INTERNET
Softbank invests in Snapdeal
Softbank yesterday said it would invest US$627 million in Snapdeal, which would make it the largest shareholder in India’s leading online marketplace as the Japanese mobile carrier strengthens its presence in the fast-growing market. Snapdeal is India’s fastest-growing and largest e-commerce Web site, with more than 25 million registered users and over 50,000 business sellers. The New Delhi-based company, which has annual sales of US$1 billion, has raised US$350 million since its founding in 2010. However, after the latest round of funding from Softbank and others, Snapdeal’s valuation is set to rise to an estimated US$2 billion with Softbank as the single largest investor.
MACROECONOMICS
Sweden cuts interests rates
The Swedish central bank set a zero base interest rate yesterday, deciding to cut its key rate by a quarter of a percentage point in a drive to push up exceptionally low inflation. This is a record low and the central bank said it would stay at this rate until inflation picks up. Inflation was too low, the bank said in a statement, although the Swedish economy was doing relatively well and the overall climate was improving. It expects inflation this year to be minus-0.2 percent, pointing to slight deflation, but said that next year it would rise by 0.4 percent.
BANKING
UK’s Lloyds to cut jobs
The UK’s Lloyds Banking Group PLC says it plans to cut 9,000 jobs over the next three years and shut about 200 branches in a bid to improve efficiency. The closures are set to impact roughly a tenth of its network of 2,000 branches. The group has been partly owned by the British taxpayer since it was rescued during the financial crisis. Its executives had pledged three years ago to keep its number of branches at a consistent level. Lloyds chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio yesterday said that strategy has now changed. The bank expects customers to continue shifting to online services and self-service machines instead of choosing to have face-to-face contact in branches.
BANKING
UBS sees rise in profits
A tax bonus helped Swiss banking giant UBS offset the costs of legal action over tax penalties, the bank said yesterday, announcing a 32 percent net profit rise in the third quarter. The net profit totaled 762 million Swiss francs (US$802 million). The leap of almost one-third compared with the same period last year was fueled by SF1.3 billion worth of tax credits. That helped offset litigation costs, which have hit UBS as countries such as the US make international banks pay for past abetting of tax-dodging by their citizens.
AUTOMAKERS
Honda’s profits jump
Honda yesterday said its net profit in the first six months of the year jumped almost 19 percent, but the Japanese automaker cut its earnings outlook for the full fiscal year. The firm posted a ¥288.41 billion (US$2.67 billion) net profit in the six months through September, up from 242.87 billion a year earlier, while sales rose to ¥6.0 trillion from ¥5.72 trillion. However, Honda cut its full-year to March net profit estimate to ¥565.0 billion from an earlier forecast of ¥600 billion, citing a tougher business environment in key Asian markets, including China.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained