The stock market hates uncertainties, which explains why Asian bourses did not rise in tandem with the US market despite the latter rising for two consecutive days just before the Fed rate cut decision.
Earlier, Lorenzo placed out 20m new shares at $0.26 apiece to financial institutions, high networth individuals and strategic investors, raising approximately $5m. Of which, $3.5m was earmarked to fund the aforesaid development.
The US collateral debt obligation (CDO) is also a form of bet that went wrong, as major banks package these debts and sell them so as to diversify their risks. What these banks did not realize was that the “heavily packaged” deals went severely wrong leading to huge losses.
All key markets registered strong growth with North America remaining the key geographical segment. However, with the sub-prime storm brewing across the States, MW could face impediment to its growth.
Over the past year, MIIF has been steadfastly implementing its strategy of increasing its focus on Asia. Its portfolio of assets were actively traded with divestments of assets in US and Europe and acquisition of assets in Asia.
Dear readers, Iʼm sure that most of you have been pulling out your hair or pushed to your witʼs end by the recent volatile market. The 2-day drop on 21 and 22 Jan-08 scraped off $36 billion from the Straits Times Index while US$2.4 trillion was wiped out in the global markets.
The Asian Financial Crisis resulted in an economic downturn throughout Asia after 1997. Singaporeʼs construction industry went through years of gloom and doom from 1999 to 2005, during which many construction companies were forced to wind up.
DBS announced at Feb 1 2008 market close that it had successfully bid for the ‘good bank assets’ of Taiwan’s Bowa Bank in a government auction.
As with the recent acquisitions of Taiwanese banks by foreign banks such as HSBC, Stanchart and Citibank, we believe the Bowa deal will be incrementally positive to DBS strategically – it will complete the missing piece of puzzle in its Greater China platform by complementing and leveraging on its relatively strong HK and nascent mainland China
