IRELAND
Moody’s cuts credit rating
Moody’s on Friday lowered its credit ratings on the nation by two notches, citing “weaker economic growth prospects” and an “expected decline” in government finances. “Moody’s Investors Service has today downgraded Ireland’s foreign- and local-currency government bond ratings by two notches to Baa3 from Baa1,” a statement said. It added that the outlook on the ratings “remains negative” — meaning further downgrades are possible. Downgrades by ratings agencies can ramp up borrowing costs on financial markets for those hit, making their funding problems more difficult to manage, while Ireland is already struggling to service its huge debt.
JAPAN
TEPCO rescue plan mulled
The government may set up a government-backed insurance fund to put money into Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) and pay compensation stemming from the disaster at its Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, the Nikkei Shimbun reported yesterday. The plan is aimed at saving the company from collapse by having the state initially shoulder the compensation costs, which the company would repay over several years via special dividends, the paper said. TEPCO president Masataka Shimizu said yesterday the initial compensation payment would total ￥50 billion (US$600.4 million).
AUTOMOBILES
Toyota limits production
Toyota Motor Co said yesterday it would operate all its domestic plants at half normal volume from May 10 to June 3, citing problems with parts supply following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. “As [Toyota] continues to address its production situation in Japan following the disaster, it has decided that vehicle production from May 10 to June 3 will proceed at approximately 50 percent of normal,” the firm said. It said in a statement it would “decide on production after this period after assessing the situation of its suppliers and other related companies.” Toyota said last week it would restart work at all its Japanese vehicle facilities from Monday to April 27 at approximately 50 percent of normal pace.
ENTERTAINMENT
Warner Music up for sale
Warner Music Group Corp is seeking to sell the entire company, rather than parts of the business, and could agree on a buyer within weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The paper, citing “people familiar with the matter,” said Warner Music’s board reached the decision to pursue a sale of the whole company at a meeting on Tuesday after receiving second-round offers from bidders. The Journal said last week’s bids for the entire company, which has a market capitalization of US$1.1 billion, were around US$3 billion, including the assumption of debt.
CONSUMER GOODS
Nestle’s Q1 sales up 6.4%
Food and drinks giant Nestle SA reports first-quarter sales of 20.3 billion Swiss francs (US$22.7 billion), up 6.4 percent in terms of organic growth, but suffering from the strength of the franc. The company said sales were off 9.8 percent because of the strong franc. Nestle said the first quarter reflected “strong, broad-based growth, building on the momentum in 2010.” It said the organic growth was 4.3 percent in the Americas, 3.9 percent in Europe and 13.8 percent in Asia, Oceania and Africa. Earlier this year Nestle boasted a full-year net profit for last year of SF34.23 billion, inflated by the sale of its stake in Alcon that added SF24.5 billion net to its balance sheet.
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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