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BRIEF-Millennium Pacific Group Holdings Says Zheng Si Rong Resigns As Executive Director

Aug 10 (Reuters) - Millennium Pacific Group Holdings Ltd :

* ZHENG SI RONG RESIGNS AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:

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    (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell for a second day as rising virus cases around the world led to renewed concern over the continued economic impact, overshadowing a batch of solid corporate results.The S&P 500 extended its slide from an all-time high, with investors showing caution ahead of the brunt of the earnings season. All eyes will be on whether an anticipated rise in profits will bring with it forecasts for stronger growth ahead. International Business Machines Corp. climbed after reporting its largest revenue growth in 11 quarters, while United Airlines Holdings Inc. paced a selloff in travel stocks on a bigger-than-expected loss. Netflix Inc. plunged in postmarket trading as its first-quarter subscriber growth fell short of the average analyst estimate.Other corporate highlights:Johnson & Johnson posted stronger-than-expected sales, while Travelers Cos.’s earnings beat estimates and Philip Morris International Inc. raised its outlookProcter & Gamble Co. is boosting the prices of some consumer products as the household-goods behemoth grapples with higher commodity costsWhile American equities are trading at a valuation that’s about 35% above the average of the past decade, investors are focused on what’s forecast to be the best earnings season in two years. One of their biggest concerns is whether companies are equipped to handle mounting inflation pressures as the economic recovery gains momentum.“Earnings season is ramping up, and there’s this concern about how the multinationals will give their guidance in view of the fact that we haven’t drawn a line under Covid yet,” said Fiona Cincotta, senior financial markets analyst at City Index. “That is just starting to unnerve investors. Demand for riskier assets has come off.”For David Donabedian, chief investment officer at CIBC Private Wealth Management, the stock market has been just taking a breather after a big rally, but there are still reasons to be bullish.“The economic recovery has taken hold, the earnings recovery has taken hold, everything we’ve seen from first-quarter earnings so far has been that it’s going to be a blowout quarter,” he said.Elsewhere, the dollar rose for the first time in seven sessions, while the Treasury 10-year yield dropped to the lowest level in more than five weeks.Here are some key events to watch this week:EIA crude oil inventory report on Wednesday.European Central Bank rate decision and President Christine Lagarde briefing on Thursday.U.S. releases new home sales data Friday.These are some of the main moves in markets:StocksThe S&P 500 decreased 0.7% at 4 p.m. New York timeThe Nasdaq 100 dipped 0.7%The Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 0.8%The Russell 2000 dropped 2%The Stoxx Europe 600 sank 1.9%The MSCI World index dipped 0.9%CurrenciesThe Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index advanced 0.2%The euro was little changed at $1.2035The Japanese yen appreciated 0.1% to 108.09 per dollarBondsThe yield on 10-year Treasuries fell four basis points to 1.56%Germany’s 10-year yield fell three basis points to -0.26%Britain’s 10-year yield fell two basis points to 0.731%CommoditiesWest Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.5% to $62.44 a barrelGold climbed 0.5% to $1,779.10 an ounce.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • IPO Boom Prompts ICICI to Hire More Investment Bankers

    (Bloomberg) -- India’s second largest private lender ICICI Bank Ltd. is making its biggest hiring push in investment banking and institutional equities in four years, as it anticipates a rise in companies going public.The Mumbai-based firm plans to add five mid-to-senior level hires in each of the two units, which currently have 130 bankers in total, according to Ajay Saraf, head of investment banking and institutional equities at ICICI Securities Ltd. The new roles will be concentrated in sectors such as technology and health care, he said.“We have not hired these kinds of numbers since 2017,” Saraf said in a phone interview last week. “We see investor interest disproportionately higher for these sectors in the next 12 months.”Shares of ICICI Securities jumped as much as 4.6% on Tuesday to their highest level since Feb. 4. The move outpaced the rise in India’s benchmark Sensex index which climbed as much as 1.1%.India is joining the global share sale frenzy thanks to ample liquidity in the market with foreign investors and even retail buyers looking for new ideas to invest in. The booming local tech scene, which earlier in April minted six unicorns in a single week, is also expanding the initial public offering pipeline for bankers.So far in 2021, nearly $3 billion has been raised through IPOs in India, the best start to the year since 2018, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It could even surpass 2020’s $4.6 billion haul as companies such as Zomato Pvt., Policybazaar and Nykaa E-Retail Pvt. are set to go public in Mumbai as as soon as this year, Bloomberg News has reported.ICICI Securities ranks first for equity offerings in India so far in 2021, according to the Bloomberg league table, a leap from 2020 when it finished 10th.Saraf expects there to be more deals to go around as high-quality firms come to market in the next three to six months.“The deal activity on the primary market will be stronger than 2021,” he said. “The number of transactions will be widespread but the rise in volume will depend on the issuers’ decisions on the size.”The banker doesn’t see those listings taking the form of special purpose acquisition companies. Investors have flooded into SPACs, vehicles that raise money from public listings in order to merge with private companies, and Indian targets are not immune to the frenzy. The country’s biggest renewable power producer ReNew Power agreed to merge with a U.S. SPAC in February, giving it an $8 billion enterprise value, and some bankers in India predict more blank-check firm deals to come.Saraf is skeptical of a sharp rise in SPAC activity in the country. “What you need for a SPAC is the size, and path to profitability,” he said. “Not many companies pass that muster in India.”(Updates with share price move in the fourth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Blackstone to Sell $3 Billion Australian Logistics to ESR

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  • Carry Traders Reeling From Dollar Surprises Look Elsewhere

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  • Crypto Stock Mania Tested by Sliding Prices, Bitcoin Slump

    (Bloomberg) -- A drop in cryptocurrency-linked stocks in the wake of Bitcoin’s slide and Coinbase Global Inc.’s choppy debut is stirring a rallying cry from optimists who reject fears that the sector has peaked.A global, Bloomberg-curated basket of equities linked to crypto trading or Bitcoin mining fell some 9% over the past week, paring 2021’s climb to about 130%. A weekend Bitcoin plunge rattled crypto mania, but the token has since pared some losses and remains up 690% over the past year.“The public market validation of Bitcoin and the entire space from Coinbase’s listing will encourage people who can invest in the markets to do so,” said Jehan Chu, managing partner at crypto adviser Kenetic Capital in Hong Kong. There are signs retail investors took advantage of Bitcoin’s fall, he added.Bitcoin climbed as much as 2.3% on Monday, and was trading at $56,691 as of 6:08 a.m. in New York.Day traders have also pushed up stocks such as Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. and crypto broker Voyager Digital Ltd., which are up at least 8,900% in the past year. For some, the $68 billion market value for digital-token exchange Coinbase justifies bets on a watershed advance in crypto adoption. Others fear the listing and Bitcoin’s gyrations are part of an unsustainable, stimulus-fueled frenzy.“Passions run deep” on the short-term crypto outlook “but dips are clearly supported,” Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone Group Ltd., wrote in a note Monday.Coinbase, the biggest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, was down 2.6% in U.S. pre-market trading after closing at $342 on Friday, off a peak of $429.54 hit in the first few minutes of its April 14 debut. Marathon and Voyager lost about 20% last week.On Monday in Asia, shares in firms such as Japan’s Monex Group Inc., which owns a crypto exchange, and Woori Technology Investment Co. -- which has a stake in a leading South Korean digital-token broker -- were in the red. Cryptocurrency-linked stocks also fell in the U.S. premarket, with Riot Blockchain Inc. down 8.4% and Marathon slipping 7.2%Still, analysts who have begun covering Coinbase are bullish, on average penciling in a 52% climb over the next year. The firm’s Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong described the listing as a shift in legitimacy for the entire cryptocurrency industry.Sell-SideThe fact that more sell-side analysts will be forced to engage with the digital-token sector is a positive development for it, according to PwC’s Hong Kong-based Global Crypto Leader Henri Arslanian.“It forces now the sell-side firms to cover Coinbase and crypto in a more practical and detailed way,” Arslanian said. “That’s going to bring not only more experience but also more expertise in the asset class.”Many pitfalls remain: Bitcoin’s boom could yet turn to bust, and regulators are poised to tighten oversight of digital tokens and related businesses as they achieve more mainstream acceptance.But for now the cryptocurrency craze continues. For instance, Dogecoin -- a token created as a joke -- nearly tripled to a market value of about $50 billion on Friday. Demand was so brisk that investors trying to trade it on Robinhood crashed the site.“It’s still early in the game,” said Dave Chapman, executive director with Hong Kong-based BC Technology Group Ltd., which operates the digital-asset platform OSL. “Opportunity remains for investors to participate and secure a first-mover advantage.”(Adds Bitcoin price and U.S. pre-market trading data)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Democratic senators urge Education Department to remove millions of student loan borrowers from default status

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    (Bloomberg) -- Oatly Group AB, the vegan food and drink maker that touts the sustainability of its products, filed for a U.S. initial public offering as its losses and sales increase.The Malmo, Sweden-based company in a filing Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission listed the size of the offering as $100 million, a placeholder that will change when it sets terms for the share sale. Its existing investors will also sell shares as part of the offering.Oatly reported a $60 million net loss on $421 million revenue in 2020, compared with a loss of $36 million on revenue of $204 million the previous year, according to the filing.Oatly, founded in 1994, said it’s the “world’s original and largest oat milk company.” It also highlighted the sustainability of its products, as younger customer favor items with positive societal and environmental impact.“A liter of Oatly product consumed in place of cow’s milk results in around 80% less greenhouse gas emissions, 79% less land usage and 60% less energy consumption,” the company said in its filing. The company said 92% of generation Z and 90% of millennials -- customers less than 40 years old -- would act in support of a “purposeful brand.”In July, Oatly secured $200 million in new capital from investors led by Blackstone Group Inc. The group also included celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Jay-Z, as well as former Starbucks Corp. founder Howard Schultz. The company was valued at about $2 billion in the round.In February, Oatly had been exploring a U.S. listing at a value of around $10 billion, Bloomberg News reported.Brother FoundersOatly was started by brothers Rickard and Bjorn Oste. Using technology based on research from Sweden’s Lund University, the company turns fiber-rich oats into liquid food.Oat milk, which was essentially non-existent in the U.S. before Oatly’s entrance, saw a 151% jump in sales in dollar terms at retail outlets during the 52-week period ended March 13, according to NielsenIQ. The plant-based dairy category as a whole rose 20% during the same period. By sales, oat milk is the second-most popular option after almond milk.For More: Oat Milk Shortages Reported Following Delay in New Oatly PlantThe drink’s popularity has led to supply shortages in the U.S. following a delay related to the coronavirus pandemic in the construction of a production facility, Bloomberg News reported last month. Starbucks, which expanded the sale of Oatly products across its 15,000 U.S. cafes on March 2, has said it’s dealing with temporary stock issues.Oatly is an exclusive oat milk provider to Starbucks in the U.S. and China. The company’s investors included Chinese conglomerate China Resources Co., Belgium-based private equity firm Verlinvest and Blackstone Group Inc., among others, according to its filing.Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Credit Suisse Group AG are leading the offering. Oatly plans to list its shares on Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol OTLY.(Updates with funding in sixth paragraph. Verlinvest’s location was corrected in an earlier version of this story.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Why Is the Stock Market Down Today? Here Are 4 Reasons.

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