Singapore main rival for Macau’s casinos
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Singapore will continue to be Macau’s only real competitor for gaming in the region suggests Melody Lu Chia-Wen of the University of Macau. Last year casino revenues at Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s Marina Bay Sands were down 3.9 percent year-on-year, while those at market rival Resorts World Sentosa, run by Genting Singapore, fell 12 percent. Pages 6 & 7
Year II
Number 311
Monday June 24, 2013
Editor-in-chief Tiago Azevedo
Deputy editor-in-chief
Vitor Quintã
MOP 6.00
April 19, 2013
Manufacturers eye Hunan for survival C
heaper labour costs in land locked Hunan province – 900 kilometres (560 miles) north of Macau – could lure some local manufacturers from Guangdong factories that are only minutes away from export ports. “…we have faced some difficulties in the last two years,” said Ho Iat Seng, chairman of the Industrial Association of Macau, referring to the growing wage demands of workers in the city’s hinterland province. His comments came during a visit by Hunan governor Du Jiahao. Last year a third of all Pearl River Delta-based European companies were considering moving from the booming coastal region, according to European Business in China’s Business Confidence Survey.
Loans rush for unfinished homes before rule change Page 2
‘Deteriorating market’ spurs Macau Legend IPO delay Page 4
Government, business tussle over land compensation Page 8
more on Page 3
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Prices Index lowest for 27 months
The annual rate of consumer price inflation fell last month to its lowest in over two years, according to official figures. The Statistics and Census Service said on Friday that annual inflation had slowed to 4.84 percent last month from 5.24 percent in April. Economists told Business Daily that the sluggishness of economic growth in mainland China might be behind the slowing of inflation here. Page 2
Hang Seng Index 20367.0
20287.4
20207.8
20128.2
20048.6
19969.0
June 21
HSI - Movers
Table numbers for new projects ‘likely inflated’
Name
Concessionaire announcements of table numbers for new Macau casino projects “are likely inflated” but there’s “potential” to adjust live dealer table numbers upwards under the government’s cap policy, Fitch Ratings told Business Daily. Fewer than 2,000 new-to-market tables are likely to be authorised by the Macau government under the table cap, between now and 2023. Nine new projects are due between mid-2015 and 2018. Page 5
%Day
BELLE INTERNATIO
4.81
CHINA COAL ENE-H
4.60
CHINA MOBILE
2.73
CHINA SHENHUA-H
2.26
CHINA RES POWER
1.95
CHINA RES ENTERP
-3.57
SANDS CHINA LTD
-3.86
WHARF HLDG
-4.59
CHINA MERCHANT
-5.06
GALAXY ENTERTAIN
-8.38
Source: Bloomberg
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2013-06-24
2013-06-25
2013-06-26
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June 24, 2013
Macau
Inflation lowest for 27 months Consumer price inflation loses steam as the mainland’s economy slows Tony Lai
tony.lai@macaubusinessdaily.com
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he annual rate of consumer price inflation fell last month to its lowest in over two years, according to official figures. The Statistics and Census Service said on Friday that annual inflation had slowed to 4.84 percent last month from 5.24 percent in April. Economists told Business Daily that the sluggishness of economic growth in mainland China might be behind the slowing of inflation here. Last month’s rate of inflation was the slowest since February 2011, when it was 4.7 percent. Jenny Huang Bihong, a professor of finance and business at the University of Macau, believes the slowdown may be due in part to slower inflation in the mainland. “Macau usually follows the mainland trend, as Macau imports many goods from there,” Ms Huang said. The annual rate of consumer price inflation in the mainland slowed to 2.1 percent last month, less than the rate of 2.5 percent forecast, on average, by analysts polled by Bloomberg. Ms Huang believes uncertainty in the mainland economy, illustrated by some sluggish figures last month, also slowed inflation. Data released last week show the mainland’s industrial output was 9.2 percent higher last month than a year earlier, growing more slowly than expected, and that its exports were only 1 percent higher last month than a year earlier. The president of the Macau Economic Association, Joey Lao Chi Ngai, said the slowing of inflation here was probably due to the high base of
Consumer prices rose more slowly in the year to May
comparison of prices a year earlier. “In May last year inflation stood at 6.76 percent, which was very high, so 4.84 percent is already a very high figure,” Mr Lao said. The Statistics and Census Service attributed last month’s rate of inflation mainly to the higher cost of eating out and outbound package tours, and to higher rents for housing. One-fifth of what households spend is spent on eating out, and annual inflation in the cost of eating out slowed to 6.85 percent last month from 7.09 percent in April. Annual inflation in the cost of outbound tours was 22.7 percent. Over one-fifth of what households spend is spent on housing and fuel, and annual inflation in the cost of housing and fuel was 8.66 percent last month, little changed from April.
4.84 pct Annual inflation in May
With Bloomberg News
Unfinished flats’ mortgages surge before new rules New lending approved for uncompleted flats has doubled so far this year Tony Lai
tony.lai@macaubusinessdaily.com
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ew mortgage lending over uncompleted flats has almost doubled so far this year, as buyers tried to beat new restrictions that came into force this month. The Monetary Authority of Macau said on Friday that the amount of new lending approved on such houses rose 37.5 percent year-on-year in April to over 131.4 million patacas (US$16.4 million). In the first four months, mortgages worth over 420.4 million patacas on unfinished homes were approved, almost two-times higher than 213.6 million patacas in the January-April period last year. Real estate agents have said some developers rushed through the sales of uncompleted houses
to beat new regulation coming into force this month. The Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau even warned developers in mid-April against launching sales without having the approval for the floor plans of their projects. The new law effective this month says developers can only sell unfinished residential units after the floor plan is approved. They also need to complete the buildings’ foundations and temporary horizontal property registration. The overall amount of new residential lending rose at a slower pace, up by 34.4 percent to nearly 11.4 billion patacas in the JanuaryApril period.
Inflation in the cost of electricity, gas and primary and secondary education slowed. Ms Huang said inflation might slow further this year if the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, began tweaking its ultra-easy monetary policy, so making it less cheap to borrow in the U.S. currency, to which the pataca is indirectly pegged. “When the central bank stops printing money, the capital flows will be limited and this could help curb inflation,” she said. “The pataca will also strengthen through its indirect peg to the U.S. dollar, and this will provide an advantage for Macau in terms of imports,” she said. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday that the Fed’s stimulus effort might begin tapering off this year if the U.S. economy achieved the sustainable growth the Fed had sought since the U.S. recession ended in 2009. Mr Bernanke said that any an increase in U.S. interest rates, which are near zero, was still “far in the future”. Ms Huang expects the annual rate of consumer price inflation this year to be slower than last year’s 6.11 percent. Mr Lao thinks inflation will be about 5 percent this year. “But it is difficult to make any forecast, as there are still a lot of uncertainties clouding the economies abroad to which the economy here is subject,” he said. He said the first-quarter economic growth rate of 7.7 percent in the mainland and other recent sluggish figures there might result in some sort of government intervention, which could affect prices here.
Home loans to residents accounted for 97 percent of total new mortgages, up by 40 percent year-on-year. Lending to non-residents seeking to buy homes here only amounted to 344.5 million patacas in the first four months of this year. The city’s financial regulator also said the value of commercial mortgages approved in April rose by almost a third year-on-year to 2 billion patacas. It was a significant slowdown from the first quarter. Lending on offices and shops has more than doubled so far this year to 15.6 billion patacas. The delinquency ratio of mortgage loans dropped to 0.07 percent in April from 0.08 percent in the previous month.
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June April 24, 19, 2013 2013
Macau Luk Fook eyes more shops here Hong Kong-based jewellery retailer Luk Fook Holdings (International) Ltd said on Friday that Macau remains “one of its key markets” and that it will “further expand business opportunities in the city”. Luk Fook opened its “largest flagship store worldwide” at Circle Square earlier this month. Chairman and chief executive Wong Wai Sheung said the group was optimistic as tourists were spending more in Macau. Visitor spending recorded a 10 percent yearon-year increase to 14.5 billion patacas (US$1.8 billion) in the first quarter this year. Luk Fook currently has 10 sales outlets in Macau.
Manufacturers eye Hunan for survival
Tony Lai
tony.lai@macaubusinessdaily.com
Companies here may shift some manufacturing to the interior of the mainland
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“As Guangdong and Hunan are close to each other, we hope we can have some breakthroughs in Hunan in some areas of development,” said Mr Ho. Mr Ho is the sole Macau representative on the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, and the vice-president of the Legislative Assembly here. A member of the board of the Industrial Association of Macau, who decl i n ed to b e i d en ti fi ed because he is not authorised to speak publicly, told Business Daily that cheaper labour in Hunan could an incentive for Macau manufacturers to move there.
We are facing problems such as a labour shortage and higher wages, rents and other costs Industrial Association of Macau chairman Ho Iat Seng
You’re in Sun country Michael Grimes michael.grimes@macaubusinessdaily.com
Lower labour costs in inland Chinese provinces are an attraction for Macau manufacturers, but higher transport costs could be a deterrent
heaper labour in the central Chinese province of Hunan could lure some Macau manufacturers away from neighbouring Guangdong, officials of the Industrial Association of Macau have said. “Most of the factories of our manufacturing industry are in the Pearl River Delta region,” the association’s chairman, Ho Iat Seng, said on Friday. “We have done quite well in the past several years, but we have faced some difficulties in the past two years,” he said at a meeting with an official delegation from Hunan led by the provincial governor, Du Jiahao. “We are facing problems such as a labour shortage and higher wages, rents and other costs,” said Mr Ho. He said some manufacturers might move their operations elsewhere. The average minimum wage in Guangdong rose by 20 percent last month. For instance, the minimum monthly pay of workers in Guangzhou must now be at least 1,550 yuan (2,007.10 patacas), 19.2 percent more than before. The results of a survey by Macau Economic Services, released last week, show rises in the costs of raw materials and labour and price competition were the three main concerns of manufacturers here in the second quarter.
Opinion
The minimum wages in the various cities of Hunan range from 870 yuan to 1,160 yuan per month. The minimum wages in the various cities of Guangdong range from 1,010 yuan to 1,550 yuan per month. But the board member said transport costs from Hunan could add to the burden borne by businesses. “No ship can reach Hunan as it is in the centre of the mainland, so manufacturers will have to pay extra to take their goods to ports in other provinces,” he said. Mr Ho said he expected the value of Macau’s exports to be similar this year to last year, at about 8 billion patacas (US$1 billion). Official data show exports amounted to 3.06 billion patacas in the first four months this year, 17 percent more than a year earlier. Exports have declined since preferential tariffs for international trade in textiles ended in 2005, although they rebounded somewhat last year. Mr Du led the Hunan delegation on a two-day visit to Macau. He met Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On on Thursday. They promised to increase cooperation, particularly in tourism and conventions.
