MINING
Glencore raises US$2.5bn
Swiss mining giant Glencore PLC, hit by collapsing commodities prices, yesterday raised US$2.5 billion via a share sale as part of its vast debt-slashing plan. London-listed Glencore said in a statement that it had sold about ￡1.6 billion (US$2.46 billion) in new shares to pay down debt. The company, which has lost 57 percent of its market value this year, sold the new stock at ￡1.25 per share, a 2.4 percent discount to its closing price on Tuesday. Glencore offloaded 1.3 billion shares worth up to 9.99 percent of the group.
INTEREST RATES
Thai bank maintains rates
Thailand’s central bank yesterday kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged for a third straight meeting, putting the onus on government spending to support the economic recovery. The Bank of Thailand held its one-day bond repurchase rate at 1.5 percent in a unanimous decision, it said. GDP is forecast to expand less than 3 percent this year, Bank of Thailand Assistant Governor Mathee Supapongse said at a media briefing yesterday.While negative factors still outweigh the positive for Thailand’s economy, the deflation risk is limited because core inflation is still positive, he said, predicting that headline inflation would turn positive in the first quarter.
FASHION
Zara owner profit rises 26%
The Spanish owner of the Zara clothing store chain yesterday said that profit for the first half of the year rose 26 percent, boosted by growth in all markets around the world where the company sells clothes. Inditex Group said in a statement that profit for the January-June period was 1.2 billion euros (US$1.4 billion). Revenue for the period was 9.4 billion euros, up 17 percent compared with the same period last year. The company opened new stores in 35 markets during the first six months of the year, lifting its total store count to 6,777 in 85 markets. More than 10,000 jobs were added and about a quarter of them were in Spain, it said.
HOTELS
Marriott invests in S Africa
Marriott International Inc plans to develop a Johannesburg hotel and executive apartments at a cost of about 1 billion rand (US$74 million), the US hotelier’s first own-branded properties in South Africa. The accommodation is to open in February 2018, Bethesda, Maryland-based Marriott said in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday. Amdec Property Group, Marriott’s local partner, said in a separate e-mailed statement that Marriott’s 150-room hotel and 200-unit apartment complex would cost a combined 1 billion rand. Marriott agreed to buy Cape Town-based Protea Hospitality Holdings last year for about US$200 million. The company expects the two brands to expand into 18 African countries from 10 over the next five years, Marriott said.
AUTOMOBILES
Tentative deal for FCA, UAW
A tentative labor contract covering 40,000 US workers at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) could eventually end a controversial two-tier pay system and could offer a new approach to curbing medical costs, chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne said on Tuesday. The two-tier pay system “will go away over time,” Marchionne said. Under the old contract recently hired United Auto Workers Union (UAW) members are paid a top wage of US$19.28 an hour, while veterans earn US$28 an hour. Analysts expect raises for UAW members at both levels, but the new pay rates were not disclosed.
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
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
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
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
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