February, 2016

• 24 February

  Cartier Initiative Awards mark 10 years of achievements

  

  DUBAI / WAM In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards, Cartier held an interactive session at the Global Women’s Forum Dubai to discuss the awards and the INSEAD assessment study, which shows the key results of the awards over the last decade. The session took place at the Entrepreneurship hub at The Discovery, and was ...

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• 24 February

  Political turmoil hurts country’s economy: Tsang

  

  Hong Kong / Agencies Rising political turmoil in Hong Kong could hurt economic growth in the freewheeling southern Chinese business hub, the city’s finance chief, John Tsang said as he unveiled measures on Wednesday to counter the impact of global weakness. Tsang warned that political unrest would “unavoidably” damage the economy after riots rocked the city earlier this month, predicting ...

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• 24 February

  Beijing becomes ‘Billionaire Capital of the World’

  

  BEIJING / AP Move over, New York City: Beijing is the new “Billionaire Capital of the World.” The Chinese capital has overtaken the Big Apple as home to the most billionaires — 100 to 95 — according to Hurun, a Shanghai firm that publishes a monthly magazine and releases yearly rankings and research about the world’s richest people and their ...

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• 24 February

  Online shopping takes a hit in Malaysia

  

  Kuala Lumpur / DPA Malaysian online shoppers are turning to local sites as the weaker ringgit has made shopping on foreign sites much more expensive. Local online retailer Lazada Malaysia said the drop in the ringgit’s value has not really affected sales on its site. In fact, Lazada Group as a whole recorded US$40 million in overall sales during its ...

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• 24 February

  Cultivate less rice to save water, says Thailand’s PM

  

  Bangkok / AFP Thailand’s prime minister on Wednesday told farmers to cultivate less rice to help the country manage its intensifying water crisis, as experts called this year’s drought the worst in decades. Prayut Chan-O-Cha, the junta leader who grabbed power in a military coup two years ago, said his administration was working on a 20-year strategy to diversify the ...

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• 24 February

  Tucking ¥10,000 bills under the mattress spells worry for Abe

  

  Tokyo / Bloomberg Demand for 10,000-yen bills is steadily rising in Japan, even as the nation’s population falls and the use of credit cards and other forms of electronic payment increases. While more cash might sound like a good thing, some economists are concerned that it shows Japanese households are squirreling away money at home instead of investing it or ...

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• 24 February

  Detroit schools hit debt limit, risk being unable to pay bills

  DETROIT / Bloomberg Detroit’s public schools have reached their borrowing limit and won’t be able to take on more debt to pay bills when money runs out in April if Michigan lawmakers don’t restructure some of its $2 billion of obligations, state officials said. Though the district has borrowed when it ran out of money before, it has reached the ...

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• 24 February

  Real declines after Brazil’s debt downgraded to junk by Moody’s

  Bloomberg The Real declined after Brazil’s debt rating was lowered to two levels below investment grade by Moody’s Investors Service, which cited the government’s failure to reduce its fiscal deficit amid deepening political turmoil. The currency dropped 0.7 percent to 3.9864 at 9:50 a.m. in Sao Paulo. The outlook for the rating is negative, Moody’s said in a statement on ...

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• 24 February

  Franklin keen on closing failed Puerto Rico fund

  PUERTO RICO / Bloomberg Puerto Rico’s debt exchange isn’t the only security swap for investors burned by the island’s financial collapse. Franklin Resources Inc. plans to close the $147 million Double Tax-Free Income Fund, whose strategy of plowing more of its assets into Puerto Rico than any other municipal-bond fund turned it into one of the worst performers. After the ...

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• 24 February

  Man Group’s profits fall on performance fees plunge

  Bloomberg Man Group Plc, the world’s largest publicly traded hedge fund firm, reported 17 percent lower profit in 2015 after performance-fee revenues and margins dropped. The shares fell the most in nearly six months. Adjusted pretax profit fell to $400 million from $481 million a year earlier, the London-based company said in a statement on Wednesday. That missed the $455 ...

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