The Traderszone Network

HONG KONG/NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. billionaire Paul Singer appears to have paved the way for activist investors to fight for shareholders’ rights where few hedge funds have ventured: Asia’s biggest family-run firms. In the past few months, Singer’s $26 billion firm Elliott Management has taken on South Korea’s Lee family, founders of the Samsung Group [SAGR.UL], as well as the Li family, which founded Hong Kong’s third-largest lender Bank of East Asia Ltd (BEA) .

China’s Ant Financial Services Group, e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (BABA.N) internet finance affiliate, closed a private placement valuing the unit at about $45 billion, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday. Ant Financial sold stakes to external investors, including China Development Bank Capital Co and a holding company affiliated with David Yu, the co-founder of Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma’s private equity firm Yunfeng Capital, the person said, adding that they did not know how much was raised.

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U.S. consumer prices in May recorded their largest increase in more than two years as gasoline prices surged, suggesting the drag on inflation from lower oil prices was fading. The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits fell last week to a near 15-year low and factory activity in the mid-Atlantic region accelerated to a six-month high in June. Price stability and a strengthening economy, highlighted by the tightening labor market, likely will push the Federal Reserve a step closer to raising interest rates later this year.

McDonald’s Corp said Thursday that it will have fewer restaurants in the United States in 2015 than it did last year. In April, McDonald’s announced 350 restaurant closings in the United States, China and Japan, in addition to the 350 closings it had planned globally.

General Motors (GM.N) seeking advice from investment banks shows it is taking an attempt by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) (FCHA.MI) (FCAU.N) to force a merger with its larger U.S. rival seriously, analysts and traders said. GM openly rebuffed a merger proposal from the Italian-American carmaker earlier this year and CEO Mary Barra said last week she had no interest in a tie up.

Out-of-favor networking and data centers look attractive as the Nasdaq Composite index breaks new records, said Kevin Landis, whose $133.4 million Firsthand Technology Opportunities (TEFQX.O) fund is the top performing U.S. tech fund this year. Most tech investors continue to focus on wearable devices or so-called sharing economy companies such as taxi service Uber Inc or private real estate rental company Airbnb, Landis said.

Funded by a $40 million investment from Microsoft Corp., the University of Washington and China’s elite Tsinghua University will launch a new program in Seattle in the fall of 2016 to focus on technology and design innovation.
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