AIRLINES
EasyJet posts first profit fall
British low-cost airline easyJet said it expected currency headwinds and measures to mitigate Brexit to hit earnings again next year, after reporting its first fall in annual profit in six years. For the 12 months to the end of September, easyJet, Europe’s No. 2 no-frills carrier behind Ryanair, posted a 28 percent drop in pre-tax profit to £495 million (US$618 million), its first decline since 2009, although at the upper end of a £490 million to £495 million range given last month. The weak sterling following the Brexit vote resulted in an £88 million hit to easyJet’s profit in its 2015-2016 fiscal year and carrier yesterday said it expected a further impact of £90 million in the 12 months to September next year.
AIRLINES
Buffett bets on airlines
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has taken stakes in three US airlines, in a US$1.3 billion bet that marks a sharp U-turn of his antagonistic views on the sector. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc invested US$797 million in American Airlines, US$249 million in Delta Air Lines and US$237 million in United Continental Holdings, according to a regulatory filing on Monday. Berkshire Hathaway also took a stake in Southwest Airlines, CNBC television network reported on Monday. The financial guru was known for his dislike of the airline industry after his disastrous bet on preferred shares of US Airways in 1989, calling it a “death trap.”
ENTERTAINMENT
Cineworld revenue up 14.6%
British cinema operator Cineworld Group PLC reported a 14.6 percent rise in revenue for the 45 weeks to Thursday, helped by strong box-office collections from movies like The Secret Life of Pets, Finding Dory and The BFG. Cineworld said box-office revenue grew 8.5 percent for the period, while total revenue in its key UK and Ireland markets rose 8.4 percent. The firm, which operates 2,103 screens, said it was confident of delivering results in line with market expectations, with two major releases — Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them and Star Wars: Rogue One — slated to open next month.
PROPERTY
Singapore home sales surge
Singapore home sales rose to the highest in more than a year last month, as developers marketed more projects on pent-up demand from homebuyers. Developers sold 1,252 units last month, compared with 509 units in September, according to data released yesterday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. That was the biggest monthly sales tally since July last year, the data showed. Developers launched 1,467 units last month, more than three times the number in September. The surge in sales came even as Singapore’s government has been steadfast in its commitment to cool the housing market, maintaining real-estate curbs rolled out since 2009.
INTERNET
WhatsApp adds video call
Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp has finally joined rivals from WeChat to Snapchat in offering video calls. The messaging service, responding to popular demand, will begin rolling out the long-awaited feature to its 1 billion-plus users across the main mobile software platforms, including Apple Inc’s iOS, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows. WhatsApp was one of the last major messaging services to offer voice calling and is now catching up with Tencent Holdings Ltd’s (騰訊) WeChat and Snap Inc, as well as Google and Apple. Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2014 for US$22 billion.
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
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