Sanctions threaten N Korea aid programmes
BEIJING, May 23 – European aid groups said their banks in Europe had stopped sending money to North Korea in the wake of US sanctions on Pyongyang’s main foreign exchange…
Asian debt: Beware of bubbles
©AFP Taking a pop: low interest rates in the west have increased investors’ interest in southeast Asian debt Gresik is a small industrial town of fewer than 100,000 people, just…
Chinese broker Galaxy enjoys strong debut
Hong Kong’s retail investors appear to have recovered their stomach for stock market investing after they sent Galaxy Securities 6 per cent higher on its market debut. The Chinese brokerage’s…
DBS/Danamon: Singapore & Indonesia
If bank regulators played poker – and who knows, perhaps they do – then the talk between Indonesia and Singapore around the green baize would have gone something like this:…
Australia outlines resources pullback
Australian resource projects worth A$150bn ($146bn) have been cancelled or delayed over the past year as companies have scaled back expansion plans to focus on reducing overheads and improving productivity,…
Sony board discusses sell-off proposal
©Reuters Sony’s board of directors is discussing a proposal by the company’s largest investor to sell off part of its film and music arm, Kazuo Hirai, chief executive, said on…
Dumb money returns to Japan
The dumb money is returning to Japan, in a big way. Mutual and exchange traded funds investing in Japanese shares attracted record inflows last week. So far this year almost…
China’s banks face no-win situation
When hundreds of private equity executives met in Washington last week to discuss emerging markets, China dominated the debate. This outcome at the International Finance Corporation and Emerging Markets Private…
Indonesia approves DBS-Bank Danamon deal
©Bloomberg DBS, southeast Asia’s largest bank by assets, on Tuesday won approval from Indonesia for the acquisition of up to 40 per cent of Bank Danamon, the country’s sixth largest…
China reveals first carbon trading scheme
Operating details of China’s first pilot carbon-trading scheme, in Shenzhen, have been released as it gets ready to launch next month, and as the country prepares to roll out seven…
Chiefs talk up India-China trade target
©AFP Li Keqiang with Tata Group’s Cyrus Mistry and N. Chandrasekaran Amid all the talk of closer business ties between Asia’s two great emerging economies, Monday’s inaugural meeting of the…
India IT groups struggle to woo China
Having arrived in India’s financial capital of Mumbai on Tuesday, Chinese premier Li Keqiang was whisked from the airport to visit Tata Consultancy Services, the country’s largest IT developer by…
BlackRock taps Asia with property deal
BlackRock has planted a flag in Asian property by buying MGPA, a Singapore-based private equity firm, in a deal that highlights investor demand for assets that offer steady income and…
China’s Cathay makes fresh Discovery bid
Cathay Fortune, the Chinese private equity group controlled by billionaire Yu Yong, has made a fresh takeover offer for Discovery Metals, the latest twist in a long-running takeover saga. The…
Blackstone leads buyout bid for Chinese group
Blackstone is leading a $664m buyout bid for a Nasdaq-listed Chinese computer services and software company, the latest in a string of deals to delist mainland groups after they were…