The Economist - USA (2019-11-23)

12 The EconomistNovember 23rd 2019
The world this week Business

Alibabapriced its forthcoming

flotation on the Hong Kong

stock exchange at HK$

($22.49) a share, which could

see it raise up to $12.9bn if all

the options are taken up. The

Chinese e-commerce giant is

already listed in New York. It

had wanted to undertake a

secondary listing in Hong

Kong earlier this year, before

the city plunged into political

turmoil. Taking no chances,

Alibaba’s Hong Kong stock

code will be 9988, numbers

that symbolise enduring for-

tune in China.

Scaling back its ipo, the indica-

tive price at which Saudi

Aramcois to sell shares on the

Riyadh exchange valued it at

up to $1.7trn. That is short of

the $2trn that Muhammad bin

Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto

ruler, had wanted. The state-

owned oil firm could raise up

to $25.6bn, below the $100bn it

had once hoped for, but still

pipping Alibaba’s record ipo,

set in New York in 2014.

Aramco is selling 1.5% of the

company: 0.5% to retail in-

vestors in the kingdom and 1%

to regional funds and institu-

tions; it has scaled back plans

to drum up investors outside

the Gulf. The shares are expect-

ed to start trading in December.

Under pressure to boost eco-

nomic growth, China’scentral

bank cut its key interest rates,

though by just 0.05 percentage

points. The move is another

signal of a shift at the People’s

Bank of China towards a mod-

est easing cycle.

Australia’s financial-intelli-

gence agency accused

Westpac, the country’s sec-

ond-largest bank, of failing to

adequately monitor A$11bn

($7.5bn) in suspicious transac-

tions, some of which were

payments to child exploiters in

South-East Asian countries. It

is the country’s biggest-ever

money-laundering scandal,

which could result in huge

fines for Westpac.

hprejected a takeover bid from

Xerox, which proposed the

offer earlier this month. But

the maker of computers and

printersleftthedooropentoa

potentialcombinationoftheir

businesses.

Hip hip Huawei

America’s Commerce Depart-

ment said it would issue li-

cences to some companies that

will allow them to supply

goods and services to Huawei

again. It had earlier granted

another 90-day waiver for

commercial sanctions it has

placed on the Chinese maker of

smartphones and network-

equipment gear, enabling

American firms to carry on

supporting existing products

they have sold to it. The sanc-

tions have proved to be porous,

with many firms finding ways

through them. Huawei has so

far shrugged off the effects.

Amazonconfirmed that it will

appeal against the Pentagon’s

decision to award a $10bn

cloud-computing contract to

Microsoft. Amazon had been

favourite to win the contract,

before Donald Trump, who has

kept up a public feud with Jeff

Bezos, the company’s boss,

suggested it should go else-

where. Amazon says that pro-

curements should be adminis-

tered “objectively” and “free

from political influence”. Mark

Esper, the defence secretary,

said the process had been fair.

After music, film and televi-

sion, internet streaming came

to gamingwith the launch of

Google’s Stadia platform. Users

pay a subscription to access

games in the cloud which can

be played on any device with a

strong Wi-Fi connection.

Game streaming is unlikely to

make consoles obsolete. Mi-

crosoft and Sony are bringing

out new games consoles next

year. Microsoft is also planning

its own streaming service.

America’s National Transpor-

tation Safety Board found that

an “inadequate safety culture”

at Uber’s self-driving vehicle

division had contributed to the

death of a pedestrian in March

2018, the first time someone

has been killed by an autono-

mous car. The proximate cause

was the vehicle’s safety driver,

who was distracted by her

smartphone, glancing away

from the road 23 times in the

three minutes before the crash.

The incident has pushed back

the development of self-driv-

ing cars.

General Motorsfiled a lawsuit

against Fiat Chrysler Automo-

biles, accusing it of corrupting

its negotiations with unions.

The three executives at Fiat

named in the suit have already

pleaded guilty to charges in a

lengthy federal investigation

into their ties to the United

Auto Workers.

India’sthree biggest wireless

telecom firms said they would

increase fees next month,

ending a three-year price war

that has given their customers

the cheapest data packages in

the world. Two of the compa-

nies need to raise cash in order

to pay government fees follow-

ing a court ruling. Their share

prices surged after announcing

the price rises.

Aiming high

Investing in e-commerce and

same-day delivery has paid off

for Target, which reported

another solid set of quarterly

earnings. The retailer, which in

2017 struggled with a rapid

decline in sales, has also re-

vamped its stores. The turn-

around has bolstered its share

price, which has risen by 90%

since the start of the year.