MULTINATIONALS
Sony eyes ¥500bn profit
Sony Corp forecast operating profit will reach ¥500 billion (US$4.2 billion) in the year starting April 2017, the Tokyo-based company said yesterday. That compares with its forecast for ¥20 billion in operating profit this year. Sony is also targeting a boost in its return-on-equity to above 10 percent. Sony shares closed at ¥3,174.5 before the announcement. The stock has surged 28 percent this year, compared with a 5.3 percent rise in the benchmark TOPIX. Sony this month forecast an annual operating profit of ¥20 billion, compared with an earlier projection for a ¥40 billion loss.
HONG KONG
Shanghai short sales coming
Foreign investors will be able to bet on declines in Shanghai equities through the exchange link with Hong Kong starting on March 2. Short sales will be limited to 1 percent or less of daily turnover for a specific stock, or a maximum 5 percent for the total trading over a 10-day period, Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd (HKEx) said yesterday. Traders can only input short-selling orders in multiples of 100 shares, while the price can’t be lower than the most recent execution level for a security, HKEx said.
SHIPPING
Neptune sells logistics unit
Singapore container shipping firm Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) said on Tuesday it is selling its logistics business to Japanese freight company Kintetsu World Express Inc for US$1.2 billion. NOL said in a filing with the Singapore Exchange its decision to sell APL Logistics would allow it to focus on its core liner shipping business. Proceeds from the sale will be used to strengthen the company’s financial position, including repaying debts, said NOL, Southeast Asia’s biggest container line. NOL, which is 65 percent owned by Singapore state-linked investment firm Temasek Holdings Ltd, said the transaction would be completed by the middle of this year.
REAL ESTATE
Morgan Stanley seeks exit
Morgan Stanley’s property unit appointed advisers as it seeks to exit its A$9 billion (US$7 billion) real estate business in Australia. Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing said in a statement it plans to sell its holding in Investa Property Group, Australia’s third-biggest owner of city center offices, and that UBS AG and Morgan Stanley Australia would “explore strategic alternatives.” Morgan Stanley said successful bidders could engage the office management unit to run any of the properties they acquire. Potential overseas buyers include LaSalle Investment Management, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Blackstone Group, the Australian newspaper has reported.
TRAVEL
Expedia to raise AAE stake
US online travel operator Expedia Inc announced on Tuesday that it had signed an agreement with AirAsia Berhad to purchase an additional 25 percent equity interest of a Singapore-based joint venture between the two companies. This US$86.3 million investment will increase Expedia’s total ownership in AAE Travel Pte Ltd to 75 percent, the company said in a statement. The joint venture was formed in 2011. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of this year, at which point Expedia expects to include the joint venture financial results in its consolidated financial statements. The company said its consolidated sales this year may show a strong growth from US$5.76 billion last year.
JAPAN
Household spending tumbles
Japanese household spending last year declined at its fastest pace in eight years, official data showed on Tuesday, underscoring the impact of the country’s first sales tax hike in nearly two decades. The world’s No. 3 economy posted zero growth in economy over the full year, partly due to weak private spending which accounts for about 60 percent of GDP. Last year, the average household spent ¥251,481 (US$2,115) each month, down 3.2 percent from the previous year and marking the first year-over-year decline since Japan’s quake-tsunami accident in 2011.
UNITED KINGDOM
Inflation hits new low
British officials say the inflation rate fell last month to an annual 0.3 percent — the lowest on record — amid falling energy prices and supermarket price wars. The Office of National Statistics said on Tuesday the rate is down from December’s rate of 0.5 percent. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has predicted that inflation may turn negative in the coming months, but said he believed low inflation to be a short-term phenomenon that would boost spending among consumers. Inflation is well below the central bank’s 2 percent target rate, but Carney said last week the bank will “look through” what it sees as temporary drops.
GERMANY
Investor confidence rises
A survey shows that investor confidence in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, has risen to its highest level in a year though the increase was a little short of expectations amid concerns over Ukraine and Greece. The ZEW institute said on Tuesday its monthly confidence index, which measures investors’ economic outlook for the next six months, rose to 53 points for this month from 48.4 last month — the fourth consecutive increase. Economists had predicted a rise to 55 points. ZEW president Clemens Fuest said the European Central Bank’s decision to start buying government bonds with newly printed money improved sentiment along with robust fourth-quarter German economic growth.
TELECOMS
Hutchison steps up talks
Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa Ltd (和記黃埔) has intensified negotiations with VimpelCom Ltd to combine their wireless assets in Italy, according to two people familiar with the matter. The companies have made progress in resolving disagreements over ownership structure, with talks focusing on Hutchison’s 3 Italia unit buying VimpelCom’s Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA, one of the people said. The combined businesses, with more than 30 million mobile subscribers and about 6.7 billion euros (US$7.6 billion) in 2013 revenue, would challenge market leader Telecom Italia SpA. In the UK, Hutchison started exclusive talks last month to acquire Telefonica SA’s O2 unit for as much as £10.25 billion (US$15.8 billion).
RETAIL
Tesco names chairman
Troubled British supermarket giant Tesco on Tuesday named John Allan as chairman, ending a four-month search after Richard Broadbent resigned amid an accounting scandal. Allan, 66, will join the board and be appointed chairman on March 1, when Broadbent will step down from the board, Tesco said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange. Allan is currently on the boards of electrical retailer Dixons Carphone and postal operator Royal Mail, but is to step down from those positions when he takes up his new role at Tesco.
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],”