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Tag: asia

  • Citi Elevates Senior Hong Kong Investment Banker

    Citi Elevates Senior Hong Kong Investment Banker

    Citi has expanded the role of its regional head of corporate finance with greater responsibilities for the Hong Kong investment banking business.

    Alex Schrantz has been named head of banking, capital markets and advisory (BCMA) for Hong Kong, according to a statement, effective immediately. Schrantz reports to APAC head of BCMA Jan Metzger alongside Hong Kong and Macau chief executive Angel Ng.

    Schrantz will retain his existing role as APAC head of corporate finance.

    Schrantz has nearly 30 years of global banking experience of which over two decades were based in Hong Kong. He first joined Citi in 2012 and has been responsible for overseeing capital amerces execution in Asia Pacific. Previously, he was also a member of the listing committee for the local stock exchange from 2006 to 2010.

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  • Royal Enfield Apparel Business To Focus On Brand Partnerships

    Royal Enfield Apparel Business To Focus On Brand Partnerships

    Royal Enfield is bullish on its range of apparel and merchandise and sees the business post healthy growth in the next couple of years, with double-digit growth figures in the financial year 2020-21. Puneet Sood, Head of Apparel Business, Royal Enfield said that the brand’s line-up of casual wear, motorcycle riding gear and accessories offers accessibility not just in price but also availability. And he says that the Royal Enfield apparel range is not just for Royal Enfield customers, but for “anybody in love with motorcycling”.

    “We intend to keep growing organically. Revenue has grown over the past few years, and even during 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we recorded double digit growth. Our apparel range is available through multiple channels, and the idea is to target anyone who is in love with motorcycling. The motorcycling community decides where we go from here, and we’ve taken feedback seriously, so you’ve seen a dedicated range of women’s riding gear, as well as customization of apparel and helmets through the Make It Yours program,” Sood said.

    Over the past few months, Royal Enfield has launched brand partnerships with names like Levi’s and Knox. The Royal Enfield X Levi’s range of riding denims have been well-received in the market, and Royal Enfield followed that up with a new range of jackets and riding gear with British safety experts Knox, introducing riding jackets with Knox armour, as well as riding gloves and knee guards. But it’s not just brand partnerships, and Royal Enfield’s own range of riding gear has been well-received, not just in India, but also in overseas markets.

    “We launched a new range of credible riding jackets, which are well-ventilated, and with proper safety certification, which can be used not just by our own community here in India, but everywhere around the world. Our range of mesh jackets have been well-received, and new range of riding gloves are also doing very well,” said Sood.

    Royal Enfield’s apparel range is now offered across the globe in geographies wherever Royal Enfield motorcycles are offered on sale. Speaking about markets, Sood added that the response to Royal Enfield’s lifestyle range has been “amazing,” particularly in markets like Europe and Asia-Pacific. The focus, Sood adds, is to make the right products. The partnership with brands like Levi’s worked very well, and Royal Enfield is exploring more such partnerships, which will be purpose-led, and will focus on both products as well as brands.

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  • Australia More Telecom acquires Powercom Pacific

    Australia More Telecom acquires Powercom Pacific

    More Telecom announced its acquisition of national internet and phone provider, Powercom Pacific, substantially increasing the company’s SME customer base. More Telecom is one of Australia’s most successful and longest-running NBN providers with a sister retail business, Tangerine Telecom.

    Powercom Pacific owns several brands including Powercom, Montimedia and QTelecom and all customers will be migrating to More Telecom.

    All Powercor Pacific staff will be moving with the business and maintain ongoing employment with More.

    More Telecom General Manager, Andrew Branson, said the acquisition strengthens the More business which is expanding in both customer numbers and product offers.

    “The More business consistently seeks exciting expansion opportunities and with Powercom, we identified a business with complementary cultural and business models.

    “The Powercom customer base consists of long term, loyal, small business owners who want excellent service and we are confident we can deliver on this front,” said Branson.

    More Telecom has also expanded its SME reach via the launch of other business services such as More Payments and More Bookkeeping.

    More Telecom has also invested in building a strong business offering a full white label solution to other telcos and IT firms and has become Australia’s top white label NBN provider.

    The More Telecom and Tangerine Telecom business model works on a B2B/B2C business model delivering more efficiency and faster speeds due to the balanced bandwidth loading between the business peak hours during the day and the consumer peak hours during the evening.

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  • Google Photos now lets users add media files to albums when they’re offline

    Google Photos now lets users add media files to albums when they’re offline

    To add pictures or videos to your albums in Google Photos, you’ll need to be online. But that’s about to change, as Google is now rolling out a small update that makes it possible to upload content to albums even when a user is offline.

    The new feature isn’t something that you can force on your Android smartphone, so you’ll have to wait for Google to push it out to your device. Once you add your pictures and videos to an album, they will be synchronized to Google servers immediately after your smartphone goes online.

    Although there are plenty of Google Photos alternatives out there, Google’s app probably remains the best solution when it comes to sharing and storing media content online. Although you’ll soon have to pay for Google Photos storage, occasional users will still be able to take advantage of its benefits free of charge.

    Those of you who can’t wait to try out the new feature might want to download the latest version of Google Photos, but if the option to add picture and videos to albums while offline is not available even after updating, you’ll most likely have to wait for a server-side switch to flip.

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  • Apple launches iPhone 12 MagSafe leather, silicone cases

    Apple launches iPhone 12 MagSafe leather, silicone cases

    We’ve got a whole new slew of MagSafe-compatible cases up in the Apple Store today, now that the official event has ended.

    Apple’s online site was down in the last hours leading up to today’s event, where we found out plenty of juicy tidbits about the upcoming iPad Pro 2021, AirTags, and more. By the time the event ended, the site was back up, revealing plenty of new goodies for sale to accessorize your iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, or iPhone 12 mini.

    First up are cases, with two newcomers in the Leather Case line, and three new Silicone Cases. For the Silicone Cases, we’ve got the vibrant summery Cantaloupe, Amethyst, and for the iPhone 12 mini—Pistachio, pictured below.

    We also have a new leather sleeve color released for the iPhone 12 mini: Deep Violet, same as the Leather Cases.

    d 12 mini are going to be getting a whole new color, come April 30. That gives us even more options to mix-and-match with the new color cases, if you don’t have an iPhone 12 yet and plan to upgrade.

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  • Apple launches in-app subscriptions in its Podcasts app

    Apple launches in-app subscriptions in its Podcasts app

    Apple has just announced a major overhaul to its Podcasts app: within the app, it’s launching Apple Podcasts Subscriptions where people will be able to subscribe to premium content from their favorite creators and get perks like ad-free listening, bonus content, and exclusive access to new series.

    Apple Podcasts Subscriptions launches with partners like Pushkin Industries, QCODE, SME, and NPR, and this list will only grow with time.

    The whole Podcasts app is also getting a fresh design with channels where your favorite creators will recommend you new content, and each channel will have unique artwork, titles and descriptions.

    Initial partners with channels include the likes of Luminary, which was one of the first apps to offer subscription-based podcasts.

    As for prices, they will be set by creators for each subscription, but you will be getting a free trial and sample episodes before you sign up. Billing will happen monthly by default, but creators can also offer annual billing if they decide. On the other side of the fence, content creators will have to pay $20 per year to participate in the program, and Apple will be taking a 30% cut of the revenue the first year and drop that to 15% in the following years.

    Apple Podcasts remains one of the most popular ways listeners reach podcasts, not least because the app comes pre-installed on iPhones. However, Spotify has recently made a big entry in the space attracting some of the big names in the industry like The Joe Rogan Experience, and the latest data from eMarketer showed that this year 28.2 millions of listeners in the US tuned in to Spotify versus 28 million for Apple Podcasts.

    The new Apple Podcasts Subscriptions option is launching in an impressive over 170 countries and it will go live next month.

  • Sony tipped to launch mystery budget phone later this year

    Sony tipped to launch mystery budget phone later this year

    Sony recently unveiled the Xperia 1 III and the Xperia 5 III flagship models as well as the mid-range Xperia 10 III. But if a machine-translated post on Weibo written by a tipster is legitimate, Sony purposely moved up the release schedule of its new 2021 flagships to release both of them during the same time period. This will allow it to release another phone that will either be a budget-priced model or an “Ultra” version of another Sony handset.

    The machine-translated message from a tipster known as ZackBuks, while a bit confusing, seems to suggest that by releasing both 2021 flagships together, it opens up some time to allow a “new U release” to take place months earlier than in past years. Normally Sony unveils its compact flagship model in the fall which is why it was so surprising to see the Xperia 5 III introduced at this time of the year.

    The last such Sony handset to use the “Ultra” title in its name was 2018’s Xperia XA2 Ultra which featured a larger screen, more storage, a larger battery, and an additional front-facing camera compared to the “non-Ultra” Xperia XA2. Another theory is that the “new U release” is a refresh of last year’s budget-priced Xperia L4 model. For those hoping for a top-of-the-line “Ultra” model powered by the Snapdragon 888 SoC, the tipster’s post would seem to make that impossible since he comes right out and states that the 2021 flagships are the Xperia 1 III and the Xperia 5 III.

    The Xperia 1 III features a 6.5-inch AMOLED display with a 4K resolution (1644 x 3840) and a tall and thin 21:9 aspect ratio. Powered by the Snapdragon 888 SoC, this model sports 12GB of memory and 256GB of storage. A quad-camera setup is found on the back.

    The Xperia 5 III is equipped with a 6.1-inch display with a 1080 x 2520 (FHD+) resolution and is powered by Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon 888 chipset. It features 8GB of memory (LPDDR4 RAM), 256GB of storage, and a triple camera setup.

    Speaking of the Xperia 5 III, the phone recently was benchmarked through Ge.

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  • Ha Long casino operator posts losses for six straight quarter

    Ha Long casino operator posts losses for six straight quarter

    Royal International Corporation, which operates the largest casino in the northern town of Ha Long, has reported a post-tax loss of nearly VND27 billion ($1.17 million) in Q1.

    This is the sixth consecutive quarter that the HCMC Stock Exchange-listed company has reported a loss.

    In its financial report, the company has blamed the loss on the impacts of the new Covid-19 outbreak that happened late January this year.

    First-quarter revenues were down 24 percent year-on-year to VND27 billion.

    For the whole year, it estimates revenues of VND10.3 trillion ($447.3 million), mainly from its accommodation (hotel and villa) business.

    Last year, the company suffered a loss of VND82 billion ($3.6 million).

    For a long time, the Vietnamese government treated gambling as a social evil that was banned. Even when the allowed casinos to open, Vietnamese citizens were prohibited from them. In January 2019, the country opened certain casinos to local people as part of a three-year trial, saying it would decide the admission policy on a case-by-case basis.

    Vietnamese who want to gamble in a casino must be over 21, earn a minimum of VND10 million ($430) a month and have no criminal record or objection from their family.

    A group of casino owners recently requested the government to let Vietnamese into their establishments to make up for the absence of foreigners under Covid-19 travel restrictions.

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  • Gojek Vietnam drives past a driver milestone

    Gojek Vietnam drives past a driver milestone

    The number of motorbike taxi drivers riding for ride-hailing firm Gojek Vietnam has crossed the 200,000 mark with millions of commuters using its app.

    Competitor Be said last month it had 100,000 motorbike and car drivers.

    Singapore’s Grab, the market leader, has not released its driver figures for the two years. It had reported in May 2019 that it had 195,000 driver associates in Vietnam.

    But Gojek and Grab have different interpretations of their figures. Gojek’s 200,000 drivers are “registered and active,” meaning they have recently turned on their apps, but it does not necessarily mean they have necessarily served a customer.

    Grab drivers are categorized as “transacting users,” or those who have served a customer in a recent period of time.

    Gojek is currently focused on three services – motorbike rides and delivery of goods and food. Grab and Be have all of these three services plus car rides.

    Gojek entered Vietnam in August 2018 as GoViet. The company became Gojek Vietnam last year.

    Vietnam’s transport and food Internet market grew by 50 percent year-on-year to $1.6 billion last year, according to a study by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company.

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  • Vietcombank, Vinhomes tickers drive VN-Index up

    Vietcombank, Vinhomes tickers drive VN-Index up

    Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index rose 0.61 percent to 1,268.28 points Tuesday, a new peak, led by Vietcombank and Vinhomes tickers.

    The index was on an upward trend throughout the day, hitting the 1,286 mark in the early afternoon before falling to the 1,260 range. It closed with a near 8-point gain.

    Trading value on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the index is based, rose 17 percent to VND23.1 trillion ($1 billion), the highest of the past five sessions. The bourse saw 187 tickers gain and 227 lose.

    VCB of state-owned lender Vietcombank contributed most to the gain of VN-Index this session with 4.5 points.

    It rose 4.6 percent to a three-month high. The ticker has gained 6.8 percent in the last two sessions.

    VHM of real estate giant Vinhomes contributed 3.6 points to VN-Index’s rise. It closed with a 3.9 percent gain, hitting a new historic peak.

    VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk pushed the index up by 1.8 points. It rose 3.3 percent, with 6.99 million shares being traded, the highest since November 2017.

    PDR of Phat Dat Real Estate Development rose 4.6 percent to a new all-time peak. This is its third session in the green.

    MWG of electronics retail chain Mobile World also hit a new peak with a 3.7 percent gain.

    On the losing side, TCH of real estate company Hoang Huy Investment Financial Services plunged 2.6 percent. It has lost 14 percent in the past 11 days.

    Foreign investors were net sellers for the fifth session in a row to the tune of VND553 billion, down 25 percent, with strongest pressure on VHM, VNM and CTG of state-owned lender VietinBank.

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  • Steel makers see profits skyrocket

    Steel makers see profits skyrocket

    Steel manufacturers in Vietnam have seen profits increase as much 30-40 times in the first quarter as demand surges and prices rise.

    In Hanoi, Me Lin Steel saw a post-tax profit surge 41 times year-on-year to VND15.5 billion ($672 million), as steel prices started rising towards the end of last year and the company managed to cut costs.

    Tien Len Group in the southern province of Dong Nai saw its post-tax profit rise 30 times year-on-year to over VND120 billion, meeting half of this year’s target.

    Meanwhile, the Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel (TISCO) company in the northern province of Thai Nguyen, which has been reporting repeated losses, posted its highest first-quarter profit in the last three years at VND44 billion.

    The Hoa Phat Group has not released its profit figures, but saw March sales hitting a new record one million tons, the highest monthly figure ever.

    The profit surge has happened as steel prices skyrocket due to limited availability of materials from China and India even as the global economy recovers from Covid-19 impacts.

    Material prices have risen 30-40 percent from early March and are expected to continue rising until the end of the third quarter, according to the Vietnam Steel Association.

    Analysts with leading brokerage SSI Securities Corporation have said that local steel producers are benefiting from the recovery of the real estate market, foreign direct investment and public spending on infrastructure.

    Some big companies, like HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, can take advantage of the low supply of hot-rolled coil steel and do even better next year, they said.

  • Gold bullion producer SJC reports 11 pct rise in profits

    Gold bullion producer SJC reports 11 pct rise in profits

    State-owned Saigon Jewelry Company reported a pre-tax profit of VND75 billion ($3.2 million) for 2020, up 11 percent from the previous year.

    The company’s revenue rose 26 percent to VND23.49 trillion in 2020, but its financial expenses tripled because of provisions made for the loss of financial investments.

    Established in 1988, SJC is a wholly state-owned enterprise belonging to Ho Chi Minh City. Revenues were up 26 percent at VND23.49 trillion, well below its target of VND25.7 trillion.

    It has been the sole producer of gold bullion in the country since 2012, and has around 90 percent of the bullion market.

  • Alameda Research invests in Vietnamese blockchain technology startup

    Alameda Research invests in Vietnamese blockchain technology startup

    U.S. quantitative cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research has invested $4 million in Coin98 Finance, a Vietnamese startup and developer of decentralized finance protocols and applications.

    Decentralized finance (DeFi) refers to the financial applications that are built on top of blockchain networks.

