ENERGY
India sells coal shares
India is set to launch its largest ever share sale in a public company this week as the government looks to raise US$3.5 billion with the divestment of 10 percent of Coal India. The group is the world’s largest coal miner, producing more than 80 percent of India’s coal through 471 mines across eight states. It also holds the largest extractable coal reserves in the world with more than 22 billion tonnes, ahead of rivals state-run China Shenhua Energy and the world’s largest private miner Peabody Energy in the US. Coal currently accounts for more than half of India’s energy use and consumption is set to increase as the country’s economic development accelerates in energy-intensive sectors such as steel and cement manufacturing.
MEDIA
News Corp to resume talks
News Corp and Cablevision Systems Corp planned to resume talks yesterday after the media company cut its Fox broadcast signal to Cablevision’s 3 million customers in New York and Philadelphia in a dispute over program fees. The two companies returned to the negotiating table in New York on Saturday, according to spokesman for both companies, after reaching an impasse on Friday night. Cablevision said in a statement that Fox failed to negotiate in good faith and called the decision to remove the programming “a black eye for broadcast television in America.”
CHINA
Strauss agrees deal
Strauss Group Ltd, Israel’s biggest maker of coffee and confectionaries, said a unit agreed with China’s Haier Whole Set Distribution Co to market water-purification products in China. Strauss Water HK Trading Co and Haier will each initially invest US$10 million in the 50-50 joint venture, Strauss Group said in a statement yesterday to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. “China is already the biggest market in the world for pure water,” Strauss Water chief executive officer Rami Ronen told reporters in Petah Tikva, Israel. “We are seeking to tap Chinese demand for higher quality water.”
TRANSPORTATION
HK airport volume rises
Hong Kong International Airport said passenger traffic and cargo volume rose last month as more tourists visited from China and exports to Europe and North America increased. Passenger traffic rose 17 percent to 4.1 million, while cargo volume increased 14 percent to 346,000 tonnes last month from the same period last year, according to an e-mailed statement. The airport said it handled 38 million passengers between January and last month, up 11 percent from last year. Cargo has risen 29 percent to 3 million tonnes for the first nine months of the year.
UNITED KINGDOM
Tax evaders targeted
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said he would put pressure on banks to sign up to a tax code that binds them to ending tax evasion. “Tax evasion is totally unacceptable at a time like this” he told BBC1 television. “It is unacceptable at the best of times; it is immoral at times like these.” Osborne also said tax authorities would pursue wealthy individuals evading tax. He said negotiations over government budget cuts in the Comprehensive Spending Review are complete. Osborne said a few “finishing touches” remain to be discussed with Prime Minister David Cameron before the report is presented on Wednesday.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure