Posts by Mark Darwin
Private equity and venture capital face tougher fundraising in 2025, with uneven exit recovery: Preqin report
[SINGAPORE] Private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) fundraising has remained tough in 2025, a report by data platform Preqin shows. About US$64.4 billion was raised for VC investments globally during the first three quarters of 2025. This sum is just under half – 48 per cent – of the total raised for 2024. Europe…
Read MoreSIA Group’s passenger traffic up 2.6% in November
Singapore Airlines and Scoot carried 3.5 million passengers in total during the month, 6% higher than a year ago [SINGAPORE] Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group on Monday (Dec 15) reported year-on-year growth of 2.6 per cent in November passenger traffic for the two carriers it operates. This was slightly higher than the 2.2 per cent increase…
Read MoreAsean Power Grid projects could attract more Chinese investor interest in 2026
Clean-power manufacturers from China have been expanding in Indonesia, could seize more opportunities with cross-border projects [SINGAPORE] China’s clean-power players and investors are poised to expand their footprint in South-east Asia in the coming year, riding on the momentum of a region-wide effort to build cross-border energy linkages. The effort, dubbed the Asean Power Grid…
Read MoreChina shadow bank’s missed payments show growing property stress
The recent trouble in Zhejiang is a reminder that the problem never fully went away [BEIJING] A US$3 billion redemption crisis in eastern China is reviving concerns about the loosely-regulated shadow-banking industry as the nation’s prolonged property slump risks spilling over into the financial sector. Investors holding some 20 billion yuan (S$3.7 billion) in wealth…
Read MoreASX hit with A$150 million capital charge, regulatory reforms
The exchange operator will also revamp its internal transformation programme with new targets and commit to stronger leadership [SYDNEY] Australia’s corporate regulator will impose a A$150 million (S$129 million) capital charge on ASX as part of a package to safeguard the nation’s financial markets amid an ongoing probe into the embattled exchange operator. The charge…
Read MoreWall Street sees an AI bubble forming and is gaming what pops it
Looking to 2026, investors debate cutting AI exposure or doubling down to ride a potentially game-changing boom [NEW YORK] It has been three years since OpenAI set off euphoria over artificial intelligence with the release of ChatGPT. And while the money is still pouring in, so are the doubts about whether the good times can…
Read MoreServiceNow nears up to US7 billion deal for cybersecurity startup Armis
[NEW YORK] ServiceNow is in advanced talks to buy the cybersecurity startup Armis in a deal that may be valued at as much as US$7 billion and would represent the tech company’s largest acquisition to date. A deal may be announced in the coming days, according to people familiar with the situation, asking not to…
Read MorePakistan to allow Binance to explore ‘tokenisation’ of up to US$2 billion of assets
The move comes as other countries expand formal licensing rules for crypto exchanges amid broader global regulatory tightening [KARACHI] Pakistan has signed a memorandum of understanding with crypto exchange Binance to explore the “tokenisation” of up to US$2 billion in sovereign bonds, T-bills and commodity reserves to boost liquidity and attract investors, the finance ministry…
Read MoreChina is ‘rejecting’ Nvidia’s H200 chips, outfoxing US strategy, David Sacks says
The Asian nation is weighing a package of incentives worth as much as US$70 billion to support its local chipmaking industry [WASHINGTON] China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia’s H200 and is rejecting the AI chip in favour of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI czar David Sacks said,…
Read MoreBitcoin hoarding company Strategy remains in Nasdaq 100
[BENGALURU] Bitcoin hoarding giant Strategy clung to its place in the Nasdaq 100 on Friday (Dec 12), continuing its year-long stint in the benchmark at a time where analysts have raised questions over its business model. Some market watchers have suggested Strategy’s pioneering business model of buying and holding bitcoin, which has spawned dozens of…
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