Banking
World Bank position filled
The World Bank on Friday named Cai Jinyong (蔡金勇), a Chinese national who worked for Goldman Sachs, to head its private-sector investment arm, placing a candidate from an emerging market country in a key post at the global development lender. The World Bank said it had picked Cai to be executive vice president and chief executive of the International Finance Corp, which invested US$20 billion in private-sector projects in developing countries last year. He previously served as a managing director at Goldman Sachs Group, and was involved in Goldman’s management globally, IFC said in statement. Emerging market countries have long pushed to have more say in the selection process of the heads of the World Bank and the IMF. Cai’s appointment is the first post to be filled by new World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, since he assumed his position on July 1.
AUTOMAKERS
Renault announces job cuts
French automaker Renault said on Friday that a voluntary job cut plan at its struggling South Korean unit Samsung Motors could affect up to 80 percent of its staff, or almost 4,700 workers. Workers would be let go “on a voluntary basis, with severance pay of up to two years pay depending on seniority,” the spokeswoman said. Employees who agree to leave are also to get two years of education fees for children and other allowances. Renault had said earlier in the day in South Korea that it would offer some staff at the company voluntary retirement, but did not say how many might be affected. Renault Samsung Motors has seen its sales wilt under pressure from South Korea’s dominant Hyundai-Kia group.
Airlines
Kingfisher reveals losses
Cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines yesterday said quarterly losses more than doubled from a year earlier, fuelling fresh doubts about the future of the private Indian carrier. Net loss widened to 6.60 billion rupees (US$120 million) in the financial quarter to June from a loss of 2.63 billion rupees in the same period last year, as revenues slumped due to reduced operations. Kingfisher — which has never posted a profit since its launch in 2005 -— said it still hoped to “get recapitalized” and added it was “in discussion with several strategic and financial investors to bring in fresh capital”. The company, which is carrying a US$1.4 billion debt-load, did not identify the potential investors.
BANKING
European crisis fund
Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen on Friday proposed creating a bank-financed European crisis fund to recapitalize ailing banks, as part of a three-pronged supervision mechanism.
In an interview conducted on Aug. 1 and published on Friday, Katainen proposed a single European banking supervisory authority, a joint banking crisis fund and a common deposit protection fund. “We should be able to build a system where banks cannot shake up entire countries. One solution, in addition to monitoring, could be a European bank crisis fund,” Katainen said. The fund’s resources would be collected from the banks, he said. Katainen said the central problem of the euro crisis was the connection between banks and states, and stressed the link needed to be broken.
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