2012 / 2013

How will 2013 be for investors? On balance, I have to say it will be very good for global equities. Thanks to Bernanke's pronouncement, liquidity will continue to be ample, depressing interest rates. The certainty in maintaining low rates will now push a lot more funds on the sidelines to search for better returns. There is the one thing which is holding them back, the fiscal cliff. Even if no resolution is seen in the first week of January, it is not all bad. The ball will swing back to Obama and they will eventually come to some conclusion before January is over. 

There is a lot of pent-up demand for investment spending in the USA that will get unleashed next year. Businesses have delayed capital projects in anticipation of the fiscal cliff. Capital spending has been notably weak in the last six months, much weaker than during the rest of the recovery. So a political deal, or even just some clarity about the future, could result in a nice bounce back in capital spending after the beginning of the year.

Inflation will not be raising its head anytime soon because Iran and Iraq are ramping up production to make up for lost time, so much so that Saudi Arabia, the swing producer has been downsizing its monthly production to accommodate the rise in supply. If that is the case, it will prolong and help recovery.

Naturally, the case is a bit different with Malaysia and Singapore with the upcoming elections in Malaysia. We will have to wait out the outcome.

2012 The Year That Was


Best Commodity (+24%): Wheat prices rose in 2012 as drought cut into supply from the grain belts of Russia, Australia, and the U.S. Wheat is a $14.4 billion crop in the U.S., where it ranks fourth behind corn, soybeans, and hay.

Best Exchange-Traded Fund (+77%): Signs of a housing recovery sent shares of homebuilders soaring this year, boosting the IShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction Index Fund (ITB).


Worst Commodity (-35%): Abundant supply is depressing coffee prices. Brazil, the world’s largest grower, has almost doubled its output in the past decade, producing another record crop this year.

Worst U.S. Large-Cap Stock (-43%): Hewlett-Packard’s (HPQ)annus horribilis was marked by a third-quarter loss that was its worst ever, including an $8 billion writedown related to the dwindling value of its enterprise services business. HP later took an $8.8 billion writedown related to accounting problems at Autonomy, a software maker it acquired last year. In September, HP announced plans for 29,000 job cuts.

Worst Initial Public Offering (-30%): Facebook (FB) plunged as much as 53 percent after its $16 billion debut in May. The stock rallied on news that third-quarter sales rose 32 percent, beating analysts’ estimates.

The Art of Telling A Lie

 Telling a lie is a .......


Sin for a child. 
Fault for an adult. 
An art for a lover. 
A profession for a lawyer. 
A requirement for a politician. 
A Management tool for a Boss. 
An accomplishment for a bachelor. 
An excuse for a subordinate and 
A Matter of Survival for a married man.

This & That

I am not much of a cookies fan but got a few presents, a couple of them came from Crabtree & Evelyn. I didn't know they made cookies!!! But they were more than excellent. I don't mind the calories cause they tasted soooo good. My favourite has to be Strawberries & Cream. Try them, they are absolutely divine.

I was in HK recently, and although I smoke cigars, I don't really like cigarettes. But I chanced upon the display by Kent which bamboozled me. Obviously in addition to the cancerous lung pic, the rotting teeth and gums ... they now added this which says that smoking will make you age a lot faster.

What I thought was galling: how come ageing means being much darker; this would attract tremendous outrage in countries like America, Australia for sure ...

Only in HK or China can they get away with this. So politically incorrect. Funnily, when I showed this to a group of friends, the ladies ALL commented that the first thing that is NOT RIGHT about the picture was "WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE A WOMAN"????? ......

Conditioning

Why Malaysian drivers drive like assholes?
Why Malaysians are inevitably late for anything and everything?
.................... (fill in your favourite grouses) ......
also applies to why people get married in the first place?



Ever wondered why Malaysian drivers drive like assholes??!! Surely we are not like that in real life, only when we get into a car that we become monsters. When we socialise we are totally different, very few of us actually have chips on our shoulders, get to know us or come to our house and we become the most gracious hosts on earth. If we go back to our small towns and kampungs, we are generally much much nicer. So how did we get to be so un-civic minded in many areas?

We speed up when we see pedestrians trying to cross the road, we speed up when cars want to cut into our lane .... Its not that we are inherently bad, I believe its conditioning. This can be explained with a most remarkable but true experimental project.

A group of researchers put 4 monkeys in a cage with a ladder in the middle with a bunch of bananas at the top of the ladder. Naturally the monkeys will try to climb the ladder, but every time one of the monkeys starts to climb the ladder there will be a couple of zookeepers with big hoses who will spray all 4 monkeys until the monkey that was doing the climbing stops climbing to come down. After a few minutes another brave monkey will try to climb the ladder again, and all of them get sprayed again.

Now this happened over and over again, and following the umpteenth time, every time a monkey tries to climb the ladder, the other 3 will claw and drag that climbing monkey from the ladder. Till none of the 4 monkeys will dare to climb that ladder.


Then they take one monkey out of the cage and introduce a new monkey. The new monkey will naturally climb up the ladder to try to get at the bananas, and it will be clawed and dragged back down before the hoses start. The more the new monkey tried, the more ferocious and nasty the other 3 will be to whack it down. Till the new monkey dare not climb anymore.

They then take out another of the original monkey and introduce another new one ... the same chain of events occur even though just 2 of the original monkeys know why they did not want to climb the ladder. They keep adding new monkeys and taking out the original ones till all 4 monkeys are new monkeys and yet they would be conditioned not to climb the ladder - but they don't know why really.

That is conditioning, how many things in life that we do are due to conditioning, and we ourselves don't really know the real reasons why we are doing it. In much the same way, plenty of expats after driving for a couple of years in Malaysia will end up driving like a Malaysian.

Civic sense can be ingrained, it can be taught, or we can be conditioned to do things a certain way ... only when we take a step back and reassess the reasons why we shouldn't be doing so, will we be able to rise from the pack.

Inherently most people do not behave badly but due to conditioning. If you lack self-awareness and do less self introspection which leads to more self actualisation ... we will just be among the running pack. It is precisely that that parents behaviour and instruction are so important to our kids.

We end up doing a lot of things because thats the way things were done ... we do not question enough why are doing it, should we continue to do it that way or should we change our attitude because they are inherently flawed.

I absolutely abhor the way some adults treat their maids. Can you imagine what the kids are learning from all that? Hopefully they have the character strength to re-learn only the good stuff and throw away the bad stuff, but that does not happen all the time. 

In the same way that our government instill fear and divide us along religious and racial lines, thats conditioning. To break out of that mould, we have to keep drilling down on proper reasoning and on what is right and wrong. Life is so complicated and a bitch.

Japan's Double Barrel Luck

The Japanese markets have been in the doldrums for the longest, no thanks to the silly yen strengthening phase following the financial crisis as investors somehow still think the yen is a safe haven. The Japanese market has two things going for them this time: the Federal Reserve move which basically tells all that rates will be very low and they will keep printing liquidity into the markets, which negates the need for some to still park money in yen as safe haven; the LDP election victory which propels the markets to a "regenerative phase".

Following is the latest strategy report by Bank America Merrill Lynch on Japan:


LDP victory brings our bullish scenario closer   

With the LDP (294 seats) and Komeito (31 seats) combined (325 seats) now 
controlling a more than two-thirds majority (320) of the Lower House, it now 
appears more likely that the new Shinzo Abe administration will be able to 
exercise strong leadership. Though an LDP victory was widely expected, what 
has not been fully priced into the market is the degree to which the new 
government will be able to put through its legislative program relatively 
unhindered.  

Consequently, Shinzo Abe will need to act quickly to implement the policies he 
had set out before the election. Those measures we believe that have yet to be fully factored into the market are inflation targeting, and long-term fiscal 
expansionary measures including corporation tax cuts and a raft of spending 
measures included under the broad title of “national strengthening.”  


