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Kenya Airways names new acting CEO Kenya Airways has named Allan Kilavuka as its new acting Chief Executive Officer effective January 1st following the resignation of its current head in May, the airline said on Monday. Kilavuka is the CEO of Kenya Airways' subsidiary Jambojet. He will continue in that role in addition to leading Kenya Airways "until a substantive CEO for Kenya Airways has been recruited and appointed," the carrier said in a statement. – Nampa/ReutersChina's factory, retail sectors shine as trade tensions thaw Growth in China's industrial and retail sectors beat expectations in November, as government support propped up demand in the world's second-largest economy and amid easing trade hostilities with Washington. The set of upbeat figures released on Monday follow firm signs of progress in Sino-U.S. trade negotiations over the weekend after the world's two largest economies announced a "phase one" trade deal that would nearly double U.S. exports to China. However, growth in infrastructure and the property sector, both key growth drivers, remained lacklustre in November, underlining key challenges for Beijing in its efforts to stabilise economic performance next year. Industrial production rose 6.2% year-on-year in November, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed, beating the median forecast of 5.0% growth in a Reuters poll and quickening from 4.7% in October. It was also the fastest year-on-year growth in five months. Cement, crude steel and pig iron production all rose from a year earlier in November, compared with a fall in the previous month. Output growth in steel, auto and telecommunications sectors accelerated from October. Retail sales rose 8.0% year-on-year in November, compared with an expected 7.6%, buoyed by stimulus measures and the November Singles Day shopping extravaganza, the statistics bureau said. The recent positive developments remove some clouds from China's economic outlook and also mitigate the immediate need for stimulus to support ambitious growth targets. China's economic growth cooled to 6.0% in the third quarter, a near 30-year low, but policymakers have been more cautious about growth boosting measures than in past downturns. – Nampa/ReutersKDDI to buy stake in convenience store chain Lawson Japanese telecom company KDDI Corp will pay more than 12 billion yen (US$110.46 million) for about a 2% stake in convenience store chain Lawson as the pair tie up in smartphone payment services, the Nikkei Shimbun reported. The tie-up will include Lawson's parent company, Mitsubishi Corp, the newspaper said on Monday. KDDI's president will hold a joint news conference with the presidents of Lawson and Mitsubishi Corp's consumer products group at 4:30pm in Tokyo, the telecom company said in an email. – Nampa/ReutersSoybeans up for 3rd session Chicago soybean futures rose for a third straight session on Monday to their highest level in almost one month as Washington and Beijing committed to a "phase one" trade deal, which is expected to boost U.S. agriculture exports to China. Corn climbed to a six-week high. Wheat rose for a second session, although gains were capped by ample world supplies. "The trade deal is mainly supportive for soybeans and some for corn," said one Singapore-based grains trader. "But we have to wait and see how much does China actually buy." China has agreed to buy US$200 billion worth of additional U.S. goods and services over the next two years as part of a phase one trade pact to be signed in early January, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told reporters on Friday. The United States has been pushing for China to commit to buy US$50 billion in agricultural products in 2020. China bought US$24 billion in U.S. farm products in 2017, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture figures. Ukraine increased its grain exports by around 33% to 27.4 million tonnes in the 2019/20 July-June season helped by higher wheat and corn exports, the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture said on Friday. Wheat exports rose to 14 million tonnes from 9.8 million a year earlier, the ministry said in a statement, adding it had also exported 3.6 million tonnes of barley and 9.4 million tonnes of corn. – Nampa/ReutersChina's BAIC raising Daimler stake to unseat Geely Daimler's main China joint venture partner BAIC Group has set in motion a plan to double its stake to around 10% and win a board seat in the German luxury car maker, as it aims to upstage rival Geely, two sources told Reuters. State-owned Beijing Automobile Group Co Ltd (BAIC), which already owns a 5% shareholding in Daimler, has started buying the German company's shares from the open market, said the sources who were briefed on the matter. BAIC is currently Daimler's third largest shareholder but a stake of 10% will make it the biggest shareholder, surpassing its Chinese automaking rival Zhejiang Geely Holding Group which owns 9.69% of the German automaker and is seeking to expand its partnership with Daimler in China. With the shareholding of around 10%, BAIC is looking to secure a seat at Daimlerâ€™s supervisory board, which Geely does not currently have, the sources said. HSBC, which advised BAIC on its 5% stake purchase in Daimler earlier, is helping the Beijing-based group in the new investment, one of the sources said. Daimler said in a regulatory filing last month that HSBC held 5.23% in Daimler's voting rights directly as well as through instruments such as equity swaps as of Nov. 15. Reuters reported in November that BAIC had signalled intentions to extend its investment in Daimler, citing sources familiar with the matter. BAIC has been Daimler's main partner in China for years and operates Mercedes-Benz factories in Beijing through the two automakersâ€™ main joint venture, Beijing Benz Automotive. Two months before its 5% stake purchase was announced in July, sources told Reuters that BAIC wanted to invest in Daimler to secure its investment in Beijing Benz Automotive. The partners also planned to revamp manufacturing facilities to make Mercedes Benz-branded trucks via their commercial vehicle joint venture Foton Daimler Automotive (BFDA), Reuters reported in August citing a document and sources familiar with matter. Geely owns Volvo and a 49.9% stake in Malaysian car maker Proton, while BAIC, in addition to Daimler, has a partnership with South Korea's Hyundai Motor. – Nampa/ReutersCineworld to buy Canada's Cineplex for US$2.1 bln Britain's Cineworld Group Plc said on Monday it will buy Canada's Cineplex Inc for US$2.1 billion, including debt, making it the largest cinema operator in North America.Cineworld has offered to buy Toronto-based Cineplex for C$34 (US$25.56) per share, a premium of 42% to the Canadian firm's closing price of C$24.01 on Friday.The deal, which comes nearly two years after Cineworld bought U.S.-based Regal cinemas for US$3.6 billion in February 2018, will add 165 cinemas and 1,695 screens to the company's existing global network of 9,498 screens across 786 sites."Going forward, our immediate post-acquisition objectives will be to combine Cineplex with our U.S. business," Cineworld Chairman Anthony Bloom said.Cineworld also said that its largest shareholder Global City Theatres B.V. has agreed to vote in favour of the deal and that it expects about US$130 million of annual pretax cost savings by the end of financial year 2021. – Nampa/ReutersRoche clears UK hurdle in US$4.3 bln Spark deal Swiss drugmaker Roche won clearance from Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Monday for its planned US$4.3 billion takeover of gene therapy company Spark Therapeutics, while a similar U.S. review continues. Roche wants to buy U.S.-based Spark to gain a foothold in gene therapy as well as add to its portfolio against hemophilia A, where the Basel-based company already has the treatment Hemlibra that is due to surpass US$1 billion sales this year. Competition authorities have been scrutinising the deal to ensure a Roche gene therapy-Hemlibra combination in the lucrative rare disease market would not give it an unfair advantage over rivals. Britain's competition agency came to the conclusion it would not, even as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has yet to formally weigh in. The CMA said it had "cooperated closely" with the FTC. "The CMA found that Spark is not the only supplier developing a gene therapy treatment and that its products are not currently considered to hold any particular clinical or commercial advantages over those being developed by other suppliers," the CMA said. "The CMA therefore found that the deal between Roche and Spark would not negatively affect competition," the CMA said in a statement issued by the London Stock Exchange. The competition review has dragged on for months since the deal was announced in February, with delays taking Roche Chief Executive Severin Schwan off guard as he thought the transaction would be completed more quickly. Schwan is still hoping for the deal to be completed before the end of 2019. – Nampa/Reuters

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