ENERGY
Iran’s London meet canceled
Iran on Saturday canceled a London conference to promote new contracts for global oil companies, two weeks after economic sanctions were lifted, because the British government had not issued visas to Iranian delegates, an official told the weekly Iranian magazine Seda. The London conference was proposed in February 2014, when Iran announced it would be designing new contracts for foreign investors. It had already been postponed four times. The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office did not have an immediate comment on the Iranian visas.
FOOD AND DRINK
Coke takes Nigerian stake
Coca-Cola says it has taken a 40 percent stake in a Nigerian company that makes snacks and dairy and juice drinks. The world’s biggest beverage maker says the agreement will allow it to increase its ownership of Chi Ltd to 100 percent within three years, pending regulatory approvals. Coke and Chi’s parent company, Tropical General Investments Group, have also agreed to explore other opportunities in the region. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The companies say the deal will strengthen Chi by giving it access to Coke’s distribution and production capabilities.
MACROECONOMICS
EU open to gasoline tax
European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis has suggested he was open to German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble’s proposal for a special tax on gasoline in EU member states to finance refugee-related costs. In comments published on Saturday by the German magazine Der Spiegel, Dombrovskis said he agreed with Schaeuble’s call for “innovative European concepts to cope with the refugee crisis.” Schaeuble did not specify how high the additional tax on gasoline should be and whether Brussels or the EU member states would be would be in charge of collecting it.
BANKING
Share owner cancels sale
A shareholder in First Gulf Bank PJSC, the Abu Dhabi-based bank partly owned by the government and the Al Nahyan ruling family, canceled a share sale valued at about 1.2 billion dirhams (US$330 million), according to people familiar with the matter. The share owner wanted to use the proceeds to pay off a margin loan — a vehicle often backed by shares where the borrower agrees to pay extra if the collateral’s value declines, the people said. Deutsche Bank AG was the sole bookrunner on the sale of 120.6 million shares, or about 2.7 percent of the lender, according to a term sheet obtained by Bloomberg News, which did not name the seller.
BANKING
Italian merger likely
Banco Popolare SC’s chief executive officer said he is confident the Italian cooperative lender can reach a merger agreement with competitor Banca Popolare di Milano Scarl in a deal that would create Italy’s third-largest lender and probably trigger a round of combinations in the industry. Pier Francesco Saviotti on Saturday told reporters at a financial conference in Turin that a deal probably can be made soon, though there is no certainty of an agreement. His counterpart at Popolare Milano, Giuseppe Castagna, said: “February should be the month for a deal,” though he emphasized that he was still open to discussions with rival Unione di Banche Italiane SpA as well as Banco Popolare.
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
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
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