Weekly Market Update - 27 February 2023

Missing In China

China Renaissance said Chairman Bao Fan is assisting Chinese authorities in an unspecified investigation, offering the first public information about the banker’s whereabouts since he disappeared just over a week ago. In a stock exchange statement, the firm suggested it hadn’t been in touch with Bao and didn’t know where he was. Bao’s abrupt disappearance has unnerved China’s business elite and fanned speculation that the nation’s finance industry is set to face increased scrutiny.

Source: Bloomberg

Asia’s Financial Hub

Hong Kong’s goal to reclaim its spot as Asia’s premier financial hub is being tested by a shortage of workers in the air industry after years of closed borders. Airlines are struggling to hire staff locally, prompting carriers to put off resuming routes shuttered during the pandemic. Qantas has delayed the restart of flights with Melbourne by three months to mid-June, while manpower constraints are making it tough for local start-up Greater Bay Airlines to add flights from Hong Kong. As of January, air traffic movement was just 44% of the level four years earlier, compared with 77% in Singapore.

Source: Bloomberg

Profit Surge

Alibaba’s profit surged a better-than-anticipated 69% after reining in spending and narrowing losses abroad, in a bid to make up for anemic growth in Covid-struck China. The bottom-line gains partly reflect deep cost cuts at the company, which reduced its workforce by about 19,000 employees last year. Elsewhere, Southeast Asian ride-hailing and food-delivery provider Grab brought forward its profitability target to the final quarter of 2023, from the second half of 2024, after posting a narrower quarterly loss, than expected.

Source: Bloomberg