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Tuesday, August 3, 2010

[cpsnewswire] [CPS NewsWire, Tuesday, August 3, 2010]

Simon Morris Joins Khan Bank

 

August 3 (UB Post) Khan Bank has announced on Monday that Simon Morris has joined the bank as Chief Executive Officer, succeeding J. Peter Morrow who is retiring after ten years in the position.  Simon Morris joins Khan Bank after twenty five years with the international banking group Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) in Asia, Europe and Africa.

 

Standard Chartered has recently been named by Canadian Ivanhoe Mines as one of the core lender group of five financial institutions that will lead the arrangement of a project finance debt package for the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mining complex in Mongolia.

 

Peter Morrow will stay at the Khan Bank as an advisor for two more years.

Link to article

 

 

 

Hogan Lovells strikes first alliance with Mongolian firm

 

August 3 (ALB) Hogan Lovells has entered into its first alliance since its 1 May merger after sealing an entente with Mongolian firm GTs Advocates.

 

The two firms have been loosely affiliated for the last three years and Hogan Lovells partner Michael Aldrich has been seconded to GTs since April 2009 and will continue to be resident in Ulaanbaatar.

 

GTs Advocates is a full- service firm and represents Mongolian companies as well as multinational corporations, investment banks, private equity firms and funds from North America, Europe and Asia. It recently advised Citigroup and Macquarie Bank as sponsors of the US$439m Hong Kong secondary listing of South Gobi Energy.

Hogan Lovells’ alliance means it is the only international firm with a meaningful presence in the increasingly lucrative Central Asian nation. To date, only two PRC firms have opened offices in Mongolia: Longan opened earlier this year in association with local firm Zata while Lehman, Lee & Xu says it opened an office Ulaanbaatar in 2002.

 

Link to article

 

 

 

JPMorgan hires former Clinton Treasury official

 

New York, August 3 (FT) JPMorgan Chase will on Tuesday announce it has hired a former Clinton administration Treasury official to spearhead a new drive to win more commercial banking business from governments in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

JPMorgan executives said one of Mr Zelikow’s key tasks would be to reach governments that currently are not covered by JPMorgan’s investment bankers.

 

One executive familiar with the matter mentioned Mongolia – a country growing rapidly on the back of its natural resources – and the local authorities of countries such as Brazil as targets for the new unit.

Link to article

 

 

 

C @ (ASX:CEO) launches $1.5m rights issue

 

Optical products and services company C @ Limited (ASX:CEO) has issued a prospectus for a three for four rights issue to raise around $1.5 million.

 

The company intends to issue up to 196.8 million shares at $0.008 per share. The proceeds will be used to explore opportunities to enter the coal sector, C @ said.

Possible areas include thermal and metallurgical coals in Australia, Indonesia and more emerging mining regions such as Mongolia, C @ said.

Link to article

 

 

 

FACTBOX-Key political risks to watch in Mongolia

 

BEIJING Aug 2 (Reuters) - Landlocked Mongolia sits on vast quantities of untapped mineral wealth and analysts say it could be one of the fastest growing economies of the next decade, as well as a key investment target for global mining giants.

Following is a summary of key Mongolia risks to watch:

 

POLITICAL INSTABILITY

REGULATORY RISK

DEPENDENCE ON CHINA, RUSSIA

BALANCING "THIRD NEIGHBOURS"

Link to article

 

 

 

Heat Wave Affects Crops Industry

 

August 3 (UB Post) The worst droughts have slashed wheat production in Mongolia’s two neighbors Russia and China, the top producer and exporter to Mongolia.


Though Russia will be in not shortage of grain crops for domestic market in 2010/2011 season as it had 24 million tonnes of reserves, it is obvious that our southern neighbor will cut its crop exports.

 

“The situation in Mongolia is not kind of excellent” said the Deputy Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry Kh.Zoljargal, who has more on the current issue.

Link to article

 

 

 

Foreign Executives in Mongolia

 

August 3 (UB Post) Beginning around the year 2000, an interesting trend began to develop in Mongolia.  Some Mongolian companies started to hire foreign executives, and the number of foreign entities began to increase. Most Mongolian banks have foreign executives, such as John Finnigan from the United Kingdom at the Golomt Bank, Peter Morrow from United States, who until last week was with the Khan Bank.  Until recently, Mongolian owners liked to work as CEOs or to hire friends or relatives for managerial positions.

People like to say that drinking (alcohols) is the big issue for Mongolians. In our opinion, drinking is a big issue for expats too. Sometimes, expats receive some wrong information that they should always drink if Mongolians will offer alcohol to them. For example, the biggest Canadian mining company’s UB office goes out every night after work straight to a bar. The Mongolian mining expat community tends to drink heavily in Ulaanbaatar, since alcohol is banned at mining sites. The Casablanca restaurant used to be a main destination if you wanted to see wild scenes with drunk miners/drillers.

Even some foreign ambassadors and representatives of international organizations, which includes women, had drinking problems here. Probably, in socialist times for western embassies in Mongolia this issue was critical. The small community, fatigue and long dark winter nights were hard on the few western foreigners here. In socialist times, Ulaanbaatar had only two bars, which were located in the Ulaanbaatar and Bayangol hotels, which was for foreigners only and only accepted U.S. dollars.

 

Thanks to the Russians, the first western foreigners here knew where to find wild hemp. They made hand made maps to show where the wild hemp grows.

Foreign executives probably receive a lot of joy from their Mongolian girlfriends. One European consultant in his late sixties told me once that he can not have dinner with a very young woman in his home country, which has very strong puritan standards.

 

Later, if they stay together, foreign executives will usually have problems with them. An optimistic scenario is that he will have to take care of his wife’s children, which is usually more than one. A more pessimistic scenario is that he will have to take care of numerous relatives,

which can easily be more than 50 people.

 

More often that not, there might be an even worse scenario. You will take care of all relatives, children, and maybe even a former husband or boyfriend. Later, your Mongolian wife might divorce you somewhere in the US, Canada, Australia or elsewhere.

Link to article

 

 

 

Australia

 

Stocks close at six-week high

 

August 3 (AAP) The Australian share market closed at its strongest level in six weeks after a second consecutive firmer session, taking its lead from better performing markets offshore.

At close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 30 points, or 0.66 per cent, at 4,71.6 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index rose 32.1 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 4586.5 points.

 

What you need to know:

 

·         The Australian dollar was buying 90.83 US cents

·         In the US, the S&P500 rose 24.26 points to 1125.86

·         In Europe, the FTSE 100 jumped 139.09 points to 5397.11

·         Oil edges towards $US82

·         Gold is little changed at $US1183.85

·         Dow futures are 16 points lower

It was the S&P/ASX200 index’s best finish since June 22 when it closed at 4558.4.

 

On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index contract was 40 points higher at 4545 points, with 29,719 contracts traded.

Mining giant Rio Tinto led the market higher closing up 2.6 per cent, or $1.85, at $73.00, while BHP Billiton climbed 68 cents, or 1.69 per cent, to $40.98.

 

Rio, which was the second-best performing stock on the S&P/ASX50, said it planned to spend $US170 million ($188 million) to develop the next stage of an iron ore project in Guinea.

The spot price of gold in Sydney was $US1182.70 per fine ounce, up $US1.02 on Monday’s close of $US1181.68.

Link to article

 

 

 

Global

 

Asian Stocks Rise to Three-Month High; Two-Year Treasuries Gain

 

Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks rose, with a regional benchmark reaching a three-month high, and the risk of corporate defaults diminished, fed by signs a global recovery is strengthening. U.S. two-year Treasuries gained.

 

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 0.5 percent to 121.33 at 4:01 p.m. in Tokyo, headed to its highest close since May 5. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped 0.2 percent. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.3 percent. The cost of protecting Asia-Pacific bonds from non-payment plunged to the lowest level in almost three months. Yields on two-year Treasuries dropped to a record-low 0.5459 percent.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 1.3 percent, the most among benchmark indexes in the Asia-Pacific region. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.3 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index climbed 0.7 percent after the country’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate at 4.5 percent.

 

Earnings, Commodities

 

BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company and Australia’s largest oil producer, climbed 1.7 percent in Sydney, and Mitsubishi Corp., Japan’s No. 1 commodities trader, rose 4.7 percent in Tokyo. Canon Inc., a Japanese camera maker that gets 82 percent of its sales abroad, gained 0.7 percent.

The yen rose to 113.71 per euro in Tokyo today from 114.00 in New York yesterday. The European Central Bank is scheduled to announce its latest interest-rate policy on Aug. 5.

 

Link to article

 

 

 

Misc

 

Mongolian neo-Nazis: Anti-Chinese sentiment fuels rise of ultra-nationalism

 

Alarm sounds over rise of extreme groups such as Tsagaan Khass who respect Hitler and reject foreign influence

 

Ulan Bator , August 2(The Guardian) Their right hands rise to black-clad chests and flash out in salute to their nation: "Sieg heil!" They praise Hitler's devotion to ethnic purity.

 

But with their high cheekbones, dark eyes and brown skin, they are hardly the Third Reich's Aryan ideal. A new strain of Nazism has found an unlikely home: Mongolia.

But critics say they scapegoat and attack the innocent. The US state department has warned travellers of increased assaults on inter-racial couples in recent years – including organised violence by ultra-nationalist groups.

 

Dayar Mongol threatened to shave the heads of women who sleep with Chinese men. Three years ago, the leader of Blue Mongol was convicted of murdering his daughter's boyfriend, reportedly because the young man had studied in China.

Link to article

 

 

 

Ewan McGregor Happy To Hit The Streets Via Pedal Power

 

He’s made a point of teaching his 3 daughters (one of whom he adopted from Mongolia) how to preserve water while brushing their teeth and showering, both of which he feels are simple lifestyle adjustments that “make you feel good about yourself”.

Link to article

 

 

 

E.Enkhzaya Wins Gold in International Olympiad

 

August 3 (UB Post) Mongolian team participated successfully in the 17th International University Mathematics Olympiad, which was held in Blagoevgrad city, Bulgaria on July 24 - 30.

Link to article

 

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"Mogi" Munkhdul Badral

CPS International

Email: mogi@cpsinternational.mn

Mobile: +976-99996779

 

CPS International is a marketing arm of CPS Securities in Mongolia. CPS Securities is a Perth, Western Australia based ASX Licensed Financial Services Company. To trade ASX and international stocks, feel free to contact me at mogi@cpsinternational.mn or +976-9999-6779.

 

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