Wanda was once seen as one of the few high-quality Chinese issuers in the junk-bond market thanks to its focus on commercial real estate, as well as its asset-light property-management business.

L’Occitane’s billionaire owner Reinold Geiger and Blackstone are nearing a deal to take the US$5.6 billion skincare company private, people familiar said. The stock is halted in Hong Kong pending an announcement.

HSBC is exploring the sale of various business units in Germany, according to people familiar with the matter. This could add to its exits from Canada, France and Brazil in recent years.

Switzerland’s biggest lender expects Asia to be its future growth engine after the acquisition of rival Credit Suisse last year expanded its footprint and client assets in the region, says CEO.

Chinese conglomerate Fosun International is rapidly offloading assets as it looks to lower debt and concentrate on sustainable businesses

Trump Media & Technology Group – acquired on Monday by a blank-check company called Digital World Acquisition – runs the social media platform Truth Social.

While PE firms operating in Asia are confident in their core business, they are eyeing alternative assets such as private credit and infrastructure to generate alpha, executives say at the Milken Institute symposium.

Japan overtook China as the biggest private equity market in Asia-Pacific last year, becoming the only country to see an increase in deal activity, according to Bain & Company.

Microsoft will pay US$620 million to license Inflection’s AI models and around US$30 million for waiving any legal rights related to its mass hiring of the start-up’s employees.

Zhang, who left Alibaba last September, will focus on mergers and acquisitions as managing partner at Firstred Capital.

Chinese companies seeking to expand overseas and Asian SMEs with ESG potential hold a lot of potential for private credit providers, ADM Capital founder Christopher Botsford says.

Fosun Tourism Group, the leisure and tourism unit of Chinese conglomerate Fosun International, is courting both domestic and international investors in a move that is in line with its asset-light strategy.

M&A activity in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to bounce back by around 10 per cent in the second half of this year after a lacklustre 2023, with India and Japan likely to emerge as winners, EY’s Yew-Poh Mak tells the Post.

Chinese investors sold US$31.7 billion of US commercial real estate between 2019 and last year, 15 times more than what they acquired during the same period, according to MSCI Real Assets.

GSR Ventures’ Allen Zhu sees the current investor interest generated by artificial intelligence start-ups that are building large language models as based on a ‘fear of missing out’.

Fosun Tourism Group, the leisure and tourism unit of Fosun International, said on Wednesday that it is “financially sound”, amid reports that its parent firm is mulling the sale of a stake in the luxury resort to cope with debt.

With Southeast Asian aviation experiencing a ‘purple patch’, the Malaysia-based carrier is set to witness its ‘best ever period’, founder Tony Fernandes said. ‘I’ve never been this bullish before’.

A consortium led by state-owned Sinopharm has revived a take-private bid for China-TCM, the Hong-Kong-listed drug maker said on Wednesday, valuing it at US$2.96 billion.

Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li Tzar-kai will retain control of Hong Kong-based insurer FWD Group amid speculation about a potential stake sale. A stock offering will be considered at an opportune time, its major shareholder says.

‘Conditions precedent to closing of the transaction were not satisfied,’ CK Hutchison says in exchange filing. The deal, which was announced last May, had set an enterprise value for the joint venture of US$3.7 billion.

Link Reit, which bought a 50 per cent interest in Qibao Vanke Plaza in April 2021, plans to acquire the remaining 50 per cent stake from the indebted Chinese developer.

The family of Henry Cheng, Hong Kong’s third-richest person, wants to replace CEO Peter Lau with Colin Currie and also appoint two of Henry’s children, Sonia and Christopher, as non-executive directors.

Douyu and Huya say they have no plans to merge after a failed attempt in 2020, but they are collaborating as Tencent prepares to allow its top games back on rival platform Douyin.

Chinese social media and gaming giant Tencent Holdings has acquired a controlling stake in a 15-year-old local video game studio, a move that fits with the company’s revenue diversification strategy.

Global and domestic private-equity investors are making a comeback to the Chinese M&A market following three straight years of decline, as they look to profit from an economic recovery, Bain & Co says.

TikTok owner ByteDance has confirmed that it is in talks with multiple potential buyers for its video game operations, including Tencent Holdings, the world’s biggest gaming company by revenue.

Cancelling the YY Live acquisition is expected to help Baidu put more teeth into its artificial intelligence-centric business and product strategy.

Baidu says its bid to buy Joyy’s YY Live has expired three years after it was unveiled because regulators did not approve the transaction.

The Public Investment Fund was the world’s most active sovereign investor last year, deploying US$31.6 billion in 2023 versus US$20.7 billion the previous year, according to research consultancy Global SWF