Japan Aeroforge Ltd. Investments

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The new Tokyo-based company Japan Aeroforge Ltd. That will be creating nickel and titanium products for airplanes is going to be investing approximately 20 billion yen in order to build a plan in Kurashiki, Okayama.  What this will mean is that any procedure needed to complete the building of titanium aircraft parts will be able to be undertaken in Japan.  The company will be receiving capital from Marubeni-Itochu Steel and Sojitz Aerospace Corp. for this venture.  It is expected the plant will be completed in March 2012.

 

Korea Investment & Securities Versus Lehman Brothers International

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Just today, the attempts by Korea Investment & Securities (KIS) to accrue payment from Lehman Brothers International vis-à-vis the company's purchase of credit-linked notes (CLN’s) which are securities that have embedded credit default swaps enabling the issuer to transfer a credit risk to credit investors, four and a half years ago, were dismissed.  A few weeks ago the court dismissed TrueFriend’s claim (a KIS assignee) against Lehman Brothers International Europe (LBIE) which tried to recover $1314 million in loss on these CLN’s from November 2006.

 

This particular case is KIS’s purchase of CLNs from Lehman Brothers Treasure Co. a few years ago.  Some months later TrueFriend was set up by KIS, which it used to transfer/sell the CLN to.  A year and a half later following Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, TrueFriend no longer received any more payments, claiming LBIE to be the “de facto issuer,” not the LBTC.

 

Today, Mike Jervis (PriceWaterhouseCoopers partner in London) said, “The administrators welcome the court’s judgment, which will now enable them to continue with the orderly wind-down of LBIE and return of assets to creditors in a timely fashion.”

 

There is some talk that KIS will appeal the decision but Jarvis remains hopeful for KIS as the CLN “remains a valid claim in bankruptcy against LBTC and LBHI.

 

South Korea Investment News

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KEPCO (Korea Electric Power Corp) just announced that South Korea will be investing $7.18 billion into a nationwide smart grid that is due for completion by 2030.  This investment is an attempt to “curb the country’s carbon emissions and improve efficiency in its electricity market.”  It seems that South Korea is the perfect location for smaller-scale greening efforts such as the transformation of landfills into hydrogen generators; the construction of huge 131-acre rooftop gardens; the introduction and use of electric scooters for local police.  This is great, but it comes alongside the fact that the country is quite a high carbon polluter within the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. For South Korea, this will ultimately mean that 11 percent of energy will be taken from renewable sources like wind and solar.  The country will draw 11% of its energy from renewable sources, such as wind and solar.
 

China’s Wealth Gap

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On 27 February, Wen Jiabao (China’s Premier) compared the country’s economic development to a cake that needed to be larger and more evenly distributed.  He insisted it was essential that the government take on the task of “ensuring fair income distribution” over the next five years.  This is not just for the country’s economic stability (which of course is important) but also as a measure of “social justice and fairness” in China.  Whilst indeed the country has witnessed significant economic advancement, it still suffers from social/class difficulties such as a “widening wealth gap and slow increase in incomes.”  In some areas this has even led to social conflict which of course will ultimately impact the country’s economy. 
 

Tokyo’s Investments Today

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Good news has just been reported for Tokyo this year is the doubling of investment in large Japanese blue-chip companies.  Indeed combined stakes are now worth more than 1.6 trillion yen (which translates to $US19.4 billion).  The stakes do seem somewhat passive (investors remaining tight-lipped on corporate strategy and management).  But the stakes also show the escalating monetary ties between China and Japan as well as China’s increasing financial status.  This is simultaneous to the eclipsing of the Chinese economy and the Japanese economy’s rise in status to second in the world. 
During the second and third quarter of 2010, SSBT OD05 Omnibus Account Treaty Clients (a shareholder) made it to the top 10 shareholder registry of major Japanese companies (Toshiba is also on the list).  Six months prior to this, this was not the case; the shareholder made a significant jump during 2010.
 

ECFA

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At a recent American Enterprise Institute discussion of Taiwan and the ECFA, Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Christina Liu said it would be full steam ahead if markets were reaping economic benefits and the ECFA was the right policy.  Things would completely change however, if Taiwan moved toward independence, but this probably wouldn’t be the case as most Taiwanese want to maintain the status quo which might translate to her saying the ECFA wouldn’t be accepted under Taiwanese independence or that China would withdraw benefits in such a situation.


