MEXICO
Central bank hikes rates
The central bank said it has raised its benchmark interest rate by a half-point to 6.25 percent in a bid to contain rising inflation. The Bank of Mexico announced the hike from the previous 5.75 percent on Thursday, after the country recorded a 4.7 percent annual inflation rate last month. The bank said its goal is restoring inflation to 3 percent. The peso has fallen dramatically against the US dollar in recent years and particularly since the election of US President Donald Trump.
CHEMICALS
Elementis to buy US firm
British speciality chemicals maker Elementis PLC yesterday said it will buy US-based SummitReheis Inc from an affiliate of private equity firm One Rock Capital Partners LLC for an enterprise value of US$360 million to expand its personal care business. Elementis said the deal would increase the annual sales of its personal care business to US$200 million and boost its adjusted earnings in the current financial year. SummitReheis counts Procter & Gamble Co and Colgate-Palmolive Co among its clients.
GREECE
Minister urges haste in talks
The country needs to wrap up its debt negotiations quickly to avoid the risk of having to deal with a new set of European leaders after looming elections, Alternate Minister of Finance George Chouliarakis said on Thursday. The Netherlands is holding national elections in March, France has a presidential vote in April and Germany is preparing for its federal poll in September. “As they say, better the devil you know,” Chouliarakis told an audience in London. “It is a good reason to conclude the negotiations as quickly as you can.”
CHINA
Movie quota might be raised
The government is likely to raise the quota of imported films allowed into the country, the state-run Global Times newspaper said, a potential fillip for Hollywood producers who are increasingly looking to tap the country’s fast-growing box office. The newspaper, citing experts, predicted that about a dozen films could be added to the annual quota of 34 imported movies, while foreign producers would get closer to the 40 percent of ticket revenues they receive in other overseas markets. That would be up from the current 25 percent.
AUTOMAKERS
Renault books record year
French automaker Renault SA yesterday said it booked a record year last year and added it would not set aside any provisions for potential financial fallout from a diesel emissions probe. Renault said in a statement that profits leapt about 20 percent last year, driven by strong sales. Net profit last year jumped by 19.7 percent to 3.54 billion euros (US$3.77 billion) on a 13.1 percent increase in revenues to 51.2 billion euros, the statement said.
PUBLISHING
News Corp loses US$290m
News Corp, the publishing arm of Rupert Murdoch’s corporate empire, swung to a loss in the last quarter, forced to write down the values of its Australian newspapers. The New York-based company — whose newspaper assets also include the Wall Street Journal and Times of London — reported a loss of US$290 million in the fiscal quarter ending Dec. 31 last year, compared with a profit of US$62 million a year earlier. Total revenues dipped 2 percent to US$2.1 billion.
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
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],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day