BANKING
Deutsche sues ICBC exec
Lee Zhang (張紅力), a former China head of Deutsche Bank AG, was sued in Hong Kong by the firm over the 2001 transfer of US$3.99 million to the account of a company with a bank in Shenzhen. The bank asked Hong Kong’s Court of First Instance on Friday last week to find that Zhang breached his fiduciary duty by causing the transfer to Harperskille Ltd’s account with China Merchants Bank (中國招商銀行), and for damages including the principal amount and interest of US$2.3 million. Zhang left the Frankfurt-based bank in 2010 to join Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC, 中國工商銀行) as a senior executive vice president. He had risen to be Deutsche Bank’s Asia-Pacific head of global banking and China chairman after working for almost a decade at the bank.
MACROECONOMICS
HK growth slows in Q2
Hong Kong’s economic growth slowed in the second quarter, as tourist spending on jewelry and watches plunged, underlining the territory’s reliance on Chinese visitors. Expansion from a year ago was weaker than in the first three months, with a bigger slowdown seen in growth from the previous quarter, Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang (曾俊華) wrote on his government blog on Sunday. He did not provide numbers, which will be released on Friday. Tsang reiterated earlier comments that he would cut growth forecasts for this year.
INTERNET
Amazon, Disney in dispute
Amazon.com Inc has halted pre-orders of some Disney movies, the Wall Street Journal reported, in what appears to be another contract dispute after the online retailer began a protracted spat with publisher Hachette Book Group this year. Physical copies of titles such as Maleficent and Captain America: The Winter Soldier were unavailable for order on Amazon.com on Sunday. Digital copies of some of the movies in question were still available for pre-order. Amazon has been waging a battle against Hachette, the fourth-largest US book publisher, over the price the online retailer can charge for ebooks.
UNITED KINGDOM
Punch seeks more time
Punch Taverns PLC said a restructuring of its debt, which was supposed to conclude by yesterday, had been delayed as the UK pub operator sought more time to conclude certain discussions with stakeholders. Punch Taverns, which has about 4,300 pubs, was hit hard by the UK’s double-dip recession. In January, it proposed a restructuring plan to avoid a default, but the proposal was rejected by shareholders. In June, the company unveiled new proposals to reduce its total net debt by about £600 million (US$1.7 billion), resulting in significant equity dilution for existing shareholders.
ENERGY
Pemex deaths rises to four
The death toll from a fire at a northern Mexico oil refinery has risen to four, the oil company said on Sunday, after another worker succumbed to his injuries. The fire broke out on Friday last week at the complex in Ciudad Madero, a city bordering the US state of Texas, just two weeks after another blaze at the same refinery. State-run energy company Pemex said on Twitter that the workers were doing maintenance work on a coker unit when the accident took place. The firm said the unit was out of service and did not suffer material damage. On Sunday, the oil company announced the latest toll and added that seven injured workers remain hospitalized.
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