Info Klinik Bisnis

Goldman Sachs announced this week that it had instituted ways to improve the work experience of analysts (in its BA program) and reduce the number of hours they work each week. It's the lore of investment banking to hear stories of analysts and MBA associates, too, who work long hours that stretch through the weekend and through holidays and vacation time. Goldman acknowledges that it is missing out on some top talent, when recruits have selected other finance jobs or industries because of work-life-balance issues. Talented BA's and MBA's will express an interest in corporate finance, will have the aptitude and drive to work on deals and with important clients, but, as Goldman sees it, they back out and accept offers elsewhere. And they may whisper to Goldman and other major banks that it wasn't about the compensation.  Thus, they choose pathways that take them to the shorter hours and better lifestyles offered by hedge funds, smaller boutique firms, and the f...

The recent announcement of the Budget 2014 was unexcited as predicted. Compared to the last Budget this budget is more realistic as we need to look into our deficit problem seriously as Fitch has already downgraded the Malaysian credit outook from "stable" to "negative" in July this year. Currently, Federal Government debt at 54% of GDP while Household debt at 83% of GDP; Our budget deficit was 4.5% of GDP this year (for budget deficit > 5% is consider unhealthy). Hence a contractionary budget for next year is expected as people need to wake up from the over-indulgence of 'goodies' during the pre-election period. There is a price to pay for all the big spending! However, the GST is further delayed to 2015 which also mean that the budget in fact is not that contractionary and our credit rating of 'negative' may remained for quite a while. Moving forward, as far as KLCI is concerned there are winners and losers sectors for this budget. The winners a...

Cornell's Johnson School: Ready, set, network, interview When recruiting season rolls around, MBA students in finance (including Consortium students in finance around the country) toss the books on the shelves and roll out the details of a game plan to secure a job for the summer or for full-time employment after graduation. Student sentiments always seem the same year after year.  They never realize how much time, energy, effort, focus, and discipline the process entails.  Often recruiting season is launched right in the middle of midterms and just before first-semester exam season. MBA students rejoice in the chance to dream of the opportunities presented to them and the chance to drift smoothly into a wonderful job in an ideal industry, making substantial impact, having meaningful experiences, and accumulating their fair share of sums of money.  That's summer-time luxury.  When recruiting season starts, the real world smacks right in the face.  There is time,...

Billions and billions in cash, still In corporate-finance circles,  Apple presented a delightful dilemma in much of 2012.  What should it do with its billions of cash, sitting on the balance sheet, earning paltry returns in safe markets, causing restlessness among shareholders who felt entitled to special dividends to get access to it? Should it use cash to repurchase some stock, a few shareholders pressed? Shareholder activists clamored for cash pay-outs and even devised ingenious financial maneuverings and new equity instruments to get to it.  The current generation of Apple managers, with Tim Cook at the helm as CEO, grew up with Steve Jobs' abhorrence of debt markets and his clinging to a security blanket of hoarded cash if only to endure tough times. Apple has often countered--in carefully worded ways--that much of the cash it maintains appears in foreign subsidiaries, cash that couldn't be efficiently repatriated back to the U.S. into the hands of shareholders with...

When the deal was announced, some surely gasped.  The fact that Verizon Communications decided to purchase all of Vodafone's stake in Verizon Wireless was not a surprise.  Vodafone had decided to sell its stake and units in mobile phones.  What likely caused market observers and headline writers to turn their heads in wonder was the size of the deal, the big numbers. They were huge. Deals and big numbers excite investment bankers and can spur them to pant and salivate. In the Verizon case, they certainly will, once Verizon gets around to handing out advisory and underwriting checks for fees. Deals and big numbers tend also to cause hiccups and coughs among some investors, research analysts and bank risk managers. This deal is big, one of the largest ever. Perhaps it sends too many hopeful signals that an era of super-size deal-making has returned.  Verizon Communications announced it will pay a whopping $130 billion for Vodafone's stake. To raise $130 billion to pay ...

Now it's Twitter's turn. It hesitated for the past year or so. This week (Oct., 2013) it bravely stepped into IPO waters, taking the first big step by sharing publicly its SEC filing and letting the financial world see its bottom line. Twitter's hesitation, like all companies contemplating issuing stock to the public for the first time, results from trying to determine the optimal moment to sell stock in equity markets. That's often tied to market interest in the stock issue, supply and demand for the stock, and general equity-market trends. Its hesitation may have also resulted from other factors: (a) its being shy about letting the world pore through its true financial performance and (b) its desires to avoid the IPO debacle Facebook experienced last year at Nasdaq with Morgan Stanley as the lead underwriter. Twitter through the years has had to wrestle, too, with management and organizational issues. Some of those problems have been resolved, and the company has move...