CONGLOMERATES
Philips Q1 profit up 80%
Royal Philips Electronics NV, the world’s largest maker of lights, yesterday said its first-quarter earnings rose sharply due to a deal with Sara Lee Corp in which Sara Lee licenses the rights to their jointly developed “Senseo” coffeemaker brand for nine years. Net profit was 248 million euros (US$327 million), up 80 percent from 137 million euros, including a net 160 million euros gain from the Sara Lee deal. Sales rose 6.7 percent to 5.61 billion euros, mostly due to a 9 percent sales increase at its healthcare equipment arm. The company added that Europe’s economy remains weak, but that its earnings could still improve in the second half of the year due to cost cutting.
SINGAPORE
Inflation surges to 5.2%
Singapore’s inflation accelerated more than economists estimated last month, justifying the central bank’s decision to tighten monetary policy this month. The consumer price index rose 5.2 percent from a year earlier, after climbing 4.6 percent in February, the Department of Statistics said in a statement yesterday. That exceeded the predictions of 17 of 18 economists in a Bloomberg News survey, where the median estimate was for a 4.7 percent increase. Core inflation rate was 2.9 percent last month. The Monetary Authority of Singapore recently raised its inflation forecast for this year, as it diverged from most other Asian central banks that have left borrowing costs unchanged or eased monetary policy in recent weeks.
FRANCE
Industrial sentiment falls
French industrial sentiment fell this month to remain below its long-term average, figures released yesterday by the national statistics office showed. The Insee office said that its confidence index of major French companies declined to 95 points this month from 98 last month, after revising the latter figure higher by two points. Sentiment remained therefore below the indicator’s long-term average of 100 points. On Friday, Insee data showed that French industrial orders had stagnated in February, with foreign orders 1.5 percent lower than in January.
UNITED STATES
Firms upbeat on economy
Companies are growing more upbeat about the US economy this year and plan to take on more workers as demand improves, a survey released yesterday in Washington showed. About 78 percent of businesses, the most in a year, project the world’s largest economy would expand more than 2 percent this year, according to the National Association for Business Economics’ survey. That compares with 65 percent in the group’s January report. About four in 10 firms, the most since July last year, said they expected employment to pick up in the next six months, showing businesses are looking beyond higher oil prices and Europe’s debt crisis. At the same time, 66 percent said they expected no change in prices in the next three months, indicating US Federal Reserve policymakers would have room to keep interest rates low to nurture the almost three-year-old expansion.
COSMETICS
L’Oreal eyeing Cadum
France’s L’Oreal is interested in buying soap and baby products company Cadum in a deal that could be worth 200 million euros, Les Echos reported yesterday. L’Oreal CEO Jean-Paul Agon is looking to open exclusive negotiations with Milestone capital, a Franco-British investment fund that owns Cadum, the newspaper reported. Milestone acquired Cadum in 2007, investing 17.5 million euros in a leveraged buyout.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
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
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
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San