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).
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
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
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in