I
n the 1990s I had a short and – by definition – not very successful stint as a casual reporter on The Sun, Rupert Murdoch’s once-feared and fearless British tabloid. On one wall of the newsroom in Wapping in London’s East End was a big banner saying something like: “You are entering Sun country”. And indeed you were. The editor at the time was Kelvin MacKenzie. He was to red top tabloid journalism what Meryl Streep was to women’s fashion magazines in the film The Devil Wears Prada. In short, he was king of his domain, and somebody with whom not to mess. A contemporary playfully told me of an occasion when the editor had walked up to a sub-editor’s desk, put his face close to the sub’s face, and then droned in a Herman Munsterlike voice: “Are you alive? One knock for ‘yes’, two knocks for ‘no’…” Kelvin then reportedly paused for dramatic effect, before slowly lifting his fist and banging it once…then twice on the poor fellow’s desk. I have thought about that story since and wondered how I would have responded. An invitation to Kelvin suggesting he combine the activities of procreation and travel is my fantasy version. But if I’m honest I know that the twin mistresses of ambition and selfinterest would probably have kept me silent. Telling the editor of the then most politically powerful newspaper in Britain to take a running jump would have been a high risk strategy, involving either a broad grin from him and slap on the back for me, or a swift exit from the building for yours truly, without even the dignity of enough flying hours to acquire my own box of desk clutter. As Mel Brooks says in the comedy film History of the World, Part 1: “It’s good to be the king.” But that’s precisely the problem. When power is concentrated in the hands of a few, then tyranny is not far behind. In media organisations that sort of stuff is tolerated even today because it’s seen as a sign of esprit de corps. If you can take it, you must be made of the right stuff, just like special forces soldiers. What’s the excuse in Macau I wonder? Here, keeping your mouth shut isn’t about creating a ‘Who Dares Wins’ spirit. It’s about making sure you can keep your snout in the trough. Open your mouth at the wrong time and in the wrong way, and feeding time is over. The other day someone warned me to “be careful” here in Macau, so I must – in my own small way – be doing something right. As the political philosopher Edmund Burke actually said: “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one…”
Open your mouth at the wrong time and in the wrong way, and feeding time is over
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June 24, 2013
Macau Brought to you by
HOSPITALITY Room to spare The rise in the number of rooms and bed spaces in Macau’s hotels was accompanied in the past two years by a rise in their occupancy rates. This means the growth in competition due to a fast increase in the supply of rooms was offset by even faster growth in the number of guests. In this respect, 2011 and last year were remarkable. The rise in supply was met by seemingly unbounded elasticity of demand. Hotel occupancy rates in the first four months of this year suggest that this novelty may be wearing off, and competition beginning to bite. The occupancy rates follow a pattern strikingly similar to that seen in 2010.
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David Chow – his firm Macau Legend delays IPO
‘Deteriorating market’ causes Macau Legend IPO delay Firm says announcement this week on revised plans for global share offer Michael Grimes
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The average rate of hotel occupancy was 80.5 percent in 2010, 84.7 percent in 2011 and 83.6 percent last year. The occupancy rate rose by between 3 and 4 percentage points even while the number of rooms increased proportionately by over 10 times that amount. The rise in the occupancy rate has now been reversed – but not, it seems, because of any change in the behaviour of visitors. The ups and downs of the plot each year are broadly similar. The occupancy rate so far this year seems to confirm the small drop last year, but the falling-off is more pronounced. The pattern this year closely shadows that in the first four months of 2010. If the occupancy rate in subsequent months follows this trend, it may indicate heightened competition among hotels. J.I.D.
80.3 pct
Average hotel occupancy rate, January-April
michael.grimes@macaubusinessdaily.com
M
acau-based casino services company Macau Legend Development Ltd is to make an announcement this week about its postponed initial public offering in Hong Kong, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told Business Daily. Another source on Friday told the newsletter of our sister publication Macau Business magazine that given the “deteriorating market conditions”, in global equity markets, Macau Legend is now “reviewing the structure of the IPO to reflect the current environment”. The firm’s shares were to have started trading on the Hong Kong bourse this Thursday. A spokesman for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange told Business Daily it didn’t comment on individual cases regarding listings. Macau Legend said in a term sheet a fortnight ago that it was looking to raise HK$6.11 billion gross (US$787 million) from the exercise. But at a press conference via video link from New York City to Macau a week ago last Sunday, Macau Legend’s co-chairman David Chow Kam Fai mentioned a figure of HK$4.40 billion net as the likely proceeds from the exercise. Last week the firm said in the press conference it was looking to acquire 350 extra gaming tables outside
the government’s current table cap of 5,500 tables plus the equivalent of three percent compound growth annually until 2023. That’s in order to provide gaming in the three new hotels Macau Legend says it plans to build with most of the IPO proceeds. Macau Legend is not a Macau gaming concessionaire allowed in its own right to operate casinos. It in effect ‘piggybacks’ on the gaming concession of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau SA – founded by former Macau casino monopolist Stanley Ho Hung Sun – via a so-called ‘service agreement’. It therefore depends on SJM for its table allocation. At the briefing a week ago, Carl Tong Ka Wing, the firm’s other cochairman – who was also in New York marketing the IPO – said the firm had a “comfort letter” from the local gaming regulator the Gaming Inspection and Coordination and Bureau regarding the company’s request to increase gaming table numbers from 150 to 500. “…our tables are outside the current table cap of three percent per year for the next ten years,” added Mr Tong. The firm says in its IPO prospectus: “…DICJ advised us and SJM in writing on 7 December 2012 that the measures taken by the Macau government to limit the number of gaming tables in September 2011
[sic] will not be an obstacle to the request…for operating up to 500 tables in total.”
Written evidence Last Monday Business Daily asked the regulator by e-mail for confirmation it had replied in writing to Macau Legend’s request for 350 more tables. We also asked to see a copy of the letter. At the time we went to press with Monday’s edition, we had not received a reply. A second industry source with knowledge of the situation told Business Daily: “If as is being suggested, Macau Legend has a ‘comfort letter’ from DICJ regarding extra tables then the existence and wording of such a letter is easily verifiable. What I want to know is whether the Listing Committee of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has asked for more information regarding the letter mentioned in the IPO prospectus.” A spokeswoman for Macau Legend didn’t respond to a request for a copy of DICJ’s letter. According to a Hong Kong filing by Macau Legend on June 17, only 10 percent of the 2.04 billion shares on offer are actually allocated for Kong Kong investors. The rest are for ‘international’ placement according to that regulatory announcement.
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June 24, 2013
Macau
Table numbers for new projects ‘likely inflated’: Fitch But ‘potential’ for adjustment of Macau cap policy, adds ratings house Tiago Azevedo
tiago.azevedo@macaubusinessdaily.com
More visitors – but will there be enough tables?
C
oncessionaire announcements of table numbers for new Macau casino projects “are likely inflated” but there is “potential” to adjust the growth rate of live dealer table numbers under the government’s cap policy, Fitch Ratings has told Business Daily. Some gaming analysts are concerned that the just under 2,000 new-to-market tables likely to be authorised by the Macau government under the table cap policy – between now and 2023 – will not be enough to supply the nine new Cotai projects already announced. Those are due to open at various dates between mid2015 and 2018. Michael Paladino, senior director, Fitch Ratings, told us in an e-mailed statement as additional commentary to the firm’s latest outlook report on Macau: “As long as the demand trajectory remains intact (i.e. mid-teen revenue growth), we are also comfortable that additional projects and table allocation will be accommodated. We understand that this presents a mathematical problem with respect to the three percent table growth rate and current project plans. We think several factors will adjust to address this: existing concessionaires can reallocate tables among existing properties, planned table additions are likely inflated, and potential to adjust the growth rate to accommodate more tables if demand warrants.” Fitch is turning more bullish on Macau’s gaming mass market on the back of a more healthy growth and a positive outlook for the coming years. In its report released on Friday, Fitch says the split with VIP gaming could be 50/50 by the end of the decade. Demand in the gaming industry
seems very robust and while VIP rebounded in the early months of the year, mass market is expected to grow much faster. Macau’s mass market may grow up to 25 percent this year, Fitch had said in a previous report. “The volume of people around the border gate, the current expansion, and the cost of restaurants and shopping in the city reinforced our view that the mass-market is poised to lead the growth in Macau over the next several years,” Michael Paladino, head of Fitch’s Gaming, Lodging & Leisure sector, said on Friday’s report. Mr Paladino was recently in Macau and Hong Kong, where his team met with most of the gaming concessionaires here, government agencies and regulatory bodies, as well as numerous investors and bankers. Many analysts have mentioned strong mass traffic on casino floors,
and Fitch says that growth may balance the market. “Additional infrastructure improvements and the development of Hengqin Island could ultimately result in a 50/50 revenue split with VIP by the end of the decade (VIP currently makes up roughly 2/3 of the market),” the rating agency said. Mass market gambling accounted for nearly a third of Macau’s casino gaming revenue in the first quarter, according to government figures released in April. The high-margin mass sector – mainly live dealer baccarat games – generated 27.47 billion patacas (US$3.44 billion) – 32.2 percent of all revenue – in the first three months, compared to 57.82 billion patacas from high stakes VIP baccarat. In the first quarter of last year the mass sector made up 29.1 percent of gross gaming revenue, and in the same period of 2011 it was 27.3 percent.
Adjusting plans
…planned table additions are likely inflated Michael Paladino, senior director, Fitch Ratings
Following a near 15 percent rise year-on-year in Macau’s gross gaming revenues for the first quarter, Fitch Ratings in April revised its market outlook for the whole year to “over 11 percent” growth from its previous estimate of more than eight percent expansion. So far this year, accumulated gross gaming revenue has reached 143.2 billion patacas, a 14.2 percent increase over the first five months of 2012. In Friday’s report, the rating agency maintained its view and said it sees growth stable. “As long as the demand trajectory remains intact (i.e. mid-teen revenue
growth), we are comfortable that additional projects and table allocation will be accommodated,” Fitch said, referring to the new projects for Cotai. Macau had a cap of 5,500 live gaming tables until December plus a three percent compound annual growth for the next ten years. Casinos here had a total of 5,749 live gaming tables at the end of March, according to official figures.
2,000 New-to-market tables forecasted until 2023 After meeting with industry executives and government officials, Fitch also said it believes there is little risk for operators’ licences. “We came away from those discussions more comfortable that there is little risk that concessions won’t be renewed upon expiration in 2020-2022, assuming concessionaires remain compliant with laws and regulations (the latter may pose the bigger risk),” it said without specifying. “We believe there is very little likelihood of any additional U.S. entrants; and there is low probability of any competitive disruption at all if the market continues to function favourably and stably, it added. With Michael Grimes
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Macau Brought to you by
Financial Monitor Onward and upward For the past few months inflationary pressure seems to have been subsiding, but worries about consumer price inflation persist. They have never been far from the minds of residents in the past two years. Prices rose in 2008 and 2009, but the inflation rates in those crisis years were low by any standard. The following year the annual rate of inflation jumped from 2.8 percent to 5.8 percent, causing widespread concern. This was amplified by inflation of over 6.1 percent last year. These figures were not grave, but they deserved attention. The various items in the basket of goods and services used to gauge inflation take up different proportions of a household’s expenditure. Over 70 percent of what consumers spend they spend on food and non-alcoholic drink; clothes and shoes; housing and fuel; and transport. The prices of each sort of goods or services behaved quite differently in the four years after April 2008.
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Prices of food and non-alcoholic drink rose the fastest in the four years after April 2008, by 29.7 percent, and the rise accelerated in the last half of the period. Prices of clothes and shoes rose by 28.5 percent, but the rise slowed more recently. Transport costs rose by 7.9 percent and housing and fuel costs rose by 6.8 percent. The costs of transport and of housing and fuel fell in 2008, so the rises in these costs in the four years after April 2008 were slower than the rises in prices of food and non-alcoholic drink and of clothes and shoes. However, the figure given for the rise in the cost of housing may not faithfully reflect the increase in the price of housing. J.I.D. The content of this column is the work of Business Daily’s journalists.
16.8 pct Consumer price inflation, 2008-2012
Singapore Macau’s only real Asian gaming rival Singapore will remain Macau’s only real competitor in the Asian gaming market, says Melody Lu Chia-Wen, a sociologist and associate professor at the University of Macau. Ms Lu said at the opening of the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS8) at the Venetian Macao that Asia had some specific international characteristics that made its casinos a success. But in an interview with Business Daily, she said only Singapore had the infrastructure and manpower needed to cater to a broad spectrum of gamblers, and the financial arrangements needed to cope with the flows of money that gaming generated. Luciana Leitão
leitao.luciana@macaubusiness.com
Photo by Manuel Cardoso
You will be a speaker on the “Casino and Development in Asia” panel, one of the highlights of the ICAS8 conference. Considering the number of casinos opening, is this an Asian phenomenon? I actually just joined University of Macau last September. Before that I worked at the National University of Singapore. We saw the development in Singapore starting in 2011, and, in two years, revenues have already surpassed Las Vegas’s. There’s something about the casino industry in Asia. We think the success draws on the fact that the transnational element is much larger. The capital and the visitors are international, not like Las Vegas, where they are largely American. The labour is also international. Macau is usually named the Asian Las Vegas, and Singapore is considered the second Las Vegas. Yet both have some unique elements that have changed the industry and changed the way we study the industry. If we already have the two biggest casino markets in the world, why do we still call ourselves Las Vegas? We need a new thrust. That’s why we propose, “Maybe there is something in Asia that is unique.” Of course, here we compare Singapore and Macau. We don’t want to be limited to these two, because they are very similar cities and rich places, but we want to also include the border casinos of Vietnam, Laos and Russia. Then we can truly see the Asian phenomenon and how it operates. This panel is the beginning of a large collaboration and there are more conferences to come in the future, to bring together other scholars working on the border casinos.
What unique elements are there on this continent? In Asia, casinos are a national project, so even if, for example, it is in a Vietnamese border city, it is still considered a national development project. The regulation of the industry is tied to the image of the nation and what the city/nation wants to project for itself. Secondly, it’s always about transnational money, transnational customers and transnational labour, and how these three are tied together. Thirdly, the study of gaming is a very specialised area, and it is very developed as part of the business management academic area. You also have another stream of scholarship, which is social costs: prevention of addiction, problem gambling. But we should have a more macro perspective, because they are all linked. Even in Macau or in Singapore, you can also link it to welfare and urban planning, for example. We want to draw on, for our project, people who work in different areas. We can offer
Gamblers come back if the money can flow: if they are able to bring in the big money and if they are able to take it away
the linkage and the international comparative perspective. Are many of these Asian places at risk of becoming a casino economy such as Macau? If you look at the other cases, they are not planning to be driven only by the gaming industry, and they are very careful about that. We see that in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. It is considered a kind of special project. They are in border areas and in designated special regions with special laws, allowing for foreign investment. In the Philippines, it’s on a bay, so it’s [a special] area. In Taiwan’s case, it is on an island. It cannot be on mainland Taiwan. It is starting to develop very carefully and they make it an exception. Therefore, I don’t foresee it driving the national economy. In Singapore’s case, even though it grew very fast, it only makes up a small percentage of GDP. In Vietnam and Cambodia, it’s on a very small scale. They’re trying to build a big resort, but it hasn’t happened yet. In the other countries, they have a huge rural population. So even if they have a casino, it wouldn’t become in the near future the main national industry. But it will definitely improve that special area. It will become the richest place in the country and that will have implications. It’s a political issue that affects the whole country. Macau is an exceptional case. We see that the Macau and Singapore governments are trying very much to diversify. Yet popular perception still feels, “It’s all about gambling.” There is a moral uneasiness there. But if you take at a look at the Venetian, you have
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gaming revenues, but many others are not gambling – it’s services, shopping and entertainment. How do you study these new forms of integrated casino resorts? Does Macau have any serious competitor? I understand that Macau’s biggest worry might be that there are so many new kids on the block. I try not to look at it from that angle. For many of these new projects developing in Asia – especially in Japan, and in Taiwan as well, the justification is: “If we don’t do it, someone else will.” It’s kind of driven by fear, and not by realistic calculation of whether it will actually work. In terms of scale, Macau has the biggest and the most mature system. The sustainability of the industry might not come from the infrastructure – how big and beautiful the buildings are. What makes tourists come back is the quality of service. Gamblers come back if the money can flow: if they are able to bring in the big money and if they are able to take it away. Human resources and transnational regulation are the key elements. Many people are worried about Taiwan, because you have these similar geographical advantages. But I would think Singapore should be a stronger opponent because the transnational and human resources elements are much stronger and much more sustainable, in terms of service. And they know how to cater to international cosmopolitan customers. It is already an international financial centre, like Hong Kong, so it has experience of dealing with money. Taiwan would be no competition for Singapore. In terms of geographical location, of course going by land or by plane is a factor, but to what extent is it sustainable?
an international centre for money laundering. That was the mentality of the policymakers when they legalised it. They were very worried over their own citizens becoming addicted, but the success comes from what they learned from the Macau system. Initially they resisted. They had tight information control on the big players and they didn’t allow junkets, but very soon they conceded and started issuing junket licences. They have three. The first two were given to Malaysians who have experience with Genting Malaysia. Their clients are not international, they are locals, but they have connections with Southeast Asian Chinese. They reproduced the Macau junket system back in Singapore and they allowed the big-player system to happen. Of course, they are trying to control [gaming] and they are trying to make sure there is no corruption, and the Singapore government is very experienced in doing that. In terms of other spending, like retail, hotels, food and dining, Singapore has long experience in that. They don’t have to train anyone. It is already a very mature international hub for tourists. In terms of hospitality, they were already there and the combination of these two made it happen so fast. In Macau’s case, the junket system is the success story. In terms of development of tourism and hospitability, it is trying to catch up. For the moment it’s still all right, but its infrastructure is not as good as Singapore’s yet. In terms of understanding language and cultural differences and how to serve people from different groups and languages, Singapore has done much better. They can hire service workers very quickly and their migration system is already in place. But in Macau it is difficult it is to hire foreigners.
Singapore has had a very different strategy from Macau and has had faster results. What is Singapore doing better? From the limited statistics we have, the biggest revenue for Singapore’s casinos still comes from VIP players. That percentage is higher than in Macau: 90 percent. It is trying very hard not to become
Will Singapore open up to more junkets? I think so, but with caution. It’s what the Singaporeans always do. The government has total control over it. Also, they have total control of who plays and how much money they play with. When you enter casinos you have to show your passport, and if you are a
local you have to pay. They have all these regulations: the exclusion act or prevention of problem gamblers, and controls on the money flow. In Macau you can talk all you like but you don’t have anyone watching you. How do you know you are blacklisted? I am confident that Singapore has a very sustainable model.
You will present a paper on “The Morality and Regulation of Gambling in Macau and Singapore: A Historical Perspective”. How different are these two in the two cities? I will actually talk more from a historical perspective: how colonial governments saw the gambling industry in the whole colonial economy and their approach to regulations and how these allow different systems to happen. In Singapore, for example, it was banned because Raffles set the tone. He was very moralistic, he talked about gambling as evil and he banned it. What I found out was that, in late 1990s and early 2000s, when Singapore started talking about legalising, all this discourse about gambling was very much drawn from Raffles’s time. In Macau you have a much more pragmatic view than in Singapore, but, on the other hand, a much deeper layer of unease linked to organised crime. It is also kind of a stigma. It doesn’t show much in terms of licensing, but it reflects on people’s attitude about it. I’m talking about subtle discrepancies between different laws, how this cultural history informs our current decisions. Singapore legalised gambling for a short while because they thought it was a Chinese thing. At the same time we’re looking at a global economy. I think it says something about Macau that we are heavily dependent on Chinese players, but we also want to be a cosmopolitan centre of hospitality. It is not easy juggling these two.
88
June 24, 2013 April 19, 2013
Macau
Sa Sa profit jumps on strong demand
Govt, businessmen arm-wrestle over land compensation Compensation only for projects with construction permit, says govt Stephanie Lai
sw.lai@macaubusinessdaily.com
Retail sales in Macau and Hong Kong grew by 20.8 percent Tiago Azevedo
tiago.azevedo@macaubusinessdaily.com
C
osmetic retailer Sa Sa International Holdings Ltd posted a 19.7 percent rise in net profit for the year ended March, buoyed by strong demand from mainland Chinese tourists. Sa Sa, which has a market value of nearly US$3 billion (23.97 billion patacas), reported a profit of HK$825.6 million for the year ended in March. That was up from HK$689.7 million a year earlier and in line with an average analyst forecast of HK$825 million, according to Thomson Reuters. The market was not impressed by the results, with Sa Sa’s stock dropping 3.75 percent to close at HK$7.44 on Friday. Hong Kong-based Sa Sa had a total of 260 stores in Greater China, Singapore and Malaysia. The cosmetic retailer has 8 outlets here. It recently opened another store in the Senado Square in a space that used to be rented by Starbucks Coffee Co. Sa Sa, which competes here with smaller rival Bonjour Holdings Ltd, said revenue rose 19.7 percent to HK$7.7 billion from HK$6.4 billion a year ago. Its gross profit margin increased to 46.4 percent from 45.2 percent. Net profit margin was unchanged at 10.8 percent. “Hong Kong and Macau remained the largest contributor to the group’s turnover and profits,” the company said last week in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Retail sales in the two cities increased by 20.8 percent to HK$5.97 billion, and same store sales rose 15 percent. Both the number of transactions and the average value per transaction increased, it said. “Our retail sales maintained their upward path as the group continued to benefit from the steady increase in sales to both local residents and mainland tourists,” Sa Sa said. The online business also grew in the year ended March. Turnover for sasa.com increased by 29.2 percent to HK$383.9 million. Sa Sa said it expects the coming fiscal year to be challenging as there are yet no signs of strong recovery in the Chinese economy. “We foresee continued sales growth due to the reliable quality and variety of our products,” it said. The board recommended a final dividend of HK$0.05 cents per share and a special dividend of HK$0.09 cents. With Reuters
Businessmen want more protection from urban planning changes for developments
T
he government and the business sector in the Legislative Assembly remain divided over the terms under which developers can seek compensation for projects affected by urban plans. On Friday the assembly’s first and second standing committees held a joint meeting to ensure that the land law revision and the urban planning bill are on the same page. The urban planning law would require a master plan, containing the overall strategy for Macau’s urban development, and detailed plans guiding development for specific areas. If an urban plan were to enter in conflict with private property projects, the owners could seek compensation from the government as long as they have a construction permit, the bill says. But the businessmen in the two committees do not agree, first standing committee member Au Kam San told Business Daily. One group of legislators says “as soon as a street alignment plan for the project is out, (…) [that] should suffice as a compensation basis,” committee chairwoman Kwan Tsui Hang told media after the meeting. The street alignment plan of a project, which determines construction areas, heights and storey limits, is valid for one year. But getting the plan approved does not mean the project owner has any legal power over the land and it could be amended or abolished when in conflict with urban plans. Other legislators, including Ms Kwan, agree with the government on the provision. “Only the construction permit can serve as a valid basis for calculating compensation because the street alignment plan is only a document of a transitional nature,” she said. “We have to use public money scrupulously…and we have to avoid any abuse of compensation terms,” Wong Chan Tong, head of the cabinet of the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, told media on Friday.
99
June April 24, 19, 2013 2013
Greater China
Shadow banking blamed for China’s cash squeeze Structural issues keeping money from reaching real economy: Xinhua
T
here is ample liquidity in China and the latest spike in money market rates was a result of market distortions caused by widespread speculative trading and shadow financing, state news agency Xinhua said in a commentary yesterday. China’s central bank faced down the country’s cash-hungry banks on Friday, letting interest rates again spike to extraordinary levels of some 25 percent for some banks, as it steps up the pressure to rein in rampant informal lending. Comments from Xinhua, seen as a government mouthpiece, confirm analysts’ suspicions that the central bank’s funding squeeze was aimed at reducing non-bank lending, or shadow banking, which has boomed in recent years. The cash crunch engineered by the central bank was intended as a warning to overextended banks, but it has also fed fears that a miscalculation could trigger a fullblown crisis. Xinhua said there was sufficient liquidity in the market, with data showing broad M2 money supply rose 15.8 percent in May
from a year earlier, and the total social financing aggregate, a broad measure of liquidity in the economy, was more than 1 trillion yuan (US$163 billion). “The banks are short on cash, the stock market and small- and medium-sized enterprises are short on cash, but there is ample money supply in the market,” it said in the commentary. “Many large companies are still spending heavily and making large purchases in wealth management products. There is also a lot of hot money seeking speculative investments and private lending is still widespread.” These factors showed that the liquidity crunch was not caused by a shortage of funds but by structural issues that kept money from reaching the real economy, it added. Overall financing in the Chinese economy increased 52 percent in the first five months of 2013 from the corresponding period last year, which analysts say was led by a surge in shadow banking activity and wealth management products that promised investors high returns. The central bank’s refusal to
China’s central bank has refused to inject cash into the system, despite rising lending rates
inject cash into the system, despite a spike in short-term lending rates, suggests its monetary policy has begun to shift from one focusing on quantity to quality of market liquidity, Xinhua said.
China’s cabinet has vowed to ensure credit growth supports the real economy and to control the flow of new money into industries struggling with overcapacity. Reuters/Xinhua
Britain and China set up 3-year currency swap line London leading the way in race to become Europe’s yuan-trading hub Craig Stirling and Kyoungwha Kim
China is signing swap deals to promote the yuan as global currency
B
ank of England governor Mervyn King and his Chinese counterpart Zhou Xiaochuan agreed to a three-year currency swap line to promote financial stability and trade between China and Britain. T he m aximum valu e of th e arrangement is 200 billion yuan (US$33 billion), according to a statement published by the U.K. central bank on its website on Saturday. The People’s Bank of China put
the sterling value at 20 billion pounds (US$31 billion) in a statement posted on its website. “The establishment of a sterlingrenminbi swap line will support U.K. domestic financial stability,” Mr King said in the news release. “In the unlikely event that a generalized shortage of offshore renminbi liquidity emerges, the bank will have the capability to facilitate renmin b i l i q u i d i ty to el i g i b l e institutions in the U.K.”
The agreement puts the Bank of England first in a race among European central banks to establish swap facilities with China, allowing London to expand ties with the world’s second-biggest economy. The U.K. capital is the centre of the world’s US$4 trillion-a-day market for foreign-exchange trading. China has allowed businesses to settle foreign trade in yuan and signed swap agreements to promote the use of the currency in international trade and investment. It has also eased rules for foreign companies to invest in the country using yuan raised offshore, as well as starting direct trading with currencies including the yen as part of efforts to make the yuan a global currency.
Yuan globalization The yuan has appreciated 1.6 percent this year against the dollar, making it Asia’s best performer among 11 regional currencies tracked by Bloomberg The currency touched a 19-year high of 6.1210 on May 27 and fell 0.1 percent to 6.1342 on June 21, according to China Foreign Exchange Trade System prices. “The move can help enhance
London’s prospect of becoming a renminbi offshore center,” Frances Cheung, a strategist at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong, said by telephone yesterday. “It is very important to have London as an offshore center because it covers clients in different time zones, where Hong Kong or Singapore may fail to reach out. It will also help China step closer to globalizing the yuan.” Since cross-border trading of the yuan started in 2010, the proportion of China’s trade settled in the currency has surged sixfold to 12 percent, according to DBS Group Holdings Ltd. The yuan’s share of international payments rose to 0.74 percent in March from 0.25 percent in January 2011, Nathan Chow, a DBS economist in Hong Kong, wrote in an opinion article in Singapore’s Sunday Times newspaper yesterday. China already has currency-swap agreements with countries including Australia, South Korea and Malaysia. London is competing with Paris and Zurich to become the centre for yuan trading in Europe as China makes its currency more widely used around the world. Bloomberg News
10 10
June 24, 2013 April 19, 2013
Greater China
Beijing hacking fury as Snowden flees extradition United States hacked Chinese text messages, says Moscow-bound Edward Snowden Dennis Chong
C
hina yesterday attacked the United States as an espionage “villain” after former spy Edward Snowden raised new allegations about the far-reaching extent of United States cybersnooping against Chinese targets. The official Xinhua news agency noted that Washington had been pressing Hong Kong to extradite the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor after he fetched up in the city last month. But the United States government first owes the world an explanation, it said. In the latest revelations published by the South China Morning Post yesterday, Mr Snowden said the NSA was hacking Chinese mobile phone companies to gather data from millions of text messages. He said United States spies have also hacked the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing – home to one of six “network backbones” that route all of mainland China’s Internet traffic – and the Hong Kong headquarters of Pacnet, which operates one of the Asia-Pacific region’s largest fibre-optic networks. “These, along with previous allegations, are clearly troubling signs,” Xinhua said in a commentary.
“They demonstrate that the United States, which has long been trying to play innocent as a victim of cyber attacks, has turned out to be the biggest villain in our age,” it said.
Leaving Hong Kong The United States slapped an arrest warrant on Mr Snowden Friday and set the extradition process in train. But he flew out of Hong Kong yesterday, reportedly bound for Moscow and onwards to a third destination, in a shock development sure to infuriate Washington. “Moscow will not be his final destination,” the South China Morning Post said, citing “credible sources”, raising the possibility of Iceland or Ecuador as Mr Snowden’s final destination. “Snowden today voluntarily left Hong Kong for a third country through legal and normal means,” a Hong Kong government spokesman said in a press statement. Hong Kong had “not obtained adequate information” to process the provisional arrest warrant issued by the United States against Mr Snowden, and there was “no legal basis” to prevent him leaving, the spokesman’s statement said.
The statement added that Hong Kong authorities had informed the United States government about Mr Snowden’s departure. This move could bring United States repercussions against Hong Kong. Pro-Beijing Hong Kong lawmaker Regina Ip, a former secretary for security who sits on the Executive Council, said on the Commercial Radio station Washington may threaten Hong Kong with a withdrawal of visa-free access to the United States for its residents.
British eavesdropping Xinhua called on Washington to “come clean about its record first. It owes too an explanation to China and other countries it has allegedly spied on. It has to share with the world the range, extent and intent of its clandestine hacking programmes,” it said. “The NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cell phone companies to steal all of your SMS data,” Mr Snowden said in the Post interview, which the newspaper said was conducted on June 12 and released after it had scrutinised and clarified his claims.
His claims about Pacnet followed a report in the Guardian in which he claimed the British government’s electronic eavesdropping agency GCHQ had gained secret access to fibre-optic cables carrying global Internet traffic and telephone calls, and was sharing the information with the NSA. Mr Snowden said in the Post interview that Tsinghua University, which counts China’s president Xi Jinping and his predecessor Hu Jintao among its graduates, was the target of extensive NSA hacking. The university, whose network backbone handles Internet data from millions of Chinese citizens, was breached as recently as January, he was quoted as saying. According to the Post report, the NSA in 2009 also attacked Pacnet, whose fibre-optic network stretches across 46,000 kilometres in 13 countries ranging from Singapore to Japan via Hong Kong and China. United States administration officials say the NSA’s overall surveillance has helped thwart up to 50 planned extremist attacks, some of them on American soil, by allowing American agents to track calls and messages to enemy operatives. AFP
Rosneft’s to double oil flows to China
O
Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese deputy prime minister Zhang Gaoli met on Friday
AO Rosneft signed a US$270 billion supply deal with China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), making China Russia’s biggest market for oil. State-run Rosneft, the biggest publicly traded oil producer by output, will get a US$70 billion prepayment under the deal, and will supply about 360 million metric tons of crude to China over 25 years, president Vladimir Putin said on Friday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The deal, following a government accord in April, will redirect Russia’s oil away from Europe, where demand is stagnant, to the world’s second-biggest crude market after
the United States. Rosneft and China Development Bank completed documents for a long-term US$2 billion loan under an accord signed March 2013 and secured by a 2009 crude oil supply contract, the Moscow-based company said. The agreement signed in April calls for Rosneft to deliver at least 37 million metric tons of oil a year, or 743,000 barrels a day, to CNPC starting in 2018. Rosneft agreed to increase oil flows to China through a spur from the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline by as much as 800,000 tons this year from an earlier planned 15 million tons. Bloomberg News
11 11
June April 24, 19, 2013 2013
Asia SoftBank sees Sprint deal completed soon Japanese mobile network operator SoftBank Corp chief executive officer Masayoshi Son said on Friday he was confident his company’s acquisition of Sprint Nextel Corp, the third biggest United States mobile service provider, would be completed in early July after rival bidder Dish Network Corp bowed out. It could be the largest overseas acquisition by a Japanese company in history. Sprint is also working with SoftBank to buy out small wireless company Clearwire Corp. Dish said in a regulatory filing on Friday it has abandoned efforts to buy Sprint.
South Korea to tighten checks on banks’ liquidity No fear over capital outflows as bond sales shrink, says finance official Sangim Han
S
outh Korea’s government plans to tighten monitoring of banks’ liquidity and scale down its bond sales volumes in July as possible reductions in Federal Reserve stimulus roil capital flows from developing countries. South Korea’s fundamentals from budget to foreign reserves are sound, so speculation on a Fed move is unlikely to spur any drastic capital outflows, vice Finance minister Choo Kyung Ho said in Seoul. “We should watch out for excess caution” after Fed chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments about an early exit from stimulus, Mr Choo told reporters before a meeting of policy makers. The possibility of such a move “indicates optimism over the U.S. economic recovery in the mid and long terms, which will give a chance to boost our exports. We believe volatility on emerging markets may be short-lived.” Mr Choo met officials at the Bank of Korea, Financial Services Commission, Financial
Volatility in financial markets will be short-lived, says South Korean officials
Supervisory Services and staterun Korea Center for International Finance to discuss dealing with volatile financial markets. The won fell 2.5 percent to 12,154.15 per dollar in Seoul in the week ended June 21, its biggest decline since the five days ended September 23, 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
One-month implied volatility, a gauge of expected moves in the exchange rate used to price options, surged 258 basis points, or 2.58 percentage points, to 12.98 percent in the week ended June 21. The government plans to scale down the volume of its long- term treasury bond sales in July to adjust liquidity in the local market in a
flexible manner, Mr Choo said. Foreign buying of Korean bonds outstripped selling by more than 300 billion won (US$260 million) on June 20-21 after Mr Bernanke’s remarks, while Korea’s benchmark Kospi equity index fell 3 percent on foreign selling during the same span, Mr Choo said. Bloomberg News
Echo unveils Sydney casino extension to rival Packer Barangaroo hotel-casino project threatens Star casino’s monopoly David Fickling and Ben Sharples
E
cho Entertainment Group Ltd, licensed to run Sydney’s only casino until 2019, plans to spend more than A$1.1 billion (US$1 billion) expanding the property to fend off a challenge from billionaire James Packer’s Crown Ltd. The proposed extensions to Echo’s harborside Star casino include two new hotels and more than 50 bars and restaurants, the Brisbanebased company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Echo also proposes making an A$250 million payment to the New South Wales government to extend its exclusive casino licence, it said. This comes after Mr Packer last month unveiled rival plans for a A$1 billion hotel-casino project at Barangaroo, a development site southwest of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Mr Packer is also an investor in Macau casino developer Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. Crown Ltd and associates of Lim Kok Thay’s Genting Bhd. have made rival investments in Echo since February 2012, amid competition for high-rolling Asian gamblers who have doubled Macau’s gaming revenues over the past three years. Echo also submitted an alternative proposal to the New South Wales government supporting the Barangaroo development, provided that gaming facilities are VIP-only table games, it said. Under this scenario, Echo will not make the A$250 million payment because of the fragmentation to the gaming market. “While Echo is confident that our proposed development plus
licence exclusivity payment provides the most impactful solution, this alternative may be seen as a potential win-win scenario for the people of Sydney,” John O’Neill, the chairman of Echo, said in the statement.
‘Formidable competitor’ Crown sold out of its 10 percent stake in Echo last month so it could pursue its own plans “without speculation” over the holding, the Melbourne-based company said. Genting Hong Kong Ltd. is still awaiting regulatory approval to lift its share to 25 percent. “Barangaroo is likely to be a formidable competitor to Star if Crown’s proposal is approved by the New South Wales government,” Larry Gandler, an analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG, wrote in a note to
clients May 24. Echo unveiled its plans yesterday after submitting them to the New South Wales government for a June 21 deadline. Only one of the rival casino plans will be put forward to the final stage of a three- stage approval process being run by the state. Echo suffered its sharpest drop since it was spun off from Tabcorp Holdings Ltd in 2011, after Crown sold its 10 percent stake even after winning approval from regulators in New South Wales and Queensland states to lift the holding to as much as 23 percent. The move reflected “an increased degree of confidence” that Crown would win permission to build Barangaroo, Nomura Holdings Inc analyst Nick Berry wrote May 23. Bloomberg News
12
June 24, 2013
Markets Hang Seng Index NAME
PRICE
DAY %
VOLUME
32.5
1.246106
53658159
CHINA UNICOM HON
2.4
-2.834008
26894102
CITIC PACIFIC
BANK OF CHINA-H
3.07
-0.3246753
833208285
BANK OF COMMUN-H
5.22
-1.879699
92212670
27.35
-0.7259528
6371472
10.9
4.807692
43863060
ESPRIT HLDGS
23.95
-0.4158004
18586800
HANG LUNG PROPER
AIA GROUP LTD ALUMINUM CORP-H
BANK EAST ASIA BELLE INTERNATIO BOC HONG KONG HO CATHAY PAC AIR
NAME
CLP HLDGS LTD CNOOC LTD COSCO PAC LTD
PRICE
DAY %
VOLUME
10.02
-0.7920792
40422771
8.05
-1.468788
9949575
SANDS CHINA LTD
91.05
-1.140065
2862249
TENCENT HOLDINGS
285.8
-1.516196
8791055
TINGYI HLDG CO
19.84
0.1009082
7398102
10.04
-1.568627
29150351
64.4
-4.592593
12200433
6202157
25.9
-3.538175
13180245
114.4
-0.7805724
2955299
WANT WANT CHINA
44.7
-1.21547
5839480
WHARF HLDG
HENGAN INTL
75.25
-2.145644
4377975
CHINA CONST BA-H
5.19
0.776699
863089949
HONG KG CHINA GS
18.46
0
16446369
HONG KONG EXCHNG
119.2
-1.568951
7322377
HSBC HLDGS PLC
80.65
-1.042945
27953150
78.05
-1.077313
8833786
4.62
1.094092
822352443
LI & FUNG LTD
10.64
-3.272727
33573565 4249612
77.1
2.731512
41446594
HUTCHISON WHAMPO
18.98
-0.8359457
57328815
IND & COMM BK-H
CHINA PETROLEU-H
5.32
-0.9310987
181239801
CHINA RES ENTERP
22.95
-3.571429
6410740
MTR CORP
27.85
-0.7130125
CHINA RES LAND
18.94
-1.966874
27486050
NEW WORLD DEV
10.44
-2.429907
21280603
CHINA RES POWER
17.8
1.947308
11318806
PETROCHINA CO-H
8.11
-1.3382
210748800
CHINA SHENHUA-H
22.65
2.257336
54593763
PING AN INSURA-H
53
-1.119403
30059308
PRICE
DAY %
VOLUME
24.95
1.629328
20098409 181239801
CHINA OVERSEAS
10413915
SWIRE PACIFIC-A
1.25
91720239
CHINA MOBILE
13022995
-1.186178
11.34
4.597701
3843267
-1.340996
95.8
10242441
4.55
65661090
10.3
SUN HUNG KAI PRO
-3.5
CHINA COAL ENE-H
0
SINO LAND CO
9.65
HENDERSON LAND D
-3.100775
22602702
4896885
4351132
22.5
-3.861004
107264615
11088502
18.52
4293576
37.35
-2.153846
-1.188707
CHINA LIFE INS-H
0.7518797
-0.8025682
-1.567091
CHINA MERCHANT
DAY %
67
61.8
13.3
HANG SENG BK
PRICE
POWER ASSETS HOL
12.72
100.5
CHEUNG KONG
NAME
MOVERS
11
37
VOLUME
2 21188
INDEX 20263.31 HIGH
21188.4
LOW
19969.98T
52W (H) 23944.74 (L) 18710.58984
19969
19-June
21-June
Hang Seng China Enterprise Index NAME
PRICE
DAY %
VOLUME
AGRICULTURAL-H
3.08
-0.3236246
455571044
AIR CHINA LTD-H
5.46
0.9242144
23391832
CHINA PETROLEU-H
5.32
-0.9310987
ALUMINUM CORP-H
2.4
-2.834008
26894102
CHINA RAIL CN-H
6.67
-0.4477612
6804774
ANHUI CONCH-H
21
1.694915
26556778
CHINA RAIL GR-H
3.53
-0.8426966
17062940
BANK OF CHINA-H
3.07
-0.3246753
833208285
CHINA SHENHUA-H
22.65
2.257336
54593763
BANK OF COMMUN-H
5.22
-1.879699
92212670
CHINA TELECOM-H
3.64
-0.8174387
93140160
BYD CO LTD-H
29.2
-2.177554
8052526
DONGFENG MOTOR-H
10.58
-2.578269
14234557
CHINA CITIC BK-H
3.64
-1.086957
85027662
GUANGZHOU AUTO-H
7.35
-2.390438
19166368
CHINA COAL ENE-H
4.55
4.597701
91720239
HUANENG POWER-H
7.43
3.62622
35077249
CHINA COM CONS-H
6.37
-4.066265
54619316
IND & COMM BK-H
4.62
1.094092
822352443
CHINA CONST BA-H
5.19
0.776699
863089949
JIANGXI COPPER-H
14.34
0.5610098
23666374
NAME CHINA PACIFIC-H
3.41
1.488095
16956000
PETROCHINA CO-H
8.11
-1.3382
210748800
18.52
0
65661090
PICC PROPERTY &
8.65
0
31484747
CHINA LONGYUAN-H
7.81
-1.761006
17802262
PING AN INSURA-H
53
-1.119403
30059308
CHINA MERCH BK-H
13.16
-0.9036145
54479197
SHANDONG WEIG-H
9.59
2.347919
7936428
CHINA MINSHENG-H
7.85
-2.119701
233053909
SINOPHARM-H
19.36
-2.908726
12474038
CHINA NATL BDG-H
7.03
0.1424501
66408188
TSINGTAO BREW-H
52.45
-4.200913
2315048
14.58
0.2751032
8084342
WEICHAI POWER-H
CHINA COSCO HO-H CHINA LIFE INS-H
CHINA OILFIELD-H
24.85
-0.4008016
NAME
PRICE
DAY %
YANZHOU COAL-H
6.28
0.6410256
40034312
ZIJIN MINING-H
1.58
-5.952381
143060476
5.61
-1.405975
17425846
11.64
-2.348993
3821379
ZOOMLION HEAVY-H ZTE CORP-H
MOVERS
13
24
VOLUME
3 9698
INDEX 9237.47 HIGH
9698.46
LOW
9044.87
52W (H) 12354.22 (L) 8987.76
9044
19-June
3254715
21-June
Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 NAME
PRICE
DAY %
VOLUME
AGRICULTURAL-A
2.57
-1.153846
97462493
AIR CHINA LTD-A
4.53
-1.30719
9586677
ALUMINUM CORP-A
3.55
-0.5602241
16395867
NAME
PRICE
DAY %
VOLUME
5.63
-1.054482
6165738
CITIC SECURITI-A
11.05
2.125693
94899461
CSR CORP LTD -A
3.94
-0.5050505
CHONGQING WATE-A
NAME
PRICE
DAY %
VOLUME
11.4
-1.298701
17424210
QINGHAI SALT-A
19.33
-3.010537
7034707
24019399
SAIC MOTOR-A
13.48
1.889645
35398886
QINGDAO HAIER-A
ANHUI CONCH-A
13.58
1.041667
30174035
DAQIN RAILWAY -A
6.05
-0.8196721
24809128
SANAN OPTOELEC-A
19.68
-0.8064516
18590578
BANK OF BEIJIN-A
8.05
-0.3712871
19509274
DATANG INTL PO-A
5.15
4.040404
22327180
SANY HEAVY INDUS
7.73
-2.644836
31600818
BANK OF CHINA-A
2.62
-0.7575758
34264820
EVERBRIG SEC -A
10.96
-6.003431
45321038
SHANG PHARM -A
10.84
-0.6416132
7279643
BANK OF COMMUN-A
4.24
-1.165501
67055623
GD MIDEA HOLDI-A
12.8
0
13015220
SHANG PUDONG-A
8.28
-1.662708
147442615
BAOSHAN IRON & S
4.15
-0.4796163
16448882
GD POWER DEVEL-A
2.35
2.173913
48245200
SHANGHAI ELECT-A
3.61
-1.09589
2742467
BEIJING TONGRE-A
22.99
1.054945
5172172
GEMDALE CORP-A
6.66
1.834862
41890399
SHANXI LU'AN -A
13.84
-0.4316547
8176052
32.6
2.386935
12037513
GF SECURITIES-A
12.12
2.624894
27923027
SHANXI XISHAN-A
9.17
-0.9077156
8705603
CHINA AVIC ELE-A
24.42
0
4707912
25.1
0.8437123
22744903
SHENZEN OVERSE-A
5.56
0.7246377
29893741
CHINA CITIC BK-A
3.77
0.2659574
18686688
GUANGHUI ENERG-A
20.06
0.2498751
18989162
SICHUAN KELUN-A
55.6
-0.5366726
1451875
CHINA CNR CORP-A
4.18
0.9661836
26477872
HAITONG SECURI-A
10.27
-1.154957
108698284
SUNING COMMERC-A
5.34
-0.5586592
28412107
CHINA COAL ENE-A
5.41
-3.565062
25037413
HANGZHOU HIKVI-A
36.38
-1.967125
9824319
TASLY PHARMAC-A
39.6
0.7890048
4753629
HENAN SHUAN-A
40.07
-1.402559
14016428
TSINGTAO BREW-A
37.99
-0.9387223
2196059
0.2004008
37282448
WANHUA CHEMIC-A
15.91
1.856594
11403410
BYD CO LTD -A
GREE ELECTRIC
CHINA CONST BA-A
4.08
-3.818953
72805044
CHINA COSCO HO-A
3.27
0.6153846
7134166
HONG YUAN SEC-A
10
CHINA EAST AIR-A
2.72
-1.449275
9099031
HUATAI SECURIT-A
8.63
-0.461361
30249958
WEICHAI POWER-A
19.24
-1.333333
7656387
CHINA EVERBRIG-A
2.91
0.6920415
96746857
HUAXIA BANK CO
9.48
-0.4201681
18585108
WULIANGYE YIBIN
21.17
-0.09438414
13005100
14.77
1.721763
18118251
IND & COMM BK-A
4.02
-0.9852217
68528987
YANZHOU COAL-A
10.71
-4.884547
14110512
15.43
-1.153107
92962454
YUNNAN BAIYAO-A
86.76
3.175169
1600721
-1.780656
23698821
ZHONGJIN GOLD
10.54
2.131783
24016092
CHINA LIFE INS-A CHINA MERCH BK-A
11.71
2.092415
70320815
INDUSTRIAL BAN-A
CHINA MERCHANT-A
10.98
0.2739726
20646690
INNER MONG BAO-A
24.27
CHINA MERCHANT-A
24.5
0.947672
11360333
INNER MONG YIL-A
31.52
0.8962868
19608229
ZIJIN MINING-A
2.68
-1.831502
57774453
CHINA MINSHENG-A
9.45
1.722282
184857233
INNER MONGOLIA-A
4.37
0.6912442
28036718
ZOOMLION HEAVY-A
5.75
-4.643449
112774520
CHINA NATIONAL-A
9.93
-0.4012036
40825454
JIANGSU HENGRU-A
27.29
-2.431176
7267125
11.91
-0.1676446
22324446
3505505
JIANGSU YANGHE-A
59.88
3.259183
5407844
17.55
-1.238042
7544582
8.94
-2.188184
5429109
CHINA OILFIELD-A
15.13
CHINA PACIFIC-A
0.2650762
17.33
1.701878
22636089
JIANGXI COPPER-A
CHINA PETROLEU-A
4.45
-1.111111
46773174
JINDUICHENG -A
CHINA RAILWAY-A
4.47
0.4494382
11773795
KANGMEI PHARMA-A
18.24
-0.4909984
15421197
CHINA RAILWAY-A
2.54
-0.78125
17846626
KWEICHOW MOUTA-A
191.17
-0.2972776
3965419
CHINA RESOURCE-A
29.6
0
6437890
LUZHOU LAOJIAO-A
24.76
-0.6420546
5588824
CHINA SHENHUA-A
17.99
-0.6077348
11292545
METALLURGICAL-A
1.79
-1.104972
40227026
CHINA SHIPBUIL-A
4.52
0
59982923
NARI TECHNOLOG-A
14.54
-0.2743484
14219636
14825300
NINGBO PORT CO-A
2.15
-0.921659
8837826
7.11
-0.1404494
23101446
CHINA SOUTHERN-A
3.11
-1.269841
CHINA STATE -A
3.32
-1.190476
74455741
OFFSHORE OIL-A
CHINA UNITED-A
3.35
-1.470588
92024901
PETROCHINA CO-A
7.88
-1.622971
22439859
CHINA VANKE CO-A
9.9
-0.2016129
90978987
PING AN BANK-A
11.28
0.8944544
61400269
CHINA YANGTZE-A
6.84
-2.145923
59586562
PING AN INSURA-A
37.11
2.006597
34347751
0.6711409
27589955
POLY REAL ESTA-A
10.59
-0.1885014
61674173
PRICE DAY %
Volume
NAME
PRICE DAY %
Volume
CHONGQING CHAN-A
9
ZTE CORP-A
MOVERS 108
178
14 2408
INDEX 2317.394 HIGH
2408.28
LOW
2270.94
52W (H) 2791.303 (L) 2102.135
2270
19-June
21-June
FTSE Taiwan 50 Index NAME ACER INC
NAME
PRICE DAY %
21.6
-2.262443
11778088
FORMOSA PLASTIC
67.8
-1.166181
24222541
ADVANCED SEMICON
24.45
-1.41129
14164139
FOXCONN TECHNOLO
71.2
-1.385042
5252884
ASIA CEMENT CORP
35.05
-2.094972
8679602
FUBON FINANCIAL
38.9
-1.017812
25934149
TSMC
ASUSTEK COMPUTER
302.5
1.851852
6932568
HON HAI PRECISIO
70
-0.990099
53954309
UNI-PRESIDENT
AU OPTRONICS COR
10.9
-4.385965
169206082
HOTAI MOTOR CO
281
-4.095563
1090338
CATCHER TECH
Volume
TAIWAN MOBILE CO
109
-3.111111
TPK HOLDING CO L
525
-6.914894
5557614
103.5 -0.4807692
39844187
UNITED MICROELEC
7346801
58.2
0.3448276
10027817
12.55
-3.461538
130534545
154
-2.222222
6589370
HTC CORP
248.5
-0.6
19644445
WISTRON CORP
29.6
-1.003344
35102243
CATHAY FINANCIAL
40.65
0.7434944
49921342
HUA NAN FINANCIA
16.25
-1.515152
11077568
YUANTA FINANCIAL
15.3
0.990099
30682401
CHANG HWA BANK
16.7
3.08642
24644611
LARGAN PRECISION
922
-5.435897
3303375
YULON MOTOR CO
47.35
-1.354167
5636403
CHENG SHIN RUBBE
91.7 -0.8648649
12080261
LITE-ON TECHNOLO
49.45
1.22825
5703188
CHIMEI INNOLUX C
15.9
-6.744868
196032700
MEDIATEK INC
330
-3.649635
16411948
CHINA DEVELOPMEN
8.11
-1.218027
54652109
MEGA FINANCIAL H
22.8
0.4405286
55394157
CHINA STEEL CORP
23.2
-2.92887
57633926
NAN YA PLASTICS
57.5
-2.37691
38622933
18.25 -0.8152174
60231397
PRESIDENT CHAIN
185.5
0.2702703
2349112
95 -0.3147954
CHINATRUST FINAN CHUNGHWA TELECOM COMPAL ELECTRON DELTA ELECT INC
12579716
QUANTA COMPUTER
61
-0.974026
13999538
16.05
-4.464286
43536656
SILICONWARE PREC
36.2
-1.092896
6467151
135
0.7462687
14502171
SINOPAC FINANCIA
13.95
-2.105263
30602257
FAR EASTERN NEW
30.85
-0.483871
10984556
SYNNEX TECH INTL
41.4
-2.816901
28395515
FAR EASTONE TELE
74.1
1.506849
8558288
TAIWAN CEMENT
35.15
-5.764075
26341776
FIRST FINANCIAL
13088082
TAIWAN COOPERATI
16.3
-1.510574
21137090
FORMOSA CHEM & F
17.35 -0.5730659 66.2
-2.647059
23757247
TAIWAN FERTILIZE
72.5
-1.894452
3715092
FORMOSA PETROCHE
69
-5.608755
27391858
TAIWAN GLASS IND
26.35
-3.302752
2082362
MOVERS
10
40
0 5670
INDEX 5362.98 HIGH
5560.73
LOW
5334.63
52W (H) 5896.71 5470
(L) 4719.96 19-June
21-June
13
June 24, 2013
Markets Gaming Stocks - Daily Performance (Hong Kong Stock Exchange) 64.1
40.65
19.86
63.3
40.20
19.73 62.5
39.75
Max 40.65
average 39.997
Min 39.3
39.30
Last 39.35
19.60
61.7
Max 64.1
average 61.691
Min 60.9
60.9
Last 60.9
Max 19.86
average 19.687
Min 19.48
Last 19.64
19.54
38.05 37.85
22.70 22.37
19.14
37.65
22.05 18.75
37.45
Max 38.05
average 37.514
Min 37.25
Last 37.35
37.25
Max 19.54
average 18.687
Commodities PRICE
DAY %
YTD %
(H) 52W
Last 18.38
(L) 52W
WTI CRUDE FUTURE Aug13
95.64
0.525541308
2.005119454
99.98000336
82
BRENT CRUDE FUTR Aug13
102.8
0.636319139
-3.808365304
115.1699982
91.76999664
GASOLINE RBOB FUT Jul13
280.9
0.782146958
-0.524116439
318.0399895
235.0999832
GAS OIL FUT (ICE) Aug13
873.5
-0.085787818
-3.905390539
983.5
816
NATURAL GAS FUTR Jul13
3.888
0.283724529
9.152161707
4.499000072
3.329999924
288.99
0.61625235
-3.724556085
322.0499992
259.5000029
Gold Spot $/Oz
1296.74
-0.2385
-22.0925
1796.08
1269.66
Silver Spot $/Oz
19.8918
-0.8138
-33.9362
35.365
19.3993
Platinum Spot $/Oz
1361.36
-2.7357
-10.3041
1742.8
1334.28
Palladium Spot $/Oz
679.83
0.2817
-2.8342
786.5
553.75
LME ALUMINUM 3MO ($)
1797.5
-1.775956284
-13.28991799
2200.199951
1789.5 6750
NY Harb ULSD Fut Jul13 METALS
Min 18.36
LME COPPER 3MO ($)
6770
-2.729885057
-14.6387593
8422
LME ZINC
1830
-1.612903226
-12.01923077
2230
1745
13700
-3.521126761
-19.69519343
18920
13680 14.60000038
3MO ($)
LME NICKEL 3MO ($) AGRICULTURE ROUGH RICE (CBOT) Sep13
COUNTRY MAJOR
ASIA PACIFIC
CROSSES
AUD GBP CHF EUR JPY MOP HKD CNY INR THB SGD TWD PHP IDR AUDJPY EURCHF EURGBP EURCNY EURMOP EURJPY HKDMOP
16.1
0.31152648
4.511522233
16.47500038
554.25
-1.115075825
-7.586494373
665
512
WHEAT FUTURE(CBT) Sep13
704.25
-0.494524903
-12.73234201
905.75
673.75
SOYBEAN FUTURE Nov13
1275.25
-0.758754864
-2.110919209
1409.75
1186.5
119.8
1.225179552
-21.41685799
203.8499908
117.0999985
NAME
16.47999954
ARISTOCRAT LEISU
72.62999725
CROWN LTD
CORN FUTURE
Dec13
COFFEE 'C' FUTURE Sep13 SUGAR #11 (WORLD) Oct13
16.76
COTTON NO.2 FUTR Dec13
84.93
0.600240096
-16.45064806
-0.503748828
7.861315723
22.8599987 89.55999756
World Stock Markets - Indices NAME
18.36
21.72 Max 22.7
average 21.65
Min 21.4
Last 21.4
PRICE
DAY %
YTD %
(H) 52W
(L) 52W
0.9246 1.5486 0.9273 1.3225 97.5 7.9885 7.7558 6.1329 59.19 31.04 1.2714 30.137 43.72 10011 90.141 1.22639 0.85401 8.1077 10.5656 128.93 1.03
0.4345 0.2136 0.6363 0.235 0.3179 -0.0013 -0.0052 -0.0701 0.6504 0.1933 0.2517 -0.428 0.3545 -0.2897 -0.1032 0.4012 -0.0187 -0.1147 -0.2215 0.0931 0
-10.9077 -4.2656 -1.2833 0.2654 -11.6923 -0.0663 -0.067 1.593 -7.0873 -1.482 -3.9327 -3.6633 -6.21 -2.1776 -0.903 -1.5419 -4.5187 1.3543 -0.3332 -11.9134 -0.0097
1.0625 1.6381 0.9972 1.3711 103.74 8.0111 7.7664 6.3964 59.98 32 1.2847 30.203 44.181 10174 105.433 1.265 0.88151 8.4957 10.9254 133.8 1.032
0.9164 1.4832 0.9022 1.2043 77.13 7.9824 7.7498 6.1203 51.3863 28.56 1.2152 28.913 40.54 9338 79.316 1.20054 0.77553 7.7018 9.6245 94.12 1.0289
Macau Related Stocks PRICE
DAY %
YTD %
(H) 52W
(L) 52W
4.1
-2.380952
30.15873
4.49
2.29
VOLUME CRNCY 3782437
12.02
-2.276423
12.6523
13.75
8.28
2236748
AMAX HOLDINGS LT
1.26
-0.7874016
-9.999998
1.72
0.75
3691575
BOC HONG KONG HO
23.95
-0.4158004
-0.6224082
28
22.6
18586800
CENTURY LEGEND
0.355
-1.388889
33.96227
0.42
0.22
62500
5.5
0
-8.180297
6.74
2.89
6000
CHINA OVERSEAS
18.98
-0.8359457
-17.8355
25.6
16.362
57328815
CHINESE ESTATES
13.12
-0.7564297
8.166769
14.12
8.012
535500
CHOW TAI FOOK JE
8.84
-0.5624297
-28.9389
13.4
8.4
3754194
EMPEROR ENTERTAI
2.75
-1.785714
45.50265
3.07
1.31
1380000
FUTURE BRIGHT
2.35
-1.67364
93.89021
2.76
0.815
2358000
GALAXY ENTERTAIN
39.35
-8.381839
29.65403
44.95
16.98
50167815 2955299
CHEUK NANG HLDGS
COUNTRY
PRICE
DAY %
YTD %
(H) 52W
(L) 52W
DOW JONES INDUS. AVG
US
14758.32
-2.34162
12.62334
15542.4
12450.17
NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX
US
3364.635
-2.281772
11.4297
3532.038
2810.8
FTSE 100 INDEX
GB
6243.43
1.362446
5.860143
6875.62
5435.46
HANG SENG BK
114.4
-0.7805724
-3.622575
132.8
102.6
DAX INDEX
GE
7984.57
0.7074496
4.889131
8557.86
6096.94
HOPEWELL HLDGS
24.8
-1.587302
-25.41353
35.3
19.839
2358122
HSBC HLDGS PLC
80.65
-1.042945
-0.7995117
90.7
61.1
27953150 2162000
NIKKEI 225
JN
13230.13
1.656219
27.27178
15942.6
8328.019531
HANG SENG INDEX
HK
20263.31
-0.586571
-10.56458
23944.74
18710.58984
CSI 300 INDEX
CH
2317.394
-0.1754064
-8.147514
2791.303
2102.135
HUTCHISON TELE H
4.13
-0.4819277
16.01124
4.66
2.98
LUK FOOK HLDGS I
17.78
-1.550388
-27.13115
30.05
15.3
1572300
MELCO INTL DEVEL
15.4
-4.938272
70.92119
18.18
5.12
10286000 9223276
TAIWAN TAIEX INDEX
TA
7793.31
-1.336893
1.218392
8439.15
6922.73
MGM CHINA HOLDIN
19.64
-3.488943
47.91073
21.6
9.509
KOSPI INDEX
SK
1822.83
-1.494739
-8.723872
2042.48
1758.99
MIDLAND HOLDINGS
2.87
0.7017544
-22.43243
5
2.8
2202000
S&P/ASX 200 INDEX
AU
4738.8
-0.411652
1.932686
5249.6
3993.8
NEPTUNE GROUP
0.177
-0.5617978
16.44737
0.23
0.084
47640000
ID
4515.372
-2.47564
4.602721
5251.296
3843.022
NEW WORLD DEV
10.44
-2.429907
-13.14476
15.12
8.66
21280603
FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI
MA
1755.85
-0.3682604
3.961042
