3i Group PLC’s decision to close its Hong Kong and Shanghai offices and suspend new investments in Asia is a stark reversal for a firm that was behind one of the most successful private-equity deals in China.
On Friday, U.K.-based 3i announced those moves as part of its strategy to cut costs. Chief Executive Simon Borrows said the company hadn’t completed a new investment in China in four years, and its portfolio has seen a “mixed performance.”
Nomura Holdings Inc. shares are surging on Friday in Tokyo after news that the firm would cut executive pay, including that of the chief executive, in response to findings that lax internal controls led to the leaking of insider information.
Nomura, which is under investigation for at least three counts of insider trading, was up 5% on the news that, in addition to the pay cuts, it would suspend parts of the business for about a week.
Japanese media reports said Friday that CEO Kenichi Watanabe would see his salary cut by 50% for the next six months.
Two senior foreign bankers have left Chinese investment bank CCB International (Holdings) Ltd., as it cuts costs amid a worsening environment for banks in Asia, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Doug Morin, who was head of institutional sales at the Hong Kong-based investment-banking unit of China Construction Bank Corp., and Mark Jolley, who was CCBI’s Asia strategist, both left the firm on Wednesday, according to the people.
Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd., which raised $3.1 billion this month in the world’s second-largest initial public offering this year, showed a huge pop on its first day of trading in Malaysia.
Shares jumped 18% on Thursday morning, helped by investors hungry for a stock that is likely to pay a good dividend yield and qualify for Malaysia’s blue-chip index. The pop came despite Felda’s reporting a 47% drop in first quarter net profit earlier this week, citing higher costs on planting new palm trees.
A rash of highly anticipated share sales in Southeast Asia in coming months will test the extent to which government-linked funds and the region’s surging middle class can brighten an otherwise bleak global environment for initial public offerings.
As companies have scrapped or postponed deals around the world as the global economy slows, Southeast Asia—and Malaysia in particular—has emerged as a hot spot. Some offerings have been oversubscribed and shares have been priced near the high end of the target ranges set by bankers on the deals.
Japan’s crackdown on insider trading is reaching a new level of intensity with the arrest this week of a former executive at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. for his alleged involvement in insider trading.
It is the first time an executive at a major Japanese brokerage has been arrested on suspicion of insider trading and a sign that authorities may be moving beyond pursuing those who trade on inside information to go after those who allegedly provide it.
SouthGobi Resources Ltd. shares were taking a beating Tuesday morning after the company said uncertainty over Mongolia’s mining laws is stalling work at its flagship Ovoot Tolgoi Mine.
The miner said in a statement Tuesday that work at the mine would be “entirely curtailed” at the end of the second quarter, partially because it can’t get government permission to revise an environmental impact assessment for a dry coal handling facility, without which the company said it can’t process coal for transport to market. SouthGobi shares slid 5% in Hong Kong.
Fresh after securing a deal to buy the London Metal Exchange earlier this month, Hong Kong’s ambitious bourse is now trying for another goal–a dual-currency stock on its exchange.
A year ago, Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. released details of how a company could list in both local Hong Kong dollars and the Chinese yuan, and in January added facilities so investors without access to enough yuan can still trade yuan stocks listed on the bourse.
But to date, few yuan equity products have been issued with just an exchange-traded fund that tracks the price of gold, a real estate investment trust controlled by Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, and 23 yuan bonds, popularly known as dim sum bonds.
European private-equity firm Permira has relocated one of the partners in its tech practice to Hong Kong, to boost what it says is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the region.
In a statement Monday, Permira said Robin Bell-Jones, currently a partner in London in the technology, media and telecoms (TMT) team, will be moving to Hong Kong to focus on acquisitions and the international expansion of its current portfolio companies.
Evergrande Real Estate Group Ltd., the target of a scathing short-seller report last week, is fighting back, thanks to some help from an illustrious group of Wall Street firms, it says.
Short-seller Citron Research released a report last Thursday accusing the real estate developer of using accounting tricks and bribes to hide its insolvency. The report sent Evergrande shares plunging 15% on Thursday and Friday in Hong Kong. Evergrande has denied the allegations.
Since then, sell-side analysts covering the stock have come out in the company’s defense, prompting Evergrande to release a statement on Sunday highlighting the investment banks’ swift counterattacks against Citron.
Deal Journal is an up-to-the-minute take on the deals and deal makers that shape the landscape of Wall Street, including mergers and acquisitions, capital-raising, private equity and bankruptcy. In short, wherever money changes hands. Deal Journal is updated throughout each trading day with exclusive commentary, analysis, data, news flashes and profiles. The Wall Street Journal’s David Benoit is the lead writer, with contributions from other Journal reporters and editors. Send news items, comments and questions to stephen.grocer@wsj.com.
In Asia, Deal Journal writers include Isabella Steger in Hong Kong and Gillian Tan in Sydney. They can be reached at isabella.steger@wsj.com and gillian.tan@wsj.com
Isabella Steger
Gillian Tan
Dealpolitik is Ronald Barusch's strategic look at deals currently making the headlines as well as the major forces at work in the deal-making world. He was a M&A; lawyer with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom for over 30 years. He retired in 2010 after 25 years as a partner at the firm. Click here for his current and archived columns.
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