AUTOMAKERS
Indian car sales dip 7.4%
India’s car sales slid by more than 7 percent last month, marking a record ninth straight month of decline, industry data showed yesterday, as an economic slump and high borrowing costs discouraged buyers. Carmakers sold 131,163 cars last month, down 7.4 percent from the same month last year, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers said. Meanwhile, sales of motorcycles — a popular means of personal transport — slipped by 1.5 percent to 809,312 units.
TAXes
UK policy confusing: Deloitte
Deloitte UK has called for more consistency from Britain on taxes, the Daily Telegraph said yesterday, quoting the head of the accounting firm. Chief executive and senior partner David Sproul told the daily that a number of companies have put their plans to move to the UK on hold as a result of the mixed messages on taxes from the Treasury and the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. Britain is initiating proposals aimed at discouraging companies and individuals from using complex schemes — some of which drift over into illegality — to reduce their tax payments, after several multinational firms were shown to be paying little or no taxes in Britain.
BANKING
Deutsche may face caution
Deutsche Bank AG may be told as soon as this month by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) to improve its controls to prevent a repeat of attempts to manipulate benchmark interest rates, a person familiar with the matter said. The financial regulator is finalizing its first report into the rigging of Libor and similar benchmarks and will submit it to the Frankfurt-based lender as soon as this month, said the person, who asked not to be identified. BaFin will present its findings to Deutsche Bank management, telling them to adhere to standards set by the regulator, the person said. Barclays PLC, UBS AG and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC have paid a total of about US$2.5 billion in fines for colluding to rig benchmark interest rates for profit or to mask their true cost of borrowing.
INTERNET
Hirayama joins Yahoo Japan
Yahoo Japan Corp said Ryu Hirayama, a former banker at Goldman Sachs Group Inc in Tokyo, joined the country’s most-visited Web portal on Aug. 1. The company has not decided on his position, said Junji Miyahara, a spokesman for Yahoo Japan. Hirayama advised on mergers and acquisitions while at Goldman. Yahoo Japan, whose largest shareholder is billionaire Masayoshi Son of Softbank Corp, has announced at least eight mergers and acquisitions worth about US$670 million since April last year, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
RETAIL
Massmart eyes Kenya
Massmart Holdings Ltd, South Africa’s biggest food and household-goods wholesaler, said it has met “several important players” in Kenya’s retail industry as the unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc seeks expansion abroad. “Massmart’s interest in investing in Kenya is well-known,” chief executive Grant Pattison said in an e-mailed response to questions. “We don’t, however, comment on acquisitions, potential, speculative or otherwise.” Business Daily, a Nairobi-based newspaper, reported yesterday that among possible targets in Kenya, Massmart’s potential interest triggered a dispute about whether to sell among investors at family-controlled Naivas Supermarket Ltd.
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