Markets, business, and economic intelligence for Southeast Asia
SOUTHEAST ASIA EDITIONCorporate deals, leadership changes, and the companies moving markets worldwide.
Katsuya Nakanishi, chief of Mitsubishi Corp, argues that a more volatile world does not just threaten his sprawling trading house, it plays to what it does best. He points to scenario planning, a renewed push into AI driven analysis, and a record profit target as evidence the strategy is working.
Tim ·
SK Hynix is putting real money behind its own stock, unveiling a 40 trillion won buyback program worth about $28.6 billion and lifting its shareholder return target past half of free cash flow. The move follows a record quarter and signals confidence that the AI driven memory boom has room to run.
Tim ·
CK Hutchison and CK Asset delivered strong first-half earnings even as the geopolitics of a blocked global ports sale hung over them. The Hong Kong group says it was robbed of its Panama assets, and it is now sitting on cash it wants to spend, a study in how a family conglomerate operates between Washington and Beijing.
Tim ·
South Korea has become the world's second-largest beauty exporter without most of its hit products carrying a Korean brand name. The engine is a set of contract manufacturers, led by names like Kolmar and Cosmax, that play the same role in cosmetics that TSMC plays in chips, and the model holds lessons for Southeast Asia.
Tim ·
A net profit of 3.7 billion yen is a thin result, but it is Nissan's first quarterly profit in two years and enough for the carmaker to keep its promise of a full-year return to the black. For a company deep in restructuring, the number matters less than the direction, and Southeast Asia is watching closely.
Tim ·
At Global Partners, young Japanese workers start the day screaming sales targets in a circle, welcome being scolded, and call the office culture a cure for the quiet disengagement spreading through their generation. The backlash is loud, but the experiment says something real about work across Asia.
Tim ·
