HONG KONG — Hong Kong-listed banks have reported swelling bad debts tied to real estate developers in the city, where lukewarm property demand and sluggish consumption are weighing on the residential, retail and office sectors. Hang Seng Bank, a core unit of HSBC Holdings, this week reported that bad loans on Hong Kong commercial real…
HONG KONG — Japanese billionaire-owned restaurant operator Toridoll is taking Hong Kong-listed noodle chain Tam Jai International private after only three and a half years in the public market as local retail consumption slumps amid shifting spending patterns and a stagnant economy. Toridoll indirectly owned around 74% of Tam Jai shares, including unexercised stock options,…
HONG KONG — The operator of the luxurious Peninsula Hotels chain is writing off the entire book value of its stalled $130 million project in Yangon, as the outlook remains bleak four years after Myanmar’s military seized power from the democratically elected government. Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels said after trading hours on Friday that it…
HONG KONG — A heated exchange erupted Tuesday in the marathon national security trial of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying over whether he is a “political prisoner.” Lai described himself this way as the prosecution sifted through internal WhatsApp exchanges among executives of Apple Daily, the now-defunct pro-democracy news outlet he founded. As the 77-year-old…
HONG KONG — Geopolitical drama is heating up over the marathon national security trial of Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, after U.S. President Donald Trump’s new administration weighed in publicly for the first time and the city’s government fired back. Lai, the founder of defunct pro-democracy media outlet Apple Daily, on Monday spent…
HONG KONG — The Hong Kong government on Friday announced that it has launched a dispute at the World Trade Organization over U.S. President Donald Trump’s additional 10% tariff on the city’s exports. The move follows similar action by Beijing earlier this week in response to Trump slapping a blanket 10% extra levy on Chinese…
Katsuji Nakazawa is a Tokyo-based senior staff and editorial writer at Nikkei. He spent seven years in China as a correspondent and later as China bureau chief. He was the 2014 recipient of the Vaughn-Ueda International Journalist prize. The U.S. threat to take back control of the Panama Canal and the resultant controversy have taken…
HONG KONG — A $13 billion project to turn Hong Kong’s airport into a sprawling city-within-a-city could serve as a test case for how much the local business community is willing to spend to show its loyalty to the Chinese government. “We envisage that our airport will not be just a place for passengers to…
HONG KONG — As Hong Kong returns to the global top five for public offerings, propelled by Chinese companies seeking dollar funding outside the U.S., concerns are rising over the long-established Hong Kong dollar peg crucial for the listings. Questions about the peg — under which the Hong Kong dollar is set at a narrow…
Jimmy Lai is a name synonymous with Hong Kong’s fight for democracy, its disappearing freedoms and the erosion of the rule of law that once defined the former British colony. Lai, a media mogul, activist and passionate human rights advocate, embodies the courage and determination that made Hong Kong a beacon of liberty in a…