ELECTRONICS
Samsung profits up
Samsung Electronics Co yesterday said that its first-quarter profit surged nearly 50 percent thanks to the record-high income from its semiconductor division. The South Korean company said earnings jumped 46 percent over a year earlier to 7.7 trillion won (US$6.8 billion), with sales rising 2 percent over a year earlier. Operating profit surged 48 percent to 9.9 trillion won, it said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Bayer raises forecast
German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer AG yesterday raised its forecast for this year after netting a big boost to profit on the back of higher sales in the first quarter. Sales at the group grew 11.7 percent to 13.2 billion euros (US$14.4 billion), while profit added 38 percent to reach almost 2.1 billion euros — both outstripping analyst forecasts. Operating, or underlying, profit grew 34.3 percent to 3.1 billion euros. The group increased its forecast for the full year, upping revenue projections to 51 billion euros and predicting growth of about 10 percent in operating profit.
TELECOMS
Nokia reports another loss
Nokia Oyj yesterday said that it remained deep in the red at the start of the year, with sales in its main business, networks, on the decline. The Finnish firm reported a first-quarter net loss of 473 million euros, a slight improvement from the 623 million euro loss recorded the previous year. The network business, which makes up for more than 90 percent of the firm’s sales, fell 6 percent year-on-year to 4.9 billion euros, while the technologies division, which makes up about 5 percent of sales, saw sales rise 25 percent mainly as a result of higher patent and brand licensing income. Overall, Nokia sales fell slightly in the quarter to 5.4 billion euros from 5.5 billion euros the previous year.
ELECTRONICS
Nintendo’s Switch sells well
Nintendo Co yesterday said that its new Switch, a hybrid game machine that works as a console and a tablet, is selling well, helping it trim its quarterly losses. The Kyoto-based company said it has sold 2.74 million Switch machines and 5.46 million units of Switch software since sales began last month. The company’s January to March loss was ¥394 million (US$3.5 million), improved from ¥24 billion a year earlier. Quarterly sales jumped to nearly ¥178 billion from ¥79 billion. Nintendo expects to sell another 10 million Switch machines in the fiscal year that ends in March next year.
AVIATION
Airbus’ Q1 profit halved
Airbus SE profit more than halved in the first quarter, falling short of analyst estimates as production glitches held back deliveries of the European planemaker’s newest jets. Adjusted earnings before interest and tax fell to 240 million euros from 498 million euros a year earlier, Airbus said yesterday. The value of new orders also slumped almost 50 percent, with the Toulouse, France-based company announcing contracts for just six new planes compared with 10 in the same period last year. However, net profit was up to 608 million euros from 399 million in the same three-month period last year, mainly to the sale of its German-based Defense Electronics firm to investment company KKR in February, which generated 560 million euros. Chief executive officer Tom Enders said the company stood by its forecast for a mid-single-digit percentage gain in annual earnings, together with more than 700 commercial aircraft deliveries.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure