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The founder and chair of one of Asia’s biggest private equity investors has criticised the Chinese government for policies that he says have resulted in a “deep economic crisis” comparable to the global financial crash. Weijian Shan, whose group PAG manages more than $50bn, said his fund had diversified away from China and was being

A decade ago, while attending a conference in an unprecedentedly prosperous and westernised Moscow, I went to interview the British KGB double agent George Blake in his dacha outside town. It was meant to be just a newspaper article, but it spiralled out of control, and my biography of him appeared last year. Other recent

Number 30 Charlotte Street is holy ground for London’s restaurant cognoscenti. It was, from some point in the mid-Neolithic until well into this millennium, the site of L’Etoile, a traditional French restaurant commanded by the charismatic Elena Salvoni. It had run its course by the time it closed, but it is still wonderful to see

Fear of male violence distorts women’s lives. It affects daily decisions: is it safe to take that shortcut? Should I avoid that empty train carriage? Assessing risk is second nature for most of us, yet the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a police officer in London last year turned out to be an

Russia has exported €63bn worth of fossil fuels via ship and pipelines since the invasion of Ukraine, according to new data, with most going to the EU. The largest importers of Russian coal, oil and gas were Germany, Italy and China, according to an analysis of pipeline and seaborne trade by the Centre for Research

Sophisticated trading desks and compliance departments on Wall Street are facing renewed scrutiny following the arrest of Bill Hwang on federal racketeering, fraud and market manipulation charges. Hwang, 58, and former chief financial officer Patrick Halligan, 45, were yesterday accused of using Archegos Capital Management as an “instrument of market manipulation and fraud” with “far-reaching

A Nasdaq-listed ride-sharing company has agreed a $100mn deal to buy UK start-up Zeelo, the latest in a string of acquisitions as technology companies push into the transport industry. Dubai-based Swvl, which listed in New York this month through a merger with a blank cheque company, has rattled through five acquisitions in the past eight

EY Germany is planning to cut workloads as it overhauls its auditing practices following the failure to spot that half of Wirecard’s revenues and billions of corporate cash did not exist. The German arm of the Big Four accounting firm on Thursday promised staff “an improvement of working conditions” after receiving the recommendations of an

Barclays’ profits fell 18 per cent in the first quarter and the bank had to delay a promised £1bn stock buyback as a jump in litigation and conduct provisions overshadowed a surge in trading revenue. Net income fell to £1.4bn, down from £1.7bn in the same period last year, the British bank said on Thursday.

Volvo Cars has begun sourcing alternatives to its Chinese-made parts as coronavirus lockdowns now spreading across the country add a new supply chain threat to an auto industry that has been beset by them over the past year. The company started double sourcing components that are obtained in China in a bid to shield its

The Bank of Japan has driven the yen to a new multi-decade low, defying a global shift towards higher interest rates and vowing to keep bond yields at zero. Within hours of the BoJ’s policy decision on Thursday, the yen fell 1.7 per cent to ¥130.62 against the dollar as the central bank promised to

Hello, this is Kenji from Hong Kong. I have been involved in the #techAsia newsletter since its inception in April 2019, and am excited to continue my engagement in its latest incarnation. Despite the changes in the format, the mission of the newsletter remains the same: to deliver the latest and deepest stories from the

Miner and commodity trader Glencore has suffered a rebuke from some shareholders over its climate transition plan, highlighting the increased scrutiny of corporate proposals to tackle global warming. Almost 24 per cent of votes cast at the group’s annual general meeting in Switzerland on Thursday were opposed to a resolution seeking approval for the company’s climate

J Sainsbury warned underlying profit would be lower than expected this year amid “significant external pressures and uncertainties” including cost inflation and a squeeze on household incomes. The UK’s second-largest supermarket on Thursday forecast underlying profit of between £630mn and £690mn. Analysts’ consensus forecast, as compiled by the group, had been for £703mn. Chief executive

Good morning. Wall Street rallied yesterday, then faded. Sentiment is poor, and surprisingly solid results from Facebook (still boycotting “Meta” around here) after the bell seem unlikely to change that. But readers have suggested plenty of good reasons to be cheerful: it’s spring, Trump is out of the White House, and Russia is losing. Keep

Good morning and welcome to Europe Express. Russia fired the first warning shots yesterday in a looming energy war when it halted gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria. But the EU called the Kremlin’s bluff: it can use reverse flows, alternative supplies and storage to help the two countries. The European Commission insisted that other

Your browser does not support playing this file but you can still download the MP3 file to play locally. Russia raised the spectre of nuclear war this week as it struggles to make headway in Ukraine. How seriously should this threat be taken and can Vladimir Putin rely on his friendship with China’s Xi Jinping?

One thing to start: The UK Serious Fraud Office deployed investigators to sites connected with Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance on Wednesday to demand documents as it steps up its probe into the industrialist’s empire. A Tiger cub risks losing his stripes In May 2020, a scathing report from short seller Muddy Waters alleged Chinese online

The UK’s new online safety bill threatens to weigh down small businesses with new costs, according to the new chief executive of a group of online watchdogs which are gaining increased powers to compel tech companies to protect users on the internet. Gill Whitehead, the first head of the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF), a

Twitter is rushing to reassure advertisers that it will remain a safe place for brands after Elon Musk takes over the company, as the campaign groups that organised a Facebook advertising boycott in 2020 warn that the Tesla chief’s focus on freedom of speech could increase toxicity and abuse. The San Francisco-based company has written