Chris Wright
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Author and journalist. Author, No More Worlds To Conquer (HarperCollins); Rum & Coal (Calvi); Millionaires' Factory (Allen & Unwin). Founder, Resonate Global
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Articles by Chris Wright
Bovine disease update: FMD, NWS and LSD
Biosecurity Treatments and Prevention New World Screwworm Foot and mouth disease, new world screwworm and lumpy skin disease continue to plague the cattle industry Editor's note: The following is an excerpt of a report by the World Organization for Animal Health: The State of the World’s Animal Health 20251 From January 2024 to May 2025, 46 countries reported a total of 6,895 foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks to the World Animal Health Information System (WAHIS), including 32 exceptional...
Bovine disease update: FMD, NWS and LSD
Biosecurity Treatments and Prevention New World Screwworm Foot and mouth disease, new world screwworm and lumpy skin disease continue to plague the cattle industry Editor's note: The following is an excerpt of a report by the World Organization for Animal Health: The State of the World’s Animal Health 20251 From January 2024 to May 2025, 46 countries reported a total of 6,895 foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks to the World Animal Health Information System (WAHIS), including 32 exceptional...
How Trump Can Win on Energy: Zero Energy Poverty
Kamala Harris and her new running mate, Tim Walz, will impoverish America. That’s the best way to understand one of their most important—yet least-known—policy pipe dreams. As vice president, Harris has backed so-called net zero, which means offsetting every iota of manmade greenhouse gases. Walz, as governor, has pushed one of the most aggressive net-zero policies in America, mandating no carbon emissions in Minnesota by 2040. This promise is economic suicide.
SEC rebuked in SolarWinds decision. What does it mean?
The judge’s ruling rejected SEC oversight of cybersecurity controls, The decision, which is viewed by many as a major loss for the SEC in its attempts to expand cyber oversight, potentially: Reduces companies’ potential exposure to government penalties after cyberattacks. Allows cyber incident victims to more safely and transparently share information post-incident with customers, investors and authorities.
Arsenal launch Stella McCartney away kit for 2023-24 season - ESPN - ESPN
In 1968, the American scientists Paul and Anne Ehrlich published The Population Bomb. In it, The Ehrlichs foresaw widespread death and despair as global populations—especially in the lower-income countries of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa—grew beyond the “limits” of global agricultural output. The Ehrlichs were wrong. Populations continued to expand over the second half of the twentieth century, but so did agricultural output.
Australian regulator blocks ANZ-Suncorp but pushes alternative
The decision by Australia’s competition regulator to block the takeover of Suncorp by ANZ gives some clear signals for the future of Australian banking. It is not a huge surprise to see the deal blocked, given that it would make the 'big four' an even bigger four. There had been a school of thought that this deal might get over the line because ANZ is the smallest of the four, behind Commonwealth Bank of Australia, NAB and Westpac.
GIC portfolio mix heralds the top for private equity
Whenever Singapore’s GIC sovereign wealth fund reports its annual numbers, the first place we turn is the portfolio asset mix. Sovereign funds, in the main, move at a tectonic pace, so the year-on-year shifts are rarely dramatic. But viewed over a decent time horizon, they’re like rings in the trunk of a tree: each one identifiable as of a particular age and time. Let’s compare this year’s report, expressing the position on March 31 2023, with the report for 2017. The differences are stark.
India’s banks show the impact of a buzzing economy and digital uplift
India’s banks have successfully anchored their performance to one of the world’s most vibrant economies. First-quarter bank earnings show dramatic growth as the country’s businesses and retail consumers have left the pandemic behind, powered by a compelling domestic story resilient to global shocks. On Saturday, ICICI reported a 39.7% year-on-year increase in profit after tax, to $1.2 billion equivalent for the first quarter.
What Temasek is doing after seven-year low
Temasek disclosed its worst result in seven years in July, a 5.07% decline in total shareholder returns, dropping the net portfolio value to S$382 billion ($288 billion) as of March 31, down from S$403 billion in 2022.
Africa needs equity capital to drive its digital transformation
Two vastly different yet curiously similar worlds met at the Inclusive Fintech Forum in a conference centre in Kigali in June. Rwanda was the host of the event, through its Kigali International Financial Centre; but just as prominent – and very much an enabler of the event – was Singapore.
Partnerships are key to driving financial innovation in Africa
One day in 2020, the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) got an unexpected call from the government. Sassa, which pays social grants to South Africans, had been identified as a Covid-19 super-spreader, the government said. The problem was the sheer size of the queues at Sassa paypoints for grant recipients. “We want you to solve the problem and we are giving you two weeks,” Fanie Sethokga, general manager of grants operations at Sassa, recalls being told.
Banking: Indonesia in the sweet spot
In Eastern Kalimantan, Indonesia, inland from the port of Balikpapan, we are looking at the place from which a new capital city will spring.
Deutsche and Barclays eye private credit opportunity in wake of Credit Suisse takeover
The takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS has the industry in Asia wondering about what’s going to happen to one of the most successful elements of CS’s book: its expertise in structured private lending. Few are watching developments more closely than the two other international banks that are most active in this space: Deutsche Bank and Barclays. Credit Suisse was renowned for its work in this area, particularly in southeast Asia and most obviously Indonesia.
MUFG launches stablecoin platform as new law takes effect
MUFG has been quick to embrace a change in Japanese law around stablecoins. On June 1, a new bill came into effect, setting a governing code around stablecoins – which are a form of cryptocurrency typically backed by a reserve asset. The bill, passed into law a year earlier, requires that stablecoins be pegged to the yen or other legal tender, with guaranteed redemption to the holder at face value, and that they can only be issued by banks and trust companies.
Banking: Indonesia in the sweet spot
Euromoney is in Eastern Kalimantan, Indonesia, inland from the port of Balikpapan. Here, at a clearing they’re calling Ground Zero – they might need to work on that branding – we are looking at the place from which a new capital city will spring.
Morgan Stanley surprises in Asian investment banking
Here is a statistic you might have missed. Morgan Stanley’s first-quarter results for the year to March 31, featured the bank’s third-best quarter from Asia – ever. That’s right. In this dismal environment, with capital markets activity stymied by rising rates, inflation and feeble risk tolerance, a US investment bank delivered a quarter of earnings that has only ever been beaten twice, through years and years of boom markets. Your next question: how?
Lessons from the Rakuten Bank IPO
The Rakuten Bank IPO on in April tells us that fintech or internet banking IPOs can still get away in these treacherous times – but with a considerable trade off. Rakuten Bank and its lead banker, Daiwa Securities, have been trying to navigate a path to listing since announcing their intentions to do so in July 2022. The deal faced challenges both external and entirely self-inflicted.
Morgan Stanley surprises in Asian investment banking
Here is a statistic you might have missed. Morgan Stanley’s first-quarter results, announced last week for the year to March 31, featured the bank’s third-best quarter from Asia – ever. That’s right. In this dismal environment, with capital markets activity stymied by rising rates, inflation and feeble risk tolerance, a US investment bank delivered a quarter of earnings that has only ever been beaten twice, through years and years of boom markets. Your next question: how?
Lessons from the Rakuten Bank IPO
The Rakuten Bank IPO on Friday tells us that fintech or internet banking IPOs can still get away in these treacherous times – but with a considerable trade off. Rakuten Bank and its lead banker, Daiwa Securities, have been trying to navigate a path to listing since announcing their intentions to do so in July 2022. The deal faced challenges both external and entirely self-inflicted.
Is Australia’s boring banking model fit for rising rates?
Now, I don’t expect you to give much of a stuff about this, but I’m paying 7.92% on my mortgage in Australia. St George Bank helpfully appends this figure with a vivid red button offering 'Fix this rate?', a button I don’t recall being quite so visible when I was paying 4%. I will live. But it got me thinking. Australia’s banks are considered safe as houses, largely because they’re built on the safety of houses. But what if they are not all that safe?
