Ford Motor Co and Kimberly-Clark Corp are taking fourth-quarter charges because of difficulties exchanging US dollars for Venezuelan bolivars.
Ford said on Friday it would take a one-time pretax charge of US$800 million that would reduce its fourth quarter net income by about US$700 million. Dallas-based Kimberly-Clark Corp said it would take a US$462 million charge to revalue its bolivar-denominated assets.
The bolivar’s lack of liquidity has affected several US-based companies. Clorox Co pulled out of Venezuela last year, while Brink’s Co took a writedown. United Continental Holdings Inc, American Airlines Group Inc and Delta Air Lines Inc have all pared service to Latin America’s largest oil exporter.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday said the country would create its fifth parallel currency market in 12 years to boost US dollar supplies.
The new market would allow private companies and individuals to trade the US dollar through brokerages, he said, adding that the government is to continue to import essential products at the primary exchange rate of 6.3 bolivars to the US dollar.
On the black market, one US dollar buys 183 bolivars, according to dolartoday.com, a Web site that tracks the rate on the Colombian border with Venezuela.
Kimberly-Clark said the government’s alternative rate of about 50 bolivars to the US dollar is more accurate than the official 6.3 rate. Kimberly-Clark switched to a floating from a fixed exchange rate as volatility in Venezuela increased with falling oil prices.
Ford’s US$500 million cash balance in its Venezuelan operations would no longer be included in the company’s automotive gross cash, the company said on Friday.
The automaker said it would count cash and income from Venezuelan operations only when the parent company is paid for parts sold to the unit or it pays dividends to the parent.
The second-largest US automaker said it does not affect the full-year pretax profit forecast of about US$6 billion.
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