CONSTRUCTION
Kier wins three contracts
Kier Group PLC said the company, along with other supply chain partners, had since last month won three contracts worth more than £5 billion (US$6.6 billion) to carry out construction in the UK, easing fears that work had stalled across the sector after Britain’s vote to leave the EU. The company, whose activities range from building power stations to outsourcing work for local councils, said it had won contracts to do work for the British health department, University of Cambridge and Gatwick Airport. A survey earlier this month showed that the UK construction industry suffered its sharpest downturn in seven years last month following the vote, but others, including Irish building materials group Kingspan, have seen a rise in UK business since the vote. Kier yesterday said that the three new contracts had been won after July 4, when the company first said that Brexit had not impacted its business.
OIL
Oil Search profit dives
Oil Search Ltd posted a 89 percent decline in first-half profit as a drop in energy prices offset increased output at the Papua New Guinea-focused company. Net income was US$25.6 million, compared with US$227.5 million last year, the Sydney-based company said in a statement yesterday. The result compared with expectations for US$38 million, according to the average of three analysts surveyed by Bloomberg as lower commodity prices weighed on the profitability of the company. Oil Search shares fell as much as 2 percent to A$7.29 in Sydney before paring its loss to trade at A$7.395 at 12:43pm. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 0.9 percent.
MACHINERY
Doosan to test IPO demand
Doosan Bobcat Inc, an arm of South Korea’s biggest construction equipment maker, plans to start gauging demand early next month for a domestic initial public offering (IPO) that could raise at least US$1 billion, people familiar with the matter said. The manufacturer of excavators and loaders aims to begin testing investor interest as soon as Sept. 8, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. The Korea Exchange last week said it approved Doosan Bobcat’s share sale. Doosan Bobcat, which is seeking to expand in emerging markets including China and Southeast Asia, joins Samsung Biologics Co in braving an IPO market with the second-worst performance among major Asian bourses.
SMARTPHONES
Lenovo to run Microsoft apps
Microsoft apps, such as Office and Skype, are to be installed on Lenovo mobile devices powered by Android software under the terms of a collaboration announced late on Monday. The US technology giant and the Chinese computer titan said they were “deepening their strategic relationship” with a move that could add to the ranks of people using Microsoft programs as services hosted in the internet cloud. “The marriage of Microsoft’s apps and Lenovo’s Android-based devices will enable customers around the world to be more productive, more connected and achieve even more,” Microsoft corporate vice president Nick Parker said in a statement. Lenovo is expected to ship millions of Android-powered devices in the next several years. The deal also includes cross-licensing that will allow patented Microsoft technology to be used in Lenovo and Motorola devices, according to the companies.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by