INDIA
Smart meters to aid utilities
The nation’s nationwide roll-out of 250 million smart power meters, aimed at supporting ailing utilities and bolstering reliable electricity supply, would cost about 1.5 trillion rupees (US$20.94 billion), a government estimate showed. The prepaid meters are designed to improve billing and collection, which are the most basic problems facing the country’s ailing distribution companies. These utilities, mostly controlled by their state governments, lose money from poor billing and theft, which often leads to them delaying payments to generators and depriving customers of reliable supplies. The meters would raise enough revenue to cover the costs and lead to some savings for state power distributors, the government said.
BANKING
Standard to buy back shares
Standard Chartered PLC plans to buy back US$500 million of shares while saying that the COVID-19 outbreak and the softer Hong Kong economy would depress revenue this year and force it to delay a key profit target. The slump in Asia, which accounts for the majority of the bank’s business, would likely contribute to revenue growth this year falling below the bank’s medium-range target of 5 to 7 percent, the bank said in a statement yesterday. While it expects those factors to be transitory, they would also delay its ability to achieve a return on tangible equity target of 10 percent by next year, it added. It said it would review the potential for a further buyback when it completes the sale of its stake in Indonesia’s PT Bank Permata.
AIRLINES
Delta reduces SK flights
Delta Air Lines Inc on Wednesday said that it would temporarily cut flights to and from South Korea from 35 US weekly flights to 15, citing global health concerns related to the COVID-19 outbreak as US airlines grapple with lagging travel demand. From tomorrow through April 30, Delta is suspending service between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Seoul-Incheon. It would also reduce to five times weekly its services between Seoul and Atlanta, Detroit and Seattle through April 30. Its new service from Seoul-Incheon to Manila, previously scheduled to begin on March 29, would now start on May 1. Separately, JetBlue Airways Corp said that starting yesterday through March 11, it would suspend change and cancel fees for new flight bookings for travel completed by June 1. It said that the policy “is designed to give customers confidence that they will not be charged any JetBlue fees for changes or cancelations later given evolving coronavirus concerns.”
AUTOMAKERS
Tesla sales down in China
Registrations of new Tesla Inc vehicles in China plunged 46 percent last month from a month earlier as the Lunar New Year holiday and the COVID-19 outbreak kept vehicle buyers away. Last month, 3,563 Teslas were registered, down from 6,643 in December last year, industry data showed. Of last month’s registrations, 2,605 were for cars built in China. While Tesla had bucked the trend in China’s waning electric-car market in the previous two months, last month’s drop shows the US brand is not immune to industry challenges. China’s auto market is headed for a third straight annual decline as the outbreak exacerbates a slump started by an economic slowdown and trade tensions. In total, deliveries of new-energy vehicles from automakers to dealerships tumbled 54 percent last month, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers 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
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
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
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