Hyundai Heavy Industries will bid to control back the Hyundai Hynix

Hyundai Heavy CEO Mong Joon CHUNG brother of Hyundai Motors CEO Mong Koo CHUNG plan to take control over Hynix Semiconductor the formerly part of the Hyundai group which span off in 1997 during the Asian economic downturn.  Hyundai Hynix creditors plan to approach investors this month to sell a stake in the South Korean chipmaker and could offer loans to potential bidders after failing to find a strategic buyer for 3 times.

Creditors rescued Hynix after it almost collapsed in 2001 under the weight of its debts. However, they have since struggled to find a local strategic buyer for Hynix, having excluded foreigners from the auction because of worries about sensitive technology information leaking outside of the country.

State-run Korea Finance, the chipmaker’s largest shareholder with a 5.5 per cent stake, said creditors aimed to sell their 20 per cent holdings, worth about Won3,120bn ($2.5bn) by current market value, by the end of this year.

Korea Finance said that to help overcome financing concerns, creditors would offer a credit line to a buyer to reduce their investment burden.

Creditors are eager to sell their remaining stake to recoup an original investment worth $4.6bn, as Hynix shares have gained 15 per cent this year after more than tripling in 2009 on rising chip prices.

Creditors have had tried three times in the past year to sell their stake in Hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker. But concerns about the huge investments required after acquiring the company are believed to have deterred potential buyers

The only company to have shown firm interest in buying Hynix was Hyosung, a mid-sized Korean conglomerate focused on fibre and chemicals. However, Hyosung dropped its bid for Hynix last year because of financing problems.

In March the creditor group offloaded a 6.7 per cent stake in Hynix for Won923.2bn through a block sale.

Creditors have said that if they cannot find a buyer for the rest of their stake by the end of this year, they plan to sell it to a private equity fund or in the market.

Hyundai’ Hynix recently announced a plan to raise its capital expenditure by a third to Won 3,050 billion this year to take advantage of a strong recovery in the global technology sector. It came after industry leader Samsung Electronics doubled its investment in semiconductors to Won11, 000 billion in an effort to cement its technology lead over rivals.

Unconnectedly, creditors are also looking to begin the sale this month of a stake in Hyundai Engineering & Construction, South Korea’s biggest builder. The Korea Finance-led group – which holds a controlling 38.6 per cent stake – aims to select a preferred bidder by as early as September.

Creditors took over Hyundai Engineering & Construction in the wake of the Asian financial crisis at the end of the 1990s. Korea Finance is the builder’s largest shareholder with an 11.2 per cent stake.

Shares in Hyundai Engineering have fallen more than 20 per cent so far this year due to the slump in the local construction industry.

Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilder, is considering a bid for a controlling stake in Hynix Semiconductor worth about $2.8bn as creditors launch another attempt to sell the leading memory chipmaker

“We are looking at the sale with interest,” a Hyundai Heavy said, responding to market rumors that the shipbuilding giant would take over its former affiliate

Hyundai Heavy is looking to diversify their interests away from shipbuilding into electric power generation, but analysts say the deal could also reflect its desire to rebuild the family conglomerate, or chaebol. Hynix was formerly known as Hyundai Electronics.

Nine creditors-turned-shareholders, including Korea Exchange Bank, are planning to launch a sales process this month for a 15 per cent stake in Hynix, in their third attempt to find a strategic buyer in as many years.

The stake has a stock market valuation of $2.4bn but analysts estimate it is worth about $2.8bn because the rest of the shares are widely dispersed, giving the owner the chance to control the company.

Hyundai Heavy declined to comment on why it would be interested in Hynix but analysts said the shipbuilder apparently wants to rebuild parts of the former Hyundai family conglomerate, which had been split up in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis in 1997 or Hyundai Heavy is just planning to continue their diversification as Hyundai Motor Groups did after acquiring the Hyundai Engineering & Construction .

“Some say that Hyundai Heavy wants Hynix for its renewable business such as solar power but it seems a little far-fetched,” said Jae Lee at Daiwa Securities. “There seems to be no clear business link but the company may want to take back part of the former Hyundai empire, like in the case of Hyundai Engineering & Construction.”

Hyundai Motor Group, a former affiliate of Hyundai Heavy Industries, this year took over Hyundai Engineering & Construction Last April 2011.

 

 

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China is embarrassed in the International Community over invasion in the Philippine Waters in the Spratlys

China stepped up criticism of the Philippines in a fresh exchange of invectives over disputed waters, calling on Manila to stop infringing its sovereignty with irresponsible claims over the Spratlys, after thousands of protest online denouncing China’s invasion and incursion to the Philippine waters UNCLOS 200 nautical Mile Exclusive Economic Zone.

“China demands that the Philippines stop unilateral actions that damage China’s  believed sovereignty and interests at sea and could lead to the expansion and complication of the South China Sea & West Philippine Sea dispute, and stop issuing irresponsible comments that are inconsistent with facts,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei. As UNCLOS law of sea showing that China is violating the international law, China is embarrassed in the international community of being called the “UNCLOS international law violator China”.

Malacañang of the Philippines shrugged off the Chinese statement.

“We are very careful in crafting these statements and we see to it that we back up our statements and base it on facts,” President Aquino’s deputy spokesperson Abigail Valte told reporters in Manila on Wednesday ( June 8, 2011).

“We stand by what we believe in and what is ours,” she added.

The Philippines is confident of their stands as Tomas Cloma, a Filipino Business man and navigator is the first person in the world pronounced his Ownership in the whole Spratlys Archipelago in 1955 and then turned it over to the Philippines.

The Philippines is also confident as the Spratlys which is become disputed is just within the Philippine waters within UNCLOS 200 Nautical Mile Exclusive Economic Zone of the West Philippine Sea and Palawan shore.

The Philippines is also confident as the called disputed Spratlys is the traditional fishing ground of the Filipinos since the ancient times.

The comments, posted on the ministry’s website on Tuesday, were China’s most vitriolic in weeks of tension as the Philippines denounced what it said was the increasing assertiveness of Chinese ships in the region. It also cited the United States’ stake in the stability and security of the world’s second-busiest sea lane.

Hong said China had stood by its position for centuries. He said conducting missions and patrols by Chinese vessels in waters under Chinese jurisdiction was “completely reasonable.” The China’s beliefs which for them reasonable as they are giants is definitely not reasonable to the small  ASEAN countries who owned the Islands and Sea which China’s tried to invade. The Old map also of China didn’t show that Spratly’s is part of their claim. The China’s Claim over the Spratly’s of the Philippines started after the rumored of its contain the 4^th largest Oil and Gas Deposit in the World.  The Oil thirsty china needs the Spratlys to survive from their oil needs.

The Philippines is the strongest bone which China’s fear of as most part of the islands and waters they tried to invade are within the Philippines Waters in the West Philippines Sea - UNCLOS 200 Nautical Mile Exclusive Economic Zone. China’s shame of being called as UNCLOS International law violator as so embarrassing and unacceptable for them in the international communities and lost their credibility to lead in both power and economy.

Diplomatic solution

“President Aquino of the Philippine has also already said that we are preparing reports on these alleged incursions and that we want to present them to the appropriate body,” Valte said.

Asked if the Chinese statement would affect Mr. Aquino’s plan to report the intrusions to the United Nations, Valte said, “It will not hold us back as far as we still reiterate our stand that we will handle these conflicts in the most diplomatic way possible.”

China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan all claim territories in the West Philippine Sea and  South China Sea, which covers an important shipping route and is thought to hold untapped oil and gas reserves which ranked 4^th largest oil and gas deposit in the World. Though the Philippines have started their Oil and Gas Exploration within the Archipelago’s 200 Mile Exclusive Economic Zone, it is not yet to the fullest which China; the oil thirsty country want to be part of what’s the Philippines have now in Malampaya Gas Exploration Project in Palawan Province.

China claims most of the sea, some 1.7 million square kilometers, including the Paracel  which is within their UNCLOS 200 Nautical Mile Exclusive Economic Zone and the Spratly of the Philippines which is within the Philippines Waters UNCLOS 200 Nautical Mile Exclusive Economic Zone. Paracel and Spratlys are Different because Paracel is within the waters of Vietnam and China which the 2 countries are fighting for; while Spratlys – most part is within the Philippine Waters and some part is in Vietnam Waters, Malaysia, & Brunei.

6 incidents of intrusions

Manila has accused China of intrusions into its territory, citing six instances, including one in March when two Chinese patrol boats tried to ram a Philippine survey ship.

Vietnamese officials have also complained about Chinese activity in the contested waters, accusing Chinese patrol boats of harassing an oil-exploration ship conducting a seismic survey 120 kilometers (75 Miles)  off Vietnam’s south-central coast.

One incident this month, in which Chinese vessels placed a buoy and posts in a part of the sea it claims, spurred protests in the cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh.

Hong said China was willing to negotiate directly with the Philippines to “seek an appropriate resolution to the relevant dispute.”

Aircraft carrier

The Chinese blast against the Philippines came amid reports that China could launch its first aircraft carrier this year, a year earlier than US military analysts had expected.

The Hong Kong Commercial Daily on Wednesday reported that a top Chinese general had confirmed that Beijing was building an aircraft carrier, marking the first acknowledgement of the ship’s existence from China’s secretive military.

In an exclusive interview, the newspaper quoted Chen Bingde, chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), as saying the 300-meter refurbished Soviet carrier “is being built, but it has not been completed.”

He declined to elaborate although there has been wide speculation that the vessel was nearly finished after the ship, then called the Varyag, was reportedly purchased in 1998. It is currently based in the northeast port city of Dalian.

The ship, which an expert on China’s military has said would be used for training and as a model for a future indigenously built ship, was originally built for the Soviet Navy. Construction was interrupted by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

End of month launch

The Hong Kong paper quoted anonymous sources as saying the carrier would be launched by the end of June at the earliest.

Qi Jianguo, assistant to the chief of the PLA’s general staff, told the newspaper that the carrier would not enter other nations’ territories, in accordance with Beijing’s defensive military strategy.

“All of the great nations in the world own aircraft carriers—they are symbols of a great nation,” he was quoted as saying.

Despite its growing naval might, China says it poses no threat to its neighbors and that its long-term double-digit increases in military spending are in line with overall growth.

China clashes with Tokyo

In addition to China’s claims in the South China Sea, Beijing has clashed with Tokyo over the disputed Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu Islands in China, located in the East China Sea.

In April, Adm. Robert Willard, head of the US Pacific Command, said China’s Navy had adopted a less aggressive stance in the Pacific after protests from Washington and other nations in the region.

The PLA—the largest army in the world—is hugely secretive about its defense programs, which benefit from a big military budget boosted by the nation’s runaway economic growth

 

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'Laughing' insects among new species discovered in Philippines; the center of World Biodiversity

Laughing cicadas and small "cat sharks" are among scores of species believed new to science discovered by US and Filipino researchers in waters and islands of the Philippines, the researchers team member said.

The finds showcased the vast biodiversity of the Southeast Asian archipelago that is now under severe threat, said the experts from the California Academy of Sciences and local institutions.

The team found a rich harvest of starfish, sea urchins, eels and barnacles, many of which had not been previously documented by scientists, said Richard Mooi, one of the California marine scientists.

"We found at least 75 new species, perhaps more. A lot more analysis is needed," he told a forum to announce the discoveries.

"Unquestionably, we found 20 new species of starfish and sea urchins alone," he added.

Fellow academy scientist John McCosker said they discovered several small "cat sharks" that might also be a new species.

Among the other unusual discoveries, insect specialist Ireneo Lit said his group believed they had found several new species, including a cicada that made a sound like high-pitched laughter.

The expedition had trawled the depths of the waters off Batangas province and Taal Lake south of Manila, and also took samples of living things from four mountains over the past month.

"We found one new species of eel, possibly a new species of pipe fish, new species of barnacles, new species of nudibranch mollusks," said Terry Gosliner, dean of the California Academy.

Three possible new species of spiders were also found in a search of the mountains, said spider expert Charles Griswold.

It would take several months of laboratory work to confirm if the finds were all truly new species but the large number of experts involved could easily tell if they had really found something new, Mooi said.

Edgardo Gomez, a professor of the University of the Philippines' Marine Science Institute, said some of the marine finds would have been under threat of extinction.

"Philippine marine biodiversity is under siege," Gomez told the forum.

He cited damage caused both by pollution and overfishing and climate change

 

 

 

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