CONGLOMERATES
CK Hutchison posts profits
CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd (長和集團), billionaire Li Ka-shing’s (李嘉誠) flagship company, reported its first earnings since the tycoon reorganized the ports-to-retail conglomerate. Net income was HK$101.9 billion (US$13.1 billion) during the first six months of the year, CK Hutchison said in a statement yesterday. The company also announced an interim dividend of HK$0.70 a share and at least US$40 billion in mergers related to its telecoms businesses.
MINING
BHP profit plunges 86%
BHP Billiton Ltd, the world’s biggest miner, yesterday reported an 86 percent drop in annual profit amid plummeting commodity prices, as the company warned that China’s slowing economy would lead to further market volatility. BHP saw a net profit of US$1.9 billion for the 12 months to June 30, down from US$13.8 billion a year ago, the Australian company said in a statement. Revenue was down 22 percent to US$52 billion. The mining giant said it would cut costs, lowering its target for capital spending in the next fiscal year from US$9 billion to US$8.5 billion.
CONSUMER GOODS
Russia probes global firms
Russia’s consumer-safety watchdog has restricted sales of household-chemical goods produced by global firms including Procter & Gamble Co, Colgate-Palmolive Co and Henkel AG over safety concerns. The regulator known as Rospotrebnadzor said in a statement that a probe into washing powders and detergents made by these firms, as well as by Clorox Co, Werner & Mertz GmbH and others, showed violations of toxicological safety requirements and batches were withdrawn from sale. Studies of household chemicals and detergents produced by other manufacturers are continuing, it said.
AUTOMOBILES
Imperial eyes acquisitions
Imperial Holdings Ltd, owner of South Africa’s biggest car dealership network, is looking for acquisitions to expand its logistics business in other countries on the continent to counter slower growth in its home market. Imperial plans to sell some assets “while acquiring mainly foreign businesses to offset the limited growth opportunities” in South Africa, the company said in its full-year earnings statement yesterday. Imperial’s South African business, which accounts for almost two-thirds of sales, battled softer demand in the year through June as power shortages and a weaker currency resulted in “skittish” consumption patterns, it said.
EQUITIES
Japan ready to take action
Japan is ready to “take appropriate measures,” if necessary, to quell volatility in the financial markets, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters. Suga said that Japan’s economy, the world’s third largest, is still “on track for a moderate recovery,” despite the roller-coaster market gyrations of recent weeks. However, recent swings in share prices and foreign exchange markets have taken a toll, he said.
GERMANY
Business confidence up
A closely watched survey shows that business confidence in Germany has unexpectedly increased as fears over the Greek debt crisis subside. The Ifo think tank yesterday said that its monthly confidence index rose to 108.3 points for this month from 108 last month. Analysts had predicted a slight decrease to 107.6 points. However, companies’ outlook for the coming months fell.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to