Thu, Jun 04, 2015 page15

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  SERVICES

  Chinese PMI rises to 53.5%

  Activity in China’s services sector accelerated last month, the HSBC/Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) showed yesterday, as new business rose at the fastest pace in three years. The headline PMI for last month was 53.5, up from 52.9 in April and well above the 50-point level that separates expansion from contraction. Last month was the fourth straight month of acceleration. The services sector has accounted for the bigger part of China’s economic output for at least two years, with its share rising to 48.2 percent last year, compared with the 42.6 percent contribution from manufacturing and construction.

  ELECTRONICS

  Fitbit predicts IPO funds

  Fitbit Inc on Tuesday told US regulators that it might raise more than US$500 million when it makes its New York Stock Exchange debut, but remained silent as to when that would happen. The San Francisco-based company — known for wearable devices designed to promote healthy lifestyles by tracking activity — raised the high end of its target to US$549 million for the initial public offering (IPO), indicating in a filing that shares would be priced between US$14 and US$16 each. Based on the proposed share pricing, Fitbit would have a market value in the range of US$2.9 billion to US$3.3 billion given the number of shares it expects to sell.

  JAPAN

  Bankruptcies tipped to rise

  Corporate bankruptcies linked to the yen’s slide might accelerate a few months from now, reflecting the latest rapid drop in the currency, Teikoku Databank Ltd researcher Osamu Naito said. While overall corporate bankruptcies decreased in the fiscal year through March, there has been an increase in company failures linked to the yen’s depreciation. It might accelerate from about August through the end of the year and has the potential to “trigger” an increase in the overall number of bankruptcies, Naito said. “Further weakness in the yen could become a matter of life and death for many small and medium-sized companies,” he said. There is typically a lag of three months to six months from the time a currency changes to the impact being felt in bankruptcies, Naito added.

  SHIPPING

  Maersk to buy vessels

  Danish shipping giant A.P. Moeller-Maersk on Tuesday said that it had agreed to buy 11 “mega” container ships for US$1.8 billion with the option to acquire another six from South Korea’s Daewoo. Maersk Line, the world’s largest container transporter, said these vessels will help it stay competitive in the Asia-Europe trade and key in its strategy to grow with the market. The mega ships are 400m long and 58.6m wide and will each be capable of carrying more than 19,000 containers, it said.

  SOCIAL MEDIA

  Facebook opens Paris lab

  Facebook Inc on Tuesday announced the opening of a new “artificial intelligence” lab in Paris to expand a push to make its online social network more profitable. The facility — the third after two it operates in the US — has six researchers at work and will more than double that number by the end of the year, executives from the US-based company said. The recruits are to come from France’s top public and private technological institutions.
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