SWITZERLAND
Economy returns to growth
The economy returned to growth at the end of last year as it fought off the impact of a currency shock that had threatened to push the nation into a recession. GDP rose 0.4 percent in the three months through December, after contracting 0.1 percent in the prior quarter, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs in Bern said yesterday. That was the strongest quarter in a year and beats the median economist estimate for a 0.1 percent increase. Despite the better-than-forecast performance in the fourth quarter, the economy still suffered its worst year since 2009.
STOCK EXCHANGES
CE mulls London offer
The IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, on Tuesday said that it was considering making a competing offer for the London Stock Exchange Group. The announcement came one week after the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Borse said they were in talks on a possible all-share merger, the third time the two big European exchanges have contemplated a tie-up since 2000. It also followed news reports on Monday that the ICE might be considering a competing bid.
MINING
Glencore might boost stake
Glencore PLC might increase its stake in Colombia’s largest coal mine, Cerrejon, if Anglo American PLC carries out recently announced plans to sell its one-third interest. Both Glencore and joint-owner BHP Billiton Ltd are entitled to buy Anglo’s stake under existing agreements, Glencore chief executive officer Ivan Glasenberg said in a conference call on Tuesday. Glencore’s preference would be to share Anglo’s stake with BHP rather than buy it all, he said. “Cerrejon is an opportunity,” Glasenberg said. “If we can get it at the right price. It’s something we wouldn’t want to walk away from.”
BANKING
Kenyan lender’s profits rise
Kenya Commercial Bank Ltd, the east African nation’s biggest lender by assets, said full-year profits last year grew 16 percent, helped by its expansion in mobile banking. Net income climbed to 19.6 billion shillings (US$193 million) in the 12 months through December last year from 16.8 billion shillings a year earlier, chief financial officer Lawrence Kiambi told reporters yesterday in Nairobi. Net interest income, the money earned from charges on loans, rose 9 percent to 39.2 billion shillings, he said. The bank approved 3.5 million loans via mobile phone last year, which was 47 percent of the total, chief executive officer Joshua Oigara said at the briefing.
ENERGY
Chesapeake ex-boss charged
The US Department of Justice on Tuesday night announced that it had charged Aubrey McClendon, an Oklahoma wildcatter who turbocharged the shale revolution by buying up gas fields across the US, with conspiring to suppress prices paid for oil and natural-gas leases. The indictment says that McClendon, who led Chesapeake Energy before he was forced to step down three years ago, orchestrated a conspiracy in which two oil and gas companies colluded not to bid against each other for the purchase of several leases in northwestern Oklahoma from late 2007 to early 2012. According to the department, the companies decided who would win the leases, with the winning bidder allotting an interest in the leases to the other company.
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