INSURANCE
HK turmoil hurts AIA
More than four months of turmoil in Hong Kong and the chilling effect on Chinese tourism to the territory have taken their toll on insurer AIA Group Ltd, with policy sales slumping. The value of new business, a measure of future profitability of new policies, fell by double digits in the third quarter, AIA said in a statement yesterday. While AIA did not give an exact figure for the slide in Hong Kong, it said the group’s overall value of new business was little changed in the quarter at US$980 million. “Some of our markets are experiencing headwinds from the lower interest rate environment, falling consumer confidence and rising political and trade tensions,” the company said.
ECONOMY
IMF reports on Arab unrest
Unemployment and sluggish economic growth are fueling social tension and popular protests in several Arab countries, the IMF said yesterday. The unrest is in turn contributing to slower growth in the Middle East and North Africa region, alongside global trade tensions, oil price volatility and a disorderly Brexit process, the IMF said in a report on the regional economic outlook. Earlier this month it lowered this year’s forecast for the region — taking in the Arab nations and Iran — to a meager 0.1 percent from 1.1 percent last year.
CHINA
Industrial profits drop
Profits at industrial enterprises continued to contract as the economy slows and factory deflation worsens. Industrial profits dropped 5.3 percent last month, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday. While industrial production picked up last month, growing deflationary pressure continued to weigh on corporate profits and their debt servicing ability. Companies’ earning power would likely remain depressed in the coming month amid weak demand, the bureau said. “The larger slide in September was due to a faster decline in industrial product prices and a slower growth in sales,” it said.
INDIA
RBI denies gold report
The central bank has not sold any gold recently nor is it trading in the metal, the monetary authority said in a tweet on Sunday. The Economic Times had reported on Friday that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) started trading in gold actively since July, buying gold worth US$5.1 billion and selling US$1.15 billion worth. The newspaper cited data from the RBI’s Weekly Statistical Supplement. “The fluctuation in value depicted in Weekly Statistical Supplement is due to change in frequency of revaluation from monthly to weekly basis and is based on international prices of gold and exchange rates,” the RBI said in the tweet.
FOOD
China Feihe readies for IPO
China Feihe Ltd (中國飛鶴), a baby formula producer, yesterday started taking investor orders for its Hong Kong initial public offering, which could raise as much as HK$8.9 billion (US$1.14 billion). The Beijing-based company is offering 893.3 million shares at HK$7.50 to HK$10 apiece, according to terms of the deal obtained by Bloomberg. The price range implied a market value of US$8.5 billion to US$11.4 billion, the terms show. The offering would at least be Feihe’s second attempt to conduct an IPO in Hong Kong after the company went private from the New York Stock Exchange in 2013 amid a wave of delistings by US-traded Chinese firms.
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