Bloomberg Aditya Birla Capital Ltd, controlled by billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla, is considering selling its insurance brokerage unit as the group seeks to restructure its financial services business, people familiar with the matter said. The publicly-traded company has held talks with potential buyers about a sale of Aditya Birla Insurance Brokers Ltd as it failed to scale up the ...
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Byju’s lenders seek quicker part-payment of $1.2b loan
Bloomberg A group of creditors to Byju’s, India’s most valuable startup, has asked the company to immediately repay part of a $1.2 billion loan they recently bought into as they renegotiate terms of the debt, according to people familiar with the matter. The lenders have hired Houlihan Lokey Inc to advise them on amending covenants after the edtech titan ...
Read More »GIC-backed unicorn in talks to acquire Foodpanda in Thailand
Bloomberg Food delivery unicorn Line Man Wongnai is in talks to acquire Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda in Thailand as it plans for a stock-market debut in the next few years, according to people familiar with the discussions. Bangkok-based Line Man Wongnai considered a deal at around $100 million at one point, but the value is likely to have changed ...
Read More »Japan to boost limit on ‘tax-free accounts’
Bloomberg Japan is set to increase the annual limit on tax-free investment accounts aimed at the middle classes and raise taxes on ultra-wealthy individuals, as PM Fumio Kishida pursues his agenda of fairer distribution of the fruits of growth. The revamped NISA tax-exempt system will expand the amount that people may invest over a lifetime to ¥18 million ($131,000), ...
Read More »Indonesia’s GoTo jumps 24% since May after relentless selloff
Bloomberg GoTo Group jumped by the most since May as some brokers upgraded the battered stock following weeks of sharp selloff. The Indonesian ride-hailing and e-commerce provider surged 15% to 100 rupiah, snapping 16 straight sessions of losses. Trading volume also soared to about 30 times its three-month average. Even with the latest gain, the stock has plunged more ...
Read More »China’s markets are primed for extreme volatility in 2023
Bloomberg When China’s securities regulator vowed to reduce market volatility in January, few predicted that this year would be one of the most turbulent in recent memory. The drama has only increased this quarter, setting the scene for more upheaval in 2023. Chinese stocks are now moving by 5% a day more frequently than anytime since the global market ...
Read More »Hong Kong tycoon mulls $200m FWD investment
Bloomberg Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li is weighing investing about $200 million in his insurance company FWD Group Holdings Ltd as part of a funding round, people familiar with the matter said. An investment would help support the insurer’s growth plans ahead of a long-awaited Hong Kong initial public offering, which could take place as soon as 2023, the ...
Read More »Philippines’ Marcos says wealth fund to help boost investments
Bloomberg Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said the proposed sovereign wealth fund will help boost economic development and investments in the country. “I wouldn’t have brought it up otherwise,†Marcos said, according to a news release posted by the Office of the Press Secretary. “It’s very clear that we need added investment. This is another way to get that.â€
Read More »China’s top medical adviser says omicron’s risks just same as flu
Bloomberg Chinese officials continued to downplay the risks of Covid-19 as restrictions are eased, with a top medical adviser saying the fatality rate from the omicron variant of the virus is in line with influenza. The death rate from omicron is around 0.1%, similar to the common flu, and the infection rarely reaches the lungs, Zhong Nanshan was quoted in ...
Read More »India’s retail inflation eases below 6%
Bloomberg India’s retail inflation slowed below 6% for the first time in 2022 amid cooling global commodity prices and higher borrowing costs, providing reprieve for policymakers. The consumer price index rose 5.88% from a year earlier, according to data released by the Statistics Ministry on Monday. That’s slower than a median estimate for a 6.35% gain in a Bloomberg ...
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