Latest news with #PacificCentury
Associated Press
30-07-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Pacific Century Premium Developments Limited announces interim results for six months ended June 30, 2025
2025 Interim Results - Financial Highlights (Figures for the corresponding period in 2024 are shown in brackets) HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach Newswire – 30 July 2025 - Pacific Century Premium Developments Limited ('PCPD', SEHK: 00432) announced its interim results for the six months ended June 30, 2025. The consolidated revenue of PCPD and its subsidiaries (together, the 'Group') amounted to HK$ 736 million, compared to HK$ 545 million for the corresponding period of 2024. The Group's consolidated loss attributable to equity holders of the Company for the first six months of 2025 totalled HK$249 million, compared to a net loss of HK$153 million for the corresponding period last year. Basic loss per share for the six months ended June 30, 2025 was 12.23 Hong Kong cents, compared to a loss per share of 7.52 Hong Kong cents for the corresponding period of 2024. The Board of Directors did not declare an interim dividend for the first half of 2025. Throughout the first half of 2025, the Group continued to build on its growth momentum and delivered a solid set of results. Our operations in Japan were particularly strong, supported in part by robust tourism growth and a relatively weak Japanese Yen. Park Hyatt Niseko, Hanazono, our hospitality business in Niseko, Hokkaido, reported a significant uplift in revenue. During the period, our ski operations remained a standout performer in the region. Earnings from our recreational facilities at the resort, ski lifts, equipment rentals, 'Hanazono EDGE' (a restaurant and entertainment centre) and Niseko International Snowsports School continued to grow steadily year-on-year. We will remain focused on enhancing Niseko Hanazono Resort into a world-class, all-season luxury resort, and we are confident in its ability to deliver long-term value. In Jakarta, our premium commercial building, PCP Jakarta, delivered a steady performance and remained a reliable revenue contributor to the Group. As of June 30, 2025, the office space committed occupancy was 85 %. The gross rental income amounted to HK$100 million for the six months ended June 30, 2025, as with the same period in 2024. As for the development of the project at 3–6 Glenealy, Central, Hong Kong, the construction of its superstructure has been progressing well. The project is scheduled to be completed by early 2026. Mr. Benjamin Lam, PCPD's Deputy Chairman and Group Managing Director, said: 'The year 2025 has been characterised by geopolitical uncertainties and a global economy continuing to adjust to changes. Despite some optimistic projections at the start of the year, the first half has been marked by slower-than-expected economic growth in some developed nations. Despite these headwinds, the global economy has shown encouraging resilience. Inflation in many advanced economies is moderating, and business investment is gradually picking up as confidence improves. With its diversified portfolio and strong business fundamentals, PCPD is well positioned to navigate the evolving landscape and gain its growth momentum. Moving into the second half of the year, we aim to leverage our existing key resources, and maximise value for our stakeholders to achieve sustainable business growth.' Hashtag: #PCPD The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. About PCPD Pacific Century Premium Developments Limited ('PCPD' or the 'Group', SEHK: 00432) is principally engaged in the development and management of premium-grade property and infrastructure projects as well as premium-grade property investments. PCCW Limited ('PCCW', SEHK: 00008) is the single largest shareholder of the Group.
LeMonde
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- LeMonde
In China, the Labubu craze has electrified the toy industry
In the basement of Pacific Century, an office building East of the Sanlitun district in Beijing, a young woman bustled in front of a toy vending machine. Her tote bag overflowed with small blue boxes – 34 in total – each costing 69 yuan (€8.30)and containing a tiny Labubu doll. "I'm buying two more," she told her friend. "She's hooked," her friend sighed. "But I have a one in 12 chance of getting a rare character. I have to keep going." Behind her, other women waited impatiently in line. Their lunch break was almost over. The delivery worker responsible for restocking the machine shrugged: "I come every day, sometimes twice a day and at random times so as not to cause a stir." With its round face and scruffy fur, the figurine resembles Kiki, the Japanese mascot from Bonux laundry detergent barrels in the early 1980s. As with that mascot, you never know which Labubu you will get, and some are rarer than others. This quirky creature sprang from the prolific imagination of Hong Kong illustrator Kasing Lung, who became the signature artist for Pop Mart, a Beijing-based toy maker that has specialized in affordable collectible figurines since 2015. Pop Mart operates 450 of its own stores and 2,300 vending machines across 60 cities in China.
Memri
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Memri
Making Real The New Pivot Toward The Western Hemisphere
Suppose you announced you were pivoting toward a different direction, stopped in mid pivot and wound up right back where you were in the first place? That is what happened with the Obama Administration's much-heralded Pivot to Asia 15 years ago. This meant East Asia and the Pacific (Hillary Clinton wrote about America's coming "Pacific Century") but the Obama people spent a lot of time right back where they started – focused on the Middle East and Europe. Those were the years of the failed nuclear deal with Iran, of the rise of the Islamic State and of #UnitedforUkraine. Today the incoming second Trump Administration talks much of a pivot to the Americas, from Greenland to Argentina. This is a refreshing and much needed refocus and was reinforced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio's first foreign trip, which was to Central America and the Caribbean. [1] President Trump has publicly engaged, at least rhetorically, in the early days of the Administration, on Greenland, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela. In 2001, Colin Powell's and George W. Bush's first foreign junket was to Mexico but that Administration wound up spending most of its time focused on the Middle East and the Global War on Terrorism. Latin America was forgotten. In the early days of this administration, Trump and Rubio find themselves in a familiar place, spending a lot of time and energy on Europe and the Middle East as they try to stamp out interminable wars begun under the previous Democratic government. Can they really pivot – to the Americas and to Asia – as they want and what could they hope to accomplish? The first thing that must be said is that a true pivot away from the old and to new horizons will require ruthless, iron discipline. The American "Empire" is constantly tempted to do too much, to be dragged into fixing whatever becomes the trendy cause, usually far from our shores. Secondly, that discipline will not only require focusing away from regional distractions but focusing toward actual concrete goals that can be launched or achieved in the short to mid-term. Is the policy to be to build a smaller Fortress America (the USA alone) or a bigger Fortress Western Hemisphere, or both? Can a focus be maintained on achieving certainly tangible outcomes rather than talking or wishing them to happen? For example, how can the United States acquire Greenland, what are the practical steps to do so – rather than talking about acquiring Greenland? [2] Some changes can be reversed but take time. Building trust takes time and real diplomacy, restoring commercial ties takes nurturing mutually beneficial relationships. China, for example, has steadily increased its trade and economic investment in Latin America over the past 25 years. While the United States is still the main trading partner of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean Basin, it has lost ground to China in South America. Chinese trade in goods and services (from only $12 billion in 2000 to $450 billion in 2023) and foreign investment in the hemisphere have soared over the past quarter century. China replaced the United States as Brazil's main trading partner in 2009. Chinese savvy has been matched by declines in American manufacturing and investment over those same years. To increase trade, you have to have something to trade with. Reviving American manufacturing and our industrial base, as the Trump Administration wants to do, is a sure way to strengthen economic ties with our neighbors. [3] As far as politics in the hemisphere is concerned, the United States has a golden opportunity to forge constructive ties with regional right-of-center parties. In 1990, left-wing parties in the Americas (the U.S. Democratic Socialists of America became associate members in 2023) organized themselves under the so-called São Paulo Forum (FSP). [4] FSP members range from left-wing democratic parties to the ruling dictatorships in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. In 2020, the right-wing Spanish Vox party launched the Madrid Charter (or Madrid Forum) as an effort to begin to try to counter the influence of the left in the hemisphere. [5] Cooperation with or parallel efforts complimentary to the Madrid Charter makes sense for U.S. foreign policy. And while both Mexico and Brazil currently have left-wing more-or-less democratic governments, the United States faces the challenge of virulently anti-U.S. leftist dictatorial regimes in Havana, Managua, and Caracas – all three allies of Russia, China, and Iran. But they are not the same. The Cuban Communist regime has never been as weak as it is today. If it survives intact for the next four years, that will have been a failure of U.S. foreign policy. While Venezuela is an economic and political basket case and a threat to the U.S. ruled by narco-leftists, it is a relatively large country, a tougher nut to crack. A U.S. effort to radically change the trajectory of the smaller, weaker regimes in Cuba and Nicaragua is overdue. They are the low-hanging fruit of the left in the Americas and ripe for the plucking. If commerce and politics are two key areas in a pivot to the Americas, counter-terrorism should be a third. For too long, Iran and its catspaw Lebanese Hezbollah have had too much room to maneuver in Latin America. [6] U.S. policy should move aggressively to weaken Iran's subversive efforts and to make sure that Hezbollah is uniformly treated in the hemisphere, not just as criminals, but as the terrorist group that it is. [7] Something which should have been logical and relatively easy – a close relationship with those countries and regions closest to us – was made difficult because we weakened ourselves, diluted our internal strength and focused too much and too long on distant foreign misadventures of marginal benefit to us. Time to change, to make the Americas great again. *Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI. He also served as a U.S. diplomat in Guatemala, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. [1] January 26, 2025. [2] accessed March 10, 2025. [3] March 4, 2025. [4] July 17, 2018. [5] October 26, 2020. [7] March 9, 2025.
