Asia

Qoala raises $13.5M to grow its insurance platform in Indonesia
20May By Team FPNo Comments
Asia, Singapore

Qoala raises $13.5M to grow its insurance platform in Indonesia

Online lending firms might be beginning to feel the heat of the coronavirus pandemic in Southeast Asia, but investors’ faith in digital insurance startups remains unflinching in the region. Jakarta-based Qoala has raised $13.5 million in its Series A financing round, the one-year-old startup said Tuesday. Centauri Fund, a joint venture between funds from South Korea’s Kookmin Bank and Telkom Indonesia, led the round. Sequoia India, Flourish Ventures,  Kookmin Bank Investments, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Mirae Asset Sekuritas and existing investors MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia, MDI Ventures,  SeedPlus and Bank Central Asia’s Central Capital Ventura participated in the round, which pushes the startup’s to-date raise to $16.5 million. Qoala works with leading insurers including AXA...
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Rationale behind issuance of Indonesia’s ‘pandemic bond’
20May By Team FPNo Comments
Asia, China

Rationale behind issuance of Indonesia’s ‘pandemic bond’

Earlier this month, the Indonesian government issued a series of three sovereign US dollar-denominated bonds totaling US$4.3 billion. The three bonds are the RI1030, worth $1.65 billion with a tenor of 10.5 years, the 30.5-year RI1030 worth $1.65 billion, and the 50-year RI0470 worth $1 billion. The last has the longest tenor among dollar-denominated bonds issued in Asia. Indonesia is also the first country in the region to issue global bonds as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The issuance of the "pandemic bond" series is one of the most visionary measures stipulated in regulation in Regulation in lieu of Law (Perppu) No. 1/2020 on state finance and financial system stability, in addition to the fiscal stimulus deployment, the budget deficit cap adjustment to above 3 percent, and the ...
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Bank Indonesia buys $108m of government bonds at auction, first time since rule change
20May By Team FPNo Comments
Asia

Bank Indonesia buys $108m of government bonds at auction, first time since rule change

Bank Indonesia (BI) directly purchased Rp 1.7 trillion (US$108 million) worth of sharia sovereign bonds during an auction held by the government on Tuesday, the first such direct purchase since the government issued the COVID-19 stimulus playbook. The central bank acted as a noncompetitive bidder during the auction and only bought “a small portion” of the bonds in order to maintain low inflation levels, BI Governor Perry Warjiyo said. The government pocketed a total of Rp 9.98 trillion of proceeds from the auction to finance the country’s widening budget deficit. “BI acts as the last resort when the market is unable to absorb all of the offers,” Perry told reporters during a regular media briefing on Wednesday. “We projected that most of the bonds would be absorbed by the market and the ce...
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India’s new FDI rules may open new flashpoint with China
20May By Team FPNo Comments
Asia, China

India’s new FDI rules may open new flashpoint with China

On Saturday, India stepped up scrutiny of investments from companies based in neighbouring countries, in what is widely seen as a move to stave off takeovers by Chinese firms during the coronavirus outbreak. India's new rules for foreign investment violate WTO principles of non-discrimination and are against free and fair trade, a Chinese embassy spokesperson said on Monday, potentially opening a new flashpoint in their uneasy ties. On Saturday, India stepped up scrutiny of investments from companies based in neighbouring countries, in what is widely seen as a move to stave off takeovers by Chinese firms during the coronavirus outbreak. The changes to federal rules on investment were meant to curb opportunistic takeovers and acquisitions, the government said, but it did not mention China i...
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China investment arms use P-Note, FPI routes too
20May By Team FPNo Comments
Asia

China investment arms use P-Note, FPI routes too

MUMBAI: It’s not only direct investments like in HDFC in which the neighbouring country’s People’s Bank of China (PBoC) now has 1% stake. China, through its other investment arms China Investment Corp (CIC) and State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), has been investing in India for years now.These institutions have been investing through the foreign portfolio investment (FPI) route as well as through the more opaque participatory note (P-Note) route, institutional dealers and fund managers said. Another China government arm that’s also showing interest in India is the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). In the past few years, these investment arms have also been investors in some of the exchange-traded funds (ETFs) floated by global fund managers, they said.In India,...
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China Called Out in U.S. Warning Over Emerging Market Investing
20May By Team FPNo Comments
Asia

