World

SAN FRANCISCO/SEOUL: LG Energy Solution (LGES), a supplier for electric car makers Tesla and Lucid, said on Thursday (Mar 24) in Korea it plans to invest 1.7 trillion Korean won (US$1.4 billion) to build a battery factory in Arizona by 2024 to meet demand from "prominent startups" and other North American customers. This will be its first US factory to make cylindrical cells, a type of battery that has been used in Tesla and Lucid vehicles, LGES said. Construction will begin in the second quarter of 2022, with mass production to start in 2024 with production capacity of 11 gigawatt hours, LGES said in a statement. Earlier, Reuters reported that potential customers would include EV makers Tesla, Lucid and Proterra and Philip Morris, maker of IQOS heated-tobacco sticks, among others. The r...

Judging by the amount of public comment in English-language media, the world is on the brink of derangement about the state of gasoline prices. U.S. gas prices hit a record level earlier this month. Limiting “the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump” was one of the main objectives President Joe Biden set out in responding to the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month. The situation has even been blamed for the sinking of Sarah Bloom Raskin’s nomination to become vice chair of the Federal Reserve. That seems justified by public interest in the subject. Going by Google searches, concern is the highest it’s been in years. What’s curious is that much of the world doesn’t see things the same way. Look, for instance, at the major emerging market oil consumers, and wh...

SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong addressed the nation on Thursday (Mar 24), giving an update on Singapore's new phase and a "decisive move towards living with COVID-19". This is the Prime Minister's full address - My fellow Singaporeans, Our fight against COVID-19 has reached a major turning point. We will be making a decisive move towards living with COVID-19. The multi-ministry taskforce (MTF) will announce the changes after this broadcast. But let me set the context, take stock of our journey thus far and explain our plans moving forward. We have battled COVID-19 for more than two years now. Right from the start, we had one overriding aim: To protect lives, and prevent as many avoidable deaths as possible. We saw in other countries bleak images of people desperately seekin...

For decades, global finance firms eagerly catered to Russian firms, billionaires and the government. Then tanks started rolling into Ukraine. Citigroup Inc., which has thousands of staff and billions of dollars of assets in Russia, has said it will cut back much of its business in the country. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG are also heading for the exit, with some financiers relocating to other hubs such as Dubai. They’re being followed by lawyers and other professionals. It’s perhaps the harshest and fastest exclusion in living memory of a major industrialized economy. The past few weeks have been a frantic dash to understand and implement sanctions that are being continually updated by jurisdictions including the U.S., U.K., Japan and the European U...

Facing crushing sanctions from the West over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Moscow is scrambling for fallback options in the East. After all, the past two decades have seen Russia’s bilateral trade value with Asia almost matching its historically robust economic relations with Europe. Largely shut off from the stock markets, tech sector and financial institutions of the West, Russia is pinning its hopes on revitalized ties with Asian partners. With close to half of Moscow’s financial assets frozen, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has hoped that “our partnership with China will still allow us to maintain the cooperation … where Western markets are closing.” Weeks earlier, Sergey Karaganov, a Kremlin adviser, had admitted that “China is our strategic cushion.” “We know that in any ...

Global tech funds are back in demand and investment inflows are surging as rising inflationary pressures and a selloff in bonds drive investors into a sector perceived as both cheap and resilient. According to Refinitiv data, tech funds have received inflows worth US$2.55 billion since March 16, after outflows worth US$6.86 billion in the first two months of this year. "Tech stocks have not seen a decline in fundamentals, so we see this rally as a rebound from over-cautious investors expecting the Fed would tighten policy too fast," said Amanda Agati, chief investment officer at PNC Asset Management Group. "Going forward, we have first-quarter earnings season just weeks away ... One of the standouts is expected to be tech, which has been the earnings workhorse during the pandemic," she ...

The commodity price spike that has been worsened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine isn’t an equal-opportunity dispenser of economic distress. The surging energy costs are causing headaches for governments around the world, but are especially painful for poorer nations that rely heavily on imported fuels. These countries don’t have the fiscal buffer enjoyed by wealthier peers, and can’t count on increased revenue from their own exports. Morocco, Thailand, Vietnam and Pakistan are some of the most-affected larger economies, based on energy import and gross domestic product data from the United Nations. Poorer families in those countries — and others — will find it tougher to buy basic goods, manufacturing sectors that support millions of jobs will be at risk, and some governments may even fi...

LONDON : Four buyout funds have made binding bids for a slice of the media rights business of France's top-flight soccer league as the race to support the country's cash-strapped clubs with a vital lifeline enters the final stages, sources told Reuters. CVC Capital Partners, Silver Lake, Hellman & Friedman and Oaktree Capital have all submitted rival bids ahead of a March 9 deadline, three sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A last-ditch attempt by European private equity firm BC Partners to team up with Oaktree fell through, with BC Partners walking away from the auction, they said. French soccer governing body Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) kicked off a process last year to sell a minority stake in a newly created company that will market the TV and online broadca...

STOCKHOLM/WASHINGTON : Sweden's Ericsson on Wednesday said the U.S. Justice Department accused it of breaking terms of a 2019 deal with prosecutors by failing to properly disclose misconduct and compliance failures in Iraq. Ericsson, which has been at the center of a scandal over possible payments to Islamic State, said U.S. authorities determined it failed to make sufficient disclosures about its activities in Iraq before entering a deferred prosecution agreement in 2019 with the Justice Department to resolve a probe into years of alleged corruption in China, Vietnam and Djibouti. The Justice Department also said the firm failed to make proper disclosures after the deal was signed, Ericsson said in a statement. Under the terms of the 2019 deal, the Justice Department agreed to hold off...

SINGAPORE: Judgment was reserved in the case of convicted Malaysian drug dealer Nagaenthran Dharmalingam's last-minute defence against his execution at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday (Mar 1). Nagaenthran is appealing against a High Court decision that dismissed his bid to commence judicial review proceedings on the basis that he purportedly possesses the mental age of someone below 18. The appeal was heard by a panel of five judges: Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, Justice Andrew Phang Boon Leong, Justice Judith Prakash, Justice Belinda Ang and Justice Chao Hick Tin. The crux of the appellant's arguments was that Nagaenthran is not competent for execution as he has an intellectual disability. His lawyer, Ms Violet Netto, cited medical reports, international treaty obligations and customar...