue reading »
Argentina: Siderar fights government meddling
Argentine steel company Siderar expects to announce today or tomorrow a legal challenge on the government’s decision last week to boost its sway in private companies in which it inherited large stakes after nationalising private pension funds in 2008.
The company is not giving details, but the move comes after the stock market regulator declared its shareholder meeting void last Friday, with the government’s failure to impose three new board members. Continue reading »
The only thing more surprising than the comment from Ali Naimi, the Saudi oil minister, that the oil market is oversupplied, is how seriously the market appears to have taken it. The oil price has dipped sharply today, according to some at least, because of Naimi’s comments. Continue reading »
EM equities: rush for the exits
Bad news from the developed world hit emerging markets like a thunderbolt on Monday, sending EM equities falling 1.6 per cent, dragged down by a 4.2 per cent plunge in central and eastern Europe.
The markets were plunged into turmoil after Standard & Poor’s cut the American credit outlook to negative and concern about Greece prompted renewed fears about Europe’s debt crisis. It was risk off almost everywhere, with only Asia escaping the storm with its markets mostly closed before the sell-off started. Continue reading »
Euromonitor has a report out, and this one’s a doozy: it says Poland is the world’s fourth fastest growing luxury market. To be specific, it says: “Between 2005 and 2010, the [Polish] luxury goods market grew by 50 per cent in real terms, [while] China achieved real growth of 59 per cent over the same period.” And all of this since joining the EU in 2004. Who knew membership could have such a dramatic ka-ching effect? Continue reading »
Private equity: Brazil is hot
Brazil is now so popular that private equity investors are putting it above China as a place for making deals in the next 12 months.And they like emerging markets so much that they want to increase their EM exposure from 11-15 per cent to 16-20 per cent.
The Emerging Markets Private Equity Association/ Coller Capital survey published on Monday won’t come as a surprise to business people in Sao Paulo. Given Brazil’s legion of privately-owned companies, PE clearly has a big role to play. Continue reading »
India gains a foothold in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan tries to balance its geopolitical interests between the east and the west when handing out oil and gas reserves. So it was high time that India, which landed a block in the Caspian Sea on Saturday, got a break in the central Asian country where US, Russian and Chinese oil firms have secured huge energy deals.
Ongc reached an agreement at the weekend to join KazMunaigas, the Kazakh state oil company in a project to explore and develop the Satpayev block in highly prospective waters of the north western Caspian Sea. The state oil company will pay an $80m signature bonus for a 25 per cent stake in Satpayev where oil reserves are estimated to amount to 250MT. Continue reading »
MENA: dividends for the discerning
From Jamie Chisholm’s Trading Post column on ft.com
Since the ousting of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak sparked civil unrest across the Mideast and north Africa, more parochial investors may have been tempted to lump the whole region into a pot marked “too risky”.
The more discerning spotted opportunity. Continue reading »
By Katrina Manson
It’s an ill wind….The best-performing emerging market bond of 2011 is none other than the war-torn Ivory Coast’s $2.3bn issue.
It is up 25 per cent for the year to date, says JP Morgan, and around 55 per cent above its low on March 15, when investors took fright amid alarming reports of an imminent military attack on Abidjan, of refugees fleeing abroad and of an extension to a cocoa export ban. But what next for the bond, now that it stands at 54.6 cents to the dollar? Continue reading »
Marxism in West Bengal: good for growth?
The sun may be setting on more than three decades of Communist rule of West Bengal, the Indian state where the British East India Company made a mint in the 18th and 19th centuries.
But the leftists shouldn’t be counted out too hastily before 13 May, when the winner of the state election is declared. West Bengal’s economy – under their Marxist management – is growing at a healthy clip. Continue reading »
New York headlines
* China: New hike in reserves for banks
* Aveva boosted by Latin American operations
* Emerging market hedge funds set for $19bn inflows
* Tata stands by $26bn India investment
* Huawei opens up its board to scrutiny Continue reading »
Asian palm oil: limited supply
Palm oil groups have known for a long time that the supply of land for planting is running out in Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s biggest producers, but the question of exactly when has been the focus of recent discussion. So it’s fascinating to see research from Kuala Lumpur based Nomura analyst Ken Arieff Wong, concluding that the deadline could be as little as nine years away.
That’s not long, given the 25 year life cycle of the oil palm, and it helps to explain why industry giants such as Malaysia’s Sime Darby and Singapore’s Olam International and Wilmar International are scrambling for fresh space space in equatorial Africa. Continue reading »
Further reading: Mexico’s tweeting mandarins
Monday’s best picks from the beyondbrics team: why Hero Honda is being so generous with its shareholders, Moscow’s oil price conundrum, and the rise of China’s princelings, the country’s revolutionary aristocracy. Continue reading »
Huawei: slowly turning multinational?
As Huawei edges closer to Ericsson as the world’s biggest maker of telecommunications equipment, it is also taking steps towards becoming the first true Chinese multinational.
On Monday the group announced a number of measures aimed at addressing foreign criticisms of its alleged lack of transparency. Though Huawei won’t turn into General Electric overnight, the moves are likely to help the group’s standing abroad. Continue reading »
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