AUTOMAKERS
Minister cautious on merger
French Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire yesterday said there was no need to rush the US$35 billion merger talks between automakers Renault SA and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, but reiterated that he wanted the deal to go ahead. “We should take our time to make sure that things are done well,” Le Maire told BFM TV. The government wanted guarantees over the new entity’s jobs, having a headquarter in Paris and corporate governance, he added.
INDIA
Services expansion slow
The services sector expanded at its slowest pace in a year last month, adding to doubts about the economy’s ability to quickly reverse a slowdown. The seasonally adjusted Nikkei India Services Index fell to 50.2, its weakest level in 12 months. The reading is within earshot of the 50 threshold, which is the dividing line between expansion and contraction. The reading signals slowing activity in the nation’s dominant services sector and is likely to add to pressure on the central bank to lower interest rates to support the economy.
AUTOMOBILES
UK registrations drop
UK new registrations dropped 4.6 percent last month to 183,274 vehicles due to uncertainty over diesel policy and the government’s decision to cut incentives for plug-in hybrid vehicles, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said yesterday. “Confusing policy messages and changes to incentives continue to affect consumer and business confidence, causing drivers to keep hold of their older, more polluting vehicles for longer,” group CEO Mike Hawes said.
ENERGY
CTG eyeing EDP Brazil
China Three Gorges Corp (CTG, 中國三峽集團) is weighing a deal to gain control of EDP-Energias de Portugal SA’s Brazilian business, people with knowledge of the matter said. State-owned CTG is considering merging its own Brazilian assets with EDP’s operations in the South American country, which are run through publicly traded EDP-Energias do Brasil SA, the people said. CTG might seek a majority stake in the combined entity, the people said.
AUTOMAKERS
Ford China fined
China has fined Ford Motor Co’s main joint venture in the country for antitrust breaches. Changan Ford Automobile Co (長安福特汽車) was fined 162.8 million yuan (US$23.6 million) for restricting retailers’ sale prices in Chongqing since 2013, the State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement on its Web site. The amount of the fine is equivalent to 4 percent of Changan Ford’s annual sales in Chongqing. Ford said in a statement that it respects China’s decision.
SOUTH AFRICA
Stabilizing prices a priority
The primary mandate of the central bank is price stability, South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago said yesterday after the South African Communist Party said the bank’s mandate should be expanded to explicitly include job creation. The divergent statements echoed a heated argument among senior officials over whether its mandate should be expanded. “The constitution outlines the primary mandate of the Reserve Bank, being to protect the value of the currency in the interests of balanced and sustainable growth,” Kganyago said. “The independence and competence of the Reserve Bank all come from the constitution.”
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
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure