Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

NST Online Business Times : latest

---

Kenanga raises UEM Land target price Posted: 08 Jan 2013 06:27 PM PST Kenanga Research raised its target price for UEM Land Bhd to RM2.40 per share from RM2.28 as the property firm is expected to benefit from demand for its developments in Johor state. Kenanga viewed as positive UEM Land's recent sale of two parcels of land for RM400 million (US$131.49 million) and said the company is likely to announce tie-ups with foreign companies as it develops land close to Malaysia's border with Singapore. "We understand that UEM Land will be either looking for joint venture partners or outright land sales to boost speed of development while tapping onto new target markets," Kenanga said in a research note on Wednesday. It maintained its 'market perform' call on UEM Land to reflect "potential near term negative headwinds arising from general election risks." But there is potential for the stock to rise after the election, it added. Malaysia's upcoming general election, which must be called by April, is expected to be the country's closest. At 0955 (0155 GMT) UEM Land was down RM0.01 at RM2.13 per share while the KLSE benchmark composite index was up 2.75 points at 1691.74. -- Reuters

RAM reaffirms ratings on LEKAS Posted: 08 Jan 2013 06:32 PM PST Malaysia's RAM Ratings has reaffirmed its ratings of Lebuhraya Kajang-Seremban Sdn Bhd's ("LEKAS" or "the Company") RM785 million Senior Sukuk Istisna' ("Senior Sukuk'") and RM633 million Junior Sukuk Istisna' ("Junior Sukuk'") at BB1 and B1, respectively; the outlook on the ratings remains negative. LEKAS is the highway concessionaire for the 44-km Kajang-Seremban Highway ("KSH" or "the Highway") until May 2039; full tolling operations commenced on 21 September 2010. The ratings of the Senior and Junior Sukuk continue to reflect low safety for payment on the respective financial obligations. Given the persistent mismatch between LEKAS's cashflow generation and its financing obligations, the Company would still not have sufficient cash reserves to fully meet the first principal repayment on the Senior Sukuk of RM40 million, due in June 2014 (in 18 months). The rating difference between the Senior and Junior Sukuk is premised on the latter's subordination in terms of cashflow priority and security. The rating outlook signals further rating pressure if the management's current refinancing plan fails to materialise within the next few months. Notably, the Company has made significant progress in the refinancing of the Senior Sukuk since the last rating review. The plan entails a refinancing and full redemption of the Senior Sukuk via a RM400 million Syndicated Term Loan (STL) and RM263 million of Redeemable Convertible Unsecured Loan Stocks. We understand that the term sheet for the STL has been finalised, with the entire exercise targeted for completion by end-February 2013. RAM Ratings will continue to closely monitor developments in this regard. Meanwhile, refinancing plans for the Junior Sukuk remain inconclusive at this juncture. -- Reuters

You are subscribed to email updates from Business Times : latest To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

Kredit: www.nst.com.my

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

NST Online Top Stories - Google News

---

Hagel: A Different Kind of Defense Secretary - TIME Posted: 08 Jan 2013 08:24 AM PST Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images Chuck Hagel, President Obama's nominee to be defense secretary Senator Chuck Hagel's nomination and inevitable appointment as Secretary of Defense is stirring controversy in the Senate. It should. Hagel's appointment signals the end of 20 years of interventions that began with Somalia and ended with Iraq and, very soon, with Afghanistan. Hagel's appointment also makes certain that defense spending will be significantly reduced to pre-2000 levels or lower. How defense spending and the massive bureaucratic structure it supports will be reduced is unknown, but the proverbial handwriting is now on the wall. In this sense, Hagel's appointment trumps the ideology of permanent conflict, a belief system promoted by neo-cons inside the Beltway that allows politicians and generals to define failure as success, while spending money without any enduring strategic framework relating American military power to attainable strategic goals. To hear Hagel's critics in the Senate, Hagel's offense is the result of Chuck Hagel's determination to see the world as it is, not as the capital's ideologues would like Americans to see it. Hagel's first sin was to reject the much-celebrated 2007 surge in Iraq as a serious strategic blunder. Hagel's skepticism was no doubt informed by his personal experience with open-ended missions to install democracy-at-gunpoint inside a backward society called Vietnam. As it turned out, Hagel was right. It seems that Hagel's real sin was his determination to be guided by Sir Winston Churchill's admonition that, "An exaggerated code of honor leading to the performance of utterly vain and unreasonable deeds should not be defended however fine it might look." Other than killing more than a thousand Americans in uniform, along with seriously wounding thousands more, the crowning achievement of the surge was the permanent installation of Iranian national power and influence in Baghdad in the form of Prime Minister Maliki's government, Tehran's preferred regime. Iraq's current government is nothing more than a shabby democratic façade, one that barely conceals an Iranian-backed Shi'ite Arab dictatorship in Baghdad. Hagel's second sin appears to be his unwillingness to wage war on behalf of the current Israeli government against Iran, a state that spends less on defense than Greece. Not to worry, Chuck Hagel is in good company. Though as pro-British as his cousin Theodore Roosevelt, FDR had no intention of declaring war on behalf of another state, least of all the faltering British Empire. More important, he would not make Woodrow's Wilson's mistake and commit millions of Americans to an ideological crusade that promised no tangible strategic benefit to the American people. Between 1939 and 1942, FDR resisted Churchill's considerable powers of persuasion, providing only what assistance Britain needed to survive and nothing more. When Hitler turned on the Soviet Union, Hitler's closest ally until June 1941, FDR knew the Nazis had over-extended themselves. He could afford to build up American strength while the Nazis and Communists exhausted themselves in a pointless war of self-destruction. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and Hitler foolishly declared war on the United States as a party to his treaty of alliance with Japan, FDR acted. Again, FDR's response was calculated, and, with the benefit of hindsight, correct. Moving prematurely to challenge the German military machine at the height of its powers would have meant ten times the number of American dead we lost, if not outright defeat. Hagel's caution regarding the use of force against Iran is equally justified. Negotiating with an Iranian leadership that has one foot in the seminary and the other in the bazaar will not be easy, but it is more likely to serve American strategic interests than brute force. Hagel's third sin is reportedly his lack of personal experience inside the Defense Department's bureaucracy. As one Washingtonian put it, "The man running the Pentagon is in charge of one of the biggest and most complex bureaucracies in the world and there is nothing in Senator Hagel's background that says he can do the job well." Really? Presumably, this inside-the-Beltway expert regards the last 20 years of wasteful and expensive procurement programs from ship building to body armor, together with an endless succession of ineffective military operations, as evidence of brilliant stewardship in the Office of Secretary of Defense of American blood and treasure. The truth is federal auditors, poring over the Defense Department's conflicting financial statements, missing data and accounting discrepancies have thus far been unable to account for hundreds of billions of dollars, even as Congress continues to fund the defense establishment. Billions of defense dollars are wasted or lost each year; a condition the Government Accountability Office says has afflicted the Pentagon for decades. If Hagel is not part of this disastrous problem, maybe he can be part of the solution. Finally, Franklin Roosevelt (FDR), Harry Truman and Dwight David Eisenhower were men whose judicious application of American blood and treasure flowed from an appreciation of America's political, economic and military limitations, as well as, its potential. All three men were imperfect by today's lofty public standard. They also reached the White House in different ways and with different political parties, but all three were able to distinguish reality from fiction in the conduct of war and the preservation of peace. Hagel is a man very much in the mold of these three men; unpretentious and parsimonious with American blood and treasure. As a result, Hagel has the moral courage to make choices that serve the national interest and mission accomplishment. Even if that means – as he demonstrated under fire in Vietnam – taking action that jeopardizes his own well-being.

White House gun task force forging ahead - CBS News Posted: 08 Jan 2013 07:50 AM PST With a self-imposed end of January deadline to come up with a proposal regarding gun safety, Vice President Biden is accelerating efforts of the White House task force on gun violence with a series of meetings this week. The president created the task force shortly after the mass shootings in Newtown, Conn., last month. He appointed Biden as the head of the task force and asked for recommendations by the end of January. Upon returning from his long weekend in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Biden has numerous task force-related meetings scheduled this week. He will meet with officials of the video game industry and mental health experts, which the president said are important factors to examining gun violence. Additionally, Biden will meet with illegal gun opponents and pro-gun groups in an effort to build consent for action, CBSNews.com has confirmed. Play Video Giffords, Biden launch gun control efforts President Obama has indicated that he wants Congress to reestablish the ban on assault weapons, which expired in 2004, and limit the size of magazine clips and expand background checks, including closing the gun show loophole, which allows unlicensed sellers to sidestep checks.The task force is also expected to look at broader efforts that might include a national database and proposals that can be implemented without congressional approval, the Washington Post reported. Biden has also been conferring with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is a vocal advocate for gun regulation. His group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, launched a TV ad Tuesday to pressure lawmakers to "stand up to the gun lobby." Roxanne Green, whose daughter was killed in the 2011 Tucson, Ariz., shooting that injured former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., is highlighted in the ad. "I have one question for political leaders, when will you find the courage to stand up to the gun lobby? Whose child has to die next?" Green says. The timing of the ad is intentional, not only to keep the pressure on lawmakers to act in the aftermath of the Newtown massacre, but because it is also debuting on the second anniversary of the Tucson shooting. Also Tuesday, Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, launched a new organization, Americans for Responsible Solutions, in favor of gun restrictions that intends to "[match] gun lobbyists in their reach and resources," the couple wrote in a USA Today op-ed. When gun safety advocates refer to the gun lobby, there are numerous organizations that promote less gun regulation, but the most powerful is the National Rifle Association, which has spent nearly $10 million since President Obama's inauguration on lobbying activity, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That number doesn't include the more than $30 million the NRA's political action committee and the organization's affiliated political nonprofits spent to influence the 2012 presidential and congressional elections. Despite efforts to maintain momentum on the gun issue, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said over the weekend that Congress must prioritize its early March deadlines around spending cuts and the debt ceiling. "Clearly we will not be addressing that issue early, because spending and debt are going to dominate the first three months," McConnell said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation."

You are subscribed to email updates from Top Stories - Google News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

Kredit: www.nst.com.my