「经济学人」Business this week

Business this week

《经济学人》2019年4月13日 刊

Saudi Aramco raised $12bn from its first bond sale on international markets. Five different bonds were reportedly sold in an offer that was heavily oversubscribed, with investors submitting $100bn in orders. Saudi’s state oil firm will put the proceeds towards its $69bn acquisition of the kingdom’s majority stake in SABIC, a chemical company, a deal orchestrated by the government. The bond sale went some way to restoring investors’ confidence in Saudi Arabia following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist, and an opaque crackdown on top officials and businessmen.

America ratcheted up its trade dispute with the European Union, warning that it was preparing a list of tariffs on $11bn-worth of EU goods in retaliation for subsidies given to Airbus, which the World Trade Organisation has ruled are illegal. The WTO is yet to decide on the amount of tariffs that America can impose on the EU in light of that ruling, but Brussels says $11bn is an exaggeration. It is drawing up its own catalogue of American products that it will levy penalties on if Washington goes ahead with its threat.

Airbus recommended René Obermann to shareholders as its next chairman. Mr Obermann is a non-executive director on the aerospace company’s board and used to run Deutsche Telekom. Guillaume Faury started his job as chief executive at Airbus this week, succeeding Tom Enders.

Boeing’s share price fell sharply, after it temporarily reduced production of its 737 aircraft by a fifth following two fatal crashes involving the 737 MAX 8. Boeing said it wanted to focus resources on updating the software for the 737 “to prevent accidents like these from ever happening again”.

The IMF forecast global economic growth of 3.3% this year, down from the 3.7% it had projected back in October. The fund highlighted the risks of a no-deal Brexit, estimating that the resulting border disruption would slice 1.4% off British GDP in the first year and 0.2% from the EU’s.

Britain’s economy grew by 0.3% in the three months ending February compared with the previous three months. That was a bit faster than markets had expected. Manufacturing output in February grew to its highest level since April 2008, probably because firms were gearing up ahead of the original Brexit deadline of March 29th.

The threat of protectionism was one factor cited by the European Central Bank as it reiterated its pledge not to raise interest rates in the euro zone until “at least” the end of 2019 and to continue its monetary-stimulus programme. The IMF has downgraded its forecast for growth in the euro zone this year to 1.3%.

Debenhams, a British department-store chain, entered a bankruptcy plan under which the business was taken over by creditors, wiping out shareholders’ holdings. That includes Sports Direct, which had held a 30% stake.

Pinterest, one of a number of tech firms launching noteworthy stockmarket flotations this year, provided an initial price range of between $15 and $17 a share for its IPO. That could value the social-media site at somewhere around $11.3bn, less than the $12bn it was reckoned to be worth by investors in 2017.

Uber also prepared its prospectus, ahead of its long-awaited IPO. The ride-hailing firm will have noted Lyft’s flotation. Two weeks after its market debut, Lyft’s share price fell by almost 11% in a day, to end up 16% below the IPO price of $72.

In a surprise turn of events, the judge hearing the trial of John Varley, a former chief executive of Barclays, and three other former senior executives at the bank, discharged the jury. The men faced allegations of fraud relating to a deal with Qatari investors to shore up the bank in 2008, which they all deny.

Standard Chartered agreed to pay more than $1bn to settle allegations with American and British regulators that it violated sanctions on Iran and other countries. It is one of the biggest fines to date levied on a bank for busting sanctions.

Senior Republicans aired misgivings about Donald Trump’s desire to give Herman Cain a seat on the board of the Federal Reserve. Mr Trump did not formally nominate Mr Cain, a former Republican presidential hopeful and pizza magnate, nor has he officially proposed Stephen Moore, a low-tax crusader. But both potential choices raise questions about whether Mr Trump wants to politicise the Fed.

Mr Trump, meanwhile, increased the pressure on the Fed to cut interest rates, saying its monetary-tightening policies had “really slowed” American growth. Pursuing a path of easier monetary policy would result in “a rocket ship” economy, said Mr Trump.

Apr 11th 2019

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