RETAIL
Wal-Mart cuts China jobs
Wal-Mart Stores Inc plans to cut 250 jobs in China to improve efficiency. The reductions are set to mostly come from merchandising and marketing divisions, after buying functions were consolidated into the Shenzhen headquarters to improve quality and food safety, Ray Bracy, a spokesman for Wal-Mart in China said by telephone yesterday. The company would also cut some jobs in departments including tax and asset protection, he said. Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart is working to raise food safety standards in China after fox DNA was found in meat it was selling as donkey. The job cuts disclosed yesterday affect low and mid-level workers and follow dismissals of about 30 senior executives last month in China amid an Asia revamp that includes store closures in Japan and management changes in India. Separately, Wal-Mart said it plans to open nine new stores and a new distribution center in China this month, bringing new facilities this year to 31.
SOFTWARE
Microsoft buys Accompli
Microsoft Corp on Monday said it was buying the mobile e-mail management application Accompli, in a deal reported to be worth more than US$200 million. The deal gives Microsoft a startup to better help people manage their mail on handsets using Google Android or Apple iOS operating systems. “In a world where more than half of e-mail messages are first read on a mobile device, it’s essential to give people fantastic e-mail experiences wherever they go,” Microsoft vice president Rajesh Jha said in a blog post.
REAL ESTATE
GIC to acquire IndCor
Singapore’s GIC Pte has agreed to buy IndCor Properties Inc from Blackstone Group LP for US$8.1 billion, Blackstone said in a statement yesterday, adding that the purchase is expected to close in the first quarter next year. The agreement ends the prospect of an initial public offering for IndCor, which had been planning a share sale valuing the company at about US$8 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said in August. GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, is gaining warehouses across the US as demand for industrial space climbs from Web retailers and other customers. Chicago-based IndCor owns about 10.9 million square meters of buildings in 29 markets. For Blackstone, the deal allows it to exit a major investment at a profit as it invests in a new series of property funds.
ENERGY
Shale investors face losses
Bond investors who helped finance the US shale boom are facing potential losses of US$8.5 billion as oil prices plummet by the most since the financial crisis. The US$90 billion of debt issued by junk-rated energy producers in the past three years has fallen almost 10 percent since crude oil peaked in June. Halcon Resources Corp, SandRidge Energy Inc and Goodrich Petroleum Corp have been among the hardest hit as OPEC’s refusal to ease a supply glut pushed prices to a five-year low of US$66.15 a barrel last week. The oil sell-off is deepening concern among bond investors that the least-creditworthy oil explorers would struggle to pay their obligations and prompt bankers to rein in credit lines as revenue slumps. Halcon, SandRidge and Goodrich are among about 21 borrowers operating in the costliest US shale-producing regions that would be unprofitable if crude oil falls below US$60 a barrel, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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