GERMANY
Firm confidence slips
Domestic business confidence unexpectedly slipped this month, signaling concern that supply bottlenecks and resurgent infections could slow the nation’s recovery. A gauge by the Munich-based Ifo Institute fell to 100.8 from 101.7 last month. Economists in a Bloomberg survey had expected an improvement. An index measuring expectations slipped to the lowest in three months, while conditions continued to improve. The outlook is “significantly less optimistic,” Ifo president Clemens Fuest said in a statement. “Supply bottlenecks and concerns over newly rising infection numbers are weighing on the German economy.”
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Li Auto plans HK listing
Chinese electric vehicle maker Li Auto Inc (理想汽車) has been approved by the Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd (HKEX) for a listing in the territory, following in the steps of its rival, XPeng Inc (小鵬汽車), which completed a share sale there last month. US-traded Li Auto could raise US$1 billion to US$2 billion in the listing, people with knowledge of the matter said. Its updated listing documents were published on the HKEX’s Web site yesterday, indicating that it has received approval from the exchange. A Li Auto spokeswoman said the firm would not comment beyond the prospectus.
CRYPTOCURRENCIES
Bitcoin jumps on Amazon tip
The cryptocurrency bitcoin jumped 10 percent to a five-week high of US$39,850, while ether gained 7.35 percent to US$2,353, after London’s City A.M. newspaper cited an unnamed “insider” over the weekend as saying that Amazon.com Inc is looking to accept bitcoin payments by the end of the year. Over the weekend, the coin’s price topped its 50-day moving average, a trend some view as positive. Amazon last week advertised a job vacancy for a digital currency product lead, stirring speculation that it might accept digital coins for transactions. The report followed Twitter Inc boss Jack Dorsey’s comment on Friday that the digital currency is a “big part” of the social media firm’s future.
BANKING
Credit Suisse settles scandal
Credit Suisse Group AG said that it has reached a settlement with its former wealth management executive Iqbal Khan and a private detective firm, calling to a close a spying scandal that rocked one of Europe’s biggest lenders and last year led to the ouster of chief executive officer Tidjane Thiam. “All involved parties have agreed to settle, and this matter is now closed,” a bank spokesperson said on Sunday, adding that it had reached a settlement with Khan, his wife and the private detective firm Investigo. No further details were disclosed. A probe by Swiss financial regulator FINMA over the firm’s surveillance activities is ongoing.
AIRLINES
Mango in ‘business rescue’
South African Airways’ (SAA) subsidiary, Mango Airlines, is to enter into a local form of bankruptcy protection known as “business rescue,” SAA interim chief executive Thomas Kgokolo told eNCA television yesterday. SAA, which itself exited business rescue in April, is one of a handful of South African state firms that depended on government bailouts, placing the national budget under huge strain. “What we can say is that the board and shareholders have agreed that Mango will go into business rescue,” Kgokolo said in the interview. “We are currently in consultation with our key stakeholders in terms of how we can manage that particular process,” Kgokolo said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last