AEC Feed

A hung parliament in the UK is translating into losses for one of Asia’s richest men.
Li Ka-shing has much riding on Britain as the country is the biggest profit generator at the billionaire’s business empire. He operates Superdrug and Savers stores, ports, the Three phone service, as well as gas and electricity distribution according to Bloomberg.
His Hong Kong-based flagship CK Hutchison generated 36 per cent of its total earnings before interest and taxes from the country last year.
Li’s companies are falling “because of the currency issue – there would be a direct impact on their assets and earnings when translated into Hong Kong dollars,” said Daniel So, a strategist at CMB International Securities Ltd in Hong Kong.
The billionaire last year warned that the fallout from the nation’s decision to leave the European Union would last for years.
CK Hutchison dropped as much as 2.3 per cent before trading 1.8 per cent lower at 3.18pm in Hong Kong. Cheung Kong Infrastructure slid 2.1 per cent . The city’s benchmark stock index slipped 0.1 per cent. – The Star 

MasterCard innovations in e-commerce solutions
The Singapore office of MasterCard Labs, a research and development centre managed by American multinational financial services company MasterCard, recently hosted a showcase for innovation in digital commerce solutions that will be developed by various similar units around the world.
The Innovation Showcase of the MasterCard Labs in Singapore last week exhibited financial technology (fintech) innovations developed by various MasterCard Labs worldwide to support digital payment services.
The innovations include interactive features with robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), automated retail, virtual reality and biometrics.
“MasterCard’s expanded labs in Singapore underscores our commitment to work together with our partners and key stakeholders to focus on addressing the biggest friction points and real-world issues across the commerce and payment eco-system,” said Tobias Puehse, vice president of innovation management, digital payments and labs at Mastercard's Asia Pacific office.- The Jakarta Post 

APP seeks to boost exports of paper used for Koran
Paper producer Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) is forecasting that sales of the special paper used to print the Koran will increase 7 per cent to 23.6 tonnes this year, thanks to strong demand from countries in the Middle East, such as Iran, Egypt and Lebanon.
APP, the subsidiary of diversified conglomerate Sinar Mas Group, covers 60 per cent of the Koran paper needs worldwide. About 70 per cent of this paper is exported to the Middle East, while 8 per cent is sold to the Indonesian market and the rest to other countries.
“Each market has a specific demand for the paper. For example, Egypt prefers to use 55 gsm [grams per square meter] paper, while Beirut prefers 50 gsm,” said Citra Yulia, APP’s product manager of colour paper.
To boost exports, the company consistently develops new products to satisfy customers’ preference. On top of that, as the paper is used for holy books, the firm also ensures that the manufacturing process is free from non-halal substances. “In the future, we are targeting to supply halal paper for Madinah Quran Printing in Saudi Arabia,” Yulia said. |– The Jakarta Post

AEOI compliance vital to fair tax treatment 
Indonesia’s Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has warned that failure to comply with the requirements of the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) by the end of June will create hurdles for the government to enforce fair tax treatment on big and small taxpayers.
Sri Mulyani said even with only partial compliance to the AEOI, a global initiative to combat tax evasion, Indonesia would not be able to get reciprocal information from other governments about Indonesian taxpayers’ assets abroad.
“It means that to fulfill the tax revenue, we have to seek mostly from the taxpayers who placed their assets in Indonesia, and we cannot 'catch' the big taxpayers who moved their assets abroad. It will be unfair,” Sri Mulyani said. – The Jakarta Post