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.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San