ELECTRONICS
Samsung to spin off LCD unit
Samsung Electronics said yesterday its board has agreed to spin off its loss-making LCD business. Samsung, the world’s largest maker of flat panels, memory chips and flat-screen televisions, said its LCD unit would be launched as a separate entity on April 1 with capital of 750 billion won (US$668 million). The LCD business suffered losses in every quarter last year due to a supply glut and cutthroat competition, but Samsung said in a statement the spinoff would help it streamline decisionmaking and manage resources more efficiently. Analysts have said the move would help Samsung invest further in profitable businesses, such as smartphones, non-memory chips and next-generation panels.
INDUSTRY
Doosan wins Indian deal
South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction said yesterday it won a 1.5 trillion won deal to build industrial boilers for India’s state-run energy firm. Under the agreement with India’s National Thermal Power Corp (NTPC), Doosan will build five boilers for two NTPC power plants in Karnataka and Chhattisgarh, Doosan said. The boilers will be delivered by the end of 2016, it said in a statement, adding the firm since 2004 had won deals to build power plants in the Indian cities of Mundra, Sipat and Raipur. India plans to increase its power capacity by 25 gigawatts each year until 2020 at an estimated annual cost of US$25 billion.
RETAILERS
Wal-Mart takes 51% share
Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world’s largest retailer, became a majority shareholder in Yihaodian (一號店) by raising its stake in the Chinese online supermarket to tap rising consumer wealth and help the company offer more products. Wal-Mart agreed to increase its holding in the closely held Shanghai-based company to about 51 percent, it said in an e-mailed statement yesterday without disclosing terms. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company bought an unspecified minority stake in Yihaodian last year. The online supermarket would use the funds to help expand its offerings and open more warehouses and delivery stations after more than tripling sales last year, Yihaodian president Yu Gang (于剛) said.
INDUSTRY
Bluescope posts net loss
Bluescope Steel Ltd, Australia’s largest steel producer, reported a A$530 million (US$570 million) first-half net loss. The result posted yesterday for the six months through December last year is nearly 10 times larger than the A$55 million loss for the same period a year earlier. BlueScope Steel managing director Paul O’Malley said the company is on track to deliver a full-year working capital release of A$400 million to A$500 million and has initiatives for further debt reduction.
GAMING
Wynn forces back shares
Wynn Resorts said it forcibly bought back shares from its biggest stakeholder after finding the Japanese tycoon made improper payments to gambling regulators. The Las Vegas company said it took action against Kazuo Okada after a yearlong investigation uncovered that he engaged in activities that violated US anti-corruption laws. Wynn has asked Okada to resign from the board. The company said discoveries include cash payments and gifts totaling about US$110,000 to foreign gaming regulators. Okada is the founder of casino gamemaker Universal Entertainment. He held an almost 20 percent stake in Wynn Resorts Ltd.
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],”