Corporate Governance in Malaysia

A Blog about Corporate Governance issues in Malaysia and more in general about investing

Sunday, 19 June 2016

Libya fund lost all while Goldman earned $200m

Interesting article in the Financial Times:

Libya case against Goldman shines rare spotlight on powerful bank

Some snippets:


Mr Baruni advised the LIA (Libyan Investment Authority) not to invest in two Goldman funds but he resigned after his advice fell on deaf ears. An email he sent at the time read: "Goldman have not been honest in their practices and disclosure."Ali Baruni, a financial consultant to the LIA, told the High Court that he felt "almost under attack" at one Goldman meeting as a succession of different products and Goldman teams was "relentlessly" presented to the wealth fund.


In other words, this was a hard sale, and the LIA staff were lavishly entertained.

Was it all ethical and within the law? The court case will decide about that.

The result of the investment:


The LIA claims Goldman earned more than $200m in profits for itself from the nine disputed trades whilst the LIA lost its entire $1.2bn investment.


Well, at least the Libyans are fighting back and trying to claw back some of their losses.

Saturday, 18 June 2016

Noble Group, an overview

Great article in The Financial Times about Noble Group (I wrote several articles about them in the past):

Commodities: Noble’s House of woe

Some snippets:


Today the market value of the company — which is listed in Singapore — has collapsed to $1.1bn, its chief executive has left, and Mr Elman, 76, has announced he will step down as executive chairman in the next 12 months. In February, it reported annual losses for the first time in more than 20 years after taking $1.2bn in writedowns and charges, largely related to the value of long-term contracts it has been accused of overstating by short sellers, hedge funds and a former employee turned financial blogger.

Noble, which acts as a middleman for oil, coal, iron ore and metals deals, is now tapping its shareholders for $500m of cash and trying to sell prized assets in its efforts to pay down debt and free up capital for its trading operations.


"Noble compounded its problems with aggressive accounting," says Craig Pirrong, a finance professor at the University of Houston who has written on the industry for Trafigura. "The accounting issues took a big toll on management’s credibility, and that made it very difficult to climb out of the hole."


Mounting debts and high costs began to weigh on the company as bets in niche markets such as carbon credits backfired. As a listed company, it wanted smoother earnings to keep the stock market happy, former employees say.

Noble did this by recognising upfront a portion of gains from long-term marketing and supply agreements and recording their value on its balance sheet, say ex-employees. This technique, while legal under accounting rules, has seen only limited use among Noble’s rivals who say it is risky because the volatility of commodity prices means the amount of cash eventually received from the deals can be lower than the recorded profits.


Noble's 5-year price chart:


Friday, 17 June 2016

Welcome to the bizarre world of money printing

When central bankers print money, strange things can and will happen.

Just a few random, recent examples:

"Why Uber’s Chinese nemesis Didi Chuxing just raised $7 billion more"

Didi Chuxing, the company that is beating Uber in China, just landed an incredible $7.3 billion in fresh financing.

Seven billion U.S. dollars!

But there’s more. Four-year-old Didi said it already has billions in the bank from its previous fundraising — which amounts to more than $10 billion — and this fresh influx takes it to more than $10 billion of cash in hand.


In case the reader is wondering, Didi does not actually own any vehicle, it is just a platform, most likely a money losing one. Agreed, far away in the future the network might be quite valuable, but on the other side, who can predict the future say five or ten years out? I definitely not.


Which Country’s Bonds Most Likely to Join Germany in Negative-Yield Club?

With yields on 10-year German sovereign bonds going subzero for the first time in recorded history, investors are asking which country’s bonds could cross into negative territory next.

Austria and the Netherlands appear the most natural candidates.

Indeed, as German 10-year government yields hit minus 0.032% Tuesday .....


In other words, one buys these 10-year German bonds, waits for 10 years and gets back less money than one invested.

Many bonds are being managed, for instance in bond funds or pension funds, we can safely assume that on top of the negative yield another say one percent is added in costs. That does not sound very attractive.


The Decline of the Coal Industry in One Chart

.... the market cap of four of the largest coal companies was more than $35 billion in 2011. After a flurry of regulation, it’s now a smudge on the graph below, a decline of 99 percent. Behold, the steep decline of coal in one chart:


I am not a big fan of coal due to the pollution it causes, but one would expect a slow and steady phasing out of this commodity, not a 99% plunge in three years time of the market cap of four big players in this industry. I have no idea if this has to do with money printing, just the speed of decline is mind blowing.


Marc Faber has often warned against the effects of money printing. What the central bankers want is a gradual rise in all asset classes, but that will not happen, some will rise or fall a lot. The only way to deal with this is to diversify in different asset classes. And forget about market timing, that will be very tough to do.

Saturday, 11 June 2016

BLand selling BToto shares at a loss after 24 years ......?

Berjaya Land made the following announcement:




In other words, BLand held some of these shares over 24 years, and sold them at a loss?

Although BLand must have received a lot of dividend from its BToto shares over the years, still, it sounds quite disappointing.

I thought the rule is "Buy low, Sell high", but BLand seems to disagree with that.

Also, why did BLand sell the shares now, at current depressed prices, when BToto was trading at a much higher price for many years?



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Singapore
Investor, Mathematician and Software Developer from The Netherlands. I lived with my Malaysian wife in Malaysia for 16 year, moved five years ago with my family to Singapore and started to shift my attention from the Malaysian market to the markets in Singapore and Hong Kong. I am involved in "angel" investing in start-up companies, mostly in Malaysia and Singapore.

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