ENERGY
Reliance profits hit peak
Reliance Industries Ltd, operator of the world’s biggest oil refinery complex, reported its highest quarterly profit in more than two years as a decline in the value of the rupee boosted export earnings. Net income in the quarter to March 31 for the company controlled by India’s richest billionaire Mukesh Ambani matched analyst estimates as refinery margins recovered from the previous three months, and it starts projects that will add to revenue. Higher profit is making analysts the most bullish on the company’s stock in more than two years, while its shares have increased to the highest since May 2011. Profit increased to 56.3 billion rupees (US$933.79 million), or 17.4 rupees a share, in the quarter, from 55.9 billion rupees, or 17.3 rupees, a year earlier, the Mumbai-based company said in a stock exchange filing yesterday.
SOCIAL MEDIA
LinkedIn sees 300m users
The career-focused social network LinkedIn announced on Friday it has 300 million members, with more than half the total outside the US. “While this is an exciting moment, we still have a long way to go to realize our vision of creating economic opportunity for every one of the 3.3 billion people in the global workforce,” LinkedIn vice president Deep Nishar said in a blog posting. Nishar said that for future growth, the company believes it will be more important to get people using the network on mobile devices. “We know mobile is critical,” he said. “Later this year, we are going to hit our mobile moment, where mobile accounts for more than 50 percent of all global traffic.”
BANKING
Italian bank to boost equity
Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena gave the go-ahead on Friday to a 5 billion euro (US$6.9 billion) equity raising that is to boost its capital and allow it to repay a government bailout this year. The bank said in a statement the share sale would give it a strong enough “capital buffer” to withstand EU bank stress tests in the current climate of “high uncertainty and limited visibility.” The increase will also allow the lender to speed up a restructuring plan, due to be completed by 2017, that includes 8,000 job cuts and the closure of 550 branches. The Tuscan bank has to pay back by the end of the year some 4 billion euros in credit it received from the Italian government last year to stave off bankruptcy.
AUTOMAKERS
Fiat to make Jeeps in China
Fiat SpA plans to begin making Jeep sport utility vehicles in China, the largest market for the brand outside the US, by late next year after reaching an agreement with local partner Guangzhou Automobile Group Co (廣州汽車集團). Turin-based Fiat, which bought full control of Jeep producer Chrysler Group LLC, and Guangzhou Auto are to produce three new Jeep vehicles in Guangzhou, Chrysler said on Friday in a statement. The joint venture will soon finalize its production plans, which include the consideration of a Jeep model designed for China, it said. “Today’s announcement represents the next chapter in the proper utilization and expansion on a global scale of the Jeep brand,” Fiat chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne said in the statement.
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