Tag Archives: JP

Business

Dollar, yen on back foot as risk sentiment revives; Musk buoys bitcoin

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  • Risk appetite returns as strong earnings lift Wall Street
  • Euro firmer against dollar ahead of ECB policy decision
  • Musk hints Tesla will accept bitcoin as payment again

TOKYO, July 22 (Reuters) – The safe-harbour U.S. dollar and yen were on the back foot on Thursday, after pulling back from multi-month highs amid a recovery in risk appetite as strong earnings lifted Wall Street stocks.

Cryptocurrencies held gains after Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) CEO Elon Musk said the company would “most likely” resume accepting bitcoin for payment. read more

The dollar index , which measures the currency against six major peers, stood at 92.770 after pulling back from a 3 1/2-month high of 93.194 touched on Wednesday.

The yen traded at 129.950 per euro , from an almost four-month top of 128.610 earlier this week, and at 81.07 to Australia’s dollar , from a 5 1/2-month peak of 79.85.

“Strong earnings have swept away Delta concerns in the U.S.,” weighing on haven currencies, National Australia Bank analyst Tapas Strickland wrote in a note to clients.

“The consensus is that (the Delta strain) does not pose an immediate risk to the recovery,” delaying reopening by three months at the most as countries ramp up vaccination drives in response, he said.

Sterling traded at $1.3717, recovering from a 5 1/2-month trough of $1.35725 reached on Tuesday, despite rising Delta variant cases in Britain and confusion about the lifting of restrictions in England.

The Aussie changed hands at $0.7350, from an eight-month low of $0.72895 the previous day, even as coronavirus cases spiked despite half the Australian population being under lockdown. read more

The euro stood at $1.1789, rising off Wednesday’s 3-1/2-month low of $1.1752 ahead of a closely watched European Central Bank policy decision later in the global day.

Policymakers will implement for the first time changes to their strategy and are all but certain to promise an even longer period of stimulus to make good on its commitment to boost inflation. read more

Analysts generally see ECB dovishness weakening the euro over the medium-term.

“On balance, the ECB’s new inflation target suggests monetary policy will remain ultra‑accommodative for an even longer period of time,” which will act as a headwind for the euro, Commonwealth Bank of Australia strategists Kim Mundy and Carol Kong wrote in a research note.

“Indeed, we expect the ECB will be one of the last central banks under our coverage to tighten policy.”

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin held Wednesday’s 7.9% jump – the biggest since mid-June – to trade just north of$32,000.

Rival ether traded slightly below $2,000 following a 12% surge.

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Currency bid prices at 0525 GMT

All spots

Tokyo spots

Europe spots

Volatilities

Tokyo Forex market info from BOJ

Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Editing by Sam Holmes

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Heavy rain hits southern Japan, over 120,000 ordered to evacuate – NHK

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TOKYO, July 10 (Reuters) – Japan issued evacuation requests to more than 120,000 residents in some southern prefectures due to heavy rain on Saturday, NHK reported, just days after deadly landslides struck the seaside city of Atami southwest of Tokyo.

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued its highest rain alerts in three prefectures on Kyushu island, prompting some local governments to order residents to evacuate.

A week ago heavy rains lashed the resort city of Atami, triggering landslides that have killed at least nine people and left 20 missing. read more

Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Tom Hogue

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Health

EXCLUSIVE S.Korea in talks with mRNA vaccine makers to make up to 1 bln doses -govt official

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South Korean senior citizens receive their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at a vaccination centre in Seoul, South Korea April 1, 2021. Chung Sung-Jun/Pool via REUTERS

SEOUL, July 5 (Reuters) – South Korea is in talks with mRNA vaccine makers including Pfizer (PFE.N) and Moderna (MRNA.O) to produce COVID-19 shots in the country and is ready to offer the capacity to make up to 1 billion doses immediately, a senior government official said.

The plan, if agreed, would help ease tight global supply of COVID-19 vaccines, particularly in Asia which lags North America and Europe in vaccine rollouts, and put South Korea a step closer to its ambition to become a major vaccine manufacturing centre.

South Korea already has deals to locally produce three coronavirus vaccines developed by AstraZeneca (AZN.L)/Oxford University, Novavax (NVAX.O), and Russia. It also has a vaccine bottling and packaging deal with Moderna.

“We’ve been holding frequent talks with big pharmaceutical companies to produce mRNA vaccines,” Lee Kang-ho, director general for the global vaccine hub committee under South Korea’s health ministry, told Reuters in an interview.

“There are only a few mRNA vaccine developers – Pfizer, Moderna, CureVac and BioNTech. Thus there’s a limit to how much they can produce to meet global demand… South Korea is keen to help by offering its facilities and skilled human resources,” Lee said.

It’s not immediately clear how advanced these talks are and whether and when a deal will be agreed.

BioNTech (22UAy.DE) declined to comment, Moderna and CureVac (5CV.DE) did not reply to Reuters’ requests for comments.

A Pfizer spokesperson said the company is making efforts to enhance its COVID-19 vaccine supply chain but added “we do not have anything specific to announce at this time.”

Lee declined to name local vaccine makers which have the capacity to produce mRNA vaccines immediately, but a government source said they include Hanmi Pharmaceuticals Co Ltd (128940.KS) and Quratis Co Ltd.

Hanmi confirmed that it has a big capacity reserved for Sanofi’s (SASY.PA) diabetes drug and it can be used for COVID-19 vaccine production as the Sanofi project has stalled.

“We happen to have this facility available right now because our clinical trial (with Sanofi) was discontinued in the middle of last year,” Kim Soo-jin, senior vice president of Hanmi, told Reuters.

“It’s very timely that we have a fully ready, GMP, state-of-the-art facility available,” she said, referring to good manufacturing practice.

Quratis, which makes a tuberculosis vaccine, said its new factory built last year can now be used for mRNA vaccine production.

Shares in Hanmi erased early losses and rose nearly 4% on Monday after the Reuters report.

COLLABORATION WITH WHO

South Korea has stepped up its effort to produce more vaccines since U.S. President Joe Biden in May agreed with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on a comprehensive partnership on COVID-19 vaccines. read more

Lee said his team is having frequent video conference calls with the vaccine makers and the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told Reuters the organisation is “talking with South Korea and other countries,” but did not elaborate.

The WHO said last month it will set up a hub in South Africa to manufacture mRNA vaccines within 9-12 months that will give companies from poor and middle-income countries the know-how and licenses to produce COVID-19 vaccines. read more

Lee said mRNA vaccine makers may be reluctant to share their technology, but they can take advantage of South Korea’s raw material suppliers to address a global shortage of such ingredients as lipids, nucleotides and capping reagents.

“They’re capable of manufacturing and developing such raw materials to help vaccine makers… and the South Korean government is committed to provide all necessary support including financial and administrative aid.”

Lee said the country also has a capacity for at least another 500 million doses of fill-and-finish vaccines apart from the deal Moderna announced with Samsung BioLogics (207940.KS) in May.

Reporting by Sangmi Cha in Seoul; Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Michael Erman in New York and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Raju Gopalakrishnan

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World

Rescuers fight time, weather in Japan landslide; some 80 missing

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Members of Japanese Self-Defence Forces conduct rescue and search operartion at a mudslide site caused by heavy rain at Izusan district in Atami, west of Tokyo, Japan July 5, 2021, in this photo taken by Kyodo. Kyodo/via REUTERS

TOKYO, July 5 (Reuters) – More than a thousand Japanese rescuers combed through crumbled houses and buried roads on Monday two days after landslides tore through a seaside city, fighting time and poor weather to search for some 80 people believed missing.

At least three people have been killed in Atami after torrential rain at the weekend – more than a usual July’s worth in 24 hours some areas – touched off a succession of landslides, sending torrents of mud and rock ripping through streets.

The landslides are a reminder of the natural disasters – including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunami – that haunt Japan, where the capital Tokyo is to host the summer Olympics beginning this month.

“My mother is still missing,” one man told NHK public television. “I never imagined something like this could happen here.”

One 75-year-old evacuee said the house across from his had been swept away and the couple that lived there was unaccounted for.

“This is hell,” he said.

By Monday, the number of rescuers at the site had risen to 1,500, officials said, and could increase.

“We want to rescue as many victims … buried in the rubble as soon as possible,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told reporters, adding that police, firefighters and members of the military were doing all they could to aid the search.

There are 113 people believed missing in Atami, a city of almost 36,000 people situated 90 km (60 miles) southwest of Tokyo, spokesperson Hiroki Onuma told Reuters, confirming the third death. That fatality was a woman, Japanese media said

By noon, though, that number of missing had dropped to around 80, Kyodo said.

“We’re in touch with various groups and pushing forward with the searches,” Onuma said.

Over the weekend some 20 people were said to be unaccounted for, but the number rose sharply on Monday as officials began working from residential registers rather than phone calls from people unable to reach family and friends, he said.

Around 130 buildings were affected on Saturday morning when landslides ripped through Atami, a hot springs resort set on a steep slope that leads down to a bay.

The water, mud and debris are thought to have flowed along a river for about 2 km (1.2 miles) to the sea, local media said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato called on residents to remain vigilant, noting that the saturated earth has been weakened and even light rain could prove dangerous.

Though Onuma said rain had stopped in Atami for now, more is forecast, raising the possibility of further landslides.

“The situation is unpredictable,” he said.

Stocks in some engineering firms rose on Monday.

Raito Kogyo Co Ltd (1926.T), an expert in slope and foundation improvement, rose 1.5%, while CE Management Integrated Laboratory Co Ltd (6171.T), which offers geological survey and disaster prevention systems, gained 3.7%.

Reporting by Daniel Leussink and Elaine Lies; Additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by Kim Coghill and Christopher Cushing

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Business

Britain’s Morrisons agrees $8.7 bln offer from Fortress-led group

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A Morrisons store is pictured in St Albans, Britain, September 10, 2020. REUTERS/Peter Cziborra//File Photo

  • Fortress-led group offers 254 pence a share
  • Tops CD&R’s proposal of 230 pence
  • Some investors want 270 pence
  • Morrisons says Fortress would be suitable owner
  • Fortress says it will be ‘good steward’

LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) – Morrisons has agreed to a takeover led by SoftBank (9984.T) owned Fortress Investment Group, valuing Britain’s fourth largest supermarket chain at 6.3 billion pounds ($8.7 billion) and topping a rival proposal from a U.S. private equity firm.

The offer from Fortress, along with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Koch Real Estate Investments, exceeds a 5.52 billion pound unsolicited proposal from Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), which Morrisons (MRW.L) rejected on June 19. read more

Including Morrisons’ net debt of 3.2 billion pounds, Fortress’ offer gives the group an enterprise value of 9.5 billion pounds.

“We have looked very carefully at Fortress’ approach, their plans for the business and their overall suitability as an owner of a unique British food-maker and shopkeeper with over 110,000 colleagues and an important role in British food production and farming,” said Morrisons Chairman Andrew Higginson.

“It’s clear to us that Fortress has a full understanding and appreciation of the fundamental character of Morrisons.”

The Fortress deal underlines the growing appetite from private funds for British supermarket groups, seen as attractive because of their cash generation and freehold assets.

Fortress, an independently-operated subsidiary of Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp, is a global investment manager with about $53 billion in assets under management as of March. It purchased British wine seller Majestic Wine in 2019.

“We are committed to being good stewards of Morrisons to best serve its stakeholder groups, and the wider British public, for the long term,” said managing partner, Joshua A. Pack.

Fortress intends to retain Morrisons’ existing management team led by CEO David Potts and execute its existing strategy. It said it was not planning any material store sale and leaseback transactions.

RECOMMENDATION

Under the terms of the deal, which Morrisons’ board is recommending to shareholders, investors would receive 254 pence a share, comprising 252 pence in cash and a 2 pence special cash dividend. CD&R’s proposal was 230 pence a share, worth 5.52 billion pounds.

Last week JO Hambro, a top ten shareholder in Morrisons, said any suitor for the group should offer about 270 pence a share or 6.5 billion pounds. read more

Morrisons, based in Bradford, northern England, started out as an egg and butter merchant in 1899. It now only trails market leader Tesco (TSCO.L), Sainsbury’s (SBRY.L) and Asda in annual sales.

Morrisons owns 85% of its nearly 500 stores and has 19 mostly freehold manufacturing sites. It is unique among British supermarkets in making over half of the fresh food it sells.

It said the Fortress offer represented a premium of 42% to its closing share price of 178 pence on June 18 – the day before CD&R’s proposal. The stock closed at 243 pence on Friday.

Morrisons’ directors, who own 0.23% of the group’s equity, would make 14.3 million pounds from selling their shares to Fortress.

CD&R, which under British takeover rules has until July 17 to come back with a firm offer, had no immediate comment.

Morrisons has a partnership agreement with Amazon (AMZN.O) and there has been speculation it too could emerge as a possible bidder.

FIVE PROPOSALS

Morrisons said an initial unsolicited proposal was received from Fortress on May 4 at 220 pence a share. This offer was not made public. Fortress then made four subsequent proposals before it offered a total value of 254 a share on June 5.

The bids for Morrisons follow February’s purchase by Zuber and Mohsin Issa and private equity firm TDR Capital of a majority stake in Asda from Walmart (WMT.N). The deal valued Asda at 6.8 billion pounds. read more

That transaction followed Sainsbury’s failure to take over Asda after an agreed deal was blocked by Britain’s competition regulator in 2019.

In April, Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky raised his stake in Sainsbury’s to almost 10%, igniting bid speculation.

read more

($1 = 0.7235 pounds)

Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Jane Merriman

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Tesla Q2 deliveries meet analysts’ estimates despite chip shortage, shares gain

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  • Shares up 3% on record vehicle deliveries
  • Deliveries of higher priced models fell

July 2 (Reuters) – Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) on Friday posted record vehicle deliveries for the second quarter that were in line with Wall Street estimates as the electric-car maker coped with a shortage of chips and raw materials.

Tesla delivered 201,250 vehicles in total during the second quarter. Analysts had expected Tesla to deliver 200,258 vehicles, according to Refinitiv data.

“Congrats Tesla Team on over 200,000 car built & delivered in Q2, despite many challenges!!” Musk said in a tweet.

Shares of the company were up 3% in early trading on Friday.

The numbers showed that strong deliveries of its Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossovers, its two lower priced variants, offset a drop in deliveries of higher-end Model S and X variants.

Tesla has been raising prices for its vehicles in recent months, which its billionaire boss, Elon Musk, blamed in May on “major supply chain price pressure”, especially raw materials. read more

He also said in early June that “Our biggest challenge is supply chain, especially microcontroller chips. Never seen anything like it.”

Tesla sold 21,936 cars to Chinese customers in May, rebounding from a sales slump in April, but still well below March numbers. read more

MODEL S,X DELIVERIES FALL

Overall deliveries of its higher priced Model S and X cars fell to 1,890 during the April to June period, from a meager 2,020 the preceding quarter, Tesla said.

After delays, the company launched the Model S Plaid in June, a high-performance version of its Model S, starting at $129,990. read more

A Tesla Model S Plaid electric vehicle burst into flames on Tuesday while the owner was driving, just three days after the car was delivered. Tesla did not have an immediate comment when contacted by Reuters. read more

Total production in the second quarter rose about 14% to 206,421 vehicles from the first quarter.

Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru and Hyunjoo Jin in Berkeley, Calif, Additional reporting by Subrat Patnaik; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Philippa Fletcher

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World

France probes fashion retailers for concealing ‘crimes against humanity’ in Xinjiang

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Customers enter a Zara shop in Nantes as non-essential business re-open after closing down for months, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in France, May 19, 2021. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo

PARIS, July 1 (Reuters) – French prosecutors have opened an investigation into four fashion retailers suspected of concealing “crimes against humanity” in China’s Xinjiang region, a judicial source said on Thursday.

The procedure is linked to accusations against China over its treatment of minority Muslim Uyghurs in the region, including the use of forced labour, the source said.

China denies all accusations of abuse in the region.

The source told Reuters Uniqlo France, a unit of Japan’s Fast Retailing (9983.T), Zara owner Inditex (ITX.MC), France’s SMCP (SMCP.PA) and Skechers (SKX.N) were the subject of the investigation, confirming a report by French media website Mediapart.

“An investigation has been opened by the crimes against humanity unit within the antiterrorism prosecutor’s office following the filing of a complaint,” the source said.

France has a Central Office to Fight Crimes against Humanity, Genocide and War Crimes, founded in 2013.

Inditex said it rejected the claims in the legal complaint, adding that it conducted rigorous traceability controls and would fully cooperate with the French investigation.

“At Inditex, we have zero tolerance for all forms of forced labour and have established policies and procedures to ensure this practice does not take place in our supply chain,” the company said in a statement.

SMCP said it would cooperate with the French authorities to prove the allegations false.

“SMCP works with suppliers located all over the world and maintains that it does not have direct suppliers in the region mentioned in the press,” SMCP said, adding that it regularly audited its suppliers.

Fast Retailing said in a statement from Tokyo that it had not been contacted by French authorities and that none of its production partners are located in Xinjiang.

“If and when notified, we will cooperate fully with the investigation to reaffirm there is no forced labour in our supply chains,” it said.

The company lost an appeal with United States Customs in May after a shipment of Uniqlo men’s shirts were impounded because of suspected violations of a ban on Xinjiang cotton. read more

Skechers said it does not comment on pending litigation. It referred Reuters to a March 2021 statement in which it said it maintained a strict supplier code of conduct.

Two nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) filed a complaint in France in early April against multinationals for concealment of forced labour and crimes against humanity.

United Nations experts and rights groups estimate over a million people, mainly Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, have been detained in recent years in a vast system of camps in China’s western Xinjiang region.

Many former inmates have said they were subject to ideological training and abuse. Rights groups say the camps have been used as a source of low-paid and coercive labour.

China initially denied the camps existed, but has since said they are vocational centres designed to combat extremism. In late 2019, China said all people in the camps had “graduated.”

Several Western brands including H&M (HMb.ST), Burberry (BRBY.L) and Nike (NKE.N) have been hit by consumer boycotts in China after raising concerns about reports of forced labour in Xinjiang. read more

In March, the United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada imposed sanctions on Chinese officials, citing human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Beijing retaliated immediately with its own punitive measures. read more

Human Rights Watch this year documented what it said could constitute crimes against humanity being committed in Xinjiang.

Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten in Paris
Additional reporting by Richard Lough in Paris, Jesus Aguado in Madrid and Rocky Swift in Tokyo.
Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Matthew Lewis

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Business

China’s Didi raises $4.4 bln in upsized U.S. IPO -sources

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  • Didi sold 317 mln ADS, more than planned 288 mln -sources
  • Sells ADS at $14 a piece – sources
  • Would give Didi $73 bln valuation on fully diluted basis

June 29 (Reuters) – Chinese ride hailing company Didi Global Inc (DIDI.N) raised $4.4 billion in its U.S IPO on Tuesday, pricing it at the top of its indicated range and increasing the number of shares sold, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Didi sold 317 million American Depository Shares (ADS), versus the planned 288 million, at $14 apiece, the people said on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement.

This would give Didi a valuation of about $73 billion on a fully diluted basis. On a non-diluted basis, it will be worth $67.5 billion. The company is expected to debut on the New York Stock Exchange on June 30.

The increase in deal size came after the Didi investor order book was oversubscribed multiple times, one of the sources said.

Investors have been told to expect their orders to be scaled back once allocations are completed on Wednesday, according to a separate source with direct knowledge of the matter.

Didi did not respond to a request for comment.

The listing, which will be the biggest U.S. share sale by a Chinese company since Alibaba raised $25 billion in 2014, comes amid record IPO activity this year as companies rush to capture the lucrative valuations seen in the U.S. stock market.

Didi’s IPO is more conservative than its initial aim for a valuation of up to $100 billion, Reuters has previously reported. The size of the deal was cut during briefings with investors ahead of the IPO’s launch. read more

This suggests increasing investor worries about China’s potential anti-trust related crackdown and a more volatile IPO environment globally in 2021, said Douglas Kim, a London-based independent analyst, who writes on Smartkarma.

A Didi logo is seen at the headquarters of Didi Chuxing in Beijing, China November 20, 2020. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo

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“But it seems like many investors like this deal, the volatile IPO environment helped to lower IPO price and valuation looks attractive,” Kim told Reuters.

Didi’s IPO was covered early on the first day of the book-build last week and the investor books were closed on Monday, a day ahead of schedule. read more .

An over-allotment option, or greenshoe, exists where another 43.2 million shares can be sold to increase the deal size.

DIDI HISTORY

Didi was co-founded in 2012 by former Alibaba employee Will Wei Cheng, who currently serves as the chief executive officer. Cheng was joined by Jean Qing Liu, a former Goldman Sachs banker and the current president of the ride-sharing company.

The company counts SoftBank (9984.T), Uber Technologies Inc (UBER.N) and Tencent (0700.HK) as its main backers.

Didi is also known for successfully pushing Uber out of the Chinese market after the U.S. company lost a price war and ended up selling its China operations to Didi for a stake. Liu Zhen, the head of Uber China at the time, is Didi’s Liu’s cousin.

Like most ride-hailing companies, Didi had historically been unprofitable, until it reported a profit of $30 million in the first quarter of this year.

The company reported a loss of $1.6 billion last year and an 8% drop in revenue to $21.63 billion, according to a regulatory filing, as business slid during the pandemic.

Its shares are due to start trading under the “DIDI” symbol.

Reporting by Echo Wang in New York and Anirban Sen in Bengaluru and Scott Murdoch in Hong Kong; Editing by Greg Roumeliotis, Bill Berkrot and Himani Sarkar

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