Dutch asset management firm Robeco is planning to expand its presence in Hong Kong to ride the robust wave of wealth creation in the Asia-Pacific region, CEO Karin van Baardwijk said this week. The Rotterdam-headquartered firm, which had client assets totalling US$464 billion in June, would move into a bigger office “very soon”, van Baardwijk said in an interview. She said Asia was one of “the fastest-growing” wealth markets and Hong Kong had demonstrated its “enduring role as a genuinely global...

China’s state intervention in the struggling market accelerated this week, even before the US midterm results gave global markets a jolt. Meanwhile, global executives gathered in Hong Kong to discuss issues ranging from the AI trade to asset diversification and wealth management, amid the city’s better-than-expected quarterly economic expansion. Below are key figures catching market attention this week: Over 300 global executives gathered in Hong Kong The Global Financial Leaders’ Investment...

From providing loans to businesses to acquiring stakes in local companies, Maharlika Investment Corp. (MIC) -- which manages the Philippine sovereign wealth fund -- has deployed its capital across various sectors of the economy.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said that while there were some gains in the job market, more opportunities are needed after unemployment rate uptick.

Hong Kong’s property market is bucking a wider shift towards selling across Asia-Pacific, with three-quarters of market professionals reporting stronger buying intentions among their clients, even as rising borrowing costs are making investors across the region more cautious. About 75 per cent of respondents in Hong Kong reported stronger buying intentions in the third quarter, up from 71 per cent in the first quarter, making the city an outlier in a region where more investors are looking to...

MANILA, Philippines — Consumer and civil society groups on Thursday challenged business organizations to substantiate warnings that worsening Philippine-China relations could cost millions of Filipino jobs, cautioning against using economic fears to discourage the country from defending its sovereignty. CitizenWatch, Konsyumer At Mamamayan (KM), Bantay Konsyumer, Kuryente, Kalsada (BK3) and Democracy Watch issued separate statements

MANILA, Philippines — Inflation sizzled to its hottest level in more than three years in October, driven by higher transport fares, rising energy costs and more expensive rice. The Philippine Statistics Authority reported on Thursday that the consumer price index rose 7.8 percent from a year earlier. This marked the fastest pace since February 2023,

Hong Kong’s Exchange Fund, the war chest used to defend the local currency, reported a 74 per cent tumble in third-quarter earnings amid pervasive market uncertainty, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said on Friday. Earnings totalled HK$18.6 billion (US$2.4 billion) in the quarter, plunging from HK$70.8 billion a year earlier. For the first nine months of 2026, total earnings slid 39.6 per cent from a year earlier to HK$171.9 billion. The Exchange Fund’s Hong Kong equities portfolio...

Philippine manufacturing growth quickened for the second straight month in September, driven by faster output growth in petroleum products, basic metals, and transport equipment, government data released on Friday showed.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), the operator of Asia’s third-largest stock market, has reported its first year-on-year decline in quarterly profit in over two years amid a slowdown in market turnover, with profits falling 10 per cent compared with the previous quarter. Net profit for the three months to September fell 1 per cent year on year to HK$4.859 billion (US$620 million), or HK$3.84 per share, missing analysts’ estimates of HK$5 billion, according to an exchange filing on...

South Korean and other Asian technology markets suffered a severe sell-off on Friday, 6 November, following Wall Street's largest technology-led decline in more than a year.

Because Asian tech economies host the core manufacturing backbone for global AI hardware, the region has borne the brunt of the global sell-off:

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine peso extended its rally on Thursday, strengthening to the 62-per-dollar level as a sweeping Democratic victory in the US midterm elections sent the greenback, oil prices and Treasury yields lower. Philippine shares also ended higher, buoyed by optimism over a possible end to the war in the Middle East. READ:

MANILA, Philippines — Maharlika Investment Corp. (MIC), the manager of the Philippines’ sovereign wealth fund, plans to invest as much as P4 billion in the coming months as it expands its portfolio across key sectors of the economy, its top official said. At a press conference on Thursday, MIC President and CEO Rafael Jose Consing Jr.

MANILA, Philippines — Visitor arrivals from China jumped nearly 70 percent this year, a rebound the Department of Tourism (DOT) largely attributes to the 14-day visa-free entry arrangement for Chinese nationals, which it hopes to extend before its expiration in 2027. Latest DOT data showed that arrivals from China reached 394,394 from Jan. 1 to

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines plans to introduce a technology corridor to attract investments across the “super intelligence” value chain, from the minerals that power these advanced technologies to the data centers that support them. Dubbed the Super Intelligence, Knowledge and Advanced Technology Corridor (Sikat), the project is envisioned to stretch from Batangas to Mindanao and

MANILA, Philippines — Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) suffered from weaker property development, with its net income in the first nine months slipping by 18 percent to P17.5 billion from a year ago’s P21.4 billion. The property giant said its total revenues from January to September reached P109.2 billion, down 10 percent from the previous P121.8

MANILA, Philippines — Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) saw its earnings dip in the first nine months of 2026, weighed down by weaker trading gains, higher provisions and operating costs. The group said Thursday its net income attributable to equity holders of the parent company eased down by 2.6 percent to P36.33 billion from

MANILA, Philippines — Maynilad Water Services Inc. (Maynilad) is bullish about keeping its strong financial position in 2027 despite the threat of super El Niño, as the group fortifies its network now while giving an additional P27.5-billion capital boost for next year. At a media briefing, chief financial officer Ricardo Delos Reyes said Maynilad has “no

MANILA, Philippines — Century Pacific Food remained optimistic about ending the year strong despite earthquake-related losses dragging down its net income in the first three quarters. On Thursday, the company said its net profit after tax reached P5.15 billion in the January-to-September period, down 11 percent from P5.78 billion a year ago. READ: Century Pacific

MANILA, Philippines — When business leaders talk about declining top-line performance, they usually point to familiar targets: high interest rates, persistent inflation, rising supply chain costs or aggressive new competitors. They operate on the comfortable assumption that the customer remains the same, merely tightening their belt until economic conditions improve. That is a dangerous assumption. What

MANILA, Philippines — TikTok removed more than 3.36 million videos in the Philippines for violating its community guidelines in the second quarter of 2026, as the platform expands safeguards against content and counterfeit risks facing advertisers and sellers. Citing its latest Community Guidelines Enforcement Report, TikTok said 99.6 percent of the Philippine takedowns were proactive, and

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) is seeking approximately P1 billion in funding next year to procure African swine fever (ASF) vaccines for smaller local hog producers. “One of our requests for 2027 is to secure a budget allocation for ASF vaccines for smallholder farmers,” Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said. “The initial

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) is requesting more than P3 billion to roll out irrigation facilities nationwide to ease the impact of El Niño on farm production. Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said the DA is seeking additional funding to deploy regular and mobile irrigation systems nationwide to help address water shortages

Stocks in Hong Kong and mainland China dropped on Friday, tracking a meltdown in US technology companies that erased more than US$2 trillion in market value on concerns that a Democrat-controlled Congress could upend the breakneck expansion of the AI industry. The Hang Seng Index fell 1.3 per cent to 24,481.86 at the close, while the mainland’s CSI 300 Index sank 1.4 per cent. Technology stocks led the decliners on the two markets. The Hang Seng Tech Index retreated 1.8 per cent, and the Star 50...

Motorists may expect significant rollbacks in fuel prices next week, with gasoline prices projected to drop by as much as P14 per liter, the Department of Energy (DOE) said Friday.

Before tech stocks plummeted in the US overnight, executives at a private wealth conference in Hong Kong highlighted AI infrastructure as a versatile “defence plus growth” investment opportunity, while cautioning investors against portfolios that were overreliant on artificial intelligence. “Infrastructure opportunities now really lie at the bottleneck of solving [AI’s] demands within structural growth,” the head of managed investments and Hong Kong wealth solutions at Standard Chartered Bank,...

The number of jobless Filipinos rose to 2.86 million in September 2026, bringing the country"s unemployment rate to 5.4%, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Friday showed.

Ayala Land Inc. is strengthening its recurring-income businesses as a growing source of stability amid economic headwinds and challenges in the property sector, with leasing and hospitality revenues rising 8% to P37.8 billion in the first nine months of 2026.

US apparel retailer Levi Strauss & Co says it is bullish on China and plans further investment and new store openings in the market, riding robust growth driven by young shoppers. While the consumer market in China remains challenging for many multinationals, with a host of foreign brands shuttering stores amid rapid market shifts and broader consumption headwinds, Levi’s sees itself as an exception. “We are going to be able to see China become a much bigger portion of our business globally,”...