DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ China developers' debt risks persist after support policies' slow start
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Clare Jim | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The next few months could therefore find more developers starting to miss offshore debt obligations, while many developers that have already defaulted will continue struggling to pin down a restructuring plan for viable long-term repayments. This year, Chinese developers' maturing offshore debt will total $141 billion, up from $120.7 billion in 2022, Refinitiv data showed. Since November, it has completed two rounds of share placements in Hong Kong, raising HK$8.6 billion ($1.10 billion). An executive at a developer that has defaulted on offshore debt said the company would speed up its debt restructuring process this year as onshore banks have offered to extend new loans once a revamp is complete. ($1 = 7.8194 Hong Kong dollars, 6.7810 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Edmund KlamannOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

"2022 saw a material deterioration in global investment banking fee pools and, as a result, we have had to reduce headcount in certain areas," the statement said. The layoffs involve staff across multiple divisions within Nomura's investment banking function, after a year of muted dealmaking activity in the region, one of the two sources said. In each of the bank's business divisions for equities capital markets, debt capital markets, corporate finance and Southeast Asia coverage, two to three workers were made redundant, according to the two sources. Goldman Sachs (GS.N) last week sacked more than 3,000 people in its global workforce, with the investment banking and global markets division the hardest hit. Pretax income for its wholesale division, which houses its trading and investment banking businesses, slid 19% year-on-year in the three months ending in September.

[1/2] The app logo of Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi is seen reflected on its navigation map displayed on a mobile phone in this illustration picture taken July 1, 2021. Didi has been awaiting authorities' approval to resume new user registrations and downloads of its 25 banned apps in China as a key step to resume normal business since its regulatory troubles started in mid-2021. A lifting of the ban on Didi apps would come as Chinese policymakers seek to restore private sector confidence and count on the technology industry to help spur economic activity that has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. The delay in the return of the apps had cast a shadow over Didi's business plans. That deal is primarily subject to the apps' resumption for official announcement, said the two sources.

☆ India's NDTV says president, other senior execs resign
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NDTV's chief strategy officer, Arijit Chatterjee, and chief technology and product officer, Kawaljit Singh Bedi, also quit, resignations that come after founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy left the company's board in December. NDTV made several failed attempts to block the takeover, citing regulatory restrictions on moving shares. The ports-to-energy conglomerate's takeover had stoked fears over the freedom of the press among some journalists and led to Ravish Kumar, a senior executive editor at NDTV, resigning soon after Adani acquired its stake. While announcing the latest set of resignations, NDTV, in a regulatory filing, said, "The company is in the process of putting up a new leadership team which will set a fresh strategic direction and goals for the company." (This story has been refiled to correct the typographical error in the fourth paragraph)Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'SouzaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Chinese billionaire Jack Ma to relinquish control of Ant Group
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HONG KONG, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Ant Group's founder Jack Ma will no longer control the Chinese fintech giant after the firm's shareholders agreed to implement a series of adjustments that will see him give up most of his voting rights, the group said on Saturday. This trend will continue the erosion of the most productive parts of the Chinese economy. DUNCAN CLARK, CHAIRMAN OF INVESTMENT ADVISORY FIRM BDA, BEIJING:"Yes, it's obviously significant if he is no longer the controlling shareholder. This in theory should pave the way for an IPO assuming the other key issue - oversight/ownership of data - is also resolved. At least Ant investors can (now) have some timetable for an exit after a long period of uncertainty."

HONG KONG/BEIJING, Jan 6 (Reuters) - China is in talks with Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) to secure a licence that will allow domestic drugmakers to manufacture and distribute a generic version of the U.S. firm's COVID-19 antiviral drug Paxlovid in China, three sources told Reuters. In February last year, China approved Paxlovid, which was supposed to be largely available via hospitals, to treat high-risk patients in several provinces. Pfizer last month reached an agreement to export Paxlovid to China through a local company to make the medicine more widely available. A Pfizer spokesperson said the company is actively collaborating with Chinese authorities and all stakeholders to secure an adequate supply of Paxlovid in China. That licence does not allow the companies to sell generic Paxlovid in China.

Property investment in November fell the fastest since the statistics bureau began compiling data in 2000, down 19.9% on year. "Although property sales and starts will likely be slightly weaker than in 2022, property will be much less of a drag on the economy than in 2022." Reuters GraphicsHOUSING DEMANDShares in embattled Chinese property developers have gained 86% since the trough in October, buoyed by a string of property easing measures and the COVID policy u-turn. "We may be close to see some bottoming out in housing demand …but I don't think we're quite there yet," he said. The latest China Beige Book private economic survey was more blunt: "But forget a return to days of old: it will take considerable policy support in 2023 just to pull property out of the gutter."

☆ Heavy discounts drive record U.S. online holiday spending, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Jan 5 (Reuters) - U.S. online spending during the 2022 holiday season rose by a better-than-expected 3.5%, a report by Adobe Analytics showed, as retailers used hefty discounts to lure inflation-weary consumers into spending on everything from toys to electronics. Shoppers spent a record $211.7 billion online over the holiday season, which typically starts in November and ends in December, compared with an earlier forecast of $209.7 billion, the report showed on Thursday. While U.S. online holiday sales rose, it grew at the slowest pace as consumers felt the brunt of rising prices. Majority of the discounts were for toys, where discounts peaked at 34% off listed price versus 19% last year, as well as electronics that saw discounts as high as 25% compared with 8% last year, according to the report. A big chunk of the holiday sales came during the Cyber Week - the five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday - where consumers spent a total of $35.3 billion online, the report said.

☆ These 5 stocks started trading in 2022, and analysts expect strong gains from them in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Fred Imbert | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Virtually every corner of the stock market had a horrible 2022, including initial public offerings. The Renaissance IPO ETF (IPO) , which tracks the performance of newly-public companies, plunged 57% in 2022, notching its biggest one-year decline on record. Total proceeds from new companies going public dropped more than $7 billion in 2022, reaching their lowest level since at least 2013, Renaissance data showed. Despite a sluggish year for IPOs, analysts see big gains ahead for some stocks that started trading in 2022. CNBC Pro combed through the 2022 IPOs for companies covered by at least seven analysts, with the average price target implying upside of at least 15%.

Experts say the elderly in rural areas may be particularly vulnerable because of their vaccine hesitancy and inadequate medical resources. Most patients have the same symptoms suggesting a COVID infection, and most are elderly, she said. "Many elderly people have underlying diseases such as chronic bronchitis and this virus can easily lead to a lung infection." Paxlovid, the Pfizer-made COVID medicine, is in particularly high demand, with many Chinese attempting to get the drug abroad and have it shipped to China. In Lezhi county, Liao, a farmer with two children whose husband is working in a faraway province, bought an oxygen concentrator online to help with her mother's breathing.

Li's predicament underscores challenges for China's economically crucial services sector as it bets on a post-COVID revival. With the virus spreading unchecked across the country now, representatives from the services sector say frequent lockdowns have left them without money to expand. "There is still a shortage of labour in the services sector in the big cities, and the loss of productivity is quite obvious," said Dan Wang, chief economist at Hang Seng Bank China. CONSUMPTION REVIVALRetail sales, a key gauge of consumption, dropped 5.9% in November from a year earlier, and catering fell by 8.4% amid broad-based weakness in the services sector. Some in the service sector say there remains some hope.

☆ 'It's a lot more of headline risks than anything else': Analyst maintains bullish outlook on Apple
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Sheila Chiang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

In this article AAPL Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTAn Apple store on Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street in Shanghai, China, on December 16, 2022. The outbreak could potentially cause worker shortages at component plants or assembly factories across the country. For the last two months, Apple has already been grappling with production shortages. In November, iPhone 14 production was hit by Covid-19 restrictions and labor protests at its primary iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max assembly plant in Zhengzhou, China. Despite shortages, many analysts predicted that Apple customers will continue to be loyal to the brand's products.

