AUSTRALIA
Asset sale rejected
The government rejected bids for electricity network Ausgrid from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠) and State Grid Corp of China (國家電網), amid growing opposition to selling infrastructure assets to overseas investors. Treasurer Scott Morrison said it would be contrary to national security to allow the offers to proceed in their current form and said the bidders, which he did not name, have been given a week to respond. “Ausgrid’s footprint includes critical power and communication services provided to businesses and government,” Morrison said yesterday in Brisbane. He said he would make a final decision after seeing any revised submissions.
STEELMAKERS
Thyssenkrupp profit falls
Thyssenkrupp AG, Germany’s largest steelmaker, yesterday reported fiscal third-quarter profit fell 18 percent as record steel exports from China continued to put pressure on prices. Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes dropped to 441 million euros (US$493 million) in the three months through June from 539 million a year earlier, the Essen-based company said in a statement. Thyssenkrupp reiterated its fiscal-year profit forecast of at least 1.4 billion euros. “We are now seeing initial improvements in material prices,” chief executive officer Heinrich Hiesinger said. “This will have a favorable impact on our future earnings.”
TELECOMS
China Mobile profit surges
China Mobile Ltd’s (中國移動) first-half profit rose 5.6 percent after the world’s largest phone carrier by users added more 4G subscribers than the populations of the UK and Spain combined. Net income increased to 60.6 billion yuan (US$9.1 billion), compared with 57.3 billion yuan a year earlier, the company said in a statement yesterday. The carrier, which accounts for about 65 percent of the nation’s wireless users, added 116.3 million 4G subscribers in the first six months of the year as more people made the switch from slower services. That market has room to grow as more than half of China’s mobile-phone users use slower 3G or 2G services.
TRAVEL
TUI revenue falls 5.7%
A series of terrorist attacks undermined revenues at German-British travel giant TUI in April and June, the company said in results released yesterday. Revenue in the third quarter of the group’s financial year was down 5.7 percent compared with the same period last year, at 4.6 billion euros. Falling reservations for north Africa and Turkey, the effects of terrorist attacks like the Brussels airport bombings in March and Easter falling outside the second quarter this year were to blame for the slide, the group said in a statement. Although bookings suffered, the group was able to increase operating profits as measured by earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization by 24 percent to 150 million euros.
HOME APPLIANCES
Samsung acquires Dacor
Samsung Electronics Co yesterday said that it had acquired US luxury appliance maker Dacor Inc as part of its push toward a full production line of high-end, Internet-connected homeware. The purchase of the California-based company is the latest in a series of acquisitions by the South Korean electronics giant in recent years — including that of US home automation start-up SmartThings in 2014. A Samsung statement gave no details on the value of the deal to acquire Dacor, whose products include stovetops, ovens, ranges and refrigerators.
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