 

MoU and KPC

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The recent partnership agreement between MoU and KPC comprises: upstream, downstream businesses; R&D in HR and planning and energy security.  At the signing various official dignitaries from Kuwait and the UK were in attendance.  Malcolm Brinded, an executive director at Shell noted how this milestone is “further cementing our partnership with Kuwait.”  There are plans to develop Kuwait’s Jurassic gas fields through developing capacity of Shell and Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) staff.  As the chair and MD of Shell companies in Kuwait Ahmed Mouti noted, that since the company is known for being a “leading gas company” building a partnership with KOC will only be mutually beneficial to the two companies.  Training will be needed because of “unique geological challenges” gas developments encounter today that require specific technology.

 


 

Air Transport, Solar and Wind Power News

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 A Japanese airline (a conglomeration of All Nippon Airways and ANA) will begin low cost domestic flights in November and services to China next year.  According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) over 5 million passengers were transported during the Spring Festival through domestic carriers, organizing close to 40,000 flights to meet increased holiday travel demand.  Services will be expanded between Dalian in China’s Liaoning Province and Toyama, Japan to Beijing.  Turkish airlines has grown, as well as Air China, the latter which transported 102,500 tons of mail and cargo.  Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways – with its subsidiary Dragonair – last month transported 2.24 million passengers, 6.8 percent higher than last year.  China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines likewise reported a significant increase in passenger transportation over the last year.  Spring Airlines will be using AsiaPay’s payment processing solution for its online flight booking, enabling clients to pay for tickets in local currencies.


In terms of airline partnerships, news is that first, China Harbor Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC, a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Company Ltd.) just clinched a US$1.22 billion deal for the construction of a new international airport in Khartoum, Sudan.  Second, China Telecom Corporation Limited has entered into a strategic partnership with Hainan Airlines potentially enabling the latter to be “China’s first air carrier to provide in-flight phone calls and Internet.” New services will be added to Italian airlines too and a Tibet-based air carrier (Tibet Airlines) will be the first air-carrier in the region and will start its operation launching a Lhasa-Beijing service.
 

News from solar power is that China Solar Energy Holdings Ltd. will be acquiring domestic thin-film solar photovoltaic module maker Target Samoa for US$45 million in stock and convertible notes enabling the addition of amorphous silicon thin-film module production.  Taiwanese Neo Solar Power Corp (NSP) said its revenues last month escalated over 150 percent and this trend looks set to improve.  Volthaus GmbH (German solar power developer) is due to receive 20 MWp of solar modules in an agreement with EGing Photovoltaic Technology (Chinese module maker).  There is good news in the solar cell market too in the country, with the use of Maple solar cell technology (broader and flatter silicon cells with fewer grain boundaries).


There is work on potential wind power projects via China Resource New Energy which recently stated it would put US$728 million to US$984 million in wind power developments in pursuit of 150 gigawatts of overall installed capacity by 2020.  A US company CleanTech Innovations informed of its striking a wind tower supply deal from power producer China Guodian.

Substantial Drop in Asian Shares

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Recent world events – New Zealand earthquake, Japan’s credit rating downgrade and continued Middle East and Libyan unrest – led to a significant drop in stock markets across Asia.  For example, South Korea’s Kospi, the Nikkei 225 stock and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index all plummeted around 2 percent.  As well, Japan had trouble dealing with its huge debt following Moody’s Investors Service downgrading its outlook for the country’s credit rating, citing “increasing uncertainty” over Japan’s capacity to effectively deal with rising debt.  This doesn’t spell good news for the country which only last month had its sovereign debt rating cut by Standard & Poor.  Australia, China, Singapore and Taiwan are currently in the same boat vis-à-vis stock markets. The only good news for the region of late has been the increase in oil prices.

 

Chinese Economy and Grain Production

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Although it seems like inflation is sky-rocketing in China due to its escalating consumer price index, according to chairman of the leading food enterprise COFCO Ning Gaoning, grain prices will be stabilized because of the country’s “substantial reserves.”  While corn will probably drop, rice and wheat – two of the country’s major grains – will remain in high supply this year.  Indeed last year the country’s grain output increased nearly 3 percent with its rice inventory-to-consumption ratio being around 18 percent higher than anywhere in the world.  

Ning claimed that the escalation in world food prices was due to “global demands and extreme weather in major grain producing areas” along with general inflation and speculation.  He dismissed the claim that the price of agricultural products were behind global inflation since the recent peaks in farm produces occurred way later than those of other industrial products.  Ning also  predicted a high inflation in the next second months with a weakening from July to the end of 2011 but claimed that expectations were weaker this month because of various governmental measures to ensure market supply.  

As well, Ning noted how China still potentially has the capacit to increase the amount of grain it produces due to better rural infrastructure, and more low-yield farmland productivity.  Farmers are being encouraged to increase production and the government has invested significant funds in rural water conservation and farm irrigation projects.