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Investment

Fosun offers $1.8 billion for 80% of US insurer Ironshore

Investment company Fosun International (0656.HKG) has offered to buy the remaining 80% of US insurer Ironshore (IRSH.NYSE) for US$1.8 billion, Reuters reported, citing an announcement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Fosun owner Guo Guangchang’s conglomerate is among the most acquisitive and agressive private-sector firms, having previously already launched about US$6 billion worth of deals […]

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Business Practice Employment & Education Investment Tech, Media & Telecom

Alibaba to cap employee head count at current level

Alibaba Group Holding (BABA.NYSE) will not increase its head count by a single person this year, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a transcript of a speech given by Executive Chairman Jack Ma at an internal meeting in Beijing last week. “The more people you have doesn’t mean the better,” Ma said, according to the transcript. […]

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Banking & Finance Business Practice Investment Markets

Off-balance-sheet lending tying banks to China's volatile stock markets

Growing interconnectedness with China’s stock markets has greatly shifted the risk profile of shadow banking even as traditional bank lending accounted for a greater share of the country’s total financing in March, South China Morning Post reported, citing Moody’s Investors Service. “What we are fairly confident about is that securities companies are raising funds through what […]

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Commodities Investment Markets

Slight rebound for Q1 gold demand in China after 25% tumble in 2014

China’s demand for gold rose 1.1% in the first quarter year-on-year to 326.68 metric tons in a slight rebound from the 25% decline in demand seen in 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing China Gold Association president Song Xin. Last year’s tumble in China came amid intensified antigraft policies and a weakening economy and […]

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Investment Tech, Media & Telecom

Apple Q1 iPhone sales in greater China grow 71% to surpass US

Apple (AAPL.NASDAQ) announced Monday that quarterly iPhone sales in greater China has surpassed those in the US for the first time as sales in the former rose 71% to US$16.8 billion, The New York Times reported, citing the company’s first-quarter earnings report. “Everything you look at in China was extremely good,” Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, […]