As vaccinations occur globally and the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, dealmakers are beginning to feel more optimistic about M&A in the Asia-Pacific region in 2021. According to Reuters, coronavirus-spurred growth in the technology sector will help drive M&A activity in the Asia-Pacific this year, citing predictions from bankers and lawyers, with the potential easing of Sino-U.S. tensions likely to revive Chinese outbound investment.
Deals involving Asia Pacific firms totalled $1.2 trillion in 2020, up 12 percent from 2019, reports Reuters Seven of the year’s 10 largest transactions were announced in the third quarter, which in total accounted for 40 percent of the year’s deals by value. High technology and telecommunications companies surged to a 23 percent share of deal value, up from 14 percent last year, while retail and consumer products and services firms also reported growth, Reuters added.
There is little more satisfying that creating a salad using freshly
harvested lettuce. This is a red butterhead called Edox.
Mashed Potatoes is a light-coloured acorn squash with white flesh that, cooked and fluffed, is an interesting alternative to potatoes similarly prepared. Helen Chesnut
Wait until after they have bloomed to prune lilac and other late-spring flowering shrubs. Helen Chesnut photos I’m not much given to navel- gazing angst, but I must admit that the bout of cold, snowy weather last month reminded me how much I rely on time in the garden to maintain a sense of mental and physical well-being.
Snapdragon and sweet peas are among the annual flowers that can be seeded early indoors and transplanted outdoors while the weather remains cool, in early spring. Helen Chesnut
Snapdragon and sweet peas are among the annual flowers that can be seeded early indoors and transplanted outdoors while the weather remains cool, in early spring. Helen Chesnut
Aspabroc produces small broccoli florets over many weeks. Helen Chesnut Once again, February has expressed itself as a trickster and a tease. The month has a pattern of turning on a “green light” for gardeners, in the form of mild temperatures and sunshine. And we fall for it, horticultural fervour bubbling away as we prepare plots for first seedings and bid farewell to winter, just as it prepares for a return engagement.
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The security law passed by Beijing in the lead-up to July 1, 2020 - the 23rd anniversary of the British handover of Hong Kong – has seen a wide-ranging crackdown on dissent in the city and the stifling of anti-government protests.
The allocation of permanent visas to this group accelerated significantly since July, according to figures obtained by SBS Chinese under the Freedom of Information Act.
From July to November, the Department of Home Affairs granted 1849 permanent residency visas to Hong Kong passport holders, which marked a 26 per cent increase compared to the previous five months, when 1466 were granted.
The company was the first to list my now favourite beet, a cylindrical type called Taunus. It’s still the only company I know of offering Siderno, my best tasting and earliest patio tomato, just 45 centimetres high, that I grow in pots every summer. Along with potted tomatoes, I grow mini-hedges of compact, small-leaved basil in windowbox style planters on the patio. Pluto is one of the best, good also for indoor winter pots. Pluto is one of the best dwarf, small-leaved basil varieties. The plants often do not start forming flowers until late in the summer. HELEN CHESNUT I’ll be growing more of Dropshot, a ferny-leaved Mexican marigold (licorice marigold) that was the source of much sweet snacking in the garden last summer. And I’ll be trying a pink onion called Blush.