AUTOMAKERS
Ford eyes Indian growth
Ford Motor Co is aiming to expand its presence in the fast-growing auto markets of India and China with an eye toward increasing the number of vehicles it sells per year by 50 percent by the middle of the decade. A 50 percent sales increase by the middle of the decade would bring Ford’s annual vehicle sales to 8 million. Ford also said on Tuesday it would cut its debt by 15.7 percent to about US$14 billion by the end of this month, bringing it to less than half the US$33.6 billion it was carrying in 2009. Ford chief financial officer Lewis Booth said Ford planned to cut its overall debt to about US$10 billion by the middle of the decade.
JAPAN
Consolidation needed: IMF
Tokyo must tackle fiscal consolidation to reduce its debt burden in the long run in order to boost public confidence about the sustainability of its economy, the IMF’s acting chief John Lipsky said yesterday. The world’s third-largest economy will rebound from the damage of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in the coming year as supply networks are restored, Lipsky said. Recent data has already shown factory output is recovering, he added. The country’s public debt is already about twice the size of its US$5 trillion economy.
AUTOMAKERS
BYD eyes share sales
BYD Co (比亞迪), a Chinese car and battery maker backed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, is moving ahead with a share offering meant to raise cash for a major expansion. BYD said yesterday in a notice to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it was beginning price consultations with investors after receiving regulatory approval for the initial public offering on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The company, which already has shares traded in Hong Kong, plans to list 79 million shares, or 3.4 percent of its enlarged capital.
BRANDS
Sanrio, Dutch firm end row
The Japanese company behind Hello Kitty announced on Tuesday it had agreed with the Dutch creator of bunny character Miffy to end a copyright row and instead donate legal costs of 150,000 euros (US$220,000) to victims of the March quake and tsunami. An Amsterdam court in November last year ordered Sanrio to halt production and sales of Cathy — Kitty’s rabbit friend — merchandise in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg after finding the Japanese bunny closely resembled Miffy, created by a Dutch children’s author in the 1950s.
ENERGY
Little to change: PRC makers
China’s wind energy turbine makers have said scrapping subsidies for the domestic sector will have little impact, even as US manufacturers hailed the move as a victory, state media reported yesterday. Beijing has stopped offering subsidies to the country’s wind power sector six months after the US lodged a complaint with the WTO, US officials said on Tuesday in Washington.
EQUITIES
Citigroup, Axa make deal
Citigroup has agreed to sell a portfolio of private equity assets to Axa Private Equity for US$1.7 billion, the French insurer said yesterday. The portfolio comprises 207 stakes in various buyout funds as well as some direct stakes in companies, Axa said, adding that Citi — which has been looking to focus on its core businesses — was financing the purchase.
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