Asia

03 Jan Distressed Chinese developer CIFI offers up new proposal hoping to slash US$7 billion offshore debt by half

Posted at 12:30h in Asia

CIFI seeks to address its aggregate offshore indebtedness by “deleveraging the company’s consolidated balance sheet” to reduce its offshore debt to between US$3.3 billion and US$4 billion. The company also aims to design a sustainable amortisation schedule to provide a healthy capital structure, the filing...

03 Jan Hong Kong airport raises more than US$500 million in first local-currency bond offering, to fund third runway

Posted at 11:30h in Asia

Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK), the operator of the city’s airport, has tapped the local public institutional bond market for the first time, pricing a HK$4 billion (US$512 million) senior offering to fund capital improvements including its third-runway project.Investors from sovereign wealth funds, asset managers,...

03 Jan China’s largest bubble tea makers Mixue and Guming apply for Hong Kong IPO

Posted at 10:54h in Asia

China’s leading bubble tea makers including Mixue Bingcheng and Guming are rushing to apply for first-time share sales in Hong Kong as companies in the fast-growing sector expand aggressively amid fierce competition.Mixue Group and Guming Holdings, China’s largest and second-largest freshly-made bubble tea chains by...

03 Jan ByteDance’s Douyin makes instant refunds mandatory, following PDD, Taobao and JD.com amid fierce e-commerce competition

Posted at 10:36h in Asia

Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok that is betting big on e-commerce, has made its “express refund” policy mandatory, forcing merchants to immediately return money to consumers upon request to compete with similar offerings on Taobao and Pinduoduo.The platform operated by Beijing-based ...

03 Jan Cash-starved Chinese property group Dalian Wanda sells Shanghai luxury hotel to Indonesian billionaire

Posted at 10:30h in Asia

The cash-strapped Dalian Wanda Group, a major Chinese conglomerate and the country’s largest shopping mall operator, has sold its luxury hotel in Shanghai to Indonesian pulp and paper billionaire Sukanto Tanoto as it looks to overcome a liquidity crisis.The 193-room luxury hotel, opened in...

03 Jan China’s Sinopec says world-leading green hydrogen project will take longer than expected to ramp up

Posted at 09:24h in Asia

The world’s largest green hydrogen project will take nearly two years longer to reach full capacity as its Chinese operator struggles with the technology seen as important to cutting emissions from heavy industry.China Petroleum & Chemical said last week that its Kuqa project in Xinjiang...

03 Jan Sun Hung Kai Properties, ‘survivor in a long winter’, tops Hong Kong property sales with 30% of homes sold in 2023

Posted at 08:06h in Asia

Hong Kong’s most valuable developer Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) topped the city’s sales tables in 2023, accounting for over a quarter of the deal volume at a time when shrinking home prices and a 33-year trough for real estate transactions are weighing on one...

03 Jan Opinion | Global markets bracing for a 2024 full of potentially volatile elections

Posted at 07:45h in Asia

We are less than a year away from the 2024 US elections, which will be held on November 5. The next president will inherit a large fiscal deficit, as the Congressional Budget Office predicts that the fiscal deficit will remain steady at 5-7 per...

03 Jan Why remote skilled workers around the world can solve global talent shortage problem

Posted at 04:00h in Asia

This report comes after almost three-quarters of Hong Kong’s employers – 74 per cent – said in April that they were struggling with talent shortages, with 61 per cent having faced the problem for up to three years, according to a poll of 196 employers...

03 Jan From Olympic glory to entrepreneurial success

Posted at 02:51h in Asia

"As an entrepreneur, having dreams, a forward-looking mindset, and the courage to take responsibility are essential. We must also be determined to pursue our dreams and invest in them," he says. "In my case, I'm driven by a vision to establish Viva Goods as...