South Korea’s retail giants are invigorating efforts to dominate the second-hand transaction market, and this focus is expected to accelerate further with Naver Corp poised to make an entry.
The internet portal giant is reviewing the idea that its recently acquired Poshmark Inc., a US social commerce platform specializing in secondhand apparel trade, could step into the South Korean market, according to industry sources.
Once the equity acquisition is completed in April next year, Poshmark is expected to become an independently operated Naver subsidiary.
If Naver Shopping, the Naver’s online shopping site and Coupang Inc.’s only rival in the e-commerce market, unites forces with Poshmark, it would create a huge ripple effect.
Other major retailers are also making bigger forays into the secondhand market.
Lotte Group, for instance, announced that it would enable a non-face-to-face pickup service for direct secondhand transactions through the convenience store chain 7-Eleven, which is currently operated by Lotte’s affiliate Korea Seven Co.
After buying items at the secondhand marketplace platform Joonggonara, which was acquired by the group last year, customers will be able to take delivery of the items at 7-Eleven convenience stores.
Shinsegae Group also invested in the secondhand transaction app Bungaejangter via its venture capital subsidiary in January.
Bungaejangter opened an online store at SSG.com, the online mall arm of Shinsegae, and provides resale services with a focus on secondhand luxury items.
According to the Hana Financial Management Research Institute, the size of the nation’s secondhand market jumped from about 4 trillion won (US$2.77 billion) in 2008 to 20 trillion won in 2020.
Private equity firm Everstone Capital is considering selling its stake worth $314 million in Restaurant Brands Asia Ltd, the master franchisee of Burger King in India and Indonesia, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
The Singapore-headquartered buyout firm is in talks with one adviser to explore the sale, the sources said, declining to be identified as the matter is private.
Everstone Capital, through its investment vehicle QSR Asia Pte Ltd holds a 40.9 per cent stake in Restaurant Brands, according to Refinitiv data.
Everstone Capital declined to comment and Restaurant Brands Asia did not respond to Reuters queries seeking comment.
Restaurant Brands Asia had a market value of $768 million based on Friday’s price of 129 Indian rupees. Its shares have jumped 49 per cent from a record low struck in mid-May.
The potential sale comes at a time when consumer spending is rebounding following the easing of coronavirus restrictions in India and Indonesia, which have helped boost their second-quarter economic growth to their fastest pace in a year.
India’s economy grew 13.5 per cent on-year in April-June, while Indonesia’s expanded 5.44 per cent.
Restaurant Brands Asia, formerly known as Burger King India Ltd, was incorporated in 2013 following a partnership formed between Everstone and Burger King Worldwide Inc to develop the fast-food chain’s presence in India.
Everstone Capital is the private equity arm of Everstone Group, which manages over $7 billion in assets.
The private equity firm focuses on the mid-market and invests in businesses focused on India and Southeast Asia.
Mumbai-based Restaurant Brands Asia has since grown to operating 315 restaurants in the country as of end-March this year, according to its latest annual report.
Restaurant Brands Asia holds Burger King’s exclusive national master franchisee in India and Indonesia, where it also owns and operates 177 restaurants as of end-March, the annual report shows.
Under the master franchisee agreement, Restaurant Brands Asia has agreed to develop and open at least 700 restaurants by the end of 2026 in India, according to the annual report.
Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings is set to open the first Mitsukoshi department store in the Philippines by the end of this year under a partnership with local property developer Federal Land.
The four-storey lifestyle store, located in Manila’s business district Bonifacio Global City, will host about 120 merchants.
Targeting younger, middle-class customers, Mitsukoshi is theming the store the “Next Manila Lifestyle” and will offer a range of products from Japan across cuisine, fashion, and cosmetics categories.
Customers can purchase food from Japanese-inspired restaurants in basement 1, while cosmetics and beauty salon services are on the ground floor.
The second floor will offer Japanese dining options and a selection of International food choices, along with Japanese homewares and accessories – and will be home to premium retail brands’ stores. The third floor is dedicated to wellness and enjoyment.
Statista estimates the value of the Philippines’ retail sales at US$53.6 billion last year and predicts that during the next four years spending will increase to $68.71 billion.
The Covid-19 pandemic has encouraged many Filipinos to move online to shop. As at May 2020, according to Statista, 41 per cent of respondents claimed they made more online purchases due to the epidemic in the Philippines. However, 63 per cent of respondents to a subsequent study in June of last year said they were likely to visit a mall in the upcoming six months.
KDDI announced it will begin offering Starlink connectivity to its enterprise and civil government customers later this year as part of a deal recently completed.
Starlink began offering service two years ago, and this summer it introduced its maritime service, which provides high-speed, low-latency internet while at sea.
Under the agreement, the Japanese telecom giant will act as “authorized Starlink integrator,” enhancing the company’s ability to deliver best-in-class network service to its customers who require stable, reliable connectivity in rural and remote areas, even during events such as natural disasters.
KDDI has been conducting technical demonstrations of Starlink in Japan since 2021, which have proven the service’s quality and performance, including for use in mobile backhaul.
“Starlink’s unmatched performance is a great fit for our persistent endeavor to bring the urban mobile experience to rural customers,” said Makoto Takahashi, president of KDDI. “With Japan having more than 16,000 mountains and 6,000 islands, Starlink’s industry-leading satellite constellation is uniquely suited to provide Japanese enterprises with reliable, sustainable internet connectivity, even in times of natural disaster.”
“We’re excited to provide a new dimension of connectivity to KDDI’s customers that require reliable, high-speed, low-latency internet on land and at sea,” said SpaceX Vice President of Starlink Sales, Jonathan Hofeller. “Having recently launched Starlink in the country, we look forward to offering a powerful solution that we’ve seen provide critical connectivity in the over 40 countries Starlink is available in.”
British automaker McLaren opened its first official Vietnamese showroom in HCMC on Thursday. The McLaren HCM reseller, located at the Deutsches Haus building in HCMC’s District 1, is invested and run by S&S Group. With an authorized reseller in Vietnam, McLaren said it would deliver the newest supercars for the Vietnamese elite class.
At the opening ceremony for the showroom, Charlotte Dickson, head of Asia Pacific at McLaren, said Vietnam is the firm’s 41st market.
Nguyen Thuy Huong, co-founder of S&S, said HCMC was chosen as the location for McLaren’s first showroom as it is deemed an ideal destination with much potential for brand development.
Through its authorized reseller, McLaren is expected to introduce to the Vietnamese market with several types of supercars, including the 765LT. Besides the showroom, S&S Group would also provide car repair and maintenance services.
McLaren, founded in 2010, is a subsidiary owned by the wider McLaren Group. Its headquarters and manual assembly plant are in Woking, Surrey County, England.
Besides the main product of supercars, the company also makes sports cars with more affordable price tags.
Thai AirAsia has unveiled plans to launch flights from Don Mueang (DMK) Airport in Bangkok to Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, as well as to the city of Lucknow in northern India.
The airline will operate four flights per week to Dhaka commencing 24 November, and thrice weekly to Lucknow from 4 December 2022.
Promotional fares for the Don Mueang-Dhaka flights start from 3,590 THB per trip for AirAsia members, while the Don Mueang-Lucknow flights are available from 3,290 THB per trip. The special fares can be booked up to 16 October 2022 for travel between Don Mueang-Dhaka from 24 November 2022 and 25 March 2023, and Don Mueang-Lucknow from 4 December 2022 to 25 March 2022, via the airasia Super App.
“The travel appetite has improved since COVID19 restrictions were relaxed. The South Asian markets have grown rapidly in the recent period and AirAsia now operates six routes to the region, flying Don Mueang to Kolkata, Kochi, Jaipur, Bangalore and Chennai in India and to Maldives. All of the routes have been well received, especially by Indian travelers who have been connecting across Thailand.
Data from the Tourism Authority of Thailand show the fast growing number of tourists from India and South Asia have so far visited Thailand this year and the inflow is expected to continue into 2023,” said Santisuk Klongchaiya, Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia Thailand. “Dhaka and Lucknow are new and exciting destinations AirAsia will be flying direct to for the first time with these additions. On top of attracting tourists to Thailand, the unique and magnificent architecture of these two cities should make them another popular aspiration for avid Thai travelers looking for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Coffee may be a major casualty of a hotter planet. Even if currently declared commitments to reduce emissions are met, our new research suggests coffee production will still rapidly decline in countries accounting for 75% of the world’s Arabica coffee supply.
Arabica coffee is one of two main plant species we harvest coffee beans from. The plant evolved in the high-altitude tropics of Ethiopia, and is hypersensitive to changes in the climate.
Our research shows there are global warming thresholds beyond which Arabica coffee production plummets. This isn’t just bad news for coffee lovers – coffee is a multi-billion dollar industry supporting millions of farmers, most in developing countries.
If we manage to keep global warming below 2℃ this century, then producers responsible for most global Arabica supply will have more time to adapt. If we don’t, we could see crashes in Arabica productivity, interruptions to supply, and price hikes on our daily cup.
Most of our Arabica is grown in the tropics, throughout Latin America, Central and East Africa and parts of Asia. Brazil, Colombia and Ethiopia are the world’s top three producers of Arabica, and the crop has crucial social and economic importance elsewhere, too.
Millions of farmers, mostly in the developing world, depend on productive Arabica for their livelihood. If coffee productivity declines, the economic consequences for farmers, some of which do not earn a living income as it is, are dire.
Arabica coffee is typically most productive in cool high elevation tropical areas with a local annual temperature of 18-23℃. Higher temperatures and drier conditions invariably lead to declines in yield.
Last year, for example, one of the worst droughts in Brazil’s history saw coffee production there drop by around one-third, with global coffee prices spiking as a result.
Previous research has focused on how changes in temperature and rainfall affect coffee yields. While important, temperature and rainfall aren’t the best indicators of global Arabica coffee productivity. Instead, we found that it’s more effective to measure how dry and hot the air is, which we can do using “Vapour Pressure Deficit”.
Vapour pressure deficit tells us how much water gets sucked out of a plant. Think of when you walk outside on a hot, dry day and your lips dry and crack – the moisture is being sucked out of you because outside, the vapour pressure deficit is high. It’s the same for plants.
We built scientific models based on climate data that was linked to decades of coffee productivity data across the most important Arabica producing countries. We found once vapour pressure deficit gets to a critical point, then Arabica coffee yields fall sharply.
This critical point, we found, is 0.82 kilopascals (a unit of pressure, calculated from temperature and humidity). After this point, Arabica yields start falling fast – a loss of around 400 kilograms per hectare, which is 50% lower than the long-term global average.
Vapour pressure deficit thresholds have already been exceeded in Kenya, Mexico and Tanzania.
Unabated global warming will see the world’s coffee producing powerhouses at risk. If global warming temperatures increase from 2℃ to 3℃, then Peru, Honduras, Venezuela, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Colombia and Brazil – together accounting for 81% of global supply – are much more likely to pass the vapour pressure deficit threshold.
While there are ways farmers and the coffee industry can adapt, the viability of applying these on a global scale is highly uncertain.
For example, irrigating coffee crops could be an option, but this costs money – money many coffee farmers in developing countries don’t have. What’s more, it may not always be effective as high vapour pressure deficits can still inflict damage, even in well-watered conditions.
Another option could be switching to other coffee species. But again, this is fraught. For example, robusta coffee (Coffea canephora) – the other main species of production coffee – is also sensitive to temperature rises. Others, such as Coffea stenophylla and Coffea liberica could be tested, but their production viability at large scales under climate change is unknown.
There is only so much adapting we can do. Our research provides further impetus, if we needed any, to cut net global greenhouse gas emissions.
Limiting global warming in accordance with the Paris Agreement is our best option to ensure we can all keep enjoying coffee. More importantly, keeping global warming below 2℃ is the best way to ensure the millions of vulnerable farmers who grow coffee globally have a livelihood that supports them and their families well into the future.
By scaling back its exposure to assets like commercial paper, the company improves its credibility.
The controversial Tether Holdings completely removed the commercial paper from its reserves. The world’s largest stablecoin issuer reported in a blog post that it has replaced those positions with US government bonds, the majority of its reserves now consisting of Treasury bills, according to the company.
The stablecoin issuer has long been embroiled in controversy over the status of the reserves used to back the supply of the stablecoin USDT, of which Tether is the issuer. issues. The world’s most traded cryptocurrency has been repeatedly criticized by regulators for not making it clear enough how the reserves backing stablecoin are composed.
Commercial paper is unsecured, short-term debt issued by a company and is considered less secure and liquid than Treasury bills. Tether previously announced plans to reduce these holdings and has been doing so gradually this year.
Unlike commercial paper, T-bills are short-term government debt instruments. According to the largest US bank, JP Morgan, Tether and its stablecoin competitors’ share of the T-bill market exceeds that of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway holding company.
According to the blog post, Tether believes removing commercial paper from its reserves will boost confidence in the stablecoin industry. The TerraUSD stablecoin price debacle and the collapse of the Terra Luna ecosystem have taken a second toll on confidence in cryptocurrencies this year.
Singtel has announced the deployment of Singapore’s greenest radio cell, the Ericsson AIR 3268, to its 5G network. This is part of Singtel’s ongoing sustainability and decarbonization measures towards achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and paves the way for more such radio cells to be deployed across the country to augment its nationwide 5G coverage.
The AIR 3268 radio is expected to save up to 18% more energy and weigh approximately 40% less than earlier generations of 5G radios. At just 12kg, its proportions simplify upgrades and make new site acquisitions and installations easy on towers, rooftops, poles and walls – even in challenging locations. It also makes a 5G site 76% lighter than a 4G site that typically requires multiple radios while providing the same network capacity. This further reduces Singtel’s overall 5G network energy consumption, up to 58% lower than 4G today.
The AIR 3268 is designed to provide real-time channel estimation and ultra-precise beamforming – or elimination of undesirable noise interference – to accelerate 5G mid-band spectrum deployment and boost capacity, coverage and connectivity speeds, thus enhancing mobile experiences for customers.
Anna Yip, chief executive officer, Consumer Singapore, Singtel, said, “We are always looking for ways to deliver Singapore’s greenest 5G network while further reducing our carbon footprint. By integrating energy-efficient technologies into our operations and infrastructure, we aim to build a better, more sustainable future as we continue to deliver the best network performance and user experience to consumers and enterprises through our 5G solutions and services. With an optimized network, even end-users will be able to conserve energy on their mobile devices, making them part of the movement of building a better future together.”
Martin Wiktorin, head of Ericsson Singapore and Philippines, noted, “Sustainability and energy efficiency are a priority for us at Ericsson. Deploying our energy-efficient AIR 3268 radio as part of Singtel’s 5G network is a significant step in our larger sustainability plan, which is focused on breaking the energy curve by activating energy-saving software, building 5G with precision and operating the site infrastructure intelligently. This will serve to manage mobile traffic growth while reducing energy consumption.”
Deployment Simplicity and Improved Energy Efficiency
Singtel 5G is a greener technology with higher data transfer rates compared to any previous wireless technology generation, working on a wide spectrum of 100 MHz, which provides cell capacity comparable to four Singtel 4G bands combined.
The deployment of the AIR 3268, the lightest and smallest Massive MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output) in the industry, is another step in Singtel’s energy-saving improvements as it explores smart and sustainable mobile technologies that optimize power and energy utilization in its operations.
The Finance Ministry said online platforms including Facebook and Google have paid VND5.59 trillion (US$231.6 million) in taxes from 2018 to August this year.
In a report sent to the National Assembly, the ministry said the tax was paid by cross-border and e-commerce platforms, with Facebook and Google contributing the most, at VND2.099 trillion and VND2.115 trillion, respectively.
They were followed by Microsoft with VND714 billion.
Last year’s collection of VND1.591 trillion was 39% more than in 2020.
From the beginning of 2018 until the end of this August, tax authorities collected VND1.082 trillion in taxes from organizations and individuals earning income from doing business online, including VND261 billion collected last year and almost VND521 billion in the first eight months of this year.
The ministry launched an electronic portal and a mobile application (eTax Mobile) in March for foreign suppliers to declare, register and pay taxes.
So far, there have been nearly 70,000 transactions made through the portal and app, with more than VND308 billion of tax collected.
Of this, $22.2 million was paid by 30 major foreign suppliers including Microsoft, Facebook, Netflix, Samsung, TikTok and eBay.
In order to manage and avoid tax revenue losses in the digital platform business, the finance ministry is working to complete relevant legislation.
At the end of August, the ministry submitted amendments to Decree 126 issued in 2020, stipulating that e-commerce platforms have to provide information, declare and paying taxes on behalf of sellers.
The ministry also proposed amending a number of special regulations to ensure a consistent legal basis for the management of e-commerce platforms.
Vietnam’s tra fish exports to Southeast Asia exceeded US$152 million in the first nine months of this year, a year-on-year increase of over 83%.
Higher transport costs due to rising fuel prices caused exporters to opt for closer destinations, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said, adding that Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines are the biggest markets for Vietnamese tra fish among the ASEAN nations.
Shipments to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines increased by 81%, 56%, 114%, and 92%.
Exports to Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Indonesia rose by two to four times.
ASEAN countries would import more tra fish and become fish and become than the EU soon, VASEP predicted.
Overall tra fish exports were worth nearly US$1.97 billion in the first nine months, up 83.3%, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.
Its biggest markets were the U.S., China and the EU.
Vietnamese spent millions of dollars buying iPhone 14 smartphones when it was launched on Oct. 14.
