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Tag: asia

  • Giordano International warns for a profit decrease

    Giordano International warns for a profit decrease

    Giordano International (0709) warned that it expects to record an annual net loss of between HK$110 million and HK$130 million in 2020, as compared with a profit of HK$230 million in 2019.

    As stated in the interim results announcement last year, a net loss of HK$175 million was recorded for the six months ended June 30, 2020. However, the group expects to record a net profit of between HK$45 million and HK$65 million in the second half of the year due to the positive trend in retail sales and improvement in consumer sentiment.

    The forecast net profit has not taken into account further potential asset impairment charges.

    As of end-December, 2020, the group’s merchandise inventory was worth about HK$435 million, below that of 2019 by about HK$113 million.

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  • U.S. Adds Chinese Smartphone Giant Xiaomi to Blacklist

    U.S. Adds Chinese Smartphone Giant Xiaomi to Blacklist

    Just five days before the official inauguration of President Joe Biden, the Trump administration is making a late push to ban more Chinese companies deemed risky, including smartphone maker Xiaomi and state-owned oil firm CNOOC.

    Xiaomi was one of nine firms added to the Defense Department’s list of banned firms linked to the Chinese military, expanding the original list of over 60 companies.

    The Department is determined to highlight and counter the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) Military-Civil Fusion development strategy, which supports the modernization goals of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), said a statement from the Department of Defense (DoD).

    According to the DoD, PLA modernization is being ensured via access to «advanced technologies and expertise acquired and developed by even those PRC companies, universities, and research programs that appear to be civilian entities».

    Financial firms that wish to comply with sanctions on the additional firms will have to rebalance their exposure and many have reportedly done so in recent times, delisting of structured products in Hong Kong or removing constituents from major global index compilers.

    One notable global firm that has bucked the trend by maintaining business ties without complying to U.S. sanctions is State Street Global Advisors, whose Asia unit reversed its decision to remove banned stocks from the renowned Tracker Fund following pressure from Hong Kong officials.

    In the third quarter of last year, the Chinese tech giant surpassed Apple in terms of smartphone sales and entered Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index in September. Its current market capitalization exceeds $700 billion.

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  • Trump takes one last shot at maiming Huawei before he leaves the White House this week

    Trump takes one last shot at maiming Huawei before he leaves the White House this week

    Even though President Donald Trump will be leaving the White House this coming Wednesday, he took the time to spank the Chinese phone and networking equipment manufacturer Huawei one last time. In May 2019, Trump cited security issues for his decision to put Huawei on the Entity List. This move prevented the firm from accessing its U.S. suppliers without permission from the Commerce Department. Despite this move which resulted in the loss of Google as a supplier, Huawei persevered; for a brief period of time this year, it was the top phone manufacturer on the planet in terms of shipments.

    Exactly one year to the day that it was placed on the Entity List, Huawei received another big blow from the Trump administration. Starting last September, any foundry manufacturing chips using American-sourced technology needs a license from the U.S. to ship to Huawei. The latter was the second-largest customer of the world’s largest foundry, TSMC, and was blocked from receiving cutting-edge chips that it had designed itself. The U.S. also browbeat its allies over the last few years in an attempt to prevent them from using Huawei’s networking equipment on their 5G networks.

    American lawmakers were quick to call Huawei a national security risk because of the company’s alleged tie to the Communist Chinese government. Concerns that Huawei’s phones and base stations contain backdoors used to spy on U.S. consumers and corporations have never been proven. The U.S. also banned rural carriers from using the Universal Service Fund (managed by the FCC) to purchase networking gear from Huawei and is forcing these firms to remove any Huawei equipment used in their networks.

    In the final days of the Trump administration, licenses allowing U.S. firms to sell to the Chinese manufacturer are being revoked and applications from U.S. suppliers to obtain such licenses are being rejected. Reuters has seen an email sent from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) that documents the Commerce Department’s recent actions. In the email, the SIA notes that the Commerce Department had released “intents to deny a significant number of license requests for exports to Huawei and a revocation of at least one previously issued license.” The SIA email stated that a broad range of products was included in the latest action and many U.S. companies have been waiting months to hear whether they would be allowed to sell to Huawei. More than 150 license requests were pending amounting to $120 billion worth of goods and technology.

    Just last week, the Trump administration blacklisted Chinese phone manufacturer Xiaomi by demanding that U.S. investors divest themselves from any investments made in the company by November 11th, 2021.

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  • StanChart Nets Ex-Bank of Singapore Relationship Manager

    StanChart Nets Ex-Bank of Singapore Relationship Manager

    Standard Chartered hires a new private banker focused on the Singapore market, formerly from Bank of Singapore, according to a note.

    Suresh Nair joins Standard Chartered as a senior client partner for private banking, according to the note, effective as of today with a focus on the Singapore market. In his new role, Nair will report to Adeline Chow, private banking team lead for Singapore and Malaysia.

    A spokesperson for the bank confirmed the hire.

    Nair was most recently with Bank of Singapore where he was responsible for the Singapore, Malaysia and international teams. Previously, he had over 20 years of banking experience working for the likes of J.P. Morgan, HSBC Private Bank and American Express. In addition to Southeast Asia, Nair also has some experience covering the Dubai market.

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  • Google Play Store now tells you which apps are trending higher or lower

    Google Play Store now tells you which apps are trending higher or lower

    It’s human nature to want to know which apps are trending up and which are trending down. And now this information is available on the Google Play Store via a new icon that shows whether an app is trending up or down. The icon shows an arrow moving up or moving down in the top app lists. An arrow pointing up tells you that a particular app is trending higher while an arrow pointing down tells you the opposite.

    Unfortunately, the icons don’t tell us how many slots an app has moved up or has moved down. Nor do we get to know how much time has elapsed while the app in question started trending in one direction or the other.

    To check out which apps are trending up or trending down, open the Google Play Store app. On the top row of tabs, tap on Top charts. From there you can navigate to different charts showing the top apps in certain categories. Looking at the Top free chart you can see that the top three apps are Signal Private Messenger, Telegram, and Zoom Cloud Meetings. MeWe is number four and underneath the number four on the chart, you can see an arrow pointing downward. That means that the app is trending lower.

    TikTok is number five and is trending higher. At number six is DuckDuck Go Privacy Browser with an arrow pointing down indicating that the app is trending lower. Trending higher is Disney+ (#7), Google Pay (#8), discovery+ (#9) and Cash App (#10). This list goes all the way to number 597.

    Most likely your decision whether or not to install an app is not going to come down to how it is trending. Still, those of you who are into such things can now easily get this information from the Google Play Store.

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  • Leading jeweler invests in pawn shop chain

    Leading jeweler invests in pawn shop chain

    PNJ has decided to invest in pawnshop chain Golden Friend, with the stipulation it cannot exceed 30 percent of the latter’s charter capital.

    The Board of Directors of the Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Company (PNJ) has entrusted PNJ CEO Le Tri Thong with deciding the value and timing of the investment.

    The Golden Friend Joint Stock Company was founded in 2017 with a charter capital of VND1 billion, which was raised after six months to VND10 billion.

    The company introduced itself as a strategic partner of PNJ. Golden Friend has 21 pawnshops, all of which are located inside PJN stores. It accepts expensive accessories made of gold, silver and diamond, and also luxury watches like Rolex, Hublot and Patek Philippe.

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  • New CEO for DB Schenker in Asia Pacific

    New CEO for DB Schenker in Asia Pacific

    DB Schenker announces the appointment of Dr Niklas Wilmking as CEO for the Asia Pacific region, with effect from 1st January 2021.

    Following his successful tenure as Executive Vice President Global Airfreight at DB Schenker Head Office, responsible for the global airfreight network, flight operations, procurement, revenue management, operational excellence and digitalization, Dr Wilmking returns to the Asia Pacific region, based in the Regional Head Office in Singapore to lead its over 15,000 strong workforce across 20 countries.

    Since joining Schenker in 2002, Dr Wilmking has held various operational and corporate leadership positions in Europe, Asia as well as Global roles, including extensive stints in Asia Pacific leading corporate strategic transformation projects and managing comprehensive portfolios of P&L.  Notably, Dr Wilmking led the freight and logistics project for the Beijing Olympics, as well as the M&A integration for Bax Global and Schenker. He was also CEO of Schenker in Vietnam, as well as CEO of Star Global in Hong Kong which were subsidiaries of the Schenker Group.

    Prior to joining Schenker, Dr Wilmking spent seven years in operational positions at Lufthansa. He holds a Ph.D. in Logistics Engineering from Technical University in Berlin.

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  • Tesla Asks U.S. Safety Agency To Declare Speed Display Issue Inconsequential

    Tesla Asks U.S. Safety Agency To Declare Speed Display Issue Inconsequential

    Tesla Inc filed a petition with U.S. auto safety regulators saying that 612,000 vehicles produced since 2012 do not fully comply with federal safety standards because displays can be switched from miles per hour to only metric measurements, documents released on Friday show.

    The automaker asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to declare the noncompliance issue inconsequential to safety, according to the agency’s filing.

    Tesla said it corrected the issue in production in September and that more than 75% percent of the affected U.S. vehicles have accepted the firmware update released in September.

    Tesla said if vehicles are set to only display to kilometers, all functions tied to speed limits like Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Speed Assist will “convert mapped data from mph to km/h, resulting in the vehicle speed automatically matching the appropriate speed limit.”

    Tesla added that vehicle operators can change the display back to miles per hour, saying the option is “easily located in the display menu and is not buried in sub-menus.”

    Tesla said it has not received any reports of crashes related to this issue and noted that NHTSA granted two petitions for inconsequential treatment involving speedometer unit display noncompliance to Volkswagen AG in July and BMW in 2015.

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  • Apple is a “lifestyle company” says incoming Intel CEO in bid to motivate employees

    Apple is a “lifestyle company” says incoming Intel CEO in bid to motivate employees

    There was a time before the Apple iPhone and other smartphones roamed the earth when people relied on their PCs to access the internet. Back then, Intel was said to be the Gold Standard of chip makers. But that was then and these days Intel no longer has the same reputation. Intel also has had problems with its 10nm process node and delayed until 2022 the release of its 7nm manufacturing process.

    There has been talk about Intel turning to contract manufacturer TSMC or Samsung Foundry to produce some of Intel’s chip designs. In fact, recently Intel decided to outsource the production of its second-generation discrete graphics chip to TSMC. That is the company responsible for the manufacturing of Apple’s 5nm A14 Bionic chipset and the powerful 5nm M1 chip that is replacing Intel components on some Macs

    Last week, Intel CEO Bob Swan flew away from the company effective on February 15th. His replacement, Pat Gelsinger, is returning to the flock; an Intel veteran with over 30 years experience at Intel, Gelsinger recently spent his days as CEO of VMare. While Gelsinger doesn’t take over until the middle of next month, he apparently is feeling the heat from Apple’s M1 chip. The latter is equipped with 16 billion transistors. Compare that to the 11.8 billion transistors that are sardined into the A14 Bionic (which was a 38% hike from the 8.5 billion transistors found in the A13 Bionic).

    The incoming Intel CEO met with company employees during the week and dropped what some might consider an insult on Apple. While addressing the troops, Gelsinger reportedly said, “We have to deliver better products to the PC ecosystem than any possible thing that a lifestyle company in Cupertino” makes (italics added). Perhaps Mr. Gelsinger hasn’t checked out the performance of the chips designed by that “lifestyle company in Cupertino.” The M1 is delivering improved performance and battery life and the addition of the Apple-designed component put a jolt into the demand for Macs.

    Perhaps Intel’s next CEO was just trying to motivate the firm’s employees. The point of the comment is that Intel is a company that produces chips, chips, and chips. As a result, the chips it produces should be better than the ones designed by Apple which makes different products to improve consumers’ lives. In other words, Gelsinger is looking at the M1 and is saying that how could we let ourselves be outdone by a company that really doesn’t focus on chips and is into consumer electronics instead.

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  • Canada Goose appoints an APAC president

    Canada Goose appoints an APAC president

    Canada Goose announced the appointment of Scott Cameron as president, Asia-Pacific (APAC), effective April 1 and the appointment of Michael D. Armstrong, executive vice president, ViacomCBS, to its Board of Directors as an independent director, effective immediately.

    Cameron joined Canada Goose in 2016 as chief strategy and business development officer and most recently served as president of the Greater China region. During his tenure, Cameron was responsible for the development and growth of the brand’s direct-to-consumer global channels, successfully established Canada Goose’s presence in Asia and assembled its team in the region. In this new role, he will oversee all marketing and commercial activity within the expanded APAC region, which includes Greater China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.

    “Scott has been instrumental in ensuring the highest level of operational excellence throughout our stores globally, building our business in Greater China and providing an exceptional level of support to the executive team for the past five years,” said Dani Reiss, president and CEO of Canada Goose. “This appointment is a reflection of his relentless efforts and the success he has helped to drive in the region.”

    Armstrong, a 22-year veteran of ViacomCBS Global Distribution Group, manages relationships with third-party studios and oversees the international sales teams for formats and CBS Newspath service. Previously, he served as general manager of BET Networks, where he oversaw strategy and operations, content acquisitions, multi-platform scheduling, marketing, corporate communications, strategy, finance, research, and audience science. Armstrong is on the board of PRX and a member of the Board of Trustees at his alma mater Hampton University.

    “I look forward to Michael’s contributions as a Canada Goose board member, drawing on his extensive expertise in business development and operations throughout the entertainment industry and the world,” said Reiss. “I am confident that his vast entertainment experience will provide a valuable perspective as we continue to execute on our long-term growth strategy.”

    “I am honored to join the Board of Directors at Canada Goose, which has grown into one of the world’s most coveted lifestyle and performance luxury apparel brands. I look forward to working hand in hand with my fellow Board members and the management team to continue to propel the brand’s growth,” said Armstrong.

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  • WhatsApp delays the implementation of its new terms and privacy policy

    WhatsApp delays the implementation of its new terms and privacy policy

    For the first time in many years, it looks like Facebook is taken into consideration users’ feedback. After informing its 2 billion users that WhatsApp is going to update its terms and privacy policy, forcing them to share data with Facebook and third-party associated companies, the social giant has taken a step back.

    Facebook is now giving WhatsApp users three extra months to decide whether or not they agree with the new terms and privacy policy, the company announced this week. Along with the new deadline, WhatsApp clarified some of the misinformation running around after its initial announcement.

    The update includes new options people will have to message a business on WhatsApp, and provides further transparency about how we collect and use data. While not everyone shops with a business on WhatsApp today, we think that more people will choose to do so in the future and it’s important people are aware of these services. This update does not expand our ability to share data with Facebook.

    Also, Facebook announced that it will do a lot more to clear up the misinformation around how privacy and security work on WhatsApp in the coming weeks. That being said, Facebook will no longer suspend or delete WhatsApp accounts that don’t agree with the new terms and privacy policy on February 8. Instead, Facebook will “go to people gradually to review the policy at their own pace before new business options are available on May 15.”

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  • FCC sets record with auction of key spectrum for 5G use

    FCC sets record with auction of key spectrum for 5G use

    During 2021, U.S. carriers will take another huge step toward completing the build-out of their 5G networks. The FCC last week wrapped up an auction of mid-band spectrum in the C-band. These airwaves lie in the range of 3.7GHz-3.98GHz and heavy demand for the rare mid-band spectrum helped generate a record $80.9 billion in proceeds related to the auction. There were 57 bidders vying for a total of 5,684 licenses. Mid-band spectrum is very much in demand by U.S. carriers and T-Mobile has made these airwaves the key part of its layer-cake approach to 5G. The previous record for money generated by an FCC auction for spectrum was the $44.9 billion generated by the FCC’s 2014 AWS-3 auction.

    T-Mobile, the first U.S. carrier to launch nationwide 5G in the states, used its 600MHz low-band spectrum as the foundation for its nationwide 5G service. These signals travel great distances making them the perfect foundation for its network. But what they don’t do is deliver download data speeds much faster than 4G LTE. High-band spectrum can only travel short distances making them perfect for urban areas where the population is densely packed. While these signals do not easily penetrate buildings, they do deliver fast 5G download data speeds often hitting 1Gbps and faster.

    In between the two extremes is mid-band spectrum. Sprint’s mid-band holdings were exactly what T-Mobile was targeting when it offered $26.5 billion to buy its fellow wireless provider back in April 2018. The deal closed this past April giving T-Mobile control over Sprint’s 2.5GHz mid-band spectrum. These signals travel further than those of the high-band variety and are faster than low-band 5G. Many analysts expect T-Mobile to become the fastest 5G provider in the states thanks to its mid-band holdings once all the work is done.

    Other carriers wanted the opportunity to purchase mid-band spectrum for themselves. In November 2019, U.S. Cellular, Verizon, AT&T, Bluegrass Cellular, Pine Belt Wireless and the C-Band Alliance sent an electronic letter to the FCC requesting an auction of mid-band airwaves in the C-Band (3.7GHz-4.2GHz). At the time, U.S. Cellular President and CEO Ken Meyers says that it is “critical” for U.S. carriers to obtain as much mid-band spectrum as they can find. The executive made it clear that the FCC had to take action ASAP to make sure that there would be enough mid-band spectrum to go around.

    FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who is leaving the regulatory agency this Wednesday afternoon when the transition to the Biden administration takes place, said, “These results represent a strong endorsement by the private sector of the service rules and transition plan put in place by the FCC to quickly make the C-band a critical part of 5G rollout in the United States. And they vindicate the hard choices the FCC made during the C-band proceeding—and that we made them. The FCC confronted a host of technical, legal, practical, and political challenges in structuring this auction. It would have been easy to delay. But we rightly pushed ahead and overcame every one of those obstacles. As a result, we significantly advanced United States leadership in 5G and have enabled America’s wireless consumers to more quickly benefit from 5G services.”

    Satellite owners who are giving up their spectrum in the auction are being transitioned to the upper 4.0-4.2 GHz range. To prevent interference from the satellite transmissions to impact the wireless providers, a 20MHz band will be used as a “guard band.”

    The next step in the process requires the auction winners to bid for licenses related to specific frequencies. The FCC will release a notice to the public containing the date and time when this assignment phase will take place.

  • UBS Poised for Indian Fintech Deal

    UBS Poised for Indian Fintech Deal

    Swiss bank UBS is reportedly poised to pour several hundred million into a payments start-up in India. The investment is alongside some of the Swiss wealth manager’s ultra-rich clients.

    Zurich-based UBS is negotiating a $400 million investment in Paytm, an Indian e-commerce payment system Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people close to the talks. The bank’s asset management arm wants to co-invest with UBS’ wealthy clients, the outlet reported – which would mark one of the largest such deals.

    The ten-year-old fintech was valued at $16 billion in its last round of financing two years ago. It competes with services like Google Pay or WhatsApp’s payment service, as well as regional start-ups.

    UBS is attempting to buy shares from Paytm employees, the news service reported. It doesn’t appear to be a done deal yet: UBS aims to finalize an agreement as soon as this month, though talks could still be delayed or fall apart.

    Paytm counts Softbank, Ant Financial, Berkshire Hathaway, and asset manager T. Rowe Price, among its investors. Its CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, said this week Paytm could turn a profit as soon as this year.

