Casino levies boost Tote Board’s surplus
By Angela Lim – February 11th, 2011

The Singapore Tote Board will be giving away S$625 million to beneficiaries. (Yahoo! photo)

It seems gamblers in Singapore have left their old favourites behind for the latest game in town.

Toto, 4D and horse-racing have seen a drop in takings since the opening of the two integrated resorts (IRs) in February and April last year.

Takings from the Singapore Turf Club were the hardest hit, suffering a 30 per cent drop while Singapore Pools’ takings dipped by 3 to 5 per cent, according to the chairman of the Singapore Totalisator Board (Tote Board), Bobby Chin.

And yet, this has not stopped the Tote Board from doubling its financial commitment to charities.

Its collections from casino levies more than made up for the shortfall, prompting it to announce on Thursday that it will be giving away S$625 million, according to a Straits Times report.

Two of the Tote Board’s major beneficiaries — the Tote Board Community Healthcare Fund and the Community Chest – received S$100 million and S$50 million respectively. The cheque presentation ceremony was held at the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) auditorium on Thursday.

“We have been affected in some ways by the casinos, but nevertheless, because the Government has directed the levy to the Tote Board, it means additional quantum and additional ability and capability to help fund-worthy projects,” Mr Chin said.

Collections from casino levies made up around S$140 million of the Tote Board’s gaming surpluses between April and December last year. This amount is expected to rise at the end of the financial year 2010 in March 31.

The entry levy is what Singapore citizens and permanent residents have to pay to enter the two casinos — S$100 a day or S$2,000 a year.

Ministers of Parliament (MPs) and industry watchers have since raised concerns about the effectiveness of the current levy and are proposing a review of current casino levies.

Before the casinos opened, the Tote Board made about S$500 million on average in annual gambling surpluses. The surplus was used to fund community projects.

But industry experts say the drop in forms of gambling like horse betting, 4D and lotteries was not unexpected.

Dr Derek Chua, author of Singapore Places Its Bets, a book about the two IRs and their economic and social impact, said,”I’ve always said that it’s a zero-sum game. The casinos will inevitably affect and cannibalise some other forms of gambling.”

He added that, in comparison to games like 4D and Toto, casino table games offer gamblers better odds.

“Some casino table games offer better odds. This explains why a proportion of people have migrated from the turf club to the table games at the two IRs,” Dr da Cunha explained.

Mr Carey Wong, an analyst with OCBC Investment Research, said, “The integrated resorts are meant for foreigners — and the Government has said so many times — but the numbers show that Singaporeans have been going to the casinos.”

Although the surplus last year was boosted by the casino levies, Mr Chin said it is too early to tell if the trend will continue.

“We hope to maintain the same level of commitment, but you have to assess the quantum at a steady state. The initial six months to a year, there is a novelty effect. It is not reflective of what is going to happen in the future,” he said.

NCSS, which will receive an undisclosed sum from Community Chest’s S$50 million kitty, plans to increase the number of family service centres (FSC) from 37 to 42 by 2015, and improving the human aspects of the FSCs to provide the same standard of service across its centres.

The organisation’s chief executive officer, Ang Bee Lian, said,”We are quite clear that we want to position FSCs as, what I sometimes call, social polyclinics. We want FSCs to be your first stop, a convenient stop, for social issues that families face.”

Stressing the importance of the quality of intervention, Ms Ang said, “It’s intervention that counts. It’s not about the facility but really the quality of the interaction with the social worker, the counsellor, even the receptionists.”

Rite of passage? They are trying to make it sound so "rite-eous"! It's just a place to grow your money above inflation that's all....

Feb 10, 2011
Younger investors lead charge into stock market
They tend to bypass brokers, trading online on their own
By Yasmine Yahya & Jonathan Kwok

MS DENISE Ng began trading on the stock market three months ago. The 24-year-old lawyer said she chose to invest in shares as they offered her the kind of yields she was seeking.

'Interest rates are so low now, so bank deposits would give me very low returns,' she said, referring to rates that are typically well below 1 per cent.

'I also contemplated buying insurance policies, but I wanted more control over where I put my money, instead of letting an insurance firm invest it for me.'

There has been rapid growth in the number of retail investors entering the local stock market over the past five years, and younger investors such as Ms Ng are among those driving this phenomenon.

According to the Singapore Exchange (SGX), the number of active retail Central Depository (CDP) accounts has grown by 65 per cent in the past five years to 251,901 as at the end of last December. CDP accounts are where share trading funds are held.

