ECONOMY
India sells mining stake
India’s government raised over US$4 billion on Friday by selling 10 percent of its stake in mining giant Coal India Ltd as it looks to raise funds through asset sales to keep its fiscal deficit in check, an official said. Investors bid for 675.24 million Coal India shares against more than 631 million shares on offer that were priced at a minimum of 358 rupees each, preliminary data from the Bombay Stock Exchange showed. The government aims to raise nearly US$10 billion from disinvestment during the current financial year to meet its fiscal deficit of 4.1 percent.
CENTRAL BANKS
SNB to pay out dividends
Switzerland’s central bank said on Friday it will pay out 2 billion Swiss francs (US$2.17 billion) to shareholders for last year, but did not know yet whether it will pay out profits for this year after abandoning a cap on the franc against the euro. The dividend is double what the Swiss National Bank (SNB) had earlier this month told shareholders, which include the federal government and cantons, they could expect as a payout.
ELECTRONICS
Panasonic closes TV factory
Panasonic Corp has closed its last remaining TV manufacturing factory in China and is to sell its plant in Mexico as part of a restructuring plan aimed at stemming losses against a sharp decline in TV prices, a newspaper said yesterday. The move will see Panasonic cutting back overseas production by 700,000 units a year, representing about 10 percent of worldwide output, the Nikkei newspaper said.
AUTOMAKERS
BMW fixes security flaw
German automaker BMW AG says it has fixed a security flaw that made 2.2 million of its vehicles vulnerable to break-ins. The company says the problem affected BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce models equipped with its ConnectedDrive technology, which allows drivers to access certain car functions with a smartphone. German automobile club ADAC said hackers could have used a fake cellphone base station to intercept network traffic from the car and lower the windows or open the doors. There are no reports such a break-in ever took place.
LOGISTICS
Executive pleads guilty
An executive of Japanese shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiracy to fix prices for transporting cars and will serve a US prison sentence of 18 months, as well as pay a US$20,000 criminal fine, officials said. Hiroshige Tanioka, who was general manager in K-Line’s car carrier division, admitted he had conspired with others in the industry to rig bids and fix prices for shipping vehicles on roll-on, roll-off vessels, the US Department of Justice said.
ENTERTAINMENT
Panther makes Aspiro bid
A business controlled by rapper Jay-Z has made a US$56 million offer to buy the Scandinavian music streaming company Aspiro. Project Panther Bidco Ltd has offered 1.05 Swedish kroner (US$0.13) in cash per share of Aspiro AB. Aspiro’s board has recommended that shareholders accept the offer. The deal is subject to Panther buying more than 90 percent of the shares and getting regulatory approvals.
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],”