TELECOMS
Verizon offers new package
Verizon Communications Inc, the biggest US wireless provider, yesterday began selling a package that includes unlimited data, a tacit acknowledgement that smaller competitors have struck a chord with consumers who want to stream video without worrying about exceeding a cap. Verizon will charge US$80 a month for a single user, US$10 more than the plan offered by T-Mobile US Inc, which ushered in the industry’s move to unlimited data last year. A plan with four smartphones will cost US$180 through Verizon. In the fourth quarter of last year, Verizon added 591,000 wireless subscribers, half as many as T-Mobile, and chief financial officer Matt Ellis told analysts all options were on the table for the company’s plans for consumers.
CONSTRUCTION
Arabtec posts second loss
Arabtec Holding PJSC plans to raise 1.5 billion dirhams (US$408 million) from a rights issue after the United Arab Emirates’ biggest listed construction company posted its second yearly loss. The loss for the year widened to 3.41 billion dirhams from 2.35 billion dirhams a year earlier, the company said yesterday in a statement to the Dubai bourse. The mean estimate of eight analysts was for a loss of 580 million dirhams, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue climbed 5.5 percent to 7.7 billion dirhams. Arabtec cited “impairment charges on high-risk items, recurring, non-recurring and operational expenses” for the loss and said the results reflect “adverse market conditions, which are having a negative impact on the construction industry” across the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.
EGYPT
Inflation predicted to peak
Minister of Finance Amr El-Garhy said he expects surging inflation to peak by the end of the first quarter this year as the price shocks that followed decisions to raise fuel prices and abandon currency controls fade. El-Garghy, speaking on Sunday after data showed annual consumer prices soared to 28 percent last month, said policymakers expected prices to jump after the Egyptian pound was floated in November last year, a step that helped Cairo clinch a US$12 billion IMF loan accord. “It is all resulting from supply shocks rather than demand driven kind of inflation,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Dubai. “We knew that this is still peaking when it comes to inflation, we expect this to happen.” The central bank raised interest rates by 300 basis points on Nov. 3, the same day it removed all exchange-rate restrictions.
REAL ESTATE
UK home prices set record
The average price of a UK home hit a new record last month, continuing an upward trend that is in part being driven by a supply-demand imbalance. The 0.3 percent increase in values lifted the average to £300,169 (US$374,000), Acadata and LSL said in a report yesterday. Annual growth was 3.1 percent, and prices are now double what they were in 2002. London last year was one of the worst performers among 10 regions analyzed, partly due to weakness in prime locations because of Brexit and tax changes. Weakness in London’s best neighborhoods was also seen this month in a report from Knight Frank LLP, which showed double digit-price declines in Chelsea and Kensington over the past year. While price growth in Britain is forecast to cool this year, the continued appreciation is making it harder for first-time buyers.
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