Posts by Mark Darwin
BlackRock faces new deadline from US regulator over bank stakes
BLACKROCK is facing a new demand from a top US regulator over its stakes in banks after the asset manager failed to meet a January deadline and pushed to delay talks into the Trump administration. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) granted a fresh deadline of Feb 10 to resolve an issue regarding oversight of…
Read MoreSingPost should have disclosed internal wrongdoing once the facts had been established
Sias should call on Singtel to review the performance of SingPost’s board, and encourage more investors to attend the mail carrier’s next AGM When Singapore Post (SingPost) said on the evening of Dec 22 that it had sacked three top executives for mishandling internal investigations sparked by whistleblowing reports, I wondered if the story would…
Read MoreWill 2025 herald an IPO revival in China?
PRIVATE equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) funds in China had another gloomy year in 2024, but many in the industry are hoping that a revival is on the cards in the wake of renewed enthusiasm in the domestic stock market after a string of supportive measures from the government. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index…
Read MoreSunac can’t rule out second offshore debt overhaul
Defaulted property developer Sunac China Holdings said it can’t rule out a second offshore debt restructuring as a prolonged property crisis dims its outlook and it faces another court petition to wind up operations. The company “doesn’t exclude seeking a more comprehensive holistic offshore debt solution”, given that current market conditions are “significantly below” expectations…
Read MoreBuffett’s US$277b cash hoard after selling Apple is a warning
Warren Buffett has been selling a lot of stock, and that revelation is inducing his many admirers to follow suit. His Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, reported on Saturday (Jan 11) that it reduced several positions and slashed its stake in top-holding Apple, a sign to some in markets that the “Oracle of Omaha” was bracing for…
Read MoreUS stock market races reality check in high-bar earnings season
The US stock market’s strongest two-year rally since the dot-com bubble is heading for its next big test as companies start releasing quarterly earnings, providing a major gut check on whether valuations have outrun the underlying reality. On Friday (Jan 10), the S&P 500 Index slid 1.5 per cent – its worst drop since mid-December…
Read MoreLarger S-Reits rank among those with highest net retail inflows in 2024
RETAIL investors have been net buyers of Singapore real estate investment trusts (S-Reits) in 2024 amid volatile performance for the sector during the year. These investors bought some S$1.6 billion net across the sector in 2024, taking their total net inflows into S-Reits over the past five years to more than S$6 billion. Across the…
Read MoreJPMorgan asks staff to return to office five days a week, prompting complaints
US BANK JPMorgan Chase on Friday asked its employees who are on hybrid work schedules to return to the office five days a week starting in March, an internal memo seen by Reuters showed, prompting hundreds of staff comments, including complaints. Financial companies have been aggressive in enforcing return-to-office demands in the wake of the…
Read MoreBig media pulls plug on Venu sports streaming service before launch
WALT Disney, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery on Friday (Jan 10) abandoned plans to launch Venu Sports, their live sports joint venture, pulling the plug on a much-heralded effort that ran into substantial legal opposition. Shares of Warner Bros Discovery were down about 2 per cent, Fox’s stock fell about 1 per cent, while FuboTV’s…
Read MoreJapan’s NTT appoints banks for US$1 billion data centre Reit IPO in Singapore: sources
JAPAN’S Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp (NTT) has appointed Bank of America and UBS to work on a US$1 billion data centre real estate investment trust listing in Singapore, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. The listing, which sources said was likely to take place in the second half of 2025, could help…
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