Main Page «
Front Page «
Metro «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

The Regulatory Reforms Commission has decided to delegate authority to the Bangladesh Bank of approving the proposals of private loans from foreign sources.
   The commission has withdrawn the power of the Board of Investment that is now assigned to expedite the approval process of foreign loans and minimise hassles faced by investors, said official sources.
   The proposal for such loans has to be forwarded to the BB through any scheduled bank, according to the decision taken at a recent meeting of the RRC, presided over by its chairman and former caretaker government adviser Akbar Ali Khan.
   The decision of the RRC will soon be sent to the Cabinet Division for approval after the meeting of the council of advisers, said sources.
   The meeting discussed the recommendations made earlier by a subcommittee, styled ‘Processing and approval of foreign private loans’, and took the above-mentioned decision, said a member of the RRC.
   ‘It’s a very realistic decision that has been taken to help local investors who have been facing bureaucratic hassles from inexperienced BOI officials to get approval for foreign loans,’ a member of the RRC told New Age on Sunday. ‘The government should now accept the decision to show its respect to the RRC and justify its intention in bringing about reforms in outdated regulatory regimes.’
   RRC members comprising former adviser to the caretaker government Syed Manzur Elahi, BB governor and convener of the subcommittee Salehuddin Ahmed, cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumdar and secretaries to the commerce, law, home affairs internal resources ministries and representatives of business communities and chambers were present at the meeting.
   Currently, the Board of Investment receives applications for foreign loans and a committee, comprising representatives of different government entities, approves them after scrutiny, which often takes an unacceptably long time, complained private sector people.
   The amount of foreign loans received by the country’s private sector per annum now stands at about $50 million, said sources in the BOI. But the demand for foreign loans is high as many corporate entities and export-oriented industries are interested in foreign loans due to low interest rates, they said.
   According to the existing regulations, private industrial enterprises incorporated under the Companies Act 1994 and registered with BOI are eligible for foreign loans. Such corporate borrowers can take money from recognised global funding sources like banks, capital markets, hedge funds and multilateral lending agencies.
   The current regulations stipulate that borrowing from foreign sources is allowed only for investments in areas like import of capital goods for new projects, modernisation or expansion of production units in the industrial sector including small and medium enterprises.

Stocks, excepting the insurance issues, dropped on Sunday due to profit taking selling pressure from the investors after a two-day bullish run and cautious lending from the merchant banks, said operators.
   The general index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange lost 24.78 points or 0.83 per cent to close at 2975.39, while its blue chips index, DSE20, shed 27.37 points or 1.15 per cent to close at 2353.71.
   A senior official of the Securities and Exchange Commission said it appeared that the merchant banks remained cautious in giving loan to their clients at the increased margin rate of 1:1, which became effective on Sunday.
   The stock market analysts had said investors last week anticipated that share prices would rise further on implementation of the revised margin loan rate.
   Last week the SEC raised the maximum rate of margin loan for merchant banks at 1:1 with effect from Sunday with a view to improving the liquidity situation at the market.
   However, the turnover at the DSE increased to Tk 299.54 crore from the Thursday’s Tk 271.67 crore.
   ‘Insurance stocks, however, rallied on a rumour on enhancement of the existing paid-up capital of the insurance companies,’ said Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, chief executive officer of the Dhaka Stock Exchange.
   ‘We have sent letters to the offices of chief controller of Insurance and listed insurance companies requesting them to give actual information on the matter,’ he said.
   In response to the DSE queries, Prime Insurance Company, Agrani Insurance Company and Nitol Insurance Company informed the bourse that they did not receive any instruction from the controller of insurance office regarding new insurance policy for enhancement of existing paid-up capital of general insurance companies, reported the DSE official website on Sunday.
   Chittagong Stock Exchange’s selective categories index lost 54.02 points or 1.10 per cent to close at 4857.87, while its blue chips index, CSE30, shed 92.11 points or 1.35 per cent to close at 6733.99.
   Of the total 238 issues traded at the DSE, 86 advanced, 132 declined and 20 remained unchanged, and out of 136 issues traded at the CSE, 45 posted gains, 89 dropped and two remained unchanged.
   Turnover at the CSE turnover decreased to Tk 47.64 crore from the Thursday’ Tk 53.67 crore.

The National Board of Revenue has decided to expand the activities of its Central Intelligence Cell and approved the expansion of the wing following considerable success in last three years.
   NBR sources said the board chairman, Muhammad Abdul Mazid, recently signed a new organogram of the CIC comprising 58 staff.
   At present, 26 people, including nine senior officials, are employed in the CIC.
   The newly approved CIC organogram includes two new posts of additional director general, four joint director general, five deputy director general and 10 posts of assistant director general.
   It also includes one assistant programmer, four intelligence officer, two investigation officers, three posts each for computer operator and data entry operator, one each for LD store keeper, upper division assistant and cashier, eight posts for driver, 11 posts for MLSS, and one post each for senior attorney and assistant attorney.
   The expanded CIC will cost Tk 70.30 lakh per annum.
   In the fiscal 2006-07, CIC detected tax evasions worth Tk 25.35 crore compared to Tk 51.61 crore in fiscal 2005-06 and Tk 55.33 crore in 2004-05.
   In recent times, the activities of the CIC were being greatly hampered for lack of adequate manpower.
   CIC sources said it was very difficult for the few senior CIC officials to go the offices of suspected tax dodgers to verify their records.
   They said the CIC officials were supposed to operate in a wide field of revenue area. The NBR did not suggest any specific field of work for the CIC officials.
   The CIC had detected tax evasions by different businesses, including garments, professionals like doctors, lawyers and engineers as well as service-holders, private security agencies, shipping agents, C&F agents and marriage bureaus.

Poultry farmers in Lalmonirhat are facing serious problems for lack of capital, technical supports and skilled manpower as well as high price of poultry feeds and other inputs.
   The farmers also complained about the non-cooperation from the district livestock department as they do not get medicine and vaccines when various diseases attack their farms.
   Thousands of people engaged in the business in the district are threatened with unemployment as it has become tough for them to cope with the soaring prices of poultry feeds and other inputs.
   Rezaul Islam, a poultry farmer at village Haziganj under Aditmari, said, ‘I started poultry business with a loan from local NGO in 2005.
   I made a good profit, sufficient for my livelihood. But now my business is heading for and end for lack of capital and technical supports.’
   He also added that he and four members of his family would become totally unemployed if his farm business faced closure.
   Lalmonirhat Poultry Farm Owners Association sources said among 320 poultry farms of the district, eggs are produced at 225 farms and chickens at 95 farms.
   Around 90 lakh eggs are produced at these farms and most of them are sent to different areas of the country after meeting the local demand, they added.
   They said a good number of unemployed educated young men and women are involved in poultry farming, where thousands of uneducated and unskilled workers are employed.
   The farmers complained
   that there is no laboratory
   in Lalmonirhat for examining diseases of poultry birds and no specialist veterinary doctor.
   They further alleged that in rare cases they get services from the livestock officials and they had to depend on representatives of different companies, who sell feeds, vaccines, medicines and vitamins to them at a higher cost.
   A local livestock officer, however, denied the allegation, saying they provided services to the poultry farmers when informed.
   Sahidul Islam, president of the Lalmonirhat Poultry and Fish Feed Association, told New Age government steps for providing required supports were badly needed to save poultry farming in the district.
   He demanded tax cut on the poultry feeds and other inputs needed for poultry farming for the greater interest of the country.
   Abidur Rahim Mantu, a small poultry farmer of village
   North Saptana under Lalmonirhat municipality, said the medium and small farmers were badly in need of bank loan on easy and low interest while some poultry farmers in the Lalmonirhat town alleged that they did not get any help from the livestock officials without bribe.
   They get medicines from the livestock office only at higher prices than the price written on the medicines as they are not available on the local market, they said.
   The Lalmonirhat district livestock officer, Dr Mohammad Sirazul Islam, denied the allegations when contacted over telephone on Thursday.
   He said his office always stood by the poultry farmers, providing them with government facilities.

The Bangladesh Salt Cultivators’ Welfare Council put out a call for the government to set up a salt board and set up its headquarters in Cox’s Bazar.
   The council leaders at a briefing at the National Press Club on Sunday talked about the problems they faced.
   They said they receive Tk 1 for each kilogram of salt which is retailed for Tk 16, said the council leader, Rezaul Kabir Chowdhury.
   He also called on the government not to allow import of salt. He urged the government to make an arrangement so that salt cultivation affairs could be dealt with by the agriculture ministry, not the industries ministry.
   The government should provide low-interest loans for salt farmers and government land for salt production. The council president, Motafa Kamal Chowdhury, and leader Atiqul Islam Chowdhury also attended the briefing.

The 3-day Chittagong Apparel, Fabric and Accessories Exposition-2008 will begin at the Engineers Institute auditorium in the port city on Thursday.
   Different garment machinery marketing companies and apparel and fabric manufacturing companies from home and abroad will display their products at 48 stalls and attractive fashion shows would be organised at the exposition.
   The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association leaders at a press conference on Sunday said the commerce adviser to the interim government, Hossain Zillur Rahman, would inaugurate the exposition.
   A seminar ‘strategies to exchange competitiveness: Bangladesh readymade garment in global market’ will be held at the Chittagong Club auditorium in the sideline of the exposition on Saturday, the BGMEA leaders informed.

Demand of beef, mutton and different sorts of fishes has marked a significant increase in Chittagong, pushing the prices up during the past one week.
   Sources at the kitchen markets said most of the city dwellers have been avoiding poultry chicken and egg because of bird flu scare, causing an extra pressure on the alternatives.
   The kitchen markets in the city, including Karnaphuli Bazar, Kazir Dewri Bazar, Reazuddin Bazar, Foillahtoli Bazar and Chawk Bazar, boneless beef was found selling at Tk 240 a kilogram, which was Tk 225 five to six days back.
   Mutton was selling at Tk 260 per kg against Tk 250 when prices of almost all sorts of fishes increased by Tk 10 to Tk 15 per kg while price of vegetable was found stable.
   Meanwhile, prices of poultry chicken decreased by Tk 15 to Tk 20 per kg and price of egg by Tk 6 per dozen, as the consumers were avoiding these items since detection of bird flu in the city one week ago.
   Abul Hossain, a poultry trader at Karnaphuli Bazar, said he was selling at least 100 kg a day before the detection of bird flu, adding that he had sold only 30 kg chicken on Sunday.

For more than 20 years farmer Eugenio Alpar has been fighting for the right to own the land he tills on the central Philippine island of Negros.
   Now that his dream is in sight the 72-year activist for land reform says he may be too old to do anything with it.
   In 1988 the Philippine government introduced an agrarian land reform programme in which it promised to lift millions out of poverty and give farm workers the right to own land.
   Landowners were required to break up their holdings and sell the land to poor farm workers at prices determined by the government.
   Alpar has battled personal problems, hunger and attacks by hired armed thugs for what he considers is the right of every rural Filipino — to own the land he tills.
   ‘I realised a long time ago that even if you have the right to something, it does not guarantee you will get it,’ he told AFP. ‘Chances are, you always have to fight for it.’
   Gazing out across sugarcane fields that would be turned over to him after harvest, he recalls the day back in September 1985 when poor sugar plantation workers were gunned down by troops and police in the town of Escalante on Negros who were protesting for better conditions and land.
   On the day now known as ‘Bloody Thursday,’ thousands of poor farm workers and fishermen packed into the town’s central plaza.
   ‘We had just finished lunch when the military threw tear gas at us,’ he said. ‘We threw it back and the shooting began.’
   ‘The hail of gunfire caught many of those who ran. Twenty died and 30 were wounded. We even found bodies in the cane fields. I was not able to sleep for a long time after that.’
   ‘All we wanted were solutions to our problems,’ he said.
   But 20 years after the landmark agrarian land reform programme was introduced, grinding rural poverty still endures and millions of farm workers are still poor, a study funded by the German government found recently.
   Some 6.95 million hectares (17.17m acres) of farmland have been handed over to 4.8 million farm workers since the programme was launched.
   The new landowners found they lacked the resources to succeed, said the study funded by GTZ, an arm of the German Ministry of Development Cooperation.
   ‘The agricultural sector, as a whole, is still in a state of distress. At the macro level, the social and economic conditions in the rural communities are not any better than they were 10 years ago,’ the study said.
   The rural sector accounts for 17.4 per cent of Philippine economic output and employs some 6.3 million people, or 18.7 per cent of the total workforce, according to government figures. Most of the country’s poor live in rural areas.
   Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman said agrarian reform ‘in general was beneficial,’ but agreed that recipients need more help.
   Manila has yet to acquire and distribute all the targeted farmland, much of which is held by politically connected landed families.
   The study urged the government to focus its resources on ‘compulsory acquisition’ of some 1.265 million hectares held by landowners who have resisted the 271 billion pesos ($6.56b) programme through legal manoeuvres or by rejecting the price offered by the government for their land.
   For farmers like Alpar, however, the wait has already been too long.

