CANADA
Trade deficit expands
The trade deficit in goods in May widened from C$1.9 billion to C$2.8 billion (US$1.45 billion to US$2.14 billion) as imports rose while exports edged down, Statistics Canada said on Friday. Pushed by a 17.7 percent rise in orders of aircraft and other transportation equipment — the fifth consecutive monthly rise for that category — Canadian imports rose 1.7 percent to C$51.1 billion in May, it said. The year-on-year increase was 3.5 percent. Exports for the month slipped 0.1 percent to C$48.3 billion.
ETHIOPIA
‘Pro-poor’ budget passed
Parliament passed a 346.9 billion birr (US$12.58 billion) budget, about two-thirds of it poverty reduction programs involving health, education and food security. In televised comments, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed described the budget as “pro-poor” and said that the government still needs US$7.5 billion to finish so-called megaprojects, including sugar factories and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. As a result, it would not begin new projects in the 2018-to-2019 fiscal year, he said.
OIL AND GAS
BP to buy US shale basins
BP PLC has emerged as the front-runner to buy BHP Billiton Ltd’s onshore oil and gas operations in the US, a person familiar with the matter said. Reuters earlier reported that BP made an offer of more than US$10 billion. The assets up for grabs include about 323,749 hectares in four US shale basins, including the Permian Basin, one of the most productive oilfields in the world. The London-based firm has made the highest offer for the assets, which BHP would prefer to sell in a single package, the person said.
STOCK MARKET
Swiss bourse goes digital
SIX Group, the owner of Switzerland’s SIX Swiss Exchange securities exchange in Zurich, is creating a platform for trading digital assets, boosting a nascent industry that some countries are trying to suffocate. The new platform is to offer a “fully integrated, end-to-end trading, settlement and custody service,” the world’s first to do so, the bourse said in a statement on Friday.
MEDIA
Gawker blogs might be sold
Univision Holdings Inc is considering selling its English-language Web sites, including the former gawker.com blog properties, people with knowledge of the situation said. The move would put a group of sites including gizmodo.com, deadspin.com and jezebel.com on the block, the people said. Univision is working with financial advisers on the process, they said. Univision bought the former Gawker Media LLC Web sites for US$135 million at a 2016 bankruptcy auction.
TECHNOLOGY
Sonos plans initial listing
Wireless speaker maker Sonos Inc filed for a US initial public offering. The Santa Barbara, California-based company filed with an offering size of US$100 million, a placeholder amount that is likely to change. It plans to list on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol SONO, a regulatory filing on Friday said. Sonos, a pioneer in the market for Internet-connected speakers, is targeting a valuation of US$2.5 billion to US$3 billion in the initial listing, people 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
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
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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