China Strategic says not pursuing MOU with Chinatrust

June 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – China Strategic (0235.HK) will drop one part of its planned deal to buy AIG’s (AIG.N) Taiwan Nan Shan Life unit, in its latest attempt to kickstart a $2.2 billion takeover stymied for almost eight months.

Deals | China

China Strategic CEO Raymond Or told Reuters on Friday that the company will not pursue the sale of a stake in Nan Shan to Taiwan’s Chinatrust (2891.TW), which it had originally planned to do after closing the deal.

Diversified battery maker China Strategic and Hong Kong investment firm Primus Financial agreed to buy Nan Shan in October, but have been unable to seal the deal amid concerns in Taiwan over their political connections with mainland China and their lack of expertise in the insurance business.

“I believe this is not an appropriate time to talk with Chinatrust before we have successfully bought Nan Shan,” Or said.

“Especially as, when we signed the MOU (with Chinatrust), the regulators said this complicated the whole issue.”

Chinatrust, Taiwan’s top credit card firm, had signed an MOU to buy a 30 percent stake in Nan Shan for $660 million from China Strategic, subject to approval of the deal.

Taiwan’s regulators have expressed growing frustration with the buyers, saying that requested information has not been forthcoming. Or has said that the company is trying to comply with ever increasing requests.

China Strategic has already modified the deal twice to try and get it over the line.

It said earlier this month that some $325 million of the purchase price would be put into a fund to support Nan Shan’s capital as a way of soothing concerns over future health of the insurer, which has more than 4 million policyholders or nearly one-fifth of Taiwan’s population.

Two weeks later AIG and the buyers agreed to extend the deadline of the deal by three months.

A Chinatrust spokesman said only that the MOU had expired on Friday, and declined to comment on whether the firm would pursue the deal in future.

China Strategic may still consider selling a stake in Nan Shan after the deal gets a greenlight, Or said.

“Now we are focused on dealing with the regulators on our transaction. Without Chinatrust, it will not affect the deal. There is an advantage if we cooperate with Chinatrust but it is not an issue if we do it alone,” he said.

“After the deal is completed we will have bigger room to do what we want.”

In midday trading, Chinatrust shares rose 1.1 percent, beating the broader market’s 1.6 percent slide.

(Reporting by Alison Leung and Faith Hung; Editing by Jonathan Standing and Jacqueline Wong)

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UPDATE 1-China Strategic says not pursuing MOU with Chinatrust

June 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

June 25 (Reuters) – China Strategic (0235.HK) will drop one part of its planned deal to buy AIG’s (AIG.N) Taiwan Nan Shan Life unit, in its latest attempt to kickstart a $2.2 billion takeover stymied for almost eight months.

China Strategic CEO Raymond Or told Reuters on Friday that the company will not pursue the sale of a stake in Nan Shan to Taiwan’s Chinatrust (2891.TW), which it had originally planned to do after closing the deal.

Diversified battery maker China Strategic and Hong Kong investment firm Primus Financial agreed to buy Nan Shan in October, but have been unable to seal the deal amid concerns in Taiwan over their political connections with mainland China and their lack of expertise in the insurance business.

“I believe this is not an appropriate time to talk with Chinatrust before we have successfully bought Nan Shan,” Or said.

“Especially as, when we signed the MOU (with Chinatrust), the regulators said this complicated the whole issue.”

Chinatrust, Taiwan’s top credit card firm, had signed an MOU to buy a 30 percent stake in Nan Shan for $660 million from China Strategic, subject to approval of the deal. [ID:nTPU00190]

Taiwan’s regulators have expressed growing frustration with the buyers, saying that requested information has not been forthcoming. Or has said that the company is trying to comply with ever increasing requests.

China Strategic has already modified the deal twice to try and get it over the line.

It said earlier this month that some $325 million of the purchase price would be put into a fund to support Nan Shan’s capital as a way of soothing concerns over future health of the insurer, which has more than 4 million policyholders or nearly one-fifth of Taiwan’s population.

Two weeks later AIG and the buyers agreed to extend the deadline of the deal by three months.

A Chinatrust spokesman said only that the MOU had expired on Friday, and declined to comment on whether the firm would pursue the deal in future.

China Strategic may still consider selling a stake in Nan Shan after the deal gets a greenlight, Or said.

“Now we are focused on dealing with the regulators on our transaction. Without Chinatrust, it will not affect the deal. There is an advantage if we cooperate with Chinatrust but it is not an issue if we do it alone,” he said.

“After the deal is completed we will have bigger room to do what we want.”

In midday trading, Chinatrust shares rose 1.1 percent, beating the broader market’s 1.6 percent slide. (Reporting by Alison Leung and Faith Hung; Editing by Jonathan Standing and Jacqueline Wong)

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Kids as young as 6 getting suntans to look like Jordan, Cheryl Cole

May 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 26 (ANI): Children as young as six are getting suntans to look like stars such as Katie Price a.k.a Jordan and Cheryl Cole.

A study of 1,000 six to 16-year-olds found almost two thirds of kids want bronzed skin – and four in ten sunbathe “as often as possible”.

During the study, over half said it was ‘more fashionable’ to be tanned than pale. 60 percent felt better when they had a tan and 41 percent felt ‘thinner’.

The study also showed that one fifth sunbathed without suntan lotion to ‘get brown quicker’.

According to the research, a further 17 per cent used body lotions and oils instead of sun cream.

“Kids are damaging their future health,” the Sun quoted a spokesman for Superdrug, behind the survey, as saying.

(ANI)

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Improvements in cholesterol levels, BP linked to lower rate of heart disease deaths

May 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 12 (ANI): Deaths from coronary heart disease (CHD) fell by 35 per cent in Ontario between 1994 and 2005, thanks to improvements in both lifestyle factors and medical treatments, a new research has shown.

The results of the study suggest that improvements in cholesterol levels and blood pressure were responsible for about half of the reduction in deaths, while new medical and surgical treatments took credit for most of the rest of the decrease.

“Coronary heart disease remains the most common cause of death worldwide and generates a large economic burden. Rates of CHD mortality have decreased substan­tially over the last 3 decades,” the authors said.

“Identifying the underlying factors associated with this decline is critical for planning future health policy, and pri­oritizing strategies for primary and sec­ondary prevention,” they added.

Harindra C. Wijeysundera, of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues conducted the study.

The study has been published in the May 12 issue of JAMA. (ANI)

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Junk food during pregnancy ‘raises breast cancer risk for kids, grandkids’

April 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 20 (ANI): Pregnant women who gorge on junk food could be putting themselves at an increased risk of breast cancer that is passed down generations, say researchers.

In their rat-based study, researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center showed that pregnant females that ate a high fat diet not only increased breast cancer risk in their female daughters but also in that daughter”s offspring – the “granddaughters.”

Details of the study will be presented at the AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010.

The researchers say they don”t know why this risk is passed on through two generations, but they believe it occurs through as-yet unknown “epigenetic” changes that result in an increase in terminal end buds in the breast tissue – an increase that apparently can then be passed on through generations.

These buds are believed to be the structures where breast cancer can develop, and having more of these structures seems to increase breast cancer risk, says the study”s lead investigator, Sonia de Assis, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Leena Hilakivi-Clarke”s laboratory at Lombardi. “That is our theory, but we really don”t know how it is happening – just yet.”

The researchers add that while the grandmother ate a diet that was 43 percent fat, she didn”t eat more calories than a control population of rats, and both her daughters and granddaughters ate a normal chow.

The researchers also found that the risk appears to not only extend from mother to daughter and granddaughter, but also from mother to son to granddaughter.

“The implications from this study are that pregnant mothers need to eat a well balanced diet because they may be affecting the future health of their daughters and granddaughters,” says de Assis. (ANI)

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‘Risk averse’ parents leave kids unable to cope with adult life, says head teacher

July 6, 2009 By 1 Comment

London, Jul 6 (ANI): A leading headmaster has warned that children, whose parents do not take risks, will end up unable to cope with work or grown-up life.

Rod Grant, headmaster of Clifton Hall independent school in Edinburgh, who thinks that parents have become hugely “risk averse”, says that it is wrong to remove trees from playgrounds or diving boards from swimming pools in a misguided attempt to protect youngsters.

“Today, we live in a world that is fearful. Parents have become hugely risk averse, so their children are exposed to a back garden – under supervision, of course – at best,” the Scotsman quoted him as saying.

“My plea is that each of us is, in some way, responsible for modifying these deep-rooted fears that we all share.

“We should not place children at unnecessary risk but we must expose them to some risk.

“Otherwise, we risk their future health and safety and that is something none of us want,” he added.

His suggestion is that youngsters should not be cocooned from danger, but rather be allowed to explore the world.

“Childhood has never been risk-free. But if we succumb to our fears, our children may end up ill-equipped to live successfully in adulthood,” he said.

“Protecting children from the risks of trees, diving boards, escalators, uncomfortable social situations and incomplete homework assignments is almost certain to produce adults with deficits,” he added.

Child-development expert Sue Palmer backs Grant’s comments by saying that youngsters risk becoming either bullies or bullied themselves, if they are not exposed to playground rough and tumble.

“It’s not just the workplace they won’t be able to cope with as adults, it is social interaction,” she said.

“If they are not out there with the other kids, learning how to get along with people and make up after arguments, and take responsibility for their own actions, there’s the likelihood that later on they will either become bullies or victims.

“Not only will that child grow up into an adult not able to cope. But there will be a social cost from creating people who simply don’t have the resilience to bounce back from adversity,” she added. (ANI)

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Global turmoil hits Norwegian state oil fund

March 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Oslo – The fund that invests income from Norway’s petroleum and gas riches for future pensions reported its “weakest result” to date when it published its full-year
2008 results on Wednesday.

The return on the fund during 2008 fell by 23 per cent – equalling 633 billion kroner (89 billion dollars) – measured in international currency, the Norwegian central bank said.

“2008 was an extraordinary year in the world’s financial markets,” Yngve Slyngstad, head of the central bank’s investment management group told reporters.

“In the stock markets we saw big losses and extreme volatility,” he said. While reluctant to comment on 2009, he concluded that “great uncertainty” remains over how the financial crisis will evolve.

The central bank said the return on the fund was 3.4 percentage points weaker than the Finance Minstry’s benchmark portfolio.

A higher stake of shares compared to bonds – part of the fund’s investment policy – contributed to the increased volatility, Slyngstad said, adding that the drop was worse than in the 1930s.

The fund, officially named the Norwegian Government Pension Fund – Global, was worth 2,275 billion kroner (322 billion dollars) at the end of 2008, compared to 2,019 billion kroner at the end of 2007.

During 2008, 384 billion kroner was transferred to the fund.

“The financial crisis has revealed weaknesses in our active management,” central bank governor Svein Gjedrem said, adding that a review was due. However, he defended the policy to invest in shares.

Gjedrem said Slyngstad had requested that his salary be lowered in 2009. He said the reduction of some 2 million kroner to 3.5 million kroner reflected the trend in international asset management.

At the end of 2008, the fund was estimated to own shares in some 7,700 companies, totalling a 0.77 per cent ownership stake in global equity markets.

The fund, managed by the central bank, was created to pay for Norway’s future health and pension expenditure through investments outside the Norwegian economy.

The capital is invested in bonds, shares, money market instruments and derivatives. (dpa)

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Children as young as two should be checked for obesity: Experts

February 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Feb 22 (ANI): Kids as young as two should be examined for signs of obesity in order to prevent future health struggles, say British Government advisers.

Health officials are asking experts to develop tests for children to determine if they are becoming fat.

Advisers say that it is often too late by primary school to start addressing bad habits, reports the Telegraph.

At a recent seminar hosted by the Westminster Health Forum, Dr Will Cavendish, from the Department of Health said: “The evidence is pretty horrible that one in four children are overweight or obese at reception and one in three at year six.

“Of course, we know that child obesity doesn’t suddenly pop up at age four, five. We also know that we need to act on the early years, and indeed the pre-birth, family environment in order to get at this really effectively.”

According to Tam Fry, Chairman of the Child Growth Foundation, it was crucial to be monitoring the weight of children.

He told the Daily Mail: “One reason we have an obesity problem is that for 25 years we have consistently failed to monitor children and their increasing wirght from pre-school, such that we now have 20 per cent overweight or obese at school.” (ANI)

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