CHINA
New credit beats forecasts
The nation’s broadest measure of new credit increased more than forecast last month, even as authorities pushed to ease soaring property prices and reduce excessive borrowing. New loans slowed for a second month, while the money supply increased at the slowest pace since July last year, the latest central bank data showed. Aggregate financing stood at 2.12 trillion yuan (US$310 billion), the People’s Bank of China said yesterday, compared with a median estimate of 1.5 trillion yuan in a Bloomberg survey. New yuan loan growth slowed to 1.02 trillion yuan, compared with an estimated 1.2 trillion yuan, the central bank said. Broad M2 money supply increased 10.6 percent, versus a projected 11.1 percent rise, it said.
HEALTHCARE
Abbott settles legal battle
Abbott Laboratories has agreed to buy Alere Inc at a lower price than previously offered, closing a legal battle over the merger between the two health companies, the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified people close to the matter. Abbott agreed to buy Alere for US$51 per share rather than the previous offer of US$56, the Financial Times reported yesterday. Abbott had sued to break up its earlier US$5.8 billion takeover of medical-device maker Alere, arguing the deal target hid material information about legal and regulatory problems. The new agreement, valuing Alere’s equity at US$4.4 billion, was expected to be announced imminently, the Financial Times reported.
AUTOMAKERS
Tesla to launch semi-truck
Tesla Motors Inc founder Elon Musk said on Thursday that the electric car start-up is set to launch its first semi-truck in September, moving for the first time into that segment. Musk made the announcement in a tweet, offering few details about the plan, although he has spoken in the past about moving into the truck segment. “Tesla Semi truck unveil set for September. Team has done an amazing job. Seriously next level,” Musk wrote on Twitter. The pickup would be unveiled “in 18 to 24 months” and a new vehicle in the works would be a convertible, he said.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Credit Suisse awards cut
Credit Suisse Group AG leaders, including chief executive Tidjane Thiam, offered to have their variable pay awards cut 40 percent after investor advisory groups criticized the packages ahead of this year’s annual meeting. Thiam and the executive board proposed the reduction to long-term incentive awards for this year and short-term incentive awards for last year, according to a statement on the Zurich-based company’s Web site. Total board compensation would stay at the level of 2015 and last year, the statement said.
RIDE-HAILING
Uber tracked Lyft drivers
A report says Uber Technologies Inc used a secret program dubbed “Hell” to track Lyft Inc drivers to see if they were driving for both ride-hailing services and otherwise stifle competition. It is the latest embarrassing revelation for Uber, which has faced a series of executive departures, as well as accusations of sexism and sexual harassment. Only a small group of Uber employees, including chief executive Travis Kalanick, knew about the program, according to a report in technology trade publication The Information that cited an anonymous source who was not authorized to speak publicly. The program was discontinued early last year, the report said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the