INSURANCE
AIG to close book on AIA
American International Group Inc (AIG) is set to close the institutional book for the US$15 billion AIA Group IPO two days ahead of plan, amid signs the IPO has been swamped by orders from traditional funds and high-profile Chinese investors. China Investment Corp (CIC, 中國投資公司), the US$300 billion China state sovereign wealth fund, and Chinese corporates such as China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽), are among the investors lining up for the offer, with direct knowledge of the matter told reporters. One source said that CIC was interested in buying up to US$200 million worth of shares in AIA.
RETAIL
US firms go online in China
The world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, and US clothing giant Gap are to launch online stores in China to tap the country’s fast-growing e-commerce market, the Financial Times reported yesterday. Wal-Mart will use its own Internet platform to promote sales of the handful of the Sam’s Club stores it currently has in China, the London-based newspaper said. Sam’s Club is a warehouse chain owned by Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart expects the country to overtake Japan and Britain over the next five years to become the world’s second-largest e-commerce market after the US, the newspaper said.
PETROLEUM
TNK-BP buys parent’s assets
Russian oil company TNK-BP said yesterday it had agreed a deal with its part-owner BP to acquire the troubled British oil giant’s assets in Vietnam and Venezuela for US$1.8 billion. TNK-BP, Russia’s third largest oil company, is owned 50 percent by BP and 50 percent by a group of Russian billionaires including banking magnate Mikhail Fridman, known collectively as Alfa Access-Renova. BP has been considering selling a range of assets to finance its losses after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP’s new chief executive, Robert Dudley, who replaced Tony Hayward after the spill, said the acquisition would give TNK-BP a solid foundation to build its business outside Russia.
DEFENSE
India looks to buy aircraft
India is in negotiations to buy as many as 10 Boeing Co military transport aircraft ahead of US President Barack Obama’s visit next month. “Talks are going on,” Sitanshu Kar, an Indian Ministry of Defence spokesman, said by phone yesterday from New Delhi. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has notified US Congress that it may permit the sale of 10 C-17 Globemaster III aircraft to India, the US embassy in India said on April 26. The sale may be valued at as much as US$5.8 billion, it said. Boeing, the second-largest US defense contractor, expects to bid for US$31 billion worth of military contracts in India in the next 10 years as it competes with Lockheed Martin Corp and other suppliers for orders following a tripling of the nation’s defense budget.
TELECOMS
KDDI partners with Skype
Japan’s No. 2 telecom operator, KDDI said, yesterday it had formed a strategic tie-up with Skype to bring the Internet-based communication services to mobile smartphone users. KDDI’s mobile service, operating under the “au” brand, will start new apps from next month for selected handsets and offer Skype-to-Skype calls. Details of the planned service, including prices, are yet to be released. Skype, which was founded in 2003, bypasses the standard telephone network by channeling voice, video and text conversations over the Internet. KDDI hopes to gradually expand the service to fixed-line telephone and other services.
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
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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