Industry body Assocham has suggested Russia and India to draw a joint action plan along with other two BRIC countries to avert an economic slowdown, which can be triggered by the financial crisis in the US.
   In the run-up to the visit of Russian prime minister Victor Zubkov, the two countries, along with Brazil and China, need to push trade within developing and emerging economies, the chamber said in a release.
   The suggestion assumes significance as the Russian prime minister accompanied by a large business delegation begins his three-day visit today.
   About 32 per cent of the BRIC countries’ total external trade is done with the US and EU, which are currently facing the high risk of economic slowdown, it said.
   Russia would be maximum exposed to the slowing of US and EU economies, as 49 per cent of its trade is directed towards them Assocham president Venugopal N Dhoot said.
   While India ranks lowest among the four BRIC nations in terms of global slowdown risk, Brazil and China may get severely hit with impending deceleration in developed economies as 35 per cent and 30 per cent of their respective external trade are directed toward US and EU, he said.
   Dhoot further said the US economy has been showing signs of sluggishness, as the crisis triggered by its sub prime market has caused a loss of more than $100 billion.

US car maker Chrysler LLC’s Indian unit has signed a 4 billion rupee ($101m) contract with a New Delhi-based car seat maker to source seats for its Jeep Wrangler, an Indian newspaper reported on Sunday.
   This was just the beginning of Chrysler’s strategy to outsource automobile parts from Southeast Asia and negotiations were on for more such contracts, the Business Line paper said, citing an unnamed senior company official.
   ‘We buy $40 billion worth of supplies each year. We would like to procure as much as possible from South-East Asia,’ the official said in the report.
   The seats will be fitted in the Wrangler vehicles being made at Chrysler’s Toledo unit in the United States, the report added.
   Private equity firm Cerberus bought an 80 per cent stake in Chrysler from Daimler last year.

As the grim notion of recession appears to be taking hold in the United States, debate among economists is shifting from whether a downturn will occur to how long and how severe the slump will be.
   Whether the world’s biggest economy is in recession will not be known until later this year at the earliest, but a growing number of analysts have already made the call.
   ‘Our view is edging closer to recession, albeit a mild one,’ said Joseph LaVorgna, economist at Deutsche Bank in New York, reacting to a spate of weak economic reports.
   A key question is whether interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and a stimulus package passed by Congress will spark fresh growth or if the efforts will be, as economists say, ‘pushing on a string.’
   The recession camp was bolstered in recent days by shockingly weak reports on job creation — showing the first loss in employment since 2003 — and a survey showing a contraction in the massive US services sector for the first time since the 2001 recession.
   The latest data ‘pretty much seals the deal on the recession call,’ said Myles Zyblock, analyst at RBC Dominion Securities.
   ‘The question now turns to how long and how deep this contraction might be.’
   Even at the Federal Reserve, where officials have generally avoided the ‘R’ word, some officials have let the word slip out.
   Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Jeffrey Lacker said that while he sees sluggish growth, ‘I can also see the possibility of a mild recession, similar to the last two we have experienced — in other words, shallow and with a slow recovery.’
   Morgan Stanley economists Richard Berner and David Greenlaw said in a note to clients, ‘Recession has arrived, in our view, heralded by intensifying weakness in incoming data, and the economy faces a rocky road ahead.’
   Berner and Greenlaw added however that the downturn will be limited and that 2008 as a whole will show modest growth of 1.3 per cent after declines in the first two quarters.
   They said the likely impact of tax rebates from the economic stimulus plan will provide a temporary boost but that a strong recovery is not likely until 2009, when they see growth at 2.7 per cent.
   Others see a more ominous scenario and say the central bank and other officials have been slow to react.
   Merrill Lynch economist David Rosenberg said evidence of a recession is piling up with dismal figures from the Institute of Supply Management services sector report, ‘the collapse in auto sales’ in January and ‘unprecedented tightening in credit conditions.’
   This ‘adds to our concern that we are facing a much deeper downturn than we saw in 2001,’ and means the Fed may be forced to make an emergency rate cut before its next meeting March 18.
   Nouriel Roubini, a New York University economist, who has been bearish on the economy for over a year, said most indicators ‘are heading south and suggesting a deep and severe recession that has already started.’
   Roubini said the Fed is moving aggressively because it ‘is seriously worried about this vicious circle and about the risks of a systemic financial meltdown.’
   Joseph Quinlan, economist at Bank of America, said that regardless of whether a recession develops, the so-called ‘misery index’ — the sum of unemployment and inflation — has reached a three-year high of 9.1 per cent, a sign of growing trouble.
   ‘With the US economy already on thin ice ... the higher the misery index in the coming months, the greater the odds of a consumer-led US recession,’ Quinlan said.
   ‘The latter, in turn, could trigger a vicious circle of more job cuts, rising unemployment and an even greater level of retrenchment on the part of US consumers.’
   RBC’s Zyblock said the Fed rate cuts and economic stimulus efforts will help ease the downturn.
   ‘We believe it to be highly premature to characterize current policy efforts as impotent,’ he said.
   ‘Policy makers have learned from the script of post-1989 Japan and the US experience of the 1930s that today’s collapse in real estate should be treated as an ominous deflationary threat. We believe policymakers have begun, and will continue, to attack the problem with the seriousness it deserves.’

Sovereign wealth funds from Asia and the Middle East, which gave a lifeline to US financial houses rocked by a mortgage crisis, are coming under tight US scrutiny.
   The spotlight is on the fledgling, cash-flush China Investment Corporation Ltd, which US lawmakers fear could snap up strategic assets in the credit-tight United States and threaten American security and sovereignty.
   Emerging Asian economies may also be hurt by the aggressive portfolio decisions of the CIC that could drive up their currencies and allow Chinese products to undercut their goods at home and in exports markets, experts say.
   Sovereign wealth funds are large government investment vehicles which shot to prominence by their asset buying spree on the back of an oil price boom in the Middle East and export-driven surpluses in East Asia.
   They have however been criticized for lack of transparency and accountability.
   Funds from Singapore, Kuwait and South Korea recently took up stakes in US banks struggling with losses from subprime mortgage-related write-downs, including Citibank and Merrill Lynch.
   CIC, which manages part of China’s whopping 1.5 trillion dollars in foreign exchange reserves, also bought a three-billion dollars stake in US private equity firm Blackstone Group LP and announced plans to invest five billion dollars in another American group, Morgan Stanley.
   While the funds provide critical liquity to credit-tight US and serve as white knights for distressed companies, ‘these short run benefits should not lull us into a false sense of long term security,’ said Peter Navarro, a business professor at the University of California-Irvine.
   ‘In fact, the sovereign wealth funds could just as easily be looked upon as vultures than white knights,’ he told the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission last week as the bipartisan congressional panel considered the security implications of investments from such funds.
   Navarro demanded full transparency for funds that wished to purchase US assets and asked that they be completely shut out from investing in any sector, industry or asset deemed to be strategic for US economic or military purposes.
   Fund investments so far have typically been below the 10 per cent threshold that would trigger a formal security review but US lawmakers have demanded rules to screen the ‘passive’ foreign ownership interests in US assets.
   The regulations should ‘ensure that potential national security implication of such investments are appropriately assessed,’ said Democratic Senator Jim Webb, among four lawmakers invited to offer a congressional perspective on the issue to the US-China commission.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the former Saudi ambassador to the United States, from removing real estate sales proceeds from the United States pending resolution of a class-action lawsuit.
   The suit filed last September by a tiny Michigan city retirement system accuses current and former directors of BAE Systems PLC, a giant British defense company, of breaches of fiduciary duties in connection with $2 billion or more in alleged illegal bribes paid to Bandar in connection with an $86 billion BAE arms sale to Saudi Arabia in 1985.
   Bandar also is named a defendant in the suit, along with the former Riggs Bank of Washington and its successor, PNC Financial Group.
   BAE and Bandar have strongly denied that illegal payments were made to Bandar.
   Without ruling on the merits of the case, US district judge Rosemary M Collyer said in a temporary restraining order, signed February 5, that the suit by the City of Harper Woods Employees’ Retirement System raises serious questions of law that warrant a temporary order keeping Bandar from taking the proceeds of real estate sales out of US-based accounts.
   The order directs that such sales proceeds ‘be deposited and/or invested pursuant to a prudent man standard’ in US accounts, but specifically notes that it ‘does not prevent him from selling real property’ and ‘only interferes with his ability to invest and/or deposit any sales proceeds in a minimal way.’
   The order further notes that ‘it may, of course, be terminated or modified upon application to the Court by Prince Bandar.’ A hearing was set for February 14 on whether to issue a preliminary injunction extending the temporary order.
   The retirement system suit maintains that Bandar used funds illicitly obtained from BAE Systems to acquire US real estate, including a Colorado ranch and mansion once placed on the market at $135 million and the former William Randolph Hearst mansion in California, offered for sale last summer at $165 million.
   Harper Woods is a community of 14,200 people covering 2.63 square miles bordering the northeast corner of Detroit. It is the home of Eastland Center, one of the Detroit area’s first enclosed shopping malls.
   A message seeking comment on the case was left Saturday night at the office of Harper Woods City Manager James Leidlein.
   Bandar had denied previously through a London law firm that he received improper commissions through accounts at Riggs Bank in Washington.
   ‘The accounts at Riggs Bank were in the name of the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defense and Aviation. Any payments into those accounts made by BAE were pursuant to the Al-Yamamah contracts and as such would not in any way have been secret from the parties to those contracts,’ Bandar’s statement said.

A group of financial regulators and central bank officials warned the G7 rich nations Saturday that global markets could face a prolonged period of adjustment following the recent credit squeeze.
   While there has been an easing of conditions in money markets, there are growing worries about falling share prices and the health of financial institutions, experts from the Financial Stability Forum said.
   ‘There remains a risk that further shocks may lead to a recurrence of the acute liquidity pressures experienced last year. It is likely that we face a prolonged adjustment, which could be difficult,’ they said in interim report to finance ministers from the Group of Seven rich nations who met here Saturday.
   The world’s top central banks joined forces to pump billions of dollars into ailing financial markets last year to ease the credit crunch.
   While the action helped to ease pressure in credit markets, many banks have suffered heavy losses on mortgage-backed securities gone sour.
   The report urged efforts ‘to rebuild confidence in the creditworthiness and robustness of financial institutions.’
   ‘There’s a sense that the banking sector needs to be recapitalised,’ said Bank of Italy governor Mario Draghi, who chairs the Financial Stability Forum.
   ‘More capital is better than less capital,’ he said as he presented the report, which was commissioned by the G7 in October in an effort to tackle the growing financial market distressed triggered by a US housing slump.
   Credit rating agencies must also ‘address conflict of interests,’ Draghi said, following criticism of the agencies for not warning investors about an impending global credit crunch.

Internet giant Yahoo’s board has decided to reject Microsoft’s 44.6 billion dollar takeover bid, an informed source told AFP Saturday.
   The source confirmed an earlier Wall Street Journal report that Yahoo’s management believes the Microsoft offer, which would bring together two top names in online computing, massively undervalues Yahoo.
   The Journal said Yahoo’s board also believes the Microsoft offer, at 31 dollars per share, does not account for risks facing Yahoo if it pursues a deal that might be ultimately blocked by government regulators.
   ‘Yahoo’s board believes that Microsoft’s is trying to take advantage of the recent weakness in the company’s share price to ‘steal’ the company,’ the newspaper said on its website, citing an unnamed source.
   ‘Yahoo’s board appears to be betting that Microsoft doesn’t want to ‘go hostile’ and try to acquire the company against the wishes of management and the board,’ it said.
   A person knowledgeable with the situation told AFP that the Journal report was generally in line with the Yahoo board’s intentions.
   ‘Reports today lacked some facts, but they are not totally off-mark,’ the person said, requesting anonymity. ‘You can expect that Monday will be the day that the board responds.’
   On February 1 Microsoft unveiled its 44.6 billion dollar offer to take over Yahoo, in an effort to merge the world’s biggest software company with a major Internet player to take on search and advertising juggernaut Google.
   Microsoft proposed 31 dollars per share to Yahoo’s board, a 62 per cent premium above its closing price the previous day.
   Microsoft said a combination of the companies would lead to cost savings of a billion dollars per year.
   But Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang sent a message to employees on Wednesday, assuring them the firm’s leaders were exploring ways to avoid a Microsoft takeover.
   ‘Our board is thoughtfully evaluating a wide range of potential strategic alternatives in what is a complex and evolving landscape,’ Yang wrote in the email.
   ‘What’s become clear in the past few days is how much people care about this company. I’ve heard from many of you, and from other friends and colleagues from around Silicon Valley and across the globe, that we need to do what’s best for Yahoo and our shareholders.’
   Google earlier condemned Microsoft’s effort as an attack on the very independence of the Internet.
   ‘Microsoft’s hostile bid for Yahoo raises troubling questions,’ said David Drummond, Google’s senior vice president for corporate development and chief legal officer, in a statement Sunday.
   ‘This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It’s about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.’
   Analysts say the goal of the takeover is to better compete with Google, whose dominance of Internet advertising, backed by its powerful search engine technology, has come at both Microsoft’s and Yahoo’s expense.

Russian sovereign wealth funds may start investing in Japanese financial products, finance minister Aleksey Kudrin told his Japanese counterpart Fukushiro Nukaga on Sunday.
   Sovereign wealth funds are large government investment vehicles which have recently emerged as key players in global financial markets, helping to shore up Western banks such as Citigroup and UBS hit by the US mortgage crisis.
   They have however been criticised for lack of transparency and accountability.
   ‘The two ministers agreed on expanding the economic and financial relations between Japan and Russia,’ said a Japanese finance ministry official who attended the bilateral meeting held a day after the Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers meeting in Tokyo.
   ‘In this context, minister Kudrin said Russia plans to expand the management portfolio for its sovereign wealth funds,’ he said.
   Russia recently changed the standard of its sovereign wealth funds management and decided to expand their portfolio from triple-A bonds only denominated in dollar, euros or pounds to other financial products, according to the official.
   ‘At Kudrin’s remark, I wondered if he was talking about the Japanese government bonds which are also rated triple-A by credit rating agencies,’ he said.
   Kudrin, together with finance ministers from China, Indonesia, and South Korea, joined on Saturday the so-called ‘outreach meeting’ that the G7 now regularly organises on the sidelines of its gatherings.
   The issue of sovereign wealth funds ‘were talked but not intensely discussed’ at the outreach meeting, another finance ministry official told reporters.
   A top European finance official has criticised Russia for restricting foreign investment even as it looks to pump its own energy revenues into overseas companies.
   ‘It is unacceptable that while Russia’s government-affiliated fund is sweeping into Europe, European companies are in a situation where they are unable to do similar activities in Russia,’ Luxembourg Finance Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper in an interview.

HSBC is poised to put hundreds of its French regional retail branches up for sale, a further sign the bank is shifting its focus to emerging markets, according to media reports on Sunday.
   HSBC is trying to find buyers for around half of its 800-strong French bank network, estimated to be worth around 2 billion pounds ($3.90b), The Sunday Telegraph reported.
   The Sunday Times said it was looking to sell around 300 regional retail branches and had appointed Goldman Sachs to advise on the deal. HSBC did not immediately reply to calls for comment.
   There has been recent industry speculation that HSBC could sell up to 400 of its branches in France as it increases its focus on emerging markets.
   Any such disposal would be likely to scotch speculation circulating last week that HSBC may bid for France’s Societe Generale, which has been weakened by losses of 4.9 billion euros ($7.10b) arising from a rogue trading scandal.

World stockmarkets lost 5.2 trillion dollars in January thanks to the fallout from the US subprime crisis and fears of a global economic slowdown, Standard Poor’s said Saturday.
   ‘If investors thought the market could only go up, January’s wake-up call pulled them back into reality,’ the independent credit ratings’ provider said.
   Standard Poor’s said the world’s equity markets lost a combined 5.2 trillion dollars as emerging markets fell 12.44 per cent and developed markets lost 7.83 per cent to register one of the worst starts to a new year.
   ‘There were few safe havens in January as 50 of the 52 global equity markets ended the month in negative territory, with 25 of them posting double-digit losses,’ said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at SPs.
   All 26 developed equity markets posted negative returns in January, with 16 losing at least 10 per cent of their value.
   The January declines negated all previous market gains, leaving all of the developed markets in the red for the trailing three month period.
   In Paris, the stock exchange lost 12.27 per cent over the course of January, 15.27 per cent over the past three months, more than wiping out its gains over the last 12 months — down 0.74 per cent.
   The situation was even worse in London — down 8.85 per cent in January, down 16.54 per cent for the past three months and down 2.22 per cent over 12 months — and in the US, which was down 6.07 per cent in January, down 10.78 per cent over three months and down 2.42 per cent over 12 months.
   The story was similar in Japan, where the market lost 4.47 per cent in January, 10.31 per cent over three months and down 10.44 per cent over the past 12 months.
   In Germany, in contrast, although the stock exchange lost 13.72 per cent in January and 13.84 per cent over three months, it was up 13.43 per cent over the year.
   Equity markets in emerging countries also suffered heavy losses in January, apart from Morocco which gained 10.17 per cent and Jordan, which was up by 3.11 per cent.
   Turkey was the most affected with January losses reaching 22.70 per cent, followed by China on 21.40 per cent, Russia on 16.12 per cent and India at 16 per cent.
   But only Argentina and Taiwan slipped into negative territory for the 12-month period.

Share sale position
   Jamuna Oil
   As reported by the selling agent ICB, total 1,03,79,900 shares of the company were sold up to 21st trading day on February 10 out of 1,35,00,000 shares.
   
   Representative withdrawn
   The Uniroyal Securities Limited, DSE member no 89, has withdrawn one of its authorised representatives, Mohammad Sohel Rana, with immediate effect.
   
   Category upgraded
   Apex Weaving
   The company will be placed in ‘A’ category from existing
   ‘B’ category with effect from February 11 as the company reported disbursement of 10 per cent cash dividend for the year 2006-2007.
   
   Profit
   Phoenix Leather
   As per un-audited half yearly accounts as on December
   31, 2007, the company has reported net profit of Tk 5.6
   lakh with earning per share of Tk 7.50 as against last year’s half yearly net loss of Tk 1.6 lakh and EPS of Tk 2.19. Accumulated loss of the company was Tk 55.47 crore as on December 31, 2007.
   
   Net asset value
   ICB AMCL 1st Mutual Fund
   On the close of operation on January 29, 2008, the fund has reported net asset value of Tk 216.74 per share on the basis of current market price against face value of Tk 100 whereas total net assets of the fund stood at Tk 21,67,38,941.65 on the basis of market price after considering all assets and liabilities of the fund.
   
   ICB AMCL Islamic Mutual Fund
   On the close of operation on January 29, 2008, the fund has reported net asset value of Tk 185.91 per share on the basis of current market price against face value of Tk 100 whereas total net assets of the fund stood at Tk 18,59,09,078.33 on the basis of market price after considering all assets and liabilities of the fund.
   
   ICB AMCL 1st NRB Mutual Fund
   On the close of operation on January 29, 2008, the fund has reported net asset value of Tk 155.21 per share on the basis of current market price against face value of Tk 100 whereas total net assets of the fund stood at Tk 15,52,05,185.92 on the basis of market price after considering all assets and liabilities of the fund.
   
   Demat process finalisation
   Confidence Cement
   Trading of the shares of the company will remain suspended during February 11-13 for finalisation of the demat process. Trading of the shares of the company will be held through the CDBL with effect from February 14 as announced earlier.

ADB okays Nepal water supply project loan
The Asian Development Bank said Friday it has agreed to revised terms of a delayed water supply project in Nepal for which the lender is the lead financier. The project involves boring a 26-kilometre (16-mile) tunnel through a mountain to bring water to 1.5 million residents of the chronically parched Kathmandu valley from the Melamchi river. The initial project design approved in 2000 called for a 464 million-dollar budget, but this was reduced to 317.3 million dollars under the new design, the Manila lender said in a statement. The project now ‘looks set to proceed,’ it added. ADB would lend 137 million dollars for the project, which is also supported by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the Nordic Development Fund and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Fund for International Development. ‘While the need to address the water crisis is growing, the changing circumstances surrounding the project required adjustments in scope and implementation arrangements,’ said Leonardus Boenawan Sondjaja, who heads the administration unit for the project.
— AFP

Sri Lanka unlikely to be hit by rice export ban by India
Sri Lanka, which imported 70,000 tonnes of rice from India during 2007, is likely to remain unaffected by a ban on exports of non-basmati rice imposed by New Delhi. This is due to the domestic crop that will hit the Sri Lankan market from this month end, according to traders here. ‘We are hopeful for being in a comfortable position on rice as the new domestic crop will start arriving from the end of this month and therefore, restrictions by India at this moment will not cause any problem,’ a spokesperson of an importers body said. India Friday withdrew concessions given to rice exporters, by announcing prohibition on export of non-basmati rice to strengthen supplies in the domestic market.
— AFP