Montecristo Petit Tubos

I had two of those last week. Actually they are Montecristo #4 but in tubes. Very nice smoke, quite enjoyable. I like small cigars, the one you can smoke at anytime. I prefer the Montecristo #4 to the Montecristo #3 I don't know, I just feel the #4 already gives everything it has to during its (shorter) combustion.

Brand : Montecristo
Format : Mareva
Origin : Cuba
Rating : A- (see my Cigar Rating Chart)

The best Robusto ?

Robusto is one of my favourite Vitola. I know for sure 3 Robustos (Cubans) with an outstanding record and well established reputation :

• Partagas D4
  
• Cohiba Robustos
  
• Hoyo de Monterey, Epicure #2

It is yet to be said which one is the best out of those 3 classics... I love them all, but I really got to organize a contest sometimes... I'll have to give a gold, a silver and a bronze medal :-)

Taiwanese investment in Vietnam

Labour cost for qualified work force is becoming increasingly expensive in China's big cities nowaday...
Taiwanese investors (whom are known to be quite stingy) came in Shanghai in the early days to hire cheap managers. With 2000 to 3000 RMB/month (200-300 €) you could find someone valuable, 5000 RMB/month was enough for a top engineer, and 10 000-15 000 RMB/month (1000-1500 €), was a top management salary.
Those days are gone... Shanghainese are becoming more and more demanding, and the salaries proposed by HK and western corporations now outweight what the Taiwanese are ready to concede...
So, in a very Chinese pragmatic way, the Taiwanese are going elsewhere. Where? Vietnam ! Investments are on the way. More and more direct flights, etc.

Check those links on the subject :

• Taiwan is largest investor (China Post)
• The view from Taiwan (Blog)
• Taiwanese banks invest too (Vietnam Investment Review)
  

Hoyo de Monterrey - Epicure #2

Yummy, just had a great Epicure #2. Sort of smooth taste, with great flavors though, a very nice Robusto. I mean I do love Partagas D4, and I still consider this brand as being the best Robusto. However the Epicure #2 allows you to enjoy the pleasure of the Robusto format at anytime of the day.

Brand : Oyo de Monterey
Origin : Cuba
Format : Robusto
My rating : A+ (best : AAA+, worst : D)

See also another Post on this subject : Another Hoyo de Monterrey - Epicure #2

Best cigar ever ?

I had a Partagas D4 the other day. One of my favourite, definitely.

The problem with Cuban cigars is very clear though: consistency. We all know that in every box there will be at least 10% of cigars that will have a problem. Too tightly rolled, not well preserved, cracks in the external leaf... You name it.
This is something that seldom happens with Dominican cigars. Consistency wise, the cigar blogger that I am ought to admit that Dominicans are one or two steps ahead of Cubans.
Hopefully for Cubans, there is another side of the coin. Indeed my personal theory is that if you can say that 10% of each box will be below your expectations, you can also probably be certain that one cigar (at least) will be absolutely exceptional. Such a "lucky strike" happened to me the other day, when I lit this Partagas D4...
Perfect taste, perfect combustion, full of flavours (earth & leather mainly)... I smoked it until the very very end...

Brand : Partagas (D4)
Origin : Cuba
Size : robusto
My rating : usually : A+, this one : AAA+ (best : AAA+, worst : D)

Montecristo #3

Mmmh nice smoke yesterday evening... I had a Montecristo #3. Nice Corona, not so tasty at the beginning, but flavours eventually revealed themselves.

I'll have to try a Montecristo #4 soon. It's the worlds most sold cigar & I never tried it!

Analysis :
Brand : Montecristo
Origin : Cuba
Size : Corona
Rating : A (best AAA+ / worst D)

Partagas Coronas Senior

Just smoked a Partagas Coronas Senior, Partagas (would-be) answer to Monte Cristo #3. Actually Partagas is manufacturing another Corona called the Partagas Deluxe. I got to know from a friend that one is hand rolled, while the other one is mechanically rolled. The problem is that Partagas keeps on changing which one is hand rolled and which one is mechanically rolled. The result is that is difficult to know which one is the good one.

The Coronas Senior I smoked was probably not a hand rolled cigar. The taste was not fantastic. Nothing to be ashamed of, just not very tasty and poor aroma.

Analysis :
Brand : Partagas
Origin : Cuba
Size : Eminentes
Colour : EMS
Rating : B- (best AAA+ / worst D)

Minsheng Bank

Mmmh, not easy to find some info. on the Minsheng Bank shareholders. I come up with this. Quite helpful I have to say...

So to sum up, the biggest shareholder of Minsheng seems to be the New Hope Group with a little bit less than 7% of the capital.

Ah ah, last minute : I found the 10 biggest shareholders :

1. New Hope Investment (6.98%)
2. China Fanhai Holding Co., Ltd. (6.58%)
   
3. Oriental Group Co., Ltd. A.K.A Temasek (5.50%)
   
4. China Shipowners Association for Mutual Protection (5.34%)
   
5. China Small and Medium Enterprise Investment & Development Co., Ltd. (5.06%)
   
6. Xiamen Fuxin Group Company (4.82%)
7. ASIA FINANCIAL HOLDINGS PTE. LTD. (4.55%)
   
8. Shanghai Jiante Biotechnology Co., Ltd (3.75%)
9. Sichuan South Hope Industry Co., Ltd. (3.29%)
   
10. Harbin Shirble Electric-heat Co., Ltd. (2.53%)

For a total of : 48% of the shares, the rest is on the market apparently... All right that's it...

A real cigar website

Just found a great website dedicated to real cigars (i.e. please refer to my earlier post dedicated to CigarBlogger). It's called Cigars Review.

Simple and well done. Lots of information.

Temasek ?

It is a the kind of company no one talks about & they rule the world ! I love these !

Temasek is a huge financial holding (103 Bn USD in March 2005) based in Singapore. Basically, it represents the Singaporean state financial power. It is the main vehicle of the Singaporean Government foreign & domestic investment. They own part or totality of more than 50 companies : Singapore Airlines (57%), Singapore Telecom (63%), PT Bank Danamon (56%), CapitaLand (59%), Raffles Holding (35%), the Ascott Group (40%)... you name it !

Recently Temasek has been talked about a lot for it is on the verge to get a minority share in the Bank Of China (BoC). The relevant article in the FT is talking of a 10% share. Even for Temasek, that is a huge investment for BoC market capitalisation is closed to a 110 Bn USD.

This kind of investment is not totally new for Temasek though. Indeed it already owns a 5% share of the China Minsheng Banking Corp. though Minsheng is privately owned. Actually Minsheng is the sole bank in China which is privately owned.

You can download the latest financial report of Temasek here.

Footnote : I am curious to know who owns the other 95% of Minsheng... Gotta check that...

Branding & Marketing - Business Week article

I read this article in Business Week called Branding, a job well done not very interesting, except the part about the Ritz-Carlton hotel. I like their approach on marketing, especially when they say : "Smile. We are on stage."
Make a lot of sense to me... BTW reminds me of a quote by Mc Donald's former CEO : "you think we are in the food business ? you're wrong gentlemen, we are in Show Business."