UTILITIES
Setback in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico’s main electricity provider failed to extend a contract with its bond insurers that has given the power company time to negotiate a way to restructure its US$8.3 billion of debt. The Electric Power Authority’s failure to extend the forbearance agreement with the insurers marks a setback for the utility, which earlier this month struck a tentative deal with some of its bondholders to reduce its debt load. Insurers that guarantee US$2.5 billion of the utility’s debt balked at extending the talks. The forbearance keeps negotiations outside of court. “Now they [the bondholders] have the ability to exercise remedies. They could look now to forming a bondholder committee to try and impose a receiver and raise rates,” Matt Fabian, a partner at Concord, Massachusetts-based Municipal Market Analytics, said in a telephone interview on Saturday. Bondholders agreed to extend the forbearance contract to Oct. 1, while fuel-line lenders pushed the expiration deadline to Friday.
BANKING
Countries line up for AIIB
More than 20 countries are waiting to join the China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), its designated president said on Saturday as he downplayed concerns it was aimed to challenge US and Japanese influence in the region. The number could bring the AIIB on a par with or even surpass membership in the Japan-led Asian Development Bank, which currently has 67 members, according to its Web site. “We have 57 countries [which are potential founding members] and to my knowledge ... more than 20 countries are on the waiting list,” AIIB president-designate Jin Liqun (金立群) told delegates at the Singapore Summit conference, without naming names.
UTILITIES
Denmark pushes Dong IPO
Denmark is preparing what may become the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in the nation’s history as it sets a road map for the sale of state utility Dong Energy. The government is giving itself a maximum of 18 months, but Minister of Finance Claus Hjort Frederiksen made clear he wants the process to be swift. “The sooner we get started, the better,” he said in a telephone interview from Copenhagen. The company, which comprises units in oil, gas, wind parks and distribution networks, could be worth as much as 70 billion kroner (US$11 billion), according to Jacob Pedersen, an analyst at Sydbank. It will be a “huge” IPO and likely to attract “enormous attention,” he said. Frederiksen, who said the government will hold more than 50 percent after the IPO, declined to give a valuation when asked. Denmark had initially earmarked Dong for sale by 2018.
MANUFACTURING
ABB mulls acquisitions
ABB Ltd might sell its power-grids business and consider acquisitions in excess of US$4 billion as the Swiss industrial giant reorganizes its operations. The world’s largest power-grids supplier is looking for targeted purchases as it reassesses a product line-up spanning electric vehicle charging stations, factory robots and high-voltage generators, chief executive officer Ulrich Spiesshofer said. “We are ready to reengage in meaningful M&A,” he said on Friday in an interview with Bloomberg in New York. “We have added to the portfolio, but we have also parted ways with the portfolio. This is the way it will continue. We are really shaping ABB in a leaner, more agile way.” ABB’s strategic review, including a possible divestiture of the grids division, comes amid shareholder pressure to boost profitability.
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
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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