Stable yuan

THE government is confident of keeping the yuan basically stable, Yi Gang, the governor of the People’s Bank of China told a meeting, according to a media report Tuesday.

The yield gap between Chinese and U.S. 10-year government bonds is in a relatively comfortable range, Yi was quoted as saying by the Financial News, a publication owned by the central bank. The central bank chief also said China’s benchmark rates are now at appropriate levels.

Didi investment

TOYOTA Motor Corp. is considering investing about 60 billion yen (US$550 million) in Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, the Nikkei business daily reported yesterday.

Japan’s top automaker was also looking to set up a new mobility services company in China, the Nikkei said. “We continue to evaluate our business strategy from a global perspective in areas of connectivity, autonomous, sharing and electrification to meet the future needs of our customers,” Toyota spokesman Kensuke Ko said. “However, we have nothing to announce at this time.”

Toyota has made large investments in other ride-hailing firms such as Uber and Grab as traditional automakers race to team up with disruptive tech companies.

Nio venture

NIO Inc. will form a joint venture with Beijing E-Town International Investment and Development Co. which will invest 10 billion yuan in the new entity, the electric vehicle (EV) maker said in a statement Tuesday.

E-Town Capital will support a new manufacturing facility for Nio’s next-generation platform 2.0 (NP2) vehicles, it said, adding the parties are continuing to work towards a final binding definitive agreement on the investment. U.S.-listed Nio reported better-than-expected first-quarter results earlier this week.