28/10/2025

BIZ & FINANCE TUESDAY | OCT 28, 2025

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Japan considers US-style foreign investment panel

S’pore competition watchdog seeks feedback on new merger guidelines SINGAPORE: The competition watchdog here has sought public feedback on proposed changes to two key guidelines that would streamline merger reviews and overhaul settlement procedures for anti-competitive cases, according to a statement yesterday. The proposed changes are aimed at giving businesses clearer guidance on competition rules in Singapore, while cutting review times and compliance costs. The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCS) said in the statement that it plans to amend its merger procedure guidelines to introduce a streamlined track for deals unlikely to raise competition concerns, aiming to shorten review times and ease compliance costs. CCS said it also proposed a new settlement procedure guideline to replace its existing fast-track process for anti-competitive cases. The changes include increasing the maximum settlement discount and clarifying the regulator’s position if a party appeals after settling. – Reuters The one-year OIS rate was flat at 5.46%, while the two-year OIS rate was up 2 bps at 5.42%. The five-year swap rate was up 1.75 bps at 5.6675%. – Reuters India bonds inch lower, tracking US Treasuries MUMBAI: Indian government bonds inched lower in early deals yesterday, tracking a similar move in US Treasuries, with traders remaining indifferent to a dip in the weekly state debt supply. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note was at 6.5439% as of 10.30am IST, after closing at 6.5345% on Friday. It rose 2 basis points last week. Bond yields rise when prices fall. The 10-year US Treasury yield rose for a third day to 4.0372% in Asian hours. It has risen over 8 basis points since last Wednesday. Officials on Sunday hashed out the framework of a trade deal for US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to pause steeper American tariffs and China’s curbs on rare earths exports, US officials said. “Amid a lack of catalysts, the market will continue to track US treasuries, with focus on US-China trade deal,” a trader at a private bank said. Separately, a lower-than-planned supply in the weekly state debt sale failed to boost sentiment. Indian states are set to raise 178 billion rupees (RM8.55 billion) through the sale of bonds on Tuesday, with the quantum sharply lower than the previously determined 309 billion rupees, according to the calendar. The Reserve Bank of India will also conduct an overnight variable rate repo auction worth 1 trillion rupees to shore up liquidity. India’s banking system liquidity surplus stood at 310 billion rupees as of October 24 after falling to a deficit in the preceding sessions. India’s overnight index swap rates were steady-to-higher, tracking US Treasury yields.

changes could affect the strictness of review for foreign acquisitions. To date, Japan has rejected only one deal under FEFTA – an attempted acquisition by the London-based Children’s Investment Fund of Electric Power Development in 2008. But there are a number of cases where plans have been withdrawn during reviews. In the last financial year through March, Japan received 1,638 prior notifications for stock purchases, excluding 363 withdrawals. When Minebea Mitsumi launched a bid for Shibaura Electronics to counter an unsolicited buyout offer from Taiwan’s Yageo, its CEO Yoshihisa Kainuma expressed concern that the criteria for screenings are unclear. Yageo won the US$740 million deal after obtaining security clearance – Reuters

In a related move, Takaichi instructed new Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama last week to examine how to further enhance the foreign investment screening framework under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act (FEFTA). “We are currently examining ways to improve the effectiveness and strengthen the screening framework. This is a very important and weighty issue,” Katayama said in an interview with Reuters on Friday. These steps coincide with a scheduled review of FEFTA, which underwent an overhaul in 2020 that lowered the threshold for prior review of share purchases to 1% from 10%. A supplementary provision of the revised law calls for a review five years after its enforcement. It is not clear how those potential

o New PM expresses frustration over low awareness of security risks

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s new government is considering creating its own version of the US committee that vets acquisitions by foreigners for national security concerns. The move to create a Japanese version of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) comes as Takaichi, a hardline conservative, looks to beef up such screenings. The ruling coalition is aiming to pass necessary legislation for such a panel in next year’s regular parliamentary session.

It is likely to be a panel that brings in members from ministries and agencies involved in investment screening to enhance their coordination, a source familiar with the thinking said. During the ruling party’s leadership race last month, Takaichi said she “keenly felt that among the ministries overseeing investment cases, some have a strong awareness of economic security and national defenxe, but others do not”. “That’s why I believe we need to establish a Japanese version of CFIUS for security clearance.”

Employees work at a copper smelter in the China city of Yantai. – REUTERSPIC

China industrial profits surge amid overcapacity crackdown

BEIJING: China’s industrial profits grew at their fastest pace in nearly two years in September, marking a second straight month of gains and signalling long-awaited measures designed to curb overcapacity and rebalance the economy may be gaining traction. Top leaders in July vowed to take steps to tackle loss-making, inefficient firms, prompted by rising fears of entrenched deflation in the world’s second-largest economy driven by brutal price wars and weak domestic demand. Analysts said Beijing’s policy shift, which occurred as US tariffs weighed on exports, amounted to reversing years of using cheap loans to prop up jobs and sustain provincial economies.

dependence on external demand at a time of mounting trade tensions with Washington raises questions over whether that pace can be sustained, as does its reliance on large, state-owned firms. Private-sector firms’ profits rose 5.1% in the first nine months of the year, though analysts noted the figure was skewed by a handful of large companies, including Chinese electric vehicle battery giant CATL, whose net profit jumped 41.2% year-on-year. State-owned firms posted a 0.3% decline in profits over the same period, the data showed. Many are highly exposed to recent global commodity price spikes and cannot easily lay off staff to improve margins, economists said. – Reuters

“The producer price index also rebounded slightly, a small positive step in the long journey to rebalancing the economy.” That said, China’s US$19 trillion economy remains far from stable, weighed down by a prolonged property slump, a fragile job market and heavily indebted local governments. Gross domestic product grew 4.8% in July-September, slowing from 5.2% in the second quarter, officials announced last week, keeping pressure on policymakers to roll out more stimulus to shore up momentum. And while the growth rate kept China on track to reach its target of roughly 5% this year, the economy’s

Giving policymakers cause for optimism, industrial profits rose at an annual rate of 21.6% in September – the fastest pace since November 2023 – following a 20.4% jump in August, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Monday. Industrial profits grew 3.2% over the January-September period. The figures cover firms with annual revenue of at least 20 million yuan (RM11.8 million) from their main operations. “The overall supply-demand picture has become slightly more balanced, industrial capacity utilisation has improved and industrial enterprise profit margins have increased,” said Xu Tianchen, senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit.