THAILAND
Monetary policy to be eased
Bank of Thailand Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul said monetary policy could be eased if the economy loses momentum, signaling he may cut interest rates next week after slower-than-estimated growth last quarter. “Our monetary policy aim is to maintain equilibrium in the economy,” Prasarn said yesterday. “If we see that economic momentum slows, we can ease monetary policy to take care of that.” The government on Monday lowered its full-year growth forecast after the economy expanded 5.3 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, less than economists estimated.
ELECTRONICS
Sharp shares surge: report
Shares in Japan’s troubled electronics maker Sharp surged 13.22 percent to ¥625 yesterday morning after a news report said the company planned to raise ¥40 billion (US$39 million) through selling overseas holdings. The Asahi Shimbun reported the firm planned to sell its television factory in Malaysia and Recurrent Energy LLC, its US solar energy developing unit, while separately considering selling other shareholdings.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Royalty raises bid for Elan
Royalty Pharma has raised its offer to buy Elan on the condition that shareholders reject the Irish drugmaker’s push to refocus its business through a string of recently announced deals. New York-based Royalty said on Monday it would pay US$12.50 in cash for each share of Elan Corp PLC. That adds up to a total value of about US$7.5 billion. Royalty had offered in February to buy Elan for US$11 per share and later raised that bid to US$11.25 per share. Elan has said the US$11.25 bid was much too low.
AUTOMOBILES
A123 bankruptcy approved
A bankruptcy judge in Delaware has given final approval to the reorganization plan of failed battery maker A123 Systems Inc which was the recipient of a US$249 million US Department of Energy grant. Monday’s court hearing resolved minor outstanding issues following the sale of most of the company’s assets to the US arm of Chinese auto parts conglomerate Wanxiang Group (萬向集團) for nearly US$257 million. One issue was approval of a settlement involving the company, now known as B456 Systems, its official creditors committee and Milwaukee-based auto parts maker Johnson Controls Inc.
AVIATION
UA restarts Dreamliner flights
United Airlines (UA) resumed Boeing 787 Dreamliner flights on Monday after the advanced plane was globally grounded four months ago due to overheated battery incidents. United, the only US carrier that owns the jetliner, relaunched 787 passenger service with a flight from the airline’s hub in Houston, Texas, to Chicago. The biggest US airline also announced it expected to take delivery of two more Dreamliners in the second half of this year.
RETAIL
M&S posts low profit
British retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) yesterday posted its lowest annual profit since 2009 as a struggling general merchandise division dragged on growth in food sales. The firm said it made a profit before tax and one-off items of £665.2 million (US$1 billion) in the year to March 30, a second straight fall. The outcome compares with analyst forecasts of between £640 and £670 million, with a consensus of £658 million, and is a decline on the £687.2 million made in 2011 and last year.
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