
Singapore Airlines to pay staff almost eight months' bonus
Employees will be paid about 7.45 months' bonus, lower than the 7.94 months received a year ago, Chief Executive Officer Goh Choon Phong said on Friday.
The smaller bonus payout comes as Singapore Air on Thursday warned that tariff and trade tensions on top of broader economic and geopolitical uncertainties could hurt demand for passenger and cargo flights.
The Singapore flag carrier's net income beat, with passenger yields declining slower than over the past three years, contrasting with its outlook.
However, the carrier posted muted results for its final quarter, a sign of uncertain times ahead. US President Donald Trump's trade policies have rattled markets and hurt consumer sentiment.
'The global airline industry faces a challenging operating environment,' the airline said in a statement. The growing challenges 'may impact consumer and business confidence,' it added. –BLOOMBERG

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New Straits Times
15 minutes ago
- New Straits Times
Chinese firms set for record US listings, undeterred by geopolitics
SHANGHAI/HONG KONG: A record number of Chinese companies are seeking a US listing this year as onerous domestic listing rules and the prospect of better valuations convince them to brave volatile China-US relations and US calls for strict oversight of Chinese firms. In the first half of 2025, 36 mostly small and mid-sized Chinese companies went public in the US, following a record-breaking year of 64 in 2024, said law firm K&L Gates. Many of those firms went public through special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) - listed companies set up to buy mainly startups, making the startups public without them having to go through the lengthy initial public offering process. Waiting to list on the Nasdaq are more than 40 Chinese companies, including a mobile advertising service provider and a traditional Chinese medicine maker, Chinese disclosure showed. That number, which excludes confidentially filed listing applications, will take the annual tally of Chinese firms going public in the US to a new high if all materialise this year. "I think it's a healthy year for Chinese IPOs. It will probably be a record year or near that," said David Bartz, partner at K&L Gates, who has built a "robust" pipeline of Chinese clients seeking first-time share sales in the US. Chinese firms have had a harder time going public at home since the government tightened listing rules in 2023, raising the appeal of listing via SPACs in the US, as well as that country's deeper pool of capital. Pursuing a US listing amounts to a bet that calls from US lawmakers aimed at diminishing Chinese access to the world's largest capital market can only go so far, bankers and lawyers said. One listing hopeful is racing car manufacturer Xinghui Car Technology, whose head raised a toast at a Shanghai hotel in June to celebrate a major step toward going public in the US. "The U. capital market is one of the world's biggest. It's liquid and allows easy access to funding," said Xinghui Chairman Song Wenfang upon signing a preliminary agreement to be acquired by Nasdaq-listed SPAC UY Scuti. Since Xinghui's celebrations, investors have pushed US share prices to record highs, expecting trade deals to be the beginning of the end of uncertainty wrought by months of US President Donald Trump threatening to impose steep tariffs. The China Securities Regulatory Commission, which oversees Chinese firms' offshore sales of securities, did not respond to a request for comment. SPAC SURGE Over 100 Chinese firms, including technology leaders Alibaba , and Baidu, are US-listed, boasting a combined market value of about US$1 trillion as of March, showed data from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. In April, tearoom chain Chagee debuted on the Nasdaq after raising US$411 million in the biggest IPO of a Chinese firm in the US this year. Of those seeking to list, a growing number are pre-profit or even pre-revenue startups, mainly in the tech sector, aiming for a quicker means of raising capital through a SPAC listing, said Karen Mu, managing director at Alliance Global Partners. That demand has contributed to the total number of firms listing in the US via SPACs almost doubling last year to 57 and climbing to 76 so far this year, showed SPACInsider data. The increased Chinese interest, however, has caught the attention of US lawmakers who called for the delisting of Chinese firms from US exchanges as recently as May citing national security concerns. In June, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) singled out China as it sought to raise disclosure requirements for listing hopefuls. A spokesperson for SEC declined to comment on the Chinese listing trend beyond saying the regulator gathers information on the number of all foreign companies listed on U.S. exchanges. Spokespersons for the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq declined to comment. DOMESTIC HURDLES The rush of Chinese listing hopefuls heading West is being fuelled by high regulatory thresholds for listing at home as well as criteria skewed to spur growth of sectors in line with national interests. In China, a company needs to exceed a certain size or be profitable to qualify for a main-board listing. Alternatively, to list on tech boards, firms need to align with government self-sufficiency goals or achieve set levels of productivity. "In the US, as long as you can meet objective rules set by regulators, you can go public," said Steve Markscheid, managing partner of Aerion Capital, who also serves as independent director of several US-listed Chinese companies. "Things are more subjective in China. The regulator needs to analyse whether the company is good or not. Only companies judged as good can go public." It takes nine to 12 months on average for an IPO candidate in China to secure regulatory approval, compared to six to nine months in Hong Kong and four to six months in New York, showed an analysis from Merits & Tree Law Offices. The lengthy approval process and high listing thresholds means that for startups, "listing in China becomes mission impossible," said Xinghui deal adviser Ronald Shuang of Shanghai-based investment company Balloch Holding.


