March, 2020

• 2 March

  Chinese biotech censured for false claim on Gilead’s drug

  

  Bloomberg A Chinese biotech company which claimed to be able to manufacture an experimental drug from Gilead Sciences Inc with the potential to treat the novel coronavirus, was censured for disclosing inaccurate information. The Shanghai Stock Exchange said in an statement that BrightGene Bio-Medical Technology Co has not gained approval from China’s drug regulator to make the drug known as ...

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• 2 March

  HK finance chief sees property holding up despite virus turmoil

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong will avoid the kind of property market crash that followed previous economic slumps in the finance hub, according to Financial Secretary Paul Chan. “We do not see the risk of an off-the-grid type of downfall,” Chan said in an interview on Monday with Bloomberg Television’s Yvonne Man. As Hong Kong’s economy reels from the coronavirus outbreak that ...

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• 2 March

  SoftBank CEO faces tougher questions after market plunge

  

  Bloomberg Masayoshi Son’s pitch to US hedge funds and financial institutions on the merits of SoftBank Group Corp just got harder, with a record market plunge that has made investors skittish and raised risks for its portfolio companies. The Japanese billionaire will be in New York for the first such meeting since the implosion of WeWork. In the months since, ...

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• 2 March

  Singapore commodities firm accused of fraud

  Bloomberg Lenders have accused a Singapore commodities firm of fraud after a debt default left them facing potential losses on $600 million of liabilities. ING Bank NV alleged that Agritrade International Pte, its chief executive officer Ng Xinwei and his father Ng Say Peck misrepresented the company’s financial position to various bank lenders, in a filing to a Singapore court. ...

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• 2 March

  India’s Tata Motors sees domestic sales drop by 34% in February

  

  Bloomberg India’s Tata Motors Ltd saw a 34% slide in domestic sales in February, as automakers were hit by the lack of supply of parts from China amid the coronavirus outbreak. Total domestic sales stood at 38,002 units last month, falling from 57,221 during the same period a year ago, the company said in a statement. Total sales were 40,634 ...

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• 2 March

  Power’s plunge boosts Nordic miners, splits cental bankers

  

  Bloomberg The worst start to the year for Nordic electricity prices in more than a decade is delighting consumers, dividing central bankers and hurting utilities. Nordic futures have plunged by more than half this year, outpacing declines in everything from oil to US natural gas and agricultural commodities. The impact of that economic tailwind is likely to grow in the ...

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• 2 March

  Vietnam may back off from coal’s role in power generation

  

  Bloomberg Vietnam may scale back a plan to boost coal’s role in its power generation as financial restrictions and local environmental concerns make it more difficult to build plants. The National Steering Committee for Power Development has recommended eliminating about 15 gigawatts of planned new coal plants by 2025 due to slow progress and the unwillingness of some regions to ...

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• 2 March

  Power cuts weigh on S African manufacturing

  Bloomberg Sentiment in South Africa’s manufacturing industry fell to the lowest level in more than a decade in February as the prospect of continued power cuts and concern about the global economy weighed on confidence. That makes the recovery of an economy that the government estimates expanded at the slowest pace in 10 years in 2019 even more challenging. Absa ...

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• 2 March

  UK outlines $4.4bn objectives for US trade negotiations

  

  Bloomberg The UK outlined its negotiating objectives for trade talks with the US, seeking a deal it hopes will deliver a 3.4 billion-pound ($4.4 billion) boost to the British economy. Talks, which are expected to start this month, will seek to protect the National Health Service and uphold food safety and animal welfare standards — all sticking points in recent ...

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• 2 March

  Huawei makes end-run around US ban by turning to own chips

  

  Bloomberg Huawei Technologies Co, the Chinese technology giant barred from doing business with US suppliers, is finding a way around the strict limits imposed by the Trump administration. The Commerce Department, citing national security concerns, has largely forbidden American companies from selling Huawei the computer chips it needs to make a piece of equipment integral to newly introduced high-speed wireless ...

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