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