AVIATION
Alitalia bid likely to drag
Deutsche Lufthansa AG and British budget airline easyJet are two of seven companies that on Monday bid for Alitalia, but the process to rescue Italy’s ailing flag carrier is likely to drag out until late next year. Alitalia, which has made a profit only a few times in its 70-year history, was put under special administration earlier this year after staff rejected a plan to cut jobs and salaries. Seven envelopes were delivered by a deadline to submit binding offers for parts or all of the airline on Monday, Alitalia said in a statement, but gave no further details. It was unclear whether any of the offers were for the whole airline. Both Lufthansa and easyJet said they were only interested in parts of it.
AUTOMAKERS
Daimler recalls 1m cars
Daimler AG is recalling more than 1 million vehicles, including Mercedes-Benz, due to a problem with the airbags, a company spokesman was quoted as saying on Monday. Among the vehicles being recalled are about 400,000 Mercedes cars in Britain and hundreds more in Germany, the spokesman told the DPA news agency. A Mercedes spokesman in the US said 495,000 cars would be subject to the recall there. The source of the problem is a faulty cable which can trigger the airbags to inflate inadvertently. The product recall will begin in the coming weeks when the new component to fix the problem is available.
RETAIL
Ruby Tuesday to be acquired
Ruby Tuesday Inc is being acquired for about US$146 million in a deal that will take the struggling chain private. Like other sit-down restaurant chains, Ruby Tuesday has lost customers to cheaper, faster and more casual places. Comparable-store sales at Ruby Tuesday have fallen for six consecutive quarters and the company has not reported a quarterly profit in two years, even as it has made tweaks its menu and made small changes, like adding salad bars, in an attempt to boost traffic. The private-equity firm NRD Capital on Monday said that it would pay US$2.40 for each share, a 21 percent premium from the chain’s closing price of US$1.99 on Friday. When debt is included, the companies value the deal at US$335 million.
ECONOMY
Spain cuts growth forecast
The Spanish government on Monday announced it was cutting its forecast from 2.6 percent to 2.3 percent economic growth next year, saying the political crisis in Catalonia was creating uncertainty. It said in a budget plan sent to Brussels that it was down to the economic cycle as well as “a slight containment of domestic demand, resulting from the negative impact of the uncertainty associated with the current political situation in Catalonia.” Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had already warned about the economic impact of the political standoff in a letter on Monday to Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont.
EDUCATION
Pearson predicts profit
Pearson Education expects full-year operating profit in the top half of its forecast range, in the first positive trading news for the British education group in recent years. The company, which has issued a string of profit warnings and cut thousands of jobs due to the shift to digital from paper textbooks, yesterday said it was seeing the benefit of cost cuts and the move to develop its rental and digital offerings. “We expect tough market conditions in our biggest business to continue over the next couple of years,” chief executive John Fallon said.
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
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
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