GERMANY
Inflation does not rise
Consumer prices did not rise last month, data showed yesterday, raising pressure on the European Central Bank to prevent the eurozone from slipping into a dangerous cycle of falling prices. The national inflation yardstick, the consumer price index (CPI), showed zero change last month, after rising by a meager 0.2 percent the previous month, the federal statistics office Destatis said. The main factor behind the slowdown was a renewed decline in energy prices, the office said. Using the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices — the barometer used by the European Central Bank — the inflation rate actually declined by 0.2 percent year-on-year last month.
FAST FOOD
Jollibee buys into US chain
The Philippines’ leading fast-food company Jollibee Foods Corp yesterday announced it had acquired 40 percent of an upmarket US hamburger chain for US$99 million. Jollibee said in a statement it was acquiring part of Denver-based Smashburger Master LLC, which has 339 restaurants in the US, Canada, the Middle East and South America. It is the largest-ever acquisition by Jollibee and its biggest investment outside of the Philippines, the company said.
AUTOMAKERS
China sales slow
Passenger-vehicle sales this year in China have expanded at the slowest pace since 2012. Retail deliveries of cars, sports utility vehicles and multipurpose vehicles increased 5.8 percent to 14.4 million units in the January-to-September period, according to the China Passenger Car Association, the slowest pace in three years. Sales for last month rose 2.5 percent, the second consecutive month of gains after declining in June and July. Sports utility vehicles were the only category that saw sales increase last month, surging 60 percent to 548,508 units. Deliveries of sedans, multipurpose vehicles and light-commercial vehicles all declined.
LUXURY GOODS
LVMH revenue surprises
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, the world’s largest luxury-goods maker, on Monday reported third-quarter revenue that exceeded analysts’ estimates, boosted by growth in Europe, the US and Japan. Revenue advanced 7 percent on an organic basis, the Paris-based company said. Gains at the wines-and-spirits unit outweighed slower-than-anticipated growth in fashion and leather goods. While sales of leather goods, cognac and watches have fallen in China following a clampdown on extravagance, Europe and Japan have benefited as Chinese consumers buy abroad. LVMH-owned Bulgari has seen record travel purchases this year, the jeweler said last month.
PAPER
Svenska to acquire Wausau
Svenska Cellulosa AB, Europe’s largest private forest owner, agreed to acquire Wausau Paper Corp for US$513 million in cash as it expands in the North American market for professional hygiene products for offices, hospitals and washrooms. Wausau Paper, which employs about 900 people, generated US$352 million in sales last year from its tissue products and soap dispensing systems, and posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of US$38 million. The offer price is 40.6 percent higher than Wausau Paper’s closing price on Monday. The acquisition is expected to generate annual savings of about US$40 million as costs tied to procurement and logistics.
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