COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Toyota to invest US$3.4 billionToyota Motor Corp's North American unit said Monday it will invest about US$3.4 billion on US automotive battery development and production in the United States through 2030.The world's largest automaker by volume also said it plans to establish a new company and build a new US automotive battery plant together with Toyota Tsusho, the automaker's metals trading arm and a unit of the Toyota Group.The new plant, which includes a planned US$1.29 billion Toyota investment through 2031, aims to start production in 2025 and is expected to create 1 750 new US jobs.The funds are part of the US$13.5 billion it announced in September it planned to spend globally by 2030 to develop batteries and its battery supply system. The largest Japanese automaker said in September it aimed to slash costs of its batteries by 30% or more by working on materials used and the way the cells are structured.Toyota said the new company will initially focus on producing batteries for hybrid vehicles. Toyota said it will later disclose production capacity, the new company's business structure and the plant site. -Nampa/ReutersAmazon to hire 150 000 US workersAmazon.com Inc said on Monday it plans to hire 150 000 seasonal workers in the United States during the holiday period, as the e-commerce giant prepares for a shopping season expected to be characterized by high demand and supply headaches.Last year, the company announced 100 000 seasonal jobs, after it had already boosted staffing through the pandemic.Amazon's hiring plan comes during a major labour shortage and increased union activities in the United States that has led to companies increasing wages to attract workers during the crucial end-of-year shopping period. Last month, Amazon increased its average starting wage in the country to more than US$18 an hour.The seasonal roles will include sign-on bonuses of up to US$3 000 and an additional US$3 per hour depending on shifts, and Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia and Illinois are among the states that will have the highest number of seasonal jobs, Amazon said. -Nampa/ReutersGeely's Volvo Cars sets IPO price Geely-owned Volvo Cars said on Monday its initial public offering would be priced within a range of 53 to 68 Swedish crowns per share, valuing the automaker at up to US$23 billion in what is likely to be one Europe's biggest listings this year.Volvo Cars, which has spent years under the Geely Holding umbrella strengthening its foothold in the premium market, said this month it planned to raise US$2.9 billion through an IPO and list its shares on the Nasdaq Stockholm stock exchange. Sources told Reuters last month that Geely was in advanced discussions with banks to list the Swedish company in the coming weeks, aiming for a valuation of about US$20 billion. The carmaker said in a statement its IPO would value the company, maker of models such as the high-end XC-90 SUV, at between 163 billion and 200 billion crowns and that shares would begin trading on Oct. 28."I think we have a very strong interest especially from the Nordic investors," Volvo Chief Executive Hakan Samuelsson told a news conference called at short notice as the prospectus for the offering was unveiled. -Nampa/ReutersAsda, ED Group deal terminatedAsda, the British supermarket chain, and EG Group have terminated a deal that would have seen EG buy Asda's petrol forecourts for 750 million pounds (US$1.03 billion), the two companies said on Monday.Both Asda and EG are owned by Zuber and Mohsin Issa and private equity group TDR Capital. The deal was initially struck in February. However, regulatory restrictions placed on the Issa brothers and TDR were not lifted until June.Only then could the Asda and EG Group's teams start to share commercial information relating to EG's purchase of the petrol forecourts. This resulted in several changes to the financial evaluation of the proposed transaction."As a result, EG and Asda have decided they will no longer proceed with the transaction, and it was terminated as of 18 October," both companies said.Asda said it remained confident it will continue to derive synergy benefits from its strategic alliance with EG, including setting up various foodservice offerings at Asda stores and the expansion of Asda's convenience store offering. -Nampa/ReutersSkoda Auto halts productionSkoda Auto started a two-week outage on Monday as the carmaker contends with the global shortage of chips and other components, the Vokswagen-owned company said.Skoda wants to complete 10 000 unfinished cars during the outage, which will leave only one production line running, a spokesman said."Skoda Auto has been struggling with a big shortage of critical components, which has forced it to limit production significantly in the past weeks," spokesman Tomas Kotera said.Skoda, the Czech Republic's biggest exporter, said on Oct. 7 that it would "significantly reduce or even halt" production from Oct. 18 until the end of the year because of the global shortage of chips hobbling the automotive sector. The Czech Auto Industry Association on Sunday said that Czech carmakers will produce quarter of a million fewer cars than expected this year because of the global microchip shortage, costing the automotive sector 200 billion crowns (US$9.14 billion) in sales. -Nampa/Reuters

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