BANKING
Deutsche fined millions
The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) fined Deutsche Bank AG 8.66 million euros (US$9.77 million) over its handling of submissions for EURIBOR, a reference rate at the heart of a scandal that rocked the industry. The lender temporarily did not have effective systems and controls for contributions to the benchmark, BaFin said in a statement. While BaFin said Deutsche Bank has a right to appeal, the company said in a statement that it accepts the fine to create “legal certainty.” “It remains a top priority for us to identify and address potential weaknesses in our control processes,” Deutsche Bank said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Consumers face tough year
Households are heading into the “year of the squeeze” as surging energy bills and faster inflation eat into incomes, the Resolution Foundation think tank said. In a grim report days before the New Year holiday, it said real wages would effectively stagnate next year, rising just 0.1 percent. In three years, they would be ￡740 (US$993) a year lower than if the pre-COVID-19 wage trend had continued. Inflation has already breached 5 percent and might hit 6 percent early next year, the highest in three decades. In addition to energy prices, consumers would have to deal with tax increases in April.
AUTOMAKERS
Zeekr to make Waymo EVs
China’s Geely Holding Group Co (吉利控股集團) said its premium electric mobility brand, Zeekr, would make electric vehicles (EVs) for Waymo, Alphabet Inc’s self-driving unit, to be deployed as fully autonomous ride-hailing vehicles across the US. The vehicles would be designed and developed at Zeekr’s facility in Sweden, and later integrated with Waymo’s self-driving technology, Geely said on Tuesday. Waymo said it would introduce the vehicles to US roads “in the years to come.” Waymo is the first and only fully driverless taxi service in the US. It has driven thousands of people since launching the service a year ago in Phoenix, Arizona.
E-COMMERCE
JD.com ups buyback target
JD.com Inc (京東) is boosting its share buyback plan by 50 percent, the latest in a slew of tech firms to repurchase stock after China’s regulatory crackdown over the past year sparked a sell-off. The country’s No. 2 online retailer would set aside US$3 billion for the buyback program, which would be extended until March 2024, it said in a filing yesterday. That is up from the US$2 billion it had targeted under the plan originally adopted in March last year. JD yesterday unveiled a five-year green loan facility of US$2 billion, its first such financing for new and existing green projects.
RIDE-HAILING
Didi plans HK listing
China’s ride-hailing giant Didi Global Inc (滴滴) plans to use a mechanism that would allow it to list shares in Hong Kong without raising capital or issuing new stock as it seeks to delist from New York, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The Hong Kong mechanism, known as “listing by introduction,” would allow owners of Didi’s US shares to transfer them to the territory’s bourse gradually, the people said. They declined to be identified as the plan was not yet public. Didi aims to file for the Hong Kong listing by the end of April and list by June, one of the people said.
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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