Non c’è verso. Lo si è detto, lo si è scritto, ma nessuno ci credeva. La crisi finanziaria non lascia scampo nemmeno a Dubai, patria incontrastata del lusso estremo. E a essere spaventati non sono tanto gli emiri, ma le banche europee che hanno giocato coi credit default swap sul debito sovrano a cinque anni. Hsbc, Rbs, Lloyds, Barclays e Bnp Paribas sono i soggetti più a rischio, con un complesso di passività potenziali che è di circa 40 miliardi di dollari. Chi pensava realmente che fosse tutto terminato?

My dad has been invited to walk the students at Harding University’s Center for Advanced Ministry Training through an evangelistic study he put together years ago.

Here’s a little testimony of my experience with it:

Here’s a copy of the study itself for free download: The Romans Approach to Reaching the Lost - feel free to share with anyone you’d like.

I’m not exaggerating – thousands of people are Christians today as the result of being walked through this study.

The gospel of Jesus truly is in the most powerful thing in the universe!

I decided to stroll around Recto stores and Quiapo sidewalk stalls today to buy things that might be useful for my day-to-day needs. I spent about 3 hours walking, buying  and choosing the best things to be bought. After having spent some time, I did able to buy these necessary things. Then I rode my way to Gil Puyat via the Light Railway Transit (LRT) from Carriedo Station (Sta. Cruz, Manila) to Gil Puyat (Pasay City) and rode a jeep that would take me to the junction of Buendia and Ayala Avenue. From Ayala Avenue, I took some shots of GT Tower. There images below are shots I took of the building at around 5pm.

Then, I took a picture of Ayala Avenue, when there were practically no one walking along the sidewalks, and there were only a handful of transportation. The image below shows the quiet Ayala Avenue (Sunday, 5pm):

I then tilted a bit higher my camera and focused it to the buildings, and below is the shot:

I walked quite a few meters away from where I was and voila, I am already in front of PBCOM Tower. If I heard it right, PBCOM is the highest building in the Philippines. Well, sort of. I might have a full scale research on this one. te-he… Below is the picture of PBCOM Tower:

I walked to Dela Rosa Street and walked up to the elevated pedestrian pathways and took a shot of the Enterprise Center, which is located at the corner of Paseo de Roxas and Ayala Avenue:

Then, from Dela Rosa Street, I turned left, and walked Paseo de Roxas and walked my way to Ayala Avenue. From Ayala Avenue again, I took a shot of the Ayala Tower One. Here is the shot:

Then, I went straight ahead to The Landmark, passing from Greenbelt 4, then I went to Glorieta, then finally to SM Makati. from SM Makati, I bought a jacket which was sold for sale on that day. After that, I went home and had my dinner at a turo-turo which is operated by the Ilonggos.

What a day really. I never strolled again on some parts of Metro Manila for quite some time until now. Tiring really, and now, I am sleepy… Zzzzz….

Monday, October 6th:
This free panel discussion, co-sponsored by the CSR Alliance and Bridge, will explore the global implications of CSR, focusing on global trends of customer and employee involvement, CSR models and metrics, and the blurred global boundaries between sectors. Panelists are: Mathew DeLuca, Manager EHS and Social Compliance, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters; Linda Recupero, Executive Vice President Public Affairs, HSBC; and Derek Yach, VP Global Health, PepsiCo. The event is: October 6th from 6:00 – 8:00 PM in the Puck Building’ s Rudin Forum, at 295 Lafayette St. RSVP at http://wagner.nyu.edu/events/.

Wednesday, October 8th:
NYU Reynolds Speaker Series: Come listen to how true “Grocer-philosopher” John Mackey wanted to change the way the country eats when he co-founded Whole Foods Market in 1980; with his philosophy of Conscious Capitalism, he proposes to change the way we do business around the
world. More on the Reynolds Speaker Series….

Click on the EVENTS tab to RSVP and learn more about these events!

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/3/27/business/20764593&sec=business

News analysis by KATHY FONG

MALAYAN Banking Bhd (Maybank) has, in a span of only six days, announced two acquisitions abroad that would cost the country’s biggest bank about RM9bil cash.

Yesterday, Maybank told a press conference that it wanted to take over Sorak Holdings Ltd, which has a 55.7% stake in PT Bank International Indonesia Tbk (BII), from Fullerton Financial Holdings and Kookmin Bank for RM4.8bil cash. It will later make a general offer for all BII shares it does not own.

This came on the heels of the banking group’s proposal last Thursday to buy 15% of Vietnam’s An Binh Bank (ABBank) for RM430mil cash.

To some people, the fact that Maybank is paying RM8.6bil, or 4.6 times book value, is an indication of how desperately the group wants BII, Indonesia’s sixth biggest bank.

The valuation is among the highest in the industry. The offer price is about 20% above Jakarta Stock Exchange-listed (JSE) BII’s market price.

The book value of 4.6 times is about double the average valuation among Indonesia’s publicly traded banks, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The top four banks listed on JSE are currently trading at about 3.9 times.

BII’s net profit has been declining since 2004. For the year ended Dec 31, 2007, the bank’s net profit fell to 404.7 billion rupiah (RM142mil) from 633.7 billion rupiah (RM222.3mil) in 2006.

Maybank, South-East Asia’s fourth biggest bank, is said to have been too prudent in investing offshore; as a result, it could have lost out to its peers in terms of generating foreign earnings.

By the same token, observers said the board would not simply jump into a deal without proper evaluation.

A research manager said the group was competing with two international heavyweights, HSBC group and Bank of China, for BII. Thus, paying the high premium was “unavoidable”, she said.

Yesterday, Maybank acting chief executive officer Datuk Aminuddin Md Desa defended the acquisition price, saying that it was a “scarcity premium” and for control of the bank.

“There are not many banks available for sale in Indonesia,” he said, adding that BII’s lower profit last year was due to the one-off provision to clean up the finance company’s books.

In his presentation, Aminuddin said Indonesian banks fetched “the fattest profit margins in South-East Asia”, where net interest margins of 5.8% outpaced those in the Philippines, at 3.9%, Thailand, 3.5% and Malaysia, 2.3%.

Indonesia’s robust economic growth, the low loans to gross domestic product of only 24% plus the sizeable population of 230 million represented a huge retail market for Maybank, he added.

The loans to GDP in Malaysia is 102%, Thailand 75% and China 108%.

Some analysts said the high premium was indeed for better earnings visibility and lower investment risks, given that Indonesia’s political landscape and banking industry had vastly improved from five years ago when one could buy a bank for less than two times book value.