Legally beleagured JPMorgan has bowed out of a potentially lucrative role in the $1 billion Hong Kong listing of a Chinese chemicals company due to the investigation into the US bank’s hiring of princelings, reports the Financial Times.
The bank was one of several institutions working with Tianhe Chemicals towards a listing but decided to end its involvement when an internal risk review noted that the daughter of the company’s chairman had worked at JPMorgan.
Singapore companies say foreign labour curbs are too fast
Two-thirds of businesses polled by KPMG believe the pace of economic restructuring, and in particular, policies to tighten foreign labour inflows, has been “too fast and too furious”, says the Business Times.
And if findings from KPMG’s Pre-Budget 2014 Survey Report are to be believed, companies’ attempts to tackle immediate business concerns (such as rising business costs and the manpower crunch) are stymieing their efforts to innovate.
Three dozen finance chiefs quit after huge S Korean data theft
The alleged theft of 104 million credit card account details by a lone security contractor has left thousands of South Koreans forming long lines in bank branches to cancel their cards, as three dozen financial executives resign in disgrace, reports the Financial Times.
The customer records were stolen from three of South Korea’s major credit card companies over the course of a year beginning in December 2012, the Financial Services Commission said.
Overheated Chinese IPOs put on backburner
Bloomberg reports that seven of the eight Chinese companies that started trading in Shenzhen today were halted for a second time after gains exceeded limits set by the city’s exchange. All seven posted gains of 45% or more by the close.
Private equity to drive next wave of investment in Australian mining
The next round of investment in Australia’s mining industry will be larger and more nimble, and dominated by private buyers and private equity, according to a report in Finance Asia.