As the new cabinet is being drawn up, the focus is now on how and in what order of priority the new administration will put through its policy program, including drawing up a supplementary budget, expanding public works spending, reducing the rate of corporation tax and exercising greater influence over the BoJ’s monetary policy. For instance, if the government moves quickly to put pressure on monetary policy, we can expect the yen to continue to weaken, but if this is put off until after the new BoJ Governor assumes his post (April 2013), then in the near term we could see the market looking to lock in profits. However, at least we can say that waiting for weakness to seek buy-in opportunities is unlikely to be a viable strategy for the time being.  

Cut in corporation tax from 40% to 30% would raise ROE  

A reduction in the corporation tax rate from around 40% to 30% would, we 
calculate, raise TOPIX ROE from 7.8% (FY3/14 IBES consensus) to around 8.9%.  



Schedule  

The next BoJ monetary policy meeting is scheduled for 19-20 December, at 
which additional easing is a possibility. At this point, the market is not expecting explicit inflation targeting to be adopted. On 26-27 December, Shinzo Abe should be officially appointed prime minister at a special Diet session, immediately after which the new cabinet will be announced. Abe has expressed his intention to visit the US in January, so we expect significant diplomatic activity including related to China. From end-January to February we expect a supplementary budget to be unveiled comprising a boost to Apr-Jun GDP and confirming a hike in the rate of consumption tax. In March, two new BoJ Deputy Governors will assume their posts, followed in April by the new BoJ Governor. We expect government and BoJ links to become even stronger, and an increasingly dovish bias in central bank policy.  



When previously elected prime minister in 2006, Abe’s first visits were to China and South Korea to patch up relations that had previously worsened, and this time around we again expect him to take similar practical steps to deal with currently stained relations, though there is a risk of provocative statements being made.  

However, if the cabinet line-up is decided in order to balance factional interests, then the policy program implementation may not be as speedy as the market is hoping. If the cabinet includes a large number of younger politicians, as per the current shadow cabinet, it would strengthen the hand of prime minister, and consequently increase the possibility of the policy program proceeding in line with Abe’s intentions as indicated in speeches etc to-date.  

Jacky Cheung Tribute Concert

Try not to miss this if you are a Cantopop fan. The 3 singers are bound to give an exhilarating performance, they are very good singers in their own right. Brought to you by PopPopMusic, the premium niche music label that brought you wonderful music by artistes such as 2V1G, JZ8, Winnie Ho, Zyan, Roger Wang, Tay Cher Siang, ... The band will be led by maestro Tay Cher Siang, probably Malaysia's top jazz pianist now and a brilliant arranger as well. The 3 singers are Jeffrey Lim (2V1G), Worm Lee Jenn Nam and an exciting new female voice in Yeh Foong.

Bookings are going fast for the 2 nights only event @ NO BLACK TIE. Cover charge is RM50pp. Call Leslie at 012-2083790.

19th & 20th December, Wednesday & Thursday
9.30pm-11.30pm

Equities' New Bull Run Started

The equity markets had a double boost last week thanks to Federal Reserve's QE3 (quantitative easing part 3). The Fed will start by buying $45bn worth of long term Treasury bonds and up to $40bn worth or mortgage backed securities each month till labour markets improve. The smarter move by the Fed this time is that its a continuous monthly action, and will continue basically till labour markets improve, i.e. drop in unemployment. These actions will go a long way to restarting a new uptrend for global equities. The combined $85bn buying will keep interest rates low for sometime still thus forcing more funds to seek out higher returns, e.g. moving into equities.

An equally important development was the weakening of the yen, which looked like the start of a sustained weakness in the yen. This has started a rush for Japanese exporters by investors. Following the QE3, it appears investors see no more need to hold the yen as a safety haven. That being the case, the Japanese economy badly needs the yen to weaken even more. Hence its a timely boost for Japanese equities as well.


