ENERGY
Shell names new CEO
Royal Dutch Shell PLC yesterday appointed its downstream director Ben van Beurden to replace Peter Voser as CEO when Voser retires next year. Van Beurden’s promotion marks a return to a Dutchman leading the Netherlands-British multinational after the tenure of Voser, who is Swiss. Van Beurden has worked for Shell’s upstream and downstream businesses in Europe, Africa, Asia and the US. He will take over from Voser on Jan. 1. Voser will retire at the end of March after 29 years with the company.
CONGLOMERATES
LVMH acquires Loro Piana
French luxury conglomerate LVMH will assume control of Italian exclusive ready-to-wear fashion group Loro Piana by buying an 80 percent stake for about 2 billion euros (US$2.5 billion), the company said in a statement on Monday. LVMH said that the Loro Piana family would keep the remaining 20 percent share, and that the Italian company’s current directors, Sergio and Pier Luigi Loro Piana, would keep their posts. It said the change in ownership would have a positive earnings effect as of the first year. Loro Piana’s turnover for this year is expected to reach about 700 million euros, while its pre-tax profit is forecast to come in at about 150 million euros.
INTERNET
Hulu gets more bids: report
The Wall Street Journal on Monday reported that several bidders have stepped up to vie for Hulu, an online video Web site that Internet pioneer Yahoo was said to be eyeing as an acquisition. The Journal cited unnamed sources as saying that Hulu had several suitors, including satellite television company DirecTV and a partnership led by US telecom titan AT&T. A Friday deadline had been set for submitting final bids for Hulu, which was launched in 2007 in a partnership between Comcast, 21st Century Fox and The Walt Disney Co.
AUTOMAKERS
Tesla to join NASDAQ
Tesla Motors Inc, the world’s best-performing automotive stock this year, will join the NASDAQ-100 Index next week, filling the spot vacated by Oracle Corp, which is moving to the New York Stock Exchange. The electric-car maker will be added to the gauge, which tracks the biggest firms on the NASDAQ, before the start of trading on Monday, NASDAQ OMX Group Inc said in a statement on Monday. Shares of Tesla have more than tripled this year in New York as the popularity of its new Model S sedan helped the company turn profitable for the first time.
FOOD
Abbott to cut formula prices
Abbott Laboratories will cut the prices of its main infant formula products in China by as much as 12 percent, the fourth foreign company to do so in a week after the government began a probe into possible price-fixing. Abbott will reduce the prices of products such as Similac and Pediasure by 4 percent to 12 percent in China, Pamela Harrison, a spokeswoman for the company, said by telephone yesterday. The Abbott Park, Illinois-based company joins Nestle SA, Danone and Dutch producer Royal FrieslandCampina NV in lowering prices after the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planning agency, started a probe into their pricing of milk powder. The investigation includes Mead Johnson Nutrition Co and domestic firm Biostime International Holdings (合生元國際控股).
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure