| Roxas Holdings secure P2-B loan from BPI, RCBC
Holding and investment firm Roxas Holdings Inc. said Friday it has secured a P2-billion loan from Bank of the Philippine Islands and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. for the expansion of its sugar business and construction of an ethanol plant.
Earlier this week, the company also obtained a P4.69-billion loan from Banco de Oro-EPCI Inc. to bankroll the said expansion.
Roxas Holdings said that it was alloting about P6.5 billion for its capital expenditure program until 2009, mainly for increasing the capacity of its sugar milling and refinery arm CADP Group Corp.
It said it planned to buy the equipment of two sugar milling firms in the US and Australia to be installed in its plants.
The company is also putting up a P1.4-billion ethanol fuel plant in Negros Occidental that is slated for commercial operations next year.
Feds looking into alleged metro Ponzi scheme
Federal agents are investigating several people suspected of running a fraudulent investment scheme that helped pay for stock market day trading and gambling trips to Las Vegas. The alleged scheme used a number of Twin Cities business entities and is believed to have tapped more than 200 investors nationwide for at least $10.9 million, according to a sworn statement filed this month in Minneapolis federal court to obtain three search warrants. U.S. Postal Inspector Rob Strande, who filed the statement, said the losses have not been determined, but that they could be substantial. Strande said in the affidavit that the suspects solicited investors by promising returns of 20 to 2,200 percent over the course of one to 18 months. Potential investors were told that their money would go to unspecified ventures -- including gold, diamonds and oil commodities -- he said.
Stocks Post Steep Losses, Capping Painful Week
Stocks declined sharply today after another large bank said that it would write down the value of some of its assets, reigniting fears of a credit squeeze, and technology stocks extended their losses. The Dow Jones industrial average plummeted more than 200 points, or 1.7 percent. Technology stocks, which suffered one of their first significant sell-offs in months yesterday, dropped more than 2 percent today. Qualcomm, the wireless company, said last night that it expected business to drop over the coming months, underscoring fears that technology companies will be hurt by an expected slowdown in the economy over the next few months. Cisco Systems, the networking giant, ignited yesterdays sell-off with a similar report. The Nasdaq composite index, heavy with technology shares, closed down 68.06 points, or 2.5 percent, to 2,627.94.
More Obama substance!
According to Tamar Jacoby, the recent arrest of 1,300 suspected illegal workers at six Swift & Co. meat processing plants demonstrates the need for 'comprehensive immigration reform.' I don't understand: 1) "Comprehensive" reform is supposed to be a deal in which amnesty for current illegals (and a guest worker program) is coupled with a tougher workplace enforcement program to block future illegals. Sounds good, but the last such "comprehensive" reform--the1986 amnesty--failed miserably when its workplace enforcement program turned out to be ineffective at stopping employers from hiring illegals. The idea behind the current Bush proposal is that this time workplace enforcement will work. But, as the New York Times notes, Swift & Co. in fact particpated in the the federal Basic Pilot program, a system of checking Social Security numbers that President Bush has touted as a way to crack down on immigration fraud.
Oil prices touch new high of $101.32
SINGAPORE: World oil prices hit a new record of USD 101.32 a barrel on renewed concerns over global crude supplies, dealers said on Thursday.
New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, touched the all-time peak in electronic trading before it lapsed.
In morning trade, the contract for April delivery which took over was trading at USD 99.76 a barrel, up six cents from the previous day.
Brent North Sea crude for April delivery rose three cents to USD 98.45 a barrel. .
China's Big Outward Leap
Dozens of countries from Norway to Abu Dhabi to Kazakhstan have set up so-called sovereign wealth funds to seek better returns from investing their hoards of cash. When China Investment came formally to life on Sept. 29, its $200-billion inheritance automatically made it one the biggest such funds in the world. A bold beginning The company made headlines even before it was born when its forerunner, Central Huijin Investment Co., agreed to pay $3-billion for a stake in Blackstone Group LP, the biggest publicly traded private equity fund in the United States. Normally, said investment analyst Andrew Milligan, a new investing company would start more conservatively, buying first into blue-chip assets and moving gradually up the risk curve. "The Chinese didn't. They immediately moved into private equity, which I found fascinating," said Mr.
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