Hong Kong's Tycoons Are Damaging the City's Credit Culture
New World Development Co.'s decision not to repay coupons on its perpetual notes was a rude awakening, but it was by no means an outlier. Emperor International Holdings Ltd., a fellow developer that sells luxury apartments, said it had HK$16.6 billion ($2.1 billion) in bank borrowings that are either overdue or have breached loan covenants, which may result in immediate repayment requests.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's Japan 'investment vehicle' could become trade talk template — even if nobody is sure what it is
A closely watched piece of a trade deal announced with Japan this past week is a plan for a "new Japanese/USA investment vehicle" that Trump and his team said will put $550 billion aside for the president to personally deploy to finance new investments in the US. Observers are watching this unusual provision closely amid a growing expectation it will serve as a template of sorts for remaining trade talks — even as conflicts grow over exactly what was agreed to, especially a disagreement on how profits might be split. It's just one of the questions that cropped up immediately after the president's announcement Tuesday — and appears to have only grown in the days since. Trump and his team have deployed a range of metaphors to describe this part of the deal, from a "signing bonus for the country" (Trump) to a "national security sovereign fund" (Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick) to a "blank check" (trade adviser Peter Navarro). The Japanese are describing things very differently, suggesting that the provision is more akin to a non-legally binding agreement to look for joint investment opportunities for both US and Japanese companies. "There are a lot of details that need to be worked out here," former trade negotiator Wendy Cutler, now at the Asia Society Policy Institute, noted on Yahoo Finance on Friday. She added that the very different accounts from different sides at the very least "does not bode well for smooth implementation." Yet the bumpiness has done little to slow momentum for the idea in Trump's orbit, with a sense that similar provisions could be part of any possible deal with South Korea and perhaps Taiwan. Trump also appeared to suggest Friday that it may be what's needed to close a deal with the European Union. As he left for Scotland, the president described a deal with the EU as far from a sure thing, adding that what might push talks over the line is a pact "where they buy down their tariffs." Trump officials, for their part, stand by their side's version of the deal with Japan and often note they have an easy way to make sure things work out to their liking: the constant threat of re-raising tariffs. A White House spokesperson declined to offer further details Friday on exactly how the investment vehicle would work and what Trump meant with Friday's comments around EU negotiations, which are set to continue this Sunday while the president is in Scotland. Read more: What Trump's tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet 'Hardly the operation of the free market' What is known about the investment portion of the deal has come under growing criticism. Iain Murray, a vice president at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, called the outline "hardly the operation of the free market in action." He added that the government-run process to direct funds could quickly become messy, with "all the usual problems of state-directed, industrial policy." This piece of the deal was one that was clearly hammered out quickly and late in the negotiating process. A social media post by White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino earlier this week showed the president sitting across from Japan's chief negotiator Ryosei Akazawa. Before him was a paper outlining the deal, with $400 billion crossed out and replaced in pen with $500 billion. The final agreement of $550 billion was then subsequently announced. The full text of the trade agreement has not been released, but a White House fact sheet describes the plan as for "a new Japanese/USA investment vehicle" that will be "over $550 billion." "At President Trump's direction, these funds will be targeted toward the revitalization of America's strategic industrial base," the document adds, listing energy, semiconductors, critical minerals, pharmaceuticals, and shipbuilding as the five areas of focus. It's a provision Trump has likened to "a $550 billion signing bonus for the country," adding of the money, "We control the whole lot of it and it's really been great." Lutnick has gone further and described this part of the deal as "literally the government of Japan giving Donald Trump and the American people $550 billion to invest, at his direction, on things that are important to America and national security." Mounting disagreements around the deal The Japanese appear to disagree fundamentally. Japan's top trade negotiator told Reuters this week that "some people are saying Japan is simply handing over $550 billion, but such claims are completely off the mark." It all could complicate the overall pact that is set to reduce "reciprocal" and automotive tariffs on Japanese imports to the US from previously threatened levels of 25% to 15%. Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute added that the deal, depending on how much power the president ultimately has to direct funds, "has all the sorts of things that the founders were worried about about presidential power: the power of patronage, the capacity for corruption." It all adds up to a potential "end run around constitutional checks and balances," according to Murray. And as financial writer James Surowiecki put it on social media: "Trump and his people are pure, top-down central planners. They're just convinced they can allocate capital better than the market." Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance. Click here for political news related to business and money policies that will shape tomorrow's stock prices
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
In his 20s, the boss of this 4,100-employee Fortune 500 company tried to refuse a promotion to CEO—his advice to new grads is stay ‘humble'
EXCLUSIVE: Tony Cheng rose up the corporate ladder at Reinsurance Group of America by embracing challenging roles early and credits his steady, decades-long career growth to continual learning, humility, and a willingness to take on responsibility. His leadership helped expand RGA's presence in Asia and beyond, encouraging individuals looking to lead companies to always be open to continued growth. It's rare to be offered a big promotion and turn it down, but it's even rarer to warn superiors you don't feel prepared for the role and be appointed anyway. Yet that's precisely what happened to Reinsurance Group of America boss, Tony Cheng, in his early years with the business. Cheng has worked his way up the ranks of RGA over the past three decades, helping grow the company to its current position of $3.9 trillion of reinsurance covering active policyholders. In 2025, RGA announced a landmark $1.5 billion deal with Equitable to reinsure $32 billion worth of life insurance policies, securing its place as an industry leader and expected to boost earnings for quarters come. Sitting down for an exclusive interview with Fortune this summer, Cheng reflected on that all-important promotion to CEO, and the value of staying humble even in the C-suite. The following has been condensed and edited for clarity. Tony, in an era where job-hopping is often seen as the fast track to career growth, you've chosen a different tactic—working up through RGA since 1997. Where did your work ethic come from, and what's inspired your long-standing commitment to the company? I was born in Hong Kong, and my parents—both teachers—felt for the future of their four kids (of which I was the youngest) Australia would provide the Western education they wanted. So I grew up in Australia from nine months to the age of 20 and didn't travel overseas much. My parents worked incredibly hard. Mom looked after the four kids and Dad unfortunately had to give up his love for teaching because it just wouldn't pay the bills. Eventually they opened up small businesses and then we, the four kids, on the weekend would go work there—12 hour days—and didn't think otherwise. That really bred in the sacrifice of the parents, the hard work, all things I'd wish to pass onto my kids. Growing up as many of us in a Western country but very Asian family do, I think I went to Asia once in my life, so [I took] an opportunity to join RGA in 1997 in Malaysia. Between 1999 and 2002 you returned to the States to earn an MBA while working for RGA, before leaving to head up the Hong Kong office. When you arrived, you had a team of 10. The Asia Pacific region now has more than 1,000 employees and revenues of $4 billion. Are there untapped career opportunities in emerging markets as opposed to progressing in established regions? We had a very small operation, but we were actually covering about 500 million people. It was Hong Kong and Southeast Asia so Malaysia, Thailand, all those countries. I went there as the actuary, and a year and a half later they promoted me to be the CEO of that business. It was daunting, right? The first time I was asked to take it by my boss, I sort of said, 'No, I'm too young.' At the time I was 29. He ignored that. The equation in my mind was I've probably got a 10% chance of success—and that would be great—or a 90% chance of failure, but hey, I'm gonna learn a hell of a lot. I had no mortgage, no kids, so just wanted to learn. Maybe that instinct, that desire and drive to keep learning was from my parents being teachers. In its latest financial results RGA reported revenues of $22.1 billion. How has the start-up mentality you learned in Asia helped grow the business globally? We built that business up with incredible hard work. I'd joke internally that once every month or so pest control would come in, and that meant we could go home at 5 o'clock because what else were we going to do with ourselves? That was the spirit. In the early days, you solve problems. I'd say to the team: 'Let's just try. We know it's really hard, but let's just try.' In the U.S., people usually don't create new products or create new things because the market's so big, a lot of it's already played out and it's been created. Any good idea has been thought of, and that's truly okay. It's actually more connecting the dots in the U.S., but with a drive to not just settle on: 'Hey, here's the market, we want a share of it' it's a drive to create new things or a new combination of things so that we [can] increase the pie and share in that greater value creation. That's always been in the company spirit, it was just really about bringing that out again to the forefront. Like a lot of other Fortune 500 CEOs we speak to, you clearly have a love for learning. In a world where AI is expected to disrupt the labor market, what are the skills you're looking for in new talent? I can only think of what I advise my son, who's in his second year of college. As the younger generation already knows, AI is gonna accelerate, and therefore number one they've absolutely got to be able to use it and partner with it. Ultimately AI, one would think, is gonna replace whatever is mathematically easier to replace. Had a conversation at one of the town halls with some risk professionals in the U.S. last week and I said all those soft skills really matter, you've still got to learn the hard skills, you've got to understand your subject matter expertise regardless of technology, but increasingly all those abilities to interact, to communicate, to join the dots, to be able to understand information, communicate it, and just put those dots together is the stuff that's gonna be obviously harder for AI to replicate. Maybe it will one day, but then you've just got to keep elevating yourself. So, what is that a lesson of? It is a lesson of continually adapting, continually learning, a bit like a sports person. When they've lost their passion to play and fight, it's time to retire. For me, when I've lost that passion to learn and grow, you're probably not gonna give it your full go, hence maybe the learning really just keeps me going. It's not like I ever said, 'Hey, I want to be the CEO of the company.' I was so far away, I just wanted to be treated right and enjoy the journey and the growth, So the lesson to individuals is you've just got to keep learning, you've got to be humble. If you're not humble, you're not gonna listen to yourself or your failings, you're gonna blame them on something else as opposed to, 'Well, what was my role in that?' so I can learn. This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump Tariffs Leave Costly China Supply Question Unanswered
