Marco Polo Marine (MPM) Ltd was a medium-sized Singaporean shipping company listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange that was involved in regional shipping and shipbuilding. The company was part of a larger Indonesian family business group, and had been built from scratch by the CEO. MPM had started off providing barges to transport sand and mining products, initially for the group’s mining operations, but increasingly for third parties. It subsequently .....more

Over the course of many decades, Manulife had created a thriving business in Hong Kong, and it had established a series of small operations in six other Asian countries. In the fall of 1998, the Asian financial crisis was creating new expansion opportunities. Many companies that had never been for sale suddenly confronted substantial losses and were seeking investors. Asian governments, facing balance-of-payments problems, were relaxing foreign ownership .....more