Asia Financial Services

Covering all aspects of financial services in Asia from banking in China to algo trading in Japan.

Zennon Kapron Founder at Kapronasia

China: Stock Dormancy

For the past few weeks, most of the major news in China has centred on the Communist Party Congress. This is an pretty important event in China that happens once every 5 years and usually results in a number of far-reaching policy and people changes throughout the country and government. What has slipped under the radar during all the coverage ...

18 October 2007

Zennon Kapron Founder at Kapronasia

China: Profits up, NPLs down

The China Banking Regulatory Commission recently reported Chinese banking industry numbers and for a brief comparison: Profits: 1H2007 - 268.97 billion yuan (35.8 billion U.S. dollars) FY2003 – 32.28 billion yuan NPL (% of non-performing loans): 2007 – 8.98% 2003 – 17.9% Total assets: 2007 – 48.5 trillion yuan 2003 – 26.5 trillion yuan We can dra...

08 October 2007

Zennon Kapron Founder at Kapronasia

China: Barbie and Goldman

Lead Toys With recall troubles dating back to 2005 when a toddler in the US ate a loose magnet and later died, the toy manufacture Mattel has been in the centre of a toy recall that has thousands of class-action lawyers around the world drooling. The company has gone through numerous recalls in the past few months, the largest being for 18 millio...

25 September 2007

Zennon Kapron Founder at Kapronasia

Singapore: Bubble? What bubble?

On a recent trip to Singapore, I was shocked to see that the 3 bedroom flat that I used to rent with a few people in 2004 for SGP$2,100 was now renting for SGP$4,300. Just over double in 3 years. Now what becomes even more eye-opening is if you take the USD exchange rate fluctuations into account, for those of us still clinging to greenback savi...

17 September 2007

Zennon Kapron Founder at Kapronasia

intel inside China

This past weekend Craig Barrett was in China for the ceremonial groundbreaking on the brand spanking new site for Intel’s latest US$2.5B factory or “fab”. Scheduled to start production in 2010, the fab is the largest investment by Intel in China to date and represents Intel’s “continued commitment to China.” Although it’s a bit unclear what the ac...

11 September 2007

Zennon Kapron Founder at Kapronasia

China: Flying and Banking

This week Singapore Airlines (SIA) bought a ~16% stake in China Eastern, a domestic Chinese airline, which is in the worst financial condition of the big three Chinese carriers. This by itself is groundbreaking news as it’s the first foreign investment in a domestic Chinese airline, but when you consider the recent takeover bid for Qantas in Austr...

07 September 2007