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Quest Means Business

Arm: Set for Biggest Public Offering Since 2021; Microsoft- Activision Deal; Eight People Saved From Dangling Cable Car In Pakistan; Monarch Bets On A Green Tractorbot Revolution; VinFast Shares Skyrocket After IPO; Dash To The Bell. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired August 22, 2023 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:00:33]

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: There is an hour to go of trading on Wall Street, and the markets are giving their own opinion. The Dow is off

150-odd points. It's been down the whole session. It's in a miserable sort of mood today.

And the triple stack does -- so just a slightly better picture for growth stocks, but not really dramatically much. Overall, the market is down.

So the business headlines that we're looking at today: The chip designer Arm makes plans to go public and its IPO could be the largest of this year

so far.

A daring rescue in Pakistan, six children and two adults saved after a cable car broke down hundreds of meters from the ground.

And a surge in shoplifting or retail theft as it's now called, and now shopkeepers say the theft is up and it's hurting.

We are of course live in New York. It's Tuesday, it is August 22nd. I'm Richard Quest and yes, I mean business.

Good evening.

The countdown has begun for the most anticipated IPO, initial public offering in years. It's the chipmaker or the chip designer I should say

Arm, and it could go public as soon as next month. It is set to be the biggest IPO since 2021 when the electric truck maker, Rivian listed at a

value of $77 billion, I'm guessing that the hope is there, it does considerably better than Rivian since that's now down about 80 to 90

percent on its IPO price.

Arm's owner, Softbank will reportedly seek a valuation of around $64 billion. It had offered to sell the firm to NVIDIA for forty and that

merger fell apart last year because of regulatory issues. Arm said in its filing that about 70 percent of the global population uses its technology.

So just give you the idea. Remember, they're a designer, not manufacturer. So you've got cards, you've got keyboards, and bearing in mind, this is the

chip that's in the keyboard. You've also course got, smartphones, 99 percent of the world's smartphones are using chips designed by Arm, and of

course my producer's Garmin smartwatch, which he wants back to make sure his heart rate has not gone through the roof.

Computers, obviously; even this, a coffee mug and credit cards have the chip in them. And now, the company is hoping to expand and capitalize on

the wave of AI investment.

Clare Duffy is with me, making sure nobody could see the numbers on that credit card. Clare Duffy is with me.

Clare, Arm has had its problems, but AI could be a massive solution.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes, Richard in some ways, it really sort of makes sense that this biggest blockbuster IPO that we've seen in years

is trying to capitalize on this AI revolution, this next huge wave of technology.

And of course, Arm doesn't design chips that are purpose built for AI, but a lot of its chips are already, it says is running AI workloads. It counts

customers such as Google, Alphabet -- Google's parent company, Alphabet; GM's Cruise robotaxis, which we were just talking about recently, so it is

already moving in that direction.

And another big thing it supplies for is data centers. We're going to need more and more data centers to really power this next wave of AI. It

requires huge computing power. And so, I think you're starting to see a lot of the sort of trajectory, that this company has the runway that it has, on

top of all of those connected devices that you're talking about.

I mean, you also think about things like drones, things like the robots that they need in manufacturing facilities, those are all things that Arm

is designing chips for.

QUEST: Okay, now, if we look at the problems in its IPO. Now Rivian is a bad example in a sense because Rivian has just about collapsed in terms of

its share price; however good the trucks may be. But if we look at NVIDIA and we sort of take into account Arm, NVIDIA has just reached a recent

high. The omens should be good for an Arm IPO.

DUFFY: Yes, there really is so much hype around this AI; cycle, of course, you know, you don't want to go too far in hyping the potential for this

technology making people too excited that then you know the excitement sort of wears off.

[15:05:05]

But I do think, NVIDIA is you know, a prime example of just how much potential there is, how much investors are excited about this technology.

And I think, too, I mean, you look at the failed merger of NVIDIA and Arm. I think, also gives a potential or, you know, a sense of the potential and

the power that Arm has, you had regulators around the world worried that a combination of these two companies would potentially create huge

competition concerns and it is really important in this growing technology sector.

And so, you know, while that fell apart, I think that gives you a sense of just how important and powerful this company is.

QUEST: You know, before I leave you, I was just thinking, I can see you're obviously out on the West Coast, enjoying the West Coast and in the kitchen

and I'm just wondering how many chips are in all those IoT devices behind you? The fridge, the microwave, the coffee -- the probably extremely good

coffeemaker you've got there. The chips of everything.

DUFFY: Yes. It's amazing. They really are. I mean, cars, even the oven these days. I mean, you can preheat the oven before you've even gotten home

to the house. We are moving in this direction where so many of the everyday objects in our homes are reliant on these kinds of chips.

QUEST: Oh, I've electrified the house, and I tell you, I can tell you who's winning and it's not me.

All right, thank you very much.

Now Microsoft is giving ground to regulate as finely as it tries to get its $70 billion merger with Activision approved. Microsoft is now proposing to

sell some of Activations' cloud streaming rights to a rival.

The idea is to persuade the UK competition authority to approve the deal. EU and US regulators have given their seal of approval. Anna Stewart is

with me. How big are these concessions? Because if they're too big, then we will face the -- Microsoft will face the problem of having to go back to

the EU in the US to get authorization of the deal again.

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: And we could be talking about this for even longer because this was actually announced -- this acquisition was first --

as in January of last year. And yes, it has got the approval now from the US and the EU, but it wasn't easy.

The FTC in the US rejected it twice, and it actually just failed in court, and in the EU, they had to get a concession. It was kind of like what we're

seeing today, albeit smaller, because it had a 10-year time limit.

So this one is all about the streaming rights outside of the EEA, European Union and three other countries. Essentially, it means that for

Activision's games that already exists, and anything they create for the next 15 years, Microsoft wouldn't be able to exclusively make people use

their cloud gaming software to play it.

So that's the concession. It might be enough for the CMA. It is quite a big concession. It certainly, I think answers their biggest question, which was

over cloud gaming, as opposed to the actual gaming itself.

QUEST: Now, interestingly, since the concession is consumer positive, one imagines that A., the CMA might accept it because they wouldn't have put it

forward if they didn't think there was a good chance. But also, it's not going to fall foul of the EU.

STEWART: Exactly. And actually, the EU might not be very happy with this because it essentially mimics the licensee concession that they want from

Microsoft and Activision, but it's not quite as good because for the EU, they've got a 10-year time limit.

So this is just the latest chapter in this. I've been fascinated by how long it's taken. October 18th, Richard is when this phase one for the CMA

in the UK for their sort of write-up on what they think about this latest concession. It could go to phase two, and it really wouldn't surprise me.

This one has gone on for a very, very long time.

QUEST: Anna, glad to have you with us. Thank you.

Lots of corporate news around. Dick's Sporting Goods store here in the United States is now blaming shoplifters for its poor second quarter

results. Profits fell 22 percent and the company shares are down roughly the same. Look at that. Absolutely clobbered.

Dick's says it's struggling with what retailers euphemistically call shrink. Chains like Target, Waitrose and trade groups on both sides of the

Atlantic have sounded the alarm on the growing costs.

Take a look at what Kyung Lah reported earlier this year on the scale of theft in San Francisco.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): So typical that in the 30 minutes we were at this Walgreens, we watched three people

including this man steal.

LAH (on camera): Did that guy pay?

EMPLOYEE: Come again?

LAH: Did that guy pay?

EMPLOYEE: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Vanessa is with me. Vanessa Yurkevich.

I was walking home last night, just from where we are at Hudson Yards and I passed the grocery store, one of the larger chains and there is a big sign

in the window saying "Community Help Needed" because of they call it retail theft. It's shoplifting to you and me; it is good old fashioned

shoplifting, and it's much bigger problem that most people realize.

[15:10:02]

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is and it is a big problem for Dick's Sporting Goods. They say that they had a

23 percent drop in profits in the second quarter, despite the fact that sales were up 3.6 percent. And the CEO just coming right out and saying it

saying that Q2 profitability, were short of expectations due in large part to the impact of elevated shrink, which, as you said, is known to many of

us as theft.

We've heard Richard from other retailers who have talked about similar things. We heard from Walgreens, Target saying earlier this year that they

expect to lose half a billion dollars because of theft, but we haven't really heard a major retailer coming out and blaming such a dramatic drop

in profits to theft.

And we know that experts are really not so sure that theft has increased in recent years, however, one thing has changed, and that is criminal justice

reform. And what folks have found is that people are trying to keep folks out of jail, and so when you talk about grand theft, which is what theft in

stores is, the penalties are a lot lower. So people are not being jailed, people are not being held on bail, and that's why, Richard, you see these

big organized crime rings, not just the individuals that you saw in Kyung's piece there, the big organized crime rings really doing a lot of damage, so

much damage, Richard, that Dick's Sporting Goods saying it is a very big problem for them.

QUEST: Now, the interesting thing, which I think as you point out, it is very difficult for the store, because on the one hand, if you've got large

scale gangs, or you've got coordinated activity, you're not going to have some poor security guard are some poor cashier going up and trying to stop

them.

So what can shops do? I mean, you don't want to turn the store into a fortress?

YURKEVICH: Well, on one hand, as you mentioned, we've seen in Apple Stores when there are a lot of people that come in and just swipe a ton of

technology, the employees are actually told do not engage, they don't want any of their employees to get hurt. But then on the other hand, as you

mentioned, some stores actually have been turned into fortresses.

If you have been into a Walgreens, a Duane Reade, a CVS around the country, you might notice that so much of the goods that we buy every day are behind

lock and key. That is really their answer to it right now besides, Richard, working with local law enforcement and the FBI.

But there is only so much you can do especially with these organized crime rings. They are so good at what they do, and sometimes not even noticeable

what they're doing in these stores.

QUEST: Ding dong. Systems needed in vitamins, always seems to be because they're so expensive. It is rarely toothpaste. It's always vitamins.

Thank you very much, Vanessa. Vanessa Yurkevich there.

A daring high wire rescue in Pakistan. Thank God, eight people are safe from a cable car, and this was dangling over a mountain range by a single

cable after the other one broke.

The fascinating part is how this cable car was ever cobbled together in the first place. QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, good evening to you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:54]

QUEST: Welcome back.

All eight people who had been stranded inside of dangling cable car in Northern Pakistan have now been rescued. They have been there for many

hours after one of the cables that were supporting the car broke and fell. It was a delicate operation as rescue teams worked into the night. Now all

are safe, including the six children.

You see now if you look at the pictures here, you'll see the difficulty. The problem is the helicopter can't get too close in the case the wind from

the rotor blades was to disturb the cable or the car sufficiently that it would -- the single cable would break.

Another reason why they had to be careful when they dropped a rescue worker down, again, in case they hit the cable car and the cable cut.

And then finally, how you get the people out of the cable car, which is not on its side and therefore, you're having to lift people through without

creating enough turbulence that the cable car could fall.

Sofia Saifi is with me from Islamabad. It was a very delicate, but very professionally organized. rescue.

SOPHIA SAIFI, CNN PRODUCER: Yes, Richard, it was very slow and steady, almost 12 hours. Those kids were up there as part of the school run since

8:30 in the morning, it's past midnight here. It's around 11:00 PM When they were finally rescued.

And it's really fascinating because, why? Like you just said, the helicopters really weren't being very helpful in actually rescuing those

kids and their teachers stuck up there. So what they ended up doing because it was night time as the time progressed is that they actually hired local

zip liners to get up there and set up their paraphernalia, and they actually used the expertise of local cable experts and local zip liners to

manage to get those kids and their teachers back down after a very long ordeal -- Richard.

QUEST: I didn't realize that it was a zip liner that had actually come in and set up separate lines. But it begs the question how this cable car was

ever constructed. By my account, or from what I've read, it was a local person who set it up and it's all been lashed together and it is not

exactly what one would describe as a robust piece of engineering.

SAIFI: Not at all. It's all very mechanical. It's scraps, bits, and pieces. This is a remote part of the country. There's no infrastructure so people

make do with what they can get.

So you see these kind of Frankenstein-esque steampunk contraptions made of like random bits and pieces of various cars and other machinery which they

cobbled together to make these cable cars, which really don't really have much oversight, which is another form of criticism that has been leveled

against this entire situation. These are questions that have been raised. But yes, it is a very hokey situation and that is how they work in these

areas -- Richard.

QUEST: The thing about it is, I mean, the authorities now will be asking some very serious questions amongst themselves about how on earth anybody

didn't realize this thing was a deathtrap and by the grace of God, I mean, tonight nobody died because the other cable could clearly have fallen as

well.

SAIFI: Exactly. I mean, it was dangling by just one cable, like you said, the other one, the one -- the other one, every time a helicopter tried to

get up there, the cable was moving really aggressively. The kids were vomiting up there, there was a lot of nausea. They threw in nausea pills,

as well.

But like I said, there has been a lot of expertise. There were SSG Commandos there overseeing the entire operation, but they have really used

the expertise of the locals to kind of make sure that they are rescued efficiently.

And what's happened is, is that the prime minister has gone ahead and actually banned any of the cable cars and chairlifts in the region from

being used because it is a tourist area as well. Impoverished, beautiful, but again, lots of questions, lots of oversight, and yes, it's a relief

that kids are back home. Hopefully they'll have a day off from school tomorrow, but keeping that in mind, there are a lot of questions that are

going to be raised about why there isn't enough infrastructure there for kids to get to school.

And yes, if there are cable cars that need to be made, why are they being made by locals without any assistance from the government and that they are

using all sorts of random bits and pieces that they can put together to make sure that their kids can go to school.

[15:20:21]

QUEST: Surely. Thank you. Grateful for having you with us tonight. Thank you.

It's day one of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg. The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa will discuss over the next three

days the group's present and future. It represents roughly a quarter of the global economy. The coalition is hoping to solidify its place on the world

stage and challenge Western influence, and to do so they're discussing ways to lessen their reliance on the US dollar, which of course is the world's

number one reserve currency.

Brazil's President Lula da Silva reiterated his call for a common trading currency. CNN's David McKenzie reports from the sidelines of the Summit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the critical BRICS meetings have gotten underway here in Johannesburg, and you really get a

sense with a growing portion of the world population and of the world economy, of course underpinned by India and China, that these leaders are

feeling pretty bullish about their place on the world stage, both economically and potentially, politically.

A big question up for debate is whether BRICS will be expanded during the Summit or whether this will be discussed. It's something that Chinese

President Xi Jinping is looking for, in particular, to become kind of a de facto alternative to the G7 group of wealthy nations.

And on that front, there is talk of more economic integration. Brazil's president saying that there should be down the road a currency used for

trading amongst BRICS nations, nothing like that will happen anytime soon.

Vladimir Putin, of course, is attending virtually because he faces arrest here in South Africa for the alleged crimes linked to the Ukraine war, but

still this venue is where he can get some sympathetic ears from world leaders and business leaders as well.

Whether there can be concrete action taken at this BRICS Summit is unclear, but certainly there is a sense that BRICS is in their mind very relevant to

the world conversation.

David McKenzie, CNN Johannesburg.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: To Europe now where gas storage facilities are nearly full, fully two months ahead of schedule. It's helping ease fears of shortages over the

winter. One analyst says prices in some places could more than double from current levels for completely different reasons.

Now, the European benchmark for natural gas has jumped in recent weeks. It's all to do with a strike or potential strike as an Australian LNG

facility that's got supply concerns.

Amanda Dart is with me, the head of Natural Gas Research at Goldman Sachs. What's fascinating about this, is that the reason of this strike has

absolutely nothing to do with anybody in Europe actually buying that particular LNG from Australia.

AMANDA DART, HEAD OF NATURAL GAS RESEARCH AT GOLDMAN SACHS: Yes, what happens is that Asia consumes more liquefied natural gas, LNG, than what it

produces, right? So you have this threat of a strike across three of the largest Australia LNG-producing facilities and if these strikes go ahead

and interrupt the production of LNG, Asia needs to fill in that gap somehow, right?

So the way they do it is to compete more fiercely for Atlantic basin LNG cargoes. So when we think of Europe and the natural gas that Europe gets, a

lot of that gas these days since Russian gas is not going in, it's coming in as LNG. So if Asia competes for more of that LNG, less is available for

Europe.

QUEST: Okay, but the actual fundamentals of supply suggests, I mean, forget the strike suggest that there is plenty of gas around such that the prices

could be contained, which of course, is excellent news on inflation grounds.

DART: Yes, that's true. If there is no interruption to production out of these facilities, then you have enough to go around for everybody. And one

of the reasons for that, and it needs to be said is that consumption of natural gas in Europe has changed.

When we look at last winter, I would say the main reason why Europeans storage of natural gas came out of winter as full as it did was because

households started to conserve energy and that made a huge difference.

[15:25:01]

QUEST: Interesting. Do you think that is a permanent shift? Or is it a shift on the back of great warnings that if we're not careful, we'll run

out of fuel this winter and we'll be in deep trouble?

DART: It's a great question, Richard.

So there is a component of those savings that is permanent. So for example, all the heat pump installations that we kept hearing about, that's not

going away, but when we think about why people change behavior, I think there were two main reasons.

Number one, prices were incredibly high last year, you remember, so you tend to react to that and be a little bit more careful in how hot you're

going to keep your home during the winter. That number one reason is now gone. We see prices much, much lower than a year ago, right?

QUEST: Right, but --

DART: Now, the second piece is --

QUEST: I just want to jump in.

DART: Go ahead.

QUEST: Yes, I just want to jump in on that one while I've still got the thought, does that mean -- I mean, prices are much lower, but how much of a

disruption, forget the Australian strike, that's a sort of a limited thing. I'm talking about within Europe, within Russia related within Ukraine

related.

How much of an increased threat of disruption to that which is remaining could -- could -- send prices through the roof again?

DART: Oh, not much at all, because there is no more Russian gas making it to Northwest Europe. You still have -- you're right, you still have some

residual flows through the Ukraine, but very little of that makes it to Austria or Italy.

So when we think about a potential disruption there, the impact this would have on let's say, German exports out of the region would be very minor.

So in terms of a headline impact, sure, you would probably have a bit of a price spike on a headline, but when we think of actual availability of gas,

Northwest Europe, which is the region that sets the gas price that we see in the UK, that we see in Germany and Netherlands, that region is really

not relying on that gas anymore.

QUEST: Samantha, thank you so much. I think, it's our first time talking on QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. It certainly won't be the last as we make our way

through winter.

Very grateful for your time. Thank you.

QUEST MEANS BUSINESS tonight: The tractor company, Monarch is literally betting the farm on Ag tech. It's developed an all-electric autonomous

tractor. It is designed to cut farmer's operating costs. The chief executive is with me after the break.

QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:30:57]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

QUEST: Now the future of farming could be the many tractors that drive themselves. I suppose it was somewhat inevitable. The company is Monarch

and it's making tractorbots, electric and autonomous. It one of a kind on the market.

They're $90,000 each to buy and there will be up to a thousand of them by end of the year in the fields, potential for David and Goliath story here.

Giant John Deere is also betting on autonomous technology.

Praveen Penmetsa is the CEO on Monarch. He joins me from California.

Look, I love this because here it is. Look, first of all, farmers are very familiar with the need to be sustainable and using high technology. They've

been using combines at the most complex type of equipment for years. So this should be right up their street, since it hits all sorts of

environmental targets.

What's the problem?

PRAVEEN PENMETSA, CEO, MONARCH TRACTOR: Yes, so the big challenge, Richard, is not only the big farmers with the big combines and big tractors but the

world is filled with small farmers, who actually feed our food ecosystem.

A lot of fruits and vegetables come from small farmers. And at Monarch Tractor we are targeting our technology to be acceptable, professionally

and help the small farmers be sustainable long-term.

So that means it has to be in a package that can be used on small farms and also be easy to use and very affordable. And at Monarch, that's our goal,

is how do we make farming profitable and the food ecosystem sustainable.

QUEST: So the electric part is one bit but then many farmers are already starting to use electrically powered vehicles on farms. The autonomous bit

is a little more tricky because that's going to require some programming. That's going to require an expertise that the average farm won't have.

PENMETSA: Yes. Absolutely, Richard. That's where Monarch technology is game changing.

Our wingspan black form is powered by AI. So we use all the data from these cameras that are around our tractor to kind of inform the farmer of not

only what is happening on the farm while we are doing autonomous operations just by using those cameras.

And all of this has to be packaged in intuitive, easy to use interface so the existing tractor driver, especially on small farms -- is not a skilled

operator -- the existing tractor driver has to be able to operate a fleet of these out on the farm to be able to meet our demands of fruits and

vegetables in a sustainable manner.

QUEST: And I notice you're going for the Gillette razor principle as well in one sense. The old thing, don't go about selling them the tractor; sell

them the services instead. So your subscription model which will allow, I suspect, priced properly and financing locally through various agricultural

financing boards.

That will, what?

How much will it cost for me to have one of those tractors say for four weeks a year?

PENMETSA: Yes, so what we are looking at, Richard, is lots of different business models for different parts of the world. The model you're talking

about is very apt for Asia, where the farmers have really small farms and it doesn't make sense for them to buy a whole tractor because they're not

going to use it.

And to your point they'll probably only use it for four weeks. So one of the markets we are targeting is India. And in India we are looking at price

parity with a diesel tractor or less because our operating costs are less.

Our maintenance costs are less so we are looking at roughly less than $10 for a whole tractor of rental every day with our Indian models, right?

But even now, in North America, farmers are able to access our tractor for like half the price of a diesel tractor --

[15:35:00]

PENMETSA: -- thanks to some of the incentives and subsidies that are in place because a tractor is equal to 14 cars. That's 1-4, 14 cars' worth of

emissions when you remove a tractor from the field. So because of that impact, we get a huge subsidy and incentive from that standpoint as well.

QUEST: Thank you so much, sir. I love these stories. It's the future, it's technology that is actually showing how things work in the real world. Very

grateful for your time.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

QUEST (voice-over): It's a super charged day on the market s for the electric carmaker VinFast. It's up over 100 percent. The CEO of the company

did suggest that the company (INAUDIBLE) worth more than VW and Ford, 104 percent.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

QUEST: It's a very simple fact. Trade in Africa often takes longer and costs more compared to other parts of the world. Nearly 12 percent of the

continent's total economic activity comes from regional trade, a rate at least four times lower than Asia and in Europe.

Now a Ghanaian company is taking on these challenges by digitizing logistics across the continent.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Swapping the battery out on this electric motorcycle takes about a minute, allowing drivers to recharge without the

wait. These bikes and (INAUDIBLE) batteries belong to a Ghanaian startup called Kofa, which hopes to improve energy access across the continent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): We're building out a battery network using transportation as sort a primary use case because that's how you get the

highest source of energy out of the battery network. But our batteries can be used for variety of applications.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Kofa has opened seven swap stations across Accra (ph). The team designs this network in Ghana but it imports

most parts from China, which can be a tricky process for a young company.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): We are a startup and not a big team and so anything that can remove a blocker for us is massive for us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Luckily for Della (ph), help happened to be a stone's throw away. Jet Stream Africa is an elogistics platform based

just east of Accra (ph) that is transforming cross border trade.

The company simplifies the manual shipping process by centralizing it online.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): The import and export industry requires at least nine vendors. None of those parties work for the same company.

They don't use the same technology.

And many don't use any technology at all. They don't speak the same language. They don't use the same currency. And the cargo has to move

through all of them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Jet Stream Africa's digital one-stop shop connects these different groups. Customers supply basic information about

their goods and behind the scenes, Jet Stream Africa handles the rest.

[15:40:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): It also provides live tracking info and compiles analytics to help inform decision-making. Several competitors

across Africa offered digitized supply chain services but Misha (ph) says her company's approach to financing sets it apart.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We finance customers not just the customs duties or the freight costs, even the cost of their goods so they can ship at their

full capacity. For us, even though it is risky to lend money to customers who can't get loans from banks, it's the only way -- I'm convinced it's the

only way that we are going to drive transformation in global trade in Africa.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Sub-Saharan Africa scores lowest in the World Bank's ease of doing business rankings, which measures factors like

time, cost and regulatory environment. By the many experts think digital tools can help improve the region's standing.

Della (ph) has been working with Jet Stream Africa since day one. This year, the team hopes to double the number of swap stations across Ghana, a

target made possible by this partnership.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): We are very proud to be where we are. And we are lucky to have Jet Stream backing us and helping us to (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: There's some wild trading on the shares of electric automaker VinFast. It has more than doubled the stock in this session 110 percent.

It's a Vietnamese (INAUDIBLE) IPO on Nasdaq last week and a soaring share prices lifted value higher than Ford and Volkswagen.

A small number of shares on offer has caused major volatility and the CEO told Julia Chatterley that she didn't expect the market reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LE THI THU THUY, CEO, VINFAST: Well, it was very exciting. We were pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome of the market. We think that, you

know, the market recognized our competency and our -- you know, the market needs somebody like us. So we are very, very excited.

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN ANCHOR: There was some commentary that was suggesting you have a bigger valuation than Ford or Volkswagen. I think we should

point out there's only 1 percent of the shares available. So that creates volatility in this moment.

Is that a distraction from the broader, bold ambitions I think of the company now?

Talk about the plan from here.

THUY: Well, we, as always, we have very bold plans ahead of us. What we got listed, we believe the market is improving so that would help with the

fundraising in the future. For now we have the backing of our parent company, Vingroup, and our chairman in -- with a total commitment of $2.5

billion.

That should get us to break even and profitability.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Cautionary tale, though, don't forget Rivian was 105 at one particular point. It's down 84 percent, 85 percent, since it IPO'd. Just

shows you what can happen.

Now that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. I'll have a dash for the closing bell together, you, me and the bell. Until then, here is "LIVING GOLF."

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[15:54:25]

QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest. And we have a dash to the closing bell and we're just a minute or so away. If you look at the numbers and you look at

the big board, the Dow has slid lower and we're almost at the low point of the day.

The triple stack and the S&P also sharply down. The Nasdaq had been up a bit more than that but it's now flat overall. As you can see, if you look

at the Dow components, most of them are firmly in the red.

JPMorgan seeing heavy losses; S&P global because of its credit rating. The big winner of the is Boeing and Apple is also higher. That's the way things

are looking. That is our dash to the closing bell. Whatever you are up to the hours ahead, I hope it's profitable. "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts

now.

END