UNITED KINGDOM
Cameron lands a job
Former prime minister David Cameron, who stepped down abruptly last year after failing to convince voters to remain in the EU, has been appointed to his first high-profile commercial role. Cameron will take on an advisory post with the US-based First Data Corp, which handles credit and debit-card transactions for about 6 million merchants worldwide, the company said in a statement on Friday. Cameron will focus on consolidating First Data’s base in its key markets as well as promoting the company’s expansion into new regions, the statement said.
UNITED STATES
Rosengren backs rate hikes
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren stepped up his argument to keep the central bank on track for additional gradual interest rate increases, warning against being too sensitive to short-term economic data. Answering questions after delivering a speech in Montreal, Rosengren said inflation will probably be “much closer to 2 percent” a few months into next year as the impact fades from notable pricing changes for mobile phones and certain pharmaceuticals that have helped keep levels low this year. Inflation expectations in the country are “well-anchored,” he said, adding that wage growth remains subdued given a jobless rate that fell to a 16-year low last month.
ITALY
Ex-boss’ jail term upheld
The nation’s highest court on Friday upheld a four-year jail sentence on the former Generali SpA chairman Cesare Geronzi for his role in the 2003 bankruptcy of food company Cirio. The decision by the Rome-based Court of Cassation is final and cannot be appealed. However, three of the four years are to be wiped out under a national amnesty and Geronzi, a symbol of old-style Italian capitalism, would not serve any jail time because of his age, 82. The court also ordered a new trial for Cirio’s ex-chief, Sergio Cragnotti, who was handed a sentence of eight years and eight months in 2015.
AVIATION
Ryanair COO to leave post
Ryanair Ltd chief operations officer Michael Hickey has announced plans to leave his post at the end of this month following the cancelation of tens of thousands of flights scheduled for the coming months. Company officials on Saturday said that Hickey will still have an “advisory role” after he steps down following decades with the airline. He is the first senior executive to leave because of the damaging flight cancelations, which have disrupted travel plans for about 700,000 passengers and undercut the company’s bid to improve its customer service reputation. The flights were canceled because of holiday staffing and scheduling errors.
INVESTMENT
Sycamore bets on retailing
Private equity firm Sycamore Partners is betting on the ailing retail sector at a time when other investors are shying away. The buyout firm, which last month bought Staples Inc, is trying to raise US$4 billion for its biggest fund yet, two people with knowledge of the matter said. It is planning to finish raising the money in January, one of the people said. Founded by Stefan Kaluzny and Peter Morrow in 2011, Sycamore is invested in fashion retailers Nine West, Talbots and Coldwater Creek, as well as department-store chain Belk Inc and others.
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