World

HONG KONG: Finance sector professionals in Shanghai are preparing to move back to Hong Kong and other offshore centres after spending only a few years in the Chinese city as a harsh COVID-19 lockdown has hurt their business prospects and upended daily lives. Thousands of bankers, traders and investors in the financial hub of the world's second-largest economy have found themselves confined to their homes, with some even struggling to secure food and other essentials for their families. The four-week-long lockdown, which has forced most of the city's 26 million people indoors, has started to weigh on prospective financial deals with some transactions being put on hold due to logistical challenges, industry executives said. "What happened in Shanghai is shocking to most of the people. Few...

TOKYO: Japanese factories saw output rise for the second straight month in March as strong global demand for high-tech chips helped to ease some doubts that are weighing on the country's economic outlook. After struggling to stage a convincing recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, the world's third-biggest economy is facing pressure from Russia's war in Ukraine, high energy and commodity prices and strict Chinese lockdown measures that are hurting demand. Factory output expanded 0.3 per cent in March from the previous month, official data showed on Thursday (Apr 28), as growing production of items such as those of semiconductors offset a drop in motor vehicle output. That meant output growth slowed from February, when it grew sharply by 2.0 per cent. The increase was weaker than a 0.5...

HAVANA: Crews worked through a second night searching for victims of a hotel explosion that killed at least 27 people in Cuba’s capital and left more than a dozen missing amid the rubble. The Hotel Saratoga, a luxury 96-room hotel in Old Havana, was finishing renovations when an apparent gas leak produced a massive explosion on Friday. Just steps from Cuba’s capitol, the Saratoga’s façade was sheared off, burying workers inside and apparently passersby outside under concrete and twisted metal. The explosion came in the late morning when the streets and plaza in front of the stately hotel would have been full of pedestrians. On Saturday evening, Dr Julio Guerra Izquierdo, chief of hospital services at the Ministry of Health, raised the death toll to 27 with 81 people injured. The dead ...

Tim Hortons is anticipating Canadian same-store sales growth in the mid-to-high single digits in 2022 as the coffee chain's turnaround takes hold in its home market. The Restaurant Brands International chain also said Tuesday during an investor presentation that it set a long-term goal for same-store sales growth of 2% to 3% annually. Tims reported Canadian same-store sales growth of 10.8% in 2021 and same-store sales declines of 16.5% in 2020. Because of its large Canadian footprint, Tim Hortons typically accounts for more than half of Restaurant Brands' revenue, but recent sluggish sales have weighed on the restaurant company's overall results. Over the last few years, Tims has shuffled its executive team, updated its coffee and breakfast offerings, and revamped its loyalty program in...

DUBLIN: Inflation clauses that determine how much airlines pay for new jets have jumped into a "hyper-escalation" band, pushing up aircraft prices but still leaving manufacturers unable to fully pass on their soaring costs, industry executives told Reuters. The hike to the top inflationary band is a rare move in the industry, potentially triggering a rise in airfares by airlines while manufacturers will also be left out of pocket, experts warned during major gatherings over the past week in Dublin, the centre of the global aviation finance industry. Airlines buy jets at a basic price agreed in confidential negotiations but the final price includes adjustments for inflation during long production waiting times, based on US factory input and labour costs, wherever the planes are built. Fo...

Amazon.com delivered a disappointing quarter and outlook on Thursday as the e-commerce giant was swamped by higher costs to run its warehouses and deliver packages to customers. Shares fell 12 per cent in after-hours trade. After a long-running surge in sales during the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon is facing a litany of challenges. The company's expenses swelled as it offered higher pay to attract workers. A fulfilment centre in New York City voted to create Amazon's first US union, a result the retailer is contesting. And higher fuel prices are beginning to eat into consumers' disposable income while making delivery more expensive for Amazon, the world's biggest online retailer. Amazon's forecast shows hiking the price of its fast-shipping club Prime last quarter may not be enough to prop...

HONG KONG: Yokohama F Marinos moved to the top of Group H in the Asian Champions League when Kevin Muscat's side handed Sydney FC a 3-0 defeat despite playing with 10 men for almost a third of the game in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday. Yokohama's win and a 1-1 draw for Jeonbuk Motors against Vietnam's Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) means the Japanese side hold a one point lead over the South Koreans with two matches remaining. Only the winners of the five groups in east Asia are sure to reach the last 16, where they will be joined by the three clubs with the best runners-up records. Yuki Saneto's diving header gave Yokohama a sixth minute lead and Takuma Nishimura doubled the advantage five minutes later when he struck from close range after a tight turn left the Sydney defence in his wake. Ryo...

A landslide victory is on the cards for Ferdinand "BongBong" Marcos Jr. in the Philippines, seen here at his campaign headquarters in Mandaluyong City, Manila, on Monday. Veejay Villafranca/Bloomberg via Getty Images It appears all but certain that Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the namesake son of the late dictator, will become the Philippines' next president. The unofficial vote count so far shows that Bongbong, as he's popularly known at home, is set for a landslide victory — pulling ahead by a wide margin against his closest rival, incumbent Vice President Leni Robredo. Official results are expected near the end of the month. A Marcos Jr. presidency would be vastly different from the six years under President Rodrigo Duterte, said Victor Manhit, managing director of advisory firm BowerGroupAsi...

RIYH: The head of the world's biggest airline trade body said on Monday (May 9) the recovery in passenger traffic was accelerating and that on average, the industry could now return to pre-pandemic figures in 2023, a year earlier than its previous forecast. The continued easing of COVID-19-related restrictions by governments around the world is releasing demand pent up over the last two years when countries had shut their borders. International Air Transport Association (IATA) Director General Willie Walsh told Reuters that overall passenger traffic was picking up faster than expected despite the war in Ukraine and continued restrictions in major aviation market China. "We're seeing very strong bookings. Certainly all the airline CEOs that I'm talking to are seeing not just good demand ...

TOKYO : Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Monday the yen's recent moves had been "quite sharp" and could hurt companies' business plans, offering his strongest warning to date of the risks stemming from the currency's depreciation. Kuroda said there was no change in his assessment that, overall, a weak yen was good for the economy since it boosts the value of profits Japanese firms earn overseas. But he said the yen's drop to about 125-126 yen against the dollar, from about 115-116 yen a month ago, was volatile enough to hurt companies. "The recent falls in the yen, which lost about 10 yen to the dollar in about a month, is quite sharp and could make it hard for companies to set business plans," Kuroda told parliament. "In that sense, we need to take into account the negat...