The manager of an electronic retail store estimated more than 55,000 phones, mostly the most expensive version, Pro Max, were sold. “The total revenues were over VND1.5 trillion (US$63.8 million).”
Many distributors reported record sales. FPT Shop sold 5,000 iPhone 14s right in the early morning on Oct. 14, and a total of over 14,000 worth VND400 billion ($17 million) during the day. It has yet to deliver to over 5,000 buyers.
The Gioi Di Dong said it has delivered some 12,000 phones, mainly iPhone 14 Pro Max 128 GB and 256 GB to pre-ordered customers. Many other distributors and e-commerce platforms also reported sales of hundreds of billions of dong. Of the four versions of the phone, Pro Max accounted for some 80% of sales.
Business insiders said the current shortage of Pro and 14 Pro Max versions would continue at least until the end of October. The Gioi Di Dong has to deliver over 20,000 phones yet, and others also have thousands of unfulfilled pre-orders. People looking to buy the Pro Max have to place pre-orders and wait until November for delivery.
But the two least expensive variants, iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, are available at most stores.
Retailers required iPhone 14 buyers to unseal and activate the phone right at the shop to prevent them from reselling at higher prices. However, many iPhone 14 Pros were indeed resold at VND1-2 million higher than the official price, and Pro Maxs at a VND4 million premium.
According to statistics released by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam spent over US$1.2 billion importing iPhones last year.
Tesla sold 83,135 China-made vehicles wholesale in September 2022, smashing its record of monthly sales in China, the China Passenger Car Association reported. The number marks an 8 per cent increase from August 2022 and outpaced more than the 5 per cent month-over-month growth of all wholesale electric vehicle sales in China, according to CPCA data. It set a record for Tesla’s Shanghai factory since production began in December 2019, and topped the prior sales record of 78,906 in June, as the U.S. carmaker continues to invest in China production.
Globally, Tesla, last week said it delivered 343,830 electric vehicles in the third quarter, a record for the world’s most valuable automaker, but less than the 359,162 analysts on average had expected, according to Refinitiv. Tesla quickened its China deliveries after suspending most production at the Shanghai plant in July for an upgrade, which aimed to bring the factory’s weekly output to around 22,000 units compared with levels of around 17,000 in June, Reuters previously reported.
The plant, which manufactures Model 3s and Model Ys, reopened on April 19, 2022, after a COVID lockdown, but only resumed full production in mid-June. Production accelerated despite heatwaves and COVID curbs that hit its suppliers in the southwest region of the country.
China’s BYD continued to lead the domestic EV market with 200,973 wholesale sales in September, a nearly 15 per cent jump from August, as CPCA said higher oil prices and government subsidies continue to encourage more consumers to choose electric vehicles.
Ikano Retail has recorded its highest turnover yet for the financial year to August 31, reaching US$1 billion across the five markets in which it operates Ikea stores – Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Mexico, equivalent to 41.2 per cent year-on-year growth.
The increased sales were driven by the return of visitors to physical stores after two years of Covid-19 disruptions. CEO of Ikano Retail, Christian Roejkjaer, said there were 113 million visits to the group’s stores and shopping centres.
In Malaysia, where the group operates four shopping centres, the company recorded $361.8 million in sales. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, where earlier this year it opened the world’s largest Ikea store in Pasay City, turnover reached $113.6 million.
Sales in Singapore and Thailand reached $255.4 million and $276.6 million respectively.
“Our shelves were not fully stocked as we would have liked it and our costs went way up,” said Roejkjaer. “Still, we are leading our markets for affordable, quality home furnishing solutions – and our customers appreciate that.’’
The retailer is also accelerating its expansion plan after the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, planning to open its first compact city-centre concept store in Thailand later this year at The Emsphere, along with its third Mexico store.
Hang Xanh Motors Service Joint Stock Company, a major Mercedes-Benz car dealer, reported pre-tax profits of more than VND240 billion (US$10 million) in the first nine months, exceeding its full-year target.
Consolidated revenues were up 50 percent year-on-year at VND5.17 trillion. In the third quarter they rose 2.7 times to VND2 trillion ($83.1 million).
Haxaco’s short-term debts increased by more than 60% to VND563 billion, while long-term debts, mainly in the form of convertible bonds, were around VND180 billion.
Vietnam has three authorized Mercedes-Benz dealers, Andu and Vietnam Star being the others, and Haxaco has the largest market share.
It has five sales agents in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Can Tho.
