PHARMACEUTICALS
Allergan plans buyback
Allergan PLC plans to buy back up to US$10 billion in stock following a swing to a first-quarter profit on a strong surge in sales of key drugs, including the wrinkle and muscle spasm treatment Botox. Allergan shares rose 5.3 percent in trading on Tuesday. The share buyback plan is contingent on the sale of the drug developer’s generics unit to Teva, which is expected to close by the end of the year. The company is consolidating its executive team under CEO Brent Saunders. The announcement came as the Dublin-based company swung to a first-quarter profit of US$255.7 million, or US0.47 per share, after reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier.
INTERNET
Amazon Video Direct starts
Amazon.com Inc on Tuesday challenged YouTube by adding a platform to its video service that lets “storytellers and creators” share works online and generate revenue. The US online retail titan unveiled Amazon Video Direct where, like at YouTube, people can upload videos for online viewing at an ad-supported venue. The move came shortly after the firm made Amazon Prime Video available as its own subscription service, and ramps up its challenge to Google-parent Alphabet. Video creators have options such as offering works for rent, purchase, or on subscription channels, Amazon said.
APPAREL
Competition hurts Gap sales
Big clothing retailer Gap Inc on Tuesday reported another quarter of declining sales, a sign of deepening trouble in its battle to keep up with fast fashion and online retailers. The 47-year old apparel maker saw sales fall at all three its store brands: Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy. Sales in the first quarter fell 6 percent to US$3.44 billion, with Banana Republic sinking the most at 11 percent. Old Navy, the group’s cheapest line mostly aimed at children and teens, outperformed its sister chains for most of last year. However, key challenges for all three include toughened competition from H&M, Uniqlo and other fast-fashion chains, as well as online sales.
TRANSPORTATION
Alstom profit jumps 23%
Alstom SA’s full-year profit surged after the French rail-equipment maker got a boost from an Indian order for electric locomotives that pushed its pipeline of contracts to a record. Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes increased 23 percent to 366 million euros (US$417 million) in the fiscal year through March, Alstom said yesterday in a statement. Sales on a comparable basis climbed 7 percent to 6.88 billion euros, beating a reiterated target for annual growth of 5 percent through 2020 and analysts’ estimate of 6.71 billion euros compiled by Bloomberg. “Our first priority is the implementation of our organic strategy; our second priority is to continue to make small and medium acquisitions to accelerate this strategy,” CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge told reporters during a conference call.
RETAIL
Metro sales meet forecasts
Metro AG posted second-quarter sales that met estimates as business in its home market of Germany picked up a year before the retailer is due to split its computer and electronics stores from its food wholesale business. Sales for the quarter ended in March were 13.6 billion euros, the Dusseldorf-based firm said in a statement yesterday. Analysts expected 13.5 billion euros, according to the average estimate compiled by Bloomberg. Earnings before interest, taxes and special items were 11 million euros.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained