HEALTHCARE
Philips to launch apps
Royal Philips NV plans to roll out software designed to help doctors improve the diagnoses of diseases such as cancer as it challenges General Electric Co and Siemens AG for a bigger share of the lucrative healthcare solutions market. The apps improve the interpretation of data such as a sequence of scans, with different colors showing up minor differences that could easily be missed with the naked eye, Philips chief executive Frans van Houten said at a media briefing. It is a market that could grow twice as fast as Philips’ traditional business supplying scanners and other big-ticket medical equipment. Software accounts for about 3 billion euros (US$3.1 billion) of the 17 billion euros in sales generated by Philips.
JAPAN
Fukushima costs rise
The trade ministry has almost doubled the estimated cost of compensation for the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant meltdown and the decommissioning of the damaged plant to more than ¥20 trillion (US$177.51 billion), the Nikkei daily reported on Sunday. The trade ministry at the end of 2013 calculated the cost at ¥11 trillion, which was comprised of ¥5.4 trillion for compensation, ¥2.5 trillion for decontamination, ¥1.1 trillion for an interim storage facility for contaminated soil and ¥2 trillion for decommissioning, the report said. The new estimate raised the cost of compensation to ¥8 trillion and decontamination to between ¥4 trillion and ¥5 trillion, while the cost of an interim storage facility remained steady and decommissioning rose by several trillion, it added.
UNITED KINGDOM
Service sector bearish
Businesses in the service sector are increasingly pessimistic about the future as sales slow and costs rise, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said. More companies surveyed reported that they were less confident about the business situation in the third quarter compared with the second quarter, the CBI said in a report published yesterday. The investment picture was more mixed, with expenditure on information technology expected to grow, but investment in buildings and machinery being scaled back. Hiring intentions remained steady. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond last week announced measures such as a national investment fund to boost the nation’s ailing productivity. While the pound’s weakness following the Brexit vote has helped the manufacturing sector boost exports, it has largely overlooked the service sector — the economy’s biggest contributor.
AGRICULTURE
Tractor firm to aid farmers
India’s biggest tractor maker said it would extend its assistance to farmers affected by the banknote crisis to tide them over the planting season. Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd would help farmers with servicing for their tractors, buying of seeds, and give some leeway on loans and advances, managing director Pawan Goenka said last week. The government’s decision to withdraw 500 and 1,000 rupee banknotes and its inability to keep pace with demand for replacements, especially in rural areas, has left the nation’s farmers with a severe currency shortage during the winter sowing season. The ban caught people by surprise in an economy where businesses and consumers often transact in hard cash. The withdrawal of high-denomination banknotes has resulted in demand for commercial vehicles declining by 30 percent and is expected to hit sales in the near term as fleet operators likely put purchases on hold, a credit rating firm said last week.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
CSC Financial plans IPO
CSC Financial Co (中信建投証券), a Beijing-based brokerage and investment bank, and an existing shareholder are seeking as much as HK$1.06 billion (US$136.7 million) in a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO). The company and China’s National Social Security Fund are offering a combined 1.13 billion shares at HK$6.36 to HK$7.26 apiece, according to terms for the deal obtained by Bloomberg yesterday. Cornerstone investors are to buy about HK$597 million of the stock, representing 60 percent of the base deal size, assuming the IPO prices at the midpoint of the marketed range, the terms showed. A stock offering would add to the HK$17.2 billion in first-time share sales from financial firms in the Chinese territory this year, accounting for about three-quarters of the fundraising from new listings, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. Domestic brokerages such as CSC Financial have been selling shares in Hong Kong to fund expansion overseas.
MALAYSIA
Attempt to buoy ringgit fails
The central bank is attempting to force currency traders overseas to stop selling the ringgit, as investors flee the nation’s bond market, but it has had little discernible impact so far, traders and analysts said. More than a week ago, Bank Negara Malaysia demanded that offshore banks confirm through signed letters that neither they nor their corporate clients would trade the ringgit on the non-deliverable forward (NDF) market. An NDF allows banks and companies to hedge or speculate on emerging market currencies overseas when exchange controls in those nations make it difficult to trade directly on the spot market. The central bank sent the letters to about 58 firms in the country that have connections to offshore ringgit trading. Only a half-dozen offshore firms signed the letters, the central bank said last week. The move has done little to bring ringgit trading onshore so far, traders said. The ringgit has plunged nearly 7 percent over the past two weeks, the worst performing currency in Asia. The reason is mostly because foreign investors have fled the nation’s bond market — they own 40 percent of it — after bond yields spiked across the world amid speculation US president-elect Donald Trump’s stimulus policies would ignite inflation. The immediate risk for the country is its US$81.4 billion worth of short-term external debt, Natixis senior economist Trinh Nguyen said in Hong Kong.
STOCK MARKETS
Hong Kong leads Asia gains
Hong Kong yesterday led gains on most Asian markets after officials announced the start of a long-awaited linkup with Shenzhen, but the HK dollar retreated against most of its peers after its recent surge. Crude oil prices saw fresh losses after both main contracts slumped about 4 percent on Friday last week due to disagreements over plans to cut output, with Iran and Iraq pressing to be excluded and Russia suggesting it would only freeze output. Officials on Friday last week announced that the tie-up between the Hong Kong and Shenzhen stock markets would start on Monday next week. The scheme gives Hong Kong traders access to China’s second-largest stock exchange, the world’s eighth-largest, with a market capitalization of US$3.3 trillion as of September. The link follows a similar “stock connect” between Shanghai and Hong Kong launched two years ago, which gave foreigners new access to Chinese companies not quoted elsewhere and enabled Chinese to trade in Hong Kong. The Hang Seng Index finished up 0.5 percent, though Shenzhen slipped 0.1 percent by the close. Shanghai closed up 0.5 percent.
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