Bloomberg Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte continued his attacks on a local television network he’s accused in the past of bias, and urged owners of ABS-CBN Corp to sell before its franchise expires in March. In a televised speech delivered in the local language at Davao City on Monday, Duterte suggested the media firm’s franchise renewal is uncertain. He had earlier ...
Read More »Admin
Protests in India risk spooking investors away
Bloomberg Protests against a new citizenship law in India risk making investors wary of doing business in Asia’s third-largest economy. At least 25 people have been killed in nationwide demonstrations against the new rules enacted into law earlier this month. The law bars undocumented Muslims from three neighboring nations seeking Indian citizenship, while allowing people of other faiths to do ...
Read More »â€˜HNA to win ‘war’ against debt problems next year’
Bloomberg HNA Group Co’s chairman predicted 2020 will be “the decisive year to win the war†against the Chinese conglomerate’s long-running liquidity challenges. HNA endured another year of difficulties with liquidity but it’s the group’s “political duty†to overcome the challenge, Chairman Chen Feng said on the company’s WeChat page. Still, the message didn’t specify how HNA would overcome its ...
Read More »Asia Inc’s debt is rising, but that’s a good thing
Bloomberg The financial gearing of Asia Pacific’s largest companies has risen for a second year following a period of deleveraging, but market participants don’t see cause for alarm. The median total debt-to-total equity for non-financial companies in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index reached about 44% in the first nine months of 2019. That is slightly higher than the 41% seen ...
Read More »How Americans can break our bitter political impasse
It was a cheering Christmas week to repeat the bromide, “love thy neighbour.” But the unfortunate truth about America these days is that many of us seem to hate our neighbours. We don’t understand how other people can oppose the values we cherish most. Their behaviour is infuriating and, it often seems, unforgivable. How do we escape this bitter impasse? ...
Read More »When ultimate refuge turns risky
Until the financial crisis of 2008, government bonds were the traditional haven for investors. More than a decade on, their nature has fundamentally changed. In any future crisis, sovereign debt will be a propagator of risk rather than a refuge. Government debt has reached levels not seen outside of major wars. In advanced economies, it has risen to more than ...
Read More »Netflix shakes up Hollywood as Disney, AT&T fight back
It was the decade that altered the very definition of “TV†— Noun: Netflix. Verb: to stream. The industry’s struggle to adapt to the new terminology sparked a merger mania that has rapidly condensed the market for entertainment content and pay-TV services into the hands of a powerful few. Here’s a look at what the rise of Netflix Inc., the ...
Read More »India’s economy came back down to earth
India’s economy lost its sheen this year. As it stumbles through a deep slowdown and a credit crisis, the country has gone from being hailed as a colossus-in-waiting to placing among the also-rans. Rarely has a major economy had such a humbling turn in fortunes. In the third quarter, gross domestic product rose 4.5% from a year earlier, about half ...
Read More »China M&A bankers are facing another grim year
You’d expect the world’s second-largest economy to have a bigger presence on the world stage. But in mergers and acquisitions, China’s presence has been shrinking for years, and 2020 is unlikely to be any better. In 2016, the country was the world’s largest acquirer of overseas assets after the US. It tumbled to eighth place this year, trailing Japan and ...
Read More »Sharp’s Japan play doesn’t bode well for Wisconsin
Sharp Corp. buying all or parts of Japan Display Inc. could bring more bad news for Wisconsin’s hopes of hosting a world-class display factory. That’s because Osaka-based Sharp is actually owned by Foxconn Technology Group, the Taiwanese iPhone assembler that at one point said it would invest $10 billion to build a leading-edge 10.5-generation liquid crystal display plant in the ...
Read More »