Back to regular programming this week after a brief and much-needed disconnect from markets. We were on holiday in June exploring some of Vietnam’s coastal cities. A personal highlight was a rare sighting of the endangered red-shanked doucs on the Son Tra Peninsula in Da Nang (video below). The Douc Langur Foundation has been working for many years to protect this species and their wild habitat; their efforts were featured in the documentary Saving Son Tra, which is an excellent watch.

This week’s links include a conversation with Rowan Simpson on growing Kiwi giants (Trade Me & Xero), Cedric Chin on the secrets of Asian business empires, Asadej Kongsiri on the SET’s plans to enhance liquidity and attract investors back to Thai markets, Macrovalue’s supermarket ambitions in Singapore following its acquisition of the Cold Storage and Giant supermarket chains from DFI, and Alexander Kaufman on Taiwan’s plans to harness its vast geothermal reserves.

• NZ Funds podcast: Interview with Rowan Simpson on growing Kiwi giants (Trade Me & Xero).
• Keith Yap: Conversation with Cedric Chin, the author/founder of Commoncog, on the secrets of Asian business empires.
• NYT (paywall): An investor who took on Hong Kong’s tycoons faces a tougher foe.
• Bloomberg: Thai bourse looking to improve liquidity to ease stock rout.
• The Edge Malaysia: Macrovalue on its supermarket ambitions in Singapore amid challenging times (following the acquisition of Cold Storage and Giant from DFI).
• Foreign Policy (paywall): Taiwan is on the cusp of an energy revolution.