PHARMACEUTICALS
Bayer raises its forecast
German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer yesterday said it had slightly increased its forecast for the whole year after hgiher sales and profits in the third quarter. Results released by the firm showed that profits rose by 18.8 percent to 1.2 billion euros (US$1.3 billion) between July and last month compared with the same period the previous year, on sales of 11.3 billion euros. Based on its performance, Bayer said it would target a “high single-digit percentage increase in adjusted profits per share” for the whole year rather than the “mid-to-high” increase it had in its sights on previously.
AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai profit slumps
Hyundai Motor Co’s third-quarter profit fell to its lowest level in nearly seven years, well below forecasts, due to a strike that dented production and weak demand in emerging markets. South Korea’s largest automaker said its third-quarter earnings fell 10 percent from a year earlier to 1.06 trillion won (US$937 million). That was the lowest profit since the first quarter of 2010, when Hyundai adopted international financial reporting standards. Hyundai, part of the world’s fifth-largest auto group, said its sales in the first nine months of the year declined 2 percent from the previous year to 3.5 million units, falling both at home and overseas. It blamed production disruptions from a strike.
AVIATION
Airbus profit tumbles
Airbus Group SE’s third-quarter profit tumbled 21 percent as the aircraft maker spent money addressing production delays to its latest wide-body plane, fell behind on single-aisle deliveries and suffered a drop in helicopter sales. Earnings before interest and tax excluding one-time items slumped to 731 million euros from 921 million euros the previous year, Toulouse, France-based Airbus said in a statement yesterday. Airbus maintained its guidance for full-year earnings matching last year’s level as it increases spending to achieve 50 A350 deliveries this year. It handed over just 26 in the first nine months.
BANKING
Lloyds takes insurance hit
Britain’s state-rescued Lloyds Banking Group yesterday said it had set aside a further £1 billion (US$1.2 billion) to compensate customers who were missold insurance. The hit contributed toward Lloyds reporting a sharp drop in third-quarter net profit, to £219 million, compared with the previous year, the company said in an earnings statement. However, profit after tax for the nine months to the end of last month jumped 30 percent to £2 billion. The update came amid widespread concern across the financial sector that Brexit would hamper Britain-based banks in carrying out their business across the EU.
GERMANY
Consumer confidence slips
The nation can expect slightly less cheerful consumers next month, a monthly study from market research firm GfK said yesterday, as reports of weak global growth made themselves felt. The survey of about 2,000 people forecast a slight fall in GfK’s headline consumer confidence index to 9.7 points, from 10.0 points this month. Consumers’ expectations for the future rose slightly after three consecutive falls, though, with GfK suggesting that “consumers seem to have digested the decision of the British to leave the European Union” in June.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to