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.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”