Author: Journalist

NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON MARKET Property analysts said that there would not be a significant impact on the market, with majority of genuine homebuyers and long-term investors unlikely to be affected. Through the new measures, the government is discouraging short-term flipping and sub-sales, which have contributed to artificial demand and price volatility recently, 99.co’s associate head of research Joel Lim said.  “This measure reinforces the notion that housing should be viewed primarily as a home rather than a quick investment vehicle,” added Mr Lim.  Head of research and data analytics at Singapore Realtors Inc Mohan Sandrasegeran pointed to transaction data,…

Digital transformation and innovation performanceBy sorting out the previous research results, it can be found that the study on the relationship between digital transformation and innovation performance mainly starts from different perspectives of enterprise innovation. It mainly involves enterprise model innovation, enterprise green innovation, enterprise regional innovation, enterprise mechanism innovation and other aspects.In essence, enterprise innovation is the performance of the whole staff inside the enterprise. By introducing digital leadership into the process of enterprise digital transformation, and taking digital enterprise platform as an intermediary factor, this paper studies the relationship between digital leadership and enterprise innovation performance. Found digital…

In brief A consortium led by Metaplanet backers has filed to acquire DV8, a Thai-listed firm, through a voluntary tender offer. Backers include UTXO, Sora Ventures, Kliff Capital, and AsiaStrategy, in a broader effort to promote Bitcoin treasury adoption in Southeast Asia. Experts have warned that poorly capitalized firms using Bitcoin as a lifeline may trigger instability and systemic risk. A consortium of Bitcoin-native investors is acquiring DV8, a Thai-listed firm primarily engaged in retail and consumer electronics distribution, in a bid to expand the Bitcoin treasury model into Southeast Asia’s public markets.The consortium intends to acquire “at least 75%”…

Celebrities ARE venturing beyond the billboard and the big screen—and into big business. Hailey Bieber, a model married to Justin, recently sold Rhode, her make-up brand, in a deal valued at as much as $1bn. Skims, a shapewear label founded by Kim Kardashian, a reality-TV star, makes $1bn in annual sales and is expected to list on the stockmarket soon. Rihanna is now a billionaire not directly because of her music, but thanks to Fenty Beauty, her make-up label. Ryan Reynolds, a Hollywood actor, is active in everything from telecoms to online privacy. Surprisingly, many of these superstar businesses have…

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Finance Minister Rachel Reeves to his right, looking visibly upset, in the House of Commons on Wednesday.Image sourced under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0All eyes are now on the U.K.’s ruling Labour Party for any sign of further political fractures that could rattle Britain’s economic stability, after the extraordinary sight of the country’s finance minister crying in parliament on Wednesday.U.K. bond yields spiked and the pound sank against the dollar and euro as tears fell down Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ face, as an apparently unaware Prime Minister Keir Starmer failed to back her when asked about…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The writer is a former banker and author of ‘Traders, Guns & Money’, ‘Extreme Money’ and ‘Banquet of Consequences’In the lead up to the global financial crisis, the systemic risks building in markets were overlooked by many. Those risks proved calamitous. Today, there are multiple financial vulnerabilities and faultlines. First, investors have increasingly borrowed low-cost funds, often in foreign currencies, to invest in higher yielding investments in ubiquitous carry trades, that are now vulnerable to moves in asset prices and currency values.Second,…

[HONG KONG] Stocks struggled in Asia on Thursday as investors gave a lukewarm reception to the US-Vietnam trade deal, while the dollar eased ahead of key US jobs data that could impact Federal Reserve interest rates plans.Attention was also on Washington as Republicans struggled to push Donald Trump’s tax-slashing budget bill through the House of Representatives amid warnings it will inflate an already ballooning national debt.While the Vietnam agreement provided hope that other governments can reach agreements with Washington, dealers were cautious as it emerged that the country must still pay tolls of as much as 40 per cent for certain…

At the world’s biggest asset manager, a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund now generates more revenue than its signature tracker of the S&P 500 Index.The roughly $75 billion iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (ticker IBIT) has seen a torrent of cash from institutional and retail investors alike, drawing inflows in all but one of the last 18 months. With an expense ratio of 0.25%, the fund brings in an estimated $187.2 million in annual fees, based on back-of-the-envelope math calculated by Bloomberg as of July 1. That slightly edges out the $187.1 million made by BlackRock’s iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), which…

[NEW YORK] A turf war is breaking out in the vast world of digital payments – and the incumbents are suddenly on defence. Tech firms and crypto startups are moving in on territory long dominated by Visa and Mastercard, powered by a new type of currency – the stablecoin – and a pitch merchants can’t ignore: lower fees, faster settlement and a way to bypass the big two altogether. It’s a tech threat and a financial threat. Digital tokens, which are typically pegged to the US dollar, allow consumers to pay merchants directly from their crypto wallets – without routing payments…

[SINGAPORE] The world’s largest digital assets exchange Binance, plans to keep hundreds of remote workers in Singapore, despite a crackdown on unlicensed crypto outfits in the city-state.The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) recently announced a hard deadline of Jun 30 for crypto firms incorporated in Singapore and offering services offshore to cease activities, prompting top-10 exchange operators Bitget and Bybit to weigh shifting staff overseas. The new rules are expected to have a negligible impact on Binance’s operations in Singapore, according to sources familiar with the company’s operations who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. Hundreds of Singapore-based…