China has fined operators of three major e-commerce platforms, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and JD.com Inc., $76,600 each for mispricing products, the latest in the barrage of regulatory actions targeting the increasingly influential internet sector, the Wall Street Journal reported. China’s top market regulator, the State Administration for Market Regulation, said yesterday that it investigated the three platforms—Alibaba’s Tmall Supermarket, JD.com and Vipshop Holdings Ltd. —after receiving complaints from consumers.
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China has turned around more than 2,000 loss-making “zombie” and heavily indebted companies in its campaign against poorly performing enterprises, the deputy head of the country’s state assets regulator said yesterday. China in 2016 set a goal of eliminating thousands of unprofitable zombie firms - those that have survived on bank loans and local government backing - by 2020.
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The Philippine Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said that the government is seeking a new 540 billion-peso ($11.2 billion) loan from the central bank to aid in pandemic relief measures, Bloomberg News reported. The request for a new loan was transmitted to the central bank after the government repaid its previous debt of the same amount due on Tuesday, de Leon said. This is the third time that the government has requested support from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. The monetary authority extended advances of 300 billion pesos in March and 540 billion pesos in October.
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India is set to swing from being a cautious spender in 2020 to opening the fiscal floodgates as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to pull Asia’s third-biggest economy back from the worst of the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. Curbs imposed by the finance ministry on more than 80 government departments and ministries earlier in the year to preserve cash were relaxed this quarter. In addition, this year’s budget will be increased from its current 30 trillion rupees ($407 billion) when new spending plans are announced Feb.
China’s top credit-rating firm was banned from rating new bonds for three months, after an investigation found it ignored red flags at a state-owned coal miner whose default last month rattled the country’s bond market, the Wall Street Journal reported. China Chengxin International Credit Rating Co. had an AAA rating on the miner when it failed to repay the equivalent of $153 million in short-term debt on Nov. 10. The default occurred just weeks after the company, Yongcheng Coal & Electricity Holding Group Co., raised the same amount from a sale of three-year-debt.
AirAsia Group Bhd., hit by the coronavirus pandemic that’s decimated passenger demand, is selling its 32.7% stake in AirAsia India Ltd. to its partner Tata Sons Ltd. for about $38 million, Bloomberg News reported. The Malaysian low-cost carrier entered into an agreement with Tata Sons, which already owns 51% of the venture, according to an exchange filing on Tuesday. AirAsia Group last month said that it was reviewing investment in its cash-strapped Indian affiliate, hours after its Japan unit filed for bankruptcy.
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Mahindra & Mahindra, Indian parent of South Korean SUV maker SsangYong Motor Co (SYMC), issued corporate guarantees earlier this year to some of its global creditors, such as Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and BNP Paribas, to safeguard their exposure once SYMC was on the brink of bankruptcy, the Economic Times reported. For others like Citibank, the Indian conglomerate’s corporate guarantee was not enough. So, M&M had to issue an indemnity letter in favour of the U.S. bank’s Indian arm.
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Countries that once avoided upsetting Beijing are moving closer to the U.S.’s harder and largely bipartisan stance—to curb Chinese access to customers, technology and sensitive infrastructure, the Wall Street Journal reported. Australia, economically dependent on China, became one of the first countries to block Huawei Technology Co. on its soil, and led global calls for an investigation into China’s initial handling of the coronavirus. India, once a pillar of the world’s nonaligned movement, is expanding military cooperation with the U.S.
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A unit of Vedanta Resources will issue $400 million in notes to an entity under Oaktree Capital Group, as the mining conglomerate looks to meet liquidity needs, Bloomberg News reported. The notes will be partly secured by shares in Mumbai-listed unit Vedanta Ltd., according to separate exchange filings from Vedanta and the U.S. hedge fund. India’s macroeconomic troubles have attracted a wave of global investors betting they can eke out profits from the rising number of capital-starved businesses struggling to stay afloat.
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Gold sales in Thailand are surging as households reach for a financial lifeline amid the pandemic, a tactic that risks complicating government efforts to tame an export-stifling rally in the nation’s currency, Bloomberg News reported. Exports of the precious metal surged to a record this year as prices climbed and Thais unloaded jewelry, bars and medallions to raise cash for routine expenses. Bullion traders expect the trend to continue into 2021 as the coronavirus drags on tourism and manufacturing, the mainstays of Thailand’s economy.