People

Terry Gou’s presidential hopes will rock Taiwan

18 Apr 2019

Citing support from a sea goddess, the Foxconn founder is running for the top job. Beijing links and a history of outsourcing to cheap mainland factories will be at issue, when the economy is weak. The campaign will also unsettle relations between Taipei, Washington and Beijing.

JPMorgan’s CEO parlour game is far from over

18 Apr 2019

Putting finance director Marianne Lake in charge of consumer lending is an unsubtle hint about who might one day replace Jamie Dimon. She makes for a solid succession candidate. A lot can happen at a mega-bank in four years, though. Hot-seats have a way of becoming jump-seats.

India Insight: The new rich face a wealth trap

1 Apr 2019

Mumbaikars are hitting the tippy end of the income stratosphere, investing in fine wine and foreign residency visas. Trophy assets like a top British football club can’t be far off. With this Chinese-style trajectory, Indians will have to avoid becoming the new dumb money.

Insurers’ deathly jackpot may yet backfire

15 Mar 2019

A sixth of 2018 operating profit came from UK insurers tweaking their mortality assumptions. Ghoulishly, that’s because customers are dying sooner, meaning lower required pensions payments. The problem for investors is that this handy boost could easily go into reverse.

Vale can keep pages from departing CEO’s playbook

4 Mar 2019

Fábio Schvartsman has stepped down weeks after a fatal dam collapse. Waiting for prosecutors to push the issue is bad form. Safety and governance will have to become bigger priorities for the $65 bln Brazilian miner, but many strategic and operational ideas are worth preserving.

India Insight: Money power is choking democracy

4 Mar 2019

From free flat-screen TVs to biryani parties and paid news, cash distorts the workings of the world’s largest democracy, otherwise a marvel of staggering complexity. As a home-grown oligarchy takes hold, India needs a leader who can make good politics out of electoral reform.

Tallying our 2018 predictions hits – and misses

31 Dec 2018

Looking back at last year’s forecasts, our crystal ball produced some hits: Presidents Trump and Xi unsettled global growth, bitcoin bombed, scandals rocked Japan, and #MeToo broke into the boardroom. But halting Saudi reforms and drooping Apple shares were among the bloopers.

Asia’s tech titans face Nissan-style key-man risk

27 Dec 2018

Startup founders have flourished in the region, taking over where old-school tycoons left off. Yet after Carlos Ghosn and a storm at JD, shareholders see charismatic bosses as liabilities too. Such concerns may mean unwanted attention at SoftBank, Foxconn and others in 2019.

World will improve where it matters most in 2019

24 Dec 2018

By next December, more people will have electricity and clean water. Child deaths are likely to be rarer and education more common. In future years, the pace of gains could accelerate. The open question is whether progress will undermine prosperity by also bringing more conflict.

Mattis exit leaves world facing Trump unchained

21 Dec 2018

The U.S. defense secretary is resigning, citing differences with the president over support for allies and his attitude toward China and Russia. Trusted by friends and foes, the ex-general also curbed Trump’s impulses. More military risk is the last thing rattled investors need.

Sony’s turnaround will be an activist casting call

21 Dec 2018

Boss Kenichiro Yoshida has boosted earnings at the $61 bln movies-to-video-games group. But he needs to shed a loss-making handset unit and spin off the chip business, among other things. The Japanese company's reluctance to act will see hedge funds make a cameo in Sony's remake.

India’s richest banker bets against the house

19 Dec 2018

Uday Kotak is challenging a requirement to cut his stake in the $32 bln Kotak Bank to 20 pct. The lender can absorb penalties imposed on others, and the rule may be misplaced. Yet the standoff endangers Kotak’s governance reputation – and could leave a cloud over the shares, too.

Shinzo Abe will strike accord with Donald Trump

19 Dec 2018

With some 5 mln autoworkers to protect from tariff pain, Japan’s prime minister will have little choice but to sign a bilateral U.S. trade deal. Expect the new NAFTA’s anti-China clause to feature. Seeking warmer relations with Tokyo, Beijing is apt to look the other way.

Xi passes up his chance to play Santa

18 Dec 2018

In a speech to mark 40 years since China’s shift to a more market-orientated economy, the president failed to announce bold new measures and wasted a chance to offer the U.S. trade concessions. It’s a stark reminder of how far hopes have fallen for liberalisation on Xi’s watch.

China’s social credit poses rising risk to CEOs

14 Dec 2018

Beijing’s plan to blacklist executives for misbehaviour is widely misunderstood. But it's worrisome as tensions spike. By holding CEOs accountable for their company's misdeeds, the system blurs China’s already fuzzy line between corporate and personal interests.

China hangs corruption sword over tech giants

5 Dec 2018

The arrest of a senior executive at Alibaba, the head of its video-streaming unit, suggests an anti-graft crackdown will not spare web titans. For investors, a tighter grip on tycoons like Tencent’s Pony Ma will be costly. Poor disclosure is adding to the problem.

Jack Ma and Xi Jinping: dubious comrades in arms

27 Nov 2018

State media outed the founder of $400 bln Alibaba as a Communist Party member. Implied support from China’s most famous capitalist helps President Xi’s efforts to meddle in tech. Recent Ma comments suggest he isn’t exactly on board. This turns up the heat on simmering tension.

New Tesla chair will have to get tougher

8 Nov 2018

Robyn Denholm, CFO at Aussie telco Telstra, is moving from her boardroom seat at the $60 bln electric-car maker to the head of the table to oversee erratic CEO Elon Musk full-time. Splitting the top jobs is good, but Denholm has been part of a group unable to rein him in so far.

The Exchange: Goldfingers

2 Nov 2018

Oliver Bullough's book "Moneyland" delves into the parallel world of super-rich super-crooks, where rules are for the little people. He discusses wealth, corruption, tax havens and how to fix it all with Clara Ferreira Marques and Nicholas Shaxson, author of “The Finance Curse”.

Chinese super-rich disrupt and are disrupted

29 Oct 2018

The People’s Republic is minting two new billionaires each week. Soon they will outnumber their U.S. peers. Younger, creating wealth faster, and losing it faster too: Chinese are redefining what it means to be ultra-rich.