WORLDWIDE: HEADLINES
Alibaba overhauls e-commerce businesses, appoints new CFO
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK) said on Monday it was reorganising its international and domestic e-commerce businesses and would appoint a new chief financial officer.
The changes come as Alibaba faces headwinds on multiple fronts, including increased competition, a slowing economy and a regulatory crackdown.
Alibaba said it would form two new units to house its main e-commerce businesses – international digital commerce and China digital commerce, in a bid to become more agile and accelerate growth.
The international digital commerce unit will house Alibaba’s overseas consumer-facing and wholesale businesses, and include AliExpress, Alibaba.com and Lazada. The unit will be headed by Jiang Fan, whose had been president of the Taobao and Tmall marketplaces.
Alibaba will house its domestic commerce businesses in the China digital commerce unit which be led by Trudy Dai, a founding member of Alibaba, it said.
The company’s deputy chief financial officer, Toby Xu, will succeed Maggie Wu as the company’s chief financial officer from April, it said, describing his appointment as part of the company’s leadership succession plan.
Xu joined Alibaba from PWC three years ago and was appointed deputy CFO in July 2019.
Wu, who helped lead three Alibaba-related company public listings as CFO, will continue to serve as an executive director on Alibaba’s board.
The e-commerce giant’s Hong Kong-listed shares slid 8% in early morning trade, tracking Friday declines made in the United States. U.S.-listed shares of Chinese firms tumbled on concerns about stricter regulatory scrutiny at home in the wake of plans by Didi Global Inc (DIDI.N) to delist from the New York Stock Exchange.
Full coverage: REUTERS
China Evergrande shares hit 11-year low after firm says no guarantee it can meet repayments
Shares of China Evergrande Group (3333.HK) tumbled 12% to an 11-year low on Monday after the firm said there was no guarantee it would have enough funds to meet debt repayments, prompting Chinese authorities to summon its chairman.
The shares fell as a 30-day grace period on a coupon payment of $82.5 million due on Nov. 6 comes to an end on Monday.
Evergrande, once China’s top-selling developer, is grappling with more than $300 billion in liabilities. A collapse could send shockwaves through the country’s property sector and beyond.
In a filing late on Friday, Evergrande, the world’s most indebted developer, also said it had received a demand from creditors to pay about $260 million.
That prompted the government of Guangdong province, where the company is based, to summon Evergrande Chairman Hui Ka Yan, and it later said in a statement it would send a working group to the developer at Evergrande’s request to oversee risk management, strengthen internal controls and maintain normal operations.
In a series of apparently coordinated statements late in the evening, China’s central bank, banking and insurance regulator and its securities regulator sought to reassure the market that any risks to the broader property sector could be contained.
Short-term risks caused by a single real estate firm will not undermine market fundraising in the medium and long term, the People’s Bank of China said, adding that housing sales, land purchases and financing “have already returned to normal in China”.
Full coverage: REUTERS
WORLDWIDE: FINANCE/MARKETS
Asia lags as U.S., Euro stock futures rally
Asian share markets lagged a bounce in U.S. and European futures on Monday, while bonds surrendered some of their recent gains and oil rallied as Saudi Arabia lifted its crude prices.
November’s mixed U.S. jobs report did little to shake market expectations of a more aggressive tightening by the Federal Reserve, leaving a week to wait for a consumer price report that could make the case for an early tapering.
Omicron remained a concern as the variant spread to about one-third of U.S. states, though there were reports from South Africa that cases there only had mild symptoms.
Early trade was cautious as MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan(.MIAPJ0000PUS) inched down 0.4%.
Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) eased 0.6%, even as the government considered raising its economic growth forecast to account for a record $490 billion stimulus package. read more
Chinese blue chips (.CSI300) managed a 0.7% gain after state media quoted Premier Li Keqiang as saying Beijing will cut banks’ reserve requirement ratios (RRR) “in a timely way”.
Shares of embattled property developer China Evergrande Group (3333.HK) slid 11% after saying there was no guarantee it would have enough funds to meet debt repayments.
Wall Street was looking to rally after Friday’s late slide, with S&P 500 futures adding 0.4% and Nasdaq futures 0.1%. EUROSTOXX 50 futures firmed 1.0% and FTSE futures 0.7%.
While headline U.S. payrolls had underwhelmed in November, the survey of households was far stronger with a 1.1 million jump in jobs taking unemployment down to 4.2%.
Full coverage: REUTERS
Oil gains more than $1/bbl after Saudi price hike
Oil prices rose by more than $1 a barrel on Monday after top exporter Saudi Arabia raised prices for its crude sold to Asia and the United States, and as indirect U.S.-Iran talks on reviving a nuclear deal appeared to hit an impasse.
Brent crude futures for February gained $1.69, or 2.4%, to $71.57 a barrel by 0033 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for January were at $67.92 a barrel, up $1.66, or 2.5%.
On Sunday, Saudi Arabia raised January official selling prices for all crude grades sold to Asia and the United States by up to 80 cents from the previous month.
The price hikes were implemented despite a decision last week by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, to continue increasing supplies by 400,000 barrels per day in January.
Prices were also buoyed by diminishing prospects of a rise in Iranian oil exports after indirect U.S.-Iranian talks on saving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal broke off last week. European officials voiced dismay on Friday at sweeping demands by Iran’s new, hardline government. The talks are expected to resume middle of this week.
Both benchmarks rebounded after falling last week for their sixth week in a row for the first time since November 2018 on concerns that the new coronavirus variant Omicron could impact global economic growth and fuel demand.
In another sign of the turmoil unleashed by the ever-changing pandemic, the head of International Monetary Fund said the global lender is likely to lower its global economic growth estimates because of the new variant.
Full coverage: REUTERS
Antipodeans battle to stem Omicron slide
Riskier currencies fought for a foothold on Monday against a dollar, buoyed by uncertainty around the Omicron variant and the expectation of more hot U.S. inflation data putting upward pressure on interest rates.
Also smarting from a big drop, the Antipodeans led an attempted bounce in early Asia trade as the mood was helped by preliminary observations from South Africa suggesting Omicron patients had relatively mild symptoms.
The Aussie rose 0.3% to $0.7016, scraping itself up from a 13-month low. The kiwi rose 0.1% to $0.6750.
The safe haven yen also eased 0.1% on Monday to 113.00 per dollar with the cautiously brighter mood, though analysts expect a bumpy ride ahead with trade most likely sensitive to Omicron news and U.S. inflation data on Friday.
The euro was last stable at $1.1303 and sterling steadied at $1.3232.
“Perhaps we should be looking for volatility rather than a trend,” said analysts at ANZ Bank. Volatility gauges for the battered Aussie and kiwi on Friday hit their highest in about eight months as two currencies sank.
Full coverage: REUTERS
