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China's Great Wall to launch new brand for off-road vehicles - chairman

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BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Great Wall Motor will launch a new standalone brand for its off-road vehicles, chairman Wei Jianjun said, as automakers pursue new segments when sales in world's biggest car market pick up.

Wei said Great Wall, the country's top pick-up truck maker, plans to launch the "Tank" brand during the Shanghai auto show this year in April.

Baoding-based Great Wall earlier this year also launched a new standalone brand for electric and smart vehicles. It is also building an EV factory with BMW in China.

(Reporting by Yilei Sun and Tony Munroe; editing by David Evans)

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A San Francisco-based federal appeals court upheld the regulation.Bright LineThe growers say the constitutional clause automatically kicks in whenever a regulation takes an “easement” -- that is, when the government gives someone else the right to use private property. That bright-line approach “protects the fundamental right of property owners to exclude trespassers from their property,” the companies said in a court filing.The growers compare their case to a 1982 Supreme Court ruling that said New York was taking private property by requiring landlords to allow the installation of cable-television equipment in their buildings.But 17 states and the District of Columbia said the categorical approach would mean a “sea change,” and raise questions about a “staggering array” of laws that rely on government inspections of private property for health and safety reasons.The growers and their allies say those inspection laws wouldn’t be affected. The Chamber of Commerce said the government would still be able to require health and safety inspections as a condition for getting a needed license.Biden ChangeThe Biden administration is backing the California regulation but won’t be arguing Monday. In a two-page letter in February, acting U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said the government’s longstanding view is that “physical entry on property short of a permanent occupation does not warrant the application of a categorical rule and is instead appropriately analyzed under a case-specific framework.”Prelogar’s letter was a change of position for the government after the Trump administration filed a brief opposing the regulation.Worker advocates say the California access regulation is even more important than it was in 1975 for informing vulnerable farm laborers of their rights. Those workers as a group are less educated, less likely to speak English, and more likely to be immigrants now than when the regulation was enacted, said Mario Martinez, who filed a brief defending the regulation for the United Farm Workers of America.“Outside of employers where there’s a collective bargaining agreement, you have routine violations of basic minimum wage laws, overtime laws, health and safety laws,” Martinez said. “You have rampant wage theft. You have a crisis of sexual harassment. In some cases, we uncovered forced labor, slavery where workers are being held against their will.”But Mike Fahner, whose Cedar Point Nursery is at the center of the case, says the regulation no longer makes sense in the age of social media. Fahner sued after organizers came to his nursery in 2015.“You can communicate with people around the world effectively without having to have access to a person’s private property and place of business,” he said.The case is Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, 20-107.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Goldman’s Saudi Investment Bank Chief Said to Leave for PIF Role

    (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s head of investment banking for Saudi Arabia is leaving to join the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, according to people familiar with the matter, the latest in a string of departures at the U.S. lender in the Middle East.Eyas AlDossari will join the Public Investment Fund to help work on new investments, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Goldman Sachs declined to comment, while the PIF and AlDossari didn’t immediately respond to requests for comments.AlDossari joined in 2017 as Goldman looked to beef up its presence in the kingdom. The bank has since worked on Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering, as well as its $70 billion acquisition of a stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corp., and the merger of Saudi British Bank with Alawwal.Over the past two years, though, Goldman has lost bankers including veteran Dubai-based dealmaker Hazem Shawki who joined Credit Suisse, and its regional CEO retired at the end of last year. Two other executives left this year to join Saudi Research & Marketing Group.The bank’s Mideast operations were also dealt a blow from the corruption scandal in Malaysia involving the 1MDB investment fund, and it missed out on deals in the United Arab Emirates -- including with wealth fund Mubadala and state oil firm Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.AlDossari is set to join the PIF which has been rapidly expanding since its mandate was changed from being a largely domestically focused holding company into an engine of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans to transform the kingdom’s economy.Since 2015, the PIF has grown assets under management to $400 billion from about $150 billion. It has taken stakes in Uber Technologies, put $45 billion into SoftBank’s Vision Fund, and backed electric vehicle maker Lucid. It’s also increased headcount to more than 1,000 from about 40.(Updates with details)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

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