New Canada PM Trudeau to be sworn in, promising 'sunny ways'

Canada's Prime Minister designate Justin Trudeau arrives at a funeral for Former Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor, in Toronto in this Oct 27, 2015 file photo. 

PHOTO: REUTERS

NOV 4, 20151:08 PM

[OTTAWA] Liberal leader Justin Trudeau will kick off his majority government with some controversy as he is sworn in as Canada's 23rd prime minister on Wednesday by naming an equal number of men and women to a slimmed-down cabinet.

Mr Trudeau, the first son of a prime minister to take office in Canada and the second-youngest in the country's history at 43, has grabbed international attention for his good looks and crowd-loving approach to politics.

His swearing-in ceremony will end a decade of Conservative rule under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose party takes up the role of opposition as they search for a new leader.

During the campaign, a senior Liberal Party member wrote a confidential email later leaked to media saying that the cabinet would be cut from 39 members and could go as low as 25.

One Liberal source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mr Trudeau's cabinet will be about 30 members or fewer. The identity of the new cabinet will be released as Mr Trudeau is sworn in.

Mr Trudeau has said the leadership team will have an equal number of male and female ministers, which would be a first for Canada, though several other countries - notably France - have also attempted gender parity.

Some critics have already questioned the pledge, noting the Liberals have 50 women and 134 men in their caucus. "The radical, unspeakable alternative to quotas is: just hire the best person for the job. If it's a man, fine; if it's a woman, fine," wrote National Post columnist Andrew Coyne.

Trudeau spokeswoman Kate Purchase defended the decision, saying "we have an incredible group of women that won their ridings (parliamentary districts)." Speculation around possible cabinet ministers include former army commander Andrew Leslie and former journalist and author Chrystia Freeland. Human resources executive Bill Morneau and former Public Works Minister Scott Brison were seen as leading candidates for finance minister.

Promising a more open and friendly government, the Liberals have invited the public onto the grounds of Rideau Hall to watch Mr Trudeau be sworn in and erected large screens on site so more people can watch.

Mr Trudeau won a surprise majority offering "sunny ways", with a more positive outlook and a willingness to put the budget back into the red to stimulate Canada's flagging economy.

REUTERS

    
 

Singapore shares open 0.42% higher on Wednesday

By

Kelly Taykellytay@sph.com.sg@KellyTayBT

PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

NOV 4, 20159:11 AM

SINGAPORE share prices opened stronger on Wednesday, with the Straits Times Index (STI) up 12.70 points or 0.42 per cent to 3,012.26 as at 9.01 am, following regional gains and a rally in US shares.

Top gainers in early morning trade included Jardine Matheson Holdings, DBS, UOB, and Biosensors International Group.

A total of 54.1 million shares worth S$43.7 million had changed hands as at 9.01am. Gainers outnumbered losers 92 to 44.

    
 

Temasek seeks cloud startups in India as e-commerce 'overheated'

The venture capital arm of Temasek Holdings is shifting its focus in India to software makers that service small and medium businesses, as it sees the e-commerce sector becoming "overheated" with funds rushing to invest in unprofitable companies. 

ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG

NOV 4, 20158:58 AM

[SINGAPORE] The venture capital arm of Temasek Holdings is shifting its focus in India to software makers that service small and medium businesses, as it sees the e-commerce sector becoming "overheated" with funds rushing to invest in unprofitable companies.

Vertex Venture Holdings, a unit of the Singapore state investment company, is hunting for startups making cheap software for the nation's hordes of small businesses that could range from a supply chain app to a payroll processing system, said Ben Mathias, its managing director for India.

In the rush to fund mobile phone-based startups that target consumers, investors have "largely ignored" enterprise software, Bengaluru-based Mathias, who was appointed Vertex's first managing director of India in October, said in a telephone interview. "Hundreds of millions of Indians are getting on the Internet, and with them, tens of millions of Indian enterprises are also getting on the Internet."

