Brazil graft scandal: Petrobras reported preparing for CEO’s exit |
- Brazil graft scandal: Petrobras reported preparing for CEO’s exit
- Two suspects nabbed by Thai cops after dramatic gold heist (VIDEO)
- Next Media Video: Thai police arrest suspects of dramatic RM1.8m gold heist
- Singapore activist hedge fund set up to shake up companies
- Japan PM expresses anger over ‘unforgivable’ IS killing of Jordanian pilot
- Not defeated, Beckham continues search for Miami football stadium location
| Brazil graft scandal: Petrobras reported preparing for CEO’s exit Posted: 03 Feb 2015 04:57 PM PST
In a meeting at the presidential palace in Brasilia yesterday, Foster and Rousseff discussed the time line for her departure from the state-run oil producer that is at the centre of the country's biggest-ever corruption scandal, the person said, asking not to be named because the meeting was private. Rousseff accepted Foster's reasons for leaving once a replacement is found to lead the company's emergence from the scandal, the person said, adding no candidates have been chosen. Petrobras shares surged the most since 1998 yesterday after newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported that Rousseff's administration told Foster it's seeking candidates for her job. Foster, one of Rousseff's longest standing companions, is under mounting pressure as the graft case handicaps Petrobras' ability to carry out routine functions like releasing financial results and borrowing in international markets. Before the meeting, Rousseff's press office had denied she's looking for someone to replace Foster. Petrobras' press department said it was unaware of Foster's agenda yesterday and declined to comment on a possible CEO replacement in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg. Federal police are investigating allegations that a cartel of construction companies fixed bids on the oil driller's contracts and bribed executives during a span stretching back to when Rousseff served as Petrobras chairman from 2003 to 2010. Petrobras' stock rose 15 per cent to 10 reais (RM13.23) in Sao Paulo, the steepest increase since September 1998. The shares have still lost 27 per cent since the November arrests of about two dozen people suspected of money laundering and other crimes. — Bloomberg  |
| Two suspects nabbed by Thai cops after dramatic gold heist (VIDEO) Posted: 03 Feb 2015 04:51 PM PST BANGKOK, Feb 4 — Two suspects were caught yesterday following a violent 18 million baht (RM1.8 million) gold robbery on the outskirts of the Thai capital. — Reuters |
| Next Media Video: Thai police arrest suspects of dramatic RM1.8m gold heist Posted: 03 Feb 2015 04:49 PM PST Duration: 00:54, Published 4 Feb 2015 Two suspects were caught yesterday following a violent 18 million baht (RM1.8 million) gold robbery on the outskirts of the Thai capital. — Reuters |
| Singapore activist hedge fund set up to shake up companies Posted: 03 Feb 2015 04:45 PM PST
The 33-year-old has established EVA Capital SP with US$5 million (RM17.85m), and initially plans to take stakes in small-and medium-sized construction and engineering companies in order to pressure them to improve performance. "It's a new approach and the market will need some time to get used to it," Thng, who is chief executive officer of Singapore-based fund-management firm Dektos Investment Corp., which runs EVA Capital, said in an interview. "Activist investing is a bit offensive in the Singapore and Asian context." Many Singapore companies have a controlling shareholder, which makes it easier to resist demands from activist investors, said Hugh Young, the Asia managing director at Aberdeen Asset Management Plc in Singapore. "It also isn't the cultural norm," Young said. "It's all more consensual in Asia, less confrontational. Things have been done a lot more quietly, behind closed doors." Construction, engineering Thng said he plans to target Singapore's smaller construction and engineering companies, which often have a lot of cash or receivables due to the recent building boom. Dektos may buy stakes in some of them and push management to use the cash for special dividends or share buybacks, which would likely boost the companies' shares. It may also push firms to convert their debt to cheaper convertible bonds. The fund has already bought a stake of about two per cent in engineering firm Hock Lian Seng Holdings Ltd, he said. The company has a market capitalisation of S$181 million (RM479.89), a dividend yield of 5.1 per cent and trades at 9.6 times its earnings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Dektos expects the company to continue paying out attractive dividends and will take an activist approach if that doesn't happen, Thng said. Of the about 60 companies in the construction and materials industry listed in Singapore, 42 have a market capitalization of US$150 million or less, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Share activists High-profile activist investors have had a mixed record in their efforts to put pressure on Singapore companies. Last year, Paul Singer bought a stake in Wing Hang Bank Ltd. in what was said to be an attempt to push Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp to raise its takeover bid for the Hong Kong lender. Singer has a fearsome reputation as an activist investor after successfully suing Argentina in the U.S. courts for repayment after the country's $95 billion default. In Singapore, OCBC didn't respond to the activist, who eventually sold his stake in Wing Hang without getting a higher bid. Short seller Muddy Waters LLC put pressure on Singapore-listed commodity trader Olam International Ltd by publicly questioning its finances in a report in 2012, which caused Olam's stock to plummet. Then, Singapore's state-owned investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte bought a controlling stake in Olam last year, triggering a rally in the company's shares. Thng, who previously worked as a foreign currency trader at OCBC, started Dektos in 2010 with managed accounts focusing on macro and equity strategies. In 2014, the investment firm appointed Winstedt Chong as chairman. Before joining Dektos, Winstedt was executive chairman of Hartawan Holdings Ltd., which bought Indonesian gold miner Wilton Resources Holdings Ltd for S$300 million in a reverse takeover completed in December 2013. Thng said Chong's role as an executive director of Dektos was approved by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, more than a decade after he was convicted and fined in a Singapore court for stock-price manipulation. Thng said the verdict has "absolutely no impact in our investments." Chong declined to comment on his conviction when contacted through Dektos. The MAS doesn't comment on its dealings with specific financial institutions or individuals, it said in an e-mail. 'Room for improvement' If the Singapore campaign goes well, Dektos will tap its existing investors to raise the total amount of the Eva Capital fund to US$30 million and look to invest in more industries, Thng said. Handled properly, activist pressure on Singapore companies would be healthy for the country's capital markets, said David Gerald, president of the Securities Investors Association of Singapore, an industry group representing shareholders. "Especially among the smaller listed companies there is some room for improvement in that area," he said. — Bloomberg |
| Japan PM expresses anger over ‘unforgivable’ IS killing of Jordanian pilot Posted: 03 Feb 2015 04:44 PM PST
"It was an unforgivable, outrageous act. I strongly condemn it," Abe said in parliament hours after the jihadists released a video purportedly showing the 26-year-old pilot being burned alive in a cage. The highly choreographed 22-minute video released online showed images of a man purported to be First Lieutenant pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh, captured in December, engulfed in flames. "When I think about the feelings of his family, I am rendered simply speechless. Representing the Japanese government and people, I express here our sincere condolences," Abe said. "Japan is with Jordan at this difficult time," he stated, offering "sincere solidarity". "I am infuriated by these inhumane and despicable acts of terrorism," he said. Jordanian state television said Kasaesbeh had already been killed on January 3, before IS offered to spare his life and free Japanese journalist Kenji Goto in return for the release of a would-be suicide bomber on death row, Sajida al-Rishawi. The beheading of journalist Kenji Goto was announced in a video posted late Saturday by IS militants and came a week after his friend and fellow captive Haruna Yukawa was murdered. — AFP |
| Not defeated, Beckham continues search for Miami football stadium location Posted: 03 Feb 2015 04:40 PM PST
"The Miami Beckham United team is actively looking at four or five sites," Tadd Schwartz wrote in an emailed statement. Beckham's group has remained mostly quiet since local officials last year rebuffed two attempts to secure land for a 25,000-seat bay front arena in the city's downtown. A first push last year to build the stadium on an empty tract on a small island mostly occupied by the port of Miami was fought by a maritime group led by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. A second effort to tuck it in between the NBA Miami Heat's basketball arena and the city's art museum also failed. "You can't build a stadium overnight, so finding the right site, finding the right place in Miami is important for us. But it will all start coming together pretty quickly and everything will start happening pretty soon," Beckham told E! Online last month. Miami-Dade County lawmakers voted yesterday to allow the county to open negotiations with Florida International University for use of its stadium as a temporary home for Beckham's team in south Miami. "Right now, our focus is on identifying the location for a purpose-built stadium that will be the team's permanent home," Schwartz wrote. MLS Commissioner Don Garber has long emphasised the need for the club to have its own facility near downtown Miami. "If we can't get the right stadium, we can't go to Miami," Garber told Reuters in October. — Reuters |
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