TECHNOLOGY
Tencent overtakes Facebook
China’s social media and video game giant Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) yesterday overtook Facebook Inc in market value as investors sent the company soaring to the top five list of the world’s biggest firms. Tencent’s shares, traded in Hong Kong, have doubled in value this year as the tech company’s earnings have repeatedly outmatched analysts’ expectations. A second stock connection with China, which opened late last year, has allowed even more money to flow onto the territory’s exchange. By yesterday afternoon, Tencent’s market capitalization had reached HK$4.15 trillion (US$531.3 billion), surpassing Facebook’s US$519 billion.
POWER
Luminant to cut 600 jobs
Electricity generator Luminant is cutting about 600 jobs as it closes three coal-fired power plants and a mine in Texas. The Texas Workforce Commission on Monday said that Luminant plans to make the layoffs in January next year. Luminant previously announced that it would shutter the Monticello, Big Brown and Sandow power plants. The filing with regulators puts a number on the affected jobs, nearly half of which are at the Three Oaks mine near Elgin. The company is closing the plants because of competition from cheap natural gas, low wholesale power prices and an increase in renewable generation.
AUTOMAKERS
Groups urge Chrysler recall
The Center for Auto Safety is asking the government for a recall of Chrysler Pacifica minivans over complaints that the engines can stall without warning. The group on Monday petitioned the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, asking for an investigation and a recall of 150,000 minivans from this model year. The group says more than 50 people have complained to the government about stalling and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has not been able to fix the problem. Fiat Chrysler said it takes customer concerns seriously and does not know of any crashes or injuries due to the issue. The company says it is monitoring data and would respond if it shows a safety defect.
SOUTH AFRICA
Bidvest to buy FinGlobal
Bidvest Group Ltd’s banking unit agreed to buy FinGlobal, a provider of financial services to South Africans living outside the country, as part of an acquisition drive to expand and diversify its business. Bidvest Bank is to fund the purchase out of its 2 billion rand (US$141.8 million) in cash reserves, managing director Japie van Niekerk said yesterday by telephone. The acquisition gives the lender access to FinGlobal’s more than 15,000 customers in 80 nations, offering tax refunds, foreign-exchange services and retirement annuities.
INDONESIA
Goldman must return shares
A court ruled against Goldman Sachs Group Inc and ordered it to return shares of PT Hanson International to its founder Benny Tjokrosaputro. Goldman must pay 320.8 billion rupiah (US$23.7 million) in material damages to Tjokrosaputro for an “illegal transaction” of Hanson shares, Judge Achmad Guntur said yesterday in the South Jakarta District Court. The judge also rejected a US$1 billion counterclaim the US bank filed last year against a lawsuit by Tjokrosaputro, in which he alleged that the firm’s stake in Hanson was improperly obtained. “We are surprised and disappointed at today’s ruling by the South Jakarta Court and will be appealing it at the earliest opportunity,” Goldman Sachs spokesman Edward Naylor 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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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