CHINA
Company defaults on bond
The first company in China to default on a corporate bond said yesterday it would sell assets in a bid to meet interest payments as possible bankruptcy looms. Shanghai-based Chaori Solar Energy Science & Technology Co (超日太陽能) on Friday confirmed the landmark default on interest payments of 89.8 million yuan (US$14.7 million) for a five-year bond issued in 2012. The bond’s lead underwriter and trustee, China Securities Co (中原證券), had asked Chaori to provide immovable assets, equipment and accounts receivable to be sold or auctioned. Chaori might undergo restructuring or bankruptcy proceedings if it fails to repay debts, the company said in a filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
CURRENCIES
More bitcoin protection
The troubled bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox filed for protection under US bankruptcy law on Monday, 10 days after doing the same in Japan after a huge loss of the digital currency, a court document showed. The Japanese firm is now protected temporarily under Chapter 15 of US bankruptcy law for foreign firms. A US bankruptcy court in Dallas, Texas, accepted the request and will make a definitive ruling next month, the document said.
TECHNOLOGY
IBM must ‘resolve strike’
Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) said it was up to IBM to resolve a wildcat strike at a China-based factory, as a deal to buy the US company’s server business had yet to be finalized. In a statement posted on its Web site late on Monday, Lenovo said the strike was an internal matter for IBM, but it also pledged to maintain the salaries and benefits of all workers that chose to stay with the company after the deal is completed. More than 7,500 IBM employees in more than 60 countries were expected to transfer to Lenovo once the deal is completed, Lenovo said.
TRADE
Germany’s surplus narrows
Germany’s trade surplus narrowed slightly in January as imports grew faster than exports, official data showed yesterday. In seasonally adjusted terms, Germany exported goods worth 94.5 billion euros (US$131 billion) in January, up from 92.5 billion euros in December last year, the German federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement. Imports rose more strongly, to 77.3 billion euros from 74.2 billion euros. That meant the seasonally adjusted trade surplus decreased.
FOOD
Biggest banana firm formed
Chiquita Brands International, the US fresh food giant, and Ireland’s Fyffes said on Monday they would merge to create the world’s biggest banana company. The transaction will create a combined company valued at US$1.07 billion named ChiquitaFyffes, a fresh produce company with annual revenue of US$4.6 billion, the companies said in a joint statement. The all-stock deal values the Irish company at US$526 million.
TECHNOLOGY
Aberle to head Qualcomm
Qualcomm Inc, the biggest provider of mobile-phone chips, promoted Derek Aberle to president, naming a second-in-command to new chief executive officer Steve Mollenkopf. Aberle, 43, was an executive vice president in charge of Qualcomm’s technology licensing business, which generates about two-thirds of profit, the company said in a statement on Monday. The unit has more than doubled its earnings and revenue with Aberle in charge, Qualcomm said.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained