ELECTRONICS
Toshiba shares dive
Toshiba Corp shares dropped to a 36-year low in Tokyo yesterday after the company widened its annual loss forecast to a record ¥710 billion (US$6 billion) as the Japanese industrial group restructures in the wake of an accounting scandal. Shares fell 11 percent to ¥176.3, the lowest close since December 1979, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Toshiba’s new forecast is 29 percent wider than an earlier projection for a ¥550 billion shortfall and the ¥505.5 billion loss average of 10 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
INDONESIA
IKEA loses name dispute
Furniture giant IKEA, founded in Sweden in 1943, has lost a trademark dispute in Indonesia after the country’s highest court agreed the name was owned by a local company. Indonesian furniture company PT Ratania Khatulistiwa registered its IKEA trademark in December 2013. It is an acronym of Intan Khatulistiwa Esa Abadi. The Supreme Court’s ruling was made in May last year, but only surfaced publicly this week with its publication online by the court on Thursday.
MEDIA
News Corp profits drop
News Corp on Thursday reported a 56 percent drop in quarterly profits on weaker revenue from its newspaper operations worldwide. The group formed by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch said profit in the quarter to Dec. 31 last year fell to US$62 million from US$142 million a year earlier. Total revenues dipped 4 percent from a year ago to US$2.16 billion.
FINANCE
BNP Paribas earnings fall
BNP Paribas SA posted a 52 percent decline in fourth-quarter earnings, missing estimates, while announcing a revamp of its investment bank to boost profit and free up capital. Net income at France’s biggest bank fell to 665 million euros (US$744 million) from 1.38 billion euros a year earlier after a goodwill writedown at its Italian unit, the Paris-based company said yesterday. Earnings fell short of the 864 million-euro average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
INTERNET
Amazon to stream songs
Amazon.com Inc said on Thursday that its Echo wireless system is to play songs from Spotify Ltd as the retail giant delves further into the booming sector of streaming. Echo, which went on sale last year, is a wireless speaker that responds to voice commands to carry out tasks such as looking up information on the Internet or setting alarms. Through the tie-up, Echo owners would be able to play instantly from the vast catalog of Spotify. However, the tie-up will only be available in the US and for paying subscribers of Spotify.
UNITED KINGDOM
BOE cuts growth forecast
The Bank of England (BOE) cut its economic growth forecasts to 2.2 percent this year and 2.3 percent next year on Thursday, with interest rates staying at a record-low, as policymakers fretted over slumping oil prices and the darkening global outlook. The bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) held its key rate at 0.5 percent in a unanimous vote, where it has stood since March 2009. The MPC also maintained the amount of cash stimulus, or quantitative easing, pumping around the British economy at £375 billion pounds (US$542 billion) after its latest two-day gathering.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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