REAL ESTATE
Beijing restricts funding
Beijing has halted loans from a housing fund to second-home buyers if the floor area is more than 28.81m2 per person residing in the home, according to a statement on the city’s housing fund management Web site yesterday.
CONGLOMERATES
Hyundai Group wins deal
The Hyundai Group led by Hyun Jeong-eun signed an initial deal yesterday to take over South Korea’s largest builder, after trumping a rival bid from car giant Hyundai Motor headed by her brother-in-law. Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), lead creditor of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, said the final contract was likely to be signed in January. The takeover battle is part of a family feud over the former Hyundai empire, which was split into separate units after the death of its billionaire founder Chung Ju-yung in 2001.
ECONOMY
S&P cancels seminar
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) canceled a seminar in Seoul in the wake of North Korea’s shelling of Yeonpyeong island in South Korea, citing internal travel restrictions. The seminar on Brazil’s economy and outlook was to have been held in the South Korean capital tomorrow and hosted jointly by the ratings company and the Korea Financial Investment Association, according to an e-mailed statement from S&P and the association.
BANKING
UK mortgage approvals dip
The number of mortgage approvals in Britain last month fell to its lowest in eight months, but mortgage lending rose twice as fast as expected, official data showed yesterday. The Bank of England said mortgage approvals numbered 47,185 last month, down from 47,369 in September. That was the lowest since February, but broadly in line with analysts’ forecasts for a reading of 47,000. Net mortgage lending, however, rose twice as fast as expected, by £963 million (US$1.5 billion) last month, the biggest rise since August. Still, the figures are likely to reinforce the view that Britain’s housing market remains fragile, as mortgage approvals are running at about half their long-term average rate of 90,000 since April 1993.
CONGLOMERATES
Telstra split approved
The Australian parliament has approved legislation for a structural split of Telstra Corp’s retail business from its copper-wire network with the House of Representatives passing bills amended in the Senate yesterday. The Senate made the amendments when it passed the legislation on Friday. The legislation needed to be passed to allow Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard to proceed with plans to spend A$35.7 billion (US$34 billion) building the network and pay compensation to Telstra.
REAL ESTATE
Moscow luxury rents to rise
Moscow luxury-home rents will rise about 15 percent next year as the expanding economy and a government plan to attract foreign technology companies fuels demand, Penny Lane Realty said. The average monthly rent for a high-end apartment is currently about US$4,000, said Vadim Lamin, head of prime residential properties at the Moscow-based property broker. Rents range from US$2,000 for a studio to US$35,000 for a 600m2 apartment, Lamin said. Average rents reached a record-high of US$8,000 in 2007 as foreign companies moved their employees to Russia. Since then, the proportion of non-Russians signing rental contracts has fallen to 49 percent from 62 percent, Penny Lane estimates.
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