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Howard Winn

Throat tumour keeps Douglas out of CLSA investor forum
We were saddened to hear that actor Michael Douglas has been diagnosed as having a tumour in his throat and will now not be able to speak at the CLSA investor forum next month. 
According to his spokesman, Douglas (pictured) is to undergo eight weeks of chemotherapy after which he is expected to make a full recovery.
CLSA had achieved a minor coup in being able to stage the Asian premiere of the movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and getting Douglas, the star of the film, to speak at one of the lunchtime sessions on film-making, nuclear abolition and the prevention of small arms proliferation.
Nobody has been allotted this slot yet, but there are plenty of contenders.
There are almost 40 keynote and specialist speakers at the forum, which takes place from September 13 to 17. They include the former president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, Financial Times journalist Martin Wolf, Simon Schama, Jill  Taylor, Pranav Mistry, Dan Buettner, Ian Goldin, David Roche and Marc Faber.
Less bonus to share
The Securities and Futures Commission tells us that it has issued a record number of licences to the financial services sector, having processed 7,300 this year, a 46 per cent increase over last year. 
However, stock market turnover is down, having dropped from about HK$80 billion a day earlier in the year to HK$50 billion to HK$60 billion and the number of initial public offerings has declined.
Uncertainty is in the air, will there be a double-dip or won't there? 
Those 'familiar with the situation' say there is less inclination to do carry-trade deals. 
Headhunters say that among the many new signings this year there are a number of superstars who have been given guaranteed bonuses. These, together with the lower trading volumes, will, horror of horrors, shrink the bonus pool. So greed may not be so good this year.
Not built for the job
We notice that Real Estate Developers' Association (REDA) vice-chairman Stewart Leung Chi-kin is clearly not up to the job of speaking to the press. Television footage of him attempting this exacting task after yesterday's land auction at Queen Elizabeth Stadium showed him almost bowled over and submerged by the pressure of reporters and photographers.
REDA needs to have someone much bigger next time.
Friday exchange
W Hotel Hong Kong, atop the Kowloon MTR station, has come up with a new wheeze for luring customers to its 'Living Room' bar. 
In what is presumably meant to attract financial types, it is presenting 'The Exchange', which occurs every Friday  between 6pm and 10pm.  The price of drinks will be determined by 'market demand' and be displayed on an LED ticker. 
The hotel is kicking off this intriguing show with a party on Friday night. 
In a nice little touch, the hotel has persuaded Albert Helmig, the president of the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange, to ring an 'opening bell' to give that extra trading floor feel. This will doubtless be appreciated by Helmig since there are no indications he will be able to ring the bell on his own long-delayed Mercantile Exchange any time soon.
Metal heavy
Robert Friedland was at his super-cool best at the Diggers & Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie recently, holding forth on metal trends. The deputy chairman of Ivanhoe Mines is a big draw wherever he goes. 
He was waxing lyrical on the shift he believes that will occur from hybrid cars to lithium battery powered cars over the next 20 to 30 years. So goodbye oil and a big hello to lithium.
Friedland notes that a lithium battery is made out of a copper foil, which is sprayed with lithium and cobalt/lithium oxide. So a big car with a 450kg battery in it will have about 360kg of copper metal in it. 
Multiply that by the 500 or so million that will want one and the implications for copper are 'breathless', he purrs.
He further points out that the world mined 580 million tonnes of copper between 1900 and 2008 and will need to mine 600 million tonnes more over the next 20 years, assuming average global growth of 3 per cent.
'Frankly, those of us in the business have no idea where this metal is actually going to come from,' he says. 
Really, Robert? Since he is sitting on one of the biggest gold and copper deposits in the world through his Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia, we assume that much of it will come from him.



Lai See