INDIA
Satyam CEO convicted
A court yesterday convicted the former chief executive of outsourcing giant Satyam Computer Services Ltd and his aides over a US$2.25 billion accounting fraud scandal dubbed “India’s Enron,” prosecutors said. Byrraju Ramalinga Raju, his brother and eight others were found guilty of manipulating Satyam’s books in 2009. Raju faces a life sentence after being charged with criminal conspiracy and breaching public trust in a scam that prosecutors said caused 140 billion rupees (US$2.25 billion) in losses to investors.
SOUTH KOREA
Growth forecast cut to 3.1%
The central bank yesterday slashed its economic growth forecast for this year for the second time this year, to 3.1 percent, and predicted annual inflation would come in at just 0.9 percent, compared with the bank’s earlier forecast of 1.9 percent. The monthly monetary meeting of the Bank of Korea also left its benchmark interest rate unchanged for this month, following a surprise 25 basis point reduction the previous month.
FRANCE
Next year’s forecast cut
The economy will expand at a slower rate than earlier thought next year and in 2017, the finance ministry said in new forecasts published on Wednesday. Growth is expected to reach 1.5 percent for both years, rather than 1.7 percent previously forecast for next year and 1.9 percent for 2017. However, the ministry maintained its growth forecast for this year at 1 percent. It also reiterated that France is on course to bring down its public deficit to the EU limit of 3 percent of output by 2017.
CEMENT
Olsen to head merged firms
The boards of France’s Lafarge SA and Switzerland’s Holcim Ltd have approved Eric Olsen for the role of chief executive officer once the firms merge, creating the world’s biggest cement company. The 51-year-old French and American national is currently executive vice president for operations at Lafarge, Holcim said in a statement yesterday. The merger still must be approved by two-thirds of shareholders at each of the two companies at special general assemblies.
CLOTHING
Uniqlo net profit up 56.2%
The operator of Japanese fast-fashion brand Uniqlo yesterday said that robust foreign sales and a weaker yen had given a more than 50 percent boost to its half-year net profit. For the six months to the end of February, Fast Retailing said net profit reached ¥104.7 billion (US$871 million), a 56.2 percent rise from the ¥67.1 billion logged a year ago. Operating profit climbed 40.2 percent to ¥150.1 billion on sales of ¥949.7 billion, which was up 24.2 percent from the same period the previous year.
INTERNET
YouTube to offer subscription
YouTube will soon give viewers the option of paying a monthly fee to skip ads. On Wednesday, the company sent a letter to its most-popular content creators asking them to sign off on new contract terms to allow for the change. It is not clear when the option will be offered or how much the fee will be. The streaming video service owned by Google Inc first offered pay channels in May 2013 and also launched a paid subscription, ad-free music service called Music Key to select participants in November last year.
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],”