INDIA
Debt buy limit to be raised
The government is planning to allow foreign investors to increase purchases of the nation’s corporate debt, a person familiar with the matter said. The cap might be raised by US$5 billion to US$10 billion, the person said, asking not to be identified citing rules. Overseas money managers, attracted by strong returns, have already bought more than 99 percent of all the sovereign and corporate notes they are allowed to purchase.
EUROZONE
Business activity galvanized
Business activity picked up this month, a key survey showed on Friday, growing by the fastest monthly rate since May and showing economic recovery well under way. A purchasing managers’ index compiled by IHS Markit ticked up to 56.7 after 55.7 last month, the group said in a statement. Analysts said the reading points to a sustained recovery, with some saying they might need to upgrade their forecasts for economic growth in the single-currency area.
INSURANCE
US, EU sign agreement
The US and the EU on Friday signed an agreement to streamline regulations on international insurance and reinsurance companies, and free up capital for investments, a deal 20 years in the making. The governments said the deal, negotiated by former US president Barack Obama’s administration and announced just before he left office in January, is to offer “enhanced regulatory certainty” to the companies, reducing red tape “while maintaining robust consumer protections.” The terms of the five-year deal are to be effective immediately, but provisionally, as the European Parliament and Council must approve the agreement.
ELECTRONICS
HPE to cut 10% of staff
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (HPE) is planning to cut about 10 percent of its staff, at least 5,000, people familiar with the matter said, part of a broader effort to pare expenses as competition mounts. The reductions are expected to start before the end of the year, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. The cuts at the company of about 50,000 workers are likely to affect workers in the US and abroad, including managers, they said.
E-COMMERCE
Amazon planning NYC office
Amazon.com Inc is set to open a large office in New York City and create 2,000 high-paying jobs. The firm, which already has several locations across the city, is to expand its presence with a 33,352m2 office in Manhattan that is to employ people in finance, sales, marketing and IT, earning an average of US$100,000 annually. Amazon is to invest US$55 million in the building project on Manhattan’s west side, a statement from the office of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
INTERNET
Zuckerberg to sell shares
Mark Zuckerberg plans to sell as much as 18 percent of his Facebook Inc stock during the next 18 months. The founder and chief executive officer expects to sell between 35 million and 75 million shares, Menlo Park, California-based Facebook said on Friday in a regulatory filing. The stock ended the week at US$170.54, valuing 75 million shares at US$12.8 billion.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained