INVESTMENT
CMI eyes US private jet firm
China Minsheng Investment Corp (CMI, 中國民生投資), one of China’s largest private investment funds, yesterday said that it is planning to enter the North American market as it grows its aviation business. Shanghai-based CMI is in talks to acquire a private jet company based in the western part of the US, company vice president Kong Linshan (孔林山) said in an interview in Singapore, declining to name the US company. The potential acquisition would follow CMI’s move into the European aviation market earlier this year. CMI paid a total of 120 million euros (US$132.1 million) to acquire a 33.7 percent stake in European business aviation services firm Luxaviation SA and a 49 percent stake in Zurich-headquartered ExecuJet Aviation Group.
ENERGY
ExxonMobil profit slumps
ExxonMobil Corp yesterday reported a significant drop in third-quarter earnings as lower oil and gas prices weighed on its exploration and production business. Earnings fell by 47.5 percent to US$4.2 billion, with profits from the upstream division that finds and produces oil sinking to just US$1.4 billion from US$5.1 billion a year ago. Earnings per share were US$0.13 higher than the US$0.88 average of 21 analysts’ estimates collected by Bloomberg.
EUROZONE
Inflation rises to 0 percent
The eurozone’s annual inflation was 0 percent this month, a weak reading that could help push the European Central Bank (ECB) to expand its stimulus program. Official statistics released yesterday showed that inflation rose from minus-0.1 percent the month before. Falling energy prices were a major factor in keeping inflation low. Weak inflation readings could push the ECB to extend its monthly purchases of bonds using newly printed money. The bond purchases are scheduled to run through at least September next year, but the bank has indicated it could decide to expand that program or deploy a different form of stimulus at its December meeting.
TRAVEL
India targets cheap airfare
India yesterday announced a plan to make air travel affordable for the public, with schemes to revive ailing airports and connect rural areas that it said would “take flying to the masses.” The long-awaited draft policy aims to bring reduce airfare to 2,500 rupees (US$38.24) per hour of flying on many regional routes through a slew of tax incentives, subsidies and a 2 percent levy on international and some domestic routes. It outlines plans to revive the nation’s dilapidated airports and airstrips, only about 75 of which out of a total of 476 are in regular use, and setting up a fund to improve access to rural areas.
AVIATION
JAL registers to sell bonds
Japan Airlines Co (JAL) is registering to sell its first bonds in a decade, as its profits rebound after relisting in 2012 following bankruptcy and a government-backed restructuring. JAL’s registration to sell as much as ¥50 billion (US$414.4 million) of notes takes effect on Saturday next week and is valid for two years, it said in a filing yesterday. The company has not issued public bonds since 2004, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It also reported a 29 percent increase in profits to ¥103.4 billion in the first half of this fiscal year.
INTERNET
Alphabet may open to China
Google parent Alphabet Inc may do business in China following the reorganization of the technology giant, co-founder Sergey Brin said in an interview on Thursday. Brin, who is president of Alphabet, told the Wall Street Journal that the new organizational structure would allow each unit autonomy on the matter. “Each Alphabet business can make its own decisions on which countries to operate in,” Brin was quoted as saying. “We already do quite a lot of business in China, although it has not been an easy country for us.”
BANKING
Standard mulls share sale
Standard Chartered PLC has held talks with bankers on raising at least US$4 billion as UK regulators tighten scrutiny on lenders with exposure to emerging markets in a second round of stress tests, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. While the bank has discussed the option of raising capital, it has not made a final decision on whether to proceed with a share sale, Bloomberg reported, quoting people with knowledge of the plan.
ELECTRONICS
Sharp loses US$700m
Japan’s Sharp Corp yesterday posted a whopping six-month net loss of nearly US$700 million, hit by restructuring costs and a slump in demand for its smartphone screens. The LCD giant, which is key supplier to Apple Inc and other mobile phone makers, singled out a downturn in smartphone-screen demand in China for its latest set of poor results. Sharp posted an ¥83.6 billion (US$692.7 million) net loss in the half-year through last month, down from a small profit a year earlier, while revenue fell 3.6 percent to ¥1.28 trillion.
PETROLEUM
ConocoPhillips loses suit
Chinese state media yesterday reported a court in Tianjin has ordered ConocoPhillips Co to pay 1.68 million yuan (US$265,000) to 21 fishermen who claimed their livelihoods suffered from oil spills in northern China in 2011. Xinhua news agency said the verdict follows nearly four years of haggling between the fishermen and the company. In June 2011, spills from an oilfield jointly owned by the Chinese subsidiary of Houston-based ConocoPhillips and China National Offshore Oil Corp (中國海洋石油), China’s main offshore oil and gas producer, drained into the Bohai Sea and its bay.
BANKING
BNP Paribas income up 14%
BNP Paribas SA, France’s largest bank, reported third-quarter profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates as trading revenue rose. Net income climbed 14 percent to 1.83 billion euros (US$2 billion) from 1.6 billion euros a year earlier, the Paris-based bank said yesterday. Meanwhile, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, Britain’s biggest government-owned lender, said profit fell by more than half in the third-quarter to £842 million pounds (US$1.3 billion) from £2.05 billion a year earlier, Edinburgh-based RBS said in a statement yesterday.
FINANCE
Macquarie Group cuts jobs
Macquarie Group Ltd cut 503 jobs in its first fiscal half, the most in three years, the company said yesterday. Macquarie employed 13,582 as of Sept. 30 down from 14,085 six months earlier, with almost two-thirds of the reductions in Australia, earning statements show. That helped the country’s largest investment bank narrow the cost-to-income ratio, a measure of efficiency, to 69.6 percent, the lowest since at least 2001, according to filings.
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
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks