CHEMICALS
Bayer boosts cash reserves
German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer said on Sunday it had boosted its cash reserves five-fold to about 3.8 billion euros (US$5.2 billion) as an insurance against any unexpected downturn in the economy. “We have available liquidity of 3.8 billion euros ... we are sort of paying an insurance premium,” finance director Werner Baumann told the weekend edition of Borsen Zeitung. Baumann said the funds could be accessed easily if needed, adding: “We have an unacceptably high level of unpaid bills due in the public sector, especially in Portugal, Italy and Spain.” Bayer last month reported that its net profit jumped 125 percent to 642 million euros in the July-to-September period, with sales up 1 percent to 8.67 billion euros.
AUTOMOBILES
GM’s China sales up 10%
General Motors Co (GM) yesterday said sales in China jumped 10 percent to a record 220,412 last month, helped by renewed strong demand for its minivehicles. Cumulative sales from January to last month exceeded 2.1 million, GM said. Meanwhile, Ford Motor said its sales last month were flat compared with a year earlier at 40,857 units, though its January-to-October sales were up 9 percent, at 426,814. Demand for vehicles in China, the world’s largest auto market, has softened this year as the government ended tax incentives and subsidies meant to encourage purchases of small, fuel-efficient cars.
INTERNET
YouTube for Korean pop
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt yesterday agreed to set up a YouTube channel exclusively for South Korean pop music, as he began a visit aimed at expanding his company’s presence in the country. The pledge came when Schmidt met with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Lee’s office said. Schmidt also pledged to support Internet start-up firms in South Korea, the office said in a statement.
INSURANCE
Hiscox’s premiums fall
Hiscox, one of many insurers around the world to have been hit by a wave of claims from natural disasters this year, reported a dip in insurance sales for the nine months ended September, although it hoped to benefit from rising insurance prices next year. Hiscox said its gross written premiums fell 3 percent from a year ago to £1.17 billion (US$1.9 billion), which partly reflected its decision not to take on certain high-risk contracts. In August, Hiscox posted a bigger-than-expected interim pre-tax loss of £85.6 million as catastrophe claims nearly doubled because of the Japanese earthquake earlier this year and other disasters.
GAMING
Nexon plans IPO: sources
Nexon Co, an Asian online game developer, aims to raise as much as ¥100 billion (US$1.3 billion) in an initial public offering (IPO) in Japan, two people with direct knowledge of the plan said. Nexon has hired Nomura Holdings Inc, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc to manage the global offering, which will start as soon as this week, said the people, who declined to be identified before an announcement. The game maker expects to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange as early as Dec. 12, and the company is valued at about ¥600 billion, the people said. The IPO would be the biggest in Japan this year. Tokyo-based Nexon will sell the shares in Japan, Europe and the US, they said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last