AUTOMAKERS
LeEco chair begs reprieve
Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp (LeEco, 樂視) chairman Jia Yueting (賈躍亭) asked for more time to repay debt and realize his ambitions of disrupting the automobile industry, days after a Chinese court froze billions of US dollars in assets controlled by him and associated companies. Jia has decided to devote his time to developing a futuristic electric car as the US-based start-up Faraday Future is now trying to raise funds to bring the FF91 electric car to fruition, he said in a Weibo post. “I sincerely ask everyone to give LeEco a little more time, to give LeEco’s car business a little more time,” Jia said.
INSURANCE
Axis Capital acquires Novae
Lloyd’s of London insurer Novae Group PLC said it has agreed to be taken over by Axis Capital Holdings Ltd, a Bermuda-based specialty insurer and reinsurer, for £467.6 million (US$604.7 million) in cash, sending its shares soaring by more than 20 percent. The £7-per-share offer for Novae represents a premium of more than 20 percent to the London-based insurer’s closing price on Wednesday. Axis chief executive Albert Benchimol said the acquisition of Novae would create an about US$2 billion player in the London specialty market. The deal, expected to close in the final quarter of the year, will add to Axis’ earnings in the first year.
GERMANY
Orderbook recovers
Industrial orders rebounded in May after a slide in April, preliminary official data showed yesterday, but fell short of analysts’ hopes for Europe’s largest economy. There were 1.0 percent more new contracts in May than in the previous month, correcting for seasonal effects, federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement. Destatis noted that discounting more volatile large contracts for items like aircraft showed a slight contraction of 0.3 percent in overall orders in May, correcting for seasonal and calendar effects. Revised figures also showed that the fall in April was larger than previously thought, at 2.2 percent compared with March.
CONSUMER GOODS
Cyberattack losses reported
Britain’s Reckitt Benckiser downgraded its growth forecast yesterday, becoming one of the first companies to quantify the cost of a global cyberattack, which the consumer goods maker said disrupted its manufacturing and distribution. Reckitt Benckiser, which makes Dettol and Lysol disinfectants, Harpic cleaners and Durex condoms, said it estimated its like-for-like revenue in the second quarter would fall 2 percent because of the attack. It said to a lesser extent it would also be negatively affected by tax changes in India. It cut its expectations for full-year net like-for-like revenue growth to 2 percent from 3 percent.
MEDIA
Platforms seek soccer rights
Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and Snap Inc are seeking online rights to video highlights from Twenty-first Century Fox Inc for next year’s soccer World Cup, Bloomberg reported yesterday. The companies have offered tens of millions of dollars for rights to video highlights for the Russia-hosted tournament that air in the US, Bloomberg reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. Fox will retain rights to use highlights of the World Cup across its shows, Bloomberg reported, citing the people.
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