The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- CEO Jagan says BRDB projects provide the ‘good life’ for clients
- Judge denies US$20m severance to outgoing AMR chief
- United States puts Japan on notice in currency report
| CEO Jagan says BRDB projects provide the ‘good life’ for clients Posted: 13 Apr 2013 01:55 AM PDT THE phone rang. The caller wanted to buy into BRDB's Emerald Bay in Puteri Harbour, Iskandar Malaysia in southern Johor. "May I call you back in a while?" Datuk Jagan Sabapathy asks. The chief executive officer of BRDB himself is his own salesman. Now here is a poser. Between Iskandar and Kuala Lumpur, which will represent a better choice? he asks. Kuala Lumpur! Came the reply. Jagan gave a thoughtful look. "Wherever you buy, KL or Johor, you have to buy well, look at the location, developer and long-term objective of the developer in the area and consider your own objective," he says. Jagan is trained in accountancy and finance. But the form and feel of the properties that the company has launched is very much driven by Jagan himself, says an employee. "He lives the good life, having lived abroad and travelled well. He knows what the people want," the employee says. Whether one buys into KL or Seri Kembangan, there is an aspirational element to any property purchase. People buy based on aspirations, he says. The venue of the interview, the Serai show unit in BRDB's sales gallery in Bangsar, is itself a lesson in luxury. There is a serenity and an aspirational quality about the place. Serai is today more than 80% sold. "It is 120 units on 2.5 ha and you have your own lift lobby. You have your own privacy in large public spaces and it is so central," he says. It represents the good life and everybody aspires to have a good life, he says. How do you build that cosmopolitan element? he asks. He answers his own question. "It is one of the intangibles. La Dolce Vita (Italian for the sweet life or the good life)," he says. He concludes his analysis of the different elements of a BRDB project: "(You must buy into) a project will provide you with a good life." Between this and next year, BRDB will be launching Emerald Bay, a 111-acre RM2.5bil waterfront project in Puteri Harbour, to be developed over eight years. In the cool elegance of the Serai show unit, "It will have a worldwide appeal with a combination of landed, townhouses, semi-detached units, bungalow and low and high-rise condominiums. I don't think people will want to buy into a place in Johor and so Emerald Bay will have a sense of place. "There will be a lot of tropical elements, tropical architecture. It will not resemble... (he names a place in another country). It will not just be another waterfront project. It must have a sense of place, because whoever buys into it will want to come back to it, wherever and whoever they are. It will have the Wow!' factor," he muses.. While Emerald Bay is a dream, the more immediate launch will be Senja (which means dawn in Bahasa Malaysia), a 47-acre project in Bluwater in Seri Kembangan Selangor. The RM800mil 40-acre project, tentatively scheduled for a July launch comprises 278 units of link villas, semi-detached units, detached units and bungalows. The built-up areas will range from 3,250 sq ft to 5,600 sq ft in a gated and guarded environment with pool, gym, tennis and basketball courts, recreational parks and a 1.7-acre par course. The entire community will be build around a lake. There will be a huge upgraders' market in Seri Kembangan and Balakong, he says. The project will also leverage on the nearby Australian International School of Malaysia and the Alice Smith International School. "We will provide four-star price but deliver five-star value," he says. That same template will be used in its 300-acre Rawang project where BRDB will be building another gated and guarded project near the town centre. There are not much details yet about its Rawang project other than a double-storey link will be priced between RM700,000 and RM800,000. "The lifestyle space is getting exciting!" he says. |
| Judge denies US$20m severance to outgoing AMR chief Posted: 12 Apr 2013 08:03 PM PDT NEW YORK: A judge has rejected a proposed severance package of nearly $20 million for Thomas Horton, the chairman and chief executive officer of American Airlines parent AMR Corp, saying the payout was not allowed under federal bankruptcy law. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane in Manhattan issued his decision on Thursday, after having approved at a March 27 hearing AMR's planned $11 billion merger with US Airways Group Inc Horton's $19.9 million severance had been part of the merger agreement and was to consist of equal amounts of cash and shares of the combined company. Lane had suggested at the hearing that severance might be better addressed in AMR's reorganization plan, which the company has yet to submit and which requires creditor approval. U.S. Trustee Tracy Hope Davis, a Department of Justice monitor for the bankruptcy, also opposed Horton's severance. "It's American Airlines' current intention to address Mr. Horton's compensation arrangement in the plan of reorganization," said Mike Trevino, a spokesman for the carrier. The combined company would be run by US Airways CEO Doug Parker, with Horton as nonexecutive chairman. Parker would become chairman after the first annual shareholder meeting, probably in the spring of 2014. The plan of reorganization will address how creditors will get paid back. Shareholders of AMR may end up with a stake of at 3.5 percent in the combined company, which an attorney for AMR's creditor's committee has said could be valued at between $350 million and $400 million. Horton first joined AMR in 1985, left in 2002 for a four-year stint at AT&T Corp and then returned. He became CEO of AMR when it filed for bankruptcy in November 2011. AMR at first opposed merging while still in bankruptcy, but reversed itself under pressure from creditors. The merger would create the world's largest airline, and AMR and US Airways hope to save more than $1 billion of annual costs by 2015. UNCLEAR PURPOSE Davis had called Horton's proposed payout too large relative to severance for nonmanagement workers, and improper because it was not part of a program for full-time workers in general. Lane rejected AMR's argument that these restrictions did not apply because the payout would be made - or could be voided - by the combined company after the merger closed. "It is unclear what purpose would be served by the court's approval of the severance if (the combined company) could later veto the severance through a vote of its board," he wrote. The judge also said deferring to AMR's "business judgment" in allowing the payout was "exactly what Congress sought to prevent" in capping severance awards by companies in bankruptcy. AMR has said the payment to Horton recognized his efforts in leading the company through bankruptcy and into the merger. Its lawyer, Stephen Karotkin, told Lane on March 27 that the desire of AMR directors to maximize value and see the merger through justified payments to Horton and others. The combined carrier would take the American name and be based in AMR's hometown of Fort Worth, Texas. US Airways is based in Tempe, Arizona. The case is In re: AMR Corp et al, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-15463. - Reuters |
| United States puts Japan on notice in currency report Posted: 12 Apr 2013 08:00 PM PDT WASHINGTON: The Obama administration on Friday put Japan on notice that it was watching its economic policies to ensure they were not aimed at devaluing the yen to gain a competitive advantage. In a semi-annual report on currency practices of major trade partners, the United States also said China's currency remained "significantly undervalued," but again stopped short of labelling the world's second-biggest economy a currency manipulator. It has been more than 18 years since the U.S. Treasury has designated any country a manipulator. China was labelled a manipulator between 1992 and 1994. The U.S. Treasury said it would press Japan to adhere to the commitment it made in February as a member of the Group of Seven and Group of 20 nations to let the market determine exchange rates. The U.S. move followed comments by Japanese officials that suggested they were targeting a weaker yen. Treasury's report highlighted statements made by Japanese officials last year who said they wanted to "correct the excessively strong yen," and also some proposals to ease monetary policy by purchasing foreign bonds. But since then, Japan has mostly avoided commenting on the yen and has not intervened in currency markets, according to the congressionally-mandated report. "We will continue to press Japan to adhere to the commitments agreed to in the G7 and G20 ... and to refrain from competitive devaluation and targeting its exchange rate for competitive purposes," the report said. The Treasury also said it was closely monitoring policies in Japan meant to support the growth of domestic demand. The Bank of Japan launched a massive bond-buying program earlier this month to try to shock the economy out of two decades of stagnation. The policy has sharply undercut the value of the yen - ending the dollar to another four-year high against the Japanese currency on Thursday - and refuelled a debate about competitive devaluations. YUAN UNDERVALUED, NOT MANIPULATED The U.S. Treasury also said China did not meet the legal requirements to be deemed a currency manipulator, although Beijing controls the pace at which the yuan can rise by intervening in foreign exchange markets. The label is largely symbolic, but would require Washington to open discussions with Beijing on adjusting the yuan's value. Many U.S. lawmakers have accused China of deliberately keeping the yuan undervalued to gain a trade advantage. As in other reports over the last several years, the analysis on China reflected both the administration's desire to maintain good relations with its top creditor and an attempt to keep up pressure for changes in China that could benefit the U.S. economy and mollify domestic critics. Efforts to take a stronger stance on China's currency moves have also faded due to an increase in the value of the yuan, a big drop in China's global trade surplus and a rise in labour costs that has made Chinese products less competitive. The report said China had allowed the yuan to rise 16.2 percent against the dollar in inflation-adjusted terms since June 2010, when China moved off its exchange rate peg. The yuan, also known as the renminbi, hit a record high against the dollar on Friday as China's central bank fixed its official midpoint for the currency at the strongest level yet ahead of a Beijing visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. "Nonetheless, the available evidence suggests the renminbi remains significantly undervalued, intervention appears to have resumed, and further appreciation of the renminbi against the dollar is warranted," Treasury said in a statement. The top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, Sander Levin of Michigan, said "action is long overdue" on what he called serious problem. "Currency manipulation needs to be addressed in ongoing trade negotiations, especially the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks," he said in a statement, referring to an 11-nation Asia-Pacific free trade agreement that Japan is moving toward joining. The United States also said it remains concerned that China's progress may not last. For example, China's trade surplus has narrowed not only due to a higher yuan, but also because of weak demand for Chinese exports in advanced economies, suggesting the trend may reverse once the global economy recovers more. The U.S. Business and Industry Council condemned the currency report, and called on the Obama administration to use tariffs to punish China for manipulating the yuan. "The Treasury Department's latest refusal to label China a currency manipulator once again demonstrates President Obama's deep-seated-indifference to a major, ongoing threat to American manufacturing's competitiveness, and to the U.S. economy's return to genuine health," the Council said in a statement. As in the previous report, Treasury also kept the pressure on South Korea, urging it to limit foreign exchange intervention except in exceptional circumstances. South Korea says it intervenes to smooth the volatility of its won currency. But Treasury said it had gone into the market throughout 2012. - Reuters |
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