Tue, Sep 01, 2020 page10

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  BANKING

  Credit Suisse to hire in PRC

  Credit Suisse Group AG plans to double its headcount in China over five years as the firm accelerates its pursuit of the nation’s wealthy, seeking to move past a scandal that has engulfed once-favored client and Luckin Coffee Inc (瑞幸咖啡) founder Lu Zhengyao (陸正耀). The bank has largely normalized approvals for Chinese companies, ending the increased scrutiny on loans that followed allegations of fabricated earnings at Luckin and a slowdown to weigh the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit Suisse would add to its China workforce as it targets a 100 percent increase in revenue there, Asia chief executive officer Helman Sitohang said in an interview.

  MANUFACTURING

  Philips cuts profit outlook

  Royal Philips NV lowered its full-year profit outlook after the US government prematurely ended a US$650 million contract for ventilators signed in April to combat the COVID-19 crisis. The Dutch producer of medical equipment expects to deliver “modest comparable sales growth,” and an adjusted margin for earnings before interest, tax and amortization of about the same level as last year, it said in a statement yesterday. Philips said it supplied 12,300 ventilators to the US Strategic National Stockpile by the end of last month. However, the US Department of Health and Human Services terminated the order for the remaining 30,700 devices without giving a reason, it said.

  TURKEY

  GDP drop better than feared

  The country’s economy fared better than forecast by analysts as the government contained the damage from the COVID-19 pandemic with a campaign of stimulus that came at the cost of destabilizing the lira. GDP last quarter shrank 9.9 percent from a year earlier, the most in more than a decade, after a gain of 4.5 percent in the previous three months, according to data released yesterday. The severity of the shock was more evident in seasonally and working day-adjusted figures, which showed a decline of 11 percent in the second quarter from the previous three months, making it the steepest contraction in statistics going back to 1998.

  BANKING

  Dubai to offer bonds, sukuk

  The United Arab Emirates has hired banks for an offering of bonds and Islamic securities, known as sukuk, in US dollars as it seeks to shore up its finances. The government of Dubai is selling a benchmark-size 10-year sukuk and a 30-year bond, said a person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be identified. Benchmark typically means at least US$500 million equivalent. Dubai is following other governments from the Persian Gulf that have sold US dollar debt or started the process as they take advantage of low borrowing costs and investor demand for higher returns.

  COSTA RICA

  IMF assistance sought

  The government on Saturday said that it has requested US$1.75 billion in financial assistance over three years from the IMF as its economy has been reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. In a letter to IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva dated Saturday, central bank President Rodrigo Cubero and Minister of Finance Elian Villegas requested financial aid “in the form of a three-year arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility,” equivalent to US$1.75 billion. The aid request aims to offset diminishing government revenue as fiscal deficit this year looks set to exceed 9 percent of GDP.
• Most Popular

  • 1

    CGA expels Chinese vessels from Taiwan waters

  • 2

    US military declines to fire adopting Marine Mast

  • 3

    Taiwan on alert over Chinese carrier

  • 4

    Most willing to defend Taiwan: survey

  • 5

    Taipei Main Station renovations to begin Nov. 1