BANKING
HSBC hiring in Asia
HSBC said yesterday it would employ at least 2,000 extra people in China and Singapore over the next five years, as it seeks to tap the fast-growing Asia Pacific markets. The Asia-focused British lender plans to hire at least 200 staff in China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau) each year until 2016, and another 1,000 in Singapore during the period, a spokeswoman from HSBC Hong Kong’s office said. The bank, which is headquartered in London, currently has 5,000 employees in China and 3,500 in Singapore. The spokeswoman said the hiring plan did not specify in which areas the new employees would be hired.
ENERGY
Toshiba eyes Landis+Gyr
Toshiba and its Japanese partners plan to buy Swiss metering technology firm Landis+Gyr for ¥200 billion (US$2.5 billion), the Asahi Shimbun and the Nikkei Shimbun said yesterday. The Japanese electronics giant has obtained preferential negotiation rights with an Australian investment group that has the major stake in the Swiss firm, the newspapers said. The two sides are likely to reach a final agreement as early as the end of this week in a deal aimed at enhancing Toshiba’s competitiveness in the next-generation power grid market, the dailies said.
DEFENSE
BAE fined US$79 million
British defense contractor BAE Systems has agreed to pay additional fines of up to US$79 million for flouting US regulations governing the export of sensitive military hardware. BAE, Europe’s biggest defense company and a major supplier to the US military, said yesterday that the latest penalties formed part of a civil settlement with the US Department of State. It said the latest fine would be payable over three years and that it would be able to reduce it by up to US$10 million to offset the cost of improved export control compliance measures.
INTERNET
Bing counting on Facebook
Microsoft’s Bing search engine is leaning more heavily on Facebook to make its results more meaningful than Google’s. As of Monday, Bing’s search results will vary depending on whether the person making a request is logged into Facebook’s online social network at the same time. This means that a link that Bing’s standard ranking formula would have buried on the fourth or fifth page of results might appear on the first page if the information had been recommended by friends within the searcher’s Facebook circle. Bing is also adding several other features and tools that draw upon the preferences shared among Facebook’s more than 500 million members.
TRADE
US delays free-trade pacts
US President Barack Obama’s administration said on Monday it would hold off on trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia until Congress approves benefits for workers. It marks the latest political feud to block congressional action on the free-trade deals. The White House, which has butted heads with its labor allies by pressing ahead with free trade, said it would not send to Congress legislation on the three pacts until renewal of a program that supports affected workers. Obama’s top economic aide Gene Sperling said that the US had an “economic and moral obligation” to assist workers and voiced hope that the Republicans would agree on the assistance alongside the trade agreements.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure