Macroeconomics
Greek PM says no to bailout
Greece is beating its fiscal targets and does not need a third bailout from its international creditors, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras told yesterday’s Realnews newspaper, confident that the country’s debt would soon be deemed viable. After nearly crashing out of the eurozone two years ago, Greece has managed to bring its finances back on track and post a budget surplus before interest payments last year. Athens has relied on a 240 billion euro (US$311 billion) financing package from the EU and IMF since the second half of 2010 to stay afloat.
macroeconomics
EU to leverage investments
European finance ministers agreed on Saturday on the necessity of leveraging private investments with urgent structural reforms to relaunch the continent’s moribund economy. The ministers focused on a proposal by president-elect of the European Commission Jean-Claude Junkers for 300 billion euros (US$388 billion) in public and private investments to revive the economy, but few details emerged at the informal meeting. The meeting was the first held by EU finance ministers since European Central Bank President Mario Draghi outlined a three-pillared strategy to save the eurozone economy.
brazil
Batista’s assets frozen
Prosecutors said on Saturday they are seeking to freeze up to 1.5 billion Brazilian reals (US$635 million) of Eike Batista’s assets, once considered Brazil’s richest man, accusing him of market manipulation and insider trading. The tycoon’s financial assets, houses, apartments, cars, ships and planes, as well as assets placed in his wife and children’s names after the alleged crimes occurred would be affected, the Rio de Janeiro prosecutor’s office said. Batista was considered Brazil’s richest man with a fortune estimated at US$30 billion in 2012, before his mining and energy empire began to collapse.
banking
UK’s BBA slams new rules
The UK’s banks have slammed plans to impose new capital rules for lenders and said the “leverage ratio” proposals are far too complex and could encourage banks to take more risks, a British Bankers’ Association (BBA) director Simon Hills said. The Bank of England has proposed changes to the framework for the leverage ratio — which is a measure of equity as a percentage of assets, without adjusting for riskiness. The proposals are expected to result in the UK lifting the minimum leverage ratio for banks in the future, possibly to 4 or 5 percent, bank industry sources said last week. Banks currently need to have a leverage ratio of at least 3 percent, in line with the global standard.
pharmaceuticals
Aspen to expand in Asia
Africa’s largest generic drugmaker, Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd, expects to find a partner in Japan this year as the company seeks to expand its business in fast-growing Asian markets. “To really make a dent, to really show growth, there are two territories in pharmaceuticals you really need to perform in: One is Japan, the second is China,” chief executive officer Stephen Saad said in an interview with Bloomberg TV Africa on Friday. “We’ve got a very big focus coming in those two territories.” Aspen is looking for an alliance in Japan to get access to the market and aims to announce plans before the end of this year, Saad added.
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],”