The ringgit opened firmer against the greenback in early trade today following improved sentiment for risk appetite across the region, dealers said. At 9.23 am, the ringgit was quoted at 3.0500/0520 compared with yesterday's close of 3.0520/0540. The increased risk appetite was boosted by the US Federal Reserve, which in turn will benefit globally as the move will see more money being pumped into the world's largest economy. After a two-day meeting which ended yesterday, the central bank announced new stimulus, which, among others, will see interest rate decisions tied to unemployment rate and inflation. It would also keep short-term interest rates close to zero until the unemployment rate, currently at 7.7 per cent, dips to 6.5 per cent. 

Previously, the US Federal Reserve had said that interest rates would hover near zero until at least mid-2015. Besides, the central bank decided to introduce a replacement for Operation Twist, the expiring programme introduced last year of swapping short-term Treasuries for longer-dated ones. Previously, the goal of Operation Twist was to lower long-term interest rates to stimulate the US economy. This new asset purchase programme has been dubbed as quantitative easing four (QE4). With QE3 and QE4 together, the central bank will likely purchase US$85 billion a month of Treasury securities, stacking the Fed's portfolio with government-backed investments for an extended period. 
 
On the local front, the ringgit was mostly higher against other major currencies. The local currency rose against the Singapore dollar to 2.4980/5012 compared to 2.4984/5010 yesterday and appreciated against the Japanese yen to 3.6571/6612 compared to 3.6810/6856 Wednesday. It gained against the British pound to 4.9190/9229 compared to 4.9214/9256 on Wednesday but declined against the euro to 3.9839/9874 from 3.9713/9749 previously.

 The Starbiz had the headline as "higher risk appetite for ringgit", well, not really, its the start of a huge inflow of foreign funds. Thanks to the above factors, a lot of fresh funds have jumped into mainly indexed local stocks over the last few days. Many indexed stocks have just surged past their 52 weeks high or close to it: UMW, SK Petro, and most of the banks. The buying has been ferocious in local telco stocks. Generally the second liners and speculative stocks will take a backseat when the index stocks are surging. Once the indexed stocks have stabilised, you should see strong rotational plays in second and third liners.
 

So, How Much Money Did Psy Made From Gangnam Style?

Well, not from CDF sales, thats for sure ... even online music sales were pathetic. People doing music should pay attention. If someone like Psy makes less than $100,000 from CD and online music sales ... are you certain you have aligned yuour music business model properly.------------------------

As Gangnam Style gallops toward 1 billion views on YouTube, the first Asian pop artist to capture a massive global audience has gotten richer click by click. So too has his agent and his grandmother. But the money from music sales isn't flowing in from the rapper's homeland South Korea or elsewhere in Asia.

With one song, 34-year-old Park Jae-sang — better known as PSY — is set to become a millionaire from YouTube ads and iTunes downloads, underlining a shift in how money is being made in the music business. An even bigger dollop of cash will come from TV commercials.

Google detects videos that use copyrighted content. Artists can have the video removed or allow it to stay online and share ad revenue with YouTube. 

From just those sources, PSY and his camp will rake in at least $US7.9 million ($A7.5 million) this year, according to an analysis by the Associated Press of publicly available information and industry estimates. But for online music sales in South Korea, he'll earn less than $US60,000.

Raking it in ... PSY and his camp will earn at least $US7.9 million this year. Photo: AP

Here's how it works.

Advertisement

YouTube

Gangnam Style, with its catchy tune and much imitated horse-riding dance, is the most-watched video on YouTube ever.

Click for more photos

Gangnam Psy-style

South Korean singer Psy performs his hit "Gangnam Style" in Sydney. Photo: Reuters

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The viral video has clocked more than 880 million YouTube views since its July release, beating Justin Bieber's Baby, which racked up more than 808 million views since February 2010. PSY's official channel on YouTube, which curates his songs and videos of his concerts, has nearly 1.3 billion views.

TubeMogul, a video ad buying platform, estimates that PSY and his agent YG Entertainment have raked in about $US870,000 as their share of the revenue from ads that appear with YouTube videos. The Google-owned video service keeps approximately half.

PSY and YG Entertainment also earn money from views of videos that parody his songs.

Google detects videos that use copyrighted content. Artists can have the video removed or allow it to stay online and share ad revenue with YouTube. In the last week of September when Gangnam Style had around 300 million views, more than 33,000 videos were identified by the content identification system as using Gangnam Style.

But since YouTube can be accessed from all over the world, wouldn't Asia be responsible for a significant chunk of the $US870,000? The countries with the second and third-highest views of the video are Thailand and South Korea.

"Ads rates vary depending on which country the video is played. Developed countries have higher ad rates and developing countries lower," said Brian Suh, head of YouTube Partnership in Seoul.

And the country with the most views of Gangnam Style? The United States.

Legal downloads, CDs

Gangnam Style has been downloaded 2.7 million times in the US and has been the No. 1 or No. 2 seller for most weeks since its debut, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The song sells for $US1.29 ($A2.19 in Australia) on Apple's iTunes Store, the market leader in song downloads. Apple generally keeps about 30 per cent of all sales, so the PSY camp could be due more than $US2.4 million.

How much PSY keeps and how much goes to his managers, staff and record label is unclear. South Korean industry insiders said PSY likely gets 70 per cent and YG Entertainment 30 per cent for US downloads.

But earnings from downloads in PSY's homeland are far from an embarrassment of riches.

South Koreans pay less than $US10 a month for a subscription to a music service that allows them to download hundreds of songs or have unlimited access to a music streaming service. That makes the cost of a downloaded song about 10 cents on average. The average price for streaming a song is 0.2 cent.

PSY's cut for downloads is 14 per cent. That falls to 7.5 per cent for streamed songs. Yes, 7.5 per cent of 0.2 cent. And that's before PSY's Gangnam Style co-composer take his share. The biggest cut goes to his agent and online retailers.

According to South Korea's national Gaon Chart, Gangnam Style was downloaded more than 3.6 million times and streamed around 40 million times as of November. That adds up to a little more than $US61,000.

It's likely the fast fading music CD industry generated even smaller revenue. PSY's 9 per cent cut from sales of 102,000 CDs in South Korea would earn him $US50,000 or more, according to an estimate by Kim Dong-hyun, a senior manager at Korea Music Copyright Association.

As for many other parts of Asia, illegal downloads and pirated CDs are so pervasive that only a small minority are willing to pay up for the legal versions.

TV commercials

PSY has been jetting around the world, performing on shows such as The X-Factor Australia and NBC's Today Show in the US, but such programs usually cover travel costs and not much else, said Gary Bongiovanni, editor-in-chief of concert trade magazine Pollstar.

It is television commercials that are the big money spinner for the most successful of South Korea's K-pop stars. PSY has been popping up in TV commercials in South Korea for top brands such as Samsung and mobile carrier LG Uplus.

Chung Yu-seok, an analyst at Kyobo Securities, estimates PSY's commercial deals would amount to 5 billion won ($A4.4 million) this year.

The money is cool. The products not so much.

PSY is now the face of a new Samsung refrigerator and a major noodle company.

The family

A fact little known outside South Korea is that PSY's father, uncle and grandmother own a combined 30 per cent of DI, a company which makes equipment that semiconductor companies use to make computer chips.

It's a stretch to plausibly explain how the success of Gangnam Style will boost DI's profits but that doesn't matter to the South Korean stock market. Perhaps inspired by the pure power of pop, DI shares surged eightfold from July after PSY's hit reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the UK singles chart.

It was time to cash in for PSY's grandmother, who sold 5378 shares for about $US65,000.

The share price has fallen since then but is still about double what it was before the release of Gangnam Style.

PSY's agent YG Entertainment has also done well. Its share price is up about 30 per cent since mid-July. The value of CEO Yang Hyun-suk's stake has swelled to about $US200 million, making him among the richest in South Korea's entertainment industry.

The future

The question now hanging over PSY is whether he will replicate the blockbuster success of Gangnam Style or end up remembered as a one-hit wonder.

"When this slows down, what comes next for PSY?" said Nielsen analytics vice president David Bakula. "Is it the evolution of a new musical style, something audiences are going to be craving en masse, or is it something that's just a passing fancy?"

Analysts say Gangnam Style alone will not be enough to propel PSY into the ranks of musicians such as Adele and may not even be enough to make him the top-grossing K-pop star. That will depend largely on his upcoming album, which PSY said will be released in March.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/cashing-in-on-gangnam-styles-youtube-fame-20121206-2awly.html#ixzz2EGU7dTsu

Great Business Stories / Lessons / Jokes

The following will be great fodder for pub talk among friends. Many have been used at motivational classes and seminars as they provide good lessons in character and business.

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ITS A BEAUTIFUL DAY

An old blind man was sitting on a busy street corner in the rush-hour begging for money. On a cardboard sign, next to an empty tin cup, he had written: 'Blind - Please help'.

No-one was giving him any money. A young advertising writer walked past and saw the blind man with his sign and empty cup, and also saw the many people passing by completely unmoved, let alone stopping to give money. The advertising writer took a thick marker-pen from her pocket, turned the cardboard sheet back-to-front, and re-wrote the sign, then went on her way.

Immediately, people began putting money into the tin cup.

After a while, when the cup was overflowing, the blind man asked a stranger to tell him what the sign now said.

"It says," said the stranger, " 'It's a beautiful day. You can see it. I cannot.' "

Is this a lesson on wonders of advertising, which many seem to proclaim. No ... its using words properly. You can convey from your standpoint, or better still convey in a way that ALLOWS people to empathise. Nothing has changed, just the way people look at the message. The power of words used correctly, not to deceive but to enlighten.

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WE ALL WANT TO DO NOTHING

An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing. A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, 'Can I also sit like you and do nothing?'

 The eagle answered: 'Sure, why not.' So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story:

To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up."

Great business story, don't fuck around unless you can afford to. Get there first.

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HALF FULL, HALF EMPTY

Many years ago two salesmen were sent by a British shoe manufacturer to Africa to investigate and report back on market potential.

The first salesman reported back, "There is no potential here - nobody wears shoes."

The second salesman reported back, "There is massive potential here - nobody wears shoes."

This simple short story provides one of the best examples of how a single situation may be viewed in two quite different ways - negatively or positively.

We could explain this also in terms of seeing a situation's problems and disadvantages, instead of its opportunities and benefits.

The importance of the story cannot be under estimated. Always surround yourself with energetic positive people. Depressed or pessimistic ones never achieve anything, they just find reasons to give up or resigned to fate.

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CAPABILITY & WORTH

A heart surgeon took his car to his local garage for a regular service, where he usually exchanged a little friendly banter with the owner, a skilled but not especially wealthy mechanic.

"So tell me," says the mechanic, "I've been wondering about what we both do for a living, and how much more you get paid than me.."

"Yes?.." says the surgeon.

"Well look at this," says the mechanic, as he worked on a big complicated engine, "I check how it's running, open it up, fix the valves, and put it all back together so it works good as new.. We basically do the same job don't we? And yet you are paid ten times what I am - how do you explain that?"

The surgeon thought for a moment, and smiling gently, replied,"Try it with the engine running.."

I still think medical specialists charge way too much for what they do, but there is an element of truth in the story, know what you are worth. If what you can do, can also be done by a lot of people, you better be great at it to make good money. If what you can do, only a handful can emulate, then you are on your way to premium monetary rewards. Always seek to do what very few people can do well.

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STRATEGY & WISDOM

Two bulls, one young and full of enthusiasm, and the other older and wiser, see a herd of cows. The young bull says, "Let's charge down this hillside and have our wicked way with a couple of those cows."

The old bull replies, "No, how about we stroll gently down this hillside and have our wicked way with them all."

Always strategise, instead of rushing in head first. There is always a better way that comes from wisdom i.e. experience from making enough mistakes in the first place.

