Chinese investors want to cash in on the country’s NBA fever with a bid to buy a 15 percent stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers. Chinese-born businessman Kenny Huang is spearheading the deal, estimated to be worth over $70 million. His U.S.-based partner Marc Ganis noted that that if the deal goes through, it would rank as the largest international sports transaction ever made by Chinese nationals. ”Simply having Chinese ownership will increase significantly the visibility of the team within China,” Ganis said. “There will be much more coverage [of the Cavaliers] on the electronic news as well as the printed news. which means the team gets a much broader brand penetration in China for themselves, for their sponsors, and for any other business activities that they may want to engage in.“ China has also begun to encourage foreign-funded firms to a greater degree to make share offerings in China, a senior Ministry of Commerce official today stated during a wide-ranging briefing where he also noted that annual declines in exports and imports began to improve in June. China has talked for at least a decade about allowing foreign firms to list shares domestically, but has made little progress on the initiative. Continue reading.. ›
It seems Latin America has united in political turmoil over the last few weeks. When Venezuela seems a stable government by comparison, you know you’re in trouble. With union strikes being the latest in the Honduran political controversy, Argentina has joined the fray in causing foreign investor concern due to political problems at home.
“In a democracy, you win and you lose,” said President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina, after her Peronist party’s congressional majority had disintegrated, leaving her to deal with an unstable parliament over the last 2 years and six months of her term. Kirchner, who resigned as the Peronists’ leader after suffering a shocking loss in a congressional race, remarked that “in the coming days we’ll all have to evaluate the mistakes that have been made.”
Foreign companies could soon be pumping Iraqi oil for the first time in nearly 40 years. This morning, the government of Iraq opened bids from oil companies interested in helping the country realize its oil production potential. No one knows, however, how much oil Iraq has. “It’s been poorly explored because of all the political turmoil there,” says Roger Diwan, a partner at the consulting firm PFC Energy. “With the Iraq-Iran war, the embargo, sanctions and the second gulf war here, we really haven’t had a good look at what’s in Iraq since the late 1960s.“ ”There’s still a lot of political risk involved in Iraq in the energy sector,” says David Gordon, head of global research at the Eurasia Group, a risk analysis firm. “On the other hand, it is this enormous opportunity. So companies want to get in the game without making a big investment, [while] Iraq as a country wants to force them to put some money on the table.” Oil is currently being pumped in Iraq, but production is far below its potential because the country has not invested in its oil infrastructure. For today’s auction, oil companies selected which fields interested them and specified how much they’d want to be paid for increasing production at the fields. The oil itself would still belong to the Iraqis, and the Iraqi government set a maximum on what fees it would pay. Iraq is currently pumping about 2.5 million barrels a day. With modern technology and foreign expertise, experts say, the country could produce four times as much. Three major public-sector labor unions in Honduras plan a general strike today in support of President Jose Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a military-led coup, a union official has stated.”It will be an indefinite strike,” said Oscar Garcia, vice president of the Honduran water workers union SANAA. Continue reading.. ›
On the twelfth of June, United State’s congress passed one of the toughest anti-tobacco bills in history. The acclaimed crusaders who had long waged war against ‘Big Tobacco’ have united in triumph, with Senator Edward Kennedy hailing the bill as proof that ‘miracles still happen’ in Washington, DC.
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act gives the Food and Drug Administration power to regulate both tobacco products and marketing efforts. Health advocates have long complained that the FDA has oversight over products such as lipstick, but never cigarettes, infamously responsible for approximately half a million domestic deaths a year.
Advertising has perhaps been the most lethal blow to the industry.
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, ousted by the military, met with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and regional leaders today in a show of support designed to restore him as head of the Central American country. Zelaya said soldiers surrounded his house and forced him at gunpoint to board a plane for Costa Rica yesterday. His opponents accused him of seeking to change the constitution through a referendum in an attempt to hold onto power. Honduran lawmakers named Roberto Micheletti, the head of Congress, as president and accused Zelaya of “repeated violations of the constitution.” The Honduran army ousted Zelaya and exiled him in Central America’s first military coup since the Cold War, after he upset the army by trying to win re-election. The coup was condemned by the U.S., European Union and Organization of American States, which said they won’t recognize any new government. Regional leaders called an emergency summit today in Nicaragua’s capital, Managua. Chavez said on state television if his ambassador to Honduras was killed, or if troops entered the Venezuelan Embassy, “that military junta would be entering a de facto state of war. We would have to act militarily … I have put the armed forces of Venezuela on alert.” Continue reading.. ›
An interesting article published by the International Herald Tribune today discusses the fall of a former President of Zambia, which also sets a startling precedent - a “big man being brought low by corruption charges“. A verdict is expected on July the twentieth on charges that he stole $500,000.
Giant Chinese oil company Sinopec has made a $7.22 billion takeover bid for Canadian oil and gas exploration company Addax Petroleum, the companies announced Wednesday. The takeover would give Sinopec access to Addax’s stakes in oil fields off the coast of West Africa, as well as in Iraq. Sinopec already has interests in Gabon and Sudan. Its parent, Sinopec Group, is wholly owned by the Chinese government. Sinopec, formally known as China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., is offering 52.80 Canadian dollars, or $46.12, per share for the remaining common shares of Addax. The Addax board has recommended that shareholders accept the agreement, and senior executives have signed onto a lock-up agreement to sell Sinopec their 38 percent stake in the company. In a separate statement, Sinopec executives called the deal a “transformational transaction” that would help it expand in West Africa and Iraq, in line with its strategic objectives. The Chinese company said that Addax’s offshore deep-water exploration projects were especially promising for its growth and development. The European Union and United States accused China of restricting the export of key raw materials used in the production of steel and other industrial products in a complaint filed Tuesday with the World Trade Organization. China defended the practice today on environmental and conservation grounds. ”China’s policies on these raw materials seem to put a giant thumb on the scale in favor of Chinese producers,” U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said at a Tuesday news conference in Washington. ”The Chinese restrictions on raw materials distort competition and increase global prices, making things even more difficult for our companies in this economic downturn,” EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton added. China defended its policies as necessary to “protect the environment and natural resources,” but said it would enter into consultation with the European Union and United States on the matter. Continue reading.. ›
Corporate strategies often lack integrity, primarily in the infrastructure of strategy and occasionally in moral wherewithal. Tonight, the Global Business Coalition will recognize the profound efforts of an organization that looked beyond publicity, beyond even bureaucracy to improve not only the health and lifestyle of their employees but the lives of thousands, perhaps millions of South Africans.
Anglo Coal South Africa is a wholly owned subsidiary of Anglo American. With its subsidiaries, joint ventures and associates, it is a global leader in platinum group metals and diamonds, with significant interests in coal, base and ferrous metals, as well as an industrial minerals business. The Group is geographically diverse, with operations in Africa, Europe, South and North America, Australia and Asia.
Yet its their specific initiatives in South Africa that warrant notoriety, even if that wasn’t the reason they set out to curb a long-thought impossible epidemic. During my interview with Anglo Coal representatives, they made it clear their target for their employees was zero new infections a year. As it is truly an uphill battle, it perhaps is still remarkable that there were only 61 reported cases. It is also remarkable because it is indeed factual.
In Japan, many of the most common jobs unsurprisingly go to Japanese citizens first. This isn’t particularly shocking,nor is it particularly shocking that Japan is undergoing the worst recession in decades. However, what is eyebrow-raising is their government’s new initiative to curb unemployment. The Japanese government will pay $3000 USD to ex-pats to leave Japan, a one-way ticket to rid the nation of unemployed immigrants.
More than 3 million people are out of work due to this recession. Japan previously has a record of welcoming immigrants in better times, when they didn’t have enough working hands. This deal is also strictly for Latin American immigrants only, interestingly enough.
Stocks of developing nations fell, dragging the MSCI Emerging Markets Index down 10 percent from its 2009 peak on concern the recovery will be weaker than economists forecast. The yen rose for a third day against the dollar. Russian stocks, which entered a bear market yesterday after the Micex index sank more than 20 percent, dropped as much as 6 percent before recouping the loss. Emerging-market shares fell after the World Bank forecast yesterday that the first global recession since World War II will be deeper than it predicted in March. U.S. wealth may take 15 years to rebound, Edmund Phelps, a professor at Columbia University and the winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for economics, said in a recent interview. “After the World Bank report yesterday we see more concern about the return of negative growth dynamics,” said Michael Ganske, head of emerging-market research at Commerzbank AG in London. “Investors realize that all the discussions of a sharp, V-shaped recovery are not going to materialize.” Airbus SAS, the world’s largest commercial planemaker, rolled out the first aircraft assembled at its China factory as it seeks to win more orders in the world’s second-largest aviation market. The planemaker aims to deliver 10 more A320s this year from its factory at Tianjin, near Beijing, it said in a statement today. Production will be raised to four aircraft a month by the end of 2011 at the plant, Airbus’s first outside Europe. Airbus is competing with Boeing Co. to grab orders in China, counting on sales in emerging markets to help offset slumping demand in the US and Europe.
Chinese investors want to cash in on the country’s NBA fever with a bid to buy a 15 percent stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers. Chinese-born businessman Kenny Huang is spearheading the deal, estimated to be worth over $70 million. His U.S.-based partner Marc Ganis noted that that if the deal goes through, it would rank as the largest international sports transaction ever made by Chinese nationals. ”Simply having Chinese ownership will increase significantly the visibility of the team within China,” Ganis said. “There will be much more coverage [of the Cavaliers] on the electronic news as well as the printed news. which means the team gets a much broader brand penetration in China for themselves, for their sponsors, and for any other business activities that they may want to engage in.“ China has also begun to encourage foreign-funded firms to a greater degree to make share offerings in China, a senior Ministry of Commerce official today stated during a wide-ranging briefing where he also noted that annual declines in exports and imports began to improve in June. China has talked for at least a decade about allowing foreign firms to list shares domestically, but has made little progress on the initiative. Continue reading.. ›
It seems Latin America has united in political turmoil over the last few weeks. When Venezuela seems a stable government by comparison, you know you’re in trouble. With union strikes being the latest in the Honduran political controversy, Argentina has joined the fray in causing foreign investor concern due to political problems at home.
Foreign companies could soon be pumping Iraqi oil for the first time in nearly 40 years. This morning, the government of Iraq 
On the twelfth of June, United State’s congress passed one of the toughest anti-tobacco bills in history. The acclaimed crusaders who had long waged war against ‘Big Tobacco’ have united in triumph, with Senator Edward Kennedy hailing the bill as proof that ‘miracles still happen’ in Washington, DC.
Honduran President 
An interesting article published by the International Herald Tribune today discusses the fall of a former President of Zambia, which also sets a startling precedent - a “big man being brought low by corruption charges“. A verdict is expected on July the twentieth on charges that he stole $500,000.
Giant Chinese oil company Sinopec has made a $7.22 billion 
Corporate strategies often lack integrity, primarily in the infrastructure of strategy and occasionally in moral wherewithal. Tonight, the Global Business Coalition will recognize the profound efforts of an organization that looked beyond publicity, beyond even bureaucracy to improve not only the health and lifestyle of their employees but the lives of thousands, perhaps millions of South Africans.
Stocks of developing nations fell, dragging the 
