VENTURE CAPITAL POST

The World Bank cut its 2015 growth forecasts for developing East Asia and China, and warned of "significant" risks from global uncertainties including the potential impact from a strengthening dollar and higher U.S. interest rates.

Nippon Life Insurance Co [NPNLI.UL] is looking for acquisition targets both in developed and emerging markets, including asset managers in the United States, as the domestic-focused insurer seeks to diversify sources of income.

Asian stocks rose on Thursday, extending the previous session's gains, while the dollar drew support from minutes of the Federal Reserve's last meeting showing the U.S. central bank was still on course to hike interest rates this year.

The dollar took a step back on Wednesday but retained a bulk of its overnight gains after currency bulls scooped up the greenback following the tumble induced by weak U.S. non-farm payrolls late last week.

Hirotoshi Ogura, a self-described “factory geek”, is Daikin Industries' (6367.T) master of doing more with less – and part of the reason Japan’s recovery remains stuck in the slow lane.

Japan remains cautious about signing up to the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), indicating that Tokyo will miss the March 31 deadline for application, but both Taiwan and Norway said they would seek to join the institution.

Global green energy investment surged in 2014, after two years of decline, due to a solar boom in China and Japan and record offshore wind investment in Europe, a U.N.-backed report showed.

Asian stock markets rose on Monday, with China stocks nearing a seven-year peak on hopes for more infrastructure spending and policy stimulus, while oil prices suffered further from excess supply.

South Korea hopes its infrastructure companies will benefit from the country joining the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the finance ministry said on Friday.

Asian stocks were mixed on Friday and the dollar rebounded as rising tensions in the Middle East clouded the investment outlook.

Australia has invited Germany, France and Japan to pitch for a contract to build its new submarine fleet, kicking off a contentious A$50 billion ($38.8 billion) project which has become a political football at home.

The Obama administration has again invited Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff for a state visit to Washington, a diplomatic breakthrough that both sides hope will lead over time to greater trade between the two biggest economies in the Americas.

U.S.-based property investment fund Aetos Capital Real Estate is preparing to sell Simplex Investment Advisors, a Japanese real estate asset management firm, seeking as much as 200 billion yen ($1.7 billion), people with knowledge of the deal said.

Toyota Motor (7203.T) is finalizing plans for its first passenger car assembly plant in Mexico that could be approved by its board as early as next month, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

China is discussing ways in which a new regional lender being pushed by Beijing can cooperate with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said on Sunday, as he sought to fend off concerns that the two banks would become rivals.