October, 2018

• 2 October

  Mini-refineries race billionaire to fix Nigerian fuel crisis

  

  Bloomberg In the race to solve a fuel-import crisis in Nigeria, Africa’s richest person faces competition from a swarm of tiny challengers. Billionaire Aliko Dangote is building a 650,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Nigeria that will help cut the nation’s $7 billion annual fuel-import bill. Such is the pressure on its finances, the government is pursuing another option, giving licenses to ...

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• 2 October

  Eskom expects new coal deals to recover supply

  Bloomberg South Africa’s Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. is still running low on fuel at more than half of its power stations and expects to finish supply contracts in October that will replenish the stockpiles. There are 10 of Eskom’s 15 baseload stations throughout the country that have less than three weeks of coal, Khulu Phasiwe, a spokesman for the utility, ...

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• 2 October

  YPF shuts gas wells as Argentine economy flops

  

  Bloomberg YPF SA, Argentina’s state-run energy producer, is closing the tap on some of its natural gas wells as the nation’s second recession in three years curbs demand, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. The company had been investing heavily in shale gas as the government subsidized production to reverse a costly energy trade deficit. But the ...

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• 2 October

  Malaysia’s Axiata risks losing hold of overseas units to rivals

  

  Bloomberg Axiata Group Bhd.’s dream of building a carrier that spans southern Asia from Singapore to Pakistan, Indonesia and India is fading as it risks losing hold of overseas units to rivals. Malaysia’s biggest wireless carrier received an offer from Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. and Keppel Corp. to buy out its stake in M1 Ltd., the latest in a series ...

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• 2 October

  Jack Ma says trade war to hurt everyone, destroy commerce

  

  Bloomberg Jack Ma, the co-founder of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and China’s richest man, gave a dire warning that the escalating trade war with the US is going to be severe and long-lived. “It’s going to destroy not only China-US trade, it will destroy a lot of small businesses,” Ma said during a speech at the World Trade Organization on ...

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• 2 October

  Hong Kong’s SFC freezes assets of chairman

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong’s securities regulator froze the assets of an unnamed chairman of a public company on suspicion of fraud totaling $1.3 billion. The person may have conducted two suspicious transactions to make significant profits, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said in a statement dated September 17 but published to the city’s official Gazette. It did not name the ...

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• 2 October

  India vows liquidity support to IL&FS

  

  Bloomberg The Indian government, which seized control of debt-laden financier Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd., (IL&FS) has pledged to ensure the beleaguered lender has the money to prevent further defaults. Superseding the board of IL&FS, which has defaulted on more than five of its obligations, was essential to restore the confidence of the financial markets, according to a statement ...

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• 2 October

  Abe keeps core economic team

  

  Bloomberg Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe kept his economic team including Finance Minister Taro Aso and added several first-time cabinet members in a reshuffle following his election last month to a third-straight term as ruling party leader. The Japanese prime minister, who’s in position to become Japan’s longest-serving premier, has said he would prioritize a divisive effort to change the ...

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• 2 October

  Rupiah weakens past 15,000 per dollar

  

  Bloomberg Indonesia’s rupiah weakened past 15,000 per dollar for the first time in 20 years as sentiment towards emerging-nation assets soured and oil prices jumped. The currency has tumbled almost 10 percent this year as rising US interest rates have boosted the dollar and Indonesia’s current-account deficit has left the economy exposed to the financial turmoil that afflicted Turkey and ...

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• 2 October

  New Nafta deal: Trump opens door to metal tariff accord

  

  Bloomberg With a Nafta deal on the table — and a bullet dodged for the auto sector — the clock is ticking for the next key trade talks for Canada’s steel and aluminum industries. After a marathon weekend of discussions, negotiators secured a deal to replace the 24-year-old Nafta agreement just before the deadline. However, the steel and aluminum tariffs ...

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