INTERNET
Leshi suspends trading
Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp (樂視控股), the online video service firm founded by billionaire Jia Yueting (賈躍亭), said it will suspend trading today pending review of a restructuring plan. Leshi will soon hold a meeting to review a revised restructuring plan with “major adjustments,” the company said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Sunday. Leshi said it expects to release the plan with this year’s earnings, which are scheduled to be announced tomorrow. The trading halt comes as Jia and his technology conglomerate, LeEco Inc (樂視生態), struggle with the fallout from a rapid expansion into new business lines, from smartphones to electric cars. LeEco last week abandoned its planned US$2 billion acquisition of US television maker Vizio Inc, citing regulatory issues. The deal’s collapse came after earlier signs that LeEco’s global expansion plans are faltering. Jia late last year said the company was struggling to raise cash after the rapid expansion of his media empire.
VIETNAM
Plant construction halted
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has ordered a halt to work on a major steel plant, citing environmental and other concerns. The Vietnam-based Hoa Sen Group last year announced plans to build a US$10.6 billion complex with an annual capacity of 14.5 million tonnes of steel. However, a government statement yesterday called for further studies on the potential environmental impact of the project and its economic feasibility. It cited risks of a disaster like the chemical spill last year during a test run at another steel complex, built by Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), that devastated fisheries, tourism and the economies of four central provinces. Economic concerns are another factor, given the glut in world steel supplies. Staff who answered the telephone at Hoa Sen Group’s offices said the person authorized to speak about the project was traveling and not available for comment. Formosa Plastics paid US$500 million in compensation for the accident at its steel complex, which is considered Vietnam’s worst environmental disaster.
SHIPBUILDERS
Daewoo averts crisis
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co, the world’s largest shipbuilder, yesterday won a reprieve from major bondholder South Korean National Pension Service and other lenders, helping avert a payment crisis that had threatened to almost shut the company. The service agreed to restructure 1.55 trillion won (US$1.4 billion) of bonds issued by the company after the shipbuilder, the Korea Development Bank and Export-Import Bank of Korea took steps to ensure repayment of the debts, the pension service said in a statement on Sunday. Banks agreed to convert 80 percent of loans to Daewoo into shares and to extend the maturity on the remainder, the South Korean Financial Services Commission said separately. Bondholders, including Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, and Korea Post, also agreed on yesterday’s plan. Two other meetings of bondholders are due to meet tomorrow and they are also likely to approve, analysts said. The reprieve means Daewoo, unprofitable in each of the past four years, will get more time to make payments on bonds that are due this month. A decision on the financial restructuring of Daewoo was the biggest test for South Korea’s lenders after KDB, the shipbuilder’s majority shareholder, last year allowed Hanjin Shipping Co to collapse after refusing to support its debt restructuring plan.
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
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six