KKR & Co. is seeking a $500 million loan to back its acquisition of a majority stake in school operator XCL Education Holdings Pte. , according to people familiar with the matter. The proposed five-year loan carries an interest margin of 300 basis points over the benchmark Secured Overnight Financing Rate, the people said, who asked not to be named discussing private matters. BNP Paribas SA , DBS ...
KKR & Co. is seeking a $500 million loan to back its acquisition of a majority stake in school operator XCL Education Holdings Pte. , according to people familiar with the matter. The proposed five-year loan carries an interest margin of 300 basis points over the benchmark Secured Overnight Financing Rate, the people said, who asked not to be named discussing private matters. BNP Paribas SA , DBS Bank Holdings Ltd. , HSBC Holdings Plc , ING Bank and Standard Chartered Plc are leading the financing, they said. Discussions with banks are ongoing and terms could change, the people said. Representatives for KKR and DBS declined to comment, while BNP Paribas, HSBC, ING Bank and StanChart didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Private money has been pouring into schools in Asia as investors look to profit from rising demand for quality education.The booming market is increasingly catching the eye of private financiers, which bought stakes and lent to school chains in a bet that a growing class of upwardly mobile families will fuel expansion. China’s Cheap Money Is Shaking $9.5 Trillion Global Loan Market SoftBank Seeks Record Loan of Up to $40 Billion for OpenAI Stake Asian Banks’ Billions in Gulf Loans at Risk Amid Mideast Turmoil KKR outbid other investment firms for the stake held by TPG Inc., in a deal valuing the Southeast Asian school operator at about $1.3 billion. XCL had previously drawn interest from Warburg Pincus, Blackstone Inc. and EQT AB, among others, people familiar with the matter said in December. XCL runs K-12 school campuses across Southeast Asia, including XCL World Academy in Singapore, the American School of Bangkok’s Sukhumvit campus, and Vietnam Australia International School, according to its website. Its other shareholders include Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings Pte. KKR invests widely in education, backing firms including Lighthouse Learning in India, Taylor’s Education Group in Southeast Asia, and Vietnam’s EQuest Educa...
Former US State Department Senior Adviser and Visiting Fellow at King's College London, Negah Angha, says the Iran war has reached a "critical moment". Angha says US President Donald Trump will need a way out of the conflict soon, as the US public is not happy with the potential of another "forever war". Angha spoke to Vonnie Quinn on Bloomberg Daybreak Europe. (Source: Bloomberg)
Former US State Department Senior Adviser and Visiting Fellow at King's College London, Negah Angha, says the Iran war has reached a "critical moment". Angha says US President Donald Trump will need a way out of the conflict soon, as the US public is not happy with the potential of another "forever war". Angha spoke to Vonnie Quinn on Bloomberg Daybreak Europe. (Source: Bloomberg)
Indonesia could face a sharp fiscal squeeze if the US-Israel war on Iran pushes oil prices higher, analysts warn, as this could inflate the country’s fuel subsidy bill at a time when global ratings agencies and investors are already scrutinising Jakarta’s monetary discipline. A prolonged war could force policymakers into a difficult choice: maintain fuel subsidies and risk breaching the legal defi...
Indonesia could face a sharp fiscal squeeze if the US-Israel war on Iran pushes oil prices higher, analysts warn, as this could inflate the country’s fuel subsidy bill at a time when global ratings agencies and investors are already scrutinising Jakarta’s monetary discipline. A prolonged war could force policymakers into a difficult choice: maintain fuel subsidies and risk breaching the legal deficit ceiling – potentially unsettling investors further – or cut funding to keep the budget within limits but fuel inflation instead. The conflict has disrupted tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz – a key shipping route for Gulf energy exports – pushing Brent crude prices to about US$85 per barrel on Friday, near its highest price since 2024. Advertisement For Indonesia , which imports large volumes of fuel but caps domestic prices through subsidies, higher oil prices quickly translate into pressure on the state budget. Oil tankers anchor off the coast of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters The government has already allocated 210.1 trillion rupiah (US$12.4 billion) for energy subsidies this year, a 14.5 per cent increase from last year’s budget.
Alexander Shelegov/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images I believe that many people do not fully understand the BlackRock ( BLK ) case. In part, it seems to me that a mystique has been created around how the company owns the whole world, and this is only half true. Of course, the case has its good side; it is a resilient compounder, the prospects are great, etc., but in my view, the premium in BLK's ...
Alexander Shelegov/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images I believe that many people do not fully understand the BlackRock ( BLK ) case. In part, it seems to me that a mystique has been created around how the company owns the whole world, and this is only half true. Of course, the case has its good side; it is a resilient compounder, the prospects are great, etc., but in my view, the premium in BLK's valuation has become so large that it doesn't make sense to have it in the portfolio. Today, BLK trades at a P/E ratio above its main peers, and yet its total return is highly correlated with indexes like S&P 500 ( IVV ) ( SPY ). So in the end, it seems to me to be a “more expensive” and less diversified way to gain exposure to the American stock market. I Know, BlackRock Isn't a Bad Company Starting with the “mystical” part (or some curiosities) of BlackRock, I find the name very interesting. In addition to conveying solidity, it seems to me that companies with this type of name tend to be successful. Blackstone ( BX ) is one example (check the BX full article here ), with a very similar name, but it doesn't stop there. Itaú ( ITUB ) is the most solid bank in Brazil, and in the Tupi-Guarani (indigenous) language, it literally means Black Stone. Of course, it's just a coincidence, nothing magical, but it already reminds me of a strong and solid name. Returning to the idea of BlackRock “owning the world,” BlackRock does indeed have stakes in most (if not all) of the world's large companies. But that shouldn't be a reason to invest in it, because it's not as if BlackRock controls these companies. In fact, its power to interfere is quite limited, as many of these investments are through passive ETFs, and to believe that a company could have a seat on all the boards of all companies and really influence the path of all of them at the same time is naive, in my view. But in any case, this certainly does not mean that BlackRock is a powerless company, nor a bad company. In fact, i...
科索沃國會無法選出新總統 將未足半年內再度重選 To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 【有線新聞】科索沃國會未能選出新總統，將在不足半年內再度重選國會，現任總統奧斯馬尼批評是黨派政治計算導致。 奧斯馬尼同時宣布解散國...
科索沃國會無法選出新總統 將未足半年內再度重選 To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 【有線新聞】科索沃國會未能選出新總統，將在不足半年內再度重選國會，現任總統奧斯馬尼批評是黨派政治計算導致。 奧斯馬尼同時宣布解散國會，根據憲法規定要在45天內、即最遲下月19日前重選，是繼去年2月、12月兩次選舉後再度舉行國會大選。新總統則是由國會投票，在逾3份之2票數支持下選出，但日前拉鋸至深夜，總理庫爾蒂領導的執政自決運勳黨仍未能爭取足夠支持並流會，導致超過了推選新總統的限期。
Reacher’s Alan Ritchson takes on alien robots in an action thriller that benefits from some better-than-usual streaming special effects You’d be forgiven for skipping past Netflix’s gory, militaristic action thriller War Machine at this particular moment. There is, after all, an actual war raging on (is there ever a good time, one could argue?) but those behind the film would likely use its sci-fi...
Reacher’s Alan Ritchson takes on alien robots in an action thriller that benefits from some better-than-usual streaming special effects You’d be forgiven for skipping past Netflix’s gory, militaristic action thriller War Machine at this particular moment. There is, after all, an actual war raging on (is there ever a good time, one could argue?) but those behind the film would likely use its sci-fi bent as a differentiation defense. The war being raged here is not between the US and a foreign earthly entity but rather one from somewhere above, our umpteenth soldiers v aliens matchup. It’s a clear “if you like” column filler for fans of Predator, Edge of Tomorrow or, if they exist, Battle: Los Angeles, yet unlike the many films it’s clearly inspired by, the extraterrestrials here are designed to resemble machines that could have originated from another country rather than another planet, robotic whirring over tentacle slithering. It gives the film a slightly generic sheen, like a cheaper Transformers spin-off, but it’s also thankfully devoid of the dreaded Netflix murk, that flattening filter that reduces most colours to grey, the film an acquisition from Lionsgate. Set in Colorado but shot in Australia from native writer-director Patrick Hughes, and granted a theatrical release there last month, it makes for a slicker-than-usual streaming premiere, an easy, drink-your-way-through-it Friday night option for those who wish to remain entirely unchallenged. Continue reading...
The city was portrayed as an aspirational place to live, but now those who moved there are realising the precarity that comes with being an economic migrant To be fooled by a mirage, you needn’t be lost in the desert. Sometimes, the illusion is strongest just when you thought you were safely home, posting from the pool about your teenage daughter’s spa party and your own glittering life in a city ...
The city was portrayed as an aspirational place to live, but now those who moved there are realising the precarity that comes with being an economic migrant To be fooled by a mirage, you needn’t be lost in the desert. Sometimes, the illusion is strongest just when you thought you were safely home, posting from the pool about your teenage daughter’s spa party and your own glittering life in a city where “the possibilities are endless”, as they tend to be for billionaires’ daughters living in tax havens. Only then does the fantasy explode in a puff of intercepted missile smoke, leaving just another woman in her pyjamas telling Instagram ( as Petra Ecclestone did at the weekend ) that she moved to Dubai “to feel safe” and war was never mentioned in the small print. Who could have guessed that living a few hundred miles as the drone flies from Tehran might have risks? Certainly not the anonymous hedge funder who fumed to the Financial Times that “ the trade was not that you were getting exposed to geopolitics ”. Continue reading...
India’s Gukesh Dommaraju, at 19 the youngest ever world champion, has had a hard time this year. The teenager has struggled at Wijk aan Zee, where he totalled a modest 50%, and then this week in Prague, where he was last after eight of the nine rounds, scoring just 2.5/8, without winning a single game. With just Friday’s final round to be played, Prague is currently led by Nodirbek Abdusattorov on...
India’s Gukesh Dommaraju, at 19 the youngest ever world champion, has had a hard time this year. The teenager has struggled at Wijk aan Zee, where he totalled a modest 50%, and then this week in Prague, where he was last after eight of the nine rounds, scoring just 2.5/8, without winning a single game. With just Friday’s final round to be played, Prague is currently led by Nodirbek Abdusattorov on 5.5/8, as the Uzbekistan No 1 continues his winning streak from the London Classic and Wijk aan Zee. The best game so far has been this win by the local Czech hero David Navara. The action-packed game includes queen and rook sacrifices and a pawn promotion, so is well worth playing through. The loser was so impressed by Navara’s creativity that he continued the game until he was checkmated. Prague scores after Thursday’s eighth round were Abdusattorov 5.5, Jorden van Foreest (Netherlands) 5, Navara 4.5, Parham Maghsoodloo (Iran), Vincent Keymer (Germany) and Chithambaram Aravindh (India) 4, Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzbekistan), Hans Niemann (USA) and David Anton (Spain) 3.5, Gukesh 2.5. View image in fullscreen 4014: Teodors Zeids v Mikhail Tal, Riga Championship 1954. White to move and win. Could you have beaten the ‘Magician from Riga’? Faustino Oro, 12, Argentina’s “chess Messi”, has been competing at the Aeroflot Open in Moscow this week in search of what could have been his third and final grandmaster norm, and with it, the GM title and a world age record. Sergey Karjakin, Judit Polgar and Bobby Fischer were among the previous youngest ever GMs. Oro’s family moved from Buenos Aires to Spain to help his career, and he is already the youngest ever 2500-rated player. Aeroflot Moscow is a major global tournament. The elite six-day, nine-round event included 51 grandmasters and 58 international masters, with a prize fund of 18m roubles (approximately £171,000), and was played at the Carlton Hotel in Central Moscow. The schedule was tight, nine rounds in six days using the time ...