    According to Forbes, the deal demonstrates the growth of DeFi across Asia as Vietnam, South Korea and Japan see signs of rising demand for it and an increase in the number of active and experienced teams building crucial infrastructure around it.

    In 2019 Coin98 Finance developed a crypto wallet, Coin98 Wallet, which supports coins and tokens on many blockchains including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Binance Smart Chain.

    It saw around $20 million traded in March.

    Thanh Le, the CEO of Coin98 Finance, said the interest from top venture capital firms and investors like Alameda mostly stem from its large existing user base.

    “Before we started doing a raise, we already built Coin98 Wallet and quickly acquired over 200,000 users in Asia. The product is quite established and captured a decent market share in Southeast Asia markets.

    “Compared with thousands of blockchain projects who only come up with only an idea, we already ship the product out and are being used by hundreds of thousands of people.”

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  • Natixis Expands Global Markets Unit in APAC

    Natixis Expands Global Markets Unit in APAC

    Natixis has made a series of hires for its global markets team in Asia Pacific with a focus on bolstering its capabilities in China and Japan.

    The French investment bank made six new appointments to its APAC global markets unit, according to a statement, as part of its ongoing growth ambitions in the region.

    China and Japan are key geographies for our global markets business and these new appointments to bolster our sales teams will allow us to deepen our client dialogue and enhance our focused development of new activities and products, said APAC head of global markets Viet Linh Ha Thuc.

    Eddison An joins the Hong Kong office as global market sales for China reporting to Greater China head of global markets sales Kirk Liu. An has 19 years of global market sales experience and was most recently the China head of credit sales at Deutsche Bank.

    Marcus Teng joins the Shanghai office as China head of corporate sales for the global markets unit, reporting to Liu and locally to Greater China senior country manager Hong Liu. Teng has 14 years of experience, most recently with ANZ Bank as a director in global markets.

    Beijing-based Jason Lee was named corporate sales for China reporting to Teng and locally to Beijing branch manager Simon Qin. Lee has 20 years of financial advisory and acquisition finance experience most recently also with ANZ Bank.

    Michael Man joins the Hong Kong office as global market sales reporting to APAC head of sales and financial engineering Eric Elbaz. Man has over ten years of experience in prime services and securities finance, most recently with BNP Paribas.

    Hiroshi Hara was named Tokyo-based regional fixed income sales reporting to head of regional financial institutions sales Kazuoki Shirase. Hara has 24 years of banking experience most recently with Nattiest Markets Securities Japan where he was its head of solutions sales for the country.

    Satoshi Harada joins in Tokyo as flow product sales reporting to Hirofumi Satoi, global markets sales, Japan. Harada has 8 years of banking and financial experience, most recently with Société Générale Securities Japan.

  • DBS Deepens Roots in China

    DBS Deepens Roots in China

    The bank will accelerate its expansion in the rapidly growing Greater Bay Area with a stake in Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank.

    DBS has entered into an agreement to acquire a 13 percent stake in Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank in a deal valued at RMB 5.286 billion ($813.2 million), as part of its strategy of investing in its core markets, the bank announced on Tuesday evening.

    The deal for 1.35 billion new shares at RMB 3.91 ($0.60) per share, representing 1.01 times the book value per share as of 31 December 2020, will make DBS the largest shareholder of SZRCB. DBS will use internal cash resources to fund the investment, which is expected to complete when the deal is approved by regulatory authorities in China.

    Established in 2005, SZRCB currently operates one of the largest bank branch network in Shenzhen, with 210 branches and over 3,600 employees servicing over 5 million active retail customers and over 170,000 active corporate customers.

    Approximately 40 percent of its loans are in the retail segment and the remaining 60 percent are in corporate segment, largely to Shenzhen-based small-and-medium-enterprises. The bank has RMB 519 billion in assets and RMB 404 billion in deposits, and generated RMB 4.8 billion in net profit as of 31 December 2020.

    We see this as a highly complementary strategic partnership that will allow us to double down on the GBA and leverage on SZRCB’s local network and know-how to deepen DBS’ GBA strategy. At the same time, we would be able to support the continued growth and digital transformation of SZRCB through our regional presence and digital capabilities, Piyush Gupta, DBS CEO, said in the announcement.