Forbes Chinese Celebrity List

On April 28, Forbes China Magazine released 2010 China celebrity list, Jackie Chan took the number one overall spot, And Yao Ming who was ranked number one for the pass 6 years since 2004 fell to 4th place. However Yao is still number one in income with 255,300,000 yuan. Bear in mind that its not just income alone that determine the list but their media exposure as well. 1. Jackie Chan (成龙) Occupation: Actor Income: 206,000,000 yuan / $30mIncome Rank: 2 Internet Search Rank: 5 Newspaper Rank: 2 Magazine and TV Rank: 7 First person to sing a concert at the Bird’s Nest, His movie Little Big Soldier (2010) breaks hundred fifty million...

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Marina Bay Sands Casino Opening

From opening accounts from the blogs, it looks like MBS is a few rungs up on RWS in terms of class, design and service. Looks spectacular.MBS and RWS comparisonMarina BaySands / Resorts World SentosaCost S$7.5 bn / S$6.6bnSlots 1,500 / 1,300Tables 670 / 530Hotel Rooms 2,600 / 1,800MICE floor 1,291,669 sq. ft. / 647,880 sq. ft.Casino floor 161,000 sq. ft. / 161,000 sq. ft.Retail space 800,000 sq. ft. / 330,000 sq. ft.Restaurants 17 / 60Non-gaming : Sands Skypark / Universal Studios SgAmenities: Helix pedestrian walkway / Marine Life Park Marina Bay Sands opening timeline17-Apr Temporary...

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Why I Like Sealink

SEALINK is principally involved in the shipping business including chartering of vessels, shipbuilding and repair of vessels and letting of properties. Sealink International Bhd, incorporated in 1974 was founded by Mr Yong Foh Choi. Initially, the group provided chartering services of marine vessels to non-oil and gas industries such as the navy, fishing, dredging, logging and mining companies in and outside Malaysia.The group ventured in chartering vessels in 1994 and later on started its shipbuilding business in 1997. The group is an integrated service provider that builds and operates a diverse fleet of offshore marine support vessels in Malaysia,...

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Top Equity Strategists' Targets For S&P500

Bespoke Investment has managed to tally the top equity strategists' predictions for the S&P500 for the end of the year. Like them or not, a lot of big funds do listen to them. The underlying bullishness for the 2H of 2010 is still intact, but I think we will go a bit lower before moving back up. Whats surprising is that Goldman Sach's year end target has already been reached technically. Does that mean that they will adopt a more bearish stance from now till year end in their proprietary trades? Barclays, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley have year end targets lower than present levels - if they are right, we are in for a disappointing 2010.The...

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The S Pellegrino World's Best 100 Restaurants

The World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards 1-100 (2010)Restaurant Region Awards 1 Up 2 Noma Denmark The S.Pellegrino Best Restaurant in the World, The Acqua Panna Best Restaurant in Europe 2 Down 1 El Bulli Spain Restaurant Magazine Chef of the Decade 3 Down 1 The Fat Duck UK The Chef's Choice sponsored by Electrolux 4 Up 1 El Celler de Can Roca Spain 5 Down 1 Mugaritz Spain 6 Up 7 Osteria Francescana Italy 7 Up 3 Alinea USA The Acqua Panna Best Restaurant In N.America 8 Up 33 Daniel USA The Highest Climber sponsored by Cocoa Barry 9 Down 1 Arzak Spain 10 Down 4 Per Se USA 11 Up 29 Le Chateaubriand France 12 ...

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Investors Say The Darndest Things

Many times, investors ask the stupidest question. Not to whack them but sometimes we have to sit back and think the context of our questions or comments. Some will sound absolutely silly, and it drives at our assumptions and fallacies in thought and logic. Investment is not a "you like, you play lor", it can ruin your finances. Its better for me to point them out than to have investors dumping tons of it without proper consideration.The ones that make you roll your eyeballs:So you think the stock you like can rise... aarrr?Thanks for the tip, I made 10%, you think can hold on for another 5%?Why my stocks go up so slowly but come down very fast...

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Marina Bay Sands Is Open, OMG... The Restaurants They Have!!!

Don't care much about casinos in general, but I like playing Texas Holdem poker when they have special rooms for the game. The most exciting part about Marina Bay Sands casino has to be the restaurants they have managed to lure to their premises. Mario Batali, Wolfgang Puck, Daniel Boulud, Santi Santamaria, Guy Savoy and Tetsuya Wakuda are all there. I am really looking forward to try all of them, especially my all time fav Tetsuya Wakuda.SINGAPORE, April 27 — Las Vegas Sands, the world’s most valuable casino firm, expects to recoup its US$5.5 billion investment in its Marina Bay Sands casino in Singapore within five years, CEO Sheldon Adelson...

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How Others View AirAsia & MAS

Its wonderful to see how we are perceived, corporate wise. We have such vested interest and then some more. Left on its own, imagine ten vest interests vying for the same pie - we get a detente, a war where nobody really wins because the country loses out on a roadmap to move forward, we loses on getting efficiency, we pay higher prices collectively, we use resources ineffectively, we keep cannabalising among ourselves, we do not allow consolidation and stifle competition, we remove ourselves from being able to compete. Our auto industry is a prime example, and we are stuttering with our airlines - only the spin doctors will tell you its a good...

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Some Corrections On MYR & Bank Negara Strategy

My learned friend Hisham has rightly pointed out the "corrections" below: hishamh said...'Under the government’s exchange rate regime, the exchange rate of the MYR is controlled against “a trade-weighted basket of currencies.”'This is plain wrong - Malaysia has not followed a basket of currencies approach since before the 1997 crisis. It's also inconsistent with..."The upward trend in the ringgit against the U.S. dollar and the revival of capital inflows into the equity market have increased central bank intervention in the FX market to support exports."...which implies a different sort of currency regime entirely.In any case, watch changes...

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Goldman Sachs & God

In financial markets, Goldman Sachs is like a god. Goldman Sachs was about the only big investment bank that did well during the subprime financial crisis, JP Morgan did OK as well. But both went about doing alright in very different ways. Now people are complaining that Goldman Sachs cooperated (conspired?) with a hedge fund hustler in John Paulson (maverick or genius depending on whom you are talking to) to assemble and sell "synthetic collateralized debt obligations" that everyone involved, except maybe the purchasers knew would probably fail. The hedge fund hotshot made $1 billion.I think Goldman Sachs did what a great investment bank should...

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Malaysian Stocks & Ringgit

In 2010, the KLCI gained 5.42% YTD as of early-April 2010, registering as the second best performer in Southeast Asia. As fiscal risks in the EU affected capital inflows, the KLCI decreased by 5.6% until early-February 2010. However, with positive domestic investments, better GDP data, the central bank’s interest rate hike and expectations of a domestic currency appreciation, stock market surged by 7.6% until early-March 2010 from February. After experiencing some correction in mid-March, the KLCI rallied again with the expectation of the government’s sustained market liberalization scheme, enhancing foreign investor sentiment. The KLCI reached...

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Commentary On Selected Stocks

As I have mentioned before, the market is at a crossroad. There are many who have left the table with their chips as they cannot find decent counters with good upside over the next 6 months. Volume has been not that high but the markets have been able to sustain the current levels. Do not be too enamored with the index level as the main indices are controlled by local funds. If the global equity sentiment is neutral, the local funds can and do control the local indices. All they have to do is have sustained interest in the banks, throw in MISC, Axiata, Tanjong, BAT and a few other big ones, you can literally manage the index.As for volume counters,...

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Who Should Replace Alex Ferguson?

If you are a Chelsea, Liverpool or Arsenal fan, please stop reading and please forget about putting in suggestions - we don't need to hear from you lot. It was surprising to hear Ferguson saying that he wanted David Moyes to get his job. According to the bookmakers, they have Jose Mourinho as the favourite.Well, what can you say about Jose, you will only love him if he's in your team, or he is with the team that helped beat your biggest rival.David Moyes may be Ferguson's choice because of his Glaswegian roots, I don't know. Never know how close men in kilts are. Ferguson's choice could be shaped by him wanting a British to take over the reins....

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SGD Appreciation Bodes Well For Other Asian Currencies

Busy these couple of days, saw an interesting article, thought you all should read it:RGE: On 14 April, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) made an aggressive policy tightening move. The MAS re-centered the SGD target band at the prevailing level of SGD’s nominal effective exchange rate and changed the band’s slope from a zero percent appreciation to one of “modest and gradual appreciation.” Judging from past experience, we believe the slope of the new target band is likely to be around 2% a year. Source: RGE, BloombergThe MAS’s move reflected the growing confidence about the strength of the recovery as well as concerns about inflation...

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