BANKING
Banks ‘near’ tax info deal
A group of Swiss banks is lining up to deliver information to US authorities investigating tax evasion by Americans, potentially moving a long legal battle closer to conclusion, the Wall Street Journal reported late on Thursday. Last week, the Swiss Cabinet unveiled a program to let about a dozen banks being probed by the Justice Department hand over “leaver lists,” or aggregate data on US clients’ accounts that had been transferred to other institutions as the US began targeting overseas tax evasion, the Journal reported. Some of the country’s biggest banks are eligible to apply or already have applied for Swiss government approval to participate in the program, according to people familiar with the situation, the newspaper said.
MYANMAR
Law overhauls central bank
Myanmar has introduced a new law to overhaul its central bank, the presidential office said yesterday, in the latest reform aimed at burnishing the country’s economic credentials. Details of the new legislation have not yet been published, but officials say the central bank will have more autonomy and will no longer operate as part of the finance ministry. “The significant thing is that the central bank will be an independent body,” a central bank official who did not want to be named said earlier this week. A presidential office spokesman said that Burmese President Thein Sein had signed the law on Thursday following parliamentary approval several days ago.
GOLD
Strike halts production
South African gold producer Village Main Reef said yesterday that a wildcat strike had halted all production at its Murchison mine in the north of the country. It is just the latest in a series of work stoppages to hit South Africa’s mining sector as annual wage negotiations get underway. Village Main Reef, said it would consider a court interdict to stop the strike. A raft of pay rises in the wake of last year’s Marikana tragedy — which saw 34 striking miners shot dead by police on one day — has emboldened miners’ demands for wage increases.
ENERGY
Schneider in Invensys talks
Schneider Electric was in talks about a £3.3 billion (US$5 billion) deal for Invensys yesterday, sending shares in the British group soaring on hopes others could still enter the fray. Invensys, which makes control systems for chemical plants, oil and gas facilities and nuclear powers stations, has long been mooted as a takeover target in a sector dominated by larger industrial groups. A deal by Schneider would boost the French firm’s industrial automation business. The British company said in a statement late on Thursday it was likely to recommend Schneider’s offer of 505 pence a share, which would represent a 15 percent premium to the stock’s Thursday close on the London Stock Exchange.
UNITED STATES
Budget surplus surprises
The US government posted an unexpectedly large budget surplus last month, a further sign of the rapid improvement in public finances that has taken the heat off Congress to find savings and raise the nation’s borrowing limit. Rising tax revenue, public spending cuts and big payments to the Treasury from government-backed mortgage companies helped the government take in US$117 billion more last month than it paid out, the US Treasury said on Thursday. Last month’s surplus was the largest on record for that month.
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],”