INVESTMENT
First Lehman share sold
The first share ever issued by former merchant bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, whose collapse in September 2008 sparked the world economic and financial crisis, fetched 24,000 euros (US$33,000) at an auction in Germany on Saturday. The share, issued by the bank on May 31, 1994, used to hang over the manager’s desk at Lehman Brothers and was put up for sale by specialist auction house Historisches Wertpapierhaus at a starting price of 5,000 euros. Numbered LB0001, the share measuring 30cm by 20cm was issued to the bank’s boss at the time, Richard Fuld. It was sold earlier this year in a mixed lot of financial paper in the US, before being offered as a single item to the Wuerzburg--based auctioneers.
AUTOMAKERS
GM recalls Pontiacs
General Motors Co is recalling more than 38,000 Pontiac G8 models in order to reprogram airbag modules for the front passenger seats, the US automaker said on Saturday. The airbag modules for vehicles built for the 2008 and 2009 model years might not be in compliance with US federal standards for head injury protection of some passengers, according to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recall notice. The recall affects 38,444 Pontiac G8 models, which were manufactured in Australia and imported to the US. The issue was discovered in Australia during testing. There have been no crashes, injuries or complaints related to the airbag issue, the statement said, but the company found that in case of a crash, the air-bag sensor could be delayed and put some passengers at increased risk of head injury.
FRANCE
‘Rigorous’ budget ahead
Prime Minister Francois Fillon has warned the nation that belts must tighten next year to reduce the debt. He said on Saturday that next year’s budget “will be one of the most rigorous France has known since 1945.” Fillon spoke ahead of a meeting called by President Nicolas Sarkozy with a small group of ministers to plot measures aimed at filling public coffers with up to 8 billion euros more in funds. A plan could be announced today after a special Cabinet meeting. Sarkozy, expected to seek a new mandate in next year’s presidential elections, wants to keep the country’s excellent credit rating amid Europe’s debt crisis. The G20 summit he hosted failed to deliver funds to ease the panic.
CHINA
Business abroad assessed
The government is drafting rules to regulate local companies’ foreign investments, said Zhang Xiaoqiang (張曉強), deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission. The country will increase loans and financial support to encourage companies to invest abroad, he said. Meanwhile, Beijing is in talks with “relative parties” to study railway and port construction projects in western Australia, Luo Tiejun (駱鐵軍), deputy director of raw materials department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said in Tianjin yesterday.
SOUTH KOREA
Lenders to refund borrowers
The nation’s financial watchdog said four domestic loan companies, including A&P Financial Co, lent money at rates above the permitted level and should give money back to customers. The Financial Supervisory Service told the companies yesterday to immediately return a total of 3.06 billion won (US$2.8 million) in excess interest payments to customers.
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