People

Capital Calls: Credit Agricole’s Italian job

8 Apr 2022

Concise views on global finance: The French lender buys a 9% stake in Italy’s Banco BPM, making it harder for local rivals to launch a bid.

Next Hong Kong chief gives China chance to reset

8 Apr 2022

Carrie Lam’s handling of protests and Covid-19 weakened the city’s stature and deepened economic imbalances. John Lee, the frontrunner to succeed her, looks thinly qualified to fix such issues. A more pragmatic approach from Beijing, though, might shore up investor confidence.

Capital Calls: Buffett’s HP bet, Gambling M&A

7 Apr 2022

Concise views on global finance: Berkshire Hathaway takes a hefty stake in the computer and printer maker; Betting group 888 negotiates a better price for buying UK bookie William Hill.

Shanghai crisis lays frost over economic spring

4 Apr 2022

The city’s 26 mln residents have been thrown into a strict lockdown. It suggests politicians pushing hardline Covid measures have the upper hand and more anti-Omicron shock-and-awe may follow. With big stimulus looking unlikely, the economy’s green shoots would quickly wilt.

Review: Pandering to Beijing has shrinking payback

1 Apr 2022

One difference between the Cold War and current Sino-U.S. tensions is the crowd of capitalists rooting for the communists. In “America Second,” Isaac Stone Fish lambasts the CEOs and lobbyists who take China’s side. Yet the return on sucking up, never high, is falling sharply.

Singapore’s rebalancing is delicate act

30 Mar 2022

The pandemic burnished its safe-haven role for rich Asians, but it is flourishing as a centre for Chinese wealth creation too. Even as changing flows of people, business, and money sharpen social challenges, the pivot is restoring the Lion City’s animal spirits.

Sea’s ‘Free Fire’ churns up Singapore-India ties

25 Mar 2022

New Delhi’s ban on the mobile game persists despite diplomatic intervention. The clash, tangled in Chinese tensions, casts a shadow over India’s relations with one of its biggest foreign investors. Rising nationalist sentiment on both sides will make rifts harder to heal.

Fed board flame-out still leaves banks on thin ice

16 Mar 2022

Sarah Bloom Raskin’s failure to clinch the supervisory lead role at the central bank proves what was already clear: only a centrist who avoids divisive issues like climate can get approval from a divided Senate. But while Big Oil may be off the hook, Wall Street probably isn’t.

China’s pandemic playbook runs low on pages

14 Mar 2022

Financial hubs Shanghai and Shenzhen are locking down as infections surge. Recycling tough policies from 2020 will put the “around 5.5%” annual growth target even further out of reach. Living with the virus would be economically stimulating, but politically embarrassing.

Capital Calls: Americans accept inflation for now

10 Mar 2022

Concise views on global finance: U.S. prices rose a whopping 7.9% year-on-year in February. Even so, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has improved President Joe Biden's approval ratings. It may not last.

Korea’s market upgrade would draw virtuous circle

8 Mar 2022

Seoul may relax currency rules and short-selling curbs to help win developed-market status from index provider MSCI. Even one of this week’s presidential candidates is pushing for the upgrade. Some will resent losing such protection, but the broader benefits are clear.

Wall Street hyperbole washes up in Sydney storms

4 Mar 2022

The New South Wales premier called this week’s torrent a “one-in-a-1,000-year event”. It evokes Goldman CFOs ascribing improbable standard deviations to choppy markets. Such quips, like the terms drought and natural disaster, mischaracterise risk and obscure needed action.

For China, living with Covid starts in Hong Kong

3 Mar 2022

Beijing may be softening its zero-tolerance stance. A large unvaccinated elderly population and tight hospital capacity remain big risks. But lessons from the global financial hub, now grappling with surging infections, provide a case study for China's eventual reopening.

Oligarch sanctions’ devil no longer in the detail

1 Mar 2022

Brussels froze assets of Russian billionaires like Alexei Mordashov and Mikhail Fridman. Unlike U.S. sanctions, their companies don’t automatically get hit. Even so, counterparties may in any case decide steel group Severstal and investor LetterOne are too toxic to deal with.

Toshiba CEO change sends promising signal

1 Mar 2022

Satoshi Tsunakawa will be replaced by Taro Shimada, who joined from Siemens in 2018. The move suggests a sale option might get reconsidered over a controversial breakup plan. The bad governance that has dogged the conglomerate, however, means any optimism should be muted for now.

Hong Kong is failing Chinese migrants

25 Feb 2022

Departures by the financial hub’s vocal but tiny population of Westerners have monopolised headlines. Less obvious but more important are professionals from the mainland. The city, long a haven for Chinese people fleeing chaos in the north, is fast losing its allure.

Besieged Hong Kong fires loud stimulus cannon

24 Feb 2022

As daily Covid-19 infections set new records, Beijing is pressing the city to quickly curb the outbreak. But Hong Kong lacks the systems and ways required to implement China’s strict control model. The city’s $22 bln relief package attempts to balance its conflicting realities.

Vladimir Putin muscles onto central banker agendas

22 Feb 2022

Russia’s president formally ordered troops into two separatist regions of Ukraine, raising the spectre of war. As oil surges toward $100 a barrel, riskier assets are falling out of favour. Any retaliation, including sanctions, could further fuel inflationary fires.

Shackled woman’s plight helps China find S in ESG

18 Feb 2022

Uproar over a mother found chained in a shed, a suspected trafficking victim, has the financial blogosphere in a rage as some call for a boycott of the local government’s bonds. A capital movement targeting social injustice could move prices, but only if Beijing lets it.

Wynn rolls the dice in search of a new prize

15 Feb 2022

Craig Billings, the $11 bln casino group’s third boss in four years, could use a growth engine. A long slog awaits in Macau even as the mature Las Vegas market rebounds. Rival Sands found success in Singapore. The odds are longer for Wynn’s push into online betting and the UAE.