INTEREST RATES
India maintains key rate
The Reserve Bank of India left its key interest rate unchanged yesterday owing to inflation concerns, thwarting hopes of a rate cut to kickstart flagging growth in Asia’s third-largest economy. The central bank said the policy repo rate — at which it makes short-term loans to banks — would remain unchanged at 8 percent, and the cash reserve ratio — the ratio of cash banks must keep on hand — would stay at 4.75 percent. The bank also took a step to improve credit flow to exporters by raising the cap on banks’ export credit refinancing from 15 percent to 50 percent, effective June 30. The bank said the move would provide domestic banks with 300 billion rupees (US$5.4 billion) of additional liquidity.
RETAIL
Tesco announces Japan exit
Britain’s biggest retailer Tesco yesterday announced that it had finally struck a deal to exit its Japanese business. Tesco said in a statement that it would exit Japan in two stages — first by selling 50 percent of its shares in Tesco Japan to Aeon — Japan’s biggest retail group — for a nominal amount. Once in the joint venture with Aeon, Tesco said it would then invest about £40 million (US$63 million) into the Japanese business to finance further restructuring. Thereafter, Tesco said that it would have no further financial exposure to the Japanese business. Completion of the transaction remains subject to normal regulatory approval.
PROPERTY
HK firm vows to fight Macau
A Hong Kong property company whose billionaire chairman is facing corruption charges is vowing to fight the Macau government’s attempt to take back a land grant related to the case. Chinese Estates Holdings Ltd (華人置業集團) said on late on Sunday it would be “strongly opposing” the government’s proposal to cancel the contracts for land where it is building luxury apartments. The Macau government told the company on Friday of its plans. The company said it has already invested HK$2.8 billion (US$360 million) in the project. Macau prosecutors charged chairman Joseph Lau (劉鑾雄) last month with bribery and money laundering. He allegedly offered a bribe to Macau’s former public works chief to clear the land deal.
FINANCE
New finance boss for Man
Man Group has named a new finance director on the day Europe’s largest listed hedge fund manager was due to exit Britain’s blue-chip trading index after an extended period of poor performance at its flagship fund AHL. Jonathan Sorrell, currently Man’s head of strategy and corporate finance, in an unexpected move is taking the role from Kevin Hayes, who is leaving the company with immediate effect to pursue other professional and personal interests, Man said in a statement. The US$21 billion “black box” fund, named after 1980s founders Michael Adam, David Harding and Martin Lueck, is down an estimated 1.4 percent so far this year, after losing 6.4 percent last year.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Takeda to cut Pfizer drugs
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co, Japan’s biggest drugmaker, yesterday said it would stop distributing 13 Pfizer Inc drugs it now sells in Japan at the end of this year and Pfizer itself will begin selling them from next year. The 13 drugs include antibiotic Minomycin, anticancer agents Torisel and Mylotarg, and depression treatment
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],”