MANUFACTURING
BAE plans to cut 2,000 jobs
British military equipment maker BAE Systems AB yesterday said it plans to cut almost 2,000 jobs, as the group faces weaker demand for Hawk and Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets. Most of the cutbacks — up to 1,400 positions — will be shed to “reduce the group’s current Typhoon and Hawk production rates,” BAE said in a statement. BAE Systems, which employs 34,600 people in Britain, has already slowed Typhoon production as orders have dried up. Its Warton and Samlesbury plants, where about 5,000 people work on the Typhoon program, will suffer the brunt of the losses.
RETAIL
Marston’s to open fewer pubs
British pub operator Marston’s PLC said it planned to open fewer pubs, bars and lodges next year due to subdued market conditions. Weaker consumer confidence has hit pub and restaurant operators as incomes get squeezed by rising inflation, while growing costs in the industry and a weaker pound worsen the impact. The company now expects to open 15 pubs and bars and six lodges next year, compared with 19 pubs and bars and eight lodges it opened this year. However, Marston’s, which also brews beers, said it expected profit and sales growth this year and next year.
CURRENCY
Yuan rebounds after holidays
Volatility in the yuan rose as it rebounded after week-long holidays and the central bank governor called for a more market-based foreign-exchange rate mechanism. The yuan’s one-month implied volatility climbed 35 basis points to 5.78 percent, the highest since Jan. 19. The yuan appreciated 0.6 percent, its biggest gain in a month, to 6.5838 per US dollar at 5:11pm in Shanghai, adding to Monday’s 0.4 percent advance, and following a 1 percent slump last month. People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川) called for the relaxation of capital controls in an interview ahead of the Chinese Communist Party’s National Congress, which begins next week.
MARKETING
NBA, Rakuten join forces
The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Rakuten Inc have announced a marketing partnership. The deal announced yesterday makes the Japanese online giant the exclusive distributor in Japan of all live NBA games. The partnership, Rakuten’s first with a North American professional league, comes as the Internet services company expands its involvement in sports. The two companies said Rakuten will offer the NBA’s premium live game subscription service exclusively its members through NBA.com, the NBA app and for purchase through Rakuten TV, the company’s video-on-demand service.
INSURANCE
AIG predicts US$3bn losses
American International Group (AIG) expects to record insurance losses of about US$3 billion during the third quarter of the year from the recent hurricanes and earthquakes. AIG on Monday said that it expects to record pre-tax catastrophe losses between US$2.9 billion and US$3.1 billion during the quarter because of damage it would have to cover from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and the earthquakes that struck Mexico. CEO Brian Dupereault said AIG has acted quickly to provide money for claims. The company estimates Harvey caused it between US$1.1 billion and US$1.2 billion in insurance losses and Irma more than US$1 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