(dpa) Concerns about an energy crisis have made the mood more Chinese Industrial companies clouded over in September. As the Beijing statistics office announced on Thursday (September 30th), the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector fell to 49.6 points. In August the important economic indicator was still at 50.1 points. A value above 50 indicates an expansion of the industry, while a value below it reflects a contraction. The slowdown is due to a slowdown in activities in energy-intensive sectors, the statistics agency said. A more optimistic picture of the situation was painted by a purchasing managers index published separately by the Chinese business magazine “Caixin”, which stood at exactly 50 points in September – and thus performed better than in the previous month.
In the past few days there had been numerous reports in China of electricity bottlenecks at industrial companies in several provinces. Factories had to stop working. There were also power outages in private households. Reports of failed traffic lights and cell phone networks were shared on social networks. There were also pictures of shops that had set up candles for lighting. Analysts warned that China’s economic growth could suffer a significant damper due to an impending energy crisis.
Several factors were named as the cause of the power shortage. In order to achieve its climate goals, China has ordered to strictly reduce emissions. Local governments have therefore started to ration electricity. In addition, there would be high prices for coal and an unusually high energy demand in industry, which had to process orders from all over the world due to the catch-up effects after the corona crisis, it said. The government in Beijing then promised to secure the supply of coal.
The BrightDrop EV600 is General Motors’ first electric delivery vehicle.
Steve Fecht / General Motors / Reuters
(dpa) The American auto giant General Motors relies on e own cloud platform in the cockpit to stop the advance of Google and Apple into the vehicles. Among other things, new functions are to be added via software updates, GM announced on Wednesday. The first cars with the new platform called Ultifi are due to hit the market in 2023, with both electric drives and combustion engines. The later functions could include starting the car via facial recognition, explained GM. Or the possibility of adapting the vehicle settings for young drivers in some situations.
The automotive industry is currently going through a drastic change towards vehicles in which software plays the central role. Together with the trend towards electromobility, this changes both the internal architecture of the cars and the interaction of the occupants with the vehicle systems.
Some experts are of the opinion that Google and Apple as operators of the two major smartphone platforms in this one new world could play a key role in infotainment systems – because they want to continue using their usual cell phone services seamlessly in the car. However, it is important for manufacturers to make money with various digital offers in the car. That’s why they want to keep control in the cockpit. Some enter into cooperation with tech companies, others develop software platforms largely on their own.
(dpa) With the US airline United Airlines, which has a corona vaccination requirement more than 96 percent of employees met the requirement. At the same time, United is about to lay off almost 600 employees who refused to be vaccinated, said company boss Scott Kirby on Wednesday on the US broadcaster CNBC. “I’m sorry for the 593 people who have to go, but we are focused on doing the right thing for United Airlines and it’s good to be able to tick that off.”
Around 2000 of About 67,000 United employees also want to be exempted from compulsory vaccination with reference to religious requirements or health reasons, as Kirby said. These applications should be checked individually and the employees should be assigned to jobs with as few contacts as possible to other people.
(dpa) The airlines Tuifly and Ryanair have in dispute with the EU Commission for a possible repayment of government support in the millions. The court of the European Union dismissed complaints against a corresponding decision from Brussels on Wednesday. In 2016, the EU Commission found that Tuifly and Ryanair had received illegal state aid at Klagenfurt Airport, which Austria must reclaim from them.
Certain service and marketing agreements between the partly state airport operators and Ryanair as well as Tuifly had given these airlines an unjustified advantage, the Commission said at the time. It’s about 10.5 million euros for Tuifly and a good two million euros for Ryanair. The decision can still be appealed to the ECJ.
A passer-by goes to an advertising board of the German internet bank N26 over (photo taken on August 30, 2021).
Sean Gallup / Getty Images Europe
(dpa) The smartphone bank N26 has to pay a fine of millions to the German financial regulator Bafin for inadequately combating money laundering. The supervisory authority announced on Wednesday. The Berlin start-up was accused of not having resolved enough to investigate suspected cases. In doing so, the bank had violated the law on tracing profits from serious criminal offenses.
N26 admitted that in 2019 and 2020 “less than 50 reports of suspected money laundering »submitted late to the Bafin. The bank announced that the fine of 4.25 million euros was paid on time in June. According to the Bafin, the fine has been legally binding since July 15th.
With the conclusion of the fine proceedings, N26 clears a major possible stumbling block for the next round of financing the way. In addition to the fine, according to media reports, the Bafin even considered imposing restrictions on new business against N26. These far-reaching sanctions are now probably off the table. According to information from financial circles, the company wants to collect several hundred million dollars for further expansion.
N26 is one of the so-called smartphone banks whose core offering is a Banking app for the mobile phone is. These financial institutions are also known as “neobanks”. So far, N26 has won seven million customers. Investors involved in N26 include the German insurance group Allianz, the Singapore state fund GIC, the Chinese internet giant Tencent, Earlybird and the German-American investor Peter Thiel. According to expert estimates, a new round of financing could raise the start-up’s valuation to just under ten billion euros.
Coal power plants like here in China are actually considered obsolete. The Asian economic power still wants to rely more on them.
Andy Wong / AP
(dpa) Against the background of increasing power outages and China has called on its provincial governments to secure the supply of coal to power plants. The Beijing-based National Development and Reform Commission announced on Wednesday (September 29th) that it was keeping a close eye on coal consumption and the supply situation in the country. Local authorities have been asked to pay close attention to the supply and consumption of coal in power plants.
Also must be ensured that coal arrives at the power plants in good time in the event of a shortage. “Every effort” should be made to ensure the transport of coal for electricity generation and heating.
In In the past few days there had been numerous reports of electricity bottlenecks in industrial companies in several provinces in China. Factories had to stop working. There were also power outages in private households. In social networks, reports were te shared via fancy traffic lights and cell phone networks. There were also pictures of shops that had set up candles for lighting.
Analysts warned that China Economic growth could suffer a significant damper due to an impending energy crisis.
Several Called factors. In order to achieve its climate goals, China has ordered to strictly reduce emissions. Local governments have therefore started to ration electricity. In addition, there would be high prices for coal and an unusually high energy demand of the industry, which had to process orders from all over the world due to the catch-up effects after the corona crisis, it was said.
“China has plenty of resources to overcome the electricity crisis”, the party-affiliated newspaper “Global Times” tried to allay fears in an editorial: “We don’t like it difficult to further increase power generation and expand this capacity. “
(Bloomberg) Apax Partners wants to revive the sale of the Swiss Unilabs. According to people familiar with the matter, the deal could value the Swiss diagnostic service provider at around 5 billion dollars (4.65 billion Swiss francs).
The private equity company works with Rothschild & Co. as a consultant and could start a sales process for the Geneva company as early as next month, said the informed people and asked for it, not named to become. Unilabs could attract both financial investors and industry bidders, said one of the people.
The deliberations are still ongoing and, according to the individuals, no final decisions have yet been made on the sales process. Representatives from Apax, Rothschild and Unilabs declined to comment.
Apax had considered selling the business in 2019, shortly before the coronavirus pandemic brought the M&A business to a standstill. The demand for hospital and laboratory facilities increased because of the pandemic. A sale of Unilabs could be one of the biggest deals in European healthcare this year, data compiled by Bloomberg shows
Unilabs left the Swiss stock exchange in 2007 and merged with the diagnostics division of the healthcare provider Capio AB. Apax bought out the other Unilabs shareholders in late 2016. According to Apax, the company operates more than 120 laboratories and 44 radiology units across Europe.
The logo of the insurer Allianz SE in Puteaux in the financial district of La Defense near Paris on May 14, 2018.
Charles Platiau / Reuters
(Bloomberg) Allianz SE is in advanced talks about the transfer of a block of Swiss life insurance to Resolution Life. Bloomberg learned this from informed circles. The move could free up regulatory capital while the insurer prepares for provisions for imploded hedge funds.
Resolution and Allianz have been working with advisors on a related transaction, which according to the circles could be announced later this week, subject to regulatory approval. The transaction would involve approximately $ 6 billion in liabilities that would be assigned to Resolution, it said.
Allianz would therefore remain legally responsible for the policies, while Resolution Life – which specializes in the acquisition and management of portfolios of life insurance policies has – would manage the books in the future. Negotiations are ongoing and the talks could still fail, it said. Allianz and Resolution spokespersons declined to comment.
Just last week, Bloomberg reported that Allianz also wanted to sell a large block of American life insurance policies. This would release billions in capital. However, Allianz on the other hand misses future premiums and investment income through these transactions.
Allianz warned in early August that future profits could be adversely affected after the US Department of Justice opened an investigation into a group of its hedge funds that were involved in the pandemic Market turbulence imploded.
The hedge funds were sold by Allianz Global Investors and are also at the center of several legal proceedings and an investigation by the American Securities and Exchange Commission. Allianz has not yet made any provisions for this. She only wants to do this when she has more clarity about the potential burdens.
tsf. The luxury watch platform Chronext plans to go public on October 8th. As the company announced on Tuesday, the shares are to be offered in a price range of 16 to 21 francs. Including the over-allotment option, the offer volume comes to between 175 and 230 million francs. The offer will be 9,524,000 shares with an over-allotment option of up to 1,428,600 shares. The market capitalization thus reaches up to 680 million francs. “The stock exchange listing in Zurich will give Chronext the financial flexibility to benefit from the growth in the luxury watch sector,” said company boss Philipp Man. It also creates a solid basis for our further organic and inorganic expansion. The company went public a good two weeks ago
(Reuters) / tsf. Sanofi cancels plans for its own mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine. The reason is the dominant role played by the two manufacturers Biontech / Pfizer and Moderna, as Sanofi announced on Tuesday. Instead, the French pharmaceutical company wants to work with its British partner GlaxoSmithKline to bring a conventional, protein-based Covid vaccine onto the market.
Sanofi announced that the decision to discontinue clinical development of the mRNA vaccine acquired as part of the takeover of Translate Bio was made despite the positive interim results of a phase I / II study.
The result encourages Sanofi to pursue mRNA technology for possible vaccines against influenza and other diseases.
tsf. Because many commuters were working in the home office due to the corona pandemic, public transport companies have lost numerous general subscription customers. According to “Alliance Swisspass”, the association of transport companies, around a fifth of customers have not extended their GA travelcard, such as SRF News writes on Tuesday . The transport companies wrote to those affected and offered them the 2nd class GA, for example, with a discount of 500 francs.
The head of the Carlyle Group, Kewsong Lee, speaks at a Reuters news agency event in New York on September 22, 2021.
Steph en Yang / Reuters
(dpa) The American financial investor Carlyle has secured 79.8 percent of the shares in the intended takeover of the Munich traffic technology specialist Schaltbau. The remaining Schaltbau shareholders now have another time-limited opportunity to accept the takeover offer, Carlyle announced on Monday evening (September 27th) in Munich. The further acceptance period begins on September 28, 2021 and ends on October 11, 2021 at midnight. According to the information provided, the management board and supervisory board of Schaltbau recommend accepting the offer.
Carlyle had an offer in early August of EUR 53.50 (CHF 57.90) per share. That corresponds to an enterprise value of 709 million euros (767.7 million euros). Schaltbau Holding AG signed the investor agreement with Voltage BidCo GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of funds advised by Carlyle. The offer was in the “best interests of the company, its shareholders, employees, customers”, Schaltbau announced at the time. Carlyle has assured that the existing structure and locations of the Schaltbau Group and its workforce will be retained.
The listed Schaltbau Holding AG is owned by its own account with an annual turnover of around 500 Million euros and around 3000 employees to the leading international providers of systems and components for traffic engineering and the capital goods industry. According to its own information, the Carlyle Group managed assets of around $ 276 billion at the end of June this year (around CHF 256 billion). The execution of the offer is still subject to merger control and foreign trade approvals, it said.
Oil prices are low continues to increase significantly.
Angus Mordant / Reuters
(dpa) The oil prices continued their climbing course of the past week on Monday. While Brent North Sea oil rose to a three-year high, US crude oil was quoted at a two-month high. The reasons for the high oil prices are both strong demand and scarce supply.
In early trading, a barrel (159 liters) of the North Sea Brent cost $ 79.17. That was $ 1.08 more than Friday. The price of a barrel of the American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose by $ 1.05 to $ 75.03. On Monday night, the Brent price had risen to $ 79.52, the highest level since October 2018. A barrel of WTI cost up to $ 75.32, the same as it was last in July.
The reasons for the rise in oil prices have been the same for weeks: On the demand side, the solid economic recovery from the Corona slump in many places is causing a high demand for crude oil and gasoline and diesel. However, there is a shortage on the supply side. It is true that the oil network Opec + has been gradually expanding its production for several months. However, there have recently been weather-related funding failures, especially in the USA.
feb. The state of limbo in the formation of the government after the German federal elections has so far not caused any waves in the financial markets. The euro was barely changed on Monday morning at $ 1.1720. In relation to the Swiss franc, the common European currency was quoted at CHF 1.0862, on Friday evening the exchange rate was CHF 1.0839. After the federal election it is unclear whether the previous finance minister Olaf Scholz or the Union’s candidate for chancellor, Armin Laschet, becomes Federal Chancellor. In the election, the SPD emerged as the strongest party just ahead of the CDU / CSU.
«A left-wing alliance separates the end. From a financial market perspective, the greatest risk has thus been eliminated, ”commented Thomas Gitzel, chief economist at Liechtenstein’s VP Bank, on Monday morning. A break in previous government work is therefore not to be expected. The entry of the SPD into the Federal Chancellery would also mean continuity.
“Scholz attaches great importance to solid state finances; that alone has a calming effect on the financial markets. A chancellorship of Laschet would not be a paradigm shift anyway, since the CDU would remain in the Chancellery, ”Gitzel continued. As long as it is still open which coalition will be formed, there is no reason to place financial bets anyway.
(Reuters) The Russian state company is ready to deliver more gas to Europe. The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday, according to the Interfax news agency. The International Energy Agency (IEA) had accused Russia and EU parliamentarians of not delivering enough gas to Europe. In Europe the prices have climbed rapidly this year.
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