FRANCE
Taxes hurting growth: EC
The country’s fiscal policy has “reached the limits of acceptability,” with high company taxes weighing on growth, the head of the European Commission (EC) told French television late on Monday. Even though the country’s proposed budget is “overall satisfactory,” Jose Manuel Barroso told the LCI network: “Today, the fiscal policy in France has reached the limits of acceptability. The commission on Friday is to give its evaluation of each country in the eurozone in a new measure implemented as part of the effort to stabilize the area.
GERMANY
Inflation hits three-year low
The rate of inflation in Europe’s biggest economy slowed to its lowest level in more than three years last month on falling oil prices, official data showed yesterday. The cost of living rose by 1.2 percent this month on a 12-month basis, compared with 1.4 percent in September, the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement. It was the lowest level since August 2010.
MEDIA
News Corp posts profit
News Corp, the publishing and newspaper segment of the recently split media empire of Rupert Murdoch, announced a modest profit on Monday in its first post-breakup results. It said the net profit for shareholders was US$27 million, which compared with a loss of US$92 million for the same operating segments a year earlier. Revenues fell slightly to US$2.07 billion, compared with US$2.13 billion in the prior year.
TELECOMS
Vodafone profts on tax credit
British mobile phone giant Vodafone yesterday said that it surged back into first-half profit on a huge taxation credit, and pledged to invest after the sale of its US division. Earnings after taxation stood at £17.95 billion (US$28.6 billion) in the six months to September 30, boosted by a tax credit of almost £15 billion, it said in a results statement. The London-listed group yesterday said that it will invest £7 billion to boost businesses in key European and emerging markets, following its gigantic US$130 billion deal to sell its US joint-venture stake to partner Verizon. That compared with its previous plans to invest £6 billion.
JEWELRY
Pandora beats forecasts
Pandora A/S, the Danish maker of charm bracelets, reiterated its full-year forecasts after posting higher third-quarter profit than analysts estimated. Net income for the three months ended Sept. 30 rose to 612 million kroner (US$110 million) from 380 million kroner a year earlier, the Glostrup, Denmark-based company said in a statement yesterday. “The overall growth continues to be driven by an increasing demand for Pandora’s products launched in the last 12 months,” chief executive officer Allan Leighton said in the statement, adding that store openings added to the growth.
AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai tech officer resigns
Hyundai Motor Co’s chief technology officer resigned after a series of recalls dented the South Korean automaker’s reputation for quality. Kwon Moon-sik, who was president of the research and development division, quit on Monday, along with two other executives over a chain of quality issues, the Seoul-based company said in a statement yesterday. The resignations follow a series of recalls this year in the US, China, and most recently, the call back of its upscale Genesis sedan in South Korea over a faulty brake system.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six