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STATING THE OBVIOUS

A Sikh, a Muslim, an Englishman, an Irishman, a Scotsman, a Welshman, a Jew, a Buddhist and a Hindu go into a pub.

The barman looks up and says, "Is this some kind of a joke?"

This is so funny because the premise is already a huge joke. Picking out the obvious is already damn funny. Too often we see presentations or business proposals that have glaring holes and gaps, and yet no one dares to state the obvious. Just say it, "this looks like shit". This will force the other side to defend or explain why it is not shit. When you push, you'd be surprised how much better everyone gets.

Check Out Emerald Square @ Rawang

I don't usually do this, in fact, have never done this. But a very good friend of mine has this completed project of shoplots in Rawang, which will be launched tomorrow. If you are into property, I think its a decent deal price wise.


http://www.emeraldsquare.com.my/index.html

A BIGGER built-up area of 5,600 square feet (for a typical unit) means more space for showcasing your products and storing your goods. All floors are designed with extensive use of glass glazing to offer optimum window display of your merchandise, especially the ground floor with an impressive 16 feet ceiling height. Facing shop offices are 66 feet apart while back lanes are 40 feet wide, offering ample space for parking and shifting of goods.

Slated to be BUSIER than other similar developments in Rawang, Emerald Square is one of the largest shop office commercial developments with 98 units of 3-storey shop offices totalling close to 620,000 square feet of built-up area. High traffic catchment from matured neighbourhoods in the Emerald belt and older Rawang areas translates into more prospective customers for your products and services

Emerald Square is the BETTER value proposition for you because:

• The units are freehold with CF issued
• Immediate occupation
• Convenient access to amenities and highways
• Neighbouring mature township
• High capital appreciation and rental potential
• High building quality
• Free legal fees on SPA and loan documents
• Bonus 3-phase electrical wiring for all floors

For more information, please call: + 6012 316 7333

Developer 发展商: E PROMPT SDN. BHD. (913307-P) Suite 8.02, 8th Floor, North Block, The Ampwalk No.218, Jalan Ampang, 50450 Kuala Lumpur. Tel: +603 2166 8802 Fax: +603 2168 0802/ +603 6091 6607 Email: lyphau@emeraldsquare.com.my Website: www.emeraldsquare.com.my Site Office 工地办事处: 35, Jalan 1/4, Rawang Integrated Industrial Park, 48000 Rawang, Selangor Darul Ehsan.

The SEC Sues Chinese Accounting Firms

This will have grave ramifications:

a) the interest in overseas listed China companies may dwindle even more, with the exception of those listed in HK as they are usually the biggest and more top in their industry; even so, those red chips in HK may see a slight pullback in interest;

b) You can forget about the smaller China companies wanting to list overseas now;

c) Other small exchanges may be "further convinced" to do even more due diligence and examination on those China companies already listed at their exchanges, and may use more of their regulatory powers to uncover any potential wrongdoing

d) the case basically ask the firms to release the papers for the China companies, which the accounting firms say they cannot as they are termed as "state secrets"; what will happen is that the US judge will rule that they have to release, then we have fireworks between Beijing and Washington; if Beijing insists, the China companies will have to delist from US exchanges

e) even now, shares of these China companies are weakening further, prompting many Venture Capital and Private Equity firms in the US to try and take the "good ones" private; for the rest it is doomsday, although some good one may be able to shift their listing back to Shanghai, HK or Singapore ... but only the decent ones will find a home.


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The SEC Sues China Accounting Firms

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is suing subsidiaries of China’s five biggest accounting firms, the agency announced on Dec. 3. The SEC has been investigating nine Chinese companies for possible accounting fraud, but these firms declined to provide auditing drafts to the SEC.

The SEC claims that the Chinese subsidiaries of Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, Price Waterhouse Coopers and BDO International have violated the United States Securities Exchange Act and Sarbanes-Oxley Act. These laws require overseas accounting firms to submit auditing drafts when an overseas company plans an IPO in the United States.

