■ TRADE
Malaysia, India eye FTA
Malaysia and India will begin negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) in January, a report said yesterday. Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz was quoted as saying that a bilateral trade pact could boost Malaysia's exports to India by 1.3 times, or US$12 billion, by 2012. The talks would aim for a comprehensive bilateral agreement covering goods and services, investments and economic cooperation, the New Straits Times newspaper reported her as saying. Last year, India was Malaysia's ninth-largest trading partner, ninth-largest export destination and 17th-largest import source.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Fiat to invest in Brazil
Fiat is to invest nearly US$3.4 billion in South America's biggest car market, Brazil, over the next three years to boost in-country production, the CEO of the automaker, Sergio Marchione, said on Friday. The lion's share of the investment -- US$2.8 billion -- will go to expanding a factory that the company already has in the state of Minas Gerais, Governor Aecio Neves told reporters. The expansion will push the plant's production from a current 700,000 vehicles per year to more than 1 million in 2010, Neves said following a meeting with Marchione and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
■ BANKING
BoCom, HSBC to team up
Bank of Communications Ltd (BoCom, 交通銀行), part-owned by HSBC Holdings Plc, plans to cooperate overseas with the UK bank, BoCom chairman Jiang Chaoliang (蔣超良) said. The Chinese lender is seeking overseas acquisitions and branches, Jiang said yesterday at a conference in Beijing, without elaborating. The Shanghai-based lender in April raised US$3.3 billion in a Shanghai share sale. HSBC, Europe's biggest bank by market value, raised its ownership in BoCom to 19 percent from 18.6 percent after buying 172.5 million shares on the open market for HK$2.16 billion (US$278 million) on Oct. 23 and Oct. 24. The London-based bank has said it wants to return its holding in BoCom to 19.9 percent.
■ MINERALS
Rusal wants Norilsk stake
Aluminum giant United Company Rusal said on Friday that it would acquire a stake of 25 percent plus one share in metals conglomerate OAO Norilsk Nickel from former general director Mikhail Prokhorov if his former business partner does not buy him out. In exchange for turning over the stake in Norilsk to Rusal, Prokhorov's Onexim group will receive 11 percent of shares in Rusal plus an undetermined amount of cash, Rusal and Onexim said in a joint statement. However, the statement said, "the transaction is conditional upon non-acceptance of an offer to buy 25 percent of Norilsk Nickel made by Onexim to Vladimir Potanin." Potanin owns Norilsk Nickel.
■ ELECTRONICS
Sanyo disputes report
Sanyo Electric Co said a Nikkei newspaper report that it plans to book an additional ¥100 billion (US$926 million) loss for fiscal year 2000 is a "presumption" and that auditors were still finalizing past earnings. The company will make the auditor's report public when it is completed, Sanyo said in a statement to the stock exchange yesterday. Sanyo undervalued losses at poorly performing semiconductor and liquid-crystal-display units during a review of unconsolidated earnings for the period from fiscal 2000 to 2005, the Nikkei said yesterday. The additional loss would mean Sanyo was operating at a loss, the report said.
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
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
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