16
monday, august 26, 2013
guyanatimesgy.com
Middle East
Caribbean
Barbadian PM urges commercial banks to Jumeirah hires senior exec for Asia Pacific growth invest in hotel sector
B
arbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has urged commercial banks to invest in the island’s hotel sector. Stuart told the media that financial institutions should be willing to take investment in that sector seriously. “It can’t continue to make a lot of sense for banks to lend people money to buy motor cars, a more serious investment than investment in a sector that leads the
Barbadian economy and that earns us most of the foreign exchange we need to sustain our standard of living and quality of life. “There has to be a change in the thinking of our banking institutions. Conspicuous consumption is not the creed for this time. What we want is serious investment in things that have a long-term significance for the economy of Barbados. And, therefore, we are going to have some conversations
with our financial institutions so that they take a more longterm view of their presence here in Barbados. Barbados has been good to them and we want to see them digging in more seriously here in terms of being willing to invest in this lead sector,” the prime minister stated. He proffered the view that the tourism industry had to be brought back on track if there was to be an improvement in the island’s economy. (Caribbean News Now)
North America
J
umeirah Group, the Dubai-based luxury hotel company, said on Sunday it has appointed a senior executive to drive expansion of the brand in Asia Pacific. Jumeirah said in a statement that it has hired U.S. national James Mabey as senior vice president development for the Asia Pacific region. For the past two and a half years he has been working for Marco Polo Hotels and previously held positions in TGR Asia, the Royal Thai govern-
ment and the International Resort Development Group. In his new role, Mabey will be based in Jumeirah’s Singapore office and will be responsible for securing new management contracts for hotels and serviced apartments that meet Jumeirah’s luxury standards throughout Asia Pacific. Robert Swade, Jumeirah Group’s chief officer for development and legal, said: “I am delighted to welcome James Mabey to the team.
Asia Pacific is central to Jumeirah’s international growth strategy and the appointment of James demonstrates our commitment to further brand expansion in the region.” In 2011 Jumeirah opened its first luxury property in China, the 401-room Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel Shanghai. The company has signed five other management agreements for hotels that are under development in China. (Arabianbusiness)
Oceania
Donald Trump investment school sued by NY Australia’s mining boom rolls on for Chinese entrepreneur in the outback attorney general ormer Chinese com- biggest consumer of minerals Ren’s privately held
N
ew York state’s attorney general said on Sunday he has filed a US$40 million lawsuit against Donald Trump and his forprofit investment school, accusing them of engaging in illegal business practices. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman alleged that the real estate mogul, a former executive at the Trump Entrepreneur Institute – called Trump University until 2010 – made false claims about classes at the school, including that Trump hand-
picked instructors. “No one, no matter how rich or popular they are, has a right to scam hard-working New Yorkers,” Schneiderman said in a statement. The attorney general said from 2005 to 2011, the Trump school operated without an educational license while misleading consumers into paying for courses promising to teach Trump’s real estate investment techniques. More than 5000 people nationally took the courses, paying US$40 million,
Schneiderman said. The lawsuit is seeking restitution of at least US$40 million, as well as a disgorgement of profits, penalties and an injunction, Schneiderman’s office said. A copy of the lawsuit, which was filed in New York state court, was not immediately available Sunday. But Schneiderman said in the statement that his office found Trump did not himself pick a single instructor at the seminars and had minimal to no involvement in developing the courses’ content. (Reuters)
Europe
UK economic growth revised up to 0.7 per cent
E
conomic growth in the UK during the second quarter of the year has been revised up to 0.7 per cent by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The initial estimate, released in July, suggested gross domestic product (GDP) – the UK’s economic output – had risen by 0.6 per cent from the previous quarter. The ONS said the revision reflected small upward adjustments to the estimated
output of several industries. The data also showed that export demand played a major role in driving growth. Compared with a year ago, GDP in the three months to June was 1.5 per cent higher. The latest revision adds to evidence that the UK economic recovery may finally be gaining momentum after almost four years of stagnation since the 2008-09 recession ended. The 0.7 per cent rate matches the pace re-
Market statistics
corded during the third quarter of 2012, when the economy was buoyed by the London Olympics, which was itself the fastest growth rate since 2010. However, the ONS cautioned that the current rate of economic growth was still well below the rate experienced during previous recoveries from recessions since 1945 – during which the economy has typically enjoyed a short burst of growth as it caught up with its pre-recession level. (BBC News)
Gold Prices – Guyana Gold Board
Cambio Rates Bank of Guyana
Fixed as at July 24, 2013 Calculated at 94% purity
Buying
Selling
U.S.
GBP
$318.96
$322.96
Cambio
CAN
$194.20
$196.44
Gross
$254,331
USD
$204.99
$207.43
Net
$236,527
Selling
$262,426
Cur
$1335.00 $202.67
Indicators as on August 23, 2013 Live Spot Gold Bid/Ask
$1397.80
$1398.80
Low/High
$1367.70
$1401.40
Change
+21.70
+1.58
USD GBP EUR
AM
1374.50 880.30 1028.59
Aug 22
AM
Price Silver
US$ per barrel
Change %
$109.90 USD per Ounce
+0.08 Change %
24.08
+0.90
$1537.00
+2.00
PM
1377.50 885.74 1030.60 PM
Last: 15010.51
1375.50 882.07 1031.19 Changes: +46.77
% Change: +0.31
Open: 14986.78
High: 15025.56
Low: 14931.24
% YTD: +14.55
52Wk Hi: 15658.43
52 Wk Lo: 12035.09
USD GBP EUR
1370.50 879.60 1027.28
Crude Oil
Platinum
London Gold Fix
Aug 23
Indicators
USD Per Once
F
modities trader Jerry Ren, who is quietly building a mining empire in the Australian outback, scoffs at talk the resources boom is over. For him its just moved north. As some mining firms clock up billions of dollars in losses, Ren has secured millions of acres of exploration rights in Australia’s most remote regions that could soon make him a billionaire, helped by his connections in the world’s
China. Ren, now an Australian resident, has already been dubbed the “900 million dollar man” for his estimated net worth. “There’s still plenty of money and opportunity in Australia if you know where to look,” says Ren, the son of a steel mill engineer who grew up in the shadow of the Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong’s disastrous attempt to modernize China’s economy.
South America
Australian oil and gas company holds a 75 per cent stake in exploration rights covering 70 million acres, 25 per cent of Australia’s Northern Territory, or an area larger than Afghanistan. Under-exploited by heavy hitters like BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto as Australia’s last boom took shape further south in established iron ore and coal fields, Ren has had a near-free run to stake his claims in the Territory. (Reuters)
Argentina loses US$1.3B debt court appeal
A
rgentina has been told again it must pay back more than US$1.3 billion (£830 million) to a group of investors – 11 years after its record debt default. A New York appeals court unanimously rejected every Argentine argument against the payout. The decision is the latest twist in the longrunning legal saga. Argentina refuses to pay anything to investors who declined to participate in a previous debt reduction deal involving most of the nation’s
lenders. “What the consequences predicted by Argentina have in common is that they are speculative, hyperbolic and almost entirely of the Republic’s own making,” the judges said in their decision. But the appeals court held off forcing Argentina to pay pending an appeal to the Supreme Court – which is considered unlikely to hear the case, but puts off any decision to 2014, well after Argentina’s congressional elections in October.
The appeal came after a Manhattan court ruled last February that Argentina had violated its contractual obligation to treat all creditors equally. That meant the country would have to pay the bondholders, led by NML Capital and Aurelius Capital Management. Argentina defaulted on some US$100 billion of debts in 2002, and has since restructured its debt twice, cancelling around 75 per cent of the nominal value of the bonds. (BBC News)
Investors' guide
Global economy: On a firmer footing awaiting the Fed
M
ore bricks in the global recovery wall are likely to slot into place in a week that could also yield more clues as to when the Federal Reserve will start unwinding its exceptional monetary stimulus. Updated gross domestic product figures are usually brushed aside as backwardlooking. But with the timetable for Fed ‘tapering’ dependent on the flow of data, any upward revision to U.S. second-quarter GDP growth can only strengthen the hand of those who expect the central bank to move as early as its September 17-18 policy meeting. Economists polled by Reuters reckon GDP expanded at a 2.2 per cent clip between April and June, up from an initial estimate of 1.7
per cent thanks to a bigger contribution from net exports. The U.S. economy is far from firing on all cylinders. But last week home sales for July jumped to a three-year high and the four-week moving average for new jobless claims fell to the lowest level in nearly six years. Sam Bullard, an economist with Wells Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina, said he still thought, after the minutes of July’s policy-making Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke would start to ease off next month. “At least on the economic data front, the numbers are gradually improving and the plan that Bernanke laid out at the June FOMC meeting for potential tapering in the second half of this year still
looks as though it’s on pace. We’re still in that September camp,” Bullard said.
Headwinds and tailwinds
To be sure, the Fed has to take account of plenty of headwinds. Bullard cited the risk of a U.S. government shutdown due to wrangling over next year’s budget. Congress also needs to raise the federal debt ceiling by November, raising the spectre of a repeat of the brinkmanship that rocked markets two years ago. “If the Fed goes for September, they have to have some faith that there’ll be some resolution to these federal fiscal issues and that they won’t throw their economic growth projections off course,” Bullard said. “It’s not a slam dunk.” (Reuters)
Business concept – Strategy A method or plan chosen to bring about a desired future, such as achievement of a goal or solution to a problem. The art and science of planning and marshalling resources for their most efficient and effective use. The term is derived from the Greek word for generalship or leading an army.