AVIATION
Aeromexico, union ink deal
Aeromexico, Mexico’s biggest airline, and its unionized workers forged a last-minute accord early on Saturday to avoid a strike that could have grounded about 300 flights and cost 150 million Mexican pesos (US$11.7 million) a day, but delayed a decision on a crucial sticking point. The union, known as ASSA, represents about 1,300 Aeromexico flight attendants. ASSA had threatened a midnight strike if it did not get a 5 percent salary hike and 3 percent boost in benefits. ASSA rejected an early proposal by the airline that combined a slightly smaller pay raise with “new competitive conditions” for future hires that the union said would unfairly slash their pay. In its final offer, the airline proposed to raise attendants’ salary immediately by 4.7 percent, boost benefits by 1.5 percent and set up a committee to make a decision on the prickly issue of new employee contracts by July 1.
ENERGY
Ghana ends fuel subsidies
Ghana on Saturday ended its subsidies on fuel, hiking the prices of petroleum products as the growing west African economy struggles with a skyrocketing deficit. “This adjustment completely removes the subsidies on petrol, diesel and liquid propane gas,” National Petroleum Authority chief executive Alexander Mould said in a statement. The statement said the cut would cause only a minimal increase in prices. However, the prices of petroleum products will be more susceptible to fluctuations on the international market. Gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas will go up by 3 percent, while diesel will rise by 2 percent. Ghana had been under pressure from the IMF to cut fuel subsides after its budget deficit ballooned to 12.1 percent of GDP last year, double its target for the year.
GAMBLING
Echo defends monpoly
Echo Entertainment Ltd plans to invest at least A$1 billion (US$960 million) to fend off Australian billionaire James Packer’s attempts to break the company’s Sydney casino monopoly. The operator of the city’s Star Casino and Crown Ltd, the gaming company controlled by Packer, have prepared rival proposals for developments on the shores of Sydney Harbour, with the New South Wales State Government saying it will approve only one project. Echo’s plan requires investment of more than A$1 billion, chief executive John Redmond said in a TV interview yesterday on Channel Nine’s Financial Review Sunday. “I have nothing against Crown or nothing against James Packer,” he said. “This is really an investment in Echo’s future. It should be only one casino and one city.”
BANKING
Woori Bank buyer sought
South Korea’s government aims to sell Woori Finance Holdings Co’s main banking unit by the end of next year after it failed three times to offload its 57 percent stake in the country’s biggest financial group by assets. “We will try to designate a new owner of Woori Bank” by the end of next year, South Korean Financial Services Commission Chairman Shin Je-yoon told reporters on Saturday, according to pool reports e-mailed from the agency yesterday. Authorities are open to selling Woori Finance’s units “in pieces,” he added. Seoul is reviving plans to sell its 5.5 trillion won (US$4.9 billion) stake after it received no bidders for the shares last year in its third sale attempt since 2010. The Public Fund Oversight Committee, which oversees sales of state assets, is studying all options to sell Woori Finance and will announce details by the end of this month, Shin said.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced
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