Singapore Financial News

By Tom Westbrook

Uniqlo Co_ has sued rival retailer Shein over a small shoulder bag the Japanese retailer said was an inferior and unlawful copy of its own hit product touted as the “Mary Poppins bag.”

HDFC Bank Ltd, India’s biggest private sector lender, is seeking to open its first branch in Singapore, signaling its overseas ambitions after sewing up a landmark merger with mortgage financier Housing Development Finance Corp. last year. The bank has applied to the Monetary Authority of Singapore for a banking license and is awaiting approval, according to sources familiar with the matter.

French crypto financial services firm Flowdesk has successfully raised $50 million in a Series B funding round led by Cathay Innovation. The funding round includes participation from Cathay Ledger Fund, Eurazeo, ISAI, Speedinvest, BPI, and Ripple, as per a statement shared with Cryptonews.

Reliance Industries will post its quarterly earnings report card on Friday. The expectations from Reliance Industries' consolidated December quarter performance remains a mixed bag with the Oil to Chemical (O2C) segment likely to see some pressure. The consumer-oriented retail and Jio (telecom segment) may see a steady quarter, and partially offset the weakness in Oil to Chemicals business.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has made it clear that spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs will not be allowed to be listed in Singapore for retail investors.

growth in earnings for the quarter ended December. However, the growth in both topline and bottomline is expected to be in single digits because of a weak show by the oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business. Meanwhile, numbers across parameters are expected to drop sequentially mainly because of the O2C vertical. Consolidated revenue of RIL is likely to rise 5% YoY to Rs 2.31 lakh crore, but fall about 2% sequentially, according to the average of estimates given by nine brokerage firms. Consolidated net profit is expected to grow 9.3% YoY to Rs 17,257 crore, but drop nearly 1% sequentially. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization or EBITDA is expected to increase 4% YoY to Rs 40,030 crore, but fall sharply by 11% sequentially. The toy-to-telecom conglomerate is scheduled to release its earnings after market hours on Friday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday unveiled Commemorative Postage Stamps on Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Mandir and a book of stamps related to Lord Ram worldwide. The stamps feature various components, including the Ram Mandir, Choupai 'Mangal Bhavan Amangal Hari', the Sun, Sarayu River, and sculptures in and around the Temple. The collection comprises six stamps depicting Ram Temple, Lord Ganesh, Lord Hanuman, Jatayu, Kevatraj, and Ma Shabri.

By Stephanie Kelly and Jeslyn Lerh

Investing.com-- Most Asian currencies moved little on Thursday after clocking steep losses in the prior session, while the dollar fell slightly from a one-month high as strong U.S. retail sales data spurred more doubts over early rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

₹108 crore. “We are not interested in ₹108 crore immediately being protected," the ASG emphasized in the Supreme Court. “The judgment has to be ‘stay’ here (sic.) because this will replicate." Offshore funds often route their India investments through jurisdictions like Singapore, Mauritius and Luxembourg.

QCP Capital, a Singapore-based crypto trading firm, has forecasted that Ethereum will outperform Bitcoin in the medium term.

ABG Shipyard Ltd, the Gujarat-based shipbuilder accused in India's biggest bank fraud case, created 27 «paper companies» and used 38 Singapore-based group entities to divert the money borrowed from a consortium of lenders led by the ICICI Bank, the Enforcement Directorate said in its chargesheet filed recently in a Gujarat court. 'Move led to cancellation of shipbuilding contracts' In its court documents, the federal agency that probed the money laundering aspect of the ₹22,842 crore alleged scam said part of the funds was transferred to Singapore and utilised for investments in mutual funds in tax havens. It said that the paper companies were floated only to «facilitate circular transactions» of the misappropriated funds. The central agency alleged that ABG Shipyard's founder-chairman, Rishi Agarwal, was «keenly involved» in the diversion and misappropriation of funds.

If you are (or you work with) a commodities trader in Singapore, you might want to consider joining a commodities trading house instead of a bank.

Uniqlo said Tuesday that it is suing Chinese rival Shein over copycats of a massively popular crossbody pouch dubbed online the "Mary Poppins carryall". Videos of fans praising its deceptively small size have gone viral on social media, with one clip on TikTok of a young woman unpacking numerous large items racking up more than a million views.

Mahindra & Mahindra has told the government there must be a level playing field between domestic and foreign players and local manufacturing must be promoted, a top executive said, as New Delhi seeks to lure carmakers such as Tesla. Mahindra and Tata Motors have pressed Indian officials privately not to lower import taxes of 100% on electric vehicles and protect domestic firms and their foreign investors as the government reviews Tesla's plans to enter the market, Reuters reported last month. Asked about Tesla's entry and New Delhi's planned policy to lower import taxes, Mahindra Managing Director Anish Shah said his company had made representations to Indian officials saying global EV makers must be nudged to invest in India. «It should be a level playing field and investing in India is important,» Shah told Reuters in an interview at the World Economic Forum annual meeting, without referring to Tesla by name. «Our approach is essentially to create a stronger industry in India, and not to be in a situation where manufacturing is done outside India, and India just becomes an importer of products,» he added. India sold 4 million cars last year and just 82,000 of those were EVs, but the nascent segment clocked sales growth of 115% versus the previous year. Mahindra has raised around $400 million from Singapore's Temasek and British International Investment, while private equity firm TPG and Abu Dhabi state holding company ADQ invested $1 billion in 2021 in Tata. Shah said Mahindra has plans to list its EV unit, but not before 2029 «because we need to be able to show significant success in that business.» «For us, electric is the future,» he said. Tesla has proposed setting up an Indian factory but also demanded

By Ankur Banerjee

By Tom Westbrook

In a recent funding round, HashKey Group, the operator of one of Hong Kong’s two licensed crypto exchanges, successfully raised close to $100 million with a valuation of over $1.2 billion.

MUMBAI : Livspace, a new-age home interiors solutions provider backed by private equity firm KKR, is planning to shift its domicile back to India, and list on local stock exchanges. Currently based in Singapore, the firm has initiated internal processes with the aim to go public in 2025, three people in the know of the development said. The company is looking to hit profitability by the end of the current financial year and is eyeing a listing opportunity in 2025, one of the three people cited above said, seeking anonymity.

By Joice Alves and Rae Wee