TAXATION
Singapore, US to enter pact
Singapore has reached a tax information-sharing agreement with the US under a new law meant to combat offshore tax dodging by US citizens, a US Treasury Department spokeswoman said on Monday. Set to take effect on July 1, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2010 (FATCA) will require foreign banks, investment funds and insurers to hand over information to the US Internal Revenue Service about accounts with more than US$50,000 held by Americans. Foreign firms that do not comply face a 30 percent withholding tax on their US investment income and could effectively be frozen out of US capital markets.
TAXATION
EU nations target new tax
A group of 11 EU nations are to reach an agreement soon on introducing a financial transaction tax, German Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Monday, ahead of a meeting of finance ministers from the 11 countries seeking the levy, and that an agreement on “limited taxation of stock and derivatives” trading could be reached by the day’s end. The levy’s scope will not be as broad as its supporters initially hoped for, but the EU nations behind it say it is better to start with an imperfect solution than having no tax at all. The EU estimates that a financial transaction tax encompassing all asset classes could yield about 30 billion euros (US$42 billion) in additional tax revenue annually.
CHILE
Economic growth slows
Chile’s economy grew at its slowest pace since 2010 in the first quarter due to less investment and consumer spending. The central bank says its indicator of economic activity expanded at an annual rate of 2.8 percent in March and by 2.4 percent in the first quarter.
Chile is the world’s top copper-producing nation and is known for its fast growth and low unemployment, but growth has slowed to a four-year low and prices for copper have plunged.
COMMUNICATIONS
Tesco to launch smartphone
Tesco, Britain’s biggest retailer, will launch its first own-brand smartphone by the end of the year, building on the success of the Hudl tablet it launched last year, it said on Tuesday. A spokesman for the firm said the Tesco smartphone would run on Google’s Android software and would be pre-installed with Tesco services. Tesco has sold more than 500,000 Hudl tablets and plans to launch a second version later this year.
AUTOMAKERS
BMW earnings, revenue rise
German top-of-the-range carmaker BMW said yesterday it got off to a strong start this year with earnings and revenues rising in the first three months. First-quarter net profit climbed by 11.4 percent to 1.462 billion euros (US$2 billion). Underlying or operating profit was up 2.6 percent at 2.09 billion euros and revenues rose by 3.9 percent to 18.235 billion euros. Unit sales advanced by 8.7 percent to 487,024 vehicles worldwide.
SPORTING GOODS
Adidas earnings slide
Adidas, the German maker of sportswear and equipment, said Tuesday that earnings were down in the first quarter, hit by unfavorable exchange rates and the strong euro. In the period from January to March, net profit fell by 33.8 percent to 204 million euros (US$283 million). Underlying or operating profit tumbled 31.4 percent to 303 million euros and sales were down 5.8 percent at 3.533 billion euros.
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
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],”