MEDIA
ABC to lay off over 400
More than 400 jobs could be lost at the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC), the head of the organization said yesterday, after the government cut funding. Canberra last week announced the public broadcaster’s budget would be cut by A$254 million (US$221 million) over the next five years, prompting thousands to protest in Sydney and Melbourne during the weekend. ABC managing director Mark Scott yesterday said the cuts meant hundreds of jobs could be lost, while television sports broadcasts would be scaled back. “We anticipate that more than 400 people — close to 10 percent of our ongoing workforce — face potential redundancy as we adjust our activities over coming months,” he said. Scott said that ABC would also review its property holdings, with one Sydney site to be sold, while an Adelaide television production studio and five regional radio stations face closure.
MINING
BHP to cut capital spending
BHP Billiton Ltd, the world’s biggest mining company, plans to take a scalpel to capital expenditure and costs to bolster cash flows as iron ore and crude oil prices plunge. Capital expenditure will be cut to US$14.2 billion in the 12 months to June, from a previous estimate of US$14.8 billion, dropping again to US$13 billion in 2016, the producer said yesterday in a statement. The tumbling prices mean investors are seeking assurances over dividend payments and the prospect for additional returns, Sydney-based UBS AG analyst Glyn Lawcock said. The producer is targeting productivity gains of US$4 billion through June 2017, an increase of US$500 million on a previous target, Melbourne-based BHP said yesterday.
INSURANCE
Aviva buying Friends Life
Aviva’s potential £5.6 billion (US$8.8 billion) purchase of Friends Life reflects a need to consolidate and cut costs in Britain’s insurance industry, fund managers said. The two companies said on Friday that they had agreed on terms of a possible all-share deal at a 15 percent premium to Friends Life’s closing price, offering Friends Life shareholders a 26 percent stake in the new company. The proposed transaction shows how insurers are having to rethink they way they do business after the British government changed rules covering annuities, which provide retirement income, causing a slide in annuity sales. Some investors were surprised at the timing of the deal given both companies are in turnaround mode. “Consolidation per se in UK life insurance is not a surprise and is necessary,” said David Moss, head of European equities at F&C, which has Aviva shares, according to Thomson Reuters data.
FINANCE
EU plans risk-sharing fund
The EU is planning a 21 billion euro (US$26 billion) fund to share the risks of new projects with private investors, two EU officials said. The new entity is designed to have an impact of about 15 times its size, making it the anchor of the EU’s 300 billion euro investment program, said the officials, who asked not to be named because the plans are not final. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is due to announce the three-year initiative this week. The commission will pledge as much as 16 billion euros in guarantees for the vehicle, which will also include 5 billion euros from the European Investment Bank, the officials said. Loans, lending guarantees and stakes in equity and debt will be part of its toolbox, with the goal to jumpstart private risk-taking so that stalled projects can get off the ground.
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],”