ITALY
Debt rating downgraded
Ratings agency Fitch on Friday downgraded Italy’s long-term debt rating a notch to “BBB” — one level above the “speculative” grade — citing the nation’s persistent debt and fiscal problems. However, Fitch said its outlook was stable. The nation has been unable to reduce its overall debt burden due to weak economic growth and a recurring failure to meet spending targets, leaving it exposed to adverse shocks, the agency said in a statement. Italian sovereign debt rose 0.5 percentage points to 132.6 percent of GDP last year and will likely rise at the same rate this year, falling only marginally to 129.3 percent by 2020, Fitch said.
PANAMA PAPERS
Law firm heads released
A court in Panama on Friday ordered the release on bail of two partners at a law firm involved in last year’s “Panama Papers” scandal set off by the leak of thousands of documents related to offshore accounts. Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca Mora of the Mossack-Fonseca firm were arrested in February in connection with a bribery scandal involving Brazil’s state-run oil company, Petrobras. The two are accused of money laundering for allegedly setting up offshore accounts to move bribes. The court ordered their release after bail was paid, but that does not prevent the legal case against them from moving forward.
COSMETICS
Body Shop bidders chosen
L’Oreal SA has chosen Brazilian cosmetics firm Natura Cosmeticos SA as well as private equity bidders for the next round of the auction for its Body Shop business, people familiar with the matter said. CVC Capital Partners, Advent International Corp and Investindustrial Advisors SpA are also among the firms taken through, the people said, asking not to be identified because the process is private. Bids for the lotions and soaps retailer came in at more than 800 million euros (US$856 million), they said. Binding offers are due in early June, one of the people said.
RETAIL
High pay for Wal-Mart exec
Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s e-commerce chief executive officer Marc Lore reaped US$243.9 million in compensation last year, fueled by shares he received as part of the sale of his company to the retail giant. The package included restricted stock worth US$236.3 million, which came as part of the buyout of his company, Jet.com, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday. He also received about US$7.55 million in salary, stock awards and perks. The compensation puts Lore well ahead of his boss, Wal-Mart chief executive officer Doug McMillon, and vaults him into the ranks of the US’ top-paid executives. McMillon got a US$22.4 million pay package, up from US$19.8 million the previous year.
PUERTO RICO
Bicyclist thief shakes police
A bank robber in Puerto Rico on Friday eluded police by fleeing on a bicycle. Authorities said the unidentified suspect stole about US$3,000 from Banco Popular after handing a teller a note that suggested he was carrying a weapon. The incident occurred in the Rio Piedras suburb of the capital, San Juan. Police said they believe the suspect is the same man who robbed another bank last week, although he did not flee on a bicycle that time.
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