[AUDIO] What does it take to vanquish Uber? How a local startup topped China’s rideshare market

December 28, 2016 at 3:46 pm

Spotted this relatively old (published in Oct 18, 2016) but fascinating podcast story about Uber’s battle with its Chinese’s rival Didi Chuxing for marketshare (via Bloomberg):

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/288743921″ params=”color=ff5500″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Also you can read the related article here.

India ponders fuel price deregulation; News sparks a rally for refinery shares

May 29, 2009 at 3:39 pm

(Source: Bloomberg & Wall Street Journal)

India may lift a 5 1/2-year cap on pump prices of gasoline and diesel, the first market-opening move by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh since his election victory this month. Shares of refiners surged.

Oil Minister Murli Deora said he plans to seek cabinet approval within six weeks to free up fuel prices from state control. “The government has taken notice and is working on” a proposal, he told reporters in New Delhi.“We will ensure that fuels reach people at the right time and at the right price,” Deora said today.

Indian state-owned refiners used to set retail fuel prices twice a month after the government ended controls on oil products in April 2002. That stopped in December 2003 after the then Bharatiya Janata Party-led government barred them from raising rates before the May 2004 elections.

State-owned Indian Oil Corp., the nation’s biggest refiner, surged to a 16-month high on optimism the new government will scrap a policy that caused a loss of 36.7 billion rupees ($776 million) in the nine months ended December after oil prices rose to a record in July. Lifting the cap will enable refiners to profit from crude oil’s 47 percent advance this year. 
State-run fuel retailers Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum are likely to have posted combined losses of 1.03 trillion rupees ($21.68 billion) for the year ended March 31, due mainly to sales of products at government-mandated prices.  The retailers are partly compensated through oil bonds issued by the federal government, and partly by discounts given on crude oil by upstream companies like Oil and Natural Gas Corp.

Mr. Deora said the government would consider deregulating prices of natural gas only after a decision on deregulating oil prices is taken.

“Free pricing will solve most of the problems for the Indian state-owned oil companies,” said Vinay Nair, a Mumbai- based analyst at Khandwala Securities Ltd. “A change in ratings of these companies or changing our call on the stocks will depend on what real policy changes the government makes.”

Indian Oil gained 6.8 percent to 609 rupees in Mumbai trading, the highest level since Jan. 17, 2008. Bharat Petroleum Corp., the second-biggest state-run refiner, climbed 3.7 percent to 464.70 rupees, while Hindustan Petroleum Corp. added 8.4 percent to 362.95 rupees.

Indian Oil shares have climbed 42 percent since Prime Minister Singh’s government was re-elected on May 16 without the support of communist lawmakers who oppose fuel-price increases. That led to speculation that the government will relax the pricing curbs. The benchmark Sensitive Index has gained 20 percent in the same period and advanced 52 percent this year.

State refiners sell automobile and cooking fuels below cost, at prices fixed by the government, to curb inflation which has held below 1 percent for 11 straight weeks. Retail fuel prices haven’t been changed since January, when they were cut for the second time in two months.

Put a fork in it? Obama planning to announce Chrysler bankruptcy tomorrow

April 29, 2009 at 6:35 pm
According to a report by Bloomberg citing the usual unnamed sources, President Obama will announce tomorrow that Chrysler will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy while continuing to work on its alliance with Fiat.

Bloomberg‘s source made it clear that the there are still several loose ends and the plan “is not finished yet,” but it will likely involve Chrysler’s strongest assets being bundled and sold to a new entity. In that scenario, Fiat would become a 20% owner of the Auburn Hills-based automaker, the UAW retiree health-care trust would take a 55% percent stake and the government would gobble up the rest. Essentially, it’s the same out-of-court deal initially proposed, but now, with all the benefits (and hurdles) of bankruptcy protection. 

As part of ongoing negotiations, the U.S. Treasury raised its offer to Chrysler’s lenders, offering them $2.25 billion in cash to forgive $6.9 billion in secured debt, two other people familiar with the matter said. The previous offer had been for $2 billion in cash.

One issue remaining is the U.S. government’s effort to combine Chrysler Financial and GMAC LLC, the lending units affiliated with Chrysler and General Motors Corp.

The idea is to ensure that Chrysler has a well-capitalized credit arm, as required by Obama’s automotive task force, said people familiar with the situation.

Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., has expressed concern that such a combination would involve her agency guaranteeing its debt, according to two people familiar with her views.

(Source: Bloomberg & Autoblog)

Flying low! Global airline passenger traffic fell 10 percent in Feb 2009

March 26, 2009 at 5:22 pm

(Source: Bloomberg & Livemint.com)

Global airline passenger traffic fell 10 percent last month, the steepest decline since the recession began, led by a plunge in long-haul travel.

The decline, gathering pace from a 5.6 percent fall in year-on-year traffic in January, included a 12.8 percent reduction in passengers flown by Asia-Pacific carriers and a 12 percent drop among North American airlines, the International Air Transport Association said today in a statement.

While passenger numbers continued to deteriorate, the pace of declines in the freight market leveled out. International freight volumes were down 22.1 percent from a year ago, compared with drops of 23.2 percent drop in January and 22.6 percent in December, IATA said.

:  “Freight traffic, which began its decline in June 2008 before passenger markets were hit, has now had three consecutive months in the minus 22 to minus 23% range,” IATA added, says the Livemint.com (WSJ) article.

Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s director general, said: “We may have found a bottom to the freight decline, but the magnitude of the drop means that it will take time to recover.”  But even as freight traffic stabilises, airlines are now feeling the squeeze in passenger traffic.
Click here or here to read the entire article.