South-East Asia

Bloomberg News, citing sources familiar with the situation, reported Sunday that Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) and Singapore's GIC were close to making a binding bid for National Storage REIT. The deal could value the Sydney listed company at around 4 billion Australian Dollars ($2.65 billion). The report stated that the parties were finalizing the details of the deal, which could be announced as early as Monday. Brookfield and GIC had also made good progress in their due diligence process on National Storage. The report states that the price for the binding offer will likely be the same in November as...

Four sources with knowledge of the matter have confirmed that commodity trader Mercuria plans to remove significant quantities of copper from London Metal Exchange storage facilities in Asia. Prices are rising on account of expectations of a shortage. LME copper prices reached a record of $11,540 per metric ton Wednesday, partly because of anticipated shortages in the coming year due to disruptions to mine supplies including accidents and incidents in Indonesia and Chile. Mercuria, a Swiss company, has cancelled or designated for delivery over 40,000 tonnes of copper stored in LME facilities in South Korea. Taiwan Sources familiar with the...

The disaster agency reported that the number of deaths from floods and landslides in Indonesia's Sumatra Island rose to 708 people on Tuesday as authorities raced to repair infrastructure and provide aid to areas cut off. In a late-night press conference on Tuesday, the agency said that 708 people were killed since the last week. This is a lower number than the 753 listed on the website earlier in the morning. The agency did not explain the difference. Nearly 900 people were killed by floods and land slides that wreaked havoc on Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. This follows months of...

Sources say that Grafton stored Citi's lead under a rental agreement. Trafigura has recently acquired Grafton Citi Looking at Taiwan and Malaysia By Pratima Desai Three sources familiar with the situation said that Citigroup would move its lead stocks out of Singapore and into Malaysia or Taiwan, at a cost estimated to be $5 million, due to a lack in storage space, as well as a lack of rent deals. After Trafigura purchased the warehouse company, Citi decided to remove its lead stocks and search for other rent deals. London Metal Exchange-approved warehouses are sharing rental income from their approved...

Metro Pacific Tollways Corp, the operator of Philippine toll roads, announced on Tuesday that it had listed its first 20 billion peso ($341.63m) peso-bond issue on the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. The company stated that the bonds were sold as three series, with fixed rates of 5.5443 percent for three years to be due in 2028, 5.879% cents for five years to be due in 2030, and 6.3069 cents for ten years to due in 2035. Metro Pacific Tollways reported that the offer had been more than three-fold subscribed compared to a base of 15 billion pesos. The proceeds...

Lawyers for commodity trader Trafigura accused Indian businessman Prateek gupta of siphoning funds from an alleged metals fraud worth $600 million to prop up their struggling business empire. Trafigura, a Geneva-based company, sued Gupta more than two years ago. It claimed that he was behind a scam where he and his firms agreed to deliver pure nickel but instead delivered scrap steel or other metals. Gupta claims that Trafigura employees designed the scheme at the heart of the case. Trafigura, however, has denied this claim repeatedly. Gupta admitted on the second day of his testimony in the long-running trial at...

In a London court on Monday, Trafigura’s former chief nickel trader denied accusations by Indian businessman Prateek gupta that he was involved in a $600-million fraud to exchange expensive metals with cheap or worthless ones. Trafigura, a Geneva-based company, sued Gupta more than two years ago. It claimed that he was responsible for a fraud where he and his firms agreed to deliver high-quality nickel 99.8% pure but instead delivered scrap or steel. Gupta based in Dubai has denied that Trafigura employees devised the plan, creating a complex merry go round of transactions which would appear to boost its status...

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said that licences for the supply of methanol to be used as a marine oil in Singapore, the largest bunker port in the world, will begin on January 1, 2026. The MPA stated that this is a major step in establishing methanol bunkering at a large scale, and driving Singapore’s ambition to become a sustainable multifuel bunkering center. This move comes after a call for application launched in March of 2025. Three bunker suppliers will receive the licenses: Global Energy Trading Golden Island and PetroChina International Singapore. After assessing the reliability of their...

