BANKING
Fed backs US firms
The largest US financial institutions have enough armor to withstand the turmoil of a major and prolonged national and global recession, the US Federal Reserve said on Thursday. The Fed’s annual “stress tests” show that the 33 largest financial institutions — including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc, Bank of America Corp and Wells Fargo & Co — all hold more capital than at any time since the 2008 financial crisis. They also hold enough capital that, even if faced with billions of dollars in losses from loans as a result of an economic crisis, they would continue to function, the Fed said.
TECHNOLOGY
Twilio stocks soar on debut
Twilio Inc shares soared more than 70 percent to US$25.83 after the technology company’s stock market debut on Thursday. The San Francisco company makes software that helps companies communicate with their customers and employees through text messages, phone notifications and in other ways. The eight-year-old company raised US$150 million in its initial public offering, selling 10 million Class A shares at US$15 per share, above the US$12 to US$14 range it was expecting the stock to be priced at. The stock’s rise on Thursday valued Twilio at more than US$2 billion. Twilio reported a net loss of US$39 million last year, wider than the US$27 million loss it reported in 2014, as its costs rose. It had revenue of US$167 million last year, an 88 percent jump from a year earlier.
CHEMICALS
Henkel buys Sun Products
Henkel AG agreed to buy US laundry and home-care company Sun Products Corp from Vestar Capital Partners in a deal valued at about 3.2 billion euros (US$3.5 billion). Sun, which had revenue last year of about US$1.6 billion, sells laundry care brands including All, Sun and Snuggle fabric conditioner. The company, based in Wilton, Connecticut, employs about 2,000 people and has two production sites and one research and development facility in the US, Henkel said in a statement yesterday.
BANKING
Loan write-offs revealed
Chinese banks have written off more than US$300 billion of bad loans in the past three years, an official said on Thursday as Beijing seeks to reassure investors that the country can cope with its mounting debt problem. Wang Shengbang (王勝邦), a high-ranking official with the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said the country’s banks had seen their non-performing loan ratios rise consistently for four-and-a-half years, reaching 1.75 percent at the end of March. They were well-prepared to handle the losses, he said, adding that domestic lenders had written off two trillion yuan (US$304 billion) of bad loans over the past three years.
RETAIL
Macy’s CEO to step down
Macy’s chief executive officer Terry Lundgren, who spearheaded a landmark acquisition that created a powerhouse national department store chain, is to step down early next year, the company announced on Thursday as it struggles to reinvent itself amid online competition and changing consumer habits. Lundgren, 64, is to be replaced by Macy’s president Jeff Gennette, 55, who was promoted to that role from chief merchandising officer nearly two years ago. Gennette, whom Lundgren describes as a skilled merchant and retail operator, will assume additional management responsibility during the transition.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last