ARGENTINA
Bond offering launched
The South American nation has made a highly successful return to global credit markets with the launch of a US$16.5 billion bond offering. Minister of Finance Alfonso Prat-Gay on Tuesday indicated that the government could have sold more bonds, receiving more than US$69 billion in orders. The stronger-than-expected demand from investors allowed the deal to be marked up from its initial guidance of US$15 billion. It also marks the biggest order books for an Argentine bond. Prat-Gay said the bond sale would jumpstart the struggling economy and help tame one of the world’s highest inflation rates.
CHIPMAKERS
ASML predicts upswing
Dutch computer chipmaker and global high-tech bellwether ASML Holding NV yesterday reported a steep fall in first-quarter sales and profits, but predicted an upswing in the months ahead. Net sales for the first quarter of this year stood at 1.33 billion euros (US$1.51 billion), compared with 1.65 billion euros a year ago. However, net income halved, dropping from 403 million euros in the first quarter of last year to 198 million this year. ASML president Peter Wennink said the firm’s second-quarter net sales would increase substantially from the first quarter to about 1.7 billion euros.
AGRICULTURE
Syngenta reports sales dip
Syngenta AG, which is in the process of being acquired by China’s state-owned China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina, 中國化工) for US$43 billion, reported its fifth straight quarterly decline in sales, weighed down by currency moves and weakened demand for agrochemicals in Latin America. Revenue fell 7 percent to US$3.74 billion in the three months through last month, the Basel, Switzerland-based company said yesterday. Analysts had predicted revenue to fall to about US$3.72 billion. While ChemChina successfully wooed its target, there is lingering tension over whether the deal will get approved by US regulators.
SOFTWARE
SAP SE eyes growth
SAP SE yesterday said it has “high visibility into a strong second quarter” as the company seeks to make up for a licensing slump that led to unexpectedly sluggish sales at the outset of the year. Revenue from licenses, support and cloud computing subscriptions rose 4 percent in North and South America, hurt by performance in Brazil and the US, SAP said. The German software maker is looking to boost growth after first-quarter sales rose less than analysts expected as some contracts fell through. SAP on April 8 reported preliminary figures and cited political and economic instability in Latin American, particularly in Brazil.
INVESTMENT
Aramco enlists IPO advisers
JPMorgan Chase & Co and Michael Klein, the former Citigroup Inc investment banker who runs his own boutique, have been selected to advise on state-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co’s (Aramco) initial public offering (IPO), according to people familiar with the matter. Klein is providing strategic advice to the government, while JPMorgan is working on preparations for the IPO and might be among the banks that underwrite the listing, the people said. The deliberations are still at an early stage and no final decisions about the IPO have been made, they said. Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Salman is working on a plan to list shares in Aramco on the country’s domestic stock exchange as early as next year.
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
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],”