China's private REIT market, which is still in its infancy, has emerged as an oasis of hope for developers who are strapped for cash. This year, the pipeline for fundraising reached a record $12 billion, driven by investor demand for higher returns. The private REIT market has experienced rapid growth since its launch in 2023. This market is restricted to professionals only. Developers are attracted to the faster and more relaxed approval processes compared to public REITs, and its potential for revitalising income generating assets in spite of the property sector's slump. Analysts said that while public REITs tend to...

Trafigura, a commodities trader in London, filed a $600 million lawsuit against Indian businessman Prateek gupta for fake nickel cargoes on Monday. The commodities trader claimed it was a victim of a fraudulent Ponzi scheme. Trafigura, a Geneva-based company, alleges Gupta is the mastermind behind a fraud where he and his firms agreed to deliver high-quality nickel 99.8% but delivered low-value materials or even worthless material instead. Gupta admits that he didn't deliver high-grade cargoes of nickel, but claims that Trafigura employees devised the scam. They came up with a complex web of transactions to appear as if they were...

Trafigura filed a $600 million lawsuit against Indian businessman Prateek gupta in London's High Court over fake nickel cargoes on Monday. The commodities trading company claimed it had been the victim of an extremely large fraud. Trafigura, a Geneva-based company, alleges Gupta is the mastermind behind a fraud that it discovered in November 20,22 when it examined some containers that were meant to contain high grade nickel. Trafigura inspected the containers and found that they contained carbon steel, which was worth only a fraction of what nickel is worth. Trafigura then carried out more inspections and incurred a $590-million charge....

Bloomberg News reported Monday that Verizon Communications was looking to raise $10 billion on the corporate bond markets to fund the $20 billion Frontier deal. A person familiar with the situation confirmed this. The wireless carrier filed a five-part sale of bonds earlier that day without revealing the size. The report stated that the initial price discussion for the largest portion of the deal - a bond with a maturity of 40 years - is about 1.6 percentage point above Treasuries. Verizon didn't immediately respond to our request for a comment. Last year, the company bought Frontier for $9.6 billion....

Indian businessman Prateek gupta was accused of orchestrating a $600m metals fraud by commodity group Trafigura. He told a court in India on Friday that he didn't know who within his companies had allegedly made fake documents for selling the same cargo to multiple customers. The long-running trial concluded on Friday with the testimony. It will resume again on December 10, for closing arguments. Trafigura, a Geneva-based company, sued Gupta in more than two years. It claimed that he had orchestrated a ruse where he and his firms agreed to deliver pure nickel instead of steel or scrap. Trafigura's lawyers...

Lawyers at Trafigura said that Prateek Gupta’s claims that the group devised a secret plan to exchange expensive nickel for low value metals are full of contradictions. The Indian businessman was giving evidence in an ongoing fraud case. Trafigura, a Swiss commodity trader, sued Gupta two years ago. It claimed that he was behind a scam where he and his firms agreed to deliver pure nickel but instead delivered scrap steel or other metals. Gupta countered by claiming that Trafigura staff themselves designed the scheme at the heart of the case. Trafigura, however, has denied this claim repeatedly. Gupta, who...

Lawyers for Trafigura accused Prateek gupta, an Indian businessman who gave his first testimony on Wednesday, of a long history of fraud. Gupta admitted that he was under investigation for fraud in India but denied these allegations when he appeared in the High Court of London. Trafigura, a Swiss company, sued Gupta two years ago. It claimed that he was behind a scam where he and his firms agreed to deliver pure nickel but instead delivered scrap steel or other metals. Nathan Pillow, a Trafigura lawyer, cited two more fraud cases in which low-value metals were substituted with nickel. Gupta...

China Gas Holdings, a privately-controlled city gas distributor, has hired an ex-senior trader of the Chinese utility GCL Group as its head of global natural gas sales. Xiong Xin was the head of gas trading for GCL New Energy Holdings (a unit of GCL Holdings), a solar power company, until early 2024. He joined China Gas in Oct. Xiong has nearly a decade's worth of experience in trading at the state oil giant CNOOC, and privately owned Chinese gas company ENN, before he joined GCL. He now heads China Gas’ growing liquefied gas trading business, as well as liquefied petrol...

Three sources with knowledge of the matter said that Trafigura had delivered large quantities to London Metal Exchange-approved warehouses in Malaysia to take advantage of a financial agreement. Sources said that they did not know the details of the deal, which could have been incentives or rent deals. Trafigura has declined to comment. On October 30, the LME-registered warehouses at Port Klang in Malaysia saw an increase of nearly 100,000 metric tonnes in their stock of aluminium. The total now stands at 366,850 tonnes. Sources said that Trafigura had put the majority of this aluminum on LME warrants, which are...

Aquilius Investment Partners, a Singapore-based company, announced on Monday that it had raised $1.1 billion to fund its second Asia Pacific Real Estate Secondaries Fund, making it the largest in the region. According to Preqin, secondaries, where investors purchase existing stakes in funds, are the fastest-growing alternative strategy globally. Data provider predicts that global alternative assets will reach $29.2 trillion in 2029. Secondaries are projected to grow at the fastest rate of 13.1% per year through 2029. This is due to slow exits and increasing private wealth demand. Aquilius announced in a press release that the fundraising included over $750...

ANE (Cayman), a Chinese-based transport and delivery services company, said Tuesday that a consortium including its largest shareholder Centurium Capital and Temasek, had offered to buy it out. The deal valued the group at HK$14.33bn ($1.84bn). Shareholders can choose between a cash payment of HK$12.18 for each ANE share, an alternative share, or a mix of both. The cash consideration represents a premium to the last closing price of the company on October 24, which was 29.6%. Centurium Capital owns around 24.32% ANE shares. Temasek, True Light and other investors do not hold any ANE shares. ANE had earlier this...

ANE (Cayman), said that it received on Friday a conditional offer from a consortium, including Centurium and Temasek, for a potential take-private transaction which could lead to the delisting of ANE from Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In a filing to the stock exchange, the Chinese transport and delivery company stated that an indicative proposal had been submitted on 17 September. It involved Centurium Capital which owns approximately 24,422% of ANE shares and entities related to Temasek, True Light Capital and other companies. After trading was resumed after the announcement on September 18, shares in ANE fell 12%. According to the...

Two sources familiar with the matter said that JD.Com's property investment arm and two other firms are planning to launch a Singapore based real estate trust (REIT), with assets valued at potentially more than $1 billion. Sources said that JD Property (the unlisted infrastructure investment platform and asset management platform for JD.Com) is creating the REIT in partnership with Partners Group, a Swiss investment firm, and EZA Hill Property which is backed up by Asian investment firm Hillhouse. Sources who refused to name themselves because the matter was private said that the REIT plan could be listed at the Singapore...

Australian data centre operator AirTrunk on Tuesday said it secured an A$16 billion ($10.40 billion) sustainability-linked refinancing for its Asia-Pacific operations. AirTrunk, in a website statement, said that this refinancing includes a S$2,25 billion green loan to build a data center in Singapore. This makes AirTrunk APAC's largest sustainable financier. AirTrunk, a hyperscale data center firm, announced that it had secured the support of 60 banks and financial institutions. This brings its total financing including operations in Japan to more than A$18 billion. The company, which was acquired by a Blackstone-led group for A$24 billion late last year, introduced a...

Five sources with knowledge of the matter claim that Trafigura, a commodity trader, is shipping large quantities of zinc from Singapore to the United States. The zinc was stored in London Metal Exchange-approved warehouses. Trafigura is yet to reveal how much zinc it has taken or will take from the LME warehouses located in Singapore or why they are taking the metal to the United States. Concerns about the LME market's supply have helped to push benchmark zinc prices up 5% this month, to $2,850 per metric ton, while the discount to the cash contract is now near zero. ....

Gupta claimed in a court filing that a letter from Trafigura sent to Prateek Gupta’s company, warning them not to raise suspicions with Citi regarding nickel cargoes, provided evidence that the commodity traders were aware of fraud. In February 2023, Geneva-based Trafigura sued Indian businessman Gupta claiming it was the victim of $600-million nickel cargo fraud. Gupta had previously claimed in his defense that Trafigura employees were responsible for the scheme at the heart of the case. Gupta’s lawyers added the new letter to an amended defence document filed last week, which was released by court. Trafigura is a major...