CHINA
Fashion boss disappears
The chairman of one of China’s most prominent fashion firms, Metersbonwe (美特斯邦威), has disappeared, the company said yesterday. Metersbonwe could reach neither Zhou Chengjian (周成建), ranked China’s 62nd-richest man last year by wealth publisher Hurun, nor the secretary of the board, it said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Trading in its shares would remain suspended “to protect investors’ interests,” the company said. Without citing a source, the Qianjiang Evening News said Zhou might have been detained in connection with an insider trading case. Hurun estimated Zhou’s net worth at US$4.1 billion.
GERMANY
Industrial production slips
Industrial production decreased by 0.3 percent in November from a month earlier, weighed down by falling activity in the manufacturing sector, the economy ministry said yesterday. Manufacturing output was down by 0.8 percent month-on-month, while construction output increased by 1.6 percent and energy output was up 2.5 percent, the ministry said. Other data released showed that exports inched up by a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent to 99.3 billion euros (US$108 billion) in November. Imports grew more strongly, rising by 1.6 percent to 79.6 billion euros, meaning that the trade surplus fell to 19.7 billion euros in November from 20.5 billion euros in October.
UNITED STATES
Time Warner suspects hack
Time Warner Cable Inc on Thursday said the e-mail addresses and passwords of about 320,000 of its customers in the US might have been stolen by hackers. The company was told by the FBI about the possible compromise and has yet to determine how the information was stolen. However, the company said there is no evidence of a breach of the Time Warner Cable systems that operate customer e-mail accounts. The company said it is likely that the e-mails and passwords were previously stolen either through malware downloaded during phishing attacks, or indirectly through data breaches of other companies that stored the company’s customer information.
INVESTMENT
Noble downgraded to junk
Embattled trader Noble Group Ltd saw its credit rating downgraded to junk status by the Standard & Poor’s ratings agency on Thursday, citing the Hong Kong-based firm’s weakening “liquidity position.” Noble’s long-term corporate credit rating was lowered to “BB+” from “BBB-,” the ratings agency said, adding that the current depressed commodities markets and heightened risk aversion by lenders could complicate the company’s fund raising plans for the next few months. S&P’s move followed a similar move by Moody’s Investors Service in late last month.
RETAIL
Gap sales fall 5 percent
Gap Inc’s slump continued through the holiday season. The San Francisco-based retailer, which operates stores under its own brand, as well as Banana Republic and Old Navy, said on Thursday that a key sales measure fell 5 percent for the five-week period ending on Saturday last week. The decline was worse than the 3.5 percent drop analysts expected, on average. The company’s total revenue dropped 4 percent to US$2.01 billion for the five-week period. Gap’s shares dropped more than 8 percent in after-hours trading to US$24.52. Shares have been down nearly 40 percent for the past 12 months.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is