THE Wall Street Journal will shift its Asia headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore, it said on Thursday (May 2) in a letter sent to staff and seen by AFP.

The US newspaper said its decision comes after other foreign firms have reconsidered their operations in Chinese financial hub Hong Kong.

WSJ editor-in-chief Emma Tucker said in a letter to staff that the shift would also involve an unspecified number of layoffs.

Announcing changes to the WSJ’s Asia operations, Tucker wrote: “Some of these changes are structural: We are bringing together our business, finance and economics coverage. Some are geographic: We are shifting our centre of gravity in the region from Hong Kong to Singapore, as many of the companies we cover have done.”

On the staff changes, she added: “Consequently, some of our colleagues, mostly in Hong Kong, will be leaving us. It is difficult to say goodbye, and I want to thank them for the contributions they have made to the Journal.”

The union for WSJ employees, the Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees, said in a statement that it was “sorry to learn that eight reporters from the Hong Kong and Singapore offices have been laid off from the company”.

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Elsewhere in the region, the WSJ also has bureaus in Tokyo, New Delhi, Beijing, Seoul, Taiwan and Sydney.

Tucker said a new business, finance and economics group would be created with a mandate to “break news and write ambitious and distinctive features, analysis and enterprise”.

She also said the WSJ was looking to appoint an editor to lead the group, with the position based in Singapore, alongside a number of other journalist roles in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Tucker was named the first female editor of the New York-based newspaper in December 2022, starting in the role in February 2023.

Hong Kong authorities this year introduced a new national security law, with critics saying it expanded the city’s powers to prosecute dissidents, and that it was scaring foreign businesses away.

The new law expands on a national security law implemented by China in 2020 to quell the huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests that swept Hong Kong the year before.

More than 290 people have been arrested, 174 charged and 114 convicted – most of them prominent pro-democracy politicians, activists and journalists – since Beijing’s security law was enacted.

US news outlet Radio Free Asia announced in March it had closed its Hong Kong office, citing concerns about staff safety, while media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said in April a representative was denied entry into the city.

Hong Kong was once home to a thriving independent media environment.

Authorities have since closed several local media outlets, including Stand News and Apple Daily. AFP

TOP Australian investment bank Macquarie Group reported its annual profit fell by a third, the sharpest decline in 15 years, as stabilising energy markets hammered its commodities trading unit and it made less money selling green energy assets.

The result on Friday (May 3) came after several years of blockbuster profits from the financial giant’s commodities division, which had benefited from unusually volatile European energy markets after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and heightened demand for oil and gas in North America.

Profit from the Sydney-based company’s main earner fell 47 per cent in the year ended Mar 31. Along with what the company said was a decision to keep green energy assets in its broader portfolio, the commodities unit dragged down overall profit by 32 per cent to A$3.5 billion (S$3.1 billion).

The company cut its final dividend to A$3.85 per share from A$4.50 a year earlier.

“It’s obviously been a more challenging environment from a realisation perspective,” chief financial officer Alex Harvey said on a call with analysts, referring to green energy asset sales.

Shares of Macquarie were down 2 per cent, against a 0.6 per cent gain on the broader market, as analysts noted a sharper-than-expected slump from the commodities unit but a headline result that was in line with forecasts.

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“Net, headlines show an inline result albeit quality looks soft,” analysts at Jarden wrote in a client note.

The company did not give specific profit guidance, but said it expected commodities income to be “broadly in line” with the 2024 result in the short term and higher investment-related income from green investments.

For Macquarie, “FY24 is a trough year, with activity set to rebound in FY25”, Jefferies analysts said in a note.

Though Macquarie’s commodities business delivered nearly half its profit, the bank said it grew earnings at its Australian retail banking unit, which provided about a fifth of overall profit. The division grew mortgages faster than the overall market, and now has 5.3 per cent of the country’s A$2 trillion in home loans.

The company’s investment banking and advisory arm, Macquarie Capital, which supplies about a sixth of profit, lifted earnings (M&A) by 31 per cent thanks to growth in its private credit portfolio, offsetting lower fee income from mergers and acquisitions due to weaker deal flows.

Total M&A volumes globally climbed 30 per cent to about US$755.1 billion in the first three months of the year after a downbeat 2023, according to data from Dealogic.

“There’s a huge pent-up pool of transactions to happen,” Macquarie chief executive officer Shemara Wikramanayake told reporters. “Buyers and sellers have to have confidence that the market has settled. We’re starting to see that.”

The earnings downturn played out in declines in pay at the company nicknamed the “millionaires factory”.

Wikramanayake, the highest-paid employee, collected A$25 million for the year, down from A$33 million the prior year due to a reduced profit share, according to Macquarie’s annual report that was also published on Friday.

Macquarie’s former head of commodities and global markets, Nick O’Kane, previously the company’s top-paid employee, collected A$1 million for the year, down from A$57 million the prior year, after leaving the company in March without serving the amount of time required to get his profit share for the year. REUTERS

HSBC has appointed Gilbert Ng, former head of corporate banking at Citigroup, as its new head of global banking for Singapore. The appointment was effective from Thursday (May 2).

Ng succeeds Priya Kini, who assumed the position of head of Singapore commercial banking at HSBC earlier this year. In his new role, Ng is responsible for driving the global banking strategy and franchise growth, as well as supporting the bank’s advisory, financing and transaction banking solutions for major clients in Singapore.

He reports functionally to Christina Ma, head of global banking for the Asia-Pacific, and at country level to Wong Kee Joo, chief executive officer of HSBC Singapore.

Having spent more than 17 years at Citi, Ng has extensive corporate finance and risk management experience. He also has a strong client network that spans local and multinational corporations, the public sector and financial institutions in Singapore.

Wong noted that Ng’s track record in building a resilient client coverage business will accelerate HSBC’s growth in Singapore.

“As more global businesses look to set up their regional headquarters and treasury centres in Singapore to facilitate their growth in the region, it is critical that we can tap on his deep market knowledge to support our clients as they scale up,” Wong added.

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