Securities regulators took aim at the Chinese affiliates of big global accounting firms Monday, after a wave of accounting debacles at publicly traded Chinese firms that led to billions of dollars of shareholder losses.

In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission brought an administrative proceeding against five accounting firms, alleging they refused to hand over documents sought in investigations of alleged accounting frauds at nine Chinese companies.


The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, investigating alleged accounting fraud in China, has charged the Chinese affiliates of five major accounting firms for refusing to produce audit work papers. The WSJ's Ken Brown talks about how this may affect multinational companies.

SEC Probe Puts China Listings in Doubt

In Canada, the top securities regulator accused Ernst & Young's Canadian affiliate of missing problems during its audit on Sino-Forest Corp., a timber company that filed for bankruptcy protection this year amid questions about its disclosures.

The accounting firm agreed to pay 117 million Canadian dollars ($117.8 million) to settle separate shareholder allegations that it misled Sino-Forest investors. The settlement disclosed Monday was the largest ever by an auditor in Canadian history, a plaintiff's attorney said. Ernst & Young didn't admit wrongdoing in the settlement, which must still be approved by the bankruptcy court.

Dozens of Chinese companies have raised billions of dollars in the past decade listing their shares on U.S. and Canadian exchanges, before their share prices plummeted amid questions about their bookkeeping and disclosures.

The SEC action, if an administrative law judge rules in its favor, could lead to the Big Four's Chinese affiliates being barred from auditing U.S.-traded companies—something that could complicate the audits of multinational companies doing business in China. The regulatory moves also stand to heighten a U.S.-China confrontation over how much U.S. officials can do to ensure that Chinese audit firms adhere to U.S. regulatory standards.




An SEC administrative law judge will hear the commission's cases against the China-based accounting firms. If the judge decides against the firms, they could be suspended from seeking new U.S.-traded clients, or even blocked entirely from auditing U.S.-traded companies.

In the Canadian case, the Ontario Securities Commission alleges Ernst & Young didn't exercise enough skepticism in its audits of Sino-Forest to verify the ownership and existence of the company's most significant assets.

According to the commission, for instance, one Ernst & Young auditor in its Canadian affiliate acknowledged in an email to another auditor that the firm had no way of knowing that the trees the audit firm was inspecting were actually owned by Sino-Forest: "I believe they could show us trees anywhere and we would not know the difference." In addition, the commission said, several of Ernst & Young's senior partners at the affiliate involved in auditing Sino-Forest couldn't read or speak Chinese.

Ernst & Young's Canadian affiliate said it was "confident" its Sino-Forest work had met all standards and that the firm "did extensive audit work to verify ownership and existence of Sino-Forest's timber assets."

Ernst & Young said its settlement with shareholders "is without admission of liability" and "will reduce the uncertainty and future burden on our business, and allow us to focus on our people and our clients."

Sino-Forest was one of the largest forest-product companies listed in Canada when a report last year by U.S. short-seller Muddy Waters LLC alleged fraud at the company. Since then, the Ontario Securities Commission has started administrative proceedings against Sino-Forest, and several of its former executives already face allegations from the commission that they inflated timber purchases; the company is currently trying to restructure under bankruptcy protection. Sino-Forest last year conducted an internal investigation into the allegations, but executives have denied fraud.

Important Trends & Facts For The Mobile Internet Age

We did not make it to the Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers presentation, but here are the important slides.

This is surprising, Apple products have different penetration rates and sustainability in demand. I guess iPad takes the cake because it is not a replacement device as most people have mobile phones already whereas iPads buyers are usually fresh purchases.



Android, key if you are a developer.



What the kids want, they will get ... important trends in figuring out what they want, and why these are cool products for them to own.



If I was in advertising, I'd have change the entire platform and the way advertising should be strategised for companies. Take on new resources that would sharpen your formulation of ideas to display and dissemination via various devices.






Say bye-bye to Windows ... RIP it was not fun while you dominated the market and screwed us royally for decades owing to your monopolistic positioning.


THIS IS THE KEY TO THE NEXT FEW YEARS .... helping people to be asset light.