UFO Info Week-End

There have been newspaper reports that the Ongs want to sell the Metropolitan and Halkin

There have been newspaper reports that the Ongs want to sell the Metropolitan and Halkin. In fact, some analysts and journalists surmised, things were so bad for the Ongs that the Singaporean government was having to indirectly bail them out by buying a stake in a venture to build, along with the UK’s Rank Organisation, 12 Hard Rock Beach hotels in Asia, the Carib-bean and Europe.According to one of Ong Beng Seng’s aides, Ong “laughed his head off” at the suggestion that pounds 5m amounted to a state bail-out Ong is one of South East Asia’s shrewdest businessman. And finally, like most companies in Asia, HPL’s share price has taken a bashing.The rumours of impending financial disaster at the Ong empire have begun to seep along Bond Street and beyond. Then in March, HPL reported a worse- than-expected 27 per cent decline in 1997 profits to $19.5m, partly as a result of losses from his Brashs music retailer in Australia, which he subsequently closed.

He has given two interviews in 25 years and has not spoken to analysts for eight years. Suspicions of problems were compounded when the tycoon sold his private jet. On Thursday, HPL sold all its shares in Donna Karan Japan for $40m (pounds 24m). On the same day Ong pocketed $22m from the sale of a stake in Manhattan’s Hotel Pennsylvania. In February, Ong sold his 50 per cent stake in the Four Seasons Hotel in London to long-standing business partner Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Abdulaziz Al Saud for an undisclosed sum, believed to be around pounds 45m. Since the beginning of the year the 52-year old billionaire’s Singapore-based holding company, Hotel Properties, has raked in around pounds 200m from the sale of interests in the hotel and fashion industries from the US to Australia.

He also sold a small stake in Virgin Entertainment Group.
Ever since the start of the Asia crisis last year, Singapore has been awash with rumours that the owner of the ultra-trendy Metropolitan and Halkin hotels in London and his wife Christina Ong, nicknamed “the Queen of Bond Street” because of all the designer franchises she owns there, are going broke.The recent sales have fuelled the speculation like oil on a fire Ong is notoriously secretive and media shy. Equities are not seen as an attractive alternative, with the Nikkei index 8 per cent below a year ago.Copyright: IOS & Bloomberg. IN his customarily discreet manner, Singaporean businessman Ong Beng Seng, has been shedding assets, some of them here. Losses may be limited by doubts that government action will help right away. While that will give the central bank further reason to keep interest rates at record lows, “a weak tankan could lead to new government measures” and won’t be a reason to buy bonds, one analyst said.Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party will next month consider cutting taxes, which could require issuing more bonds to make up for lost revenue That could push prices down and drive yields up. The tankan is likely to show a marked worsening in sentiment since December. It may rise as high as 17,500 by Tuesday, but will fall at least 500 points after that, said Kiyoshi Tsugawa, chairman of Lehman Brothers Japan.”All investors are quite nervous about the movement in the market after the [31 March] crucial point,” he said.

“When they look at fundamentals there are more negative signs than positive.”In the bond market the benchmark government bond fell last week, driving its yield up to 1.615 per cent, its highest in three weeks.The main event this week, the release on Thursday of the Bank of Japan’s widely watched “tankan” survey of business sentiment, could be a double- edged sword for bonds. Banks will likely lead the expected fall in the second half of the week.Politicians have pledged to use up to 1 trillion yen ($7.7 billion) of postal savings and insurance money to pump up the market.”Managers probably already have the one trillion yen,” said Alexander Kinmont, strategist at Morgan Stanley Japan. “If the market showed a great sign of falling, it’s probable that they would spend quite aggressively.”The benchmark Nikkei stock average fell 0.54 per cent to 16,830.47 last week. I’m worried about that,” said Yoshihiro Ishii, fund manager at Asahi Life Investment Management.
The business year ends on 31 March and the government has been keen to pull the stock market to 18,003, the level at which it closed last year, to keep banks and life insurers from posting valuation losses on their equity holdings. Bonds are likely to extend losses on concern that the government will drop its deficit-cutting policy and sell more bonds to finance measures to boost the economy. “If the government changes its policy, it may have to issue more bonds.