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Tag: asia

  • Soaring gold price, China recovery boost Chow Tai Fook results

    Soaring gold price, China recovery boost Chow Tai Fook results

    Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Limited, a Hong Kong Main Board listed company with over 90 years of heritage, today announces its interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2020.

    The Group’s revenue declined by 16.5% to HK$24,673 million in 1HFY2021. Gross profit remained stable at HK$8,143 million. The adjusted gross profit margin was lifted to 35.1% in 1HFY2021, thanks to the improvement in the like-for-like gross profit margin of gold products resulted from the surge of international gold price. Core operating profit benefitted from the adjusted gross profit margin improvement with core operating profit margin widened to 16.5% in 1HFY2021. The Group’s profit before taxation increased by 49.3% to HK$3,284 million.

    Profit attributable to shareholders of the Company increased by 45.6% to HK$2,232 million mainly benefitted from our like-for-like gross profit margin improvement, one-off government subsidies and rent concession, plus foreign exchange gain, netting off impairment on assets. Basic earnings per share were reported at HK$0.22. The Board has declared an interim dividend of HK$0.16 per share. The payout ratio approximates 71.7% in 1HFY2021.

    While business in Mainland China witnessed a steady recovery on the back of the easing COVID-19 situation in 2QFY2021, performance in Hong Kong, Macau and other markets remained lackluster. Thus, Same Store Sales (“SSS”) in Mainland China stayed flat in 1HFY2021 supported by a positive Same Store Sales Growth (“SSSG”) in 2QFY2021 as business activities and consumer sentiment revived. In Hong Kong and Macau, SSS was down by 65.7% during the period as customer traffic remained stagnant.

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  • Porsche Could Make More Than 20,000 Taycan EVs In 2020

    Porsche Could Make More Than 20,000 Taycan EVs In 2020

    Porsche has announced that it is on target to produce more than 20,000 Taycan electric cars in 2020. This is quite an achievement for the German automotive giant considering the pandemic has ravaged the demand for vehicles and also the fact that the Taycan is the first full-electric car produced by Porsche.

    The pandemic hasn’t been able to slow down the sales of the Porsche Taycan. “Despite the closure of dealerships and factories during the first corona wave, we will exceed our original target of 20,000 vehicles sold this year,” said Oliver Blume, Porsche’s CEO in an interview with auto motor und sport.

    This news comes a day after the company announced that the Taycan had broken the world record for drifting. It drifted 42 kilometres in 55 minutes in Germany using the RWD version of the Taycan that’s only sold in China.

    The interesting bit is that the sales figures that Porsche is claiming indicate a revival of the automotive market. Till the first half of the year, Porsche had only sold 4,500 Taycans. Porsche then claimed that number had doubled by the end of October, which means in just two months the German automotive manufacturer is looking to double that figure too,  which is staggering.

    The Taycan has been such a success that it has become Porsche’s best-selling car in Europe taking over the Panamera. Porsche at some point will look to deploy a 40,000 Taycan production capacity which will make it its best-selling car this year.

  • Jason Freeny Asia Experience store opens at K11

    Jason Freeny Asia Experience store opens at K11

    Renowned sculptor and designer Jason Freeny is bringing his famed art toys to Hong Kong just in time for Christmas.

    Taking place in the city’s K11 Art Mall, “OUTSIDE IN: An Unconventional World of Art Toys” will be the largest and most comprehensive experience store of Freeny’s work to take place in Hong Kong. The showcase will feature many of his most iconic creations, including a 3-meter tall anatomized XXRAY Elmo (Snow Edition), the One Piece character XXRAY Luffy, Dissected POPek, and the Squatting Balloon Dog the creative designed alongside London-based artist Whatshisname.

    Aside from the showcase, K11 will also hold an “OUTSIDE IN” Jason Freeny Asia XXRAY experience store which will carry over 100 of the artist’s toys, including special edition drops made in collaboration with MIGHTY JAXX as well as the exclusive DISSECTED POPek (Metallic White & Silver Edition) once again by Whatshisname and Freeny.

    The Jason Freeny “OUTSIDE IN” experience store will take place in K11’s Atrium and chi K11 art space between November 21 and February 28, 2021, every day from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Additionally, items from the experience store will be available for pre-order via a special landing site for K11 Art Mall, “OUTSIDE IN: An Unconventional World of Art Toys.”

    K11 Art Mall
    18, Hanoi Road
    Tsim Sha Tsui
    Hong Kong

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  • L’Oreal names Gemma Chan as its new brand ambassador

    L’Oreal names Gemma Chan as its new brand ambassador

    English actress Gemma Chan (陳靜) has been announced as L’Oréal Paris’s newest spokeswoman. Already a familiar face to many readers, from an extensive résumé dating back to the mid-2000s—Doctor Who, Sherlock, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, and Humans among her TV work—Chan was probably noticed more by US audiences when she appeared in Crazy Rich Asians in 2018, followed by Captain Marvel in 2019. Her role in the anthology series I Am, which she co-developed and where she played Hannah in the third entry (‘I Am Hannah’), was highly acclaimed. In December, Chan will star alongside Meryl Streep in Steven Soderbergh’s Let Them All Talk, and next year, in Eternals, another Marvel entry. She also founded her own production company, with the aim of promoting more minority voices.

    An Oxford University and Drama Centre London alumna, Chan has worked as an advocate for or supporter of numerous causes, including UNICEF, the Time’s Up movement, the Justice and Equality Fund, and Cook-19 supporting London health care workers.

    It is her rising international profile that seems to have L’Oréal Paris interested, especially with Chan venturing into blockbuster hits. Says its global brand president, Delphine Viguier-Hovasse, ‘Gemma Chan is proof of the success that happens when you have the confidence to follow your own dreams, and speak up for others to be able to follow theirs. Committed to her causes with innate female strength, she’s a source of inspiration beyond the screen, for young women to be the change. We’re delighted to welcome Gemma to the family.’ Chan added, ‘I’ve always believed that we should embrace our difference as our strength. So I’m thrilled to join L’Oréal Paris, a family of empowered women of all origins standing together to show the power and beauty of diversity. The L’Oréal Paris message to every woman, “Believe in your self-worth,” is as needed today as ever.’

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  • E-Land hit by ransomware attack as McAfee warns retailers of more to come

    E-Land hit by ransomware attack as McAfee warns retailers of more to come

    One of South Korea’s largest retailers had to shut down nearly half of its retail stores on Sunday after a ransomware attack.  E-Land said its corporate network system was attacked early in the morning, forcing it to close 23 of its 50 NC department stores and NewCore outlets.  According to Yonhap, E-Land quarantined part of its corporate network system to contain the damage and police are now investigating the attack’s origins.  Ransomware is malicious software that blocks us.

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  • Samsung’s Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra 5G can be yours at $500 off

    Samsung’s Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra 5G can be yours at $500 off

    You’d probably expect a Google-owned mobile virtual network operator to go the extra mile to try to sell as many phones as possible manufactured by, well, Google, but while everyone from Amazon to Best Buy and B&H has discounted the unlocked Pixel 5 ahead of Black Friday, the MVNO seems to be making a better effort to promote Samsung’s 5G-enabled handsets.

    Believe it or not, one of the best Black Friday 2020 deals on a Samsung smartphone is available at Google Fi right now, where you can shave a whopping $500 off the list prices of the recently released Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra 5G without jumping through too many hoops.

    Don’t get us wrong, you will need to meet a few essential requirements, but if you don’t have anything to trade in, that’s perfectly fine. Big G will still let you save the full $500… as long as you’re a new Fi customer willing to port in your existing number from a different carrier. New members of existing Google Fi group plans are also eligible for the same monumental discount, as are existing customers looking to activate the Note 20 or Note 20 Ultra on a “full service” plan within 30 days of receiving their shipment confirmation email.

    The $500 will be automatically taken off the two phones’ regular prices during the checkout process, mind you, so instead of $999.99 and $1,299.99, you’ll be spending just $499.99 or $799.99 for the 5G-capable Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra respectively. Obviously, you can split that into 24 monthly payments if you so choose, and even better, you’re free to combine the massive $500 discount with an additional trade-in deal to maximize your savings.

    We’re talking up to an extra $450 for a mint-condition Galaxy Note 9 or a maximum $400 trade-in discount as far as Apple’s iPhone 8 Plus is concerned. Of course, that’s merely to give you a taste of how great the Google Fi trade-in program is right now, as you can naturally ditch many other pre-owned devices in exchange for hefty savings.

    Needless to say a $499.99 Galaxy Note 20 5G is basically the textbook definition of a bang for buck champion, but if you prefer a member of the slightly older Galaxy S20 5G family, all three of those are also on sale at the time of this writing for $400 less than usual with qualified Google Fi activation. Last but not necessarily least, the already inexpensive Samsung Galaxy A71 5G is marked down from $599.99 to an absolutely irresistible $249.99 under the same conditions detailed above.

  • Airasia joins forces with Turkish Airlines to prepare for return of international travel

    Airasia joins forces with Turkish Airlines to prepare for return of international travel

    In anticipation of a potential revival in international travel, airasia.com has partnered with Turkish Airlines to allow it to enhance its strong pan-Asia flight network.

    The collaboration will enable airasia.com to tap into Turkish Airlines’ comprehensive destination map, which is the world’s largest in terms of the countries and international points flown by a global carrier, the low-cost carrier said in a statement today.

    AirAsia Group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said airasia.com welcomes the opportunity to promote Turkey as a major gateway to Europe, to prepare the airline once borders gradually reopen next year.

    “Today airasia.com with its comprehensive portfolio of travel and lifestyle products is well-poised to promote the best that Turkey and the wider European market have to offer.

    “We will continue to collaborate creatively with other industry players to stimulate travel demand and complete our product offering as the one-stop platform for all our customer’s travel and lifestyle needs,” he said.

    While using its virtual interlining technology, airasia.com will now be able to combine Turkish Airlines’ extensive flight inventory with AirAsia flights and offer itineraries with attractive discounted fares from normal fares.

    AirAsia said the partnership is expected to generate a substantial synergy between the two parties through the cross-promotion of destinations, with the mission of being proactively prepared to tap into forthcoming return of travel.

    Travellers can also enjoy the convenience and great value of an end-to-end product offers across airasia.com ecosystem, from flights to hotels and activities, it added.

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  • Entertainment firms bank on smartphone apps

    Entertainment firms bank on smartphone apps

    Entertainment companies in Vietnam are investing in digital transformation with a focus on the smartphone experience as they seek to reach more young users.

    Television content producer MCV Group recently signed a deal with a digital consulting firm to develop an entertainment and dating app called NetLove.

    It will have a live-streaming feature, which operating director Pham Tu Liem said is key since many users want to interact with celebrities.

    Since the company is already the producer of several popular dating shows on television, it will also include in its new app a dating feature to help connect people online.

    “In the digital era, access to and consumption of entertainment content like reality shows or concerts is no longer bound inside a bulky TV,” Liem said, adding that people now want all their favorite shows on their smartphones.

    Other entertainment companies are also keen on digital transformation.

    Galaxy Studio, which runs a nationwide cinema chain, recently opted for an omnichannel collections solution from a bank to provide various types of payment services to customers but all united in one single cash flow to the company.

    This means customers can pay for movie tickets from bank accounts or e-wallets but Galaxy will only need to partner with the one bank that provides the omnichannel service.

    “E-payment is growing and is replacing cash,” Dinh Thi Thanh Huong, CEO of Galaxy Studio, said. “Young people are leading the trend and we need to take advantage of that.”

    There is potential for online entertainment services if companies continue to invest in digital transformation.

    A study by Germany-based data portal Statista found that the online dating market is expected to be worth $18 million this year and grow at an average rate of 16.9 percent annually in the next four years.

    There are now 3.3 million online dating users in Vietnam, and the figure could reach 4.4 million by 2024.

    A survey found that the most popular apps in the first four months of this year were gaming and karaoke ones.

    Trinh Ho, founder of advertising firm Fresh Media, expected the online dating market to see strong growth based on the trends she has witnessed in the U.S. and China.

    It would attract investors with deep pockets, she said.

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  • Retail sales in South Korea going slowly up

    Retail sales in South Korea going slowly up

    Retail sales in South Korea increased 8.4 per cent in October from a year earlier on the back of the pandemic and consumption-boosting events. Sales of furniture and other consumer goods moved up 18.6 per cent over the period, according to the data.

  • Alibaba CEO hails China’s draft anti-monopoly rules ‘timely and necessary’

    Alibaba CEO hails China’s draft anti-monopoly rules ‘timely and necessary’

    China’s move to draft rules aimed at preventing monopolistic behavior by Internet platforms is “timely and necessary”, Alibaba Group CEO Daniel Zhang said on Monday (Nov 23).

    Speaking at the World Internet Conference, Zhang said Chinese Internet companies have moved to the forefront of the global industry with the help of government policies, but regulations need to evolve.

    The industry’s “development and government supervision is a relationship that promotes and relies on each other, so that platform enterprises cannot only develop well themselves, but also serve the sustainable and healthy development of the whole society”, he said.

    The annual event from Nov 23 to 24 organized by the Cyberspace Administration of China takes place as the country’s Internet giants including Alibaba, Tencent Holdings and Meituan face increasing government scrutiny.

