AUTOMAKERS
Mitsubishi recalls cars
Mitsubishi is recalling more than 130,000 cars because of two separate issues that could lead to reduced visibility for drivers and raise the risk of a crash. Nearly 77,000 cars are being recalled because the windshield defroster might fail as a result of a faulty blower motor. The cars affected include Lancer model years 2009 to 2011, Lancer Sportback model years 2010 to 2011, Lancer Evolution model years 2010 to 2011 and Outlander Sport model year 2011. About 53,400 cars are affected by the other recall.
TRADE
Obama promotes TPP
US President Barack Obama visited Nike’s headquarters in Oregon on Friday to push for a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal opposed by some of his closest congressional allies. Nike chief executive Mark Parker lent Obama a hand by announcing he will ramp up advanced manufacturing in the US, creating up to 10,000 jobs, if the trade deal passes. Congress is currently weighing whether to grant Obama authority to conclude the 12-nation free-trade pact.
INVESTMENT
Alibaba buys Zulily shares
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) bought US$56.2 million of stock in US online retailer Zulily Inc last week, according to a regulatory filing. The purchases brought Alibaba’s holdings of Seattle-based Zulily to 11.5 million shares, or a 9.3 percent stake, according to regulatory filings and data compiled by Bloomberg. Alibaba’s Zulily holdings were worth US$152.9 million at Friday’s closing price of US$13.30. Zulily, which sells clothing, home decor and related items, mostly to women, had 5 million customers who had made at least one purchase in the previous year at the end of March, up 35 percent from the previous year.
GREEN ENERGY
Solar Power buys stake
Solar Power Inc, a project developer backed by China’s LDK Solar Co (江西賽維), agreed to buy a 76.8 percent stake in Convertergy Energy Technology Co, a provider of energy-monitoring services. Solar Power is paying US$13.8 million in stock and assuming a US$1.5 million loan, the Shanghai-based firm said in a statement on Friday. The transaction is subject to closing conditions. The solar developer will use Convertergy’s technology to enhance its photovoltaic applications.
REAL ESTATE
Mega-merger in works
David Bonderman’s TPG Capital is close to a deal to buy commercial property brokerage Cushman & Wakefield Inc for about US$2 billion and combine it with DTZ Group, creating one of the world’s biggest real-estate services firms. TPG is in advanced discussions with Cushman and its owners, Exor SpA, the Agnelli family’s Italian holding company, according to people familiar with the matter. An agreement could be announced as soon as this week, they said.
FAST FOOD
McDonald’s beats forecasts
McDonald’s Corp on Friday reported last month’s sales that topped analysts’ projections after declines in the US slowed. Global same-store sales fell 0.6 percent, the company said in a statement. Analysts estimated a 1.8 percent drop, according to Consensus Metrix. Sales at US stores open at least 13 months fell 2.3 percent, matching analysts’ projections and improving from a 3.9 percent slide in March.
Same-store sales gained 1 percent in Europe and fell 3.8 percent in the company’s Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa region, the firm said.
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],”
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
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