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In China, May eyes post-Brexit trade links

BEIJING — British Prime Minister Theresa May began a visit to China on Wednesday as she tries to strengthen her country’s global trade links before its contentious divorce with the European Union (EU).

Ms. May arrived in the central industrial city of Wuhan and will be in the country until Friday in what the Chinese foreign ministry has called a “historic visit.”

She was heading to Beijing later Wednesday to meet Premier Li Keqiang.

“My visit will intensify the ‘Golden Era’ in UK-China relations. The depth of our relationship means we can have frank discussions on all issues,” she said earlier this week.

Ms. May is battling criticism of her Brexit strategy back home. The House of Lords is scrutinizing a key piece of legislation on quitting the EU as a leaked government report shows only economic downsides to leaving the bloc.

Britain’s ties with China have grown in importance as London contemplates its economic future after it officially leaves the EU in March 2019.

China “is delivering a new source of capital that — with the appropriate safeguards in place — can help us to invest in the future of our country,” she wrote in a column in the Financial Times.

“Together, that means a stronger British economy and more and better jobs for British workers.”

Ms. May is accompanied by her husband Philip and a delegation of 50 business leaders and organization representatives, which her office said was “the largest” Britain has ever taken overseas.

ENDORSE BELT AND ROAD
Ms. May will also take the opportunity to discuss a wide range of other issues, including climate change and North Korea, but she was also under pressure to address the political situation in former colony Hong Kong and human rights abuses in mainland China.

China also has high expectations that London will endorse its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a massive infrastructure project aimed at reviving ancient Silk Road trade routes between the East and West and creating greater market access for Chinese companies.

“It’s natural that Belt and Road cooperation is an opportunity for the two sides to tap into our cooperation for win-win results,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Tuesday.

The British government, however, has been less sanguine about the project, with Ms. May’s spokesman saying that while the idea holds promise, it is “vital that BRI projects meet international standards.”

She will hold talks with President Xi Jinping on Thursday and finish her visit Friday in the eastern business hub of Shanghai.

RIGHTS AND HONG KONG
Before her trip, the former British governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, urged Ms. May to address concerns about the political situation in the semi-autonomous city, which London handed back to Beijing in 1997.

In a letter to Ms. May’s Downing Street office, Mr. Patten said Hong Kong was facing “increasing threats to the basic freedoms, human rights and autonomy” which its people were promised after the handover.

Human Rights Watch also urged the British leader to “get tough with China” on rights.

But business is the focus of her trip.

“The UK and China will not always see eye-to-eye,” she wrote in the Financial Times.

“But as partners committed to global free trade we can work together to confront and tackle challenges that affect all of our economies.”

Britain has said it will leave the EU’s single market and customs union so that it can strike its own trade deals with countries outside the bloc, making China’s huge market an attractive target.

In preparation, a number of British officials have traveled to China in recent months. Trade minister Liam Fox discussed market access for British exports, including its key financial services sector.

Finance minister Philip Hammond worked on final preparations for a “stock connect” between the London and Shanghai exchanges, and mulled the possibility of linking their bond markets as well. — AFP

Financial technology start-ups parade in Paris in hopes of luring bank deals

THE fintech dating game is on in Paris.

Entrepreneurs in Europe’s financial-technology sector are pushing low-cost payments solutions to steal market share from banks, hoping the challenge they pose will spur the lenders to buy them or seek partnerships with them.

Many start-ups are eyeing deals or potential backing as they converge on Paris this week to meet with the top executives of French finance, from BNP Paribas SA’s Jean-Laurent Bonnafe to Societe Generale SA’s Frederic Oudea, at the city’s annual Fintech Forum. How fintechs defy incumbents is a prime theme of discussion there, with payments an area of focus, as banking alternatives from Alipay to M-Pesa already dominate in China and Africa.

“Banks will continue to acquire smaller and more nimble companies to add value to their products,” said Jacob de Geer, co-founder of Swedish payments company iZettle. “They need to innovate to keep customers, and they’ll continue going to fintech for that kind of innovation.”

Fintech solutions have become a competitive tool for banks as online consumption and transactions have soared. Global investment in fintech was $8.2 billion in the first nine months of last year, according to a KPMG report. At the Paris gathering — on Tuesday and Wednesday — about 140 firms from more than 30 countries put their ideas on display, presenting everything from robo-advisers to artificial intelligence-driven wealth management.

‘OPEN WORLD’
European companies are earmarking increasing funds for early-stage fintech projects, either through direct acquisitions or through venture funds. Corporate venture-capitalists poured more than $600 million into fintechs in Europe in the first nine months of 2017, the highest level on record, data by KPMG showed.

IZettle, which has positioned itself as a cheaper alternative for smaller businesses that need to process card payments, is preparing for an initial public offering this year but doesn’t exclude looking for private funding instead, De Geer said. After it expanded out of Europe to Brazil and Mexico through a deal with Banco Santander SA, iZettle is open to more partnerships, its co-founder said.

“The financial services of tomorrow will revolve entirely around partnerships,” Societe Generale Deputy CEO Severin Cabannes told reporters Friday, two months after the bank announced it will set up a fund of as much as €150 million ($186 million) to accelerate innovation. “We’re going toward an open world” for financial services, based on partnerships and team-ups, he said.

At the conference in Paris were Germany’s mobile bank N26, French SME lending-platform Lendix and GiniMachine, a Belarus startup that provides artificial intelligence to assess credit risk.

Among fintechs seeking partners is Famoco, which makes Android-based software and devices for securing electronic transactions. It’s looking for deals to help distribute its products globally, and would be open to discussing a stake sale, its co-founder Lionel Baraban said. He’s not ruling out selling the company, though that’s not currently a priority.

Famoco’s counts among its customers Orange SA, the French phone company that launched into banking and has a payments solution rival to M-Pesa in Africa. Other clients include Alipay, an affiliate of Chinese billionaire entrepreneur Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. that’s pushing forward with plans to expand in Europe.

