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.
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
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
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