BANKING
Credit Suisse’s income falls
Credit Suisse Group AG reported third-quarter profit that missed analyst estimates because of a loss in the investment bank and a bigger-than-expected drop in private banking and wealth management. Net income decreased 24 percent to 779 million Swiss francs (US$815 million) from 1.03 billion francs a year earlier, the Zurich-based company said in a statement yesterday. The investment bank posted a pretax loss of 125 million Swiss francs, contributing to a year-on-year decline in return-on-equity to 7.1 percent from 9.7 percent in the third quarter.
MONETARY POLICY
Spain eases austerity
Spain’s lower house on Tuesday approved a budget for next year designed to ease some spending restrictions after years of austerity, ahead of legislative elections due on Dec. 20. The budget provides for increases of 9.3 percent for education, 3.6 percent for health and 7.6 percent for culture, as well as a rise of 0.25 percent in state pensions and a 1 percent boost in pay for civil servants, who will also receive bonuses for the first time since 2010. The conservative government of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy described the budget as a reward for five years of belt-tightening after growth resumed last year.
AUTOMAKERS
Honda touts self-driving car
Honda Motor Co said it would put a commercialized self-driving car on the road by 2020, challenging rivals Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co. The car, a modified Lexus GS, uses sophisticated sensors to navigate roads, merge lanes and overtake other vehicles. It can also scan for available parking spaces, alert drivers when one is spotted and then parallel park on command. Honda and General Motors Co are considering expanding the scope of cooperation in research and development to include self-driving technologies and other areas, a Honda spokesman said yesterday.
RESTAURANTS
Yum plans China spin-off
Yum Brands Inc, the owner of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, plans to spin off its China business into a separate, publicly traded company, after cutting its profit outlook for the year earlier this month. The Louisville, Kentucky-based company said on Tuesday that it believes the China business, which will be called Yum China after the separation and headquartered in Shanghai, could grow from its current 6,900 restaurants to more than 20,000 restaurants in the future. The remaining Yum Brands business will concentrate part of its efforts on becoming more of a franchisor. The separation of the businesses is expected to be complete by the end of next year.
MOTORCYCLES
Harley hit by US sales slump
A slowdown in US sales of Harley-Davidson’s iconic motorcycles hit third-quarter earnings and sent its shares skidding to a nearly three-year low on Tuesday. The company said it would lay off a part of its 6,500 workforce as its tries to strengthen marketing both domestically and internationally. In the third quarter, Harley sold 72,178 new motorcycles, more than 1,000 fewer than a year ago, with all of the decline in US sales. For the first nine months of the year, bike sales were down more than 3,000 units to 217,770. That turned into a 6.5 percent fall in net income, to US$140 million, for the third quarter and a 7.8 percent decline to US$710 million for the first nine months.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last