UNITED STATES
Tariff hearing length doubled
The US Trade Representative’s office on Friday said it doubled the length of tariff hearings on the next US$200 billion of Chinese goods to six days — from tomorrow to Friday — from the previously planned three due to overwhelming demand from companies to testify. The agency released a list of 359 people who would present testimony, representing a wide swath of US companies producing goods ranging from home building supplies to technology products, bicycles and apparel. Most have registered complaints about the higher costs they say that they would face due to the tariffs.
INTERNET
Qutoutiao files for US IPO
Qutoutiao Inc (趣頭條), a Chinese news and video aggregation app backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊), filed for a US initial public offering (IPO), saying it had an almost sevenfold increase in revenue for the first half of the year, as losses also grew. The Shanghai-based company on Friday listed its offering size as US$300 million in its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The amount might be a placeholder and could change. Qutoutiao, whose name means “fun headlines,” has about 17.1 million daily active users who spend about 56 minutes on the app daily, the filing said. Monthly active users total about 48.8 million.
STEEL
Firm aims for US$100m IPO
Steel pipe and tube manufacturing giant Zekelman Industries Inc filed for an initial public offering in what could be one of the highest-profile industrial listings in the US this year. The company on Friday listed an offering size of US$100 million in its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The initial number is typically a placeholder amount that later changes. Including debt, Chicago-based Zekelman is aiming for a valuation of about US$5 billion, people familiar with the matter said last month. The company is aiming to list as soon as this year, the people said.
INTERNET
Hooker-ad agent pleads
The sales and marketing director of Backpage.com on Friday pleaded guilty to conspiring to facilitate prostitution, acknowledging that he participated in a scheme to give free ads to prostitutes in a bid to draw them away from competitors and win over their future business. Dan Hyer is the second Backpage.com employee to plead guilty in cases in Arizona in which the site has been accused of ignoring warnings to stop running prostitution ads, some of which involved children. The site has brought in US$500 million in prostitution-related revenue since its inception in 2004, authorities said.
UNITED STATES
Six-month reports mulled
US President Donald Trump is calling on federal regulators to consider scrapping the requirement for public companies to report quarterly results, after business executives told him that twice-yearly reports would make better economic sense. In a tweet early on Friday, Trump said that after speaking with several top business leaders, he is asking the US Securities and Exchange Commission to determine whether shifting to a six-month reporting requirement would help companies grow faster and create more jobs. “That would allow greater flexibility & save money” for companies, he tweeted.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
Micron Technology Inc is a driving force pushing the US Congress to pass legislation that would put new export restrictions on equipment its Chinese competitors use to make their chips, according to people familiar with the matter. A US House of Representatives panel yesterday was to vote on the “MATCH Act,” a bill designed to close gaps in restrictions on chipmaking equipment. It would also pressure foreign companies that sell equipment to Chinese chipmaking facilities to align with export curbs on US companies like Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc. The bill targets facilities operated by China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc
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