GREECE
‘Troika’ likely to return
A mission of inspectors from Greece’s international lenders will probably return to Athens today, a source close to the inspection team, also known as the “troika,” said yesterday. The troika suspended a visit in Athens earlier this month after Greece failed to meet its fiscal pledges under its EU and IMF bailout plan. Meanwhile, Greek lawmakers were expected to approve a deeply unpopular property tax yesterday to open the way for the return of international lending inspectors and the release of vital aid.
BANKING
Goldman mulls more cuts
Goldman Sachs is mulling drastic spending cuts as it braces for what could be one of its worst quarterly reports since it went public more than a decade ago, the New York Times reported yesterday. After Goldman set out this summer to cut costs by US$1.2 billion by the middle of next year, including slashing about 1,000 jobs, or 3 percent of its workforce, the Times said the firm is now considering cutting up to US$1.45 billion. It said the company is also looking at cutting employee pay and non-compensation costs such as real estate and travel.
ACCOUNTING
Deloitte faces lawsuit
A pair of lawsuits filed on Monday claim that Deloitte & Touche LLP should pay US$7.6 billion in damages for failing through years of audits to detect massive fraud at a now-defunct Florida mortgage company. “They certainly did not do their job,” said attorney Steven Thomas, who represents those suing Deloitte. “This is one of those cases where the red flags are staring you in the face and you’ve got to do a lot, and they did not.” Deloitte spokesman Jonathan Gandal said that the company rejects the claims.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained