■ECONOMY
Star industry list to expand
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) will expand the government’s list of new star industries to include the patterned innovation, green building, information and communications technology (ICT) and smart electric car sectors. Wu’s predecessor, Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), had already designated specialty agriculture, green energy, healthcare, tourism, cultural innovation and biotechnology as industries with outstanding potential. The four new sectors will be added to the list, Wu said on Friday as he attended the closing ceremony of a training course for local leaders sponsored by the southern branch of the Executive Yuan in Kaohsiung.
■DUBAI DEBT
Japan firms owed US$7.5bn
Japan’s non-financial firms had about US$7.5 billion in uncollected bills from the Dubai government and its affiliated firms as of the end of October, the Nikkei business daily reported yesterday. The data, excluding bank loans, were derived from a total of 18 projects worth about US$15 billion and involving Japanese general contractors, trading houses and electric machinery manufacturers, the daily said. The figures include public works projects commissioned by the Dubai government, it added.
■AUTOMAKERS
VW targets India growth
Volkswagen AG (VW), Europe’s biggest carmaker, said it aims to capture as much as 10 percent of India’s car market in four to six years as it boosts sales in emerging markets. The Wolfsburg, Germany-based company will sell cars under three brands, including Skoda and Audi AG, to achieve its targets, VW said in a statement in Chakan near Pune in western India. Production of its Polo compact car began yesterday at the plant, which opened earlier this year.
■CONSUMER GOODS
P&G buys Ambi Pur
Procter & Gamble Co (P&G), the world’s largest consumer-goods company, agreed to buy Sara Lee Corp’s Ambi Pur brand for about 320 million euros (US$468 million) to boost air-freshener sales outside the US. Ambi Pur will help Procter & Gamble expand in Europe, Australia, Africa and some countries in Asia. The sale is expected to close in the current fiscal year, which ends on June 30 next year.
■ECONOMY
OECD points to recovery
The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said its leading economic indicator for member countries improved in October, led by increases in Germany, the UK and Russia. The indicator increased by 1 point from September to 101.4, the Paris-based organization said in a statement on Friday. That is 5.7 points higher than in October last year and the highest reading since April last year. The indicator “continues to point to a recovery,” the OECD said in a statement.
■INVESTMENT
Citigroup sued over EMI deal
Citigroup Inc was sued over the 2007 acquisition of EMI Group Ltd by private-equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd, which said the bank misrepresented that another firm was bidding on the record company. Terra Firma sued to recover “lost equity of billions of dollars” and obtain punitive damages from Citigroup, which stood to garner substantial fees from the deal as investment adviser and lender to EMI and sole financier to the private-equity company, according to a complaint filed on Friday in the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan.
HSBC Holdings PLC is deepening its commitment to Taiwan as the economy emerges as one of the bank’s fastest-growing markets globally, driven by an artificial intelligence (AI) investment boom, expanding cross-border trade, and rising wealth creation. “The advantage that Taiwan has is a growth story linked to the semiconductor and broader AI industries, strong underlying corporate performance, and wealth creation,” said Surendra Rosha, HSBC’s co-chief executive for Asia and the Middle East, in an exclusive interview with the Taipei Times on June 2, during this year’s HSBC Taiwan Conference. That combination has helped HSBC cement its position as the most profitable international
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell sharply against the US dollar to close at its lowest level since May 22 amid a massive outflow of funds from the country because of investors panicking over global equity markets. The NT dollar ended at NT$31.580 against the US dollar, slightly lower than its close of NT$31.568 on May 22, after moving between NT$31.5 and NT$31.648 on combined turnover of US$3.062 billion on the Taipei Foreign Exchange and the Cosmos Foreign Exchange. The NT dollar received a significant hit in the morning session, slumping as much as NT$0.173 at a time when other Asian currencies
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is now ranked ninth among the world’s 100 most valuable companies after its market capitalization more than doubled over the past year, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Taiwan said in a report last month. TSMC’s market capitalization surged 101 percent year-on-year to US$1.427 trillion as of March 31, the accounting and consulting firm’s 2026 Global Top 100 Companies by Market Capitalization report said. The gain catapulted the world’s largest contract chipmaker from 12th place to ninth in the rankings, and it was the fastest-growing among the global top 10, it said. TSMC was the only Taiwanese company among the top
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported record revenue of NT$416.975 billion (US$13.17 billion) for last month, putting the world’s largest contract chipmaker on track to set a record for quarterly revenue. Last month’s figure surpassed March’s record NT$415.19 billion and represented increases of 1.5 percent from April and 30.1 percent from a year earlier. For the first five months of the year, TSMC generated NT$1.96 trillion in revenue, up 30 percent year-on-year, it said in a statement. TSMC has forecast second-quarter revenue of between US$39 billion and US$40.2 billion, representing sequential growth of about 10 percent and year-on-year growth of about
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