JAPAN
Bond sales top US$1 billion
Sales of Japanese government bonds for rebuilding from the March 11 disaster reached ¥100 billion (US$1.3 billion), about twice the amount of similiarly yielding bonds sold for retail investors in September, the Nikkei Shimbun said, without saying where it got the information. Japan’s three mega-banks and four smaller banks are estimated to account for about 20 percent of the total sales, the Nikkei said. The country’s top publicly traded lenders are Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc and Mizuho Financial Group Inc.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Adecco to buy VSN
Adecco SA said it has agreed to buy VSN Inc, a provider of professional staffing services in Japan, for an enterprise value of 90 million euros (US$117 million). VSN doubles Adecco’s exposure to professional staffing in Japan and reinforces its strong position in an attractive structural growth market, Adecco said yesterday.
ITALY
Public deficit drops
The government, struggling to balance its books and keep in favor with the credit markets, said on Monday that its public finances were better than expected last year. The Ministry of Finance said the country had a public deficit — the shortfall between tax income and spending — of 61.5 billion euros (US$80 billion), down from 67 billion euros in 2010. The government had expected a deficit of 64.8 billion euros for last year and the better-than-expected showing reflected improved tax revenues and lower spending, the ministry said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Business confidence plunges
Business confidence in the country’s economic outlook plunged last month to its lowest level in three years, according to Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets, which said there was a 74 percent chance of a recession. An index of British companies’ optimism about the economy compared with three months earlier dropped by three points from November to minus 23, the unit of Lloyds Banking Group PLC said in an e-mailed report released in London yesterday. Last month’s reading was the lowest since January 2009. The Lloyds unit questioned 304 companies, all with sales of more than £1 million (US$1.55 million), between Nov. 28 and Dec. 15 for the report.
AUSTRALIA
Manufacturing expands
Manufacturing in the country expanded for the first time in six months last month, driven by gains in basic metals, transport and publishing, a private survey showed. The manufacturing index was 50.2 last month compared with 47.8 in November, the Australian Industry Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a survey released yesterday. It was the third reading for last year that was above 50, the dividing line between expansion and contraction.
MACAU
Gambling revenue surges
Casino gambling revenue in the territory surged by nearly half last year as the world’s biggest gambling market continued to boom. According to data posted on the gaming department’s Web site yesterday, gross revenue from Macau’s 34 casinos last year totaled 267.87 billion patacas (US$33.5 billion). That’s 42 percent higher than 188.34 billion patacas in 2010. Macau’s economic growth has rocketed since the government broke up a four-decade monopoly in 2002 and allowed foreign operators in.
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV on Friday announced an investment of NT$13.5 billion (US$414.62 million) over the next five years in Taiwan. The first multinational brewing company to operate in Taiwan, Heineken made the statement at a ceremony held at its brewery in Pingtung County. It also outlined its efforts to make the brewery “net zero” by 2030. Heineken has been in the Taiwanese market for 20 years, Heineken Taiwan managing director Jeff Wu (吳建甫) said. With strong support from local consumers, the Dutch brewery decided to transition from sales to manufacturing in the country, Wu said. Heineken assumed majority ownership and management rights
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI