■ELECTRONICS
Toshiba to raise US$5bn
Japanese electronics giant Toshiba Corp plans to raise approximately ¥500 billion (US$5 billion) in a bid to reverse its worsening financial situation, the Nikkei Shimbun and Kyodo News reported yesterday. Toshiba is considering procuring ¥300 billion in capital through a public stock offering, they said, quoting industry sources. The company will also ask banks and other financial institutions to buy ¥200 billion in subordinated bonds by September, the sources were quoted as saying. The new capital will be used to improve its semiconductor and nuclear power operations as the company is expected to incur huge losses amid the global economic slump, they said.
■INVESTMENT
VC investments dip 61%
US venture capital (VC) investments sank 61 percent in the first quarter, dropping to the lowest level in 12 years as financiers became even warier about sinking funds into startups during a deepening recession. In yet-another indicator that a pullback that began last summer is not abating, VC investments totaled US$3 billion during the first three months of this year, said a report released yesterday by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and Thomson Reuters. In the year-ago quarter, investments totaled US$7.74 billion.
■INVESTMENT
China SWF eyes Europe
China’s US$200 billion sovereign wealth fund plans to include Europe in its targets for investment this year, after a year in which it avoided the continent because of perceived trade protectionism. “Europe has started to welcome investments” without attaching conditions, China Investment Corp’s (CIC, 中國投資公司) chairman Lou Jiwei (樓繼偉) said yesterday at the Boao Forum in Hainan Province. “During the world financial crisis, sovereign wealth funds have become more appealing” and less frightening, he said. Beijing-based CIC’s investments have included stakes in Blackstone Group LP and Morgan Stanley.
■TRADE
Vietnam to cut tariffs
Vietnam will reduce some tariffs on goods and services to push up demand in the face of an economic slowdown, according to a decision signed by the prime minister. Value-added tax (VAT) on garment and textile products, cement and motorbikes will be reduced by 50 percent between May 1 and Dec. 31, said the ruling signed on Thursday. Registration fees for cars with fewer than 10 seats will also be reduced by half, while garment and footwear enterprises will benefit from a 30 percent cut in corporate income tax for the fourth quarter of last year, it said.
■BANKING
Two US banks shuttered
Banks in Missouri and Nevada were seized by US regulators on Friday, bringing this year’s tally to 25 and equaling the number of banks shuttered in all of last year, as a recession drives up unemployment and home foreclosures. American Sterling Bank of Sugar Creek, Missouri, was shut by the Office of Thrift Supervision and Great Basin Bank of Nevada in Elko was closed by the Nevada Financial Institutions Division. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) was named receiver of the banks with combined assets of US$451.9 million and deposits of US$393.3 million, the FDIC said in e-mailed statements. Regulators closed 25 banks last year, the most since 1993.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last