  • Vietjet eyes aircraft purchases as it relies on vaccine rollouts to revive air travel

    Vietjet eyes aircraft purchases as it relies on vaccine rollouts to revive air travel

    Budget carrier Vietjet Air plans to expand its investment in new aircraft and technical facilities this year after reporting a small profit in 2020 despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

    “In 2021, we expect to continue to receive new modern planes and will invest in maintenance and training facilities, and the investment will be higher than in 2020,” Vietjet CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao said in an interview recorded on Jan. 9 and broadcast on Thursday at the Reuters Next conference.

    Vietjet said separately on Wednesday it raised $28 million via a bond issuance last month to fund its development plans in 2021. It did not provide further details about the bond sale.

    Vietnam has been successful in containing the coronavirus with a series of quarantine and tracking measures. With just over 1,500 infections and 35 deaths in total, it has resumed economic activities earlier than much of Asia.

    While all international commercial flights have been suspended since late March, domestic air travel has been subjected to few restrictions.

    Vietjet’s cargo transport in 2020 rose 75 percent from 2019, she said, adding that its overall domestic operations recorded positive growth in 2020, without giving comparative figures.

    With the early Covid-19 vaccine roll-out around the world, Thao expects the global aviation industry to recover rapidly.

    Vietjet’s Thai unit increased its aircraft fleet to 15 last year, while its market share there also increased, she added.

    “Air travel demand is extremely high for business, investment, education and healthcare purposes, and we have been actively conducting flights to repatriate Vietnamese people from overseas,” Thao said.

    She said the company is considering options to raise funds for its investment plans for this year, though she did not name an amount.

    “Our debt-to-equity ratio is 1.0, compared with over 3.0 for the aviation industry, so we have room to mobilize funds for our development,” Thao said.

    The airline continued to take delivery of Airbus SE narrow- body jets last year despite some supply chain interruptions at the manufacturer but Boeing Co did not meet its delivery schedule, she said.

    Vietjet has 200 737 MAX jets on order, according to Boeing, but the plane has not yet returned to service in Asia following a near two-year global grounding.

  • Couche-Tard drops $20bn Carrefour takeover plan

    Couche-Tard drops $20bn Carrefour takeover plan

    Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard has dropped its €16.2bn ($19.6bn) bid to acquire European retailer Carrefour SA after the takeover plan ran into stiff opposition from the French government, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

    The decision to end merger talks came after a meeting on Friday between French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and Couche-Tard’s founder and chairman, Alain Bouchard, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity as the matter is confidential.

    Couche-Tard and Carrefour declined to comment.

    Earlier on Friday, France ruled out any sale of grocer Carrefour on food security grounds, prompting the Canadian firm and its allies to mount a last-ditch attempt to salvage the deal.

    “Food security is strategic for our country so that’s why we don’t sell a big French retailer. My answer is extremely clear: We are not in favour of the deal. The no is polite but it’s a clear and final no,” Le Maire said.

    Couche-Tard was hoping to win the government’s blessing by offering commitments on both jobs and France’s food supply chain and by keeping the merged entity listed in both Paris and Toronto, with Carrefour boss Alexandre Bompard and his Couche-Tard counterpart Brian Hannasch leading it as co-CEOs, one of the sources said.

    The plan included a pledge to keep the new entity’s global strategic operations in France and having French nationals on its board, he said.

    Couche-Tard, advised by Rothschild, was also going to pump about €3bn of investments into the French retailer which was working on the deal with Lazard.

    The proposal was widely backed by Carrefour which employs 105,000 workers in France, its largest market, making it the country’s biggest private-sector employer.

    France’s rejection of the deal less than 24 hours after talks were confirmed sparked grumbling in some business circles over how French President Emmanuel Macron, a former investment banker, is turning away foreign investment. Some politicians and bankers said the pushback could tarnish Macron’s pro-business image, while others highlighted that the COVID-19 crisis had forced more than one country to redefine its strategic national interests.

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