World

MANILA : U.S. private equity firm Cerberus will acquire for $300 million a debt-laden shipyard in the Philippines at a former U.S. navy base close to the South China Sea, the facility's trustee and two sources with knowledge of the deal said on Tuesday. The fate of the strategically located Subic Bay shipyard has been a national security concern for defence chiefs, with fears it could be taken over by state-run firms from China, with which the Philippines has a long history of mistrust. In 2019, at least eight foreign companies had expressed interest in the shipyard including two unidentified Chinese firms. China has overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea with several countries including the Philippines, which has repeatedly protested Chinese actions to expand its presenc...

LONDON: The safe-haven Japanese yen fell back on Friday (Feb 18) and risk-sensitive currencies like the Australian dollar advanced as investors took comfort from news of talks between the United States and Russia over the crisis in Ukraine. The euro edged higher versus a weaker dollar. The yen and rival safe-haven, the Swiss franc, have gained this week as investors sought safety amid rising tensions on the Ukrainian border, where more than 100,000 Russian troops are massed. Western powers say Russia is looking for a pretext to invade, a charge Moscow rejects. The improvement in sentiment on Friday came after US State Department said late on Thursday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had accepted an invitation to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov late next week provi...

JAKARTA: Foreign travellers can now enter the Indonesian islands of Bintan and Batam without quarantine, in addition to Bali. According to an Indonesia COVID-19 task force circular issued on Tuesday (Mar 8), travellers from abroad can enter via Batam’s Hang Nadim Airport, Batam Port, Raja Haji Fisabilillah Airport in Tanjung Pinang, Bintan Port and Tanjung Pinang Port. Among the task force’s duties include regulating travel health protocols amid the pandemic. To be eligible, travellers must be fully vaccinated and show a negative Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test taken 48 hours before departure, the circular wrote. Foreign travellers must also have a valid visa and show payment of a tourism package or hotel in Batam or Bintan. They also need to have health i...

LONDON: HSBC aims to cut emissions associated with loans made to its oil and gas clients by 34 per cent this decade, the bank's sustainability chief told Reuters, marking the first time that Britain's biggest lender has committed to such a target. More than 100 banks have pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and are under pressure to provide details on the deep shorter-term cuts to "financed emissions" that are needed if banks are to have any chance of meeting their goal. "This is rewiring the way we make financing and investment decisions from here on in," group chief sustainability officer Celine Herweijer said of HSBC's 2030 targets. HSBC is a major lender to corporate clients across Asia and some of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, and its plan is expected to...

U.S. Treasury yields rose sharply Wednesday as traders dumped traditional safe havens and loaded up on riskier assets like stocks. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note moved 18 basis point higher to 1.89% in afternoon trading. That marks the rate's biggest one-day jump since March 2020. The 10-year Treasury yield fell as low as 1.68% on Tuesday, with investors rushing into safe-haven investments, as Russia continued its invasion of Ukraine. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond advanced 15 basis points to 2.26%. Yields move inversely to prices and 1 basis point is equal to 0.01%. Treasurys Wednesday's moves in bonds came as stocks rallied perhaps in anticipation of the Ukraine-Russia situation taking a turn for the better soon. The conflict in Eastern Europe has continued to...

Oil’s relentless surge above $125 a barrel threatens to stoke inflation across Asia, forcing central banks to decide whether to respond to higher prices with tighter policy, or hold off amid the blow to economic growth. As a net importer of energy, Asia is vulnerable to the oil price spike triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And with more than 40% of global exports stemming from the region, any sustained price increases will ripple throughout the world. “Most are huge energy importers, so soaring crude and gas costs will weigh on economic growth,” said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC Holdings PLC. “But the inflation impact is also substantial, even if the precise impact on individual markets varies. A delicate balancing act for central banks.” Here’s ...

One of the biggest stars in the LCS squad is Singapore skipper Hariss Harun. Hariss is no stranger to ambitious projects, featured as a key player and captain for Malaysian side Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) for more than half a decade. During his time at the club, JDT was transformed into a regional giant under the ownership of Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim. And there are parallels between both projects, observed Hariss. “They had an interesting project, nobody knew at that time whether it would take off, what would happen but obviously we all know what JDT is today, and how fast that project moves on and it is still advancing and getting bigger at the same time,” said Hariss. One of the things that the project addressed was his desire to help Singapore football, added th...

Inside Liquidity Services' 130,000-square-foot warehouse in Garland, Texas, the aisles aren't lined with typical merchandise. Instead, they're stacked with returns from Amazon, Target, Sony, Home Depot, Wayfair and more, all in the process of being liquidated. "Liquidators are coming in and they're buying up all of this product in bulk. They're then packaging it, palletizing it and reselling it, either to be resold on a site like eBay or Poshmark, or even to individual consumers. So it's turned into a much bigger portion of the industry than we've ever seen before," said Sonia Lapinsky of consulting group AlixPartners. The liquidation market has more than doubled since 2008, reaching a whopping $644 billion in 2020, according to data from Colorado State University. "A lot of this used t...

JAKARTA: Indonesia hosts its first motorcycle grand prix in 25 years on Sunday (Mar 20), confident that concerns surrounding the new track will be forgotten once racing begins in front of a sell-out crowd. The archipelago nation of 270 million people is motorbike mad - many get around on two wheels - and there is a palpable sense of excitement at the prospect of world-class racing returning. Even President Joko Widodo is a fan and tried out the Mandalika International Street Circuit when he officially opened it in November, having a go on a custom-made green Kawasaki bike. Sunday's race is the second stop on the 2022 MotoGP calendar after the opening race in Qatar two weeks ago, won by Enea Bastianini of Italy. The new 4.3km circuit hugs white-sanded coastline on the island of Lombok, ...

BEIJING — American businesses in China no longer expect relations between the two countries to improve from the tensions of the Trump administration, according to a business association survey. After President Joe Biden was elected in late 2020, there was a spike in optimism among businesses, with 45% of respondents expecting better U.S.-China relations, the American Chamber of Commerce in China's annual survey of members found. That level of optimism has dropped to 27% of respondents in the latest survey — conducted in fall 2021 — the same as when Donald Trump was president and enacted tougher policies on China. Rising U.S.-China tension has ranked among the top five challenges for doing business in China since 2019, the survey said. "There was a level of perhaps hope and optimism once Bi...