ELECTRONICS
Toshiba seeking ¥300bn
Toshiba Corp is seeking its second credit line from banks in three months, aiming to gain access to an additional ¥300 billion (US$2.5 billion) as it faces mounting costs from an accounting scandal that has led to layoffs and asset sales. The company plans to apply for funds by the end of next month, company spokeswoman Yuu Takase said. Combined with the ¥400 billion credit line Toshiba received in September, that would bring Toshiba’s total loan facility to more than ¥1 trillion, Takase said. Toshiba, which last week forecast a record ¥550 billion annual loss, needs money to pay for thousands of job cuts, as well as the overhaul of the businesses that make televisions and PCs. Toshiba president Masashi Muromachi has said there is to be no public fundraising for two years.
AUTO PARTS
Icahn ups Pep Boys ante
Bridgestone Corp is to decide by the end of the year whether it is to top Carl Icahn’s bid for US auto service chain Pep Boys after the billionaire upped the ante on Monday, topping Bridgestone’s Christmas Eve offer by about 9 percent. Icahn, who wants to split the company and merge its retail side with his Auto Plus car parts network, offered US$18.50 a share, or more than US$1 billion, compared with Bridgestone’s US$17 proposal. The two sides have been battling since Bridgestone first sealed a takeover deal with Philadelphia-based Pep Boys at just US$15 a share. In a securities filing Icahn said he could pay an even higher price if Pep Boys does not increase the termination fee it must pay Bridgestone for canceling the October agreement. The company operates a chain of 800 service and parts sales outlets across the US, and buying it would elevate Bridgestone’s US market position for its tires. The Japanese company already has 2,200 US outlets.
BANKING
Two charged with larceny
Bank fraud can follow you to the grave. That is what prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, said in the case of two men who worked as personal bankers at JPMorgan Chase & Co and are accused of stealing US$400,000 from inactive bank accounts. At least eight account holders were dead. Jonathan Francis, 27, and Dion Allison, 30, were charged with crimes including conspiracy and second-degree grand larceny. The men and their conspirators made more than 350 ATM withdrawals from about 15 accounts, according to an indictment unsealed this month. Francis and Allison “preyed” on such accounts, New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton said in a statement. “Not only did they raid their victims’ savings, they also failed to conceal their deceitful tracks.” Francis and a third alleged conspirator were arraigned this month. A fourth person remains at large.
BANKING
JPMorgan to hike rates
JPMorgan Chase & Co is to begin raising deposit rates for some of its biggest clients next month, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. The bank’s deposit-rate increase is to affect most institutional clients and the size of the increases would vary, the Journal reported, citing the person. Earlier this month, major US banks raised their prime rates, a benchmark for a wide range of consumer and commercial loans, for the first time since 2006, following a rate increase by the US Federal Reserve.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by