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Tag: asia

  • Grab set to announce deal with US SPAC at $40 billion valuation

    Grab set to announce deal with US SPAC at $40 billion valuation

    Grab Holdings is set to announce as early as Tuesday a merger with U.S.-based Altimeter that will value Grab at nearly $40 billion and lead to a public listing.

    The merger will make it the biggest blank-check company deal ever. Southeast Asia’s largest ride-hailing and food delivery firm Grab’s agreement with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) backed by Altimeter Capital includes a $4 billion private investment in public equity (PIPE) from a group of Asian and global investors including Fidelity International and Janus Henderson, three people said.

    Grab declined to comment. There was no response from Silicon Valley-based Altimeter to an emailed request for comment.

    The two fund managers also did not respond to an emailed query. The sources declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

    The deal for Singapore-based Grab, which sources have previously said was valued at just over $16 billion last year, is a big win for its early backers such as Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp and China’s Didi Chuxing.

    A U.S. listing will give Grab extra firepower in its main market, Indonesia, where local rival Gojek is close to sealing a merger with the country’s leading e-commerce business Tokopedia.

    Grab, whose net revenue surged 70 percent last year, is yet to turn profitable, but it expects its biggest segment – the food delivery business – to break even by end-2021, as more consumers shift to online food delivery after the Covid-19 pandemic.

    The nearly $40 billion valuations is based on a proforma equity value, two of the sources said.

    With operations in eight countries and 398 cities, Grab is already Southeast Asia’s most valuable start-up.

    Leveraging its ride-hailing business started in 2012, the firm has expanded into offering food and grocery deliveries, courier services, digital payments, and is now making a big push into insurance and lending in a region of 650 million people.

    Cash-rich, U.S.-listed Sea is also muscling into food delivery and financial services in Indonesia. Both Grab and Sea won digital bank licences in Singapore last year.

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  • Royal Enfield’s 350 cc Motorcycles Get A Significant Price Hike

    Royal Enfield’s 350 cc Motorcycles Get A Significant Price Hike

    Most two-wheeler manufacturers have increased the prices of their models in India April 2021 onwards. Royal Enfield too has increased the prices of its 350 cc range of motorcycles significantly. In fact, some of the models get a price hike of over ₹ 10,000. The motorcycles already received a price hike of up to ₹ 3,000 in January 2021. The Himalayan and the 650 cc twins were updated for 2021 and their current prices reflect the increase already. Here are the updated prices for all the 350 cc Royal Enfield motorcycle models.

    The Bullet 350 range gets the biggest increase, with prices being increased between ₹ 7,000 to ₹ 13,000 depending on the variant. Similarly, prices for the Classic 350 range have been increased by ₹ 10,000, for the dual-channel ABS variant. The Meteor 350 range sees an increase in prices by up to ₹ 6,000. The prices in the table above are on-road, Delhi).

    The Interceptor 650 and the Continental GT 650 were launched with new colors in February 2021 and prices for those two bikes range from ₹ 275,467 to ₹ 313,367 (ex-showroom, Delhi). These prices too are at least ₹ 6,000 more (variant-to-variant) than the prices introduced in January 2021. Similarly, the 2021 Himalayan was launched in February 2021, with prices starting at ₹ 2.01 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

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  • Li & Fung launches incubator LFX to kickstart sustainable consumption

    Li & Fung launches incubator LFX to kickstart sustainable consumption

    With the rapid evolution of the retail industry shaped by digital technologies and complex consumer demands, the parent company of Li & Fung Limited, the world’s leading supply chain orchestrator, today launched a new company – LFX – to capitalize on new digital opportunities transforming the retail industry and enabling supply chain sustainability.

    LFX’s business model is focused on being an incubation, investment, and operating platform providing digital solutions and digitally-enabled services across the end-to-end consumer goods supply chain. LFX will launch and operate digital ventures delivering solutions directly to brands, retailers, e-commerce companies, C2M (consumer-to-manufacturer) players, as well as manufacturers. Its solutions aim to cover all aspects of the value chain, encompassing trade, information, and fund flows. Its initial ventures will focus on 3D digital product development and supply chain fintech. Additionally, a venture capital arm has been formed to identify and invest in technologies that transform global retailing, supply chain, and logistics.

    As an offshoot of Li & Fung, LFX brings knowledge, hands-on experience spanning 100+ years, and relationships across the global supply chain. LFX has the unique ability and insights to identify and bring to market digital technologies that will have an immediate impact today, while also knowing what needs to happen next to realize the sustainable supply chain of the future, at a time when the retail industry is being shaped by digital technologies and complex consumer demands.

