BANKING
HSBC announces buyback
HSBC Holdings PLC yesterday said its latest multibillion-dollar share buyback of up to US$2 billion in shares would “commence shortly” and is the only one it plans for this year. London-based HSBC said pretax profit slipped 4 percent from a year ago to US$4.8 billion as operating expenses for business investment and enhancing “digital capabilities” rose 13 percent, outpacing revenue, which grew 6 percent to US$13.7 billion. Net income came in at US$3.1 billion, little changed from the previous year.
AUTOMAKERS
BMW net profit rises further
German automaker BMW AG saw first-quarter net profit rise slightly from an already high level as sales strengthened across all regions and the company’s 5-Series sedan and X1 sport utility logged double-digit increases. Net profit rose 1.2 percent to a record 2.301 billion euros (US$2.752 billion), from 2.274 billion euros in the same quarter a year ago. Revenues for the Munich-based automaker fell 5 percent to 22.7 billion euros, mostly due to shifting currency exchange rates.
CHEMICALS
BASF positive despite slip
German chemicals giant BASF AG said yesterday it remains confident of meeting its forecasts for the full year, even as it reported falling revenues and profits in the first quarter. Net profit at the group slipped 2.0 percent year-on-year, to just under 1.7 billion euros from January to March. However, BASF increased operating profit 3 percent to 2.5 billion euros, while revenues fell 1 percent to 16.6 billion. Overall “we have had a good start to the year,” chief executive officer Kurt Bock said.
ELECTRONICS
Berkshire boosts Apple stake
Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought an additional 75 million shares of Apple Inc, bolstering its stake and backing the iPhone maker’s ability to generate profits, CNBC reported, citing chairman Warren Buffett. The stock purchase adds to the nearly 170 million shares that Berkshire Hathaway already owns and would see it overtake State Street Corp to become Apple’s third-largest investor, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. The Cupertino, California-based company was already Buffett’s biggest shareholding.
ENERGY
BP mulls asset purchase
BP PLC is weighing an acquisition of some of BHP Billiton Ltd’s energy assets as the British oil major seeks more US shale, people familiar with the matter said. The London-based company is working with Morgan Stanley to advise on the plans, said the people, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. BP is weighing teaming up with other suitors or swapping conventional assets — where oil and gas typically flow more easily to the surface than shale — with BHP, they said.
? AVIATION
OAG names busiest route
The trip between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur is the world’s busiest international air route, with more than 30,500 flights between the cities in the year to February, a new study showed. There was a daily average of 84 flights making the short hop, which takes about an hour, the study by air travel intelligence firm OAG found. Asia dominated the list of the world’s 20 busiest international air routes, with 14 operating to and from destinations in the region, OAG 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],”