New World Development drops after company to defer coupon payments
HONG KONG, June 2 (Reuters) - Shares of New World Development (0017.HK), opens new tab dropped as much as 9.8% after the Hong Kong property developer said it would defer coupon payments scheduled for June on perpetual bonds, casting further liquidity concerns for the cash-strapped firm.
The shares fell to HK$4.32 ($0.5508) each, their lowest since April 9. That compared to a 1.9% fall in benchmark Hang Seng Index. (.HIS), opens new tab
($1 = 7.8428 Hong Kong dollars)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Apple tells Met to embrace ‘traditional policing' in clash over phone thefts
Apple has told the Metropolitan Police to focus on 'traditional policing' to tackle a surge in mobile phone thefts. Gary Davis, a senior executive at the iPhone-maker, said police were not fully investigating some phone thefts in Britain by seeking information about the stolen devices from Apple. In a hearing before MPs on the science, innovation and technology committee, Mr Davis was asked whether Apple should be doing more to build a technical solution to phone thefts. He replied: 'I would want to make sure that as part of all of that the Met Police continues to do traditional policing, which means sending requests to us for stolen devices and Apple responding to those requests for stolen devices. We are not seeing that.' It came after senior police officials urged tech companies to consider new technical ways of preventing theft. The Met wants mobile phone makers to use a unique number linked to a phone's modem chip – which connects to mobile networks – to identify phones that are reported stolen and block them. Police believe up to three quarters of stolen phones are moved abroad, with 28pc ending up in China or Hong Kong and many in Algeria. The Met recorded more than 80,000 phone thefts in 2024, up by a quarter on 2023 levels. Once overseas, these phones become more difficult to track. While UK networks can implement some blocking on the 'IMEI' chip numbers of stolen phones, this is more patchy internationally. Speaking on Tuesday, Darren Scates, the Met's chief digital officer, said one proposal that was being 'considered by Apple and Google' was to 'stop a smart phone serial number being allowed to connect to their services if it is reported as lost or stolen'. The police say this would make the device worthless. Mr Scates added that technology companies had provided methods to 'lock the device' remotely, but some criminals had means of cracking this. Technology chiefs have raised concerns over the risks of allowing more remote locking tools. Mr Davis said the industry was wary about whether such a system could become a 'vector for fraud', with people potentially being able to make false claims that phones have been stolen, leading to devices being automatically blocked. The hearing comes amid growing scrutiny over spiralling crime rates across the UK. The Met has warned that there are growing links between knife crime, child exploitation gangs, drugs and mobile phone theft, with some gangs 'pivoting' from selling illegal drugs to stealing handsets. Speaking to executives from Apple, Google and Samsung, Kit Malthouse, the senior Conservative MP, suggested that technology companies have been 'dragging their feet' on coming up with a technical solution. However, Mr Davis said attention also needed to be focussed on the police response to mobile phone theft, saying: 'We need the requests to come to us. We need to give them the responses. 'They need to use the information we provide to them in order to identify where the phones are being stolen, and I assume therefore target resources. I am not just seeing those resources coming through to us.' Apple said it had introduced a new Stolen Device Protection feature, which requires a Face ID check to access certain phone features, rather than just a code. It has also added technology that can remotely prevent stolen phone parts being stripped and re-used. Google, meanwhile, has added an artificial intelligence feature to its Android software that can detect if a phone has been snatched.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Lee Jae-myung: from child labourer to leader of deeply scarred South Korea
Lee Jae-myung will need to draw on his considerable survival instincts as he attempts to steer South Korea out of the political morass of the past six months. The liberal candidate, who on Tuesday became the country's president at the third attempt after defeating his conservative rival, Kim Moon-soo, has promised to govern for all South Koreans – and for good reason. After a swift transfer of power that will take him to the presidential Blue House on Wednesday, Lee will inherit a deeply scarred country. He faces the task of restoring stability after his predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol's disastrous attempt to impose martial law in December, in what he said was an attempt to eliminate 'anti-state forces'. And Lee will be expected to move quickly to address domestic issues that have been largely sidelined while South Korea confronted its biggest political crisis in decades: income inequality, the soaring cost of living and – a hardy perennial for South Korean leaders – how to resurrect dialogue with an increasingly erratic North Korea. Lee, 61, a former factory worker who became a human rights lawyer before entering politics, is no stranger to adversity – or controversy. He campaigned behind protective screens, wearing a bulletproof vest and surrounded by armed guards – an unprecedented precaution in democratic South Korea prompted by reported threats to his life and, in January last year, a knife attack in which he sustained neck injuries that required emergency surgery. The threats to Lee are not only physical. He begins his single five-year term creaking beneath the weight of continuing legal cases that could plunge his presidency into crisis before it has barely begun. Lee faces several charges – which he has denied – the most serious that he made false statement during a televised debate during his last presidential campaign, in 2022. He brings experience of the rough and tumble of South Korean politics, having served as the former leader of the main opposition Democratic party, as well as stints as a governor and mayor. South Korean media have described Lee as stubborn and determined, qualities they trace to his early years as one of seven children growing up in a poor family in Andong, North Gyeongsang province. His education was hardly an ideal preparation for a career in law and politics. He frequently skipped classes at primary school – a 5km walk from home – and quit school as a teenager to work in factories to help his mother and sister, both toilet cleaners, pay the bills after they moved to Seongnam, near Seoul. At 13 he was left with a permanent disability after his wrist was crushed by an industrial press. The injury meant he was later exempted from mandatory military service. Lee eventually passed his school exams before studying law on a scholarship, passing the bar exam in 1986 before becoming a human rights lawyer and activist. His transition to politics mirrored the struggling start to his education: he failed to get elected as mayor of Seongnam at his first attempt in 2006, succeeding four years later. Having lost his party's nomination for president to Moon Jae-in in 2017, Lee was defeated in the 2022 election by Yoon by the slimmest margin – less than one percentage point – in South Korea's history, after an acrimonious campaign that offered a foretaste of the division that would characterise Yoon's time in office. Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said Lee had benefited from public anger directed towards Yoon and his People Power party [PPP]. 'Lee's victory is not thanks to any particular policy proposals, but rather a result of Yoon's spectacular collapse,' Easley said. As polling day approached, Lee appeared to agree that Yoon was his greatest electoral asset. In a speech on Monday, he promised to revitalise the economy, reduce inequality and heal a divided country, cautioning that a vote for his PPP opponent, Kim, could reopen the door to Yoon's 'rebellion forces'. He said: 'If they somehow win, that will mean … the destruction of democracy, the deprival of people's human rights, the normalisation of martial law and our country's downfall into a backward, third-world nation.' Lee was given temporary relief from his legal headaches after courts approved his request to postpone further hearings until after Tuesday's election. But any guilty verdict now that he is president would spark a debate over constitutional provisions that shield South Korean leaders from criminal prosecution, except against allegations of insurrection or treason. Observers wonder if presidential immunity would halt the prosecutions, or simply prevent any new charges from being brought. Lee called Tuesday's election 'judgment day' for South Korea. He was referring to the opportunity it gave voters to move on from the Yoon era – but his own moment of reckoning may not be far behind.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Global alarms rise as China's critical mineral export ban takes hold
June 3 (Reuters) - Alarm over China's stranglehold on critical minerals grew on Tuesday as global automakers joined their U.S. counterparts to complain that restrictions by China on exports of rare earth alloys, mixtures and magnets could cause production delays and outages without a quick solution. German automakers became the latest to warn that China's export restrictions threaten to shut down production and rattle their local economies, following a similar complaint from an Indian EV maker last week. China's decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets has upended the supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world. The move underscores China's dominance of the critical mineral industry and is seen as leverage by China in its ongoing trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump has sought to redefine the trading relationship with the U.S.' top economic rival China by imposing steep tariffs on billions of dollars of imported goods in hopes of narrowing a wide trade deficit and bringing back lost manufacturing. Trump imposed tariffs as high as 145% against China only to scale them back after stock, bond and currency markets revolted over the sweeping nature of the levies. China has responded with its own tariffs and is leveraging its dominance in key supply chains to persuade Trump to back down. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to talk this week and the export ban is expected to be high on the agenda. Shipments of the magnets, essential for assembling everything from cars and drones to robots and missiles, have been halted at many Chinese ports while the Chinese government drafts a new regulatory system. Once in place, the new system could permanently prevent supplies from reaching certain companies, including American military contractors. The suspension has triggered anxiety in corporate boardrooms and nations' capitals - from Tokyo to Washington - as officials scrambled to identify limited alternative options amid fears that production of new automobiles and other items could grind to a halt by summer's end. "If the situation is not changed quickly, production delays and even production outages can no longer be ruled out," Hildegard Mueller, head of Germany's auto lobby, told Reuters on Tuesday. Frank Fannon, a minerals industry consultant and former U.S. assistant secretary of state for energy resources during Trump's first term, said the global disruptions are not shocking to those paying attention. 'I don't think anyone should be surprised how this is playing out. We have a production challenge (in the U.S.) and we need to leverage our whole of government approach to secure resources and ramp up domestic capability as soon as possible. The time horizon to do this was yesterday,' Fannon. Diplomats, automakers and other executives from India, Japan and Europe were urgently seeking meetings with Beijing officials to push for faster approval of rare earth magnet exports, sources told Reuters, as shortages threatened to halt global supply chains. A business delegation from Japan will visit Beijing in early June to meet the Ministry of Commerce over the curbs and European diplomats from countries with big auto industries have also sought "emergency" meetings with Chinese officials in recent weeks, Reuters reported. India, where Bajaj Auto ( opens new tab warned that any further delays in securing the supply of rare earth magnets from China could "seriously impact" electric vehicle production, is organizing a trip for auto executives in the next two to three weeks. In May, the head of the trade group representing General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab, Toyota (7203.T), opens new tab, Volkswagen ( opens new tab, Hyundai ( opens new tab and other major automakers raised similar concerns in a letter to the Trump administration. "Without reliable access to these elements and magnets, automotive suppliers will be unable to produce critical automotive components, including automatic transmissions, throttle bodies, alternators, various motors, sensors, seat belts, speakers, lights, motors, power steering, and cameras," the Alliance for Automotive Innovation wrote in the letter.
