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One Causeway Bay at Causeway Bay. Alibaba Group Holding and Ant Group agreed to pay US$925 million to buy the top floors in October. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Business

Hong Kong office leasing rebound lifts outlook for 2026, but rents still subdued

Hong Kong’s office sector showed muted signs of life in 2025, although stabilisation will be the dominant theme of 2026.

Exclusive | HKMA teams up with SFC, Insurance Authority to promote fintech over next 5 years

Digital finance in 2026: what to expect as pilots move into real-world adoption

Global Economy

Suspicious bets on Maduro’s removal raise eyebrows as user nets over US$400,000

User set up account on online prediction platform eight days ago and made series of wagers predicting US action against Venezuela.

videocam
Fire rises from a Venezuelan military complex in Caracas on January 3, after US forces captured the country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro. Photo: AFP
Fire rises from a Venezuelan military complex in Caracas on January 3, after US forces captured the country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro. Photo: AFP

Banking & Finance

Property industry an enemy within for Beijing’s economic targets

Ripple effect from further downturn would threaten economic growth and put more developers, workers and even banks at risk, analysts warn.

China Business

Turning point: China doubles IPOs in 2025 amid eased curbs to boost tech push

CSRC reforms revive fundraising momentum with 115 firms generating US$18.3 billion across mainland China’s exchanges.

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China EVs

Weak year-end sales cloud China’s EV outlook, keeping price-war fears alive

A weaker-than-expected year-end rush and falling deliveries at major brands are stoking fears of another price war.

BYD electric cars await shipment to Brazil at Taicang Port in Suzhou in China’s eastern Jiangsu province. Photo: AFP
BYD electric cars await shipment to Brazil at Taicang Port in Suzhou in China’s eastern Jiangsu province. Photo: AFP

Hong Kong & China

Hong Kong property market hits 4-year high in 2025 as sales top US$79 billion

December was the 10th consecutive month where new home transactions exceeded 1,500, the first time the trend was seen in more than 21 years.

Tech War

China takes confident strides to develop more AI innovation in 2026

‘China’s tech innovation is poised for policy-driven growth in 2026, with AI placed at the centre of the country’s economic agenda,’ NYU’s Winston Ma says.

Banking & Finance

More issuers turn to Dubai listings as yuan bonds gain traction in Middle East

Dubai’s dim sum bond momentum points to investor confidence in China and diversification from the US dollar, says regulator.

Financial centres like Dubai are the key centrepoints of the quickly growing corridor between China and the Middle East, according to the Dubai Financial Services Authority. Photo: AFP

Tech Trends

China’s top contract chipmakers pursue acquisitions amid self-sufficiency drive

Hua Hong Semiconductor set to close a US$1.2 billion deal, days after SMIC says it will take full control of a subsidiary for US$5.8 billion.

Big-ticket acquisitions by Hua Hong Semiconductor and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp signal a fresh round of consolidation in the country’s chip industry. Photo: Shutterstock
Big-ticket acquisitions by Hua Hong Semiconductor and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp signal a fresh round of consolidation in the country’s chip industry. Photo: Shutterstock

Business

Hong Kong mortgage recovery holds in 2025 despite end-of-year wobble

Hong Kong mortgage applications and approvals fell in November, but year-to-date volumes still point to a 2025 recovery.

China EVs

China’s EV sector doubles down on discounts and cheap financing as growth cools

Carmakers are shifting from straight price cuts to subsidised loans and feature-packed models, as China’s EV price war drags on.

Markets

Hong Kong’s IPO dominance in 2025 set to carry on into new year

The city’s exchange secures global bragging rights after 114 companies raised US$37.22 billion on the main board in 2025, according to LSEG.

Gong ceremonies for new listings on the Hong Kong stock exchange, such as this one on December 30, 2025, are expected to occur frequently in 2026. Photo: Sun Yeung

Business

CityU joins ranks of schools snapping up Hong Kong offices

University buys four-storey office block in Kowloon Tong for US$252 million from Singapore-based Mapletree.

Festival Walk’s low-rise office building offers about 214,000 sq ft of space. Photo: Handout
Festival Walk’s low-rise office building offers about 214,000 sq ft of space. Photo: Handout

Semiconductors

Baidu spin-off Kunlunxin joins wave of Chinese semiconductor IPOs in Hong Kong

Last year, 20 Chinese semiconductor IPOs raised over 45 billion yuan (US$6.4 billion), with six of them listing in December.

Banking & Finance

Shares in Chinese GPU start-up Biren soar in Hong Kong listing

Shares leap 82 per cent in debut after retail investors’ demand exceeds supply by 2,347 times.

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China Business

From hope to hard numbers: China stocks will need profits to boost the bull run

Chinese shares surged in 2025 on a confidence-led re-rating – strategists now say the next leg in 2026 will hinge on an earnings uplift.

Earnings, and not valuations, will be the main booster for China’s equities in the year ahead. Illustration: Henry Wong
Earnings, and not valuations, will be the main booster for China’s equities in the year ahead. Illustration: Henry Wong

China Business

Are Chinese biotechs what the doctor ordered as Big Pharma faces ‘patent cliff’?

US drug makers are racing to plug looming ‘patent cliff’ revenue gaps – and increasingly they are turning to China biotechs.

Tech Trends

Sea change: China narrows AI gap with US 3 years after ChatGPT shock

The turning point came when DeepSeek released its V3 and R1 models, which were on par with OpenAI’s GPT and Meta’s Llama models at the time.

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Banking & Finance

Exclusive | Meet the Illinois farmer sowing the seeds of the world’s biggest IPOs of 2026

Jeff Rowe, a fifth-generation Illinois farmer, runs a Chinese-owned Swiss company in Basel that is aiming for one of the world’s largest IPOs in Hong Kong, due in 2026.

Jeff Rowe, the CEO of Syngenta, at his family farm in the US state of Illinois on September 30, 2025. Photo: Anthony Collins/Handout
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OPINION
Nicholas Spiro

Macroscope | What to expect from Chinese stocks in 2026

Nicholas Spiro
Nicholas Spiro

The View | How AI helped Asia’s real estate sector pass the tariff stress test

Nicholas Spiro
Jean Tirole

Opinion | To harness crypto ingenuity, financial threat must first be neutralised

Jean Tirole
Nicholas Spiro

Macroscope | Why Wall Street remains bullish on China amid economic slowdown

Nicholas Spiro
Hiba Malik

Opinion | How China is cementing its central role as the architect of green tech

Hiba Malik
Ma Jun,Sean Kidney

Opinion | How yuan internationalisation is helping to close the climate finance gap

Ma Jun
Sean Kidney
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MULTIMEDIA
Video

Pony.ai set to further open China’s autonomous-driving frontier

Pony.ai
07:39
Video

What’s behind HSBC’s privatisation of Hang Seng Bank?

HAng Seng
04:37
Video

Taiwan firm creates clothing from banana waste

Banana
01:00
Video

Gold scams in China and changing global politics

Wire
08:22
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