CRIME
Woodford meets prosecutors
Former Olympus Corp chief executive Michael Woodford spoke with Japanese investigators yesterday, reiterating his determination to get to the bottom of one of the nation’s biggest financial scandals involving a cover-up of massive investment losses. Woodford, 51, plans to confront the board of the Japanese camera and medical equipment maker at a meeting today, a day after speaking with the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission. He declined to comment on what he was going to tell prosecutors. The company’s shares gained 17 percent yesterday, its maximum permitted gain for a single day, to finish at ¥1,019.
AVIATION
Jetstar flies to Beijing
Budget airline Jetstar Airways has begun flights between Singapore and Beijing, part of an expansion plan to tap China’s growing demand for air travel. Jetstar Asia chief executive Chong Phit Lian yesterday said the company plans to add flights to two more Chinese cities for a total of 12, by the end of next year. Jetstar said it would fly Airbus A330s on its Beijing-Singapore route with a capacity of 303 passengers. Jetstar, a unit of Australia’s Qantas Airways Ltd, is the first low-cost carrier to fly to Beijing from Singapore’s Changi International Airport.
GERMANY
Spending boosts rebound
The nation’s third-quarter economic rebound was driven by consumer and company spending even as the debt crisis threatened to drag the eurozone into recession. Private consumption expanded 0.8 percent from the second quarter and company investment in plant and machinery jumped 2.9 percent, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said yesterday. GDP advanced 0.5 percent from the previous three months, the office said, confirming an initial estimate published on Tuesday last week. That was an increase on the 0.3 percent growth recorded in the second quarter.
METALS
Mitsubishi to pay Murchison
Mitsubishi Corp agreed to pay partner Murchison Metals Ltd A$325 million (US$315 million) for its stakes in two ventures, giving Japan’s largest trading house control of iron ore mine, rail and port projects in Australia. Mitsubishi indicated it would seek talks with potential new venture partners, including Chinese groups, to help build the A$5.94 billion Oakajee port and rail project, Murchison managing director Greg Martin said on a conference call with reporters. Posco, the world’s third-biggest steelmaker, is the Perth-based company’s biggest shareholder. The deal implies a value of A$0.51 for each Murchison share, 85 percent more than its price on Friday last week, the company said in a statement yesterday.
INVESTMENT
Groupon shares drop 15%
Groupon shares shed over 15 percent to close below their initial public offering (IPO) price on Wednesday, less than three weeks after the online daily deals site made its debut on Wall Street. Groupon shares, which were listed on the NASDAQ at US$20 on Nov. 4, finished the day at US$16.96, a loss of US$3.11 or 15.5 percent on the day. Shares in the Chicago-based company soared as high as US$31.14 on the first day of trading, but have lost more than 30 percent of their value since Friday. Groupon raised US$700 million in the biggest IPO by an Internet company since Google, which reaped US$1.7 billion when it went public in August 2004.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”