People

Mizuho Bank boss exit will scare technophobes

11 Jun 2021

Chief Executive Koji Fujiwara may step down after a series of glitches froze ATMs and delayed $456 mln in remittances. Japanese watchdogs may also force the country’s third-largest lender to upgrade operations. With luck, the example will prompt peers to speed digitisation.

Chinese working women will rue three-child policy

1 Jun 2021

Beijing has cranked up the birth cap again, a desperate sign as families shrink. Doubling budgets for healthcare - way below par at 3% of GDP - and education might help. But the men who run China are stingy, and discrimination against female professionals will worsen.

Ke founder bequeaths a governance mess

20 May 2021

Zuo Hui, the chairman of China’s $60 bln answer to Zillow, has died unexpectedly at 50. A “worsening of illness” was blamed, but the company never indicated he was sick. It is an investor’s worst nightmare from signing onto the concentrated power of dual-class shares.

ByteDance boss live-streams new risk factors

20 May 2021

Zhang Yiming is the latest high-profile boss to step down amid Beijing's tech crackdown. It's a prudent move to ensure a smoother market debut for the $300 bln owner of TikTok and Douyin. The company’s broader executive shakeup also means it would be smarter to take its time.

Bitcoin U-turn recharges Tesla governance concerns

13 May 2021

Elon Musk has stopped taking the cryptocurrency for car payments after just three months on climate concerns. But bitcoin mining is a well-known intense user of dirty energy. The flipflop suggests Tesla’s oversight of its founder remains as lax as in the bad old days.

China population slowdown speeds up labour crisis

11 May 2021

Census data show the country’s 1.4 bln people are barely growing, adding to fears that a shrinking workforce will hurt the economy. Beijing has targeted birth rates but policies to boost productivity are needed. Cracking down on how gig workers are treated is a good start.

Australia’s border strength morphs into weakness

28 Apr 2021

Strictly banning outsiders has been a big factor in stopping the spread of Covid-19. Fiscal stimulus and low rates have helped compensate, but can’t replace the annual 1% growth delivered by immigrants. Absent bold policy changes, the age of economic miracles may be past.

Review: Rwanda, Africa’s good-news story gone bad

1 Apr 2021

Under Paul Kagame, the Land of a Thousand Hills has gone from genocidal hellhole to wannabe African Singapore. In feting the ex-guerrilla president, donors and investors ignored autocracy and murder. Michela Wrong’s “Do Not Disturb” may force Davos to rethink its guest list.

Capital Calls: WFH deals, Suez Canal, NorNickel

29 Mar 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: Fintech firm Broadridge pays a full price for trading platform; with the waterway clear, all sides will be taking up positions for a legal battle royal; the Russian nickel producer cashes in on high copper prices.

Pinduoduo governance cleanup misses some spots

26 Mar 2021

The $156 bln e-commerce company’s departing founder Colin Huang has given up his supervoting stock. But it’s not clear he’s relinquishing other holds on power. Insiders can exert outsize influence on the board. And Pinduoduo still lacks a finance chief. There’s more work to do.

New BaFin boss adds teeth to watchdog’s turnaround

22 Mar 2021

Mark Branson, current head of Swiss regulator FINMA, will lead the German supervisor reeling from scandals like Wirecard. His task is made harder by the government’s weak reforms. Its willingness to appoint an outsider, however, offers the hope of a much-needed cultural change.

Capital Calls: Leon Black, Happiness index

22 Mar 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: Apollo’s founder still has his imprint on the Museum of Modern Art and Dartmouth College; people are proving surprisingly resilient in the pandemic, a recent poll suggests.

Review: Fund manager’s fall reveals larger flaws

12 Mar 2021

Neil Woodford was once one of Britain’s best-known stock-pickers. Owen Walker’s “Built on a Lie” catalogues his spectacular demise, but also explains how changing pensions and supine regulation enabled his rise. Ultimately, the saga is another argument for index funds.

Hong Kong bankers size up office return risk

12 Mar 2021

A Covid-19 outbreak in a gym has forced HSBC, Credit Suisse and BNP Paribas to send staff home. It comes as the finance hub rolls out vaccinations and bank bosses elsewhere talk up the virtues of workplaces. Getting back to normal, whatever that looks like, will be a long slog.

Capital Calls: McKinsey, Celebrity SPACs

10 Mar 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: McKinsey’s new boss isn’t new enough; the SEC tells investors to be careful of celebrities bearing SPACs.

Carlos Slim’s KPN cash call includes buyout cover

24 Feb 2021

The Mexican mogul raised 2.1 bln euros from negative-yield bonds that can flip into a 16% stake in the Dutch telecom operator. If KPN treads water, Slim can keep his stock and repay less than he borrowed. If it’s snapped up by a predator, he still gets some of the upside.

Japan Inc faces Olympic sexism trial

24 Feb 2021

A woman replaced the games’ boss after chauvinist comments. His attitude is common; women make up 13% of directors at large listed companies. Tokyo’s bourse will push for better representation on its new “Prime Market”, but a thin pipeline of female managers risks tokenism.

Review: Bill Gates engineers climate risk clarity

19 Feb 2021

In “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” the Microsoft founder argues states should throw money at climate change research. Technology will indeed be critical in figuring out how to eliminate carbon emissions. But his book’s main quality is to define the challenge in a graspable way.

Ex-UniCredit CEO rides first class on SPAC train

15 Feb 2021

Jean-Pierre Mustier teamed up with tycoon Bernard Arnault and fund manager Tikehau to launch a blank-cheque vehicle searching for financial services deals. He’s betting European investors will join the SPAC craze. The support of Europe’s richest man offers a good entry ticket.

It’s time HSBC’s big bosses followed the money

4 Feb 2021

The $108 bln bank may relocate the co-heads of its investment bank to Asia. There are good excuses for many financial services giants to avoid putting global chiefs in Hong Kong or Singapore. Given HSBC’s dependency on the region, however, it’s a wonder it has taken so long.