The fund will also be the first retail tokenised fund across Asia Pacific.

Nissan is expecting a net loss of ¥80bn for the current fiscal year as the Japanese giant moves ahead with ¥400bn of cost savings, including reducing global capacity by 20%, with progress already made in China.

Retaliatory tariffs, a stronger dollar and several u-turns from the Trump administration are creating an uncertain outlook for 2025 and is pushing up the price of gold; meanwhile, Hong Kong and China are lodging complaints to the WTO.

Hong Kong-based Maisant has replaced Sébastien Pietryk as Apac head of distribution and asset rotation, overseeing the bank's Apac loan activities; Pietryk has moved onto a different role at the bank.

K. Balasubramanian, Asia South head of corporate banking, has been appointed India subcontinent sub-cluster & banking head and India Citi country officer & banking head designate, to replace Khullar's current role.

SoftBank has said it will spend $3bn annually to deploy customised AI across its group of companies; the JV, known as SB OpenAI Japan, will sell to Japanese firms.

The release of a competitive low cost large language models not only shifts the AI narrative away from expensive hardware, but also prompts debate about a potential inflection point for fund managers, with some models potentially not surviving.

After US president Donald Trump issued executive orders to place 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports (now delayed) and 10% on Chinese goods (starting February 4); China has now retaliated with tariffs on US coal, gas, crude oil and more.

Sustainable Asia Renewable Assets launched by British International Investment, development bank FMO and investment manager SUSI Partners with tens of millions of dollars of backing; Vietnam's Dam Nai wind farm will become its cornerstone asset.

FA wishes our readers a prosperous Year of the Snake!