PublishDate  
2/29/2016
Hilton to unlock value

Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc said it would spin off its lodging properties and timeshare business into separate publicly traded companies in a bid to boost shareholder value as the world’s largest hotel operator faces increased competition.

2/29/2016
Oscars 2016: Old-school methods help keep the Oscars hacker-proof

Hollywood isn't great at keeping secrets. So how come nobody ever knows the Oscar results in advance?

2/28/2016
Hard to find bread in shortage-stricken Venezuela

At a popular east Caracas bakery, customers can buy Spanish olive oil, Italian tomato sauce and even American chocolates. But bread? Forget it. Cardboard signs on the door warning of “No bread” have become increasingly common at Venezuelan bakeries.

2/28/2016
Billionaire Wang to build US$3.3bn theme park to rival Disneyland Paris

A partnership led by by Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin’s (王健林) Dalian Wanda Group Co (萬達集團) plans to invest more than 3 billion euros (US$3.3 billion) in a retail and leisure development project outside of Paris, taking on Walt Disney Co in the euro area’s second-large...

2/28/2016
How Muslims came to fear Freemasons

Under fire from Malay-Muslim groups for organising a conference in Penang last week, a senior member of a regional Freemason grand lodge was forced to defend the fraternity, explaining that it is “just like the Rotary and Lions”, referring to two major international service groups.

2/27/2016
Bring back the 'sensible' in education

As we strive to keep the quality of our education system high, we subconsciously focus too much on creating a world-class learning environment, resulting in the overemphasis of 21st century education in educational institutions.

2/26/2016
When state and religion were separate

During the early days of independence, faith was a private matter and the country experienced religious tolerance and ethnic understanding.

2/25/2016
The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Trump

Donald Trump has been recognized for his mastery of the media, his fascination with gilt and his bold advocacy for baffling hair. But I think his greatest distinction is as a surrealist. Not since Salvador Dalí has someone so ambitiously jumbled reality and hallucination.

2/25/2016
Portugal seeks to draw foreign investors

FAMOUS for its Roman and Moorish ruins, picturesque beaches and lively cities, Portugal is a blend of old-world charm and modernity. Bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the south and west and Spain to the north and east, the country enjoys a Mediterranean climate and is beginning to garner attentio...

2/24/2016
Online shopping takes a hit

Malaysian online shoppers are turning to local sites as the weaker ringgit has made shopping on foreign sites much more expensive.
 

2/24/2016
Government to introduce plan to rid local councils of ‘Little Napoleons’, minister says

A transformation plan for local councils will be introduced by the government this year to rid councils of “Little Napoleons”.

2/23/2016
Five ICBC bank directors arrested in Madrid

Spanish police have arrested five directors of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) after they raided the lender's Madrid offices as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering.

2/23/2016
Kyle Bass, a sharpshooting short-seller

“Anyone who is invested in China, whether you are a pension fund or sovereign wealth fund or a large US or European institution — you better be thinking about this, and not with the reverence that people give to China,” he says. “Everyone has this embedded belief that Chin...

2/23/2016
Pound in worst day since banking crisis as Brexit fears bite

The pound fell the most since the UK’s 2009 banking crisis after London Mayor Boris Johnson, one of the nation’s most popular politicians, said he’ll campaign for Britain to leave the European Union in a June referendum.
 

2/23/2016
HK mansion sells for US$107mil

Wheelock Properties Ltd sold a luxury home in Hong Kong’s exclusive Peak neighborhood to an unidentified buyer for a lower-than-expected price tag of HK$830mil (US$107mil) on Saturday.

2/23/2016
Standard Chartered Drops After First Annual Loss Since 1989

Loan impairments almost double to $4 billion, highest ever. CEO Winters says performance to remain `subdued' in 2016.

2/23/2016
Student creates media buzz

DOCTORATE student Hafizah Noor Isa has become a centre of foreign media attraction when she and a group of scientists succeeded in proving Albert Einstein’s century-old gravitational wave theory, reported Berita Harian.

