HONG KONG, Aug 26 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Xiaomi’s (1810.HK) wiring is nearly ready to include microchips. The $82 billion Chinese company shipped 53 million smartphones in the second quarter, overtaking Apple (AAPL.O) to become the world’s second-largest producer. With greater heft and official support from Beijing, boss Lei Jun should be closer to fulfilling his microchip dreams.

Financial results released on Wednesday underscore how quickly the company has capitalised on the woes of rival Huawei, which has been crippled by U.S. sanctions. Xiaomi, by contrast, is booming. Revenue from the handset division surged 87% in the three months ending June 30 from a year earlier, to $9 billion. Momentum from overseas markets, particularly in Europe where it is now the top-selling brand, has helped Xiaomi gain ground on Samsung Electronics (005930.KS). Lei wants to be the world’s biggest smartphone maker within three years.

To overtake the South Korean giant, Xiaomi will...

WH Group is embroiled in a nasty clash with the octogenarian chairman’s son, who alleged financial misdeeds after being ousted. Denials didn’t prevent $2 bln of lost market value. Succession quandaries in graying corporate China add one more item to a growing investor checklist.

HONG KONG, Aug 26 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Markets have been hit by a series of crackdowns in private tutoring, data security and more. Underlying this is Beijing’s effort to limit rich excesses and boost middle-class wealth, which could curb the performance of the country’s biggest and best-known private companies.

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WH Group is embroiled in a nasty clash with the octogenarian chairman’s son, who alleged financial misdeeds after being ousted. Denials didn’t prevent $2 bln of lost market value. Succession quandaries in graying corporate China add one more item to a growing investor checklist.

NEW YORK, Aug 25 (Reuters Breakingviews) - SPAC investors were indiscriminate at the beginning of 2021. At least one sponsor of special-purpose acquisition companies is hoping they still are. ShiftPixy (PIXY.O), a listed temporary-employment software provider with a market capitalization of $40 million, has cut the fundraising target for four blank-check vehicles it is backing. It looks like a last-ditch effort meant for yesterday’s market.

A ShiftPixy subsidiary is sponsoring the SPACs, all of which filed updated draft prospectuses dated Tuesday showing reduced target sizes. The quartet, all led by ShiftPixy boss Scott Absher and underwritten by a niche firm called AGP, now want to pull in $150 million each before setting about finding acquisitions. Aside from bulking up financially, one goal is to merge with businesses that can become ShiftPixy clients.

The question is why investors would open their wallets. SPAC issuance surged in 2020 and hit a peak early this...

Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood is trading bids with Chicago veteran Sam Zell for $2 bln U.S. industrial real-estate outfit Monmouth. The increments are too small to be decisive. The Monmouth board is sticking with Zell for now, but it’s time for a best and final punch from each.

NEW YORK, Aug 25 (Reuters Breakingviews) - SPAC investors were indiscriminate at the beginning of 2021. At least one sponsor of special-purpose acquisition companies is hoping they still are. ShiftPixy (PIXY.O), a listed temporary-employment software provider with a market capitalization of $40 million, has cut the fundraising target for four blank-check vehicles it is backing. It looks like a last-ditch effort meant for yesterday’s market.

A ShiftPixy subsidiary is sponsoring the SPACs, all of which filed updated draft prospectuses dated Tuesday showing reduced target sizes. The quartet, all led by ShiftPixy boss Scott Absher and underwritten by a niche firm called AGP, now want to pull in $150 million each before setting about finding acquisitions. Aside from bulking up financially, one goal is to merge with businesses that can become ShiftPixy clients.

The question is why investors would open their wallets. SPAC issuance surged in 2020 and hit a peak early this...

NEW YORK, Aug 25 (Reuters Breakingviews) - It was always going to take effort to get some Americans on board with the Covid-19 vaccine. To all the personal and public health carrots, Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) boss Ed Bastian on Wednesday added a stick. Unvaccinated U.S. employees on the company’s healthcare plan will face a $200 monthly surcharge.

Bastian noted that 75% of Delta’s staff are vaccinated, that all employees hospitalized with Covid were not fully vaccinated, and that the average hospital stay has cost Delta $50,000 per person. But it goes beyond the direct costs. Delta and other travel businesses need the world to get Covid under control before they can get fully back to business.

It’s also a similar justification to making health cover more expensive for smokers, and an easier argument now that Pfizer’s (PFE.N) jab is fully approved by U.S. regulators read more . Some employers have tried incentives like one-off payments . Others have simply mandated...

Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood is trading bids with Chicago veteran Sam Zell for $2 bln U.S. industrial real-estate outfit Monmouth. The increments are too small to be decisive. The Monmouth board is sticking with Zell for now, but it’s time for a best and final punch from each.

Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood is trading bids with Chicago veteran Sam Zell for $2 bln U.S. industrial real-estate outfit Monmouth. The increments are too small to be decisive. The Monmouth board is sticking with Zell for now, but it’s time for a best and final punch from each.

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E-commerce giant Pinduoduo turned profitable in the second quarter as it slashed subsidies amid Beijing's tech crackdown. Slowing growth, a hefty philanthropic pledge and stiff competition will make the trend hard to sustain, argues Yawen Chen.

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E-commerce giant Pinduoduo turned profitable in the second quarter as it slashed subsidies amid Beijing's tech crackdown. Slowing growth, a hefty philanthropic pledge and stiff competition will make the trend hard to sustain, argues Yawen Chen.

MILAN, Aug 25 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Britain’s penchant for M&A bidding wars is moving from supermarkets to something rather funkier: hazardous waste. As the battle for grocery chain Wm Morrison Supermarkets (MRW.L) heats up read more , infrastructure funds Ancala Partners and Fiera Infrastructure have bid 341 million pounds for UK-listed specialist waste firm Augean (AUG.L). The cash offer, worth 325 pence a share, is appreciably above a headline 280 pence approach in July by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure.

If the new owners can grow revenue at 8% per year as per Refinitiv forecasts and up the EBITDA margin a few percentage points to 34%, they could secure an internal rate of return of 20% in five years, Breakingviews calculations suggest. Or they could hold it for longer and enjoy Augean’s stable returns. Still, the latest bid values the target at 11 times its forecast EBITDA, above the 9 times Italy-based waste specialist Ambienthesis (ATH.MI) trades at, and...

The trainer maker favored by The Rock and First Lady is bypassing Zurich for New York, with a mooted valuation of some $6 bln, a pack-leading 7 times sales. Athleisure wear is a crowded space, but On is growing fast. Like its marathoning clients, it’ll need endurance on its side.

A U.S. judge is considering an antitrust suit against Apple’s online shop as lawmakers pile pressure on the iPhone maker and rival Google. Despite games dominating their outlets’ $111 bln in annual sales, a cut in the tech giants’ 30% fee may boost daters like Match more.

China’s $124 bln e-commerce group swung into the black in the quarter as it reduced subsidies. But slowing growth, alongside a $1.5 bln philanthropic pledge in rural projects, suggest that is not sustainable. Beijing’s crackdown on the sector has also emboldened rivals like JD.

MUMBAI, Aug 25 (Reuters Breakingviews) - A fresh disaster can be averted in Afghanistan, but the international community needs to act fast. The chaotic withdrawal of NATO alliance military forces has been accompanied by abrupt financial disengagement, setting up the country, home to some 38 million people, for failure.

Ordinary Afghans depend on a severely distorted economy for their livelihoods. Few countries are as reliant on international funding; about half of the roughly $6 billion budget for 2021 was expected to be financed by grants and borrowings led by foreign agencies, per the World Bank. Now that has halted, and the United States has effectively put most of the country’s $10 billion of central bank foreign exchange reserve out of reach, creating a huge shock.

Western officials might not like the radical Islamists in the Taliban, but at the moment someone needs to run the country. Economic upheaval could leave Afghanistan near ungovernable, engendering...

MUMBAI, Aug 25 (Reuters Breakingviews) - A fresh disaster can be averted in Afghanistan, but the international community needs to act fast. The chaotic withdrawal of NATO alliance military forces has been accompanied by abrupt financial disengagement, setting up the country, home to some 38 million people, for failure.

Ordinary Afghans depend on a severely distorted economy for their livelihoods. Few countries are as reliant on international funding; about half of the roughly $6 billion budget for 2021 was expected to be financed by grants and borrowings led by foreign agencies, per the World Bank. Now that has halted, and the United States has effectively put most of the country’s $10 billion of central bank foreign exchange reserve out of reach, creating a huge shock.

Western officials might not like the radical Islamists in the Taliban, but at the moment someone needs to run the country. Economic upheaval could leave Afghanistan near ungovernable, engendering...

China’s $124 bln e-commerce group swung into the black in the quarter as it reduced subsidies. But slowing growth, alongside a $1.5 bln philanthropic pledge in rural projects, suggest that is not sustainable. Beijing’s crackdown on the sector has also emboldened rivals like JD.

HONG KONG, Aug 25 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Tim Hortons is brewing a solution for the sticky Chinese data quandary, but the final mix is murky. Although a Canadian purveyor of coffee and doughnuts may not be an obvious trailblazer in this space, the matter is pressing because its mainland franchise, THIL, is due to list read more in New York via a special-purpose acquisition company. The idea is to establish a separate company to house personal information that would provide services to the parent on a “cost-only” basis.

China’s concerns surfaced just last month read more following Didi Global’s (DIDI.N) initial public offering, so THIL is starting from scratch. Whether its model can be repeated depends on the details. Who will own the so-called “NewCo” is unknown, but it won’t be THIL. The strength of the agreement also matters, as does who sets the costs and how they’re determined. Given how valuable an ingredient data is these days, Beijing and investors will be...