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☆ Slump in global cashew demand pushes Ivory Coast industry to verge of collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Ange Aboa | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Global demand for cashew nuts, eaten as snacks or used for cooking and desserts, has tumbled since the end of the coronavirus pandemic, driven by multiple factors, including consumer inflation and increased production. "No one wants to buy cashew, even if I ask for 150 CFA francs per kilogram ($0.24) instead of the farmgate price of 315 CFA francs. Dembele lost 20 million CFA francs ($33,000) during the 2022 season after buying nuts he could not resell to wholesale processors. Output rose from 400,000 tonnes in 2011 to 1 million tonnes in 2022, and is expected at the same level in 2023. In Bouake, the heart of the country's cashew processing industry, work has come to a near standstill as employers struggle to pay salaries.

Persons: Ange Aboa, Dembele, Ibrahim Coulibaly, Ivory Coast, Ganesh, Rajaraman, It's, Alessandra Prentice, Bate Felix, Ed Osmond Organizations: REUTERS, Ivory, Farmers, Global, CFA, Factories, Thomson Locations: Katiola, Ivory Coast, Korhogo, Bouake, Dakar

☆ Factbox: Penalties imposed on Australian companies over the recent years
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Here are some of the major penalties imposed by the regulators:AMP LTD (AMP.AX)Troubled Australian wealth manager AMP Ltd was fined a court-mandated penalty of A$24 million in May for billing dead clients for insurance and financial advice. In October 2022, ANZ was penalised A$25 million for failing to provide certain benefits it had agreed to give customers. In October 2022, CBA's trading unit was fined A$20 million for compliance failures in delivering financial services. NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK (NAB.AX)National Australia Bank, the country's second-largest bank, was charged A$18.5 million penalty in August 2021 by a court for issuing misleading fee disclosure statements or none at all. WESTPAC BANKING CORP (WBC.AX)Australia's third-biggest lender, Westpac Banking Corp was ordered to pay A$113 million in penalties in April 2022 for multiple compliance failures across its businesses.

☆ Singapore Airlines, Garuda Indonesia plan JV to boost passenger capacity
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 29 (Reuters) - Singapore Airlines Ltd (SIAL.SI) and Garuda Indonesia (GIAA.JK) plan to enter into a joint venture (JV) to increase passenger capacity between the two countries, the flag carriers said on Monday, as post-COVID tourism in Southeast Asia ramps up. The proposed JV would allow the carriers to potentially synchronise schedules, improving passengers' connectivity and convenience, and explore new initiatives, including joint fare products and an alignment of corporate programmes, they said. The plan will cover routes between Singapore and Denpasar, Jakarta, and Surabaya, and deepen the existing cooperation between the two carriers. "This joint venture ... reflects our firm commitment to grow the aviation markets in Indonesia and Singapore, facilitating a greater level of business and people connections and promoting both countries as regional tourism destinations," said Goh Choon Phong, chief executive officer of Singapore Airlines. Reporting by Upasana Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Savio D'SouzaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ 2,500-year-old toilets reveal that the people of ancient Jerusalem were afflicted by painful stomach cramps and diarrhea
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( Isobel Van Hagen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Archeologists excavated the cesspits below two toilets from Iron Age Jerusalem. At the time, Jerusalem was the capital of Judah — a vassal state under the control of the Assyrian Empire. "Toilets with cesspits from this time are relatively rare and were usually made only for the elite," Mitchell said. The study suggests the "long-term presence" of the disease across the Near East. Indeed, medical texts from the first and second millennium BC describe diarrhea afflicting the Near and Middle East populations.

The forecast is 22% higher than the S$8.19 billion annual net profit it achieved in 2022. Its ROE was 15% last year, while its CET1 ratio was 14.6%, according to its 2022 annual report. DBS said faster growth in capital-light high-ROE businesses such as wealth management, global transaction services and treasury market sales will help it achieves its goals. DBS aims to be among the top 10 private sector banks in India, projecting net profit to triple to around S$375 million by 2026, according to the slides. ($1 = 1.3245 Singapore dollars)Reporting by Navya Mittal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia CheemaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Roberto Firmino: Liverpool great in tears after final match at Anfield
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Issy Ronald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

But even a draw couldn’t dampen the emotion of the occasion as Firmino was reduced to tears by the crowd’s tribute to him. Liverpool fans waved jerseys and cries of “Si Senor” reverberated around Anfield while Firmino’s teammates formed a guard of honor for him and other departing players, including James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita. Peter Byrne/PA Images/Getty Images“Unfortunately, we didn’t get the win, it wasn’t the result that you want,” Firmino said afterwards, according to Liverpool’s official website. As for every player, it’s the same,” Firmino said, according to the club’s website. Without my teammates, my family, the manager, you cannot do this.

