This article appears in the January 16, 2004 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
The Story Behind Parmalat's Bankruptcy by Claudio Celani
The bankruptcy of the giant food company Parmalat, warned Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti on Dec. 22, runs the risk of leading to "general corporate insolvency" in Italy, if there is a run on corporate bonds. Throughout Europe, financial operators are nervous about the enormous sums of fraudulent financial paper that went up in smoke—and about where the trail of criminal investigation will lead. A senior European financial source, for example, told EIR that Parmalat's collapse throws a spotlight on the huge volume of dirty deals that are being run by top international banks through offshore centers such as the Cayman Islands. These deals are often used to finance political, illegal, or high-risk speculative efforts, he said, and the Parmalat scandal could expose this entire dirty sub-structure of the global financial system, with unforeseeable financial as well as political consequences.
Parmalat is the largest Italian food company and the fourth largest in Europe, controlling 50% of the Italian market in milk and milk-derivative products. Suddenly, it was discovered that its claimed liquidity of 4 billion euro did not exist, and that EU 8 million in bonds of investors' money had evaporated as well. Parmalat is the largest bankruptcy in European history, representing 1.5% of Italian GNP—proportionally larger than the combined ratio of the Enron and WorldCom bankruptcies to the U.S. GNP.
Behind Parmalat's facade as a productive agro-industrial company with 34,000 employees, hides a giant financial speculative scheme to lure investors' money and syphon it off through a network of 260 international offshore speculative entities, where the money disappeared. It has been reported that at the receiver-end of that scheme, the Cayman Islands-based offshore entity called Bonlat had invested $6.9 billion in interest swaps, the highest-risk derivatives operations. So far, through this scheme, at least EU 8 billion have disappeared, but the figure is provisory.
It is now being discovered that over the years, Parmalat had become a tool of the banks, which had invented, built up, and managed the speculative scheme. Which banks? The list currently investigated by prosecutors in Parma and Milan reads like the Burke's Peerage of the international financial system: Bank of America, Citicorp, J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Banco Santander, ABN; it goes on with all the largest Italian banks: Capitalia (Rome), S. Paolo-IMI (Turin), Intesa-BCI (Milan), Unicredito (Genoa-Milan), Monte dei Paschi (Siena), to name just a few.
How It Developed
The story began in 1997, when Parmalat decided to become a "global player" and started a campaign of international acquisitions, especially in North and South America, financed through debt. Soon, Parmalat became the third largest cookie-maker in the United States. But such acquisitions, instead of bringing in profits, started, no later than 2001, to bring in red figures. Losing money on its productive activities, the company shifted more and more to the high-flying world of derivatives and other speculative enterprises.
Parmalat's founder and now former CEO Calisto Tanzi engaged the firm in several exotic enterprises, such as a tourism agency called Parmatour, and the purchase of the local soccer club Parma. Huge sums were poured into these two enterprises, which have been a loss from the very beginning. It has been reported that Parmatour, now closed, has a loss of at least EU 2 billion, an incredibly high figure for a tourist agency.
The losses of the Parma soccer club are not yet fully known. Here, Parma insiders are pointing at what they call the "Medellín Cartel" connection—i.e., the purchase of overpriced Colombian soccer players, and other extravagances. While accumulating losses, and with debts to the banks, Parmalat started to built a network of offshore mail-box companies, which were used to conceal losses, through a mirror-game which made them appear as assets or liquidity, while the company started to issue bonds in order to collect money. The security for such bonds was provided by the alleged liquidity represented by the offshore schemes.
The largest bond placers have been Bank of America, Citicorp, and J.P. Morgan. These banks, like their European and Italian partners, rated Parmalat bonds as sound financial paper, when they knew, or should have known, that they were worth nothing. While Bank of America has participated as a partner in some of Parmalat's acquisitions, Citicorp is alleged to have built up the fraudulent accounting system.
What strikes one is not only the dimension of the scheme, but the arrogance of its authors. For instance, one of the offshore mail-box firms used to channel the liquidity coming from the bond sales was called Buconero, which means "black hole"! Appropriately, the first class-action suit in the United States on the Parmalat case, filed by the South Alaskan Miners' Pension Fund, is against Parmalat, its auditors, Bank of America, and Citicorp—and focusses on Buconero. "The Parmalat fraud has been mainly implemented in New York, with the active role of the Zini legal firm and of Citibank," said San Diego lawyer Darren Robbins, a partner in the firm Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, which is leading the class-action suit. "We believe that Citigroup, by creating instruments like the sadly famous 'Buconero,' has played a fundamental role in helping Parmalat to fake their balance sheets and hide their real financial situation."
The New York-based Zini lawfirm named by Robbins, has played a role which seems to have come out of the movie The Godfather. Through Zini, firms owned by Parmalat have been sold to certain American citizens with Italian surnames, only to be purchased again by Parmalat later. The whole operation was fake: The money for the sale in the first place came from other entities owned by Parmalat, and it served only to create "liquidity" in the books. Thanks to that liquidity, Parmalat could keep issuing bonds. Mafia? Former CEO Tanzi declared to prosecutors in Parma that the fraudulent bonds system "was fully the banks' idea." Parmalat's former financial manager, Fausto Tonna, counterfeited Parmalat's balance sheets in order to provide security for the bonds, but "it was the banks which proposed it to Tonna," Tanzi declared.
Tanzi's version has been so far confirmed by Luciano Spilingardi, head of Cassa di Risparmio di Parma and member of the Parmalat board. Bond issues were ordered by the banks, Spilingardi said to prosecutors, according to leaks published in the daily La Repubblica. "I remember," Spilingardi says, "that one of the last issues, of 150 million euros, was presented to the board meeting as an explicit request by a foreign bank, which was ready to subscribe the entire bond. If I remember correctly, it was Deutsche Bank." Spilingardi says that he expressed "perplexity" about the proposal, because a previous bond issue of EU 600 million had failed, in the Spring of 2003, causing a 10% fall of Parmalat stocks in one day. But the request was accepted, and the last Parmalat bond, issued in Summer 2003, made its way to the Cayman Islands black hole. At the moment of Parmalat's default, in December 2003, the financial manager of Parmalat was no longer Tonna, who had left after the failed bond issue in the Spring. He has been replaced by Alberto Ferraris, who comes from ... Citibank. In June 2003, before the last bond issue "ordered" by Deutsche Bank, Parmalat's board gained a new member: Luca Sala, a top manager coming from ... Bank of America.
The Parmalat crisis finally broke out on Dec. 8, when the company Parmalat defaulted on a EU 150 million bond. The management claims that this was because a customer, a speculative fund named Epicurum, did not pay its bills. Allegedly, Parmalat has won a derivatives contract with Epicurum, betting against the dollar. But it was soon discovered that Epicurum is owned by firms whose address is the same as some of Parmalat's own offshore entities. In other words, Epicurum is owned by Parmalat.
On Dec. 9, as rumors spread that Parmalat's claimed liquidity was not there, Standard & Poor's finally downgraded Parmalat bonds to junk status, and in the next few days, Parmalat stocks fell 40%. On Dec. 12, the Parmalat management somehow found the money to pay the bond, but on Dec. 19 came the end: Bank of America announced that an account with allegedly $3.9 billion in liquidity, claimed by Parmalat at BoA, did not exist. In one shot, the bankruptcy was revealed, and Parmalat stocks fell an additional 66%. Later, Tonna would confess that he had faked BoA documents, using a scanner, scissors, and glue, to "invent" such a $3.9 billion account, a version which is still the official one.
'Systemic Risk'
On Dec. 22, the Italian government rushed through emergency legislation aimed at allowing quick bankruptcy procedures for Parmalat, in order to protect its industrial activity, payrolls, vendors, etc., from creditors' claims. The government appointed Enrico Bondi to present a reorganization plan by Jan. 20. So far, so good. But Bondi, who had already replaced Tanzi a few days before, has two loyalties: he was appointed by the government, but he is also a man trusted by the banks, including for his reorganization of the Ferruzzi-Montedison group, which was eventually sold to the Agnelli group. Fears are that Bondi will obey the banks, which want to chop up Parmalat and sell it in pieces—the plan feared by the trade unions and, at least publicly, by the government itself.
That same day, Paolo Raimondi, head of the Italian LaRouche movement, issued a statement in which he said that the Parmalat bankruptcy, like the Cirio, Enron, and LTCM cases, "are not isolated cases in an otherwise functioning system. Instead, they are the most evident manifestation of the bankruptcy of the entire financial system." After pointing to the role of derivative speculation in the Parmalat case, Raimondi stressed that Citigroup and Bank of America, Parmalat's main financial partners, are "the number two and three among banks involved in derivatives operations."
Because it is not just a firm at stake but the whole system, "the solution must be a global one," Raimondi said, pointing to Lyndon LaRouche's proposal for a world financial reorganization called a New Bretton Woods. "The Italian Parliament has already discussed, in the past, a series of motions on the New Bretton Woods, which were introduced on different occasions by Senators Pedrizzi and Peterlini, and by Representative Brugger, and received support from a hundred members of Parliament, from all parties." Raimondi also called the recent statement by "a high moral authority, such as Milan Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, who, presented with the New Bretton Woods proposal, said that the Italian government not only can, but must, promote it." Over Christmas, this statement was circulated in Italy, and distributed in Parma by LaRouche Youth Movement organizers.
The Italian government is aware of the systemic dimensions of the crisis, at least as concerns the Italian bond market, as Minister Tremonti's Dec. 22 statement about "general corporate insolvency" shows. "Do you have any idea," said Tremonti to his colleagues, "of what would happen if the market demanded liquidation of money invested in corporate bonds? Therefore, we must quickly review current legislation protecting investors."
Tremonti referred to 100,000 Italian owners of Parmalat bonds, mostly families which have been advised by their banks to buy paper which is now worth nothing. This is the third large insolvency hitting Italian investors in one year: The first, the Argentinian insolvency, wiped out EU 12 billion euro in bonds owned by 450,000 Italians; then, the bankruptcy of Cirio, another food company, meant a default on EU 1.2 billion in bonds owned by 40,000 families. Panic is already spreading, and a run on the Italian bond market is on the horizon. Bank stocks have plunged, with Capitalia, the main Italian creditor of Parmalat, having lost 40% since Dec. 4.
The red thread of this catastrophe is represented by the role of the banks. Italian banks, not unlike their international colleagues, have lured unaware customers into high-risk investments—workers, pensioners, and professionals who, in most cases, did not know where their money was invested, or who were fraudulently told that it was "safely" invested.
In the Argentinian bonds case, consumer organizations have filed a legal action against the banks, because they failed to inform customers, as prescribed by law, that the investment was a high-risk one. In the Cirio case, it came out that on the eve of the company's insolvency, creditor banks rushed to dump their Cirio bonds, by selling them to their customers! And Italian newspapers are now publishing letters by owners of Parmalat bonds, telling how they were still being sold such bonds by their banks on Dec. 11, two days after the first Parmalat default, and after Standard & Poor's had downgraded them to "junk" status!
The role of the banks, and of their putative supervisor, the Bank of Italy, has been the issue of an all-out war between Tremonti and BoI Governor Antonio Fazio, since the Cirio default. Things have now escalated, as the failure of BoI supervision in the Parmalat case is dramatically evident. Beyond the power struggles which are also involved, the real issue is, who controls the Bank of Italy. The fact is that the central bank, which is supposed to exercise control over the banking system, is itself controlled by the banks, which are its shareholders!
The Italian central banking system is not dissimilar to the U.S. Federal Reserve or other central banking systems. Under the Bretton Woods system of regulations, however, it was partially under government control. This changed first in 1979, when deregulation freed the central bank from the obligation to buy government debt, and finally after 1992, when the largest shareholders of the Bank of Italy were privatized. These are Banca Commerciale (now Intesa-BCI), Credito Italiano (now Unicredito), IMI (now S.Paolo-IMI), and Banca Nazionale del Lavoro. The reader will recognize the names of some among Parmalat's main creditors and bond-placers. These are the controllers of the Bank of Italy, which the BoI is supposed to control.
In the past months, Tremonti has led an unsuccessful battle to change this, by attempting to introduce local government representatives onto the boards of the Banking Foundations, which control Italian banks. Through that move, Tremonti hoped also to gain a handle on banking decisions to finance, for instance, infrastructure investments. He lost that battle, due to the staunch opposition of the Bank of Italy.
But now the issue is again on the table, and decisions are expected to be taken after a parliamentary committee, set up after the Parmalat case broke, has investigated the current state of relations between the banking system and the corporate world. On Jan. 8, a government initiative is expected on a new control authority, which is supposed to assume the supervisory powers which the Bank of Italy had, but never implemented.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Financial Scams - Parmalat 8 Dec 2003
Lijiang China ~ 27 Oct 2008
Went to Lijiang and stayed at Banyan Tree for the vacation. The villa is very beautiful with a heated up pool. Of coz, really worth paying the $$$ for the place. It has a direct view of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Service is impeccable and it only costs abt RMB25 to get a cab to town. The prices are expensive in the Old Town and supposedly can bargain down 30%. Best time to visit is around April and October. Wanted to go Shangri la but I heard it was slowing so I didnt bothered. Went to the popular mushroom hotpot in town twice. The food is quite simple.
http://www.hillmanwonders.com/lijiang_shangri_la/yunnan_map.htm#_vtop
Ancient Town of Lijiang is one of the most photogenic and best reconstructed old towns in China. Dayan Town, as it is also known, was rebuilt after a devastating earthquake destroyed it in 1996. Today, Lijiang old town teems with handicraft shops, restaurants and other enterprises geared for visitors. Streams and canals gently pass through Lijiang old town, as they have for over six centuries. These narrow waterways are shaded by graceful willow trees and crossed by small bridges.
The overall architectural effect of tightly packed wooden structures lining charming pedestrian-only cobblestone lanes and alleys is impressive. There is a performance in the Old Town which is like 1.5 hrs long and usually very packed. Worth the visit.
Shuhe Old Town is on the north edge of Lijiang. Smaller and less touristy. The bar area in the old town is quite happening. Really enjoyed it. Some discos and live bands singing. Quite surprised alot of angmos there as well.
Tiger Leaping Gorge - The upper reaches of the Yangtze River forcibly and deafeningly squeeze through a narrow rocky gorge flanked on both sides by high, precipitous mountains. We took abt a 3km walk to the sight. There is a trishaw service but I opted to walk instead. William, the tour guide, took us to a place for lunch. Fooked, kenna snoked again. Fish came back to 180rmb/kg and they didnt even cooked it well...blood was still ozing from the steamed creature. Supposedly top notch mushroom cost another 300rmb. Nearly fainted when the bill came to around 600 rmb. Goodness, what crap! Better check prices before I order next time.
Jade Dragon - The majestic Yulong (Jade Dragon) Snow Mountain protectively looks over Lijiang. The peak is 5596 meters (18,340 feet) above sea level. Took the cable car up the slopes. Really needed an oxygen tank bcos the air is so thin up there and we rented jackets. It was beautiful bcos it was snowing on that day. Saw the Impression Lijiang show directed by Zhang Yimou in 2006. Quite dazzling... with a thousand cast and the bright costumes.
Also went to the Jade water village located at the foot of the mountain. It is set amidst waterfalls and ponds. The crystal clear water floowing from a small cave form the waterfalls. Went to the Dongba Kingdom village garden and the mususem after that.
Black Dragon Pool - can take a pic of Black Dragon Pool and a five-eaved pavilion backdropped by the skyscraping Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The park's local name is Yuquan.
Also went to the Lakshi Lake Adventure, west side of LJ abt 17km. The lake is beautiful as we took the horses. Damned tiring as well bcos the tracks were very muddy after a rainfall. Took a 4hr horse ride and splattered in mud after that. First time I was riding the horse so fast. Felt like I was being thrown off.
Went to the Li Shui Jin Sha - Mountain and River Show on the last night. Started off in 2002 and fully packed. Show is abt the love stories and the local tribes. Not bad though.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Super Tuscans
I was stunned when I opened up a bottle of Sassicaia 01 for Mark's birthday. It was amazingly good, well-balanced and powerful. Had another 3 bottles and maybe looking to buy some Ornellia. Masseto is terrribly expensive though.
Definition: (Indicazione Geografica Tipica = typical regional wine) wines are, if of a certain quality, also called SUPER TUSCANS. An IGT Toscana guarantees that a minimum of 85% of the grapes used in the wine have grown in the region. However, much of the IGT wine is produced with grapes that come from the wine producers' own vineyards, especially when talking of the Super Tuscans that are top quality wines. The grape variety, vinification, aging and final blend are all up to the creativity of the wine maker. Many of the important and famous wines in Tuscany are actually the IGTs. The more expensive wines have since the 70's been called Super Tuscans. This name was invented by Robert Parker who found notable interest in these wines and helped them become famous world wide.
With the Doc and Docg wines we have an idea of the composition of the wine since the producers have to follow a certain blend recipe. This is not true for the Igt wines. The blend can be practically anything and it doesn't have to be stated on the label. A Super Tuscan is the final expression of quality and skill of winemaking of a wine producer and his enologist. The wine can be made with any variety of grapes, either blended or pure, and are matured in oak barriques and have a good longevity.
Here are some of the top super tuscans - not in any order
Shenzhen
Shenzhen - I was there only for golf previously and didnt really explore the the place. I was qute impressed by the city and the orderly traffic. I was kinda expecting more of a very disorganized city..the air pollution wasnt as bad as I expected. Took a shuttle bus from HKIA to Sheration Futian. Quite a cosmopolitian and happening place. Took a Shenzhen airline flight from BaoAn airport to Lijiang.
Shenzhen is a sub-provincial city. It has direct jurisdiction over six districts. 罗湖, 福田, 南山, 盐田, 龙岗,宝安 Luohu, Futian, Nanshan, Yantian, Longgang, Bao'an. Special Economic Zone comprises Luohu, Futian, Nanshan, and Yantian but not Bao'an and Longgang. Located in the centre of the SEZ and adjacent to Hong Kong, Luohu is the financial and trading centre. It covers an area of 78.89 km². Futian, where the Municipal Government is situated, is at the heart of the SEZ and covers an area of 78.04 km². Covering an area of 164.29 km², Nanshan is the centre for high-tech industries and it is situated in the west of the SEZ. Outside the SEZ, Bao'an (712.92km²) and Longgang (844.07 km²) are located to the north-west and north-east of Shenzhen respectively. Yantian (75.68 km²) is known for logistics. Yantian Port is the second largest deepwater container terminal in China and 4th largest in the world.
Shenzhen can be reached by air, train, sea, or road.
Air - Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport is 35 kilometers from central Shenzhen and connects the city with many other parts of China, and serves some international destinations. It is normally cheaper for people based in Hong Kong to fly to Mainland Chinese destinations from Shenzhen rather than from HK, and it is usually cheaper for those based in southern Mainland China to fly out of HK to international destinations. Shenzhen airport is conveniently connected by coach directly to Hong Kong airport for a fee of ¥200 or HK$200.
Train - Shenzhen Railway Station is located at the junction of Jianshe Lu, Heping Lu and Renmin Nan Lu and provides links to different parts of China. There are frequent high speed trains to Guangzhou, plus long-distance trains to Beijing, Jiujiang, Maoming, Shantou and other destinations. The train from Hong Kong's East Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station to the Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau border crossings take 43 minutes and 45minutes respectively. Trains depart East Tsim Sha Tsui for Lo Wu every 6-8 minutes from 5:36am to 11:13pm. The border crossing at Lo Wu is open daily from 6:30am to midnight. The Lok Ma Chau border crossing closes around 10:30. Returning trains from Lo Wu to East Tsim Sha Tsui depart every 6-8 minutes from 6:38am to 12:30am. The Lok Ma Chau Trains run at 10 minute intervals... KCR trains. There is another railway station located in Nanshan District, Shenzhen Xi, which is used for a small number of long distance trains, such as the one to Hefei.
Sea - Shenzhen is also connected by fast ferries linking Shekou, on the west edge of the SEZ with Zhuhai, Macau, Hong Kong International Airport, Kowloon, and Hong Kong Island. Shenzhen has shorelines in its southwest and southeast and the city is home to some of the most popular and best beaches in China. Beaches like Dameisha and Xiaomeisha are often crowded with locals and tourists. The second best beach in China, the Xichong beach, is just one hour drive from downtown Shenzhen, and it till retains its age old natural beauties.
Road - Shennan Dadao. Since February 2003, the road border crossing at Huanggang and Lok Ma Chau in Hong Kong has been open 24 hours a day. The journey can be made by private vehicle or by bus. On 15 August 2007, the Lok Ma Chau-Huanggang pedestrian border crossing opened, linking Lok Ma Chau Station with Huanggang. With the opening of the crossing, shuttle buses between Lok Ma Chau transport interchange and Huanggang were terminated. Taxis are metered and come in three colors. Red taxis may travel anywhere; green ones are restricted to outside the SEZ, and yellow ones are restricted to inside the SEZ.
Nightlife and Bars
Shenzhen's major tourist attractions include the Chinese Folk Culture Village, the Window of the World, Happy Valley, Splendid China, the Safari Park in Nanshan district, the Dameisha Promenade, Xiaomeisha Beach Resort in Yantian district, Zhongying Jie / Chung Ying Street, Xianhu Lake Botanical Garden, and Minsk World. The city also offers free admission to a number of public parks including the Lianhuashan Park, Lizhi Park, Zhongshan Park and Wutongshan Park. Shenzhen offers a great variety of cuisines that its numerous restaurants provide.
Most tourists, however, choose to stay in a largely expatriate and exotic residential community called Shekou, home to a large French cruise liner cemented into the ground called Sea World. Shekou was expanded and renovated in recent years, including claiming additional land from the sea.
Bordeaux Wines
Dont really hv a thing for bordeaux wines bcos they are quite heavy. Anyway, just beginning to learn more abt the wines. Over 700 million bottles of Bordeaux wine are produced every year. Most Bordeaux wine is red, but sweet white wines have also contributed to the region's reputation, and dry white, rosé and sparkling wines (Crémant de Bordeaux) are also produced. Bordeaux wine is made in 9,000 wineries usually called châteaux from the grapes of 13,000 grape growers. There are 57 appellations of Bordeaux wine.
The history of wine production seems to have begun sometime after 48 AD, during the Roman occupation of St. Émilion, when the Romans established vineyards to cultivate wine for the soldiers.However, it is only in 71 AD that Pliny recorded the first real evidence of vineyards in Bordeaux. France's first extensive vineyards were established by Rome in around 122 BC in today's Languedoc, the better part of two hundred years earlier.
The economic problems in 1970s, in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis marked a difficult period for Bordeaux. The 1980s was a period of recovery, and a new era in two respects. First, wine critics (rather than just official classifications) started to have an influence on demand and prices. US wine critic Robert M. Parker, Jr.'s review of the 1982 Bordeaux vintage has generally been considered to have started this trend, and Parker has remained the most influential Bordeaux critic ever since.[citation needed] Second, the preferred style of high-quality red Bordeaux has gradually changed: the wines are more concentrated in flavour, have a heavier influence of new oak, are more approachable already when young, and are slightly higher in alcohol. It has been claimed that this is the style of wine that Parker prefers and gives high scores to (and they are therefore sometimes called "Parkerized"), while the Pomerol-based winemaking consultant Michel Rolland writes the recipe for how to make these wines.
Bordeaux used to have a significant production of white wines, with Entre-deux-Mers, a primarily white wine area. Unlike the style of dry white Bordeaux favoured today, with almost 100% Sauvignon Blanc and a heavy influence of new oak, the traditional Entre-deux-Mers whites had a high proportion of Semillion and were either made in old oak barrels or in steel tanks. Starting in the 1960s and 1970s, these vineyards were converted to red wine production (of Bordeaux AOC and Bordeaux Superieur AOC), and the production of white wine has decreased ever since. Today production of white wine has shrunk to about one tenth of Bordeaux's total production.
The Bordeaux region of France is the second largest wine-growing area in the world with 284,320 acres (1,151 km2) under vine. Only the Languedoc wine region with 617,750 acres (2,500 km2) under vine is larger.Located halfway between the North pole and the equator, there is more vineyard land planted in Bordeaux than in all of Germany and ten times the amount planted in New Zealand.
The major reason for the success of winemaking in the Bordeaux region is the excellent environment for growing vines. The geological foundation of the region is limestone, leading to a soil structure that is heavy in calcium. The Gironde estuary dominates the regions along with its tributaries, the Garonne and the Dordogne rivers, and together irrigate the land and provide a maritime climate for the region.
These rivers define the main geographical subdivisions of the region:
In Bordeaux the concept of terroir plays a pivotal role in wine production with the top estates aiming to make terroir driven wines that reflect the place they are from, often from grapes collected from a single vineyard. The soil of Bordeaux is composed of gravel, sandy stone, and clay. The region's best vineyards are located on the well drained gravel soils that are frequently found near the Gironde river. An old adage in Bordeaux is the best estates can "see the river" from their vineyard and majority of land that face riverside are occupied by classified estates.
Red Bordeaux, which is traditionally known as claret in the United Kingdom, is generally made from a blend of grapes. Permitted grapes are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec, and Carmenere. Today Malbec and Carmenere are rarely used, with Château Clerc Milon, a fifth growth Bordeaux, being one of the few to still retain Carmenere vines.
As a very broad generalization, Cabernet Sauvignon dominates the blend in red wines produced in the Médoc and the rest of the left bank of the Gironde estuary. Merlot and to a lesser extent Cabernet Franc tend to predominate in Saint Emilion, Pomerol and the other right bank appellations.
White Bordeaux is predominantly, and exclusively in the case of the sweet Sauternes, made from Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle. As with the reds, white Bordeaux wines are usually blends, most commonly of Sémillon and a smaller proportion of Sauvignon Blanc. Other permitted grape varieties are Ugni Blanc, Colombard, Merlot Blanc, Ondenc and Mauzac.
In the late 1960s Sémillon was the most planted grape in Bordeaux. Since then it has been in constant decline although it still is the most common of Bordeaux's white grapes. Sauvignon Blanc's popularity on the other hand has been rising, overtaking Ugni Blanc as the second most planted white Bordeaux grape in the late 1980s and now being grown in an area more than half the size of that of the lower yielding Sémillon.
For wine styles, the Bordeaux wine region is divided into subregions including Saint-Émilion, Pomerol, Médoc, and Graves. The 57 Bordeaux appellations and the wine styles they represent are usually categorized into six main families, four red based on the subregions and two white based on sweetness.
The vast majority of Bordeaux wine is red, with red wine production out numbering white wine production six to one.
There are four different classifications of Bordeaux, covering different parts of the region:
The first growths are:
At the same time, the sweet white wines of Sauternes and Barsac were classified into three categories, with only Château d'Yquem being classified as a superior first growth.
In 1955, St. Émilion AOC were classified into three categories, the highest being Premier Grand Cru Classé A with two members:Château Ausone; Château Cheval Blanc.
There is no official classification applied to Pomerol. However some Pomerol wines, notably Château Pétrus and Château Le Pin, are often considered as being equivalent to the first growths of the 1855 classification, and often sell for even higher prices.
Wine terms used
Common wine terms used. Don't really like to use it during tastings ~ only good to drink or not. haha
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
California Wines - Freeman, Landmark and Ramey
I used to be so ignorant abt California Wines until Andy packed me a case. I really like the Freeman Pinots, Landmark and Ramey Chardonnays.
Freeman Vineyard : The Winemaker - Ed Kurtzman
Ed Kurtzman has been making Pinot Noir since 1994 where he got his start in the cellar at Bernardus in Carmel Valley, California under the guidance of Don Blackburn and Kirby Anderson. From 1995 through 1998 Ed moved across Monterey County to Chalone Vineyard where he was enologist and then assistant winemaker under Michael Michaud. He had the good fortune of meeting future August West partners Gary Franscioni and Howard Graham while he was winemaker at Testarossa for the vintages 1999-2002.
Ed uses a very light hand in the cellar when it comes to winemaking. He feels that since his partners go to such painstaking efforts to provide him with some of the best fruit grown in California, he might as well let the grapes make themselves into wine. Other than punching down the wines during fermentation, adding yeast to assure complete fermentation after the native yeasts have started the process, lightly pressing the pomace, and giving the wines an excellent home in new and used French oak barrels, Ed feels that he's merely the caretaker for Gary's and Howard's grapes after the harvest.
Landmark Vineyard : The Winemaker- Eric Stern
A native of New York, Eric Stern's undergraduate studies included music, anthropology and geology. Following his graduation from New York University's Washington Square College, he worked for ten years as an administrator for chamber music ensembles in New Hampshire and Michigan. His decision to pursue a career in wine began in Boston where he worked concurrently as a wine shop manager, sommelier and salesman for an importer/wholesale distributor of fine wine. In 1983, he relocated to California and enrolled in California State University at Fresno to get a second undergraduate degree in enology. After apprenticing at Acacia and Carmenet wineries, he joined Landmark in 1989 as Assistant Winemaker. Promoted to Winemaker in 1993, Stern continues to pursue his passion for the craft and art of wine. Relying on his senses and aesthetics, he produces balanced, full-flavored Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs in the traditional Burgundian style.
Stern lives in Sonoma with his wife, Carol Brown, a writing instructor. He enjoys listening to music, reading, swimming and gourmet cooking. Eric and Carol love traveling to the world's great winemaking regions.
Ramey : The Winemaker - David Ramey
David Ramey is widely acknowledged to be among the wine pioneers whose efforts helped raise the bar for all American winemakers and brought California to the forefront of the international wine world. David’s groundbreaking work with indigenous yeasts and malolactic and barrel fermentation yielded a new California style that was richer, more lush and silky smooth than previously known. As a result, he created a benchmark style now emulated by many.
At first, David followed a traditional path and received a graduate degree from the University of California at Davis, where his 1979 thesis on volatile ester hydrolysis (translation: how flavors evolve in wine) is still used today to unveil certain vinous mysteries. But shortly afterwards, a stint working for the Moueix family at the renowned Chateau Pétrus introduced David to the time-honored methods of winemaking in France. He brought his lessons home and applied them to the grapes he found growing in California’s premier wine regions.
Back in California, David helped establish a number of wineries that would soon become household names. They include Chalk Hill, Matanzas Creek, Dominus Estate (owned by Christian Moueix, of Pétrus) and most recently, Rudd Estate.
Ramey Wine Cellars, which David owns with his wife, Carla, was founded in 1996. Currently, David continues to “swing for the fences,” as he likes to say. To make great wines, he takes chances, harvesting his grapes at the last possible moment and using methods in the cellar that his former college professors consider risky at best. The resulting wines are praised among colleagues, consumers and the media alike. Wine Reviews.
David serves on the board of Family Winemakers of California and the executive board of Communicating for Agriculture and the Self-employed. He lives with his family in Glen Ellen, not far from the Ramey Wine Cellars winery in Healdsburg
Monday, October 20, 2008
Eyes Wide Shut - Ho Kwon Ping
I hv to say I hv utmost admiration for this guy ~ for the way he runs his biz and his ethics. I could never sell a CDO.... Hmm... I am a banker and so I am a Bargirl. Hehe...
DISTRACTIONS OF AN ECONOMIC BOOM - Eyes wide shut
Mr Ho Kwon Ping, executive chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings, spoke at the BlueSky finance fair on Thursday, 19 July 2007. This is an extract from his speech.
THIS symposium's focus on capital - how to find it, how to spend it, maybe lose it, and then how to find it again - is particularly timely. For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular, it is gratifying that banks have finally discovered that they are the real drivers of Asia's economic growth. SMEs account for more than 90 per cent of Asia's companies, around 60 per cent of employment and some 40 per cent of exports.
Yet four years ago, fewer than 20 per cent could get bank funding. But with a prolonged economic boom in the region, many SMEs are not so small any more. Banks are now rushing to provide them with not just plain-vanilla cash, trade, or overseas accounts, project loans and foreign exchange hedging, but also with more complex and exotic wealth management products as well as corporate finance for mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings (IPOs).
This is a commendable and long overdue attention to the needs of the SME sector. But there are also grounds for some caution.
We are in the midst of a liquidity-driven boom which started very positively, became euphoric, and is now causing some unease as to whether - or when - the music will come to a stop. This unease is no doubt accentuated by the uncanny coincidence that the last two crashes were exactly 10 years apart, in late 1987 and mid-1997. By this reckoning, something big and nasty should happen within the next six months.
For the past decade, the world has been awash in liquidity. Over this long period of low interest rates, cheap money was available for anyone to access. Since prudent individuals and companies were inherently conservative about their debt and investments, this cheap money found homes elsewhere. Some of it went to high-risk borrowers like sub-prime mortgages or junk bonds. Much of it fuelled a global boom in property, commodity, equity and other asset markets. A much larger amount went to hedge and private equity funds, which then, in collusion with banks, further leveraged themselves to make acquisitions built entirely on debt.
We are now entering an unknown territory in capital market cycles. All asset classes are experiencing historic highs. The sense of euphoria in all markets is palpable. The more seasoned observers are already warning of froth and bubbles. But respectable people are also saying - like people used to say before every crash - that this time it's different.
Perhaps it will indeed be different and water can flow uphill, and fish have wings. But I would be surprised.
It is in times of euphoria that businessmen must be particularly vigilant and disciplined. Sophisticated financial institutions can handle high degrees of risk because they slice off pieces of high risk subprime mortgages or junk bonds and repackage them into high yield products with impressive names like collateralised debt obligations or CDOs, and pass the risk to unsuspecting investors like you and me (also known as 'high net-worth individuals' to flatter us).
Use of other euphemisms like 'sub-prime' to describe barely solvent homeowners, or 'leverage lending' to describe piling debt on top of debt, certainly helped to mask the increasingly risky activity.
My experience is that our faculties are most sharp and logical during a crisis, like a recession. But when we are inebriated by prosperity, our vision becomes blurred, our logic and discipline weaken and the gambler's motto - 'one more time' - takes over. Normally conservative businessmen who avoid casinos find themselves heavily speculating in the equities and property markets, or pile debt onto debt to acquire expensive companies, or to diversify into unrelated businesses like property development.
It is during the good times - like now - that entrepreneurs are more likely to become excessively exuberant about borrowing or investing.
It is not impossible that the spectre of 1997 may come back to haunt us. While Singapore and Malaysia emerged relatively unscathed, any of you with friends in say, Thailand or Indonesia, will know the intensity, duration and depth of the trauma which the then very successful businessmen of Asia plunged into, and which they are only now beginning to emerge from. I would hate to see that happen to any of you.
*Sweet prospects*
ON THE other hand, prosperous times also opens the door for the sale of your company, in part or whole, to the public or private equity markets. Having found large and lucrative deals increasingly rare in the US and Europe, private equity deal frenzy is now turning towards smaller deals in Asia. And that means some of you have probably been targeted by investment bankers for an IPO, or by venture capitalists and private equity fund managers for a private sale.
The prospect of finally being rich after years of slogging, of being able to buy that yacht or Ferrari, or second home in Shanghai or London, or indulging in other forms of conspicuous consumption, is certainly sweet.
So what should you do?
Having just gone through our latest IPO a year ago, many of the questions are still fresh in my mind. You will surely ask: Is this the best time to bring my business to market, whether by IPO or private equity? Or is it premature, because within a few years my business will really take off and I will get a better value then? Should I seek mezzanine investors from the venture capital industry to tide over my capital needs till my IPO? Or should I sell out completely to the tempting offers from private equity funds because valuations won't get any better. And, how much should I dilute down? Do I need majority control in order to achieve my vision, or should I sell out and enter into a service contract?
In my own case, an IPO was a foregone conclusion because I had minority investors for whom I had promised an exit, but I did not sell down my equity at IPO because I felt that the best was yet to come. Our IPO was quite nerve-wracking. Delayed twice already because of Sars and then the tsunami,we thought we finally had perfect weather ahead. We started preparations under ideal market conditions but finally listed smack in the middle of a severe market correction. Companies queuing to list behind us actually cancelled their listing. But we were too late to cancel, and our share price collapsed on the first minute of trading. So much for an auspicious start.
Fortunately, investors did see value in Banyan Tree after a while. In the past one year our share price has gone up 300 per cent and Banyan Tree's market capitalisation is now about $2 billion.
*A healthy cynicism*
LOOKING back over my 25 years in business, I sometimes ask myself, did I actually learn anything at all? It's certainly not for lack of learning opportunities.
I've accessed public equity markets four times, with two listings in the Bangkok stock market and two in the Singapore stock market. In the process, I've gone on countless roadshows and rubber chicken lunches, trying to convince sceptical 25-year-old analysts that I was worth five minutes of their time.
I've hand-held venture capital investors in my companies from their entry till their exit through an IPO, and kept faith with them. I've also had many discussions with private equity funds who want to buy over completely Banyan Tree and some of my other companies.
I've signed loan covenants with fair-weather banks who court you when you don't need them, and pull the plug just when you do need them. I've tangled with vulture funds who buy distressed debt for a few cents on the dollar and then try to strip the borrower's assets.
I've nearly lost a few million dollars through buying complex derivatives from glib investment bankers who made me feel stupid that I didn't really understand how the hell the derivatives worked but was too intimidated to say so. And I've ignored advice and borrowed so much for an oil rig project which, when it collapsed, nearly sank our company.
I've also seen the view from the other side. After nine years on the board of Standard Chartered Bank, I have developed a respect for the men and women who pursue their vocation with integrity, professionalism, and even some compassion. I've worked with many excellent bankers who have since become friends.
From my expensive lessons, is there any single over-riding take-away, some shining pearl of wisdom I can give to you?
Very simply, it is this: You need to have a healthy cynicism about money - how we always are scrambling for it, and when we finally have it, how we can easily squander it. How the people who want to lend to us or invest in us,or for us to buy their financial instruments, are often less altruistic than their glibly articulate appearance.
A robust scepticism about all the players in the money game, including ourselves, is necessary if we are to be street-smart enough to survive and flourish in a world where things are not always what they appear to be.
Besides healthy scepticism about others, we should also be equally cynical about human nature as it applies to ourselves. My father, and probably each of yours also, used to always drum into me: There is no easy way to make money, and distrust anyone who tells you otherwise. But we usually remember this only until an easy-money proposition comes along.
Before the Thai baht devaluation 10 years ago, it was common practice for wealthy individuals and companies to borrow in low-interest US dollars and then invest in baht-denominated equities, bonds, or even loans. Double-digit returns on investment could be had for no risk because the baht had been pegged to the dollar for longer than anyone could remember. It was a no-brainer. Our companies also engaged in this lucrative trade, and we made good, easy money. My father's caution seemed so out-of-touch, so old-fashioned and conservative.
Well, as we all know, the baht did devalue and suddenly my liabilities doubled and my investments halved in value.
The amazing thing is that 10 years later, this same business has re-emerged with a vengeance, but it is interest rate arbitrage on the Japanese yen. And again, companies which would normally balk at speculative foreign exchange trading are happily engaged in the yen carry trade because it is such easy money to make. I hope you all listen to your fathers more than I did.
*Banyan Tree's early years*
WHEN the Asian crisis hit, Banyan Tree was a three-yearold start up, much less an SME. When I first started out to build our resort business, I did not have our family business as backing. I had already lost millions of my father's money through a disastrous oil drilling rig project in China.
I had access to less than $3 million to buy the land and build the first hotel, on what is now Laguna Phuket. We could not find investors or bankers, and even hotel management companies refused to manage our first hotel. My brother and I designed the first hotel literally on his kitchen table.
But as all of you know, the first step is always the hardest, and after several missteps and many doors rudely shut in our faces, the first hotel was built. After that, I was lucky to climb onto and ride a tourism boom in Thailand in the early 90s, and was therefore able to leverage the rising value of our land bank in Phuket to partner with outside investors. By eventually listing the Thai company, I managed to monetise some of my efforts, and re-invested that in a Singapore company, which later became Banyan Tree Holdings. This was to be our platform for international expansion.
Throughout all these years, we have been financially quite conservative. I have a fondness for plain-vanilla, traditional term loans rather than complicated facilities, for low gearing, and for not mis-matching short term loans with long term projects, or borrowing in one currency to fund a project in another - no matter how attractive it may be to do so.
Because of my own past mistakes, I've taken to heart another of my father's sayings: When you borrow money, think not of the huge profits you'll make but whether, in a worst case scenario, can the bank end up owning you.
And so we have conservative borrowing guidelines which we call the 1-2-3 formula. We will not exceed a 1:1 debt equity ratio, a 2:1 debt service ratio, or a 3:1 interest coverage ratio. Currently, even with our expansion plans and relatively easy access to credit, we are nowhere near these levels. I would suggest that each SME also set its own internal borrowing guidelines - especially in good times.
Because of this conservatism, I have funded some of our expansion not with excessive debt, but with venture capital. I invited a few venture capital firms to take up 30 per cent in a restructured company which became Banyan Tree Holdings, then gave them a verbal promise of an IPO exit - which I've kept.
*Bankers and bargirls*
AS AN entrepreneur, your dilemma is not whether to access the capital markets or not. It is how to optimise the use of each of the four sources of capital - internal cashflow, bank debt, public equity market, and private equity market.
And the corollary of that dilemma is how to maintain your independence while satisfying the demands of the various capital providers.
You have built up enviable businesses, many from scratch. You are ready for the next phase of growth, whether by using debt or equity capital. Whichever way you choose, and the resultant capital structure, will have a great impact on the next phase of your company. Have confidence in your own instincts, be aggressive in your thinking but conservative in your actions,and be not intimidated by bankers nor seduced by your own greed.
Above all, never fall prey to flattery and hubris. Bargirls and bankers have something in common: They are the most persuasive flatterers you'll meet. Both can persuade you to part with your money, and both can make you wake up one day regretting everything you've done. But only the banker can make you owe him even more after the deed than before.
But even more dangerous than flattery is your own hubris, the notion that you are somehow above business cycles, above unexpected risks, above competitive pressures; that because you have been successful once, you will always repeat that success.
To avoid hubris, never take yourself too seriously. Struggling entrepreneurs are pretty tough and resilient, but successful entrepreneurs often get soft and complacent. They are infected by a once-healthy confidence which has started to fester. They become bloated, full of themselves and wedded to possibly outdated formulas for success. They start to fear change and cling onto business models which no longer work, and then resort to debt to keep a failing business afloat.
Regard your work very seriously, but not yourself and your own infallibility. Recognise the need to be nimble and flexible in a global marketplace, and to change business models when necessary.
My own solution to hubris is simple: Whenever I feel like a master of the universe who can do no wrong, I go home and face my wife and children, and ask them who I am, and their honesty brings me down to earth pretty quickly.
Relationship - Abt feeling good
Summary on how to make a girl tick while maintaining our self respect...
The more u try to make someone love u, the less they will. We love the things that make us happy and the ones that we attribute the most value to. In order for someone to love, we must make them happy and be valuable to them.
- Feel good abt ourselves. If we make someone feel good by degrading ourselves socially, then that person will not respect u.
- Dont be a clingy guy. Only pay compliments occasionally.
- Enjoy life, be happy and it shall be contagious. In order to make her feel good, she must be happy ard u.
- If she's putting herself down, talk her up. If putting herself up.. tease her.
- Overcome the part that u dont like abt yourself. Practise and live this.
- Dont brag bcos it puts u in a position of trying to impress someone.
- In the end, u really cant force someone to like u but it can affect what kind of person u r. At least be a good catch instead of a loser.
- Concentrate on being happy and valuable, the rest will come naturally.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Banyan Tree - Ho Kwon Ping
This guy is one the most inspiring characters in Singapore..
The Banyan Tree group is a family affair for Kwon Ping. The first hotel started as a "fun" project with his brother Kwon Cjan (now head architect of all Banyan Tree projects) and wife Claire Chiang (a former nominated MP and executive director of the Banyan Tree Gallery that promotes local arts and handicrafts).
The first Banyan Tree resort opened in Phuket, Thailand, in 1995 with just seven staff members. KP had to wait thirteen years to own the next one, The Banyan Tree in Bangkok. Since then there has been no looking back. Currently, the group owns eighteen hotels and resorts, 46 spas and two golf courses; and employs 4,380 staff from 32 different nationalities. What or who is the force behind the tremendous achievements of the Banyan Tree group?
"Organic diversification is the best route for growth," advises the founder of the Banyan Tree, one of the world's fastest growing hotel chain, which redefined the meaning of the word luxury. Read why ?o:p>
The Times calls him the 'Branson of the East' but the title doesn't fit. True, there are some commonalities. Ho Kwon Ping (better known as KP Ho) is as expert a marketer as the high flying founder of the airline-to-music Virgin group. Both the Chinese Singaporean and the Englishman can teach experts a trick or two about global branding. Both are pioneers when it comes to redefining old businesses. While Richard Branson recreated the romance of flying, KP Ho put romance back into luxury holidays. But the similarities end there.
Everything that KP Ho (born 1952) does stems from his roots as a development economist, a former journalist and a committed environmentalist. One example: spending $400,000 on desalination plants to turn sea water into fresh water so as to a damaging the fragile ecosystems near the Banyan Tree projects. At the same time, he is a shrewd, smart manager. He joined the family business (the Wah Chang Group) in 1981, but over the past decade, converted the lackluster construction-to-commodity trading business into one of the fastest growing luxury hotel chains in the world, using the organic diversification route.
The Banyan Tree group is a family affair for KP. The first hotel started as a "fun" project with his brother Kwon Cjan (now head architect of all Banyan Tree projects) and wife Claire Chiang (a former nominated MP and executive director of the Banyan Tree Gallery that promotes local arts and handicrafts). The first Banyan Tree resort opened in Phuket, Thailand, in 1995 with just seven staff members. KP had to wait thirteen years to own the next one, The Banyan Tree in Bangkok. Since then there has been no looking back. Currently, the group owns eighteen hotels and resorts, 46 spas and two golf courses; and employs 4,380 staff from 32 different nationalities. What or who is the force behind the tremendous achievements of the Banyan Tree group? Apurv Bagri, a member of The Smart Manager advisory board and a long time friend of the stylish hotel tycoon, tries to unveil the man behind the success in this open ended interview.
You once said "everything in my past has contributed to my today". Can you elaborate?
I said that because when I talk to young people, I feel there is too little awareness on their part that everything that they are or will be is a slow accumulation of their everyday experiences. Also I made that remark because of my pretty checkered career: many people ask me how journalism, my childhood and other events have contributed towards my present business and to what I am today. Upon reflection I now recognize that everything that I have done in my life built the person who is now able to do what I am doing.
For example, the Banyan Tree is not a national brand and people of many nationalities work in our organization. This comes from the fact that I never grew up in one single country: I grew up in Singapore and Thailand. And when I was younger, I had a great passion not only for back packing but for the romance of travel in a very inexpensive manner.
The Banyan Tree culture is built out of my experiences. When I think back, I realize that the total accumulation of all my experiences has had a big influence on what I am today in a non-apparent sort of way. It's probably true for everybody.
According to Michael Porter, the basis of all competition is cost or differentiation. Is that a formula you subscribe to the Banyan Tree?
Yes, we compete on the basis of differentiation because Asian companies are going to find it very difficult to compete on the basis of cost. The Banyan Tree's success has been learnt on the back of bitter lessons from our other businesses. Our other businesses - construction, commodities, foods and so on - are still okay but not really that cost competitive anymore. I saw the writing on the wall when some of our businesses folded up because China and Indonesia became cheaper.
So when we started the Banyan Tree, although we were in a low cost country, we decided that we could not build something sustainable on the basis of cost competitiveness, and that is why from day one we spent quite a bit of money to build the brand. That is working to our advantage today. Yes, I subscribe to that theory.
How did you arrive at the decision to diversify into hotels?
We got into this business mainly because our other businesses were not asset heavy. They are very much based on cash flow, and we thought we needed to do something which was property based, something sustainable. In commodities and construction, you risk going back to zero with every single commodity purchase or sale, or every single construction project. As you get bigger and bigger, you either get more successful or get wiped out. Strategically I wanted to get into a business where as I added more hotels, the sum of the whole would get stronger and stronger, where we could rely on a relatively consistent cash flow to offset the volatile nature of our other businesses.
I did not want to go into property development, building apartments for sale, because conceptually that is the same risk profile as a construction project. If you take one big property development project and the timing is wrong, it takes time to get back up again. So I wanted a business where mistakes take a long time to make losses. With hotels, or anything of a rental nature like offices, you can have a bad year, yet five to six years down the line you can get back up again.
So essentially you prefer stability in terms of cash flow and returns rather than a quick market opportunity?
Yes, exactly.
Are you revisiting that now? As the brand gets stronger, is there a temptation to roll it out more quickly by partnering with others?
Oh, we are in fact doing that more and more. The strategic considerations have mutated quite considerably. When we first got into the hotel business the other businesses were equally important, and hotels was basically seen as a quasi-passive investment in a business which had consistent cash flow and capital appreciation potential.
When we established our own brand, we realized the potential for the brand to provide us with a proprietary advantage, something we had never had in any of our other businesses. As that evolved, the Banyan Tree became more important, the others less so. Now we have mutated into a typical hotel company where we own the majority of our assets. But in this business, in the long term, regardless of how much capital you have, it would never be enough.
Owning 100% of your hotels will always be expensive and probably very risky too. So our model for going ahead is to partner with others. We would still put in some equity because we do not want to just manage hotels. For example we are doing a project in Morocco and looking at one in Greece where we would be partners with other parties. But in Le Chang in China we are building a Banyan Tree resort that would be 100% owned, and in Bali we are reviving a 100% owned project.
KP, as someone who has stayed with you, I am struck by your concern for the environment. It is obvious from the designs of the resort and the detailed information in the guest rooms. What are the origins of the environmental stewardship programs?
I have a development economics background, where I learnt the essential dilemma between environmental preservation and economic development, and the fact that often there has to be a trade off. But my concern for the environment did not arise from my being a leftist liberal green peace environmentalist. It arose because we got involved in a construction project in Phuket, where we saw in a concrete way how developers can totally destroy an environment. At the time, we had no choice - we were ignorant and stupid when we bought the site - but then we tried to adopt environment friendly measures. We discovered the good that can be achieved as an environmentally responsible developer as opposed to being just a hotel operator.
In the hotel business, the greatest harm or the greatest good is done at the developmental level. So few people were working on this that we won all these international awards, and when you get accolades, they spur you to do more. Since then we have taken environment stewardship as our core cause, but it is a nuanced platform.
To us, the environment means both the physical and the human environment. Most of our environmental work is towards creating a win-win situation between protecting the environment and enhancing people's livelihoods.
I would not protect an endangered specie at a seashore unless we can also help improve the lives of the people living there. Protection or promotion of the environment cannot be not at the expense of people. This attitude is somewhat controversial in the West and even sometimes in Asia.
If Banyan Tree is to have any lasting contribution, it won't be in the field of luxury tourism, it will be in the field of development. I hope we can be an example to developers and others that one can marry two apparently opposing forces.
Another area where you have been a pioneer is in training programs for your work force. I understand the Banyan Tree employs 4,000 people from 32 nationalities. What did you try that was different and why?
We do use traditional training programs. But one of the big issues we face (and this is one of the contradictions of luxury tourism) is the great disparity in income between the workers of tourism and the consumers of tourism. If this is not handled in a positive manner, it can end in what I call the Caribbean situation, where people working in the hospitality industry actually resent the guests. In our training programs we conduct all the skills based training as others do, such as how to set a table, how to answer the telephone, etc. Where we try to go beyond is to try to create an emotional nexus between the service people and the consumer, so that they realize that the customer truly adds to the livelihood of our staff.
One of the ways we do this is to ask our staff to stay in a luxury villa so that they experience and know what it is like to stay there. An overwhelming majority of employees would be minorities in a developed country, yet the setting is very US-centric. In the international luxury hotel business, you do have a situation where whites dominate other nationalities, so we try to create a culture of internationalism. We prepare training programs which are not just skill based but are oriented towards building up a Banyan Tree culture.
As part of that culture, as part of management process, do you use modern management tools such as Six Sigma, EVA or the Balanced Scorecard?
Our HR people use external audit format and external techniques, and we engage external consultants for anonymous property audits and so on. We have not introduced six sigma. I suppose that will come one day. So far my main emphasis has been to try to create a culture unique to the company. My general perception is that it is not easy to transplant specific training programs. Even to take the same tools from a hotel in one country to another has been quite difficult.
Where do you see the group in the next five years? Will you diversify more or will it be organic growth?
My vision for Banyan Tree is to be a global company and string a necklace of jewels around the world. We may not be a spider's web, covering everything. We do not need 600 hotels but one jewel in every major area of the world. We need to be global in this business because our competition is global and our customers are global and so are their mindsets. It's not a Pepsi strategy.
Second is organic diversification. As an entrepreneur you have to be alert to new opportunities but these new opportunities must be the natural outgrowth of what you are currently doing. When we started the spa business, it was incidental. Now it has become a standalone business in its own right.
We have tied up with the Oberoi group and signed seven spa deals from Egypt to Jordan and Japan. Many of these are not within hotels. We are also looking at other businesses. We have just started city clubs in Taipei and Colombo. We will continue to look at hospitality related diversification.
In terms of acquisitions, yes we are making property acquisitions, digestible acquisitions. When it comes to acquiring a company with a number of hotels attached to it, the jury is out on whether that kind of strategy is workable for us. My sense is that the global hotel industry is going through serious consolidation. At one end are mainstream hotels and at the other are the smaller boutique properties. It may make absolute sense to acquire the Meridian chain and get rid of the Meridian name but keep all the properties, but a Meridian, a Sheraton, a Westin are all identical. If I want to keep our brand finely sharpened, I am not sure I can acquire a chain of hotels and turn them into Banyan Trees that easily. One reason why Banyan Tree has a pretty strong brand is because we have designed and built our hotels from scratch.
KP, you have been the chairman of Singapore Power, you are the chairman of the Singapore Management University, on the board of Singapore Airlines. A great Singapore success story! How do you deal with success?
By buying Rolex watches and Ferrari convertibles. Just joking! I don't know, I am not sure what you mean by dealing with success. Except to say that it makes me want to do more. We were idealistic students, radicals wanting to change the world. Then we realized that changing the world is far more complex than demonstrating on the streets, that we can change the world only in a limited individual way.
But one of the rewards of being financially independent is to have a degree of influence in the areas I am involved in, the pleasure of feeling that you can, in your own small way, bring about change for the good. You can perhaps inspire some younger people, as others inspired us when we were young, and that gives me tremendous satisfaction. It is a gratifying realization for one who has reached middle age.
How do you allocate your time between the Banyan Tree and your other activities?
Email is God sent. It was born just ten years ago! Before that we relied on faxes, and I remember the days of the telex. Email has been tremendously liberating. I am now far more productive than ever before. I can handle far more things than I used to be able to handle. At one time I had 2?secretaries, (?meaning one worked part time). Now I have to find things for my one secretary to do. I can handle all of it wherever I go. I can travel a lot more.
Are you a very hands-on CEO?
That is a good question. My reply is that there is nothing like hands-off or hands-on. I think most CEOs would say that the real trick is to know the things you must be super hands-on about, because even though they are small they are critical and vital to the business machine; and those you should be totally hands-off because lots of other people can handle them better than you, and besides which your intervention isn't really critical to the success of business.
A lot of hotel owners love to be super hands-on in daily operations, saying let's change the color of the carpet and so on. I recognize that I can be an obstacle, a bottleneck, so professionals deal with operational areas. But I am super hands-on in the design of the hotels and spas; and where our brand is involved such as public relations and advertising. I am always trying to identify the correct areas where I should be hands-on and hands-off.
KP, your wife Claire takes a keen interest in business. Some couples find it easy to work together, others find it difficult. How about you?
Both of us are accidental managers. When we met, she told me that the last person she wanted to marry was a businessman. I wasn't a businessman then, so I was okay. We lived in Hong Kong: she as a poor development sociologist, me as a poor journalist. We had a great time. Not only did we enjoy the life style, intellectually we were well connected, and we had true goals in life. As for how we manage as a working couple, there are pros and cons. The pro is that you don't run out of things to talk about, you always have someone to bounce an opinion on.
The sensitive part is drawing clear boundaries, especially since Claire is an independent, strong willed person, and my equal. I am the chairman and she runs one of the subsidiaries. I have to be careful and not always act like the chairman and the boss. She has to have her space. And we probably have worked out how she makes her decisions and I make mine in our respective areas.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Appreciation of Fine Wines
A man goes to the Lucas Carton in Paris with his girlfriend and orders the 1928 Mouton.
The waiter returns with a bottle full of wine, pours a small amount in the glass for tasting.
The customer picks up the glass, smells the wine, and puts it down on the table with a thud.
'This is not the 1928 Mouton.'
The waiter assures him it is, and soon there is another twenty people surrounding the table including the chef and the manager trying to convince the man that the wine is the 1928 Mouton.
Finally someone asks him how he knows that it is not the 1928 Mouton.
'My name is Phillipe de Rothschild, and I make the wine.'
Finally, the original waiter steps forward and admits that he poured the Clerc Milon 1928.
I could not bear to part with our last bottle of 1928 Mouton. You know Clerc Milon, it is in the same village as Mouton, you pick the grapes at the same time, the same cepage, you crush in the same way, you put them into similar barrels. You bottle at the same time, you even use eggs from the same chickens to fine them. The wines are the same, except for a small matter of geographic location.'
Rothschild beckons the waiter forward, and whispers to him, 'When you return home tonight, ask your girlfriend to remove her underwear. Put one finger in one opening, another finger in the other, then smell both the fingers. You will understand what a small distance in geographic location makes."
NYT Interesting article
One of the articles on NY Times abt searching for the other half. Totally hilarious. Got the article last yr 2007.
What am I doing wrong? Okay, I'm tired of beating around the bush. I'm a beautiful (spectacularly beautiful) 25 year old girl. I'm articulate and classy. I'm not from New York. I'm looking to get married to a guy who makes at least half a million a year. I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don't think I'm overreaching at all.
Are there any guys who make 500K or more on this board? Any wives? Could you send me some tips? I dated a business man who makes average around 200 - 250. But that's where I seem to hit a roadblock. 250,000 won't get me to Central Park West. I know a woman in my yoga class who was married to an investment banker and lives in Tribeca, and she's not as pretty as I am,nor is she a great genius. So what is she doing right? How do I get to her level?
Here are my questions specifically:
- Where do you single rich men hang out? Give me specifics- bars,restaurants, gyms.
- What are you looking for in a mate? Be honest guys, you won't hurt my feelings.
- Is there an age range I should be targeting (I'm 25)?
- Why are some of the women living lavish lifestyles on the Upper East Side so plain? I've seen really 'plain jane' boring types who have nothing to offer married to incredibly wealthy guys. I've seen drop dead gorgeous girls in singles bars in the east village. What's the story there?
- Jobs I should look out for? Everyone knows - lawyer, investment banker, doctor. How much do those guys really make? And where do they hang out? Where do the hedge fund guys hang out? How you decide marriage vs. just a girlfriend? I am looking for MARRIAGE.
ONLY Please hold your insults - I'm putting myself out there in an honest way.Most beautiful women are superficial; at least I'm being up front about it.I wouldn't be searching for these kind of guys if I wasn't able to match them - in looks, culture, sophistication, and keeping a nice home and hearth.
It's NOT OK to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests.
Posting ID: 432279810
The First Response
Dear Pers-431649184:
I read your posting with great interest and have thought meaningfully about your dilemma. I offer the following analysis of your predicament: Firstly, I'm not wasting your time, I qualify as a guy who fits your bill;that is I make more than $500K per year. That said here's how I see it.
