SPAIN
SEPI to sell shares
The government’s state investment holding company SEPI said on Friday it aims to sell stakes in the new parent of airline Iberia, in power grid operator REE and food company Ebro, which together could be worth more than 850 million euros (US$1.2 billion) according to current share prices. The stakes were earmarked for sale in this year’s budget and are among a string of assets that the government could sell to reduce its funding requirements, including real estate and Spain’s airports authority. SEPI said on Friday it was seeking authorization to sell 2.71 percent of IAG — the new airline holding company resulting from the merger of British Airways and Iberia, with the stake worth about 150 million euros at prevailing market prices. It was also seeking permission to sell a 10 percent stake in REE, worth about 500 million euros, as well as 8.65 percent of Ebro Foods, worth about 206 million euros currently.
AUTOMOBILES
Ford profit doubles
Ford said on Friday annual profit doubled last year to its highest earnings in more than a decade, but its share price plunged after results came in sharply lower than expected. Increased costs as Ford ramps up auto production amid rising commodity prices, a surprise fourth-quarter loss in Europe and a US$960 million charge associated with paying down debt were primarily to blame for the weaker-than-expected results. Fourth-quarter profit fell to US$190 million, from US$886 million in the same period in 2009, with earnings per share of US$0.05 that were well below the US$0.48 expected. For all of last year, Ford reported net income of US$6.6 billion, or US$1.66 per share, up 135 percent from 2009.
INTERNET
State to negotiate, not sue
The US state of Connecticut said on Friday it would hold negotiations with Google over the collection of private wireless data by its Street View mapping cars and not take the Internet giant to court. Under the agreement, Google will not be required to produce the data it collected from unsecured wireless networks in Connecticut. Google had objected to turning over the data, raising the prospect of a lengthy court battle. As part of the agreement, Google acknowledged that it collected and stored data from private unsecured wireless networks. The data collected included Web site addresses, e-mail and other “confidential and private information.”
HEDGE FUNDS
Paulson earns US$5bn
John Paulson, whose Paulson & Co hedge fund made US$15 billion betting against subprime mortgages in 2007, earned about US$5 billion last year, according to a person with knowledge of the firm. Executives and employees hold US$14.9 billion, or 42 percent, of the funds’ US$35.9 billion in assets, according to a performance report sent to clients this month. Most of that belongs to Paulson, who has reinvested his gains, after taxes and personal expenses, back into the funds since opening the firm in 1994, the report said. The manager earned US$3.7 billion in 2007, according to Alpha magazine. Paulson’s gain includes his portion of the 20 percent performance fee the firm collected on its gross profit last year of US$8.4 billion, the person said. Thirty of the 115 employees are partners who share in New York-based Paulson & Co’s revenue, according to the report.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day