BANKING
Citigroup plans wage hike
Citigroup Inc has told senior staff in Europe that they would receive fixed monthly pay in addition to their salaries in an attempt to compensate for rules that limit bonuses to up to twice the level of base salaries, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing several people with knowledge of the matter. More than 600 Citigroup bankers in Europe were affected by the bonus cap and are therefore to be paid such allowances, several people told the newspaper. They said the US bank had sent out letters to senior staff in recent weeks. The report said that about half of the bankers had received similar allowances in the past after Citigroup introduced them a few years ago to mitigate the impact of regulatory demands on higher bonus deferrals for key staff. In June, Dutch state-owned bank ABN AMRO increased the salaries of 100 top managers by 20 percent to compensate for new regulations capping bonuses in the Netherlands.
CASINOS
Macau sees revenue drop
Casino revenue in Macau was worse than analysts expected last month, falling for a third consecutive month as China’s anti-graft campaign curbed gambling. Casino shares dropped in Hong Kong trading yesterday. Total gross gaming revenue in the world’s biggest gambling hub dropped 6.1 percent to 28.9 billion Macau patacas (US$3.6 billion) last month, Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau said yesterday. That compares with the median estimate of a 2 percent decline from seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) probes into corruption and lavish spending have coincided with crackdowns by Macau’s casinos on methods some gamblers use to transfer money from China.
JAPAN
Auto sales at three-year low
Auto sales tumbled to a three-year low last month, the latest sign that consumer spending is slumping in the world’s third-largest economy following a sales-tax increase. Vehicle deliveries fell 9.1 percent from that recorded a year earlier to 333,471 units, the lowest since August 2011, according to industry figures released yesterday. Sales rose for seven straight months before the April 1 tax increase. The drop comes amid economic data showing weakness in the economy. Household spending in July fell 5.9 percent from a year earlier, more than double the expected 2.9 percent decrease. Further declines would run against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to revive the economy.
MANUFACTURING
Eurozone output disappoints
Eurozone manufacturing growth slowed slightly more than initially thought last month as new orders dwindled and factories suffered amid rising tensions in Ukraine, a business survey showed yesterday. Factories barely increased prices last month, and manufacturing activity in France fell at its fastest pace in 15 months, in disappointing news for the European Central Bank before Thursday’s monetary policy-setting meeting. Markit’s final Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for last month came in at 50.7, the lowest in over a year and below both July’s 51.8 and an earlier flash estimate of 50.8. Still, last month did mark the 14th month the index has been above 50, the figure that separates growth from contraction. An index measuring output, which feeds into a composite PMI due tomorrow that is seen as a good guide to growth, sank to a 14-month low of 51 from July’s 52.7, but was just ahead of the flash 50.9.
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],”