Leader Shot Up (Take over is coming)

HI Guy Leader have shot up today due to the take over proposal.. Look like we have opportunity to profit in the bear market...yeah....

KUALA LUMPUR: LEADER UNIVERSAL HOLDINGS BHD []’s top officials, via HNG Capital Sdn Bhd, have made a takeover offer for the company for RM480.10 million or RM1.10 per share. This is 26 sen above the last traded price of 84 sen.
Leader said on Monday, Oct 17 the purchase consideration would be RM410.94 million in cash and RM69.16 million as an amount remaining due and owing by HNGC as a debt due to Leader.
“Upon completion of the proposed acquisition, HNGC has proposed that Leader undertakes a distribution of the entire proceeds arising from the proposed acquisition to all entitled shareholders of Leader,” it said.
To recap, the top officials involved in the takeover are Datuk Seri H'ng Bok San, the executive deputy chairman of Leader, Datuk H'ng Chun Hsian, who is the managing director and CEO of Leader and Datin H'ng Hsieh Ling, who is the group chief financial officer.
H'ng Bok San holds 30% of HNG Capital while H'ng Chun Hsian owns 40% and H'ng Hsieh Ling the remaining 30%.
Leader said HNG Capital had proposed a capital reduction and repayment exercise of RM1.10 per Leader share in cash to all the entitled shareholders of Leader other than H'ng Bok San, Datin Seri Ang Gaik Nga, H'ng Chun Hsiang, H'ng Hsieh Ling, H'ng Hsieh Fern, Datuk Jong East Full and Zun Holdings Sdn Bhd.
“The identified shareholders will authorise Leader to apply the cash entitlement of the identified shareholders under the proposed distribution to be set-off against the deferred amount,” it said.
As at Oct 14, the identified shareholders collectively hold 62.87 million Leader shares or 14.41%

Derivatives: The $600 Trillion Time Bomb That's Set to Explode

BY KEITH FITZ-GERALD, Chief Investment Strategist, Money Morning

Do you want to know the real reason banks aren't lending and the PIIGS have control of the barnyard in Europe?

It's because risk in the $600 trillion derivatives market isn't evening out. To the contrary, it's growing increasingly concentrated among a select few banks, especially here in the United States. 

In 2009, five banks held 80% of derivatives in America. Now, just four banks hold a staggering 95.9% of U.S. derivatives, according to a recent report from the Office of the Currency Comptroller. 

The four banks in question: JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS).

Derivatives played a crucial role in bringing down the global economy, so you would think that the world's top policymakers would have reined these things in by now - but they haven't. 

Instead of attacking the problem, regulators have let it spiral out of control, and the result is a $600 trillion time bomb called the derivatives market. 

Think I'm exaggerating? 

The notional value of the world's derivatives actually is estimated at more than $600 trillion. Notional value, of course, is the total value of a leveraged position's assets. This distinction is necessary because when you're talking about leveraged assets like options and derivatives, a little bit of money can control a disproportionately large position that may be as much as 5, 10, 30, or, in extreme cases, 100 times greater than investments that could be funded only in cash instruments. 

The world's gross domestic product (GDP) is only about $65 trillion, or roughly 10.83% of the worldwide value of the global derivatives market, according to The Economist. So there is literally not enough money on the planet to backstop the banks trading these things if they run into trouble.

Compounding the problem is the fact that nobody even knows if the $600 trillion figure is accurate, because specialized derivatives vehicles like the credit default swaps that are now roiling Europe remain largely unregulated and unaccounted for. 

Tick...Tick...Tick

To be fair, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) estimated the net notional value of uncollateralized derivatives risks is between $2 trillion and $8 trillion, which is still a staggering amount of money and well beyond the billions being talked about in Europe.

Imagine the fallout from a $600 trillion explosion if several banks went down at once. It would eclipse the collapse of Lehman Brothers in no uncertain terms. 

A governmental default would panic already anxious investors, causing a run on several major European banks in an effort to recover their deposits. That would, in turn, cause several banks to literally run out of money and declare bankruptcy.

Short-term borrowing costs would skyrocket and liquidity would evaporate. That would cause a ricochet across the Atlantic as the institutions themselves then panic and try to recover their own capital by withdrawing liquidity by any means possible.

And that's why banks are hoarding cash instead of lending it.

The major banks know there is no way they can collateralize the potential daisy chain failure that Greece represents. So they're doing everything they can to stockpile cash and keep their trading under wraps and away from public scrutiny. 

What really scares me, though, is that the banks 

think this is an acceptable risk because the odds of a default are allegedly smaller than one in 10,000. 

But haven't we heard that before? 

Although American banks have limited their exposure to Greece, they have loaned hundreds of billions of dollars to European banks and European governments that may not be capable of paying them back. 

According to the Bank of International Settlements, U.S. banks have loaned only $60.5 billion to banks in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy - the countries most at risk of default. But they've lent $275.8 billion to French and German banks. 

And undoubtedly bet trillions on the same debt. 

There are three key takeaways here:

• There is not enough capital on hand to cover the possible losses associated with the default of a single counterparty - JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), BNP Paribas SA (PINK: BNPQY) or the National Bank of Greece (NYSE ADR:NBG) for example - let alone multiple failures.
• That means banks with large derivatives exposure have to risk even more money to generate the incremental returns needed to cover the bets they've already made.
• And the fact that Wall Street believes it has the risks under control practically guarantees that it doesn't.

Seems to me that the world's central bankers and politicians should be less concerned about stimulating "demand" and more concerned about fixing derivatives before this $600 trillion time bomb goes off.

China-US currency tension growing

The gold price toyed with resistance at $1,680 per troy ounce yesterday, but was unable to break through this level. As judged by the price chart for the exchange-traded fund GLD, the volume of gold trading remains subdued. A pick-up in volume and open interest in gold futures will be necessary if the price is to mount a sustained push higher.

The same point about volume and open interest applies to the silver market. Volume in the popular silver ETF SLV remains at year-to-date lows. The silver price keeps trying and failing to break above resistance at $32.50. Precious metals and commodities are being being boosted by a weakening US dollar; the Dollar Index (USDX) closed down 0.76% yesterday at 76.99. The Japanese yen – another long-standing “safe haven” currency – has also weakened in recent days, underscoring the increasing risk appetite among traders.

Interesting developments are also afoot with regards the Chinese yuan. Following a vote in the US Senate in favour of protectionist measures against the Chinese – owing to American complaints that the undervalued yuan is “stealing jobs” from America – the People’s Bank of China (PBC) has retaliated by raising the dollar-yuan central parity rate. Unsurprisingly, the yuan fell against the dollar in early trading yesterday, though this fall was reversed later in the session. Many investors remain bullish on the yuan over the long-term, with many predicting that one day it may function as a reserve currency. This bullishness will provide some resistance to PBC devaluation efforts.

China also faces a serious inflation problem that will only get worse if the PBC attempts to re-peg the yuan to the US dollar. If it does attempt to re-peg, angry American politicians will demand more protectionist measures against China, while the Federal Reserve may resort to more quantitative easing in an effort to force the PBC’s hand, as more QE in America will result in more dollars flooding into China – something that will drive inflation in China even higher if the PBC insists on suppressing the yuan-dollar exchange rate.

Gold is the only winner in this devaluation race. Governments may not succeed in devaluing their currencies against other fiat currencies, but they sure-as-hell will succeed in devaluing their issuances against the yellow metal. As former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan recently remarked: "Gold, unlike all other commodities, is a currency," he said. "And the major thrust in the demand for gold is not for jewelry. It's not for anything other than an escape from what is perceived to be a fiat money system, paper money, that seems to be deteriorating."

Soros: Don't Let Faulty Euro Destroy Financial System

Billionaire investor George Soros and 95 prominent politicians, business leaders and academics urged euro zone leaders to take swift action to resolve the crisis plaguing the region, calling for the creation of a euro zone treasury and stressing that the euro can only be saved if all 17 countries that share the currency act in unison.

Source: World Economic Forum George Soros

In an open letter published in the Financial Times on Wednesday, the "concerned Europeans" conceded the euro was "far from perfect", but added euro zone leaders needed to "fix its faults rather than allowing it to undermine and perhaps destroy the global financial system".

The euro zone debt crisis has wreaked havoc on the European banking sector, culminating in state-led bailouts for a number of banks which faced liquidity issues.

It has also forced German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to announce plans to recapitalize Europe’s banks to avoid a full-blown banking crisis.

In the letter, Soros and the 95 others said they wanted euro zone governments to agree on the need for a legally binding agreement that would "establish a common treasury that can raise funds for the euro zone as a whole and ensure that member states adhere to fiscal discipline."

The euro zone’s attempts at enforcing a common monetary policy without a common treasury have been heavily criticized, but many EU member states fear a common treasury would infringe their sovereignty.

The letter also called for stronger common supervision, regulation and deposit insurance within the euro zone, as well as “a strategy that will produce both economic convergence and growth because the debt problem cannot be solved without growth”.

Until such a legally binding agreement is in place, euro zone countries should “empower the European financial stability facility and the European Central Bank to co-operate in bringing the crisis under control.”

"These institutions could then guarantee and eventually recapitalize the banking system and enable countries in need to refinance their debt, within agreed limits, at practically no cost by issuing treasury bills that can be rediscounted at the ECB,” the letter said.

Most importantly, the euro zone crisis needs a European solution, they said. “The pursuit of national solutions can only lead to dissolution,” the letter concluded.

Gold ATMs make their way to China

Gold is getting popular now. I think now is good time to buy some gold as the prices have come down recently..update you guy when i get some..haha

This gold ATM is the latest way for fans and retail investors to buy the precious metal in China.
According to state media, the German-imported gold vending machine will be officially installed during the Chinese National Day holidays, which fall in the first week of October.
The machine prices gold at latest market quotes, which are automatically updated every 10 minutes.
There’s a selection of shapes and sizes, and consumers can choose to pay with cash or an ATM card.
The company behind the gold ATM is the Gongmei Gold Group. And Director Zheng Ruixiang says the ATM is another way to satisfy surging demand for gold.

“After the outbreak of the international financial crisis, everybody in China became very enthusiastic to purchase and invest in gold. Under these circumstances, the traditional ways of selling gold cannot satisfy the demand for gold.”

China is second only to India in terms of demand for gold.
According to the World Gold Council, China’s demand stood at around 700 tons last year. But rising demand for the precious metal, partly due to current volatile market conditions, will lift that significantly.

“Our machine can hold a maximum of about 200 kilograms of gold. The number of customers using gold ATMs may vary a lot in different locations, so we’ll load the ATMs with different volumes accordingly.”

Gongmei expects the gold ATM to be extremely popular and plans to install 2,000 of the machines in banks and high-end hotels over the next two years.
China isn’t the first to get the gold ATM. Similar machines have been introduced in Europe, the United Arab Emirates and Las Vegas.
Gold prices rose nearly 30% in 2010 and have soared to record highs this year, with the precious metal up 14% so far in 2011.
Bottom line: China’s love for gold finds another outlet with the arrival of the country’s first gold ATM.

Euro Debt funny but truth..

Prophets Of Doom: 12 Shocking Quotes From Insiders About The Horrific Economic Crisis That Is Almost Here

We are getting so close to a financial collapse in Europe that you can almost hear the debt bubbles popping.  All across the western world, governments and major banks are rapidly becoming insolvent.  So far, the powers that be are keeping all of the balls in the air by throwing around lots of bailout money.  But now the political will for more bailouts is drying up and the number of troubled entities seems to grow by the day.  Right now the western world is facing a debt crisis that is absolutely unprecedented in world history.  Europe has had a tremendously difficult time just trying to keep Greece afloat, and several much larger European countries are now on the verge of a major financial crisis.  In addition, there is a growing number of very large financial institutions all over the western world that are also rapidly approaching a day of reckoning.  The global financial system is a sea or red ink, and when we get to the point where there are hundreds of ships going under how is it going to be possible to bail all of them out?  The quotes that you are about to read show that quite a few top financial and political insiders know that things cannot hold together much longer and that a horrific economic crisis is coming.  We built the global financial system on a foundation of debt, leverage and risk and now this house of cards that we have created is about to come tumbling down.

A lot of people in politics and in the financial world know what is about to happen.  Once in a while they will even be quite candid about it with the media.

As I have written about previously, Europe is on the verge of a financial collapse.  If things go really badly, things could totally fall apart in a few weeks.  But more likely it will be a few more months until the juggling act ends.

Right now, the banking system in Europe is coming apart at the seams.  Because the global financial system is so interconnected today, when major European banks start to fail it is going to have a cascading effect across the United States and Asia as well.

The financial crisis of 2008 plunged us into the deepest recession since the Great Depression.

The next financial crisis could potentially hit the world even harder.

The following are 12 shocking quotes from insiders that are warning about the horrific economic crisis that is almost here....

#1 George Soros: "Financial markets are driving the world towards another Great Depression with incalculable political consequences. The authorities, particularly in Europe, have lost control of the situation."

