RETAIL
Massmart cuts dividends
Massmart Holdings Ltd, the South African food and general goods retailer controlled by Wal-Mart Stores Inc, cut its full-year dividend by 39 percent to 2.58 rand per share and said the outlook for consumers has weakened amid rising interest rates and inflation. Operating profit rose 14 percent to 2.3 billion rands (US$147 million) in the year through December last year. December food inflation soared to 5.8 percent as the worst drought in more than a century hits the country. Meanwhile, a weakening rand prompted the central bank to raise interest rates by half a percentage point last month, increasing repayment costs for those with loans or mortgages.
CHEMICALS
Henkel profits surge
Henkel AG, the maker of Schwarzkopf shampoo and Loctite glue, reported a rise in fourth-quarter profit after strong sales of laundry and beauty-care products in emerging markets. Fourth-quarter adjusted earnings before interest and taxes advanced 11 percent to 670 million euros (US$739 million), the Dusseldorf-based company said in a statement yesterday. Revenue climbed 2.9 percent to 4.4 billion euros in the fourth quarter, bringing the annual total to 18.1 billion euros. Henkel is seeking to boost group revenue to 20 billion euros by the end of this year, with about half originating in emerging markets.
BEVERAGES
Anheuser misses estimates
Anheuser-Busch InBev NV reported fourth-quarter earnings that missed analysts’ estimates as sales volume dropped, underlining the need for the brewer to complete its acquisition of SABMiller PLC for US$100 billion to expand in markets like Africa. Adjusted operating income rose 6.6 percent on an organic basis to US$4.31 billion, the company said in a statement yesterday. The US beer market should improve this year, while Brazil would have a weak first quarter and the economy would be challenging this year, the brewer said. AB InBev also forecast it would outperform the market in China, where volume would remain under pressure.
INSURANCE
NN Group profits rise
NN Group NV, the Dutch insurer and asset manager spun out of ING Groep NV, reported an 82 percent increase in fourth-quarter profit because of positive results at its Japan unit and cost savings in the Netherlands. Net income rose to 360 million euros from 197 million euros a year earlier, the Hague-based company said in a statement yesterday. Profits from the asset management business fell 49 percent to 21 million euros, while non-life profit in the Netherlands fell 18 percent to 28 million euros, the company said.
UTILITIES
Veolia income up 74 percent
Veolia Environnement SA, Europe’s biggest water company, said net income rose 74 percent last year, meeting analysts’ expectations, aided by higher revenue and lower costs. Net income increased to 580.1 million euros from a restated 333 million euros a year earlier, the Paris-based company said yesterda in a statement, matching a 581.4 million euro average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The utility confirmed its plan to increase dividend in the next three years in line with an 800 million euro recurring net income goal set for 2018 in December. That includes a dividend of 0.73 euro per share for last year, up from 0.70 euro a year earlier, with the payout then climbing by about 10 percent annually.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts