Anbang walks away from Starwood Hotels deal due to “market considerations” pushing hospitality group’s share price down in after hours trading March 31, 2016 China's Anbang Insurance is walking away from its proposed $14bn (£9.7bn) takeover of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, citing "market considerations". "We were attracted to the opportunity presented by Starwood because of its high-quality, leading global hotel brands, which met many of our acquisition criteria, including the ability to generate consistent, long-term returns over time," Anbang said in [...]
Three reasons why Apple’s iPhone SE will be a smartphone hit March 31, 2016 Apple’s latest handset, the iPhone SE, will be unleashed this week upon a weary consumer. Why weary? Gartner figures show that global smartphone sales in Q4 2015 saw their slowest growth since 2008. Industry behemoth Apple hasn’t been immune with sales of its iPhone range starting to flat-line, currently growing at the slowest rate since the [...]
Is China reforming fast enough? Standard and Poor’s doesn’t think so March 31, 2016 China has been told to get a move on with economic reforms if it wants to maintain its top-notch credit rating today, after Standard & Poor’s (S&P) warned that its economic rebalancing is taking too long. The ratings agency said it was downgrading its outlook for China’s sovereign debt from “stable” to “negative”, firing a [...]
Invest down under: Why Australia’s an overlooked investment opportunity – and it’s nothing to do with oil and mining March 30, 2016 Australia has the enviable honour of avoiding recession for nearly 25 years. It’s well known for having plentiful natural resources and a thriving oil and mining sector, and its proximity to China made it the chief supplier of commodities to the Asian giant during its manufacturing and construction boom. But the abundance of stuff to [...]
The crucial lesson China teaches the West about bank lending – and economic growth March 30, 2016 So, The Financial Times has finally questioned the wisdom of using QE to purchase good assets. You’d have thought that someone would have noticed the effect by now: new money for old assets just pushes up their price. To hope it creates a “wealth effect” and engenders confidence is a bit perverse. If bank lending [...]
UK steel crisis: Tata Steel looking into sale of UK assets, including Port Talbot operation in Wales, as Labour leader Corbyn and unions call for government intervention March 30, 2016 Tata Steel is set to sell its UK assets, putting thousands of jobs at risk, after crunch talks held yesterday between the company, politicians and union bosses in Mumbai failed to deliver a different solution. The company said last night that it had told the board of Tata Steel Europe to "explore all options for portfolio restructuring including [...]
Chinese economy carried on growing at a sluggish pace in March, according to business survey March 23, 2016 China’s economy continued to grow at more moderate pace in March, according to new business survey data released today. The sales managers’ index produced by World Economics scored 51.2 in February, equal to the month before. As the score is above 50, it implies the economy grew over the month. While it is the joint-lowest [...]
Chinese and Silicon Valley deals set to keep M&A activity high in fintech, e-commerce and other tech industries March 23, 2016 A mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory firm has predicted a bright future for activity in the fintech, automotive technology and e-commerce industries. In a series of reports, Hampleton Partners has found M&A activity in these areas has been “growing substantially” over the last 30 months. And movement from China and Silicon Valley is predicted to keep [...]
Asian shares mixed on Tuesday as Chinese stocks dip modestly while Nikkei buoyed by weaker yen March 22, 2016 Chinese stocks slid on Tuesday as a weaker yen buoyed Japanese stocks after a public holiday on Monday. On a mixed day for Asian markets, Chinese decreased gains they made on Monday with the Shenzen composite down 0.41 per cent and the Shanghai composite lower at 0.78 per cent. Hawkish comments from two US Federal Reserve officials [...]
Donald Trump becoming next US president is a bigger risk to the world than jihadi terrorism and Brexit, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit March 17, 2016 China's economy experiencing a sharper-than-expected slowdown is the world's biggest risk, according to the wonks over at the Economist Intelligence Unit. "If China's economy slows by more than we currently expect, it will further feed the ongoing global commodity price slump, with a hugely detrimental impact on those Latin American, Middle Eastern and Sub-Saharan African states that [...]