"For whole of Beijing, speedy arrangement of hearses, no queue for cremation," the worker said in a plug for service on the popular short video app Douyin. The fee being charged exceeds all-in-one funeral service packages advertised in the city. China, which uses a narrow definition for classifying COVID fatalities, reported no new COVID deaths for Dec. 20, compared with five the previous day. Authorities clarified on Tuesday that only deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure after contracting COVID will be classified as COVID deaths. The Beijing municipal government and National Health Commission did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the apparent rise in deaths in Beijing.

☆ Analysis: India's post-COVID spending boom drives two-speed economy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Ira Dugal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The world's fifth-largest economy is expected grow 6% in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024, according to a survey by the Indian central bank this month. Importantly, conditions are better than not just the crippling slump during India's devastating COVID surge last year but also the anemic growth of the debt-saddled last decade. "If India does everything right, we could see significant foreign inflows in the next one to two years," said Sridhar Sivaram, investment director at Enam Holdings, a privately managed investment group. India's weight in the MSCI emerging market index has already risen from 8% in 2019 to 16% as of October 2022, said Sivaram. There is also hope that global corporations will diversify supply chains away from China, which would benefit India.

☆ JPMorgan cuts Christmas iPhone expectations again, lowers Apple price target
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

JPMorgan cut its iPhone shipment forecast for the December quarter once again as Apple faces the fallout from the temporary shutdown at one of its largest assembly plants. Analyst Samik Chatterjee trimmed the bank's shipment estimates to 70 million from 74 million and cut the bank's price target on the stock to $190 a share, citing supply chain challenges resulting from the plant closure. The cut accounts for a downdraft of both 2 million iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max units. The bank previously cut estimates for the December period by 8 million, accounting for 5 million fewer Pro and 3 million other iPhone shipments. His forecast now expects 235 million iPhone shipments for the full year, down from a previous 237 million estimates, and representing a 5% decline year over year.

Underlining the bleak return prospects at home, hedge funds with Greater China strategies have lost 12.9% for the year to end-November - on track for their worst year since 2011, according to Eurekahedge data. Rich Chinese are also fretting about Xi Jinping's "common prosperity" drive to reduce income inequality, asset managers said, adding that they are looking at overseas private equity and property investment opportunities in countries like the United States and Japan. Although investing outside of mainland China is not a new development, a significant chunk of that wealth has usually been invested in Chinese assets such as Chinese securities listed in the offshore markets. The Boston-based asset manager has been receiving many queries from Greater China family offices to learn about U.S. economic policies and investment rules, he said. The U.S. consulate told Reuters that it frequently explains investment and economic trends in the United States to a wide variety of audiences.

Bonus payout discussions are currently underway at Morgan Stanley globally, they said. Morgan Stanley, which does not disclose details of bonus payouts, declined to comment. Wall Street investment bankers can expect much smaller bonuses this year as the economy slows, according to projections published last month by Johnson Associates Inc, a compensation consultant in New York. This year's bonus discussions are taking place after Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said earlier this month that the bank was making "modest job cuts" worldwide. Morgan Stanley reported a 30% slump in third-quarter profit in October, missing analysts' estimate as a slowdown in global dealmaking hurt its investment banking business.

CONTAGION RISKTrust firms were dubbed "shadow banks" because of how they operated outside many of the rules that govern commercial banks. Zhongrong International Trust has been working with local governments, including Qingdao provincial authorities, to source early stage deals in intelligent manufacturing, an executive there said. CCB Trust, Zhongrong International Trust and Avic Trust did not respond to requests for comment. Ping An Trust, Zhongrong International Trust, Everbright Xinglong Trust and Minmetals International Trust have all bought project companies from struggling developers in the last few months, corporate records and company announcements showed. Ping An Trust, Zhongrong International Trust, Everbright Xinglong Trust and Minmetals International Trust did not respond to requests for comment.

HONG KONG/BEIJING, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Chinese regulators and state-owned banks are taking steps to split staff at their workplaces in Beijing, sources told Reuters, as businesses brace for a possible spike in COVID cases after China relaxed virus restrictions in a major policy shift. Other staff are required to work from home, they added. Among China's big four state-owned banks, Bank of China (BOC) (601988.SS) has released a notice to staff that it would split its Beijing workforce into three groups, working in the office on alternate weeks, said a person with direct knowledge. But the bank has yet to decide when to start such rotations, the person added. Other large state banks have also made similar arrangements - splitting up staff into rotating shifts while maintaining a maximum of 10%-20% of staff occupancy in their headquarters in Beijing, said two other people with knowledge of the matter.

Some economists have lowered growth forecasts for early next year for the world's second-largest economy, continuing the grim growth numbers this year that were among the worst of the past half-century. "Compared with other developed countries, medical resources in China are somewhat insufficient," said Nie Wen, a Shanghai-based economist at Hwabao Trust, who has cut his China growth forecast for the first quarter to 3.5%-4% from 5% previously. INFLATION SURGEWith China likely facing waves of COVID infections after the relaxations, the benefits of reopening are expected to arrive with a significant delay. "Given the accelerated reopening timeline, we believe growth may stay subpar near term," Morgan Stanley said after the announcement of the latest easing measures. Lurking among the prospects for China's reopening, however, is a potential surge in inflation, which could hit the global economy as well as China itself.

☆ Reaction to China relaxing COVID restrictions in major policy shift
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

REDMOND WONG, GREATER CHINA MARKET STRATEGIST, SAXO MARKETS, HONG KONG"The 10 new measures are underwhelming, given the high expectations. GARY NG, ECONOMIST, NATIXIS, HONG KONG"The latest announcements show China is determined to speed up its reopening due to economic pressure. It is likely to see upswings cyclically in business sentiment from suppressed demand, especially in sectors heavily affected by the covid restrictions. "The next checkpoint will be Chinese New Year; I think markets are looking for further relaxation to facilitate return to their hometowns by Chinese New Year." SAKTIANDI SUPAAT, REGIONAL HEAD OF FX RESEARCH & STRATEGY, MAYBANK, SINGAPORE"I think markets have, in some ways, priced in that element (of further easing).

☆ Australia's Big Four banks pass c.bank rate hike to home loan customers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 6 (Reuters) - All of Australia's "big four" banks said on Tuesday they will raise their home loan rates by a quarter-point, passing on the central bank's eighth rate hike in as many months to their customers in full. Earlier on Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia lifted its cash rate by 25 basis points to a 10-year high of 3.1%, and reiterated that further policy tightening would be needed to contain inflation. The top four lenders, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA.AX), National Australia Bank (NAB.AX) and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group's (ANZ.AX) will hike their rates from the end of next week, while Westpac Banking Corp's (WBC.AX) hike will be effective December 20, the banks said in separate statements. However, heightened borrowing costs could impact credit demand, housing market, employment and economic growth, posing as challenges to the lenders. Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee and Echha Jain in Bengaluru Editing by Vinay Dwivedi and Nivedita BhattacharjeeOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ IPO market nearly paused, but exchange leaders expect 2023 boost
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( John Mccrank | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/3] Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., November 15, 2022. Proceeds raised by IPOs this year are down around 93% versus 2021, said Lynn Martin, president of Intercontinental Exchange Inc's (ICE.N) New York Stock Exchange. "The reason companies aren't coming to market isn't because the public market currency isn't strong," she said in an interview on Wednesday. Increased scrutiny over the accounting practices of Chinese companies listing in the United States has been another factor in the slowdown in IPOs. "I am quite confident that the IPO market activity will return very quickly in the new year," she said.

☆ After FTX collapse, pressure builds for tougher crypto rules
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX was the biggest in string of big crypto-related failures this year. Some crypto investors share these concerns. "Regulators could have posted a lot more guidance for crypto," said Brian Fakhoury at crypto venture capital fund Mechanism Capital. India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the collapse of FTX underscored the need for greater visibility on often-anonymous crypto transactions. The FTX collapse "shows the importance of a well-framed regulation," Sitharaman said, "so that countries can be clearly aware of by whom, for what for these transactions are happening.

Search resuls for: "Chatterjee"

25 mentions found