"As small and medium enterprises use the mobile Internet more and more to drive their business, they will need to adopt cloud-based enterprise solutions," he said, referring to the model of Internet-based computing where software and data resources are typically shared and accessed on-demand.

Over the next 12 months, Vertex plans to invest between US$5 million and US$6 million each in three to four Indian companies, and will direct about half of its investments into enterprise software makers in the coming years, Mr Mathias said. Three out of Vertex's four investments in India so far have been in consumer- facing companies, including children's apparel site FirstCry.com and travel booking site Yatra.com.

The Indian investments were from Vertex's US$200 million fund that focuses on Southeast Asia and India companies, according to Mr Mathias. Vertex has received an additional $600 million from Temasek to invest in US, Israel, China start ups in "innovation and technological disruption," The Straits Times reported last month. 

Temasek Holdings has been shaking up its asset mix with a push into biotechnology and consumer companies that stand to benefit from aging populations and increasing disposable incomes, and in the fiscal year ended March 31 added stakes including in US pharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences Inc and Indian drugmaker Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

India's market for apps offering software as a service is estimated to be worth about US$300 million, of which 60 per cent of the demand comes from small and medium businesses, according to Biswajeet Mahapatra, a Dubai-based research director at Gartner Inc. That market has been relatively under-penetrated as a lot of small businesses either don't use computers at all or rely on outdated systems that can't adapt to new trends in mobile-based Internet technology, he said.

Startups that make low-priced, subscription-based software to manage supply chains, elicit customer feedback or handle human resource functions can capture market share as small business clients in India may not be able to afford offerings from larger software companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Salesforce.com Inc.

"Small and medium businesses will not buy costly solutions, but they will buy smaller, nimbler apps," Mr Mahapatra said. "Now a lot of people are seeing the potential of investing in these startups." Record Fundraising Indian startups raised a record US$1.4 billion in venture capital funding in the first nine months of this year, beating last year's US$1.2 billion, according to data from Venture Intelligence. The country's largest e-retailers - Flipkart.com, Snapdeal.com and Amazon.com Inc. - conducted their biggest sale of the year in October, offering discounts to lure customers.

Flush with cash, e-commerce companies have been competing to gain market share with new apps and large discounts, and would need to alter their business models significantly to become profitable, UBS said in an April report.

To highlight their progress, Internet retailers often rely on a metric known as "gross merchandise value", which measures listed selling prices of all goods sold on the platform. That metric doesn't account for additional costs or losses incurred by e-retailers, such as through discounts or cash-back subsidies offered to customers, and "that is a problem," Mr Mathias said.

"When I see consumer companies purely talking about GMVs for example, and not talking about gross margins and the cost of customer acquisition, then I get very worried," Mr Mathias said. "At the end of the day, you can't keep doing fundraising rounds every six months. It's not sustainable."

BLOOMBERG

    
 

US dollar firms against euro

The dollar firmed against the euro on Tuesday as traders awaited public comments from Fed Chair Janet Yellen and other top US central bank officials, hoping for interest rate hike signals. 

PHOTO: AFP

NOV 4, 20156:40 AM

[NEW YORK] The dollar firmed against the euro on Tuesday as traders awaited public comments from Fed Chair Janet Yellen and other top US central bank officials, hoping for interest rate hike signals.

Following the Fed's decision to leave its key rate near zero at the October 27-28 policy meeting and signal a December hike was still on the table, Ms Yellen will be testifying Wednesday to a House of Representatives committee about the Fed's supervision and regulation of the US financial system.

Forex watchers were looking to possible comments by Ms Yellen on whether the Fed believes the economy could handle the first rate hike in nine years.

Also on tap this week is a forum on Thursday organised by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, with New York Fed President William Dudley and Fed Vice Chair Stanley Fischer scheduled to speak.

"The US dollar drifted higher in holiday-subdued trade with markets in Japan enjoying a day off," said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions.

After declining against the euro in the previous four trading sessions, the dollar rose to US$1.0959 per one euro around 2200 GMT, from US$1.1014 at the same time Monday.

Mr Manimbo noted that despite news of a one percent fall in US factory orders in September, that was about half the decline in August.

"The data was the latest to hint at the US economy stabilising after a recent slump, keeping the Fed within a meeting of raising interest rates," he said.

AFP

    
 

Japan Post to make Tokyo debut after US$11.5b IPO

State-owned Japan Post Holdings and its banking and insurance units are scheduled to make their long-awaited market debut on Wednesday after the year's biggest share sale. 

PHOTO: AFP

NOV 4, 20156:51 AM

[TOKYO] State-owned Japan Post Holdings and its banking and insurance units are scheduled to make their long-awaited market debut on Wednesday after the year's biggest share sale.

Shares in the vast company, along with Japan Post Bank and Japan Post Insurance, start trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange at 9.00am (0000 GMT) after an initial public offering that topped US$11.5 billion.

It is the biggest stock offering globally since Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's record US$25 billion IPO last year.

The bulk of proceeds from selling shares in the government-owned behemoth, which has about 24,000 offices nationwide, are earmarked for reconstruction efforts after Japan's 2011 quake-tsunami disaster.

Tokyo is expected to sell off more of the company down the road to help pay for spiralling social-welfare costs in Japan's biggest privatisation since Nippon Telephone & Telegraph's 1987 IPO.

The triple-listing brings with it hopes that privatising what is effectively the world's largest bank will help draw more investment in Japanese firms, and give a lift to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's faltering "Abenomics" growth blitz.

Analysts said shareholder pressure would help force Japan Post to speed up its decision making and control costs.

It could also send a wider message that Japan Inc's notoriously rigid corporate culture is being shaken up.

The company's mail delivery unit, a big source of national pride in Japan, will remain untouched largely due to social and political pressure to maintain the status quo, including the presence of post offices across the nation even in the most remote villages.

These offices also offer services for cash deposits and insurance, and a local branch where many of Japan's legions of retirees withdraw their pension payments.

That system, however, has long drawn criticism both inside and outside Japan.

Financial institutions, carrier services and foreign governments argued that the public body was operating in sectors where it competed directly with private businesses.

The government of former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi split the company into four units in 2007, to handle deliveries, savings, insurance and counter services at each of its post offices.

The government retained full ownership of the group at first, with plans for the bank and insurance units to go fully private by 2017.

The privatisation project was stalled after the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party lost power, but was revived after the party returned to power in late 2012.

AFP

    
 

Data hogs force Microsoft to cut cloud storage

Microsoft has decided to end its unlimited cloud storage offering, saying a small number of users abused the system. 

PHOTO: EPA

NOV 4, 20157:06 AM

[WASHINGTON] Microsoft has decided to end its unlimited cloud storage offering, saying a small number of users abused the system.

"Since we started to roll out unlimited cloud storage to Office 365 consumer subscribers, a small number of users backed up numerous PCs and stored entire movie collections and DVR recordings," Microsoft said in a statement on Monday.

In some cases, Microsoft said users stored more than 75 terabytes "or 14,000 times the average" for its consumer cloud service called OneDrive.

"Instead of focusing on extreme backup scenarios, we want to remain focused on delivering high-value productivity and collaboration experiences that benefit the majority of OneDrive users," Microsoft said.

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It will end the unlimited storage plan for subscribers to Office 365 Home, Personal, or University, and instead provide one terabyte.

The free storage for other OneDrive users will be cut from 15 gigabytes to five gigabytes, and the company will offer a 50 gigabyte plan for US$1.99 per month, while discontinuing 100 GB and 200 GB paid plans.

Changes will begin in early 2016, Microsoft said.

"These changes are needed to ensure that we can continue to deliver a collaborative, connected, and intelligent service," the statement said. "They will allow us to continue to innovate and make OneDrive the best option for people who want to be productive and do more."

AFP