Showing posts with label Wealth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wealth. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Billionaires' riches reach record highs during pandemic

ZURICH, Switzerland - The wealth of the world's dollar billionaires reached record heights despite the global coronavirus crisis, notably thanks to a strong comeback by tech and health giants, said a report published Wednesday.

By the end of July, the cumulative wealth of billionaires stood at around $10.2 trillion, according to a study conducted by Switzerland's biggest bank UBS and accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers.

That exceeded the previous peak of $8.9 trillion recorded in 2017.

The annual inventory of the super-rich's fortunes identified 2,189 billionaires at the end of July -- 31 more than in 2017.

However, the figures mask significant changes during the stock market crash in March, which saw some tumble out of the billionaires' club, before a sharp rebound in technology and health stocks began.

"Fortunes are polarising as business innovators and disruptors deploy technology to be among the leaders of today's economic revolution," the report said.

"The Covid-19 crisis just accentuated this divergence" between tech, health and industry innovators who were already on the rise, and other billionaires who are "on the wrong side of economic, technological, societal and environmental trends" and are becoming less wealthy.

The coronavirus pandemic had a dramatic impact on the world's billionaires.

The wealth of billionaires fell 6.6 percent in February and March, before bouncing back by 27.5 percent between April and the end of July, notably to the benefit of technology giants.

Across 2018, 2019 and the first seven months of 2020, the fortunes of four billionaires in the tech sector increased by 42.5 percent, putting their cumulative fortune at an estimated $1.8 trillion.

Health sector billionaires recorded an increase of 50.3 percent, with a cumulative fortune estimated at $658.6 billion.

By comparison, the net worth of billionaires in industries such as entertainment, real estate and financial services only increased by no more than 10 percent.

Agence France-Presse

Monday, August 10, 2020

Supercars and champagne: Bangkok's rich purr through pandemic


BANGKOK - As the coronavirus brought the global economy to its knees, Thai businessman Yod decided to buy himself an $872,000 treat -- a lime-green Lamborghini.

Yod picked up the customised Huracan EVO supercar in Bangkok, a city of billionaires with a luxury economy unbroken by the crisis ripping through Thailand's wider economy.

With tourism and exports in freefall, Thailand's growth could shrivel by as much as 10 percent this year, dumping millions into unemployment.

But in a split-screen economy, there are plenty with immunity to the economic scourge caused by COVID-19.

Thailand is home to the ninth most billionaires anywhere, according to the China-based Hurun Report's Global Rich List 2020.

Among those with deep pockets is Yod -- full name Thanakorn Mahanontharit -- who was undeterred by Thailand's "crazy" supercar import taxes of up to 80 percent when he made his March purchase.

"This car makes me feel like David Beckham," the genial Bangkok-based petro-chemicals businessman told AFP.

"When you open your door everyone looks at you like you're a superstar."

Ferrari, Rolls-Royce and Lamborghini have all launched top-end models in Bangkok over the pandemic period, cars with price tags of between $750,000 and $1.2 million.

It is a bet on the wealth sloshing around Bangkok.

Millions of dollars of that cash were on proud display in the capital last week as an eye-catching 40-car convoy from the Thailand Lamborghini Club cut through the city's knotted traffic for a day trip to a nearby resort.

Lamborghinis "appeal to a very niche audience of high net-worth individuals", said Matteo Ortenzi, chief executive for Automobili Lamborghini in the Asia-Pacific region.

There has been "continued interest and demand (from Thailand), one of our most important markets in Southeast Asia," he added.

Yod said his supercar purchase was the completion of a lifelong dream.

"It is a reflection of your success, it doesn't mean I am better than you," he told AFP.

"It's just that I work hard and play harder."

ECONOMY IN REVERSE GEAR

But most Thais are in a different game.

The kingdom is one of Asia's least equal countries.

Thailand is headed by a super-rich monarchy and buttressed by a handful of family dynasties with monopolies covering everything from beer and duty-free to convenience stores.

Their fortunes have surged under six years of military-aligned government which has parcelled out major contracts to them, while the wider economy has backslid.

"One percent of the population owns pretty much two-thirds of the country," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political analyst from Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, warning that inequality is kindling a political crisis.

Meanwhile many more are sinking.

Farmers are reeling as demand struggles to return to pre-virus levels and remittances from migrants to the cities are drying up, while the urban middle class are facing a cash crunch playing out in unpaid loans and school fees.

As a result, household debt is forecast to surge to 88-90 percent of GDP by the end of this year, according to a Kasikornbank research note.

Government figures predict the pandemic could leave 8.4 million jobless, over a quarter of them employed in the cash-cow tourism sector.

That would eviscerate the gains of the last two decades, which saw millions lifted from poverty by Thailand's export, manufacturing and tourism boom.

Even before the pandemic hit, the number of people living in poverty had risen by nearly two million to 6.7 million, according to a March report by the World Bank.

Now, as the pandemic strips back the economy, the middle and working classes "are not well-cushioned," said Pavida Pananond, an academic at the Thammasat Business School.

Yet the rich enjoy a level of "financial immunity" from the crisis.

YACHTS AND CHAMPAGNE

Signs of the resilience of wealth are dotted across Bangkok.

Houses worth between $1-5 million are selling well, according to real estate agency CBRE Thailand, while condos at the super-plush Mandarin Oriental are being snapped up despite the $14,200-a-square-metre price tag -- pricier than the swankiest west London postcodes.

A trawl through the Instagram accounts of Thailand's 'Hi-So' (High Society) set also reveals a glamour scene unruffled by the new normal -- yoga sessions on pristine beaches, yacht parties and champagne receptions.

"They've got the money and they can spend it any time," says Naphalai Areesorn, editor-in-chief of fashion and society magazine Tatler Thailand.

The allure of being "Hi-So" runs through Thai society, she said, explaining that money -- especially the show of having it -- is a shortcut into Thailand's elite, which was once defined by having the right "breeding" and education. 

"There's still very much a class system here... maybe it comes from a feudalistic history," she said.

Entering High Society -- and staying there --- is very much "an aspiration" for many in Bangkok "whether you can afford it or not".

Agence France-Presse

Saturday, April 25, 2020

Kanye West now officially a billionaire: Forbes


WASHINGTON - Rapper Kanye West is now a billionaire thanks largely to the basketball shoes bearing his name that he developed with Adidas, Forbes magazine said Friday.

The rough figure of the wealth of Kim Kardashian's hubby is $1.3 billion, the magazine said in announcing the musician is now on its list of people worth at least $1 billion.

The 42-year-old Chicago-born rapper's Yeezy footwear often sells for more than $200 a pair in the United States and elsewhere.

West was associated with Nike for years but broke away in 2013, lending his name to Adidas as they launched their first shoe together in 2015.

Forbes said that for years West has been pressing the magazine to be listed as one of its mega-rich but that it declined, for lack of proof.

The magazine said tongue in cheek that for years it had applied what it called the Trump rule to West: "Take whatever the future president insisted he was worth, divide by three, and start honing from there."

Much of the rest of West's wealth comes from real estate he owns, the magazine said.

West is the second American rapper to make the Forbes list after Jay-Z, who made the cut last year.

Agence France-Presse

Wednesday, December 25, 2019

The hidden perk that New York's mega-rich now demand


NEW YORK — Sean O’Connor drove his Jeep into the porte cochère and through the wide garage door at the far end and got out.

After that, the garage took over, but not with an attendant behind the wheel. The garage in O’Connor’s luxury building in lower Manhattan is automated. No one touched the Jeep as it was lifted to its parking space five floors above.

The parking system is a high-tech twist possible in a building with a porte cochère, the urban version of a carport — a covered-driveway-and-entry combination that was popular in the days of horses and carriages.

“Porte cochère” — pronounced port KO-shair — is a French term that originally described an entrance to a building large enough for a coach to be driven into an interior courtyard. Think palaces. Think Louis XIV.

With New York experiencing a new gilded age, porte cochères are making a comeback in high-end buildings, like 565 Broome St., where O’Connor is the resident manager and where the least-expensive apartment on the market is listed at $3.925 million.

The modern porte cochère is all about invisibility, or at least providing cover from prying eyes on city streets.

Celebrities, VIPs and ultra-high-net-worth types, especially those who are not regulars in the gossip columns, do not want to be seen coming and going. The porte cochère is their shield from photographers, professionals and fans or mere passersby with cellphones held high.

In 2019 New York, many of those residents live in buildings where apartments sell for seven or eight figures. “Only a building that’s catering to a very affluent tenantry could afford to do this,” said Mosette Broderick, a professor at New York University.

Porte cochères take up space — more space than many New Yorkers’ apartments — and space is, of course, valuable. At more than 2,000 square feet, the porte cochère at 40 East End Ave., a new building on the Upper East Side, is at least three times the size of the average Manhattan apartment (733 square feet, according to the rental website RENTCafe).

At 111 W. 57th St., an 82-story tower on Billionaires’ Row, the developers created a porte cochère by scooping out a section of the former Steinway & Sons building.

The Waldorf Astoria is dividing its famous porte cochère, really an underground passage running the width of the building between East 50th and East 49th streets.

Half will serve the hotel that will occupy part of the building when a top-to-bottom renovation is completed in 2021, and half will serve the condominiums in the other part. The prices for the condos have not been announced.

“A private porte cochère has become a benchmark for buildings at this level, and really a requirement,” said Dan Tubb, the sales director for Douglas Elliman at the Waldorf. “There is a greater need to have a transition from the energy of the street, especially here in Manhattan, into a more serene and serviced environment.”

Such buildings have staffs that can help load the tote bags that residents take to their weekend houses in Connecticut or the Hamptons. To doormen and porters fall the responsibility of keeping up with the parade of look-alike Cadillac Escalades and Mercedes S class sedans.

Scott J. Avram, a senior vice president of Lightstone, the developer at 40 East End Ave., called the porte cochère “more important than a lot of more traditional indoor amenities,” like private dining rooms, reading rooms and game rooms.

But some critics believe the porte cochère should never have been resurrected.

“It’s being brought back at a time when the need for cars is less and less apparent,” said Adrian Benepe, a former New York City parks commissioner.

In the last several years, the city has begun moving away from the car culture that has dominated the streets for much of the 20th century. Miles of bus and bike lanes have been installed, and New York is poised to become the first American city with a congestion pricing plan intended to get cars off the busiest streets. Starting in 2021, motorists will have to pay a toll when they drive into most snarl-prone parts of Manhattan.

Julia Vitullo-Martin, a senior fellow at the Regional Plan Association, said car culture had “become the ultimate inequality” in New York.

“Very wealthy people not only have cars, they have one per adult — one SUV per adult — in a household,” she said, adding that in some distant neighborhoods, residents need cars to connect with subway or bus lines.

By all accounts, the porte cochère’s heyday ended decades ago. Few buildings were built with them after World War II.

“They were going out of style when the automobile was still very much dominant,” Benepe said, “and now that public transportation alternatives are becoming more dominant and the automobile is becoming less and less important as a means of transit, it’s confounding that the porte cochère would be brought back.”

But not to Avram on East End Avenue.

“The predominant buyer at this price point will have a car,” Avram said. “Five million to 25 million. That’s a homeowner and a car owner. A lot of them have drivers. So, whether you’re driving yourself or being dropped off, a car is a part of your life.”

For those who use Uber as their regular means of getting around, porte cochères are a plus, especially on bad-weather days, said William Sofield, the architect for the interior spaces at 111 W. 57th St., where the porte cochère is on the 58th Street side.

“You wait often,” he said. “My own experience is you can wait for a very long time when it says the car has been rerouted.”

The West 57th Street building took advantage of what it inherited — breaks in the sidewalk for driveways that dated to loading docks from when the building belonged to Steinway & Sons, the piano manufacturer. The old Steinway building is connected to a new structure that towers over it.

Those breaks are known as curb cuts and “are extremely difficult to get,” said Marci Clark, an architectural historian who is development director of JDS Development Group, one of the three developers behind 111 W. 57th St.

The West 57th Street building is still under construction, as is the Waldorf. But one new building with a porte cochère has already made the gossip columns: 70 Vestry, where Tom Brady of the New England Patriots and his wife, Gisele Bündchen — whom Forbes lists as one of the highest-paid models in the world — were said to have bought an apartment on the 12th floor for $24.5 million.

One of their neighbors who asked not to be named said the porte cochère added more than convenience to living in the building.

“You feel safe,” she said. “When you come home late at night, the taxi can drop you off in the porte cochère.”

Some older buildings have blocked off their porte cochères and no longer use them to accommodate cars. Arthur Weinstein, a lawyer who has lived at 924 West End Ave. since 1969, said the decision there was made years ago.

“People tried to beat the parking problem by sticking their cars inside” the porte cochère, he said. Besides, he said, the building’s porte cochère was never wide enough. “We decided it had no good functional use.”

For 44 years, Vitullo-Martin has lived in a building with a porte cochère that leads to a courtyard with an urban garden — the Belnord, on West 86th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue.

She and her husband are rent-regulated tenants; in recent years the Belnord has been renovated as a condominium, with apartments listed for as much as $11.45 million.

As the prices at the Belnord have risen, the size of the vehicles that drive into the courtyard has also grown.

“These SUVs are like trucks,” said Vitullo-Martin, who does not own a car. “It’s as if the courtyard is open to the trucking industry.”

c.2019 The New York Times Company

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Friday, November 8, 2019

Billionaires' wealth falls for first time since 2015


ZURICH - The world's richest people became a little less well off last year, according to a report by UBS and PwC, as geopolitical turmoil and volatile equity markets reduced the wealth of billionaires for the first time since 2015.

Billionaires' wealth fell by 4.3% globally to $8.5 trillion last year, the UBS/PwC report found, with a sharp decline in Greater China, including Hong Kong, and the Asia-Pacific region more broadly.

Private wealth in Hong Kong fell 4% in 2018 to $319.8 billion, the report showed, with months of anti-government protests in the Chinese-ruled city and an economic recession clouding the outlook this year.

Some Hong Kong tycoons have begun moving personal wealth offshore, Reuters reported in June, as concerns deepen over the protests.

"We haven't seen any significant outflows, we have been tracking some of these numbers on a regular basis," said Amy Lo, UBS co-head of Asia Pacific wealth management. "Our clients have been diversifying all along, it's not in the last one year."

Private banks including the world's largest wealth manager UBS have felt the effects of U.S.-China trade tensions and global political uncertainties, as clients last year shied away from trading and taking on debt in favour of hoarding cash.

The net worth of China's richest dropped 12.8% in dollar terms on the back of tumbling stock markets, a weaker local currency and a slowdown in growth, the report found, knocking dozens off the billionaires list.

Despite the drop, China still produces a new billionaire every 2-2.5 days, UBS's head of ultra-high net worth clients, Josef Stadler, said in the report released on Friday.

Worldwide, the number of billionaires fell everywhere except in the Americas, where tech entrepreneurs continued to buoy the ranks of the United States' wealthiest.

"This report shows the resilience of the U.S. economy," where there were 749 billionaires at the end of 2018, said John Matthews, head of private wealth management and ultra-high net worth business for UBS in the United States.

While a stock market recovery from a steep drop in late 2018 has helped wealth managers increase their assets, the world's richest families remain concerned about global affairs from trade tensions and Brexit to populism and climate change and are keeping more of their money in cash.

"It is likely that billionaire wealth will go up again this year," said Simon Smiles, UBS's chief investment officer for ultra-wealthy clients, adding it would likely be a more muted increase than the wider financial market rally might suggest. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Saudi princess says $900,000 of jewels stolen from her Paris hotel


PARIS - A Saudi princess has reported the theft of jewels worth 800,000 euros ($930,000) from her suite at the Ritz hotel in Paris, a police source said on Monday.

The woman, who was not named, said the jewels were taken on Friday afternoon. There were no signs that the room had been broken into, the source said. The woman told prosecutors the belongings were not left in the room's safe.

A spokesman for the Ritz declined to comment.

If confirmed, it would be the second heist from the chic hotel on Paris's Place Vendome this year.

In January, ax-bearing thieves burst into the lobby and stole millions of dollars worth of necklaces and other jewellery from display cases.

Police managed to catch three of them inside, and two others who escaped on a scooter ended up dropping a bag of their loot. All the jewels were eventually recovered.

Armed thefts are not uncommon in the area, where dozens of luxury boutiques and jewellery stores align the streets.

In December 2017, a man was able to substitute two diamonds and two rings worth 5.5 million euros in a jewellery store, replacing them with cheap fakes.

In October 2016, reality TV star Kim Kardashian was the victim of a robbery 10 minutes walk from the Ritz, in which millions of dollars' worth of her jewellery were stolen.

Police now keep a permanent presence in the neighborhood, but that has done little to deter determined robbers.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Friday, June 15, 2018

World's rich grow richer as bull markets roar on - study


ZURICH - The pool of money held by the world's wealthiest people grew by 12 percent last year to nearly $202 trillion as bull markets and the dollar's weakening against most major currencies boosted global fortunes, an international advisory firm's study released on Thursday said.

Adjusted for exchange rate swings, wealth rose 7 percent, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) survey found.

While residents of North America held the greatest share of personal wealth at almost 43 percent, the fastest growth came in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Most super-rich individuals lived in the United States, China and Japan.

The business of providing advice to those super-rich is still strong in North America.

However, legacy retail brokerages such as Morgan Stanley , Bank of America Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, UBS AG Group's Wealth Management in the Americas and Wells Fargo Advisors lost market share as less wealthy clients went elsewhere.

Legacy brokerages' market share fell to 37 percent in 2016 from 41 percent in 2012, while the portion held by direct channel firms such as Charles Schwab and Fidelity grew modestly to 21 percent from 20 percent.

More than 35 million Americans now have between $250,000 and $1 million, a wealth bracket the industry calls mass affluent. BCG senior partner Brent Beardsley said that many mass affluent savers hold a lot of their money in a retirement account, like a 401(k), which oftentimes are managed by a company like Schwab or Fidelity.

"(They have) a natural structural advantage" over legacy brokerages, Beardsley said.

BCG's annual study also showed Switzerland remained the world's biggest centre for managing offshore wealth with $2.3 trillion, followed by Hong Kong with $1.1 trillion and Singapore with $0.9 trillion.

The two Asian centers have grown at yearly rates of 11 and 10 percent respectively over the past five years, more than three times the 3 percent rate Switzerland has posted.

It is in the fast-growing markets that large wealth managers including Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse are casting wider nets.

The Swiss banking secrecy from which they long profited has been weakened, meaning rich people from around the world can no longer easily use the Alpine Republic to stash wealth away from tax authorities at home.

The changes have put Switzerland in fierce competition with faster-growing centres like Hong Kong and Singapore. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Number of billionaires worldwide jumps 10 pct: study


The number of billionaires worldwide rose above 1,500 last year, a 10 percent jump from 2015, due largely to a surge in Asia, Swiss banking giant UBS and auditors PwC said Thursday.

In an annual report, UBS and PwC said that last year marked the first time it recorded more billionaires in Asia (637) than in the United States (563), crediting the rise of China's entrepreneurs.

Europe took third spot in the report's billionaire database with 342.

The total wealth controlled by the ultra-rich group also shot up to $6 trillion (5.1 trillion euros), marking a 17 percent rise on the previous year when billionaire wealth actually shrank, the report said.

The group of 1,542 billionaires either owns or partly controls companies that employ 27.7 million people, it added.

While the chasm between the world's rich and poor remains a burning political issue across the continents, UBS and PwC said that billionaire assets are increasingly likely to benefit the needy.

"Looking further forward, we estimate that $2.4 trillion (2.1 trillion euros) of billionaire wealth will be transferred in the next two decades as billionaires age, with a significant amount going to philanthropic causes," the report said.

Three quarters of those who newly became billionaires in 2016 were from China and India, the findings showed.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Saturday, December 31, 2016

Easy feng shui tips to attract prosperity in 2017


MANILA – This New Year’s Eve, make sure to do these things at home to invite prosperity and wealth in 2017, a feng shui expert said.

In his book “Feng Shui 2017” under ABS-CBN Publishing, Hanz Cua gave easy tips on how to attract good fortune and rid the home of negative energy.

These include opening all windows and doors at home at exactly 12 midnight on January 1, making loud noises using pots, pans and fireworks and sharing a meal with the family, among others.

Here are excerpts from his book:

“Sa ganap na alas-dose ng hatinggabi, buksan ang lahat ng pinto, bintana at mga ilaw upang pumasok ang swerte sa loob ng bahay.”

“Upang madagdagan ang pagtaas o maging mas matangkad, tumalon nang paulit-ulit.”

“Lumikha ng ingay upang mapaalis ang malas: kalampagin ang mga kaldero at kawali, magpatugtog nang malakas, sabayan ng tawanan at sigawan, magpailaw ng mga lusis, kwitis. Ngunit mag-ingat sa malalakas at mapanganib na mga paputok gaya ng labintador, trianggulo at iba pa upang makaiwas sa disgrasya.”

“Salu-salong kumain ng media noche at pagsaluhan ang biyaya ng Panginoon na may kasamang pasasalamat at paghingi ng patawad.”

“Sa unang araw ng Enero, isama ang pamilya sa pamamasyal.”

Although not all Filipinos believe in feng shui, many of them prefer to be on the safe side by adhering to its principles, buying trinkets and other “lucky” items for themselves and their homes.

Others, meanwhile, opt to respect the ancient Chinese system the same way that believers do not criticize their Catholic faith.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Indians disclose $10 billion in hidden wealth


NEW DELHI -- Indians have declared almost $10 billion in hidden wealth under a government amnesty on tax evasion, as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's moves to crack down on huge piles of black money.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the four-month scheme that closed on Friday had resulted in 64,275 declarations of previously undisclosed assets and income, totaling 652.5 billion rupees ($9.8 billion).

"With so many people declaring money it shows a significant number of people want to become tax compliant," Jaitley told reporters in New Delhi on Saturday.

"This figure could be revised upward once the final tabulation is done," the minister said, adding that the additional revenue would help fund public welfare schemes.

India's taxpayers are startlingly few, with only around 2.5 percent of its 1.2 billion population filing returns -- largely because the so-called unorganised sector employs so many people who are paid cash.

Modi vowed to crack down on tax avoidance to tackle the country's yawning inequality after storming to power at elections in 2014.

His government introduced a slew of rules this year including making it mandatory to declare a unique taxpayer number when purchasing goods over 200,000 rupees.

Under the scheme, authorities promised not to pursue Indians in return for coming clean on hidden wealth and paying tax on it.

But accountants and other experts remained sceptical about whether Indians would cough up their wealth. The government did not announce a public target for the initiative.

Across all levels of society, rounding up tax is difficult when dodging it is practically a national sport, from small-time landlords who request rent in cash to large-scale money laundering via state lotteries.

Only six people earning over 500 million rupees ($7.4 million) filed returns in 2012-2013, despite there being an estimated 2,100 ultra-wealthy Indians whose net worth exceeds $50 million.

Billions of dollars in unpaid taxes deprive the government of revenues that could be spent on changing lives in a country where 270 million people survive on less than $2 a day, according to the World Bank.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Thursday, February 11, 2016

A Different Way to Look at Debt


There’s often conversations about debt being good or bad. But really, debt is just debt. It has no emotions and you’re the person who’s in control of it.

I read a comment recently that rephrased this good vs. evil debt mentality in the most perfect way: debt is not good or bad – it is profitable or unprofitable.

Student Loan Debt
I’ve personally never had any student loan debt so I don’t know what it feels like it to have it hovering over my head. But going through the theory of profitable vs. unprofitable debt student loans could fall into either.

Your student loan debt is profitable if:

    Your degree helps you land a job that pays higher than you could get without a degree. (Because we know that not all degrees are going to score you a high paying job.)
    You use your student loans to pay for tuition and related expenses.

If you’ve used your student loan debt to finance a lifestyle that you shouldn’t be living right now then your student debts are not profitable.

Use your student loans to advance your career, earn decent money, and only use them to pay for necessary college expenses and you’re looking at profitable debt.

Consumer Debt

Consumer debt is the absolute most unprofitable debt that you can have. If you’re using credit cards and other personal loans to finance your life you’re living beyond your means and are setting yourself up for financial disaster.

Stay away from this type of debt.

Mortgage Debt

Mortgage debt is a big toss-up. If you plan on living in one place all of your life, purchasing a house may save you money in the long run over renting.

However, if you’re not staying in one place forever and at some point need to sell your home you could lose a lot of money if housing prices drop. OR you could make a small profit when it came time to sell.

Mortgage debt is one that comes down to individual circumstances although I would argue that it definitely leans more toward the unprofitable side of the equation.

Investments

Debt becomes the most useful when it comes to investing. Many investors have built their wealth by leveraging debt and purchasing real estate.

Other ways to use debt to its advantage is when you’re investing in yourself in a way that produces tangible results or using that money to grow your business.

Bottom line: debt isn’t good or evil. When you intentionally use it to its advantage it can be a tool for building wealth. If you use it in an irresponsible way it can be a path to financial disaster.

source: everybodylovesyourmoney.com


Sunday, January 17, 2016

Richest 62 people own same as half world's population - Oxfam


LONDON - The wealthiest 62 people now own as much as half the world's population, some 3.5 billion people, as the super-rich have grown richer and the poor poorer, an international charity said on Monday.

The wealth of the richest 62 people has risen by 44 percent since 2010, while the wealth of the poorest 3.5 billion fell 41 percent, Oxfam said in a report released ahead of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Almost half the super-rich individuals are from the United States, 17 from Europe, and the rest from countries including China, Brazil, Mexico, Japan and Saudi Arabia.

"World leaders' concern about the escalating inequality crisis has so far not translated into concrete action - the world has become a much more unequal place and the trend is accelerating," Oxfam International's executive director, Winnie Byanima, said in a statement accompanying the report.

"We cannot continue to allow hundreds of millions of people to go hungry while resources that could be used to help them are sucked up by those at the top," Byanima added.

About $7.6 trillion of individuals' wealth sits in offshore tax havens, and if tax were paid on the income that this wealth generates, an extra $190 billion would be available to governments every year, Gabriel Zucman, assistant professor at University of California, Berkeley, has estimated.

As much as 30 percent of all African financial wealth is held offshore, costing about $14 billion in lost tax revenues every year, Oxfam said, referring to Zucman's work.

This is enough money to pay for healthcare that could save 4 million children's lives a year, and employ enough teachers to get every African child into school, Oxfam said in its report.

"Multinational companies and wealthy elites are playing by different rules to everyone else, refusing to pay the taxes that society needs to function. The fact that 188 of 201 leading companies have a presence in at least one tax haven shows it is time to act," Byanima said.

Ensuring governments collect the taxes they are owed by companies and rich individuals will be vital if world leaders are to meet their goal to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030, one of 17 Sustainable Development Goals set in September, Oxfam said.

EXTREME POVERTY FALLING

The number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen by 650 million since 1981, even though the global population grew by 2 billion in that time, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Much of this change has been because of the rise of China, which alone accounted for half a billion people moving out of extreme poverty.

Most of the world's poorest no longer live in the poorest countries, but in middle-income countries like India, the OECD said in a recent report.

The inequalities are partly to do with differences in income, especially between urban and rural areas, but also differences in access to healthcare, education and jobs, the OECD said.

"The figures suggest that the biggest causes of poverty are ... political, economic and social marginalization of particular groups in countries that are otherwise doing quite well," development economist Owen Barder is quoted as saying in the OECD report.

Barder is director for Europe at the Center for Global Development.

Although taxes and transfers help reduce income inequality in developed countries, these systems are less robust in many developing countries, according to the OECD.

An exception is Brazil, which makes payments to more than 13.3 million poor families on condition they enrol children in school and take part in health programs.

"That has helped to reduce rates of both child poverty as well as inequality," the OECD report said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

A look at Putin's daughters and Russia's second-generation elite


LONDON/MOSCOW- Since Vladimir Putin began cementing his grip on Russia in the 1990s, many of his friends have grown famously rich.

Not so the president himself, say his supporters, who insist Putin is above the money grab that has marked his reign. His public financial disclosures depict a man of modest means. In April, Putin declared an income for 2014 of 7.65 million roubles ($119,000). He listed the ownership of two modest apartments and a share in a car parking garage.

His daughter Katerina is doing considerably better, supported by some of the Russian president's wealthy friends, a Reuters examination shows.

After unconfirmed media speculation about Katerina's identity, a senior Russian figure told Reuters that she uses the surname Tikhonova. Andrey Akimov, deputy chairman of Russian lender Gazprombank, said he had met Katerina when she was little and more recently, and that Tikhonova was Putin's daughter.

Reuters has also learned that earlier this year Katerina, 29, described herself as the "spouse" of Kirill Shamalov, son of Nikolai Shamalov, a longtime friend of the president. Shamalov senior is a shareholder in Bank Rossiya, which U.S. officials have described as the personal bank of the Russian elite.

As husband and wife, Kirill and Katerina would have corporate holdings worth about $2 billion, according to estimates provided to Reuters by financial analysts. That wealth stems mainly from a large publicly disclosed stake in a major gas and petrochemical company that Kirill acquired from Gennady Timchenko, another longtime friend of Putin.

Also among the young couple's holdings is a seaside villa in Biarritz, France, estimated to be worth about $3.7 million. That asset, too, was acquired by Kirill from Timchenko, a commodities trader who has known the president since at least the 1990s.

Katerina is also thriving in academia and running publicly funded projects at Moscow State University. A Reuters examination of public documents shows that the president's younger daughter has signed contracts worth several million dollars from state-owned organisations for work at the university to be carried out by organisations she directs. There is no indication she has made any personal financial gain from this work.

She holds a senior position at the university, and helps direct a $1.7 billion plan to expand its campus. Katerina's official advisers at Moscow State University include five members of Putin's inner circle - including two former KGB officers who knew her when she was a toddler. They served with her father in the 1980s when he was deployed to Dresden, East Germany.

Putin's elder daughter, Maria, is linked to Moscow State University as well. She is a graduate of the school's Fundamental Medicine Department and is forging a career in endocrinology, according to publicly available documents.

Katerina, Maria and Kirill Shamalov all declined to comment for this article. Asked about the Biarritz home, a spokesman for Timchenko said he would not comment on personal matters.

The stock acquisitions, state business deals, French property and oligarch connections offer a rare glimpse into the lives of Putin's children. The president has been very protective of his private life and his daughters, who seldom appear in the media. The transactions also provide insight into the family finances of Russia's most powerful man and the elite that has formed around him.

Katerina and Kirill, 33, are among a new generation of Russians enjoying a rapid rise in the wake of their well-connected parents. The phenomenon bears similarities to the "princelings" of China - the children and grandchildren of Communist Party leaders who have gone on to gain positions of power and amass great wealth.

Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a sociologist and former member of Putin's United Russia political party, told Reuters that a "new aristocracy" was emerging in politics and state companies, with a second generation inheriting the status of the current circle around Putin. "Many in society think they haven't worked for it, and they question who these people really are," she said.

Among other children of the Putin circle with growing influence are:

Boris Kovalchuk, son of Yuri Kovalchuk, the largest shareholder of Bank Rossiya and a close Putin associate;

Gleb Frank, son of former transport minister Sergei Frank and son-in-law of commodity billionaire Timchenko; Igor Rotenberg, son of the billionaire Arkady Rotenberg, Putin's former judo partner;

Sergei S. Ivanov, son of Kremlin Chief of Staff Sergei B. Ivanov.

In an interview with Reuters, Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader, described what he called a "neo-feudal system" that threatens to dominate state offices and big business.

"Today in Russia, it is absolutely normal that the boards of directors at state banks are headed by children of security service officials, who aren't even 30 years old when they are appointed," he said. "It is more than just a dynastic succession. Children don't just inherit their parents' posts, but also the right to choose any other post they fancy. The danger is that very soon all key resources will end up in the hands of five to seven families."

Reuters asked the Kremlin whether Katerina Tikhonova was the daughter of Putin and whether she is married to Kirill Shamalov, and other questions. Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the Russian Federation, replied: "We have no information whatsoever about the personal life, family connection, marital status, academic activities, involvement in particular projects and family tree of Ms Tikhonova, or about other individuals mentioned in your letter.

"In recent years there has been an enormous quantity of gossip on the subject of the family ties of V. Putin, and, in particular, his daughters. The proportion of accurate information in all these publications is laughably small."

"TALENTED RESEARCHER"

Katerina has largely escaped public attention since her father became president in 2000. In 2011, Putin told Russian television that Katerina had read Oriental studies, specialising in Japanese and history, at St. Petersburg University.

Little else was known about her adult life until a Russian blogger, Oleg Kashin, reported in January that the president's younger daughter was active at Moscow State University and had taken the surname Tikhonova, derived from the name of her grandmother, Yekaterina Tikhonovna Shkrebneva.

As well as Gazprombank's Akimov, two senior academic sources - one at Moscow State University and one scientist with close contacts there - also confirmed to Reuters that Tikhonova is Putin's daughter.

She has made rapid progress since her Oriental studies as an undergraduate.

According to the website of Moscow State University, she is attached to the Mechanics and Mathematics Faculty. Under the name Tikhonova, she is listed as an author, along with other academics, of a chapter in a maths text book and at least six scientific papers since 2011. The papers include studies on medicines and space travel; one is listed as a study of how the human body reacts to zero gravity.

Most of the papers were co-authored with the university rector, Viktor Sadovnichy. He did not respond directly to requests for comment, but the university issued a statement.

It said Tikhonova had proved to be a "talented researcher" who had "reported results of her research at scientific seminars and conferences many times." The statement added: "We do not have information about the private life of employees."

Tikhonova is also the director of two initiatives connected to the university, the National Intellectual Development Foundation (NIDF) and the National Intellectual Reserve Centre (NIRC). She became director of the non-profit NIDF in May 2013 and later became director of the NIRC as well.

The NIRC and NIDF created and run a project at the university called Innopraktika, which is also headed by Tikhonova. It sponsors and supports young scientists.

Innopraktika has a raft of advisers and partners who are close to Putin, including Sergei Chemezov and Nikolai Tokarev. The two men were KGB associates of Putin during his days as a spy in Dresden, Germany, living in the same apartment block as the future Russian leader and his young family.

Chemezov is now the head of state-owned technology giant Rostec, and Tokarev is head of state-owned Transneft, a gas pipeline company. Tokarev did not respond to a request for comment. Chemezov's company Rostec said in a statement that Rostec assists in the state's development of industry, and that Chemezov's involvement with Innopraktika was therefore "natural and logical."

Also among the trustees of Innopraktika, according to its website, are Igor Sechin, head of the state oil company Rosneft, and Andrey Akimov, deputy chairman of Gazprombank. Rosneft and Sechin declined to comment.

Asked about Tikhonova and Innopraktika, Akimov told Reuters: "I knew it was Putin's daughter. But of course we took the decision to support MSU's projects irrespective of any family connections." Innopraktika's programme coincided with the bank's own priorities, he said, including Gazprombank's "global idea of supporting scientific development."

He said he did not believe that Tikhonova had received any special treatment, and that he supported the expansion plan of Moscow State University, regardless of Tikhonova's involvement.

The university's rector, Sadovnichy, said in a May 2014 presentation published on the university website that NIDF, along with other entities, would be tasked with conducting an expert review of the expansion of the university. Tikhonova's role is to confer with and represent the views of the wider business community, she told Interfax in an interview this month.

The $1.7 billion expansion plan involves both public and private funding, and aims to double the size of the university campus by 2018 with new laboratories, academic buildings, schools, student accommodation, and a museum.

The NIDF did not respond to a request for comment. In an email, Innopraktika referred questions about its activities to Moscow State University and said it could not comment on Tikhonova's private life.

The university said in a statement that many people were involved in its expansion plan, including university employees and outside experts.

According to Russian state public records, since 2013 the NIDF has won contracts worth 182 million roubles ($2.8 million) from Rosneft, Rosatom and Transneft, all state-owned companies. Of 10 contracts reviewed by Reuters, eight were awarded without competitive tender. The contracts were mostly to carry out research at the university.

Transneft declined to comment. A spokesman for Rosatom said: "Rosatom cooperates with Innopraktika as well as other institutions ... As part of its strategy Rosatom aims at developing new projects." He said contracts were awarded openly and transparently.

A spokesman for the oil company Rosneft said it was cooperating with Moscow State University on 17 projects that were worth a total of 530 million roubles.

In March 2015, Tikhonova was appointed as a deputy vice-rector of the university. It is not known whether the post pays a salary. Tikhonova's role in the expansion project, though not her family tie to Putin, was laid out in a report in January by Russian news agency RBC. Her title at the university was first reported by opposition leader Navalny. Her appointment is noted in an official order by Sadovnichy posted on the university website. She does not appear on the ordinary list of staff, but she is listed as a member of the university's scientific council.

Asked about Tikhonova's title, pay and role, the university said in statement: "The National Intellectual Reserve Centre supports specifically young people in innovative activity of MSU, and that is why its activity is coordinated by the Rector's office ... Consequently the Centre's director Katerina Tikhonova is the deputy vice-rector within this department."

OCEAN VIEWS
Tikhonova is active beyond the university. Under that name, she has competed for years as an acrobatic rock'n'roll dancer. In 2013, she and her dancing partner came fifth in a world championship event in Switzerland.

Today, she is chairman of two organising committees of the All-Russian Acrobatic Rock'n'Roll Federation, according to its website. The Federation's sponsors include Sibur, Novatek and Gazprombank - companies that are co-owned or co-controlled by friends and associates of the president. These people include Timchenko; Kirill Shamalov; and Kirill's elder brother, Yury Shamalov. The same companies are also mentioned on Innopraktika's website as among its corporate partners.

A spokesman for Sibur said: "As for sponsoring the (Acrobatic Rock'n'Roll) Federation - the motives are the same as in partnerships with other types of sport. At different times Sibur has supported the Russian basketball federation, Formula One team, many Russian hockey and football teams and many others."

The spokesman said Sibur provided advice but not money to Innopraktika, and had long collaborated with Moscow State University. Novatek did not respond to requests for comment.

News of a possible relationship between Tikhonova and Shamalov surfaced early this year. The RBC agency and Kashin's blog both reported in January that the two visited Switzerland together.

Reuters has independently confirmed that Tikhonova identified herself as Shamalov's "spouse" during her visit to Switzerland.

The young Shamalov has a valuable property in France. Perched atop a sea cliff in the resort of Biarritz is a four-storey house with a swimming pool, which Shamalov acquired three years ago.

The elegant house on Avenue du General Mac Croskey in Biarritz covers about 300 square metres inside and has 2,000 square metres of garden. Built in the 1950s, it is now worth about 3.5 million euros ($3.7 million), according to Pierre Fourreau, an architect who renovated the property seven years ago.

Public records show the property was previously owned by Putin's old friend Timchenko. In September 2007, Timchenko and his wife, Elena Ermakova, registered a French property company called SCI Atlantic to acquire the house. On Nov. 15, 2012, the couple's shares in SCI Atlantic, which still owns the Biarritz house, were transferred for an undisclosed price to Kirill Shamalov.

People living near the Biarritz house say they have not seen the young couple there.

The Biarritz house is a small part of Shamalov's growing assets. In 2008, the young businessman became a member of the management board of Sibur Holding, a large, privately held gas-processing and petrochemicals company. He acquired a 4.3 percent stake.

In 2014, he acquired an additional 17 percent holding in Sibur from Timchenko and became a member of Sibur's board of directors. Timchenko has known the Russian leader at least since Putin's days as deputy mayor in St. Petersburg in the 1990s, and the two prospered together. While Putin went on to become president, Timchenko co-created Gunvor, a company that traded Russian oil, and became a multi-billionaire.

Sibur recorded revenues of 361 billion roubles ($5.6 billion) and net profit of 25 billion roubles in 2014. Last year it began a project with the U.S. National Basketball Association (NBA) to develop basketball in Russia. The project is continuing, said spokesmen for the NBA and Sibur.

Shamalov's 21 percent stake in Sibur is worth about $2 billion, possibly more, according to estimates by three financial analysts.

The price Shamalov paid for his stake in Sibur has not been disclosed, and it isn't clear where he obtained the capital to purchase the shares. In an interview with Kommersant in August, Shamalov said he had acquired the stake at a market price and had borrowed money to buy it, but did not specify how much. When Reuters asked about the stake, a spokeswoman for Shamalov declined to comment.

A spokesman for Sibur said: "According to corporate rules, we do not comment on the personal lives of our managers and members of the board of directors."

A spokesman for Timchenko declined to comment on the Biarritz house. He said Timchenko's sales of shares to Shamalov were "monetary transactions, made at market prices."

In comparison to this rising young Russian generation, Vladimir Putin remains a man of the middle class, according to his asset declaration. As well as his salary, he declared the ownership of one apartment in Moscow and another in St. Petersburg. He listed no property abroad.

The president's spokesman has repeatedly denied that a luxurious estate built on the Black Sea and popularly known as "Putin's palace" was intended for the Russian president. As Reuters reported last year, the mansion was partly funded by Nikolai Shamalov - father of Kirill, the man who the president's daughter has described as her spouse.

(Grey reported from London and Piper from Moscow; Additional reporting by Katerina Kravstova and Himanshu Ojha in London, and Claude Canellas in Biarritz; Editing By Richard Woods and Michael Williams)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Why this book is irking Manhattan's super-rich


NEW YORK - It's a mommy memoir causing a rumpus in New York: how pill-popping, wine-quaffing, uber-rich mothers on Manhattan's Upper East Side get year-end bonuses from their husbands and hire tutors for toddlers.

"Primates of Park Avenue" is the latest in a long line of books devoted to the unimaginable wealth of the one percent in a city where some estimate that more than 20 percent of children live in homes without enough to eat.

Author Wednesday Martin seeks to distinguish the book from the jungle of other literature about extravagant excesses by mixing anecdote with anthropology.

The blonde mother of two with a husband in finance peppers her eyebrow-raising assertions with observations made by the English primatologist Jane Goodall in her study of chimpanzees in Tanzania.

She equates her quest to acquire an ultra-exclusive Hermes "Birkin" handbag -- which can sell for $150,000 or more -- to a chimp seeking to show strength in the wild.

Martin details gender segregation at dinner parties, where men and women sit at separate tables, and portrays women as "Manhattan geishas" who sculpt their bodies and beauty to the extreme.

Thin and anxious, mommies self-medicate with wine -- served at playdates, even as early as 11 am -- and prescription drugs.

She feigns horror in discovering her son has the wrong birthday in a culture of "redshirting" -- timing pregnancies so children are born in the autumn, so they are the oldest, and presumably the most intellectually developed, in their age group.

Reviews of the book -- presented as an "anthropological memoir" -- have been decidedly mixed.

"An amusing, perceptive and, at times, thrillingly evil takedown of upper-class culture," wrote The New York Times.

"Sexist and harsh," said Elle magazine.

The New York Post fact fact-checked the book and alleged that it was "full of lies," among others that Martin had lived on the Upper East Side for three years with one child, not six years with two children.

Neither was she pregnant and confined to bed rest, dressed in pearls and a jacket when being interviewed for a condo, as the book said.

Author 'has not lied'

Martin and publishers Simon and Schuster have stood by the book, but say future copies will come with an author's note to explain that some names, characteristics and chronologies had been changed.

Cary Goldstein, executive director of publicity at Simon and Schuster, said that such notes were "totally customary" for memoirs.

"The author has not lied. There isn't a movement or backlash against Wednesday Martin," Goldstein told AFP.

The brouhaha has certainly been good for sales. Released on June 2, it is already number one on Amazon's list of best-selling memoirs.

"The book is doing very well," Goldstein said. The publishers are in the sixth printing run, with 63,000 copies produced.

An essay written by Martin introducing the book is the third most emailed article on The New York Times website in the last 30 days.

"Many people are fascinated and some people may have been appalled by the lifestyles of the very wealthy. People live vicariously or they live in judgment," Goldstein said.

What is clear is that the slim tome about New York's wealthiest zip code has sparked fury, bafflement and confusion from ladies who have flocked to the papers saying she's got it all wrong.

"I think it's an effort to dehumanize these people -- it seems to be a divisive book designed to humiliate a group of people," People magazine quoted an anonymous uptown mom as complaining.

In particular, wealthy women scoff at her much-hyped, passing remark that glam stay-at-home moms get a percentage of their husband's year-end bonus for looking good and taking care of the kids.

"I don't know anybody, and I mean anybody, who has something like that written in their pre-nup. And I know a lot of people," Vanity Fair quoted Upper East Sider Allison Aston as saying.

"It might be happening in extreme cases, but it's certainly not the norm."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Learning To Make Money With Forex Trading


Becoming a professional Forex trader is a popular business path for many interested in making a considerable amount of money with a minimum amount of physical labor. According to a recently conducted BIS survey, the value of all trades on the global currency market is worth a staggering $5.3 trillion a day. Experts estimate that roughly 95 per cent of currency trades made on the Forex market are pure speculation in an effort to make a profit.

Before becoming a Forex trader, it is important to learn about the Forex market. Failure to do your research ahead of time can result in the loss of a lot of your capital very quickly. Spread betting is a term that every Forex trader should understand. Spread betting is making money from the difference between a start value of a currency and its finish value. If the start value is smaller than the finish value, the trader profits from the rise in a price.

The fees that the trader will pay on spread betting will depend on how long the bet is kept open. If the transaction is open for a day or two, the financing charge will likely be small. For bets ranging up to three months, the fee could be considerably more for many of the major currency pairs.

When spread betting, currency traders will often use leverage, which involves borrowing more than their initial deposit amount to trade in the market, typically in an effort to maximize profits. However, if the market swings in an unexpected direction, traders can lose their initial deposit and face a ‘margin call’ for the additional losses sustained in the trades.

Some people think that using leverage will earn them substantial gains, but forget that it could cause substantial losses as well. Excessive leverage can destroy an otherwise winning strategy, producing excessive losses if the trader has a streak of bad luck. Some experts recommend by using no more than 10x effective leverage.

It is important to remember that Forex trading will not be a shortcut to instant wealth. The amount earned in the Forex market is determined mostly by the amount of capital you are willing to risk in the market. Forex trading is a volatile asset class, sometimes recording triple digits swings in a day. Many people like to get started with Forex trading by opening a demo Forex account where they can explore Forex trading without risking their funds. Free guides and online tutorials are also available to help beginners learn about trading in the Forex market.

source: everybodylovesyourmoney.com

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Why Warren Buffett is taking his checkbook abroad


NEW YORK - Warren Buffett, in his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway Inc shareholders last year, called America "the mother lode of opportunity."

This year, his 50th at Berkshire's helm, the world's third-richest person could write something quite different.

When Buffett releases this year's letter on Saturday, he may point to opportunities outside of the United States, after he recently decided to buy a German motorcycle accessories retailer and said he may shop more in that country.

That would mark a significant turn for Berkshire, a conglomerate with more than 80 businesses, giant stock investments and a $360 billion market value.

Buffett did not return a request for comment.

In his letter, eagerly awaited on Wall Street for Buffett's candid thoughts on investing, business and life, the 84-year-old Buffett may detail his vision for Berkshire in the decades to come, including after he is gone.

His comparatively taciturn second-in-command, 91-year-old Charlie Munger, is also expected to express his thoughts.

"Warren Buffett recognizes that global investing is going to be an important part of the future," said Michael Yoshikami, chief executive of Destination Wealth Management in Walnut Creek, California and a longtime Berkshire shareholder.

Buffett's strategy of buying solid companies at low prices has gotten more difficult in the United States. In the first quarter of 2009, when the S&P 500 index was barely one-third of what it is now, stocks on average cost 12.9 times projected full-year earnings.

At the end of 2014, that multiple had reached 17.4, above the long-term average of 14.8 times earnings, meaning it costs more to get the same financial pop.

By contrast, the rest of the world's growth has been sluggish. Germany is expected to grow just 1.3 percent this year, while the U.S. economy may expand 3.6 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Though Buffett said this week the falling euro was not his primary driver for buying in Europe, it was a factor. The currency has slid about 20 percent against the U.S. dollar since May.

DOLLARS FOR DOUGHNUTS

In the last year, Berkshire has announced several purchases worth or estimated at a couple of billion dollars each.

These have included Procter & Gamble Co's Duracell battery unit, the Van Tuyl auto retailer, and SNC-Lavalin Group Inc's AltaLink energy transmission unit in Canada.

Buffett also kicked in $3 billion toward Burger King's purchase of Canadian doughnut chain Tim Hortons, which created Restaurant Brands International Inc.

Burger King is run by Brazil's 3G Capital, which shares ownership with Berkshire of ketchup maker HJ Heinz Co.

Berkshire ended September with $62 billion in cash, well above the $20 billion cash cushion Buffett likes. That leaves more than $40 billion to go shopping.

That means Buffett needs big purchases, which he calls "elephants," to soak up significant amounts of money. He has said he would team up again with a partner such as 3G Capital.

"There may be opportunities overseas that he would certainly consider," said Cathy Seifert, an analyst with S&P Capital IQ.

But even if Berkshire spreads its wings geographically, Seifert said, it will not turn its back on a good U.S. purchase.

"I definitely would not rule out the U.S.," she said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

What to wear with your green Lumia

MANILA - "Wearing green, painting the office color green, using green bags or using green color elements would enhance money and wealth luck to you."

This is the forecast of popular feng shui expert Hanz Cua for the coming Year of the Sheep, which starts on February 19.


With that in mind, Microsoft Philippines has tapped one of the country's top professional make-up artists, Jake Galvez, to come up with a stylish look to match the lucky color.

"Green is a very versatile color that can be used as a great eyeshadow for day or night. It is also perfect for Filipina skin and best with brown or hazel eyes," said Galvez.

"Green as a makeup color is very modern, unique. It's also perfect for color combinations of eyeshadow shades. If you're wearing a green dress or something green, it is best to wear makeup that compliments your dress. You can use something warm on the eyes like taupe or something shimmery like gold or bronze," he added.

The company also asked actress Yana Asistio for tips on what to wear in combination with her green Lumia smartphone.

According to young actress, another way to incorporate the lucky green in your looks is with your outfits and accessories.

"Green is one of my favorite colors. I usually wear green if I want to catch the attention of people," said Asistio. "But since I can’t always wear green I can now bring other green items with me for luck."

Microsoft's Lumia line of smartphones, which are available in green, is available in the Philippines.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Thursday, January 29, 2015

How Apple beat Hermes in China


SHANGHAI - Apple Inc has taken the number one luxury gifting spot in China from designer goods maker Hermes International SCA, according to a Hurun luxury report on Thursday, reflecting the iPhone maker's recent hot streak in the country.

The U.S. tech firm's focus on glitzy stores and high prices helped it post a 70 percent rise in sales in China in the last three months of 2014 and powered the company to the largest profit in corporate history.

Spending on gift-giving overall dropped 5 percent in 2014, after a 25 percent drop the year before, according to the Hurun Chinese Luxury Consumer Survey. Beijing has been cracking down on corruption and luxury spending among public officials, weighing down sales of premium liquor to handbags.

Domestic luxury spending in China dipped for the first time last year, according to consultancy Bain & Co, with increasing numbers of shoppers looking to spend money overseas.

"Travel retail continues to change the dynamics of luxury in China, with 7 out of 10 luxury goods bought by Chinese now being bought overseas," said Hurun Report Chairman Rupert Hoogewerf.

Hermes dropped to seventh from the top spot last year, while Chinese premium liquor maker Kweichow Moutai Co Ltd 600519.SS re-entered the top 10 after a two year hiatus, a potentially positive sign after sales were hit by the anti-luxury campaign.

Apple in first place was followed by LVMH Moet Hennessey Louis Vuitton SE, Kering SA's Gucci and Chanel.

The report, which has been carried out for over a decade, was based upon a survey of close to 400 millionaires with a personal wealth of 10 million yuan ($1.6 million).

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Why does Merrill Lynch have a wellness guru for brokers?


NEW YORK - At a retreat for Merrill Lynch financial advisers in a luxury Orlando hotel last month, a group of several dozen men and women in business attire swung their arms back and forth over their heads to Kid Rock's "All Summer Long" to get their circulation going.

The mild aerobics were part of a three-day event orchestrated by Chris Johnson, a wellness guru who has gained influence under John Thiel's leadership of Bank of America's Merrill Lynch wealth management business.

At Thiel's instruction, Johnson has for the last year been traveling the country teaching Merrill Lynch advisers how to lead healthier lives. He urges brokers - and, in some cases, their family members and clients - to include liver oil, wheatgrass, flax, chia and a type of algae called spirulina in their diets, and to take relaxing baths with Epsom salt to unwind.

"They're starting to go down the medication path. They have acid reflux. They don't sleep. They feel crummy. They're drinking too much. They gain too much weight," Johnson said of the Merrill employees who most need his advice. With that lifestyle, he said, "they're not going to be a good adviser. If I'm coming to my adviser, I want them to be healthy."

Thiel did not respond to requests for comment. David Walker, a spokesman for Bank of America's wealth management business, said that it was important for Merrill to focus on the health and wellness of its employees.

"We care that our advisers are taking care of themselves so they have the energy and capacity to best serve their clients and be present for their families," he said. "Any company that is not focused on wellness is behind. All of the most admired, most progressive companies with the most highly engaged employees are focused in this area."

He declined to comment on Johnson's description of health problems suffered by some members of Merrill's workforce.

NAP TIME

Known as the "thundering herd" because of their bull logo and their large numbers, Merrill's army of 14,000 brokers are not the only money-management employees being urged to take better care of themselves. Firms across Wall Street have been encouraging employees to eat right, sleep well and exercise. While Merrill is Johnson's biggest client, he has also done events with advisers at Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo & Co and Raymond James Financial Inc.

Still, some Merrill employees have told Reuters in recent weeks that Thiel is so enthusiastic about healthy living that it has caused some hard-charging, long-time advisers to bristle.

These employees have been annoyed to receive advice about health and wellness from Thiel when they would prefer to discuss business concerns with him, several sources said.

One Bank of America executive said brokers have complained about tofu burgers served at a retreat for top producers. Another cited a message recently sent to some advisers encouraging them to take an afternoon nap to increase productivity.

Thiel has brought in another expert, Tony Schwartz, CEO and founder of The Energy Project, who has been advising Merrill employees to take a short afternoon nap to restore their energy.

Schwartz, who started working with Merrill after meeting Thiel at a conference 14 months ago, gives that advice as part of a broader curriculum aimed at pushing Merrill advisers to get the most out of their days. He said he has not convinced Merrill to implement a nap program, but that productivity increases dramatically for those who take his advice on resting, deep breathing and eating right, among other things.

"What makes Merrill Lynch special is that John is an unusually open and interested senior leader to champion this kind of work," said Schwartz. "When there is a leader like that, the power of the work is much higher."

BONGO DRUMS

Complaints by Merrill employees who are irritated by Thiel's wellness campaign come at a time when a number of high-profile brokers have left, causing some concern among top Bank of America Corp executives. Reuters found no evidence of a direct link between the focus on health and wellness and the departures.

The health advice has gone over well with some advisers who are happy their boss is encouraging them to take better care of themselves.

One high-producing broker who spoke on the condition of anonymity said "telling employees to stay fit mentally and physically - that's responsible leadership" and called Thiel the best manager he has ever had in over three decades with the firm.

In a testimonial on Johnson's website, Scott Schropp, a vice president in Merrill's wealth management business, wrote that his clients like being included in wellness events. "They come in with preconceived notions of what this program may be like and leave the program with excitement, determination and a fresh take on 'healthy living'," he wrote.

Thiel, a former American football player at college, met Johnson at an event in Arizona some time ago. Soon after, he went to Johnson's home in rural Michigan for a one-on-one training session. At such events, Johnson teaches corporate executives how to sleep better, shop for "super foods" and cook things like healthy chili. (Johnson declined to comment on Thiel's culinary talent.)

People who know Thiel say he has wholeheartedly embraced the New Age lifestyle that Johnson, Schwartz and another guru called davidji advocate. Davidji (pronounced david-gee and spelled with a lowercase "d") describes himself as a former banker on his web site, and specializes in wellness of the mind. Davidji said he was not immediately available for an interview.

People familiar with his Merrill training sessions say they feature bongo drum playing and meditation. A video on his web site - http://www.davidji.com/ - shows davidji sitting on the beach with his pet dog, named peaches, whom he says he meditates with every day.

"The next time you sit down to meditate, if your pet - your cat, your dog, your lizard, your parrot - feels like meditating with you, create a space," he says. "Close your eyes. Drift into stillness and silence, and you'll notice that your pet gravitates toward you."

Johnson said Thiel's embrace of health and wellness helps balance out his more rugged work on Wall Street.

"He's got a big job and wanted to have energy and stamina," Johnson said "The corporate world beats you up."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Who are the world's richest billionaire bachelors?


MANILA, Philippines – Research firm Wealth-X released a list on Wednesday naming the 10 richest billionaire bachelors in the world.

Topping the list is Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who is also the founder of investment and project management company Vulcan Capital.

Allen also owns the American football team Seattle Seahawks and the NBA team Portland Trail Blazers.

He has an estimated personal fortune of $15.3 billion.

The 60-year-old Allen has never been married, and recently reported to have bought an 8-bedroom mansion in the Silicon Valley town of Atherton for $27 million.

Second in the list is Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani, with an estimated personal net worth of nearly $11 billion.

Armani’s business ranges from clothing lines, hotels to fragrances. He is turning 80 next year.

Rounding out the top 5 in the list are 48-year-old Mikhail Prokhorov, owner of NBA team Brooklyn Nets; 46-year-old Xavier Niel of Iliad; and 70-year-old David Geffen of Dreamworks.

“Against the backdrop of a proliferation of matchmaking TV shows and online services, meeting the right person is harder than ever. Add to that the compounding difficulty of super wealth and navigating the right soul mate and discerning right intentions becomes even more challenging,” said Wealth-X president David Friedman.

Also in the list are Rosp Corunna Participaciones Empresariales’ Marcos Mera ($5.7 billion), Duncan Family Foundation’s Scott Duncan ($5.3 billion), Arista Networks’ Andreas von Bechtolsheim ($4.4 million), Santo Domingo Group’s Alejandro Santo Domingo Davila ($3.9 million), and H.E. Butt Grocery’s Charles Butt ($2.9 million).

The 31-year-old Duncan is the youngest billionaire bachelor in the group while Armani is the oldest at 79.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com