Asia

Igloo raises $8.2M to bring insurance to more people in Southeast Asia
20May By Team FPNo Comments
Asia, Singapore, USA

Igloo raises $8.2M to bring insurance to more people in Southeast Asia

Singapore-based Igloo, formerly known as Axinan, has raised $8.2 million as the insurance-tech startup looks to broaden its foothold in half a dozen Southeast Asian markets and Australia. InVent, a corporate venture capital arm of telecommunications firm Intouch Holdings, led Igloo’s extended Series A round, the startup told TechCrunch. Existing investors Openspace Ventures,  a venture capital fund that invests in Southeast Asia, and Linear Capital, a Shanghai-based early-stage venture capital firm focusing on tech-driven startups, participated in this round, which makes four-year-old Igloo’s to-date raise to $16 million. It raised about $1 million in its Seed financing round. Igloo — founded by Wei Zhu, who previously served as Chief Technology Officer at Grab — works with e-commerce and ...
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Coronavirus: Millions of jobs at stake in South-east Asia
20May By Team FPNo Comments
Asia, China, Singapore

Coronavirus: Millions of jobs at stake in South-east Asia

BANGKOK - Millions of jobs could be lost in South-east Asia as economies grind to a halt amid efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic, wreaking havoc particularly in countries with weak social protection systems. A report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap) says regional governments should - and still have ample policy space - to both save jobs as well as support minimum living standards for households. In the policy paper on the Asia Pacific region issued last week (March 26), Escap noted that while exact data on the impact of the pandemic on employment remained unavailable, "the impact is likely to be substantial as services and labour-intensive manufacturing comprise over 80 per cent of the region's informal sector and small and medi...
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SE Asia Stocks-Vietnam leads plunge as region battered by oil rout
20May By Team FPNo Comments
Asia, China, Singapore

SE Asia Stocks-Vietnam leads plunge as region battered by oil rout

* Vietnam marks worst day since March 30    * Malaysia's worst session in over four weeks Southeast Asia markets closed lower ledby Vietnam stocks on Tuesday, rattled by a historic crash inU.S. oil prices that laid bare the disruption caused by thecoronavirus pandemic.     The plunge, which pressured global markets, was a result ofa storage squeeze which turned holders of U.S. crude contractsexpiring later on Tuesday to forced sellers. This amid a lack ofdemand for oil as countries around the world observe lockdownsto curb the spread of the coronavirus.    "The impact of negative oil means different things fordifferent Asian economies - but if you have to generalize, itisn't great news," Robert Carnell, regional head of research,Asia-Pacific at ING, wrote in a note.    Such a big negative ...
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Facebook, three Indonesian firms in early talks for mobile payment approval: sources
20May By Team FPNo Comments
Asia, China, Singapore

Facebook, three Indonesian firms in early talks for mobile payment approval: sources

Facebook Inc is preparing to apply for regulatory approval in Indonesia to launch mobile payments in partnership with three local digital fintech firms, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The plan, if approved, could be among the first such services under the unified payment service Facebook Pay it, which the social media platform unveiled in November. It allows users across its various platforms including WhatsApp and Instagram to make payments without exiting the app. The move comes amid early partnership talks between the social network and ride-hailing and payments firm Gojek. Four sources said Facebook wants to capitalize on the Indonesian market and is preparing for regulatory approval in the country. The three e-wallet operators are Indonesian ride hailing firm Gojek’s Go...
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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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