AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes said that the Asian airline’s branding unit is closing in on a Nasdaq-listed target for a backdoor listing later this year that would value the newly created entity at about $1.5 billion. The deal, which will involve the merger of the branding unit with the US-listed company, will probably be announced within the next two months, Fernandes said in an interview on Fri...
AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes said that the Asian airline’s branding unit is closing in on a Nasdaq-listed target for a backdoor listing later this year that would value the newly created entity at about $1.5 billion. The deal, which will involve the merger of the branding unit with the US-listed company, will probably be announced within the next two months, Fernandes said in an interview on Friday in Kuala Lumpur. The merged entity will probably debut in the third quarter, he said. The deal would mark the revival of a plan Fernandes talked about two years ago but never materialized because of challenges complying with Nasdaq listing rules. A successful listing for Next would be the businessman’s first outside of Malaysia, and after he merged his airline businesses under one entity. Fernandes, who has said he aims to list all of his non-aviation businesses under holding company Capital A Bhd. over the coming years, said AirAsia has built such a strong brand that other airlines, particularly in the Asean region, will be willing to pay his company to tap its expertise and name value. “We can have AirAsia anything,” he said.
Electricity has been restored after a four-hour outage at a residential high-rise in a Kwai Chung housing estate, caused by a suspected water leak that triggered a power trip ahead of Lunar New Year’s Eve. The city’s biggest electricity company, CLP Power, said that at around 9.13pm on Sunday, a suspected equipment fault at Ha Kwai House in the Kwai Chung Estate disrupted supply to about 760 house...
Electricity has been restored after a four-hour outage at a residential high-rise in a Kwai Chung housing estate, caused by a suspected water leak that triggered a power trip ahead of Lunar New Year’s Eve. The city’s biggest electricity company, CLP Power, said that at around 9.13pm on Sunday, a suspected equipment fault at Ha Kwai House in the Kwai Chung Estate disrupted supply to about 760 households. The power trip lasted four hours and electricity was restored at 1.30am on Monday. CLP staff...
VV Shots/iStock Editorial via Getty Images AI-related concerns have weighed heavily on London Stock Exchange Group ( LSEGY )( LDNXF )('LSEG') of late. Investors are worried that the company's data-heavy business model is ripe for disruption from startups like Anthropic, whose recent announcement of a new AI-enabled tool for automating legal work sent software and data-related stocks tumbling . Tha...
VV Shots/iStock Editorial via Getty Images AI-related concerns have weighed heavily on London Stock Exchange Group ( LSEGY )( LDNXF )('LSEG') of late. Investors are worried that the company's data-heavy business model is ripe for disruption from startups like Anthropic, whose recent announcement of a new AI-enabled tool for automating legal work sent software and data-related stocks tumbling . That has left LSEG's ADSs around 25% lower than they were at the beginning of last year – a number that actually includes some benefit from a weaker dollar. The stock has performed even worse in its native British pound, falling around 33% in that time. And yet, LSEG's shares were sitting at a record high at the start of 2025. Have the fundamentals of the business really been upended in such a short space of time? Consensus estimates would suggest not, with analysts forecasting double-digit earnings growth when the company reports its 2025 results next week. This sell-off has left LSEG's valuation looking depressed compared to peers and its own historical range. For investors prepared to block out the noise, this could be a good time to pick up a solid business at an attractive price. I rate shares "Strong Buy". Data by YCharts Overblown Data Fears LSEG's name is a nod to its traditional business of managing one of the world's oldest stock exchanges. Equities, though, kicked in less than 5% of firm-wide income through the first nine months of 2025, while the entire Markets segment, which includes fixed income, FX, derivatives, and more, contributed less than 40% of total revenue. Data Source: LSEG Q3 2025 Results Release LSEG's largest division is Data & Analytics, contributing roughly 45% to company-wide revenue. This is also where AI fears seem to be centered. The broad worry is that AI-enabled technology will eventually commoditize financial data, robbing data firms like LSEG of their pricing power. In countering that view, it is important to appreciate that Data & Analytic...
