Investment banking fees fall 8 percent in weakest first quarter since 2012

(GNN) - Global investment banking fees fell 8 percent to $20 billion in the first quarter, the poorest start to the year since 2012, hurt by weak deal activity in Europe, Asia Pacific and Japan.

Fees for deals done fell 28 percent in Japan, 14 percent in Europe and 18 percent in Asia Pacific, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters and Freeman Consulting.

The North American investment banking market remained stable, with fees little changed at $11.5 billion.

JPMorgan Chase & Co topped the global investment banking league table in the quarter with $1.49 billion in fees. Goldman Sachs Group Inc was second with $1.48 billion.

Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc were the biggest gainers among the top 10 banks in fees earned, while Credit Suisse Group AG's fees dropped 23 percent.

Investment banking activity in the financial, healthcare, and energy and power sectors generated 54 percent of the global fee pool during the quarter.

Fees from deal making in the healthcare sector jumped 24 percent, with Goldman commanding 14 percent of all fees booked in the sector.

Equity capital markets underwriting fees fell 2 percent to $5.3 billion, dragged down by a 36 percent drop in fees from initial public offerings.

Fees from debt capital markets underwriting rose 4 percent to $6.3 billion, while mergers and acquisition advisory fees fell slightly to $5.5 billion.

Investment banking fees generated by financial sponsors and their portfolio companies dropped 30 percent to $2.5 billion. Blackstone Group LP's investment banking fees rose 79 percent to $168 million.

(Reuters)(Reporting by Amrutha Gayathri in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Rocket Internet-Backed Car Listings Site Carmudi Raises $25M To Fuel Growth In Asia And Mexico

(GNN) - Carmudi, a car classifieds site that focuses on emerging markets, announced today that it has raised $25 million to gear up its operations in Mexico and several Asian countries. This round, Carmudi’s second, includes Asia Pacific Internet Group (a joint venture between Rocket Internet and Ooredoo), Holtzbrinck Ventures, Tengelmann Ventures, as well as an undisclosed private investor.

This brings the total Carmudi has raised so far to $35 million. Its last funding round was in April 2014. The company, which was founded in 2013 and now operates in 20 countries, will use the funds to expand in seven Asian markets (Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam) as well as Mexico.

The company’s other markets are spread throughout Africa and the Middle East and include Cameroon, Congo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Tanzania, the United Arab Emirates, and Zambia.

Carmudi co-founder and global managing director Stefan Haubold says that the company plans to add more countries to its roster, but hasn’t decided which ones yet. Its latest round will be used to invest in product technology, in particular making its mobile app easier to use, and scaling up operations in Asia and Mexico.

The site currently has a total of 300,000 listings for vehicles worldwide, and claims five million users a month. Carmudi’s Android apps were rolled out last year, and it launched a iOS version earlier this month.
Carmudi’s mobile apps have been downloaded 300,000 times so far. In total, mobile visits now account for about 60 percent to 70 percent of its total traffic, which is important because the company is targeting markets where many users access the Internet primarily through smartphones or tablets.

Haubold claims that Carmudi is now the top car classifieds site in the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. In Asia, alternatives to Carmudi’s service include local car listings and classifieds sites in each market.

Haubold says his company differentiates through its mobile apps, which let buyers upload photos and descriptions of their cars; services like loan calculators; and inventory sweeps that clear out listings after a certain length of time (60 days for most listings and 45 for ones placed by dealerships) so buyers see fresh inventory.

In some Southeast Asia markets, Carmudi’s rivals include iCar Asia, which grew last year by making acquisitions of smaller car classified sites in Thailand and Indonesia. Haubold does not consider iCar Asia a competitor, however, because Carmudi has newer listings and operates in markets that do not overlap with iCar Asia.

Carmudi monetizes through listing fees, but is currently focused on expansion and growth, says Haubold.
Rocket Internet has been busy building a network of e-commerce services and marketplaces throughout Southeast Asia, including many (real estate classifieds platform Lamudi, price comparison site Pricepanda, and car-calling app Easy Taxi) included in the Asia Pacific Internet Group’s portfolio. This creates online and offline (in the case of logistics) networks that may eventually help each individual startup scale up faster.

Petroleum ministry contradicts Imran Khan’s statement

ISLAMABAD: The spokeperson of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources taking exception to the statement of Imran Khan has said that the statement made by him about petroleum prices in Pakistan is devoid of facts.

In a statement, he said that in fact the present government has substantially decreased the price of petrol already up to 30 rupees, which is based on actual import price in the past five months.

The prevalent per litre petrol price of Rs 78.28 in Pakistan is far cheaper compared to other countries in the region as per litre prices in India, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka are rupees 105, 92 and 97 respectively.

Petroleum prices are expected to be decreased further in February 2015, he added.

APP

Singtel, Sony And Warner’s New Video Streaming Service Beats Netflix To Asia

(AsiaTimes.ga) Telecom giant Singtel is planning to beat Netflix to the punch in Asia after it announced it has partnered with Sony Pictures and Warner Brothers to introduce a video streaming service in the region.

The companies said that HOOQ — which is described as a “joint venture startup” — will offer Hollywood movies and U.S. TV shows alongside domestic content from India, China, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Korea and Japan. In total, HOOQ will begin with an initial catalog of over 10,000 shows and movies.

There’s no specific launch date, but Singtel said the service will go online in the first quarter of 2015, initially in Indonesia, Philippines, India and Thailand. From there, the telecom giant is promising a ‘progressive rollout’ to other countries where it has business — other Singtel markets include Singapore, and Australia.

Also lacking from the initial announcement is an indication of price, but — interestingly — it looks like customers won’t be limited to paying via credit cards, as is the case with Netflix. Singtel said it will use its “billing capabilities” in countries where credit card ownership remains low, so that may mean customers can pay as part of their post-pay contract, and perhaps even using prepaid credit.

The timing of the launch is interesting because Netflix has not arrived in Asia Pacific yet. The U.S. company is preparing to launch in Australia and New Zealand sometime this year, after which it is likely to foray into Asian markets, so HOOQ will almost certainly be first in many parts of the region. You could see that as a first mover advantage, or a move that is good for the industry in general because it raises awareness of OTT video services in nascent markets.

Nonetheless, Peter Bithos, the CEO of HOOQ, believes that there is an immediate demand for Netflix-like video streaming services in Asia.

“We are starting this venture to change the way people across Asia view entertainment. Today, across developing markets, there is limited access to quality entertainment, streamed directly to the screen of one’s choice. It’s either illegal, high cost or difficult to get. We aim to fix that,” he said in a statement.

Piracy and lack of awareness are often cited as major barriers for licensed streaming services in Asia but, with two content companies and one telco on board, HOOQ is no bootstrapped startup. It could use Singtel’s network of operators — which reach a total subscriber base of over 500 million customers — and vast resources to gain traction from the get-go.

No doubt we’ll be hearing more updates from HOOQ very soon.

Featured Image: Marc Bruxelle/Shutterstock

India’s Mad Street Den Raises $1.5M To Bring The Benefits Of AI To Apps And Services

(AsiaTimes.ga) Mad Street Den, a one-year-old artificial intelligence startup based in Chennai, India, has closed a $1.5 million seed round to bring technology developed in the labs to consumers in a useful way.

Reservoir Investments’ Exfinity Fund and GrowX Ventures provided the capital, which Mad Street Den will use for making new hires and working with partners to license and use its AI tech in apps and services.

The startup was founded by husband and wife duo Anand Chandrasekaran, a neuroscientist who graduated from Stanford, and Ashwani Asokan, who was previously with Intel Labs. The couple spent a cumulative 25 years working in the U.S., but returned to their country of birth last year to start the company.

“Relocating was a very deliberate decision,” Mad Street Den CEO Asokan told TechCrunch in an interview. “People in India and Asia are leaping frogging generations of technology, and we thought ‘where better to experiment with this stuff?'”

Location aside, Mad Street Den is different to other AI companies because it is focused on a platform of vertical services that partners can license to use in their products. It offers five different applications of AI, but Asokan explained e-commerce and analytics are proving to be the most popular with its handpicked list of partners.

E-Commerce And Analytics
The e-commerce product is centered around fashion, and offers a range of advanced services such as visual search. That could allow a shopper to take a photo of a bag or top, for example, then select their favorite color and find the nearest match on an e-commerce site.

Mad Street Den timed its arrival perfectly, since India’s e-commerce segment took off last year. Flipkart raised close to $2 billion in funding from VCs in 2014, Jeff Bezos cut Amazon India a $2 billion check for growth, and SoftBank backed Snapdeal with hundreds of millions of dollars too.

Asokan said Mad Street Den is in talks with “several” undisclosed e-commerce companies with a view to introducing its technology in their services in India before the summer. After that, she added, it will look to the wider Asia region.

Beyond e-commerce, Mad Street Den’s potential for analytics is particularly interesting.

Asokan said that its facial recognition technology could, for example, be used to detect a person’s general happiness for a week, their favorite colors, and more just from their Instagram photos. (Sidenote: be careful what you share on social media, kids.)

Right now, Mad Street Den is making money via API calls but in the future it will model its pricing based on the specifics of each vertical. For example, e-commerce partners could pay via affiliate commission or revenue-sharing, while other industries could be billed via licensing fees.

Offering Its Own Services Too

Beyond the platform play, the startup is also looking to release its own services and applications based on its technology. Asokan said that a range of ‘proofs of concept’ have been created — including a “short of staring competition game,” which I think sounds fascinating — but Mad Street Den is waiting until the right time before it launches them.

The startup has six full-time staff at this point and has bootstrapped itself so far. Asohan revealed that the company wasn’t looking for money but it sees this as an opportunity to accelerate its development.

“We weren’t planning to raise but word spread like crazy… and the VCs descended. People are already knocking on the door about our Series A… by the summer, when we should start seeing our services in the market, then we’ll be ready,” she said.

Until then, Mad Street Den plans to use most of the capital to hire “very senior people in the Valley” who its founders are connected with. Asohan expects the startup to at least double its headcount this year, but there are no plans for a U.S. office yet.

Featured Image: vitma/Shutterstock

Anti-Charlie rally in Pakistan draws 5,000

(AsiaTimes.ga) - Around 5,000 people rallied against French magazine Charlie Hebdo in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore on Sunday, and the founder of a group banned for militant links urged protesters to boycott French products.

Hafiz Saeed, who founded Lashkar-e-Taiba, an organization banned for launching attacks in neighboring India, told protesters: "We will launch a movement against the insulting caricatures of our beloved prophet."

French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published a picture of the Prophet Muhammad weeping on its cover last week after two gunmen stormed its offices and killed 12 people. The gunmen said their attack was revenge for previous cartoons the magazine had published mocking Islam.

Saeed urged traders to stop importing French products and for Pakistani leaders to try to get an international law against blasphemy passed.

Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan.

On Friday, protesters trying to storm the French consulate in the southern city of Karachi shot and injured a photographer working for French news agency AFP.

Saeed called for more rallies next Friday. He says he has no links to militancy these days and only runs a charity, which is banned by the U.S. government for suspected militant links. The U.S. government has offered $10 million for information leading to Saeed's conviction.

(Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Clelia Oziel)(GA, Reuters, Asia Times)

President, Prime Minister meet business people #pmln

(ATimes) President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Wednesday that every possible facility will be provided to the business community to bolster trade activities in the country. The President and Prime Minister expressed these views in a meeting with a delegation of businessmen and industrialists here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr.

The Prime Minister earlier held a one-on-one meeting with the President. President Mamnoon said the importance of strong economy has increased manifold in the era of globalisation and termed liberal trade policies a vital factor in this regard.

He said the government is sincerely taking steps in the right direction for the improvement of national economy and promotion of business activities. He urged the business community to benefit from the trade policies of the government and mentioned the flexible business policies of the country.

The President said that law and order situation and energy crisis are major impediments towards smooth continuation of business activities in the country, however expressed hope that these issues would be overcome soon.

Prime Minister Sharif said the government is taking steps towards facilitating businesspeople. He mentioned that the country was facing big challenges of terrorism and energy shortages, and added that efforts were afoot to meet these challenges and increase electricity generation. Besides, he said the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet energy demand.

He said infrastructure development was the government’s major priority and said a motorway would be constructed from Lahore to Karachi.

Sharif said, “We have discouraged lethargy in the government’s decision-making and are bringing an economic turnaround in the country.” He said economic indicators are improving, foreign currency reserves and stock market are high and rupee was stable against dollar. The Prime Minister said a 20-point agenda has been prepared for rooting out terrorism and extremism from the country. He said the 21st Amendment and the amendment to the Army Act are important steps “to clear this mess.”

He said swift justice is key to eradicating terrorism and the people spreading hatred and sectarianism would be tried in military courts. He said the Operation Zarb-e-Azb has played an important role in dismantling terror infrastructure and those terrorising society in the name of religion will be brought to justice.

Under the National Action Plan, another operation was being launched to make the country peaceful, he added. “These decisions have been taken in national interest and should have been taken earlier,” he said. The PM said the government will give incentives to the business community and said steps will be taken to woo overseas Pakistanis to invest in Pakistan.

He asked the Federal Board of Revenue to consider decreasing tax rates to encourage more people pay taxes resulting in larger revenue collection. He directed the Chairman FBR to hold a meeting with members of the business community to sort out their issues and apprise him personally on the outcome.

The Prime Minister also directed the Ministry of Water and Power and Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) to expedite approvals of pending cases of power plants and immediately remove all hurdles. The businesspeople gave relevant suggestions to the President and the Prime Minister. They regarded the unity displayed by all parties on the issue of terrorism as a good omen.

The meeting was informed that overseas Pakistanis are sending 25 billion dollars annually through different channels, and also Free Trade Agreement 2 is being negotiated with China. It will be independent of FTA 1, signed nine years ago. Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir Minister for Water and Power Khwaja Asif, Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Chairman FBR and Secretary Water and Power were present.

APP, Asia Times