MINING
Glencore posts first-half loss
Commodities and mining group Glencore PLC slumped to a first-half loss of US$676 million in the wake of weak commodities prices and costs linked to the suspension of oil drilling operations in Chad. In the same period last year, the company made a net profit of US$1.72 billion. The company’s results were also undermined by US$792 million worth of costs related to the slow development of its Chad oil operations related to low oil prices. Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg yesterday said that the first half of the year was “challenging,” but insisted that the company is well-positioned “to benefit from any improvement in pricing when it finally and inevitably materializes.”
CASINOS
Galaxy earnings plunge 46%
Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd yesterday reported second-quarter earnings plunged 46 percent on higher operation cost from its new casino resorts and amid a declining market in Macau’s gambling industry. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization dropped to HK$1.9 billion (US$245 million) a year earlier, the casino operator said in a statement. Galaxy in May opened its HK$24.05 billion second-phase expansion of a resort and an adjacent revamped property in the Cotai area, marking Macau’s first casino projects in three years.
BREWERIES
Carlsberg cuts forecast
Carlsberg A/S, the world’s fourth-biggest brewer, yesterday cut its annual profit forecast after quarterly earnings missed estimates amid plunging volume in Russia and slower-than-expected cost savings in western Europe. Operating profit this year will decline slightly, the Copenhagen-based company said in a statement. It had previously forecast mid to high-single-digit growth. Earnings in the second quarter slumped 19 percent. Chief executive officer Cees’t Hart has to figure out a way to contend with a slumping market in Russia, yesterday saying that he has started a strategic review, the outcome of which will be announced in the first half of next year.
ELECTRONICS
Google unveils Wi-Fi router
Google Inc on Tuesday unveiled a Wi-Fi router looking to increase the ease and speed at which people’s increasingly indispensable smartphones and tablets connect at home with its services. The Internet giant priced OnHub, a partnership with TP-LINK networking product manufacturer, at US$200 for online preorders in the US, which users can connect on Apple’s iPhones or its own Android devices. It is due in stores in the US and Canada in the coming weeks. The home router even lets users prioritize which device gets the fastest connection speed.
INTERNET
Ashley Madison data dumped
Hackers have released stolen information from about 32 million users of the affair Web site Ashley Madison, tech magazine Wired reported. The data dump on Tuesday on what Wired described as the “dark Web” included millions of payment transactions, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers of people who were registered on the dating site. The release comes about a month after the data was stolen by hackers identified as the “Impact Team” who allegedly tried to shut the site for cheaters down “immediately, permanently.” The group threatened to release customers’ records, nude pictures and conversations if the site was not closed.
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