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Singapore stock market and companies daily report (Google, Singapore trading hub, Sino-Environment) (March 22, 2010)

Contributed by Shares Investment

By Shares Investment

Google’s Threatened Exit In China Negatively Impacts Their Stock & Strategy

Threatening to shut down its operations in China, Google is at risk of closing off a key avenue of future growth. Currently China has the most number of internet users in the world and will in the future be the world’s largest online market. Leaving a potentially large market is definitely seen as an issue not only to Google but also to its shareholders.

Many analysts expect Google to seek alternative ways to continue to operate in the Chinese search market, possibly creating a new search site based out of China where the government’s regulation about acceptable content will not reach it. Of course, only the tech savvy Chinese would be able to access it; it may also be accessible to Chinese advertisers only to a certain extent. Although the situation in China is a setback to Google’s long-term business goals, the revenue from China contributes only a small fraction of their overall revenue. Some analysts said that the company has enough other opportunities to retain its status as a growth stock.

Oil Trading Volumes Seen Going Up As S’pore Continues To Attract New Players

It’s been a difficult first quarter so far this year for oil traders in S’pore, as prices for oil and oil products have stayed range bound and trading volumes have been largely flat, even though higher than in Q1 last year. Still, the Singapore trading hub – the third largest worldwide, after London and New York – continued to attract new players, including some upstream Middle East and Russian companies involved in oil production/ refining, and which are coming here to do some trading and hedging.
Meanwhile, there is also market speculation that Japan’s Mitsui may restart trading operations here after a three-year lapse, following a scandal involving a cover-up of losses by naphtha traders at its previous Singapore outfit, company and trade sources said.
Australia’s Macquarie Group which last month also said that it will be conducting its Asian oil trading out of Singapore, as well as new Gulf and Russian players, means that volumes are set to trend up, he said.

Resolving Of Big Issues At Sino-Environment

Last week, Sino-Environment disclosed that during a visit by some of its directors to the Fuzhou plant, the key managers there pledged their support to restart business operations in return for a stake of at least 20 per cent through the subscription of new shares. The key management is led by deputy general manager Tian Yuan, who has never been mentioned in the group’s annual reports nor has he ever been introduced as a key manager – until now.  But the fact that he is the legal representative of a group subsidiary whose overall business planning was determined by Mr Sun suggests that there must be a link.
One would recall that the roots of Sino-Environment’s debacle can be traced back to Mr Sun’s financial woes early last year that led to him losing his entire majority stake in Sino-Environment – which, in turn, triggered the group’s default on a $149 million convertible bond issue. Months later, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found that several material transactions were made by the group without board approval and authorisation.
Hence, an immediate concern should be to provide PwC the authorisation needed to conduct independent checks and to render full assistance for its work to be completed. It would be in the best interests of all concerned to solve this issue openly.

This article is contributed by Shares Investment. Visit Sharesinv.com for the latest Singapore, Malaysia and China stock market news and reports.