One of Oaktree Capital Group LLC ’s most senior investment professionals for Asia is set to leave the firm in the coming months, according to people familiar with the matter. Pedro Urquidi , who heads opportunistic credit outside North America, moved to Hong Kong in 2019 to help grow the firm’s Asia platform as global investors increasingly targeted distressed debt in the region. He has been with ...
One of Oaktree Capital Group LLC ’s most senior investment professionals for Asia is set to leave the firm in the coming months, according to people familiar with the matter. Pedro Urquidi , who heads opportunistic credit outside North America, moved to Hong Kong in 2019 to help grow the firm’s Asia platform as global investors increasingly targeted distressed debt in the region. He has been with Oaktree for more than two decades, according to his LinkedIn profile . The firm declined to comment, and Urquidi did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Oaktree has been stepping up activity in India while dealing with investments that struggled in China. The firm is among the most active players in Indian private credit, having deployed more than $4 billion since 2018, according to its website . In Greater China, challenges have included recouping capital from some bets. After taking over a tourist resort and partially built residential project from defaulted borrower China Evergrande Group, the firm still holds two largely vacant residential land plots and is now operating the resort while managing the unfinished project. Oaktree last year announced the final close of a new global opportunities fund with approximately $16 billion of commitments. Urquidi joined the firm’s London office in 2005 and went on to build and lead its European and Asian Opportunities teams.
Overseas funds’ trading of Chinese onshore bonds via Hong Kong hit a record last month, underscoring growing interest for yuan assets amid escalating Middle East tensions. Monthly turnover on the so-called Northbound Bond Connect reached an unprecedented 1.22 trillion yuan ($179 billion) in March, while average daily volumes also climbed to an all-time high of 55.6 billion yuan, according to a sta...
Overseas funds’ trading of Chinese onshore bonds via Hong Kong hit a record last month, underscoring growing interest for yuan assets amid escalating Middle East tensions. Monthly turnover on the so-called Northbound Bond Connect reached an unprecedented 1.22 trillion yuan ($179 billion) in March, while average daily volumes also climbed to an all-time high of 55.6 billion yuan, according to a statement from the Bond Connect Co. on Thursday. Policy financial bonds and Chinese government bonds were the most popular types, accounting for 59% and 24% of the trading volume, respectively. The spike in turnover points to rising foreign engagement with China’s bond market as global volatility sparked by the Iran war forced investors to reposition portfolios and seek alternatives. The milestones also reflect the growing use of Bond Connect as a key access channel, reinforcing Hong Kong’s role as a gateway to Chinese markets. The numbers indicate “a pickup in trading activities” after the Lunar New Year holidays in February and suggest that the Iran war spurred trading interest in Chinese bonds, said Stephen Chiu , chief Asia FX and rates strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence. However, they do not necessarily reflect that foreign investors have “a straight buy and hold” strategy when it comes to the securities, he added. Read more: Foreign Investors Keep Selling Chinese Bonds Despite Resilience Yuan-denominated bonds have outperformed global peers since the war, supported by the nation’s ample liquidity and economic resilience to the energy shock. Launched in 2017 , the Northbound Bond Connect acts is one of the official channels for foreign institutions to access Chinese bonds. Other venues include the China Interbank Bond Market (CIBM) channel and Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) program.
Asian refiners have grown increasingly reliant on US crude as oil-starved fuel makers scour the globe to replace Middle Eastern supply and stave off shortages that could ripple through the broader economy. Buyers in Japan led the charge to purchase May-loading cargoes from the US early in the month, with South Korean, Singaporean and Thai processors also among customers, said traders familiar with...
Asian refiners have grown increasingly reliant on US crude as oil-starved fuel makers scour the globe to replace Middle Eastern supply and stave off shortages that could ripple through the broader economy. Buyers in Japan led the charge to purchase May-loading cargoes from the US early in the month, with South Korean, Singaporean and Thai processors also among customers, said traders familiar with the matter. At least 60 million barrels of grades from the US Gulf were bought for loading next...
António Guterres welcomes truce and says through spokesperson he hopes halt in fighting will ‘pave the way for negotiations’ Hello and welcome to our live coverage of events in the Middle East. United Nations chief António Guterres has welcomed the ceasefire announced on Thursday between Israel and Lebanon , urging “all actors” to fully respect the truce. A 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Leba...
António Guterres welcomes truce and says through spokesperson he hopes halt in fighting will ‘pave the way for negotiations’ Hello and welcome to our live coverage of events in the Middle East. United Nations chief António Guterres has welcomed the ceasefire announced on Thursday between Israel and Lebanon , urging “all actors” to fully respect the truce. A 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has come into effect, pausing fighting in a devastating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 2,100 Lebanese people and displaced more than 2.1 million. The agreement was announced earlier by Donald Trump, who said he had spoken with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, and invited both leaders “for meaningful talks” at the White House. Both leaders welcomed the agreement. But how long the ceasefire will hold is the key question, as both Israel and Hezbollah have maintained their right to defend themselves if the truce is broken. Here’s our report . Netanyahu called it a “historic” opportunity for peace, though he refused to withdraw his troops from southern Lebanon during the pause in fighting. “We are remaining in Lebanon in an expanded security zone,” he said, due to the “danger of an invasion” and to prevent fire into Israel. “That is where we are, and we are not leaving.” The Israeli prime minister maintained that his key demand was dismantling Hezbollah. He has previously declared his intention to occupy southern Lebanon up to the Litani River – about 30km from the border – while Lebanon demands the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and for displaced residents to be able to return to their homes. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei welcomed the ceasefire and stressed it was already part of the original Iran-US agreement brokered by Pakistan . Baghaei said Iran emphasised “from the outset” the need for a “simultaneous ceasefire throughout the region, including Lebanon”, and expre...
NASA confirmed Thursday that SpaceX will launch the European Space Agency's Rosalind Franklin Mars rover, perhaps as soon as late 2028, on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. So why is NASA deciding which rocket will launch a flagship European Mars mission? It's a long story involving the search for extraterrestrial life, crippling political hatchets, and of all things, Russi...
NASA confirmed Thursday that SpaceX will launch the European Space Agency's Rosalind Franklin Mars rover, perhaps as soon as late 2028, on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. So why is NASA deciding which rocket will launch a flagship European Mars mission? It's a long story involving the search for extraterrestrial life, crippling political hatchets, and of all things, Russia's invasion of Ukraine. You can trace the history of Europe's Rosalind Franklin mission back a nearly a quarter-century. A few years after NASA landed its first rover on Mars in 1997 , the European Space Agency came up with a plan to send its own mobile robot to the red planet. The European rover was part of a program named Aurora, and officials hoped to launch it in 2009. Russia would have supplied a Soyuz rocket to send the rover on its way. Read full article Comments
OpenAI ( OPENAI ) has agreed to pay chip designer Cerebras ( CBRS ) more than $20B to use servers powered by the firm’s chips over the next three years, The Information reported . As part of the agreement, OpenAI will receive warrants for a minority portion of Cerebras’ shares, and that ownership could increase as it spends more. OpenAI has also agreed to provide Cerebras ( CBRS ) with around $1B ...
OpenAI ( OPENAI ) has agreed to pay chip designer Cerebras ( CBRS ) more than $20B to use servers powered by the firm’s chips over the next three years, The Information reported . As part of the agreement, OpenAI will receive warrants for a minority portion of Cerebras’ shares, and that ownership could increase as it spends more. OpenAI has also agreed to provide Cerebras ( CBRS ) with around $1B to fund the development of data centers that would run its AI products, the report said. Microsoft-backed ( MSFT ) OpenAI’s spending over the next three years could reach $30B, which could give OpenAI warrants for 10% of the firm. Cerebras could reveal part of its previously undisclosed arrangement as soon as Friday, when it unveils paperwork to go public, the report adds. AMD-backed ( AMD ) Cerebras is also targeting a fundraise of about $3B in an offering next month at a valuation of around $35B. In addition to Nvidia ( NVDA ) and AMD, Cerebras competes with Groq. More on OpenAI, Cerebras Systems Inc. Nadella's Flip-Flop OpenAI's Dilemma Wall Street Lunch: ChatGPT Tops 800M Weekly Active Users EU regulator proposes measures for Google to share search engine data with third parties OpenAI looks to deepen AI push into life sciences, new research paper says
Seven nuclear power reactors are scheduled to be completed and commissioned in China this year, state broadcaster China Central Television reported , citing the nation’s atomic energy organization’s annual report. China currently operates 60 commercial nuclear reactors, with 36 units under construction — including two that started this year — the world’s largest build-out, according to the report....
Seven nuclear power reactors are scheduled to be completed and commissioned in China this year, state broadcaster China Central Television reported , citing the nation’s atomic energy organization’s annual report. China currently operates 60 commercial nuclear reactors, with 36 units under construction — including two that started this year — the world’s largest build-out, according to the report. The government last month set a goal of 110 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2030 in its latest five-year plan draft, a 76% jump from the end of last year. The lofty target underscores the priority Chinese leaders have placed on the around-the-clock reliability of nuclear’s carbon-free electricity.
Earnings Call Insights: Netflix (NFLX) Q1 2026 Management view Gregory Peters (Co-CEO Gregory Peters) said Netflix is maintaining its 2026 framework, stating, "we are maintaining our guidance, our strong outlook for organic growth that we established for 2026. That's revenue growth of 12% to 14%, operating margin at 31.5%." He added the outlook "includes roughly doubling the advertising business t...
Earnings Call Insights: Netflix (NFLX) Q1 2026 Management view Gregory Peters (Co-CEO Gregory Peters) said Netflix is maintaining its 2026 framework, stating, "we are maintaining our guidance, our strong outlook for organic growth that we established for 2026. That's revenue growth of 12% to 14%, operating margin at 31.5%." He added the outlook "includes roughly doubling the advertising business to about USD 3 billion," while framing runway with, "we're still under 45% penetrated" of an estimated "roughly 800 million" addressable households, "captured about 7% of addressable revenue" of an estimated "USD 670 billion," and "account for only 5% of TV view share globally." Theodore Sarandos (Co-CEO Theodore Sarandos) described three priorities and tied them to growth, saying, "we're focused on 3 big priorities" including expanding beyond core series and films with "further expansion into podcasts," "more regional live sports events," and "growing our games offering, including a brand-new kids gaming app." He also said Netflix is "leveraging technology" including "now even how content is created and produced," and "improving monetization" through distribution, pricing plans, and advertising. Spencer Neumann (Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann) addressed the abandoned Warner Bros. transaction costs, saying, "there's no material impact on our operating margin outlook," and that M&A-related expenses remain "still in the ballpark" of the company’s prior projection that "was carrying $275 million of kind of cost for M&A-related activity." He also said the InterPositive acquisition had been embedded in earlier guidance, and for Warner Bros. costs, "some that we were planning to carry into '27 were pulled forward into 2026." Outlook Gregory Peters (Co-CEO Peters) reiterated Netflix’s full-year targets, saying management is maintaining "revenue growth of 12% to 14%, operating margin at 31.5%" and that this "includes roughly doubling the advertising business to about USD 3 ...