■ RESTAURANTS
Mitsubishi buys KFC Japan
Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp said yesterday that it successfully completed a friendly takeover of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) Japan Ltd, which owns more than 1,500 KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants around the country. Mitsubishi, which already owned 31 percent of KFC Japan's shares, will pay &ye n1,947 (US$16.91) each for a further 7.62 million shares, the bulk of which are held by US-based KFC Corporate Holdings Ltd, it said in a statement. The Tokyo-based trading company will hold nearly 65 percent of KFC Japan's voting shares as a result of the &ye n14.83 billion transaction.
■ RETAIL
CompUSA stores to close
Consumer electronics retailer CompUSA said it will close its store operations after the holidays following sale of the company to Gordon Brothers Group LLC, a restructuring firm. Financial terms were not disclosed. Dallas-based CompUSA operates 103 stores, which plan to run store-closing sales during the holidays. Privately held CompUSA, controlled by Mexican financier Carlos Slim Helu's Grupo Carso SA, said on Friday that talks were under way to sell certain stores in key markets. Stores that cannot be sold will be closed.
■ AVIATION
Qaddafi signs contracts
Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi will sign several contracts during a visit to France next week, including for Airbus planes and a nuclear reactor, his son said in an interview published on Friday. Seif el-Islam Qaddafi told the Web site of the Figaro daily the Airbus deal would be "worth more than 3 billion euros" (US$4.38 billion). Muammar Qaddafi is due to pitch a Bedouin tent in gardens next to the Elysee presidential palace in Paris on Monday at the start of a five-day visit, his first to France since November 1973. His son also said the purchase of Rafale fighter jets would be discussed, in the latest sign of improving Franco-Libyan relations.
■ TELECOMS
HK firm plans wireless trial
PCCW Ltd, Hong Kong's largest telephone company, said it will launch a trial wireless service based on WiMax technology in the UK next year. The network will have the capacity for "a few thousand" users, group managing director Alex Arena told reporters in Hong Kong yesterday. The firm plans to start network construction in the first quarter, before making a decision midyear on extending the service, he said. UK Broadband, PCCW's UK unit, started a wireless broadband service in the country in 2004 using an older technology. PCCW is in talks with companies in Taiwan and other markets to provide pay-TV services, Arena said.
■ CHINA
Bank reserve rule adjusted
China's central bank announced yesterday that it would raise the reserve ratio requirement for banks by a full percentage point to 14.5 percent on Dec. 25. The People's Bank of China made the move "to strengthen the management of liquidity in the banking system and curb the excessive growth of credit," it said in a statement. The move, the 10th such increase in the requirement this year, was expected following exceptionally strong recent economic growth and inflation data. The hike follows a half percentage point increase on Nov. 10. The requirement for banks is the amount of money they must hold in reserve, affecting the amount of money flowing through the economy.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”