#2 PIMCO CEO Mohammed El-Erian: "These are all signs of an institutional run on French banks. If it persists, the banks would have no choice but to delever their balance sheets in a very drastic and disorderly fashion. Retail depositors would get edgy and be tempted to follow trading and institutional clients through the exit doors. Europe would thus be thrown into a full-blown banking crisis that aggravates the sovereign debt trap, renders certain another economic recession, and significantly worsens the outlook for the global economy."

#3 Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy, global head of securities services at UniCredit SpA (Italy's largest bank): "The only remaining question is how many days the hopeless rearguard action of European governments and the European Central Bank can keep up Greece’s spirits."

#4 Stefan Homburg, the head of Germany's Institute for Public Finance: "The euro is nearing its ugly end. A collapse of monetary union now appears unavoidable."

#5 EU Parliament Member Nigel Farage: "I think the worst in the financial system is yet to come, a possible cataclysm and if that happens the gold price could go (higher) to a number that we simply cannot, at this moment, even imagine."

#6 Carl Weinberg, the chief economist at High Frequency Economics: "At this point, our base case is that Greece will default within weeks."

#7 Goldman Sachs strategist Alan Brazil: "Solving a debt problem with more debt has not solved the underlying problem. In the US, Treasury debt growth financed the US consumer but has not had enough of an impact on job growth. Can the US continue to depreciate the world’s base currency?"

#8 International Labour Organization director general Juan Somavia recently stated that total unemployment could "increase by some 20m to a total of 40m in G20 countries" by the end of 2012.

#9 Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackerman: "It is an open secret that numerous European banks would not survive having to revalue sovereign debt held on the banking book at market levels."

#10 Alastair Newton, a strategist for Nomura Securities in London: "We believe that we are just about to enter a critical period for the eurozone and that the threat of some sort of break-up between now and year-end is greater than it has been at any time since the start of the crisis"

#11 Ann Barnhardt, head of Barnhardt Capital Management, Inc.: "It's over. There is no coming back from this. The only thing that can happen is a total and complete collapse of EVERYTHING we now know, and humanity starts from scratch. And if you think that this collapse is going to play out without one hell of a big hot war, you are sadly, sadly mistaken."

#12 Lakshman Achuthan of ECRI: "When I call a recession...that means that process is starting to feed on itself, which means that you can yell and scream and you can write a big check, but it's not going to stop."

*****

In my opinion, the epicenter of the "next wave" of the financial collapse is going to be in Europe.  But that does not mean that the United States is going to be okay.  The reality is that the United States never recovered from the last recession and there are already a lot of signs that we are getting ready to enter another major recession.  A major financial collapse in Europe would just accelerate our plunge into a new economic crisis.

If you want to read something that will really freak you out, you should check out what Dr. Philippa Malmgren is saying.  Dr. Philippa Malmgren is the President and founder of Principalis Asset Management.  She is also a former member of the Bush economic team. You can find her bio right here.

Malmgren is claiming that Germany is seriously considering bringing back the Deutschmark.  In fact, she claims that Germany is very busy printing new currency up.  In a list of things that we could see happen over the next few months, she included the following....

"The Germans announce they are re-introducing the Deutschmark. They have already ordered the new currency and asked that the printers hurry up."

This is quite a claim for someone to be making.  You would think that someone that used to work in the White House would not make such a claim unless it was based on something solid.

If Germany did decide to leave the euro, you would see an implosion of the euro that would be truly historic.

But as I have written about previously, it should not surprise anyone that theend of the euro is being talked about because the euro simply does not work.

The only way that the euro would have had a chance of working is if all of the governments using the euro would have kept debt levels very low.

Unfortunately, the financial systems of the western world are designed to push governments into high levels of debt.

The truth is that the euro was doomed from the very beginning.

Now we are approaching a day of reckoning.  We have been living in the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world, but the bubble is ending.  There are several ways that the powers that be could handle this, but all of them will lead to greater financial instability.

In the end, we will see that the debt-fueled prosperity that the western world has been enjoying for decades was just an illusion.

Debt is a very cruel master.  It will almost always bring more pain and suffering than you anticipated.

It is easy to get into debt, but it can be very difficult to get out of debt.

There is no way that the western world can unwind this debt spiral easily.

The only way that another massive economic crisis can be put off for even a little while would be for the powers that be to "kick the can down the road" a little farther by creating even more debt.

But in the end, you can never solve a debt problem with more debt.

The next several years are going to be an incredibly clear illustration of why debt is bad.

When the dominoes start to fall, we are going to witness a financial avalanche which is going to destroy the finances of millions of people.

You might want to try to get out of the way while you still can.