BANKING
Moody’s to review ratings
The subordinated debt ratings of 177 banks in 46 countries will be reviewed and the grades may be cut as Moody’s Investors Service reassesses governments’ willingness and ability to support lenders in difficulties. Moody’s will begin its review in countries such as Germany, where governments have reformed their bank resolution regimes and shown “a clear intent” to impose losses on creditors, the New York-based ratings firm said yesterday. As new legislation is enacted in various nations, Moody’s said it would analyze the probable impact and review ratings likely to be affected. “Regulators have expressed an intent to reach more deeply into the capital structure to recover in future bailouts the cost to taxpayers,” Moody’s said. As well as imposing losses on equity, holders of “preferred stock, other forms of hybrid capital and now, in many countries, subordinated debt,” have been hurt, Moody’s said.
AVIATION
Boeing unveils newest 747
US aerospace giant Boeing on Sunday unveiled its 747-8 Intercontinental, a longer and more fuel efficient update of its emblematic jumbo jet, which it hopes will compete with Airbus A-380. “Look at this marvelous flying machine, it’s our future,” said Pat Shanahan, Boeing’s vice president and general manager of commercial airplanes division, at the unveiling ceremony at the company’s plant in Everett, Washington. Boeing has orders for 33 — including from Lufthansa and Korean Air — of its 747-8 Intercontinental, which is the passenger version. It has 74 orders for the freight version. Lufthansa, which has ordered 20, will be the first to receive the new model, according to Boeing, likely early next year.
BANKING
Credit Suisse to sell bonds
Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s second-biggest bank, agreed to sell about 6 billion Swiss francs (US$6.17 billion) of contingent convertible bonds to shareholders in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The notes will be issued to Qatar Holding LLC and The Olayan Group no earlier than October 2013, in exchange for cash or Tier 1 capital notes the bank sold to the investors in 2008, the Zurich-based company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Last October, a Swiss government-appointed committee proposed that Credit Suisse and UBS AG should hold almost double the capital required under the Basel III rules and use contingent convertible bonds to satisfy part of the requirement. The so-called CoCos automatically become equity when certain triggers, such as preset capital levels, are breached.
COMPUTERS
Tablet shipments to jump
Shipments of tablet computers may jump sixfold in two years to 101 million units next year, undermining sales of video-game players and traditional personal computers, Morgan Stanley said. The shipments may increase to 65 million this year from 16 million last year, the investment bank said in a report yesterday. The global penetration rate of tablet computers is estimated at 3 percent, compared with 75 percent for desktop computers, 63 percent for notebooks and 30 percent for smartphones, according to the report. The nascent market may benefit Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, while having a “cannibalization” effect on makers of gaming devices including Sony Corp and Nintendo Co, Morgan Stanley said. Companies whose earnings are driven by chips used in notebook computers, such as Advanced Micro Devices Inc, may also see a negative impact, the report said.
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],”