BANKING
RBS hurt by provisioning
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) yesterday reported a net loss of £466 million (US$723 million) for the second quarter as it set aside £310 million to cover the costs of a computer crash and compensation for mis-selling products to customers. RBS, which is 82 percent owned by British taxpayers, said it had made a £125 million provision to pay the costs of a computer breakdown, which caused havoc with customer accounts in June. It also set aside £50 million for compensating loan customers who were mis-sold complex interest rate swaps. It also made an additional provision of £135 million to compensate customers who bought payment protection insurance that they didn’t need, raising the total provision for insurance mis-selling to £1.3 billion. The loss for the three months ending June 30 was down from a loss of £897 million a year earlier. Operating profit fell 22 percent to £650 million and revenue fell 5.4 percent to £6.4 billion.
EUROZONE
Private PMI shrank in July
Eurozone private sector activity contracted last month for the 10th time in 11 months, with data now consistently showing the downturn becoming “entrenched” in Germany, a key survey showed yesterday. The purchasing managers’ index (PMI) compiled by business research firm Markit was stuck at 46.5 last month according to a final reading, indicating another month of contraction in activity. “The final PMI data for July confirm the message from the earlier flash estimate that the eurozone continued to contract at a quarterly rate of approximately 0.6 percent in July, suggesting the region looks set for a second consecutive quarterly decline,” Markit said. The readings showed manufacturing activity at a three-year low last month, with Germany and France posting three-year-high rates of decline.
INTERNET
LinkedIn profit falls 38%
LinkedIn Corp’s net income fell in the latest quarter as the professional networking site spent more money to grow its business. However, revenue grew faster than expected, and the company raised its forecast for the year. LinkedIn’s stock increased after the results came out on Thursday, a reprieve after tepid news from other newly public Internet companies — namely Facebook and Zynga. LinkedIn, which went public more than a year ago, is among the best-performing stocks of the bunch. LinkedIn earned US$2.8 million, or US$0.03 per share, in the second quarter. That’s down 38 percent from US$4.5 million, or US$0.04 per share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings, which exclude stock compensation expenses and other items, were US$18.1 million, or US$0.16 cents per share, matching analysts’ expectations. Last year, LinkedIn had adjusted earnings of US$10.8 million, or US0.10 per share.
MINING
BHP writes down assets
BHP Billiton yesterday wrote down the value of its US shale gas assets by US$2.84 billion, prompting CEO Marius Kloppers, who was reportedly paid more than US$15 million last year, to forgo his annual bonus. Mike Yeager, BHP’s head of petroleum division, will also not be paid any extra for the past fiscal year after the massive impairment charge on the assets bought last year. The company also cut the value of its Australian nickel division by US$450 million, with the price of the commodity down and costs rising. Plunging US gas prices forced the global mining giant to book a writedown on the value of the Fayetteville shale gas assets in Arkansas.
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
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last