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Posted: 22 Jan 2013 06:20 PM PST

Tune Ins Holdings Bhd, an insurance products manager, is raising RM222.2 million from its initial public offering (IPO) pursuant to its listing on the Bursa Malaysia Securities Main Board.

The company is an insurance product manager for its on-line partners which are currently AirAsia, Tune Hotels and AirAsia Expedia.

Tune Ins Holdings, among others, designs and manages insurance products that will be sold to customers of on-line insurance partners.

Under the IPO, Tune Ins Holdings will offer up to 210,224,900 ordinary shares to Malaysian and selected institutional investors and Bumiputera investors approved by the Finance Ministry, Malaysian retail investors and foreign institutional investors, the company said in a statement.

The retail portion of the IPO will consists of up to 41,346,800 public issue shares while the institutional portion will comprise up to 102,028,100 public issue shares and up to 66,850,000 offer shares.

The retail portion of the shares will be offered at RM1.55 while the institutional price will be determined by way of a book building process.

According to the prospectus, proceeds of the IPO exercise will be used for the repayment of bank borrowings (59.86 per cent), working capital (12.24 per cent), strategic investments (22.50 per cent) and payment of listing expenses. -- Bernama

Smartphone sales surge on new ruling

Posted: 22 Jan 2013 06:17 PM PST

Now that the government has decided to allow the RM200 rebate for all types of smartphones, local phone distributors and telecommunication providers are now experiencing a big jump in sales.

For some, problems have even cropped up: they do not have enough phones to sell because of the surge in demand.

The government's move to remove the limit to smartphones costing RM500 each or less is expected to benefit about one million youths between 21 and 30 years earning less than RM3,000 a month.

Jason Lo, Chief Executive Officer of Tune Talk Sdn Bhd, said since the announcement, demand for its smartphones has risen by over 50 per cent.

Tune Talk is one the service providers for the package under the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

"The announcement was a good move by the government. We receive around 10 to 15 new applications for the rebate daily and the number is rising," Lo told Bernama.

The government's pro-active move also benefited Tune Talk's 800 dealers nationwide, he said.

"We do not have a problem in terms of smartphones stocks as our policy is to order only when there is a demand. Currently, demand is still under control," Lo said.

Eddy Tay, Head of Sales at NineTology Malaysia Sdn Bhd, said youths were benefiting from the government effort to equip them with smartphones as they have more models now to choose from.

"Youths these days not only purchase smartphones to communicate but also for Internet data," he said.

With the latest announcement, Tay said demand from his distributors had increased.

Meanwhile, ZTE Malaysia Director of Terminal Division, Jeremy Zhao, hoped that the government could extend the campaign to not only smartphones but also to the entire list of mobile broadband products to help enrich end-user options and increase mobile broadband penetration in Malaysia.

"Initially, 23 models were shortlisted, but now all smartphone vendors stand to benefit," he said, adding that his company was also experiencing an increase in sales. -- Bernama

Kredit: www.nst.com.my

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Biden not shying away from 2016 speculation - NBCNews.com

Posted: 22 Jan 2013 08:57 AM PST

By Michael O'Brien, NBC News

Vice President Joe Biden has barely hidden his possible interest in running for president in 2016, and now, the loquacious former senator has begun to lay the groundwork for a potential campaign to succeed President Barack Obama.

"In a couple years, I think he's going to take a hard look at it," Beau Biden, the vice president's son and the attorney general of Delaware, said on MSNBC. "I hope he does."

Attorney General Beau Biden, D-Del., joins The Daily Rundown to discuss the proposal and whether the nation's lawmakers can reach a broader agreement on the issue.

A potential Biden bid for the presidency will come as little surprise to observers of the vice president over the past few years; Biden has often dropped hints of his interest in running as Democrats' nominee in 2016, and has repeatedly refused to rule out running in 2016 when asked.

Biden further stoked speculation this inaugural weekend, when he stopped by the Iowa State Society's inaugural ball, and invited top New Hampshire Democrats to his formal swearing-in ceremony on Sunday. Both Iowa and New Hampshire traditionally host the first two nominating contests of a presidential cycle.

At the Iowa ball, he mistakenly referred to himself as president, before correcting himself. "I'm proud to be president of the United States," he said before pausing to rephrase. "I'm proud to be vice president of the United States but I am prouder to be Barack Obama, President Barack Obama's vice president."

And on Monday, during the inaugural parade, he glad-handed his way down Pennsylvania Avenue. Biden waved and pointed at parade-goers on the sidelines, and even ran over to shake the hand of NBC's Al Roker, positioned behind a security barricade.

Moments after speaking with President Obama, NBC's Al Roker gets an impromptu handshake from Vice President Biden along the inaugural parade route.

When he ran into a Republican voter in Florida during the closing days of the campaign, Biden cautioned the Obama administration's health reform law would be a chit in his column during the next presidential campaign. "After it's all over when your insurance rates go down, then you'll vote for me in 2016," he said, employing a quip that quickly drew attention for its electoral implications.

Biden has twice run for president before, in 1988 and 2008. And each time, his candidacy flamed out. In the '88 campaign, Biden withdrew before the first nominating contest following allegations that he had plagiarized portions of speeches.

Biden survived through the Iowa caucus in 2008, but ended his campaign following a fifth place finish in the contest. The then-Delaware senator committed some trademark gaffes during that campaign, too. Biden joked, for instance, about how "you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent." He also memorably referred to Obama, his future boss, as "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean."

But Biden, who served in the Senate from 1973 to 2009 and established himself as an expert on matters of foreign policy, now finds himself arguably at the apex of his political strength. Forty-one percent of Americans said they have a positive impression of the vice president in the most recent NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll, versus 37 percent who have a negative impression of Biden. Those aren't blockbuster numbers, but they're among Biden's best in the history of the poll.

But a successful run in 2016 would make Biden the nation's oldest inaugurated president. He turns 74 in 2016, a year older than Ronald Reagan when he took the oath at his second inaugural.

Biden emerged during the 2012 Obama campaign as a key asset of the president's, stumping repeatedly in key blue collar corners of swing states like Ohio and Wisconsin. During those stops, the vice president offered some of the sharpest criticism of Republican nominee Mitt Romney's policies in a direct appeal to middle class voters.

Brian Snyder / Reuters

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, dance at the Commander-in-Chief's Ball in Washington, Jan. 21, 2013.

Biden acted as a key player during the president's first term on matters ranging from foreign policy to domestic. Biden was tasked with implementing the 2009 economic stimulus, and Obama asked him more recently to lead the task force that developed recommendations to curb instances of gun violence.

Obama has also repeatedly turned to Biden to lean on his long-standing relationships in the Senate to help forge deals with Republicans. When talks to avert the "fiscal cliff" reached an impasse late this past December, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., reached out to Biden, who won some of the credit for the last-minute deal.

Still, Biden has also become a favorite target of conservatives during the last four years, not least of which because of his not-infrequent gaffes. Conservative media outlets enjoyed stoking speculation, for instance, that Obama might bump Biden off of the ticket in favor of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton -- suggesting that Biden had become too big of a liability to the president's re-election campaign.

And indeed, there were moments during the 2012 campaign where Biden veered badly off script. When he expressed his personal support for same-sex marriage during a May 6 appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," he preempted Obama's own anticipated endorsement of gay and lesbian marriage rights. Obama was forced to hastily follow in the footsteps of his vice president.

Biden also won the enmity of the Romney campaign when he told a predominantly African-American audience that the GOP ticket's economic policies would "put y'all back in chains."

But despite Biden's propensity to fall off-message on occasion, he still enjoys a champion in one key ally: Obama.

"One decision I know was absolutely correct -- absolutely spot on -- was my choice of vice president," Obama said Sunday at an inaugural reception. "I could not have a better partner than Joe Biden."

That's a line that Biden would no doubt love to feature in a campaign ad in just a few years. He might not be the only Democrat in the race -- many in the party hope that Clinton will seek the nomination again -- though the vice president's door to running is open than ever.

The 8 and One Half Things You Should Have Seen at Inauguration - ABC News (blog)

Posted: 22 Jan 2013 08:58 AM PST

Update: To avoid replicating the title born by a standing feature at Huffington Post, we have added a thing. This post originally listed 7 1/2 things; it now lists 8 1/2. The numerical duplication was unintentional.

A presidential inauguration is a big, long event that lasts all day and into the night–and who has time to really watch it? People have jobs, ones that don't let you off for a federal holiday.

Everyone (or, at least, some) will be talking about it, which means potential embarrassment for anyone who doesn't know what happened. Thankfully, ABC employs news professionals stationed in Washington, D.C., to pay attention to these kinds of things and boil off some of the less noteworthy or interesting stuff, presenting you with short videos of everything that really mattered. Or at least the things a lot of people were talking about.

A full day of paying attention to President Obama's second Inauguration leads one of those professionals to offer these 8 /2 things:

1. Beyonce Sang the National Anthem

Boy, howdy! Did she ever? Beyonce has essentially become the Obama's go-to female performer: She recorded a music video for Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" initiative in 2011, and she performed at the president's last inauguration in 2009. Her velvety, soulful "Star Spangled Banner" is getting good reviews.

2. Kelly Clarkson Also Sang

Kelly Clarkson is not as "in" with the First Couple as Beyonce seems to be, but they let her sing "My Country 'Tis of Thee," and she did a pretty good job with it. This was kind of weird, though, because at one point she said she loved Ron Paul, although she later said she would vote for Obama.

3. Obama Talked About Gay Rights

This may not seem shocking since more than half the country, including President Obama, supports gay marriage. But the president made a point of mentioning gay rights during his speech, equating the struggles of the LGBT community with those of past civil rights movements, and in doing so made history.

He name-checked Stonewall, the New York City bar that was raided by police in 1969 sparking riots to protest the anti-gay crackdown. And he actually used the word "gay": "Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well," Obama said in his address.

Plenty of inaugural addresses have been chock full of rhetoric about freedom and equality, but in the last four years, the political culture surrounding gay rights has changed significantly, as more states legalized same-sex marriage and as broad swaths of the country got more comfortable with homosexuality in general. Obama's "evolution" on gay marriage, and now his inaugural address, have helped signify that change.

4. Joe Biden Made Jokes and Shook Hands With People

Could we expect anything less?

Here's how the Vice President toasting Sen. Chuck Schumer instead of President Obama at the big luncheon: "I raise my glass to a man who never, never, never operates out of fear, only operates out of confidence, and a guy–I'm toasting you, Chuck." Watch it:

And here he is, scurrying around and jovially shaking hands with people along the parade route:

5. Richard Blanco Read a Poem That Was Sort of Whitman-esque, But Not Entirely

Spanish-born Richard Blanco became America's first openly gay, Latino Inauguration poet. He read a nine-stanza poem entitled "One Today," which set a kind of unifying American tableau scene.

6. Obama and Michelle Walked Around Outside The Limo

President Obama walked part of the parade route, from the Capitol to the White House, with Michelle. They waved to people. It is not entirely abnormal for a president to do this at an inaugural parade. But they walked quite a ways.

7. John Boehner: 'Godspeed'

The speaker of the House presented American flags to Obama and Biden, telling them: "To you gentlemen, I say congratulations and Godspeed."

8. Sasha and Malia Were There.

Obama's daughters, Sasha and Malia, were there. They didn't really do much, but they did wear coats of different shades of purple that got a lot of attention on Twitter.

Reports of the daughters looking at smartphones and applying lip gloss highlighted their day. As did this .gif of Sasha yawning.

8 1/2. Alito Sleeping/Disgusted?

When it came time to stand for the inaugural oaths, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, wearing sunglasses, appeared perhaps either to have nodded off or to be dissatisfied with being asked to physically move. Video is inconclusive.

This post has been updated. It inaccurately identified Richard Blanco as having been born in Cuba–his parents emigrated from Cuba to Spain shortly before his birth. The error has been corrected.

Kredit: www.nst.com.my

Selasa, 22 Januari 2013