1826.22
1590.67
SANDS CHINA LTD
37.35
-3.861004
10.01473
43.7
20.65
22602702
SHUN HO RESOURCE
1.42
0
1.428573
1.67
1.03
0
NZX ALL INDEX
NZ
934.26
-0.8068087
5.918809
998.487
755.149
SHUN TAK HOLDING
3.74
-1.058201
-10.73986
4.65
2.56
4765750
PHILIPPINES ALL SHARE IX
PH
3821.01
-2.516551
3.299018
4571.4
3355.21
SJM HOLDINGS LTD
18.38
-7.452165
3.562962
22.382
12.995
16835037
SMARTONE TELECOM
12.72
-0.625
-9.65909
17.38
12.5
1356149
21.4
-5.934066
2.147968
26.5
14.62
12975142
JAKARTA COMPOSITE INDEX
21.40
Currency Exchange Rates
NAME ENERGY
19.48
HSBC Dragon 300 Index Singapor
SI
592.54
-4.11
-4.6
NA
NA
STOCK EXCH OF THAI INDEX
TH
1400.5
-0.1205257
0.615688
1649.77
1144.44
HO CHI MINH STOCK INDEX
VN
498.84
-0.1341314
20.57138
533.15
372.39
ASIA ENTERTAINME
3.42
-2.285714
21.50569
4.7647
2.2076
488568
BALLY TECHNOLOGI
55.33
-2.776313
23.75308
57.86
41.74
516762
Laos Composite Index
LO
1338.82
0
10.2118
1455.82
980.83
BOC HONG KONG HO
3.12
0
1.628667
3.6
2.85
1000
GALAXY ENTERTAIN
5.46
-4.210526
37.53149
5.77
2.25
3715
INTL GAME TECH
16.31
-3.832547
15.10233
18.81
10.92
4983873
JONES LANG LASAL
87.64
-3.224382
4.407907
101.46
61.39
456132
LAS VEGAS SANDS
53.88
-4.603399
16.72444
60.54
32.6127
9247775
MELCO CROWN-ADR
23.46
-5.858748
39.31116
25.2
9.13
5317690
MGM CHINA HOLDIN
2.71
0
46.48648
2.71
1.36
200
MGM RESORTS INTE
14.06
-6.204136
20.79037
15.95
8.83
16199438
SHFL ENTERTAINME
17.94
-1.80624
23.72414
18.57
12.35
551381
SJM HOLDINGS LTD
2.56
-0.3891051
12.39823
2.9481
1.7255
1711
132.17
-4.127376
17.49489
144.99
84.4902
2678186
Shanghai Shenzhen Composite index is listing the biggest companies by market capitalisation. All data supplied by Bloomberg unless otherwise indicated.
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14 14
June 24, 2013 April 19, 2013
Opinion
Online Snooping? Zut Alors! Tim Judah
T
Correspondent for the Economist and author of several books on the Balkans
he revelation that the U.S. National Security Agency can more or less spy on anyone who uses a phone or the Internet, at home or abroad, has elicited mostly angry and amazed reactions across Europe. Much of the outrage seems to me disingenuous. By 2013, anyone who discusses criminal plans by e-mail surely has been in hiding. When people shop with store cards, they seem content to allow companies to track their purchases in exchange for points and discounts. Gmail and Facebook use surfing data to populate people’s private pages with tailored advertisements, providing a free service in exchange. All of this is snooping, too. The other day, I accompanied my journalist son to my accountants, with whom he needed to sign up because he has now started work. They lectured him against the temptations of tax evasion, saying that U.K. tax officials now read articles, check journalists’ entries on LinkedIn and elsewhere, and then verify that declared earnings match the activities discovered online. Tax offices are much more techsavvy than they used to be. So, complaints that the NSA
has invaded a lost paradise of privacy, or that the U.K. may have circumvented domestic laws to get information from the NSA seem overwrought. How did people not know that the Internet is public? “Europe at the mercy of American espionage,” said the headline in France’s left-leaning daily newspaper, Le Monde. Le Figaro ran an article under the headline “Espionage: Europe demands explanations from the United States”. “Basic civil rights around the world, which are taken for granted far too naively in Western democracies are being placed under attack by state ‘security architecture’ such as the U.S spying programme Prism,” thundered Germany’s left-leaning Tageszeitung.
Trojan horse The Guardian story that exposed the Prism programme in the U.K. was certainly valuable. It made public the workings of the surveillance and it is understandable that people are concerned about what more they don’t know. The Tageszeitung piece, for example, continues: “In Germany – where the relatively recent examples of two totalitarian state systems mean
that the consequences of state monitoring in the private sector are still in living memory – three things must result from this: clarification of the situation, defence and self-protection.” In Switzerland, where data leaks by individuals for cash have helped bring about the end of Swiss banking’s risk-free tax-evasion era for foreigners, the daily Le Temps praises Prism whistle-blower Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier accused of supplying WikiLeaks with vast quantities of classified military logs from the Iraq War.
The basic dilemma, of course, is finding the happy medium between securing civil liberties and protecting us from evil-doers
Such people are, according to Le Temps, “the best guarantee that the nightmare of an electronic Big Brother can be avoided”. Eesti Rahvusringhaaling, Estonia’s public broadcaster, quoted Finnish Internet expert Mikko Hypponen, who declared privacy dead. “With the explosive development of the social networks, we have allowed a Trojan horse into our living rooms. Now we have a direct connection to data-protection hell. And we can’t do a thing – as long as we want to use these convenient free services,” Hypponen said. The original software for the online phone service Skype, one of the companies named in the Prism affair, was developed by Estonians.
Finding balance The basic dilemma, of course, is finding the happy medium between securing civil liberties and protecting us from evil-doers. Do I mind that the British intelligence service might ask the Americans what I have been up to on Facebook, instead of asking a judge for a warrant? Sure, a bit. How much would I mind if the same intelligence service failed to protect me from having my head chopped off by a highstreet jihadist, as happened to a British soldier in London on May 22? Or if the intelligence service was unable to stop a paedophile gang from attacking my children because civil-liberties legislation prevented the government from
gleaning clues from Facebook as to what was about to happen? I would mind a lot. Two of the U.K.’s newspapers probably have it right. The first is the Sun, a masscirculation tabloid, which writes about the growing concern that “spooks” and Britain’s topsecret intelligence-gathering centre are “in league with shadowy button-pushers in America, putting us all under surveillance, trawling our Facebook photos, even reading our words as we type them. Except that, for almost every single one of us, they’re not. This `Big Brother’ nightmare is a hysterical fantasy.” At the other end of the U.K.’s journalistic spectrum, Gideon Rachman makes a similar case in the Financial Times. “Alongside all the people ‘liking’ cat videos and friending each other on Facebook, distinctly unfriendly criminal networks and terrorists also operate in cyber space. It is the legitimate interest of the state to try and keep tabs on the dark side of the internet,” Rachman writes. This story may fade from the news quickly, but it will complicate relations between the U.S. and the European Union. A data-protection agreement in the field of police and judicial cooperation is currently being negotiated. The Financial Times quoted Hannes Swoboda, the head of the Socialist grouping in the European Parliament, who says there will be “growing resistance against an agreement with the U.S. unless there are some clear guarantees form their side that our European principles of data protection are respected.” Bloomberg/World View
editorial council Paulo A. Azevedo, Tiago Azevedo, José I. Duarte, Emanuel Graça, Mandy Kuok Founder & Publisher Paulo A. Azevedo | pazevedo@macaubusinessdaily.com Editor-in-Chief Tiago Azevedo DEputy Editor-in-Chief Vitor Quintã Associate editor Michael Grimes GROUP SENIOR ANALYST José I. Duarte Newsdesk Luciana Leitão, Stephanie Lai, Tony Lai EDITOR AT LARGE Alex Lee Creative Director José Manuel Cardoso WEB & IT Janne Louhikari Contributors James Chu, João Francisco Pinto, Larry So, Pedro Cortés, Ricardo Siu, Rose N. Lai, Zen Udani Photography Carmo Correia, Manuel Cardoso Assistant to the publisher Laurentina da Silva | ltinas@macaubusinessdaily.com office manager Elsa Vong | elsav@macaubusinessdaily.com Agencies Bloomberg, Reuters, AFP, Xinhua, Lusa, Project Syndicate Printed in Macau by Welfare Ltd.
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15 15
June April 24, 19, 2013 2013
Opinion Business
wires
Libor unplugged
Leading reports from Asia’s best business newspapers Howard Davies Former chairman of Britain’s Financial Services Authority and Deputy Governor of the Bank of England
Jakarta Post Bank Indonesia (BI) says the rise in the price of subsidisedfuel price will drive inflation during the next three months. “There will be monthly inflation of at least 2 percent starting June,” BI Governor Agus Martowardojo was quoted as saying. The inflation rate will not start to decline until August, according to Mr Martowardojo. Fuel prices went up on Saturday. The price of petrol went up 44 percent on average. Mr Martowardojo said that the impact of the inflation would be mitigated by the government’s direct cash assistance programme. “In the fourth month, the impact of the inflation will be insignificant,” he said.
Asahi Shimbun The Bank of Tokyo MitsubishiUFJ Ltd will pay US$250 million to the state of New York for laundering billions of dollars in transactions that violated economic sanctions against countries including Iran, Sudan and Myanmar, New York financial regulators said. The state’s Department of Financial Services said the bank agreed to the fine and a year of special monitoring for handling the 28,000 U.S. dollar transactions totalling about US$100 billion through its New York operation between 2002 and 2007.
Bangkok Post The Thai bourse sank as much as 3.29 percent, while the baht weakened to beyond the 31 baht-to-the-US-dollar level amid a global rout. Investors fretted late last week over the Federal Reserve’s increasing optimism over the U.S. economic outlook and its plans to start winding down its stimulus programme this year. The Bank of Thailand warned that the country continues to be exposed to risks from capital outflows. The baht’s retreat against the greenback has apparently sparked a reversal of capital flows.
Korea Herald South Korea, the U.S. and Japan called on North Korea to demonstrate its sincerity toward dialogue with denuclearisation measures before returning to the negotiating table. Kim Kyegwan, North Korea’s vice foreign minister in charge of nuclear bargaining, reiterated a willingness to break the standoff through “various forums including the six-party talks” at a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Zhang Yesui. But Cho Tae-yong, Seoul’s top nuclear negotiator, stressed the need for “stronger obligations” on Pyongyang for any resumption of talks.
L
ast year’s Libor scandal was a shock to the body politic in London. Despite all that had gone before, the public and their representatives were stunned to learn that bankers had systematically undermined the foundations of a global market benchmark – one with London in its name to boot – for personal gain. Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, felt compelled to launch a parliamentary inquiry. On June 19, after a year’s work, the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards finally laid a large egg. Bankers will certainly regard the outcome as what in England we like to call a “curate’s egg” (served a rotten egg by his bishop, a young clergyman, when asked whether the egg was to his liking, replied that it was “good in parts”). They will choke on the commission’s recommendation of a new criminal offense for reckless conduct that leads to taxpayer bailouts, reinforced by a new “senior persons” regime that would ascribe all bank functions to a specific individual, who would be held personally liable when things go wrong. The commission argues that “top bankers dodged accountability for failings on their watch by claiming ignorance or hiding behind collective decision-making”. Its members aim to make that impossible. If they have their way, behaving recklessly with banking assets will result in a prison sentence, with no Monopoly-style “get out of jail free” card for financial masters of the universe. I can already hear the sound of lawyers sharpening their pencils: the offence must be defined specifically enough to withstand a human-rights challenge. But, if implemented, the commission’s proposed regime would certainly be tougher than what is now on
offer in New York or other banking centres. And British MPs are noticeably impatient with what they consider the glacial pace of change in global regulation; they want action now.
‘Slowest ship’ If the United Kingdom does proceed in this unilateral way, what would the consequences be for London’s banking industry? Would New York, Frankfurt, or even Paris receive a competitive boost as international bankers, alarmed at the prospect of time behind bars if their derivative trades blow up again, flee the City? The commission’s members offer two, somewhat contradictory, answers to that question. The first is that, frankly, they don’t care. “The risk of an exodus should be disregarded,” the commission says, noting that the advantages of being a global financial centre have been accompanied by serious associated risks to the domestic economy. Unlike the United States, where the financial sector is smaller as a share of GDP, the U.K. economy has still not recovered the output lost in the post-2008 Great Recession, owing to continued retrenchment in the banking sector. The commission’s members do recognise that London’s loss of status as a global financial centre would be costly in terms of jobs and output, so they developed a second line of argument. “There is nothing inherently optimal,” they say, about a level playing field in international finance. Attempts to develop a single European financial market have, in their view, forced countries to respond to the failings revealed by the 2008 crisis at the speed of the “slowest ship in the convoy”. By contrast, the commission argues, “there may be big benefits to the U.K. as a financial centre
from demonstrating that it can establish and adhere to standards significantly above the international minimum”. In addition to the tough new regime of personal accountability, the commission would supplement the Basel standards on bank capital with a tight leverage ratio.
Tough challenge The British government, preoccupied with finding ways to stimulate growth as the next election approaches, will no doubt think hard before making any changes that might drive business offshore. But the government is caught between a rock and a hard place, hemmed in by a parliament that, strongly backed by a bank-hostile press and public opinion, is eager to enact reforms, and by EU directives to implement a tougher regime. So, is the Commission right that the government should move quickly on reform and disregard the consequences? Such evidence as one can find from international surveys suggests that the regulatory changes implemented so far have not driven bankers away. London has already implemented an approach that is tougher than that of most other financial centres. Taxes levied on executive bonuses have cost international banks
dearly. Regulators are now appreciably tougher and more intrusive than their counterparts in New York. Bankers don’t like it, but they have not yet left for more congenial locations. Nor do they indicate that they will. Indeed, the latest Z-Yen index of global financial centres showed London maintaining its first-place position – and with its margin over New York unchanged. The Asian centres are catching up, as one would expect, but they are hardly direct competitors for business that would otherwise be done in London. Frankfurt and Paris, the most plausible European competitors, languish in tenth and 26th place, respectively. Rating agencies and shareholders are nervous when they hear that a stricter regulatory environment is not necessarily a disadvantage. But a regime in which personal responsibility strongly affects individuals in one jurisdiction will give bankers pause for thought, especially in the case of global banks with complex matrix-management systems that enable product heads to be moved elsewhere. British legislators will need to be satisfied that any new regime captures the right people, in the right way. However politically appealing the idea of rogue bankers behind bars might be, putting them there is likely to remain very challenging in practice. © Project Syndicate
The British government … will no doubt think hard before making any changes that might drive business offshore
16
June 24, 2013
Closing Iran currency gains on change in presidency Autos led US consumer spending gain The Iranian rial has strengthened by more than 15 percent against the dollar since the victory of moderate Hassan Rowhani who was elected president more than a week ago, reports said yesterday. The Iranian currency was trading at under 30,000 to the dollar yesterday morning compared to 35,000 a week ago, media and dealers said. The rial had lost more than two-thirds of its value against the dollar since early 2012 when the United States and the European Union announced new sanctions against Iran’s oil exports and access to the global banking system.
Consumer spending in the United States probably climbed in May by the most in three months, led by growing demand for automobiles, economists said before a report this week. The projected 0.3 percent gain in purchases would follow a 0.2 percent fall in April, the first drop in a year, according to the median forecast of 63 economists surveyed by Bloomberg ahead of Commerce Department data on June 27. Other reports may show household confidence held near multiyear highs, housing continued to strengthen and orders for durable goods grew.
Indonesia fires batter palm oil firms’ reputation Smog crisis in Singapore, Malaysia highlight failure to tackle slash-and-burn Sam Reeves
F
ires in Indonesia that have cloaked Singapore in record levels of smog highlight the continued failure of efforts to prevent illegal slash-and-burn land clearance in a country with a history of chaotic forest management, activists say. The crisis has brought more negative publicity for big palm oil companies – Indonesian, Singaporean and Malaysian – which deforest vast swathes of Sumatra, although the companies insist they have strict “no burn” policies. They have been accused of starting many of the fires to clear land through the practice of slashand-burn, which is illegal but still frequently used because it is the quickest and cheapest way of preparing land for plantations. While environmental groups have been leading the charge against the companies, they say such problems would not occur so frequently if Indonesia properly enforced laws that ban slash-and-burn clearances. Legislation has not been properly
Singapore was covered in record levels of haze earlier this week
implemented due to gaps in capacity, such as a lack of field officers, said Anwar Purwoto, forest programme director for WWF Indonesia. However, senior forestry ministry official Hadi Daryanto told AFP stopping such fires was “not simply about law enforcement”. He pointed out that small landowners were also setting fires.
The failure to tackle slash-andburn clearances is part of a bigger picture of the notoriously difficult challenge Indonesia faces in trying to protect its swathes of rainforest. The vast archipelago sprawls over more than 17,000 islands, and power is heavily decentralised, making land management very chaotic. The corruption that is endemic
in Indonesia is also present when it comes to the forestry sector and the granting of concessions. A stark illustration that points to problems in Riau itself is the fact that the province’s governor has been arrested by corruption investigators – and one of the allegations he faces relates to the issuance of logging permits. AFP
Budget airlines hit rough air in Japan Sky-high costs and established competition make life hard for new carriers Hiroshi Hiyama
J
apan’s budget airlines have flown into turbulence with AirAsia’s local carrier in danger of being grounded, but analysts say the popularity of discount flying should keep the fledgling sector in the sky. Earlier this month, Malaysiabased AirAsia warned it might pull the plug on its partnership with All Nippon Airways (ANA), citing management tensions. While details of the dispute remain unclear, AirAsia, the region’s dominant budget carrier, said its Japanese business was “facing some challenges attributed to a difference of opinion in management, most critically on the points of how to
operate a low cost business and operating from Narita” airport. It added that AirAsia Japan was suffering from an “inability to manage costs”. A key constraint on the country’s budget carriers is that they have been shut out of Haneda airport, just a short train ride from downtown Tokyo and the staging point for the most profitable domestic routes, which are controlled by ANA and rival Japan Airlines (JAL). The Japanese aviation industry has long been notorious for skyhigh landing fees and fuel taxes, in a market that was controlled for decades by JAL and ANA, the country’s two dominant carriers.
But a trio of new entrants have jumped into the market over the past couple of years, hoping to cash in on increases in airport capacity and steal away customers from both regional rivals and the dominant carriers, as well as another popular travel option in Japan: bullet trains. AirAsia Japan, however, is in trouble less than two years after it got off the ground. The budget giant said it wanted to stay in the Japanese market and “would not rule out any options to make this happen, including dissolution of the joint venture”. A report in Japan’s leading Nikkei business daily said AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes
reached an agreement on the dissolution after discussions with senior ANA officials. Some observers see AirAsia partnering with another firm, possibly outside the aviation industry, with ANA merging its discount carrier service into its other venture Peach, which flies out of the smaller city of Osaka. Makiko Nakagawa, analyst with Fukoku Capital Management, said the clash underscored how Japan’s budget carriers have more growing pains ahead. “But the market has potential. No countries have failed to succeed in this business. Japan is no exception.” AFP