Sun, Jan 22, 2023 page6

• Wolrd Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  BABY FORMULA

  Abbott assisting DOJ

  Abbott Laboratories said it is cooperating with the US Justice Department (DOJ) in a probe involving the contamination of baby formula at one of the company’s plants last year. “DOJ has informed us of its investigation and we’re cooperating fully,” Abbott spokesman Scott Stoffel said in an e-mail. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Friday that the investigation involved possible criminal charges. The company recalled formula and temporarily shut down its plant in Sturgis, Michigan, last year after a number babies got sick and federal inspectors found evidence of bacteria at the site. Abbott makes Similac, the country’s top-seller. The closure contributed to a national shortage of baby formula.

  TRANSPORTATION

  Uber loses French suit

  App-based taxi service Uber Technologies Inc has been ordered to pay up to 20 million euros (US$21.7 million) compensation to drivers in the French city of Lyon, their lawyer Stephane Teyssier said on Friday. The court ruled on the basis of a Court of Cassation decision from January 2020 that Uber drivers should be considered as employees rather than as self-employed. “Uber was ordered to amend the contracts of 139 drivers at a cost of 17 to 20 million euros,” Teyssier said. “A penalty on that scale is exceptional in France,” he added. The US firm, which has about 30,000 drivers using its platform in France, said it intended to appeal.

  AUTOMAKERS

  Ford to cut German jobs

  Ford Motor Co plans to slash over 1,000 jobs at its main German plant in Cologne, German publication Automobilwoche reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources. The head of the works council has called a meeting for all 14,000 employees of the Cologne plant, Ford’s biggest in Germany, today, the report said. Ford, which according to its Web site employs around 20,000 people in Germany, declined to comment on the report, but said the transformation to electric vehicles required “significant change” in the way it produces cars.

  PRIVATE EQUITY

  Thoma Bravo to buy Magnet

  Thoma Bravo agreed to acquire Canada’s Magnet Forensics Inc for about C$1.8 billion (US$1.3 billion). The private equity firm intends to merge the company with Grayshift LLC, which it acquired last year, according to a statement on Friday. Magnet Forensics provides software to the military, law enforcement, businesses and others for conducting investigations, from workplace matters to criminal cases and cybersecurity threats, according to its Web site. “The companies’ complementary offerings are expected to create a powerful end-to-end digital investigations platform empowering more public safety agencies around the world to seek justice, solve crimes, and protect victims,” according to the statement.

  MACROECONOMICS

  Angola leads the way

  Angola’s central bank became the first in the world to reduce interest rates this year as it forecasts inflation to slow further. The policy committee dropped the rate to 18 percent from 19.5 percent, Governor Jose de Lima Massano said on Friday in Luanda. That is the steepest cut since July 2018. “This decision was based on the reduction of inflation observed throughout 2022” and because certain price pressures have eased, Massano said. Annual inflation in Africa’s third-largest oil producer has been easing since February, ending last year at 13.9 percent.

  TRADE

  SK export decline persists

  South Korea’s early trade data showed a decline in exports persisting this month in the latest sign of a global economic slowdown. Average shipments that exclude working-day differences decreased 8.8 percent in the first 20 days of this month from a year earlier, the customs office said. That follows a 9.6 percent decline for the full month last month. Chip sales dropped 34 percent and shipments to China fell 24.4 percent in the first 20 days, customs data showed. This year, exports will probably be 4 percent lower than last year, while imports will decline 8 percent, the Korea International Trade Association forecast.

  CONGLOMERATES

  Aboitiz hunting to diversify

  Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc, a Philippine conglomerate run by one of the nation’s richest families, is on the hunt for acquisition targets, part of a push beyond the energy sector. The Cebu-based company will seek out additional deals in the banking, infrastructure and consumer space, president and chief executive officer Sabin Aboitiz said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “We’re diversifying to the point where power will ultimately be less than 50 percent of our business,” said Aboitiz, who is also part of a private-sector council advising Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on economic policy.

  AVIATION

  Air India fined over urination

  Air India has been fined US$37,000 for its handling of an incident in which a drunk senior US bank executive was accused of urinating on a female passenger, Indian media reported. The man allegedly relieved himself on the 72-year-old woman seated in business class on a Nov. 26 flight from New York to New Delhi, an incident dubbed “peegate” by the media. The Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation also fined Air India’s director of in-flight services 300,000 rupees (US$3,705) in addition to the carrier’s penalty of 3 million rupees, reports on Friday and yesterday said. The flight’s pilot also had his license suspended for three months for “failing to discharge his duties” to ensure safety and discipline.

  INTERNET

  Meta trims lobbying outlay

  Meta Platforms Inc’s spending on lobbying decreased by about US$1 million during the final three months of last year compared to the previous quarter, according to filings posted on Friday. Meta, which owns Facebook, spent US$3.65 million on lobbying during the fourth quarter of last year, a significant decrease from the US$4.72 million in the previous quarter. The drop comes as Meta works to cut costs across the company, which expanded dramatically during the coronavirus pandemic.

  CREDIT RATINGS

  Fitch affirms Ukraine at ‘CC’

  Global ratings agency Fitch on Friday affirmed Ukraine’s credit rating at “CC,” saying further foreign-currency commercial debt restructuring is likely due to the economic fallout from the Russia war and large fiscal needs in the medium term. Ukraine reported a 30.4 percent drop in GDP last year, the sharpest economic decline in over 30 years, preliminary data revealed early this month showed. “We anticipate a high deficit into the medium term, due to reconstruction needs, greater social spending including on war veterans, and an increase on pre-war defense expenditure,” Fitch said in a statement.
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