Pacific Perspectives
Lululemon’s latest struggle: slowing sales in key China market
New York/Shanghai | Lululemon is struggling with slowing sales in China, a market that has helped the company offset quality problems, unpopular designs and an angry founder – until now. Wall Street analysts say the China slowdown may…
Big investors commit billions to private credit despite turmoil
London/New York | Large investors are committing billions of dollars to private credit funds as big institutions seek to profit from an exodus of smaller retail clients. North American direct lending funds that seek to attract…
How the great wealth transfer is rewriting the investment playbook
ust months before he died last year aged 98, Goh Cheng Liang, one of Singapore’s richest men, made six of his grandchildren billionaires. The Nippon Paint tycoon, who built his business empire from a single…
Housing downturn to lift the ASX, but bank risks still loom
If history is any guide, Australia’s sharemarket is set to be an unexpected winner from the housing market slump, with falling property prices linked to higher returns on the local bourse over the past 40…
IFM wins more than 60pc of Atlas as takeover bid nears finish line
IFM Investors has secured more than 60 per cent ownership of Atlas Arteria as its $7.4 billion hostile takeover bid draws to a close and the global investment group prepares to overhaul the toll road…
Australia tops inflation rankings among all major developed economies
Australia has become an international inflation outlier, with economists arguing the Reserve Bank has not done enough to bring price pressures under control or offset the inflationary effect of elevated state and federal government spending.…
US clean power prices to soar as AI demand clashes with subsidy cuts
New York | US companies are facing a sharp increase in green energy costs as the Trump administration halts renewable tax credits at the same time as cash-rich data centres are snapping up the available supply.…
No rate cuts until 2027 as a fourth rise looms, say economists
Economists have all but ruled out an interest rate cut from the Reserve Bank of Australia before well into next year, while the chance of another rate increase remains a line-ball call as the central…
ASX to fall; Genesis launches $5.6b Vault bid, tops Regis offer
Australian shares started the week lower as losses in financials and consumer staples sectors offset broad gains in energy and technology. The S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 20.20 points, or by 0.2 per cent, to…
Microsoft strikes its first Australian AI media deal to boost Copilot
US tech titan Microsoft has inked the first deal of its kind in Australia, paying a media company to access news articles that will inform its Copilot artificial intelligence platform, in a multimillion-dollar boost for…