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump's recent flurry of trade deals have given Asian exporters some clarity on tariffs, but missing are key details on how to avoid punitive rates that target China's supply chains. Trump Awards $1.26 Billion Contract to Build Biggest Immigrant Detention Center in US The High Costs of Trump's 'Big Beautiful' New Car Loan Deduction Can This Bridge Ease the Troubled US-Canadian Relationship? Salt Lake City Turns Winter Olympic Bid Into Statewide Bond Boom Trump Administration Sues NYC Over Sanctuary City Policy Trump unveiled tariffs of 20% for Vietnam and 19% for Indonesia and the Philippines, signaling those are the levels the US will likely settle on for most of Southeast Asia, a region that ships $352 billion worth of goods annually to the US. He's also threatened to rocket rates up to 40% for products deemed to be transshipped, or re-routed, through those countries — a move largely directed at curbing Chinese goods circumventing higher US tariffs. But still unclear to manufacturers is how the US will calculate and apply local-content requirements, key to how it will determine what constitutes transshipped goods. Southeast Asian nations are highly reliant on Chinese components and raw materials, and US firms that source from the region would bear the extra tariff damage. That's left companies, investors and economists facing several unanswered questions about Trump's tariffs that appear aimed at squeezing out Chinese content, according to Deborah Elms, head of trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation in Singapore. 'Is that raw materials? All raw materials? Above a certain percentage?' she said. 'How about parts? What about labor or services? What about investment?' In an agreement with Indonesia last week, the White House said the two countries would negotiate 'rules of origin' to ensure a third country wouldn't benefit. The deal with Vietnam earlier this month outlined a higher 40% tariff rate for transshipped goods. And Thai officials, who have yet to secure a deal, detailed that they likely need to boost local content in exports to the US. Missing Details The Trump administration isn't providing much clarity on the matter right now. US officials are still working out details with trading partners and looking at value-based local content requirements, to ensure exports are more than just assembled imported parts, according to a person familiar with the matter, who didn't want to be identified discussing private talks. A senior Trump administration official also said this week that details on the approach to transshipment are expected to be released before Aug. 1, the deadline for when higher US tariffs kick in. Some factories are already adjusting their supply chains to comply with rules that will require more locally-made components in production. Frank Deng, an executive at a Shanghai-based furniture exporter with operations in Vietnam — and which gets about 80% of business from the US — said in an interview his firm is making adjustments as authorities appear to be more strictly enforcing country-of-origin rules. Vietnam has always had specific local content requirements for manufacturers, Deng added, including that a maximum of 30% of the volume of raw materials originates from China, and the value after production in Vietnam must be 40% higher than the imported raw materials. 'We've been struggling to meet all the standards so that we can still stay in the game,' Deng said. 'But I guess that's the only way to survive now.' For most of Southeast Asia, reducing the amount of Chinese-made components in manufacturing will require a complete overhaul of their supply chains. Estimates from Eurasia Group show that Chinese components make up about 60% to 70% of exports from Southeast Asia — primarily industrial inputs that go into manufacturing assembly. About 15% of the region's exports now head to the US, up about four percentage points from 2018. Local Content The US has become increasingly vigilant about China's ability to bypass US trade tariffs and other restrictions through third countries since Trump's first trade war in 2017. Thailand signaled its frustration over the lack of clarity for how much local content is needed in goods exported to the US to avert transshipment rates, but noted it will likely be much higher than a traditional measure of 40%. 'From what we've heard, the required percentage could be significantly higher, perhaps 60%, 70%, or even 80%,' Deputy Prime Minister Pichai Chunhavajira said July 14. 'Emerging countries or new production bases are clearly at a disadvantage,' he said, as their manufacturing capabilities are still at an early stage and must rely on other countries for raw goods. Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia have all taken steps this year to address Trump's concerns, increasing scrutiny of trade that passes through their ports including new rule-of-origin policies that centralize processing and imposing harsh penalties on transshippers. Developing nations may still struggle to enforce Trump's rules or comply with the rules if it means going up against China, their largest trading partner and geopolitical partner. 'The reality is it's not enforceable at all,' said Dan Wang, China director at Eurasia Group. 'Chinese companies have all kinds of ways to get around it and those other countries have no incentive to enforce those measures, or capacity to collect the data and determine local content.' --With assistance from Patpicha Tanakasempipat, Skylar Woodhouse and Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen. Burning Man Is Burning Through Cash Confessions of a Laptop Farmer: How an American Helped North Korea's Wild Remote Worker Scheme It's Not Just Tokyo and Kyoto: Tourists Descend on Rural Japan Elon Musk's Empire Is Creaking Under the Strain of Elon Musk A Rebel Army Is Building a Rare-Earth Empire on China's Border ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