“We’re stealing market share from the well-established players, because we’re coming in with a cheaper and more flexible payments solution,” Baraban said. “We truly believe there’s a possibility to create a new global leader in transactions. Still, we need partners of big scale to help us distribute.” — Bloomberg

RFM allots P300M more to buy back shares

RFM Corp. is spending an additional P300 million to buy back more shares in the open market, after exhausting more than 70% of the allocated budget for the share buyback program.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange on Wednesday, the Concepcion-led firm said its board of directors has approved the additional appropriation to acquire more shares.

RFM launched the share buy-back program worth P300 million last Feb. 24, 2016, citing that the generally bearish market made the company’s share price of P3.80 at the time a good investment. The company then added another P300 million to the buyback program on Nov. 22 of the same year.

As of Jan. 30, the food manufacturer has managed to buy 102.05 million shares from the open market since 2016, valued at P437.81 million.

“The corporation intents to implement the share buy-back program as buying opportunity presents itself and up to the time when the total appropriated amount for the share buy-back program is exhausted,” the company said. 

At the same time, the company has declared cash dividends of 8.571 centavos for each share as of record date Feb. 15. This will be the first of two tranches under RFM’s 50% annual cash dividend policy based on its recurring net income. The dividends will be paid out on March 14.

RFM sells ice cream under the Selecta, Cornetto, and Magnum brands under a joint venture partnership with Unilever Philippines Ltd. The company also has under its portfolio the Royal and Fiesta pasta brands, as well as Selecta Milk and Sunkist juices.

The company generated P718 million in attributable profit in the first nine months of 2017, 5% higher against the P681 million it posted in the same period in 2016. Revenues were almost unchanged from year-ago levels at P3.74 billion.

For full-year 2017, the company expects earnings to breach the P1-billion mark, which it achieved for the first time in 2016 where it booked P1.002 billion in attributable profit.

Shares in RFM were up 0.21% or a centavo to close at P4.82 apiece at the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday. — Arra B. Francia

Virtual beau captures hearts in China as female gaming blooms

SHANGHAI — With his dashing looks, it’s little wonder that 28-year-old tycoon Li Zeyan has wooed hundreds of thousands of women across China — not bad for an avatar in a mobile game.

Li is the most popular character in Love and Producer, a Chinese simulation game that has been downloaded more than 10 million times since debuting in December, mostly by women seeking steamy fantasy affairs with its four virtual suitors.

Its viral popularity has highlighted a huge potential market for the gaming industry in China, where one in four mobile phone gamers is a woman — numbers that are expected to grow.

The game, and a separate one also aimed at women in which users can “mother” an intrepid frog character, have leapt into the top ranks of China’s most-downloaded mobile games.

The frenzy over the games has focused attention on China’s “she economy” — the expanding consumer power of its hundreds of millions of smartphone-wielding women — just as game developers face slowing growth in the gigantic market for battle-and-strategy games aimed largely at Chinese men.

In Love and Producer, players choose from four Prince Charmings — business CEO Li, a scientist, a special agent and a famous singer — attractive “catches” that tap into the rising relationship expectations of Chinese millennial women.

China’s huge population of mobile users already increasingly live through their smartphones, communicating via messaging apps like WeChat, sharing on social media, and paying digitally for a range of goods and services with a tap on their phone screen.

Love and Producer now also offers the chance to have a virtual fling while sitting on the bus, said Liu Yixuan, a 19-year-old university student.

“A third of my friends play the game and many insist on calling themselves Li’s ‘wife,’” Liu said.

“I’m intrigued by the characters’ good looks and the graphics, but other ‘wives’ are obsessed with talking to their ‘husband’, who will reply with sweet words in a deep and attractive voice.”

GAME ON
Created by Nikki Games, a developer in eastern China, it was patterned on Japanese “otome”, or “maiden” games, simulated-romance worlds generally aimed at women.

In Love and Producer, the player runs a fictional TV production company that they must save from bankruptcy, all while dating one or more of the male love interests.

Players complete tasks which allow them to collect cards that are in turn needed to realize a successful TV show — or an eventful “date” with one’s lover. Cards can also be purchased.

Steamy embraces occur, though the action stops there.

In the “real” world, one unidentified fan wished Li Zeyan a happy birthday in a giant illuminated message projected on a skyscraper in the southern city of Shenzhen on Jan. 13, a pricey stunt likely to have cost tens of thousands of yuan (several thousand dollars).

Chinese consultancy iResearch said women accounted for 24.1% of gamers in China in 2016, but that figure is projected to climb.

“The overall mobile game industry faces a bottleneck in user growth, but female players have been unleashed in terms of playing time and their willingness and ability to pay,” said Wang Guanxiong, an independent industry analyst.

“Female players are more inclined to share on social media, including their inner thoughts, and are more loyal. They will be the breakthrough point for game companies the next two years.” — AFP

Is Kavalan Whisky for real?

It was not so long ago that the mere idea of a premium whisky coming from Taiwan would make hardcore whisky drinkers cringe. Then out of nowhere, Kavalan happened.

Since joining international whisky challenges in the most prestigious competitions in the last decade, this Taiwanese newcomer has won over 200 awards. The Kavalan brand is no longer a stranger in the whisky world. It does help, too, that in 2012 whisky demigod himself Jim Murray shocked the whisky world by naming Kavalan’s Solist Fino Sherry Cask malt whisky the “whisky of the year” in his very reputable annual Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible. At first it appeared that it would be a “one-hit wonder” or a novelty of an idea for a Taiwanese whisky to dislodge its heritage-heavy and tradition-rich Scottish counterparts in ratings. But Kavalan did not waiver and only solidified its position with more critical victories.

The prestigious World Whisky Awards in 2015 handed its top accolade — World’s Best Single Malt Whisky — to Kavalan’s Solist Vinho Barrique. Not done yet, one year later in 2016, the World Whisky Awards bestowed the World’s Best Single Cask Single Malt Whisky honor to Kavalan for its Solist Amontillado Sherry Single Cask Strength. Kavalan as a whisky brand has indeed arrived!

I was very fortunate to have been invited to attend a Kavalan whisky tasting class recently, with visiting Kavalan master blender and brand ambassador Ian Chang presiding over the event. Ian Chang himself is a recipient of the Icons of Whisky World’s “Whisky Brand Ambassador of the Year” honor last year.

A VISION AGAINST ALL ODDS
Taiwan has been a huge market for spirits, in particular for Scotch whiskies. Taiwan ranks No. 3 or No. 4 in terms of largest importer-country by value of Scotch whiskies, behind the United States, France, and quite close to Singapore (mostly due to the duty free business at the airport). But Taiwan, due to the Taiwanese people’s propensity for luxurious products, is by far No. 1 in terms of average value of Scotch whiskies being imported.

For a Taiwanese company to create a whisky distillery to compete against the dominant Scotch whiskies almost seemed impossible, especially since Kavalan wanted to be in the premium single malt segment, where “colonial mentality and obvious biases” were serious barriers. It was probably the reason why it could only have been done by a giant conglomerate with large resources and vision. This was what the King Car Group of the Lee family did.

The King Car Group is known for Taiwan’s most popular coffee brand, Mr. Brown. As Ian Chang explained very animatedly, it was in 2002, after the Taiwanese government opened its market in the tobacco and liquor industry (which was previously a government monopoly), that the CEO of the King Car Group, Yu Ting Lee, decided to explore the ambitious whisky project. The company hired whisky stalwart Dr. Jim Swan as a consultant and Mr. Chang himself, a young 30-year-old UK educated Taiwanese, as head of the Research and Development team to spearhead this project. And after three years of traveling to Scotland, Ireland, and even Japan to learn the “know how” from the bastions of whiskies, Mr. Chang had honed his skills in master blending and benefited greatly under the hands-on tutorage of Dr. Swan.

The ambitious vision finally reached fruition, and by April 2005, construction on a brand-new distillery started at Yilan County, south of Taipei, and was completed in just nine months. As Ian explained, Kavalan was the old name of modern day Yilan County. The first alcohol spirit from the new distillery was accomplished on March 2006 at exactly 3:30 p.m. as Ian proudly declared — ushering Taiwan’s historic first local whisky.

THE MATURATION PROCESS
The copper pot stills, malted barleys, casks, and everything you need to make premium single malt whiskies can be imported… but it is the source water (as Scotland boasts of), the climate of Taiwan in a sub-tropic zone, and perhaps the most important part, the cask selection during maturation that ultimately create quality single malt whiskies. Then there are technologies and methods that traditional distilleries will not, or cannot (legally) employ but which Kavalan has developed.

To start with, Yilan was chosen to be the site of the distillery because it has great natural spring water that is very pure and with inherent sweet qualities. Kavalan whiskies are known for their distinctive sweetness. But it was the climate which could be a problem as Taiwan summers are hot, with temperatures of up to 40°C, and coupled with high humidity may be disastrous to slowly mature the whiskies. Instead, this disadvantageous climate turned out to be Kavalan’s signature ingenuity as it modified its production process to accommodate the heat in its maturation.

Ian expounded on the maturation process and why Kavalan whiskies have no age statements. “Aging is just a process of transformation. All you want is for your spirit to go from a rough state to something smooth and with complexity. In Kavalan it is all about redefining the maturation process. In a subtropical climate like Taiwan, the ageing process is accelerated and the interaction between the wood and spirit is much faster than in a colder climate. One year of ageing in Taiwan is roughly equivalent in our estimation to four years in Scotland because of our heat and humidity. Also, the angel’s share (evaporation rate) during our maturation takes away more than 10% of our spirits, as against only 2% from other distilleries.”

Kavalan has a five-storey storage warehouse that is used to mature the whiskies. “During summer, our top floor can go as high as 42°C, while our ground floor is at around 27°C,” Ian pointed out in his slide presentation. “We have different temperatures per floor and our casks are brought to mature in their respective floors based on the size of the cask. For example, our sherry casks are sent to the 4th floor because these are 600 liter size barrels, while the smaller bourbon casks are placed in the ground floor. The larger the casks, the more time it needs for maturation.”

Kavalan is doing extremely well in Europe and in the United States, but is more challenged actually here in Asia where the age-statement of single malt whiskies is quite important for consumers. Regardless, of the Asian reception, Kavalan is already manufacturing over 5 million liters, and has more capacity of up to 9 million liters to meet growing demand.

Kavalan has 18 different expressions at the moment and with more variants to come. Cask selection and cask investment have been key to Kavalan’s meteoric rise, and now I heard that it has secured casks from Grand Cru Bordeaux wines like Chateau Margaux. Now I am attentively listening… and waiting. To the whisky snobs, please lower your eyebrows, Kavalan is here to stay!

Kavalan whiskies are exclusively imported and distributed locally by Grand Cru Wine & Spirits Inc. For more information on Kavalan, its available single malt variants and its prices, please e-mail Sandy Morales at sandy.morales@grandcru.com.ph.

More on Kavalan and my amateur whisky tasting notes on future columns to come.

The author has been a member of the Federation Internationale des Journalists et Ecrivains du Vin et des Spiritueux since 2010. For comments, inquiries, wine event coverage, and other wine-related concerns, e-mail the author at protegeinc@yahoo.com. He is also on Twitter at twitter.com/sherwinlao.

Magnus Carlsen again

80th Tata Steel Masters
Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands
Jan. 12-28, 2018

Final Standings

1-2. Magnus Carlsen NOR 2834, Anish Giri NED 2752, 9.0/13

3-4. Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2787, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2804, 8.5/13

5-6. Viswanathan Anand IND 2767, Wesley So USA 2792, 8.0/13

7. Sergey Karjakin RUS 2753, 7.5/13

8. Peter Svidler RUS 2768, 6.0/13

9. Wei Yi CHN 2743, 5.5/13

10-12. Gawain Jones ENG 2640, Fabiano Caruana USA 2811, Maxim Matlakov RUS 2718, 5.0/13

13. Baskaran Adhiban IND 2655, 3.5/13

14. Hou Yifan CHN 2680, 2.5/13

Ave Rating 2750 Category 20

Time Control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 50 minutes for the next 20 moves then 15 minutes play-to-finish with 30 seconds added to your clock after every move starting move 1.

Magnus Carlsen has just won the Super GM tournament in Wijk aan Zee, the Tata Steel Masters. What’s more this is the 6th time he has done it, a record. Viswanathan Anand has won the tournament five times. Former world champion Max Euwe, the Hungarian legend Lajos Portisch, Viktor “The Terrible” Korchnoi and Levon Aronian have accomplished the feat four times each. We have to put an asterisk in there somewhere — the 13th World Champion Garry Kasparov has only participated in this event three times but has won all three. Should be some sort of record as well.

Carlsen actually tied for first with the Dutch GM Anish Giri but then prevailed in the two-game tie-break blitz match 1.5-0.5. Carlsen was the heavy favorite to rule the tie-breaks because it had a fast time control (five minutes for the whole game with a three second increment) and (1) he is a helluva speed chess player — there was a time when he was simultaneously the classical, rapid and blitz chess champion of the world, and (2) the last time he lost a tie-break was back in 2007 in the candidates’ match to Levon Aronian, and he was only 17 years old at that time. He has since proven invincible in speed chess tie-breaks no matter how heavy the stakes — you need only recall the 3-1 victory over Sergey Karjakin in 2016 New York when the world title was up for grabs.

The prize money was split equally — should there have been a match to break the tie at all? It was only for bragging rights anyway. The need to have a solo champion was just introduced last year — before that they two would have been declared co-winners. And even then they could have used the usual mathematical tie-breaks to declare the champion without the need to call the players back to play. They could have used the result of the direct encounter between the two players (this was a draw, so it won’t count) or the Sonneborn-Berger system (adding the sum of the conventional scores of the players he has defeated to half the sum of the conventional scores of those he has drawn against, in which case Giri would have been 1st place) or comparing performance ratings (in which case Girl would also have been it).

Anyway whatever the arguments having the players settle it over the board has to be the most objective criteria.

At the end of the Tata Steel Masters the live ratings of the top 10 players in the world are:

1. Magnus Carlsen NOR 2843.3

2. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2813.8

3. Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2799.8

4. Wesley So USA 2799.3

5. Hikaru Nakamura USA 2791.5

6. Levon Aronian ARM 2789.9

7. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2788.6

8. Fabiano Caruana USA 2784.4

9. Viswanathan Anand IND 2778.8

10. Anish Giri NED 2776.7

Anand (gaining 11.8 points) and Anish Giri (with an additional 24.7 points from Wiijk aan Zee) have re-entered the Top 10 (replacing Ding Liren and Alexander Grischuk) while Fabiano Caruana has lost 26.6 points and tumbled down from the second highest rated player in the world to no. 8.

Magnus Carlsen did not win a single SuperGM tournament (at classical time controls) in the whole of 2017. Is he back to his best form? I think not yet — but he is getting there. Take a look at the following hard-earned win over the reigning European Champion. After the first time control on move 40 Carlsen was two hours ahead of his opponent — as he explained, “when you are trying to win with not much, you need the clock as an ally.”

Carlsen, Magnus (2834) — Matlakov, Maxim (2718) [B48]
80th Tata Steel Masters Wijk aan Zee NED (12.1), 27.01.2018

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Be3 a6 7.Qd2 Nf6 8.f4 Bb4 9.Bd3 Na5

There are many ways to fight in the middlegame, for example 9…Ng4, 9…b5, 9…d5, 9…0–0 or even 9…e5, but Matlakov wants to exchange queens.

10.a3 Bxc3 11.Qxc3 Qxc3+ 12.bxc3 d5 13.exd5

The main move here is 13.e5 and now after 13…Ne4 14.Nb3 Nc4 15.Bxc4 dxc4 16.Na5 the “Chess Openings 24/7” website, otherwise known as “Chopin,” suggests 16…Bd7! 17.Bd4 Rc8 (17…b5?! 18.0–0–0 0–0–0 19.Rhe1 f5 20.exf6 Nxf6 21.g3 “White has a lasting advantage. D. Kadric-A. Calugar, Dallas 2014”) 18.Nxb7 Bc6 19.Na5 Bd5 20.Rb1 Kd7! 21.Ke2 f5 22.Rb6 g5 23.fxg5 Rhg8 24.Rg1 Rxg5 25.Rxa6 Rgg8 26.Rb6 Rb8 27.Rb4 f4 Black has sufficient compensation for material deficit. Volokitin,A(2683)-Giri,A(2749), Germany 2014 0–1 49.

13…exd5

[13…Nxd5 is also ok. After 14.Bd2 Nb6 15.0–0 Nbc4 16.Be1 0–0 17.Nb3 b5 18.a4 Bd7 19.axb5 axb5 20.Bf2 White has the two bishops but Black should be able to hold. Ziaziulkina,N (2386)-Zhigalko,A (2619) Minsk 2014 1/2 59.]

14.Nb3 Nc4 15.Bd4 Ne4 16.Nc5 Nxc5 17.Bxc5 Bd7 18.0–0–0 0–0–0 19.Bxc4 dxc4 20.Bb6 Rde8 21.Rd4 Re6 22.Rxc4+ Rc6 23.Rxc6+ Bxc6 24.Rd1 Bxg2 25.Rg1 Be4 26.Rxg7 Bg6 27.a4

White is a pawn up but it is not going to be easy as his own pawns are not in good shape.

27…Rf8 28.Kb2 Kd7 29.f5 Bxf5 30.Bc5 Rc8 31.Rxf7+ Ke6 32.Re7+ Kf6 33.Bb4 a5 34.Ba3 Rc4 35.Rxb7 Rxa4 36.Ra7 Re4 37.Rxa5

Now White is two pawns up but remember the bishops are of opposite colors. Perhaps with best play this is a draw but anyway White can continue playing with no risk.

37…Re2 38.Bd6 Bxc2 39.c4 Ke6 40.Ra6 Bf5+ 41.Kc3 Be4 42.Kd4 Kf5 43.Ra5+ Kg4

Maybe 43…Ke6 is better, trying to keep his king in the vicinity of white’s passed pawn. The dangerous looking 44.Re5+ Kxd6 45.Rxe4 Rd2+ 46.Ke3 Rxh2 does not work — it is a clear draw.

44.c5 Bf3 45.Ra7 h6 46.Rh7 Re4+ 47.Kd3 Re6 48.Kc4 Bc6 49.Rc7 Bh1 50.Kb5 h5 51.Rg7+ Kh4?

Clearly a mistake as his king gets cut-off on the h-file. 51…Kf5 would make a better fight of it. <D>

POSITION AFTER 51…KH4

52.Rg1

The original annotation by the chess.com Web site was that the text move was “not bad but Carlsen misses a nice and quick win with 52.Be7+! Kh3 53.Rg3+ Kxh2 54.Bd6 and Black can resign.” Carlsen, however, wrote that it was not so simple. Black has 54…Re4 which saves the rook, at least momentarily. His main line went 55.c6 Rd4 56.c7 (56.Rd3+ Rxd6 57.Rxd6 Bxc6+ 58.Kxc6 h4=) 56…Rxd6 57.Rh3+! (57.c8Q Rd5+) 57…Kxh3 58.c8Q+ but he could not find a way to pick up the rook, only the bishop, which leaves a lot of technical difficulties.

Carlsen also considered 52.Be7+ Kh3 53.Rg3+ Kxh2 54.Bd6 Re4 55.Ra3+! (going to c3 or b3 also work) followed by c6. Carlsen: “I suspected it might win, as it does, but it is not very intuitive, and I did not want to risk miscalculating as I thought I had an easy win in the game.”

52…Ba8 53.Kb6 Re2 54.Kc7 Bd5 55.Rg3 Bh1 56.Rc3

During the game I thought that 56.Bf4 threatening Bg5 mate was the coup de grace, but it turns out not to be so easy. After 56…Rxh2 57.Rg1 Kh3 I was surprised to find out that the planned 58.Bxh2 Kxh2 59.Rxh1+ Kxh1 60.c6 only leads to a draw. After further study it turns out that to win White must come up with mating (!) threats against the Black king. How is this done? Well… 56.Bf4 Rxh2 57.Rg1 Kh3 58.Rc1! Bf3 (what else can Black do? If he moves the rook then his bishop becomes en prise) 59.Bxh2 Kxh2 60.Rc3! Kg2 61.Kd6! (only move to win — this king must go down to f4 to pose mating threats. Sounds unbelievable, but watch!) 61…h4 62.Ke5 h3 63.Kf4 Bc6 64.Rc2+ Kg1 65.Kg3 and now White is well and truly won.

56…Kg4 57.c6 1–0

After 57.c6 here is how the game might end 57…Kf5 58.Kd7 Kf6 59.c7 Bd5 60.Kd8 Be6 61.Be7+ Kg7 62.Rg3+ Kh7 63.Bd6 h4 (63…Rxh2? 64.Re3 wins one of Black’s pieces) 64.Rg5 Re4 65.Re5 Rxe5 66.Bxe5 Black has to give up his bishop for the pawn, after which White will win because his bishop is the same color as the h8 square.

Going into the last two rounds Carlsen NOR, Giri NED and Mamedyarov AZE were tied for the lead and it looked like Carlsen had to face the stronger opposition among the three — Magnus’ last two opponents were Matlakov and Karjakin, Giri faced Adhiban and Wei Yi while Mamedyarov had Gawain Jones and Vishy Anand. The Azeri GM, of course, knew that the former world champion Vishy Anand, who was in quite an acceptable form in Wijk aan Zee, would be one tough customer to go for a win against, so everybody expected Mamedyarov to go for broke against Gawain Jones.

To general surprise, however, he agreed to a quick 12-move draw against the Britisher and allowed Carlsen and Giri to surge into a tie for the lead. It became worse when he drew with Anand in the last round and Kramnik defeated Baskaran Adhiban to wrest 3rd place from Mamedyarov by virtue of the higher tie-break points.

It is still a puzzle to me why the short draw in the penultimate round. Did Shakh get cold feet because he was already no. 2 in the rating list and a loss might tumble him down the standings? I don’t think so but you never know.

 

Bobby Ang is a founding member of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and its first Executive Director. A Certified Public Accountant, he taught accounting in the University of Santo Tomas for 25 years and is currently Chief Audit Executive of the Equicom Group of Companies.

bobby@cpamd.net

Vegetable project to help Marawi recovery

ENTREPRENEURSHIP advocacy group Go Negosyo has set up a pilot vegetable growing project in the province of Lanao del Sur to provide sustainable livelihood to residents affected by the Marawi siege last year.

The signing ceremony was attended by representatives of the province, hybrid rice firm SL Agritech and Go Negosyo on Tuesday.

SL Agritech Chairman Henry Lim Bon Liong said the company currently maintains a 50-hectare area solely for planting two hybrid rice varieties to increase the yield of 50 farmers in the municipality of Bubong, near Marawi City, adding that areas can also be identified for vegetable farming.

The rice demonstration farm is expected to boost yields to between 7 metric tons (MT) and 14 MT per hectare (ha) from the current yield of 3 MT to 3.5 MT.

“Lanao [del Sur] can serve as the major rice granary in Mindanao, and since it’s the summer capital of Mindanao, it’s very conducive also for planting vegetables also,” Mr. Lim added.

The hybrid rice project could be expanded to 1,000 ha by the next planting season, with local officials saying that with suitable irrigation some of the area could be set aside for vegetables.

Provincial agriculturist Mohamadali D. Macaraya said the model is the highland regions around Baguio City, which grows vegetables for much of Luzon.

“If Baguio supplies vegetables to Metro Manila, why not have Marawi or Lanao del Sur supply major vegetables to the cities in Mindanao and nearby provinces like Cebu?,” he said.

Mr. Macaraya said a harvest festival is scheduled for Feb. 22, adding that some components need to be firmed up before the plan can go forward, including livelihood programs, irrigation and the resolution of the housing crisis among those displaced by the Marawi conflict. — Anna Gabriela A. Mogato

Serendipity in dragon boating

With the strong urging of my strategic management professor, Dina Bernardo, I decided to try dragon boating one Sunday morning and brought my wife along with me. Quite frankly, I was just expecting a good workout, something I have not consistently had ever since I joined the corporate world 13 years ago. I got in touch with Manila Dragons, my professor’s club. I figured that if this club had helped produce a SEA games gold-medalist, then I should be in good hands.

On the day of the activity itself, we were immediately thrown into land training, which lasted for a good hour. This was followed by the much anticipated water training. As newbies, we did far less paddling than our boat mates. Instead, our coach patiently taught us basic commands such as “oars up,” “light row,” “longs,” “power longs,” and “easy.” We were also taught the correct form and technique of paddling. The coach initially asked us to sit back and observe how our 16 boat mates paddled as instructions were shouted out. The synchronized strokes of my boat mates were something to marvel at.

When my wife and I were finally allowed to join in, I realized how difficult paddling can be; after about 20 strokes, I found myself running out of gas. Having played a lot of sports, I had been confident that dragon boating would be a walk in the park. Well, was I wrong.

Throughout the whole activity, I struggled to catch my breath after every 10 strokes. The intensity of the training caught me off guard. Looking back, I realized I should have asked for more information about what to expect so that I could have prepared myself physically and mentally.

Upon reflecting on my experience, I realized that dragon boating and strategic management in an organization have a lot in common. The success of a dragon boat team or an organization depends on the same factors.

First, you have to have a good leader.

The leader in our dragon boating was the coach. He strategized how to achieve the goal, which was to win a race. The coach gave the final nod on who made up the roster that would compete as well as where each member was to be seated on the boat. He also taught and reminded the members of the proper form and technique when paddling so that they would not veer from the goal.

During the race itself, the drummer served as the leader as he issued commands to the crew through hand signals and voice calls while encouraging them to perform at their peak.

Similarly, the CEO of a company sets the vision, mission, and strategy, and then assigns responsibilities that he or she thinks are needed to achieve the organization’s objectives. He or she constantly motivates and monitors each department to ensure progress is being made and everyone is on track to reach milestones and ultimately achieve the vision.

Second, practice makes perfect.

I cannot count the number of times I moved that paddle incorrectly through the water during my first few tries. After much practice, I got the hang of it, but I still have a long way to go before perfecting the art. Similarly, the only way for an organization to develop core competencies is for employees to perform their respective functions well. However, employees will commit mistakes until they gain enough experience to become better at their craft. Through experience and constant practice, team members will truly understand their capabilities and develop competence.

Finally, people need to work well in teams.

Having each member of the dragon boat team paddle flawlessly on his or her own will not win a race. The members have to understand that to win the race, they should act as a team. They cannot compete with each other. Instructions coming from the coach or drummer should be well received and then well-executed together. A half-second lag by an uncoordinated member can cost the team the race.

In most organizations, departments have a silo mentality.

Departments usually refuse to share critical information, and focus on their own set of key result areas and key performance indicators, almost entirely forgetting that they all have the same objectives because they belong to the same company. Departmental rivalry is probably why most organizations fail to meet their objectives. Thus, the CEO needs to constantly remind each department that ultimately, everyone shares the same vision and only by working together can the organization achieve it.

Sometimes, strategic management is learned in the most unexpected venues, not just in the classroom and boardroom. I certainly got more than a good and long overdue workout that Sunday morning.

 

Dione Derrick G. Kocencio is an MBA student at De La Salle University. He is Head of Internal Audit at Metro Retail Stores Group, Inc.

dione_kocencio@dlsu.edu.ph

Indonesia needs some $150B for infra plan

JAKARTA — Indonesian President Joko Widodo is still chasing some $150 billion to fund his ambitious nation-building agenda, almost half-way into a five-year infrastructure plan.

The government has so far received pledges for just over half the funds needed to help develop the road, airport and railway projects planned in a $327 billion pipeline, latest government figures show. Just $15 billion has come from the state budget, with the bulk committed by private investors, including from China.

Mr. Widodo, known as Jokowi, needs outside money for his nation-building program after government revenues were battered by the end of the commodities boom and as tax compliance remains poor. With China making a massive push to build infrastructure and new trade routes across Asia through its Belt and Road Initiative, the world’s second-largest economy looms large as an obvious backer for Jokowi’s plans.

“In reality, there is only handful of countries with a surplus of money,” Rainier Haryanto, the program director of the Indonesian government’s Committee to Accelerate Priority Infrastructure, said in an interview in Jakarta. “The US, they are in debt. The Japanese, they are also in debt,” he said, but the Chinese have the money to lend. “At the end of the day, cash is king.”

As Southeast Asia’s biggest economy continues to struggle for revenue, the Widodo government is leaning even more on the private sector. It’s estimated the state budget will only be able to fund about $25 billion of the projects that are yet to start, while Indonesia’s legions of state-owned companies — numbering in the hundreds — will account for some $48 billion. About $83.5 billion will have to be stumped up by the private sector.

Some urgency may be required. The World Bank says Indonesia has a $1.5-trillion infrastructure gap compared to other emerging economies. A lack of good roads and transport corridors across the archipelago — a string of more than 17,000 islands that would stretch from New York to London — are adding to logistical barriers and driving up costs for business.

Of Jokowi’s pipeline of 265 projects, 26 have been completed since the program started in 2016 at a cost of $3.4 billion, including $976 million on six projects finished last year, according to Mr. Haryanto. There are a further 145 under construction, documents show.

“They are making good progress and momentum is building, considering that they had a relatively slow start,” said Euben Paracuelles, senior economist for Southeast Asia at Nomura Holdings, Inc. in Singapore. “The fact that there is a lower contribution from the government budget reflects the criteria that they used to identify these projects, including the viability for the private sector to participate.”

Even with the financing secured, projects have to overcome red tape and regulatory burdens. The $6-billion Jakarta to Bandung high-speed rail, billed as a showpiece of Jokowi’s plans, starkly illustrates the challenge. The project has all but ground to a halt after becoming tangled in Indonesia’s infamous red tape. While construction was meant to begin in August 2016, only around half of the land needed for the 142-kilometer railway had been cleared as of September last year.

Indonesia’s regulatory framework, including a tricky permit process and day-to-day issues for investors that are “more to do with local governments” can often be a roadblock in the country’s development and growth, World Bank chief economist for Indonesia Frederico Gil Sander said in an interview.

“Improving the business environment has to be something that operates at all levels in order to ensure that there is more investment and there are more jobs created,” he said. — Bloomberg

Japan beef imports may hit 17-year high

JAPAN’S beef purchases are set to climb this year as growing demand for affordable meat counters the first rise in import duties in 14 years.

Japan’s beef imports are likely to increase to the highest level since 2001 after growing more than 10% last year, Shiro Ohashi, executive director of the Japan Meat Traders Association, said in an interview in Tokyo on Thursday. Foreign beef is sought as a cheaper alternative to Japanese meat and fish, he said.

Beef consumption rose 6.8% in the seven months to Oct. 31, heading for the fastest annual expansion in at least 12 years, according to the latest data from the Agriculture Ministry. Japanese producers are unable to keep up with demand as elderly farmers are retiring without successors and as the domestic herd shrinks.

Premium Wagyu beef is becoming too expensive to buy for many Japanese as demand from overseas buyers is expanding, buoying prices, Ohashi said. Less fatty beef from Australia and the US is becoming popular, especially among senior consumers, Ohashi said.

US beef imports are expanding at a faster pace than Australian shipments, even as Japan increased tariffs on US frozen beef in August, because US prices remain competitive, Ohashi said. In the 11 months through November, imports of US beef climbed 26.6% from a year earlier and purchases from Australia rose 5.5%, according to the Agriculture Ministry. The US accounts for 42% of total imports. 

Noodle-shop operator Kourakuen Holdings Corp. decided last year to turn some of its restaurants to steak houses through a franchise agreement with Pepper Food Service Co. Ltd., the operator of popular “Ikinari Steak” shops. Bronco Billy Co. Ltd. expects a 20% increase in operating profits this year as the company expands its steak restaurants.

“Regardless of the tariff increase, yen-based prices of US beef have stayed low thanks to a weakening dollar,” he said. Low feed-grain prices in Chicago and an expanding American herd have also kept US beef affordable, he said.

Imports are likely to expand in the medium term after Japan’s trade agreements with 10 Pacific nations and the European Union.

“Ireland is eager to boost beef shipments to Japan, taking advantage of the trade agreement, as the nation expects to lose sales in the UK because of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU,” Ohashi said. Shipments from Canada and Mexico will probably increase after the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement is implemented. — Bloomberg

Reducing the use of drinking straws will be a tough sell

By Stephen L. Carter

THERE’S a bill pending in the California legislature that would subject waiters to fines and imprisonment for giving diners plastic drinking straws without being asked. This legislation has no chance to pass — I think — but critics are having a lot of fun with it anyway. Held up to particular ridicule has been the claim that the US consumes 500 million plastic straws a day, a figure that the news media have often cited. This data point, which would mean that Americans use something on the order of 182 billion straws a year, comes from a science project created by a 9-year-old boy in 2011. Thus the ridicule.

Okay, fair enough. Still, we do use a lot of them. And one cannot help but wonder how the straw became so ubiquitous. As it turns out, that took a lot of marketing. No one seems to have written a social history of the drinking straw. That’s too bad, because the social history turns out to be interesting.

Although archaeologists tell us that the use of straws has ancient roots, the “modern” paper drinking straw (predecessor to today’s plastic straws) seems to have been first produced in 1888.

The invention quickly became popular, in part through the corner store. In the early 1900s, druggists who ran soda fountains were being advised to provide straws to their customers, who might otherwise wind up with a mouthful of foam from their confections. Some pharmacists warned, however, that it was unsanitary to leave straws (or “sticks” as they were often called) in a container that customers could reach. Far better to hand them out individually.

Although early on some purists considered the use of this new technology slovenly, the straw’s rapid adoption was assisted by the explosive growth in the popularity of Coca-Cola following the introduction of a bottled version of the soft drink at the turn of the century.

In 1921, the humorist Ring Lardner suggested drinking straws as a second-anniversary gift for married couples: “The husband will appreciate an individual drinking straw that can be carried in a case as it often happens that 2 men goes out to the ball games and orders pop, the salesman is libel [sic] to give them 2 bottles and 1 straw with the remark that this is the last straw.”

