BANKING
Goldman’s Schwartz retiring
Goldman Sachs is losing an architect of its Asia-Pacific division at the same time it confronts slowing activity in the region and a probe over its dealings in Malaysia. Mark Schwartz, 62, has decided to retire from his post as chairman of Goldman Sachs Asia Pacific, a memo on Monday from chief executive Lloyd Blankfein and president Gary Cohn said. Beijing-based Schwartz, a 27-year Goldman veteran, is to leave his post at the end of the year. He will serve as a senior director at Goldman following his departure from China. Schwartz played an “instrumental role” in building Goldman’s business in Asia, as chairman of the Asia-Pacific unit in Tokyo in the late 1990s and reprising the role again in 2012 from Beijing, the memo said.
AIRLINES
Kenya Air suspends strike
Kenya Airways jumped 6.5 percent in early trading yesterday, after pilots suspended a planned strike following talks between the union, airline and government. The pilots’ union KALPA had called for an indefinite strike to demand management changes at the loss-making airline, which is partly owned by the government and Air France-KLM. The union, airline executives and government held talks on Monday to avert action that officials said would hurt the carrier’s slow recovery. A new chairman was named after the talks, meeting part of the pilots’ demands.
ENTERTAINMENT
Disney drops Twitter bid
Walt Disney Co decided not to pursue a bid for Twitter Inc partly out of concern that bullying and other uncivil forms of communication on the social media site might soil the company’s wholesome family image, people familiar with management’s thinking said. The producer of family fare like Finding Dory had gone so far as to hire two investment banks, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Guggenheim Partners LLC, to help evaluate a bid for Twitter. Disney management also listened to a presentation about the business from Twitter executives, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions were private.
GAMING
Ladbrokes Q3 revenue up
British bookmaker Ladbrokes yesterday reported a 12.1 percent rise in third-quarter net revenue, helped by a bookmaker-friendly and busy summer of sport. The company, which agreed an all-share merger with Gala Coral to create a £2.3 billion (US$3.4 billion) betting group, said net revenue for UK Retail rose 1.9 percent in the quarter ended Sept. 30, while European Retail net revenue rose 11.3 percent. Ladbrokes’ digital business revenue jumped 48.2 percent in the quarter. The company said its performance in the quarter was “supportive” of its full-year expectations.
SHIPBUILDING
STX bundled sale likely
A South Korean court handling the bankruptcy case of STX Offshore and Shipbuilding Co, yesterday said that it could announce the bundled sale of the company with its profitable French shipyard unit later this week. STX France, which specializes in building cruise ships, is the only profitable unit of STX Offshore, which filed for receivership in May. Originally it was assumed that the French unit would be sold off separately, but the bankruptcy court signaled its preference for selling the two companies as a package. “The court is seeking to sell STX Offshore together with STX France as one bundle,” said Choi Ung-young, a judge who acts as a spokesman for the Seoul Central District Insolvency Court.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure