REAL ESTATE
Anbang buying NY building
Blackstone Group LP agreed to sell an office building on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue to China’s Anbang Insurance Group Co (安邦保險集團), the buyer of New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, two people familiar with the transaction said. Anbang agreed to pay between US$400 million and US$500 million for the property at 717 Fifth Ave., located at the corner of 56th Street in Midtown’s Plaza District, one of the people said. The Beijing-based Anbang acquired the landmark Waldorf Astoria for US$1.95 billion from Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc, the hotel operator majority owned by Blackstone, in a transaction completed earlier this month.
AUTOMAKERS
Strike fetters Honda output
Honda Motor Co will cut output at two North American factories from Feb. 24 through March 2, cutting production by 5,000 cars due to a disruption in parts shipments caused by a protracted labor dispute at US west coast ports. Two Ohio plants and one plant in Canada returned to normal production as the auto parts came in by air, but an Indiana plant and another in Canada still have to trim output, company spokeswoman Misato Fukushima said yesterday in Tokyo. Production from Feb. 16 to 23 was already cut by 20,000 cars because all five plants were affected. The disruptions have mainly affected the company’s popular Civic model, Fukushima said.
INTERNET
Yahoo touts developer suite
Yahoo Inc on Thursday hosted its first conference for mobile application makers, adopting a strategy used by rivals in a push to be at the heart of mobile Internet lifestyles. More than 1,000 people attended a Yahoo Mobile Developer Conference where the Internet pioneer unveiled a new suite of services designed to help developers improve and profit from applications tailored for smartphones or tablet computers. “Mobile went from a hobby, to becoming a core part of our business,” Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer said during a keynote opening the one-day gathering in San Francisco.
LENDING
No fraud found in China loan
An internal investigation over the World Bank’s controversial handling of a US$1 billion loan from China to help poor countries has found no evidence of fraud, according to documents reviewed Thursday by AFP. A law firm hired by the global development lender said there was nothing untoward in the unusual structure to accommodate the loan created by two of the bank’s arms, the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). World Bank president Jim Yong Kim initiated the review earlier this month. In a staff memo released on Thursday, Kim said the law firm Locke Lord Edwards had found no wrongdoing in its investigation.
PORTS
Sri Lanka checks China plan
China’s US$1.4 billion plan to build a city on reclaimed land near Colombo port faces its first tangible setback since new Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena took power last month. Lawmakers failed to approve a 25-year tax holiday proposed by the previous administration for the Colombo Port City before a deadline on Tuesday, Deputy Investment Promotion Minister Eran Wickramaratne said. The process must now be restarted if the project is to continue, he said.
DEBT
Moody’s trims Puerto Rico
Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded US$48 billion worth of Puerto Rico debt as the US territory struggles to generate more revenue. The credit rating agency said on Thursday that tax revenue shortfalls could worsen Puerto Rico’s liquidity issues. It also warned that the US territory might default on its debt in the next two years. Moody’s said that proposed tax reforms currently being debated by Puerto Rico legislators could have an adverse political effect that might affect bondholders.
ENERGY
Canada cuts LNG taxes
Canada is cutting taxes on liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in an effort to spur the industry, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced on Thursday. LNG capital assets acquired over the next decade will be subject to a capital cost allowance rate of 30 percent for equipment, and 10 percent for buildings. The government said the changes will allow LNG companies to deduct a higher share of capital costs. The government expects the move to reduce corporate tax revenue by “less than [C]$50 million” over the next five years.
MEXICO
Growth forecast trimmed
The central bank reduced its growth forecast for the economy citing a “less favorable” environment due to the drop in oil prices and a potential cut in oil production. The Bank of Mexico estimated that the GDP could grow between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent this year, a reduction from its earlier forecast of between 3 percent and 4 percent, according to a quarterly inflation report the central bank published on Wednesday on its Web site.
ELECTRICITY
France, Spain link lines
France and Spain inaugurated a cross-border power line, doubling the amount of electricity the countries can exchange as the EU pushes for stronger ties between national grid systems within the bloc. The Santa Llogaia-Baixas link will raise electricity interconnection capacity between France and Spain to 2,800 megawatts from 1,400 megawatts, the European Commission said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. One megawatt can supply about 2,000 European households. The EU contributed 255 million euros (US$290 million) toward the project’s total cost of 700 million euros.
INTERNET
YouTube plans app for kids
YouTube on Thursday revealed plans for the US release of a mobile application built with children — and their parents’ concerns — in mind. A free YouTube Kids app tailored for Android-powered devices is set to hit the Google Play store on Monday. YouTube Kids launch partners include Jim Henson TV, DreamWorks TV, Mother Goose Club, National Geographic, Reading Rainbow and Talking Tom and Friends.
FOOD
Deflation impacts Danone
Danone, the world’s biggest yogurt maker, set a lower sales forecast for this year than last year’s amid deflationary pressure in Europe and weakening currencies in emerging markets. Sales will rise 4 percent to 5 percent on a like-for-like basis this year, the Paris-based company said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Last year’s goal was 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent. The company said it expects “slight growth” in the operating margin on the same basis, which adjusts for currency changes, divestments and acquisitions.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day