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☆ China Renaissance Seeks to Assure Clients After CEO’s Disappearance
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Rebecca Feng | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

China Renaissance Holdings Ltd. on Friday asked its employees to reassure clients and quash speculation after the disappearance of Fan Bao—a prominent banker who has been synonymous with the Chinese investment bank. Mr. Bao, a Wall Street veteran who co-founded China Renaissance in 2005, built the firm into a powerhouse in China’s technology sector, handling mergers and acquisitions, private placements and public listings of many companies. The firm said on Thursday that Mr. Bao, who is its chairman and chief executive, has been unreachable, and that it didn’t know of any business reason why.

☆ Lack of Crypto Audit Regulation Raises Questions About PCAOB Authority
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Mark Maurer | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Additionally, there isn’t a regulatory framework for audits for many crypto companies. The SEC, which oversees the PCAOB, is reviewing how crypto companies portray reports from audit firms in the aftermath of the FTX collapse. The PCAOB—which sets audit standards, inspects audits and disciplines audit firms—has said it can only oversee audits of public companies and SEC-registered broker-dealers. In a letter last month to PCAOB Chair Erica Williams, they said the watchdog ignored what they called questionable practices by auditors of crypto companies. Even potential improvements to crypto audit regulation might not prevent fraud in the crypto industry, said Andrew Kitto, an assistant professor of accounting at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a former PCAOB economic research fellow.

SYDNEY, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Shares of boutique investment bank China Renaissance Holdings Ltd (1911.HK) fell by as much as 50% on Friday after the firm said it had been unable to contact Chairman and Chief Executive Bao Fan. China Renaissance shares slid by 50% in early trade to hit a record low of HK$5 each. He started China Renaissance in 2005 and the exchange filing showed he is its controlling shareholder. China Renaissance was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2018 after it raised $346 million. China Renaissance is also an active investor in the tech sector.

☆ VR firm Pico, owned by Chinese TikTok maker ByteDance, announces 'small' layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Josh Ye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

HONG KONG, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Pico, a virtual reality (VR) headset manufacturer owned by TikTok's Chinese developer ByteDance, said on Friday it was laying off a small number of people, after local media reported the start of hundreds of redundancies earlier this week. The South China Morning Post reported unidentified sources on Thursday as saying Pico had trimmed some teams by as much as 30%. "We greatly appreciate these colleagues' contributions and are working closely with those impacted to support them through this time of change." The layoffs mark the latest streamlining for ByteDance, which like many tech peers in China has cut jobs since last year and undergone restructuring as economic growth slows. On Thursday, Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) said it was making some personnel adjustments after local media reported the Chinese gaming and social media major was laying off staff in its recently formed "extended reality" (XR) business.

☆ Well-Known Chinese Financier Is Unreachable, His Firm Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( James T. Areddy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Fan Bao raised his profile speaking at international financial conferences such as a Wall Street Journal technology gathering in Laguna Beach, Calif., in 2016. A high-profile Chinese fund manager and investment banker, Fan Bao, is unreachable, according to the financial firm he controls and leads as chairman, China Renaissance Holdings Ltd.China Renaissance shed no light on Mr. Bao’s situation, saying only that it has been unable to contact him.

☆ Buffett-backed Nubank's quarterly profit surges amid robust customer demand
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nubank added 4.2 million customers in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, and 20.7 million in 2022, closing the year with a total of 74.6 million customers globally. Monthly average revenue per active customer (ARPAC) increased to $8.2, expanding 37% over the prior year on an FX neutral basis. The digital lender's gross profit surged 137% to $578.3 million in the fourth quarter. Nubank's total revenue for the fourth quarter was $1.45 billion and a record $4.8 billion for the full year. On an adjusted basis, the bank reported net income of $133 million in the quarter ended Dec. 31.

☆ American Cloud Companies Face Challenge From China in Southeast Asia
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Raffaele Huang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

China’s Alibaba Cloud has pledged a new investment of $1 billion to support its global partners in the coming three years. SINGAPORE—U.S. cloud-computing companies, dominant globally, are facing intensifying competition from upstart Chinese rivals in Southeast Asia, offering a head-to-head look at how the two geopolitical rivals’ corporate champions stack up in a key technology. China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Huawei Technologies Co. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. are planning to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Southeast Asia in the coming years.

☆ Amazon, Microsoft, Google Pressured by Chinese Cloud Rivals in Southeast Asia
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Raffaele Huang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Cantor Fitzgerald Helps Oversee Tether’s $39 Billion in Treasury Holdings
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Peter Rudegeair | Ben Foldy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Billions of dollars in Treasurys that back the world’s most traded cryptocurrency are being run on Wall Street. Tether Holdings Ltd., the secretive Hong Kong-based owner of stablecoin tether, is using Cantor Fitzgerald to help oversee its $39 billion bond portfolio, according to people familiar with the matter. Details of how Tether managed those assets haven’t been widely known.

