the bottomline

DETROIT:

Ford is working to integrate its autonomous cars with Lyft’s ride-hailing software so someday Ford can carry Lyft passengers.

The two companies will link their software in a partnership announced Wednesday.

At first human-driven cars from Ford will carry Lyft passengers. The automaker plans to connect its selfdriving test cars to Lyft’s network. But they won’t carry passengers until they’re fully tested. The companies didn’t give a time frame for integrating services.

Ford says it expects the Lyft partnership to accelerate its self-driving car efforts. The company has said it wants to develop a fully driverless vehicle by 2021. (AP)

DETROIT:

The auto parts maker Delphi plans to split itself into two companies early next year.

The Delphi spinoff, targeted to take place before April, may become more common in the industry as companies separate older businesses from their more advanced technology wings. Sweden’s Autoliv also plans a split, with one company making passive devices like air bags, and the other focusing on electronics that prevent crashes.

One Delphi company, called Aptiv, will focus on electronic safety systems, autonomous cars and the electrical backbone of vehicles. The other will be named Delphi Technologies and will focus on combustion engine parts, software controls and electric vehicle components. (AP)

NEW YORK:

Nike reported a drop in first-quarter earnings Tuesday on flat sales as heavy promotions in North America again cut into profit.

Net income for the quarter ending August 31 was $950 million, down 24 percent from the year-ago period.

Revenues were unchanged at $9.1 billion.

Sales rose in all regions except North America, the biggest, where a retail industry shakeout has led to heavy discounting among vendors.

Nike also cited the unfavorable exchange rate as a factor for the weak North American sales. (AFP)

CALGARY, Alberta:

Canada’s energy regulator has ordered Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd to stop some work on its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, after a public company blog post showed it had been conducting activities that had “not yet been approved.”

In a letter sent on Friday, the National Energy Board (NEB) said Kinder Morgan has started work along the pipeline portion of the project, which the company is not yet allowed to do, and that it has to stop. The letter was filed to the NEB’s website. (RTRS)

LONDON:

Takeover speculation drove Carillion shares almost 20 percent higher on Wednesday after a London newspaper reported that a Middle Eastern firm was preparing a bid for the struggling construction and support services company.

A spokeswoman said Carillion did not comment on “market speculation” in response to a City A.M. report on Tuesday which said a Middle Eastern construction group planned to submit a letter of intent for a takeover.

Carillion, whose market capitalisation has dropped to 200 million pounds ($268 million) from a peak of 1.67 billion pounds a decade ago, is set to report first-half results on Friday. (RTRS)

FRANKFURT AM MAIN:

Germany energy giant EON said it has agreed to sell its remaining stake in fossil fuels spinoff Uniper to Finland’s Fortum Oyi in early 2018.

Fortum will offer all Uniper shareholders 22 euros ($25.90) per share, valuing EON’s 46.65-percent holdings at 3.76 billion euros ($4.4 billion), the German group said in a statement late Tuesday.

The two groups had announced last week that they were seeking a deal. (AFP)

PARIS:

The French government defended allowing train maker Alstom to be swallowed by its German rival Siemens on Wednesday as it came under attack from opponents for failing to protect a domestic industrial giant.

Alstom and Siemens, which make France’s high-speed TGV and Germany’s ICE trains, announced a tie-up late Tuesday to create a new European rail champion.

Both sides insist it is a “merger of equals”, with the combined entity to be headed by Alstom’s current chief executive Henri Poupart-Lafarge and based in the Paris region. (AFP)

BRUSSELS:

The EU slapped a huge fine of 880 million euros ($1.0 billion) on European truckmaker Scania on Wednesday, accusing the firm of colluding to fix prices and dodge the costs of stricter pollution rules.

Scania, owned by German auto giant Volkswagen, was the only holdout in the European Union’s massive cartel case in which five other truck builders admitted to the wrongdoing and jointly received a record fine of three billion euros.

“Today’s decision marks the end of our investigation into a very long lasting cartel – 14 years,” European Commission competition chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement (AFP)

BEIJING/HONG KONG:

Privately-run conglomerate CEFC China Energy has obtained preliminary state approval for its proposed $9.1 billion investment in Russian oil major Rosneft. just about a week after the deal was announced, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

CEFC said earlier this month it will buy a 14.16 percent stake in Rosneft from a consortium of Glencore and the Qatar Investment Authority, strengthening energy ties between Moscow and Beijing. (RTRS)

SEOUL:

South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix Inc. said Wednesday that it will invest 395 billion yen ($3.5 billion) toward the purchase of Toshiba Corp.’s memory chip unit by a group of investors.

The board at South Korea’s No. 2 semiconductor company approved the decision, which will help the South Korean chipmaker advance in a segment known as NAND flash memory chips.

SK Hynix is part of a group led by Bain Capital Private Equity that includes several Japanese and US companies such as Apple, Dell, Kingston Technology and Seagate Technology. (AP)