Combining UBS and Credit Suisse in Asia - the potential and the reality
You know, if you were looking at two investment banking franchises to bolt together in Asia, trying to avoid obvious overlaps and seeking to build a business with across-the-board strength, you could do worse than picking UBS and Credit Suisse. But there is a very big 'if'. Two ifs, in fact. On paper, the investment banking operations of the two newlywed Swiss houses look like a more than decent match.
Japan Post share sale an instructive sign for ECM
News that Japan Post Holdings plans to raise around $9.5 billion equivalent from the sale of shares in its banking unit should be welcomed, not only in Japan but regionally. It is a sign that, despite continuing global volatility, equity capital markets deals will get away. We are not yet seeing many IPOs, for the very good reason that there is surely going to be a better time for any private company to face markets for the first time.
Japan’s banks watch inflation with rising concern
If you are Japanese, you have spent the last three decades thinking of inflation as no more pertinent to your everyday life than the preppy local fashions of the 1980s: you’re aware that they happened, but it was all such a long time ago. But suddenly – and it does feel sudden – core inflation in Japan is at about 4%, its highest level for 40 years. Nobody is talking about deflation anymore, which is quite the change when economists have talked about little else since about 1995.
How Macquarie took on the world
When you write a book about Macquarie, the first thing you realize is that it is everywhere. The second thing you realize is how it got there: not from some grand over-arching design decided in a Sydney boardroom, but through the opportunism of people on the ground.
Vision Fund woes paint a bleak picture for tech bankers
There is a chart in SoftBank’s latest earnings presentation that, in its sharp rise and lurching fall, brings to mind the straight flanks of Mount Fuji, only considerably steeper. One finds this massif in a chart called ‘Gain/loss on investments (cumulative), Vision Funds’. It showed a $5.2 billion loss on investments for the Vision Funds for the quarter, the misery of which is only alleviated by the fact that it is not as bad as any of the previous three.
Where does the fallout from the Adani crisis take India now?
Perhaps it was the moment dozens of parliamentarians took to the grounds of New Delhi’s parliament with placards and chants when it really became clear that the Adani crisis had grown beyond one company’s credibility. In front of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, with a sign the width of a bus saying: 'We Demand JPC or SC Monitored Probe on ADANI SCANDAL' (Indian protest slogans do tend toward the verbose), the MPs shouted long and hard enough to adjourn both houses of India’s parliament.
India’s Adani: Anatomy of a crisis
Chris Wright is Asia editor. He covers the Asia Pacific region and is based in Singapore. He has previously been Middle East editor of Euromoney, editor of Asiamoney, investment editor of the Australian Financial Review and a correspondent on emerging markets and sovereign wealth for numerous publications worldwide. He has also written two books.
Where does the fallout from the Adani crisis take India now?
Perhaps it was the moment dozens of parliamentarians took to the grounds of New Delhi’s parliament with placards and chants when it really became clear that the Adani crisis had grown beyond one company’s credibility. In front of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, with a sign the width of a bus saying: 'We Demand JPC or SC Monitored Probe on ADANI SCANDAL' (Indian protest slogans do tend toward the verbose), the MPs shouted long and hard enough to adjourn both houses of India’s parliament.
Vision Fund woes paint a bleak picture for tech bankers
There is a chart in SoftBank’s latest earnings presentation that, in its sharp rise and lurching fall, brings to mind the straight flanks of Mount Fuji, only considerably steeper. One finds this massif in a chart called ‘Gain/loss on investments (cumulative), Vision Funds’.
India: Adani row strikes at the heart of a tangled political story
It is crunch time for a key deal whose immediate troubles are just the visible part of a much more complex and sensitive set of issues. Tuesday is the closing date for a $2.5 billion equity capital raising by Adani Enterprises. The issuer and its bookrunning lead managers – the prospectus lists 10 of them, covering almost every important domestic house in India – have a decision to make.
StanChart back in play as Abu Dhabi bid revealed
Confirmation that First Abu Dhabi Bank considered a tilt at Standard Chartered raises a number of interesting questions and ideas. The deal didn’t happen – and now won’t. But on January 5, First Abu Dhabi Bank confirmed it had “previously been at the very early stages of evaluating a possible offer for Standard Chartered.” Even the confirmation that it had thought about doing so pushed the StanChart share price up by 8%, which suggests the market thinks a takeover remains on the cards.
Sovereign funds lost $1 trillion in 2022 - but where?
We all know 2022 was a miserable year for sovereign wealth funds, as it was for all diversified institutional investors. But just how bad was it? The first attempt at assessing the carnage has come from the Global SWF research group. Its report, released on New Year’s Day, asserts that 2022 was the first year ever that sovereign wealth funds shrank in value. It’s not an easy figure to pin down.
Can investors still find an edge in private markets?
For a decade now, private markets have been seen as a magic bullet, a solution to a range of ills. Low interest rates and no decent yield available in public debt? Re-allocate to private markets. Equities toppy and lacking fundamental strength? Private markets will do the trick. Inflation rampant? A swift allocation to private markets will hedge us nicely.
Stoehr the most senior of Credit Suisse’s Asia exodus
Carsten Stoehr has become the latest, and most important, of a wave of departures from Credit Suisse in Asia. Stoehr’s affiliation with the Swiss bank began back in 1994, although he did leave for a time; upon his 2016 return he became a key fixture of the bank’s Asian operations. He was made the head of the financing group for Asia Pacific, a newly created role that roughly coincided with Asia Pacific becoming a standalone unit of Credit Suisse.
What went wrong with the ASX blockchain landmark?
It was supposed to be a game changer, the great step forward in the use of blockchain technology that would elevate it from a clever but nebulous idea to the heart of real-world financial markets. After two years of study, the Australian Securities Exchange appointed a company in 2017 called Digital Asset Holdings to build a distributed-ledger system to replace the ASX’s 25-year-old clearing and settlement systems, called Chess (Clearing House Electronic Subregister System).
The Philippines gets a sovereign wealth fund
The Philippines is the latest developing country to get a sovereign wealth fund. Long-discussed, a sovereign vehicle was proposed in a bill introduced to the country’s parliament at the end of November. It will be called Maharlika Investments Fund. Martin G Romualdez, Speaker of the House of Representatives (and cousin of president Ferdinand Marcos Jr), put out a press release explaining the new vehicle (calling it Maharlika Wealth Fund, slightly different to the name on the House bill).
China Investment Corporation had a fine 2021, but how will this year look?
It is time for China Investment Corporation’s (CIC) annual look in the rear-view mirror. Perhaps it is a sign of the pace at which our world is changing, but CIC’s annual reviews – generally published about 11 months after the conclusion of the previous year – seem so dated in recent times they could be steeped in sepia. CIC’s 2021 was, in hindsight, a year of rare benevolence.
MUFG’s consumer finance deals show southeast Asia is Japan’s banking future
MUFG’s decision to buy two southeast Asian consumer finance businesses fits in with a theme it has articulated for some years: to compensate for low growth and miserable demographics in Japan by gaining exposure to markets with very different dynamics. Today [November 24], MUFG said it would acquire 100% of the shares of HC Consumer Finance Philippines and 85% of the shares of PT Home Credit Indonesia.
Have private markets reached saturation?
Private markets: the magic bullet. Protected from the swings and plunges of volatile public markets; reliable returns; often resilient to inflation. Little surprise that the world’s most powerful institutions have poured so much capital in this direction. But have they poured more than those markets can absorb? The latest version of Invesco’s annual global sovereign asset management study is the 10th, and Invesco has used the opportunity to look back through the last decade and draw out some themes.
Temasek bares its soul on FTX failure
On Thursday, Singapore’s Temasek published a precise account of its investment in failed crypto platform FTX. It is rare indeed to see a sovereign wealth vehicle bare its soul in such detail about an investment. Temasek is one of several big names to have been caught up in the FTX collapse, among them Sequoia Capital, SoftBank’s Vision Fund and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Temasek today announced it would write down the entirety of its $275 million investment in FTX.
