MACROECONOMICS
IMF warns MENA over debt
The IMF yesterday warned Arab states against complacency over a looming debt crisis, urging continued economic reforms despite a rise in oil prices. Crude prices have rebounded in the region thanks to a deal by producers to trim production, but the IMF said such a change in fortunes should not get in the way of overhauling state spending. Overall growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, which includes all Arab countries and Iran, was forecast by the IMF to reach 3.2 percent this year compared with just 2.2 percent last year.
FINANCE
S&P downgrades Turkey
Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) on Tuesday said it had cut the rating on Turkey’s foreign debt due to deteriorating finances and rising inflation. The rating on the nation’s foreign currency debt dropped to “B-/B” for long and short-term issues respectively, but with a stable outlook, S&P said in a statement. “Our downgrade reflects our view that there is a risk of a hard landing for Turkey’s overheating, credit-fueled economy,” it said.
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Samsung unit breaks rules
A South Korean regulator said that Samsung Biologics Co had breached accounting rules in a preliminary finding that could deal a big blow to the company and other Samsung affiliates if finalized. The Financial Supervisory Service yesterday said it had wrapped up its one-year probe into Samsung Biologics and notified the company of the violation. Samsung Biologics is denying the accounting breaches. Despite its defense, its stock price tanked, finishing 17.2 percent lower.
ENTERTAINMENT
Weinstein finds buyer
A private equity firm has emerged as the winning bidder for the Weinstein Co, the film and TV studio forced into bankruptcy by the sexual misconduct scandal that brought down Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.Weinstein Co on Tuesday announced that no other bidder offered it more value than Dallas-based Lantern Capital, which offered US$310 million in cash for the firm’s assets and agreed to assume about US$125 million in project-related debt and to cover obligations related to the assumption of certain contracts and leases.
REAL ESTATE
HNA to sell property unit
HNA Group Co (海航集團) plans to sell a real-estate unit for 2.9 billion yuan (US$456 million). HNA Investment Group Co is to sell a subsidiary that has the right to develop a project in Shanghai to a unit of real-estate developer Fusheng Group (復盛), according to a filing with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange yesterday. HNA expects to generate a 400 million yuan gain from the deal, which is subject to shareholders’ approval.
TECHNOLOGY
Xerox CEO to resign
The chief executive of Xerox Corp, a major photocopy maker, will resign according to a statement issued following a US judge’s temporarily block of the US company’s planned takeover by Japan’s Fujifilm Holdings Corp. The agreement ends a battle launched by Darwin Deason and Carl Icahn, who together control 15.2 percent of Xerox shares and objected to the proposed deal. According to the Xerox statement, CEO Jeff Jacobson is expected to be replaced by Keith Cozza as board chairman and John Visentin as CEO — candidates supported by the two shareholders.
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