AVIATION
Firm hit by president’s fears
Shares in Brazilian airplane maker Embraer SA plunged nearly 5 percent on Sao Paulo’s stock market after new Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro voiced wariness about a US$5.2 billion merger that the company is planning with US giant Boeing Co. “This merger would be very good, but we can’t, as is set out in the last proposal, allow everything to be handed over to the other side in five years’ time,” he said on Friday. “That’s the worry: This is our heritage,” he said, adding: “We know of the need for this merger, for its [Embraer’s] competitiveness, so it doesn’t disappear over time.”
AUTOMAKERS
Munoz works on Ghosn tasks
Nissan Motor Co chief performance officer Jose Munoz, who oversaw the Japanese automaker’s global strategies, is taking a leave of absence to work on “special tasks arising from recent events,” the company said yesterday, referring to the arrest of former chairman Carlos Ghosn. Nissan spokesman Nicholas Maxfield did not offer details. Munoz is among several executives that the media have speculated could be a possible successor to Ghosn.
BANKING
Credit Suisse to aid probe
Credit Suisse on Friday said it had been deceived by three former employees, accused by prosecutors in New York of orchestrating US$2 billion in dodgy loans to Mozambique, and pledged to cooperate with a US investigation. The suspects “sought to hide these activities from the bank,” Switzerland’s second-largest bank said, adding that it was not a target of the US Department of Justice indictment.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Emulex suit hits top court
The US Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal filed by a subsidiary of Broadcom Inc seeking to put an end to a shareholder lawsuit concerning its 2015 acquisition of Emulex Corp. The legal question, which could affect other cases, is whether, under the Securities and Exchange Act, shareholders need to show intent to defraud when suing a company over statements made during the merger and acquisition process.
AVIATION
Apollo seeks to buy GE unit
Apollo Global Management LLC is talking to bankers about lining up debt to buy all or part of General Electric Co’s jet-leasing business, which could be worth as much as US$40 billion, people familiar with the matter said. The New York-based alternative asset manager has met with lenders to secure about US$30 billion in financing to purchase GE Capital Aviation Services as potential buyers circle one of the ailing manufacturer’s crown jewels, the people said.
SOUTH AFRICA
Eskom extends staff cuts
Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd plans to extend its strategy of trimming top executive positions to include lower-ranking managers and finally the general workforce as the cash-strapped power utility looks to cut costs, a person familiar with the plans said. The state-owned company last month reduced its highest executive structure from 21 to nine positions by regrading and combining roles. The next phase is to cut a 600-strong layer of managers by at least 70 percent, the person 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
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