CHINA
Firm to buy 50 Airbus jets
An aircraft leasing company on Thursday said it plans to buy 50 Airbus A320neo jets for US$5.42 billion as part of a drive to capitalize on ever-growing demand for air travel in China. Hong Kong-listed China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings Ltd (中國飛機租賃) is to take delivery of the airliners in stages through to 2023, it said in a statement. The company said the announcement takes its total orders with Airbus to 202 aircraft, adding it would “purchase 15 additional Airbus A320neo aircraft next month subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions.”
ENERGY
SandRidge drops Bonanza buy
SandRidge Energy Inc, succumbing to a campaign led by activist investor Carl Icahn, gave up on its proposed purchase of rival oil and natural gas explorer Bonanza Creek Energy Inc. After consultation with its largest shareholders, the company’s board concluded that it would not receive approval for the transaction at its planned special meeting, SandRidge said in a statement on Thursday. SandRidge is to reimburse as much as US$3.7 million to Bonanza Creek for expenses related to transactions. The shares gained as much as 1.9 percent in after-hours trading.
FINANCE
Citigroup pays big for claims
Citigroup Inc is to pay US$11.5 million to resolve Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) claims that a brokerage unit harmed retail customers by displaying inaccurate research ratings for hundreds of securities for nearly five years. Citigroup Global Markets Inc showed incorrect ratings — such as “buy” instead of “sell” — to brokers, customers and supervisors on 38 percent of the equities covered by its research department from February 2011 to December 2015, FINRA said in a statement on Thursday.
UNITED STATES
Home values hit record
In a hot housing market, the value of all homes soared to a record this year, as did the monthly payments by renters, online real-estate giant Zillow said on Thursday. With the steady increase in demand for housing driving prices and rents higher, the value of all homes was up nearly US$2 trillion, according to year-end data. The 6.5 percent increase over last year was the biggest gain in four years and drove the total to nearly US$32 trillion. The value is up US$9 trillion from the worst point in the global recession, the report said.
AIRLINES
IAG to take over Niki
British Airways owner IAG has emerged as the preferred bidder to take over bankrupt Austrian airline Niki, German news agency DPA reported on Thursday. Niki insolvency administrator Lucas Floether earlier announced that creditors had agreed to begin final talks with a chosen bidder.
METALS
Copper on 30-year run
Copper is on a run that is set to be the best in almost 30 years. The metal is on course for the longest winning streak since 1989, topping US$7,300 a tonne in London, on optimism about increased demand, supply disruptions in China and a weaker US dollar. Three-month copper rose as much as 1 percent to US$7,312.50 on the London Metal Exchange, the highest since January 2014, and traded at US$7,267 at 12:20pm in London on Thursday. The metal is up for a 10th straight day.
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