STOCK MARKET
China selects supervisor
China appointed banking veteran Yi Huiman (易會滿) as chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, people familiar with the matter said. People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Deputy Governor Zhu Hexin (朱鶴新) is to replace Yi as chairman at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC, 中國工商銀行), the people said. Yi, 54, is to take over from commission chairman Liu Shiyu (劉士餘), who ran the commission for three years, they said.
AVIATION
Tan denies stock sale to ANA
Billionaire Lucio Tan (陳永栽), who controls Philippine Airlines Inc, denied reports about a forthcoming stake sale days after ANA Holdings Inc confirmed that it is in talks with the carrier’s listed parent, PAL Holdings Inc. There is “no plan” to sell, Tan, 84, said in an interview on the sidelines of a central bank event in Manila on Friday. News that a stake sale is coming is “just a rumor,” he said when asked about talks with ANA, declining to elaborate.
AUTOMAKERS
Ford CEO not satisfied
Ford Motor Co chief executive Jim Hackett called Ford’s performance last year “mediocre by any standard” in an e-mail to employees late on Thursday, a source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Yes, we made US$7 billion last year,” Hackett wrote. “But think of it this way: This represents a 4.4 percent operating margin, about half what we believe is an appropriate margin. So we are aiming for much closer to US$14 billion.”
BRANDS
Kering might owe back taxes
Kering SA, the French owner of the Gucci luxury brand, owes about 1.4 billion euros (US$1.60 billion) to Italy in back taxes, according to the conclusions of a government audit. The probe scrutinized business activities by Kering’s Swiss subsidiary, Luxury Goods International, from 2011 through 2017, the company said in a statement. Kering said it contests the findings of the Italian audit. The auditor’s report is to be reviewed by the Italian Agency of Revenue, which is to reach a final conclusion.
DEVELOPERS
Indian firm to pick auditor
India’s beleaguered Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd could appoint an auditor to look into the financial statements of the company and its subsidiaries dating back five years, the Economic Times reported, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter. The newly appointed company would also scrutinize the role of the firms’ previous auditors, Ernst & Young, Deloitte and KPMG.
GREECE
IMF bullish on GDP growth
The IMF on Friday said that it is optimistic on Greece’s growth and employment prospects for this year, but urged the government to stick to reforms to maintain the momentum. In a report published following five-day talks with officials in Athens, IMF officials said that the battered Greek economy is set to grow 2.4 percent this year, up from 2.1 percent last year. The report also argued that the heavily indebted country’s medium-term ability to repay its creditors — mostly its European partners and the IMF — remains “robust.”
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