ELECTRONICS
Sony plans to raise capital
Sony Corp said it expects to raise as much as ¥300 billion (US$2.4 billion) after setting a price for new common shares it is selling to raise money to boost chipmaking capacity. The shares are to be offered at ¥3,420.5 apiece to investors, the electronics maker and entertainment producer said in a statement yesterday. That is about 3 percent less than yesterday’s closing price. The company is also offering ¥120 billion in bonds due in 2022 and convertible to shares at ¥5,008. Sony president Kazuo Hirai said that after years of losses and restructuring, the company is beginning a growth phase. He pledged “aggressive investments” into areas including imaging sensors for smartphone cameras, video game network services and virtual-reality gear.
ENERGY
Fund barred from wind power
Wind farming in Australia suffered another setback after the government banned its A$10 billion (US$7.4 billion) renewable energy fund from investing in the industry. The government sent a letter to the Clean Energy Finance Corp outlining new proposed investment priorities, including a shift away from wind power, Australian Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb said on Sunday in an interview on Sky News TV. The fund should be “investing in new and emerging technologies and certainly not existing wind farms,” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott later told reporters in Darwin. His government’s policy is to eventually abolish the fund, he said. The country will seek to produce 33,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity from large-scale renewable energy projects by 2020.
SWITZERLAND
Strong franc hurts start-ups
The country’s strong currency is holding back entrepreneurs, threatening the country’s top ranking for innovation. The number of companies going into business has declined this year, signaling that the surge in the franc since the country abandoned its currency cap is discouraging would-be start-ups. The government added 20,737 new names to its registry of companies doing business in Switzerland in the first half of the year, 502 less than in the same period last year, according to startups.ch, a Winterthur-based company that tracks the numbers. Barring a burst of activity in the second half, this year is expected to be the first year since 2012 that the number of start-ups has declined. That could bode ill for the economy, Raiffeisen Schweiz economist Roland Klaeger said in Zurich. Startups.ch CEO Walter Regli blames the franc, which has strengthened against the euro since the Swiss National Bank abandoned its cap on the franc.
BREWERIES
Heineken invests in Myanmar
International brewers are trickling into Myanmar, betting that higher incomes and economic reforms will whip up a thirst for foreign beer in a market that has long been dominated by state-owned firms. Heineken NV, the world’s third-largest brewer, on Sunday opened a US$60 million brewery joint venture outside of Yangon, returning to one of Asia’s most promising beer markets after exiting in 1997 amid global condemnation of the human rights abuses of the military government at that time. Heineken’s Regal Seven beer is set to rival the Tuborg and Yoma brands by Carlsberg, which in May became the first foreign brewer to set up in Myanmar. Myanmar’s beer industry is dominated by state-backed Myanmar Brewery, and beer consumption rates are some of the lowest in Asia at just 3.2 liters per person in 2013, according to Euromonitor International LTD.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure