Hong Kong cuts economic outlook amid ongoing coronavirus fears August 14, 2020 Hong Kong cut its economic outlook for the year today, saying a recovery from recession depended on how fast it can get a new wave of coronavirus infections under control. The Chinese territory’s government revised its full year gross domestic product (GDP) forecast to a contraction of six per cent to eight per cent from [...]
Liberty Steel snaps up British Steel’s former French rail assets August 14, 2020 Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Steel has acquired the French plant that had threatened to derail Chinese firm Jingye’s £50m rescue deal for embattled British Steel back in March. Hayange, in northern France, used to be owned by British Steel is considered a strategic asset by the French government because it manufactures steel rails for high speed [...]
It’s time for a fresh UK-China relationship August 14, 2020 The UK needs a fresh template for its relationship with China. Central to this should be a differentiation between strategic and non-strategic areas. This would allow UK businesses to know where the government has set its red lines. In 2015, the UK and China’s relationship was red hot—a “golden era”—with President Xi making a state [...]
Apple boots Fortnite off App Store after challenge to payment rules August 13, 2020 Apple has removed Fortnite off its App Store, after the game’s creator Epic Games instituted a new way of buying in-game benefits that circumvents Apple’s rules. Epic Games has in turn initiated legal action against Apple, it said in a statement. “Apple’s removal of Fortnite is yet another example of Apple flexing its enormous power [...]
Bytedance weighs selling stake in Tiktok’s Indian arm to Reliance to ease app ban August 13, 2020 Tiktok parent Bytedance is said to be in talks with India’s Reliance about a investment in the operations of Tiktok in the region, as it seeks to end the government’s app ban. Conversations between the two companies began late last month but have yet to reach a deal, sources told Techcrunch. In June the Indian [...]
Thyssenkrupp mulls further job cuts as steel division posts huge loss August 13, 2020 German steel giant Thyssenkrupp today raised the prospect of further job cuts as it reported a €2bn loss for the first nine months of the year. The firm has already made 6,000 roles redundant under an ongoing savings programme, but finance chief Klaus Keysberg told reporters today that more cuts were being discussed. The majority [...]
The City View: Lord Barker on the ‘compelling case’ to extend the furlough scheme August 13, 2020 Subscribe to The City View Podcast: Apple / Google / Spotify / RSS In this episode Christian talks to former energy and climate change minister Greg (now Lord) Barker, who currently sits as executive chairman of Russian energy and metals giant EN+ Group. Lord Barker begins by assessing the current economic conditions and says there is a compelling case to extend the [...]
Tencent profit beats expectations as Wechat ban looms August 12, 2020 Tencent today said it has smashed expectations for second-quarter revenue and profit as the Chinese tech giant enjoyed higher demand for its video games during the Covid-19 lockdown. The world’s largest video game company posted revenue of 114.9bn yuan (£12.7bn) in the three months to the end of June — an increase of 29 per [...]
Markets live: US stocks near record high on stimulus hopes as FTSE 100 soars August 11, 2020 The FTSE 100 jumped today as US stimulus hopes offset bleak new data that showed a surge in UK job losses during the coronavirus crisis. The blue-chip index was up 2.42 per cent at 6,197 points at midday, before closing up 1.71 per cent at 6,154 in a bullish day for western markets. The gains [...]
Chinese car sales surge for fourth consecutive month in July August 11, 2020 Sales of Chinese cars jumped 16 per cent year on year last month in the fourth consecutive month of gains as the world’s biggest auto market kicks back into gear after the coronavirus shutdown. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), sales rose to 2.11m units in July. However, for the [...]