    Spencer Fung, Group Executive Chairman, Li & Fung, and LFX said, “We have established LFX as a separate company to build on Li & Fung’s supply chain knowledge to bring new ways of thinking and revolutionize how we create, make and sell products. Sustainable consumption starts with supply chain digitalization and LFX is forming an ecosystem that connects the innovations, people, and companies committed to accelerating digitalization and transforming the retail industry.”

    Ed Lam, CFO and Executive Committee Member of Li & Fung, has been named CEO of LFX. He brings over 25 years of strategic, financial, and commercial experience with deep supply chain knowledge and insights to lead the new company. Li & Fung is in the process of appointing a new finance leader.

    “Roughly 40 million tons of textile waste goes to landfill every year, and it is estimated that just 60% of garments were sold at full price[1]. Sustainable consumption requires behavioral shifts, and it starts with the supply chain. Our goal at LFX is to reduce the environmental impact of our industry and promote sustainable consumption. We believe that by merging real-world industry experience with new ideas that entrepreneurs and technologists bring, we get practical innovations the industry will embrace,” said Ed Lam, Chief Executive Officer, LFX.

  • China warns online platform companies to halt anti-competitive practices

    China warns online platform companies to halt anti-competitive practices

    China’s market regulator, fresh from fining e-commerce giant Alibaba US$2.75 billion, said on Tuesday it warned nearly three dozen internet companies to stop using any banned practices such as forcing vendors to use their platform exclusively.

    The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said it summoned 34 companies including Tencent, ByteDance and JD.com for a meeting, where it ordered them to conduct self-inspections within one month, warning of “severe punishment” for any that still violated the rules.

    In February, China issued new anti-monopoly guidelines targeting internet platforms.

    On Saturday, SAMR hit Alibaba with a record 18.2 billion yuan fine, and on Tuesday told the other Internet firms to heed that lesson. The regulator is beefing up staff and other resources in order to strengthen antitrust enforcement, Reuters has reported.

    In the statement issued on its website, SAMR described the overall development of China’s platform economy as improving but said no time should be wasted in correcting the way companies operate to ensure they comply with the law.

    China’s cyberspace regulator and tax administration were also represented at the meeting, SAMR said.

    In addition to Tencent, JD, and ByteDance, search giant Baidu and food delivery platform Meituan were among the firms called in by SAMR. None provided immediate comment.

    “The regulators are not aimed at a single enterprise, but the whole platform economy, as it is growing more and more powerful,” said Keso Hong, an independent analyst in Beijing.

    “I believe the companies will be more prudent in the future. Meanwhile, I think it is good for the regulator to give them a reminder to prevent them from ending up like Alibaba.”

    SAMR also criticized abusive practices in community group buying, when companies offer aggressively low prices to woo users, and warned against abuse of big data and tax-related violations.

    In particular, the regulator warned against the practice of forcing vendors to operate on only one platform, a tactic known as “choose one from two”.

    “It is extremely harmful and must be corrected from the root,” the SAMR statement said.

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  • Grab agrees to US$40 billion merger, clearing way to list in the US

    Grab agrees to US$40 billion merger, clearing way to list in the US

    Southeast Asia’s biggest ride-hailing and food delivery firm Grab Holdings agreed a merger on Tuesday with US-based Altimeter Growth Corp in a deal that values Grab at an initial proforma equity value of about US$39.6 billion and will lead to a public listing

    The merger, the biggest blank-check company deal ever, underscores the frenzy on Wall Street as shell firms have raised $99 billion in the US so far this year after a record $83 billion fundraising in 2020.

    Singapore-based Grab’s agreement with a special purpose acquisition company backed by Altimeter Capital includes a more than $4 billion private investment in public equity by investors including BlackRock, Fidelity International, Janus Henderson Investors and Temasek Holdings.

    Grab said its decision to become a public company was driven by strong financial performance in 2020, despite the pandemic.

    Reuters earlier reported that Grab would announce the deal on Tuesday.

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  • Daiso opens first store in Canada comeback

    Daiso opens first store in Canada comeback

    Japanese retailer Daiso has launched its first directly operated Canada store in downtown Vancouver.

    Taking over a former bookstore space, the debut Daiso Canada spans 4700sqft and features a selection of 12,000 products, ranging from seasonal items, stationery and cosmetics to homewares – mostly imported from Japan.

    JLL Canada will be responsible for Daiso’s further expansion in the country, identifying sites for further stores.

    This is the second time the Japanese retailer has entered Canada. It first launched in 2003 through a franchise agreement with Fairchild Group, however, in 2019, the store was taken over by Japanese variety store Oomomo.

    Daiso now operates more than 3000 stores in its home country and 5000 internationally.

    The company’s business model is the so-called ‘100-yen shop’ concept where all products are priced similarly.

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  • New Zealand to Introduce Climate Change Law

    New Zealand to Introduce Climate Change Law

    Banks, insurers and asset managers in New Zealand must make climate change-related disclosures for their businesses as New Zealand becomes a first-mover in green finance laws.

    All banks with total assets of more than NZ$1 billion ($703 million), insurers with more than NZ$1 billion in assets under management alongside equity and debt issuers listed on the country’s stock exchange will have to make disclosures, according to the proposed law which will see its first reading this week.

    Once the law is passed, the first disclosure reports will be released in 2023.

    The move towards more climate change-related disclosures will make New Zealand the world’s first to introduce such a law.

    Approximately 200 domestic firms and several foreign firms meet the NZ$1 billion thresholds to fall under the legislation.

    We simply cannot get to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 unless the financial sector knows what impact their investments are having on the climate, said minister for climate change James Shaw said in a statement. This law will bring climate risks and resilience into the heart of financial and business decision-making.

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  • StanChart Names Global Head of Private Banking

    StanChart Names Global Head of Private Banking

    Standard Chartered has hired a former UBS executive to oversee its private and affluent banking business worldwide.

    Raymond Ang has been named global head of private and priority banking at the Asia-focused British lender, according to a statement, pending regulatory approval.

    In the Singapore-based role, Ang reports to consumer, private, and business banking chief executive Judy Hsu.

    Ang has 25 years of experience across consumer and private banking and lived in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and Singapore. Ang was most recently with UBS where he spent nine years, last as its sector head for Indonesia, Greater China, and offshore Japan. Previously, he also worked for Carlyle, DBS, and Citi.

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  • Hanoi Beer producer profits to slump to 10-year low

    Hanoi Beer producer profits to slump to 10-year low

    The producer of Hanoi Beer expects sales to be badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic this year and profits to fall to a 10-year low as a result.

    The Hanoi Beer Alcohol and Beverage Jsc forecast post-tax profits of VND255 billion ($11 million), down 59 percent from 2020.

    Habeco said in a report that tourism companies, hotels, and restaurants continue to suffer due to Covid-19, and this would directly cause a decrease in consumption of alcoholic beverages.

    Another difficulty it cited was the rising competition with many brewers introducing new products in the popular market segment in which Habeco mainly operates.

    But it said it would strive to maintain its position as one of the biggest brewers in the northern and central regions.

  • Thailand’s top coffee chain to expand in Vietnam

    Thailand’s top coffee chain to expand in Vietnam

    Thailand’s leading coffee chain Café Amazon plans to expand in Vietnam after five months of establishment in the country.

    A spokesperson said recently the chain sees long-term potential in Vietnam and will expand in Ho Chi Minh City and neighboring provinces this year, but did not reveal specific figures.

    The chain opened its first outlet in southern Ben Tre Province last October, and later two in Tien Giang Province and Tra Vinh Province in December, all in Go! Supermarkets operated by Thai giant Central Retail.

    It also opened in December an outlet in HCMC.

    Thailand’s Central Group owns 40 percent of Café Amazon Vietnam, while the remainder belongs to another Thai fuel distributor PTT Oil and Retail Business.

    Café Amazon has over 3,000 stores in 10 countries.

    In Vietnam, it will have to compete with long-established domestic players like Highlands, Phuc Long, The Coffee House and Trung Nguyen.

    The market in the past has seen the withdrawal of foreign brands like NYDC – New York Dessert Café and Gloria Jean’s Coffees.

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  • DuckDuckGo reveals how you can block Google’s new method of tracking Chrome users

    DuckDuckGo reveals how you can block Google’s new method of tracking Chrome users

    Privacy-first search engine DuckDuckGo on Friday posted a blog that discussed Google’s new data-tracking system called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). Using an algorithm and browsing histories, Google groups together those with similar interests and demographics. FLoC replaces the use of cookies to track users and feed them ads and other targeted content.

    When Google added FLoC to Chrome, it did so without giving users a choice as the tracking system is enabled by default. As DuckDuckGo noted in its blog post, “The criteria for being opted into FLoC are somewhat hidden and conflicting.” As scary as that sounds for those who value their privacy, there are things that you can do to block FLoC from trying to fit you into a category.

    Google claims that FLoC is good for privacy. And while FLoC, in theory, replaces third-party cookies, the latter won’t be removed until 2023 at the earliest. Thus, Google is getting to track users via two different methods for the time being.

    With FLoC, the websites you visit will be able to target ads since they will know things about you from the moment you enter the site. While Google says that you are placed in a group of others with the same interests in demographics, you are more protected as an individual. However, the data that is available to websites, combined with your IP address (which these sites receive automatically), means that you remain tracked as an individual.

    It seems fairly straightforward, but if you don’t want to be tracked by Google Chrome, use a different browser on your iOS and Android devices and on the desktop. If you own an iPhone and don’t like Safari, this writer has started using the recently updated version of Opera Browser which is available for iOS and Android). Besides Opera, on Android the Samsung Internet Browser would be a great choice to replace Chrome.

    If you must continue to use Chrome, DuckDuckGo says that you might be able to avoid FLoC by changing the settings on the Chrome browser. Some suggestions include logging out of your Google account, avoid syncing your history data with Chrome, disabling “Web & App Activity” or “Include Chrome history and activity from sites, apps, and devices that use Google services” in Google Activity Controls. In Google Ad Services you should shut down “Ad Personalization” or “Also use your activity & information from Google services to personalize ads on websites and apps that partner with Google to show ads.”

    Since Google has been profiling users for years, even if FLoC reduces you to a series of numbers based on your interests and demographics, it will only be a matter of time until the code is broken and your identity becomes known. Google says that FLoC is 95% as effective as third-party cookies and DuckDuckGo says that this means that Google will continue “to target people based on age, gender, ethnicity, income, and many other factors. This targeting, regardless of how it’s done, enables manipulation, discrimination, and filter bubbles that many people would like to avoid.”

    DuckDuckGo has also enhanced its tracking blockers on its extension. This protection from FLoC appears on version 2021.4.8 and newer of the DuckDuckGo extension and is also in the process of being approved for the Chrome Web Store. Keep in mind though that by default it will set your default search engine and homepage to DuckDuckGo Search.

    Several organizations dealing with privacy pleaded with Google not to use FLoC, but to no avail. While Google makes it sound as though it is trying to improve privacy online, replacing third-party cookies with a tracking system that is enabled by default certainly sounds just as bad.

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  • Kumho Tire eyes expansion of Vietnam plant

    Kumho Tire eyes expansion of Vietnam plant

    South Korea’s Kumho Tire plans to invest $305 million to expand its plant in Vietnam.

    The expansion, when completed in the first quarter of 2023, is expected to nearly double the plant’s capacity to 9.3 million tires a year.

    “After considering our plans to increase exports to North America and potential U.S. anti-dumping duties, we came to the conclusion that increasing the capacity of the Vietnamese plant would be the best solution,” a Kumho executive said.

    The $200-million plant in the My Phuoc 3 Industrial Park in the southern province of Binh Duong was built in 2008 to manufacture passenger car and light truck radial tires and is the company’s only plant in Southeast Asia.

    In January, China’s Jinyu Tire invested $320 million to expand its factory in the southern province of Tay Ninh.

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  • Microsoft could announce purchase of key Siri supplier as soon as tomorrow

    Microsoft could announce purchase of key Siri supplier as soon as tomorrow

    Microsoft is in “advanced” talks to purchase speech technology and AI company Nuance for a price reported as “about $16 billion.” The deal could be announced as soon as Monday although Bloomberg News says that the discussions are continuing and a deal could still fall apart. Nuance’s voice technology helped Apple launch its Siri voice assistant on the iPhone 4s in 2011 and later that year Nuance acquired QWERTY swiping app Swype.

    The price as currently rumored works out to about $56 for each Nuance share. The company’s stock closed Friday at $45.64 in after-hours trading and at $56 the deal would represent a premium of 22.7%. If done at $16 billion, a purchase of Nuance would be Microsoft’s second-largest deal of all time after the software giant’s $27 billion acquisition of networking app LinkedIn in 2016.

    Nuance software including the Dragon line of speech recognition software is used in a variety of industries from automotive to health care and is used to transcribe voice mails, Doctor’s visits, and customer service calls. For the fourth quarter, the company earned $7 million on revenue of $346 million. For the fiscal year ended last September, Nuance had a net income of $91 million on revenue of $1.48 billion after losing $2.17 billion over the previous fiscal year.

