BANKING
Qatari bank to expand
Commercial Bank of Qatar QSC is planning a capital increase of as much as US$1 billion in its Turkish unit to expand in the country, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Doha-based lender is seeking to raise between US$500 million and US$1 billion from existing shareholders of Alternatifbank AS and international financial institutions, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private. CBQ bought a 71 percent stake in Alternatifbank in 2013 and increased it to full ownership last year.
AUTOMAKERS
Porsche tests subscriptions
Porsche is to begin an app-based subscription service next month, joining the ranks of automakers experimenting with more flexible ownership models as ride hailing and smartphones upend traditional auto retailing. The length of the pilot, called Porsche Passport, is open-ended and initially would be limited to just 50 people in Atlanta, said Klaus Zellmer, president of North America for the Volkswagen AG unit. The first subscription tier starts at US$2,000 a month and allows users to summon a 718 Boxster, Cayman S, Macan S or Cayenne on demand. For US$3,000 a month, drivers would gain access to 22 different Porsche models.
ENVIRONMENT
BNP to end oil sands funds
BNP Paribas SA yesterday promised to stop financing shale and oil sands projects as part of its latest efforts to tackle climate change. France’s biggest bank would no longer do business with companies whose main business stems from oil and gas obtained from shale or oil sands, it said in a statement. The policy covers companies involved in activities ranging from exploration to marketing and trading. The bank added that it would not fund oil or gas projects in the Arctic region.
BUSINESS
Toshiba off watchlist
The Tokyo Stock Exchange yesterday said it removed Toshiba Corp from its watchlist for delisting after seeing better internal controls and efforts to improve corporate governance. Toshiba has made progress with its bookkeeping since an accounting scandal in 2015 and the disclosure of multibillion-dollar losses in its nuclear business in December last year, the exchange said. The company still has negative shareholders equity and could be delisted if it is not able to meet listing requirements, the exchange said. Toshiba signed an agreement on Sept. 28 to sell its flash memory chip business to a group led by Bain Capital for about ¥2 trillion (US$18 billion), in an effort to reach positive shareholder equity.
STEEL
Indian demands accelerates
Steel demand in India is gathering speed amid an infrastructure building boom that is set to more than double capacity of the nation’s mills, the government said. “We’re expecting domestic consumption to accelerate in the decade between 2020 and 2030,” Indian Secretary of Steel Aruna Sharma said in New Delhi. Annual capacity stands at 126 million tonnes and is forecast to rise to 150 million tonnes by 2021, before settling at 300 million tonnes, she said. India is in the midst of a wave of urbanization that is set to boost demand for everything from copper to iron ore to steel as the economy expands over the next two decades, an Australian government report said. It has taken seven years for per capita steel consumption to rise to 60kg from 50kg and just 18 months to get to 64kg this year, Sharma said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”