ARGENTINA
President won’t bow to US
President Cristina Fernandez says the country will not submit to what she calls extortion or allow its economy to be ruined after losing an appeal to the US Supreme Court on defaulted debt. Delivering a national address on Monday night, she said there is no way it can comply with the US court rulings to pay off the disputed bonds in full. Fernandez said her government is willing to negotiate, but insists it will not pay cash to the winners of the court battle, even if refusing to comply with the court rulings closes the doors of the US financial system to the country. “What I cannot do as president is submit the country to such extortion,” Fernandez said.
OIL
Shell to sell Woodside stake
Royal Dutch Shell PLC says it is selling a 19 percent stake in Australia’s Woodside Petroleum Ltd, worth about US$5 billion. The shares are being sold to large investors and to Woodside itself. Shell was left with a large stake in Woodside, Australia’s second-largest oil company, after a 2001 takeover attempt was blocked by Australian lawmakers.
TECHNOLOGY
SanDisk to buy Fusion-io
US computer storage company SanDisk Corp on Monday said it was buying flash memory firm Fusion-io for US$1.6 billion. The deal is expected to help SanDisk, a maker of memorycards used for computers, smartphones and other devices, to boost its flash memory capacity with the acquisition of Fusion-io, which provides a wide array of products and services for businesses. The deal was approved by the boards of both companies, and is expected to close later this year, a joint statement said.
ENERGY
BG sells stake in North Sea
British energy producer BG Group yesterday sold its majority stake in a North Sea gas pipeline for up to £562 million (US$954 million) to Antin Infrastructure Partners. Under the terms of the deal, BG Group will sell its 62.78 percent holding in the Central Area Transmission System (CATS) gas pipeline for £523 million and an extra deferred amount of £39 million. The transaction, which is to be completed in the second half of this year, is expected to create a post-tax profit on disposal of approximately US$700 million.
SMARTPHONES
BlackBerry boosts security
Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry Ltd on Monday announced the release of new “enhanced security” for its popular BBM messaging, aiming to win back corporate users with high security needs such as banks. The BBM Protected application for messaging between the company’s lines of smartphones uses the FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic library — the US government computer security standard. In a statement, BlackBerry called it “the most secure and reliable real-time mobile messaging” available.
INVESTMENT
HK firm to buy Paris hotel
A Hong Kong steel investment firm said it has agreed to pay almost US$470 million for the five-star Paris Marriott Hotel Champs-Elysees, as it targets Chinese tourists’ desire for luxury travel. Kai Yuan Holdings (開元) plans to pay 344.51 million euros (US$467.27 million) for the seven-floor, 100-year-old hotel it said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange late on Monday. Shares in the firm surged 64 percent to HK$0.159 after the announcement.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”