tyb's
Habby Thanksgibing!
Ant Group cleared to sell $3bn of asset-backed securities
Ant Group Co. won approval to raise 20 billion yuan ($3.04 billion) by selling securities backed by consumer loans after a Chinese regulatory crackdown on microlending sank the fintech giant's planned record initial public offering in Shanghai and Hong Kong. The company sought approval earlier in November for asset-backed securities issued by its consumer microlending units, the operators of the Huabei and Jiebei platforms. After the Shanghai Stock Exchange cleared the listing applications, Ant has an additional 26 billion yuan of ABSs pending approval by the exchange.
Ant makes roughly half its profits from online microlending. A new set of rules on online microlending issued by regulators earlier this month was the reason Ant's IPO was halted. The rules introduce a number of restrictions on Ant that will have a major impact on the company's business, revenue structure and future growth, so the company will need to disclose the impact to investors before an IPO.
In the past few years, Ant managed to scale up its microlending business quickly by selling asset-backed securities pools of loans packaged and sold to investors and by partnering with financial institutions to issue joint loans. About 500 million people borrowed through Jiebei and Huabei in the 12 months through June 30, with outstanding loans of 2.15 trillion yuan. About 98% of the credit was either underwritten by partner financial institutions or securitized, according to Ant's prospectus. The new rules will limit the leverage ratio of microlenders to 16 times net assets. Analysts have widely estimated that Ant Group's online lending business has a leverage ratio exceeding 60 times net assets.
Analysts said they expect Ant may have to change the way it raises money to fund Huabei and Jiebei, crimping expansion in the short term. The new rules could slash Ant's annual profits on credit-related business from the current 10 billion yuan to 4 billion yuan, said Ji Shaofeng, a microlending business analyst. That would reduce the company's valuation to less than 1.5 trillion yuan from nearly 2 trillion yuan previously, Ji said.
Ant has scaled back its ABS sales and increased its capital under regulatory pressure. As of the end of June, Chongqing Ant Shangcheng Micro Loan Co. and Chongqing Ant Small and Micro Loan Co., operators of Huabei and Jiebei, had total assets of 35 billion yuan. Under the new rules, Ant can issue up to 140 billion yuan of ABSs. Regulators called off Ant's Shanghai offering on Nov. 3, one day after the new microlending rules were released. A concurrent share sale in Hong Kong was also suspended. The dual listing was set to become the world's biggest ever, raising $34.5 billion.
As for when Ant's IPO could take place, China Securities Regulatory Commission Vice Chairman Fang Xinghai did not give a clear timetable, saying it "depends on how the government restructures our regulatory framework in terms of financial technology and also depends on how the company reacts to the changing regulatory requirements."
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Caixin/Ant-Group-cleared-to-sell-3bn-of-asset-backed-securities
FORTE10 USAF Global Hawk drone over eastern Ukraine
It has dropped off the scope
it's probably just someone's art project that was never seen
Hungary, Poland double down to try to eject rule of law condition from EU budget
Hungary and Poland insisted there could be no rule of law conditions to access the European Union’s multiannual budget and recovery fund unless the EU changes its founding treaty, digging in their heels as the bloc seeks to unwind the deadlock.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Thursday his country would have Poland’s backing in the continued row over the pair’s recent blocking of the 1.8 trillion euros worth of EU funds vital to restart the economies of the 27 member states. The veto decision by Poland and Hungary, both beneficiaries of the budget and the recovery plan, is likely to delay hundreds of billions of euros in funds just as the 27-nation bloc is facing a second wave of COVID-19 and a double-dip recession.
Resolving the issue is in the interest of Poland and Hungary, which would receive some of the highest amounts per capita from the EU. Both badly need the funds to help their economies overcome the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. “This debate cannot be solved with money,” Orban, standing alongside Poland’s premier Mateusz Morawiecki, said in a press statement in Budapest.
“Those who conflate these two issues (rule of law and crisis funding) are irresponsible as at a time of crisis rapid decisions are needed to aid the economy.” The crisis compounds an already thorny relationship between Brussels and its two rogue members, which have been accused of eroding democratic standards 30 years after shaking off their Soviet overlords. Both countries are under EU investigation for undermining the independence of courts, media and non-governmental organisations.
The premiers also issued a joint statement which emphasised they would have each other’s backs in upcoming negotiations. They proposed a “two-track process” to facilitate the adoption of the financial package, saying it should be discussed in the European Council “whether a link between the Rule of Law and the financial interests of the Union should be established”. Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki repeated the veto was a real weapon.
“The use of veto today is the base scenario that we discussed in order to actually change the bad dynamics that have recently been imposed,” Morawiecki said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/eu-budget-hungary-poland/update-2-hungary-poland-double-down-to-try-to-eject-rule-of-law-condition-from-eu-budget-idUSL1N2IC0KV
Hayabusa2 adjusts for return of capsule to Earth
Japan's asteroid explorer Hayabusa2 has completed its engine thrusts to adjust the orbit for returning its capsule to Earth next month. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, launched the probe in 2014. It is about 3.5 million kilometers from Earth, traveling at about four kilometers per second. Hayabusa2 is scheduled to release the capsule on December 5. The capsule is expected to land in an Australian desert on December 6 and be taken to Japan by plane.
The capsule is believed to contain sand samples from the asteroid Ryugu, where the probe touched down twice. Its contents are to be distributed to researchers for analysis to find possible clues about the origins of life.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20201126_35/
'merican cheesecake with blueberry and cranberry compote and some whipping cream for the stripes
nom nom!
credit to spouse anon
I'll get right on 'dat