■ BANKING
Citigroup profits jump 18%
Citigroup Inc unveiled a better-than-expected record quarterly profit of US$6.23 billion on Friday, as its coffers overflowed with lucrative earnings from its investment banking and global operations. The company said its second-quarter net profit leapt 18 percent from the same period a year ago, with earnings per share of US$1.24. Citi chairman and chief executive Charles Prince said revenue growth in both the US and from the bank's substantial international network helped Citigroup smash Wall Street's earnings forecast. Its record-topping profit of US$6.23 billion easily overshadowed the latest quarterly earnings of Google, Microsoft, Pfizer and Yahoo, which combined amounted to about US$5.4 billion.
■ BANKING
Group to launch ABN bid
A banking consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland PLC said on Friday it had cleared all regulatory hurdles and would launch its 71.1 billion-euro (US$97.8 billion) bid for Dutch bank ABN Amro Holding NV tomorrow as planned. The consortium's 38.40 euros per share offer for ABN Amro will last until Oct. 5, becoming unconditional if more than 80 percent of ABN shareholders tender their shares. Barclays PLC has proposed an all-share bid worth 33.86 euros per ABN share -- approximately 10 percent less than the RBS bid -- but suggested it may try to sweeten its offer. Barclays has until Aug. 6 to file its offer.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Toyota extends shutdown
Toyota Motor Corp, Japan's biggest automaker, will extend production halts because of a lack of parts after earthquake damage to a key supplier, Riken Corp. Toyota, which closed all of its factories for a day and half through Friday, decided not to restart production tomorrow, Tomomi Imai, a spokesman for Toyota said yesterday. Honda Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co, Japan's second and third-biggest automakers, will also extend domestic production halts. Honda will suspend all of its domestic auto production tomorrow, while Nissan will halt production at its four vehicle factories in Japan on Tuesday, the companies said on Friday.
■ STEEL
PRC clears Arcelor purchase
Arcelor Mittal, the world's largest steelmaker, was cleared to pay about 1.15 billion yuan (US$151 million) to increase its stake in Hunan Valin Steel Tube & Wire Co (華菱管線) to tap growth in the world's biggest steel market. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce approved Valin Steel's plan to sell 49.3 percent of 520 million new shares to Arcelor Mittal, the Chinese steelmaker said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange yesterday. Arcelor Mittal will hold 33.3 percent of Valin Steel, from 29.5 percent now, after the share sale is completed.
■ OIL
Chavez inaugurates refinery
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez inaugurated on Friday a 150,000-barrel-a-day refinery the nation is building in Nicaragua as part of the leftist leader's oil-funded battle against US influence in the region. Chavez said that the US$2.5 billion refinery will allow Nicaragua to earn US$700 million annually. Venezuela is building new refineries in politically aligned countries such as Nicaragua, Cuba and Brazil to ease the country's reliance on the US. Chavez also has vowed to become the sole energy supplier to Nicaragua, Cuba, Bolivia and Haiti in an attempt to strengthen his bloc, known as the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained