CHINA
Firms maintain profit surge
The country’s industrial firms maintained a profit surge, underscoring the economy’s resilience even amid slowing factory output and investment. Industrial profits last month increased 16.5 percent from a year earlier, versus the 19.1 percent pace a month earlier, the nation’s statistics bureau said yesterday. The robust earnings might not be sustainable though, as slowing producer inflation and rising real interest rates might squeeze factories and mills in the coming months.
SOUTH AFRICA
Few bid for rhino horns
A rhino breeder who held what he called the world’s first legal online auction of rhino horns said there were fewer bidders and sales than expected. However, a law firm representing breeder John Hume on Saturday said that the two-day auction sets the stage for future sales. It said “very few” bidders signed up because they had fewer than two days to register after a court ordered the government to grant a selling permit to Hume. Hume said a legal trade will undercut rhino poaching. While the court opened the way to a domestic trade in rhino horn, the government said it respects an international trade ban dating to 1977.
TECHNOLOGY
Neuralink to sell stocks
Neuralink Corp, the start-up cofounded by Tesla Inc chief executive officer Elon Musk, has taken steps to sell as much as US$100 million in stock to fund the development of technology that connects human brains with computers. The San Francisco-based company has already gotten US$27 million in funding, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk said via Twitter on Friday that Neuralink is not seeking outside investors.
CONSTRUCTION
Aecon considering sale
Canadian construction company Aecon Group Inc on Friday confirmed as its shares skyrocketed that it has hired advisers to explore a potential sale. Aecon, which helped build Toronto’s CN Tower, is working with Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Montreal on the sales process. The company could attract interest from Chinese bidders, people familiar with the matter said. “Any transaction would be intended to create shareholder value and enhance the company’s capabilities and growth potential,” Aecon said.
ENERGY
YPF hires Citigroup for sale
YPF SA, Argentina’s biggest oil company, has hired Citigroup Inc to help sell its controlling stake in Metrogas SA, the country’s largest gas distributor, according to two people with knowledge of the plan. Citigroup was selected among more than 10 investment banks to advise on what might be the biggest merger and acquisition deal in Argentina this year, according to one of the people.
TRAVEL
Hertz shares dive on report
Hertz Global Holdings Inc shares plunged after an analyst report suggested the troubled rental-car company might have risked defaulting on its debt by canceling plans to redeem bonds last month. The stock fell as much as 11 percent after Xtract Research analyst Valerie Potenza wrote in a report that Hertz’s reneged plan to refinance as much as US$450 million in bonds might have violated covenants. The move could constitute a default on the debt maturing in 2019, because the company told investors it planned to redeem those notes, she wrote.
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
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
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