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.
NEW IDENTITY: Known for its software, India has expanded into hardware, with its semiconductor industry growing from US$38bn in 2023 to US$45bn to US$50bn India on Saturday inaugurated its first semiconductor assembly and test facility, a milestone in the government’s push to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers and stake a claim in a sector dominated by China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened US firm Micron Technology Inc’s semiconductor assembly, test and packaging unit in his home state of Gujarat, hailing the “dawn of a new era” for India’s technology ambitions. “When young Indians look back in the future, they will see this decade as the turning point in our tech future,” Modi told the event, which was broadcast on his YouTube channel. The plant would convert
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
Zimbabwe’s ban on raw lithium exports is forcing Chinese miners to rethink their strategy, speeding up plans to process the metal locally instead of shipping it to China’s vast rechargeable battery industry. The country is Africa’s largest lithium producer and has one of the world’s largest reserves, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). Zimbabwe already banned the export of lithium ore in 2022 and last year announced it would halt exports of lithium concentrates from January next year. However, on Wednesday it imposed the ban with immediate effect, leaving unclear what the lithium mining sector would do in the
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