Hong Kong builder Emperor shares drop after it says debt overdue
The real estate firm had more than HK$16.6 billion (S$2.7 billion) overdue as at Mar 31 'and/or the Group has breached certain terms of the loan agreements', according to a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange late Friday. 'The banks may request immediate repayment of these bank borrowings,' the company said in the filing.
Its shares-which trade at penny stock levels-dropped as much as 16 per cent in Hong Kong on Monday morning, the biggest intraday decline since August 2024. They later pared some of the losses to HK$0.21 per share.
A years-long property crisis in China has increasingly pressured Hong Kong developers, from bigger indebted builders such as New World Development to smaller ones, including Emperor. Property prices in the city have fallen around 30 per cent over the past four years, and are now around a nine-year low, as banks tighten credit lines.
Emperor International also reported a widening loss of HK$4.7 billion in the year ending end of March.
'Some cash-strapped Hong Kong developers could leave banks in a tight spot unless they urgently raise cash or ask lenders for leniency.' Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Patrick Wong and Francis Chan wrote in a note on Monday. 'Falling Hong Kong property prices risk forcing banks into write downs if distressed loans pile up.' BLOOMBERG
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Straits Times
13 hours ago
- Straits Times
Married couples still excluded under Japan's transgender law
Find out what's new on ST website and app. Japan is the only Group of Seven country that has not legalised same-sex marriage or civil unions. TOKYO - Miki confessed to Chiro that he sometimes liked to 'transform' early in their relationship. Miki (a pseudonym) was born male and lived and worked as a man but liked to go out in skirts and other feminine clothes from time to time. Chiro (also a pseudonym) was amused. They were attracted to each other and married a year later. Miki continued living as a man for a while. But after a few years, he decided on a new lifestyle and appearance and adopted a female name. Today, 10 years later, Miki is in her 50s and living as a woman. But since her appearance differs from her birth gender, it can be difficult to prove her identity. Although the couple say that gender is not central to their married life, Miki is concerned about the need to identify herself because she is listed as a man on her family register. 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Why not, says Tata Consultancy's growth markets chief As it was enacted in 2004, Japan's Act on Special Cases in Handling Gender Status for Persons with Gender Identity Disorder required that people changing their gender be at least 18 years old, unmarried, without minor children, sterile, and have genitalia resembling those of the target gender. In 2023, the Supreme Court struck down the sterilisation requirement as unconstitutional. Miki meets all the conditions except for being married. In July 2024, she filed a petition for a domestic relations hearing at the Kyoto Family Court to obtain a legal sex change while married. However, in March this year, Presiding Judge Akiko Nakamura rejected the request. She ruled that the requirement of being unmarried 'cannot immediately be interpreted as unconstitutional and invalid'. But Ms Nakamura acknowledged that it forces people to choose between divorcing and changing their gender or accepting the disadvantages of having different social and legal genders while being married. According to the judgment, the requirement is in place to avoid same-sex marriage, which is not recognised under current Japanese law. 'Although everyone's idea of happiness is different, the court's decision seems out of touch with the times,' said Chiro, who is in her 40s. 'I really can't understand it.' Ms Nakamura's ruling follows precedent from 2020, when the Supreme Court refused to grant a petition for gender reassignment to a married couple. It decided the requirement was constitutional and based on 'considerations such as the potential for disrupting the current marriage order, in which marriage is recognised only between heterosexuals'. That decision has not been overturned. Japan is the only Group of Seven country that has not legalised same-sex marriage or civil unions. The Kyoto Family Court ruling was a setback after several legal victories by those trying to change the law on gender dysphoria and the legality of same-sex marriage. Since the 2023 Supreme Court decision, family courts have permitted gender reassignment even when a person has not undergone surgical sterilisation. According to the top court, there were at least 54 such cases in 2024. As for the requirement about the appearance of genital organs, the Hiroshima High Court ruled in July 2024 that there is 'suspicion of unconstitutionality'. Lawsuits demanding the legalisation of same-sex marriage have been filed by people in Sapporo, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka. In March 2021, the Sapporo District Court ruled that the current law not recognising same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. Following the Sapporo ruling, the district court decisions on the constitutionality of the law were divided, but by March of this year, all five high courts had ruled it unconstitutional. 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CNA
3 days ago
- CNA
Hong Kong-based digital asset platform OSL Group completes $300 million equity financing
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CNA
4 days ago
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Sony explores sale of cellular chipsets business, sources say
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