RUSSIA
Exchange sets IPO price
The nation’s main stock exchange yesterday said that its initial public offering (IPO), set to be held in Moscow later this month, would value the company at US$4 billion to US$4.6 billion. The Moscow Exchange — formed in a 2011 merger of the MICEX and RTS bourses — set its price range at 55 rubles to 61 rubles per share for the offering on Friday next week. The exchange said in a statement that it hoped to raise more than US$500 million from the offering so that it could boost the capitalization of its clearing subsidiary and improve its information-technology infrastructure. The combined MICEX-RTS exchange was valued at US$4.5 billion at the time of its merger.
ENERGY
Daewoo wins S Korea order
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co, the world’s third-largest shipbuilder by revenue, said it would supply South Korea with 10 wind-power turbines this year. Daewoo will supply the 2-megawatt capacity turbines to a joint venture with Korea East-West Power Co. The turbines will go to a wind-farm project in Younggwang, southwest of Seoul, the company said in a statement. The project will generate enough electricity to supply 13,000 households a year once it is completed in the third quarter, Daewoo said, without disclosing the project’s cost.
AIRLINES
JAL net profit falls 3.7%
Japan Airlines (JAL), which made a comeback from bankruptcy, yesterday said its net profit fell 3.7 percent in the first three quarters of fiscal 2012, but the carrier shrugged off the impact from its grounded 787s and raised its full-year profit estimate. The ¥140.6 billion (US$1.52 billion) profit the company reported yesterday for April to December last year compared with ¥146 billion in the same period a year earlier. Revenues rose 3.6 percent to ¥942 billion, but operating costs rose by nearly 5 percent. For the full year to next month, JAL raised its profit forecast to ¥163 billion, from an earlier estimate of ¥140 billion.
WATCHES
Swatch profits rise 26%
The world’s biggest watch-making group Swatch yesterday said its net profit last year rose 26 percent to 1.6 billion Swiss francs (US$1.76 billion), beating market expectations. Swatch said “thanks to a high level of capacity utilization, innovative production methods and traditionally strong cost controls, operating profit increased to 1,984 million Swiss francs, a rise of 22.9 percent compared to 2011.” Earlier, Swatch had reported that sales last year rose 14 percent to SF8.1 billion francs. The watchmaker forecast long-term growth prospects of 5 to 10 percent per year for the Swiss watch industry.
INSURANCE
Hannover sticks to forecasts
Hannover Re, the world’s third-biggest reinsurer, yesterday said it was sticking to its full-year forecasts despite a “considerably more competitive environment.” “In view of the satisfactory outcome of the treaty renewals on January 1, Hannover Re anticipates a good financial year in non-life reinsurance,” the group said in a statement. “All in all, the prospects on the underwriting side should be roughly comparable with those of 2012.” As previously announced, Hannover Re said it is pencilling in an increase of “around five percent” in total gross premium income for the current year, with premiums in non-life reinsurance growing by 3 to 5 percent and in life and health insurance by 5 to 7 percent.
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],”