New Appointment

PIM is delighted to announce that Vinchel Budihardjo has joined the firm in Singapore. Vinchel holds a Masters Degree in Corporate Finance from Georgia State University. His role will be to provide assistance in making investment decisions and with the overall running of the company.

Eurekahedge Interview

I was recently interviewed by Eurekahedge, the leading provider of hedge and absolute return fund information in Asia. Details of the interview can be found by clicking on the following pdf link.

Other

I have been busy visiting companies in the region, including a trip to Bangkok and a visit to Jambi Province in Sumatera. In Bangkok I saw fourteen companies and came away impressed with most of them, and with the overall state of the economy. In Jambi I bumped along a jungle track for four hours until we finally came to a small clearing, under which I was informed there are apparently seventy million tons of coal; more research needs to be done on this one.

If you ever feel the need to be depressed by the scale of deforestation in Indonesia, or a desire to experience the haze at source as opposed to second hand in Singapore or Malaysia, Jambi is the place to go. Having said that, the place is booming on the back of the commodities businesses, and finance and heavy equipment companies are doing especially well there.

On a more cautious note, there is such massive planting of palm oil estates on the logged land that one has to be slightly worried about the state of that particular industry; it is going to require an awful lot of nasi goring to absorb the future supply.

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous year of the rooster,

James Hay.