Professional Documents
Culture Documents
These information have been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable, but I make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or completeness.
Copyright 2013 The Poon Report by Vincent Poon. All rights reserved.
Greece challenges
revelations
IMF
over
WikiLeaks
These information have been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable, but I make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or completeness.
Copyright 2013 The Poon Report by Vincent Poon. All rights reserved.
UK News
Tata only going through motions of UK steel
sale
Taken from the FT Saturday, 2 April 2016
These information have been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable, but I make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or completeness.
Copyright 2013 The Poon Report by Vincent Poon. All rights reserved.
These information have been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable, but I make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or completeness.
Copyright 2013 The Poon Report by Vincent Poon. All rights reserved.
These information have been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable, but I make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or completeness.
Copyright 2013 The Poon Report by Vincent Poon. All rights reserved.
Carney said in February that the Bank could push rates down
to zero to deal with a downturn in the economy, but
wouldnt follow the likes of the eurozone, Japan and
Switzerland in having negative interest rates.
Treasury watchdog the Office for Budgetary Responsibility
said last month that its latest growth forecasts assumed
rates would dip below 0.5% in the next two years. The pound
has fallen sharply this year as the prospect of higher rates
faded into the distance. Sterling traded at $1.42 on Friday,
down from above $1.50 as recently as December.
But some economists predict that a weaker currency, which
makes British exports more competitive, and a recent
rebound in commodity prices could mean inflation rises
sooner than investors expect.
Michael Saunders, UK economist at Citigroup, said the
domestic economy remains resilient to the global slowdown,
and investors have gone too far in betting that rates will stay
on hold.
The period in which inflation is super low is coming to an
end. I think theres a decent chance they will hike rates next
year, he said.
(Full article click - Times)
---
Liam Halligan
A Brexit vote may be the only way to get real
EU reform
Taken from the Sunday Telegraph 3 April 2016
These information have been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable, but I make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or completeness.
Copyright 2013 The Poon Report by Vincent Poon. All rights reserved.
These information have been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable, but I make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or completeness.
Copyright 2013 The Poon Report by Vincent Poon. All rights reserved.
News Americas
Crude Oil Prices Sink as Saudis Balk at
Production Curbs
Taken from the WSJ Saturday, 2 April 2016
These information have been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable, but I make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or completeness.
Copyright 2013 The Poon Report by Vincent Poon. All rights reserved.
---
Irwin Stelzer
An American Account: Yellen is right to fear
raising rates, yet she must do it
Taken from the Sunday Times 3 April 2016
These information have been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable, but I make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or completeness.
Copyright 2013 The Poon Report by Vincent Poon. All rights reserved.
These information have been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable, but I make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or completeness.
Copyright 2013 The Poon Report by Vincent Poon. All rights reserved.
These information have been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable, but I make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or completeness.
Copyright 2013 The Poon Report by Vincent Poon. All rights reserved.
News Asia
Global regulators press banks for information in
1MDB case
Taken from the FT Saturday, 2 April 2016
These information have been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable, but I make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or completeness.
Copyright 2013 The Poon Report by Vincent Poon. All rights reserved.
The 2012 bond sales, each for $1.75 billion, were meant to
fund the purchase of power plants in Malaysia. The bonds
were guaranteed by Abu Dhabis IPIC. After the offering,
1MDB sent a $1.4 billion collateral payment to Aabar,
according to 1MDB financial statements.
Investigators in Abu Dhabi believe that money and a later
transfer by 1MDB of an additional $1 billion never got to
Aabar but instead went to an almost identically named
company set up in the British Virgin Islands, called Aabar
Investments PJS Ltd. The firm with the similar name was set
up by Messrs. Al Husseiny and Al Qubaisi, according to people
familiar with the matter.
The U.A.E. probe is focusing on whether Messrs. Al Qubaisi
and Al Husseiny used the British Virgin Islands Aabar to
funnel money from 1MDB into various accounts and
companies around the world, some of them connected to
Malaysians, the people said.
Executives at IPIC have been examining the activity of
Messrs. Al Qubaisi and Al Husseiny since last summer,
according to people familiar with the matter. U.A.E.
authorities got more involved in the investigation earlier this
year, spurred in part by the Swiss investigation, the people
said.
The probes into the 2012 bonds are one of several strands of
global investigations into 1MDB, which was set up by the
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2009 to develop the
countrys economy but has accumulated debts of $11 billion
that it has struggled to repay.
Authorities in Malaysia and at least six other nations
including the U.S. are investigating the fund, including the
transfer of more than $1 billion into the prime ministers
bank accounts. Some of the money was used to help the
ruling party during a tight national election and some was
spent on personal luxury items, The Wall Street Journal
reported Thursday. About $620 million was transferred back
to the same shell company that sent the $681 million into
the accounts in 2013. It is unclear what happened to the
money that was sent back.
Mr. Najib and his supporters have maintained the money in
his accounts was a legal donation from the Saudi royal family
and have denied the allegations. Mohamed Apandi Ali,
Malaysias attorney general, cleared the prime minister of
wrongdoing in January.
1MDB has denied wrongdoing and pledged to assist with any
investigations. The fund has said it had not paid any funds to
the personal accounts of the Prime Minister.
Separately, U.S. investigators probing 1MDB have traveled to
Malaysia to interview banks, including Deutsche Bank AG and
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and ask for documents related to
their interactions with 1MDB, according to people familiar
with the matter. Neither is a focus of the Justice
Departments probe, they added.
Deutsche Bank, as 1MDBs banker, was involved in sending $1
billion of the funds money out of the country in 2009 as part
of a joint venture with a Saudi Arabian company, according
to documents that form part of a probe into 1MDB by
Malaysias auditor general. Some of the funds have gone
missing, people familiar with the matter said. J.P. Morgan
was the banker for 1MDBs joint venture with the Saudi
company.
Both J.P. Morgan and Deutsche declined to comment.
The U.A.E. probe, according to people familiar with the
matter, is focusing on Messrs. Al Qubaisi and Al Husseiny,
who, until last year, were two of 1MDBs most important
contacts in Abu Dhabi. The men are both living in the U.A.E.
Mr. Al Qubaisi was involved in the multibillion-dollar bailout
of Barclays PLC during the financial crisis in 2008 as well as
This year, the future looked bleak for Baosteel, the listed
arm of Chinas state-owned Baosteel Group, the countrys
second-largest producer.
It was little more rosy for Britains biggest producer of the
metal: Tata Steel.
At Baosteel, net profits dropped 82.5 per cent in 2015,
from Rmb9.4bn ($1.45bn) to Rmb1.04bn, as the
companys aggressive expansion in the mid-2000s proved
costly in the face of declining Chinese demand.
More than 5,000 miles away, Tata announced in January that
it would lay off 750 workers in a desperate attempt to
salvage its ailing Port Talbot steel plant in South Wales, the
UKs biggest.
But their fates appear to have diverged from that point on.
This week, Tata said it was putting its entire UK operation up
for sale, throwing the survival of Britains steel industry into
doubt. The prime minister returned from holiday to conduct
emergency talks about saving a further 15,000 jobs.
On the very same day these talks were being held,
however, Baosteel board member Zhu Kebing revealed
that the company expected its output to rise 20 per cent
this year to 27.1m tonnes, as a new mill in the coastal
Guangdong province bean full operation.
This tale of two industries seems to suggest Chinas favoured
steelmakers may continue to enjoy better times.
Over the past decade, Chinas appetite for steel grew as its
economy churned out infrastructure, housing, ships, cars and
power stations at a blistering pace. Chinas output of steel
more than doubled in the 10 years to 2015, and today
accounts for almost half of total global tonnage. As its
steelmakers expanded, exports soared, too: they were up 20
per cent last year alone, leading to the imposition of tariffs
on Chinese steel by America and Europe and widespread
complaints about Chinas dumping of excess output at low
prices.
And China has itself just imposed anti-dumping duties on
under-priced steel from the EU, Japan and South Korea,
claiming domestic producers had suffered substantial
damage from under-cutting.
The ministry of commerce said imports of grain-oriented
flat-rolled steel, a type also made in Tatas Port Talbot works
in the UK, will be charged duties ranging from 14.5 to 46.3
per cent.
Tata and other western producers blame Chinas own
dumping for a collapse in prices. Between January and
December last year, global finished steel prices fell 30 per
cent, according to independent metals analysts CRU Group.
This is not the full story, though.
These information have been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable, but I make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or completeness.
Copyright 2013 The Poon Report by Vincent Poon. All rights reserved.
These information have been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable, but I make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or completeness.
Copyright 2013 The Poon Report by Vincent Poon. All rights reserved.
These information have been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable, but I make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or completeness.
Copyright 2013 The Poon Report by Vincent Poon. All rights reserved.
These information have been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable, but I make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or completeness.
Copyright 2013 The Poon Report by Vincent Poon. All rights reserved.