SeaPRwire
Read More

Starting a home business

elean
1 minute

Ask almost anyone and they probably know someone running a home-based business (HBB), whether as an alternative source of income after being retrenched or an entrepreneurial dream. Such enterprises are certainly more visible now due to the increasing use of social media, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Please subscribe or log in to continue reading the full article. Get unlimited access to all stories at $0.99/month Latest headlines and exclusive stories In-depth analyses and award-winning multimedia content Get access to all with our no-contract promotional package at only $0.99/month for the first 3 months* Subscribe now *Terms and conditions apply.

SeaPRwire
Read More

A way for designer to keep inspiring her team

elean
1 minute

Running a small design firm means Ms Kelley Cheng has to do everything from managing IT systems to planning social media marketing strategy, besides her own design work. But the founder and creative director of publishing and design consultancy The Press Room said she makes time to learn something new every day, whether it is picking up a new software or reading up on current affairs and pop culture. Please subscribe or log in to continue reading the full article. Get unlimited access to all stories at $0.99/month Latest headlines and exclusive stories In-depth analyses and award-winning multimedia content Get access to all with our no-contract promotional package at only $0.99/month for the first 3 months* Subscribe now *Terms and conditions apply.

SeaPRwire
Read More

US stocks end at records again as Biden eyes more stimulus

elean
2 minutes

NEW YORK (AFP) - Wall Street stock indices closed at records again Friday (Jan 8) as anticipation of a new fiscal relief package offset poor December jobs figures. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.2 per cent at 31,097.97, its third straight record. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.6 per cent to 3,824.68, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.0 per cent to 13,201.98 - all-time highs for both indices. The United States lost 140,000 jobs in December, according to government data, as the worsening coronavirus pandemic undermined the economy's recovery and caused the first loss in employment since April. But investors took heart as President-elect Joe Biden pledged a wide-ranging fiscal package to support the coronavirus-ravaged US economy. "We need more direct relief flowing to families, small businesses, including finishing the job of getting people the $2,000 in relief direct payment," Biden said at an event after naming new Cabinet nominees. US stocks have rallied this week in spite of chaos in Washington after supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump stormed the nation's Capitol building in an unsuccessful effort to block Biden's election victory from b...

SeaPRwire

Banks enhance e-payment services as sector opens up

elean
1 minute

Consumers can expect a wider variety of digital payment services this year as traditional players enhance their offerings amid greater competition in the banking sector. DBS Bank, OCBC Bank and UOB plan to roll out more personalised content, strengthen their focus on partnerships and make the payment journey more seamless for users. Please subscribe or log in to continue reading the full article. Get unlimited access to all stories at $0.99/month Latest headlines and exclusive stories In-depth analyses and award-winning multimedia content Get access to all with our no-contract promotional package at only $0.99/month for the first 3 months* Subscribe now *Terms and conditions apply.

SeaPRwire

Sembcorp unit bags solar power project in India

elean
2 minutes

Sembcorp Industries' India energy arm Sembcorp Energy India Limited (Seil) has clinched a 400MW solar power project through its renewables subsidiary, Sembcorp Green Infra. The energy and utilities group announced yesterday that Seil won the bid in a "closely contested" auction conducted by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (Seci). Seil will develop the project in the northern Indian region of Rajasthan, which will be connected to the state's transmission utility. The project's entire output will be sold to Seci under a 25-year long-term power purchase agreement. The project is expected to be ready for commercial operation by the middle of next year and will be funded through a mixture of internal funds and debt, said Sembcorp in its pre-market filing. This project win brings Sembcorp's renewables portfolio to over 3,000MW in operation and under development across Singapore, China and India. It is another step towards transforming Sembcorp's portfolio, said the company's group president and chief executive Wong Kim Yin. "India is a key market and we will continue to provide sustainable solutions to contribute to the nation's clean energy mission," he added. Seil has completed t...

SeaPRwire
Read More

Las Vegas Sands chief takes leave for cancer treatment

elean
3 minutes

NEW YORK • Sheldon Adelson, the chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands, which owns Singapore's Marina Bay Sands, is taking a leave of absence after resuming treatment for cancer. Mr Adelson had retained his executive role since the company revealed in 2019 that he had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Company president Robert Goldstein will take up Mr Adelson's duties as acting chairman and acting CEO, according to a statement on Thursday. Mr Adelson, 87, is the company's majority shareholder and one of the world's biggest gambling moguls, overseeing operations from the Las Vegas Strip to Macau to Singapore. He is a prominent donor to Republican politics in the United States, having backed outgoing President Donald Trump. The appointment is unlikely to cause changes in the group's strategic direction or operations at its Sands China arm, which is run by a local management team, according to gaming analyst D.S. Kim of JPMorgan Chase & Co. The impact on Sands' relations with Macau and Beijing "may be open for debate, but we similarly see no negative impact on its positioning in the market", Mr Kim wrote in a research note on Thursday. He said Mr Goldstein has long been in posi...

SeaPRwire
Read More

UOB references Sora in pricing its capital securities

elean
2 minutes

UOB has broken new ground here by pricing capital securities with a reset coupon rate that references the Singapore Overnight Rate Average Overnight Indexed Swap (Sora-OIS) rate. The move is another step towards the adoption of a Sora-based pricing benchmark in the Singdollar bond market, and part of broader industry efforts to develop robust Sora-based cash and derivatives markets. The reset coupon rate of UOB's perpetual, non-call five-year additional Tier 1 securities on the first call date will reference the five-year Sora-OIS rate instead of the five-year Swap Offer Rate (SOR) interest rate swap (IRS) that had been the benchmark reference rate in the market. This comes as Singapore is moving from SOR to Sora as the new interest rate benchmark, given that the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) will be discontinued at the end of this year, which would affect SOR as it uses the US dollar Libor in its computation. Sora was picked as the new benchmark as it was found to be the most robust and suitable alternative, underpinned by a deep and liquid overnight funding market. It is expected to be the de facto floating rate benchmark for all institutional Singdollar financing activit...

SeaPRwire
Read More

Sembcorp unit bags new solar power project in India

elean
2 minutes

SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - Sembcorp Industries' India energy arm Sembcorp Energy India Limited (SEIL) has clinched a 400 megawatt (MW) solar power project through its renewables subsidiary, Sembcorp Green Infra. The energy and utilities group announced on Friday (Jan 8) that SEIL won the bid in a "closely-contested" auction conducted by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). Under the letter of award from SECI, SEIL will develop the project in the northern Indian region of Rajasthan. It is to be connected to the state's transmission utility, Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited. The project's entire output will be sold to SECI under a 25-year long-term power purchase agreement. It is expected to be ready for commercial operation by mid-2022 and will be funded through a mixture of internal funds and debt, said Sembcorp Industries in its pre-market filing. Sembcorp Industries' latest project win brings the group's renewables portfolio to over 3,000 MW in operation and under development across Singapore, China and India. According to group president and chief executive Wong Kim Yin, it represents another step towards transforming Sembcorp Industries' portfolio. "...

SeaPRwire
Read More

Samsung flags 26% rise in Q4 profit on chip, display sales

elean
2 minutes

SEOUL (REUTERS) - Samsung Electronics said on Friday (Jan 8) that fourth-quarter operating profit likely rose 26 per cent, in line with analysts' estimates, as pandemic-driven remote working fuelled sales of chips and display panels. The South Korean tech giant said operating profit was likely nine trillion won (S$10.9 billion) in the quarter ended December, offsetting weaker smartphone sales and a strong won versus the US dollar. That was in line with the 9.1 trillion won analyst forecast by Refinitiv SmartEstimate. Revenue at the world's biggest memory chip supplier and maker of smartphones likely rose 1.9 per cent to 61 trillion won from a year earlier, the company said. Samsung provides only estimates of quarterly revenue and operating profit in its preliminary earnings release. The company is due to release detailed earnings later this month. Analysts said they expected Samsung to report a jump in memory chip shipments from the September quarter, offsetting the effect of lower prices. Memory chip prices will likely rebound in the first half of this year, analysts said, as data centre customers return to buying chips, as well as demand from 5G smartphones, notebooks, graphics a...

SeaPRwire
Read More

Airlines try ultra-cheap fares to get the world flying again

elean
9 minutes

NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) - The nightmare year of 2020 brought the airline industry's first decade of sustained profitability to a shuddering halt. The coronavirus pandemic tore through in a tumultuous, unprecedented way - leaving carriers in a deep hole, along with a constellation of aerospace manufacturers, airports and leasing firms. 2021 is shaping up to be a transition year for an enterprise that takes passengers on the equivalent of 208 million annual trips around the globe. At best, the path ahead will be bumpy, with progress toward a return to travel dependent on the pace of vaccine roll-outs, access to capital, government policies and the unpredictability of a virus that's not yet fully understood. Still, there will be leaps, including the first commercial flights to near-space. Here are some developments to look for over the next 12 months. Fare wars Airline traffic won't see a major boost until vaccines saturate populations enough to stamp down infection rates. Even then, it may take effort to get some people back on planes. In Europe, that'll mean fares as low as 9.99 euros (S$16.23), according to Ryanair Holdings chief executive officer Michael O'Leary. The Irish discounter...

SeaPRwire
Read More

Wall Street tops new highs on Democrat-driven stimulus hopes

elean
3 minutes

NEW YORK (REUTERS) - Stocks on Wall Street hit record levels on Thursday (Jan 7) as investors bet a Democrat-controlled Congress will deliver more stimulus spending to help the US economy overcome a steep pandemic-induced downturn. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all set new highs amid growing calls for President Donald Trump's removal, one day after Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in a harrowing assault on American democracy. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged Trump's immediate removal from office through the 25th Amendment. President-elect Joe Biden accused Trump of fomenting violence and said Wednesday was one of the darkest days in US history. "The market is now looking past Trump and it's looking forward to a Biden presidency, more structure and stimulus," said Dennis Dick, a trader at Bright Trading LLC. "A Democratic Congress is going to obviously be more concerned about the small businesses, and the Main Street." Economy-linked financials jumped while industrial and materials sectors hit new records on expectations Biden will line up a bigger fiscal package and boost infrastructure spending with Congress under Democrat control. Rate-sensitive bank shares gained, tracki...

SeaPRwire
Read More

DBS starts in-house digital institute

elean
1 minute

DBS Bank has launched an in-house digital training institute to develop the skills of its nearly 5,000-strong tech workforce in application security, site reliability engineering, and data processing and analytics. SEE BUSINESS

SeaPRwire
Read More

SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son poised for another IPO windfall in 2021

elean
6 minutes

TOKYO (BLOOMBERG) - SoftBank Group Corp is preparing to take at least six more of its portfolio companies public this year, building on a 2020 turnaround that pushed the value of Masayoshi Son's technology conglomerate to the highest since the dot-com boom. Among the start-ups heading for initial public offerings are South Korean e-commerce pioneer Coupang Corp, Indonesian online mall operator PT Tokopedia and China's ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, according to people familiar with the matter, asking not to be named because the matter is private. The IPOs could give Son another round of enormous gains after successful offerings from DoorDash and KE Holdings in 2020. Mr Son started last year under a cloud after the meltdown at WeWork, then saw his shares plunge with the coronavirus pandemic and a loss of almost US$18 billion at SoftBank's Vision Fund. But the Japanese billionaire, long reluctant to cash out of investments like Alibaba Group Holding, embarked on an uncharacteristic sales blitz, raising more than US$50 billion by shedding stakes in Alibaba, T-Mobile US and its domestic wireless affiliate, SoftBank Corp. He used the cash to buy back his own shares, pushing SoftBank G...

SeaPRwire
Read More

Dow ends at record as US stocks shrug off Capitol Hill unrest

elean
2 minutes

NEW YORK (AFP) - The Dow finished at a fresh record on Wednesday (Jan 6) as Wall Street largely shrugged off unrest in Washington after angry supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at 30,829.40, up 1.4 per cent, and the broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.6 per cent to close at 3,748.14. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.6 per cent at 12,740.79. The siege on the Capitol followed a defiant speech from Trump, who lambasted “weak” Republicans who would not support his efforts to overturn his election defeat urged supporters to have a “wild” protest, vowed, “we will never give up.” Soon after those words, members of Trump’s crowd broke through glass doors to storm the capital, prompting authorities to mobilise the National Guard as congressional Democrats condemned the siege by flag-waving fanatics as a “coup” or insurrection. Stocks retreated from session peaks amid the turmoil, but two of the three major indices still finished higher and the blue-chip index concluded at an all-time high. Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities, said the market is looking past the chaos and ahead to the transiti...

SeaPRwire
Read More

Company briefs: SoftBank

elean
2 minutes

SoftBank SoftBank Group plans to sell its first bond in more than a year, joining a rush by companies globally to tap credit markets while borrowing costs are low. The Japanese technology conglomerate is preparing to sell about 100 billion yen (S$1.28 billion) of hybrid bonds, according to co-lead underwriter Nomura Holdings. It plans to price the deal this month. SoftBank Group's bonds and stock price rebounded sharply last year after initially diving when markets convulsed in early March due to the pandemic and concerns about the company's large debt burden. BLOOMBERG Michelin Michelin plans to cut as many as 2,300 jobs in France over about three years as it focuses on the premium tyre market while diversifying into recycling, new materials and projects in areas including hydrogen. Although no factories will be closed, a revamp of Michelin plants will result in as many as 1,200 job losses, mostly through early retirement and voluntary redundancy, it said in a statement yesterday. The remainder of the cutbacks will be in services to help boost efficiency by 5 per cent a year, it said. BLOOMBERG Amazon Amazon.com said on Tuesday it bought 11 Boeing 767-300 aircraft, as it looks to ...

SeaPRwire
Read More

China fund managers rush to capitalise on investors’ green fever

elean
3 minutes

SHANGHAI • Chinese money managers are rushing to launch new energy funds, seeking to capitalise on investors' green fever which has been fuelled by President Xi Jinping's carbon-neutrality pledge. China's first photovoltaic industry exchange-traded fund, launched by Huatai-PineBridge Fund Management in December, attracted hot demand - with assets under management jumping nearly sixfold in just a month to 10 billion yuan (S$2.04 billion). A slew of mutual fund houses are following suit, with Yinhua Fund Management raising money for a rival product this week while Tianhong Asset Management plans to launch an index fund that invests in solar power companies next Monday. More green energy funds are in the pipeline. The funds will likely bring more money into an already red-hot sector. China's new energy index doubled last year, pushing up the sector's earnings multiples to almost 90 compared with 22 for Chinese stocks broadly. "Renewable energy is the only option for the human race in the combat against climate change," said Mr Richard Pan, portfolio manager at China Asset Management. Mr Pan, who made lucrative investments in battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology and solar equi...

SeaPRwire

Alibaba eyes at least $6.6b from bond sale: Sources

elean
2 minutes

HONG KONG • China's Alibaba Group Holding plans to raise at least US$5 billion ($6.6 billion) through the sale of a US dollar-denominated bond this month, four people with knowledge of the matter said, amid regulatory scrutiny of co-founder Jack Ma's empire. Depending on investor response, proceeds could reach US$8 billion which the e-commerce leader is likely to use for general corporate expenditure, one of the people said. The fundraising will be a test of investor sentiment towards Alibaba, coming months after an October speech by Mr Ma about regulation stifling innovation that led to the halting of affiliate Ant Group's US$37 billion listing. Mr Ma's absence from public view since has fuelled social media speculation over his whereabouts. The bond sale plan, including timeline, is not finalised and is subject to change, the people said, all of whom declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to the media. Alibaba declined to comment. Since Mr Ma's speech, Chinese regulators have begun an antitrust probe into Alibaba and ordered fintech firm Ant to change its lending and other consumer finance businesses, including the creation of a holding company to meet cap...

SeaPRwire
Read More

Why China is sentencing a tycoon to death

elean
4 minutes

HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) - The bigamy conviction got a lot of the attention but Lai Xiaomin received a death sentence on Tuesday (Jan 5) over a much more serious issue troubling China. Lai was chairman of China Huarong Asset Management from 2012 until he ran into trouble in 2018. He was found guilty of receiving 1.79 billion yuan (S$365 million) in bribes, with bigamy thrown in for good measure. Still, capital punishment for this kind of white-collar crime is unusual, legal experts say. Wu Xiaohui, former chairman of Anbang Insurance Group, whose clean-up is costing Beijing billions of dollars, was sentenced to 18 years in jail over a US$10 billion (S$13.2 billion) fraud in 2018. So what is Beijing trying to signal? Who's the intended audience of this harsh sentence? Other rich and privileged people? Should Alibaba Group Holding's founder Jack Ma be worried? Though he hasn't been charged with any crime, he has disappeared from the public eye since the suspension of his US$35 billion Ant Group initial public offering in November. At first glance, it may be meant as a reminder to naughty business tycoons of Beijing's lethal legal arsenal. But the punitive measure against Lai is more lik...

SeaPRwire
Read More

Oil holds gains after topping US$50 on Saudi pledge to cut output

elean
2 minutes

SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG) - Oil held gains in early Asian trading on Wednesday (Jan 6) after surging to a 10-month high on a surprise Saudi Arabian pledge to cut an extra 1 million barrels a day of crude output in February. Futures in New York edged lower after jumping 4.9 per cent on Tuesday and briefly topping US$50 a barrel for the first time since February. Opec+ reached an agreement following two days of talks to curb supply over the next two months. Other producers will hold supply steady or make small increases, delegates said. Russia and Kazakhstan will be allowed to boost output by a combined 75,000 barrels a day in both February and March. The Saudi pledge, which Russia's deputy prime minister described as a "new year gift" to the oil market, comes as stay-at-home orders and travel restrictions are being extended to rein in a rampant virus. Germany extended its lockdown and tightened restrictions, while Dalian in China asked people considered more vulnerable to Covid-19 to leave the city amid an outbreak. Opec+ faces a complex demand outlook as it decides how to move forward with its output plan month by month. There are indications that parts of the global economy are stagin...

SeaPRwire
Read More

US stocks gain on better economic data

elean
2 minutes

NEW YORK (AFP) - Wall Street stocks advanced on Tuesday (Jan 5) following better-than-expected US economic data as markets monitored Georgia elections that will determine control of the US Senate. Equities shrugged off early weakness and Monday's decline to finish the session solidly higher after manufacturing data topped estimates and fourth-quarter auto sales also impressed to the upside. Petroleum-linked equities had a big day after a surprise agreement by oil exporters boosted crude prices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6 per cent to 30,391.60. The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.7 per cent to 3,726.86, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.0 per cent to 12,818.96. The gains came after stocks pulled back Monday on worries that a Democratic sweep of the two Georgia Senate runoffs would clear the way for tax increases and other major legislative changes. Investors are still on edge over the Georgia vote, but were encouraged by an Institute for Supply Management survey of manufacturers that topped expectations. "This is the type of news that investors love to see," said a note from economist Joel Naroff. "The economy may not be able to stand on its own just...