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PGI Energy Announces Partnership with Structural Dynamics Engineering for Manufacturing & Development of Drilling Rigs
Jun 10th
HOUSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)– PGI Energy, Inc. (Pink Sheets:PGIE.pk – News)
PGI ENERGY, INC has entered into a partnership with Structural Dynamics Engineering Co. for Manufacturing & Development of innovative proprietary drilling rigs designed by Jose A. Macias, a Mechanical Engineer. The partnership will establish a new special purpose entity to be jointly owned and managed by the partners. The partners will jointly own 50% of the business and share 50% of profits each. The partnership initially will focus on its existing contract orders for 750 HP Mobile Drilling Rigs and the 2000 HP SCR Drilling Rig for the government of India, and its client in China who have placed orders for three 250T Top-Drives the innovative Top-Drive drilling rig, and Malaysia for four 1000HP SCR Drilling Rigs. Current customers of Structural Dynamics Engineering are Precision Drilling, Arrow Drilling, Pie Grande Drilling, Fidelity Exploration and Production, JJ Drilling International, DIJOILFIELD LLC., Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), and Petroleos Mexicanos, S.A. (PEMEX). “We are excited about the development of this new partnership with Structural Dynamics Engineering to deploy these innovative technologies to oil field service providers, which adds significant value for our shareholders says Robert Gandy, Senior Underwriter/Chief Investment Officer for PGI.”
About Structural Dynamics Engineering
Structural Dynamics Engineering develops a variety of products for the automotive industry and oil field services companies with product lines of land drilling rigs, crown blocks, top-drives, traveling blocks, rotary tables, pipe handler equipment, catwalks, automation, robotics, full repair services and equipment for material handling. Structural Dynamics Engineering has been a private owned company by Jose A. Macias, M.E. who has worked with automotive industry structural design companies and drilling services companies since 1986. Website: www.structuraldynamicsengineering.com
About PGI Energy, Inc.
PGI Energy, Inc. is an energy holding company, headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company’s objective is asset acquisition in the proven areas of oil & gas assets, refinery & pipeline sectors of the energy industry, alternative and other synergistic assets.
For more information visit: www.PGIEnergy.us or Email: ir@pgienergy.us.
LinkedIn opens office in Singapore
May 31st
Source: The Times of India
SINGAPORE: Professional networking platform LinkedIn opened its regional headquarters in Singapore and plans to use the city-state as a base to expand its Asia-Pacific presence.
“We chose Singapore’s location for a few reasons, one because its the regional hub for so many multinational companies, many of whom are already our customers on a global basis,” regional managing director Arvind Rajan said at a media briefing.
“Part of the reason that we’re moving out here is to also use Singapore as a hub through which we’ll look at opportunities to expand physically throughout the APAC (Asia-Pacific) region,” he added.
Singapore, with its business-friendly environment and choice geographical location, is popular as a regional base for multinational companies that want to expand into Asia’s booming economies.
“From March of last year to March of this year, we grew 130 percent in APAC so we’re seeing a really rapid growth already and we think that by having a presence here, by expanding our footprint in Asia, we think we’ll see continued sustained growth,” said Rajan.
The Singapore office will oversee sales, finance, marketing and human resource functions for the region and plans to expand into Japan later this year, he said.
The US-listed firm has more than 100 million members from 200 countries as of March 2011, with over 18 million of them from the region, a company factsheet showed.
LinkedIn is the second online networking site to set up shop in Singapore after Facebook inaugurated its Asian sales office last year.
It listed early this month on the New York Stock Exchange and is the first major US social-network firm to go public.
Japanese investors shaken but still ready to push on
May 27th
JAPANESE investors are likely to increase their foreign investment once the disaster-ravaged economy begins to improve, with Australia a prime destination for their capital, according to UBS economist Cameron Umetsu.
The investment bank has forecast that the Japanese economy will experience a “V-shaped” recovery with the rebuilding and recovery effort from the March earthquake and nuclear crisis under way.
Mr Umetsu, a senior economist with the bank based in Tokyo, said the generation of capital would prompt investors to search for higher returns after the economy shows signs of recovery.
“One problem facing Japan is the sheer lack of return; wage incomes and interest income is not growing, so in order to supplement the income people need to consider investment abroad,” he said.
“We saw that in the 2006 to 2008 period during the carry trade years. A lot of the carry trade is not just the leveraged carry trade from foreign investors, but there is also the real money carry trade by cash-rich Japanese investors looking to buy Australian assets or Brazilian assets more recently. – Continue reading at The Australian
Nothing Average About Mid-Cap Funds
May 25th
Source: Financial Planning
SALT LAKE CITY — They don’t have the big-chip cache of the large-cap funds or the diamond-in-the-rough promise of the small caps, but mid-cap mutual funds have consistently outperformed both of those asset classes over the past decade and there’s no reason to think that trend will end anytime soon.
During a breakout session titled “Meet Me In The Middle: The Case For Mid Caps” here at the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors’ national conference, Derek Smashey, assistant portfolio manager at Scout Mid-Cap Fund, laid out a pretty compelling argument that advisors and their clients should look to the middle for fat returns.
Smashey showed attendees how since January 1979 the Russell Midcap Index has easily outpaced the performance of the S&P 500, the Russell Top 200 (most large-cap stocks) and the Russell 2000 (mostly small-cap stocks).
In fact, a $10,000 investment in fund tracking the Russell Midcap Index would now be worth in excess of $625,000 today compared to roughly $350,000 had you invested in a fund tracking the S&P 500 Index. – Continue reading at Financial Planning
Small-caps bear the brunt as wary investors head to exit
Feb 1st
Source: The Economic Times
MUMBAI: Concerns relating to inflation and worsening macro-economic fundamentals , besides political turmoil in Egypt, are prompting investors to dump small cap shares which have fallen sharper than the broader stock indices — the Nifty and the Sensex.
Indian stocks have plunged to a five-month low, with the 30-share Sensex and the 50-share Nifty having registered a fall of close to 10% in the past three months, but this has masked the steep drop in share values of small and medium size firms.
Investors and traders have dumped these shares, leading to a fall of over 20% in more than 200 stocks from BSE 500 alone in the past three months. Over 100 stocks have more fallen more than 30% during this period , including companies such as DB Realty, JSW Holdings , Ansal Properties, Dhanlaxmi Bank, Orbit Corp, Hindustan Cop-per , Bharati Shipyard, Pantaloon Retail , Bombay Dyeing , DLF, Edel-weiss Cap, Reliance Cap, which have fallen by over 35% since then.
Close to 200 stocks hit the lower circuit on the BSE on Monday, with a majority of them from the ‘T’ group. This on a day when the market rebounded from the morning lows of close to 350 points. The Sensex closed on Monday at 18327.76, down 68 points, or 0.4%.
According to Chokkalingam G, executive director & CIO, FCH Centrum Wealth Managers, many quality stocks have been pummelled, with the market punishing them more than what would seem to be justified. “There are concerns such as the 27% dip in foreign direct investment flows for the April-November period on a year-on-year basis and a fall in net invisible exports by 8%. This is happening for the first time in six years,” he said.
Worries over rate tightening and rising oil prices are also weighing high on the minds of investors which is reflected in the pressure on realty, banking, oil and the auto sectors.
Chokkalingam said that there is always a disconnect between the fundamentals of a company and market valuations. “We believe that the market is trading at the bottom of its PE range. At 21000 Sensex levels, it was trading at 16.5 times one-year forward earnings. At 18000, this has come down to 14.3 times, which is attractive. At this level, the market is attractive and one should start investing,” he said.
Analysts say that most of the selling may not necessarily relate to a company’s business prospects, but could be triggered off due to factors such as margin call, churning of portfolios and investment fatigue.
Vivek Mahajan, head-research, Aditya Birla Money, said that the broader market may take a while to stabilise, but investors could start buying gradually. “We can see many companies trading at attractive levels after the recent fall. We are seeing investment fatigue setting in our clients. At the same time, they are running out of patience,” he said.
Brokers say there was no buying interest with sentiment being dented in the morning session. “Most of the high net worth individuals who were holding these stocks had to face margin calls, which further triggered the selloff,” said a dealer managing a desk for such investors in a large domestic broking firm. Mr Mahajan has been advising investors to start stocking up on mid- and large-cap stocks and to avoid leveraged positions.
“One can invest in defensive sectors such as pharma and IT and then thematic stocks and thirdly in the banking sector. There are stocks that are trading at one-time forward adjusted book value. Banks always pass on the cost to the borrower and thus the hit will be on a quarterly basis only, whereas a 25-30 % fall is factoring in the margin pressure on an annual basis,” Mr Chokkalingam said.
Singapore Proving to be a Popular Investment Destination in Asia, Reports SingaporeStartup.com
Jan 31st
Source: PRWeb
Singapore is set to emerge as a leading investment destination in Asia owing to its pro-business climate and investor friendly environment.
Recently released statistics by Singapore’s Economic Development Board shows that foreign companies invested S$12.9 billion in fixed assets in 2010. The investment commitments made in 2010 are expected to contribute S$14.4 billion in value-added per year to the country’s GDP growth and are set to create 21,300 new skilled jobs. According to Singapore offshore company formation portal – http://www.SingaporeStartup.com, Singapore’s business friendly environment and strong economic growth in the Asian region are key factors driving foreign investments into the city-state.
Singapore hopes to attract foreign capital investments worth S$14 billion this year, which will in turn create 19,000 jobs. Mr. Darren Leow, editorial team member at SingaporeStartup.com cites factors such as the ease of setting up a business in Singapore, Singapore’s low tax rates, accessibility to world-class infrastructure, availability of a talented workforce, and its strategic location in Asia’s high-growth region as the prime motivators for foreign companies to make long-term investment commitments in Singapore.
The World Bank has ranked Singapore as the world’s easiest place to do business. It takes just two procedures and 24 hours to setup a Singapore private limited company. Moreover, there are no restrictions on foreigners who want to do business in Singapore and 100% foreign ownership of a Singapore company is allowed.
Taxes in Singapore are also a major reason for foreign companies to relocate to the city-state. Singapore’s corporate tax rate on profits up to S$300,000 is less than 9% while profits above S$300,000 are taxed at the rate of 17%. Companies also benefit from industry-specific tax incentives and an extensive tax treaty network.
Foreign companies find Singapore an attractive operational base, especially for conducting R&D activities, as it offers world-class physical, research, and business infrastructure. Singapore’s workforce that is talented, productive, and highly efficient is also highly advantageous in attracting foreign companies and investment.
Singapore’s strategic location in Asia makes it the perfect gateway for foreign companies seeking regional expansion. Asia is well positioned to emerge as the next global economic growth engine and foreign companies that are keen to tap into the region’s immense business potential find it beneficial to set up their base in Singapore.
Singapore has been garnering considerable foreign investor interest over the past few months. A recent report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development affirms that Singapore is one amongst the Southeast Asian economies to have attracted booming FDI inflows in 2010. Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell , Germany’s Bayer Haelthcare, US-based IT services company CSC, the Hanglong Group from China, Rolls Royce, Nestle, HP, and Fujitsu are among the many companies that invested heavily in Singapore in 2010.
“Several foreign firms have made multi million dollar investment commitments in Singapore contributing to the nation’s economic growth and creating large scale job opportunities.This year, P&G is investing S$250 million to build its innovation center in Singapore and will continue to expand its research operations in the city. We are positive about Singapore’s investment outlook for this year,” added Mr. Leow.
More information about starting a business in Singapore can be found at http://www.SingaporeStartup.com.
New BRIC Invasion Influence is Making Davos Dealmaking Change
Jan 26th
Souce: Financialfeed.net
by Nick Maffeo
The World Economic Forum seems to show that dealmakers’ power balance is changing as a great number of emerging markets executives are attending the Davos summit.
Nearly 365 top executives from BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and other emerging markets are joining. The International Monetary Fund said these nations helped in global economic recovery and this year, they will produce more growth. Emerging markets may grow 6.5% this year, twice the 2.5% developed nations’ rate.
BRIC invasion has caused a nearly 80% surge in 2010. It accounted for 22% of the $2.23 trillion deals worldwide. BRIC nations’ acquirers revealed $402 billion of takeovers; 74% up from 2009 and more than times four from 5 years earlier.
There will be more dealmaking between BRIC nations and western players. China and India aim to put security on natural resources for budding economies support. Cisco Systems Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., General Electric Co. and Vivendi SA want to explore those markets for growth.
Manpower Inc.’s CEO Jeff Joerres, said the emerging markets recovered faster out of the downturn and the western markets are relying on much of the emerging markets for their profits. Joerres is attending Davos while he considers India and China takeovers.
Telefonica SA increased Vivo Participacoes SA bid to 7.5 billion euros ($10.3 billion) to takeover Brazil’s giant wireless operator. In December, PepsiCo Inc. nodded to a controlling stake purchase of Wimm-Bill Dann Dairy & Juice Co. in Russia for $3.8 billion.
Counting the company’s debt, PepsiCo will pay 19.8 times the earnings of the dairy company before interest, taxes and depreciation and its past 12 months’ amortization.
As gaps between markets narrow, deals may get better. Trades of the Shanghai Composite Index were 17.3 times earnings. Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index is at 17.2 times its value while Bovespa Index in Brazil trades at 13.9 times earnings. Micex (Russia) is at 9.5 times.
BRIC takeover targets went 66% up in 2010 from 2005 with over 4,150 acquisitions. The last quarter in 2010 was great for deals with $156.8 billion in takeovers that involved BRIC nations.
Nouriel Roubini, an economist at New York University said that a lot of the long-term growth is priced in countries like Brazil adding that corporate governance and accounting standards aren’t as strong as in the developed markets.
Davos topics are apt to be defined by how companies cope with the changing economic realities, said Jose Sergio Gabrielli, Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s CEO.
BRIC attendees include Reliance Industries Ltd. Chairman Mukesh Ambani, OAO Lukoil CEO Vagit Alekperov and Chairman Wang Jianzhou of Mobile Ltd.
Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP reported that all of the 7 biggest developing economies’ GDP will outdo the GDP of Group of Seven in 2032, the biggest industrialized markets. The report mentioned that in that year, China will overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest economy.
Last year, about $70 billion was Petrobras’ biggest share sale as it puts more development effort on offshore fields’ exploration. It plans to buy Eni SpA’s stake in Portugal’s Galp Energia SGPS SA valued at 4 billion euros.
There is $240 million average cash on balance sheet of companies in BRIC that was previously at $143 million at the end of 2007, M&A’s peak that compared with Western countries’ $665 million in 2010.
China’s $200 billion made most of M&A volume in BRIC nations last year. Fastest in growth was India, its deals announced at $72 billion. Vedanta Resources Plc said yes to buy a majority stake in Cairn India Ltd. for $9.6 billion allowing it to penetrate the country’s largest oil field.
Yury Spektorov, Bain & Co. partner, said that over the next 5 to 7 years, emerging markets will play a major role thus Davos conversations will differ this year. It used to focus on crisis survival and now it is about how to develop and grow.
Opportunities Are Rising In Japan
Jan 17th
Source: Investopedia
By Aaron Levitt
When it comes to international investing, emerging markets are getting all the press. After all, long term trends favor nations like India. Funds like the PowerShares India (NYSE:PIN) have become popular portfolio additions for investors. Nevertheless, in all of this emerging market fervor, some developed markets have gone unnoticed. One in particular represents a deep value proposition.
A Turning Tide
Following a booming market during the 1980s, Japan’s economy has flat-lined over the ensuing decades. The resulting hangover from the stock and real estate market crash has had the average Japanese stock fund tracked by Morningstar exhibiting a 15-year total return of negative 1.52%. This ranks Japan among the world’s worst markets. Many factors have Prolonged the weakness, including inadequate stimulus measures and a zero interest rate policy that has caused the nation to have the highest government debt to GDP ratio among developed countries, currently 200%. Japan has certainly earned its “dead money” moniker.
However, despite the nation’s problems, it may be time for Japan. A recent poll of analysts conducted by Reuters, shows that Japanese stocks are likely to end 2011 around 17 % higher. The recovery in the U.S. and rising demand from emerging markets has caused factory outputs to gain. In addition, the nation’s companies are “cheap” by price to earnings standards. P/E ratios for stocks in the nation are currently hovering at levels not seen since the 1970s. Japanese small-caps are among some of the cheapest in the world. Even Japan’s real estate market is proving tempting after a 19 year decline. New lending by banks for real estate increased 6.6% in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, as investors in other Asian countries sought bargains away from high priced Hong Kong. -Continue Reading
S-chips set to shine in 2011: DMG report
Jan 10th
Source: The Business Times
By JOYCE HOOI
EVEN as the Year of the Rabbit beckons, it is the dragon that is expected to blaze a trail on the Singapore Exchange, this year.
S-chips – or Chinese companies listed on the Singapore Exchange – are set to bring investors attractive returns in 2011, the latest DMG & Partners Research report on the sector reckons.
‘S-chips saw renewed investors’ interest that helped the sector outperform the STI by 2 per cent over the past three months,’ DMG & Partners Research analysts, Tan Han Meng and Terence Wong, said in their report.
While most of the S-chip counters are in the small- cap league, they form a collective heft to be reckoned with.
At last count, the research house identified more than 150 stocks as S-chips, with a total market capitalisation of $52 billion.
The counters’ prospects will be boosted by China’s finalising of its 12th five-year plan in March and their dual-listing potential in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Fuxing China and Leader Environmental are among the firms that the research house believes ‘are primed for a dual listing’.
The report noted that share prices ‘typically experience good upswings’ from the time of the announcement to the eventual listing.
Other S-chips like China Animal Healthcare, China Minzhong, and Yamada Green were given the ‘buy’ rating in the report for their ‘high growth and strong cash generative characteristics’.
According to the report, environmental counters in particular could stand to be the beneficiaries of China’s 12th five-year plan.
It pointed out that the environmental protection industry in the mainland grew an average rate of 15 per cent to 17 per cent per annum, during the 11th five-year plan.
‘It is estimated that the environmental protection industry will continue its stable growth of 15 per cent per year and will reach 900 billion yuan (S$175 billion) by 2015,’ the report said.
To this end, wastewater treatment firms like Sound Global and United Envirotech have been favoured in the report, with a ‘buy’ rating.
The Chinese economy that drove the performance of the S-chips with a two- digit growth rate in 2010 is expected to hum along this year as well.
‘The economy looks set to achieve fairly solid growth in 2010 after expanding 10.6 per cent y-o-y in the first three quarters.
‘We expect to see full- year growth coming in at 10.2 per cent with more policy normalisation in coming quarters,’ the report said.
‘For 2011, we maintain our GDP growth forecast of 9.2 per cent on monetary tightening, lower investment, and slower exports mainly due to base effect, a stronger yuan, and higher production costs.’
