LUXURY GOODS
LVMH weighs stocks down
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE dragged luxury stocks lower after the maker of Celine handbags reported weaker-than-expected revenue growth last quarter, dealing a fresh blow to industry sentiment. LVMH shares fell as much as 3.8 percent in Paris, the most since February. The attacks in Paris and Brussels and new biometric visa requirements deterring leisure travel from Asia are weighing on European sales. Collapsing demand in Hong Kong and China, meanwhile, has led companies to curtail expansion there. First-quarter sales gained 3 percent on an organic basis, decelerated from 5 percent in the previous period, LVMH said. Total revenue for the period rose 4 percent to 8.62 billion euros (US$9.9 billion). Analysts predicted 8.73 billion euros.
AUTOMAKERS
Mercedes sales soar 13%
Mercedes-Benz boosted sales twice as fast as BMW in the first quarter, moving closer to clinching the lead in the world’s luxury-car market for the first time in a decade. The Daimler AG luxury unit’s deliveries soared 13 percent to 483,487 vehicles through last month, compared with a 6 percent increase to 478,743 cars for BMW AG’s namesake brand. Sales of compact cars such as the A-Class increased 26 percent to more than 150,000, Mercedes said. Mercedes has declared it wants to overtake BMW by 2020.
COMMODITIES
Gold trading high
Gold traded near the highest level in three weeks as investors look to US data for further clues on how the US Federal Reserve will proceed on monetary policy. Bullion for immediate delivery added as much as 0.2 percent to US$1,260.06 per ounce, the highest since March 22, and traded at US$1,258.26 at 3:29pm in Singapore, according to Bloomberg generic pricing. Gold has rallied this year as investors scaled back projections for US rate rises, hurting the greenback. Lower rates are a boon for gold, which becomes more competitive against interest-bearing assets. Bullion of 99.99 percent purity on the Shanghai Gold Exchange traded 0.1 percent higher at 261.15 yuan per gram (US$1,255.90 per ounce).
INTERNET
Alibaba to buy Lazada
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) agreed to buy control of Indonesian e-commerce operator Lazada Group SA for about US$1 billion to tap growth in Southeast Asia. China’s largest e-commerce operator will pay US$500 million for new shares in Lazada and also purchase stock from existing investors, Alibaba said in a statement yesterday. Lazada is controlled by Germany’s Rocket Internet SE. Lazada sells goods such as clothing in six Southeast Asian markets, including Malaysia and Singapore.
FOREX
Pound extends gains
The pound extended its gain versus the US dollar, climbing for a third day, after data showed UK inflation accelerated more than economists forecast last month. The pound erased its decline against the euro after the Office for National Statistics said annual inflation quickened to a 15-month high of 0.5 percent last month, from 0.3 percent the month before. While the measure is inching closer to the Bank of England’s target of 2 percent, markets are still not pricing for policymakers to increase interest rates this year. Officials are to announce their next policy decision in two days. The pound rose 0.4 percent to US$1.4297 as of 9:36am London time.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six