☆ Wall Street Firm Oversees Billions of Dollars Backing Tether
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Peter Rudegeair | Ben Foldy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Michael Kors owner Capri cuts forecasts as demand slows, shares plunge 24%
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Uday Sampath Kumar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 8(Reuters) - Michael Kors owner Capri Holdings Ltd (CPRI.N) on Wednesday cut its annual profit forecast and provided a dour outlook for 2024, blaming a slowdown in demand from department stores for its luxury handbags and apparel and sending its shares tumbling 24%. Capri said third-quarter sales fell 6%, driven by a 20% fall in revenue from its wholesale channel, which includes department stores and other retailers. Revenue for Michael Kors, Capri's biggest brand, fell 4.5% to $777 million in the Americas during the third quarter. Capri, which also owns Jimmy Choo and Versace, cut its annual sales forecast to $5.56 billion, from $5.70 billion. Analysts expect earnings per share of $7.24 on revenue of $6.03 billion.

☆ The AI craze has sent some stocks soaring up to 300%. This list of over 74 stocks across 5 categories features the top picks from the sector's leading fund managers.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

These 74 stocks are picked by AI ETF managers. What she believes is unique about her fund is its heavy focus on quantum computing technology, making up 41.22% of the fund. While big data is used for different technologies, it enables AI to work with massive data sets in its machine-learning process. TipRanks, a financial technology website that uses AI to analyze financial data, created a stock list for what they deem are the best AI stocks based on popularity. TipRanks' list of nine of the best AI stocks have large market caps and are likely to remain relevant for a long time.

☆ Crypto Brands Reposition Themselves in Wake of FTX and Market Tumble
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Patrick Coffee | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Roughly one year ago, a handful of crypto heavyweights made swaggering debuts on the Super Bowl ad roster, airing costly commercials with messages like “Don’t miss out” (FTX) and “Fortune favors the brave” (Crypto.com). Then came the swoon in crypto and the bankruptcy of FTX. Recently, trading firm OKX scuttled its plans to buy an ad in Super Bowl LVII when FTX began to dominate the news cycle. Coinbase aims to convey its confidence in crypto “while maintaining our position as the most trusted brand in the space,” Chief Marketing Officer Kate Rouch said. “I think that, especially after the FTX collapse, there has been a real need for that across the entire crypto space,” he said.

Tether Holdings Ltd. operates a $68 billion stablecoin at the heart of crypto’s alternative financial universe. Far more tether trades each day than bitcoin. Yet the company’s founders and owners are an unusual bunch with scant experience at that scale of finance. One founder was a child actor turned early crypto investor. Another founder and top shareholder practiced plastic surgery before turning to electronics importing and then crypto.

☆ Adani’s battle with Hindenburg leaves investors sizing up exposure to the global banking sector
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Seema Mody | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Indeed, Indian banks make up 0.6% of the group's sector loans, according to JPMorgan. This may seem low but the total exposure to the Adani Group is still around $9 billion, wrote Saurabh Kumar, an analyst at JPMorgan. Gautam Adani, chairman of Adani Group. Jefferies analyst Prakhar Sharma writes that, for now, the risk to Indian banks is low, saying, "we don't see material risk to the Indian banking sector." Of the seven companies operated by the Adani Group: Adani Green Energy, Adani Power and Adani Ports are sitting on the most net debt, according to analysts.

☆ U.K. Gambling Company Fined $7.6 Million Over Alleged Money-Laundering Control Issues
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Richard Vanderford | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +2 min

U.K. online gambling company Intouch Games Ltd. has been fined the equivalent of $7.6 million after a regulator cited a series of failures in its program to prevent money laundering. The U.K.’s Gambling Commission on Wednesday announced the £6.1 million penalty for Intouch, the third action the regulator has taken against the company since 2019. The Gambling Commission has been among the more active enforcement bodies in its approach to the growing online gambling sector, taking action against companies when it has found problems with controls intended to prevent illicit money flows. Birmingham, England-based Intouch, which operates 11 gambling websites, was acquired in June by Skywind Holdings Ltd., a provider of online gambling software. Intouch in 2019 entered a £2.2 million settlement with the Gambling Commission.

☆ Suntory CEO expects next BOJ governor to show clear policy roadmap
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The BOJ stuck to its ultra-easy policy at a two-day policy meeting that ended on Jan. 16, defying investors who had bet on it ceasing to defend a cap on the 10-year government bond yield. The cap is part of a policy called yield curve control (YCC). But Niinami said expectations were growing that the BOJ would sooner or later end its expansionist experiment. "The ultra-easy policy can't be kept forever, given current (economic) conditions. Niinami also said economic growth led by the private sector would be needed to help prevent Japan's financial health worsening further.

☆ Capri names insider Cedric Wilmotte as CEO of Michael Kors
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Jan 23 (Reuters) - U.S. luxury group Capri Holdings Ltd (CPRI.N) on Monday named company veteran Cedric Wilmotte as the chief executive officer of its Michael Kors brand. Wilmotte, 48, who will take charge from April 3, recently served as the interim CEO of the group's Versace brand and is currently the label's chief operating officer. He previously led Michael Kors' EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) business from 2008 to 2021. In March, Capri said the head of its Michael Kors brand, Joshua Schulman, who was set to become the group's top boss later in the year, would exit. Schulman was named Michael Kors' chief executive in August 2021.

☆ China approves 88 games in January, including titles by Tencent and NetEase
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Josh Ye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING, Jan 17 (Reuters) - China's video games regulator on Tuesday granted publishing licences to 88 online games, including titles belonging to Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK), NetEase Inc (9999.HK) and miHoYo. Shenzhen-based Tencent, the world's largest gaming company, received at least one game licence for a mobile game named "Yuanmengzhixing", the list published by the National Press and Public Administration showed. NetEase, China’s second largest gaming company, also received a licence for a shooting game named "Chaofanxianfeng". miHoYo, the famed developer behind Genshin Impact, secured one licence for a game named Honkai: Star Rail. Unlike in most other countries, video games need approval from regulators before release in China, the world's largest gaming market.

☆ Analysis: Tencent bets big on WeChat Channels in push to build its own TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Josh Ye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

"Tencent hopes it can turn Channels into the next WeChat Pay. Two sources familiar with Tencent said the importance of Channels has been repeatedly communicated within the company. In November, Tencent President Martin Lau said Channels' advertising revenue was on track to reach 1 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of 2022. "For example, in Douyin or Kuaishou, you won't be able to ask your viewers to add you on WeChat. But on Channels, you can quickly add somebody on WeChat," Yang said.

China, the world's top oil importer, has continued buying Russian oil despite Western sanctions, after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping launched what they called a no-limit partnership before the war in Ukraine. The sources said a fifth supertanker, or very large crude carrier (VLCC), was shipping crude to India, which like China has continued buying Russian oil sold at a discount as many Western buyers turn to other suppliers. All five shipments were scheduled between Dec. 22 and Jan. 23, according to the sources and Eikon ship tracking data. The G7 price cap introduced in December allows countries outside the European Union to import seaborne Russian oil but it prohibits shipping, insurance and re-insurance companies from handling Russian crude cargoes unless sold for below the $60 cap. Industry sources say Indian refiners are securing a discount of $15-$20 per barrel on Russian oil on a delivered basis compared to Brent.

☆ China moving to take 'golden shares' in Alibaba, Tencent units - FT
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] The logo of Tencent is seen at Tencent office in Shanghai, China December 13, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song/File PhotoJan 13 (Reuters) - China is moving to take minority stakes with special rights in the local units of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK) and Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK), the Financial Times reported on Friday. Seeking influence, Beijing began taking these stakes, called "golden shares," in private online media companies - usually about 1% of a firm - more than five years ago. These golden stakes are bought by government-backed funds or companies which gain a board seat and/or veto rights for key business decisions. However, the specifics of the government's plan to take golden shares in Tencent remain under discussion, but they will involve a stake in one of the group's main China operating subsidiaries, the report added.

The holiday, known before the pandemic as the world's largest annual migration of people, comes amid an escalating diplomatic spat over COVID curbs that saw Beijing introduce transit curbs for South Korean and Japanese nationals on Wednesday. The virus is spreading unchecked in China after Beijing abruptly began dismantling its previously tight curbs in early December following historic protests. Among them, South Korea and Japan have also limited flights and require tests on arrival, with passengers showing up as positive being sent to quarantine. COUNTING DEATHSSome of the governments that announced curbs on travellers from China cited concerns over Beijing's data transparency. Annual spending by Chinese tourists abroad reached $250 billion before the pandemic, with South Korea and Japan among the top shopping destinations.

☆ New Jersey, Ohio join other states in banning TikTok from state devices
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - New Jersey and Ohio said on Monday they were joining other states in banning use of the popular video app TikTok on government-owned and managed devices. Murphy's office said "there have been national security concerns about user data the Chinese government might require ByteDance to provide." On Friday, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said he planned to join other states in banning use of the popular video app that has more than 100 million U.S. users. Republican governors have led the charge to ban TikTok from state devices and some Democratic governors have been slower to do so. Calls to ban TikTok from government devices gained steam after U.S. FBI Director Christopher Wray said in November it poses national security risks.

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