Asia-Pacific

HSBC looks like best of a bad bunch

27 Feb 2012

Scale, diversification and good management helped HSBC only so much in 2011. There were bright spots in Asia and parts of the investment bank. But the impact of the euro zone crisis was more powerful. While HSBC is bigger and better, it is, after all, still a bank.

Alibaba.com minorities should hold out for more

27 Feb 2012

The Chinese e-commerce provider wants to buy out public shareholders at a third of the valuation at which it sold shares in 2007. Yet Alibaba.com’s potential has arguably grown since then. The China opportunity remains barely tapped. Founder Jack Ma is getting too big a bargain.

Japan’s yen yearning takes dismal corporate turn

24 Feb 2012

Toshiba and Sony are tapping $2.4 billion in loans from a government fund designed to promote M&A abroad and weaken the yen. But companies are spending the money on the kind of foreign forays Japanese firms use to avoid reform at home. Japan can’t afford such misadventures.

Too-coy India prompts Citi’s HDFC retreat

24 Feb 2012

New Delhi has long worried about hot money and fair-weather friends. But the protectionism deployed actually increases the dangers. Give foreign banks more skin in the game and they are less likely to retreat. Citi’s exit from India’s top housing lender tells that tale.

India would gain from letting the lawyers in

24 Feb 2012

Foreign lawyers can now practice from their suitcases, but can’t set up shop. That’s self-defeating. Curbs don’t help native firms - they stunt them. India is missing a chance to capitalise on its best assets: democracy, rule of law and a low-cost, high-skilled services sector.

Troubled princeling poses test for new China

22 Feb 2012

Bo Xilai, one of China’s most colourful politicians, has fallen under a cloud, sparking an unconfirmed report he may have resigned. Outsiders should care, because what happens to Bo may give an insight into how much - or how little - Chinese politics have changed.

China data show slowdown that Asian markets ignore

22 Feb 2012

Investors are using newly minted euros and yen to buy shares in Asian exporters. But Chinese manufacturing has been slowing for four months, with exports especially weak. Markets look vulnerable to bad news from Europe or the U.S. – or to surprises from Asian central banks.

Alibaba $2.5 bln buyout looks opportunistic

22 Feb 2012

The 46 pct premium founder Jack Ma has offered to take the Chinese e-commerce company private is decent, but the shares are far below former highs. Minority shareholders have few options, but Ma’s wily dealmaking may haunt him if he returns to float his crown jewel, Taobao.

Apple needs more than a good lawyer in China

21 Feb 2012

A trademark battle is a concern, but more serious are Apple’s falling market share and bad press over factory conditions. A new strategy may be due. Apple needs better distribution, and tighter control of production. Buying a stake in Foxconn, its biggest supplier, might help.

Olympus investors shouldn’t bleat about its banks

21 Feb 2012

Investors are upset that the company’s banks want to appoint a CEO to pursue a break-up. The snag is that Olympus’s banks are also longstanding shareholders, which gives them special rights. New investors who have bought in opportunistically should have done their research.

China’s Ten Kingdoms era has lesson for euro zone

21 Feb 2012

The 10th century division of China into squabbling regimes brought unbalanced trade and rival currency debasements. But then came the unifying Song dynasty, with monetary stability and economic growth. Fragmentation can be more unstable than unity – a lesson for Europe today.

China needs bonds more than easier bank lending

20 Feb 2012

Credit is tight but telling banks to lend more won’t fix that. Instead, liberalising China’s bond market could get cash to firms shunned by lenders, and give savers an alternative to property. While Beijing is making progress, it may be loath to make life too hard for its banks.

Why 100 pct FDI could save India’s Kingfisher

20 Feb 2012

Mounting debts and deteriorating service levels are bringing the airline to the brink. The can has been kicked further down the road, but eventually something must give. New investors are in very short supply. A proposal to allow 49 pct FDI does not go far enough.

Political flameout shows risks hidden in China

17 Feb 2012

Rising star Bo Xilai has suffered an embarrassing but mysterious setback. Compare that to Hong Kong would-be leader Henry Tang. His problems are as mundane as Bo’s are opaque. When it comes to political risk and transparency, investors in the PRC are basically flying blind.

Five phases of China hard-landing denial

17 Feb 2012

China watchers have yet to face up to the country’s real estate problems. While politicians fret about too-expensive houses, economists still think 2012’s GDP will grow 8.3 percent. Faith in China’s ability to avert a property-led credit crisis rests on shaky assumptions.

Iron ore margins anything but iron-clad

16 Feb 2012

China’s building boom and easy money should support high iron ore prices for a while. But 50 percent operating margins are an invitation to new supply and higher taxes. Investors should be uneasy about the industry’s reliance on a single, ultimately unremarkable commodity.

Consolidation no panacea for Indian mobile returns

16 Feb 2012

Revocation of 2G licences and changes in M&A rules are expected to force smaller players in the sector to sell up. But more concentration won’t necessarily boost famously poor margins. Just look at how a new giant-killer is challenging the dominance of the Big Three operators.

Next World Bank boss will wear troubleshooter hat

15 Feb 2012

Robert Zoellick’s successor is apt to spend less time doling out cash. The agency’s share of investment in poor nations has shrunk and global growth is culling its client list. With failed states a bigger business, the next president should be less a banker and more a fixer.

Corporate nurture can end up stifling

15 Feb 2012

There was a time when Yahoo helped Alibaba, Glencore was vital to Xstrata and Steve Wynn leaned on Kazuo Okada. But fortunes change, relationships become less mutually beneficial - and shareholders often wind up losers. It’s a problem, but one that may not have a solution.

JLR flotation would make sense for Tata Motors

15 Feb 2012

Jaguar Land Rover contributed 95 percent of the combined group’s profits last quarter. A minority listing of the UK firm would let Tata book a healthy return on its $2.3 bln purchase, and allow JLR to raise cheap capital overseas. There’s no need to keep this gem hidden.