Economy

One World Ventures, Inc.

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One-World-VenturesTutamen (HK) Ltd., the Chinese product development, consulting services and strategic management resource company has created the holding company, One World Ventures.

OWVI invests in a range of technologies and leverages its long experience in Asia to develop a company which crosses international boundaries. It bridges the gap between the US and China:
• 1WorldAuction is an online platform for the exchange of products and services. It enables individuals and businesses to avoid marketing costs.
• 1WorldCard offers a flexible debit card for global ATM and point of sale use. It is a inexpensive alternative to a bank account and is great for under-served markets.
• Vonsi Technology Inc. is a systems integrator. It supplies complete PBX, VOIP, IP and IP-based call center solutions.
• Inter Solar Tech, Ltd. markets renewable power generation products within the PRC and EU. It plans to expand to global operations and has successful experience in heat pipe, wind power and photovoltaic technologies.

1WorldAuction and 1WorldCard offer a unique, combined solution for e-commerce methods.

Korean Industrialists Awarded for innovation and management quality

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Hyundai Steel’s Woory Industrial Co. and KOMOS will receive the top award in the National Quality Management Award ceremony which will be held in Seoul this Tuesday.

Chief executives of Seoul Commtech Co. and Korea South East Power Corp. and will be awarded the esteemed Gold Tower Order of Industrial Service.

The National Quality Management Award is awarded to individuals and organizations who have made important contributions to promoting management quality. These awards are overseen by the Korean Standards Association and organized by the Ministry of Economic Knowledge which is the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards.

Woory Industrial and KOMOS manufacture automobile parts. The former specializes in sensors and parts related to temperature control equipment. KOMOS produces steering wheels and related equipment.

The data shows that the stock prices of the companies that have received the award between 2005 and 2009 have increased at a higher rate than the average for the benchmark KOSPI.

According to available data, award winners’ stocks rose 5.78 percent more than the KOSPI average during the half year following the award. The rate increased to 11.77 percent for the year after they received the award.

Korea South East Power Corp. chief executive Jang Do-soo and Mr. Oh Se-Young, chief executive of Seoul Commtech Co. will receive these rewards.

Mitsubishi UFG To Purchase Royal Bank of Scotland Project Finance Loans

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Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. has negotiated an agreement to purchase Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC’s (RBS) project finance loan portfolios for an undisclosed amount. This is a step that will enable Japan’s largest bank to expand its lending operations in the Middle East and other new markets.

The major loan assets involved are essentially loans for infrastructure projects in Africa, Europe and regions where the Tokyo-lender doesn’t have a strong presence in project finance. Mitsubishi hopes to enter these markets. The RBS portfolios are worth about GBP 3.8 billion

Katsunori Nagayasu , MUFG President said that “We want to use (the purchase of RBS’s project finance assets) as an avenue for pursuing further overseas growth.”

Over the past few years MUFG has participated in international transactions, including a $9 billion purchase of a 21% stake in Morgan Stanley two years ago.

MUFG’s purchase of the project finance ventures also demonstrates that Japanese banks are going after overseas growth to deal with limited potential in Japan.

China will reduce the companies that it allows to recycle lead-acid batteries to produce refined lead.

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Battery-Recycling-BinIndustry sources estimate China will only permit about 20 battery recyclers to operate in the near future, as opposed to  the many hundreds of firms presently in operation. According to Cao Guoqing, vice general secretary of the China Battery Industry Association, “The government will do it for sure in the future.” He did not say when the regulations were likely to be implemented. These regulations attempt to improve environmental regulations in the battery industry, the main user of refined lead in China.

China is the world’s largest producer and user of refined lead. Cao estimated that by 2015, China’s production of lead-acid batteries will reach 240 million kilowatt hours, which is twice 2009 levels. China used 2.35 million tons of refined lead for lead-acid battery production in 2009. This used about 70 percent of china’s total refined lead consumption in 2009, he said.

G20 leaders meet to Strengthen to World economic system

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SEOUL, South Korea – America’s move to flood its sluggish economy with $600 billion of cash, has triggered alarm in capitals from Berlin to Beijing. This has created tensions over currencies and trade gaps which are growing before the summit of global leaders this week.

The Group of 20 developing and rich nations are attempting to reform the world economy in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Two years ago the group’s leaders met for the first time. They set out an ambitious agenda to ensure stable economic growth and to strengthen financial supervision to prevent further meltdowns and to give developing countries more of a say in what’s going on.

The Federal Reserve’s decision to buy $600 billion of Treasury bonds over the next eight months helps tolower interest rates to spur growth and cut the high unemployment rate. However, this decision  is complicating  discussions on achieving those goals at the summit Thursday and Friday in Seoul

At the center of the discussions is the understanding that a decades-long global economic order centered on the U.S. buying exports from the rest of the world and running huge trade deficits while other countries such as China, Germany and Japan accumulate vast surpluses is no longer reasonable after the crisis.

The attempt to remake the world economy received some of its momentum from the rise of countries such as brazil, India, and China to become economic and political giants in their own right. The G-20 meetings themselves show the great changes since the crisis. They mark the end of a system in place since the 1940s in which the world economy was managed mainly by a small group of rich nations led by the United States, Europe and later Japan.

Indian Retail Remains Elusive to Investors

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Although there has been increased interest for retailers to enter the Indian markets, retail in India has remained in it infancy.  One example is food distribution.  This is done through small “Kirana Stores” or “public distribution shops.” Supermarkets or shopping centers, even according to Western patterns exist in India only in recent years. This has resulted in a  highly restricted focus distribution shops.” on consumer needs, thus creating a problem for large scale foreign investments to spur growth.

Now despite a slow start, there is a modern Indian retail sector beginning to emerge.  In 2006  although the industry went through a tremendous change  foreign companies still did business in Cash & Carry up to 100 percent and single-brand stores up to 51 percent. In contrast, foreign investors continued operation of multi-brand stores, such as department store chains or supermarkets in a limited sense.

It was therefore all the more surprising that the Indian Ministry announced for Industry and Commerce in the summer of 2010, to allow foreign retailers in the foreseeable future investments up to an investment limit of 49 percent in multi-brand trade. The government, combined with this step is incorporating  involvement of external providers in order to modernize an inefficient trade system as well as the general infrastructure. However, with such a step only the legal barriers to entry are reduced. Foreign retailers will continue to have to deal with the fact that it is unclear whether India’s new retail formats, such as large supermarkets and discount stores, will come on board at all.

Solaris Starts Chinese Backed Hedge Fund

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Solaris Asset Management, co-founded by Thomas Tey the former head of equities derivatives at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., is starting a hedge fund with money from investors in China.

The Solaris Capital SPC Equity Arbitrage Fund will start trading with S$30 million ($23 million) on Nov. 8, Tey said. Thomas Tey is a 24-year trading veteran with banks including Singapore- based Oversea-Chinese’s treasury division and Credit Suisse First Boston in Tokyo.

Tey’s aim is for the fund to grow to S$100 million by the end of 2011. He is actively targeting investors in Asia since raising assets in the U.S. and Europe has become “very, very tough.” About 50 percent of assets in Asian hedge funds come from Europe, while 40 percent are from U.S. investors, according to Eurekahedge Pte.

“This is not a very conducive environment to be raising money, but we expect to get to our target,” Tey, 49, said in an interview on Oct. 22nd.

The Solaris fund aims to trade stocks and derivatives including futures. The fund will be focused on arbitrage opportunities where it can profit from price differences between related securities, according to Tey.

Source

Hedging Gains in Asia

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Most Asian markets fell on Friday. MSCI Asia Pacific Index was on the morning down 0.5 percent after reaching its highest level in two years the day before.

– Sentiment among investors is uncertain. Macro figures from the U.S. was a bit weak. “This week we’ve had a couple good days and investors may use this opportunity to take profit,” said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors in Sydney to Bloomberg News.

Masaaki Shirakawa, Governor of the Bank of Japan said the U.S. contributed to the downside risk for the economy while the South Korean central bank explained its decision not to raise interest rates by weak growth in the European and U.S. economy in addition to a strengthening of its currency, reported Bloomberg News.

