Thousands of ‘red shirts’ rally to topple new Thai govt - BANGKOK

Thousands of ‘red shirts’ rally to topple new Thai govt - BANGKOK

Thaksin loyalists target Parliament House ahead of PM Abhisit’s policy speech today

BANGKOK: - Tens of thousands of supporters of fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra rallied against new leader Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday, threatening to engulf the kingdom in a fresh wave of political unrest.
The red-clad protesters massed a day before Mr Abhisit was due to give his maiden policy speech to Parliament, saying they would not give up until the government that came to power two weeks ago holds fresh elections.

Pro-Thaksin protest organiser Nattawut Saikuar said he could ‘confirm that we will not seal off Parliament tomorrow’, but there were tensions when about 1,000 demonstrators set up a second stage outside Parliament House yesterday.

The demonstrations bring Thai politics full circle after a year of turmoil, with Thaksin loyalists now using the same tactics that helped yellow-shirted rival protesters bring down a government led by the tycoon’s allies.

Most of the protesters gathered at a central Bangkok parade ground and organisers said they would move to Parliament House overnight. An advance guard of several hundred had already blocked a key road outside the building.

‘Our demand is for Abhisit to dissolve Parliament because he has no legitimacy,’ said Mr Jatuporn Prompan, a core leader of the pro-Thaksin movement, whose supporters are known as the ‘red shirts’.

Police said that more than 20,000 protesters had gathered while organisers said the figure was 50,000. More than 3,000 unarmed riot police were on duty, handing out leaflets urging peaceful protests.

A huge stage at the parade ground near the royal palace was backed with a red banner saying ‘No confidence in Abhisit Vejjajiva’, while protesters waved signs saying ‘We Love Thaksin’ and shook plastic foot-shaped clappers.

‘Today the fight is not only for Thaksin but also for justice and democracy,’ former foreign minister Noppadon Pattama told the crowd.

Thaksin was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and remains in exile to avoid a jail sentence for corruption. Organisers said he might make a telephone address to the rally.

Oxford-educated Abhisit, the head of the Democrat Party, won a parliamentary vote to become Prime Minister on Dec 15, less than two weeks after a court dissolved the former ruling People Power Party that was loyal to Thaksin.

That verdict followed months of protests by the royalist and anti-Thaksin People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) that blockaded Bangkok’s airports earlier this month, causing huge damage to the economy.

The 44-year-old Abhisit - Thailand’s third premier in four months - said he would give his policy statement as planned today and tomorrow.

‘We will not fight with anyone. After the next two days everything will be fine,’ Mr Abhisit told reporters.

Pro-Thaksin protest organiser Nattawut Saikuar said he could ‘confirm that we will not seal off Parliament tomorrow’, but there were tensions when about 1,000 demonstrators set up a second stage outside Parliament House yesterday.

Mr Warong Dechgitvigrom, a spokesman for the ruling Democrat Party, said party representatives would go together to Parliament this morning and if it was blocked they would return to party headquarters. He said the government did not plan to force its way into the building.

Mr Abhisit told news agency Agence France-Presse on Friday that he had ordered police to avoid a repeat of clashes at Parliament on Oct 7, when antiThaksin protesters tried to stop then-premier Somchai Wongsawat, Thaksin’s brother-in-law, from delivering his policy speech.

The violence left two people dead and 500 wounded.

‘Police will not use violence against the protesters,’ said national police chief General Patcharawat Wongsuwan.

The protests come as Mr Abhisit faces a raft of problems ranging from Thailand’s stuttering economy to the enormous divide between pro- and anti-Thaksin forces.

He has vowed a ‘grand plan of reconciliation’ but has caused controversy by appointing a vocal supporter of the PAD’s airport blockade as his new foreign minister.

Twice-elected Thaksin is still loathed by the Bangkok-based elite in the military, palace and bureaucracy, who backed the PAD and see Thaksin as corrupt, authoritarian and a threat to their traditional power base.

But his populist policies won him huge support among the urban and rural poor, especially in his native north and north-east, where many of yesterday’s protesters hailed from.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Source : Straits Times - 29 Dec 2008

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Israel steps up Gaza air strikes - GAZA

Israel steps up Gaza air strikes - GAZA

It threatens to invade as UN Security Council calls for halt to violence

GAZA: - Israel intensified its air strikes on Gaza yesterday and prepared for a possible invasion of the territory even as the UN Security Council called for a halt to the violence.
Israeli tanks massed at the border with the Gaza Strip and 6,500 reserve soldiers were called up as Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned that the state could send in ground troops in addition to a mammoth air bombardment unleashed on Hamas-run Gaza on Saturday.

The two-day air raids, in retaliation for continuing rocket fire from Hamas, have killed more than 280 Palestinians and wounded over 600 others, according to Gaza medical workers. One Israeli civilian was killed by a militant rocket.

Israeli warplanes yesterday bombed more than 40 tunnels on the border of the Gaza Strip and Egypt, witnesses said.

The tunnels, a major lifeline for Gaza, are used to smuggle goods and weapons into the territory that has been cut off from the outside world since Hamas violently seized power in June last year.

Despite the air attacks, Hamas militants fired some 80 rockets into Israel, emergency services said. In one of the deepest attacks, two rockets struck near Ashdod, a main port 30km from Gaza, causing no casualties, police said.

‘Israel will continue (the campaign) until we have a new security environment in the south, when the population there will no longer live in terror and in fear of constant rocket barrages,’ said Mr Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The UN Security Council called for an immediate halt to the violence. ‘The members of the Security Council expressed serious concern at the escalation of the situation in Gaza and called for an immediate halt to all violence,’ said council president, Croatia’s Neven Jurica.

US President George W. Bush’s administration, in its final weeks in office, put the onus on Hamas to prevent more violence. Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a religious decree ordering Muslims around the world to defend Palestinians in Gaza against Israeli attacks ‘in any way possible’.

The Israeli offensive launched on Saturday caused one of the bloodiest days for Palestinians in 60 years of conflict.

‘Palestine has never seen an uglier massacre,’ said Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. His Islamist group vowed revenge including suicide bombings in Israel’s ‘cafes and streets’.

Israeli military affairs commentators said the offensive ahead of Israel’s Feb 10 parliamentary election, did not appear to be aimed at retaking the Gaza Strip or destroying the Hamas government. Instead, Israel wanted to strengthen its deterrence power and force Hamas into a new truce to halt cross-border rocket salvoes.

After meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appealed to Hamas ‘to stop the bloodshed’.

‘We talked to Hamas and we told them ‘please, we ask you, do not end the truce’…so that we could have avoided what happened,’ he said, referring to the ceasefire that Egypt brokered in June.

The battered Gaza Strip yesterday turned into a giant funeral procession as tens of thousands of people came out to bury the victims of the massive Israeli bombardment.

‘It is a slaughter…Young people killed in cold blood,’ said Palestinian Hamdan Hamuda, one of the thousands who gathered at a stadium in Rafah.

Aid groups said they feared the Israeli operation could lead to a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

The United Nations Works and Relief Agency (UNWRA) said its food and cash distribution to Gazans had been suspended but it hoped to bring in 10 truck-loads of medical supplies yesterday.

Gaza hospitals said they were running out of medical supplies because of a longstanding Israeli-led blockade.

Hamas, which won a parliamentary election in 2006 but was shunned by Western powers over its refusal to renounce violence and recognise Israel, estimated close to 200 members of its security forces had been killed with dozens of women and some children.

‘Death is everywhere this morning,’ said UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Source : Straits Times - 29 Dec 2008

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Investment banking holds its breath

Investment banking holds its breath

After reality check of 2008, it looks to M&A activity in the year ahead

By EMILYN YAP

(SINGAPORE) 2008 has been choppy for investment banking in Singapore - while the financial storm washed out much equity-raising activity, large loan deals closed in the earlier part of the year managed to provide some lift for the sector.

And until markets stabilise, 2009 is unlikely to herald the return of big business. Nonetheless, some pockets of activity could emerge from refinancing and merger and acquisition (M&A) deals.

‘2008 was a challenging year for capital raisings,’ said managing director of Credit Suisse Edwin Low, and Thomson Reuters data as of Dec 10 reflects this. As share prices headed south, total deal value in Singapore’s equity capital market plunged 66 per cent from a year ago to US$2.81 billion.

‘There were fewer big IPO deals this year,’ explained Philip Lee, JPMorgan’s chief executive and head of investment banking in South-east Asia. ‘Valuations have come off significantly for companies looking to raise new equity, and many potential institutional and individual investors have not been keen to add on to equity positions.’

Just five firms managed to obtain more than $100 million from their IPOs this year, while close to 20 did so last year.

‘There were fewer big IPO deals this year. Valuations have come off significantly for companies looking to raise new equity, and many potential institutional and individual investors have not been keen to add on to equity positions.’

- Philip Lee,
JPMorgan’s chief executive and head of investment banking in South-east Asia

‘Spreads continue to widen quite dramatically throughout the year.’

- Parvati Banati,
UBS’s joint head of investment banking in Singapore and Malaysia

But some firms have been raising funds through rights issues. ‘Companies need to refinance although credit markets remain very tight and the cost of credit has gone up,’ said UBS’s joint head of investment banking in Singapore and Malaysia, Sutha Kandiah.

‘Some companies want to address their capital structure. In some cases, their current leverage may not be sustainable.’

Just last week, DBS Group launched a massive S$4 billion rights issue, fully underwritten by five banks including UBS and JPMorgan. Companies such as Parkway Holdings and Olam International also used rights issues or preferential offerings to boost their coffers.

Singapore’s debt capital market was also hit, but by a smaller extent. As Thomson Reuters data shows, total deal value in this sector dropped 7 per cent from a year ago to US$7.91 billion.

‘Spreads continue to widen quite dramatically throughout the year,’ said Parvati Banati, UBS’s other joint head of investment banking in Singapore and Malaysia.

With less credit in the market to support M&A, the value of such deals involving Singapore firms as either the target or buyer also fell by a slight 5 per cent from last year to US$60.62 billion. Nevertheless, 2008 saw some huge transactions.

According to Thomson Reuters, Temasek’s sale of Tuas Power, Senoko Power and PowerSeraya fetched a total of US$8.2 billion, and the three deals made it to its list of top five M&A deals in Singapore this year.

‘The M&A market was characterised by cashed-up corporates who took advantage of quality assets being available due to the current crisis or due to regulatory and policy requirements,’ added Credit Suisse’s Mr Low.

Salvaged by the high level of activity in the first six months of the year, the loan business in Singapore was the only one to show a rise in deal values, jumping 94 per cent from a year ago to US$33.9 billion. Some US$6.9 billion went to the Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World at Sentosa integrated resort projects.

But ‘the last few months have been very tight as banks are not committing financing for transactions’, observed UBS’s Ms Banati.

Thomson Reuters data paints a bleaker picture for investment banking in Asia this year. Including Australia and excluding Japan, deal values fell across the board for equity capital markets, debt capital markets, M&As and loans.

And the difficulties of this year are likely to continue into 2009. ‘In most years there is a lot of visibility on the outlook but next year is going to be difficult to predict,’ said Ms Banati, who does not expect large debt issuances to return until markets stabilise.

But she added: ‘I think our deal pipeline is reasonably good. We are engaged with clients on the themes mentioned, like M&As and rights issues.’

Other investment bankers also believe that more M&As could emerge. ‘We are likely to see consolidation within domestic markets as corporations look to gain scale and drive down unit costs,’ said Goldman Sachs Singapore’s co-president, Tim Leissner.

Falling valuations make this proposition more attractive but with credit staying tight, JPMorgan’s Mr Lee points out that buyers need ‘to have access to capital markets or already have the balance sheet for such activities’.

On the whole, investment banking activity should be ‘relatively muted’ next year, he said.

But looking on the bright side, investment bankers can now afford to claim the leave that they have been accumulating. As one said: ‘We’ve gone through the heyday when everybody was running around and working very hard … It’s a good time to rest.’

Source : Business Times - 29 Dec 2008

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