PAKISTAN
Moody’s warns on fuel crisis
Pakistan’s ongoing fuel shortage that has led to worsening power blackouts is weighing on its credit worthiness and hindering its ability to meet key reform targets laid out by the IMF, ratings agency Moody’s said yesterday. The country is in the grip of one of its worst power crises in years due to a shortfall in imported oil, with the situation exacerbated on Sunday by an attack on a key powerline in Baluchistan Province. Moody’s said that increasing energy imports without addressing structural issues that create so-called circular debt “will further strain Pakistan’s budget and balance of payments, a credit negative. It added that: “fuel shortages also reflect the strained finances of state-owned distribution companies and the fuel importer, Pakistan State Oil, and are a setback to the sector’s progress on reforms made so far under Pakistan’s financial support program with the International Monetary Fund.”
BANKING
Postal bank seeks funds
The Postal Savings Bank of China Co (中國郵政儲蓄銀行), which has the most outlets of any Chinese lender, plans to raise at least US$1 billion from investors before a planned initial public offering (IPO), people with knowledge of the matter said. The lending arm of state-owned China Post Group Co (中國郵政集團) aims to sell the stake this year, said the people, who asked not to be named as the deliberations are private. Investment banks are pitching for roles on the pre-IPO share sale and the exact size of the deal hasn’t been determined yet, the people said. The bank plans to seek more than US$4 billion selling shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai, people with knowledge of the matter said in June last year. Its Hong Kong IPO could start as soon as the fourth quarter, with the Shanghai portion to follow later, the people said.
ENERGY
Rosneft buying ruble bonds
OAO Rosneft was scheduled to place 400 billion rubles (US$6.1 billion) in ruble bonds yesterday as Russia’s largest oil producer plans to repay loans raised for deals and growth. Rosneft completed collecting bids for the sale in one hour on Friday last week and set the coupon at 11.9 percent, the Moscow-based company said in a statement. Russian government bonds due in June yield 14.65 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Sanctions on the Kremlin-led company related to Russia’s actions in Ukraine have restricted Rosneft’s access to international debt markets. Falling oil prices have also reduced the availability of cash to service debts raised for deals that made Rosneft the world’s biggest publicly traded oil producer by output.
ECONOMY
UK rates could rise soon
British interest rates may rise sooner than many people expect if inflation rebounds strongly from its current decline, a Bank of England rate setter said in an interview published in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. Monetary Policy Committee member Kristin Forbes said inflation might fall further in the near term, but strong growth in the US and cheap oil could boost British consumption, eventually triggering the need for rate hikes. “If the risks that I’m focusing on to our last forecasts come through, I think there is a chance that inflation will pick up faster than people had been expecting in the medium term, which then would most likely merit an increase in interest rates sooner than people are currently expecting,” Forbes told the paper. The bank’s interest rates have held at a record low 0.5 percent since early 2009.
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