EGYPT
Cairo sets external debt cap
The nation is aiming for an external borrowing ceiling of US$14.326 billion in the July 2019 to June 2020 fiscal year, a government document seen by Reuters yesterday showed. The nation expects total foreign debt to reach US$102.863 billion and aims to repay US$10.326 billion to foreign lenders, the document showed. The nation has also reached an agreement with the IMF on the release of the next US$2 billion loan instalment, the fifth under its three-year aid program, the IMF said on Wednesday. The agreement with the IMF staff is subject to approval by the executive board of the Washington-based crisis lender. The loan program was signed in November 2016, and with this payment Cairo would have received US$10 billion of the total.
RETAIL
Zozo ending Zozosuit
Japanese online clothing retailer Zozo Inc is scrapping its body-measuring Zozosuit, saying it has enough data to produce custom-sized clothes for customers without creating 3D models. The polka-dot spandex suit is to be scrapped by March, CEO Yusaku Maezawa said in a surprise announcement in Tokyo on Wednesday, following the company’s quarterly results. Zozo is to ship 3 million Zozosuits before shutting down the initiative, compared with its previous forecast of 6 million to 10 million units. That should result in cost savings of about ¥3 billion (US$26.5 million) in the fiscal year through March, he said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Growth in house prices slow
House prices rose at their slowest pace in more than five years last month, as uncertainty about the economy in the run-up to Brexit weighed on the market, mortgage lender Nationwide said yesterday. Compared with October last year, prices rose 1.6 percent, down from an increase of 2 percent in September and below a median forecast of 1.9 percent in a Reuters poll of economists. That was the weakest increase since May 2013, before the UK housing market started to throw off the after-effects of the global financial crisis. Prices were flat last month in monthly terms after a 0.2 percent increase in September, Nationwide said.
GAMING
Macau revenue up 2.6%
Gambling revenue in the Chinese territory of Macau rose 2.6 percent last month from a year earlier to 27.3 billion patacas (US$3.38 billion), the highest monthly total since 2014, bolstered by solid demand from Chinese punters keen to play in the nation’s only legal casino hub. Last month also marked the 27th consecutive monthly increase, although the rate of growth slowed as rising macroeconomic concerns in China dented sentiment in the high-end VIP segment.
INSURANCE
Ping An planning IPO
Ping An Insurance (Group) Co (平安保險), China’s biggest insurer by market value, is planning a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) of its healthcare technology unit that could raise about US$2 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said. A listing of Ping An Healthcare Technology, which provides platforms used by hospitals, insurers and pharmacies, could take place as soon as next year, the people said. The insurer is talking to potential advisers about the planned share sale, the people said on condition of anonymity. It would join Ping An Good Doctor (平安好醫生), a separate Ping An subsidiary that offers online medical consultations, in seeking to sell shares to fund expansion after raising US$1.1 billion in a Hong Kong IPO in April.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in