INVESTMENT
Partners get big payout
Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP, the UK unit of Europe’s largest closely held hedge-fund firm, paid its partners as much as £60.4 million (US$99 million) for the year through March, according to a corporate filing. The highest-paid partner, who wasn’t identified, received £39.4 million, down from £78.9 million a year earlier, according to the filing posted on the UK Companies House Web site on Saturday. The UK unit had 46 designated members in that period, meaning each partner received an average pay of as much as £1.31 million. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP, based in St. Helier, Jersey, manages about US$40 billion and charges clients fees for overseeing the assets and for positive investment performance in its hedge funds.
STOCKS
SodaStream loses fizz
SodaStream International Ltd, the Israeli maker of home soda machines, fell last week on speculation poor holiday sales will erode earnings. Shares of Lod-based SodaStream sank 3.8 percent last week to US$48.32, the worst annual debut since the firm’s 2010 initial public offering. The shares touched a nine-month low on Thursday. The Bloomberg Israel-US Index rose 0.3 percent to US$110.2 for a 0.5 percent weekly gain. Ituran Location & Control Ltd, which makes devices for locating stolen vehicles, rose 5 percent in the week to a record. SodaStream has declined 24 percent since Oct. 29, the day before the company reported third-quarter sales that fell short of analysts’ estimates, the first miss on record. Surveys of SodaStream products among US retailers showed modest sales growth from the prior year during the holidays, Longbow Research LLC said.
BANKING
Goldman Sachs ups UK pay
The average pay for Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s top UK bankers rose 77 percent in 2012, even as it declined at US-based peers amid calls from governments and the public to reduce executive compensation. Goldman Sachs paid an average of US$4.67 million in 2012 to UK employees deemed by regulators as risk-takers, as well as their managers, up from US$2.64 million in 2011, according to figures disclosed by the firm. For similar staff at Citigroup Inc, average pay climbed 9 percent to US$2.38 million. At Bank of America Corp, it fell 2 percent to US$2.36 million, and at JPMorgan Chase & Co, it slid 3 percent to US$3.4 million, totals disclosed separately show. The largest US banks reported their figures for 2012 as recently as last week under European disclosure rules that are part of a regulatory push to alter pay practices blamed for contributing to the 2008 financial crisis.
AUTOMOBILES
Benz tops BMW in US sales
Mercedes-Benz withstood a sales surge from Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s BMW last month, ending its rival’s two-year reign as the top-selling US luxury vehicle brand, as the breadth of Mercedes’ lineup pushed it to an annual record. Daimler AG’s Mercedes posted a 17 percent gain last month with 33,007 deliveries, led by the new entry-level CLA, and revamped mid-size E-Class and premium S-Class cars. For the year, the brand’s sales rose 14 percent to 312,534, or 3,254 more than BMW. Daimler Chief BMW was unable to close the gap after Mercedes opened a 7,610-vehicle lead through November. BMW reported sales last month of 37,389, a drop of just 10 from a year earlier, as deliveries surged 56 percent for its 3 Series and 4 Series sedans. The automaker’s annual total rose 10 percent to 309,280, topping its record from 2007.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is