JAPAN
Index flags slump risk
The government cut its formula-based assessment of the economy to indicate that economic conditions were worsening in August, an outcome signaling a higher risk that the nation could be entering a recession. The coincident economic index fell 0.4 point to 99.3 in August, the Cabinet Office reported yesterday, compared with an estimate of 99.4 by economists. The leading economic index dropped 2 points to a 10-year low of 91.7, compared with an estimate of 91.8 by economists.
GERMANY
Orders contract in August
Factory orders dropped for the second consecutive month in August — led by lower domestic demand, the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy said yesterday. Orders were 0.6 percent lower compared with the previous month, when they fell 2.1 percent, it said. Domestic orders dropped 2.6 percent, while foreign demand rose 0.9 percent. Orders from other countries in the eurozone rose 1.5 percent and those from elsewhere edged up 0.4 percent.
HOTELS
Oyo to raise US$1.5bn
Oyo Hotels and Homes is raising US$1.5 billion from founder Ritesh Agarwal, Softbank Group Corp and other investors, as the India lodging start-up expands into foreign markets, such as the US and Europe. Agarwal, 25, plans to spend US$700 million to buy new shares in the company as part of a previously reported US$2 billion plan to triple his ownership stake. Existing investors SoftBank’s Vision Fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia India would contribute the rest of the current round.
REAL ESTATE
PropertyGuru to list
PropertyGuru Pte, a provider of online real-estate classifieds based in Singapore, plans to raise as much as A$380.2 million (US$257 million) and list on the Australian stock exchange. The shares’ indicative price range is between A$3.70 and A$4.50, which would give it a market capitalization at the upper end of about A$1.36 billion, the company’s prospectus showed yesterday. A book build to determine the final price is to be held later this month and trading is expected to start on Oct. 25.
LIGHTING
Osram falls on failed bid
Osram Licht AG fell the most in two months after a 4 billion euro (US$4.4 billion) offer by Austrian suitor AMS AG failed to attract enough support from investors, and a pair of rival bidders are still considering whether to make a new bid. The shares dropped as much as 4.5 percent in early trading yesterday. Osram investors had tendered 51.6 percent of their shares to AMS by a deadline last week, falling short of a 62.5 percent threshold. The Apple Inc supplier has vowed to keep pursuing an acquisition, while private equity suitors Bain Capital and Advent International are inspecting the company’s books, Osram said on Friday.
ELECTRONICS
Samsung ends China work
Samsung Electronics Co on Friday said it has ended the production of smartphones in its last factory in China. Production at the Huizhou, Guangdong Province, factory ended last month, it said in an e-mail. Samsung’s market share in China has dwindled to near insignificance, as competitors like Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Xiaomi Corp (小米) got the upper hand. The South Korean company has moved a large share of its smartphone production to Vietnam and had shuttered a factory in Tianjin, China, last year.
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
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
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
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