The disgraced former pharmaceutical executive and hedge fund manager was convicted in August of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of securities fraud.

Shkreli, who once led Turing Pharmaceuticals, became known as “Pharma Bro” and is infamous for suddenly raising the price of the drug Daraprim in 2015 by 5,000 percent — from $13.50 a pill to $750.

He smirked through a congressional hearing that scrutinized his actions and has since earned a reputation for an extravagant, self-publicizing lifestyle.

Although the drug controversy had nothing to do with his trial before a federal court in New York, so great was the 34-year-old’s notoriety that it was initially difficult to find an impartial jury for the trial.

Arrested in December 2015, his bail was revoked in September after he offered a reward for anyone who would grab a strand of former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s hair.

Shkreli insisted it was a joke.

His high-profile lawyer, Ben Brafman, described Shkreli as a mildly autistic, self-taught genius and asked US District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto to limit the prison sentence to a maximum of 18 months.

But even Brafman acknowledged “there are times when I want to punch him in the face” because his client’s behavior complicated the defense, according to reporters who were in the courtroom.

Prosecutors were seeking 15 years’ prison, arguing that Shkreli showed no remorse for his actions and pointing to his provocative and bizarre statements posted on social media.

‘I was a fool’

“He wants everyone to believe he is a genius, a whiz kid, a self-taught biotech wonder,” said prosecutor Jacquelyn Kasulis.

“He can’t be just an average person who fails, like the rest of us.”

In a letter sent last week to the judge, Shkreli pleaded for leniency and for the first time admitted he had erred.

“I made serious mistakes but I still believe that I am a good person with much potential. I was a fool,” he said, expressing a wish to work “for the betterment of humanity.”

With a choking voice, he reiterated in court his remorse at the “shameful actions” that led to his downfall.

On top of six months of good behavior already spent behind bars, and after charity donations he made before his arrest, the repentance helped to lower his sentence far below what the prosecution requested.

On Monday, Matsumoto ordered Shkreli to pay back $7.36 million to federal authorities, an amount they can recover by seizing his assets.

These include a Picasso painting and his unique copy of an album by rappers Wu-Tang Clan.

In 2015, he purchased for $2 million the sole edition of the ensemble’s “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” which he put up for sale on eBay in September — while also threatening to “break this album in frustration.”

The winning bid was a little more than $1 million but by then Shkreli was already in jail after his bail revocation, throwing the deal in doubt.

Shkreli had been convicted of securities fraud and conspiracy a month earlier.

The jury, however, cleared him of more than half the charges for allegedly stealing $11 million in stock from his first pharmaceutical company Retrophin to pay off investors who lost money in two of his hedge funds.

The verdict left Brafman suggesting that Shkreli might even avoid jail time.

Noble recorded an exceptional loss of about US$2.15 billion last year after applying additional non-cash reserves and making valuation adjustments to its net fair value gains on commodity contracts and derivative financial instruments.

It explained on Thursday that its change in reserving approach was the result of a board-mandated detailed reassessment of the group’s balance sheet reserves as part of the strategic review commenced in May last year.

Noble said it had to make the adjustments after it posted a loss in the first quarter last year, which caused lenders to react and hurt its access to funding.”The group experienced both credit rating downgrades and constrained access to bank financing following the announcement of a loss for the first quarter. This was demonstrated as a reduction in the size of the Group’s bilateral trade finance facilities with banks, additional cash margin posting requirements under these facilities and an increase in the cost of these facilities,” Noble said.

Noble said the breakdown of the US$2.15 billion exceptional loss comprised:

lUS$600 million of reserves and valuation adjustments recorded in the second quarter, including applying additional reserves to certain contracts as a result of adverse back testing results and the impact of credit rating downgrades on discount rates.

lUS$600 million of reserving adjustments in the second quarter following a “dislocation” in coal markets that reflected a significant change in observable valuation inputs.

lUS$650 million recorded in the fourth quarter from increases in the discount rate used in the group’s valuations, including the impact of further credit rating downgrades and the Group’s increased cost of funding as reflected in its trade finance facilities. In its statement, Noble also briefly explained how it obtains its valuation models and discount rate curves.

lUS$300 million recorded in the fourth quarter from applying additional reserves and valuation adjustment to certain contracts. These amounts were determined based upon changes in the assessment of recoverability under certain contracts, including due to non-performance, dispute or commercial re-negotiation.

Noble also recorded a US$903 million non-cash loss on impairment and disposal of non-current assets last year.

It said this was contributed by impairment losses of US$169 million for property, plant and equipment, owing mainly to a write-down of Noble’s palm plantation assets held for sale (US$80 million). Noble also booked a US$44 million impairment for its dry bulk carrier vessels, taking into account increased discount rates and projections of future operating costs.

It also wrote off US$37 million in capitalised information technology costs, largely relating to divested or contracted business units.

Philippine Finance Assistant Secretary Maria Edita Tan told reporters that for the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System’s 10.9-billion peso New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam, the signing was tentatively scheduled between the second and third quarters of this year.

For the National Irrigation Administration’s 2.7-billion peso Chico River Pump Irrigation Facility as well as the Department of Transport’s 151-billion peso Philippine National Railways-South Long Haul Railway, the loan agreements were set to be signed between the third and fourth quarters of 2018.

These three projects were part of the “first basket” of projects to be funded by official development assistance (ODA) from China.

“The process is actually they [prospective Chinese contractors] have to go through the bidding, after which we would be able to identify how much is the loan,” Tan said.

“And then, we have to go through our own processes — we have to secure all the necessary approvals like the Monetary Board’s special authority, and from the President, the forward obligational authority. And then after which we will negotiate the loan and make it effective.”

Expected to bid for the MWSS-led Kaliwa Dam project are China Energy Engineering Co Ltd, PowerChina Ltd as well as a consortium of Guangdong Foreign Construction Co Ltd and Guangdong Yuantian Engineering Co Ltd.

For the NIA’s P2.7-billion Chico River Pump Irrigation Facility in Cagayan and Kalinga provinces, the potential bidders are China CAMC Engineering Co Ltd, China Geo-Engineering Corp. and Qingdao Municipal Construction Group Co Ltd.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez had said that they were negotiating that the Chinese government charge the ODA loans with an interest rate lower than 2 percent a year.

The Export-Import Bank of China will cover 85 per cent of the total contract amounts of the Kaliwa Dam as well as the Chico River Pump Irrigation Facility projects. China will provide soft loans estimated at US$234.92 million for the dam project and $72.49 million for the river project.

The DOF had said that a total of US$7.34 billion in loans and grants had already been committed by China to finance not only the ambitious infrastructure programme of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte but also the reconstruction and rehabilitation of war-torn Marawi City.

Meantime, CLSA, the offshore platform of Chinese investment bank CITIC Securities, is working on the finance for a new US$10-billion airport in Manila as part of its push into Southeast Asia and China’s ambitious Belt and Road initiative.

The airport project, to be developed south of the Philippine capital, is still awaiting government approval but CLSA has held preliminary talks with potential Chinese backers for the deal, CLSA chair Tang Zhenyi told Reuters.

“It looks like we are in good shape to do this. It’s a $10-billion minimum project,” he said. “Citic and CLSA are in the perfect position to talk with all the Chinese financial institutions.”

A Chinese-based oil exploration company and a Canadian partner have entered into preliminary negotiations with the government to obtain an exploration licence in Block D in the Gulf of Thailand, according to a government spokesman.

Cheap Sour, spokesman at the Ministry of Mines and Energy in Cambodia , said the government had approved an application from Cambodian Resource Energy Development Co Ltd and was now in the process of setting up an inter-ministerial committee to negotiate with the company.

The ministry has not released the names of the two companies backing the project.

“If we successfully negotiate an agreement, then we will sign the agreement so that the company can start their work,” he said, adding that the negotiations were “still in the early stages.”

The Cambodian Resource Energy Development Co Ltd registered with the Ministry of Commerce in April last year, according to the ministry’s website, and listed Chen Bo as the chairman of its board of directors.

Block D is a 5,500-square-kilometre zone in the Gulf of Thailand that was previously licensed to Cambodian firm CPHL (Cambodia). The government revoked that exploration licence in May 2016 after the company failed to meet the terms of the agreement.

Sour said he was unable to predict when or if the new agreement with Cambodian Resource Energy Development would be finalised. – Phnom Penh Post

Ayala unit to buy land from sugar mill owner

Philippine property giant Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) is set to acquire some of the land assets of Central Azucarera de Tarlac, Inc (CAT) after receiving a go-signal from the country’s antitrust body.

In a statement, the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) said it had approved ALI’s purchase of approximately 290 hectares of land owned by CAT, which is located in Barangay Central, San Miguel, Tarlac City, Tarlac.

PCC said the deal “does not result in a substantial lessening of competition” given that the parties involved were not part of the same geographic market.

“The commission hereby resolves that it will take no further action with respect to the transaction,” the decision, which was made available online, read.

According to company information on the local bourse, CAT operates an integrated manufacturing facility that processes sugar and all its byproducts. Its business and facilities include the sugar milling and refinery, distillery and carbon dioxide plants located in Tarlac.

CAT also owns Luisita Land Corporation (LLC), a company engaged in developing, leasing and selling real estate properties and other ancillary services.

CAT, through LLC, provides water distribution and wastewater treatment facilities to locators of Luisita Industrial Park and residents of Las Haciendas de Luisita.

On the other hand, ALI is engaged in the planning and development of large-scale and integrated estates covering residential, commercial and industrial lots, among others.

The announcement came as PCC raised its notification thresholds in order to weed out anticompetitive mergers and acquisitions.

The new thresholds would take effect later this month. – The Philippine Daily Inquirer

Under the ministry’s Official Letter 2323/BTC-QLG issued on March 1, the prices of goods and public services include that of healthcare, education and environmental hygiene services, car parking, sightseeing, accommodation and rent in markets and trading centres.

The official letter also requested the people’s committees to strengthen price management after Tet (Vietnamese Lunar New Year).

In the first two months of 2018, the consumer price index (CPI) increased by 2.9 per cent, according to the official letter.

To achieve the target of curbing inflation, with CPI growth rate set at 4 per cent for the entire year, the ministry asked the people’s committees to continue implementing solutions proposed in the official letter 240/C-TTg, issued on February 21 by the Prime Minister.

The people’s committees are also required to direct the finance departments and relevant State offices to closely monitor the supply and demand of goods and services, the market as well as prices for stabilising the market, especially essential goods such as food. The watch over the market will help authorities avoid unreasonable price hikes and misinformation about the market.

The finance ministry has also requested the people’s committees to improve the management and inspection of implementing current regulations on prices, especially prices of goods and services that have a high demand during post-Tet festivals, such as transport, food and drinks, sightseeing, tourism and parking service.

Malaysia’s Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI) Mustapa Mohamed said the countries were Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

“Despite the absence of the US, Malaysia still stands to gain from market access to countries like Canada, Peru and Mexico with whom we currently do not have preferential trading arrangement,” he said in a statement.

“In addition to the market access, our participation in the CPTPP will also benefit us in terms of enhancing governance in a number of economic sectors, strengthening economic cooperation among member countries and promoting adoption of international standards.

“Malaysia believes that this agreement will help us further promote our trade and investment agenda and mitigate the challenges of the global economic environment,” he said.

Mustapa said Malaysia would gain from the CPTPP as it would enable more Malaysian companies to expand their presence beyond the borders of the country. The deal would also enhance Malaysia’s position as a premier investment destination and eventually create additional quality jobs for our people.

“The Malaysian public at large will also benefit from the increase in consumer choices on goods and services in our market,” he said.

Mustapa said CPTPP ministers shared the view that, by achieving a high-standard and well-balanced outcome, the agreement will strengthen the mutually-beneficial linkages among participating economies, boost trade, investment and economic growth in the Asia-Pacific Region, and create new opportunities for businesses, consumers and workers.

In January, the European Parliament approved a bill that would limit the use of palm oil as transportation fuel starting in 2021. The bill contains a plan to increase renewable energy use to at least 35 per cent of overall energy use, but it also limits the use of biofuels.

“The president has written a letter to the EU President and parliament to press Indonesia’s rejection of and strong protest against the EU’s treatment of Indonesian palm oil,” Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said on Thursday in Sumedang, West Java, as reported by tempo.co.

In the letter dispatched last week, Jokowi deemed the EU’s move a protectionist policy to protect the local cooking oil industry, Pramono said.

“The Indonesian government views the EU’s action as a move to protect [locally produced] sunflower oil and [other cooking oils], because they know the superiority of the palm oil that we produce,” he said.

If the EU ignored the protest, Indonesia would consider taking a retaliatory measure, Pramono said, but declined to elaborate further on the matter.

Pramono said the EU’s stance against Indonesia’s CPO was a violation of fair trade principles.

The team, led by senior country economist Mr Evgenij Najdov, made this projection in the December edition of the Lao PDR Economic Monitor, posted on the official website of the bank.

“Growth (of the Lao economy) in 2018 is projected to further ease at 6.6 percent before picking up slightly in 2019-2020,” the economists were quoted as saying in the report titled “Lowering risks, reviving growth”.

According to these economists, the factors that will cause a decline in economic growth this year include the government’s austerity measures. Limited growth in the natural resources sector will also contribute to the decline.

But despite economic struggles and challenges in 2018, economists say there is still an opportunity for Laos to resume its strong economic growth in the medium term.

This resumption in growth will be possible because a number of major electricity generation plants, which are now under construction, are scheduled to start commercial operation from 2019, they said.

They predict that the power sector will continue to expand with the installed capacity expected to reach about 11,000MW by 2021.

Among the large hydropower projects expected to come on stream and commence commercial operation in 2019 are the 410MW Xepian-Xenamnoi plant, the 270MW Nam Ngiep 1 plant, and the 1,287MW Xayaboury plant.

The economists said the integration of Laos into the regional and global economy will also boost investment and productivity in agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, and trade.

The growth in these non-resource sectors will generate jobs and incomes for Lao people.

The economists said the mining sector’s contribution to the economy is expected to gradually decline as the current investments mature while the moratorium currently in place limits investments in new deposits.

Sepon, one of the largest copper mines in the central province of Savannakhet, is scheduled to shut down in 2020 when copper ore is depleted.

Another economic challenge facing Laos is that the recent government decision to limit land allocation for agricultural plantations could create a barrier to the commercialisation of production and increase in exports.

The government is now working to improve the business climate to make Laos an attractive investment destination.