Thursday, July 2, 2009

Chinese business world wants to play ball

Chinese-born businessman Kenny Huang is heading the deal, estimated to be worth more than $70 million.
Chinese investors want to cash in on the country's NBA fever with a bid to buy a 15 percent stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Ganis said that if the deal goes through, it would rank as the largest international sports transaction ever made by Chinese nationals.
With his U.S.-based partner Marc Ganis, Huang founded SportsCorp China, a company that facilitates sports and sponsorship contracts between the United States and China.
"They're crazy for basketball," said the camp's founder and former Chinese national basketball player Ma Jian. "Basketball has probably become the number one most popular sport in China."
"It is a natural extension of what the NBA's efforts have been in China," Ganis said in an interview, "for Chinese investors to look not just at sponsoring the NBA, not just getting athletes as endorsers of their products, but also for them to now move into ownership of NBA franchises,

"At the end of the day, the NBA is still a league, so at some point they'll want to have a league here on the ground," says Michael Sun, managing director of sports giant IMG. "This is something that I'm sure [NBA China CEO] Ted Chan thinks about every day."

3 ways to dodge rising fees

1. Credit cards
(Money Magazine) -- Why fees are up: President Obama just signed off on major reforms. Card issuers aren't happy. They're doing everything they can to make money off you before the regs kick in next year

What you're getting socked with: Up to 3% extra for foreign goods you buy in dollars (such as a ticket on Air France). Balance-transfer fees are up too: Several issuers have raised them as high as 5%.

2. Mortgages

Why fees are up: Banks are still nervous about lending, so they're bolstering their coffers against potential defaults.

What you're getting socked with: You'll have to pay the 0.25% "adverse-market fee" that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have tacked onto every loan they insure. If you're refinancing and have less then 40% equity or if your credit score is below 720, expect fees of up to 3% of the value of the loan.
3. Mutual funds

Why fees are up: Talk about rubbing salt in your wounds. As assets dwindled, fund firms had to hike fees to cover their costs.

What you're getting socked with: Higher annual expense ratios. The one on American Funds Smallcap World, for example, went from 1.07% to 1.15%. Even low-fee champ Vanguard upped the cost of its U.S. Value Fund by 0.09 of a percentage point. You might also get hit with a $10 to $20 fee if your balance has slipped below the funds' required minimum.

What you can do: Don't love the fund? Ditch it. After all, if it's in a taxable account, you can write off your losses. Then replace it with a similar fund that's cheaper too.