AIRLINES
Air France-KLM picks CEO
Air France-KLM’s board of directors on Sunday appointed Jean-Marc Janaillac, the current head of French transport group Transdev, as the group’s new chief executive following the surprise resignation of Alexandre de Juniac. “The board has decided that Mr Janaillac will be co-opted as a group director when Mr de Juniac leaves office on July 31 at the latest. He will then be appointed chairman and chief executive officer of Air France-KLM,” the board said in a statement. The appointment of 63-year-old Janaillac was widely anticipated, but French media had expected the announcement to come today at the earliest.
BANKING
Qatar bank confirms leak
Qatar’s largest bank on Sunday confirmed that some personal customer data that was leaked online might be authentic, adding that it had hired an outside expert to review potential vulnerabilities to its computer systems. Files dumped online last week appeared to contain sensitive information involving thousands of Qatar National Bank customers, including bank logins, passwords, security questions and answers, credit card numbers, national identification numbers, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. The bank previously said only that it was investigating an alleged breach.
AIRLINES
Virgin Australia cuts seats
Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd joined rival Qantas Airways Ltd in slashing seating capacity, warning firms like mining companies are delaying business travel during a 10-week election campaign that will fuel doubts on economic policy. As it focuses on a return to profit after years of losses in a damaging price war, Virgin Australia yesterday said it plans to cut seats on its April-June flights by 5.1 percent to ensure fuller flights. Last month, Qantas also trimmed capacity plans citing the run-up to a likely July 2 vote. “This environment has been impacted by weak consumer demand and sentiment, uncertainty around the federal election and the resources sector downturn,” Virgin Australia chief executive John Borghetti said in a statement.
INTERNET
Amazon adds Bronx service
Amazon.com Inc will bring free same-day delivery to the Bronx — the only New York City borough now excluded — following criticism from elected representatives that the company’s data-driven service boundaries unfairly left out minority communities. The Bronx is at least the second area the online retailer pledged to serve following an analysis of Amazon same-day delivery areas by Bloomberg Businessweek that highlighted racial disparities in where the service was available in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York and Washington. Amazon pledged to serve the predominantly black Boston neighborhood of Roxbury starting today following criticism of its exclusion.
BANKING
Intesa sells payment units
Intesa Sanpaolo SpA agreed to sell its Setefi and Intesa Sanpaolo Card payment units to a group that includes Bain Capital and Advent International in a deal valued at 1.04 billion euros (US$1.2 billion). The Italian lender is to record a gain of 895 million euros from the transaction, Turin-based Intesa Sanpaolo said in a statement yesterday. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of this year. As part of the deal, the bank has agreed to continue using the card and payment processing services for 10 years.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure