Strategy

Postal services across Asia Pacific are dealing with the fallout from the removal of so-called US ‘de minimis’ tariff exemption from small packages below the value of $800 sent to the US; also this week, 50% tariffs on many goods being sent from India to the US have started.

The sustainability linked financing covers greenfield and operational assets across Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, and involved a consortium of 60 banks. The financing comes after Blackstone and CPPIB's acquisition of the group last year.

The softening jobs market in the US could see the US Fed act in September; however inflation pressure from tariffs are a concern.

Surveys show Hong Kong's SMEs facing rising costs, late payments, a tight credit stance from banks, and tariffs, despite an overall economic recovery in the SAR; bad weather has also been an issue this summer.

Ebanx sees opportunities in a young, tech savvy population in Southeast Asia; it is also the first Brazilian company to receive a Major Payment Institution licence in Singapore.

Annapoorna Venkataramanan, head of treasury, risk, insurance and capex investments, ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India, revealed to CT the firm's strategy towards capital investments and treasury transformation in the fast-changing steel sector.

Corporate treasurers in the region are increasingly leaning on technology to improve their predictive capabilities, including interacting with other departments, utilising ERP and AI.

With fiduciary duty reforms and audit oversight changes now law, Korean corporates face growing shareholder pressure on capital allocation, dividend policy and financial transparency – placing treasury functions in the spotlight.

Markus Wenker, CFO at Yinson Production, talked to CT about his team’s engagement in the capital markets to diversify its funding base, due to external and internal factors.

Amid the uncertainty a US giant has suspended some apparel orders from the country, which is competing with the likes of Cambodia and Vietnam; meanwhile government export subsidies are set to decrease.

Lucia Ma, head of treasury and inventory controller at Klook, explains how the Hong Kong-based travel firm built its own foreign exchange trading portal to handle a post-pandemic surge in FX exposure.

As investors start pricing sovereign debt risk into long-term yields, corporate treasurers must rethink duration, diversify currency exposure, and prepare for a world where bond markets –not central banks – set the tone.