ELECTRONICS
Samsung keeps top bosses
Samsung Electronics Inc defied speculation that it would drop the head of its underperforming mobile division, as the Samsung Group’s heir apparent opted to keep the man his ailing father appointed while the patriarch’s future is uncertain. Staff at Samsung have been waiting for the annual reshuffle after a weak smartphone performance and the worst earnings in three years, with many fearing for their jobs, but embattled co-chief executive J.K. Shin now knows he will continue to head the unit’s mobile division. Semiconductor business boss Kwon Oh-hyun and consumer electronics head Yoon Boo-keun also kept their jobs. Analysts said Jay Y. Lee, likely successor and only son of group patriarch Lee Kun-hee, opted to keep his father’s key lieutenants in place to ensure stability and consolidate his own position.
MANUFACTURING
Japan’s capital spending up
Japanese companies increased investment more than forecast in the third quarter, even as slumping consumption pushed the economy into recession. Manufacturers led a 5.5 percent gain in capital spending in the three months through September from a year earlier, beating the 1.8 percent median in a Bloomberg News survey. Corporate profits climbed 7.6 percent and sales increased 2.9 percent, according to Japanese Ministry of Finance data released yesterday. The unexpectedly strong gain in investment is a boost for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Manufacturing investment advanced 11 percent, with the metal industry boosting spending 85 percent. Machinery makers showed a 15 percent gain and information technology equipment producers increased investment by 26 percent.
JAPAN
Moody’s cuts credit rating
Moody’s Investors Service cut the nation’s credit rating, a setback to Abe before he begins campaigning for an election that he wants to focus on the economy. Moody’s reduced the rating by one notch to “A1,” the same level as Bermuda, Israel, Oman and the Czech Republic. It had been rated in line with Taiwan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia. The yen dropped to a seven-year low of ¥119.14 per US dollar immediately after Moody’s announced the reduction, before reversing those declines to trade at ¥118.40 as of 5:56 pm in Tokyo. Moody’s cited uncertainty over whether Japan would achieve its deficit-reduction goals and succeed in boosting growth in the world’s No. 3 economy. There are increasing risks of a rise in bond yields that could make it harder for Japan to manage its debt, Moody’s said. Standard & Poor’s has Japan at “AA-,” while Fitch Ratings has Japan at “A.”
INVESTMENT
Norway plans green focus
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, will invest almost US$3 billion into green technology stocks next year, chief executive Yngve Slyngstad has signaled. Starting on Jan. 1, the US$870 billion fund is to speed investments in renewable energy, waste management and energy-storage companies, among others, Slyngstad said last week in Geneva, Switzerland. The shift is to take place over a “shorter time frame,” he said. The fund is under political pressure to boost such investments and reduce its exposure to the coal industry, but investments in the cleanest technologies have generated low returns or even losses. The European Renewable Energy Index, which includes the industry’s 10 largest and most traded stocks, delivered investors a 35 percent loss over the past five years.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the