FocusFusion

Property investor turned multi-millionaire developer, by TheStar

2010-07-28T22:22:00.000+08:00

Property investor turned multi-millionaire developer
Her path to financial success is an accelerated one. Within seven short years, Prudence Wong, group brand manager turned property investor turned property developer-cum-entrepreneur, achieved the exospheres (the highest level of atmosphere around planet earth) of success. Well, to her she might just be at troposphere (the layer of atmosphere closest to Earth), but to a fellow investor, she is certainly achieving the dream success of many.
A student of Milan Doshi, a property investment guru in Malaysia, nothing seems impossible for Wong. StarProperty.my met up with the intrepid pint-sized Wong, who shared her success story and her first project as a developer (Qube in Shah Alam).
Tell us about yourself and your investment journey. How many years did it take for you to achieve financial freedom? Prior to investing, I spent more than 10 years working in a public listed pharmaceutical company and multinational nutritional company as group brand/product manager. Basically, my job entailed brand building and brand management. This was more than 10 years ago. In year 2002, I attended my first property seminar. It was Milan’s (Doshi) course; the first property course I ever attended. The first property I purchased was in year 2003. I did not purchase immediately. Actually, I was very gung-ho after the seminar. But after one to two months I couldn’t find the property that I wanted – my ideal property, you know, good price, good deal and all that.
When did you purchase your first property? I bought my first property during the SARS crisis time. I bought it from an owner who was from Hong Kong. That time, the SARS was very bad. So I bought a few units and I got my first unit 20 percent below market price and the rental yield was about 14 percent. My first tenant was from the Middle East. He stayed there, got married and two children were born there. Very Ong (prosperous) place for him (laughs). He stayed there until I sold it.
How much did you buy it for and when did you sell it? I bought it for RM180,000 in year 2003 and sold it for RM240,000 in year 2006.
At which point, did you become a property developer? At that time (year 2003), I did not resign. I still worked for two years during my real estate investment journey. I bought a lot of properties. Two years later, close to the end of year 2005, I met my business partner and we co-purchase properties. We bought shops and it was that time that I decided to go (into investing) full-time.
Prudent Prudence: “I have a system of keeping all my things. To me, information is money,” says Wong, the director for the development of Qube (which aims to be an icon in Shah Alam).
What types of properties did you purchase? Apartments and flats.
So you went for the low- and medium-cost ones. Yes.
Which areas were these properties at? Shah Alam, Ampang and also in Puchong.
Why did you select these areas? When I was a marketing executive for a telecommunications company, I was seconded to Shah Alam and at that time, this area (Shah Alam) just started (to develop). I also stayed in Shah Alam for about six years. So I know Shah Alam pretty well.
The other day, after I shared my story (at Juanita Chin’s ‘Secrets of buying from property developers’), more investors are coming into this area. I know of a few investors who only buy in Shah Alam. When I started a joint-venture with my partner, we decided to look at shops and also factories.
When I bought land one and a half years ago, I did not think of becoming a developer. I thought that maybe I should just open a furniture mall or something like ‘Asia Cafe’ type of outlet. Until one day, my friend said to me, “This is a fabulous location. If you don ‘t develop this land, it will be such a waste.” So that’s how I became a developer.
Flats, apartments, condos, shops, factories, bungalow land, land and now development – that’s my investment journey.
So your investment journey is about seven years so far? Yes, about there. I am still an investor. Every year I make sure that I buy, but not every month. Last time I used to buy every month.
How did you find the time and energy to do all that?! I did full-time! I have the passion to do all of these things.
So by that time, your passive income was enough to cover your expenses? Yes. The time my passive income can cover. So I tendered, I said “Sayonara!” That’s why I don’t encourage people to resign before their passive income can cover their expenses. The moment I can cover, I resigned and did full-time. In one day I could see so many properties, I was so happy (laughs).
What was the biggest mistake and best decision you made in property investment? The best decision I made; there were a few properties that were very run down. One of them was a hidden jewel. I turned it around, added value to it and it gave me triple or four times of profit.
Was it a commercial property? Yes, commercial.
Where were these hidden jewels? There were actually two. One was a rundown factory. I picked it up when it was in a horrible state. I touched it up and put up a good tenant. That actually gave me triple value. One bungalow; I bought in an auction. Until today, it still gives me very good rent.
You do a lot of property research. But has property investment got a lot to do with instincts as well? I would say that my instinct is pretty strong (laughs).
Some people can do all the research and can still make the wrong decisions.
For me, I would say that my research is both official and unofficial. Sometimes, I get report from valuers. Sometimes, I talk to the people, the locals. Then I would decide.
On average, how much time would you spend on research before purchasing? If it is a new area, I need about a few days to study the area and everything. Sometimes, like my neighbour (the shoplot beside Qube’s office-cum-showroom), I did not even see. I have purchased a few properties which I didn’t even see because I know the area very well. Sometimes, I even know which unit because I have been there before.
So if a place is good, you won’t purchase just one? If it is a good one, I will buy a few. But if it is not a good one, I will put it on hold because I always believe that good deals are always on the way. If I did not get this good deal, I will always get another. That’s what I believe. I don’t get emotional like “I’ve got to get it, I’ve got to get it!”. I just let it be.
What was your biggest mistake? There was one incident. I didn’t do enough research. I lost RM100,000, half of the 2% booking fee for a commercial property.
Was your best decision after your biggest mistake? Yes. Half the 2% deposit was gone. But I made up that money somewhere else. But of course, I feel sad that part of the deposit was gone.
Apart from sadness, what did you feel? Did it make you even more determined? It made me more careful; to do more research even though I did a lot of research.
What was the main reason for the error? I trusted the agent, who was my friend.
Why didn’t the deal go through? I found out something later and I pulled out. Sometimes, I have to cut losses. I would rather cut here and earn somewhere else. After I pay the 2%, only I went to do the research. Alamak! (Oh dear!)
In a recent property seminar (Milan Doshi’s property investment preview), you mentioned that you still keep thousands of property listings that you cut out from the paper until today. Why? Actually, Milan (from her first property seminar) asked me to make a book. All the thousands of listings I cut out are more like properties that I have seen. I have a software system of keeping all my things. To me, information is money.
Apart from Milan’s, which other course(s) did you attend? I attended a lot. Milan’s was the first one. I tried another one, Dolf de Roos, who used to be Rich Dad’s (Robert Kiyosaki) property guru. Another guy is Steven Molnar Australia/New Zealand, who has now become a friend. I read a lot of books - Renesial Leong, Milan. I also read a lot of Donald Trump’s and Robert Kiyosaki’s books.
Before you started in property investment, did you try a lot of other things? There is one business I have done which is very funny. You know which one? Selling condoms online (laughs).
Chic and contemporary: Qube’s interesting 548sq ft show-office
How did that work out for you? This was before Milan’s course, right? Yes, at that time my husband was in that line. He was working for a manufacturer. So I asked whether I can sell it or not and I went to study the condoms.
Then I set up an e-commerce store and I only made one transaction. Then I realised that the pricing is terrible because China and India can really throw prices. So I found out that trading is not my core.
How long did you do that? I think about eight months. Then I stopped and focussed only on properties.
Is that the only online business you have tried? Yes. I realised that property is better than online trading.
Did you attend any courses for online? I attended ‘How to make money in your pyjamas’. That’s how I met Nancy Ng (full-time real estate agent, property millionaire and project sales director of The Qube). I didn’t realise that selling condoms need skills too (laughs).
Do you have a particular go-to strategy when it comes to property investment? Always buy niche. Of course, one must look at basics such as pricing and location. I also look into Feng Shui as I believe in Qi energy. I always go for something very niche. I always go for places that are in high demand, but with less supply. I don’t like to fight with people. I always go for corner (lots) and I always add value to the properties.
How do you add value? Renovate the kitchen, add lighting; things like that. Sometimes, I redevelop the whole property and it all depends on costing versus revenue.
Tell us about your company and Qube. There are two partners in the company. I chose to develop in Shah Alam because I am familiar with that area. Qube will be officially launched in early August 2010. Qube is an icon in Shah Alam. It is in a very strategic location with high visibility. Qube is located at the north-west intersection between Federal Highway and the North-South Expressway Central Link (ELITE Highway). It faces the Federal Highway and ELITE is on the left of the building.
Qube features a modern design and is an eco-friendly high-tech building. We call it the first high-end corporate office in Shah Alam. For the design, we are working with the award-winning team from PDI Design & Associates. We make sure that the building is chic and contemporary in both its exterior and interior. It is also designed according to the Feng Shui principles of Master David Koh. So, as you can see, the whole team comprises consultants who have more than 35 years of experience in development industries.
What are the types of build-up sizes? Qube features 15 storeys of business individual suites, three levels of retail and four levels of basement carpark. The office lots start from 548sq ft to the bigger size, which is 11,000sq ft for corporations, if they want to buy the whole floor. The fifth floor is reserved for bulk purchase buyers. Individual units are from 548sq ft to 2,379sq ft.
Tell us about the price per square foot. We are selling the units from RM423 per sq ft. The price might increase, as after the soft launch, we have sold 70 percent of the units. You are a first-time developer. Many people are naturally sceptical. Why shouldn’t they be?
I would qualify myself as an investor because I myself am an investor. So I would know what is good for property investment or ownership. I know what a buyer wants. In terms of knowledge, skill and developing, I have strong team and their experience adds up to more than 35 years. As a buyer, you want to get the best. For me, I know what the best is for an investor as I have managed more than 50 tenants in my seven years of investing. So basically I know what an investor wants and what a tenant wants.
When is the scheduled completion? In year 2013.

Penthouse for RM38Mil

2010-07-11T10:09:00.000+08:00

Someone bought a penthouse for RM38mil in KL!
Binjai is the only condominium located on the 50-acre KLCC Park.
KUALA LUMPUR: The Binjai On The Park development in Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) caused a stir in the property market when one of its two super penthouses was sold last month for RM38mil, making it among the most expensive homes to have been sold in Malaysia in recent years.
Some property consultants, such as Zerin Properties chief executive officer Previndran Singhe, believe that this is the country’s largest condominium transaction, although it has yet to be verified.
The buyer is a corporate figure who has been on Forbes magazine’s list of wealthiest people. On June 22, he bought the triplex penthouse, measuring 14,300 sq ft, on the 42nd floor of Binjai’s Tower B. The price tag of RM38mil meant the penthouse was sold for almost RM2,660 per sq ft (psf).
“The buyer bought the penthouse to stay. He fell in love with the 360-degree unobstructed view of the KLCC skyline right at his doorstep, similar to views offered by the likes of London’s One Hyde Park. He said Binjai On The Park was just like one of his other homes around the globe,” said Terri Har, marketing and sales manager of Layar Intan Sdn Bhd, the developer.
Layar Intan is 100% owned by KLCC (Holdings) Sdn Bhd, which in turn is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Petronas.
Binjai’s two 45-storey towers have a total of 171 units. To date, the project has recorded sales of more than RM600mil at an average price of RM2,600 psf.
Over the last six months, three other penthouses have been sold for approximately RM18mil. On a psf basis, the most expensive unit so far was a standard unit on the 38th floor, which was sold for RM2,900 psf or RM10.6mil.
With Tower B now sold out, what is left are mainly Tower A’s standard units, which offer 3,700 sq ft each. Binjai is the only condominium located on the 50-acre KLCC Park and is part of the KLCC development master plan.
“Binjai’s key selling point is the fact that every unit has an unobstructed view of the park, along with a spacious balcony,” said HwangDBS Vickers Research analyst Yee Mee Hui.
Said Har of Layar Intan: “Some 30% of our buyers are from Japan, Hong Kong, Britain and other parts of Europe. Most of our buyers are businessmen and corporate people who already have homes around the world. They appreciate Binjai as the only development in the vicinity with an unblocked view of the KLCC skyline.”
She added that most of the local purchasers bought Binjai units to live there or as homes for their children, while the foreign buyers treated the units as holiday homes or transit points. By The Star.

Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce TOP POST

2010-07-02T22:22:00.001+08:00

Ken and Carol Porter MonaVie Black Diamond

2010-06-28T10:10:00.000+08:00

Trying out MonaVie for my knee problem.

2010-06-27T01:27:00.003+08:00

Well just sign up for the new so called MonaVie "Juice Of Life". I am taking the Green Bottle - Active for my knee problem. My wife will be trying the Purple Bottle - Original.

Najib's style further raises Chinese support

2010-04-03T18:25:00.000+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR: Since taking office as prime minister a year ago, Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak has made various direct approaches to win back the Chinese support for the federal government.
Besides attending traditional events such as the Chinese New Year open house, his “walkabout” approach of going directly to the people has found a lot of favour.
Najib’s style is seen to be more appealing to the Chinese community, where a sizeable number had ditched the Barisan Nasional in the last general election in favour of the Opposition.
For example, Najib was the first prime minister to attend the assembly of the Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia or popularly known as Hua Zhong, the influential and prestigious umbrella body for Chinese associations, guilds and clans in the country.
“The prime minister’s visits to Chinese independent schools, temples, Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown in Petaling Street and officiating Hua Zhong’s cultural festival have portrayed him as a leader close to the Chinese community, close to the people,” said Hua Zhong president Tan Sri Pheng Yin Huah.
Pheng said Hua Zhong, whose members include some of the biggest movers and shakers in the Chinese community, felt that Najib’s 1Malaysia concept has wide acceptance among the Chinese community and it had so far impressed the general public.
“I strongly believe that as long as it (1Malaysia concept) is fully implemented by all, it would bear ‘big fruits’ (for Malaysia),” he said.
In line with his 1Malaysia rallying cry and spirit, Najib also made another unprecedented but heart-warming gesture when he arrived at Pandamaran, a former Chinese new village, for the national Chinese New Year celebrations in February.
These actions are seen as “giving face” or according respect or consideration to the Chinese community, and they augur very well because “giving face” is regarded as a key tradition in the Chinese culture, and more particularly so during an auspicious period such as the lunar new year.
“The Chinese community has a very positive image of Najib. Two factors have contributed to this: first is that he appears to be pro-active on day-to-day issues like health and transport. The Chinese like that very much,” said political analyst Prof James Chin.
Secondly, he said, a lot of Chinese people had completely lost confidence in the Barisan Chinese-based parties but Najib has been seen as a saviour in reaching out to them.
Chin said the only long-standing issue perceived by the Chinese community that Najib needed to tackle vigorously is the New Economic Policy (NEP), which is sometimes seen as a stumbling block in terms of fairer distribution of wealth and opportunities.
But he said the initial response from the Chinese community for the New Economic Model has been very positive.
“On the surface, they are quite happy as they are eagerly waiting for more details,” he said.
As Najib marks his first anniversary as prime minister Saturday, many political analysts believe that he will continue to be in touch with the people, including the Chinese community; feeling their pulse, listening to their problems and aspirations to drive home the point that he is an inclusive leader.
Najib is seen to be genuinely working almost tirelessly to accomplish a lot of things for the rakyat. But some analysts say that Najib still has to face the reality that there has been a generational shift in the Chinese political thinking as the community is more influenced by issues rather than loyalty to any particular party.
“The Chinese nowadays no more just interested in business. They are already looking at things from a wider perspective, especially the younger and middle age generation as their prime concerns are not only jobs and income but also their children’s education and future,” said another political analyst.
This explains why some Chinese voters even voted for a party which had been promoting its aspiration of an Islamic state in the last general election as well as several by-elections after that as they had adopted a different political thinking from that of their parents, he said.
“They have more options and these make them more independent in their political choices.
“Therefore, if Barisan wants to win big, it needs to win back Chinese support. The Chinese are very, very much issues-based. If you can deliver on issues, they will give you their support. If you don’t, then they won’t to give you the vote,” said another political analyst Datuk Cheah See Kian.
Some believe that after a year under Najib’s leadership where he introduced some radical changes and transformation plans like the 1Malaysia concept, National Key Result Areas (NKRA), Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and New Economic Model (NEM), there is an urgent need for him to produce results.
“People are hungry for implementation and end results. He has to provide quick results. Therefore, in his second year in office, he has to produce results out of the various strategies he has introduced,” said another political analyst Dr Sivamurugan Pandian.
Producing end results aside, there is also other similarly important challenge that Najib has to address -- to put the house in order with regard to Barisan component parties in order to face the next general election.
“He needs the (full) team, not only from UMNO, but also all in Barisan. Najib has been seen as a popular leader as a result of his approachable outlook,” he said, adding that this had also been reaffirmed by the latest survey by the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research.
The survey showed that “Najib is in a stronger position today than he was 12 months ago when he took office as proportion of Malaysians satisfied with his performance stands at 68%, the highest ever.” -- Bernama

Dato Seri Najib, PM, Malaysia

2009-11-04T21:39:00.002+08:00

I have always wondered how Dato Seri would faired as our Prime Minister.

I would like to give him an A for his strong and fair administrative actions. He is able to turn around quite a number of policies and curb a lot of wrong doings. He is like a broom sweeping clean the dust and mess. He makes wise decisions and enable more and more people to believe in him and would want to strive along with him.

1 Malaysia.

The lifelong dream of Malaysia's 6th Prime Minister, Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Bin Tun Hj Abd Razak, is a united, peaceful and prosperous Malaysia, with abundant opportunities for all citizens.

This is what I would like, we as Malaysians can eat, drink and play together. Just like old days, when we play Buah Guli and Gasing in the playground no matter what Race, Malay, Chinese, Indian or Singh. I remembered 2 goods friends Amran and Rajender Singh, we used to play Kites and catch Peacock fish from rivers and big drains.

Last but not least, overall Dato Seri Najib, PM of Malaysia, is doing tremendiously well in managing the Rakyat and Country.

1Malaysia.

Malaysia Budget 2010

2009-11-04T21:21:00.001+08:00

Malaysia Budget 2010

2010 BUDGET BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS

* Malaysia economy to grow 2-3 per cent in 2010

* Mining to grow 1.1 per cent, manufacturing sector 1.7 per cent, agriculture 2.5 per cent, construction 3.2 per cent and service 3.6 per cent.

* Private consumption expand 2.9 per cent while private investment 3.4 per cent

* Per capita income to increase by 2.5 per cent to RM24,661

* TNB to spend RM5 billion to implement electricity generation, transmission and distribution projects in 2010.

* Individual tax relief on broadband subscription fee up to RM500 a year from 2010 to 2012.

* Public-private collaborations to include an integrated immigration, customs and quarantine complex in Bukit Kayu Hitam, construction of six UiTM campuses and the development of MATRADE centre

* 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) will establish a corporate social responsibility fund totalling RM100 million as a start to finance community activities

* Government to allocate RM899 million to intensify tourism industry.

* Government to enhance tax incentives for healthcare service providers who offer services to foreign health tourists with income tax exemptions of 100 per cent on the value of increased exports from 50 per cent previously.

* Individual taxpayers to be given tax relief on broadband subscription fee up to RM500 a year from 2010 to 2012

* Civil servants are eligible to apply for computer loans once in every three years and up to a maximum of RM5,000 from the government once in every five years

* Formulate Halal Act in collaboration with State Islamic Religious Councils.

* To corporatise the Halal Industry Development Corporation as an agency under MITI

* Intensify Halal Certification by the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (JAKIM) by collaborating with international institutions to obtain standards certification such as HACCP ad GMP.

* To provide RM24 million to develop halal products anti-smuggling system at three entry points and three main ports.

* Allocate RM137 million to upgrade and improve drainage and irrigation infrastructures in paddy fields involving 180,000 farmers.

* To provide RM70 million to build the Paya Peda Dam Project in Terengganu to increase water supply capacity to paddy irrigation scheme in Besut.

* Allocate RM82 million to modernise aquaculture industry and conduct entrepreneurship training scheme for aquaculture breeders with focus on production of fish fry and ornamental fish.

* “The stock market will be further liberalised to enhance its efficiency as well as attract domestic and foreign investment. For this purpose, the government will undertake the following measures: First, liberalise the commission sharing arrangements between stockbrokers and remisiers in 2 stages to encrouage retail participation in the stock market. The first stage, which takes effect immediately, allows flexible brokerage sharing at a minimum rate of 40 percent for remisiers. The commission sharing will be fully liberalised in the second stage, effective 1 January 2011.

* “Allow 100 per cent foreign equity participation in corporate finance and financial planning companies compared with the present requirement of at least 30 per cent local shareholding.

* “Islamic banking assets account for 18.8 per cent of Malaysia’s total banking assets while takaful industry assets contribute 7.7 per cent of total insurance and takaful industry assets. To ensure rapid development of financial services, particulalrly in Islmaic finance, the government proposes that the existing tax incentives be extended to 2015.

* “The government is currently at the final stage of completing the study on the implementation of goods and services tax (GST), particularly to identify the social impact of GST on the people. The purpose of this study is to ensure that if GST needs to be implemented to stabilised Government finance, it will not burden the population. “If the government implements GST, it will replace the current sales tax and service tax as well as exemption will be granted to the low income group. The GST rate to be imposed will be lower than the current sales tax and service tax rates.

* “The government needs to ensure that the Malaysian tax system is equitable and able to generate revenue for development purposes. In line with this, the government proposes that a tax of five per cent be imposed on gains from the disposal of real property from 1 January 2010.

* Effective Jan 1 2010, government agrees to allow agencies to retain 50 per cent of rentals received while the remaining 50 per cent will be remitted to the government as revenue.

* The Government will implement fuel subsidy management system in early 2010.

* The Government proposes the maximum income tax rate to be further reduced to 26 per cent from 27 per cent effective from the 2010 year of assessment.

* Maximum tax rate for cooperatives will be reduced to 26 per cent while the fixed tax rate for non-resident individuals will be cut to 26 per cent.

* Personal tax relief will be increased to RM9,000 from RM8,000 effective from the 2010 year of assessment.

* The Government also proposes income tax on employment income of Malaysians and foreign knowledge workers residing and working in Iskandar Malaysia be imposed at 15 per cent compared with the maximum 26 per cent for the rest of the country.

* Government to launch a scheme in January 2010 that enables EPF contributors to utilise current and future savings in Account 2 to promote house ownership.

* RM14.8 billion is allocated to manage, build and upgrade hospitals and clinics.

* The Government will issue 1Malaysia Sukuk totalling RM3 billion.

* The Government will establish the 1Malaysia Retirement Scheme to be administrated by EPF.

* Employees EPF contributions will be raised again to 11 per cent on a voluntary basis with immediate effect. However, from Jan 1, 2011 employees' EPF contribution will revert to 11 per cent.

* The Government proposes existing personal tax relief of RM6,000 for EPF contributions and life insurance premiums be raised to RM7,000.

* Government allocates RM2.3 billion to build and upgrade infrastructures in rural areas.

* Government provides RM41 million to improve income and quality of life of the Orang Asli Community by implementing various projects.

* Budget 2010 allocations totalled RM191.5 billion, of which RM138.3 billion is for operating expenditure and RM53.2 billion for development expenditure.

* Federal Government revenue in 2010 to decline by 8.4 per cent to RM148.8 billion.

* Budget deficit at 5.6 per cent of GDP compared with 7.4 per cent in 2009. - Bernama/Reuters

John King Egg Tart in Penang

2009-09-30T11:22:00.002+08:00

John King Egg Tart established in Hong Kong is now in Penang. Located at the Basement Floor of Gurney Plaza right in front of Yan Wo Wang Birdsnest Shop. The Egg Tarts are smooth and tasty. Never had such a smooth Egg Tart before. Everyone should try.

Rothschild's new fund

2009-09-02T18:51:00.000+08:00

Rothschild Said to Start Fund; Chairman’s Son Joins (Update1)
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By Jacqueline Simmons and Anne-Sylvaine Chassany
Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Rothschild, the largest family-owned bank, plans to raise a 500 million-euro ($711 million) investment fund as chairman David de Rothschild’s son joins the firm, two people familiar with the plan said.
Alexandre de Rothschild, 29, moved to the family bank from Argan Capital, Bank of America Corp.’s former European private equity division, to work on the project, said the people, who declined to be identified before the fundraising is completed. Rothschild Managing Director Marc-Olivier Laurent, 57, will oversee the fund, the people said.
The two-century-old firm, which is run by 66-year-old David de Rothschild, plans to buy minority stakes in closely held companies after the pace of global mergers and acquisitions dropped 46 percent in the past year. The fund’s backers include Rothschild partners and clients. It will target companies valued at 100 million euros to 500 million euros, the people said.
“It’s normal for them to bring in family members to ensure succession,” said Anis Bouayad, founder of Paris-based advisory firm AB Conseils. “The bank has always found a way to promote its own, while also bringing outside talent to the top jobs.”
Javed Khan, who joined Rothschild from New York-based private equity firm Blackstone Group LP in June, and Emmanuel Roth, a former executive at investment firm Paris-Orleans, will also manage the fund, the people said. Rothschild plans to complete the fundraising before the end of the year, they said.
‘Family is Fine’
“In a business, the key is to have the best people,” David de Rothschild said in a 2005 interview, addressing the subject of succession. “The family is fine as long as they do a good job. If they don’t, it has to be someone else.”
David de Rothschild took managerial control of the U.K. side of the bank after his cousin Evelyn retired in 2004, cementing control of both the Paris and London businesses by a French Rothschild, a first for the family firm.
David’s younger brother, Edouard, stepped down in 2004 after helping to expand the French bank. Today, he oversees France Galop, the country’s horse-racing association. David’s cousin, Eric, is chairman of Rothschild’s asset-management and private-banking units and also runs the family’s Chateau Lafite vineyard.
Mayer Amschel, founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty, started out buying and selling old coins in a Frankfurt Jewish ghetto in the late 1700s and built an embryonic banking business by extending credit to clients. In the early 1800s, he sent his five sons to establish bases in London, Paris, Naples and Vienna, in addition to Frankfurt.
His great-great-grandson, Guy de Rothschild, rebuilt the French business in the 1950s and 1960s after reclaiming the bank, which had been seized by the pro-Nazi Vichy regime. In 1981, the French bank was nationalized by Socialist President Francois Mitterrand. Two years later, David persuaded the French government to grant the Rothschilds a new banking license. From Bloomberg.

Happy 84th Birthday.....Tun Dr Mahathir

2009-07-10T17:31:00.000+08:00

Happy 84th Birthday......Tun Dr Mahathir

World Badminton Ranking-after 3 years retiring from the world circuit back in 1997

2009-06-23T22:17:00.002+08:00

International Badminton Federation                    26-FEB-97

Mens Singles Ranking

Ranking Date      25-FEB-97

(Reformatted and reissued by NEW SHUTTLENWS)

 Pos    Id Surname                   First Name         Ctry  Comps     Points

   1   207 HOYER-LARSEN              Poul-Erik          DEN      14     285.31

   2   511 SIDEK                     Rashid             MAS       9     280.67

   3   541 SUPRIANTO                 Joko               INA       7     274.65

   4  4971 SUN                       Jun                CHN       9     269.48

   5  3268 WIJAYA                    Indra              INA       9     265.70

   6   437 PERMADI                   Fung               TPE      10     263.98

   7  3150 ONG                       Ewe Hock           MAS      10     261.87

   8  1333 STUER-LAURIDSEN           Thomas             DEN      12     258.33

   9  4367 SANTOSO                   Budi               INA       9     235.53

  10  6926 GADE CHRISTENSEN          Peter              DEN      10     233.15

214 4170 LOGOSZ Michal POL 3 17.17

215 2011 FUCHS Hannes AUT 2 17.16

216 349 MAILER Jim SCO 2 17.10

216 7221 CARLSSON Mikael SWE 2 17.10

218 6104 SURYANA Rio INA 2 16.90

219 2033 LEWIS Geraint WAL 3 16.49

220 8393 CHIEN Yu-Shiu TPE 2 16.44

221 10325 FELIX Ooi MAS 5 16.40

222 6907 HARIONO Guntur INA 2 16.31

223 4091 WAPP Stephan SUI

Hand back 'Saint' schools to the La Salle Brothers

2009-06-18T10:01:00.000+08:00

YOUR report “An end of an era for La Sallians” (The Star, May 1) stirred deep emotions in the hearts of those who had studied at the 50 La Salle schools in the country. The exit of Bro Paul Ho, the last Brother Director from St Xavier’s Institution does look like the end of an era.
But Old Xaverians and Old Lasallians do pray that Bro Paul’s retirement would not be the end of the involvement of Christian Brothers in Malaysian schools. At the recent Yayasan La Salle Board meeting on June 6, former UPM Vice Chancellor Tan Sri Syed Jalaluddin, an Old Xaverian, made a passionate plea for the Christian Brothers to stay engaged in Malaysia. The meeting was chaired by Tan Sri Kamarulzaman Shariff, another Old Xaverian and a former Mayor of Kuala Lumpur, who mandated Syed Jalaluddin to sketch out a road map for the coming years.
Old Lasallians like Syed Jalaluddin and Kamarulzaman value what the Brothers have done and wish that they can do more. Unfortunately, the congregation of La Salle Brothers worldwide has shrunk. F
ewer and fewer youths in the modern world are prepared to embrace the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience for the sake of educating children from impoverished families. The Brothers have to conserve their manpower and deploy their resources smartly.
The present thinking is that Old La Sallians who have friends in high places should convince the Government to hand back two schools, St John’s Institution and St. Xavier’s Institution, to the La Salle Brothers to manage and administer. At the same time, the Government should convert both schools from being sekolah bantuan modal into sekolah-sekolah bantuan penoh.
Schools like St John’s and St Xavier’s have shown that they have withstood the test of time. After all, St John’s has produced Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, the present Prime Minister; Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, Home Minister; Datuk Sri Nazir Tun Razak, the banker and younger brother of Najib and Raja Nazrin Shah, the Raja Muda of Perak.
St Xavier’s has produced Karpal Singh, the opposition leader; Tun Hamid Omar, the former Lord President; Tan Sri Nor Nor Mohamed Yakcop, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.
Both schools can be depended upon to make proper use of the financial resources and enhanced powers given to them. They should be challenged - at the right moment - to bring back the academic and extra-curricular excellence that they had enjoyed in the past. These include competency in the English language, both written and spoken.
I believe making St John’s and St Xavier’s fully-aided schools and mandating the La Salle Brothers and the respective boards of governors to administer them is the answer. Taking both schools private sounds great in theory but in practice, funds would have to be raised all the time. Fees have to be charged and revised upward regularly.
Those students who cannot pay would have to be barred from attending classes. The La Salle Brothers would not be comfortable with a fee-based regime. Their philosophy is to provide education to those who need it, not only to those who can pay for it.
Syed Jalaluddin’s mission is delicate and important. As someone who had studied in a La Salle school and who had worked as a Vice Chancellor of a public university, he can bridge the communication gap between the La Salle Brothers and the politicians and civil servants.
He can get a dialogue going. For all you know, he may find an ally in the person of the PM since Najib is an Old Lasallian.
Dr GOH CHENG TEIK,
Kuala Lumpur.

Another Good News by our new PM Dato Seri Najib

2009-04-27T22:16:00.000+08:00

Financial sector liberalisation (Update 3, full statement)

By MAZWIN NIK ANIS and TEH ENG HOCK

PUTRAJAYA: Foreigners will now be allowed to own up to 70% equity in all financial institutions here except commercial banks, up from the current 49%, as the Government announced a list of initiatives to liberalise the financial sector (full statement in Bahasa Malaysia below).

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the liberalisation package, which comprised six thrusts, was aimed at enhancing Malaysia’s linkages with international economies, bring about greater confidence in the economy, and promote greater economic regional integration.

“Over the past three years, the finance and insurance sector has expanded by 8.8% per annum, outpacing the growth in real gross domestic product(GDP) by about 6%.

“The liberalisation measures announced today will also provide greater access to consumers to a wider ranger of world-class financial products and services and further strengthen our position in Islamc finance to become an international Islamic financial hub,” he told a press conference at his office Monday.

The country’s banking institutions and insurance companies employ about 140,000 workers.

The meat of the liberalisation package is the issuance of new licences for seven banks and two family takaful (Islamic insurance) players from this year until 2011.

Under this, up to two new Islamic banking licences will be issued to foreign players to establish new Islamic banks with a paid up capital of at least US$1bil, and two new commercial banking licences for foreign players that will bring in specialised expertise.

These four licences will be issued this year, together with two new family takaful licences.

In 2011, up to three new commercial banking licences will be issued to “world-class banks that can offer significant value propositions to Malaysi,” he said.

Najib, who is also Finance Minister, said flexibility would be accorded for an increase in foreign equity limits from 49% to 70% of investment banks, Islamic banks, insurance companies and takaful operators.

“Such alliances will strengthen the business potential and enhance the growth prospects of financial institutions through the international expertise and the global networks of foreign shareholders.

“The foreign equity limit for commercial banks will remain at the current 30%,” he added.

Najib said the Goverment would also offer “operational flexibilities” to foreign institutions to improve the outreach of financial products and services by increasing branches, while locally incorporated foreign commercial banks would be allowed to establish four new full-fledged branches with effect in 2010, and 10 microfinance branches starting this year.

Effective June 1, Labuan Holding Companies incorporated under the Offshore Companies Act 1990 will be given the flexibility to establish an operational and management office in Kuala Lumpur to enhance efficiency.

Najib added that offshore banking institutions and insurance companies licensed by Labuan Offshore Financial Services Authority that meet the predetermined criteria would be allowed to have a physical presence onshore from 2010 and 2011 respectively.

“Greater flexibility will also be accorded for employment of expatriates in specialist areas that can contribute to the development of the financial sector,” he said.

PM Najib and Tun Mahathir ERA

2009-04-23T21:14:00.002+08:00

MY OWN 2 SEN.

What's so wrong with having Mahathirism in current Administration. Malaysia had been under Tun's administration for more than 20years. Tell me, Malaysia did not developed. Tell me, the Americans still think of Malaysian's as people who live on trees. Tell me, we did not have KLCC Tower. Tell me, we did not have Penang Bridge. Tell me, we did not host The Commonwealth Games.

To me, a good Govt is the Govt that can bring growth and advancement to the country. No matter how he does it. As long as, we the public do not see it. It's still fine with me.

Our new PM Dato Seri Najib, is willing to change for the betterment of the people. As shown lately, in some of the changes of policies. Like the abolishment of the 30% Bumiputera quota to attract more FDIs. Hope for more to come.

He is stern and direct in his decisions and is not afraid to CHANGE. Dare to meet the enemy in the eye and suppress it. This shows charisma and leadership. That's what is needed to be a good leader. I am not an expert to judge but I can express what I personally think of Dato Seri.

I had always thought that he is the better choice than any other candidate.

I know I am going against the tide here, but what tide are we in. Can the opposition with in-experienced and no resources do any better. They may have the voice but are they capable of running the whole country. Are they well equip to run the country. 1 cant run a whole nation without a team of experienced subordinates. 1 cant shake the hand of 22 million people.

Penang once Pearl of The Orient.

Now its CAT.

My own encounter with 1 new candidate, cant even get a Thaipusam pass for the resident who lives there. Went to the so called YB's office, didn't even come out from his office room to see me or even try to listen. What kind of people's representative we elected.

Go rakyat Malaysia. Go DATO SERI NAJIB.

Our new PM is really turning things around...go PM.

2009-04-22T21:18:00.002+08:00

Govt lifts 30% bumi rule for 27 services sub-sectors (Update)

By JANE RITIKOS

PUTRAJAYA: The government has removed the 30% bumiputra equity condition in 27 services sub-sectors, with immediate effect.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the sub-sectors, which involved health and social services, tourism services, transport services, business services and computer and related services, would have no equity conditions imposed.

He said the liberalisation was aimed at creating a conducive business environment to attract more investments, bring in more professionals and technology, encourage competitiveness and create higher value employment opportunities.

“We will be progressively undertaking liberalisation of the other services sub-sectors,” he told a press conference at his office on Wednesday.

Saying that the services sector would become a new growth sector of the economy, Najib said it contributed 55% to the GDP in 2008, and accounted for 57% of total employment in Malaysia.

The Government wanted to tap the sector’s full potential and raise its contribution to 60% of the GDP, he said.

However, he assured that the liberalisation would not adversely affect the domestic services industry, which would continue to be supported.

He said a RM100mil services sector capacity development fund was established under the first economic stimulus package, managed by the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (Mida) to assist the industry to face the more liberalised services environment.

To facilitate investments into the sector, a National Committee for Approval of Investments in the Services Sector had been established under Mida which would receive and process applications of investment in the services sector, excluding investments in financial services, air travel, utilities, Economic Development Corridors, Multimedia Super Corridor and Bionexus status companies and distributive trade.

In a bid to develop Malaysia as an international Islamic financial hub, the legal profession would be liberalised to allow up to five international law firms with expertise in international Islamic finance to practise in Malaysia, Najib said.

Najib also said the liberalisation was in line with Malaysia’s commitment to Asean.

However, some of the measures were better than those undertaken by other Asean countries, he said, adding that they would also make Malaysia more equipped to compete internationally.

“Consultations were carried out and the decision was made based on the reception and acceptance by the sub-sectors,” he said on the selection of the sub-sectors.

Najib said that in 2008, approved investments in the services sector totalled RM50.1bil, exceeding the target of RM45.8bil per annum under the Third Industrial Master Plan.

The share of foreign investments was 11% of the total investments.

“With the liberalisation of the services sector, we expect greater inflow of investments,” he said.

Najib also said he would announce next week the liberalisation of the financial sector.

He declined to give details.

“I want it to be full of surprises” and “It is good for the market to digest (the announcement for the services sector) first.”

PM Najib turun padang.

2009-04-05T00:07:00.002+08:00

PM Najib visits Chinatown, Kerinchi and Brickfields
KUALA LUMPUR: Less than 24 hours into the new job, the country’s sixth Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak went down to the ground into the heartlands of Kuala Lumpur to meet the people.
He paid a visit to the street hawkers in Jalan Petaling and Vista Angkasa apartments in Kg Kerinchi and Jalan Tun Sambanthan storekeepers and restaurant operators in Brickfields.
Najib arrived at Jalan Petaling’s main gate in the PM’s silver Proton Perdana with plate number WRP 11. He was accompanied by Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Zulhasnan Rafique and Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Ahmad Fuad Ismail.
Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak visiting 'Chinatown' in Petaling Street. - AZMAN GHANI / The Star
As soon as he stepped out of the car, he was surrounded by a mass of photographers and police officers holding back the crowd to give him room to walk.
Dressed in a casual short-sleeve light green shirt, khaki pants and loafers, he strolled the popular tourist spot with the Kuala Lumpur Hawkers and Petty Traders Association deputy chairman Datuk Ang Say Tee and Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun.
He spoke to watch dealers and bag sellers and was met with supportive applause from onlookers from both sides of the street.
Locals and tourists alike whipped out their handphones to take pictures of Malaysia’s new PM.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak visiting Vista Angkasa, Kerinchi. - AZMAN GHANI / The Star
At about 4pm, he made a short stop in Kg Kerinchi and spoke to hawkers there.
Seemingly a divine blessing, it began to drizzle in Brickfields just minutes after Najib arrived for his final stop.
Parents Chadaramohan Kanapathi, 40, and Ravita Pakrisamy, 38, from Segambut felt very happy and hoped the country will be “good, peaceful and without any racial problems” under Najib’s leadership.
Ramesh Kumar, 35, from Penang said it was a good sign for Indians that it rained during Najib’s visit.
“I can hardly believe that our sixth prime minister is visiting the rakyat on the second day of his premiership.
Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak visiting one of the shops along Jalan Tun Sambanthan during his walkabout in Brickfields on his second day of his official duty as newly-elected Prime Minister. - GLENN GUAN/The Star
“This is my first time seeing a PM on the ground. I have high hopes for him. I hope he will be fair to all Malaysians,” Ramesh said.
Restaurant owner S. Paramasivam said he served the Prime Minister and his entourage putu mayam pudina, dosai, vadae, teh ‘o’ ais limau, teh tarik (kurang manis), apples, oranges and grapes.
Just before 5pm and without speaking to the gathered press, Najib ended his first "turun padang" visit as PM and returned to his official residence in Putrajaya.

Bank negara cuts OPR by half percentage point

2009-02-25T12:39:00.000+08:00

Bank Negara cuts OPR by half percentage point
By JAGDEV SINGH SIDHU
KUALA LUMPUR: Worried about a growing risk of an economic contraction this year, Bank Negara has cut the overnight policy rate (OPR) by 50 basis points, or half a percentage point, to 2% as the global economy continues to deteriorate.
In a statement yesterday, the central bank announced the statutory reserve requirement (SRR) would also be cut from 2% to 1% from March 1 to reduce the cost to banks.

The ceiling and floor rates of the corridor for the OPR were correspondingly reduced to 2.25% and 1.75% respectively.
“The major advanced economies are experiencing a deepening economic contraction, while the regional economies are experiencing a rapid slowdown,’’ said Bank Negara in its monetary policy statement.
“The impact of the rapid decline in global demand on trade, production and investment activities in the Asian region has intensified.”
It said domestic economic conditions were expected to continue to remain challenging in the coming quarters with the continued deterioration of the global economy.
“While this has raised the risk of an economic contraction in 2009, the prospects remain intact for an economic recovery once global conditions stabilise given that the economy is not over-leveraged, the financial system remains sound, and the external position is healthy,’’ Bank Negara said.
The central bank said the turmoil in the international financial markets had also been protracted and that while a number of economies had put in place stimulus measures to manage the downturn, their impact on the economy had yet to take effect.
“The downside risks to the global economic outlook have increased significantly,’’ it added.
On Jan 21, Bank Negara cut the OPR by 75 basis points to 2.5% and slashed the SRR from 3.5% to 2%.
“This is the first time since the crisis erupted that the central bank has acknowledged the possibility of the economy registering a contraction this year,’’ said Maybank Investment Bank chief economist Suhaimi Illias.
“They are also reacting to the fourth quarter GDP number that will be released this week.’’
Bank Negara said the international economic and financial environment had deteriorated sharply in the recent quarter and that the Malaysian economy had been adversely impacted by these global developments.
“Exports and industrial production have declined steeply, while private investment activities have slowed down in recent months as businesses scaled back their spending. Consumer sentiment has also been affected by the weakening conditions in the labour market,’’ it said.
With inflation on a moderating trend, Bank Negara said the task of macroeconomic policy was to support domestic demand until conditions in the global economy show signs of normalisation.
“Further measures will be introduced to ensure continuous access to credit as well as to minimise the impact of the economic downturn on specific affected groups,’’ it said.
By The Star

Bird's Nest or Ean Oo

2009-01-20T10:58:00.002+08:00

Hi Fellas

Bird’s Nest for sale @RM8/gm

One piece is appx 6gm.x RM8 = RM48

Shops are selling RM150-200/pc

Glenmorangie Single Malt Whiskey

2008-12-30T17:22:00.002+08:00

He he .....my weapon ready for this CNY. One is 10years old and the other one is 12years old. Come savour with me.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T00:31:00.001+08:00

Dear All ,

May your days be happy, heart be light & your Christmas be joyful and bright!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS.............

Arowana breeding from natural ponds.

2008-12-21T18:55:00.002+08:00

Arowana all time favourites among fish enthusiasts. Getting very popular now with more ponds coming up. The adult size X-back could fetch up to RM12K a fish. Each fry from that spesies could fetch between RM1.2K - RM2K each. Each time 30-40 new hatchings. Wow 30 x RM1.2K = RM36K.

House of Hope and Pure Lotus

2008-12-21T18:48:00.000+08:00

Its end of the year now, time for charitable work.

We managed to invite to two orphanages, 45 children, to Gurney Plaza to watch the POWER RANGER'S show.

We also managed to get Pallas to sponsor 50pairs of school shoes for the children.

A lot of thanks to PALLAS, GURNEY PLAZA and YB Chow.

Robert Madoff scandal.

2008-12-19T10:13:00.003+08:00

Andrew Madoff
Robert Madoff

By ALEX BERENSON and DIANA B. HENRIQUES
Published: December 15, 2008
Federal investigators have found no evidence so far that members of Bernard L. Madoff’s family helped him carry out what may be the largest financial fraud in history, according to a person briefed on the case.
Skip to next paragraph

Gino Domenico/Bloomberg News
Andrew Madoff held a senior position in the firm.
Related
Court Order Naming Trustee for Liquidation of Madoff Fund (pdf)
DealBook: More on the Madoff Scandal »
Enlarge This Image
Philoctetes Center, via Reuters
In an October 2007 video, Bernard L. Madoff spoke during a panel discussion on the future of the stock market at the Philoctetes Center, a nonprofit educational organization in New York.
Mr. Madoff’s sons, Andrew and Mark, and his brother, Peter, all occupied senior positions at his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, whose assets were frozen after Mr. Madoff told law enforcement agents on Thursday that he had defrauded investors of up to $50 billion.
Although the enormous scale of the fraud prompted widespread questions about whether one person could concoct all the necessary paperwork such a fraud would entail, Mr. Madoff, 70, had insisted that his family was not involved in the Ponzi scheme. He said it was “all his fault,” according to a criminal complaint filed last week.
And so far, investigators have not uncovered evidence that contradicts those statements, according to the person briefed on the case, who was not at liberty to comment publicly on it.
The person cautioned that the investigation was in its earliest stages, and examiners could still unearth evidence that Mr. Madoff’s family knew about the fraud or even helped carry it out.
But employees of the firm have said that Mr. Madoff’s sons and brother all seemed shocked on Thursday after the fraud was disclosed and Mr. Madoff was arrested. One of Mr. Madoff’s sons had a substantial amount of money invested in the accounts that Mr. Madoff managed, investigators said.
John R. Wing, known as Rusty, a lawyer for Peter Madoff, said on Monday that investigators had not advised Peter that he was a target in the case, and that he expected to cooperate with investigators.
Peter Madoff, 62, reported to work on Monday to help investigators and a court-appointed receiver take control of the firm’s assets and examine the firm’s books, Mr. Wing said.
“As far as I know, Peter Madoff has been 100 percent cooperative,” Mr. Wing said.
Peter Madoff was the firm’s general counsel, while Andrew, 42, and Mark Madoff, 44, supervised the firm’s stock-trading desks, which have so far not been implicated in the fraud. Both have worked at the firm since their 20s.
A person with direct knowledge of the information who was not authorized to speak for the sons said that Andrew Madoff and Mark Madoff had been told by law enforcement authorities that they were not targets in the case.
“They are considered to be fact witnesses only, neither subjects nor targets,” the source said. “They are cooperating totally.”
A lawyer for Frank DiPascali, another senior Madoff employee, declined to comment on whether his client is being investigated or cooperating with authorities.
Madoff employees have said that Mr. DiPascali was the most important figure in the separate staff that worked closely with Bernard Madoff on the 17th floor of the firm’s office at the Third Avenue building known as the Lipstick Tower in Midtown Manhattan. That operation also had its own computer systems, and did not process its trades through the Madoff firm, they said.
Bernard Madoff told his sons that the trading was being done through European counterparties, according to several people familiar with the history of the firm.
The firm’s stock traders and other support staff worked on the 18th and 19th floors, where they were supervised by Peter, Andrew and Mark Madoff.
The complaint filed last week states that Bernard Madoff told two unidentified senior employees on Dec. 10 that he had defrauded the firm’s investors. Those senior employees were Andrew and Mark Madoff, according to several people knowledgeable about the case who were not at liberty to discuss it publicly.
They then called a friend, Martin Flumenbaum, who is a partner at the law firm of Paul, Weiss, those people said. After they told Mr. Flumenbaum about their father’s confession, he called federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
On Thursday morning, Andrew and Mark Madoff met with federal authorities. The F.B.I. then sent two agents to their father’s apartment to interview him. He confessed and was arrested, according to documents filed in the case.
Since Thursday, Andrew and Mark have not been able to talk to their uncle or their father because they are considered witnesses in the case and must avoid pretrial discussions that might touch on their experiences.
One of Mr. Madoff’s sons had “a meaningful amount of money” invested with his father and got statements that were no different than those received by other investors, the people said. Andrew and Mark have told associates that their father’s confession suggested to them that the fraud had been going on for several years, one said.
Monday afternoon, a federal judge appointed a trustee to liquidate Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, the broker-dealer that was the core of Mr. Madoff’s business. The trustee, Irving H. Picard, was appointed at the request of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, the government-chartered fund set up to help protect investors of failed brokerage firms.
“It is clear that the customers of the Madoff firm need the protections available under federal law,” said Stephen P. Harbeck, the president of the corporation.
But in a statement, the agency warned that “the scope of the misappropriations and the state of the defunct firm’s records will make this more difficult than in most prior brokerage firm insolvencies.”
Normally the agency can simply transfer a failing firm’s customer accounts to a solvent brokerage house. That may not be possible in this case, Mr. Harbeck said. Moreover, since the agency does not know how much money is actually missing, it cannot determine how to apportion any customer assets that are recovered. The protections provided through the agency is available on its Web site,

SEC failed to act on 'credible Madoff tips.

2008-12-19T10:09:00.000+08:00

WASHINGTON: US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Christopher Cox said the agency failed to act for almost a decade on “credible and specific allegations” of wrongdoing by Bernard Madoff, who authorities say bilked investors of as much as US$50 billion (RM178.5 billion).
Allegations dating back until at least 1999 “were repeatedly brought to the attention of SEC staff, but were never recommended to the commission for action,” Cox, 56, said in a statement on Tuesday. He announced an internal probe to review the “deeply troubling” revelations.
“He’s revolted by what he found out, but it’s also in his interest to be revolted,” said James Cox, a securities law professor at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who isn’t related to the SEC chairman. “He’s taken a lot of heat over SEC enforcement.”
The SEC, already faulted in connection with the collapse of Bear Stearns Cos and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, now faces criticism for failing to detect what Madoff termed “a giant Ponzi scheme”.
Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd on Tuesday called on the agency to explain how the “massive fraud” went undetected. Madoff, 70, was arrested last Thursday after he allegedly told his sons that his eponymous firm, founded in 1960, was no more than “a giant Ponzi scheme”, the SEC said.
Instead of wielding subpoena power to obtain information, SEC staff “relied upon information voluntarily produced by Madoff and his firm,” Cox said.
The internal review will include “all staff contact and relationships with the Madoff family and firm”, he said, and mandate the recusal any SEC employee with more than an “insubstantial personal” contact with Madoff and his family.
Eric Swanson, a former assistant director of compliance and examinations at the SEC, is married to Madoff’s niece, Shana, who was a compliance lawyer at the Madoff firm. Swanson left the SEC in August 2006 and is now the general counsel of Bats Trading Inc, the third-largest US equity exchange by trading volume.
Bats defended Swanson.
“Eric Swanson worked at the SEC for 10 years and did not participate in any inquiry of Bernard Madoff Securities or its affiliates while involved in a relationship with Shana, whom he met through her trade association work in the industry,” Bats spokesman Randy Williams said in statement. “Throughout his career, Eric has displayed the highest ethical standards and his reputation has been, and continues to be, above reproach.”
Victims of Madoff’s fraud stretch from Tokyo to Paris, encompassing foundations set up by Boston philanthropist Carl Shapiro and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and clients of global banks such as Banco Santander SA of Spain, Nomura Holdings Inc of Japan and HSBC Holdings Plc of the UK. Yeshiva University in New York lost US$110 million, mostly through hedge funds controlled by trustee J Ezra Merkin.
Cox said a review of the SEC’s records so far has exposed “complicated steps that Madoff took to deceive investors, the public and regulators”. He said Madoff “kept several sets of books and false documents, and provided false information involving his adviser activities to investors and to regulators”.
The SEC was under fire before Madoff’s fraud came to light. The collapses of investment banks Bear Stearns and Lehman this year tarnished the SEC’s reputation and lawmakers such as Dodd and Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, have questioned its vigilance in enforcing securities laws. Cox, a Republican appointed by President George W Bush, has said he will leave office at the end of the Bush administration. His term officially ends in June 2009.
SEC Inspector-General H David Kotz released reports this year critical of the agency’s conduct. He said in one that the SEC “failed to carry out its oversight” of Bear Stearns, the New York investment bank that faced collapse in March. He’s also questioned the handling of investigations by the agency’s enforcement staff.
The SEC hadn’t inspected Madoff’s investment advisory business since he registered the firm with the agency in September 2006, two people familiar with the matter said. The SEC tries to inspect advisers at least every five years and to scrutinise new firms in their first year of registration, former agency officials and securities lawyers said.
SEC examiners reviewed Madoff’s brokerage business in 2005 after an investment manager, writing to the agency, and press reports questioned the validity of his investment returns. The SEC’s enforcement division completed an investigation involving the company last year without bringing a claim.
— Bloomberg

The new X'mas Carol

2008-11-23T23:05:00.003+08:00

You'd better watch out

You'd better not cry

You'd better keep cash

I'm telling you why

:Recession is coming to town.

It's hitting you once,

It's hitting you twice

It doesn't care if you've been careful and wise

Recession is coming to town

It's worthless if you've got shares

It's worthless if you've got bonds

It's safe when you've got cash in hand

So keep cash for goodness sake,

HEYYou'd better watch out

You'd better not cry

You'd better keep cash

I'm telling you why

:Recession is coming to town!

Finance products are confusing

Finance products are so vague

The banks make you bear the cost of risk

So keep out for goodness sake,

OHYou'd better watch out

You'd better not cry

You'd better keep cash

I'm telling you why

:Recession is coming to town.

New Blackberry touch

2008-11-14T00:41:00.000+08:00

-- It's official: Verizon Wireless will start selling RIM's (RIMM) new touchscreen BlackBerry Storm on Nov. 21. The iPhone-ish smartphone will sell for $199.99 after subsidy and a $50 mail-in rebate, assuming you are eligible and sign a two-year contract.
This is an important launch for both companies, as Apple (AAPL) beat RIM in unit shipments last quarter, and Verizon (VZ) hasn't yet had a credible answer to the iPhone.
However, this is hardly an aggressive play. We think Apple still has the upper hand.
We had read rumors that Verizon Wireless was considering selling the Storm for free after subsidy, as its part-owner Vodafone (VOD) is doing abroad. That would definitely give the iPhone a run for its money.
But at $199, the Storm is the same price as Apple's 8-gigabyte iPhone, while offering fewer features. The iPhone, for example, has a better app platform, more built-in memory, multi-touch controls, better music/video platform, and wi-fi.
Meanwhile, the Storm's only potential advantages that we can think of so far: Better 3G Internet service -- the iPhone's has ranged from average to terrible in our experience; better mobile email; and maybe a better on-screen keyboard, if RIM's "click-screen" is any good.
So it seems that most people who'd buy it are people who are tied to/prefer Verizon Wireless/BlackBerry email -- or people who hate Apple. (We'll reserve judgment until after we've had time to play with it.)
It's also possible one or both companies will cut prices again before Christmas sales ramp up, which could help sell more phones. Especially if this quarter is really as terrible as everyone says it's been.
One thing we don't know yet: How much Verizon will charge for monthly service. Our bet is $70 per month, the cheapest plan AT&T (T) offers for the iPhone.

Halloween Night dinner in BULGARIAN RESTAURANT, next to INGOLFE, Hillside.

2008-11-07T17:27:00.001+08:00

Reckless driver takes on 8 cars parking on the side road.

2008-10-31T17:20:00.001+08:00

Kathina......Wat Rachapong, Lunas, Kulim.

2008-10-30T12:54:00.003+08:00

Phakchok Rinpoche....my guru.

2008-09-28T00:45:00.000+08:00

Phakchok Rinpoche is the oldest son of Chokling Rinpoche. Born in 1981, he was recognized as a Tulku by the Kagyü regents and later ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He has studied with a number of great lamas, including Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Dudjom Rinpoche, Tulku Ugyen Rinpoche, Penor Rinpoche, Trulshik Rinpoche and Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche. In 2004 Rinpoche completed his studies and received the Khenpo degree from the Dzongsar Shedra in India. An enthusiastic and vibrant young lama and his teachings are direct, accessible, and fresh. Phakchok Rinpoche has been teaching at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute for several years giving lectures on Buddhist philosophy and meditation practice.

2 Rainbows next to each other

2008-09-26T17:14:00.002+08:00

Sighted this 2 rainbows next to each other.

Weekend at Pulau Jerejak Resorts

2008-09-23T12:48:00.003+08:00

To all Penangites,

Pulau Jerejak is only 5 minutes ferry ride away from the Penang Island.

The beautiful island with lots of green, takes you away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Nice 2 rooms chalet ample outdoor facilities and SPA. Its a good place for a short and cheap relaxation.

Golf Whiz

2008-09-08T17:30:00.003+08:00

Left hander or right hander this boy?

Dragon Sushi........Miraku@GHOTEL

2008-08-20T17:14:00.002+08:00

One of the most authentic Japanese Restaurant. But the bill came very Authentically Pricey too.

Following Daddy's footstep or...........

2008-08-12T10:09:00.002+08:00

He just cant get enough of playing when we were at Penang Sports Club.

I was there as a host for OXA vs PSC Annual Friendly.

Dinner at Ferringhi Garden the night before the Olympic's Nite.

2008-08-12T09:56:00.002+08:00

Ferringhi Garden with their house specialty Sultan's Delight Lobster Termidor with lots of filling. The ambience itself is something to shout about for. Really cant get any like this in other restaurants in Penang.

We were lucky that my father-in-law knew the owner Richard Long (few things were served on-the-house) and also met a Dato Seri having dinner with his family.

International Dragon Boat Race '08, Teluk Bahang Dam, Penang.

2008-08-03T16:08:00.003+08:00

Penang’s bid to host the 6th Club Crew World Championships (CCWC) in 2008 was approved at the 10th International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF) Congress on 5 August 2005 in Berlin, Germany. The stage is set for the “Pearl of the Orient” to host the biggest dragon boat racing event ever staged in South-East Asia.
Following a detailed presentation, Penang received unanimous approval from the IDBF congress to host the event. PIDBF organising committee chairman, The Honourable Mr. Lai Chew Hock said he believed the decision was based primarily on Penang’s proven 26-year track record of successfully organising international dragon boat events and its unique tourism hospitality package.
“Our bid was also firmly supported by Penang Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, the Penang State Executive Council, Tourism Malaysia, the Penang Tourism Action Council, the Penang Water Supply Corporation (PBAPP) and the Penang Municipal Council,” he added.

The PIDBF delegation which secured the approval in Berlin was led personally by Mr. Lai, the State Assemblyman for the Bukit Tambun, constituency, and vice-chairman Dato’ Ir. Liew Chook San, who also serves as the general manager of PBAPP.
The PIDBF is a founding member of the IDBF, the established international organisation for the promotion of dragon boat racing worldwide. Since 1996, the IDBF has held four CCWCs (one every two years) at Vancouver (Canada), Auckland (New Zealand), Rome (Italy) and Cape Town (South Africa). The next CCWC will be staged in Toronto (Canada) in 2006. “The 6th CCWC in Penang in 2008 will be the first to be hosted in Asia. Our mission is to make it the biggest and the best CCWC ever, by attracting as many Asian club crews as possible to participate against club crews from the Australia, Africa, Europe and the Americas,” he added.
Having won the bid, Y.B. Lai said, the PIDBF would focus on implementing a plan to further enhance and expand the international boat racing facilities at the Teluk Bahang Dam which is managed by PBAPP.
“There is much to be done. We will work closely the State and Federal Governments, Malaysia Airlines, the Malaysian Association of Travel Trade Associations, local hotels and other organisations on logistics and sponsorship,” he said. At the same time, Y.B. Lai said, the PIDBF also needed to promote the 6th CCWC amongst all IDBF members to secure as much participation from as many international crews as possible in 2008.
Please re-visit this page in the future for more news and updates related to the 6th CCWC 2008 in Penang.

Apple IPHONE 3g coming to Malaysia.

2008-07-15T16:47:00.002+08:00

14-07-2008: Maxis gets right to distribute iPhone 3G?

by Sharmila Ganapathy http://www.theedgedaily.com/cms/content.jsp?id=com.tms.cms.article.Article_1fbdc418-cb73c03a-4788d500-c8e95f3c#
KUALA LUMPUR: The news is out - Maxis Communications Bhd is believed to be bringing in the second-generation iPhone to Malaysia for under RM1,000.
However, when contacted, Maxis “declined comment on speculation” that it will start offering the iPhone 3G at below RM1,000 to its 10 million customers in Malaysia soon.
It has been speculated in the industry for sometime now that Maxis has been bidding for the first rights from Apple Inc to bring the iPhone to Malaysia.
So it did not come as much of surprise when online newsportal Malaysian Insider reported that Maxis “will offer the iPhone 3G in Malaysia at a competitive price below RM1,000”.
When asked by The Edge Financial Daily in April if the telco planned to bring the iPhone here, Maxis chief executive officer Sandip Das had said Maxis had no plan at that time to bring in the phone as Apple had not decided on its Asian distribution policy.
The scenario has changed since then, as last month Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) told Reuters that it would bring the iPhone 3G to Singapore later this year.
In May, it said its associates Bharti Airtel Ltd, Globe Telecom Inc and its Australian subsidiary Optus would bring the iPhone to India, Australia and the Philippines by year-end.
If the speculation proves true, Maxis’ timing couldn’t be more perfect. The telco, which already has a strong postpaid user base, will gain an even bigger edge over rivals Celcom (Malaysia) Bhd, DiGi.Com Bhd and newcomer U Mobile Sdn Bhd, especially if mobile number portability (MNP) takes off in August as planned. However, the implementation of MNP may be delayed.
With the telcos fighting tooth and nail to retain their customer base and win new ones, securing the rights to bring the elusive iPhone to local shores will be the perfect lure for mobile users to switch service providers.This is because MNP allows mobile users to retain their mobile phone numbers even when they move from one service provider to another.
The iPhone 3G models are third-generation (3G)-equipped and offer a host of new applications and smart phone-like features such as visual voicemail, global positioning system software to facilitate location-based services and push email, incidentally a signature feature of the Blackberry.
Incidentally, Maxis and Celcom are known for their Blackberry packages for postpaid users. If Maxis successfully introduces the iPhone on local shores, this would allow it access to a wider business user segment.
The new iPhone models began selling in the US market at US$199 (for a 8-gigabyte model) and US$299 (for a 16-gigabyte model) starting Friday. That’s roughly half the price of the original eight-gigabyte iPhone, which debuted in the US last June at US$600 (RM1,962).
The iPhone 3G went on sale in a total of 22 countries on Friday, including the US, Japan and Australia. According to foreign news reports said the iPhone would be sold in 70 countries by year-end.

Tutup Kedai.........Bursa Malaysia

2008-07-03T15:58:00.002+08:00

Malaysia pull the circuit breaker on Bursa Malaysia. Bringing the whole trading community to a HALT. But all was not lost. At around 11.30am this morning, there was an interesting PRESS CONFERENCE going on LIVE from the Parti Keadilan Rakyat's, HQ.

EURO 2008....Spain.

2008-06-30T16:07:00.001+08:00

With Spain taking the EURO 2008 CUP. Will this be more of a reason for Ronaldo to sign for Real Madrid.

Happy Feet at New World Park

2008-06-27T11:39:00.003+08:00

This little fishes nibbling away on your feet. Feasting on dead skin. Barra Buffa imported from Turkey as claim by the operator of this outlet.

You will feel the geely sensation for the first 5-10 minutes and after that its all normal like a tiny massage sensation.

I paid RM18 for 30minutes promotional price.

Dinner at ANANDA BHAWAN, Tanjung Bungah

2008-06-27T11:35:00.001+08:00

This young chap here trying to eat by hand. Really true Indian style.

100days as Penang CM.

2008-06-18T23:43:00.000+08:00

PENANG: The price of being chief executive of the state is having no time for oneself. This is the experience of DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng since assuming the post of Chief Minister of Penang. For Lim, the job as he describes it is 24/7.
In jest, Lim said the biggest change was that now it was easier for him to call for a press conference. His media events are now well attended by all mainstream media compared to before the March 8 general election.
“As for myself, since March 8, I have stopped my drinking. I was never much of a heavy drinker, used to do it socially, but now I have stopped it completely. First of all it makes me tired and when you drink, the next morning it will be on your breath. I deal with many civil servants, even women, and I do not want them to get offended. It is not very pleasant,” he said. “So now, I make very dull and boring company.
“I do not even have time for football or golf now,” Lim said.
Even his family does not get to see much of him, Lim said. Although his wife and four children are in Penang, he hardly sees them as they are in bed when he leaves for the office and they are back in bed when he returns home.

Petrol 41%

2008-06-05T14:09:00.000+08:00

DJ Malaysians Brace For Era Of Expensive Fuel After 40% Hike (2008/06/05 13:44PM)

KUALA LUMPUR (AP)--Malaysians entered an era of expensive fuel Thursday after the government raised gasoline prices by a whopping 41% in a politically risky decision that could undermine its already-shaky position.
Long lines of vehicles formed at gasoline stations overnight to fill up before midnight when the new pricing came into effect, and brawls broke out as some motorists tried to jump the queue.
On Thursday, gas stations were mostly deserted. Small groups of opposition workers staged protests in downtown Kuala Lumpur and in northern Ipoh town.
But generally the public mood was one of resignation. Most accepted that, with global crude oil prices soaring, they could no longer enjoy the hefty subsidies that had kept fuel prices here among the lowest in Southeast Asia.
"If we don''t increase the fuel price now, the economy will go down," said Chong Wai Ket, a 29-year-old shopkeeper in Kuala Lumpur.
Truck and bus operators complained that they can''t absorb the drastic price hike, which may force many of them to shut down.
The pump price of gasoline went up to MYR2.70 (US$0.87) a liter, or MYR10.23 (US$3.30) a gallon, from MYR1.92 (US$0.61) a liter. Diesel prices rose even higher by 67% to MYR2.58 (US$0.80) per liter.
Like other Asian countries, Malaysia, a net oil exporter, is facing a spiraling fuel subsidy bill that could have been more than MYR56 billion (US$17 billion) due to rising world oil prices.
"We cannot naturally keep subsidizing at the current rate," Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told reporters after announcing the new price structure Wednesday.
Despite the hike, gasoline prices remain lower than other Asian nations such as Singapore, Thailand and India.

In addition, Malaysia also increased electricity tariffs from July by as much as 26% for some consumers. The government also imposed windfall taxes on independent power producers and plantation companies.
Opposition parties slammed the hikes as excessive and a burden for the poor. The Democratic Action Party, or DAP, said it would hold more protests to demand the government back down from the plan.
"There is a sense of public outrage...both on the increase and the manner in which it was done," said DAP chief Lim Kit Siang.
Former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, who now leads the opposition People''s Alliance coalition that includes the DAP, criticized the government for cutting fuel subsidies when national oil firm Petronas is making profits.
"This is what we call weak and irresponsible economic management," he said.
The energy price hike - the first one in two years - is expected to push inflation to a 10-year high of around 5%, up from 3% now, slow consumer spending and hurt economic growth.
The concerns led to a drop in Malaysia''s stocks, bonds and currency on Thursday.
The move carries great political risk for Abdullah, who is fighting for his political survival after his ruling coalition''s shock election losses in March.
Ibrahim Suffian, director of independent think-tank Merdeka Center of Opinion Research, said Abdullah''s popularity will plummet as the price hike will hit his main supporters - low-income rural ethnic Malays - hardest.
"It''s going to be hard for people to accept. There will be an immediate adverse effect on his popularity. It will mean a massive drop in his last bastion" of support, he warned.
Abdullah has appealed to people to remain calm and not take to the streets.
He said the revised energy prices would save the government MYR13.7 billion (US$4.4 billion), which would go to improving food security including subsidizing imported rice, flour, bread and cooking oil.

The government also scrapped a short-lived ban on sale of gasoline to foreign-registered cars near its borders with Thailand.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 05, 2008 01:44 ET (05:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc

ManU.......CHAMPION OF THE CHAMPIONS

2008-05-22T09:57:00.001+08:00

Sir Alex Ferguson's team had prevailed 3-0 on penalties in the FA Community Shield on 5 August after a 1-1 draw but the prospect of a repeat looked distant when Cristiano Ronaldo headed them into a deserved 26th-minute lead. Chelsea equalised 19 minutes later through Frank Lampard, however, and they appeared more likely winners thereafter, Didier Drogba and Lampard both striking the woodwork.

Overtime tensionStill, Chelsea continued to look more enterprising and early in extra time they rattled the woodwork again as Ashley Cole and Ballack set up Lampard for an improvised shot that came back off the bar with Van der Sar beaten. Terry then blocked Giggs's goalbound strike after Patrice Evra's low centre had taken Čech out of the game. The ebb and flow of attacks continued, with the only advantage gained being United's after Drogba was dismissed for raising a hand to Vidić. That seemed not to matter when Ronaldo missed United's third kick of the shoot-out, but Chelsea's moment passed with Terry's slip and Van der Sar's subsequent glory-grabbing save.

Ferringhi Heights by Plenitude

2008-05-13T23:25:00.004+08:00

Latest edition to the famous Feringhi Hill. Semi-dees and a super condo. Semi-d price ranging from RM1.6Million and above. The super condo with a starting price above RM700k. This is gonna set a new benchmark for properties in Penang along the Feringhi stretch. Develop by the Cash- Rich, PLENITUDE BHD.

Crude Oil>>>>>>>USD125

2008-05-12T16:29:00.002+08:00

Crude Oil hitting USD125 last week. This is gonna create a spiral effect on other commodities as well. Cant wait for Gold to hit another all time High again. Next decade or so i forsee commodities market will keep creating new High.

As for the local scenario, the Govt have just lift the ceilling price on STEEL and will also look into CEMENT price as well. Prices are soaring like nobody's business.

Time for Lifestyle change.

DAP the new govt.......PENANG

2008-05-06T10:30:00.002+08:00

Its been months now after the March08 General Election. The state govts keep nagging on the previous govt's dirty linen. Come on now start the engine and get things going.

Market in general is very quiet in Penang. Economically the ROCKETS have to take off very soon. People of Penang may not like the current market situation. If this prolong and there's no money to make.

PHEWWW I WONDER WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN THE NEXT ELECTION.

US Recession

2008-04-08T23:09:00.001+08:00

Bear Market
A market condition in which the prices of securities are falling or are expected to fall. Although figures can vary, a downturn of 15-20% or more in multiple indexes (Dow or S&P 500) is considered an entry into a bear market.

When you see a bear what do you do? Tuck in your arms and play dead! Fighting back can be extremely dangerous because it is quite difficult for an investor to make stellar gains during a bear market unless he or she is a short seller.

Being called to school by the school principal.

2008-04-02T12:24:00.002+08:00

What to do with this little boy? Only 4yrs old and first year in Kindy and the pricipal already asked us to go to the office.

Disney On Ice coming to Penang

2008-03-27T17:05:00.003+08:00

I will be taking my son to the show this coming April in PISA. The tickets running out very fast.
I got mine for 15% discount as an ASTRO subscriber.

For a Lifestyle Living

2008-03-26T20:48:00.003+08:00

Another major landmark changes the Gurney Drive strip. Setting a new lifestyle living standards. Live, Eat and Play within the vicinity.

Hard to make a Living.......Trishaw Rider.

2008-01-07T21:02:00.001+08:00

Its hard to make a living these days with inflation set to kick in. Trying to earn some side income from Trishaw Ride Services. Maybe I could burned some kilos I put on during the festive period.

Man I put up almost 20kg. Tore my shorts while playing badminton few days back. Damn or thau.

Mabuk Kaki.........Julian's wedding in KL

2007-12-19T21:34:00.000+08:00

As you can see the mabuk sien from Penang make the trip down to KL. What a nite it was, BC went all out against BC.

The after effect. Darn i miss out Willie from the cameras target.

Family Trip to Penang Hill

2007-12-05T20:42:00.000+08:00

Took my family for an excursion. Well thats not Victoria Peak,HK, but just Penang Hill. Unfortunately, the trip up the hill was a very long one. Its was a long holiday weekend. The beeline was a two hourly apart. We had to buy the tickets and we went over to Kek Lok Si Temple for a quick visit before we went back to the foot of the hill to wait. It was a sunny day with a cold breeze.

The new beginning....women in sports ala Malaysia

2007-11-26T23:04:00.000+08:00

We have Nicol in Squash and now Mew Choo is making a havoc in the China dominated world womens badminton. During the 90's the Ladies event is always boring in the Malaysian context.

Now it seems, we have some hope for the Olympic's medal finally. Having beaten most of the higher ranking players from China over the year finally she took the China Open. Non would have think its possible to win the Ladies singles event, in China.

I can say most Malaysian would feel very proud.

Congrats Mew Choo!!!

Hilltop Villas

2007-11-24T10:01:00.001+08:00

Pearl of The Island, we used to call Penang. Small island located to the North West of Peninsular Malaysia. Properties on the island used to be snapped up by investors from Japan. A decade down the road after the Financial Crack Down ‘97, prices of properties on the island have shot up more than doubled. CASH rich investors from around the globe, especially MiddleEastern CASHBUMS, Chinese Corrupted Tycoons, HongKong Celebrities, the ever Gloletrotting Indians and the forever KIASU Singaporeans are snapping up SuperCondos and Bungalows newly launched by the local property developers.
My personal favorite so far is the HILLTOP VILLAS by the Asia Green Group.
This particular unit I posted cost RM3.5Million fully furnished. Lower ground garage, high ceilling living room, superb view of the sea from the top of the hill and outdoor family dining are

Penang Blackout

2007-11-20T17:25:00.000+08:00

Almost the whole of Penang, were on a blackout for almost 30mins. Whats wrong TNB? How could this be happening at a time like this, where the GE is just around the corner. I hope nothing big happened.

8 months Queue

2007-11-11T20:47:00.000+08:00

Who can wait for such a long time. Went to check out the new Merc C-Class. Only the Elegence model is available under the local assembly line. The darn part about it is the waiting list is as long as 8 months. According to the Salesman at LOWE MOTORS, Penang. Damn I bought my E-Class last year during the Raya Promo waited for only 2 weeks.

Setting LIFE GOALS

2007-10-29T22:29:00.000+08:00

Personal Goal Setting
Find direction. Live your life your way.
Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn this vision of the future into reality.
The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You'll also quickly spot the distractions that would otherwise lure you from your course.
More than this, properly-set goals can be incredibly motivating, and as you get into the habit of setting and achieving goals, you'll find that your self-confidence builds fast.
Achieving More With Focus
Goal setting techniques are used by top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields. They give you long-term vision and short-term motivation. They focus your acquisition of knowledge and help you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. By setting goals, you will also raise your self-confidence, as you recognize your ability and competence in achieving the goals that you have set.
Starting to Set Personal Goals
Goals are set on a number of different levels: First you create your "big picture" of what you want to do with your life, and what large-scale goals you want to achieve. Second, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit so that you reach your lifetime goals. Finally, once you have your plan, you start working to achieve it.We start this process with your Lifetime Goals, and work down to the things you can do today to start moving towards them.
(If you want to fast-track your goal setting and get the most from it, then either join our Design Your Life program or talk to one of our coaches.)
Your Lifetime Goals
The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime (or at least, by a time at least, say, 10 years in the future) as setting Lifetime Goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making.To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of these categories (or in categories of your own, where these are important to you):
Artistic:Do you want to achieve any artistic goals? If so, what?
Attitude:Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.
Career:What level do you want to reach in your career?
Education:Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to achieve other goals?
Family:Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family?
Financial:How much do you want to earn by what stage?
Physical:Are there any athletic goals you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?
Pleasure:How do you want to enjoy yourself? - you should ensure that some of your life is for you!
Public Service:Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how?
Spend some time brainstorming these, and then select one goal in each category that best reflects what you want to do. Then consider trimming again so that you have a small number of really significant goals on which you can focus. As you do this, make sure that the goals that you have set are ones that you genuinely want to achieve, not ones that your parents, family, or employers might want (if you have a partner, you probably want to consider what he or she wants, however make sure you also remain true to yourself!)
Starting to Achieve Your Lifetime Goals
Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a 25 year plan of smaller goals that you should complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan. Then set a 5 year plan, 1 year plan, 6 month plan, and 1 month plan of progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your lifetime goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan.Then create a daily to-do list of things that you should do today to work towards your lifetime goals. At an early stage these goals may be to read books and gather information on the achievement of your goals. This will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting.Finally review your plans, and make sure that they fit the way in which you want to live your life.
Staying on Course
Once you have decided your first set of plans, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your to-do list on a daily basis. Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect your changing priorities and experience.An easy way of doing this is to use the goal-setting software like GoalPro 6 on a daily basis (you can download a free trial version of GoalPro from Success Studios web site.) GoalPro uses a similar set of categories to ones we recommend - either use theirs, or adapt the software to use ours.
Goal Setting Tips
The following broad guidelines will help you to set effective goals:
State each goal as a positive statement: Express your goals positively - 'Execute this technique well' is a much better goal than 'Don't make this stupid mistake.'
Be precise: Set a precise goal, putting in dates, times and amounts so that you can measure achievement. If you do this, you will know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can take complete satisfaction from having achieved it.
Set priorities: When you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones.
Write goals down: This crystallizes them and gives them more force.
Keep operational goals small: Keep the low-level goals you are working towards small and achievable. If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress towards it. Keeping goals small and incremental gives more opportunities for reward. Derive today's goals from larger ones.
Set performance goals, not outcome goals: You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible. There is nothing more dispiriting than failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control. In business, these could be bad business environments or unexpected effects of government policy. In sport, for example, these reasons could include poor judging, bad weather, injury, or just plain bad luck. If you base your goals on personal performance, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals and draw satisfaction from them.
Set realistic goals: It is important to set goals that you can achieve. All sorts of people (employers, parents, media, society) can set unrealistic goals for you. They will often do this in ignorance of your own desires and ambitions. Alternatively you may set goals that are too high, because you may not appreciate either the obstacles in the way, or understand quite how much skill you need to develop to achieve a particular level of performance.
This is something we focus on in detail in our "Design Your Life" program, which not only helps you decide your goals, it then helps you set the vivid, compelling goals you need if you're to make the most of your goal setting.
SMART Goals:A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic. While there are plenty of variants, SMART usually stands for:
S Specific
M Measurable
A Attainable
R Relevant
T Time-bound
For example, instead of having “to sail around the world” as a goal, it is more powerful to say “To have completed my trip around the world by December 31, 2015.” Obviously, this will only be attainable if a lot of preparation has been completed beforehand!
Achieving Goals
When you have achieved a goal, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having done so. Absorb the implications of the goal achievement, and observe the progress you have made towards other goals. If the goal was a significant one, reward yourself appropriately. All of this helps you build the self-confidence you deserve!With the experience of having achieved this goal, review the rest of your goal plans:
If you achieved the goal too easily, make your next goals harder.
If the goal took a dispiriting length of time to achieve, make the next goals a little easier.
If you learned something that would lead you to change other goals, do so.
If you noticed a deficit in your skills despite achieving the goal, decide whether to set goals to fix this.
Failure to meet goals does not matter much, as long as you learn from it. Feed lessons learned back into your goal setting program.Remember too that your goals will change as you get older. Adjust them regularly to reflect growth in your knowledge and experience, and if goals do not hold any attraction any longer, then let them go.
Key points:
Goal setting is an important method of:
Deciding what is important for you to achieve in your life;
Separating what is important from what is irrelevant, or a distraction;
Motivating yourself; and
Building your self-confidence, based on successful achievement of goals.
If you don't already set goals, do so, starting now. As you make this technique part of your life, you'll find your career accelerating, and you'll wonder how you did without it!

Direct S'pore for AirAsia

2007-10-27T09:56:00.000+08:00

Dato Tony Fernandes finally gets his wish.

Air Asia will be getting 2 direct flights to Changi Airport from Subang LCCT daily.

In exchange of that, Singapore will also nomimate one of their Low Cost Carriers, very likely, Tiger Airways to fly to Subang twice daily.

My proposal to Dato Tony, please open up direct flights from Penang to all other destinations as well. What abaout Penang=Macau, Penang=S'pore?

Dont deprive us Penagites.

The New Mercedes C-CLASS

2007-10-03T12:35:00.000+08:00

Wow the new Benz C Class

Looks sleek and canggih.

Price range Avantgarde RM258,888.00 w/o rdtax and Insurance.

Elegance RM248,888.00 w/o rdtax and Insurance

Crunching time for banks around the world.

2007-09-17T15:57:00.001+08:00

Worst crisis for 20 years, say banks
David Smith and John Waples
LEADING bankers are warning of the worst crisis in the money markets for 20 years, which will come to a head this week when $113 billion (£57 billion) of commercial paper – market IOUs – comes up for refinancing.
This huge refinancing, mainly through London, exceeds the $100 billion that became due in mid-August, and which sparked the most serious phase in the money-market crisis, which has seen banks scrambling for funds and market interest rates rising sharply. “This is a serious pressure point,” said one leading banker.
Another senior executive of one of Britain’s top five retail banks said: “These are the worst conditions I have seen in money markets for 20 years”.
The huge amount of commercial paper becoming due is the hangover from the crisis in credit markets that began with American sub-prime mortgages. Many of the off-balance-sheet structured investment vehicles (SIVs) set up by the banks were borrowed in the form of asset-backed commercial paper.
Related Links
Problems are on scale of Great Depression
America is facing housing crisis, UK next
Now, even if they succeed in rolling over some of this paper this week, they will eventually be forced to take some of it – much of which is of questionable value – onto their balance sheets. To meet this potential liability, banks are hoarding cash and have stopped lending to each other. This has created a liquidity freeze.
“Asset-backed commercial paper is rolling off every day and the banks are taking more and more onto their balance sheets, which is using up capital,” said Paul Mortimer-Lee, global head of market economics at BNP Paribas in London. “It is both a liquidity and a capital crisis.”
His view was supported by a top banker who said: “Even the very solid banks that were not at the sharp end are hoarding liquidity to ensure they can fund the rollover.”
The Bank of England, which last week announced the injection of up to £4.4 billion of extra liquidity into the money markets for each of the next three weeks, is policing the problem, bankers say, but has no plans to change its tactics, which have drawn criticism.
Its first significant response to the crisis came only a few days ago, after weeks in which the European Central Bank and Federal Reserve had injected tens of billions of euros and dollars in an effort to steady the markets. But the Bank’s supporters said the criticism was unjustified, and that it had been right to limit its action. They pointed out that, properly measured, the rise in sterling money-market rates had been similar to that for dollar rates.
The prospect of serious market indigestion from maturing commercial paper is not the only headache for the banks. Globally, they have $380 billion of loans and bonds to be laid off from leveraged buyouts and other private-equity deals at a time when the markets have shifted sharply against them.
The crisis has led to a big change in interest-rate expectations.
After the Bank’s quarterly inflation report a month ago, most economists were looking for a further hike in Bank rate to 6%. Now, according to a survey by Ideaglobal.com, the financial-research company, only 36% think the next rate move will be up, while 64% are looking for the next move to be down.
Most do not expect that to happen until next year, although economists say the situation is changing rapidly.
The Federal Reserve is widely expected to begin the process of reversing the recent rise in global interest rates when its cuts the Fed Funds rate on September 18 in response to the market crisis and weak American jobs data.
Last Wednesday, the Bank and the Financial Services Authority called a meeting with Britain’s top banks to hear how bad the liquidity freeze is.
In the short term, the credit crunch is forcing up the cost of borrowing and the Bank is concerned that this could spill over into the wider economy, making it difficult for businesses to raise long-term finance.
What has compounded the problem is that nobody yet knows who holds the commercial paper that is exposed to the US sub-prime mortgage market and has been dubbed as toxic. Britain’s big banks have varying degrees of exposure but it is not seen as a huge problem. One banker said: “We don’t know yet what we could be holding on our balance sheet in one week or three months’ time. No bank will escape some impact on its profit-and-loss acount. But will it be a mega number resulting in a material hole in its balance sheet? I doubt it.”
Commercial paper is typically soaked up by pension and insurance funds. But until they are able to work out their exposure, many of them are refusing to buy any more. It is this buying strike that has created the liquidity freeze.
Another senior banker said: “What nobody knows is whether this will spill over into the wider economy”.
The crisis is having a huge impact on the way banks conduct their business. Northern Rock, the troubled bank, is facing a battle to raise up to £3 billion in funding it needs from the debt markets in the next three months.
Northern Rock has been particularly vulnerable because it relies on the credit markets for about 70% of the funds it needs to finance its aggressive mortgage lending. Some debt analysts believe that the bank may need to raise up to £8 billion if it is to sustain its ambitious targets and take mortgages that have been written several months ago off its balance sheet.
There have also been suggestions that the funding pressures could force Northern Rock to issue a second profit warning. In June the bank said that £180m to £200m in income had been wiped out after it failed to pass on higher-than-expected borrowing costs to customers rapidly enough.
Other banks, including Anglo Irish, another big user of securitisations, also face a credit squeeze.
The refinancing of the commercial paper is expected to start tomorrow and end on September 20. In that short period the City is braced for huge market volatility.
The big high-street banks are exposed to billions of pounds of commercial paper, a lot of which is high quality. But they will still need the capital to take it back onto their balance sheets. When the markets recover, analysts say there will have to be a post mortem over the different ways that America’s Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England acted during the crisis. The rating agencies are already being investigated and are expected to be severely criticised.
Have your
say
within this crisis through there is oppotunity for mergers - look at the depressed state of Standard Chartered Bank - where its profits are generated in asia and middle east business is booming and no problems - a timely point for a large instituition with emerging markets ambition to make the bid sooner rather than later
Asian Growth, LONDON, UK
Despite all of this, banks are still offering loans to people ill equiped to make the payments. I have read about a student who was offered a loan, and told that if he did not take it, his credit rating would be viewed as low, and he would struggle to get a loan later on in life. The worst companies are those who always advertise around tea time, offering consolidation loans. If people can't really afford loans, they can't really afford to consolidate them either - these ads play on the lack of financial understanding by people who have no training and little experience, and should be banned.
tony, birmingham, uk
Costas Unfortunatly Cyprus is also not on 'the good diet' - we have a massive property bubble here, fuelled by a massive credit bubble, and an economy that is reliant on consumption and tourism. We are just as vulnerable, if not more, than the UK and USA when this thing spills over into the wider economy. Wake up and smell the keftethes !
Yiannos Ioannou, Limassol, Cyprus
Eric, the UK is much the same as the US when it comes to lending rediculous amounts of money to people who clearly cannot afford to ever pay that money back, subprime mortgages and property flipping. The official figures for our subprime is 8% but I doubt that figure is all that close to the truth, I suspect it will be much higher once its effects kick in with our very shakey economy. The UK is now a nation built on nothing but debt.
Mf Flibble, Cambridge,
It was reported, several months ago, that many that got these subprime loans, were illegal aliens...mostly out West. They should never been allowed to purchase a home, while here illegally or not being a citizen! Reports said many didn't even understand what they were signing.....but oh no...the main stream media and PC folks won't report much on this.
Bobbie, USA, USA
People who complain about the inadequacies of the banking system should perhaps look to the flaws of the alternatives - from the Soviet Union to the UK's own experiences in state planning, other ways of allocating capital are simply much worse. To adopt Churchill's quip about democracy, the global capital markets are the worst way to keep the economy functioning, except for all the other systems that have been tried before.
James, London,
The slow down in home sales in the US is just starting to fall off a very large cliff and by spring we will look back and see the dramatic negative effects to the US and World economy. The slow down in US consumer purchases and lower dollar will slow the US economy and then slowdown the world economy. Witness that the last reported trade deficit for the US was down even though forecasts were it would be up. The slow down has begun already.
Gwilym McGrew, Los Angeles, California / USA
Rank idiocy masquarading as financial sophistication and masked by the most crass and arcane gobbledegook invented to disguise how dumb the financial world has actually become. The bottom line: do you REALLY want your money back when you lend it to someone? Why don't you just give it away and stop pretending you'll get it back!
Chris Thomas, Oxford, England
What happened in the USA - Part 2. The banks really didn't care too much about whether the loans were properly underwritten or not...they simply sold most of the ones they did not want to keep in house. Wall Street ate this up by packaging these into large groups to be sold to investors and hedge funds & insurance companies. The rating agencies did not do a good job of correctly rating these grouped securities as is evidencd by sudden big drops in the ratings starting as early as December 2006. This started freaking out the stock market. The loans they sold these folks started to adjust upwards and they became behind in their payments. European bankers are musch ore conservative and most of these subprime loans would not have been made at all. But the real problem falls squarely at the feet of Greenspan, who after 9/11 flooded the market with low rates and liquidity (good) BUT LEFT IT WAY TO LIQUID TOO LONG. All this cheap capital tempted all the above to people who never should have.
Eric, Washington, USA
Here's what's been happening in the USA the last 4 years: People with poor credit scores (high risk to borrow to and not so good at paying bills, often even coming out of bankruptcy, were loaned money to buy a home. Real estate prices were moving steadily or even rapidly up in some markets. Investors saw rapidly rising markets and bought properties to flip. Both of these groups did not have much in anything to put down, but no problem, the banks and mortgage brokers were glad to sell them loans anyway as they are paid on commission. Many but not all of the lenders lowered their underwritng guidelines so they could compete and get the loan sale. The appraisers saw rapidly rising markets and appraised properties to fit the loans (if they are too conservative then the mortgage brokers do not refer customers to that appraiser and he goes out of business) The underwriters often took these loans without doing a good job of verifying income...just a stated amount will be fine... end Part 1
Eric, Washington, USA
Property is theft. Haha
ZAP, Londonein,
Almost aways, the rich get richer -- no matter up or down. But this time, a rare moment of great satisfaction to the hapless prols, only some of the rich will get richer -- for they all will have to savage each other to see who gets the surprisingly small remainder.
Rick, Orlando, USA
In Cyprus we say "the man who doesn't have the money to buy his bread is lucky because he is on a good diet". This is not the case in the USA and the UK; if you don't have the money to buy something you simply borrowed. Now the time has come to pay and your fat bulk can't move fast enough to adapt to the new conditions. Maybe the man on the "good diet" is more clever than you.
Costas Papadodulos, Nicosia, Republic of Cyprus
Risk is like a wild animal. The fact that you bring it home and cuddle it does not make it tame. This is what banks and investors should have known when they were pricing risk as if it had been outlawed. In fairness to the Bank of England it did warn the banks that they were living dangerously but everybody was enjoying the party too much to listen. There is nothing unusual about what is happening. It's just a simple case of Mr Risk making a collect call on the bankers.
anthony, london, England
As the Chinese appear to wish to diversify their holdings of T bonds and other dollar denominated assets into other assets they are unlikely to be buyers of US government debt. This suggests it will have to be made more attractive to other buyers. So how do you square the circle? Yields on T bonds need to go up to attract the buyers, but US interest rates need to come down to avert a credit crunch. Print dollars instead of issuing debt?
N Reed, Truro, UK
"The Bank Of England's remit is to control inflation. So why are we suddenly keen to feather bed banks who have lent money irresponsibly? Banks have earned fantastic returns in recent years. Let them live with their mistakes. The Bank should concern itself solely with inflation. " Go and watch 'Its a wonderful Life'. If the banks start to fail, as they might, then the financial system goes in to meltdown as in 1929 and the years following. The financial system depends on confidence, as it's all an illusion. I would love to see the scummy bankers and city whiz kids bakrupted and broken. But the scumbags would take us all down with them. "The Bank Of England's remit is to control inflation. " Thought it was look after the financial system as a whole.
Neil Murphy, cromer,
This has all come about because of poorly thought out types of transactions being put together simply to 'justify' paying massive bonuses. Result- nobody has a clue what losses are out there and who has them. Even big banks don't yet understand the possible scale of their own losses, because no-one knows the market value of the 'assets'. What a shambles- all to enrich a bunch of incompetents who clearly don't understand the businesses they run.
Doug, Glasgow,
The sub-prime debt is all secured with real properties with real buildings on them! The shady world of the yen carry market and similar inventions of the "smart money" men to cover their losses in crooked deals in the mid-east and China is a very different matter. These are the same people who bankrupted Barclays. Expect more bank collapses.
Paul Robbins, Alamosa, Colorado, USA
NRK has around Â£1Bn in cash, if it has to self-fund it's obligations (the Â£8Bn mentioned), how will it do this, or will it simply default on it obligations (perhaps even go bust)?
Andrew Price, London,
The Bank Of England's remit is to control inflation. So why are we suddenly keen to feather bed banks who have lent money irresponsibly? Banks have earned fantastic returns in recent years. Let them live with their mistakes. The Bank should concern itself solely with inflation.
David B, Larkhall, UK
So we pay bankers Â£1m+ a year each to lend billions of our money to people who can never possibly re-pay it, who don't bother to take a note of what they lent to whom, then when it all goes wrong and the economy slows, we lose jobs and homes while the bankers laugh all the way to...the bank. Global capitalism is a sick joke, but only the rich are laughing. When are we going to realise it isnt working?
julian, london,
Yippee! Roll the on the mother of all property crashed...
cww, Ipswich,
How do you ensure yourself against this Sue? Buy Gold.
Linus, Leamington,
To quote: "...In the short term, the credit crunch is forcing up the cost of borrowing and the Bank is concerned that this could spill over into the wider economy, making it difficult for businesses to raise long-term finance...." I don't understand this. The Learned Economist at the Times, David Smith and the Council of Mortgage Lenders both assure us that there is no Sub Prime problem and I am sure that they have a logical foundation for this. In the mean time why can businesses and the consumer not keep borrowing against their properties most of which are still 'worth' Â£200-500k for the moment? Prime Minister Brown Unelect can always put pressure on the BOE to allow the printing of the 'money' For me, I think I will invest in wheelbarrows....
Pete Balchin, Solicitor , Bristol, UK
Is it any wonder that financial ineptitude is apparent in the way a large proportion of the general public run their budgets. Here we have the "clever" money men running for cover in an extremely unstable market riddled with unsupported debt. Those same clever people have just spent ten years encouraging the public by every means possible to rack up as much debt as they, the banks, were prepared to support. Now there is a whole load of chickens coming home to roost I fear for Joe Public who will ultimately pay the price of others incompetence.
mike gee, bournemouth, uk
Typical media scare-mongering. Stock markets will shrug this of imminently, and by next spring will be 20% or more higher than now.
Mike M, Brookline, USA
Are you telling us that banks have loaned more money in total than there exists in total, so the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, and maybe the Bank of England, are simply inventing more cash from nowhere? They are just printing money and using it as if it has really been created by wealth makers when it doesn't really have value to back it up? This would mean a massive devaluation of every currency this is geing done to, Euros, and Dollars, and Pounds as well if the BoE is involved. We will be back to bartering for goods and services like they were in Siberia! What value my bank balance then? If this is true they are going to have us all in the same hole as Zimbabwe. What do these central banks do if not make sure the money they are regulating is of real value? Wages would be worthless, jobs not takeable. And to reality - what do I do to ensure myself against this?
Sue Doughty, Reading, UK
Here you! Banker. I have a large brown parcel which contains securitys worth Â£100million but they will be worth Â£200million in 6months.i,ll let you have them for Â£75million.Is the financial system that stupid?
colin, peterborough,
There are strong divergent views on the subject:while the IMF says that the subprime crisis will impact the US and the global economy in general, while the World Bank economist (Francois Bourguignon) said that" the US housing finance crisis will be resolved in a couple of months without much impact on the broader US economy...any effect on the subprime crisis on the expansion of the US economy would off-set by the faster-than expected growth in the first half of 2007... as a matter of fact,we aree not even modifying our forecasts". Bottom line: nobody knows really and that is positive.
Clement, Paris, Franc

Fall of a Mortgage banker ...Northern Rock...its not as hard a rock as it sound

2007-09-17T15:43:00.000+08:00

Angry savers force Northern Rock to be soldBy Iain Dey and Patrick Hennessy
Last Updated: 12:37am BST 16/09/2007
Northern Rock, the crisis-hit bank under siege from thousands of its customers, was preparing itself last night for a sell-off, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.Northern Rock is besieged by worried savers The battle to save Northern Rock Small businesses under threat
One plan being worked on by City bankers was to divide the company's £100 billion mortgage portfolio between the other major banks, in what would amount to a private-sector rescue of the lender.

Worried customers besiege Northern Rock's Kingston branch
In scenes not experienced for decades, police were needed to keep the peace at branches across the country as increasingly angry and desperate investors rushed to withdraw their funds.
However, despite many queuing from before dawn, scores were sent away empty-handed when cashiers ran out of time to serve them.
The Northern Rock crisis sparked a wider political row as David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader, pinned the blame on Gordon Brown. Mr Cameron accused the Prime Minister of presiding over a "huge expansion of public and private debt" during his decade as Chancellor.
Writing for The Sunday Telegraph, the Conservative leader declared: "Though the current crisis may have had its trigger in the US, over the past decade the gun has been loaded at home."
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Personal debt had trebled under Labour to £1.3 billion, Mr Cameron added, as he called on ministers to explain the "chain of events" that led up to the Bank of England's decision last week to prop up Northern Rock.
The bank siege became a virtual stampede, despite repeated assurances by Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, that the lender remained solvent.
However, sources close to the company said that if customers continued to draw their deposits at the same alarming rate, Northern Rock would be forced to break up.
Government and Bank of England officials are understood to be preparing a public statement designed to reassure millions of customers across the banking sector that their savings were safe. Both are anxious to secure a "quick fix" of Northern Rock's woes before the crisis spreads.
One plan under discussion in Whitehall is a co-ordinated rescue of Northern Rock involving other banks and the Bank of England.
"If the run on deposits looks out of control, Northern Rock would effectively be nationalised and put into administration so it could be wound down," said an official.
A source close to Northern Rock said: "Things look really ugly. If the share price falls heavily on Monday, then a fast break-up and sale of the assets looks inevitable."
On Friday, following 10 days of discussions involving the Chancellor, Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, and Sir Callum McCarthy, the chairman of the Financial Services Authority, the Bank of England offered Northern Rock an emergency credit line.
The reputation of Mr King, the Bank of England's highly respected governor, has taken a battering over his handling of the crisis involving the country's fifth-largest mortgage lender.
"Mervyn was being too clever," said one of his officials. "If he had sounded a little less tough, banks might still be lending to each other."
A Whitehall source said: "The governor has handled this badly. He urgently needs to reassure savers."

Northern Rock's near collapse is the latest symptom of the squeeze in world financial markets, which began in the United States late last year when overstretched homeowners began to default on their mortgage payments.
The credit squeeze has made it difficult for Northern Rock to raise money to fund its business.
Although the Bank of England's deal ensures that Northern Rock has more than enough money to honour all of its commitments to savers and mortgage customers, its longer-term future remains in doubt.
"Queues outside our branches are not pretty viewing on TV," admitted Adam Applegarth, Northern Rock's chief executive. "Has our brand been damaged today? Well, of course it has."
He added: "It will be a long slog as an independent company to rebuild that. Our share price has come off 30 per cent. You have got to be more vulnerable [to a sale] if your share price has come down. It's up to the bidders to make a bid."
With frantic manoeuvring continuing in Whitehall and the City, police were called on to calm "boisterous" customers in numerous branches, including Sheffield, Manchester, Glasgow and London.
At least £1 billion was withdrawn from the bank by worried savers on Friday - four per cent of the bank's deposits. Branch staff said they were even busier yesterday.
It is understood that attempts by the Bank of England to find a single buyer for Northern Rock have failed. Instead, it is more likely to be sold off piece-by-piece with possible buyers including HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank of Scotland.
Merrill Lynch, the investment bank, is expected to oversee the auction, which could begin as early as next week.

See Saw.......what a recovery

2007-08-17T16:05:00.000+08:00

Today saw the worst drop ever in one day from BURSA. Dropping 60pts in the early trading hours. Losers outweight the gainers wow.

And also the BEST recovery in one day. Most stocks recovery to a certain percentage where the killing is most sustainable.

BURSA is trying to make a history.

Fruta Vida........power of matrix super explosive

2007-08-02T21:46:00.000+08:00

dAMN .......just after one day I sign up. I have a spillover from my uplines into my matrix. I was notified in my email. Why is this not a surprise!!!

This is what happenned when you come into the right network and an explosive one too.

check out !!!!!

http://www.frutavida.com/2295471

Favelle Favco

2007-08-02T18:04:00.000+08:00

Favco more projects coming. Destine for more jobs unveiled under the 9MP.

I got mine @rm2.00

Fruta Vida........power of matrix super explosive

2007-08-01T17:17:00.000+08:00

I have just signed up for this business. Looking at the compensation plan it seems very easy to do and the return is fast.

Its only USD39.95 to sign up. Theimmediate return after u register 2 new friends into the business we get USD20 each. ROI is after 2 members sign up.

The exponential income will come in as the group grows.

I am giving it a try. If any of you guys find it interesting please do not hesitate to email me.

Or check out http://www.frutavida.com/2295471

Property Boom in Penang.

2007-07-24T14:28:00.000+08:00

I suspect a property boom is coming. My banker told me almost all the Penang developers are holding back the launching of new projects.

Nautilus Bay, by IJM, completed but not for sale yet. A call to Mr Teh KM, IJMPROP MD, he said they are accepting registration only and not bookings. They are not even revealing the price.

According to my dad, this scenario is the same as the last property boom.

Wait for what, BUY property counters.

CBOX up and running

2007-07-24T14:25:00.000+08:00

Some of my stock followers are requesting for me to put up CBOX.

So now i have put it up. If tak laku i will tak it down again.

Serving the community

2007-07-22T19:56:00.000+08:00

This month is always the busiest. I am the organizing chairman for a few ADUN(Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri) for their KSK(Kelab Sukan Komuniti). In some of their activities they have to run before the end of the month. This is really running me up the wall.

And what a timing it was, I have sign-up for a Network Marketing Business, TIME MANAGMENT really screw up this time.

Family, business, community and network marketing phewwww

Been so busy for the last 2 weeks

2007-07-14T14:34:00.000+08:00

Nuts and bonkers i went.

Things just cannot get done on time. The process flow is slow and giving problems all the time.
Slowing down things even further.

Dont you guys go crazy when things just cannot get done on time and the worst part is like the bolts and nuts is just not there.

Driving you up the wall all the time.

Bursa update

2007-07-13T13:18:00.000+08:00

SCOMI is now back up >1.75 my cost price.

Looking at Viztel now@0.32

Some news will come out.

Guoco will make another move soon.

MKland is a new target to look at@1.05

Penang CM's post remains in Gerakan

2007-06-30T14:43:00.000+08:00

Today in TheStar newspaper, for the first time our dear PM spoke out and I really respect him more after reading it.

Penang's Chief Minister's post will not fall into UMNO'S reign. Its an agreement or contract he has to maintain or fulfill to the people of Penang. Our local state goverment have been under Gerakan Party for some, dunno how many god damn years, but its still refreshing to hear that it will be maintained a Gerakan post.

I dunno why, but i just feel a bit more relief after reading it in the local news and much better the statement came from our PM himself.

Durian The King of Fruits....by credit card.

2007-06-26T17:52:00.000+08:00

I was driving back from work yesterday evening and i came across this durian stall with the banner saying Mastercard/Visa.

By the way, i loss my voice for having too much durians.

Walann......even durian sellers are getting more aggrasive now. This durian stall will accept credit card payment for durians purchased above RM40.00.

But if i were them i take cash loh.

Nothing beats the cold hard cash on hand man.

SCOMI @1.75

2007-06-23T12:53:00.000+08:00

Took some position in SCOMI @ 1.75.

Would see it scale up >RM2.00 short term.

Punters take it. Surely >RM2.00 short term.

Little Giant Killer......Aedes

2007-06-23T12:42:00.000+08:00

Look at the size of this little creature. Never in my 31years on planet Earth have I met with such a big aedes. I have killed many with my bare hands. But, this one is just incredibly big and look at the long legs.

My wife took this one out with one of her magazine. Lucky thing she killed it otherwise, wonder which one of us in the house would be down with Denggi Fever.

I am still keeping it in a palstic container. Showing it to everyone that came to my house.

I am gonna send it to MPPP(Local Council) or Majlis Kesihatan. Least they could do, is to send some one to fog the place.

Adsense Team Fast Reply & Helpful

2007-06-20T22:07:00.000+08:00

Very recently i wanted to change the color of the fonts and add more Adsense adds on my blog. I could not do it via blogger. It was due to an email that came the very first time from Adsense enquiring whether or not I continue to allow blogger.com to manage my adsense account.

I denied access to allow blogger.com and from then onwards I could not add or change any of my Adsense that was posted. I could not change the font colors nor place more Adsense.

I email the Adsense support team about my problem and can you believe it they replied within hours. Man, this is a company that handles millions of adsense accounts.

And the best part is, I found the way to reinstall or to allow blogger.com to manage my Adsense account.

I just have to login to my Adssense account and from there I can click to allow blogger access to manage Adsense on my blog.

Darn me. Easy peasy settled.

Any of you guys out there have this problem? Please do let me know. I can guide you.

Speak of the Devil.....Guocoland

2007-06-19T13:46:00.000+08:00

Today Guoco added 0.17sen holding on strong till the end of the morning session.

It surprises me, did not expect it to move so fast.

Quick bucks.

Stock market today.......BURSA MALAYSIA

2007-06-18T22:52:00.000+08:00

Tale a look at GUOCOLAND@2.8+-.

Foreign investors are picking it up.

One of the strongholds of HongLeongGroup.

Unlucky Kampung......Tanjung Tokong

2007-06-17T22:27:00.000+08:00

Kampung Tanjung Tokong have been hit again. This time a fiery fire swipe 11 wooden houses leaving 150 families homeless.

This kampung was struck by Tsunami not long ago. If i can still recall the road fronting house was swipe by Tsunami not long go and now few years after they have rebuilt their houses this fire struck.

The fire broke out at around noon causing massive traffice jams. The whole stretch of Jalan Tanjung Tokong was on a slow crawl.

Affecting also the Vale of Temp Road to a 20 minutes jam.

This lead me to believe that this kampung is really unlucky.

Bad fengshui maybe?

Real Madrid or Barcelona or Sevilla

2007-06-16T09:12:00.000+08:00

This weekend we'll know who will take the Laliga.

My wager's on Real Madrid.

Any of you guys think otherwise?

New office environment

2007-06-16T08:57:00.001+08:00

Arggghhh.......too many things to do. Especially with my three new staff. Trainning, job function, product knowledge hahhhhh the usuals.

Miss out on so many things to write. Wonder if I can still recall those interesting things i wanted to write about.

I wrote something on 'Employees market' because i was so frustated at those interviewees now I have to swallow it up. Erghhh i guess not...........that is the reality nowadays so i'll stick to that. Just that, now i finally found the right people.

What a relief, the office is back to its usual function. My only headache is i do not have enough sittings for the new load of people.

Haha.....thats the result of bad planning? I leave it to you guys to ponder. Just that over the candidates that came in for the interviews. I found the people i wanted to work with. You know...you just feel it "yup this is the guy i want" sort of feeling. So i just took them in and now not enough table and chairs.

Trying to revamp my bizness site

2007-06-12T14:19:00.000+08:00

Been trying to revamp my bizness website for quite sometime liaoo. Hopefully this time i can get it right.

I am getting some help from Dragonhead of http://www.project010.net and most probably will move my hosting to http://www.exabytes.com.

Thanks, Dragonhead for poping by my office.

And for those who have not registered for the Nuffnang do in Foodloft, Gurney Plaza this coming 23rd June. Please contact http://www.nuffnang.com or www.project010.net for further details.

See you guys there.

Hattrick for NADAL, French Open '07

2007-06-11T13:35:00.000+08:00

Haha.....Federer just cannot take on Nadal on the clay. This prove that Nadal is much fitter player. At 21, more to come from this Champ. The power and speed of the game is really crazy when this two players meet.

Haha.......Old Glory

2007-06-09T14:06:00.000+08:00

I was waiting for some customers to come make payment late one day in the office. Browsing thru the internet, i got to a point to Google myself. Yes, to Google search my own self. Guess what........

International Badminton Federation 26-FEB-97
Mens Singles Ranking
Ranking Date 25-FEB-97
(Reformatted and reissued by NEW SHUTTLENWS)

Pos Id Surname First Name Ctry Comps Points
1 207 HOYER-LARSEN Poul-Erik DEN 14 285.31
2 511 SIDEK Rashid MAS 9 280.67
3 541 SUPRIANTO Joko INA 7 274.65
4 4971 SUN Jun CHN 9 269.48
5 3268 WIJAYA Indra INA 9 265.70
6 437 PERMADI Fung TPE 10 263.98
7 3150 ONG Ewe Hock MAS 10 261.87
8 1333 STUER-LAURIDSEN Thomas DEN 12 258.33
9 4367 SANTOSO Budi INA 9 235.53
10 6926 GADE CHRISTENSEN Peter DEN 10 233.15

219 2033 LEWIS Geraint WAL 3 16.49
220 8393 CHIEN Yu-Shiu TPE 2 16.44
221 10325 FELIX Ooi MAS 5 16.40
222 6907 HARIONO Guntur INA 2 16.31
223 4091 WAPP Stephan SUI 4 16.15

I found my old IBF ranking list.

As you can see, Feb,97 my ranking was 221.

If I m not mistaken my higest WORLD IBF ranking was No 76.

Just before both my knee caps dislocated.

GOLD RUSH

2007-06-08T11:12:00.001+08:00

Gold may touch $1000: JP Morgan

Bloomberg / Mumbai June 08, 2007

Gold may rise to more than $1,000 an ounce as demand from India, China and exchange traded funds increases and production of precious metal falls, according to JP Morgan Chase & Co., the third-largest US bank.

Gold, which has risen 5.2 per cent this year, may reach $850 an ounce in the “medium term,’’ on the way to $1,000, analysts from JP Morgan led by John Bridges said in the report dated June 6. They didn’t specify what the medium term was.

Gold-mining companies reduced output to a 10-year low of 2,471 metric tons in 2006, according to London-based researcher GFMS Ltd. Demand for gold from India, the world’s largest buyer, rose 50 percent in the first quarter of 2007 while demand in China gained 31 percent, according to the World Gold Council.

“We would continue accumulating gold and silver positions looking to higher prices by year-end,’’ the analysts said. “A four-figure gold price looks quite feasible to us given the tight supply demand situation in the gold market.’’

Gold for immediate delivery fell as much as $1.30, or 0.2 percent, to $669.45 an ounce and traded at $670 at 11:56 am Sydney time. Silver for immediate delivery fell 1 cent to $13.69 an ounce.

Demand from this year’s Indian wedding season, the Chinese year of the ‘Golden Pig,’ and purchases by exchange traded funds may boost prices, the analysts led by Bridges said in the report.

2007-06-07T23:06:00.000+08:00

The Orient's Voice

HP OFFICEJETPRO L7580

2007-06-07T14:36:00.000+08:00

Latest release from Hewlett Packard.

Suitable for SOHO 4-in-1 print,scan,fax,copy.

Fastest inkjet printer 33ppm.

I m giving this out for RM 1100.00.

Brand new.

Market price rm1299.00.

Anyone interested please email me at felixooi@gmail.com.

This is not an auction. This is a one time offer price.

Free delivery Peninsular Malaysia only.

Blogging is HOT!!!!!!!in Malaysia and around the world

2007-06-06T00:28:00.000+08:00

Blogging is really turning into a trend now. You can see from the newspapers more and more webhosting companies are advertising their hosting plan with promos now. From blogging i can see the new internet era is coming back.

I'll be thinking of upgrading my business website to a more dynamic one. Now i am using a static website hosted by YEAHHOST. Check out http://www.recycsys.com its not really complete yet, but u guys will know what my other businesses are.

I will most likely switch my hosting to EXABYTES soon.

If blogging can really churn in a second income i foresee more and more SOHO will pop up.
I intend to promote more SOHO products in my blog soon.

Look out for more SOHO promos coming soon from HP, CANON, BROTHERS, OKI, SAMSUNG...etc

Employees Market

2007-06-04T21:03:00.000+08:00

I have two post to fill in my office. We ran an ad for interviews today and tomorrow. More than 20 enquiries via phone. Can you imagine, these prospects actually interview me instead on the phone. Asking me "what do you do?, what is the working hour?, how much are you offering?".

I mean, they should come for the interview to know the company better rather than just asking me via the phone. Waited whole day, none turn up.

What have the market turned into?

Its called "The Employees Market"

They play the rule, they play the game.............heck some even have 3 jobs at one time.

Mr Trump said "You're FIRED!"

Money is a problem...money is a problem not!

2007-06-04T13:32:00.000+08:00

Show me the MONEYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Money, money, money everywhere you go you here money. Why is money giving so much headache or even heartache in our daily life.

Huh.....without it we are non-existance.

So where to get fast or easy money!!!!!Credit cards are easily available, Small credit loans, Loansharks. Nowadays people tend to spend more than they earned.

Money do not fall from the sky. I know just type 'MONEY' on GOOGLE SEARCH and you get long list of sites relating to money. Out of that long list, which is real, which is SCAM. Becareful not to fall into the trap of online scammers, Get Rich Quick Schemes or even a product that requires several purchases to complete the total plan/solution.

Word of advise.......YOU yes YOU make what you are worth.

Massive traffic.....kings birthday....Daulat Tuanku

2007-06-03T14:12:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was a very busy day on the road. Most of the time wasted waiting in long ques. It was a school holiday, weekend and a public holiday. All add together we get a massive traffic problem on the Penang Island.

My wifey and I were on our way to Queensbay Mall from Tanjung Bungah. Our fisrt encounter with heavy traffic was at Island Plaza junction. The next problem come as we arrived near Gurney Drive. Took us 20mins to get out of the traffic.

As we were approaching Queensbay, lots and lots of cars coming from the Penang Bridge heading towards the Airport direction. I told my wife "Not againnnnnn!!!!" but we were lucky to get a parking space as soon as we arrived.

Mannn.....after all the car traffic problem. Now we got a human traffic problem. I just could not believe it. The crowd is just crazy.

After 3 hours of shopping, we are on our journey back, traffic was so smooth as it was already dinner time. Traffic on the opposite direction heading toward town along Mount Erskine was bad. So, we decided to head for Batu Feringhi for dinner. Traffic again was smooth. Not till when we call it a day, the cars heading towards Batu Feringhi is just crazy.

We were just lucky to be on the opposite flow of the massive jam. People head to town for dinner, we head to Batu Feringhi, as we left Batu Feringhi on our way home the traffic is heading towards Batu Feringhi.

Pheeewwwwww!!!!!!!!

Hot Head Drivers.

2007-06-01T00:46:00.000+08:00

I was in a car driven by my friend this afternoon heading for lunch. As we were coming out from a junction, the traffic was heavy, my friend squeezed his way out of the junction and the on coming car were coming non-stop that time.

He was so furious at this particular car that did not give way for us to come out. He chased that car, which i can see the driver and may be his wife and a little kid, chasing in a crazy manner as we got close, boy, I tell you really close almost touch the back of the car. In the end, that driver was smart enough to avoid further confrontation, he droved into a bank, i can tell you, it is to avoid us.

I was so embarassed by his action that i took up my handphone pretending to shy my face away from nearby vehicles. It came as a surprise to me, i never expect him to react in such a manner.

Moral of the story is...........a person can be very polite and soft spoken when they talk but if we step on its tail wowwwwww. NEVER JUDGE A PERSON BY ITS COVER.

Warren Buffet....and his LIFE

2007-05-30T22:54:00.000+08:00

A very meaningful summary from Warren Buffet interview

There was a one hour interview on CNBC with Warren Buffet, the second richest man who has donated $31 billion to charity. Here are some very interesting aspects of his life:
1. He bought his first share at age 11 and he now regrets that he started too late!
2. He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from deliveringnewspapers.
3. He still lives in the same small 3-bedroom house in mid-town Omaha , that he bought after he got married 50 years ago. He says that he has everything he needs in that house. His house does not have a wall or afence.
4. He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or securitypeople around him. 5. He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world's largestprivate jet company.
6. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He writes only one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies, giving them goals> for the year. He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular basis. He has given his CEO's only two rules. Rule number 1: do not lose any of your share holder's money. Rule number 2: Do not forget rule number 1.
7. He does not socialize with the high society crowd. His past time after he gets home is to make himself some pop corn and watch Television.
8. Bill Gates, the world's richest man met him for the first time only 5years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with WarrenBuffet. So he had scheduled his meeting only for half hour. But when Gates met him, the meeting lasted for ten hours and Bill Gates became a devotee of
Warren Buffet.
9. Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, nor has a computer on his desk.
His advice to young people "Stay away from credit cards and invest in yourself Remember:
A. Money doesn't create man but it is the man who created money.
B. Live your life as simple as you are.
C. Don't do what others say, just listen them, but do what you feel good.
D. Don't go on brand name; just wear those things in which u feel comfortable.
E. Don't waste your money on unnecessary things; just spend on them who really in need rather.
F. After all it's your life then why give chance to others to rule ourlife.

Blogging for big bucks article in the local daily.

2007-05-29T15:11:00.000+08:00

I thought i share with everyone.

Blogging and big bucks
By CHRISTY LEE S.W.
The appearance of blog-advertising agencies is giving Malaysian bloggers a chance to cash in through online advertising. Bloggers share their thoughts on this new development.
According to a March survey on advertising expenditure by media services group ZenithOptimedia, Internet ad spending (adspend) is predicted to grow at 28.2% this year, seven times more than the rest of the market at 3.7%.
Advertising agencies are expected to spend about US$445bil (RM1.56 trillion) this year and about US$495bil (RM1.73 trillion) in 2009.
In the same timeframe, Internet adspend would grow from 7% to 8.7%, while newspaper adspend will drop from 28.3% to 27%, the report said.

NEW VENTURE: Tiah (right) and Cheo, founders of Nuffnang, a local company that puts up advertisements on homegrown blogs.With more people turning to the Internet for all sorts of information, news and services, it is no big surprise that advertisers are also eyeing the online space.
Typically, businesses place ads on professionally-developed content websites with high traffic, such as news portals.
Nowadays, advertisers are also keen to tap into a previously unexplored domain of self-published content sites – blogs.
Though blogs may attract a lot less web traffic than an online news portal but as long as there are viewers for blogs, it becomes a valid medium for advertising.
For bloggers, putting up ads on their blogs would seem like a nifty way to earn some pocket money through user-created content.
A new way to advertise
Timothy Tiah Ewe Tiam, 24, is one of the bloggers who thought he could earn some money through blogging during his varsity years in Britain.
When he and a friend ran a humour-themed blog several years ago, it became quite popular, and they used the advertising system AdSense by Google.
"Our earnings were low and Google made you wait till your account generated US$100 (RM350) before you could start cashing out. We waited forever to get anything out of it," Tiah said.
"So much for wanting to make a fortune from online advertisements," he mused.
When Tiah graduated, he teamed up with Cheo Ming Shen, to set up Nuffnang Sdn Bhd (www.nuffnang.com.my) – a blog-advertising community, the first of its kind in Malaysia.
If you're wondering why it's called Nuffnang; the name comes from a quirky combination of two slang words (spoken in inner city London) meaning "real good" or "real cool", according to Tiah.
Basically, Nuffnang enables local businesses to put up advertisements on homegrown blogs, and for bloggers to make some money off ads from their self-published sites.
"We saw that there was no system here that enables local companies to reach out to the blogging community – advertising on traditional media is very costly and the cheaper method of passing flyers is not effective," said Tiah.
Another advantage of blog-advertising is that it has a more specific audience which advertisers can target for more effective promotions of products, said Josh Lim, director of Josh Lim and Associates.

THE COMPETITOR: Lim (second from left) together with the Advertlets.com team. Wong (first from left) is the owner of the kinkybluefairy blog. Lim’s company deals with blog-advertising and is the direct competitor of Nuffnang.A month after Nuffnang's opening in February this year, Lim's company set up a similar community called Advertlets (www.advertlets.com) – a play on the words advertising and alerts.
"There's no point paying a lot to put up an online banner ad on a major website when it is not relevant to half its visitors," Lim said.
"Knowing that each blog has its own demographic allows advertisers to put up more relevant ads," he said.
Both sites generally offer a similar type of service and features. Both systems also work almost the same way.
Being in direct competition with each other, these two agencies have been diligently improving their offerings to best each other – much to the benefit of our local blogosphere.
While talking to members of the local blogosphere, In.Tech also discovered that bloggers have their own favourites.
At press time, Nuffnang reports to have over 20 million ad impressions monthly (every time an ad loads on a blog) while Advertlets currently has close to three million.
How it works
Basically, bloggers who sign up are asked to provide some initial data through a survey, which the blog-advertising system will analyse to create a profile of the blog.
Tiah believes that asking a blogger himself is an accurate way of finding out what his blog is about and who its visitors are.
"Bloggers know their readers best, and we believe they will tell the truth," he said.
However, these blogs must first have a certain average of unique visitors a day.
For Nuffnang, a blog needs to have at least 20 unique visitors per day, while Advertlets requires 50.
If a blog is deemed ripe for advertising, it will be put on the waiting list for advertisers.
A potential advertiser will then specify its budget and target demographics, while the blog-advertising system looks up blogs that match the advertiser's requirements.
Once the agencies get a nod of approval from both advertiser and blogger, an ad campaign would be created and the ad would appear in selected blogs.
Blogs would be grouped into different "bands" depending on the average number of unique visitors it had received a week ago, said Tiah of Nuffang's system.

BE SPECIFIC: A specific blog that has high traffic of above 4,000 unique visitors a day can net the owner RM5,000 to RM10,000 a month, says Davies."The higher the blog is on the band, the more money it can earn per ad campaign," he said.
Once a blogger has generated at least RM100 in earnings, he will be given the option to cash out.
A cheque would automatically be generated and delivered to the blogger, said Tiah.
Tiah said that in future, Nuffnang would be introducing more advertising models, such as pay-per-click and cost-per-action. Lim said Advertlets would also do the same.
When asked by In.Tech, both Nuffnang and Advertlets refused to disclose how their systems would actually calculate these earnings.
Joyce Wong, 24, owner of the blog titled "kinkybluefairy" (www.xanga.com/kinkybluefairy), modestly admitted that her blog earnings are slightly above RM1,000 – from running two ad campaigns by Advertlets in a month.
Her blog receives an average of 2,500 unique visitors a day, she said. "Seeing that this type of blog-advertising is still new here, it is more than I expected," Wong said.
Lillian Chan, who owns www.5xmom.com, wrote on her site that she earns three-digit figures per week from running Nuffnang ads on one of her personal blogs, which receives almost 3,000 unique visitors a day.
Gareth Davies, 29, who owns ShaolinTiger – Kung-Fu Geekery (www.shaolintiger.com), said his blog recorded around RM300 earnings this month from running Nuffnang ads.
He said his blog had an average of 800 unique visitors a day in that month.
Big bucks in niche blogs
One would think that a blog like Screenshots (www.jeffooi.com), one of the most visited sites in Malaysia, would be raking in thousands of ringgit a month from its ads.
However, its owner, Jeff Ooi told In.Tech that the Google ads on his blog only brings in about US$150-US$200 (RM525-RM700) a month, which is mostly used to pay off its webhosting fees.
Ooi uses AdSense, a contextual advertising system by Google.
Though Google AdSense is commonly used by bloggers, it is not suitable for every type of blog, according to Gareth Davies.
AdSense works by analysing what a site or blog is about and automatically generates contextually relevant ads from a database of advertisers.
The system would then calculate earnings based on several advertising models, including:
If a site or blog contains various subjects from travel to technology, the ads generated would be less relevant compared to a blog that talks about one subject in particular, Davies said.
"Only bloggers who write about very specific topics can use AdSense because the ads generated would be consistent and relevant to the content," Davies said.
Relevant ads means visitors would be more likely to click on them, which generates money for the blogger through the pay-per-click model.
"A specific blog that has high traffic (above 4,000 unique visitors a day) can net the owner about RM5,000 to RM10,000 or more a month," Davies said.
On the contrary, non-specific blogs – even if they have high traffic – would not benefit from the system.
A "general" blog with a fairly decent amount of traffic (around 1,000-2,000 unique views per day) would only generate earnings of around US$30-US$40 (RM105-RM140) a month, Davies said.
Fortunately, the new advertising model by agencies like Nuffnang and Advertlets is excellent for these type of blogs, which make up most of the blogosphere here, said Davies.
"Also, the ads are very localised, so Malaysian visitors would likely click on it as it is relevant to them," said Davies.
According to an online survey conducted by Microsoft MSN in November last year, 74% of Malaysian bloggers said they have no particular agenda for writing their blogs.
However, the big money is still in blogs that talk about specific subjects.
"Some of these bloggers who blog for a living own five or six blogs on different subjects – with each bringing in about several thousand a month, they can earn a cumulative of RM20,000 to RM30,000 monthly," Davies said.
In addition, full-time bloggers could also get paid for sponsored reviews. By signing up their blogs on ReviewMe.com (www.reviewme.com), advertisers could hire them to write reviews for a price, Davies said.
Another way these bloggers earn their keep is through TextLinkAds (www.text-link-ads.com), where bloggers sell the space in their blog posts for advertisers to put up their text links.
For the sake of money
Owner of the Fird's Domain blog, (http://fird.kucing-kelabu.com) who only wants to be known as Fird, says he has sometimes thinks about becoming a full-time blogger, because of how lucrative it has become.
He thinks blog-advertising is a double-edged sword.
"Sometimes I find that those bloggers who earn money from advertising tend to overdo it," said the 25-year-old technical support staff who works for a multinational company. "You can see that some of them focus so much on advertising efficiency that they clutter their blogs with affiliate links and ads everywhere – in the end it becomes almost impossible to read the actual content," he said.
And then there is the problem of splogs, or spam blogs, which are artificial sites created just to promote other websites.
Sometimes, creators of these splogs even copy content from other sites to be republished as their own posts.
"Most people won't complain if you make money from your own blog, so as long as you don't annoy other bloggers by advertising your blogs on their personal sites," Davies said.
Wong (of kinkybluefairy) agrees.
"Blogging for money is fine, it's just like publishing content in a magazine which you can sell,"
"When it comes to blogging, people can see whether you are writing sincerely or just doing it for the sake of money," she said.
Wong believes if a blog does not have good content, it will eventually lose its viewers anyway.
"However, even if a blog is bad, if it has posts containing keywords it will still show up in search engines," Fird said.
"People will go to the site and it will still get hits in the end," he added.
To blog or not to blog
According to Davies, who holds a day job in IT security, online advertising is still not very mature in Malaysia – and blog-advertising is only a small part of it currently.
"Online advertising is already big in North America, but it is still very new in Malaysia as we have yet to cultivate a habit of purchasing products online," said Ooi (of Screenshots), who works as an Internet and e-business consultant.
"There is almost a complete lack of e-commerce here," Davies added. He said that during his time in Britain, he did almost all of his shopping online, except for when he was buying clothes.
Davies added that it also does not help that Malaysia is blacklisted in certain countries as a hub for credit card fraud.
"It is a cultural thing in Asia, where people need to see and touch a product before they purchase it," said Ooi.
For now, Ooi believes that advertising will still mostly be led by the mainstream media, such as newspapers.
"Print media will still be in command and that would be followed by electronic media, while online advertising has a huge curb to climb, particularly in Malaysia," he said.
"Most local advertising agencies have not really understood the dynamics of online advertising," Ooi said. Davies agrees.
"Global companies such as Sony, LG and Intel already know the value and have started to invest in online and blog-advertising, but the local companies are still generally set with print ads," Davies said.
Perhaps this is also because, unlike traditional media, there are no reliable ways to measure the effectiveness of an ad campaigns in blogs or to even verify if a blog has as much traffic as it claims, Ooi said.
"Businesses confidently advertise in traditional media because there are reliable statistics that calculate the cost and effectiveness of it, which blogs currently do not have,"
Ooi believes the situation would improve when the Audit Bureau of Circulations Malaysia launches an audit process for websites at the end of the year, which it announced during its "Lie Detector" campaign in March 8.
However, he believes that in Malaysia, traditional print media will still command the majority of advertising budgets.
In the ZenithOptimedia survey mentioned earlier, even though Internet adspend is growing at a fast rate globally, television, newspapers and magazines will still make up the largest piece of the pie for several years to come.
For the next five years at least, Ooi does not expect that blog-advertising in Malaysia would take off in a really massive way.
"Bloggers could probably earn some decent pocket money from it, but it might not pay the bills well enough for them to quit their day job," he said.
Despite this, Ooi said he would still give local blog-advertising agency Nuffnang a try and even put up one of their ads on his blog.
"They're the aggregators of online advertisement, and I'd like to support the industry so that it may grow," Ooi said.

Vincent Chow's blog.....Paypal and VMI card

2007-05-27T02:41:00.000+08:00

After finishing my article on Paypal. I came across Vincent Chow's blog. There happened to have an article on Paypal having a payment glitch to Malaysians account.

There are also alternatives ways to withdraw from Paypal. VMI card or Virtual Money Card to withdraw money from atm machines. But i believed there will be some charges or fees on it.

pAYpaL..........

2007-05-26T23:29:00.000+08:00

Malaysia where I am right now do not have any facility to withdraw FUNDS from Paypal. I'd read about how some Malaysians go about to get the FUNDS back into cold hard cash. It seems very troublesome. One of the way is to get a good friend in Singapore to open an account with Maybank. What we can do is to transfer the amount to paypal under your friend's name and ask him/her to transfer it via Maybank to your account back in Malaysia.

I mean, how many of us have friends in Singapore not to think whether they are trustworthy or not. Pheew.......

I am waiting for a friend of mine to come back from overseas. He's a GURU/SIFU in HYIP. I believe he's got a plan.

There's an article in the local newspaper today about Banks clearing cheques in half day rather than the 3 working days period. Local and outstation as well. That is a new development. I used to received US cheques and it takes 6 weeks to clear with high commission too.

I want to get this all right before I am ready to go deeply into blogging for money or monetize my blog. Some bloggers do make some crazy income from just blogging or rather internet marketing.

I have activated my GOOGLE ADSENSE account on my blog. Hope to see some result from it.

Cant wait for PAYPAL to allow us Malaysians to cash out from our own local banks$$$$.

FLASH POSTING

2007-05-24T17:55:00.000+08:00

AC MILAN 2-1 LIVERPOOL