■AUTOMOBILES
Mazda to recall cars
Mazda Taiwan Corp said on Friday it will recall approximately 13,250 vehicles to deal with potentially problematic power steering lines that could make steering difficult. The recall involves Mazda3 2.0, Mazda3 2.0 Sport and Mazda 5 series models produced from March 2007 to December 2008 in which the power steering lines may have been contaminated during the manufacturing process. Mazda said it will replace the steering pump and oil pipe in each of the recalled vehicles and clean the steering system for free. Drivers of these vehicles may experience poor driving performance or have difficulty steering, according to the company, or the steering system’s warning light may come on.
■BANKING
AgBank breaks IPO record
Agricultural Bank of China (AgBank, 中國農業銀行) has claimed the title of the world’s largest initial public offering (IPO) after fully exercising the over-allotment option of its Shanghai share offering, Dow Jones Newswires said. The lender raised an additional 9.11 billion yuan (US$1.34 billion) from the Shanghai portion of the IPO by selling an extra 3.4 billion shares at 2.68 yuan each, the report said, citing a person familiar with the deal late on Friday. The IPO has now raised a record US$22.1 billion , the report said. The previous record was set by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (中國工商銀行), which raised US$21.9 billion in its 2006 IPO.
■PETROLEUM
Brazil reports profit increase
Brazil’s state-run oil company says its second-quarter net profit rose 1.7 percent from the same period a year earlier. Net profit for Petroleo Brasileiro SA totaled 8.3 billion reals (US$4.7 billion) in the April to June quarter, compared with a net profit of 8.2 billion reals in the same quarter last year. Revenue increased to 53.6 billion reals from 44.6 billion reals. The company’s statement on Friday said its modest gain in profit came in part from decreased operational costs.
■ECONOMY
Sweden’s rating ‘resilient’
Ratings agency Fitch on Friday affirmed Sweden’s long-term foreign currency debt rating at AAA, calling the Nordic country’s public finances “resilient.” “Sweden’s public finances have been resilient in the face of a 5 percent real contraction of the economy in 2009, and together with the high savings rate, reflected in the large current account surplus, are key strengths underpinning the sovereign ratings,” Eral Yilmaz, a director in Fitch’s sovereign group, said in a statement. The agency also praised Sweden’s large banking sector, saying it “has not had to turn to the sovereign for any notable capital support despite its significant exposure to the Baltic countries.”
■POWER
Blackstone acquires Dynergy
Blackstone Group LP agreed to acquire Dynegy Inc, the Texas power producer that lost 94 percent of its market value in the past three years, for more than US$540 million. Owners of Houston-based Dynegy will get US$4.50 in cash for each of their shares, the seller said on Friday in a statement. The agreement allows Dynegy to pursue a better offer. Blackstone, the world’s largest buyout firm, also agreed to assume Dynegy’s debt, bringing the acquisition’s total value to about US$4.7 billion. Power producer NRG Energy Inc said it agreed to pay Blackstone US$1.36 billion for Dynegy plants in California and Maine. Dynegy also has plants in the US Midwest and Northeast.
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],”