Your offer, from the prospective of a guy like me, is plain and simple a crappy business deal. Here's why. Cutting through all the B.S., what you suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party and I bring my money. Fine, simple. But here's the rub, your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity...in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won't be getting any more beautiful!
So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning asset. Not only are you a depreciating asset, your depreciation accelerates! Let me explain, you're 25 now and will likely stay pretty hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. Then the fade begins in earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you!
So in Wall Street terms, we would call you a trading position, not a buy and hold...hence the rub...marriage. It doesn't make good business sense to "buy you" (which is what you're asking) so I'd rather lease. In case you think I'm being cruel, I would say the following. If my money were to go away, so would you, so when your beauty fades I need an out. It's as simple as that. So a deal that makes sense is dating, not marriage.
Separately, I was taught early in my career about efficient markets. So, I wonder why a girl as "articulate, classy and spectacularly beautiful" as you has been unable to find your sugar daddy. I find it hard to believe that if you are as gorgeous as you say you are that the $500K hasn't found you, if not only for a tryout.
By the way, you could always find a way to make your own money and then we wouldn't need to have this difficult conversation. With all that said, I must say you're going about it the right way. Classic "pump and dump." I hope this is helpful, and if you want to enter into some sort of lease, let me know.
Second Response: Bachelor #2
Dear Pers-431649184:
I also came across your posting with great interest. I am a 28 year old Wall Street trader who qualifies as an eligible suitor under your $500k/yr rule. In fact, I make over a million and can usher a woman into a comfortable, true middle class lifestyle (not like those 500k lower-middle class chumps who have to make do with the junior two-bedroom).
I am sympathetic to your goal in finding a rich man to marry. The milk needs to be sold by the expiration date. But since this is premium milk, why would you settle for less than premium prices? I would like to address some of the questions that were previously missed by the other gentleman and provide constructive advice on where to find your match.
I also do believe in the efficient market theory, and am surprised that $500k hasn't found you yet. There are plenty of rich lawyers, investment bankers and hedgies to go around in this city. What gives? I think the problem might be that you have not been sufficiently focused in your search efforts.
The culprit, I believe, may be that you are also looking for qualities aside from money - such as looks, personality, and a sense of humor. However, men who have those qualities learn at an early age that they do not need money to attract quality women. As the saying goes, if you can get the milk for free, why pay up for the cow?
What you need to look for is someone who is long money, and short the other aspects. They are not easy to spot, since you are biologically wired to overlook and ignore them. However, the next time that you are at a expensive black tie event, and you are introduced to the short, bald, overweight man who fidgets nervously whilst making conversation with you, pay special attention to him.
Here's an inspirational story for you. An acquaintance of mine who was also an classy and articulate woman as yourself was able to land that guy - who also happens to be one of the top ten guys at Google. This is the type of stuff that gold-digging moms read to their gold-digging daughters at bedtime. Perhaps you need to make a location change to Silicon Valley - miracles like these happen almost everyday in a land where you can randomly throw a rock and hit a rich nerd squarely in his Kim-jong Il glasses.
And as far as his deficiencies go, they turned out to be not so bad. With hundreds of millions in the bank, she's been able to clean him up and give him a little sophistication. Think of it as a fixer-upper project with a massive budget (and yourself as a visionary real estate developer!). Although, I must warn you, it is a fine line you are flirting with - you must not overdo it lest he begins to attract younger women who are hotter than yourself. The trick is, you need build him up enough to be presentable, while simultaneously manipulate him into believing you are the best that he will ever do! That and having kids will be your insurance against your depreciation (or as I prefer to use the term, milk going sour).
I wish the best of luck on your sales project. As for me, I am also available for a short-term lease. However, for marriage I wouldn't consider a woman unless she can bring beauty, brains and self-motivation to the table. I do not want to dilute my gene pool and end up raising a bunch of Paris Hiltons.
Barolo 2000 horizontal
Barolos 2000 - bot a case of Barolo horizontal from Quentin. Problem I find with Barolo is that u need to decant it for a very long time. Looking to drink in 2010.
Azelia:
The Azelia estate is still many a Barolo lover’s secret – though the estate is not a high-profile one, proprietor Luigi Scavino is cousin of Enrico Scavino of the Paolo Scavino estate, and shares ownership of the famed Fiasco hill with him, in addition to the San Rocco holdings in Serralunga. The contrast between the two “Bricco Fiasco” wines is notable; Enrico Scavino is firmly in the modernist camp, and Luigi and wife Lorella still maintain some tradition in the cellar, with the greatest focus and efforts expended on vineyard management. The 'San Rocco' is a muscular, characterful wine – the Scavinos were the first to establish this as an important cru. In 1998, Azelia’s Barolos were 'two superb efforts,' according to Parker, with “hedonistic, sensual” qualities, he scored the Barolos from this estate 91-93 points!
Corino:
“Readers looking for up-front, sexy Barolos made with a Pomerol-like lushness should check out those from this La Morra producer (Parker).” Corino makes unbelievably densely-fruited, seamless, velvety and layered wines from Nebbiolo, Barbera and Dolcetto; these wines are perhaps the most representative and exciting of all La Morra.
E.Pira & Figli:
E Pira & Figli has some six acres of vines under cultivation in the commune of Barolo, known for producing open, rich wines with great structure. She graduated with degree in economics but gained experience while working with her brothers at the historical Borgogno estate. Chiara, one of very few women winemakers in the Langhe area, is necessarily of unquestionable confidence, determination, patience, and charm. She took over the reins at E. Pira e Figli in 1990 with a clear idea of what she wanted to accomplish: to marry the extraordinary power of Barolo with approachability and enticing elegance.
Elio Altare:
Elio Altare is universally acknowledged to be one of the world's greatest winemakers. Altare was a leader of the revolution in cellar and vineyard technique in the Barolo zone; among his many now-commonplace innovations were the use of rotary fermenters, a short maceration period, and the use of small barriques for aging. The resulting wines, from Dolcetto to Barbera to Barolo, are often considered to be the ultimate expressions of the soft, fragrant and lush qualities characteristic of the commune of La Morra.
Luigi Pira:
“One of Piedmont’s new superstars… these are wines of extraordinary complexity and breathtaking richness. The spectacular offerings from Pira ’s vineyards in and around Serralunga d’Alba are among the more riveting examples.” (Parker) Pira’s holdings are in the three most prestigious crus in the Serralunga commune: “Margheria,” “Marenca," and “Rionda.”
Paolo Scavino:
“Scavino and his daughters are fashioning riveting wines at their cellars in Castiglione Falletto.” -Robert Parker, Jr. Enrico Scavino has been at the forefront of the modernist movement in Piedmont since the 1980s, and is today one of the most respected and highly regarded winemakers in all of Italy. He diverged sharply from the tough-as-nails-when-young traditional style of Barolo to produce soft and lush wines that are delicious within months of release as well as later in their evolution, applying the same winemaking techniques to Barbera and Dolcetto.
Sandrone Luciano:
Sandrone Luciano is a family-run wine maker and farmer established in 1978. The total area is 16 hectares, which is completely covered by vines. These are produced in Vezza d’Alba; geographically on the right hand side of the river Tanaro, between the Langhe and the Roero hills. The vineyard area giving origin to these wines is hilly and named LANGHE. Sandrone Luciano like to control production according to the season trend and determine the best ripening point, when the grapes should be harvested.
Seghesio:
Brothers Aldo and Riccardo Seghesio began bottling their wine from their ten-hectares in the La Villa cru in 1988; the cru, in the Castelletto subzone not far from Manzone’s Gramolere, is another one of the most precipitous, best-drained expositions in all of Barolo – a ride of switchbacks up from the town of Monforte. Seghesio’s Barolo is concentrated, big and muscular with pure Nebbiolo aromas and velvety texture.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Timeline of Events leading to Mkt crisis
Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The following is a timeline of events that led to the current global financial crisis. It all started on 5 Mar 2007...
March 5, 2007: HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's biggest bank by market value, says the U.S. subprime market is "unstable" and now in a "downturn", making it the main drag on company earnings....
March 29, 2007: HSBC Chairman Stephen Green says the U.S. subprime mortgage services division will be ``run down significantly'' as the bank tries to recover from loan losses.
April 2, 2007: New Century Financial Corp., which specialized in loans to people with poor credit, files for bankruptcy protection after being overwhelmed by customer defaults.
July 17, 2007: Investors in two Bear Stearns Cos. hedge funds that invested in collateralized debt obligations backed by subprime mortgage loans are told there is no value left in the funds, wiping out $1.6 billion originally invested.
July 19, 2007: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke tells the U.S. Senate's Banking Committee that there may be as much as $100 billion in losses associated with subprime mortgage products.
Aug. 9, 2007: BNP Paribas SA, France's biggest bank, halts withdrawals from three investment funds because it can't ``fairly'' value their holdings, as concern over U.S. subprime mortgage losses roils credit markets.
Aug. 17, 2007: The Fed lowers the interest rate it charges banks and acknowledges for the first time that an extraordinary policy shift is needed to contain the subprime-mortgage collapse.
Aug. 22, 2007: Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, sells $2 billion of preferred stock to Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. bank by market value, to bolster its finances.
Sept. 7, 2007: The three-month London interbank offered rate, or Libor, the rate banks charge each other for dollars, rises to a seven-year high, signaling efforts by central banks to free up lending are sputtering.
Sept. 14, 2007: Northern Rock Plc says the Bank of England agreed to provide emergency funds to ease a ``severe liquidity squeeze'' sparked by U.S. subprime mortgage defaults following the first run on a British bank in more than a century.
Oct. 9, 2007: U.S. stock indexes rally to records for the second time in a month after minutes from the Fed allayed investor concern that the U.S. economy is heading for a recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index set all-time highs, with the Dow closing at 14,164.53.
Oct. 30, 2007: Merrill Lynch & Co. ousts Stan O'Neal as chairman and chief executive officer after reporting a $2.24 billion loss, six times bigger than a forecast the firm offered just three weeks earlier.
Nov. 4, 2007: Citigroup Inc. CEO Charles ``Chuck'' Prince, who took over in 2003, steps down after the largest U.S. bank by assets increased its estimate for mortgage-related writedowns.
Jan. 11, 2008: Bank of America, the biggest U.S. bank by market value, agrees to buy Countrywide for about $4 billion.
March 14, 2008: Bear Stearns Cos. gets emergency funding from the U.S. Federal Reserve and JPMorgan Chase & Co. as a run on the bank depletes its cash reserves in three days.
March 16, 2008: JPMorgan Chase agrees to buy Bear Stearns for 7 percent of its market value in a sale brokered by the Fed and the U.S. Treasury.
April 1, 2008: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the fourth- largest U.S. securities firm, raises $4 billion from a stock sale to quell speculation it's short of capital.
April 9, 2008: Washington Mutual Inc. rejected an offer from JPMorgan Chase to buy it for as much as $8 a share, or $7 billion, before announcing it received a $7 billion capital infusion from a group led by TPG Inc., the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the situation.
April 28, 2008: The U.S. Internal Revenue Service starts distributing tax rebates electronically as part of a $168 billion economic stimulus plan.
May 31, 2008: Bear Stearns ceases to exist as the acquisition by JPMorgan is completed.
June 20, 2008: The Dow closes below 12,000.
July 11, 2008: IndyMac Bancorp Inc., the second-biggest independent U.S. mortgage lender, is seized by federal regulators after a run by depositors depleted its cash.
July 31, 2008: Nationwide Building Society, Britain's fourth-biggest mortgage lender, says U.K. house prices declined the most in almost two decades in July and consumer confidence fell to a record low as the economy edged closer to a recession.
Aug. 12, 2008: UBS AG, Switzerland's biggest bank, announces plans to separate its investment banking and wealth management units after mounting subprime writedowns prompt rich clients to withdraw funds for the first time in almost eight years.
Aug. 31, 2008: Commerzbank AG agrees to buy Allianz SE's Dresdner Bank for 9.8 billion euros ($13.3 billion) in Germany's biggest banking takeover in three years.
Sept. 7, 2008: The U.S. government seizes control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest U.S. mortgage-finance companies.
Sept. 15, 2008: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. files the largest bankruptcy in history, and Bank of America agrees to acquire Merrill Lynch for about $50 billion.
Sept. 16, 2008: American International Group Inc. accepts an $85 billion loan from the Fed to avert the worst financial collapse in history, and the government takes over the company.
Sept. 18, 2008: Lloyds TSB Group Plc, the U.K.'s biggest provider of checking accounts, agrees to buy HBOS Plc, Britain's largest mortgage lender, for 10.4 billion pounds ($18.1 billion).
Sept. 21, 2008: Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley receive approval to become commercial banks regulated by the Fed as tight credit markets forced Wall Street's two remaining independent investment banks to widen their sources of funding.
Sept. 23, 2008: Goldman Sachs says it will raise at least $7.5 billion from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and public investors in a bid to quell concerns that pushed up the Wall Street firm's borrowing costs and hurt its stock.
Sept. 26, 2008: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ends a program that monitored securities firms' capital after Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, the only companies remaining under its jurisdiction, became banks overseen by the Fed. Sept. 26, 2008: The SEC's inspector general releases a report asserting that the agency failed in overseeing Bear Stearns because it knew the firm had ``high leverage'' and was too concentrated in mortgage securities before its forced sale to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Sept. 26, 2008: Washington Mutual Inc. is seized by government regulators and its branches and assets sold to JPMorgan Chase in the biggest U.S. bank failure in history.
Sept. 27, 2008: Washington Mutual files for bankruptcy protection.
Sept. 28, 2008: Fortis, the largest Belgian financial- services firm, receives an 11.2 billion-euro rescue from Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg after investor confidence in the bank evaporates.
Sept. 29, 2008: The House of Representatives rejects a $700 billion plan to rescue the U.S. financial system, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 778 points, its biggest point drop ever. Citigroup agrees to acquire the banking operations of Wachovia Corp. for about $2.16 billion after shares of the North Carolina lender collapsed under the weight of overdue mrtgages. Bradford & Bingley Plc, the U.K.'s biggest lender to landlords, is seized by the government. The Dow closes below 11,000.
Sept. 30, 2008: Dexia SA, the world's biggest lender to local governments, gets a 6.4 billion-euro state-backed rescue as a worsening financial crisis forces policy makers across Europe to aid ailing banks. Ireland says it will guarantee its banks' deposits and debts for two years.
Oct. 1, 2008: The U.S. Senate approves a revised version of the rescue plan that was refashioned to entice enough votes for passage.
Oct. 3, 2008: The House passes the revised version of the rescue plan. Wells Fargo & Co., the biggest U.S. bank on the West Coast, agrees to buy all of Wachovia for about $15.1 billion, trumping Citigroup's government-assisted offer. U.S. President Oct. 5, 2008: BNP Paribas SA, France's biggest bank, will take control of Fortis's units in Belgium and Luxembourg after an earlier government rescue failed to ensure the company's stability as the global credit crisis worsened.
Oct. 6, 2008: The Fed says it will double its auctions of cash to banks to as much as $900 billion and is considering further steps to unfreeze short-term lending markets as the credit crunch deepens. The German government and the country's banks and insurers agreed on a 50 billion euro rescue package for commercial property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG after an earlier bailout faltered. The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls below 10,000 for the first time in four years.
Oct. 9, 2008: Citigroup walks away from its attempt to buy Wachovia, handing victory to Wells Fargo. The Dow Jones falls below 9,000 for the first time in five years and briefly dips below 8,000.
Oct. 11, 2008: U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson indicates that pumping government funds into banks is a priority, saying financial markets will remain volatile.
Oct. 12, 2008: European leaders agree to guarantee bank borrowing and use government money to prevent big lenders from going under, trying to stop the financial hemorrhage and stave off a recession.
Oct. 13, 2008: The Fed leads an unprecedented push by central banks to flood the financial system with as many dollars as banks want, backing up government efforts to revive confidence and helping to reduce money-market rates. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, HBOS Plc, and Lloyds TSB Group Plc get an unprecedented 37 billion-pound bailout from the U.K. government as Germany, France and Spain prepare similar rescues. Germany says it will provide as much as 500 billion euros in loan guarantees and capital to bolster the banking system, the country's biggest government intervention since the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.
Jokes from RG
- Children in the front seat of a car can cause accidents. Accidents in the back seat of a car can cause children.
- If u believe that the quickest way to a man heart is the stomach, know that u r aiming a little too high.
- Women are like swimming pools; they cost a great deal of money to maintain, considering the time that u spend inside.
- Some bosses are like clouds. The minute they disappear, the day suddenly gets brighter.
- To err is human. To blame someone else for yr problem, is strategic.
- Men wouldn't lie as much to their women in their life, if the women in their lives didn't ask so many questions.
- Women marry bcos they believe that he will change one day. Men marry bcos they believe that she will never change. Both are mistaken.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
HK Dining Sep 08
Didnt manage to post the reviews last time
FELIX is on the 28th floor of Peninsula Hotel, award winning restuarant. The cutting edge western food restaurant is looked as the Best Restaurant in Asia. Good view of the Victory Bay. The men’s restroom is world famous. The urinals line a floor-to-ceiling glass wall viewing the harbour and Hong Kong Island. Add：28th floor, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong, 852-29202888.
My tots - They had a nice bar, nice toilet but do i really care? Food is decent but not compelling. The tables are too big and it doesnt provide the cosiness. Nice view though.
CAPRICE - Four Seasons Hotel, 8 Finance Street 3196 8888. 8 tables by the window with great view of the harbour. Very nice modern decoration with open kitchen. The only problem is that the reflection on the glass windows is too bright. Overlooks spectacular Victoria Harbour and Kowloon peninsula. Food is decent and wines heavily skewed towards Bordeaux. On the exp side though.
China foodie
Jade36 - Jade on 36. Level 36, Pudong Shangri-La, 33 Fu Cheng Road (富城路33号)Reservations: (86-21) 6882-8888
Andy helped me to arrange a dinner at the Paul Pairet helmed restaurant in the Shangri La. The food was amazing coupled by a fantastic view of the Bund. There was also a firework event later in the evening. Ideal place to bring a date. The bar is very hip and relaxing.
避风塘 - amazing chain of local resturants. The food is very delicious esp the 水煮鱼。http://www.bifengtang.com.cn/
横山小馆-延安西路719江苏路- chain of 4 restuarants opened up by a chinese family. The food is quite decent esp the stirred fry beef with the veg, the fried fish in soya sauce and the daily soup.
王品台塑牛排(Oct 2008) - tried this in Shenzhen... One of the best beef ribs I hv even tried. Hv branches in shenzhen, beijing, shanghai and Nanjing. www.wangsteak.com.cn
复茂 (1 Mar 2009) - 春夏龙虾，秋冬螃蟹。www.xiaxie.com
Found this place in Shanghai that serves very good chilli crabs and mini lobsters. Even does delivery to the hotel. Food is very good. Sichuan style.
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Great Depression
A businessman was in a great deal of trouble. His business was failing, he had put everything he had into the business, he owed everybody-- it was so bad he was even contemplating suicide. As a last resort he went to a priest and poured out his story of tears and woe.
When he had finished, the priest said, "Here's what I want you to do: Put a beach chair and your Bible in your car and drive down to the beach. Take the beach chair and the Bible to the water's edge, sit down in the beach chair, and put the Bible in your lap. Open the Bible; the wind will rifle the pages, but finally the open Bible will come to rest on a page. Look down at the page and read the first thing you see. That will be your answer, that will tell you what to do."
A year later the businessman went back to the priest and brought his wife and children with him. The man was in a new custom-tailored suit, his wife in a mink coat, the children shining. The businessman pulled an envelope stuffed with money out of his pocket, gave it to the priest as a donation in thanks for his advice.
The priest recognized the benefactor, and was curious. "You did as I suggested?" he asked.
"Absolutely," replied the businessman.
"You went to the beach?"
"Absolutely."
"You sat in a beach chair with the Bible in your lap?"
"Absolutely."
"You let the pages rifle until they stopped?"
"Absolutely."
"And what were the first words you saw?"
"Chapter 11."