AUTOMAKERS
US light-vehicle sales rise
US car and truck sales picked up strength last month, automakers reported on Friday. Total light vehicle sales rose 4.6 percent last month year-on-year to 1.45 million units, according to figures compiled by Autodata. Sales of light trucks and sports utility vehicles increased 10.5 percent, but passenger cars fell 1.5 percent from the same period a year ago.
BANKING
BNP fined over US sanctions
A US judge on Friday ordered BNP Paribas to pay a record US$8.9 billion fine to settle violations of US sanctions linked to Iran, Sudan and Cuba between 2004 and 2012. Judge Lorna Schofield finalized a sentence that also included a five-year probation and the imposition of a monitor at France’s largest bank.
TECHNOLOGY
Uber office in China raided
An Uber Technologies Inc office in southern China was raided on Thursday as part of a broader crackdown on illegal taxi services using private drivers, state media said. The US taxi-hailing application is suspected of operating without a license and illegal business activities, Xinhua news agency reported, citing an unidentified traffic official in Guangzhou. Uber on Friday said it is cooperating with local officials, though stopped short of confirming the reported raid.
STOCKS
Berkshire profits surge 10%
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Friday said its first-quarter profit jumped 10 percent on the strength of its railroad and insurance businesses. Berkshire earned US$5.16 billion, or US$3,143 per Class A share, during the first three months of this year. That is up from US$4.71 billion, or US$2,862 per Class A share in the same period last year. Most major Berkshire subsidiaries performed well. Revenue grew 7 percent to US$48.6 billion. Berkshire said its operating earnings were US$4.24 billion, or US$2,583 per share. That is up from US$3.53 billion, or US$2,149 per share, in the first quarter of last year.
AUTOMAKERS
Air bag death dad files in US
The father of a pregnant woman killed by shrapnel from an air bag that deployed during an auto accident in Malaysia sued Takata Corp and Honda Motor Co in the US. Law Suk Leh, 42, died when a metal fragment sliced into her neck in July last year following a low-speed crash, according to the lawsuit filed on Thursday in Miami federal court. Her daughter, delivered after the mother’s death, died three days later. Ten automakers, including Honda and Toyota Motor Corp, have since 2008 recalled about 17 million vehicles with Takata air bags.
INSURANCE
Prudential names new CEO
British insurance giant Prudential PLC on Friday named Mike Wells as its new chief executive officer. Wells has been head of London-based Prudential’s US unit, Jackson National Life, for the past five years. He will take up the reins on June 1, Prudential announced in a brief statement. Wells, who is a US citizen but was born in Canada, has worked in life insurance, retirement services and asset management for almost 30 years.
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],”
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
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