    Earlier this month the planned US$37 billion share market listing of Alibaba affiliate Ant Group was suspended after regulators warned its lucrative online lending business faced tighter scrutiny.

    Alibaba’s e-commerce marketplaces and payment services are also expected to face greater oversight under the draft rules published on Nov 10 by China’s market regulator, which said it wanted to prevent platforms from dominating the market or from adopting methods aimed at blocking fair competition.

    Zhang is one of the few Chinese technology chiefs to appear publicly at the event after it was scaled down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Other chief executives such as Qualcomm’s Steve Mollenkopf delivered remarks via video.

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  • Google will bring Stadia gaming to iOS via a web app

    Google will bring Stadia gaming to iOS via a web app

    It seems that the Stadia conundrum on iOS continues. Although Stadia has an official app on the App Store, you can’t use it to play actual games without downloading them first. Google’s true game streaming service was first brought to iOS devices via a third-party app – the Stadium browser. It was then taken down by Apple for violating certain guidelines and then brought back again after the developer fixed the issue.

    Now there’s another development to the saga. Google announced that it plans on developing a web app that will allow iOS users to play Stadia games on their phones and tablets without the need to download them. The company will initiate “public iOS testing” in the following weeks and it will use a web app in order to bypass Apple’s guidelines stating that:

    “Games offered in a streaming game service subscription must be downloaded directly from the App Store, must be designed to avoid duplicate payment by a subscriber, and should not disadvantage non-subscriber customers.”

    Even though the Stadium browser is technically available on the App Store and it can run games with the native Stadia controller hooked up, it’d be nice to have something official from Google regarding iOS users. We have to wait and see how Apple will react to all this.

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  • Daimler Aims To Double Sales Of Mercedes-Benz’s Maybach Vehicles

    Daimler Aims To Double Sales Of Mercedes-Benz’s Maybach Vehicles

    German luxury carmaker Daimler on Thursday said it plans to double sales of its Maybach-branded Mercedes-Benz vehicles, after selling 12,000 vehicles last year.

    Daimler unveiled its new flagship vehicle, which is based on a Mercedes-Benz S-Class limousine, and which retails starting at $173,000 but can quickly add up to more than $250,000 once options like $3,200 silver champagne flutes are added.

    Daimler plans to make a range of Maybach models, including fully electric variants, Chief Executive Ola Kaellenius said during a virtual presentation of the car.

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  • Hanoi-HCMC world’s second busiest domestic air route

    Hanoi-HCMC world’s second busiest domestic air route

    The Hanoi-HCMC route is the world’s second-busiest in November after South Korea’s Jeju-Seoul, according to British aviation analysis company OAG.

    The flight route connecting Vietnam’s two largest cities, which takes around two hours, has nearly 893,000 seats scheduled for November, while the route between South Korean capital Seoul and Jeju Island has 1.3 million.

    The route between Chinese capital Beijing and Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport is third with 768,184 seats, followed by the two routes in Japan –Sapporo-Tokyo Hanenda and Fukuoka-Tokyo Hanenda.

    Of the top 10 busiest domestic routes in November, China and Japan have four each.

    “International flights have felt the impact most acutely due to border controls and mandatory quarantine requirements, domestic routes are starting to recover as people are generally able to move more freely within their countries,” OAG said.

    Asia is a standout, home to all 10 of the world’s busiest domestic routes this month, the company added.

    Vietnam has reopened six international flights to mainland China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan from September 15, followed by Laos, Cambodia from September 22. It had suspended all international routes in March to contain the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.

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  • Grab’s reign over Vietnam ride-hailing market continues

    Grab’s reign over Vietnam ride-hailing market continues

    Grab remains the dominant player in the Vietnamese ride-hailing market with close to a 75 percent share, and is widening the gap with competitors. Global market advisory firm ABI Research said Grab completed 62.5 million rides in the first six months of 2020, or 74.6 percent of the market, an increase from last year’s 73 percent.

    The market share of FastGo, a Vietnamese competitor, dropped to 0.7 percent from 1 percent.

    But, the Covid-19 pandemic came as a huge blow to the market as Grab’s figures showed. Its 62.5 million rides were a mere 20 percent of the 313 million it completed in the first half of last year.

    The overall market shrunk to 19.5 percent of last year’s 429.5 million rides.

    Two new Vietnamese apps, HCMC-based Viservice’s viApp, and GV Asia’s GV Taxi, made their debuts during the year. But analysts are skeptical about their prospects.

    With the ride-hailing field being extremely competitive, even strong players like Grab, Be and Gojek have turned to the food delivery market for profits.

    Vietnam was the fourth largest ride-hailing market in Southeast Asia last year behind Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, according to a report by Google, Singaporean sovereign fund Temasek and U.S. management consultancy Bain.

    ABI Research estimated the market at US$1.1 billion last year and said it could rise to $4 billion by 2025.

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  • Restaurants find silver lining in cloud kitchens

    Restaurants find silver lining in cloud kitchens

    Amid business blues courtesy of the Covid-19 pandemic, cloud kitchens are finding increasing favor from restaurants in Vietnam’s two major cities.

    Nguyen Van Tung saw revenue from the two restaurants he runs in Saigon plunge 70 percent after the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted daily life in Vietnam. He cut his staff from four to two, but the business continued to suffer.

    Then he joined two cloud kitchens, centralized food production facilities set up for multiple restaurants to prepare food, specifically for deliveries. Things began to look up for Tung, then.

    The two kitchens, operated by ride-hailing company Grab, have helped increase revenue, Tung said.

    Another restaurant owner in the city, Ton Nu Quy Nhi, joined a cloud kitchen after demand for her traditional Saigon food surged two to three times amidst the pandemic. Expanding and managing her restaurant would have been expensive and difficult, so she decided to partner with a cloud kitchen service.

    “I don’t know if the business will continue to thrive next year, so I went with the cheapest expansion option, using the cloud kitchen.”

    Tung and Nhi are among many small business owners in Vietnam who want to take advantage of rising demand for food delivery services in major cities.

    There are at least seven cloud kitchens operating in HCMC and Hanoi, three of them operated by Grab, two by South Korean ride-hailing company Baemin and another two by independent companies.

    The cloud kitchens help lower costs, being located outside of high-rent locations. They help established restaurants with dining-in services to expand their delivery operations without adding stress to the existing kitchen, free up parking space taken by the delivery vehicles, and expand users’ reach to new neighborhoods.

    Hoang Tung, founder of the FoodHome cloud kitchen in Hanoi, said that his facility was fully rented and he was mobilizing funds to open a new one in the Old Quarter area.

    Tung said restaurants are moving their cooking to cloud kitchens because they want to focus on selling via apps to access a market of 20 million users that is growing by 30 percent annually.

    Industry insiders said that the Covid-19 pandemic has been a catalyst in the recent transition from traditional brick and mortar kitchens to cloud kitchens.

    Nguyen Ngoc Giao, manager of GrabKitchen, said that this model allows restaurant owners to expand quickly at minimum cost. “Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, opening a physical store carries greater risks than an online one.”

    Huy Ngo, founder of a fast food and dessert restaurant chain in Da Nang City and Hoi An Town, has recently started trying out the cloud kitchen model after having to close five of seven branches due to Covid-19 impacts.

    The new model allows Huy to focus only on ensuring high food quality inputs. The cloud kitchen employees will help prepare food for delivery, which means operating costs are just half or one-third of his traditional physical store.

    Even big and established restaurant chains are also jumping on to the cloud kitchen bandwagon, though it is yet to become a tried and tested concept in Vietnam. Fried chicken chain Otoke Chicken, with 15 outlets, has established a cloud kitchen in Saigon’s Binh Thanh District, seeking to expand its delivery service.

    Details of average investment and rents charged were not available at the time of writing.

    When Grab launched a cloud kitchen in Saigon’s Thu Duc District last year, it had 12 restaurants make food exclusively for GrabFood drivers to pick up and deliver to customers.

    Then Grab had given them space to cook for free, with the restaurants having to pay their utility bills and a commission on orders received.

    Jerry Lim, CEO of Grab Vietnam, had said then the cloud kitchen model has great potential in Vietnam, and that his company would open more such facilities in Saigon, Hanoi and Da Nang.
    However, this concept does not guarantee success for all restaurants. The cloud kitchen service, Now Station, began operations in 2017, but closed a year later.

    Giao of GrabKitchen said there have been cases where restaurants and the service have had to part ways. He declined to get more specific.

    The food delivery services have also come under scrutiny for excessive use of plastic wrappings and cutlery. Giao said his company is studying the possibility of using more environment-friendly materials.

    Tung of FoodHome said that joining a cloud kitchen doesn’t mean young business owners will not fail, but it will help them “fail fast and fail cheap” so they can get back up fast and try out other new ideas.

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