Asia-Pacific

China’s woes make Plaza Accord 2.0 less outlandish

16 Oct 2024

If Donald Trump becomes US President, he wants a weak dollar and taxes on Chinese imports. He may use the threat of tariffs to get Beijing to boost the yuan, an echo of the 1985 Plaza Accord. A strong currency hurts growth, but a trade war could be worse for President Xi Jinping.

Luxury’s China wobble will accelerate M&A

16 Oct 2024

LVMH lost 7% of its market value after revealing bleak consumer spending in the world’s second-largest economy. The broader sell-off will make small players more vulnerable. But this will create a big opening for cash-rich giants to pounce on already battered stocks like Kering.

Fiery family feud is opportunity for Korea Inc

16 Oct 2024

Watchdogs are looking into a messy takeover battle between $12 bln Korea Zinc's founding houses. One has teamed up with Bain, the other with Asian fund MBK. Each is decrying its rival's tactics. The saga throws a timely spotlight on the country's governance shortcomings.

EU champions’ hope will slam into hard M&A reality

16 Oct 2024

Brussels bigwigs, like new antitrust boss Teresa Ribera, want to create US-style corporate giants. Yet possible options, like a 160-bln-euro Orange-Deutsche Telekom deal, make no industrial sense. The risk is that even if politicians get on board, shareholders won’t.

Hyundai’s IPO is a big test for gilded markets

16 Oct 2024

The Korean carmaker's $3 bln share sale in India is off to a decent start. It will put a big floor under its parent's valuation. If the country's biggest listing goes smoothly, it also will offer a verdict on whether or not India's market is pushing unsustainable limits.

India’s moment is hurt by interference label

15 Oct 2024

New Delhi called Ottawa linking its agents to homicides "preposterous" as the countries expelled each other's diplomats. A similar US case has higher stakes. If the saga shunts perceptions of India into the same bucket as China, its status as a land of opportunity will suffer.

Old theories offer new insight into global rivalry

14 Oct 2024

The geographer Halfold Mackinder in 1904 proposed that future strife would revolve around control of Eurasia. Though the modern world is very different, it’s one way to understand conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and the showdown between the United States and China.

China stimulus aims at its greatest wall of debt

14 Oct 2024

The finance ministry pledged to tackle local government borrowings. It reveals an intent to smash systemic financial risk and, by not rushing to support consumer demand, a desire to avoid repeating past spending mistakes. Beijing's plan is welcome but still missing key details.

What Masayoshi Son can teach us about investing

11 Oct 2024

The Japanese tech tycoon backed future giants like China’s Alibaba as well as spectacular flops like office-sharing startup WeWork. A new biography likens him to a high-stakes gambler. But Son’s chequered career also reveals some of the skills of a successful venture capitalist.

Weak 7-Eleven defense might embolden Couche-Tard

10 Oct 2024

Japan’s top convenience store owner will spin off its superstores and trim stakes in non-core assets to fend off a $47 bln takeover approach. It’s a disappointing strategy update. The Canadian suitor can consider taking its offer directly to the target’s long-suffering investors.

HSBC cost cuts expose new CEO’s bigger problem

10 Oct 2024

Georges Elhedery may slash $300 mln of expenses in a plan to combine investment and commercial banking, the FT says. Yet the savings are modest and a new super-division may have downsides. Investors will be more interested in how Elhedery keeps the top line growing as rates fall.

China’s stock market bazooka is yet to fire

10 Oct 2024

The People’s Republic recently unveiled a raft of measures to solve a housing bust and support the market, producing a pop of post-vacation enthusiasm. That’s now waning as investors await a bigger move. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists discuss what comes next.

China M&A leaves offshore investors in the lurch

10 Oct 2024

The merger of brokerage firms Guotai and Haitong will massively dilute the former's Hong Kong shareholders. Blame the stubborn discount the city's stocks trade at to onshore equivalents. Beijing's consolidation push will leave more global backers in a similar spot.

Ratan Tata leaves more to India than its tycoons

10 Oct 2024

The former Tata chair, who has died aged 86, put a kind face on capitalism, though his bold cross-border M&A and lingering influence hurt the salt-to-steel conglomerate. The new era of industrialists in the country are financially shrewder but less universally admired.

Rio’s $6.7 bln lithium bet is a pricey slow burn

9 Oct 2024

The $112 bln miner is paying a 90% premium to buy Arcadium in cash. That’s probably not justified by the synergies – and Rio Tinto has yet to reveal them. Boss Jakob Stausholm can point to forecasts of a lithium demand surge, but right now investors have to take his word for it.

Couche-Tard clears price hurdle to Seven & i deal

9 Oct 2024

The Canadian suitor can cut enough costs to justify its revised 53% indicative premium, valuing its rival's enterprise at $55 bln. Though antitrust concerns in the US remain, it seriously raises the bar for the Japanese target's strategic update on its plans to unlock value.

Hey team: Weaker hiring means back to the office

8 Oct 2024

About 100 mln people in North America and Europe now work remotely at least some days. More CEOs, like Amazon’s Andy Jassy, want to end the practice altogether. The tension is upsetting staff and spurring defections, but a rise in joblessness would shift power back to employers.

China’s EU reply cuts odds of damaging tit-for-tat

8 Oct 2024

Days after Brussels voted for electric-vehicle tariffs, Beijing penalised European brandy. Pork, dairy and pricey cars may be next. Yet the moves are well-flagged. And more damaging retorts, like hitting luxury or $9 bln of aircraft-linked imports, seem unlikely for now.

Decoding the puzzle of SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son

8 Oct 2024

The Japanese tycoon shaped global technology while building and losing vast fortunes. How does he keep going? In the first episode of Breakingviews’ new podcast, The Big View, former FT editor Lionel Barber discusses what he uncovered in his biography of Son, ‘Gambling Man’.

China’s stock euphoria is primed to disappoint

8 Oct 2024

Mainland bourses staged a weaker-than-expected rally after a week-long holiday and shares in Hong Kong plunged. Valuations are cheap and funds remain underweight. But China is vulnerable to more boom-and-busts until Beijing girds its economic pledges with fiscal stimulus.