JAPAN
Exports fall in August
Exports tumbled and the nation logged a surprise trade deficit last month, data showed yesterday, reviving concerns about the economy just before the Bank of Japan wrapped up a closely watched meeting. Shipments overseas fell 9.6 percent from a year earlier as a strong yen clouds the nation’s trade picture. That left a trade deficit of ¥18.7 billion (US$184 million), the first shortfall in three months and after markets had forecast a ¥200 billion surplus. Overall exports fell for the 11th consecutive month, with vehicle and steel shipments among the worst hit sectors.
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Allergan buys two firms
Allergan PLC is on a shopping spree. In less than 12 hours on Tuesday, the drugmaker announced a pair of acquisitions of companies developing treatments for a liver disease known as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), giving the company a ready-made pipeline in one of biotechnology’s hottest areas. Before the market opened on Tuesday, Allergan said it would buy Tobira Therapeutics Inc for as much as US$1.7 billion, gaining the company’s experimental drugs for NASH. Then, after the market closed, it announced a US$50 million deal to acquire Akarna Therapeutics Ltd, which is also developing NASH treatments.
CLOTHING
Inditex profits rise 8%
Spain-based fashion retail giant Inditex, owner of popular brand Zara, yesterday posted an 8 percent rise in first-half profits thanks to a surge in clothes sales around the globe. One of the world’s largest fashion retailers said profit for the six months from February to July rose to 1.3 billion euros (US$1.4 billion) from the same time a year earlier. Sales in the first half rose 11 percent to 10.5 billion euros. The company, which operates eight store brands, including Zara, upmarket label Massimo Dutti and teen chain Bershka, said all brands posted a rise in sales.
TECHNOLOGY
Microsoft approves dividend
Microsoft Corp on Tuesday said that its board has approved a dividend increase and a new US$40 billion stock buyback plan. The Redmond, Washington, company said it will pay a quarterly dividend of US$0.39 on Dec. 8. That is up US$0.03, or 8 percent, from its previous payout. The technology giant also said it is on track to complete its existing US$40 billion stock buyback plan by the end of the year. The new plan has no expiration and might be terminated any time. Shares of Microsoft are up about 30 percent in the past year. In after-hours trading, the stock rose US$0.67 to US$57.48.
ENERGY
ABB spins off unit
ABB Ltd, under pressure from Swedish activist shareholder Cevian Capital AB to spin off its power-grid division, said it will slim down the business by selling some operations to NKT Cables for an enterprise value of US$934 million. The sale of its high-voltage cable system to the Danish industrial supplier came with a long-term strategic partnership agreement, Zurich-based ABB said in a statement yesterday. Progress on the strategic review of the power-grids business will be given on Oct. 4, it said. Cevian still wants ABB to spin off the power-grid division, the investor’s cofounder Christer Gardell said by e-mail.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six