☆ Firmino scores late goal to keep Liverpool's slim Champions League hopes alive
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Lori Ewing | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Juergen Klopp's side are fifth with 66 points with one game remaining, but three points adrift of fourth-place Manchester United who have a game in hand. The home side dominated a frenzied final few minutes as chants of "Si Senor" rang out in the stadium. Liverpool's hopes of qualifying for next season's Champions League appear all but over. Liverpool were missing Darwin Nunez due to a toe injury, while Aston Villa were without injured Philippe Coutinho. Gakpo pulled up his shirt to show the referee the mark, but after a VAR review, Mings was shown a yellow card.

☆ No Singapore Airlines group A320neos with Pratt engines grounded - exec
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SINGAPORE, May 17 (Reuters) - None of the Airbus (AIR.PA) A320neo planes in the Singapore Airlines (SIAL.SI) group with Pratt & Whitney engines are currently grounded over a lack of spares, Leslie Thng, CEO of Scoot, the airline's low-cost subsidiary, said on Wednesday. The engines have been under scrutiny since Go Airlines (India) Ltd filed for bankruptcy protection this month, blaming "faulty" Pratt engines for the grounding of about half its 54 Airbus A320neos. Scoot has 15 A320neo family planes in its fleet, while premium brand Singapore Airlines instead operates the rival Boeing Co (BA.N) 737 family. India's IndiGo (INGL.NS), Germany's Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) and Air New Zealand (AIR.NZ) have said some of their aircraft have been grounded over issues with Pratt GTF engines at a time when spares are in short supply. Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes said in February that the GTF engines' reliability has not been up to expectations and that the company was working to fix problems.

☆ India’s airline turbulence will be felt abroad
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Shritama Bose | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

India’s Go First has gone into bankruptcy – the country’s second airline to do so since 2019. Its subsequent public and messy spat with engine suppliers and lessors will have ripple effects across the industry and abroad. Go, the country’s third largest airline with a 7% market share, blames Raytheon Technologies-backed (RTX.N) Pratt & Whitney’s “faulty” engines. A global industry association, Aviation Working Group, has put India on a watchlist for violating global conventions on repossession of airplanes. The trouble at Go may not put them off but it promises some extra turbulence ahead.

WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - The speaker of Taiwan's parliament praised Japan, South Korea and the Philippines on Tuesday for helping to create a "crescent of defense" with Taiwan and the U.S. against China's ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region. You praised Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for calling Taiwan a global issue and opposing a change to the status quo by force. "The crescent of defense formed by Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines will, with American support, be a key stabilizer of peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region," he added. China has been stepping up its military activities around Taiwan to try and force the democratically governed island to accept Beijing's sovereignty. It has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.

☆ Jason Day pays tribute to late mother after first PGA Tour victory in five years at AT&T Byron Nelson
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( George Ramsay | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Australian golfer Jason Day claimed his first PGA Tour victory for more than five years at the AT&T Byron Nelson in Texas, paying tribute to his late mother after the win. 1, Day has endured a challenging period in his career since he was last in the winner’s circle. It was his 13th victory on the PGA Tour, earning him $1.71 million. “For some reason, I just thought that I was going to win the tournament,” said Day, who claimed his first Tour win in the same event 13 years ago. “There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done with the swing, to the point where I want to take it,” Day said.

☆ Sexual harassment debate breathes new life into China’s #MeToo movement
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Nectar Gan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Shi has strongly denied the accusations of sexual harassment in two separate statements and claimed the encounters were consensual. The falloutThe allegations have since sparked furious debate on Chinese social media, with related hashtags trending for days and racking up hundreds of millions of views on Weibo. China did not specify sexual harassment as a legal offense until 2021, when it enacted a civil code defining sexual harassment for the first time in the country’s law. But still, the failure of sexual harassment lawsuits – like Zhou’s – in recent years has made it “increasingly clear that seeking legal remedies for sexual harassment is not realistic,” said the Chinese feminist in New Jersey. “Even if I reported it, and he was summoned to the police station, how many days can he be detained for sexual harassment?” she wrote.

☆ Martha Stewart lands ‘historic’ Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Marianne Garvey | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Martha Stewart is among the cover models for the 2023 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. The lifestyle businesswoman, 81, is the oldest swimsuit model the magazine has featured, calling the fact “historic.”“I like that picture,” Stewart said of her cover shot as she revealed it on Monday’s “Today” show. Stewart posed in the Dominican Republic for the shoot and appears in a total of ten looks. Stewart’s career began as a model at age 15, before she worked as a Wall Street stockbroker and later started a catering business, which grew into a lifestyle media company. Stewart’s more recent modeling with social media selfies have gained praise, particularly an image she shared of herself in a pool in 2020.

☆ Singapore bank OCBC posts record quarterly profit, upgrades margin guidance
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Yantoultra Ngui | Thomson Reuters | Yantoultra Ngui Is A Southeast Asia Deals Correspondent With Reuters In Singapore | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

OCBC, which is also Southeast Asia's second-biggest bank by assets, said January-March net profit rose 39% to S$1.88 billion ($1.42 billion), beating the mean estimate of S$1.74 billion from five analysts polled by Refinitiv. OCBC reported a total net interest margin, a key gauge of profitability, of 2.30% for the first quarter, up from 1.55% in the same period a year earlier. The bank forecast a full-year net interest margin of about 2.2%, up from 2.1% previously. The first quarter was also strong for Singapore's other major banks, with larger peer DBS Group (DBSM.SI) reporting last week a 43% jump in first quarter net profit that was also a record. Smaller United Overseas Bank (UOBH.SI) posted last month a 74% surge in core net profit.

OCBC, which is also Southeast Asia's second-biggest bank by assets, said January-March net profit rose to a record S$1.88 billion ($1.42 billion) from S$1.36 billion a year earlier. The bank reported a total net interest margin, a key gauge of profitability, of 2.30% for the first quarter, up from 1.55% in the same period a year earlier. OCBC expected full-year net interest margin in the region of 2.2%. The first quarter was also strong for Singapore's other major banks, with larger peer DBS Group (DBSM.SI) reporting last week a 43% jump in first quarter net profit that was also a record. Smaller United Overseas Bank (UOBH.SI) posted last month a 74% surge in core net profit.

☆ Singapore bank OCBC's Q1 net profit jumps 39% to record $1.42 bln
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

SINGAPORE, May 10 (Reuters) - Singapore's second biggest lender Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) (OCBC.SI) on Wednesday reported a 39% jump in its first-quarter net profit from a year earlier on the back of strong net interest income growth. OCBC, which is also Southeast Asia's second biggest bank by assets, said January-March net profit jumped to a record S$1.88 billion ($1.42 billion) from S$1.36 billion a year earlier. That beat the mean estimate of S$1.74 billion from five analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. ($1 = 1.3245 Singapore dollars)Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui; Editing by Tom HogueOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

May 8 (Reuters) - Australia's Westpac Banking Corp (WBC.AX) on Monday threw out a cost-cutting target citing inflation and flagged thinner profit margins going ahead, but investors pushed its shares higher after it handily beat expectations for first-half profit. Westpac shares closed 2% higher, ahead of a broader market advance (.AXJO) of 0.8%, as the market cheered the better-than-expected profit. Costs for Westpac came to A$5 billion for the half, down from A$5.2 billion a year earlier. Westpac declared an interim dividend of 70 Australian cents per share, up from 61 Australian cents last year. ($1 = 1.4810 Australian dollars)Reporting by Roushni Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

May 5 (Reuters) - The Monetary Authority of Singapore on Friday imposed additional capital requirement on DBS Bank, the banking arm of the country's largest lender DBS Group (DBSM.SI), following the disruption of its banking services in recent months. "Together with the additional capital requirement imposed on DBS in February 2022, this translates to approximately S$1.6 billion ($1.21 billion) in total additional regulatory capital," MAS added. The additional capital requirement for DBS is now a multiple of 1.8 times to its risk weighted assets for operational risk, an increase from the multiple of 1.5 times MAS applied in February 2022 following the November 2021 disruption, according to MAS. MAS has now required a comprehensive review it directed DBS to conduct in March to cover the May incident, MAS said. "The additional capital requirement imposed at this time underscores the seriousness with which MAS treats this matter," she said.

☆ Italians judge Spanish pizzeria as the best in Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Julia Buckley | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Enter 50 Top Pizza, an international guide run by Italians that produces a series of annual rankings rewarding some of the best pizzerias on the planet. The 2023 European list has just been published – and, according to 1,000 anonymous “inspectors” across the continent, the best pizza in Europe is in… Spain. The entity – a pizza guide, which has been ranking restaurants since 2017 – has separate listings for the 50 best pizzerias in the cradle of pizza. The best pizza was judged to be Panatieri's "Salsa de tomates cherry asados, mozzarella y holandesa de albahaca." Today this is not the case.”As for the Italy rankings, they will be revealed in Rome on July 12.

☆ It’s time HSBC’s top owner calms down or sells up
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Una Galani | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Sticking around as a noisy unhappy owner with an 8% stake, though, risks hurting itself, HSBC and maybe even Hong Kong. A vote on Friday at HSBC’s annual meeting will test whether Ping An has garnered much support for its stance. A second resolution from the group wants the pre-Covid dividend reinstated and paid at not less than that level each year. Chances are both resolutions will pick up some votes, the latter especially from retail shareholders who globally between them own about one-third of the bank. If any large institutional investment houses join the Chinese group, it will be a blow to HSBC boss Noel Quinn.

HSBC posted a pretax profit of $12.9 billion for the quarter ended March, versus $4.2 billion a year earlier. HSBC said the planned $10 billion sale, originally slated to be completed by the end of this year, will now only likely go through in the first quarter of 2024. HSBC reported deposits fell 0.6% to $1.6 trillion, excluding those it acquired by bailing out the UK arm of failed U.S. lender Silicon Valley Bank and the reclassification of French retail deposits. Despite the surging profit, HSBC did not raise its key performance target of a return on tangible equity of at least 12% from this year onwards, which analysts were anticipating. Reporting by Selena Li ing Kong Kong and Lawrence White in London; Editing by Muralikumar AnantharamanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

HSBC CEO Noel Quinn said the results showed its strengths in a rising rate environment, and played down the risks of further contagion for the banking sector. HSBC posted a pretax profit of $12.9 billion for the quarter ended March, versus $4.2 billion a year earlier. The profit was much higher than the $8.64 billion average estimate of 17 analysts compiled by the bank. Despite the surging profit, HSBC did not raise its key performance target of reaching a return on tangible equity of at least 12% from this year onwards, while analysts were estimating the key metric would be lifted. Reporting by Selena Li ing Kong Kong and Lawrence White in London; Editing by Muralikumar AnantharamanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ DBS' safe profit haven nears its peak
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HONG KONG, May 2 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Top Singapore-based bank DBS (DBSM.SI) on Tuesday released first-quarter numbers that will make rivals envious. Expenses fell, meaning the bank used just 38% of its revenue to cover costs compared to 59% at JPMorgan (JPM.N). Net interest income already fell 1% last quarter from December. Meanwhile, as much as DBS still touts its status as a safe haven for those – especially rich Chinese people – who want to shield their money from trouble elsewhere, that advantage is also dimming. Absent other such calamities or Gupta being wrong about interest rates, this might be as good as it gets for DBS for now.

DBS, which is also Southeast Asia's largest lender by assets, said January-March net profit rose to S$2.57 billion ($1.92 billion) from S$1.8 billion a year ago, beating a mean estimate of S$2.44 billion from five analysts polled by Refinitiv. Return on equity rose to a new high of 18.6% in the first quarter from 13.1% the same quarter a year earlier, according to its financial statement. Smaller peer United Overseas Bank (UOBH.SI) reported on Thursday a 74% surge in core net profit in the first quarter from a year earlier on the back of strong net interest and non- interest income growth. DBS, which earns most of its profit from Singapore and Hong Kong, declared a dividend of 42 Singapore cents per share for the first quarter. ($1 = 1.3362 Singapore dollars)Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui; Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Belgium's Brecel holds off Selby to win world title
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

May 1 (Reuters) - Belgium's Luca Brecel became the first player from mainland Europe to win the snooker world title as he completed a fairytale fortnight by resisting a Mark Selby fightback to triumph 18-15 at The Crucible on Sunday. Brecel enjoyed a 9-8 overnight lead after Saturday's two sessions, but won the opening four frames on Sunday with three centuries to seize command. Selby looked on a roll but fearless Brecel would not be denied the title which lifts him second in the world rankings. After that win he said he had celebrated beating another former champion, Mark Williams, in the previous round by getting as 'drunk as hell'. While Brecel celebrated becoming Belgium's latest and most unlikely sporting hero, Selby, 39, had the consolation of making the first 147 break ever in the final of the world championship, his maximum coming during a storming fightback on Saturday.

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