Daily Archives: May 17, 2011

Latvia first, Romania last in EU funds race

May 17, 2011 6:13 pm by Kester Eddy
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Jakub Voracek (C) of the Czech Republic fights for a puck with Mikelis Redlihs of Latvia during the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships group D match in Bratislava,It’s half time in the beautiful, bountiful game of procuring EU subsidies in central-eastern Europe, and every team, more or less, can enter the dressing room claiming some success – at least according to KPMG’s latest report on such affairs – EU Funds in Central and Eastern Europe – Progress Report 2007-10 – released this week. Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in Europe |

FT video: the economic costs (and benefits) of revolution

May 17, 2011 5:59 pm by beyondbrics
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The people of Egypt are still celebrating the popular revolution which removed Hosni Mubarak from power after 30 years. But the seismic political shift has also brought political uncertainty ahead of democratic elections to be held in September which, in turn, has knocked the economy. Egypt’s interim finance minister, Samir Radwan, talks to Roula Khalaf, the FT’s Middle East editor, about the impact of regime change, delays in cash support from Egypt’s allies and what it’s like to work with the military council of generals

 

Tags: Posted in Egypt |

Indian pharma sector: coming of age?

May 17, 2011 5:23 pm by Akanksha Awal
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In this photograph taken on October 20, 2010 antibiotics are displayed at a chemist's shop in Mumbai. Indian pharmaceutical companies have gained an unflattering reputation of being generic drug makers with little to show in the way of new product development and innovation. But a few companies in the sector are beginning to break the mould.

On Monday Glenmark, the Mumbai-listed pharmaceutical firm, signed a licensing agreement with Sanofi, the French pharmaceutical group, for the development and commercialisation of an antibody discovered by Glenmark. Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in India |

Argentina’s poor cousin? not Uruguay

May 17, 2011 4:01 pm by Jude Webber
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Uruguay is a little country jokingly considered – by Argentines – to be just another province, or even an annexe, of their nation, albeit with better beaches.

Yet Uruguay has already overtaken Argentina in one area where it hurts – beef exports – and its ability to attract big investments, such as the $2bn Montes del Plata pulp mill, is another factor that sets Uruguay apart from its larger neighbour. The prospect of attaining an investment grade credit rating as early as next year, as forecast by Nomura Securities in a new research note, is another. Continue reading »

Tags: , , Posted in LatAm, Uruguay |

Philippines: fewer remittances

May 17, 2011 3:28 pm by Roel Landingin
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Office employees walk past a logo of remittance bank Western Union at the financial district of Manila on July 20, 2009.For a remittance-dependent economy like the Philippines, news that year-on-year growth in money sent home by Filipinos working overseas dropped to only 4.1 per cent in March, the lowest in 19 months, should be worrisome.

But that’s not the whole of it. The number of Filipinos leaving for jobs abroad fell by 3.8 per cent to only 380,188 in the first quarter from 395,189 in the same period a year ago, mainly because of the political troubles in the Middle East and North Africa. Manila imposed temporary bans on deployments to Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and Syria since conflict erupted in those countries earlier this year. Continue reading »

Tags: Posted in Philippines |

China’s online travel market hots up

May 17, 2011 2:37 pm by beyondbrics
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By Yue Yang of  mergermarket

It was inevitable really. Given the growing appetite in China for leisure travel, at home and abroad, it was only a matter of time before online travel booking gain traction.

Monday’s move by Tencent, China’s largest internet company, to acquire a 16 per cent stake in eLong, the online travel company, for $84.4m, underscores how this nascent industry is quickly emerging as the next big battleground for China’s internet companies. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , Posted in China |

Forbidden City: riffraff unwelcome

May 17, 2011 2:23 pm by Kathrin Hille
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A view of Tiananmen Square, closed off to the general public, during the opening session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 3It has been a really bad week for management of the Forbidden City. First, burglars stole several gold-encrusted objects on loan for an exhibition in the Palace Museum last week. Now it turns out management didn’t just fail to keep its treasures under lock, but it also invited the wrong people in.

The Beijing Forbidden City Cultural Development Company, its marketing arm, tried to set up a private club for rich people inside the palace with an entry fee of Rmb1m (US$154,000). Initially denying the reports the museum said late Monday that it had “put a stop to this inappropriate behaviour and taken corrective action”. Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in China |

BP-Rosneft: politics matters

May 17, 2011 12:18 pm by Stefan Wagstyl
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BPBP shareholders breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday on the collapse of the Rosneft deal talks, with the stock climbing over 1 per cent.

And quite right too. In its original form, the deal with the Russian state’s oil champion was a high-risk venture hard to sell to shareholders. But not impossible, given the potential rewards in developing the Russian Arctic.

The final version, involving a costly and awkward compromise with BP’s existing Russian partners, was fatally flawed. But BP must not give up on the Arctic. It should try again  – perhaps after Russia’s 2012 presidential election. Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in Russia |

China goes for the gold

May 17, 2011 12:05 pm by Pan Kwan Yuk
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From Cuban oil to Australian coal to Uzbek gas, hardly a week seems to go by without news of some sort of Chinese overseas resource deal being struck.

This being a new week, score keepers can add another deal to their list – South African gold. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , , Posted in Asia, China |

New York headlines

May 17, 2011 11:56 am by beyondbrics
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* BP’s Rosneft share-swap deal collapses

* FDI rises 26% in China in first 4 months

* Demand for US debt falls amid Chinese sell-off

* India eyes mega-Navy spend – $50 bn

* State Bank of India may defer rights as government’s short of cash Continue reading »

Posted in Global |

Further reading: China’s central bank

May 17, 2011 11:37 am by beyondbrics
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Tuesday’s best picks from the beyondbrics team: why the People’s Bank of China is more important than widely recognised, and how rising fuel prices are catching up with reality. Continue reading »

Posted in Global |

Pang Da: Saab’s white knight

May 17, 2011 10:37 am by Patti Waldmeir
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Pang Da, the Chinese car distributor that has stepped in as a white knight for Saab, recently gained a dubious distinction: when its shares were floated last month on the Shanghai stock exchange, they turned in the worst first day performance ever recorded on the exchange, falling more than 23 per cent, according to Dealogic. Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in Asia, China |

India: painting the town red? Not yet

May 17, 2011 10:20 am by Akanksha Awal
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Few sectors are more closely correlated to overall GDP than construction materials and India’s paint industry is no exception – by volume, consumption of paint grows at 1.6 to 2 times GDP, according to Anand Shah, an analyst at Elara Capital, a London-based foreign institutional investor in India.

So the recent slowdown in the Indian economy is rotten news for paint manufacturers, as home building and refurbishment take a pause and demand for new cars – the main driver of the industrial paints sector – slows down. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , Posted in Asia, India |

[snap] BP’s Russian talks collapse

May 17, 2011 8:33 am by beyondbrics
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BP has failed to reach an agreement that would have given the British oil group access to the Russian Arctic and the chance to turn its fortunes around following the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

On Tuesday morning Reuters quoted a source close to Rosneft, the state-controlled group with which BP had hoped to form a partnership, saying it would look for new partners to explore the Arctic Kara Sea blocks. Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in Europe, Russia |

China: the end of cheap? Not so fast…

May 17, 2011 8:13 am by Josh Noble
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…says Anthony Chan at Alliance Bernstein. The view that rising wages in China herald the end of a decade of ultra-low inflation in the west has a fatal flaw – the value chain.

While China is indeed exporting inflation through its labour intensive export industries, like footwear or textile manufacturing, as China gets better at making more advanced goods, the net effect remains disinflationary. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , , Posted in Asia, China |
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