MAURITIUS
Economy to grow 4%: MCB
Economic growth is to accelerate next year, driven by railway, road and other infrastructure projects, MCB Group Ltd chief executive Pierre Guy Noel said on Monday. The economy would probably grow 4 percent next year, compared with 3.8 percent this year, he said in an interview. The government is spending 15.6 billion Mauritian rupees (US$453.46 million) this year on capital expenditure to develop infrastructure, including more than 3,000 social-housing units, police buildings and new parliament and Supreme Court buildings. That spending is forecast to increase by 15 percent next year, BMI Research said. While the nation is facing a soaring import bill as it purchases goods for construction, its effect on the current account is to be offset by tourism revenue, the central bank said last month.
INSURANCE
No repeated margin for RMI
Rand Merchant Investment Holdings Ltd (RMI), which owns stakes in insurers operating across the UK, Australia and South Africa, told investors not to expect a repeat of the unusually low claims that boosted this year’s profits. The Johannesburg-based investor on Tuesday reported a 15 percent increase in adjusted earnings in the 12 months through June, even as economic growth in its main markets stuttered. South Africa tipped into its first recession since 2009 in the second quarter and Britain’s GDP growth has been sluggish, while political turmoil in Australia has caused business confidence to slump to a two-year low. A drop in motor-related claims and favorable weather conditions helped boost profit from OUTsurance, which would also pay a special dividend of 236 million rands (US$15.62 million) to RMI, the company said. The unit’s Australian division, Youi Pty Ltd, also paid its first dividend. New initiatives, such as Discovery Ltd’s plans to start a bank by the end of the year, could also put a strain on earnings, the insurer said.
FAST FOOD
Ivory Coast to get Pizza Hut
Vivo Energy PLC said it is to open the first outlet of Yum! Brands Inc’s Pizza Hut in the Ivory Coast after its debut of the company’s KFC brand met expectations. The forecourt operator signed a deal with Yum for Pizza Hut after being “quite happy” about the performance of the first KFC store that opened in April in Abidjan, said Ben Hassan Ouattara, managing director for the London-based company’s local unit. Vivo and venture partner KFC Baobab are to open two more outlets of the fried chicken chain before the end of the year, with more stores planned for next year, KFC Baobab director Grant Wheatley said in an interview. Vivo is also partnering with Burger King for an outlet in the Ivory Coast.
INVESTMENT
PIF takes out first loan
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, known as the Public Investment Fund (PIF), is to sign a US$11 billion loan this week, marking its first-ever borrowing, people familiar with the matter said. Some of the biggest global lenders, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, HSBC Holdings PLC and JPMorgan Chase & Co, are providing the loan that is priced at 75 basis points more than the London Interbank Offered Rate, or just shy of 90 basis points, including fees, the people said. London-based boutique Verus Partners is advising the PIF on the talks, they said. The deal would give the PIF additional cash after two years of major new investments.
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
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
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