UNITED STATES
Cuomo to lead Cuba mission
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will lead one of the first trade missions to Cuba from the US since the Obama administration loosened travel and trade restrictions on the Communist-ruled Caribbean island, his office confirmed on Saturday. The Democratic governor will be promoting an initiative which seeks to attract foreign investment to New York State, spokeswoman Melissa DeRosa said. Cuomo will be among the first high-profile US politicians to visit Cuba since last month’s policy shift. Details of the trip will be released “at the appropriate time,” his office said. Separately, the US and Cuba are holding high-level talks in Havana next week on normalizing ties.
ENTERTAINMENT
Disney bumps CEO’s pay
Walt Disney Co’s board handed chairman and CEO Bob Iger a 35 percent pay increase for delivering a record profit and stock price last year. Iger, who runs the world’s largest entertainment company, was already one of the US’ highest-paid executives. His compensation rose 35 percent to US$46.5 million last year, according to a filing on Friday. Disney stock has more than quadrupled in Iger’s nine years as CEO, and the board has twice extended his tenure. Iger, 63, received US$2.5 million in salary, unchanged from the previous year, according to the filing. He received a US$22.8 million bonus and US$17.3 million in stock, plus other items worth US$3.9 million. His pay dropped 15 percent in fiscal 2013 after the company failed to beat internal targets by as much as in the prior year.
MADAGASCAR
IMF urges economic reform
Madagascar’s economy showed early signs of recovery last year with growth estimated at 3 percent, which could rise to 5 percent this year, but political instability, weak institutions and weak governance are hurting prospects, the IMF said. The Indian Ocean island’s economy was battered after a 2009 coup that drove away donors and investors. A peaceful 2013 election has brought back some aid, but the nation is still struggling to impose stable government and economic reforms. However, the IMF said weak tax revenue meant spending on vital areas such as health and education was constrained, adding that funding fuel subsidies and the under-funded civil service pension fund were also imposing budgetary pressures. The IMF called for “an acceleration of economic and structural reforms to unleash Madagascar’s significant potential,” a demand that will be difficult to meet as long as politicians are haggling over who will be in the next cabinet.
PETROLEUM
SABIC net income plummets
Falling global oil prices dragged down the net income of Saudi petrochemical giant Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) by 29 percent in the fourth quarter, the company said yesterday. SABIC, the largest publicly traded firm in the Persian Gulf, reported net profit of 4.36 billion riyals (US$1.16 billion) for the three-month period ended last month. That compared with 6.16 billion riyals in the same quarter a year earlier. “The decrease in net income is mainly attributable to lower average sales prices, partially offset by lower costs for certain feedstocks [raw materials],” SABIC said in a statement. The result was lower than the mean estimate of 5.39 billion riyals forecast by seven analysts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Full year net profit was 23.43 billion riyals, a drop of seven percent from the 25.28 billion reported the previous year.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San