2008-07-28 17:21:12 -
MFFAIS.com's official response to the various criticism and remarks made in the wake of the article reporting Temasek Holding, PTE as having sold ½ of its shares of Merrill Lynch FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT:
Kevin Traster
MFFAIS.com
Voice Phone Number: (501) 640-6454
Email Address: kevin@mffais.com
Website: www.mffais.com
MFFAIS, TEMASEK, MERRILL LYNCH, BLOOMBERG - OH MY!
Long Beach, California, July 27th, 2008 - On July 22, 2008, MFFAIS.com published an article which reported Temasek Holding, PTE as having sold ½ of its shares of Merrill Lynch. The article has cause an uproar
in Singapore about the handling of the Government fund. This is MFFAIS.com's official response to the various criticism and remarks made in the wake of that article.
In the articles, Mffais.com is referred to 'small website' , a 'dubious source' causing 'mischievous speculation' who 'did not respond.' The articles further suggest that investors should 'refer only to official sources of information.'
First, the facts:
1) MFFAIS.com had tried contacting Bloomberg about the story. We have sent emails to both Linus Chua and Chia-Peck Wong - our correspondence was rejected by Bloomberg.
2) MFFAIS.com is ranked (by Alexa) in the top five equity research web sites in the world based on traffic. MFFAIS.com is ranked within the top 50,000 of ALL websites based on traffic, in the top 14,000 in the U.S and in the top 21,000 for Singapore. Few would consider that to mean a 'small' web site.
3) The sources of all our information and news articles are on public record with the United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). For that particular article, Merrill Lynch And Co Inc (MER) holdings reduced by Temasek Holdings Private Ltd (
www.mffais.com/newsarticles/2008-07-22/2473637-211738.html), our specific sources are listed below:
Our Sources:
On July 2nd, 2008, Temasek filed this report for CPOR of 20080331
Source:
www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1021944/000119312508145958/00011 ..
On July 22nd, 2008, Temasek file this amended report holding additional
shares(see additional holdings is checked on amendment it is NOT a restatement) for CPOR of 20080331
Source
www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1021944/000119312508155359/00011 ..
Also on July 22nd, 2008, Temasek filed this report for CPOR of 20080630
Source:
www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1021944/000119312508155318/00011 ..
08-155318.txt
MFFAIS.com consolidated this information to surmise that Temasek Holdings was selling half of most of the shares they were holding, not just Merrill Lynch.
MFFAIS.com acknowledges that the information may have been a simple typo made when released for public record. Then again, it may well have been a simple mistake of checking 'additional holdings' instead of 'restatement' on the form Temasek filed with the SEC made by Temasek itself.
In any case, MFFAIS.com works to compile information relating to various funds verbatim from the official filings made to the SEC, including that made by Temasek Holdings. MFFAIS.com did make an exception for this Temasek filing at by manually processing the amendment as a 'restatement', as opposed to the original 'additional holdings.' (See
www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1021944/000119312508155359/00011 ..)
MFFAIS.com also corrected the number of shares on the summary pages for Temasek and the companies they hold.
We resent the implications made by Temasek Holdings, and which were promoted indiscriminately by Bloomberg, that we are not a trustworthy source of information, that we promote 'mischievous speculation' and are a 'dubious source.'
As always, any reporter can contact us by email to verify the information published, but that would be a waste of time if our response was rejected and the lie then published to say we did not respond.
ABOUT MFFAIS.com - MFFAIS.com is a new web site dedicated to providing individual investors with information listed on public record in an accessible and useful format, to make investing a more concrete sport. For additional information on MFFAIS.com or opportunities to support the forum, contact Kevin Traster or visit www.mffais.com.
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