■ Banking
Singapore woos Muslims
Singapore is launching a drive to become a center for Islamic financial services as part of attempts to strengthen ties with the Middle East, former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said. Islamic law forbids the charging of interest. Islamic banking conforms to this guideline, and appeals to Muslims who don't want to deal with Western-style institutions. Singapore already has a major banking and fund management industry, backed by assiduous government support. The city-state promotes itself as a regional financial center. "I want to turn Singapore into a center for Islamic financial services too," Goh, who is now the central bank governor, said in a speech late Friday. Singapore's central bank is already reviewing local regulations to see if there are any "impediments" to the spread of Islamic-style financial services.
■ Stock Market
Yahoo sells Google shares
Yahoo Inc said on Friday it sold US$191 million in Google Inc stock in that company's initial public offering, cashing out some of the 2.7 million shares Google gave Yahoo this month to settle two disputes. Yahoo sold 2.3 million of the Class A shares last week at US$82.62 apiece. Google shares began trading on Aug. 19, following its IPO. In exchange for giving Yahoo 2.7 million shares on Aug. 9, Google got a perpetual license to Yahoo's patent on matching online advertisements to Web-search results. Yahoo also agreed to drop another dispute over warrants to purchase shares that Google granted it under a partnership signed in 2000. Google's stock closed at US$106.15 on Friday, down US$1.76, or 1.6 percent, on the NASDAQ Stock Market. Yahoo also converted 1.1 million Class B common shares into a like amount of Class A stock, leaving Yahoo with 1.48 million Class A shares.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure