GERMANY
Economy powers ahead
The economy powered ahead in the third quarter, underpinning a recovery in the eurozone. GDP rose 0.8 percent in the July to September period after increasing 0.6 percent in the previous three months, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said yesterday. That was the fastest pace in three quarters and well above the 0.6 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Output expanded 2.8 percent from the previous year when adjusted for working days. The report confirmed the Bundesbank’s forecast that the economy carried its strong growth momentum into the second half, putting it on course for its best performance since 2011 and potentially straining up against its maximum capacity. As the eurozone’s largest economy, that expansion is bolstering the currency bloc’s upturn and supporting the global outlook. Growth in the third quarter was driven by exports and capital investment, the statistics office said. Net trade made a positive contribution to GDP and spending on equipment was especially strong.
RETAILERS
Tesco deal wins approval
Tesco PLC yesterday won provisional approval for its £3.7 billion (US$4.9 billion) takeover of wholesaler Booker Group PLC from the UK competition regulator, moving Britain’s biggest retailer closer to securing a new avenue of growth. The Competition and Markets Authority said it had conducted an in-depth review and provisionally concluded that Tesco’s purchase of Booker does not raise competition concerns. Most analysts had expected that Tesco would have to agree store disposals to gain clearance. Both Tesco and Booker, the nation’s biggest grocery wholesaler, welcomed the announcement. Tesco said it expects to complete the deal, which also requires shareholder approval, early next year. The authority said it found that Tesco as a retailer and Booker as a wholesaler supplying caterers and independent retailers do not compete in most of their activities.
HEALTHCARE
Digital pill approved in US
US regulators have approved the first digital pill with an embedded sensor to track if patients are taking their medication properly, marking a significant step forward in the convergence of healthcare and technology. The medicine is a version of Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd’s established drug Abilify for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression, containing a tracking device developed by Proteus Digital Health. The system offers doctors an objective way to measure if patients are swallowing their pills on schedule, opening up a new avenue for monitoring medicine compliance that could be applied in other therapeutic areas. Otsuka shares yesterday rose 2.5 percent after news of the US Food and Drug Administration approval late on Monday. The agency said that being able to track ingestion of medicines prescribed for mental illness might be useful “for some patients,” although the ability of the digital pill to improve patient compliance had not been proved.
ELECTRONICS
Toshiba to sell TV business
Struggling Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp yesterday said it has decided to sell its television business to China’s Hisense Group (海信) as part of its efforts to restore its balance sheet. Toshiba agreed with the Chinese group to sell a 95 percent stake of its Toshiba Visual Solutions unit for about ¥12.9 billion (US$114 million), it said in a statement. “Toshiba has been considering structural reforms that will... strengthen Toshiba’s financial base,” the firm said.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure