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Asia Financial Services

Covering all aspects of financial services in Asia from banking in China to algo trading in Japan.

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Bear rumblings in Asia

The collapse of Bear Sterns has not only changed the financial industry in the US, but it's also had a number of knock-on effects in Asia. Most prominently is China’s Citic Securities decision to call off plans for the planned US$1B cross-investment in Bear Stearns. The deal was originally announced in October of last year as part of a strategic a...

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Contactless in China

Without too much fanfare, Nokia and China Unionpay recently launched a near field communication (NFC) contactless payments trial in Shanghai allowing users to download a loyalty application over the air to their phones. It’s actually the 2nd trial of NFC in China. The first project was a ticketing and e-cash application loaded onto 100 phones in t...

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China 2008: What lies ahead - Part 3 of 3

The Olympics Amongst all of the events happening in China in 2008, without a doubt, the most important item on the Chinese agenda this year is the Beijing Olympics. Seen by both domestic and international observers as a key indication of China’s development, the Chinese government has spared no expense in preparing for the games. The entire city ...

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China 2008: What lies ahead - Part 2 of 3

Betting on the Dragon Since January 2000, the Shanghai Stock Exchange composite has grown by an average of 20% a year. Compared to other past market bubbles, we can see that while the shanghai market isn’t matching the heady 500% growth of the NASDAQ during the 1995-2001 dotcom bubble, it is coming close. Over the long-term, stocks offer some of t...

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China 2008: What lies ahead - Part 1 of 3

Year 4706, the year of the rat, begins on February 7th in China this year. With the celebration just under a month away, it’s tempting to use the time to procrastinate on making predictions on what will happen in China is 2008 as it’s technically not the new year here yet, but unfortunately, China doesn’t wait. So over the next couple entries we’...

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Betting on the Dragon: Chinese investor behaviour

The Shanghai stock market continues to defy expectations -- up nearly 100% in 2007. Most of the commentary on the Shanghai market depicts the average Chinese investor as unknowledgeable and following the herd. However, a recent study that we’ve (kapronasia) just completed with Amber (www.amberinsights.com) shows that individual Shanghai A-share i...

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Plastic China

According to a recent statistic published by China Union Pay, Chinese banks have issued more than 1.3 billion debit, credit and ‘quasi’-credit cards through the end of September. This means that, on average, every man, woman and child in China now carries a piece of plastic. Quite a staggering number and, at first glance, quite promising. Howe...

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GE loses on Shenzhen Dev Bank - Karma doesn't work in China

Two years ago in 2005, GE agreed to buy a 7% stake in Shenzhen Development Bank, which at the time was worth US$100M. However, the deal had been held up due due to disagreements amongst the shareholders, one of which was the private equity group TPG. Most of the disagreements centred around government requirements on share restructuring as the i...

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Bear in the China Shop

Not to miss the ‘invest in China’ boat, yesterday, Bear Stearns and Citic Securities announced a co-investment partnership agreement. If everything is approved by the regulators, which it likely will be, Bear, the darling of the CDO market, will invest US$1B in the Chinese brokerage, which will convert to a 2% stake over 6 years with the option t...

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China: Stock Dormancy

For the past few weeks, most of the major news in China has centred on the Communist Party Congress. This is an pretty important event in China that happens once every 5 years and usually results in a number of far-reaching policy and people changes throughout the country and government. What has slipped under the radar during all the coverage ...

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