■CHINA
Regulator to track loans
China’s banking regulator said it will ensure loans enter the “real economy” and restrict financing to sectors that are energy-intensive, bad for the environment and facing overcapacity. The regulator will watch changes in the real estate market and enforce related loan policies, the China Banking Regulatory Commission said in a statement on its Web site after its annual meeting. It will support areas such as agriculture and small companies, and reinforce risk controls, the regulator said.
■LOGISTICS
Germany tops survey
Germany emerged top and Singapore second on Friday in a new World Bank logistics survey that measures how efficiently countries trade their goods around the world. Sweden was adjudged the next most trade-friendly nation in the study hailed by the Washington-based institution as “the most comprehensive world survey of international freight forwarders and express carriers.” High-income economies dominated the top logistics rankings, with most of them occupying important places in global and regional supply chains, the 155-nation “Logistics Performance Indicators” study showed. By contrast, the 10 worst-performing countries were all from the low and lower income groups.
■INTERNET
Bing search share grows
Microsoft’s new Internet search engine Bing posted a modest gain in its share of the US search market last month while partner Yahoo saw its share dip slightly, online tracking firm comScore said. Google remained the overwhelming leader of the lucrative US search and advertising market last month, increasing its share to 65.7 percent from 65.6 percent in November, comScore figures released on Friday showed. Yahoo saw its share of the search market fall to 17.3 percent last month from 17.5 percent the previous month, comScore said, while Bing’s share rose to 10.7 percent from 10.3 percent.
■INTERNET
AmEx buys payment firm
American Express (AmEx) said on Friday it had completed its acquisition of Revolution Money, a Web payments firm started in 2005 by Internet firm AOL founder Steve Case. With the US$300 million acquisition, AmEx is taking aim at the growing market for online and alternative payments, in a challenge to recognized leader PayPal, analysts said. PayPal, a unit of eBay, has been able to dominate in this area but others such as Google Checkout have struggled, analysts say.
■FOOD
Pershing pushes for bid
Pershing Square Capital Management LP, a New York hedge fund run by activist investor William Ackman, has amassed a 2 percent stake in Kraft Foods Inc and has encouraged the food giant to pursue an acquisition of Cadbury Plc. The purchases, confirmed by Kraft and Ackman on Friday, comes as Kraft nears a deadline to make its final bid for Cadbury. The stake of nearly 33 million shares is now Pershing’s largest single investment, Ackman said.
■MEDIA
Affiliated plans bankruptcy
Affiliated Media Inc, the holding company for MediaNews Group Inc newspapers including the Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News, said on Friday that it plans to become the latest owner of US newspapers to file for bankruptcy. The company said it would file a “prepackaged” plan already approved by lenders, which should allow it to emerge from bankruptcy more quickly.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last