FOOD
Nestle Q1 revenue up 5%
Swiss food and drinks giant Nestle SA reported first-quarter sales of 21.389 billion Swiss francs (US$23.34 billion), up more than 5 percent from sales of SF20.26 billion a year ago. The Vevey, Switzerland-based company said the first-quarter sales reflected strong growth in emerging markets, despite low consumer confidence amid financial crises in developed countries. Nestle CEO Paul Bulcke said that “as anticipated, 2012 is already confirming itself to be a challenging year ... [but] our past and present investments, and continuing innovation, have enabled us to deliver good growth in the first quarter.”
STEEL
POSCO Q1 profit down 42%
South Korea’s POSCO, the world’s third-largest steelmaker by output, yesterday said first-quarter net profit dropped 42 percent year-on-year due to price cuts and higher raw material costs. Net profit was 539 billion won (US$473 million) for January-March, compared with 927 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Price discounts owing to slowing demand amid the global economic turmoil were the main factor squeezing margins, spokesman Chung Jae-woong said. Operating profit fell 54 percent to 422 billion won, from 921 billion a year earlier, while sales rose 3.8 percent to 9.460 trillion won.
BANKING
Bank of America improving
Bank of America Corp on Thursday reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings, in the latest sign that the No. 2 US bank is moving past the mortgage troubles that have hobbled it since the financial crisis. First-quarter net income was US$653 million, or US$0.03 a share, down from US$2.05 billion, or US0.17 per share, a year earlier. The bank reported charges of US$4.8 billion related to changes in the value of its debt, partially offset by gains of US$2.8 billion from equity investments and debt-related transactions. Excluding debt valuation adjustments, earnings were US$0.31 a share.
TELECOMS
CWW awaits Vodafone offer
Cable & Wireless Worldwide PLC (CWW) said on Thursday it had secured a four-day extension to allow Vodafone to make an offer for the international telecoms company. The company said in a statement that Britain’s takeover regulator had pushed the deadline for any potential bid back from Thursday at 5pm until Monday noon. “There can be no certainty that any offer will be made, nor as to the terms of any offer,” the statement added. CWW, created in 2010 following a demerger, operates a cable network serving 150 countries directly or through local partners, supplying telecoms services to businesses and public sector bodies. The company had been courted by two suitors — Tata Communications Ltd and Vodafone Group PLC — but Tata ruled itself out of the running on Wednesday, sending CWW shares plunging.
MUSIC
EU greenlights EMI sale
The EU’s competition regulator on Thursday approved a deal by Sony/ATV and other investors to buy part of the famous British music company EMI Group Ltd. Sony/ATV, a joint venture between Sony Corp and the Michael Jackson estate, and several investment funds, including United Arab Emirates-based Mubadala Development Co, jointly offered US$2.2 billion in November for EMI Music’s publishing businesses. EMI’s publishing arm manages the rights to songs of popular artists such as Amy Winehouse, Regina Spektor and Rihanna.
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
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
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
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