It is not easy to get human rights respected in Portuguese-speaking countries, even outside Africa (Mozambique and Angola). The ghost of Salazar still strides around Portugal and Brazil is run by a Trump pal named Bolsonaro who reminds me of the colonels who ran the country in my youth.

So when I got a package today from Cosan with a proxy for my owned shares of Cosan S.A as of Jan. 4 it took me a moment to realize that the proxy vote is a farce. To join it you have to sign up by Jan. 14 [ie last week].

This will allow Cosan to restructure around not the current Brazilian firm, but around its subsidiaries CSAN and CLOG (logistics) to integrate the offshore Bermuda arm of the company. The new integrated company will offer ADRs called CSAN to owners of CZZ, The vote is Friday and to exercise your right you have to sign up today at www.proxyvote.com with a number on your notification. If the vote goes through, you will be rewarded with new shares in an ADR called CSAN to be created in this quarter. You must sign up by 5 p.m. EST today.

The merger will give CZZ shareholder 1.29401595263 shares of the new entity and also give owners of the corporate B shares that bonus. There will be no fractional shares for CZZ ADR owners of course, so count on the bulk going to the local brass. In the end they expect former CZZ shareholders will own 66% of the shares of the new outfit. While I support the nature of the restructuring I think the restrictions on US ADR owners are … typically Portuguese. I do support the restructuring but don't like the way it is being run by insiders rather than ordinary shareholders.

Poor Wendy Wasserstein, the late playwrite, who wrote about a bank called Honkers and Shankers, then an Asian powerhouse, and my personal bank.It is closing its global trading desk which was an innovation about 10 years ago, when every major New York City branch of HSBC got a specialist in international stock trading on behalf of clients. Now the bank will only recommend exchange-traded and mutual funds via its branches—not individual stocks and bonds. The main fund management arm is being moved to a new outfit called “Wealth Sales” and will charge high fees for trading and managing your money. In this era of cheapo brokerage fees, I fear that the managed account is something like a dodo. If you are tempted to be sold wealth, telephone 1 800 662 3343. HSBC, formally British, is floundering in its USA business mainly because of restrictions by China on its leading Asian operation, out of Hong Kong (which the H stands for; the S is for Shanghai). Its Hong Kong chief personally wrote to a dissident who had moved away from Hong Kong (to the US) explaining that the local bank could not give him access to his money.

What we have to do now is clear: exit the HSBC Hong Kong arm, keeper of the index for the local stock market (which is being boycotted by US and British portfolio managers because of the abuse of human rights there by China. Its trio of telephone company shares from Mainland China are now not tradable on the NYSE, after the on-again off-again ban imposed on the NYSE by the US Dept. of the Treasury. I don't think future President Biden will reverse this move by Trump's Administration. We all want to liberate the Uighars, unless we are Middle Eastern Muslim dicatorships. Elliott Management today formally pulled out of Hong Kong.

Today the US declared that China is committing genocide and crimes against humanity by repressing its Uighur population. Again, given his human rights record, This won't be reversed by the Biden team.

Finance

*I sold Hang Seng Bank shares at $18. After was intervention in Hong Kong but the US share is down. I sold HSNGF before the genocide declaration.

*Taiwan Fund, TWN, is up over 2% because China is under pressure over Uighurs and Russia more so over Novalny.

*Note that AAIGF, the AIG spinoff, is up over 3.9%. It can move away from Hong Kong as needed.

*A new player is bidding for the Suez group besides our Veolia, Ardian and Global Infrastructure Parners, both working from The Netherlands. They are aiming to buy the water assets of Suez (which France will want to keep way from VEOEY to maintain competition.

*Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group yesterday declared a divvie of 29¢, up a third for SMFG.

*Scotiabank rose by 50 cents when Wall Street was holidaying, to $55.63. BNS.

*UBS recommended Nasdaq stock. We own it via Investor A/B, our Swedish holding co, IVSBF.

*Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior gained $1 yesterday. The Panama bank is a multilateral trade funder backed by Ex-Im and counterparts as well as banks, a Biden play.

Drugs

*Lacking any sellers from the USA, Teva Pharmaceuticals rose 2.51% today in European trading building on its rise over the prior two days in Tel Aviv to $121.26. It rose 6.46% in Israel on Monday.

*However Dr Reddy's lost 2.67% to $69.64 when Wall Street was out. RDY got the mandate to prepare some of the Russian jabs against covid-19.

*Bioline RX, an Israeli Hottie, is up 10.75%.

*Compugen is only up 3.76%. CGEN is a former Israeli Hottie.

*Bausch Healthcare enrolled paitents for a late state (phase 2-3) trial of NOV 03 against dry eye. It is working with Germany's Novaliq GmbH to deal with cornea dry eye from gland dysfuction using Meibornicuc. The stock fell a fraction on the news.

*Zymeworks fell 6%+ today despite ZYME being tipped as a strong buy by Raymond James broker.

*Novo Nordisk was tipped on SeekingAlpha by Zunises Zinc which sounds like a pseudonym. The Danish drug firm specializes in diabetes and weight loss drugs. NVO

*Abcellera is up 10% today. ABCL is redeemable but still a loser for me.

*However new pick Enlivex is up 3.6% today. ENLV.

Energy and Mining

*Trans-Siberian Gold produced 15,217 oz of gold in the last qaurter of 2020, up 31.5% and moreover the grade was also higher. Sales hit $29.7 mn, up 39% sequentially.Full year gold dore production hit45,066 oz, up 3.6% from prior year, and the 5^th increase in a row. Revenues rose a tempting 28.3% because gold priced higher. It closed the year with $22 mn in cash.

*Vermilion Energy, VET, produced a budget for the current year for $300 mn (US), down by $60 from last year and will spend $165 mn of this in North America. The rest will go to Croatia, Hungary, and Holland (gas) and there may be further investment in France and Germany depending on H2 drilling results. It expects to generate over $200 mn in free cash flow this year reported Monday.

*Schlumberger Ltd gained 2.53% to $25.51 today playing catch-up to Europe Monday.

*Canadian Solar, which sells Chinese systems, is up 5.42% today on Biden coming. CSIQ.

*Good old NIO is up 3.11%. Of course had I not sold 2/3 of my stake it would have not gone up. It makes electric vehicles in China and its special sauce is leasing the batteries so they can be recharded when power is cheap.

*Cemex of Mexico gained over 4% today and CX is up about a third YTD (2021).

Technology

*Microsoft is on a roll today.

*Mercado Libre is up 3.5% and back over $1900, not bad for an Argentina firm. MELI.

*Ormat lost 3.9% and was the biggest loser in Tel Aviv yesterday. We sold ORA down last week.

*Qualcomm gained 4%.QCOM is my biggest winner in bucks today

*As I warned yesterday I bought Swiss-Swedish ABB Ltd today. It used to be called Asea Brown Boveri. After I posted, Gen Joe Shaefer sent me a note saying he was doing the same thing. ABB, like Fanuc of Japan, makes robots which are in big demand in China, the world's first covid recovery country for now. Its technology here is still well behind the old countries like Japan, Sweden, and Switzerland. Robots are used for automating factories and production, construction, elecctric propulsion for vessels, autos, artificial intelligence, industrial systems. It also makes converters for wind and solar power, and also the related software (and upgrades). I paid $29.53/sh.

*Israeli-American Tower Semiconductor was tipped by Credit Suisse yesterday with a buy rating and rose $1.32 (4.6%) to $29.77. There is a global shortage of chips because they are needed for making electronic autos, but they are being gobbled up by cellphone makers.