Casino mogul Stanley Ho, the father of Macau's fabled gambling industry, has been hospitalized and had surgery in Hong Kong, his office said Tuesday.
The brief statement did not say what surgical procedure the 87-year-old billionaire underwent.
"He is in satisfactory condition and is progressing well in recovery," the statement said.
The confirmation of Ho's hospitalization came after Hong Kong media reported Tuesday different medical reasons for his stay at Hong Kong Adventist Hospital.
Pictures from Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper showed a stream of Ho's family members, including daughter Pansy and son Lawrence, visiting the hospital Monday. None of them commented on Ho's health.
Ming Pao Daily cited Angela Leong, one of the four women Ho calls his "wives," as saying last week that he needed treatment because of a rectal injury that he suffered two years ago following a procedure to relieve constipation.
Apple Daily newspaper, meanwhile, cited an unidentified source as saying that Ho had fallen and hit his head last week at Leong's home and that he required brain surgery. The report said he is in stable condition in Adventist Hospital's intensive care unit.
Leong did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press seeking comment. The hospital also declined comment.
Uncertainty over Ho's health sent shares of his company Sociedade de Jogos de Macau Holdings, or SJM, 4.5 percent lower at HK$3.15 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Ho, worth more than $9 billion according to Forbes, presided over Macau's casinos for four decades until his monopoly was broken up in 2002.
Since then, he has faced fierce competition from American operators such as Wynn Resorts Ltd. and Las Vegas Sands Corp., but SJM still leads with nearly 30 percent of the local gambling market.
Macau is the only place in China where casinos are legal.
SINGAPORE, Aug 4 - Computer hard disk maker Seagate Technology said it will lay off 2,000 workers in Singapore, or more than 4 percent of its global workforce, as it closes manufacturing facilities in the city-state in a bid to cut costs by $40 million a year.
The move, which Seagate said would result in restructuring charges of $80 million, follows a slide in electronics exports from Singapore this year due to weaker consumer demand in the economic downturn.
"We are moving our hard disk operation at Ang Mo Kio (in Singapore) to other Seagate sites in other countries," company spokeswoman Lotus Tan told Reuters but did not provide further details.
She said Seagate employed a total of 8,000 workers in Singapore and would keep Seagate's Asia headquarters, media operation as well as a product development and design center there. According to Seagate's website it has about 45,000 employees around the world.
Seagate said the Ang Mo Kio hard drive factory would be closed by the end of 2010 but would not meaningfully change its production capacity as it will move manufacturing to other locations, which include Thailand, China and Malaysia.
Seagate said in a filing with U.S. regulators that total restructuring charges of approximately $80 million would include about $60 million for severance payments and about $10 million for the relocation of manufacturing equipment.
It plans to record the severance charges of up to $60 million in the current quarter, with the remainder of the charges to be incurred throughout the calendar year of 2010. Seagate's fiscal year 2009 ended on July 3.
The company expects the move to generate annual savings of $40 million when the closure is completed.
Singapore's overall unemployment rate stood at 3.3 percent in the second quarter but the number of people employed in Singapore fell by 12,400 in April-June, twice as much as in the first quarter
Physically owning the metal is the most direct and traditional method of investing in gold. In some countries, gold bullion can be bought and sold at major banks. In most regions, however, bullion dealers provide the services necessary to purchase physical gold.
Gold bullion is generally sold in two main forms, bars and coins.
Gold bars are available in various weights, generally ranging from one ounce to one kilogram. There are approximately 100 active gold refiners around the world whose bars have earned “good delivery” status from one or more of the associations and exchanges. Johnson Matthey, Pamp Suisse, and Credit Suisse are among the most popular.
Gold coins are another way to invest in physical gold. Priced according to their weight and purity, coins often carry a slightly higher premium than gold bars. Among the most popular are the American Gold Eagle, American Gold Buffalo, Canadian Gold Maple Leaf, Australian Gold Nugget, South African Krugerrand, Chinese Gold Panda, and Austrian Gold Philharmonic. All of these coins contain one troy ounce of gold— except the American Gold Eagle, which is only 91.67% pure gold.
Both gold bars and gold coins are priced according to their weight and purity, but they always carry a premium above spot gold prices. We recommend investing in gold bars because the premiums are always lower than coins.
Investment #2: Gold ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds)
If you're not comfortable owning and storing the physical metal, gold Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) are your next-best bet.
Gold ETFs are special types of exchange-traded funds that track the spot price of gold and are traded on major stock exchanges such as New York, Paris, Zurich, Tokyo, and London.
The main drawback is the management fee charged by the issuing company. On average, a commission of 0.4% is charged for trading in gold ETFs, in addition to an annual storage fee.
U.S.-based transactions are a notable exception, where most brokers charge only a small fraction of this commission rate. Annual expenses such as storage, insurance, and management fees are charged by selling a small amount of the gold represented by each certificate— a process that gradually diminishes the value in each certificate. In some countries, gold ETFs represent a way to avoid the sales tax or VAT which would apply to physical gold coins and bars.
In the United States, revenue from the sale of a gold ETF is treated as a sale of the underlying commodity. Thus, it's taxed at the 28% capital gains rate rather than the 15% long-term capital gains rate for non-collectibles.
Investment #3: Gold Production Stocks
These do not represent gold at all, but rather are shares in gold mining companies.
If the gold price rises, the profits of the gold mining company could be expected to rise. As a result, the share price may rise. However, there are many factors to take into account, and a rise in the price of gold will not always lead to a rise in the price of a share.
Unlike gold bullion, which is regarded as a safe haven asset, unhedged gold shares and funds are considered to be higher risk, more volatile investments. This instability is a result of the inherent leverage in the mining sector.
For example, if you own a share in a gold mine where the costs of production are $250 per ounce, and the price of gold is $750, the mine's profit margin will be $500. A 10% increase in spot gold prices to $825 per ounce will push that margin up to $575, which actually represents a 15% increase in the mine's profitability and a potential 15% increase in the share price. Conversely, a 10% fall in spot gold prices to $675 will decrease that margin to $425, which actually represents a 15% drop in the mine's profitability and a potential 15% decrease in the share price. The amplification of gold mining profits during periods of rising prices can cause a gold rush in mining exploration.
In order to reduce this volatility, many gold mining companies hedge the gold price up to 18 months in advance. This provides the mining company and investor with less exposure to short-term gold price fluctuations, but reduces potential returns when the gold price is rising.
I'm a Self employed been investing for almost about 8 yrs. Here is the chance for me to post my Blog to share experience and investment information with everyone.
