John Hau, a 66-year-old Hongkonger, was frustrated by the government’s decision to revamp the HK$2 (26 US cents) transport subsidy scheme. The discount allowed him to pay just HK$4 to make the round-trip rail commute from his home in Sham Shui Po in Kowloon to Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island, where he works as a security guard at a hotel. From Friday, he will need to pay an extra HK$1.20, an amount t...
John Hau, a 66-year-old Hongkonger, was frustrated by the government’s decision to revamp the HK$2 (26 US cents) transport subsidy scheme. The discount allowed him to pay just HK$4 to make the round-trip rail commute from his home in Sham Shui Po in Kowloon to Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island, where he works as a security guard at a hotel. From Friday, he will need to pay an extra HK$1.20, an amount that does not bother him financially but emotionally. “The impact on my finances is not substantial,...
Anonymous activist Martha Root on how she hacked into, and took down, a dating site for white supremacists. With reporting from investigative journalist Eva Hoffman There’s a dating site for everyone: Jdate for Jews, Muzz for Muslims and Raya for celebrities. And for white supremacists? WhiteDate, “for Europids seeking tribal love”. The mysterious hacker/activist Martha Root tells Helen Pidd how, ...
Anonymous activist Martha Root on how she hacked into, and took down, a dating site for white supremacists. With reporting from investigative journalist Eva Hoffman There’s a dating site for everyone: Jdate for Jews, Muzz for Muslims and Raya for celebrities. And for white supremacists? WhiteDate, “for Europids seeking tribal love”. The mysterious hacker/activist Martha Root tells Helen Pidd how, live on stage and in disguise, she hacked into WhiteDate and exposed a network of thousands of neo-Nazis looking for Aryan love. Continue reading...
Chinese artificial intelligence start-ups Zhipu AI and MiniMax have shown early signs of sustainable commercialisation of their AI models, analysts said, as investors continue to pump up their Hong Kong stocks despite widening losses. That assessment comes as the companies reported their first earnings since their respective initial public offerings in early January, providing a glimpse into the b...
Chinese artificial intelligence start-ups Zhipu AI and MiniMax have shown early signs of sustainable commercialisation of their AI models, analysts said, as investors continue to pump up their Hong Kong stocks despite widening losses. That assessment comes as the companies reported their first earnings since their respective initial public offerings in early January, providing a glimpse into the business models of an industry still in its infancy globally. The South China Morning Post takes a...
Andrzej Rostek/iStock via Getty Images In the early 1990s, the Modern REIT Era commenced due to the abundance of overleveraged private real estate companies with no path to new equity other than to ‘sell’ shares to the public at a price below their perceived value. To quote Chilton REIT Strategy founder Bruce Garrison, “They had to decide whether they wanted to own 100% of something worth zero or ...
Andrzej Rostek/iStock via Getty Images In the early 1990s, the Modern REIT Era commenced due to the abundance of overleveraged private real estate companies with no path to new equity other than to ‘sell’ shares to the public at a price below their perceived value. To quote Chilton REIT Strategy founder Bruce Garrison, “They had to decide whether they wanted to own 100% of something worth zero or a lower percentage of something with actual value.” Over the next 30 years, public REITs proved that the public path was an avenue to create wealth for shareholders, as well as founders and management teams, compounding total returns at +7.9% from 1992 to 2021 using the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index (Bloomberg: FNER). However, selling 100% of a company is a different decision that mixes personal incentives with business incentives. A whole company sale usually results in job losses, sometimes for those making the decision to sell (or not). Therein lies the ‘principal-agent problem’ of investing. We believe that the public REIT market is ripe for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and have thought so for several years. While 2026 is off to a good start due to a $10.7 billion public-to-public merger of National Storage Affiliates ( NSA ) into Public Storage ( PSA ) and a take-private of Veris Residential ( VRE ) for $3.4 billion, we are optimistic that more REIT management teams and boards of directors will put personal considerations aside and act in shareholders’ best interests in 2026. NAV: Irrelevant Until It’s Not Net Asset Value, or NAV, is the estimated private market value of a company. All else equal, in an efficient market, public REITs would have market prices that reflect current NAV plus or minus the public’s perception of future NAV growth. However, as of March 31, 2026, the median REIT trades at a 15% discount to NAV ( Figure 1 ), and the 86 public REITs we cover range from a 55% discount to an 87% premium. In fact, public REITs have traded at a discount on ro...
Agreement comes after Wellington halted millions in aid to its former colony after Cook Islands formed strategic partnership with Beijing New Zealand and the Cook Islands have signed a defence and security declaration, ending a year-long diplomatic row that erupted after the Cook Islands struck strategic agreements with China. The Cook Islands was a dependent New Zealand colony from 1901-65 but ha...
Agreement comes after Wellington halted millions in aid to its former colony after Cook Islands formed strategic partnership with Beijing New Zealand and the Cook Islands have signed a defence and security declaration, ending a year-long diplomatic row that erupted after the Cook Islands struck strategic agreements with China. The Cook Islands was a dependent New Zealand colony from 1901-65 but has since operated as a self-governing nation in “free association” with New Zealand. Its roughly 17,000 citizens hold New Zealand citizenship. There are obligations between the two nations to regularly consult on matters of defence and security. Continue reading...