COMPUTERS
Lenovo misses projections
Lenovo Group Ltd’s (聯想) quarterly earnings missed projections as the world’s largest personal computer maker struggles to reboot a floundering PC and smartphone business. Net income fell 67 percent to US$98 million in the quarter that ended in December last year, Lenovo said in a filing. Revenue was down 6 percent to US$12.2 billion. Lenovo remains the world leader in a personal computer market struggling through a prolonged downturn as people opt for smartphones to handle everyday tasks. A rise in component prices also pressured margins. The Beijing-based company is negotiating a deal to tie up with Japan’s Fujitsu Ltd and shore up its position, an imperative given the smartphone business it bought with Motorola remains unprofitable.
BANKING
DBS profit at two-year low
DBS Group Holdings Ltd (星展銀行), Southeast Asia’s largest bank, reported its lowest quarterly profit in two years as bad-loan provisions almost doubled, overshadowing higher fees and trading income. Net income fell 9 percent to S$913 million (US$643 million) for the three months ended Dec. 31 last year from USS$1 billion a year earlier, the Singapore-based bank said yesterday in an exchange statement. That missed the S$1.014 billion average forecast of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Allowances for credit and other losses jumped 87 percent in the quarter from a year earlier to S$462 million, a “significant part” of which was due to cover the energy services industry, it said. The amount was slightly higher than the S$440 million estimated by RHB Research Institute.
HOTELS
Visitors shun US over ban
Marriott International Inc, the world’s biggest hotel operator, lost a small amount of group business due to travel restrictions under US President Donald Trump’s executive order last month, chief financial officer Leeny Oberg said. “We are aware of a handful of groups who have said, ‘You know what? I’m going to go elsewhere,’” Oberg said in a telephone interview after Marriott announced its fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday. “Whether there’s a marked impact, I think it’s too soon to tell.” Group business tends to have a longer lead time, “so it’s going to take a little while to discern the impact,” she said.
GAMBLING
Star hit by China clampdown
China’s clampdown on overseas casino operators is being felt in Sydney as Star Entertainment Group Ltd reported a slump in its international high-rollers business after the detention of employees of rival Crown Resorts Ltd in China. Turnover from international VIP clients slumped 27 percent in November and December last year, the company said in a statement yesterday. Star, which operates Sydney’s only licensed casino, said the October last year detentions in China have created “uncertainty” and “caution” and it is looking to Southeast Asia to generate more high-roller income to reduce its reliance on China. Star’s earnings from the VIP business were also hurt from the sales and marketing costs tied to the diversification, the company said. Net income after tax in the six months ended Dec. 31 last year more than doubled to A$141.8 million (US$109 million), partly because a higher win rate against VIP gamblers. Historically, 80 percent of Star’s VIP business comes from Hong Kong, Macau and China, Bekier said on a call with investors.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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