The initial public offering (IPO) of the world's biggest oil company will take place whenever shareholders decide, according to the firm's CEO and president.
"What we have always said is that Aramco is ready for listing whenever the shareholders make a decision to list," Aramco President and CEO Amin Nasser told reporters in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
"And as you heard from His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz yesterday, it is going to be very soon. So, we are ready — that is the bottom line."
The oil giant has delayed its IPO, originally scheduled for 2018, reportedly over Saudi concerns about public scrutiny over its finances and because of the complexity of its corporate structure.
"The primary listing is to list locally but we are ready also for listing outside in other districts," Nasser said.
When asked whether he would prefer to see Aramco list in Tokyo, Japan, he replied: "We are ready to list wherever shareholders decide."
Amin Nasser, CEO of Aramco speaking at the 2018 IHS CERAWeek in Houston, TX.
Mary Catherine Wellons | CNBC
Speaking on Monday, new Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman underlined the importance of regulation for Saudi Aramco, as it gears up for a long-anticipated IPO.
"I have no doubt in my mind that emphasizing the separation between Aramco, the corporate, and the ministry as regulator is a must," he told CNBC contributor Helima Croft at an audience of delegates.
"The regulator cannot be a person, the regulator has to be an institution. That regulator role has to be defined, and the contours of the role of the regulator has to be understood," he added.
Investing.com -- Shares in AT&T Inc (NYSE:) surged in premarket trade on Monday after activist investor Elliott Management announced it had built a stake of 1.2% in the company, worth about $3.2 billion at current prices.
Announcement says the company's "world-class collection of assets" is "deeply undervalued".
Elliott says it's targeting a stock price of over $60 by the end of 2021, over 60% above Friday's close of $36.25 and even above its record close of $59.19 over 20 years ago.
Elliott says the AT&T still hasn't articulated a clear plan for why it needs to own Time Warner.
Shares marked up 6.7% at $38.69
Disclaimer:Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.
Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.
The Chinese Labor Watch group released a lengthy report alleging several violations of Chinese law against Foxconn, the key iPhone assembler. Apple said it investigated and denies most of the allegations but did say that it found Foxconn’s iPhone factory workforce was made up of 50% temporary labor, way above the 10% rule according to the law.
Although Apple nor Foxconn will say explicitly, this is clearly a result of the usual supply chain rush to manufacture Apple’s new iPhone models, believed to be called iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, ready for the September sales season.
Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial
Apple said that it is working closely with Foxconn to resolve the issue, but Chinese Labor Watch claim that Apple is allowing Foxconn to continue using the workers despite it technically breaking Chinese law. Presumably, Apple and Foxconn are looking to correct the balance but an immediate change to the labor supply would be too disruptive to iPhone production.
The labor watch organization had claimed that Foxconn was requiring workers to do overtime shifts. Apple conducted its own investigation and said it could not find evidence to support these claims, saying that all overtime was voluntary.
Student intern workers are not allowed to do overtime. Nevertheless, Apple and Foxconn found a small number voluntarily working extra hours (to earn extra money) and say these cases have been corrected. During the iPhone X production season in 2017, there was a much larger outbreak of student overtime.
Apple will be officially announcing the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max tomorrow at its special media event. Updates to Apple Watch, and news regarding Apple Arcade and Apple TV+ is also expected. Stay tuned to 9to5Mac as we bring full coverage of all the announcements; the event kicks off at 10 AM Pacific Time.
Investing.com -- The U.S. government sounds the alarm over e-cigarettes after a wave of acute and sometimes fatal lung failures, China's exporters feel the pain of President Trump's tariffs and Saudi Arabia replaces its oil minister. Here are the top 5 things you need to know on Monday, 9th September.
1. Stocks set for higher opening
Wall Street is set to open the week modestly higher after a relatively drama-free weekend, at least as regards the key issues of trade and monetary policy.
By 6 AM ET, were up 65 points or 0.2%, while the contract was up 9 points or 0.3% and were up 22 points or 0.3%.
Neither the nor the bond markets are showing any clear direction in the wake of a labor market report on Friday that showed slowing payrolls growth but solid wage gains and, in the words of Harvard economist Megan Greene, allowed everyone to project their existing prejudices onto it.
China’s economy is hurting from the imposition of U.S. tariffs. Fresh data overnight showed down by 1% on the year in August, well short of the 2% rise expected. fell by a slightly smaller-than-expected 5.6%, while the country’s trade surplus fell by nearly a quarter to $34.8 billion from $45 billion in July.
The figures come only days after others showing that the U.S.’s trade deficit with China is clearly narrowing, even though its overall trade deficit hasn’t fallen that much.
Elsewhere, there were signs of life from the stricken German economy, with eking out a gain of 0.7% on the month in July and defying expectations for another drop.
3. Tobacco, cannabis stocks in focus after CDC warning on vaping products
Tobacco stocks may be in focus later after the Center for Disease Control and Prevention late on Friday that vaping products may be responsible for a wave of sudden and acute health problems.
The CDC said that its investigation is ongoing and has not identified a cause, but all reported cases have a history of using e-cigarette products.
The news comes barely a week after reports that Philip Morris International Inc (NYSE:) and Altria (NYSE:) were looking at re-combining, with a view to reviving growth through e-cigarette products.
4. U.K. Parliament set to debate new elections
Another crucial week for sterling started with Prime Minister Boris Johnson being told by his Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar that he has seen no acceptable substitute for the so-called “backstop” arrangements designed to safeguard smooth trade across the Irish border after Brexit.
Over the weekend, Amber Rudd, a senior minister, had resigned from Johnson’s government saying she saw no evidence that he wanted to secure a deal with the EU before the Oct. 31 deadline, while other ministers had to deny rumors that they would soon follow suit.
The bill passed last week that requires Johnson to ask for a three-month extension of the Brexit deadline is set to receive royal assent and become law Monday. The House of Commons will then debate the possibility of a snap General Election, which is now widely seen as the only way of breaking the current logjam. The British pound rose 0.6% against the and 0.3% against the after a modest upside surprise from July’s and data.
5. Saudi Arabia fires oil minister
Saudi Arabia Khalid al-Falih as Energy Minister with Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, an energy ministry veteran and the half-brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler.
The appointment breaks with tradition, in as much as Saudi Arabia has generally not entrusted the all-important oil ministry to a single member of the royal family before. As such, the move appears to be more of an attempt to consolidate power by “MBS”.
Abdulaziz told reporters Monday there would be no radical change to Saudi output policy. Some saw his appointment as more concerned with speeding up the timeline for the initial public offering of national oil company, Saudi Aramco.
Oil prices have ticked up over the weekend, supported by Iran’s final break with the UN agreement limiting its nuclear enrichment limits, and by Baker Hughes’ which showed the number of active oil rigs falling to the lowest in two years last week. By 6 AM, futures were up 0.9% ta $57.05 a barrel, while futures were up 0.8% at $62.05 a barrel.
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The labor rights group China Labor Watch (CLW) published a report on Sunday (Sept. 8) detailing labor violations at a Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou that manufactures products for the Apple corporation.
The facility is called “iPhone City” and is reportedly the largest iPhone factory in the world, supplying half of the iPhones sold worldwide. CLW conducted an investigation of labor conditions at the factory over a four year period and found that Foxconn and Apple are responsible for some significant abuses of the Chinese laborers.
According to the CLW report, the factory has used dispatch workers as well as student workers in excess of the legal limit to ensure orders are met during peak season. The company has also allegedly withheld promised bonuses and made use of overtime work opportunities in an illegal reward/ punishment scheme as a means to entice employees into recruiting new workers.
The report says that Foxconn has become increasingly reliant on dispatch labor to make up for a diminished labor force. The Zhengzhou factory workforce is made up of nearly 50 percent dispatch laborers. The report also accuses the Apple Corporation of transferring its increasing costs as a result of the U.S. –China trade war onto the factory laborers in China. From the report’s Executive Summary:
“Recent findings on working conditions at Zhengzhou Foxconn highlights several issues which are in violation of Apple’s own code of conduct. Apple has the responsibility and capacity to make fundamental improvements to the working conditions along its supply chain, however, Apple is now transferring costs from the trade war through their suppliers to workers and profiting from the exploitation of Chinese workers.”
Foxconn was recently criticized by CLW for labor rights violations at a factory in Hengyang, China which manufactures products for Amazon. A list of reported labor rights violations perpetrated by managers at the Zhengzhou factory and the Apple Corporation, along with the complete report, can be found at China Labor Watch’s website.
BALPA said Sunday on Twitter that it put forward a proposal to the carrier's management Wednesday, but had yet to receive a reply.
British Airways said in a statement posted Monday it remains "ready and willing to return to talks with BALPA."
The airline said it was forced to cancel so many flights because "with no detail from BALPA on which pilots would strike, we had no way of predicting how many would come to work or which aircraft they are qualified to fly."
Customers who had flights booked for Monday and Tuesday will likely "not be able to travel as planned," British Airways said. The airline also advised customers not to go to the airport.
According to its website, BALPA represents more than 10,000 pilots in the United Kingdom — more than 85% of all commercial pilots who fly there.
The pilot's union also intends to strike September 27. British Airways said Monday that it will be in contact "in the next few weeks" to let customers who are traveling on or around that date know if they are affected.
While the union is calling for higher wages, British Airways has said its offer of an 11.5% increase over three years "fair" and above the United Kingdom's current rate of inflation. In a statement released last month, it said the strike could "destroy the travel plans of tens of thousands of our customers." It called the strike "a reckless course of action."
(Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors have charged a Chinese professor with fraud for allegedly taking technology from a California company to benefit Huawei, in another shot at the embattled Chinese telecommunications equipment maker.
The Huawei logo is pictured at the IFA consumer tech fair in Berlin, Germany, September 6, 2019. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke
Bo Mao was arrested in Texas Aug. 14 and released six days later on $100,000 bond after he consented to proceed with the case in New York, according to court documents.
He pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on Aug. 28 to a charge of conspiring to commit wire fraud.
According to the criminal complaint, Mao entered into an agreement with the unnamed California tech company to obtain its circuit board, claiming it was for academic research.
But the complaint accuses an unidentified Chinese telecommunications conglomerate, which sources say is Huawei, of trying to steal the technology, and alleges Mao played a role in its alleged scheme. A court document also indicates the case is related to Huawei.
Mao, an associate professor at Xiamen University in China who also became a visiting professor at a Texas university last fall, first gained attention as part of a Texas civil case between Huawei and Silicon Valley startup CNEX Labs Inc.
In December 2017, Huawei sued CNEX and a former employee, Yiren Huang, for stealing trade secrets. Huang, a former engineering manager at a U.S. Huawei subsidiary, helped start CNEX in 2013 three days after leaving the company.
As part of its counterclaims, CNEX said Mao had asked for one of its circuit boards for a research project and that, after it sent the board to the professor, he used it for a study tied to Huawei.
That case ended in June with a “take nothing” verdict.
A jury did not find CNEX stole trade secrets, but decided Huang violated his employment contract by not notifying the company of patents he obtained within a year of leaving.
However, the jury found Huawei was not harmed and did not award any damages. The jury also found Huawei misappropriated a CNEX trade secret, but awarded no damages on that claim, either.
Now, U.S. prosecutors who have an case against Huawei in Brooklyn for alleged bank fraud and Iran sanctions violations, have revived the CNEX case.
Although the company has not been charged, Huawei said it views the case against Mao as the U.S. government’s latest instance of “selective prosecution”.
“U.S. federal prosecutors are charging forward with CNEX’s allegations” despite the outcome of the civil case, a Huawei spokesman said in a statement, adding that U.S. prosecutors had shown no interest in Huawei’s claims against CNEX.
The spokesman noted the United States was charging Mao, even though the professor was never sued by CNEX and never called to testify at the civil trial.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn declined to comment, as did a lawyer for Mao, a CNEX spokesman, and a lawyer for Huang.
Huawei says the U.S. government has made a concerted effort to discredit the company and curb its industry leadership. It said none of the accusations against it have been supported with sufficient evidence.
In January, U.S. prosecutors announced an indictment against Huawei for trade secret theft involving T-Mobile, following a civil case between those companies.
The same day, the Justice Department unsealed the bank fraud indictment in Brooklyn that accused Huawei of misleading global banks about its business in Iran.
The U.S. government has also lobbied other government to ban Huawei equipment, and banned companies from supplying Huawei with U.S. components without special licenses, ratcheting up tension between China and the United States as they engage in a tit-for-tat trade war.
A Justice Department spokesman said last week that while the department does not comment on specific investigations, it complies with the law and all subjects “enjoy the same rights to due process afforded by our Constitution and safeguarded by an independent judiciary.”
Reporting by Karen Freifeld; editing by Chris Sanders and Lincoln Feast.
