What is a synthetic CDO?

A collateralized debt obligation that invests in credit default swaps or other non-cash assets to gain exposure to a portfolio of fixed-income assets.

What is the "wealth effect"?

Consumers' tendency to spend more when stock prices increase.

What is a sovereign debt?

A debt security issued by a national government within a given country and denominated in a foreign currency.

Investment - How difficult is it to make an informed and "proper" decision?

The Nobel Prize-winning economist Herbert Simon said, "Information consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention." Receiving information and using it wisely are two entirely different things.

Psychologists Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris are co-authors of "The Invisible Gorilla," a book explaining why humans so often fail to observe information that should be obvious. Prof. Chabris suggests that the more comprehensive a prospectus seems, the more likely investors are to conclude, "All you need to pay attention to is within the four corners of this document." That, in turn, may lull investors out of any urge to do further research and exercise independent judgment.

Every investor also should rely on a standardized checklist of questions that must be answered before any purchase. Perhaps the most important: If I am buying, someone else is selling. What, exactly, do I know that this other person may have overlooked?

Benjamin Graham, perhaps the most astute analyst Wall Street has ever produced, was once asked whether he thought disclosure was adequate. Graham replied that the quantity of disclosure "makes me ill." He added, "I don't know if there is any solution … I suppose [a prospectus] would have to say in big red-letter words, THIS [SECURITY] IS NOT WORTH WHAT IT IS SELLING FOR. I don't know if that would make any difference either … somebody [would just say], 'What the hell, it is going up anyway.'"

The excerpts from the WSJ (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704388304575202280469112698.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird)

Jin Kim in the News - Excerpts from Corporate Counsel

Canadian Deals & Suits

Corporate Counsel

April 01, 2010

Korea National Oil / Harvest Energy

South Korea's state-owned oil company closed its largest acquisition to date on December 22, purchasing Canada's Harvest Energy Trust in a $4.1 billion deal. It's the second-largest foreign takeover ever completed by a Korean company.

Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) agreed to pay $10 a share for Harvest, or $1.8 billion, and assume $2.3 billion in debt. The Canadian government approved the deal under the Investment Canada Act within the 45-day initial window.

Harvest Energy has oil and gas production assets in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia. It became an integrated energy company in 2006 when it bought North Atlantic Refining and its related marketing businesses.

South Korea is the world's fifth-largest petroleum importer and the seventh-largest petroleum consumer, according to KNOC's Web site. KNOC produces about 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. The Harvest acquisition added 50,000 barrels per day. KNOC aims to control 300,000 barrels by 2012.

KNOC already had a stake in Canada through its 2006 purchase of the BlackGold oil sands project in Alberta from Newmont Mining Corp. for $270 million.

For acquiror Korea National Oil Corporation (Anyang, South Korea)

In-House: Corporate counsel Jin Kim and counsel Sung Joo.

Bennett Jones: Oil and gas/M&A: Jean-Pierre Pham and asso­ciate Lyle Guard. Investment Canada/M&A: Donald Greenfield. Securities/M&A: Colin Perry, David Spencer, and associate Kahlan Mills. Tax: Alan Rautenberg. Employment: John Batzel. Banking: Denise Bright. Environmental: Bradley Gilmour. Litigation: Anthony Friend. (All are in Calgary.) Bennett Jones has represented KNOC since the BlackGold acquisition.

Vinson & Elkins: Securities/M&A: Mark Kelly. (He is in Houston.)

For target Harvest Energy Trust (Calgary)

Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer: Securities/M&A: Keith Greenfield and Grant Zawal­sky. Oil and gas: John Cuth­bertson, Mark Houston, and Alicia Quesnel. Banking: John Wilmot. Investment Canada: Jody Wivcharuk. Litigation: Daniel McDonald and Jeff Sharpe. Employment: Gina Ross. (All are in Calgary.)

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison: Corporate: Andrew Foley and associates Piibe Jogi and Peter Wright.

—L.K.

Cellphone Voice Quality

With the rising interest in the so-called smartphones, I find it disturbing that the voice quality of the cellphones is eroding. I never had a satisfactory experience when it comes to using 3G cellphones in the States or Canada because the voice quality was horrible and the phone connection failed many times. When the roaming feature of my 2G phone was available in the States and Canada, I did not experience such problems. The emphasis on peripheral features available on smartphones is making people forget what the phone is all about. Voice!

[From New York Times]

State-Run South Korean Oil Company Buys Canadian Producer
Korea National Oil Corp., the state-owned oil and gas company of South Korea, said it would buy Harvest Energy Trust in a deal worth $3.9 billion.

By CHRIS V. NICHOLSON
Published: October 22, 2009

Korea National Oil Corp., the state-owned oil and gas company of South Korea, said it would buy Harvest Energy Trust in a deal worth 4.1 billion Canadian dollars, or $3.9 billion. The transaction represents a major coup for Seoul as it seeks a steady supply of oil from overseas.

Harvest, an oil producer and refiner based in Calgary, said late Wednesday that K.N.O.C. would pay about 1.8 billion dollars in cash and assume 2.3 billion dollars in debt to acquire its reserves in western Canada and its refining operations on the country’s eastern seaboard.

The deal, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval in Canada, is expected to close in December, and is the first of two such acquisitions that K.N.O.C. has said it was looking to make this year, without specifying its targets.

EuGene Synn, vice president of new ventures at K.N.O.C., said that he was confident the deal would be approved by the Canadian authorities, and that he did not expect a rival bid to emerge for Harvest, which has agreed not to solicit competing offers.

K.N.O.C. agreed to pay 10 dollars per trust unit, a premium of 37 percent over their closing price in Toronto on Wednesday. Trust units are traded on stock exchanges like shares, but represent parts of income trusts, a type of company that holds revenue-generating assets. Such companies are common in Canada.

South Korea, the third-largest Asian economy after Japan and China, produces little oil of its own and is a top importer. Like China's state-owned oil companies, K.N.O.C is pursuing acquisitions overseas to meet the country's consumption, which exceeds 2 million barrels per day according to a C.I.A. estimate for 2008.

Mr. Synn refused to comment in detail about other potential acquisitions, but said “we plan to grow by three or four times by 2012,” with the company seeking 2 billion barrels in reserves, and daily production of 300,000 barrels.

K.N.O.C. already owns assets in Canada. In 2006, it bought a lease on oil sands from Newmont Mining for $270 million, and now plans to combine the development of that operation with Harvest's, according to Mr. Synn.

In a message to investors last month, Harvest estimated that it was producing between 50,000 and 51,000 barrels per day. Mr. Synn said K.N.O.C. intended to make investments that would increase that production. The Canadian company reported reserves of 154 million barrels of oil or its equivalents at the end of last year.

In the Harvest statement Wednesday, Young-won Kang, president of K.N.O.C., said the company “has ambitious plans for future growth and is committed to a long-term investment strategy in Canada.”

The South Korean company lost out in June when China’s Sinopec bid $7.2 billion to acquire Addax Petroleum, an oil company based in Geneva with assets in West Africa and Iraq.