US$46b deal collapses - what doomed Couche-Tard's 7-Eleven takeover?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Times
37 minutes ago
- Business Times
Pathway to profitability: One Championship spreads wings in Asia and beyond
ONE Championship – the company that's produced dozens of mixed martial arts (MMA) world champions such as Angela Lee, Stamp Fairtex and Aung La N Sang over the years – is busy growing its footprint in Asia and beyond. The Singapore-based promoter has a firm presence in Bangkok, where it stages the weekly One Friday Fights event at the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium. These shows are beamed to some 195 countries during Aisa prime-time hours. Last month, One Championship announced the relocation of its global production hub from Singapore to Bangkok, with the move aiming to 'centralise production' and better support the company's expanding content operations. Outside of the Thai capital, One Championship continues to stage major live events – there will be one show in Tokyo in November, and another in the US state of Colorado in June 2026. Earlier this year in February, the company held its second event in Qatar. 'Asia remains our core, with the Middle East and the US as strategic expansion markets,' said co-founder and group president Teh Hua Fung in an interview with BT Weekend. Teh, who joined the company in January 2018 as chief financial officer and gradually moved up the ranks, spoke about a wide range of issues such as the geographic focus and why he's confident that One Championship remains firmly on a path towards profitability. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 2 pm Lifestyle Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself. Sign Up Sign Up What are your responsibilities as co-founder and president? I run the business with (chairman and CEO) Chatri Sityodtong. We make the big decisions together with our leadership team. I oversee global expansion and business development. The areas of focus are capital markets, group strategy, and building partnerships with both businesses and governments. Where are the main commercial opportunities these days? The Middle East is a region that has very strong tailwinds – a young and very digitally savvy population, and strong government support for sports and entertainment. We are growing our operations in Qatar – it's part of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and those countries have a combined population of 60 million. Qatar represents the starting point of our entry into the Middle East, and we are going to focus on that. If you look at the broader Middle East and North Africa region, you have very large countries like Egypt that have a big appetite for sports. The US remains a very key market for us – it's the largest sports market in the world. Today, we are the only Asia-based sports property with live events carried on Amazon Prime Video in US primetime hours. This places us alongside the likes of the NFL, MLB, Nascar, WNBA and soon, the NBA. As a Singapore-headquartered company, that's something we are very proud of. 'Singapore remains our global HQ. It's home to our senior leadership, investor relations and strategic planning functions,' says One Championship's co-founder and president Teh Hua Fung. PHOTO: REUTERS What about Singapore? Singapore remains our global HQ. It's home to our senior leadership, investor relations and strategic planning functions. We value Singapore's world-class infrastructure, global connectivity and deep talent pool. We also cherish and appreciate our longstanding working relationships with government agencies here like Singapore Tourism Board, Sport Singapore, the Infocomm Media Development Authority, Economic Development Board and Enterprise Singapore – all of whom have been important partners in our journey. Revenue in the last five financial years has seen a steady increase. What's the road to profitability like, and how are you getting there? Our group-level financials are filed in the Cayman Islands, in line with our re-domiciliation several years ago. The trend is clear. Since our peak investment year in 2019, costs have declined steadily while revenues have grown in both volume and variety. A question I often get is: It's been more than a decade (One Championship was established in 2011), so why are you still unprofitable? We are not profitable yet, but the path is very visible now. That said, a precise timing is hard to predict in this business. Many of our key revenue drivers such as broadcast rights, sponsorships and hosting fees are large, multi-year deals that tend to close in uneven cycles. While we have always been confident in the direction, it's hard to call the precise timing of profitability given the natural lumpiness of the business. Fans enjoying the action at a One Friday Fights event in Bangkok. Last month, One Championship announced the relocation of its global production hub from Singapore to the Thai capital. PHOTO: ONE CHAMPIONSHIP What are the challenges? Building a global sports property requires heavy upfront investment. Unlike one-off event promoters or circuses, sports media businesses are full-stack ecosystems – you need a global brand, world-class athletes, live event infrastructure, broadcast capabilities, international distribution, and strategic partnerships. All of this requires a lot of time and money to build, and you must reach a critical mass in audience before you start seeing serious monetisation. This journey is not unique to One Championship. Formula 1 operated at a loss for decades before becoming a highly profitable business under Liberty Media. They had to build global infrastructure, including races across multiple regions, to expand their fanbase and eventually unlock commercial upside. Once scale is reached, the economics shift dramatically. Like a theme park, it's expensive to build but once it's up and running, incremental revenue outpaces fixed costs, and margins expand. That's the phase we are approaching now.
Business Times
an hour ago
- Business Times
US-Japan trade deal hinges on fund that remains a puzzle
[WASHINGTON] The US and Japan this week reached what US President Donald Trump called the largest trade deal in history. But the lack of detail over Tokyo's pledge to set up a US$550 billion US investment fund is raising questions about the viability of an agreement that's been floated as a potential template for other major trading partners. The fund is a centrepiece of the deal announced by Trump that imposes 15 per cent tariffs on Japanese cars and other goods. While the start date and other basic elements are still unknown, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned this week that the US would monitor implementation and bump the rate up to 25 per cent if Trump is not satisfied. The two countries' leaders seem at times to be talking at cross purposes. The White House said over US$550 billion will be invested under the direction of the US, and Trump said on social media that 90 per cent of the profits will be given to America. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, on the other hand, said Japan would offer a mixture of investment, loans, and loan guarantees up to a maximum of US$550 billion. The fund will be supported by government-owned organisations Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Nippon Export and Investment Insurance, according to Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's chief negotiator on the deal, who said he also expected the private sector to be involved. Who exactly will be funding the bulk of the amount and over what time period remains unknown. In the fiscal year 2024, JBIC invested about 263 billion yen (S$2.3 billion) in North America, or roughly 0.3 per cent of the figure now being touted. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up 'The Japanese will finance the project and will give it to an operator and the profits will be split 90 per cent to the taxpayers of the US of America,' Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Bloomberg TV after the deal was struck, citing potential examples like pharmaceutical plants or chip fabs. Ishiba on the other hand is characterising the fund as a way to support Japanese firms' investment into the US. The prime minister emphasised it will benefit both Japan and the US, and will target strategically important industries. SoftBank Group last year pledged to invest US$100 billion in the US over the next four years, while Nippon Steel announced an US$11 billion investment in US Steel's operations by 2028, following its US$14.1 billion purchase of the Pittsburgh-based producer last month. Both companies have also committed to creating significant employment in the US. Whether those figures will be considered part of the deal by the US is also unclear. 'They came to us with the idea of a Japan-US partnership, where they are going to provide equity, credit guarantees and funding for major projects in the US,' Bessent said. He added that the foreign direct investment pledge is 'all new capital.' The White House factsheet on the trade deal mentions that Japan will also buy 100 Boeing planes as well as US defence equipment worth additional billions of US dollars annually. Akazawa said both these pledges were based on existing plans by Japanese airlines and the government, respectively. 'We've explained to the US side Japan's thinking behind defence equipment purchases as part of our efforts to strengthen defence capabilities,' said Akazawa. 'But strengthening defence wasn't a topic in the trade and tariff negotiations.' Akazawa said he hoped the reduced car tariff rate would take effect as soon as possible, and that he expected the broader 15 per cent levy to be imposed from Aug 1. There has been no discussion of compliance or monitoring, he added. 'I've travelled to the US eight times,' Akazawa told reporters in Tokyo shortly after returning to Japan. 'But I don't remember discussing how we'll be implementing our agreement, or how we'll make sure it's implemented.' BLOOMBERG
Business Times
7 hours ago
- Business Times
The rise and fall of New Silk Road, one of the longest-running hedge funds in Singapore
[SINGAPORE] Investment management firm New Silk Road announced earlier in July that it will be closing its doors after a 16-year run in Asia. Based in Singapore, it is one of the longest-running hedge funds in the city-state. It is the investment manager of the Asia Landmark Fund, which has onshore and offshore investment structures for US and international investors through a Cayman LP and Cayman offshore feeder fund. So what caused New Silk Road to shutter, and who are its founders? The Business Times explains, and also takes a look at what hedge funds are, and this industry in Singapore. The origins of New Silk Road, and who are its founders? Founded in 2009, the company was started by Raymond Goh, the former head of Asian equities at GIC, and Hoong Yik Luen, the former head of Hong Kong-China equity products at Deutsche Bank. New Silk Road in its early stages was considered a pioneer in the finance scene of Singapore. For context, the Republic's hedge fund market managed S$59 billion pre-2010s, which has since grown to S$327 billion as at December 2024, based on data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Goh and Hoong's hedge fund is known to be one of the earliest in Singapore to invest long-short equities across Asia. Its strength was being among the early foreign investors in China, via an on‑the‑ground Shanghai team. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 8.30 am Asean Business Business insights centering on South-east Asia's fast-growing economies. Sign Up Sign Up Notably, the company received Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor access in 2012 to invest in Chinese yuan-denominated mainland Chinese stocks and bonds. At the time, fewer than 200 firms received such licences from the China Securities Regulatory Commission. This move attracted a large pool of US institutional investors seeking Asia-centric exposure for their portfolios, drawn to New Silk Road's Asia Landmark Fund and China Fund, New Silk Road's growth trajectory saw an incline since its beginnings, having reached nearly US$2 billion in assets under management in 2021. Goh and Hoong are among the first pioneers in setting up an Asia focused hedge fund. Goh was previously with GIC for 18 years, according to his LinkedIn profile. Hoong graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with an electrical engineering degree in 1990. Following that, he was in a few roles involving public and private market equity research and investment with various global firms, according to the NUS website. After his last role as the head of Hong Kong-China equity products at Deutsche Bank in 2008, he co-founded New Silk Road Investment with Goh. Both are crossing 60 years old, Hoong told Bloomberg. China investment slump Hoong told Bloomberg that the main reason for the shuttering of the fund is that they are opting for a slower pace. However, the fund's struggles also came during a time when China markets went into a slump, with China's widespread regulatory crackdown across sectors such as technology and real estate, and investors flocking to US markets. In 2022, China's benchmark CSI 300 Index tumbled by 22 per cent, with the decline extending into 2023. This affected various China investors and caused many funds to close. The China bear market persisted for a couple of years, but has since rebounded this year. Both the Asia Landmark Fund and the China Fund recorded negative returns for three of the past five years, with slumps of 28 per cent and 19 per cent, respectively, in 2022, according to Bloomberg, citing sources. These effects were clearly felt by New Silk Road, where it scaled back on staff levels in Shanghai, and closed a recently launched South-east Asia fund, said Hoong. The number of staff affected remained undisclosed. The closure of Hoong and Goh's hedge fund was announced on Jul 22, where all remaining capital will be returned to investors and the vehicles will be shuttered, amid a high level of investor redemptions and weak returns. Experts BT spoke to suggested that once a certain level of investor redemptions is hit, it is difficult for hedge funds to build back their capital. New Silk Road is not the only one to have gone through a rocky decline in Asia in the recent few years, though for a mix of other reasons. Another Singapore hedge fund Asia Genesis, for example, in January 2024 faced a significant level of drawdowns, in the light of its long positions in Hong Kong and China collapsing due to China's market rout, and short bets on the Nikkei crushed as Japan stocks surged to a 34-year high that month. The Asia Genesis Macro fund saw drawdowns of 18.8 per cent within the first weeks of January 2024 following its long-short play went wrong. The fund closed all its positions by Jan 18, 2024, and returned money after its losses to investors. What is a hedge fund, and what are some top hedge funds in Singapore? Within Asia-Pacific, Singapore continues to be an attractive centre for alternative and hedge fund managers to set up their regional investment teams, said MAS last year. The regulator noted that more global hedge fund managers are setting up offices here, with more than 250 of such managers as at the end of 2023. Some top hedge fund managers in Singapore include Quantedge Capital and Dymon Asia Capital. Dymon Asia manages over US$3.5 billion, while Quantedge manages more than US$4 billion. Dymon says its fund posted an 8 per cent return through May this year, topping other funds at global peers. Last year, it was up 17 per cent. Another long-running Singapore hedge fund manager is APS Capital Management, with its founder Wong Kok Hoi also considered an early pioneer in the scene. He was previously with GIC and MAS. Hedge funds are private funds actively managed by portfolio managers, and typically are considered higher-risk and requires a higher investment to start. There are many types of hedge funds, with various strategies ranging from long-short, global macro and multi-strategy. They can invest in a variety of assets, including stocks, fixed income, real estate, currencies and futures. The Singapore hedge fund market totalled S$327 billion as at December, according to data from MAS.
