AUTOMAKERS
Mitsubishi recalls cars
Mitsubishi is recalling more than 130,000 cars because of two separate issues that could lead to reduced visibility for drivers and raise the risk of a crash. Nearly 77,000 cars are being recalled because the windshield defroster might fail as a result of a faulty blower motor. The cars affected include Lancer model years 2009 to 2011, Lancer Sportback model years 2010 to 2011, Lancer Evolution model years 2010 to 2011 and Outlander Sport model year 2011. About 53,400 cars are affected by the other recall.
TRADE
Obama promotes TPP
US President Barack Obama visited Nike’s headquarters in Oregon on Friday to push for a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal opposed by some of his closest congressional allies. Nike chief executive Mark Parker lent Obama a hand by announcing he will ramp up advanced manufacturing in the US, creating up to 10,000 jobs, if the trade deal passes. Congress is currently weighing whether to grant Obama authority to conclude the 12-nation free-trade pact.
INVESTMENT
Alibaba buys Zulily shares
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) bought US$56.2 million of stock in US online retailer Zulily Inc last week, according to a regulatory filing. The purchases brought Alibaba’s holdings of Seattle-based Zulily to 11.5 million shares, or a 9.3 percent stake, according to regulatory filings and data compiled by Bloomberg. Alibaba’s Zulily holdings were worth US$152.9 million at Friday’s closing price of US$13.30. Zulily, which sells clothing, home decor and related items, mostly to women, had 5 million customers who had made at least one purchase in the previous year at the end of March, up 35 percent from the previous year.
GREEN ENERGY
Solar Power buys stake
Solar Power Inc, a project developer backed by China’s LDK Solar Co (江西賽維), agreed to buy a 76.8 percent stake in Convertergy Energy Technology Co, a provider of energy-monitoring services. Solar Power is paying US$13.8 million in stock and assuming a US$1.5 million loan, the Shanghai-based firm said in a statement on Friday. The transaction is subject to closing conditions. The solar developer will use Convertergy’s technology to enhance its photovoltaic applications.
REAL ESTATE
Mega-merger in works
David Bonderman’s TPG Capital is close to a deal to buy commercial property brokerage Cushman & Wakefield Inc for about US$2 billion and combine it with DTZ Group, creating one of the world’s biggest real-estate services firms. TPG is in advanced discussions with Cushman and its owners, Exor SpA, the Agnelli family’s Italian holding company, according to people familiar with the matter. An agreement could be announced as soon as this week, they said.
FAST FOOD
McDonald’s beats forecasts
McDonald’s Corp on Friday reported last month’s sales that topped analysts’ projections after declines in the US slowed. Global same-store sales fell 0.6 percent, the company said in a statement. Analysts estimated a 1.8 percent drop, according to Consensus Metrix. Sales at US stores open at least 13 months fell 2.3 percent, matching analysts’ projections and improving from a 3.9 percent slide in March.
Same-store sales gained 1 percent in Europe and fell 3.8 percent in the company’s Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa region, the firm said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
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