Fed Rescue AIG

On 16 Sept 2008, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank stepped in to prevent the financial collapse of AIG by announcing its plan to lend the World Largest Insurer US$85 billions in exchange for a 79.9% equity stake.

AIG's top management team including CEO would be replaced. AIG also had a big incentive to embark on a massive asset sale program to pay back the loan with come with a steep interest rate as quickly as possible.

AIG's history dates back to 1919 by when Cornelius Vander Starr established an insurance agency in Shanghai, China to sell insurance to the Chinese. After his business became successful in Asia, he expanded to other markets, including Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. As today, AIG employs about 116,000 people and operates in more than 130 countries around the world

Its main core business include the Insurance and Finance business, the International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) which is the world's largest aircraft leasing company, majority stakes in Bulgarian Telecommunications Company, P&O Ports of North America and substanstial stakes in People's Insurance Company of China, Ocean Finance of UK and more other more

Lehman Filed For Bankruptcy

Global financial markets were shaken on Monday with the news of US investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection, citing bank debt of $613 billion.

On September 15, 2008, Lehman filed for bankruptcy protection making it the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. The next day, Barclays plc announced that they will acquire a portion of Lehman Brothers asset for $1.75 billion which includes the Lehman Brothers Times Square headquarters and the bulk of Lehman's trading and debt security operations, which now become part of Barclays Capital.

Lehman which was founded in as a dry goods store, transform itself as a commmodities trading company to a IPO underwriter and then with a merger with American Express in mid 80s and finally to a global investment firm had finally collapsed under the current credit crisis. Do rem Lehman Bro (1850-2008)

Forbes Global CEO Conference 2008

Singapore was the host for the recent Forbes CEO Conference 2008 where more than 400 global CEOs, tycoons, entrepreneurs, capitalists and business leaders gathered for a annual 3 days event at Sentosa Island. It is perhaph one of the largest and most high profile business event of the year with hundreds of business leader met.

Some of the high profile speakers include

William Amelio of Lenovo, U.S.A.
Philippe Collas of Société Générale Group, France
Tony Fernandes of Tune Group, Malaysia
Juergen Gessler of Porsche Design Group, Germany
Lakshmi Mittal of ArcelorMittal, U.K.
Sir Howard Stringer of Sony Corporation, Japan and U.S.A.
Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister, Singapore
Lee Kuan Yew, Minister Mentor, Singapore

and many others....

Check the below link for program detail

Singapore Sovereign Wealth Fund Deals 2008

Recent report by Business Time highlighted a very interesting articles on Singapore two sovereign wealth fund - Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) & Temasek Holding which have been involved in five of the 10 biggest deals involving sovereign wealth funds on record, according to the latest estimates by Thomson Reuters.

Singapore's two state-owned funds have invest billions of dollars into US and European banks since last year. Together, both SWFs accounted for 10 out of the 22 major deals involving sovereign funds this year, until 28 Aug 08

The Biggest Sovereign Wealth Deal is GIC's injection of 11 billion Swiss francs (S$14.24 billion) into Switzerland's biggest bank, UBS, late last December is a sovereign fund single investment record, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.

GIC was also part of the consortium led by Spain's Ferrovial Group that bought UK-listed BAA, the world's biggest airport operator, for £10.3 billion (S$26.7 billion) in May 2006. That deal remain as the largest investment involving sovereign funds on record.

This year alone, both GIC and Temasek have made a combined US$9.1 billion worth of investments, more than a third of all deals involving sovereign funds worldwide according to Thomson Reuters estimates.

GIC invests Singapore's foreign reserves including pension savings, estimated at over US$300 billion, while Temasek manages a separate S$185 billion investment portfolio.

Singapore Millionaires

Was reading a recent report by CapGemini and Merrill Lynch World Wealth reported that there are currently about 77,000 millionaires in Singapore with net worth of USD$1M (without consider their first house) in 2008.

Consider Singapore is a population of 4 millions residents, the figures is about 2%of the total population which is astonishing.

Also another recent report by local newsapaper highlighted that there are currently about 2700 individual earning more than a million dollar paycheck annual.

Do visit my Singapore Million Maker article if you wish to learn the secrets of millionaire.

Singapore First Ever F1 Night Racing

Singapore will be hosting the 1st ever Street Night Racing in the history of Formula 1, racing on the public roads around the Marina Bay area, situated in the centre of Singapore's city, between 26-28 Sept.

The night racing is expected to attract more than 80,000 spectators on the viewing gallery and expect another 500 millions viewerships worldwide to watch the event on television. This will boost the profile of our island worldwide esp when Singapore is going to host the 2010 Youth Olympics as well as the opening of our 2 integrated gaming resorts - Marina Bay Sands (est late 2010) and Sentosa Genting (est 2011) which will bring records tourists to booast the tourism sector here.

With update, 95% of the F1 tickets had been sold and STB expects many oversea tourists to arrive during that week not only to catch a exciting historial night racing but also enjoy their lovely stay in the country with food dining and exciting entertainment in the city

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Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)

Was attending a ETF seminar at Singapore Exchange on a sat morning on managing portfolio with ETF. It was organized by SGX, AmFraser and Lyxor where it highlighted about the use of ETF to diversify and adding to your investment portfolio.

An Exchanged Traded Fund is an open-ended investment fund listed on a stock exchange. It's aims is to track the performance of and index or commodity price, buying and selling ETF units on a stock exchange

The parties involved in an ETF include

a) Fund Manager
b) Stock Exchange
c) Participating Dealer
d) Market Maker
e) Custodian & Trustee

Advantages of ETF are

i) Lower transcation cost of brokerage fee and management fee
ii) Intra-day pricing and trading flexibility
iii) Liquidity provided by market maker

The presentation also highlight that most of the fund managers are not able to beat the performance of the benchmark index. So why not consider to be your own fund manager and invest in Exchange Traded Fund, paying less sales commission and management to beat the performance of most mutual fund manager instead

Singapore Exchange ETF Official Site

World Ten Richest Billionaires

Indeed my inspiring video of all time, so I decided to make it the top headline permanently

Ever wonder someday you might be one of them in the forbes list ? So do work hard and work smart in your business, investment, real estate, internet marketing etc to fulfill your billionaire dream

Warren Buffett Interview

Recent interview with the world greatest investor Warren Buffett on his view on recent finanical market turmoil and his experience on value investing.

Super Seven Soverign Wealth Funds

Just read an interesting article from today Strait Times, it mentioned there are over 45 Sovereign Wealth Funds available but specially highlighted the Super Seven SWF with at least US$100 billions in assets each. Here are a closer insight with the Super Seven SWF and their vital statistic from ST June 2008

No 1 - Abu Dhabi Investment Authority

Warchest : US$875 billion
Recent Stakes Purchases :

i) Citigroup for US$7.5b (Nov 2007)
ii) PrimeWest Energy for US$5b (Sept 2007)

No 2 - Norway Government Pension Fund

Warchest : US$396.5 billion
Recent Stakes Holding :

i) Esprit
ii) Kmart
iii) United Oversea Bank
iv) Banyan Tree Holding
v) City Development

And many more...

No 3 - Kuwait Investment Authority

Warchest : US$265 billion
Recent Stakes Purchases :

i) Halkbank for US$209m (May 2007)
ii)Industrial Bank of China for US$720m(April 2007)
iii) Cevahir Shopping Centre for US$750m (Nov 2006)
iv) Merril Lynn for US$2b (June 2005)


No 4 - China Investment Corportation

Warchest : $200 billion
Recent Stakes Purchases :

i) Morgan Stanley for US$5b (Dec 2007)
ii) BG Group for US$250m (Sept 2007)
iii) Blackstone Group for US$3b (May 2007)

No 5 - Russia Oil Stabilisation Fund & National Welfare Fund

Warchest : More than US$150 billions

No 6 - Government of Singapore Investment Corporation

Warchest : More than US$100 billion
Recent Stakes Purchases :

i) UBS for US$10.8b (Feb 2008)
ii) Citigroup for US$6.88b (Jan 2008)
iii) Merril Lynn for US$954m (June 2007)


No 7 - Singapore Temasek Holding

Warchest : More than US$100 billion
Recent Stakes Purchases :

i)Merril Lynn for US$5b (Dec 2007 & Feb 2008)
ii ) Barclays Bank (July 2007)
ii) Standard Chartered

Asia Delicious Food

Singapore Food is regard as one of the most delicious food in Asia... Be it the famous Hainanese chicken rice or the famous Katong Lasksa and the rest of the mouth watering dishes such as Hokkien Mee, Fried Carrot Cake, Mee Robus or Mee Goreng, Singapore Foods is simply non-resistable.

Many visitors simply cannot resist the delicious food in Singapore. Whether it is at local hawker centres, air-con food courts or restaurtant, after you have tasted Singapore Food, it is as if you have eaten all the famous food throughout most of Asian Countries.

Checkout the 2 recommended food sites below to experience the mouth-watering Singapore delicious food feast

Top 10 Singapore Delicious Food

Delicious 5 Star Food Recipes Official Site

It is TIME to do Bottom Fishing

Currently Finanical Market daily movement is simply too voliate to trade and often over-react negatively based on any bad news released by the media.

The best thing to do now is to wait for the stormy weather to be over or if you are a risk taker and have a longer investment horizon of 3-5 years, this may be the time to buy in stages and wait for the investment egg to hatch within the next 3-5 years and exit the investment during the next bull run.

Whether it is the popular China Growth Fund, India Growth Fund, Asia Growth Fund, Singapore Equity Fund etc, if you having holding power with 3-5 years investment horizon view, wait for the storm to be over, you might be rewarded for your bottom picking investment stragetic.

The Art of Stock Manipulation

Recently came across a interesting article from George Chelekis about his view on stock manipulation. It is quite interesting as it highlight the 10 rules from "The Market Invisible Manipulator" to make money out of retail investors esp for penny stocks.

Rule 1 : All Sharp Price Movements (Whether Up Or Down) Are The Result Of One Or More Professionals Manipulating The Share Price

Rule 2 : If Market Manipulator Want To Distribute (Dump) His Shares, He Will Start A Good News Promotional Campaign.

Rule 3 : As Soon As The Market Manipulator Has Completed His Distribution (Dumping) of Shares, he will Start a Bad News or No News Campaign

Rule 4 : Any Stock That Trades Huge Volume At Higher Prices Signal The Distribution Phase

Rule 5 : The Market Mnipulator Will Always Try To Get YOu To Buy At Highest And Sell At Lowest Possible Price

Rule 6 : If This Is a Real Deal, Then You Are Likely To Be The Last Person To be Notified.

Rule 7 : Conversely, You Will Be often The Last To Know When This Deal Shows Signs of Failure. (Beware of MOU)

Rule 8 : The Market Manipulator Will Compel You Into Stock So That You Will Drive Up Its Share Price Via Volume.

Rule 9 : The Market Manipulator Is Well Aware of Trading Emotions (Fear & Greed)

Rule 10 : The Big Boys Aka The Bankers Always WIN...

Trading or Investing I

Recent finanical turmoil had indeed drained alot of traders and investors with the roller coaster see-saw ride... The world finanical markets had seen billions of dollars being wiped out during the sub-primes crisis in the United States with almost every major banks write-off billions of dollars of their assets that are invested in any investment related to subprime loans.

Currently given the voilate markets with indexes having huge swing and gap up/gap down, alot of traders had been wipeout and investors that had been investing at peak are seeing their red portfolio down by 1/4 or even 1/2 of the inital investment.

There are indeed many different between trading and investing. One need to understand whether you are suitable for trading or investing. For trading (short-term), you need to understand technical analysis and have a stop loss and profit taking point. The same is for investment(longer term) not only relied on basic analysis but also technical analysis as well.

I will share more about Trading or Investing as I strongly believe you can apply both to achieve win-win situation either in Bull or Bear market.

China - The Next Growth Economy

Recently attended Merrill Lynn Participation Certificate seminar and ABN AMBRO Zero Strike Certificate seminar, introducing the latest investment products on the market called investment warrants which had a vaildation of 3 years.

I was indeed impressive of the presentation esp the convinction of the China growth story based on strong infrastructure development and strong local consumers growth. Both are extremely bullish with regards to China economy long term prospects and investing in them take a longer term view on 3-5 years to reap rewards.

It made me analysing its time to look at undervalue H-shares and maybe buy the investment warrants for longer term value appreciation.

JP Morgan - One of the Investment Gems

Recent proposal buyout of Bear Stearns by JP Morgan at a "good value price" had shown that the management at JP Morgan at seeking good opportunity at adding to their shareholders values...

Despite also hit by subprime crisis, JP Morgan fullyear finanical result still post a very good result - profit of US$3.1 billions compared to most banking and finanical companies major losses due to huge write-down. Therefore this finanical company had shown to its shareholders that what it is capable of and having a excellent balance team of investment specialists and risk management specialists...

It's share price had climbed north despite the market turmoil... Time to spend some time analysis this gems for the longer term investment

China Investment Corp

China Investment Corp was set up by the Chinese government as a investment fund to scout to maximise its investment return . It was set up in 2007 with a war chest of US$200 billions under management

With the US$200 billions fund at hand, chairman Lou Jiwei had indicated that US$70 billions will be invested on oversea outside of China

It's first investment was paying US$3 billions for a 9% stake in Blackstone Group in May 2007. The investment had turn "sour" during the current subprime crisis when Blackstone Group share value had dropped almost 50% up to date.

Another high profile investment of US$3 billions acquiring 9.9% stake of Morgan Stanley in Dec 2007 was mentioned. This time round they are advised by New York based investment bank Lazard & Co to invest via convertable bond instead.

Other local investment include

* Acquire Central Huijin Investment that hold control stakes in China
three largest banks for US$67 billions

* Investment of HK$780 millions in Hong Kong IPO of China Railways Group

In turn China banks had turn to acquire stakes include British Barclays bank, South Africa Standard Bank Corp, Australia & New Zealand Banking Corp etc.

Currently China still holding about US$387 billions of US Treasury Bill and foreign-exchange reserves fund of US$1.53 trillions (as of dec 2007)

China Investment Corp is due to shift its office into the New Beijing Poly Plaza name translate into "Protecting the Profit". The challeng for now for CIC to deliver strong returns as impressive as its new headquarter office.

Singapore Million Maker - Adam Khoo

Adam Khoo, one of Singapore rich millionaire was well known for his life-changing story from a underachiever to a successful entreprenuer, coaching thousands of people around Asia...

He make his first million at the age of 26, a much sought motivation speaker and is frequently interview for his success secrets as well as feature in Channelnewasia program - "The Millions Maker"

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