International News

MUMBAI / Reuters Fairfax India Holdings said it has agreed to acquire a minority stake in privately held Indian petrochemical company Sanmar Chemicals via a roughly $300 million investment. The Sanmar investment is the latest in a string of bets Fairfax India and its sister concern Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd have made in the country within the last year. The ...

Sydney / Bloomberg Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull promised a prudent budget will be handed down next month in comments published by the Australian Associated Press. Turnbull was speaking less than a week after an opinion poll showed the government trailing the opposition for the first time since he deposed Tony Abbott seven months ago. This budget will not be about ...

Bandar Seri Begawan / DPA Brunei should take advantage of the region’s growing Islamic finance industry which is set to develop even further with the support of large Muslim populations in Southeast Asia. In an interview, Jeff Pirie, a senior partner from auditing firm Deloitte Singapore, said that Islamic finance is a good area where Brunei can build expertise outside ...

Taipei / DPA Taiwan is confident that it will be accepted into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade bloc, a minister-designate who will be in charge of trade talks for the incoming government said yesterday. Shih Jun-ji, who has been named as a minister without portfolio of the incoming Cabinet, said the TPP membership will not be the only task ...

Tokyo / DPA Japan will launch a project under which the public and private sectors will join hands in selling dietary supplements and seasonings at low prices to developing countries in Africa and other areas, in a bid to improve nutrition in those countries, Japanese government sources said. The project is also expected to help Japanese food manufacturers start operations ...

SINGAPORE / Reuters Barclays has agreed to sell its wealth and investment management business in Hong Kong and Singapore to Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC), as the British lender continues its drive to reduce risk and simplify. OCBC, Singapore’s second-biggest lender, said on Thursday it had agreed to pay $320 million for the units – its second-largest private banking deal since ...

Singapore / Bloomberg The world economy needs something like a modern-day Plaza Accord to safeguard growth against currency market volatility, according to Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam. The remarks by the Singaporean official, who is also a former finance minister, come a week before Group of 20 officials gather in Washington to discuss the state of the world economy. ...

NEW DELHI / Reuters China’s top carmaker SAIC Motor Corp and Great Wall Motor, its biggest maker of SUVs, are spearheading the country’s first major push into India, one of the world’s fastest growing auto markets, as growth at home stagnates. The entry is late and risky – global carmakers like Volkswagen AG, Ford Motor and General Motors have struggled ...

Beijing / Bloomberg Didi Kuaidi raised the target on its latest round of funding to more than $1.5 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter, as China’s largest ride-hailing service stockpiles cash for its battle with Uber Technologies Inc. Uber’s largest competitor will be valued at more than $20 billion in the round, said the person, who asked ...

HCM City / DPA Around five million Vietnamese travelled abroad last year spending US$6 billion, according to the Viet Nam Society of Travel Agents. The number travelling abroad is increasing rapidly, especially of those going to Japan, South Korea, Thailand, the US, and Cambodia, travel agents said. Tran Thi Viet Huong, marketing director of State giant Vietravel, said last year ...