EUROPEAN UNION
Financial tax called for
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is among regional leaders calling for a Europe-wide tax on financial transactions, Der Spiegel reported, citing a joint letter to the body’s leadership. “We’re convinced that a financial transaction tax should be introduced at the European level,” nine officials, including Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and French Finance Minister Francois Baroin, said in the letter to Danish Finance Minster Margrethe Vestager, who country holds the body’s rotating presidency. “We would welcome it if the presidency speeds up the negotiation process,” the Hamburg-based magazine cited the letter as saying. The German finance ministry is drafting a proposal for a financial transaction tax, Der Spiegel said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Corporate tax cut planned
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne will announce plans to reduce the country’s corporate tax in a speech on March 21, the Sunday Times reported, citing unidentified treasury officials. Under the plan, the corporate tax would fall to 23 percent during the current government’s term with a 20 percent target set for later, according to the newspaper. The corporate tax is 25 percent now, compared with 35 percent in the US, 33.3 percent in France and 15 percent in Germany, the Sunday Times said.
FINANCIAL MARKETS
HK overhauls risk policies
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd will revise assumptions in stress-testing and ask clearing participants to pay margins as part of an overhaul of risk management, Charles Li (李小加), the exchanges’ chief executive officer, said at a press conference in Hong Kong yesterday. The exchange will start a dynamic guarantee fund based on market volatility, Li said. It aims to implement new risk-management measures from the second quarter of this year, he said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
China registers new drug
Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Ltd (四環醫藥控股集團) registration of Tylerdipine Hydrochloride, an anti-hypertension drug, was accepted by the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration, according to a company statement. The company expects to receive clinical trial permission for the drug in China by the end of next year, the statement said.
GAMING
PAGCOR’s revenues rise
Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp’s revenues rose to a record 3.56 billion pesos (US$83.8 million) last month from 2.63 billion pesos a year earlier, the Philippine gaming agency said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The agency known as PAGCOR is “optimistic” it will meet its 45 billion peso gross income target this year, chairman Cristino Naguiat said.
CONGLOMERATES
Dubai firm eyes sell-off
Dubai Investments PJSC, the owner of stakes in more than 40 companies, plans to exit some of its businesses as Dubai’s economy shows signs of recovery, chief executive officer Khalid bin Kalban said. “We have three companies under evaluation or due diligence for private placements and by summer we can decide on exits,” Kalban said an interview in Dubai on Wednesday. “The economy is improving and the whole dust surrounding the financial situation is settling. It’s a good opportunity to look again at divesting some of the assets.”
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six