By that time the drinking straw was a hit.

According to a widely reprinted 1924 story, the US produced about 4 billion straws that year — up from 165 million in 1901. They were manufactured mostly by small local businesses, but some people began to clamor that the industry was big enough to be regulated.

Sure enough, during the Depression, the National Recovery Administration imposed upon the drinking straw industry a “code of fair competition” that ran to 26 pages.

Included were such gems as the recommendation that the industry establish “plans to equalize production with demand.” Most of the rules were mandatory. The NRA created a mechanism for fixing prices, and set minimum wages for workers in the industry. (Compared to men who did the same work, the federal government decreed, women were to earn 87.5 cents on the dollar.)

By the 1940s, straws were so common that swigging directly from the bottle had come to be considered bad manners — at least when the swigger was female. Advice columnists urged readers to remind their daughters that Lana Turner had been discovered while sipping through a straw.

One anonymous writer counseled young women that using a straw was an excellent way to “look appealing.” Newspapers trumpeted claims that US soldiers and sailors overseas considered young women who drank through straws more attractive than those who didn’t. In short, the hard-sell was on, and its target was women.

Then there was hygiene.

Doctors, evidently prompted by the manufacturers, suggested using straws to avoid cold and flu germs. Typical was a 1945 article in the San Bernardino County Sun: “A drinking straw prevents the mouth and lips from touching the rim of the glass where most of these germs colonize.”

By the 1950s, the drinking straw was everywhere.

Popular books told schoolchildren how straws could be key components in experiments like building a barometer or an electrophorus. Periodicals for teachers carried tips on how to turn drinking straws into Christmas decorations for their classrooms. The nation’s housewives were advised to find applications around the kitchen. Petunia, a widely published cartoon character who presented homemaking ideas, suggesting inserting pieces of a straw into pies before baking, to “keep the juice from oozing out.” Dear Polly, an advice columnist, recommended drinking straws to keep ketchup flowing from the bottle.

The heavy effort to associate straws with women and children would have unintended consequences.

For some, straws became associated with a lack of manliness.

In the 1980s, “Mortified in Minneapolis” complained to Dear Abby that her “otherwise masculine” husband sipped through a straw in public. Abby told Mortified that her husband’s masculinity was not at stake, and readers wrote in to agree.

And speaking of the 1980s, we mustn’t leave that decade without a mention of drinking straws and politics.

In 1984, the General Cinema Corp. allowed customers who bought soft drinks at its theaters to choose between straws marked with the names of the presidential contenders. Ronald Reagan won the “straw poll” by a landslide, defeating Walter Mondale by 61.5% to 38.5%. This wasn’t far off the actual election result, where Reagan beat Mondale by 58.8 to 40.6. So if we get rid of drinking straws, we’ll be forced to rely on the same “expert” surveys that whiffed so badly last time around.

So, please, California, just this once‚ lay off.

BLOOMBERG

RTC affirms stay order on sale of GGAM’s Bloomberry shares

THE former management partner of Solaire Resorts and Casino in Parañaque City remains unable to sell its shares in the casino’s operator, after a regional trial court in Makati affirmed the validity of a stay order issued in 2014 that prohibited the sale of shares held by Global Gaming Philippines LLC (GGAM) until arbitration proceedings in Singapore are completed. 

In a memorandum posted on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Web site yesterday, the bourse said it has received a copy of a Nov. 23, 2017 order by Branch 66 of the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) in the case involving GGAM and Bloomberry Resorts Corp., along with its subsidiaries Bloomberry Resorts and Hotels, Inc. (BRHI) and Sureste Properties, Inc. (SPI).

The order affirms the continuing validity of the court’s decision restraining GGAM, the PSE, and other entities from “disposing of, or facilitating, allowing, implementing and completing the sale or transfer of any of the 921,184,056 shares in (Bloomberry) owned by respondent (GGAM) during the pendency of the arbitration proceedings in Singapore.”

GGAM is Bloomberry’s former partner in managing Solaire, the first integrated hotel and casino estate in the state-run Entertainment City. The shares indicated in the decision pertain to GGAM’s 8.4% stake in Bloomberry after it was tapped to manage the estate.

Months after Solaire’s opening in March 2013, however, Bloomberry decided to terminate the deal, citing GGAM’s supposed material breach of contract, for not spending “any material time” in managing Solaire, and for failing to perform its obligations and deliverables. Both parties have since sought arbitration in Singapore.

Further to the Razon-led firm’s termination of its contract with GGAM, Bloomberry also fired GGAM’s local representative Michael French from his chief operating officer post at Solaire. Mr. French was then replaced by Thomas Arasi, the former chief executive officer of Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands.

In September 2016, the Arbitral Tribunal decided in favor of GGAM, saying that Bloomberry was not justified in terminating its management services agreement with the former. The disputed shares were then partially awarded to GGAM, saying the company can “exercise its rights in relation to those shares, including the right to sell them.”

GGAM had earlier tried to dispose of the shares to institutional investors through a cross transaction at the PSE last January 2014. Branch 66 of the Makati RTC, however, halted the company from pursuing the sale, after Bloomberry won its petition for a stay order.

With the Makati RTC’s stay order, the partial award of the disputed shares by the arbitral tribunal cannot be enforced, until a local court with the proper jurisdiction issues an order, taking into account applicable Philippine laws and public policy, according to Bloomberry.

The Arbitral Tribunal has yet to release an order on the following: a resolution to GGAM’s request to make the award public; to provide a copy of the award to Philippine courts, government agencies and persons involved in the sale of the shares, and to require BRHI/SPI and Bloomberry to inform Deutsche Bank AG that they have no objection to the immediate release of all dividends paid by Bloomberry to GGAM, according to the company.

Shares in Bloomberry added two centavos or 0.16% to close at P12.28 each on Wednesday. — Arra B. Francia

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