Malaysia Sun
33 minutes ago
- Malaysia Sun
Trump unwilling to criticize China even after being largest Russian oil buyers, targets India unfairly: GTRI report
New Delhi [India], August 5 (ANI): US President Donald Trump has been unfairly targeting India over Russian oil imports, while choosing not to criticize China, according to a recent report by the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI). The report suggested that this selective approach may be driven by geopolitical calculations. As per the data from the report, China is the largest buyer of Russian oil. In 2024, China imported USD 62.6 billion worth of Russian oil, compared to India's USD 52.7 billion. Despite this, Trump has focused his criticism on India, ignoring China's bigger role. GTRI stated, 'Trump appears unwilling to criticize China, perhaps because of geopolitical calculations, and instead targets India unfairly'. The report also rejects Trump's recent claim posted on Truth Social, where he alleged that India is 'buying massive amounts of Russian oil and selling it on the open market for big profits.' GTRI clarified that this statement is factually incorrect and misleading. The think tank explained that India does not export crude oil, Russian or otherwise. India is a net importer of crude oil, and its total crude oil exports stand at zero. What India does export are refined petroleum products, including diesel and jet fuel, some of which are processed from Russian crude. This is standard practice among energy-importing countries, the report said. GTRI further stated that India's oil refineries, both public and private, operate independently in deciding where to source crude oil from. These companies do not need government permission to buy oil from Russia or any other country. Their decisions are based on commercial considerations, including price, supply reliability, and rules in export destinations. The report noted that if Indian refiners find that importing Russian crude involves risks, such as secondary sanctions or restricted access to global markets, they may reduce or stop such imports voluntarily. For example, India exported diesel and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) to the European Union in FY2025, but these exports will now stop due to the EU's ban on products refined from Russian crude. In such cases, refiners will shift away from Russian oil without needing a government order. This trend is already visible. In May 2025, India's imports from Russia declined by 9.8 per cent, amounting to USD 9.2 billion, compared to imports in May 2024. The GTRI report concluded that India is being unfairly targeted, while China's larger role goes unquestioned, possibly due to broader geopolitical interests. (ANI)


New Straits Times
an hour ago
- New Straits Times
South Korea pledges to help companies cope with higher US tariffs
SEOUL: South Korea will prepare measures to help companies cope with higher US tariffs and expand into new markets, the Finance Ministry said on Tuesday, as it kicked off a task force to prepare the new administration's economic policy plans. On the domestic front, the government will come up with measures to boost short-term demand, as well as financial support for mid- to long-term technology development to enhance market competitiveness, it said in a statement. South Korea reached a trade deal with the US last week, just days before President Donald Trump's threatened 25 per cent tariff rate was due to come in on its exports to the United States. The trade deal set tariffs on exports from the Asian country at 15 per cent, still higher than a baseline 10 per cent rate and the near zero tariffs for exports under a Korea-US free trade agreement. Still, topics left unresolved by the deal provide scope for more disputes as the two countries prepare for a summit between Trump and new South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in the coming weeks. Trump may use the summit to try to squeeze more concessions on areas such as defence costs and corporate investments, left out of the deal, while non-tariff barriers and currency could prove thorny issues, experts said. South Korea's Finance Ministry, however, sought to give a positive spin on the agreement. The deal reduced uncertainty over the trade environment, while a US$350 billion investment package included in the deal will provide new business opportunities for companies, deepen economic cooperation between the two countries, and contribute to a more stable supply chain, the ministry said. The administration of President Lee also plans to prepare policy measures to foster new industries, such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors and "K-contents" and include them in economic growth strategies and budget plans due to be announced later this month. K-contents refers to a range of cultural and entertainment goods produced by the country ranging from K-pop to Korean dramas that have boomed globally. The ministry vowed to bring regulatory improvements to vitalise business activity, as it kicked off a meeting with the country's major business groups. Asia's fourth-largest economy grew in the second quarter at the fastest pace in more than a year on rebounding consumer spending and a surge in technology exports, but still faces headwinds from slowing global trade amid the sweeping tariffs. The International Monetary Fund last week raised its outlook for most advanced and emerging economies this year based on developments around US tariff negotiations, but South Korea was among the exceptions, with its 2025 growth forecast revised down to 0.8 per cent from 1.0 per cent.