China Called Out in U.S. Warning Over Emerging Market Investing

When it comes to companies exposed to emerging markets -- most notably China -- investors should beware the lack of visibility into their books, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton said Tuesday. Foreign jurisdictions aren’t maintaining adequate standards of investor protection, and the U.S. has little control over that, Clayton and other officials said in a strongly worded statement. The group also underlined a longstanding point of conflict: that the main U.S. accounting watchdog can’t inspect the work that Chinese auditors do for companies that sell stock in American markets. “In many emerging markets, including China, there is substantially greater risk that disclosures will be incomplete or misleading” and substantially less access to recourse in the event of i...
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The federal retirement fund is about to invest in China. Some former US military leaders object.
20May By Team FPNo Comments
Asia

The federal retirement fund is about to invest in China. Some former US military leaders object.

WASHINGTON — The retirement savings program for federal and military personnel is preparing to more than double the number of countries represented in its investment fund that tracks international stock markets. One of the countries to be added is China — and that's a problem for some people. Eight former senior military leaders have issued an open letter seeking to prevent the change, which is set to take effect in the second half of this year. The letter has rekindled a controversy that has flared several times since the Thrift Savings Plan first committed to broadening its international stock fund, called the I Fund. The result, the letter said, will be that a portion of money in the fund will be invested in Chinese companies including "weapons manufacturers, U.S.-sanctioned entities an...
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Myanmar Says Factories Must Take COVID-19 Precautions Before They Reopen
17May By Team FPNo Comments
Asia

Myanmar Says Factories Must Take COVID-19 Precautions Before They Reopen

YANGON—The Myanmar government will allow only factories that have set up preventive measure to combat COVID-19 to resume operation on April 30, according to the Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Population. On Sunday, the Ministry of Labor issued an order saying that the country’s factories would be permitted to reopen after they have set up COVID-19 preventive measures in line with the instructions of the Ministry of Health and Sports (MOHS). Factories stopped operations from April 12-19 for the Thingyan New Year public holidays and the government has currently ordered all factories to remain closed for 10 more days until April 30. The health and labor ministries say they will inspect factories to assess whether they have adopted measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, facto...
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Asia’s Quest Ventures plans to invest in Indonesia
17May By Team FPNo Comments
Asia, Singapore

Asia’s Quest Ventures plans to invest in Indonesia

Singapore-based venture capital Quest Ventures plans to expand its investment to Indonesia, among other Southeast Asian countries, after recently announcing the first close of a fund worth US$50 million. The amount represented more than half of its target for the fund named Asia Fund II. It will be invested in post-seed and series A stages funding in start-ups across Southeast Asia and emerging Asia such as Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines. Quest Ventures has been deploying capital in Singapore and Vietnam with its portfolio, including as second-hand e-commerce platform Carousell, property finding platform 99.co and rental fashion StyleTheory. “We were deliberate in selecting our investors and we hope with this fund we can bring different skill sets, domain experience and connections...
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15May By Team FPNo Comments
Asia, Singapore

Singapore-based startup plans to make mental health approachable

Intellect, a Singapore-based startup, has decided to make the idea of mental health more approachable with an app that offers self-guided exercises based on cognitive behavioral therapy techniques. The company develops consumer and enterprise versions of the app (for employers to offer as a benefit) and now has users in several countries, including Singapore, Indonesia, India and China. Since its beta launch earlier this year, co-founder and CEO Theodoric Chew says Intellect has signed up about 10,000 users, as well as 10 companies ranging in size from startups to large corporations. The startup plans to launch Mandarin and Bahasa Indonesian versions, and is currently working with researchers to develop localized versions of its exercises, which include guided journaling, behavioral exerci...
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