BANKING
Alibaba activities probed
China’s central bank is to study shadow banking activities at Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) as it tries to ensure a fair environment exists for competition in the industry, Governor Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川) said. Alibaba engages in activities that fall under the Financial Stability Board’s definition of shadow banking and are subject to different capital requirements than traditional banks, Zhou said in a meeting with IMF managing director Christine Lagarde in Washington. “We encourage the development of Internet companies, but under the current situation they need to comply with existing rules when engaging in financial activities,” Zhou said.
MANUFACTURING
Midea, Clivet sign deal
Midea Group Co (美的集團), China’s biggest appliance manufacturer, signed an agreement to buy an 80 percent stake in Clivet SpA, an Italian maker of air conditioners. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the year, pending anti-monopoly reviews, Midea said in a statement. The Chinese company did not reveal the value of the acquisition. As part of the transaction, Midea is also to acquire Clivet Espana SA, the statement said. The deal came after Media began a tender offer last week to raise its stake in robot maker Kuka AG.
GERMANY
Business prospects bright
German businesses are feeling increasingly optimistic as the outlook brightens for Europe’s biggest economy, a closely watched barometer showed on Friday, in a poll conducted before the British EU referendum. The Ifo institute’s business climate index rose by 0.9 point to 108.7 points this month, the economic think tank Ifo said in a statement. That was highest level since November last year. “The German economy remains buoyant,” Ifo president Clemens Fuest said in a statement. “Satisfaction levels with the current business situation were only slightly higher, but the short-term business outlook improved significantly.”
Acquisitions
Kelcy Warren wins oil deal
Billionaire Kelcy Warren just won a hand in the biggest merger and acquisition poker game he has ever played in the US oil patch. Eighteen months after Warren’s Energy Transfer Equity LP began talks to acquire rival pipeline giant Williams Cos, a Delaware judge on Friday ruled that the company can back out of the nearly US$33 billion deal. The proposed ETE-Williams tie-up, hailed by Warren before the price of oil fell by half, now stands as one of the largest deals undone by the plunge in prices that has sent shock waves through companies, industries and entire economies.
AGRICULTURE
Foodmaker to improve oats
General Mills, a maker of cereal, muesli bars and yogurt, has chosen South Dakota State University as its partner in an effort to improve the quality of oats and make the crop more sustainable. A new research laboratory, unveiled on Thursday, is to focus on the grain that is found in more than a quarter of the foodmakers products, and provide a place for the company’s scientists to collaborate with the Brookings university’s plant breeders, grain, environmental and seed experts, student researchers and others.
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
At least US$50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: That is the king’s ransom paid two weeks ago to militants linked to al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law. Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of “economic jihad.” Its goal: Oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali’s decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralyzing the west African country’s economy.
Tax revenue from securities transactions last month increased 41.9 percent from a year earlier to NT$30.3 billion (US$975.8 million), rising on an annual basis for the third consecutive month and marking the highest for the month of October as Taiwanese stocks continued to perform strongly, data released by the Ministry of Finance showed yesterday. Last month, the TAIEX surged 2,412.81 points, or 9.34 percent, marking its largest-ever monthly rise for October as market sentiment was buoyed by a nearly 15 percent gain in contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which accounts for more than 40 percent of the
BUST FEARS: While a KMT legislator asked if an AI bubble could affect Taiwan, the DGBAS minister said the sector appears on track to continue growing The local property market has cooled down moderately following a series of credit control measures designed to contain speculation, the central bank said yesterday, while remaining tight-lipped about potential rule relaxations. Lawmakers in a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee voiced concerns to central bank officials that the credit control measures have adversely affected the government’s tax income and small and medium-sized property developers, with limited positive effects. Housing prices have been climbing since 2016, even when the central bank imposed its first set of control measures in 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) said. “Since the second half of
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