PHILIPPINES
Moody’s upgrades rating
Moody’s yesterday became the third and final ratings agency to grant the country investment-grade status. The decision to give Manila a “Baa3” rating with a “positive outlook” follows similar moves by Standard & Poor’s and Fitch earlier this year.
A “Baa3” rating is the lowest in the outfit’s investment ranks, but represents an important milestone for the country, which saw its economy expanded 6.8 percent last year and 7.6 percent in the first half this year, among the highest levels in the Asia-Pacific region.
UNITED KINGDOM
House prices rise again
House prices rose for an eighth month last month as official aid programs boosted demand, according to a report by Halifax. Home values increased 0.3 percent from the previous month to an average £170,733 (US$276,900), the mortgage unit of Lloyds Banking Group PLC said in a statement yesterday. The property market has strengthened in recent months, prompting concerns that the government’s Help to Buy housing plan may fuel a bubble.
INVESTMENT
Empire State Building public
The Empire State Building went public on Wednesday as part of a real-estate trust traded for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange. The Empire State Realty Trust, which owns the landmark skyscraper and 17 other buildings in the New York area, closed US$0.10 higher (0.8 percent) at US$13.10 after being introduced to the markets at an IPO price of US$13 a share. Shares traded as high as US$13.49 earlier in the day. The company sold 71.5 million shares, raising US$929.5 million. It said it may offer an additional 10.7 million shares in the next 30 days.
AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai drops lighters
Hyundai Motor yesterday said it would stop putting cigarette lighter sockets in cars made for the domestic market in favor of a USB power point. The South Korean auto giant said its decision would affect all passenger cars and SUVs sold at home from this month. A company spokesman said the automaker was “the first auto company in the world” to make the change. Hyundai’s decision followed a domestic survey that showed many drivers used the lighter jack to charge mobile phones or tablet computers rather than for lighting cigarettes.
INSURANCE
Athene sells for US$2.6bn
British insurance group Aviva PLC on Tuesday said the sale of its US life and annuities business to Athene Holding Ltd had fetched US$2.6 billion, above the US$1.8 billion price announced in December last year. The additional US$800 million represented estimated earnings and other improvements in statutory surplus from June 30 last year to Monday, the company said. Cash proceeds to Aviva totaled US$2.3 billion, following the repayment of an external loan of Aviva USA Corp.
MINING
Glencore shutting Falcondo
Glencore Xstrata PLC says it will temporarily close the Falcondo nickel mine in the Dominican Republic that it had been seeking to expand amid environmental opposition. Falcondo mine spokesman Alain Astacio says the mine will close for an estimated two to three years because of falling nickel prices. The company is laying off 900 of 1,000 employees and about 700 contractors.
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