Markit has found two new sponsors for its Asia PMI data after HSBC’s surprise decision to step aside, with Caixin’s name set to grace the China figures, while the Nikkei brand will be used for the other Asian offerings.
The closely watched PMI — or purchasing managers index — data briefly went without a sponsor after HSBC’s five-year contract came to an end and wasn’t renewed.
While HSBC had sponsored the data for countries across Asia, under the fresh sponsorship deals China was split off from the rest of the region. Chinese media group Caixin, which focuses on business news, will brand the China data, saying it was part of a strategy to increase its financial information offerings.
“The agreement may also be extended to include further cooperation with Markit on financial data and other services,” Caixin said in a press release Tuesday.
Markit’s China PMI data tends to focus on smaller and medium-sized companies, filling a niche that isn’t covered by the official data.
Ten other Asia PMI surveys will now be branded by Nikkei, a Japan-based media group. That includes the pre-existing Indonesia, Hong Kong and India data as well as two newly created ones for Malaysia and Singapore.
