JUSTICE
MF Global to pay US$1.3bn
Failed brokerage MF Global is to pay US$1.2 billion in restitution plus a US$100 million penalty to resolve charges it took money from customer accounts as it collapsed in 2011, US regulators said on Monday. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission, which sued MF Global and some employees over the October 2011 collapse, said a federal consent order issued on the case would “ensure customers recover their losses sustained when MF Global failed.” The payments arise out of charges that MF Global raided customer accounts for more than US$1 billion as the brokerage was collapsing due in part to bad bets on European sovereign debt.
INVESTMENT
FDI into China rises
Foreign direct investment (FDI) into China rose 5.77 percent year-on-year to US$97 billion in the first 10 months of the year, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said yesterday. For last month alone, FDI increased 1.24 percent to US$8.42 billion, the ministry said. The ministry in a statement that in the first 10 months, “investment in China from the 10 Asian countries and regions, the EU and the US maintained rather fast growth.” Investment from the EU jumped 22.3 percent year-on-year to US$6.4 billion during the January-to-October period, while that from the US increased 12.4 percent to US$3.04 billion.
SOUTH KOREA
Keep rate unchanged: KDI
The nation’s state think tank yesterday said the country should keep its key interest rate unchanged at 2.5 percent for the next six months. In its biannual economic outlook, the Korea Development Institute (KDI) also suggested the government should continue with a stimulant fiscal policy. KDI revised upward by 0.2 percentage points its economic growth forecast for this year to 2.8 percent and by 0.1 percentage point to 3.7 percent for next year.
NEW ZEALAND
Share sale raises US$304m
The government raised NZ$365 million (US$304 million) from the sale of shares in Air New Zealand Ltd, completing the third of four planned asset sales before next year’s election. The government sold 221 million shares at NZ$1.65 apiece, reducing its stake in the national carrier to 53 percent from 73 percent, Minister of Finance Bill English said in a statement. Air New Zealand shares last traded on Friday, at NZ$1.65.
INTERNET
PayPal in Uber app deal
PayPal, the online payment service that succeeded by wedding itself to EBay Inc, is moving into more modern marketplaces through a deal with car-service company Uber Technologies Inc. Users of Uber’s popular mobile-booking application were to be able to pay with PayPal starting yesterday in the US, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, Paypal president David Marcus said in an interview. Riders who use PayPal before Nov. 28 are to receive US$15 toward their next trip.
PROPERTY
Blackstone’s Leung leaves
Blackstone Group’s Antony Leung (梁錦松) is leaving his role as Greater China chairman to lead a Hong Kong-based property conglomerate, the private equity firm said yesterday. Leung, Hong Kong’s former financial secretary, will become the group chief executive officer for Hong Kong-based property conglomerate the Nan Fung Group (南豐), starting in February next year. He is also to retain an advisory role at Blackstone.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained