INVESTMENT
Portfolio sets record
Singapore’s state investment giant Temasek on Monday said the value of its global portfolio rose to a record high of S$215 billion (US$169 billion) in the year to March thanks to a rebound in stock markets. Its holdings jumped 8.6 percent from the previous financial year, and are now more than three times larger than at the height of the SARS scare 10 years ago, the firm said. Temasek — which has stakes in global names including Standard Chartered bank, Spanish energy giant Repsol and DBS Bank — was boosted by an equities rebound as the US economy picked up and eurozone fears abated. “Last year, there were some signs of recovery in the global economy. The severe disruptive risks from the global financial crisis subsided,” Temasek chairman S. Dhanabalan said in a statement. “Despite the turmoil over the last decade, the Temasek portfolio value more than tripled from a trough of S$61 billion in March 2003, when the SARS epidemic hit Asia.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Bank program unchanged
The Bank of England has opted to refrain from pumping more money into the UK economy in its first meeting since new Governor Mark Carney’s arrival. The Monetary Policy Committee kept interest rates at 0.5 percent yesterday and decided against expanding its stimulus program. The bank has so far pumped £375 billion (US$579 billion) into Britain’s economy since 2009. Under the program, the Bank of England buys bonds from financial institutions with newly created money. The hope is the extra money will boost lending, helping economic growth.
CHINA
Firms cut formula prices
Swiss food giant Nestle and French food group Danone are cutting prices for baby formula in China by as much as 20 percent, they said after the government launched a investigation into alleged price-fixing by foreign firms. Nestle unit Wyeth Nutrition confirmed the investigation by the National Development Reform Commission, which has been reported by state media, and pledged to “immediately” cut prices on some formula products by 6 percent to 20 percent, according to a statement late on Wednesday. The firm promised not to raise prices on new formula products for a year and said it had improved marketing policies to ensure they were in line with regulations. Danone said that its subsidiary Dumex would also cut prices for baby formula in China. The moves came after reports on Tuesday that the commission had launched a probe of foreign baby formula makers for high prices, which it claimed resulted from a monopoly-like situation.
AUTOMakers
S Korean GM workers strike
Workers at General Motors’ (GM) factories in South Korea yesterday went on strike, demanding an increase in wages and the expansion of the company’s operations in the country, a union spokesman said. “This partial strike will go on indefinitely until we reach a compromise with the management,” a union spokesman Choi Jong-hak said. The 14,000-member union downed tools for six hours demanding a basic monthly salary increase as well as a one-off bonus. They are also angered by GM’s decision to excluded the South Korean subsidiary from its global plan to produce new Cruze compact cars, sparking speculation among workers that GM may reduce production in the country or withdraw altogether.
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],”