RAILWAYS
Eurostar stake to be sold
The UK government on Monday officially launched an attempt to sell its 40 percent stake in Eurostar, the high-speed rail service connecting London with Paris and Brussels. It forms part of the state’s plan to recoup £20 billion (US$32.2 billion) from asset sales by 2020 to help bring down the nation’s debt pile. The Treasury said it “would expect to reach definitive agreements in the first quarter of 2015” over the sale, ahead of a general election that is due soon after. Eurostar is also 55 percent owned by French rail operator SNCF and 5 percent by Belgium’s SNCB. The train service has carried more than 145 million passengers in its 20 years of existence, and 10 million alone last year, the Treasury said. There are concerns also that the government could offload the stake at a price deemed too cheap, in a repetition of last year’s part-privatisation of Britain’s Royal Mail postal service.
AVIATION
Garuda orders 50 planes
Indonesian flag carrier Garuda has placed an order for 50 planes worth almost US$5 billion, as competition heats up for passengers in Asia’s increasingly crowded skies, US plane giant Boeing said. Garuda ordered 46 of Boeing’s new 737 MAX 8 jets and is converting existing orders for four 737-800s to 737 MAX 8s, the plane manufacturer said. The purchase is worth US$4.9 billion at current list prices, although airlines typically receive large discounts for big orders. The announcement marks the latest phase in an impressive turnaround for the airline.
AUTOMAKERS
China sales rise 6.4 percent
Passenger-vehicle sales in China rose 6.4 percent last month as the government resumed subsidizing purchases of fuel-efficient vehicles. Wholesale deliveries of cars, multipurpose and sports utility vehicles climbed to 1.69 million units last month, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said yesterday. For the first nine months of this year, sales rose 10 percent to 14.2 million. China’s government restarted subsidies last month for purchases of fuel-efficient cars, or vehicles that consume less than 5.9 liters of gasoline per 100km, after local automakers lost market share to overseas-based brands for 12 consecutive months. Of the brands approved for the 3,000 yuan (US$489) subsidy, about 60 percent are local, according to the government. General Motors Co, which counts China as its largest market, earlier this month said that its sales in the nation rose 15 percent last month. Toyota Motor Corp, the world’s largest carmaker, increased sales by 26 percent to 91,100 vehicles, while Nissan Motor Co and Honda Motor Co deliveries slumped 20 percent and 23 percent respectively during the month.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Steris offers to buy Synergy
Medical Technology provider Steris Corp said it was offered to buy British sterilisation services provider Synergy Health for about US$1.9 billion in cash and stock to expand its footprint in Europe. Steris said it would set up a new company to undertake the acquisition. It offered to pay Synergy Health shareholders £4.39 per share in cash and 0.43 shares in the new company. Synergy shareholders are expected to hold a 30 percent stake in the new company, while Steris stockholders plan to hold the remaining 70 percent. The new company is expected to have a combined revenue of about US$2.6 billion and employ about 14,000 people in 60 countries, the two companies said.
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