BANKING
Shareholders back merger
The shareholders of Banca Popolare di Milano (BPM) and Banco Popolare on Saturday approved a merger between the two lenders, giving the final green light to the creation of Italy’s third-largest bank by assets. Investors in Verona-based Banco Popolare, who approved the deal overwhelmingly, had been widely expected to back the move, but BPM had to overcome opposition from a group of retired employee-shareholders. The merger is the first prompted by reforms introduced by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi early last year, aiming to promote such tie-ups and boost bank profitability. The creation of a new big bank, which is to be named Banco-BPM, is good news not only for the banking system but also for the government, which threw its weight behind the deal. Banco Popolare chief executive officer Pier Francesco Saviotti said the bank was working on the sale of 650 million euros (US$713.08 million) in bad loans to be completed by the year-end.
CHINA
CCB to assist Yunnan Tin
China Construction Bank Corp (CCB, 中國建設銀行), the nation’s second-largest lender, said it agreed to form an almost 5 billion yuan (US$742.94 million) debt-to-equity pact with Yunnan Tin Group Holding Co (雲南錫業集團). The agreement is part of a larger 10 billion yuan framework the two companies signed to cut Yunnan Tin’s debt ratio, the Beijing-based lender said in a statement on its Web site on Sunday. It did not provide any specifics of the agreement. The accord is the second debt-relief program Construction Bank has announced in the past week with state-owned enterprises. On Tuesday, the lender announced plans to raise 24 billion yuan for a fund to help lower Wuhan Iron & Steel Group’s (武漢鋼鐵) debt levels. The bank also flagged its involvement with Yunnan Tin Co, saying at the time it was seeking to cooperate with the company to lower its leverage.
MACROECONOMICS
Belgium agrees on budget
Belgium’s coalition government has agreed the basics of its budget, finding savings of some three billion euros to help balance the books. “Agreement,” Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said on Twitter late on Friday after lengthy talks finally produced an accord. Negotiations appeared blocked earlier in the week, with Michel promising to work “relentlessly” to get a deal by Saturday, when EU member states using the euro currency are supposed to submit their budgets for next year to scrutiny by Brussels. Spending cuts, especially in health, were a key sticking point along with plans to introduce a controversial capital gains tax broadly opposed by business.
SCOTLAND
Sturgeon eyes post-Brexit
The nation is to set up a trade office in Berlin, boosting its trade departments in readiness for all possibilities, including independence, after Britain leaves the EU, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Saturday. The Scottish National Party (SNP) leader has raised the nation’s profile since June’s EU referendum in Britain, seizing on a new openness toward the nation in Europe since most of its population voted to remain in the bloc. Sturgeon told the SNP conference at its close that economic stability is threatened by the prospect of the UK leaving the European single market, taking Scotland with it. Sturgeon said that in order to protect business in the nation, the government would set up a board of trade, a new trade envoy scheme, expand its enterprise agency and establish a trade hub in Berlin.
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
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],”