The Korea Herald

Alibaba to spend $692m to partner with Intime Retail

Mar 31, 2014

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will invest about $692 million in Intime Retail Group Co., an owner of department stores and supermarkets, as China’s biggest e-commerce operator integrates online and offline shopping. Alibaba will buy 220.5 million shares at HK$7.5335 apiece, for a total of HK$1.7 billion ($219 million), and will also subscribe to a HK$3.7 billion convertible bond, the companies said in separate statements Monday. The equity stake is equivalent to about 9.9 percent of the enlarged co
Dashed Ikea dreams in Ukraine show decades lost to corruption

Mar 31, 2014

Almost half of Ukrainians say they desire Ikea products more than any other global brand, yet the largest home-furnishings retailer hasn’t been able to crack the market in a decade of trying. The reason: it won’t pay a bribe. As Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s government rushes to fend off Russia’s expansion and raise the $35 billion it says it needs to avoid default, the country of 45 million faces the more basic problem of rampant graft that no leader has been able to tackle in 23 years of
Latin America more vulnerable than pre-2008 crisis, IDB says

Mar 31, 2014

Latin America’s vulnerability to external shocks is greater today than before the 2008 financial crisis because governments have increased spending and companies have taken on more foreign debt to fuel growth, the Inter-American Development Bank said. “History teaches that exits from extremely low U.S. interest rates may be smooth or bumpy,” the IDB said in a report released Sunday at its annual meeting in Costa do Sauipe, Brazil. “Changes to the expected path of short-term U.S. interest rates c
Abe bliss broken as foreigners flee Topix in biggest drop

Mar 31, 2014

In just one quarter, the developed world’s biggest stock rally has given way to its worst slump. Japan’s Topix index, up 51 percent last year, has fallen 8.9 percent in the three months since, almost twice as much as the next-worst market, Hong Kong. The retreat is emboldening short sellers, whose trades made up as much as 36 percent of daily Tokyo Stock Exchange volume this month. Foreign investors sold 975 billion yen ($9.5 billion) of Japanese shares in one week in March, the most since the c
Japan’s thrifty consumers wary ahead of sales tax hike

Mar 31, 2014

TOKYO (AP) ― Buy now or pay more later: Japanese retailers are luring customers with promises of steep discounts ahead of a sales tax hike Tuesday that economists expect to slow but not derail the recovery of the world’s third-largest economy. It’s a gamble Japan cannot afford to take, given its soaring public debt.Japan’s sales tax will rise from 5 percent to 8 percent. It is the first such increase since 1997, when the combination of the tax hike, an unwinding of debt from Japan’s bubble econo
GM recalls 971,000 more cars

Mar 30, 2014

DETROIT (AP) ― General Motors is boosting by 971,000 the number of small cars being recalled worldwide for a defective ignition switch, saying cars from the model years 2008-2011 may have gotten the part as a replacement. The latest move brings the total number of cars affected to 2.6 million. The questionable handling of the problem, including GM’s admission that it knew the switches were possibly defective as early as 2001, has embarrassed the nation’s largest automaker. The recalls ― which ar
Another year, another $1 for Google co-founders

Mar 30, 2014

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Google paid co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin their customary $1 salaries last year while Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt’s compensation more than doubled to $19.3 million.Most of Schmidt’s raise stemmed from stock grants valued at $11.4 million. Google issued them to make up for an administrative error in the handling of another large award given to Schmidt in February 2011, according to regulatory documents filed Friday.If not for the mix-up, Schmidt’s pay package las
New silk road links China, Europe

Mar 30, 2014

FRANKFURT (AFP) ― One of the world’s longest railways ― a “modern-day silk road” ― covers some 11,000 kilometers en route from the Chinesee megacity of Chongqing to Duisburg, a key commercial hub in western Germany.On Saturday, as part of his landmark visit to Germany, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the last stop on the “Yuxinou” rail line, an industrial feat that promises to revolutionize transport between Europe and Asia.Duisburg is a steel-making town of around half a million on the con
ECB to hold fire on rates despite slow inflation

Mar 30, 2014

FRANKFURT (AFP) ― The European Central Bank is not expected to cut its key interest rates this week, even though inflation in the euro area continues to slow, analysts said. The ECB has held eurozone borrowing costs at their current all-time lows since November.But no further monetary easing appears to be on the cards at the bank’s next meeting on Thursday just yet, given recent data suggesting the region’s economy is in a tentative recovery, central bank watchers said. At the moment, deflation
Cuban lawmakers OK foreign investment law

Mar 30, 2014

HAVANA (AP) ― Cuban lawmakers on Saturday approved a law aimed at making Cuba more attractive to foreign investors, a measure seen as vital for the island’s struggling economy. Meeting in an extraordinary session, parliament replaced a 1995 foreign investment law that has lured less overseas capital than the island’s Communist leaders had hoped. Cuba’s GDP expanded 2.7 percent last year, below targets and weak for a developing nation. Government officials say the economy needs 5 to 7 percent ann
New Zealand announces energy company sale

Mar 28, 2014

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- New Zealand is closing the books on a contentious, multibillion dollar program of asset sales.The government announced on Friday it would sell a minority stake in power company Genesis Energy for 736 million New Zealand dollars ($638 million). The company will list on the New Zealand stock market on April 17.Including Genesis, New Zealand has sold 49 percent stakes in three power companies and a 20 percent stake in Air New Zealand over the past year, raising a tot
Citi among five banks to fail Fed’s stress test

Mar 27, 2014

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― The Federal Reserve approved the capital plans of 25 major U.S. banks after stress tests Wednesday, but turned down those of five others, including Citigroup’s.The Fed said four of the five ― Citi, HSBC North America, RBS Citizens Financial and Santander Holdings USA ― had “qualitative” shortfalls in their capital foundations, while the fifth, Zions Bancorporation, had failed the stress test with its basic capital ratio falling under the minimum.The objection means the five ca
WB warns on Russian economy

Mar 27, 2014

MOSCOW (AFP) ― Russia’s economy could contract by up to 1.8 percent this year because of the crisis in Ukraine, the World Bank said Wednesday.The estimate amounts to one of the starkest warnings yet of the potential economic risks for President Vladimir Putin from his intervention in Crimea.The Russian economy was already slowing sharply before the crisis over Ukraine, with analysts saying that Putin’s failure to enact structural reforms was having a direct negative impact on growth rates.The Wo
China, France sign $25b business deals

Mar 27, 2014

PARIS (AFP) ― Beijing and Paris signed scores of deals Wednesday worth 18 billion euros ($25 billion) on the second day of a lavish state visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, in what President Francois Hollande said would bring much-needed growth.Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan have been given VIP treatment on a nostalgia-tinted trip to France marking the 50th year of full diplomatic ties between the two countries ― a visit due to culminate with a concert at the Versailles chateau on Thursday.The pow
Bitcoin is property, not currency, in tax system

Mar 26, 2014

The U.S. government will treat Bitcoin as property for tax purposes, applying rules it uses to govern stocks and barter transactions, the Internal Revenue Service said in its first substantive ruling on the issue. Tuesday’s IRS guidance will provide certainty for Bitcoin investors, along with income-tax liability that wasn’t specified before. Purchasing a $2 cup of coffee with Bitcoins bought for $1 would trigger $1 in capital gains for the coffee drinker and $2 of gross income for the coffee sh