TURKEY
Regulator denies Iran fines
The Banking Supervision and Regulation Agency on Saturday urged the public to ignore rumors about financial institutions, in an apparent dismissal of a report that some Turkish banks face billions of dollars of US fines over alleged violations of Iran-sanctions. The regulator said in a statement that Turkey’s banks were functioning well. The Haberturk newspaper on Saturday reported that six banks potentially face substantial fines, citing senior banking sources. It did not name the banks. One bank faces a penalty in excess of US$5 billion, while the rest of the fines will be lower, it said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Profit warnings jump in Q3
The number of profit warnings issued by British companies jumped from 45 in the second quarter to 75 in the third quarter, the biggest quarterly rise in almost six years as economic pressures weighed on retailers and support service companies, business services group EY said yesterday. The spike is significantly ahead of the average of 62 in the third quarter, EY said. Retailer Dixons Carphone PLC and construction and support service firm Carillion PLC were two of the biggest companies to warn in the period.
CRIME
Israeli extradited for scam
A dual citizen of Israel and Russia has been extradited to the US to face charges in a money laundering case. Stanislav Nazarov is accused in a scheme to defraud a large reinsurance company in India. Prosecutors said the director of that company was duped through a cyberphishing scheme into wiring US$1.4 million to a bank account in the US. Nazarov then allegedly had a portion of that money transferred to him in Israel. His extradition was announced on Friday.
BANKING
Wells Fargo sees departures
Three high-level foreign exchange executives and a currency trader have left Wells Fargo & Co. The bank on Friday confirmed that the employees from the investment bank side of the business were no longer with the firm, but would not say if they were fired. The bank has been trying to move beyond problems in its consumer banking operations that have tarnished its brand. It has paid millions in fines and settlements.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Concordia eyes restructuring
Canadian drugmaker Concordia International Corp, stumbling under debt that it piled on during a takeover spree, is seeking to restructure its finances and cut borrowings by at least US$2 billion, after missing an interest payment on Monday on some unsecured bonds. Management is pursuing a plan under the Canada Business Corporations Act, according to a statement on Friday, which did not outline any potential terms of a deal, but said the company would continue making payments on its secured debt.
CONSUMER GOODS
Reckitt Benckiser to split
Reckitt Benckiser will split into two business units, the British consumer goods maker said on Wednesday, after a third-quarter fall in sales prompted it to cut its full-year forecast. The maker of Durex condoms, Nurofen tablets and Lysol disinfectants has struggled with fallout from a cyberattack, a failed product launch and a safety scandal in South Korea. Reckitt said third-quarter sales were £3.21 billion (US$4.23 billion), down 1 percent on a like-for-like basis.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by