SoftBank raises $4.8 billion from T-Mobile block trade, term sheet shows
SYDNEY :Japan's SoftBank has raised $4.8 billion from a sale of 21.5 million T-Mobile shares at $224 each, according to a term sheet reviewed by Reuters.
The shares were offered in a price range of $224 to $228 each, the term sheet said, a discount to T-Mobile's closing price on Monday of $230.99.
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Analysis:Emerging market local currency debt could end decade-long drought as dollar wanes
LONDON :A weakening U.S. dollar is lifting a long-neglected asset class - emerging market local currency debt - after a more than decade-long drought. Emerging market local-currency bond funds saw a new record of inflows in the week to Wednesday, according to EPFR data, notching eight straight weeks of inflows. The nascent flows remain small - and the uncertainty of tariffs, war and other global turmoil are stemming some flows. But investors expect they will continue, giving a boost to local debt markets in large emerging markets from Brazil and Mexico to Indonesia and India. "Many of the big emerging markets tell us about all the foreign buying of debt, and that is starting to pick up across some countries," said Jonny Goulden, head of emerging market fixed income strategy at JPMorgan. "This could be a potential turning point." Yields on the JPMorgan GBI Emerging Market local currency index are at their lowest since 2022 - partly a sign of flows of international cash. Emerging market local currency government bonds have enjoyed returns of more than 10 per cent since the start of the year - more than double the around 4 per cent delivered by the hard-currency peers, according to JPMorgan indexes. The weaker U.S. dollar, and questions over the years-long U.S. exceptionalism trade - when investors parked cash in booming assets of the world's largest economy - is nudging international investors to look elsewhere for bigger returns. The greenback slipped to its lowest level in more than three years last week. Slower global growth - and lower interest rates across the developed world - are adding to the hunt for yields. "The dollar is going to be much, much weaker. Bond yields or interest rates will fall - so there is a search for yield," said Luca Paolini, chief strategist at Pictet Asset Management. Emerging market bonds look set to be one of the main beneficiaries of that momentum, he said. The dynamics combined are helping to end the foreign investor flight from emerging markets' local currency bonds that Goulden said has lasted for some 14 years. In that time, JPMorgan estimates, the asset class has more than doubled from roughly $6 trillion to $13 trillion, with mainly local investors, and some global bond funds, buying. David Hauner, head of global emerging markets fixed income strategy at Bank of America, said that after years of a dollar bull market, and the U.S. exceptionalism trade, allocations to emerging markets were "absolutely rock bottom" - and had much space to grow. "This has been completely neglected for a long period of time, and now, people have to diversify," he said, adding he expected small but steady flows - and double-digit returns on local currency at the end of the year in dollar terms. The money is part of the closely watched global effort on the part of some international investors to diversify away from U.S. dollar holdings, and U.S. assets, after years of outsized returns that lured the bulk of the world's cash. "So far this year to date, local currency has performed very well," said Carlos de Sousa, portfolio manager at Vontobel. "That's a really direct, automatic effect" from the drop in the dollar. The fact that most emerging market central banks are broadly on a rate cutting trajectory - even as the outlook for the U.S. Federal Reserve's actions remain more mixed - is also adding to momentum. Phoenix Kalen, global head of emerging markets research at Societe Generale, called it "a rare moment of goldilocks for local assets." Local currency bonds, Kalen said, offer "compelling value," including in the Philippines, Czech Republic, Hungary, South Africa, Turkey, Brazil and Colombia. The current shift, Goulden, Hauner and others say, has not come close to reversing the years of outflows, and Hauner said it was more a "trickle" so far than a flood. But even small flows can have an outsized impact. "EM as an asset class is much smaller. So if you take out 1 per cent from the U.S., that is basically the equivalent of 20 per cent in emerging markets. So the impact of this flow could be quite meaningful," Bank of America's Hauner said.
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Want to file for divorce in China? You might need a booking agent
SINGAPORE: Chinese medical office worker Qin Meng has found a lucrative side-hustle: She wakes up before midnight, fills in her clients' divorce certificate applications on a government website, then hits the confirm button exactly at the top of the hour. Miss it by seconds and the daily slots are "gone in the blink of an eye", says the 30-year-old, who charges 400 yuan (US$56) for her service, bringing relief to couples who have sometimes spent six months trying for a slot. Demographers say the emergence of impromptu agents like Qin, who advertise on Chinese social media, is another sign of how the slowing economy is piling financial stress on married couples and contributing to the breakdown of relationships. The 2024 divorce rate has yet to be announced by the National Bureau of Statistics, but Yi Fuxian, a Chinese demographer and senior scientist at University of Wisconsin-Madison, expects it to hit 2.6 per 1,000 people, against a low of 2.0 during the COVID-19 pandemic. This compares with the most recent rates of 1.5 in Japan and 1.8 in South Korea. "Poverty destroys marriage," said Yi, warning divorce numbers were inversely correlated with birth rates and could worsen the country's demographic crisis. "China's economic downturn in recent years and the rising youth unemployment rate have reduced the economic capacity of families, exacerbated family conflicts, and thereby increased the divorce rate." While the economy is expanding at about 5 per cent a year, Chinese households have been saving more because of concerns about job security and the impact of a prolonged property crisis. Much of the economic growth has relied on export competitiveness, but Chinese firms, hit by US tariffs, have cut jobs or lowered pay to reduce costs, while millions of fresh university graduates are struggling to find work. The rising financial pressure was thrust into the spotlight last year after a driver rammed his car into a crowd killing 35 people in what was the country's deadliest attack in recent history. The court found that at the time of his offence, the driver was angry with his divorce settlement. He was sentenced to death. Soon after, the bi-monthly Communist Party magazine Qiushi re-published a 2016 speech by President Xi Jinping that argued "harmonious families lead to a stable society". FINANCIAL STRAIN In a further sign that the rebound in divorces is driven by financial strain, demographers point at data showing lower divorce rates in affluent coastal areas and higher ones in poorer inner and northern regions. Zhou Minghui booked her divorce appointment herself on the fifth attempt, after weeks of worry that her ex-husband might change his mind about their separation. Zhou said her motivation for divorce was what she described as her ex's "reckless financial investments". He had lost nearly 4 million yuan in the stock market in the space of three years, forcing the couple to sell their home, she said. Even then they were only able to repay just over half of the debt he had taken to buy the shares. 'When the economy is in a downturn, people shouldn't be so eager to invest or consume,' said 38-year-old Zhou, who works in the education industry in the southern city of Shenzhen. The COVID-era drop in divorce appears increasingly like an anomaly. Demographers say it was the result not only of the shutdown of non-essential public services, but also by the 2021 introduction of a 30-day mandatory cool-off period for couples seeking amicable divorce outside the courts. Couples need to get on the Civil Affairs Department's website twice - before and after that month-long breather - to book appointments to register their divorce. But the demand now far exceeds the available daily slots. The agents, people like Qin, have figured this out and advertise their services for anything from 50 yuan to 999 yuan. Qin has earned 5,000 yuan, nearly half her monthly salary from her day job, since she started the side gig "for fun" in March. She receives multiple daily enquiries and expects to earn much more.
CNA
2 hours ago
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Globalisation is being rewired for a more complex world: IMD
IMD Business School President David Bach shares his insight on how businesses can navigate a more fractured and politically charged landscape. He remains optimistic that Asian companies can thrive by adapting to an evolving global order.
