Forbes Asia

It is most apt that the first issue of 2023 features the Hong Kong’s 50 Richest list. The easing of travel and other Covid-19 restrictions in main-land China have set the stage to re-ignite growth in Asia’s biggest economy—that will have a multiplier effect for the rest of the Asia region and the world in general. This month’s rich list reflects the optimism of those in Hong Kong who have been waiting to get back to the business of doing business, while savvy investors have been loading up on stocks that should bounce back as this reopening drives demand in China and across the region. In the feature on Tony Fernandes and AirAsia, the Malaysian tycoon talks about his hopes of doubling the number of Chinese passengers using his airline, as…

“With all thy getting, get understanding” The Scandal of Alzheimer’s Why is there no cure for Alzheimer’s—or why aren’t there medications that can at least substantially slow or meaningfully ameliorate the disease? It afflicts more than 6 million Americans, with that number on its way to doubling within a generation. Alzheimer’s is a hideous ailment for both the sufferers and their families and friends. Yet even though the disease was first diagnosed by psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer in the early 1900s, progress in fighting it has been almost nonexistent. What’s scandalous is that for decades research has been almost entirely focused on the wrong hypothesis. Dr. Alzheimer noted in the autopsy of the patient’s brain with the disease that came to bear his name that it was densely loaded with two proteins called plaques and…

Malaysian maverick tycoon Tony Fernandes, who built budget carrier AirAsia using the motto “now everybody can fly,” faced disaster during the pandemic, as suddenly almost nobody could fly. The outbreak of Covid-19 forced Fernandes to close AirAsia Japan in 2020 and, in June last year, to sell off its Indian joint venture AirAsia India to Air India and partner Tata Group. As the pandemic crushed air travel, some analysts questioned if Fernandes could keep Kuala Lumpur-based AirAsia afloat. It suffered big losses and mounting debts, with more than 90% of its planes grounded during the worst days of the outbreak. But now, with most travel restrictions lifted, regional travel is booming again. AirAsia is among Asian carriers enjoying high load factors and most of its planes are back in the air. Fernandes used…

When Rohan Murty started his software firm Soroco eight years ago, he began by writing code and building a platform for automating large chunks of a business online. Soon joined by cofounders Arjun Narayan and George Nychis, their fledgling company concentrated on improving the workflow of entire divisions, not just team tasks. “We’d built something where we could automate what 250 people could do,” says Murty. “We wanted to automate at scale.” As it turned out, it wasn’t that simple. The problem, they realized, “was finding out what we needed to automate.” That led Murty to a eureka moment in 2017: there was more value in building a platform that captured and analyzed untapped data to immediately convey the bigger picture of how work gets done. “It wasn’t easy to change…

On Nov. 15, the cofounders of Ribbon Home, a five-year-old financial technology company that promised to fix a “broken” homebuying market by offering buyers the ability to make all-cash offers, sent a cryptic and disconcerting email to its entire staff. “During this time of uncertainty, we ask team members who are not customer- or finance-facing to shift their focus from work to self-care, spending time with family and doing things that bring you comfort,” it read in part. Six days later, New York City–based Ribbon dismissed 85% of its staff—190 people—and cut severance to one week’s pay versus the six weeks employees had been previously promised. Fewer than 30 people remain today, and the company recently announced that it has paused all new business. Ribbon’s days are numbered, but in September 2021,…

Even as mainland China’s property market remains distressed, Hong Kong-based billionaire developer Vincent Lo sees a silver lining among the dark clouds. “There is no question the market is down, with so many developers overextended,” the founder and chairman of Shui On group says in an exclusive interview in Hong Kong in December. “But with all the trouble, there is also a great opportunity to buy low for the first time in many years.” His comments came just as Shui On Land, the group’s flagship company, made good on his words: a day earlier, it announced that it had snapped up a large 17,000-square-meter parcel in Shanghai for about 2.4 billion yuan ($350 million). The acquisition was made through a joint venture with state-owned developer Shanghai Yangshupu, with Shui On Land…