Tue, Oct 08, 2019 page10

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  JAPAN

  Index flags slump risk

  The government cut its formula-based assessment of the economy to indicate that economic conditions were worsening in August, an outcome signaling a higher risk that the nation could be entering a recession. The coincident economic index fell 0.4 point to 99.3 in August, the Cabinet Office reported yesterday, compared with an estimate of 99.4 by economists. The leading economic index dropped 2 points to a 10-year low of 91.7, compared with an estimate of 91.8 by economists.

  GERMANY

  Orders contract in August

  Factory orders dropped for the second consecutive month in August — led by lower domestic demand, the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy said yesterday. Orders were 0.6 percent lower compared with the previous month, when they fell 2.1 percent, it said. Domestic orders dropped 2.6 percent, while foreign demand rose 0.9 percent. Orders from other countries in the eurozone rose 1.5 percent and those from elsewhere edged up 0.4 percent.

  HOTELS

  Oyo to raise US$1.5bn

  Oyo Hotels and Homes is raising US$1.5 billion from founder Ritesh Agarwal, Softbank Group Corp and other investors, as the India lodging start-up expands into foreign markets, such as the US and Europe. Agarwal, 25, plans to spend US$700 million to buy new shares in the company as part of a previously reported US$2 billion plan to triple his ownership stake. Existing investors SoftBank’s Vision Fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia India would contribute the rest of the current round.

  REAL ESTATE

  PropertyGuru to list

  PropertyGuru Pte, a provider of online real-estate classifieds based in Singapore, plans to raise as much as A$380.2 million (US$257 million) and list on the Australian stock exchange. The shares’ indicative price range is between A$3.70 and A$4.50, which would give it a market capitalization at the upper end of about A$1.36 billion, the company’s prospectus showed yesterday. A book build to determine the final price is to be held later this month and trading is expected to start on Oct. 25.

  LIGHTING

  Osram falls on failed bid

  Osram Licht AG fell the most in two months after a 4 billion euro (US$4.4 billion) offer by Austrian suitor AMS AG failed to attract enough support from investors, and a pair of rival bidders are still considering whether to make a new bid. The shares dropped as much as 4.5 percent in early trading yesterday. Osram investors had tendered 51.6 percent of their shares to AMS by a deadline last week, falling short of a 62.5 percent threshold. The Apple Inc supplier has vowed to keep pursuing an acquisition, while private equity suitors Bain Capital and Advent International are inspecting the company’s books, Osram said on Friday.

  ELECTRONICS

  Samsung ends China work

  Samsung Electronics Co on Friday said it has ended the production of smartphones in its last factory in China. Production at the Huizhou, Guangdong Province, factory ended last month, it said in an e-mail. Samsung’s market share in China has dwindled to near insignificance, as competitors like Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Xiaomi Corp (小米) got the upper hand. The South Korean company has moved a large share of its smartphone production to Vietnam and had shuttered a factory in Tianjin, China, last year.
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