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(Reuters) -Online fast-fashion retailer Shein will open its first permanent stores in France in November under an agreement with department store owner Société des Grands Magasins (SGM), a move that sparked criticism from French retailers. The "shop-in-shops" in the BHV department store in central Paris and Galeries Lafayette department stores in five provincial cities, mark a new step for Shein which has up to now only hosted temporary pop-up shops around the world mainly aimed at marketing. SGM president Frédéric Merlin said the launch would attract a younger clientele to its department stores, adding that the same customer might buy a Shein item and a designer handbag on the same day. RETAILERS CRITICISE DEPARTMENT STORE DEAL WITH SHEIN Shein, which sells 12-euro dresses and 20-euro jeans, faces pressure from other retailers, politicians and regulators in France, where lawmakers have backed a draft law regulating fast fashion that would, if implemented, ban Shein from advertising. "In front of the Paris City Hall, they are creating the new Shein megastore, which – after destroying dozens of French brands – aims to flood our market even more massively with disposable products," Yann Rivoallan, head of fashion retail association Fédération Francaise du Pret-a-Porter, said in a statement. French retailers were already struggling to compete with Zara and H&M when Shein launched, drawing cash-strapped consumers in with its permanent discounts and addictive app. Several French fast-fashion retailers such as Jennyfer and NafNaf went into insolvency proceedings earlier this year. Shein's first store, on the sixth floor of the BHV, will open in early November, with later openings planned in Galeries Lafayette department stores in Dijon, Grenoble, Reims, Limoges, and Angers. (Reporting by Inti Landauro and Helen Reid, Editing by Louise Heavens)

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By Rozanna Latiff, Danial Azhar and Mei Mei Chu KUALA LUMPUR/BEIJING (Reuters) -China and Malaysia are in early talks for a project to process rare earths, with sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional likely to partner with a Chinese state-owned firm to build a refinery in the Southeast Asian nation, people familiar with the matter said. If the joint venture takes shape, it would represent a significant policy departure for China, the world's top supplier and refiner of rare earths, which has banned export of its processing technology to protect its dominance of the industry. Beijing is ready to swap its technology for access to Malaysia's untapped rare earths reserves, seeking to limit competition from Australian rival Lynas Rare Earths, which has a processing plant in the central state of Pahang, said two sources in Malaysia with knowledge of the talks. All four sources who spoke to Reuters for this report sought anonymity because the matter is a sensitive one.      Malaysia's natural resources and trade ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the talks. Khazanah's chief investment officer, Hisham Hamdan, declined to confirm the talks or plans for the proposed refinery, saying it was "way too early", but acknowledged that rare earths were among the industries being explored by the fund. "We do many studies on industries… it's something we're happy to explore and help the government, but it's at government level, right? So I think that's as much as we can say," he told Reuters in an interview in Singapore on Thursday. China’s State Council Information Office, which handles media queries on behalf of the government, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment due to the National Day holiday. ROADBLOCKS AHEAD, SAY SOURCES  A Malaysian source said the plan faced several roadblocks, however, such as China's concern whether Malaysia would be able to supply enough raw material for the plant.  Two of the sources said Malaysia was also concerned by the potential environmental impact and regulatory hurdles, since mining activities typically require approvals and licensing from both state and federal government authorities. Malaysia has said it did not support rare earths mining in sensitive locations such as permanent forest reserves and water catchment areas. Global manufacturers are scrambling to secure alternative supplies of rare earths, after Beijing's export curbs this year led to output delays for major automakers and magnet producers. Malaysia has some 16.1 million metric tons of rare earth deposits, the government estimates, but lacks the technology to mine and process them.  It has banned companies from exporting raw rare earths to prevent loss of resources. The only exception was granted in 2022 to a pilot mining project aimed at helping to set national operating and licensing guidelines for extraction of the rare earths. Australia's Lynas, the world's largest rare earths producer outside China, signed a deal in May with Malaysia's eastern state of Kelantan for a future supply of mixed rare earths carbonate, seen as an effort to develop the local industry.   REFINERY TO HANDLE BOTH TYPES The proposed refinery is expected to process both light and heavy rare earths, two Malaysian sources said. These elements are critical to the manufacture of products from cars and mobile phones to military equipment.  Heavy rare earth metals, used widely in the development of clean technology, are less common, however, and some elements face shortages amid high demand. In August, Johari Abdul Ghani, Malaysia's minister for natural resources said China was prepared to provide technical and technological assistance in processing rare earths. However, President Xi Jinping had asked to restrict cooperation efforts to state-linked companies so as to protect trade secrets, Johari said, adding that discussions were still preliminary and no deal had been reached.  A successful deal would make Malaysia one of the few countries with both Chinese and non-Chinese rare earths processing technology, Johari added. (Reporting by Rozanna Latiff and Danial Azhar in Kuala Lumpur and Mei Mei Chu in Beijing; Additional reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing and Xinghui Kok in Singapore; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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By Yantoultra Ngui and Jun Yuan Yong SINGAPORE (Reuters) -The boom in private credit and private equity is poised for a reality check as an untested credit cycle collides with fragile exit routes in Asia's public markets, two senior investment executives said at a conference in Singapore. Private markets have expanded in Asia Pacific over the past decade, with buyout activity reaching $138 billion in 2024, the second-best year in a decade, Deloitte data shows. Private credit assets under management in the region have surged more than six-fold since 2014 to about $93 billion as of September 2023, according to Preqin. Michael Goosay, chief investment officer and global head of fixed income at Principal Asset Management, said the influx of capital into private assets had shifted risk away from public markets without testing how those borrowers would fare in a downturn. "I do worry about the private markets," Goosay said at a panel session at the Milken Institute Asia Summit in Singapore on Wednesday.  "We haven't been down through a true cycle. There's been a lot of money chasing the returns that are promised in these private equity, private credit types of products," he said. Abundant private funding had "pulled capital away from the public markets" and riskier issuers have migrated to private balance sheets, he added. "Those are the companies that wind up having problems when the economy is turned," he said. Speaking at a panel session at the same conference on Thursday, Jeffrey Jaensubhakij, an adviser to Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC, said private equity in Asia still struggles to exit investments because public markets, except India, have not offered reliable valuation and liquidity windows. "Japan has been very successful and it's got a value-added corporate governance push. Korea is pushing very hard. I think this, amongst other things, will also help those public markets perform well, allow for exits, and then private equity can then follow," he said. (Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui and Jun Yuan Yong; Editing by Stephen Coates)

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