Author: Business News Asia

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s 180-day post-IPO lockup expires March 18, following its record-setting IPO last September, allowing about 437 million shares or roughly 18% of the company to be sold publicly. The Chinese e-commerce giant, however, said that of that total, about 100 million shares will remain subject to trading restrictions that apply to employees, until after the company announces quarterly results in May. The number of shares that will be freed is more than the number sold during Alibaba’s IPO, which was 368 million. Analyst said the lockup expiration on March 18 could significantly exert selling pressure on Alibaba’s…

Google Inc. said it plans to search for a new chief financial officer (CFO) within six moths after announcing that current CFO Patrick Pichette is retiring. The 51-year-old Pichette, who joined Google in 2008, will remain in the company through the transition period following his intention to retire on March 4. Pichette said that he has decided to step down to travel and spend more time with his personal life and family after working for 25 to 30 years. The CFO, however, said he will only leave Google when the company has found a new CFO and stressed that the…

A report released by Goldman Sachs about the future of money showed that despite tight government restrictions, the amount of bitcoin trading activity in China has risen. The report also underscored the fact that the Chinese yuan is now the highest trading currency for the bitcoin, with 80% of bitcoin volume exchanged into and out of yuan, followed by the US and smaller denominations in yen and euros. The popularity of bitcoin trading in China, however, seems to defy logic considering that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank, banned bitcoin transactions at banks, retailers and payment…

For the second year running, Singapore continues to be the most expensive city in the world, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said. Singapore leads the list comprised of 133 cities worldwide in the bi-annual survey conducted by EIU. The survey uses New York as a base. According to the survey result, compared to New York, Singapore’s basic groceries are more expensive by 11% while its clothes are more expensive by over 50%. Singapore’s transport is also more expensive than New York by three times. Trailing Singapore in this year’s list of most expensive cities are, in descending order, Paris, Oslo,…

Hong Kong Airlines will have to start the costly IPO application process again after its much-anticipated IPO has lapsed, the Hong Kong stock exchange website shows. The application process for Hong Kong Airlines’ IPO was supposed to be completed by the end of last year but the company failed to submit relevant listing documents. The airline was hoping to raise USD500m in what would have been Hong Kong’s first dual-currency IPO but it will have to start over again. Reapplying is a costly process and would mean that Hong Kong Airlines’ IPO will be further delayed. Read Also: Singapore Airlines,…

Former National Basketball Association (NBA) superstar Michael Jordan has joined Forbes magazine’s annual list of the world’s richest people for the first time with his USD1bn net worth. Jordan ranked 1,741st in the latest list, which is still dominated for the 16th year by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Gates’ net worth rose to USD79.2bn from USD76bn a year earlier, Forbes said. Trailing Gates were Mexico telecoms mogul Carlos Slim Helu, which ranked second with a net worth of USD77.1bn, and Berkshire Hathaway Inc chief Warren Buffett at third place with his USD72.7bn fortune. The latest list counted a record 1,826…

Despite North Korea’s claim that it had nothing to do with the vicious hacking of Sony Pictures, the US government maintained its stand that the reclusive nation was behind the attack. The Obama administration on Saturday announced economic sanctions against 10 officials of North Korea who allegedly are behind most of North Korea’s major cyberoperations. US President Barack Obama signed an executive order in Hawaii, imposing economic sanctions against the North Korean officials. However, US officials said they could not establish direct involvement of the 10 North Korean officials in the hacking of Sony Pictures, which resulted to the destruction…

Foreign investment funds, foreigners with valid visas, international firms with Vietnam operations and overseas Vietnamese will soon be able to buy residential properties in Vietnam. This after the Vietnamese government eased restrictions on foreign ownership of property in order to revive the country’s property market. The changes in the law on foreign property ownership will take effect in July 2015. Reuters reported that the amended law, however, limits foreign ownership to 30% of an apartment building and a maximum of 250 homes in one city neighborhood ward. Vietnam’s property market has been saddled with oversupply since the real estate bubble…

China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) on Sunday announced draft rules for a long-awaited insurance scheme for bank deposits, in order to protect savers’ money as banks become more liberalized. When it goes into effect as early as January, the deposit-insurance system would insure accounts up to Rmb500,000 (USD81,000). The announcement of the draft rules came after senior officials from the central bank’s branches all over China attended a conference in Beijing to discuss the implementing rules of the deposit-insurance plan. Read Also: China Life Insurance Sees 30% Rise in Profit China Approves New Life Insurance Firm…

The pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong is expected to result to a drop in October retail sales with three analysts predicted falls of 0.3%, 0.5% and 4.4% from a year earlier. The official retails sales figure was set to be announced by Hong Kong today but one analyst, Lily Lo of DBS Bank, said the retail sales data should be most serious in the first two weeks of October due to the pro-democracy protests. Lo predicts a fall of 0.3%. An analyst from Citi, however, predicted a 1.2% increase, Reuters reported. Most Hong Kong-listed retailers said the civil unrest has…

Japanese companies raised spending on plant and equipment in July-September by 5.5% from the same period last year, indicating the country’s corporate sector is eager to boost investment even with the April 1 sales tax hike, the Ministry of Finance data showed on Monday. The latest data showed that business investments by all nonfinancial sectors on building plants and new equipment in Q3 increased for the sixth straight quarter to JPY9.43tr (USD79bn). Some JPY5.99tr (USD50bn) Of the total capital spending (capex) in the July-September period was posted by non-manufacturers, representing a 2.7% increase. Manufacturers, meanwhile, spent JPY3.44tr (USD28bn) in the…

Weak domestic consumption and sluggish export conditions will continue to drag South Korea’s growth in 2015 and economists said the country’s will have a hard time getting into the upper 3% growth range. A recent survey showed that 3.6% to 3.7% growth is more realistic for 2015 as the 3.9% growth targeted by the South Korean government will be hard to achieve due to concerns in the country’s export sector. The economists also said external uncertainties will also exert a negative pull on the country’s economy as a whole. Those surveyed are presidents of the Korea Development Institute, Korea Institute…

China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the country’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slowed more than expected in November, dropping to 50.3 from 50.8 in October. November’s manufacturing PMI was the lowest level since March but stayed above the 50-point level that separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis. Among the sub-indices of the PMI, the production index posted 52.2, down 0.6 percentage point from a month ago while the index of new orders dropped to 50.9, slipping by 0.7 percentage point, while employment lost 0.2 percentage point to 48.2. NBS analyst Zhao Qinghe said that while the…

The OECD Economic Outlook for Southeast Asia, China and Japan showed that the Philippine economy has the best growth forecast among the Asean-5 countries for the medium term with 6.2% growth. The 2015 edition of the economic outlook stated that growth momentum for the 10 Asean countries remains robust and will average 5.6% in the next five years. Following the Philippines are Indonesia (6%), Vietnam (5.7%), Malaysia (5.6%) and Thailand (4.1%). The OECD Economic Outlook is an annual publication on Asia’s regional economic growth. Read Also: Philippine Economy Tops Medium-Term Forecast for Asean-5 Philippine Inflation Slows Down to 2.4% in…

From January through September 30, assets of Asia-focused hedge funds reached about US$117.4 billion, according to a report released by Hedge Fund Research (HFR). HFR, which provides hedge fund data performance reports and indices, estimated that the assets of Asia-focused hedge funds rose 4.6% year-on-year as of end September after net flows through the said month reached US$2.5 billion. The HFRX Asia Composite Hedge Fund Index also went up 1.6% for the first nine months of the year. Read Also: Morgan Stanley To Bring Back China Hedge-Fund Event Fixed income-based relative value arbitrage and event-driven strategies rose 16.4% and 13.7%, respectively.…

The Philippine economy is now the second fastest in Asia next to China after expanding 6.4% in the second quarter of this year, matching that of Malaysia, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) announced on 29 August. Although the expansion was lower than the 7.9% registered in Q2 2013, it was higher than the 5.6% in Q1 2014. Industry led this year’s Q2 growth, expanding by 7.8%, followed by services’ 6%. Agriculture output registered a 3.6% increase year-on-year. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the economy would expand 6.2%, faster than the revised annual growth of 5.6% in the March quarter.…

Travelers coming in and out of Singapore will have to declare the amount of money they carry if it is SGD20,000 (USD16,000) or more. This, after the Singapore Police Force announced that the threshold has been lowered from SGD30,000 to SGD20,000 in line with the recommendations made by the Financial Action Task Force. The new rule applies to cash or bearer negotiable instruments such as traveler’s cheque. Read: Singapore in Top 10 of ‘Best Countries for Business’ SPF said lowering the amount of cash that people can move in and out of Singapore will help deter criminals and terrorism financiers from…

The Bank of Japan (BOJ), the country’s central banks, is expected to cut its GDP estimate for the current fiscal year although it is likely to keep its bullish inflation outlook. The central bank is seen cutting its GDP estimate for the current fiscal year, which ends in March, when it next updates its economic and consumer price forecasts in a semi-annual review on 31 October. Economists, however, said any GDP downgrade will be minor and will not greatly affects projection of a 2% inflation rise in next fiscal year. Read Also: BDO Unibank Seals Deal With Japan’s FIDEA Reuters reported…

Foreign investors can now wholly own hospitals in the cities of Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan as part of the central government’s move to open the country’s private hospital sector to foreign investment. China is officially opening up its hospital sector, although in select areas as of now, to cope up with the cost of maintaining a growing list of hospitals around the country. As of last year, China has 11,300 private hospitals. The identified cities and provinces have been chosen to pilot the program that will entice foreign investors to pour…

Global investors paid a record US$6.16 billion for office spaces in Asia in the second quarter of this year, commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield said. The amount was more than double what investors bought in the same quarter of 2013 as more investors tap the growing commercial property market in Asia, the US-based agency revealed. South Korea and Australia, which offer annual office rental yields between 5 percent and 7 percent, continue to be the top picks for global investors. Read Also: 4th Asia Pacific Real Estate Investment Summit Philippines To Tackle ASEAN Integration South Korea’s office space…