AUTOMAKERS
BMW Q2 profit up 14%
German luxury automaker BMW AG reported that net profit rose 14 percent in the second quarter as earnings were boosted by the new version of the 5-Series sedan. Profit rose to 2.21 billion euros (US$2.62 billion) in the April to June period from 1.95 billion euros a year earlier. The profit figure beat analyst’s expectations of 2.01 billion euros as compiled by financial information provider FactSet. Revenues rose 7.4 percent to 49.2 billion euros. CEO Harald Krueger yesterday said that strong earnings would ensure the company can expand its efforts in battery-powered and autonomous cars. “Huge changes lie ahead in the world of mobility, and it is vital that our company is in top shape to tackle them,” he said.
MANUFACTURING
Siemens profit rises 7%
Industrial equipment maker Siemens AG yesterday said net profit for the most recent quarter rose 7 percent to 1.46 billion euros and announced an extension of CEO Joe Kaeser’s contract until 2021. Profit in the April-to-June quarter rose despite costs for the company’s merger of its wind power business with Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica SA. The profit results beat analyst estimates for 1.45 billion euros as compiled by financial information provider FactSet. Revenue rose 8 percent to 21.41 billion euros. Orders fell 6 percent due to fewer big-ticket jobs, particularly in wind power and the company’s power and gas business.
TECHNOLOGY
Bands boost Fitbit’s revenue
Fitbit Inc topped analysts’ revenue projections on better-than-expected demand for fitness bands, and announced its anticipated smartwatch will debut in time for the holiday shopping season. Second-quarter sales were US$353.3 million, a decline of 40 percent, but higher than analysts’ average estimate of US$341.2 million. Fitbit reported a loss, excluding certain costs, of US$0.08 a share, compared with a profit of US$0.12 a year earlier. The company’s slice of the wearable-device market declined to 12 percent in the first quarter — about half its share a year earlier — as Fitbit sold 3.4 million devices in the period, compared with 5.7 million in the quarter a year earlier.
BANKING
UniCredit overhaul pays off
Italian bank UniCredit, in the midst of a massive overhaul, yesterday said that its net profit rose modestly in the second quarter, beating expectations. While analysts had expected profits to decline to 676 million euros in the April to June period, instead they rose by 3.3 percent from the second quarter last year to 945 million euros. UniCredit has undertaken a major restructuring of its business after it was among the worst performers in stress test results published by Europe’s EBA banking regulator in July last year.
UNITED KINGDOM
LSE unit advising on Brexit
London Stock Exchange Group PLC (LSE) has set up a Brexit unit to advise policy makers on how to protect London as a financial hub and prevent the divorce from shattering financial-market infrastructure. The program is to engage with British and European officials to guide them on Brexit’s impact on markets. LSE’s goal is to keep continuity of cross-border financial services, and prevent financial-market fragmentation, it said. LSE reported first-half revenue of £853 million (US$1.1 billion) and raised its dividend. Total income at the company’s clearing unit amounted to £270 million in the first half, up 31 percent from a year earlier, LSE said.
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