Archive for January, 2006
Japan’s IT Whiz-Kid Under Securities Investigation
TOKYO : In under a decade flamboyant, Ferrari-driving tycoon Takafumi Horie built one of Japan’s top Internet empires with an aggressive expansion drive that made him few friends in the establishment.
But now the 33-year-old’s brash style is under a new microscope with public prosecutors overnight raiding the offices of his company, Livedoor, for suspected illegal securities trading.
The scandal around the pudgy, spiky-haired entrepreneur — who was courted by the premier to run for parliament last year — caused concern among the government and sent Japanese share prices spiralling downward Tuesday.
If the Livedoor group misled investors, “it would be a matter of concern as it hurts market confidence,” said Kaoru Yosano, the economy minister who is also in charge of financial services.
Horie, who has famously declared “All the evils come from aged business managers” and “I will kill newspapers and television”, insisted it was business as usual.
“I will strive to expand business as I did in the past,” he told a news conference, apologizing to investors for any worries they may have.
Horie, nicknamed Horie-mon after a Japanese cartoon character, ruled out immediate resignation as Livedoor president but said the group was conducting its own in-house investigation into the allegations.
“It would be rather irresponsible to speak about whether I will step down or stay when we are yet to get hold of the current situation,” he said.
According to news reports, Livedoor Marketing, an affiliate of Livedoor, allegedly submitted false documents on its purchase of a publishing firm in October 2004.
Investigators waited until nightfall before marching into Livedoor’s headquarters on the top floor of Roppongi Hills, one of Tokyo’s premier business addresses home to some of Japan’s leading IT entrepreneurs.
Under the glare of the television cameras and about 100 reporters who were tipped off in advance, they then marched to continue the search at Horie’s home in the office, shopping and residential complex.
The university drop-out, who eschews a suit and tie in favour of T-shirts, has been criticised for following a ruthless, Wall Street-style of capitalism.
He angered many in Japan’s corporate old guard when he launched an unsuccessful takeover battle for the nation’s most widely watched television network, Fuji Television — a bid that saw him labelled by critics as a corporate raider.
That followed a failed attempt to buy a professional baseball team.
Horie has regularly appeared on television game shows, has written several books on how to be a successful entrepreneur and his picture often appears in the newspapers accompanied by his model girlfriend.
He ran for parliament in lower house elections in September last year, backing the reform agenda of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, although he declined the endorsement of Koizumi’s Liberal Democratic Party.
However, he failed to win a seat and few of his erstwhile political allies were rushing to his aid Tuesday.
“It is extremely regrettable. We hope investigation authorities will conduct a thorough probe,” said Tsutomu Takebe, secretary general of the ruling party, who made a speech backing Horie in the September elections.
On the Tokyo Stock market Livedoor was under heavy pressure, giving the shares an indicated sell price of 596 yen, against Monday’s closing price of 696. The benchmark Nikkei-225 index tumbled by 2.84 percent.
Fast-growing Livedoor has grown into an Internet giant with a market capitalisation of over six billion dollars by offering consumer portal sites and other web services.
- AFP /ls
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Corporate Donors Still Forthcoming, Says Community Chest
SINGAPORE : Corporate donors are still forthcoming, despite the recent NKF saga, which has dealt a blow to the charity sector, says Community Chest Chairman Jennie Chua.
Among them is Kah Motor, which launched its Honda Civic Drive for Charity Fund.
The community project aims to raise half a million dollars for the Community Chest.
For a start, a S$100,000 pledge from the sale of its new 8th Generation Honda Civics this year will go towards supporting programmes to help the disabled.
Kah Motor is pledging S$100 for every unit of the new Honda Civic model registered until 31 December 2006.
The company will also raise more funds by matching the bid from the auction of a special edition model.
The Community Chest hopes to broaden its fund raising efforts to meet its target of over S$45 million for the new year and support from corporate donors has been encouraging.
Said Ms Chua, “In fact we see the sums perhaps getting greater. You might ask why; I think that’s because they believe whatever they raised will be used for the purposes of the beneficiaries, the programmes which will do good things for the beneficiaries. We’ve always been transparent; the accounts have been there. We present accounts to Parliament, in fact, every year for the last couple of decades.” - CNA /ct
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SGX Plans Shariah-Compliant Indices To Attract Islamic Investors
SINGAPORE : The Singapore Exchange is developing a series of indices that are compliant with Islamic law, or Shariah.
It is hoping to provide more opportunities for Islamic investors to invest in Asian markets.
The indices will benchmark against stocks that are Shariah-compliant.
This will exclude companies whose core businesses are involved in activities such as gambling, tobacco, alcohol and conventional banking.
The first index of the series, the FTSE-SGX Asia Shariah 100 Index, is expected to be launched next month.
It will be the first US dollar denominated Shariah index in Asia.
SGX wants to expand Singapore’s retail investor base and attract foreign companies to list here.
The new FTSE-SGX Asia Shariah 100 Index aims to be a platform for investors in the Middle East to park their funds in Asian stocks.
One hundred stocks from Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan will be computed into the index.
They are expected to include blue chips like Toyota Motor, NTT DoCoMo, Samsung Electronics and China Mobile.
Even SGX itself could be included in the index as experts say it fulfils the Shariah-compliance standard.
The index is seen as broadening the range of Shariah-compliant products available to global investors, especially those from the Middle East who are cash-rich with oil money.
Said Majid Dawood, CEO of Yasaar Ltd, “A lot to do with the Gulf investors and the Middle East, where there is a lot of liquidity and they are looking for products. After 9/11, they are bit concerned about the US markets and the issues there. They are looking more to invest in other areas and they have so far been investing in IPOs locally, which have been giving them great returns. That’s very short-term investing. In terms of longer term, they have to look at Asia markets — China, India and development that is taking place.”
The size of dollar deposits based out of the Middle East is estimated to near a quarter of a trillion US dollars.
And with the new index, a few niche products that are tied to the index can be created to attract more funds.
Said Yasaar’s Dawood, “Every increase in the price of oil by US$1, that’s a lot of dollars to be invested; so I leave you to work the maths out.”
However, such an index isn’t solely targeted at the Middle East.
Said Linus Koh, SGX Executive Vice President, “As it is well known, there are tremendous pool of liquidity in the Middle East and not only in the Middle East but also in the Islamic world in general. Working with renowned partners like FTSE and Yasaar Research would give SGX a tremendous opportunity to capture these liquidity pools.”
All the stocks in the index will go through a vigorous screening process that has been viewed and approved by a panel of very distinguished Islamic scholars. - CNA /ct
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