How Georgia turned a neighbour’s war to its economic advantage
Every central bank governor in the world has had a tough 2022 – a tough three years, in fact – but imagine being governor of the National Bank of Georgia. You must deal with the same things everyone else does, from a global pandemic to inflation to the threat of worldwide recession and an enduring supply-chain crisis. But you also have to deal with war on your border, a war prosecuted by your neighbour with a track record of annexing your own territory.
Asian Development Bank: In West Java, an energy transition landmark
In the Indonesian province of West Java, about three hours’ drive along the coast from Jakarta, sits a 660-megawatt coal-fired power plant called Cirebon-1. When it reached financial close in 2010, it did so under the independent power producer (IPP) model in Indonesia, backed by PT Cirebon Electric Power (CEP) and a range of Asian joint venture partners including Japan’s Marubeni.
Inside Onyx: How JPMorgan’s blockchain unit is changing banking
Umar Farooq is chief executive of Onyx by JPMorgan, a unit of the US house that leverages blockchain technologies for transformative purposes in banking. Euromoney catches up with him in Singapore on the edges of the country’s annual fintech festival, taking place in person for the first time since 2019. Our interview is prompted by JPMorgan’s role on a landmark decentralised finance (DeFi) deal stewarded by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
MAS in DeFi landmark trade
“This was very, very hard. As simple as it sounds, this was probably the most work we’ve ever done for a single transaction at JPMorgan.” Umar Farooq, who leads the Onyx blockchain and innovation division of JPMorgan, is talking about a landmark DeFi (decentralized finance) deal announced in Singapore on November 2.
Principal credit the latest engine for Macquarie
The great sport at Macquarie results briefings is to look beneath the headline numbers and work out which new business has appeared out of thin air since last time. At the half-year briefing on Friday, at which Macquarie reported a net profit of A$2.305 billion – up 13% year-on-year, down 13% half-on-half – the standout was the principal finance arm’s credit portfolio.
HSBC offers more questions than answers
Georges Elhedery made his name in HSBC’s Middle East operations, becoming CEO for the region before stepping up to two global roles: head of markets from March 2019, and co-CEO of global banking and markets following the mergers of two divisions in March 2020. He then took a sabbatical, and by the time he returned, things had changed.
The fund to reinvent Greece
Few nations have had a more eventful 15 years economically than Greece. More or less consistently since 2007 it has suffered both international crises with profound impacts on the country’s finances and debt crises all of its own. Growthfund, a sovereign wealth vehicle established as Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participations (HCAP), is in some sense a mirror and response to these times, having been formed in 2016 during the third economic adjustment programme of the Greek debt crisis.
Australia’s visits highlight mounting weaponisation of Pacific islands
Australia’s decision to undertake eight visits to the Pacific islands in just over four months is being seen as an illustration of the importance that major advanced nations are attaching to the region. Penny Wong, its minister for foreign affairs, is midway through a tour of the Marshall Islands and Nauru that comes against a backdrop of Chinese and US aid to the Pacific.
Asean resilience leads region’s outperformance
Southeast Asia is proving resilient to global macroeconomic pressures, insulated by a combination of domestic demand, intra-regional trade, foreign direct investment and policy — but the Asean bloc is leading the pack. The IMF this week revised overall its Asia and Pacific growth forecast for 2022 to 4%, down by 0.9 percentage points, relative to April projections.
How Kotak became a player in special situations
In 1995, Goldman Sachs and Kotak Mahindra announced a joint venture investment bank in India, Kotak Mahindra Capital. A combination of two capable and smart organizations, it worked well enough for a while, buoyed by the opening of India’s stock markets to foreign investment two years beforehand. But eventually it ran its course when each side wished to go it alone in India. Kotak bought out Goldman’s stake in March 2006 for $70 million.
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