    Anurag Rana, a Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst, said, “This can really help Microsoft accelerate the digitization of the health-care industry, which has lagged other sectors such as retail and banking. The biggest near-term benefit that I can see is in the area of telehealth, where Nuance transcription product is currently being used with Microsoft Teams.”

    s far as Siri’s connection with Nuance is concerned, the latter provided Apple’s digital assistant with its speech recognition engine. Microsoft recently dropped the iOS and Android apps for Cortana, its digital assistant, and Siri rival. Not enough iOS and Android users were using the Cortana app for Microsoft to keep it active.

    Nuance helped provide Siri with the technology needed for the assistant to hear tasks requested by users and understand what was being asked. It is unclear what the current relationship is between Apple and Nuance.

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  • Huawei launches SME Support Program to support economic recovery in APAC

    Huawei launches SME Support Program to support economic recovery in APAC

    Global leading ICT provider Huawei launched its SME Support Program with trusted ecosystem partners in Asia Pacific, aiming to deliver further technical support for economic recovery amid the fight against the pandemic in the region.

    Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the engines of growth and innovation in the APEC region. They account for over 97 percent of all businesses and employ over half of the workforce across APEC economies. They contribute significantly to economic growth, with their share of GDP ranging from 40 percent to 60 percent in most APEC economies, according to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

    The pandemic has forced businesses to accelerate their digital transformation and move to the cloud one to three years ahead of schedule. HUAWEI CLOUD is currently working with over 19,000 partners and 1.6 million developers and is committed to strengthening the digital economy to support a sustainable economic recovery.

    For the SME Support Program, which will be available until December 31, 2021, each eligible SME applicant could receive coupons worth up to $3,000 USD and free professional consulting service including cutting-edge cloud solutions for a variety of industry scenarios including Financial Service, Education, E-commerce, Gaming, IoT, Application Development, and Enterprise Applications.

    SMEs that have an account on the HUAWEI CLOUD official website but have never used any paid service could apply on the SME Support Program page and receive consultation from cloud experts. Applications will be reviewed based on the company’s cloud needs and the readiness of workloads for cloud deployment.

    “We are still very small, but we have the ambition to grow into a big business. Therefore, choosing a reliable partner is our priority, this translates into reliable technology and reliable service and support. HUAWEI did a great job. I believe we get the same prompt responses any big client of yours,” Yongyan Liu, Co-Founder and VP of Strategy and Development at SYMBIONAT HEALTH, expressed confidence in the cooperation with HUAWEI CLOUD.

    Currently, HUAWEI CLOUD offers over 220 services in categories such as compute, storage, network, security, big data, AI, and IoT, plus over 210 solutions for full coverage of industries. Enterprises can rely on Huawei’s robust ecosystem to accelerate innovation by joining efforts with other eco-partners.

  • Singapore’s Naiise all but collapses under debts

    Singapore’s Naiise all but collapses under debts

    Singapore gift and homewares chain Naiise has closed its last store – the Iconic at Jewel Changi Airport – suggesting the end of the eight-year-old brand.

    Multiple sources say Naiise has collapsed due to its inability to paying debts to suppliers, and weak sales in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Opened in May 2019, Naiise Iconic at Jewel Changi was considered one of the company’s biggest investments, unknowingly made at the wrong time – just before Covid hit.

    Last year, the retailer fielded multiple complaints from vendors accusing of defaulting payments. At the same time, Naiise’s co-founder Amanda Eng reportedly quit her role in the company.

    According to Today, Naiise owes up to US$7500 to vendors, many of whom have ended their relationship with Naiise and given up claims on the grounds the legal process is too costly and time-consuming.

    “My game-publishing studio has been a vendor of Naiise since 2015 and we have been owed money since 2018,” said Lye Wen Song Xeo, co-founder of Capital Gains Studio wrote on Facebook. “Promises made to repay have all been broken again and again and we had no choice but to pull our games out early last year.”

    “Covid-19 has been very hard on many of our distributors and I appreciate those distributors that came clean with us and honestly shared with us their problems and what their plans [were] if they are unable to pay us. However, shirking responsibilities and not coming clean with your vendors is honestly… not Naiise,” said Xeo.

    Despite its physical stores closing, Naiise continues to trade online and at a Kuala Lumpur outlet. Founded in 2013, Naiise had six stores in Singapore and Malaysia.