TECHNOLOGY
Samsung fights back
Samsung Electronics Co is set to unveil a new high-end Galaxy phone next week in circumstances far different than those facing the previous model as it fights to stay atop an industry that has proven hard for one company to lead for long. Samsung faces slumping profit growth, a falling share price, and increasing sales by Apple Inc and Chinese newcomer Xiaomi Corp (小米). “The smartphone market is getting crowded... Samsung needs something different in its product designs to stand apart in a sea of black rectangles on store shelves,” said Neil Mawston, director of global wireless practice for researcher Strategy Analytics. The new phone will have a 5.2 inch screen that is larger and sharper than the S4, and an upgraded battery and camera, according to a person familiar with the device who asked not to be identified.
BANKING
Citigroup CEO gets pay rise
Citigroup Inc, the third-largest US bank, boosted chief executive Michael Corbat’s compensation 25 percent to about US$14.4 million last year, his first full year running the company. He got 78,528 deferred shares valued at US$3.88 million, based on Tuesday’s closing price, according to a filing made on Thursday to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Corbat received about US$5.17 million in a cash bonus, US$3.88 million of performance share units and a US$1.5 million salary, based on the bank’s description of his compensation plan last year. Citigroup’s profit jumped 84 percent to US$13.9 billion last year as Corbat, 53, boosted revenue and cut costs. The chief executive’s package compares with US$20 million for JPMorgan Chase and Co’s Jamie Dimon and US$14 million for Bank of America Corp’s Brian Moynihan.
OIL
Shell sells stations, refinery
Global energy giant Shell announced yesterday it is selling 870 service stations and its last remaining Australian refinery to Swiss-based oil giant Vitol for US$2.6 billion. The deal also includes Shell Australia’s bulk fuels, bitumen, chemicals and part of its lubricants business, but the firm is to retain ownership of its Australian aviation fuel operations. The move is part of Royal Dutch Shell’s global shift away from downstream operations and follows the recent divestment of refineries in Britain, Germany, France, Norway and the Czech Republic. Most employees at the 120,000 barrel-per-day Geelong refinery in Victoria State and elsewhere will retain their jobs under Vitol.
SOUTH KOREA
Personal debt targeted
Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok said the government is planning extra measures to tackle record household debt that poses risks for the financial system and the economy. The measures will help low-income households reschedule their debt and focus on changing short-term loans into longer-term liabilities, Hyun, 63, said in an interview in Sydney, Australia, yesterday, where he was attending a G20 meeting. The likelihood of systemic danger from household debt is not high, he said. “Household debt will undermine the increase of private consumption and at the same time it will be burdensome for the lower-income class,” Hyun said. Home loans and credit extended to households rose to a record 991.7 trillion won (US$923 billion) at the end of September last year.
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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