SOUTH KOREA
Inflation above target range
The country’s inflation exceeded the central bank’s target and all forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey, limiting the scope for an interest-rate cut next month even as threats to growth mount. Consumer prices rose 4.2 percent from a year earlier, matching last month’s gain, Statistics Korea said yesterday in a statement. Prices rose 0.4 percent from the previous month, the biggest gain since August. An increase in electricity prices contributed to this month’s inflation. The government raised charges after the state-owned Korea Electric Power Corp reported a loss for the first nine months of the year. Core prices, which exclude energy and food costs, advanced 3.6 percent this month from a year earlier, compared with a 3.5 percent gain last month, today’s report showed.
REAL ESTATE
Madrid’s Torre Picasso sold
Spanish construction firm FCC sold a landmark Madrid skyscraper to a real-estate firm owned by the owner of the Zara clothing chain for 400 million euros (US$521 million), FCC said on Thursday. The company sold the Torre Picasso to Pontegadea Inmobiliaria, which belongs to Amancia Ortega, Spain’s richest man and the founder of fashion group Inditex, which owns the popular Zara brand, FCC said in a regulatory filing. From its inauguration in 1988 until 2007, the Torre Picasso was the tallest building in the Spanish capital. Designed by Japanese architect Minoru Yamasaki, the creator of the doomed Twin Towers in New York, the 157m high building has 43 floors and a helipad.
MEDIA
Qatar raises Lagardere stake
Qatar Holding has raised its stake in Lagardere to more than 10 percent, making the Gulf state the largest shareholder in the struggling French media-to-aerospace conglomerate. The oil-rich emirate has been a staunch supporter of Lagardere chief executive Arnaud Lagardere even as some shareholders assailed his strategy for the company his father founded, which competes with Pearson PLC and Bertelsmann AG in radio and book publishing. Lagardere, which also is a top shareholder in Airbus parent EADS, has struggled this year as its fledgling sports business has been plagued by integration problems.
HEALTHCARE
GE settles billing claim
GE Healthcare, a branch of General Electric, has paid the US government a settlement of US$30 million plus interest for improper billing by a company it bought in 2004, officials said on Thursday. The case over Amersham Health Inc concerned claims filed under the False Claims Act, according to which the company caused the Medicare program for the elderly to overpay for a drug used to diagnose heart disease. The government alleged Amersham Health provided false or misleading information to Medicare on the number of doses available from vials used in treatment, which meant Medicare paid at artificially inflated rates.
AVIATION
AMR shares delisted
AMR Corp, American Airlines’ parent company, which filed for bankruptcy last month, said on Thursday that its stock would be dropped from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The shares will stop trading on the NYSE before the opening bell on Thursday. The delisting includes AMR common stock and some company-issued notes. AMR said that the NYSE notified the Fort Worth, Texas, company of the move after the average closing price of AMR shares fell below US$1 for 30 straight trading days.
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
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
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