2/23/2016
EPF upbeat about returns; goes for diversified assets, investments abroad

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is committed to its investment strategies and remains confident of achieving significant returns despite the prevailing challenges in the global market environment, says chief executive officer Datuk Shahril Ridza Ridzuan.
 

2/23/2016
Xiamen officially opens

A pioneer group of 187 students have started their studies at the Xiamen University Malaysia Campus here, China’s first university to be set up abroad.

2/23/2016
UOB Bank Malaysia sees ringgit rebounding to 4.1 vs US$

Receding domestic political and economic headwinds have improved the outlook for the ringgit, which is set for a rebound this year, according to United Overseas Bank (M) Bhd (UOB).
 

2/23/2016
Retail fair aims to break borders

To increase brand visibility and provide business opportunities, the first ever Malaysia International Retail, Franchise and Licensing Fair (MIRF) will be showcasing the best and most established retail players from various industries, including food and beverage, education, fashion and service.<...

2/23/2016
Freeze on approval of hotel licences in KL

Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) will no longer issue hotel licences in the federal capital until further notice.
 

2/23/2016
Groceries at your fingers tips

Living in bustling Kuala Lumpur can sometimes be stressful because one can be caught in heavy traffic just heading out to purchase groceries.


 

2/22/2016
Kanye West: My album's not for sale

In the week since Kanye West debuted his new album, The Life Of Pablo, with an elaborate listening session-fashion show at Madison Square Garden, the music has earned rave reviews, been featured on Saturday Night Live (SNL) and inspired a rebuke from Taylor Swift onstage at the Grammy Awards.

...

2/22/2016
Moody's warns Brexit would risk UK's credit rating

Credit ratings agency said the economic costs of Britain leaving the EU would outweigh the benefits.

2/22/2016
Apple’s Tim Cook Defiant Against FBI Order in New Email

“This case is about much more than a single phone"

2/22/2016
Singapore property investments in Q4 climb 39.3%

The total value of property investments in Singapore surged in the fourth quarter of last year. Key drivers were public land sales of non-landed residential sites and acquisitions of office buildings by institutional investors.

2/22/2016
10 things that make Singapore a city of design

In December last year, Singapore accepted an accolade from Unesco: It was designated a Creative City of Design.

2/22/2016
Beijing plans ventilation corridors

Beijing is planning to build a web of ventilation corridors to facilitate air flow and blow away smog and pollutants, municipal authorities said.

2/22/2016
Emerging stocks rise as new regulator spurs China; rupiah climbs

Emerging-market stocks extended a weekly advance as oil rebounded and investors speculated that the new head of China’s securities regulator will take measures to bolster the world’s second-largest equity market. Indonesia’s rupiah strengthened.
 

2/22/2016
Taib praises Adenan's policies

Sarawak Yang di-Pertua Negri Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud publicly praised Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem for implementing numerous good policies since taking over from him.

2/22/2016
Musa: Vision 2020 failing

Former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Musa Hitam said Malaysia’s Vision 2020 objective was “falling apart” with “alarming speed”, and he blames Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for it.
 

2/22/2016
Guessing game intensifies

Now that Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz has reiterated that she will not stay on as Bank Negara Malaysia governor after her contract expires on April 1, the guessing game on who will replace her intensifies.

2/21/2016
UIC full-year net profit falls 35% to $261m

Developer United Industrial Corporation (UIC) posted lower full-year earnings due to a sharp drop in fair value gains on investment properties. Net profit fell 35 per cent to $260.6 million for the 12 months to Dec 31.

2/21/2016
Swiss bank in 1MDB probe may be sold

Brazil's BTG Pactual is in talks to sell its private banking unit BSI to Swiss rival EFG International, which is controlled by Greek billionaire Spiros Latsis.

2/21/2016
Barclays accused of making £346m in ‘sham’ payments to Qataris

Barclays paid Qatari investors a total of £346m in secret and dishonestly characterised payments to secure their participation in the bank’s 2008 emergency fundraising, a £1bn lawsuit brought by another key investor on the deal has alleged.

2/21/2016
Hong Kong’s Honolulu Cafe to open at The CentrePoint in April

London-style roast ducks by two different brands rocked the food scene here last year and this year the competition is for the title of best Hong Kong egg tart.

2/21/2016
Keeping the tourism dollar at home

CHINESE travellers’ craze for made-in-Japan goods is so pronounced that the phenomenon became a buzzword in Japan last year. Bakugai (meaning “explosive buying”) is the new Japanese term coined to describe the buying sprees of Chinese shoppers.

2/21/2016
Bank Negara must stay independent

THE business and investment community must be very happy to read the bold and candid statement by outgoing central bank governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz that politicians should not head this important independent institution.

2/20/2016
Donald Trump hits out at Pope in risky gambit

In his most audacious attack yet on a revered public figure, Mr Donald Trump veered into risky political territory on Thursday when he denounced Pope Francis, seeking to galvanise Republicans who worry about border security and appeal to evangelical voters who regard the religious leader as too l...

2/20/2016
Headhunter sues bank linked to 1MDB saga

A legal sidelight has emerged involving key players in Singapore's money laundering probe over 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

2/20/2016
Beijing to ban online publishing by foreign firms

China is to ban foreign firms from "online publishing" under new rules issued this week as the country increasingly seeks to minimise Western influence.

2/20/2016
Jokowi unlikely to tie graft-busters' hands

President Joko Widodo will not endorse any legislative changes that dilute the powers of Indonesia's graft-busters, presidential spokesman Johan Budi said yesterday.

2/19/2016
SoftBank to repurchase up to $4.4 billion of own shares in biggest buyback

Japanese telecoms conglomerate SoftBank Group (9984.T) on Monday announced its biggest ever buyback in a bid to boost investor confidence, saying it will purchase up to 500 billion yen ($4.4 billion) worth or as much as 14.2 percent of its own shares.

2/19/2016
Yahoo launches auction process as Starboard gears up for fight

Yahoo Inc officially launched the sale of its core business on Friday, a move seen as a positive step for frustrated investors but not enough to keep an activist hedge fund from pursuing a proxy fight against the struggling Internet company.

2/19/2016
Tencent to charge users in China for transferring money from WeChat Wallet to bank accounts

New rule to take effect next month but not expected to apply to Hong Kong; pundits wonder whether it will drive users to migrate to rival Alibaba’s Alipay

2/19/2016
Coming soon to Indonesia: a battle over the cinema industry

Indonesia's opening of its fiercely protected cinema industry is whetting the appetite of overseas firms such as South Korea's CJ CGV Co Ltd, looking to profit from an increase in the supply of foreign movies to a vast, underdeveloped market.
The movie market is one of dozens of in...

2/18/2016
Young Saudis stare into bleak future as oil prices drop

In pressed white robes and clutching crisp resumes, young Saudi men packed a massive hall at a university in the capital city this month to wait in long lines to pitch themselves to employers.

2/18/2016
Pope ticks off fan after losing his balance

Pope Francis, who is usually calm and accommodating with his admirers, clearly lost his temper with a person who pulled on him so hard that he fell onto a child in a wheelchair.

2/18/2016
Sembcorp suffers marine losses, Q4 profit plummets 75%

Losses in the offshore and marine business proved a huge drag for conglomerate Sembcorp Industries, as fourth-quarter earnings nose-dived 74.7 per cent.

2/18/2016
CapitaLand's profit dives 40% in fourth quarter to $247.7m

Earnings plunged at CapitaLand in the fourth quarter, due mainly to the absence of fair value gains recorded from the sale of Westgate Tower.

2/17/2016
Who Are We?

I find this election bizarre for many reasons but none more than this: If I were given a blank sheet of paper and told to write down America’s three greatest sources of strength, they would be “a culture of entrepreneurship,” “an ethic of pluralism” and the “qu...

2/17/2016
Fed eyes increased risks for US economy

Many Federal Reserve policymakers saw increased risks facing the US economy as they assessed the market turmoil that has erupted in 2016 amid plunging commodity prices and confusion over China’s currency policies.

2/17/2016
A pact that cannot stop the flow of cheap oil

Saudi-Russia deal does not take account of game-changing shale

2/17/2016
National Front hopes Brexit vote will inspire Frexit campaign

There is at least one group of continental Europeans rubbing their hands with glee as they observe the drama surrounding the UK referendum on EU membership: the leadership of France’s far-right National Front.

2/17/2016
China to increase financial support for industrial upgrade

China will increase financial support to its industries as they are being encouraged to transform themselves amid the country's industrial upgrades, an official document said on Tuesday.

2/17/2016
Messaging, Payment Apps Converge

When Tencent Holdings’ WeChat messaging app launched its red-envelope service on the Lunar New Year in 2014, it became an instant success. Eight million WeChat users exchanged 40 million cash-attached mobile messages in the form of virtual red envelopes. Its success was such a shock to its ...

2/17/2016
Hanoi Circus Clown Plots Post-Marxist Revolution

Hanoi’s prestigious state-run circus, a relic of Vietnam’s Marxist past, has lost a third of its budget and will have no government funding at all by the end of the decade. In charge of figuring out a survival strategy is Ta Duy Anh, a part-time clown.

2/17/2016
China deals collapse amid regulatory fears

China’s flourishing appetite for acquiring overseas companies has been dealt a sharp setback as regulatory fears hindered two potential takeovers and highlighted the obstacles to striking deals with Chinese companies.

2/17/2016
Central banks: Negative thinking

Sub-zero rates are a sign that policymakers are running out of options to invigorate the economy, say critics.

2/16/2016
Apple launches $12bn bond deal to fund share buybacks

Apple has announced plans to return to sell debt across up to 10 tranches of corporate bonds, worth between $10bn (£7bn) and $12bn.

2/16/2016
Fed's Neel Kashkari: Break Up the Big Banks

The Federal Reserve’s newest bank president, a Republican who served as a top Treasury Department official during the financial crisis, called Tuesday for policy makers to consider breaking up big banks to prevent future government bailouts.

2/16/2016
Xinjiang Region of China Bans Glacier Tourism, Citing Risk to Ecosystem

Glaciologists in China and elsewhere have said for years that climate change is the main cause of glacier erosion, which threatens the water sources of much of humanity.

2/15/2016
Rizal is first M'sian director to produce film in Australia

Rizal Halim, the first local director to produce a film in Australia, is optimistic his first masterpiece, 'Lurking Wood' will be a major success at the international level.

2/15/2016
MIT, China’s Ningbo Establish Supply Chain Education Center

Agreement for MIT’s sixth global “innovation institute” comes as China seeks to upgrade logistics services

2/14/2016
Justice Antonin Scalia and the ‘Dead’ Constitution

WHETHER or not you agreed with the man, there is no question that Justice Antonin Scalia changed the United States Supreme Court, the way that the Constitution and laws are interpreted and the image of a Supreme Court justice far more than President Ronald Reagan could ever have foreseen when app...

2/2/2016
Why the world needs a new approach to economic policy

The views from serious commentators range from a hard landing in China, a US recession, and the unwinding of European integration; to the current turbulence being more sentiment-driven than fundamentals-based and that growth - while not stellar - is reasonable and moving in the right direction.

&nbps; &nbps;
2/27/2016
Saving our corals

Since 2011, Reef Check Malaysia (RCM), a non-govermental organisation dedicated to the conservation of reefs and creating awareness among local communities about reef preservation, have conducted programmes using the coral transplant method, namely cutting or breaking a piece of living coral and ...

2/25/2016
YTL Corp Registers Half-Year Revenue of RM8.4 Billion (US$2.0 Billion); Profit for the Period Stands at RM772 Million (US$185 Million)

YTL Group Managing Director Tan Sri Dato' (Dr) Francis Yeoh Sock Ping, CBE, FICE, said, "The Group's performance remained relatively steady for the first 6 months of the 2016 financial year, particularly in view of the challenging operating condit...

2/18/2016
The Gainsborough Bath Spa named in Travel + Leisure's ''It List'' 2016

YTL Hotels is proud to announce that The Gainsborough Bath Spa has been included in the Travel + Leisure’s “It List” 2016: The Best New Hotels on the Planet.

2/17/2016
Brand offers 4G postpaid plan with festive feel

YES, the 4G mobile brand under YTL Communications, is swinging into the Year of the Monkey with its all-new Super 88 Postpaid Plan. Making this festive season even more prosperous, this special plan comes with a free Huddle XS, the 4G mobile hotspot device with the capacity to connect up to five ...

2/17/2016
YTL Corp's dividend story sustainable

The research house said YTL’s management stressed that even with the additional capex for PT Tanjung Jati Power, the diversified group has stable cashflows from subsidiaries which can support a dividend yield of over 6%.

“YTL has largely achieved its optimal group structure,...

2/15/2016
Hamzah takes a ride on the ERL, gives it the thumbs up

"A lot of the passengers find the ERL to be convenient and on time. "My visit today is part of the government's effort to hear the voices of the people from the ground and help resolve issues," said Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudd...

2/15/2016
Better teachers with English@CLiC

Teachers from various primary and secondary schools in Sentul here recently attended an English@CLiC pilot program organised by Sentul Raya Sdn Bhd (SRSB) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL).

2/14/2016
Learning beyond the classroom

Understanding knowledge and critically applying it, is the way forward for students today. It was the view shared by teachers who were recent winners of the Guru Muda 1Malaysia (GM1M) Frog Virtual Learning Environment Awards.

GM1M is a programme between the Education Ministry, YTL Commu...

2/10/2016
Sultans and Prime Minister at YTL's Open House

The Chinese New Year 'Open House' is a unique Malaysian tradition of welcoming all Malaysians or tourists at our various religious festivals is truly worth preserving. It is a glue that cements the various ethnic races with different religions to live and work together in peace and harmon...

2/10/2016
PM Najib and DPM grace YTL's Open House

Commenting on this year’s celebration, Tan Sri Francis said, "This unique Malaysian tradition of welcoming all Malaysians or tourists at our various religious festivals is truly worth preserving. It is the glue that cements the various ethnic races with different religions to live and ...

2/9/2016
YTL Corp’s exposure to high speed railway still relevant

The high speed railway (HSR) linking Kuala Lumpur to Singapore is set to make a comeback in the second half of 2016 and  YTL Cop’s exposure is still relevant, says CIMB Equities Research.

“The group believes that its HSR proposal is still competitive, as it leverages on...

2/5/2016
HYT launches first stand-alone boutique in the world at YTL’s Starhill Gallery

Speaking at the launch, Tan Sri (Dr) Francis Yeoh, Managing Director of YTL Corporation said, “Not only are we witnessing the opening of a new boutique in Starhill Gallery, but this is HYT’s first eponymous boutique in the world!

“Extreme alchemists, HYT’s Hydro-...

2/3/2016
Telegraph lists YTL's Gainsborough Bath Spa as one of the best hotels for spa breaks in the UK

Spa Village at The Gainsborough Bath Spa, Bath - A savvy Malaysian hotel and spa group has opened an East-meets-West water wonderland in Britain’s most famous spa city. Thermal waters are the draw at The Gainsborough: its Spa Village has thermal pools, powerful massage jets, ice alcoves and...

2/2/2016
Leading the W@Y

Last year, the YTL Group set out to tackle various issues highlighted in The Sustainable Development Goals, an initiative by the United Nations. The Goals for Sustainable Development or The Global Goals is a 17-point plan to end poverty, halt climate change and fight injustice and inequality. It ...