The bulk of this growth came in the last two years, with the number of active retail CDP accounts jumping 37 per cent between 2008 and last year.

Active retail CDP accounts refer to trading accounts that have executed at least one trade in the past three months.

SGX does not keep track of the age profiles of retail investors in the market, but its assistant vice-president, Mr Ong Cheong Jin, said there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that an increasing number of younger Singaporeans are entering the stock market.

'From my observations, there are more and more young investors attending our seminars, and they are hungry for knowledge,' he said.

Brokerage firm Kim Eng noted that for the past two years, it has seen a year-on-year increase in the number of new clients aged 40 and below opening trading accounts.

The reasons for entering the stock market among these young investors are varied. Some, like 32-year-old media professional Phoebe Koh, are already building their nest egg.

'I'd like to think retirement is a long way away but I'm past 30 now so I know I should start investing for it.'

Others, however, decided to dabble in the stock market simply as a way to raise some spare cash.

'The intention is not really to get enough for retirement, because my principal is not substantial,' said 24-year-old engineer Serene Heng.

'I can't make a fortune. It's more of an extra income source.'

Business development manager Marcus Wee, 26, agreed.

'I'm not thinking about retirement yet. It's more to get extra cash from dividends and capital gains. Parking money in the bank, you don't even earn enough interest to offset inflation,' he said.

Teacher Jay David, 33, saw investing in the stock market as a rite of passage.

'I look at it as something you do as you grow older, like buying your first car or your first house. I've bought the car, so now I'd like to start investing.'

Remisier Lee Kum Swee noted that he has seen more young investors, aged between 25 and 35, entering the market since June last year, as shares continued their strong rebound from the crisis.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) plunged to a low of 1,495.65 in March 2009 during the financial crisis. It has since more than doubled. Yesterday the STI closed at 3,150.56.

Mr Lee added that these tech-savvy younger investors tend to bypass brokers and execute their own trades using the Internet.

Managing director of OCBC Securities, Mr Hui Yew Ping, agreed.

'Since the launch of iOCBC TradeMobile (a trading application for mobile phones), we have seen over 20,000 downloads, which shows that investors are getting increasingly tech-savvy and are keen to leverage technology to aid in their investing.'

Such developments are not lost on SGX. The bourse operator organises many seminars and courses every year to educate the investing public, but now plans to roll out more Internet-based education programmes to target this growing pool of young investors.

'Last year we launched web clips on themes such as understanding IPOs (initial public offerings) and how to read financial reports, and these got quite a good response,' noted SGX's senior vice-president and head of sales and distribution, Mr Rama Pillai.

'We are in the process of creating more of these web clips, which will highlight the benefits and, more importantly, risks of various investment products.'

yasminey@sph.com.sg

jonkwok@sph.com.sg

Wow even a gym operator is thinking of listing here. Anyone is a member of Fitness First? (Note: I am not)

Business Times - 08 Feb 2011

Fitness First plans $700m public offer

(SINGAPORE) Gym-operator Fitness First plans to raise as much as $700 million in an initial public offering (IPO) in Singapore, IFR Asia said yesterday.

CLSA, Credit Suisse, and JPMorgan have been appointed as bookrunners for the IPO that is expected to take place in the third quarter, IFR reported.

The IPO is expected to raise around $600 million to $700 million.

Private equity house BC Partners paid £835 million (S$1.69 billion) in 2005 to take control of the company.

Fitness First listed on London's AIM board in 1996 and delisted in 2003 when Cinven bought it for £404 million. \\-- Reuters

Somali sea gangs lure investors at pirate lair.


[Image: ?m=02&d=20091201&t=2&i=24197122&w=&fh=&f...-INVESTORS]

(Reuters) - In Somalia's main pirate lair of Haradheere, the sea gangs have set up a cooperative to fund their hijackings offshore, a sort of stock exchange meets criminal syndicate.

Heavily armed pirates from the lawless Horn of Africa nation have terrorized shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean and strategic Gulf of Aden, which links Europe to Asia through the Red Sea.

The gangs have made tens of millions of dollars from ransoms and a deployment by foreign navies in the area has only appeared to drive the attackers to hunt further from shore.

It is a lucrative business that has drawn financiers from the Somali diaspora and other nations -- and now the gangs in Haradheere have set up an exchange to manage their investments.

One wealthy former pirate named Mohammed took Reuters around the small facility and said it had proved to be an important way for the pirates to win support from the local community for their operations, despite the dangers involved.

"Four months ago, during the monsoon rains, we decided to set up this stock exchange. We started with 15 'maritime companies' and now we are hosting 72. Ten of them have so far been successful at hijacking," Mohammed said.

"The shares are open to all and everybody can take part, whether personally at sea or on land by providing cash, weapons or useful materials ... we've made piracy a community activity."

Haradheere, 400 km (250 miles) northeast of Mogadishu, used to be a small fishing village. Now it is a bustling town where luxury 4x4 cars owned by the pirates and those who bankroll them create honking traffic jams along its pot-holed, dusty streets.

Somalia's Western-backed government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed is pinned down battling hard-line Islamist rebels, and controls little more than a few streets of the capital.

The administration has no influence in Haradheere -- where a senior local official said piracy paid for almost everything.

"Piracy-related business has become the main profitable economic activity in our area and as locals we depend on their output," said Mohamed Adam, the town's deputy security officer.

"The district gets a percentage of every ransom from ships that have been released, and that goes on public infrastructure, including our hospital and our public schools."

RISK VS REWARDS

In a drought-ravaged country that provides almost no employment opportunities for fit young men, many are been drawn to the allure of the riches they see being earned at sea.

Abdirahman Ali was a secondary school student in Mogadishu until three months ago when his family fled the fighting there.

Given the choice of moving with his parents to Lego, their ancestral home in Middle Shabelle where strict Islamist rebels have banned most entertainment including watching sport, or joining the pirates, he opted to head for Haradheere.

Now he guards a Thai fishing boat held just offshore.

"First I decided to leave the country and migrate, but then I remembered my late colleagues who died at sea while trying to migrate to Italy," he told Reuters. "So I chose this option, instead of dying in the desert or from mortars in Mogadishu."

Haradheere's "stock exchange" is open 24 hours a day and serves as a bustling focal point for the town. As well as investors, sobbing wives and mothers often turn up there seeking news of male relatives missing in action.

Every week, Mohammed said, gang members and equipment were lost to the sea. But he said the pirates were not deterred.

"Ransoms have even increased in recent months from between $2-3 million to $4 million because of the increased number of shareholders and the risks," he said.

"Let the anti-piracy navies continue their search for us. We have no worries because our motto for the job is 'do or die'."

Piracy investor Sahra Ibrahim, a 22-year-old divorcee, was lined up with others waiting for her cut of a ransom pay-out after one of the gangs freed a Spanish tuna fishing vessel.

"I am waiting for my share after I contributed a rocket-propelled grenade for the operation," she said, adding that she got the weapon from her ex-husband in alimony.

"I am really happy and lucky. I have made $75,000 in only 38 days since I joined the 'company'."

(Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Source.

Investopedia

By Porcshe Moran

The number of billionaires in China skyrocketed in only a year's time from 79 in 2009 to 128 in 2010, according to Forbes. The country has the second largest population of billionaires in the world; only the United States has more. Among this group of China's "new rich" are those who have made their money through tech ventures that range from social networks to on-demand video streaming. (This emerging market is making strides in regulation and disclosure. Check out Investing In China.)

IN PICTURES: How To Make Your First $1 Million

Victor Koo
The Stanford Business School and University of California at Berkeley graduate is the founder and CEO of Youku, an online video site that is a mix between Hulu and Youtube for the China market. In December 2010, the value of Youku soared to 3.3 billion on the New York Stock Exchange and continues to rise. The company is worth more than AOL which has a market cap of 2.5 billion.

Robin Li
By developing China's answer to Google, Li has doubled his wealth in the past two years. His Baidu search engine has deposited $3.5 billion in his bank account. The 41-year-old lives in Bejiing with his wife Melissa Ma, but he learned about the business of online search in Silicon Valley in the '90s as an engineer for Infoseek, one of the first internet search companies.

Chen Tianqiao
It pays to play for Tianqiao. As the founder of an online game company, the 37-year-old is a self-made billionaire with a net worth of $1.2 billion based on Forbes statistics. The firm, called Shanda Interactive, also produces and distributes movies. He earned a bachelor degree in economics from Fudan University in Shanghai, the same city in which he resides. Tianqiao landed a spot on Forbes' list of the World's Billionaires for the first time in 2010.

Shi Yuzhu
He's the leader for one of China's top online gaming sites now, but Yuzhu hasn't always been so fortunate. His first try in the gaming industry, a video game company called Zhuhai Giant Hi-Tech Group, found success in the early '90s, but was overtaken by massive debts. He got back on his feet in 2005 with ZTgame and now boasts a $1.6 billion fortune.

IN PICTURES: Retire A Millionaire In 10 Steps

Jack Ma
With his e-commerce website Alibaba, online auction service Taobao.com and operation duties for China's Yahoo! web portal, entrepreneur Ma has made a name for himself in the tech world. His company made an estimated $700 million in revenue in 2010. Ma has expanded his company to 22,000 employees in offices across Greater China, India, Japan, Korea, Europe and the United States since founding it in 1999. Business Week named him one of the 25 Most Influential People on the web.

William Ding
In the early 2000s, Ding held the distinction of China's richest man when the value of stock in his internet portal Netease exploded. By 2010, he wasn't even in the top 10 of the country's wealthiest people. However, 38-year-old Ding still has a sizeable estimated net worth of $2.2 billion and is a successful online game developer. His company holds one of China's top 10 most downloaded game titles, and is the distributor of the World of Warcraft game series for mainland China. (FDI accounted for 30% of industrial output, 55% of trade and 11% of urban jobs in China in 2009. For more related reading, see Top 6 Factors That Drive Investment In China.)

Ma Huateng
Talk isn't always cheap. Just ask Huateng, CEO and founder, of a popular chat service in China called Tencent. The company has 500 million active users and has increased its profits 65% since 2009. His instant message platform, which integrates online gaming and e-commerce services, has earned him a net worth of $3.6 billion before the age of 40.

The Bottom Line
In a country that has made headlines for its government's internet censorship policies, it might come as a surprise that several of China's new billionaires are building wealth through companies that are based on internet services. They are not only creating innovative technology, but competing with and in some cases surpassing their American counterparts. (Find out how this invention contributed to the development and evolution of the U.S. economy. See From The Printing Press To The Internet.)

For the latest financial news, check out Water Cooler Finance: Conflicting Job Reports And A Facebook IPO.

Americans grew fatter at a faster pace than residents of any other wealthy nation since 1980, during a period when obesity worldwide nearly doubled, researchers found.

Almost 10 percent of the world’s population was obese in 2008, according to studies published today by the medical journal The Lancet. The percentage of people with uncontrolled hypertension, or high blood pressure, fell, with high-income countries showing a larger drop. Cholesterol levels declined in North America, Australia and Europe, but increased in East and Southeast Asia as well as the Pacific region, researchers said.

The rise in obesity, as measured by body mass index, is worrying and may lead to an increase in diabetes, said Majid Ezzati of Imperial College London, who led the research. Ezzati suggested taxing sugary drinks and sweets as well as rethinking transportation, such as adding bike lanes.

“We are at best buying some time” Ezzati said in an interview yesterday. “We have to get very serious about BMI, beyond good intentions.” Policy changes may begin to reduce obesity in as little as five years, he said.

The findings about Americans and obesity add to evidence that the U.S. has a weight problem. About 68 percent of American adults are overweight, raising their risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer, according to the 2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Almost 34 percent are obese.

Slim Singaporeans

Researchers from Imperial College, Harvard University’s School of Public Health and other institutions analyzed government statistics and multinational studies to track changes in body mass index, cholesterol levels and blood pressure.

Body mass index considers a person’s weight relative to their height. A reading of over 30 is considered obese, while more than 25 is overweight.

In 2008, 9.8 percent of men and 13.8 percent of women globally were obese, compared with 4.8 and 7.9 percent respectively in 1980, the researchers found. Among rich nations in 2008, the U.S. had the highest BMI at 28 on average, followed by New Zealand. Japan had the lowest index, about 22 for women and 24 for men. Singapore residents were the second slimmest.

The U.S. saw the fastest rise of body mass, about 1 point per decade during the 28 years of the study, of any wealthy nation, the researchers found.

Risk Factor

An increased body mass index is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and ailments of the muscles and the skeleton, leading to 3 million deaths worldwide annually, according to the studies. High blood pressure is the leading risk factor for cardiovascular deaths, killing 7 million each year, while high cholesterol leads to about 4.4 million deaths each year, the study said.

Controlling blood pressure, total cholesterol and smoking will cut cardiovascular disease rates, even if obesity and diabetes rise, Salim Yusuf and Sonia Anand of McMaster University in Canada, said in an accompanying editorial.

On average, Pacific Islanders have the highest body mass index in the world, reaching 34 to 35, 70 percent higher than countries in sub-Saharan Africa and countries in Southeast Asia. In Europe, Turkish and Czech women are the heftiest, while Swiss females were the slimmest.

The second study showed that blood pressure is highest in the Baltic region as well as East and West African countries. Portugal, Finland and Norway have the highest blood pressure readings of rich countries, while South Korea, Cambodia, Australia, Canada and the U.S. had some of the lowest.

Western European countries including Greenland, Iceland, Andorra, and Germany led global cholesterol levels. African countries have the lowest cholesterol.

Among high-income countries in the west, Greece has the lowest cholesterol for men and women, while the U.S., Canada, and Sweden also had low cholesterol.

The work is part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study, which is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The study also received funding from the World Health Organization.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eva von Schaper in Munich at evonschaper@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net

Yusuke Ohki’s 2,000 books were crowding out his Tokyo apartment, so he scanned them all into an Apple Inc. iPad. Six months later the 28-year-old is running a 120-person start-up doing the same thing for customers.

Japan’s cramped living conditions and the arrival of the iPad in May have spawned as many as 60 companies offering to turn paper books into e-books as publishers have been slow to provide content for new electronic readers. Japan has lagged the U.S. in introducing e-books because of a rigid pricing system, uncertainty over copyrights and early problems reproducing Japanese characters on screens, said Toshihiro Takagi, an analyst at market researcher Impress R&D in Tokyo.

“People are taking matters in their own hands because the publishers are not meeting the market’s needs,” said Takagi.

Japan’s $24 billion market for paper books and magazines, the world’s largest, may see an explosion in e-books as Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy Tab tablet computer and readers by Sharp Corp. and Sony Corp. take on the iPad. Sales of electronic books in the country will probably more than double in the next three years to 153 billion yen ($1.9 billion), according to Tokyo-based Yano Research Institute Ltd.

Ohki and rivals including Denshika.com and Scan Honpo are tapping that demand. Ohki founded Bookscan with childhood friend Shinya Iwamatsu in April, converting books into PDF files that can be read on the iPad, iPhone, Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble Inc.’s Nook. The company charges 100 yen per book for a service called “jisui,” or “cooking for oneself.”

Copyright Question

“The home-made e-book market will continue to exist as long as the copyright situation isn’t dealt with and people cannot find books they want in electronic format,” said Masashi Ueno, a researcher at Yano Research Institute. “In Japan, copyright agreements vary depending on the author, meaning a publisher could serialize a comic book but may or may not have the rights to publish it as a separate book.”

Japan’s copyright laws permit users to digitize protected works for personal and family use, according to Seichi Higuchi, the secretary general of Japan Book Publishers Association. Reproduction of a purchased work by a third party requires publisher’s permission, Higuchi said. Bookscan requires customers to tick a box to say they have this permission.

“There are more than 30 or 40 scanning companies and huge amount of books are scanned every day, so I can hardly believe all the scanning is legal,” Higuchi said in an interview in Tokyo last month.

‘Latent Demand’

“The pressure is building on the publishing industry to meet consumer needs before these home-made contents begin to circulate illegally,” said Nobuo Kurahashi, an analyst at Mizuho Financial Group Inc. in Tokyo. “This is a sign of latent demand.”

Japanese will buy 67 billion yen worth of e-books in the fiscal year ending March 31, most of it comics for mobile phones, Yano Research Institute’s Ueno said. Content for tablet computers and e-readers will account for more than half of e- book sales in the year to March 2015, compared with about 3 percent now, Ueno said.

Electronic books were equivalent to 8.7 percent of the $4 billion market for paper print in the U.S. in the first 10 months of 2010, Association of American Publishers said in December. Sales of e-books in the country are set to almost triple to $2.8 billion by 2015, according to Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

iPad Factor

Sales of iPads and web-based document storage services such as Evernote and Dropbox have helped spur the cottage industry.

“The iPad’s release is the biggest factor in making this business possible,” Ohki said. The Tokyo-based company in July bought industrial scanners to reduce the four-month wait faced by its more than 12,000 customers, he said.

Sales of consumer scanners at PFU Ltd. rose 80 percent in June and more than doubled the following month because of the iPad’s release, according to Tadashi Oura, the head of marketing for imaging products at the company. The Tokyo-based subsidiary of Fujitsu Ltd. chartered flights to rush the devices from its factories in China to meet the spike in demand, Oura said.

Japanese buyers of Amazon’s Kindle reader are redirected to the company’s U.S. site since no Japanese-language titles are available. Lack of content and low demand forced Tokyo- based Sony to stop selling e-readers in its home market in 2007. Osaka-based Panasonic Corp. gave up in 2008.

Sony, which resumed Japan sales of its e-readers in December, formed a venture last year with mobile-phone operator KDDI Corp., Asahi Shimbun Publishing Corp. and Toppan Printing Co. to provide electronic publications. The group will take on an e-book alliance of NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan’s largest wireless carrier, and Dai Nippon Printing Co.

‘Year Zero’

“We are at year zero for e-books in Japan,” Toshihiro Konno, who heads the venture between Sony, KDDI, Asahi and Toppan, said at a briefing in December. Konno estimates Japanese will buy about 780,000 e-readers and 85 billion yen worth of content in the year to March 31.

Meanwhile, customers are turning to scanners to make room in a country where average living space per person is about 37 square meters (398-square feet), or almost half that in the U.S., according to real estate service provider Mitsui Fudosan Co.

Satoshi Tagomori, 28, who works for a pharmaceutical company in Kyushu, southwestern Japan, had his books scanned to make room for his newborn child, cutting the space occupied by books in his 50-square meter apartment by about 75 percent.

“There was just no more room for books when my son was born,” Satoshi said in a phone interview. “Plus, I was worried about the shelves falling over.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Pavel Alpeyev in Tokyo at palpeyev@bloomberg.net; Yoshinori Eki in Tokyo at yeki@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net.

Full-day trading - good or bad?

Business Times - 19 Jan 2011

Remisiers to get full plate of work in lieu of lunch

By JOYCE HOOI

(SINGAPORE) Remisiers will be soon be trading lunch-time for crunch-time.

Yesterday, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) announced that it would start all-day continuous trading from March 1, in a move that will mark the end of the market's cherished 90-minute lunch break.

While Magnus Bocker - SGX's chief executive officer - made the announcement yesterday after a cheery but pointed airing of Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 in the SGX auditorium, remisiers will not be singing along anytime soon.

Albert Fong, the president of The Society of Remisiers (Singapore), called the move 'mercenary' yesterday. 'We are definitely disappointed. Imagine you are working 9 to 5 and you don't have lunch. How would you feel?' Mr Fong told BT yesterday.

If the move receives regulatory approval, the 12.30-2pm lunch slot will vanish and the market will trade from 9am to 5pm.

The prospect of the market being open to trade even as remisiers dart outside for a bite brings with it practical concerns, as well.

'Assuming a client has an open position and I'm not around and can't do anything - I would feel very irresponsible,' said Mr Fong.

Some remisiers, however, will not be as affected as others. The ones at the top of the food-chain might continue enjoying the spoils of lunch, as they have as many as two assistants, BT understands.

The move to scrap the lunch break was set in motion about half a year ago, as the SGX sought to boost trading volumes by keeping the market open for business during the 90-minute window.

'This will make Singapore one of the most accessible markets in Asia and in the world,' said Mr Bocker yesterday.

He also told the media and analysts that according to 'general wisdom', the boost to trading volumes could range from 6 to 12 per cent.

Mr Fong reckoned, however, that the increase in volumes would be marginal. He also noted that it is a particular class of market participant that will leap at trading throughout every single second of the workday.

'This is more to satisfy the traders than the genuine investors. Investors don't need to hedge,' said Mr Fong.

As more bourses around the world eliminated their lunch breaks, SGX's move towards all-day trading appeared inevitable.

Currently, heavyweights like the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange do not have lunch breaks. Closer to home, the Korea Exchange, India's National Stock Exchange and ASX have also done away with them.

Remisiers such as Phillip Securities' Henry Tjoa have taken this move stoically, resigning themselves to being at the beck-and-call of the market even as food beckons.

'Each remisier might have to pair up with another one. Still have to eat, right?' said Mr Tjoa.

He also noted that Hong Kong and Japan plan to extend their markets' trading hours as they compete with Singapore for a share of the trading action.

'We are a smaller market, so it looks like we have no choice,' he said.

Resistance appears to be futile, even to The Society of Remisiers' Mr Fong.

'What choice do we have in the light of global competition? Notwithstanding the move will adversely affect the ways we conduct our business, we will move forward,' he said.

David Gerald, the president and CEO of the Securities Investors' Association of Singapore, welcomed the advent of all-day trading.

'Retail investors here will not have to sit and wait until lunch is over to manage their portfolio or risk, especially if they have invested in foreign-based products or shares,' he said.

'The needs of retail investors are evolving and we are of the view that allowing investors more opportunities to actively manage their investments is a step in the right direction.'

OM Associates CEO Ashok Khosla counts good fortune as a factor for his success in business, reports VICTOR KATHEYAS

'SUCCESS in business does not only depend on intelligence and ability,' said Ashok Khosla, CEO of OM Associates. 'Some people win, some people lose, often the crucial factor is luck.'

If that is so, it is clear that Mr Khosla is one lucky businessman. Last year alone, his achievements were recognised by three different awards: the Entrepreneur of the Year, Enterprise 50 and Singapore Indian Entrepreneur awards. In addition, the company's $274 million revenue for the financial year ending April 2010 represented a growth of 95 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

However, his decision to become an entrepreneur was made in less optimistic circumstances. Back in 2004, the American MNC at which he was working was in the midst of being sold. This resulted in many senior executives such as himself being made redundant. At that point, the road forked into two. He could either find another job or start his own company.

He chose the latter, in part because he had 'always wanted to do so since a young age'. Together with his business partner Harish Grover, who is based in the US, he set up OM Associates in 2004. Back then, the company's business entailed trading flash drives and dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips. It would purchase these electronic items from the five or six major manufacturers in the market, and subsequently sell them for a relatively small margin.

Mr Khosla knew that this state of affairs was less than ideal. Prices of chips were 'very volatile' and changed about thrice a day. At each point, traders such as his company had to decide whether to buy chips and, if so, what volume they should buy. Such was the nature of the market that it was more than satisfactory to be 'right on 18 days in a month, but wrong on the other 12'.

The way forward for the company would be to find its own niche. To this end, he planned to acquire a factory in India to carry out the company's research and development (R&D) projects. This, however, required the company to raise funds.

Unfortunately, that was a tall order for the new company. 'If you go to a bank, they'll say bring your three-year balance sheet,' he said. 'But how are you going to do that if you're a start-up?'

Therefore, the company was forced to manage its finances conservatively in order to accumulate sufficient savings for the acquisition. Finally in 2007, the company opened its factory in Noida, India. This location was chosen because it was an 'export zone' with minimal bureaucratic red tape. As long as the value of imports did not exceed that of exports, the company's Indian branch had the option of either exporting everything it produced or selling everything within India.

The factory enabled the company to 'value-add', said Mr Khosla. He explained that DRAM chips were used in a wide variety of devices, ranging from computers to cameras and even industrial machines. Essentially, whenever a device needed to have some form of short-term memory, it was likely that DRAM chips were being used.

Most manufacturers preferred to use the top-of-the-line DRAM chips, especially if they were marketing themselves as premium brands. However, through his prior experience in the industry, he knew that even the rejected DRAM chips could be used in certain circumstances.

'Some of these chips were rejected because they had cosmetic defects. Others were rejected because they consumed too much current. However, while these chips wouldn't pass their manufacturers' quality control checks, other companies who had different requirements could nevertheless use them. After all, a consumer isn't going to care if the chip in his laptop has a cosmetic defect,' he said.

The factory in India helps the company make the most of this opportunity. It purchases DRAM chips rejected by manufacturers for various reasons, and subjects them to a battery of tests. Those chips which have been assessed to be usable are then either sold off to other companies who use them in their operations or sold under the company's own brand.

Diversification

However, the company doesn't just deal with chips. In August 2009, executives from the Jaypee Group, one of the largest Indian conglomerates, asked Mr Khosla if the company would be interested in being a channel partner. This entailed marketing and selling properties that were developed by the Jaypee Group. Despite having no prior experience in that field, he decided to take up the challenge.

The rationale was simple. He reasoned, 'from a common sense point of view', that what all homebuyers really wanted was a realtor who was trustworthy and accommodating.

In retrospect, it appears to have been a wise decision. Within just one year, the company sold more than 3,000 property units, worth more than $250 million. Its property arm, which employs more than 100 workers in India, has since turned profitable and looks set to grow even bigger. Even still, he stresses that the foray into property was 'a fluke' - in other words, a result of luck. The next frontier for the company is renewable energy. It hopes to use its R&D capabilities in India to support these initiatives, which include setting up a five-megawatt solar plant in India, manufacturing windmills in Nepal and producing energy saving devices such as energy efficient water pumps.

Business philosophy

Mr Khosla believes that non-reliance on bank credit - which began because banks chose not to extend credit to the company in its early years - has helped the company stay afloat, even during the recession.

Back in 2008, he said, many companies were using bank loans to buy stock of DRAM chips and other electronic devices. However, when credit began to dry up, many of these companies found themselves squeezed by the banks - sometimes even to the point where they had to cease business. In other cases, these companies had to sell off their stock at an unfavourable price because they could not wait any longer to repay their banks, which were demanding repayment.

Mr Khosla also believes that the company has done well thus far because of staff empowerment. This means showing them respect, sending them for training courses and even having lunch with them on a regular basis.

'As a boss, you must be free the whole day. (This shows that) you have developed your staff well, and also that you trust them enough to allow them to make important decisions,' he said. This in turn would incentivise staff to do their best for the company. Mr Khosla hopes that the company will be worth 'US$1 billion within three years'. He also hopes to list the company, either in Singapore or in India, soon. With luck on his side, as evidenced by the company's successes thus far, these hopes look set to become reality.

Copyright © 2010 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.

* To spin off port trust unit in Singapore

* To raise $6 bln in Singapore listing-IFR

* Listing to be completed by March-IFR

* Shares dip 2.4 pct; second-best performer in Jan (Adds details, quotes)

By Fiona Lau and Eveline Danubrata

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Hutchison Whampoa plans to spin off its holdings in two ports assets, a move expected to raise $6 billion in what could be Southeast Asia's largest ever stock offering.

The listing by Hutchison, a ports-to-telecom conglomerate owned by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, will take place on the Singapore Stock Exchange, allowing the company to use the proceeds for investments in its ports and infrastructure business.

"Hutchison's divestments will likely result in a meaningful reduction in the company's net debt and increase the company's financial flexibility," said Kalai Pillay, senior director at Fitch's Asia-Pacific Corporates Team, noting that the deal will also reduce cash flows to Hutchison from the ports business.

The key assets of Hutchison Port are deep-water container port operations in Hong Kong, China's southern Guangdong province and Macau.

Hutchison proposes to spin off Hutchison Port Holdings Trust in a separate listing in Singapore, where regulations are favourable for trusts-like companies to list, it said in a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange on Tuesday.

The statement helped explain why Hutchison would float the ports unit in Singapore rather than Hong Kong, where heavy demand from investment funds have made Hong Kong by far the top exchange for public listings in the last two years.

Shares of Hutchison fell 2.4 percent on Tuesday to HK$93.65 per share in a broader market down 2.4 percent. Traders attributed the dip to the run up the stock has enjoyed this year.

Hutchison's shares have risen 17 percent since the beginning of the year, making it the second-best performer among the main Hang Seng index. Since it reported earnings in August, its shares have jumped 77 percent .

Hutchison's massive offering allowed the Singapore exchange to step out of the shadow of its neighbour to the north.

"This is a confidence booster for Singapore stock exchange and will continue to encourage the exchange to seek (its) niche to compete with the larger markets instead of competing head on without any product or service differentiation," said Roger Tan, head of research at SIAS Research in Singapore.

Hutchison Port's listing will be completed by March and will allow the unit to raise $6 billion, according to IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication that first reported the size.

If successful, the deal will make it the largest listing eve in Southeast Asia and Singapore. So far, the biggest listing in southeast Asia is Malaysia's Petronas Chemicals , which raised $4.1 billion last year. In Singapore, Singapore Telecommunications' S$4 billion ($3 billion) float in 1993 was the biggest listing.

STRONG WIN FOR SINGAPORE

"I think it would be positive for the stock market volume and therefore favourable for the Singapore stock exchange," said Jit Soon Lim, head of equities research for Nomura in Singapore.

Lim said the listing will also help the Singapore exchange's position as the bourse for shipping and offshore stocks.

Asia is home to the largest ports and major port operators, such as Shanghai International Port and Dalian Port . Shanghai now has the world's busiest container port and Singapore ranks No. 2, thanks to the booming Asian trade-reliant economies.

Hutchison's proposal is subject to the approval of the Singapore stock exchange, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Hong Kong stock exchange and the company's board.

Hutchison has hired joint bookrunners and joint issue managers DBS , Deutsche Bank AG and Goldman Sachs (Singapore), to apply for the Singapore listing.

In 2009, Hutchison Whampoa posted a net profit of HK$14.168 billion, a 12 percent rise from a year earlier. Hutchison Port's profit attributable to the company totalled HK$1.827 billion ($234 million) in 2009, down from HK$2.109 billion in 2008. (Additional reporting by Daniel Stanton from IFR, Donny Kwok and Vikram Subhedar in Hong Kong and Harry Suhartono in Singapore; Writing by Lee Chyen Yee; Editing by Ken Wills and Anshuman Daga)