AUTOMAKERS
Toyota profit down 14.5%
Toyota Motor Corp yesterday reported a 14.5 percent drop in profit for the fiscal first quarter as sales fell and a strong yen slashed earnings for the Japanese automaker. April-to-June profit totaled ¥552.4 billion (US$5.4 billion), down from ¥646.3 billion the same period a year earlier. The results were better than the ¥435 billion profit that analysts surveyed by FactSet had projected. Quarterly sales fell about 6 percent to ¥6.59 trillion. Toyota also lowered its profit forecast for the fiscal year through March next year to ¥1.45 trillion, down from an earlier forecast for a ¥1.5 trillion profit. Toyota expects to sell 10.15 million vehicles for the fiscal year through March next year, up from 10.09 million the year before.
TELECOMS
Nokia posts US$738m loss
Nokia Corp yesterday reported a second-quarter net loss of 665 million euros (US$738 million) due to weak demand for mobile networks and the ongoing integration of acquired competitor Alcatel-Lucent. The combined net sales of Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent were 5.6 billion euros in the April-to-June period, compared with Nokia’s 2.9 billion euros a year earlier when it had not yet merged with the French telecommunications gear maker. When comparing like-for-like businesses, Nokia’s revenue fell to 5.7 billion euros from 6.4 billion euros. Chief executive officer Rajeev Suri said the company was targeting cost savings of 1.2 billion euros in 2018.
MANUFACTURING
Siemens lifts forecast
German industrial group Siemens yesterday lifted its annual earnings forecast after its order book swelled last quarter with booming demand for renewables. In a statement, the firm said it expected profits per share between 6.5 and 6.7 euros, compared with the 6 to 6.4 it had previously predicted. In April through June its order book bulged to 21 billion euros, a 6 percent increase over the same period last year, boosted by both demand for renewables as well as power and gas. The group expects “moderate revenue growth” for the whole of the 2015-2016 financial year after adjusting for currency effects.
UNITED KINGDOM
Car registrations unchanged
Car registrations were flat last month, data for the first full month since Britons voted to leave the EU showed yesterday. Sales rose 0.06 percent year-on-year to 178,523 units with a rise in business demand for fleet vehicles compensating for a 6 percent drop in demand from members of the public. One of the nation’s biggest selling brands, Volkswagen , saw its sales fall 9.5 percent last month, the ninth month out of the last 10, data showed.
RETAIL
Wal-Mart eyes Jet.com
Wal-Mart Stores Inc is in talks to buy Jet.com Inc, the e-commerce start-up that began a year ago billing itself as a challenger to Amazon.com Inc, according to people familiar with the matter. The discussions might ultimately result in a strategic investment rather than an acquisition, one of the people said. Buying Jet would boost Wal-Mart’s e-commerce operations, which have been showing slower growth in recent quarters. Jet.com, valued at more than US$1 billion after its last fundraising round, reached a US$1 billion run rate in sales last month, according to one of the people. Last month’s sales also beat internal forecasts, the person said.
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