Michael Dell presents plan to make Dell public again

Business review from the Economist

Dell aims to make Dell public again

Michael Dell presented a plan to bring his personal-computer and corporate-technology firm back to public markets. Frustrated by the short-term pressures of being a publicly listed company, Dell took Dell Technologies, as it is now called, private in 2013. He wants to simplify its capital structure by swapping new shares for tracking stock that was issued as part of the purchase in 2016 of EMC, a data-storage firm. If investors agree, Dell would become a public company again, but without a conventional public offering.

A new Chinese fund was launched to invest in technology. The China New Era Technology Fund, which is inspired by SoftBank's $100 billion Vision Fund, hopes to raise 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) to plow into tech assets. China Merchants Group, a state-controlled conglomerate, is among those putting in money.

Turkey's annual inflation rate soared to 15.4 percent in June, a 14-year high, putting more pressure on the lira. The currency has fallen by almost a fifth against the dollar since the start of the year, which has pushed up consumer prices. Markets want the central bank to tame inflation through higher interest rates, but the bank has to contend with objections to lofty rates from Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the re-elected Turkish president.

The yuan had a wobbly week, falling to its weakest point in almost a year. Yi Gang, the governor of the People's Bank of China, said he was "closely monitoring" market fluctuations and pledged to keep the yuan's exchange rate "generally stable."

As the United States prepares to tighten the screws on Iranian oil, it put more pressure on Saudi Arabia to pump more oil in order to dampen rising prices. President Donald Trump asked the Saudis to ramp up output by 2 million barrels a day, and then accused the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) of manipulating oil markets. The kingdom repeated that it "is ready to use its spare capacity when needed" in coordination with other producers.

Wang Jian, the co-founder and chairman of HNA, one of China's biggest private conglomerates, died after falling from a wall in a village he was visiting in Provence, France. He was 57.

Glencore received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice related to its operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Venezuela, stretching back to 2007. The subpoena demands that the company hand over documents in compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and money-laundering statutes. Glencore's business in Congo has come under particular scrutiny in the recent past.

Tesla at last reached its goal of making 5,000 Model 3 cars a week, after it set up a temporary production line in its car park to hit the target. But that was over only the last week of June; it fell far short of promised vehicle deliveries overall for the second quarter, driving its share price down.

Atlantic Media sold Quartz, an online business magazine, to Uzabase, a Japanese media company, for as much as $110 million, depending on Quartz's financial performance this year.

Global politics from the Economist

Mexicans elect populist as president

Andres Manuel López Obrador, a left-wing populist, won Mexico's presidential election with 53 percent of the vote. He defeated candidates from the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the National Action Party, which between them have governed the country since the early 20th century. López Obrador's Morena party and its allies won a majority in both houses of congress and five of the nine governorships that were contested in the elections. The PRI is now the fifth-largest party in congress.

Najib Razak, who was voted out of office as prime minister of Malaysia in May, was arrested and charged with several crimes related to 1MDB, a state development fund from which billions of dollars have disappeared. Najib pleaded not guilty; he has been released on bail.

A court in Ecuador ordered the arrest of a former president, Rafael Correa, who now lives in Belgium. A former legislator, Fernando Balda, has accused Correa of arranging his kidnapping in Colombia in 2012.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, defused an immediate threat to her government over a demand by her Bavarian allies to turn certain asylum-seekers away at the border. But she now faces problems with her Social Democratic allies, and accusations that she is undermining the Schengen free-travel zone.

Thousands of people joined a prodemocracy march in Hong Kong to mark the anniversary of the territory's handover to China in 1997. Turnout for the annual event was one of the lowest in recent years.