BEVERAGES
InBev picks underwriters
Anheuser-Busch InBev NV has selected JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley for a possible initial public offering of its Asian operations in what could be one of the region’s biggest listings this year, people with knowledge of the matter said. The world’s largest brewer is weighing Hong Kong as a listing venue, though it has not made a final decision, the people said. The Belgium-based company is considering adding more arrangers to the deal later, one of the people said. An IPO of AB InBev’s Asia business could raise more than US$5 billion, people familiar with the matter said last month.
GERMANY
Budget shortfall looms
Germany faces a 25 billion euro (US$29 billion) budget shortfall by 2023, unless it tightens spending, as tax revenues are set to fall and public sector wages are on the rise, Bild newspaper reported, citing an internal government document. The prospect of budget deficits would represent a dramatic deterioration in the finances of Europe’s biggest economy, which reported a 11.2 billion euro budget surplus last year. The warning came in a report prepared by Finance Minister Olaf Scholz to his ministerial colleagues as they prepare for a regular budget planning discussion.
SERVICES
Foreign sales buoy China
China’s sprawling services sector maintained a solid pace of expansion last month even though growth moderated slightly, a private survey showed on Sunday. The Caixin/Markit services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell slightly to 53.6 last month from 53.9 in December last year, but was well above the 50 mark separating growth from contraction. Overseas sales continued to support the sector, with new export business rising at the fastest clip in more than a year, thanks to efforts among Chinese services firms to attract foreign clients. Overall new orders also ticked higher, to 52.6 from 52.3 in December.
AUSTRALIA
Building approvals slump
Australian building approvals suffered the biggest annual back-to-back drop in almost a decade as a housing slump deepens. Building permits fell 22.5 percent in December last year from a year earlier after plunging 33.5 percent in November, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed yesterday. That is the worst two-month result since January-February 2009, during the depths of the global financial crisis. A separate private report from Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd showed job advertisements slid 3.7 percent last month from a year earlier, the first annual decline since April 2015.
BREXIT
Irish farmers to get aid
The European Commission has agreed to compensate Irish farmers for a collapse in beef and dairy prices in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the Irish edition of the Sunday Times newspaper said, quoting Irish government and EU sources. Farmers would be in line for hundreds of millions of euros in emergency aid to offset a market collapse and the loss of British customers, the newspaper reported. Agriculture Minister Michael Creed said last month Dublin would seek that amount for its farming and fishing industry. The details of the scheme were finalized between Creed and the commission’s agriculture chief Phil Hogan, the report said.
INTERNET
Tonga sabotage considered
A director at Tonga’s undersea Internet cable operator said he cannot rule out sabotage as the reason the cable broke and plunged the Pacific nation into virtual darkness for almost two weeks. Repair crews found two breaks along the optic fiber cable that connects Tonga with the rest of the world, Tonga Cable Ltd director Piveni Piukala said yesterday. Several kilometers away, they found two more breaks and rope entangled on the separate domestic cable that connects the main island with some of Tonga’s outer islands.
DELIVERIES
Gig workers get holiday pay
Self-employed workers at Hermes Parcelnet Ltd, a UK-based delivery company, have won the option to get holiday pay and guaranteed earnings, as part of a deal with the GMB trade union that could have implications for Britain’s growing gig economy. The collective bargaining agreement is the first to recognize the rights of self-employed workers, the union said. A group of Hermes couriers won a legal battle in June to be classed as workers rather than self-employed.
TURKEY
Inflation hits 20.4% on food
A run-up in food costs halted a broader deceleration in price growth after two months. Inflation picked up slightly last month to 20.4 percent from a year earlier after a gain of 20.3 percent in the previous month, Turkstat said yesterday. Food and non-alcoholic beverage costs surged an annual 31 percent, the most since at least 2004. Shortages caused by floods in farming hub Antalya are making matters worse after the depreciation of the lira in August raised the cost of food imports and transportation.
BANKING
FAB may raise foreigner limit
First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC (FAB) will follow regional peers and raise the foreign-ownership limit on its stock. The UAE’s biggest lender aims to raise the cap for foreign ownership to 40 percent from 25 percent, it said last week. Shareholders still need to approve the change at a meeting on Feb. 25. Investors from abroad held about 12 percent of FAB shares as of the end of last month, according to the stock exchange’s Web site. Qatar National Bank last year raised the ceiling for foreigners to 49 percent from 25 percent, while Emirates NBD PJSC plans to quadruple the limit for foreigners to 20 percent.
COMMUNICATIONS
Reliance to file for insolvency
Billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd said it will file for insolvency following failed attempts to sell assets and repay about US$6.3 billion of debt. The company agreed to approach the National Company Law Tribunal after failing to pay lenders for the past 18 months, the company said. It blamed its decision to approach the court on a lack of consensus among its more than 40 lenders, as well as numerous issues pending before various agencies.
FEDERAL RESERVE
Powell ‘coming around’
US Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari said Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is “coming around” to the view to wait until wages and inflation rise before raising interest rates again, and that the Fed’s latest pause will help keep a “fundamentally healthy” economy on track. “There are more people out there who want to work; let’s let the economy continue to strengthen and if we see signs then, wages pick up, inflation picks up, we can always tap the brakes,” Kashkari said on Sunday. “Let’s just not tap the brakes prematurely,” he said.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”