Saturday, December 31, 2016

China Provokes The Donald


The Rise of China


Vancouver mayor claims he doesnt know anything about this





....doesn't pass the smell test


Ahem...

State-owned Chinese company buys John Holland key provider for Defence Dept in construction in $1.15b deal

State-owned Chinese company buys John Holland key provider for Defence Dept in construction in $1.15b deal 

John Holland is the Defence Department’s key provider of construction services, with contracts of about $570 million in 2014, according to the Australian Defence Magazine,which releases an annual report on defence contractors.John Holland provides a wide range of services to the department, including administration and medical facilities, airfields, aircraft hangars, maintenance workshops, vehicle shelters, and armouries.
The company often works on fully operational Defence bases to complete contracts such as a $110 million contract to develop new buildings for the department’s Robertson Barracks in Darwin.
Some of John Holland’s projects for the Defence Department have required staff to receive security clearances approved by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.
The China Communications Construction Company will become the first big Chinese group to build Australian roads and bridges after sealing a deal to acquire John Holland from Leighton Holdings for $853 million.
CCCC plans to keep the John Holland brand and retain senior management as it uses the acquisition to get a foothold in the Australian market and bid on a series of multi-billion dollar infrastructure projects.
CCCC, a state-owned company that has a market capitalisation of $23.5 billion, will become one of Australia’s biggest construction companies after Leighton and Lend Lease.
John Holland’s current projects include tunnels and stations for Sydney’s North West Rail Link; building Perth’s new $1.2 billion Children’s Hospital; and developing part of Victoria’s new Regional Rail Link.
The sale, which was reported by Street Talk on Thursday, comes as the company’s chief executive, Marcelino Fernandez Verdes, restructures the company and pays down debt following Spanish construction group ACS’s $1.15 billion takeover of Leighton in March.
John Holland, which was acquired by Leighton in 2000, was considered the easiest of Leighton’s three big subsidiaries, which include Thiess and Leighton Contractors, to sell.
The sale includes $100 million of debt in addition to John Holland’s equity value of $853 million and reduces Leighton’s gearing, which was running at 33.7 percent at the end of September, to around 24 percent.
“The divestment of John Holland supports our focus on further reducing gearing and strengthening our balance sheet so we can be sustainably competitive,” Mr Fernandez Verdes said.
“Proceeds will be used to finance future growth, particularly in public private partnerships.”
Some 4100 John Holland employees will transfer to CCCC International Holding Limited, a subsidiary of CCCC.
Lu Jianzhong, CCCI’s president, said there were “significant growth opportunities” in the Australian market.
“From our perspective, ownership of John Holland is the optimal way for CCCC to participate in this dynamic market as part of our aim to be a global transportation infrastructure business.”
CCCC, which is listed on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges, specialises in large transport projects, including bridges, ports, and high speed rail networks such as the 1,318 kilometre rail link between Beijing and Shanghai.
It plans use John Holland’s expertise in road and rail projects, as well as tunnelling and water infrastructure elsewhere in Asia.
The sale, which requires the approval of the Foreign Investment Review Board, is expected to be completed in early 2015.
The deal comes comes after Australia struck a free trade agreement with China in November that allows for Chinese workers to be brought into ­Australia to help build projects.
Leighton on Friday released details of Mr Fernandez Verdes’ pay package after the Spaniard replaced Hamish Tyrwhitt as CEO in March and subsequently also became chairman.
Mr Fernandez Verdes, who is CEO of Hochtief, Leighton’s controlling shareholder, will be paid an allowance of $495,000 in 2015.
He will also receive 1.2 million share appreciation rights, which reflect any increase in the company’s stock price between March 2014, when they traded at an average of $17.71, and March 2016.
The maximum price payable per share right will be $32.29, giving Mr Fernandez Verdes the opportunity to make more than $17 million.
John Holland is the Defence Department’s key provider of construction services, with contracts of about $570 million in 2014, according to the Australian Defence Magazine,which releases an annual report on defence contractors.
John Holland provides a wide range of services to the department, including administration and medical facilities, airfields, aircraft hangars, maintenance workshops, vehicle shelters, and armouries.
The company often works on fully operational Defence bases to complete contracts such as a $110 million contract to develop new buildings for the department’s Robertson Barracks in Darwin.
Some of John Holland’s projects for the Defence Department have required staff to receive security clearances approved by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.
China Communications, which is listed on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges, specialises in large transport projects, including bridges, ports, and high-speed rail networks such as the 1318-kilometre rail link between Beijing and Shanghai.

Friday, December 30, 2016

Poll: a year of Trudeau



  • Poll: a year of Trudeau

  • As Justin Trudeau's first full year as prime minister comes to a close, downtown roads in the nation's capital are clogged with snow and construction.
    It's an apt metaphor for the increasingly tough slogging Trudeau's Liberal government has experienced since the heady days last fall, when the fledgling prime minister was winning raves for appointing the first gender-equal cabinet, handing out winter parkas to newly arrived Syrian refugees, being greeted like a rock star by screaming fans and boldly declaring "Canada is back" on the international stage.
    He's been slowly building on his campaign promises to construct a cleaner, fairer, more prosperous, progressive and compassionate Canada, but it's been a bumpy ride with some unanticipated roadblocks along the way.
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    They only voted for him because of his cool hair style and to smoke pot without getting busted.



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        Justin Trudeau --- a selfie-made man!



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            Just one holiday after another like his old man ....with the Lady Diana wannabe in tow ...make canada great again vote Kevin O'leary



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              I think people who rated Moombeam excellent should be required to share what they are smoking!



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                  "Little potato" has been a disaster for Canada, and to make things worse for our citizens, lets carbon tax ourselves..ugh! Anyone that thought it would be a good idea to give the job to an entitled elitist who has been living off a trust fund..you should hit yourself..really hard! Little Castro will kill Canada, and we have all the idiots who voted for him, to thank! What an epic disaster!



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                    and let us not forget him filling up the senate with a bunch of expense account sucking fat lazy appointed senators that do absolutely nothing for our country other than spend our money.......they are a total waste of money and do nothing for the country



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                        the only really good thing about trudeau is its really easy to see and realize what a jackass he truly is



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                          well let me see he is filling the country with asians and muslims....he has increased the immigration starting next year to 450,000 people from the 300,000 the conservatives had......he has abolished some of the tough on crime laws that harper worked hard to put in place namely a second offence drug dealer should get a mandatory year in jail...trudeau said it just wasn't fair to incarcerate the people that are ruining children and families lives on a daily basis...........he saide all you dopes out their would be smoking pot on the street and it would be one big party for the people who don't like their life enough to be straight and sober.....hows that working out for you?......he said no pipeline..hows that working out for you?....basically how in the world can you expect a high school drama teacher that has never had to deal with any issues finacially was born with a silver spoon.....how can you expect that to run a country.......basically one thing we have or should have all learned by now is that a son of a politician got to see his dad tell lies and get voted in because of those lies so he is very adept at deception and false promises and it is not going to change....some filthy rich chinese business man in vancouver just donated 1,000,000.00 dollars to the trudeau foundation.......wow I guess all along this country has been for sale we just didn' know what real estate company was selling it and now we know it was our own government.......it is a travesty and he should be charged with treason as should his dad.......



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                              Of course they want to increase immigration. Where do you think the next generation of liberal voters are coming from?



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                                I always though the PM of Canada was supposed to work toward the betterment of OUR country, not every other country on the planet.He's certainly done a lot of traveling in the past year. That's one thing he has done. He is really good at giving OUR money away and opening the Canadian door to others in need while neglecting the needs of Canadians. He's done an excellent job of finding a way to get his hands deeper into our pockets and taking what little we have because at the end of the day, I seem to only have lint and dust in my pockets. I think Justin is doing an awesome job of DESTROYING our country as we know it, oh and taking every possible opportunity to get a photo shot. What? Does he think he is "The Next Big Thing"? A great celebrity? He's a freaking buffoon.A child who needs to have the golden spoon removed from his mouth. In my opinion, Justin Trudeau is as much of an embarrassment( if not worse )to Canada as Justin Beiber. Funny how Canada's two biggest moroons have the same first name.



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                                  CBC and CTV will tell us that the Turd and his group of misfits have a 65% approval rating! Please read all comments here and tell me that's true. So sick of these clowns!



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                                    Justin has proven that he was not ready to be our Prime Minister. Spending like a drunken sailor, not paying attention to the needs of Canadians, role playing the job of PM like he is still in drama class. But the 4 years is nearing so we can ALL make sure we use our heads and not our hearts in making our next PM selection.



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                                        For those of you thinking that he will be gone in 2019, think again. 
                                        Both Peter and Rona have stepped aside understanding that they will be 
                                        strong contenders in the 2020 Conservative leadership campaign.



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                                          The fact remains that a bad day with Trudeau is so much better than 100 good days with Harper.
                                          For those of you thinking that he will be gone in 2019, think again. Both Peter and Rona have stepped aside understanding that they will be strong contenders in the 2020 Conservative leadership campaign.
                                          BTW, I voted Trudeau in for his environmental foresight, and I'll vote him out for approving the TM pipeline and his lack of environmental foresight.



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                                              Strange you actually believed anything he promised.



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                                                  That's funny, I'll vote him out for approving a carbon tax in an already hurting economy, and not approving more to help oil rebound and get everyone working again... Meanwhile he's bringing in 450,000 refugees next year when Canadians can't find work. Just ridiculous. Send another billion dollars overseas, hey why not.



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                                                      Jamie, raise your left hand over your head, now slap yourself with your right hand for voting for this dimchite!



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                                                          I guess you don't use any oil products.



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                                                              That argument is tired, inaccurate and short sighted. You're saying that people who live in a system can't criticize or act to change that very system. With that kind of logic, slavery would still be legal. Consumers are held hostage to using oil based products. The market hasn't moved fast enough to provide a cheap, efficient alternative. Please refrain from using this over-simplified argument to attack people who care about the planet that YOU live on. Lame.



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                                                                  Are you aware that over 4,000 products are made from petroleum. The keyboard you are typing on for one thing. Now tell me, of those 4,000 items, what are you prepared to give up. do you know that Canada is carbon negative, due to all the forests which consume CO2. Being an environut you probably would not know that. Do some research. Oil is a necessity and will be for a long time to come.



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                                                                      I agree with you in some respects, but don't start punishing us with a carbon tax on basic necessities until there are more cost effective alternatives available to replace gas engines, natural gas furnaces, etc.



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                                                                          I'll happily pay a tax for corporate pollution reform and consumer obsolescence, a better recycle program and *maintained* depots for ALL sectors ( looking at you Industrial / commercial ). Smarter and cheaper transit services; smarter, efficient and cheaper energy sources, and above all no country exempt - especially Asia, India, and the continent of Africa. Until then all tax monies are thrown into a endless money-pit and I'm way too poor to accept that.



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                                                                              So you are willing to pay more for every product you purchase. Good to know. You obviously are not on a fixed income. Do you pay attention to what the Green Energy Act has done to Ontario. Check it out. Educate yourself.