Among the few exceptions to the broad decline on Friday, the Chinese domestic stock markets rose by 2.23 percent in Shanghai and 1.01 per cent in Shenzen.

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and China Construction Bank was among the winners in the banking index after Citigroup announced that Chinese banks will be required to show solid earnings growth for the third quarter, reported Bloomberg News.

A report from the Chinese Commerce Ministry on Friday that showed that foreign investment in China rose in September helped to further strengthen confidence in the outlook for the Chinese economy, writes Bloomberg News.

In South Korea, LG Electronics was up 2.4 percent and LG Display up 1.0 percent after another positive update from a brokerage house, wrote CNBC.

The mining company Rio Tinto also went against the trend and was up 1.1 percent driven by the company’s strong production report that was presented on Thursday, and signs that the company’s iron ore joint venture with BHP Biliton met resistance among EU regulators.

Key indicators: (at 7:06) Note: The market closes at different times)
Nikkei 225 (Japan) 9489.80 -0.98%
Topix (Japan) 825.82 -1.33%
Kospi (South Korea) 1899.35 -0.02%
Taiex (Taiwan) 8205.30 -0.12%
Straits Times (Singapore) 3217.06 0.69%
Shanghai Composite (China) 2950.81 2.47%
Shenzhen Composite (China) 1215.83 0.78%
Hang Seng (Hong Kong) 23747.36 -0.44%
Bombay Sensex 30 (India) 20393.43 -0.51%
S & P / ASX 200 Index (Aus) 4689.00 -0.21%

Deloitte Survey: Investors Bullish on China Private Equity Fund

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The “China Private Equity Confidence Survey” issued by Deloitte & Touche 14 in Beijing shows that investors are optimistic about China’s private equity funds (PE ) market and RMB funds. The survey also shows China’s growing private equity funds will change the existing market structure.

The work of the international research firm Deloitte in relation to China’s private equity market found that 79% of the respondents expected the next 12 months that private equity investment activities in China will be heating up.

Deloitte China, the North China managing partner of the company’s private equity services, pointed out that the confidence many private equity investors in the China market is high, due to many factors, including the current rising economic trend, the open market recovery, growth in domestic RMB funds, and to private equity funds as a source of financing for growing businesses. The most striking of the factors is the rapid rise and growth of RMB funds.

Despite the confidence in China’s private equity fund market, the survey revealed that only half of the respondents expect plenty of capital.  Despite this, continuing support for privatization of state-owned enterprises, is set to increase. Industry, consumer, retail trade activities in the next 12 months will be the majority of those business that will go private.  This is followed by electricity, energy, the mining industry and the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and health care industries.

Andrew Zhu Deloitte Tax and Business Advisory Partner, pointed out that as China’s private equity fund market matures, the past focus on investment activities in the coastal areas to the mainland will be more substantial along the lines of second and third tier cities infiltration and this may even include some provinces and cities in the western hinterland, which will provide more competition to the Chinese mainland market.

Keep Your Eye on Korea

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Seoul- For those who prefer more exotic destinations in the fastest growing region today, Asia, one of the most interesting options is South Korea. With growth expected to exceed 4 percent in 2010, and strong domestic demand. In fact, since Ecotrade has opened a strategy on the main Korean stock index, Kospi 100, which so far this year up to 8 percent maximum currently listed.

One attraction of this market is that it has internationally recognized firms. An example is Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motors, where experts recommend the purchase of shares. For the former, the market consensus expected to close the year with a net profit of over 10,000 million euros, and even increase your cash in 2011 to almost 13,000 million, 40 percent more than expected gain in 2010. The proximity to China and strong domestic demand will allow surfing the uncertainties of the market. Lost in the exercise less than 5 percent.

A similar story is seen in the case of car maker Hyundai. Experts believe that net income will increase slightly in 2011 to over 3,200 million euros, and will feature a box of 4,600 million. Representing an increase of close to 19 percent if one takes into account the forecasts of experts who handle cash in 2010.