peshkov/iStock via Getty Images The following segment was excerpted from the Artisan Global Equity Fund ( ARTHX ) Q4 2025 Commentary. In 2025, the Global Equity portfolio outperformed its benchmark, doubling the returns of the MSCI All Country World Index. Our disciplined stock selection was a key contributor to performance. Our conviction in the industrials sector paid off, driving the portfolio'...
peshkov/iStock via Getty Images The following segment was excerpted from the Artisan Global Equity Fund ( ARTHX ) Q4 2025 Commentary. In 2025, the Global Equity portfolio outperformed its benchmark, doubling the returns of the MSCI All Country World Index. Our disciplined stock selection was a key contributor to performance. Our conviction in the industrials sector paid off, driving the portfolio's performance with triple-digit returns. Other positive sources of returns came from our holdings in financials, health care, utilities and consumer staples, significantly outperforming benchmark returns in each of these sectors. Stock selection in materials was negative but was partially offset by favorable currency movements. Information technology ('IT') weighed on relative performance due to our underweighting, although absolute returns in the sector were solid. In Q4, the portfolio underperformed the MSCI All Country World Index. Our stock selection in industrials was the leading cause of relative underperformance. However, stock selection in the utilities, IT and health care sectors helped buoy portfolio performance relative to the index. Our quarterly performance was largely attributable to holdings in industrials, particularly our defense theme. Two of our top-performing holdings this year, South Korean defense companies Hanwha Aerospace (HNWHF) and LIG Nex1 (LIGNF), declined in October and November. Investor profit-taking and a broader near-term pullback in the defense sector weighed on the shares of both companies, moderating the respective triple- and double-digit YTD gains recorded this year for each stock. Hanwha Aerospace, the largest defense company in South Korea with significant exposure to naval, land and aero-based systems, continues to expand its global presence in defense spending. Our conviction in the company remains high. Healthy cash flow and order backlog will likely lead to near-term growth. Additional ammunition and land-based-system deals contin...
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. led a Chinese tech-share selloff after the Pentagon added some of the country’s biggest names to a list of companies aiding the military — only to withdraw that roster minutes later without explanation. The Chinese AI leader’s stock slid more than 3% in Hong Kong, while BYD Co. and Baidu Inc. were down about 1%. All three appeared on the updated Pentagon list on the US F...
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. led a Chinese tech-share selloff after the Pentagon added some of the country’s biggest names to a list of companies aiding the military — only to withdraw that roster minutes later without explanation. The Chinese AI leader’s stock slid more than 3% in Hong Kong, while BYD Co. and Baidu Inc. were down about 1%. All three appeared on the updated Pentagon list on the US Federal Register, though it was later declared “unpublished.” The agency also removed two of China’s leaders in memory chips, ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc. and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. The Pentagon’s moves come at a fraught time in Washington’s debate over China tech policy. The US has now said that three of China’s AI frontrunners — Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent Holdings Ltd. — help the Asian country’s military. Their addition is almost certain to provoke Beijing. The designation of BYD, meanwhile, targets the country’s top electric-vehicle company. While the list carries few immediate legal repercussions, the Pentagon is increasingly using it to restrict companies’ abilities to contract with the military or get research funding. A so-called 1260H designation also serves as a warning to US investors, and is widely considered a red flag that can precede more punitive trade restrictions. Read More: US Briefly Names Alibaba, Baidu as Firms Aiding China’s Military Alibaba said in a statement it’s “not a Chinese military company nor part of any military-civil fusion strategy. We will take all available legal action against attempts to misrepresent our company.” A Baidu spokesperson said in a statement “we categorically reject the inclusion,” which has “no credible basis.” The “suggestion that Baidu is a military company is entirely baseless and no evidence has been produced that would prove otherwise.” Shenzhen-based BYD didn’t respond to a request for comment sent outside of normal business hours. The 1260H list, first published in 2021, now includes more than 130 entit...
The Chinese AI leader’s stock slid more than 3% in Hong Kong, while BYD Co. and Baidu Inc. were down about 1%. All three appeared on the updated Pentagon list on the US Federal Register, though it was later declared “unpublished.” The agency also removed two of China’s leaders in memory chips, ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc. and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co.
The Chinese AI leader’s stock slid more than 3% in Hong Kong, while BYD Co. and Baidu Inc. were down about 1%. All three appeared on the updated Pentagon list on the US Federal Register, though it was later declared “unpublished.” The agency also removed two of China’s leaders in memory chips, ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc. and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co.
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hong Kong could experience its warmest Lunar New Year’s Eve since records began in 1884, with temperatures expected to reach 28 degrees Celsius (82.4 Fahrenheit) on Monday. The Hong Kong Observatory said temperatures on Monday were expected to range between 22 ...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hong Kong could experience its warmest Lunar New Year’s Eve since records began in 1884, with temperatures expected to reach 28 degrees Celsius (82.4 Fahrenheit) on Monday. The Hong Kong Observatory said temperatures on Monday were expected to range between 22 and 28 degrees. The previous record for the warmest Lunar New Year’s Eve was 27.8 degrees in 1953,...
India kicks off one of the world’s largest artificial intelligence summits Monday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to clear a path for India in a heated race to develop frontier models. World leaders, tech moguls, AI founders and investors are expected to arrive in New Delhi for the India AI Impact Summit , potentially the largest gathering of AI luminaries to date. Sundar Pichai of Alph...
India kicks off one of the world’s largest artificial intelligence summits Monday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to clear a path for India in a heated race to develop frontier models. World leaders, tech moguls, AI founders and investors are expected to arrive in New Delhi for the India AI Impact Summit , potentially the largest gathering of AI luminaries to date. Sundar Pichai of Alphabet Inc. , Sam Altman of OpenAI Inc. , Dario Amodei of Anthropic PBC and Meta Platforms Inc. ’s Alexandr Wang are on the guest list, alongside researchers including Yann LeCun and Arthur Mensch . During the summit’s final two days — Feb. 19 and 20 — French President Emmanuel Macron will deliver the keynote, followed by Modi’s remarks. For Modi, the summit offers a chance to showcase India’s vast tech-savvy population and engineering talent as forces that could tilt the next phase of the global AI race in its favor. The country has digital infrastructure powered by data from over a billion citizens, identifiable through Aadhaar, a biometric ID system. It has a proven track record of scaling technology quickly despite late starts — missing the personal computer boom but becoming a software services powerhouse and leaping from limited landlines to nearly a billion smartphones in under two decades. “By overlaying AI over existing digital identity, payment rails as well as health care, education and governance stacks, India is attempting to compress decades of development into years,” said Abhishek Singh , additional secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and IT. “And what gets built for India won’t stay only in India.” The country is already exporting its digital identity and payments blueprint. MOSIP , an open-source platform inspired by Aadhaar’s architecture, is now helping countries including the Philippines, Morocco and Uganda build national ID systems. Some countries are creating digital payment platforms atop the same scaffolding. In AI competitiveness, India ranks th...
Shares of Chinese jeweler Laopu Gold Co. and miner CMOC Group Ltd. rallied in Hong Kong, after Hang Seng Indexes Co. added the stocks to Hong Kong’s equity benchmark gauge following its quarterly review. CMOC and Laopu each gained more than 7% on Monday. Electric-vehicle battery-maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. , another stock to be added to the list, rose as much as 3.8%. Prices may have...
Shares of Chinese jeweler Laopu Gold Co. and miner CMOC Group Ltd. rallied in Hong Kong, after Hang Seng Indexes Co. added the stocks to Hong Kong’s equity benchmark gauge following its quarterly review. CMOC and Laopu each gained more than 7% on Monday. Electric-vehicle battery-maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. , another stock to be added to the list, rose as much as 3.8%. Prices may have been amplified by thin liquidity during holiday-shortened trading hours. The changes, effective March 9, will bring the number of members on the Hang Seng Index to 90 from 88, according to a statement . The index compiler said it will remove auto retailer Zhongsheng Group Holdings Ltd. , which fell as much as 3.2%. The reshuffle is closely watched as a sign of which listed companies have excelled across key metrics, such as market capitalization and turnover. “In aggregate, the rebalancing could generate nearly $8 billion in gross two-way passive flows,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists including Alvin So wrote in a note Friday. Read: CATL, CMOC, Laopu Gold to Join Hong Kong’s Stock Benchmark Index