AUTOMAKERS
China fines BMW dealers
Four Chinese dealers for German automaker BMW AG have been fined about 1.6 million yuan (US$260,000), authorities have said, as the government steps up a high-profile anti-monopoly campaign involving a number of foreign brands. The dealers in Wuhan, Hubei Province, have been ordered to pay the penalties for “forming a price alliance,” provincial authorities said in a statement on Wednesday. They agreed to consistently charge a fee for the pre-delivery inspection of cars, which falls under “the obligations and responsibilities” of the automaker and its dealers, according to the statement. The dealers were each fined between 150,000 yuan and 940,000 yuan.
RUSSIA
Sanctions start to bite
US sanctions against Moscow appeared yesterday to have claimed their first major victim when the head of Russia’s largest oil company was reported to have asked the government for help to cover its massive debt. The well-connected Vedomosti business daily said Rosneft chief executive officer Igor Sechin had written a letter to the Cabinet outlining five ways it could help repay about US$45 billion. More than half the amount is due by the end of next year. Rosneft became the world’s largest publicly traded oil firm after taking over the TNK-BP joint venture from its Russian owners and the UK company for US$54 billion last year.
TECHNOLOGY
Lenovo profits surge
Lenovo Group (聯想), the world’s biggest PC maker, says its latest quarterly profit rose 23 percent on strong growth in sales of smartphones and other mobile devices. Lenovo said yesterday it earned US$214 million, or US$2.06 per share, in the three months ended June 30. Global revenue rose 18 percent to US$10.4 billion. Sales of mobile devices rose 32 percent from a year earlier to US$1.6 billion. The company is investing heavily in smartphones, tablet computers and other wireless devices, and has said it expects sales of its mobile devices to be the bulk of its future revenue. Sales of Lenovo PCs rose 20 percent to US$3 billion, accounting for 29 percent of total revenue.
REAL ESTATE
London’s boom fades
London’s property boom appears to be fading, according to a survey released yesterday that added to signs that house price growth in the UK is starting to level off. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ monthly house price balance eased to 49 last month, its weakest reading since February, slightly below forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists. June was revised downwards to 52. Weakness centered on London, the survey showed. Last month official figures showed London house prices rose 20.1 percent on the year in May — a record increase.
BANKING
Barclays index unit on sale
Barclays PLC’s index business drew offers from NASDAQ OMX Group Inc, Bloomberg LP, and CME Group Inc, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Index Portfolio and Risk Solutions business, which manages indexes including the US Aggregate Bond Index, could fetch about US$1 billion, one of the people said. The first-round bids were due at the end of June, the people said, and the process has not yet advanced to a second round. The unit is part of Barclays investment bank. It also sells portfolio management software to investors.
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