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 …

Hong Kong / AFP Shares in Chinese telecoms giant ZTE plunged 16 percent on Thursday as it resumed trading after the US announced a probe over alleged violations of trade sanctions against Iran, which the firm admitted could lead to civil and criminal liabilities. Washington slapped restrictions on ZTE and three linked companies last month after an investigation alleged the …

Kathmandu / DPA International air passenger traffic through Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) dropped for the first time in 13 years as travellers stayed away due to the April earthquake last year and a jet fuel shortage caused by an Indian trade embargo. According to TIA, the number of travellers passing through the country’s sole international airport plunged 8.37 per cent …

Bloomberg Dutch voters rejected a treaty between the European Union and Ukraine by a resounding margin, in a referendum that exposed the extent of anti-EU sentiment in one of the bloc’s founding members. British campaigners to leave the bloc hailed the news from the Netherlands, as did the leader of France’s anti-EU National Front, Marine Le Pen, and Russian Prime …

Bloomberg London’s role as the world’s hub for foreign-exchange trading would be weakened if U.K. voters opt to leave the European Union in June, with Frankfurt benefiting the most, according to a poll of currency traders and market professionals. Some two-thirds of respondents said a Brexit — a British exit — would weaken the City of London’s dominant position in …

Bloomberg Governor Elvira Nabiullina said a stable and improving inflation outlook will enable the Bank of Russia to embark on steeper monetary easing without putting financial stability at risk. Keeping interest rates on hold for a prolonged period is winning trust that inflation will continue to ease, Nabiullina said at a banking congress in Moscow on Thursday. Even so, she …