PUERTO RICO
Fiscal deadline postponed
A federal control board is giving Puerto Rico’s government more time to figure out how to confront its financial crisis. Saturday’s action gives the territorial government a little more time to negotiate with creditors and stave off possible lawsuits. The deadline for presenting a fiscal plan moves to Feb. 28 instead of Jan. 15. And the moratorium on lawsuits now extends to May 31 instead of Feb. 15. The US Congress created the board last year to oversee efforts to overcome an estimated US$70 billion debt that has expanded during a decade-long recession. The board has said Puerto Rico should raise revenues and cut costs.
INVESTMENT
Abraaj plans US$8bn fund
Buyout firm Abraaj Group is planning to raise about US$5 billion to US$8 billion from investors this year, people familiar with the matter said, in what would be the emerging-market-focused investor’s largest fund. The Dubai-based firm, which invests across markets from Asia to Latin America, is planning to raise the money from a pool of regional and international investors by the end of this year, the people said. The plans are in early stages, they said. A spokeswoman of Abraaj, which manages about US$10 billion in assets, declined to comment.
COFFEE SHOPS
Starbucks raises boss’ pay
Starbucks Corp boosted chief executive officer Howard Schultz’s compensation 8.6 percent to US$21.8 million for fiscal 2016, his last full year on the job, after the company posted record revenue and earnings. Schultz received a US$1.5 million salary and US$3.19 million cash incentive tied to adjusted net revenue and adjusted operating income for the year ended on Oct. 2, according to a proxy statement filed on Friday. He also got equity awards worth US$16.9 million. Schultz is set to step down as CEO in April to hand the reins to chief operating officer Kevin Johnson. He’ll remain executive chairman.
AVIATION
United eyes LA expansion
United Continental Holdings Inc is targeting a major expansion at Los Angeles International Airport in an effort to reverse a slide that has left the airline languishing behind its biggest rivals at the busiest West Coast hub, said people familiar with the plans. President Scott Kirby discussed his vision for Los Angeles at a meeting of the Air Line Pilots Association in Rosemont, Illinois, earlier this month. He said the company needs more space and is studying plans to claim most or all of a future terminal, according to the people. Kirby did not discuss a timetable, the people said.
FOOD PROCESSING
Associated wants Weetabix
Associated British Foods PLC is considering a bid for Weetabix, the cereal brand controlled by China’s Bright Food Group Co (光明食品), people familiar with the matter said. ABF could seek to combine the brand with its UK cereals business, the people said. Baring Private Equity Asia Ltd bought a 40 percent stake in Weetabix in 2015 in a deal that valued the brand at about £1.3 billion (US$1.6 billion). Bright Food owns the remaining 60 percent. Italy’s Barilla Holding SpA may also consider a bid, one of the people said. US breakfast cereal giant Kellogg Co could make an offer as well, though they may face competition issues, another person said. No final decisions have been made, sources said.
STOCKS
TAIEX passes 9,000 points
The TAIEX closed above the 9,000-point mark at the end of the Year of the Monkey for the fourth time in a lunar year since 2000, according to the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE). On Tuesday last week, the last trading day of the Year of the Monkey, the index closed at 9,447.95 points, up 1,384.95, or 17.18 percent, from Feb. 3 last year, the last trading day of the Year of the Goat. Due to the strong showing in the Year of the Monkey, market capitalization of the local main board rose about NT$4.17 trillion (US$133 billion), or 17.57 percent, from a year earlier to NT$27.89 trillion. Trading on the local main board is scheduled to resume on Thursday, the sixth day of the Year of the Rooster.
TECHNOLOGY
Apple joins AI partnership
A technology industry alliance devoted to making sure smart machines do not turn against humanity said on Friday that Apple Inc has signed on and will have a seat on the board. Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc, Google, Facebook Inc, IBM Corp and British AI firm DeepMind last year established the non-profit organization, called Partnership on AI, which will have its inaugural board meeting in San Francisco on Friday. Apple “has been involved and collaborating with the partnership since before it was first announced and is thrilled to formalize its membership,” the alliance said. Major technology firms joined forces in the group, with stated aims including cooperation on “best practices” for AI and using the technology “to benefit people and society.”
REAL ESTATE
HK housing starts up 80%
Hong Kong’s construction of private residential units reached a 16-year high last year, a year that the city’s leaders stepped up efforts to cool the world’s costliest property market. Developers started building a total of 25,500 private apartments last year, up 80 percent from 2015, the Transport and Housing Bureau said in a release on Friday. That was the highest since 2000, when housing starts were at 30,100 units. About 94,000 units will become available to buyers in the next three to four years, according to the bureau.
AVIATION
American Q4 earnings drop
American Airlines Group Inc said on Friday it sees a strong market for ticket sales as it reported lower fourth-quarter earnings but a rise in a closely watched industry benchmark. Net income in the fourth quarter was US$289 million, down from US$3.3 billion in the year-ago period. The fourth quarter of 2015 was boosted by US$3 billion in tax allowances. Revenues were US$9.8 billion, up 1.7 percent from the year-ago period. Chief executive Doug Parker cited a 1.3 percent rise in the ratio of revenue per available seat mile during the quarter.
INVESTMENT
JPMorgan fattens bonus pool
It is a good time to be a rates trader on Wall Street. JPMorgan Chase & Co, the world’s biggest investment bank by revenue, last year boosted its bonus pool for traders dealing in government bonds, swaps and other assets tied to interest rates by about 20 percent, according to people with knowledge of the matter. At Morgan Stanley, the bonus pool for rates traders climbed more than 10 percent, and at Bank of America Corp the average bonus for those employees increased more than 10 percent, other people said. Rates traders outperformed most of their peers in fixed income.
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