Goldman Sachs's Leissner said to move to Los Angeles, take leave

Tim Leissner, the Goldman Sachs Group Inc executive who helped build the investment bank's Malaysia business, has relocated to Los Angeles and is on personal leave, people familiar with the matter said. 

PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

JAN 27, 20163:17 PM

[HONG KONG] Tim Leissner, the Goldman Sachs Group Inc executive who helped build the investment bank's Malaysia business, has relocated to Los Angeles and is on personal leave, people familiar with the matter said.

Mr Leissner, who has been with Goldman Sachs for almost 18 years and was most recently Singapore-based chairman of its South-east Asia operations, remains an employee, said the people. They asked not to be identified discussing a private matter. Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

An e-mail sent to Mr Leissner's Goldman Sachs address yielded an automatic reply saying: "I'm currently out of the office on personal leave with no access to emails." It didn't say when he will return to work. Calls to his mobile phone went to voice mail.

Mr Leissner, a German national who is married to former US fashion model and designer Kimora Lee Simmons, was instrumental in building Goldman Sachs's business in Malaysia. The bank's dealings with the country's state-owned investment company, 1Malaysia Development Bhd, drew public scrutiny because of the high fees Goldman was paid.

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Three 1MDB bond sales in 2012 and 2013 totaling US$6.5 billion yielded fees, commissions and expenses for Goldman Sachs of US$593 million, or about 9.1 per cent of the money raised, a person familiar with the matter said earlier. 1MDB subsequently become entangled in a political scandal due to its ballooning debts and its ties with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. Both the premier and 1MDB have consistently denied any wrongdoing.

Mr Leissner was appointed as head of investment banking in Singapore in August 2002 and was made a partner in 2006. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1998 as an executive director in its mergers advisory business.

The banker was involved in a number of large transactions such as billionaire T Ananda Krishnan's 2009 initial public offering of Maxis Bhd, the country's largest mobile-phone operator. Later that year, Goldman Sachs received a license from Malaysia's Securities Commission to set up fund management and corporate finance advisory operations in the country.

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China financial institutions told to support real economy

China's government has told financial institutions to step up support for the real economy, state media quoted the cabinet as saying on Wednesday. 

PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

JAN 27, 20167:27 PM

[BEIJING] China's government has told financial institutions to step up support for the real economy, state media quoted the cabinet as saying on Wednesday.

The government will encourage banks to deal with non-performing loans and reduce lending to loss-making firms, state radio quoted the cabinet as saying at a meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.

China will also encourage mergers and acquisitions among firms through issuance of preferred stocks and convertible bonds, it said.

REUTERS

Thailand is top Asia-Pacific tourist stop thanks to Chinese

JAN 27, 20166:28 PM

[SINGAPORE] Chinese tourists can't seem to get enough of Thailand, with visitor numbers to the Southeast Asian kingdom surging over the past year at one of the fastest clips in the Asia-Pacific region.

In a year that saw the Thai military government grapple with an outbreak of the deadly flu-like MERS virus as well as the bombing at a major shrine, Chinese tourists helped turn Bangkok into the region's most-visited destination in 2015, according to the first-ever MasterCard Asia Pacific Destinations Index published on Wednesday.

All three Thai destinations in the 10 most-visited list - Phuket was ranked fifth, Pattaya eighth - recorded more than 10 percent year-on-year growth in international arrivals, outpacing other locations like Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, which were at No.2 and No.4, respectively.

In 2016, the Thai government expects Chinese visitors to make up a larger proportion of the record 32 million people forecast to visit.

"What's ultimately driving Thailand is the Chinese," said Matthew Driver, MasterCard's Asia-Pacific group executive for products and solutions, told Reuters.

The survey ranked 167 islands, towns and cities in 22 countries across the Asia-Pacific. Japanese destinations recorded the fastest growth in 2015, the index also showed, as the weaker yen continued to attract Chinese tourists in droves. Tokyo was the second-most visited city, with Osaka rounding off the top 10.

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Emirates to take US$14.5b new jets; 21 Airbus superjumbos

Emirates, the world's biggest long-haul airline, plans to add 37 new planes to its fleet in the fiscal year beginning April as it expands operations in Asia with new destinations. 

PHOTO: REUTERS

JAN 27, 20165:19 PM

[SINGAPORE] Emirates, the world's biggest long-haul airline, plans to add 37 new planes to its fleet in the fiscal year beginning April as it expands operations in Asia with new destinations.

The airline will receive 21 Airbus Group SE A380 superjumbos and 16 Boeing Co 777s in the year ending March 2017, chief commercial officer Thierry Antinori said Wednesday in Singapore.

The aircraft are worth US$14.5 billion at list prices.  Emirates already serves about 150 destinations in about 80 countries using the industry's biggest wide-body fleet.

The Dubai-based airline will begin operations to Panama in February in what will be the longest nonstop commercial flight by any carrier, overtaking Qantas Airways Ltd.'s service to Dallas from Sydney.

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"We will continue to grow," Mr Antinori said. "We will continue to invest, innovate, have a younger fleet. It's about creating new markets."

Emirates also plans to retire 26 airplanes, including some A330s and A340s, from its fleet, Antinori said. The airline is studying an order for Airbus's A350-900 and -1000 variants along with Boeing's 787-9 and -10 models.

Emirates has said it will fly to new destinations this year, including Cebu in the Philippines and two cities in China. The carrier had 247 aircraft in operations as of Jan 17, with 257 on order.

Singapore Airlines Ltd. plans to operate A350-900ULR to restart the world's longest non-stop flight to New York in 2018. Emirates canceled an order for 70 A350s in 2014 and is currently reevaluating its requirement for the model.

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Foxconn proposes detailed offer for Sharp: source

Taiwan's Foxconn has made a detailed offer to buy Sharp Corp including a promise to not cut jobs, challenging an offer by a Japanese government-backed fund, a person with direct knowledge of the talks said on Tuesday. 

PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

JAN 27, 20164:31 PM

[TOKYO] Taiwan's Foxconn has made a detailed offer to buy Sharp Corp including a promise to not cut jobs, challenging an offer by a Japanese government-backed fund, a person with direct knowledge of the talks said on Tuesday.

Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, previously offered over 600 billion yen for Sharp but the Japanese company and its lenders had not taken the offer too seriously as it lacked a detailed restructuring plan, other people with knowledge of the matter had said last week.

But Foxconn has since submitted more specific proposals, and Chairman Terry Gou met with Japanese government officials on Tuesday to discuss the matter, the source said, declining to be named as the information remained confidential.

Sharp declined to comment. Executive at Foxconn were not immediately available to comment.

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